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Chenxing – Jade Arc: Hitting the Bullseye

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A popular internet legend suggests that “taking an arrow to the knee,” known from Skyrim, is an ancient Scandinavian expression for getting married. So, it’s quite poetic that with Chenxing‘s bow-wielding introduction in the game, she marries the Adjutant in the narrative. However, this symbolism goes beyond mere visual representation; she effectively uses her weaponry to deal a painful end to anyone attempting to disrupt their wedding festivities.

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Abilities

Standard Skill

In-game, I let loose a barrage of arrows that zero in on adversaries, and boy, do I mean business! Exactly 72 of them, to be precise. These arrows might not be labeled as ballistic damage, but they sure feel like it, dealing critical blows while also getting bonus damage from ballistics.

However, each subsequent hit on an enemy lessens the damage dealt by 5%, with a maximum reduction of up to 15%. This doesn’t imply that the damage reduction caps at 15%; instead, it means that the final damage per shot can drop as low as 15%.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only instance of skill descriptions that are confusing or flat-out incorrect. Sigh. For now, I’ll say this skill deals enough damage to hold its own, but its primary function is to set the stage for the rest of my skill rotation, as we’ll see later on. For the moment, consider one of those arrows finding its mark!

Deiwos Passive

Before delving into Chenxing’s specific Deiwos, let’s discuss the novel weapon type – bows, for a moment. As you might anticipate, pressing and holding down the fire button will allow you to charge each normal shot, but the payoff is that fully charged shots will critically strike. Ducking or dodging will also speed up the charging of your next shot, although it’s not fast enough to make intentionally dodging for this bonus a viable strategy.

In simpler terms, using Chenxing’s Deiwos passive gives you enhanced arrows that boost the impact of your actions. You earn these powerful arrows by repeatedly using your basic ability (every 0.5 seconds), and you can keep up to three at a time. These shots increase damage by 40% and have an aiming assist, but they decrease U-Energy generation and object destruction by 70%. This reduction usually won’t be significant. The arrows automatically discharge when fully charged, but you can choose to release them prematurely for faster rotation if desired. It’s best to use all three of these arrows since they deal substantial damage and serve the same purpose as her standard skill in setting up for her ultimate.

In simpler terms, the Alignment Index doesn’t offer anything particularly engaging in this context; instead, it increases critical damage at a rather modest pace. Frankly, it’s not very captivating, and it doesn’t outshine obtaining better critical damage directly from your statistics related to logistics. Essentially, it’s just there to facilitate the acquisition of useful logistics equipment.

Ultimate Skill

Using Chenxing’s entire kit yields a substantial reward. As you’ve been firing arrows, you’ve embedded them into your foes. With each hit from your standard ability, an arrow gets lodged, and fully charged standard shots also pierce enemies. When an enemy is unfortunate enough to be hit with an embedded arrow, you can then activate Chenxing’s ultimate to remove it, causing damage in the process.

Much like her standard skill, the damage inflicted is presented as hipfire ballistic damage that disguises itself as skill damage, and it critically hits shields for double damage while benefiting from any applicable ballistic damage bonuses. The damage inflicted on each enemy depends on the number of arrows you’re pulling back, meaning you’ll typically extract just a few arrows per foe, but could potentially stack up quite a collection (up to 50 on one body and 200 in total) for an incredibly painful experience. Even with just four arrows, you’ll be dealing significant damage, and the ammo refund that follows allows you to repeat the skill rotation effortlessly.

Support Skill

After discussing Chenxing’s active combat abilities, I must now touch upon her supportive skill. When activated, Chenxing launches an arrow that descends, unleashing a series of lightning strikes on various locations below. These impact zones create an Area of Effect (AoE) that inflicts damage upon enemies within and imposes Paralyze. While it’s possible to utilize this skill to transform Chenxing into a quasi-Amarna or Twilight support, one might wonder… why? It’s visually appealing and can provide some humor in cooperative play, but its practicality is limited to these aspects primarily.

Assessment

In a fresh twist, Chenxing – Jade Arc may employ a novel weapon, yet her gameplay strategy will be reminiscent of contemporary DPS character playstyles. Kick off with your standard ability to anchor an arrow and build up your Deiwos shots, subsequently discharge them for an additional trio of arrows. Culminate the sequence with a ult cast that executes a four-arrow retreat maneuver, and repeat the cycle. You additionally possess the flexibility to tweak this fundamental damage sequence impromptu, choosing to embed more or fewer arrows based on how much damage you require your ult to inflict. While most of her damage is concentrated in the ultimate, the steps leading up to it provide sufficient damage output to ensure she delivers solid sustained damage too.

