Intro

Hi, so I guess I'm doing another one of these long detailed guides. Thanks for the support!

Thanks!

If you don't know me, I'm Xinfonia.

I've been doing guides since Blade/Kafka's release and usually do some theorycrafting for new limited 5*s. (and occasionally 4*s)

If you'd like video format where I can talk about more stuff like future content, do subscribe to my Youtube Channel here!

Almost at a thousand plz help...

Kit

Sparkle is a new limited 5* Quantum Harmony character that has a kit very similar to Bronya.

I usually say that Harmony units are one of the strongest units in the game and with Sparkle, this trend continues!

She is also very sane.

Basic Attack: Monodrama

Sparkle does a very cool kick, but unfortunately is not very useful for the rest of her kit.

Skill: Dreamdiver

Increases the CRIT DMG of a single target ally by 24% of Sparkle's CRIT DMG plus 45%, lasting for 1 turn(s). And at the same time, Advances Forward this ally's action by 50%.

When Sparkle uses this ability on herself, the Action Advance effect will not trigger.

This is why I say she's very similar to Bronya.

Also, do note that her bonus ability lets the targeted ally keep the CRIT DMG buff for 2 turns, instead of Bronya's 1.

This means that if the Carry you are buffing is able to take another turn quickly (By advancing forward to their next turn, SU Hunt blessings, etc) your Carry will still be buffed in the following turn.

Although not the craziest thing in the world, can be very useful in certain situations. (DHIL E2, Seele advancing forward with Basic Attack)

Talent: Red Herring

While Sparkle is on the battlefield, additionally increases the max number of Skill Points by 2. Whenever an ally consumes 1 Skill Point, all allies' DMG dealt increases by 6%. This effect lasts for 2 turn(s) and can stack up to 3 time(s).

This is what makes Hanabi unique and is most likely why the DMG boost from the Talent is not anything crazy. You only get a maximum of 18% DMG Boost.

Ultimate: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Recovers 4 Skill Points for the team and grants all allies Cipher. For allies with Cipher, each stack of the DMG Boost effect provided by Sparkle's Talent additionally increases by 10%, lasting for 2 turns.

This is most likely why the DMG boost from the talent is so low, with your Ultimate you can increase your DMG Boost to a maximum of 48%, which is pretty respectable. Not as high as Ruan Mei's permanent 68% DMG Boost, but considering what else Hanabi brings to the team, this is forgivable.

Technique

Using the Technique grants all allies Misdirect for 20 seconds. Characters with Misdirect will not be detected by enemies, and entering battle in the Misdirect state recovers 3 Skill Point(s) for the team.

Free skill points + Seele's Technique!

Traces

Nocturne is what makes Hanabi the new best addition to Mono-Quantum teams.

As the other Quantum supports (Fu Xuan and Silverwolf) do not provide ATK%, the 30% ATK boost is very much welcome for your Seele / Qingque.

Almanac is okay, but ideally you should almost never be using her Basic Attack.

Summary

Hanabi is an extremely strong support unit for teams that require A TON of Skill Points and also allows for new teams to be played since she herself grants skill points.

Previously very restrictive teams like DHIL/Qingque teams open up more and will now have more flexibility with Sparkle.

This is her niche, and what she's best at. No other unit will be able to beat her when it comes to this.

However, Hanabi's support utility outside of extra skill points is also very impressive.

Advance forward is a very rare and also very strong mechanic.

There are not many characters who can boost CRIT DMG of allies as well. (Bronya, Yukong)

On top of all that, Sparkle can also give up to 30% ATK and 48% DMG Boost.

I think you might get what I'm trying to say here, Sparkle's kit is packed full of buffs for your allies, and it is quite clear that Sparkle is very good at what she does. (Idk how to glaze her more, she's just very good yeah?)

Relics

Main Stats

As her skill gives a % of her CRIT DMG to the target ally, building CRIT DMG is very important for Sparkle.

Speed is usually a safe choice for boots and if your Seele hits 160 Speed, this is all the more important as you would want to be slightly slower than Seele. Hence, slightly less than 160 Speed.

However, for other types of DPS like DHIL/Qingque, you do not need so much Speed, but being moderately faster is still great.

This is because Sparkle's advance is 50%, hence having a 50% or more difference in AV is ideal to fully maximise Sparkle's skill.

