The New Year's Radiant Beauty event in Blue Archive is a must-pull for players, as the revitalized character lineup promises excitement and intrigue. The dominance of Haruna may be waning, but the allure of the New Year's Gourmet Research characters, who are making their festive return, cannot be overlooked. Let's delve into a comprehensive analysis of these celebrated characters.

Hey there, I'm Xue Di.

You've clicked into the right place, welcome to the daily life of a perverted girl.

My sister thought about expanding the website's focus, so she asked me to write something new. Being such a homebody myself, I figured I'd share some geeky stuff with everyone. Recently, Blue Archive has been quite the hit, and I've been playing it too, so it seems fitting.

In the future, it won’t just be about Blue Archive; there'll be casual chats about ACG, so stay tuned.

Anyway, today the revival of the New Year's gourmet research group event from Blue Archive is back. I'll give you a comprehensive analysis on whether you should draw for the three characters in this banner.

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Fuka (New Year) / Fuka (New Year)

Let's start with a character who's always "tied" to the Gourmet Research Club—Fuka.

Features: A backline support, with the ability to halve the Cost for one character (rounded up), and increases critical damage. Her normal skill provides a shield to the ally with the lowest HP, determined by Fuka's healing power.

Draw Recommendation: Definitely bring her home.

Usage Scenarios: All major battles and event stages

Character Evaluation

A strong backline support, remember in the archive, characters with skill sets that reduce or speed up COST are always valuable. Fuka was initially released to pair with the guaranteed crit attacker Mika, and now she is active in all major battles and challenges of all difficulties. With the increase in firepower and front-line supports, finishing with an INS team is standard. Using Fuka to reduce COST and speed up cycles has become mainstream for better scores.

The image above shows the Chesed Major Battle Ins difficulty team I used. By using Fuka's -C effect, I achieved a first eye-opened kill with the sequence: Mika (prepare Fuka EX first) > Fuka > Yang Kui > Iori > Mika.

In environments with multiple teams for TM, she is a priority backline choice. Overall, players with the capability should definitely bring home New Year Fuka. Regarding weapon upgrading, New Year Fuka's special ability adds healing power, which isn't a priority, so players who've drawn her might not need to star up immediately. Instead, focus on maximizing her EX skill, reducing the cost from 3 to 2 for a qualitative improvement.

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Haruna (New Year) / Haruna (New Year)

Features: A front-line backburst single/AOE dual-use damage dealer, ignores enemy cover and hits everything within range, the king of PVP damage.

Draw Recommendation: If aiming for PVP frontline, for major battles without reliable burst attackers and supports to choose from, or if it's a fetish/collection love, definitely draw.

Usage Scenarios: All major burst battles/challenges (not first choice), PVP, and event stages.

Character Evaluation

At a Cost of five, a 5-burst small AOE chain explosion, if there’s only one enemy within range, it will hit them five times. If there are more than five enemies, it will sequentially hit the nearest five; if the explosion range overlaps, the damage is considerable, plus normal attacks come with random defense breaking, theoretically making its output highly anticipated.

However, over time and with gradual powerful enhancements, people discovered that Al, with just a Cost of 4, could cause more damage at a lower Cost. Plus, the introduction of Gown Haruna directly dethroned burst kings, and New Year Haruna gradually stepped off the stage of burst supremacy.

But when one door closes for New Year Haruna, another opens in PVP. With the swimsuit Shirone's introduction, the PVP gambling iron triangle formed. The combination of swimsuit Shirone, Shun, and New Year Haruna's team can ignore terrain and obliterate all opponents by nuking them from the opener, leaving manageable tanks. No need to think about how to break formations — it's all about gambling on having Haruna ready from the get-go.

Now some might ask, if the opponent also has Swimsuit Shirone + Shun + Haruna, what then? Simple, we just need to draw New Year Haruna's EX first. That's the New Year Haruna, shaping the PVP scene into a gamble of who draws Haruna's EX first.

Considering PVE, if debating if you should draw, think about these:
1. Do you have Gown Haruna? If yes, you might skip.

2. Do you have Al? Planning to farm fragments? If yes, you might skip.

3. Are your supports (Yang Kui, Azu, sorrow, New Year Fuka) complete? If yes, you might skip.

The reason is Gown Haruna is the strongest burst output currently; Al was the former burst king and can be farmed through Hard stages. Over time, a Special 3 Al can be obtained for free.

If your support lineup is full, you can challenge stages by borrowing powerful attackers from others while leveling up your support instead; having your own attacker is less crucial, as supports are essentially mandatory to train.

So, in PVE, unless you have ample resources, it hits your fetishes, or you have no other good burst options, otherwise I recommend only drawing New Year Haruna under those conditions.

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Akari (New Year) / Akari (New Year)

Features: Summons a tank unit to the front of the team, Mystic Specialization, and dual buffs with acceleration.

Draw Recommendation: Not limited, good support, suggested to wait until she appears unexpectedly.

Usage Scenarios: Mystic Major Battles, Challenges, event stages

Character Evaluation

The Gourmet Research Club’s EX activation becomes a dream with the food department’s car as a tank unit.

After a year, finally came the revival of Akari’s New Year kimono version, continuing the traditional non-limited return for new characters, but New Year Akari’s skill set doesn’t immediately seem powerful...or does it?

After testing from Xue Di, Akari’s summon tank has excellent coverage, and being positioned forward with high durability, it’s a decent Mystic booster + survival support, easily compensating for New Year Kayako’s vulnerability in high difficulty stages.

Simplistically powerful regular draw character, a Cost 5 range buff with decent durability can be considered the Mystic version of backline Swimsuit Hoshino. Players who have already summoned New Year Fuka and Haruna but haven’t yet acquired her could consider going "full red" to draw her, but I still don’t recommend spending excessively to raise her.

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