Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Fiammetta and Exusiai

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

No.

This banner is fun (and has some killer character designs on it), but unfortunately, it’s not especially good. All these units are easily replaceable except for Exusiai, and Exusiai is purchasable in the shop for this banner. You’d be much better off buying Exusiai with gold certs (if you can) rather than spending Orundum on this banner.

As with all banners, a 5★ or higher Operator is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls. Should you pull for that? No. All three of these Operators are noticeably inferior to their 6★ equivalents, and Astesia and Whisperain can be replaced by their 4★ equivalents in almost all circumstances. Corroserum is the hardest to substitute, since there is no 4★ member of his archetype yet, but he also has the least useful niche and so is the least important to substitute in the first place.

AoE/ Artilleryman Sniper

+ Usual archetype strengths: High ATK, long attack range, AoE splash attacks

+ E0 Talent grants a Vigor buff at certain HP thresholds (the effect is granted above 50% HP, and doubled above 80% HP)

+ E2 Talent gives her bonus ASPD whenever she does not have a Skill active

+ S2 does a lot of damage in a straight line in front of Fiammetta

+ S3 is infinite-duration and turns her attacks into powerful AoE nukes at the far end of her attack range, with increased damage and splash area

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Very slow ASPD (though her Talent helps with this a little), high DP cost

- E0 Talent constantly drains her HP, causing her to lose her Vigor buff without external healing (will not reduce her HP below 1, though)

- All Skills are [Attacking Enemy] SP charge type, and her ASPD is very slow; her E2 Talent helps with this, but it can still take a while to charge her Skills

- S2 is slow to activate, due to bullet charge time

- S2 and S3 have very narrow ranges where they will deal maximum damage, making them difficult to use against enemies who cannot be Blocked and/or crowd-controlled

Anti-Air/ Marksman Sniper

+ Usual archetype strengths: Low DP cost, fast ASPD

+ Devours low-DEF enemies faster than she eats apple pie

+ Wildly effective when buffed by other Operators (i.e., Sora, Warfarin)

+ S3 offers great burst damage

- Requires buffs to be effective against enemies with high DEF (which are increasingly common in high-end content)

- S3 triggers automatically, so requires precise deployment timing if needed at specific times

Arts Guard

+ As a melee Arts unit, she’s good for Challenge stages and the Contingency Contract event

+ Very survivable; both her Skills increase her DEF, and as an Arts Guard she has innate RES

+ Turns into an AoE Arts Guard while her S2 is active

- Has mediocre base ATK and unimpressive ATK multipliers on her Skills 

- Can be inefficient on stages where her niche of melee Arts damage isn’t important

- Vastly outclassed by 6★ Arts Guard Surtr, who is widely available as a support unit

Wide-Range/ Therapist Medic

+ Archetype strengths: Larger healing range than other Medic archetypes

+ Talent regenerates HP for allies within Whisperain’s attack range who have the Status Resistance buff

+ S1 is an automatic Skill that grants a stronger heal and the Status Resistance buff to an extra target within range (triggering her Talent for extra regeneration)

+ S2 is a permanent buff that increases Whisperain’s healing speed, increases the regeneration from her Talent, and causes every heal she dispenses to grant Status Resistance (so every time she heals, she’ll trigger her Talent)

= Very useful on stages where enemies are causing Cold, Freeze, or Stun because of her Status Resistance buff, but less appealing outside of this niche

= A lot of her healing potential is tied into the “healing over time” from her Talent; without it, her direct healing is not very strong

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Lower base ATK than ST Medics, healing is reduced on far-away targets

- S2 takes a long time to charge

- 6★ Therapist Medic Lumen is a welfare unit (therefore widely available) and has better healing than Whisperain, as well as direct status-cleansing potential that she lacks

Blast Caster

+ Usual archetype strengths: High base ATK, attacks deal “true AoE” in his attack range

+ Talent increases his SP regen when he hasn’t attacked for several seconds (automatically triggers with the self-Stun on S1)

+ Decent ATK buffs on both S1 and S2

+ S2 applies Silence on all targets hit and can be manually deactivated

= “Long, straight line” attack range can be very advantageous or kind of inconvenient

= Silence is very effective when it works, but a lot of enemies are immune

= S1 self-Stuns Corroserum when the duration ends; this can be annoying, but it also guarantees his Talent triggers, speeding up his next use of S1

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Slow ASPD, high DP cost

- Kit is very underwhelming when Silence is not relevant

Fiammetta has been sent to Rhodes Island to keep an eye on fallen angel (and notorious troublemaker) Mostima. Considering what Mostima puts her through, Fiammetta probably finds it relaxing to take a break on the battlefield for a while instead. Yes, enemies are trying to kill her and her passive is constantly draining her own HP, but in return she gets to fire up her potent Vigor buff and incinerate everything in sight using grenades, napalm bullets, and burning salvos shot from the sky. It’s good stress relief!