Cavern Relic Sets

As I've mentioned earlier, Speed is quite important on Sparkle, so 2PC is great on her.

You can technically run 4PC as well, but I find it to be quite annoying as it can mess up your rotation order.

When you increase Speed, the value of AV you skip depends on how far it is from your turn.

If x character just took a turn and gets a speed boost immediately after, x character would get a bigger boost in AV than if it was almost their action when they get the speed boost. This can then mess up the rotations.

Hence, I recommend going for defensive 2PC sets like Guard of Wuthering Snow or Longevous Disciple.

Planar Ornaments

if you are running Mono-Quantum only, Penacony is your best choice.

If you want to use Sparkle in different teams, both Broken Keel and Fleet of the Ageless is fine.

Sprightly is technically usable as well, however requires very good speed-tuning and planning due to the action advance at the start of the battle. Perhaps if you plan to use the last 2 Light Cones I highlight later.

Sub Stats

Quite self-explanatory.

CRIT DMG and Speed are the main sub stats to look out for.

Effect RES next if you have Broken Keel, followed by defensive substats.

Light Cones

Earthly Escapade

Increases the wearer's CRIT DMG by 32%. At the start of the battle, the wearer gains Mask, lasting for 3 turn(s). While the wearer has Mask, the wearer's allies have their CRIT Rate increased by 10% and their CRIT DMG increased by 28%. For every 1 Skill Point the wearer recovers (including Skill Points that exceed the limit), they gain 1 stack of Radiant Flame. And when the wearer has 4 stacks of Radiant Flame, all the stacks are removed, and they gain Mask, lasting for 4 turn(s).

Hanabi's 5* Limited Light Cone.

This is honestly a bonkers light cone and pretty much ONLY works for Hanabi. (Exception of Hanya, not 100% sure if it works)

The reason why it's so restrictive is because the wearer has to recover skill points in order to activate the passive.

However, is incredibly strong if you are able to.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

When the wearer uses their Ultimate, all allies' actions are Advanced Forward by 24%.

Probably Sparkle's best F2P Light Cone. Very straightforward, yet very useful.

Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds

At the start of the battle and whenever the wearer's turn begins, one of the following effects is applied randomly: All allies' ATK increases by 10%, all allies' CRIT DMG increases by 12%, or all allies' Energy Regeneration Rate increases by 6%. The applied effect cannot be identical to the last effect applied, and will replace the previous effect. The applied effect will be removed when the wearer has been knocked down. Effects of the similar type cannot be stacked.

A very good general use Light Cone. Very easy to use and also very straightforward.

However, is only attainable via Battle Pass.

But the Battle Isn't Over

Increases the wearer's Energy Regeneration Rate by 10% and regenerates 1 Skill Point when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally. This effect can be triggered once after every 2 uses of the wearer's Ultimate. When the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 30% more DMG for 1 turn(s).

Bronya's 5* Light Cone.

Can be very strong conditionally but MUCH harder to use than the previous Light Cones.

This is because the DMG boost when using Skill only applies to the next ally taking action. For Bronya, this is no issue as she has a 100% Advance Forward.

However, Sparkle has a 50% Advance Forward.

Normally you would place Sparkle right behind your DPS, meaning they would be 50% AV away from taking their next turn after using your skill.

However, to fully utilize this Light Cone, you have to do it differently such that after Sparkle's 50% Advance, your DPS is immediately taking a turn.

This means that the difference between Sparkle and your DPS must be 50% ahead of your DPS in terms of your DPS' AV.

This is very hard to plan for, because they have different speeds.

To some people it may already be obvious, but this is due to how speed works. After a few turns, your Rotation order might chance due to different values in Speed.

Past and Future

When the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 32% increased DMG for 1 turn(s).

Quite a F2P friendly Light Cone, but suffers from the same issue as Bronya's Light Cone.

Eidolons

E1 is already very strong.

In a mono-quantum team this would be 70% ATK and 48% DMG Boost for 3 turns. Kinda nuts.

E2 is actually absurd and is quite similar to Ruan Mei's E1.

Having DEF ignore is very strong because in some teams, you might not run a DEF Shredder and having DEF Shred / DEF Ignore adds to your damage much more than additional ATK% or DMG% if you already have a ton of it.

