Nicole Best Builds, Guide, & Review

Nicole is a free character you get upon starting the game, and she is one of the best Support Agents in the game, even though she's a free character you get upon starting the game. While Nicole might not always be the very best option, she's extremely strong with basically any damage Agent whether Attack or Anomaly.

She can increase the team's damage, buff Ether DMG, buff Crit Rate, and can apply a good amount of Ether Anomaly herself.

Nicole is unique from other Supports because she "shreds" enemy DEF, making her synergistic with many Agents. However, the new Rupture Specialty released in Version 2.0 does not synergize with Nicole as they ignore DEF completely. Even still, Yixuan still works fine with Nicole as Nicole is able to buff Crit Rate with M6 Corrupting Energy Field and Ether Damage with her Additional Ability: Hare of Many Burrows.

Note: DEF shred gets more powerful the more you have of it. Conversely, PEN Ratio becomes less powerful when combined with DEF shred.

Lastly, Nicole's debuffs/buffs have a very short duration, meaning you'll want to play well to make the most out of her kit.

1. Core Passive
2. EX Special / Ultimate
3. Basic Attack / Assist
4. Dodge

The Vault is Nicole's best in slot as it buffs the team the most. The buff duration is quite short, so you want to use Nicole's EX Special at important moments to deal damage.

Weeping Cradle and Kaboom the Cannon are also good alternatives if you don't have The Vault with high refinements/copies.

Slice of Time is a F2P option although not particularly recommended. [Reverb] Mark III is also a F2P option if you don't have any of the above.

The generic recommendation is to use Astral Voice for decent team buffing. Freedom Blues is the better choice when running Nicole in a Disorder team with Agents like Miyabi or Yanagi.

Swing Jazz is an option if you don't need Freedom Blues and have someone else holding Astral Voice.

For 2-Pc, Swing Jazz is a generic recommendation for Energy. Phaethon's Melody can also work for Disorder teams.

For Stats, the important piece is Energy Regen on Partition 6. Everything else contributes to Nicole's personal damage, which is not negligible, but not an immediate priority for team building.

There's honestly too many to list:

Alice Yuzuha Nicole
Yixuan Pan Yinhu Nicole
Jane Vivian Nicole
Miyabi Astra Yao Nicole
Evelyn Astra Yao Nicole
Harumasa Qingyi Nicole
Zhu Yuan Qingyi Nicole
Zhu Yuan Astra Yao Nicole
Yanagi Astra Yao Nicole
Anton Astra Yao Nicole
Anyone + Astra Yao Nicole

M1 Supercharged Bomb does not increase Nicole's buff/debuff capabilities, but it is very important. The extra Anomaly is big for Disorder teams, and the extra duration helps extend her already short debuff duration.

M2 Charging Device is solid for some extra Energy.

M3/M5 do not matter too much as Nicole does not contribute too much damage/daze, but it's something.

M4 Field Expansion is potentially useful in modes like Shiyu Defense for grouping, or if the enemy boss moves around, but not too important.

M6 Corrupting Energy Field is a major buff to Nicole's buffing capabilities, making her an even better Support than she already is. The Crit Rate buff doesn't really matter for Disorder teams like Yanagi or Jane, but does impact Miyabi and Attack Agents a lot.

You can further extend Nicole's EX Special charging by rotating the joystick while holding EX Special. (On PC you can press W->A->S->D->W). This may be difficult to do on PC with EX Special on E, so you can change hotkey settings to perform this. You will know if you succeed as Nicole will sit on her briefcase when performing this tech.

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