6★ Guards#
Sakiko Togawa#
Sakiko is a flavorful iteration of the Lord archetype. She can do both Physical and Arts damage through her different instruments; her organ is Arts damage, while her piano is Physical damage, and which is played depends on her skill. But she’s more than just flavor. At base, her DPS is already great, but then she gets some very strong DEF/RES-ignore to go with it, allowing her to do good damage against a huge variety of targets. That, along with the powerful Fever mechanic and big range, especially when paired with her bandmates¹, makes her an incredibly powerful DPS unit. However, she is stuck with ST damage, and she does lack in utility compared to other top-tier meta units, so she isn’t necessarily the pinnacle of DPS units either.
While Sakiko has three strong skills, her S3 stands out far above as the best choice for Mastery. It’s the skill that gives her most of her highly vaunted value; incredible DPS along with incredible DEF/RES-ignore and range, plus the band-wide invulnerability. Mastery on it is well above average too. The large ATK gain over Mastery gets shared over four notes, and the effect of the higher DPH on the Physical side, along with her DEF-ignore, greatly extends the range of enemy DEF she can deal with.
It’s a bit more subtle, but the improvement to her initial wind-up is also very valuable. Because her skills are tied to her continuous attacks, the charge rate is actually influenced by the Lord 1.3s interval rather than the default auto rate of 1 SP/s. This means at S3SL7, her initial SP cost is effectively 20.8² seconds, which is rather long! Instead, at S3M3, it becomes 10.4², which is a pretty drastic improvement in addition to above average damage gains.
Despite the general complexity of her kit, S3 is a fairly straight forward Mastery. It’s a strong DPS skill, with strong Mastery gains, on one of the strongest DPS units in the game!
However, while Sakiko has some incredible ceiling with her S3, it does have a long downtime and she is a strong hands-off unit too, which makes her S2 a reasonable secondary Mastery. It lacks the ceiling of her S3, so isn’t quite a mandatory-tier of Mastery, but will be useful to a variety of people. While using it, she can swap between Arts or Physical notes, and will persistently keep the appropriate buff depending on which she is using, which makes for some strong passive DPS that she can toggle at will. It has similarly strong gains as well, particularly on the Physical side for the same reasons as her S3, although the gains on the Arts side are oddly below average and lag the overall value a bit.
Since it will be a question many people ask, especially given her S2’s value in the low-step niche, it’s worth a quick discussion about the value of her burst skill (S3) vs her primary AFK skill (S2). Long time readers of the guide won’t be surprised about this topic, and some may be rolling their eyes about now, but Sakiko is a case where the value difference is drastic. To be clear, her S2 is still a good skill that is generally worth Mastery, but S3 is simply the better skill with the better gains. Her S3 has twice the DPS, twice the range, more DEF/RES-ignore (due to more notes being on the field), and even has the better Fever mechanic. And while both skills have generally strong gains, S3’s are higher due to the Arts half of her S2 being a bit below average. That said, Sakiko is a strong enough unit that even solely using her S2 would no doubt still make her quite functional, but I would encourage you to not be afraid of pressing skill buttons now and then! By the same reasoning, Sakiko is so strong that you’re missing out on a whole level of ceiling by avoiding it!
Oddly, Sakiko actually has two AFK skills, but her S1 comes up last in priority. It is ultimately lower DPS than her S2 in most cases, and while it can flex to some more immediate burst, it’s not usually enough of a difference to matter. However, it does have special value when paired with her bandmate, Umiri. Umiri’s S1 will get a free trigger any time a band member activates a skill, and Sakiko’s S1’s auto-triggers count. The net DPS is still comparable to her S2 alone, but she gains range and control through Umiri, so the combo can be valuable if you plan to run Sakiko with her bandmates. But while they are strong, her bandmates are quite a bit less meta, so her S1 is still a luxury Mastery. Note that it has a breakpoint at S1M1 that reduces the SP cost, but even that may not be worthwhile if you generally run Sakiko on her own.
Finally, it’s worth a quick note that Offensive Recovery skills are typically considered a downside in the rest of this guide. However, Sakiko’s Talent 1 makes her continuously attack even if no enemies are in range, which negates this downside.
¹ Her bandmates are not required for Sakiko to be a top-tier unit.
² Due to frame rounding, it’s actually shorter than this, but the simplified view is more appropriate for this guide.
Leizi the Thunderbringer#
Leizi the Thunderbringer is a powerful unit, featuring unique utility that means she can be placed very aggressively along with great DPS and some surprisingly strong control. She’s a really tricky unit when it comes to suggesting Masteries though. All three of her skills are legitimately good, and while there is a clear order in terms of meta, a significant chunk of the playerbase is going to find her best skill to be very unappealing. Further complicating matters, her other two skills are much more similar to the existing and common Liberator, Młynar, who usually does those better too. It ultimately means that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer with Leizi2, and she’s a unit where you’ll need to adjust based on your needs and playstyle.
In any case, I would highly encourage you to treat her S1 as her main skill, but it’s also the one many people are going to find unappealing. It has by far her best use case. It has a much higher damage ceiling and works with her Talents far better. In a lot of ways, it’s surprising that it’s her S1 because the skill seems far more synergetic than the other two! There’s a few things to note with the skill. Enemies on Leizi2’s tile will take all 3 bolts of damage, so you get the most out of it with timing. It also works great with her Talent 2’s Frighten, which can feel like an after thought with her other skills. She can reliably and consistently control using her S1, but not so much with the other two. Then it works way better with her hovering, allowing her to pop in for (almost) free damage. S1 is really what opens up Leizi2’s potential while her other skills are “just” typical damage skills, which also have some flaws, which Młynar happens to do better most of the time.
However, the play style her S1 involves won’t appeal to everyone. These sorts of low-cooldown Manual Activation skills are the polar opposite of what some people want, and Leizi2 further adds complexity by timing based on the enemies and keeping her Trait effect in mind. S1 is by far her best skill and her highest ceiling, but for some, that’s just not worth the trouble. At any rate, Mastery on it is very valuable. The damage increase is significant, but the real winner is the 2 SP cost reduction at S1M3. That’s a huge upgrade when you consider the charge-based nature of the skill and the Trait reset.
Next is her S2. It’s the skill most commonly compared to Młynar’s S3, and is generally worse than it, but has its own unique value too. The odd thing about it is the range. She cannot swing over range tiles which is a significant drawback, but instead she can extend her range in unusual patterns (basically up to three low-ground tiles in any direction out from her tile). This can be both good and bad depending on the map, so it tends to be less reliable than Młynar’s as well as doing less damage on less targets. However, for those who find her S1 unappealing, it’s her second best general use, and even for those who don’t mind her S1, is still useful as a flex option since her S1 is not universally better in all cases. Mastery on it is again valuable. In addition to the solid damage gains, she gains an additional target at S2M3 which makes the Mastery near mandatory if you plan to actually use it.
Last is her S3. It has a higher ceiling than her S2 by a significant amount, but is highly map dependent on if that’s actually true or not. It’s difficult to fully assess since there’s so many potential variables in how the lightning bounces, but if the map and her location has enough places for the lightning to bounce, the DPS is significantly higher than her S2. However, the range is relatively small, although it can at least swing over high tiles. The Mastery gains on it are pretty significant again, but mainly against lower RES since a lot of the damage is Arts from the lightning. Against harder enemies, the DPS difference is on the smaller side.
So to summarize, S1 is her special value. Start there unless you absolutely refuse to use such skills. After that, if you have Młynar’s, prioritize him instead. If you don’t have Młynar (or don’t want to use him), likely go with her S2, although S3 is also an option. If you’re a heavy IS player, you’ll probably want all three since they all cover different use cases, although her S3 is the lowest value Mastery.
Entelechia#
As far as the 6★ Guards go, Entelechia falls somewhere in the middle of overall priority. She has some solid general use, but lacks the ceiling of a lot of her competition. Supposing you’ve done those already or are otherwise set on using her, the priority among her skills is a lot closer and more nuanced than many others, with all three skills being potential options.
Story-centric players who want nothing more than her big burst skill should start with her S3. It’s a daunting skill to read, but the basics are actually rather straight forward, but then gets very nuanced again in the details. Essentially, she summons three candles, which she can then attack to do additional damage to the targets, a portion of which can also bypass any DEF, DR, or Dodge.
It’s a very neat and flavorful skill for a vampire, and with it she can do some really solid burst damage that bypass enemy mechanics that even True or Elemental damage can’t. However, it’s unfortunately also a flawed skill. The major problem is that the candle’s HP is based on the current HP of the enemy, and not the max, so she does less and less damage each activation against the same target. She also has a fairly low DPH, so the result is that while she can do some major damage with S3, she also has trouble finishing the job if her base damage isn’t enough, which is frequent with her DPH against targets where that minimum damage niche is useful!
There are multiple other options that can do the same job without the flaw, and Arknights mechanics are never designed where they require a specific solution like Entelechia’s S3. When compared to other 6★ Guard burst skills and how Arknights deals with enemy mechanics, it ends up just being mostly a gimmick in the broader meta-sense.
It’s still a perfectly good skill, to be clear. It does good damage with a unique niche that can be valuable. However, a lot of players won’t find it to be worth the materials, especially since the Mastery gains are on the low side for a 6★ DPS unit.
Instead, you want to consider her S2 as the starting point. It actually has higher DPS, although significantly lower total damage, but the big difference is the rapid cycle and cross-map potential. The scythes attach on the last deployed ground operator, so they can be placed anywhere on the map that’s deployable, such as on a FRD. This gives it a lot of flexibility to place damage where it’s needed on a very fast cycle, and it’s great for hit count mechanics that are becoming increasingly common. The Mastery gains on it are actually similarly poor, but it’s her skill that’s most likely to be useful for advanced players, IS players (it is her primary skill in IS#6), and players with well established rosters.
Last is her S1. It’s not something most people will want to spend the resources on, but may have value to Enchilada maximalists. That assessment may strike some as odd since it’s a very similar skill to the 5★ Reaper S1s which are generally well graded, but the difference here is that it’s Entelechia’s third best skill. It can be a useful thing for AFK clears, and has pretty valuable Mastery gains for that purpose, but the DPS and utility is significantly behind her other two skills, so it’s ultimately a fringe consideration.
A final note on her S1. Do NOT fall into the trap of thinking her AFK skill is better just because you prefer AFK or auto skills. Her S1 is really only a skill for waifu purposes, and for the cost is just not a great 6★ skill. If you really can’t be bothered to use her S2 or S3, you probably should just not raise her in the first place.
Vina Victoria#
True Damage is a powerful mechanic which can just straight bypass many mechanics. While it’s fairly plentiful these days thanks to Elemental Damage, Vina Victoria is still a powerful take on it thanks to her ability to do good DPS against multiple targets.
That value is almost entirely in her S3 since her S2 doesn’t do True Damage and her S1 is fairly weak. So for a vast majority of players, her S3 is the Mastery starting point, as well as the ending point. The Mastery gains for her S3 are solid, if a bit uninteresting, at least as far as 6★ primary skills go. Mastery increases her damage by a typical amount, along with improving the initial and required SP costs. And that’s about it, although the drop to the SP cost is notable due to the long cycle time of the skill, which makes Mastery particularly valuable to have.
Her S2 may be worth a look if you want to maximize your Vina usage, although it is unnecessary from a meta perspective. This guide generally frowns on skills like this, and that remains true here. However, in Vina’s case her S3 does have a troublingly long cycle time, which means that S2 can be particularly useful if you want to use Vina over other options.
Finally, we do have to at least acknowledge her S1. It doesn’t do enough damage to be worthwhile, particularly since it doesn’t store charges. However, many players will have fond memories of Siege doing constant flips (spin2win!). Vina wouldn’t be complete without flips, and her S1 is the call back there! For some players, that alone will be enough. However, again, the skill doesn’t have much gameplay value. It doesn’t even do enough damage to kill an unbuffed chapter 10 slug, so invest with caution if nostalgia gets the better of you.
Pepe#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | S- | S- |
 | S2M3 | C+ | C+ |
Pepe is a powerful unit featuring strong DPH and good control. However, she ends up being a bit off-meta for a few reasons. One is just competition. There is a host of hyper-powerful Guards ahead of her in value. She also lacks the survivability of other high-end melee DPS. Except for her S3’s Stun (which has a fairly long downtime) she has no sustain, DEF improvement, or other debuff so she ends up being more of a glass cannon when compared to her competition. Her level of DPS still means she is quite valuable, but she ultimately ends up graded a bit lower than the top-tiers.
