Should you pull Lucy?

We don’t usually say yes or no outright, but in this case most likely yes. Lucy is widely considered the best general damage dealer in the game. Currently in Global she is only matched by Windsong, and performs at an optimal level regardless of what type of content or team (unless you specifically build against her) you slot her into.

Note that she is a Limited character and, unlike normal new releases, will not be added to the standard pool after 3 patches. In addition, her banner has a separate pity system from the normal banners and it will run for the entire duration of the patch (even through phase 2, alongside Kakania).

Lucy’s core was a piston that was a part of the Watt steam engine prototype. Born into an era which saw the birth of science as a profession, Lucy relentlessly pursues scientific development and pays attention to nothing else. The common expressions of humanity—culture, customs, status, even manners—things that matter to most humans, hold no value to her unless they can be proven to have some demonstrable scientific benefit.

Having changed out her steam engine for an electric battery, Lucy’s abilities and capacity have been greatly increased, yet it came with a price: anxiety. She cannot help herself from frantically searching for the nearest socket whenever her batteries get low.

Having been convinced that scientific inquiry requires a certain degree of “camaraderie,” Lucy has made efforts to improve morale at LaPlace by developing a “sense of humor”. Her efforts thus far have been less than successful… but science is a process of repeated iteration. One day she will discover the formula—her next joke is already in development.

Lucy is a 6-star Arcanist of the Intelligence Afflatus. Both its second 6-star and the second True Limited character, Lucy promises to be a force to be reckoned with. Her kit is focused around one thing and one thing only: damage, and a lot of it. Let's see what's in store.

The core of Lucy's kit is [Advancement]. After Lucy or allies gain Moxie/Eureka (or under certain conditions), Lucy obtains stacks of [Dynamo]. Whenever a total of 20 stacks of [Dynamo] has been gained (note, gained, not currently carrying), Lucy can upgrade one of her two basic skills or her extra incantation for the rest of the battle, improving their modifiers and adding additional effects. In addition, her insights give her access to [Leadership], which is a new Force Field type effect (an effect that only visually applies to Lucy but affects her whole team) that grants them additional Afflatus Advantage DMG Bonus.

"Power of Speed" is Lucy's first Incantation. It's a simple single-target nuke that consumes [Dynamo] to deal additional damage. After being upgraded through [Advancement], it becomes a 2-target Mass attack that can consume [Dynamo] to deal additional damage. Lucy's second Incantation, "Electric Surge", is a 2-target Mass attack that consumes [Dynamo] to hit one additional target, with its damage increasing the fewer enemies are hit. When upgraded through [Advancement], it starts dealing additional Genesis DMG.

Lucy actually has a secret 3rd Incantation called "Conservation of Energy", which counts as a rank 2 Incantation. Her Insight 3 causes her to, after casting her Ultimate or when an enemy dies, cast "Conservation of Energy" which is a Mass attack that has additional Penetration Rate. After being upgraded through [Advancement], it deals additional damage to enemies below 50% HP, bypasses [Dodge] and does not trigger Reflect or Riposte effects.

Lucy's Ultimate, called "A Step Forward", applies a lot of effects at once, so here goes. It:

• Grants Lucy [Pragmatist], which causes her to have Afflatus Advantage against any Afflatus, and the damage bonus is increased.
• Grants Lucy a stack of [Data Iteration], which is a stacking +ATK buff that is also gained by killing enemies (Insight 3).
• Grants Lucy 2 stacks of [Charged Ammunition], each layer granting 5 [Dynamo] after attacking.

It also upgrades through [Advancement] if all other Incantations have been upgraded, in which case it:

• Grants Lucy 2 stacks of [Overcharged Ammunition] instead of [Charged Ammunition], this buff grants 10 [Dynamo] per layer.
• Also grants +1 Moxie.

Gameplay:

How does one play Lucy?

