Introduction

It should be a pretty short update this time. Good news for those who hate reading I guess. Oddly, the most unique units are often the easiest to write about, and Nasti is very much a member of that group. There’s less nuance to convey when there’s no good comparables as opposed to all of the various shades of broken that are more common these days. In any case, I’m personally far more excited for this patch than I was for the last one, so let’s get into it.

As always, you can find the full Mastery guide here. This update is also now available on Sanity;Gone, which you can find here.

Should You Pull

For a large majority of people, especially those who only want the most meta value from their pulls, the answer is a pretty clear no. This is a pretty great banner for a certain type of player, but for most, the cost is too high for what amounts to an indirect solution, when a very direct solution (or two, or three, or four) is still ahead of us. Which is to say, no matter how unique or cool Nasti may be, saving for Wang, Ch’en the Dawnstreak, and now the 7th Anniversary units will serve you much better.

Now, that said, I think Nasti is about as “special” as off-meta units get. No one does what she does (building high ground tiles) and it’s likely no one will ever do that again either. It’s just such a unique value that can make some stages much easier or allow for some creative gameplay. In a way, Nasti continues the powercreep trend, albeit differently than you may be thinking. She is a significant step up for what Artificers have historically been capable of! When you think about the game mechanics, creating your own high-ground tile on the map is truly insane!

Her 5★ banner mate, Cairn, is quite a solid unit if you prefer off-meta clears as well. While she certainly has no meta value (stupid Tragodia, stupid Hoshi2, grumble grumble), if you’re the rare sort who doesn’t like using that caliber unit, she can be a solid addition too!

Now, to be clear and to reiterate, you shouldn’t pull here if you don’t know what you’re doing. We just got done with an extremely powerful banner, and there’s another extremely powerful one in 2-3 months. Now is the time you should be saving, not blowing what stash you have remaining on a unit you will probably find to be a gimmick. It’s just, there’s a small but meaningful amount of players who will find this banner to be one of the best upcoming. If you’ve had enough meta for a lifetime and have a few pulls to spare, well, Nasti would be a pretty solid place to look for something a bit different.

FAQ and Discussion

Q: Who are the best units to place on Nasti’s high ground tile? Are any required to own to use her?

A: The question of if anyone is “required” to use Nasti is a tricky one. Certainly, no one is actually required by the literal meaning of the word. 3★ Kroos will work just fine on the special tile after all! However, there are units that are certainly better. It’s also impossible to give a complete answer since it’s inherently situational.

That out of the way, Nasti’s best friend is Pramanix the Prerita. Pram2 is already the top Caster in the game, but sometimes her S2’s range can feel a bit small and the snowfield does have a limit to how far it can reach. Nasti’s high ground tile can really open up some opportunities for Pram2 to really dominate a stage.

Tragodia with his S3 is probably the higher ceiling option though. It’s the single most powerful control skill in the game, so the flexibility in placement in addition to the ATK buff can really open up some wild possibilities.

The upcoming Ch’en the Dawnstreak can also benefit a lot from the tile, albeit in a different way. With her S3 she shoots out a dragon that travels the map, and Nasti’s tile can redirect the dragon. With some careful consideration, it opens up some pretty ridiculous damage.

Ifrit is another common suggestion, although it’s not one I’d put too much stock into. Of course, if you like Ifrit, Nasti’s tile will make her a lot better! But Ifrit’s damage isn’t anything special by modern standards, so it becomes more a situation of desire as opposed to the best choice.

There’s plenty more too. While the general suggestion in this article is to skip rolling on Nasti, if she does interest you, you shouldn’t take a lack of these units as a reason not to. Virtually any ranged unit will benefit, plus many of the best ones aren’t even limited so will come with time. In other words, I wouldn’t factor owning Tragodia or Pram2 into your pull decisions. Which leads to our next question…

Q: Does Ch’en the Dawnstreak or Zima the Raging Tide change Nasti’s evaluation?

A: For those that don’t know, both Ch’en3 and Zima2, who come out after Nasti, benefit from high ground tiles. So, on its face, this is a valuable thing. However, it doesn’t really change the evaluation or whether you should pull or not. It isn’t that these two increase Nasti’s value, but rather it shows how her value isn’t some fleeting thing. There’s very good odds we’ll never get another unit that can create high-ground tiles, so these two illustrate how she’s likely to stick around. Probably never at the top of the meta, certainly, but always lingering as a viable alternate solution whereas some older gimmick units like Stainless or Ebenholz have aged much worse.

