Special Interception: Alteisen (Train)

This guide is specific to Special Interception. For general tips and strategies on Alteisen MK.VI (Train), click here.
For I-Frame guide, click here.

Thank you to Indigo November, Shinonono, Victory, Riven, and other helpful friends from the Nikke Community for your valuable research that helped make this guide possible.

Boss Mechanics

Alteisen is by far the most difficult Special Interception boss, and requires much better gears, skill levels, specific units and mechanics to full clear compared to the other bosses.

This fight is split into 2 phases, with Phase 1 being notoriously hard and Phase 2 being relatively easier.

For this guide, strong gears is 1 or more Overload Gear with high priority sub-stats on main DPS units. High skill investment typically means level 8 or above for DPS units’ crucial skills.

Phase 1

Phase 1 mainly consists of dealing with Alteisen’s missile launchers and turrets. Alteisen also fires 1 set of 8 destructible slow moving missiles at the start of the fight, but that can be easily dealt with. After destroying all launchers and turrets, there will be a QTE/red circle that has to be destroyed. If the QTE is failed to be destroyed, Alteisen will use an AOE laser that wipes your team out.

Destructible Missiles

These missiles will delete your units if ignored. Simply destroy them with an AOE burst (Scarlet/Modernia) or manually aim at them in full burst mode. They can also be i-framed, which can be required depending on team comps and first burst timing.

Missile Launchers

There are 2 missile launchers on Alteisen, 1 on the left and 1 on the right. These launchers fire green missiles that cannot be destroyed and can only be tanked by units with invincibility (Makima/Noah). Other units will simply be deleted by the green missiles if the missiles land on them. However, it is possible to i-frame the green missiles, which is done consistently using a taunt unit, can render the missile launchers useless. Read this i-frame guide for more details.

Turrets

There are 4 turrets on Alteisen, with 2 on the left and 2 on the right. These 2 turrets will fire machine gun attacks that delete most units, only units that provide invincibility and/or taunt (Makima/Noah) and Diesel can survive the turrets.

Additionally, when one turret is destroyed before the turrets began to fire, the remaining turret becomes enraged and deals much higher damage. The damage from an enraged turret can only be tanked with invincibility.

It is therefore best to leave 1 turret at low HP, and then destroy the low HP turret when both turrets began to fire. This will cause the remaining turret to still deal the same amount of damage before being enraged. For this guide, this trick/method will be named the “halve turret damage strategy”.

It is also possible to i-frame the turrets, although the timing of doing this is very very tight, to the point where you can call it RNG. However, there are players who are able to i-frame the turrets with high success rate after having enough practice. Read this i-frame guide for more details.

QTE/Red circles

Once you destroy all turrets and launchers, manually control your DPS unit and reload to have a good chance of destroying the QTE. Failing QTE means your team gets deleted. Notable unit that works well for this is Modernia, since MG units have very high hit rate upon heating up their weapons.

Phase 2

Alteisen enters into Phase 2 after taking 32.8M damage, which is also the damage required to get Stage 7.

In phase 2, Alteisen starts off with a QTE/red circle that has to be destroyed, otherwise Alteisen will ram onto your team and fire an AOE attack that deletes every unit without cover. If you managed to destroy the red circle, Alteisen will fire 1 set of 8 destructible slow moving missiles. These missiles are the same in Phase 1 and has to be destroyed.

After firing 1 set of missiles, there will be another red circle to be destroyed. The pattern of firing missiles and red circles will then repeat until the fight ends, either by timeout or full clearing Alteisen.

General Tips (Important)

Phase 1

1. Play on landscape mode, and change resolution to 21:9 in game settings or ultrawide by changing local resolution (VERY IMPORTANT) so that you have more to damage Alteisen’s parts. Playing on portrait mode is self-torturing vs Alteisen. If you have trouble moving your cursor around in the wide resolutions, turn on sync cursor with crosshair in settings.
2. Target priority differs depending on team composition. If using teams that stall by i-framing launchers, break turrets ASAP. If using other teams, break launchers ASAP and look to either i-frame turrets or use the halve turret damage strat.

