Arcana: Fortune Mate Analysis – Should You Pull?

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Overview

  • B2 Fire Attacker SG unit that buffs shotgun units a lot and deals high Fire DPS in the shotgun team composition.
  • The meta B2 buffer for most shotgun teams.
  • Having her allows other, more general buffers to buff other teams, since she is locked to buffing Shotgun allies only.
  • Not needing ammo management allows her to maximize her DPS through OLs

Should You Pull?

She’s a very powerful addition to any team, especially those using shotguns. Her ability to act as a strong buffer while also dealing significant damage makes her almost certain to become a popular, or ‘meta,’ choice, given how often shotgun-based teams are used in raids. She’s definitely a good pick, but it’s worth remembering that the game’s half-anniversary event is coming up in about a month.

Arcana: Fortune Mate is a powerful unit, but she’s best suited for raids. While she excels with shotgun teams, she doesn’t offer a large enough improvement over existing support units like Grave or Ade: Agent Bunny to be considered a major upgrade. If your main focus is raiding, she’s definitely worth getting. Otherwise, you can hold off for now and consider adding her to your wishlist for later.

Newbie/Incomplete Box Section

Arcana: Fortune Mate (also known as Arcanalt, ArcanaFM, or Altcana) is a Fire-type attacker who uses a shotgun. She excels at boosting the performance of other shotgun-using allies while also dealing solid damage herself. Because her buffs only work on shotguns, and she needs a speed boost from Tove to maximize her abilities, she’s best used in teams built around other shotgun users.

Despite being a B2 unit, she excels at dealing high damage thanks to her powerful skills. Her S2 skill automatically reloads her weapon, meaning players don’t need to worry about managing ammo or using special cubes – this allows support units to focus on boosting her damage even further. Plus, her fast cooldown on her 20-second burst ability lets her consistently deal damage, unlike typical B3 units.

Basic Information

  • Skill 1: Keepsake Album
  • Skill 2: Memories and Moments
  • Burst: Radiant Youth
  • Cooldown: 20s
  • Rarity: SSR
  • Burst: II
  • Weapon: SG
  • Class: Attacker
  • Element: Fire
  • Manufacturer: Elysion
  • Squad: Best Seller
  • Weapon Name: Bittersweet


Skill 1: Keepsake Album

This ability triggers when Full Burst finishes, impacting all allies equipped with shotguns. It boosts their attack power by 13% of the caster’s attack, multiplied by the number of Precious Moments stacks, for 15 seconds.

It also activates when Happy Memories is used, affecting only the user. This grants a continuous 10% increase to normal attack damage, stacking up to three times.

Finally, when Full Burst ends, this ability removes both the Making Memories and Snapshots of Youth effects.

After Arcanalt’s Full Burst ability finishes, she increases the attack power of her allies by 13% of her own attack power. This buff can stack up to three times if she uses her skill (S2) repeatedly. Because the buff lasts for 15 seconds, it generally remains active throughout a battle. However, this attack boost isn’t as powerful as it appears when Arcanalt is teamed with both Tove and Drake, as those two characters already significantly increase the attack power of the team’s Shotgun units.

Arcanalt gets a damage boost to her normal attacks each time she stacks her Skill 2. This is really helpful because her main source of damage is normal attacks, and this ability rewards her for using them frequently by increasing their power.

This character’s normal attacks are already powerful, but can be boosted by up to 30% additional damage. This boost works especially well with certain items, like the Shotgun doll, which also increases normal attack damage. However, there’s a limitation to keep in mind.

Once Full Burst finishes, both her Burst and Snapshots of Youth effects disappear. Typically, it takes so long for her Normal Attack Damage Multiplier to reach its maximum potential during Full Burst that Arcanalt doesn’t have much time to benefit from it. While this effect is still strong, she struggles to use it at full power.

Skill 2: Memories and Moments

This ability triggers during normal attacks while the ‘Making Memories’ status is active, impacting the user. Its effects change based on how many times it’s triggered, but each phase doesn’t stack with the others. The ability resets if ‘Making Memories’ ends.

