Claret Best Build Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Claret is an Electric Armorer Agent whose gimmick is all about managing her Crimson Inscription state, which gives her enhanced attacks and allows her to consume Gash to trigger Maim - the core of the Armorer class.

Maintaining the state can be difficult, especially when trying to optimise around building as much Gash as possible. She has the ability to get Perfect Dodges with her Basics, which allow them to loop back into later strings, and by balancing out their use with character swaps and skills that pause her Crimson Inscription gauge’s decay, she is able to dish out a lot of damage in burst windows, triggering up to 6 Maims in stuns.

Her gameplay loop amounts to that: enter the state, build up Gash, then when Stun is due, use them all up for Maim. Just be careful to not drop out of the state, as that locks her out of her main damage tool!

Armorer

Armorer as a class has many unique features. To summarise, these are:

• “Sharpness”, which replaces the Energy gauge (and so does not benefit from Energy Regen bonuses).

• “Sharp DMG”, which scales with DEF and not ATK, with the latter being a dead stat.

• “Laceration DMG”, a multiplier that replaces CRIT DMG and cannot be increased by regular means, with CRIT DMG instead being converted to CRIT RATE at a 1:0.35 ratio.

• The ability to double-CRIT if CRIT RATE is over 100%, applying the Laceration DMG bonus twice over

• A “Gash” gauge, which has 3 sections, and can be consumed by certain skills to trigger “Maim”, dealing a high burst of AoE damage with a matching element.

• The “Counter Assist”, which will interrupt enemy Control Skills and immediately force a Shutdown.

Most of the above matters to Claret’s builds, but the Gash and Maim mechanics are integral to her game plan.

Almost all of her attacks (with the exception of Specials and Defensive Assists) will build the Gash gauge. Her tap-and-hold Specials while in the Crimson Inscription state are the skills that consume Gash to trigger Maim.

Maim is affected by DMG bonuses, RES reduction, even the double-CRIT, and the majority of Claret’s damage comes from it. This means that getting as many triggers of it as possible in a fight (ideally in Stun windows) is what underpins both her and her class’ identity.

Specials

As Claret can only trigger Maim with her Crimson Inscription state Specials, it’s the key resource that she must manage.

Her EX Special costs 60 Sharpness and on use, it’ll place her in the state for 16s. None of her in-state attacks generate Sharpness on hit, and with a 1.5 Sharpness regen rate, it’s not possible for Claret to have her EX available every 16s.

The gauge will pause when she’s off-field, as well as when using her Counter Assist, Counter Assist Follow-Up, Chain and Ultimate, so swapping out of her to other Agents and making use of her abilities to stop the decay is important.

Holding Basic after the EX Special will shortcut to her enhanced Basic 3, whereas tapping or holding Special will link into her Crimson State Specials.

Her tap Special will consume 1 Gash to trigger 1 Maim, whereas her hold Special will consume up to 3 Gash to trigger 3 Maims. The tap Special can be used out-of-stun to avoid overcapping on Gash, whereas the hold Special is used in-stun to burst quickly.

If Maim is triggered by any Special, she can shortcut into an alternate Basic Attack.

Claret does have a regular out-of-state Special, but it shouldn’t be used as it has little value.

Basics

There are 3 Basic Attacks that Claret has access to: the first is a regular out-of-state string, which is her main way of building Sharpness.

Although it can be used to help with resource management, it doesn’t see much use, as maintaining the Crimson Inscription state with swaps and pauses is best.

Once in-state, she has access to an enhanced Basic Attack, being the primary skill used to apply Gash to enemies. The Basic 3 is a series of slashes with a downward smash attack, and the slashes can be extended by repeatedly pressing or holding the Basic Attack button.

Her enhanced Basic 2 and the Basic 3 downward smash can Perfect Dodge enemies. If the Perfect Dodge is triggered, then it can shortcut into a Basic 3.

Although a Basic 2 would have transitioned into a Basic 3 anyways, doing this with the downward smash allows Claret to loop Basic 3s over and over, being a great way to build up Gash.

She then has an alternate in-state Basic Attack that’s a shortcut to after Specials that trigger Maim. This looks just like the downward smash and can trigger a Perfect Dodge, but regardless of whether it does or doesn’t, it always leads into a Basic 3, which can be situationally useful after a tap Special.

Dodges

Claret has 2 Dodge Counters, one for out-of-state and one for in-state, but both rarely see use as it’s best to rely on her Basic 3 Perfect Dodges instead.

