Introduction
The perpetually in debt leader of the Cunning Hares, Nicole is an agent often overlooked due to misunderstood mechanics and her status as a f2p agent. In this guide, I will show you how she is, in fact, one of the strongest and most versatile supports in the game. Hopefully, once you have finished reading this guide, Nicole will become an agent deserving of a spot in your team that will allow you to tackle the hardest of content with ease.
What makes her great
Let's take a loot at her core passive 1
At first glance, while she has the strongest defense shred in the game, her core passive has too short of a duration to be of viable use. Stun duration takes around 10 seconds, and most damage rotation from current damage dealers tends to last about the same. Yet, this is a misunderstanding of how she works. For what I'm saying to make better sense, we need to focus on the second sentence of her first core passive, namely the phrase "Energy Field".
Below is what an energy field looks like:
Nicole will trigger an energy field whenever she does any of these moves:
- Charged Ex skill
- Chain Attacks
- Ultimate
At Mindscape 0, the energy field lasts between 2 seconds for the ex skill and chain attacks to 3 seconds for the Ultimate. This means that, for so long as the energy field stays on the field, the def shred will stay on the enemy and 3.5 seconds after the energy field dissipates. This will realistically give the team a respectable 5-6 seconds of 40% def shred to make use of. While def shred doesn't matter a lot early game, it is the strongest damage amplifier by late game, when enemies' stat becomes too inflated.
Based on testing, a 30% def shred vs level 70 enemy in VR training equates to about a pure 20% increase in damage. Hence we can expect Nicole's max def shred of 40% to bump this up to 25-30%, depending on the enemy's def stat. Needless to say, this is incredibly potent.
A fun fact: If you charge her Ex skill while rotating your left joystick 360 degree, she will do a sitting spin on her briefcase and allows you to further charge her skill a bit longer. The duration is still the same but it provides prolonged invincibility frames that may come in handy.
Capitalizing on the window of def shred
Because of the short duration of Nicole's def shred, damager dealers (dps) that can take advantage of this would be ones that complete their damage rotation in a short frame of time, ideally between 4-5 seconds.
In patch 1.0, there are 2 damage dealers that synergizes very well with Nicole. The first is the upcoming limited Ether dps Zhu Yuan, and the second is Cunning Hare's very own Billy. 
Zhu yuan
Zhu Yuan is a natural fit for Nicole, with hers and Nicole's core passive both activating the other. She also does her damage rotation in a very short window, which is perfect for Nicole's short duration def shred and the second part of her core passive that increases ether damage.
Nicole's core passive 2
Zhu Yuan's core passive 2
Zhu Yuan's playstyle revolves around reloading bullets during her downtime and unloading them all at once in a short burst. The unloading portion is essentially her damage window. Coupled with her Ultimate and fast animations, the entire sequence takes around 5 seconds, which fits in perfectly with Nicole's def shred duration.
The rotation would look something like this:
Zhuyuan reloads > Nicole Charged Ex + Quick Assist activated > Zhuyuan unloads
OR
Stunner Stuns > Zhu yuan CA (Chain attacks) > Stunner > Nicole CA >Zhuyuan Ultimate > Nicole Charged Ex + Quick Assist activated > Zhuyuan unloads
ALTERNATIVELY
Stunner Stuns > Nicole CA > Zhuyuan CA > Stunner CA >Nicole Charged EX + Quick Assist activated> Zhuyuan unloads > Nicole enhanced bullets> Zhuyuan ult
Billy
Billy is an extremely underrated dps that most people don't understand how to use optimally. Billy's bread and butter boils down to his core passives
Something most people don't know about Billy is that his 1st passive also applies if you activate any of his attacks (including Ult, ex skills, dash attacks, etc.) during his Crouching Shot stance. You don't even need to finish the shooting animation, just assume the crouching stance. Because of that, at max stacks, Billy's Ultimate deals 2.5x its stated multipliers. This would mean that Billy has the highest damaging Ultimate in the game. At max level, he would essentially has close to 9500% multiplier for his ult, far surpassing any other agents, including the limited dps agents. Hence, his damage rotation fits perfectly with Nicole's short duration def shred.
