Sakura: Bloom In Summer Analysis and Theorycraft

Swimsuits making every Nikke viable in the meta (mostly)

Note: This was made Before the release of Sakura: Bloom In Summer. A more detailed analysis and guide will be published once testing has been done after her release.


Basic Information

  • Skill 1: Bloom
  • Skill 2: Full Glory
  • Burst: Ephemeral Splendor
  • Cooldown: 40s
  • Rarity: SSR
  • Burst: III
  • Weapon: AR
  • Class: Attacker
  • Element: Wind
  • Manufacturer: Tetra
  • Squad: Underworld Queen
  • Weapon Name: Ichigenkin

Overview

  • Can compete with Scarlet in regards to DPS depending on ATK buffs (Sakura’s Favor) or if boss core can be easily hit by AR’s (Scarlet’s Favor).
  • Extremely burst reliant, Nuke HURTS
  • Fills the wind weak DPS niche. Currently only Scarlet: Black Shadow is the only viable Wind Nikke as of now.
  • Relies on Destruction of parts for consistent DoT on her skill 2

Newbie/Incomplete Box Section

Sakura: Bloom in Summer is a Damage over Time DPS that is only to be used against bosses. This is due to her skills being of single target nature, where Campaign stages greatly favor Area of Effect skills. She is able to deal great damage due to her burst, which should be activated as much as possible.

She’ll serve you well in PvP(?) and PvE (Bosses) if the Commander does not have much DPS’s such as Modernia/Scarlet: Black Shadow/Alice/Red Hood/Snow White. While Sakura isn’t top tier DPS, she is definitely viable and a strong Nikke by her own right.

She is comparable/rivals/or can exceed depending on team Scarlet’s Damage without harming herself, if the player can provide Sakura with enough ATK buffs


Skills

Skill 1: Bloom

Activates at the start of the battle. Affects self.
Forcefully uses Skill 2
Activates when an ally or self destroys an enemy’s part. Affects self during Dancing Flower.
Dancing Flower Duration ▲ 10.02 sec.
Activates when an ally or self destroys an enemy’s part. Affects all enemies who are in
Sakura Petals status.
Sakura Petals Duration ▲ 10.02 sec.

Simple Skill one. Makes sure that Sakura’s Skill 2’s uptime is a lot more consistent after breaking a part. Although how it interacts with Skill 2 is vaguely worded, I will write the rest of my thoughts under the assumption the duration of the active skill can be increased infinitely if there are enough parts to destroy. Will be changed ASAP if otherwise.

Skill 2: Full Glory

Affects self.
Dancing Flower: Attack Damage ▲ 15.64% for 15 sec.
Affects the enemy with the highest ATK.
Sakura Petals: Deals 256% of final ATK as sustained damage every 1 sec for 15 sec.

256% of ATK per second is a good amount of damage, to put this into perspective. her base weapon (13.65%) fires at a rate of 12/s.

13.65% x 12 = 163.8% of ATK per second. Sakura’s Active already does more than her base weapon.

Burst: Ephemeral Splendor

Affects random enemies.
Deals 457.14% of final ATK as damage.
Attacks sequentially for I0 time(s).
Affects the same target(s).
Deals 35.16% of final ATK as sustained damage every 1 sec.
stacks up to I0 times(s) and lasts for 10 sec.

Great burst against bosses. This ATK deals 457.14% of ATK 10 times, not only that, it is possible that this burst’s ATK% values is affected by FBM (1.5x) due to the short delay of the consecutive hits from her burst.

In theory, it would deal (457.14%) + (457.14 x 1.5 x 9) = 6,171% of ATK
x 1.2 (Skill 2, Skill 1 Sustain Buff) = 7,862% of ATK in one burst

Not to mention that we still have 35.16% (x10) of DoT per second after, which should also be affected by FBM. Without a doubt, one the the harder hitting bursts in Nikke, easily.

Since Scarlet is the “measuring line” for being meta or not, I’ll be “comparing” Scarlet and Sakura.

Sakura’s burst damage puts her ahead of Scarlet initially. However, Scarlet’s overtuned ATK% and base normal ATK values will catch up over time to Sakura’s bursty damage nature, with the gap closed a bit faster if there are no more parts to destroy.

This can be changed if Sakura gets a designated ATK buffer. Because of her high skill values, ATK buffs are all the more better for her if able to be provided. Overload ATK lines of gear is much more valuable for Sakura just because of this reason.

This is under the realistic assumption that Scarlet isn’t able to consistently core hit the target. There are very few bosses with very open cores (Material H, Motherwhale). If Scarlet is able to core hit, Scarlet will get the DPS edge over Sakura.

A good thing about Sakura is that she is not overly reliant on a team comp (instant reload comp) or Maximum Ammo rolls, and can function by her lonesome in boss battles.


Campaign

Unfortunately, the underworld queen has no spot for Campaign. Sakura’s skills are quite anti-Campaign even. Her active does not transfer if target is destroyed, and her burst hits at random, which is not that much better/worse than distributed damage. She would not be that much better from a low-tier Assault Rifle DPS.


