character from the Supporter class, who wields a Rocket Launcher
weapon and belongs to the Water
element. She's part of the Tetra
faction.
To learn more about Crust check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
To learn more about Crust check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Review
Investment tips
Teams
Profile
Skills
Normal Attack
Normal Attack
Rocket Launcher
Mode: Charge
Ammo: 6
Reload: 2s
■ Affects Target(s).
Deals 61.3% of ATK as damage.
Charge Time: 1 sec.
Full Charge Damage: 250% of damage.
Deals 200% damage when attacking core.
Skill 1
Grill and Boil
Passive
Cooldown: -
■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Maillard status, Affects all allies.
Maillard Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.
■ Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Blanching status. Affects all allies.
Blanching Duration ▲ 2.5 sec.
■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies.
Maillard: ATK ▲ 10% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.
Removes Blanching.
■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies.
Blanching: ATK ▲ 10% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.
Removes Maillard.
Skill 2
Reliable Cooking
Passive
Cooldown: -
■ Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.
Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff.
■ Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status.
Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 10% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff.
■ Activates when entering Full Burst. Affects all targets in Maillard or Blanching status.
ATK ▲ 20% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.
Burst
True Flavor
Active
Cooldown: 20s
■ Affects all allies.
Attack Damage ▲ 20% for 10 sec.
■ Affects all allies when in Maillard status.
Distributed Damage ▲ 60% for 10 sec.
■ Affects all allies when in Blanching status.
Sustained Damage ▲ 10% for 10 sec.
Specialties
Buffer
Voice Actors
ENG
-
JPN
-
KR
-
Gallery
Review
Review
Units like Crust are a blessing in disguise for players because they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Every unit in the last 6 months (apart from Flora) has had a meta use in some way. This exhausts nearly everyone’s gem reserves. Thankfully, Crust, while excelling in her niche, is skippable.
Can you give a brief summary about this unit?
Such an adorable girl should not be tarnished by the blood of combat. Crust is a buffer with cleanse capabilities that can be activated on command. She grants the team with either Maillard or Blanching status effect—which boosts their ATK—and based on the applied status effect, buffs their Sustained DMG▲ or Distributed DMG▲. In Maillard status, her Burst Skill buffs the team's Distributed Damage, whereas in Blanching status, it buffs the team's Sustained Damage. You can check which mode is currently active by looking at the units' status.
Crust also provides the team with an additional buff called Reliable Cooking, which slightly increases DEF. It is applied simultaneously with Maillard or Blanching and lasts 10 seconds. Due to its low value, Reliable Cooking seems to be no more than just a filler buff that acts as a hidden Internal CD for Crust's debuff cleanse, which can only trigger on units without Reliable Cooking. Since Reliable Cooking lasts 10 seconds, Crust's cleanse can therefore be triggered once every 10 seconds, which makes her the best cleanse unit.
In terms of performance, Crust is a highly situational buffer + cleanser B2 unit. When cleanse is not necessary, she is weaker than all of the meta B2 units, but when cleanse is necessary, she can pull ahead. Compared to other cleansers, she stands out by providing a permanent ATK▲ buff and a respectable 20s Burst Skill that grants additional ATK DMG▲ alongside a specific offensive buff. Even in the off-burst position, she can still unconditionally give up to 30% ATK▲, making her a good situational FLEX.
This makes her good for Union Raid against debuffer bosses and may potentially see light in Solo Raid. She may also be used in Tetra Tower to some extent, especially with Bready, as an alternative to the Rouge-Blanc or Blanc-Noir squad.
TL;DR - Not good, not bad; just right in the middle.
Should I get this unit?
Skipping is the wisest choice here . Regular players cannot afford to pull every unit, so take this opportunity to save your gems.
However, if you are overflowing with gems and spend regularly, and are hyper-competitive in Union Raid, then you may find some benefit from pulling one copy of her because of her cleanse. That said, unless ShiftUp releases a new unit that deals a lot of Distributed Damage and fights over Maids as supports with other units, the chance of Crust being used in Solo Raid remains almost zero. We also do not recommend dupes.
