Mihara: Bonding Chain Guide & Review

Shift Up, oh Shift Up! Double banners with the same 1% rate up, yet completely different takes on how meta they are? It seems Shift Up has taken a unique approach for all future anniversary events. While Siren and Cinderella were clear power-creeping additions meant to shake up the meta, Grave and Mihara: Bonding Chain represent something else entirely — what we can call "supplementary meta" units. Rather than redefining the meta on their own, these two are designed to enhance and elevate existing top-tier teams, specifically in Bossing and Raid Content mostly — with Grave already proving her worth, and Mihara expected to follow suit.

So, instead of meta-defining powerhouses, we’re getting units that strengthen what already works. It’s a quieter kind of impact but still something that we can appreciate. With that, let’s dive into a quick summary of our charmingly twisted Nikke — Mihara: Bonding Chain!

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Mihara: Bonding Chain is an excellent DPS character that deals sustained damage to enemies and that can be used in the off-burst and in-burst position. Great damage and high scaling potential. This is thanks to her damage stemming from high multipliers instead of just ATK inflation. As one of the most scalable units in the game reminiscent of Summer Sakura. Mihara: Bonding Chain's damage relies on the strength of supportive units and hence her logical pairing with better supports.

Mihara's kit consists of her using Chains to inflict a stackable debuff on enemies. This debuff deals continuous sustained damage to the enemy per second and enhances Mihara's Burst damage (although all stacks will be removed afterward and have to be restacked). In addition, upon her own death, as a retaliatory measure, she will also apply debilitating effects on all Ensnared enemies, immediately maxing out their debuff stacks! This, combined with the debuff's permanent duration, allows Mihara to keep dealing damage even after death but only on existing enemies and with her base stats alone.

In terms of usage, Mihara shines best against Fire-Weak content but fiercely competes with Asuka, who can provide core damage buff to all Fire allies; Alice, who has strong single-target damage and burst generation; and Rapi: Red Hood, who brilliantly demolishes enemies with her ardent flames. Her lack of supportive power places her lower than these other picks, which in terms of output, would actually deal less damage, but their buffs have too much of a compounding effect to ignore [not to mention their synergy with Crown/Naga]. And, when you add Mihara to the team as the 3rd or 4th unit, your question transforms into: is she better than Naga or Helm-Treasure (if you use Crown)?

Fortunately, this is all just unnecessary fear as these drawbacks do not apply to Union Raid or Solo Raid, where you can form multiple teams. In fact, her neutral damage is insane and competes with higher-tiered units like Rapi: Red Hood and Scarlet: Black Shadow. Even so, you do need to buff her well, and that includes ideal OL gear lines. Yep, she wants 12/12 but is it worth that much investment seeing her lack of impact in "Fire DMG Maxing Content with Core"?

If we are talking about non-core, then the answer becomes clearer. Mihara's damage does not rely on the existence of cores and is mainly derived from her sustained DMG, not basic attacks. Therefore, she is better than Asuka and Alice (under normal circumstances). The problem hence changes into whether Rei Ayanami or Mihara is better to add to the team, or perhaps bring both?

If you do not have the collab unit, your answer becomes more definitive. If you do have the collab unit, we can assure you that Little Mermaid, Crown, Rapi: Red Hood, Mihara: Bonding Chain, and Helm-Treasure might as well be the best non-core Fire Team right now.

Rei Ayanami (w/o Mihara) falls behind due to her lack of personal damage and requirement of a strong non-core off-burst Fire DPS (no, Modernia is outdated). When Grave is in the team, however, the question becomes more complicated, and even more when both Grave and Mihara are in the team. Give the PvE Team examples below in this guide a look.

So, is she good? Yes. Game-changing? Not really. In fact, the major Fire bosses right now have kits that neutralize Mihara’s kit. Indivilia with her debuff immunity, and Gluttony with its QTE and damage reduction gimmicks. In other words, Mihara’s good theoretical performance and good integration flexibility is limited by her zero compatibility with current content. It’s disappointing, to say the least. Mihara’s impact/usage might be lower than expected.

