Replacer KingInformation and Guide

Summary

Replacer King (RKing) is a PVP-oriented damage dealer who puts heavy pressure on the enemy backline with his unlimited range, unlimited valid hit basic attacks. RKing is a meta PVP unit who demands a dedicated team built around him and careful positional play to fully enable his kit. Played correctly, he can be incredibly oppressive.

RKing’s power budget is in his Basic Attack and Passive. When a non-mech ally unit dies (summons included), RKing gains unlimited range and valid hits on his basic attacks, allowing him to deal damage to all units in front of him, including the enemy ship. Additionally, RKing’s Basic Attack itself gains range, allowing him to attack from a distance.

Although RKing is classified as a defender, he transforms into a backline unit when his passive is activated (you should not be treating him as a traditional defender to begin with).

PVE Review

RKing has limited application in PVE, because his kit runs counter to what you would want in PVE; the opportunity cost of sacrificing team slots is too high. In addition, RKing’s single target damage output is severely lacking compared to other competitive damage dealers, even before factoring in DP cost differences. The ridiculous stat scaling on ships and bosses results in RKing running out of steam too soon, which then forces you to waste even more units to reactivate his passive again.

As a damage dealer, RKing does not deliver damage commensurate to cost. As a frontline tank, RKing does not provide anything that cheaper frontline tanks can’t do better. RKing doesn’t function well in a PVE environment.

PVP Review

RKing defines an archetype of comps (RKing comps) built around him. There are a number of variations to how he can be played but the core concept remains unchanged; RKing comps are built around keeping RKing protected while he slowly but consistently chips the entire enemy team with his punches. RKing can be run as both the focal point of the comp or as one of two win conditions (e.g. Curian).

The two major considerations with RKing comps are:

• Maintaining uptime on RKing’s passive

• Keeping RKing safe

To maintain uptime on RKing’s passive, he is frequently be run with:

• Blue Bridge Mk.2: Blue Bridge’s S2 summons 3 waves of soldiers over a period of time. This synergizes perfectly with RKing’s passive.

• Cheap fodder: Summoners and multi-unit characters pair well with RKing to feed his passive when Blue Bridge’s S2 is on cooldown. These characters include but are not limited to: Eins & Zwei, Laura, Kang, and Assault Troopers.

RKing will only punch forward. To make sure nothing gets behind him, it is imperative to learn how to manipulate positioning so your RKing is not at risk of being redirected. This is done by achieving a “camp”. For more information on PVP positioning, please refer to: https://www.prydwen.gg/counter-side/guides/rta-concepts

RKing has several weaknesses that can be exploited. RKing is usually countered through a combination of:

• Serina Crew (Operator): Serina Crew’s Command skill shuts down RKing’s damage and can ruin the RKing player’s positioning. Serina creates opportunities to kill RKing where he would otherwise be turtled up behind his frontline.

• Awakened Lyudmila: Awakened Lyudmila’s kit directly counters RKing by applying crippling debuffs when enemies die, which perfectly times her debuff with RKing’s self-buff.

• Strong positioning: RKing comps are heavily incentivized to “camp” under their own ship to mitigate the risk of being redirected. Being able to “out-camp” RKing can create opportunities to turn the RKing or put him in positions where he can be more easily killed. This can come naturally from better play but the process can be greatly assisted by tools like Albion’s (ship) skill 1.

• Counter-comps: Certain comps have inherently good matchup against RKing. These include frontline-heavy comps (e.g. Awakened Yuna, Awakened Joo Shiyoon), comps with extremely good early game pressure (e.g. Soldier comps), and teams that make use of characters with buff nullification (e.g. Jisoo, Awakened Jake, Awakened Regina).

While losing to RKing can feel miserable, it helps to understand that not every scenario is a decision-making opportunity. Many situations reflect the consequence of an earlier decision. It is pretty much impossible to win against a perfectly set up RKing comp. What’s important is denying RKing as much positioning as possible.