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Module Ratings - Retracing Our Steps
Ratings and discussion of the Operator Modules introduced in the "Retracing Our Steps" patch [Arknights]
Mal.io Introduction
Heya all, Mal here with another write up! This time it’s for the Retracing Our Steps patch, AKA the Silverash Alter patch. This time around we got Modules for the Arts Protector Defenders, a couple Modules for new Operators, a second Module for an existing Operator, and a couple Specialized Modules (both for IS).
The Arts Protector Modules are generally good. Most Arts Protectors lean into at least one of either doing offensive Arts damage or some sort of Arts defense role, and this Trait upgrade rewards both modes of play, they get to do extra Arts hits each time they attack or are attacked during skill.
Hoshiguma the Breacher is by far the biggest beneficiary of this Module. She was already great, and this Module gives her a bunch more damage, not only from the Trait but also by upgrading her Tenacity Talent (both the ATK bonus and easing the threshold). This Module is a straightforward win for her and will benefit virtually every use case for her, with an especially nice benefit for her ability to deal with hitcount type enemies.
The 5★s are more of a mixed bag. None of them were particularly meta-relevant to begin with, and this Module doesn’t change that at all. If you’re simply looking for the most effective strategies with no self-imposed restrictions, then none of these Modules will interest you. However, for those who already like these units or use them in some self-imposed niche, most of them got noticeable improvements.
Asbestos got some extra damage and improved cycling, Shalem got a substantial damage improvement and better RES shred, and Czerny got better at his Arts tanking/reflection niche.
Dur-nar is probably the Operator who took the biggest L of this group, but a lot of that is simply due to how terrible she was in the first place. She gets some extra stats, but it’s just nowhere near enough to compete even just among 4★s.
We got several Modules for new Operators this patch. Pramanix the Prerita, Astgenne the Lightchaser, Snow Hunter, and Akkord all got one. Only Pramanix’s is particularly of note. She’s an incredibly strong new Operator and her Module constitutes a substantial chunk of her power, allowing her crucial ice fields to spread faster and do more damage.
Astgenne the Lightchaser is the latest underwhelming 6★ welfare Operator. She can do some fun stuff when enemies arrive in the right patterns, but even when the stars align perfectly for her (hehe), it’s still not that amazing of a performance. Her Module doesn’t really change this substantially. Even those who want to dabble with her for fun should probably only build her up to Module level 1, though it doesn’t make her “good”.
Snow Hunter is actually an Operator I think is pretty neat. She’s the latest 5★ Hunter Sniper, and she’s really quite good… for her rarity. I have to give that caveat because her strength is simply not worth paying attention to for those who aren’t interested in using lower-rarity Operators for its own sake. She’s a primarily DPS-oriented Operator and thus really struggles to compete with the 6★s, but if you’re willing to use 5★s for DPS, her damage profile is very usable, as she offers great control and high DPH. Her Module is a nice upgrade to all that, mostly the Talent upgrade, which increases the scaling on the extra hit she does with each skill activation. But to reiterate, none of this really matters if you’re not already deciding to limit yourself by using 5★s. She doesn’t offer any of the interesting utility that the handful of meta 5★s do.
Akkord is a real dud unfortunately. The Blast Caster archetype was already fairly flawed, and Akkord gets the double whammy of a 4★’s power budget. Even Ifrit struggles to justify being brought to stages the vast majority of times, and the few times she does get brought are mostly because of her absurdly strong Talent or S3. Akkord on the other hand, has neither of those benefits. Her Talent is pretty bad, and her skills are underwhelming. All that combined with 4★ stats means Akkord is simply not that useful. Her Module leans into a lot of the worst parts of her kit, theoretically increasing her peak damage, but locking it behind obnoxious conditions that are in tension with the ways you’d want to use a Blast Caster.
Vina Victora got her 2nd Module, and this one narrowly avoids what I like to call “second Module disease”. The damage increase over her first Module isn’t overwhelmingly good on paper, but it is a definitive upgrade. More importantly, however, is that its damage comes from much more accessible conditions than her first Module. So much of Vina’s theoretical DPS before this Module relied upon potentially less than realistic conditions, she needed all her allies nearby her to max out her ATK buff, she needed to not block anyone personally to get that ASPD buff. Meanwhile, this new Module gives her much easier conditions, and very effectively buffs her Frighten Talent. The only thing that prevents me from giving this second Module a full-throated recommendation is that Vina wasn’t that meta even when she came out; and it’s been over a year since then and the expectations of DPS Operators continue to grow.
