Arknights: New Operator Spotlight - Rosa

Rosa is a new Sniper in Arknights Global, and the first member of a new Sniper archetype: the Heavyweight Sniper. Since this is an archetype that doesn’t yet exist in Global, many Doctors are unfamiliar with what Rosa can do and whether her abilities are worth the investment. “Is Rosa worth it?” you might be asking yourself. Good question! Let’s find the answer together, shall we?

Is her name Rosa or is it Poca? You may have seen this Operator referred to by either name. 

The confusion comes from Arknights’ terrific attention to detail. “Rosa Rostova” is her real name, but because she is from Ursus, promotional materials also showed her name spelled in Cyrillic: роза, or “Poca.” 

“Rosa” appears to be this Operator’s real name, and it is what she is being called in the global release, so we will refer to her as “Rosa” in this article.

Rosa is a 6★ Sniper and the originator of the Heavyweight Sniper archetype. The defining characteristics of this archetype are their “Prioritize the heaviest enemy” attack targeting and their wide, long-distance attack range that does not target enemies adjacent to the Operator. For more details on her stats, Skills, Talents, and more, take a look at her Operator page.

Rosa has two primary specialties: ignoring enemy DEF and crowd-controlling multiple targets. Her Talent allows her to ignore an enormous percentage of DEF when attacking enemies above a certain weight class, and her S3 is a spammable Skill that Binds up to four enemies within her range and damages them over time. These two abilities are strong enough separately, but combining the two makes Rosa a force to be reckoned with.

• Because of her Talent, Rosa can ignore most of an enemy’s DEF as long as they are weight class 3 or higher. A lot of high-DEF enemies tend to be very heavy, so Rosa is one of the few Snipers who can easily damage these kinds of targets.
• Rosa’s huge attack range allows her to hit targets even when deployed far away from the action. Sometimes Rosa can make good use of a ranged grid that other Snipers would not.
• Rosa’s S2 grants a large ATK buff, strikes an additional target with each shot, and lasts for a pretty long time. This Skill has Rosa’s most consistent multi-target damage; the ATK buff is high enough to burst down tough foes, and the duration is long enough to deal sustained damage across an entire enemy wave (and maybe the next one, too).
  • This Skill is ideal for nuking down small groups of enemies, especially if they’re heavyweights.
  • Need to take care of multiple enemies in an AoE, but AoE Snipers and Casters don’t have the range to catch them all? This Skill might be what you need.

• Rosa’s S3 is a perfect tool for controlling multiple targets at once. She impales the heaviest enemies within her range, Binding them and inflicting damage over time. This Skill keeps multiple enemies under control for several seconds at a time and charges so quickly that, in some stages, it can be spammed on every enemy wave.
  • Need to deal damage to multiple enemies quickly? This Skill is strong, spammable, and holds enemies in place so other Operators can join in.
  • Need more sources of hard CC on a given stage? Getting overwhelmed by too many enemies at once? Take several of them out of the action for a while with this Skill.
  • Need to kill an enemy without it moving closer to you (i.e., Infused Originium Slugs)? Rosa’s got you covered.

• Rosa’s attack range is great at long distances, but it leaves her unable to attack enemies in the squares adjacent to her. She’s not a good choice on stages where she can’t be deployed far enough away from the action to get enemies in her sights.
• Rosa’s ability to counter high-DEF enemies is dependent on them also being heavy. Against lightweight enemies with high DEF, she loses a lot of her luster.
• Rosa has faster ASPD than AoE Snipers, but she’s still much slower than an Anti-Air Sniper. This can limit her DPS and her ability to get off shots on fast-moving opponents.
• Because Rosa’s Trait causes her to target the highest-weight enemy in her range, she does NOT prioritize aerial targets. As such, Rosa is not the best choice for handling anti-air duties.
• Rosa’s S2 and S3 both deal damage to multiple targets, so she’s capable of handling small swarms or assisting with larger ones. However, she’s not a replacement for a true AoE Sniper on a stage that floods you with huge numbers of enemies, especially if they’re small and lightweight.

Since Rosa is the first member of her archetype, there’s no other Operator who compares directly to her abilities and niche. As such, let’s compare Rosa to the other 6* Snipers currently in Arknights: Exusiai and Schwarz.

Rosa vs Exusiai

Exusiai is a 6★ Anti-Air Sniper who excels at attacking multiple times in a very short span of time. This makes her basically the exact opposite of Rosa. Exusiai excels at shooting down small, low-DEF targets, but her damage falls off sharply against high-DEF opponents. Rosa, on the other hand, is perfectly built to handle huge armored foes but is not efficient against smaller targets. Rosa also has very powerful crowd-control, while Exusiai is focused entirely on DPS.

Their differences are so striking that it’s difficult to compare their value. Exusiai has much higher raw DPS potential, but the enemies Rosa can handle tend to be harder to deal with and her CC is harder to replicate. They might as well be different classes.

In fact, they actually work together beautifully. Exusiai prioritizes flying enemies, which are usually light and therefore low on Rosa’s priority list. Meanwhile, Rosa’s CC keeps enemies in range so Exusiai has time to activate her S3 and mow them down. Their attack ranges are even complementary: if you place Exusiai right in front of Rosa, Exusiai covers Rosa’s blind spot while Rosa covers several squares Exusiai can’t reach. Don’t put these two at odds with one another. Let them work together and destroy all in their path!

Rosa vs Schwarz

Rosa and Schwarz certainly look more similar than Rosa and Exusiai at first glance: both are dependent on positioning, neither prioritizes aerial enemies, and both have some ability to ignore part of an enemy’s DEF. However, there the similarities end:

• Schwarz is a single-target, close-range nuker who uses critical hits to deal overwhelming damage to her chosen victim. Her attacks leave behind a small DEF debuff that her entire team can take advantage of.
• Rosa is a multi-target, long-range siege machine who ignores DEF herself rather than inflicting it as a debuff. She can ignore much more DEF than Schwarz, but she doesn’t have nearly the same DPS that Schwarz does (even though Rosa has higher base ATK) and her allies can’t take advantage of it because Rosa gains it innately rather than inflicting it as a debuff.

Both of them are good at taking on big, heavy targets, but for different reasons. Schwarz simply does so much raw DPS that she can overwhelm even armored foes. Rosa relies on trickery, using CC so her enemies take more damage and leveraging her opponent’s weight against them.

In the end, while they look like similar Operators, Rosa and Schwarz occupy very different niches. Schwarz is built to focus down one target at a time and pretty much doesn’t care who that target is as long as she can get them into her range. Rosa has more conditions on maximizing her DPS, but she also brings crowd-control to the table, while Schwarz has nothing to offer but damage. Which one is “better” will depend on each individual Doctor’s needs and the situation at hand.

Rosa is unique, powerful, and effective. She occupies a different niche from the existing 6★ Snipers, and she exhibits more than enough prowess at her niche to make her worth raising. She’s a worthy addition to the Arknights roster, and she’s a worthy addition to your roster as well if you’re lucky enough to pull her!

If you intend to pull for Rosa, we at GamePress hope you have better luck than Rosa’s old schoolmates!

…well, that was depressing. Here, have a waving bear to make up for it.