History GameBreaker / Arknights

** Cutter makes for a deceptively powerful 4-star due to having extreme burst packed into her kit while being much cheaper to raise than Bibeak, Ch'en or Irene. All of her skills can hit multiple targets on land or air, and have ridiculously high ATK scalings to offset the Dualstrike archetype's moderate ATK - '''Redshift''' delivers 4 hits of up to 340% of her ATK to random targets in range (up to ''1360%'' of her ATK if only one target is in front of her), while '''Crimson Crescent''' is an [=AoE=] skill that deals up to 450% ATK to 5 targets around her and [[AntiAir deals double damage to flying units]], giving her a choice between single-target evisceration and crowd clearing. Not only do both of these have generously low SP costs, her '''Photoetched Marks''' talent gives her up to a 36% chance to recover 1 extra SP whenever she deals damage with a fully upgraded Module (which also lets her ignore 70 DEF), turning her into a SpamAttack monster that can punch through even armored foes. She's especially valuable in Integrated Strategies, as her low Hope cost makes her into a hell of a DiskOneNuke who is easy to recruit early, and her ability to synergize with a wide variety of Collectibles lets her scale even into the lategame.

** The fourth Integrated Strategies mode effectively puts her in the spotlight as one of the best Operators to bring as a starter, if not ''the'' best for the simple reason that her 2nd Skill will burn and wipe any enemy mob rushing your defensive line, in a gamemode where the main difficulty of many of the harder stages comes from fast enemies {{Zerg Rush}}ing you. Reed can clear out pretty much all of the first floor stages even on higher difficulties, alleviating the EarlyGameHell of the mode, and later in the game even the dreaded Shattered Champions will have trouble getting past her as her fireballs will sustain the blockers and burn them to death while further debuffing their ATK. Once promoted, her 3rd skill is also excellent for sustaining a lineup and nuking an entire enemy rush in one go, and in particular can single-handedly clear out all of the annoying tile blockers in the first ending boss.

** Both of her Modules are a small but appreciable boost to her supportive ability. DEC-X gives her bonus SP regen when enemies are in range, which stacks with her Skill Aura to further reduce her cooldowns, while its upgrades improve said Skill Aura to also provide a small ATK buff to all Supporters as well. Meanwhile, DEC-Y increases her Slow time from 0.8s to 1.2s to give her better slow uptime (especially with S2) and thus more uptime on Binding Circle, and when upgraded not only improves her Fragile (capping at 25% with Potentials and doubled with Foxfire Haze, turning it into the strongest unconditional Fragile effect in the game), but adds in an 8% Enfeeble, making enemies both deal less damage and take even more damage.
especially since unlocking her Module will ''further'' accelerate her SP generation if she has targets in range.

** The fourth Integrated Strategies mode effectively puts her in the spotlight as one of the best Operators to bring as a starter, if not ''the'' best for the simple reason that her 2nd Skill will burn and wipe any enemy mob rushing your defensive line, in a gamemode where the main difficulty of the early stages comes from fast enemies {{Zerg Rush}}ing you. Even the dreaded Shattered Champions won't be much a problem as the fireballs will sustain the blockers and burn them to death while further debuffing their ATK. Once promoted, her 3rd skill is also excellent for sustaining a lineup and nuking an entire enemy rush in one go, and in particular can single-handedly clear out all of the annoying tile blockers in the first ending boss.

** While she lacks the offensive power of the likes of Angelina, Suzuran takes many of the strengths that other Supporters have and rolls them into one package, combining incredible crowd-control ability with potent team support. Her main merit is the talent she unlocks at Elite 2, '''Binding Circle''' which passively makes all slowed enemies in range take 20% bonus damage. Not only does this effectively buff the damage of all nearby operators (especially with more slow support), it's one of the few sources of Fragile that is not reliant on a skill, threshold, or random proc. Her entire kit is specifically designed to take advantage of that talent, with her S2 '''Childhood Frolic''' being a ''permanent'' ATK buff that also lets her target up to 3 enemies at once at Mastery 1, kind of like a weaker but permanent version of Angelina's S3; this allows to both slow multiple targets at once while also turning her into a surprisingly good lane holder. However, her third skill, '''Foxfire Haze''' is where the fun really begins - it expands her range, slows all enemies within that range, increases the effect of her Fragile by up to double, and rapidly heals all allies in range. With this skill, not only can Suzuran spread a hefty damage amp to all enemies in a huge area simultaneously, but she can also pump the survivability of her teammates (and herself) through the roof with her rapid [=AoE=] healing, all while slowing every enemy nearby to a crawl for the skill's entire generous duration. The catch is that she doesn't attack while her S3 is active, but that's basically a non-issue if one considers how much support and crowd-control power she's putting out in return. While all of her skills are gated by hefty SP costs, her '''Skill Aura - Supporter''' that increases the SP generation of all Supporters (including herself) makes this a surprisingly small issue, especially since unlocking her Module will ''further'' accelerate her SP generation if she has targets in range.

