Dorothy: Serendipity Early Analysis
Overview
- Strongest Shotgun DPS of Today.
- PvE Raid Oriented Unit (5th team meta before Favorite Item changes).
- The only relevant pierce-Water DPS.
- Comparable to Ludmilla: Winter Owner even outside of Tove teams.
- Upcoming Tove and Poli Favorite Items may solidify Dorothy: Serendipity’s place in the meta.
- Ammo Hungry: Requires ammo lines and bastion cube levels to function properly, or a team with reload buffs.
Should You Pull?
Absolutely! Having Dorothy: Serendipity on my team feels like a game-changer for water DPS roles. Unlike other heroes who seem to shine only in specific teams like Tove or Leona, she stands out as a versatile asset that can contribute significantly to any roster, making her an essential acquisition indeed.
In addition, she is a limited unit, which will make her difficult to acquire later on.
For Newbies/Incomplete Teams
Dorothy: Serendipity (or Nikke) excels in following orders from the boss. She’s effective during campaigns, but you might discover or already have superior choices for advancing further into the campaign. Nevertheless, Dorothy has potential to become a crucial and essential character in upcoming raid content. Currently, she appears to be the most potent shotgun DPS available.
Players without Ludmilla: Winter Owner might want to consider swapping in Dorothy: Serendipity instead, as she offers a similar performance outside of Tove teams. She performs well with Crown-Mast-Helm teams, mitigating her ammo concerns. Since Dorothy is a limited unit, she’ll not be easily accessible after her banner finishes, which could leave your roster lacking in the future.
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Flash
- Skill 2: Radiant Wings
- Burst: False Salvation
- Cooldown: 40s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: III
- Weapon: SG
- Class: Attacker
- Element: Water
- Manufacturer: Pilgrim
- Squad: Inherit
- Weapon Name: Ungrateful Oz
Normal Attack Information
Bullet Hold: 9 (units)
Reload Duration: 1.5 seconds
Affects targeted enemy(ies).
Inflicts damage equal to 201.5% of the Attack power.
Deals double damage when hitting the core.
Dorothy: Serendipity’s weapon is, unfortunately, the most disappointing part about her kit.
Twinkling Bunny, has a normal attack multiplier of approximately 231.6%, which is nearly double Dorothy’s. This difference is significant because all of Dorothy’s damage comes from her basic attacks, and a lower weapon multiplier weakens the scaling of her buff-to-DPS.
As a full-reload shotgun, Dorothy’s burst rate of fire is anticipated to be merely average at best, comparable to the unkindly named ‘Private: Unkind Maid’, and lagging substantially behind quick-reload burst guns such as ‘Soda: Twinkling Bunny’ and ‘Drake’, which negatively impacts her effectiveness in Player versus Player combat.
Skill 1: Flash
Triggers upon striking the target with 160 pellets, enhancing your own abilities. Increases the scope of Pierce effect by 200% for 3 rounds.
In simpler terms, Dorothy’s second shotgun role as a DPS character is enhanced by a skill called “Unkind Maid”. This ability makes her damage depend on the number of pellets that hit the target. Initially, she needs to land 80 pellets, which requires firing at least 8 shots. Once this requirement is met, her next 3 shots will transform into single-pellet piercing bullets. With a high hit rate of 98.13% and the ability to switch to single-pellet mode, these shots are more likely to hit enemy cores. Additionally, using single-pellet mode increases Dorothy’s ability to deal overkill pierce damage in one shot, especially with a 72% Damage Up buff at level 10.
From a passionate player’s perspective, though the extended Pierce effect is an appealing addition, it doesn’t significantly impact gameplay because of the time it takes to activate.
What are Pellets?
Each shotgun normal attack is broken down into a set number of pellets, starting with 10 at the base. The overall damage of the attack is shared equally among these pellets. For instance, an attack dealing 200% damage through 10 pellets means each pellet would cause 20% damage, adding up to a total of 200%.
