Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Aak and Hoshiguma

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	Aak - Sacrificial Specialist Hoshiguma - Normal Defender
5★	Pramanix - Debuffer Supporter Silence - ST Medic Broca - AoE Guard

• Hoshiguma is available for purchase in the Distinction store for 180 Certificates. Silence can be purchased for 45.
• 6★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 6★
• 5★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 5★

Whether you’re saving for W or not, the answer is probably no.

This isn’t exactly a bad banner, but it’s not necessarily a good investment either. Hoshiguma and Silence are very reliable examples of core archetypes (damage soak and healer respectively), but they can usually be replaced by lower-rarity alternatives like Cuora or Gavial. Meanwhile, Aak is only necessary for min-max-y players, Pramanix is often overshadowed by other Operators, and Broca—though a decent AoE Guard—can’t hold a candle to Specter, who is the same archetype and rarity.

Even so, players may want to consider doing Headhunt x1 until they pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

Sacrificial Specialist

+ Functions as ranged Physical DPS while providing powerful buffs and (erratic) crowd control

+ Talent causes random useful effects when attacking (heals Aak, deals critical damage to target, Stuns target, or Slows target)

+ S2 and S3 buff Aak as well as the closest ally in front of Aak (two buffs for the price of one!)

+ S2: Powerful defensive buff

+ S3: Powerful offensive buff (a lot stronger than it sounds due to the ASPD increase)

+ Even if he kills an ally with S2 or S3, at least he still gets the buff.

= …wait, what??

- When he applies his S2 or S3 to an ally, he does it by SHOOTING THEM FIFTEEN TIMES, and a lot of Operators (especially ranged Operators) can’t actually survive this!

- The random nature of his Talent means you can’t depend on its effects

- Constantly loses HP as part of his Trait; his Talent can heal him, but you may still need a dedicated healer to keep him alive (and watch out where you place that healer, if you want him to be using his S2 or S3!)

Normal Defender

+ Excellent Defender with high defensive stats and high DPS through her S3

+ E1 Talent has a chance to resist incoming Physical or Arts damage

+ E2 Talent buffs DEF of other Defenders

+ S2 reflects damage (can be used to counter invisible enemies, especially ranged ones)

+ S3 has very high AoE DPS and also increases Hoshiguma’s DEF for the duration; it also has decent uptime for such a powerful Skill

- Vulnerable to Arts damage; she has 0 base RES and none of her Skills mitigate Arts damage (though her Talent does help)

- Lacks extra utility or team support (other than her E2 Talent)

Debuffer Supporter

+ Usual archetype strengths: wide attack range, high base RES, cheap DP cost

+ Deals Arts damage (and targets two enemies at a time after E2 promotion)

+ Talent inflicts Fragile, increasing the damage taken by nearby enemies when they are low on HP

+ Can lower enemy attack speed (great survival tool) or DEF/ RES (great offensive tool)

- Usual archetype weaknesses: her direct DPS is so low that she is sometimes less effective than fielding another DPS unit (especially in the early game)

ST Medic

+ Strong ST Medic with decent stats for her role

+ Buffs the ASPD of other Medics with her Talent, allowing them to heal more quickly

+ The Medical Drone from her S2 is incredibly versatile, in large part because it can be deployed on any empty space:

• It can heal allies anywhere on the map
• It can heal multiple allies simultaneously (and Silence will still be healing those within her range as well)
• If deployed within Silence’s healing range, both she and the Drone can heal the same ally/ allies, serving as a kind of burst healing

- Lacks forms of non-healing utility (i.e., Shining’s shields or Warfarin’s attack buff)

AoE Guard

+ Usual archetype strengths: attacks a number of enemies equal to his Block count

+ An AoE Guard with easy access to Arts damage (both S1 and S2)

+ One of the few Operators who can match Blaze’s burst damage output, despite being a lower rarity than she is

+ Increases his attack range and Slows enemies with S2

= Usual archetype caveat: he gains Block-3 when promoted to E2, but he has to be promoted to E2 before he really shines

= Skills have large potential ATK boosts (especially his S2, with 190% at M3!) but they have to be M3’d before they become impressive. Also, his S2 makes his attacks slightly slower, reducing the effect of the ATK buff.

- Comparatively squishy for an AoE Guard because he lacks strong defensive options (he can get a small DEF boost from his Talent, but that’s about it)

- S2 has to be carefully timed, because it Stuns him after completion

Aak is a very powerful unit, but he’s also very difficult to use. His S2 and S3 grant enormous buffs, but both Skills also inflict 15 attacks at 500 ATK power on the poor ally receiving them. For this reason, Aak is something of a “win-more” button. He doesn’t buff weak Operators into being strong enough to compete; he buffs strong Operators so they become even stronger.

