Acacia - Chrono Echo
Acacia finally touched grass..!?
Acacia - Chrono Echo
Acacia finally touched grass..!?
Released in:
Version 3.5 - Back from Bygone
Note that v3.5 also introduces Marian - Aquila
Each get their own article.
This article is about how Chrono Echo affects the games meta. If you only want details on Chrono Echo herself - how to play and build her, then view her article here.
Role: Main DPS
Weapon: Flying Sword
Damage Type: Kinetic
DPS: Very strong single-target.
Can also do decent AoE damage as well
Meta: AoE is good, but not really any better than Enya - Tempest
Single target is very strong, but whilst Acacia's dps is great, she lacks the mobility and self-healing of Clarina - Crimson Moon
First things first, a very long overdue rant about Acacia herself.
Since Acacia's sexualization doesn't actually affect how she performs in combat, I've put this in a collapsible section, so that people who only care about her performance can just skip my complaining altogether.
(Agan: If you only care about how Acacia actually performs and affects the meta, then you can skip this section entirely.)
Alright, I am going to start this article by having a long and angry rant about something that's alwas bothered me in Snowbreak but hasn't really been a problem up until now:
How old is Acacia?
Her in-game description officially lists her as:
"Age: 17 years and 360 months"
due to her 30-year cryosleep period, during which she seemingly didn't biologically age.
Just looking at her is enough for you to know that Acacia is not 47 years old though, so is she actually 17?
Whilst the in-game 3D models obviously don't age with passage of time as the story progresses, Acacia is introduced in the mission "Acacia" - the first mission of Story Chapter 2 "The Pygmy Necklace", meaning that in-universe we've known her for a long time, and Acacia was awakened from cryosleep literally 25 chapters ago - and that's excluding all the side content she appears in (e.g. Star Master) and the other actual side story chapters themselves that aren't part of the main story line.
Whilst Snowbreak doesn't really give actual dates for us to know exactly how long has actually elapsed in-universe, it has almost certainly been several years, meaning Acacia may well be in her early or even mid-late twenties by now.
As such, in-universe Acacia is almost certainly in her twenties, or at least over 18, and everything is fine.
but...
I try to avoid commenting on the games sexualization on this site except if I feel I can make a light-hearted joke out of it (which is fine since all the girls I reference are all adults), because my focus is on the gameplay and because you obviously don't need me telling you what you find attractive or sexy, but in this one exception I am going to break that rule, because Chrono Echo feels weird to me in a bad way.
When it first released, Snowbreak was not sexualized - it had girls in it, but it wasn't sexualized (I didn't play it at launch, but every source I've seen has said the same thing).
This is fine - there are many other gacha games that have many female characters but aren't sexualized at all - Reverse1999, Morimens, Memento Mori, Limbus Company, etc...
(All great [gacha] games you should check out, btw, although in terms of tone they're all about as far from Snowbreak as it is humanly possible to conceive...)
Snowbreak's sexualization came later, largely due to the games relatively poor revenue numbers and the lewder content attracting more players and being something players are more willing to spend on.
Whilst in Asian countries gacha games rake in tons of money from gacha pulls, here in the west we overwhelmingly dislike paying for gacha pulls and gacha mechanics in general, and in the west a much higher proportion of gacha game revenue comes from outfit sales as a result of this - we just don't buy gacha pulls, and this is well known and has been for quite a long time now.
Given that Snowbreak's original outfits weren't revealing or sexy, and outfits in Snowbreak have always been very expensive for what they are (although they aren't that bad by gacha game standards, granted), that their relatively tame outfits didn't make much money shouldn't have been too surprising, although I do have the benefit of hindsight, and again, I didn't play the game at launch, so maybe it was something else entirely, but that's what I assume from what I know of the game and its history, as well as general gacha trends.
The sexualization has worked though, and Snowbreak now does very well for itself, at least as far as I can tell.
Whilst Snowbreak has really tried to curb its powercreep ever since Chenxing - Jade Arc was released and utterly broke the meta, it has tried to make sure that newer operatives don't cross the new line that Chenxing set, but with its sexualization the sky seems to be the limit, and if the boundaries of its sexualization don't seem like they're being pushed then that's because there's nowhere left to push them without increasing the games age rating, which the devs really really don't want to do.
