Foreword

This guide is split into two parts. The first one shows all awakened characters available in the game, and the second suggests which awakened characters should you get depending on how long are you playing the game.

Awakened characters

Awakened Hilde

ASSR Awakened Hilde

Defender
Defender
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

A

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

A

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Hilde is a wall. The strongest, sturdiest, and most annoying wall in the game. Sadly, her biggest problem is that she's nothing else besides being a wall. While other Defenders help the team in other ways besides staying alive and keeping the backline safe, Awakened Hilde is too selfish to care about them and keeps charging forward - sometimes even to her utter demise from outspacing her own healers.

She is by no means a bad employee. Whenever you encounter a PVE stage where your units die too fast, just drop A. Hilde first and she will carry you due to her 5% MDL, barriers, and her crazy high HP/DEF stats. The problem is, a wall is not just what new players need. Sure, while she will do the job and stay alive, other Awakened employees can not only do the same, but they can also deal damage simultaneously.

It's worth noting, though, that recently her PVE stock rose - she's commonly used in Dive 48-50 teams, even auto for some players. There are very few tanks that can achieve this and Hilde makes it the easiest among them.

In PVP, she also works great in lower elo ranks as most players there simply do not have the means to stop her. The same applies for new servers - no one has any gear and there are not many units that can even hope to chip her. Later on though, while she becomes less viable, she still remains usable.

Pros

- the best wall in the game, great in any PVE mode besides Raids,

- will tank for you for days,

- her charge allows her to reach the squishier backline.

Cons

- she is nothing else besides being a wall, and for 6 cost you expect an Awakened Employee to do a bit more.

Lee Jisoo

ASSR Lee Jisoo

Supporter
Supporter
Counter
Counter

5 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

B

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

A

PVP (GLB)

Review

Lee Jisoo was often called the weakest Awakened employee. If you started playing the game close to its launch, you could obtain her for free from a bingo event. Guess that is the reason why she was so underwhelming.

Over a long history of buffs, meta changes, and healing debuff changes, she's still fills her niche of blocking off healing, especially for some PVE stages, but aside from that she doesn't have much use.

As for PVP, she still doesn't bring enough to pay off her 5 deployment cost and it is hard to use her unless you somehow run into someone running 5 healers.

Pros

- heal block,

- pretty good stats that make her a good off-tank.

Cons

- Healing Reduction is niche.

Awakened Yoo Mina

ASSR Awakened Yoo Mina

Striker
Striker
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

B

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Yoo Mina, also known as the human bomber. Sliding right into your backline for 2 years and counting.

With ASPD or Spectral Set blaze, she can have permanent uptime on Perfect Evasion in PVE and you don't have to worry about her dying randomly, as she can keep herself alive pretty well with Perfect Evasion alongside her good base HP and DEF.

In PVP, Perfect Evasion on deploy means that she can't be knocked around and killed before she unleashes her combo, and to make things worse, she also gains PE after making her enhanced attack. This means that she's super tanky and deals scary damage at the same time - at least as long as PE buff isn't removed.

Still, she's countered by employees with high HIT, like Xiao Lin, or those who have Sure Fire effect on their skills, like Awakened Amy. Stuns can also effectively stall Mina, since Perfect Evasion does not prevent stun, while units like Machine Collector and Operators like Serina can completely remove her Perfect Evasion buff.

Hence, while she's still strong, she has her counterplay.

Pros

- crazy on-deploy damage,

- Perfect Evasion makes her super hard to kill,

- %HP damage attached to her enhanced attack means she can deal great damage to high HP targets.

Cons

- buff removers counter her because Perfect Evasion is a buff,

- and so do high HIT employees, like Xiao.

Awakened Lee Sooyeon

ASSR Awakened Lee Sooyeon

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter

5 cost | Air Type | All Attack

S

PVE

SSS

PVP (SEA)

SSS

PVP (GLB)

Review

ALSY is the first awakened air employee that was added to the game and at the same time, she's also an anti-air specialist. Guess she doesn't like to share the space with others. Still, being the best anti-air employee in the game isn't the only thing good about her. First of all, she's a 5-cost awakened employee, meaning it's easier to fit her in a team, but she's also a great buffer that makes Counter Rangers in your team way way stronger by buffing their Skill Haste. She has the strongest ETB passive in the game; not only does it hit the whole battlefield, but it can one-shot most flying units like Rosalia/Lyudmila.

In PVE content ALSY shines in:

  • Guild Coop - ALSY is considered the Best-in-Slot character to guard the ship against all the flying units,

  • Shadow Palace Floor 3 - the floor is quite punishing if you try to brute force it using ground units and teams made of only air units have a much easier time there,

  • Relic Dungeons against Edel - as similar to Shadow Palace Floor 3, air teams shine there and ALSY is a core unit in that team,

  • any event stage where Air enemies are common as she can easily deal with them.

