Arknights: What Happened to Lappland?

Lappland is a popular 5★ Ranged/Lord Guard, most known for her unhealthy obsession with Texas and her Silence combat mechanic. As of late, however, her popularity has waned greatly, to the point where many don’t recommend raising her at all or suggest alternative options. Why is that?

In this article I will explore why Lappland’s popularity is at an all-time low and discuss what the future holds for her. Let’s get into it!

One of the reasons behind Lappland’s popularity has been her Talent, Spiritual Destruction, which provided the status effect that used to make her unique: her Silence. Thanks to this ability, Lappland reigned as the prime Infused Originum Slug killer for a long while, taking care of normally difficult stages such as 4-7. In this regard she did her job quite well, providing decent damage while also handling certain difficult enemies. Not too long ago she was also one of the preferred Operators for the Originum Dust event, which featured enemies that split into multiple others if not silenced.

Lappland had the benefit of being the only unit in the game able to inflict this status condition for a long time. As a release unit, it would take over 4 months before any other unit came out with this same effect, and that uniqueness was “broken” by the 5★ Fast Redeploy/Executor Specialist Waai Fu. Currently she faces even more competition in this regard, with units like Blitz and Ceobe, lower-rarity Operators like Podenco and Jaye, and upcoming Operators like Corroserum. Needless to say, a higher availability of Silence-inflicting operators has put a dent in Lappland’s usefulness, but so has a more widely available selection of Operators that can take care of those pesky enemies without needing the status effect.  A full list of Operators that can apply the Silence effect can be seen here.

Another factor to understand why Lappland’s viability has evolved the way it has is the presence of enemies actually affected by the status effect. While Infused Slugs and Infused Glacial Slugs are a big threat during Chapters 4 and 6, they rarely show up elsewhere, and when they do it’s never in massive threatening groups like in these Story stages. The same can be said about Acid Originum Slugs, Yeti Casters or Sarkaz Casters. The last time in the Global server where Silence was hugely beneficial was during the Originum Dust event, where the same solution could be accomplished by bringing area-hitting operators such as AoE/Splash Casters. In the Chinese server, the last time Silence was useful was during the Vigilo event, which featured old Tiacauh enemies from the Gavial the Great Chef Returns event.

Due to these two reasons combined, the power of Silence as a worthwhile status effect in the game has decayed immensely, and with it the necessity for the Operator whose claim to fame was reliably inflicting it: Lappland.

Another of the aspects that made Lappland an attractive unit was her more-than-decent, consistent and, most importantly, her Arts-based damage for the duration of her second Skill, Wolf Spirit. Lately, however, with the release of many units that fulfill a similar role, she’s started to struggle to earn her place.

The most obvious opponent in this regard is the 4★ Ranged/Lord Guard Arene, boasting similar (if not sometimes better) DPS, an extended range and, most importantly, a much different Skill activation and SP charge method.

Where Lappland’s Skill could be wasted by automatically activating during wave downtime, Arene’s can be timed perfectly to not waste a single SP. The charging method also benefits Arene immensely: his Skill charges in 30 seconds. While Lappland’s can technically take less under ideal circumstances (22.3 seconds if constantly attacking), the fact that it’s an Offensive SP Recovery makes it much less reliable, since she can’t charge during down-time.

No one knows what future awaits Lappland, as her usefulness hinges almost entirely on that of the Silence status effect. Whether we get an event like Originum Dust again is all up to the developers, but until then, Lappland will remain a decent option (and one worth considering for the mid game, where Silence-able enemies are more prevalent) often overshadowed by Arene’s lower rarity and general ease of usage, still in her undisputed throne of the most consistent Silence applier.