Character Guide - Lone Destruction: Shadowchaser

An in-depth look into Lantern's first battlesuit, a PSY Fire type Rapid-Shot Crossbow user.

Introduction

[Lone Destruction: Shadowchaser] (LDS) Lantern is the new battlesuit debuting in Version 7.5. She is an S-Rank PSY Type Fire DPS, and uses the Rapid-Shot Crossbow. In this guide, I will be going through her kit, suitable team compositions, rotations, equipment, and more. 

Character Mechanics

Firearms

Lantern has 3 firearms in her arsenal – the Rapid-Shot Crossbow, the Shotgun, and the Submachine Gun – indicated by the icon in the bar above her HP. 

The weapons can be switched by pressing the Weapon Active button. They have different attack sequences and different Blast Energy restoration rates.

Firepower Rotation and Vestiges

Using Weapon Active while performing Lantern’s Basic ATK sequence causes her to cast Firepower Rotation, creating a Vestige to use the next sequence of the Firearm you swap from and switches to the next Firearm, which counts as an Evasion. The Vestige deals 240% ATK of Fire DMG counted as DMG from Lantern.

Firepower Rotation’s damage differs by Firearm, and also restores different amounts of Blast Energy.

• Rapid-Shot Crossbow to Shotgun: Deal 6x47% ATK of Fire DMG and restore 16.3 Blast Energy

• Shotgun to Submachine Gun: Deal 8x121% ATK of Fire DMG and restore 7 Blast Energy

• Submachine Gun to Rapid-Shot Crossbow: Deal 2x106% ATK of Fire DMG and restore 6.2 Blast Energy

Blast Energy

Lantern has up to 300 Blast Energy in battle. Landing Basic ATKs, Evasion ATKs, and Firepower Rotation all restore Blast Energy. 

At full Blast Energy, holding ATK consumes all Blast Energy to cast a Combo ATK.

Astral Ring: Wheel of Destiny

Lantern is protected by the Astral Ring Specialization: Wheel of Destiny. When activating Astral Ring Specialization: Wheel of Destiny, Thelema enjoys various DMG buffs, fully restores Blast Energy, switches Firearms to Rapid-Shot Crossbow, and gains 2 blocks of Concentrated Blast Energy. 

Lantern’s Combo ATK consumes all Concentrated Blast Energy to generate Vestiges depending on the number of Concentrated Blast Energy blocks consumed, with each one dealing an additional 600% ATK of Fire DMG. 

During Stellar Outburst, tapping ATK automatically casts Firepower Rotation, and its CD decreases to 1.5 seconds. Lantern can also summon Phantoms in battle.

Phantoms

In Stellar Outburst and when Lantern is on the field, standby characters cannot be switched in and are replaced with Phantoms to aid in battle. Using a Phantom via Shadow Star Attack deals Fire DMG and restores 1 block of Concentrated Blast Energy, and after the attack, grants Lantern Rondo in the Shadows for 5 seconds, which allows Lantern to generate bonus Phantoms when casting Firepower Rotation to deal bonus DMG.

Astral Ring: World Star

Lantern is able to support Valkyries protected by Astral Ring Specialization: World Star. When entering Stellar Outburst in Astral Ring Specialization: World Star, Lantern gains 6 Quantum Mech Energy. Mashing ATK repeatedly unleashes Firepower Rotation, consuming 1 Quantum Mech Energy to trigger Domain Resonance. After consuming 5 Quantum Mech Energy, tapping ATK consumes the last one to cast a Combo ATK with a Vestige, and also triggers Domain Resonance. Firepower Rotation and Combo ATKs performed this way count as Resonance ATKs. Moreover, Lantern cannot use her Weapon Active manually while she has Quantum Mech Energy.

Equipment

Weapon

This is Lantern’s signature weapon, Burn the Long Night: Luminare. It has strong buffs to herself, as well as some support capability with some teamwide buffs. Since there aren’t many Rapid-Shot Crossbows available, Lantern’s alternative weapon options are extremely limited, and the next best option is significantly worse. As such, it is strongly recommended to pull for her weapon. In summary, her weapon has: 

• 1 additional Piercing Blade on Firepower Rotation

• The ability to inflict Aflame, applying a 50% speed reduction and a 23% Fire Vulnerability on enemies 

• 35% Fire DMG, with 15% more against enemies with Aflame

• 22% Total DMG during Stellar Outburst

• 150 initial Bolt Energy

• Auto triggering of Ultimate Evasion on taking hits every 8s

• 35% Elemental DMG and 18% Physical DMG to Valkyries with Harmonized Shadow Star tag when Astral Ring Wheel of Destiny is activated

• 28% Elemental DMG and 40% Physical DMG to Valkyries with Domain Resonance tag when Astral Ring World Star is activated

The weapon also has a Synergy skill, which will be covered below.

Weapon and Synergy Level Comparison

Shown above are results derived from a single rotation with the loadout shown in the graphic. First, I will go through the Synergy skills of both weapons shown in the test results.

Burn the Long Night: Luminare - Enemies suffer a Total DMG Taken debuff from the onfield Valkyrie that is also an independent multiplier. As an independent multiplier, it boosts damage considerably more than a regular multiplier. This affects Lantern’s teammates, making it a nice support buff too. Moreover, Lantern gains more starting SP, which is a powerful perk in Memorial Arena, where you start with 0 SP. With both the SP bonus and the independent multiplier, this is a very strong Synergy skill for her.

Ta-da! The Blow - Wielder gets a Total DMG Multiplier after the Combo Hit counter reaches 30 or higher. Not nearly as powerful due to being a normal multiplier, and doesn’t even take effect until the Hit counter is high enough, or benefit teammates.

