As part of the Nya Nya Paradise event in Goddess of Victory: Nikke, Nero is the next upcoming character to join the Ark.
Nero was initially introduced in Nikke from the Bow Wow Paradise event as an NPC, and now a member of Happy Zoo, the Ark’s animal management squad.
Nero is a Fire Code, Burst II, SSR Defender class Nikke wielding a SMG. Do note that this guide will be first impressions on the newly released Nikke, and her overall performances and usability might differ over time.
Skill Kit (Values based on Skill Level 10)
She has 2 Passives and only 1 Active in her Burst Skill, making her a pretty auto-combat friendly Nikke to pick up.
Her Skill 1 – Cat’s Repayment is a Passive that has two effects which activates when recovery takes place, where she can grant buffs to both herself and the Nikke who’s healing her.
- Activates when recovery takes effect.
- Affects the target who applied the recovery effect – Reduces Damage Taken by 14.14% for 5 sec.
- Activates when recovery takes effect. Affects self – Cat’s Repayment: Reduces Damage Taken by 8.43%, stacks up to 5 time(s) and lasts for 5 sec.
Her Skill 2 – Lil’ Paw is also a Passive which has various of effects that affects both the target and Nero herself:
- There is a 30% chance of activating when attacked. Affects the target – Increases Damage Taken by 8.26% for 5 sec.
- There is a 30% chance of activating when in Grump Cat status. Affects the target – Deals 158.05% of final ATK as damage.
- Activates when entering battle. Affects self – Max HP increases by 60.28% continuously.
Lastly, her Burst Skill – Grumpy Cat is an active that has a 20 seconds cooldown and also has various of different effects. The first being that she’ll instantly deal 1104.91% of her final ATK as damage to 1 enemy unit with the highest HP. After activation, she also applies a taunt to all enemies 15 sec. Finally, whenever Cat’s Repayment is fully stacked it increases Nero’s HP Potency by 60.08% for 15 sec.
Based on her skill kit alone, Nero is a very solid support Defender with her assortment of effects that can activate that will just make her survive much longer. Being able to apply damage reduction to both herself and the healer which heals her from her first skill can be really helpful when it comes to battles of attrition, and just having your healer be more survivable too.
Nero’s skill 2 is pretty useful too with all those effects that can potentially be in play when being attacked is very solid. While the chance to deal extra damage based on Nero’s final ATK is not as inciting, the chance to apply damage vulnerability which increases the enemy’s damage taken is good. Not to mention the flat max HP% increase just from entering the battle is the cherry on top.
Her kit truly shines when pair with her Burst Skill – Grumpy Cat. Nero can apply a taunt that lasts for a whole 15 sec, which just synergises with both of her skills. The bonus effect of when Cat’s Repayment is fully stacked up which increases Nero’s HP Potency is pretty helpful too. The damage she can dish out from that 1104.91% of final ATK may look promising, but it’s ultimately not as strong as you think given that she’s still a Defender class Nikke. Plus, that’s only for the target with the highest HP, if it was based on the target’s highest ATK stat, it can be super useful in PVP scenarios when you want to quickly deal with the opponent’s squishy DPS Nikkes.
All in all, Nero does her role well, which is being a defensive support. She mainly shines in PVP content with her great sustainability. She also can work pretty well with PVE content, especially with boss fights from her damage reduction and taunt. Her can also dish out pretty decent damage from her burst too and could potentially be your saving grace for that extra DPS check.
Personally, Nero can be a nice pick up as she can be pretty versatile in a lot of situations, but only if you don’t have other stronger defensive support units like Centi or Blanc. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an overall really good Nikke, but she doesn’t have anything special that justifies her being in the “must pull” category.
However, as with Gacha games go, it’s still best to pull for the characters that you like either her design or personality regardless of meta.