Still, keep in mind that besides Guild Coop where she is a must-have for those that plan to conquer the harder levels of the Guild Boss, you always have some alternatives - they might be slightly inferior to ALSY, but they can still work well.

In PVP because of her 5 base cost, she's easier to fit in your team than other awakened units. While other awakened employees have ups and downs and sometimes fall out of meta, ALSY is always dangerous. This is due to her lower cost which allows her to be used in various compositions, and also whenever she isn't banned, using air units is risky because a wild ALSY might appear and ruin someone's day. Especially Awakened Horizon abusers hate ALSY as she can ruin their day if she's deployed at the right moment.

ALSY is also one of the few units that reached Ban level 4 in PVP - not once, but multiple times and across multiple regions.

Pros

- Air units quiver in fear once they see ALSY take the field,

- low cost for an awakened employee,

- massively buffs Counter Rangers in your team,

- can survive quite long thanks to her barrier and being an Air unit.

Cons

- she's not a fire-and-forget type of awakened employee like Awakened Yuna or Awakened Seo Yoon. You need to deploy her at the right moment,

- she's a more PVP oriented employee,

- countered by anti-Air employees in PVP.

Awakened Yuna Springfield

ASSR Awakened Yuna Springfield

Striker
Striker
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Yuna is classified as a Striker who in reality is a tank/damage dealer/summoner/debuffer/dispeller hybrid. Honestly, they packed so much in her kit, you could split it between two or three other employees and they would be considered good on their own. Oh, and let's not forget about Rayleigh - the annoying bird deserves a SS rating across the board. Not only his damage is great, but he also harasses the backline with his attack and debuffs.

Yuna is basically a one-man army that doesn't even need a tank in front of her because she will heal up to full after using her skills. Her aura that deals %HP damage to anyone close to her gets stronger as enemies gain more levels because their HP pool gets massively inflated later in the game and she will just melt them slowly over time. Also, she will carry new players through the Story, all Events, some parts of Challenge Mode, and most importantly Shadow Palace (where to this day, you farm Best-In-Slot gear for most Soldiers and Mechs) which is why she's often recommended for them as the first Awakened employee they should get.

However, she has pretty hefty downsides too.

In stages with just a single enemy (Raids and Danger Close), she's only good for new players that lack better employees and gear. In Guild Coop, she's only used as a left-side ship defender that can easily deal with mobs rushing the ship and her damage is negligible against the worm. Also, in more recent endgame PVE game modes such as Dive 50 and Relic Dungeons, her kit simply doesn't work anymore, as she's often one-shotted making her self-healing useless.

This makes her more of an early-mid game carry unit rather than an endgame unit, but she is still worth pulling nevertheless because of how long she will carry before falling off.

In PVP, while she sounds good on paper with her buff block, backline attack, and self-sustain, she has many counters, such as Xiao Lin who can kill her in a flash before her self-heal saves her. This makes it so that while she is hard to use, she has the potential to be a very strong unit - especially with the Albion ship's stealth.

Pros

- % HP based damage is broken in high-end PVE in stages with a lot of enemies,

- she just doesn't die with all the self-healing in her kit,

- two units in one; the bird is stronger than some SSR rarity employees.

Cons

- countered by Silence,

- if you steal her bird with Harab, she will stop healing herself,

- current endgame PVE enemies usually one-shot her, so she's not as good there anymore.

Awakened Na Yubin

ASSR Awakened Na Yubin

Defender
Defender
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

B

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Na Yubin is an evasion-based tank that constantly pushes forward and tries to murder the backline, not giving his enemies any break, and if they try to use barriers as a form of protection, he will turn their power against them, unless the barrier happens to be non-cancellable.

Overall he has the highest evasion among all Defenders and it takes quite a while to kill him, but only if he's geared and has healers behind him. He requires a perfect tank set to shine - if you use him with sub-par gear, even SSR defenders will do a better job.

For a large amount of time, he was considered a pure PVP employee because his kit revolves around pushing forward, refluxing enemy shields, and countering Towers. While he lost the King of PVP status, he still remains a viable pick to counter camping teams which use Towers. He isn't exactly the best against some other teams, though. Also, since he moves so far into the enemy's backline, most healers don't even reach him; only Evelyn does consistently.

As for PVE, some of the Challenges and event stages make use of his unique kit, though he is far from a must-have. Also, he is commonly used as a support unit in Dive 50 as a decent Defender. He's still worse than most SSR defenders in early game PVE content, and is just a niche pick for a few stages in endgame.

Pros

- best evasion among Defenders,

- counters Shielders like Yang Harim,

- constantly pushes forward and tries to get to the enemy backline,

- his passive counters all Towers.

Cons

- not that useful in PVE,

- requires perfect gear to work in PVP.

