Rei Analysis and Theorycraft – Should you Pull?
As a seasoned Nikke commander, I have seen my fair share of characters come and go, each with their unique abilities and quirks. Among them, Rei Ayanami, the enigmatic Fire-element character, has caught my attention recently.
Note: This was made first day of release of Rei. Inaccuracies will be fixed after more testing.
Overview
- Has a strong set team archetype (Mono fire team) but falls off quickly if there are missing Nikkes in the team (Modernia/Asuka). Other Nikkes can be substituted in neutral element content.
- Rei’s team is as strong as Modernia as a lot of the team’s damage will fall on her if there are no parts, otherwise Asuka will be the heavy hitter.
- Rei has pretty good personal damage but falls behind other DPS MG’s (Christmas ludmilla, Low health Guillotine, Modernia) but when paired with her optimal team, Asuka is able to buff Rei to deal just around Scarlet’s damage
- falls off outside of fire teams, she’s not flexible.
- Currently a staple third or fourth hardest hitting team in element neutral content in solo raid. Second or first in fire element weak raids, depending on boss.
- Can pull if focused on Solo raids as she’s a great addition to fire weak element raids, or a “Nikke” Collector. Recommended to have Modernia and/or Asuka to make good use of her. Has potential with future Fire Nikkes if they function similarly to Modernia (High Damage Non-Burst Nikke)
Newbie/Incomplete Box Section
Rei has decent DPS with very niche but strong buffs. Luckily there are Nikkes that can fully take advantage of her buffs, unluckily these Nikkes are either limited (Asuka) or Pilgrims (Modernia).
In terms of discussion, there’s not a lot to say about Rei since her primary role is to facilitate greater harm inflicted by Modernia during boss fights.
As a seasoned gamer with years of experience under my belt, I’ve found that this team holds a solid position among the top contenders when it comes to taking down bosses or participating in solo raids. However, compared to some of the top teams, this one seems to lack the survivability needed for those intense battles. This is particularly evident during critical moments when a healer might be required to step in, as it could significantly impact our DPS, forcing us to sacrifice damage output from either Burst II or Burst III slots. As someone who’s been there, I can tell you that the absence of healing options makes a world of difference in the heat of battle, and it’s something that needs to be addressed if we want to compete at the highest levels.
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Preemptive Subdual
- Skill 2: Attack Support
- Burst: Annihilation: High Explosives
- Cooldown: 40s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: III
- Weapon: MG
- Class: Attacker
- Element: Fire
- Manufacturer: Abnormal
- Squad: Nerv
- Weapon Name: Heavy Gatling gun for Subdual
Skills
Skill 1: Preemptive Subdual
Triggers following 100 regular attacks. Impacts the closest enemy within the attack radius, marked by the crosshair. Deals 30.23% increased damage of a strong element for 3 seconds.
As I blast away at fire-vulnerable foes while gaming at a smooth 60 frames per second, my trusty Machine Gun unleashes a relentless stream of damage – and that advantage is here to stay!
her attack ability boosts her damage output by approximately 18% at its maximum, but it doesn’t have a direct impact on critical hits. Unfortunately, the scaling for this skill is somewhat lackluster, with both the elemental damage bonus and proc damage increasing only in small steps.
FPS VS DPS (Newbies)
Thanks to a clever coding trick by Shift up, the speed at which an action occurs is tied to the frames per second (FPS) of the device. In other words, the faster the FPS, the quicker the action happens. Unfortunately, machine guns are particularly affected by this issue and can experience a decrease in damage per second (DPS) of up to 50%.
FPS settings can be found in the settings tab. Make sure max frame rate is always at 60
Skill 2: Attack Support
At the onset of a battle, it focuses solely on boosting the shield’s durability by an impressive 700.5%. However, please note that it does not impact the Rapture itself.
A modest Attack buff on every full burst as it procs on burst stage 3. However it is limited to 
fire code allies. There are not much viable Fire DPS nikkes, but the ones that are viable are relevant to the meta.