On another note, Billy's damage is most likely not reaching its full potential because of an unmentioned sweet spot mechanic for ranged weapons the game has. If you shoot at the enemy from a distance too far away, his damage drops to a fraction of its full potential. Based on testing, the optimal range is somewhere between melee and 2 dodges away from the enemy for 100% damage. Any further than that and his damage drops to 75%-25%. Because of this, for maximum damage, you'd want to play Billy in melee range most of the time. This is easy to achieve, thankfully, because Billy is one of the most agile agents in the game.
In short, Nicole's fellow Cunning Hare's android is also one of her best buddies. In fact, the original f2p trio of Anby, Billy, Nicole, already provide a fantastic baseline for you to tackle the game's content with a well rounded team of Stunner, DPS, Support, respectively.
In terms of rotation, assuming Billy has already activated one chain attack before doing your full burst combo:
Stunner Stuns > Nicole CA > Billy CA > Stunner CA > Nicole charged ex + Quick Assist activated > Billy Crouching shot + quick ult + crouching shot + ex skill twice
OR
Stunner Stuns > Billy CA > Stunner CA > Nicole CA > Billy crouching shot + ex skill twice > Nicole charged ex + Quick Assist activated > Billy crouching shot + Ult
This gives way for the highest damaging burst rotation in the game, far surpassing any other team within that same time frame.
What else for Nicole?
Nicole's M1 is arguably her best one, increasing both her damage and supportive capabilities. At max charge, M1 extends her EX skill duration by up to 2 seconds, making the total duration of her def shred when using her ex skill 7 seconds. It also gives a sizable boost to anomaly buildup for future corruption teams. In Shiyu Defense, Attribute Anomaly also removes shields from enemies weak to it. Her M2 lets her be more energy efficient and reduces her field time demand even more.
Her M4 is a sizable boost to her crowd control capabilities, giving your dps an easier time grouping up enemies. It is also a bit useful for bosses that like to move around a lot as the aoe can still hit them.
Nicole's last Mindscape and is arguably one of her best, alongside her M1. The buff is self explanatory and fits very well with the duration of her team's burst. It is one of the more useful ones out there and greatly increases her value as a support.
What about her W-Engine?
Weeping Cradle is in the exchange shop that you can save up for free from banner pulls. It is Rina's signature W-Engine and arguably one of the best, if not the best support W-Engine right now for Nicole. It boosts both her support capabilities, giving energy and damage amplification, and her personal damage with its PEN Ratio substat. You can't go wrong with this one in terms of pure damage. Nicole has respectable damage multipliers and this also allows her to be a great sub dps as well.
Nicole's signature W-Engine. It is a downgrade from Weeping Cradle but still is also another good choice. The increased energy allows her to more comfortably get her EX skill consistently if you fast swap her in every now and then. The energy regen substat does not contribute to her personal damage, but allows for comfortable EX skill management.
This W-Engine is free, and also one of the best choices, if not the best for certain Agents that rely on building up Decibel for their ults. Most notably, Billy teams really want this as it allows for consistent up time of his tremendous Ult nuke. While it may sacrifice 1 stack of his 50% damage boost if you use his ult every chain attack rotation, the consistency may lends it self for easier rotation management and prevents a scenario where you run dry on Decibel and have to waste Nicole's def shred. A great candidate for feeding copies to increase its Decibel generating effects.
Another scenario where you want this is if you are looking to utilize a strat where your attack agent is NOT the one ulting, but rather your stunner, support, etc. This is because non attacker agents have secondary effects on their ult that may fit better for certain situations:
- Stunners have tremendous daze multiplier increase, often quintuple that of other agents. This allows for faster and more frequent Stun rotations. Anby, for example has 1000% daze multiplier on her ult vs 200% of non stunner agents.
- Defenders recover an additional 3 assist points for the team, allowing for more defensive options like Parry or Evasive Assist. This means that when your assist points are empty, using a Defender's ult will fully restore it to 6. This is a versatile choice for teams with strong Defenders as sub dps or if you just want to be immortal in Hollow Zero
- Support recovers 10 energy for the team and 20 for the next agent switching in. This is useful for Agents that rely on EX skill to do their biggest damage like Anton, Corin, Zhu Yuan, etc, or ones that rely on Anomaly and don't care about base skill multipliers.