She has an out-of-state Dash Attack but no in-state Dash Attack, leading instead to a Basic 1. It does have good range, though, so it can still gap close.

Assists

Claret has the standard Defensive Assist and Assist Follow-Up, but she also has the Armorer-exclusive Counter Assist and a Counter Assist Follow-Up.

Both of them will pause the meter decay, but also have far higher multipliers. Combined, they can build up to 2.5 Gash stacks and have higher damage, Daze, Decibels, etc., than regular Assists.

As Control Skills tend to only happen once in fights, it won’t be used often, but it’s a key aspect of the Armorer class and incredibly strong given that cutting a Control Skill short gives the team more time to act.

Chain & Ultimate

Claret’s Chain Attack is integral to her in-stun burst. It builds a decent amount of Gash, pauses the Crimson Inscription state from decaying and extends it by 2 seconds. So even if going into Stun with the state about to run out, using her Chain Attack multiple times can be enough to have it last for the full duration.

Her Ultimate doesn’t extend the state, but it does pause it, and if Crimson Inscription is active, it will build up a full Gash stack by itself. It deals high damage and also has the added benefit of generating 10 Sharpness on cast, giving Claret much-needed resources to re-enter the state after Stun if it expires.

Both skills can shortcut into her Basic 3, and doing so is needed for her 6 Maim combos.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Claret’s Core Passive is mostly outlining Armorer mechanics. It does also gives Claret 60 Sharpness when entering the battlefield, allowing her to immediately enter Crimson Inscription, and also buffs her CRIT Rate by 30% and Gash Build-up Rate by 50% while in the state.

These bonuses apply to her Chain Attack, Ultimate, Counter Assist and Assist Follow-Ups regardless of being in state. As her Maims are not included if out-of-state, it doesn’t mean much, so the value of these bonuses is mostly tied to Crimson Inscription.

It also provides a 15% DMG Bonus to Claret’s enhanced and alternate Basics if they trigger a Perfect Dodge, being a minor boost.

Unlike most Agents, levelling the Core Passive does not give Base ATK, and instead, it gives CRIT RATE on every node!

Her Additional Ability needs a Stun, Armorer or same-attribute character, and it gives Claret 300 Decibels whenever Contamination is triggered, with an 18s cooldown. As this demands Wind, it’s only applicable when running her with Wind Agents or in fights with forced Wind application (e.g. Roxy or Scorched Horizon).

Claret will also give all Armorer Agents a 25% bonus to Laceration DMG for 40s when any Maim is triggered by the squad. This applies to herself and opens up the ability to run her as a secondary damage dealer in double Armorer comps, as the buff would apply to others too.

Claret’s game plan is simple but can be difficult to pull off in an actual run.

Her EX Special is used to enter the Crimson Inscription state, and during it, use her enhanced Basic Attacks to apply Gash to enemies. If at risk of over-capping, her tap Special can be used to trigger 1 Maim and ensure she’s always building gauge.

This can be difficult to do, though, as the time it takes for Claret to build 3 Gash stacks is enough to have her Crimson Inscription state be close to running out in many teams and encounters. So swapping out of her while building Gash to quickly apply Daze and refresh ally buffs can take precedence over out-of-stun Maim triggers. Certain Agents can help manage this, like Norma with her Chain Attack conversion, but the balance of how much time to spend on Claret vs other Agents ranges from team to team.

What’s most important is to have at least 3 Gash stacks ready for when stun begins and enough time in the Crimson Inscription state that’ll last long enough to cover a hold Special. If Claret has her Ultimate available, she can fall back on this combo structure:

• Hold Special to trigger 3 Maims.

• Swap out of her and trigger Claret’s Chain Attack.

• Cancel the Chain, then go into a Basic 3 shortcut - this builds 1 Gash stack.

• Swap out of her and trigger Claret’s Chain Attack again.

• Shortcut into her Basic 3

• Once the Basic 3 builds the second Gash stack, use Claret’s Ultimate, building the final Gash stack.

• Hold Special to trigger 3 Maims.

Even against 12s base Stun duration enemies and without any extensions, this can fit in full. Other Agent skills can then be integrated into this, like making use of Quick Assists after the second Chain Attack to refresh Astral Voice, or using Norma’s Chain Attack conversion at the end for more damage.

The Chain Attacks and Crimson Inscription duration pauses means that so long as Claret can go into the first while the state is active, she’s likely to be able to perform the full combo. Most optimisation then comes in managing how she’s played out-of-stun, as different teams and counters demand different routes to sustain her gauge and maximise Maims over the course of a fight.