Bready Guide & Review

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Bready the Chubby Taste-Testing Cutie is a very competent unit against Water-weak Raids and is highly usable against Water-weak bosses in general. She packs quite the damage, although she will struggle to achieve anything remarkable in neutral elements compared to units like Cinderella, ScarletBS, Asuka: Wille, and RapiRH, who offer better overall DPS. She also requires certain support units to work, making her quite a picky eater, although you can say she's a bit versatile (she really is not) due to being able to work with two types of buffers and benefits from this exclusivity, but she has to contest her spot versus the common meta B3.

For Water-weak bosses outside Raids specifically, her performance rivals other competent Water units (such as QEQ, xLud and HelmTr). Two bonus points for her are that she relies less on core compared to QEQ and XLud and her shots can be spammed for Burst Gen, something not achievable by the other two. Additionally, her Distributed Damage has proven useful for Boss (adds) especially against Harvester AI where you can continue shooting at the boss without worrying about mobs.

She also works with SRosanna for her Lingering Taste route. Her Sustained Damage base damage is higher than her Distributed Damage route. However, since SRosanna is a weaker buffer in comparison to the Maid Duo, Bready is better used in the Maid team for higher damage output. In PvP, her performance is not up to standard and should not be considered.

Should I get this unit?

PvE-focused players and those seeking a high rank in Solo Raid/Union Raid should get one copy, but only if they have Mast + Anchor Maids. She will be needed for Water-weak Raids, and skipping her may negatively affect your score. Meanwhile, PvP-focused players can finally breathe a sigh of relief as this Nikke is useless. If you do not have Mast and Anchor, Bready is the easiest skip ever. She literally cannot function without them effectively.

Do we recommend getting dupes? Generally, no. While she does scale well on dupes thanks to her kit having a lot of personal ATK buffs, we do not see any value of doing that. Instead, save those gems for Half-Anniversary. However, if you are a competitive player or a gooner, then perhaps MLB is OK.

Should you mileage her? Absolutely not. We always recommend saving those tickets for high-value units such as Limited Collabs and Pilgrims. Don't waste those sweet tickets on not-that-meta units like Bready.

Skill 1

■ Activates when entering Full Burst. Affects self.

ATK ▲ 70.01% for 10 sec.

■ Activates when gaining the buff that increases sustained damage. Affects self.

Lingering Taste: Charge Speed ▼ 20% for 50 sec. This effect cannot be dispelled.

Removes Recommended Taste.

■ Activates when gaining the buff that increases distributed damage while not in a sustained damage-increasing status. Affects self.

Recommended Taste: Charge Speed ▼ 20% for 50 sec. This effect cannot be dispelled.

Removes Lingering Taste.

Bready changes form depending on the type of buff she receives, which comes in the form of an un-dispellable debuff for 50s that can be examined under the unit's status list in combat:

• Lingering Taste (Damage Over Time aka DoT Route): Activates upon receiving Sustained Damage buffs and removes Recommendation Taste if it is present. In this mode, Bready's Full Charge triggers Sustained Damage Effect on the target every 3 shots. This can further be buffed by her Burst Skill.
• Recommendation Taste (On Hit Route): Activates upon receiving Distributed Damage buff and removes Lingering Taste if it is present. There also cannot be any Sustained Damage buffs present to activate this buff. In this mode, Bready's Full Charge attacks deal additional Distributed Damage% to all enemies — which can be a useful AoE barrage tool for clearing small mobs. If no mobs are present, all damage will be concentrated on a single target, making her viable for solo bossing.

While any of the modes is active, Bready's Charge Speed is reduced by 20%, making her shoot around 0.65 shots per second under Auto. The time taken per shot can be reduced by cancelling the "into" and "out of" cover animation imposed on charging units without animation delay. Realistically, with proper manual gameplay and pre-charging, you can expect closer to 7 shots per Full Burst. However, her optimal gameplay may include spamming for burst gen with her, which makes pre-charging less convenient.

Is Charge Speed Worth It?

One question that bothers the mind of Solo Raiders is whether Charge Speed is worth it for her. In short, yes, but it's not better than ELE, ATK, or the first 1-2 Ammo. It is a generic bonus line that works for most Chargers. However, we would like to also warn you that the resultant DPS gain from each Charge Speed will be lower for her due to the exponential scaling of Charge Speed. This is because it functions as Charge Time Reduction instead of Speed, which means the closer to 100%, the stronger the Charge Speed buff becomes. At the -20% default, each Charge Speed will feel 16.67% less effective on her.

