Arknights: Fiammetta in-depth gameplay analysis

Hello. A new Artilleryman has arrived to Rhodes Island, and if you have been here for my Sesa and Meteorite guide, you probably knew that I really like this sniper archetype (just second to the Deadeyes). So what are we waiting for? Let’s just dive right in. Here’s the latest 6* Artilleryman Sniper, Shimmering Vigil, sorry that was changed, I think it’s Apocalypse Punisher now?

Fiammetta is the newest member of the Artilleryman Sniper family. A family known to mostly do long range burst damage with some team support/control. Fia however rejected all of the support and focused solely on the damage and the long range. So focused that she deals most of her damage at the far end of her range, leaving her closer area relatively safe. With short cooldown straight line nukes or permanent consistent wide area bombardment, Fia is here to cover the battlefield with explosions, even going as far as burning herself to do so.

Artilleryman Snipers have the third highest ATK stats for the sniper family, losing only to Deadeye and Heavyweight Snipers.

And of course, just like those two archetypes, they also have a pretty bad attack rate to “compensate”, at 2.8 seconds interval.

However, Fia has a really nice way to boost her own ATK up which we’ll talk about soon.

Artillerymen have a pretty mediocre HP pool compared to the rest of the snipers… usually. Unusually, Fia has a really high HP pool that is not from trust bonus for a specific reason, giving her one of the highest HP for the snipers.

Her DEF is also unusually high for an Artilleryman. Of course in the grand scheme it’s still not great, even just compared to other snipers.

There is 1 thing about her survivability that’s more than what these defensive stats have shown though (or I guess less).

As with any AoE related units, they get unnecessary high DP cost because stupid Hypergyph. Furthermore, the Artillerymen get more DP cost every time you promote them. AND, 6* has an even higher base cost because “rarity”. So Fiammetta ended up with 25, 27, and 29 DP costs at base, E1, and E2 respectively.

Artilleryman’s range is one of the longest in the game, losing only to Blast Caster and Fortress. It also expands based on promotion levels.

It kinda explains why they get more DP cost when promoting, but again, the base cost is still too high.

Anyway, copy-paste from previous artilleryman guides: The extra range at E2 is the more important part, at least in my eyes. The little range at E1 rarely comes into play, as it is rare that you would be able to deploy a range unit facing straight into an enemy lane (thanks Ifrit). Usually, the ranged tile will be on the side of the route, and so the range on the side matters more often than the middle one. If you can use that middle range at E1, it’s either an Ifrit spot (which is rare), or you’re looking in perpendicular from the path and the extra range at E2 still helps you cover the area much better and/or easier.

Deals AoE Physical damage

They used to be called AoE Snipers, though of course with Spreadshooter it stopped being distinct for a while. I still hate the Artilleryman name though.

The radius is 1 tile. If the targeted enemy died while their projectile is midair, it will still do AoE damage at the dead enemy’s location, the effect is just not shown.

Available from the start: Fiammetta constantly loses HP (this effect will not reduce HP to below 1); When HP is higher than 50%, gain Vigor effect of +15% ATK; When HP is higher than 80%, the Vigor effect is doubled.

At E1, it upgrades to +20% ATK. (HP threshold doesn’t change)

At E2, it upgrades again to +25% ATK.

The HP burn is 5% of current HP every second. Even more accurately, it’s 0.5% current HP every 0.1 second.

So yes, the reason Fia has an unusually high HP is so they can raise the “difficulty” in keeping this bonus up, especially to keep it above 80% HP. Except it’s not that hard. A Skadi the Corrupting Heart S2M3 at the same level as Fia can permanently keep it above the threshold (though not at 100%) and above 50% HP without S2 up. You do have to spend 1 deploy slot for a healer (any 3* or higher that isn't Reserve Medic), which you may or may not have to go out of your way to get one in your team, and Skadi is a limited operator so not everyone would have her. The reason I mentioned Skadi is because her heal is continuous and true AoE (and that she's probably in the team already), and is also a good healing source, unlike the other 2 Bards.

Here’s the graph to show her current %HP over time.

For the actual effect, an essentially +50% ATK buff for free? Sign me in. (unless you’re one of those Sniper-only players, get rekt scrubs)

For the 80% Vigor, she has some distinct yellow lines around her. For the 50% Vigor, she has some subtle yellow aura around her.

It’s even better when most of her skills have ATK multipliers, which, well, multiply +ATK buffs, like from this talent.

Even better (again), in Integrated Strategy, the relic that boosts ATK actually affects base ATK, so this talent also boosts those relics. Although that also means relics that boost HP will make it harder to keep her 80% HP threshold, haha.