Lastly, we got two Specialized Modules, both of them for Integrated Strategies. While Specialized Modules were initially always strong, lately the power of these Modules has started to vacillate somewhat. These two are examples of both extremes.
Gnosis got an incredibly powerful IS Module that makes him a compelling pick in what was already a competitive ticket. It leans into the Kjerag faction’s interaction with the Cold/Freeze debuffs, and allows Gnosis to enable all other Kjerag Operators to lean even further into that debuff. It also allows him to globally deal damage to Cold/Frozen enemies. Furthermore it substantially improves his Fragile debuff on top of all that. This Module makes Gnosis not only much more capable all by himself, but encourages using him alongside other powerful Kjerag Operators like Silverash Alter or Pramanix Alter.
Ho’olheyak on the other hand, got one of the much less typical, bad IS Modules. It’s not quite at the Dusk level where I’d recommend using her other Modules over this one in IS, but it’s heavily weighed down by how bad Ho’ol already is. It grants her an interesting ability to punish enemies for entering the Blue Box, levitating all enemies, a Temporary Life Point each stage, and also grants her skills some AoE. Unfortunately, this is simply nowhere near enough to make Ho’ol a worthwhile pick in IS. The new strategies she enables are gimmicky and don’t synergize well with existing strategies, making this one of the rare Specialized Module duds.
Ratings System
This rating system aims to capture both the relative “meta value” of a unit as well as the strength of a Module. My aim is to have the ratings give an at a glance understanding for those just trying to figure out what is “good”, while those already interested in a unit regardless of the meta value of said unit, can read the detailed write-up of each Module to find out if it’s right for them, even if it’s a Module on a relatively low value Operator.
Each Module will be given a rating of [YES], [MAYBE], or [NOT RECOMMENDED] for whether it is worth building, as well as a recommended level to upgrade it to.
For Specialized Modules, ratings are given with the assumption that players are interested in the applicable game mode (for example Integrated Strategies).
Ratings
Arts Protector
Hoshiguma the Breacher
No Trace
AST-X
Rating
Yes
Recommended Level
Level 3
Hoshiguma Alter is a fantastic all-in-one unit that combines immense bulk, wide-range Arts damage, and self-sustain. While she was definitely great beforehand, this Module elevates her capabilities significantly in multiple ways.
First of all, the Trait effect of this Module grants Hoshi an extra hit of Arts damage each time she attacks or is attacked during her skill duration, worth 10% of her ATK. It should be noted that the multihits of her S2’s shield spin do not each count as an attack, and so the impact of this Trait on S2 is less considerable (though the reflection damage still works). On the other hand, each hit of her S3 does count towards this Trait, meaning that in its normal activation mode each attack goes from dealing 2 hits to 4 hits, and during her manual deactivation mode, each attack goes from dealing 4 hits to dealing 8 hits. This considerably increases Hoshi’s already exceptional ability to deal with hitcount based enemies. The damage increase is, as one might expect, approximately a 10% improvement in skill damage (not including the increase granted by Module base stats), a solid if not game-breaking improvement.
The Talent upgrade improves Hoshi’s Tenacity Talent in two ways. First of all it reduces the HP threshold needed to reach the maximum buff from 70% of HP being missing (AKA 30% HP), to 50% of HP missing. Second, it grants her an additional +15% ATK when she is at max Tenacity, resulting in a total of +50% ATK at the maximum value (up from +35% ATK). Both of these together result in Hoshi having significantly more ATK the majority of the time. Her HP threshold being lowered means that even when Hoshi hasn’t quite reached it yet, she has higher ATK than she otherwise would, she reaches that threshold much more easily, and when she does, she gets an even larger buff. Other than when she is at full HP, this improvement results in a considerable ATK improvement. The only downsides to this upgrade are that it doesn’t increase the size of the RES buff, and that the ATK buff is somewhat diluted by her S3’s large +ATK% buff. However, her RES buff is still helped by the lower HP threshold, and the S3 situation is mitigated by the fact that her S3 benefits a substantial amount more from the Trait upgrade already, while the S2 which benefits less from the Trait upgrade benefits more from this Talent upgrade.
Last, this Module grants Hoshi a substantial amount of base stats. Her Module grants her extra base ATK and base HP, both of which substantially help her. The combination of the extra base ATK, the extra hits from her Trait effect, and her improved Tenacity, result in her S3 skill damage being increased by approximately 27%, which is above average for the damage improvements given by Modules. In addition, Hoshiguma relies heavily on her huge HP pool, which is magnified during her S3, the extra 325 HP granted by this Module is doubled into 650 extra HP, and doubled again when she is in her Ātmagrāha state, for a potential maximum of 1300 extra HP.
