Arknights: In-depth Review - Horn

Horn is the future 6★ Fortress Defender featured in the Roaring Cliffhanger banner, which will run alongside the release of Episode 10: Shatterpoint. Much like the first Operator of her archetype, Ashlock, Horn’s kit is geared towards being a very offensive Defender. Thanks to her incredibly long range and very high damage Skills, Horn aims to be a solid backline DPS to burst down large waves of enemies with powerful cannon shots without losing frontline potential. Let’s discuss whether she accomplishes this!

Before we get into the review proper, I feel it’s imperative to talk about how Fortress Defenders break the mold of traditional Defenders and force a completely different playstyle to what most players are used to with this class. 

Fortress Defenders are characterized, amongst other things, by their very unconventional range. Being able to reach up to 5 tiles in front of themselves gives these Operators an incredibly long range that allows for creative positions where they can pummel enemies as soon as they spawn from relatively safe locations, but this range also has its downsides. Fortress Defenders not only have a huge blindspot in the two tiles ahead of themselves, but also lose a significant amount of power when blocking enemies. Usually, their attacks deal splash damage in an area around the main target, but when these Defenders block, not only do their attacks usually become single target, but they also become unable to fire ahead and have to take care of the blocked enemies first.

This, in a nutshell, means Fortress Defenders require backline positions to make the most out of their powerful skills, which is somewhat unconventional for the class. Regardless, the huge quantities of DPS they can bring to the table paired with their incredible range makes this an insignificant condition to fulfill. In Horn’s case, for example, a good position will let her output DPS to rival Operators such as Ch’en the Holungday and SilverAsh.

Additionally, Horn introduces the concept of Overdrive into the game (not to be confused with Overcharge!). This mechanic triggers additional effects for certain Skills once they are halfway through their duration, paired with nasty debuffs to force players to decide whether the extra effects are worth it (which, in Horn’s case, generally are).

Other than the typical differences stat differences with her lower-rarity counterpart, Ashlock, it is interesting to compare Horn to other Defender Operators with more offensive kits. In this regard, Horn is significantly less tough than Mudrock, Eunectes or Hoshiguma, with HP and Defense stats that more closely resemble Guardian Defenders such as Blemishine. Where she shines, though, is in her Attack stat, very comfortably beating everyone but Eunectes while sporting a significantly cheaper DP cost of 28, which, while high, is nowhere near Mudrock’s.

When deployed, all Defender Operators (Horn included) receive an Attack buff of 20% (+3% at P3).

This Talent is simple, but what sets it apart from other similar buffs is the amount of Attack it actually gives. Compared to Eyjafjalla’s 14% and Schwarz’s 8% for their respective classes, Horn’s is in a league of her own.

As for the actual effect, Defenders tend to be a class with mediocre Attack values that don’t benefit from offensive boosts too much, so this Talent may seem somewhat useless. The truth, however, is that it scales quite well with the few Defenders that actually see use in the metagame and can actually take advantage of their Attack stats in some form or another. Mudrock, Eunectes, Saria and Blemishine all take good advantage of this boost.

Once per deployment, when Horn’s HP drops to 0, she will instantly regain all HP, cut her own max HP to 50% and get a Defense boost of 18% (+3% at P5) and an Attack Speed increase of 18 (+3 at P5).

This Talent works very similarly to the Dreadnought Guards’ Module X boost, giving Horn a decent DPS boost with a condition that, weird as it may seem, is actually very easy to trigger through her Skills. Unless you plan to constantly redeploy Horn around the battlefield, you can almost always count on this Talent being active. Since Horn shines in the backlines, the Max HP cut is also pretty insignificant as she will rarely be taking any damage.

The next attack after this Skill is charged will deal 280% physical damage. If the attack is ranged, it will fire a special shell with increased splash area that will reveal invisible enemies for 8 seconds. This Skill can hold 2 charges and has 5 SP cost.

