Mastering Red Hood: NIKKE's Versatile DPS

Red Hood has evolved from a mid-rated character initially to a top-tier unit DPS in NIKKE, particularly following a crucial buff to her burst skill.

This guide dives into the optimal strategies for mastering Red Hood's capabilities, ensuring you can fully optimize her strengths.

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Mastering Red Hood: Best Builds and Team Compositions

Mastering Red Hood's Kit

Normal Attack: Precision Meets Power

Red Hood delivers charged shots that not only deal significant damage but also deal extra damage against core targets.

With six shots per magazine and a 2-second reload time, managing her ammo efficiently is crucial, especially when preparing for her burst abilities.

Her ability to deal up to 350% full charge damage, coupled with a 200% damage bonus against cores, makes her as a top-tier unit against bosses.

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Skill 1: Glaring Eyes

Glaring Eyes enhances Red Hood's charge mechanics, offering a stacking charge speed increase and a unique conversion of excess charge speed into charge damage.

This skill not only boosts her DPS but also introduces a layer of strategy in achieving +100% in charge speed to optimize damage output.

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Skill 2: Wild Tooth

Wild Tooth gives Red Hood continuous Pierce, team wide defensive buffs, health recovery, and attack increases under specific conditions, showcasing her flexible role.

• Continuous Pierce: Grants Red Hood a consistent advantage, ensuring her attacks cut through enemy lines with ease.
• Defensive and Healing Buffs: The activation of defensive buffs and health recovery during specific burst steps makes her really strong in long fights.
• Attack Boost: The significant attack increase during her Red Wolf burst further amplifies her DPS, particularly in critical combat phases.

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Burst: Red Wolf

Red Wolf, Red Hood's burst ability, has three different effects depending when you activate it, each with unique effects that cater to different needs.

• ‍Beast Cage (Burst I): Provides a substantial attack boost to all allies, coupled with a cooldown reduction for Red Hood (once per battle), enabling her to cycle through her burst phases faster.‍
• The Last Howl (Burst II): Taunts enemies, drawing attention away from allies while simultaneously boosting her HP potency, offering a blend of offense and defense.
• Red Wolf (Burst III): Transforms her weapon, enhancing her damage, pierce range, and charge speed, solidifying her role as a DPS powerhouse.

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Leveling Priority

Skill 1: Glaring Eyes

Glaring Eyes is instrumental in increasing Red Hood's charge speed, a key factor in reducing the downtime between her powerful charged attacks.

The unique ability to convert excess charge speed into charge damage provides a substantial DPS boost.

Upgrading this skill early ensures Red Hood can maintain a high damage output, making it a top priority for resource allocation.

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Burst: Red Wolf

Red Wolf is the cornerstone of Red Hood's burst strategy, with three different effects.

From providing significant attack boosts and attracting enemy fire to transforming her weapon for increased damage and range, the burst skill's versatility is unmatched.

Given its central role in Red Hood's kit, prioritizing the upgrade of Red Wolf is essential for maximizing her impact in battle, regardless of the chosen burst effect.

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Skill 2: Wild Tooth

Wild Tooth offers Red Hood continuous pierce, which is invaluable for penetrating enemy defenses and dealing consistent damage across multiple targets.

Additionally, the skill enhances her survivability and utility through defensive buffs and health recovery.

While DPS enhancement remains a primary focus, the versatility provided by Wild Tooth's passives makes it a worthy candidate for early investment, especially for players leveraging Red Hood's DPS role to its fullest.

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Optimal Harmony Cubes

Adjutant Cube

Increases charge speed by 2.12% upon entering battle, which can be particularly beneficial for Red Hood by allowing her to use her charged attacks more frequently.

The Anti Code HC boosts damage against strong elements by 12.72%, enhancing her effectiveness in elemental matchups.

This cube is ideal if you're focusing on maximizing Red Hood's DPS through quicker charge times and exploiting elemental advantages against specific raids.

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Bastion Cube

Offers a unique reload mechanic that refunds 3 rounds after firing 10 rounds, effectively extending Red Hood's ammunition capacity during long battles.

Like the Adjutant Cube, it also includes the Anti Code HC feature for increased damage against strong elements.

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Resilience Cube

Significantly increases reload speed by 29.69%, drastically reducing Red Hood's downtime.

Paired with the Anti Code HC, it boosts her ability to deal increased elemental damage.

