“As a Commander, you must learn to let go of any emotional attachment, to command your Nikkes with efficiency. You are the heroes of the Ark, and humanity’s future rests upon your shoulders! Remember, the Nikkes are invincible killing machines, so use them as such.” The Academy instructor barks at you. You wonder.
After all, you’ve seen Commanders and Nikkes as customers for your old burger stand before, and they seem… close enough to any normal person, barring their penchant for lugging huge guns around. Sure they’re born in factories, but they talk, they smile, and you could swear they think as you do. But who’s a former fry cook to doubt a military instructor? This goes on for a few months, and about two weeks after assigning you a Nikke squad, you’re sent to the Surface.
Not one lesson from the Academy prepared you for the Surface. You tried to command your Nikkes as cold killing machines, as the instructor told you. It only led to one of them getting an arm and leg blasted off, and another torn in half, though thankfully their heads are intact. Your instructor called the enemy “Raptures”. You don’t notice yourself dragging the damaged Nikkes to cover.
They’re both heavy, each weighing more than an entire forklift. The intact Nikkes help you carry them. “Why? We’re just worthless machines. Why are you doing this?” The one torn in half asks, her voicebox still active. You don’t answer. You only shout and fire your service pistol at the Raptures.
Your shots do nothing, but suddenly, the enemy numbers thin out. Your remaining Nikkes let out their battle cry, hosing down the Raptures with their much larger weapons. Enough enemies die to let your squad escape, though the mission is a failure. At least you’re all alive.
Something changed in you that day. You still never give those under your command a proper smile. But you do find yourself talking with your squad more often, rather than holing up behind a ton of paperwork. You noticed something change in your Nikke squad too. They put their back into it during combat simulations. They stand at attention sharply when you address them.
Sometimes they ask you for advice, usually for little things like how much Splendamin it takes to make a proper burger. For your next trip to the Surface, you tell your Nikkes sternly but quietly: “No matter what happens, we all come back alive.” And this time you do, with booty and medals. Not quite your story, but maybe a common one among longer-lasting Commanders in Goddess of Victory: Nikke.
Also, welcome to our Goddess of Victory: Nikke guide! Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a gacha shooter game, with gameplay akin to Time Crisis if it was more complicated and then translated to a smartphone. You command a squad of Nikkes by aiming a crosshair at targets, swapping between Nikkes in the squad mid-fight, and telling them to use their skills or take cover from enemy shots.
Related: Goddess of Victory Nikke Tier List: A Complete Ranking of All Nikkes
Its advertisements like to emphasize the cuteness of the Nikkes and the game’s rather questionable physics, in a gamble to catch you off guard with its rather bleak world and highly effective, if occasionally heavy-handed, writing. You come to stare at the Nikkes and stay to learn their stories.
GENERAL TIPS
Nikke has quite a few complexities behind its “shoot everything that moves” gameplay, much like most mobile games as big as it is. Keeping track of Nikke’s weirdness in particular can be a handful since some of it is caused by some rather deep-seated bugs, never mind the various mechanics outside of the shooty bits.
You Have Tickets for Ordinary Recruitment, Save Your Gems For Banner Gachas
Throughout your normal play, you will get both Gems and tickets for the Ordinary Recruitment Gacha. Remember to save the Gems and spend only the Tickets for Ordinary Recruitment, because whenever a new Nikke is introduced to the game, they also come with a special event Gacha which raises the chance you get the new Nikke.
Often, tickets for the special Gacha will be harder to get if they’re available at all, but they will take Gems, and at an equal price with the Ordinary Recruitment Gacha. If you want the new Nikkes as they appear, save your gems for the Banners.
Look At The Overworld Carefully
On the Campaign Overworld, you have three things to look out for. Gates, little sparkles, and big white buttons. Gates are pretty obvious and often lead to side quest objectives or special loot. Their existence also points to the existence of big white buttons which open them when stepped on. You would think these buttons would be obvious, but the game can have a nasty habit of hiding them behind buildings or near eye-distracting clutter.