In my gaming world, not many bosses wield protective shields, and right now, I’m facing off against Rebuild Vulcan, Mat-H, and it seems like the current Solo Raid Season’s boss too. These guys are tough with their guard up!
Fire DPS’s
Among the listed characters, Modernia and Asuka will spend nearly all their time together with Rei due to their team dynamics. Alice, however, isn’t well-suited as her synergy lies more with Scarlet: Black Shadow. Furthermore, during Alice’s burst state, she cannot benefit from Rei’s 48% ATK damage boost since she is also in a bursting state herself. A2 and 2B are competent fire DPS characters, but A2 necessitates a healer and 2B already boasts a large ATK pool.
Burst: Annihilation: High Explosives
This ability impacts all Fire Code allies, boosting their attack power by 48.02% for a duration of 10 seconds. Additionally, it creates a shield that’s equivalent to 13.44% of the caster’s maximum health, lasting for the same 10-second period. Furthermore, this ability affects all enemies, dealing damage equal to 990.2% of the final attack power during its duration.
Rei’s shield is quite handy since it can fully ward off powerful strikes once for every other full burst. Remarkably, any damage beyond the shield’s health value won’t seep through to the safeguarded units, making it an exceptional tool for maintaining survivability in certain bosses that unleash single-hit devastating attacks (such as Ultra and Land Eater).
In essence, her protective barriers function effectively with fire-based Nikkes. Consequently, your Burst I and Burst II supports might be susceptible to area-of-effect (AoE) attacks unless you take the initiative to safeguard them personally. During solo raids and boss fights, coverage can sometimes be scarce, making it unrealistic to depend solely on Rei’s shields in most challenging content.
The explosion delivers considerable area-of-effect (AOE) damage that proves handy in both campaigns and player versus player (PvP), yet it only contributes slightly to her total damage output during boss encounters or solo rapture duels.
Campaign
Rei might not shine exceptionally during the campaign, but she could still prove useful in supporting the suggested Nikkes. She’s not the first choice, but in a pinch, she can fill the role if there are no better supporters available.
Rei does have a saving grace besides buffing other fire code Nikkes, it being her screen wipe burst, and a rather powerful one at that. She’s stronger than the other non-pilgrim screen wipers (Maiden, Privaty: Unkind Maid, Kilo). Scarlet and Rei should share similar performance in campaign if the player is not running specialized teams (Mono Fire, Mono Electric) with Scarlet having a slight DPS edge, while Rei can take care of pesky hit count raptures (Glasses) found in later chapters.
Mono Fire Team
Summary, 7/10 Campaign Clearing, Strong in Mono Fire Content
A team that might require a bit more strategic thinking compared to standard teams, not due to any complex tricks, but rather because the player must decide which unit to attack at the right moment.
In my gaming experience, it’s not often I find myself needing to switch characters frequently like I do with this team. Given that Asuka delivers burst damage against boss waves, Rei boosts attack power, and Modernia controls the crown, I constantly have to swap between them to make the most of their unique abilities.
It seems that Rei may not be as crucial to our team as Asuka or Modernia, since they can accomplish tasks effectively even without her contribution, and her power output doesn’t appear to be essential for us to clear stages efficiently.
Roles And Replacements
Main Nikke
Cool Down Reduction
- Liter – Cool down Reduction, ATK buff, cover repair, Other Offensive Buffs
DPS’s (B3’s)
- Modernia – Crowd Control, Sub-DPS
- Asuka – Burst Damage, Pierce
- Rei – Buffer, DPS
Offensive Supports (B2’s)
- Crown – Multitude of Offensive buffs, Best in slot B2 in almost every team
Replacements
Cool Down Reduction (Literless)
- Volume, Dorothy, D: Killer Wife
DPS’s (B3’s)
- Alice (High Investment, Manual Play Heavy) – Single Target Damage, wave clear, burst generator
Offensive Supports (B2)
- Rosanna: Chic Ocean
- Burst generator (Centi, Anis, Nihilister)
Skill Investments / Heavy Investment
Assume All skills of team members are at least 5/5/5.