We also received questions such as, “I pulled Bready, but I don't have Maids. Should I still skip Crust?” Now, the answer becomes more complicated.
Normally, you should not pull Bready if you don't have Maids, but rerollers and waifu route players present a different case. If you are one of them, then — while we don't recommend pulling and wasting resources on Crust just to make her usable — you may pull a copy to activate your waifu (we know how much Bready is loved by the community). Besides, if your roster is incomplete, getting Crust will definitely help you in Raids and make some use out of Bready, but is it better than just saving and waiting for Maids to come naturally?
Do note that this is likely the last patch before Half Anniversary. Saving gems and Gold Mileage(s) is the most sensible thing to do. Don't let ShiftUp catch you off-guard with a surprising double 1% banner!
Usage Analysis and Tier List
Campaign (LD) - A | Campaign (HD) - A
Crust's buffs are versatile and niche at the same time. Her 30%▲ caster's ATK (that can be triggered off-burst) and 20%▲ ATK DMG makes her stronger than most cope B2. At the same time, she is not better than most meta B2.
However, when Distributed DMG▲ is concerned, she can be a great alternative if you don't have a complete roster. This is most noticeable in Tetra Tower where she only competes with Blanc for the B2 spot. She is also the only unit that can trigger Bready's skills in that game mode. An additional advantage that Crust has over her competitions is that she is an RL user, which has great burst gen potential and is reliable in all ranges.
She does fall off in high deficit gameplay since the game is more demanding of meta units to be used to progress. However, we have a Distributed Damage dealer that is quite meta in Campaign — Scarlet: Black Shadow. This pulls her ahead of the competition slightly. She can also dispel those ATK Debuffer Raptures that are menacing in higher deficits, allowing you to ignore them and kill other mobs first, get debuffed, cleanse the debuffs (even from the off-burst position), then kill them. Or, perhaps use them as wave stallers?
Oh, and Crystal Chamber. If for some reason you don’t have enough MGs to kill its hitcount rock and must take the less ideal debuff route, she might save you.
Bossing - A
Again, situational for that debuff cleanse. Not better than meta B2 when there is no debuff but may pull ahead if there is a limiting debuff like severe Charge Speed▼ (e.g. Thermite B) or Hit Rate▼ against enemies with core (e.g. Heavy Metal & Obelisk), or even ATK▼ (e.g. Crystal Chamber). Since this is more common in Union Raid, this tier is slightly biased toward that mode.
One advantage that she has over other debuff cleansers is her flexibility — she can be used in the in-burst or the off-burst position. Not only that, her Distributed DMG▲ has a really good value, so she can be used effectively with units like Bready and SBS to cleanse Charge Speed debuffs applied to them.
PVP - C
Haha. The only skill Crust has for PvP is her 20% ATK DMG in Burst Skill. Yeah, nothing special. Just a B2 buffer. But, she is RL, so better than some random B2, I guess. Mediocre burst gen is often better than low burst gen.
Kit Analysis
Skill 1
Crust grants the team two alternating types of buffs depending on the actions she performs. These actions cannot be done automatically on auto and require manual play. This also means they will not trigger in PvP. The two types of buffs are:
Maillard : This buff is provided upon landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) without fully charging, granting 10%▲ caster's ATK. When Maillard is present, Crust's Burst Skill will grant the team Distributed Damage▲.
Blanching : This buff is provided by holding Full Charge for longer than 1 sec (≥2 sec. of charging in total), on 3 separate occasions. Imprinted allies obtain 10%▲ caster's ATK and additionally gain Sustained DMG▲ whenever Crust uses Burst Skill.
Obtaining any of the exclusive buffs above will immediately deactivate the other.While Crust requires manual play to activate either buff for the first time, fortunately, she can indefinitely extend it as long as she is continuously Full Charging (given enough investments). This is thanks to the first part of this skill.