Fiammetta is an interesting combination of an AoE Sniper and a Close-range Sniper. Her S2 does heavy burst damage in a straight line in front of her, while her S3 rains bombs on a point far away from her position. As long as you can keep her HP high to maintain her Vigor buff, Fiammetta can do a lot of damage. It’s not even that hard to keep her healed, since she’s a fragile ranged unit who shouldn’t be getting attacked anyway.

The bigger problem with Fiammetta is her finicky range requirements. S2 consists of multiple slightly overlaid explosions, so enemies must be positioned at a very specific point to maximize its damage. Meanwhile, S3 cannot change its position or rate of fire in any way once activated. Particularly fast enemies can just run right through the range of either Skill, avoiding most or even all of Fiammetta’s damage. It takes time and work to set Fiammetta up properly, and while the results can be glowing, they may not always be worth the effort.

I don’t recommend pulling for Fiammetta.

Do you have enemies? Do you want those enemies to be filled with bullets? Then look no further than Exusiai, the apple-pie-obsessed angel with more bullets than her gun knows what to do with.

Exusiai absolutely terrorizes any content where enemies have low DEF. Her cheap DP cost and enormous DPS output make her a convenient artillery cannon for just about any stage. As enemy DEF increases, Exusiai’s damage potential falls off sharply. However, her multiple-hitting attacks also mean that she benefits more from ATK buffs than almost any other Operator. Bolstered by Operators like Warfarin or Skadi the Corrupted Heart, Exusiai can tear a hole in the fabric of space/time itself.

I recommend buying Exusiai in the shop if possible. I don’t recommend pulling for her on this banner, though.

Astesia fills her elegant rapier with the power of the stars, striking down her enemies with melee Arts damage attacks rather than physical. Melee Arts damage is not usually necessary in regular stages (although it is often still helpful), but it’s a godsend in Challenges or Contingency Contracts that ban Casters or Supporters.

Astesia used to be particularly good for this niche thanks to her sturdy base defenses and her useful Skills (her S2 basically turns her into an AoE Guard). However, 6★ Arts Guard Surtr is so unimaginably powerful that Astesia can barely hold a candle in comparison. To add insult to injury, because Surtr is so popular, she’s easily found as a support unit, further reducing Astesia’s opportunities to be helpful on the battlefield.

I don’t recommend pulling for Astesia.

You know how a tiny stream of water can slowly erode away a boulder? Whisperain’s healing is like that. On its own, it doesn’t look like much: Whisperain has low ATK and her healing is less effective on faraway targets. The magic comes from pairing her Talent with her S2. With both active, Whisperain heals an ally, places the Status Resistance buff on them (so annoyances like Freeze and Stun wear off more quickly), and then passively heals them over time while the buff lasts. The combination of wide healing range, increased ASPD, and regeneration makes Whisperain a cascade of constant healing, keeping multiple allies alive and healthy more easily than her stats would suggest.

This may sound like a dream combination for a Medic, but despite her strengths, Whisperain isn’t flawless. She lacks burst healing for dangerous situations and her only team utility is the Status Resistance buff, which is not useful when enemies aren’t inflicting status ailments on your Operators. Whisperain is certainly not well suited to keeping a Defender alive through boss-level DPS. However, she is good for providing solid healing across a wide area, and Status Resistance can be a godsend when you need it (we’ve all faced Infused Glacial Originium Slugs, haven’t we?)

I don’t recommend pulling for Whisperain (especially if you got Lumen from the “Stultifera Navis” event), but she can be worth developing if you pull her.

Corroserum is on loan to Rhodes Island from Raytheon Industries, possibly because he kept falling asleep on the job. Don’t worry, though—you won’t find him falling asleep on the battlefield. He seems to find “spraying volatile, Arts-infused chemicals in a long line over his foes and eroding their voiceboxes until they’re forcibly Silenced by the experience” to be quite invigorating.

Putting Silence on a Blast Caster’s range is a nifty idea, but sadly Corroserum tends to be less than the sum of his parts. There are plenty of other Casters who can replace his mediocre Arts damage output, and he doesn’t have enough S2 uptime to compete with the Queen of Silencing, Lappland. His one advantage is his long, straight-line, true-AoE attacks, which are difficult to replicate below 6★ rarity. Unfortunately, this attack range is rarely necessary enough to justify Corroserum’s 5★ build costs on its own.

I don’t recommend pulling for Corroserum.