Asuka Guide & Analysis – Should you Pull?
Overview
- Extremely strong DPS potential via insane self-buffs, with her attack buff being permanent due to her burst being able to proc it.
- Provides a consistent strong buff to teammates despite being a DPS. this buff is locked to fire coded Nikkes, fortunately Nikkes that are fire coded are relevant to the current meta (Alice, Modernia, Herself)
- Gains Permanent Pierce on teams with cooldown reductions. Pierce being one of the strongest buffs in Nikke
- Simply a much better Scarlet
- MUST pull (Almost power creeping already)
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Competitiveness
- Skill 2: Assault Tactics
- Burst: Piercing Bullets
- Cooldown: 40s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: III
- Weapon: AR
- Class: Attacker
- Element: Fire
- Manufacturer: Abnormal
- Squad: Nerv
- Weapon Name: Lightweight Assault Rifle
Basic Attack Information
Assault rifles are typically ineffective because they have relatively weak base attack multipliers (a mere 13.65%) and poor accuracy. Consequently, they often fail to land critical hits, a significant damage booster that can range from 2x upwards, depending on the weapon type or Nikke.
In comparison to standard attacks, Asuka’s Normal Attack has a significantly increased power level (approximately 18.76% higher), trailing just behind Scarlet with the second-highest modifier.
While it’s not accurate to say that Asuka always deals less damage than Scarlet, it’s important to note that she has exceptional self-buffing abilities, which will be detailed further on.
Skills
Skill 1 – Competitiveness
Initiates as soon as a fight begins, impacts only the character:
*Inflicts continuous damage to Shield by 601.01%.*
*(Please note that it solely affects the damage inflicted on the shield, not the Rapture itself)*
Activates upon recovery, influences the character:
*Boosts ATK by 96.98% for a duration of 25 seconds.*
Initially, she comes with an exceptionally high boost. At present, there aren’t many enemies with shields that are commonly encountered, except for Mat H variants and Union Raid Bosses. However, even though it’s quite specific, a 6-fold damage increase against any future shielded Raptures would be advantageous, as it’s an additional beneficial feature in her extensive set of abilities.
Her Attack boost is always active since it can repeatedly be renewed through Asuka’s burst ability. This activation triggers life steal just once per burst, and the duration will not refresh after the initial shot. Luckily, her ATK ▲ boost lasts long enough that this won’t cause problems when a cooldown Nikke is in the team.
Skill 2 – Assault Tactics
Triggers upon engaging Full Burst mode. Boosts one’s own power during Shield phase, increasing damage by 30.02% over a duration of 10 seconds.
Also triggers when entering Full Burst mode, enhancing the power of all Fire Code allies, causing an increase in attack damage on the core by 60.07% for a duration of 10 seconds.
Skill 2 also has amazing team buffs that are proc’d every full burst.
The strong element buff on her damage shouldn’t cause problems for activation since more and more Nikkes are emerging, capable of granting shields to the whole team (like Tia, Crown, and Rei Ayanami). All mentioned characters perform effectively alongside her.
In simpler terms, Asuka’s ability to boost the damage dealt to an enemy’s core is nearly as potent as Naga’s, and that’s quite remarkable for a Damage Per Second (DPS) unit. This buff results in approximately a 20% increase in total DPS when attacking the core.
What is Damage as Strong Element and Core damage? (Newbies)
When engaging in battle against an enemy whose Rapture is vulnerable to a Nikke, you’ll notice that damage inflicted is increased. This information can be found by checking the enemy statistics on the battlefield info screen. It’s essential to note that this boost is multiplicative, although it becomes additive when equipped with Overload gear.
In simpler terms, “Core damage” happens when a player strikes the core of an enemy, typically located at the central part of rapture beings and glowing with red light. The auto-aim function in the settings is designed to target these Cores.
The damage bracket for Core damage is:
I deal base damage, then that gets boosted by my full burst factor (which is 0.5 times the original), plus a range bonus of 0.3, and a core damage multiplier of 1 or more, depending on my abilities. To top it off, I also have a built-in critical damage bonus of 0.5.
