Phantom (Treasure)Information and Guide

Preface

Rejoice, Phantom fans — ShiftUp has finally heard us. After being stuck in undoubtedly tactical gameplay for about two years, Phantom has finally received her upgrade. 

Can you give a brief summary about this Favorite Item?

Phantom’s treasure essentially enables her to be competitively effective versus solo bosses because of one very simple change: She can now stack Thief’s Dagger by shooting normally at the stage target without relying on the existence of multiple mobs. This allows Phantom to focus all of her damage dealt on a single target, and she does not deal in small numbers either, especially with her new upgrades.

This damage is further enhanced by her new source of distributed damage from Skill 2, which effectively doubles her damage output! Although, the highlight of this kit might not be just her own damage increase. Phantom now also inflicts an elemental niche debuff, that increases damage taken by the fire (water-weak) stage target (aka the stage boss). This allows her team to deal more damage, which in turn now makes her a DPS+Buffer hybrid!

While she may not be on the level of PrivatyTr, she is still a welcome addition to the modern meta roster. This treasure clearly aims to improve Phantom’s Bossing performance, which it does so in a successful manner, to an extent. While Phantom may not be one of the ultimate meta Nikeks that will last us years to come, this treasure is a welcome improvement for anyone who enjoys Phantom herself, or Water-Weak Bossing, as well as an improved DPS for water-weak Campaign stages. Maybe she can help you against the stage you’re stuck on Elysion Tower as well? Try her out!

Should I get this Favorite Item?

Unless you choose to embrace Phantom’s unchanged gameplay in campaign, she is a very solid option in water-weak Solo Raids, and perhaps even Union Raids for a triple hit. Her PvP performance remains the same as in 2024, although since many stronger PvP Nikkes have been released since then, she is relatively worse now.

Practically speaking, Phantom’s treasure should only be considered if you aim to compete in water-weak Solo Raids. Beyond the general treasure meta such as Moran, Helm, and Privaty, Phantom’s treasure remains a lower priority even when compared to Tove, Miranda, and Sugar in water-weak Solo Raid. It is recommended to complete the aforementioned treasures before investing in Phantom’s treasure. 

It is recommended to aim for Phase 3 of her treasure before using her as a main DPS.

Kit Analysis

Skill 1 (Phase 1)

Thanks to her early phase upgrade on Skill 1, Phantom no longer requires multiple targets to function, allowing her to compete in raids on fair ground. As long as the stage target does not go off-screen, Phantom is fully capable of maintaining her Thief’s Dagger stacks even when left auto shooting without a cube. Therefore, she is mechanically free from ammo or reload pressure.

So, what’s new? It can be summarised as follows. Since:

• Phantom gains one stack of Thief’s Dagger when landing a normal attack on a Rapture that is not in Calling Card status.

• Calling Card lasts for 5 seconds.

• Another stack is gained for every 30 normal attacks on a stage target.

• Phantom being an AR with 12/s takes 5 seconds to gain two stacks of Thief’s Dagger.

Hence, Phantom gains 3 stacks of Thief’s Dagger for every 60 normal attacks landed, instead of 90.

Skill 2 (Phase 2)

Phantom’s phase 2 upgrade on Skill 2 provides her with a completely new source of distributed damage, which accounts for a significant portion of her personal damage:

• Maids Duo team: 27% of Phantom’s total damage on non-core, 21% on core.

• Non Maids Duo team: 20% on non-core, 15% on core.

This distributed damage can prove to be useful against Material H, Harvester for wiping out the annoying mobs every 60 normal attacks landed. 

Burst Skill (Phase 3)

Phantom’s Burst Skill is finally more than a one-liner skill, providing a 30s damage taken up debuff on the fire stage target. With cooldown reduction and burst generation that isn’t slower than five seconds per burst, this debuff is effectively 100% uptime. Notice how her burst or kit does not grant her crazy self-burst-oriented buffs, she delivers consistent damage throughout the fight. However, maintaining full uptime on her debuff still requires her to burst every other cycle. 

Tier List & Usage Analysis

Campaign

Although Phantom’s Treasure upgrade does not mechanically fix her playstyle against mobbing, it makes it more rewarding by triggering a new screen-wide distributed damage source upon reaching max stacks of Thief’s Dagger. Not only does her S2 distributed damage easily double her non-Burst skill damage against mobs, but its screen-wide effect also allows Phantom to hit Raptures without needing to mark each one individually with Calling Card. 

