HOC Priority Guide

HOC Priority Guide

Introduction

There are currently 11 HOCs in the game, 4 Anti-Tank Weapons (ATW), 4 Mortars (MTR) and 3 Grenade Launchers (AGL).

ATWs are meant primarily as Force Shield piercing support, coming with high Pierce stats and usually much lower damage output.

MTRs are primarily damage dealers, being very good at dealing heavy blows to large groups of enemies in exchange for a low Pierce stat.

AGLs are sort of a middle ground, being some kind of multi-hit half-Pierce half-Lethality HOC.

Within each type they are still quite different and the purpose of this page is to show which ones are most useful to raise first.

New Player

BGM-71 (BGM) to level 60 3☆

Even after Mk153's introduction and client v3.04's HOC rework, we still recommend leveling BGM to Level 60 first. Unlocking a Pierce Chip and upgrading can also help.

As a new player, you will need an HOC with sufficient Pierce to clear Force Shields in Ch11-12 (and ongoing events, which can be much harder) as soon as possible. BGM has the single highest Pierce of all the ATWs, so she stands as a very good option for new players to get going.

Although Mk153 has more long-term relevance due to her higher utility and longer range:

  • She deals almost half the Pierce as an equally-raised BGM, which can make a significant difference for newer players who are also working with underdeveloped Dolls, Fairies, and Equipment. Said another way, BGM needs relatively little investment to be a crutch that you can rely on when pushing through content with weaker echelons, while Mk153 requires more investment to do so..
  • Her longer range, while nice for Action Point flexibility, is primarily a benefit for those aiming to score well in Rankings and is very oversold for general content. General content is much more lenient with AP, and getting stat checked is a much bigger problem than getting a HOC in range. Most clear guides will also be made with BGM in mind.

That said, BGM-71 can potentially be skipped for Mk153 if you are progressing more slowly and have the time to raise Mk153 to a similar level of performance.

Facilities

As a new player you are very limited by batteries, and your HOC are an extreme battery sink for a very long while. As such it is important to get the important facilities up first while leaving less important ones for later.

Priority 1:

Data Hub to level 10.

  • The Data Hub generates Samples passively. Higher levels increase the amount of Samples generated per cycle.

Priority 2:

Training Range:

  • This allows you to train multiple HOCs at once, but as this is only for Skill Levels this is not important. It maxes out at level 8 (9 and 10 don't do anything).

Further Progress:

As you now have your facilities set up to both train and generate Chips and Central Data, there’s only one thing left to do; getting enough SCRs (Special Combat Reports) to actually level all your HOC up.

The Data Room should thus be leveled up and set to spending your Surplus Exp to generate SCRs until you no longer need more SCRs. This will be your battery sink for the foreseeable future.

Priority steps

While certain HOC are certainly stronger than others, it is expected that you raise at least most of them to such a degree that you can use them where needed, as such it is expected that you go through this in 3 steps, rather than rushing one single HOC all the way and neglecting the rest.

Step 1: Level 60 and 5☆

All HOCs in order of priority to level 60 and to 5☆. Level 60 is a good temporary stopping point as you raise more HOCs.

Increasing the Rarity of HOCs allows you to unlock more Chips and enhance them.

Step 2: Level 100

All HOCs in order of priority to level 100. Level 100 is the end of SCRs and increases the HOC’s stats to their base max. The lower half of the list is generally not that useful and you could take your time when you get to that part of the priority if you so desire.

Step 3:

Iteration is a progression of increasing HOC beyond 5☆, increasing their stat caps.This is known as 10☆ or Iteration 10. For example Iteration 2 would be 6☆, having 1 red star past the regular 5☆ rating.

The order of priority remains the same as before, simply start with the strongest unit and work your way to the next ones as you max them out. Note that Iteration gets more expensive the higher the Iteration level is, and getting the next in priority a few Iteration levels is not a terrible idea if you know you will need them soon.

Priority List

This section is listed in order of Priority.

BGM is expected to be level 60 3☆ before starting on the rest of the HOCs. Do take extra note that these are general recommendations and some of these HOCs are not useful for all situations. For example ATWs are only really useful against Force Shielded enemies, if no such targets are present then you obviously won’t get much use out of them.