Also, Zima2 barely benefits at all and I only bring it up here since I’ve seen the question a few times already.

Which is all a kinda long way to say, no they don’t change anything, but if you’re rolling for Nasti anyway, it’s nice to know she’s likely to maintain her value.

Q: Should I raise Cairn?

A: Both of the 5★s this patch are pretty good, Cairn especially, but the state of the game makes the bar a 5★ needs to meet to be worth raising incredibly high. Unfortunately, as good as she is for her rarity, Cairn doesn’t quite reach that level, but she is a great choice if you like off-meta play. Nervous Impairment is an incredibly strong form of Elemental Injury, so access to that at the rarity is a good thing for her. I was actually a bit worried when she was first announced because I feared NI’s strength would mean her power would end up gimped due to her rarity. Fortunately though, HG solved it in a pretty interesting way. Since there was no way her S2 was ever going to trigger NI in a single activation, she instead gets that benefit when she herself is the one blocking, which gives a nice counterplay of considerations that well balanced units actually have. It makes her surprisingly bulky, even more so than Croissant, one of my absolute best 5★ MVPs, against some enemies.

However, while that’s all well and good, it’s not really enough to make her a general consideration. She doesn’t stack with Tragodia, of course, and there are some pretty absurd 6★ Defenders these days who get that bulk without the extra trouble. But even if you’re just starting out and have none of those, the cost issue that plagues the 5★ Defenders remain. You’ll get 90% of the way there with just Gummy and Cuora, plus their IS value, so it’s really hard to be a general 5★ Defender consideration. But if you’re the sort of player who thinks using Tragodia is boring, then she is a fantastic option.

Also, one of her battle lines is her getting on a megaphone to say there won’t be warning shots because ammo is expensive (relatable tbh). If that doesn’t make a unit worth raising, I don’t know what does.

Q: Should I raise Skybox?

A: Skybox is our newest archetype that HG seemingly won’t touch again. They’re really pushing the floating thing, but with the exception of the 7th anni limited and a Liberator, of all things, don’t seem to actually want to do anything with them. At any rate, Skybox is a decent unit and Skybreakers seem to basically be new-age Artillerymen (AoE Snipers) that fly. It’s a relatively nice gimmick since they can remain relatively safe which allows for aggressive placement. So… new-age Camouflage too I guess (April is still better).

Anyway, aside from his really cool design, that aggressive placement he can control and some decent damage makes Skybox a pretty serviceable unit. He can do it decently at E1 too, so he doesn’t require lots of investment. However, he’s also a lot less special than Cairn is. While his damage is decent, it’s only decent for his rarity, and with so many powerful 6★s these days, a bit of aggressive placement isn’t really anything special. So ultimately, most people shouldn’t raise him. He’ll be a nice addition for some niche teams, or if you just think he’s neat, but for most, won’t justify the resources.

Q: Any Module thoughts for this patch?

A: Mal is still alive. Supposedly. I was debating going back to my old ways this update to make up for it since this update is otherwise pretty short, be he assures me he’ll get it out on time. So check that out when he posts it if you want a full rundown. I’m grateful for that because the Modules here are again pretty boring, so I wasn’t terribly excited to write about them. Except for one of my baby bunnies of course!

EN - Unrealized Realities

• Ray’s 2nd - Ahh, my sweet baby Ray (also a delicious BBQ sauce). Don’t you worry. Even if a roach powercrept you after only a few months, and that stupid pink devil (no not that one, the other one) is hogging the recent Sniper attention, I still love you. You’re still #1 in my heart! Well, #2 because April is also a Sniper. #1 meta at least? But I do kinda like Narantuya too. Anyway…

  Ray’s second Module is a pretty strong damage upgrade over her first, which is her entire value, but it does end up a little more nuanced than a strict upgrade (it’s not like her first was bad). Her 2nd gets most of its damage from the extra stacks on repeat hits, so it mainly comes out ahead against larger hard targets. If she’s killing most targets in three shots, before her second can take effect, it doesn’t have any particular advantage. Her first also has the cycling advantage with her Sandbeast which makes it line up far better with her S3, especially if you’re like me and forget to retreat it all the time. That may or may not matter though, depending on if you actually need her S3 to cycle that fast, which it often doesn’t considering just how fast it is and her role as a dedicated specific target killer rather than a general DPS.

