Awakened HildeInformation and Guide

Summary

Awakened Hilde (AHilde) is a frontline tank with an obscene HP pool capable of disrupting enemies with her push-oriented kit. AHilde’s passive, special skill, and ultimate skill all synergize together to make a frontline tank capable of dealing heavy knockback and holding the space gained.

AHilde’s Alternium Reactor gives her some more team utility in the form of a barrier granted to all on field allies while AHilde is alive. This stacks with her passive, meaning she applies two distinct barriers on deployment.

PVE Review

AHilde is gifted to all players as a free story progression reward . Being a great frontline tank, she can be a major boon to new accounts lacking proper frontline options.

AHilde has an extremely low gear requirement. In PVE, her base DEF is almost enough to max category 1 DMG RES (refer to Terms and Mechanics guide). She only needs two substats’ worth of anti-ground DMG RES at level 100, and one substat’s worth at level 110. Additionally, her frequent self-barrier application reduces the pressure on her supports to keep her alive.

AHilde can survive almost any content in the game but in most cases, the durability she brings is excessive. Players eventually outgrow her in favor of more affordable frontline tanks, as oftentimes players only need a generic frontline tank. Her 6 DP cost can also be unwieldy when compared to cheaper alternatives who tank just as well for the situation.

This doesn’t make her entirely useless, as players may revisit her when the typical frontline tanks aren’t enough. These include Dive 50, specific Danger Close bosses (notably Soprano), but extends to any difficult stage (e.g. Dimension Trimming).

PVP Review

In PVP, AHilde can shove the enemy team around and ruin their units’ spacing. If AHilde can survive to cast her ultimate, she can provide a ton of value disrupting your opponent’s positioning by knocking back frontline tanks to expose the backline.

AHilde’s alternium reactor has breathed new life into the unit. She now sees decent usage during extreme stall-heavy weeks by giving her team additional bulk with the barriers provided by her alternium reactor. These barriers provide a great deal of survivability and help stabilize the backline provided that AHilde herself is not struggling to stay alive.

As a 6 DP frontline tank, AHilde can be remarkably inflexible and frequently struggles to justify her own existence in comps that would sooner run someone else. Her cost, which has always been a pain point, becomes especially difficult to work with in PVP when she is competing against other more efficient frontline tanks (e.g. Rearm Kaci, Rearm Alex). AHilde does provide unique value in the form of her barriers but when you only need a frontline tank who can soak damage, there is little that she provides over the alternatives.

Dealing with AHilde has always been one of the first major challenges new PVP players face. Between her innate tankiness, constant knockback, gap closer, and barrier spam, she can single-handedly overwhelm new players’ teams and quickly kill the game by squeezing everyone against the edge of the map. AHilde can be managed with some combination of:

• Bringing properly geared anti-defender units: This can be a dedicated anti-defender damage dealers (e.g. Old Administration Rifleman) or characters inherently good against defenders (Awakened Maria, Awakened Regina). 

• Giving your frontline tanks movement accessories: Movement accessories go a long way towards frontline survivability. Beyond the dodge chance, the EVA from movements help push most frontline tanks past AHilde’s surefire threshold. Being able to dodge AHilde’s special makes her much easier to manage.

• Stacking multiple frontline tanks in front of AHilde: Building off the above point on evasion, stacking multiple frontline tanks makes it much harder for AHilde to knock back both.

Most of the time, AHilde difficulties stem from gear deficiencies. AHilde (and PVP in general) becomes more manageable as you iron out your substats and come to own a few proper sets.