Anaxa - First Impressions

Anaxa's Profile

Anaxa is a 5★ character from the Wind element who follows the Path of Erudition. The Grove of Epiphany, where knowledge flourishes and philosophers are born. Yet here stands Anaxagoras the blasphemer, the Chrysos Heir who challenges the Coreflame of Reason: Would you truly embrace infamy and defy prophecy, driving the thorns of doubt into the Sacred Tree of wisdom?

Anaxa's Quote

"My name is Anaxagoras, one of the Seven Sages of the Grove of Epiphany, founder of the Nousporists. Now, don't make me repeat the following again. Rule number one: Do not call me Anaxa. Rule number two: Never interrupt me — silence is golden. Remember that."

Anaxa's Intro

Anaxagoras, the man bold enough to face countless people and say 'No, you are all wrong, actually'. Thankfully, compared to other 3.x characters like Castorice, his kit is much easier to understand and dissect. He's a phenomenal universal DPS whose prowess with Weakness Implant is both coveted and envied (if you know, you know), being able to casually implant every Weakness in the game onto everything on the field and deal even more damage as a result.

Anaxa is a remarkable Erudition character with an emphasis on Weakness Implant, allowing him to be played not only as a Main DPS but also as a Sub DPS. He deals increased DMG to targets with extra Weakness Types and provides additional bonuses to himself and the team based on the number of Erudition units in the team. He is extremely flexible as a character, being able to be used in almost any team due to his ability to mass implant weaknesses onto enemies, extremely good Energy economy, and high personal damage output. After some initial ramp-up, he can even be played SP neutral or positive at the cost of some damage, making him a fantastic pairing for even SP inefficient DPS.

First, let's go over Anaxa's kit - so stats, skills, major traces and minor traces - and explain how they work.

Anaxa's Stats (level 80)

Anaxa's Skills

A pretty normal Basic Attack that deals damage to a single target. Still, thanks to Anaxa's passive, it will implant a random Weakness on the hit enemy.

Anaxa's Skill will deal up to 70% ATK to a single enemy, and then 4 additional single hits to a random enemy. This is a Bounce skill, so it will function the same way as Asta's and Sampo's Skills, only here, instead of it being completely random, Anaxa's Skill Bounce will prioritise Bouncing to enemies that have not yet been hit by this instance of his Skill.

The total damage it can deal is 350% ATK spread across all the enemies, making it quite potent in single-target scenarios. It may look underwhelming in AoE at only 70% per enemy, but the Skill actually has an additional effect that grants a 20% DMG bonus for every enemy on the field; this means the single-target damage is slightly higher than advertised, and that the AoE damage against 5 targets has a 100% DMG bonus, making this Skill effective against any number of enemies.

The Ultimate is also extremely funny. Anaxa will inflict the Sublimation state onto all enemies and deals up to 160% ATK to them as well. During the Sublimation state, the enemies will be simultaneously inflicted with... Let me just check my notes... Yeah, every single Weakness Type currently in the game. That's Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, and Imaginary.

This Sublimation state only lasts until the start of the targets' next turn, but if they don't have Control RES, they will also be unable to act in the Sublimation state. I'd say to make sure to make it count, but even with an Energy cost of 140, Anaxa gets so much Energy back that you'll probably get another shot sooner than you expect.

Anaxa's Talent will inflict 1 random Weakness Type onto enemies for every 1 hit he lands, prioritising Weaknesses that the enemy doesn't already have. Now, the reason for the Bounce Skill becomes apparent. Using his Skill against 5 enemies will Implant a random Weakness into every single foe, and rather amusingly, using it against a single enemy will most likely max out the available Weaknesses, making them vulnerable to every Element.

Additionally, if an enemy has at least 5 different Weakness Types while Anaxa is still on the field, Anaxa will automatically inflict them with the Qualitative Disclosure state. Anaxa will deal up to 30% increased DMG to enemies in this state, and when using either a Basic ATK or Skill against such an enemy, he will also automatically use an additional instance of his Skill on the target. This auto Skill usage is completely free, but it does not reactivate this effect.

This means that for simply doing what he was already doing anyway, Anaxa gets to double-up on his Skill uses without expending any extra SP. This extra Skill usage functions exactly the same way as his regular Skill, meaning that even if you hit the only enemy with Qualitative Disclosure, the extra Skill will still Bounce in the same way to all the other foes. Oh, and yes, this extra Skill does also regenerate the exact same amount of Energy, meaning you can be getting as much as 60 Energy every single turn.

Do note, however, that Implanting a Weakness is not quite the same as having that Weakness inherently; you do not gain the natural DMG bonus that you would otherwise have, and any existing resistances are not magically thrown aside, so if you're thinking of bringing Himeko to fight Blaze out of Space, you'll be reducing the Toughness now, sure, but you'll still need to contend with the massive Fire RES that enemy naturally has.

