Arknights: Windflit - An In-depth Review

Windflit is the 5* gacha operator tied to the coming Stultifera Navis banner, he is the second entry for the Artificer (Supporter) archetype and presents a kit that seeks to fill two different niches, one for each skill. However, while Roberta proves to be a strong tech choice in the right circumstances (by providing instance-based damage shields similar to Mudrock), Windflit’s kit leans a bit too hard into an extreme niche that many players simply will not care about, while also failing to bring enough value with either skill.

The Artificer archetype is notable among Supporters, as it breaks the trend of the class being dominated by Ranged units. Windflit, Roberta, and the future Stainless, are all Melee units. Their personal range is restricted to just the tile ahead of them, unlike their compatriots who boast a wide variety of ranges. 

Artificers can block up to 2 enemies at a time, when you put this together it sounds a little bit exciting for Supporterknights players that also eschew the use of Summoners. At face value this might sound like a ridiculous niche of a niche - this is true, and it highlights the awkward design space that Windflit occupies.

As an Artificer, Windflit can summon up to two Support Devices at a time (he can hold up to three), they can be deployed on any tile that isn’t strictly banned and they have a deployment cooldown of 15 seconds. Their function is tied to Windflit’s Talent.

Windflit’s Devices are called Reliable Batteries, at Elite 2 they last for 30 seconds and can be equipped on Caster or Supporter operators to give them a +15% ATK buff (increased to +17% at Potential 5). There is no sense beating around the bush, this is a paltry buff on paper, and the fact that they can only be used on Caster/Supporter operators is a heavy restriction. It is worth noting that this +ATK% buff can stack, unlike Roberta’s Modeller +DEF% buff, which does not stack.

In practice, it will very often be a drop in the ocean, given that many of the DPS-focused potential targets ramp their own ATK quite well without help, and would probably prefer damage amplification (Saria S3/Suzuran S3) or RES reduction (Ifrit S3) anyway. 

This skill is similar to a Power-Strike. At M3 it costs 6 SP (auto recovery) and can hold 3 charges; it activates when Windflit attacks an enemy, dealing 250% of ATK as Physical damage to ground enemies in the 8 surrounding tiles, and gifting 1 SP to any Caster or Supporter equipped with a Reliable Battery. It’s important to note that this skill does not generate another Battery for Windflit, which severely hampers the skill’s usefulness.

Windflit’s attack interval is 1.5s, which means that if he’s always attacking, he will be able to use this skill every fifth attack. This is an abysmal uptime when compared to proper Power-Strike skills. The upshot of this is that Windflit is able to generate charges during downtime, thanks to auto recovery, however this is unlikely to make his troubles any better. 

SP generation is a mechanic that often sounds nice on paper, it’s something that is easy to feel good about, but can sometimes be hard to guarantee value from. Windflit’s SP generation is on the backfoot from the start, as mentioned above he is required to attack in order to gift SP, this means the consistency of his SP gifting is something the player has little control over. To add insult to injury, the SP generated by this skill cannot stack, if you have two Batteries covering one operator, they will still only gain 1 SP.

With that said, how much SP can Windflit generate in ideal circumstances? If we assume that Windflit has all 3 charges ready, then if you place a Battery as he starts attacking, he will be able to generate a maximum of 7 SP. In reality, he will most likely miss the 7th SP, as he will be starting that attack at around the same time that the Battery expires. If Windflit starts with no charges, then the minimum SP output will be closer to 4 SP. 

This gives a range of roughly 4 - 7 SP over 30s per Battery, for a maximum SP boost of somewhere between 12 - 21 SP (you’ll have to redeploy Windflit to generate another set of devices if you want more SP).

This skill leans into the ATK% buff provided by Windflit’s Reliable Batteries. At M3, for 15s it doubles the ATK% buff they provide to Caster/Supporter operators. 15s is an incredibly short duration, but it does line up perfectly with how much time you have if you want to use two Batteries.

The Batteries have a cooldown of 15s, which means you can deploy the first device 15s before activating the skill, something you’ll have to track by yourself, then deploy the second Battery and immediately activate Windflit’s skill. The first Battery will have roughly 15s left, and, as noted in the Talent section, you can double the ATK buff leading to a maximum potential ATK buff of +68% for 15s.

The skill also boosts Windflit’s ATK by 160%, but increases his attack interval to 2s (+0.5), and when the skill ends Windflit gains 1 Reliable Battery. This skill has a rather long 50s downtime for what it offers, which makes for a poor uptime of ~23% (skill duration/total cycle). 

This is ultimately a skill being pulled in two directions, it wants to increase Windflit’s offensive capabilities while also wanting to boost the buff it offers through the Batteries. The result is a skill that accomplishes neither goal, as the skill duration is too short to be very meaningful for Windflit, and the increased buff through the Battery is still peanuts compared to other support options available.

Does Windflit offer anything meaningful to the average player? No, there is no way to sugar coat this. Windflit’s power budget is low, even for a 5*, his kit is heavily restricted without offering enough in return. A few players might find some use out of the novelty of another Melee entry in the Supporter class, but for the majority Windflit is an unfortunate mess.