08/12 Global Patch Notes
Maintenance schedule: 8th of December, 2022 16:00 ~ 18:00 (UTC+9)
For the full patch notes, go to the official site: Patch Notes and Shop Updates. Also, there's a third official blog post today that explains how the collab will work.
List of things added with this update
Counter Side x holoMyth Collaboration
Coffin Company Holiday Getaway
Holiday Getaway Free 100 Recruits banner
New awakened character - Awakened Joo Shiyoon
New character - Lucrecia,
Story update - Episode 7
New system - Rearm (and this comes with 7 new 'characters')
Counter Side x holoMyth Collaboration
The first Global collab is here! Compared to the Guilty Gear X and Code Geass collabs that were released in KR, holomyth collab just brings us skins for 5 characters:
Lucrecia - Mori Calliope
Awakened Yuna - Takanashi Kiara
Edel Meitner - Ninomae Ina'nis
Kaci Bins - Gawr Gura
Yang Harim - Watson Amelia
As a free-to-play, player, if you complete the event that comes with the collab, you will receive one of the skins for free - but it's random which you will get.
If you want to get the other skins (or all of them), be ready to open your wallet as each skin costs $35.99. That's honestly a steep price, maybe because the pack contains not only the skin but additional 'pulls' for the event figurines. While the skins are really high quality, bundling them up with additional items to inflate their price (a common practice in mobile gaming) feels like a low blow. We trusted you StudioBside.
Overall, check the official collaboration guide to get more details about the events and missions that come with it.
Coffin Company Holiday Getaway
Now, let's move to a much happier topic - the Coffin Company Holiday Getaway event that's basically a reskinned 2nd-anniversary event. The event comes with:
login calendar,
100 free pull banner (visible above),
set of anniversary missions,
4 new Recital skins.
New awakened character - Awakend Joo Shiyoon
Arhat Shiyoon is a counterattacking monster that can survive quite a beating thanks to the 100% evasion on both his Special and Ultimate. His base stats are pretty crazy: 70k HP, 1.1k DEF, 840 EVA, and 1.2k CIRT at level 110 ungeared. His Perfect Evasion buff paired with DMG Tolerance makes him one of the tankiest Strikers in the game and only the lack of MDL separates him from the best Defenders.
All his attacks have good range, including the basic attack that easily reaches behind enemy defenders and strikes the squisher rangers/supporters hiding behind them.
In PVE he's very similar to A.Yuna as he can carry your team in Shadow Palace because there are a lot of Counter type units that can be countered (and skills are the biggest problem in SP5). He's also a good choice for Dives and some Danger Close bosses (like Soli where you often use normal Shiyoon). In endgame PVE content, he's commonly used in Dive 50 and in two out of the three Relic Dungeons, which makes him a good endgame choice for the tanky frontline spot that messes up with bosses by countering them.
In PVP he is a balanced character that counters some meta characters, but at the same time, there are multiple ways to counter him. He totally sucks against E1 teams and employees who can remove buffs (he's heavily reliant on them to survive). You can also drop a bait employee behind him to force out his counterattack and make his skills attack the other way, saving your team in the process. Against counter teams, he needs someone to peel for him because Ifrit/Millia can melt him with their absurd DPS despite him having great stats and perma-evasion.
Overall Arhat Shiyoon is a strong employee in PVE and in PVP he has some exploitable weaknesses.
Ratings
PVE - SS
PVP (SEA) - A
PVP (Global) - S
Should you pull?
Arhat Shiyoon will help you a lot in PVE, but he isn't a must-have anywhere - just an all-round strong character that can be used from the early to the late game. In PVP, while he has the potential to be meta during some weeks, he has some glaring weaknesses that prevent him from being used more often.
New character - Lucretia
Lucrecia is an Air Ranger who keeps her allies alive and debuffs enemies at the same time. Her kit is great for PVE, but in PVP there are quite a lot of characters that can remove buffs - like Yen Xing or Serina operator.
In PVE she allows you to cheese some stages with the Immortality buff, but it requires manual gameplay to deploy her at the right moment. Still, even if you use her on auto, the debuffs she provides are really good.
As for PVP. She's squishy, but being an air unit she can stay in the back safely. The immortality buff she gives can change the flow of the battle and for a 3 cost unit, she deals scary amounts of damage.
Ratings
PVE - A
PVP (SEA) - S
PVP (Global) - S
Should you pull?
Lucretia is a decent character that can help you cheese some content and be super annoying in PVP. So she's worth getting, but only if you already have a pretty decent roster.
New system - Rearm
Rearm System takes some old and underused (in most cases) characters and evolves them, giving them new skills, and sometimes even changing their class. We have an extensive guide for Rearm already, so please check it out to learn how this system works!
For the Global release of the system, 7 characters will receive their rearmed versions:
Kestrel Xiao Lin - check profile
Expert Mercenary Yoo Mina - check profile
Best Mascot Irie - check profile
Blue Blood Elizabeth - check profile
Near Astrea Esterosa - check profile
Purple Mist Laura - check profile
Agent Eujin - check profile
The event that will be launched together with Rearm will give you enough materials to create Kestrel Xiao Lin and she's the primary target - there's no better PVE character in the game.
As for who should you rearm next, it all depends if you want to focus on PVE or PVP. Check the reviews above and the ratings we added for each Rearm character to decide.
Our suggestion is to go for Near Astrea Esterosa next as she's top tier in both PVE and PVP.
New skins - Recital
Four new skins will be added to the game with this update and you check them on the blog cover image!