Pepe’s main skill is her S3. It has a slightly longer downtime than we’ve become used to but still a great overall cycle. It’s also her hardest hitting skill on top of an extremely strong Stun. Her attack interval during skill is 2.0 seconds (1.8 base + 0.2 increase) so the Stun isn’t quite a perma-lock, but it’s enough to effectively prevent most enemies from attacking. Mastery is especially valuable due to just how much ATK she gains since Mastery affects both the base increase and the per ATK increase. With full stacks it’s a +96% difference which is a massive amount. Many comparable skills only get 30-40% so Mastery makes a huge difference with Pepe, especially since her huge DPH is one of her best selling points. Be aware that neither the interval increase or splash area is improved over Mastery.
Pepe isn’t necessarily a one-skill unit so a secondary may be worth a look. However, given Pepe’s slightly off-meta nature, neither of her other skills are exactly essential to Master. If you do want to get some extra use out of her, S2 is her best secondary skill. Its DPH is significantly lower than S3, however it has good DPS on a faster cycle with more range which can all have lateral usage. S2 has good Masteries as well, albeit less impressive than S3’s. Between that, her off-meta nature, the wind-up, and RNG, the skill does lean significantly more towards the luxury side of things.
You will probably want to pass on her S1. While the status resist break always seems nice on paper, it’s one of those things where the design of Arknights makes it sort of useless. A single solution is never required in this game. Imagine how well it would go over if Pepe or Lessing were required to clear a stage! Because of this, it means that there is always another way to play around a mechanic, so this sort of status break ends up being useless as opposed to just playing smarter. The only people who should bother to Master her S1 are Pepe maximalists looking for a consistent AFK skill. Almost no one else will find value in it.
Ulpianus#
Ulpianus is an extremely powerful unit. Crushers in general tend to have a tough time of things, but Ulpianus manages to work around many of those flaws and those workarounds are largely tied to his S3. This makes his S3 far and away his best skill. Don’t fall into the AFK-trap of his S2!
As an additional aside but along the same line of thinking, do NOT consider Gladiia (or any other Abyssal Hunter) in your Mastery priority decisions. Of course, Gladiia does work extremely well with Ulipanus but he does not require her to be the power house that he is. He is a meta caliber unit all on his own merits.
OK, those notes out of the way we can get into his skills. As said, start with his S3 for Mastery. The gains are pretty significant. His SP requirement becomes a very helidroppable 5 seconds at M3, but more importantly, it gets pretty significant damage gains. This directly helps his sustain which tends to be the Crushers fatal flaw. The more he can nuke on initial impact, the longer he lasts overall!
His S2 is a skill that must be considered very carefully. There is a breed of player who highly values AFK skills (and to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with that) and Ulpianus’ S2 is a powerful AFK skill. However, if you only use his S2 while ignoring his S3, you will find Ulpianus to be underwhelming. It more easily falls into the typical Crusher problems. Even with his beefed up stats he will take a lot of damage very fast and be a drain on your Medics. That isn’t to say it shouldn’t be Mastered at all, and Ulpianus is a strong M6 choice, but please, I’m begging you, start with his S3 instead. This guide strongly favors burst skills for a reason, and Ulpianus is a case where the difference in outcomes is fairly extreme.
Finally, his S1 is worth a note, but not worth Mastery. A Shift skill on a Guard is very novel, and some niches are sure to find occasional use out of it. However, even if you regularly play one of those niches, the Mastery upgrades don’t matter in the way they do for more classical Shifters. There is no Force upgrade at M3 and since it is not charge based, the SP cost reduction is unlikely to matter. His S1 is ultimately just a novelty that extremely few people should spend the resources on.
Zuo Le#
Since near launch, Soloblades have had it rough. While not necessarily an awful archetype, their kits haven’t exactly blended well. Their dueling capacity increases at lower HP, but that in turn raises their HP back up, meaning they very rarely operate at their peak performance. Along with no control, 1-block, and being unhealable, it leaves a fairly narrow range of targets that Soloblade’s are effective against. Zuo Le solves almost all of that and brings new life to an otherwise dead end archetype!
His main skill is his S3 which is the skill that addresses almost all of those flaws. Primarily, it converts the Trait healing into Barrier, which gives him sustain while allowing him to maintain that low-HP peak performance. In Zuo Le’s case, that’s especially powerful thanks to his Talents, and the whole setup feeds into itself, allowing extremely fast and spammable cycles on his powerful burst and control.
This guide rarely notes M2 breakpoints. The cost goes up quite a bit compared to M1 and there are rarely particularly large gains at M2 (they’re usually reserved for M3). However, Zuo Le has a very unusual gain to his Stun at M2 and marks him the first M2 breakpoint in the guide since Mulberry!
A secondary skill is unnecessary with Zuo Le. His value is almost entirely in his S3, and pursuing his SBL-X Module level 3 is by far the better return on investment since the Module effects and upgrades all feed into that powerful S3 spam cycle. However, if you particularly like him or find his S3 troublesome to use, look to his S2 for a secondary. It’s less impactful than his S3 but the HP-to-Barrier conversion on a fast cycle can easily maintain his Soloblade buffs, which may be useful at times for maximalists.
Degenbrecher#
When it comes to meta units, there tends to be two kinds. There’s the complex ones that have multiple skills and lots of nuance. Then there’s the dead simple ones. Press the button and win the game. Degenbrecher is the latter. Every 30 seconds you activate her S3 and nearly everything in range will die. Her S3 is one of the best burst skills in the game and that’s really all there is to it. It should be one of your highest priorities when it comes to Masteries which represent a significant increase to damage on an already top-tier skill.
Along that line of thinking, there’s really no need to pursue a secondary skill on Degenbrecher. If you particularly like her, then both of her other skills are reasonable and she could justify the M9 consideration. However, her S3 is just so powerful that it’s rare that it isn’t the best choice. In terms of return on investment, you should look to her Module over any secondary Mastery! If you do favor Degenbrecher enough for the extra investment, though, the choice between S1 and S2 is mostly preference. S1 has better DPS and is good for AFK-clears, while S2 has a reliable Frighten trigger which may have some ancillary value.
It isn’t noted in the grades since her S3 is just so dominant to her kit, however do note that if her off skills interest you, S1 has a valuable M1 breakpoint.
Note that most Swordmasters have Offensive Recovery skills which tend to add some priority to their Masteries. That’s true of Degenbrecher’s S1 and S2, but her S3 is Auto Recovery instead. However, she is so powerful that the nuance has no effect on the Mastery considerations for Degenbrecher or her priority.
Finally, it’s worth noting Degenbrecher isn’t quite as valuable in high difficulty IS as her grades might imply. The nature of her S3 means it doesn’t benefit from ASPD buffs at all and her DPH is a touch low compared to higher picked Guards, which matters with the bloated stats of high difficulty. She’s still a monster at the lower or mid difficulties many players prefer, but if your goal is the hardest content, she drops off pretty harsh in viability.
Viviana#
* Note that Viviana’s S3 is graded assuming she has her AFT-Δ Module at level 3. If you do not plan to get this Module fully upgraded, treat the priority of this skill significantly lower.
The beautiful moose, who was much maligned on her release, picked up a powerful Delta Module that gives her some new life. While DPS was never really her core problem, her new Module adds even more of it, but more importantly, the Burn now helps her work around enemy RES to a degree. Given her kit is centered around dueling Elites and Bosses, who almost universally have at least some measure of RES, this ends up being a sizable upgrade to her viability, and she happens to do enough Burn to be able to proc it reliably too!
However, it also doesn’t address a lot of the flaws in her kit either. Her uptime isn’t great, she has a wind-up, she’s reliant on RNG to not fold, and she has no in-built sustain, among other issues. Her Delta Module is certainly a big improvement to her viability, but it’s important not to overreact as well.
If you choose to raise her, both AFT-Δ level 3 and S3M3 are very important investments. Viviana has notably valuable Masteries. She gains an above average amount of ATK, but also has notable improvements to her initial wind-up and downtime, both of which help with one of her biggest flaws.
There’s no need for a secondary Mastery with Viviana. Her S3 just does too much more damage than her other skills, which is the only particularly valuable part of her kit. If you want to do one anyway though, her S2 is the skill to go with. The better uptime and extra block can be valuable if you’re really intent on using Viviana over better options, but the DPS on it is so much lower that it’s not worth general consideration. S1 meanwhile is an awkward skill with a Charged effect while also being auto-activation, which means it’s rarely usable since it will only ever trigger the extra effect at the start of a wave.
Lessing#
Lessing is only the second 6★ in this guide to have no graded Masteries. That should give you a good idea of what Lessing’s value is already, but if it wasn’t clear, it is best to avoid spending your resources on him. He is a weak unit with poor DPS, awkward bulk, and a limited niche. In total, he doesn’t do anywhere near enough to justify the resource cost except in some more extreme niches.
If you want to raise him anyway, either out of desire or due to a niche, both S2 and S3 are potential options, but you will probably want to favor S2. The DPS on it isn’t terribly high, and the effective cycle due to needing to redeploy him is quite long, but it’s generally sufficiently strong to do his basic job of helidropping on something’s head, especially with his DRE-Y Module.
His S3 meanwhile plays into his supposed niche of bypassing Status Effects. On rare occasions that can be meaningful, but time has shown it isn’t generally useful. The game design usually means there will always be an option to play around the effect, so brute forcing it with a weak and expensive unit is generally not a great strategy. It also has a pretty poor cycle time which can limit cases where it’s useful. If the thing inflicting the status can’t be dealt with in the short 20 second uptime, it’s basically not worth attempting in the first place. Still, it’s something if you’re really dedicated to using it.
Last, his S1 is a generic Power Strike skill which on a modern 6★ is just… well, the word that comes to mind is better left unsaid. Welfare niche actually uses it on super rare occasion, but it’s distantly behind his other two skills. Avoid it for any reason except to show off a screenshot of your wasted resources.
Hoederer#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced | IS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | A | A- | B- |
 | S1M3 | B | B- | S |
 | S2M3 | Breakpoint - S2M1 | ||
| C | C | B | ||
Hoederer is not an easy unit when it comes to Mastery investment. While most 6★s have a standout skill, Hoederer’s main skill doesn’t stand out to near the same degree. All of his skills have potential value depending on the situation! If you want to maximize your Hoederer usage, then you will likely want the full M9. However, that is extremely expensive so most people won’t want to go that far. So be aware that selecting the skills to pursue is tricky! Use your best judgment here for what you want out of him.
That said, his S3 is still generally the skill to start with. It’s a weird skill. Its uptime compared to downtime is very unusual, mixed with health drain on an already fragile body and some RNG. However, while up, it has a ton of damage, sustain, and control. The bigger flaw is actually the 50 second downtime, during which he has no form of sustain. But supposing you can survive that, his S3 has the most impact in total which tends to make it his primary skill.
As for secondary skills, the split in usage between his S1 and S2 is fairly even, however I would suggest his S1 for Mastery over S2. His S2 is more commonly used and still has worthwhile Masteries. The additional ATK on an always up passive is valuable. However, it is mainly used for its reliable stun which isn’t affected by Mastery. If you’re trying to stunlock a long wind-up enemy, S2 will usually be just as effective at S2SL7 as it is at S2M3.
Meanwhile, his S1 is a great sustain skill for when S3’s downtime is unmanageable. While the long attack interval of a Crusher can be a problem, it still triggers a huge gain in HP every third attack which makes up for a lot of the Crusher’s flaws. As long as he can attack, he can sustain through some pretty harsh lanes. Mastery is a big factor for that since the SP cost drops from 3 to 2 at S1M3. That’s huge on an Attack Recovery skill on a 2.5 second interval! Compared to the Mastery gains on his S2, the Mastery gains on his S1 matter much more if you can’t afford the full M9.
Hoederer justifies some special attention when it comes to IS. He is unusually valuable there compared to his baseline valuation thanks to how he scales with a large number of relics (ASPD, SP gain, healing eff, Stun duration, +HP, and more). As in the general game, his wide variety of utility means that skill selection is situational, which means a full M9 is justifiable for heavy IS players. However, it does lean a strong favor to his S1 which tends to benefit most from relic interactions. S2 would be next due to the Stun-lock potential, but there’s some nuance here. The only important part of Mastery here is the wind-up time which matters in Necrosis fields. For lower difficulties, S2M1 is sufficient for this task (thus the breakpoint), but if you plan to push into highest difficulties it will require higher investment levels.
Executor the Ex Foedere#
Executor the Ex Foedere can be tricky to evaluate. He has a ton of potential between his super strong self sustain and incredible theoretical DPS which is True-AOE, high-hit Physical, and from a Melee tile - all very valuable attributes. But those benefits come with hefty drawbacks which complicate the overall picture. He has a high Attack Recovery cost, inconsistent RNG, and can’t be healed. Those are all potentially big problems!
