Cinderella Guide & Review

Today on the news: The beauty becomes the beast herself! Cinderella is an absolute monster DPS unit, one for the history books. Yet, her happy and much awaited release has been surrounded by an annoyance of bugs, causing even the monthly prestigious Solo Raids to be delayed! With the recent bug fixes, is she still shining as bright as she was before? Let us dive into what our combined heads managed to know about her so far.

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Cinderella is a remarkable DPS unit with a versatile profile. Her PvE performance is beyond impressive, and her PvP strength is no slouch either.

For bossing, her coming is a chef's kiss. With the right team, she can out damage the current queens of DPS, Scarlet: Black Shadow & Alice, but the best thing about it is that she does not use the same supports as them (except Crown). Rouge and SAnis are her best partners, and they are likely inseparable for now.

For campaign and other mob stages, Cinderella performs superb in low deficits. Her auto-friendly gameplay paired with how strong her basic attacks are makes her one of the top choices to use in low deficit gameplay. She is able to one shot kill every small minion during full burst, and shoots at an insane rate of 3 shots per second. Understandably, this is a powerful ability to have for campaign. However, she does struggle on higher deficits if the element is not in her favour. This means that while she is still able to perform at a great level in electric weak stages, she will not be one of the top picks on neutral grounds. This is because some of her problems become apparent, which are largely related to her gimmicky weapon, which provides little to no AoE even though she is an RL unit. She is basically a single target DPS without pierce, and we hope to detail more about it on our Usage Analysis section. She is prone to some serious issues in high deficit gameplay that elemental damage buffs are able to revert due to the sheer strength at which Cinderella hits her bullets. In grave conditions (deficit ≥40%), she might as well not be dealing enough damage, especially since her AoE nuke can get split up in damage and will often randomly target minions instead of the tanks. When it comes to campaign bosses, however, this paradigm shifts. She easily destroys Electric-weak bosses for you, and given proper investments, she is currently setting new lowest CP clear records for electric weak stages and bosses.

For PvP, her being a B3 Defender with a powerful AoE opens up various creative ways of using her, from posting her as a P1/P5 tanker to sending her as a nuker. Cinderella is the only existing B3 (for now) that can one shot the entire enemy team without help from any buffer! Despite her versatility, she does not really improve on the existing meta/roster since the current requirement is of Supports, not DPS, so she is pretty much the same as other nuker units like Ein or Rei, although she will perform at a higher level than them in most situations. Her extremely poor burst gen is a serious problem, but her tankiness is well appreciated.

Thankfully, she is not as costly as most other meta units to build, due to the fact that her Skill 2 provides little offensive bonuses. However, her team is, and you will need to invest a lot in her OL and team, especially Rouge. Testing has shown that Rouge’s limit breaks, skill investments, and gear level contribute decently in improving Cindy’s overall damage. SAnis affects her damage too if you pair them together. Fortunately, the requirements for Cinderella’s OL lines and her playstyle are comparatively much less demanding and are similar to that of RH and 2B (somewhere in between). For more info, visit the Investments section.

Cinderella’s bugs have hence been fixed, and the intended design displays similar performance to her ‘buffed yet bugged’ version.

How did these bug fixes impact her?

It was a “politically correct nerf” because bug abuse is illegal, so they tried to compensate for it as much as possible.

In base form, without any Charge Damage boost from Doll, OL, and external units like Alice, the Burst Skill fix did not reduce Cindy's damage. However, if any of these three conditions was satisfied, then she would lose damage. Remember that Doll's Multiplier is a multiplicative factor, which means it amplifies other Charge Damage buffs.

Now, the improved accuracy for basic attacks was something we looked forward to. It did make her mobbing more reliable, as she can now hit targets more consistently.

For bossing, other than QoL improvement from like accidental hitting of QTEs against Crystal Chamber, the answer will highly depend on: 1. whether core exists, and 2. whether the fix permits her to miss fewer shots and land more core shots. If the update did cause her to land more shots/core shots, then Cindy would see a damage improvement.

