Operatives for Casual Play

The meta of Snowbreak is concerned with defeating Neural Sim bosses as quickly as possible and dealing maximum damage against Supreme Battleground bosses, but many players just want to play more casually, either because they don't care about those modes, don't need the rewards from better scores, want another operative who is fun for non-endgame content, or just want to prioritize other more casual content.

This means that casual players often want an operative that is ideal for normal non-endgame gameplay, with little concern for how that operative actually performs at endgame.
Operatives that are popular for casual play will generally have the following traits:

• • Has good mobility

  • Works decently well against both groups of enemies and bosses

• Are simple to use -They don't require precise timing or memorizing a complex damage rotation.

• Are easy to use - They don't need to use combos or chain multiple different skills to function - Being able to just spam or hold down only one button is ideal.

• Can be used both at range and close-up

What works well for casual play is of course entirely subjective, and using your favourite is of course fine, but here's my opinions on which operatives works well for casual play:

• [Support + Healer] Eatchel - The Cub
  Just have Eatchel on your team and she'll passively heal your deployed operative.
  With some investment, Eatchel can also provide some strong damage buffs as well.
  Regardless of which operative you use for dps, Eatchel is a fantastic support, and is unquestionably the best support for casual play.

Eatchel's healing is so high that she does trivialize the game, because with Eatchel on your team healing you, you'll just never die.

Good dps operatives for casual play:

• Katya - Dawnwing
  Dawnwing's Standard Skill moves her a good distance whilst dealing PBAoE damage.
  This means that Dawnwing can just move around the map using her Standard Skill, which also clears trash mobs at the same time.
  Dawning thus doesn't necessarily need to shoot at all, and thus doesn't need to aim or reload at all either.
  Using her standard skill builds Crystal Vanes, so by the time you've gotten to a boss Dawnwing can just magdump the boss to use her Vanes to defeat it very quickly.

• Mia - Starchaser
  Mia's standard skill deals good damage over a truly vast area, trivially destroying groups of enemies.
  Her single-target damage is strong too, so she can deal with bosses easily too.
  Mia has terrible mobility when she's actually dealing damage, but beyond that she's a fantastic operative for casual play.

• Nerida - Styx Envoy
  Just tap Nerida's Standard Skill and she'll start rapid-firing long-range projectiles at multiple enemies, which have auto-aim and home in on enemies.
  Nerida can easily deal good damage at long range against multiple enemies, making her good for casual play.
  Nerida also doesn't shoot, making her very easy to play - just tap her standard skill when you encounter some enemies, and tap it again to stop when everything is dead
  Her Standard Skill does force you to move a lot though, which can be an inconvenience and/or annoyance, so I personally still prefer Dawnwing over Nerida.

• Chenxing - Jade Arc
  Chenxing's standard skill hits a lot of enemies at a good range, and has auto-seek.
  You just need to aim in the vague direction of enemies, use her standard skill, and everything will die.
  Against bosses a well-built Jade Arc deals such extreme dps that you can kill bosses in casual content in a matter of seconds.
  Jade Arc is quite fragile and moves quite slowly when dealing damage, but her very high damage is usually enough to counter that as far as survivability goes.
  Jade Arc can clear trash mobs very quickly and is great against bosses, she just doesn't have anything to help her mobility when moving between groups or during fights.

• Vidya - Agave
  Agave's standard skill has Auto-Aim and AoE, so to use her you literally just hold down her Standard Skill until everything dies.
  If Agave runs out of S-Energy then hold down the trigger to shoot enemies until her mag is empty, then repeat.
  With some investment, Agave can clear groups of trash mobs without running out of S-Energy, meaning she won't need to shoot that group.
  She can then potentially just recover back to full S-Energy as she moves between groups of enemies, meaning she never has to shoot at all.
  Using her standard skill builds a charge that can be saved to deal massive damage to a boss later, allowing Agave to deal with bosses quickly and easily.
  The main problem with Agave is that she's quite an old operative and not that strong, so she wants decent investment to be able to easily clear groups of enemies.
  Agave wants more investment in order to get her to the point where she can easily clear trash mobs, whereas newer operatives like Dawnwing need much less.