- Anomaly Agents have increased Anomaly build up rate for their Ults. This allows for quicker triggering of Disorder burst in certain Anomaly teams
The Pen Ratio substat also helps Nicole's personal damage. Aside from that, it also gives her energy per its effect. I cannot stress enough how great this W-Engine is. If you have it, build it up and it won't fail you. In terms of pure damage support, it does not beat Weeping Cradle or the other options. However, in terms of utility and versatility, it is the best by far.
This W engine requires you to either be Lucy, or triggering a Bangboo chain attack to reach its max buff. It is good for Lucy, but Nicole has better options. If you have nothing else, which is unlikely since Slice of Time is free, then use it.
Another good option for Nicole. However, take note that it is more restrictive than the other options as its effect requires you to be fighting enemies that are weak to the Support Agent's attribute. In Nicole's case, it is Ether. If you can work around that, it is a reliable option. Still, Slice of Time exists and is free.
These two B rank W engines are budget options that provide respectable boosts to the teams. Mark II is more suitable for Nicole over Mark III, albeit for anomaly teams. Still, Slice of Time is free and an infinitely better option.
What about her build and Drive Disc?
Being a support, Nicole has more flexibility than other units. This is because supports do not require great substats to function. Hence, any piece of the required set can go a long way for her. Still, for optimal endgame, you'd want the following stats:
Energy Regen > Anomaly Buildup > Crit/Attack/Pen> Def/HP.
Energy regen allows her to more consistently spam her EX skill
Anomaly Build up allows her to contribute to building Attribute Anomaly. Shiyu Defense enemies have shields that can be completely removed by an Attribute Anomaly trigger.
Crit/Attack/Pen lets her contribute a bit to damage. Def/HP is for survivability (but you're not a big bear 
so you should learn to dodge anyway).
Her best set for support. All of its effect benefits her and the team. It's also very stamina efficient, being paired with the Ether set, which Nicole also appreciates if you want to use her as a dps, or in case you are building Zhu Yuan. You want the full 4 piece set. The remaining 2 slots of her build can be filled with any of the below.
Good option for a 2 piece, or if you want to play DPS Nicole.
Freedom Blues is another niche option for a 4 piece support set. It gives her support capabilities for any future Ether Anomaly Agents, or just helps her build up Corruption quicker. It is also useful for Shiyu Defense where you want to remove the Ether weak enemy shield asap. Swing Jazz is still the overall more universal investment.
Hormone Punk is similar to Chaotic Metal in terms of improving her personal damage. It is another good candidate for the remaining 2 piece set of her build.
It is another 2 piece option for her that marginally increases her Daze and allows for slightly faster Stun. However, her daze multiplier isn't the best out there and her base Impact is low. Plus, you wont be using her as a stunner so the 2 piece effect may be wasted for the most part.
Conclusion
Nicole is a great option for any teams out there, f2p or not. Her utilities are often underestimated due to her free agent status. However, once you look past that, she has one of the best kits out there for support. Her rotations take a bit of work to get used to. Once you do, she becomes one of the most important pieces you can have for your team, providing both massive def shred and crowd control. Her Mindscapes are all useful for her, making dupes welcomed. She requires minimal field time while offering top tier support. Her gear options are flexible and she requires little investment to get going. Her def shred does not require you to field any agent of the same attribute or faction, allowing her to be a slot in support for any team. There's no reason you shouldn't build her, considering she is also free.
In conclusion, she is worth it. In fact, all three of the Cunning Hares trio are worth building. I should know. I used them to clear everything, including Shiyu Defense 10.
I hope this guide has been helpful and, if anything, inspiring for you to give her a try. Finally, I leave you with a couple of clips of Nicole, Anby, Billy, the original Cunning Hares, bursting down lvl 40 Hollow Zero and Notorious Hunt bosses. Neither Anby nor Nicole had any good relic sets or pieces. Billy is the only one with 3 levelled pieces. Gear is shown at the end. Enjoy ~ 
