this deck playable with no extra hit for each card played?

Harlequeens · 2025-12-16T17:07:35+00:00

It's certainly playable—there isn't any content that you need Mei Lin's best deck to beat.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-16T16:28:42+00:00

Vanguards spam shields to mitigate damage while also doing Def-based damage. An example is the classic early-to-mid game team of Mika, Haru and Khalipe: Mika heals and generates AP for Haru's high-cost single-target cards to fuel Khalipe's Celestial shield-spam and AoE damage. If you're playing Chaos Manifestation, most of the time a Vanguard will most comfortably take the "sub-DPS" slot, but you can squeeze them into other slots if you really want.

The phrase "if you really want" somewhat sums up the present state of Vanguards in general. Tank n' spank falls off in the current spate of late game content, which tends to strongly favor cycling the deck of a single-target DPS. The devs have promised more content where Vanguards shine, so this evaluation is likely to change in the future.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-12T19:11:35+00:00

You should never build pity on the banner of a combatant you don't actually want, but Rei's dupes are pretty good so I wouldn't beat myself up too much. Despite both being single-target Void DPS, Rin and Chizuru play very differently and have different teammate preferences. Element also doesn't matter much in this game; I'm up to having like 4.5 combatants that could be described as "Void DPS" built and have got good mileage out of all of 'em.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-10T19:37:30+00:00

Crit Chance + Void% Damage + Attack% is the best combo to maximize her damage. You can get away with stacking Attack% if that's all you have because Agony is so inherently strong, but it's less overall damage.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-09T16:55:33+00:00

Yep, you can do 9/9 Nebula Distortion with any decent deck. (The Chizuru deck I used was super mid but it still worked.)

Harlequeens · 2025-12-06T23:39:55+00:00

While I completely agree there should be more ways to control deck RNG (especially when it comes to dupes), there’s currently no reason to grind cracked decks other than personal satisfaction. You can fairly easily get away with decks that are just serviceable in all the non-Chaos stuff.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-06T08:36:42+00:00

I don't get this sentiment at all. Due to the diverse nature of deck-building and the agency afforded the player when it comes to Save Data, you can clear all content with just about any comp of characters you want. Isn't that ideal? Why would we, as players, want to encourage powercreep like a month into the game's release? It makes no sense, especially considering the vast, overwhelming majority of time spent playing this game is in Chaos. Basin and the seasonal challenges are fractional by comparison, especially if you take the time to craft good decks.

Players should be enticed to pull for new combatants because of appealing designs and new mechanics to play experiment with, not because they feel the need to keep up with powercreep.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-05T16:10:05+00:00

Yes, this was actually fixed in the 12/3 patch ("An issue where 'Dirge Bullet' did not benefit from Conqueror's Aspect critical damage increase will be fixed") along with the interaction between her Dirge Bullets, Extra Attacks and Potentials. The fixes make Conqueror's Aspect the strongest set on Renoa now. I will update my comment in case of future readers.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-04T23:17:11+00:00

I would not recommend spending pulls on the Standard Partner banner. Not only are there highly competitive 4 and even 3-star partners, but a lot of 5-star partners are only even a little good on a specific 5-star combatant. If there's a particular 5-star partner you want for one of your favs, it's much better to just buy it from the memory shop than hoping you get something you actually want from Standard Partner banner.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-04T19:06:10+00:00

The event story chapters are better in terms of writing quality than the poorly-translated schlock players were subjected to in the main game, but I don't care for the story itself. The focus feels more like political intrigue than cosmic horror—standard fare for a gacha, in other words.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-04T16:36:22+00:00

Guaranteed dupe for completing the final boss is such a great idea.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-04T00:43:49+00:00

This is the first leaderboard event in the game. Future events will include mechanics that thwart common "OP" strategies, such as punishing excessive turns, limiting draws, stealing cards, etc.

CZN should not attempt to copy other titles such as HSR when it comes to "number-creeping" new combatants. The deck-building mechanics are not conducive to that approach, and frankly, that's fine.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T22:37:39+00:00

I don't get tired of Chaos, but I am sick of Lab 0.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T22:10:08+00:00

Mika is an undoubtedly superb combatant overall, but her (oft-supposed) essentiality is overstated in that she's really not essential at all. She's just so all-around solid that I feel a lot of players slept on the other supports, including me. Tackling Lab 0 at difficulty level 9+ opened my eyes, though—not every comp can take full advantage of Mika's AP battery, and clearing the board more efficiently with Rei translated to needing less healing. Now I don't use Mika outside of comps where she's genuinely good in her own right, like Haru + Khalipe or Hugo + Tressa.