Available at E2: when skill is not active, ASPD +27

Potential 5 increases that to +30

The ASPD pushes her basic attack interval to 2.2 seconds (or 66 frames in 30 FPS scale to be precise). Potential 5 pushes it to 2.16 seconds or 65 frames.

In conjunction with her first talent, she can make 2 attacks before she loses her 80% Vigor, and 6 shots before she loses her 50% Vigor.

The reason for this talent is because all of Fia’s skills are Offensive Recovery, which gains SP on attacking… apparently. It does make her basic attack damage fairly okay.

The big and important thing is that it doesn’t do anything when skill is active, which is some questionable design. Artilleryman in general already doesn’t do much attack because of how terrible their attack rate is. This ASPD puts Fia to be slightly slower than Flinger Snipers. Thankfully one of Fia’s skills is an instant nuke type which helps a lot, but it doesn’t help much if you’re using her other skill, which is also viable enough.

Anyway let’s get on with her skills and fully see how these talents really play out.

Always available – Self-Discipline: When assigned to a Dormitory, self morale recovery is fixed to 2 per hour, unaffected by anything else.

Fellow Sufferers: When assigned to a Dormitory, if self is full morale, swap morale with the last operator that entered the same dorm.

Oh boy, this base skill. If Fia is full morale, she will swap her 24 morales to the last person that enter the dorm, which then enables some serious stuff. Imma just let one of the base experts u/PeterYR explain this.

ATK +60% and attack range +1, 30 seconds duration, 5 initial SP, 14 SP cost

Offensive Recovery, manual activation

M3 gives +100% ATK, 10 SP cost

(yea that’s it)

Since this skill gives another +% ATK, it only stacks additively with her first talent, meaning a total of +150% ATK.

The range +1 means it adds 1 line of range to whatever her current range is, so at base it’ll give her E2 range, at E1 it’s her E2 range with 1 extra tile in the middle, and at E2, it adds 1 more line.

10 SP cost means her downtime is about 22 seconds, if she’s constantly attacking. Hopefully with the Artilleryman’s range, she’ll be able to attack a lot.

For an S1, it’s fairly okay. Though there’s not much to write about other than when you want a skill that doesn't have the drawbacks of her third skill and is a little more flexible than her second skill (somehow).

Fires a phoenix forward that leaves bombs along the path. The phoenix explodes at the end of Fia’s attack range, dealing 320% physical damage. The bombs explode shortly after dealing 160% physical damage each. 10 SP cost.

Offensive Recovery, manual activation

M3 gives 400% phoenix damage, 200% bomb damage, and 7 SP cost.

The phoenix ONLY deals damage at the end of its journey. This is not like Ash S3 where there is pass-through damage.

The phoenix’s explosion radius is 1.5 tiles, the bomb’s explosion radius is 1.1 tiles. The bombs explode after a 0.8 second delay.

The phoenix drops a bomb every 0.66s, with a flying speed of 8 tiles per seconds. But screw that, here’s how it looks like:

Although, ASPD can speed this up, so at a high enough amount it will fly very fast.

And here's the damage chart:

Anything in the green zone takes 200% damage, cyan zone takes 400% damage, blue zone takes 600%, yellow zone takes 800%, and red zone takes 1000%. With the caveat that it is a sum of a few 200% and 400% rather than a single hit, which means enemies’ DEF is applied for each hit.

This damage is an Attack Multiplier, so it does multiply the +ATK from her first talent. With her +50% ATK, her 200% damage is basically 300% of her base ATK, which is a fairly high amount.

If her range is limited by the edge of the map, the phoenix will also explode at that edge, which means it wouldn’t leave as much bombs as usual. (plus also, she’s facing the edge of the map, where there aren’t many enemies)

It deals quite some decent damage in a line, although most of the damage is at the far end of her range. In essence, you can consider her similar to Ifrit, though her basic attacks still have the regular range. Ifrit tile is rare enough, and then for Fia, you also have to look for a tile that’s 3-5 tiles away from the enemies because that’s where the most of her damage is.

With her second talent, Fia can charge this skill in 15.4 seconds if she’s attacking constantly.

As you can see from the diagram, you can place a blocker 2 tiles in front of her and she’ll do the most damage to the enemies blocked on the third tile. (remember this idea of blocking enemies to help Fia do more damage for some details later)

However, as I have said a couple times (in different guides and forums), you don’t have to maximize something for it to be good. There are a few 800% and 600% spots that are also worth consideration. (though if you have to dip into the 400% zone something might have gone wrong)

The skill reduces her damage zone to mostly just a straight line ahead of her (I guess that’s what Guide Ahead means). Given that one of the better Artilleryman Snipers’ points is their large range, I personally don’t like this trade off.

