Characters / Arknights Defenders N To Z

Arknights Characters
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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

Nearl

Margaret Nearl

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Xueting Mu (Mandarin Chinese), Devora Wilde (English), Kim Ye-rim (Korean)
Artist: Ryuzakiichi

It feels relieving to have her by your side.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Coral Coast: Shimmering Dew SD01 skin.}

Nearl, former knight of Kazimierz, is a core member on the battlefield with her defense and healing skills.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 148

Subclass: Guardian

Tags: Defense, Healing

Skills: First Aid, First Aid Mode

Talents: Healing Boost, Pegasus's Halo ^note Replaces Healing Boost at Elite 2

Affiliation: Followers - Rhodes Island

Race: Kuranta (Pegasus)

Birthday: April 23

Height: 171cm

"Margaret Nearl, the Radiant Knight of Kazimierz... and now a Rhodes Island Operator. I will defend your life and your honor with my shield."

The former Radiant Knight of Kazimierz who, alongside Shining and Nightingale, formed the "Followers," a travelling healing group. Unlike the majority of modern-day knights, Nearl is extremely chivalrous, and wouldn't hesitate to throw herself into danger if she could protect someone, earning her the respect and admiration of many people.

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• The Ace: One of the rare Operators with "Excellent" on all of her tests.
• Big Damn Heroes: Multiple examples:
  • In the prologue chapter, she arrives just in time with backup when Amiya and The Doctor's group are getting cornered by The Reunion's soldiers. It's all thanks to Dobermann firing a signal flare earlier, to which Nearl noticed.
    "Radiant Knight, Nearl, at your service. Your chariot has arrived."
  • During "Maria Nearl", she, and later Shining and Nightingale, show up to rescue Maria from the Corrupted and Withered Knights who were matched with Maria with the intent to kill her in the arena.
• Badass Bookworm: Meteor says she used to be a shy bookworm, while one of Nearl's lines reveals she still is, with her hesitating to ask about coming into your office after hearing that you have a large amount of books.
• Career-Ending Injury: Nearl was once a celebrated knight of Kazimiers but was forced to leave the region when she accidentally contracted Oripathy. Near Light and her alternate form reveal that this was a sham as she was never Infected to begin with, only pretending as to avoid unnecessary bloodshed back home by instead accepting an exile over potentially leading a bloody rebellion for causing issues for being a hugely popular Ensemble Dark Horse knight In-Universe.
• Combat Medic: Nearl's skills allow her to restore HP to nearby allies.
  • Her S2 First Aid is automatic and triggers upon attack when either her or a nearby ally has less than half of their health remaining.
  • Her S2 First Aid Mode has her stopping her attacks entirely for 40 seconds to focus on patching up nearby friendlies.
• Dented Iron: Quite literally, when it comes to her design, and her personality as well, if the implications of her self-sacrificing nature are to be believed. It is even commented in her archive files that her current gear in its state is limiting her potential, but she has a fondness for that gear in particular.
  • Most definitely, in comparison to her sister Blemishine.
• Dynamic Entry: Crashing into the arena from over a kilometer away to save her sister in the Kazimierz Major preliminaries definitely counts as one.
• Hidden Buxom: Her Coral Coast skin reveals that Nearl is quite blessed underneath her armor.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Literally and figuratively. Adding to her Paladin entry below, Nearl takes great pride in being a knight, adhering to her own strict chivalric code.
  • In her sub-3★ mission completion dialogue, she refuses to pursue fleeing enemies, opting instead to give them another chance at deciding their life choices.
  • She bemoans the usage of the title of Knight as a mere commodity in modern times.
• Major Injury Underreaction: She tries to take on Talulah but can't actually manage the latter's flames. Then she says this line:
  Nearl: *cough* Stay back! Don't worry about me... It's just... a little warm...
  Dobermann: What are you saying... don't worry? You don't have a single intact piece of armor on you, and you're telling me not to worry?!
• Martyr Without a Cause: It is strongly implied that Nearl values the life of others far more than her own. There is, of course, the case of her trying to face Talulah's flames with her armor damaged to the point of uselessness, but she also asks the Doctor to send her to the most dangerous theater of operations available in her Talk line, and her promotion record suggests that she has explicitly refused to be treated for Oripathy although that's probably because she never had Oripathy in the first place. Her fake Oripathy diagnosis was another intentional martyrdom, though. Nearl is selfless and self-sacrificial to a fault, even when others seem to value her more than she does herself. This, of course, ties into her character as the altruistic Paladin.
• Meaningful Name: Her Chinese name translates to "Near Light" as this is what she represents to her teammates. The name Nearl is presumably simply a contraction of that translation. Her limelight event is even named after her Chinese namesake.
• Ms. Exposition: She provides the Mission Briefing to Grani in the prologue (GT-EX-3) cutscene of the "Knights' Treasure" event, giving a backstory on Dewville and why the bounty hunters are interested in the eponymous treasures of that place.
• Mythical Motifs: While she belongs to the Kuranta race, which represent horses, Nearl's Elite 2 artwork specifically shows a Pegasus as her motif.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Will unfortunately end up on the receiving end of this trope if the player has Saria, who is effectively a direct upgrade to Nearl. While their first skills are the same ability, Saria's second skill^note Automatically heals everyone within range, including Saria herself, while costing very little SP and does not require Saria to completely stop attacking and third skill^note Not only heals allies rapidly, but also debuffs enemy movement and RES have a much higher range than both of Nearl's skills. This ultimately results in Saria being a far superior Guardian Defender to Nearl by a huge margin in regards to reliability and utility.
• The Paladin: Her character design lives and breathes this trope, with her being a tank who also doubles as a Combat Medic, and her formerly being a Knight of Kazimierz.
• The Paragon: Whether it is because of her beliefs or strengths, many people looked up to Nearl as one of Kazimierz's very best knight. Even those who usually dislikes Kazimierz's knights, like Firewatch, makes an exception for Nearl simply because she practically embodies chivalry itself.
• Parental Abandonment: It's revealed in "Near Light" and her module description that when she was very young, both of her parents suddenly left home on an urgent assignment and never returned.
• Red Baron: Her title as the "Radiant Knight of Kazimierz" is owed to her light-based Originium Arts.
• Significant Birth Date: Her birthday is St. George's Day - Saint George, as the knight who slayed the dragon.
• Walking the Earth: After leaving Kazimierz, Nearl became a wanderer. She eventually met Sarkaz healers Shining and Nightingale. Together, the three formed the "Followers", a travelling group dedicated to helping the infected everywhere.
• Willfully Weak: As seen in the Kazimierz Major, Nearl's original fighting style was using her mace as a two handed weapon which was fearsomely powerful, and temporarily started a fad in Kazimierz where knights would try to imitate her two handed mace fighting style. However, in the present, she only two hands her mace as a last resort and prefers to use her shield to protect others. This and the other details mentioned in Dented Iron above is presumably the reason why Nearl is only a 5-star operator in-game while Blemishine, another Guardian Defender who is stated to be weaker than her and looks up to her, is a 6-star.
  • It's shown later in Near Light when she takes back her title as the Radiant Knight just how much she was truly holding back when she trades her shield for a spear and begins using her light-based Arts with more offensive applications.

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Nian

Nian

Introduced: Ancient Forge
Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Catherine Young (Mandarin Chinese), Cheng Li (Sichuanese dialectic Chinese), Akira Lee Watanabe (English), Kim Na-yul (Korean)
Artist: 幻象黑兔

Always in the middle of where the excitement is.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her 0011 Series: Unfettered Freedom skin.}

Nian, a mysterious visitor from the faraway land of Yan, is willing to provide a little bit of assistance.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 2014

Subclass: Protector

Tags: Defense, Support

Skills: Tin Burning, Copper Seal, Iron Defense

Talents: Tectonic Armor, Clairvoyance

Affiliation: Sui - Yan

Race: Unknown/ Feranmut

Birthday: September 9

Height: 165cm

"Anybody home? Heard from one of your guys that I can make a comfy living here! Something about free lodging and food, with plenty of free time left over... Hm? This area is for staff only? Don't be like that! You make it sound like I don't belong here!"

A mysterious, lazy woman freeloading at Rhodes Island, with a profound talent for metallurgy.

