Red Hood guide & review

Red Hood banner will be available from 11/02 05:00 ~ 11/23 23:59 (UTC+9).

A formidable girl with an eventful past, Red Hood is an experienced soldier in combat. Her luminous hair and ardent eyes were testaments to her incredible performance in the battlefield. She takes the role of a relentless sniper, geared with a unique Burst Skill that can be activated in any burst stage. Depending on one's choice, she can provide either massive offensive buffs or defensive buffs. She also possesses the exclusive ability to convert excess charge speed into charge damage, allowing her to utilize all sorts of buffs to their maximum efficacy. In the right team, Red Hood is the incarnation of destruction itself or, if she chooses to let her allies bring the glory instead, she transforms into a guardian of fortitude, empowering her allies from the backline.

Red Hood is a Pilgrim SR Attacker regarded as a superior version of Alice and share similar functions. Unlike her childish counterpart, however, Red Hood is gifted with a permanent pierce at the cost of no automatic lifesteal. Her Skill 1 is about providing herself a stackable charge speed buff, whose excess would convert to charge damage at a rate of 240%. Her Skill 2, on the other hand, is about augmenting her Burst Skill with extra effects. You can assume that her Skill 2 and Burst Skill are one skill that gets split, forcing players to invest double the number of skill books needed originally. Last but not least, her unique Burst Skill is what distinguishes her from the rest of the roster. She can use it in Stage I, II, and III, depending on what kind of assistance you need from her.

• Using her Burst Skill in Stage I would allow her to heavily strengthen your team.
• Using her Burst Skill in Stage II would allow her to taunt all enemies for a long time while continuously regenerating HP with the help of lifesteal and potency.
• Using her Burst Skill in Stage III would transform her into a goddess of annihilation. Testing shows that she potentially has the highest DPS in-game.

Additionally, no matter in which stage you activate her Burst, it will always go on a 40s CD, unless reset by the gimmick from the Stage I and II versions, which only happens once per battle (the reset limit is separate for both stages). In some teams, these bonus resets can mean a slight increase in damage and survivability. Still, the 40s CD is a big letdown for everyone trying to use her in the B1 position as an ATK buffer.

Here are some ways to use her:

• You can use Red Hood as a DPS or a buffer. This highly depends on the enemy. For instance, against multiple mobs or a boss with multiple parts, Red Hood can quickly accrue tons of damage. However, when her teammates are capable of dealing damage more efficiently than her, consider using her as a buffer.
• If you are using her as a DPS, focus on activating her Burst Skill in Stage III, which revolves around landing a series of charged shots on one or more targets. In one way, it behaves similarly to Alice's but has unlimited ammo and a higher fire rate when firing in AUTO. While the theoretical damage per shot is lower compared to Alice's, and skilled players can shoot much faster with Alice, Red Hood is not gated by ammo and is also not reliant on the player's tapping/clicking speed. It also has a larger pierce radius, allowing her to simultaneously hit nearby targets much more easily. For starters, this means that Red Hood, under most circumstances, will have much higher DPS than Alice. She is in fact the best DPS and the best unit in game right now.
• She can activate her Burst Skill in Stage I once without ruining the rotation, which grants the entire team an enormous ATK buff. Use it to slightly boost your damage dealt, but make sure to evaluate the damage in hindsight.
• In cases where she would perform better as a support, focus on using her Burst Skill in Stage I to maximize the damage of other units, particularly units who can deal insane damage in short bursts, such as SAnis, Snow White, Maxwell, Alice, and so on. Why? Because it is a massive ±77% caster's ATK buff (at level 10) that repeats every 40s instead of 20s. Even better, attackers naturally have high base ATK, making the empowerment as effective for your defenders as it is for your other attackers. That said, you need to ensure that the activation timing of the Burst Skill of those major units synchronizes with her Burst Skill. Analyze your formation and find out which rotation results in the highest amount of damage.
• After the second activation of Burst Skill in Stage I, activating it again will incur a 40s CD. If you want a smooth burst rotation, you need to bring another B1 with you, whether 20s or 40s. This is normally a flex slot, so you can bring whoever you want here. Sakura, Milk, and Noise are awesome choices, but Pepper or SMary can fill the spot too. In campaign stages, you may also choose to wait out the 40s cooldown by leaving one mob alive before boss appears.
• Lack of survivability? In desperate situations, Red Hood can activate her Burst Skill in Stage II to taunt all enemies and grant herself lifesteal and HP potency. The idea behind this skill is Red Hood taking damage for her allies and outhealing it. If the damage is too much, she would still die, though. The first activation of Burst Skill in Stage II will have a CD reset, which means it will barely influence your primary rotation. Subsequent activations will incur a 40s CD, which can lead to DPS loss since you can now no longer use it in Stage I or III.
• For her lifesteal to be optimal, you need Red Hood to activate her special mode locked behind Burst Skill in Stage III. The problem is: this is only possible with CD reset, otherwise there will be a 40s CD after activating Burst Skill in Stage II. Thankfully, this is not a strict requirement. Red Hood can still heal enough with only her lifesteal (without Burst iII), but overall she will still heal less per second.