Bready also grants herself ATK buff upon entering Full Burst for 10s — which is nice for counteracting the effects of DEF or CP penalty in certain content. This also means that most of her damage will be inside Full Burst and not outside.

Skill 2

■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) while in Lingering Taste status. Affects the target.

Damage Taken ▲ 10.2% for 5 sec.

Aftertaste: Deals 150.04% of final ATK as sustained damage every I sec for 5 sec.

■ Activates when hitting a target with Full Charge while in Recommended Taste status. Affects self.

Attack Damage ▲ 60.01% for 5 sec.

■ Activates when hitting a target with Full Charge while in Recommended Taste status. Affects all enemies.

Deals 265.07% of final ATK as distributed damage.

Her Lingering Taste - DoT Route has a higher base damage output even after the extreme nerf. However, the lack of compatible support units makes it not worth running this Route now. This might be compensated by stronger Sustained DMG buffers in the future — for now, SRosanna just doesn't cut it.

Hence, there is practically no reason for running the DoT Route, and Distributed Damage also has one hidden advantage — Distributed Damage buffs are calculated in the Damage Taken group, whereas Sustained Damage aren't. And guess what, she already has a lot of ATK DMG!

However, the DoT Route also has one benefit that the On Hit one doesn't have — Damage Taken — which can improve the team's overall damage. It's more of a support skill. ~10% is small, but it's tangible.

In the On Hit mode, Bready's fully charged attacks also grant her 60.01% ATK DMG, which is big. That on top of the nice 265% multiplier + basic attack offer good single-target damage and AoE potential.

Burst Skill

■ Affects self.

Attack Damage ▲ 60.19% for 10 sec.

■ Activates when in Lingering Taste status. Affects self.

Aftertaste Effect ▲ 349.8% for 10 sec.

■ Activates when in Recommended Taste status. Affects self.

ATK ▲ 70.09% for 10 sec.

Instant huge ATK DMG that boosts her damage significantly for 10s. During this 10s, you will want Bready to deal as much damage as possible, increasing the value of pre-charging and manually controlling her.

If she is in the Lingering Taste (DoT Route) status, her Sustained DMG multiplier will be increased by up to 349.8% (at max level). This means that she will be dealing 449.8% of 150.04% (at max level), which is around 674.87%, of Sustained DMG per second. This value is fairly small but bigger than most Burst Skills from old units.

In Recommended Taste (On hit Route) status, instead of gaining additional multipliers, Bready gains an ATK boost that gives her an edge in situations where enemy DEF stat is higher than usual. This feels less interesting, but the damage spike is noticeable, and you should try to dish out as much damage as possible during Burst. However, now that she has a lot of ATK, she does not scale too well from external ATK buffs temporarily.

Synergies

Bready pairs well with the following units:

Indubitably the top pairs for now until another decent buffer, probably in the Sustained Damage domain, is released for Bready. Her skill requires receiving a certain type of buff to activate. Without them, she is pretty much a blank slate.

The second best pair, offering Sustained DMG▲, but with the nerf almost halfing her Sustained DMG route, there is no motivation to play her in place of better B2 units.

You will see her being paired a lot with these units. Firstly, QQ, XLud, and HelmTr are fellow Water DPS units, so you might see them going together for Water-weak bossing. Bready also offers Burst Gen Support via shots spamming, which complement slower units like QQ and XLud well.

Outside Raid, it's possible that two Maids won’t be run at the same time and instead one Maid will be used with Crown for increased overall team damage. Lastly, Rapipi is a widely effective generic B1 CDR.

Campaign (LD) - B | Campaign (HD) - B

Bready has AoE damage and clusters of mobs spawning at once in Campaign Stages can easily overwhelm her. However, in lower deficits or against Water Bosses in Campaign which require Distributed Damage such as Black Snake, she might just be one of the better options to use.

The disadvantage of using her and why she is not in A tier or above is due to the fact that she does not work with Crown alone, and needs Maid Mast or Maid Anchor to work. This specificity means she is not an ideal choice for Campaign, especially for heavy mobbing. Nevertheless, she can offer some minor Burst Gen Support and decent single-target damage through basic attacks. This is because she has a lot of ATK buffs that negate stat penalty. However, you will need to deploy either the Maids or SRosanna with her, which is not always ideal. An alternative unit for Water-weak Campaign.