Whilst every player has their preference when it comes to their waifu, and that's fine, whenever Snowbreak has changed a girls model they have consistently gotten larger breasts.
For the most part, this is and has always been fine - you/I/we may not like it, and it may seem weird sometimes, but whilst it might not be your specific preference, changing (increasing) the bust size of a character is not that unusual for gacha games these days, and since the characters are all adults, it's not really a problem - adult women can have big or small boobs - it doesn't matter. It might be inconsistent in-universe, and it might change the character, and it might be disrespecting the character and the people who like that character as they were before, but since the characters were/are all adults there's nothing necessarily morally wrong with it - it's just a change to that characters visual design.
With Acacia though, she's not that old - if she were actually biologically 17, then it feels extremely weird to me that they'd make an older version of her with a larger chest, because to me that doesn't feel like a design change, it feels like growth.
In-game it's described as "regulate internal hormones, rapidly stimulating skeletal and muscular growth", which doesn't really sound like it should make her boobs bigger.
The reason Acacia got an older version is because the devs wanted an older version of her with bigger boobs, but it still feels weird to me because her being older means that she is fully developed now - which to me implies that she wasn't fully developed before, which makes me extremely uncomfortable.
It is of course the case that there are women who do still develop after they turn 18, and that's fine, but obviously puberty generally happens when a girl is a teenager, not in her early twenties.
In-universe, if there were a way to make your bust size larger, then Fritia would already be doing it.
(and let's be honest, she probably has a few warehouses of servers tracking such research for when it does get developed...)
In the real world, here in the west we unanimously push back against the sexualization of minors, but in Asian countries it's much more accepted, and is unfortunately somewhat normalized.
With most operatives, I can sexualize them just fine - Vidya, Katya, Chenxing, Haru, Nita... all fine with me.
With Eatchel specifically, I've always firmly put her in the category of something more akin to a daughter - whilst she is technically over 18, she's too childlike and naive for me to ever consider her to be a possible romantic or sexual partner - Eatchel needs head-pats and tummy-rubs before being tucked in and read a bedtime story, however Eatchel has always been the one exception - the one playable character that can't be sexualized.
(Again: Playable character - characters like Yoghurt are also obvious exceptions, but they aren't playable like Acacia is, so I consider them differently.)
This is what Chrono Echo feels like to me now - Acacia is older, wiser, and... fully developed. She's no longer so childlike, both physically and mentally.
Acacia has never really been sexualized (although that's largely due to just how long it's been since she last got a new operative variant...) but to me Chrono Echo is something more akin to a mental retcon - I used to see Acacia as the young (but over 18) girl, similar to Tess - young and naive, but old enough to be mentally developed and to know what she wants.
To me, now Acacia feels like she has a child/teen version and an adult version.
and I hate that.
Maybe you can look past this - maybe you think Acacia is obviously over 18, maybe you think that even if she wasn't when we met her, she is by-now due to just how much the story has progressed.
If you can, then that's great. But I just can't look past the number the game gives us.
This is a problem that is not exclusive to Snowbreak - again, Asian games to sexualize minors staggeringly often, but these are usually caught by the localization team and you usually just end up with a girl that's stated to be over 18 but is short or flat-chested, which are perfectly fine things for an adult woman to be.
Dear Seasun, make Acacia 18, not 17.
She should have always been 18, and when the decision was made to have Snowbreak lean into the fanservice, making Acacia 18 should have been the literal first thing you did.
What isn't a problem exclusive to me though is that the older version of Acacia... doesn't even really feel like Acacia.
Acacia has really been sexualized before, but that's largely because her last operative variant was introduced so long ago it was before Snowbreak started going full-on with the fanservice.
Acacia is the only character to have actually had any meaningful form of visual/physical development though, so the older version of Acacia does feel very different, not only because she's the only character to receive such treatment, but also because she is physically so different from her previous form.
