Piper on the Knoll - Guess Who! (It's Bagpipe)
Featured Operators:
| Rarity | Operator |
| 6★ Rate Up |  Bagpipe
|
| 5★ Rate Up |  Sesa
 Zima
|
| 4★ Rate Up |  Utage
|
- 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★
- 4★ Rate-Ups have a 20% chance of appearing when pulling a 4★
- New Operator Feature Banners do not add Operators to the Distinction shop
Should You Pull?
YES.
Sesa, Zima, and Utage are all fine Operators--in fact, Utage is shockingly good for a 4* unit--but even if they were the bottom of the barrel, it’d be worth pulling just to get Bagpipe. Bagpipe breaks the current Arknights meta over her knee as efficiently as she breaks her enemies over her spear. She’s a godly fighter and also speeds up the DP generation of your other Vanguards (with her E2 Talent) in a way that must be seen to be believed.
Even if you aren’t interested in pulling Bagpipe (are you feeling all right?) you may want to consider doing Headhunt x1 until you pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.
NOTE: For players who are interested in taking on very high-difficulty content (i.e., high-risk-level Contingency Contracts), you'll want to get your Bagpipe to Potential 5 (!). At Potential 5, her E2 Talent gives all Vanguards +8 Initial SP instead of +6 (and yes, this can make a difference). You can do this by pulling three copies of Bagpipe, farming four Royal Vanguard Tokens from the Purchase Certificate Store, and buying another four Royal Vanguard Tokens from the Contingency Contract Cross-Seasonal Store when they are added during the Season #1 [Operation Pyrite] Event. This is a massive investment, both on this banner and to get that many Tokens, but it may be worth it for players who like to challenge themselves.
However, all players should keep in mind that even with no Potential at all, Bagpipe is still well worth raising and using.
Quick Overview
+ Her DPS is through the roof
+ Can attack multiple targets (E1 Talent)
+ Has great burst damage, which is useful for getting kills and generating DP
+ S3 greatly increases her DPS and her durability, gives her Block +1, and charges pretty quickly
+ E2 Talent gives all allied Vanguards extra Initial SP (amazing when paired with Skill-DP-Recovery or Utility Vanguards)
= The effect of her Pot 5 Talent improvement can be huge, but getting there is a very expensive proposition
- “Bagpipe” and “flaw”… does not compute
+ Increases the Physical damage dealt to all blocked enemies on the field from all Operators (Talent)
+ Great for wiping swarms of weak enemies off the field (main job of an AoE Sniper)
+ One of the few Operators who can debuff enemy ASPD, which is a great way to reduce enemy DPS
= Lower DPS than fellow AoE Sniper Meteorite, but has more team support
- Slow attack speed and high DP cost, like other AoE Snipers
- Doesn’t perform well against single targets or high-DEF targets
- If you’ve already raised existing 5* AoE Sniper Meteorite, it may be hard to justify spending materials to raise him as well
+ Terrific synergy with other Vanguards, between E2 Talent (Vanguard DP cost -1) and S2 (buffs all Vanguards and gives them +1 DP when killing an enemy)
+ Very durable; high DEF and HP for a Vanguard (and boosts her own DEF with S2)
- S2 is very strong, but it has a short duration with a long cooldown
- Low ATK
+ Recovers HP with every attack, and ASPD goes up as her HP goes down (so the more she needs healing, the faster she’ll heal herself)
+ Incredibly good at 1v1, with her strong self-sustain and sky-high DPS
+ Can dodge enemies she doesn’t want to fight by using her S1
+ S2 is one of the strongest on-deploy Skills currently in Arknights
= She only heals herself when attacking or using her S1, so damage taken in one wave sticks around until the next one (this is a double-edged sword, considering her Trait)
- Like other Enmity Guards, she can’t be directly healed by allies (though passive regeneration like Perfumer’s Talent does work)
- Has a long redeploy time and a high DP cost, which makes it tricky to use her “on-deploy” S2 multiple times in a battle
Bagpipe
Bagpipe might just be the Vanguard to end all Vanguards. Godlike stats? Check. Mass-murdering Skills? Check. Ability to hit multiple targets? Check. Generates DP every time she gets a kill? Check. Gives herself +1 Block and grants all other Vanguards a bonus to their Initial SP, allowing your entire team to get up and running in record time? That wasn’t on the bingo card, but who cares! Check and check!
For a more in-depth look at Bagpipe as an Operator, check out her Spotlight!
Sesa
Sesa makes sure to keep his tragic past well hidden behind a mocking smile and a screen of grenade smoke. He's a genius with explosives, but not in the way you might think: with his S2, he uses his specially modified explosives to reduce enemy attack speed. Almost any enemy becomes a lot less dangerous when you can kill them before they can start to fight back!
Zima
Zima is the go-to girl for any Doctor who likes to use lots of Vanguards. Between her Talent reducing the DP cost to deploy Vanguards and her S2 granting all Vanguards buffs to ATK, DEF, and DP generation, Zima is every Vanguard’s best friend. Pair her with Bagpipe and transform your Vanguards into an unstoppable fighting force!
Utage
When it comes to Utage, if it looks like a vampire and drains health from its enemies like a vampire, call it a… high school student? Sure, why not—it’s practically tradition at this point. The PTA might have issues with giving a high school student a katana and letting her chop up Reunion soldiers to recover her health, but players surely won’t once Utage drops in with her Descending Strike - Earth Splitter Skill, which gives her some of the highest on-deployment damage potential in the game!