Bossing - S

Very good single-target bossing damage (equal to QEQ or slightly better/worse depending on whether the enemy has core, and also varies depending on how many ELE rolls you have on either of them) with some AoE support potential. Her damage is enough to make one of the best Water DPS units at the moment, not to mention the added bonus burst gen capability. She will definitely have a place in Water-weak Raids and can be used outside for Water-weak bosses (esp. Black Snake in Campaign & Harvester AI).

Future semi-support potential if they release a broken Sustained Damage Water DPS unit at the level of Cinderella (that doesn't have burst gen). Pairing her with Bready for burst gen + Damage Taken can be a good idea.

PVP - E

Not only do you need certain buffers to activate her skillset, her damage is also too low to matter. Can be used as a normal SR to generate some mediocre Burst Generation. Long story short, a Sniper Rifle without any skill in PVP. The only reason we put her here instead of F is because she has higher base stat than R and SR units.

Gear Investments

OL is required because she is a DPS and you want offensive lines, like ELE & ATK. Aim for 1~2× Max Ammo for Burst Gen, ideally two, but you can run her without any Max Ammo (especially with Maids since they give Reload Speed, but you still need at least one in our opinion). Other lines are up to your preference, but Charge Speed, CRIT Rate, and CRIT DMG are decent. CRIT synergizes well with Maids' buffs.

• Essential: -
• Ideal: 4× ELE, 4× ATK, 1× Max Ammo
• Passable: 1× Max Ammo, 2-3× Charge Speed/CRIT Rate/CRIT DMG
• Priority: High (PvE)

Skill Investments

Bready expects balanced skill investments:

• Skill 1: 7~10
• More ATK for more DMG.
• Skill 2: 7~10
• Higher multiplier for DMG%.
• Prioritize especially for the On Hit route because this is the only skill that affects its base multiplier. It also gives a high ATK DMG buff.
• Prioritize when using her as a semi-support (in the future, if they release a broken Water DPS unit at the level of Cinderella, that Damage Taken▲ will prove reliable).
• Burst Skill:4/7/10
• Huge ATK DMG but temporary.
• Increased multiplier for DoT route, making this more important for it, around +45% final damage from level 1 to 10 for the sustained damage itself.
• Still less value than S2 for DoT route, but their relationship is multiplicative, so upgrade both at the same time.
• Increased damage for On Hit route.

Suggested Progression Path

 

PVE Investment

PVP Investment

Priority

Bready

PVE investment

1/1/1 → 4/4/4 → 7/7/7 (→ 10/10/10)

PVP investment

1/1/1 →

Priority

High

Cube Investments

Resilience always when pairing with Maids as the relationship between Reload Speed and Overall Uptime is exponential.

Doll Investments

We feel SR 5 is justifiable for her. A standard bossing Nikke for a specific element. SR 15 only if you are serious about Water Raids, but it’s not recommended for 99% of players due to its EXP cost. There are better units to SR 15.

Team #1: Maid-for-Bready

Burst 1

B1CDR

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

B3

Burst 2

The best team for Bready and probably what will be used in Water-weak Raids. This activates her On Hit route, which allows her to perform at a highly competitive level.

Team #2: Sustain This Damage!

Burst 1

B1CDR

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Flex

Flex

This is the only team possible that activates her DoT Route. It is decent but will be weaker than the Maid Duo. We can replace S.Rosanna with better DoT Buffer when the time comes.

Team #3: Harvester is an Anomaly

Burst 2

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

The new generic Water-weak bossing team. Harvester has mobs, and Bready has distributed damage to take care of them. This allows your other Water DPS units to freely shoot the boss. This team can be used to full auto Stage 7 (except for the QTE), given that the other B3 you use is Helm-Treasure for burst generation.

Team #4: Snake Writes about Snake’s Teams

Burst 2

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

The fight against Black Snake in campaign (specifically campaign) is a wall every one of us will have to face. This team, for now, will probably be the best fit to fight against it and clear at the highest deficit possible, displacing SBS from her spot.

Team #5: Let Me Copegg

Burst 1

B1CDR

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

B3

Flex

Flex

A cope team for Bready, but it does work. If you are a fan of chubby Nikkes, this team is for you! You can even add similar waifus like Anis here, with Biscuit in the FLE, spot to buff Anis and Elegg! Adding SBS or QeQ in the other B3 spot is also a viable option. Keep in mind, however, that this is one of the weaker teams for Bready.

Just don't.