• Enya - Tempest
  Tempest' dodge gives her great mobility, and her standard skill allows her to deal good PBAoE damage.
  By the time you get toa boss Enya will probably have lots of U-Energy, which she can use for her ult to deal massive damage, easily defeating a boss.
  The main problem with Enya for casual play is the low radius on her standard skill that can cause her to really struggle to quickly deal with spread out groups.

• Katya - Rhapsody
  For groups use her ult.
  For single targets just shoot them.
  Rhapsody's jetpack also allows her to move between groups quite quickly, provided you dodge occasionally to recharge it.
  Rhapsody has good movement, a strong single-target attack, and her ult gives her good AoE abilities.
  Rhapsody is slow to move when in combat, and if her ult isn't available she's very poor against groups, so for casual play she's often not ideal.
  
  

• Lyfe - Wild Hunt
  For single targets shoot them. For groups use one of her abilities.
  Wild Hunt has ok mobility and her skill makes clearing groups somewhat easy, but Wild Hunt is an old operative and has been powercrept by a lot of newer operatives.
  Overall, she's not a great pick for casual play by modern standards, but in my opinion Wild Hunt is the best operative available on the standard Echo banner for casual play.

These 5* dps operatives aren't necessarily great for casual play, but they can actually heal themselves by a significant amount:

• Clarina - Crimson Moon
  Spam Clarina's Standard Skill to have her twirl around the battlefield spraying enemies with bullets at a high rate, which can give her very strong single-target damage.
  Her bullets auto-seek enemies, so Clarina can potentially spray a group and defeat multiple enemies pretty easily, so she's not necessarily too bad against groups.
  Clarina's skills forcing her to constantly move can get annoying quickly though, especially in confined spaces, but she's still a decent choice for casual play.
  Clarina's standard skill and ult both heal her by a significant amount.
  This means that if you don't want to have a healer on your team (or you don't have one / can't use one) then Clarina can still offer excellent survivability.
  Clarina also has a naturally very high DEF value, so even without her self-healing she's still very bulky.

• Nita - Pulse
  Pulse' Standard Skill can heal her very quickly.
  Pulse has very little mobility, and her standard damage rotation limits her to being in melee range.
  Nita's huge HP pool and self-healing means she's one of the most survivable main dps operatives, but she's not great for casual play.
  Nita's ult does remove 99% of her HP, so without her Neuronics buffs to give her a shield and help heal her, Pulse can kill herself extremely easily.

• Haru - Raikou
  Raikou dashes around the map leaving trails behind her, and when they form a closed area they area explodes, which also heals Haru a little.
  This gives Haru both good AoE capabilities but also some self-healing.
  Overall Haru can work very well for casual content, but the finicky way she deals her damage means she can perform very poorly in some situations.

Whilst all 4* operatives are very poor in comparison to 5* operatives, if you don't have any 5* operatives yet, then I'd recommend the following 4* operatives for casual play:

• [Healer] Yao - Quiet Quitter ("QQ")
  QQ can deploy a drone that performs PBAoE healing for 30s. This adds up to a lot of healing.
  Whilst Eatchel is the games best healer, QQ is the second best, so if you don't have Eatchel you can use QQ as your teams healer.
  QQ is basically useless as far as dps goes though - she's just there to heal.

• Lyfe - Wednesday
  Her drones make her very easy to play - just shoot stuff and use her standard skill as often as you can.
  The game gives you lots of Manifestation shards for Wednesday as well as a decent weapon (Work-in-Progress).
  Having easy access to good investment allows Wednesday to have good damage whilst also being very easy to get.
  If you don't have any 5* operatives yet, I'd say Wednesday is the best 4* for casual play.
  Note that most of Wednesday's damage comes from her SMG, not her drones - the drones are useful, but don't expect them to quickly clear content for you.

• Fenny - Lionheart
  Lionheart has a naturally very high ATK stat, giving her very good damage for a 4*.
  Being a shotgun user also means she has naturally good parts break, which combined with her high ATK allows her to easily deal with basically all enemies.
  Her standard skill also gives her a decent gap-closer to improve her mobility.
  Whilst Fenny is generally the 4* with the highest-damage, she lacks the range and AoE of operatives like Wednesday, and hence might not be the best for casual gameplay.
  Similarly, the game gives you Manifestation shards and a decent weapon for Wednesday, whereas Fenny doesn't get as much love.
  If you don't want to use Wednesday, then Lionheart is generally your next best choice.