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• Adaptational Heroism: In Chinese folklore, the Nian beast is an outright villainous or malicious monster that rocks up to the scene every lunar new year to eat people and livestock. The Nian we have in Arknights is a slightly insensitive but otherwise dedicated and good-natured person. Her movie version averts this of course (as per her preference as the villain). Nian also mentions that she's trying to convince the less hostile siblings that Rhodes Island is a good place to be in, implying that some siblings may avert this.
• All Your Powers Combined: Nian's kit provides a combination of a typical Defender, with the on-skill Arts damage output of Arts Defenders. This allows her to stand in for several different operators depending on the situation, though as a Jack of All Stats, Nian is also naturally a Master of None, as she doesn't particularly excel in any of these fields aside from her unique S3.
• Arc Villainess: In the event Ancient Forge, she's the main antagonist for the feature-length Show Within a Show titular movie she and Lava planned together.
• Artifact of Doom: Some of the objects that she crafts are implied to be this. Her module's Flavor Text mentions a small statue that she was implied to have created which brought terrible misfortune to anyone who tried to steal it.
• Attack Reflector: With her second skill Copper Seal active, Nian will stop attacking and gain 1 more block. In this phase, enemies who attack her will receive backlash Arts damage calculated after Nian's ATK and become silenced for up to 9 seconds.
• Barrier Warrior: Aside from Mudrock, Nian is the only Defender who doesn't carry a traditional shield, instead relying on a barrier that forms around her when she first deploys to absorb the first few hits she would receive. When activating her S2 she deploys the stone wheel that hovers over her back as a makeshift barrier, and when her S3 is activated she creates a barrier over a wide area that protects her allies and herself.
• The Bet: Nian staunchly refuses to have Rhodes Island's doctors perform medical examinations on her unless at least one of them can best her in a competition. A competition that she is good at and they aren't, like rock climbing, wrestling, and various forms of gambling.
• BFS: Her weapon can be best described as a fragmented, floating ethereal sword. When attacking with it, it disappears after swinging, before reappearing afterwards. She even has it with her in the base.
• Bragging Rights Reward: As of the current meta, Nian is considered to be this. She's really hard to get owing to her limited availability, and is very strong in her own right, perhaps too strong. As it stands, Nian is simply overpowered in the scope of basically every single content release to date, even on CN, and aside from her S3, she doesn't do anything your other, more easily gotten operators haven't been doing already, and in some cases she's not even doing it half as well as they do. She'd since found a niche where she really shines, in the form of high-risk Contingency Contract maps, but outside of these levels, players are simply content with treating her as more of a trophy than anything.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: When deployed but still idle, Nian will occasionally glance directly at the player. Tapping on her in the base additionally results in her winking at the screen with her tongue out.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: While Nian is skilled and knowledgeable in metal craftsmanship and metallurgy, her dialogue shows that she finds work boring and would rather go out shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. Her lose quote has her remark that her opponents have no idea what she could do if she got serious.
• But Now I Must Go: Nian likes to wander Terra for some unknown reasons, only visiting Rhodes Island once every year and staying for a limited time before departing again. This is given as the reason as to why her banner only comes once annually. Invitation to Wine implies she returns to Yan periodically to build weapons, machinery, and terracotta soldiers for the government as part of an agreement with the Sui Regulator.
• Coat Cape: Wears her coat like this in her Elite 2 artwork.
• Deflector Shields: Nian's Elite 2 talent Clairvoyance gives her 3 shields upon deployment, each of which can block one instance of damage.
• Gender Swap: The mythical Nian beast is male.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Ancient Forge event is basically Lava writing script for New Year movie with Nian. In Nian's case, she manages to get Lava to turn her into an Invincible Villain who's able to mass control zombies, use swords that can easily cut through fortifications, and turn mobile cities into kaiju. Even Lava, who embellishes herself in the script, is exasperated by how much Nian is embellishing herself or turning the whole thing into a B-movie. However, Nian's later conversation with Closure suggests that except for the kaiju summoning, what she wrote in the script are all within her power.
• Horned Humanoid: She has small orange horns on the sides of her head.
• Image Song: “Till the Wave Ends”. Shares the theme with Dusk.
• Invincible Villain: The movie script she's writing with Lava in Ancient Forge makes her into this, making her able to raise a zombie army that has full ability, letting her sword slice through fortifications, and having her making kaiju out of Lungmen's mobile city. Lava's attempt to use the 2-stage firecracker against her also ends in failure. However, her bio mentions she's never been injured despite not wearing armor, implying she's actually just as invincible in reality, although fortunately for the world, she's not a villain there.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Zig-zagged. The enormous floating wheel-like shield she possesses generally only floats over her shoulder, and Nian takes hits directly on her body rather than block them. When activating her S2, however, Nian plants the shield in front of her to take hits and silence opponents.
• Magic Knight: On top of the damage done by her S2 Copper Seal, Nian's first skill Tin Burning increases Nian's DEF by 25% and her ATK by 10% at level 1, and all her attacks now deal Arts damage for the duration.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: One of the few facts known about Nian's family situation is that she has 11 siblings that she gets along or disagrees with on varying levels. So far there are three other playable siblings as of "Where The Vernal Winds Will Never Blow": Dusk, Ling and Chong Yue. The Second Brother and a third sister named Jie were mentioned in "Invitation to Wine" with the Second Brother being the event's Big Bad.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: She is among one of the very few Defenders that have an attack range of one tile in front of them by default, common to that of Vanguards and non-ranged Guards.
• The Movie Buff: She is obsessed with movies and spends most of her time trying to produce her own indie films, often recruiting Rhodes Island operators to help her.
• Mysterious Past: Almost everything about her is mystery from her past, her race or even why she joined Rhodes Island in the first place. The only thing anyone knows about her is that she appear to Rhodes Island one day out of nowhere to join them and Kal'tsit has ordered there won't be any tests on Nian and asking about her past is denied. The movie she made with Lava sheds some potential light on it, as when Nian mentions some of it is true and some of it is lies, Closure is surprised there are any lies in it at all. Of course, that would imply that Nian is an Eldritch Abomination (as well as her eleven siblings) that existed since before humanity and are capable of destroying the world. The Who Is Real event has her imply to Lava that Nian, Dusk, and their other siblings are all Pieces of God that were left when an ancient Yan deity was destroyed.
• Mythical Motifs: Her name, the time when she is available, and her general red color scheme refer to the year-monster, Nian (which just means "year", or at least, has come to mean "year") that would return every year and terrorize villages. It was eventually driven out by explosions and the color red, which explains why the two are inexplicably there a lot when Chinese New Year comes around. It's also present on her Elite 2 art, and she may even be the Nian monster.
• Necessary Drawback: Nian's particular RIIC skills give her the best output out of any operator with a Workshop buff, doubling the default chance of getting a byproduct everytime she crafts upgrade materials. The trade-off is that she also consumes an additional two points of Morale per craft, which makes her tire out faster than the typical operator.
• Olympus Mons: Storyline-wise, she's implied to be the avatar of a mythological god-tier Eldritch Abomination. Gameplay-wise, Nian is very rare and very powerful and can only be acquired during her own recruitment banner or a banner associated with one of her siblings, like Dusk and Ling.
• Physical God: Nian doesn't really do much to hide the fact that she is far older than she looks and possesses extremely powerful abilities beyond those of normal Ancients. Who is Real reveals that she's actually a fragmented piece of an ancient, bona fide deity from Yen. Later on in Invitation To Wine, it is revealed that Yan has an entire government agency dedicated to monitoring and controlling Nian and her other Sui siblings, due to how powerful and dangerous they are.
• Sadly Mythtaken: You'd think that a character based on a mythological Chinese beast, drawn by a Chinese artist would be Truer to the Text, but no.
  • In Chinese folklore, the Nian beast was driven away by a combination of things such as firecrackers, fire, and the color red. Nian herself wears a lot of bright red on her body, and some of her body parts are in that color as well, which she doesn't seem to mind. In fact, red is the main color motif of Ancient Forge, and she has absolutely no problem with any of that, and the only mythological nod she still seems to have is the Nian beast's fear of firecrackers exploding.
  • Her mid-year appearance on the EN server due to Ancient Forge being pushed up the event schedule inadvertently creates this. The Nian beast only shows up during the lunar new year to feed on people and crops. In fact, the beast is named after the Chinese words for year or new year (or the other way around, depending on which region of China you're asking), so Nian herself showing up in late Summer makes no sense.
    • All of this is possibly justified since Sui's lore itself is mostly a stand-alone, her siblings aside from Dusk aren't named after Chinese creatures, and Nian is mostly her own kind of character who just happens to borrow the creature's name.
• Sensory Overload: Like the actual Nian beast, who was thwarted and scared off by firecrackers, she admits that those going off makes her extremely uncomfortable.
• Situational Sword: Nian's S3, Iron Guard, is absolutely fantastic, if not outright busted, when used on a strong defensive team. The +1 block it grants allows Vanguards, Guards, and other Defenders to hold their ground much better, while Centurion Guards become DPS monsters against groups of enemies and if combined with other DEF buffs, enable even Glass Cannon or Squishy Wizard characters to survive an Aak Buff. But, due to the same reason, putting Nian anywhere near Ambusher Specialists like Ethan or Manticore can severely hamper their survivability, since with 1 block, melee enemies will start targeting them as well, which is disastrous owing to their subpar defensive stats. Not helped by how gigantic its coverage is while active, basically covering half of a standard-sized map, which makes it incredibly bad when Ambusher Specialists are needed.
• The Slacker: Since she's not officially part of Rhodes Island and is technically a civilian, Nian is not obligated to go on any missions and spends most of her time lounging around the base and trying to pitch indie film ideas. This is also represented in her workshop skills where she loses morale (i.e. stamina) faster when crafting.
• Stripperiffic: A rarity among the playable operators; her outfit shows gracious amounts of skin, putting notable emphasis on her bare midriff and legs.
• Stone Wall: Her main purpose gameplay-wise. With level 3 Module X and S2M3, her DEF can reach extraordinarily high levels when all 3 of her shields are broken, buffing her stats to the extreme while also giving her +SP to activate S2 faster if helidropped. This isn't usually necessary because Nian is already quite bulky, but for extreme cases like Steam Knight, Phase 1 Patriot, and other bosses with incredibly strong physical damage (in the case it's more desirable to tank instead of putting in ranged damage), Nian's performance is only matched by Hoshiguma.
• Temporary Online Content: Nian had the distinction for being the first non-welfare operator whose availability was tied to a specific headhunting banner. Later on she would become available during multiple events like Who Is Real and Invitation to Wine, as well her own specific banner.
• Trickster Mentor: Becomes something of one to Lava, who she's taken a liking to due to her underdog status. The outlandish movie she made with Lava is apparently more truth than lies (with Closure being surprised there were even any lies in it at all when Nian mentions it). Something which Lava herself realized at the end.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Nian is an insanely talented metallurgist, being able to craft almost anything with little effort, mysteriously acquire virtually any material for said crafting, and even create weapons with completely alien properties that Rhodes Island's best scientists can't replicate. This is represented in-game through her very powerful workshop base skills. Who is Real even has her bribing the Engineering Department by casually coughing up a cache of material she claims to be worth millions.
• The Unfought: But only gameplay-wise, since the Rhodes Island operators fight her in the cutscenes of Ancient Forge.
• Unaffected by Spice: She is very interested in food, particularly spicy food, and complains that the stuff Rhodes Island serves in its cafeteria is way too bland.
• Useless Useful Spell: Nian's Power Nullifier effect of her S2 sounds really neat on paper. However, it has two gigantic flaws: 1) the sealing requires something to actually hit Nian for them to be sealed, which is inconsequential for ranged enemies and doesn't affect Infused Originium Slugs; and 2) the seal duration is 3 seconds at level 7, while most melee enemies with sealable on-hit skills have much longer attack intervals (e.g. Defense Crushers have an attack interval of 3.5 seconds), requiring it to be at least at Mastery 1 in order to even be remotely effective. Needless to say, when it comes to sealing abilities, there are plenty of other, more easily gotten and non-limited operators who can do better, such as Waai Fu or Lappland.
• Walking the Earth: Nian likes to travel and doesn't stay for long, only comes back to Rhodes Island for a few days once a year.
• Wrong Context Magic: While she has immense power, her physical examination and other casters' comment reveal that she is bad at Arts assimilation and that her abilities are not related to Originium. It's unknown what her actual powers stem from. Who Is Real has her all but outright state that she's a piece of an ancient Yen god, implying that her powers are divine in nature.
• Your Days Are Numbered: What was implied in "Ancient Forge" and more clearly spelled out in "Who Is Real" is that Nian is genuinely concerned about the resurrection of god she used to be a part of, meaning she and all her siblings will cease to exist and lose their individuality. Nian has come to enjoy her independence, but is starting to see signs that the return of her original self is imminent, which is why she's motivated to reunite her siblings and try to find a way to Screw Destiny.

