Arknights: In-depth Review - Robin

Robin is the future 5★ Trap Specialist welfare unit from the Mansfield Break event. Surprisingly, this welfare is the first operator of her entire niche so far! This review will explore what this means in depth, and whether or not it’s a useful niche to raise.

Like in so many other events, you can obtain Robin by clearing the 4th stage of the event, MB4, then buy all five potential tokens for her in the Event Shop for increasing amounts of the event-only currency, which can be obtained by doing event missions and stages.

As with all other welfare operators, Robin desperately wants these potentials, particularly the fifth one, as it is practically integral to her playstyle. It is also worth noting that, with full potential, Robin goes down to a 10 cost unit at E1/2, cheaper than many vanguards. Furthermore, like all other welfare operators, good or not, buying these potentials is important as they will convert to yellow certificates when the event reruns.

Now, there’s not much you can compare Robin to, as the only operator that belongs to this same subarchetype is 5★ Frost, part of the Rainbow 6 Siege collab which we may not even get. Even more, despite Frost and Robin belonging to the exact same archetype, their usages are actually quite different: Frost focuses on Stuns and damage, while Robin’s kit is geared towards certain aspects of Crowd-Control with longer Binds and even remote pushing.

To get a decent idea of how the Trap Specialist archetype functions, think of them as Summoners whose summons recharge passively over time. While this is in no way a perfect comparison, this may aid in deciding whether you want to invest into it or not.

Two of the main differences for these two archetypes are that Traps do not count towards deployment limit, while Summons do, and the former can not be deployed on any tile currently occupied by an enemy.

Her stats are, for the most part, average. They are very similar to 5★ AntiAir Snipers of the same rarity, particularly Greythroat with the same Attack stat of 513 (though with much less trust gain in this regard, almost half), but with a faster attack interval (0.85 vs 1 second). In the end, however, this matters very little. Robin herself will not be doing any remarkable damage, since she has no skills that boost her own offensive capabilities. Instead, all of this is relegated into her summonable traps, which cost 3 DP to deploy and have a very short redeployment timer of 5 seconds. They also cannot be targeted by attacks or hit by splash damage, nor hit stealthed or aerial enemies under any circumstance.

At its maximum potential and promotion stage, Robin’s single talent lets her hold up to 10 of her dear traps. Thanks to this talent, she will also refill her entire trap stash to Robin’s current limit upon deployment.

Robin’s first skill turns her traps into binding proximity mines, of which she will gain one every 12 seconds at maximum mastery, or 16 with none. The moment an enemy steps over them, these mines will deal 350% (280% with no masteries) of Robin’s attack to the single enemy who activated them, and bind them for 3 seconds (that’s as much as E2 Ethan!).

As simple as this skill is, it does its job perfectly fine. Remote binds almost anywhere on the map without the hassle of relying on RNG is always welcome, but one has to keep in mind the huge DP sink that constitutes constantly deploying these mines. At 3 DP per mine, constantly deploying them as soon as you can (not taking into account the initial stash Robin gets from her talent), these mines reduce your natural DP regeneration to a whopping 0.4 DP per second. The damage is also not stellar: at maximum trust and mastery against enemies with no defense these traps deal just under 2k single target damage a pop.

In the end, while this is no doubt a nice skill, it’s definitely tech-oriented and won’t simply fit in any squad. It does take care of Wraiths pretty well though!

Another thing to note is that, while the lack of RNG and map-wide range is appealing, Robin needs many more resources for her binds to be equal to Ethan. We’re talking a 5★ E2 M3 versus a 4★ E2.

Not too dissimilar to the previous skill, Robin’s S2 trades the binds for slightly better damage (30% more multiplier) and the ability to remotely push any enemy across the map with Large Force, like any Pusher Specialist’s S1M3!. Much like the previous skill and unlike the Pusher’s S1M3 mentioned just now, these force effects are also single target to whoever triggered the mine.

Not going in depth into how these mines work (which is the exact same as the S1 ones), there is one thing worth noting that differs from most other pusher skills, bar Weedy’s S3 splash damage. The push force will be applied in the same direction the enemies came in contact with them, meaning that, if an enemy decides to cut corners, they can be pushed diagonally into an otherwise out of reach hole.

Again, this skill is very obviously a tech option for advanced players. While it is undeniably interesting to use, most players would rather benefit from raising a regular pusher. Still, it’s definitely worth taking a look into it!

So, should I invest in Robin? Does this new archetype have any future at all? Will I get any use out of her if I do M3 her skills? The answer is an undeniable MAYBE and DEPENDS. While not a straight up welfare operator like Grani or Tomimi, her kit is definitely geared towards late endgame players with all their bases completely covered and looking towards raising nicher, more tech-focused units. And even then they probably have some other, more prioritary niche to take a look at. Long story short, if you are a new or midgame player, don’t bother, and if you are a late endgame one, consider other options.