Common Picks and Example Teams
IMPORTANT: Pick rate is not win rate. Using the units and teams in this section may not necessarily increase your chances of winning.The aim of this section is to provide you the explanation for why they are the most common.
You can always be caught off guard and destroyed by what you might have thought to be a silly off-meta pick. There is a time and place for every unit, so discretion is advised when going through this section.
Also note that all data and recommendations represent the attacker because there is no reliable way to collect unbiased defender data. Maybe one day we can have good defender data, but until then you will have to do your best by inferring from attack data and experience. I periodically post pick-rate analysis for the most recent banners on Reddit. Links in the appendix. IMPORTANT end.
Urban
Disclaimer: Take this section with another grain of salt. Urban was the first season of PvP in JP servers – a period where everybody was only starting to get comfortable with the game and doing extensive testing on what could be good or not. What’s more, there is no good data to back this section up unlike in Outdoors because there was no way to collect it in an unbiased manner. This section is thus the result of months of conversation in Discord amongst regular PvP’ers. Once Urban comes around again and data becomes possible to collect, this section will be reworked. Disclaimer end.
Shun and Haruna are extremely strong in Urban due to their mood boosting how much damage they bring to the team. Shun will quickly eliminate any opposing backline while her Ex is up allowing for fast and easy wins. Meanwhile, Haruna was the only option to counter Tsubaki at the time. The two of them together meant you could quickly delete the whole enemy team. On the chance that Shun or Haruna couldn’t do it, Nonomi and Hibiki also provided AOE sweeps on the backline. All of this meant that 1 tank comps were common at the beginning because it was a race to proc as much damage as you can.
Unlike Shun and Haruna though, Nonomi isn’t able to utilise cover. To boost survivability some players opted to deploy a second tank. This would have usually been Hoshino and rarely Yuuka; they are both capable of flanking and dealing good damage while still doing well as a tank.
Karin and Alice deserve honorable mentions. Their mood works against them in Urban but they fill in a niche that can still see use. Karin helps with fighting against two-tank compositions, while Alice can act as Shun-bait while still doing respectable damage.
Finally, summer units weren’t available until near the end of Urban season. S.Mashiro and S.Hina don’t excel in Urban but for the brief period they were certainly worth using.
The positioning of Urban teams have a lot of variance, and you shouldn’t try to follow the above examples strictly. The large availability of cover in Urban means your DPS units can sit anywhere and still be relatively safe. What you need to think about instead is knowing how to adapt your attacking team to defender positions for stronger angles with AOE units like Haruna, Nonomi, and Iori. This is especially true in single tank teams.
Angles aren’t as important for double tank teams, but you should still think about them when you can.
Outdoors
Below is a graph of the most common outdoor picks ordered by pick rate. % represents how often each student appears in any position on the attacking side.
Outdoors turns picks that were already good in Urban such as S.Mashiro, S.Hina, Hoshino, and Karin into even stronger picks. The rise of these picks pushes Haruna into low priority because S.Mashiro now does Haruna’s job but better, and Hoshino has a high chance of making Haruna useless.
Despite having no hit to mood, Nonomi falls out of favour in place of S.Hina, because the mood boost to S.Hina allows her to get the same sweeps Nonomi can for cheaper while also providing CC.
The introduction of Bunny Neru also popularised triple tank formations since Bunny Neru has a good chance of sniping Shun and shrugging off damage from S.Mashiro.
Finally, more yellow tanks means more Karins and more Ioris who both excel at removing the enemy frontline from play. Hibiki still does Hibiki things but the rise of S.Hina means there is some role overlap. Meanwhile, Karin’s ability to instantly delete a yellow tank (and sometimes Tsubaki!) while also providing a team-wide attack buff cannot be replaced.
The sole barrier on the attack side is most accessible from A1, so Shun (and any other SR) is usually found here. Your main tank is usually in Pos2 and your 2nd tank in Pos3. Pos4 is typically occupied by a unit with flanking potential (Hoshino) or someone who would benefit from deep angles (S.Hina, Iori, Nonomi).
Indoors
(Not out yet)
Speculation:
- Iori’s playground
- Less yellow tanks
- Increased red tanks because
- Shun is weaker
- Iori is stronger
Unit Overview (A-Z)
Only writing up the most popular students. I’m expecting to add to this when Indoors comes out.
HARUNA
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos2, Pos3 (?)
Roles: Frontline-killer
Haruna’s value is in her ability to one-shot kill Tsubaki. Other than S.Mashiro, Haruna is the only student who is capable of this without being absurdly expensive or risky to run. Haruna has greater potential if you experiment with different positions because she is also capable of picking off the backline with her skillshot EX.
HIBIKI
Specialist Slot.
Roles: Team-wide sweep, team buff
Hibiki is the ultimate do-it-all character of Blue Archive. She is extremely capable of destroying any opposing student anywhere on the map. On top of her ridiculous damage is a teamwide crit damage buff to make sure your opponent is really dead. Her sole downside is her relatively low accuracy and crit reliance.
HINA (SWIMSUIT)
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos3, Pos4
Roles: Backline-sniping, CC
S.Hina is capable of hitting the entire enemy team with her EX which often kills the backline. The low cost of this EX puts her at a speed advantage compared to Nonomi – unfortunately, S.Hina’s damage against the frontline leaves a little to be desired. To compensate she can periodically stun the unit she is attacking. Overall a low risk unit with plenty of benefits.