However, while that overall assessment is muddy, his Masteries are actually very straightforward. His S3 is his standout skill because it has by far the best damage potential and sustain, and its Masteries are extremely important to effectively using him. Accordingly, his S3 Masteries are a high priority, although a touch lower than the very top of the meta still. In addition to above average DPS increases, the biggest drawback of his S3 is the absurdly high Attack Recovery cost. At S3M3 it’s still a painful 24 SP¹, but that’s a vast improvement over the 30 SP (note 1) at SL7. Executor2 is a unit who oftentimes can “feel bad” to use, but he will feel much worse at SL7 than at S3M3.
Also note that S3 has a breakpoint at M1. The sustain during the skill increases by a full 33%. While relatively minor among the world of breakpoints, it’s still worth grabbing ASAP.
Pass on his S1 and S2 Masteries. Both will likely have some fringe usage for heavy Executor2 users, but S3 just does too much. The opportunity cost of not using S3 limits any potential value that an expensive 6★ Mastery might have.
Be aware that Executor2’s fully-upgraded REA-X Module is nearly as valuable as his Masteries. His REA-X Module and upgrades actually edge out Masteries in terms of DPS gain, but the reduced SP cost still makes Masteries a higher priority. Regardless, plan to do both to get full use out of Executor2.
¹ Note that Executor2 gains an extra SP when his double attack Talent triggers. In the above discussion, I used the displayed base values to avoid confusion, but in practice, the values will be lower. Without REA-X Module, S3 has an “effective average” SP of 25 at SL7 and 20 SP at S3M3. With REA-X Module level 3 and S3M3, the effective average is 18 SP. So Masteries reduce S3’s cost by 5 SP while Module reduces it by an additional 2 SP.
Qiubai#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced | IS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | Breakpoint - S3M1 | ||
| S- | A | -- | ||
 | S1M3 | None | C+ | |
Qiubai has some unique pressures when it comes to Mastery consideration. With her S3, she can reach some pretty strong DPS on multiple targets with range. Her Masteries are essential to that purpose, representing a staggering 33% increase in DPS and a 58% increase in total damage. With her strong archetype, Qiubai can be an end-game caliber DPS unit. Yet a brutally long cycle, an RNG Talent, and a reliance on external help to maximize her potential can really bring her value down on some rosters.
To the first point, she has a uniquely powerful breakpoint on her primary skill that actually adds a facet to the skill which is not otherwise present. But do not take the presence of a breakpoint to indicate that you should stop at only S3M1! Qiubai’s S3 Masteries all the way up to S3M3 are some of the most valuable in the game.
However, to the second point and despite those massive gains, Qiubai’s priority still suffers due to some major drawbacks on her kit. The 55 SP downtime is the most obvious, but less obvious is that her S3 has no internal mechanism for Bind or Slow to trigger the extra damage on her first Talent. This leaves her reliant on her second Talent, which has fairly low RNG odds and will only trigger for about a third of her total attacks during an S3M3 activation. With the aid of an external source of control such as Ethan or Suzuran, Qiubai can hit a peak DPS around 33% higher than without. Now, this can scare some people off, so to be clear, her DPS is still very good even without help. Don’t be the person who doesn’t use a great 6★ because they think she absolutely needs Suzuran! But it does mean lower value/priority if you don’t have good support staff for her.
If you are only interested in Qiubai for normal daily use, then S3 is her only necessary Mastery. However, she has some special value in certain IS scenarios that make S1 a viable secondary consideration as well. If ASPD or SP-gain can be stacked (such as in IS), then she can permanently Bind single-targets. This can be extremely valuable in some cases, such as in ED4 of IS5. However, don’t rush it either. On top of being a very expensive Mastery, its use falters quite a bit in general use. The uptime is poor if the required buffs can’t be stacked, and her wide default attack range can make focusing it on the desired target a bit troublesome. Still, it is an occasionally valuable Mastery for endgame IS play which has more value than many secondary Masteries.
Previous iterations of this guide also suggested S2. It is a decently strong skill if you’d like a general use skill on a lower cool-down than her S3. It deals solid damage while actually ensuring her Talent trigger without external help, and is generally more impactful for routine use than her S1. However, on the other hand, it is nowhere near as strong as S3 and lacks the niche value of S1, so Mastery is best left for waifu-only consideration.
Chongyue#
Chongyue is a good consistent DPS unit, but one that ultimately plays more similar to a laneholder rather than one of the high ceiling DPS units. This means he’s a very solid investment choice, particularly in story-oriented content, but is a few steps off of the high-bar Physical Guards need to reach.
His primary skill is his S3. When fully ramped up, he’s tough to beat in sustained DPS and his unique and large range will make you look at stages in a whole new way. It has extremely strong Mastery gains that are basically essential to using him. In this guide, S-tier skills rarely get “extra credit” for value, but Chongyue’s S3 is one of the exceptions. The upgrades from SL7 to M3 grant a triple threat of oversized value. First, his damage per activation bumps an above average ~25%. Second, his all critical ramp-up reduces by ~20%. Third, once he is fully ramped up, he activates those already harder punches ~20% more frequently!
Keep in mind that his drawbacks (wind-up, scaling vs DEF, lack of sustain) tend to be exacerbated in high-end gameplay. Chongyue will blow away most Story content, but Advanced and Roguelike players will still find him to be a relative luxury, despite the large gains.
In most cases, S3M3 is the only required Mastery for Chongyue, and his FGT-X Module is the best secondary investment. It’s a case where S3 is simply a lot stronger than any niche value his other skills bring. However, both of his other skills are decent if you really want to put in the extra effort to use him. S1 tends to be a little better in the IS mode since it scales well with various relics, but struggles a bit in regular content. Meanwhile, S2 tends to come out ahead in regular content as a secondary skill, although there it doesn’t have as much value in competition with his S3, so extra investment isn’t really recommended.
Młynar#
I like Mlynar because he’s an incredibly easy unit to write about! He is one of the strongest DPS units in the game (still) and he only has one good skill. That makes for a super simple evaluation. He’s cheap to deploy, his DPS is incredible, and his global Taunt is (often, not always) amazing utility. His S3 is one of the highest priority Masteries in the game and should be one of the first you do, if not the first. Simple as that.
His other skills are not really worth consideration, even for heavy-duty simps or maximalists. No doubt it’s possible to make them work if you really want, his S2 in particular since it doesn’t reset his Trait and has a fast cycle, but he’s a rare case where his primary skill is just so absurdly better that there’s no reason to consider anything else.
Gavial the Invincible#
Although Gavial’s alter form is broadly considered a laneholder still, she ultimately plays very differently. This gives her a leg up in a meta where laneholders are little more than easy QoL types, however even that isn’t enough to keep her at the top as the power ceiling continues to expand, and these days she’s primarily a middle-tier utility pick.
Much of that utility is tied to her S2, which is her primary skill and Mastery. It gives her good damage, range, and bulk on a very powerful cycle, but the pull is the real selling point of the skill. Although situational, it can be a great tool for stalling. Mastery doesn’t affect that pull strength, but adds enough to the rest that it is well worth pursuing, albeit at a lower priority than many more modern Guards.
If you want more use out of Gavial2, her S3 should be your next target. It has really high DPS, and the additional block count also means she can attack more targets. It will usually outperform S2 when it comes to damage, which meant that in older versions of this guide it was rather well graded. However, the HP mitigation is a lot less useful than the pull, and given how her meta role has declined significantly, it’s really only a luxury skill now.
Finally, her S1 may be worth a look if you’re Tomimi and Gavial truly is waifu. While it comes significantly behind her other two skills in damage, it’s her only skill with sustain. Most players won’t find that valuable, but it can occasionally come out ahead if you’re intent on using her.
Irene#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | Breakpoint - S3M1 | |
| A | A | ||
 | S2M3 | C * | B+ * |
 | S1M1 | Breakpoint - S1M1 | |
| None | |||
* Note that Irene’s S2 is graded assuming she has her SWO-X Module at level 3. If you do not plan to get this Module fully upgraded, treat the priority of this skill significantly lower.
Irene is a strong burst Operator, but one who has been left behind in the meta. While her burst is good, she is stuck with an excruciating 24 Attack Recovery on her primary skill, combined with poor uptime on her control. It’s enough to make Irene fans truly loathe Degenbrecher…
Regardless, Irene is still a solid unit overall and has some strong, and basically mandatory, Masteries. Her S3 is her main skill. Make special note of the breakpoint at M1 which should be done immediately. It adds 20% more hits alone, which is a massive improvement for the cost. The full M3 is still mandatory to use her though, as it drops a significant portion off of her brutal SP cost.
While S3 is her bread and butter, her SWO-X Module adds some other potential to her kit via S2. The 6 SP restored by her Module is a significant proportion of her S2’s required cost (6 vs 8, with charges), which lets her effectively spam her S2. It does rely on being able to kill lower-weight enemies, so her S3 still remains her primary skill, but it does add some powerful alternative use to an off-meta unit. Mastery is very important for this to work too. The SP cost reduces at M2, but the full M3 is needed since the spam relies on being able to reliably kill the enemies during the skill effect.
Finally, her S1 may be worth a look if you like Dorothy, but ONLY the breakpoint. While a fairly obscure combo these days, the Levitate on Irene’s S1 can be combo’d with Dorothy’s S2 by placing the mine under the Levitated enemy. In this case, only S1’s breakpoint is necessary. In fact, the combo loses efficacy at S1M3 since the lower SP cost falls out of sync with Dorothy’s Bind time, so stick with just S1M1.
Nearl the Radiant Knight#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S2M3 | Breakpoint - S2M1 | |
| A | S | ||
 | S3M3 | A+ | A |
 | S1M3 | B | C |
Nearl’s alter is a special value among the older units. Almost all of the older 6★s have been powercrept in various ways over the years. That applies to most of Nearl2’s kit too, but not all. From her release to at least this writing, she is the only 6★ that can completely bypass the Deployment Limit and that also seems to be something HG has little desire in doing again. Of course though, that bypass isn’t universally good either. Most stages simply do not require it. This all means that while Nearl2 isn’t as broadly powerful as she once was, she is still a unique value worth investing in, albeit not at the top end of priority either.
If it was not obvious already, that value is tied to her S2 which has the Deployment Limit bypass on it. If you are only interested in Nearl2 for her meta value, that should be your primary, and possibly only, focus. Mastery on it is fairly valuable too, and make special note of the breakpoint at S2M1 which grants her an additional shield layer.
Now, that isn’t her only value. As mentioned, that bypass is a situational thing. Historically, that was far from the only reason Nearl2 was good! She’s a solid take on a typically weaker archetype with a lot of flexibility, and if more regular use out of her appeals to you, both S3 and S1 are considerations for Mastery.
Her S3 tends to be her best “everyday” skill. In cases where her deploy ignore doesn’t matter (which is most of them), her S3 will usually perform better, doing good True damage on a decent cycle. And indeed in previous versions of this guide it was the first suggestion for that reason, and should continue to be if you want to use Nearl2 as a team regular. However, the modern game has exposed some flaws in it. Namely, True and Elemental damage is so common now, that the blocking requirement feels really cumbersome. It’s still a great skill that is generally worth investment, but it’s also one that’s now a few steps behind in the meta.
Finally, her S1 is also worth consideration. As far as infinite duration AFK skills go, it’s one of the stronger ones thanks to its range and high DPS. The Mastery gains on it are quite good too (as with all of her skills) so the full M9 can give a good unit some nice flexibility. However, it ultimately still ends up a luxury skill given where the current power ceiling of the game is.
Pallas#
Pallas is one of the lowest graded 6★s in this guide, but unlike her fellow basement dwellers she isn’t exactly bad. She can sit there and do… passable DPS at range with a smattering of utility, which is more than many of her compatriots can say. However, Pallas lacks any particular identity or role. She’s a poor implementation of the supposed Instructor niche of buffing, and any value beyond that is almost always better found elsewhere, and often cheaper too.
Her skill selection, or lack thereof, is a good illustration of that. All three of them are plausible choices, but they’re all flawed too and none really come out on top. This guide has long struggled with Pallas for this reason! There isn’t a great answer here besides not raising her in the first place, since most people won’t want to do an extremely expensive M9 on a relatively poor unit!
All that said, S1 is probably the skill to start with, despite being relatively basic. Her range and short interval make it a consistent source of decent damage. It’s had some time in the sun, on occasion, in IS where relic synergy buoyed it a bit, but those days are also long passed with many stronger options now. However, it is still reasonably useful if you’re particularly dedicated to using her.
Both her S2 and S3 are considerations after, without a particular winner. Both have some situational value, but neither are all that special either. Her S2 extends her range while the micro-stuns give her some measure of control, but the DPS is unimpressive and the Stun subject to a couple layers of RNG. Aside from the built-in chance, the inconsistent nature along with her interval means the micro-Stun is far less effective than it is with someone like Kroos2. Her S3 meanwhile is her buffing skill, but suffers due to a poor effect locked behind a high Vigor threshold and a very long downtime. In either case, they’re fringe skills that should only be Mastered for waifu, niche, or completion purposes.
