Cutter/Overview — arknights

Overview

A young Columbian Vulpo mercenary from a low-class background, Cutter is the protege of a wandering swordsman who had mentored her after finding a recently orphaned Cutter holding a knife in a death grip years ago. After teaching Cutter awhile and assuring that she is self-sufficient, the swordsman quietly left, only leaving a pendant that she wears around her neck.

Cutter then did mercenary work for a while before traveling to Rhodes Island to treat her Oripathy in exchange for lending her swordsmanship to the R.I. cause. Cutter shows an interest in cooking because she has been eating nothing but MREs during her merc times; her cooking skills are so terrible that it causes problems in the R.I. cafeteria until Sideroca steps in as her instructor; thanks to this, Cutter shows good progress in learning cooking.

Gameplay

Cutter is a 4★ Swordmaster Guard who specializes in Nuker and DPS. As a Swordmaster Guard, Cutter's attacks do two hits in quick succession, essentially doubling the damage she deals. However, Cutter is still considered to attack once, which can be detrimental to charge up her skills (see below) as both of them have offensive SP recovery and Cutter's attacks will only add 1 SP instead of 2. Cutter has a below-average HP, low ATK to offset the aforementioned quirk, and above-average DEF, and can block up to two enemies, but has an above-average DP cost that increases with each promotion.

Speaking of Cutter's skills, both of them have surprisingly low SP costs allowing her to use them repeatedly, as well as good versatility which can be utilized effectively in most operations depending on the player's preference:

The first skill, Redshift, makes Cutter hurl throwing knives at four random enemies, both ground and aerial, in a range of 2×3 tiles with a 2-tile extension ahead of her – like that of Lord Guards' range from Elite 1 – that inflicts good Physical damage. Redshift can be used to inflict heavy damage in a short span of time, especially to single targets, though it won't do much against multiple targets.
The second skill, Crimson Crescent, is identical to Redshift but can target up to five enemies (six when upgraded to skill level 7), cannot target the same enemy multiple times, has a range covering a radius of 2 tiles around Cutter, and deals more damage that is doubled against flying enemies. While having a higher SP cost than Redshift, Crimson Crescent can be surprisingly useful in catching enemy flyers especially in operations where the use of Snipers or ranged Operators are restricted or banned together. Even when used outside those operations, Crimson Crescent is still effective at inflicting heavy damage to enemies who tend to come as a group, especially if they boast above-average DEF, as the high ATK modifier punches through them easily.

Cutter's talent, Photoetched Memory, gives her a chance to generate 1 extra SP when damaging enemies, allowing her to charge up her skills faster by chance. Notably, Photoetched Memory can proc on the second hit of Cutter's normal attack (which normally doesn't count as a second attack for Offensive Recovery skills) and the last hit or last two hits of Redshift (which normally do not generate SP).^{[note 1]}

Cutter's SWO-Y Operator Module, Replaceable Tool Set, causes her attacks to ignore 70 DEF, in addition to increasing her ATK and DEF; once upgraded, Photoetched Marks' proc chance is increased. Replaceable Tool Set should be equipped to Cutter to increase her already good offensive prowess, be it in compensating her lack of normal attacks' DPS against enemies with high DEF to a degree, as well as allowing her to use her skills even more frequently.

Cutter's first base skill, Training Record, increases the byproduct rate of Chip/Chip Pack processing by 70% when she is assigned to the Workshop with her second base skill Asceticism halving the morale drained whenever a Chip Pack (which drains 2 morale) is processed decreased.

Overall, despite difficulties in using her effectively mainly due to her being frail but needing to be on the frontlines at the same time, Cutter is still one of the best 4★ melee options, with her high-damage, fast-charging skills allowing her to inflict "death by a thousand cuts" on enemies who stand in her way, and is surprisingly effective against aerial opponents.

Pros

Cons

Each attack hits the target twice
Both skills have low SP costs which makes them spammable
Relatively high ATK compared to other Swordmasters
Extremely high ATK modifiers on both skills meaning she can still do good damage against high DEF enemies with her skills
Redshift can hit the same enemy multiple times, dealing massive damage
Crimson Crescent inflicts double damage against flying enemies
Photoetched Memory gives a chance to generate 1 extra SP when damaging enemies
Does a lot of damage for her rarity overall

High DP cost that increases with each promotion
Even though she has higher ATK than other Swordmasters it is still somewhat low
Basic attacks hit twice so it gets reduced by enemy DEF twice, and barely does any damage against high DEF enemies
Both skills have offensive SP recovery, making them slow to charge outside combat even with Photoetched Memory
Despite landing two hits, each attack only generates 1 SP for her Offensive Recovery skills
Somewhat low HP and DEF, but she has to be actively fighting and attacking to generate SP for her skills meaning she dies easily

Notes

↑ Skills normally do not gain SP when it is full or when the skill is active. Skills like Cutter's Redshift and Crimson Crescent or Ch'en's Chi Xiao - Unsheath that immediately perform an action and nothing else (e.g. instant damage/healing) are considered as active, albeit for a very short time, when activated, and cannot gain SP throughout its "duration" unless the skill can store multiple charges. In Cutter's case, it is possible for Redshift's last hit or last two hits to connect after the skill's "duration" and it starts to recharge if her target is far away enough. Because Photoetched Memory does not explicitly prevented from triggering on skills, hits from her skills that land after the skill "expires" can trigger it and restore SP. Likewise, the second hit of her normal attack can also trigger it because it counts as an attack, even though it normally does not charge offensive recovery skills for Swordmaster Guards.

[1] Skills normally do not gain SP when it is full or when the skill is active. Skills like Cutter's Redshift and Crimson Crescent or Ch'en's Chi Xiao - Unsheath that immediately perform an action and nothing else (e.g. instant damage/healing) are considered as active, albeit for a very short time, when activated, and cannot gain SP throughout its "duration" unless the skill can store multiple charges. In Cutter's case, it is possible for Redshift's last hit or last two hits to connect after the skill's "duration" and it starts to recharge if her target is far away enough. Because Photoetched Memory does not explicitly prevented from triggering on skills, hits from her skills that land after the skill "expires" can trigger it and restore SP. Likewise, the second hit of her normal attack can also trigger it because it counts as an attack, even though it normally does not charge offensive recovery skills for Swordmaster Guards.

[note 1]