It’s crucial to understand that increasing the number of pellets does not boost the overall damage dealt; instead, it merely divides the damage more finely. So, for an attack dealing 200% via 20 pellets, each pellet would inflict 10% damage, accumulating to a total of 200%.
In simpler terms, since each bullet can penetrate multiple targets (fixed to only one pellet per shot), this implies that when Dorothy fires a total of 10 shots, approximately 28% of those shots will be penetrating shots if she’s firing at a rate of 10.7 bullets per cycle.
At 15 pellets, ~36% of Dorothy’s bullets will be piercing shots at 8.13 bullets/cycle.
At 20 pellets, ~43.8% of Dorothy’s bullets will be piercing shots at 6.85 bullets/cycle.
Yet, with a relatively low uptime, approximately two-thirds of Dorothy’s damage is inflicted through her piercing shots, given their substantial destructive power.
Skill 2: Radiant Wings
Activates when entering battle. Affects self.
Pierce damage ▲ 55.08% continuously.Functional only during Full Burst mode, and specifically impacting the user themselves:
ATK increases by up to 75.24% continuously.
Hit Rate increases by up to 40.68% continuously.
This ability enhances Dorothy’s basic attack (ATK), damage for piercing shots (this increase stacks additively with S1 and other sources of attack damage), and improves the likelihood that she will hit her target accurately. This won’t enable Dorothy to strike critical areas with her standard attacks from a distance, but it will make it easier for her to consistently hit pellets on broad targets within short-to-medium range, which is her main purpose.
Burst: False Salvation
Boosts its own power for the next 15 seconds, as indicated by:
– Increase in attack speed by 65% for 15 seconds.
– Enhancement of ATK by 88.12% for 15 seconds.
– Addition of 5 pellets for 15 seconds.
Dorothy’s burst effect is very simple, at Lv10 it gives her:
- One of the fattest self-ATK buffs in the game.
- Raises her attack speed from 1.5 bullets/s -> 2.475 bullets/s, or in the case of Tove, 2.13 bullets/s -> 3.11 bullets/s
- Raises her pierce uptime from ~28% -> ~36%, or ~36% -> ~43.8%
Attack Speed Buffs & [Min Firing Rounds Adjustment]
To make sure your characters take full advantage of attack speed bonuses, it’s recommended that you enable the “Min Firing Rounds Adjustment” in-game setting. If this feature is off, the firing speed of your units could be influenced by the game’s frame rate and might get rounded down.
Although Dorothy’s attack speed boosts are potent because they function independently of basic damage bonuses, they simultaneously make her go through ammunition at a rapid pace and dependent on additional ammo sources from her overloads.
With Tove’s assistance, Dorothy has the ability to discharge as many as 47 rounds in a single burst. To do this effectively using the Bastion Cube, she needs a minimum of 32 bullets loaded initially. Given that Tove contributes 6 additional bullets to Dorothy’s clip, she would need approximately 26 bullets from the OLs (or 21 with Noir), which translates to around 3 ammunition lines.
In simpler terms, shotgun users concentrate most of their damage during the initial 10 seconds of their attack, specifically when Tove burst and Drake’s skill 1 (with Favorite Item) are active. This is significant because they only need a minimum of 22 rounds before reloading, which is reduced to 16 with Overload skills. Essentially, the first one or two sets of ammo have a greater impact compared to the third set, with the first being more potent than an attack line.
Campaign
Dorothy may be a viable choice in campaigns with minimal budgets, but generally, she’s not strongly advised. Her ability requires a large number of pellets (160) to activate, which makes her less effective and more awkward to use compared to characters like Asuka, who can initiate piercing effects more easily through burst activation.
Arena
In short, Dorothy is typically not strong in player versus player combat because her weapon is a full reload shotgun, which means she might struggle to generate burst damage quickly. Her abilities and buffs take too long to activate, making them less effective in the fast-paced Arena setting. This raises the question of why one would choose Dorothy over a rapid-fire shotgun (for Combat Power accumulation purposes aside). In the current PvP environment, there are numerous superior alternatives that could be chosen instead.
Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid
Managing or leading is primarily where Dorothy excels, also referred to as Serendipity’s specialty. Though Ludmilla, or Winter Owner, can currently fill in effectively in the current context, the upcoming Tove & Poli Favorite Items are anticipated to elevate Dorothy further into meta significance. If these updates turn out to be disappointing, Dorothy will still be a standard choice for solo water raids due to the water element’s overall weakness compared to others.
Tove Teams
Twinkling Bunny along with one Damage Per Second (DPS) character. If you don’t have the Twinkling Bunny, Drake (with his Favorite Item enhanced three times) can serve as a replacement for Soda.
Instead of what you might assume, Leona doesn’t stand out as Dorothy’s top supporter. This is primarily because Leona’s crit boosts aren’t particularly strong on Dorothy, who lacks inherent crit-enhancing abilities. However, Leona remains useful, but characters like Blanc and Naga offer additional healing benefits that Dorothy often needs. Interestingly, Naga pairs better with Dorothy as she can consistently hit cores using her piercing ability.
Non-Tove Team (Ludmilla Replacement)
These teams are side-grades to the same team with Ludmilla: Winter Owner.
Strengths
- Great against raids bosses with permanent double hits (e.g. Material H, Blacksmith) or blocked cores (e.g. Ultra, upcoming Kraken raid).
- Can be used in Tove teams outside of Water Weak Solo Raids.
- Can replace Ludmilla: Winter Owner for players who are missing her.
- Viable outside of Tove teams, not married to any particular support.
- Strong at mid-invested overloads due to high self-buffs (e.g. only element, low ATK lines)
- Has great potential with upcoming Tove & Poli Favorite Items.
- Has a cute butt 🍑
Weaknesses
- Needs 1-2 ammo lines.
- One of the weaker 1% banner rate units, compared to banners like Little Mermaid, Rapi, etc. (without accounting for Tove Favorite Item).
- Scales worse with ATK buffs due to oversaturation.
- Optimally played with Tove, which lowers her team DPS ceiling.
- Resource hungry for skills, doll levels, and overload lines.
Recommended Cubes
Doll Priority
For Dorothy, a character who primarily inflicts damage through normal attacks, enhancing her with an SR+15 doll will significantly boost her damage output by approximately 9.46% due to the Normal Attack Multiplier increase effect. Additionally, dolls provide raw stats, making them even more beneficial. If you’re focusing on single/union raid content that targets water-weak enemies, prioritizing the upgrade of “Dorothy: Serendipity” to SR+15 is strongly recommended.
Expected Skill Priority
| Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorothy: Serendipity | Skill 1: 7 Skill 2: 7 Burst: 7 | Skill 1: 10 Skill 2: 10 Burst: 10 | S2 > S1 | This is assuming that leveling S1 does not decrease the number of pellets required to trigger her pierce shot; otherwise, the priority is inverted. Upgrading all of Dorothy’s skills will likely lead to a noticeable increase in damage. | Highest |
Overload Gear Priority
Gear Priority / Head > Gloves > Chest > Boots
Line Priority / 1st Ammo > 4x Element > 2nd Ammo = 4x ATK > 3rd Ammo > Crit Rate >~ Crit Damage
| 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 | ★★★★☆ | 2-3x | Ammo is needed to keep Dorothy firing, the first ammo line is absolutely mandatory. |
| Increase ATK | ★★★★★ | 4x | Simply more damage. |
| Increase Charge Damage | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | — |
| Increase Charge Speed | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | — |
| Increase Critical Rate | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0-2x | Half as valuable as ATK. |
| Increase Critical Damage | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0-2x | A little less valuable than Crit Rate. |
| Increase DEF | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | — |
Dorothy’s performance in its intended use cases isn’t boosted by Hit Rate, but it could potentially benefit from it in specific, limited scenarios.
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2025-07-16 08:06