Look, let's be honest, the final transcision stage of the Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Champion Arena BETA season has officially wrapped up. Up until now, the Champion Arena has been running as a BETA season, but it is taking a brief hiatus following this 40th season. After that, a proper official season featuring brand-new rules is scheduled to kick off.

Perhaps because it was the grand finale, a fair number of rankers showed off some rather eccentric team compositions within the aggregation groups. Since everyone is heading into a break before the regular season begins, it is safe to assume they were just messing around with experiments. As of October 15, the Champion Championship is currently underway, so who on earth will be the ranker to finish things off on a high note? Let's dive into the final ChampionBETA season rankers' Nikke picks, as put together by KookminTree.

Champion Arena Top 64 Ranker Squad Nikke Pick Rate

※ Based on a total of 320 squad profiles from the top 64 rankers of Champion Arena BETA Season 40.
※ Do bear in mind that the aggregation groups shift with every single season.

Judging by the aggregation groups, quite a few shifts were spotted in this final season. Out of the 64 players, precisely only 1 person failed to bring 'Noah', causing Noah's pick rate to take a slight dip. On top of that, we even saw rankers deploying 'Maxwell: Ordinary Mechanic' and 'Drake: Great Villain' (hereinafter referred to as Wind Drake). With this, the entire New Metis squad—including 'Laplace: Ultimate Hero' (hereinafter referred to as Wind Laplace)—has officially made an appearance in the Champion Arena. Remarkably, the ranker who ran Wind Drake even managed to claw their way into the top 8.

It wasn't just the newly assembled Metis squad that turned heads, either, as an utterly unexpected pick also stepped into the spotlight. That is none other than 'Queen (Makoto)' (hereinafter referred to as Makoto), a limited crossover character from the Persona series. The same ranker who fielded Wind Drake used her, and we will get into the nitty-gritty details shortly. Alongside her, previously fleeting Nikkes like 'Ain' and 'Noir' found their names back on the board. We even had a madlad slotting in 'Tobias'—well, 'Towbi'—no, just 'Tob', sorry, 'Tob'. Look, someone even brought 'Top', I mean 'Tob', because people were clearly just having a laugh in this final season, mate.

Now then, let's take a closer look at the squad run by the ranker SEIFER, who proudly brought out Wind Drake and Makoto. According to the in-game ranking data, this is an absolute powerhouse who has claimed victory in the Champion Arena five times. First off, the working theory as to why Makoto was slotted in is to snipe Wind Laplace. Whenever Makoto faces an enemy with the Wind code, a self-buff called '1more' triggers, allowing the passive ability to deal distributed damage to the entire enemy team. Given the burst sequence, 'Vesti: Tactical Up' (hereinafter referred to as TactiVesti) would fire off her Burst 3 first, but the idea seems to have been for Makoto to crush the opposition with sheer firepower alongside 'Nayuta' just in case TactiVesti bites the dust. Of course, since that ability only triggers if there is a Wind-code enemy around, TactiVesti and Nayuta handled the heavy lifting against any other setups.

As for Wind Drake, she slotted straight into the 'Emilia + Anis: Sparkling Summer' lineup. The beating heart of this squad was 'Anis: Sparkling Summer', while Wind Drake appears to have been brought along for her all-enemy Burst skill and basic attack DPS. Her record up to the round of 16 was a respectable 'win, win, loss', though it honestly felt less like Wind Drake carried the day and more like Anis: Sparkling Summer simply obliterated everything in sight.

