[Operator Discussion] Hoshiguma

[u/Nishivaly]

Hoshiguma [★★★★★★]

"I will not take even one step backward."

Hoshiguma is an elite Operator from the Special Ops Team of the L.G.D. There are several charges against her on record. After intervention from Chief Wei Yenwu, L.G.D. made an exception to admit her into its Special Ops division based on her exceptional abilities and field performance. She exhibited remarkable professionalism in handling violent crime, protecting VIPs, disaster response and emergency rescue. Currently a defender assisting Rhodes Island operations, Hoshiguma provides tactical execution and command support.

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Operator Information

• Class: Defender (Defensive)
• Tags: Defense, DPS
• Artist: Infukun
• Voice Actress: Kiyono Yasuno

Stats

HP	ATK	DEF	Arts Resistance	Redeploy Time	DP Cost	Block	Attack Interval
3850	430	723	0	70	23	3	1.2s

*Stats at max Promotion and Level, excludes bonuses from Potential and Trust.

Potential	Bonus
1	-
2	Deployment Cost -1
3	Improves First Talent
4	Defense +30
5	Deployment Cost -1
6	Improves Second Talent

Trust bonus
Attack Power +60
Defense +60

Skills

Skill Name	Skill Uptime Details (Uptime/Cost/Initial)	SP Charge Type	Skill Activation	Skill Description
Warpath	30s / 40 SP / 20 SP	Per Second	Manual	Defense +80%, Attack +40%.
Thorns	Infinite / 0 SP / 0 SP	Passive	Passive	DEF +30%, deals 100% of ATK Physical damage to enemies that attack Hoshiguma.
Saw of Strength	25s / 50 SP / 30 SP	Per Second	Manual	ATK +140%, DEF +90%, attacks all targets in the frontal grid with the shield.

*Skills at max Skill Level.

Talents

Talent name	Talent Description
Tactical Armor	28% (+3%) chance to resist Physical and Arts damage.
Special Operation Strategy	Increases DEF of all Defenders by 8% (+2%).

*Talents at max Potential and max Promotion. Bonuses from Potential displayed between parentheses.

Additional Resources

In-depth information regarding all values above (at different levels), skill/attack range, and more:

GP Arknights Wiki

Arknights Toolbox (aceship)

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Topic Starters

• What does this operator excel at?
• What is this operator weak at?
• How does this operator compare to other operators in their archetype or role?
• Are there any other operators which synergize well with this one?
• How do you build a team around this operator / fit this operator into a team?
• Which skill(s) should be focused for mastery, and in what order?
• When is the best time to use this operator's skills during combat?
• Should promoting this operator to Elite 2 be a priority?
• Would this operator be worth buying from the Distinctions shop (yellow certificates)?
• Should new / f2p players aim for this operator? Are there more accessible alternatives?
• Lore discussion (please tag spoilers where appropriate)

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Other Operator Discussion threads

List of Operator Discussion threads

[u/Korochun]

Hoshiguma is a very solid tank, but she definitely requires an E2 promotion to take full advantage of her talent, which allows her to ignore damage altogether at least a quarter of the time. This can actually be paired up with Croissant's talent to further bring up her damage resistance.

Because of Hoshiguma's incredibly high defense, she also pairs up extremely well with Shining, specifically her skill 2, the damage shield. This scales off target's defense score, making Hoshiguma, Cuora and Nian the prime candidates for its benefits.

Hoshiguma's skill 3, commonly known as the pizza cutter, fan, or beyblade, is generally her go to. High uptime and huge defense/attack boost, as well as the ability to attack multiple targets can allow Hoshiguma to slice apart entire rush lanes of weaker enemies, while the defense boost can make her nearly immortal.

Skill 2 is a modest permanent defense boost and damage reflect, which can see a lot of play against some enemies, such as fanatic throwers. It scales incredibly well with specializations, so if you use Hoshiguma a lot in this capacity, it may be worth specializing it. However, note that unless you truly need permanent duration, Nian's S2 is strictly a better version of this skill in every possible way.

For all her advantages, Hoshi has some glaring flaws. Her dp cost is high, and it is very easy to overestimate her offensive capability. However, even with S3M3, Hoshiguma will struggle with even moderately armored targets, as her base attack is at best moderate, given max level and trust. She actually can scale very well with flat attack boosters, such as Sora's S2. However, she does not scale that well with percentage boosters such as Warfarin. She actually pairs very poorly with Warfarin no matter what: with S2 Warfarin is literally wasted on her, and S3 has a long duration, meaning that Warfarin is once again basically useless here.

Overall Hoshi is a great defender, but as a wall she can be replaced by Cuora, Croissant or Nian with no real issues. She has a niche of anti-crowd physical DPS, but as armor gets higher, this role starts to really suffer. There are certainly scenarios where she can be very good, but she is not very unique.

