Characters in Arknights: Endfield are divided into a variety of roles and skill types. Some serve as the primary DPS in a squad, while others focus on maximizing their damage output. In many cases, the latter prove even more important than the former.
Ardelia is just such a support character, and surprisingly, she can be obtained completely free by logging in daily. If you’re playing from the start, there’s a good chance you already have this character, and she’s definitely worth developing if you want to get the most out of your teams.
The best weapons and essences for Ardelia
There are many weapon types in Arknights: Endfield, but Ardelia can only use weapons with Arts damage. Her best option is considered to be “Dreams of a Starry Beach,” but if you can’t obtain it, there are other options.
Weapon “Dream of the Starry Shore”
- 6 stars
- Intelligence
- Defeat
- Treatment effectiveness
This weapon primarily increases Ardelia’s Willpower, a crucial stat since her healing scales with it.
Additionally, after Ardelia absorbs an enemy’s Corrosion, that enemy takes 10% increased damage from Arts for 25 seconds.
Weapon “Free Service”
- 5 stars
- Will
- Treatment effectiveness
- Treatment
This weapon can be considered a 5-star version of the above variant. It provides similar bonuses to Intelligence and Willpower, but in smaller amounts. Additionally, when her combat skill heals the team, the healing effectiveness increases based on Willpower.
Monaihe weapon
- 5 stars
- Will
- Super Skill Efficiency
- Inspiration
While this weapon provides Ardelia with significantly less utility than previous options, it can still be used for its Willpower bonus.
Fluorescence weapon
- 4 stars
- Will
- Attack
- Suppression
If you don’t have any of the above options, this weapon remains the only choice for increasing Ardelia’s Will.
The essence worth farming for weapons in the endgame depends on the types of stats being boosted. For her weapon, the optimal choice is Energy Alluvium with all three necessary bonuses.
The Best Gear Sets for Ardelia
As a support character, Ardelia can strengthen her team not only with her skillset but also with a well-chosen gear set. Therefore, choosing the right set is crucial. Eternal Xyranite is undoubtedly her best option, but there are other worthy alternatives in the early stages of the game.
Eternal Xiranite Set
In addition to increasing her health pool, this set allows Ardelia’s team to deal 16% more damage to enemies she has affected with a skill.
LYNX Kit
If you’re looking to build Ardelia purely as a healer, this set provides a large number of bonuses to healing through individual parts and increases overall healing efficiency.
Additionally, the target it heals takes less damage. However, in terms of overall utility, this option is inferior to Eternal Xyranite.
Mortovolt Resistance Gear Set
In the early stages of the game, this set can be used simply to max out Willpower to increase its healing.
Since Ardelia’s bonus only requires three set pieces to activate, you can combine the Aegis Injector from the LYNX set with the Eternal Xyranite set. This will significantly increase your healing while maintaining your best gear.
The best operatives to team with Ardelia
Ardelia’s main advantage is that she fits a virtually infinite number of teams. This is due to her self-sufficiency: she doesn’t interfere with reactions or damage effects. Instead, she independently inflicts physical and arts damage susceptibility on enemies by applying and consuming her own corrosion.
Thanks to this, Ardelia can be easily placed as a fourth character in almost any squad. A team with Laevatein, Akekuri, and Wulfgard is considered one of the best, as Laevatein is the strongest DPS in the game.
If you’re playing free heroes, Ardelia can be effectively paired with Endmaster, Chen Qianyu, and Lifen. Without Lifen, there are several worthy replacements. Furthermore, Ardelia can be paired with almost any DPS, including Avivenna, Da Pan, and others.
Ardelia’s Skill Overview and Upgrade Priorities
Ardelia’s abilities are fairly simple to understand.
- Her combo skill, Volcanic Pillar, triggers whenever the active Operator lands a finishing blow, causing it to apply Corrosion to the target for a few seconds after activation.
- When an enemy is Corroded, Ardelia can use her Action Skill, Dolly’s Charge, to remove the effect and apply Physical and Arts Damage Susceptibility, a key element of her kit.
- Her ultimate, Woolly Party, deals area-of-effect damage and is the only ability that can deal noticeable damage.
- When activating her Combat Skill or Super Skill, she summons tiny Dolly Sheep to the ground. The controlled operator can approach them to pick them up and heal. If the current character is at full health, the ally with the least health receives the healing.
- Additionally, if another enemy already has Corrosion when Ardelia removes the effect from one target with a Combat Skill, she can re-cast that skill.
Ardelia is one of the most friendly characters for free-to-play operators in the game, as she doesn’t require a lot of resources. Her healing is provided by her bonus ability, and her exposure is provided by her combat skill. Therefore, it’s best to prioritize her combat skill, followed by her super skill. If you need additional damage, you can upgrade her other skills as needed.
