Purrchena Best Build Guide

Purrchena is a 5-star, Physical, Sword Defender who’s all about doing the best with the hand you’re given. Her Combo Skill and Ultimate can summon boxes with random effects, which can heal, build stagger, group up enemies, etc.

As a Defender, she brings with her the Survivability benefits of one, with HP Treatment, Protection, and a parry skill that returns SP to the team and can be followed up with an attack that applies a Nature Infliction. Getting parries ends up being important too, not only because it increases its SP return, but because it gives extra Ultimate Energy and counts as “getting hit”, which triggers her Combo Skill.

Her gameplay loop revolves around getting frequent uses of her Battle Skill so as to trigger her Combo Skill and build up to her Ultimate, then adapting rotations to the stagger she gets. If luck is on your side, then she can open up very fast rotations.

Battle Skill

“I’M NOT SLEEPING!” is Purrchena’s Battle Skill, split into 2 parts. 

The cast consumes 100 SP but returns 20, and will apply a strong (90%!) Protection at M3 while putting Purrchena in a blocking stance for 3 seconds. If she’s hit during this stance, the block will extend by another 3 seconds, and it will return an additional 20 SP.

Regardless of whether she’s hit or not, it’ll change to “LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!”, which, when used, performs a headbutt that deals Nature DMG and applies a Nature Infliction. This is the only skill in her entire kit that does Arts DMG instead of Physical.

Unlike most operator Battle Skills, which build 10 stagger, this follow-up attack builds 20! Similar “on-hit” attacks, like Ember’s Battle Skill, need the operator to be hit for additional stagger, but Purrchena will get the full value even without blocking with the I’M NOT SLEEPING portion.

Assuming the full 40 SP return is granted, this is one of the most efficient sources of Nature Inflictions and stagger in the game.

Be wary, though, because it is SP return and not recovery! As SP return does not build Ultimate Energy, 3 uses of this Battle Skill can lead to 120 SP’s worth of Energy deficit, significantly altering the Ultimate Gain Efficiency thresholds of other operators.

Combo

“CAKE OR ‘PREZZIE’” is Purrchena’s Combo Skill, and it’s where much of her random variance comes from.

It’s triggered when the controlled operator is hit (such as from her Battle Skill’s block), has a 22s cooldown and has Purrchena throw a “Gift Box” to the controlled operator. This Gift Box will always grant some HP Treatment in a small area (scaling with her WILL stat), but yield 1 of 3 different effects:

• “Bomb” will be a single-hit explosion that deals damage and builds 10 stagger.

• “Handicraft” will vacuum nearby enemies together into a black hole while dealing damage, but building no stagger.

• “Yummy Dessert” will give additional HP treatment to the controlled operator, also scaling with Purrchena’s WILL.

Only one of these effects can trigger per Combo Skill use. There is a slight delay (around 2s) between Combo Skill cast and the Gift Box resolving.

It can also be used mid-Battle Skill and it will not remove Purrchena from the blocking stance.

It’s a simple but tricky skill to work with, owing to how unreliable it is. 

Bomb is great for pushing through to a quick stagger, but it may misalign rotations by building too much or too little.

Most operators have 10 stagger on their Combo Skills to begin with, so even if it's successful, it isn’t any better than what one would get without running her. The high stagger on Purrchena’s Battle Skill makes up for this, but the randomness on whether she’ll have more or less stagger can mess up rotations.

Handicraft’s range isn’t terrible (assuming P3+), and it lingers for a bit with multiple pulses, so it can pull enemies that weren’t caught by the first hit, but it may also not happen at all and fail to group when it's most needed.

And the delay means that it can’t be used to interrupt enemy red circle attack prompts, not to mention that if Yummy Dessert happens, it won’t even deal any damage to interrupt them to begin with.

Still, if luck resolves to give the desired skill effect, then it can be very helpful.

Ultimate

“NAUGHTY IS BANNED!” is Purrchena’s Ultimate, and it works as a turbocharged variant of her Combo Skill.

It demands 100 Energy, but as all players can get her at P5, the P4 Ultimate Energy Cost reduction will be active, taking it down to 85 Energy.

By itself, it does nothing, instead summoning 3 “Big Feline’s Prezzies”. Each one will turn into either a Bomb, Handicraft or an “Ambassador’s Special”.

This works like an upgraded Bomb, dealing double the damage and 15 stagger, as well as applying a 3% Arts Susceptibility (at P5) debuff to enemies hit for 5 seconds. This Susceptibility effect can stack, so if 3 Ambassador’s Specials appear, it’d go up to 9%.

Unlike her Combo Skill, which has an equal chance for all 3 effects, it’s split evenly between Bomb and Handicraft, while the Ultimate’s Ambassador Special has a base 30% chance to appear (at P1+), which is increased by Purrchena’s Talents.

Talent

“Your sorry came LATE!” is Purrchena’s first Talent, and it significantly enhances her Battle Skill. On successful blocks, it generates 10 additional Ultimate Energy for her, and increases the chance of an Ambassador’s Special appearing on the next Ultimate cast by 10%, stacking up to 3 times.