Awakened Seo Yoon

ASSR Awakened Seo Yoon

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

A

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Seo Yoon is a top-tier damage dealer that dominates the battlefield by sheer presence. Her gimmick is that she can summon rifles that are Snipers while she is a Ranger, so you get two different damage dealers in one. Furthermore, she's quite hard to kill thanks to her rifles - they take any damage instead of her - and jumping backward away from the action when her HP falls below a certain threshold.

In the early game, deploying ASY behind a tank is enough to safely clear most stages in story mode as she will kill everything that tries to harm her. Together with Awakened Yuna, she forms a duo that can easily clear the whole Shadow Palace (except for stages where awakened units are banned). While for the longest of time, she was a staple in any Raid team, it's getting harder and harder to justify using her over other employees - it takes a lot of time for ASY to ramp up her damage output, and other damage dealers are cheaper and do a similar amount of damage.

As for the late game, while she is often used as a support employee in Dive 50, there's no place for her in Relic Dungeons. While you can use her there in one of the three endgame Dungeons, if she's your only awakened unit, she's useless in the other two.

In PVP, while her damage is also scary, she's feared because of Healing Reflux. She places a debuff on any enemy hit by her special and whenever they are healed they get damaged instead. Still, nowadays she's not as good as she was because there are a lot of characters that counter her - for example, the current meta character, Replacer King can instantly wipe her Rifles, leaving her defenseless.

In the Global version, ASY is basically impossible to efficiently counter besides using Ingrid and other strikers to rush her down. This makes her a fearsome DPS with sustainability thanks to her backsteps, likely warping the meta for a time. Still, as different and stronger strikers come out like Spira and Veronica, ASY will begin to fall off - as well as other stronger awakens being released like Ministra/Amy.

Pros

- two units in one,

- solo carry potential,

- one of the best damage dealers in the game,

- Healing Reflux is super strong in PVP.

Cons

- has fallen quite a bit in the current KR PVP meta and in endgame PVE content.

Replacer Queen

ASSR Replacer Queen

Sniper
Sniper
Counter
Counter

5 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Replacer Queen is a Sniper employee who focuses on blasting groups of enemies. She boasts great AoE damage alongside a much wanted DMG Amp debuff and a periodic stun. She also gains Skill Haste per enemy death and increased ATK per enemy her Ultimate hits.

Because her cost is lower than most awakened units, it's easier to fit her in your teams while progressing through the game. Still, she's not a solo carry type of character - you need to build a proper team to keep her alive and let her do her thing.

Endgame PVE is where she shines. Most players already have fully geared teams and slotting a 72% CDR or Spectral Blaze/Spirit Replacer Queen into one will turn her into a killing machine. She's one of the best Snipers to bring into Dive 50 and also she's great in the Titan stage in Relic Dungeon. Unfortunately for Danger Close she got knocked off the meta due to the Awakened unit debuff being free points.

As for PVP, while she can do great damage, she dies quite easily, making her hard to use well.

Pros

- gets tons of free buffs from her passive,

- low cost for an awakened employee,

- ridiculous combination of absurd damage and CC abilites.

Cons

- current meta makes her hard to use in PVP,

- needs a team to be built around her and good gear to make her shine.

Replacer King

ASSR Replacer King

Defender
Defender
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

A

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

SSS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Replacer King was the first awakened character to be available in the Battle Pass. While Replacer King has one of the best designs in the game, he sucked for a very long time and was considered a meme character. However, after his buff and the release of Blue Bridge MK2, he became meta because his passive now allows him to deal damage across the entire map.

While in theory, his ability to summon Replacers from dead allies bodies doesn't sound that useful in PVE because you want the opposite there - to keep everyone alive so they can deal damage - he actually is quite decent in PVE. Still, you have to remember he is more of a damage dealer than a tank. While you can use him in PVE still, there are simply better choices.

To many, he is considered the new King of PVP that dethroned Na Yubin. His basic attack damage isn't reduced anymore when he is under the effect of his passive, so he can easily kill snipers even if he stays at his own ship. Still, he is hard-countered by buff removers, especially the operator Serina.

He doesn't need MK2 to shine, because you can use low-cost soldiers that spawn multiple units at once (like Assault Troopers) to proc his passive. Still, paired with the ship, he becomes a nightmare to deal with.

Pros

- all life will be Replaced!

- the only employee with unlimited range and hit count on his basic attack, which makes him the best sniper killer in the game,

- one of the best employee for Danger Close auto teams if you're lazy and just want to get the 3% rewards,

- his summons work well as meat shields/hit count absorbers.

Cons

- he can't be used like Awakened Yuna or A. Seo Yoon; you have to protect him while he kills the enemy team,

- he needs units to be sacrificed periodically to refresh his passive.

Ministra

ASSR Ministra

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter
Corrupted Object
C.O.