Here’s how the effect scales:

Twice: Reload speed is increased by 6 rounds.
 Four Times: ‘Happy Memories’ grants a continuous increase to the number of pellets collected, stacking up to 3 times.
* Six Times: ‘Precious Moments’ increases ATK by 2.49%, stacking up to 3 times.

This ability also activates when using a Burst Skill, boosting the Attack Damage of all allies wielding shotguns (excluding the user) by 55% for 10 seconds.

When Arcanalt attacks while her Burst is active, she builds up a power boost, much like Scarlet’s Black Shadow’s first skill. As long as she keeps attacking during her Burst, she gets stronger. However, she can only fully benefit from this boost every six attacks, as the effects don’t stack beyond that point.

Once she fires the first two shots during Burst Time, she gains 6 extra bullets. After that, every six shots she fires will automatically reload 6 bullets. For example, her 8th, 14th, and 20th shots will each refill 6 bullets. Because she fires 6 shots to then gain 6 more, this means she can have unlimited ammo while Burst Time is active, especially when playing with a team built around the Shotgun.

After firing four shots during a burst, the character gains one extra pellet. She continues to gain an additional pellet every six shots after that, up to a maximum of three total. While pellets don’t directly increase damage output, they slightly improve accuracy and work together with damage boosts from her Skill 1 (S1).

After firing six shots, Arcana will slightly increase her attack power. She repeats this buff every six shots afterward, up to a total of three times. To get the full attack boost from her Skill 2, she needs to fire 12 shots during her Full Burst and 18 shots overall. Each boost relies on the attack increase she gets from Skill 1, so Arcana ideally needs to fire at least 18 times during each Full Burst to maximize the attack buff she provides to her team.

Okay, so I’ve been testing Arcanalt, and her shotgun just doesn’t fire fast enough to fully charge her abilities. Her normal attack fires about 1.5 times a second, and her Full Burst lasts 10 seconds, meaning she can only get off around 15 shots. That’s almost enough to max out her Happy Memories stack, but it always falls short. Forget about getting to the final Precious Moments stack – it’s completely impossible with just her basic attack!

Okay, so if I’m running Arcana on my team, I need to make sure ToveT is built right. Basically, ToveT needs to be able to really pump out the damage and keep Arcana buffed. If I max out ToveT’s Skill 2, Arcana can fire 21 times during a Full Burst, which means she gets the maximum damage bonus from her normal attacks for up to 5 hits every time I use Burst. Plus, ToveT’s S1 will always give Arcana the full ATK buff stacks with each Burst rotation – it’s a huge damage boost!

Arcanalt’s ability to significantly boost her teammates’ damage will likely make her a key pick in high-level raids. When she uses her Burst skill, all allies equipped with shotguns (except herself) receive a massive 55% attack damage increase – comparable to powerful buffers like bAde or Crown. However, unlike those units, Arcanalt can also contribute damage herself. While she doesn’t get the benefit of her own buff, her Burst skill activates so many of her other abilities that it more than compensates for this.

Once Full Burst finishes, all the temporary boosts from Skill 2 disappear, including the bonus damage to normal attacks gained from Skill 1. The stack counter also resets, so when you use Full Burst again, Arcanalt needs to repeat the process of landing 16 shots to reach the highest number of pellets and 18 attacks to maximize the attack bonus from Skill 2, ultimately getting the most damage boost from Skill 1.

Burst: Radiant Youth

This ability boosts your attack power. It continuously increases your critical hit rate by 20.09% and your attack damage by 29.99%, and also reloads 2 rounds. It affects all enemies and deals 554.4% of your final attack stat as burst skill damage.

When Arcanalt uses her Burst skill, she gains a boost that unlocks the full potential of her other abilities. Specifically, it’s necessary to use Burst to begin building up the effects of her second skill, and it’s what grants her shotgun-type teammates a significant 55% attack damage increase. Additionally, repeatedly using her skills during Burst will activate different parts of her first skill, depending on how many times she attacks.

