Crust Guide & Review

Units like Crust are a blessing in disguise for players because they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Every unit in the last 6 months (apart from Flora) has had a meta use in some way. This exhausts nearly everyone’s gem reserves. Thankfully, Crust, while excelling in her niche, is skippable.

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Such an adorable girl should not be tarnished by the blood of combat. Crust is a buffer with cleanse capabilities that can be activated on command. She grants the team with either Maillard or Blanching status effect—which boosts their ATK—and based on the applied status effect, buffs their Sustained DMG▲ or Distributed DMG▲. In Maillard status, her Burst Skill buffs the team's Distributed Damage, whereas in Blanching status, it buffs the team's Sustained Damage. You can check which mode is currently active by looking at the units' status.

Crust also provides the team with an additional buff called Reliable Cooking, which slightly increases DEF. It is applied simultaneously with Maillard or Blanching and lasts 10 seconds. Due to its low value, Reliable Cooking seems to be no more than just a filler buff that acts as a hidden Internal CD for Crust's debuff cleanse, which can only trigger on units without Reliable Cooking. Since Reliable Cooking lasts 10 seconds, Crust's cleanse can therefore be triggered once every 10 seconds, which makes her the best cleanse unit.

In terms of performance, Crust is a highly situational buffer + cleanser B2 unit. When cleanse is not necessary, she is weaker than all of the meta B2 units, but when cleanse is necessary, she can pull ahead. Compared to other cleansers, she stands out by providing a permanent ATK▲ buff and a respectable 20s Burst Skill that grants additional ATK DMG▲ alongside a specific offensive buff. Even in the off-burst position, she can still unconditionally give up to 30% ATK▲, making her a good situational FLEX.

This makes her good for Union Raid against debuffer bosses and may potentially see light in Solo Raid. She may also be used in Tetra Tower to some extent, especially with Bready, as an alternative to the Rouge-Blanc or Blanc-Noir squad.

TL;DR - Not good, not bad; just right in the middle.

Should I get this unit?

Skipping is the wisest choice here . Regular players cannot afford to pull every unit, so take this opportunity to save your gems.

However, if you are overflowing with gems and spend regularly, and are hyper-competitive in Union Raid, then you may find some benefit from pulling one copy of her because of her cleanse. That said, unless ShiftUp releases a new unit that deals a lot of Distributed Damage and fights over Maids as supports with other units, the chance of Crust being used in Solo Raid remains almost zero. We also do not recommend dupes.

We also received questions such as, “I pulled Bready, but I don't have Maids. Should I still skip Crust?” Now, the answer becomes more complicated.

Normally, you should not pull Bready if you don't have Maids, but rerollers and waifu route players present a different case. If you are one of them, then — while we don't recommend pulling and wasting resources on Crust just to make her usable — you may pull a copy to activate your waifu (we know how much Bready is loved by the community). Besides, if your roster is incomplete, getting Crust will definitely help you in Raids and make some use out of Bready, but is it better than just saving and waiting for Maids to come naturally?

Do note that this is likely the last patch before Half Anniversary. Saving gems and Gold Mileage(s) is the most sensible thing to do. Don't let ShiftUp catch you off-guard with a surprising double 1% banner!

Skill 1

■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Maillard status, Affects all allies.

Maillard Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.

■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Blanching status. Affects all allies.

Blanching Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.

■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies.

Maillard: ATK ▲ 10% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.

Removes Blanching.

■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies.

Blanching: ATK ▲ 10% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.

Removes Maillard.

Crust grants the team two alternating types of buffs depending on the actions she performs. These actions cannot be done automatically on auto and require manual play. This also means they will not trigger in PvP. The two types of buffs are:

• Maillard : This buff is provided upon landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) without fully charging, granting 10%▲ caster's ATK. When Maillard is present, Crust's Burst Skill will grant the team Distributed Damage▲.
• Blanching : This buff is provided by holding Full Charge for longer than 1 sec (≥2 sec. of charging in total), on 3 separate occasions. Imprinted allies obtain 10%▲ caster's ATK and additionally gain Sustained DMG▲ whenever Crust uses Burst Skill.

Obtaining any of the exclusive buffs above will immediately deactivate the other.

While Crust requires manual play to activate either buff for the first time, fortunately, she can indefinitely extend it as long as she is continuously Full Charging (given enough investments). This is thanks to the first part of this skill.

Skill 2

■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.

Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff.

■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.

Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff.

■ Activates when entering Full Burst. Affects all targets in Maillard or Blanching status.

ATK ▲ 20% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.

