Amiya

“Doctor!”

The de facto protagonist of the Arknights storyline and the player’s most stalwart assistant. For a free unit who is handed to you at the start of the game, Amiya is a surprisingly good 5★ Caster. In fact, she’s one of the better single-target DPS Casters in Arknights.

Amiya’s unique Skills have the damage potential of nuclear bombs, but they also come with repercussions. Spirit Burst fires multiple attacks at random targets for a short time, but Stuns Amiya when the duration ends. The danger is that Spirit Burst is automatically activated, meaning you can’t control when Amiya goes on her rampage or when she becomes Stunned and stops attacking. Chimera, Amiya’s E2 Skill, is even more dramatic: Amiya gains a massive surge of HP and ATK, her range increases, and her attacks ignore DEF and RES. This is excellent for bursting down Elites and Bosses, since it is one of the few sources of “true” damage in Arknights. However, when the Skill duration ends, Amiya retreats from the battlefield, making Chimera a kamikaze move that must be used strategically.

You may notice that the SP cost of Amiya’s Skills are very high. This is compensated by her E2 Talent, Emotional Absorption, which grants bonus SP when Amiya attacks or gets a kill. This also benefits Amiya’s Skill 1, Tactical Chant γ, an attack speed buff with a low SP cost. Players who don’t want the downsides of Spirit Burst or Chimera can keep Tactical Chant γ active through most of a fight due to Emotional Absorption.

Knowing that Amiya can be a double-edged sword may warn some players away from using her at all. However, Amiya’s advantages are worth the risk. Since the game hands the player multiple copies of her throughout Story mode, she is both accessible and easy to increase in Potential. Furthermore, though many other Casters have utility that Amiya lacks, few come close to Amiya in DPS. When you need Arts damage, Amiya is not just the easiest-to-obtain option (you can’t get much easier than free and guaranteed!) but also one of the best.