TLDR: Maybe? Pollux is a very interesting character, especially for the Ultra realm. Notably he has no Leap effects at all, nor does he meaningfully interact with the Ultra realm outside of his multi-hit Cleansing Judgement being added to his hand when entering it. Notably Pollux is the first arc 2 DPS that DOESN'T NEED DUPES TO FUNCTION, which is very compelling for F2P/low spenders. However, Pollux really does just feel like a "premium Jenkin", so I do wonder if he's worth picking up even if he's fairly cheap. Castor is by far the more important pick up during this banner, so prioritize him over Pollux.
Pollux is a very weird character. Despite being Ultra realm, he has no Leap effects across his entire kit. Instead, the first Pollux Command Card played each turn triggers his passive Atonement by Pain, which deals 200% more DMG, 50% more Shield, and gives Pollux 10 Aliemus. Each battle won during exploration increases both Pollux's base DMG and the base DMG of this passive by 20%, and the Atonement DMG increase is doubled during boss fights. This does make him a very strong DPS for exploration stages, but what does he even do? Well for one, surprise Bleed jumpscare! For some reason Pollux just applies a decent amount of Bleed through his Sin Mark self buff, which converts 1% per stack of damage dealt into Bleed. Finally, Ultra can compete with GHelot!
Alright, let's get serious. Pollux's main gimmick is his "knife juggling" created card, Sacred Heart. Each time it's used it goes to the top of your draw pile instead of being discarded, and after 3 uses the card will Exhaust and cause the next Pollux Command Card played this turn to activate twice. Combined with his Cleansing Judgement card, Pollux can deal some very high damage across many hits. More importantly, this actually does let Pollux apply a ton of Bleed once he stacks everything up right.
After reading all that, you might be thinking "well damn, this character seems fun! But his kit kinda just looks like a more complicated Jenkin" and you would be correct (for the most part)! Pollux's Bleed gimmick aside, he's a multihitter Ultra character who creates a card and likes spamming his cards out. With that said, he IS better than Jenkin even if Jenkin has more investment dupe wise. His numbers are just better, but I suppose it stands to reason that a limited "outumbers" a standard character. But is it worth pulling for Pollux? Well, that depends. His main thing is his synergy with Castor. His Soulsearing Light Command Card draws 2 Command Cards with the lowest cost, which tends to be Castor's Feathers. His multihits are very clearly meant to proc Corruption stacks. Hell, the fact that he has no Leap effects is very clearly meant to encourage you to activate Castor's Quasar effect instead. The synergy is obvious, and it is absolutely a good one.
However, we need to consider the future as well. With GMurphy being the literal next character, many F2P/low spenders may not want to invest ~90 pulls into yet ANOTHER DPS, even if he does perform well at low dupes. We'll get to that in a moment. There's also the matter of needing Castor, who TO BE FAIR is arguably a must pull anyway. If you don't even have Castor, Pollux's viability is rather questionable in comparison to his competition. He's mostly just a GHelot in Ultra, which isn't nearly as good of a realm to mix with. Pollux himself also lacks the insane scaling capabilities that the other arc 2 characters have had.
Pollux's dupes are very good, but they don't really change his overall gameplan. This makes him the first arc 2 character who I can genuinely say performs well at E0. E1 is nice for getting his set up started faster, but you aren't normally in a rush with him when Castor wants to spend some time setting up as well. E2 again helps Pollux set up faster, but the real highlight is the cost reduction on his Cleansing Judgement, which you'll greatly appreciate during Ultra nuke turns. E3 helps Pollux deal even more damage/hits for proccing Corruption, and again helps accelerate the battle. Overexalt is a notable improvement, letting all of his Command Cards this turn benefit from his Atonement by Pain (at 50% value) and again lets his next Command Card activate twice. Overall, Pollux's dupes are good, but not really mandatory compared to similar characters in recent times. If you're willing to invest right before half anni E2 is the typical stopping point, with E3 being a luxury upgrade and Overexalt allowing Pollux to deal quite a bit of DMG himself. I'd recommend using shop dupes though, as Ultra standard is... not exactly great.
I think Pollux is a solid character overall. His damage output is quite good for an Ultra character, he has great synergy with his brother, and he even has funny Bleed application! GHelot Pollux is REAL!! With all that said, if you don't own Castor I highly encourage getting him first as he's by far the stronger of the two, but if you want the whole package deal they're a strong duo that can clear pretty much anything. Although you could also just run Jenkin. Or Tawil. Or even Ryker.