I also feel that if you wanted "Acacia but older" then the devs could have just made that - we didn't need a new operative that swaps between new and old - an operative that is just an older version of one we already have is fine.
Alright. Rant over. Back to my numbers and spreadsheets.
Calming thoughts.
Think of... Vidya, perfect. Perhaps Katya, Enya, of course, Nerida, mmm...
OK, those thoughts might be the opposite of "calming".
Anyway, Acacia.
Acacia - Chrono Echo does several new things, although she does make a few small blunders as she does it.
Last patch released Bubu - Specular Soul, and I commented on how it was nice to see some of the lesser-used weapon types get more representation, and that it would be nice to see other new weapon types as well.
Well, Acacia is here to deliver, using the new Flying Sword weapon type.
Despite swords generally being, you know... melee weapons throughout history, Acacia's surprisingly good throwing arm and her infinite ammo hack allows her to just endlessly fling them from long range.
...and I do mean long range - Her daggers outrange an SMG, and the optimal range of her daggers is the same as the maximum range of a shotgun.
Her daggers have about the same maximum range as an Assault Rifle, and this gives Acacia surprisingly and deceptively high range.
Some previous operatives did only have effectively melee range - either because that's how close they needed to stay to enemies (for example Haru - Absconditus), or because there was a reason to move closer and no reason to move away (e.g. Fenny - Lioneart).
Personally, I wouldn't have had a problem with Acacia's swords being melee range, but her Flying Swords are pretty fun and work well, so her being ranged isn't an issue.
Tap her standard skill to swap between AoE mode and Single-target mode. [AoE mode is the default]
Regular Attack flings four daggers at the target
AoE mode Each dagger also deals damage to up to four nearby targets
Single-target mode Each dagger hit also deals extra damage to the target, up to four times.
Each hit also builds her counter, when she has 16 she can ult
Her ult changes her from teen form to MILF form
This changes her standard attack to a single-target attack - she can't AoE with her basic attack whilst in MILF form.
Her standard skill now does a slicing slash in front of her for massive AoE
Her counter resets to 0 and the cap becomes 36
Hits still build her counter
Once she's got 36 counter, ult again to deal AoE damage and reset everything and revert Acacia back to her default form
This is... decently complex, but it's not too bad - you just throw a few daggers, ult as soon as you can, then throw more daggers or slash, and then ult again. Repeat.
There's a bit more too it than that though - Whilst in MILF form (yes, I am going to keep referring to it as that) Acacia's third dagger deals more damage (50% ish) and inflicts 1 stack of another counter of the enemy - when the enemy has 3 of that counter, your next standard skill slice deals double damage to them, and doing that double-damage slice against an enemy gives 3 stacks of yet another counter to Acacia, and when she has 6 of that, she can use her standard skill for an even bigger slice.
Also she keeps her MILF form and counters when swapping off-field, so you'll need to keep track of that if Acacia is ever off-field, as the game doesn't tell you anything about Chroco Echo's status whilst she's off-field.
I feel you could remove everything in the above two paragraphs and just leave Acacia with the above bullet points and she'd still be perfectly fine, mechanically speaking.
Giving Acacia two additional stacks of things just makes her more complex to play with little extra benefit - she already has enough damage and AoE capabilities.
There's a phrase I like:
"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
It's a phrase I like a lot, and I am sure you dislike the AI-filled subscription-based enshittified world we live in as much as I do, dear reader, but in Snowbreak simplicity doesn't seem to be the goal - every operative seems to have extra bits of their kit tacked on - be it Bubu - The Geomancer's's manual recharging, Fenny - Pureheart's RMB attack, Haru - Raikou's manual detonation, Mauxir - Lotus' grapple mechanic - Snowbreak has a lot of unnecessary complex baked into its operatives kit, and this is true for... most operatives.
Acacia - Chrono Echo is different though - not because she isn't complex, good heavens no, but rather because she is just so much more complex than previous operatives.
This might be why Chrono Echo has an actual tutorial inside of her Operative Trial.
Whilst many previous operatives didn't really need a tutorial, some could've benefited from one, and it's a nice thing to have.
Chrono Echo's tutorial is... meh.
