Characters / Arknights Vanguards A To M

Arknights Characters
Operators: Vanguards (A-M | N-Z) | Snipers (A-M | N-Z) | Guards (A-H | I-Q | R-Z) | Defenders (A-M | N-Z) | Casters (A-G | H-M | N-Z) | Medics (A-M | N-Z) | Supporters (A-M | N-Z) | Specialists (A-M | N-Z)
Factions: Rhodes Island | The Reunion Movement | Dublinn | The Military Commission of Kazdel | Allied Factions | Enemy Factions | Miscellaneous factions & characters | Nation States (A-M | N-Z) | Enemy Units Index

Bagpipe

Bagpipe / Fiona Young

Introduced: Contingency Contract Barrenland
Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (Japanese), Iris (Mandarin Chinese), Lauren Conroy (English)
Artist: U介

Meticulous when it comes to fighting and farming, utterly clueless when it comes to electronics and trends.

Bagpipe, former Victorian soldier, has come in search of the truth.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 222

Subclass: Charger

Tags: DP-Recovery, DPS

Skills: Swift Strike γ, High-Impact Assault, Locked Breech Burst

Talents: Precise Reloading, Martial Tradition

Affiliation: Victorian Empire

Race: Vouivre

Birthday: July 17

Height: 167cm

"Hello! You're the Doctor, aye? Officer Ch'en fae Lungmen said I'd be able tae find some helpers here! I need tae sign my name first? Aye, right enough. Baaag...pipe. There! Eh? 'Become an Operator?' 'Full-time bed and board?' Ach, what's goin' on here?!"

A former soldier in the Victorian army and farmer by birth, who left the army for a secretive purpose and made her way to Rhodes Island at Ch'en's recommendation.

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• A Day in the Limelight: Bagpipe is featured as one of the main protagonists of Chapter 9, showing how she met Reed and switched from a Victorian soldier to an operator of Rhodes Island.
• All Your Powers Combined: Bagpipe operates like a combination of Vigna and Grani, with the former's focus on dealing a lot of offensive damage, while possessing the latter's plus-block defensive capabilities.
• Action Initiative: One of the main reasons why Bagpipe is so valued among players is her second talent, Martial Tradition, which gives all Vanguards a boost to starting SP just by her being in the squad. Considering that Vanguard skills are responsible for getting players that initial burst of DP that will often decide the battle, the ability to fire them off earlier than usual is a huge boon to have, especially in stages that rush you right out of the gate.
• Badass Adorable: Cute-looking, full of youthful spirit and energy, unfailingly cheerful and likable, Bagpipe is nevertheless an extremely strong Vouivre with a distinguished service record as a Victorian soldier, and can easily wreck anyone unfortunate enough to stand in her way.
• Brave Scot: She's implied to have come from Oop North, specifically the in-universe equivalent of Scotland, is a Fiery Redhead, speaks with a Funetik Aksent, and her skirt is themed after a kilt, complete with a sporran, a fanny pack-like bag worn on a loose belt around the hip (although real kilt are typically worn by men). Her codename being taken after the Scottish national instrument further supports this. With the addition of Bagpipe's English voice actress (who is Scottish), her lines have also been rewritten to sound more Scottish.
  Bagpipe: Ye didnae get a proper supper in yesterday, did ye? No, I dinnae want tae hear aboot 'work, work, work'! If yer body gives out on ye, ye willnae be able tae get a thing done. Tell me what ye'd like, and I'll whip it right up for ye. Ah, na anything too fancy though, aye? I'd be lost tryin'.^note Yes, this is how it's actually written
• Call to Agriculture: Despite her military service, Bagpipe's true calling is agriculture and rearing of livestock, as she was born into a family of farmers. She's rather disappointed by the limited-scale farms that Rhodes Island maintains. Her token is even a handful of grains.
• Country Mouse: Played with. While she is from the countryside and has an unusual accent, Bagpipe is perfectly adapted to urban life and isn't a bumpkin (aside from being bad with technology).
• Critical Hit: Her first talent, Precise Reloading, gives her a 25% chance (28% at potential 5) to boost the damage of her next hit and hit an additional target with it. Her skills synergize with it by increasing the number of hits she does per attack, increasing the chance of her talent triggering.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Bagpipe is mentioned by Reed in one of her lines, claiming that she tries to uncover her identity as one of many last remnants of Draco race.
• Fiery Redhead: Bagpipe is an energetic, friendly woman who is also a brilliant combatant, with vibrantly orange hair.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Subverted with her interaction with Horn. It is mentioned that they once interrogated a terrorist for further information of their operation, with Bagpipe as the good cop and Horn as the bad cop. However, while Bagpipe was nicer compared to Horn's strangling the terrorist until they croacked out the bomb's position, Bagpipe still punched through a steel table to intimidate the terrorist.
• Image Song: "Hometown Wind".
• Horrible Judge of Character: Oddly inverted in regards to Reed in "What the Firelight Casts". As Ch'en notes, Bagpipe always wants to believe the best in her comrades, which is why she doesn't (or possibly refuses to) suspect Reed's real identity as the 'Leader' of Dublinn. Since Reed is exactly as kind as Bagpipe believes her to be, and Bagpipe doesn't understand her circumstances or those of Dublinn, she never manages to figure out Reed's identity until she is hit with the truth by seeing Reed's Arts, which drives her into a temporary Heroic BSoD.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Her weapon is basically a Gunlance, with Bagpipe wielding it as a polearm, while the gun component is disabled save for providing additional explosive bursts whenever she strikes.
• Musical Theme Naming: Her whole squad back when she was in the military (including her former commander Horn) had instrument-themed codenames. There's even a poor sod who got codenamed Triangle.
• Mythical Motifs: Wyverns, due to her Vouivre race. Curiously enough, she is the only Vouivre without a visible tail.
• Nice Girl:
  • Free-spirited and full of energy, she was able to establish friendly ties with many Rhodes Island staffers shortly after arriving, and goes out of her own way to help others at the base.
  • She and Grani topped the list for "Rhodes Island's Most Likeable Ranking", and many remember Bagpipe running around with Grani atop her shoulders while the two "harassed" various other Operators.
• The Nicknamer: Bagpipe has a habit of giving cute nicknames to people she likes. For example, Ch'en is "Chenchen" and Perfumer is "Nena", even as the latter futilely asks Bagpipe to not call her that.
• Noodle Incident: Something happened between her and Reed that still troubles her to this day. Ending up on the same ship as Reed hasn't helped matters. It's also implied that this encounter is what motivated her to leave the army. Chapter 9 shows her facing Reed for the first time as an enemy, only to unknowingly carry her to Rhodes Island's safety after a strange turn of events, understandably creating an awkward situation between them.
  • "What the Firelight Casts" sheds more light on the situation, revealing that Bagpipe was Locked Out of the Loop regarding Reed's identity, not realizing she was the Leader of Dublinn during the events at County Hillock. When she finds out during the side story, she takes it rather badly.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "What the Firelight Casts", when she sees Reed using her Originium Arts and deduces her identity as a result, she becomes completely serious when confronting Reed afterwards and demands a confession from her, even physically grabbing her by her collar with a look of anger and betrayal on her face. When she is given a radio receiver by Fionn as she and Ch'en prepare to leave, she handles it uncharacteristically carefully defying her Walking Techbane tendencies, which drives home the severity of the situation.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Inverted — Bagpipe is the one doing the overshadowing. Her combination of high stats, powerful skills, and synergy with Standard Bearer Vanguards (the so-called "Flagpipe" combo) essentially upended the game's Vanguard meta overnight, and she's now the effective baseline for evaluating a high-rarity Vanguard's usefulness in upper-level play. You can see evidence of this in the Arknights Low-Tier Letdown page: nearly every listed Vanguard has something along the lines of "they aren't Bagpipe" included among their reasons for being there. Only with the release of the Agent Vanguard archetype, particularly Ines, is her position in the Vanguard meta finally challenged, since they bring a similar level of utility as Standard Bearer Vanguards by being able to attack to print a lot of DP and being a fast redeploy, with Ines in particular being able to steal portions of enemy ATK and ASPD, apply bind in her first hit to an enemy, and slow enemies while removing their invisibility once they get in her attack range or her tower's range when undeployed. Even then, Bagpipe can still synergize with Agent Vanguards by providing initial SP for them to instantly cast their skills on deploy.
• The Pollyanna: She never loses her spirit no matter how dire the situation gets, even after her squad leader Horn was presumably killed by Mandragora, she still believes her to still be alive out there.
• Skilled, but Naive: Bagpipe is a powerful soldier, but her background as a farmer from the boonies caused her to lack social grace in noble gathering nor political understanding over the city folks' unrest. She gets scorned by both Victorian soldiers and the Taran nationalists for being nice to both.
• Super-Strength: A common trait among all female Vouivre, but Bagpipe is noted to be even stronger than average, to the point of allegedly surviving multiple explosions in the pasts.
• Sole Survivor: As revealed in Episode 9, one of the reason Bagpipe was Walking the Earth before joining Rhodes Island was due to the slaughter of her entire squad during County Hillock incident.
• Walking Techbane:
  • In one of her lines, Bagpipe admits to not being so good with technology, to the point where one device she touches starts smoking.
  • However, this seems to be restricted to advanced civilian technology. She's perfectly fine around advanced farming equipment like tractors.
• Walking the Earth: She apparently left the army in order to pursue a shadowy group, leading her to travel all across Terra before ending up at Rhodes Island.

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Beanstalk

Beanstalk

Introduced: Beyond Here
Voiced by: Ayasa Itō (Japanese), Miruku (Mandarin Chinese), TBA (English), Jang Ye-na (Korean)
Artist: 一千

Carefully examine any expense applications she submits. Once in a while, her contracts hide tiny traps.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Icefield Messenger: Gift Uncompleted skin.}

Top specialist Metal Crab breeder Beanstalk, commanding her Metal Crab teams to guard the frontline.

Rarity: ★★★★

ID: No. 452

Subclass: Tactician

Tags: DP-Recovery, Summon

Skills: Sentinel Command, "Everyone Together!"

Talents: Professional Breeder

Affiliation: Columbia

Race: Rebbah

Birthday: March 10

Height: 155cm

"Hello, Doctor. My name's Beanstalk. Starting today, I'll be... Eh? What's in my case? Oh, this is Peacake. Here, Pea, say hi to the Doctor."

A professional Metal Crab breeder who seeks to prove that her profession is a worthwhile one.

