Arknights: Typhon in-depth gameplay analysis

Hello everyone. The new 6* Besieger just dropped (or it probably has been about 2 weeks since I can’t work fast), with her reputation preceding her. With such a well-known reputation like that, surely a guide is not needed… right? Well, because if you only know about her as a “boss killer” and not “the best general purpose sniper”, this guide is for you.

Typhon is the newest addition to the Sniper family that tread the line of overpowered. With massive DEF ignore on all enemies, powerful first strike, skill that wipes hordes, a skill that offers a brand new fancy way to deal with bosses, and solid Besieger stats with large range, Typhon is here to contest the top tier Sniper rank.

Besiegers have very high ATK, in fact, it is the second highest of all Sniper archetypes, and fourth highest of all branches, losing only to Crusher Guards, Mystic Casters, and Deadeye Snipers. Typhon herself has 1045 ATK at max level. Besiegers have 2.4 seconds attack interval which is pretty solid for such a high ATK.

Given their range and trait later, this is a solid spread of stats for a damage-oriented unit.

As a ranged unit, their defensive stats are usually going to be low. Within the Sniper class, Typhon is actually in the upper tier HP-wise, but has very low DEF. Though this doesn’t matter because of her range, or I guess you can say she has low defensive stats because of her range.

Besiegers have fairly high DP costs, especially for a single target (ST) unit. Starting at 22, and increasing to 24 from E1 onward.

Besieger has an exceptionally large range, unfairly large range even.

Lots of people dwell too much on the small gap between the Besieger and their actual range, but that doesn’t matter most of the time, and is actually beneficial.

Since their range is so large, they can just move back a bit and ignore the lack of close range. In other cases though, they can also be even more forward, using said large range to cover half the map, and given their strong offensive stats (and their own skills), they can reach and kill plenty of enemies before they even come close, or wound them enough that other Operators can finish them off. Both of the 6* Besieger (as of the posting date) also have nice forms of Crowd-Control to keep enemies within their range as well.

The far corner of the side area of this range is something almost no other unit can reach consistently. The combined width and length of this range allow so much flexibility in positioning that the lack of close range is pretty much irrelevant. Sometimes it’s even an advantage, as they would rather focus on new full HP enemies, rather than a near-death one.

Attacks the heaviest enemy first

This is actually one of the best, if not the best, priority in the game.

Usually, the heavier an enemy is, the more of a threat they are. Most Elites and Defender-type enemies are weight 3 or 4, and Bosses are almost always at least 5 nowadays.

Meaning, this archetype, with their high physical ATK and decent attack rate, as well as their skills, will prioritize the actual threats in the map. They don’t waste time on basic mobs. Those can be killed by pretty much anyone. Typhon specifically can also deal with mobs with one of her skills, giving her the best of both worlds.

Available at E1: Continuous attacks gradually ignore increasing amounts of the target’s DEF, up to a maximum of 40% of its DEF (each attack increases the DEF ignore by 5%, additive). This bonus is lost when no attacks have been made within 3 seconds.

At E2, each attack ignores 10% DEF, up to 50%, and loses the effect after not attacking for 8 seconds.

Sick Talent dude.

Practically, especially when considering her skills later, this is just a permanent 50% DEF ignore on all enemies, unlike Rosa who would only ignore DEF on weight 3+ enemies.

Given Besiegers innate high ATK, which can already break through DEF, this ensures that she will not get shafted by enemy DEF scaling.

The DEF ignore stack is calculated before the damage, meaning on the very first hit, she will ignore 10% DEF for that hit already. Another way to say this is that she always ignores 10% DEF of any enemy, slowly ramping up to the max amount.

Make special note how this is not tracked per-enemy. The DEF ignore is for her hitting any enemy. As long as she’s constantly attacking, she ignores anyone’s DEF, regardless if it’s an enemy she’s already hit 5 times or a new enemy (within the stated duration).

You might be noticing that Rosa can ignore 60% DEF on weight 3+ while Typhon can ignore 50% DEF but on all enemies. That sounds like a reasonable trade-off right. Haha, about that… (Module upgrade spoiler, but don’t worry about this yet.)

Available at E2: When damaging an enemy for the first time while a skill is active, ATK increases to 160% and Slows targets for 3 seconds.

Potential 5 increases the damage by 10%, to 170%.

This Talent doesn’t look great at first glance but if you read the Intro, surprisingly, this is also critical in that “best general purpose sniper” thing. While it is bad for boss killing, because there is only 1 hit that gets boosted, and they will probably survive longer than 3 seconds (otherwise they aren’t worth being called a boss), it is a lot more helpful against everything else, including Elites.