HOSHINO
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos2, Pos3
Roles: Tank, CC, Displacement
Hoshino is Tsubaki’s best buddy-in-crime if you choose to run 2 tank comps. Her ability to displace the front-line can put the enemy backline in range of your team. The stun on her EX has game-changing potential if it cancels a crucial enemy skill; you might even get a lucky backline snipe. Solid base stats to tank and does good AA damage too.
IORI
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos1, Pos3
Roles: Frontline-killer
Absurd base stats, crazy multipliers, low costs, and an accuracy buff to boot. Iori has everything in her kit to faceroll not only yellow tanks, but Tsubaki too. The cherry on top is the splash damage. If you set her up correctly, Iori has the potential to take out a whole team on her own. This unit is balanced solely on the fact that innate game mechanics weakens her damage to red armour.
KARIN
Specialist slot
Roles: Frontline-killer, team buff, CC
A solid specialist who passively provides a potent attack buff to the whole team. Her single target nuke will instantly remove any yellow tank from play. It can also kill Tsubaki but a lot of things need to go your way for this to happen. Karin may stun the enemy on occasion which can have game changing consequences.
MASHIRO (SWIMSUIT)
Specialist slot
Roles: Frontline-killer, team buff
One of two characters who are capable of instantly killing Tsubaki. Unlike Haruna, S.Mash is almost incapable of missing her skill. She also brings a team-wide accuracy buff to help the rest of the team in killing Tsubaki ASAP just in case S.Mash couldn’t finish the job. These benefits gives S.Mash a priority pick over Haruna if you need your slots for other roles.
NERU (BUNNY GIRL)
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos3, Pos4
Roles: Tank, CC, Backline-sniping
Possessing multiple evasion buffs on top of a strong shield, B.Neru is a risky pick who can survive against things yellow tanks normally can’t – if luck is on your side. If she survives long enough she is capable of literally jumping into the backline and picking them off in CQC. A great foil to Shun, I just hope you like gambling as much as you like bunny girls.
NONOMI
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos4, Pos3
Roles: Team-wide sweep
Welcome to the Nonomi Roulette. Nonomi is a high-risk, high-reward student who is capable of sweeping a whole team by herself. Unfortunately, her EX is high cost and she is easily sniped due to her low HP and red armour. A cheap investment in Nonomi can get you quite far – but you better hope you win the roulette.
SERINA
Specialist slot
Roles: Healer
Serina provides a cheap, fast, no-fuss heal that is quite potent even without much investment. She is your best option if your aim is to outlast your opponent.
SHUN
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos1, Pos3
Roles: SP generation, Backline-sniping
Even if Shun did no damage, her ability to instantly generate SP at the beginning of battle is extremely strong and makes her worthy to bring on that reason alone. What makes her over the top is that she is a really potent auto attacker armed with an EX which targets students with the highest ATK value. You should absolutely be using her if you can.
TSUBAKI
Most Common Attacking Positions: Pos2, Pos4
Roles: Tank, CC
The tank of Blue Archive. She has a near 100% pick rate for a reason. Tsubaki evades most shots thrown at her, and anything that does happen to hit her will be shrugged off due to high defence. Being blue armour is a huge advantage as there are not many blue DPS options. If you don’t run her you are sandbagging yourself.
Appendix
PvP is like a Trading Card Game
TCGs are games driven by randomness. No matter how great your deck is, you are subject to the luck of the draw. Your starting hand and the cards you continue to draw are all decided randomly meaning you always have a chance to lose if things weigh against you. It is commonly accepted in TCGs that losing is a natural fact.
But TCGs aren’t driven purely by randomness. You can choose what cards go in your deck. The first consideration is if you want to spend money on the meta cards, or use your favourite (“waifu”) cards. Both are equally acceptable; there’s plenty of cases in TCGs where someone’s favourite non-meta deck comes out on top. Admittedly, your favourite (“waifu”) cards will often take far more effort, research, and investment to be competitive – but they will always have a time and place where they work.
Then, you need to think of a way to put your cards together in a cohesive deck that synergises and plays off of every other card’s weaknesses and strengths. Some cards may be stupid strong, but no card can ever be complete without a supporting deck.
Finally, even if you have found yourself a deck that does well and has good win rates, TCGs can release new cards and rules to shake things up. It is up to you as a player to adapt to these new cards and rules. Those who don’t adapt will often fall behind.
In Blue Archive, the ruleset is the terrain, and the cards are your girls. The appeal of PvP is to construct together a solid team that can cover for every unit’s strengths and weaknesses so that you are able to take advantage of good luck and mitigate bad luck. You may hate TCGs, and that’s perfectly fine, but it is dishonest to say that PvP leaves you helpless and is a product of pure RNG.
Thanks Ebil for the idea.
Links to my monthly pick rate analysis posted on Reddit:
- 2021-10-30: Outdoors – Bunny Girl Banners
- 2021-10-02: Outdoors Month 1
Author: VirtualScepter (Causew#5130)
Source: Comprehensiven’t Blue Archive PvP Guide
For the latest version, please check out the original article