Personally, I don't feel like it explained all of her mechanics that well, but you can decide for yourself how good it was or was not.
Regardless of how good the tutorial was/wasn't, Acacia is certainly one of the most complex operatives in the game, and with more stuff to keep track of that basically all other operatives, at least in my opinion, so her having an actual tutorial seems appropriate, and I like that the devs tried to make her easier to learn.
It's nice that the devs gave her a tutorial... but I feel that not bolting on so many unnecessary mechanics onto her would've been the better way of having players learn to play her.
Yes, her damage is plenty.
As a pure-skill Kinetic-damage main-dps, Acacia competes directly with Clarina - Crimson Moon and Enya - Tempest, both of whom also deal purely-kinetic skill damage
I do find it unusual that Acacia fulfils the same damage role as two somewhat-decently-recently released operatives, both of whom are still competitive in the meta - heck, Acacia's direct competition are the two best Kinetic-dps operatives in the game, and Clarina is one of the strongest dps operatives in the game - not as strong as Jade Arc, Rhapsody, or Pureheart sure, but Clarina is very strong.
Could Acacia not have been a purely-ballistic dps? or even just a support? We were fine with Clarina and Enya being our choices for Kinetic [Skill] DPS.
Regardless, Acacia is strong.
For AoE dps Acacia can either just spam her daggers in her standard form, which deals decent damage to the target and nearby foes.
The actual dps per-target isn't great, but it has a large area and can hit up to 10 targets, which does make it great against groups.
If you just want maximum AoE damage over maximum area then there are better options, such as Mia - Starchaser, but Acacia performs very well nonetheless, and she's one of the best choices for AoE damage.
The real question is whether she's better than Enya - Tempest, as Acacia and Enya both deal Kinetic skill damage, whereas Mia deals Electric ballistic damage.
The answer is either
"It doesn't matter"
or
"It depends"
Enya can use her skills and doge to group up enemies very well, which Acacia can't.
Enya's enhanced vortex does also have a larger AoE, but it can't be maintained for that long so its uptime isn't that high, whereas Enya's normal standard skill vortex is quite a lot smaller than Acacia's slash size.
Enya has better mobility than Acacia, but Acacia not being PBAoE and having a much higher maximum range means she doesn't really need the extra mobility, although extra mobility is still nice, of course.
For single-target, Acacia does very well - given the strength of recent non-Auctus dps operatives, Acacia was never going to be weak, and I can comfortably throw her into the same category that all the other recent main-dps operatives have gone into:
"Definitely not strong enough to make a new dps tier above Chenxing - Jade Arc, but certainly very strong."
For the role of single-target dps, the question is why would you use Acacia over Clarina - Crimson Moon?
Clarina has a lot of mobility, and has very strong self-healing capabilities, with her skills having a more aggressive auto-aim than Acacia's do, so why use Acacia?
The answer is... dps, maybe?
Even if Acacia does eek out more dps than Clarina though, Clarina's mobility and self-healing mean she will still sometimes be the better choice, simply due to her survivability.
Clarina does have one advantage though, or rather; Acacia has one big disadvantage, the same one that most other recent dps operatives have:
Acacia is a main-dps - she performs very badly as a support.
Basically every main-dps operative performs very poorly as a support, and this has been true for... basically forever.
Even going back to the original 5* operatives - Wild Hunt, Coronet, Hush, Swift, and Winter Solstice, only Coronet has any useful support functionality, and by today's standards Coronet is a very weak support.
Whilst Acacia performing bad as a support is fine, and it's what we expect from a main dps these days, Acacia does slam her head into the same wall that a lot of other main-dps operatives have:
Who do you use to support Acacia - Chrono Echo?
If you have read literally any content in Snowbreak - be it this site or any other, then you will be aware that the strongest support operative in the game is Vidya - Celestial Swan, and no other operative even comes close to matching her.
Celestial Swan is always the first, best, and most obvious choice for a support, regardless of who you actually want her to support.
Who do you add to the Acacia + Vidya duo though?
Well, Acacia deals Kinetic Skill DMG, so you want buffs to ATK, Skill DMG, and Kinetic damage.