  Ultimately, I’d probably give it a 60:40 split between Y (new) and X (old), maybe 75:25 depending on how you use her. If you do one, it should probably be Y. If you already raised her X and can’t afford or don’t want to do a second, I wouldn’t worry about it. Her second is nice, but her first is still solid, and the difference probably won’t matter to you. But if you’re a bunny-lover like me, both are worth owning.

CN - People, A People

I don’t have a lot of strong opinions on this patch. All three second mods fall into the same category of “better but not better enough, and why are you still using them, let alone justifying a second mod3”. Zima’s mod is boring, and Botani’s mod… well, I do hate writing about Ritualist mods. Of course, check out the lookaheads below if you want my general opinion on these units! I’m only really including this section because I want to briefly write about Ukusik’s!

• Ukusik - Our latest child soldier is a pretty good unit. However, as with the other 5★ Chain Medics this patch, her Module is garbage (actually the worst of the three). That might actually be a good thing in this case though, because Ukusik doesn’t need her E2 or Masteries either to be effective, meaning her bad Module at least makes her cheap if all you want is a camo slave.

  That sounds really wrong to say…

Q: Any early thoughts on the 7th Anniversary banner?

A: First, I won’t be referring to them by name here, so if you’re trying to avoid spoilers (commendable, but impossible), this is safe to read. However, do be cautious in the comments, and I will unfortunately have to refer to them by name when I do the full lookahead next update (although there will of course be no story spoilers).

That out of the way, this question is mostly here to remind my more casual readers why the new units aren’t in the lookaheads this update. I typically prefer to wait a little bit first, to give the new units time to marinate a little, so to speak, as well as to give at least a little new content for them to work through. I think it gives a more accurate assessment and helps avoids the pitfalls that come with snap judgements.

That out of the way, I know a lot of people will be curious, so I will at least give my initial impressions here. But please do remember these are just my initial impressions.

The non-limited unit is probably the more powerful of the two, but as a Vanguard, she’s a little bit tricky. We already have two exceptionally meta options which raises the value question. Even if she was the “best” of the three (she isn’t, I don’t think), would she still be better enough to justify things? That creates a nuanced answer with her.

First, her S3. With it, her damage is incredible, on top of some truly crazy range. The summon has a cross-range, and her own range is extended off of that based on who is deployed in that cross. This makes not just for a long range, but also a flexible one. You can reach where you need to depending on the stage, which is a really nice feature.

Second, her S2. Personally, I think this one is being a little overrated, although it is still of course great. People like to show an entire team being deployed quickly and treat that as if it’s the greatest thing ever, but the fact it only works within the 3x3 square I think is being overlooked. There’s few stages that are one lane. It also means not using her S3 which takes us back to the old days of Vanguards taking up team slots for one job. However, the base DP generation on it, even before the summon, is still better than some older Vanguards, so it’s still a valuable skill!

There’s a lot of discourse around her right now, and my opinion is she is probably the most powerful of the three meta-Vanguards for casual use. SA2 and Ines are both very high ceiling units. They are incredible but not necessarily easy to use. The new unit though is a rather simple “press red button, things die” sort, which is actually better in a lot of scenarios!

All in all, the non-limited is very nuanced. While I’m not especially happy with the exploding power ceiling, I think it’s a testament to HG’s design work that we now have three meta Vanguards that all have different strengths and can all fit in differently. Whichever way you lean, it will be hard to make a bad choice.

As for the limited, I really like her thanks to her S3. Her S2 is disappointing, and if that were all she is, I’d be quite harsh, but I really love what her S3 enables. Since the teleport is a fresh deployment for those she brings along, it essentially lets you reset initial SP. There’s a lot of fun things that can be done with this, but resetting a two-unit kill condition, while repositioning, while also getting some insane healing is a really appealing thing. Now of course, we have a lot of absurd limiteds now. She isn’t as good as Wang or Exu2 who can do it all on their own. But that just leads me to my banner conclusion.

