Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Angelina and Hellagur

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	Hellagur - Enmity Guard Angelina - Slower Supporter
5★	Manticore - Controller Specialist Projekt Red - Fast-Redeploy Specialist Beeswax - Modal Caster

• Based on previous patterns, it is likely but not 100% certain that the Operators for purchase in the Distinction store will be Hellagur and Projekt Red.
• 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★

Probably not.

This is an extremely niche banner. All of these Operators (except for Projekt Red, whose Fast-Redeploy qualities and AoE Stun are pretty general-purpose) require the player to work with specific limitations or playstyles. Furthermore, all of these Operators are very different from each other, so chances are that you’re not going to be interested in accommodating more than one or two of them. Especially with the Forget Me Not banner having drained the resources of many players, this banner is unlikely to be a good investment.

(Also, weirdly, this is the second Standard banner that has had Angelina, Hellagur, and Projekt Red all on it. Make of that what you will.)

At most, you may want to do Headhunt x1 on this banner until you pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

Slower Supporter

+ Offers a ton of passive utility for her allies: ASPD, HP regen, and (while S3 is active) reduced enemy weight

+ S2 is excellent damage + perma-Slow against a single enemy

+ S3 produces great AoE Arts damage that rivals most AoE Casters

+ Good duration and great cooldown on Skills means they can be used quite often

+ Very helpful for Challenge stages that restrict Casters (due to her powerful Arts damage) or Medics (due to her E2 Talent)

- When equipped with S2 or S3, she can't attack unless the Skill is active

- Fairly weak until you E2 her and invest heavily in her Skills

Enmity Guard

+ Extremely high HP and ATK

+ Great for Contingency Contract (CC) events, like the one coming up soon

+ Can 1v1 most enemies with no help, even big nasties like Avengers and Rockbreakers (if RNG is on his side)

= Has Block-1 (typical of Enmity Guards)

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Can't be healed directly (although regen, i.e., Angelina, does work) and has a high DP cost

- He tends to be less important in regular content, where healing/ Operator choices are less limited and 1v1ing is less valuable

Controller Specialist

+ Very slippery and hard to damage; has Invisibility, lower aggro, and 50% Physical/ Arts Dodge

+ Regular attacks are ground-based AoE, hitting all targets within her attack range

+ Talent gives her a large ATK buff for her first attack when leaving Invisibility, resulting in powerful AoE strikes

+ S1 permanently adds a passive Slow effect to her basic attacks

+ S2 adds a Stun effect to her attacks and also reduces her ASPD, causing her Talent’s ATK bonus to trigger on every attack

= Block-0 means she cannot take melee damage, but also means she can’t Block enemies

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Very slow ASPD, reducing DPS and frequency of crowd-control application

Fast-Redeploy Specialist

+ Talent gives her decent minimum damage even against high-DEF enemies (she still prefers squishy targets, though)

+ S1 offers bonus damage and survivability, making her a good assassin for squishy single targets

+ S2 offers AoE damage + Stun; drop her on enemies for the quick Stun, pull her back, and do it again

- Typical Fast-Redeploy weaknesses: mediocre stats, Skills only activate when deployed, DP cost increases with multiple redeploys

Modal Caster

+ Usual archetype strengths: Gains DEF +200% and RES +20 while Skills are not active, attacks all enemies within range while Skills are active

+ Talent gives her HP regen, making her even more of a brick wall

+ S2 summons a Block-3 obelisk to a square within her range, absorbing damage and Stunning enemies upon creation

= Has faster ASPD than an AoE Caster and targets all units within her range rather than dealing splash damage, but cannot attack while her Skills aren’t active

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Loses her massive survivability bonuses when using her Skills, but can’t attack unless her Skills are active

- Limited duration of the S2 obelisk means it usually can’t replace a dedicated Blocker

Angelina may be listed as a Supporter, but her potential Arts damage is so crazy that she outperforms some Casters in the role. The massive burst potential of her S2 and AoE destructiveness of her S3 have to be seen to be believed. Throw in a host of passive buffs for her team and the Slowing effect of all her attacks and it’s not hard to see why Angelina is such a popular Arknights Operator.