** Wanqing follows the foot steps of being just as game-breaking as his fellow Flagbearer Operators. Like his fellow Flagbearer Operators, his skills generate large amounts of DP. However, the meat that makes him game-breaking comes from his second skill, '''Along Easterly Winds'''. This skill allows him to not only heal ''all units'' surrounding Wanqing, every ally in the field benefit from receiving ''+25 ASPD'' at Third Mastery as long as the skill is active. This also includes those not in Wanqing's surrounding range, as long as they are facing the same direction as Wanqing when he is deployed in the field, ''with no regards to which operator class they belong to''. This gimmick also applies in his talent, '''Watching the Weather''', which increases Max HP of the units surrounding him and those not in range, but facing the same direction as Wanqing when he is deployed will also receive the same benefit. Suffice to say, Wanqing proves to be a very powerful SupportPartyMember to have from his second skill and his Talent that would ensure that your squishier units get to survive longer. Additionally, he is the '''free''' operator for ''Here a People Sows'', making him far easier to build and max out his Potentials for.

** However, over time Blaze's cornerstone status has been challenged by the addition of many other strong laneholding operators such as Thorns, Mountain and Mudrock, and as of the release of Gavial the Invincible, the second 6-star Centurion Guard who finds a stronger niche in harder content due to her higher stats and stronger burst skills, Blaze's place as a 'must-have' in terms of the meta has faded. However, her S2's infinite duration and her natural resistance to status effects, coupled with their greater ease of acquiring as a recruitment unit compared to Gavial who is a limited unit, means she is still on the higher end of Operators, and there are still niches where she can shine where consistent range and damage is needed, and she still has no trouble shredding recent story and event content.

** The fourth Integrated Strategies mode effectively puts her in the spotlight as one of the best Operators to bring, if not ''the'' best for the simple reason that her 2nd Skill will burn and wipe any enemy mob rushing your defensive line. Even if they the dreaded Shattered Champions won't be much a problem as the fireballs will sustain the blockers will burning them to death all the same. And her 3rd skill is perfect to clear the tile blockers against the first ending boss.

** Sadly this squad gets nerfed in the 4th IS iteration, as the main gimmick of the mode is the horde of enemies {{Zerg Rushi}}ing your team, and the squad overall lacks area damage to deal with the incoming mob quickly enough.

* The '''Special Training Squad''' is unlocked by accumulating a total of 1000 Command EXP over many runs. It grants 3 objective shields for an easier early game, but most importantly, it makes all Operator promotions ''free of charge, regardless of rarity.'' This is an extremely powerful boon that can let you build up your squad much faster, and makes it so that you only ever have to worry about recruitment costs, letting you easily promote anyone with the right voucher.
* Once it becomes unlocked, the '''Bosky Passage''' node can be your best friend, giving you the option to use 1 Anti-Interference Index and head to a mini-floor where you'll be hit with a map condition that can either be purely beneficial, detrimental, or anywhere in between. Unlike ''Mizuki & Caerula Arbor's'' Wander into Wonderland which would guarantee several grueling battles followed by what could easily be ThatOneBoss if your team isn't in top form (especially on an early floor), Bosky Passages will, at worst, give you some Emergency battles that you'd normally find on the original floor anyways, and at best will offer nothing but shops, encounters, and items, letting you pick up more goodies than you'd normally be able to get at the time. Although it ''can'' screw you over if you get unlucky or overestimate your strength before entering, it's relatively easy to prepare for if you know what you're doing, and if frequently taken can result in you practically swimming in Command XP and items to snowball into the later floors.

