Grave Best Builds, Teams, and How to Play

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Overview

• Second best burst II solo buffer (First being Crown)
• Can deal decent damage for a support class (still below Scarlet personal damage)
• Grave’s skill one is a bit bugged (Beneficial), her burst gen is giving much more than expected with fast firing classes (MG’s, dual SMG’s)
• Does not require high investment or dupes to do her role well. Dupes will only increase her personal DPS, which isn’t much.
• No team sustain in her kit, a healer will need to be paired with her in some boss battles.

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Newbie/Incomplete Box Section

Grave is a Great buffer but is held down by having no team sustain, which is almost mandatory for Burst II’s to have to be meta, and ease of use for beginners. She does however fix burst generation problems for most teams that use MG’s are SMG’s due to a bug (?) from her skill 1. This allows an extra full burst (or more) in a match in teams with Liter or Volume.

There aren’t many good healers outside the duos Nikkes (Tia/Naga, Blanc/Noir) as they usually provide no offensive buffs, which is a big overall DPS loss. This alone keeps her from the meta (SSS tier), but Grave provides enough to be competitive in the current solo raid and can be used as a side-grade to Blanc teams if the boss requires no healing, which isn’t too uncommon.

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Basic Information

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Normal Attack Information

Grave’s Normal ATK modifiers would be slightly above average if Grave was an Attacker, but since she’s a supporter, she has a lower base ATK, which would bring her ATK % values to 14.91%, which is around Brid’s normal ATK damage (Average).

Supporters have 0.83x of Attackers ATK.

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Skill 1:

Activates when Prediction status ends. Affects self.
Removes 100% of bullets.
Heat Emission: Reload Ratio ▼ 50%. Removes Heat Emission under certain conditions.
Activates only when in Heat Emission status. Affects self.
Recovers 2% of final Max HP every 1 sec continuously
Activates only when in Heat Emission status. Affects all allies.
Burst Gauge filling spread ▲ 38.96% continuously
Pierce Damage ▲ 48.4% continuously.

Skill looks a bit complicated but it’s simple to understand. Heat Emission is active if Grave is reloading. Grave is forced to reload after every full burst because of her burst. Heat Emission and her burst buff can NEVER be active simultaneously. Heat Emission buffs won’t see much uptime as the player will be going through full burst rotations very fast.

There seems to be a buggy interaction with this skill (?) when paired with fast-firing weapons. Increasing MG’s and to an extent, dual SMG’s burst generation by a lot more than 40%. Video reference below

Skill 1 + MG burst Gen

AR vs MG

this skill works as intended for AR’s and slower-firing weapons. One Modernia can out burst gen a whole team with the aid of her skill 1

Burst Gen Benefits

This allows teams with low innate burst gen to do better via smooth full burst rotations without the need of a burst gen Nikke (Snipers, Rocket Launchers). If the player can abuse burst gen consistently with Liter/Volume, they should be able to get almost an extra full burst in boss battles than they normally would.

Skill 2:

Activates after landing 15 normal attack(s).Affects self.
Overheat: ATK ▲ 15.48%. Removed upon reloading to max ammunition.
Activates when normal attack hits after Prediction status takes effect. Affects self.
Changes according to the number of hits. Previous effects trigger repeatedly.
30 time(s): when in Prediction and Overheat I status
Overheat ll: ATK ▲ 20.66% continuously.
60 time(s): when in Prediction and Overheat ll status.
Overheat III: Attack Damage ▲ 30.8% continuously.

A very underwhelming skill. Barely affects her personal damage and the uptime for her stronger buffs for this skill is very low. The timeline of buffs should be:

Overheat (15 Hits) : Applied 1.25s after burst
Overheat II (30 hits) : 2.5s + 1.25 = Applied 3.75s after burst
0verheat III (60 hits) : 5s +2.5 + 1.25 = Applied 8.75s after buff
These buffs reset after her burst duration is over.

