Arena (PvP) Meta Overview - June 2024 | Nikke: Goddess of Victory (2024)

In Goddess of Victory: Nikke, you can PvP battle with other Commanders via the Arena mode, located in the Ark. This guide goes over the current PvP meta and what makes the best units and their potential replacements.

For more, check out our series of PvP Arena guides by top player scyv4x:

• For an overview on the different Arena modes and rewards Click here.
• For an overview on Arena mechanics Click here.
• For Rookie Arena teambuilding recommendations Click here.
• For SP Arena teambuilding recommendations Click here.

Speed

Terminology

Before going more into detail into the importance of speed I find it important to talk about how speed is measured.

As mentioned in the Arena Mechanics section, we usually measure how fast a team bursts using either RLs or SGs as a benchmark. The most common speed tiers, from fastest to slowest, are: 2RL, 5SG (2.5RL), 3RL, 7SG (3.5RL) and 4RL. 3RL tends to be the general benchmark for speed, it’s pretty fast but it’s easily achievable without restricting team comps to too many batteries. Teams slower than 3RL are usually not that good since they can be outsped pretty easily, and teams slower than 4RL are pretty much always bad unless they have a crazy high CP compared to whoever your opponent may be.

This terminology could get complicated or change in the future since charge speed makes RLs shoot faster and it would shift weapons that don’t have charge speed, but as of right now it’s still precise enough (and using frames/seconds is really annoying).

There are burst charts out there, but thanks to KosMiu and some helpers we now have a burst generation calculator where you can enter your teams and your opponent’s teams and it will tell you how fast they both are (WARNING: The calculator doesn’t account for rocket whiffs or RLs swapping targets to P2 through P4, which would make them generate about 50% more energy and change the burst timers, so be wary of that).

The Role of Speed

Speed must always be a consideration when building your Arena teams. Teams with low overall speed can get easily countered, since pretty much every one of the top attackers currently want to burst for their huge damage increase, be it in the form of AoE like Scarlet and other nukers, single-target damage like Alice or Red Hood, or double-target damage like Anis: Sparkling Summer.

On top of that, some of the most important supportive capabilities are locked behind burst (Blanc’s indomitability, Noah’s team-wide invulnerability, revives on Rapunzel and Anne: Miracle Fairy…). However, just because a team is fast doesn’t make it good.

Currently, the fastest units are clip RLs, but we only have 3 clip RLs at the moment (Jackal, Centi and Anis, who is an SR). After them we have the clip SGs (+ Nihilister), which are still pretty fast and deal decent damage; however, clip SG suffer heavily against Scarlet, generate a ton of energy for the enemy team if they have a Jackal, and get stopped in their tracks if you have a tank that can absorb their damage for a long time, like Makima or the Biscuit + defender combo (Nihilister doesn’t have these problems). Below that we have regular magazine RLs, but they’re considerably slower than clip SGs and you’ll usually have to add at least 1 Nikke from the above tiers of speed to get to 3RL.

Attack Meta Versus Defence Meta

Even though Nikkes tend to get just a simple “PvP” score for their tier in the tier list, the reality is that they can perform very differently on Attack compared to Defence. Defence is a much more restrictive environment to use Nikkes, because you can’t run Nikkes that have a very nice but small niche against non-meta teams. There are a lot of Nikkes that can be usable and even great in Attack under the right circ*mstances, yet they would make a Defence team too vulnerable.

A good example of this is Emma. Her healing against teams with high fire-rate is no joke, which makes her a great unit against said teams, but if you try running Emma on defence, you’re basically running a unit with awful burst gen and can be exploited by Scarlet, Jackal, can be focused down by a SG-focused team if she’s P1… She hurts more than she helps in your defence team (unless her CP is huge for some reason and she’d allow you to gap your opponents, in which case be my guest).

The Pseudo-Myth of the Perfect Defence

The perfect defence doesn’t exist… At least in a vacuum, meaning if we assume no CP diff and no whiffs, there is currently no defence team that’s not beatable. Whiffs introduce an element of chaos where better teams can lose, and CP is the most effective way to create a perfect defence, just gap your opponents so hard they can’t ever win.

So what are the best Defence teams you can make? The answer may sound really silly, but the best Defence teams are the ones that hold. PvP knowledge obviously helps, but within the realm of good teams, you may have success with a “worse” comp just because your opponents have trouble finding the counters.

Overview on the Meta Nikkes

This section will give a brief overview into the characters that shape the current PvP meta. This won’t have every good character, it will focus on the most relevant units (don’t necessarily have to be the best), what their role is and why they’re so oppressive, their supports and their counters:

Scarlet

The current best nuker (AoE burst) in the game, huge AoE damage, also has S2 which destroys high fire-rate weapons, works well Jackal and offensive supports like Blanc and to a lesser extent, but still pretty viable for Attack setups, RH (B1), Liter, Poli and other damage buffers.

Susceptible to Nikkes that can help survive against her burst, like Noah or Noise (speed difference between both teams can’t be too big or they won’t work), or really tanky units that can revive their main DPS such as Rapunzel.

Alice, Red Hood

Alice Red Hood

Same role, different element. Unmatched single-target damage during Full Burst with not a lot of shots compared to pretty much any other DPS, work best with defensive units that let them survive for the duration of their Full Burst (like Noah + Biscuit, Noise or Rapunzel, among others), they can pretty much eviscerate Scarlet teams that don’t pack a counter, but get hard-countered by units that can soak their burst (mainly Makima or a Biscuit + Defender combo that doesn’t lose aggro from them).

Anis: Sparkling Summer

A very special case due to her S2, it allows her to hit 2 enemies at the same time, so she’s “taunt resistant”, allowing her to be taunted and still hit the opponent team’s main DPS. Also wants defensive units so she can unleash 10 seconds of pure hell on the opponent, but will implode against most Scarlet teams due to Scarlet’s S2.

