6★ Medics#
Mon3tr#
Despite the fact Chain Medics seemed like a weak meme with the first two attempts, Mon3tr is a ridiculously powerful unit. Her Reconstruction works around a lot of the problems with the archetype, and she has a massive amount of role compression. Like her predecessor, she is a powerful source of True Damage, but brought up to modern DPS standards. But unlike her predecessor, she also flexes into one of the best buffers in the game, with ridiculous team healing to boot (in both roles)!
A lot of her value is in that role compression, so the M6 on a unit as strong as Mon3tr is a very viable consideration, but in practice her S3 comes out significantly ahead in priority, so it should be your starting point. Between the AoE True Damage, repositioning, and super strong healing, it tends to be the more optimized choice. The gains on it are also significantly better. Only her ATK and initial SP cost change, but both are important with good gains. She gains more ATK over Mastery than most of her contemporaries (+50% compared to a more typical +30%), and the initial wind-up is fairly important since she has no ability to block until her skill is up. As far as Masteries go, it’s pretty straightforward, and one of the best options available.
Her S2 meanwhile has a bit more nuance with it. It is one of the best buffing skills in the game, boosting the entire team by nearly as much as a year 1 unit did for a single unit! However, there’s two things to note before investing. First, as mentioned, S3 tends to be the more optimized choice, especially in IS. S2 leans a bit more towards the fun or comfy category, if that distinction is something that matters to you. Second, the gains on it are fairly weak. The difference from SL7 to M3 is only 10 ASPD. That’s meaningful when spread across an entire team, but not a huge difference either. More important is the improvement to initial wind-up which is fairly significant, but also tends to be more important in optimized cases rather than in general use, but as noted those optimized cases are more likely to favor her S3 anyway.
Now, to be clear, her S2 is an amazing skill that is absolutely worth Mastering and worth giving a high priority too. The discussion above borders on nitpicking, but 6★ Masteries are very expensive, and with every patch introducing new powerful units with high priority primary Masteries, it can be one to treat with lower priority if resources are tight.
Finally, a lot of people are going to want to maximize our new granddaughter, and for those folks, her S1 is a reasonable, but unnecessary, choice. It has strong consistent HPS as well as extended range/targets, and the Mastery gains on it are very strong too thanks to the SP drop at S1M3. However, it’s a simp-only Mastery. At only 15 SP, her S2 will almost always be the better choice.
Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | A | A+ |
 | S1M3 | A- | B |
Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska is a unit not quite as powerful as she was on her release. At the time, there were few top-tier Medic options, so she pretty easily became well regarded. But in the time since, we now have multiple new healers that do more, and she no longer even has the AFK-healing crown, losing it to a unit (Haruka) who isn’t saddled by being a once-per-year limited unit with a high spark cost! Of course, Eyja2 is still a great unit. Her range, Elemental healing, and global targeting are all valuable tools. However, these days she tends to be a more “specific” solution, such as in IS#5 ED4, or as a QoL option. As for Masteries, Eyja2 has two very strong skills with very different use cases, and the skills to target (or skip) will depend on your needs.
While normally outside the scope of this guide, it’s worth a quick digression to comment on her Elemental healing aspect. Some may be tempted to view this as necessary given that Eyja2 is the 6★ in the archetype, but this would be a mistake. Note that it was barely mentioned at all in the introductory paragraph! Elemental healing can certainly be useful, but it plays more into Eyja2’s QoL aspect rather than being something necessary. In easier cases, the mechanic can simply be played around, or at worst, managed by one of the rather good 5★s. In harder cases, even Eyja2 can’t effectively heal it. Which is all to say, do not go out of your way to obtain an expensive limited unit because you think you need a 6★ Wandering Medic. You do not.
Anyway, moving to Masteries, for most casual applications, people usually prefer her S1. This guide typically avoids suggesting AFK skills for the sake of being lazy, but in Eyja2’s case, her higher ceiling skill has a rather problematic cycle, so if your only goal in using her is having a basic high-quality Medic, her infinite duration S1 will often be better for that, with the fact it’s AFK just being a bonus for said lazy people. However, it is not a high ceiling skill. The long-windup can be a problem, and further, the Mastery gains are pretty weak too, with the main benefit being the Elemental healing, which is situational, and already quite strong at SL7.
Meanwhile for her more Advanced applications, her S3 is the skill of choice. The global range healing is a unique thing. It also has strong burst healing (although keep in mind more allies on the field dilutes the individual healing), which is still quite rare, and is one of the few skills that can keep up with high pressure Elemental Injury thanks to the Talent 2 enhancement. It all makes her S3 her far more unique value, although as mentioned, it has a very odd cycle time with a high SP cost which can be troublesome. The Mastery gains on it are quite good as well. The healing aspect improves by 33% alone, which is on top of a 10 SP reduction in her cost and the significant Talent 2 enhancement. Given the low value of her S1’s Masteries, it can even make sense to start here instead!
Last is her S2. It’s not a bad skill, but is too situational to be particularly useful. It has low healing, so the only real benefit is the barrier to Elemental injury. But as mentioned above, this is a mechanic that can just be played around so dedicating an expensive Mastery to a problem that her other skills can also solve isn’t a great investment. Even in the rare cases it could be useful, it’s probably already sufficient at SL7!
Reed the Flame Shadow#
Reed the Flame Shadow is one of the most powerful Casters in the game, which is weird since she’s here in the Medic section. Her blend of extreme healing and damage is a powerful combination. However, she’s also a bit unusual when it comes to priority. She was among the most powerful options on her release, but while she hasn’t really been powercrept, she does have more competition, which makes aspects of her kit seem more awkward than on her release. Now to be clear, Reed2 is still an absurdly powerful unit. While there’s nuance to convey here, she is still near the top in terms of priority. Instead, she’s just not quite as absurd as she was on her release.
