Cinderella: Crystal Wave Analysis – Should You Pull?

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Overview

• B3 Iron MG Pilgrim Attacker with a great focus on damage.
• Her single-target DPS is ridiculously high thanks to her self-buffing, wide spread of buffs, great innate weapons and abilities.
• Even though she is intended to primarily deal single-target damage, her DPS is overwhelming enough to deal with crowds of enemies as well, especially when Burst is ready.
• Provides good Burst generation thanks to S1, making her effective in team setups that would otherwise have weak Burst generation, such as teams lacking SRs or RLs.
• Has the power to either greatly damage enemies with a core, or deal with enemies that have parts, by swapping between her MG or SR, respectively.
• Swapping weapons is somewhat cumbersome; since MG is a better general weapon and her SR lacks a unique, damaging activation effect, it should only be swapped to against targets that lack a core, or have many parts to take advantage of its Parts destruction.
• Unfortunate confirmation that 1% Limited units will be a thing, and that Dorothy: Serendipity, wasn’t a one-time occurence.
• Beautiful.

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Should You Pull?

Yes… and no. If you’re short on mileage, you must secure a copy of her ASAP with whatever pulls you can scrounge up. Since she is a limited summer unit, she will not return until the next year, so if you miss her, and you find yourself lacking in damage in some situations, you’ll regret not having pulled for her if you had the chance.

Her damage is seriously some of the best; tests have shown it to be better than Rapi: Red Hood’s (Rapipi), even in neutral settings, especially if the boss has a core. If the boss lacks a core and has many parts, she can swap to SR to keep maintaining this advantage.

However, as a 1% unit, it’s much riskier to pull for her compared to the more standard 2% units. Since it would be a huge drain of resources if you use up many, or even all your pulls, and fail to obtain her, it is generally better to use Mileage as soon as possible, and don’t bother pulling. While that is the smart thing to do, if you wish to get more copies, I don’t blame you, especially since you won’t get another chance until next year.

Even with the rebate that her banner has, it will not exactly help the average player, due to the amount of pulls required to get some Advanced Vouchers returned. For this reason, I recommend using mileage first, if available, then go for as many pulls until you can secure at least one copy.

Remember, it’s better to settle for one copy unless you can afford to use more, as each individual body will only result in a ~2% stat increase. While it can and will add up and compound in strength as you level up, it is generally better to save resources for future units that either approach her potential, or open up greater team synergies as time progresses.

However, if you still decide to unwisely pull for more copies, it’s acceptable for such a powerful unit, especially since she won’t be Wishlistable when her banner ends, and won’t be available until the following year.

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Newbie/Incomplete Box Section

Cinderella: Crystal Wave (sCindy, Sindy) is a B3 Iron MG Pilgrim Attacker that focuses on dealing great damage to single targets and being very beautiful. Every time I think the time for neutral DPS viability is coming to an end, a unit has to show up to prove me otherwise. Earlier this year, it was Neon: Vision Eye, and now comes Cinderella: Crystal Wave.

It’s all the skill card preview in the summer livestream had to say, and yet, it said enough.

Anyway, even though she is primarily meant to deal damage to single targets and be a DPS, she still has some utility. Thanks to her S1’s final effect, she has better than expected Burst generation for the team, allowing her to compensate for a team setup that has poor Burst generation, such as a team having no RL or SR.

Her Decoy from S2 lets her tank single-target damage for the team, making her more durable than the average Attacker. This is especially true when one considers how most Raptures are programmed to target the Nikke with the highest ATK, which she can easily end up being with enough investment.

In spite of her huge DPS focus, she brings more to the table than just damage, albeit, the amount of damage she outputs is seriously a lot. She is a must-get even outside of Iron-weak content.

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Basic Information

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Normal Attack Information

Cinderella is the first Nikke to have two weapons available to use, with both being potentially permanent for the rest of combat, unlike other weapon transforms, where it’s temporary; Her innate MG, and her SR that is obtained from S1 after following its instructions.

It should be noted that because she is classified as a Machine Gun unit, even if she is using her Sniper Rifle, effects that are exclusive to Sniper Rifles will not affect her. When she switches to her SR, its ammo count does not benefit from MG Collection Item/Doll’s Max Ammo Capacity up, as it is an effect exclusive to MG.

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Funny how Mode Swap is her S2, but the majority of her weapon swap effects are tied to S1.

