Should you build Pioneer?

You probably shouldn’t, but it’d be really funny if you did.

Pioneer’s great if you want to see everyone’s chibis slide around in battle or if you want to theorycraft terrible meme builds, but that’s about it. He’s a real jack of all trades but master of none. He can tank!…with I2L50’s worth of bulk. He can buff!…for less than an AFK Mercuria. He can do damage!…with his 3* ATK stat.

But hey, he’s free and his kit is fun. If you’ve got some spare change, why not give it to our friendly Awakened door-to-door salesman?

One night, several people broke into a suit store in San Francisco and spray painted all over the mannequin in the front window display. The expensive Gekko & Flussers suit on display was completely ruined—at least, that’s what the owner thought as they threw the whole thing out, mannequin and all. The mannequin, however, Awakened through his appreciation for the bold artistry of the graffiti and became Pioneer. With a keen eye for trends, Pioneer now travels door-to-door among the wealthy to sell products with revolutionary style unseen among the rich—items made by the poor.

True to his name, this 3-star Spirit arcanist pioneers the ability to Shift his own position in battle. His [Roving Salesman] Insight I grants him different buffs depending on where he’s standing:

• Critical Rate +20%, Critical DMG +20%
• DMG Bonus +20%, DMG Reduction +20%
• DMG Reduction +20%, DMG Heal +20%
• After being attacked, reflects 30% of the DMG. Cannot exceed 200% of Max HP.

As you can see, he gets more offense the further “forward” (left, on screen) he is, while he gets more defense the further “backward” he stands. His skills also follow this trend and allow him to slide around the battlefield. [Competitive Differentiation] deals single-target Mental DMG, then moves him forward. [To Future Business] is a [Counter] that grants him [Taunt], +25% Reality and Mental DEF, and moves him back 1 space at Rank 1. Finally, his Ultimate [Bridge the Gap] allows him to switch places with an ally, granting them the corresponding position buff from his Insight I for 1 round on top of a decent 2-round Shield.

Pioneer’s design is a breath of fresh air and reflects a more experimental design space Bluepoch seems to be trying out, which is always great to see. However, his kit suffers greatly from the low-rarity I2L50 curse. At first glance, being able to give +20% Crit Rate/DMG on Ult seems like the goal. Get Pioneer to the front, then swap with a DPS in the back to do burst damage, right? It’s not that easy, though: to get to 5 Moxie, you need to cast 5 of his skills. Unless you want to Pioneer [Taunt]ed while he moves forward (and thus losing his defensive position buffs), his [Counter] is a relatively dead card. [Competitive Differentiation] doesn’t feel worth the AP either because of his low ATK. Notably, it moves him forward after he attacks, so he doesn’t immediately benefit from his offensive position buffs. When you finally do get to cast his Ultimate, the buffs from [Roving Salesman] only last 1 round. Not only that, but fellow 2.0 character Mercuria gives that much Crit Rate and even more Crit DMG off of a skill and Insight passive.

No, Pioneer is more of a defensive buffer. His [To Future Business] seems to incentivize a tank role, and he has a surprisingly solid 6053 HP at max level—which beats out the squishiest of 6*, like 37. As a result, his Ultimate’s 2-round shield is pretty chunky. However, there isn’t much of a place for defensive buffers in the current meta, and if you need a tank, 1.9’s Kakania does a much, much better job.

What is he good for, then? Meme builds, mostly. Pioneer is one of the few characters who can infinitely stack up Brave New World’s passive since neither his Ultimate nor his Skill 2 do damage, allowing you to make one big damage number if you can keep him alive long enough to Ult a bunch of times in a row. If you’ve ever wanted both sides of Avgust’s buffs, you can also do that now. Also, as badly as he is outclassed by Mercuria, his Crit buffs do stack with hers because they’re a unique [Pos Stat]. Finally, he can synergize with future position-related kits and mechanics, making him more viable down the line.

Pros & Cons

As a low-rarity character, Pioneer should be easy to P5 over time.

His P3 increases the bulkiness of his Ultimate’s Shield to a whopping 70% Max HP. His P5 increases his [Roving Salesman] Crit buffs to 30% each—not bad for something that can stack with generic buffs.

