CrownInformation and Guide

All hail the King! Long live the King!

The White Knight has finally graced our dominion with the perfect blend of beauty and splendor. Donned in majestic attire, Crown's descent fulfilled the promise whispered among all wayfarers. While her arrival was highly anticipated, she managed to ignite enthusiasm with her radiant kit. A noble defender, one can say, with the ability to taunt enemies and shroud herself with invulnerability, is an important addition to any teams. She can also greatly increase allies' ATK & DEF, reloading speed, and Attack Damage, making her relevant in all sorts of situations. All in all, she has successfully raised everyone's standard by presenting herself as the worthiest individual to inherit the glorious title “a shield and a lance”.

Summary

Can you give us a brief introduction?

Crown is one of the best support units available at the moment. With breathtaking offensive potential, and the special Taunt + Invulnerability, she will be paramount to many teams, from Campaign to Bossing. Her reload speed can be handy at times and will soon unravel unprecedented synergy opportunities. She will likely stay relevant for a long time and is a good investment.

Should I pull this unit?

Absolutely yes! One copy is recommended, at the very least. She will be useful for veterans & beginners alike, allowing them to overcome obstacles in various different ways.

Using Mileage on her is recommended, so maybe save your pulls if you're just aiming for 1 copy. Pilgrims have 1% rate up banners, so ideally you spend pulls on normal 2% rate up, and use golden mileage on 1% rate up.

We recommend 1 copy for f2p players. However, if you are a spender, we recommend pulling for dupes, since her Skill 1 is based on Caster's ATK buff. Not only that, Crown can prove to be quite a force of nature as a DPS. So she can improve her self DPS with dupes as well! We think MLB should do perfectly fine for Crown, with the added bonus of a lovely lobby screen. Core 7 for mega simps or super competitive players only.

Tier List & Analysis

Campaign (LD) - SSS

Crown can surpass Tia Naga, the current meta combo, when it comes to raw damage. However, as mentioned in the previous section, there seems to be special use cases for either depending on the stage & featured enemies. In low deficit, you should be able to clear stages easily with any of them.

Campaign (HD) - SSS

Crown's performance does not seem to degrade with high penalty, and in fact, the shielding and invulnerability combined with taunt will be extremely useful for blocking attacks that cannot normally be i-framed. One concerning weakness that Crown demonstrates is that the ATK buff is only applied to units who use Burst Skill, whereas Tia Naga will buff the team equally. This becomes more apparent in high deficits where ATK buffs play a big role. Note that this recommendation is more relevant for extremely high deficit campaign (≥36%), and your mileage may vary. Regardless, Crown provides such a multitude of buffs that she is still at the very top in high deficit campaign as well!

Boss (Solo) - SSS

Again, insane raw offensive buffs. Priceless. Possibly the new team 1 in raids! She will be seeing unending usage in the top 3 teams in Union Raid and Solo Raids! Outside Raids, you always have the privilege to test whether Tiga or Crown will help you more. Its safe to say that Crown has already raised the bar in terms of high deficit Boss clearing, with more and more lowest clears on Campaign Boss stages appear to be with Crown, and not Tia Naga!

Boss (Adds) - SSS

It would have been SSS+ if it existed. Now, the reason is because, while taunts are generally valuable against bosses with mobs, they can quickly spell a unit's death. However, Crown circumvents this by giving herself Invulnerability. This means, even if Crown taunts 1000 enemies at once, she would still take zero damage! The best part? She doesn't taunt for a SECOND more than her invulnerability duration (which is a big problem with Noah)!

Check out this clip on Mother Whale, shared with us by community member Raon Miru on Discord:

https://youtu.be/fb7nS7jLsK4

PVP - B

In an ideal roster, we will not be using Crown. Machine guns have poor burst generation in Arena and can easily feed Jackal & Scarlet. Even worse, due to the 30 FPS cap, Crown would take nearly 29 seconds to trigger the taunt + invulnerability. At this point, the outcome of the battle is most likely already settled. But if you can somehow manage a 2-2.5RL team with her, Crown won't feed Jackal - Scarlet much due to the windup of MG. Her being a Defender also means she can be paired with Biscuit for basic P1 tanking. Crown can be assumed as a sidegrade or a sometimes weaker option than Poli.

Kit Analysis & Highlights

In the history of NIKKE, Crown is most likely the most balanced but at the same time broken character out there. She may not be the best DPS, but her presence brings too many sweets to ignore.

The Gatling Lance

Let's first start with her special targeting system. Crown, unlike other combatants, has the ability to sense enemies that have "camouflage". These are raptures that cannot be normally targeted by non-manually controlled units. In other words, in order to hit them, you must manual your unit. Thankfully, this is not the case with Crown. She is able to "see through" this camouflage and can automatically assault these key targets, making it easier to coordinate attacks in a semi-piloted environment.

You will be seeing these new enemies in Chapter 29 & 30, which are added in this update. Please be advised.

Skill 1 - Frontline & Backline

Crown divides your team into two imaginary files. The frontline consists of units who use Burst Skill in a Burst Chain, whereas the backline consists of units who don't. When Full Burst is triggered, all units in the frontline gain caster's ATK buff & reload speed. Meanwhile, the ones at the back gain DEF & reload speed. The percentage value of this ATK buff at max level is equivalent to 43% in Attacker's stats. What's stunning is that these buffs last for 15 seconds, which means there is no downtime at all for teams who rotate fast. Buffs will still switch between B3, though.

Do note Red Hood does not receive 2 instances of frontline buffs even if she uses Burst Skill in Stage I and III.