This problem in priority is further shown in her skill selection. Reed2 has two extremely strong skills, both of which have extremely large Mastery gains. This makes her one of the highest graded M6s in the game. However, both skills also have a touch of awkwardness in them, so even the starting point with her isn’t straightforward, and you’ll have to make a judgement call here based on your own needs and playstyle. The bottom line with Reed2 is to do both skills with a high priority, and the only question comes down to where you start.
Many people start with her S3. It’s her flashiest skill and is probably the one you’ve seen used in various highlight clips. It’s her skill that behaves most like how a “classical” Caster skill should, and also happens to have some ridiculously strong gains over Mastery. The DPS difference between SL7 and S3M3 is over 50% when a more typical value is closer to 15%! However, the “special” part of the skill that makes those highlight clips is the spread, which only tends to work on swarms of weaker enemies. Of course, it’s still a great skill against harder targets or it wouldn’t be graded in the S-tier of Masteries, but it’s also that situation mentioned above where it’s not as special as it once was either. There’s a lot of skills that do great DPS against hard targets now, often with RES-shred which Reed2 lacks, or more utility than her the inconsistent Incantation Medic healing.
Meanwhile, her S2 has a far higher DPS and HPS ceiling. In ideal circumstances, it can have over double the DPS and HPS of her S3, but it also requires some setup considerations. Those aren’t as bad as you might think. Even if there is only one blocker’s worth of fireballs, it still has better performance than S3, but some people will find it unpalatable still, and there are cases where it just can’t be used at all either, not to mention a more restrictive effective range since the fireballs don’t move. Masteries on her S2 aren’t as absurd as her S3 are (a “mere” ~25% increase), but are still well above average.
Pass on her S1. While Swift Strike is one of the better generic skills, it doesn’t particularly take advantage of anything Reed2 does. Most of Reed2’s value is in her skills, so with S1 she’s a rather generic unit of no special value. The only reason to Master it is completionism if Reed2 is waifu.
Lumen#
Lumen is probably not a unit you should raise. In fact, he tends to be one of those “newbie traps”. The 6★ Medics are pretty rare as a group, and Lumen is freely available, which leads many to the understandable conclusion he’s the best option. However, that isn’t really the case. Certainly he is more than usable with some decent HPS and an occasionally useful bit of utility. Feel free to raise him as a husbando promote! But Lumen exemplifies the cost problem Medics have. Healing is the lowest priority of the “core” roles, and as a 6★, Lumen is very expensive too. You are far better off sticking with lower rarity options (who are also useful in IS) such as Sussurro and Perfumer who do the same job at a far lower cost, or higher quality utility options such as Ptilopsis and Warfarin, who provide value beyond just healing. So while Lumen is a perfectly usable unit, he’s an expensive low priority one. Invest with caution.
If you choose to raise Lumen anyway, his only skill of particular note for Mastery is S3 which is his all around best skill. It’s an ammo-based skill, but unlike many, it’s the sort where you don’t necessarily want him to be spending his “shots”. While he’s holding ammo, the skill remains active, effectively giving him an infinite duration buff to his healing output. Further, if needed, he can spend that ammo to negate a negative status effect. That can all sound appealing, but to reiterate the value problem, there are flaws here. The wind-up is long, status effects can be played around, and his HPS isn’t all that crazy anymore either. Mastery gains on it are decent, although not essential. The improvement to his HPS is on the lower side among Mastery gains, which is disappointing given the high costs. He also gains more ammo and a faster charge up time, both of which can matter, but on many stages, won’t.
A secondary Mastery on Lumen is unnecessary since his S3 is his feature skill, but if you want to go the extra mile with him, both are potential options, but you’ll probably want to lean towards his S1. It lacks his defining feature of his status removal which makes it rather generic, however it can result in higher net HPS if the rain field hits multiple targets without the troublesome wind-up of S3.
Probably pass on his S2. While it is potentially useful, the problem is it only obtains the status cleanse when allowed the charge, which takes half the time of S3. This means you only get 2-6 in the same time that S3 will give you 8 on top of better overall healing. These types of skills can occasionally be useful for rapid cycling burst healing, but that’s a role only really valuable in niche clears, and Purestream tends to be a cheaper and better implementation of it. However, do note there’s a breakpoint at S2M1 which adds another target. That may be worth grabbing even for rare occasional use.
Kal’tsit#
* Note that Kal’tsit has a specialized IS Module. However, unlike most with these Modules, Kal’tsit is a powerful unit already. IS grades are included here for clarity, but special consideration for IS specifically is lesser than it is on others.
Kal’tsit has long been a strong unit. While taking up two deploy slots and a 30 total DP cost is a high price, her mix of healing along with Mon3tr’s bulk, flexibility, and valuable True Damage, plus a powerful ISW Module, has all meant Kal’tsit is also still quite a powerful unit that’s well worth the resources, even in the era of modern powercreep. Even with Mon3tr now separated and replicating many aspects as a high end meta unit, the original is still quite valuable!
Kal’tsit’s main skill is her S3, which is the source of her True Damage. The gains on it are significant as well. There is of course the ATK for Mon3tr, which is well above average. For True Damage skills, where they tend to be used to tackle tough enemies and bypass mechanics, you want to squeeze as much out as you can. That alone would be good, but the cycle also drastically improves. It’s a strong cycle at SL7 already, but improves pretty significantly at S3M3. And if that weren’t enough, Mon3tr gains a bunch more DEF too. All in all, it’s Kal’tsit’s signature skill, and her defining feature that has allowed her to remain relevant even in the era of intense powercreep.