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Noir Corne

Noir Corne

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi (Japanese), Zhaokun Liu (Mandarin Chinese), Ben Cura (English), Ryu Seung-gon (Korean)
Artist: Ryuzakiichi

You can see him cleaning his mask carefully every day.

Noir Corne, Defender Operator of Rhodes Island, will provide a solid defense for the squad.

Rarity: ★★

ID: No. 500

Subclass: Protector

Tags: Starter

Skills: N/A

Talents: Improved Armor

Affiliation: Op Team A4 - Rhodes Island

Race: Oni

Birthday: August 30

Height: 180cm

"Defender Noir Corne, reporting for duty. You need VIP protection, I'm your guy."

A masked veteran who serve as Op Team A4's defender.

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• Defector from Decadence: His Operator Record reveals that he abandoned his clan along with Yato when they were both ordered to assassinate an innocent girl.
• Enemy Mine: This was how he and Yato first met. They were both sent to assassinate an innocent girl by their respective clans, but when they ran into each other, they realized their consciences wouldn't allow them to carry out their missions so they decided to desert together.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: His name is French for "Black Horn". Guess what his most prominent physical feature is.
• The Faceless: He's almost always seen wearing a mask. It's not because he hides a terrible secret on his face, rather it's more because he has an obsession with masks. He actually has a huge collection of them, selecting which mask to wear depending on the occasion. The mask he wears in-game is his favorite one.
• Horned Humanoid: He has one black horn in the middle of his forehead.
• Informed Attribute: He's in this same camp as his fellow Oni Yato. Noir Corne's bio gives him a recorded combat experience of 8 years, making them the joint seniors among the team. In gameplay terms, Noir Corne is one of the weaker units out there, boasting no skills and a low stat growth due to his rarity, and doesn't even qualify as a Senior Operator during recruitment, where by all rights he should.
• Lower-Deck Episode: His Operator Record is about him and some other low-end NPC operators (basically Rhodes Island mooks) getting together at a bar and discussing how they view the Doctor and Kal'tsit, as well as what the Chernobog incident with Mephisto's zombie horde was like for them. Lampshaded with the record's name, "From the Other Side of the Deck."
• Mythical Motifs: Oni, as obvious from his race, which represent Japanese demons.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: In the "Heart of Surging Flame: Obsidian Festival", one of the Live Feeds for the Alive Until Sunset band reveals that Noir Corne^note or Masked Hero, per his Obsgram handle used to be a bassist for his band when he was in school, until one day he quit following his band's live performance despite said performance was a success. Why? Because during said day his car broke down and he couldn't make it, and no one in the audience nor his bandmates realized he was missing until the performance was over.
• Odd Name Out: He's the only operator from Higashi sans Midnight to not have a Japanese name, his being French instead.
• Online Alias: His Obsgram username is "Masked Hero".
• Self-Made Myth: He passes his backstory off as heroic stories to entertain his squadmates during break time and even slips up referring to himself with first-person pronouns instead of a detached narration describing himself in third-person.
• Ship Tease: He has this in droves with Yato. Not only are they of roughly the same age, the same race and came from the same country, but they also seem to have some kind of history together that Yato hastily deflects every time someone brought up the topic. Noir Corne for the most part seems to care for his captain a lot more than he does his squadmates, with him admitting to holding back his own strength so as to not worry Yato too much.
• Starter Mon: He's part of your starting roster from the moment you gain access to the Home menu (alongside Amiya, Rangers, and Yato), as one of your first Defenders.

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Penance

Penance / Lavinia Falcone

Introduced: Il Siracusano
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Icy (Mandarin Chinese), Allegra Clark (English), Bi Ju-eon (Korean), Annalisa Longo (Italian)
Artist: IRIS_呓

Atop briars she walks, cleaving a path brand new to her.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Icefield Messenger: Occasionally Flushed skin.}

A former Siracusan city judge, hoping to do right by law and justice.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 4065

Subclass: Juggernaut

Tags: Survival, DPS

Skills: Last Word, Stoic Atonement, Trial of Thorns

Talents: Guardian of the Law, Wreathed In Thorns

Affiliation: Siracusa

Race: Lupo

Birthday: July 9

Height: 161 cm

"I am Lavinia Falcone, formerly a judge of Siracusa. Today, I report to you as Operator Penance. I hope that in working for Rhodes Island, I can absolve myself of my past mistakes."