This is trouble since you cannot rotate the campaign camera. The little white sparkles are Lost Relics. Lost Relics either contain basic loot, lore entries speaking of the world’s history, or materials to construct new buildings in the Outpost. That last part about Outpost materials is extremely important, since building your Outpost up is one of many ways to make your Nikkes tougher.
Ex-Stages: Full Manual Shooting!
As you progress through the campaign, you will unlock levels called Ex-Stages. Ex-Stages are battles that fix both your stats and the boss’ stats to a certain level, so a fight between you and an Ex-Stage is always going to be fair. The downside? You’re not allowed to use Auto! Ex-stages are a test of raw skill and proper team composition. Not to mention they’re a very good reason to practice manual shooting. That being said, you might as well use Ex-stages to practice manual shooting, since those skills help even with Auto turned on!
Unionize!
In this game, you can join guilds called Unions. They’re fairly simple compared to guilds in other games: You have a Shooting Range, a Union Raid, and you gain access to the Talentum Mall Union Shop. The Union Shop is pretty useful since they sell Core Dust, Battle Data Sets, and Credits in bulk for Union Chips. They also sell Custom Modules to upgrade gear, and Batteries of different kinds to power Harmony Cubes up, also in bulk.
The Union raids are how you would get the currency for the Union Shop. As for the Shooting Range, while it seems useless because it’s just a DPS measuring contest between Union members, you can use it to check your DPS and try to improve on it by changing team compositions and essentially using this as a test site.
The Gacha Wishlist: Stick With Your Picks
If you check the Ordinary Recruitment gacha, you get a choice of up to 15 Nikkes. To be precise, 5 from each Manufacturer, except Pilgrims. This increases the rate at which those Nikkes drop. While the writer would very much like to tell you to just pick whoever your favorite Nikke waifus are, the more effective way would be to pick 15 SSR Nikkes known for their combat effectiveness and stick with them until you get 5 with maximum Limit Breaks.
As a beginner, it is far more important to get dupes for SSR Nikkes you already own or might help in fights than to get new Nikkes, because you will need them at maximum limit breaks both as the main combat squad and to power up the Synchro Device to help any new Nikkes you DO manage to get. Once you’ve done that, then it’ll be easier to start being a collector completionist. We’ll be setting up a Tier List soon for it!
Simulation Room Bumrush!
So you’re overleveled for the Simulation Room level you currently have unlocked, and yet things don’t seem to be going as fast as you’d hoped. You’re annoyed that all the good buffs are hidden behind Red Choices which disable Quick battle, even though your Nikkes are so far overstrength against it that victory is assured even with your eyes closed. Just ditch as many Red Choices as possible if that’s the case! If you’re so overleveled that you can clear the Simulation Room with your thumb off the tablet, then your team is strong enough not to need those buffs.
Instead, you can pick all the non-Red choices and just demolish them with Quick Battle. That way, you sweep that Simulation Room level and make off with the Battle Data Sets in a couple of minutes tops, only doing the mandatory boss fights.
Ironically enough, picking the more difficult Red choices is a better idea if you aren’t overleveled enough to sleep through them. After all, that’s when you’ll need those high-tier buffs! Just make sure you don’t get shredded in the process.
Molds vs Spares: Clearing Mileage Shop Confusion
Some players have been spotted buying Spare Bodies for Nikkes in the Mileage Shop, thinking they would get the Nikke herself in their roster by doing so. Don’t do that, since you’ll only be disappointed. After all, a Nikke’s body is no use without her brain! Spare Bodies from the Mileage Shop are only used for limit breaking, and stashing Spare Bodies for a Nikke you don’t already have in your roster is rather pointless. If you want a new Nikke, buy Molds instead, which are sold every time a new recruitment banner is active.