Only the first instance of attack gets this damage boost, and despite what the Talent says, it can be negated by dodge/shield. The Slow will still work when dodged/shielded though. This is important because, spoiler alert, Typhon skills deal damage in multiple hits, so only the very first hit of those gets boosted.

A positive thing to note is that, this bonus is reset with each skill activation, meaning the same enemy can be slowed twice if you activate her skill again (and if they somehow haven’t died yet since the first skill). The bonus does reset if the target revives and changes phase, except for Jesselton from Mansfield Break. I don’t know why either, probably his lack of invincibility frames during phase change.

It doesn’t technically matter given the best skill to work with this Talent is her S2 though, which I’ll talk more about in its section.

Always available – Icefield Navigation: When this Operator is assigned to the Reception Room, increases Clue search speed by +10%, and when assigned together with another Sami Operator, increases Clue search speed by an additional +5% while self morale loss per hour +0.5

Why is this a thing? It is only a +15% clue search speed. Then her possible Sami partners are Gitano, who is a 4* and +25% speed, and Valarqvin, who is a 5* and +25% speed. There are a couple nuances to clue search speed and rarity, ambience, and the likes, but imma let the base nerd explains instead, check out PeterYR on Youtube probably.

And then finally, it also increases her morale consumption rate (because why not), so even if her 6* status give her slightly better clue search speed than some 4*, she’s still technically a worse worker.

To summarize, don’t use this skill.

Available at E2 – Combat Techniques: Besieger: When this Operator is assigned to be the Trainer in the Training Room, Sniper Operators’ specialisation training speed +30%; if the trainee’s Job Branch is Besieger, training speed is further increased by +45%.

Training skills are pretty weak in general, offering nothing substantial other than for content creators to make videos faster. Most of the time the training room will sit around not being used other than for passive trust farm in base. Even worse when this skill is very specific to the Besieger branch… and Typhon can’t train herself. At least a +80% speed (there’s another 5% base that all operators have for training speed) is pretty good though, but again, Besieger specific.

Anyway now for the good part.

ATK +34%, ASPD +35

35 seconds duration, 39 SP cost, 10 initial SP

Auto Recovery, Manual Activation

M3 gives ATK +45%, ASPD +45, 35 SP cost, 15 initial SP

Uhhhh…………I mean Swift Strike is the best generic skill, I guess. I really like this skill to be quite honest. But her other skills are miles better, as you probably already knew.

Wdym using this skill?

ATK +35%, each attack fires off 2 arrows (prioritising different targets), and has a 40% chance of Stunning targets for 1 second.

From second activation and on, this skill has unlimited duration.

20 seconds duration, 51 SP cost, 40 initial SP

Auto Recovery, Manual Activation

M3 gives ATK +50%, 50 SP cost, 42 initial SP

This is the first time a multi-target skill has the ability to fire both at a single target if no other targets are around. This means that this skill doesn’t lose DPS when there’s only a single enemy left, which is really important.

It has an extremely fast first cast, but also a short first duration as well. Sometimes you should actually be slightly careful with the first activation instead of trying to get to the second cast ASAP, but I reckon it doesn’t matter most of the time when accounting for other allies as well.

You can do the classic trick of using the skill while an arrow is midair so that arrow benefits the +ATK from the skill as well. This same arrow would also benefit from her second Talent as it is the first attack while skill is up.

The Stun rate is fairly good. It sounds unreliable but with 2 hits per attack that is a 64% chance for a Stun. On one target that is pretty solid, on two targets it means she has more time to kill one of them before they leave her range (which is pretty dang large to begin with).

Even if two arrows are fired on a single target, only the first arrow benefits from her second Talent, because like I have said in the Talent section, only the first instance of damage counts. If the first arrow is negated, the second arrow still won’t get the boost.

As you can probably guess, this is the skill that makes her the best general use Sniper in the game now. But it’s far more than just the infinite duration aspect.

Both of her Talents do massive work to make this skill as powerful as it is. Given the nature of infinite duration skills, she should be constantly fighting (with occasional breaks due to enemy waves being apart). That means she’ll always ignore a massive amount of their DEF, regardless of weight type. But the second Talent is also working in full force, with every single new enemy entering her range getting 160% damage that also works with the +50% ATK from the skill. They are also Slowed for 3 seconds, giving ample time to hit them before leaving her range (which is again, also massive).

The simple fact that the two arrows can hit one target also adds a lot to this. When there are only one enemy in her range, she kills them twice as fast as normal, giving her more momentum to kill the next enemy. Combine that with her second Talent, she can potentially one shot a lot of targets as they approach her, constantly.

This combo of her two Talents, her massive range, and her massive ATK stats allow her to effortlessly clear through waves of enemies, even in very high difficulty IS#4, where she shined over both Pozëmka and Chen H2O as one of the better sniper picks, earning her reputation of best general usage sniper. And her basic attacks aren't that weak, so the downtime doesn't feel as bad either.