A city judge from Siracusa who sought to bring about justice in the crime-ridden city of Volsinii, having become disgusted by the way the famiglia trampled on the law to suit their needs. Following the events of "Il Siracusano", she left her post to join Rhodes Island on the recommendation of Texas.

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• Achilles' Heel:
  • Not enough enemies attacking her, or enemies with slow but powerful attacks. Her barrier is reliant on either her killing enemies or activating her skills to charge it up, the latter of which also needs her to take incoming attacks to charge SP, and the effectiveness of her Attack Reflector is directly proportional to how many attacks are hitting it at any given time point. If she's deprived of enemies to feed the shield or attacks to charge her skils, Penance is surprisingly vulnerable, and her total lack of healing means she's in deep trouble if her barrier ever fully breaks. This is in contrast to her fellow 6-star Juggernaut Defender Mudrock, who wants enemies to attack her slowly so that she has time to recharge her shields.
  • By extension, passive sources of damage like poison haze or stage hazards can quickly drain her barrier if she doesn't have enemies to kill while also not giving her SP, which can leave her vulnerable if a powerful enemy engages her when she's weakened.
  • Warfarin's Unstable Plasma skill bypasses Penance's barrier and drains her health directly, making it a poor choice of buffing her damage if there is no method to restore her health. Aak's Durian-Flavored Stimpack on the other hand is safe to use, as the damage is both reduced by Penance's DEF stat and absorbed by her barrier.
• The Atoner: Lavinia joined Rhodes Island to seek penance for her actions as a city judge, having considered herself an accomplice in the mafioso-plagued Siracusan legal system, as despite her disgust towards the mafia, she was ultimately forced to take backing from the Bellone family in order to even have a chance of enacting fair justice.
  In Siracusa, being a city court judge is a dangerous job. Either you join "them," or... you disappear. I thought I could strike a balance between the two, but there's no way to stay clean when you're surrounded by mud. In the end, I was just another accomplice. (talk after Elite 1 promotion)
• Attack Reflector: Her second talent Wreathed in Thorns deals Arts damage based on 50% of her ATK when enemies attack her barrier. This counter damage is based off of her current ATK stat, making her counterattacks exceptionally powerful when her S3 is active.
• Barrier Warrior: Unlike the previous Juggernauts, Penance has no way to restore her own health, instead relying on a barrier based off of her max HP that refreshes every time she scores a kill (or uses her third skill). Said barrier however, can stack up to 300% of her already high max HP, making her shockingly difficult to kill in spite of her lack of sustain.^note At max level and trust, Penance can hit a theoretical maximum of 18620 effective HP by herself. With enough barrier, she can tank Patriot like it's nothing.
• Braids of Action: She has a long side braid and is a very capable Defender.
• Charged Attack: Her first skill can be charged up to inflict more damage and also a decently lengthy stun, indicated by Penance spinning her flail when it is charged.
• Draw Aggro: Penance's Signature Move is her third skill, where she can taunt the ememies to focus their attacks on her and suffer massive damage from her reflection.
• Epic Flail: Uses one shaped like a gavel as her weapon.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In "Il Siracusano", Penance never fights anyone, doesn't own a weapon or unique Arts, and is implied to be outright incapable of holding her own against any actual combatants. At Rhodes Island, she's similarly logistics personnel and never actually engages in combat. Neither of this stops her from being a very powerful Defender who can lay down the hurt with her flail and spiked barrier.
  • She wields her flail in only one scene in the event when confronting Danbrown in IS-7, showing it is a canonical part of her and that she has some combat ability, but it’s clear Danbrown doesn’t view her as a threat and is only unwilling to fight her out of respect. Her physical stats as listed in her archive files are also all merely average, contrasting with her performance in gameplay.
• Gratuitous Italian: The wall behind her in her Elite 2 art reads "giustizia", which is Italian for "justice". She also uses Italian in her English voiceover.
  Ah, mi dispiace^note I am sorry, I did not see you there. If you're all done with work, how about joining me for a drink?... Why that look in your eyes? I'm not an alcoholic. But everyone needs some liquid assistance every now and then, whether for fatigue or for suffering. Ecco^note Here you are. It's on the strong side, so sip slowly. (talk after trust increase 1)
• Image Song: "Sentenced".
• Improbable Weapon User: Her Occasionally Flushed skin trades her usual flail for a massive leather-bound book on a chain - she is throwing the book at the enemy.
• I Work Alone: Gameplay-wise, Penance's inability to be healed and her need to get kills herself to generate Barrier means there are few units capable of supporting and not hindering her instead, as any kills taken from her will deny her Barrier which she is heavily reliant on for both survivability and damage. This makes her the epitome of a solo laneholder, since she isn't just capable of defending a lane on her own but actively encouraged to do so. That said, given how powerful she is at it, she doesn't exactly need much support most of the time.
• Life Drain: She is a tanky fighter that usually solos lanes as she can’t be healed anyway, and relies on killing enemies to sustain herself as every enemy she defeats restores her barrier. While very beefy, Penance can’t keep up with an enemy that won’t die and deals a lot of continuous damage (like a strong boss) as she can’t sustain herself, so she wants to be used to plug up a lane of normal enemies by herself, killing all the enemies there with very little backup needed thanks to her high damage.
• Magikarp Power: Penance is a subpar unit at low levels due to her base stats and first talent Guardian of the Law not being able to outpace the incoming damage. It is only once she hits Elite 2 that she can consistently generate barrier to absorb the damage coming her way, as well as killing off attackers with Wreathed in Thorns and Trial of Thorns.
• Mighty Glacier: Her S3 slows down her attack speed, but instantly grants her a barrier based on a huge portion of her health, and grants her a humongous ATK buff that puts even Surtr to shame (+400% ATK at Mastery 3), and forces enemies to target her.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Her name is a reference to Giovanni Falcone, an Italian judge known for his efforts in overthrowing the Sicilian Mafia. This informs her character arc as she comes into conflict with the Dodici Famiglie over the system created under Signorina Sicilia.
• Scales of Justice: Holds one in her Elite 2 art.
• Significant Reference Date: The launch date of her first banner on global and JP servers is May 23 2023, which is the 31st anniversary of Giovanni Falcone's death.

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Saria

Saria

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi (Japanese), Yee Chen (Mandarin Chinese), Norma Butikofer (English), Esther Won (Korean)
Artist: NoriZC

Diamond is more flexible than she is.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see her Bloodline of Combat: Stronghold skin.}

^{Click to see her Test Collection: The Law skin.}

^{Click to see her appearance in Dorothy's Vision.}

^{Click to see her appearance in Lone Trail.}

Saria, former researcher of Rhine Lab, will serve as a core part of the squad's defense and healing unit on the battlefield.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 202

Subclass: Guardian

Tags: Defense, Healing, Support

Skills: First Aid, Medicine Dispensing, Calcification

Talents: Rhine Charged Suit, Refreshment

Affiliation: Rhine Lab - Columbia

Race: Vouivre

Birthday: April 23

Height: 174cm

"I am Saria, formerly of the Rhine Lab Medical Research Institute Experiment Team. As for now... I need Rhodes Island's help to bring the astray back to the orthodox."

A former researcher at Rhine Lab and former head of its Defense Division, Saria parted ways with Rhine Lab following the "Diabolic Crisis". Disgusted with the behavior and attitude of the leadership of Rhine during and following the incident, Saria quit the Lab and traveled to Rhodes Island, availing herself to Rhodes as an independent Operator.

