Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: SilverAsh and Exusiai (!!!)

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	SilverAsh Exusiai
5★	Executor Platinum Manticore

• Exusiai is available for purchase in the Distinction store for 180 Certificates. Platinum can be purchased for 45.
• 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★

Do you even have to ask?! HELL YES!

SilverAsh and Exusiai are two of the best 6*s available in the game right now; Platinum is a very unique and powerful Anti-Air Sniper; and Executor and Manticore are powerful units who fill interesting niches. This is an outstanding banner, especially for new players who may be desperately in need of more strong units for CC#1.

Even if you don’t care about CC#1, you might still want to do Headhunt x1 until you pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

Ranged Guard

+ Usual advantages of Ranged Guards: can be deployed on ground squares, yet attack at range and hit aerial units

+ Reduces the redeploy time of allied Operators

+ Reveals invisible enemies within his attack range

+ S2 makes him into a serviceable off-tank

+ S3 is a delete button for waves you don’t want to deal with

- Long cooldown on S3… that’s about it

Anti-Air Sniper

+ Devours low-DEF enemies faster than she eats apple pie

+ Very consistent damage output

+ Wildly effective when buffed by other Operators (i.e., Sora, Warfarin)

- Requires buffs to be effective against enemies with more than 600 DEF (increasingly common in high-end content)

Boomstick Sniper

+ Deals tremendous AoE physical damage

+ One of the better Snipers against high-DEF targets because he has some DEF Ignore

= Husbando with a really cool, really fun, double-shotgun-action S2

- Short attack range and slow attack speed

Anti-Air Sniper

+ Becomes an uber-Sniper once her S2 procs (permanent ATK boost and attack range increase)

+ Punches through all but the highest-DEF enemies with her Talent + S2

+ Has longer attack range than any other Anti-Air Sniper once S2 activates

- Long activation time on S2, and until it procs, she is noticeably weaker than other 5* Snipers

Controller Specialist

+ Very slippery and hard to damage; has Invisibility, lower aggro, and 50% Physical/ Arts Dodge

+ Regular attacks are ground-based AoE, hitting all targets within her attack range

+ Talent gives her a large ATK buff for her first attack when leaving Invisibility, resulting in powerful AoE strikes

+ S1 permanently adds a passive Slow effect to her basic attacks

+ S2 adds a Stun effect to her attacks and also reduces her ASPD, causing her Talent’s ATK bonus to trigger on every attack

= Block-0 means she cannot take melee damage, but also means she can’t Block enemies

= Gets a new skin in the CC#1 Pyrite event

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Very slow ASPD, reducing DPS and frequency of crowd-control application

SilverAsh is renowned as one of the best Operators for new players to pull. He is incredibly versatile, combining ranged physical attacks with a Skill that makes him soak damage, another Skill that nukes everything within range, an anti-stealth Talent just because, and another Talent that reduces redeployment time for your other units.

Unfortunately, if we're honest, SilverAsh’s star is slowly starting to set. Consistent DPS is becoming more important to the Arknights meta than burst damage, and SilverAsh doesn’t fit into this paradigm. New Operator Tsukinogi and some future Operators are infringing on SilverAsh’s previous monopoly of anti-stealth mechanics as well. That being said, burst damage still plays an important role in the game, and SilverAsh is still one of the best sources of it. He’s still 100% worth pulling and raising, even if he isn’t quite as godly as he used to be.

I recommend pulling for SilverAsh.

Do you have enemies? Do you want those enemies to be filled with bullets? Then look no further than Exusiai, the apple-pie-obsessed angel with more bullets than her gun knows what to do with.

Exusiai absolutely terrorizes any content where enemies have less than 600 DEF. Her cheap DP cost and enormous DPS output make her a convenient artillery cannon for just about any stage. As enemies get more than 600 DEF, Exusiai’s damage potential falls off sharply. However, her multiple-hitting attacks mean that she benefits more from ATK buffs than just about any other Operator. Bolstered by the buffs of Operators like Warfarin and Sora, Exusiai can tear a hole in the fabric of space/time itself.

I recommend pulling for (or buying!) Exusiai.

Executor dual-wields shotguns to turn his enemies into abstract paintings on the nearest surface. He does AoE damage to all enemies in a small area in front of him and ignores a flat amount of his targets’ DEF with each shot, making him one of the better Snipers for countering high-DEF opponents.

The main issue with Executor is keeping enemies in his small attack range long enough for him to kill them. His ASPD is fairly slow, and his Trait only works on part of his attack range. Positioning is part of the trick, but it’s also important to have Operators that can enable him. A lot of high-DEF enemies also hit very hard, which can make blocking them within Executor’s range more difficult than you might think. Consider using Controller Specialists, Slower Supporters, or similar CC-heavy Operators to help Executor unload a full clip into the appropriate skulls.

I don’t recommend pulling for Executor, but he’s worth raising if you pull him.

Platinum’s claim to fame is her S2, which grants her a sizable ATK buff, makes her attacks slower so that she gets even more bonus damage from her Talent (increased damage based on how long it’s been since Platinum last attacked), and adds an extra grid’s length to her attack range.

In essence, Platinum can shoot farther than any other existing Anti-Air Sniper and has one of the strongest single shots when she does so. Her overall DPS is still outdone by Exusiai’s barrage of rapid-fire attacks, but that extra attack range allows Platinum to be deployed on grids that other Anti-Air Snipers wouldn’t even be able to attack from, giving her terrific versatility.

I recommend pulling for or buying Platinum, especially if you have two or fewer good Snipers raised.

Manticore is a Controller Specialist, which means she attacks over a wide area, hits everything within her range, and is almost impossible for enemies to attack (only ranged enemies are able to target her at all, and then she has 50% Physical and Arts Dodge). Her Skills allow her to add a Slow or Stun effect to her AoE attacks, and her high base ATK combined with her Talent give her the potential for some surprising burst damage despite her atrociously low ASPD. Controller Specialists are very strange units, but they can be enormously rewarding for the creative player, and Manticore is a perfect example of the archetype.

I don’t recommend pulling for Manticore because she can be a bit niche, but she’s worth raising if you pull her.