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

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

No.

Mizuki and Hellagur are both juuuust on the wrong side of being really good. Mizuki is held back by slow ASPD and unimpressive Skill uptime, and Hellagur is held back by Block-1 and often relying on Dodge chance for his duels. They can be useful in various situations (Mizuki deals wide-range AoE damage from a ground tile, and Hellagur can solo a lane without support) but there are usually better choices for their roles.

As with all banners, a 5★ or higher Operator is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls. Should you pull for that? Maybe. The 5★ Operators on this banner are very unusual and very niche, but they can be quite powerful in the right circumstances and they can be very fun to use. Blacknight in particular is a must-have if you like the Sleep ailment. In general, Sleep strategies are much more for fun rather than for efficiency, but if Sleep is your thing, a chance at Blacknight might be worth a 10-pull.

Ambusher Specialist

+ Usual archetype strengths: true AoE attacks, reduced enemy aggro, and 50% Physical/ Arts Dodge

+ When he attacks, his E1 Talent does bonus Arts damage to the enemy in his range with the lowest HP

+ E2 Talent increases his ATK when there is an enemy within range with less than half HP

+ S1 greatly increases the damage of his next attack (including his E1 Talent’s damage) and can hold multiple charges

+ S2 speeds up his attacks and causes his E1 Talent to affect an extra target + inflict Bind (and has pretty good uptime to boot)

+ S3 increases his ATK and attack range, while also causing his E1 Talent to affect two extra targets + inflict Stun

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

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Very slow ASPD, which reduces his DPS and the frequency of his crowd-control

- Hybrid damage in Arknights is typically not very useful, as it is reduced by both DEF and RES

- While S2 has good uptime and Bind consistency, the Bind is limited to a maximum of 2 targets per attack, so other Stalkers may be better for crowd-controlling larger groups

- While S3 is active, if Mizuki hits fewer than 3 enemies with an attack, he loses HP (yes, this can kill him)

- S3’s uptime and Stun duration are not great, and the Stun is limited to a maximum of 3 targets per attack

Enmity/ Musha Guard

+ Usual archetype strengths: Extremely high HP and ATK

+ Good for Contingency Contract (CC) events

+ Can 1v1 various kinds of enemies with no help, even big nasties like Avengers and Worldcursers (if RNG is on his side)

= Has Block-1 (typical of Enmity Guards)

= Somewhat RNG-dependent if using S2 

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

- Multiple duelist-types that are as good or better have been added to the game since his release, i.e., Mountain, Surtr

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

Summoner/ Tactician Vanguard

+ Usual archetype strengths: Able to attack at range but also Block on the ground with her minion, which costs no DP to deploy and does not count against the unit limit for a map

+ Excellent synergy with other Sleep-inflicting Operators (she’s one of the core units for a Sleep-focused strategy)

+ S1 puts Blacknight’s minion to Sleep; the minion recovers HP while asleep, and if attacked, it wakes up and gets a large ATK and ASPD buff for several seconds

+ S2 inflicts AoE Sleep and changes the minion’s attacks to Arts splash attacks that deal bonus damage to Sleeping targets

= As usual, Sleep can be a double-edged sword, since most Operators cannot attack Sleeping targets

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Lower DP generation rate than many other Vanguard archetypes, can only deploy her minion within her attack range

Ambusher Specialist

+ Usual archetype strengths: true AoE attacks, reduced enemy aggro, and 50% Physical/ Arts Dodge

+ Talent gives her Invisibility when not attacking and a large ATK buff for her next hit when she leaves Invisibility to attack; having Invisibility on top of the Ambusher Specialist aggro and Dodge makes her extremely safe from most enemy attacks

+ S1 permanently adds a passive Slow effect to her basic attacks; this is one of the few Skills that can give 100% Slow uptime, and it stacks with Sluggish-type Slows as well

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

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

= Generally more effective at the crowd-control role than the DPS role

- Usual archetype weaknesses: Very slow ASPD, which reduces her DPS and the frequency of her crowd-control

Modal/ Phalanx Caster

+ Usual archetype strengths: Gains DEF +200% and RES +20 while Skills are not active, and 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

Mizuki is just a sweet, innocent civilian boy (yes, boy) who was rescued from the riots in Dossoles while Ch’en was on vacation there. Yes, of course “sweet” and “innocent” are the right words to describe him. No, his background files weren’t made up to hide some kind of horrifying secret. No, there’s no reason why he’s not permitted to interact with other Aegir Operators. No, there aren’t any phantom tentacles lurking beneath him, ready to skewer you through the torso until you stop moving. Why do you ask?

