Got a selector box and not sure what to use it on, and want my opinion on what's good?
Alternatively, want to know what I recommend you pull for?
Simply scroll down and select the first operative recommended below that meets your requirements.
Note that some selector boxes only give you a choice of operatives up to a certain patch - operatives newer than that can't be chosen.
Snowbreak is a game. It's supposed to be fun.
If you want to pull for something because it's fun for you, then please do so, and don't let anybody stop you.
Note that Snowbreak has very little endgame content, and basically any operative can do 99% of the games content if you put some investment into them and know how to use them. If you don't care about endgame content, then pulling for whichever operative you like the most is completely fine.
All the girls on the Permanent Echo/banners are terrible by modern standards, and aren't worth spending to get pulls for.
You will get all the 4* operatives and all the girls on the permanent banner anyway, just by playing the game.
As such, you shouldn't buy pulls for the permanent operative or weapon banner.
You'll get them eventually anyway for free - You don't need to waste resources pulling for them.
Every patch releases a new operative - I recommend you always pull 1 copy of the new operative.
Having lots of different operatives is very useful.
If you're f2p then don't ever pull for dupes of any operative.
For a new player, simply having more 5* operatives is going to be the most useful thing for you.
The new operative is always very strong, and thus they will be either a great main dps or a great support for you.
The new girl will always be good enough to carry you through 99% of the games content, and will basically always be usable in endgame content.
An f2p player probably won't have many pulls/currency left over after pulling the current operative.
(Pity for the new operative is 100. Each new patch usually give 110-120-ish in total, so you may not have many left over.)
If you're f2p then don't ever pull for dupes of any operative - you won't have many pulls left over after pulling the new operative, and any spare currency is probably better spent making sure you have enough pulls to get the new girl that will release in the next patch, getting older operatives, or getting a 5* weapon for your strongest girl.
If you have a lot of pulls/currency left over after pulling the new girl, you can pull a 5* weapon for your favourite/strongest operative.
An f2p player won't have enough to get a 5* weapon every patch. Maybe one every 3-4 patches, but it mostly depends on how lucky you are.
You don't need to pull the 5* weapon for the new girl.
You generally want to pull 5* weapons for either the 5* girl you have the most investment in, or whichever girl you have that is objectively the strongest when fully invested.
This gives you the best return in the long run.
This sounds obvious, but is very important for selector boxes.
A selector box gives you the thing in the box - It doesn't give you anything else.
If a selector box gives you an operative, you won't automatically get anything else for that operative, including their 4* event weapon and their logistics set.
Without their 4* event weapon and their logistics set, the operative will probably not be that good, so you will need to factor in the time and Presence/stamina needed to get them.
Most players will usually [/hopefully] do the most efficient thing and spend most of their Presence/stamina on the current event to pull logistics officers from the event store.
This is the most efficient way of getting logistics officers and event weapons, and hence is what you should be doing in order to get perfect logistics officers for your operatives.
If the operative you get from a selector box isn't part of the current event, then you'll have to get their logistics officer and 4* weapon from the respective Operations.
(Mind Refinement, and Arms Hub, respectively)
This is less efficient than getting their logistics officers and event weapons from the event store.
If you spend your Presence/stamina on the selector box operative, then you may not get as many logistics officers and event weapons as you want from the current event if you use your stamina for Operations instead.
As such, an operative selector box can sound great, but you may not have the investment to immediately make good use of the operative you get out of it.
You should therefore generally pick an operative who will be useful to you in the long run, not what you immediately need for the current event or a specific piece of content.
Do you can about doing max dps in endgame content?
If the answer is no, then you can use any girl as your main/dps operative - literally any 5* operative is fine for 99% of content, so you can just use your favourite.
If you already have a 5* operative that you like and find fun, and you don't care about dps at endgame, then you should use your selector box to get Eatchel - The Cub.
When selected as a support operative, Eatchel - The Cub can passively heal you, which can completely trivialize the game.
If you don't care about endgame content and doing lots of dps, and you don't already have her yet, then you should get Eatchel - The Cub.
Note that even for endgame play, Eatchel doesn't really receive much benefit from her Manifestations.
Getting her first Manifestation is great, but that only requires 1 dupe or 30 days of collecting her Personal File, which isn't that difficult.
Manifestations M2-M5 don't really help Eatchel that much, and you can generally ignore them.
Even if you're a whale, I recommend you don't pull dupes for Eatchel - just get her first Manifestation from the Personal File, and then just leave her at M1.
Eatchel's 5* weapon (Blitzing Fangs) is a great weapon for Eatchel as it allows her to both heal more and also passively provide a nice ATK buff, so if you don't care about endgame content, then I recommend you use all your weapon pulls to get Blitzing Fangs.