However, if we ignore that tragic fact, Mihara is still exceptional in certain PvE game modes and content. In PvP, her retaliation skill is very useful, and while it takes time to kill enemies, we always welcome any AoE damage dealer (although she has no AoE in Campaign; only exists in PvP due to her retaliation skill), and we are talking about big damage here.

Should I get this unit?

Yes! Despite the flaws above. Go mileage her if possible. 1% chance of pulling is too low anyways even with the rebate event. And you don’t want to miss her because obtaining her after her banner ends will be a nightmare.

Strong theoretical damage with stronger theoretical impact for newcomers and intermediate players who lack a complete roster (especially the Fire collab units). If you belong in that group, she is a more Must Pull, although we would say she's a must pull for everyone! (⁠つ⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)⁠つ

However, if you only care about Campaign or are a casual player, surprisingly, you CAN skip this banner, but we still recommend pulling her to improve your DPS against new or other Fire bosses you may face in the future.

Dupes are welcome, especially for DPS like her, but do know that she doesn't have personal ATK buff, so the impact is less apparent (if you don’t have ATK OL). It's still welcome and useful for when you need CP padding for Campaign and PvP. It also makes her a bit more versatile and less dependent on support (because she has more ATK, if you understand).

For simplicity, the following guide abbreviates Restraint Chain into RC, Ensnaring Chains into EC, and Dragging Chains into DC.

Skill 1

■ Activates when entering battle. Affects self.

Charges 10 Restraint Chain(s), up to 10.

■ Activates if the caster has cast Burst Skill before Full Burst ends. Affects self.

Charges 10 Restraint Chain(s), up to 10.

■ Affects random enemy unit(s) at a specific timing.

Deals 50.06% of final ATK as damage.

Attacks according to the number of Restraint Chain(s).

Restraint Chain(s) ▼ 1 for each attack.

■ Affects the same enemy unit(s).

Ensnaring Chains: Deals 25.08% final ATK as sustained damage every 1 sec continuously, stacks up to 20 time(s).

Mihara attacks targets and apply debuffs through Restraint Chains, which can be obtained via the following methods:

• Entering battle: 10 stacks
• When Full Burst ends if she has cast her Burst Skill in the same rotation: 10 stacks
• Killing an enemy affected by Ensnaring Chain (not possible if Ensnaring Chain has already been turned into Dragging Chain via Burst Skill): 1 stack

When Restraint Chains are applied (and spent), Mihara deals one-time on-impact damage to affected enemies and inflicts them with a stack of Ensnaring Chain, a debuff that deals sustained DMG every second forever until cleansed or removed by Mihara's own Burst Skill. This stacks up to 20 and can be stacked up further via basic attacks in S2 during Full Burst.

Restraint Chains have some pre-conditions on applying, but they are all triggered automatically as a battle goes:

• When any enemy appears (including Nikke(s)), Mihara consumes one Restraint Chain to deal 50.06% (RC damage) + 25.08% (1 stack of EC damage) damage to that enemy and the rest of the chains to random enemies. Since most stages feature enemies/bosses appearing at the first second, these 10 stacks are usually consumed immediately, which is also the case in PvP.
• Mihara also consumes Restraint Chains and applies them on random enemies whenever the team enters Burst Stage III.
• Mihara also consumes Restraint Chains when Full Burst ends, including the 10 she gets from using Burst Skill.

That means she doesn't have any conditions because Mihara usually applies them immediately after obtaining them! ( • ̀ω•́ )✧

Spring of Damage

Mihara's main source of damage is Ensnaring Chains and its amplified version of Dragging Chains triggered by Burst Skill. 500% per second is a lot and 1000% per second is not a joke either. Her basic attacks are not her primary source of damage although they do contribute a lot.

In case you forgot or haven't known, the damage of Sustained DMG dynamically updates with present buffs, can crit but cannot corehit, and are affected by Full Burst Multiplier and Sustained DMG▲ buffs. It deals damage to enemies even when they disappear or go off-screen or jump around a lot. However, it is not affected by Damage Distance.

With that said, since Ensnaring Chains are permanent and will not be removed unless Mihara uses Burst Skill, we can say that Mihara fits as an off-burst DPS too! You can come up with teams such as [Liter/LM Grave Rapipi ReiAyanami Mihara] or [Rapipi-B1 Grave Mihara ReiAyanami Modernia], which are superb against non-core Fire enemies without the inclusion of Crown. You have the choice and is recommended to Burst with her at least once especially toward the end of a battle if playing off-burst for that extra DMG out of her DoT.