* The '''Foldartals''' are a new system introduced in this mode, a set of sigils that come in a top (node selection) and bottom half (effect selection), and can be combined to create new benefits that also lower your Collapse level. The highly powerful Foldartals in particular are '''Sing, Silence,''' and '''Debate,''' which grant +50 ASPD, +50% max HP, and -30% redeployment time respectively when entering combat, and should you trigger a Concord (when the top and bottom halves are matching colors), they also spawn a Cheering Sponsor Drone that further ramps up ASPD, a highly tanky Shieldguard Defender to help defend the blue box, and grants a random Elite Operator to join you, respectively. These are very powerful effects that can help you turn the tides in particularly difficult battles on higher Braving Nature levels, and as the cherry on top, all of these effects can ''stack'' on top of each other (or even themselves if you have multiple of one kind) on the same node, which can greatly ease the difficulty; if you have enough Foldartals, there's nothing stopping you from throwing ''all'' of the buffs onto a single tough node to steamroll it. Even the non-combat Foldartals can be a huge boon, as they can let you quickly gather more tools through plain old resource gain or changing nodes into shops, or even ''replace'' potentially run-ending battles with more beneficial nodes.

* The '''Foldartals''' are a new system introduced in this mode, a set of sigils that come in a top (node selection) and bottom half (effect selection), and can be combined to create new benefits that also lower your Collapse level. The highly powerful Foldartals in particular are '''Sing, Silence,''' and '''Debate,''' which grant +50 ASPD, +50% max HP, and -30% redeployment time respectively when entering combat, and should you trigger a Concord (when the top and bottom halves are matching colors), they also spawn a Cheering Sponsor Drone that further ramps up ASPD, a highly tanky Shieldguard Defender to help defend the blue box, and grants a random Elite Operator to join you, respectively. These are very powerful effects that can help you turn the tides in particularly difficult battles on higher Braving Nature levels, and as the cherry on top, all of these effects can ''stack'' on top of each other on the same node, which can greatly ease the difficulty; if you have enough Foldartals, there's nothing stopping you from throwing ''all'' of the buffs onto a single tough node to steamroll it. Even the non-combat Foldartals can be a huge boon, as they can let you quickly gather more tools through plain old resource gain or changing nodes into shops, or even ''replace'' potentially run-ending battles with more beneficial nodes.

** Following in the same footsteps as Myrtle (as detailed below), Elysium emerged as the premier DP dispenser in the game, generating up to a whopping ''18'' points with his S1, and ''20'' through his S2, and he's only marginally more expensive to deploy than her. As icing on the cake, Elysium's '''Sniper Support''' talent also passively reduces the cost for all Sniper operators, making him invaluable if you're looking to place down more expensive units like Meteorite or Executor, and the [[MoreDakka [=ASPD=] increase]] he offers them can turn some (Exusiai, wink wink!) into literal murder machines. Not to mention, his S2 '''Monitor''' grants him conditional TrueSight on up to four enemies, making him the only melee operator aside from [=SilverAsh=] to be able to see cloaked units, along with applying speed and defense debuffs on affected enemies, which gives him extra utility in stalling and enabling physical DPS.

*** His talent '''Leader''' naturally reduces the redeployment timer of everyone else, which becomes more effective as he's promoted, which give players more breathing room in case they need to redeploy faster. This talent is tailor-made for helidropping practices, and ''especially'' synergizes well with Executor Specialists like Texas the Omertosa and Kirin R Yato. At Elite 2, he also gains the '''Eagle Eyes''' talent which confers TrueSight, making Detectors redundant and ruining the days of every enemy with invisibility. He's one of the only five operators who can do this in the game as of the time of writing, three of them being Elysium[[note]]who needs to have his S2 running and can only see up to four cloaked enemies at a time[[/note]], Tsukinogi[[note]]who needs to have her S1 activated, though she can reveal all enemies in her range like [=SilverAsh=], aside from granting some dodge to allies[[/note]], and Scene[[note]]who needs to place down her camera drones to reveal stealthed enemies, which also eats through the deployment limit as Scene is a summoner[[/note]], whereas [=SilverAsh=] does it passively and without an upper limit on how many he can reveal at once. The only operator who can match his TrueSight is Ines[[note]]Who trades range for the ability to reposition her sight more consistently[[/note]], who is a GameBreaker herself in the Vanguards folder.
*** To put things into perspective: while Hypergryph had been hard at work introducing 4 and 5-star {{Moveset Clone}}s of the other operators on this page, none so far have been able to ape [=SilverAsh=]'s repertoire, ''especially'' his True Silver Slash (seeing as it's a S3, odds are nobody under 6-star ever will), which makes him a one-of-a-kind Game Breaker in the meta. Only with the release of the utterly ridiculous 6-star Młynar was [=SilverAsh=]'s place in the meta finally challenged (read Młynar's own entry for elaboration) yet [=SilverAsh=] still remains as a monstrous force within the scope of the game. Nowadays, [=SilverAsh=] is mainly used for his utility rather than his damage, yet said utility is still amazing enough for him to keep his title as a game breaker.