Among several contributing elements enclosed within parentheses, Asuka’s buff is substantial enough to yield an approximately 20% increase in her total damage output.
Burst – Piercing Bullets
1. Boosts personal power.
2. Grants a buff called “Pierce” lasting for 25 seconds.
3. Increases the attack damage by 150.04% for a duration of 10 seconds.
4. Recovers 3.16% of the attack damage as health over a period of 10 seconds.
5. Enhances the hit rate by 101.37% for a duration of 10 seconds.
✨Obtaining the “Full Uptime Pierce” status in Nikke is almost essential for a character to function as intended, and Asuka possesses this trait. The “Pierce” ability essentially amplifies damage when there are multiple parts to target, resulting from bullets hitting more than once per shot.
In simpler terms, Asuka increases her own attack damage (↑) distinctly from the boost provided by her skill 1 (ATK up ↑). These enhancements operate independently yet are multiplicative. This is what makes characters like Crown, Tia, and Summer Rosanna excel. However, it’s important to note that Asuka can amplify her attack damage by a substantial 150% compared to the standard 30-50%.
In simpler terms, Asuka’s HP regeneration should be sufficient for her survival as long as the attacks from Rapture aren’t excessively strong. This can enable Asuka to join teams without healers in high-attack scenarios where she is the primary target (Solo Raids).
Apart from the impressive precision boost she receives, Asuka’s attack is significantly amplified, almost ensuring critical hits! By enhancing her already high attack modifier and granting a remarkable accuracy bonus, Asuka addresses the inherent flaws in assault rifle classes, while simultaneously elevating herself to an extraordinary level.
Campaign
It’s challenging to predict her exact role in the campaign strategy, but she’s likely to prove very effective. Asuka’s Pierce and self-buff abilities make her an exceptional Damage Per Second (DPS) character when attacking elite or boss Raptures. She’s anticipated to benefit significantly from manual play, particularly if the player can swiftly switch between targets.
Asuka is capable of synergizing exceptionally well with high-tier campaign cleaners, too. This is because she boosts their base damage and enhances her own elemental damage.
Meta Fire Element Campaign Clearers
As a fan, I find that the introduction of element-based teams adds an extra layer of impact to the game. It seems like a promising advancement in the realm of specialized squads tailored for campaigns, making each team’s unique attributes even more intriguing.
In contrast, a significant challenge with using Asuka in a campaign is her lack of a Burst Gen ability. This issue could be efficiently addressed by incorporating characters like Red Hood, Alice, Centi, Nihilister, or Anis into her team to generate Burst Battery instead.
Campaign Burst Generation Batteries
In a story (or game), smooth, continuous full burst rotations are essential and nearly indispensable for high-deficit clearance situations. Therefore, burst generators become necessary components.
Modernia Core Team (Fire Team)
A harmonious duo, exceptionally effective against low-quality content that’s prone to burning. To handle the hordes of mobs, deploy the Modernia Burst ability. Lastly, decide between Alice’s or Asuka’s Burst for tackling the boss waves.
Hyper-carry Modernia (Red Hood B1 Variant)
Boost Modernia’s power significantly, focusing on enhancing its core and attack capabilities, all while Asuka handles the incoming enemy waves.
Burst rotation:
- Red hood -> Crown -> Modernia
- Red Hood -> Crown -> Asuka
- Save last Rapture before boss wave (Rapture/Wave Stalling)
- Wait for Cooldown for all burst skills, then destroy last Rapture
- Red hood -> Crown -> Asuka
Arena
Regrettably, Asuka lacks some key abilities like burst generation, screen wipe, and area of effect (AOE) capabilities. While she can deal significant damage to stall teams, her abilities are somewhat limited compared to others.
Special Interception | Solo Raid | Union Raid
Special Interception
Incorporating fresh, unique interception bosses will lead to an expansion of this region and the creation of updated guides for their use (in a contemporary style). Despite this, with the present roster, she is anticipated to excel in all encounters. Particularly against Alteisein (Train), as her piercing abilities and elemental advantage provide a distinct edge.