Phase 2

1. Phase 2 can be tricky as you have to juggle having enough remaining ammo or being in full burst mode to break QTE after clearing missiles. Always prioritize breaking QTE over clearing missiles, since it is possible to i-frame the missiles.
2. The target priority for Phase 2 is typically QTE/red circles>Missiles>Alteisen’s body. However, hitting Alteisen’s body gives higher burst generation compared to missiles. If you are close to having a full burst gauge, you should hit Alteisen’s body instead to activate burst to wipe out missiles easily.
3. With a unit with AOE burst in team (Scarlet/Harran/Privaty), you should activate B1,B2 normally and delay AOE bursts to wipe out all missiles at once.
4. Turning on Aim Assist in settings also makes it easier to destroy missiles.

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Team Composition

There are a few methods to get past Phase 1’s missile launchers and turrets.

1. Have very high DPS to destroy the missile launchers and/or turrets before they attack, achieved by having Overload gears and/or high skill investments on certain units.
2. Use certain units with taunt and/or invincibility to i-frame/tank the missile launchers and/or turrets. It is possible to i-frame turrets without any taunt units, and the more times you manage to i-frame the turrets in a run, the higher the chance of getting into Phase 2 (Stage 7 at least).
3. Use the halve turret damage strategy if you only have enough DPS to break the missile launcher before it fires but not enough to destroy 2 turrets in the first burst rotation.
4. Use a custom resolution that allows you to play in ultrawide mode, therefore giving you more room and time to deal damage to missile launchers and turrets compared to the usual landscape mode. There is now the option to play in 21:9 resolution on PC client, this resolution while not as wide as ultrawide, is also very good to use against Alteisen.

These 4 methods can all be used together. The necessity of combining these methods vary depending on your units’ DPS, which is determined by gear and skill levels.

If you have very high DPS to just destroy every part in 1 burst rotation using the normal widescreen, you only need to use method 1.

If you have much lower DPS due to weaker gears (no Overload gears is considered weak gears for Alteisen SI) and lower skill levels, you might have to use all 4 methods in 1 run to full clear.

The teams listed below can use units from other teams depending on your DPS. For example, there’s a Snow White clear that uses Makima in the same team. There are also clears that use both Noise and Diesel for an easier time with stronger gears and skill levels, even though you can full clear using just one of Noise or Diesel.

For all teams below that recommend Liter, Dorothy is Liter’s best replacement. Dorothy provides the entire team bonus damage to parts when firing her last bullet during burst, which is huge against Alteisen, though Dorothy has to be paired with Privaty to ensure cooldown rotates smoothly. (VERY IMPORTANT, DO NOT use Dorothy without Privaty)

Bunny Twins (Noir+Blanc)

Behold our newest added Bunny Twins, Noir and Blanc. Noir and Blanc works so well that they deserve their own section here. Note: Blanc has to be paired with Noir. (Do NOT use Blanc without Noir)

Blanc provides damage taken debuff by enemies, amplifying the entire team’s damage. This means you would be able to break Alteisen’s parts much easier combined with Liter/Dorothy’s buffs. Blanc also provides indomitability to a lowest HP unit for 10 seconds, allowing you to tank 1 round of turrets (though RNG reliant if not using a taunt unit).

Noir is here mainly to reduce Blanc’s 60s CD to 20s, and also provides a decent ATK buff, ammo reload+max ammo, and bonus hit rate+damage to QTE/red circles. Her burst also helps to deal with missiles with decent investment (level 4) and at least full T9 gears.

B1 top option is Liter, closely followed by Dorothy because Dorothy has to be paired with Privaty to ensure cooldown rotates smoothly.

The 2 flex units can be 2 B3 DPS units such as Alice, Scarlet, Modernia, Drake, or 1 B3 DPS unit and another taunt unit such as Noise, Makima, Noah.