5 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

SS

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

SS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Ministra is widely considered the most broken awakened character in the game. She can summon totems that debuff nearby enemies (-33% ATK, ASPD, and Skill Haste) making her a nightmare in PVP. When her HP falls below a certain threshold, she summons a Mutated Spira that's even stronger than her normal version (nearly doubled stats and she can attack air units unlike normal Spira).

And let's not forget about the fact that she also can deal stupid amounts of damage - both her special and ultimate have the highest multiplier in the game (usually it's around 200-300%, but in her case, it's over 500%).

Similar to A.Yuna, she's the ultimate carry who can win battles in the early game by herself. In any mode where there are multiple enemies - because someone must die when marked by her to summon a totem - using her drastically lowers the difficulty, because of the debuffs she brings. The only place where she isn't great are Raids and Guild Coop; everywhere else she's a beast.

In endgame PVE, she's a core unit in one of the three teams that can clear Dive 50 and probably her team has the easiest time there. Also in Relic Dungeons, she's commonly used in Titan stage, but also in the Edel stage if you decide to go the ground attack route.

She was the Queen of PVP basically since the day she was released. Lately, though, her usage has fallen a bit because of Replacer King and Awakened Horizon - both can easily reach the Ministra hiding in the backline and murder her. Still, despite having clear counters now, she's still borderline broken. Sadly, the top-tier pvp auto-team that she was part of is no longer usable in KR region after the recent meta shift.

Pros

- her debuffs are stupidly strong,

- and so is her damage - she has one of the highest damage modifiers on her skills in the game,

- only 5 cost,

- summons a Mutated Spira that's twice as strong as normal Spira (and normal Spira is already borderline broken).

Cons

- in PVP there are clear counters to her, so she's no longer a unit that can be used whenever you want, ignoring the bans and the meta.

Amy Firstwing

ASSR Amy Firstwing

Sniper
Sniper
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

B

PVE

SS

PVP (SEA)

SS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Amy the Bringer of Whale Tears - that should have been her name. Her confusion ability broke the PVP balance and pushed the KR community to review bomb the game. Still, Nexon quickly responded and she received a rework - while the confusion mechanic was removed, she gained instant death instead which is another broken mechanic, but for sure a lesser evil compared to confusion.

Since her power lies in her on-deploy ability, if you use her on auto-battle mode, she will be just another damage dealer. And for 6 cost there are way better employees you can use instead. She's also not that used in the endgame. Her damage is still good though and if you're forced to manual some stages, she will be a good addition to the team, but only that.

After her rework, her rating fell quite a lot, but now after Awakened Mina was buffed and gained Perfect Evasion, she's back in the meta. The Surefire effect on her special allows maker her a perfect counter to Perfect Evasion and because the developers seem to be slapping the buff on a lot of new units, she might become a must pick soon.

Still, keep it in mind that against other enemies, her strength lies in her on-deploy ability, but if you miss it or time her deploy wrong, you've basically wasted 6 cost for nothing.

Pros

- execute!

- good damage if left alone,

- can bring the backline to the front where she and her teamates can murder them,

Cons

- needs to be deployed at the right moment or you will waste her high cost.

Evolved One

ASSR Evolved One

Defender
Defender
Mech
Mech

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

C

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

SS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Evolved-One is the first awakened employee that isn't a Counter. She's also the first unit that consumes other units to make herself permanently stronger. With over 130k HP, 2k DEF, and 5% MDL she's really hard to kill. She seems to fit great into the mecha team, but the fact that she can't be healed is a problem in some modes.

She's the first awakened employee that is farmable. But you need to clear Dive 50 (which is one of the hardest contents in the game) to unlock the ability to get her for free.

Because of the passive that prevents her from being healed, it's really hard to use her in PVE. Pure Mech teams without Evolved One do better in PVE than with her.

In PVP she brought second life to all Mecha teams lovers and she's a super popular pick. What's best about her is that she's really flexible - all you need is some sacrifices to boost her passive and you can pair her with anything and she will work well. As long as she survives to her ult, she will wipe the whole battlefield with her nuke.

In the KR region, while she is really strong, she rarely gets banned and it's a running joke in the community that the developers protect her from bans. Still, the issue with her lack of bans is that because she's easy to use, a lot of players play her and this tanks her win rate.


MDL = Max Damage Limit or DMG Taken Limit is a stat that only appears on SSR rarity Defenders. How does it work? For example, if an employee has 10% MDL it means that any hit that does more damage than 10% of his max HP, will have the part exceeding the MDL value lowered by 80%. This prevents Defenders with MDL from being one-shot by skills/ultimates.

A way to counter MDL is to use employees with great ASPD like Administration Rifleman, Ifrit, or Millia Rage.

Pros

- deals tons of damage for a defender,

- hard to kill thanks to high stats and 5% MDL.

Cons

- without sacrifices, she's meh at best and if you let her die before she uses her ult, you will likely lose the match,

- weak in PVE.