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Skill 1: Beauty-Full

Activates upon reloading to max ammunition while in the Preparation for Change state.
Changes the weapon in use: Snipe Mode
Charge Time: 1 sec
Damage: 62.13% of final ATK
Full Charge Damage: 250% of damage
Max Ammunition Capacity: 15 rounds (max ammunition effect refreshes after reloading)
Additional Effect 1: Gains Pierce.
Additional Effect 2: Activates when performing a Full Charge attack.
Expends ammo. Amount: 40 round(s).
Additional Effect 3: Charge time is fixed at 1 sec.
Removal Condition: Reloading to max ammunition while in the Preparation for Change state.
Activates at the start of battle. Affects self.
Beauty-Full: Attack Damage ▲ 24% continuously.
Activates upon reloading to max ammunition. Affects self.
Preparation for Change: Reload time is fixed at 3 sec for 6 sec. Removed upon firing the last bullet.
Activates every 5 sec. Affects the enemy unit nearest to the crosshair.
Deals 900% of final ATK as damage.
Activates each time total ammo consumed by allies reaches 200. Affects all allies. Fills Burst Gauge by 12%.

This S1 is so full of differing effects. We need to start with its most unique effect: the weapon change mechanic. Whenever Sindy reloads her weapon to max ammo, she will give herself a debuff called Preparation for Change, which intentionally changes her reload speed to a fixed 3 seconds, for 6 seconds.

2.5 sec x 1.2 = 3 sec. No Reload Speed buffs can reduce this time.

This graphic will appear next to Sindy as well, to signifiy she still has the debuff available.

Since Sindy does not start with the Preparation for Change debuff, she must perform at least 1 regular reload before she is able to swap weapons, and expend some ammo before reloading, as a reload has to actually occur, not just peeking out of cover for a moment and taking cover again.

If she fails to perform the reload within the 6 second debuff timeframe, she will not change weapon, even if the reload was initiated within the Preparation for Change debuff time window. It has to be noted that because it requires Sindy to reload her ammo partway into a magazine, it is nearly impossible to activate this in auto-play. It should be manualed.

If she fires off a last bullet, or fires for longer than 6 seconds, the debuff goes away, allowing her to stick to her weapon of choice. As we will see with Skill 2, her default MG, since it’s overall a better weapon, should be mainly considered her main weapon, while her SR should be considered a niche to use against bosses with a lot of parts to hit and/or lack a core.

The Sniper Rifle has slightly below average base damage, but in exchange, its base ammo count is incredibly high and she does not take attempt to take cover in between shots, making it easy to use in auto play. Every shot it fires will also count as firing 40 ammo, which comes into play with the last part of her S1.

Sindy gives herself a permanent 24% Attack Damage buff, which adds up nicely with her own self-buff from Burst, as well as buffer allies. Every 5 seconds, Sindy deals 900% of final ATK as damage to a single enemy nearest the crosshair, which gives her a DPS boost of 180% per second, which contributes alongside either weapon she uses. This effect can also happen even if she is taking cover and/or reloading.

For every 200 ammo expended by the team, Sindy will fill the Burst Gauge by 12%. Similar to Little Mermaid (Siren), this allows Sindy to provide great Burst gen regardless of team choice, especially since she herself is the MG this time around. At 1 ammo per frame, a single MG will expend 200 ammo within 3.33s at 60 FPS. At 30 FPS with Fire Rate Adjustment Option enabled, which has MGs fire at 54/s, this will instead occur every ~3.7s.

Skill 2: Mode Swap

Activates at the start of battle and when using Burst Skill. Affects self.
Decoy: Creates an avatar with 70.34% of the skill user’s final Max HP. This effect is continuous.
Activates at the start of battle. Affects self.
ATK ▲ 29% continuously.
Activates when Snipe Mode takes effect. Affects self.
Destroy: Damage to Parts ▲ 26.21% continuously.
Removes Pinpoint.
Activates at the start of battle and when Snipe Mode is removed. Affects self.
Pinpoint: Damage dealt when attacking core ▲ 26% continuously.
Removes Destroy.
Activates when entering Full Burst after this unit uses her Burst skill.
Effect varies according to this unit’s current mode. Only one effect is applied.
Activates while in Snipe Mode. Affects all enemies (including parts).
Effect 1: Deals 1189.66% of final ATK as damage.
Activates while not in Snipe Mode. Affects all enemies with activated cores.
Effect 1: Deals 833.79% of final ATK as core strike damage.

At the start of combat, and whenever Sindy uses her Burst, she will generate a Decoy, just like her default counterpart. In spite of its lower scaling by comparison, and her base HP being much lower than a Defender, as she is an Attacker, it still gives her great durability against single target damage. Don’t expect her to be as durable as her original version, though! It should be noted that the Decoy doesn’t work against moves Raptures have that hit all Nikkes.

Outside of Rapture AoE moves, however, the Decoy gives Sindy excellent survivability against single-target attacks from Raptures. Since a lot of Raptures are programmed to target the Nikke with the highest ATK, it makes Sindy a great distraction against them if she is invested in enough, and has the ATK in the team. (As if her beauty wasn’t already distracting enough)

Sindy gives herself a permanent 29% ATK buff, which, similar to the S1 Attack Damage buff, adds up nicely with all her self-buffs and buffs from support units. If Sindy is using her default MG, she will gain a slight boost to her Core Damage; since damage to core is already at 200%, +26% is just over a 10% increase to core damage. If she is using her SR, she will instead deal +26.21% damage to parts.