This Module leans into all of Hoshiguma’s strengths, she spends more of the time at her maximum strength thanks to the lower Tenacity threshold, and her maximum strength is significantly elevated by multiple buffs. Furthermore, her survivability is substantially enhanced thanks to the extra HP and greater uptime of her RES buff. This Module does practically everything Hoshi could want, and since she is an already powerful unit, it should thus be considered a very high priority.
Asbestos
'Asbestos vs. Two-headed Gloompincer'
AST-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Asbestos really suffers from being on the low end of Year 1 5★s in terms of power budget. HyperGryph seemed very cautious in the way they balanced early AoE units, and Asbestos is no different. As a result her damage is really quite unimpressive. This Module would have needed to help her a disproportionate amount in order to change that, and instead it only did so a typical amount.
The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Asbestos an extra hit of Arts damage each time she attacks or is attacked during her skill duration, worth 10% of her ATK. For all intents and purposes, this should be considered 10% more skill damage, with the extra benefit of some minor retaliation damage. When combined with the base stat improvements, this results in a modest damage increase (approximately 17% more skill damage).
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases Asbestos’s RES bonus and SP generation. Her Talent originally provides +10 RES, with this Module it provides +12 RES. When she is hit by an enemy Arts attack, she originally generated 3 SP, with this Module she generates 4 SP. The RES increase is really quite underwhelming, increasing her total RES to 27 instead of 25, on the other hand, the SP generation improvement is quite substantial. When in a situation to take advantage of incoming Arts attacks, Asbestos can generate up to 33% more SP, resulting in much faster skill charging. However, this is highly stage dependent, and will often result in negligible difference.
Those who already want to use Asbestos will appreciate the damage increase and improved potential skill cycling in some stages. That said, this Module does nothing to make those who already weren’t using her change their minds. Overall an easy skip.
Shalem
Ticket Stub Album
AST-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Shalem is thoroughly outclassed in general and advanced play, and this Module does very little to change that. However, for those players willing to tolerate off-meta units, his Module does substantially lean into all his gimmicks in a satisfying way.
The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Shalem an extra hit of Arts damage each time he attacks or is attacked during his skill duration, worth 10% of his ATK. On Shalem’s main skill, his S2, this actually doubles the number of hits from 6 to 12, and further, because each of his hits is already a % ATK multiplier less than 100%, this upgrade actually ends up increasing his skill damage by 12.5% (not including base ATK improvements by the Module). Furthermore, it makes him significantly more adept at dealing with hitcount reliant scenarios, although his skill cycling makes this somewhat less than reliable.
The Talent upgrade of this Module improves Shalem’s RES shred in three ways, first of all the chance to proc increases from 25% each attack, to 45% on each attack, secondly, the magnitude of that RES shred is increased from 25% to 30% of RES, and third, the duration of that RES shred is increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds. These upgrades result in Shalem having almost guaranteed 100% uptime of his RES shred onskill, and fairly reasonable uptime even off-skill (assuming single-target scenarios).
Overall this Module is only noteworthy to Shalem maximalists and niche players, for most it isn’t a reason to revisit him as a unit. That said, those aforementioned groups will very much appreciate this Module as it increases his skill damage by 23%, and potentially even more when accounting for variable enemy RES which gets shredded by his improved Talent. An easy skip for most players, but a nice treat for the Shalem fans.
Czerny
'Tick-tock Tick-tock'
AST-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Czerny is, for his rarity, an excellent Arts retaliation tank. Unfortunately that statement rests on multiple qualifiers, the 5★ rarity is nearly-universally restrained by a small power budget (Czerny is no exception). Furthermore, retaliation tanks are niche, never being a necessary option for any stage. As a result, Czerny is simply basically never a good solution to a stage unless players are operating on multiple levels of self-restricting play. As a result, this Module is not particularly noteworthy for anyone other than those players.
The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Czerny an extra hit of Arts damage each time he attacks or is attacked during his skill duration, worth 10% of his ATK. This upgrade can primarily be treated as an extra additive hit to Czerny’s retaliation damage Talent, and scales nicely with his S2 ATK buffs which already incentivize him receiving many hits and punishing enemies each time.