The Technique will Terrify enemies, forcing them to flee away from Anaxa, but most importantly, when entering battle against a Terrified enemy, Anaxa will implant a Weakness matching the attackers type to all enemies (in the first wave).

Anaxa's Major Traces

Her Bonus Abilities are extremely useful and here's what they do:

• A2 will regenerate an additional 10 Energy whenever he uses his Basic ATK. This means that there is no Energy penalty for choosing to be SP positive with Anaxa, and especially when factoring in his free follow-up Skill from his Talent, Anaxa is now able to regenerate 60 Energy consistently, regardless of if he used a Skill Point or not.
• Additionally, if there are no enemies with Qualitative Disclosure on the field, Anaxa will automatically regenerate 30 Energy at the start of his turn. This effect coupled with the last means that Anaxa is guaranteed to always be getting 60 Energy on every turn, no matter what, making his Energy economy exceptionally good.
• A4 will provide bonuses based on the number of Erudition characters in the team. If there is 1 Erudition character (himself alone), Anaxa will increase his own CRIT DMG by a whopping 140%. With this he becomes very serviceable as a main DPS with this Trace active.
• However, when there are at least 2 Erudition characters in the team, Anaxa will instead increase the DMG dealt by all allies by 50%. This is a permanent and very potent buff, and since Anaxa himself also benefits from this, this boosts Anaxa’s value as a sub-DPS for other Erudition main DPS's significantly. Note, you can only have either the first or second buff active at one time, not both.
• A6 is a fun one. For every 1 different Weakness Type on an enemy, Anaxa gets to ignore 4% of their DEF when dealing damage. At the cap of 7 Weaknesses, Anaxa gets to permanently ignore 28% of the enemy's DEF when hitting them, which is a staggeringly powerful bonus to have on a character by default.

Anaxa's Minor Traces

CRIT Rate

+12%

HP

+10%

Wind DMG

+22.4%

Now let's check Anaxa's Eidolons and how they improve his performance.

Anaxa's Eidolons

Eidolons reviewed:

• E1 offers a 16% DEF Reduction when using his Skill, and an extra Skill Point once per battle. The 16% DEF Reduction is a minor boost without additional sources of DEF Reduction, but it gets stronger when stacking it (such as for Anaxa himself with 28% DEF Ignore through his Traces).
• E2 reduces all enemies' All-Types RES by 20%, and triggers the Talent's Weakness Implant when they enter battle. The extra Weakness Implant paired with his Technique can Implant 2 additional Weakness Types at the start of battle to immediately put enemies under "Qualitive Disclosure" to trigger the extra Skill from his Talent, and the All-Type RES is a simple and permanent ~20% DMG boost for all of his teams, making it a strong Eidolon to pick up although not cheap.
• E4 provides him with 60% ATK. Not worth investing into unless it’s for Eidolon 6.
• E6 provides a final 130% multiplier to all of his DMG (it's a straight up a true 30% damage multiplier that isn't diluted by other stats), and allows him to activate both the 140% self CRIT DMG and 50% team-wide DMG boost from the Trace. Altogether a massive increase to his DMG.

Disclaimers:

• When playing Anaxa with an ATK based amplifier like Robin his E4's value becomes significantly diminished due to dilution.
• We calculated Anaxa DPS output using his signature Light Cone (Life Should Be Cast to Flames S1) and (The Great Cosmic Enterprise S5). If you want to check how other Light Cones perform on him, check the Light Cone section (or the early access guide),
• Also, considering tha Anaxa can be played as Main DPS and Sub-DPS, we have prepared two sets of calculations: one where he is spamming his Skill (which makes him SP negative) and another one where he weaves in some Basic Attacks (and thus becoming SP Neutral).
• The simulation showcases characters damage potential in the 5 cycle turn limit of Memory of Chaos against 1, 3 and 5 targets. The section below has all the rules listed.

Anaxa [1 target]

E6

1 623 086 dmg321%

1 385 368 dmg274%

E5

1 081 048 dmg214%

917 868 dmg181%

E4

994 995 dmg197%

843 416 dmg167%

E3

798 360 dmg158%

687 128 dmg136%

E2

783 665 dmg155%

675 424 dmg133%

E1

653 054 dmg129%

562 854 dmg111%

E0

581 953 dmg115%

506 199 dmg100%

Anaxa [3 targets]

