Recommended
Rookie Sprint Units

Rookie Sprint Units Recommended Picks

Here is a list of good picks for your Rookie Sprint Banner for new players.

You can select up to 3. You should always include Erica, leaving you with 2 to choose whoever you want.

Scroll down to see the list of units and information about WHY they are recommended!

If you were recommended Gerrimore or Heidi from other sources, scroll down to the bottom to read why that is a bad idea.

Common combo picks

Erica + Noclyn + Preema
The classic PVE trio, these units will help you demolish any PVE content.
Erica + Ariel/Darlene + Chaldea(Neno)
A mix of PVE and PVP focus, with Chaldea to help you farm skill mods with Blue hunt.
Erica + Chaldea + Naranthir
A Hunts-focused choice with Chaldea for Blue hunt and Toetip bond for Erica for easy Red hunt.
Erica + Whoever the hell you want
If you have someone you'd like to pull for scenes, go for it.

ERICA

DPS / AOE / Nuker / Off-Turn Actor / Guaranteed Crit / Team Buff

You should ALWAYS include Erica no matter what, since she is so useful.

Erica is an AOE nuker who has a chance to counter-attack every time her allies are attacked.

Her attacks are guaranteed to crit when hit, meaning that she’s that much easier to build (especially earlygame). She also buffs her entire team with SPD UP and ATK UP.

Her ultimate (Skill 3) is a high-damage AOE that also generates an extra turn, for another AOE follow-up attack or a team buff.

Erica is useful for All five hunts as well as PvE in general, and can be very annoying in PvP due to her RNG-heavy, high-damage counterattacks.

Optionally, when equipped with “The Allure Of the Toe Tip” bond, Erica can even heal her allies, which works particularly well due to Erica’s very high damage output.

CHALDEA (Nenookasi)

DPS / Brawler / Self-Sufficient / Off-Turn Actor / Evasion

Nenookasi AKA Neno was originally called Chaldea before her name was censored.

Chaldea is a potent off-turn evasion brawler who Counter-attacks every time she evades an enemy attack.

Being a Grass Element, this makes her incredibly strong against Water Element units, because of the +50% evasion chance from fighting against a weak element.

She also has a self heal and cleanse, improving self sufficiency and solo potential. She can regularly clutch up and win 1v1 scenarios in PvP due to her incredible staying power.

Not only is her skill set useful for PvP, she can SOLO CLEAR the Anubarak (Blue) Hunt with the right gear. This means that you can bring 3 ungeared, unleveled units with her to get free EXP and Affection while you farm Blue Hunt (shepherding). This potentially makes you dozens of free Skill Mods from passively farming Affection. A “Big Picture” investment that pays off big time.

IF you select Chaldea, you should get her “Candid Affection” bond as well! Otherwise, use the Necessary Enhancements bond that you can find elsewhere.

ARIEL

Tank / Controller / Nuker / Team Buff

Ariel is a very sturdy defender with a persistent team care and a devastating ultimate attack.

As a defender, Ariel can taunt enemies with skill 1 and maintain a constant DEF UP buff on her allies with skill 2. Her skill 2 can also push back an enemy’s action gauge, preventing them from taking a turn. Ariel also has a high base HP, which makes her one of the best frontline tanks for Blaze Wolf (Red) Hunt.

More interestingly, Ariel’s ultimate is a devastating attack that ignores DEF, and does more damage the lower Ariel’s health is. When her HP is very low, this attack often deals 15k+ damage, enough to one-shot most non-tank units. This ultimate attack is rarely useful in PvE, but can be a potent variable in PvP. Soaking up damage and then taking out a key enemy unit when her HP is low is a great strategy.

Ariel does best with the Backwards Glance bond which lets her passively take some of the damage done to her allies, helping them survive and also lowering Ariel’s health for a strong ultimate attack.

NOCLYN AKA Noc

Healer / Team Heal / Team Cleanse / Team Buff / Team Push / AOE Dispel

Noclyn is an interesting healer who brings a more offensive tempo compared to other healers. She is consistently rated very high for PvE because she helps with offense and defense at the same time.

