A2 Early Analysis

Basic Info

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Skill 1: Output Increased

Activates when using Burst Skill. Affects self.
Charge Damage ▲ 110.44% for 15 sec
Explosion Radius ▲ 100.74% for 15 sec.

A good skill that starts at pretty high values. Meaning high investment won’t really be needed. This activates right after using burst. It gives an effective other case of final damage multiplier which is very welcomed, her explosion radius also helps when trying to hit multiple parts, while also having a nifty +7.2%~ additional total normal attack modifier when compared to laplace (second highest Rocket launcher Modifier), which certainly aids her DPS a bit.

Her base explosion radius is 50% more than a regular Rocket launcher, splash range isn’t usually an issue. But can help a lot in campaign mode or to hit spaced parts on bosses easier (E.G. Nihilister). Motherwhale’s parts is too spaced out to hit all the parts, at least with low-mid investment, but she can hit around 4 parts (3 guns + core part) and body. The uptime for this skill varies from how much burst gen the team does and if Cooldown reduction units are used, but usually it’s around ~50% with a proper team and bursting with her when she’s off cooldown.

Do note that while her explosion radius is rather huge, don’t expect it to hit every rapture on screen for campaign. There’s still vertical distance (close, mid, far~) that explosion radii does need to consider, but she’s certainly going to hit almost everything in a certain range distance and row

Note: Charge damage does not increase the time needed to charge, it’s always based on a set time no matter the value unless charge speed is factored. The set time is seen in Nikke Stat viewer.

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Skill 2:

Activates when hitting a target with Full Charge. Affects the target.
Deals 30.1% of final ATK as additional damage.
Activates when hitting a target with Full Charge. Affects self.
Damage to Parts ▲ 40.88% for 3 sec.
Affects self.

A Basically permanent Damage to parts multiplier, which synergizes pretty well with her skill 1. The extra damage at full charge would’ve been a nice addition to damage and additional burst gen for bosses. As her skill also acts like a “secondary” hit which gives as much burst generation as a normal shot/hit per target.

However, this additional instance of damage only ticks once per target, no matter how many parts, which certainly hurts her DPS and burst generation values a little for bosses. If there is multiple raptures in one screen (campaign), all targets hit will receive the additional damage proc. This means she would be a pretty good burst generator for campaign while being able to deal damage. This does free up a burst 2 slot which is usually slotted for a burst generator or assists blanc team’s burst generation for bunny team.

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Burst: Mode B

Affects self.
Mode B:
Own HP decreases every second while ATK and Charge Speed increase.
If own HP dips below 40%, Mode B is deactivated
Effect 1:Current HP ▼ 3.99% every I sec.
Effect 2:ATK ▲ 15.19%
Effect 3:Charge Speed ▲ 35.88%.

A unique burst, it can remain active permanently as long as health is maintained above 40%. This can easily be mitigated with, you guessed it, Bunny team. Blanc is easily able to outheal the self inflicted emotional damage A2 brings upon herself. There are other healers that can be used, but as A2’s current HP drain gets lowered per burst level, some healers would need higher investments to be able to rotate and manage her HP so her buffs don’t drop. I’ll list them accordingly.

Comfy, Easy to Maintain

Blanc,Rapunzel,Mary: Bay Goddess

• All three units can just do their things, and A2’s health should be properly maintained.

Harder, Manual Play/Rotations, Proper burst gen, or needs Skill investments for 2A Burst (8+) and Healers (5+)

Helm,Noise,Pepper

• Helm = Needs burst gen, and High A2 burst to be able to cycle through her burst again right before A2’s buff expires, this assumes A2 doesn’t get hit once. A2 also needs to burst second so Cooldown effect units can ramp up their stacks.
• Noise = Same reasoning as Helm
• Pepper = Needs to fully stack her skill so her burst is able to heal.

Note: Shield Nikke’s don’t reduce her HP drain, it “pierces” through their shield, don’t even try. It also pierces through Noah’s burst.