Mizuki is pretty close to being really good. He has all the advantages of Ambusher Specialists—hard to kill, true-AoE attacks, deployed on ground tiles—with a particular focus on damage. His S1 greatly boosts his overall DPS, his S2 is a great source of quick multi-target Bind, and his S3 gains a stellar attack range plus the ability to Stun.

Unfortunately, in practice, Mizuki can be left floundering. The slow ASPD of Ambusher Specialists limits his DPS, but the multipliers on S1 and S3 aren’t quite high enough to give him good burst damage either, and dealing hybrid damage tends to hurt more than it helps. His crowd-control capabilities are limited to 2 targets (S2) or 3 targets (S3) at a time, the duration on the effects is short, and he takes a lot of damage from his S3 if you’re not careful, which makes him less self-reliant than his high Dodge would suggest. He can still pull his weight, but in most cases there are better choices for his position.

I don’t recommend pulling for Mizuki, but he can be worth raising if you pull him.

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, which makes 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.

Like other older Operators (pun not intended), Hellagur has also been challenged by the powercreep of newer Operators in Arknights. Mountain and Surtr bring even more dueling power to the table, while Bagpipe and Phantom perform similarly against weaker foes but also boast utility and flexibility that Hellagur cannot match. To give him credit, Hellagur’s combination of self-sustain, high damage, and Physical Dodge can still be leveraged to great effect, especially in Contingency Contracts, where his self-reliance is a massive boon. There are just fewer situations where he’s the best choice for the job.

I don’t recommend pulling for Hellagur, but he can be worth leveling if you lack other duelist-type Operators.

Blacknight is a mercenary and the answer to every insomniac’s prayers. She travels with a “Wasteland Long-snouted Slumberfoot,” an adorable mythological tapir with the power to make people fall instantly asleep. Blacknight commands this power in various ways—she may give her Slumberfoot a healing nap, or she may put her enemies to Sleep so the Slumberfoot can feed on their dreams. Violently.

Blacknight is a capable Vanguard on her own. Her DP generation is lower than most Vanguard archetypes, but still respectable, and her combination of ranged damage and an infinitely-respawning minion make her very versatile. However, where she really shines is the application of Sleep. Because it holds multiple charges, Blacknight’s S2 is very spammable, allowing her to chain-Sleep multiple targets and deal substantial Arts damage to them while they doze. Paired up with units like Blemishine (who can attack Sleeping enemies) and/or Kafka (who can also inflict Sleep while Blacknight is charging her S2), Blacknight enables strategies where you tear apart difficult enemies without ever taking a hit in return.

It goes without saying that Blacknight’s value drops dramatically when enemies are immune to Sleep. It can also be tricky to apply her Sleep to enemies with damaging auras or long-range attacks, as enemies must be adjacent to Blacknight’s Slumberfoot before S2 will work on them. These limitations aside, Blacknight combines DP generation, decent damage output, an easily renewable Blocker, and terrific stall capability into one fierce package. Her good reputation as a mercenary is certainly well-deserved.

I recommend pulling for Blacknight, especially if you like Sleep-focused strategies. This is not the best banner to pull for her, though.

Manticore is so shy and quiet that some Operators may never notice she’s there at all. Or maybe that’s the effect of her Hidden Killer Talent, which she uses to stay completely Invisible on the battlefield until she’s ready to pop out of hiding next to her targets, perma-Slow them as they try to flee, and fill them full of lethal venom so they die a slow and painful death.

…nah, it’s probably just because she’s so shy and quiet. That definitely makes more sense.

Manticore is an Ambusher 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 can target her in the first place, and only when she’s not Invisible, and even then she still 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. Ambusher 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 or buying Manticore, but she can be worth raising if you pull her.

Beeswax debuted the Phalanx 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, but she gains colossal defensive buffs that make her almost as sturdy as a high-tier Defender. When she does activate a Skill, she loses those defensive bonuses, but she begins inflicting 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 enemies and halting their advance.

Phalanx Casters are 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 Phalanx 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 Phalanx 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.