Team Building 102: Roles and Synergies
Table of Contents
Please first read Team Building 101, to understand the concepts that will be discussed here.
In Team Building 101, we discussed burst and weapon types. Burst and weapon types are crucial to build a basic functioning team, but we can strive for something better: team synergy. In this guide we will discuss team roles and synergies to build the most powerful teams possible.
Roles
I categorize units into 6 basic roles:
| Role | Explanation | Recommended # in a Team |
| DPS | Deals damage. At least one is necessary in every team. | 1~3 |
| Offensive Support | Increases the damage of allies by buffing attack, crit chance, crit damage, hit rate, charge damage, charge speed, damage%, attack speed, or by debuffing enemy defense, healing, or increasing enemy damage taken. | 2~4 |
| Defensive Support | Decreases damage taken by allies by buffing defense, healing potency, max HP, damage reduction, or sharing damage taken. | 0~2 |
| Energy Support | Generates energy or buffs allies’ energy generation to help fill the burst gauge quickly. See the burst generation guide for more information. | 1~3 |
| Healer | Heals allies. Healers are helpful against enemies that deal damage over time. | 0~2 |
| Shielder | Shields allies. Shielders are favoured against enemies that use powerful attacks intermittently, as units do not take overflow damage when a shield is broken. | 0~2 |
| Taunter | Taunts enemies. Taunters can sometimes be very strong defensive options, but can be problematic if they die. | 0~1 |
Most units fulfill more than one role, but not all roles equally well. The key to building a powerful team relies on covering each necessary role efficiently between five units.
The most essential roles that must always be filled are: DPS, Offensive Supports, and Energy Supports. Every team requires at least one unit per each of these roles in order to function. This is because these roles are the offensive roles. Every stage has a time limit and you must be able to deal a certain amount of damage to defeat the enemies within that time.
The other roles are defensive roles: defensive supports, healers, shielders, and taunters. They are not always necessary for every stage. However, they may be crucial in some stages and become increasingly important at harder difficulties. You must be able to find the right balance between offence and defence for your team to be successful.
Example Teams
Let us combine this knowledge with what we learned previously from Team Building 101.
| Position | Burst 1 | Burst 2 | Burst 3 | Burst 3 | Sub |
| Unit | N102 | Anis | Privaty | Neve | Ether |
| Weapon | RL | RL | AR | SG | SG |
| Role | Offensive Support, Energy Support | Energy Support, Defensive Support, Offensive Support | DPS, Offensive Support | DPS | Shielder, Defensive Support, Offensive Support |
In the above example, we have fulfilled:
- 2 DPS: Sometimes 2 may not feel like enough, depending on how many offensive supports there are.
- 4 Offensive Supports: This is a good number of offensive supports for 2 DPS. However, Anis and Ether only bring defense down, which is one of the weakest offensive support skills. But N102 and Privaty are strong attack buffers, so we fulfill the 2 Offensive Supports minimum.
- 2 Defensive Supports: This is a good number of defensive supports for a general purpose team.
- 2 Energy Supports: Since Anis is one of the strongest energy supports in the game, this is enough.
- 0 Healers: Healers are not always necessary to have.
- 1 Shielder: Shields can be helpful against strong enemies. 1 shielder is often enough.
- 0 Taunters: Taunters are not always necessary to have.
| Position | Burst 1 | Burst 2 | Burst 3 | Burst 3 | Sub |
| Unit | Liter | Centi | Scarlet | Harran | Drake |
| Weapon | SMG | RL | AR | SR | SG |
| Role | Offensive Support | Energy Support, Shielder, Defensive Support, Offensive Support | DPS | DPS, Energy Support | DPS, Offensive Support |
Next, let us analyze one of the popular meta teams to understand what makes it strong.
- 3 DPS: 3 DPS is often favourable due to all stages having a time limit, and many stages having other mechanics that require a DPS check to be met.
- 3 Offensive Supports: This is a good number of offensive supports for 3 DPS. While Centi is a weaker offensive support, Liter is one of the best offensive supports in the game, and Scarlet and Harran have strong self-buffs themselves.
- 1 Defensive Support: This is a fine number of defensive supports for a general purpose team, especially with a shielder.
- 2 Energy Supports: Since Centi and Harran are two of the strongest energy supports in the game, this is more than enough.
- 0 Healers: Healers are not always necessary to have.
- 1 Shielder: Centi is the best shielder in the game, and is usually more than enough.
- 0 Taunters: Taunters are not always necessary to have.
Elements
There are also 5 elements in Nikke: Fire, Wind, Iron, Electric, Water.
When a unit has type advantage over an enemy, that unit deals 10% bonus damage. When a unit has type disadvantage, that unit takes 10% bonus damage from the enemy. There is no damage penalty for type disadvantage.
Since 10% is not particularly high, the elemental system is not as important as other aspects to consider when choosing units for your team. However, when all else is equal, elemental bonus can make a difference.
For example, since Neve has type disadvantage against Gravedigger, in SP Interception Gravedigger she is unable to survive a single drill other while most other units can survive it.
Synergies
Synergies are not always necessary for a team, but can bring out the full potential of your units.
For example, Admi is normally a weaker unit overall than more generally powerful units like Rupee or Dolla, but when paired with Scarlet and Privaty, can bring out strong synergy that makes her very valuable to the team.
For more information on team synergies, refer to the Team Compositions guide.
