TriggerBuild and Guide

Trigger is an Electric S-Rank Ranged Agent who specializes in off-field Aftershock damage and Daze, as well as amplifying Stun DMG Multipliers of enemies, thus boosting your whole party’s damage significantly. Without a doubt, all of these traits cement Trigger as a character who synergizes not only with Aftershock characters but powerhouses way beyond that scope, often filling the slot of both a Support and Stun at the same time.

In essence, her gameplay is extremely simplistic which will satisfy the wants of a lot of players: the mechanic at the core of her gameplay is a bar located under her in-battle character icon called “Purge” that she can fill in her “Sniper Stance” using “Silenced Shots”. These three terms cover the majority of how she’s played.

Sniper Stance is entered by holding down Basic Attack. Once this occurs, Trigger gets on the ground and starts automatically shooting ranged Silenced Shots at enemies. These charged shots each charge up to 25 Purge up to a maximum of 100, which means 4 shots fill up the whole bar. This initially appears blue, but can change to an orange-golden colour after using certain skills. During Sniper Stance, Trigger will automatically trigger a Perfect Dodge once every 8 seconds if attacked, and she’s also able to move to the side or backwards in the process. When the free perfect dodge isn’t up, she can still activate a Perfect Dodge by evading in any direction at the right timing. During Sniper Stance and after a Perfect Dodge, she can execute a Counter regardless of whether the dodge is automatic or manual, which deals significant damage to the target while also generating Purge.

Once the Purge bar is filled up, Trigger is ready to switch out and deal Aftershock DMG right away. As an added bonus after exiting Sniper Stance, she’ll automatically cast a “Finishing Move” which deals additional damage.

At this point, if the bar below Trigger is blue and she is switched out of the field, your other characters’ basic skills will be able to trigger “Harmonizing Shots”, consuming 3 Purge a maximum of once every 3 seconds. These are her off-field Aftershock attacks which contribute to a lot of her Daze and damage. However, there are two ways to enhance them.

The first method is by using a heavy attack from either an EX Special, Assist Follow-Up or Ultimate of a character other than Trigger. This activates a special variant of Harmonizing Shots called “Tartarus” which inflicts extra damage and Daze but consumes 5 Purge instead of 3 and takes more field time. You can activate these enhanced Harmonizing Shots a total of 6 times every 20 seconds, 2 times per each type of attack. They also do not share a cooldown with standard Harmonizing shots, allowing them to be used back to back.

The second method is by turning the Purge bar below Trigger’s icon from blue to gold. This is done via her EX Special or Ultimate, with the colour change of the Purge bar indicating she’s entered a new state called “Coordinated Support”. Coordinated Support’s benefit is allowing your Harmonizing Shots to completely ignore the 3 second cooldown and usual Purge cost for a number of shots while it’s active. After using Trigger’s EX Special the next 4 Harmonizing Shots have this effect and after using her Ultimate the next 6 do. Note Coordinated Support can last a total of 20 seconds and span up to 10 shots per iteration. Her Ultimate grants 12 seconds of duration and 6 shots and her EX grants 8 seconds and 4 shots. These can be stacked together if used in succession to max out both the shot and duration limit of Coordinated Support, this isn’t necessary though. It’s in fact recommended to space them out if you’re trying to optimize, as regular blue Aftershock attacks don’t share a cooldown with gold Aftershock attacks so you can squeeze an extra couple instantaneous shots if you plan things properly (you can interpret it as your EX special giving you 5 instant shots instead of 4, and your Ultimate giving you 7 instant shots instead of 6).  

Any instance of Aftershock DMG that Trigger deals, which comprises any of her off-field attacks, passively increases the Stun DMG Multiplier of all enemies hit by 35% for 5 seconds which applies regardless of whether the enemy is stunned or not. This is her Core Passive, and is one of the most important parts of Trigger’s kit and justifies a lot of her potential as a Support/buffing Agent, as it greatly increases all of your party’s damage against affected enemies. 

