A2 Guide & Analysis

Basic Info

Skill 1: Output Increased

Whenever I unleash my Burst Skill, it amplifies my own power! Here’s what happens:

1. For a staggering 110.44% increase, my charge damage gets boosted for an impressive 15 seconds!
2. Additionally, the explosion radius around me expands by 100.74% for the same duration of 15 seconds, making sure my impact is felt far and wide!

A strong ability that initially has substantial power levels, reducing the requirement for significant further investment. It becomes active immediately following a burst, and provides a valuable extra multiplier for final damage, which is highly beneficial. Additionally, its explosion radius proves useful when attempting to hit multiple targets, and it boasts an additional 7.2%~ boost to total normal attack modifier (second only to Laplace), thereby enhancing its Damage Per Second (DPS) slightly.

The explosion radius of her base is 50% larger than that of a standard Rocket launcher. This means the splash range isn’t typically problematic, but it can be extremely beneficial in campaign mode or for targeting specific areas on bosses, such as Nihilister. The Motherwhale’s scattered parts might be challenging to hit with low-mid investment at first, but with practice, you can effectively damage around 4 parts (3 guns and the core part) and her body. The frequency of this skill’s activation depends on the team’s burst generation and the use of cooldown reduction units; however, it typically lasts for about 50% of the time with an optimized team and strategic bursting during her off-cooldown periods.

It’s important to keep in mind that although her explosion radius is quite large, it may not reach every rapture on the screen during campaign. The vertical positioning (close, mid, far) of the explosion also matters, as the explosion radius needs to take this into account. However, she will definitely hit most things within a certain range distance and row.

Remark: Damage charges don’t prolong the charging period; instead, the charging duration is fixed and independent of the damage amount, unless the charge speed is taken into account. This fixed duration can be observed in the Nikke Stat viewer.

Skill 2:

Triggers upon striking a target at full power, impacting the targeted enemy:

– Deals an extra 30.1% of your total attack power as damage.
– Upon hitting a target at full power, boosts your own durability:
– Increases part durability by 40.88% for 3 seconds.

An Essentially Permanent Damage Amplifier, that works quite effectively with her Skill 1. The extra damage at maximum capacity would have been beneficial in terms of increased damage and additional burst generation for boss fights. Since her skill also functions like a “secondary” strike, generating as much burst as a standard shot/hit per target.

Instead, it’s important to note that this extra instance of damage only triggers once per target, regardless of the number of parts. Consequently, her DPS and burst potential suffer slightly against bosses. However, when multiple raptures appear on the screen in a campaign, all affected targets will receive the additional damage proc. This makes her an effective burst generator for campaigns, while still being able to dish out damage. Furthermore, this setup frees up a Burst 2 slot that is typically used for a burst generator or to support Blanc team’s burst generation for the Bunny team.

Burst: Mode B

When activated, your health (HP) decreases gradually every second, but your attack power (ATK) and charge speed significantly increase. If your HP drops below 40%, Mode B will be deactivated. In simpler terms, you’re taking a small amount of damage each second, while dealing more damage and recharging faster. But if your health gets too low, Mode B shuts off.

Here’s a simpler and more conversational way of explaining the given text:

This unique ability can stay active forever as long as it maintains at least 40% health. This can be managed with, you got it, the Bunny team. Blanc has the power to heal A2‘s emotional wounds that she inflicts on herself. While other healers could do the job, given that A2’s current HP decreases per each burst, some healers might require more investment to keep up with her HP and prevent her buffs from fading. Here are a few options, listed in order:

1. Bunny team (for maintaining health)
2. Healers requiring higher investments to manage A2’s HP effectively (to avoid letting her buffs expire)

Comfy, Easy to Maintain

Blanc,Rapunzel,Mary: Bay Goddess

• All three units can just do their things, and A2’s health should be properly maintained.

Harder, Manual Play/Rotations, Proper burst gen, or needs Skill investments for 2A Burst (8+) and Healers (5+)

Helm,Noise,Pepper

• Helm = Needs burst gen, and High A2 burst to be able to cycle through her burst again right before A2’s buff expires, this assumes A2 doesn’t get hit once. A2 also needs to burst second so Cooldown effect units can ramp up their stacks.
• Noise = Same reasoning as Helm
• Pepper = Needs to fully stack her skill so her burst is able to heal.

