Table of Contents
Overview
- Cute!!!
- Strongest distributed damage buff on a single slot as of this writing.
- Easily accessible dispel and still provides a serviceable dps up buff unlike most other dedicated dispel units.
- Currently a Tetra tower hero when combined with Bready, but is mediocre in other content.
- Her DoT buff is substantially weaker compared to her distributed damage buff. If you already have summer Rosanna, Crust shouldn’t be the DoT buffer for Bready.
- Manual play heavy.
Newbie/Incomplete Box Section
Crust is an adorable B2 water supporter unit with a viable niche. However, her main point for sure is to combine with Bready. Something of note is that you have to spam 3 shots at the start of every fight to ensure that Crust activates Maillard buff, and with it, give off her powerful distributed damage buff for Bready and enable Bready to deal distributed damage with every attack.
Outside of this, her cleanse’s ease of use, combined with her decent damage buffs gives her a use for raids whenever a boss or stage has a nasty debuff that could spell trouble for your team.
Do note that since other B2 units exist that give stronger overall buffs that aren’t just for distributed damage, Crust is optimally used for DPS units very reliant on distributed damage skills, mainly Bready.
Since the DoT buff she provides on burst is very weak, especially compared to her distributed damage buff, it isn’t recommended that Crust be used to buff DoT units. While Crust can give a DoT buff to Bready to enable her to deal good DoT DPS against bosses specifically, if better DoT buffers show up, they will likely outclass Crust in this department.
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Grill and Boil
- Skill 2: Reliable Cooking
- Burst: True Flavor
- Cooldown: 20s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: II
- Weapon: RL
- Class: Supporter
- Element: Water
- Manufacturer: Tetra
- Squad: Cooking Oil
- Weapon Name: Whip, Pop, Ding!
Skill 1: Grill and Boil
■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Maillard status. Affects all allies.
Maillard Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.
■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Blanching status. Affects all allies.
Blanching Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.
■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies.
Maillard: ATK ▲ 10% of caster’s ATK for 10 sec.
Removes Blanching.
■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies.
Blanching: ATK ▲ 10% of caster’s ATK for 10 sec.
Removes Maillard.
In spite of how weak the attack buff is, it is her most important skill as it enables the rest of her kit. The way it works is at the start of a fight, you must either decide to spam 3 attacks to activate Maillard, or hold 3 attacks for longer than 1 second (the default max charge time) to enable Blanching. The buffs are mutually exclusive and don’t stack.
As soon as either condition is met, Crust can be left on auto. Subsequent regular charge attacks will extend the duration of her chosen buff, and because Crust will charge rockets faster than 2.5 seconds, it makes either buff permanent.
Skill 2: Reliable Cooking
■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.
Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster’s DEF for 10 sec.
Dispels 1 debuff.
■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.
Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster’s DEF for 10 sec.
Dispels 1 debuff.
■ Activates when entering Full Burst. Affects all targets in Maillard or Blanching status.
ATK ▲ 20% of caster’s ATK for 10 sec.
The source of her dispel and a notable niche for Crust vs certain bosses and content. By performing the same condition used to activate either S1 (spam 3 attacks or hold 3 attacks for longer than 1 second each), she will give all allies a mediocre defense buff, and dispel 1 debuff on them in its entirety, including stuns.
Since this dispel activation has a relatively easy condition to meet and can be used any time, it allows Crust to dispel any problematic debuffs, if heals and shields aren’t enough.
Something to note is that because Reliable Cooking prevents itself from being re-applied, it effectively gives the dispel a 10 second cooldown.
Outside of that, Crust also gives a slight caster atk buff when entering full burst, so it activates on any burst time. While small, it’s still pretty nice to have.
Burst: True Flavor
Cooldown: 20s
■ Affects all allies.
Attack Damage ▲ 20% for 10 sec.
■ Affects all allies when in Maillard status.
Distributed Damage ▲ 60% for 10 sec.
■ Affects all allies when in Blanching status.
Sustained Damage ▲ 10% for 10 sec.
Aside from giving an okay attack damage buff, Crust will either give a massive Distributed Damage Buff or a low DoT buff, depending on which status you chose for her at the start. For most content, you will definitely want to use the Distributed Damage buff, especially for units like Bready or SBS.
Campaign
Crust shouldn’t be part of your regular campaign team unless you’re using Bready in your main campaign team and lack Maid Mast and/or Maid Anchor. A lot of B2 buffers already exist that buff more generally compared to Crust, and few units can make use of her big distributed damage buff, let alone need it like Bready.
In stages with debuffs giving you lots of trouble, like too many Sentry stuns or def debuffs making you too easy to kill, Crust’s cleanse can come in handy in making it less problematic. Since it can be used off-burst, it can fit in some teams when necessary. Definitely consider the option.
Arena
Crust shouldn’t be used in Arena. Her rockets aren’t anything special, and because only auto play is possible in Arena, she will never activate large portions of her kit.
Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid
Crust should be used sparingly for raids and boss content. Most bosses don’t necessarily have debuffs to worry about. DoT can be overcome through sheer healing power, and a lot of healers exist nowadays that also provide better buffs compared to Crust.
Outside of enabling Bready for certain teams in water-weak Raids, Crust should only see use in Raids where bosses provide problematic debuffs, like Chatterbox’s instant kill upon receiving 8 damaging effects or bosses with lots of stuns that prevent major dps from going through.
Teams
One of the better Tetra tower climbing teams available as of this writing. Crust enables Bready’s distributed damage to activate and since her distributed damage debuff is very high, Crust should always burst when it’s Bready’s turn to burst. Blanc bursts alongside Alice to provide her with Damage Taken debuff. Both effects are treated similarly in the damage formula, so it is always better for Bready to be buffed by Crust, even at level 4 burst skill.
This team setup helps a lot when big crowds are a major problem in Tetra tower stages, as Bready’s distributed damage attack is on every auto, giving her consistent wave clear.
Something of note is that Tetra Tower is perfectly fine in the single target DPS department at the moment, so it’s not necessary to use the DoT version of Crust for Bready unless you’re lacking options.
Strengths
- Works fine with little investment
- Dispel is easily accessible any time in combat.
- Strongest distributed damage buff on a single slot
- Enables Bready, one of the stronger non-pilgrim DPS units in the game at the moment
- Very cute.
Weaknesses
- All buffs outside of distributed damage buff are mediocre compared to the competition
- Due to the above point, she shouldn’t be a dedicated buffer to anyone outside of Bready
- Very niche.
Rating
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Overall | 8 (A) |
| Story | 8 (A) |
| Bosses | 8 (A) |
| Arena | 6.5 (C) |
Recommended Cubes
Skill Priority
| Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crust | Skill 1: 1 Skill 2: 1 Burst: 1 | Skill 1: 4 Skill 2: 4 Burst: 4 | S1 = S2 | Skill 1 functions primarely as a utility skill, providing buffs that will be heavily enhanced by her burst Skill 2 only has a caster ATK buff and Dispel Burst is where her main power comes from: heavily buffing distributed or sustained damage | Low |