Skill 2

■ Activates after landing 40 normal attack(s) during Full Burst. Affects the target if the target is in Ensnaring Chains status.

Stack count of Ensnaring Chains ▲ 1.

■ Activates when self is incapacitated. Affects the target(s) in Ensnaring Chains status.

Stack count of Ensnaring Chains ▲ 20.

■ Activates when the enemy is neutralized. Affects self if the target is in Ensnaring Chains status.

Restraint Chain ▲ 1, up to 10.

■ Activates when entering Burst Stage 3. Affects self.

Sustained damage ▲ 59.98% for 10 sec.

She ‘tightens up’ the tethers on her enemies by increasing their Ensnaring Chain stacks through basic attacks. Every 40 shots landed during Full Burst (anyone's Full Burst; irrespective of the caster), one additional stack is added. This means:

• All enemies will eventually get 20 stacks of Ensnaring Chains as long as one has been applied through the Restraint Chain by Mihara, regardless of whether Mihara uses Burst Skill or not.
• Ammo is important for Mihara as uptime within Full Burst is crucial for increasing stacks (and triggering DoT tick more often). She also wants to avoid going into Cover during this period (but this might not be possible all the time esp. in Campaign and against certain bosses).
• A total of 600/40 = 15 stacks can theoretically be added, although due to FPS not being able to exceed 60, it would most likely be 14. This accounts only for one target as only the target hit by the 40th ammo receives an increased stack.
• When stacks are added or refreshed, Mihara deals XX.XX% (current stack of EC damage) + 25.08% (one stack of EC damage) to the enemy. This can be said as “prematurely triggering the DoT” and resetting its tick timer back to 1 second. Since the damage is similar to the regular DoT damage, we can also say the DoT triggers at an accelerated rate of 1.5 times/sec instead of the usual 1.0 times/sec when you are not shooting.
• This explains why non burst Mihara has matching damage with burst version, because her S1 now deals 50% more damage than expected. Perhaps it is a design oversight?
• Note that the 1.5 times/sec does not apply to Dragging Chains, only Ensnaring Chains!
• Anyway, since Mihara regains only 10 stacks of Restraint Chain after using Burst Skill and therefore 10 stacks of Ensnaring Chain, she must shoot ≥400 times in the next Full Burst to re-apply 20 stacks before her next rotation.
• This also hints that Mihara is not an ideal B3 to Burst first because she only has 10 stacks at the beginning. She must Burst second for optimal damage, although it is not necessarily compulsory.

Use as reference. Credit to Gatrix

Mihara also applies max stacks of Ensnaring Chains immediately on all enemies who already have Ensnaring Chains upon death. This is useful for PvP but useless in PvE, where you want to avoid her death at all.

If an enemy with Ensnaring Chain is neutralized, Mihara obtains one of her Restraint Chain back (only ONE despite the number of Ensnaring Chain stacks the enemy has), which she will spend immediately upon the appearance of a new alive target, or when the team enters Burst Stage III, or when Full Burst ends. This allows her not to be stuck in a Chain-less rotation, where her Ensnaring Chains would apply on a target that dies 1 second later, leaving her weaponless. It also means, under very specific timings, you can apply Restraint Chain during her own Full Burst, which allows her to stack Ensnaring Chains early. You can “test” a lite version of this in Shooting Range by running Elegg and bursting with Mihara immediately.

Mihara also gets a large amount of Sustained DMG▲ upon entering Burst Stage 3, which is the reason why her passive debuff and active debuff from Burst Skill are her main sources of damage. It also critically impels you to rotate fast to trigger this buff more often. Unfortunately, due to her low burst gen, you will have to compensate for it with other units.

Burst Skill

■ Affects the target(s) in Ensnaring Chains status.

Dragging Chain: Deals 50.05% of final ATK as sustained damage every 1 sec.

Mirrors the stack count of Ensnaring Chains on certain target(s) for 10 sec.

Removes Ensnaring Chains status after the effect is triggered.