As you can see, overheat III only has 12.25% uptime. Although there is a way to shorten this by 1.25s, it’s generally not worth it. The Player needs to switch to Grave and continue firing before activating her burst to keep her Overheat I proc, saving 1.25s per stage. Not reloading with Grave will lose her skill 1 buffs (Heat Emission), so unless you can perfectly time her firing and burst within a few frames consistently, it’s not worth trying to do this tech.

Burst: Plot Spoiler

Affects self.
Prediction:
Current HP ▼ 1% every 1 sec. lasts for 10 sec.
Grants unlimited ammunition for I0 sec.
Gains Pierce for 10 sec.
Pierce Damage ▲ 52.8% for 10 sec.
Critical Rate ▲ 85.19% for 10 sec.
Affects all allies.
Attack Damage ▲ 48.2% for 10 sec
Pierce Damage ▲ 39.98% for 10 sec.
Max Ammunition Capacity ▲ 3 round(s) for I0 sec.

The meat of her kit, Grave burst gives very strong buffs for the team and decent self-damage buffs. What makes her burst very strong for Pierce Nikkes is that ATK damage ▲ and Pierce Damage ▲ are multiplicative of ATK ▲ buffs (Ex. Liter and DPS self buffs)

Graves 100% crit rate buff is decent but isn’t as strong as it sounds. the damage gained from crits are diluted by other multipliers (Full burst, Core damage, Range bonus, Crit damage)

If all these conditions are “active”, base Crit damage will only give 19%~ extra DPS. if there’s no core and range bonus present, the extra DPS would be around 33% during full burst.

Grave’s Self Drain isn’t an issue as she does have some slight HP sustain in the form of her skill 1.

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Campaign

Grave is a strong Campaign Nikke just because of the buff values her burst gives. Even outside of Pierce teams, she’s usable and should still beat our current top 4 burst II pick in Campaign (Blanc/Noir/Rouge duo), ATK damage ▲ is simply that powerful. in Pierce teams, Grave should be interchangeable/slightly better than Mari (Collab Unit, top 3 burst II), who’s also very strong in Campaign.

Grave falls short to Crown/Naga and Tia/Naga teams as core damage buffs are extremely strong with certain DPS’s. Coincidentally, most of the DPS’s that pair well with Naga are all top-tier. However, Grave is better in pierce teams than Tia/Naga if Asuka is present in the team, and if Asuka can buff said Nikkes in team (Basically Alice + Modernia teams)

Mono-Fire team (Very Strong Against Fire Weak Content)

D: killer wife,Grave,Alice,Asuka,Modernia

Liter can replace D:killer wife if cooldown isn’t an issue throughout the stage. D:killer wife is listed as first here as Grave + Modernia can generate burst fast, even without the aid of Alice.

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Arena

Grave is a simply B2 support who can act as a buffer to B3 nukers, very similar to how Poli, Crown, Mari or S.Rosanna are used. While her Pierce Damage buff will probably not come into play in this game mode, her Attack Damage buff on burst will definitely help, the value of which is greater than Mari’s or Blanc’s buffs. Grave also has decent burst generation, equal to Scarlet’s base Burst Gen, which can alleviate some pressure of using low burst gen B3 units since she can fill the role of decent burst generation + damage buffer.

However, due to some clear grievances, Grave is not a staple PvP unit since she is not considered Meta, but just an average, usable character. For a detailed review on her PvP use, check out the following guide: https://nikke.gg/grave-pvp-focus-review-analysis-guide-and-best-teams/

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Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid

Grave is a competitively strong Burst II Nikke supporter, however, she does have a glaring weakness in boss battles. Grave has no team sustain at all. Against most bosses, Grave will need to be paired with a healer/Liter (if cover repair is enough)

Grave BiS Team (Anomaly Indivilia)

liter,grave,Alice,asuka,Modernia

Indivilia has highest ATK targetting so sustain is not needed if Asuka is in the team as she has life-steal on burst, and will most likely have the highest Attack at all times assuming equal investment and copies on all characters. This team falls apart if Asuka is not in the team. If Asuka is not raised enough, she may have issues sustaining through all of indivilia’s attacks.