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• All Your Powers Combined: Beanstalk is the first of a new Vanguard archetype, sporting a similar attack pattern to Anti-Air Snipers while also being capable of summoning adds like the typical Summoner Supporter, albeit only within her attack range and afterwards the four adjacent spots to the initial summon. On top of it all, Beanstalk recovers DP via her skill, making her a DP-Recovery Vanguard.
• Animal Motifs: As she's of the same race as Spot, hyenas. More specifically, the aardwolf.
• The Beastmaster: Beanstalk's skills summon her pet crabs, which occupy certain tiles in front of her. While on the field, the crabs serve as a destructible debuff zone, causing enemies who step on them to be blocked and take more damage from Beanstalk's attacks.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Has a sly smile on her face in her character portrait, and you’re warned to keep an eye on her expense reports lest she slip something in.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Her crabs and ranged kit make her a so far unique Vanguard to work with, but don't let her being ranged fool you - she will not prioritize aerial enemies. Furthermore, her crabs can only be planted somewhere in her range, so if one were to make them an integral part of your strategy, they will need to think about where to place her. Her second skill pops up temporary crabs around it, making the placement of the initial crab even more important. Having said that, her crabs are virtually immortal (once defeated, it'll go into a regenerating state similar to that of Patriot as in they're unable to attack or block but also cannot be attacked), don't cost DP and do not take Deployment slots, so if one takes all of this into consideration, she's a pretty strong operator for her 4-star status.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Downplayed, but still there when gauged by Earth standards. Per Ash’s bio, one of the events that proved to her how dangerous Terra could be was seeing metal crabs bore right through Blitz’s ballistic shield, which was designed to withstand gunfire. Now, see that crab in the little terrarium Beanstalk is carrying around? She named it Peacake.
  • Their hardiness is also reflected in-game, where their DEF is the highest out of all summons placed down by the archetype, and their ability to revive after fifteen seconds of downtime.
• Friend to Bugs: Well, friend to Metal Crabs, but the effect is the same. Beanstalk is a Metal Crab breeder and tamer who wants everyone to realize how great Metal Crabs are, even as other people treat her dreams as bizarre.
• Happy Holidays Dress: Her Gift Uncompleted skin, which is basically a green silk nightdress worn under a comfy large sweater. Beanstalk chose it for comfort.
• It Will Never Catch On: Other people's reactions to Beanstalk's desire to breed and raise metal crabs, as there's no obvious profit in it, and therefore no market. This hasn't put a dent in Beanstalk's determination, as she plans to market her skills to Rhodes Island. It turns out that she was right about them having a use: their flowers have medicinal properties, and a section of the landship's garden is set aside to breed them. The animated miniseries Kay's Daily Doodles shows her running a small cafe staffed with her crabs in an effort to raise awareness of the abilities of domesticated metal crabs.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: A ranged Vanguard who can also use summons. In the Vanguard class, it doesn't get much weirder than that. Her summons are the only ones that cannot die. Retreating it manually (or rather, trying to) or if its HP hits 0 makes them go into a passive state, after which they'll be back on their feet in 10 seconds. The only way to have them leave their deployed tile is retreating Beanstalk, getting her killed or by letting Frostnova freeze their tile or hers.
• Mundane Utility: The flowers that grow from her crabs have medicinal properties, leading to Perfumer setting aside a part of the Rhodes Island garden to breed them. Additionally, one of her crabs - Peacake - somehow allows her to improve the productiveness of a factory when she’s assigned there.
• Odd Name Out: One of her crabs is named Peacake, a rather obvious exception to the Theme Naming described below.
• Situational Sword: Due to aforementioned versatility (covering both aerial and melee while regenerating DP all the same) and her low rarity and Hope Cost, she finds her fair share of use in Integrated Strategies, a mode that severely limits resources and makes higher rarity operators less accessible to use.
• Theme Naming: Her crabs are named after some famous rappers: Trey, Twista, B.I.G., Hammer, and Ice Cube.

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Blacknight

Blacknight

Introduced: Invitation to Wine
Voiced by: Junko Noda (Japanese), Ellen Wang (Mandarin Chinese), Norma Butikofer (English), Yun A-yeong (Korean)
Artist: 温泉瓜

Whether city or barrens, they're her battlefields to freely traverse.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Coral Coast: Summer Flowers FA641 skin.}

^{Click to see her 0011 Series: Fragrance from the Branches skin.}

Bounty hunter Blacknight, ready for your jobs at any time.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 476

Subclass: Tactician

Tags: DP-Recovery, Crowd Control

Skills: Drowsy, Peaceful Slumber

Talents: Nightwalker

Affiliation: Rim Billiton

Race: Savra

Birthday: November 2

Height: 166cm

"You're the best tactician on Rhodes Island? I'm Blacknight, and excuse me but we're going to need a showdown. If I lose, you'll be my boss from then on, and I ask to be trained properly."

Blacknight, a bounty hunter who spent her early years in the wilderness. Registered at some office within the bounds of Great Yen, and logged as an operator of Rhodes Island.

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• Animal Motifs: As a Savra, she's based on a gecko, which shows up in her Elite 2 artwork. Specifically, she draws from 'black night' geckos, which are leopard geckos with a hypermelanistic pattern (sort of black leopard geckos). Her slumberbeast, meanwhile, seems to be based on a baku. Curiously enough, she has two small horns that are not from her base animal, but from her baku instead.
• The Beastmaster: She keeps a "Badland Long-nosed Slumberbeast" that resembles a tapir, which is capable capable of secreting rare hypnotic substances.
• But Now I Must Go: In her Operator Record she has difficulty getting accustomed to the overly comfortable lifestyle on Rhodes Island and eventually decides to leave, preferring the harsh lifestyle she was used to, though she remains an associate who can be called upon if needed.
• Combat Pragmatist: She has no qualms about attacking enemies put to sleep by her slumberbeast. Do note that this makes her one of the few operators that can attack sleeping enemies, although she does so by way of her summon.
• Competition Freak: As shown in a couple of her quotes, Blacknight will only agree to help someone if they're able to beat her in some kind of game first.
• Difficult, but Awesome: While Blacknight's crowd control can be difficult to take advantage of since sleeping targets are normally unable to be attacked, when combined with other Operators she can stall enemies indefinitely while her slumberbeast (or her fellow sleep-inducer Blemishine) slowly chips them down.
• Forced Sleep: Via her summon.
• Land Down Under: Her Rim Billitonian dialogues during Invitation to Wine are rendered in a thick Aussie-accent.

Blacknight: (Rim Billitonian) Crikey, my list didn't have nothin' about this sheila!

• Loophole Abuse: During her first skill, her summon will immediately become inactive and will only kick back into gear when it's damaged. This can be used to stall the Sarkaz sentinel without triggering its ability immediately.
• Mundane Utility: She might allow operators with insomnia to approach her slumberbeast for 'help', but only if they can beat her challenge. If they lose, they owe her half a month's wages.
• Odd Friendship: With Mulberry who was her roommate during her time on Rhodes Island. Their personalities clashed which made Blacknight annoyed with Mulberry at first, but when Blacknight decides to end her contract Mulberry is the most vehement in convincing her to stay and the saddest to see her go.
• Status Effects: She uses the hypnotic substances from her slumberbeast to inflict sleep upon her enemies.

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Cantabile

Cantabile

Introduced: Ideal City
Voiced by: Yuka Saito (Japanese), Luttefair (Mandarin Chinese), Frankie Kevich (English), Mun Seon-hui (Korean)
Artist: 温泉瓜

If the past is beyond change, then she will turn to decide her own future.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her 0011 Series: Illumination That of Daylights skin.}

A woman who grew up in the midst of disorder, with hopes of seeking a new direction here.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 497

Subclass: Agent

Tags: DP-Recovery, Fast-Redeploy

Skills: Penetrating Gaze, Specular Reflection

Talents: Protean

Affiliation: Rhodes Island

Race: Liberi

Birthday: April 7

Height: 169cm

"So you're the Doctor of Rhodes Island...? Thank you for what you did. I'll pay for my treatment in time. Otherwise, I'd like to be on my own for now."

A Liberi of unknown background rescued in Bolivar and sent to Rhodes Island for Oripathy treatment, now signed on as an Operator at her own request.

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• Animal Motifs: The superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae). She has the characteristic tailfeathers, some of the birds appear in her Elite 2 artwork, and she expresses a preference for the lyre while being a Liberi (and thus based on birds).
• The Atoner: Initially wanted to be left to die of an acute Oripathy attack to atone for her sins with her life, she decided to walk a new path with the time Rhodes Island brought her. Her Operator Record also as her deciding to fully disclose all the details of her past to Rhodes Island.
• Broken Bird: Her Dark and Troubled Past has left a visible mark prior to her rescue by Rhodes Island. She is initially distrustful of other people, is afraid at the idea of loss of life, and shows aversion at the idea of harming others to the point she was reprimanded for not carrying weapons on a mission.
• Combat Stilettos: She wears heels in both her base form and her Illumination That Of Daylights skin.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She was raised as a sleeper agent and assassin, only to be discarded and left for dead by her handlers after contracting Oripathy. Shades of her dark past show up in painful detail in her record, such as attempting to forcibly starve herself to death after accidentally hurting an allied operator.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Gradually opens up to the others in Rhodes Island during her stay. She displays an interest in adopting one of Beanstalk's metal crabs and her Elite 2 promotion file mentions an adopted fowlbeast, is willing to teach the Doctor musical instruments, and asks to stay on Rhodes Island and accompany the Doctor on missions in contrast of her previous attitude of wanting to leave.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Whenever she makes a mistake, her first instinct is to starve herself. She apparently picked this up from her previous employer, who would deliberately starve her as punishment.
• Devious Daggers: Uses knives both as melee and ranged weapon, and her music instruments also have knives concealed in them.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Her first skill activates upon deployment and cannot be reactivated again once ran out, necessitating retreating and redeploying her to continue generating DP. Combined with the Agent subclass reducing her redeployment time, she behaves similar to an Executor Specialist in gameplay.
• I Die Free: Has shades of this in her trust talk and Elite 2 promotion lines. She was afraid of her employer and acknowledged that she should have felt fear when they left her to die, but all she could feel was relief.
• Image Song: "A Cold Call". Shared with Executor and Mostima.
• It's All My Fault: Due to her guilt she feels over the deeds she has committed in the past, Cantabile is very quick to blame herself for any mistakes she has made, actual or imagined.
• Mysterious Past: Much of her history is unknown, other than that she had likely belonged to some kind of agency and had killed people in the past.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Says this if the mission ends in failure. Considering that her previous employer left her for dead before Rhodes Island picked her up, her fear of being abandoned is understandable.
  This isn't happening, don't abandon me... Doctor, where are you?
• Pretty in Mink: Her Illumination That Of Daylights skin has her wearing a fur shawl.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She presents as an elegant lady with extensive knowledge in etiquette, baking, music and poetry, and was actually the governess to a young girl in the past. She was also an assassin prior to joining Rhodes Island.
• The Sneaky Guy: Her second skill grants Camouflage when activated, and she can stay in it as long as she hasn't expended all the ammo.
• This Banana is Armed: She pops a knife out of the harmonica she carries in her base tap animation, and her lyre also has one if her third talk line is any indication. Her potential token is a lyre, noted "all weapons removed".
  This? This is my lyre. I may be better with other instruments, but I like playing this one most. Listen. Such an airy, lingering timbre, and the hand moves so beautifully when playing. But when you fully lose yourself in the melody, the knife concealed inside will... I'm sorry, I got carried away.
• Would Hurt a Child: Her Promotion Record heavily implies that she murdered a young girl and her family in her first mission, and she has felt guilty about it ever since.