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• The Ace: Without a doubt, Saria's range of abilities as both a combatant and in a support role are simply ludicrous both in lore and gameplay, and she deliberately Nerfs herself by being primarily a Defender according to her reports documenting her. "Mansfield Break", "Dorothy's Vision", and "Lone Trail" all compounds this fact by showing her true talents when not focusing on being purely defensive and going on the offensive, especially the latter where Saria proves she is actually a very competent pilot in an aircraft despite being out of practice for over a decade, is able to take down Drones by reverse-engineering its parts despite it not even being designed for combat, is quickly able to gather her bearings in the frictionless environment aboard the station despite it being a Kryptonite Factor for her Arts abilities and her not having ever fought in an environment like this before, and is able to even best Kristen herself on her home turf when they have their Final Battle despite the disadvantage due to Saria's insane competence.
• The Atoner: As one of those responsible for Ifrit's condition, Saria feels an immense level of guilt and tries her best to make it up to her charge. However, her own awkwardness compounded with Silence barring her from even getting close to Ifrit makes this a lot harder than it needs to be. Many of her quotes reflect this attitude. Considering that she was the co-founder of Rhine Lab and the horrific experimentation on Ifrit happened essentially right under her nose, she does have a lot to atone for.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up at the last moment to save Mountain, Kafka, Robin, and Duma when Jesselton almost foils their prison break.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: The Rhine Lab Manhua reveals that Saria was very doting and affectionate towards Ifrit when they were still at Rhine Lab, comforting her during her painful Oripathy treatments, reading her stories, and giving her candy whenever she visited. It's all but explicitly stated that Saria's gentleness towards Ifrit is due to a refusal to repeat how her own father parented her, who yelled at her for crying at a very young age and did not appear to ever offer her any kind of emotional support.
• Breakable Weapons: Saria's Calcification powers can invoke this on her enemies, according to her bio, where she would cause their equipment to become brittle and then shatter, thus depriving them of their offensive and defensive capabilities. In-game, it increases the Arts damage enemies take to such an extent that most Arts attacks will finish them in a few taps, and also slows them down.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • In contrast to her current attitude towards her, Silence used to immensely admire Saria when they both worked at Rhine, having looked up to her greatly for how she and Kirsten founded the company at such a young age. A combination of her mentor's manipulation, Saria's own reluctance to be open to her about the whole truth, and stumbling across Saria nearly killing Ifrit during the Diabolic Crisis has deeply soured how Silence regards her in the present. Thankfully, the events of "Lonetrail" have Silence regard Saria with respect once more.
  • Saria herself suffers this when she realizes her best friend Control has gone so far off the deep end For Science!, that she's willing to flaunt ethics and safety to pursue her dream of unfettered scientific progress. This is what causes Saria to ultimately resign from Rhine Labs and join Rhodes Island.
• Brought Down to Badass: Saria purposefully limits herself on the battlefield, not only by using a shield and a syringe injector rather than her own fists, but also by dedicating her Arts (which can be used offensively to strengthen her own punches and form a shield around herself) to healing instead of aforementioned applications. Regardless, she's still classified as a 6-star whose supportive abilities are considered to be so great, that she's seen as unrivaled within her ability and as a candidate for mastering all her skills.
• Brutal Honesty: She was particularly brutal with her honesty in the past, thanks to how her father raised her. Her honesty was so brutal that it caused rumors to spread around Rhine Lab that Saria was cold-hearted, despite how she always had good intentions. One example was her shouting at a child who's parents had gone missing to stop wasting time crying and start providing info on where they were, so they could be rescued as soon as possible. Fortunately, taking care of Ifrit defrosted her significantly. By the present day, she's significantly toned it down.
• Combat Medic: While Saria is primarily a Defender, her association with Rhine Lab allows her to provide healing support to her allies. All of her skills involve healing friendly operators around her rather than boosting her own defense. These same skills do heal her at the same time, though, meaning that her effective-HP-over-time can be absolutely astronomical compared to other operators - all of them can, when leveled enough, bring back allies from the brink of death quite fast. In-universe, all her experience is medical, explaining why she's able to do this.
• Contralto of Strength: She sports quite the deep voice, and is a very formidable tank.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her third skill Calcification amplifies the Arts damage taken by all enemies in its range, up to a 55% increase at max mastery; naturally, this gives her synergy with Arts users. Notably, it's not considered a Fragile effect like most other forms of damage amplification in the game, meaning that it can stack with said effects.
• Declaration of Protection: At a high enough trust level, she asks the doctor to pass on a message from her to Ifrit, promising that she will protect her no matter what.
• Defector from Decadence: She considers herself one, as she considered the motives and goals behind the experiments involving Ifrit so ethically and scientifically repugnant that she had no choice but to part ways with Rhine Lab, has no intention of returning, and wants to ensure no one else is foolish enough to repeat Rhine's mistakes.
  • This seems to be at least be partly responsible for the tension between her and Silence. While the latter is also opposed to Rhine Lab in the present, one of her lines suggests that Saria left so quickly and abruptly (and without explanation) that she now believes Saria had simply outright abandoned both Ifrit and herself without a care.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Her Arts power is to control calcium. Which technically can be used to heal others, but is also very useful for forming a rock-like barrier around oneself.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Her third skill makes enemies more vulnerable to Arts damage. While this is the textbook description of the Arts Fragility debuff^note Which can be cast by Reed the Flame Shadow, Hibiscus the Purifier, and Qanipalaat, it does not fall into that category that was retroactively created. This causes her own debuff and the aforementioned Arts Fragility debuff to stack if both are active at the same time, whereas Arts Fragility cannot stack with another instance of Arts Fragility^note i.e Reed the Flame Shadow's Arts Fragility does not stack with Hibiscus the Purifier's, in which case the strongest case wins out.
  • Several other things are also not mentioned within her skill descriptions, like her healing coming in the place of the attack she would normally do (and her stopping to attack entirely within the duration of her third skill) and the healing within said third skill being applied per second as opposed to it being the total that's applied over its entire duration.
  • Combined with Exact Words: The movement speed reduction that she induces with her third skill is not a Slow (i.e Sluggish) effect, which, similarly to the Arts Fragility example mentioned above, means that it can stack with Slow.
• Gathering Steam: Saria's Rhine Charged Suit talent gives her a 5-times stackable ATK and DEF permanent buff that gets progressively stronger with every 20 seconds of her being on the field. At Elite 2 and full potential, this translates into a 30% ATK and 25% DEF increase. Since her healing amounts are calculated after her ATK, this means that these heals also get more potent the longer she's deployed. The only trade-off is that this stacking takes a long time to build, at a whopping 100-90 seconds depending on Module level, assuming you're looking to reach 5 layers, making it so that it won't reliably hit its cap until you hit the later levels of the game.
• Genius Bruiser: Saria is not only monstrously strong and skilled in combat to the point of being nearly unstoppable in a clash of physicality or Arts, but is also a prodigal genius in multiple fields of science and even engineering, being a top gruaduate of the Trimounts Institute of Technology and a former director of Rhine Lab. In fact, due to the way her calcification powers work, it's because of her intellect that she can use them to its fullest.
• Good Is Not Nice: Saria is a dedicated and stalwart healer and protector, but she is known to be quite strict and harsh towards her subordinates, and often reminds the Doctor about the importance of instilling discipline among their operators.
• Good Old Fisticuffs:
  • Her skin has her sprite in the base practicing this. Interestingly, it's been noted in her files that using the weapons she normally does is her version of being Willfully Weak, and her using her raw power is when she "'stops playing nice". She can use her Arts to form a tough, rock-like barrier around her fists, which on top of her combat prowess, makes her all the more an effective fighter.
  • The Records of Originium - Rhine Lab manhua further expands on this, showing that Saria took up boxing at a very young age so she could defend herself against bullies. It also shows how brutally strong she is even without her Arts when she destroys an armored glass window with her bare hands while her Arts were being suppressed.
• Heel–Face Turn: During the "Mansfield Break" event, she was infiltrating the prison in collaboration with Muelsyse, who wanted Mountain under her thumb for an unexplained but dehumanizing purpose. Saria turns at the last moment to deliver him to Silence instead, who was trying to break him out for more altruistic reasons. Outside of some speculation, it's left unknown to both parties exactly why she did this.
• Horned Humanoid: She has two pairs of dragon-like horns. Her skin seems to feature an extra pair sitting between her two normal ones.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Between her self-admitted edge-case use of her Arts powers and the extreme amount of physical power she's shown to have in the "Mansfield Break" event, it becomes clear quite quickly that she is holding back in most situations, much like Ifrit. To put it simply: her shield isn't there for her own protection. It's for her enemy's.
• Jack of All Trades: Saria is famous among the player base for having fantastically powerful and versatile skills that can be used reliably depending on the player's needs, whether it's potent emergency healing with her S1, wide area healing with her S2, or rapid healing, crowd control, and Arts damage amplification with her S3. Saria is regarded as the best "M9" candidate, where a 6-star operator's skills are all upgraded to Mastery 3, though this also makes her incredibly expensive to fully build.