Meanwhile, her S2 is a strong laneholding skill, but despite her general strength, is not a high priority investment. Laneholding skills are low priority in the first place, and in many cases, her S3 can actually do the job just as well thanks to its better quality form of damage. It’s a lower ceiling skill as well. Cases where her S3 is insufficient, but S2M3 is required are relatively rare, and your resources will tend to be better spent elsewhere. However, it does have some rather strong gains thanks to having one of the best cycle times in the game, so it’s not something to completely neglect either.
Heavy IS players may want to treat S2 a bit higher in priority though. Flexibility out of your top picks is important. It costs nothing to bring someone different in a story stage, nor does coming up short once cost you anything, but the same can’t be said for IS, so the ability to flex when that True Damage isn’t as needed is more valuable than the skill generally tends to be in the rest of the game.
Pass on her S1 which is oddly pointless. S3 grants more DEF than it does, which isn’t even its defining feature, and places you need the dodge on Kal’tsit herself are exceedingly rare. It is her only skill not tied to Mon3tr’s deployment, but even then, there’s no upside like improved healing or anything. For a unit as strong as Kal’tsit who has a ton of value thanks to her flexibility, S1 is notably worthless.
Shining#
In the long history of this guide, Shining has never been a well graded unit. Even at launch, the 5★s blew her away, and now the 4★s are better value too, but she was functional enough that she escaped the basement rankings most of the time. If there’s any benefit to the guide overhaul and all of the modern powercreep for me personally, it’s that I can finally put her out to pasture! Shining is not a unit you should raise. Her healing is bad, her cycle times are worse, and her “utility” barely registers as value anymore. Even her niche of Aak buffing is gone thanks to Thorns the Lodestar! It’s an unsalvageable kit in modern game, and worse, she’s an expensive 6★. You will be far better served by raising almost any other Medic, even the low rarity ones.
If you want to raise her anyway, both S2 and S3 are potential options, but both are very flawed. S3 has a ridiculously bad cycle time. 120 SP is almost unthinkable, and it was barely usable even at launch. Even with her PHY-X Module at max, it’s still 75 SP which is still unusable! While the short 5 second wind-up and 60 second uptime salvages it somewhat (she can be an ok helidrop healer), after that first use, you might as well just retreat her. The Mastery gains on it aren’t even that large either. While the DEF buff does improve, the healing doesn’t, making it much less viable against any other source of damage. The main value is improving that initial wind-up, but the overall value is just not worth the cost.
Meanwhile, her S2 is a popular choice since it has a reasonable SP cost, but the problem is the Barrier decays too fast. At only three seconds, it often disappears before many enemies even attack again, and it’s not even especially strong in the first place. Mastery on it is at least decent though, dropping the SP cost significantly and adding another charge. It’s tough to use, but may still be a better day-to-day skill if you really love her.
Last, her S1 is a skill you probably shouldn’t bother with. The healing is theoretically better than S3 on a lower SP cost, but the cycle is still really bad. It also has some shockingly weak gains considering most launch 6★s had super strong Masteries! It’s firmly a waifu-only skill that you should probably only look at to show off your ability to waste resources.
Nightingale#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S3M3 | A- | A |
 | S2M3 | Breakpoint - S2M1 | |
| C | C | ||
Nightingale is one of those units that’s tough to rank. In her niche of defense against Arts damage, she can seem like the greatest unit in the game. In certain stages such as H8-4 or IS#4 ED3, she can seem downright vital! But that’s not a large chunk of the game, and outside of that she is merely “ok”, which for an expensive 6★, can be a tough sell. In the modern meta, Nightingale leans more towards the utility-tier of things. That is, she’s a unit that’s well worth raising, but not one of the first you should raise. There’s too many ultra powerful units these days to give a high priority to a “specific solution” sort of unit, even a great one like Nightingale, but she is still well worth owning and promoting once you take care of the more core roles in your team.
For that purpose, S3 is her primary skill and the only one worth consideration most of the time. The improvement on RES from the skill includes the 15 granted from her Talent, and since RES is a proportional reduction in damage (15 RES is 15% less damage taken), the improvement here is a significant reduction in damage from Arts sources, even on units with no RES at base. This is the key to almost all of Nightingale’s value!
Several things of note improve over Mastery too which makes it fairly valuable for this purpose. There is, of course, the all important RES buff. It improves by 6.75 minimum over Mastery, and if you’re tempted to think that isn’t much, remember that’s a proportional reduction. It’s an even larger gain for units with some base RES already. There’s also a notable improvement to her wind-up at S3M3. While 5 SP may not seem like a lot, in places she is used, it can be a make or break difference. Then of course there’s the improvement to her own healing and the Arts dodge, both of which can matter in these min-maxed situations.
If you are only interested in Nightingale for her meta value, you can stop there. As a general Medic, her utility can feel lacking when RES isn’t required, and as a 6★ she’s also quite expensive. However, if you want to get more regular use out of her (and she is fairly popular), then her S2 can be something to consider given S3’s super-duper long downtime. It’s nowhere near as reliable for Arts tanking, but the lower SP cost can make it more viable. Make note of a breakpoint at S2M1 which grants an extra charge. That’s worth grabbing even for very rare use.
Pass on her S1. It’s a generic skill of little value. It is mildly notable since her S2 doesn’t actually improve her healing at all, and S1 has a much shorter cycle than S3, but you’ll be far better off simply using someone else like Perfumer.
5★ Medics#
Record Keeper#
Record Keeper is one of those mildly forgettable types of units. He has a basic job that he does well enough, but not well enough to be special, and he has some utility that’s useful, but situational. So he’s nowhere near bad enough to tease, but not good enough to really recommend either. Pure healing Medics are one of the lowest value types of unit, so he’s not a unit you should probably spend the resources on Mastery, but there is some value here still.