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Chiave

Chiave

Introduced: Contingency Contract Blade (CN), Grani and the Knights' Treasure Retrospection (Global)
Voiced by: Wataru Hatano (Japanese), Zhang Tongming (Mandarin Chinese), TBA (English), Kim Ji-yul (Korean)
Artist: Infukun

Instead of trying to get him to follow orders, cooperating with him to deliver orders might be less stressful.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

Chiave, Vanguard Operator of Rhodes Island, will show off his skills on the front lines.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 349

Subclass: Pioneer (Offensive)

Tags: DP-Recovery, DPS

Skills: Charge γ, Blazing Wire Stripper

Talents: Technical Expertise

Affiliation: Chiave Gang - Siracusa

Race: Vulpo

Birthday: September 9

Height: 182cm

"Yo, are you the Doctor? Hello, and well met. The name's Chiave. I'm your underling from now on!"

A highly reckless Siracusan mechanic who became the leader of a gang consisting of him, Aosta, and Broca.

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• Animal Motifs: Red foxes.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: In the third montly Operator Record in Intergrated Strategies 2, "Phantom and Crimson Solitaire", Chiave is actually interested in trying out chocolate on pasta, a dish that Aosta and Broca, who are both Siracusans like him, believe to be an insult to Siracusan cuisine. He also expresses interest in trying to make sweet but strange food combinations such as Siesta-style fruit pizza and Mapo strawberry (A dessert dish take of Mapo Tofu) from a recipe book he found. Aosta and Broca are so offended by this that Aosta orders Broca to tie Chiave up and toss him into a Lateranian church for the clerics to beat the shit out of him.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Aside from tinkering with machinery, Chiave's other hobby is picking fights with people, not because he's a bad person, but because he wants to become stronger. He frequently gets in over his head as a result, seeing as he got his ass handed to him by Kal'tsit on his very first day at Rhodes Island, and should he wind up dead one day, nobody would be the least bit surprised.
• Bullying a Dragon: He picked a fight with Kal'tsit, and ended up spending the first day at Rhodes island in the infirmary.
• Challenge Seeker: Chiave wants to get stronger and thus seeks to challenge and fight people stronger than him to do so.
• Dual Wielding: A giant pair of pliers in his right hand and a combination wrench-crowbar in his left. He uses his wrench-crowbar as his basic attack, while the pliers are reserved for his S2.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Chiave is mentioned alongside someone named Aosta in one of Broca's lines, a good while before he was made into a playable operator. Broca was saved by, and now owes his life to said duo.
• Genki Guy: Chiave is incredibly upbeat and prone to silliness, unlike his two other companions. Aosta is mostly there to keep him in check.
• Gratuitous Italian: His name is Italian for "key".
• Grease Monkey: Chiave used to work at an auto repair shop, and has an affinity for machinery. This is reflected in his talent, which provides synergy with Robot-type operators.
• Magnetic Hero: His Operator Files note that even though he might not have the most brightest ideas at times, he has a charisma that gets people pulled in and interested in him. Unlike Aosta and Broca, Chiave adapts to life in Rhodes Island fairly quickly and grows to be well-liked by many of the Operators as a result while both Aosta and Broca respectively took time to open up and befriend the Rhodes Island staff and their operators.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Like Elysium before him, Chiave's talent, Technical Expertise, only affects a certain type of non-Vanguard operators, in his case Robots. While Chiave's deployed, his talent passively reduces the redeployment timers of Lancet-2, Castle-3, THRM-EX, Justice Knight, and Friston-3, and he himself gains a stacking ATK and DEF steroid per Robot currently on the field. This means that, in order to make the most out of his kit, you'd ideally want to bring as many Robots as you can and deploy them all, which is a very unusual, situational, and oftentimes detrimental way to play, since you're basically forfeiting squad slots in favor of the Robots instead of your stronger operators.
  • Do note that, by THRM-EX's nature, Chiave only has a very brief window where he can hold a 4-stack buff, since the robot detonates 3 seconds after deploying.
• Moveset Clone: His second skill is a carbon copy of Texas' one, down to its range, but applies a RES debuff instead of stunning the enemies hit.
• Obvious Rule Patch: With the release of the first non-robot 1-star operator in "Leaves Chasing Fire", Chiave's Technical Expertise talent was reworded to explicitly only affect Operational Platforms (aka robots).
• Playing with Fire: His second skill, Blazing Wire Stripper, deals AoE Arts damage to the surrounding tiles, while temporarily reducing the RES of all targets hit.
• Precision F-Strike: If the mission ends in failure, Chiave will deliver this bit of Gratuitous Italian:
  Chiave: Che cazzo uomo?! (What the fuck, man?!)
• Situational Sword: On top of his synergy with robots, Chiave is specialized as an RIIC Workshop operator. His first RIIC skill Inspiration is not so bad in this regard in that makes it such that he spends 1 less Morale for every Elite Material he processes that costs at least 4 morale. His second RIIC Workshop skill DIY Installation on the other hand, makes it such that he gets a 90% byproduct rate whenever he processes Device-type materials^note Device, Integrated Device, or Optimized Device.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: At least the closest one could get in Arknights. Chiave is the leader of his own gang and while Chiave himself isn't the brightest individual, he is a cheery boisterous person who likes to seek challenges and is able to attract people to him.
• Wrench Whack: What he does for his regular attacks.

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Courier

Courier / Weiss

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Ethan (Mandarin Chinese), Joseph May (English), Choi Seung-hun (Korean)
Artist: Ryuzakiichi

Deliveries or combat, you can always rely on him.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see his Cambrian: New Routes skin.}

^{Click to see his Ambience Synesthesia: Speechless Sound skin.}

Courier, contact of Karlan Trade CO.,LTD, is at your service as a Vanguard Operator. /

Rarity: ★★★★

ID: No. 198

Subclass: Pioneer (Defensive)

Tags: DP-Recovery, Defense

Skills: Charge β, Command - Defense

Talents: Karlan Patrol

Affiliation: Karlan Trade Co., Ltd - Kjerag

Race: Itra

Birthday: March 5

Height: 177cm

"Esteemed Leader of Rhodes Island, your ally—Courier of the Snow Realm—is here at your service. If you get into any sort of trouble during your contract with Master SilverAsh, just snap your fingers and I'll be there."

A messenger of the Karlan Trade Company with an ever-friendly disposition.

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• Animal Motifs: Musk deer, due to his Itra race. They also appear in his Elite 2 art, albeit crystallized.
• The Coats Are Off: He takes off his coat in his Elite 2 Promotion art.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Courier is both a Rhodes Island Operator subordinate to the Doctor, and a loyal retainer of the Silverash family. During the "Break the Ice" event, this becomes a problem when the Doctor's actions begin to clash with Enciodes Silverash's agenda.
• Covered with Scars: Made more evident as he takes off his coat. These were the results of fighting against the Kjerag rebels who were enemies of SilverAsh.
• Disc-One Nuke: He is available the instant you can access the credit shop. The 100 credits provided by the tutorial is enough to recruit him. He comes with good stats for a 4-star Vanguard, and the whopping 9 DP he provides with "Charge β" are no joke.
  • Becomes sort of a Crutch Character from then on, though, as the player unlocks more powerful operatives (Siege, Texas and Zima are all completely linear upgrades to him, but the former two trade defense for offense), but his low cost and DP generation are still strong enough that one may consider keeping him around.
  • That, and the fact that he's easily obtainable from the Credit shop, means he's incredibly easy to max out and maintain, unlike his direct upgrades who aren't typically deployed in his place due to the rarity of their tokens and their higher DP costs. To put into perspective how good he is as a starting Vanguard: Courier is almost always the Vanguard to bring in clear build guides found on the internet. Whereas the other class roles can be entirely dominated by higher-rarity operators, whether you have Courier or not has an incredibly large impact on your chances of establishing a secure foothold during the opening moments, which can make or break an otherwise easy win.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His codename refers to his job as the messenger of the Karlan Trade, for whom he literally works as a courier. His real name is revealed to be Weiss in the "Break the Ice" event.
• Goggles Do Nothing: The pair he wears on his head only seem to be purely for aesthetics.
• I Owe You My Life: As a child, Courier went out to explore one day and got lost on a snowy mountain. Fortunately for him, SilverAsh and his clan were hunting nearby and rescued him. As a result, Courier swore Undying Loyalty to him out of gratitude.
• Oh, Crap!: In Break the Ice, after being ordered to detain Ratatos and Arctosz at the start of SilverAsh's coup, he has this moment when Sharp easily breaks through the Tschäggättäs that encircled the ceremony. He knows the power of his opponent too well, and even has a brief moment of Suddenly Shouting when one of the Tschäggättäs questions the need to fight one man in formation.
• The One Guy:
  • Subverted upon the release of Elysium, but prior to that, Courier was the only male Vanguard operator back then, for a full year since the release of the CN build.
  • Also downplayed for the global servers. Due to the altered and accelerated schedule, Chiave ended up coming earlier than Elysium did, leaving Courier as The One Guy for about 11 months.
• Perpetual Smiler: Courier always has a pleasant air about him due to his sunny disposition. The only times he stops smiling are when he feels the need to get dangerous, or when he drops his guard in the presence of a dear friend.
• Red Baron: Calls himself "The Messenger of the Snow Realm".
• Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a red one.
• Signature Scent: Courier is noted to have a unique scent to him, which he leaves on the letters he delivers. Upon being asked about this, he will uncharacteristically start blushing and getting all awkward. This is a nod to the scent pouches of male musk deers, which are located around their crotch area.
• Stone Wall: Courier's quite tanky for his class, even compared to some higher-rarity Vanguards. Both his second skill and talent give him a boost to his defense too, letting him act as a cheap pseudo-Defender while generating DP.