Note: Since the turrets and missile launchers do not one-shot your units in an instant but instead dishes out the damage over 2-3 seconds, you will have enough time to react and only activate Blanc’s burst to grant the taunt unit indomitability after the taunt unit gets to lowest HP.

Note 2: One can simply strip all the armor of the defender/taunter unit for her to gain the benefits of being “Lowest HP” at all times.

Full DPS

These 2 teams require Overload Gears and/or high skill investments to have enough damage to break Alteisen’s missile launchers and turrets before they fire.

Weaker gears and lower skill levels can be compensated by playing in ultrawide resolution. Alternatively, I recommend using the Taunting+i-frame teams instead to buy more time to compensate for the lack of DPS.

Scarlet Max Ammo+

Liter	Dolla	Scarlet	Modernia	Drake
Dorothy	Guilty			Sugar

Straightforward team, core unit is Scarlet, who is able to ramp up her Skill 1 quickly with Max Ammo+ sub-stat on OL gear. This allows Scarlet to provide high DPS to break Alteisen’s parts before they fire.

Alice

Core unit is Alice, since Alteisen is weak to fire and you can deal damage to multiple parts using Alice’s Piercing effect. With high skill level on S1 and burst, Alice can shred through Alteisen even with T9 gears.

Taunt + I-framing

These 2 units operate by destroying the turrets ASAP either by having enough damage to break them in first burst rotation, or i-framing the turrets once to buy more time to destroy the turrets.

After destroying the turrets, it is ideal to keep the launcher alive and aim at the left side turrets and launchers while i-framing the green missiles from the right launcher.

Makima

Makima works great for Alteisen as there are 2 ways to use her in this fight. Makima’s kit also gives a much larger margin of error, allowing you to miss i-framing once in this fight.

1. If you have higher DPS, you don’t have to use her to i-frame the missile launcher attacks. You can just use Makima’s taunt and invincibility to tank everything for 7 seconds, and break the missile launchers and turrets during that duration.
2. If you have lower DPS, you have to use her to i-frame missile launcher and/or turrets.

Noise

Liter	Guilty	Scarlet	Modernia	Noise
Dorothy	Viper		Drake

Compared to Makima, there is less margin of error for Noise. You either need to have enough damage to destroy both turrets on the right side in first burst rotation or i-frame the turrets once.

Diesel

Using Diesel requires you to break the missile launcher on right ASAP. You also need to i-frame the turrets once or use the halve turret damage strategy if you have higher DPS to do so. All units with at least full T9 should be able to tank the turrets once using the halve turret damage strategy, except Scarlet.

Diesel LB0 Bond 10 with 4/1/4 skill level is enough for this team composition to work.

Combo units

These units are unable to carry you into Phase 2 alone and has to be paired with another unit to work.

Noah/Biscuit

Liter	Biscuit	Alice	Noah	Modernia
Dorothy		Scarlet	Makima	Drake

Biscuit and Noah are unable to carry you into Phase 2 alone and has to be paired with another unit to deal with another round of turrets.

Possible combinations here are Biscuit+Noah, Biscuit+Makima, Noah+Makima

The problem with bringing Biscuit/Noah and another non-DPS unit is that you will need strong gears and/or high skill investments on the 2 other DPS units to full clear. Reaching Stage 7 and Stage 8 however is very doable.

Sakura

Ludmilla	Sakura	Guilty	Scarlet	Modernia
		Viper	Alice	Drake

Sakura’s burst skill reduces Alteisen’s damage by a TON for 30 seconds, which means you are able to survive at least 1 round of Alteisen’s turret attacks.

For Noise team, this buys you enough time to break both turrets on the right, where you can i-frame the launcher using Noise, and focus damage on the left parts instead to avoid having to go through another round of turrets. In short, Sakura allows you to run the Noise team without having to i-frame turrets once.

For Ludmilla and full DPS, you should seek to destroy the launcher first, tank one round of turrets and focus damage on the right turrets and proceed with the fight normally. You might want to delay breaking the right turrets immediately to deal some chip damage to the left parts, and only break the right turrets right before they attack for the 2nd time.