DAILY HABITS
Once you get settled into the game, you’ll find yourself developing a regular daily habit when you log in. Nikke encourages this, usually by having your Nikkes send you messages in Blabla during your first login for the day, along with Outpost Defense rewards. Here’s what you’ll often find yourself doing upon logging in.
Check The Shop For Discounts and Freebies
There are 4 kinds of Shops in the game outside of the Cash Shop. You’ve got the Mighty Tools General Shop which takes Credits and Gems, the Talentum mall Union Shop which you only get by joining a Union, the Blacknet shop which takes Body Labels, and the Miles Co Mileage Shop, which takes gacha mileage.
Mighty Tools often sells basic bread-and-butter necessities like battle Data Sets, Credits, and Molds of Medium or High Quality depending on shop rotation, not to mention Gifts for your Nikkes. This shop will normally have a single item for free every day while having quite a few other items on discount.
The Union Shop we discussed earlier sells Nikke upgrading materials in bulk, of which the Battle Data Sets and Core Dust are most important for beginners.
The Blacknet sells materials for Recycling Shop research upgrades which make your Nikkes stronger. You get their currency, Body Labels, by getting dupes from your gacha rolls. Specifically, dupes from any fully limit-broken Nikke, or dupes from R-tier Nikke, who cannot be limit-broken. There is usually a single item on discount every day, so keep an eye out in case it’s something you need dearly.
Finally, the unlucky Commander’s best friend, the Mileage Shop. The Mileage Shop sells Spare Bodies for Nikke, which are used to Limit-break them much like gacha dupes, and Molds for a specific Nikke who happens to be in whatever banner gacha happens to be active at the moment. You need Silver Mileage Tickets from the Ordinary Recruitment gacha to buy Spare Bodies,
Ark Runs
The Ark provides you with various training exercises which are the real grind of the game: The Lost Sector can get you Harmony Cubes, unique gear that can power up a single Nikke by giving them a special ability beyond what they are already capable of. The Tribe Tower gives you a good amount of Gems and an honestly poor amount of Credits, the Simulation Room gives you battle Data Sets to level your Nikkes with, and Interceptions get you gear. We have a whole segment about the Ark, which we will discuss later.
Check Blabla for Messages
At the upper left corner of the screen, you’ll see an icon with a yellow background. That’s the in-universe chat app Blabla, which allows your Nikkes, higher-ups from the Central Government, and random weirdos who somehow got your number to send you messages.
Every login, you will get messages from a few of your Nikkes. Answer them not just for a funny story to enjoy as a player, but also for rewards. Sometimes, if you finish certain Campaign missions and events, you may get messages sending you to side missions playable on the Campaign overworld map.
Daily Missions
Every day, you are given a set of tasks to get rewards. Not only do these Daily Missions give you rewards individually, but completing them collectively also lets you unlock chests based on how many points you earn doing them. The final chest contains 100 gems, so this is one way to inch toward your next gacha 10-roll. Doing these missions usually also chips away at your Weekly missions, which have even greater rewards.
THE OUTPOST: YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME
After a few Campaign Chapters, you will become the owner of an Outpost in the middle of nowhere due to unfortunate circumstances. This outpost is home for you and your Nikkes, with many useful amenities within it… At least after you’ve built it up. When they give it to you, it’s a dust bowl in the middle of nowhere! Make sure to visit it every day. Here is a list of its main structures.
Outpost Defense
The Outpost, being located on the Surface, is constantly beset by light Rapture attacks. Your Nikkes take turns defending the Outpost and will usually collect a ton of stuff from them after a few hours. This can include anything from equipment, equipment upgrade items, Credits, Battle Data Sets, and Core Dust. You should collect these Outpost Defense rewards a couple of times every day. The further you are in the campaign, the bigger the rewards you can get.
Bulletin Board
The Bulletin Board allows you to send Nikke’s on Commission runs. Nikke Commissions are similar to Azur Lane Commissions, but easier since they don’t render Nikkes unusable as you do them. You send out Nikkes to do a task for anything between several minutes to a few hours. Once they’re done, you collect the rewards, which can include Gems. These recover every day so do them regularly.
