Right on schedule for the spooky season, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE has dropped a brand new Nikke: Bellota: Pumpkin Witch (hereafter Halloween Bellota). This one brings a rather peculiar kit to the battlefield, focusing entirely on buffing the ally standing directly to the right by boosting their continuous damage and scaling the buffs off the caster's own attack stats. Still, with the 4th anniversary looming right around the corner, many Commanders are likely scratching their heads wondering if this is worth opening the wallet for. Well, KookminTree has crunched the numbers to see if Halloween Bellota is actually worth your hard-earned gems.

Q. What kind of Nikke is Halloween Bellota, anyway?
A. She is a Nikke who grants continuous damage and caster-attack-scaling buffs exclusively to the ally positioned immediately to her right.

Halloween Bellota clocks in as a Burst 2, Support, Water code, Launcher type. Barring her Burst skill 'Happy Halloween!', literally every single part of her kit only affects the teammate sitting to her right. Because of this architectural quirk, you must restrict her to slots 1 through 4 from the left in your squad setup. Do not even think about putting her in slot 5, since there is no friendly unit to her right there, rendering her completely useless outside of her Burst skill. You have been warned.

Her skills dish out continuous damage boosts alongside attack buffs based on her own stats. The latter factor adds up base equipment stats—ignoring Overload option values—plus Bellota's raw attack power. Because of this formula, she gains slightly more mileage from Limit Breaks than the average unit, though we strongly advise against over-investing for reasons we will break down shortly.

Her Skill 1, 'Playful Little Witch', scales caster-attack buffs up to 44.88% at level 10, while Skill 2, 'Trick or Treat!', adds a 19.97% continuous damage tick. Capped off with her Burst, Happy Halloween!, you get a 47.52% caster-attack boost and a 27.23% continuous damage increase. Add all that together and you are looking at a chunky 92.4% caster-attack buff paired with 47.2% continuous damage. For comparison, that attack bonus sits slightly lower than Flora, who pushes a whopping 130.98% buff thanks to her favorite item. Plus, unlike Flora who blesses the entire team, Halloween Bellota restricts her generosity to just one poor soul on the right, heavily limiting her overall flexibility.

Q. So, how does she actually perform in practice?
A. She definitely bolsters continuous damage dealers, but her versatility leaves much to be desired.

Let us put Halloween Bellota through her paces. Testing took place in the Union Shooting Range against a 3-minute boss with fixed specs under Iron code conditions. We brought along continuous damage dealers Brady and Mihara: Bonding Chain as our benchmarks. The tested squads included 'Halloween Bellota - Brady - Rosanna: Chic Ocean - Anis: Squad - Mihara: Bonding Chain', 'Halloween Bellota - Brady - Phase 3 Favorite Item Miranda - Dolla - Mihara: Bonding Chain', and 'Halloween Bellota - Brady - Phase 3 Favorite Item Flora - Mihara: Bonding Chain - Anis: Squad'.

Rotating Brady and Mihara: Bonding Chain across these setups made Halloween Bellota's buffs crystal clear, with Mihara: Bonding Chain enjoying nearly 1.5 times more damage output. However, the catch is glaring: you are forced to run two Burst 2 units including Halloween Bellota, and a Burst cooldown reduction Nikke is non-negotiable. This heavily chokes squad flexibility and ties you down to specific team compositions. While she functions as a dedicated amplifier for Mihara: Bonding Chain, October's Solo Raid features Electric code weaknesses rather than Water or Burn, so whether you can actually deploy her there remains to be seen.

Q. What should we do with her then?
A. Skip if your gem stash is running low; wait for 4th anniversary details if you have some to spare.

It is not like Halloween Bellota is completely useless. She does a commendable job babying continuous damage dealers, meaning she could easily see a re-evaluation if more such characters join the roster down the line. The real headache is that October 29 marks the 4th anniversary of Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Anniversary updates traditionally roll out high-tier Pilgrim units, making this a critical hoarding season for veterans, returnees, and fresh recruits alike. On top of that, Halloween Bellota is a permanent addition to the pool, meaning she will eventually spook you in ordinary recruitment banners and molds.

The verdict on pulling just a base copy of Halloween Bellota could shift between October 24 and 28. Take Rouge for example—she received a rather lukewarm reception at launch, only to undergo a miraculous career turnaround once Cinderella arrived and turned out to be an ideal partner.

If the upcoming anniversary Nikke packs continuous damage synergy, Halloween Bellota's stock could skyrocket overnight. Her recruitment banner stays open until October 28 at 23:59, so do yourself a favor and wait until after the anniversary livestream on October 24 before making any rash decisions. To wrap it up: if your gem reserves are looking bleak, pass; if you are sitting comfortably, wait to see what the anniversary brings before grabbing a single copy.