Trigger’s Additional Ability increases her Daze dealt by Aftershocks by 1.5% for every 1% CRIT Rate she has over 40%. The maximum Daze increase from this Additional Ability is 75% which means the passive maxes out at 90% total CRIT Rate for Trigger, so aside from Impact this will be one of her main stat goals.

Other than that, Trigger’s Ultimate and EX Special both inflict a good amount of DMG and Daze in a single instance on top of granting Coordinated Support but also immediately activate a Quick Assist for the previous character in the team. This means you’ll typically want your DPS character to be swapped into and so they’ll be placed before Trigger in your party.

Her other noteworthy skills are her Chain Attacks, which simply deal good amounts of DMG and when applicable Daze, as well as her Defensive Assist and Assist Follow-Up which, on the other hand, deal a massive amount of Daze and are a strong option for filling spare field time during combat or triggering W-Engine effects.

All of these abilities, when put in relation to each other, allow us to piece together Trigger’s gameplay: and as we said when we introduced her, it’s very simplistic in essence. All you need to do is as follows:

• Start off by doing 4 Silenced Shots in her Sniper Stance, followed by a Finishing Move;

• Switch out to other Agents in your party and deal damage using them, while Trigger activates several Aftershock off-field attacks over time and stuns enemies off-field while increasing the Stun DMG Multiplier of those enemies;

• Come back to Trigger to do Defensive Assists, EX Specials and Ultimates to stun enemies faster and deal more damage, as well as to refresh Purge when needed via more Silenced Shots.

Trigger’s Purge consumption is extremely low, which means she’s a low maintenance Agent in general, similar to Astra Yao in that sense. You only need to come back every once in a while to refresh Trigger’s Purge by doing an extra round of Silenced Shots. The most important gameplay tip to keep in mind when it comes to Trigger is learning to quickly release Basic Attack after your 4th Silenced Shot, which instantly cancels the animation and activates Finishing Move at no loss of damage — a good time save overall. Beyond that, there are some additional tricks to squeeze out some extra harmonizing shot triggers and minimize the restrictiveness of its three second cooldown, but the real secrets lie in optimizing the gameplay of your other Agents to make her shine!

In regards to Trigger’s position in the meta, her biggest flaw is that a lot of her potential is locked behind her first Mindscape and her signature W-Engine Spectral Gaze; this is because it gives a -25% DEF Reduction to all enemies hit by her Aftershock attacks which is a massive buff to your entire party’s damage, and with her M1 she obtains an extra 20% Stun DMG Multiplier increase, going from 35% to 55%, further amplifying your whole party’s damage. Without a doubt, these two upgrades make Trigger one of this game’s top Supports, going beyond the scope of a Stun Agent, very close to Astra Yao in universal strength.

However, even without those two upgrades included, Trigger remains an Agent who is of course especially strong in Aftershock teams such as with Soldier 0 Anby, who not only enjoys the damage boosts, but also the on-field time that she gains from being paired up with Trigger who’s constantly off the field, as Dodge Counters are a big part of Soldier 0 Anby’s gameplay and you need to be on the field with her to execute them. However, Trigger goes beyond those teams as a viable Stun Agent for DPS powerhouses like Yanagi and Evelyn, but also a mix of a Support Agent via her Stun DMG Multiplier debuff for just about any team that can appreciate her extra Daze, which aside from pure Anomaly teams that don’t have the Electric attribute such as Piper/Burnice, is pretty much anyone.

To summarize, Trigger is a very strong all-rounder Agent who’s capable of not only dealing high Daze and good Aftershock DMG off-field, but can also serve as a mix of a Stun and Support Agent for many teams, including the top contenders of the game’s meta. This makes Trigger one of the most valuable agents currently available, especially because of her ease of use, which a lot of the casual playerbase will enjoy.

Undoubtedly, these factors show that Trigger is a top-tier Agent herself.