It seems the idea that getting an arrow in the knee symbolizes marriage is just a myth popularized online. On closer inspection, Chenxing’s role as a skill damage operative isn’t accurate, contrary to her appearance. Most of her damage appears to come from using her abilities, but it functions more like random shots (hipfire) rather than skill-based damage. To clarify, the damage from her skills operates both as skill damage and hipfire ballistic damage. If this sounds confusing, don’t worry; it can be a bit perplexing!

Instead of Chenxing inflicting multiple types of damage like Lyfe – Infinite Sight for example, her strength lies in the simultaneous delivery of skill and ballistic damage. This characteristic might appear as an overly simplistic justification for a fictional hero’s combat capabilities (“Hey, my character can do two types of damage at once!”), which could seem juvenile or contrived in a debate about superheroes. However, it does provide Chenxing with the same versatile team-building potential as other hybrid DPS characters such as Lyfe – Infinite Sight. No matter what kind of damage she inflicts, it’s more than sufficient to silence any doubters, whether they choose to voice their concerns now or remain silent in the future.

Similar to how Lyfe – Infinite Sight was the one who tied the knot with the Adjutant, just like that particular iteration of Lyfe. (Pause for effect) Let me clarify…

Weapons

In essence, you’re faced with two choices here: either spending the pulls for the top-tier Skybreaker or acquiring the free Hidden Hero from the event shop. It’s no secret that the gacha weapon will likely outperform its counterpart, as it comes with a variety of boosts, and this is expected to extend to its manifestation effects too. While there’s quite a bit of text, understand that following the basic damage rotation I previously detailed will allow you to reap all the benefits that the weapon offers. These include an Electrical damage bonus, attack and damage buffs for her ultimate, as well as unusual damage taken buffs (unlike regular ones) which Seasun hasn’t clearly labeled, causing me some trouble when estimating her total damage output.

It’s worth noting that Hidden Hero possesses an exclusive critical damage boost unlike Skybreaker. While this doesn’t let it outperform significantly, it does keep the performance gap narrow, suggesting that the advantage of T1 gacha weapons among second-generation DPS operatives is relatively minor. However, Skybreaker’s extensive additional stats require some effort to push its T2 lead towards more moderate levels.

Absolutely! If you’re considering backing Skybreaker, don’t forget to grab a memento of Hidden Hero from the event store, as it offers a vital component for the weapon.

Manifests

If you believed that Chenxing’s unique weapon offered a wide range of enhancements, you’re in for quite a surprise. Instead of just a few perks, her manifestations toss in every possible bonus, aiming to lure you into rolling for “just one more duplicate item.

It appears that with each new release from DPS, the stats only increase without offering any enhancements to gameplay quality or changes in playstyle. Typically, I’d advise stopping when you’re content with the damage or feel the cost isn’t justified anymore. However, there are some intriguing aspects worth mentioning this time:

The pattern with DPS releases now is that they only boost stats without improving gameplay quality or altering playstyle. Usually, I suggest stopping when you’re satisfied with the damage or think the cost isn’t beneficial enough. Yet, there are some noteworthy points this time:

  • M1 gives her ult a very chunky Final DMG buff when it pulls out four or more arrows, that magic number that you just happen to stack up on an enemy from doing Chenxing’s basic combo.
  • M5 provides a flat attack boost, but also an extra boost when attacking a CC’d enemy. At the current time of writing it’s just an interesting oddity, but perhaps the upcoming Yao – Nightglow might have something to say about that. We’ll see.

Logistics

It’s not surprising that the chosen logistics team, Couplet Squad, is the most effective on Chenxing. Sadly, Mingyi isn’t a good choice, though it would be amusing if he were. Interestingly, an extra 7.5% attack doesn’t compensate for the loss of 25% critical damage. Yes, I know, quite unexpected.