In addition to all her other benefits, she significantly boosts her own damage output with a very high critical hit rate of 20.09% and around a 30% attack damage increase. This more than makes up for the fact that Arcanalt can’t directly benefit from the attack damage buff from her Skill 2. Combining these self-buffs from both Skill 2 and Skill 1, Arcanalt’s overall damage potential becomes extremely high.

She can also reload two bullets at a time, which may not sound like much, but it allows her to maintain a constant ammo supply. When she uses her Burst ability, she gains two bullets. After firing two shots, her magazine refills by six, and then refills by another six bullets for every six shots fired, as long as Burst remains active.

The effects applied are ongoing, but when her Full Burst ends, both it and its associated effect, S2, are immediately removed. Therefore, anything that changes the duration of her Full Burst will also change how long her Burst buff and S2 stacks remain active, and how many S2 stacks she can build up.

This is especially important for Soda (Twinkling Bunny), as she significantly boosts the damage output of Iron DPS characters in SG teams. When played well, she consistently adds 5 seconds to the duration of Full Burst. While her attack damage buff on allies always lasts 10 seconds, extending Burst time lets Arcanalt keep their maximum power from Burst, S2, and S1 active for a longer period.

Campaign

Arcanalt isn’t perfect, but she significantly improves the effectiveness of shotgun teams in campaign missions. Her buffs are excellent for the team, she contributes solid damage herself, and her Burst ability helps clear out groups of weaker enemies.

Okay, so this buff doesn’t completely stack with Full Burst, since it happens during Arcanalt’s Burst 2. But honestly, it’s still really good! Tove’s buff goes off first, which is key, and then Arcanalt’s own Burst buff helps her land critical hits more consistently. Plus, if she can get that attack boost from her Skill 1 after the first cast, it’s even better! It all works together nicely, even if it’s not a perfect Full Burst combo.

While the campaign team is generally a stronger choice, Arcanalt now makes the shotgun team much more usable in campaign content if you’d like to give it a try.

Arcanalt isn’t a good fit for the Elysion tower right now, and won’t be for the near future. Elysion doesn’t have many effective shotgun units, and Arcanalt’s abilities specifically boost shotguns. Without Tove, who also boosts shotguns, Arcanalt isn’t as strong as she could be.

Arena

Arcanalt has a strong basic attack and a screen-wiping ability on her second skill, but she doesn’t rapidly generate Burst damage like some other shotgun users. Because her abilities only really work with shotguns, she’s not very effective in Arena. Most importantly, she needs time to build up her power during Burst mode, and Arena matches are simply too short for her to do that effectively.

Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid

Arcanalt is perfectly suited for a specific role: consistently supporting shotgun teams. This allows other versatile operators, like bAde, Grave, and Nayuta, to be used in different team setups. Especially against enemies weak to Fire, Arcanalt can deal significant damage when properly equipped, and her buffs combine effectively with those of ToveT and DrakeT, creating a very powerful Fire DPS option.

Although it appears this new character has replaced xBrid on the shotgun team, the fact that she doesn’t require a specific weapon allows xBrid to contribute to other teams facing raids where Fire is a weakness. While xBrid might personally deal less damage, having a strong support player and debuffer join other teams and provide a better buff overall will ultimately lead to higher team damage.

When setting up for solo raids where enemies are weak to Water, focusing on boosting Dorothy (using Serendipity, often called DoroS) will likely get more benefit from the Grave buff than from Arcanalt, even though Arcanalt generally helps shotgun teams more. This is because Grave increases both Attack and Pierce Damage by 40%, and Dorothy fires piercing attacks frequently. While Arcanalt can become more useful for shotgun teams, it would require significant effort to overcome the damage reduction Dorothy might experience.

When focusing on Electric-weak enemies, Arcanalt is usually unnecessary. The original Arcana is required to boost Isabel’s power, and if you’re using ToveT as your first support unit, you must also use Dolla. This combination doesn’t leave any space for Arcanalt in your setup.