Any character that has a position-dependent kit works with Pioneer—which, at the moment, is just Avgust. As Avgust’s DMG Heal and DMG Dealt buffs do stack with Pioneer’s Insight I, this stylish mannequin can get the most out of Avgust’s kit with clever positioning. Pioneer’s got a lot to look forward to, though. 2.2’s White Rum gains [Rousing Morale] and [Sturdiness] when she changes position, so Pioneer’s shenanigans can allow her to stack up an absurd amount of each. Finally, as of 2.2 Pioneer is technically the only way to completely max out Lopera’s CR-to-CDmg conversion rate, which increases by 10% for each different kind of Bullet a character has. Some characters have 1 non-transferrable type and Duncan can give all allies 2 types, but since Lopera’s [Double Backups] gives Incantation Bullets to allies in front and Ritual Bullets to allies behind her, Pioneer is the only way you can get both on one character with native Bullet generation. (Does that make him viable for Lopera teams? Not really.)

Pioneer’s afflatus and mix of offense and defense make him generally applicable to most teams. His Ultimate buff being short but stackable with generic [Stats Up] can be useful for characters like Windsong and Spathodea who have high burst damage and excess Crit Rate to Crit DMG conversion. As a character with access to [Taunt], he can also protect characters who don’t like getting hit. An honorable mention goes to the alternate boss in A Series of Dusks, who does more damage to characters in front; Pioneer can shuffle your team around so the damage spreads out more evenly.

Notable synergies include:

Avgust

Future notable synergies:

Lopera

White Rum

Echoes of Opera Raid: The [Special Guest] status is determined at the start of battle, and no amount of shuffling will change who has it.

Characters who like getting hit:Ms. NewBabel and Desert Flannel can’t trigger their counter-attacks and ripostes if enemies go for Pioneer instead. Same goes for The Fool’s [Corrode].

Here are the best Psychubes you can use on Pioneer:

The Fighter's Best Wishes

A Free Heart

Brave New World

Beyond Wonderland

“The Fighter’s Best Wishes” is the best defensive option for Pioneer even though he doesn’t benefit from its Genesis DMG buff. As the strength of his Ultimate’s shield and his maximum reflected DMG from [After-sales Service] both scale off of Max HP, Pioneer can make great use of this psychube’s 16% HP substat. The -10% DMG Taken also helps his survivability.

“A Free Heart” is a budget version of “The Fighter’s Best Wishes” with an 8% HP substat and -20% DMG Taken while under 50% HP. It suffers from lack of stats as most 5* psychubes do, but it’s cheap to level up.

As mentioned above, Pioneer can also use “Brave New World” for a meme build, since its passive can stack with itself indefinitely as long as you don’t attack. His [Counter] also makes it so that you don’t only have to move his incantations to generate Moxie while stacking up BNW. Do note you’ll want to run a lot of meta supports just for that Pioneer screenshot damage.

Finally, if you don’t have “The Fighter’s Best Wishes” but want to raise Pioneer’s Max HP, “Beyond Wonderland” is an OK choice. It gives 16% HP but doesn’t have as synergistic of a passive as “The Fighter’s Best Wishes” does. Pioneer also doesn’t make much use of its 21% Crit Rate with his abysmally low 252 Crit Technique.

Level 7

Level 9

Level 10

A few suggestions are listed below, but Pioneer is so flexible that you can throw him in just about any comp.

3-People teams are highlighted, with the 4th slot added at the side to provide a 4-P variation of the same team or even insights on possible variations of the 3-P team. Note that most of Pioneer’s best teammates are going to be released in future versions, so some teams below will need substitutes for the time being.