Red Hood is a prominent character in various game modes. She is a GODDESS. She is versatile and can be used everywhere (think of her as modern Scarlet). The comfort of not having to fast-click in Burst also makes her very beginner-friendly and campaign-friendly.

Campaign

She has a proven value in campaign pushing as a DPS or as a support. As a DPS, she is just Alice but much easier to use (no need to manual fire during Burst). Most stages have Alice as one of the lowest CP clearers, but Red Hood can also be one too if the circumstances are on her side. Like Alice, she provides incredible burst generation, demonstrates strong clearing potential during Burst Skill, and can even strengthen the team for 10s in one (or more) rotations. Her larger radius comes into play here with her hitting more than one mob at a time, something that Alice may struggle to achieve. As a support, her buff in B1 is influential in stages that can be cleared within two or three rotations (read below). This supportive side of her is really powerful for late-game pushing with high CP penalty.

Bossing

A must-have monster DPS. Outstanding single target damage that multiplies when the boss is weak to pierce or sports multiple parts. She also does not care if the boss spawns mobs in front of it because she can hit all of them at the same time with her Burst Skill. She should have more or less the same damage as Alice with a chance of being higher or lower depending on their investments and boss element. If Alice was considered to be the best DPS, Red Hood now takes over her spot.

After the recent Burst Skill buff, we personally do not think that Red Hood would ever be used a support when bossing. However, we could foresee the possibility of her being used in SAnis team, which currently does not pair well with most ATK buffs due to the inherent max ammo buff (Liter, for example). She also does not actually pair well with Dorothy's part damage because shotguns are inaccurate (and her S2 is untargettable). Red Hood being able to provide an enormous ATK buff every time SAnis bursts without any repercussions is something to look forward to. In fact, SAnis is a support, which means Red Hood's ATK buff will be 1.2x more effective on her than on ordinary attackers.

PVP

The most hated game mode yet also the most loved, PvP is where Red Hood may belong to. No, she is not meta-defining, but she surely has something to offer. In many ways, she is just superior to Alice (DPS) and Liter (support), but there is a catch. Her being able to Burst I, II, and III may require thoughtful positioning of units. Not only that, her shortcomings match Alice's perfectly. Since she only hits one unit at a time during Burst and not two like we expected, she is easily countered by any well-placed defender (especially with Biscuit) and some luck.

Red Hood boasts a strong buff in B1 that comes with a 40s CD, but that is not a problem in PvP. That buff is significantly better than Liter's, and she herself provides higher burst generation thanks to her unconditional pierce and quick charging time. She also does not feed Jackal. Consider pairing her with units like Scarlet, Maiden, Privaty, Harran, or even SAnis to instill fear in your rivals. She can also taunt, but don't expect it to be useful unless you use her Burst Skill in Stage III too.

Pilgrim Tower

A valuable unit in Pilgrim Tower. Like Alice, she will always find a spot in any stages that resemble campaign. The ability to provide a teamwide ATK buff over Dorothy's brand is always appreciated, not to mention her high burst generation. Often, her burst may also be preferred over Scarlet's or Mod's. Since you will be investing in her outside Pilgrim Tower anyway, you do not need to invest anything to enjoy the CP boost.

She is a cheaper version of Alice and is usable at lower investments, but her damage scales rapidly with higher skill levels and better OL lines. Unlike Red Hood, Alice requires both skill and gear investments to even be remotely usable. This is one strength Red Hood has over Alice, especially for beginners. This means you can start using her early and slowly invest in her as you progress.