- Mid Game: Modernia 10/7/5 -> Crown 7/7/7 Asuka 7/10/7 -> Liter 7/5/7 -> Rei 5/7/5
- Late Game: Modernia 10/10/7 ->Crown 10/10/10 -> Asuka 10/10/10 -> Liter 10/5/10 -> Rei 7/7/7
In simpler terms, Rei’s abilities don’t improve much with each level increase, so it’s not beneficial to upgrade her past level 7.
Arena
Luckily, Rei’s powerful burst abilities make her highly effective in the arena setting, thanks to her area-of-effect (AoE) damage. While she doesn’t bring anything particularly novel to the table, she can serve as a reliable substitute in team compositions featuring Scarlet or Jackal.
In a fight, Rei’s special attack, or burst skill, should deal damage comparable to Scarlet’s. However, it’s important to note that Rei takes longer to build up the power for this burst due to its wind-up time, and also has a limit of 30 frames per second in the arena setting.
Will be expanded in the future (Gotta nudge my PvP dude again, I dislike PvP – Valkin)
Special Interception | Solo Raid | Union Raid
Special Interception (+ Anomaly)
As a gamer, I find that Rei isn’t too useful in special interceptions beyond taking down fire-weak bosses. Luckily for me, Alteisein is one of those fire-weak bosses, and it’s arguably the hardest special intercept boss that newbies struggle with the most.
For a beginner without other means to boost elemental damage, Rei’s enhanced damage output is quite beneficial. Regardless of whether the Commander has other fire-type Nikkes to combine with, Rei can still hold her own and deal substantial damage.
Anomaly (Indivilia)
Rei is a great pick against Indivilia but not quite first choice. Despite being able to run a 1-1-3 Burst formation against Indivilia with Asuka/Alice,Rei,Modernia. Running Crown Naga or Tia/Naga still nets similar if not more damage than Rei’s team even if Crown gets wiped out in phase 2 due to a cover piercing Nuke.
Solo Raid | Union Raid
Pretty easy topic to talk about. Rei will be used nowhere else except one team.
Mono-Fire Team
As a dedicated fan, I’m confident that my Rei’s Shield and Asuka’s lifesteal capabilities will be more than sufficient to keep my team alive during this solo raid, tailored specifically for these Nikkes.
1. Rosanna could also be referred to as Novel or Mast. In cases where healing is required, you might use Marcianna or Rem instead. Asuka can be interchanged with Ludmilla: Winter’s Proprietor.
In most Solo raid scenarios, this team is likely to inflict the third or fourth highest amount of damage. However, its resilience could use improvement since it heavily depends on shields for every other full burst and utilizing Asuka’s life-steal mechanic. This setup might not be sustainable in future solo raids.
Closing Thoughts/ Should you pull
A very hard topic. her kit’s nature is very niche and can be hit or miss for many Commanders as there are realistically only 2 Nikkes that can pair with her well. This may change in the future depending on Nikke launches (Fire Nikkes).
Rei’s solo raid team is quite powerful, especially in non-element-neutral content, but there’s some uncertainty about her role, even within her favorite team composition.
If you’re targeting top-tier solo raid content that caters to fire-based raids now and in the future, and you already possess Asuka, or require a temporary substitute for Scarlet in Arena, then consider pulling. However, if you’re short on gems or tickets, it might be wiser to wait for Mari (assumed to be excellent) or the Anniversary Pilgrim if your Commander lacks them.
| Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rei Ayanami | Skill 1: 4 Skill 2 : 4 Burst : 7 | Skill 1: 7 Skill 2 : 7 Burst : 10 | S2 > S1 | Skill 1 and 2 have low scaling for their skills, and are not impactful enough to warrant spending gold books for. Her burst offers a high ATK damage up boost, which is good for Strong Sub-DPS Nikkes (Currently only Modernia as of now) | High |
Expected Ratings
Rather rough estimations of ratings for Rei Ayanami
| Category | Rating |
| Overall (PvE) | S-SS |
| Story | S~ |
| Bosses | S-SS~ |
| Arena | SS~ |
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2024-08-29 21:04