Jackal

The fastest unit currently in the game, her existence alone makes SMGs, SGs and any MG not named Rosanna tremble in their boots, she can work on pretty much any team with decent structure but likes pairing with Scarlet, her “counters” are using low fire-rate weapons, such as RLs or SRs like Nihilister, and Rosanna is also a problem for her.

These 4 units shape pretty much the whole meta on their own, Nikkes are good or bad depending on what they can do to support or counter any of these 4 units, plus their capabilities as batteries. Clip SGs get destroyed by Scarlet and shouldn’t generally be used against a good Jackal team, yet they’re still great units because they deal decent damage, are pretty good batteries, and with the current Nikke pool, you’re gonna end up using clip SGs in at least one of your teams, because it’s an abundant pool and getting fast teams through other means can be too restrictive.

Meta Roles

These are mostly all of the roles Nikkes can fall into. Units don’t have to only fit one of these roles (for example, Rapunzel is a buffer, a healer and a revive unit):

DPS

The current meta tends to pack 1 DPS on each team, they’re the ones dealing most of the team’s damage and teams are usually built around this main damage dealer. If you can nullify this threat, the team usually tends to fall apart. There are 3 categories of DPS:

• Nukes: Nikkes with an AoE burst (Scarlet, Maiden, Harran, 2B)
• Single-target (ST): These DPS focus on single-target damage (Alice, Red Hood, and other less viable Nikkes like Laplace or Power)
• Double-target: This is mostly for SAnis, but also applies in a way to Rosanna. SAnis can “ignore” taunts and still target the highest Atk enemy, and her numbers are insane, making her an absolute menace. Rosanna’s burst can also target 2 Nikkes and deals pretty good damage, she’s also the only dispel unit in the game as of current, so she can help beat Scar-Jackal teams as long as Scarlet isn’t in P1.

Supports

Units that help their team (or cripple the enemy team) in various regards, such as speed, damage, healing…

• Batteries: The main role for these units is filling your burst gauge quickly, basically every clip weapon, be it SG or RL, goes here. Special mention goes to Nihilister, who’s also a very good battery unless you’re aiming for teams faster than 3RL.
• Buffers: Nikkes that increase stats for their teammates, most prominent ones are damage buffers (Red Hood’s B1, Poli…), but also includes HP buffers (Noise, Rapunzel).
• Debuffers: Nikkes that cripple enemies (Blanc, Rosanna, XAnne).
• Healers: They heal. That’s what they do. Plain and simple. It’s nice to have, but mostly isn’t gonna turn the tide in your favor (Noise, Rapunzel, Quiry).
• Revive units: These Nikkes can resurrect a dead Nikke on burst, more specifically the highest Atk Nikke (Rapunzel, XAnne). Nice to have on teams, makes it more annoying for the opponent to deal with your DPS and can protect against certain single-target damage like Power if it happens before the rez.
• Defensive supports: They add to team survivability without the usage of heals, through redirecting or blocking attacks.
  • Taunters: They can redirect damage onto themselves, either to Nikkes they’re hitting with attacks or to the whole opponent team. This trait isn’t very useful on its own since they’re prone to dying very fast, usually needs other things like very high HP or undying mechanics for them to be good units.
  • Shielders: Nikkes that can use shields to block damage for themselves or teammates, not that useful right now since Scarlet slash ignores shields.
  • Undying/Invul Nikkes: Nikkes with indomitability or invulnerability mechanics (Noah, Makima, Blanc and Biscuit), they’re some of the strongest defensive Nikkes available.

Replacements, Seasonal and Collab Units

If you lack some of the meta units, you can run alternatives most of the time. Here are some Nikkes you could use to replace certain meta picks:

• Scarlet: Other AoE nukes, like Maiden, 2B, Harran…
• Alice/Red Hood: For the ST (single target) damage, Laplace and Sugar can also work as alternatives but can’t be run against Scarlet since they’ll just implode. when they use their burst.
• Rosanna: The dispel part is unique to Rosanna, so that part isn’t replaceable. You can use other Nikkes like Power or Pepper that have good burst damage and target the Highest Attack Nikke, but no other Nikke targets 2 units with her burst.
• Jackal: Only thing remotely close to a Jackal “replacement” is one of the other clip RLs, so either Centi or Anis.
• Noah: Noise can provide similar utility, but she’s less reliable than Noah to counter Scarlet’s burst, especially in lower levels where Noise may be uninvested. If you also lack Noise… No real good alternatives then.
• Makima: Biscuit + defender works pretty much the same, as long as the defender doesn’t lose aggro.
• Blanc: For the damage increase you can use other B2s like XAnne or Poli, or even RH’s B1. For the indomitability component, closest thing is Folkwang but she doesn’t protect against Scarlet slash.
• Revive units: No replacement sadly.
• Biscuit: No replacement either.
• SAnis: Also has no replacement.

Also, regarding limited units, some of them can be pretty impactful in Arena: Makima, 2B, Power, A2, Pascal XAnne… However, all of these are replaceable, even if the replacement isn’t as effective.

However, the most impactful limited PvP unit is by far SAnis. As of right now, we don’t know for sure if seasonal units will come back (although it’s pretty likely they will), but a bracket where SAnis isn’t available has a few differences worth mentioning.

The defensive cores with Rapu-Noah-Biscuit are much more difficult to break through because they wall both Scarlet and Alice/RH, Privaty and some other less used B3s become a bit better better just for the simple reason that you’re gonna slot Scarlet in 1 team and probably Alice/RH in another, so your meta B3 options are reduced.