Operators and you

This article is written with a very long-term perspective on account progression. This will make more sense by the time you’re done reading this. For now, understand that: Operators are not required to clear general PVE content.

Unless noted otherwise, operators are all assessed at max level (8/11). Operator Command skills (with few exceptions) scale heavily with levels. The impact of operators on overall team performance is almost non-existent without levels. Coupled with the exceedingly high cost involved in maxing operators, players are heavily encouraged to plan their operators well in advance and commit to building only one at a time.

Operators support your team from the sidelines with their active and passive effects. An operator can be broken down into their three constituent parts to explain how they contribute to the team:

Operator level

• Operator stats are applied to the ship (HP%, DEF%, ATK%, Skill Haste%),
• The HP%, DEF%, ATK% stats increase with Operator level. Skill Haste% does NOT increase with operator level. Operator level can largely be ignored.

Command (Active) Skill

• Operators have unique Command skills that can be triggered by deploying characters in a specific sequence,
• Different characters can be deployed between characters of the chain. The chain will time out if it is not progressed. This timer can be reset by progressing the operator proc,
• The Command Skill is leveled up by feeding dupes of the operator into itself.

Side (Passive) Skill

• Operators come with a random Side skill from a common pool shared by all operators,
• The side skill applies a stat buff to all friendly units on the field. The side skill is always active,
• The side skill is leveled up by feeding other operators with the same side skill, with a chance of success depending on the rarity of the operator fodder,
• The side skill can be changed by feeding an operator of the same rarity or higher, with a chance of success depending on the rarity of the operator fodder.

SSR Operators can be pulled from Operator Recruitment gacha banners and purchased directly from the Planet Mall using Task Planet Points. When starting out, it is heavily advised to spend your pulls on Employee banners and use the planet points to slowly accumulate your operator dupes.

Operators gacha uses the same resources (Blue tickets / Quartz) as Employee gacha. The primary purpose of the operator banner is to get “operator fodder”. Operator fodder is a term used to describe low rarity operators with desirable side skills to feed into your main operators. Operator banners are the endgame blue ticket sink. Avoid them until your account is developed and you understand what you’re getting into.

While it ultimately depends on the player and their endgame account direction, this table briefly goes over gacha and planet point priorities:

Account Progression	Pull	Buy	Rationale
Early	Employee		For new players, the top priority is getting their first copy of Kim Hana.
Mid	Employee	Operator	Catch up on relevant PVE/ PVP SSR’s and get your first operator built.
Late	Operator	Employee / Operator	Employee recruitment as needed for important SSR debut banners. You need an absurd amount of operator fodder to raise up various operator side skills.
A Note on DC: For people looking to become competitive Danger Close players, it should be noted that planet points are very frequently spent on unit dupes. Tactical updates have a very pronounced effect in high end competitive environments. Ultimately, how a player spends their planet points and pulls in endgame is heavily dependent on what they want to achieve. Players at this point should know how to manage their account. This note is meant to provide newer players a glimpse into the mindset of endgame pull prioritization.

Although the unique Command skill is the most eye-catching part of operators, equal attention should be given to the side skill. The passive side skill stat buffs are highly relevant to team performance. In PVP, a level 1 AoE DMG RDC operator can perform better than an SSR operator with a bad side skill.

PVP and DC are approached with radically different mindsets. There is no overlap with desirable side skills. Although players may likely identify themselves as “PVE” or “PVP” players, the first major decision doesn’t occur until they start to max their first operator.

PVP

In PVP, the top priority is keeping units alive. Characters cannot contribute value when they are dead. Being unable to match your opponent’s tankiness puts you at a massive disadvantage because it means your units will die before theirs and this creates a snowball effect that loses you games. PVP operators use:

• AoE DMG RDC: AoE DMG RDC is a category 2 buff (see also the Terms and mechanics guide) that mitigates all sources of AoE DMG. Any attack with more than one valid hit is considered AoE DMG. The vast majority of units in this game deal AoE DMG.
• Decrease Ground DMG: Decrease Ground DMG is a category 1 buff that mitigates all damage from ground-based damage dealers. The primary tradeoff is that Decrease Ground DMG applies to single target damage, which can make the soldier/ mech (single-target damage oriented comps) matchup more bearable at the expense of being much more vulnerable to fliers (i.e. ARosaria).