Synchro Device
A couple of chapters into the game, you’ll unlock the Synchro Device for your Outpost. The Synchro Device acts like a far more forgiving version of Cookie Run Kingdom’s Hall of Heroes, in that it lets you put new rookie Nikkes in it, and they will match the level of your 5th highest-level Nikke. Unlocking a new slot for the Synchro Device costs 500 Gems, which can be considered an added cost to deploying a new Nikke to the field.
Removing a Nikke from a slot will keep the slot closed for 4 hours before it can be reused, not that long considering the often multiple-day-long penalties in other games with a similar apprenticeship mechanic.
Your first Synchro Device goal is to get 5 max limit break SR Nikkes and get them to level 160, and put your SSRs into the device afterward. This is because any unit apprenticed to the Synchro Device will copy the 5th highest Nikke’s level without caring if they’re limit-broken or not.
It’s a much faster way to level SSRs compared to Limit Breaking them, since the rates for SR Nikkes are much higher than for SSRs, and you will likely have your first 5 full limit break SRs within a couple of weeks or a month tops. Unless your luck is that bad and you keep getting Rs! That being said, you can set using 5 max limit break SSRs as your final goal so you can reach past level 160, though that’s an incredibly long way out.
Tactics Academy
The Tactics Academy allows you to earn more from your missions should you meet the requirements for its various lessons. It allows you to unlock new passive earning buffs every time you construct a new Outpost structure. This is why it’s highly important to scour every last inch of Campaign levels for Lost Relics. They often contain Blueprints for Outpost structures.
Recycling Room
The Recycling Room uses Consoles and RE-Energy to upgrade your Nikke roster as a group. The closest thing to it in other mobile games would be a tech tree or academy where you research various technologies. Different research nodes will typically require different Consoles to upgrade. You can buy Consoles and RE-Energy in the Blacknet Body Label shop, and there is usually a pack of RE-Energy sold at cut-price every day.
Infrastructure Core
A weird way of rewarding in-game achievement thresholds, the Infrastructure Core unlocks new Infrastructure Chips while giving you more immediate rewards such as Nikke Molds. Infrastructure Chips usually come with some sort of passive non-combat upgrade, such as more Advise slots.
Commander’s Headquarters
Your HQ is where you go to Advise Nikkes, give them Gifts, and occasionally progress the main story along with your Nikke’s individual character stories. You can check if you’re missing any Lost Relics from previous chapters here, listen to unlocked Music, and look at previously unlocked cutscenes to get a refresher on the story so far.
GAMEPLAY
The actual gameplay of Nikke looks simple enough: Shoot everything on the screen and make sure everything that moves isn’t moving anymore by the end of a level. Things get hectic on manual though, and even when playing on Auto it can get dicey since the Nikkes aren’t exactly good at prioritizing targets. Here are the basics of the game.
Shooting
Shooting is the most basic thing you can do in the game. You point your crosshair at the enemy by dragging your screen around with your fingers. If the crosshair touches an enemy, your Nikke starts shooting at them, unless they’re a Machinegunner (who just sprays everywhere) or a Sniper or Launcher (who fires when you let go of the screen).
It is recommended you keep your thumb away from the crosshair, instead of dragging it directly. That way, you can see what you’re aiming at and shoot the enemy right in their eyes, since you often need to be fairly precise when aiming manually and a Rapture’s eye is often its weak spot.
Taking Cover
Sometimes, an attack will come that hits too hard to tank, but also cannot be shot down, usually some form of energy weapon. In that case, you can tell your Nikkes to duck by tapping on the currently active Nikke’s portrait. This turns their crossed swords icon into a shield icon, indicating that she and the other Nikkes are behind cover and take less damage from attacks.