When Sindy uses her Burst in MG mode, she will deal a big 833.79% final ATK as damage that is affected by Core Damage bonuses to all enemies. This means that with her default 226% core damage, it deals a big 1942.73% damage instead. This form of dealing damage is currently unique to her, and is yet another part as to why her damage is so incredible, all these bonus effects and damage buffs coming together.

It should be noted that this effect will NOT activate on enemies that do not have a core. It will also activate against enemies that have a core that is considered a part; while it will still deal damage, it will not damage the core part itself.

If she is in SR mode, she will deal 1189.66% damage to everything, including their parts, if they have any. This damage is boosted by Parts Damage bonuses if it hits a part, similar to a unit like Raven, or Vesti: Tactical Upgrade, who have the same effect on their burst, except for Sindy, it’s on an ability that activates alongside her Burst.

The damage that hit Ultra’s poison sacks did a bit more than the damage that hit the main body, thanks to Sindy having some Parts damage by default.

Burst: Glass Slippers Full Contact W

Cooldown: 40.0s

Affects self.
Attack Damage ▲ 92% for 10 sec.
ATK ▲ 65% for 10 sec.
Affects the enemy with the highest final ATK.
Deals 6000% of final ATK as Burst Skill damage.

Her simplest skill is saved for last. She gives herself a huge 92% Attack Damage buff and a great 65% ATK buff, which multiply with each other excellently, add up with all her other self-buffing from S1 and S2, and as mentioned before, stack up well with buffs from buffers.

She will also deal a giant 6000% of final ATK to the enemy with the highest final ATK. This is before considering all the buffing that she is receiving, which will boost its damage tremendously, alongside all the other damaging effects she has, it’s no wonder her DPS is so incredible.

Possible bug with the Burst Skill Damage

The damage of the Burst skill does not take into consideration buffs that activate when entering Full Burst. While this can occur with other Nikkes, in this case, it’s a lot more unusual, because her Burst skill is worded and structured like Burst skills which can receive buffs that activate when entering Full Burst, with the damage portion of the skill being listed last, and not by itself.

At the very least, her S2 is still able to receive Full Burst buffs. (I guess some things just don’t change, just like default Cinderella)

Sindy’s Burst (excluding S2 damage portion) dealing identical damage with either team setup, in spite of Helm (Treasure) having an ability in her S2 that gives 27.87% Attack Damage to all allies on the team when entering Full Burst.

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Campaign

Even though Sindy is mostly meant to be a single-target DPS monster with how the majority of her skill set works, she has great potential in campaign. Her single target DPS allow her to chip away at high priority targets, including the damage from her weapon and S1 activation effect every 5 seconds. For campaign, she should stick to her MG as her weapon of choice.

Her S1 Burst generation effect gives her good utility in campaign if your team setup needs to meet some Burst gen timing criteria. Her S2 decoy give her the ability to tank damage better than any other Attacker. Since most Raptures are programmed to attack the Nikke with the highest ATK, if Sindy is invested in enough, she will be able to make a lot of Rapture attacks pointless, especially if given support through shields or heals.

Her Burst, while its main damage portion will mostly hit a single high priority target most of the time (higher level Raptures in maps tend to have the highest ATK), is very valuable in campaign nonetheless thanks to it activating the last part of S2. Specifically, the MG version of the ability that can deals core damage. Since the bulk of enemies in campaign have a core to hit, Sindy can effectively wipe the screen out on her own with Burst activation.

Thanks to how much self-buffing she gives herself, her damage will remain relevant even as you climb up campaign deficit, in spite of lacking true damage, similar to Rapipi. It will take incredibly high deficits before Sindy’s damage is irrelevant, and even when the campaign deficit is high enough to render it weak, her Burst generation supplement and Decoy can still come in handy.

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Arena

Do not use Sindy in PvP. MG is a weak weapon archetype in PvP settings by default. While her Burst does deal great damage to one Nikke, since Nikkes do not have a ‘core’ to hit for the purposes of damage calculation, her S2 will not activate in Arena.

Since Nikkes can’t perform partial reloads in PvP, she is stuck to using her MG, which is unfortunate, as her SR with Pierce and S2 being capable of hitting opposing Nikkes would’ve made SR Sindy more usable in Arena, but alas.

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Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid

Where she shines the most. Her single target damage is some of the highest in the game, only beat out by Neon: Vision Eye currently.

Her great weapon archetype for bossing, on top of all her damaging buffs, and all the damage effects she can output against her targets from all three of her abilities really push her over the edge.