Mountain#
While this guide does not recommend any laneholder as a high priority investment, among them, Mountain is my favorite gameplay-wise (not a furry btw). There’s a lot of laneholders to choose from, and Mountain differentiates himself due to how cheap and fast he is, as well as how well he can sustain himself. In a role that almost always lacks ceiling, Mountain’s special value relative to his competition is more likely to be useful. That isn’t to say Mountain is always better. Far from it, and his meta evaluation isn’t really that different, but he does make for a competitive investment.
His main skill, his laneholding one, is his S2. Surprisingly, the main benefit isn’t to his damage, although that is there and important, but is rather his improved regen. It’s already quite strong at SL7, but is really rather absurd at M3, and the difference is very noticeable in practice, with a whopping 40% improvement. And that’s on top of the ATK and wind-up improvements too!
There’s no real need for a secondary Mastery with Mountain these days, although the option is there if you like him. When he first came out, his S3 made a reasonable flex DPS skill since there just weren’t that many options available. However, it was never all that special as far as burst skills go, and there are now plentiful alternatives too. But do note that it has a breakpoint at S3M1 that gives him an additional target. For the cost, that’s worth grabbing even if you think you’ll only rarely use it.
Last, pass entirely on his S1. Given the ultra short-windup of his S2, it will basically never be worthwhile.
Surtr#
Surtr is an interesting unit in the history of Arknights powercreep because she was the first unit that really made people go ‘WTF’. Few Operators can claim a catchphrase as common and simple as ‘Just Surtr it’, something that is still kinda true even five years (as of this writing) after her release. Of course, with so many giga-powerful units in the meta these days, she’s no longer as special as she used to be, but her mix of invulnerability, RES-shred, super short wind-up, and strong Arts damage all makes for one of the few kernel 6★s still relevant in the modern game.
Surtr is simple when it comes to Masteries. Her S3 is why she’s special, so the only skill really worth considering, and the Mastery gains on it are strong enough to still treat with a high priority. Notably, she gains an additional target at M3, which is the huge sort of gain we just don’t see anymore. The reduced SP cost is likewise important and her damage gain is massive, all making for one of the more valuable Masteries in the game, although her reduced place in the top of the meta does knock it off of its old S++ crown.
Further Mastery with Surtr is unnecessary. Her S3 is just so overwhelmingly better that it pushes out anything else. However, if you really like using Surtr above her normal value, you could consider her S2 as well. It’s not a bad skill at all and still does incredible damage on a fast cycle. That can be valuable to regularly using her since it doesn’t have a forced retreat, but is completely unnecessary for her typical use.
Thorns#
Few sounds in the game are as iconic (or as grating, depending who you ask) as Thorn’s S3. He’s a strange unit to evaluate because his kit can make some basic content extremely easy thanks to a lot of role compression into the laneholder role. At times in the history of the game, he has been one of the most broken units available! But if you ask basically any older or advanced player, he’s also the most overrated, well past his prime, and a crutch for poor gameplay.
The thing with Thorns is his one good skill, S3, does a whole lot in one. It covers a big range and is one of the very few laneholders who can hit air. However, he also has a very long Attack Recovery wind-up, low DPH, and a conditional sustain, all meaning he badly struggles against real threats or harder stages. His other two skills being duds also means he lacks any lateral use. It all makes for a very contentious unit that many players love, but many also loathe.
Regardless of your opinion on him, the only skill worth considering for Mastery on Thorns is his S3. It gains a really good amount of DPS over Mastery which makes it worth doing if you plan to use Thorns at all, but crucially do note that Mastery does not improve his all too long wind-up.
This guide does not overtly discourage using Thorns at all, but it does suggest some caution. If you only ever care about clearing basic content then Thorns is a fine unit and he will help you out in a lot of basic stages. However, if any sort of difficult content or gameplay appeals to you, he’s a unit you will probably be leaving behind at the back end of your roster pretty quickly.
Blaze#
The original version of Blaze is an interesting unit in the history of the game. She marks the turning point in post-launch Operators where they actually started to be good and was the first “must-pull” type of unit. She was also our first true 6★ laneholder, on top of being pretty popular! Of course, these days, she’s pretty far from that must-pull quality, and laneholders are generally not the meta strategy. She’s not even particularly special among the many laneholders we have in the current game! Nevertheless, she is still a solid and easy to use 6★, although do keep in mind she lacks upside, so be cautious if your roster is already well rounded.
Blaze’s famous skill, and the only one really worth considering, is her S2, an extended range trash unit shredder. The gains across Mastery aren’t too amazing (but they aren’t bad either), but on infinite duration skills like these, it all adds up over the course of a map. It’s notable that the gains across Mastery are linear, while the costs increase, meaning the lower tiers of Mastery are more efficient. This doesn’t mean you should stop short of full Mastery, but it does mean that you shouldn’t stress out if you can’t afford the full M3 yet.
Although this is a Mastery guide, her second best investment is her CEN-X Module which adds a ton of damage. However, if you want a secondary Mastery, her S3 is the one to go with. It’s a bit awkward to use with a bad cycle time, and her S2 will often significantly outdo it despite S3 being a burst skill, but it has occasionally cropped up in niche clears over the years due to its shorter windup and big up-front burst.
Pass on her S1 which is a generic skill with basically no value. It’s a good thing these types of skills are a thing of the past on modern units!
Hellagur#
Poor Hellagur. He’s such a cool character, but these days he’s in the running for one of the worst 6★s. Unlike some of his fellow older Guards who have found some niche use thanks to decent Modules, Hellagur has gotten no such love and he fits into very few niches. In the modern game, he has no utility, poor damage, bad cycle times, and an awkward kit that doesn’t take advantage of his archetype like Zuo Le’s does. The result is one of the lowest priority 6★s in this guide, and a unit that should generally not be invested in for any reason except personal desire.
If that applies to you, all three of Hellagur’s skills are potential Mastery options, but most will probably only want to do the full investment into his S2, owing mostly to flaws in his other two skills. S2 has his highest DPS with a usable cycle, and enough dodge that he can be a reasonable duelist. It’s not a great use case these days, but it is usable.
S3 meanwhile, is mostly better for swarms of enemies, but also has some situational value due to its extended range and slightly higher DPH. However, it has a pretty atrocious cycle, which makes it a lot more situational than it should be, if not outright unusable at times. So Mastery is a luxury on it for those who really want to use Hellagur, but do note it has a breakpoint at S3M1 that extends the range. That is definitely worth grabbing even for very rare use.
Finally, pass on his S1 unless you are a true simp. It does have good consistent DPS, which is notable due to Hellagur’s poor cycle times, but generally lacks the upside of his S2 or S3.
Ch’en#
Ch’en is just one of many older Guards who has found some niche use, but is otherwise left distantly behind in the current meta. She’s a unit who isn’t exactly bad, but should only be raised for waifu or niche purposes. These days, most of her value is in being an SP battery via her Talent 1 and SWO-X Module. Unfortunately, her own damage just isn’t up to modern standards, and her value as an SP battery shrinks as the power ceiling in the game continues to rise. It tends to favor gimmick clears these days rather than meta ones.
If that sort of niche appeals to you, or you just really like Ch’en, you will probably want to M6 her as both of her major skills, S2 and S3, have differing and valid uses. Further, she has very strong Masteries that should be considered near essential to actually using her.
Generally, her S3 is the more impactful one. It does quite a bit more damage, and the SP cost difference to her S2 matters quite a bit less than it used to thanks to her SWO-X Module. While the 30 SP Attack Recovery can be daunting, it’s actually rather reasonable now, albeit still behind more meta choices. Those mentioned Mastery gains are particularly notable here, with large gains to damage, SP cost, a massive improvement to initial wind-up, and even a Stun extension for good measure.
The gap from S3 to her S2 used to be fairly large due to the Attack Recovery SP cost, but these days it’s quite small thanks again to her SWO-X improvement. However, it’s still valuable in various cases. It’s still more spammable and hits more targets, both of which situationally matter. Most important though, especially with an eye towards Masteries, it’s instantly available at M3, which can be very valuable at times.
Finally, pass on her S1, although it deserves a very minor mention. In rare cases it could be used to Stun-lock, however that was always incredibly fringe, and the role has since been mostly powercrept by Qiubai’s S1. It’s never been a recommendation, but now especially it should only be done for completionism.
Skadi#
* Note that Skadi’s skills are graded assuming she has either Module (favor DRE-X) at level 3. If you do not plan to get either Module fully upgraded, treat the priority of these skills significantly lower.
Skadi is just one of many older Guards who has found some niche use, but is otherwise left distantly behind in the current meta. She’s a unit who isn’t exactly bad, but should only be raised for waifu or niche purposes. In Skadi’s case, her niche use is in Abyssal Hunter teams, but even then she’s mainly just a body in a niche that has few options, and she mostly just rides Gladiia’s and Ulpianus’s buffs to be even passable. Even then, she’s among the last hunters to raise, and requires an expensive Module (favor DRE-X even in AH teams), resulting in a very low overall priority.
If any of the above applies to you, Skadi is a viable M6 candidate, but with a relatively clear favor to her S2. Along with her DRE-X Module, which reduces her redeployment, she can be a reasonably effective Medium-Redeploy helidrop, especially with the various AH buffs. Although Module selection is generally out of scope for this guide, it’s worth noting that this combination of S2 and DRE-X is usually her best use case, which tends to confuse people since DRE-Y has her AH buffs. However, the value she brings as an independently viable unit far outweighs the relatively minor buff improvement.
However, AH teams don’t tend to have a lot of depth, so both DRE-Y and S3 still have use at times. Getting back to her skills, S3 suffers from one of the worst downtimes in the game, an early balancing mistake that is mercifully a thing of the past. However, it has a long uptime and a big increase to her bulk that S2 lacks, giving it some occasional situational use. Her DRE-X Module can even mitigate the downtime problems, giving it some additional viability. S2 gets much more use overall, but with how few options AHs have, it’s still worth considering to maximize your Hunters.
SilverAsh#
At this point in the life of the game, basically all launch 6★s have been severely powercrept. However, among them SilverAsh has maintained the most general value. He’s one of the OG burst DPS units, but thanks to a great Module, both his burst and his utility remain relevant enough for high priority consideration.
His Masteries are quite straightforward, at least by modern standards. He has a single incredible burst skill with massive Mastery gains, while his other two skills are only niche considerations at best. That burst skill is, of course, his rather famous S3. Those massive Mastery gains are two fold. Most obviously, he gains a well above average amount of ATK, which is all important for a burst DPS unit.
More subtly, he gains a significant amount of initial wind-up which ends up being vitally important for SilverAsh. While his burst damage is still good, his skill cycle is not. Even at launch, the 90 SP cost was insane! It is significantly faster to retreat and redeploy him, especially with his LOR-X Module, which makes that initial wind-up improvement all the more important.
While this is a Mastery guide, as noted just now, SilverAsh is one of the units that warrants a note on his Module, LOR-X. SilverAsh doesn’t need his Module to be functional, as with some other older units, but it does represent a larger gain than his Masteries do, so his fully upgraded LOR-X should also be highly prioritized. In addition to the damage it provides, the reduced redeployment helps with his effective cycle. This means SilverAsh is a pretty expensive investment nowadays, but he’s also one that will work sufficiently part way along the path to full investment.
For most players, that’s all there is to SilverAsh. However, some players may find some situational value in his other skill. He is known for his DPS, but with his S2 he’s a surprisingly good off-tank with insane always on regen. It’s rarely worth giving up his crazy burst for, but it’s something that can warrant consideration for husbando players or IS players, where flexibility is important.
Finally, his S1 is not generally worth considering, but may have some value if you really like using Gnosis’ ISW Module. Power Strike skills like this are generally easily skipped fodder, but the relatively fast cycling and his large Lord range can reliably trigger Gnosis’ IS Module Cold effect for some pretty powerful AoE control. That’s probably not worth the Hope in most meta strategies since most bosses are Freeze immune and it requires two 6★s, but can still be a viable near-meta strategy. If you can afford it. In this case, Mastery is required for permanent stall since he can activate it once every 3.9 seconds at S1M3, but is stuck at 5.2 at SL7 while Gnosis’ IS Module only provides 4 seconds of Cold. It additionally has some rare value in certain non-Gnosis advanced IS strategies, but those are well beyond the scope of a guide like this, and if you’re the sort to effectively use them, you’re beyond the help this guide can give you already! For most players, his S1 Masteries should be avoided.