Very Cope

Quency,Yuni,Folkwang

• Quency = A2 needs to burst second, Buff will drop earlier than half way through the round (Basically permanently), even with high investments. Buff will drop even earlier if hit. Last resort /Team 5 Solo raid option.
• Yuni = Can heal A2 to the point where her burst can last pretty long if both Yuni and A2 has rather high investments (8+) IF the boss has 2-3+ parts consistently, and the boss is a vegetable and never fights back. Proper Overload rolls are also definitely needed to make this smoother. Quency is the better cope option if A2 is not well raised/ hyper invested. Last resort/Team 5 Solo raid option.
• Folkwang = Can provide strong healing, but in return, forces a 1-2-2 team composition. Which is usually not wanted as running this formation more often than not results in DPS loss.

Animation Delay

A2 is a victim Shift-Up’s (most likely) first Anti-macro mechanic. While it states that A2 has a 1s charge time, she has a delay of around 61~ Frames (60 fps mode), which is just over a second. This includes the swing and getting ready to charge up. This gets reduced to 37 frames (Over half a second) when her burst is active. this means she fires at a rate of 0.49 Bullets per second, and slightly faster than Normal Rocket launcher firing speed (0.79 Bullets per sec~ on auto) During burst at high skill investments, even with the increased charge speed. Suffice to say, This mechanic is a nerf towards her damage

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Campaign

A2 is a pretty great campaign clearer due to reasons stated in skill 1 and 2. She is able to hit most Raptures in screen while doing good damage. In fact, she’s still able perform well at late campaign/ High Combat power deficits given she doesn’t get focused by enemies. However, she is pretty much glued to the bunnies to accomplish these feats. Luckily she also fixes one of the main problems of bunny team in late game campaign, which is rather low burst gen (if not using Alice). As long as there’s a high density of raptures (Hard mode campaign), she excels in burst generation and consistent damage

As A2 is a Core DPS in the team, she needs to be raised pretty well to excel in campaign usage.

Liter,Blanc,A2,Noir

-B1 Subs: Volume
-B2 Subs: Lol No.
-B3 Flex Highly Recommended: Scarlet, Modernia, Alice
-Usable: Maxwell, 2B, Harran, other preferred DPS.

Or:

Pepper,Dolla, A2,Scarlet

-B1 Subs: Mary Bay Goddess (Limited)
-B2 Subs: Helm : Aquamarine
-B3 Flex Highly Recommended: Modernia,
-Usable: Maxwell, Drake, other preferred DPS.

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Arena

Initially thought to be very strong here, however her burst gen is not nearly as strong as expected. This is due to 3 reasons.

• Animation delay as mentioned, it also affects her in arena
• She can only hit 3 Nikke’s normally despite her increased base explosion Radius outside of burst
• Her skill 2 does not proc against cover. To Further clarify, her skill 2 was expected to work like Nihilister where enemy cover is counted as a separate “Target”, but it doesn’t. This means instead of 12 damage ticks (3 Nikke’s + 3 Cover hits x 2 from skill 2 proc) it’s only 9. Each damage tick is 1.3% of total burst gen bar.

It’s pretty bad to the point where Clip reload shotguns offer more burst generation. However she’s still usable if there’s no other burst generation users available.

How’s her DPS during burst? Well, she’s able to hit all units at level 7 skill 1 at position 1 or 5 (most left or most right), but her DPS isn’t good enough to justify her being the main DPS carry of the team, and will most likely be out DPS’d pretty fast.

TLDR: She’s not great.

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Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid

Special Intercept

Despite all reasons above, she still performs rather well in special intercept, as most bosses have parts there. She does heavily rely on OL ATK lines for her to perform very well, and paired with a healer. Do note bosses such as Modernia and Chatter box will give her trouble. This is because of her being able to destroy parts rather easily, and due to the nature of the bosses, the player will get punished for destroying said parts. But there are a few work arounds.