S2 is his main skill, which contains his unique value. It provides a “heal on hit” effect similar to Ulpianus’s Talent 1. That sort of thing can seem absolutely absurd in some cases, sustaining against consistent low-hit damage when other Medics can’t, but anemic otherwise. It also boosts his own healing, further enhanced by his Talent, so in total it can make him a pretty nice Medic that peaks to great in some circumstances. However, that is situational, and he also doesn’t really need Mastery to do it. Mastery only enhances the heal-on-hit effect by 30 HP along with a tiny cycle improvement, so places SL7 won’t work but S2M3 will, are even rarer.
You could consider his S1 for Mastery as well if you particularly favor him. It doesn’t have the special value of his S2, but does make for a pretty decent, albeit expensive, regular Medic skill. His own S1 activations trigger his Talent SP gain (which doesn’t suffer from SP-lockout), so the uptime is better than it appears, plus gains more ASPD too. However, while it’s decent, it also can still have lowish-HPS if he’s only healing one target, especially compared to other 5★ Medics, so it ends up being mostly a husbando-tier of skill.
Nowell#
Nowell isn’t a bad unit, but he is a victim of the current game design and very situational non-healing utility. There has always been a value proposition problem with the 5★ Medics. Unless they do something special as with Warfarin or Ptilopsis, they just don’t justify the costs over the 4★s. And now that 4★s cost no Hope to recruit in IS, there is very little reason to raise a primarily healing 5★ Medic outside of personal desire. That’s the case here with Nowell.
But as said, he’s not bad either and he has some decent use cases. His best skill for that is his S2. While his HPS isn’t insane, it’s still fairly good and it can be applied on three targets at a very high uptime. Since the healing occurs in the form of a “buff” rather than as typical skill uptime, he begins to recharge immediately. At S2M3 he has 12 seconds up and only 8 seconds down, which is really good for both his HPS and for the Status Resistance. Notably, he can also apply the buff to full health Operators, while most other Therapists can’t do this since the Status Resistance is tied to their heal. However, all of that is rather situational at a relatively high cost, so, while viable, it remains a low priority.
His S2 is his special value, but if Nowell is a true husbando, you could consider his S1 as well. It doesn’t have any unique uses like his S2 does, so shouldn’t be Mastered for general use, but it does have fairly high ST HPS which may be useful if you really want to get the most use possible out of him.
Rose Salt#
Rose Salt is fairly powerful as far as pure-healing 5★ Medics go. While a lack of utility is a problem for most Medics, Rose Salt’s damage spread gimmick has a lot of potential. Suddenly, untankable hits can become quite tankable which is a valuable thing. However, it’s not a vital thing and that lack of utility means she’s most likely to be useful in niches. Further, with Hope reduction in IS, the 4★s are still the better healer investments.
Her main skill for that value is, of course, her S2 which is the only one with that damage mitigation. Mastery is fairly essential since it bumps that spread from 30% of damage dealt up to 50% which is a very impactful amount. Further, there’s a pretty significant improvement to her initial windup, dropping it from a troublesome 19 SP to a more manageable 9. It all gives Rose Salt a higher priority than you might expect from her class and rarity. However, be a little cautious. She is certainly not the easiest medic to use, and since her niche is that of pure healing, DPS should generally be prioritized higher.
Pass on her S1. While not an awful skill, her S2 has a far higher ceiling and a low SP cost. Given her lack of utility, there’s just not a lot of value in a skill like which has little upside over her S2. However, it does have a breakpoint at S1M1 that adds an extra charge which might be worth grabbing anyway.
Amiya (Medic)#
Amiya’s third iteration is yet another solid showing from our beloved daughter, and perhaps the most useful thanks to her viability in IS. Since she can be chosen on Caster, Guard, or Medic tickets regardless of form, plus now reduced Hope costs, she becomes the most accessible Medic option while also boasting strong sustain and True Damage utility. She is a strong M6 consideration but with very different uses so the better skill to start with will depend on what you’re doing.
Most people will probably want to start with her S2. Her Caster form S3 does quite a bit more damage so it should generally be used over it in the general game, but the situation flips in IS which is where Medicmiya has the most value. There, the much shorter wind-up on S2 is more valuable, but more importantly, it’s attached to her Medic form so you don’t have to choose between healing (swapping forms) or damage.
Her S1 is also a strong skill, both in and out of IS, and if you don’t care for IS at all, it is the starting point since her Caster S3 is the better True Damage source. It has an absurdly high SP cost which is odd in the modern game, but it also has a massive uptime of massive sustain. Her S1 alone is among the best HPS in the game, then adds her Talent on top. It’s an insane bit of sustain that makes the full M6 well worth considering.
And besides, she’s our beloved MC. You are doing the full M21 regardless, aren’t you?
Harold#
A Wandering Medic can be a useful tool to have, but they are rarely useful in multiples, so there are some investment considerations to be aware of which can’t be fully accounted for just in grades. See this write-up for some more in-depth discussion. Of them, Harold is the Welfare of the group, which may lead you to assume he’s the worst. And while it is true he tends to have the lowest ceiling among the 5★s, it’s not nearly as big of a gap as you might think, so if you’re in the market for a Wandering Medic, there’s a good chance Harold is your consideration!
His main skill is his S2. It simply performs better than his S1 on top of having additional utility for healing Elemental Injury, which is the whole reason you might be considering him in the first place. In fact, depending on the circumstances, the boosted Elemental healing can even have better results than the Berries at times. That isn’t universally true of course. The threshold risks the burst popping before he can become an effective healer and the uptime is much worse than his S1, but still, it is a strong Elemental healing effect that makes Harold a competitive choice considering his freely available Welfare status. The Mastery gains are significant too, with strong gains to ASPD, SP cost, and that all important Elemental healing.
Pass on his S1 which is a low-value generic skill. It has similar regular healing to his S2, but since it lacks any other defining feature, there is simply little reason to ever use it over S2.