Skill 2
When performing the specific actions above, Crust also applies the buff Reliable Cooking to all allies for 10s. This grants 10%▲ DEF and additionally cleanses 1 debuff if those allies don't already have Reliable Cooking.
This means the cleanse can only be triggered at most once every 10 sec., but this is already better than cleansers that need Burst Skill to dispel. It can also be triggered at will!
Since the DEF effect is minuscule, don't bother refreshing it constantly and only do the action(s) listed on Skill 1 for the cleanse.
Crust also grants the team up to 20%▲ caster's ATK upon entering Full Burst whenever there is Maillard or Blanching active. This, alongside Skill 1, yields a total of 30%▲ caster's ATK that can be triggered off-burst.
Buffs triggered off-burst have the advantage of being independent of Burst Skill use, allowing their casters to fill the FLEX position. Maxwell and HelmTr, for example, are two of the most popular off-burst buffers.
Burst Skill
Crust grants the team 20% ATK DMG for 10s — a notable buff — and either Distributed Damage▲ or Sustained DMG▲, depending on whether ther team has Maillard or Blanching respectively.
The Sustained DMG▲ side is rather weak, being only 10%, and SRosanna easily outnumbers that. However, the Distributed DMG▲ one is a force to be reckoned with. It's huge and definitely tangible, especially since it belongs to the Damage Taken▲ group, which rarely gets diluted.
However, it still doesn't warrant getting her just for your Distributed DMG▲ units, when there are more versatile options like Maids, Crown, Mari, Blanc, Grave, Tia Naga, and so on. When there are severely limiting debuffs, however, she might pull ahead even when the Distributed DMG▲ is not necessary.
Investments
Gear Investments
As her supportive ATK buffs scale off caster's base ATK stat, there is merit to overloading her gear and leveling it up as high as possible (esp. the helmet and not the boots). Even so, the credit cost, rock cost, and gear required (they are finite, by the way) make it economically unattractive.
Only invest if you are serious about using her in Union Raids or if you have found a real use for her. Not recommended otherwise.
To save rocks, we also don't recommend rerolling OL lines, although 1~2× Max Ammo is useful for all SRs/RLs for burst gen.
Essential: -
Ideal: 1× Max Ammo
Passable: 1× Max Ammo, 4× ELE, 4× ATK
Priority: Low
Skill Investments
Crust's buffs mainly scale off skill investments. She needs them to compete against meta B2. Even then, that still does not make her better than them universally.
Only invest if you are serious about using her in Union Raids or if you have found a real use for her. Not recommended otherwise.
Skill 1: 3~5
Low value, but ATK is ATK .
Levels increase buffs’ duration extension. May be required for permanent extension, but you can just manually reapply.
Not worth too much investment; 3 to save Blue Books, 4 is standard, and 5 if willing to stretch.
Technically, you can max it out if you want, but we do not advise so.
Skill 2: 3~5
Higher value than S1, so should be prioritized.
But still not worth too much investment.
Similarly, you can max it out if you want, but we do not advise so.
Burst Skill:3~10
Due to the potentially high buff value, investments can be more valuable.
However, the major buff is only for Distributed Damage dealers.
It also is useless off-burst, where she is most likely used in; do not upgrade (unless for CP padding) if you are not planning to use her Burst Skill.
Start at 3 and upgrade as deemed convenient .
Personally, I would leave it at 3~5.
Cube Investments
Most SRs/RLs, especially without Max Ammo OL, are more comfortable to use with Resilience. Bastion is an alternative.
Your generic PvP cubes. Tempering to withstand damage, Quantum if extra burst gen is needed to reach an earlier RL breakpoint, and Adjutant to reach breakpoint sooner.
Doll Investments
A niche character doesn't need that much doll investment, so even a simple R0 doll is fine (+ you can SR5 cheaply in the future if desired). If you want to stretch a bit for the most damage in Union Raid or wherever she is used, go SR0/SR5 but not higher (too expensive). We only want the increased base stat and CP padding. We do not recommend upgrading her at all unless you are finished with meta units. A low priority unit.
