Akane: Rotation & Team Composition Guide — NTE

Akane is a Lakshana main DPS who handles single-target and AoE content equally well, because her Skill changes shape depending on whether you press it or hold it. She is easy to play: one loop of Basic Attacks and an enhanced Skill carries her damage, and her Ultimate wraps it on both ends.

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How She Works

String Energy is her resource. Her Basic Attack, Stringblade, builds it on every hit, up to a cap of 30.

Rhythm Wave, her Redirect Skill, has two casting methods that share one cooldown. Pressing it marks a single target with Overtone, and her Basic Attacks are relayed to that target from any range. Holding it deploys a Reverb Field, and every Basic Attack is relayed to all enemies inside it, which is what makes her so comfortable in AoE content. Only one of the two can be active at a time.

Once String Energy reaches 30 with an Overtone or a Reverb Field active, her Skill turns blue and becomes Synced Resonance: a single massive hit on the Overtone target, or a spread hit across the Reverb Field. It is arguably her biggest source of damage, and it spends the 30 String Energy only when it lands.

Sonic Boom, her Ultimate, hits once and puts her into Solo Cadenza. During the second half of that window you can press the Ultimate again for a second hit, and that second stage is never cast for you: if Solo Cadenza runs out, it is gone. A guitar on screen shows how long you have left. Casting Sonic Boom also raises her damage by 20% for 25 seconds through her passive, Starlit Anthem.

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Akane’s Own Rotation

1. Swap in and cast her Ultimate.
2. Press the Skill for single-target content or hold it for AoE.
3. Basic Attack until the Skill turns blue, then cast Synced Resonance.
4. Cast the second stage of the Ultimate.

When the enemies are nearly dead and the next wave has yet to arrive, or while you wait for Blackbird’s Skill to come back, you can keep basic attacking a little longer before the second stage. In teams built on Remora or Nova, you can also stay on Akane until her Esper Cycle is full.

Dodge between Basic Attacks

A dodge between her Basic Attacks keeps her place in the chain, so you can attack, dodge, attack, dodge through the first hits to reach the last two faster, and the last one hits hardest. Doing this through the first Basic Attack string of a rotation works well. Keep it to that, because every skipped hit is String Energy you need for Synced Resonance.

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Teams and Rotations

On every team below, Akane is built as a full DPS and wants her signature Arc, Far Side of the Moon . Blackbird always wants at least 150 Cycle Intensity.

Blackbird’s part of each rotation depends on her Awakenings. At A1 she goes Ultimate, Ultimate, Skill before Akane comes in. At A0 she casts Skill and Ultimate, swaps out, and comes back at the end of Akane’s rotation to spend her Malice.

Blackbird, Sakiri and Iroi

Rotation: Sakiri Ultimate and Skill, Iroi Skill and Ultimate, Blackbird, then Akane’s rotation. The order is simple to follow: buffers first, then Blackbird, then Akane.

• Sakiri and Iroi need little from their stats. Both can lean towards damage, and Iroi can take the Healing main stat. Make sure one of them carries the Speedy Hedgehog set.
• Haniel takes Sakiri’s slot if you do not have her.
• Fadia is a real option without Iroi. Open with her, since she scales on HP and gains nothing from an ATK buff, then go Ultimate, Skill, into your buffer, Blackbird and Akane.

Blackbird, Iroi and Hotori

Hotori is a good option, and the damage shows it.

Rotation: Hotori Skill, Iroi Skill and Ultimate, Blackbird, then Akane: Ultimate, press or hold the Skill depending on the content, and her usual rotation until Hotori’s Ultimate is full.

Hotori’s Skill records the Skills your allies cast and replays them, and those replayed Skills add a lot of damage. Against an enemy with little health left, going straight into Hotori’s next Ultimate without replaying the Skills can be fine, though it does cost some damage. You can also run the Skill replay again before the Ultimate.

Hotori takes a DPS build here as well.