Arena

Summer Sakura has a surprisingly interesting kit, her S2 gives you 15 seconds of decent DoT on the highest ATK enemy, while her burst randomly targets 10 times, deals good damage and gives an extra DoT.


Being a Wind Nikke makes her really effective for dealing with units such as Laplace and RH, and you don’t even need to burst with her for the S2 DoT.
I think there’s potential to do interesting setups with her, but it could take a while for her to find her footing in the meta.


Special Interception | Solo Raid | Union Raid

Sakura: Bloom in Summer is in a slightly awkward spot. While her skill values are good, and would love ATK buffs, it is still not enough to justify using Crown, Liter, or Naga for her. This would just leave her with Summer Rosana, who also does not buff ATK very well either.

Sakura: Bloom in Summer heavily relies on ATK buffs when looking at her from a Solo Raid angle.

Special Interception

Sakura would be great for newbies/mid-game Commanders in all special interceptions. Since the Commander only needs one team, Sakura is free to hog all the ATK damage supports (Liter, Crown, Naga, etc.) to be able to deal massive damage. While She isn’t at the tier of Scarlet: Black Shadow, Sakura can exceed her alcoholic self (OG Scarlet) without the HP drain.

Solo Raid | Union Raid

Sakura: Bloom in Summer definitely pulls enough of her weight to be team 4-5 on wind weak content. Since Solo raids usually have limited parts, Sakura’s DPS suffers a bit. Current Solo raid will most likely be tailored after her kit, so parts will most likely respawn often.

Outside of Raids tailored for Sakura, it may be possible for her to contend in the team 5 slot purely because Rosanna: Chic Ocean is such a good buffer universally, while also providing an additional sustain damage for her as well.


Closing Thoughts

Sakura: Bloom in Summer is definitely a good Nikke, not quite hitting the “must pull” mark, but she definitely has value for wind weak content. Meta has grown where a OG Scarlet tier +~ Boss Killer Character is not a must pull anymore, crazy.

Pulling her is still recommended, but I’d recommend gunning for Rosanna: Chic Ocean first if the Commander is running short on gems, then trying your luck on Sakura: Bloom in Summer.


Expected Skill Priority

NikkeBudget Skill InvestmentsRecommended Skill InvestmentsSkill PriorityNotesInvestment Priority
Sakura: Bloom in SummerSkill 1: 4
Skill 2 : 7
Burst : 7
Skill 1: 4+
Skill 2 : 10
Burst : 10
S2 > S1Skill 1 is a bit niche, since it requires parts to be destroyed, and just increases skill uptime by a limited amount. Bosses that are tailor made for her will most likely have consistent/Respawning parts anyways

Skill 2 provides half uptime of strong DoT against bosses with no parts, also has better offensive buffs than what skill 1 provides

Burst is significant amount of where her damage will come from.
Mid-High

Expected Ratings

Rather rough estimations of ratings for Sakura.

CategoryRating
Overall (PvE)A
StoryC~
BossesS~
Arena(?), Needs actual testing

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Valkkin
Valkkin

Valkkin has been an avid gamer ever since birth. Writing nerdy and light-hearted guides while despising math. Support his work on Ko-fi!

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12 Comments

    • Thanks for letting us know! Weirdly enough the kit posted on their twitter mentioned sustained damage and this analysis was posted before the servers were up. It’s fixed now.

  1. I wonder if SBS/Sakura performs better than SBS/Alice(Manual). That will be the deciding factor for me when it comes to pull value.

    • Alice/SBS is definitely Stronger in neutral content. Alice Buffs SBS by a lot, while outputting massive damage as well.

      SBS/Sakura are two DPS’s that don’t really have synergy at all if put in the same team, except being the same element. If this question was for wind weak content, the only case I can see
      Sakura/SBS -> Alice/SBS is if Sakura is overtuned with elemental rolls, and the SBS in question is weak enough in where Sakura can deal more damage than her. (Alice buffing an unraised SBS)

  2. The real question is should I try to pull for all of them just because of swimsuits or this is heavy brain rot and Im risking to stay without next pilgrim? I have 21k gems and 37 limited. I dont have SBS, Modernia or RH, just to clarify

    • You are playing Nikke. Of course you should pull for swimsuits!

      I was depressingly unlucky this time with 80 limited wasted (how awesome was it to pull King after just 20! – good times…) – so I’ll have to stop for now and wait for a sexier second part – but I am ready to waste all of my 60k gems for this event, simply because… well, if you aren’t pulling for swimsuits then what’s the point?..

      • I got Sakura after like 60 and I have enough mileage to grab Rosanna when she comes out so I’m good.

        And by good, I mean I’ll waste all my other gems to get Neon hehe

    • I have 69k gems and 100 limiteds, and yet I will skip (except if Rosanna is busted) for the upcoming pilgrims

      • You are supposed to get piligrims with golden tickets due to their shit rates (2% vs 4% for non-piligrim SSR)

  3. I pulled two of her and four of Summer Rosanna.

    They work well together, which means I’ll have to upgrade their gear next.

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