This is an additive increase that does not get multiplied by P1, so it goes 30% (Base) → 40% → 50% → 60%. It applies only to the following Ultimate cast, resetting after use, but this chance is fixed to all 3 Big Feline’s Prezzies. So at max stacks, it’s a 60% chance to all 3.

“Ambassador’s Duty” is Purrchena’s second Talent, and it gives a universal 50% DMG taken decrease effect to the entire team if they’re at Max HP, effectively cutting the first instance of damage they take by half.

It does have a 90s cooldown though (per operator!), so even if operators return to Max HP, the effect won’t trigger again until it expires.

Basic

“DESSERT! HAVE SOME!” is Purrchena’s Basic Attack, and it’s quite decent. It’s only a 3-part sequence, but it builds 21 stagger and 23 SP.

She can animation cancel all hits:

• SEQ 1 is a double swing, with a cancel point after the first swing hits.

• SEQ 2 has her ride her shield for 3 hits, with a cancel point as soon as the 3rd hit connects.

• SEQ 3 is the final strike, and can be cancelled as soon as the final hit connects.

SEQ 1 isn’t worth cancelling, but there’s a long recovery animation after SEQ 2. Dash cancelling it significantly speeds up her Basic Attacks, giving her decent stagger and SP per second on it.

Unfortunately, she’s unlikely to do much damage, and as her Combo Skill HP treatment is given to the active operator, it’s best to be on a damage dealer so that she can get her weapon’s effects applied to them.

Likewise, her Finisher has little use, especially as she buffs with Arts Susceptibility through Ultimate as well as Arts Intensity and DMG Dealt with her weapon, none of which apply to her as all non-Battle Skill DMG is Physical. 

Energy

Purrchena’s own Ultimate isn’t very difficult to work towards. As she gets a bonus 10 Energy on her Battle Skill, even after accounting for SP return, she has no issues with self-sustaining.

3 Battle Skill, 3 Combo Skill

If Purrchena can get 3 Battle Skills (each one triggering a Combo Skill), then even a 600 SP rotation gives more than enough resources to her. In practice, though, such rotations are difficult to pull off without Combo Skill cooldown reduction sets, owing to her long 22s cooldown.

2 Battle Skill, 2 Combo Skill

A more realistic scenario is 2 Battle and 2 Combo Skills. As there’s less SP returned, it’s possible for Purrchena to meet the requirements for this with only a single Ultimate Gain Efficiency Armor.

Having to work her Battle Skill only when her Combo Skill is up can be restrictive, however, and other operators may prefer having different Infliction sources (e.g. Yvonne with Xaihi). Thankfully, Purrchena can go even lower.

1 Battle Skill, 1 Combo Skill

0 Battle Skill, 1 Combo Skill

Even with only a single Battle and Combo Skill, Purrchena can still get her Ultimate with only a Glove and Kit. If 2 kits are used, then she doesn’t even need to land a Battle Skill, and a single Combo Skill triggered by purposefully getting hit before burst would be enough.

As Battle Skill blocks increase the chance of her getting Ambassador’s Special, it’d be best to maximise their use, but the SP return can mess with other operators’ rotations. 

For example, Yvonne, on a 4 Inflictions, 3 Battle & 2 Combo Skill rotation, would be able to support up to 3 Purrchena Battle Skills… but only if there are no additional sources of SP return, like Tangtang, as otherwise that would demand Ultimate Gain Efficiency pieces.

When tailoring rotations, make sure to account for the loss of Energy from SP returns, as depending on the team set-up, it may necessitate gear changes.

How to Play

Purrchena is a very simple operator, as her game plan simply amounts to making use of her Battle Skill for her Nature Infliction, Combo Skill trigger and Protection, which can trigger Eternal Xiranite. As the items the giftbox reveals are completely random, it’s all about adjusting to what’s given, or if pushing for a specific route, restarting until the right set of items come around.

There isn’t much of a flowchart for her because how she’s used will differ depending on the carry operator that she’s supporting.

For example, it may be good to use her Battle Skill early for her Combo Skill trigger, but the Nature Infliction may not actually be needed. 

So instead of wasting SP, simply getting hit on purpose (like by making use of Final Strikes’ interrupt resistance) for her Combo Skill may be best.

Enemy attacks won’t always align with Final Strike timings, however, so if it interrupts controlled operator strings, then whatever stagger benefit could be brought about by Purrchena’s Combo Skill is offset by a reset Basic Attack sequence.

So the ideal is to simply integrate her Nature Inflictions into rotations as needed, trying to get it and a Combo Skill trigger within 15s of burst landing, for Eternal Xiranite, Corrosion, weapon buffs, etc.

The amount of stagger that she gets can vary wildly. 3 Combo Skills and an Ultimate can give up to 75 stagger, or it can give 0. Both of these are unlikely extremes, but how quickly she builds (or fails to build) stagger will alter route planning.

Simply try to adapt to the stagger she builds and treat her as a standard Nature Infliction applier, tailoring rotations to work around the SP return she gives if needed, but otherwise freestyle stagger alignments.