Arknights: Is Myrtle Really a Good First E2?

Raising a first Operator to Elite 2 is one of the largest milestones to work towards for newer players, together with raising a solid balanced team and finishing their 252 base. This is not only a large powerspike for many Operators, but also allows players to borrow other Elite 2 Operators as friend supports. This can help newer players fully clear events they otherwise wouldn’t be able to by strategically borrowing powerful carry Operators such as Surtr, Eyjafjalla or Thorns.

As such, one of the most common questions practically every Doctor asks is what their first Elite 2 Operator should be, and the answer is often the same: what’s a powerful, low rarity Operator that benefits from Elite 2 and can be used all the way into the endgame? 

Many people recommend raising Myrtle as a first Elite 2 to gain quick access to friend supports without wasting any materials, but is this really the right decision? Does Myrtle’s late game viability outweigh the immediate powerscaling of other cheap 4★ alternatives?

The reasoning behind Myrtle as a first Elite 2 is quite simple: she is a rather common 4★ (meaning she has a lower Elite 2 cost than any other rarity) that retains relevancy into late game and the hardest difficulties due to her incredibly powerful archetype.

This recommendation is based on the notion that players will eventually raise Myrtle to Elite 2 and Mastery 3 anyway if they play long enough, so the materials aren’t “wasted” in the long run. Myrtle becomes a solid Operator able to fit in any and all squads and content in more advanced rosters, thus, this option focuses almost entirely on the long-term viability of an Elite 2 Myrtle.

While the previous argument is valid for some players, it is definitely not flawless. It ignores the fact that an Elite 2 Myrtle offers almost no power improvement to a player at a time when power increases are very noticable and important. Myrtle’s combat capabilities are close to zero, making her only as useful as the Operators she can cheat out into the battlefield through her massive DP generation. This can be amazing if you have powerful but expensive Operators that can carry entire stages on their own, such as Mudrock or Ifrit, and worthless if you don’t. Either way, Myrtle’s Elite 2 promotion does not improve her ability to do this. Those improvements only come with Masteries, which new players will not be able to logically afford at this point in the game without halting their overall progression.

The only gains that Myrtle receives from Elite 2 before she invests in Masteries is a mere 25 HP regen for Vanguards which, nice as it is, is nowhere close to a noticeable increase in power. Promoting Myrtle to Elite 2 early thus spends a large amount of materials at a time when resources are scarce for virtually no power improvement at a time when such improvements are the most impactful.

This viewpoint also severely overestimates the value of materials spent to Elite 2 a 4★ Operator for players already at the point where Myrtle’s capabilities become worthy of a party slot. At the later stages in the game where Myrtle’s DP generation becomes important, the cost of promoting and granting masteries to 6★ Operators greatly outweigh the cost for 4★ one. The perceived waste of resources in raising a “non-meta” 4★ as your first Elite 2 thus becomes almost insignificant, and a negligible setback.

No other 4★ can get off the ground as quickly as Pinecone does. Her kit can provide amazing AoE damage that can act as sole DPS for a variety of stages, and her immediate Elite 2 Talent enhancement lets her perform even better at the beginning of battles.

Cutter’s skillset is purely oriented towards raw damage, and it really shows. She greatly outperforms the vast majority of other Operators in her rarity by a wide margin with her first skill, and can even cut into niches of higher rarity Operators with ease. Her Elite 2 Talent improvement boosts her skill uptime significantly, thus boosting the frequency of her bursts of damage.

While not as powerful as the aforementioned Operators in terms of damage alone, Arene brings a lot of versatility thanks to his Arts damage conversion and very large range for a Melee Operator. He can also attack two enemies at once with his second skill, making him adept at picking off waves of enemies quickly from the safety of being behind a Defender. His Elite 2 Talent enhancement is not quite as useful as the previous, but can come in handy when taking care of drones.

Click provides powerful Arts damage that compares quite well to other higher rarity Casters such as Amiya, while also bringing no conditionals for damage and extra stun chances for good control of the battlefield. She is definitely amongst the most powerful 4★ Operators and can be used in any kind of situation with ease. Her Elite 2 Talent improvement boosts her damage ever further by increasing her Attack Speed even more.

Jaye is one of the most contentious Operators in the game, not just amongst the 4★. While his combat kit is undeniably one of the strongest and has incredible versatility, raising him to Elite 1 and above may cause permanent damage to your base production. If you know what you are doing, he can be an excellent tool in a wide variety of situations, but new players are not likely to fully know what raising him entails, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt and know full well what you’re doing if you do decide to use him.

It is understandable why many players recommend Myrtle as a first Elite 2, since she scales into the most demanding content. Thus, to some players players it seems like a  “wasteless”, quick access to Elite 2 friend support Operators  However there is much more nuance to a player’s first Elite 2 than only long-term resource efficiency, since it completely ignores what may help a player most in the moment, and at a time where power increases make the biggest difference. Try to consider different 4★ options that will be much more useful to new players during the early game, and make an informed decision on what might be most helpful for each stage of the game.