One more thing: in the past, we stated that Cindy’s quirky targeting and projectile pathing brought only negatives. We were not entirely correct. In fact, it actually helped a lot when dealing with projectiles. Against bosses like Mirror Container, we were able to ignore the boss’s projectiles because Cindy would automatically destroy them for us. But now? You are forced to aim at them because Cindy no longer destroys them for you. Even worse, the change has also made some teams no longer feasible. However, Cinderella’s performance largely remains the same as it was before these bugs were patched, and the teams she best performed in before still remain meta.

Should I pull this unit?

Absolutely! There is no stopping you here. She is an excellent unit for Bossing, one of the best if not the best choices to use. Not only that, but her Campaign and PvP performance deserves a shout out since she can perform exceptionally well in low deficits, and can also perform at a superb level when it is her own element at higher deficits. Don’t forget, she does not even need a buffer to kill the enemy team in PvP! While her most proper PvE team can be expensive, it is very worth it and vital - not just Solo Raid tryhards, but also to players struggling with Interception. Even casual players trying to do better in UR and SR, simply because Cinderella can work effectively in neutral elements as well! She also excels against Mirror Container in AI and Campaign both, and those resilient Crystal Chambers in Campaign. If you are walled there, this is your chance. A very crucial unit for endgame because of her Raid, PvP and Campaign use (above Chapter 23).

Splurge if needed, but if available, we recommend using just your Mileage Tickets as the probability is abysmal. Remember to keep gems or mileage (ideally mileage due to the abysmal 1% rate of pilgrim banners) resources for Grave as well, since she seems to have a strong kit as well!

As for dupes, we always recommend getting dupes for game-changing Pilgrims like her. Try to get at least MLB if you have a lot of surplus resources, especially if you are a spender. Remember to also put Rouge in Wishlist if you care about squeezing out as much juice as possible out of Cindy.

Let's start with Cinderella's exclusive weapon, an auto-RL that continuously shoots projectiles 3 times per second once it is fully charged until it reloads. It deals 64.22% of final ATK as damage per fully charged shot. Reloading, even at ≥110% reload speed, will cause the charge to reset, forcing her to "wind up" again to maximum charge before resuming. This means uptime is important in maintaining her basic attack output, as it functions similarly to MGs.

Concealed by Skill

Cinderella’s basic attack damage is low, but her basic attacks deal additional skill damage from S1. This makes her basic attacks appear strong, but actually they are not. Since Cinderella heavily relies on Skill Damage and Burst Skill Damage, core shots become less important, and crit becomes more valuable. The low basic attack damage also makes her not able to deal any significant damage to boss parts, so when fighting Mirror Container or Crystal Chamber, she would have a hard time destroying the Glass Slippers and Back Crystals.

Cinderella's basic attacks are quirky. They can hit enemies or parts outside the designated target, and even miss cores against nearby enemies, which do not happen as often as before but still happen often enough to be relevant. This is an intended game design. This quirkiness makes her annoying to use in Campaign and brings some serious downsides. This forces you to play differently to accommodate these limitations.

It Helped But Not Anymore

In the past, these seemingly disjointed homing missiles would actually help you clear projectiles without you having to worry about them. Now, they do not, and you must actively shoot them. You can experience this QoL downgrade when fighting Mirror Container (like in Anomaly Interception).

2B or Not 2B

■ Activates when entering Burst Skill Stage 3. Affects self.

ATK ▲ 2.71% of caster's final Max HP for 10 sec.

■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge. Affects self.

Charge Speed ▲ 100%. Removed upon reloading to max ammunition.

■ Activates when hitting a target with Full Charge. Affects the target.

Deals 136.6% of final ATK as additional damage.

Cinderella's S1 is all about converting her final Max HP into ATK. Since Cinderella is a Defender, her base ATK stat is terrible, so ShiftUp compensates this by urging players to buff her Max HP instead. For example, a 100,000 HP with 2.71% conversion will give her 2,710 ATK. Without any external buffs, about slightly over half of her real ATK comes from her HP. Therefore, Rouge can be an essential contributor to her overall ATK and damage.

Do note that this buff activates upon entering the Burst 3 stage (before Full Burst, when you can select whose Burst to use). This guarantees her receiving Full Burst buffs from the likes of Maxwell but exercise caution when dealing with buffs before B3 like Mast's. We can also assume that her ATK buff is only present during Full Burst(s) and deactivate between them. Remember this when pushing High-Deficit Campaign. If you like stalling Full Burst(s), which ironically is the best strat sometimes, do not be surprised when she starts dealing 1 damage!