AoE DMG RDC is heavily preferred because it almost always has better coverage. However, because of the absurd costs involved in raising two level 11 operators of the same side skill, you will ultimately end up with one level 11 AoE DMG RDC and one level 11 Decrease Ground DMG. Which side skill goes on which operator will largely come down to luck and whatever internal rationalization you come up with.

PVE

In PVE, the top priority is squeezing more damage out of your team to hasten clear speed against DC bosses. Danger Close operators use:

• Increase ASPD: ASPD side skill is highly valued in Danger Close, due to the presence of an optional -40% ASPD risk that can be picked for higher scores. ASPD not only provides more utility than the next best damage side skill (Increase CRIT DMG), it also comes out to more team-wide damage than CRIT DMG against the vast majority of Danger Close bosses.
• The ASPD side skill is required to clear bosses’ hit check mechanics (e.g. Tyrant Armor) without making concessions in team building or reducing difficulty modifiers (i.e. -40% Decreased ASPD debuff tag).
• ASPD also affects “animation speed”, so increasing ASPD can decrease the casting animation times on skills.
• ASPD also greatly affects units who have abilities that are based on attack count, like Chifuyu’s DEF shred, Gaeun’s enhanced attack, and Sky’s 30% ATK and 15% DMG RDC buff.
• Increase CRIT DMG: CRIT DMG is a direct buff to damage which can be better than ASPD, depending on the units used for a particular boss.
• If the core units used for a particular boss already have enough ASPD (e.g. Xiao Lin with a maxed EE), then CRIT DMG could potentially be better than ASPD.
• If the boss also does not use units which are heavily dependent on ASPD for their abilities, like Chifuyu’s DEF shred, CRIT DMG can also be better.
• CRIT DMG also provides more damage than ASPD, which can be useful for bursting down bosses with units that have extremely strong one shot capabilities.

An invested operator is only “needed” when you’re trying to seriously compete in Counterside’s ranked game modes. These are Ranked Gauntlet (PVP) and Danger Close (PVE).

The table below details first operator considerations and side skills:

Ranked		Danger Close
Priority Operators	Desirable Side Skills	Priority Operators	Desirable Side Skills
	AoE DMG RDC Decrease Ground DMG		Increase ASPD Increase CRIT DMG

Certain operators will perform better in specific situations e.g. Kim Hana has a niche within PVP. Although these operators have their uses, they are too specific to make for a good first operator.

Sysop

Sysop forgoes a traditional operator buff/ debuff to generate 2 DP to accelerate unit deployment. His 2 DP refund provides a massive amount of tempo that can be used to cycle units faster and get more characters on the field. Sysop is incredibly flexible in what his 2 DP can do for the team. Some consideration will need to be made regarding the striker in his operator proc order; from the pool of PVP-relevant strikers, only a few prefer Sysop to Vivian (e.g. Rearm Titan).

Sasha

Sasha acts a more offense-oriented Sysop-equivalent, becoming the operator of choice for more damage-focused rush comps. Sasha’s combination of damage buffs and DP refund generate a massive amount of tempo for rush comps that give them the extra push they need to overwhelm the enemy team.

Vivian Rashford

In PVE, Vivian is one of the dominant operators for Danger Close, Vivian’s buffs significantly increase the damage ceiling for DC boss setups. Paired with characters like Curian and ASigma, Vivian’s buffs enable them to deal staggering amounts of burst damage. Vivian is a mainstay DC operator who sees use against all but a handful of bosses.

Other (niche) operators sometimes see use, but they are far more situational and significantly less popular. It is difficult to emphasize how unviable most operators are.These operators represent the vast majority of operators used in their respective game modes.

Other Noteworthy Operators

Olivie Park

Olivie’s DMG RDC, sustain, and debuff immunity are a perfect combination of defensive stats. Olivie can be used to enable greedy starting deployments, protect against opponents’ burst damage setups, and cleanse problematic debuffs. Of note, Olivie is only compatible with counters and her awkward proc order restricts team building.

Serina Crew

Serina’s on-demand buff block can severely hamper certain characters’ ability to function. Big ones include Replacer King’s wind punches and Awakened Horizon’s invulnerability, but Serina can find plenty of value nullifying defensive/ offensive buffs in general. It is important to keep in mind that Serina is a “reactive” operator whose value is wholly dependent on the characters your opponents play.

Kim Hana

Kim Hana is a universal operator that performs well in all content but especially excels in Danger Close where her DP refund and skill haste help accelerate unit deployments and cooldowns.