When performing the specific actions above, Crust also applies the buff Reliable Cooking to all allies for 10s. This grants 10%▲ DEF and additionally cleanses 1 debuff if those allies don't already have Reliable Cooking.

This means the cleanse can only be triggered at most once every 10 sec., but this is already better than cleansers that need Burst Skill to dispel. It can also be triggered at will!

Since the DEF effect is minuscule, don't bother refreshing it constantly and only do the action(s) listed on Skill 1 for the cleanse.

Crust also grants the team up to 20%▲ caster's ATK upon entering Full Burst whenever there is Maillard or Blanching active. This, alongside Skill 1, yields a total of 30%▲ caster's ATK that can be triggered off-burst.

Burst Skill

■ Affects all allies.

Attack Damage ▲ 20% for 10 sec.

■ Affects all allies when in Maillard status.

Distributed Damage ▲ 60% for 10 sec.

■ Affects all allies when in Blanching status.

Sustained Damage ▲ 10% for 10 sec.

Crust grants the team 20% ATK DMG for 10s — a notable buff — and either Distributed Damage▲ or Sustained DMG▲, depending on whether ther team has Maillard or Blanching respectively.

The Sustained DMG▲ side is rather weak, being only 10%, and SRosanna easily outnumbers that. However, the Distributed DMG▲ one is a force to be reckoned with. It's huge and definitely tangible, especially since it belongs to the Damage Taken▲ group, which rarely gets diluted.

However, it still doesn't warrant getting her just for your Distributed DMG▲ units, when there are more versatile options like Maids, Crown, Mari, Blanc, Grave, Tia Naga, and so on. When there are severely limiting debuffs, however, she might pull ahead even when the Distributed DMG▲ is not necessary.

Campaign (LD) - A | Campaign (HD) - A

Crust's buffs are versatile and niche at the same time. Her 30%▲ caster's ATK (that can be triggered off-burst) and 20%▲ ATK DMG makes her stronger than most cope B2. At the same time, she is not better than most meta B2.

However, when Distributed DMG▲ is concerned, she can be a great alternative if you don't have a complete roster. This is most noticeable in Tetra Tower where she only competes with Blanc for the B2 spot. She is also the only unit that can trigger Bready's skills in that game mode. An additional advantage that Crust has over her competitions is that she is an RL user, which has great burst gen potential and is reliable in all ranges.

She does fall off in high deficit gameplay since the game is more demanding of meta units to be used to progress. However, we have a Distributed Damage dealer that is quite meta in Campaign — Scarlet: Black Shadow. This pulls her ahead of the competition slightly. She can also dispel those ATK Debuffer Raptures that are menacing in higher deficits, allowing you to ignore them and kill other mobs first, get debuffed, cleanse the debuffs (even from the off-burst position), then kill them. Or, perhaps use them as wave stallers?

Oh, and Crystal Chamber. If for some reason you don’t have enough MGs to kill its hitcount rock and must take the less ideal debuff route, she might save you.

Bossing - A

Again, situational for that debuff cleanse. Not better than meta B2 when there is no debuff but may pull ahead if there is a limiting debuff like severe Charge Speed▼ (e.g. Thermite B) or Hit Rate▼ against enemies with core (e.g. Heavy Metal & Obelisk), or even ATK▼ (e.g. Crystal Chamber). Since this is more common in Union Raid, this tier is slightly biased toward that mode.

One advantage that she has over other debuff cleansers is her flexibility — she can be used in the in-burst or the off-burst position. Not only that, her Distributed DMG▲ has a really good value, so she can be used effectively with units like Bready and SBS to cleanse Charge Speed debuffs applied to them.

PVP - C

Haha. The only skill Crust has for PvP is her 20% ATK DMG in Burst Skill. Yeah, nothing special. Just a B2 buffer. But, she is RL, so better than some random B2, I guess. Mediocre burst gen is often better than low burst gen.

Gear Investments

As her supportive ATK buffs scale off caster's base ATK stat, there is merit to overloading her gear and leveling it up as high as possible (esp. the helmet and not the boots). Even so, the credit cost, rock cost, and gear required (they are finite, by the way) make it economically unattractive.

Only invest if you are serious about using her in Union Raids or if you have found a real use for her. Not recommended otherwise.

To save rocks, we also don't recommend rerolling OL lines, although 1~2× Max Ammo is useful for all SRs/RLs for burst gen.

• Essential: -
• Ideal: 1× Max Ammo
• Passable: 1× Max Ammo, 4× ELE, 4× ATK
• Priority: Low

Skill Investments

Crust's buffs mainly scale off skill investments. She needs them to compete against meta B2. Even then, that still does not make her better than them universally.