Grave Collab Team (Anomaly)

liter,grave,Rei Ayanami,asuka,Modernia

Usually, burst generation would be an issue in this team, but since Grave’s skill 1 heavily favors MG’s, that’s not an issue. Used if Alice is not very raised or if Modernia is more raised than Alice. Has a bit more sustainability compared to Alice team due to Rei’s Shields.

Healing Options/Taunt Options

These options are used if the player has no Asuka and needs viable sustain options.

Naga,Alice: Wonderland Bunny,Noise

• Naga Good off-burst healer with some core damage buffs
• Best sustain/healing out of the bunch, however barely has any offensive utilities
• Noise needs manual expression, technically she’s the tankiest Nikke in-game but the player needs to abuse her skill 2

Alice/SBS team (Crownless)

liter,grave,alice,scarlet: black shadow,supporter

Used if Crown is being used in another team (Most likely in electric weak raids, hogged by Cinderella) or simply just missing Crown.

Flex slot can be:

• Healer/Taunter if needed
• Sub-DPS (Moderenia, Phantom, Scarlet) if healing isn’t needed

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Strengths

• Second strongest Solo Burst II buffer
• Strong Campaign Nikke, Even stronger when placed in pure pierce teams
• Cheap to build, just focus on her burst
• Makes a lot of low-burst gen teams viable via much smoother full burst rotations without the need of a burst generator, more notably with MG’s and dual SMG’s. This applies for both Campaign and Boss fights.
• Decent DPS for a Supporter
• Will help you finish your story

Weaknesses

• No team sustain, more often than not a healer will need to be paired with Grave, reducing overall team DPS.
• Half of her burst buff values are limited to pierce Nikkes.
• Slightly outshadowed by Crown in some Pierce teams even if Grave specializes in them, making her pretty much just a solo raid unit in most cases or simply a substitute for Crown
• Starstruck by Cinderella so much, Grave needed to step down a tier from her.

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Rating

Category	Rating
Overall	9.4 (SS)
Story	9.4 (SS)
Bosses	9.4 (SS)
Arena	8.1 (A)

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Recommended Cubes

bastion cube,resilience cube

Cube shouldn’t matter in boss battles, full burst should always be available before Grave is done reloading. use your highest-level cube.

However in campaign, use bastion as burst generation is a bit harder to gain there.

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Doll Priority

Grave isn’t a target priority for dolls.

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Expected Skill Priority

Nikke	Budget Skill Investments	Recommended Skill Investments	Skill Priority	Notes	Investment Priority
Grave	Skill 1: 4 Skill 2 : 4 Burst : 7	Skill 1: 4+ Skill 2 : 4+ Burst : 10	S1 > S2	Skill one simply improves team burst gen. too little time is spent on (heat emission mode) for the buffs to matter. Grave’s skill 2 improves her personal DPS by a small amount. Not worth leveling as her personal DPS isn’t even impressive in the first place. The the only useful part of her kit outside of extra burst generation. Gives a lot of ATK damage buffs.	High

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Overload Gear Priority

Gear Priority = Head > Gloves > Chests > Boots

Note: If gunning for hit rate, always try for 4x, or don’t go for it at all. Has the potential for more damage if core is close enough, but may be useless against some other bosses. Crit damage is a much more consistent option.

Attribute (Sub-Stat)	Priority	Recommended	Notes
Increase Element Damage Dealt	★★★★★	4x	wanted for Union raids and Solo raid content.
Increase Hit Rate	★★★★☆	4x (Optional)	Not many upgrade paths. 4x hit rate allows some core hit consistency against close range/mid range cores.
Increase Max Ammunition Capacity	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	Does not need max ammo, her burst gives her unlimited ammo.
Increase ATK	★★★★★	4x	Simply more damage. ATK is still better than Crit damage even if Grave has 100% crit rate.
Increase Charge Damage	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Charge Speed	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—
Increase Critical Rate	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	Has 100% crit rate on burst
Increase Critical Damage	★★★★☆	4x	has 100% crit rate, crit damage is actually useful.
Increase DEF	☆☆☆☆☆	0x	—