In version 5.5, along with Palatinus Equinox, we will also be introduced to another new S-rank Rita Battlesuit: Spina Astera. And what's more, this battlesuit is completely free, so everyone will be able to get her!

So let's look at what this Rita Battlesuit can do, shall we?

SPINA ASTERA

1. Introduction

Type: MECH

Weapon: Scythe

DMG Type: Fire

Spina Astera (SpA) is the newly released Free S- rank Rita battlesuit which debuts in v5.5 along with Palatinus Equinox. Being a fire-type valk, she can be a very good substitute for people who don't have Dea Anchora.

Speaking of Dea Anchora, Spina Astera is also a valkyrie that uses Astral harness and can switch modes to deal tons of fire Damage.

As of now, she has the best score against Argent Knight boss in the abyss (ironic, heh) and can act as a very good alternative to Mobius on Andrius.

2. Overview

When starting a battle, SpA starts in her normal mode. whilst not in Astral Harness, SpA has a 4 Sequence basic attack chain.

Astral Flare: Ignite -

At full "Astrum" holding the Attack button triggers a charge attack, "Astral Flare: Ignite". This induces Astral Harness state and unleashes Void Vortex (the tornado) to deal Fire Damage.

In Astral Harness state, basic attacks become enhanced and have a 5 chain sequence. Basic attack sequence 4 in Astral Harness ignites enemies on hit.

Astral Flare: Combust -

In Astral Harness, while Void Vortex is present on the field, hold ATK again to unleash another charge attack, Astral Flare: Combust to deal more Fire Damage and unleash Void Vortex EX.

Astral Flare: Erupt -

When Void Vortex EX is present on-field and SpA is in Astral Harness, she can yet again unleash another Charge Attack - Astral Flare: Erupt to drive Void Vortex forward to gather enemies in a large area whilst dealing fire damage, and then unleash a final blow dealing 1300% ATK of Fire Damage.

Casting this attack ends Astral Harness and depletes Astrum.

- In Astral Harness, Basic Attack grants one stack of Blazar on hit and each stack makes Astral Flare: Erupt deal 30% ATK of fire damage.

- Seq 1/2/3/4 of Basic attack each grants 1 stack of Blazar, and Seq 5 grants 5 stacks. Up to 20 stacks max

- Casting Ultimate grants full stacks.

Ultimate:

Pisces: Alrescha

[Sp: 100 CD: 20s]

With 100 SP, on activating ultimate, Spina Astera fully restores Astrum and enters Astral Harness. She unleashes a massive Void Vortex using the simulated Holy Blade to deal massive fire damage. When the Ultimate ends, a Void Vortex EX is created in front of Spina Astera.

During the ultimate's animation, all the stage timers are paused.

- Since SpA's ultimate refills Astrum, reactivates Astral Harness and creates Void Vortex EX, it can be used after you end Astral Harness once using Astral Flare: Erupt to chain directly into another round of Astral Flare: Erupt, dealing huge amounts of Fire Damage in a short period.

In a battle, the general Rotation pattern that Spina Astera follows will be:

i. Enter with qte

ii. Charge Atk to activate Astral Harness

iii. Basic Sequence 1 to 5

iv. Charge attack again to unleash Astral Flare: Combust

v. Charge Attack once more to unleash Astral Flare: Erupt and end Astral Harness

vi. If enough SP is present, activate Ultimate and Charge Attack to unleash Astral Flare: Erupt and end Astral Harness yet again.

3. Gears:

If you remember v5.2, Raven's Equipment supply had a discount of 5 focused supply cards for every 10 pulls you did; up to 40 cards in total. In v5.5 Spina Astera's Equipment supply will be the same type. On top of that, we already got a free Ragna Stigmata Selector in v5.4. So we only need to get 3 more pieces of equipment from Spina Astera's Equipment Supply, making it a pretty cheap and effective option.

And to no one surprise, her Signature Gears are the best thing we can put on her.

Secondary Options:

Weapon:

Unfortunately, any other Scythe in the game performs sub-par at best on SpA, as Spina Astera is the first Scythe-type Fire Damage dealer in the game.

So the best-case scenario will be acquiring the Pisces Scythe from the supply. Other than that, as usual, you can go with any other high ATK stat Scythe you have lying around.

[A good alternative can be Sanguine Gaze: Union as it gives 40% TDM on Ultimate and 20% TDM on Charge attacks. But then again, do not attempt to pull/Forge it just for the sake of using it on SpA, spending rare resources on alternatives is just not worth the investment.]

Stigma:

Although there are not any good Weapon Substitutes for SpA, the alternative Stigma options are pretty good. This is because the better alternatives for Fire Damage stigmas are craftable, like Thales and Leeuwenhoek.

1. Thales TM Leeuwenhoek B

- Thales remains one of the more OP craftable stigmas to this day, and its charge attack-based buffs fit comfortably into SpA's skillset.

- Thales M is probably one of the best standalone parts for fire damage to this day.

- Further, it can be used to craft Leeuwenhoek which is also a very good option.

2. Leeuwenhoek TB Thales M

- Slightly better damage output than Thales TM Lwh B.

- Like Thales, Leeuwenhoek is also a very strong set for a free one.