From the Artilleryman family: W can do either 350% (+her talent) every 16 seconds and stun for 3 seconds or 280% (+her talent) every 10 seconds and stun for 2.2 seconds; and Meteorite can do 300% (+her talent if proc) every 20 seconds and -330 DEF. All are arguably good skills except for maybe W S1 (as I have argued in their respective guide). So you’re trading the ability to hit anywhere in that large Artilleryman range for (much) better damage, without any utility. Make of that what you will.

It’s quite slow from skill use to full damage, so if you cast late enough, the enemies might have already walked away from the better damage zone (without blocking or if they are unblockable).

It also can’t hold charges, so you’re going to have to save it for the right moment. Given that she also has to attack to recharge the skill, it makes for quite a dilemma. Granted, her basic attack is fairly strong because of her two talents and the second talent does help with recharging a fair bit.

The skill will destroy big bosses (Big Sad Lock in IS2, Bishop Quintus in Under Tides, Sui in Invitation to Wine) really badly. Since their hit box is bigger, they have all the area to take all of S2’s explosions, taking the full total 1400% damage. Fia can only be at most 1 tile away from them for all the bombs to hit, but it is possible against all of the big bosses we have had so far.

Fix her attack to the farthest tile and increase splash range, attack even without enemies, each attack deals 115% damage, attacks against enemies in a small area around the target point deals 185% damage. Infinite duration, 19 SP cost, can be manually deactivated.

Offensive Recovery, manual activation

M3 gives 125% damage and 220% damage to center tile, 15 SP cost.

Fia will now only target the center of the tile directly furthest from her.

There’s a lot of misconception about the splash radius of this skill, where people think it’s like Texas S2 range or a 3x3 range. That is NOT the case. This skill has a splash radius of 2 tiles, and the center radius for the extra damage is 1.1 tiles. Here’s the diagram.

It’s counted as a regular attack. It will always attack even without enemies.

Her second talent does not apply so the interval remains at 2.8 seconds instead of 2.2 seconds. It was a misconception around when she was newly released on CN that her second talent works with this skill. I wish it does though.

This damage is also an Attack Multiplier, for both the outer and the center area.

Similar to her S2, if her range is restricted by the edge of the map, the target tile is also adjusted accordingly. Proof

As a consistent DPS skill, this is one of the best AoE mobs cleaning we have so far. Although, as a nothing-but-damage skill, its DPS is not that great, again because of Artilleryman’s terrible attack rate (better than Deadeye at least because AoE). So it's not that great at killing elites (and of course bosses).

Like S2, you’d want someone to block the enemies so they stay under the maximum damage zone. For this skill, you have to put someone on the 3rd tile, because the center area doesn’t cover all the way to the edge of the 3rd tile.

Given that she only attacks a certain area with a very slow attack rate, having enemies walking past the zone is a regular occurrence, without any blocker. Especially the outer area where the damage is low.

In fact, her S3 without the center bonus has roughly the same DPS as her basic attack with her second talent (some defense does change this but it’s roughly the same). So if the enemies did walk past the damage zone, you can turn it off to let her finish them off. Although, knowing the general players, y’all will never turn it off anyway.

Because Fia will always attack even without enemies, you can actually use this skill to reach an enemy way outside of her range. Though again, the damage without the center bonus is not much to write home about, but any amount is higher than 0 I guess?

ART–У: 'Out-law' Special Ammunition Surplus

• Stage 1:

ATK +48

DEF +26

Trait added: Attacks ignore 100 DEF

Analysis: Pretty meh effect. Fiammetta’s whole deal is dealing a lot of damage. Ignoring 100 DEF out of her massive ATK has a pretty low overall impact. The stat boosts are okay though. (would have been funny if she gets even more HP).

ON CN ONLY:

• Stage 2 (stats bonus does not stack, only replace):

ATK +60

DEF +36

Talent upgrade: When skill is not active, ASPD +27. When skill is active, ASPD +5. (new effect)

• Stage 3:

ATK +70

DEF +43

Talent upgrade: When skill is not active, ASPD +30. When skill is active, ASPD +10. (upgrade from +27 skill inactive to +30 and +5 skill active to +10)

Analysis: These 2 upgrades are pretty bad overall other than the ATK boost. It’s meant to help her S3, but the ASPD pushes her S3 interval from 2.8 seconds to 2.53 seconds (or 76 frames in a 30FPS scale). It barely improves her S3, and the improved effect does almost nothing for her S2.