This Skill’s main goal is providing consistent, high DPS through a very low SP cost and very high damage multiplier. In terms of DPS alone, it practically cannot be beat due to its incredibly powerful damage multiplier and the fact that, coupled with Horn’s slower Attack Interval, this Skill will be used every other attack under normal circumstances. This makes this skill an amazing option for general content as well as Integrated Strategies, giving Horn an incredibly powerful generic tool.

As an added bonus, the invisibility reveal is also quite powerful and lasts long enough that constant attacking will keep the illumination effect up, but it must be noted that Horn herself cannot target Invisible enemies, and must first fire at a regular enemy beforehand.

When activated, Horn will obtain 10 Ammunition that deal 240% physical damage and her melee strikes will start dealing splash damage. Upon activating Overdrive, each attack deals an additional 60% Arts damage and, when the skill is manually deactivated, Horn will fire all remaining Ammunition and lose 60% of her Max HP. This Skill has an SP cost of 25 and, as an ammo skill, can be deactivated at any moment.

This Skill grants Horn a significant amount of burst DPS with all the benefits the Ammo system has, giving really good control over her uptime. This is also the first Skill in the game to introduce the Overdrive mechanic, and it comes with some very interesting options that help take advantage of Horn’s entire kit.

The Overdrive system will trigger as soon as Horn fires her 5th shell, denoted by the SP bar under the Operator getting redder in color. From this point on, all remaining attacks of her Skill will deal an additional hit of Arts damage, with no apparent downside. The real “downside” of this Overdrive comes from the fact that Horn will lose 60% of her Max HP if the Skill is manually deactivated while the Overdrive system is active, which also forces her to fire all remaining Ammo for some extremely high burst damage if there’s any enemy bulky enough to actually survive a couple of shots.

I say “downside” with quotation marks because this is actually one of the best parts of this Skill. Thanks to this heavy HP loss, Horn will be able to activate her second Talent on her own with two activations of this Skill and receive a good DPS buff through the extra Attack Speed it grants without having to wait for any enemy to hit her. This is such a positive effect, in fact, that you may even want to manually deactivate the Skill as soon as Horn fires the last shot to cut your own HP (this won’t fire any additional shots but still proc the HP loss) just so you can trigger the Talent as soon as possible.

Still, powerful as this Skill may be, it almost pales in comparison to her third one.

When activated, Horn’s Attack will increase by 70% and her Attack Interval will be reduced by 1.8 seconds to 1 second between attacks. During Overdrive, this Attack boost will double to 140% and Horn will gradually start losing HP for the remainder of the Skill, capping at 12% of her Max HP per second after 12 seconds. This Skill has an SP cost of 35 and can be manually deactivated.

This is undoubtedly Horn’s main Skill for burst DPS, and it does an amazing job at that. If she’s constantly pummeling enemies within her range and her second Talent is active, Horn will reach DPS figures that rival Ch’en the Holungday without much effort.

Much like the previous Skill, the HP loss can also be a huge asset as it will help manually trigger her Talent for even more DPS. A single activation of the Skill will take around 75% of her Max HP, so a second activation will trigger the Talent and kill her if Horn isn’t healed in due time. This can be fixed by both deploying any healing support at the right time or by purposefully deactivating her Skills to avoid her death.. 

Long story short, this Skill will be able to pummel large groups of enemies for insane DPS, letting Horn take care of essentially any kind of target with ease, all while staying in safe positions thanks to her massive range.

So, should I pull for Horn? Is she different enough from Ashlock to actually pull for her? Can a Defender really provide enough DPS to be worth it? The answer is DEFINITELY YES. Horn breaks the usual mold of Defenders by bringing insane DPS into the table with an extremely long, easy to abuse range that lets her hit essentially any position at all. Her Overdrive debuffs also pair amazingly well with her Talent, potentially boosting her DPS even more for Doctors that know how to take advantage of the HP loss well. The only real downside to Horn is that there are plenty of banners ahead of her with extremely powerful Operators also worth pulling for, but even then Horn is still incredibly strong and one of the biggest contenders for Orundum sinks in the following months.