As far as casual play goes, the only 5* weapons you really want are the 5* weapon for your main dps, and Blitzing Fangs for Eatchel.
Vidya - Celestial Swan is the games strongest support operative by a vast margin.
For endgame content, you should very literally always use Vidya as one of your support operatives.
If you want to maximize your dps for endgame content, you don't have Vidya - Celestial Swan yet, and she is available (to pull for or from your selector box), then you should ignore everybody else and focus on getting Celestial Swan.
Celestial Swan's 5* weapon (Starlit Truth) is both pretty strong, but is also a massive QoL buff as it makes her support skill last indefinitely, and is absolutely something you should get if you can.
Given that you'll always use Vidya in endgame play, giving her such a huge QoL buff will be very useful for you, and make the game much nicer to play.
Celestial Swan's logistics set is really good for her, but she doesn't really care about the logistics officers stats - good stats do help, but not by that much.
Make sure you get her a copy of her logistics set, but you don't really need to worry about them having great stats, and you don't really need to care about re-rolling them.
Note that Celestial Swan is the games strongest support, but she also absolutely sucks as a main dps, and I don't recommend you ever use her as your dps.
Who to recommend beyond Eatchel and Vidya is smewhat difficult.
If you already have a strong dps, then what you'll probably want the most is a strong support for that dps.
If you don't already have a strong dps, then you might want to pick the one that works the best with your current supports.
If you already have a strong dps, then you can look up that operatives page to see which supports work well with them, and get one of those.
If you already have a strong support operative, then you can look up that operatives page to see who they are good at supporting, and get one of those dps operatives.
You can also just look at my Quick Reference page to see what each operative does and how good they are at doing it, and pick somebody at the top of the list.
If you still have genuinely no idea?
Then pick the first operative in this list that you don't already have:
[Healer/Support] Eatchel - The Cub
Eatchel is an amazing healer, and an ok support.
She isn't the best support for endgame, but she will keep you alive, allowing you to focus on dealing damage.
If you just want max dps then you can skip Eatchel, but if you're a new player Eatchel is probably the first operative you should get.
[Universal Support] Vidya - Celestial Swan
As mentioned above, Celestial Swan is the games MVP, and if you care about dps then you should always prioritize her above all other operatives.
There are no exceptions to this.
If you already have Eatchel - The Cub and Vidya - Celestial Swan, and don't have a strong dps, then get Clarina - Crimson Moon.
Eatchel and Vidya are Clarina's best supports, and Clarina is the only main dps who's ideal supports are Eatchel and Celestial Swan.
As such, if you already have Eatchel and Celestial Swan, then Clarina will work extremely well as a dps, as she works perfectly with the supports you already have.
[Main DPS - Electric Hybrid] Chenxing - Jade Arc
If you already have Jade Arc, then get Yao - Nightglow.
[Main DPS - Frost Ballistic] Katya - Rhapsody
If you already have Rhapsody, then get Tess - Phantasia.
[Main DPS - Kinetic Skill] Acacia - Chrono Echo
If you already have Chrono Echo, then get Marian - Aquila.
[Main DPS - Thermal Skill] Fenny - Pureheart
If you already have Pureheart, then get Siris - Freefin
[Main DPS - Chaos Ballistic] Bubu - Specular Soul
If you already have Specular Soul, then get Fenny - Starshine.
[Main DPS - Frost Hybrid] Katya - Dawnwing
If you already have Dawnwing, then get Tess - Phantasia or Siris - Freefin.
(Most of Dawnwing's damage is skill, but she shoots so much that Phantasia works great for her.)
If none of those operatives are available, then I recommend you just wait until one of them becomes available.
If you can't wait (either because your selector box will expire or you actually need an operative because you don't have anything), then should none of the above be available I'd generally recommend the following:
Siris - Freefin - Buffs skill damage
Tess - Phantasia - Buffs ballistic damage, and adds Frost damage to your shots
Marian - Aquila - Buffs all damage, and deals some Kinetic damage of her own
Yao - Nightglow - Buffs ballistic damage, and deals some Electric damage
Fenny - Starshine - Buffs ballistic damage.
Enya - Tempest - Deals PBAoE Kinetic damage.
Mia - Starchaser - Deals Electric ballistic damage.
Bubu - The Geomancer - Deals Thermal ballistic damage.
Lyfe - Infinite Sight - Deals Kinetic ballistic damage.
Snowbreak has far fewer strong support operatives than main dps operatives, so if you already have two strong dps operatives, then I recommend you focus on getting supports.
You'll almost certainly get a new dps operative with every patch, but it can be a while before a suitable support comes around.