Since the majority of bosses have a core to hit, and MG is the best weapon type in the game, she should stick to her default weapon against most bosses. Her SR should be considered a niche weapon to use in situations where the boss both lacks a core and has many parts, or has many parts to hit per ammo fired.

Even in circumstances that the boss lacks both parts and a core, MG is better in spite of the S2 damaging effect not activating against coreless enemies, while the S2 damage portion for sniper does activate, because MG is simply a better base weapon than SR.

At 5.57% damage per bullet, 60 bullets per second puts her DPS with MG at 334.2% damage/s. Compared to her using her SR weapon, where she fires a bullet that deals (62.13% damage x 250%) = 155.325% damage/s, MG deals more than double by default. This is before considering the ~6s DPS loss that she needs to do in order to swap to her SR in the first place, with the two reloads she has to do.

Since Sindy lacks a damaging activation effect per SR bullet fired, it should be considered a niche weapon to bring out when the enemy in question has many parts to take good advantage of both the Pierce and the S2 damage activation.

Due to her incredible damage potential, she is a great unit to consider for Element-neutral setups, similar to her original counterpart.

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Strengths

• Beautiful.
• Sexy.
• Two swimsuits in one character? Wow.
• Ridiculous damage against bosses and regular Raptures.
• Burst generation ability based on bullets fired allows her to compensate for teams setups with mediocre burst gen.
• Decoy ability makes her a lot more durable than the average DPS unit.
  • Combined with most Raptures being programmed to target the highest ATK unit, alongside her ability to refresh her Decoy by using Burst, she can take a high amount of damage.
• Great self-buffing ability and damage activation effects in one kit.
• Two weapon types in one give her greater flexibility against bosses, even if one is generally better than the other.
• An Attacker that attacks the enemy.

Weaknesses

• It seems somewhat of a waste to give her an SR, and then have it be generally inferior to her default MG weapon.
  • Trying to use it can be cumbersome, especially if one makes a mistake, like attempting to shoot just before the fixed reload ends.
• While I don’t think it’s that unfortunate, I can understand the complaints about the black swimsuit not being available for use in combat.
• Confirms that 1% Limited Units will be a thing to worry about for the future.
  • Be prepared for future summer banners.
• Can’t function in PvP.
• No real downside when it comes to PvE combat.

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Rating

Category	Rating
Overall	SSS
Story	SSS
Bosses	SSS
Arena	B

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Recommended Cubes

bastion cube,resilience cube

As she is a MG that generally wants to stick to using an MG over her possible SR, she should use Bastion Cube the majority of the time, as it’s such a good cube for MG weapons.

In situations where she wants to use her SR, Resilience is recommended in order to make the first reload just a bit faster, allowing her to attain her SR and DPS slightly sooner than if she didn’t have the cube. In general, Resilience is a better cube for SR weapons as well, even if she does have much higher base ammo than a standard SR.

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Doll Priority

As an overwhelmingly powerful DPS unit, she should definitely be considered for an MG Doll. She has the highest priority for certain. She definitely wants that SR15 Doll ASAP.

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Expected Skill Priority

Nikke	Budget Skill Investments	Recommended Skill Investments	Skill Priority	Notes	Investment Priority
Cinderella: Crystal Wave	Skill 1: 7 Skill 2: 7 Burst: 7	Skill 1: 10 Skill 2: 7 Burst: 10	S1 > S2	Skill 1 contains a damaging effect that activates constantly, every 5 seconds. It’s also the source of one of her buffs. Skill 2 has a damaging effect like S1, but activates far less frequently, only when she uses her own Burst. While it contains one more buff over S1, buffers can compensate for the slight loss in buff power from an unmaxed S2. Recommended to max eventually, as she is so good. Burst gives her incredible self-buffing power and has a high damaging effect that scales well.	Highest

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Overload Gear Priority

Gear Priority = Head > Gloves > Chest > Boots

Attribute (Sub-Stat)	Priority	Recommended	Notes
Increase Element Damage Dealt	★★★★★	4x	Wanted for Union Raids and Solo Raid content.
Increase Hit Rate	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Max Ammunition Capacity	★★★★☆	1-3x	As an MG unit, she LOVES ammo. The less she has to reload the better. In setups where she is given a lot of Reload Speed, such as Crown + Privaty, or Mast: Romantic Maid + Anchor: Innocent Maid, she can get away with weak or no ammo lines.
Increase ATK	★★★★★	3-4x	More ATK doesn’t hurt, especially when her ATK self-buffs aren’t overwhelmingly high.
Increase Charge Damage	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Charge Speed	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Critical Rate	☆☆☆☆☆	1-2x	Critical lines are great on her, though don’t try to fish for critical hits on her abilities, it will only get annoying.
Increase Critical Damage	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase DEF	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—