Blackbird: Rotation, Teams & Awakening Guide — NTE

Blackbird deals damage whether she is on the field or not. Her Redirect Skill marks the target so the rest of the team sets off attacks for her and fills the Esper Cycle gauge on the spot, her Ultimate lifts everyone’s ATK before turning her into the Witch of Deliverance, and her passive makes both Nova and Stain hit harder. She can be played as a sub-DPS that touches the field for a few seconds or as a main DPS, and the rotation for each is different.

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How She Works

Malice is her energy bar. It fills from her Basic Attack string, her Redirect Skill and her Support Skill, and she starts every fight with some. It stops filling once she is the Witch, so you want it full before the Ultimate: in that form her attacks spend Malice for extra damage.

Netherplume Rite, the Redirect Skill, hits the target and leaves a Forsaken Feather on it. While the mark is up, whenever another active ally damages that target a Forsaken Bird strikes the area around it, no more than once every 2 seconds and up to 5 times. That is her off-field damage.

It also fills the Esper Cycle gauge in one cast, which is her Instant Cycle: swap straight to an ally of an adjacent element, Chaos for Nova or Lakshana for Stain, and that ally’s Support Skill and the Esper Cycle trigger immediately.

Requies Animarum, the Ultimate, raises the whole team’s ATK by 20% for 15 seconds, then turns her into the Witch of Deliverance for 16 seconds. The Witch cannot be interrupted by hitstun, and the timer does not run down while she is off the field. After the fifth Pyreflame hit her Redirect Skill becomes Flames of Deliverance, and recasting the Ultimate ends the form with Flammae in Unum.

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Rotations

As a sub-DPS

1. Press the Redirect Skill, then the Ultimate, and swap out. You get the Forsaken Feather damage, the Nova trigger and the ATK buff in a few seconds.
2. A feather icon sits on her portrait while the mark is up. When it runs out, swap back and recast the Ultimate for Flammae in Unum.
3. Redirect Skill and Ultimate again for the buff and the feather.

If your main DPS has no cooldowns to wait for, you can instead stay on her for one rotation, getting the Redirect Skill and the fifth Basic Attack, and then finish with the second Ultimate. With a strong main DPS, use the Ultimate on her and move on.

Where she goes in the order

Before your damage dealer. That applies to a second DPS, a Chaos unit, or anyone else, and quick swaps do not change it: the closer the buff and the Nova are to the damage, the more of it they catch.

In content that starts with a full Esper Cycle, open on her, swap to the Chaos unit, then the Incantation unit, then the second Psyche unit, and return to Blackbird for Redirect Skill and Ultimate before going back to the Chaos unit.

As a main DPS

Open with your buffers, then Blackbird’s Redirect Skill and Ultimate. You can also press the Redirect Skill, swap to another unit for its kit and swap back before the Ultimate; it makes no real difference.

While you are on the field as the Witch, finish five Basic Attacks and press the Redirect Skill. The animation on that last hit is longer and is where much of the damage is. You can swap out right after pressing it, use someone else, and swap back.

With Fadia on the team, Blackbird can go first: Ultimate, then Redirect Skill, then your buffers and damage dealers.

Teams with a Lakshana unit

With a Lakshana unit such as Hathor in the team, trigger Stain before you go into Blackbird. For example, go from Blackbird’s Redirect Skill to Hathor, use her kit, and return to Blackbird, which leaves a long Stain window. On a Nova team, a Lakshana unit is not an upgrade for now.

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Nova and Stain

Her passive Thrushsong enhances both reactions.

When Nova ends, she adds Mental DMG equal to 20% of the damage the target took while it was active (capped at 1,000× her Base ATK), then inflicts Nova on the target once more.

She raises Stain’s base bonus to 30% and extends it to 20 seconds.

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Build

Cycle Intensity

Aim for roughly 150 to 220 Cycle Intensity, more if you have the pieces. Testing showed little difference between putting it on the main stat and not, but having it in that range raised her damage by a good margin. Other Psyche units can carry some as well when a Chaos unit triggers the Nova, such as Haniel or Fadia .

Cartridge

Devil's Blood: Curse , the Psyche set: Psyche DMG +10%, and +18% damage for the wearer, rising to 36% against targets under Nova or Stain. Her console is Type III, and every Type III module equipped adds 8% Crit Rate.

