Arknights: In-depth Review - Roberta

Roberta is the future 4★ Artificer Supporter featured in the Saileach on the Hill banner, which will run alongside the release of Episode 9. Much like Mulberry from the same banner, Roberta is the first Operator of her archetype, which is quite different from the usual Supporter kit. This article will explore what this new archetype entails for the game, whether she can replace or complement any new operators, and whether it has any spot in the Arknights endgame.

Defense-oriented Operators tend not to do too well in Arknights, especially as content gets harder and harder. Pure meatshields like Protector Defenders with little to no utility often get left behind in advanced content in favor of stronger DPS or utility-focused Operators. Roberta in particular has it rough, as a defensively built Supporter who now has to compare to the infamously useless Abjurers, such as Tsukinogi.

From what we can infer from Roberta’s kit, however, Artificers may eventually shape up to be powerful tech-oriented Operators that might even see use in the endgame. By granting any Operator in the battlefield damage-nullifying shields, doubtless one of the most powerful effects in the game, Roberta avoids the atrocious hoops Abjurers other than Quercus have to jump through to be of any use to the party.

Finally, before we jump into the review proper, keep in mind Roberta is the first Melee Supporter in the game, which may sometimes make her easier to place down since high tiles are often much more contested than melee ones.

As the first Operator of her archetype, Roberta really does not have much to be compared to. Even amongst other defense-oriented Supporters, Roberta’s unique Melee position means a rather large shift in her stat spread, going from the typical squishiness of ranged Operators to a decently tanky one.

In this regard, Roberta best compares to an array of Guards of her same rarity, boasting a surprisingly high HP that beats all but the Dreadnought Guards such as Matoimaru or Conviction and the hyper sustain-focused Estelle. Her Attack is most similar to that of Brawler Guards, those being Jackie and Beehunter, but Roberta’s Attack Interval is almost twice as long as 1.5 seconds, effectively removing her as an option for both sustained and burst damage.

Where she does shine in this comparison is in her Defense, which is often closer to the higher-rarity variants of already tanky Guards such as Tequila or La Pluma than to other Operators of her same rarity. Don’t mistake this for being a Defender replacement, though: she still gets beaten in all defensive aspects by someone like Cuora, and she has no Arts Resistance and can only block 2 enemies at most.

Finally, at 17 DP Cost she’s pretty average compared to other Operators of her same rarity, though her unique kit means she really does not function well as neither a regular damage dealer nor a tank (not better than other options of her same rarity, at least).

Much like the 6★ of her same banner, Saileach, Roberta’s kit hinges to a decent degree in how she utilizes her Talent. 

The archetypal trait of Artificers allows them to bring Support Devices to the battlefield (Makeup Stylers in Roberta’s case) and deploy them around to grant buffs to the Melee Operators they’re facing. In Roberta’s case, this entails a 30% (33% at P5) Defense buff and, most importantly, 2 (1 at E1) layers of damage-negating Shields, much like what Mudrock or Nian have.

As we will see later, this constitutes most of Roberta’s combat usefulness. While she’s not amazing at dealing or tanking damage, the ability to grant powerful Shields to allies all over the battlefield is a good tech option to have access to with tons of potential.

Roberta starts the fight with three of these Stylers in her possession, and can carry a maximum of 3.. Lastly, the buffs granted by the Stylers expire after 25 seconds, removing both the Defense buff and the Shields, and the Defense buff cannot be stacked through deploying multiple Stylers at once. The Shields, however, can stack up to a maximum of 6  (as Roberta can only deploy up to 3 Stylers at a time), and each have their own, independent decay timer.

A very generic skill with not many realistic applications. When activated, this skill immediately increases Roberta’s Attack and Defense by 50% for 35 seconds.

I would generally not recommend using this skill under most circumstances. While it does give Roberta a pretty significant stat boost for a really decent uptime of almost 60%, all it does is turn her into a strange defensive Guard hybrid that can neither reach the Average or Burst DPS of other Operators of her same rarity, nor the sustainability of Defenders like Bubble or Cuora, whose base Defense she can’t even reach with the buff.

Do not use this skill unless you have literally no other options.

While this skill is active, Roberta stops attacking and gains one additional Block, plus she receives an additional 80% boost to her Defense. The effect of this skill is incredibly similar to the aforementioned Cuora’s, but as expected, it doesn’t turn Roberta into a better tank than other Operators designed for it.

The main benefit of this skill is the effect it has once it finishes, which immediately grants Roberta one additional styler (if she’s not already at the cap of 3). While the effect of the skill in itself is not incredible, it’s definitely the one to use if you plan to take advantage of Roberta’s unique role as a Shield-granting Operator. The uptime, however, leaves something to be desired: since the effect you really want is the one that occurs after the skill is over, this means Roberta only gets 1 Styler every 55 seconds, which means this skill is better activated as soon as possible instead of for tactical measures, which further discourages the usage of Roberta as a regular Operator.

So, should I pull for Roberta? Is this new archetype a revolution in defensive gameplay? Are the days of burst-or-bust over? The answer is PROBABLY NOT. Roberta is an Operator almost exclusively focused on utility, with a tech option no one but the most advanced of players are going to find any real use for. In the end, if you’re not so new that you need to use Roberta as a blocker, you will be running her simply because you want to have a shield-granting bot for whatever reason, as her utility outside of that is quite limited. If this kind of gameplay fits your wants, Roberta may be an interesting Operator to develop. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really recommend it for the average player.