Hibiscus the Purifier#
While not a special quantity outside of niches, Hibiscus the Purifier has enough going for her to be a pretty reasonable promotion. She does decent damage and healing, on top of some control, on a really fast cycle! It’s important to note before using her that her S2 is actually a lock-on skill. That’s both good and bad. On the downside, it means she can’t switch targets nor can she start to affect a target that comes into range after activation. Timing is important! It also means she can lose out on healing if both targets die which is already a problem Incantation Medics have. On the upside though, it can continue to track outside of her range, and it makes for a faster effective cycle since the skill ends if both targets die.
S2 is of course her main skill, and the only one worth considering. Mastery on it is pretty valuable too since the snare effect gets improved on top of the DPS/HPS improvement. Pass on her S1. Since her S2 cycles so fast (and has better DPS/HPS) there are few, if any, places it will come out ahead for.
Honeyberry#
A Wandering Medic can be a useful tool to have, but they are rarely useful in multiples, so there are some investment considerations to be aware of which can’t be fully accounted for just in grades. See this write-up for some more in-depth discussion. Of them, Honeyberry has by far the highest Elemental healing which can make her appealing if that is your only goal, but it comes at the expense of her regular healing. On top of the 600 Red Cert cost, she can be a daunting investment, albeit a quality one if you don’t have access to Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska.
While her regular healing is fairly weak, Honeyberry is so good at that raw Elemental healing role with her S1, that she will usually work sufficiently at SL7. Of course, it is always good to max out strong skills, and her S1 Masteries bring sizable total boosts. However, be aware that those boosts can be deceptive due to a quirk in her skill animations. S1M1 is not the breakpoint it first appears. Under constant pressure, it still activates every third attack, the same as it does at SL7, and since she cannot stack charges like Mulberry can, the benefit is usually lost. Instead, the real benefit is at S1M3 where the SP cost is reduced enough that she can activate S1 every two attacks, resulting in a large boost to her Elemental healing output.
Pass on her S2 Masteries entirely, unless you particularly favor using Honeyberry over better options. It can be useful to turn her into a wide range multi-target healer, but the output of it isn’t that strong. It doesn’t boost her Elemental healing beyond the basic ATK boost, it cycles relatively poorly, and the regular HPS just doesn’t match most other Medics. It can be useful to maximize the cute jumper, or occasionally in niches due to her range, but that’s about it.
Mulberry#
| Skill | Mastery | Story | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
 | S1M3 | Breakpoint - S1M1 | |
| B+ | B | ||
 | S2M2 | C | C+ |
A Wandering Medic can be a useful tool to have, but they are rarely useful in multiples, so there are some investment considerations to be aware of which can’t be fully accounted for just in grades. See this write-up for some more in-depth discussion. Of them, Mulberry is the one most useful if you’re playing in niches. Her regular HPS is actually very competitive, so she can do double duty from the Medic slot, providing decent Elemental healing on top of strong regular healing on a big range.
Mulberry has two good skills that split a somewhat typical burst vs consistency divide. This guide typically favors the burst skill in situations like this. However, in Mulberry’s case, her value is primarily in her consistent S1 which is very strong while her S2 has a flawed cycle time. Her S1M1 breakpoint is very valuable and it is reasonable to stop there in the short term, but it should eventually be pushed to the full M3. At S1M3, Mulberry can consistently maintain S1 activations for almost 75% of her heals, which gives her one of the highest consistent and conditionless ST HPS in the game (of course, keep in mind that many others can do higher for burst or under certain conditions).
Her S2 is still a valuable skill and worthwhile Mastery. For its duration, S2 has a better total effect against Elemental damage than her 5★ competitor Honeyberry does, but the long cooldown makes it much more situational. It also has far less necessary Masteries than S1, with her S2M3 being notably one of the worst upgrades for the price in the game. The interval reduction at M2 is valuable though, and worth pursuing in addition to S1M3, but the only reason to do S2M3 is for the sake of completionism.
Whisperain#
Whisperain is on the low side of priority. Unfortunately, the utility Therapists bring is just rather low in value, so she gets lost in the now huge raft of mostly healing Medics. However, she does have some pretty decent and consistent HPS, so she manages to eke out a Mastery grade, but just barely.
Her main skill to that effect is her S2. At S2M3 and Mod3, she can reach around 350 HPS with no downtime (after the wind-up anyway), plus more residual healing against multiple targets. That’s certainly not a crazy number, and it is an expensive investment too, but it is a solid one on top of the Status Resistance. However, the total of Mastery and Module only adds around ~20% of that, nor does the wind-up time significantly improve, so the gains themselves are on the weaker side. But the Status Resistance does gain a notable extension at S2M3, although that is only a situationally useful bit of her kit.
You could consider her S1 as well, although probably not more than the S1M1 breakpoint. It’s not a strong skill thanks to being Attack Recovery since Therapists have long intervals, but it can be useful if you really like Whisperain given S2’s long wind-up time. The S1M1 breakpoint is notably valuable, dropping that SP cost by 1 (effectively more than 2.85 seconds) and extending the Status Resistance. Beyond that though is only a small amount of healing, which her S2 does better anyway.
Ptilopsis#
Ptilopsis is a powerful unit. She’s one of those “launch mistakes” sorts that we probably won’t see again. She has a powerful bit of utility, reducing all Auto Recovery SP costs by a significant amount, that alone makes her worth promotion, but also has incredibly strong burst HPS which a lot of people tend to overlook. However, most modern meta units already have short downtimes which suppresses Ptilopsis somewhat from her peak. Further, as far as this guide goes, she doesn’t need Mastery for her utility anyway! For most people, a simple E2 for occasional use will suffice.