5★ Guards#
Hadiya#
Hadiya is our first Mercenary, an archetype which can spend DP to enhance skill effects. When the option is available, a new indicator appears above her head, and a new button is available next to the skill icon. DP is also required to activate her S2, but not her S1, which is in addition to the optional enhancement effect. It’s a cool concept since DP is an underutilized resource, but in Hadya’s case, she doesn’t actually do much with it. She’s instead yet another Guard with some basic DPS and minimal utility, of which there are now dozens, but she’s additionally tied down by the DP reliance and a super high red cert cost, ultimately resulting in yet another 5★ lost in the middle-tier shuffle that most people shouldn’t bother with, although she is decent enough if she appeals to you.
If that’s you (which is based, her E2 art is amazing), both skills are viable depending on how much you want to use her, but S2 should be the starting point. Rather simply, it has much better DPS (+150% ATK vs +100% ATK) and more targets (3 vs 1). S2 also expands her range, which makes her on-demand Stun quite a bit more useful, so with only a few situational exceptions, it will perform better. Mastery reduces the rather long 20 SP initial wind-up at SL7 to a more manageable 11 SP, so it’s decently valuable if you intend to use her. S1 will of course look appealing if you need DEF, but for an other-wise ST Guard, that isn’t an especially common scenario. However, S2 does require DP just to activate in addition to the equipment cost, which makes it quite costly to use, and outright impossible on some stages. In those cases, you’re likely better off using someone else, but it does mean S1 is a plausible secondary choice if you really want to maximize her use.
Gracebearer#
Our first Primal Guard, Gracebearer, is mercifully spared from the same fate as the Primal Casters. This is because she doesn’t need the whole Primal bit at all to be good!
Her main skill is S2 which is very similar to Mudrock’s S2. However, unlike Mudrock, Gracebearer gets Auto Recovery, charges, and even hits harder than Mudrock does. On a Manual Activation skill like this, that’s an extremely useful combination and it doesn’t need an NI applier to be effective either! Of course, Gracebearer is only a 5★ and is missing a lot that makes Mudrock so good. Our newest snakebird is still an off-meta priority. However, it’s a decent enough use to justify some consideration, particularly in niches or if you just happen to like her (and who wouldn’t).
Most players should probably pass on her S1. It’s her skill that applies Nervous Impairment, which seems like it should be good. And to be sure, it’s significantly better than the Primal Caster’s similar S1s. The fact NI has control effects means it doesn’t suffer the same problems as trying to apply Burn or Necrosis through Arts. However, even at S1M3 her DPH is not particularly high, meaning she’ll mostly struggle to apply NI to enemies you’d actually want it applied to, especially bosses. Further, the NI Ritualist, Tragodia, is one of the most broken units in the game and he can easily apply it anywhere on the map so the competition is stiff. Plus her S2 is just better. It’s easy to underrate how good it is compared to NI, but in practice her S2 will almost always be the better pick. Still, S1 might be occasionally useful for the niche or waifu players, but it’s a very low priority option.
Odda#
Odda is a pretty nice welfare unit, although his Mastery priority is pretty low. A lot of his value is in how effective he is at only E1 as an early stand-in, so the extra investment is largely something best left to niche players. There’s just too many higher ceiling units that fill a similar role out there.
It is still reasonable to invest further into Odda though, and if you do, both of his skills are options for Mastery. His S1 vs S2 is a typical consistent vs burst spread, but the gap between them is far lower than in comparable units. In fact, his S1 actually has a higher average DPS as well as a significantly higher DPH. Instead, the main value in his S2 is in defense and control which are both completely absent from his S1.
If you only do one Mastery, I would give a slight favor to his S1. The reduced SP cost at S1M3 make his Masteries a bit more essential to its effective use. Meanwhile, while his S2 gains significant stat boosts over Mastery, his cycle doesn’t improve much and his control doesn’t improve at all, so you can often get by with just SL7 if you aren’t doing a more min-maxed style clears. Further, keep in mind that his Levitate effect doesn’t work on his main target which can make the skill far less effective against tough enemies who are most likely to be the last ones standing.
Fuze#
Fuze is a unit with a heavy mix of pros and cons. He is in a natively strong archetype (Centurions) with a useful gimmick (can hit air) but his overall kit is just full of weird choices that result in him not measuring up that well relative to his competition. Most players will probably want to avoid investment into Fuze, but he is serviceable for niche players or those with any sort of affinity for him.
For daily and general use, stick with his S1 which is a more typical Centurion skill. The ATK improvement is quite low so he’ll struggle against any sort of DEF, however it still outputs a ton of DPS, at a relatively good range, that can hit air, with a huge ammo pool. As far as bulk trash clearing skills go, it’s a really nice option. However, the gains over Mastery are fairly unimpressive so Mastery is less vital than it is for other 5★ laneholders.
His S2 meanwhile is the more uhh… “unique” skill. It’s an incredibly odd one, flavorfully based on Fuze’s abilities in Rainbow 6 (but it doesn’t kill civilians, 0/10 flavor), but it translates awkwardly into Arknights. The tile restrictions greatly limit the places it can be used to any effect. However, when things line up it can make some satisfying booms and will certainly be the more highlight skill for niche players. Fuze’s S2 is the sort of skill where if you have to ask, you shouldn’t spend the resources on Mastery, but there are some players out there who will find it great fun.
Rathalos S Noir Corne#
Rathalos S Noir Corne is a tricky unit. There’s a lot going on with his kit that can sometimes make for cool highlights, and his DPS is reasonable enough to be usable, but he’s ultimately held back by a pretty bad archetype that he doesn’t particularly take advantage of. It makes for some relatively low Mastery grades, although both skills are worth some consideration.
Supposing you raise him at all, his S2 should be your starting point. The Mastery gains on it are decent, particularly the SP improvements on a long Charge-based skill like this, but the main reason to focus on it first is that it’s the better general use skill. It has pretty solid burst DPS and is far less situational than his S1. It’s not amazing by any means though, particularly given its high SP cost for a skill of this type.
His S1 may be something to consider as well, but as mentioned, is very situational to the point that it’s more or less just a gimmick, and thus a luxury reserved for NoirChad maximalists. It tends to be the “Youtube clip” sort of skill. When the enemies line up so that he can chain trigger it, the results are really cool to see, but those situations are very rare and there isn’t much value in the skill otherwise. Although it can sometimes be used as a quick cycling damage block as well if you’re one of those mentioned maximalists.
Highmore#
* Note Highmore’s IS grade is specific to IS#3 due to her iteration specific Talent. She does not have special value in the other iterations.
The comparison to La Pluma is a fairly natural one for Highmore. They have very similar kits and identical S1s after all. And indeed, Highmore has been valuable herself at times. However her role is quite different, and is also now quite dated. She is certainly not bad as a general laneholder, but since she lacks La Pluma’s offensive Talent, she isn’t nearly as good at it. At least in most of the game.
Instead, Highmore’s value came in IS#3 where her mode specific Talent meant she was a great starter option. When she first came out, Highmore’s S1 was well graded for that reason! But the game isn’t the same as it was back then, and there are multitudes of better choices now that are also better in other modes. This isn’t to say that Highmore is bad, but these days she is outclassed, and thus much lower in priority than she used to be.
If you want to raise Highmore anyway, her S1 is really the only choice. As with La Pluma, it hits hard and gives her valuable consistency for that laneholding role, plus has a very valuable Mastery gain at M3 thanks to the reduced SP cost. Meanwhile, her S2 is an unimpressive skill. Its defensive nature is less valuable to begin with, but it’s also situational. It’s rarely, if ever, useful over her S1, even for waifu players. Even in her heyday it wasn’t a competitive option, and it’s even less so now.
Tequila#
Tequila is one of the strongest 5★ DPS options, a matter that is both his blessing and his curse as far as Mastery priority goes. Liberators hit very hard, so Tequila’s high DPH can be a great boon if you enjoy playing any sort of niche that he happens to fit in. However, unlike his sister, that’s about all he does. For players with strong DPS options already, he isn’t as good. But even for players without strong DPS options yet, the 5★ costs are a bit high for a unit that will be eventually replaced.
This is all to say that Tequila still garners a good Mastery grade. He’s too good of a unit to grade otherwise, and niche players of any kind will find him to be an MVP. However, the value of his Masteries for the general player is questionable in the modern game.
As with his fellow Liberators, Tequila only has one skill worth considering, his S2, which is the focus of the above discussion. His S2 hits harder, hits more targets, and cycles better thanks to its Charged effect and ability to be manually deactivated. There’s really no reason to ever consider his S1, even for husbando-enjoyers.
La Pluma#
La Pluma hits a lot of the right notes to be a great option for a laneholder. She does strong damage, she sustains well, and she has flexibility with a solid DPS skill. Of course, she doesn’t have the ceiling that a 6★ does, and laneholders in general have had declining value, but considering her lower costs (and general popularity as a character), she ends up being one of the better 5★s in the game, albeit without much high-end meta value.
She is a very strong M6 candidate with two great skills that have different roles and huge Mastery gains on both. For that laneholder purpose, her S1 tends to be the favored skill. It has a relatively high DPH and the low SP cost makes it very consistent. M3 is vital for its viability since it drops that low SP cost to just 2 which makes a huge difference, particularly with the ASPD from her Talent.
Meanwhile, S2 is a burst skill, capable of some fairly absurd DPS for her rarity. The Mastery gains on it are unusually strong as well, resulting in one of the larger DPS gains across Mastery in the game! The key is in the interval reductions that happen at M1 and M3. For whatever reason, direct interval reduction tends to improve better over Mastery compared to ASPD or ATK gains. For La Pluma, that improves her sustain as well, adding even more value. However, the 40 SP downtime is relatively long for an unhealable unit, so advanced and niche players will probably find it more useful than story players will.
In a modern game full of gigapowerful meta-breaking units, a full M6 on a 5★ unit is a daunting proposition. And indeed, for a full meta team, La Pluma will still struggle to fit in. However, she is one of very few 5★s worthy of that consideration.
Amiya (Guard)#
Amiya is somewhat unusual when it comes to Mastery priority because everyone has to raise her to progress in the story. This guide doesn’t consider promotion costs when it comes to priority, but nevertheless, a unit that everyone already has at E2 makes for a slightly different consideration. However, her Guard form is her weakest form. It’s not necessarily bad and she has some of the highest Arts DPS for the rarity, but it lacks most of the niche value her Caster or Medic form have, making her Guard Masteries a luxury investment. But she is our daughter, so you’re going to do them anyway, right?
If you tend to play lower rarity niches or just really like our lovely bunny mascot, both of her skills have value, however her S1 usually comes out ahead. The dual strikes result in a fairly high Arts DPS from a melee tile. While basic, that’s more valuable than her S2 for a number of reasons. For one, when True Damage is needed, Amiya’s Caster S3 is better. For two, being single use is very limiting. And for three, the DPS is significantly lower against most targets. Her S2 does still have some value which can make it worth considering still. True Damage tends to be valuable even in situational cases. However, it tends to be one of Amiya’s least useful skills across all of her forms so is best left for extreme niche or waifu purposes only.
Bibeak#
Older players will remember a time when Bibeak was the key to some incredibly hard content while also causing carpal tunnel after hours-long stalls. Skills that are both Manual Activation and charge-based tend to be quite powerful, and since Bibeak has control built into hers, she can often be abused with SP-batteries like Liskarm to great effect. Of course, in the modern game that’s usually unnecessary and few players have the desire to suffer through the skill activations to make it work! So that feature of Bibeak is there, but largely a historical note rather than something to consider.
Thankfully, Bibeak is still quite a strong unit on her own merits. While she is certainly not a meta consideration, her S2 is still a great skill. Her ability to manually apply a Stun in a wide area, with charges, while doing solid damage, makes her still notable. Mastery gains on it are very valuable as well. This is mainly due to the improvements to her Offensive Recovery cost. The drop from 10 to 7 on a charge-based skill like this can really add up if you actually want to use her, and the extra Stun duration is meaningful too.
If you really like using Bibeak, you could consider her S1 as well, however it is ultimately a luxury investment. It has quite a high DPS with very valuable Mastery gains, but her S2’s Stuns and charges are why she’s special. The role filled by her S1 is better found elsewhere instead.
Broca#
In the early days of the game, Broca was a decently valuable unit. Centurions are natively strong, and his Arts damage and range gave him some special value over the others. However, a lack of any sort of special niche (lots of units have Arts or range or both) and a general devaluing of laneholders has made him a less appealing investment.
Still, he is certainly not a bad unit and if he appeals to you for whatever reason, his S2 is the only choice for Mastery. It’s superior to his S1 in nearly every way except for the self-stun which is easy to work around, plus it has both his extended range and a small dash of control, so the choice is pretty clear. It has fairly strong gains too, with an above average gain to ATK and a good improvement to his initial wind-up. However, compared to modern units, Broca just isn’t that special anymore, so it’s a relatively low priority investment.