• Lawman Baton: Saria trades her injection gun for one of these in her Test Collection: Iron Law skin, to match her prison warden outfit.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Although never actually witnessed during gameplay, Saria's bio implies things will get extremely bad for her enemies if they make her mad enough to abandon her weapons and just straight-up punch the crap out of them. Confirmed in the storyline of the "Mansfield Break" event. When fighting with just her bare hands and Calcification Arts, she effortlessly fends off event boss Jesselton's massive conjured swords before promptly one-shotting him with a single strike.
• Made of Iron: Over the course of a few hours in Lone Trail, Saria gets shot in the head with an anti-armour energy rifle without her barrier up, almost drowned, repeatedly has massive stone balls smash into her body when her barrier is at its weakest and takes the blows directly, and finally drops from six kilometres up to land in a fortunately provided lake after it's noted her barrier can't possibly protect her from this entirely. All of this punishment merely results in being temporarily knocked out, general bruising, and tearing her ankle slightly. Even when she doesn't have any extra protection, Saria is more durable than the power armor and safety equipment Rhine Lab produces.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: She's a Defender with a skill set, both mechanically and In-Universe, more in line with that of a Medic. Her voice lines and profile even discuss this, and she tends to wave off questions about why she insists on front line duty and insists that, as a former security head, this is her job. Ptilopsis jokingly(?) suggests she didn't become a Medic due to her lack of bedside manner.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Her Bloodline of Combat skin turns the area within her third skill takes effect orange, and her Epoque skin turns it red, both of which make said area much easier to see compared to the translucent grey aura of her base skin. It is not entirely uncommon for players to acquire either of these skins for that.
  • Her Arts can be used for other purposes than healing or combat. In "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab", she uses her Arts to seal the ruptured water pipe caused by Darya's Arts, and in "Lone Trail" she forms enamel around her feet to keep herself anchored to the floor against the loss of gravity caused by the H.A.M.H.R.R. ascending into space.
• Mythical Motifs: Wyverns, due to her Vouivre race. A stone wyvern also towers above Saria in her Elite 2 artwork.
• Noodle Incident: Her place in the highly noodly Diabolic Crisis is particularly unclear — she herself isn't proud of what she did (which is ominously described as "suppressing experimental items that had gone out of control") but still ultimately believes it was necessary. Silence seems to vehemently disagree and clearly fears for Ifrit's safety with Saria around (which, according to Saria, is a misplaced fear). There's also a fair bit of suggestion that Ifrit knew Saria before the incident and wants to talk with her again, but Silence is totally against this and the exact nature of the relationship hasn't been elaborated on (beyond Saria herself also wanting to keep Ifrit safe, albeit from a distance). As the Rhine Lab manhua reveals, after Silence's ill-fated attempt to fake Ifrit's death and causing her to go on a rampage, Saria was forced to engage Ifrit in direct combat to subdue her, nearly killing her.
• Not the Intended Use: According to her E1 quote, that Saria can use her Arts for healing purposes is actually a side effect based on her own adjustments, and not its intended function. Her actual Arts ability allows her to control calcium freely, using it to create a rock-like barrier around her body that is tougher than diamond.
  Saria: "My true power has nothing to do with first aid. However, I have slightly adjusted the operation of this power to accommodate it to your command."
• Only One Name: She has only been referred to as Saria, even when she was still working at Rhine Lab without codenames.
• Ornamental Weapon: That injection gun that Saria carries in her other hand? She opts to Shield Bash in lieu of shooting enemies with it. Subverted in that the injection gun is instead used for AoE healing with her second skill.
• Parental Substitute: Ifrit's comments in particular make it clear that, prior to whatever the incident was, Ifrit and Saria were as close as Ifrit and Silence are; this has led to the fandom semi-joke that Saria is the "dad" to Silence's "mom" concerning Ifrit. Saria, for her part, doesn't feel she's ready to be part of Ifrit's life again and is much more conflicted about her role in the incident than Silence believes. In addition, she also keeps her distance out of respect for Silence, who after the incident, told her to never come near Ifrit again. "Lonetrail" saw Silence reconciling with Saria, and in the process decided to entrust Ifrit to Saria.
• Plot Threads: Saria's final profile entry, achieved at 200 Trust, is the one that really exposes potential future developments for the Rhine Lab plotline: Saria is quite worried that Ifrit could go even more out of control than she apparently did during the Diabolic Crisis (and this would likely be serious enough to destroy Rhodes Island, the landship, outright) and Saria reveals that the Rhine Lab top brass have kept important details from Silence and might just come looking for their escaped test subject again (but of course, if Saria tries to warn Silence about the things she doesn't know, Silence would likely dismiss it, given the source). It's made pretty clear the crisis will come to a head at some point, and is a likely hook for a Rhine-focused event in the future, which eventually came to fruition with the various Rhine Lab events like Mansfield Break, Dorothy's Vision and Lone Trail.
• Power Glows: While she is charging her "Rhine Charged Suit", her shield and outfit begin to glow and spark.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The former director of Rhine Lab's Defense section is more than able to beat muscular grown men, other superhumans, or even massive combat mecha into submission with nothing but her bare hands and her Arts. Even when not using Arts, she is a very solid operator whose versatility will carry you through many hard stages. With the reveal that she is a co-founder of Rhine Lab, this trope is even more in effect.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: "Lone Trail" saw Saria becoming this to Silence, who realized that Saria has always pursued ethical research and they have always been on the same page, and decided to leave Ifrit in Saria's care as a gesture of trust.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Her name is a reference to the mount Hermon, nicknamed 'the silver-haired mountain'. Her calcium-related Originium Arts relate to the mountain being made of calcium carbonate.
• Secret-Keeper: Saria seems to have, outside of Rhine Lab itself, the largest and clearest picture of what exactly happened during the Diabolic Crisis and what the experiments with Ifrit were intended to achieve. Like most characters involved, she's fairly tight-lipped about it, but in her case it's a bit different — she's evidently so disgusted by the goals of the project Ifrit was part of that she doesn't want to discuss the details lest others, particularly the highly capable scientists of Rhodes Island, get any funny ideas about trying to replicate the work.
• Statuesque Stunner: At least in comparison to most of the cast; while a lot of the other girls, including the characters most related to her, struggle to clear 160cm, Saria stands at a fairly tall 174cm (or about 5'8"). This means she towers over a number of the main characters, especially Amiya, and contributes somewhat to her air of maturity.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Saria's outfits consistently incorporate X-shaped crosses as a prominent motif, both in her official in-game art as well as in supplemental drawings made by her artist. It is perhaps symbolic of her rigid principles and personality.
• The Paladin: She's a Combat Medic that heals and is dedicated to protecting others, while using her strength to commit good. While Nearl thematically has the knight aspects of a paladin, Saria instead has a lot of thematic focus on the "lawful" aspect of the paladin, both natural law and administered, with her maintaining strict discipline amongst everyone, declaring that all must obey the rules in her three-star victory quote, and commenting that what Rhine Lab did was against the laws of nature.
• Tough Love: "Records of Originium - Rhine Lab" reveals that her dad instilled this in her when she told him that other kids were bullying her and broke her toy car. When a particularly painful treatment session sent Ifrit crying to Saria, she consoled her instead of emulating her own dad.
  Saria's Dad: How many times have I told you, do not cry! Do you think crying would solve anything? That showing your emotions would stop you from being bullied? No, Saria. If you're being bullied, beat them back. If your little car is broken, fix it. You must be responsible for your own weaknesses.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Sharp-eyed players may notice that in her official art, she's always carrying one of Silence's feathers with her (first on her belt, then on her shield in E2). The description of Silence's token states that she gifts her own feathers as a gesture of sincerity. That someone like Saria would keep such a memento on her at all times, even in light of their current strained relationship, suggests that if nothing else, they were more than simply coworkers in the past. The Rhine Lab manhua revealed that Silence gifted her the feather as a good luck token during her investigation into Ifrit's past, before the Diabolic Crisis soured their relationship.
  • This is also the case with Control, aka Kristen Wright, whom Saria helped found Rhine Lab with. It's clear through their prior interactions that they were Heterosexual Life-Partners whom shared similar ideals towards scientific progress but had started to drift apart in the years after founding the company. However, the Diabolic Crisis turned into a full on Broken Pedestal moment for Saria once she learned of Kristen's involvement in authorizing the catastrophic experiment and swore Kristen off not too long after departing from Rhine Lab altogether, permanently straining their relationship.
• Willfully Weak: Everybody knows that Saria is far stronger physically and through her Arts than she shows in battle, leading them to wonder why she has decided to limit herself to being a Defender rather than taking on a more offensive role. In the finale of "Mansfield Break", she delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to Jesselton, who prior to her intervention was fighting Mountain, Kafka, and Robin simultaneously and winning rather effortlessly.
• You Are in Command Now: Formally resigned from her previous post as Defense Director to take over the position of Component Control Director after Kristen disappeared at the conclusion of "Lone Trail", making her Rhine Lab's new leader.

