Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Nightingale & Warfarin

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★ Rate Up	Hoshiguma Nightingale
5★ Rate Up	Lappland Warfarin Texas

• Operators for purchase in the Distinction store are Nightingale for 180 and Warfarin for 45.
• 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★

Maybe. The earlier you are in the game, the more worthwhile this banner is. It has a strong Defender, two strong Medics (one ST and one AoE), and a strong Vanguard, so if you’re lacking any of these roles in your core team, this could be your chance to fill them. However, if you’ve been playing for a while, you probably have these roles filled already, making this banner less tempting.

The two Operators you’re most likely to want are Lappland (unique Ranged Guard, very helpful for Annihilation 3 and lots of other high-end content) and Warfarin (Medic who buffs ally DPS and SP gain). How much you need the others is going to depend on how many good Operators you already have.

Normal Defender

+ Very survivable Defender

+ Great damage potential with Skill 3

- Doesn’t significantly outperform lower-rarity Defenders when it comes to mitigating damage

AoE Medic

+ Absolutely trivializes enemy Arts DPS units (especially once promoted to E2)

+ Is an AoE Medic

- Loses a lot of her appeal on maps without enemy Casters

- The lower-rarity AoE Medics are very powerful as well (Perfumer and Ptilopsis)

Ranged Guard

+ Has ranged attacks that become Arts damage with her Skill 2

+ Can Silence enemies, preventing them from using special abilities

- Her burst damage potential can be wasted due to auto activation on Skill 2

Single-Target Medic

+ Increases damage output and SP gain for an ally

- Because her buffs are applied to random targets in range, positioning her to maximize her efficiency can be tricky

Skill-Recovery Vanguard

+ Generates a lot of DP quickly

+ Very strong Skill 2 (AoE, Arts damage, Stuns enemies, generates DP, makes you breakfast, does the laundry, etc.)

- Fragile

If you’re caught up in the story of Arknights, you’ve probably noticed that Hoshiguma can take a lot of punishment. Her kit as an Operator bears this out, with a damage-mitigating Talent and three Skills that all increase her DEF in addition to other effects.

Hoshiguma is a good Operator, but at present she’s more of a luxury than a necessity. In many situations, lower-rarity Operators can fill her role as a tank, especially 4★ Cuora, who is very easy to obtain through the Credit Shop. That being said, as more difficult content with harder-hitting enemies comes our way (such as the notorious Contingency Contract event), Hoshiguma becomes a lot harder to replace.

I don’t recommend pulling specifically for Hoshiguma, but she’s worth investing in if you pull her.

Nightingale is the ultimate counter to enemy Casters. Her Talent and her Skills mitigate an enormous amount of Arts damage, and then she heals up any damage that makes it through her protection.

Because her focus is so specific, Nightingale is often overshadowed by 5★ AoE Medic Ptilopsis, whose focus on SP gain is more widely applicable. If you already own Ptilopsis (or intend to pull for her in the future), pulling for Nightingale may not be the best use of your resources. However, anyone who’s had a single enemy Caster cut a swathe through their entire army should be able to see the value in Nightingale’s abilities.  

I don’t recommend pulling specifically for Nightingale, but she’s worth investing in if you pull her.

Lappland has come around on a few banners now, so you’re probably familiar with her, but in case you aren’t… she’s a beast, both in personality and on the battlefield. Her Talent inflicts Silence on enemies she attacks, preventing them from using their special abilities, which is incredibly useful in late-game content (just try Annihilation 3 without her and you’ll quickly see why!) She can also deal Arts damage to multiple targets at once and she attacks from range, giving her even more versatility.

I recommend pulling for Lappland.

Warfarin is classified as a Medic, but in practice she’s more like a Buffing Supporter (i.e., Sora). Warfarin’s claim to fame is increasing the ATK and SP gain of a random ally within her range, transforming Operators into bloodthirsty murder machines.

Her buffs are very potent, but because she targets a random ally, she’s best when she has only one ally within her attack range (so she will always buff that particular ally). This can make placing her very difficult. It also means she won’t be doing much healing, so you’ll need other units to pick up the slack.

I recommend pulling for Warfarin. Her learning curve is steep, but the benefits are usually worth it.

Texas is beloved by many, due to the many memes surrounding her (especially her tumultuous relationship with Lappland) and her power-packed Skill 2. An AoE Stun that also generates DP is certainly nice to have around, especially since the Stun gives Texas some utility later in a battle after her DP-generating duties are typically done.

That being said, if you need to disable incoming enemies, there are other Operators who can do it more often and more powerfully than Texas, and if you need DP generation alone, Texas gets blown out of the water by just-released 4★ Myrtle.

I don’t recommend pulling specifically for Texas. (And now that I’ve said that, excuse me while I run -- Lappland is going to skin me alive to defend her waifu’s honor!)