Disclaimer: If you are skipping BGM in favor of Mk 153, Mk 153 needs to be at level 100 and at least 4☆ for a similar performance to level 60 BGM at 3☆. As mentioned above, we recommend BGM as the starting HOC for most players. The list below assumes you follow that.

1. L9A1

L9A1 is a utility machine that also happens to be a MTR that deals decent damage to groups of enemies. She provides frequent and potent HP Shields that can often entirely prevent damage taken in fights (especially with SGs or single-link units like Manticores/Ringleaders). In addition to that, she also grants any Echelon she supports 80% Night Vision, lowers enemy Armor by 50%, and lowers their Movespeed by 30%, all of which can be massive boons when applicable. While her initial burst of damage is slightly lower and a bit more delayed than the other MTRs, her utility easily makes up for this.

2. Mk 153 (SMAW)

Having BGM will cover your Pierce needs in general content, while L9A1 brings utility and decent damage for both general content and ranking. This leaves the other HOCs mostly (though not entirely) for ranking purposes. As the only true 3-range ATW (who also brings some very useful stuns upon removing all of an enemy’s Force Shields), Mk153 stands out as the most useful ATW longer-term. As such, she should be your goal to max out next.

3. 2B14 and PP-93

Both these MTRs are very good at killing enemies, with PP-93 hitting slightly harder against enemies further away while getting increased Precision against closer targets (which isn’t bad), 2B14 is the overall hardest hitting MTR against enemies without Force Shields though PP-93 may still end up ahead if Precision ends up mattering. As huge blobs of enemies can be some of the biggest issues, especially for newer players with a smaller armory getting these two up early can help a lot.

4. AGS-30

As an AGL, AGS has 3 range, which together with her Pierce focus, makes her capable of performing as a faux ATW. Mk 153 is better at this job as she gains a Pierce bonus against new targets, leaving AGS' targeting (Highest FS% rather than ATWs’ Highest FS Value) as the main reason to bring her, unless you need a second 3 range Pierce focused HOC.

5. AT4

AT4 is an AoE damage focused ATW. She has 2 range and less Pierce than other ATWs, but is focused heavily on extra damage. Her Skill 1 actually has a larger radius than PP-93 and 2B’s Skill 1s, though with the clause that enemies must be force shielded. This, when combined with her ATW targeting, would make her quite decent and certainly more useful than BGM in content without massively bloated Force Shield, though sadly her 2 Range is a major issue in ranking.

6. M2

M2 is a MTR. Her smaller Skill 1 radius, focus on debuffs and buffs (instead of outright killing enemies), and weaker utility makes her stand out as the weakest MTR. With that said, she is still a MTR and hits decently hard, making her still better than the options below.

7. BGM-71

BGM gains a very high Pierce buff on her first and every third shot (so 1st, 4th etc), making her a very strong starting unit. With enough Reload from Skill 2 and iterations, she can have 100% uptime and just chunk Force Shields, though she has little utility besides this and technically having the best single target Damage (which only works on Bosses and single units like Patrollers). With all of that said, she is still recommended as a starting unit, but becomes much lower priority otherwise.

8. Mk 47

Entire kit is based around dealing extra damage to HP shielded enemies. Her extra hits against HP shields makes her slightly more useful against Orthrus. For some reason Mica added a penalty to her main attack, meaning you need to skill up her Skill 2 to reduce said penalty, leaving her somewhat in a weird spot. Only really useful against HP Shields and otherwise not very useful.

9. RPG-29

RPG-29 falls in the upper end of ATWs for Pierce: below BGM, but above Mk153 and AT4 (unless Mk153 continues switching targets). 2 range makes her compete with BGM and AT4, but both of them have their own niches they are good at (Pierce and Damage). In contrast, her “stun" is at best unreliable, and her ability to ignore HP shields is not really relevant. Overall, RPG-29 is fairly unremarkable.

10. QLZ-04

QLZ stands out as a slightly odd HOC in that her kit is more about debuffing enemies than actually dealing damage or breaking Force Shields. Also note that her Skill 2 which would’ve made her actually good against Orthrus shields and similar has a “doesn’t work” clause on it. This mostly leaves her as one of the least desirable HOC for most things, but she can occasionally be useful if you just need yet another HOC that isn’t Force Shield focused.

