Unit Analysis by Team BethelFrankel
Class
Detonator with piercing normals. Has Captain Swap on her refinement.
Overall
A+
Advantages
+Strong normals thanks to her Equipment; fairly impressive for a 5* Detonator
+One-of-a-kind utility for captain-swapping teams
+Extremely spammable active
+Strong synergy with water’s buff-based units (Chloe, Fia, etc); normals can do a decent Areia impression with lots of support
Disadvantages
-–Significant competition with Detonators who have better damage and utility, even at 5* rarity
–The captain swap archetype does not exist (yet!)
Explanation
Kristen’s base kit is a near carbon-copy of Carleen’s down to the piercing normal attacks and cross-shaped chain; however, where Carleen converts and teleports, Kristen does… more damage? Oh, and if you spend your precious Paradigms to refine her, she gives insane support to the still-anemic Captain Swapping archetype. As of now, her damage and utility are largely worse than even other 5*s like Corax and FOX, even if she can output pretty respectable numbers.
With that said, you should keep an eye on her. Kristen’s current position is somewhat comparable to where Naroxel was a year ago — a decent but unspectacular unit with a highly unique combination of traits. These types of units tend to be the linchpin of specialized teams, with Naroxel becoming almost irreplaceable on meta E-tile teams that use Goldie and Jeriah. It’s likely that her value will dramatically increase over time.