Awakened Joo Shiyoon

ASSR Awakened Joo Shiyoon

Striker
Striker
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

SS

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

A

PVP (GLB)

Review

Arhat Shiyoon is a counterattacking monster that can survive quite a beating thanks to his monstrous base HP and DEF alongside his Skill and Ultimate giving him temporary Perfect Evasion.

In PVE he's a great carry for most general content, as his kit is hard to go wrong with. He isn't a slouch in endgame either - he's a great pick for some Relic Dungeons, and almost mandatory for nightmare Britra raid.

In PVP he is a balanced character that counters some meta characters, but at the same time, there are multiple ways to counter him. Despite his seemingly strong defensive stats, he can still die quite fast, especially to Snipers. His Perfect Evasion is a removable buff as well, making Serina and other buff removers easily strip a layer off his bulk.

Overall Arhat Shiyoon is a strong employee in PVE and in PVP he has some exploitable weaknesses.

Pros

- counterattack is one of the most broken mechanics in the game,

- not only his stats are really high, but he also gets perma-evasion from his skills,

- he can cheese through Shadow Palace 5 and other PVE modes where counter-attack messes up with boss mechanics.

Cons

- Mechs are his weakness in PVP,

- so are buff removers like Yen Xing,

- and basically everyone that can do big DPS.

Awakened Horizon

ASSR Awakened Horizon

Striker
Striker
Mech
Mech

6 cost | Air Type | All Attack

S

PVE

SSS

PVP (SEA)

SSS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Horizon is the second awakened Mech employee added to the game and also the second awakened Air unit.

In PVE she shines because of the damage she brings. Especially her passive that deals additional damage based on the enemy current HP makes her chunk their HP bars with each strike. It's worth noting that the 30% HP-based damage is applied not only on her basic attacks but also on her Special and Ultimate (both use her swords).

%HP-based abilities are always strong in games where enemies HP inflates into millions, and similar to A.Yuna this makes her great against bulky enemies.

While there are better picks for Dive 50, she shines in Shadow Palace floor 5 and the Relic Dungeons where she can help with the Maria stage, though she needs good gear there.

In PVP, she's ultra-hard to kill because with her high attack speed, she gains immunity to all damage periodically and this allows her to survive where she shouldn't. Also, her damage is actually great despite only having 5% HP-based damage instead of 30%. She can be countered by dedicated anti-Air employees like Awakened Lee Sooyeon though.

Alongside other behemoths, she is one of the meta employees in PVP currently.

Pros

- %HP based damage that helps with super end-game content where enemies have millions of HP,

- the 3 seconds immunity is a great asset,

- high uptime on the immunity,

- as an air employee she's safer in the sky.

Cons

- weak defensive base stats for a 6 cost employee,

- her special makes her stay close to the frontline which sometimes gets her killed if her immunity isn't up,

- immortality can be buff stripped.

Awakened Jake

ASSR Awakened Jake

Defender
Defender
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

S

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Jake is an employee focused on making the lives of Mechs miserable with his passive stats and skillset. Not only can he tank them really well, but he can permanently disable them while burning them to death. The HP Shields he generates every time his passive is activated make him very tanky even against Counters, but also makes him weak against buff-lockers and barrier nullifiers. His signature move can make a huge impact by introducing a map-wide skill seal and buff lock, rendering most counters useless for the duration, while also grouping enemies up.

He can also be used in PVE to great effect in mech heavy stages, such as scavenger dives.

Fun fact: Awakened Jake used to be terrible even against mechs, and was buffed multiple times throughout different patches. His Stasis Field had just 2% burn, was cancellable with the barrier on him, and used not to affect Evolved One or any air units at all. His ultimate also had no impact back then.

Pros

- top tier anti-Mech employee,

- pretty tanky and can take a beating with all the shields he can grant himself,

- has a lot of CC.

Cons

- requires great gear and team build to support him.

Awakened Shin Jia

ASSR Awakened Shin Jia

Supporter
Supporter
Counter
Counter

5 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

SSS

PVE

SS

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Shin Jia, the tinkerbell, is a pretty great employee that specializes in buffing allies' damage output and making them harder to kill. Her main usage is in PvE, where the massive ATK% buffs and 10% hp shields (the shields replenish themselves every 10 seconds) she generates on her special skill greatly help allies in both damage output and survivability. Her ultimate is a burst heal that also duplicates the current special skill's ATK and CRIT buff onto everyone in the field. Moreover, her ultimate's ATK and CRIT buff are separate from her special skill's buff, meaning that with proper timing, you can get up to an 80% ATK buff. This makes her top tier anywhere where you're racing against the time: Raids, Danger Close, even Event stages.

However, her kit has some downsides in some usage scenarios. The part of her passive which stuns and skill seals the furthest target in sight is affected by her low sight range and will most likely target frontlines rather than backlines. Still, this effectively disables frontlines by stunning them for 5 seconds and skill sealing them for 10 seconds, which can be useful in PvP, on top of her already great buffs. She also requires some practice to use if you want to make the most out of her since her special's buff has a limited range - most of the time not reaching the long-range snipers, and her ultimate will give the lowest buff if cast at the wrong time.