As you can see, there is a sizeable difference in damage between Lantern’s signature weapon and the Foundry weapon, though it isn’t as wide a gap as Thelema’s options were. Not only that, but Luminare is able to support other Valkyries, something Ta-da! can’t hope to do.

Is it worth pulling for Synergy 3 Luminare? Not really. Synergy Level 1 will be able to take you all the way to Nirvana, and it may even be possible to achieve Myriad with it. The ranking up of the Synergy skill is more helpful for Memorial Arena, where 35/50 bonus initial SP will be more significant. However, it’s definitely not necessary, and it’s much more worthwhile to pull for future releases. However, I would still strongly recommend pulling for Synergy level 1.

Stigmata

Signature Set - A Forged Light

This is Lantern’s signature stigmata set. It is far and away her best option, and with it being craftable, there is no reason for you not to get it. A placeholder set that can be used while waiting for the materials to craft the stigmata is Leeuwenhoek TB Thales M, but if you don’t have it, don’t bother crafting it, as it’ll be much faster to craft this immediately instead.

This stigmata set is rather interesting as it has buffs for Physical Valkyries, including bonuses to Crit Rate and DMG. This may allude to Lantern being able to support future Physical releases.

Required Materials for Crafting

These are the materials needed to craft the full A Forged Light stigmata set. Note that there is an extremely low chance you will ever need to craft all 3 stigs, since pulling for the weapon will likely get you one or more.

Recommended Teams

Lantern’s best team consists of Senadina and Thelema as supports and has the highest damage potential, with Lantern and Senadina working incredibly well together due to their highly synergistic kits and Astral Ring Specialization. In pretty much every situation that requires Lantern as a DPS, this team is the best option to run. Similarly to Thelema, Lantern relies on Senadina for a longer Rondo in the Shadows duration, as well as powerful buffs like Elemental Breach.

The second team is pretty much the same composition, but Thelema is set as the leader instead so she can fill the role of DPS. 

The last team isn’t really a recommendation, more of a less optimal alternative option for players without Thelema. Senadina’s best supports are still Thelema and Helia, and Lantern is just here as a cope option.

Rotations

Part 2 Team Rotations

Astral Ring Rotation

Lantern is incredibly straightforward to play, and involves a lot of spamming the same button. As a result, she doesn’t have a lot of versatility in terms of combos.

Below is a video example of the rotation.

Non-Astral Ring Rotation

This isn’t really a rotation, strictly speaking. It’s just having Lantern deal damage until Astral Ring Intensity is full and you can Stellar Outburst again. The number of sequences depends on your AstralOp. For example, having Songque at SS Rank or higher significantly boosts your Intensity regeneration, allowing you to use Stellar Outburst much faster. Without her, you’ll be doing this sequence for longer.

Below is a video example of this rotation.

Lantern Support Rotation (Thelema DPS)

This is an incredibly basic rendition of what Thelema’s rotation would look like. Due to the various combos Thelema can carry out, as well as their situational usage (for example, holding the Weapon Active may be done more frequently if the boss requires being frozen). Do not limit yourself to this rotation, and be flexible depending on the combat scenario you find yourself in.

Below is a video example of the rotation.

Lantern Support Rotation (Senadina DPS)

Senadina’s rotation doesn’t change much with Lantern, only replacing Thelema/Coralie inputs with attacks from Lantern. Players who have been using Senadina for a while now should have no problem getting used to this rotation.

Below is a video example of this rotation.

Should I pull?

Lantern is a decently strong Valkyrie and very easy to pick up. While her damage output and current versatility aren’t as great as Thelema or Senadina, she is still a very good Valkyrie and definitely outshines any Part 1 release. Needless to say, she will be very strong against the existing Fire bosses as well as any new ones that may come in the future. However, this alone doesn’t make her a must pull.

For newer players who may have missed out on Senadina, while you may be itching to pull, I must remind you that she really wants Senadina in her team. While a lack of Senadina doesn’t make Lantern useless, players who aim to be more meta oriented may want to wait for future news before pulling. Senadina also has relatively higher value, being able to support all 3 elements AND Physical, so pulling her on a rerun may be a consideration, depending on information released in the future (i.e. news related to Version 7.6). While Lantern is still a strong unit, and isn’t the worst thing to pull even without Senadina, I personally wouldn’t prioritise her.

For players who already have Senadina, Lantern is definitely worth considering, especially if they have Thelema too. Lantern’s kit hints to her being able to support possible releases in the future, so depending on how many crystals they have stocked up, as well as future news from CN beta, Lantern could very well be worth the pull.

About Herrscher of Flamescion

In my opinion, having Herrscher of Flamescion doesn’t necessarily make Lantern a skip. While they technically fill the same niche of PSY Fire DPS, with HoFS’s debut in v5.0 almost 3 years ago, she’s pretty old and cannot compare to Lantern. She just simply doesn’t have the damage output to keep up.

Moreover, Lantern isn’t strictly just a DPS. Her kit and gear have support capabilities for both Elemental and Physical Valkyries which may be important in the future. Disregarding this outright can be a bad decision.

In summary, while there may be reasons for Captains to skip Lantern, HoFS should not be one of them. Her flame has burnt bright, but it’s time for someone else to inherit it. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Lantern is a strong unit for anyone who already has Senadina and Thelema, but her performance drops for those who don’t. Nevertheless, she is still a powerful Fire DPS who can easily clear a big portion of the Fire content, and we may see her supporting future releases too.

Thank you for reading my guide! I hope it helped you learn more about Lantern. If I made any mistakes, please let me know and I will rectify them as soon as possible.