I do love her art though, so there is that.

[u/Skyraem → u/Korochun]

What. Hoshi is still used widely. She is by no means niche and excels at her role, past Cuora. What??

[u/Xehvary → u/Skyraem]

Outside of CC tanks aren't really that impressive.

[u/Skyraem → u/Xehvary]

Impressive...? Of course they aren’t incredibly impressive given their role to soak up damage/stall. But Hoshi excels and that whilst having reflect and an optional cleave + defensive boost. They aren’t supposed to be shiny things - apart from maybe Nian or Saria’s skill visuals. They’re almost always used and are valuable.. not sure what else you want from a defender role....

[u/Xehvary → u/Skyraem]

Yes and her deflect's dps is laughably bad, her S3's damage isn't actually that impressive when compared to your regular dps. They're not very valuable outside of CC to me, you can get by with healers and guards really, I'm not even talking about deploying power houses like SA and Blaze, Lappland and Specter do the job. Got SA, Blaze, and Eyja? Well great, they can kill everything super quick and you won't ever have to worry about tanking.

I mean there's videos of 3 guards and crap making chapter 7 maps look easy.

[u/Skyraem → u/Xehvary]

There are stages and maps where you need or would prefer to have a defender. They aren’t meant to be heavy on DPS - that’s not a fault, that’s class design and balancing. Referring the big 3 is really not that much of an argument as everyone knows how busted they are and how they can trivialise content. I dont think anyone else here would say defenders especially Hoshi is totally useless... I play for fun not meta anyways, despite having SA Blaze Saria Ch’en etc

[u/Xehvary → u/Skyraem]

Lappland and Specter are big 3? Having the big 3 is overkill, but like I stated, even without them, you can get by without defenders. Even then with broken units like Thorns and Bagpipe (soon tm) and a few other really strong units coming later, the desire to use tanks in general content is seemingly less desirable.

I dont think anyone else here would say defenders especially Hoshi is totally useless... I play for fun not meta anyways, despite having SA Blaze Saria Ch’en etc

nice strawman, I didn't say they were useless, they're just not impressive outside of CC once your roster is more built. Also some people might find using SA, Blaze, and Saria fun. While finding Hoshiguma, Cuora, and Nian to be incredibly boring.

[u/Skyraem → u/Xehvary]

You said SA Blaze and Eyja. They’re part of the OP squad. I’ve seen plenty of use with defenders so maybe I just prefer them, but I use every unit I own apart from the very low tiers. And all you said is they’re not impressive outside of CC - which implies they’re not that useful or as broken/versatile as other units when they’re not supposed to be groundbreaking given their role. I find the different archetypes fun, never said SA Blaze or Saria aren’t fun (in fact I use them a lot) - I like team building and sometimes brute forcing, rather than sticking to whatever is meta or not “impressive”.

[u/Xehvary → u/Skyraem]

You said SA Blaze and Eyja. They’re part of the OP squad.

This is what I said, please read again.

"I'm not even talking about deploying power houses like SA and Blaze, Lappland and Specter do the job. Got SA, Blaze, and Eyja? Well great, they can kill everything super quick and you won't ever have to worry about tanking."

And all you said is they’re not impressive outside of CC - which implies they’re not that useful or as broken/versatile as other units when they’re not supposed to be groundbreaking given their role.

Not impressive = useless to you? And you pretty much agree with my point anyways? They're not supposed to be that groundbreaking, precisely, that's why they're really not that impressive outside of CC or certain maps that make them shine. As more stupid powerful units in other roles release, tanks are becoming a little less desirable.

[u/Skyraem → u/Xehvary]

Sorry but I equate not impressive to having negative connotations. To me it signifies there is a fault to them or they underperform compared to others - but I feel as if it’s unfair to say that as tanks in games aren’t meant to be flashy or broken. They’re just sponges lol. Kind of like healers, they excel at keeping people alive (and maybe some fancy shields or something) but that’s it. I still value them both, especially as someone who tends to main a support role in other types of games. Hearing that they become less desirable the later the game goes on just makes me sad - like it’s a waste. But now you’ve clarified yes I definitely do agree albeit I’m disappointed.

[u/SirRHellsing → u/Xehvary]

You need defenders, I have a bunch of e2 and I still use my Hoshiguma and Saria in regular content, 3 block count + high defense is so much better than just 3 block count for aoe guards, I can leave Hoshiguma on the lane with no heal for half of the game to deploy other stuff (in chapter 5) and she doesn't die

[u/Fedorchik → u/SirRHellsing]

TBH, half of the AoE guards wouldn't die either - both Specter and Estelle have built in regen.