Arknights: In-depth Review - Nearl the Radiant Knight

Nearl the Radiant Knight is the future Limited 6★ Dreadnought Guard featured in the Path of Radiant banner, which will run alongside the Near Light event. Alternate Nearl is the third Limited Alternate Operator in the game, coming right after the meta-defining Ch’en the Holungday. Unlike all other Operators with an Alternate, however, Nearl is largely still considered a very useful Operator (at least if you lack Saria, that is). How does Nearl the Radiant Knight justify her restrictive slot in a party over Nearl? Let’s find out!

As previously mentioned, Nearl the Radiant Knight is vastly different to other Alternate Operators in that her regular version is still considered to be quite a useful asset: Unlike Lava the Purgatory she’s not at all a direct improvement over the regular Nearl.

While Nearl directly focuses on keeping the party alive through her bulk and healing abilities, Alternate Nearl is instead fully focused on pure, straightforward damage (as her archetype would suggest). As a result, comparing one in terms or the other or vouching for either of them for a spot in your party is completely dependent on the player themselves and the challenges they are going to be facing, and thus will not be discussed or taken into account for this article. In case you didn’t already know, just keep in mind that Alternate Operators and their regular counterparts can’t coexist in battle or in base, meaning you can’t bring both Nearl and Nearl the Radiant Knight together to a stage.

As for an introduction to Alternate Nearl herself, she really doesn’t have too many Operators competing for the spotlight in her archetype. The individual stat comparisons and usage cases of other Dreadnought Guards will be discussed later on in the review, but for now all you need to know is that this archetype is generally considered to be on the bottom end of usefulness for their extremely limited utility: their most important representatives are still just Skadi, often cited as one of the worst 6★ Operators in the game, and Melantha, a decently useful 3★ carry for the very early game.

This is largely due to the fact that none of the current Dreadnought Guards provide anything but raw stats to any team: they have big Attack, they have big HP and that’s about it. Them being able to block a single enemy also heavily limits their viability, but what really kills their usage is that so many Operators can replicate their job while also bringing something new to the table. Whether it’s better range, better burst or better survivability, there’s always someone that does the job better, often even with a lower rarity.

As a result, in order to have any chance at actually penetrating the meta in any meaningful way Nearl the Radiant Knight must be able to bring something new and unique to the table that no other Operator can replicate. Can she do that? Let’s find out after taking a look at her stats!

Compared to other Operators in her archetype, Nearl the Radiant Knight has somewhat worse bulk in terms of HP despite being one of the few to actually get a bonus to it from her Trust spread (she is, in fact, only better than Melantha in this regard if that Trust is not applied). Her Defense is slightly worse than Skadi’s, but still nothing out of the ordinary and better than her lower rarity counterparts by quite a long shot.

Where Alternate Nearl excels over other Dreadnought Guards is in her Attack stat which most would argue is the most important one for her archetype. While not by much, she is better than any other Operator in her archetype, giving her a slight edge where off-skill DPS is concerned.

Right after being deployed Nearl the Radiant Knight will deliver a single hit worth 80% of her Attack as True damage to all enemies within the 4 adjacent tiles, and stun them for 3 seconds. If the Operator deployed right before Alternate Nearl belongs to the Kazimierz faction, she will deal an additional hit for a total of 160% True damage.

Think of this Talent as Projekt Red’s second skill, Wolfpack, but trading the quick-redeploy aspect for a much stronger punch. Thanks to Nearl the Radiant Knight’s massive Attack, a single hit worth 80% of it as True damage already means over 900 damage to all enemies caught in its radius, or over 1800 if the extra condition is met. Due to its nature as True damage, this Talent works great against all kinds of enemies.

Generally, this Talent is pretty useful for Alternate Nearl as a whole, as she will often see usage as a helidrop assassin for dangerous targets. The stun gives her a couple of free attacks before actually getting retaliated by the enemy (not like she’d care much, considering her impressive bulk), vastly easing her general usage.

As a final bonus, this extra damage can be buffed by outside sources before it occurs, such as via Guard Amiya’s Talent, Wrathful Cerulean Flame, or by being deployed in a Bard Supporter’s aura, such as Skadi the Corrupting Heart. This is most useful when paired with her second skill, which provides an on-deploy Attack boost upon deployment and is already geared towards a more redeployment-intensive usage, much like Skadi’s Wave Strike.

At E2, all Physical damage Nearl the Radiant Knight deals will ignore 20% (+3% at Potential 5) of the enemy’s Defense.

This Talent really isn’t something Alternate Nearl needs thanks to her massive Attack stat, but it is nonetheless a significant upgrade to her kit as it allows her to threaten heavily armored enemies even further. In contrast with other Operators this also allows her to significantly outperform many others against increasing Defense stats, as her damage will fall off much, much slower and she will never have to deal chip damage.

Alternate Nearl’s first Skill is an infinite duration one with 60 seconds of chargeup. When activated, her range expands with an extra tile, her Attack increases to 170% and she receives an Attack Speed boost of 50, reducing her already short 1.5 second Attack Interval to 1 second.