Ultimately, this is a strong banner, but it is slightly off what we’re used to. It’s surprising even, given how popular both units are. Ultimately though, that’s a good thing. Limited units like Wang are bad for the game. If every new unit was at that level, the game would be dead in a year¹. I think that’s something a lot of people lose sight of and is the cause of a lot of the really stupid drama I’ve seen surrounding the banner. It’s still a great banner. It’s not as good as some recent banners, but that doesn’t make it not great. Both statements can be true! And at least for what we know now, it’s the 2nd best banner ahead of us after Wang/Ch’en3.

¹ This is, of course, hyperbole. Sue me. I like my hyperbole.

Masteries for Unrealized Realities

Nasti

Rarity: 6

Nasti

Supporter

Artificer

MeleeMelee

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

栖脚地

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

A-

A+

“执行”

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

Breakpoint

C

B-

Nasti is one of the most unique units in the game. Her primary gimmick is creating a high ground tile anywhere that’s deployable on the map, a tool that can really open up certain strategies. However, there’s a lot of caution to be aware of before heavily investing in her. First, she can’t do it all on her own. Her personal effects are pretty weak, so if your roster is limited, early investment into Nasti may not make sense. That leads to the second point, where her lateral value is pretty low for a modern 6★. While her high ground tile is great, and she has some side value in very Advanced clears as an SP battery, she does little else. And last, her Masteries are quite low value. That may actually serve as a counterbalance to the first two points, because only E2 is required for her to be an effective high-tile slave! In any case, it does mean you should be wary before pursuing her Masteries if resources are tight or you have other good options.

Be aware that for all of Nasti’s skills, there are gains beyond what is displayed on her skill box. All of her devices improve too, with differing effects depending on the skill. That will be discussed per skill below, but you can find the full information here for S1, here for S2, and here for S3.

S3, of course, is her main skill. It’s the skill that makes the high ground tile, which is almost the entire reason you’d consider raising her at all. How it works is that she can deploy up to two devices pointed at the same tile (she can only have one high ground tile at a time). The devices grant 1 SP per second each to the tile, and that rate doubles during her skill. When the tile receives 50 SP, it becomes a high ground tile. At another 50 SP, the tile grants an ATK and HP buff to the unit on it and improves the stats of the tile itself, and at a final 50 SP, the buff doubles, the tile stats improve again, and it remains on the map even if Nasti is retreated.

Her S3’s activation time is important for getting the tile on-line in a timely manner, however Mastery doesn’t have a big influence here. The uptime doesn’t change, the SP cost only drops by 2 SP, and the initial wind-up only drops by 5 SP. Those changes can matter, but likely won’t. Instead, the main improvement of Mastery is actually to the buff, which is semi-hidden since it’s only displayed in-game in the device’s skill box during a stage. At SL7, it grants +15% HP and ATK per stack. At S3M3, it grants +20% HP and ATK instead. Keep in mind those values double on a fully upgraded tile, so this increase can actually be a significant improvement. That makes Mastery on her S3 still worth pursuing, just keep in mind that the tile building itself will barely improve. As for her personal buffs, those do improve as well, but just don’t matter on an Artificer, a problem that plagues all of the archetype.

Her S2 has some value as well, but it’s a much much more situational skill and only tends to really be used in some extremely min-maxed scenarios. As far as general SP buffers go, it’s far from the largest total recovery, but is unique in how fast it applies it on top of a Barrier. This lets her cycle some extremely powerful skills, like Tragodia’s S3, in extremely dangerous situations. What happens is the device, if allowed to sit, will recover “HP” every few seconds, up to a total of 8. When Nasti activates her skill, this HP is rapidly converted into SP and Barrier. This means some wind-up time is required to maximize the effect.

This is a relatively fringe skill since the total SP recovery is relatively low, nor can she cycle multiple devices rapidly, but in those extreme places it is used, Mastery is very important. There’s three key reasons. First, there’s a hidden breakpoint at S2M1 that drops the cost of the device’s HP recovery wind-up from 6 SP to 5 SP. That drops a lot of time off the wind-up, in situations where every second matters. Second, the Barrier improves pretty significantly at S2M3. And third, the SP cost and initial SP improve relatively significantly as well. On many skills, these levels of gains wouldn’t be too important, but in places where her S2 is used, they matter quite a bit. Which leads to a weird balance of priority. If that extreme type of gameplay appeals to you, S2 Masteries can seem vital. If you don’t, then there are better SP skills to invest in.

