With the Hololive EN collaboration coming up to the English release of Princess Connect Re: Dive, this should mean more people to drag into the grips of Cygames – er, reroll hell! Here’s our recommendations of shiny natural 3-star units to try for when you start the game. Give yourself a slightly better start as you work through the PVE grind.

S TIER

MAKOTO

Reigning queen of Physical Damage – at least until the Princess Fes exclusive Christina comes along – Makoto will be your best bet for a DPS unit especially with the limited pool the game has to offer to start. Capable of both debuffing Physical Defense as well as buffing her own Physical Damage output, she’ll hit hard and keep going.

DJEETA

The Grandcypher captain makes her way into Astrum as a single-target Physical Damage dealer. She’s able to boost her own damage as well as charge up her Union Burst (UB) faster. She’ll of course shine much better if there’s someone who can debuff Physical Defense.

A TIER

MONIKA

Monika makes another appearance in yet another Cygames’ property, this time as a buffer unit. She is able to increase her allies’ Physical and Magic Damage, and Attack Speed. The catch is that she can only activate her buffs once per wave. Otherwise, she also brings a self buff to Physical Damage and Physical Defense, and her UB deals short-range AOE Physical Damage.

ANNA

Every game needs its chuuni type, and Anna fits that role. She’s your Magic Damage DPS, able to raise her own Magic Damage and debuff Magic Defense. She’s also a squishy unit, as her UB will reduce her Defense to 0, so not an Auto friendly unit.

B TIER

NOZOMI

The idol of the game, Nozomi is a defense oriented character with the ability to draw aggro on her UB, simultaneously providing a small Physical Damage buff to her allies, and buffs her own Defense. She also has the ability to Stun enemies and provides some healing. She does need time to ramp up her UB though, so she won’t be distracting enemies from the word go, and her healing will not be enough to support her party.

C TIER

MAHO

Maho is the healer archetype, able to increase TP for her allies with her skills to get their UBs up faster. However, she only heals a single target, so she won’t be able to keep up with AOE damage.

RINO

This little archer is reliant on her crits in order to deal Physical Damage, which she can provide to herself with good uptime. Her UB is AOE Physical Damage, so when she’s able to crit, that’s a large chunk of HP she can take out. If she doesn’t crit, however, then she’ll have problems as she’s also not a very durable unit. If anything targets the backline, she might not be able to survive long enough to do anything significant.

HATSUNE

Another Magic Damage unit, Hatsune can deal AOE Magic Damage and can do single target Magic Defense debuffs to help bump her damage more. Her skills target an enemy with the highest Physical Damage, so she can work to take out those dangerous enemies. She’s in the backline, and that comes with low durability, and will be needing a tank. She has a stun too. Her focus is on obliterating Physical Damage enemies, so if you come across Magic Damage enemies, she won’t be doing much.

NINON

This Physical Damage dealer excels in dealing with crowds, and can even charge up her UB if she lands the killing blow. That makes her weaker if she’s unable to deal the finishing touch since she won’t charge her UB, and her AOE slant means she’s also not dealing with bosses well. When you need to kill bosses to move on to the next area, Ninon will then falter.

IO

Io-sensei is able to Charm enemies into attacking each other with her UB, as well as dealing slight Magic Damage. Her main shtick is being a debuffer, being able to absorb an enemy’s TP, and reducing their Damage. You’d probably prefer to get a more dedicated damage dealer and kill the enemy before they get you at her base form.

SAREN

With her high HP, she could to do some off-tanking in the midline. Her UB scales with how much HP she’s lost to deal AOE Physical Damage, which can make it tricky to time and isn’t especially Auto friendly. What she can do is provide TP to an ally to get their UB up, but on her own, she will struggle with single target enemies.

AKINO

The other ojou, Akino possesses higher HP compared to other Physical Damage dealers. She can buff her own damage, as well. She has a Counter should she get hit to deal some damage back while in her stance, and brings a HP regeneration skill for some off-healing. Where she lacks is in her low Defense when compared to an actual Tank, unable to do any actions when in her Counter stance unless you manually use her UB, and her healing is negligible. Her UB does decent Physical Damage to single targets at least.

SHIZURU

Onee-chan will do her best to help you, bringing single target healing for tanks as well as being somewhat of an off-tank herself with high Physical Defense and a Physical Damage barrier in both a skill and her UB. She’s vulnerable to Magic Damage, however, and her healing may not be enough for your actual tank. Single target healing means she won’t keep herself topped up either.

For those familiar with the Japan release, many, if not all, of the C tier units become incredible once they get their Unique Equipment, as well as their 6-star upgrades. However, we won’t know when they’ll arrive to the English version, and it also requires a lot of investment in Memory Shards, something that will take a decent amount of time especially when you’re free to play.

Once you do build up a core set of characters to start, then you can start upgrading the others in preparation for the eventual updates. Good luck to you, future princes!

Download

Princess Connect! Re: Dive

Publisher: Crunchyroll Games

Developer: Cygames

Release Date: 2018-02-15

Android, iOS

A tale that resonates: the tremendously popular RPG, Princess Connect, is here for a global audience.

Princess Connect! Re: Dive is finally available worldwide! A blockbuster title that enveloped Japan and China with its success, the game arrives upon new shores thanks to an exciting collaboration between Crunchyroll Games, Cygames, and Funplex.