It is time for the Seven Knights Re:BIRTH (hereafter SKRB) Meca Ranking. The previous update introduced the second awakened hero belonging to the Seven Knights, and the protagonist is noneplaylists—wait, no, it is Eileen. She is a familiar face to adventurers, having been around since the early days of SKRB. However, she has mostly kept a low profile due to a lack of standout moments.

Well, things are different now. Eileen, having unlocked the power of awakening, has completely swept the arena. She secured a spot near the top of the overall hero pick rate chart and showed off her true influence. Let us take a look at awakened Eileen's performance alongside the arena team composition stats.

Awakened Eileen enters the arena chart and hits a 38% pick rate

Information on awakened Eileen was leaked a day before the update. Since it was just plain text, it was hard to tell how strong she would actually be. This vibe continued right after the update, but the mood completely flipped once real arena match reviews started rolling in. As players finished her awakening one by one, Eileen began establishing herself as a core arena member. As a result, she recorded a 38% pick rate and landed comfortably in 5th place overall.

So, who exactly joined Eileen in the arena? The answer is basically most of the top-tier pick rate heroes. Because she is a universal type, many only expected her to shine in defense formations, but she shattered those expectations with ease. Players gladly used Eileen in offensive formations, as well as in magic formations where synergies are usually quite weak.

At the very top of the chart, Hayeon firmly defended the number one spot. Although her pick rate dropped by 0.3 percentage points compared to last week, it sits at a staggering 99.7%, making her practically an essential arena hero. Meanwhile, Yoongeon in 2nd, Dongyoung in 3rd, and Seonran in 4th all successfully maintained their respective positions.

The 'Protection Formation' takes back the initiative

Arena formations seem to constantly trade pick rates between the offensive formation and the protection formation every week. This time, the latter took the initiative, causing the former's share to shrink significantly. The only unusual thing in this brawl of giants was the slight bump in the 'default formation', which grew its footprint marginally to 3.3%.

This week's best pick is the protection formation magic deck featuring awakened Eileen. Eileen has taken over the slot previously occupied by Yeonhee or Omok. At the same time, Skuld's pick rate shot up dramatically. Breaking down the intent behind this composition shift, the goal is to boost attack speed so that players can smoothly execute their reserved skill strategies. The core idea is to shut down variables caused by the opponent's initiative. Furthermore, the key is to leverage awakened Eileen's specialty, electric shock, to lock down enemy actions.

Advanced Arena Defense Team Pick Rate Analysis

※ Advanced arena defense team pick rates were tallied as of September 22 at 12:00 PM.
※ We aggregate the defense team setups of the top 100 players in the 'Top Ranking' tab.
※ Current defense team info might have slight discrepancies.

Following the previous 'accessory ban' mode, the advanced arena has now opened a '4:4' mode. With eight days left until the season ends, we tallied the defense teams to examine the metrics. The results showed a distribution of 33% magic decks, 31% defense decks, and 30% offense decks. Compared to the regular arena, this is a remarkably balanced spread.

Looking closer at the detailed party breakdown, just like in the regular arena, Hayeon, Yoongeon, Seonran, and Dongyoung boasted high pick rates. In particular, seeing Hayeon featured in every single deck to achieve a 100% pick rate follows the exact same trend as the standard arena. Even when the combat environment changes, Hayeon's trademark versatility refuses to lose steam.

Since the 4:4 mode features fewer combatants than before, the raw stats and weight of each individual hero matter immensely. Therefore, it is advantageous to pack awakened heroes into every possible slot. Even so, unawakened heroes like Gelidus, Radgrid, and Yeonhee still managed to secure spots on the list. It will be exciting to see if they can hold their ground next week as well.

Real-time Arena Analysis Lab

Past the midpoint of the season, real-time arena user 'PetalYT' from the Jave Legion is maintaining 1st place with a massive point gap. They have essentially entered the home stretch of locking down the lead. In stark contrast, the battle for 2nd place is fiercely contested, with 2nd through 5th places crammed within a margin of about 3,000 points. While the results remain unpredictable, user 'Endan' is fighting tooth and nail in 3rd place. At the time of the data aggregation above, Endan defended the 3rd spot with a score in the 12,000 range. Their favorite party setups are the Seonran and Dellons offense deck and the magic deck fronting Skuld. Let us take a closer look at how the offense deck incorporating awakened Eileen is operated.

When facing magic decks, Endan mostly entered battles from a reactive, second-strike position. Despite handing the initiative over to the opponent first, Endan calmly executed the strategy. The interesting part here is pairing Carl Heron and Eileen together. The opening move was using the area-of-effect electric shock skill of whichever hero avoided status ailments. Since it is an offense deck, one might expect a fierce, relentless onslaught, but the real core strategy was tying down the enemy heroes' actions instead.

Once all major enemy threats fall victim to status ailments, the real battle begins with Seonran and Dellons. The trick is for Dellons to rapidly transform into his awakened form and sweep the field. Even if the transformation wears off, you simply wrap things up step-by-step by utilizing the area-of-effect silence from 'Descend of the God of Death' and 'Fatal Strike'.