* The ''Lakebed Aegis'' gives one Objective Shield upon obtaining it and, if the player has ''any'' Objective Shield when entering a battle, increases the health of ''all units by 60%'' for the duration of the battle. It's relatively easy to retain at least one Shield with various items or buffs, and the HP buff from this item alone outstrips other top-tier HP buffs like the strongest +HP collectible and the Silence Foldartal (+50%) while having an easy-to-meet condition, potentially turning your entire team into nigh-unkillable juggernauts as long as you don't lose your last Shield. Furthermore, it ''stacks'' with any other HP buffs like those mentioned.

* Once it becomes unlocked, the '''Bosky Passage''' node can be your best friend, giving you the option to use 1 Anti-Interference Index and head to a mini-floor where you'll be hit with a map condition that can either be purely beneficial, detrimental, or anywhere in between. Unlike ''Mizuki & Caerula Arbor's'' Wander into Wonderland which would guarantee several grueling battles followed by what could easily be ThatOneBoss if your team isn't in top form (especially on an early floor), Bosky Passages will, at worst, give you some Emergency battles that you'd normally find on the original floor anyways, and at best will offer nothing but shops, encounters, and items, letting you pick up more goodies than you'd normally be able to get at the time. Although it ''can'' screw you over if you get unlucky or enter while underequipped, it's relatively easy to prepare for if you know what you're doing, and if frequently taken can result in you practically swimming in Command XP and items to snowball into the later floors.
* The '''Hunter's Insight''' allows all Operator's attacks to pierce through half the DEF and RES of enemy Collapsals, and briefly slow them down. Given how the Collapsals are major DemonicSpiders in this mode, anything that helps to get rid of them faster is always a massive help. The slow on hit in particular is excellent for shutting down their signature SuperSpeed, and while the DEF and RES ignore are more situational on most regular Collapsals,[[note]]They universally have very low DEF besides the Shattered Champion, and only the Distorted Casters and Collapsed Constructs have high RES.[[/note]] this is counteracted by the fact that it also works on Collapsal ''bosses'' such as the Fallen/Hollow Snowpriests, or even Eikthyrnir and Crazelyseon.
* The '''Foldartals''' are a new system introduced in this mode, a set of sigils that come in a top (node selection) and bottom half (effect selection), and can be combined to create new benefits that also lower your Collapse level. The highly powerful Foldartals in particular are '''Sing, Silence,''' and '''Debate,''' which grant +50 ASPD, +50% max HP, and -30% redeployment time respectively when entering combat, and should you trigger a Concord (when the top and bottom halves are matching colors), they also spawn a Cheering Sponsor Drone that further ramps up ASPD, a highly tanky Shieldguard Defender to help defend the blue box, and grants a random Elite Operator to join you, respectively. These are very powerful effects that can help you turn the tides in particularly difficult battles on higher Braving Nature levels, and as the cherry on top, all of these effects can ''stack'' on top of each other on the same node, which can greatly ease the difficulty; if you have enough Foldartals, there's nothing stopping you from throwing ''all'' of the buffs onto a single tough node to steamroll it. Even the non-combat Foldartals can be a huge boon, as they can let you quickly gather more tools through plain old resource gain or changing nodes into shops, or even ''replace'' potentially run-ending battles with more beneficial nodes.

* '''Royal Alliance Treaty''' may be [[SituationalSword situational]], but it absolutely trivializes certain levels. It makes your operators [[NoSell take no damage from Sarkaz enemies]], which are usually DemonicSpiders, especially Lancers and Grudgebearers; this includes ''bosses'' like W or the Sarkaz Centurion. And if the entire map contains nothing but Sarkaz (like the aforementioned W's stage or the [[ThatOneLevel infamous Lancer map Unending]]), this item turns them into {{Breather Level}}s in an otherwise punishing mode. Although the item was indirectly nerfed in ''Caerula Arbor'' due to there being far less Sarkaz-based stages, it still completely cheeses that remain, such as the one you can get by accepting the Sarkaz dancer's invitation.