Remark: Nikke’s abilities bypass the protection on her health depletion, they are not affected by shields. This applies even to her own shields. Moreover, they also penetrate Noah’s burst.

Very Cope

Quency,Yuni,Folkwang

• Quency = A2 needs to burst second, Buff will drop earlier than half way through the round (Basically permanently), even with high investments. Buff will drop even earlier if hit. Last resort /Team 5 Solo raid option.
• Yuni = Can heal A2 to the point where her burst can last pretty long if both Yuni and A2 has rather high investments (8+) IF the boss has 2-3+ parts consistently, and the boss is a vegetable and never fights back. Proper Overload rolls are also definitely needed to make this smoother. Quency is the better cope option if A2 is not well raised/ hyper invested. Last resort/Team 5 Solo raid option.
• Folkwang = Can provide strong healing, but in return, forces a 1-2-2 team composition. Which is usually not wanted as running this formation more often than not results in DPS loss.

Animation Delay

In simpler terms, when using Shift-Up’s character A2, there’s a delay of about 1 second (61 frames in 60fps mode) before she can fire again after shooting, including the time it takes to prepare and swing. However, this delay decreases to roughly half a second (37 frames) when her burst ability is activated. This makes A2 shoot at a rate of about 0.49 bullets per second, which is slightly quicker than a normal rocket launcher firing speed in auto mode (0.79 bullets per second). In other words, the game developers have intentionally slowed down A2’s damage output with this mechanic to balance her power.

Campaign

A2 stands out as an exceptional campaign clearer, thanks to the attributes outlined in skills 1 and 2. She’s adept at taking down most Raptures on screen while dealing substantial damage. Remarkably, she maintains high performance even during late-game campaigns or when combat power is deficient, provided she avoids enemy focus. However, it’s worth noting that she tends to stick close to the bunnies to achieve these feats. On a positive note, she addresses one of the key issues for bunny teams in late-game campaigns – low burst generation. If Alice isn’t being utilized, this can be a problem. In high Rapture density environments like hard mode campaigns, A2 truly shines, generating bursts efficiently and delivering consistent damage.

As A2 is a Core DPS in the team, she needs to be raised pretty well to excel in campaign usage.

Liter,Blanc,A2,Noir

-B1 Subs: Volume (level or amount)

-B2 Subs: That’s a joke, no.

-B3 Flex Highly Recommended: Scarlet, Modernia, Alice (Character recommendations for flexible roles)

-Usable: Maxwell, 2B, Harran, or any other preferred Damage Per Second (DPS) characters.

Or:

Pepper,Dolla, A2,Scarlet

-B1 Subs (Substitutes): Mary Bay Goddess (Limited) -> Limited Edition of the Mary Bay Goddess
-B2 Subs: Helm : Aquamarine -> The helm is aquamarine in color
-B3 Flex Highly Recommended: Modernia, Usable: Maxwell, Drake, other preferred DPS. -> It is highly recommended to use Modernia and usable with characters like Maxwell, Drake, or any other preferred Damage Per Second (DPS) characters.

Arena

At first, I assumed she was quite powerful, but it turned out that her burst generation wasn’t as potent as anticipated. This is because of three main factors.

• Animation delay as mentioned, it also affects her in arena
• She can only hit 3 Nikke’s normally despite her increased base explosion Radius outside of burst
• Her skill 2 does not proc against cover. To Further clarify, her skill 2 was expected to work like Nihilister where enemy cover is counted as a separate “Target”, but it doesn’t. This means instead of 12 damage ticks (3 Nikke’s + 3 Cover hits x 2 from skill 2 proc) it’s only 9. Each damage tick is 1.3% of total burst gen bar.

Using Clip reload shotguns generates more bursts than what’s typically considered good, but she remains useful if there are no other characters who can generate bursts available instead.