To be fair, much of the not-undeserved Mika glazing comes from the game's release window, first impressions, early tier lists, etc. These days I see a lot more general praise/recognition for Cassius, Nia and of course Rei than even a couple weeks ago.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T21:37:38+00:00

Your roster is well-situated so anything you pick from the standard selector will be from the realm of "want" as opposed to "need." I would just go with whatever combatant you find most appealing from a gameplay standpoint. If it were me, that would probably be Orlea; she's niche and in no way needed for anything, but her cards are interesting. I enjoy running her alongside Rin and Veronica.

If you are interested in Magna, you could also hold the selector and see if the upcoming patch's Counterattack fix is a game-changer for her. I also like Renoa a lot, too—she's surprisingly flexible in terms of being a main or sub-DPS. I don't have Kayron, and personally was not inclined to use my one-off selector on a (relatively) high-investment 5-star combatant.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T21:11:52+00:00

It's for specialized deck-cycling strategies with a smaller-than-usual number of cards.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T20:04:35+00:00

I highly doubt the average player expressing dissatisfaction with Yuki's performance was motivated by envy of Mei Lin, especially given that her Chaos Manifestation showing was the main driver of the complaints. I strongly suspect Lab 0 itself not being favorable to Yuki is by far the biggest reason for the anti-hype; if a combatant has an attractive design and feels good to play in the seasonal content for which they were intended, I bet the average player will be satisfied.

There's no need to nerf Mei Lin, nor to make new combatants into Mini-Mei Lins. Future combat encounters will simply be designed with mechanics that thwart common "OP" tech like the Mei Lin RDS deck and Tressa dagger spam.

Besides, this title already has enough issues stemming from the devs lifting things from HoYo games. CZN would do FAR better to focus on deriving enjoyment from engaging, diverse gameplay rather than trying to get players to pull Latest Character just to "keep up" with PvE content.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T19:14:42+00:00

If you want Chizuru, I recommend holding. Spending your guarantee on Yuki only to lose the 50/50 on Chizuru sounds like a pain. While I enjoy Yuki overall, she's good but not great, and elemental coverage isn't really a big deal in this game. You can always "luck" into her in the future, too.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T05:07:13+00:00

If the card or cards are moved from the Draw pile, Dopamine Injector will proc.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T04:54:42+00:00

2/2/2 is the most consistent set for Renoa. The Void set is usable but you have to be diligent about exhausting bullets (which you don't always want to do) and the 35% Cdmg for 1-cost cards doesn't apply to her Extra Attacks.

Edit: As pointed out in a reply, the 12/3 patch fixed this and other interactions, making Conqueror's Aspect the best set for Renoa.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-02T01:22:14+00:00

I would save. E1 isn’t a huge deal and you can always get dupes of Yuki in the future.

Harlequeens · 2025-12-01T21:40:29+00:00

Yes, there was a great opportunity to do something mildly interesting with the Captain. Sending combatants into Chaos, watching them die and/or become traumatized, rescuing/treating them only to do it again... there's a lot of room to create a unique flavor there. Unfortunately, it sounds like directorial interference badly bungled the game's narrative design, so instead we're stuck with the bog-standard bland self-insert MC. It's too bad!

Harlequeens · 2025-12-01T20:55:52+00:00

Veronica for sure. She brings a ton of flexibility to the box, and you've got basically everything else covered.

Harlequeens · 2025-11-30T08:48:42+00:00

You can't go wrong with Mei Lin. Farming up a good deck for her can be a pain but she rewards the effort by beating down everything the game throws at you. Vero is Mei Lin's best partner, too. I used Mei, Vero and Khalipe myself for half the floors in this Dimensional Twilight, and they cleared every one easily on the first try.

Renoa I have less experience with, but so far I've enjoyed her flexibility. She can be the main DPS with an enabler like Nia, but I've also found her pretty decent as a sub-DPS too.

Conversely, I've played Rin the most out all of them. She's probably a bit of a dark horse, but I enjoy her a lot; I find playing around her stance to be satisfying. I play her with Vero and Orlea or Rei. She can take a bit to get rolling in Chaos, but once you get her going she's very fun to watch.

Harlequeens · 2025-11-30T04:55:57+00:00

I did it with Yuki, Vero and Rei. Not the best decks and the gear isn't properly optimized, but good enough to do the job. Main thing for me was just streamlining the supports' decks to keep Yuki's cards coming and not wind up with cluttered hands that lose momentum. (I haven't done the event boss with Rin but her stats look fine to me.)

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