Important to note is that her skill descriptions have some errors. First off, her special skill description suggests her ATK and CRIT buff decay is a linear decay, it actually is not. Each decay reduces the buff by 10% ATK and 50 CRIT. The buff stays at 40% ATK and 300 CRIT for 4 seconds; It then decreases to 30% ATK and 250 CRIT for the next 6 seconds; Subsequently, it becomes 20% ATK and 200 CRIT for the next 8 seconds; Finally, it becomes 10% ATK and 150 CRIT for 10 seconds before ending. If you add the timings up together, her special skill buff only lasts for 28 seconds, despite the description saying it lasts for 30 seconds.

Pros

- top tier buffer,

- can attack the backline and Seal their skills,

- good base stats for a Supporter.

Cons

- gear hungry, as you need to bring her Cooldowns as low as possible to make her shine.

Maestra Nequitia

ASSR Maestra Nequitia

Tower
Tower
Counter
Counter
Corrupted Object
C.O.

7 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

A

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

S

PVP (GLB)

Review

Maestro Nequitia is the first (and only, as of right now) awakened tower that lacks conventional basic attacks and actually moves instead of standing in place.

From a gameplay perspective, she slowly moves forward from your ship and applies increasingly severe debuffs the longer she stays on field. At max stacks enemies, lose 15% attack, 1% hp per second, take 15% more damage and heal 50% less. Her ultimate (which she can use as soon as she reaches middle of the field) triples those already absurd debuffs and skill seals every affected enemy, making all currently deployed enemies irrelevant. Additionally she buffs your Philarmonic units (currently consists of Shena, Carmen and Luna) skill haste and (largely irrelevant) damage.

This inherently slow gameplay makes her hard to fit for most PvE teams, but notably she has the strongest damage taken debuff in the entire game (45% during ultimate), which makes her a good fit for raid teams to burst harder when everything is on field. She can also be used in Jungle Dimension Trimming stage 2 for her massive 150% heal reduction on her ult.

In PvP, with proper gear, she only takes around 30 seconds to reach the middle, where her ability to wipe the entire enemy team as soon as that happens makes her a menace in a properly built Philarmonic stall team. But beware there are a lot of counters for her in PVP. Olivie, Evolved-One, Awakened Joo Shiyoon can render all of her debuffs useless with debuff immunity. Na Yubin severely weakens her chance of surviving to the middle. Also, Serina Crew can delete her immortality buff, effectively ending her ult stance causing her to CLEAR all stacks on the field after ult.

Pros

- Massive damage amplification during ultimate,

- Nearly unstoppable when paired with units from the faction and stall units like Gremory and Raphaela,

- Map-wide skill seal.

Cons

- The debuffs can be avoided by redeploying,

- Highest base cost in the game.

Awakened Maria

ASSR Awakened Maria

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

B

PVE

A

PVP (SEA)

A

PVP (GLB)

Review

Awakened Maria is a unique employee who can teleport other employees across the map. Looking into her base stats, she does has very high CRIT, nearly hitting the crit chance ceiling, which combined with her passive 100% Crit DMG increase allows her to deal a lot of damage for a ranger. Her skills are also quite good on paper. Her special skill stuns enemies, prevents them from healing, and also deals HP% damage to them. Her ult deals AOE damage while also removing barriers.

Her main claim to fame is her portals, which can allow you to pressure enemy teams in PVP immensely by simply rushing them with units that are teleported directly into their side of the battlefield. This makes her a good unit for rush comps. Although her portals do have a few flaws such as incompatibility with Awakened/Towers, and she will also take away access to back deployment, which can be a huge downside in both PVP and PVE

Pros

- can teleport allies forward,

- her stun is really annoying.

Cons

- low damage for her cost,

- can't really be played on auto.

Curian

ASSR Curian

Sniper
Sniper
Soldier
Soldier

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

SS

PVP (SEA)

SS

PVP (GLB)

Review

Iron Man... ekhm. Curian is the third Awakened Sniper and the first Awakened Soldier in Counter Side. Compared to the other two Awakened Snipers, Amy and Queen, he specializes in summoning units and buffing them.

You will need 6 deployment resources to field him, but he appears together with a pair of elite Wardens by his side. Considering that Warden is also a separate employee that costs 2 deployment resources, Curian's 6 cost doesn't look that bad anymore. Keep in mind that the summoned Warden doesn't inherit Curian's gear.

For 6 deployment cost, his kit is very stacked. Curian's passive gives Confusion immunity to ally Soldiers which counters their biggest nemesis - Harab. During the deployment passive, Curian gains nearly unlimited range and is able to outrange almost everyone in the game, along with the stealth detection. His special can inflict a wide area stun and damage, giving him control abilities, and the damage is no joke - able take down most strikers in 1 special skill + passive attack. He also triggers Warden's enhanced attack on a separate cooldown, essentially buffing the Wardens' DPS.