Review
Pros
In-burst and off-burst flex support potential especially when cleanse is needed.
Semi-permanent ATK▲ buff available off-burst.
At-will dispel with only 10s cooldown that can be triggered off-burst.
Decent ATK DMG▲ buff with Burst Skill.
Extreme Distributed DMG▲ buff with Burst Skill.
Escapes NPC Jail in 2 weeks.
Cons
Requires manual play to trigger any of her modes at the beginning.
Consequently, except for the 20% ATK DMG on Burst Skill, all her other skills are completely useless in PvP.
Moreover, she still requires lots of investments in all skills to compete with current meta B2; 10/10/10-ing her is by no means close to "worth".
No heals, which can be a problem.
DEF buff is weak.
Sustained DMG▲ buff is extremely poor.
Ratings
A
Story (low deficit)
A
Story (high deficit)
B
Bossing
C
PVP
Investment Tips
Skill Investment
Here's the explanation for all the numbers and colors used in the guide:
10/5/7 means upgrading Skill 1 to lvl 10, Skill 2 to lvl 5, and Burst Skill to lvl 7,
Yellow means the immediate investment when u get the unit. There are 3 reasons for this:
If the unit is Meta or High Priority, it will have a starting investment of more than 1/1/1 (such as 4/4/4) depending on what the unit provides.
If the unit is Medium or Low Priority, 1/1/1 will be mentioned, meaning no immediate investment is required, and you can invest in this character if you need to use it according to the priority listed.
If we deem that a unit does not have usable skills to be meta for any gamemode, no investment will be mentioned.
Blue means minimum investment to take advantage of the Nikke's skills. There are 2 reasons for this:
Sometimes, minimum investments are breakpoints such as for Noir or SAnis.
Sometimes, minimum investments are just the ideal way to progress to upgrade that unit, before moving on to Recommended and High.
Red means recommended investment for F2P players,
Purple means maximum recommended investment, in order to get the best out of the unit. You should only try to reach these investments if you have a surplus of Skill Books leftover.
More info:
The skill investment list below features a lot of Level 4 and 7 because they are easier to understand. Any higher levels will cost a new type of resource.
However, you may choose to upgrade to Level 5 if you need a stronger effect instead of 4, as the increase in Blue Manual cost from Level 4 to 5 is still low. The leap only starts from Level 6 onward.
There is also a leap from Level 3 to 4, so if you want to save a tiny bit of Blue Manuals, then leave at 3 instead of 4.
This Overload (OL) Recommendations and Priority guide unravels in detail everything you need about a character in terms of priority, overload targets (effects), and order of acquisition, alongside some notes to explain our thinking process.
For OL targets and order of acquisition, we decided to divide the target effects into several categories.
Essential: With all gear combined, your unit must have the roll(s) prescribed as a minimum requirement. Example: Charge Speed on Alice. You cannot compromise on these rolls.
Ideal: These rolls will improve your unit's performance significantly. Aim for 2 lines of Essential/Ideal per gear for maximum performance and the best Return on Investment (ROI). If you get 3, you are lucky. You can choose to only have 1 as well to save materials. Example: Elemental Damage on Scarlet.
Passable: Low-priority line that has either limited value or the impact is not as strong as other rolls. Should this show up as a bonus together with a better line, you can choose to keep them. Example: Charge Speed on Red Hood.
Overload effects are ordered by importance from Left to Right, which means anything on the left provides more value than the right. Effects that belong to the same group generate too similar an impact to make a difference (and are sometimes interchangeable). Try to follow this order as faithfully as possible for maximum mileage.
Additional tips:
Priority (PvE/PvP) isn't necessarily lower than Priority (Universal), which has no tag/label. It just indicates that this unit performs only in select types of content.
If a suggested effect has the number ×2 next to it, that means you should get the effect on at least 2 gear. The same idea applies to other numbers.