This skill also has another part worth mentioning: the extra Skill Damage on each fully charged basic attack. This is similar to Modernia's. It can crit but not core-hit and actually constitute a dominant portion of her basic attack damage. This makes maxing this skill your main priority.

Decoys Hide True Feelings

■ Activates at the start of battle. Affects self.

Decoy: Creates an avatar with 96% of caster's final Max HP continuously.

■ Activates when entering Burst Skill Stage 3. Affects self.

Decoy: Creates an avatar with 96% of caster's final Max HP continuously.

■ Activates when decoy exists. Affects self every 3 sec.

Beautiful: Max HP ▲ 1.6% continuously, stacks up to 12 time(s).

Upon entering battle and Burst Stage 3, Cinderella creates a decoy (which can be viewed as a shield). This does not taunt, but it does absorb frontal damage for Cinderella (including projectiles but excluding AoE attacks). Levelling up this skill greatly improves the decoy's survivability, but it is not something most of us are really interested in, so let's skip to the second component of this skill.

Decoy's Interaction in PvP

Decoys are considered standalone characters and therefore take sequential damage from enemy Nikke(s) in Arena and may even provide opposing RL more burst gen.

The second part of this skill is what makes this skill useful. In short, Cindy gains a Max HP buff that stacks every 3 seconds as long as her decoy is standing. This does NOT expire even when the decoy is destroyed and is permanent. It takes 36 seconds to reach max stacks from the beginning of the battle. While the value is low, it synergizes well with her S1, providing her the necessary ATK stat to make an impact.

Reminder of the Past: The Anniversary Pilgrim’s Burst Skill Buffed

■ Affects random enemies.

Deals 682.96% of final ATK as damage. Attacks sequentially for 10 time(s).

■ Affects the same target(s) when in Beautiful status.

Deals 28.9% of final ATK as additional damage. Mirrors the stack count of Beautiful.

Cinderella's Burst Skill is self-explanatory. It is like Summer Sakura's but, instead of applying DoT, it deals extra damage for each Beauty stack she has from S2. In other words, one strike with maximum Beauty stacks will deal 1365.92% + 28.9% × 12 damage, and there are 10 strikes in total. We are still yet to account for Full Burst and other misc buffs, and yet this percentage alone is already mind blowing.

What is Sequential Attack?

Sequential Attack AoE is a pseudo-screen-wipe skill that attacks one enemy after another. It follows a random order established at the start and rotates in the same cycle until it strikes X times. If there are 3 enemies, then Target A will be hit 4 times, and B and C will be hit 3 times. If there is only one target, then all 10 attacks will be redirected at that target.

Campaign (LD) - SS | Campaign (HD) - S

Cinderella is a very good pick for campaign when under ~25% deficit. She is able to work both as a main B3 (which is a B3 who you burst with) and as an off-burst B3 due to how strong her basic attacks hit. Anything that her nuke leaves alone, she will clean up using her basic attack within a couple of seconds since usually she just needs 1 bullet to kill. She even works well when her B3 partner is bursting. Nikkes like Emilia who have AoE clearing but lack good Single Target focus damage, Cinderella is able to help her easily kill those tanky raptures with ease. She will help you progress fast at the start, as is tradition with these meta Pilgrim B3 units, and is a good target for rerolling since she has major use in the endgame (chapter 23+ having 4 out of 11 chapters as electric weak and 4 electric weak boss walls, especially Mirror Container, Crystal Chamber and Behemoth). Also worth noting is that Fire weak (11/32) and Electric weak (7/32) weak are the most common element weaknesses seen in campaign, and hence Cinderella may see decent use late game.However, for players who are looking to find a Red Hood 2.0, Alice, Modernia or SBS, Cinderella is a weaker campaign unit when compared to them in this bracket.