To maximize Aak’s power, it’s important to have sturdy DPS units (like banner-mate Hoshiguma!) or Operators that can increase the survivability of other units. Operators like Tsukinogi or Nian can help more fragile allies endure Aak’s assault, allowing him to work with a wider range of units in a wider range of situations.

It’s also worth remembering that Aak is a decent ranged DPS and crowd control unit in his own right, especially with S1. This comes in especially handy on Challenges or CC stages where Snipers are banned but you still have a bunch of drones to kill, or when Supporters are banned but you still need crowd control.

I don’t recommend pulling for Aak unless you like to min-max your buff usage or have ridiculous, off-the-wall strategies in mind for him.

Hoshiguma is sometimes called “the meat grinder” due to the murderous damage potential of her S3, which deals buffed AoE damage to all enemies in front of her. She’s pretty simple as far as Defenders go: she Blocks-3, randomly resists incoming damage, and blitzes enemies into bite-sized chunks when her S3 is activated. Direct, dependable, and deadly: what’s not to love about Hoshiguma?

If you don’t already have at least two strong Defenders, it may be worth pulling for or buying Hoshiguma. Keep in mind that 4-star Defender Cuora is very comparable to Hoshiguma in most content and is a lot more accessible; if you haven’t gotten Cuora yet, consider raising her for your second Defender rather than spending resources on Hoshiguma.

Otherwise, I don’t recommend pulling for Hoshiguma, but she’s well worth raising if you get her.

Pramanix (and the Debuffer Supporter archetype in general) occupies an interesting spot in the Arknights roster. A lot of the time, it’s hard to feel the effect of Pramanix’s powers, especially against trash enemies, whose DEF and RES are usually too low for Pramanix’s percentage-based debuffs to take meaningful effect. In these cases, you’re probably better off fielding a DPS unit instead.

Where Pramanix shines is in edge cases, where your units are almost strong enough to survive a particular enemy or kill a particular target, but not quite. Pramanix pushes the scale in your direction, using her Skills to reduce enemy ASPD (very effective against enemies that already attack slowly, like Demolitionists) or DEF and RES (making Elite and Boss enemies much easier to kill).

She’s hardly useless on her own, either. Multi-target Arts damage over a huge attack range, even with a low ATK value, can be quite effective, and Pramanix also has high base RES, helping her to soak enemy Arts attacks. Best of all, Debuffer Supporters have a very cheap DP cost. This is especially nice if your Vanguards are having trouble holding back the first waves of enemies before you get enough DP to deploy bigger units to the field.

I don’t recommend pulling for Pramanix, but she’s very fun if you get her.

Silence is arguably the gold standard for 5-star ST Medics (well, the ones that focus on healing, at least, rather than ones like Warfarin who focus on buffing). Her Talent increases the ASPD of other allied Medics, and her S2—Medical Drone—gives her some of the most versatile healing in Arknights. The ranged deployment and AoE capabilities of the Medical Drone can be put to good use on just about any battlefield.

If you don’t already have at least one strong ST Medic, it may be worth pulling for Silence. If your ST Medic is Warfarin, I also recommend pulling for or buying Silence; having Silence to handle healing duties can free up Warfarin to focus on her powerful buffs instead.

Broca is a good Operator in a vacuum, but sadly, he tends to be overshadowed by other members of his archetype. AoE Guards tend to be some of the more powerful and versatile units in Arknights, in particular 6-star Blaze and 5-star Specter. Broca doesn’t have the outlandish DPS of Blaze or the death defiance of Specter, so he typically falls by the wayside in comparison.

That doesn’t make him bad, however. This hunky husbando combines Block-3 (at E2) and multi-target attacks with easy access to Arts damage, making him surprisingly potent. He’s particularly great for Challenge stages where Casters or ranged units are banned, as he’s a reliable source of Arts damage who is deployed on ground grids. Be careful with his S2, however, which self-Stuns once the duration is up and might allow enemies to leak past Broca.

If you’re going to invest in Broca, it’s important to realize that he’s not a cheap date. AoE Guards need to be promoted to E2 to become Block-3 units, and Broca in particular needs to M3 his Skills before his ATK buffs become particularly impressive.  

I don’t recommend pulling for Broca, but he’s very fun if you get him.