---

Elysium

Elysium

Introduced: 1st Anniversary Celebration
Voiced by: Showtaro Morikubo (Japanese), Feng Ming (Mandarin Chinese), TBA (English), Nam Do-hyeong (Korean)
Artist: Skade

The flag isn't a weapon. It'll cost a lot to replace if it gets broken.

Elysium, Vanguard Operator, ensures that operations proceed smoothly by providing stable battlefield communications.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 401

Subclass: Standard Bearer

Tags: DP-Recovery, Support

Skills: Support γ, Monitor

Talents: Sniper Support

Affiliation: Rhodes Island

Race: Liberi

Birthday: May 8

Height: 187cm

"3rd Combat Squad, Vanguard and communications specialist, Elysium, reporting in. I do believe that this is our first time speaking face-to-face rather than through electronic means, Doctor?"

An Iberian Operator who specializes in voice-based Arts that he uses to maintain communication channels.

---

• Animal Motifs: Arctic terns, based on their appearance in his Elite 2 art. He's mentioned to have traveled a lot before, and has a very strong sense of direction, much like these birds that are known for flying all the way from the north pole to the south pole, and barely resting on the way.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Elysium's carefree personality, along with his seeming tendency to not take things seriously, often rubs people the wrong way at first glance, but he is noted to be genuinely good at job and highly perceptive when it counts. "Ideal City" fully displays this, with Elysium treating the mission like a vacation at first, getting drunk and fooling around with the local Durins, up until the active Originium vein near Zeruertza is discovered and he becomes deadly serious for the entire rest of the event.
• Foil: He is one to Thorns. Whereas Thorns is rather quiet, introverted, and isn't good with people, generally The Stoic personified, Elysium is loud, outgoing, energetic, and assertive. Additionally, whereas Thorns is socially awkward, he's well-meaning and genuinely liked by those who do put in the effort to work with him, while Elysium is more superficially popular, but tends to annoy those who actually interact with him on a regular basis with his frivolous attitude.
• The Heart: Despite his personality quirks, Elysium is noted to have a calming influence on his teammates, and is often assigned to squads where the other members may have clashing personalities.
• Heroic Sacrifice: His Operator Record reveals that the reason he became an Infected is because in the past he came back to rescue the people of a town he had been staying in from a passing Catastrophe and, after getting trapped with no way out, he allowed an Originium-infected wound he got to fester so he could use the resulting power boost to his Arts as the missing amplifier to his transmitter so the distress signal would reach the nomadic city... despite the fact that his would-be captain at Rhodes Island had earlier gifted him with medicine that possibly could have prevented the Originium on his wound from spreading and saved him from oripathy, had he taken it in the nick of time. He saved the townsfolk, but at the cost of his own lifespan.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During the swimming competition in "Ideal City: Endless Carnival", he begins the race lagging behind both Gavial and Avdotya and appears to be showing off more than competing seriously, until midway through the race when he manages to pass Avdotya (who was being slowed down by her attire) and catch up to Gavial, only losing to the unexpected "Ale Keg" boat being driven by Stitch going out of control and crashing past the finish line.
• Image Song: "Before & After".
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike most Vanguards, who either buff themselves or other Vanguards, Elysium's talent affects Snipers. When deployed, he passively reduces the DP cost of all Snipers, and when his skill is active, they receive an ASPD increase.
• Motor Mouth: Some of his lines are spoken like this, such as his dialogue lines when assigned as an assistant.
• Mouth of Sauron: A heroic version; his team's captain Mantra is an introvert. Elysium is usually the one who rally the information between teams that Mantra has encrypted. Because of that, in Chapter 7 Mantra ends up as The Ghost, while Elysium talks for her.
• Number Two: He seems to prefer being this in an organized team setup. Many of his quotes refer to his experience being second-in-command in his previous postings, and if set as the squad leader, he will claim that he's only there as a stand-in for the real commander. In fact, his promotional records even state that, should Elysium ever be promoted to a position where he would outrank his squad leader, he will refuse immediately.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Elysium's flighty playboy act is how he likes to act most of the time, but he's surprisingly far more sharp-witted and capable than most outsiders would take him at first glance as the Durins and Inam realize in "Ideal City: Endless Carnival". Getting drunk off his ass only to sober up in five minutes when the Durins prepare to destroy their Great Aquapit is merely just one case of him being able to quickly assess what the situation calls for and reacting appropriately.
• Odd Friendship: With Thorns, as described under Foil and Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Pretty Boy: Elysium is a very handsome man. And he seems to think highly of himself in this department too, as he was once detained by Rhodes Island's HR for attempting to describe himself as a "Once in a lifetime hottie" in his dossier.
• Situational Sword: His talent is mostly worthless if you're not planning to use Snipers, or are playing in a map that bans that class.
• Stealth Pun: An "elysium" is a paradise. The scientific name of the arctic tern is "Sterna paradisea".
• Significant Birth Date: He was born on the World Red Cross Day (which is the birthday of its founder Henri Dunant), fitting with his support-oriented nature.
• Support Party Member: Like Myrtle before him, Elysium is used purely for his utility. His DP output is easily one of the strongest among all Vanguards, beaten only by his 6-star counterpart Saileach, and he also confers True Sight with his S2 along with buffs for Sniper operators. Other than that, his combat performance is still rather poor, which is normal for his subclass.
• Take That!: One of his fight quotes seems to be a jab at Myrtle and how she uses her flagpole as a weapon. Given how highly he thinks of his own flag, it's rather understandable why he would make such a comment.
  Elysium: Who would! Use a flag! As a weapon! On the battlefield!
• True Sight: While his S2 is active, Elysium can reveal up to 4 cloaked enemies around him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Guard operator Thorns. Despite their abrasive interactions, which usually result in Elysium getting his ass handed to him, it's clear that Thorns is the only one who can actually stand him on a personal level.
  • This seems to be his usual relationship with most Operators of Rhodes Island in general, as while they genuinely value him as an ally, they also have no issue making fun of or pranking him due to his Bunny-Ears Lawyer tendencies. The reason he was deployed to Acahualla in "Ideal City" to begin with was seemingly Blaze and Dylan's attempt at tricking him into a taking on a miserable mission.

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Fang

Fang

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi (Japanese), Yee Chen (Mandarin Chinese), Norma Butikofer (English), Kim Ha-ru (Korean)
Artist: Xiàyě Hóng Míng

She runs really fast.

^{Click to see her Cambrian: Cruciata skin.}

Fang, Vanguard Operator of Rhodes Island, will fight on the battlefield to give the squad a tactical advantage.

Rarity: ★★★

ID: No. 123

Subclass: Pioneer (Offensive)

Tags: DP-Recovery

Skills: Charge α

Talents: Lightweight

Affiliation: Reserve Op Team A1 - Rhodes Island

Race: Kuranta

Birthday: December 2

Height: 158cm

"Lancer Fang, Captain of Reserve Op Team A1. My team and I will do our best to serve Rhodes Island."

A former Columbian garrison soldier who became the captain of Reserve Team A1 upon transferring to Rhodes for treatment.

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• Animal Motifs: Horse, due to her Kuranta race. She's mentioned to be a fast runner.
• Blessed with Suck: Oripathy often gives the Infected enhanced Originium Arts. The only thing Fang got from her mutation is that she can run slightly faster than she did before she got infected. She appears to be jealous of Lava's boundless potential because of this Superpower Lottery.
• Boring, but Practical: In Integrated Strategies mode, she's a very solid choice compared to Myrtle, as she can be recruited for free, automatically generates DP, and can block 2 enemies.
• The Chains of Commanding: While she has grown comfortable commanding Reserve Op Team A1, her operator record shows that she still has doubts over whether she can effectively command other operators that she is not as familiar with.
• Com Mons: Along with Plume, she is one of the most common Vanguards you can draw.
• Crutch Character: Along with Vanilla, Fang is one of the first few DP-regen Vanguards who are actually viable for long-term use. Her mileage is much better than Vanilla, though, due to her comparatively cheaper cost, plus her skill being faster to charge and is entirely automatic, which means one less thing to worry about during hectic fights. Her stats are nice for a 3-star, but won't be enough to carry you much further than Chapter 4 due to the enemies there outstripping her power rank-wise. She still remains a viable pick for a low-cost DP regenerator, though.
• Ironic Name: Horses don't have fangs.
• Jack of All Stats: Fang is classified as a Pioneer (Offensive) Vanguard, and technically this is correct, as her Attack stat is notably higher than her Defense stat before other factors are taken into account. However, both her Potentials and her Trust give her significant Defense boosts, so a Fang with maximum level, Potential, and Trust has Attack and Defense values that are practically equal, with her Defense actually being very slightly higher. Her attack speed and Block count are also middle-of-the-road. In-universe, her physical examination rates all of her capabilities as Standard (with the exception of mobility, which is rated as Excellent).
• Leeroy Jenkins: Fang's bio describes her as impulsive and someone who rushes into a fight even before the others have finished discussing their game plans.
• Lost in Translation: Her name in the CN version is 芬, meaning "fragrant". This is commonly romanized as "fen". However, the word "fragrant" can also be written as 芬芳, or "fēn fāng".
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her archive file noted that she, Beagle, and Kroos - then city guards in the outskirts of Columbia - all got their Oripathy infection while attempting to evacuate others during a Catastrophe, and promptly became discriminated against due to their infection.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with the later introduction of the Signori dei Lupi's "Fangs"; Operator Fang is completely unrelated to them.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Downplayed. Courier is essentially a direct upgrade over Fang in terms of DP generation efficiency and defense, can be promoted to Elite 2 to further enhance his stats, and can easily be acquired from the credit shop; however, Fang manages to stay relevant by being very cheap to deploy.
• Starter Mon: She's one of a handful of operators handed out for free during the tutorials of Chapter 0.
• The Stoic: Fang is described as "the humorless", in contrast to her two best friends - the gentle Beagle and the laid-back Kroos.
• True Companions: With Beagle and Kroos.