Since these buffs are automatically activated at the start of Full Burst(s), this allows Crown to be used as an Off-Burst B2 (but why? Dont do that.). The ATK buff is particularly useful on units that normally do not have too much ATK when using their Burst Skill, such as Snow White, PrivM, Emilia, or even SAnis (technically a bursting Modernia too). However, it is still nice to have for units whose ATK is already oversaturated, like SBS.

The reload speed may not be prominent in units whose downtime is minimal, but units such as Alice, XLud, and Modernia can benefit from it to high degrees, the standout being Alice. It can also be paired with other reload buffer(s) to achieve the "Infinite Ammo" phenomenon, significantly boosting the damage of certain weapon types and skills. For instance, an Alice with Infinite Ammo is deadly because she wants to shoot as many times as possible during Burst Skill. Alice + Admi + Privaty used to be an all-time favorite combo and is the idea underlying this suggestion. The Infinite Ammo strategy is also highly effective on MGs because they need to wind up should they stop shooting for a long time. It is also awesome on units who reload often, like Scarlet.

To put it in number, with lv 10 S1 and lv 7 or more of Resilience cube (reload cube), MG will never wind up as long as target is still available.

https://youtu.be/JSpg2hWcFLQ

Units who rely on last bullet hitting also enjoy any reload speed buffs because their skills will trigger in shorter intervals.

Skill 2 - Impenetrable Fortress

Whenever Crown lands 43 shots (so specific :D), she gains 1 stack of Relax, which raises HP Potency. HP Potency is a buff that multiplies healing given by owner from any source (For example, Helm or Rapunzel with HP Potency will give more heal - be it Lifesteal or Direct Heal). After reaching 20 stacks of Relax, she heals herself, taunts all enemies for 5s, and gains Invulnerability for the duration. She then removes all stacks, and the cycle repeats. Do note that her HP Recovery is indeed affected by the self-stacked HP Potency.

It takes 43 × 20 = 860 shots to accumulate 20 stacks, and the stack clear is triggered immediately upon obtaining the 20th stack. This takes approx. ~14.33s of continuous shooting at 60 FPS. Reloading will extend the interval, so Max Ammo OL is recommended.

Whenever Crown is healed from any source, she also provides the team with Attack Damage for 7s. As the shortest interval between triggers is ~14.33s, the base uptime for this buff is a bit less than 50%. Hence, bringing a healer with frequent teamwide healing, or targeted healing that can heal Crown based on position, is required to maximize this buff's uptime. Be careful of deploying healers who only heal specific target(s), as they may not be healing Crown and thus not triggering the effect.

Burst - Better Safe than Sorry

When Full Burst is activated, you will always want to have your units shoot continuously without going back to cover or doing any unnecessary i-frame dancing. With Crown's individual shields that rival those of Tia, this has become easier than ever. She is also the only 20s B2 unit that provides individual shields. Aria, and Folkwang are stuck with 40s, while Centi's shield is single and can be unreliable at times. This can also activate Naga's skill 1 Core Damage buffs!

Crown also massively boosts the team's Attack Damage upon using Burst Skill, and as we all know that buff is simply goated. You know what's even better? The Attack Damage and Shield last for 15 seconds, which means with teams who rotate fast and get to the next burst within 5 seconds, they can be considered as permanent buffs!

Keep in mind that Attack Damage buff and ATK buff are seperate buffs. Both are multiplicative buffs to the Character's Base ATK. Hence, Crown's overall buffs combine to do majestic damage!

Overall Thoughts

Our analysis shows that, in terms of DPS, she can potentially surpass Tia & Naga, and therefore it is safe to say that she is one of the best support units at the moment. Crown can also mitigate even the most lethal damage that would one-shot any unit. However, when team healing is needed or quick taunts are preferable, perhaps Tia & Naga will have an edge. They can also repair cover, whereas Crown can't. However, keep in mind that Crown is a solo unit, whereas Tia Naga are a duo. So pairing a healer with Crown is not only very safe, but also improves her Skill 2 attack damage buff uptime!

Investments

Gear Investments

Because of the reload buff, Crown actually has an abnormally high uptime, which reduces her dependency on Ammo. We recommend 2x lines of Ammo for smoother shooting experience only, but you can always have more if you can afford.

Remember, Crown is a buffer FIRST. Sure she herself can deliver very good damage, which makes ATK and Ele rolls appealing on her, but you must remember, Crown is a BUFFER before anything else. Look for that Ammo, improve your real DPS, then if you still have spare resources, you can start upgrading your Crown.

Ideally, we aim for 2-3 Ammo OL, 4 Elemental Damage, and 4 ATK up.

Skill Investments

• Skill 1: 10

  • Skill 1 is her most important basic skill, not only because it gives a huge ATK buff, but also the reload is so lethal on Crown. She needs exactly lv 10 S1 and lv 7+ Reload cube to achieve the no-wind-up MG, so always prioritize this skill as high as you can.

• Skill 2: 7-10

  • Although skill 2 does contribute a lot toward the buffing of Crown, it can be compromised a bit. The last 3 levels will cost you 15 days of grinding Sim Room 5-C, for just 3% more Attack Damage and small taunting/invulnerable. You should finish it, but you can put it later if you are short on material and it is preventing you from fully upgrading your S1.

• Burst: 7-10

  • The bread and butter of her power. Maximize it as soon as you can. Amazing skill.

Cube Investments

Since she is an MG, Bastion would always be good, but don't be fooled! Crown also grants herself Reload Speed, so Resilience is actually very strong on her due to the lack of winding up. Always use Resilience cube on Crown!