Skills

Maxing out the skills for each HOC is excessively expensive and is not expected in most cases. Instead the suggested is to level one skill to level 7, and the other two to 4 for the most part. While maxing out an HOC will give you slightly more out of them, make sure to actually spend your data on your relevant Fairy and T-Doll skills first as this will benefit you far more.

BGM

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because the excessive Pierce is BGM’s entire niche.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 second because reload allows her to get 100% skill 1 uptime faster.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 last because it rarely matters, this requires her to hit the same target repeatedly which she won’t do unless there’s only one target with force shields.

L9A1

  • Skill 2 to level 7 first because that’s where the HP Shields generation is (and Armor reduction).
  • Skill 1 to level 4/7 second because this increases her burst damage. The debuffs and NV buff do not scale with levels.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 last as Vulnerability is nice, but not as impactful as the other skills.

Mk 153

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because these additional projectiles make the first hit against each target significantly better at breaking Force Shields and allowing your echelons to deal damage much earlier.
  • Skill 2 and Skill 3 to level 4 together because they are both impactful. Skill 3 applies vuln on the target, increasing the damage they take and also stunning them if their Force Shields run out (note that this is amazing against Gladiators, as they can be repeatedly stunned). Skill 2 lowers enemy evasion (which can stack to 3) and gives each attack an additional attack and accuracy roll for dealing damage.

AGS

  • Skill 3 to level 7 first because breaking force shields is their niche.
  • Skill 1 to level 4 second because dealing extra damage with every 4th attack is still useful.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 last because precision increases aren’t that impactful.

AT4

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because dealing extra damage to Force Shielded targets is nice.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 second because purging the world in fire is how we deal extra damage.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 last because it isn’t too impactful, only decreasing accuracy of enemies slightly (that cannot stack).

2B14

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because this additional attack is a large part of why 2B is so good, increasing the potency and lowering the cooldown from 24s towards 10s at level 10 it is a highly impactful upgrade.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 second because increased damage to enemies without Force Shields is still nice.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 last because RNG minor debuffs aren’t that impactful.

PP-93

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because as with 2B, PP-93 also fires additional shots, though this instead scales with enemy dummy links and sets everything on fire. Fire is good, we like fire.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 second because increased damage and precision are both very good, and hitting the enemy backline even harder is very very good.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 last because the conditional Ramming (running into) enemies vs getting Rammed is hard to make full use out of, and the uptime isn’t great.

M2

  • Skill 1 to level 7 first because extra attacks are always nice to remove enemies swiftly.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 second because the minor buffs can be helpful.
  • Skill 3 to level 4 last because the minor precision increase is not that impactful.

Mk 47

  • Skill 3 to level 7 first because breaking HP shields is their entire niche.
  • Skill 1 to level 4 second because extra damage is nice.
  • Skill 2 to level 4 last because the reduction of the penalty for further hits isn’t that impactful.

RPG-29

Note that RPG is almost never fielded and even skilling her up is not really recommended unless you actually need her. Combine this with the new Battlepass system allowing a constant source of Quick Training Tickets, and you could entirely ignore this HOC until you need her, however unlikely that is.

  • Skill 1 to 7 first as this actually grants her extra damage.
  • Skill 2 second though it hardly matters much, as it just increases her damage slightly.
  • Skill 3 requires your Dolls to be able to apply debuffs for this to even have any effect and should probably be leveled last.

QLZ-04

Note that QLZ is almost never fielded and even skilling her up is not recommended unless you actually need her. Combine this with the new Battlepass system allowing a constant source of Quick Training Tickets, and you could entirely ignore this HOC until you need her, however unlikely that is.

  • Skill 3 to 7 and Skill 2 to 4 together as these are the most impactful parts of her kit. Skill 3 ramps up her damage and accuracy as she continues firing. Skill 2 makes enemies take increased flat damage from your dolls shooting at them. Note that Skill 2 has a “doesn’t work on Orthrus shields” clause leaving it completely irrelevant in the only case it would’ve been massively useful.
  • Skill 1 to 4 last as the evasion and accuracy debuff isn’t that impactful and the increase from skill levels isn’t great.