In PVE, he out-damages most DPS units on single target bosses (i.e. Raids or Guild Coop). There, his own damage is almost on par with Kestrel Xiao Lin, but the Wardens he summons deal around 30-40% of his damage on top of that. Still, Kestrel Xiao Lin is 2 deployment resources cheaper, but Curian can also hit Air employees so it evens out.

Pros

- huge damage,

- can attack air units

- his summons can keep themselves alive pretty well and they also do a lot of damage.

Cons

- squishy, like really squishy,

- in PVP he dies if someone looks at him funny.

Awakened Sigma

ASSR Awakened Sigma

Striker
Striker
Mech
Mech

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

A

PVE

S

PVP (SEA)

Review

Awakened Sigma is the awakened character that deals the most damage in the game with her ultimate skill - if your enemy won't absorb it with 1 or 2 Defenders, your mid and backline will simply cease to exist.

The issue is that despite being a 6-cost Striker, she relies way too much on the ultimate. If she dies before the ultimate or the ultimate gets redirected then its essentially wasted, so the challenge is to keep her alive long enough to wipe the battlefield. However, there are way too many counters such as Anti-Mech units and healblock, with her rather weak defensive capabilities she can be taken down easily. There is also another playstyle where you can drop her in front to destroy the terrabrain, granting sigma +100% ATK, ASPD. This can be useful for rushes as she can melt most non-defender units while within the state.

As for PVE, keeping her alive there is much easier, making her a good substitution for Yuna in certain places, although she doesn't have the HP burn, her kit can deal a lot of damage.

Keep in mind that her Role Disadvantage buffs only works if the enemy has a source of Role Advantage Damage, such as a normal Sigma buffing a sniper. It rarely does anything.

Pros

- highest burst in the game,

- can help allies with buffs.

- strong knockback

- skill seal

Cons

- squishy,

- a lot of counters in PVP.

- high cost

- very reliant on ultimate

Kallen Kōzuki

ASSR Kallen Kōzuki

Striker
Striker
Mech
Mech

5 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

S

PVE

S

PVP (KR)

Review

Kallen Kōzuki is an Awakened Striker obtainable during the Code Geass collab. She is focused on dealing a lot damage and applying debuffs related to it while also having decent survivability.

For 5 deployment resource, Her debuffs can be really useful in harder PVE contents like Dimension Trimming thanks to the HP Burn, Damage AMP, and Healing reduction. She also deals a lot of damage herself with the Special skill buff granting her barrier, 30% ATK, ASPD buffs, while also having an okay survivability.

In PVP, she can be used as a Tank/DPS thanks to the Perfect Eva and lots of barrier. Although she heavily suffers from all the Mech hate.

Pros

- Strong DPS from basic attacks and skills.

- Great Debuffs that stack together.

- Good Survivability from Perfect EVA, barriers

- Stealth Detection.

Cons

- Slightly low base attack

Awakened Regina

ASSR Awakened Regina

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter

7 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

SS

PVP (SEA)

Review

Awakened Regina is the second 7-cost character in the game. And similar to another 7-cost character, Maestra Nequitia, she also has a pretty interesting gimmick. When you first deploy A. Regina, she will be covered in an ice barrier that doubles her HP and gives immunity to a lot of status effects. In this phase, she's really hard to kill but barely deals any damage herself as she can't use her skills.

As the barrier state loses strength, A. Regina's ATK will slowly increase and the moment the barrier breaks, she will enter phase 2 and become a machine of pure destruction. Her damage output and utility is scary and justifies her deployment cost, but two things make her borderline overpowered: the range on her special and ultimate is very large, with the special skill grouping up enemies, locking their buffs, and resetting its own CD. Also the ultimate allows Regina to easily hit and kill the backline while freezing the entire map.

A. Regina has some downsides though. Her movement speed is very slow and also once she enters phase 2, she loses the HP% buff allowing her to be assassinated. Due to her high cost you need to build a team around to protect her.

Pros

- Scary damage output,

- Very strong grouping on special.

- Special and Ultimate have huge range,

- Chill/Freeze can control the whole battlefield.

Cons

- slow movement speed,

- Very vulnerable in her phase.

Orochinagi Chifuyu

ASSR Orochinagi Chifuyu

Striker
Striker
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

S

PVE

SS

PVP (SEA)

Review

Orochinagi Chifuyu - An upgraded version of the best PVE unit in the game did not disappoint. Incredibly strong unit in most of the content, recommended to pull for anyone in any stage of the game. Chifuyu is mainly used for the Special, Ultimate skill to deal incredible backline damage, as she is almost always guaranteed to cast the Ultimate thanks to the passive skill. Her high base ATK with the passive buff granting up 45% bonus ATK allows her to easily deal with the backlines. Also, her base stats give her alot of effective HP, allowing her to stay alive in both PVP aswell as any PVE content (like Dive50), even on Maze CDR gears in the role of a main tanker, so she can be used as a DPS tank anywhere with DMG AMP debuffs for the team.