Last is her S1, which probably isn’t worth considering. It might matter for some maximalists, such as the “Supporters w/o Summoners” niche, and there are probably a few places the additional block could matter, but the cost of a 6★ Mastery for that sort of use is hard to justify for most people. The gains on it are on the low-side in either case, so it becomes the sort of skill most people shouldn’t bother with.

Cairn

Rarity: 5

Cairn

Defender

Primal Protector

MeleeMelee

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

震撼型指路

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

A-

A

Cairn is a powerful 5★ thanks to how good Nervous Impairment is. NI is the strongest form of Elemental Injury, and she can apply it reasonably fast to enemies she’s blocking. Less so to enemies she’s not, but more on that in a moment. NI’s strength lets her be a shockingly bulky Defender. Her base DEF is decent already, plus high HP, and even some RES, then she can negate 3 enemies attacks (plus the damage) to everyone she’s blocking every 20ish seconds. It’s a pretty decent little package! However, unusually for this guide, she does not need excessive investment to do that, which suppresses her grades which would otherwise be on the high side. In fact, at a modest E2 level 23 at SL7, she can trigger NI on enemies she’s blocking in a single S2 activation (10 seconds), with further investment just shortening the time or improving her secondary bulk. In fact, even at E1 level 80, she’ll trigger it before S2 cycles again!

To that effect and for this guide, S2 is her main skill, which is her only skill that helps with NI application, but Mastery does not improve her NI application at all. It remains at 10% of ATK from SL7 all the way to S2M3. Her Barrier doesn’t improve over Mastery either. Her SP and initial wind-up do improve, but not by large amounts. There aren’t many places where the 2 SP difference to her cost, or 6 SP difference to her windup will truly matter. However, her S2 does begin charging immediately (the effect is applied as a debuff rather than skill uptime) so that 2 SP can still make a difference now and then. Instead, the main gain is to her Arts damage, which is actually a decent gain of around 33% total damage. But that aspect is far from why she’s valuable, and is easy to forget even exists as part of her kit. It’s an odd case where Cairn is a great unit, but her Masteries are luxuries. Levels and her future Module will be far more valuable!

While a bit outside the scope of this guide, it’s notable that her S2 has no breakpoint in terms of how many applications it takes when she is not blocking. Regardless of Module, Masteries, or level, it always takes two S2 activations for regular enemies and elites, and always takes four for bosses except for the rare case where she is blocking something else, in which case she can get down to three for bosses at max investment. It’s a weird bit of design considering how tight the numbers are on the other Primal Defenders and Ritualists.

Pass on her S1, which is a relatively boring straight HP increase. It’s worse than Philae’s similar S1, which is also ungraded and also rarely, if ever, used. However, it manages to be somewhat unique still, which may have some use for the true maximialists. At full investment and with her future Module, she can reach 9161 HP which is among the highest in the game, even at the higher rarities, plus her NI Talent. However, in practical terms, there’s almost always better solutions, including her own S2 which already indirectly improves her HP, so is still an extremely fringe consideration.

Skybox

Rarity: 5

Skybox

Sniper

裂空炮手

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

电磁脉冲恩宠

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

B

B

源石火药驾临

Auto TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S1M3

C

C

Skybox is our first Skybreaker, a minor riff on the existing AoE Sniper archetype, Artilleryman, you’re likely already used to. They trade some range and DP cost for a better interval, and only do splash damage on skill activation, but most notably and true to their name, they fly, only having to land during their skill durations. This allows them to avoid a lot of damage sources, which means they can be pretty aggressively placed, as long as you’re careful with things. This makes Skybox a relatively decent unit for his rarity, although still quite off meta, especially in the modern era. However, if you like off-meta play or just think he’s neat, he also has some pretty valuable Masteries.

While both of his skills have some value, and there’s a good chance you’ll want to do both if you choose to raise him in the first place, his S2 tends to be his main skill. It’s our first Overload skill in a long long time, and basically means that during his last 5 shots he gets an extra effect. This leads to an interesting dilemma in some situations. Do you end his skill early for no gain so he takes back off to relative safety? Or do you leave him down long enough to reach that Overload state for the final big burst? In either case, that controllable nature gives it a significant advantage over his S1, on top of better damage and range.

S2 also has some shockingly valuable Masteries, especially considering his rarity. The ATK increase is pretty straightforward, but is an above average amount, resulting in a 33% DPS and total damage improvement, the latter of which is especially nice with his Overload burst. However, he also gets a good sized SP cost improvement, dropping by 5 SP, and a large increase to his initial SP, dropping from 14 SP to just 5.

