This post is up to date with Version 2.4
Annabella is the Simulacrum tied to Clover Cross, a SSR Flame DPS Weapon. Currently, she can only be obtained via the “Royal Endowment” event banner. Primarily, her weapon is used for DPS.
Base Kit
Clover Cross has a Shatter of 12.50 and a Charge of 9.00, making the weapon a good option for both shattering enemy shields and charging your weapons. The sniper rifle also provides Flame Resonance so to optimize its DPS, you’ll want to pair it with another Flame weapon.
Upon activating Clover Cross’s Skill, Backup Magazine, the Wanderer will cycle through two modules for them to pick: Ruthless Bomb (Burn/Red Bullets) and Deceitful Bomb (Gas/Green Bullets). To select the module you want, press the Skill button again. Both modules enhances the next 8 bouts of Clover Cross’s aiming mode, Cross Snipe, and Dodge Attack, Twilight Arc. With Ruthless Bomb, each attack inflicts Burn for 13 seconds and buffs the damage of the effect by 20%. With Deceitful Bomb, each attack unleashes gas that lasts for 7 seconds and slows affected enemies down. Each Dodge attack will ignite the gas, causing it to explode for additional damage and reduce any affected enemy’s Flame Resistance by 10% for 10 seconds. In addition to their respective effects, either module grants you Optical Enhancement, which reduces the charging time of Cross Snipe by 30%, gives you immunity to control effects while Cross Snipe is charging, and reset 1 dodge up to 4 times for every 2 dodges your Wanderer performs.
I can’t personally attest to this but it is generally considered preferrable to use Gas over Burn. Apparently, Clover Cross’s Burn application is to be used in tandem with other weapons such as Ruby’s Spark, which can ignite a burned target for extra damage. Without these weapons complimenting Clover Cross, the rifle’s Burn module isn’t terribly useful to you and you should instead opt to use the Gas module for DPS.
Given that Clover Cross is a sniper rifle, you would think that Cross Snipe is the go-to attack animation for the weapon. Surprisingly, it is better to spam Twilight Arc instead. While Cross Snipe can be useful at long range, you do not need to manually aim Clover Cross for most fights. The attack also requires charging for a few seconds in order to optimize its damage. Meanwhile, Twilight Arc counts as a fully charged Cross Snipe and the frequency at which it can be executed is only hindered by the dodge attempt mechanic (which Backup Magazine alleviates with the Optical Enhancement effect). Outside of fighting at long range, there isn’t much incentive to use Cross Snipe and you should almost always use Twilight Arc instead.
For that matter, none of Clover Cross’s other basic attacks are worth using. The closest is Boiling Noise, the sniper rifle’s charged attack, but even that pales in comparison to Twilight Arc. In general, you’d only use Clover Cross’s other attacks for when your Dodge meter is out of charges.
For the weapon’s Discharge, Bombardment Command, the Wanderer will strike a pose before throwing and firing at an incendiary bomb to deal damage in an AoE. Enemies that get hit by this attack have a chance of getting suspended in the air, making them easy pickings for your character. There’s not much to say about this ability other than that it can make for an effective (and elegant) nuke). It works well for both single target and group encounters.
Advancements
- A1 – Creates an Optical Space for 12 seconds after you hit an enemy twice with Cross Snipe. If Burn is triggered within the radius of Optical Space, the effect will trigger two more times. When an enemy leaves the AoE, their speed is reduced by 80% for 2.5 seconds. Since Twilight Arc is considered to be the same as a fully charged Cross Snipe, the dodge attack is capable of triggering this Advancement. Unless you have weapons that work well with Burn such as Ruby’s Spark, this Advancement isn’t too valuable for your DPS. However, this upgrade can still be worthwhile for the speed debuff it applies onto enemies.
- A2 – Increases Clover Cross’s base ATK growth by 16%.
- A3 – Heals you by 50% of the damage you deal and gives you 50 weapon charge after you land a crit with Cross Snipe. Once again, the weapon’s Dodge Attack is capable of triggering this Advancement. Provided that you have decent Crit Rate, this Advancement is a godsend for survivability. For most fights, this passive can save you the need of a healing weapon.
- A4 – Increases Clover Cross’s base ATK growth by 32%.
- A5 – Enhances both modules of Backup Magazine. Ruthless Bomb gains a 30% increase to Burn. Deceitful Bomb’s explosion damage now ignores 30% of enemy Flame Resistance. This Advancement is more valuable towards Burn than with Gas. Most enemies in the game don’t actually have Flame Resistance, even when the game says they take less damage from the element. For most game modes, ignoring 30% of enemy Flame Resistance is moot.
- A6 – Increases Cross Snipe’s damage by 12%. While not the most substantial upgrade, it is nevertheless a permanent DPS boost for Clover Cross.
As it always the case for SSR characters/weapons, you should only consider going after their Advancements if you have the money to burn. It should be noted that Annabella is considered to be perfectly fine at A0. Also, she will eventually be added into the standard banner so you should be a little mindful about pulling past A0. If you are willing to pull, some good stopping points besides A0 and A6 are A1 and A3.
Awakening
Annabella’s Awakening trait increases the damage of Clover Cross for 20 seconds and up to 2 times for every enemy that gets hit by a gas explosion caused by Deceitful Bomb. This trait is extremely niche, being relevant for just one of two playstyles of one weapon in the entire game. Nevertheless, this trait is worth activating if you are often using Clover Cross’s Gas module in combat.
Closing Words
Annabella is one of Tower of Fantasy‘s most F2P-friendly “characters”. In contrast to other weapons that require at least one Advancement to perform well, Annabella’s weapon is strong right out of the gate. For F2P players and light spenders, the Clover Cross is currently one of the best weapons to consider pulling for. That said, Annabella does take some getting used to, with the different modules provided by her weapon skill being a bit confusing at first.
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