Should you pull Nautika?

Yes

Well, most likely yes.

As of writing this, Nautika is the uncontested Queen of Damage Dealers while playing within the Bloodtithe Archetype. Get Nautika if:

• You want a semi-flexible and extremely high potency Damage Dealer.
• You are building a Bloodtithe team (i.e. Semmelweis, Sentinel, Ezra Theodore, Rubushka).

There’s a lot going on with Nautika, so let’s go bit by bit.

Nautika belongs to the Bloodtithe Archetype, meaning that the primary driving factor of her kit is losing HP to convert into [Bloodtithe] stacks for the team to consume on various skills. As its primary Damage Dealer, Nautika will be the one constantly spending [Bloodtithe]. She is also very good at generating it, losing HP via “Haunting Pain” and reducing teamwide HP with “Martyr of the Abyss”.

Additionally, she is very tanky. She has a stacking Max HP buff with [Higge], free revives by consuming [Bloodtithe] to gain [Reanimation], DMG Reduction, she can also massively increase her own Healing Taken and even heal her team. This is all to her benefit, as she will be bouncing between high and low HP values over the course of a fight and her damage scales partially with her Max HP as well.

It is important to note that Nautika doesn’t unlock her actual kit until Insight II.

Her primary damage source is “Divine Yoik”, her Ultimate. This is a nuke whose hit count increases with the amount of [Bloodtithe] consumed upon casting, meaning that you want to stack it as quickly as possible to get the most out of every cast. This will also be quite frequent depending on the stage, as Nautika doesn’t have Moxie and instead generates [Faith] whenever [Bloodtithe] stacks are gained. At max [Faith], her Ultimate comes online. This makes having HP Loss teammates very important.

Her other skills are either tools to generate [Bloodtithe] such as “Haunting Pain” which is just a nuke and “Martyr of the Abyss” which reduces teamwide HP to buff them and deal damage to allies, or they’re meant to protect the team from potential harm. “Weave in the Light” puts up a Counter for Nautika and reduces her damage taken, whereas she can also heal with “Consume the Colors of the Living” and—in dire situations—her “A Million Springs” Ultimate.

This was all relatively simple, and that’s correct. Nautika is not a very difficult-to-understand unit despite the high volume of text and incantations. She boils down to generating [Bloodtithe] quickly to cycle her Ultimate fast.

Simplicity has no bearing on quality though: Nautika hits RIDICULOUSLY hard. With how fast her team generates [Bloodtithe] it is not weird to throw a “Divine Yoik” out every other turn, which deals an unhealthy amount of damage with proper stacking.

She hits hard and fast, and is hard to kill.

Gameplay

The final star of the 2.X Patch Series.

And not a star that’s briefly twinkling in the night sky, no, this is more like if the sun went supernova.

Nautika does several things. She gets very tanky, constantly consumes HP to generate [Bloodtithe] and then consumes all of the [Bloodtithe] to deal a bajillion damage. This is also the most important thing about teambuilding around her though: you want units that either self-damage, reduce the team’s HP, have some other way of inflicting damage on their allies (Fatutu’s damage sharing for example) and you also do not want any teammates that consume [Bloodtithe], sorry Eternity(E2) enjoyers.

There really isn’t much to say about her beyond this, there’s not any shenanigans and her gameplan is incredibly difficult to mess up.

It doesn’t help that her primary (and perfectly synergistic) teammates are Semmelweis(E) and Sentinel, two units known for stacking a ridiculous amount of offensive buffs on a single ally. With the combination of those two there is not a single offensive buff that Nautika doesn’t have, which combines well with her excessively high output.

For healers, you’re likely running Fatutu or Medicine Pocket(E) while waiting for the details of Rubushka’s kit. Note that Medicine Pocket beats Fatutu in short fights as they lock the team to 50% HP with their auto-casts and they have potent debuffs. Fatutu beats them in the long run due to her more potent healing.

In addition, there’s a modicum of flexibility within her teambuilding if you don’t have Sentinel or Semmelweis for example (though Semmelweis is definitely a key component of the team). Melania(E) can work due to Nautika’s focus on her Ultimate, Flutterpage can work since “Divine Yoik” counts as a Follow-Up and most generalist supports can take a spot here.

Pros & Cons

Nautika is complete at Portrait 0.

Investment in her actually does pay off, however, and getting Portraits on her is not at all a waste.

• P1 allows her to generate her Ultimate more quickly at the start of the stage.
• P2 further benefits her Ultimate generation and also increases its damage.
• P5 is a repeat of P2 with even greater bonuses.

Nautika has a fine set of high-value teammates.

• Core: Semmelweis(E)
• Bloodtithe: Sentinel, Rubushka, Ezra Theodore(E2), Medicine Pocket(E), Eternity(E1)
• Other: Melania(E), Flutterpage, Fatutu, Lopera, Kakania

Embrace the Past

On the Hand of Time

Balance, Please

• Embrace the Past (Signature, Best)
• On The Hand of Time (Good)
• Balance, Please (Good)

Resonances

Code: APQgJQA4AT0FKxMpAy1CJlI9BitAOURMVkxmSlFKZQ

A few suggestions are listed below. 3-People teams are highlighted, with the 4th slot added at the side to provide a 4-P variation of the same team or even insights on possible variations of the 3-P team.

Standard Teams

Lesbian Religious Trauma[GLB]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Semmelweis
• Euphorias: Semmelweis
• The idea behind this team is simple: generate [Bloodtithe] and hyperbuff Nautika so she can start blasting. Every piece of this team works towards achieving that goal.
• Place Sentinel behind Nautika to ensure that she’s getting the [Dread Bullet] buff. This will grant a massive amount of Crit Rate, Conversion and DMG Bonus. Besides that, Sentinel’s primary goal is stacking [Fresh Wound] to function as a [Bloodtithe] battery for the rest of the team.
• Semmelweis(E) is the sauce here. Through her [Blood Domain] she provides DMG Reduction, DMG Bonus, Bonus Healing Taken, EA DMG Bonus and an increase in [Bloodtithe] generation. Then, through her targeted [Fresh Blood] buff she grants one ally extra Crit Rate, Crit DMG and further DMG Bonus. As you can see, this is a lot of both defensive and offensive buffing, and on top of her Max HP Bonus and steady [Bloodtithe] generation, Semmelweis is the beating heart of the team.
• The healer slot can be occupied by primarily two units (though do know that Rubushka is VERY likely to fully claim this spot once they release). Medicine Pocket(E), due to locking the team’s HP to 50% and having solid Crit Shred debuffs, is better for quicker fights and more immediate Bloodtithe generation. Fatutu is stronger in longer fights where her raw defensive output scales better.
• Besides that, Sentinel’s spot is semi-flexible depending on what you have in your box, popular options include:
• Melania(E) for her powerful Ultimate related buffing which synergizes well with Nautika’s game plan.
• Flutterpage for the infamous Fatutu combo because Nautika’s Ultimate also counts as a Follow-Up.
• Eternity(E1) due to her decently consistent [Bloodtithe] generation and Crit buffs.
• Lopera due to her [Ritual Bullet], Crit buffs and AP-friendly rotation.
• Kakania because you can’t really go wrong with Kakania and her DMG Share works with [Bloodtithe].
• Mercuria because Mercuria.