Furthermore, this effect is pretty much active permanently, since you will always be consuming Skill Points.

Hence, you will maintain a 100% uptime 24% DEF Ignore.

If you are running Silver Wolf + Seele/Qingque with Genius of Brilliant Stars, you will be ignoring 97% of the target's Defence.

Your damage will definitely shoot through the roof with this one.

E4 is kinda average to me personally.

The talent's DMG boost multiplier is quite small normally and only significantly boosts your damage when you use your Ultimate. Hence, the benefit from E4 is dependent on your Ultimate up-time.

E6 sounds very strong on paper, but the usage can be quite niche.

By giving a CRIT DMG buff to all allies, you can only really benefit from this with more than 1 Damage Dealer.

As you might know, Ruan Mei is who currently holds this role of supporting multiple damage carries.

Hence, you might not really need this Eidolon if you already have Ruan Mei.

UNLESS, you have Ratio + Topaz AND ALSO Blade + Jingliu.

In this case, I can see E6 being useful.

Teams & Synergies

Mono-Quantum

I imagine the majority of people pulling for Sparkle will be pulling for a Mono-Quantum team.

This is also the team where Sparkle is able to use her kit in her entirety as Sparkle only provides an ATK% boost depending on how many Quantum allies she has.

2/3 of the Quantum damage carries have the potential to use a lot of Skill Points. Hence, providing skill points is very beneficial to Seele and Qingque.

However, I can imagine you might still have skill point problems with Qingque if you don't have her eidolons.

There also hasn't really been another Quantum support and Mono-Quantum has felt incomplete for the entire 1.x patches and Sparkle finally fills in this slot!

Now you can run:

Fu Xuan, Silver Wolf, Seele/Qingque and Sparkle!

Perhaps you used Bronya here instead of Sparkle in the past, however I MUCH prefer Sparkle here as both Seele and Bronya are very SP intensive. Furthermore, Seele is already very fast and even has in-built action advance. By having only a 50% advance, we are technically not losing out too much utility from the advance forward.

Of course, you can run Xueyi as well. In that case, the additional skill points should go to Silver Wolf.

Dragon Young

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae is notorious for using a ton of skill points, and in my DHIL guides I have heavily emphasised that ATK% boots is better due to the lack of skill points from the rest of the team.

However, with Sparkle DHIL will be able to more comfortably use skill points.

Having a 50% advance is also very useful here as having a 100% advance would be increasing DHIL's Skill point consumption further. By having only a 50% advance, we still give the team some breathing room to generate SP.

Sleepy General

Jing Yuan was also able to use Bronya prior to Sparkle's release, and on Sparkle's release is able to use both.

Although the additional Skill Points are not as useful for Jing Yuan, the fact that the CRIT DMG buffs lasts for 2 turns benefit Jing Yuan a lot.

In Bronya teams, you would use her skill on Jing Yuan so he may stack up Lightning Lord faster. However, the DMG buffs from Bronya would not be active when Lightning Lord attacks, which is quite a huge chunk of Jing Yuan's damage.

We would ideally like to have the buff active on Jing Yuan even when Lightning Lord attacks, and Sparkle is able to do this better than Bronya can.

Hence, I prefer Sparkle over Bronya in Jing Yuan teams as well.

Place in the Meta

I talked quite a bit about preferring Sparkle over Bronya in the previous section,

HOWEVER Sparkle is NOT power-creeping Bronya.

There are still many teams where Bronya can be very useful, or even better than Sparkle. Such as in Jingliu and Blade teams.

They both use a lot less skill points than most other damage dealers, and hence you might find it hard to activate Sparkle's talent as consistently as in other teams. Furthermore, the skill point recovery mechanic is also a lot less useful in said teams. Therefore, Bronya will still be the best Jingliu and Blade support.

The teams where Sparkle finds the most use will be in the teams I mentioned in the previous section.

Do look out for future Damage Dealers that want to take turns as fast as they can as well.

Sparkle will definitely be a great choice for such teams as well.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my guide on Sparkle!

Hopefully this guide helps you in understanding, using and building Sparkle.

All the best for your Sparkle pulls. (Pray for mine too)

Feel free to ask any questions!

Follow or Sparkle finds you