Union Raid
In some instances during the Union raid, certain bosses possess robust defensive shields. However, Asuka is capable of breaking through these shields, thereby accelerating guild clear times in the Union raid. Furthermore, she’s anticipated to maintain a top 3 team position for an extended period due to her high damage output. Her team buffs further reinforce this position.
Solo Raid
In the team setup, it’s simple to identify Asuka. She excels in DPS and boosting capabilities. Notably, she can enhance the core damage of our top-tier pilgrim, Modernia, during boss fights without compromising the team performance thanks to her burst now! This is beneficial for Modernia’s versatility, making it easier for her to perform comfortably in 1-2-2 Burst teams. Regarding Asuka’s power, it significantly fluctuates based on game content, but it’s common knowledge that she delivers considerably higher damage than Scarlet, even without any upgraded parts!
Bunny Team (Element Neutral)
Among the five teams, Asuka is anticipated to perform optimally when teamed with the bunny duo, considering her already exceptional attack power and increased attack damage. This superiority stems from the boost in attack she receives from Crown and Tia, which in turn enables us to utilize another damage multiplier that Blanc provides – an increase in damage taken up. With this additional advantage, Crown becomes more adept at enhancing other teams while offering Modernia’s DPS buffs, a synergy that is particularly effective against bosses with a fire weakness.
Choosing “crown” over “bunny team” might offer a slight advantage based on how Asuka is brought up and the number of overloaded gear rolls, but the difference won’t be enormous.
Theoretical Rei Team (Fire Weak)
It’s challenging to predict how this team would perform against fire weak content, as Asuka could quickly become overwhelmed due to her susceptibility to elemental weaknesses, since she doesn’t have many options to roll for other attributes like ATK and Max Ammo. Rei might not offer sufficient survivability because she only triggers a 13% shield after every second full burst, making Novel or Summer Rosanna less viable. Asuka can self-buff more effectively than what Rei offers by at least three times. Additionally, Rei lags behind in DPS compared to Modernia.
But at least they get to be together.
Note: Flex needs to be a healer/defensive supporter
Fire Stack Team (Fire Weak)
As a dedicated fan, I’ve found an impressive five-star Nikke team that generates massive bursts, thanks to Grave’s unique interaction with MG Nikke. This combo performs exceptionally well, not just in fire weakness scenarios, but across various situations due to buffs and harmonious synergy within the team composition.
Closing Thoughts / Should you pull?
Indeed, Asuka excels in Player vs Environment (PvE) scenarios, matching pace with heavyweights like Modernia, Alice, Red Hood, Scarlet: Black Shadow and others. She not only holds her own but also boosts her teammates. Her skill set is advantageous as it lacks significant drawbacks such as HP drain or health prerequisites. Moreover, Asuka’s kit is versatile, requiring no external buffs since all the necessary enhancements like ATK, ATK damage increase, Core damage increase, etc., are already incorporated into her own abilities.
The main disadvantages of her character lie in her higher dependence on strategic books compared to others, a trait that many top-tier damage dealers also exhibit. However, Asuka doesn’t significantly struggle even if the player lacks overloaded gear or maximum ammo rolls at this stage.
In simple terms, Asuka stands out as a multi-talented and strong character, making her an immediate top pick for any collaboration.
Expected Skill Priority
| Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asuka | Skill 1: 7 Skill 2 : 7 Burst : 7 | Skill 1: 10 Skill 2 : 10 Burst : 10 | S2 => S1 | Skill 1 is able to give herself a massive attack boost, while providing shield breaking utility. Skill 2 has a team buff that is rare for Nikkes, and that is core damage boost. which means no other buffs would dilute its value except for more of itself Burst is extremely important for her self DPS, as it increases her pierce duration (15s at level 1, 20s at level 4, 25s at level 7), hit rate for guaranteed core hits, and ATK Damage ▲ | Highest |
Expected Ratings
Rather rough estimations of ratings for Asuka
| Category | Rating |
| Overall (PvE) | SS |
| Story | S-SS |
| Bosses | SSS~ (Skill book Heavy) |
| Arena | B |
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2025-02-24 13:06