Noclyn's key attribute is that she starts the battle with her ultimate under an 8-turn cooldown.

Until she gets her ultimate, Noclyn is a very mundane healer, with a single-target heal on Skill 1 and an AOE heal on Skill 2. Every time she uses a skill, her ultimate cooldown is reduced by 1, meaning that she needs 4 turns to “spool” her ultimate under normal circumstances.

When Noclyn finally ults, she enters "Idol Mode" which changes her skills for 3 turns, fully heals herself, cleans all debuffs from allies, and gets an extra turn.

Idol-Mode S1 will dispel all buffs from the enemy and force a flanking attack from your strongest ally.

Idol-Mode S2 will heal, ATK UP buff, and gauge-push her allies, setting them up for a strong attack.

Given enough time to spool her ultimate, Noclyn is a very strong healer. However, in places where she has no time to prepare, she is severely limited in usefulness. Noclyn cannot be used in every PvE, and she is totally useless in PvP.

UNLESS…

PREEMA

Debuffer / Cooldown Reset / Dispel / DEF Break

Preema is a single-target debuffer who can RESET the cooldown of another ally. See where this is going? Preema can reset Noclyn’s skill cooldown, letting her transform into Idol Mode instantly!

A Noclyn-Preema combo is much more useful in PvE, and is even viable in PvP (to a limited degree).

Other than that, Preema can also be paired with other units with a high-value skill, such as Divergent Opaeni, Clone Matilda, Cindy, or others, letting them fire off skills at a quick succession. Preema can also mark down an enemy for death, by removing and preventing buffs, and decreasing their defense.

Pulling Noclyn and Preema is recommended over pulling Noclyn alone.

However, Pulling Preema alone is generally not recommended. Her value is low without a unit who can leverage her skills.

NARANTHIR AKA Nara or Naranth

Debuffer / Dispel / Reduce Gauge / Nullify Damage

Naranthir is a utility-focused opener with a kit that is disjointed, yet full of potential.

In PvE, her ability to remove buffs, apply Unhealable, Unbuffable, and reduce a target's gauge by 100% makes her invaluable in trickier stages where hindering the boss is crucial. She isn't always useful, but when she is, she tends to be very useful at her job.

Naranthir is normally not used in PvP due to there being "better options," but her high base speed, her S2 being incredibly cheap to soulburn (10 Astrogen to Ignore RES when all other similar skills require 20), her flexibility in being able to choose whether to go for the AOE or the single-target denial, makes her an underappreciated opener especially for newbies. Beginners who love an aggressive playstyle can start cleaving early and effectively with Naranthir.

And finally, Naranthir's signature bond - Allure of the Toetip - is one of the best bonds for Erica. If you can either get lucky or buy her bond using the Rookie Sprint tokens, you can give Erica an insane team utility by letting her heal her teammates.

*Naranthir is NOT obtained from Filter Recruit (one where you get Celeste and Joyce from) because having Celeste is much, much more important & useful for newbies.

JANIS

DPS / AOE / Nuker / Stealth / Extinction

Janis is an annoying little brat who can catch enemies off guard in PvP.

First, Janis’ Skill 1 is a single-target attack, but if the enemy is below 50% health, she follows up with an additional AOE attack. Being a follow-up attack, it cannot be countered.

Second, Janis never takes more than 51% of total health in damage at a time, meaning she can never be killed in one shot. Paired with a Tank holding Backwards Glance in her team, she can never be killed in two shots either.

Third, Janis cloaks herself once per turn when attacked, meaning she can’t be continuously targeted with single target attacks, making her even harder to mark down and kill.

And finally, Janis’ ultimate is one of the highest-damage attacks in the game, with a devastating effect: If the ultimate kills the target, the target cannot be revived, and the rest of the enemy team takes a huge amount of “splash damage” as well. This is often enough to wipe a flimsy team or bring a brawler team to their knees.

Janis can be used offensively and defensively in PvP, provided that you have the right units to support her. In addition, her attacks apply Unhealable debuff to enemies, which makes her a great choice for Blaze Wolf (Red) Hunt as well.