Meanwhile, his S1 is useful, but a bit less impressive. Considering his long interval, the overall damage difference from his S2 actually isn’t that large, and the improved splash area can even make it come out ahead. The gains over Mastery are quite good too, although not as strong as S2. The damage increase is “just” 25%, although that’s still well above average, and the SP reduction at S1M3 doesn’t matter quite as much as skills of this type typically are given the higher base SP cost. However, the biggest flaw with the skill is that it’s uncontrollable and with a much shorter range, which leaves him much more vulnerable than his S2 does. With S2, you can have him take back off to safety whenever needed, or even just out range them, whereas with S1, he’ll land and potentially get shot at no matter what.

Note that on his release, there was a bug with his S1 where his landing state would prevent the SP from being consumed and allow him to spam it. You may see various highlight clips of it still. This bug was fixed however, and should not factor into your decision.

Finally, while his Mastery gains are strong, it’s notable that he is still functional at lower investment values. While these are big improvements, his damage at base is pretty decent, as is his SP cost, so Mastery on either skill isn’t exactly required as it sometimes is with high gain skills. His E2 promotion is notably poor too which adds to the effective cost, so if you just want to give him a basic E1 to try him out, you’ll be fine.

Pull Priority

May update: New this update is Zima the Raging Tide. She slots in as a Lean Pull initially, although if the post-Anniversary banners are strong, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her slip. She is a very strong AFK option which many people will find appealing, but her ceiling is a touch low. Coming right before a limited event will mean most people will probably want to skip her anyway.

If you’re looking for the new anniversary units, they’ll be added next update (see the FAQ question above or in the main article). However, they’ll both be Strong Pulls, but behind Wang.

Strong Pull: Wang (limited), Ch’en the Dawnstreak

Lean Pull: Zima the Raging Tide

Lean Skip: Nasti, Bellone

Strong Skip: Thorns the Lodestar (rerun), Titi, Necrass (rerun)

Meta-value 4-5★s: None

Niche-value 4-5★s: Cairn

Pull Priority Blurbs

Wang - He’s been nicknamed Wangsdel and for good reason. He does a ton of damage, anywhere on the map. Don’t be afraid by the fact he’s a Trapmaster either. Since his damage is so good and he gets a ton of traps, he’s stupidly easy to use too. He can solo most of the game, like his sister Ling did long ago, but unlike her, has plenty of ceiling too thanks to a huge chunk of RES-ignore.

Ch’en the Dawnstreak - She hasn’t gotten as much attention as Wang, but I like Ch’en3 almost as much. She scales with enemy HP and her damage automatically toggles between Arts and Physical, depending on what’s better. She also has crazy good range and an abusable gimmick, which gives her both a high floor and a high ceiling.

Zima the Raging Tide - She has a very powerful and easy to use AFK skill that will appeal to many people, with a powerful nuke skill to flex to. However, her ceiling is relatively low. There’s a lot of AFK units now so her S2 is nothing new, and she does nothing off-skill when using S3.

Nasti - Nasti is a pretty gimmicky unit, but her gimmick is utterly unique and outright breaks some stages, plus she also flexes to a pretty strong SP battery. She has strong synergy with multiple upcoming units too. However, she’s far less straightforward than the higher meta options and is useless on many stages. Some players will find her amazing, but some will absolutely hate her.

Bellone - Bellone has really high ST DPS and strong DEF-shred, meaning he will rip up a lot of stages and enemies. He has a really high floor that will appeal to some people, with just enough high end value to warrant at least a look. However, he is far less versatile than many other DPS units, including several upcoming ones. That makes him tricky to recommend. Older players will already have better options, and newer players will get better value from their pulls saving for the better options.

Titi - She has some pretty strong utility, but ultimately Sleep is one of the weaker forms of control. There’s places she’s great in, but she’s ultimately a bit too situational relative to the other upcoming options, and a bit lackluster if she can’t take advantage of her gimmicks.

Necrass - She’s a powerful general unit, but has a much lower ceiling than the other upcoming top dogs. If her summon gets stat-checked, she’s just raw damage, and while her damage is good, it’s not special either. She’s a solid carry sort of unit, but we have a lot of those now with higher ceilings.