Focus on obtaining Essential(s) then you can start worrying about optimizing your rolls. Units require these to function, and the impact is too massive to ignore.
If a unit has no Essential(s), that means their performance is not that dependent on OL, but they can still benefit from good effects.
Remember that this is just a recommendation list, and attaining perfection is impossible. You will have to make some compromise, pick whichever rolls you desire the most, and conserve as much material as possible.
Most SRs/RLs, especially without Max Ammo OL, are more comfortable to use with Resilience. Bastion is an alternative.
Teams
Teams
Team 2
Anti-Heavy Metal or Anti-Thermite
Mode: Union / Solo Raids || Element: Wind
Characters
About the team
Here Crust acts as either an alternate B2 buffer or as an Off-Burst B2, providing nearly permanent ▲30% caster's ATK as well as Hit Rate debuff cleanse. Since this Boss has a Core, cleansing the Hit Rate debuff will allow you to land Core shots more consistently, increasing damage dealt. If invested, you can choose to use Crust's Burst Skill to buff Scarlet Black Shadow's Burst Skill during her rotation. However, please do mock/check total damage before confirming as using Crown might still be better. If you don't use Scarlet Black Shadow or any other Distributed Damage Dealers, Crust can be fully relegated to the Off-Burst position.
Substitutions
Liter can be used instead of Rapi: Red Hood. Grave can be used instead of Crown. Asuka: WIlle can be used over Alice.
Team 3
Anti-Obelisk (Fire Weak)
Mode: Union / Solo Raids || Element: Fire
Characters
About the team
Like Heavy Metal, Obelisk also debuffs your team's Hit Rate. Dispelling that debuff will allow your team to land shots more consistently against this Boss, which has a thin body. Since this UR Boss is normally Fire Weak, we use Fire DPS whenever possible. One variant of this team includes Rapi: Red Hood B1 with Asuka/Alice/Rei B3. The other variant has Liter/D: Killer Wife B1 with Rapi: Red Hood B3.
Substitutions
Liter can be used instead of Rapi: Red Hood. Grave can be used instead of Crown. Rapi: Red Hood can be used over Asuka. Asuka or Rei Ayanami can be used over Alice.
Team 4
Cleanse Comp
Mode: Bossing || Element: All
Characters
B3
B3
About the team
There are plenty of Bosses that Crust can be used against. Bosses like Chatterbox pose a great threat to beginners who don't have access to shields or cannot kill missiles consistently, due to no access to Crown, Tia, or built Piercers. Crust, with her debuff cleansing, can allow your team to soak more damage without the fear of instant death due to debuff stacking. In this example, we use generic B1-B2-B3, but you know exactly what to do if you don't have some. Basically any Boss that has a debuff, Crust can be used to cleanse it so that your units deal damage normally!
Substitutions
Liter can be used instead of Rapi: Red Hood. Grave,
Team 5
BREADing in Tetra Tower
Mode: Tribe Tower || Element: All
Characters
B3
flex
About the team
In this comp, we use Crust to activate Bready's skills and launch her to decimate Tetra Tower. While not optimal, Bready still has good AoE capabilities and single-target damage, especially with her massive built-in ATK buff. The FLEXES of this comp can be other B3, like Alice, Anis: Sparkling Summer, Ludmilla Winter Owner, or Noir — or if you fancy — another alternate in-Burst B2 like Blanc. Since Bready's Modes last 50 seconds, you can go 2~3 rotations without using Crust's Burst Skill.
Substitutions
-
Team 6
Anti-Crystal Chamber
Mode: Union / Solo Raids || Element: Electric
Characters
About the team
A copium team for those who can’t break its hitcount rock. In this example, we intentionally remove Crown because Crown is usually enough to kill the rock. Simply put, Crust here acts as either an Off-Burst B2 who allows you to take Crystal Chamber’s debuff route and dispel its debuff rather than taking the hitcount side.