Mihara unleashes her inner strength, enhancing the existing Ensnaring Chains and ‘dragging’ affected enemies around. When this happens, Ensnaring Chains will turn into the debuff Dragging Chains, effectively doubling the DoT damage. However, this only lasts 10 seconds, after which all Ensnaring Chains are removed and Mihara re-obtains Restraint Chains, which she can use to re-apply Ensnaring Stacks again from zero and restack them up via Basic Attacks.

• Ensnaring Chains on all enemies will be removed.
• Since applying Ensnaring Chains and maxing their stacks on each enemy one by one is a massive burden, this might actually reduce her AoE damage (if, let's say, there are 5+ tanky enemies). This is because her S2 basic attack stack increase only affects 1 target at a time.
• Ensnaring Chains also immediately disappear upon using Burst Skill.
• This means you cannot add stacks to Ensnaring Chains or Dragging Chains during her Burst period, which can lead to loss of damage if there is only one stack!
• However, Ensnaring Chain can be re-added during Burst Skill if Mihara gains a stack of Restraint Chain back from killing an enemy debuffed by Ensnaring Chain right before Burst Skill is used. The Restraint Chain would apply after any condition from Skill 1 is met. Note that it caps at 10.
• This allows her to stack up Ensnaring Chain early, dealing more damage, and you don't have to wait for the next rotation.
• Killing enemies with Dragging Chains does not give her Restraint Chain/Ensnaring Chain back because all Ensnaring Chains have been dissolved. If a target dies during this period, she will not apply Ensnaring Chain to a new target immediately like outside Burst Skill..
• Therefore, this skill is great for burst damage and single-target damage, and consideration must be taken when using it for mobbing.

Not As Big As You Think

The damage improvement from Burst Skill is not as big as you think. It doubles her theoretical damage but does nothing else. In fact, she loses her Ensnaring Chain stacks, so the burst damage must make up for it. Due to Restraint Chain application delay and stack adding time, the difference becomes narrower, which makes us question: is it better to use her Burst or another B3's?

Campaign (LD) - B | Campaign (HD) - C

Mihara's main problem in low deficits is her inability to stack quickly and outside Full Burst. Her damage is reliant on Ensnaring Chains, which as you are well aware, is more designed for single-target usage (on bosses that last for a long time). Her not being able to stack Ensnaring Chains on all affected enemies at the same time via basic attacks is a big letdown. Not to mention, her Burst Skill is a complete detriment for continuous AoE, because she will keep losing her Chains on enemies who die without Ensnaring Chain (note: Burst Skill removes Ensnaring Chains and turn them into Dragging Chains, which will not recover Restraint Chains upon death). Overall, her damage output is existent but weak.

She is still usable for Missilis Tower, though, mostly for boss stages and as a counter to the Glasses Rapture, because we don't really have many choices outside Ein, Maxwell, Laplace Treasure, QeQ, and Drake Treasure. She is also usable for Pilgrim Tower Bossing.

At higher deficits, problems arise when a unit doesn't have any ATK buff—resulting in her dealing 1 damage to enemies. This is another issue specific to Mihara and some other units, followed by the problem(s) we mentioned earlier in the above paragraph. High deficit mobbing is usually also more fast-paced, unfriendly to stack-oriented units like her. That's also why we don't normally use Liter. You will die before Mihara can deal damage—that if she can and doesn't tickle with 1 DMG. Finally, she also has low burst gen, which forces you to consider adding a burst gen unit in your team.

Bossing - SSS

Amazing solo DPS with great scalability. Grandeur! Mihara's damage is mainly from her high percentages and not overly-inflated ATK buffs, which makes her one of the most scalable units in the game. Why? Because most support units are all about buffing ATK! Pair her with anyone, and you will see a noticeable damage improvement. Not being picky in terms of support choices makes her one of the most versatile units in-game too, but also... one of the least self-sufficient damage dealers because half of her damage is thanks to supports! Rapipi is more self-sufficient in this regard.

Credit to Kazehayaken on Discord for the screenshots

She shines against Fire-Weak content and has strong Neutral Element presence, but she directly competes against Asuka & Alice [+ Crown +/- Naga] when core is considered. When there is no core, she usually overtakes them in the Fire element, no questions asked. Her damage is mostly from Skill Damage, so she is less reliant on cores and therefore more stable. Due to the current trend of bosses not having any core (or only having a core that breaks with a soft poke), Mihara is more reliable than Asuka & Alice, at least until durable cores return… or is it?