Chatter Box

In Full Burst Mode, never aim for core, her splash is enough to hit all parts. Aim for the body or focus on destroying sides if needed for survivability. Destroying Core enables Chatterbox to do a one shot move to the whole team.

Modernia

Destroying all parts will force her to teleport around the place, but there is a mechanic called “wing-skip”, which skips the teleportation phase, it’s basically destroying the wing as she goes back to prepare missile barrage. The timing is rather very strict, so practice is required. A quick tip is to leave wing HP very low, and have full burst ready. When she’s about to fly back, finish it off, refer to video below.

Union Raid

Rather tricky topic. most parts for Union raid are HELLA squishy. Therefore she won’t be able to take advantage of what she’s literally made for. Very doubtful she’d be used in Union Raid often. To put things into perspective

in almost equal playing grounds of one another. A2 needs consistent 3 damage ticks (excluding s2 proc) to exceed Scarlet’s damage. Any less than that at any given time will dampen her DPS by quite a lot.

Solo Raid

Her best team right now is when she’s able to be used is Bunny team. Which she can do very well in assuming good skill investments and preferred OL Stat lines and 2+ boss parts. She’d only want 1 or at most 2 Stat lines of Max ammo (2 if Charge speed rolls are present) when using her mostly with bunny team. Why? She never needs to reload.

If bunny team isn’t able to be used, just slap in your usual Cooldown reduction unit, one of the healers mentioned prior, ATK buffers such as Privaty/Maxwell and Taunter if the boss demands it.

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Strengths

• Pretty great campaign unit, Especially Early-Mid game
• Scales well with ATK, Charge SPD stat lines for overloaded gear
• Great damage against bosses with parts
• Not too skill book hungry
• Tummy
• God tier Midriff

Weaknesses

• Definitely needs a healer function
• Single target damage is low
• Mr. Beast burst pose

Notes

Although, not really weaknesses, but things to keep in mind.

There are similar “multi-hitting” units that can outperform her under optimal manual play, and assuming all Nikke’s are highly invested (Skill levels at optimal levels, Overloaded gear), even at around 2-3 parts.

• Alice, Maxwell (if clustered parts, slightly common), Snow white (If clustered parts, slightly common).
• These units also outperform her in single target/No parts as well.

Alice,Maxwell,Snow white

• There are not many implemented/re-used bosses that go beyond 3+ Parts, which would let A2 out-DPS mentioned units. Although such bosses are: Nihilister, Motherwhale.
• She’s limited, so dupes will be impossible to get.

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Should You Pull?

Yeah, She’s good enough to warrant a copy, a good niche boss killer unit that won’t immediately ask for tons of investment to do good. Campaign clearing is also a pretty strong suite of hers, which would definitely help newbie players get through the game.

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Temporary Rating

Category	Rating
Overall	8.75 (S+)
Story	9.0 (S+)
Bosses	9.0 (S+)
Arena	8.0 (A)

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Recommended Harmony Cube

Resilience = Pre- OL
Bastion = Post- OL, Max ammo lines.

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Skill Priority

Nikke	Skill1	Skill2	Burst	Notes
A2	7	7	7	All skills pretty much synergize with each other, and hold almost equal value.

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Overload Gear Priority

Attribute (Sub-Stat)	Priority	Recommended	Notes
Increase Element Damage Dealt	★★★★☆	2-4x	Situationally useful
Increase Hit Rate	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	Useless on RL’s
Increase Max Ammunition Capacity	★★☆☆☆	1-2x	Reload speed is fast, her attack speed is rather slow as well. Not too needed
Increase ATK	★★★★★	4x	Absolutely wants ATK rolls
Increase Charge Damage	★★★☆☆	1-2x	—
Increase Charge Speed	★★★★☆	3-4x	Benefits slightly less because of animation delay.
Increase Critical Rate	★★☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Critical Damage	★★☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase DEF	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—

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Hehe.

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Thanks to Kisenix (Prydwen) for colluding | Assists on the review