Only invest if you are serious about using her in Union Raids or if you have found a real use for her. Not recommended otherwise.

• Skill 1: 3~5
• Low value, but ATK is ATK .
• Levels increase buffs’ duration extension. May be required for permanent extension, but you can just manually reapply.
• Not worth too much investment; 3 to save Blue Books, 4 is standard, and 5 if willing to stretch.
• Technically, you can max it out if you want, but we do not advise so.
• Skill 2: 3~5
• Higher value than S1, so should be prioritized.
• But still not worth too much investment.
• Similarly, you can max it out if you want, but we do not advise so.
• Burst Skill:3~10
• Due to the potentially high buff value, investments can be more valuable.
• However, the major buff is only for Distributed Damage dealers.
• It also is useless off-burst, where she is most likely used in; do not upgrade (unless for CP padding) if you are not planning to use her Burst Skill.
• Start at 3 and upgrade as deemed convenient .
• Personally, I would leave it at 3~5.

Suggested Progression Path

 

PVE Investment

PVP Investment

Priority

Crust

PVE investment

1/1/1 → 3/3/3 → 4/4/4 (→ 5/5/10)

PVP investment

1/1/1 →

Priority

Low

Cube Investments

Most SRs/RLs, especially without Max Ammo OL, are more comfortable to use with Resilience. Bastion is an alternative.

Your generic PvP cubes. Tempering to withstand damage, Quantum if extra burst gen is needed to reach an earlier RL breakpoint, and Adjutant to reach breakpoint sooner.

Doll Investments

A niche character doesn't need that much doll investment, so even a simple R0 doll is fine (+ you can SR5 cheaply in the future if desired). If you want to stretch a bit for the most damage in Union Raid or wherever she is used, go SR0/SR5 but not higher (too expensive). We only want the increased base stat and CP padding. We do not recommend upgrading her at all unless you are finished with meta units. A low priority unit.

Team #1: Anti-Heavy Metal or Anti-Thermite (Wind Weak)

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

Here Crust acts as either an alternate B2 buffer or as an off-burst B2, providing nearly permanent ▲30% caster's ATK as well as Hit Rate debuff cleanse. Since this boss has a core, cleansing the Hit Rate debuff will allow you to land core shots more consistently, increasing damage dealt.

If invested, you can choose to use Crust's Burst Skill to buff SBS's Burst Skill during her rotation. However, please do mock/check total damage before confirming as using Crown might still be better. If you don't use SBS or any other distributed damage dealers, Crust can be fully relegated to the off-burst position.

Team #2: Anti-Obelisk (Fire Weak)

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

Like Heavy Metal, Obelisk also debuffs your team's Hit Rate. Dispelling that debuff will allow your team to land shots more consistently against this boss, which has a thin body. Since this UR Boss is normally Fire Weak, we use Fire DPS whenever possible. One variant of this team includes Rapipi B1 with Asuka/Alice/Rei B3. The other variant has Liter/DWife B1 with Rapipi B3.

Team #3: Anti-Chatterbox

Burst 1

Burst 2

Burst 3

Burst 3

Burst 2

Chatterbox poses a great threat to beginners who don't have access to shields or cannot kill missiles consistently, due to no access to Crown, Tia, or built Piercers. Crust, with her debuff cleansing, can allow your team to soak more damage without the fear of instant death due to debuff stacking. In this example, we use generic B1-B2-B3, but you know exactly what to do if you don't have some.

Team #4: BREADing in Tetra Towe

Burst 3

B3

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Flex

Flex

In this comp, we use Crust to activate Bready's skills and launch her to decimate Tetra Tower. While not optimal, Bready still has good AoE capabilities and single-target damage, especially with her massive built-in ATK buff. The FLEXES of this comp can be other B3, like Alice, SAnis, XLud, or Noir — or if you fancy — another alternate in-burst B2 like Blanc. Since Bready's Modes last 50 seconds, you can go 2~3 rotations without using Crust's Burst Skill.

Team #5: Anti-Crystal Chamber

Burst 3

Burst 1

Burst 3

Burst 2

Burst Flex

A copium team for those who can’t break its hitcount rock. In this example, we intentionally remove Crown because Crown is usually enough to kill the rock. Simply put, Crust here acts as either an off-burst B2 (if you use like Grave) or an in-burst B2 (if you want to use XMaiden) who allows you to take Crystal Chamber’s debuff route and dispel its debuff rather than taking the hitcount side.

Just don't.