* Once it becomes unlocked, the '''Bosky Passage''' node can be your best friend, giving you the option to use 1 Anti-Interference Index and head to a mini-floor where you'll be hit with a map condition that can either be purely beneficial, detrimental, or anywhere in between. Unlike ''Mizuki & Caerula Arbor's'' Wander into Wonderland which would guarantee several grueling battles followed by what could easily be ThatOneBoss if your team isn't in top for (especially on an early floor), Bosky Passages will, at worst, give you some Emergency battles that you'd normally find on the original floor anyways, and at best will offer nothing but shops, encounters, and items, letting you pick up more goodies than you'd normally be able to get at the time. Although it ''can'' screw you over if you get unlucky or are underequipped, it's pretty easy to prepare for if you know what you're doing, and if frequently taken can result in you practically swimming in Command XP and items to snowball into the later floors.

* The '''Hunter's Insight''' allows all Operator's attacks to pierce through half the DEF and RES of enemy Collapsals, and briefly slow them down. Given how the Collapsals are major DemonicSpiders in this mode, anything that helps to get rid of them faster is always a massive help. The slow on hit in particular is excellent for shutting down their signature SuperSpeed, and while the DEF and RES ignore are more situational on most regular Collapsals,[[note]]They universally have very low DEF besides the Shattered Champion, and only the Distorted Casters and Collapsed Constructs have high RES.[[/note]], this is counteracted by the fact that it also works on Collapsal ''bosses'' such as the Fallen/Hollow Snowpriests, or even Eikthyrnir and Crazelyseon.

* The '''Hunter's Insight''' allows all Operator's attacks to pierce through half the DEF and RES of enemy Collapsals, and briefly slow them down. Given how the Collapsals are major DemonicSpiders in this mode, anything that helps to get rid of them faster is always a massive help.
* The '''Foldartals''' are a new system introduced in this mode, a set of sigils that come in a top (node selection) and bottom half (effect selection), and can be combined to create new benefits that also lower your Collapse level. The highly powerful Foldartals in particular are '''Sing, Silence,''' and '''Debate,''' which grant +50 ASPD, +50% max HP, and -30% redeployment time respectively when entering combat, and should you trigger a Concord (when the top and bottom halves are matching colors), they also spawn a Cheering Sponsor Drone that further ramps up ASPD, a highly tanky Shieldguard Defender to help defend the blue box, and grants a random Elite Operator to join you, respectively. These are very powerful effects that can help you turn the tides in particularly difficult battles on higher Braving Nature levels, and as the cherry on top, all of these effects can ''stack'' on top of each other on the same node, which can greatly ease the difficulty.

** And all of the above is what Ela can do even ''before'' unlocking her Module. With her Module unlocked, it allows Ela to be deployed on ground tiles, and her traps on high tiles. It takes all of Ela's already incredible strengths and makes them even ''more'' flexible and versatile, practically letting her control the entire battlefield as she wishes.

** As the 6-star of the second ''Rainbow Six Siege'' crossover banner, Ela brings a powerful and unique playstyle, playing more like a Sniper with a lot more utility. As a Trapmaster, she carries the '''Grzmot Mines''' as her traps of choice. Unlike the previous Trapmasters however, the Grzmot Mines aren't as plentiful to deploy, and don't deal any damage, but have a wider blast detection radius, and Ela's skills influence what kind of effects the mines will have. Her second skill, '''Shock and Hold''', causes the Grzmot Mines to stun all enemies caught in the blast, and when the skill is activated, Ela's attack range shortens, but she gains a massive DEF steroid, and her attacks deal AOE damage that pierces a hefty ''800'' DEF at max Mastery. This skill makes Ela a powerful ranged bruiser that can blast apart hordes of enemies while being significantly more durable than your usual Sniper. Her third skill, '''"Bosak Tempest"''', causes the Grzmot Mines to slow all enemies in the blast, and also inflicts a 35% Fragile debuff on them at max Mastery, and activating the skill grants her a +90% ATK buff and a shortened attack interval with 40 bullets to prioritize killing enemies affected by the mines, which makes Ela an incredibly powerful killer that manages to outdamage her fellow Team Rainbow member Ash and her S2. This is all compounded by her second talent '''Bull's Eye''', which gives her attacks a chance to crit for extra damage, and the chance becomes guaranteed against enemies hit by the Grzmot Mines. Her sole downside is that her Grzmot Mines are slower to generate and require her to manually activate her skills to obtain more, and she can only hold 4 at a time, but the sheer utility and damage she can pump out more than makes up for it.