Sparkle, Bronya or Sunday - who is better?

Foreword

In this guide we’ll briefly offer a comparison between Sunday, Bronya and Sparkle to highlight their benefits and shortcomings. Light Cones are not included in this evaluation and can add further boosts to each character, but we have added a section at the end that gives additional information about the LC impact.

• All characters have 220% CRIT DMG.
• All characters are E0.
• Bronya is the -1 Speed variant.
• Sunday is the -1 Speed variant.
• Sparkle is the Hyperspeed variant.

Buffs

Sunday buffs

Skill:

• Action Advance: 100%
• DMG%: 30% (2 turns)
• Summon DMG%: 50% (2 turns)

Ultimate:

• Energy: +40
• CRIT DMG%: 78% (3 turns)

Passive:

• CRIT Rate%: 20%

SP Economy: SP Neutral (Assumes you get hit once every 3 actions to get the missing energy)

Bronya Buffs

Skill:

• Action Advance: 100%
• DMG%: 66% (1 turn)

Ultimate:

• ATK%: 55% (2 turns)
• CRIT DMG%: 55% (2 turns)

Passive:

• DMG%: 10%

SP Economy: SP Negative

Sparkle buffs

Skill:

• Action Advance: 50%
• CRIT DMG%: 98% (1.5 turn)

Ultimate:

• DMG%: 30% (2 turns)

Passive:

• ATK%: 15%
• Mono Quantum ATK%: 15%
• DMG%: 18%

SP Economy: SP Positive (Slightly)

Advance

When it comes to Advance, Sunday’s is the most powerful and the clear winner but only if you’re playing him in a summoner team. Outside of summoner teams his Advance is identical in power to Bronya’s with Sparkle’s being the weakest. Sunday and Bronya are both effective in the -1 and Hyperspeed playstyles but Sparkle is more limited to the Hyperspeed playstyle due to her weaker advance.

• 
  Sunday - 100% +100% summon
• 
  Bronya - 100%
• 
  Sparkle - 50%

Crit DMG

Sparkle and Sunday both have strong CRIT DMG buffs they can keep active at all times on their carry with Sparkle having a slight edge in most cases. Bronya’s CRIT DMG boost is weaker and has poor uptime due to its 2 turn duration, being tied to her allies turns and triggering from her Ultimate. Sunday does not have this issue as his Ultimate is based on his own turns with a longer duration.

• 
  Sunday - 78% (Perma uptime)
• 
  Bronya - 55% (Poor uptime)
• 
  Sparkle - 98% (Perma uptime)

Crit Rate

Sunday is the only one of the three with a CRIT RATE buff and it’s a massive one applying in any team. This buff more than makes up for his lack of ATK% buffs and for most characters is even preferable.

• 
  Sunday - 20% (Perma uptime)
• 
  Bronya - 0%
• 
  Sparkle - 0%

DMG%

Bronya has the strongest DMG% boost but it isn’t always fully active due to her Skill's 1 turn duration clashing with her -1 Speed playstyle, resulting in half the carries attacks being unbuffed. Sparkle can maintain her buff by Ulting the carry on their turn and Sunday’s buff lasts 3 turns, ensuring it’s always active. Bronya is most powerful if you can align powerful cooldowns during her short window, Sparkle is most consistent and Sunday has the weakest DMG% outside of summoner teams in which he smashes everyone.

• 
  Sunday - 30% (80% including Summon) (Perma uptime)
• 
  Bronya - 66% (Half uptime or Less) + 10% (Perma uptime)
• 
  Sparkle - 48% (Perma uptime)

ATK%

Similar to her CRIT DMG% buff, Bronya’s ATK% buff suffers the same fate, being tied to her Ultimate which results in poor uptime. Sparkle provides a weak ATK% buff in rainbow teams but a much stronger one in Mono Quantum teams. Sunday has no ATK% buff but more than makes up for this in other areas.

• 
  Sunday - 0%
• 
  Bronya - 55% (Poor Uptime)
• 
  Sparkle - 15% (Perma uptime) + 30% Mono Quantum Only (Perma uptime)

Energy Regen

Also unique to Sunday is his Energy Regen, adding even more value to his kit where he was already competing nicely.

• 
  Sunday - 40 (Every 3 actions)
• 
  Bronya - 0
• 
  Sparkle - 0

Skill Points

Perhaps most important part of the comparison. Sparkle is slightly SP Positive, but offset by the fact she can’t fully play within the -1 playstyle to take advantage of it due to her 50% Advance. Bronya is very SP negative making the -1 playstyle challenging but doable in a limited amount of teams. Sunday is fully capable of the -1 playstyle and is SP neutral (assuming Sunday gets hit once every 3 actions to get the missing energy - which in the current AoE heavy meta, will happen even more often), unlocking the playstyle for vastly more teams than Bronya allowed.

• 
  Sunday - SP Neutral
• 
  Bronya - SP Negative
• 
  Sparkle - SP Positive (Slightly)

Comparison

• 
  Sunday vs
  
  Bronya - Sunday is the clear winner, offering many of the same things as Bronya on top of some absurdly potent extras, all while consuming no Skill Points compared to her (Bronya is the Skill Point abyss).
• It must be noted that as a standard character, pulling Bronya’s Eidolons is only a matter of time for long time players. With them, Bronya can regain some ground but Sunday’s advantage is that big, that he wont be overcome in all but the most specific situations.
• 
  Sunday vs
  
  Sparkle - In teams that prefer a Hyperspeed advancement, Sparkle can more or less hold her own against Sunday. Sparkle also provides very different access to Skill Points, offering plenty SP up-front, but consuming them herself - compared to Sunday who offers none and essentially uses none (without his Signature). This can be valuable for teams that need Skill Points at the start of fights. While Sparkle has places where she thrives, Sunday without a doubt holds the top spot in more teams - he is the clear winner in any summoner team, energy hungry team or team who wants to take advantage of the -1 playstyle.

Signatures

When considering each character with their signature Light Cones, all of them gain a boost to their capabilities. Here are the changes they make - if you have access to these make sure to factor them into your evaluation of the characters.

• 
  Sunday - Adds a 45% DMG boost to Sunday’s carry permanently and also offers him a constant stream of Skill Points as he uses his Skill and Ultimate. This Cone allows Sunday to match Sparkle’s status as Skill Point positive, improving his flexibility further while also bolstering his DMG% bonuses which outside of summoner teams is low.
• 
  Bronya - Softens Bronya’s Skill Point requirements slightly and adds a further 30% DMG boost to her skill, boosting it from 66% to 96%. This Cone helps make SP more manageable and bolsters her buffs but doesn’t help with her uptime or bringing her any closer to her competition - as a standard Cone her competition can also use it to great effect.
• 
  Sparkle - Grants the wearer 32% CRIT DMG boosting their scaling abilities and offers the entire team a permanent 10% CRIT RATE and 28% CRIT DMG boost. With her Signature equipped, Sparkle’s CRIT buffing capabilities are seriously amped up giving her by far the most CRIT DMG and a bit of CRIT RATE to gain some ground on Sunday.

TL;DR

Who is better between the three comes down to the damage dealer of your choice and the specific setup you're using, but in most cases, Sunday will be the primary choice in Hypercarry teams moving forward - with or without his Signature, but without you will have to rely on getting hit from time to time to achieve the 3-turn rotation.