Remora and Stain with Zero

Rotation: Iroi Skill and Ultimate, Zero Ultimate and Skill, into Akane. From Akane, go to Blackbird, then back to Akane for her rotation.

The swaps from Akane to Blackbird and back again feel awkward. Sakiri or Haniel in Zero’s place makes a better team with a smoother rotation, which makes the Blackbird team above the stronger pick. Blossom can stand in for Remora, though at that point there is little reason to keep Zero in the team.

Build Zero on Cycle Intensity. Her Arc is open: The Rain That Shook the World is a good fit, and a more damage-focused Arc works if you do not have it.

Nova and Stain

The Chaos slot is Lacrimosa or Daffodill . Sakiri is the best last slot and Haniel the next, and Fadia or even Iroi can fill it if you want to lean into Stain.

Rotation: start with your buffer or Fadia, then Blackbird. From Blackbird, go to the Chaos unit to trigger Nova, or to Akane to trigger Stain. Either works, and once Akane’s Esper Cycle comes around you have both reactions up and the team really gets going.

• Daffodill: Ultimate and Skill, then into Akane.
• Lacrimosa: build 10 stacks, Ultimate, then Skill, then into Akane.
• On Akane, use her Skill before her Ultimate in this team.

An A1 Lacrimosa makes the team noticeably better, since she gives you an instant Esper Cycle. Build Daffodill on Break Intensity if you play her. The team is fun and solid, though it still has rough edges.

Shinku Charge Team

Here Shinku is the main DPS and Akane plays as a sub-DPS.

Rotation:

1. Stay on Shinku at the start and build Menacing Gaze stacks until her Esper Cycle is ready.
2. Akane: Ultimate, then hold the Skill.
3. Zero: Ultimate and Skill.
4. Iroi: Skill and Ultimate.
5. Shinku: Ultimate, Skill four to five times, then press the Ultimate button three times for the Ultimate dashes. Repeat from step 2.

Shinku needs most of the field time, so stopping on Akane long enough for Synced Resonance can throw off Shinku’s timing, and her enhanced Skill may only be ready on the second rotation. Akane is a small upgrade for this team and fits better with an A1 or A2 Shinku. Pulling her only for Shinku is hard to recommend, because she does not shine as a sub-DPS.

Shinku and Akane take a DPS build with their signatures, and Zero keeps her Cycle Intensity build.

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Is Akane Worth Pulling?

Reasons to pull

• Her damage is good. She sits behind a main-DPS Blackbird team, as nearly everyone does, and around Lacrimosa or Shinku at A0.
• AoE content is easy with her. The Reverb Field hits every enemy inside it however far they are from her, and her single-target damage holds up too.
• She works at A0. Her Awakenings are a bonus. Her signature matters most if you have neither Lacrimosa’s signature, The Last Rose , nor the Battle Pass Arc Fluff of Fleetness : without them you are left with Daffodill’s signature, which is a large damage loss.
• She fits new accounts, especially ones that already have Blackbird, and any roster missing a strong DPS.

Reasons to skip

• She is another DPS in a game that already has many of them.
• Chaos lowers her value, at least for newer accounts. Chaos is weaker than Akane, especially in AoE, and still fills the same need.
• Her Remora passive is weak. Perfect Pitch keeps Remora on the Overtone target and every enemy in the Reverb Field, and it only pays off for an A1 or A2 Shinku. In Akane’s own teams the extra Remora damage is barely noticeable, and with an A0 Shinku she is not worth pulling for it.
• 1.5 is close. An account that is already built may get more out of saving for the 1.5 characters, and much more so if one of them turns out to be a support. Akane is the second-half unit of 1.4, so more will be known about 1.5 before her banner ends.

Blackbird’s dupe or Akane

Blackbird is the better pull of the two. Whether a Blackbird dupe beats a copy of Akane is closer. The dupe is very strong, especially if you have several teams for Blackbird, but a new unit adds options, and Akane is a beast in AoE content. More characters is usually the better outcome, and the choice comes down to your own roster.

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