Standard Teams

A Ship, a Mannequin, and a Boy Walk into a Disco…[CN]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Yenisei, Barbara (2.1), Sotheby, Any Other Healer, Lorelei
• An ultra budget team that maximizes sliding shenanigans.
• Pioneer can give White Rum [Rousing Morale] and [Sturdiness] just by moving around with his skills. Plus, he can help position White Rum at the very back to set up for her Ultimate if she slides out of place.
• As both White Rum and Pioneer like dealing more damage up front and taking less damage in the back, Avgust’s kit perfectly synergizes with them.
• Both Pioneer and Avgust have some survival capabilities, though it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add in a proper healer.
• Pre-2.2, you can run any DPS who likes +DMG Dealt and any of Pioneer’s buffs.
• In 4-P content, Yenisei makes for a synergistic healer as her [Sturdiness] stacks with White Rum’s and Avgust’s while her single-target heals can be used on Pioneer since he’ll be taking the bulk of the damage.
• 2.1’s Barbara is another great 5* half-support, half-sustain like Avgust. She can rank up Avgust’s attack for dispelling purposes, increase Mental DMG (which Pioneer and Avgust do), and give everyone big shields to make up for the lack of sustain.
• With Avgust’s access to [Cure], Sotheby becomes a much more viable healer if you have her at I3. Any other healer works well too.
• Lorelei is a great budget buffer who doesn’t overlap with anyone except Avgust. Her [Weakness] debuff helps these squishy characters survive, and her Crit DMG and DMG Taken Reduction buffs stack with Pioneer’s [Roving Salesman]. However, since this team will mostly have Attack cards, her Insight I will grant +15% DMG Dealt most of the time. Avgust grants +DMG Dealt upon attacking, so you may want to save up the attack card for an enemy dispel instead.

I Want to Use Pioneer in a Non-Meme Comp[GLB]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Kakania, Mercuria, Semmelweis, Isolde
• For those who want to use Pioneer as a generic support.
• Run Pioneer as a tank and slowly scooch him up to the front as he reaches full Moxie. Upon his Ultimate, have him swap with Windsong to give her +20% Crit Rate and Crit DMG for a turn.
• With her short burst window and Excess-Crit-Rate-to-Crit-DMG conversion, Windsong can take full advantage of Pioneer’s potent 1-turn buff. She also doesn’t mind Pioneer taking up AP as much as other DPS characters since she needs time to stack up her Skill 2’s cards.
• In 4-P content, Kakania can double Windsong’s damage and help Pioneer survive.
• Mercuria is also a very potent option. Since Pioneer’s [Roving Salesman] and Vila’s [Song of Passion] are [Pos Status]es, they can stack with Mercuria’s generic Crit Rate and Crit DMG [Stats Up] buffs. With Mercuria’s Rank 3 [Self Focusing] and Crit DMG buff at 9 [Cosmic Energy], the three characters can add a combined +80% Crit Rate and +90% Crit DMG to Windsong during her burst turn if done right.
• Semmelweis can offer a much-needed DMG Dealt buff to avoid diminishing returns on Crit DMG, while still offering a good +15% Crit Rate through [Fresh Blood].
• Another option is to run Spathodea and Isolde, as Spathodea also has Excess-Crit-Rate-to-Crit-DMG conversion. Vila’s buff is less potent on Reality characters, though.

Bulletmaxxing [CN]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• Bulletmaxxer: Pioneer
• For people who really, really want to have 5 [Bullet] types in Lopera’s Array—no matter the cost.
• As mentioned earlier, Lopera’s Array caps out at 5 [Bullet] types, and the only way to get all 5 on a character as of 2.2 is Pioneer. The goal is to get them all onto Lucy. (Tennant and Mondlicht technically also work for this, if you don’t have Lucy and want to suffer through this comp anyway).
• Lucy gets [Charged Ammunition] on her Ultimate.
• Mr. Duncan gives [Acid Bullet] and [Shrapnel Bullet] to all teammates using his [Counter]. (Note that Pioneer’s [Taunt] may interfere with Mr. Duncan’s [Counter] riposte if enemies only have single-target attacks.)
• Lopera grants all allies in front of her [Incantation Bullet]s and all allies behind her [Ritual Bullet]s. Deploy Lucy on one side of Lopera and Pioneer on the other. After Lucy gets bullets from Lopera, have Pioneer use his Ultimate to switch places with Lucy so she can get the other type (despite [Ritual Bullet] being entirely useless to her).
• Deploy Lopera’s Array and start killing things using Lucy, armed with the knowledge that you squeezed 10% more excess-Crit-Rate-to-Crit-DMG conversion from Lopera by using Pioneer.