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the size of his retaliation hits from 85% of his ATK to 115%. This increased hit, in addition to the Module’s Trait upgrade, results in Czerny’s retaliation damage being over 40% higher than pre-Module. As a result, this upgrade is absolutely essential for those who intend on using Czerny in his intended niche.
Czerny is far and away not the best at what he does, and so for most players he’s not an Operator they will get much use out of with or without this Module. However, for those who either like Czerny in particular or play a ruleset that includes him, this Module is a substantial improvement to his ability to fill his niche. Once again though, for most players this Module is an easy skip.
Dur-nar
A Guardian's Path
AST-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Dur-nar has long been an underwhelming Operator, even for her rarity. This Module does far too little to change that unfortunately. Other 4★ Defenders substantially outshine her in practically every relevant role.
The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Dur-nar an extra hit of Arts damage each time she attacks or is attacked during her skill duration, worth 10% of her ATK. While this can be treated as a 10% upgrade to her skill damage, it has no other particular synergy with her kit, and her skill damage is still fairly poor even with this buff.
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the stat buffs from Dur-nar’s Talent from +7% ATK and DEF up to 12% ATK and DEF. Combined with the base stat buffs from her Module, this ends up being a modest improvement to Dur-nar’s damage and bulk, but still not enough to make her competitive even within her rarity.
This Module’s effects are unremarkable, and Dur-nar really needed a significant buff to be worth using. As a result, this Module, despite the low costs of 4★ Modules, is an easy skip.
New Operators
Pramanix the Prerita
A Thousandth of A Heart
PLX-Y
Rating
Yes
Recommended Level
Level 3
Pramanix the Prerita is an excellent caster who combines passive crowd control, AFK DPS, survivability, and burst damage, all in one package. Her ability to create ice fields, including even freezing over the blue box, is her most distinct tool, and this Module makes it even better.
The Trait upgrade of this Module increases Pramanix’s damage dealt per enemy within her range, 3% each up to a maximum of 15%. This upgrade is fairly decent, especially given that Pramanix has a large range that can often fit many enemies.
The Talent upgrade of this Module decreases the interval between Pramanix’s snow field expansion, decreasing it from 5.5s to 5s. Additionally, the arts damage scaling of her snow field increases to 100% of her ATK (up from 75%). Furthermore, she instantly coats all tiles within her range with one stack of snow. These Talent upgrades considerably buff the power and ramp up of Pramanix’s snow field.
This is a great Module that leans into all of Pramanix’s strengths. She gets damage from the Trait upgrade, more damage from her snow field, faster snow field growth, and faster ramp up on her snow field. Anyone who builds Pramanix the Prerita should plan to build this Module to level 3.
Astgenne the Lightchaser
The Seeker's Collection
DEC-Y
Rating
Not Recommended
Astgenne the Lightchaser is a welfare 6★ and Hypergryph allocated her power budget accordingly. She has a finicky kit which can reach some reasonable highs, but compared to other meta Operators it’s a lot of work for a mediocre result. Unfortunately, her Module is quite underwhelming, giving a middle of the pack Operator a smaller upgrade than is even typical.
The Trait upgrade of this Module increases the duration of the Slow Astgenne applies with her attacks from 0.8s to 1.2s. The extra duration helps Astgenne’s keep high Slow uptime, especially on her S3. While Astgenne’s kit does reward players for keeping enemies close, the damage is unremarkable even when conditions are right, and this Trait makes those conditions only slightly more accessible
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the maximum number of stacks of Astgenne’s ASPD Talent, from 18 to 25 stacks of +1 ASPD, as well as adding a +12% ATK buff when she reaches maximum stacks at Module level 3, each stack triggered when she inflicts Sluggish on enemies. The combination of ATK and ASPD does suit her kit, but the extra stacks amount to a condition 7 ASPD and +12% ATK, which are simply not that impressive.
Overall this is a mediocre Module on a mediocre unit. It’s not awful, but there is no particular meta reason to build it. Those who have decided to use her regardless will probably notice the benefit from building this Module to level 1, but for everyone else it should be an easy skip.
Snow Hunter
Hunts of the Past
HUN-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Snow Hunter has a fun and easy to use kit considering her archetype, unfortunately she’s largely held back by the 5★ power budget and this Module doesn’t change that. She is largely a pure DPS unit, which is by far the role in which 5★s are the most outclassed by 6★ Operators.