Snow White Nuke

Normal variation

Liter	Centi	Snow White	Scarlet	Modernia
Dorothy	Guilty		Drake

This variation relies on using Snow White’ burst to break the 2 turrets on right and i-frame the launcher using Makima/Noise. The battle is continued by i-framing the launcher, delaying breaking the right missile launcher and instead target the left missile launcher+turrets. After breaking all parts and dealing with QTE/red circle, Phase 2 is dealt with normally.

It is also possible to use this variation without Makima/Noise, although that will require i-framing the turrets once, or using the halve turret damage strategy.

One-shot Variation (Stage 7 – Stage 9)

Miranda	Anne:Miracle Fairy	Snow White	Maxwell	Neon
Liter	Poli			Privaty

With very high investments in crucial skills for all units (level 8-10), and strong gears on Snow White (1 or more T10 with high priority sub-stats), this team composition is able to achieve Stage 7 to Stage 9 using Snow White’ burst.

Lowest requirement for crucial skills and Snow White with at least full T9 with helm and chest at level 5 should give you a stage 7 clear with one shot of Snow White’s burst.

Units	Crucial Skills
Miranda	Burst (At least level 6)
Anne: Miracle Fairy	Burst (At least level 6)
Snow White	Burst (At least level 8) Highest priority here, get this to level 10 ASAP.
Maxwell	Skill 1 (At least level 8)
Neon	Skill 2 (Level 4 is enough, use the skill upgrade resources for other units)
Liter	Burst (At least level 8, using Liter requires much more RNG grinding for crit, and a different timing on releasing Snow White’s burst to enjoy Liter’s buff)
Poli	Burst (At least level 8, using Poli to replace Anne requires much better gears on Snow White and higher levels for other crucial skills)
Privaty	Skill 1 (At least level 7, using Privaty to replace Neon requires much more RNG grinding for crit)

Video Example for one-shot Stage 9: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1k14y1M7To

Two-shot Variation

Miranda	Anne:Miracle Fairy	Snow White	Maxwell	Noise
Liter	Poli			Makima

Units	Crucial Skills
Miranda	Burst (At least level 6)
Anne: Miracle Fairy	Burst (At least level 6)
Snow White	Burst (At least level 8) Highest priority here, get this to level 10 ASAP.
Maxwell	Skill 1 (At least level 8)
Noise	None for this fight, upgrade the other crucial skills instead. If you have spare resources, getting her to 4/4/4 is fine since she is used in other scenarios.
Liter	Burst (At least level 8, using Liter requires much more RNG grinding for crit, and a different timing on releasing Snow White’s burst to enjoy Liter’s buff)
Poli	Burst (At least level 8, using Poli to replace Anne requires much better gears on Snow White and higher levels for other crucial skills)
Makima	None for this fight, upgrade the other crucial skills instead.

This team uses Snow White’s burst to delete the 2 turrets on right at the start of the fight, and stall for Anne: Miracle Fairy’s burst to be available again by i-framing missile launcher using Noise/Makima.

Once Anne’s burst is ready, Snow White’s burst is activated along with Anne’s burst to deal massive damage to Alteisen by aiming at the correct spot on Alteisen’s parts on the left.

Note: Beware of dealing too much damage before firing 2nd Snow White burst and accidentally sending Alteisen to Phase 2. (Alteisen enters Phase 2 after taking 32.8M damage)

Entering Phase 2 means this strategy won’t work, since you will be unable to deal damage to multiple parts there. You should cover and only manual Noise/Makima and i-frame the launcher if leaving other units on auto deals too much damage and sends Alteisen into Phase 2. (Refer to video below)

Units	Skill levels (S1/S2/Burst)
Snow White	4/4/10
Anne: Miracle Fairy	1/1/6
Maxwell	10/8/4 (Skill 2 does not matter much for Maxwell, do NOT level her S2 to level 8 like this player did)
Noise	4/4/4
Miranda	1/6/6