The answer to this is: who cares, because in the time it took you to ask that, she already killed everyone and is sweeping the floor clean. Lucy is a very simple damage dealer. A majority of the text in her kit is either dedicated to telling you what her upgraded skills do or extra nonsensical effects that were added just to make her more powerful than she already was. Press buttons, enemies take damage, gain [Dynamo], press them again, they die. Upgrade skills? Now the enemies die faster.

She does have some interesting things about her, though. “Conservation of Energy” triggering primarily on enemy kills means she'll be more suited for either multi-wave stages or Raids with additional mobs (Gorgon, Isle Master, Gold). Lucy also has some interesting synergies with Arcanists that gain Moxie or Eureka quickly. In addition, once upgraded, “Conservation of Energy” straight up bypasses [Dodge] and stops triggering [Counter] effects, which further opens up her usage even in pesky fights where [Dodge] is present. On the other hand, it also counts as a rank 2 Incantation, meaning that it helps characters who feed off of that such as Mercuria with her [Cosmic Energy].

Now, we have characters that can output a lot of multi-target damage, so what sets Lucy apart? Not much besides her sky-high numbers, however, she has access to [Pragmatist], which is the first known instance of a character being able to completely bypass the Afflatus chart and force her own Afflatus Advantage. This means that no matter what content you slot her into, she will function, do a lot of damage, and overall just steamroll the content with minimal effort. In terms of generalist Damage Dealers, Windsong is the only one capable of rivaling her at the time of writing this.

Pros & Cons

Lucy works fine at P0.

Lucy’s Portraits are all fairly viable, though the ones to look out for would either be the ones increasing the damage of “Conservation of Energy” (Portrait 1) or those that improve [Data Iteration] (Portrait 3 & 5), as ATK buffs are hard to come by and from her Portraits Lucy can stack it to a ridiculously high percentage.

Lucy has no strict “gimmick” and plays well with almost every Support in the game that doesn’t explicitly revolve around Mental DMG or the likes. However, she does like teammates that can either provide Moxie/Eureka for [Advancement] or Incantation Might buffs for [Conservation of Energy].

Notable synergies include:

37

Vila

6

Getian

Future notable synergies:

Mercuria

Here are the best Psychubes you can use on Lucy:

Steps Forward

Blasphemer of Night

Knock on the Door

Steps Forward (signature), Blasphemer of Night (if proccable), Knock On The Door (short battles)

Level 7

Level 9

Level 10

Standard Teams

Reality DEF Is Not A Real Stat[GLB]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Getian
• The best option in terms of fighting enemies with high Reality DEF. Isolde and Getian’s stackable Reality DEF shred greatly improves Lucy’s potential damage even against high DEF enemies and their constant attacks help with increasing the chances of triggering “Conservation of Energy” through mob kills. Vila synergizes extremely well with Lucy also by providing Moxie/Eureka and also enhancing “Conservation of Energy” damage by adding to its damage modifier.

Imagine Playing The Game[CN]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Kakania
• Essentially a perfectly synergistic team. Lucy is one of the few characters who can utilize a Portrait 0 Mercuria due to “Conservation of Energy” counting as an Incantation, which helps stack [Cosmic Energy] (she also provides Incantation Might with it at 16+ stacks). Vila, of course, helps by providing Moxie/Eureka for [Advancement] and extra bonuses to the “Conservation of Energy” modifier while Kakania solidifies the defensive core of the team while adding [Solace], an ATK buff, on top of Lucy’s [Data Iteration].

Lucy Budget [GLB]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Lorelei
• A Lucy team composed entirely of 5-stars, despite the fundamental “difference” in quality, this team holds up. Bkornblume provides consistent Reality DEF shred and DMG Taken increases with good DMG output to boot while Lorelei assists with additional DMG Dealt and Crit DMG buffs. Lorelei also provides defensive (de)buffing in the form of [Weakness] and DMG Taken reduction while Yenisei closes it out with extremely high healing output, powerful shields and access to [Immunity].