Specter#
Historically, Specter has been one of the most powerful 5★s. Between her invulnerability, regeneration, and massive DPH, Specter was a force to be reckoned with. There was even once a time when the first 6★ Centurion, Blaze, wasn’t even necessarily considered to be better than her! Of course, that’s no longer true (for either of them). Laneholders have generally fallen out of favor, and the ever growing power ceiling makes her seem a bit less impressive than she used to be.
Nevertheless, Specter is still an amazing 5★, and her general value as well as in the Abyssal Hunter niche make her a fairly valuable consideration for Mastery still. Specter gains an absurd amount of ATK from Mastery too, and her all-important-DPH at M3 is far far higher than it is at just SL7. Mastery also drops her initial windup to just 5 SP, which is vital for helidropping. While she isn’t quite what she used to be, Specter is just a good unit in a good archetype. She’s one of the few at her rarity worth high priority consideration.
Lappland#
Lappland is a relatively unique unit when it comes to evaluation. She is one of those “launch mistakes” in that her Silence ability is so out of balance in terms of uptime and ease of use, that it still has yet to be surpassed, even by her 6★ alter form! However, Silence is also an inherently situational ability. It so happens to be very useful in the early chapters, making Lappland a common recommendation on the starter ticket, but falls to the whims of the developers later. In any given event it could be great, or it could be useless. Further, it becomes less useful the stronger your team gets. The way the game is designed means that specific solutions, like Silence, are never required!
This is all to say that, along with her incredible DPS and range for her rarity, Lappland is a strong 5★ promotion and Mastery consideration, but not quite a “must-do” caliber one either. If you do opt to give her that extra promotion, her Mastery gains are unusually valuable. Most notably, her SP cost drops from 24 to just 17. This is already a huge gain, but has extra value since she is Attack Recovery. The lower SP cost makes her far more reliable, then she gets more uptime and damage as well. All told, it’s a very high value investment, just not one quite up to the bar of the 6★s in the modern game.
Franka#
Franka is another unusual launch unit. In her case, she has seen her value go up and up as time has gone on, at least if you like playing in lower-rarity niches. She got a great Module which improved her RNG, but the main thing that’s helped her value is powercreep. In an era of the game where it seems every new enemy has higher and higher DEF and RES, units like Franka can be a great help if you don’t have access to the 6★s!
Now, to be clear for newer readers, this is a very advanced and situational thing. Meta-wise, there’s still no reason to invest into Franka. But for those of us who enjoy a challenge, Franka is a unit with enough value to warrant consideration.
In any case, the only skill worth Mastery is her S2. Her S1 is a generic skill that doesn’t play into her niche at all which makes the choice easy. Mastery on it is fairly valuable too. The gains on it aren’t too insane, at least compared to other launch units, but units like Franka need every bit of damage they can since she’ll often be tussling with some of the toughest enemies in the game.
4★ Guards#
Windscoot#
Liberators are one of those “good by default” sorts of classes, and Windscoot is no exception. Particularly for his rarity, he does really solid damage with a reasonably good DPH! This can make him a great early unit since his rarity makes him inexpensive too. However, he doesn’t need investment beyond E1 for that purpose, and doesn’t do much special in the bigger picture, so his Mastery priority is still fairly low.
But he is still very cheap, so if you play in a low-rarity niche or just like using him, he can still be a decent choice for extra investment. If that applies to you, S2, which is his DPS skill, is the only real choice. The gains across Mastery are not terribly impressive since both his SP cost and uptime remain unchanged, but the DPS gains alone are worth the low cost.
Pass on his S1, which is unusually awful. It doesn’t cycle with the Liberator Trait at all and instead seems to be defensive oriented. But there’s basically no reason to ever use him as a defender with bad uptime when great real defenders like Cuora and Bubble exist. Even in niches, there’s no value to be had here.
Humus#
Reapers are one of those natively strong archetypes, and that gives Humus some pretty decent value, but he has some unusual circumstances that suppress his value in terms of Mastery priority. There’s two reasons for this. First, it is that his main value is in IS where 4★s are free to recruit as of IS#5, but the extra investment beyond E1 is not recommended (unless you’re Ethan or Myrtle). Promotion still costs Hope which is rarely worth it in a run. His value is a lot lower outside of IS, where the freely available Highmore is a lot better. Second, his Mastery gains are pretty bad. So you have a combination of bad gains in a role that doesn’t require them in the first place, resulting in one of the better units in this guide with grades this poor!
Should you want to promote him anyway, stick with his S1. As with his 5★ counterparts, the consistent DPS and sustain it provides are generally superior. However, unlike his 5★ counterparts, he does not get an SP reduction at M3, so the only benefit to Mastery is a bit of extra damage that rarely matters with how he is used. His S2 might be worth a look if you’re a niche player, but the long downtime leaves him quite exposed, and the Vigor effect is hard to maintain.
Luo Xiaohei#
Luo Xiaohei is a weaker 4★, mostly saved by his archetype. Lords tend to be pretty good by default, and he’s no exception there, but tends to come in pretty far behind Arene at the same rarity and Lappland who is commonly taken on the starter ticket. He’s relatively unique when it comes to Mastery consideration in that his better skill differs from his more flavorful skill that a lot of people tend to prefer more!
If you want to actually use Luo Xiaohei for more than a meme, focus on his S2 which is just all around better except for the cycle time. However, his S1 turns him into a cat which… is all some people really want. Unfortunately, it has a really low DPH so in terms of actually using the skill, he won’t do much more than scratch any meaningful enemy.
Arene#
Arene is a solid unit for a 4★. He does reasonable Arts damage on an expanded range from a melee tile, and his extra drone damage and priority can occasionally be useful. Of course, he is very outclassed by a number of common higher rarity units, and that drone focus isn’t special or useful enough to elevate him to that special value among his rarity. He is not generally a recommended 4★ to focus on! Nevertheless, he is more than serviceable if you favor him for whatever reason or play in a niche that includes him.
If that applies to you, his S2 is the only skill worth consideration, which is superior to his S1 in almost every way. It does Arts damage, it does more damage, it cycles better, it does so against more targets, and has better range. The Mastery gains on it are relatively poor too, but 4★ Masteries are relatively inexpensive so that’s not too big of a deal either. There are some rare instances where his S1 could come out ahead, but those are almost all relegated to extreme 4★ niches, and if that applies to you, you’re probably beyond the needs of a guide like this already!
Cutter#
Cutter is one of the best low-rarity melee options. She does lack a bit in ceiling, as to be expected from the rarity, and a lack of utility makes her much less apt to be valuable in a mature team compared to other high end 4★s like Ethan or Myrtle. But she can be a great low-rarity option thanks to some really ridiculous damage for her rarity.
As for Mastery, Cutter is one of very few units that don’t have a clear winner between her skills. At least among good units anyway. Both of her skills are comparably valuable with comparably powerful gains, so the only real choice if you want to use her is the M6. The Attack Recovery in particular makes both Masteries relatively essential. S1 has higher DPS, while S2 covers more ground.
To further add to the cost, Cutter has an unusually good Module for her rarity too. The improved odds to her SP generation ultimately results in much better uptime. It’s definitely worth grabbing in addition to both Masteries if you plan to use Cutter.
Utage#
Utage escapes some of the flaws that plague the higher rarity Soloblades. This is partially due to her lower costs, less is expected from cheap 4★s afterall, but is also due to her helidrop nature. Although single use per deployment, with no redeployment reduction, makes for quite a long effective cycle, her instantly available Arts DPS is quite high, and is useful in the early going. Of course, for non-niche players this value eventually gets replaced so investment beyond the basic E1 is rarely recommended, but Utage is popular both as a character and for her early value that people tend to remember fondly, and is still quite usable!
If any of that applies to you, her S2 is really the only consideration for Mastery. It’s her DPS skill, so the choice is fairly obvious. The gains on it are nothing too special, with a standard improvement to attack and only a single second improvement to uptime, but more damage on a DPS unit is always worthwhile. Her S1 probably isn’t worth considering unless you’re a pretty min/maxed user. It can occasionally be used to let dangerous enemies bypass her, but her DPS is significantly less impressive which limits any potential use. Even then, the Mastery gains are unlikely to ever matter, despite a relatively strong improvement to the regeneration at M3.
Mousse#
Mousse is an often overlooked unit. Her DPS is not especially great and she otherwise just appears to be 1-block low-rarity filler. However, ATK down debuffs are very powerful, and rather rare too. Mousse further brings very high up-time to that equation via her S1. She can make the untankable, tankable! She can tremendously reduce the pressure of a dangerous enemy, if not outright tank it herself.
Now, as a 4★ she is not necessarily a suggested promotion, especially in a meta landscape of ultra-powerful DPS units. She tends to favor niches much more than general use. But either way, she ends up being one of the better options at the rarity. Mastery on her S1 is quite important if you intend to actually use her since her SP cost drops at M3, resulting in much higher uptime. There’s a pretty drastic improvement to her debuff too. She is far more effective at S1M3 than SL7!
It’s worth noting that Mousse’s uptime is not 100% at S1M3. Many people often forget to include the activation attack itself as well as the fact her interval is 1.25 (instead of 1). This means her skill cycle is 6.25 seconds (5 * 1.25) with a 5 second uptime. That’s still a very high uptime, but can make it inconsistent against some enemies if you are not careful (or just unlucky).
Pass on her S2 unless you’re a pretty extreme low-rarity min/maxer. It can occasionally be the better choice, but that’s rare. It lacks the special value of her S1, and has an absurdly long cycle that is (mercifully) a relic of past design.
4★ and 5★ Ungraded Guards#
Nyamu Yūtenji#
Nyamu’s design is very cool and thematic. Her attacks literally become a drum line! That fits so well for an Earthshaker! That might make her the most thematic unit in a really well designed patch overall! So it’s a damn shame she’s the worst of the Ave Mujica girls by a longshot. While all the others are quite strong units, Nyamu just isn’t. She only does DPS, and not even particularly good DPS, on top of low DPH. Even in purely Ave Mujica teams, she only really exists as a blocker and Fever battery. Such a waste of a great idea…
If you want to raise Nyamu anyway (at least she’s the most mentally stable of them, sorta), go with her S2 for Mastery, although the gains on it are also notably poor. While both of her skills do similarly little, S2 has the higher DPS between them. Pretty simply, two hits for 125% (S2M3) are better than one for 160% (S1M3). Although S1 does have the higher DPH, it’s not enough higher to really matter. Additionally, with S2, she compresses 8 hits into the same interval which makes for a more reliable application of her Fragile.
Meanwhile, her S1 will only have value to true maximalists. As mentioned, it does have a higher DPH. In most cases that won’t matter, but it can in rare cases if you’re purposefully using Nyamu all the time. It cycles faster too which can also situationally matter. However, the DPS is quite a bit lower, so there isn’t a lot of general value to be had.
It’s worth a quick note that Offensive Recovery skills are typically considered a downside in the rest of this guide. However, Nyamu’s Talent 1 makes her continuously attack even if no enemies are in range, which negates this downside.
Laios#
Laios’ kit is comical, but not terribly effective, so investment into Masteries should be left to only the die-hard fans. However, there are lots of die-hards with DunMeshi, and if you’re one of them, either skill can have some potential value.
For niche-oriented players, favor his S2. Frighten is a powerful mechanic that has previously been unavailable at the non-6★ rarities. Of course, unlike Degenbrecher, Laios does basically no damage and he only affects one target¹, so that’s pretty much only a meme in usage. However, it still has good uptime, especially at S2M3. S2’s Masteries actually are an unusually large improvement to his SP cost, so you can at least make him yell at Patriot much more often at S2M3.
If you are really dedicated to using Laios as much as possible, you’ll probably want to use his S1 instead. While Vigor isn’t an especially good mechanic, and his total damage is still very low, the always on nature of it still makes it a usable skill for his DPS. However, as a 1-block Physical unit with no other utility, it’s still a really weak DPS, even at S1M3.
¹ Technically it’s all blocked targets, which is almost always one with him, but that nuance is well beyond the scope of this guide.
Doc#
Doc, like all Instructors, is not a unit I have a lot of nice things to say about. However, one of my fellow Tier List contributors, PlatybusGod, threatens my wellbeing if I don’t say good things about Doc and Absinthe, so this is my attempt to say something… nice.
Most Instructors fail because buffing is not generally a viable strategy, and they are neither competent units on their own or provide strong enough buffs to justify the team slot. Doc solves this somewhat because he isn’t actually a buffer, but is rather a healer. With his S2, he can fire a shot that will fully heal nearly everyone, while turning the excess into Barrier, which can actually be a viable niche. He is a helidroppable way to keep someone alive that can be deployed almost anywhere! Of course, that’s a very situational thing, but it is at least viable if you like creative clears.