Instead of Couplet Squad, you could opt for Areca Squad if you want a bigger damage output. With a fully-stacked team, Areca offers a 12% attack increase and an 85% Electric boost, making the damage numbers significantly larger compared to Couplet. However, there are some caveats. Chenxing can’t stack it on her own; instead, she requires a supportive character who can consistently deal skill damage over time to build up her logistics. This support comes at the cost of casting time, which could be a disadvantage in fast-paced battles. Also, the support skill’s accuracy is random, so it might miss its target. In most situations, these factors may not justify the effort, and Couplet Squad would serve you better. But for those seeking to hit a specific burst damage threshold in Neural Sim, this niche technique might be worth considering, although it may seem challenging or even cursed.

No matter which logistics set you choose, it’s advisable to prioritize Attack and Critical Damage as your preferred secondary stats. Alignment Index is also acceptable since it directly correlates with Critical Damage, but its conversion rate isn’t high enough to outperform an equivalent Critical Damage roll. If you’re utilizing Skybreaker and Couplet Squad, Critical Damage just barely edges out Attack as your top priority, but the difference is minimal, so it might not be worth fretting over choosing a solid Attack roll instead.

Team Building

As a versatile Damage Per Second (DPS) character, Chenxing can take advantage of multiple support roles by drawing agents from not only the ballistic but also the skill support groups simultaneously.

Initially, my top choice would undoubtedly be Yao – Nightglow; however, she’s not due to appear for another week, hence I can postpone writing this section for now. Come back later for an update.

As a fellow enthusiast, let me suggest you consider Fenny – Starshine. While she may not be universally beneficial, she offers some compelling advantages. Her support skill enhances attack only when she fires ordinarily, and her signature weapon, Heart Hunter, provides resistance to penetration under the same condition.

However, the ballistic damage boost from her Deiwos passive, Reverie Squad logistics set, and both her signature and event weapon, Pixel Era, apply across her entire damage output. It’s a substantial damage increase, but do keep in mind that her M1 effect has not been modified to include a special bow effect, and I have my doubts about whether this will ever be the case.

As a gamer, I find Enya – Exuvia’s skill damage-boosting abilities to be quite handy in this situation. However, it’s essential to remember that she won’t enhance your regular shots without additional aid from logistics sets like Amarna. Moreover, maintaining the uptime of Enya’s support skill damage ticks, crucial for stacking weapon buffs and applying logistics effects, can be tricky unless her M3 is unlocked. On the brighter side, universal supports such as Acacia – Kaguya, Mauxir – Shadow Ka, and Eatchel – The Cub perform exceptionally well, just as anticipated.

Building a budget team offers greater flexibility, however, it’s important to note that it comes with additional considerations. For instance, Chenxing – The Observer’s skill damage boosts mainly impact her flashier damage-dealing alternative, whereas Fritia – Little Sunshine’s support buffs can only be activated when Chenxing shoots her arrows. On the other hand, Acacia – Redacted’s reliable Slow ability functions just as effectively with any operative, ensuring consistency in your team composition.

Should You Pull?

Currently, as I type this, there remains a significant doubt, shaped like Yao, hovering above Chenxing’s head. The extent to which the impending assistance will benefit her isn’t clear yet, and whether it will set her apart from other Damage Per Second (DPS) choices is also uncertain.

Despite certain considerations, Chenxing – Jade Arc is an excellent operator that casual gamers will find enjoyable. Her damage output is commendable, her abilities are easy to manage yet versatile, and she offers generous team composition possibilities due to her hybrid damage profile. These features make her valuable for players aiming for higher ranks, serving as a viable choice in Neural Simulation when the weekly modifiers permit it. Furthermore, being the initial meta generation-2 Electric DPS operator adds additional value to players seeking expanded roster depth.

Indeed, she has some stiff competition. Her primary opponents, Katya – Dawnwing and Lyfe – Infinite Sight, along with Bubu – The Geomancer, continue to dominate the Neural Sim market without any signs of letting up. If you don’t already have one of these three DPS heavyweights, Chenxing could be an excellent investment for your gacha resources since she makes a strong second DPS option. However, if you already have one or are considering grabbing Lyfe – Infinite Sight from the rerun selector as an alternative, patience is required, as Chenxing undergoes further real-world testing alongside her partner Yao – Nightglow. The anticipation is high for Chenxing to become a top five DPS, but it remains uncertain where she will ultimately rank in the tier list. Fingers crossed that she soars higher rather than hitting someone’s knee cap!

Watch this space, there’s still more to come.

Supplementary Material

Link to spreadsheet

Features weapon computations, growth rate estimations for manifests, and an optimized logistics calculator.

Cheat Sheet

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2025-01-31 08:31

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