A thing to note is that the first cast is just as strong as the second cast, minus the duration. What that means is that you can sometimes hold on the first cast just a bit so that she can handle the first wave instead of just immediately cast and then fizzle out when the first wave is still ongoing. This probably doesn’t matter most of the times but what’s more important is that it is then surprisingly, a very strong helidropping skill.

Immediately marks a target within range, Attack Interval lengthens significantly (+3.1 seconds), and attacks become a hail of arrows aimed at the marked target; the hail of arrows will randomly strike enemies around the marked target, dealing 4 hits of 160% ATK as physical damage and stunning targets hit for 0.4 seconds.

Skill activation grants 8 ammo and the skill ends when all ammo is used (Can manually deactivate skill)

“Infinite” duration, 43 SP cost, 25 initial SP

Auto Recovery, manual activation

M1 gives 165% physical damage, attack 5 times, 42 SP cost

M2 gives 170% damage, 9 ammo, 41 SP cost

M3 gives 175%, 10 ammo, 40 SP cost

(just go straight for the M3 lol)

The skill adds 3.1 seconds to her interval, so her new interval 5.5 seconds, making this the longest attack interval in the game right now. With 10 ammo, that’s a 51.5 seconds duration skill (first attack is done almost immediately).

Typhon marks the target with the same priority as her attacks, the heaviest in range.

The marked area is a circle with a 1.3 tile radius. During the skill, Typhon’s base range is removed. Instead she gains global attack range but only within the marked area.

The marked area follows the target until the end of skill, regardless of where they go. If the target dies early, the mark will remain there, also until the end of skill. Of course, Typhon can only attack targets inside this marked area.

If the target moves through teleport tiles (e.g. Talulah in JT8-3), the mark stays at where they disappear until the target reappears elsewhere. So no matter what, they cannot escape the mark!

The arrows fall every 0.1 second. Each arrow seeks enemies separately, so there’s little chance an arrow will be wasted on an enemy that will die from a previous arrow. However, that doesn’t guarantee that there are other enemies left in the area for the extra arrows to find.

Remember in the S2 section when I said that using the skill when an arrow is midair will give the skill the +ATK boost and the second talent effect? Well, using this skill while an arrow is midair does NOT give the +ATK boost (because there aren’t any), but still uses up the second talent effect, meaning that arrow – which deals regular 100% damage – gets the Talent effect instead of the buffed arrow that deal 175% damage. They do stack up to get 280% damage instead and you’ll definitely prefer that over a 160% arrow. So be careful and use this skill with no midair arrow, unlike what you would want to do with S2.

If you watched DragonGJY’s video, you might have seen that he mentioned that the area does not reach a diagonal tile. This is only partially true. Enemies don’t stand perfectly in the center of a tile unless they spawn directly on it. This is because they have deceleration when assigned to stop, and they begin this deceleration as soon as their hit box reaches the center of the destination tile. Slow enemies will stop before the center of the tile and fast enemies will stop after. In short, be careful of the diagonal tile anyway. Structural enemies also have a bigger hit box, so a Gelato Stop or an IS treasure chest will still be hit a diagonal tile away.

The arrows first deal damage, and then Stun, so W’s Talent only affects the second arrow to the fifth. It also matters for dodge or barrier mobs since they have to take damage to be stunned. But the stun barely matters anyway given it’s so short on such a long attack interval. This is also not the first time a certain effect can only be applied after taking damage. Ines can only Bind and Steal ATK after dealing damage for example.

Fun fact: for Reclamation Algorithm gamemode, where vision – which is required to see and attack an enemy – is dependent on base range, this means that when Typhon marks someone and lose her original range, she also loses the ability to attack the marked target because the marked area does not count as range for the vision.

Because this skill tracks the target until the end of skill, this gives Typhon a unique approach at specific target killing. Given the damage output of this skill and her Talents, it earned her the status of one of the best boss-killer in the game. I mean this skill did give her the reputation she holds right now.

Once the desired target approaches her range, activate her skill and just watch as they run around the map, unable to escape Typhon’s barrage (think of Ya from WB and its swapping skill).

The random attack within the mark can be annoying, given that bosses and elites don’t always take a separate route from the rest of the enemies. But again, the global tracking benefits far outweigh issues like that.

Usually, when finishing her job, you can deactivate the skill and prepare for the next track. You can also choose to leave the mark there and have Typhon focus solely on that area. This area can also be outside of Typhon’s range (because of the tracking), so there is purpose in leaving the mark in a place where Typhon couldn’t reach normally. Or, if there will be another target who will pass through the area anyway and it spawns faster than the skill cooldown.

