Solo Leveling: AriseYoo SoohyunInformation and Guide

Yoo is an on-field dps that can deal a lot of damage from a safe distance. She has the peculiar trait of always dealing fire elemental advantage damage with her S2 and scales with defense penetration, allowing a more diverse building to make the most of your equipment. She scales very well with investment, making her a safe dps to bring in any stage for hunters with a less developed roster.

Our latest fire dps, Yoo Soohyun pairs a couple of great reasons to be a great addition to the roster: great damage and powerful debuffs. What did you expect? Compared to Choi who is more of a switch-in dps, Yoo wants to have enough time on the field to inflict a lot of damage and has quite a few interesting quirks.

Her standout ability is the buff she applies, named [Spotlight], which enhances her Defense Penetration by 24% and boosts her Damage Increase stat by 24% of her Defense Penetration. This makes her particularly effective against foes with formidable Defense, such as golems. Additionally, Yoo provides a similar benefit to Jinwoo as a support, bolstering their capabilities in battles where enemies boast high Defense stats.

Her second interesting trait is that she can summon adds - her magic firearms - dealing 40% of her attack covering a good area. She will summon these by using her Ultimate OR her QTE, and any hit from the firearms will inflict a stack of [Magic Reaction] on the enemy, increasing the damage taken by 1% stacking up to 20 times. Because of that, while Yoo would like to stya as much as possible on the field, make sure to rotate her properly to refresh the firearms using the QTE as needed.

Furthermore, Yoo's Skill 2 always deals damage as if she has a Fire elemental advantage, significantly enhancing her damage output in any stage. This, combined with her ranged attacks, solidifies her role as an exceptional DPS.

She is already interesting at A0 but A1 really enables her damage potential: when hitting an enemy with her skill 2, Kill Shot, it will also activate Yoo's core attack, reset the cooldown of Kill Shot and providing the [Madness] buff to Yoo. Under [Madness] Kill Shot changes to Hell Fire, her damage increases by 30% and when using Hell Fire she will spawn her [Magic Firearms]. This buff lasts for 6 seconds, but it can setup some tremendous DPS windows.

Yoo's personal weapon, Overdrive, enhances her Defense Penetration and buffs the damage of her Core Attacks, Kill Shot and Hell Fire. This synergy makes Overdrive a highly recommended investment, especially since three copies are available for free during her release event!

Regarding gear choices, Yoo benefits from several set options tailored to her DPS role. For those using 4-piece sets, combinations like Toughness or Armed on the left side with Concentration of Firepower on the right side are recommended. Alternatively, the Solid Foundation set can be viable at higher ascension levels (A3 and above) due to ascensions providing ATK% buffs making Damage% a more interesting stat. For those with access to 8-piece sets, the 8-piece Burning Curse Set is optimal. Otherwise, mixing and matching sets such as 2/8 Burning Curse, 2/4 Toughness, and 4/4 Concentration of Firepower can also maximize her effectiveness. Concentration of Firepower is particularly advantageous for Yoo, enhancing her Basic Skills' damage and reducing cooldowns, while its relative rarity ensures less competition for this beneficial gear.

Teamwise, Yoo works very well with Emma and the third slot is ideally Meilin or Min. You can also run Choi for a super aggressive team and his defense down/burn, but this is a manual play only suggestion as the AI will quickly die without a dedicated support.

Should you pull?

Yoo's damage is very strong and her ability to always hit with elemental advantage means she will never be 'useless' regardless of the content. This alone can be a reason for players heavily invested in the Power of Destruction leaderboards, considering some elements are lacking suitable dps characters. She is also part of the core attack gang, meaning she can also abuse Solid Foundation and Tusk for even higher Numbers. There is no doubt she will help tremendously in reverse mode as well.

As of now, however, there's no content that requires Yoo. The hardest PvE content in the game requires Water hunters and while she performs well in PoD that may not be enough for free to play players. In addition, Choi has been the first pick up hunter and being fire it means quite a few players may have humanity's strongest weapon at high ascension levels. The two units can actually work quite well together, since Choi only requires a little bit of field time to deal most of his damage and debuffs.

However, if you didn't invest in Choi already there is a great chance of Yoo being an absolute superstar in guild content and future workshop of brilliant light floors. They are also gonna release new instance dungeons soon, so it's gonna be hard to tell exactly her place in the meta. We also know that we will get our first hunter festival in August, so this is also another reason to potentially save your resources.

Investment

• For F2P players, aiming for at least A1 ascension is recommended. This upgrade significantly enhances her damage output and ensures relevance over time without requiring extensive resources, as at A0 investment, she will be primarily a support for Jinwoo with lackluster personal DPS.

• Dolphins may find A1 to A3 ascensions beneficial, with A3 providing a notable 24% boost to Aattack, particularly enhancing Yoo's Firearm damage.

• Whales: A5 makes Yoo one of the strongest dps in the game, being able to get up to 80% extra damage on Kill Shot and Hell fire (remember she gets a 30% damage buff between firing up Hell fire!)