E6

2 162 100 dmg324%

1 809 219 dmg271%

E5

1 449 446 dmg217%

1 208 054 dmg181%

E4

1 351 957 dmg203%

1 123 544 dmg169%

E3

1 084 778 dmg163%

915 348 dmg137%

E2

1 051 038 dmg158%

889 284 dmg133%

E1

875 865 dmg131%

741 070 dmg111%

E0

780 504 dmg117%

666 477 dmg100%

Anaxa [5 targets]

E6

2 701 114 dmg327%

2 233 069 dmg270%

E5

1 817 843 dmg220%

1 498 241 dmg181%

E4

1 708 919 dmg207%

1 403 673 dmg170%

E3

1 371 195 dmg166%

1 143 567 dmg138%

E2

1 318 410 dmg159%

1 103 144 dmg133%

E1

1 098 675 dmg133%

919 287 dmg111%

E0

979 056 dmg118%

826 755 dmg100%

Relic Set

Scholar Lost in Erudition

(2)

Increases CRIT Rate by 8%.

(4)

Increases DMG dealt by Skill and Ultimate by 20%. After using Ultimate, additionally increases the DMG dealt by the next Skill by 25%.

Planetary Sets

Rutilant Arena

(2)

Increases the wearer's CRIT Rate by 8%. When the wearer's current CRIT Rate reaches 70% or higher, the wearer's Basic ATK and Skill DMG increase by 20%.

Relic Stats

Body

CRIT Rate

Feet

Speed

Planar Sphere

ATK%

Link Rope

ATK%

Substats:

CRIT Rate (36.8%), CRIT DMG (64.3%), Speed (13.8)

What is more important - the Signature or Eidolons?

Are you wondering whether you should pull for Anaxa Eidolons or his Light Cone? Then this section is for you!

Anaxa S1 > Anaxa E1 > Anaxa E2

1. Anaxa S1 offers a similar DEF Reduction effect to his E1, with a slightly lower value at 12%. The main benefit of this Light Cone though, is the additional Energy to guarantee 2-turn Ultimates with ATK Rope, on top of the massive DMG boost, while also being a cheaper option than the Eidolon, making it a great pickup for those wanting to further invest into Anaxa. Anaxa without his Signature Light Cone does not generate enough Energy for 2-turn Ultimates, either requiring heavy rng or an Energy Rope which comes at a great cost of losing a significant portion of his personal DMG.
2. Anaxa E1 offers a 16% DEF Reduction when using his Skill, and an extra Skill Point once per battle. The 16% DEF Reduction alone for other allies, is a minor boost without additional sources of DEF Reduction, and only gets stronger when stacking it, such as for Anaxa himself with 28% DEF Ignore through his Traces.
3. Anaxa E2 reduces all enemies' All-Types RES by 20%, and triggers the Talent's Weakness Implant when they enter battle. The extra Weakness Implant paired with his Technique can Implant 2 additional Weakness Types at the start of battle to immediately put enemies under "Qualitive Disclosure" to trigger the extra Skill from his Talent, and the All-Type RES is a simple and permanent ~20% DMG boost for all of his teams, making it a strong Eidolon to pick up although not cheap.

• 
  The Herta - The Herta currently stands at the top of the meta, but requires another Erudition character alongside her - Anaxa is the best character for this role. His Skill can hit all enemies and launches twice every turn, which combined with his AoE Ultimate, generates an absurd amount of Energy for The Herta while also fulfilling her Erudition teammate requirements, providing a 50% teamwide DMG boost, bringing respectable damage to the table, and best of all, implanting all 7 weaknesses on all enemies.
• 
  Tribbie - Anaxa's primarily playstle is acting as a sub-dps in double damage teams, and for that reason Tribbie's team wide RES PEN and DMG Taken% buffs are a potent choice, allowing him to benefit when compared to single target buffers where he would miss out. Another reason Tribbie is fantastic alongside Anaxa is that her RES PEN allows him and his teams to better take advantage of his brute forcing capabilities granted by his weakness implants. Tribbie plus Anaxa make going against non-weak enemies truly quite viable.
• 
  Robin - When Tribbie is otherwise unavailable, Robin can also be a strong choice alongside Anaxa when played in double damage teams thanks to her team wide advancement, great buffs and the fact he can trigger her concerto damage far more frequently than most characters due to performing 2 attacks per action instead of one.
• 
  Sunday - When playing Anaxa as a Hypercarry, Sunday is one of the most powerful partners for him in the usual 135/134 setup, allowing him to rain down an ocean of bullets upon his enemies by performing 4 almost back to back actions and an ultimate all at once. In addition to Sunday's usual action advancement shenanigans, Anaxa very much appreciates his damage amplification buffs as well.

That's the end of the early impressions article for Anaxa and we hope you did enjoy it! As we mentioned in the introduction section, full Anaxa guide will be released and placed on his profile once he's properly available in the game and then he will be also added to our tier list.

Till then!