Given that most bosses have two phases (or more), Typhon actually usually can’t kill a boss in a single skill activation considering the total amount of HP she’ll have to go through. So it’s important to know when to deactivate early so you have the skill ready again for phase 2.

SIE–Ⲭ: Ammadikshu

• Level 1:

HP +120

ATK +60

Trait upgrades: Attacks the heaviest enemy first. When attacking a heavy enemy (weight 3 or higher), ATK increases to 115%

Analysis: A pretty strong base mod effect for Besiegers in general. They already target the heaviest enemy which easily fulfills the condition, it’s a decent boost at 115% attack scale instead of usual 110% or so like from other mods, and it being an attack scale results in an even bigger boost in practice when considering damage formula. Grab this, Typhon needs it.

• Level 2: (stats boosts do not stack, only replace)

HP +180

ATK +78

Talent upgrades: Continuous attacks gradually ignore increasing amounts of the target’s DEF, up to a maximum of 55% of its DEF (each attack increases the DEF ignore by 11%, additive). This bonus is lost when no attacks have been made within 9 seconds.

• Level 3: (stats boosts do not stack, only replace)

HP +210

ATK +90

Talent upgrades: Continuous attacks gradually ignore increasing amounts of the target’s DEF, up to a maximum of 60% of its DEF (each attack increases the DEF ignore by 12%, additive). This bonus is lost when no attacks have been made within 10 seconds.

Analysis: 60% DEF ignore from a Besieger huh now where have I seen this before. Anyway, the upgrades pushed this talent way further by both increasing the ignore limit, and lengthening the gap where she will lose the ignore bonus. It also smartly increases the ignore per stack so her cap remains at 5 hits rather than 6. That also means all of her attacks ignore at least 12% DEF now.

You can usually just get mod level 1 and will do fine, but the upgrades will be worth it (which is actually rare for mod upgrades) if you choose to get it.

Typhon is a big addition to the Sniper family, and a strong addition to most rosters in the upcoming months of content. Her two skills can let her wipe mobs or focused killing, two scenarios that are practically always needed.

• S1 is a skip.

• S2 is an extremely strong mobs wipe skill and will be her main skill. I don’t usually like consistent/infinite duration skills but given the amount of damage this skill can dish out it is undeniably strong on its own. It’s also a strong helidropping skill. This skill makes her the best general purpose Sniper.

• S3 is her more famous skill. It can deal with bosses quite well because of the focused tracking, but most stages don’t have bosses, so it ended up being the less used skill of the two, especially considering S2 has the ability to kill elites anyway. Furthermore, for a lot of events and story stages, her S2 can also sometimes deal with bosses regardless because she has enough ATK and enough time to keep attacking anyway, as bosses like to take a couple loops around the map. Also get at least M1 before any other mastery.

I guess I should talk about Rosa. How does Rosa do post-Typhon? Not too well I’d say. Sure, her S3 is a low cooldown four target Bind which is far different from what Typhon can do. It lacks proper damage even with Modules so it needs additional help which was always the case. Where Rosa truly does better than Typhon is having better single target (ST) damage, when there are multiple targets in range. This is because Typhon is designed with high ST damage, but is then balanced by splitting that damage to multiple enemies in range. It doesn’t matter for Typhon S2 because it is designed to deal with horde, but you will notice the massive drop when using S3 on a boss with some mobs around.

This means that any of Rosa's leftover advantages over Typhon is just her S3 being different enough, but they are too small to make it not worth investing in if you have Typhon built ready, but at the same time, if you favor Rosa over Typhon for personal reasons, you wouldn’t lose out too much as well. You’ll just have to find boss damage elsewhere.

Have you seen Typhon vs Ya (from the Vernal Wind event)? Ya main gimmick is that it (Ya is genderless) swaps position with its fake clone, sometimes confusing you on Who is Real. Well, Typhon does not care. If you managed to use S3 to track the right Ya, she will continue to track it regardless of how many swap it took. Like I said way earlier, S3 offers a new and very fun way to deal with bosses. It is pretty much what most people would know about her at first, not the S2 nor the best general use sniper thing. Here is the WB-EX-8 CM example featuring 4 snipers. This is also the lowest record in general, without Ling, and furthermore, pretty much all of those records have Typhon S3 because of how easy it can deal with Ya. (Fun fact: the only Typhon-less record is with Rosa, but it has Młynar.)

Speaking of videos, have some more:

MN-EX-8 CM 2 snipers

GT-HX-2 CM solo

H12-4 Snipers

RI-EX-8 CM duo

11-20 Adverse snipers

7-18 Typhon + Terra Research Commission

DM-EX-6 2 snipers

So what do you think about Typhon? I friggin love her S3, though S2 being her main skill is kinda half sad. More sniper is always welcomed for me, and their level is getting even higher soon, which is really hype. But that… is another story for a few months later.