Besides these points, Arcanalt will generally be included in shotgun-focused teams. Future additions of other strong DPS shotgun characters could also lead to the creation of even more team options.

Strengths

  • Best shotgun team buffer in the majority of circumstances.
  • Incredible DPS potential thanks to all the buffs she gives herself and ammo independence.
  • Makes use of the powerful Normal Attack Damage multiplier buff, which combines well with her stronger than average basic attack.
  • 20s cd screenwipe gives her functionality in content with a lot of trash mobs.
  • Has greater future potential; as more shotgun units are added to the future, she will only become more relevant, especially if they are DPS units of other elements she can buff.

Weaknesses

  • Being shotgun locked means her power outside of Fire-weak is dependent on how the shotgun units are doing in other elements; for example, since Wind’s best choice is Noir as of this writing, it could be dubious to buff Noir instead of using other strong, non-SG units that exist for Wind.
  • Can’t really make use of max stack Normal Attack Damage buff from S1 outside of team compositions using bSoda.
  • Needs Attack Speed from Tove for maximum functionality: at default attack speed, she can’t hope to max S1/S2 stacks, ever.

Rating

Category Rating
Overall S
Story A
Bosses SS
Arena B

Recommended Cubes

destruction cube,resilience cube

Arcanalt doesn’t need ammo cubes because her Burst ability automatically reloads her weapon. Each time she uses Burst, she gets 2 ammo back, and firing two shots during Burst gives her 6 more. She continues to gain 6 ammo for every 6 shots fired while Burst is active. Because of this, the Destruction cube is best when fighting bosses with breakable parts. If not, prioritize the highest-level cube you have to deal the most damage.

Doll Priority

Arcanalt is a valuable Doll, especially for characters who focus on normal attacks for damage. Her Skill 1 boosts normal attack damage, and this increase combines directly with the damage multipliers from Shotgun Dolls. Plus, her Skill 1 also raises ATK stats, making that boost even more effective.

Expected Skill Priority

Nikke Budget Skill Investments Recommended Skill Investments Skill Priority Notes Investment Priority
Arcana: Fortune Mate Skill 1: 4
Skill 2: 7
Burst: 7		 Skill 1: 7
Skill 2: 10
Burst: 7		 S1 < S2 Skill 1 contains her caster ATK buff and her Normal Attack Damage buff. Due to the fact that the shotgun team already has both ToveT and DrakeT giving away a ton of ATK, as well as the low uptime on max stack Normal Attack Damage multiplier, it can be left at 7 to save on resources.

Skill 2 is where the Attack Damage buff to allies comes from. While the other buffs to self that come from this skill are quite minimal, the Attack Damage buff to allies make it a must max.

Burst is where a lot of her personal power comes from, since it enables so much of her kit. It can be maxed out eventually to give her higher personal DPS, especially vs Fire-weak content.

 Higher

Overload Gear Priority

Gear Priority = Head > Gloves > Chest > Boots

Attribute (Sub-Stat) Priority Recommended Notes
Increase Element Damage Dealt ★★★★★ 4x Wanted for Union Raids and Solo Raid content.
Increase Hit Rate ☆☆☆☆☆ 0x —
Increase Max Ammunition Capacity ☆☆☆☆☆ 0x Due to her skills, she doesn’t actually need any ammo lines whatsoever. The moment you activate Burst, if you interrupt her potentially long reload with a normal attack, she will return to shooting properly for the rest of FB.
Increase ATK ★★★★★ 4x Simply more damage.
Increase Charge Damage ☆☆☆☆☆ 0x —
Increase Charge Speed ☆☆☆☆☆ 0x —
Increase Critical Rate ★★★☆☆ 1 – 2x The lack of need for ammo lines allows her to make good use of critical lines.
Increase Critical Damage ★★★★☆ 1 – 3x Critical damage in particular, is so effective for her thanks to how much critical rate she already gives herself, on top of the critical rate Tove gives to allies.
Increase DEF ☆☆☆☆☆ 0x —

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2026-03-24 02:10