Arknights: In-depth Review - Skadi the Corrupting Heart

Skadi the Corrupting Heart is the future Limited 6★ Aura/Buffer Supporter featured in the Deep Drown Lament banner, which will run alongside the Under Tides event. Alternate Skadi is both the second version of fan-favorite unit Skadi and the second Aura/Buffer supporter in the game. Does she perform well enough not to disappoint the fans of either niche? Let’s find out!

If you have been the slightest bit aware of the happenings in the Chinese server, it will come as no surprise that Skadi the Corrupting Heart is an incredible unit able to fulfill an insane amount of roles. From Healing to DPS, from Mitigation to Buffing, Alternate Skadi almost has it all.

Sadly, however, her presence means Skadi will inevitably be phased out of the meta entirely for players that already have a diverse roster. Already facing an insanely strong competitor in the realm of boss killing with the well known Sarkaz mercenary Surtr, she now has to fight for even the possibility to appear in the party, as Alternate units cannot coexist with their regular counterparts in a single party, as we’ve already seen with Lava and Lava the Purgatory.

Compared to the only other Aura/Bard Supporter in the game, Sora, Skadi the Corrupting Heart is straight up better in every single aspect regarding stats, with the only exception being Deployment Cost.

At equal levels, Alter Skadi always has an advantage of at most 300 points in the HP department, and a slightly smaller but still significant improvement over the former’s Attack value, which is further accentuated by Alter Skadi’s second talent, which we’ll touch on later. Sora is also ever so slightly worse in terms of Defense, but to an almost imperceptible degree (so much so that at certain intervals they are equal).

Finally, Sora has a slightly lower Deployment Cost of 7 versus Alter Skadi’s 8. Since this value is incredibly low (Lower even than some Fast Redeploy/Executor Specialists), this difference doesn’t matter much at all.
All of Alter Skadi’s skills affect her Archetypal Trait, which heals HP equal to 10% of her Attack to all allies within range (themselves included) every second.

Once Alter Skadi is upgraded to E1, she gains access to a separate, summonable Seaborn. It acts as a projection of Alter Skadi’s range and can be placed within any deployable tile in the battlefield, opening the possibility of temporarily buffing units outside of Alter Skadi’s regular attack range. All damage will also stack if Seaborn and Alter Skadi’s attack ranges overlap, allowing for even more strategies (Keep in mind though, that the Inspire buff characteristic to Aura/Bard Supporters cannot stack).

This separate summon works similarly to Weedy’s Cannon, as it can neither be targeted nor counts towards deployment limit. It also has the same DP cost of 5, but a slightly lower redeployment timer at 30 seconds. The Seaborn can stay on the field for 15 seconds at E1 or 25 at E2 before being forcibly retreated. The Seaborn always has the same range as an E0 Skadi: a 3 by 3 square with the Seaborn at the center.

Long story short, this talent is absolutely insane. It grants access to quick, cheap and flexible attack range projection, which stacks with Alter Skadi herself. Do not forget to deploy the Seaborn tactically to get the most out of Alter Skadi.

At E2, whenever Skadi the Corrupting Heart has any allied unit within her range, her Attack is increased by 6% (9% at P5) or 15% (18% at P5) if said allies are part of the Abyssal Hunters (To date, Skadi, Specter, Andreana and Gladiia). For the most part, you can treat this talent as a permanent boost to her attack with an additional bonus for operators of the Abyssal Hunters. You’re never not going to have anyone within Alter Skadi’s range, since her job is buffing other operators within her range.

A more interesting discussion regarding this talent is how it’s one of the few to actually benefit substantially from Potential increases, particularly when using Skadi the Corrupting Heart as partner to light Anti-Air/Rapid Fire Snipers such as Exusiai, Ash or Archetto. While the Potential increases are in no way needed to make Alter Skadi one of the best partners to this archetype (if not the best), small increments in buff percentages get multiplied massively when affecting units with such high attack speeds.