Note that only the active Nikke can shoot when the squad is taking cover, and shooting puts them out of cover. Usually, you only want to duck if you cannot avoid a big incoming attack, because keeping cover on at all times means mooks swarm and overwhelm your team, or you run the timer out due to lack of DPS.
Burst Skills
Special Attacks are one of the basic pillars for building a team, along with Weapon Types and Damage Types. If you look at a Nikke’s card on any Nikke selection screen, you’ll notice the Roman numeral [I], [II], or [III] on the corner of the card. This tells you the order in which they do their Burst Skills in relation to the rest of the team.
You need at least a single [I] Nikke alive on your team to do Bust Skills at all, and you can chain them into [II] Nikkes, then [III] Nikkes. A Burst Skill chain gets broken if all the Nikkes of a numeral are dead or on cooldown. You need at least one of every Roman numeral, and usually at least 2 [I] Nikkes lest you lose the ability to do specials the second something bad happens to the first one.
When forming a team composition, taking your Nikkes’ Burst skill cooldowns into account is highly important: You want their cooldowns to be roughly on par with each other, so every Burst has 3 Nikkes slamming the enemy at once. Few things are more frustrating than seeing a cooldown timer during a Burst Skill barrage, cutting the attack chain short.
NIKKE WEAPON TYPES
There are many ways to classify a Nikke in terms of role, such as their skill type and their damage type, or their Manufacturer or in-story Squad. The most obvious one though is the kind of gun they carry, since it has the most visible basic gameplay difference.
Different weapons work at varying ranges, which means you can bring Nikke squads specifically built to destroy certain levels based on how far away enemies are. The game even encourages this, as every level shows you a helpful rangefinder chart, telling you the percentage of enemies popping out at certain ranges in the level. There are several types of guns these girls favor:
Shotguns
Shotgunner Nikkes work at close range and deal damage in an area by spraying it with buckshot. They work best against enemies that are both large and in your personal space since their size means they eat the whole shotgun blast.
On the other hand, while they do have an area of effect and can hit more targets the further away the targets are, it isn’t recommended to use them solely for their AOE since they suffer from damage falloff at longer distances.
Shotguns fire only decently fast but nowhere near assault rifle speed, and they reload a shot at a time, but they can be fired even if they’re only partially loaded. They excel in clearing out shootable projectile attacks such as missiles.
Submachine Guns
Nikkes with SMGs, like Shotgunners, excel in close combat, this time dealing high DPS with their rapid-fire small arms, with emphasis on small. They can be great against smaller enemies up close, as while a Shotgunner may waste part of their shotgun blast on a small target, a Nikke with an SMG can easily spray one target and then switch to the next. Unfortunately, SMGs in real life typically use subsonic pistol ammunition, which the game depicts by giving them serious damage falloff at longer ranges.
Assault Rifles
Nikkes with assault rifles are reliable at most ranges but are best at mid-range combat. They typically have rapid-fire attacks with high damage per shot, having great DPS at mid-range and okay-ish DPS at medium and short-range. But not enough to beat the burst damage of a Sniper Rifle at long range or an SMG when spraying it right into some Rapture horror’s mouth. You typically need at least one of these girls on your team.
Machine guns
Heavy Machine Gunners are the SMG user’s bigger, mid-ranged sisters. They typically have lower damage per shot than rifle attacks, but fire much more rapidly (To the point they sometimes sound less like automatic guns and more like chainsaws!) and often have huge magazines containing several hundred shots.
They’re good at both hosing down single large targets and clearing mooks from the screen, though keep in mind their long reload times. After all, big ammo boxes are heavier and more unwieldy to reload compared to good ol’ 30-shot STANAG mags.
Rocket Launchers
Bazookas, grenade launchers, cannons, bombs, and explosions! These Nikke prefer their guns huge and full of pepper. Launcher Nikkes are good at all ranges as they lack damage falloff, have AOE, and their missiles can be charged for higher damage.