Thorns the Lodestar - Thorns2 has some really quality DPS. It’s pretty high, on a huge uptime, huge range, and huge hit count. However, there’s a lot of DPS these days too and while strong, it’s not as strong as a lot of more recent units. His utility is also really clunky which limits his lateral use.

Lookaheads

All lookaheads can be found in their usual spot on the main guide here.

Zima the Raging Tide

Oh Zima. Do I love you because you’re the kind of alter that I love to see? Or do I hate you because your main value is raising the bar on braindead gameplay? In any case, it’s getting a lot harder to write these lookaheads. There’s a lot more nuance to these units than there used to be. There hasn’t been a “bad” 6★ in a couple years now, and it’s really difficult to convey the nuance in a paragraph or two. In Zima2’s case, she’s a strong unit, but with a relatively low ceiling. Her S2 charges shockingly fast, and gives her some pretty insane stats, with an always-on DEF higher than most Defenders. You don’t even have to press the button to activate it either! I guess HG knows what AFK players really want. Then she has a highlight reel nuke skill too with her S3 for some flexible wave clearing use.

However, these ultimately mean she has a pretty low ceiling. Well, relative to the modern 6★s anyway. Her S3 nuke looks impressive due to its crazy DPH, and many people will remember her killing Patriot in a single-cycle. However, its total damage is on the low side, so even with its relatively low SP cost, it feels unimpressive in tougher content. Worse, she does very little off skill, often leaving her very exposed. These sorts of one-use nukes just don’t have the value they used to (looking at you Degenbrecher). Meanwhile, while her S2 is a great and fast charging AFK skill, it’s still just an AFK skill and we have a ton of those now. Zima is definitely far from a bad unit, but she’s likely to be graded a bit lower than some people might expect. There are a number of people out there that view her as a top-tier unit, but my view of her is much more restrained.

tl;dr S2 > S3. Both will be on the high end of grades, but a bit off the top. S2 likely mid-low S and S3 likely low-S or high-A.

Ботани / Botani

Botani is our first source of friendly Corrosion¹. First, Corrosion itself ends up being relatively weak compared to the other elements. It does less damage per burst, seemingly with the intent of faster cycling. That isn’t bad, but ends up meaning most things will die before the debuff comes into play, and in an era of the game where there’s so much crazy DPS, that just isn’t overly special. Botani herself though ends up being a sidegrade to Valarqvin, who does already see some use in non-6★ niches, so she’s not exactly bad, although certainly not a meta consideration. Botani can trigger Corrosion three times per S2 activation, which gives her greater damage than Valarqvin per activation (15k vs 12k) on top of the debuff, plus her longer range. However, Botani cycles far worse and without the control benefits Valarqvin has, and often loses her damage advantage against bosses. If you aren’t the sort of player who has already raised and gotten use out of Valarqvin, Botani will be no different, especially with insanely meta and incompatible units like Tragodia and Yu out there, but she may have some use for a few players or if you just happen to like her.

tl;dr S2 low-C grade, similar to Valarqvin. Pass on S1. The SP cost is shorter than the Corrosion cooldown, so she wastes activations and it’s slower than it might appear. It could have some value for the true extremists though.

¹ Corrosion deals 5000 Elemental Damage, and gives a permanent debuff of -120 DEF, with an 8 second cooldown.

Укусик / Ukusik

I love how HG drips in a child now and then. No, not for that reason you sicko. I love it because it’s a nice reminder every now and then about how truly fucked Terra is. Anyway, Ukusik is a pretty neat unit for the creative type players. She’s not the first unit who can provide an on-demand Camouflage, but the existing options are much less effective at it than she is. Heavyrain has a really restrictive range, and natively being a blocker reduces her effectiveness at the role. Despite those flaws, Heavyrain has seen decent niche usage over the years, so I’m pretty optimistic about Ukusik! However, that’s pretty far from a meta consideration, especially since there are just so many already decent Medics who do the healing job much better. Further, she doesn’t need anything beyond E1 to do that job since the camo duration doesn’t change after SL7, so the extra promotions are only for some extra healing that isn’t her key value, and some cycling/initial SP improvements that most people will never notice.

tl;dr S2 is a good skill and will be graded, but lower than its value due to the gains not mattering for her primary purpose. Only look towards S1 if you really want to use her over other options since it is only a basic healing skill.