- Lwh is an ultimate-based set and is very useful in battles where SpA uses her Ultimate frequently

Others:

Shakespeare: Adrift

- Just don't use this, Leeuwenhoek and Thales are much better.

4. Team Composition:

Being a Fire dps, the best teammates for SpA will no doubt be Azure Emperya and Midnight Absinthe. And in case you don't have MA, Sakuno Rondo with the Sakura Cross PRI can also work pretty well.

For newer players who don't have Azure Emperya and Midnight Absinthe and her gears, or don't yet have access to PRIs, the good old Pheonix + Blood Dance Comp could work pretty well too.

5. Meta Applications:

With all that out of the way, now it's time to check out how SpA actually performs. Since most of her usage is currently focused in the Abyss, that's where we will be testing her out.

And for the weathers, we will be doing Argent Knight: Artemis (Ignite up), Andrius (Type counter), Herrscher of Sentience (Type Counter), and HoD Minion (IMG Weather) in Red Lotus at 387D.

The following will be our team composition and gears for AKA, Andrius and HoD Minion:

AE (SSS) [1.38 sp/s] - Cosmic Duality; Margrave TMB

SpA (S3) [1412 atk] - Astral Divide: Pisces; Ragna TMB

MA (SSS) [6.36% sp reduce, 0.48sp/s] - Obscuring Wing; Aslaug TMB

Fuxi Elf (4*)

Red Lotus Emblem

For HoS and her Hitcount shield, we will replace Midnight Absinthe with Sakuno Rondo with her PRI Cross, and use Spina Astera as the lead valk. The rest will remain pretty much the same:

SpA (S3) [1412 atk] - Astral Divide: Pisces; Ragna TMB

SR (SSS) [1 elemental affix] - Salvation of Sakura; Turgenev TB Avogadro M

AE (SSS) [1.38 sp/s] - Cosmic Duality; Margrave TMB

Fuxi Elf (4*)

no Emblem used

Note: AE was SSS from the start (pretty much like v5.4 beta), can't do anything about it.

1. Argent Knight: Artemis (Ignite up):

2. Dominator of Wolves: Andrius (Type Counter up):

3. Herrscher of Sentience (Type Counter up):

4. HoD Minion (IMG up):

6. Conclusion:

Spina Astera is a very good Fire DMG valk and can function as a good substitute for valks like Mobius and a rival for Dea Anchora. and on top of that, she is a pretty cheap valk to build.

Players can get a free Spina Astera Card just from logging in and 3 of her stamps from Elysian Realm shop starting v5.5, which will get her at S1 free of cost. 3 more of her stamps will be added yet again in v5.6, which means S2 Spina Astera by v5.6.

And to add further, in v5.5 there will be a spending event in which players can use the tokens acquired by participating to buy a total of 7 Spina Astera stamps. So if you pull for her gears, you might be able to snag 4 of the stamps from the spending event shop, which will get your SpA to SS by v5.6.

As for gears, her Equipment supply will have a refund offer like Raven's set on her debut. This will also be a one-time thing, so make good use of it!

And as we know by now, we only need to snag the weapon and only 2 of the stigmata from the supply as we already got one for free, which will possibly make this supply even cheaper than Raven's.

Now when it comes to Spina Astera's overall usage, all I can say is we can only wait and see where this battlesuit goes. All the S rank base Rita battlesuits were underestimated at first, and considered niche but later turned out to be overpowered (Argent Knight held the top spot on Ice weathers for a very long time, and Fallen Rosemary still is the core part of a lightning team). I hope Spina Astera will also achieve something similar.

Final Thoughts:

Spina Astera is no doubt a very strong Battlesuit, but she still doesn't hold the highest priority in the game. Like most other Elemental dps valkyries, she needs supports, mainly Azure Emperya, Midnight Absinthe (and her gears), or Sakuno Rondo (And her cross at least).

We already know that currently, AE serves as the backbone of any Elemental oriented team, so unless you have already invested in her and her gears, I wouldn't really recommend going for Spina Astera, granted that the supply looks very tempting.

But really, you should first focus on building your support valks and gears first, as they will help you more than just having a single dps valkyrie geared.

Before going for SpA, make sure that you have AE and HoS geared (yes HoS too because we are looking at the bigger picture here), and you at least have support stigmas and weapons for your secondary supports like Nebulous Duality, Obscuring Wing, Margrave, Turgenev, Aslaug, etc. and same for the physical supports too (Shattered swords, Keys of Oblivion, Paganini, Shuijing, etc.)

Welp, that brings us to the end of the Spina Astera Review.

Do try to get her gear if you have any leftover crystals! I know I will (Rita supremacist here, can't afford to miss out.)

Anyway, I hope you found this review informative and easy to understand, I will see you in the next one.

Till next time then~

Also, feel free to check out some other reviews I did on v5.5 here:

[v5.5 Beta Preview/Guide] New S-rank Valkyrie: Palatinus Equinox

[v5.5 Beta Preview/Guide] New PRI-ARM: Midnight Ataegina and Stigma Set: Bianka Theatre

[v5.5 Beta Preview/Guide] New PRI-ARM - Astral Divide: Pisces and Stigma Set: Ragna

[v5.5 Beta Preview/Guide- Masters Edition] New Weapons- Midnight Eclipse and Astral Rend: Dwarf

Red Dragon

UID: 200016842 (EU Server)