Their downsides? They typically don’t carry much ammo per clip because their shots are so huge, and their shots have travel time, so they need to lead moving targets and make their shots count. It’s usually a good idea to have one Bazooka on your team, since they excel at clearing large groups of annoying, screen-blocking mooks at any range, allowing your more specialized Nikke to focus on whatever is the biggest threat on the screen.
Snipers
Sniper Nikkes carry large, slow firing scoped weapons, whose crosshairs zoom in and allow the Nikke to shoot at faraway targets. They have high burst damage, but their slow fire rate makes them less than ideal at getting mooks out of everyone’s faces. You typically use them to get rid of specific threats like high-damage enemies in the corner of the screen, enemy healers, or parts of bosses that pose a danger to the team.
COMBAT TIPS
Beyond the basics of shooting, ducking, and Bursting, there are a lot of things to keep in mind when fighting. Target priorities, pre-battle setups, damage typing, and as of this writing, a pretty serious glitch that even the AI occasionally pulls off. Here are some notes concerning combat.
Focus on the Boss
Once the end-level boss appears, marked by an edgy-looking skull icon, focus them down. Once the boss is dead, the mooks immediately disappear and you win. This can be easier said than done, as sometimes enemies will crowd the screen or distract your non-active Nikkes, leaving only the active one to shoot the boss.
This is why it’s normally a good idea to bring someone carrying a bazooka since they can clear mooks more easily than other Nikkes at any range. Usually, you have the missile Nikke on autofire clearing mooks while you control the ones who have better DPS.
Red Circle? Shoot It!
One good rule of thumb is to shoot red circles when you see them, especially during boss fights. They often denote both a weak point that isn’t the boss Rapture’s eye and an incoming attack that can be prevented by shooting at them.
Usually, failing to shoot at targets marked by red circles tends to end with your Nikke squad being obliterated by missiles, giant lasers, energy beam spam, or some other nasty game-ending nonsense, or getting run out by the timer because it summoned a shield. Use your aiming thumb for this, since the auto-combat AI isn’t smart enough to prioritize red-circle targets.
Combat Settings: Comfort, and the Framerate Fire Rate Bug
In any game, one should always check the Settings option before jumping into their first or second fight. For Nikke, that’s no different. In Settings, under the Gameplay tab, you can fine-tune how Auto-Combat works.
This allows you to change whether the active Nikke changes very often or not at all so you can more easily command them. You can also activate double-tap Skills so Burst Skills are easier to spam even if you want auto-Skills turned off for better timing. Mess around with all the options and test them in fights to see what you’re most comfortable with.
One big thing to keep in mind with this game is its weird programming: Your framerate affects your Nikkes’ fire rates, and therefore their DPS! A couple of ways to increase your framerate, other than setting it to 60 in the Graphics tab, would be to turn off Screen Shake and generally turn down the graphics. Turning Screen Shake off also helps you aim more effectively, so that’s definitely on the chopping block. You could turn off physics too, but let’s face it, that’s a very difficult choice.
The Hilarious Charge Attack Bug
As of this writing, there is a bug baked so deep into the game that the devs can’t even yell at you for using it, because even the auto-attack AI can and will use it by accident. Charge attacks (Those used by bazookas and snipers) work by applying a damage multiplier to their basic attack based on their charge time.
The devs messed up somewhere and if you time it right, it applies to Burst Skills too! If your Nikke is charging a rocket or sniper shot while their Burst skill is activated, then the multiplier will likely double or even triple the damage of the Burst Skill and wreck whatever their target is. They plan to fix this by the end of December 2022, so enjoy it while it lasts!
Match Damage Types
Enemy battle compositions often have a single elemental weakness, denoted by an icon during the pre-battle screen. Matching this is quite important since missions are on a timer and can be failed even without any casualties, should the timer run out. Nikkes have one element each, and while you can mix and match them, you should always have at least one or two Nikkes matching the enemy’s elemental weakness before deploying.