Pros
  • Incredible ult damage,

  • Backline acess with both Special and Ultimate,

  • Hard to counter her in PVP because of her passive.

Cons
  • Both Skill and Ultimate can be redirected

Awakened Rosaria

ASSR Awakened Rosaria

Sniper
Sniper
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Air Type | All Attack

SS

PVE

SS

PVP (KR)

Review

Awakened Rosaria is a 6-cost Sniper who can deal a lot of damage, though mostly single-target, while also occasionally nullifying enemies' buffs. She can be used in PVE, especially in Raids and Coop battle where her absurd single-target damage justifies her cost.

Her air priority is especially scary in PVP since she can outrange most air units, allowing her to snipe units like A.LSY or Evelyn. She also has a broken survivability passive that will prevent any assassins from one-shotting her since she becomes invincible until her animation has finished.

Pros

- Massive range and air priority

- AoE True damage.

- Additional crit hits vs single target

- DMG Amp

- Great survivability

Cons

- RNG buff nullify

- High cost

Awakened Ray

ASSR Awakened Ray

Defender
Defender
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | Ground Attack

B

PVE

A

PVP (KR)

Review

Awakened Ray is a defender focused on countering attacks to keep his team alive. Currently, all of his counterattacks are buggy and do not prevent attacks correctly - he seems to block the attack for 1 backline unit only, while others will still take damage. As a 6-cost frontliner his stats and defensive capabilities are rather weak - to make things worse he cannot solo tank as his kit only blocks 1 attack. His inability to detect units behind may also cause more harm than good. In the case of unlucky knockbacks/pulls, he will just walk past the enemy frontlines - except he cannot do anything in the backline.

Lastly, the ultimate is currently a joke. He is barely able to advance anywhere due to the slow movement speed and the low knockback distance.

Pros

- All attacks cannot miss

- Can prevent backline assassins

- Ignores units behind

Cons

- Low survivability

- Useless Ultimate

- Randomly turns into a siege

Awakened Lyudmila

ASSR Awakened Lyudmila

Supporter
Supporter
Counter
Counter
Corrupted Object
C.O.

5 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

S

PVE

SS

PVP (KR)

Review

Awakened Lyudmila is a PVP-oriented support who constantly applies Imprison and skill seal debuffs to enemies. The imprison debuff works exactly like Regina's freeze mechanics but cannot be canceled, which allows her to lock down debuff-immune units.

Her ultimate gives her a lot of invulnerability (7.33s), along with the low cooldown (44s base), normal enemies can hardly target her. The ultimate attacks also essentially stun-locks enemies for the whole duration of the barrage. She can still be assassinated by backline snipers so she prefers tank-CDR gears, as she does not deal a lot of damage herself, and also it allows her to stay alive to inflict debuffs. Additionally, the debuff she provides make her a hard counter to Replacer King (along with other DPS C.O./rep) since every time R.King passive is activated, she will apply massive ASPD and ATK debuffs to him, while also sealing the whole map.

Pros

- Uncancelable debuffs

- lots of invulnerability

- stunlock

Cons

- Average damage

Awakened Karin Wong

ASSR Awakened Karin Wong

Ranger
Ranger
Counter
Counter

6 cost | Ground Type | All Attack

Who should you get?

It's hard to answer this question, because every player is at different point of the game and he faces different problems depending on his team, what he currently wants to farm etc.

This is why the order of getting awakened employees I will present below should only be applied to new players, who don't have even one awakened employee yet and struggle to pick who should they get. For other players, please check the reviews and ratings and just pick who you think is best for you right now.

I'm a new player and want to focus on PVE

Awakened Yuna Springfield
Ministra
Awakened Horizon
Replacer Queen
Awakened Shin Jia
Awakened Joo Shiyoon

Awakened Yuna will carry you in the early game and when you will reach harder content, Ministra will support her, allowing you to progress deeper into the endgame.

Then when you start banging your head trying to farm endgame gear in the Relic Dungeons and harder Challenges, Awakened Horizon, Replacer Queen or Awakened Joo Shiyoon will help you there with their specialized kits - check their reviews and pick whoever you think you need more depending on where you're stuck.

I'm a new player and want to focus on PVP

Replacer King
Awakened Horizon
Awakened Lee Sooyeon
Ministra

A word of warning first. PVP in Counter Side is really gear and skill dependent and even if you have all the best character, you will often lose because of gear gap. Especially new players will lack Maze gear that makes huge difference in PVP.

The choices above I think don't require any explanation - those are the current meta pick in the KR region.