His main skill is his S2 which has that mentioned effect. Mastery is very valuable too. It adds almost 1000 additional healing/Barrier, but more importantly, drops his wind-up to only 5 SP. While he is a very off-meta consideration, his S2 Masteries are quite valuable if you plan to actually use him.
You could alternatively use his S1 if you’re a big Doc simp. His S2 has no DPS feature, so S1 sort of wins by default if that healing niche isn’t needed. However, it’s a pretty poor DPS skill. It has no ATK improvement, so his DPH is very low even when accounting for his Talent. Mastery gains on it are quite weak as well, so while it can be a usable skill, you have to be a pretty big R6 simp to justify it.
Leto / Лето#
Leto is a unit who isn’t exactly bad. Lords are just one of those archetypes that’s natively strong. Instead, her problem is that there are a lot of better options while Leto herself has no particular unique upside, ultimately leaving her a desire/waifu tier unit. If you think you need a Lord, you’ll get better value out of Arene or Lappland (from the starter ticket) instead.
In any case, the USSG are popular, and Leto is functional if you’d like. Her main skill is her S2 which is primarily novel for being a Physical Lord skill, when most are Arts based. That isn’t actually especially usable though since her DPH is on the low-side. It also has a completely unnecessary drawback, which seemed to be a thing HG liked doing at the time with the 5★s for completely inexplicable reasons (mercifully a thing of the past). It is at least easy to work around though and negligible on her own. Mastery on it is fairly decent too, with an above average gain to ATK and SP cost.
Pass on her S1. While Swift Strike is one of the better generic skills, in Leto’s case, it does nothing better than her S2, except for the random but manageable drawback. S1 has lower targets, lower DPS, lower DPH, and doesn’t even remove the damage drop, which is sometimes hard to even remember is something Lords have! Instead, it, along with the S2 drawback, are a frustrating ode to one of the worst periods of 5★ design.
Bryophyta#
Perhaps symbolically, Bryophyta is a type of moss, and this unit is about as useful as some moss to your team. He is a strong entrant into “worst 5★ in the game” competition. Buffing is already a fairly weak niche in this game. Limited team and deployment space means a buff (or the unit attached to it) needs to have a very strong value to justify bringing over another unit that simply achieves the intended task independently. Not only does Bryophyta not pass that benchmark, but he doubles down on it by focusing on the worst stat to buff as well. There’s just extremely limited value in a DEF buffer in Arknights, and Bryophyta isn’t even good at it! He has a long cycle on a bad buff, and to rub salt into the wounds, a perplexing self-Stun too.
If Bryophyta’s kit appeals to you anyway, then the skill to target is one of Whislash’s skills. She is also a welfare (freely available in Record Restore of the Maria Nearl event) who is better than Bryophyta in every meaningful way. At least Whislash’s S2 has some offensive value that lets her carry her own weight and has the courtesy to not Stun herself at the end! That isn’t really a joke either. Their kits are slightly different, but in practice, there will be very few spaces Bryophyta performs better.
If you really insist though, his S2 is the clear choice. As if his kit didn’t have enough to be angry about, his S1 is a generic Power Strike skill which is one of the worst you can have. There’s just so much wrong with his kit from top to bottom, and we should be glad this era of 5★s is now a distant (but painful) memory.
Morgan#
The Glasgow Gang gets another mediocre member. It’s amazing they managed to do anything in the story! Morgan is generally not worth investing in, although for a Dreadnaught, she could be worse. While both of her skills are flawed, she does hit reasonably hard for her rarity, so that at least makes her a tad more usable than some other ungraded Guards.
If you want to raise her, both skills are potential options with differing use, although as mentioned, both are flawed which means the choice isn’t necessarily clear. Her S2 is a poor-man’s Skadi. She can helidrop and be instantly available, which is useful, and the HP loss triggers her Tenacity Talent. However, she is very fragile since the Barrier decays so fast and she can even be hit before the Barrier activates! Her effective cycle time is also really bad since she needs to be redeployed to use it again. Generally, Utage will do the same job far better, and for cheaper, although it’s still probably Morgan’s most unique use.
Her S1 may be an option too since it cycles so fast. She can actually dole out a decent amount of damage with it, but she will need outside support to keep her from killing herself and the balancing act of her frailty and maintaining her Tenacity is tricky. Whether that’s more useful than her S2 or not entirely depends on how and why you’re raising her in the first place, but the short answer is neither is a great option.
Wind Chimes#
Given how strong the 6★ Crushers are in the modern meta, it can be easy to forget that the lower rarity ones are exceedingly mediocre and flawed. Without the expanded top end design space, their lack of DEF makes them surprisingly fragile and their high HP pools further make them hard to heal up. Then add on some pretty bad DPS, and you have a pretty bad unit, although both Wind Chimes and Quartz do have defenders and some rare niche use. Their HP pools make them decent for Arts damage and they can hit pretty hard. However, if you’re at the point in your career where you need this guide for advice, you’re likely to find either to be incredibly frustrating instead.
In any case, both of Wind Chimes skills are potential options, although both are flawed. Her S2 is the more unique skill. After a charge up, she does a forward slash with some surprisingly high DPH. This has given it some value at times against high-DEF but low-HP enemies, such as the ch14 vampire crystals. Since it can be triggered early, it can also be an on-demand Stun. However, it has a long cycle for a single use, meaning incredibly poor overall DPS, which makes it very situational.
As for her S1, it’s a testament to the flawed state of the original Crushers that a generic ATK Up skill is even an option. This guide goes out of its way to decry these types of skills, and for good reason! But in Wind Chimes case, her S2 is very situational and her S1 will usually out DPS it. It’s a grim statement that her S1 is even an option, but… such are the trials we face when using bad units.
Dagda#
Fighters are just a real tough archetype to be if you aren’t a 6★. They’re one of those early game design choices that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out don’t actually fit anywhere in the game. Early DP pressure isn’t that big of a problem, and if it is you’d use Vanguards instead, and their low DPH means they aren’t useful against meaningful threats. So unless they have the design space to do something absurd like Mountain or Chongyue do, they end up as very poor investments that are rarely used, even in niches. Thus all of the 4 and 5★ Fighters are pretty much waifu investments only.
If you opt to raise Dagda, S2 is her main skill, pretty much by default since it’s her DPS skill. Her DPS is actually decent with it, and she hits surprisingly hard compared to the other lower rarity Fighters thanks to her crit Talent. It’s still not enough to give her any meta value, but does tend to make her be the most usable of them if the archetype interests you. The Mastery gains on it are decent, since the improved crit chance adds a good amount of damage, although they aren’t crazy either.
Pass on her S1 which is kind of odd. Being Defensive Recovery kills most value since any enemy where the reduction would be useful tends to hit rather slow (remember she’s 1-block). It’s hard to use too since she has to wait to be hit first. It can sooooorta be used in combination with Blemishine if you really like both, but it’s an extremely fringe thing that’s hard to use, for very lackluster effects.
Akafuyu#
Akafuyu is a unit who used to be graded in previous versions of this guide, back when there were fewer options, but as more units become available, her archetype weighs her down like a boat anchor. Older Soloblades just weren’t designed in a way that particularly took advantage of their archetype. In Akafuyu’s case, her damage isn’t really notable, so she’s ultimately better replaced by units that either sustain better or can be healed, who will likely also do more damage and block more enemies.
If Akafuyu appeals to you though (and she is a very cool character), both skills are potential options. Her S1 has better DPS with fast cycling, and the no-block can actually be quite the advantage if set up well. Meanwhile, her S2 actually has some pretty great bulk for a Guard and still does good overall damage. You shouldn’t be investing into Akafuyu in the first place, but if she appeals to you, there just isn’t a clear choice between her skills.
Tachanka#
In the prior version of the guide, there was a joke here about Tachanka’s DPS being the highest in the game and so he was “the meta”. A surprising amount of people didn’t get the joke, so in this rewrite I’ll be a bit more explicit this time. Basically, with his S2, Tachanka deals some insane DPS, but it is hampered by an incredibly poor uptime, a long wind-up, and a low DPH. So to be clear, Tachanka is a bad unit!
However, his DPS is actually useful if you like meme teams. With a few buffs, he can actually burst down some relatively dangerous targets. That isn’t something you should be generally doing, but does give him more value than a lot of the other ungraded 5★ Guards. His S2 is the skill for that. As noted, it has both very poor wind-up and uptime, resulting from a 25 SP Attack Recovery with 0 initial SP. However, Mastery is rather important if you intend to use him for those buff army memes. While the gains may appear small, the improvement to the RNG does very much matter in such attempts.
You could consider his S1 as well if you really like Tachanka, although it suffers from the same problems while also being a lot less special. Unlike his S2, the DPS on it is very poor unless it can hit a lot of targets, which on top of the poor uptime and wind-up, makes it almost never useful.
Whislash#
Instructors are a pretty bad archetype that have never found their footing in the game despite multiple attempts. Buffing is a fundamental problem in the game due to limited squad and deploy slots. This means a unit has to have buffing strong enough to justify both, or be competition enough on their own, and Whislash does not come close to meeting either benchmark.
If you really like Whislash and want to raise her anyway, both skills are potential options, although both are flawed. Her S2 keeps her buff restricted to 3-block allies, which makes it very restrictive. In the modern game there are very few DPS units with 3-Block that would benefit from the buff. It also cycles very poorly, but it does enhance her own combat capabilities pretty significantly, so should probably be your first target. Meanwhile, her S1 cycles better, provides a stronger buff, and applies it to others, but doesn’t enhance her own combat capabilities, beyond a small amount of ASPD that is largely negigable on her, which can make her a liability on the field.
Flint#
Fighters are just a real tough archetype to be if you aren’t a 6★. They’re one of those early game design choices that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out don’t actually fit anywhere in the game. Early DP pressure isn’t that big of a problem, and if it is you’d use Vanguards instead, and their low DPH means they aren’t useful against meaningful threats. So unless they have the design space to do something absurd like Mountain or Chongyue do, they end up as very poor investments that are rarely used, even in niches. Thus all of the 4 and 5★ Fighters are pretty much waifu investments only.
Flint’s gimmick is 0-block via her S2 which should be her starting point for Mastery if you want to use her. That gimmick can actually be somewhat useful in niches by keeping her safe from dangerous enemies, but she doesn’t quite do it well enough to be viable. Her Slow uptime is still only about 60% and her DPH is still frustratingly low, which means there’s relatively few places where it’s useful.
You could maybe use her S1 now and then if you really like her, but Mastery on it doesn’t actually matter. The Shift Force is low, but she attacks fast enough that she can sometimes get better results than a dedicated Pusher. However, neither her Shift Force or SP ever improves over Mastery, so only her still low damage improves and it is far less generally usable.
Ayerscarpe#
Ayerscarpe has an interesting premise behind his kit, but ultimately a weak and situational effect. In practice, it’s hard to ever make effective use of it, and even I as a dedicated bunnyknights player can rarely get functional use out of his “damage to all blocked” gimmick in a way that’s better than more common options. Thankfully, he is a Lord which tends to make units at least usable (usually, with a big exception elsewhere in this ungraded section) so Ayerscarpe can be functional if you want, although he is definitely not a unit you should generally consider raising.
If you are a one of the very based bunny-enjoyers, then both skills are potential options and the best will depend on what you want out of him. S2 is his more unique aspect and can do decent Arts damage on multiple targets, but it requires a very specific setup to use, which as mentioned, is hard to use effectively on top of a bad cycle time.
If you would rather use him as a more regular member of the team, consider his S1 instead. The effect is far less impactful, but isn’t necessarily bad, and has a far better uptime than his oft troublesome S2. Mastery on it is especially valuable too thanks to an SP reduction at S1M3 which greatly improves his uptime.
However, while Ayers isn’t the worst Lord, he is still one of the least valuable, so you should approach either investment with extreme caution if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Sideroca#
High HP self-sustaining units like Sideroca can be a useful tool if you’re playing in niches. However, it is a very fringe utility in the first place that most players won’t need, and worse for Sideroca, a 4★, Matoimaru, does it better. This means that while Sideroca isn’t exactly a “bad” unit, she’s restricted to some pretty severe niches on top of being unnecessary in the first place!
If you play in one of the rarer niches like 5★-only or Minos-only, or just really like her, both of her skills are options since both sustain her in different ways but her S2 will be the more viable one most of the time. She sustains far better with it. S1 sustains at an average of 2.8% per second compared to S2’s 8% in addition to the better damage, which makes it the better skill most of the time. However, in places she gets used, the downtime difference between the skills can matter. S2 cycles 10 SP slower than S1, and if those extra 10 seconds are the difference in dying, S1 becomes the better option.