Now, let’s move on and discuss some problems in detail since criticism is necessary when such a hard hitting nikke is placed lower in high deficits. Cinderella has two huge problems for high deficit: Her basic attacks, and her Burst skill's nuke. Firstly, her Basic attacks have no splash damage at all, and hence she has to kill units literally one by one. She is essentially a single target DPS unit with no pierce. In Low Deficit, she is able to one shot these raptures and quickly move on to another one. In higher deficits however, only if you have a good amount of elemental lines on her overload gear are you able to achieve this again, that too only for Electric Weak stages. Otherwise, she is unable to one shot these raptures, and has to often spend 2-3+ bullets to kill just one of them. Keep in mind that Cinderella hits 3 shots per second, which means when a wave of 10-15 raptures drops, she spends way too long to kill them. This is a detriment since the opponent raptures are not there to sit around, and will kill you since they need only one shot to do so mostly. Her projectiles take a while to travel and aren't instant hits like RedHood's or Alice's, and neither are they constant AoEs like SBS and Mod or even Ein are able to provide.

The second problem is her Burst skill's nuke. While it is able to hit super hard when the amount of raptures on the screen is lower than ~6-7, it fails to do the job when there is around 12-15 or even more raptures on the screen, while units like Scarlet or Rei Ayanami are able to fully clear their screens, no matter the amount of raptures standing in front of them. Hence, even SS tier units in high deficit tier list are able to push through on more situations and are less situational compared to Cinderella, something that is not the case on low deficit. On higher deficits, since she targets only a maximum of 10 raptures randomly, Cinderella can actually get her damage divided up so much that she will fail to one shot in higher deficits. This is one thing, but another thing which is an absolute detriment to her use is that since she is only hitting 10 raptures, she will leave 3-5 or even more raptures alive! In high deficit, that is a death sentence for at least one of your Nikkes as they are able to one shot you.

While these 2 factors we mentioned above are key to why she was rated lower in comparison to other B3 Pilgrim releases in campaign (Modernia, SBS, RedHood), she is still a decent unit to use in campaign. Cinderella still hits very hard in low deficit and is even able to perform well in higher deficits, given that the situation (ideally the element) is in her favour.Situationally, Cinderella, Scarlet, Ein and S.Anis will replace each other according to the stage on electric weak campaign. Some stages might see none of them being used due to the sheer brilliance Red Hood, Alice, Asuka, SBS and Modernia are able to provide.

Bossing - SSS

This should not come across as a surprise. We will try to keep this short since the answer is pretty simple to this rating. Cinderella just straight up hits super duper mega and insanely hard when there is only one target on the screen. She does enough damage to outperform even Alice's peak, and even SBS's peak! She is just that good! Only way to beat her out in DPS (considering all units are equally built) is if the top tier DPS units have elemental advantage or have pierce advantage over Cinderella! (but this means it is no longer a non conditional comparison). She is, safe to say, one of the best DPS units to ever be released for Bossing. She has lowered the bar required to beat both Crystal Chamber (who you will get tired of facing in campaign) and Mirror Container (both campaign and A.I), and is also one of the must-have units for Behemoth, the new boss. An absolute must pull for this reason. Crucial for endgame meta.

Do note that Cinderella’s basic attack damage is low! It deals plenty of damage thanks to her S1. However, this comes at the downside of not having noticeable damage to boss parts as they cannot be broken with skill damage. In other words, Cindy is a RAW damage dealer.

PVP - SS

It is pretty clear where Cinderella's main power in PvP lies - her AoE nuke! She hits SUPER hard, She is the only unit in the game that can one-shot the enemy team without any buffers! There are some pros and cons that we would like to touch upon here. Cinderella is a defender unit, which means there is synergy with Biscuit here. She can proc Biscuit's S2 and give herself invincibility. She can also snoop under the radar because of her class versus the notorious and only B1 DPS, Rosanna. Rosanna's nuke targets attackers only, and since Cindy is a defender, she can hide from Rosanna just like that. She also gets her HP -> ATK buff during full burst, and not at the start of the round like 2B's buff happens. Hence, her buff cannot be removed from Rosanna's cheeky dispel ability.