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Fang the Fire-Sharpened

Fang

Introduced: Episode 14: Absolved Will Be the Seekers
Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi (Japanese), Yee Chen (Mandarin Chinese), Norma Butikofer (English), Kim Ha-ru (Korean)
Artist: 下野宏铭

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID:

Subclass: Charger

Tags:

Skills:

Talents:

Affiliation: Reserve Op Team A1 - Rhodes Island

Race: Kuranta

Birthday: December 2

Height: 158cm

Flametail

Flametail / Sona

Introduced: Maria Nearl (First Appearance), Near Light (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Aya Hirano (Japanese), Sue (Mandarin Chinese), Jennie Kwan (English), Kim Bo-min (Korean)
Artist: NoriZC

Two things make her a standout leader–her mind, and her smile.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Achievement Star: Sports for All skin.}

Flametail Knight Sona, shooting through the battlefield like fire.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 420

Subclass: Pioneer

Tags: DP-Recovery, Survival

Skills: Quick Intuition, “Pinus Sylvestris”, Flameheart

Talents: Vanguard Swordsmanship, Pinus Sylvestris Leader

Affiliation: Pinus Sylvestris Knightclub - Kazimierz

Race: Zalak

Birthday: October 8th

Height: 159cm

"Pinus Sylvestris Knightclub Leader, the Flametail Knight, Sona! You're the Doctor? Mmm, well, you're kinda not like I imagined, but hey. I'm under your wing from here on out, Doctor!"

The leader of the Infected knightclub Pinus Sylvestris, who fights for the rights of the oppressed Kazimierzan Infected.

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• Animal Motif: Squirrels. Her being specifically a red squirrel is a reference to how red squirrels were passed disease by grey squirrels, mirroring how Ashlock's family (which has the motif of gray squirrels) was indirectly responsible for Flametail's Infection.
• Annoying Arrows: During the "Near Light" animated trailer, she's initially seen pulling an arrow out of her right arm guard before a derelict building collapses, and can be seen clutching her arm in pain afterwards and staggering; however, she recovers enough to attack Platinum at full speed after Nearl the Radiant Knight intervenes to relieve her. In-story, one of the Lazurites shoots her full in the chest guard with an arrow, but it doesn't pierce the armor with enough energy to threaten her life.
• Counter-Attack: With her first talent, whenever she dodges an attack, she will empower her next attack to strike twice, also dealing area damage at Elite 2. With her Module upgrade, this counterattack will deal increased damage, up to 120% of her ATK at Level 3.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Flametail doesn't wear a full helmet, instead she sports a grille-like guard over her right ear. She also wears different kinds of armor pieces for her left/right arms, sporting an upper arm guard and an elbow-protecting gauntlet on her blade hand, while her off-hand has her translucent cloak draped over it. She also wears different amounts of straps over her left and right thighs.
• Fragile Speedster: She claims that she suits best with the competition which rule is the amount of blows hit the opponent's armor. She doesn't believe that she'll win against Maria if it's a straight fight, but she's confident that the competition rule will net her a victory by technicality. In the game, this translates to her moveset being based on having high physical dodge (and giving it to others), similar to a Fighter Guard.
• Hidden Depths: Despite the vast responsibilities she's saddled with and her strong, charismatic persona as the leader of Pinus Sylvestris, in her everyday life she occasionally shows a more girly side who adores cute things, sweets, and new tech.
• Image Song: "Field in the Light".
• La Résistance: She helps lead a knightclub exclusively made up of Infected who are secretly working to resist the oppression of the Kazimierz government.
• Moveset Clone: Her S2 is a carbon copy of Texas' Sword Rain, except it deals physical damage instead of Arts and grants a temporary evasion buff to nearby units.
• Plucky Girl: She's very outgoing and good natured despite her circumstances, with her cheery charisma part of what makes her such an effective leader.
• Spam Attack: Flametail's third skill has a very short duration of 8 seconds, but charges incredibly fast with a cost of 16 SP at max Mastery, letting her spam it quite a lot. She can also do this while the skill is active too, since her 60~80% dodge chance means her Counter-Attack will fire off incredibly quickly.
• Status Buff: Her second talent grants a passive physical evasion buff to all deployed Kazimierz Operators, and her second skill can also give physical evasion to everyone around her.
• Stepford Smiler: Part of Flametail's profile mentions that despite her cheerful demeanor, any mention of her home or past will cause her to visibly hesitate, with the implication that she still hasn't moved past the trauma of the destruction of her home but does a good job of hiding it. Ashlock even accidentally lets slip that she sometimes sees Flametail crying in secret.
• Those Two Girls: Always hangs around with Ashlock, as when they first met, Flametail proposed they should team up because they have common ground from both being Infected Zalak knights.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Both her home and family were destroyed in a Catastrophe, leaving her with nowhere to return to.

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Grani

Grani

Introduced: Grani and the Knights' Treasure
Voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki (Japanese), Rylyyn (Mandarin Chinese), Carina Reeves (English), Lee Jae-hyun (Korean)
Artist: alchemaniac

She will fight to the end, for her dreams, and for you.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Epoque: Miraculous Moment skin.}

Grani, Vanguard Operator of Rhodes Island and mounted police, will clear all obstacles in the way using her lance.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 220

Subclass: Charger

Tags: DP-Recovery, Defense

Skills: DEF Up γ, Press the Attack!

Talents: Mounted Police

Affiliation: Victorian Empire

Race: Kuranta

Birthday: December 1

Height: 154cm

"Mounted Police Officer Grani has heard your cry for help! Fear not. From this point forward, I will protect you!"

A former member of the Victorian Mounted Police who works as a contract operator for Rhodes Island. She is the main heroine of "Grani and the Knights' Treasure".

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• A Day in the Limelight: She stars in her story event, "Grani and the Knights' Treasure".
• Animal Motifs: Horse, due to her Kuranta race. One appears in her Elite 2 art.
• Big Damn Heroes: She saves Carol from the bounty hunters to kickstart the event's story.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: While she was dedicated to her profession of being a police officer, she simply wants to help people in need.
• Cowboy Cop: Proves to be a bit of one during her time in Caladon City. She keeps insisting on investigating crimes the corrupt local police aren't interested in, even when she is repeatedly reprimanded for it.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Grani's kit seems to be heavily geared towards improving her DEF and general survivability, while not paying much attention to her damage output. This results in a tanky Vanguard with superior block and AoE damage capabilities, but quite lacking in the offensive department compared to her fellow DP-Recovery operators. In situations where you have to quickly dispatch incoming enemies so as to keep them from overcrowding your defenses, and to not die in general, Grani is not a very good choice, unlike the likes of Vigna and Reed who are actually on the opposite end of the scale, having superb damage output but poor survivability typical of Charger Vanguards.
• Fighting Your Friend: She fights her fellow R.I. operator Skadi when the latter insists on finding Carol. Although this gets subverted near the end of the event when Skadi reveals that she does not plan on harming Carol at all.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the final chapter of the "Knight's Treasure" event, Grani worries that she could pass out when she learns that the treasure's key takes some of the holder's blood. She indeed passed out after doing the deed, as the Time Skip reveals that Grani just recovered from it.
• Friendship Trinket: Bob tosses a Kazimierz coin to Grani as a parting gift before he sets off to Columbia.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In mission GT-1, she's automatically placed on the map. She is obtained for real after completing mission GT-3
• Heroic Sacrifice: Upon finding out the key to the Knights' Treasure will suck out the blood of whoever uses it, Grani decides to use the key herself since she doesn't want anyone else to take the risk, though she ends up surviving. Also zigzagged: She did anticipate that she can survive that, however, given that she specifically volunteers when it's mentioned that the key only draws specific amount of blood, and she tells Carol and Skadi to catch her if she faints.
• In-Series Nickname: "Tiny" by the people of Rhodes Island, owing to her short stature and small frame.
• Knight in Shining Armor: She is essentially the Arknights version of one, as her involvement in searching for the Knights' Treasure demonstrated.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Due to the armor she wears and her tomboyish appearance and attitude, many people mistake Grani to be a boy at first glance.
  Grani: Ah, that's right. I'm a girl... Aww, come on! I might not look it, but I'm a proper maiden on the inside!
• Locked Out of the Loop: Zig-zagged. At first, Grani thinks that Rhodes Island didn't brief her that Skadi is also sent to Dewville. But it turns out that Skadi went to the village secretly as a part of her agreement with Kal'tsit.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Although Grani is a Charger Vanguard, her stats and skills paint her as a quasi-Centurion Guard instead - being able to hit more than one enemy at once with her basic attack for the duration of her second skill.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Her weapon is a collapsible light rifle that can be used as a spear.
• Nice Girl: In addition to her unshakeable tenacity and sense of justice, Grani is friendly, cooperative, positive, and just an absolute blessing to be around. Rhodes Island staff have noted that her ability to bolster morale and spread positivity has been a boon to the company, to the point where the other Operators voted her as Rhodes' most likeable Operator alongside Bagpipe.
• Properly Paranoid: Grani doesn't easily trust Big Bob during their first meeting and tells Carol to do the same. She's proven right when Bob reveals his true motivations regarding the treasure.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Named after Grane, the horse owned by the hero Sigurd of The Saga of the Volsungs fame.
• Secret-Keeper: When she returned to Rhodes Island, she never told the other operators about Skadi's involvement in Dewville.
• Ship Tease: A little bit with the Doctor, especially her highest trust, and her trust increasing tap lines. One implying she would like to travel the world together with Doctor once everything is over, and other expressing concern for their well-being and offering to always be there to hold their hand if needed.
• Stealth Pun: Her hair is tied up in a ponytail.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: A bit exaggerated, but her polearm is a combination lance and rifle.
• Temporary Online Content: Like other welfare operators, Grani is only obtainable while her event is running. Averted with Record Restoration making her permanently obtainable, however.
• The Rest Shall Pass: She stays in the entrance of the cave to prevent others from passing through while Carol proceeds to find the treasure inside.
• Token Minority: The sole Victorian Kuranta, a race that normally hail from Kazimierz.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She fully believes in Rhodes Island's mission to help others, including the Infected.

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Ines (Unmarked Spoilers)

Ines

Introduced: Darknights' Memoir (First Appearance), Episode 12: All Quiet Under the Thunder (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Ayumi Tsunematsu (Japanese), Zhang Ruoyu (Mandarin Chinese), Erica Lindbeck (English), Shin Na-ri (Korean)
Artist: VVVVIIIIIIA^note Design by Liduke

Always keep an eye on the shadow beneath you. Don't let it expose what's on your mind.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her appearance as an NPC.}

Ines's past is unimportant. Anyway, she wishes to say, "It's been a while."

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 4087

Subclass: Agent

Tags: DP-Recovery, Fast-Redeploy

Skills: Shadow Raid, Murky Night, Solitary Return

Talents: Shadow Weaver, Shadow Sentry

Affiliation: Rhodes Island

Race: Undisclosed (Caprinae)

Birthday: February 19

Height: 168 cm

"Ascalon should have showed you my files. Messenger or mercenary, you ask? Doesn't matter. All you need to know is that I'm not after your life for now, 'Doctor'."

A mercenary who works with Hoederer, and later W. She joined Babel and later Reunion, before resurfacing to join Rhodes Island during the Victorian Crisis.

