Solo Leveling: AriseCha Hae-InInformation and Guide

Cha Hae-In is a Crit-stacking damage dealer, whose damage output is impressive, beating most of the other damage dealers in the game and it's not even close. She also can prevent the enemies from healing themselves, which is a great utility to possess in some battles.

The first character released alongside the Global launch of the game, Cha Hae-In (or Cha for her friends), is a crit based damage dealer focused on short and frequent burst windows of very high damage, making her a force to be reckoned with in almost every content the game has to offer.

Cha's entire kit revolves around her first ability, [The Dancer]. This skill, when landing a Critical hit, enables her to chain the attack as many times as the animation permits within a 3-second window. The skill also applies a debuff on any enemy hit, increasing the chance of them receiving a Critical Hit and boosting the damage of Critical Hits from entire team. Furthermore, Cha gains stackable Attack and Crit Damage buffs, setting her up optimally for her other skills.

Her other skills, while more straightforward, are still impactful. [Sword of Light] inflicts an Unrecoverable debuff, preventing any enemy hit from healing for 30 seconds. Her ultimate ability, [Light of the End], is a devastating combo finisher that deals massive damage once the enemy is fully debuffed and Cha is buffed with her previous abilities.

Every advancement of Cha reinforces those synergies, as they will all either increase Cha's damage or crit rate, making each advancement a welcome boost, culminating in the transformation of Cha from a dps/burst hybrid to a massive nuke machine with her A5 potentially doubling the power of her Ultimate.

Cha's exclusive weapon, Sword of Light, holds up to its name, dazzling players with impressive damage boosting capabilities. Everything that Cha wants is in this weapon: improved damage for her spammable skills, and a ramping buff that will make each subsequent hit of her combo a bit stronger than the last, which will also apply to the Ultimate thanks to the fairly long duration of the buff. Every advancement of the weapon will be welcome and is reminiscent of Cha's own advancements, every upgrade is good without a particular milestone being strictly mandatory for her to shine. It all depends on where you're at, and what your goals are.

When it comes to gear, Cha almost suffers from having too many viable options. The 8-piece Burning Curse set is the best choice, providing a universal damage boost that her kit lacks. However, her incredible synergy with Crit-related stats makes the Toughness set another great option, especially if achieving a high Crit rate is challenging. The Armed set is also a worthwhile consideration for armors. A combination of 2-piece Curse and 2-piece Toughness sets are solid options when transitioning to a full 8-piece set, improving both Damage and Crit Rate while allowing room for 4-piece jewelry sets.

For those, Champion on the Field is a strong option as Cha's ability to stack its buff is second to none and will bring her a valuable Attack buff. The expert set is another strong contender that will shine mostly in the Path of Destruction content, as it's the only place where Cha will be able to reliably stack it to a reasonable point.

Look to maximize your Crit stats, along with Attack (flat/%) from main and sub stats. Damage Increase and Defense Penetration are always good but have diminishing returns, so get a few rolls on those but do not all-in into those stats.

For Team Composition, Min Byung-Gu (referred to as Min) is without a doubt Cha's best friend. In fact, he's probably her only friend but that's okay because he's really that good of a friend. Min not only improves damage by debuffing the enemy and buffing his teammates, he even boosts Crit Rate and Crit Damage. To top it all off, Min brings to the table a very valuable heal that will greatly help Cha as she finds herself quite vulnerable to enemy hits when performing her relatively long string of abilities. A fully built A5 Min with high Crit Damage and his massive Ult damage boost will make Cha's already strong Utlimate even more amazing. Truly bosom buddies.

Light Baek is an older brother figure of sort, being a very effective breaker and bringing yet another method of boosting Cha's damage in the form of a defense down debuff, coupled with being a natural Burning Greed set wearer that will boost Crit stats even more.

Alicia is also to consider when no break is needed, as any form of hard CC will be beneficial to Cha, on top of the Ice Body Armor amply buffing Crit stats when Alicia's A1.

Should you pull?

At the time of writing this review, it's hard not to recommend rolling for Cha. Her damage output is impressive, she's easy to use, and each advancement will noticeably enhance her performance.

When it comes to our expectations for the future, Cha should remain a strong damage option for Light teams but the possibility of the first "festival related" unit Go Gunhee being a Light character makes it hard to recommend going all in for her as of now. Still having her at 1 or 3 Advancement will make every Light advantaged content much easier, and her burst potential lets her remain relevant in Battlefield of Time even in the midst of the current Core Attack meta.

Currently, no challenging content specifically requires a Light team, but Cha's permanent availability in the custom banner means that you can always obtain her later if the need arises.

Investment

For Free-to-Play (F2P) players, A1 and A3 are the big milestones to look for. A3 is the advancement letting her remain at the top of the Tierlist next to Alicia, if you're not looking to overperform in scoring content A1 will give you a nice boost to make Cha's combo a bit smoother thanks to the super armor and the increased number of stacks for her self buff.

For Dolphin players, A3 will be the minimum target as otherwise she won't keep up with the new damage dealers recently released, especially if you've obtained multiple copies of those. Aim for A5 but be cautious as Cha is not entirely future proof

For Whale players, A5 with a powerful Min is the only option that will give you a competitive edge in Light advantaged and/or burst content as of now, but if you're unwilling to go that far then leaving her A3 will let her remain useful for most of the general content the game has to offer