Arknights: In-depth Review - Highmore

Highmore is the future 5★ Reaper Guard welfare Operator from the Integrated Strategies 3 - Mizuki and Caerula Arbor event. Highmore is the second Reaper Guard in the game, arriving almost 9 months after the first. La Pluma is both very common due to her debut banner being incredibly powerful and often considered to be among the strongest 5★ due to her consistent DPS and great self-sustainability. So how does Highmore compare to that high bar? Let’s find out!

Highmore can be obtained through the Integrated Strategies 3 - Mizuki and Caerula Arbor event level-up rewards. Players will acquire Highmore at level 25 on the rewards ladder, with additional potentials at intervals of 5 from there on, up to level 50.

Much like La Pluma, Highmore is a relatively tanky Guard with a focus on high Defense and sustain, mostly through their archetypal Trait. Reaper Guards are Enmity Operators who cannot be directly healed by allies, instead healing themselves by attacking enemies. Their attacks target all enemies within their unique range, and they recover 50 HP per enemy hit up to their Block Count, which is usually 2 for this archetype.

Reaper Guards are prime options for holding lanes with consistent low-medium pressure through their strong DPS capabilities, true AoE hits and constant high recovery, giving them very strong self-sufficiency without the need for any support and allowing them to outpace lanes in many stages

The true differences between La Pluma and Highmore are not felt in their pure stats alone. In general, they have around the same stat spread with very high Defense when compared to other Operators of their class bar Liberator Guards, but with low-ish HP and average Attack.

The main difference between these two Operators lies in their Attack Speed, which we will discuss in the Talents section.

When attacking enemies, Highmore recovers 30 (+5 at P5) Elemental HP per enemy hit, up to Block Count.

This Talent gives Highmore a strong focus on countering stages where Elemental Damage is relevant, essentially negating all of it for herself as long as she can continuously hit enemies. Considering how the Elemental HP of all Operators is a flat 1000, being able to recover 30 per hit makes Highmore practically immune to these effects.

The issue is that, compared to La Pluma’s first Talent, Highmore has to sacrifice “regular” sustainability and DPS in favor of this niche which will often not be all that important. While La Pluma’s Talent gives her a rather large boost of 36 Attack Speed (knocking her Attack Interval down to 0.95 seconds per attack), Highmore has to stick with her regular 1.3 second Interval which, while still quite fast, is a definite decrease in both sustainability and overall damage, particularly considering their rather strong Powerstrikes.

Still, as previously mentioned, this Talent gives Highmore a way to handle the extremely annoying Corrosion, Nervous Impairment, Burn and Necrosis, which can be quite powerful in the right circumstances. Something that La Pluma simply cannot do.

While in Integrated Strategies 3 - Mizuki and Caerula Arbor, Highmore has 25 extra Attack Speed and 1 more Block Count.

This is the Talent that gives Highmore a relevant niche over La Pluma, even if only in this particular game mode. The extra Block Count gives her better sustain capabilities via the limit on her Trait while simultaneously improving her ability to handle larger waves, while the Attack Speed boost reduces her Interval to 1.05 second per Attack. While this is still a bit higher than La Pluma’s full Talent effect, the lack of any need for ramp-up makes Highmore a more consistent option that performs at her best even during the earliest waves of a stage.

All in all, this Talent makes Highmore a significantly better option than La Pluma for this specific event, and even propels up to one of the more consistent and popular openers due to her ability to handle early floors at Difficulty 7, and even at Difficulty 15 where her performance is still viable. 

Every third attack Highmore performs will hit twice for 165% Physical Damage.

This Skill lets Highmore take advantage of her unique range, AoE capabilities and quick attacks to both provide great laneholding capabilities while keeping herself quite safe through the recovery of her trait.

This Skill is exactly the same Powerstrike-adjacent as La Pluma’s Rapid Slashing, down to the damage multiplier. As a result, there’s not much to discuss about this that hasn’t already been said, but if nothing else it’s worth noting that this will be Highmore’s main Skill, giving her high consistent damage and healing, with the additional bonus of staving off Elemental Damage.

When activated, Highmore’s Attack increases by 60% and she gains 60% Physical Dodge. Additionally, when an enemy is defeated in her range, she recovers 10% of her Max HP. This Skill has a cost of 30 SP, and lasts for 20 seconds.

This Skill provides Highmore with a better burst of damage than her first one at a quick cycling, but overall the effects are rather mediocre for her use cases. This idea of “burst” itself on Highmore is already somewhat strange, as not only does her kit lend itself more towards a more consistent playstyle, but she’s beat in this burst by La Pluma’s Reap pretty easily. The exclusively Physical Dodge is also a strange choice given that her Defense is already on the higher end for her class, meaning Arts is significantly more threatening for her.

The direct HP recovery is also fine on paper, and the fact that Highmore doesn’t need to be the one dealing the final blow adds a nice dash of consistency, but it is again a weird concept for a Reaper Guard, which rarely struggle with their recovery unless they are directly facing a threat they cannot beat. 

Overall this Skill feels as if its only use case is in trying to force Highmore to fit a role she isn’t supposed to be taking, foregoing the better overall performance of her first Skill in order to somewhat improve her odds against tougher enemies she wouldn’t normally be able to beat. Why do that when you can just bring an Operator who can?

So, should I raise Highmore? Is she on the same power level as La Pluma? Will I find uses for her if I already have the other Reaper Guard? The answer is PROBABLY NOT, but with an asterisk. Highmore will outperform La Pluma in Integrated Strategies 3 - Mizuki and Caerula Arbor, being a strong and popular opener that works even on the harder difficulties. It might still be worth a raise if you plan on running this event often, or if you want to try your luck with the monstrous Difficulty 15.

However for the majority of players La Pluma is just going to be a better investment thanks to her stronger burst DPS Skill, and her better ASPD Talent that isn’t bound to a single game mode. For those that don’t have La Pluma yet, Highmore might be worth investing in as a sort of replacement at the player’s discretion.