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• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Ines fits the bill perfectly, being a pale-skinned woman with long black hair, and a very distant and aloof personality.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Although her race is not disclosed, the goat in her Elite 2 art suggests that she is a Caprinae. W calling her a 'Black Sheep' during Darknight' Memories indicates that she was aware that Ines was the only non-Sarkaz in their mercenary group.
  • "The Whirlpool That Is Passion" saw Ines being confirmed as a Caprinae by Hoederer, Paprika and the Sanguinarch.
  Ulsulah: As for Hoederer, you're missing an eye.
  Hoederer: Wanna see the socket? It's all thanks to the fine Caprinae woman right here.
  Ines: Lose an eye, or lose your head. You had a choice.
  • Given her association with the Sarkaz (who have demon motifs), the goat is likely a reference to Baphomet.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • W and Ines are constantly on the brink of murdering each other throughout their lives, and continually basically state that mercenaries are always going to be acquaintances with each other at best. Whenever they assist or rescue each other, they're fast to come up with excuses that they were just being practical, yet also constantly mock-tease each other about actually caring for each other. When Ines is apparently murdered by Talulah, W doesn't comment on it, but after her old boss Hoederer realizes W's plan to destroy Reunion, he notes that it's only natural she'd take revenge for Ines, showing he knew the two did genuinely care about each other all along.
  • Confirmed in Ines' third archive file, where she makes it clear that she cares about how Rhodes Island treats W and even threatens the Doctor not to use her as a pawn.
• Becoming the Mask: At first, Ines filed down her Caprinae horns and used glamours to disguise herself as a Sarkaz in order to survive. However, as time passed, she eventually identified as a Sarkaz and left her old Caprinae identity behind.
• Berserk Button: It's implied that the story about "the night in the birch forest" where she was first rescued by Hoederer is a very sensitive topic for Ines, as Operators who know about that event speak of it with caution.
• Casting a Shadow: Ines' Originium Arts allows her to see people's "shadows" - letting her discern their thoughts and true intentions - as well as manipulating physical shadows to cripple her enemies.
• Call-Back: She references Theresa's life goal (the Trust Password W used for Amiya to stop Chernobog in episode 8) in one of her talk line.
• Catchphrase: "Don't order me around", which she says to Hoederer several times throughout Darknights Memoir as well as to the Doctor in one of her selection quotes. This was unfortunately Lost in Translation somewhat in the global translation as she says multiple variants of the phrase with a similar meaning instead.
• Damage Over Time: Her first skill causes her auto attacks to inflict an Arts damage over time debuff that cannot stack.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It's highly implied in her profile that Ines was the child of Leithanian smugglers who were ambushed and killed by Sarkaz mercenaries. She was spared by the mercenaries only to be thrown into the "birch forest" to fend for herself. Had Hoederer not rescued her, it would be very likely that Ines would have joined the other countless bodies left to rot in that forest. Hoederer's own archive file implies that the "birch forest" was where Hoederer himself and his team ambushed and killed the mercenaries that attacked Ines, although it doesn't elaborate on what Ines was doing there or why Hoederer decided to take her in.
• Deadpan Snarker: Boy, is she ever. Ines has a snarky or sarcastic remark for almost every situation she's in, especially whenever she's addressing W or Hoederer.
  Ines: [Elite 1 promotion] Hmph, great. Even in the middle of a war, you people still insist on these goddamn ceremonies.
  [2-star Result] Woooow, you kept everyone alive. Congrats.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Her third skill is a bit tricky to use, as its effectiveness revolves around the placement of her Shadow Sentry, where it will dart to where Ines is deployed next, damaging all enemies in its path. Proper planning and positioning allows Ines to zip all over the place and potentially steal a massive amount of ATK from the enemies she hits, turning her into one hell of a speedy killer.
• Disney Death: Averted. She was prepared to die from her Super Window Jump after using her Arts to warn the dukes of The Shard, but W and Hoederer managed to save her.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Due to her Originium Arts allowing her to see people's true intentions, Ines is excellent at counterintelligence work.
• Exotic Eye Designs: She has black cross shapes in her gold pupils, which gives away the fact she's actually a Caprinae.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Ines serves as the Thief to W's Mage and Hoederer's Fighter, specializing in Hit-and-Run Tactics with swift attacks from the shadows.
• Foregone Conclusion: Paprika's voice lines and Operator files which is set sometime after the Londinium crisis reveals that Ines is alive and eventually joins Rhodes Island, following along W. Confirmed with the release of Episode 12.
• Freudian Trio: In the Darknight's Memoir trio, she's the Superego, being cold, calculated and secretive.
• Going Native: W notes that Ines isn't really Sarkaz, having fashioned her horns to merely imitate them. Ines believes that she's fought so long in Kazdel that she should be considered a Sarkaz by that distinction after pretty much assimilating into the culture, and the non-Sarkaz people within Reunion don't notice the difference.
• Hates Small Talk: Would rather be in silence than making small talk.
  If you want to make small talk, Hoederer's your guy. Or I guess you'd rather stand around with me in silence for a while. (trust tap)
• Hidden Depths:
  • She enjoys sewing, and carries a sewing kit with a large needle on her belt that also doubles as Improbable Weapon User. Her potential token is an embroidery needle, both to show one of her more personal hobbies as well as a reflection of her nature being a discreet but deadly spy.
  Your eyes aren't deceiving you, yes, it's a sewing kit. A needle drinks as much blood as a sword in the hands of a merc. Besides, it's a tall order to look decent on the battlefield, and a smart cookie like you should know that well, right? (talk 3)
  • Hoederer mentions in Episode 13 that he recalls one of Ines' dreams was to open up a store in Kazdel. While Ines claims she only wanted to open the store as a way to fence anything she steals, she doesn't exactly turn down Hoederer's offer to give her startup capital for her store.
• I Have Many Names: In her introduction to S.W.E.E.P.
  Survivor, Mercenary, Messenger, Sarkaz, 'Resurrected One', Ines...Which name do you prefer to be called?
• Image Song: "Squad Unknown"
• I Owe You My Life: As a child, Ines was rescued by a young Hoederer and from that point on, she has always followed him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Due to her past and her previous connection to the Doctor pre-amnesia, Ines is a very unpleasant person to be around, and only defrosts very slightly even at high Trust levels. That said, she genuinely cares for W and Hoederer beneath all her snark and sass against them.
• Level Drain: Her talent and second skill allow her to steal a portion of an enemy's stat (ATK for talent, ASPD for skill). This lasts until either the victim or Ines leaves the battlefield, or her skill expires.
• Living Lie Detector: One application of Ines's Originium Arts is that she can also tell if someone's lying, as showcased in this Ines focused Arknights Operators 4-koma where she snitched to the Doctor that W plans to shirk work and nap elsewhere despite initially agreeing to their request. The 4-koma appropriately ends with this monologue from the Doctor.
  Nobody can lie to Ines.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: When she is apparently killed by Reunion, the Reunion fighters destroy the entire street and even kill a few of their own members to make it look like she was caught in an enemy ambush. However, both W and Hoederer don't buy it for a second.
• Master of Threads: The Mystical Weaving type. Her Elite 2 art suggests that she uses the threads in her sewing kit to weave her Shadow Sentries.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Ines's S3 is unique in that it needs to be manually aimed by the player through positioning the Shadow Sentinel and Ines herself to hit anything directly between them.
• Mysterious Past: She is both tight lipped about her past and actively discourages other Rhodes Island operators from digging further.
• No-Sell: Because she's not actually a Sarkaz, Ines is not affected by the mental component of the Revenant powering Manfred's ship and was able to sneak around to gather intel for Rhodes Island.
• Power at a Price: W's dialogue with her in "Darknights' Memoir" suggests that overuse of her Originium Arts can lead to blindness, in addition to the usual "make your Oripathy worse" effects that come with an Infected using Arts.
• Promoted to Playable: She became playable for the release of Episode 12: All Quiet Under The Thunder.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Has black hair over pale skin.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The evil part is debatable because she's a former mercenary, but otherwise applies.
• She Knows Too Much:
  • While working for Reunion, she was apparently killed by Talulah because she accidentally discovered via her near-mind-reading Arts that Talulah was possessed by something else. Reunion claims she died in battle, but it's obvious to her comrades what really happened.
  • Is on the receiving end of this in her operator archive files as one of the HR clerks is a little too smart for his own good as he tries to investigate Ines' past, nearly uncovering her connections to Babel before he is quickly transferred to another department where his investigative skills could be put to better use.
• Ship Tease: Her complicated relationship with Hoederer has shades of Belligerent Sexual Tension which has caught on to some Rhodes Island Operators, who gossip under the weak pretense of trying to unearth crucial information. This is most apparent in Chapter 13, where Hoederer offers her a place with him once he settles down to open a store once the conflict is over, and she appears to genuinely consider it.
• Shout-Out: Her name seems to be a reference to Inèz Serrano, a character from the French play Huis clos by Jean-Paul Sartre.
• The Sneaky Guy: Her second skill grants her Invisibility for its duration.
• Stealth Expert: She is able to easily elude even Rhodes Island's best trackers between her Arts, mercenary experience, and full knowledge of the Rhodes Island landship's layout. In gameplay, she is one of the few units (others being Firewatch, Magellan and Manticore) who can become Invisible, which differs from Camouflage in that she cannot take damage from anything other than environmental effects.
• Super Window Jump: The PV for episode 12 shows Ines jumping out of the window of a ship to escape a mysterious pursuer. The after story of 12-19 depicts Ines performing the jump to escape the Revenant powering Theresis' command ship.
• True Sight: Her second talent reveals invisible enemies in range, and when retreating she leaves behind a Shadow Sentry that maintains the effect.
• Tsundere: She clearly gives off these vibes, especially when it comes to her interactions with Hoederer where she tries to act like she has no respect for him but in the end goes out of her way to help him out anyways.
• Verbal Tic: Has a tendency to say "hmph". In DM-8, Hoederer's Sarkaz Messenger saying the same thing was a hint at Ines's survival.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With both Hoederer and W. Ines constantly questions Hoederer's orders but never actually disobeys them and never attempts to collect the bounty on his head despite her many claims. With W, despite all the threats she issues to her, Ines always ends up bailing W out of trouble when she can.
• Utility Party Member: Ines' biggest strength is the utility she brings. Even so though, with her range, invisible, Bind, 30% slow, ATK and ASPD Steal it is still very hard for her to kick the can unless she's faced with an especially strong enemy.