However, as said, Ptilopsis also has strong HPS and her S2 gains significantly over Mastery, so they may still be worth considering, albeit on the low end of priority. For whatever reason, the game doesn’t display exact interval numbers, so up to S2M2 the reduction is -1.9 seconds, which improves to -2.1 at S2M3. That may not seem like much, but is actually a 25% HPS improvement in an AoE on top of improvements to uptime and wind-up! It’s notable that this HPS increase only kicks in at S2M3, so if you invest in her Masteries, don’t go part way.
Her S1 is a generic skill that’s generally not worth considering, but it may have some use for niche players. The healing effect is overall weaker than her S2, but the cycle time is much better too. Given her SP field, the downtime can be as low as 22 seconds, a difference that can matter on rare occasions in those niche clears.
Warfarin#
Warfarin, before she migrates to Talos-II, is one of the most powerful Medics in the game, which is surprising considering that she’s a 5★. She bucks multiple trends, such as the overall weakness of buffing or weakness of healing on high-HP units, and combines them on top of a strong SP Talent. While none of those have exactly made her meta (it took a long time for any Medic to be considered that), it makes Warfarin one of the more powerful options. She is a highly flexible and fun unit that’s well worth the resources.
To that end, Warfarin has two great skills that have very different uses, and both are worth Mastery. Typically, her buff skill, S2, is the suggested starting point. Now, buff skills are not typically a suggestion. There’s a fundamental replacement value problem with them (is it better than just bringing a different second unit?) and that is still the case with Warfarin. However, Warfarin is one of the better choices because she’s a solid unit in a core role already! In most cases, we need Medics, and Warfarin is a strong one with her Talent, even with no skills, which gives her S2 some room where other buff skills tend to fall short. Mastery on it is about average, although there aren’t a lot of points of direct comparison either, and not all units are affected equally. Certain units will benefit quite a bit more than others from the increased ATK!
S1 meanwhile is her healing skill. These are typically low priority investments, but Warfarin’s is unique because it heals as a direct proportion of the target’s HP. This means the healing amount can be an incredible total! Especially with the rise of Crushers in the meta, Warfarin’s S1 is one of the few Medic skills that can keep up with them. Further, she reserves the charge until necessary which makes it a great source of emergency healing as well. The value of Mastery will depend on her target, however. Aside from an additional charge at S1M3, only the proportion of HP changes. On some targets, that will be negligible, but on others it can be massive, so the value will fluctuate somewhat with the rest of your team.
4★ Medics#
Purestream#
* Note that Purestream’s skills are graded assuming she has her WAH-Y Module at level 3. If you do not plan to get this Module fully upgraded, treat the priority of this skill significantly lower.
For low rarity Medic needs, Perfumer and Sussurro will have you covered for a vast majority of the game, and a far lower cost since they work great at just E1 SL7. However, when you become more established and have the ability to expand to more “flex” options, Purestream becomes a great alternative choice. She got a great Module that strongly enhances her healing potential that makes her a very viable option in a variety of circumstances, primarily niches and IS. However, that Module costs resources, as does the E2 promotion to unlock it, which makes Purestream less generally valuable than Perfumer and Sussurro, not to mention those two will also frequently be more effective.
To clarify a few things, Purestream is currently (as of this writing) getting a lot of attention due to the release of IS#6. This is because she counts as a Yan Operator for purposes of passing one of the Sui’s Remnant nodes. For this, she works fine at E1, despite her great Module, so don’t feel pressured to spend those extra resources if that’s your only goal. She is also less generally viable across the other iterations than Sussurro and Perfumer, so should be third in terms of overall 4★ IS Medic priority. However, there are various strategies where Purestream is viable as a promotion, so it’s definitely reasonable to go that extra mile as well.
That out of the way, both of her skills are viable Mastery targets, and the preference largely comes down to gameplay style and why you’re using her. S2 tends to be her favored skill in IS. The burst simply tends to be more useful there, despite the high SP cost. While S1 is also valuable, the relatively high SP cost for that type of skill tends to even things out in regards to S2’s downtime. Meanwhile, if you’re using her in niche clears, S1 tends to be favored. The high insta-heal for everyone in range is a useful tool for handling high burst damage mechanics that the lower rarities can sometimes struggle with, 4★s especially.
Sussurro#
Sussurro is a basic unit, but an extremely powerful one at that basic role. The combination of both a large ATK and a large ASPD increase on her S2, with a very manageable downside, makes for some incredibly high ST HPS. It makes her one of the first Medics many people raise in their careers, and often a mainstay well into later progression. Better, it’s a value she carries on into IS thanks to reduced Hope costs beginning with IS#5. Now, of course, she lacks a bit in ceiling. She only heals afterall, but for a 4★ that is totally fine and she does her job extremely well. In fact, about the only downside reason to not pursue E2 and Masteries with Sussurro is that they are simply unnecessary. She does that needed job perfectly fine at E1 SL7!
But some people do enjoy giving their 4★s that promotion for all their hard work, and Sussurro can justify it, especially for the low 4★ Mastery costs. S2 is, of course, her skill to that end. Mastery on it is very valuable too since both the ATK and the ASPD improve. Her HPS at S2M3 is actually significantly higher, which can be particularly valuable if you’re carrying her into your later progression.
It’s worth noting that this promotion is unnecessary for IS purposes. Sussurro is a very common pick in iterations where 4★s cost 0 Hope, but a large reason for that is she’s great at E1 already. E2 (and thus Masteries) costs additional Hope which is rarely worth it. It’s also worth a note to not be scared of the activation limit. While there are cases it can be a problem, most stages are just not long enough for it to matter, and the upsides of her burst healing are well worth it.
Pass on her S1. The healing and uptime are far worse than her S2. The only upside is that it doesn’t have an activation limit, but as mentioned, that rarely actually matters. Even for simps, her S1 will rarely, if ever, be useful.
