Amiya (Guard)

“Doctor... recently... have I been a little less like myself? The nameless anger that rises up, time and again... is that mine? If so... no, even if so, I won't give up. I will protect you, Doctor, by this sword.”

Amiya’s been hiding some tricks up her sleeve! When the situation becomes dire in Chapter 8, our favorite Cautus Caster uses her Arts to create a magical sword and transforms into a 5* Arts Guard specializing in teamwide buffs, mitigating Arts damage, and dealing Pure damage.

In order to unlock the “Guard Amiya” transformation, the player must clear the secret Chapter 8 stage JT8-2 with an E2 Caster Amiya in the squad. When the battle is successfully completed, Caster Amiya will be automatically transformed into Guard Amiya; afterwards, the player can freely switch back and forth between the two versions of Amiya in the Operator menu. Note that Caster and Guard Amiya share their level, Trust, and Potential, but have separate Skill Mastery levels (due to having different Skills).

Having Guard Amiya on the battlefield is enough to fill other Operators with determination. Her Talent, Wrathful Cerulean Flame, imparts an ATK and DEF buff on all allies that is doubled when Amiya has a Skill active. This Talent typically sees the most benefit from Guard Amiya’s S1, Ying Xiao – Fleeting Night, an ATK and Arts Dodge buff with great uptime that also turns Amiya’s strikes into double attacks. Considering her higher-than-usual base RES, this Skill makes Guard Amiya quite good at surviving Arts damage while still outputting heavy DPS. You may get an even greater effect out of her S2, Ying Xiao – Shadowless. When activated, Guard Amiya flies at the nearest enemy and attacks multiple times in succession, gaining increased ATK and RES for every enemy she kills during this time. After her Ch’en-inspired slashing frenzy ends, she retains the buffs and deals Pure damage for the remaining Skill duration. It’s a tempting Skill with oodles of flair, but there is a drawback: it can only be used once per map, so players must choose carefully when to unleash its power.

Guard Amiya can be a useful welfare unit due to her respectable DPS and her ability to soak enemy Arts damage. However, because Guard Amiya is locked behind Chapter 8 content and E2ing Caster Amiya, players may have better options for her role by the time they can use her. The fact that Ying Xiao – Shadowless can only be used once per map can be inconvenient as well (don’t forget that this reduces the uptime of double-strength Wrathful Cerulean Flame buffs). On the other hand, being handed an easy-access Arts DPS/ tank hybrid is nothing to sneeze at, especially since Guard Amiya doesn’t have to be leveled up or E2’d once you unlock her. And who doesn’t want to invoke a magical-girl samurai transformation and watch Amiya shank mooks with some flashy sword moves?

Skill	Mastery	Story	Advanced	Roguelike
	S1M3	A-	B	B
	S2M3	B-	B-	B-

While not the strongest Arts Guard (Surtr makes for some stiff competition), Amiya's Guard form is a powerful DPS option for the rarity, not to mention easily accessible as part of the story progression. S1 is the best starting point for Masteries. It has strong Arts DPS, and the drawback of only using S2 once per map is significant. Despite that, her S2 is likewise worthy of Mastery for when that near instant burst is necessary.

Be aware that while her Guard S2 is a good skill that is well worth pursuing, her Caster S3 is the better starting point if you are looking for a True Damage skill. The initial S2 slashes are regular Arts Damage, while the True Damage slashes are restricted to her immediate (and much smaller) attack range. This makes Caster S3 the much better skill for the purposes of True Damage, and her Guard S2 more situational.

The typically favored Mastery progression for Amiya is Caster S3 followed by Guard S1, with Guard S2 a somewhat distant third.