The Trait upgrade of this Module allows Snow Hunter to reload 2 Ammo whenever her current Ammo count is empty. Snow Hunter, despite her archetype, doesn’t particularly rely on her Ammo to do damage since her S2 uses a “special” shot, and is instead more reliant on her skills which do not interact with the Ammo mechanic. That means this Trait upgrade is much less impactful on Snow Hunter than other Hunter Snipers. It ends up primarily impacting her auto-attacks in between skills.
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the scaling on her extra hit. When Snow Hunter activates her skill, her Rift Cloudbeast extra hit now does 205% of ATK (up from 180% ATK). The Cold infliction portion of the Talent is unchanged, still inflicting Cold for 3 seconds. This Talent is a substantial portion of Snow Hunter’s damage, and this is a substantial upgrade of its scaling.
Overall, Snow Hunter is a fun 5★ to play around with for those willing to use off-meta picks, but there is no particular reason for a meta player to select her, she doesn’t fill any niche even close to as well as the best units. While this Module does noticeably improve her damage, it barely makes a dent in the vast gulf between her and the higher rarity Operators.
Akkord
The Music Box of A Burdenbeast
BLA-X
Rating
Not Recommended
Akkord is 4★ Blast Caster, and unfortunately her performance reflects that. She’s awkward to use with no upside. Her damage is poor, and she has no utility to speak of other than the interesting range of her archetype. To add insult to injury, her Module offers unimpressive upgrades that rely on annoying conditions that aren’t necessarily compatible with the way Blast Casters want to be used organically.
The Trait upgrade of this Module increases her damage dealt scaling with distance, such that the furthest away enemies will take 110% damage (and the closest only 100% damage). This conditional damage scaling is unfortunately often in tension with how Blast Casters want to be used, incentivizing players to use their large range to hit a faraway enemy rather than the multi-lane AoE damage that is most popular for the archetype. This Trait ends up being an occasional bonus rather than damage players can rely on. Unfortunate for Akkord since her damage is already so unremarkable.
The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the scaling of Akkord’s Talent so that when there is at least 1 other Operator within her range, she gains +20% ATK (up from +15%). This is another buff that is often in tension with how Blast Casters are already used. It’s heavily map dependent whether this will end up being advantageous, as often the optimal positioning for Akkord will not trigger this buff, and placing her in order to rely on this buff can result in worse outcomes than simply ignoring it. The increase to the buff from this Module is fairly paltry on top of all that
Akkord was already in a pretty terrible place without this Module, and it does nowhere near enough to change that. Akkord is one of the worst 4★ units released in some time and her Module reflects that. An easy skip.
Second Modules
Vina Victoria
'Speed and Bag'
AFT-Y
Rating
Maybe
Recommended Level
Level 3
Vina Victoria occupies an awkward space in the meta in that she is relevant, but only barely. Her niche of multi-target True damage is potentially potent, but she relies on a slew of conditions to maximize it. Furthermore, “high-quality” damage options are more and more competitive with True damage. While her first Module, Module X, gave Vina yet another condition and leaned into her existing ones, this second Module, Module Y, helps alleviate some of those conditions on top of simply doing better DPS than her first.
The Trait upgrade of this Module applies 10% Fragile to enemies blocked by Vina or her Summons. This is a simple condition that Vina can activate trivially. When compared to the Trait upgrade from her first Module, this is almost strictly superior. Vina’s kit relies almost entirely on her or her Summons blocking enemies. The only scenario in which the other Module is better is if players are using another unit, not Vina’s Summons, to block enemies, in which case the Fragile is not applied, while the ASPD buff of her Module X does apply. Overall though, this is a nice damage improvement with an easy to fulfill condition.
The Talent upgrade of this Module leans into Vina’s Frighten Talent. First of all, the duration of Frighten is extended. When Vina damages an enemy for the first time, she inflicts Frighten for 6 seconds (up from 4s). Second, an additional condition is added, when that enemy is an Elite or Leader enemy, that Frighten is extended to 12 seconds. Third, Vina and her Summons deal 15% more damage to Frightened Targets. This Talent is a massive improvement to Vina’s damage and survivability. The slight Frighten duration on normal targets is nice, they’re weak enough that she typically won’t need longer than 6 seconds anyway, meanwhile the beefier and more dangerous targets have that debuff extended to a massively longer 12 seconds, which helps keep Vina and her summons protected while they also do substantially more damage. This Talent upgrade especially shines when compared to that of her first Module, which relies on her having as many friendly units within range as possible, which is often inconvenient or downright impossible.