You can also check the enemy composition’s attack element type by tapping the Battlefield Info button. That way, they don’t do the same to your Nikkes. Another reason to pour a few gems into the Synchro Device is that it makes it easier for you to have Nikkes of certain classifications ready for combat at the drop of a hat.
GRINDING OVER META
More important than building a meta team is simply to keep your Nikkes fed and well-equipped. The way the Power system works, you get a painful damage debuff if your listed squad power is below a certain threshold against your foe. Your actual power is weaker than the already insufficient power the game displays if you’re fighting while under-leveled! No matter how well-crafted your team is, if the game tells you you need to level up, then you need to level up. Here are some notes about powering your Nikkes up for future battles.
Leveling Up
Leveling up is the most basic way to keep your Nikkes ready to take on the latest and greatest in Rapture threats. For this, you use Core Dust, Battle Data Sets, and Credits. You get those from doing anything in the game that involves shooting Raptures, and some that don’t. You usually want 5 Nikkes at equal levels so you can use the Synchro Device more effectively.
It generally isn’t important to level Nikkes beyond your main 5 because the Synchro Device will let you use them to share their experience with your whole roster, so if you screwed up and wasted some materials on anything past 5 Nikkes, you can spend a measly 10 Gems to recover the lost materials and send the Nikke back to level 0. Afterward, you put them in the Synchro Device, and it’s as if they were never de-leveled in the first place!
Attraction, The Art of Not Getting Fragged
In the story, Commanders are often known to treat Nikkes as nothing more than thoughtless killing machines, mere robotic cannon fodder of the Central Government. It’s gotten so bad that some rather unhappy, tired Nikkes agree with them, jaded from years of abuse and combat. This happens because Commanders are often poorly trained, being given less than a year of low-quality instruction at the Academy, so this is stupid.
Each Nikke has an Attraction level measuring how much they like you as a Commander. And just like any Human soldier from the old days, this affects how well they fight. A higher Attraction level powers up a Nikke and allows them to fight harder for you, dealing more damage, taking more hits before going down, and generally being a more motivated combatant.
You can make Nikkes happier by doing simple things like answering their text messages in Blabla, Advising them in the Outpost, and of course, bribing them with Gifts. There is a lore reason for this, which we won’t spoil for you. Unlocking Affection levels also unlocks story events for each Nikke, allowing you to learn more about them and the world of the game itself.
Speaking of Gifts…
It may be a good idea not to give Gifts away as you get them, and instead check on who would want them first, especially if they’re SSR-rated gifts: Nikkes have certain Gift preferences depending on multiple parameters, usually their character, their Manufacturer, or their in-universe Squad.
If a Nikke likes a particular gift, it will be marked by a little red heart icon when you’re picking the gifts out in the Advise screen. It may be a good idea to hoard Gifts for a bit and then go on a giving spree, so you unlock more story content easily. You can get gifts via Blabla side missions, or by buying them in the Mighty Tools General Shop, either for Credits or Gems.
Harmony Cubes
Harmony Cubes are special equipment found in Lost Sectors of The Ark. They give the Nikke a special buff depending on the type of cube, and when upgraded enough, will give a second or even third buff depending on the Cube’s quality or type. To upgrade them, you use Batteries which you can buy from the Talentum Mall Union Shop.
You can swap them between Nikkes if you don’t have enough of them to go around, which would be true for beginners. You can use them to either plug a Nikke’s weaknesses or emphasize their strength depending on who you match the Cube with, though emphasizing strengths might be a better idea. After all, each Nikke has a role they specialize in, and you would rather they do their job well than try to do another job and wind up doing it poorly.
Equipment
One way for a Commander to improve a Nikke’s combat performance is to equip them properly. Equipment for Nikkes can only be equipped based on a Nikke’s class, whether it be Support, Attacker, or Defender. In the beginning, you’ll usually be stuck using low-tier equipment.