Perfumer#
Among the 4★ Medics, Perfumer is the standout. AoE Medics are very strong by default, so even with no utility, she would still be valuable at the rarity, but as it happens she has a very powerful bit of utility to boot thanks to her global heal. This gives her tremendous value for all sorts of players, both new and old alike, a value that only extends further with the reduced Hope costs in IS. This alone will make her an appealing investment for many people!
However, Perfumer is somewhat odd in the world of Masteries. She is one of the few units whose Masteries don’t match her value as a unit. S2 is her more commonly used skill. The large ATK boost supercharges her global heal. But the difference between SL7 and M3 is largely negligible. It is only about 7 HP per second (max level, no Module) which only comes out to around 220 HP for the skill duration. Even for the low cost of a 4★ Mastery, that investment is a stretch. Were it not for this poor improvement, Perfumer’s Mastery grades would likely be A-tier. As it is, even the B given may be too generous.
In fact, her S1 may be worth a look instead. It does not buff her global heal by nearly as much, but has basically the same HPS as S2 on a much shorter cycle. It does not play into her niche as strongly as S2 does, but comes out ahead in more typical Medic usage.
4★ and 5★ Ungraded Medics#
Papyrus#
It’s tough to be a 5★ Medic with no utility. Their HPS isn’t usually enough higher to justify the costs over the very effective 4★ Medics. That’s even before considering IS value, but when you add that in, there’s basically no reason to consider the 5★s! Papyrus is one such victim of this game design choice. While her Barrier could be considered utility, it is effectively just HP, and in any case, she doesn’t have the numbers to warrant general consideration.
However, most of these healing Medics aren’t terrible either, so if Papyrus interests you, she is usable. In such a case, both skills are options and the difference is largely a playstyle choice since they both have similar net outcomes. S2 is a burst skill and the extra bounce along with the lock-on can allow her to reach out pretty far at times. However, it doesn’t cycle especially well with a fairly poor uptime compared to the SP cost. You also need to be very aware of the lock-on mechanic. Since she’s a Chain Medic, that can often leave her unable to heal some units if they aren’t clustered. S1 meanwhile is an AFK skill that many people will find appealing, and doesn’t have the troublesome lock-on. It has a nice effect per charge, although has a relatively high SP cost for skills of this type. Do note it has a minor breakpoint at S1M1 which drops the SP cost. These are usually pretty valuable, but since her base cost is higher, it isn’t as strong as it is on some similar units.
Vendela#
Vendela is a really weird unit because her art really looks like she should have been far more important to the story, but instead is just a side character for flavor with no broader relevance. Are we just supposed to ignore that she appears to also be wearing a black Originium crown like the literal main character? It makes one wonder what the original plan was! In any case, she has an interesting idea behind her kit, but ultimately doesn’t do enough in any aspect to be effective. The idea is to give taunt to your tank while also granting some reflect damage and healing. However, her uptime is pretty poor, and both the reflect and her healing are nowhere near enough to be relevant, and that’s on top of the other problems Incantation Medics usually have.
If you’d like to try to make her work anyway, S2 is her skill to start with which has those mentioned features. However, the gains are pretty weak. She only gains 5% base ATK over Mastery which is a shockingly low total. Instead, most of the gains are on the reflect portion which is far more situational and still a pretty low total. If you really love her, you could consider her S1 too. Her personal DPS/HPS will be slightly higher with it and on a better uptime, but it doesn’t have any special value either.
Paprika#
It’s tough to be a 5★ Medic with no utility. Their HPS isn’t usually enough higher to justify the costs over the very effective 4★ Medics. That’s even before considering IS value, but when you add that in, there’s basically no reason to consider the 5★s! Paprika is one such victim. The only utility she even vaguely has is the potential reach of Chain Medics, but it’s far from enough for her to be relevant. Instead she is effectively just an AoE Medic who does nothing but heal.
However, her healing numbers are decent, so if she appeals to you (such as to fill out a Darknights team) she is certainly usable. In such a case, favor her S2. Her two skills have similar HPS before accounting for her Talent, but when you include her Talent, S2 comes out pretty significantly ahead. The improved threshold on S2 means it easily triggers most bounces which gives it a significant edge, plus it gets an additional bounce too. Since they also cycle similarly, this means there’s relatively little reason to consider her S1. However, it may come in use now and then for the true simps.
Tuye#
Tuye is a pretty cool unit thematically. Like a camel, she stores her water¹ until needed, which she then uhh spits on you. Err, I mean, turns into emergency healing. The idea behind her main skill, S2, is that it’s an ammo skill from before ammo was a mechanic. She essentially gets three shots which she reserves for emergency healing, and while holding them, gets some boosted regular healing, and further the threshold means she’s more likely to trigger her Talent. It’s not a bad concept! But unfortunately, the numbers aren’t really enough to make her viable. The emergency heal is a good total, but requires the target actually landing between 20% HP and dead. In the dangerous high-pressure situation she’s meant for, that isn’t guaranteed. Further, she has a very long wind-up time, and pure-healing Medics are just of limited value in the first place!
You could consider her S1 as well if you really like her, however it’s much less special. It requires a lot of micromanagement, and doesn’t enhance her own healing. Further, her S2’s passive healing (before the emergency burst) is solid already. However, if well placed, S1 can be used to a decent effect to eat up part of a big hit.
¹ Yes, I know it’s actually fat.
Folinic#
Folinic is a really cool character, so I’ve always been disappointed HG never did much meaningful with her after ToW. That has nothing to do with Masteries, I just wanted to complain about it a little bit. In any case, Folinic was the original Harmacist, well before Incantation Medics were ever formally a thing. Unfortunately, neither her DPS or HPS has ever been particularly good, so even when she was new, Folinic was a desire-only tier of Medic.
