The 2026 'Goddess of Victory: NIKKE' Maid Nikke is 'Velvet'. Commanders will recognize her from the 2025 Bunny Girl event. Many commanders hoped she would join the Maid for You squad as a playable unit, and she has finally returned with a fancy outfit and solid performance. KookminTree has analyzed the performance of the new Maid, Velvet.

Q. What kind of Nikke is Velvet?
A. She is a Nikke that consumes 'Bullet Pouches' to buff herself or her allies.

Velvet is a Burst 2, Support type, Wind code, Sniper Rifle user. Upon entering battle and triggering her Burst 2, she steals enemy bullets to fill her 'Bullet Pouch' and provide buffs. It refills 6,000 bullets at once; these are 'buff bullets', not her weapon's actual ammo. This effect does not disappear even if buffs are dispelled.

Her Skill 1, 'Bad Habits', adds that if you perform a 'Full Charge' attack outside of Full Burst, she consumes 100 bullets from the pouch to grant a buff. ATK and damage increase, and the duration is 3 seconds. It may seem short, but since it triggers from basic attacks, the duration is quite long when not in Full Burst.

Skill 2, 'Love's Bullet', changes its effect based on whether Velvet is in Burst mode. During a Full Burst, a Full Charge attack consumes 300 bullets to grant the entire squad an ATK and Charge Damage buff for 3 seconds. Additionally, landing 50 basic attacks grants her a 5-second damage buff and deals bonus damage to the target based on her final ATK. You might wonder why a Sniper Rifle user has a 50-hit requirement, but the reason becomes clear when you look at her Burst skill.

Her Burst, 'Neat Finish', changes her weapon for 10 seconds and triggers a damage buff. The changed weapon is a Machine Gun with 999 ammo. It fires like a laser without needing any wind-up. Now you understand why the 50-hit condition for 'Love's Bullet' exists; the number of basic attacks increases significantly, making it easy to trigger the skill.

For commanders lacking Burst 2 units, Velvet is a good sub-dealer and buffer, while those with a sufficient roster should use her as a totem. You can see this in the experiments below. Her bullet refill actually has an ability to delete some enemy bullets, but unfortunately, it is difficult to use in PvP because it is only 5% at level 10. Also, note that since her weapon change provides 999 ammo, she cannot use 'Collectible Miranda'.

Q. Where and how should you use her?
A. Use her as a totem buffer for charge-based units or as a sub-dealer.

Let's test Velvet's performance. The test locations were the Union Shooting Range (Wind-weak 3-minute boss) and the 'Kraken' Interception. The Nikkes used were 'Little Mermaid', 'Harran: Shadow', 'Liberalio', 'Crown', and 'Nayuta'. Velvet was equipped with 7/7/7 skills, four 0-level Overload gear pieces, and a Level 1 R-grade Collectible.

First, we compared performance with and without Velvet's Burst in the Union Shooting Range. The damage difference was 1.3 billion; while Velvet's personal damage was higher when using her Burst, the damage of other Nikkes was lower.

On the other hand, when using Nayuta as the Burst 2 and Velvet as a totem, Harran: Shadow's damage reached nearly 8 billion, and Nayuta's damage also increased noticeably. When Velvet was used as the Burst unit, Harran: Shadow's damage was only 5 billion, a difference of 3 billion. If you already have Crown or Nayuta, Velvet's performance is not enough to replace them.

Next, we tested against the Kraken. The comparison group was a 4-core, Level 10-skill Crown. Without Crown's shield, there were some damage loss periods due to taking cover during full-screen attacks, but the Kraken was defeated without issues. Harran: Shadow's damage was slightly higher when using Velvet. Users without Crown might find Velvet useful for Kraken raids. Of course, since this is based on a fully set-up Harran: Shadow and Liberalio, we do not recommend using her blindly. Crown's stability is still superior, so users who have already invested in Crown should stick to their existing team.

Q. Should you pull for Velvet?
A. Veterans should think twice, but new players are recommended to get at least one copy.

Velvet is a Wind-code unit and replaces one of the few Machine Guns in Tetra. Among Tetra Nikkes, the Machine Gun types are only 'Ludmilla: Winter Owner', 'Rosanna', 'Soda', and 'Aria'. New or returning players without Ludmilla: Winter Owner often struggle in the Tetra Tower due to Raptures that require a specific number of hits to defeat. While Velvet's damage is lower than dedicated DPS units, she is more than capable of handling hit-count gimmicks. She is strong enough, and likely to shine in future Wind-weak Solo Raids.

Furthermore, the Wind-code pool is still lacking. While there are high-performance Burst 2 Nikkes like Nayuta and 'Blanc', Nayuta is a Pilgrim and hard to obtain. Since Velvet has a 20-second Burst cooldown, she is a viable substitute for users lacking Burst 2 units. Over-investing is not recommended, but if you have spare Gems and Advanced Recruitment Tickets, it is worth grabbing a copy. Keep in mind that she is a 'Standard' Nikke and may be obtainable via recruitment tickets later.