Jackal Early Analysis

This is an early analysis. This post will be updated with any new findings.

If there are any unfamiliar words or terms in this guide please refer to the Glossary.

Skills

Burst Type	1
Weapon	RL (Clip Reload)
Class	Defender
Element	Electric
Manufacturer	Missilis
Rarity	SSR

Normal Attack

Ammo Capacity	6
Reload Time	0.67s
Full Charge Damage	250%
Charge Time	1.00s
Base Energy	355
Control Mode	Charge

Deals 65.02% of ATK as damage.

Skill 1: Happy Jackal

■ Activates when attacked 10 time(s). Affects 1 enemy unit(s) with the highest Max HP.
Damage Taken ▲ 9.09% for 10 sec.
ATK ▼ 9.09% for 10 sec.

Skill 2: Jumpin’ Jackal Flash

■ Activates when entering battle. Affects self and 2 ally unit(s) with the highest ATK.
Shares damage taken for 120 sec.
DEF ▲ 8.27% for 120 sec.

Burst Skill: Crazy Jackal

Active

Cooldown

20s

■ Affects all allies.
Burst Skill Damage to a single enemy ▲ 38.91% for 15 sec. DEF ▲ 14.69% for 10 sec.

Arena

Jackal was expected to be strong in Arena as a clip reload RL with some defensive utility, but she has proved to be even more powerful than any of us could have expected.

Refer to the Arena mechanics guide if there is anything in this section that is difficult to understand.

Damage Share & Skill 1 Energy

This ability is much more powerful than the skill description hints. The damage shared counts as separate instances of damage. These instances of damage from damage share triggers “when attacked” abilities. Immediately units like Emma, Scarlet (however she does still need to be is position 1) and Diesel come to mind for Arena. But this also includes Jackal’s own Skill 1.

Despite not being a damaging skill, Jackal’s Skill 1 generates energy (we are not sure if this is a bug). Since Jackal’s base energy is the highest in the game at 355 (matched only by Anis), with the extra energy generated from her skill, this makes Jackal actually the best energy support for Arena in the game.

Currently, the clip reload shotguns have the highest energy generation in Arena at 45 base energy x 10 pellets for 450 energy per shot. Over 5 seconds (the current meta teams take 4~6 seconds to reach full burst), a clip shotgun generates 3375 energy. Jackal as a 355 base energy clip RL generates 2662.5~3993.8 energy depending on the number of enemies hit. Even when only hitting 2 enemies for 2662.5 energy, Jackal and the two damage share units only need to take 20 hits in total for Jackal to generate a total of 3372.5, which is more than the clip shotguns. Furthermore, each pellet hit from enemy shotguns count as separate hits, meaning Jackal is a natural counter to the clip shotgun meta.

This also does not take into account the fact that RL can hit two of your three damage share units with each shot, though there is also the possibility that targeting aggro could be reset off of your three units, which would result in energy generation loss.

Hits Taken Over 5 Seconds (Total between 3 Units)	Energy Over 5 Seconds (Jackal)
0	2662.5
10	2662.5 + 355 = 3017.5
20	2662.5 + 710 = 3372.5
30	2662.5 + 1065 = 3727.5
40	2662.5 + 1420 = 4082.5
50	2662.5 + 1775 = 4437.5
60	2662.5 + 2130 = 4792.5
70	2662.5 + 2485 = 5147.5

TL;DR: It will be basically impossible to out-speed a Jackal team without your own Jackal. Jackal will almost always burst first.

Jackal’s Skill 2 also has very strong synergy with Scarlet and Emma, who are already strong Arena units themselves. Assuming that Scarlet and Emma are your two highest attack units, if you place Scarlet in P1, Emma in P2, and Jackal in P5, every single hit on the three units will trigger: a 5% chance for a team-wide heal, a 30% chance for high damage attack + 45 energy, and a count towards 10 hits taken for 355 energy (essentially 35.5 energy per hit). This trio is disgustingly strong together, but it is not necessary to have all three for Jackal to be good in Arena; she is a good PvP unit alone.

Of course, the energy from Jackal’s Skill 1 will depend on the rate of fire of the enemy team. But a single SG, AR, SMG or MG on the enemy team hitting one of your two damage share units or Jackal would be more than enough for her to generate ridiculous amounts of energy.

Jackal Arena Teams

Refer to the Arena Team Compositions guide if there is anything in this section that is difficult to understand.

