Scarlet: NIKKE's Unparalleled DPS Powerhouse

Scarlet, renowned for her exceptional DPS power in NIKKE, is capable of delivering tons of AoE damage.

Right from the start, Scarlet distinguishes herself as a formidable unit, excelling with minimal investment and only growing more dominant as you invest in her.

This guide dives into the complexities of mastering Scarlet's full potential, from building her to integrating her into your team compositions.

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Scarlet Guide: Best Builds and Team Compositions

Unpacking Scarlet's Arsenal

Normal Attack: A Unique Assault

This attack does moderate damage but shines when targeting an enemy's core, where it deals double damage, making Scarlet particularly effective against bosses or units with exposed weak points.

• Ammo Capacity: 20 shots before needing a reload.
• Reload Time: 2.3 seconds, slightly longer than typical units, emphasizing the need for strategic firing and reload timing.

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Skill 1: Blood for Blood

This passive skill, activating after 10 normal attacks, boosts Scarlet's ATK by 23.15%, stacking up to five times but at the cost of reducing her current HP by 4.01%.

The ability to stack significant attack buffs rapidly makes Scarlet a DPS powerhouse.

However, the health cost requires careful health management or support from healing units to sustain in long fights.

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Skill 2: Zatoichi

With a 30% chance to trigger upon being attacked, this skill reflects damage back at enemies.

When Scarlet's HP drops below 60%, she gains a continuous 6.61% increase in critical damage, further amplifying her damage output under pressure.

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Burst: Scarlet Flash

This skill enhances Scarlet's critical rate by 19.57% when her HP falls below 50%, aligning with her high-risk, high-reward playstyle.

Scarlet Flash deals 849.15% of her final ATK as damage to all enemies, serving as a powerful nuke.

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Leveling Priorities

Skill 1: Blood for Blood

This skill is central to Scarlet's damage-dealing capability, offering up to a 23.15% attack increase that can stack five times, significantly amplifying her DPS.

Leveling this skill enhances Scarlet's ability to deal damage, making it a top priority to ensure she can quickly eliminate threats.

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Burst: Scarlet Flash

Scarlet Flash serves as a crucial component of Scarlet's arsenal, providing a significant AoE damage capability.

The burst activates a critical rate increase when Scarlet's HP is below 50%, in addition to dealing 849.15% of her final ATK as damage to all enemies.

While incredibly powerful, the utility and impact of this skill are somewhat situational, depending on Scarlet's health status and the specific needs of the encounter.

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Skill 2: Zatoichi

While Zatoichi offers a unique counterattack feature and a crit damage boost when Scarlet's HP falls below 60%, its impact on Scarlet's overall performance is comparatively minor.

While beneficial, it does not need immediate investment, especially when resources could be better allocated to enhancing her direct damage output.

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Optimal Harmony Cubes

‍Bastion Cube

The Bastion Cube refunds three rounds for every ten shots fired by Scarlet.

This mechanic directly impacts Scarlet's operational efficiency in combat by reducing one of her primary constraints: the long reload time associated with her 20-shot magazine.

By effectively reducing the frequency at which Scarlet needs to reload, the cube allows her to maintain a higher and more consistent damage output.

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Resilience Cube

Increases reload speed, directly addressing one of Scarlet’s main weaknesses—her long reload time.

By reducing the downtime between her attacks, the Resilience Cube allows Scarlet to maintain a more consistent DPS output.

This cube is beneficial in both early and late game.

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Gearing Strategies for Scarlet

Early Game Gearing Strategy

In the initial stages of the game, you might not have access to a wide array of gear options.

The primary focus should be on mitigating Scarlet's lengthy reload time to maintain a steady DPS output.

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Reload Speed Enhancements

‍Look for gear that offers reload speed improvements.

This can help compensate for Scarlet’s slow reload, ensuring she can return to action faster.

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Basic Health Management

‍While gear cannot directly heal Scarlet, equipping items that offer health boosts or damage reduction can help offset the health costs incurred from her Skill 1 (Blood for Blood).

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Transitioning to Overload Gear

As you progress and unlock overload gear, Scarlet's potential skyrockets.

Overload gear allows for customization that can directly counteract her weaknesses and boost her strengths.

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Max Ammo Capacity

‍The most crucial upgrade for Scarlet is maximizing her ammo capacity.

This directly addresses her reload time issue by extending the duration she can continue firing before needing to reload.

Aim to secure max ammo capacity boosts on all four pieces of her overload gear.