When it comes to her burst damage per second (DPS), she can accurately hit all units when using skill level 1 at positions 1 or 5. However, her DPS isn’t strong enough to make her the primary damage dealer for the team, and she may be quickly outperformed by other characters in this role.

TLDR: She’s not great.

Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid

Special Intercept

Despite all the points mentioned earlier, she excels particularly in the special intercept, as many supervisors have responsibilities there. Her performance significantly improves when utilizing OL ATK lines, especially when partnered with a healer. However, bosses like Modernia and Chatter box may cause difficulties for her due to her ease at destroying parts. This is because, in these boss battles, the player will be penalized for damaging critical components. Yet, there are several strategies to overcome this.

Chatter Box

When operating in Full Burst Mode, it’s more effective to target the body instead of the core, as her splash damage can reach all areas. If staying alive is crucial, consider focusing on weakening the sides instead. Destroying the core will allow Chatterbox to execute a move that eliminates the entire team in one go.

Modernia

Forcing destruction of every part will trigger her to teleport randomly, but there’s a tactic known as “wing-skip” that bypasses the teleportation phase. This technique involves damaging her wing during her retreat to prepare a missile attack. The timing for this is quite precise, so practice is essential. A handy tip is to keep her wing health extremely low and have your full burst ready. When she’s preparing to retreat, quickly finish her off. For more details, check out the video below.

Union Raid

This subject matter can be quite challenging, as the components for the Union Raid tend to be rather fragile. Consequently, it seems unlikely that this feature would be utilized frequently due to its susceptibility. Let me illustrate: Given their design, it’s hard to envision these components being used extensively in Union Raid scenarios.

On comparable battlefields, Scarlet’s damage consistently outperforms A2 unless A2 delivers approximately three points of damage in every turn (excluding the impact of A2’s second skill activation). If A2 falls short of this mark at any point, it significantly reduces A2’s overall damage output.

Solo Raid

In simpler terms, the team she performs best in currently is the Bunny team. This is optimal for her given appropriate skill investments, preferred Offensive Line statistics, and two or more boss parts. She requires only one or at most two stat lines of maximum ammunition (two if charge speed rolls are present), primarily when working with the Bunny team. The reason being, she doesn’t need to reload in this setup.

When Bunny Team isn’t an option for me, I swap it out with my go-to CoolDown Reduction character instead. From the list provided earlier, I choose one of those healers to keep my team in good health. For extra attack power, I might add Privaty or Maxwell to the roster. If the boss requires it, I also include a Taunter to divert their attention.

Strengths

• Pretty great campaign unit, Especially Early-Mid game
• Scales well with ATK, Charge SPD stat lines for overloaded gear
• Great damage against bosses with parts
• Not too skill book hungry
• Tummy
• God tier Midriff

Weaknesses

• Definitely needs a healer function
• Single target damage is low
• Mr. Beast burst pose

Notes

Although, not really weaknesses, but things to keep in mind.

Under optimal manual control, there are comparable “multi-strike” units that surpass her performance. Given that every Nikke’s skills and equipment are fully maximized (skills at their best levels, overloaded gear), it is possible for these other units to outperform her effectively, even with only 2-3 parts involved.

• Alice, Maxwell (if clustered parts, slightly common), Snow white (If clustered parts, slightly common).
• These units also outperform her in single target/No parts as well.

Alice,Maxwell,Snow white

• There are not many implemented/re-used bosses that go beyond 3+ Parts, which would let A2 out-DPS mentioned units. Although such bosses are: Nihilister, Motherwhale.
• She’s limited, so dupes will be impossible to get.

Should You Pull?

Certainly!

Yes, she’s skillful enough to merit acquiring, an effective and versatile unit that can excel in various roles without requiring heavy initial investment. Moreover, her ability to clear campaigns effectively will undoubtedly assist novice players in navigating the game smoothly.

Temporary Rating

Recommended Harmony Cube

Resilience = Pre- OL
Bastion = Post- OL, Max ammo lines.

Skill Priority

Overload Gear Priority

Hehe.

Thanks to Kisenix (Prydwen) for colluding | Assists on the review

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2025-07-10 09:06