The best choice for Acacia's next best support is Siris - Freefin, due to her strong skill damage buffs - Siris isn't ideal, deu to her Wavehunt thermal-damage buff not being usful to Acacia, but since Freefin only deals damage once, she works fine with Celestial Swan.
Celestial Swan's position as "Best Support Operative" is so absolute that I now need to clarify whether every other support choice works with her.
Another problem with Snowbreak is the relative lack of support operatives - the game has a lot of dps operatives, but comparatively few support operatives.
A list of all the 5* support operatives isn't overly long: Acacia - Kaguya, Eatchel - The Cub, Enya - Exuvia, Fenny - Coronet, Fenny - Starshine, Marian - Riptide, Mauxir - Shadow Ka, Siris - Freefin, Tess - Phantasia, Tess - The Magician, Vidya - Celestial Swan, Yao - Nightglow
Whilst it might seem like a decently long list, many of those support operatives are simply bad by modern standards
Kaguya has been completely outclassed by Vidya, and oyu'd only ever use Kaguya if you couldn't use Vidya, and even then Kaguya is still an uncommon support pick...
Eatchel is still MVP for casual content due to her healing, but for max dps she hasn't been an ideal pick for a long time.
Coronet's support effect is very weak, and it doesn't even have good uptime either
Enya's requirement to deal both frequent skill and ballistic damage makes her a very niche pick, and not a strong one by modern standards.
Riptide has largely been surpassed by Freefin, as Freefin is easier to use and doesn't need to frequently swap in
Shadow Ka is just weak
Most modern dps operatives either generate enough U-Energy on their own or just don't require it at all, so Tess isn't overly useful for the recent dps operatives.
Your actual choices for supports are actually quite limited. Ruling out the above you'd be left with just:
Eatchel - The Cub, Fenny - Starshine, Marian - Riptide, Siris - Freefin, Tess - Phantasia, Vidya - Celestial Swan, Yao - Nightglow
Seven operatives - everything else is just cope.
Once you actually start looking at the specifics it gets even worse - if you're using Celestial Swan then you need the other support to type-match the main dps, which rules out many supports for most of the dps operatives.
Some only buff ballistic damage (e.g. Phantasia) and others only buff skill damage (e.g. Freefin) - once you actually have a specific type of damage you want to buff, your options for support operatives are extremely limited.
It has been said before (by me and others) that Snowbreak has almost no endgame content - basically just Neural Simulation, and Supreme Battleground when it appears.
This isn't that unusual for a gacha game - it's not that uncommon for gacha games to have very little in the way of replayable endgame content.
After all, any repeatable endgame content might have to give you repeateble endgame rewards, which might cut into the paid currency...
Snowbreak really does need more endgame content, but the other side of that coin is that most content in the game is very casual, and provided you have a 5* operative at max level with a max level weapon you'll be fine - and even then a lot of the 4*'s are fine for general content.
This also means that Acacia's actual AoE dps doesn't really matter, as endgame content doesn't really need AoE damage, and general content is so easy Acacia (and any other modern dps) is more than enough to sweep through it with ease.
The question of "Who to pair with "Acacia - Chrono Echo"? thus has the same answer that all of the skill-dps operatives have gotten recently, because Snowbreak just really doesn't have many supports you'd want to use these days.
Acacia's best supports are thus Celestian Swan, Freefin, Riptide, The Cub, Kaguya, and even then only Vidya is what I'd consider an ideal support.
Hopefully Marian - Aquila is a good support for Acacia, but we'll only know when she actually releases next month.
Acacia also feels like a lot of previous operatives, whereby they've been designed around having storng single-taget damage as that's what you'd want for an endgame team, but she has also been given good AoE damage to help clear groups of trash mobs that are what you encounter in 99% of gameplay.
Acacia is a good operative - she deals good damage, and has good AoE, with her main disadvantage being that she's much more complex to learn and use than previous operatives
Personally, I don't find Chrono Echo as fun as Lotus was last patch, but that's a high bar to clear, and Acacia is both fun and effective, which is all we really need.