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Shalem

Shalem

Introduced: Integrated Strategies 2: Phantom & Crimson Solitaire
Voiced by: Shinnosuke Tachibana (Japanese), Javen Zheng (Mandarin Chinese), Chase Brown (English), Kim Myung-jun (Korean)
Artist: Cenm0

But be careful: he can be bizarrely pessimistic at times.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

^{Click to see his 0011/Tempest: The Fruition skin.}

Defender Operator Shalem, providing support on the battlefield at the most appropriate times.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 4025

Subclass: Arts Protector

Tags: DPS, Defense

Skills: Rapid Onslaught, Carnival of Self-Immolation

Talents: Land of Memories, Proclamation of Doom

Affiliation: Victorian Empire

Race: Pythia

Birthday: December 9

Height: 179cm

"I envisaged the scene in which we would formally meet, Doctor, and this very moment brings it to life. Operator Shalem, pleased to make your acquaintance."

Formerly a performer of the nefarious Crimson Troupe, Shalem fled to Rhodes Island to escape his past. However, he gets dragged back into it with the onboarding and subsequent disappearance of Phantom.

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• Animal Motifs: Snakes, as per being a Pythia, though the color and scales on his tail suggests that he is based off the Mexican black kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula nigrita).
• The Aloner: Downplayed Trope. Shalem usually prefers keeping a distance despite his friendliness in fear of his own Dark and Troubled Past affecting and dragging others into it. However, he is still willing to interact with the Operators and employees at times and maintained a cordial, professional relationship with most of them.
• Call-Back: Two of his homescreen voicelines refered to a few Operators and past stories. One of them has him voice his concerns of Mint's Constantly Curious personality, having interacted with her in the story "Crisscrossing Shadows" from the Rewinding Breeze event. Another has him wonder if Doctor is taking refuge with him to avoid Hibiscus trying to feed them her meals or running away from Sideroca's training.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Despite his efforts to try and hide his past, Shalem is eventually caught in a reminder of his former past when an Amnesiac Phantom joined Rhodes Island and having to come along with the Doctor to find and rescue him.
• Cast From Hitpoints: His S2, aptly named Carnival of Self-Immolation, burns away 5% of his maximum HP per second while having him rapidly bombard random enemies in front of him with Arts.
• Conveniently an Orphan: He was adopted by the Crimson Troupe as a child after his parents died in a great flood that destroyed his village.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: His second talent gives his attacks a chance of reducing enemy RES for several seconds, being one of the few 5-star operators with two talents instead of one.
• Defector from Decadence: Shalem's voice lines and Operator files reveal that he joined Rhodes Island after running away from the Crimson Troupe, which had fallen apart after Phantom had murdered a number of the group's leaders. About ten months later, after a field mission ended, Shalem found himself tailed by Phantom, and tried to lose him through a circuitous route back to the Rhodes Island landship. Just a few days after Shalem had returned to his dorm, Phantom also boarded the landship as an Operator.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He's the (then-unnamed and unseen) Pythia operator who takes Mint aside to talk about Calais-Blason at the end of "Criscrossing Shadows" (Phantom's side story in Rewinding Breeze).
• The Every Man: Invoked. He tries to seem like a regular operator and Terran citizen who suffered from Oripathy. Unfortunately, his past as a member of the Crimson Troupe eventually caught up to him.
• Repressed Memories: His Operator Archive files reveal that Shalem had tried to forget and repress his own past and trauma as member of the Crimson Troupe but is unable to fully forget them due to recurring nightmares.
• Situational Sword: His first talent gives an ATK and ASPD boost if deployed in Crimson Solitaire stages, and with the game mode being a permanent addition, he'll always be pretty useful in there. ^note Ceylon, Ch'en the Holungday, and Heidi also have a talent that is only useful for their debut event but either weaker or useless outside of it (and Ceylon especially suffers from this). Additionally, he does have a second talent, a rarity for a 5-star operator, to at least allow him to be usable outside of his intended stages.

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Shu

Shu

Introduced: Here a People Sows
Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjo (Japanese), Xu Chen (Mandarin and Hokkien Chinese), TBA (English), TBA (Korean)
Artist: IRIS_口艺

Is it possible to use the benefits of farming to educate the world?

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

Yan's agrarian Tianshi Shu is always willing to teach others about farming.

Rarity: ★★★★★★

ID: No. 2025

Subclass: Guardian

Tags: Defense, Healing, Support

Skills: Teachings Unto Vegetation, Brimming Grains, Wither and Prosper

Talents: Evergreen Crops, Heavenly Four Seasons

Affiliation: Sui - Yan

Race: Unknown/Feranmut

Birthday: June 6

Height: 165cm

"Nian should've told you my name, 'Shu'. My eldest brother, eldest sister and two of my younger sisters are all here with you. I feel like I've returned 'home'. It's weird that the young man from the Sui Regulator is still here. Haven't I done everything but trouble?"

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• Breaking Old Trends: She is the first limited 6★ Guardian Defender, and also the second limited Defender after her younger sister Nian.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Downplayed. In the pre-battle scene of IW-9, Zuo Le mentions Shu as one of the only two "bestials" the Second Brother is amicable with.
  (IW-9, pre-battle) Zuo Le: The Sui Regulator records that he [the Second Brother] disagrees with all the other bestials, willing only to recite poetry and make merry with Ling and Shu.
• Face Death with Dignity: At the climax of "Here a People Sows" she tells Wang that she has accepted her future death and return to Sui, as she felt she has truly lived as herself all these years.
• Green Thumb: As her domain is agriculture, she has the ability to nurture plant life. This is reflected in her first talent that grows grassy terrain around anyone she heals, providing gradual healing over time and Sanctuary. In addition, her name means 'millet' in Chinese.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the climax of "Here a People Sows" she burns herself out and disappears from expending her power to revive the barren land. Fortunately, her contribution to human lives helped anchor her to the mortal realm, and she was able to regain her physical form instead of being reabsorbed into Sui.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Surprisingly averted, as she is one of the few Defenders that do not carry a shield. And unlike Mudrock who uses her Arts to form her 'shields', Shu has no visible defensive tool whatsoever.
• Made of Iron: Her endurance stat is seemingly censored.
• Magic Staff: She wields a gui (a type of ritual jade scepter in the Western Zhou imperial court) as her weapon.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a reference to the proso millet as one of China's oldest grains, fitting in with her Green Thumb power over agriculture.
• Moveset Clone: Her first skill is simply a renamed version of the various under-half-health heal present on several other Guardian Defenders.
• Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Her bright gold hair darkens to blue at the tips, and the same color scheme is also present on her horns and tip of her tail.
• Significant Birth Date: Her birthday is June 6, making her the sixth of the Sui siblings.
• Situational Sword: Her second talent grants global buffs that depend on what units are with her: increased max. HP if there are at least three different archetypes on the field, increased ASPD if there are at least three members of one archetype on the field, and ATK/SP recovery if there are at least 4 Sui siblings (and Shu must be owned) in the squad.
• Status Buff: With her third skill up, all allies in range will have their ATK and ASPD increased if there are any enemies standing in her grassy terrain.
• Team Mom: Shu is stated to be the most motherly of the siblings, even as the 6th sibling. Amusingly, it's also stated that Chongyue, Ling (her older siblings), Nian, and Dusk promptly made themselves scarce when they learned of her arrival in Rhodes Island, implying she's also quite overbearing like a mother would be - and Zuo Le found this out firsthand in "Here a People Sows" when he arrives to monitor Shu. She even soothed the spirit of Sui at the climax of the event. She also extends this to Rhodes Island operators, being willing to listen to their problems and offer advice.
• You Will Not Evade Me: While her third skill is running, any enemy that steps into the grassy terrain she makes will no longer be able to leave it, being teleported back to that tile when they get far enough.

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Spot

Spot / Bukar Bornu

Introduced: Episode 5: Necessary Solutions
Voiced by: Atsushi Abe (Japanese), Kyle (Mandarin Chinese), Hyoie O' Grady (English), Kim Ji-yul (Korean)
Artist: A Guǐ

He seems polite and gentle... until he opens his mouth.

^{Click to see his Bloodline of Combat: Professional skin.}

Spot, Defender Operator of Rhodes Island, will provide basic medical care while defending against enemies.

Rarity: ★★★

ID: No. 284

Subclass: Guardian

Tags: Defense, Healing

Skills: Secondary Healing Mode

Talents: Smoke Installation

Affiliation: Reserve Op Team A6 - Rhodes Island

Race: Rebbah

Birthday: April 30

Height: 169cm

"Hi, I'm Spot from Operation Reserve Team A6. My job is to protect the other troublemakers on my team, I guess."

