Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Exusiai & Hoshiguma

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	Hoshiguma Exusiai
5★	Lappland Projekt Red Nearl

• Based on previous patterns, it is likely but not 100% certain that the Operators for purchase in the Distinction store will be Hoshiguma and Projekt Red.
• 6★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 6★
• 5★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 5★

Yes. This is a good general-purpose banner with a lot of strong Operators on it. In particular, all of these Operators can be useful in the CC event (which may be why we’re getting this Standard banner). However, you won’t have much time to raise them before CC starts, so consider your resource usage carefully if you pull them.

Keep in mind that none of these Operators are necessary to clear CC. You don’t need Exusiai if you have other strong Snipers, you don’t need Hoshiguma if you have other strong Defenders, etc.

Even if you already have most of these Operators (or good alternatives to them), it may still be worthwhile to do Headhunt x1 on this banner until you pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

Anti-Air Sniper

+ Crazy DPS potential

- Has trouble with high-DEF enemies (a common problem for Snipers)

- S1 and S3 trigger automatically, so you can’t save them for when you want to use them

Normal Defender

+ Great durability

+ Massacres enemies en masse when using S3

- Not significantly better at mitigating damage compared to lower-rarity Defenders

Ranged Guard

+ Attacks at range (deals Arts damage when using S2)

+ Talent causes Silence, disabling enemy’s special abilities

- Auto activation on S2 means you can’t save it for when you want it

Fast-Redeploy Specialist

+ High DPS potential

+ Can either boost her long-term survivability with a Dodge buff or drop a Stun on enemies when deploying

+ Can be redeployed multiple times in a single stage (Fast-Redeploy)

- DP cost can balloon quickly if she’s being redeployed constantly

- Pretty fragile, so dropping her in enemy lines isn’t always safe

Healing Defender

+ Heals adjacent allies

+ Innate RES (common to Healing Defenders)

+ Can Block-3 after E1-promotion

+ Increases all direct healing received by allies with her E2 Talent

- Pretty low HP and DEF for a Defender

- No damage-mitigating Skills or Talents

- Takes some investment before she can really perform (and is very much outshone by 6★ Saria)

Exusiai is a machine gun of nonstop bullet hell. All three of her Skills involve shooting multiple times, and her Talent increases her attack speed so she can do it even faster.

There are few Snipers who can rival Exusiai’s damage potential. She does falter a little against high-DEF enemies due to her mediocre ATK; she’ll still shoot a lot, but each bullet won’t do a lot of damage. Her S3 also triggers automatically, so you can’t save it for tough minion waves the way you might want to. These are small potatoes (apples?) in the grand scheme of things, though. Exusiai is an excellent Operator to have around in almost every situation.

I recommend pulling for Exusiai.

Hoshiguma combines high damage potential with potent survival Skills, making her a perfect frontline unit. She can boost her own ATK and DEF, ignore enemy attacks, and chip down multiple enemies at a time with her Skill 3. She doesn’t have many bells and whistles like some other 6* units do: she’s just a huge meatgrinder that refuses to die, which is pretty damn good.

If you only have one strong Defender raised, then I definitely DO recommend pulling for Hoshiguma.

If you have two strong Defenders raised but no other strong frontline units (i.e., AoE Guards), then I DO recommend pulling for Hoshiguma.

If you have two strong Defenders and some other frontline units raised (i.e., AoE Guards or a third Defender), then I DO NOT recommend pulling for Hoshiguma. However, she’s probably still worth raising in the long run if you pull her by accident.

Lappland has been available on several banners in NA now. It’s like the developers are trying to tell us something… maybe something like, “Hey guys, a ranged-attacking unit who can be placed on ground grids, deal Arts damage, and disable enemy Skills is a REALLY VALUABLE unit to have around, especially with the upcoming Contingency Contract event, where you might not be able to field Snipers or Casters but you’ll still need ranged damage and Arts damage.   She’s also really good for stages like Annihilation 3 if you haven’t finished that yet and she stays good through a bunch of high-end content you guys haven’t even seen yet, so we want to make sure you have a chance to get her, take a hint, guys, yeah?”

I recommend pulling for Lappland.

Projekt Red is a Fast-Redeploy unit who functions as the perfect assassin. She can increase her dueling power or drop an AoE Stun upon deployment, cut some poor enemy target to shreds, then retreat and lie in wait until her next high-priority target comes along.

Fast-Redeploy Specialists are useful because they are very flexible. Being constantly retreated and redeployed allows them to react to situations across the field, accomplishing multiple objectives throughout a battle. Projekt Red is an especially good Fast-Redeploy because she has decent survival tools for stalling and high DPS for murdering things, making her possibly the most versatile Fast-Redeploy unit. That being said, Fast-Redeploy units are rarely necessary to finish a map. In most cases, other Operators can serve the same roles if you’re careful with their positioning and/or redeployment timers.

Because of this, I don’t recommend pulling specifically for Projekt Red, but she’s definitely worth investing in if you pull her.

Healing Defender Nearl is a passable Defender, but she’s really more interested in the “Healing” part. Her Talent increases healing for all allies, and her Skills allow her to heal adjacent allies with great efficiency. She has fairly mediocre defensive stats, so she can’t survive too much damage, but she still has Block-3 (after E1-promotion), allowing her to bottleneck weaker enemies as an off-tank.

Healing Defenders are very important in Contingency Contract, but they are coveted units in other high-end content as well because they satisfy two very important roles: tanking and healing. Nearl definitely does one of these better than the other, but she’s still valuable for both, making her a useful unit.

I don’t recommend pulling specifically for Nearl (remember that 4* Healing Defender Gummy is still available in the store for $0.99 as part of the Starter Pack!), but she’s probably worth investing in if you pull her.