Flamebringer#
Flamebringer is a historically contentious unit. Many in the early days of the game considered him terrible, but he had an outsized, and often vocal fan base compared to other early off-meta units that insisted he was underrated. That has waned with the game’s general powercreep, but in fairness, those fans had a point. A 1-block 5★ with a huge Attack Recovery wind-up could hardly be considered good, but he did have solid DPS and DPH on S2, and could flex to sustain without wind-up with his S1.
These days, there are a ton of better options, even at the rarity, so Flamebringer shouldn’t be a general consideration but he is still viable if you consider yourself a fan. In such a case, as mentioned, you’ll probably want both skills. S2 has most of his value, and Mastery on it is extremely valuable. It strongly improves his DPS but importantly drops 8 SP off of the wind-up which is the skills biggest drawback. However, even at S2M3 it’s still an extremely troublesome 40 SP, which gives his S1 plenty of room to be viable. It’s less impactful, but does sustain himself and is much more consistent. It also has valuable Masteries, dropping his SP cost and improving his sustain.
Astesia#
A long long time ago, Astesia was a graded unit (back when there were few options). She’s been ungraded for a long time since, but it was very painful for me to do, and not just because of waifu reasons! She isn’t well regarded by most in the community since her DPS is low, but I’ve always defended her relatively strongly. She’s certainly worse than most Arts Fighters, especially the freely available and forced promotion Guard Amiya, but she isn’t bad either. Her damage is decent against multiple targets, she can block 2, and cycles fast. The alarm clock birb is viable! At least if you like her. Even I must admit she is a very off-meta option.
In any case, her S2 is her only skill worth Mastery. It has strong gains, significantly improving all of the major aspects in a way we don’t often see anymore. It’s her main skill because her S1 is oddly pointless. It has directly worse stat improvements than S2 without getting her the block effects. Technically, it does have a better cycle, but her S2 cycles so well already that it doesn’t ever matter. Her S1 is basically never the better skill, which makes the Mastery choice with Astesia easy.
Swire#
Instructors are a pretty bad archetype that have never found their footing in the game despite multiple attempts. Buffing is a fundamental problem in the game due to limited squad and deploy slots. This means a unit has to have buffing strong enough to justify both, or be competition enough on their own. Swire does both so badly that she’s one of the worst units in the game!
As a personal anecdote, Swire is an important unit for me personally. She was one of my favorite early characters, so she was my first “waifu” promotion in my early career. I knew she was bad, but did the full E2+M6 investment anyway, intent on making her work! And… I never could. She’s just that bad (good thing she got an alter)! Her buffs are meaninglessly low, her on-field combat capabilities are awful, but her real sin is FORTY-FIVE Attack Recovery on her S2. Even for the low power scaling and early design troubles at the time, I’m still shocked that it made it into the game!
So this is all to say you shouldn’t raise Swire. If she’s waifu, get her alter from a selector instead. Her 5★ Guard form is the sort of awful where it’s hard to make a skill recommendation for even the greatest of simps. Her S1 cycles better, but has a negligible buff value, while her S2 cycles horrifically but with a slightly better but still bad buff! Invest with extreme caution.
Indra#
Fighters are just a real tough archetype to be if you aren’t a 6★. They’re one of those early game design choices that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out don’t actually fit anywhere in the game. Early DP pressure isn’t that big of a problem, and if it is you’d use Vanguards instead, and their low DPH means they aren’t useful against meaningful threats. So unless they have the design space to do something absurd like Mountain or Chongyue do, they end up as very poor investments that are rarely used, even in niches. Thus all of the 4 and 5★ Fighters are pretty much waifu investments only.
Indra herself has had some niche use in the past when there were fewer options, but she has always been flawed, and looks worse now. S2, her main skill, turns her damage into Arts which circumvents the low DPH problem (although makes her susceptible to RES instead), and her sustain is actually pretty strong which can make it a viable niche skill. However, any potential use is severely hampered by her SP costs. The base cost of 50 is very high which means she cycles badly, but worse, her wind-up is still 25 SP which defeats the purpose of being a low DP cost unit in the first place! Mastery is pretty valuable though. She gains a well above amount of ATK already, but also gains 5% more to her sustain and a lot of initial SP (her wind-up is 40 seconds at SL7!!).
You could consider her S1 as well if you’re a really big Glasgow Gang fan, but it’s a lot less special. It has a big chunk of DEF-ignore, but since S2 is Arts based, there aren’t as many places where the difference will matter to Indra. However, it’s not valueless and is a lot more consistent than her high SP cost S2 for those who want to use Indra as much as possible.
Savage#
Even at launch, Savage was bad. Centurions are a “high-floor low-ceiling” sort of archetype. That is, they’re pretty good by default but don’t tend to have a lot of endgame value, and Savage is a really extreme example of that. Technically, she has a higher floor than a lot of other basement dweller units, but probably has the worst ceiling of any of them (which is already low)! The real reason to raise her is because Charlotte is our true wife! Who needs Theresa or Priestess? Not this bunny lover!
Ahem, at any rate, you probably shouldn’t be raising Savage. It’s hard for her to find work even in extremely restrictive niches. But if you are a true waifu believer, both of her skills are options, although both are very flawed. Favor her S1 slightly, but know that it’s a desperation pick due only to the fact her S2’s wind-up is painfully high for a weak effect.
Quartz#
Given how strong the 6★ Crushers are in the modern meta, it can be easy to forget that the lower rarity ones are exceedingly mediocre and flawed. Without the expanded top end design space, their lack of DEF makes them surprisingly fragile and their high HP pools further make them hard to heal up. Then add on some pretty bad DPS, and you have a pretty bad unit, although both Wind Chimes and Quartz do have defenders and some rare niche use. Their HP pools make them decent for Arts damage and they can hit pretty hard. However, if you’re at the point in your career where you need this guide for advice, you’re likely to find either to be incredibly frustrating instead.
So the only reason to raise Quartz is either because you like her or because you play in a 4★ only niche, which has few options. If that applies to you, her S2 is her only skill really worth considering. S2 will out DPS S1 in most cases while also having some Stun utility, albeit locked behind some frustrating RNG. However, it cycles pretty poorly on top of all the other Crusher problems. That, in addition to the extra damage inflicted on herself and a better DPH, does give a tiny amount of space for her S1 to be better, but is an extremely fringe option on an already fringe unit.
Jackie#
Fighters are just a real tough archetype to be if you aren’t a 6★. They’re one of those early game design choices that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out don’t actually fit anywhere in the game. Early DP pressure isn’t that big of a problem, and if it is you’d use Vanguards instead, and their low DPH means they aren’t useful against meaningful threats. So unless they have the design space to do something absurd like Mountain or Chongyue do, they end up as very poor investments that are rarely used, even in niches. Thus all of the 4 and 5★ Fighters are pretty much waifu investments only.
Jackie’s contribution to the group is a Dodge tank with much better odds than Beehunter. Her Module, Talent, and S2 can combine to a very high dodge chance. Of course, she is a 1-block unit subject to RNG which makes that an extremely situational thing that’s rarely useful even in niches (the 4★s have some great real tanks already) so Jackie is an extremely fringe promotion consideration. S2 is her main skill, of course, and Mastery on it is actually decent if you intend to ever use her. She gets more uptime and dodge, both of which are important for that role. There’s little reason to consider her S1. While it can sometimes have better DPS than S2, it has no special value, even in niches. Plus, only the damage improves over Mastery anyway.
Conviction#
Conviction is a gimmick unit, which is appropriate given she is quite literally an April Fool’s joke. They aren’t a unit you should generally consider raising for regular use, but as far as gimmick units go, is a pretty fun one (on top of being a cheap 4★).
Their S1 is probably the skill you’ll want to be using. The gimmick is that it has a very low chance to do a ton of damage, and combined in a buff army team (and a lot of patience) can result in some really comical and impressive hits. The low chance means it’s not a skill to generally use, but still tends to be their better skill if you really want to use Conviction as much as possible.
Meanwhile their S2 doesn’t really have much use. The gimmick here is that it’s a coinflip if it helps or is detrimental, but the effect isn’t terribly useful even if you win the coinflip and the downside is extremely harsh. Still, it might be useful on rare occasions if you’re a niche player or just really love April Fools.
Beehunter#
Fighters are just a real tough archetype to be if you aren’t a 6★. They’re one of those early game design choices that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out don’t actually fit anywhere in the game. Early DP pressure isn’t that big of a problem, and if it is you’d use Vanguards instead, and their low DPH means they aren’t useful against meaningful threats. So unless they have the design space to do something absurd like Mountain or Chongyue do, they end up as very poor investments that are rarely used, even in niches. Thus all of the 4 and 5★ Fighters are pretty much waifu investments only.
Beehunter is probably the toughest unit to use of the group. With her S1, she is an infinite duration dodge tank, but the odds are pretty low so even with infinite duration, it will rarely if ever be better than a dedicated tank or Jackie who has better odds. Meanwhile, her S2 has no DPH improvement on a weak cycle, which makes it an extremely poor DPS skill. Even if you play in a 4★ only niche, Beehunter is one of the last units you should consider.
Matoimaru#
Matoimaru has an absolutely massive HP pool along with some self-sustain that scales with that massive pool. That can be a useful tool if you play in various niches, although far from an essential one and her 1-block and low DPS will usually be a liability instead.
If you play in a niche that Matoimaru fits in or just like her, both of her skills are potentially options depending what you want out of her. In the niche case, you’ll probably want to favor her S1. Because her HP pool is so large, it recovers a ton of HP at S1M3, and the relatively low SP cost means a lot of sustain. Mastery makes a lot of difference in those cases too even though none of the numbers might appear that large at first glance. 10% is a lot of HP for Matoimaru!
On the waifu side, you might consider her S2 as well. Her DPS is a lot less special than her sustain, and the reduced DEF can be a liability like it is on the Crushers. But since her sustain is situational depending on the stage, that can still come out ahead if you’re intent on using her.
Frostleaf#
Frostleaf is a notorious unit. In the original version of the guide, ungraded units weren’t included at all, but Frostleaf still was. Why? Because despite how awful she is as a unit, and to be clear, she is one of the worst in the game, her S2 actually has some of the best Mastery gains in the entire game! So she’s the only ungraded unit who has been in every guide iteration, just for the sake of notoriety!
At any rate, Frostleaf is a bad unit. She has no DPH, a bad cycle, and poor DPS. Arene at the same rarity is far better. However, she does have decent ST control using her S2 which also has the mentioned crazy Mastery gains. It has three different aspects of control on it¹, all of which improve over Mastery, and the net gain is what gives her that improvement. That is extremely fringe and not something you should consider though, so Frostleaf remains primarily a novelty. Pass on her S1 which cycles very slowly for net worse effects.
¹ Four if you include her Module, which you should also definitely not do, but that doesn’t improve over Mastery for our purposes here.
Dobermann#
Dobermann is one of those units that fits in the game well from a thematic standpoint, but doesn’t actually have any value. The 3★s aren’t anywhere near good enough to justify a unit dedicated to buffing them, and Dobermann doesn’t do a good combat job on her own anyway. That’s even before considering that her main skill, S2, has a horrific 70 SP!
Even if you play in some pretty extreme niches, Dobermann isn’t a unit you should invest into at all, let alone for Masteries. If it’s something you’re considering, you’re probably well beyond the needs of a guide like this! That said, if you really insist, S2 is her buff skill which is probably what you want if you’re doing a “Dobermann 3★ team” niche. However, it cycles really long so if you’re one of the very rare Dobermann waifu-enjoyers, you could consider her S1 instead despite being an otherwise worthless generic Power Strike skill.
Estelle#
Estelle is one of the better 4★s in the Ungraded category. Centurions are just a natively strong archetype and the sustain from her Talent can be useful. However, there’s some flaws in her kit that hold her back despite what seems like should be a solid low-cost unit. For one, her sustain is conditional and the drawback on her main skill can be very troublesome if she can’t take advantage of it. For two, Defensive Recovery is the worst SP generation type and makes her further situational. She’s best against lower pressure swarms, which are not usually a problem in the first place! And third, while a bit beyond the scope of this guide, she needs E2 to be functional due to the block count improvement Centurions get which is generally not recommended for the 4★s.
At any rate, Estelle is still decent and if you play in a niche or just like her, and S2 is the main choice for Mastery. Rather simply, it has a much higher ATK than her S1 which is a lot more valuable! You could consider her S1 as well since it cycles on Auto Recovery and doesn’t have the healing drawback, however that’s pretty much only a waifu type of skill. If her S2 is non-viable, you’re probably better off just using someone else rather than Mastering a generic skill on an off-meta 4★.