The biggest Fire Boss without core has a gimmick that is against her kit. Chapter 38 Boss - Gluttony,for example, doesn't have a core and is weak to Fire, the perfect place to test Mihara's might. Sounds good, right? NO! It has an ability that reduces damage that isn’t directed right into its Cancel Ring/QTE by 80%. And guess which damage cannot hit Cancel Rings? Of course, Mihara’s DoT! Yay! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜

Oh, ye, we also heard you — she sucks against Indivilia A.I. because she has debuff immunity. Yay! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜

In summary, Mihara has satisfactory bossing performance yet suffers from lack of content that suits her. There is no Fire Boss for her yet (to be nitpicky, there are but less prominent). The SSS rating here does not detract from our objective evaluation that she’s good; she just has no place to shine in. This is mainly a problem for endgame players, who already have better units for those types of content. If you are new, you might enjoy her just fine.

Regardless, the fact that she can be played in in-burst and off-burst also gives her an insurmountable amount of flexibility in Raid, where team composition is what decides which team she will go to. You often don’t have the choice of choosing in-burst or off-burst because one will be more optimal for “all teams”.

If you plan to Burst, you need to keep in mind that she ideally wants to burst second, as we explained earlier, although this is not compulsory. You also want to make sure she keeps firing during Full Burst and avoid going into Cover if possible. If you play her in the off-burst, she is actually one of the best off-burst DPS units, surpassing Modernia (in bossing). Do burst with her at least once toward the end of the battle, though, if planning to use Mihara in the off-burst position for the extra DoT damage spike before battle ends. Like XMaiden!

Hopefully, in the future, SU release more content in which she can shine. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

Maybe a boss that disappears for one whole minute? (╭ರ_•́)

PVP - A

A retaliative (or retaliatory or retributive) unit who applies max stacks of debuff on all Ensnaring Chain-affected enemies. Talk about dying with a bang.

Mihara can substitute in as a sacrificial unit for in team comps to deal continuous damage to your enemies, usually with another damage dealer (unless she is revived) and a staller (i.e. Blanc, Biscuit, Makima, Moran, Nero, etc), so her DoT can leave a more lasting impact. In fact, continuous AoE is good for counteracting Noah (it's slow, though, and not as good as unblocked instant wipes). She can be in-burst, off-burst, or dead—lots of creativity. She can also be paired with Rosanna if you desire as her death will also activate her Burst Gen Instant Fill skill.

She is similar to Rosanna in usage in that both are quite niche and rely on the death of units (or themselves) in order to work. This also makes them somewhat more fitting for ATK teams but not DEF. This is because, on attack, you can counter-build, especially against SG teams who predictably deal a lot of damage to P5 instantly or stacked SR/RL units. Sacrifices would be good against them.

She can also be used on Defense as a "please don't kill me, or I debuff you all" unit, but that is not reliable for defense because she can be bypassed. In fact, her debuff can be cleansed by cleansers like XMica if necessary (Crust excluded because she requires manual gameplay).

She can also be used to punish enemy wipers, but that will only work if at least one of your units stays alive. Thankfully, Stallers are very good at achieving this. The problem? PvE-oriented players don't really build stallers because the special ones are expensive.

What other weaknesses does Mihara have? Well, she is weak in the instant AoE department as she needs time to deal damage through her Ensnaring Chains, which have a high multiplier but zero offensive buffs when she is dead (well, except if the enemy is debuffed with Damage Taken or she is revived). Gradual AoE like this, if unbuffed, can be counterbalanced by strong heals & lifesteal. Restraint Chains can also be taunted, reducing the impact of Ensnaring Chains and S2 retaliative effect because not everyone will get debuffed (but it still has a high chance of hitting everyone at least once before taunt, which is usually @ 1 RL, and these are unlikely to hit P5 unless taunted back, which makes Mihara still a good SG counter). Cindy's decoy also blocks Restraint Chain from applying debuff on her. Rosanna also cannot be hit if Concealed. Mihara’s random targeting can also be a problem, leaving some units potentially undebuffed.