That being said, Angelina’s S2 and S3 come with a huge drawback: when Angelina is equipped with either Skill, she only attacks while the Skill is active. The rest of the time, all she brings to the table is her passive buffs! Fortunately, Angelina’s Skills charge quickly and are very spammable, so she can usually apply her powerful DPS when it counts. However, this makes Angelina more timing-dependent than most Operators, which is important to keep in mind when using her.

I recommend pulling for Angelina. However, make sure you’re aware of her idiosyncrasies before you dedicate resources to her. She’s very powerful, but she takes foresight, good timing, and a lot of investment to use well.

Hellagur is a ferocious one-on-one killing machine. His crazy HP and ATK stats are backed up with powerful DPS Skills, healing every time he attacks, and HP regeneration when he isn’t Blocking to top him off before his next duel. Be careful, though: all this power comes at the cost of not being able to be directly healed by allies.

Hellagur can single-handedly defeat most enemies he comes across, and he doesn’t need the help of a Medic to do it, making him incredibly self-sufficient. He does have his limitations, however. Having Block-1 limits how many enemies he can realistically duel in one map, and the fact that he can’t be directly healed makes it difficult for him to fight enemies whose DPS outstrips his healing.

I don’t recommend pulling for Hellagur because he can be a bit niche outside of Challenge stages, but he can be worth raising if you pull him.

Manticore is a Controller Specialist, which means she attacks over a wide area, hits everything within her range, and is almost impossible for enemies to attack (only ranged enemies are able to target her at all, and then she has 50% Physical and Arts Dodge). Her Skills allow her to add a Slow or Stun effect to her AoE attacks, and her high base ATK combined with her Talent give her the potential for some surprising burst damage despite her atrociously low ASPD. Controller Specialists are very strange units, but they can be enormously rewarding for the creative player, and Manticore is a perfect example of the archetype.

I don’t recommend pulling for Manticore, but she can be worth raising if you pull her.

Projekt Red has a reputation as a stone-cold killer, but her real claim to fame is her ability to drop an instant AoE Stun when deployed with her S2. As a Fast-Redeploy Operator, you can drop Projekt Red on the field multiple times in a single fight, utilizing her Stun over and over to disrupt the enemy team. Plenty of other Operators can assassinate squishy targets, but few can crowd-control enemies so effectively in such quick succession.

Outside of her AoE Stun, Projekt Red is not as impressive as her reputation would have you believe. She does have assassination potential, but usually there’s a Guard who is better at the job, and she faces stiff competition from her fellow Fast-Redeploy Specialists, whose niches may be more useful for your current squad or map. None of this detracts from the power of that AoE Stun, however, which can be useful in just about any situation.

I don’t recommend pulling for Projekt Red, but she can be worth raising if you pull her.

Beeswax debuted the Modal Caster archetype, an unusual unit that switches back and forth between two “modes” depending on Skill usage. When Beeswax does not have a Skill active, she does not attack (similar to Angelina), but she gains positively staggering defensive buffs that make her almost as sturdy as a high-tier Defender Operator. When she does activate a Skill, she loses those defensive bonuses, but she begins unleashing rapidfire AoE shockwaves that inflict Arts damage on all enemies within her range. Her S2 has the added benefit of building a massive Block-3 obelisk on the field, Stunning nearby enemies and halting their advance.

Modal Casters are very strange units that can be hard to use well. Since they’re ranged units, they can’t Block, so they’re best used to absorb the attacks of ranged enemies. However, since they lose their defensive bonuses when they activate a Skill, absorbing ranged attacks often means the Modal Caster must play passively for a large part of the map. In many cases, using a Defender and an intelligent deployment order can be more effective than a Modal Caster.

On the other hand, some maps have awkward layouts that force your ranged Operators to be put in harm’s way. In these cases, Beeswax can shrug off the damage and give you breathing space to focus on other problems. Beeswax’s Skills also charge fairly quickly and can be used to keep waves of weak enemies under control—and don’t forget about her S2 obelisk, which is a great decoy target for burst-damage-happy opponents (i.e., Lancers).

I don’t recommend pulling for Beeswax, but she can be worth raising if you pull her.