There are only 2 cons here. One is that her Burst Nuke has the "Attacks Sequentially" mechanic, which we already saw in S.Sakura's burst. This means that Cindy needs a short interval to deliver the full hit on the enemy team. This is beneficial when compared to Ein's nuke in that it can't be taunted, but it is worse than Scarlet's AoE since the delay means that Noah or Blanc can successfully counter Cinderella teams even if they are slower by 1RL - well, almost every time. Sometimes, Cinderella does get lucky and lands a hit on a key unit on the opponent team before Noah and Blanc can nullify Cinderella due to Noah's AoE block or Blanc's indomitability. She can also rarely fully nullify Noah Burst even if both teams are 3RL, but this is a random event. It works similar to the process where S.Sakura manages to sneak 1-2 hits in the same speed versus Noah. If Cinderella manages to hit Noah first, there is a chance she will win.

The second con is that even though Cinderella is an RL unit, her Burst Generation is almost non-existent. Her base burst gen is too low and she is, in fact, one of the worst Burst Generation units in PvP, even worse than MG units! She can also only hit one opponent at a time, unlike other RL units, which lowers her possible DPS output and shows that her AoE radius is indeed very small.

Cinderella PvP Showcase

Cinderella simply kills the opponent team

Cinderella’s Defender HP and Decoy HP showcased as she tanks an insane amount of damage against 5 SGs

Gear Investments

You probably understand by now that Cinderella is a DPS unit even though she is a Defender. This means we need to focus on increasing her DPS output as much as we can. Since she has the HP -> ATK conversion, you want to fully level up all 4 of her gears. Yes, even her Boots since, unlike the usual DPS where you can leave the boots at lvl0 since they provide no offensive buffs, Cinderella does benefit from the slight HP increase from them.

However, this is very costly. Most of us do not upgrade all her gear to Level 5. Instead, we leave her Boots and/or Gloves at Level 3 (they provide the least bonuses to her).

Now that we know she wants a DPS build, let's focus on the essentials first. Cinderella shoots 3 times per second, thus she needs at least 30 ammo to shoot for the entirety of HP → ATK conversion buff duration. Considering she has a base of 24 ammo, she only needs 1 Max Ammo line. However, for convenience, it might be better to go slightly over.

The rest is just your everyday DPS necessities: Elemental Damage lines and ATK lines. Note that ATK >> Crit Rate/Crit Damage > Charge Damage.

Elemental Damage lines are better than ATK lines since Nikke Meta has shifted towards Elemental DPS for both Campaign and Raids. Meanwhile, between Critical Rate and Damage, Critical Rate offers a more stable improvement, whereas Critical Damage is more volatile, and depending on your luck, allows for a potentially higher peak damage, which is what some people like to do in Solo Raid by retrying over and over again — RNG crit fishing.

• Essential: 1× Max Ammo
• Ideal: 4× Elemental DMG, 4× ATK, 1× Max Ammo
• Passable: 1~3× Crit Rate/Crit Damage, 1~2× Max Ammo
• Priority: Meta

Skill Investments

• Skill 1: 10
• This is where her source of her power is located, where her HP is converted to ATK buffs. Reminiscent of 2B. Focus on maxing this first to maximise your DPS.
• Skill 2: 4-10
• This skill is of relatively lower priority since it is a much more defensive skill. It improves her decoy survivability and gives a small Max HP buff which stacks to give a decent value, indirectly providing ATK buff since her S1 gives ATK buff based on final Max HP.
• Burst Skill: 10
• Simple nuke with super high value which can target 10 units at max. Very important to fully max out this skill, since it will still be where the majority of her DPS stems from. Note: Shift Up has recently buffed this skill such that it does 2× the damage!

Suggested Progression Path

 

PVE Investment

PVP Investment

Priority

Cinderella

PVE investment

4/4/4 → 7/4/7 → 10/7/10 (→ 10/10/10)

PVP investment

4/4/4 → 7/4/7 → 10/4/10 (→ 10/7/10)