Mihara also requires meticulous placements and insightful/predictive counter-building if you want to use her in SpA Defense or CA (e.g. countering the counter to the counter to the counter to the ... of your team). You will also have to make sure she is dead and avoid using her Burst Skill if she hasn’t died and been revived because it's weak when there are not enough Ensnaring Chain stacks. Finally, her low burst gen can be a problem, same as her being counterable by Scarlet/Jackal as well as enemy Rosanna (who benefits from her death for burst gen).

Overall, despite her cons in the last two paragraphs, she is a decent PvP warrioress and a wonderful addition to everyone's roster. And there are some creative plays involving revives with her. More on the PvP Team Compositions section.

Note that you can TURN ON and OFF MIN FIRING ROUNDS settings before battling in Rookie Arena, which might affect how much MGs feed Jackal, change the speed of Siren’s stun, increase MG/SMG burst gen slightly, etc.

Gear Investments

Mihara wants Max Ammo, ELE, and ATK lines all equally as the most scalable unit on the planet, even more scalable than the likes of Modernia. You can, however, reduce reliance on some lines like Max Ammo by using Reload Speed buffers. That aside, the ideal end result should look like:

• Essential: 2× Max Ammo (600+ ammo is welcome)
• Ideal: 4× ELE, 4× ATK, 1× Max Ammo
• Passable: Crit Rate, Crit Damage, Max Ammo
• Priority: High

We are setting Priority to High here, but she is a late game unit. Focus on building Cinderella, Rapi: Red Hood, and other units before visiting her.

Skill Investments

Mihara wants all skills but especially S1 and S2 where most of her multipliers lie. S1 contains her base multipliers, whereas S2 contains the multiplicative Sustained DMG▲ buff. Burst Skill should also be upgraded (not required if you use her in off-burst). All of her skills have standard scaling and no breakpoints.

• Skill 1: 5~10
• There is no reason to stop at 4 when 5 costs only a little more blue manuals. The real jump starts at 6. At the end, you want to upgrade this to 7 to save gold manuals or 10 for maximum damage.
• Skill 2: 5~10
• Also the same reason and recommendation. However, this skill is useless in PvP if you let Mihara die because her Sustained DMG▲ will deactivate upon her death anyway. If you revive her, you might need it.
• Burst Skill:5~10
• Again, probably less important than S1, but this is also where most of her multipliers lie. As an off-burst DPS, Burst Skill levels are useless, but as an in-burst DPS, it is critically important. The reason? Well, that's because they ‘upgrade’ Ensnaring Chains to deal more damage and remove them afterward. If the upgrade makes you lose damage in the long run or doesn't give you enough damage improvements, why bother using her Burst Skill instead of another B3's? Hence, investments are advised. Start at 5 and work your way to 7/10 according to your preference.

Suggested Progression Path

 

PVE Investment

PVP Investment

Priority

Mihara: Bonding Chain

PVE investment

1/1/1 → 5/5/5 → 7/7/7 (→ 10/10/10)

PVP investment

1/1/1 → 5/3/3 → 7/5/5 (→ 10/10/10)

Priority

High (Late Game)

Cube Investments

Bastion with non-Reload Speed comps, Resilience with Reload Speed comps, and Destruction situationally if it leads to more damage according to your testing in a specific content.

In PvP, since you want her dead anyways, perhaps Vigor & Tempering aren't what you want, although they can be situationally useful when you need the slight added delay. Instead, you'd want your highest level cube to increase her base ATK stat/ELE damage.

Doll Investments

SR 0 is a no brainer if you do not want to spend much time building her. Otherwise, start with an R0 doll and upgrade it to R15. Swap it with an SR 5, which should be highly considered given her potential as a Fire DPS unit. SR 15 is a fine choice because the CP padding will be useful for future bosses.

However, do note that MG Doll Weapon-Specific Skills are meh. Doll upgrades can also be detrimental in PvP as she will die more slowly, which can be something you want or don’t want, but they boost her CP. Determine whether it is a positive upgrade before doing anything because it is irreversible.

Check out Teams Tab on her Profile for teams for various PVE and PVP content.