Sandwiched right behind these bizarre team compositions were some genuinely stellar matches. We are talking about squad number 3: 'Favorite Item Peppa—wait, Favorite Item Novel—no, Favorite Item Anchor—no, Favorite Item Volume—no, Favorite Item Brid—no, Favorite Item Folkwang—no, Favorite Item Biscuit—no, Favorite Item Helm—no, Favorite Item Mast—no, Favorite Item Rupee—no, Favorite Item Pepper—no, Favorite Item Signal—no, Favorite Item Yuni—no, Favorite Item Guillotine—no, Favorite Item Centi—no, Favorite Item Ether—no, Favorite Item Mica—no, Favorite Item Belorta—no, Favorite Item Delta—no, Favorite Item Rapi—no, Favorite Item Anis—no, Favorite Item Neon—no, Favorite Item Diesel—no, Favorite Item Exia—no, Favorite Item Brid—no, Favorite Item Poli—no, Favorite Item Miranda—no, Favorite Item Eunwha—no, Favorite Item Vesti—no, Favorite Item Crow—no, Favorite Item Quency—no, Favorite Item Moran - Neon: Vision Eye - Favorite Item Helm - Noah - Rumani'. During the round of 16 bout, they faced off against 'Mihara: Bonding Chain - Anis: Sparkling Summer - Blanc - Biscuit - Cinderella'. SEIFER was left entirely alone with 'Moran', while the opposition still had 'Mihara: Bonding Chain - Anis: Sparkling Summer - Blanc' standing tall after the initial burst. Miraculously, however, Moran pulled off a legendary three-on-one sweep, relying entirely on her triple-phase HP recovery mechanism.

In fact, right near the tail end of the scrap during a one-on-one duel against 'Blanc', Moran's health was dangling by a thread when her Burst gauge miraculously maxed out, triggering her Burst skill just in the nick of time. Since that particular Burst comes equipped with life-steal proportional to the damage dealt, she pulled off an absolute clutch resurrection. Like the protagonist of some teenage manga, she mustered every last ounce of strength right before collapsing to lay the enemy low. Poor Blanc was stuck at Burst 2, meaning she couldn't even fire off her own Burst skill and went down to Moran.

SEIFER managed to march all the way to the top 8 thanks to that stunt, but alas, ran straight into the previous season's winning ranker and bowed out of Champion Arena BETA Season 40 with a 'loss, loss, win, loss, win' record. The first match, in particular, was agonizingly close. Wind Drake's Burst went off with a bang and wiped out the opposition, but just before biting the dust, Blanc slapped an 'Indomitable' buff onto 'Snow White: Heavy Arms' (hereinafter referred to as Heavy Arms). From there, Heavy Arms stood her ground all alone and proceeded to execute all 5 members. Frankly, it was only possible because Heavy Arms' kit is downright absurd.

Meta Analysis

Altruia's Weakness Element is Electric Code

Set to kick off on October 15, Solo Raid Season 42 featuring 'Altruia' is shaking things up by showing up with an Electric code weakness, unlike the original encounter. Naturally, rankings are going to hinge entirely on how well-invested your Electric code Nikkes are. Altruia has this delightful habit of drastically boosting her own defense during her pattern phases, meaning you are going to desperately need Nikkes packing a 'Defense Ignore' effect. Among the Electric roster, Ain, 'Ada', and 'Gil' all come equipped with defense-ignoring tricks. Meanwhile, 'Flora' hands out a defense-ignore buff to her entire team. If you've managed to grind her Favorite Item all the way to stage 3, she even dishes out an attack-boosting buff to the whole squad based on the caster's stats.

Aside from those, the 11 Electric code Nikkes most likely to see playtime include 'Maiden: Ice Rose - Arcana - Neon: Vision Eye - Rosanna - Anis: Sparkling Summer - Favorite Item Moran - Naga - Rouge - Anis: Sparkling Summer - Isabel - Cinderella'. Do keep in mind that Rosanna is only viable if her Favorite Item is at stage 2 or higher. Pushing her to stage 2 upgrades her Burst skill, tacking on a 'received damage increase debuff if the target is weak to Water Code'. Stage 3, on the other hand, permanently grants her an elemental advantage damage increase against targets whenever they pop up on the field. Commanders who have invested all the way to stage 3 are likely in for some delightfully disgusting numbers.

Nikke News

4th Anniversary Information Website Goes Live

Back on October 8, the Goddess of Victory: NIKKE 4th anniversary information hub officially opened its virtual doors. It is scheduled to remain accessible until November 18, and fresh tidbits concerning the anniversary will be continuously rolled out throughout its lifespan. As of October 15, if you peek into the information site, everything outside of the 'Story Archive' and 'Fan Creations' is currently locked behind a tantalizing 'COMING SOON' banner. Meanwhile, the main page is ticking down the remaining time until the 3rd surface reclamation in real-time. Be sure to check out the info site as details gradually leak out ahead of the anniversary kickoff.