A former Sargon soldier with a snide personality, particularly regarding his loony teammates in Reserve Team A6.

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• Beast Man: Spot is a humanoid hyena with all the fur and other physical beastly traits.
• Combat Medic: His skill lets him double as a healing tank. He stops attacking while it's active, however.
• Com Mon: As far as Guardians are concerned, Spot is the most common operator you can get in Headhunting, especially if you set the parameters for "Defense" and "Healing".
• Crutch Character: Spot is reasonably effective up until the mid-game. However, his low rarity means he cannot be promoted to Elite 2 and his skill can't be Mastered, which makes him woefully underpowered when tackling harder content.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of Spot's voiced lines are pretty much peppered with sass, which is unsurprising considering his status as the Only Sane Man of his squad alongside Orchid. In fact, his potential tokens are literally just collections of guide books on how to be as snarky as possible while maintaining a gentle and polite tone of speech, in several languages.
  Spot: [When recruited.] Hi, I'm Spot from the Operation Reserve Team A6. My job is to protect the other troublemakers on my team, I guess,
  Spot: What did Midnight do this time? Did he finally end up in Medical after hitting on one too many ladies in the hallway? No? Too bad.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Downplayed, but you probably wouldn't expect a hardened soldier like him to be called "Spot".
• Hidden Depths: On his off time, Spot enjoys collecting and reading superhero comics.
• Military Brat: His Operator Record reveals that he is actually the son of a Sargonian general.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Spot is the only humanoid operator who's a digitigrade i.e. walks on the tips of his feet with the heels raised, much like how real hyena legs are built, instead of having human-like lower limbs like other animal-based characters. This extends to his chibi sprites.
• Online Alias: His Obsgram username is "Handmade Knight 02".
• Only Sane Man: Alongside Orchid for Op Reserve Squad A6. While Spot still does have his Deadpan Snarker edge to him, both of them are the more down-to-earth members who regularly comment on the sheer hijinx that are present within their squad with Popukar and Midnight's misadventures. Both are almost embarrassed to be part of the team, with Spot directly referring the others as 'clowns' in his onboard line at first (which was changed to 'troublemakers' later).
• Punny Name: Spot is a humanoid spotted hyena.
• The Reliable One: Catapult notes that out of all Squad A6 members, it's Spot who can be trusted to get things done.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In his Operator Record, Spot reveals that he had a terrible time in the army being forced to live up to his father's expectations, leading him to desert when the opportunity presented itself.

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Vulcan

Vulcan

Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Rina Sato (Japanese), Mimia (Mandarin Chinese), TBA (English), Chang Kyug-hee (Korean)
Artist: neco

Fixing things hardly interests her. Instead, she prefers to invent stuff.

^{Click to see Elite 2 appearance.}

Vulcan, Defender Operator of Rhodes Island, has lit the furnace for you. She's ready to start forging at any time.

Rarity: ★★★★★

ID: No. 163

Subclass: Juggernaut

Tags: DPS, Defense, Survival

Skills: Guardian Mode, Combat Mode

Talents: Self-Defense

Affiliation: Minos

Race: Forte

Birthday: April 30

Height: 170cm

"They call me Vulcan. I can do maintenance for your damaged weapons if you want. Oh, by the way, the forging equipment I need is all listed here in this blueprint."

A single-minded Minoan blacksmith in charge of creating, maintaining, and repairing Rhodes Island's equipment.

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• Animal Motifs: Bovines, due to her Forte race. A black bull to be specific, as seen in her Elite 2 artwork.
• Anti-Frustration Features: A later update to the game added a voucher to exchange for either her or Indra after using Recruitment at least 300 times, alleviating the Rare Random Drop for either of them at least once. You'll still need to hunt for her to up her potentials, but that is also eased by two small boons: a second voucher is available after using Recruitment 1000 times, and she can make use of Epic Defender tokens as substitutes (at a 4-to-1 ratio).
• Artificial Limbs: Her right leg is a prosthetic which her dialogue implies that it's the result of a smithing accident. It also doubles as her primary method of attacking.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Vulcan is basically a Defender version of Hellagur, sporting very high stats across the board and is capable of great self-sustain when fighting alone. She's also one of the hardest to use properly due to her staggering DP cost (the second highest in the game, just behind Mudrock) and poor synergy due to her inability to be healed by most Medics, making it very difficult to keep her alive in most heated situations; her long skill cooldowns don't help with this either, since her skills need to be running in order for her HP to regenerate (her higher-rarity counterpart, Mudrock, has a talent proc that lets them restore some HP much more frequently). Even more so than Nian, who at least has a niche she can fit into, there really is never a moment where Vulcan would serve as a dramatic tide-turner; as such, most players who have her tend to just keep her around as a trophy due to her rarity more than anything.
• The Blacksmith: She serves as Rhodes Island's blacksmith, in charge of the production and maintenance of Operator weapons. Unlike traditional examples of this trope, however, Vulcan's personal quarters/workshop is filled with all manners of robotics and sophisticated manufacturing equipment, save for an enormous anvil and furnace she uses for ritualistic purposes.
• Combat Pragmatist: In one of her battle lines, Vulcan gloats about destroying the opponent's weapon.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her left horn has been chipped, while her right leg is a prosthetic.
• Gender-Blender Name: She's named after the Roman god of smithing. This may go along with her being based on a bull.
• Hidden Depths: Aside from her obsession with smithing, Vulcan is apparently a pretty good baker. Her honey cakes (as well as those made by Lava and Matterhorn) are Ceobe's favorite snack.
• Horned Humanoid: She has black bull-like horns.
• In the Hood: She wears a hooded jacket which has holes to let her horns out.
• Kick Chick: By default, she attacks using her prosthetic leg.
• Mighty Glacier: Vulcan has great HP and attack stats along with a good defense (albeit low for a Defender), but has slightly low attack speed in return. Her Combat Mode skill pushes this even further, slightly decreasing her attack speed in return for giving her Regenerating Health and a massive attack boost.
• Necessary Drawback: She has very high stats all-around, but pays for it with a very high deployment cost (the second-highest out of all operators including high-end AoE casters like Mostima and Ifrit, in fact!) and the inability to be healed by most friendly Operators. This may cross over into Awesome, but Impractical territory.
• Ornamental Weapon: There is an axe attached to her shield, which seems to be only for show.
• Parental Substitute: Acts as one towards Ceobe as she sponsored Ceobe's induction into Rhodes Island as an Operator and provides her help with various tasks, especially because she is extremely interested in the mysterious axe Ceobe wields.
• Rare Random Drop: Like Indra, she is only available as a recruitment-only character. However, despite having more guaranteed tag combinations than Indra^note the Defender/Survival and Defense/Survival tag combinations guarantee her, assuming none of the tags get crossed out; the Defender/DPS combination is shared with Liskarm; and the Defense/DPS combination is shared with Liskarm and Astesia, her rarity comes from her tags almost never appearing together, to the point that some players have gotten Top/Senior Operator tags and/or even Indra before her. Even when one of the guaranteed tag combinations appear, there's still a chance of the tags being crossed out and the result being a three-star unit instead.
• Regenerating Health: Unlike most operators, Vulcan cannot be healed by friendly Operators. She compensates this by regenerating a percentage of her maximum health for every second her skill is active.^note This works slightly differently depending on which skill you're using. Her talent Self Defense restores her health every second while either skill is active, with her Defense Mode skill increasing that amount even further. If you're using Combat Mode instead, her health is restored each time Vulcan attacks an enemy instead, though her talent's healing effect is still applied. In-story this is justified by her making on-the-fly equipment maintenance on herself. That, and because she seems to not want to be healed by conventional Medics.
  Vulcan: I don't need healing.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Vulcan (Hephaestus in Greek) was The Blacksmith to the Olympians. She herself serves as one to Rhodes Island. Like the god himself, Vulcan also lost a leg.
• Serious Business: Forging and inventing gadgets. Vulcan is so deeply engrossed in her craft that she sleeps in Rhodes Island's foundry and never leaves the place unless she's assigned on a mission. Though, there's nothing stopping you from keeping her posted elsewhere, or removing her from a Factory should you feel like it.
  • This is manifested in her base skill, where if assigned to a Factory, she has reduced morale consumption and also decreases the productivity of that facility. However, this productivity malus is nullified when paired with Eunectes, who automatically sets the productivity bonuses of a factory she's assigned to to zero, which also negates Vulcan's penalty.

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