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Kestrel

Kestrel

Introduced: Tales Within the Sand
Voiced by: Toa Yukinari (Japanese), Tang Yajing (Mandarin Chinese), TBA (English), TBA (Korean)
Artist: 釜飯轟々丸

Her revenge of chaos is a thing in the past and she walks the right path of protector.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

Kestrel, a tribal warrior will protect everything she holds dear.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 4023

Subclass: Pioneer

Tags: DP-Recovery, DPS

Skills:

Talents:

Affiliation: Sargon

Race: Liberi

Birthday: Unknown

Height: 170cm

---

• A Dog Named "Dog": A Liberi codenamed 'Kestrel'.
• Situational Sword: A curious case. Her skills are actually rather generic, meaning you'd think she'd be fairly useful in many situations. However, because other Vanguards already do what she does and more, she usually relies on her second talent, which, if she's in the Tales Within the Sand mode, makes any obtained resources instantly transfer to one's inventory without having to retreat her.
• Utility Party Member: Her second talent fulfills a unique niche and her module actually emphasizes on that by working on it instead of on her first talent, making her lean more towards this.

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Muelsyse

Muelsyse

Introduced: Operational Intelligence (First Appearance), Lone Trail (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Wang Yaxin (Chinese), Kayli Mills (English), Park Si-yoon (Korean)
Artist: NoriZC

Be careful. The one who stands before you is her, but also not her.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

Muelsyse, Rhine Lab Collaborating Operator. A strange, peculiar ecologist.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 249

Subclass: Tactician

Tags: DP-Recovery, Crowd-Control

Skills: Progressive Moisturization, Ecological Interaction, Superficial Regulation

Talents: Pure Water is Life, Expenditure Economization

Affiliation: Rhine Lab - Columbia

Race: Elf

Birthday: November 3

Height: 169cm

"Muelsyse, director of the Ecological section at Rhine Lab. Not that I think we need any formal how-do-you-dos, Doctor. After all, we've been friends forever now!"

The director of Rhine Lab's Ecological section.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Ifrit calls her MuMu because she couldn't pronounce her name, and she rolls with it. The fan community quickly adopted the nickname as well after it was revealed.
• All for Nothing: In Lone Trail, she winds up betraying the Doctor for Kristen after realizing that Kristen didn't leave her behind from the Vivarium present in the Galleria Stellaria, having remembered her wish to preserve as much life as possible on the journey into space and search for a place where the Elves can live freely. When Kristen actually makes it to space, not only does Saria neutralize her and forcibly send her back down in an escape pod, she then finds out that all of the samples she saved in the Vivarium died shortly after leaving orbit.
  • Later averted, when it's revealed that the plants in the Galleria Stellaria's Vivarium are actually still alive when Kristen enters her lifepod, with the implication that Kristen falsified the data so that Muelsyse wouldn't feel too bad being ejected from the craft.
• Birds of a Feather: She ends up finding a sense of familiarity in the Doctor at the end of Lone Trail, as both of them are some of the last (if not the last) members of dying races, who often deal with loneliness from their status and inability to fit in with the rest of the world. At the time, both of them were also suffering from a sense of loss, with Muelsyse having lost everything she had dreamed about and doomed to be alone again, and Doctor meeting their kin for the first time only to be forced to say goodbye to them mere moments later.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's perfectly nice and friendly, but she's still a Rhine Lab director with all the shadiness and ruthlessness that entails, culminating in her veiled threat to Silence when she refuses to hand Anthony over to her.
• Breaking Old Trends: After Rosmontis's release, every limited 6-star Operator that was released outside of Chinese New Year events (where Sui characters such as Nian and Dusk are the limited Operators) were always alters of existing playable characters. Muelsyse's debut broke that long going trend, being a unique character as opposed to an alter, like Rosmontis and W.
  • She is also the first and as of yet only Tactician Vanguard whose summon isn't an animal. Her summons can also be placed on ranged tiles.
• Conflicting Loyalty: It is revealed in Lone Trail that Muelsyse is torn between her loyalty to Saria and Kristen, and has been hoping that she could avoid choosing as they are both dear to her. Ultimately, however, Kristen's promise to fulfill her dream sways her to Kristen's side at the last moment. She laments that she cannot "dance in threes" and maintain her loyalty to both, but loses both anyway, with Saria betrayed and Kristen in space.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: According to her module story, when Muelsyse controls too many of her water clones at once, she starts making small mistakes in their day-to-day actions such as accidentally hitting wrong buttons on a terminal causing the Ecology Department to rain, eating birdfeed while feeding featherbeasts in the park, putting lip balm on her chin, and stirring above her coffee cup with her spoon. This has been compared to one person getting confused while trying to manage too many terminals at once. She also does not appreciate it being brought up.
• Damsel in Distress: Is captured and forced into a Mini-Mecha by Ho'olheyak during "Dorothy's Vision", and has to be freed by the Doctor and Saria.
• Despair Event Horizon: Implied when Muelsyse is defeated by Saria and left behind by Kristen at the end of Lone Trail, causing her to instantly lose the two people she wanted to dedicate herself to, on top of the dying vivarium on the Galleria Stellaria causing her to believe her dream of life beyond the stars has been moot the whole time. This leaves her in such a despondent state that she tries to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save Saria and the others, and while she barely survives by landing in her destroyed garden, she seems resigned to letting herself die along with the garden until the Doctor - another person she betrayed for a futile goal - finds her and saves her life.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: For a given definition of "evil", Muelsyse cannot seem to comprehend that Silence would help Anthony simply out of the goodness of her heart, initially assuming she must have had ulterior reasons to do so. Additionally, despite having worked with her initially to retrieve Anthony, she finds the idea of Saria genuinely caring about people to be inconceivable. Even a cursory glance at Saria's lines regarding Ifrit (or the feather from Silence that she keeps dangled on her clothing) indicate this is anything but the truth.
• The Fair Folk: The opening scene of "Dorothy's Vision" confirms that that Muelsyse is an Elf. Elves themselves are a Dying Race and incredibly rare, and Muelsyse herself is estranged from her kinfolk. They have an extreme sensitivity toward Originum which leads to them avoiding almost all other civilization on Terra.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab" she humors Ifrit mistaking her for a water sprite, and in "Operational Intelligence" sidestory "After-class Homework" secretly pacified Ifrit with her water Arts before the Diablo consciousness caused her to burn down the corridor. As playable operators, Muelsyse's Elite 2 talent helps reduce Ifrit's ridiculously high DP cost as well as generating DP to help deploy her faster - her assistance may not be as obvious as Silence, Saria and Ptilopsis, but she is helping in her own way.
  • Her Originium Arts assimilation ranking is rated as Flawed, showing that her hydrokinetic powers do not originate from Originium Arts unlike Darya in "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab" (given how elves are often portrayed as a Nature Spirit in media, they likely originate from her nature as an elf instead). Fittingly, her attacks do Physical damage, unlike most other elemental users (e.g. Eyjafjalla, Gnosis or Ho'olheyak) who all deal Arts damage with their respective element.
• Green Thumb: In addition to her water control abilities, "Dorothy's Vision" indicates that she can cause plants to grow spontaneously wherever she wants. Apparently she's destroyed the offices of three other Rhine directors by causing entire forests to grow in them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "Lone Trail" she creates a huge lake by drawing water out of herself to cushion Saria's fall from space as well as that of her escape pod, flooding her own garden and almost dying in the process. There's an implication that her mind wasn't in the best state after Kristen left her behind and dashed her hopes for her ideal future. Fortunately, the Doctor managed to save her.
• Hidden Elf Village: She reveals that Rhine Lab's expeditions into Sami uncovered a literal version of this trope, with an isolated pocket of elves living in the snowfields far from the reach of Originium. However, Muelsyse feels she doesn't belong in a place like that, as she's too accustomed to an urban lifestyle.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: For all her shady behavior in "Mansfield Break", her Image Song and voice lines show that Muelsyse is ultimately a lonely girl that just wants companionship with her race being almost extinct, Elves being innately different from most of Terra's other races, and Rhine Lab's Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome-prone (or slightly apathetic at the least) staff making for poor friends.
• Image Song: "Morning Dew"
• Ineffectual Loner: Muelsyse works the best if she has a teammate from which she can copy their stats from. It's a little downplayed in that she needs as much as only one other operator, however, as shown in here.
• In-Series Nickname: Magallan and Ifrit often refer to her as "MuMu".
• Jack of All Trades: In addition to her archetype being known for this. Her summon can both be ranged and melee, regenerate HP and revive after dying (much like Blacknight and Beanstalk's summons), and depending on the skill and the summon's position, they can either duplicate and bind (when ranged) or they can pull and stun (when melee). All the while still generating DP.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She points out that the Simon family's situation isn't as sad and tragic as everyone makes it out to be. They were business rivals with the HydeBro company, and they were just as guilty of using shady business tactics to stay on top as HydeBro was. The only difference is that HydeBro won the conflict. She even points out that if the situation were reversed and the Simon family came out on top, no one would be feeling sorry for them. Anthony even agrees with what she said, despite it being about how corrupt his own family is.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After she tries to threaten Silence into handing Anthony over and he wagers his loyalty if she can beat him in a fight, Muelsyse retreats primarily because a remote water clone would be no match for him.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The reason why the trope below is in effect is because elves are extremely sensitive to Originium, and Oripathy can kill them even faster despite elves being The Ageless.
• Last of Her Kind: Elves are nearly extinct, with Ho'olheyak outright mocking her for vainly trying to remain in the present rather than fading into history with the rest of her kind. This is likely represented in the PV when she comes across a sunken elf statue.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: She's at least close enough to this for Silence to not classify her as a villain; her cold outlook on the world and attempts to forcefully take Anthony are so obvious that Muelsyse herself notes multiple times that she seems like a villain. It's implied that as bad and shady as Muelsyse is, the other Department heads are far worse, with her speaking of them with implied disdain. In the end, she parts ways with Anthony and Silence on the closest thing to a cordial note one can get for someone who just threatened their lives, and sincerely promises she won't get involved with Anthony anymore.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Notably, despite being a member of a race known for their long lifespan, her hyper-sensitivity to Originium means that she treats herself as having a limited lease on life, with her being very proactive with her desires to live life to the fullest.
• Logical Weakness: Muelsyse's power is reliant on having access to water, and though she can extract it from the atmosphere in her vicinity, sufficiently high temperature and/or deliberately removing water molecules from her vicinity completely neuters her abilities, despite the operational range of her clones being surprisingly far, implying the need for an unbroken connection. Ho'olheyak exploits this to capture Muelsyse in "Dorothy's Vision" by using her air control Arts to cut off Muelsyse from the atmospheric water vapors, rendering her defenseless.
• Making a Splash: She can freely manipulate water, including by lowering the temperature using the atmospheric water vapors. This is why she was one of the only ones who can counteract Ifrit's outbursts.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's not clear in her Operator Record if she can actually communicate with plants, or if she is simply using them as a means to communicate with her own inner thoughts and desires.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Out of everyone within her archetype, her summon can also be placed on ranged tiles within her range as opposed to only being restricted to melee ones.
• Mythical Motifs: In contrast to her feathered hair hinting at her being a Liberi, "Dorothy's Vision" implies that she's not based on a bird, but rather an elf, thus making her the first elf to appear in the game overall. This is confirmed in "Lonetrail".
• Necessary Drawback: Her water clones' ability to copy the attributes of an allied operator does not include their class traits^{For example...}If a water clone copies Ifrit or Corroserum, it gains their attack range, but not their trait that lets them blast all enemies in range, limiting them to only attacking one target at a time. So no, you cannot have 4 Ifrits burninating everything, unfortunately. as a way to balance them out, which dampens their potential just a tiny bit.
  • On the other hand, this also means that you can copy a Duelist Defender like Eunectes and not be bothered by their 'Only regains SP when blocking' trait, letting you use them as a heavy statstick instead. One can also opt to copy Rosmontis and let the summon attack drones, since the 'not attacking drones' is part of her trait, although this would also come at the cost of losing the Flinger branch's Splash Damage (which arguably defines the branch more).
• Odd Friendship: She ended up befriending Weedy shortly after joining Rhodes Island, due to their shared desire for ultra-sterile environments.
• Odd Name Out: The directors of the sections are Ahrens Parvis, Ferdinand Clooney, Dorothy Franks, Kirsten Wright, and...Muelsyse. This is along with the facts that she only has a single name and that her place of birth and race are conspicuously censored compared to the others.
• Parasol of Pain: Subverted. She does have a parasol with her, but her attacks are done using her staff.
• Parental Abandonment: She was left at the door of an orphanage by her parents, who died some time after due to Originium exposure.
• Power Copying: Her clones can copy an operator's block count, damage type, range and up to 90% of their stats.
• Promoted to Playable: Became a playable operator with the 4th anniversary event "Lonetrail".
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Heavily implied. While she hasn't been shown to fight in the story, the way she talks about how her water clone couldn't possibly fight Anthony implies that she could actually take the big guy on if she were there in person.
  • As a playable operator, she's a 6-star tier operator like all the other storyline powerhouses who aren't a case of Dented Iron or Willfully Weak.
• Really 700 Years Old: Her self narration in "Dorothy's Vision" implies that she is at least several centuries old, and has lived long enough to witness Terra's climate changes. Not surprising, considering that the same event also reveals that she is an Elf. Also in "Dorothy's Vision" is the statement that elves are nearly extinct.
• Self-Duplication: She can use her water Arts to create water clones of herself that are indistinguishable from her real body. As a playable operator, she deploys a water clone that can copy another undeployed operator's stats to serve as her tactical summon.
• Ship Tease: With the Doctor in assistant voice lines. From reciting a love poem, calling them her savior, asking them out to the movies, and even sharing an indirect kiss by giving them her chapstick after suggesting the Doctor's lips are dry. She astonishingly has some of the most overtly romantic assistant lines. Even the actual Lone Trail event has a scene of her dancing with the Doctor, which is featured in the animated PV.
• Situational Sword: Her Elite 2 talent reduces the DP cost of Rhine Lab operators by 2, and that of the first deployed Rhine Lab operatior by an additional 1. This means she can effectively cut down her own DP Cost by 3. ^note  Should Muelsyse be at Elite 2, should all her potentials be fulfilled, and should her talent work, then her DP Cost would be as low as 9
• Small Role, Big Impact: In "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab", it's heavily implied that Muelsyse is responsible for leaking the Diablo Project files to Tin Man, as well as putting Silence on the path to join Rhodes Island.
• Sweet Tooth: Is shown to be a big fan of sweets in "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab". She displays huge knowledge of various types of sweets when Saria takes her to a candy shop to help with picking out a gift, and Saria's habit of bringing candy for Ifrit originated indirectly from her.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Her favorite candy is a brand of fruit candies called "Pitt's Assorted Fruits", which shows up in "Mizuki & Caerula Arbor" as a collectible.
• Tsundere: She’s usually sweet and charming, but say something that genuinely annoys her and she won’t hesitate to use her water clones to lay a beatdown on you.
• Wrong Context Magic: Her ability to control water is not Originium Arts due to her Originium Arts assimilation ranking being Flawed, implying that it has more to do with her race than any actual Arts ability similar to the Sui siblings.
• You Will Not Evade Me: If her summon copies a melee unit, her third skill will cause the summon to continuously pulling enemies towards it. If they're blocked, they'll be stunned for good measure, too, further crippling their ability to escape her hold.