After the stage target appears, using Phantom’s Burst applies a damage taken up debuff if it is Fire Code. This makes Phantom more viable in water-weak mobbing stages. Unlike her non-Treasure version, Phantom can continue stacking Thief’s Dagger even when all the mobs die before the stage target does.

An advantage Phantom has over her rivals is that she can deal damage without Burst Skill or during the other B3’s rotation. This is because, while her Nuke does deal damage, most of her damage comes from spraying bullets for S1 & S2. Like other Distributed Damage DPS, she is perfect against Volleyball.

Bossing

As her Burst Skill upgrade has already made clear, Phantom is strictly an elemental niche unit, usable only in water-weak content. While her personal damage is not the greatest, her 100% uptime 18% damage taken up debuff helps secure a spot over other neutral DPS. In water-weak Solo Raid, she fits well into the Maids Duo team, benefiting from distributed damage buff while also supporting a stronger water DPS who prefers Maid Mast’s Burst. In other words, Phantom can serve as the DPS that bursts with Maid Anchor without losing much damage while enabling Bready or future water DPS to burst with Maid Mast for a higher damage ceiling. 

Outside of the Maids Duo team, she also sees play in the triple water DPS team, namely HelmTr, Ludmilla: Winter Owner and Summer Elegg, directly powercreeping Ludmilla: Winter Owner by offering a stronger damage taken debuff. Compared to Ludmilla: Winter Owner, she is far less reliant on core, dealing higher damage without core and similar damage with core. Additionally, although she is not as strong a buffer as PrivatyTr, Phantom remains highly flexible and can fit into almost any team. 

In Union Raid, Phantom unfortunately does not make it into the water BIS team; even the second water hit belongs to the water SG team with the addition of Sugar’s treasure, but not her. She might have a say against Water-Weak bosses without a core if 3 water teams are required (such as vs Nihilister).

Overall, Phantom’s treasure upgrade improves her bossing performance, and with her support capabilities and off-burst flexibility, she is expected to remain relevant in water-weak Solo Raid for a long time while fitting easily into most teams. That said, she remains optional and relatively low priority among the newest treasure batch, except for water specialists. 

PvP

Phantom treasure only provides her extra max ammo during her burst, as if that is going to do anything. So her PvP tier does not change. 

Investments

Gear Investments

Phantom’s role in raids is strictly elemental niche, making elemental damage lines her top priority. Since over 80% of her damage comes from effective shooting time, she  relies on max ammo lines unless paired with a team that provides reload speed buffs. Note that she can still maintain her Thief’s Dagger stacks through Skill 1 without max ammo lines or team buffs; the max ammo lines simply extend her effective shooting time. 

• 4 × Ele Dmg: Elemental damage for an elemental niche unit, why not?

• 1-2 × Max Ammo: 2 Max Ammo lines for great effective shooting time. If Phantom is paired in a team with reload speed buff, she can live with 1 Max Ammo line. 

• 4 × Atk: Atk lines are still better than Crit lines even in Maids Duo team. 

• Max Ammo or Crit as filler: Low priority lines. Pick Crit lines when there is crit buff in the team. Otherwise get whichever comes first.

Skill Investments

Phantom’s personal damage scales the best with her S2, however we do not expect a scenario where Phantom is the hypercarry of the team, hence making her Burst more valuable for the total damage of the team. 

• Skill 1: 7-10

  • Increases Attack Damage▲ for herself. Despite being the least impactful among her skills, it still scales well. 

• Skill 2: 10

  • Increases Additional Damage Multiplier▲, Distributed Damage Multiplier▲, ATK▲, and Distributed Damage▲. S2 contributes the most to Phantom’s personal damage. 

• Burst Skill: 10

  • Increases Damage Taken▲ for 100% uptime.

Cube Investments

Phantom relies on effective shooting time, making Resilience and Bastion the best choices for her overall. However, if parts uptime is high, Destruction easily overtakes both Resilience and Bastion. . 

• Bastion: Use Bastion if there is no reload speed buffer in the team.

• Resilience: Use Resilience if there is a reload speed buffer in the team. 

• Destruction: Only use Destruction if parts shooting time is high.

For PvP:

• Tempering: If you want her to survive longer. 

Doll Investments

• PvE Notes: Phantom needs treasure to work in a single bossing scenario. Her treasure also grants her a new distributed damage source against mobbing. 

• PvP Notes: Decent nuke with rather high self buff.