But once you unlock Interceptions, you can get the real good stuff, which you can upgrade by using all the older junk your squad’s been using until then. You can also improve the quality of your Nikkes’ Equipment by going through the Story Campaign since that upgrades drop tiers from Outpost Defense.
When Do We Open All These Briefcases?
Briefcases that give out Core Dust, Credits, Battle Data Sets, or anything else for that matter typically have 1h, 5h, 24h, or whatever other timer is written on them. That denotes how much they’re worth, and that worth is tied to your Outpost Defense level: The higher your Outpost Defense level, the more stuff is crammed in those briefcases because their contents are calculated by how many hours of Outpost Defense they’re worth.
The best time to open these briefcases is during emergencies: Either there is a sale for something you want in one of the Shops, or you’re stuck in the Campaign and need to level your Nikkes up. You should only open enough of these briefcases to get what you want and nothing more to the best of your ability.
A good habit would be to open just enough of them to level your main Nikke squad up once, so the Synchro Device goes up a level too. You repeat this until you get unstuck from wherever you are or run out of briefcases. After that, the only solutions are to grind more, or aim better!
THE ARK: LIVE FIRE EXERCISES!
The Ark usually refers to the underground world Humans and Nikkes built for themselves after the Raptures tore the Surface apart and took it over, but in your menus, it’s the place where you do various training exercises along with your Nikkes.
If you’re stuck somewhere in the Campaign, this is where you go to power up, and later on, you may wind up spending more time here than in story missions to get past that one annoying level that’s got you and your Nikkes down. Here are your tasks in The Ark.
Lost Sector
The Lost Sector is an unfinished Ark, overrun by the Rapture just as it was completing construction. In it, Commanders and their Nikke squads search for materials and equipment, with their holy grail being the Harmony Cubes found within. Each map can be treated similarly to a Campaign level, with a labyrinthine overworld filled with enemies to clear out.
Unlike in the normal Campaign, you can use Quick Battle to clear out weaker Rapture compositions, but you still need to fight the leading team of every enemy clump, no matter how much stronger your squad is. Each Lost Sector level may require you to bring more than one squad of Nikkes, so you’ll need to start shoving gems into the Synchro Device to do these missions effectively.
Tribe Tower
The Tribe Tower is a relatively straightforward area. You go into the tower and pick fights with enemies of a slowly-increasing level until you run into something too beefy to kill. It’s a reliable way to earn Gems and Credits. You also get Core Dust, items needed to level your Nikkes up.
It resets every couple of weeks or so. That way, you’re not gonna be stuck at a level forever, and you’ll be able to get gems from running the Tower again come the reset if you DO get stuck. If you find yourself a bit short on cash, go up the Tribe Tower for a stipend.
Simulation Room
The Simulation Room is akin to the Tribe Tower, except more tactical and you typically have a limit to how high you go before the game tells you you’re done for the day. You fight enemies, and after every battle, you get to pick between multiple choices shown to you.
These choices usually involve getting a buff for the rest of the Simulation run, picking a difficult fight to get an even stronger buff, or forgoing buffs or rewards for a chance to heal or revive Nikkes. This is a good way to get Battle Data Sets, the basic item needed to level Nikkes up. You’ll often find yourself short of Battle Data Sets if you don’t come here, so visit the Simulation Room every day.
Intercept
Intercepts are the closest thing to raids you can get without bringing any friends with you. You fight a huge boss, typically the kind you would find in an EX Stage, and try to do as much damage to it as possible, or better yet, kill it entirely. Early on, you’ll often find your team getting knocked out.
You get rewards anyway, and it’s the best place to get better Equipment, so do it. Your first match for the day must be done in real-time, but subsequent matches against the same boss can be done with Quick battle, which merely copies the same results as your previous match and gives you the appropriate reward for such results.
This ends our Goddess of Victory: Nikke beginner’s guide. If you have additional tips or strategies to share, feel free to drop us a line in the comment section!