The buzz surrounding the three new Goddess of Victory: NIKKE units arriving this August is palpable. It helps that they’re the 'Absolute Squad', who really stole the spotlight with their bolstered presence in the main campaign. Thankfully, they aren't limited-time units, which is a massive relief for your wallet.

Emma: Tactical Upgrade (hereafter Emma) kicked off on August 7, followed by Eunhwa: Tactical Upgrade (hereafter Eunhwa) on August 14. These two are designed as a set, relying on passive synergies that only trigger when they share a squad. We’ve had to wait a full week just to see how Emma performs on her own, but finally, the core of the Absolute Squad is here, and KookminTree has been busy stress-testing their capabilities.

Better together, or not at all

You really shouldn't run Emma and Eunhwa apart. It’s all down to Emma’s 2nd skill, 'Formation LT', and Eunhwa’s 2nd skill, 'Formation AS'. They need each other's passive buffs to unlock their true potential. Emma provides the squad with defense-shredding damage and boosted projectile explosion damage, while also removing the annoying 'all-enemy taunt' penalty from her 1st skill, 'Environment Setup', and slashing the cooldown from 30 seconds to 10. Eunhwa then stacks even more explosion and defense-piercing buffs on top.

In short, their buffs only fully benefit units that pack both projectile explosion and defense-shredding capabilities. Currently, no unit satisfies every condition perfectly, but Vesti: Tactical Upgrade—arriving August 21—is expected to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

The double-edged sword here is the rigid team composition. Once you lock in Emma and Eunhwa, your squad flexibility takes a nosedive. Throw in Vesti: Tactical Upgrade, and you’ve effectively tied up three slots in your team.

To make matters worse, neither unit offers a Burst Skill cooldown reduction. While their individual bursts are on 20-second cycles, the reality is a frustrating 3 to 4-second gap in full burst uptime. In the current meta, a dedicated cooldown reducer is mandatory, meaning one of your remaining two slots is already spoken for.

Union Shooting Range performance metrics

Let’s look at the numbers from our 3-minute boss test at the Union Shooting Range, using both Burning and Electric weaknesses. We tested with Emma, Eunhwa, Laplace: Red Hood (hereafter Awakened Laplace), and Ein. The specs are as follows:

Emma’s skill levels are 7/7/7, while Eunhwa sits at 4/4/7. The main DPS, Awakened Laplace, is maxed at 10/10/10 with a 15-stage SR collection item and Overload gear providing 38.8% Attack and 74.6% Elemental Damage. Ein is also at 10/10/10 with a 15-stage SR collection item and 9% Attack / 63.42% Elemental Damage. For comparison, we pitted these against the tier-0 meta squad featuring Little Mermaid, Crown, and Helm (with Treasure).

Testing the projectile explosion buff with Awakened Laplace, we saw a roughly 3-billion damage deficit compared to the tier-0 build. Even with the explosion buffs, they simply couldn't compete with the raw power of Crown and Little Mermaid. Running the explosion buff in isolation seems like a fool's errand.

We then moved to Ein for the defense-shredding test. The result? Much the same. Emma and Eunhwa still failed to topple the tier-0 titans. However, the gap was slightly less painful here: 2.4 billion for the Emma/Eunhwa build versus 3.5 billion for the tier-0 team—an 1.1 billion difference. Still, not exactly a triumph.

Ultimately, the buffs from Emma and Eunhwa were clearly tailored for Vesti. Without Vesti in the mix, we were only seeing half the picture, and the results were far from convincing.

That said, let’s not write them off just yet. Remember Rouge? That Burst I unit was initially dismissed because no one could fully utilize her HP-scaling buffs. Then came Cinderella, and suddenly, Rouge became a staple in the Electric party meta.

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE has a habit of laying the groundwork with early releases before dropping the missing piece of the synergy later on. It’s entirely possible that Emma and Eunhwa are just waiting for the right teammate. Perhaps Vesti: Tactical Upgrade is the start of that turnaround—let's keep our eyes peeled.

To pull or not to pull?

The good news is that Emma, Eunhwa, and the upcoming Vesti: Tactical Upgrade are permanent units, not limited banners. But if you’re asking whether you should drop your hard-earned Gold Mileage tickets right now? My advice: hold your horses.

All the pressure now falls on Vesti: Tactical Upgrade, launching August 21. Unless you’re a completionist who needs every unit, wait to see how Vesti performs first. Since the next Solo Raid boss has a Burning weakness, Vesti’s viability could define the meta for that event. There’s no rush—wait until after August 21 to make your move. Best of luck!