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Myrtle

Myrtle

Introduced: Heart of Surging Flame
Voiced by: Shino Shimoji (Japanese), Juniper Berry (Mandarin Chinese), Hollie Taylor (English), Jung Yoo-jung (Korean)
Artist: Miē Bāo

Maybe she should have a talk with Zima.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Epoque: Light Gold Celebration skin.}

^{Click to see her Coral Coast: Summer Flowers FA062 skin.}

Myrtle, Vanguard of Rhodes Island, is ready to lead the charge into battle!

Rarity: ★★★★

ID: No. 151

Subclass: Standard Bearer

Tags: DP-Recovery, Healing

Skills: Support β, Healing Wings

Talents: Glistening

Affiliation: Rhodes Island

Race: Durin

Birthday: December 1

Height: 131cm

"Reporting in! You must be the Doctor? Call me Myrtle, Myrtle of Durin. Durin said I could get a job here, so what have you got for me? I may be small, but I'm tough!"

A Durin who was dragged to Rhodes by the Operator Durin, and is enthusiastic about the surface world.

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• Affectionate Nickname: “Generalissimo”, by Pozëmka in her Archive File.
• Animal Motifs: Butterflies. They even appear in her Elite 2 art.
• Ascended Meme: On the background of her Epoque skin lies a big, radiant Sunflower, making Myrtle a literal Sunflower Vanguard.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The 16 DP given by Myrtle's S2 sure sounds incredible on paper. Compared to her S1, it has double the effect duration, gives 2 more DP...and a significantly higher SP cost, meaning that it will naturally have much worse up time by comparison. Not to mention, the increased skill duration translates out into a drastically reduced DP gain rate per second, and the total income difference of 2 points is far too insignificant to outweigh the slower generation rate, meaning that most players will just stick with her S1 for much of their play time. The only real benefit that her S2 has over her S1 is that it also provides healing for a brief period of time, allowing her to function as a backup healer of sorts, which is useful in challenges where conventional Medics and healing Defenders are disabled and/or harder to deploy in a timely manner.
• Big Eater: Implied. One of Myrtle's Trust lines has her expressing amazement at the surface-folk's cuisine, and her favorite place to loiter is Rhodes Island's cafeteria. She's quite dismayed at the fact that the diner is not open at all hours of the day.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: According to her bio, Myrtle's apple acts as a conduit of "faith", through which she can channel her Arts and inspire her allies.
• Cloudcuckoolander: In her Operator Record, Myrtle demonstrates a method of blunt and straightforward thinking that doesn't line up with conventional wisdom, leaving it difficult for her friends and teammates to decipher what exactly is going on in her head.
• Disc-One Nuke: Possibly the defining unit for beginners. Myrtle is often recommended as the top candidate for the first choice of an Elite 2 promotion solely because her low resource costs due to her rarity and her incredible DP generation which singlehandedly solves DP cost issues in most stages, while still having great lategame value due to the relative ease of collecting potentials and her faster initial skill charge time compared to her higher-rarity counterparts. With the updates to starter packs to include her as a guaranteed 4-star as of "So Long, Adele", she can be acquired at the start of the player's journey and only gets better as they raise stronger and more expensive Operators.
• Friend to All Children: She states that all the kids in her home town looked up to her, and she reciprocated in kind.
• Humble Hero: Her Operator Record reveals that even though she contributes greatly to missions through her morale boosting efforts, she always attributes the mission's success to her teammates since she believes they do all the actual hard work.
• Image Song: "A Grand Adventure". Shared with Durin.
• Improvised Weapon: Her main weapon is her banner, both as a bludgeon and a symbol of ralliement. It is specially treated to never get dirty, and always stay immaculate... because it's actually a tablecloth. Myrtle swiped it from the family home when she left the underground, and she thinks her father is probably really angry about that.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Durin just went out and brought her in one day for shits and giggles, claiming to have been "inspired" by something while taking her usual nap. Somehow Myrtle doesn't object to being Press-Ganged into joining Rhodes Island.
• Little People: Due to her Durin race, Myrtle is shorter than most of the cast.
• Magikarp Power: Despite her utility, Myrtle is actually not very good in early stages since her skillset generally isn't needed and her poor base stats prevents her from being able to fight conventionally. It's not until the endgame and she's Elite 2 with fully mastered skills where her utility truly shines, because stages that rush you right off the bat become way more common later on.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Myrtle was the only Vanguard who can heal other operators, up until the introduction of Saileach.
• Not Drawn to Scale: Both of her and Durin's profiles give their heights at 131cm. Her actual sprite is about half a head taller than Durin's, even disregarding her shoes and Durin's hat.
• Older Than She Looks: Myrtle is actually around adult age by Durin standards. However, due to her race being composed of Little People, she's barely any taller than a prepubescent child, something she's really touchy about.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Myrtle is forgets to submit her mission report to HR before the deadline, she simply asks the Doctor to turn it in for her.
• Super Gullible: In Pozëmka’s third Archive Files, there is a short transcript where Myrtle refuses a suggestion to play with toy blocks. Pozëmka tries to persuade her by calling it a “thrilling, exciting competition” to build the tallest tower, to which Myrtle immediately agrees.
• Support Party Member: Myrtle has some of the strongest effective DP generation among Vanguards, and she can also heal others with her second skill and talent. However, her stats are fairly sub-par and she also makes for a terrible frontliner, owing to the Standard Bearer Vanguards' quirk of reducing their Block count to 0 while their skills are active.
• White Mage: Despite being a Vanguard, Myrtle's skills and talent paint her as more of a Medic instead. Her second skill heals one nearby operator per second for up to 50% of her ATK, while her Elite 2 talent Glistening also grants a passive heal^note 28 HP per second, and an extra 3 HP if her potentials are improved to all Vanguards on the team.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Her showing up at Rhodes Island vastly improved the public opinion of her kind. Prior to that, people seem to think all Durin are just Lazy Bums that sleep all day, just like the other resident dwarf loafing around Rhodes Island.

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