Priority

Meta

Cube Investments

• Cinderella’s interaction with cubes is slightly awkward. That is because she still needs to take 1s to fully charge her weapon every time she reloads before she can resume shooting. This causes her reload to be perceived 1 sec. longer, and since this is unaffected by Reload Speed buffs, the effectiveness of Resilience Cube is heavily impacted. Cube.
• Since Cindy's weapon functions like an MG and has a "wind-up (charge-up)" period of 1s, she always scales better with Bastion, especially in teams with two or more Reload Speed buffers
• Resilience is worse for Cindy. Unlike other DPS who gain a significant uptime boost upon reaching >109%, Cindy still needs to wait 1s after each Reload. Depending on how many Reload Speed buffers there are, she would lose around ~1% DPS. Nevertheless, the level of the cube is more important than this percentage. If your Resilience is significantly stronger, its increased stats and Elemental Damage will allow your Cindy to slap harder than when she uses Bastion.
• Lastly, Vigor is a decent alternative that can amplify her damage through bruteforce HP scaling. However, it is also diluted by other ATK/Max HP buffs. For most players, their Vigor Cube level is still too low to warrant using it. The extra stat and Elemental Damage from their higher level cubes are more potent.
• In the end, if you are still confused on what cube to use, just pick whichever has the highest level between Resilience and Bastion. time.

Team #1: Zap Those Raptures with the Electric Girls

Burst 3

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst Flex

This team revolves around 2 heavy DPS but in the final damage charts, Cinderella will always be on top. All of these DPS also share the same trait: having an insane amount of innate ATK buff. This makes Liter inferior to Rouge, who is more ideal for buffing Cinderella. This team works great for both Bossing and Electric-Weak Campaign, provided you can spam properly with Ein and Rouge. SAnis’s presence is usually more important because she acts as a buffer for Cindy. ExiaTr/Scarlet can be used as an off-burst damage dealer if supports like SAnis and Naga don’t fascinate you or are used elsewhere.

A variant or two would work best for you depending on your investment; Mirror Container AI is a good place to test them out. Comps with Cindy, whether using Ein or Naga as the fifth unit, have proven to reach Stage 9. Both variants feature SAnis.

For Electric-Weak Raids, usually Crown will join the strongest DPS (in this case, Cindy’s team). However, outside Electric-Weak Raids, you can choose to use Blanc so that Crown can support other teams with potentially more effective DPS.

Team #2: Red Hood Buffer Team

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst 1

Burst 1

Burst 3

This is a comp that has recently set a new CP record for Crystal Chamber. The gameplay involves using Red Hood’s Burst B1 to line up with SAnis’s to avoid sabotaging her DPS (first with Cindy; second with SAnis; and then SAnis till the end of the battle). Red Hood’s Burst is also effective for off-burst DPS, and since Cindy also deals damage during her off-burst rotation, Cindy also benefits from it.

Team #3: Off With Those Rapture Heads as an Off Burst DPS

Burst 2

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 3

As we mentioned above, Cinderella is a great non burst B3 DPS too. It's a very basic team with 2 piercers and one non burst DPS. Works very impressively against Electric Weak stages. This team is for campaign.

Team #4: HP Scaling Team

Burst 3

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst Flex

Flex

Rouge is the best Buffer for Cinderella and 2B - 2 Nikkes who scale on HP. We also have 1 spare slot to put another Nikke here, which can be Modernia or Scarlet as off-burst DPS, or Noir to make Cinderella reload less.

Team #5: The Exia Coper for the Rougeless

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

A tricky team to set up because Mast’s Burst Skill records the two units with the highest ATK in the Burst 2 Stage, while Cindy gains her conversion buff in Burst 3 Stage. For this team to work, then Cindy’s base ATK together with OL must be higher than SAnis’s. If you can achieve this, this team is quite good theoretically.

Team #6: Rocket PUNCH with the forgotten Rocket Supporter

Burst 3

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst 3

Rocket launchers are getting abundant, slowly but surely. Rem can have a piece of the fun as well here

Fast Nuke @ 2 RL

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 1

This team needs at least 3 Quantum cube lv 3+ on Centi, Anis and Jackal to reach burst at 2 RL. Cinderella's self damage is huge, enough that with Noise, she will kill everyone unless they have protection like Noah. The fun part is, even Rosanna can't save you.

Could It Be Thicker? @ 4 RL

Burst 2

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst 3

We have 4 Electric Nikkes here which Sanis will buff all of them, and don't underestimate Rocket Launcher in PVP - They hit like a truck. Cinderella herself is a great DPS too, unlike S. Sakura where her damage falls extremely hard after bursting. This is a great team to deal with 3 RL Emilia.