GFVerse.info - Px4 Storm

Overview

Px4 Storm has been among the most highly anticipated craftable T-Dolls since her release in CN in September 2018, with many EN players breathing a collective sigh of relief after finding out that they did not need to wait two years to finally play with her. This hoodie-sporting 5-star HG can frequently be seen in impressive damage showcase videos posted by Chinese and Korean players, and it’s for a good reason: when it comes to boosting effective DPS, no other single T-Doll can hope to reach the same level of effectiveness as Px4 Storm, especially not from position 8. While Px4 Storm’s tile buff essentially forces her placement in the frontline, she can survive decently thanks to her high base Evasion. In teams that are capable of properly maximizing the utility of her Hunter’s Bargain skill, Px4 Storm offers an unparalleled, almost addictive increase in echelon damage output. Commanders willing to build around her unique skill can expect to see Px4 Storm make a regular appearance in their staple content-clearing echelons.

Pros

Amazing Tile Buff and Coverage

Px4 Storm’s unique tile coverage allows her to buff all backline T-Dolls from position 8.
Her tile buff’s 24% Damage and 60% Accuracy boost is a strong and universal increase to damage that all DPS units can appreciate.

Extremely Strong Unique Skill

In the right team, Px4 Storm’s skill potentially boosts the echelon’s damage output by up to 50%, a far greater boost than skills like Grizzly’s Damage Focus at 25%.
Even in teams without capped or overcapped Crit Rate, the 50% Crit Damage boost more than offsets the Crit Rate penalty, and provides a damage increase comparable to Damage-buffing HGs so long as base crit chance is significant.

High Evasion

Px4 Storm has far above average Evasion, affording her some much-needed survivability.

Cons

Must Be Placed at Position 8

While a commander can technically place her in any spot they would like, Px4 Storm’s tile coverage is poor from anywhere else and she’s effectively permanently pinned down in the topmost grid position. Her forced positioning at tile 8 therefore requires her to take shots occasionally.

Low HP

With below average health, Px4 Storm’s survivability is somewhat reduced against enemies that deal moderate damage per shot.

Limited Team Compositions

As Px4 Storm’s skill increases critical damage, if allied T-Dolls do not critically strike, they do not benefit from the damage boost. Echelons containing units with low critical strike chance like ARs or MGs without an Optical Sight will not derive significant benefit from Px4 Storm’s skill.

Critical Damage Is Less Effective Against Armor

Against foes with significant armor, Px4 Storm’s Crit Damage buff may be less effective than a regular Damage buff.

Full analysis

Px4 Storm is the first HG T-Doll to be released on EN with tile buffs that can cover the entire backline from position 8, a welcome change of pace from the typical conundrum where a position 8 HG will only buff the DPS at position 7 while leaving the position 1 T-Doll unaffected by their tile buff. With a high Evasion of 93, Px4 Storm can still survive somewhat decently in the front column despite her below-average health of 68 per dummy link.

Of course, tile buffs doth not a T-Doll make. It is thus important to look at Px4 Storm’s most defining trait: her Hunter’s Bargain skill. Unlike most recent T-Dolls released in CN whose complex skill descriptions belie a fairly straightforward mechanic, Px4 Storm’s skill is the opposite: a simple effect that requires a deceptively detailed understanding of the game’s damage calculation formulae to really take advantage of.

Fortunately, the hard math has already been done. Here’s a quick summary chart of how much Hunter’s Bargain improves DPS, assuming an unarmored enemy and no other sources of Crit Damage *:

Note: Enemy Armor and additional sources of Crit Damage, such as from Fairy auras, do not significantly change the % increase. However, against enemies with substantial armor that isn’t penetrated, direct Damage buffs often increase the damage output by a significantly higher % than Crit Damage buffs with similar percentage, and are preferred over Px4 Storm’s skill. (For example, a 30% increase to 100 Damage against an 80 armor enemy would increase damage dealt from 20 to 50, effectively acting as a 150% DPS boost even though the Damage stat only increased by 30%.)

The above chart demonstrates that Hunter’s Bargain provides a very substantial increase to echelon DPS, even with no sources of Crit Rate other than an equipped VFL 6-24x56. External factors that enhance Crit Rate such as tile buffs and skill buffs, however, can potentially double the potency of Px4 Storm’s skill and allow Hunter’s Bargain to approach the theoretical maximum of 50% increase to echelon DPS.

Given her skill’s substantially improved efficacy in teams that have additional sources of Crit Rate to offset its penalty, commanders are highly encouraged to use Px4 Storm in such teams to bring out her full potential. Nevertheless, when considering that most other HG buffs top out at increasing DPS by 25% (except for outliers like Mk23 at night or Contender), it is evident that Px4 Storm will deliver above average performance even in a typical team unaided by other sources of Crit Rate. Any commanders looking to boost their Echelon's DPS to the next level will certainly not be disappointed by Px4 Storm and the incredible increase in damage she offers.

Px4 Storm is one of the very few 5* units available from the minimum-cost T-Doll production recipe of 30-30-30-30 manpower, ammunition, ration, and parts.