If she appeals to you, both skills are options since they fill different roles and are both competent enough at their respective jobs to be usable. S2 is definitely her more unique use and is that OG Harmacist skill, and that fact is probably what most people will want out of her. S1 meanwhile is a typical Medic skill. It doesn’t have especially great HPS, but is novel in that it has a big range. Make note of an S1M1 Breakpoint that adds even more range. It’s not great by the standards of Medic skills, so Mastery beyond that will only be for those who want to use Folinic on every team possible.
Breeze#
Breeze is carried by her archetype. AoE Medics are basically functional by default even with no Talents or Skills! However, that’s where the upside ends. Her skills are poor, she has no utility, she’s worse than the 4★, Perfumer, who is also an IS mainstay, and she costs 600 Red Certificates to boot. This all means there’s no reason to promote Breeze, however, like many in this ungraded Medic section, she is functional if you like her.
If that’s you, favor her S1 for Mastery. Both skills are actually usable, but S2 has a horrific SP cost, which relegates it to some pretty extreme niche use. S1 meanwhile actually cycles pretty well! The loss of a target is a bit of a problem (AoE Medics only target 3 to begin with) but it has a high enough HPS to make up for it. S2 meanwhile has two advantages, but aren’t easy to set up nor enough to justify the SP cost usually. Technically it has a longer range than most AoE Medics since the splash can reach out further (although Chain Medics can now do this too). It can also theoretically hit more targets than a typical AoE Medic if your units are bunched together. However, as said, the SP cost means it’s effectively unusable most of the time, so her S2 is much more fringe.
Ceylon#
Ceylon is one of the original Year 1 mistakes. As a 5★, she costs way too much for some pretty weak effects, and most of her Talent effect is literally valueless in 99.9% of the game. There’s very little reason to raise her, even in niches. If you do want to raise her, both skills are potential options, but favor her S2. It can apply Status Resistance to all in range without actually healing which is relatively novel. However, there are better options for this, and it is extremely niche to begin with. The only truly unique part of it is she’s the only one that can give Status Resistance to summons, but that is even more niche! That isn’t useful very often at all, but the novelty is more than some of the bad units can boast. However, it has one of those “Year 1 mistake SP costs”, so bigger simps may find value in her S1 instead. The healing effect on it is quite weak, but it’s at least more usable day to day than 80 SP is.
Silence#
Of the many ungraded units in this guide, Silence is one of the best, if not the best. She’s an unusual case where she’s down here solely because her Masteries are horribly bad and make almost no difference to her use! Silence’s value is in her S2 drone. It gives her both great burst healing and a lot of flexibility in that she can place it almost anywhere on the map. It lets her cover a lot of space that would otherwise take multiple Medics and occupy a lot of team slots which can make her quite valuable for someone who only heals! However, for purposes of this guide, Mastery does not affect the healing output of her drone at all. The only factor that does affect the healing of the drone is her level, so the only benefit of an expensive 5★ Mastery is a mere 4 seconds of cycle time! That can matter for the more min-maxed niche players out there, but for most, it will literally never be relevant. Investment into Silence beyond E1 SL7 is simply unnecessary!
Pass entirely on her S1 which has no special value. Even for pure healing it will rarely, if ever, surpass the healing output of her S2, which cycles incredibly fast.
Chestnut#
It is sometimes asked by newer players if they should invest into Chestnut (spoiler, don’t). After all, the other 4★ Medics are often heavily suggested and the availability of the higher rarity Wandering Medics varies quite a bit. There also tends to be a lot of advice from older players that suggests Wandering Medics aren’t necessary at all. So the question is a somewhat natural one. Why not go with the cheapest option?
Well, the answer to that is because Chestnut is awful. If anything, he just reinforces the concept that you don’t need a Wandering Medic at all because even for 4★-only niches, it’s better to just play around or heal through the effects! There is almost no value in Chestnut who fails to even be a basic Medic.
He’s the sort of bad that it’s hard to even make a skill suggestion with because both are so flawed. S1 has no effect on his own healing, leaving him just reliant on his own auto-attacks which is a negligible amount. S2 meanwhile does improve his healing, but restricts his own range (usually an advantage of Wandering Medics) on top of a horrific SP cost. There’s just so little value in either skill that he’s one of very few units in this guide with no skill suggestion at all!
It’s worth a quick note that Chestnut has seen some use in IS#5. Again, this can trick some people into thinking he’s valuable. However, this use was solely because of his range which made him a 0-Hope option for ED4’s gimmick. The use is very far from enough to warrant special consideration.
Gavial#
Sussurro, Perfumer, and Purestream are pretty far and away the best 4★ Medics and those three will be all you ever really need. However, if you want to extend beyond that for whatever reason, Gavial is the next best. While her numbers are a lot less special than Sussurro’s, her HPS is surprisingly solid for her rarity. Both skills have the same effect, but her S1 is much better for achieving this because it has a great uptime. Even under constant pressure, it’s 5 up for an 8 SP cost, so only 3 seconds down, which can make it a decent choice. Pass on her S2 though. While the low-HP burst is higher, the uptime is way way worse, which makes it nearly unusable.
Myrrh#
The 4★ Medics are a pretty stacked group, with two exceptions. One is Chestnut, but the other is Myrrh. Given how valuable Sussurro, Perfumer, Purestream, and even Gavial are, there’s almost no reason to consider raising Myrrh who doesn’t have any special value. If you want to raise her anyway, for whatever reason, neither skill is amazing, but S2 will have better effects. Despite the higher SP cost, it has much better healing, which is rather low on S1. Further, the Mastery gains on her S1 are notably poor and even the Breakpoint at S1M1 which reduces the SP cost doesn’t warrant a label in the grade box.