Darlene

Tank / AOE / Team Buff / Team Cleanse / DEF Break / Anti-CC /

Darlene is a defender, herself immune to sleep and stun, with a unique anti-sleep and anti-stun skill, as well as an AOE DEF Down.

When a unit on positon 4 of your team gets put to sleep or stunned, Darlene's passive activates, which removes all debuffs from allies and applies immunity to herself and position 4. This makes Darlene a unique but very powerful tool against PvP defense teams utilizing on-hit sleeps and stuns.

Not only that, her ultimate applies DEF Up to all of her allies, and inflicts DEF Down to all enemies. An AOE DEF Down skill is pretty rare; especially so on a defender. She can help with defense and offense at the same time.

DAWN

Healer / Team Heal / Team Cleanse / Team Push

Dawn is not as strong as others on the list but are considered a sleeper pick by some, due to two main advantages:

First, Dawn's pure healing amount is nearly unrivaled. Due to her excellent base HP and her high multipliers, Dawn can bring almost anyone from near zero to full health with her ultimate. Not only that, her basic attack (S1) also heals an ally. This can be exploited by fitting her with a Counter set letting her heal an ally whenever she counters.

Second, she can boost her allies' action gauge. Not only does her S2 boost an ally's gauge by 50%, Her ultimate, an AOE cleanse and heal, grants a gauge boost proportional to the amount of debuffs removed. Against a debuff-heavy PVP team, Dawn can instantly turn the tide of the battle if she can just grab a turn (which may prove difficult, but still).

Dawn's biggest weakness is her very long cooldown. When her S3 and S2 are depleted, Dawn is mostly useless for several turns, which is enough time for the enemy team to damage and kill you again.

There is a rumor/leak that Dawn is possibly getting a buff in the future where she gains an AOE revive ability; this mirrors her skillset in E7 (Destina). While this is still a rumor, some players are holding onto Dawn in the hopes that she becomes even stronger in the future.

Myths and misconceptions

Erica is bad/not worth it?

The reason why Erica is always recommended is that she's so incredibly useful in a wide range of content.

She will help you clear Story mode, Element, VR, all five Hunts, Event story, and even PVP.
While Erica is not the best at any content she's the best at being good at all content. This makes her extremely worth it: You only have to build 1 unit to get a strong teammate for virtually anything you might want to do.

Gerrimore is a good pick?

Some people incorrectly recommend Gerrimore to help with Blaze Wolf (Red) Hunt. The reason why this misinformation circulates is because Sigret (Gerrimore in Epic Seven) is used in Wyvern (red) hunt in E7 all the time. It is true that Sigret is one of the best units for red hunt due to her high damage and high debuff count.

However, a crucial caviat is that in E7, Sigret is given out for free in events, but in Recode, Gerrimore is a full-priced unit. Since we don't get her for free, we have no reason to pull for her, when cheaper and more common units can do Red hunt.

ALL unit recommendations in this list have both PvE and PvP in mind. Gerrimore is not useful in PvP, is way overpriced for what she does, and has no reason to be included in your Rookie Sprint banner.

Heidi is a good pick?

Some people incorrectly recommend Heidi to help with Ruin Dragon (Green) Hunt, Virtual Reality, or Event stages. This is wrong in several ways:

First of all, Cermia (Heidi) in E7 is given out for free in events. In Recode, Heidi is a full-priced unit. This makes her not worth pulling. This is similar to how Sigret (Gerrimore) is used in E7 because she is free but is NOT used in Recode because she is full-priced.

Second, Green Hunt is almost never farmed. It is a bad idea to spend tickets on a unit whose main content is useless.

Third, you do not need special 5 star units to clear Virtual Reality. Since you only need to clear each floor once, clearing them as cheap as possible is the best way to do VR. Picking Heidi to help with a one-off content is a massive waste of resources.

Finally, Event Stages change every two weeks and thus are impossible to plan ahead for. Even if you could, you will find that Erica comes handy far more often than Heidi ever will.

Add in the fact that Heidi is not useful for PvP and you will quickly realize how bad of a pick she is.

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