If you're looking to minimize Red Hood's vulnerability during reloads, the Resilience Cube is invaluable, especially in fast-paced battles where every second counts.

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Wingman Cube

Increases max ammunition capacity by 29.69%, allowing Red Hood to fire more rounds before needing to reload.

It also features the Anti Code HC for elemental damage enhancement.

Ideal for enhancing Red Hood's sustained damage output, the Wingman Cube is perfect if you prioritize continuous DPS over burst damage, ensuring Red Hood remains an active threat for longer periods.

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Gearing Red Hood for Success

Overload Gear Focus

The essence of gearing Red Hood lies in selecting Overload gear attributes that complement her operational mechanics, particularly focusing on:

Increasing ATK: It's the most valuable stat to turn Red Hood into a DPS monster.

Maximizing Ammo Capacity: Given Red Hood's sniper classification, extending her ammo capacity ensures she can sustain her attack longer before needing to reload, crucial for maintaining her DPS during critical fight phases.

Enhancing Charge Speed and Damage: With her skill set allowing for excess charge speed to be converted into charge damage, gearing that further boosts her charge speed not only enhances her firing rate but also indirectly increases her damage output.

Elemental Damage Enhancement: Optimizing the Anti Code HC feature from Harmony Cubes, selecting gear that amplifies elemental damage can make Red Hood exceptionally effective against elemental weaknesses, boosting her role as a versatile damage dealer in raids and other late game content.

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Team Synergies and Composition

The Versatility of Red Hood's Burst Abilities

Red Hood's three distinct burst modes provide flexibility that can be adjusted to the needs of various combat scenarios:

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Type 1 Burst: The Attack Booster

This burst significantly amplifies the attack power of all allies, making it a strong tool for teams focusing on overwhelming offensive strategies.

It's particularly effective in campaign levels where speed and high damage output are crucial for quick clears.

Red Hood's ability to refresh this burst on its first use doubles its utility, offering sustained attack boosts in shorter engagements.

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Type 2 Burst: The Protective Taunt

Though more niche, this burst finds its place in strategies designed to protect key units like Snow White, allowing them to prepare their devastating attacks without interruption.

This burst can tactically divert attention and damage away from vulnerable DPS units, although at the risk to Red Hood herself.

It's a strategic option for teams that rely on specific setups to unleash their full potential.

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Type 3 Burst: The DPS Monster

Emphasizing Red Hood's primary role as a damage dealer, this burst enhances her charge speed and expands her pierce range.

This mode is ideal for boss battles and situations where sustained DPS is key.

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Crafting Complementary Team Compositions

With Alice or Maxwell for Charge Speed Synergy

Pairing Red Hood with units that boost charge speed, such as Alice or Maxwell, can exponentially increase her damage output.

This synergy is especially strong in raid or challenge content where maximizing DPS is crucial.

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Classic Liter and Novel Composition

Incorporating Red Hood into the Liter and Novel comp enhances the team's overall DPS capability while benefiting from the foundational support these units provide.

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Integrating with the Bunny or Tia/Naga Comp

These compositions offer Red Hood the support framework necessary to excel, whether through additional buffs, healing, or crowd control, increasing her effectiveness across various content types.

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Strategic Burst Usage

Adaptability

‍Red Hood’s versatility means that her role can shift dynamically throughout combat.

Be prepared to switch between her bursts based on the evolving needs of the battle, using her as a DPS powerhouse or a strategic support unit as the situation demands.

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Cooldown Management‍

Keep a close eye on burst cooldowns and plan your strategy around their availability.

Integrating Red Hood’s bursts with those of other units can orchestrate powerful combinations that exploit enemy vulnerabilities.

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Situational Awareness

‍Each of Red Hood’s bursts has situational benefits.

Assessing the battlefield and enemy behavior will guide you in choosing the most appropriate burst for the moment, whether it's boosting your team's attack, protecting key units, or eliminating enemy mobs with her DPS capabilities.

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Final Thoughts on Red Hood

Red Hood's journey from an underestimated newcomer to a crucial anniversary unit highlights the dynamic nature of NIKKE's meta.

Her versatility, enhanced by the recent buff, ensures she can play multiple roles effectively, from a primary DPS to a supporting buffer.

As you continue to explore and refine Red Hood's capabilities, her value within the game's content is undeniable, solidifying her as a must-have unit for both new and seasoned commanders alike.