Modules

Crit Rate, Crit DMG, ATK%, DMG% and Cycle Intensity, with whatever you have. Putting Cycle Intensity on every piece except the main stat looks like the best split.

Arcs

Priority	Arc	Statline (max)	Why
1	Crime and Punishment	570 ATK / 24% Crit Rate	72 Cycle Intensity, 20% Psyche DMG, and after her Ultimate 16% Crit DMG for the team and another 32% for her, for 15s
2	Ravenous Blade	570 ATK / 24% Crit Rate	The only other damage option, and it is Zankou’s signature, so Blackbird can only take it if Zankou is not using it
3	Good Boy's Grand Adventure	474 ATK / 45% ATK	Only a support Arc: +10% Team ATK for 20s after the Ultimate. For a pure sub-DPS who is on the field for a couple of seconds a rotation

Low investment

A Blackbird with few resources can still be played as a pure sub-DPS with full Cycle Intensity, the way Hathor is played in a Chaos team. This suits a roster with a heavily invested Lacrimosa or too few resources for a full Blackbird build, and Good Boy’s Grand Adventure is an acceptable Arc for it.

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Teams

Nova is what she is built around, and it needs a Chaos unit: either Daffodill or Lacrimosa . The other two slots are flexible, and the best line-up depends on which of the two you use.

With Daffodill

Nova with Scorch makes Discord, and in testing that was the best version of the team.

• Fadia is the surprise. Her passive adds 10% team Max HP, which together with the Witch’s hitstun immunity makes Blackbird very hard to knock out of her attacks. Her Nova enhancement also drains Max HP from the target when it ends.
• Haniel brings buffs, and more of them every time Nova ends. Against Fadia the clear time changes by a second or two at most.
• Sakiri in the team is about five seconds faster than Haniel in her place. If a mode only needs one team, keep Sakiri here; if you need her in another team, Haniel is an acceptable swap.
• Aurelia is the last Psyche option and is not better than either.
• Daffodill came out ahead of Lacrimosa in this team at A0.

With Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa is not bad or unusable, but the Daffodill version was ahead at A0, so the usual choice is Daffodill with Blackbird and Lacrimosa in the Zankou team. A strong Lacrimosa, at A1 or A2, changes the picture. If you do run her, pick Haniel over Fadia and skip the Lakshana unit: you will spend most of the time on Lacrimosa and swap to Blackbird only to recast her Redirect Skill or Ultimate.

Other options

• Nova with Stain and Discord. A Stain reaction raises Psyche damage taken by 20%, and Blackbird’s passive strengthens it. In testing it was not better than a Discord or full Nova team, because the other characters already carry a Nova or Discord passive. It is not worse with Hathor , but it is more awkward to play. That may change when a Lakshana support arrives.
• Full Nova. Slightly behind Discord and still very good.
• Hotori . A viable choice with Sakiri, and more so with her Awakenings, for players who do not have all the characters.

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Awakenings

Awakening	Effect
A1 Renegade	Flames of Deliverance’s DMG ratio +150%, and Flammae in Unum now consumes all Malice
A2 Wayward Chronicle	Netherplume Rite’s DMG ratio +100%, +20% DEF as the Witch, and healing equal to 400% Base ATK after Flames of Deliverance
A3 Blind Spot	+50% DMG ratio on her attacks that consume Malice
A4 Bad Seed	Ultimate ATK buff lasts 25s and all allies deal 12% more damage during it
A5 Revenant	Target loses 8% Psyche, Lakshana and Chaos RES for 25s after she hits it
A6 Mortal Coil	+25% Psyche DMG for 25s after the Ultimate, and 4 Malice when the Forsaken Bird attacks while she is not the Witch

As a main DPS: A1, then A6, then A3.

As a sub-DPS: A4 first, then A5. Those are the only two that help the team itself. If you go further, A1 or A6 is a good use of the third copy.

A4 is the best of all of them: it stretches the buff out to 25 seconds. A5 gets better in future teams, or in a Stain team where all three elements deal a good share of the damage. A2 is last in every plan. You do not need the healing, and it is only there on the way to A6.

Is it worth pulling?

The signature is the pull: the only other damage Arc is Zankou’s. To min-max, A1 with the signature is the target, and A3 is a large jump on top of it. If you are not invested in her, Blackbird with her signature is the best play. Skipping her to wait for the 1.5 characters is also reasonable.

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Video Guide