The units in the teams below are ordered by position from left to right as P1, P2, P3, P4, P5. When using Jackal in Arena it is paramount to position your damage share units and Jackal to take all the targeting aggro for your team. I recommend positioning your Jackal teams so that your damage share units are in P1 and P2/P4/P5 with Jackal in P4/P5, as Jackal’s burst is very weak in Arena and you will want your other B1(s) to burst.

Scarlet Fast Nuke

This is a very fast team (possibly THE fastest new meta team) with strong nuking power. It will be very difficult to counter this team.

Jackal + Scarlet’s interaction is explained above. Pepper generates good energy and grants Scarlet an extra stack of her Skill 1 before her burst. Anne has average energy generation but has the biggest attack buff that Scarlet can use in Arena. Anne can be replaced with Centi or Noah (or Viper when she releases) for even higher energy generation. Drake can be replaced with Maiden or any other source of additional damage to close out fights after Scarlet’s burst.

Emma Defense

In an Emma + Jackal team, Emma MUST be one of your two highest attack units for her to work with Jackal’s Skill 2. This means it is very difficult to use Emma + Jackal with a second attacker. But this is not a problem for defence, as you can simply win with a time-out.

This is my take on the “New Zombie Team”. Jackal + Emma’s interaction is explained above. Privaty stuns the enemy team to interrupt enemy burst rotations. Centi provides good energy generation and shields. Rapunzel provides additional healing and a revive on the second burst rotation.

This team relies on Jackal’s Skill 2 to generate energy however, so it can be out-sped by clip shotgun and enemy Jackal teams.

Scarlet + Emma

This is an all-rounder team with good speed, nuking power, and survivability. Substitutions can be made for more speed, nuking power or survivability.

PvE Capability

Single Target Limitation

The wording on Jackal’s burst is misleading. She grants a damage bonus multiplier for single target bursts ONLY. This means that Jackal’s burst has NO effect for AoE bursts. Disappointingly, Modernia’s burst and Laplace bursts count as AoE and not ST. This limits Jackal’s usage to ST battles.

While Jackal’s Skill 1 damage taken increase debuff is a nice DPS increase for the team, it is a single target ability and requires 10 hits on Jackal and the damage share units to proc. Depending on the boss, it may be difficult to maintain high up-time on the skill.

There is no strong application for Jackal’s burst currently. While there are ST bursts currently (Brid, Pepper, Dolla, Helm, etc), they scale worse than the current meta ST units (Scarlet, Alice, Modernia) and the pierce bursts (Snow White, Laplace, Maxwell) at ST boss battles. However, Jackal’s burst is technically not a bad ability and there is potential she could be powerful with a future unit release. A burst similar to Modernia’s (a 15 second duration weapon change) that is ST could be very strong with Jackal.

Damage Share

As mentioned above, Jackal’s damage share is actually quite powerful. In stages with many low damage hits, Jackal increases the survivability of your damage dealers and lessens the burden on any healers. However, she competes in B1 with Liter’s cover heal, which comes with the much more universal attack buffs and CDR. The duration on Jackal’s damage share is also limited to 2 minutes. While this is enough for most stages, it may be problematic for longer boss or defense battles.

There is possibility that she could be paired with taunters that are currently unusable in AoE stages to allow them to actually live through their taunt. However, this means that you are forgoing a second high ATK DPS (since the taunter will have to have the second highest ATK) to take up 2 slots in your team for the taunt ability. Compared to the current meta options, this does not seem especially powerful.

TL;DR

Jackal is a highly recommended pull for players who care about Arena. Jackal is NOT recommended for players who do not care about Arena.

Jackal is an optional pull for players who do not have Centi and need a RL energy support (note that Anis is free and does the same job).

• Will almost certainly become oppressive in Arena
  • New fastest energy generation unit in the game for Arena
  • Very powerful interaction with Scarlet and Emma, and other “when attacked” abilities
  • Burst 1 energy generation may be a bug
• Burst only buffs ally ST bursts
  • Currently no strong application for this ability
  • The only current top meta units that benefit are Pepper, Dolla, Helm
  • There may be future unit(s) that are strong with Jackal
• Damage share is strong
  • Damage from damage share procs “when attacked” abilities, including her own Skill 1
• Liter is too oppressive in PvE
  • Very niche compared to Liter’s oppressive strength in almost every PvE situation

Temporary Rating

This is a temporary rating, and will be updated to a more accurate rating after further testing and review. All updates will be made on the main Tier List. Stay tuned for the upcoming tier list update for the January 12 patch, coming soon!

Category	Rating
Overall	7.6
Wave	6.5
Wave Boss	7.0
Interception	7.0
Arena	10