Alter Skadi’s first skill is incredibly unique, with a very special effect not found in any other operator to date.. At M3 this skill has a decent uptime at 37.5%, and turns Alter Skadi into a healer-mitigator hybrid, letting her soak up damage in place of her allies. When activated, she immediately recovers all health and gets a massive increase of 170% to her Max HP, putting her at around the level of a Ranged/Lord Guard. Furthermore, her trait will be increased to 80% instead of the regular 10%. This gives her a Skill HPS (Healing per second) very similar to that of a S2L7 Ptilopsis, with the added benefit of healing all targets within range (including typically unhealable targets such as Summons or Enmity/Unyielding Defenders like Mudrock). Finally, and most uniquely, Alter Skadi will redirect half of the damage taken by operators within her range to herself (note that this half the damage the Operator would have taken after applying their own mitigation stats, not Skadi’s).

This skill has a lot of potential for the future. So far, however, it hasn’t seen much usage for the very late endgame scenarios presented by events such as Max Risk CC, be it because her other skills are just insanely useful or because this one isn’t fit for those specific jobs. Keep an eye on it, but don’t M3 it yet.

At M3 this skill doubles Alter Skadi’s trait to 20%, giving her a passive regen of about 73.5 HPS at max level to all operators within range, somewhat lower than most AoE/Ring Healer Medics' normal attacks, but still serviceable. Additionally (and definitely most importantly) once the skill is triggered Alter Skadi will grant all allies within range an Inspire buff of 60% of her own attack and defence, which at max level translates to approximately 234 Attack (At Potential 1) and 140 Defense. As this skill has an infinite duration, it will last for as long as she remains on the field.. With a relatively low SP cost of 56, this is one of Alter Skadi’s main skills, letting her act as a permanent stat boost to all allies around her and providing an amazing heal that can even recover the HP of units other Medics wouldn’t be able to (such as Mudrock). The flexibility of her Seaborn also allows for interesting plays like using it to buff operators covering other lanes for a bit (remember, Inspire buffs do NOT stack).

Simply put, every single unit in the game can benefit from this skill. While the permanent boosts may not be so game changing for some operators, it definitely helps. Wrapping it all with a nice regen also helps a lot, potentially freeing up many operator slots at once.

As previously discussed, though, the operators that enjoy this kind of buff the most are light Snipers like Exusiai, whose damage shoots up a lot under the effects of this skill, even more if Alter Skadi has Potential 4 or 5.

This third skill flips Alter Skadi around and turns her into an absolute killing machine, completely forgetting her roles as a healer and instead acting purely in the name of DPS. Upon activation, Alter Skadi loses her healing trait and instead loses 5% of her own HP per second. This alone is enough to kill her, as the skill lasts 20 seconds, so make sure you can deal with that somehow.

While the skill is activated, she deals 70% of her Attack as True Damage to all enemies within range every second, all while Inspiring all allies in her range by 110% of her Attack, which can be up to a massive 430 boost to their Attack value. The final thing that cements this as a great skill is the fact that it is relatively spammable, with a quick 35 SP cost at M3.

Note that all of this still leaves the Seaborn free, so Alter Skadi can attack from two fronts or stack their True Damage together, boosting it to a whopping 140% (note that the seaborn and skill have similar durations).

As previously hinted at, Alter Skadi is one of those 6★ with relevant Potential upgrades, particularly her fourth, a straightforward Attack boost, and her fifth, which upgrades her second talent.

As she relies heavily on her own Attack stat to buff other Operators, these increases do matter, and while they are small they are heavily noticeable in the archetype that enjoys being paired with Alter Skadi the most: Anti-Air/Rapid Fire Snipers.

The table above shows a large range of comparisons between Exusiai's raw damage output in various forms with different buffs applied. Notice how the small increases granted by Alter Skadi's Potentials are magnified into up to a 400 increase in DPS at times, and even thousands in total skill damage.

Take this information with a grain of salt, however. While the increases are indeed great, they will rarely ever be relevant, and never outside of very late endgame content like Max Risk Contingency Contract. An Alter Skadi without Potentials already makes for a perfect partner to the units mentioned above.

So, should I pull for Skadi the Corrupting Heart? Will I make use of her even if I don’t enjoy buff-heavy playstyles? Is this archetype finally redeemed? The answer, unsurprisingly, is DEFINITELY YES. Not only is she a limited unit, not only does she come on an absolutely incredible banner, but she also revolutionizes the meta in her own way, bringing forth a new era of spammable True Damage and insane support. If you enjoy participating in the endgame, Skadi the Corrupting Heart is a safe bet.