Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Ceobe and Skadi

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	Ceobe - ST Caster Skadi - Duelist Guard
5★	Mayer - Summoner Supporter Lappland - Ranged Guard Swire - Support Guard

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

Short answer: Maybe.

Some of the Operators on this banner are very good (Ceobe, Lappland). Some are less good (Skadi and especially Swire). Mayer is in the middle, where she’s very good but also requires a shift in playstyle that not all Doctors will be interested in accommodating.

As such, how much you want to pull on this banner should depend on how many of these Operators you need and how willing you are to risk pulling an Operator you don’t want. Is your waifu on this banner? It’s probably worth pulling on. Are you saving for Thorns? You can probably skip this one safely.

Whether you’re interested in pulling on this banner or not, you may want to consider doing Headhunt x1 until you pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

ST Caster

+ E1 Talent combined with S2/ S3 make her an incredibly effective boss-killer

+ Great utility debuffs (S1 causes Bind, S3 seals special abilities)

+ Can change her target prioritization by using different Skills

+ Deals physical damage with S3, allowing her to nuke high-RES low-DEF enemies (especially useful for Challenges/ CC events)

+ S2 and S3 have surprisingly long durations

= Can be a better boss-killer and has more utility than Eyjafjalla, but lacks Eyja’s AoE damage

= E2 Talent is a nice damage boost, but the positioning requirements can’t always be met easily

- Has to choose between damage (S2) and utility (S1 or S3)

- S3 has a high SP cost

Duelist Guard

+ Very high ATK and HP stats

+ S2 provides a massive ATK buff on deployment, ideal for assassinating nasty enemies

+ S3 turns Skadi into a god for its duration

+ E2 Talent reduces her redeployment time, helping her helidrop multiple times in a fight

= As a Duelist Guard, she has Block-1 (good for assassinating, bad for swarms)

= Her Skills are great, but because they only deal damage, she can usually be replaced by other DPS units

- Low DEF

- She has to be retreated and redeployed to use S2 multiple times, but her DP cost is high

- S3 has good Initial SP and a long duration, but also a very long cooldown

Summoner Supporter

+ Can deploy multiple mechanical minions called Meeboos to block and attack enemies

+ Massive Arts damage potential with well-timed S2 activations

+ S2 recycles her Meeboos, allowing her to redeploy them in new spots with full health

+ Can solo or duo multiple stages if used well

= The unique gameplay of Summoner Operators can be an entertaining new challenge

- Monopolizes DP and deployment slots to deploy her Meeboos

- Basically demands a playstyle built around her needs in order to be effective

Ranged Guard

+ Talent seals enemy special abilities, which is clutch against enemies like Defense Crushers or Infused Originium Slugs

+ Ground unit with ranged attacks; S2 turns her attacks into multi-target Arts damage

+ Becomes unexpectedly tanky if using S1

= Has to choose between maximizing survivability (S1) and DPS (S2)

- S2 triggers automatically and thus can’t be saved up for specific enemy waves

Support Guard

+ Longer attack range than most Guards, allowing her to attack from behind other Operators (but she can’t hit aerial enemies, so watch out for that)

+ Buffs ATK of all nearby melee Operators; soups up her buffs using her Skills

+ Can Block-2, attacks quickly, and has a low DP cost compared to other Guards

= High DEF but low HP

- Without heavy investment, her Skills have very short durations (and her S2 takes forever to charge)

- Her Talent only buffs melee units, but placing several melee units within her range can be difficult on some maps

Ceobe is based on the three-headed Cerberus, and her flexible fighting style reflects this multi-directional inspiration. An extremely powerful ST Caster, Ceobe is probably best known for her Thresher Talent, which deals bonus damage to her targets based on their DEF. Combined with the giant ASPD boost she gets from her S2, Ceobe can smear high-DEF elites and bosses across the nearest wall without breaking a sweat. On the other head—er, hand—her S3 turns her damage into Physical, giving her a way to work around high-RES enemies that other Casters might struggle to defeat.

Despite her immense power, Ceobe is still outshone by the Queen of Casters, Eyjafjalla, who combines the best strengths of ST and AoE Casters into one pyrotechnical (and adorable) extravaganza. However, Ceobe’s prowess at boss-killing still gives her a niche over the more general-purpose Eyja—and don’t forget that Eyja’s Talent will increase Ceobe’s ATK, making her an even stronger single-target delete button.

I recommend pulling for Ceobe. For more details on why, consider checking out her Operator Spotlight.

Skadi was the first 6* Operator released after launch, and the powercreep is catching up to her. This fishy assassin has always been excellent at dueling single targets, and that hasn’t changed. Her S2 combined with her E2 Talent gives her almost a “Fast-Redeploy Specialist” assassin feel, while her S3 increases her HP, ATK, and DEF to godlike levels for a long duration.

The problem is that several other Operators released since Skadi (and several more that are coming around the corner) can do what she does but better, or with more utility thrown in on the side. Skadi is good at killing single targets, which is valuable, but there isn’t really much to her beyond that.

I don’t recommend pulling for Skadi, but she’s worth raising if you pull her.

I don’t recommend buying Skadi in the Shop.

Mayer is literally a one-woman army, bringing her host of robotic otters—the Meeboos—to cover every avenue of the battlefield with one squad slot. Summoner Supporters play very differently from other archetypes: their summons consume DP and deployment slots like full Operators, but are weaker. Timing Mayer’s Skills carefully to retreat her Meeboos before enemies can destroy them is important, both to avoid losing them and for having enough DP to redeploy them when you need them.

So why bother with Summoner Supporters at all? Well, for the price of raising one unit (Mayer), you get an entire army of raised units that can fight alongside her. The Meeboos are simple Block-1 ground units, but like any good mad scientist, Mayer has programmed them to self-destruct! When Mayer activates her S2, all deployed Meeboos explode and retreat, dealing colossal Arts damage to their unsuspecting foes and returning to Mayer’s hand to be redeployed fresh. Used intelligently, Mayer can solo entire battlefields with her Meeboos (as long as there aren’t too many flying enemies, that is!)

I recommend pulling for Mayer, but only if you are very sure that you like Summoner Supporters and want to raise her.

What can we say about Lappland that hasn’t been said a million times before? Lappland has appeared on multiple banners, and every time, she’s been worth her weight in gold. As perhaps the most reliable Silence-inflicting Operator in Arknights, Lappland is ideal for countering enemies that depend on a special ability to be dangerous, such as the exploding slugs or the Stun-causing Defense Crushers. The fact that Lappland also brings ranged, multi-target Arts damage with her S2 or a respectable survival buff with her S1 is icing on the cake—and it’s not often that “ranged, multi-target Arts damage” is considered a bonus rather than a primary benefit of an Operator.

I recommend pulling for (or buying) Lappland.

Swire is both fierce and fabulous, but unfortunately she’s also a little flawed. Though her Talent offers a nice ATK buff to nearby melee allies, and while her Skills increase the power of this Talent into quite a sizable boost, the buff isn’t usually enough to compensate for Swire’s own low DPS. In cases where you really need to maximize the melee damage in a particular area, Swire can be useful, and her long attack range allows her to contribute from behind the units she wants to buff. However, in most cases, you’d probably be better off fielding another DPS unit instead of relying on Swire’s buffs.

I don’t recommend pulling for Swire.