After launching the game’s New Year update, SHIFT UP prepares a new Pilgrim Nikke, Scarlet: Black Shadow, to accompany Goddess of Victory: NIKKE‘s latest event. Today, we will discuss Scarlet: Black Shadow’s in-depth guide, focusing on her skills and team synergies. Let’s begin.
After several hours of maintenance, the New Year, New Sword update commenced on December 28, 2023. Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is available on Windows, Android, and iOS.
Looking for more Goddess of Victory: NIKKE content? Be sure to check out other articles that you can visit on our site through the links below:
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Neverland Winter Update Overview
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Ludmilla: Winter Owner Guide
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Tove Character Guide
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Red Hood Character Guide
Scarlet: Black Shadow Combat Overview
Let’s look at Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Nikke Skills to start the guide. As an Attacker Nikke, she has a set of skills that allows her to practically self-sustain herself. However, at the cost of being a selfish DPS unit, she can’t provide offensive buffs or other supporting abilities for her allies.
For starters, her Skill 1, Fleetly Fading: Breakthrough, allows Scarlet: Black Shadow to deal different damage types depending on her shot count. The first effect takes place after three shots, where Scarlet: Black Shadow deals damage to one enemy with the lowest DEF. Subsequently, the sixth shot allows her to damage all enemies within her attack range, while the ninth shot allows her to hit all enemies on your screen as distributed damage of up to 750.47% of her final ATK stat.
Meanwhile, her Skill 2, Fleetly Fading: Asura, is pretty straightforward, as this Skill grants Scarlet: Black Shadow with Max Ammunition buff and reloads her magazine when she enters the Full Burst stage.
Lastly, her Burst Skill, Fleetly Fading: Strike, enables Scarlet: Black Shadow to switch her Skillset into a better one for 10 seconds. For instance, her ATK increases by up to 115.12%, and her Charge Damage also receives bonus damage by 150.12%. More importantly, this Burst Skill buffs her Skill 1’s activation condition into 1/2/3 shots respectively.
Overall, Scarlet: Black Shadow is a very great DPS unit to have on your team, as she can easily help clear out bosses that have annoying mechanics such as Mother Whale and Material H, though she does have her counter in PvP Arena, so you should exercise caution there.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As with every Nikkes in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, Scarlet: Black Shadow also has her strengths and weaknesses against different content types within the game, as we have curated in the next part of this guide:
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Scarlet: Black Shadow is currently one of the strongest DPS in Goddess of Victory: Nikke, especially against Bosses | Scarlet: Black Shadow’s DPS might diminish greatly when she’s up against too many enemies at once, as her Skill 1’s effects are not as effective against that many opponents, except for the third effect |
| Has enough inherent buffs in her Skillset, allowing you to be more flexible while making a team composition around Scarlet: Black Shadow | |
| Scarlet: Black Shadow is not omnipotent, as she has many counters to negate her capability in PvP Arena, amongst them is Sakura | |
| Scarlet: Black Shadow is the only Wind Code DPS Nikke that is very viable in every content | As she is a Pilgrim Nikke, you might have a harder time finding her copies to build her to the Maximum Limit Break state |
| She doesn’t require many Max Ammunition buffs from Overload Gears, making her quite flexible in terms of equipment | She needs high investments in her Skills to be a reliable DPS unit, though her Skill 2 does not require as much investment as her other Skills |
Skills Priority
Now that you know Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Skills, it’s time to move on to her Skills Priority. As she is an Attacker Nikke, here is the hierarchy of what you should upgrade first (in descending order):
- Fleetly Fading: Breakthrough: Scarlet: Black Shadow heavily relies on her Skill 1 to dish out the damage against the Raptures, as this Skill makes up more than half of her DPS output. Prioritize this Skill before the other two Skills.
- Fleetly Fading: Strike: The next Skill to prioritize is her Burst Skill, Fleetly Fading: Strike. Her Burst Skill, as previously mentioned, offensive buff that can scale well the more levels you invest in this Skill. Upgrade her Burst Skill after Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Skill 1.
- Snowstorm: Skill 2 has the lowest priority among the three simply because it is not that demanding in terms of Skill levels, unlike her other two Skills. The best stopgap for this Skill is to level it up until level 7.
Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Skills.
Best Equipment Substats
Scarlet: Black Shadow is an Attacker-Class Nikke, so she can only use the corresponding equipment designated for that Class. Scarlet: Black Shadow is one of the DPS units in the game where she can reach her maximal potential if you give her all Overload Gears, so that’s what you should be aiming for in terms of Scarlet: Black Shadow’s gears.
As for the recommended sub-stats, I recommend you to look out for Increase Max Ammunition, Increase Charge Speed, and Increase ATK sub-stats for optimal uptime and damage bursts output for Scarlet: Black Shadow, with Increase ATK sub-stats taking priority.
Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Potential Team Composition
As for her potential teammates, Scarlet: Black Shadow is pretty flexible even as a DPS Nikke, as she can buff herself, and with the right Cube, she can fit in any team composition that you can field. For this Goddess of Victory: NIKKE guide, we will jot down two potential lineups for Scarlet: Black Shadow that can showcase her strength, one for PvE situations, and one for PvP Arena.
Scarlet: Black Shadow Supremacy Team
For this team, we recommend using Liter, Blanc, Scarlet: Black Shadow, Alice, and Noir.
This team is the absolute best team you can field with Scarlet: Black Shadow. She has multiple Nikkes that can back her up, ranging from providing bonus Max Ammunition and refilling it, constant healing from Blanc, and a super strong Charge Speed buff from Alice.
This team should have no problems fighting against Campaign Stages, Interception, Tribe Tower, or other types of PvE content in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE.
Scarlet: Black Shadow PvP Supremacy Team
For this team, we recommend using Noise, Noah, Scarlet: Black Shadow, Rapunzel, and Jackal.
This team is practically a variant of the usual Scarlet team in PvP Arena, though depending on their investments, the enemy’s Scarlet might get outclassed and out-damaged by your Scarlet: Black Shadow thanks to her inherent Skill’s effects. This setup is strong enough for attack or defense composition within the PvP Arena, both the Rookie Arena and the Special Arena.
Scarlet: Black Shadow.
Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Overall Power Rank
Now that we’ve gone through Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Skills and her Team potential, it’s time to talk about her usability in every content within the game. In Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, there are many challenges that players must face, such as Interception, Arena, and Tribe Towers.
As stated before, Scarlet: Black Shadow is a top DPS Nikke that can contend with other highly meta units such as Scarlet and Alice, though you must invest in her Skills and Gears to truly maximize her potential.
And so, to close off this Scarlet: Black Shadow Nikke guide, we will provide a table that includes her usability against all game contents, including Interception and PvP Arena, to provide insight into what types of content she’s strong in and which are the ones you should avoid using her.
Power Rank Table
| Type of Content |
Usability Rank (E – SS) |
Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign Stages (Early) | SS | If you’re still in the Early Campaign Stages (Chapters 1 – 16), Scarlet: Black Shadow absolutely shreds any enemies that are available during these Stages, even without the correct support Nikkes or optimal gears, as her Skills are already adequate to allow her dishing outstanding damage against the Raptures. |
| Campaign Stages (Late) | A | Starting in Campaign Stages Chapter 17+, Scarlet: Black Shadow is still great, though there might be some Stages where she falters a bit due to the enemies’ numbers exceeding her damage capacity. |
| PvP Arena | S | Scarlet: Black Shadow can contend against other top PvP teams if you have the right investments, gears, and other Nikke units in your team lineup. You should use her here following our recommendation earlier, though you can slightly mix it up with other Nikkes, such as replacing Rapunzel with Biscuit. Still, that will dwindle the team’s power. |
| Interception | SS | Interception is where Scarlet: Black Shadow shines the best, as her Skill 1’s effects can only impact the Interception Bosses, thus allowing the distributed damage to deal a massive amount of damage against them. |
| Tribe Tower | SS | Pilgrim Tower is the hardest Tower to climb due to how the Pilgrim Nikkes themselves are rare commodities that are hard to come by. Still, if you have Scarlet: Black Shadow, pairing her with Modernia or Red Hood, alongside Dorothy, Rapunzel, and Noah should help you breeze through the Pilgrim Tower. |
Should You Pull for Scarlet: Black Shadow?
It is undeniable that Scarlet: Black Shadow is a very powerful Nikke and would be a great addition to any of your current teams. Her nature as a Rocket Launcher Nikke might deter some people from pulling for her, but I can assure you, her Skills are simply too great to pass out on.
From inherent offensive buffs, down to dealing high damage with her Skill 1, Scarlet: Black Shadow can do almost everything by herself, and her maximum damage ceiling can be raised higher with the right Support Nikkes to help her.
And so, to answer the question, yes, you should definitely pull for Scarlet: Black Shadow. Not only she is a Pilgrim Nikke, the best faction in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, but she is also a Wind Code DPS Nikke, something that is still rare within the game as of now, which shoots up her value even more. You can skip her for future Nikkes that are more to your liking, it is certainly fine, however, at the very least, get one copy of Scarlet: Black Shadow to diversify your choices of DPS Nikkes. I didn’t regret pulling for her, and I’m certain you won’t regret it too.
Therefore, we place Scarlet: Black Shadow as an SS-Tier Nikke as our final verdict.
Scarlet: Black Shadow’s Final Verdict.
And that’s the character guide for Scarlet: Black Shadow for Goddess of Victory: NIKKE.