Gear Investments

As usual, start with Helmet, Gloves, and Body. You want to overload her Boots too to enjoy the OL lines. We personally recommend maxing her Helmet and Gloves to Level 5 and leaving her Body at Level 3 because of the lower ATK scaling. The Boots can be left at Level 0 unless you need the CP boost, in which case Level 3 is sufficient. For the OL lines, prioritize 1+ Max Ammo and ATK. Elemental Damage is useful situationally. Then, for the extra lines, you can choose between 2 paths:

• Full Charge Route: Low Max Ammo + Charge Speed, combined with Bastion
• Quick Scope Route: High Max Ammo, combined with Resilience

The charge speed variant has a higher damage ceiling and scale exponentially with other charge speed buffers. We suggest going with the first one you get, otherwise you will be spending too much crystal on her.

Skill Investments

Speaking of priorities, her Burst Skill contributes to a major portion of her total damage, and her S2 is more important than her S1. Still, as a DPS, she requires all skills to be leveled up. Meanwhile, as a Support, she only needs her Burst Skill to be upgraded. Regardless, we recommend upgrading her with DPS and Support capabilities in mind.

Start with 5/5/5 (or 4/4/4), then branch to 5/7/7, then 7/7/7, then 7/10/10. This is decent enough, but 10/10/10 is the end goal.

Cube Investments

If Max Ammo is less than 10, Resilience is best. If Max Ammo is equal to or more than 10, both Resilience and Bastion can be used (in which case, we recommend using the higher level one for the tiny but influential base ATK + elemental damage boost). Adjutant's value is too small to justify using it, but it is still the best alternative you have got.

Red Hood's team formation depends on whether she is used as a DPS or as a support:

Team #1

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 1-3

Burst 3

Flex

Flex

Pretty much the basic setup for all damage dealers out there, the most comfortable and the most powerful. Red Hood comes equipped with a high amount of ATK buff already, so Damage Taken buffs are much more effective. She can also use her Burst Skill in Stage I once in place of Liter. However, since her ammo in Burst is unlimited, she does not benefit much from Liter + Noir combo. That aside, this team can be used both in campaign and in bossing.

If a stage can be cleared within 2 or fewer burst rotations, you can choose to bring a 40s or 60s CD Burst I unit to replace Liter instead.

Team #2

Burst 1

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 1-3

Burst 3

B3

Another alternative to the Blanc variant — Maxwell is the alleged BiS support for bossing, but deploy more viable DPS for campaign pushing (such as Scarlet/Modernia). Tia provides an ATK Damage buff which functions similarly to Damage Taken. Against bosses, Dorothy can also be inserted to further stack Parts Damage on top. Maxwell provides Red Hood with ATK buff as well as Charge Speed, which converts into Charge Damage during her burst. Maxwell also profits well from the Tia Naga setup.

Team #3

Burst 1

Burst 1-3

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

B3

If a stage can be cleared within 3 or fewer burst rotations, you can choose to bring a 40s or 60s CD Burst I unit (eg Rapunzel for heals) to replace the B1-CDR unit. Alternatively, you can add another B3 instead. In this 1-1-3 team, Red Hood will act as a support buffer, replacing the B1-CDR. Do Tia -> Red Hood rotation 2 times, and after that, you're left with no burst rotation for 40s. Try to keep a small rapture alive and allow ~40 seconds to elapse so that Red Hood can Burst again. Kill the small rapture and now proceed to the boss wave and try to kill it with the insane Tia + RedHood + Naga buff chain for your B3 units.

Team #4

Burst 1-3

Burst 1

Burst 2

B2

Burst 3

B3

Burst 3

B3

Red Hood as a support is underrated. She provides an enormous ATK buff that can easily be synchronized with units reliant on major Burst Skills like SAnis. Moreover, her ATK buff is based on the caster's ATK, which makes it as effective for defenders and supports as it is for attackers. Other B1 can replace the suggested trio. Remember to include a CDR.

Team #5

Burst 1

Burst 1-3

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

The new Special Interception one-shot team. Previously, Red Hood used to be Miranda. Now, she will take over her spot. Period.

You might as well quit the game if you fail to obtain her. She is currently THE BEST UNIT IN THE GAME. Obtain at least one copy, preferable using Mileage (or obtained for free from daily pulls), but Limit Breaks are extremely valuable. As she is a Pilgrim, should you miss the special banner, you will have a hard time getting her again in the future.

Because Red Hood is an unique character and she can use her Burst in every stage, we decided to rate her according to how you can use her - so as main B1, B2 or B3 character.

B1

B2

B3