Reverse: 1999 - Melania Build and Strategy

Melania is an outstanding 6-star character that thrives in long battles and endgame content. This is because her kit revolves around stealing Moxie (ultimate charge) from enemies and charging her own, allowing her to shut down her enemies' chance to use their ultimates while allowing her to unleash her ultimates almost consistently. In our Melania Build and Strategy guide, we will discuss her ideal psychocubes and highlight some strategies revolving around her gameplay.

Reverse: 1999 - Melania Build and Strategy

Melania Gameplay Strategy

Tag(s): DPS, Burst DMG

Afflatus: Beast

Damage Type: Mental

Her ultimate, Ridiculous Eyewitness Testimony, deals single-target Mental DMG while also applying the [Thief Master] status on herself. This specific status effect is what her other incantations rely on to activate their useful effects. A stack of the [Thief Master] status is removed when she triggers the special effect of her incantations (see below).

Silent Takedown deals mental DMG and needs to have the aforementioned [Thief Master] status to allow Melania to steal the target's moxie. At LV2, this attack steals the enemy's moxie and reduces their moxie by one, and at LV3, this attack reduces the target's moxie by one while stealing two moxies.

Clockwork Rats deals mental DMG to two enemies and allows Melania to gain some HP based on the DMG she inflicted on the target. With [Thief Master] status on, she gets +1 Moxie and another Leech (heal from damage inflicted) instance triggered. At star LV2 and LV3, only the base damage of this attack is improved; the amount of moxie gained and HP recovered from the Leech effect is not increased. That said, you can spam this skill without bothering to increase the star level most of the time.

When playing Melania, you'll need to use her skills often to trigger her ultimate as soon as possible. Right after triggering her ult, switch to a target that has moxies stored then use any of her two incantations. Don't hesitate to keep using her ultimate afterward, especially when she's at least Insight I. (see below)

At Insight I, she'll gain a stack for the buff called [Fixed Plan] which boosts her ultimate by 12% per stack. Since these stacks won't expire and can't be dispelled, her ultimate damage reaches full potential after 6 ultimate uses, boosting her ultimate's power by 60% for the rest of the battle. At Insight III, she'll be able to gain two stacks of [Fixed Plan] per ultimate use, allowing her to reach the max stacks in just 3 ultimate activations.

Melania Recommended Psychubes

• Luxurious Leisure: This is the best psychube for Melania since it boosts her Ultimate Might passively. Its amplification effect gets triggered whenever the wearer activates her single-target ultimate, which increases the damage by x%, which is also stackable up to three times.
• Brave New World: This psychube boosts Ultimate Might (DMG of ultimates) as its passive while the amplification effect can boost the damage of her next incantation. This works well since the Thief Master status is only gained after Melania uses her ult, and she needs to use any of her two damaging incantations next while Thief Master status is active to take full advantage of their moxie-steal and/or Leech effects.
• Tomorrow Also: This psychube's passive boosts Crit DMG while its amplification effect increases the Crit Rate whenever the wearer uses an ult.
• Thunderous Applause: The passive boosts Crit Rate; for its amplification, it boosts Crit DMG whenever the wearer's 1-target attack deals a critical hit.

These 4-star psychubes are good placeholders until you get access to one of the 5-star and 6-star psychubes mentioned above. 4-star psychubes don't have the option to be amplified (improve their amplification effects) by using copies of the same psychube as fodder.

• Venomous: Provides DMG Bonus
• Covet: Increases Critical Rate
• Bow: Incantation Might boost

You have a chance to select one of the free 6-star psychubes as part of the daily login reward for new players. For more information, check out our Free 6-Star Psychube Selection Guide.

Melania Inheritance

• Her Inheritance, "Top Student" passives have the following effects:
• At Insight I, she gains the ability to get a stack of Fixed Plan whenever she uses her ultimate. The Fixed Plan status increases the power of her ultimate by a certain percentage, stackable up to six times, and cannot be dispelled.
• Insight II increases her DMG Dealt when she enters battle.
• At Insight III, she gains another Fixed Plan stack after using her ult, allowing her to build up the power boost in just a few turns.

Melania Portrays

Finally, for her Portray, LV2 is the bang for the buck since it grants an additional stack of Thief Master status after using her ult. The rest of the portrays just increase her incantation and ultimate based damage.

• Lv. 1: Ridiculous Eyewitness Testimony deals 725% Mental DMG.
• Lv. 2: Ridiculous Eyewitness Testimony additionally gains 1 stack of Thief Master .
• Lv. 3: Exploit Opening's effect changes to: at 1/2/3 stars, deals 220/280/450% Mental DMG.
• Lv. 4: Clockwork Rats's effect changes to: at 1/2/3 stars, deals 135/200/325% Mental DMG.
• Lv. 5: Ridiculous Eyewitness Testimony deals 800% Mental DMG.