An easy comparison to be made with this skill is with Blaze’s Chainsaw Extension Module. Both boast the exact same range extension and very similar charge times, with Blaze’s being slightly longer. Nearl the Radiant Knight trades Blaze’s AoE ability for a higher consistent DPS against single targets,

Still, thanks to Alternate Nearl’s Defense-ignoring Talent, her DPS falls off much slower as enemy Defense goes up, which in turn lets her beat Blaze’s average DPS even when she’s hitting multiple targets at medium levels of Defense.

In general, however, you will not want to run Alternate Nearl with this Skill. Not only are her other options generally much better, but her archetypal Block 1 means she will often need to be supported by another Operator who can bottleneck enemies in front of her, such as a Defender.

Much like Skadi’s Wave Strike, this Skill acts as Alternate Nearl’s gateway into assassination tactics. Upon deployment, Nearl the Radiant Knight obtains a massive +160% Attack and 4 layers of damage-nullifying Shields for 27 seconds, at the end of which she’s forcefully retreated and gets a 25% increase to her redeployment timer. This increase is pretty significant, as it puts her over 90 seconds of redeployment time, though luckily it can be avoided if the last Operator deployed before Alternate Nearl belongs to the Kazimierz faction. Finally, as long as she has this skill equipped, Nearl the Radiant Knight will not consume any deployment slots.

That’s right, you get to deploy what’s essentially a stronger, tankier Skadi without ever consuming any deployment slots, and with the assurance that she will never get killed before putting a massive dent on the enemy thanks to her Shield layers. Thanks to the buffs being applied as soon as Alternate Nearl enters the battlefield, her first Talent’s strike will also be buffed by it.

Of course, all of this greatness comes with the disadvantage of Nearl the Radiant Knight being forcefully retreated at the end of her skill cycle (which you want to do either way), and her redeployment timer being greatly increased. While this can be avoided, I would generally not recommend going out of your way in order to remove this debuff. Either way, it’s unlikely that you will need to redeploy Alternate Nearl multiple times in order to finish off elite threats or bosses, and when you do need to do so (such as in very high risk Contingency Contract), this debuff will be almost unavoidable.

Still, the absolute uniqueness of this strength lets Nearl the Radiant Knight successfully overcome the usual issues that other Dreadnought Guards face, giving her extremely powerful assassination potential without putting any strain at all in the rest of your team. It also works amazingly against challenges that heavily reduce your deployment limit, such as Contingency Contract. All in all, this is a great skill that every player will be able to take advantage of to take down bosses and dangerous enemies, but that more advanced players will be able to abuse to develop new and more complex strategies.

When activated, this Skill immediately summons a Blazing Sun on any of the 4 tiles adjacent to Nearl the Radiant Knight, following standard targeting priorities. This Blazing Sun immediately deals 110% of Alternate Nearl’s Attack as True damage to all enemies in the 4 adjacent tiles, and stuns for 3 seconds (much like her first Talent, but with increased damage). Afterwards, Alternate Nearl’s Attack Range expands to a half-diamond in front of her, plus she receives a massive Attack boost of 140%, and a Defense boost of 100%. Finally, Attacking any enemy blocked by herself or the Blazing Sun transforms her Physical damage to True damage.

This serves as Nearl the Radiant Knight’s general usage Skill, giving her an incredibly strong burst of damage with powerful side effects that let her overcome the usual difficulties this archetype faces. While the uptime is not fantastic (a mere 38%), its quick-cycling nature with 25 seconds of duration allows for continuous bursts of damage spread along multiple waves, easily chopping down elite threats as they come by.

The Blazing Sun singlehandedly solves many of the archetype’s issues, being a Block-2 meatshield with a huge Defense stat of 600, comparable to lower rarity defenders, 20 Arts Resistance and a staggeringly high HP of 6000, the highest in the entire game by a long shot (bar HP increases like Skadi’s Tidal Elegy or Surtr’s Twilight). The initial stun allows Nearl the Radiant Knight to deliver at least a couple hits of massive True Damage with impunity, often deleting dangerous threats that would be able to destroy the Blazing Sun before they have the chance to retaliate. Even if the enemies are too beefy or plentiful to be taken down during that 3 second duration, the Blazing Sun’s incredible bulk can very easily hold them back for a long while, even if it cannot be healed.

The combination of massive True damage with a quick cycling and all the support the Blazing Sun provides make this a perfect Skill for general usage, very easily overcoming the archetype’s weakness and making Alternate Nearl a great unit for general content.

So, should I pull for Nearl the Radiant Knight? Is she the first redeemable unit from this unfortunate archetype? Is she really strong enough to justify pulling for her? The answer is PROBABLY YES. Alternate Nearl is a very powerful Operator fit for both the midgame and late game events such as Contingency Contract. Her varied and very unique skillset opens a lot of new possibilities that other Dreadnought Guards (or, in case of her second Skill, any other Operators) don’t have access to, making her a valuable asset in difficult content that may benefit from the massive damage she can output.