Overall, this Module is a substantial quality of life improvement for Vina, in addition to a decent DPS increase over her first Module. The only thing holding it back is that Vina is borderline meta, and while the QoL and damage are nice, neither of them are game changing when compared with Vina’s competition. Those building Vina for the first time should absolutely build this Module over her first, but for those who already have her first Module built, consider how much use Vina will get before investing further into her.
Specialized Modules
Gnosis
Gnosis's Specialized Badge
ISW-A
Rating
Yes
Recommended Level
Level 3
Gnosis has previously not been a particularly competitive IS pick, even before the upsurge in the value of the Supporter ticket. However, this Specialized Module changes that. Despite how competitive the Supporter ticket already was, this Module puts Gnosis in the mix, especially as a consideration due to his synergy with Silverash2 and Pramanix2.
The Trait upgrade of this Module gives Gnosis the ability (in IS) to deal 50% of his ATK as Arts damage every 0.5s to enemies afflicted with Cold or Frozen while he is on the field. This Trait leans heavily into the Cold/Freeze synergy of the Kjerag Operators, allowing Gnosis to punish enemies globally via the Freeze debuff. Furthermore, it synergizes excellently with the effect of the Talent upgrade, which enables vastly more Cold/Freeze uptime against enemies when the player uses Kjerag Operators.
The Talent upgrade of this Module changes Gnosis’s Fragile Talent. In IS, Gnosis will apply 30% Fragile to all Cold enemies (globally, changed from the previous “in Gnosis’s range” effect). Frozen enemies will receive double the Fragile. Furthermore, Cold/Frozen enemies’ Fragile magnitude will increase by 5% each second, hitting a maximum of 80%. Lastly, this upgrade grants all other Kjerag Operators the ability to inflict 4 seconds of Cold to enemies within range on each skill activation while Gnosis is on the field. By far the biggest upgrade is that last portion, which results in Gnosis substantially powering up all the Kjerag Operators by giving them all Cold infliction (and, as a result, Frozen). However, it also substantially improves his Fragile application and magnitude. Furthermore, many bosses are immune to Freeze but not Cold, and before this upgrade they could only receive Gnosis’s base Fragile value, however with this increase per second, even they can reach the maximum 80% Fragile with enough Cold uptime.
This Module does make Gnosis by himself more powerful, however a huge chunk of its power is the synergy when used alongside other Kjerag Operators. The incredibly low cost of 3 Module Blocks makes this Module a very inexpensive investment, rather Gnosis himself is the only real cost, as his previous meta value was such that not every player might already have him built. However, with this Specialized Module, he and this Module are well worth the investment for any player interested in IS.
Ho’olheyak
Ho'olheyak's Specialized Badge
ISW-A
Rating
Not Recommended
Ho’olheyak has always had a baffling kit. She seemingly encourages exploiting the Levitate status, but she is hampered by extremely underwhelming skills with high costs relative to low payoffs. Unfortunately, despite receiving a Specialized Module for IS, she’s still not a worthy pick in the mode. Her IS Module substantially underperforms the typical game-breaking buffs other Operators receive with these Modules.
The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Ho’ol, in IS, the ability to ignore 10 RES, and the first time each enemy reaches the Objective Point tile (the blue box) she recovers 30% SP. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, as it synergizes somewhat with the Talent upgrade, but it’s still not a particularly good Trait either. 30% SP simply isn’t that powerful for an Operator with skills as bad as Ho’ol’s, and enemies reaching the blue box is a condition that, under ideal conditions, never occurs, therefore players need to adjust their strategies to enable this Trait.
The Talent upgrade of this Module grants Ho’ol, in IS, the ability to grant 1 Temporary Life Point on her first deployment, and the first time an enemy steps into the Objective Tile, she Levitates all enemies for 15 seconds. Furthermore, her skills will simultaneously levitate and deal damage to enemies and surrounding targets. The Temporary Life Point is a nice gimmick, as well as the global Levitate. It allows Ho’ol to act as an extra defensive buffer. Converting her skills to slight AoE is also nice, but still not enough.
All the things this Module gives Ho’ol are technically good, if these were available in normal stages she’d be incredibly impactful. However in IS, each Operator recruited has a distinct opportunity cost, and there are simply better options than to recruit Ho’ol. She doesn’t fit into existing strategies well, and the new strategies she enables with this Module aren’t as good as the existing ones. This Module does have a low cost of 3 Module blocks, but it also has the cost of raising Ho’olheyak, who has never been worth raising meta-wise. If players already have her built, then this Module is pretty trivial to build, but even in that case, exercise caution. If players don’t have Ho’ol built then they should not consider this Module a reason to build her.