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Additional Desirable Substats

• Attack: Enhancing Scarlet's attack power further increases her DPS, making each shot more lethal.
• Hit Rate: Improves the efficiency of her attacks, ensuring that her powerful strikes find their targets.
• Elemental Damage: Offers situational advantages, particularly effective against enemies vulnerable to specific elemental types.

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Avoid investing in lines that don't directly contribute to Scarlet's damage output or reload efficiency, such as charge speed, charge damage, and defense.

These attributes do not align with her core gameplay requirements and are less impactful.

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Ideal Overload Gear Composition

Aiming for a Magazine Size of 50 to 60 Shots: With the right set of overload gear, Scarlet's base magazine of 20 shots can be significantly expanded, drastically reducing the frequency of her reloads and elevating her sustained damage capability in long fights.

Harmony Cube Selection: Pairing Scarlet with an appropriate Harmony Cube, like the Bastion Cube for ammo refund or cubes enhancing her survivability or damage output, can complement the benefits from her overload gear.

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Optimal Team Composition

The Foundation of Scarlet's Team

Scarlet's versatility allows her to fit into various team compositions, thanks to her substantial DPS output and relatively self-sufficient kit.

However, to address her specific needs—particularly her reload speed and self-inflicted damage from her Skill 1 (Blood for Blood)—certain teammates can significantly enhance her performance.

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Enhancing Reload Speed and Reducing Downtime

Admi and Privaty

‍Both units are excellent choices for improving Scarlet's operational efficiency.

Admi's ability to decrease downtime and Privaty's stun capabilities can keep enemies at bay while Scarlet prepares her next attack, ensuring continuous pressure on enemies.

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Maximizing Health Sustain

Given Scarlet's self-harm mechanic, integrating a healer into the team is crucial for maintaining her health topped up.

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Liter and Centi Support Core

‍This combination offers robust healing and support, ensuring Scarlet's health is quickly replenished, allowing her to sustain her DPS without interruption.

Alternating bursts between Scarlet and a healer like Helm can provide consistent healing, especially during critical boss encounters.

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Alternative Healers

‍Units like Noise, Rapunzel, Pepper and the recent addition of Marciana offer various healing dynamics that can be adjusted to Scarlet's needs.

The Bunny Comp and the Tia/Naga Comp are also viable options, providing additional support and buffs that complement Scarlet's aggressive playstyle.

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Strategic Burst Usage

Understanding Scarlet Flash

Scarlet Flash is a high-impact, screen-wide attack that deals substantial damage to all enemies present.

This burst becomes particularly potent when Scarlet's health is below 50%, granting her an increased critical rate for the duration of the burst.

The ability to target every enemy on the screen, including projectiles and missiles, makes it an invaluable tool for immediate crowd control and damage mitigation.

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Key Strategies for Burst Usage

Wave and Boss Anticipation

The timing of Scarlet Flash should be aligned with enemy wave patterns or boss attack phases.

Using the burst to preemptively clear or significantly damage incoming waves can prevent overwhelming situations, especially when facing mobs that deploy additional units or bosses that launch area-denial attacks.

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Emergency Screen Clearing

In critical moments, when the team is at risk of being overrun or when facing tons of projectiles, Scarlet Flash serves as an emergency reset.

This instant clearing capability can save the team from potential defeat, making it essential to reserve the burst for these pivotal moments.

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Projectile and Missile Neutralization

Scarlet's ability to target and neutralize projectiles and missiles with her burst adds a layer of defensive utility.

Timing the burst to coincide with enemy launches can protect the team from significant damage, especially in boss fights where such attacks are common.

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Health Management Synergy

Since Scarlet Flash gains an additional critical rate boost when Scarlet's health is below 50%, managing her health to hover around this threshold can maximize the burst's damage output.

Pairing Scarlet with healers who can quickly restore her health post-burst ensures she remains effective without risking defeat.

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Optimizing Reload and Burst Coordination

Aligning Scarlet Flash with Scarlet's reload cycle is crucial.

Activating the burst when Scarlet has a full magazine ensures that she can immediately follow up with sustained DPS.

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Final Thoughts on Scarlet

Scarlet's status as a top-tier DPS unit in NIKKE is undisputed.

Her ability to deliver devastating damage across all levels of play, combined with her flexibility in team composition, ensures her place as a staple in any player's roster.

As you navigate the complexities of building and gearing Scarlet, her value only increases, solidifying her role as an essential unit for conquering NIKKE's challenges.