However…

As a 6*, and from the current trend with some other 6*, she will get the other module as well, the one W and Sesa have. That module gives a 110% Attack Multiplier to blocked enemies. Both of Fia’s S2 and S3 preferred blocked enemies to guarantee the optimal damage, as I have argued in their respective sections. The upgrade is also more likely to affect her Vigor talent which would probably give her more +ATK (maybe not but it could be). Definitely wait to get the other module, although that is more than 6 months from now, as it is not even available in CN yet. You can maybe get Stage 1 of this module. Only get stage 3 of this one if you really love Fia (but by then you don’t care what I said here anyway).

Fiammetta is an Artilleryman Sniper that focuses solely on dealing damage, most notably around the opposite edge of her range.

• S1 is the only skill where her range isn’t restricted. Use it when you’re tired of getting the right position for Fia. +1 range also enable something I guess. I don’t really recommend M3 though (or even spending much thought on it).

• S2 is her best skill. It has amazing damage and is less limited in range than her S3. In this case, it’s a (relatively) straight line. It needs M3 to be really good with the low SP cost though. You can put a blocker 2 tiles in front of her and they will block the enemies on the 3rd tile (if the enemies come from the other side) where they will take the maximum damage. Do note that this is only the best possible damage, there are more areas where it still can do some good damage. It will also destroy large bosses like Big Sad Lock (if you’re struggling in IS2 *cough*)

• S3 is the lazy option. It’s an infinite skill duration that always hits the furthest straight tile away from her. The center area has the most damage, so you’d want to find ways to get the enemies to stay there, usually with a blocker. The outer area can be used to reach even further enemies, but it doesn’t have much damage compared to her basic attack, so reaching faraway enemies is all it’s good for. It also requires careful positioning to use. M3 actually has better gains than it seems, but it’s not that important.

I touched on this in the S2 section, but compared to the other Artilleryman Snipers, Fia has no utility (other than the extra range) and no support to other allies. As said, I don’t like this tradeoff personally. W doesn’t kill herself (in fact, she has strong survivability even) and has strong crowd control (though it usually doesn’t work against bosses). Meteorite has strong DEF debuff and a solid nuke. Both are far easier to use and maximize than Fia. There are more to this game other than raw damage, and if you want raw damage you’ll probably be getting the meta units like Chen the Holungday, Surtr, Horn…

Speaking of Horn, a future CN unit, she’s basically the same thing as Fia. Long range AoE damage that can’t target close to self, with some HP drain. Except, not only Horn has better overall damage, she also can block and can actually melee the enemies that walk past the damage zone and into her. She also has 2 lives, and in her second life she’s even stronger offensively. Wait, sorry this is supposed to be a Fiammetta's guide. *ahem*

Her HP drain can be a problem, as you have to spend an additional deploy for a healer. The healer then has to spend a healing interval to heal Fia, and that’s a long interval of 2.85 seconds. It may cause an issue where someone else might die during that interval. Though that’s probably the healer’s fault, or that dead operator’s fault, definitely not Fia’s fault haha. That's why Skadi the Corrupting Heart is the best partner for her as her healing is in a continuous true AoE, and she also buffs ATK and DEF. Healers that grant SP on heal are another great addition too: Saria, Quercus, Touch, and …Hung? However, do note that Fia without the Vigor bonus is just a regular Artilleryman. Since she lacks extra utilities unlike W, she is quite lackluster without her Vigor. (That and her skills are kinda balanced under the assumption that she has her Vigor)

Archetto is another fairly obvious synergy, as Fia is a sniper and her skills are all Offensive Recovery, and Archetto gives 1 SP every 2.5 seconds to all Offensive Recovery Snipers. Aside from S2 spam, she also makes turning S3 on and off a lot more viable.

In Integrated Strategies 2, Fia is amazing. Not only does she synergise with the ASPD item which are very powerful, she also benefits from the +ATK relic because as I said in the talent section, it affects her base ATK which is then boosted by her Vigor. Her best skill in this mode is also her second skill, which is already available at E1. Though I don’t recommend starting with her and only pick Fia when you have an okay team rolling (or a medic).

Some showcases:

H7-1 Saria Fia duo (yes this stage again)

GA-7 Fia Exu duo ft. the literal tile made for Fia (this event is rigged with these tiles lul)

So for the people that have her, how did you find her so far? I favored S2 heavily as I find S3 way too limiting, though it is nice for the consistency when I do need it (but only if the center area is doing work). I still consider W definitely better than Fia because she offers far more than just damage, but at the same time, W is limited and hard to obtain nowadays.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time.

(don't read the sesa one it's filled with my coping mechanism on him wait why do I even put it here then)