New Doll Equipment

By BigStupidJellyfish | 2021-April-11 | Updated 2022-May-12

For an analysis of the second wave of new equipment, released on December 13, 2022: see this page.

(2021-12-14 update): Rather unexpectedly, these equipment pieces have been released on EN. A number of SPEQ balance adjustments were also released accordingly. Good luck in your crafting.

Seven new equipment pieces have been introduced, with something to offer for every class. Let's go over them one-by-one and see if they are worth your resources.

Teaser/announcement image.

RMR T4
#2 Processor Chip
MK1000 SLAP Rounds
M1022 Sniper Rounds
#7.5 Birdshot
Shotgun Flash Shells
Signal Flare

RMR T4^#

Equippable by HG/MG/AR-15/Sopmod. Replaces suppressor/scope. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +20 ACC, +30% crit chance.

For HGs: this is a straight upgrade over a typical suppressor (+10 EVA, +20% crit chance) for DPS/backline HGs, and a straight downgrade for frontline/tanking HGs as it gives no evasion.

For MGs: it depends on a few factors, namely your accuracy, enemy evasion, crit rate buffs, and crit damage. I prefer to only use MGs against 0 EVA enemies, where the RMR T4 has no advantage over a crit scope. Life isn't always that nice, so here are a few more common scenarios when you really do need MGs and the enemies aren't cooperative:

Crossover chart for typical MG accuracy/evasion combinations. If your acc/eva combo is above the curve for your setup, use the RMR T4. If below, use a VFL.

Typical SF have ~15 evasion. Somewhat dodgy enemies can have 20-40 EVA, and Scouts are higher than almost everything with 80 EVA. For some sample accuracies, at max level/100 affection, PKP has 33 acc, Negev 37, and Kord 24 (pierce mode). In short: the RMR T4 is better than a critscope on most MGs against most evasive enemies in most setups, though you can switch back to a VFL if Nova's covering your accuracy situation. Still, never try this at night.

EOTs and ITIs were not shown in the previous chart - as you can see here, they can't compete with VFLs/RMRs in most reasonable configurations.

For AR-15/Sopmod: it's much easier to get ARs to 100% crit rate with dolls like M4/UMP45. Consider using this alongside a VFL if your team doesn't have crit rate sources and you don't have their mod SPEQs. The RMR is somewhat less attractive on Sopmod as it doesn't help her grenade damage.

#2 Processor Chip^#

Equippable by AR/SMG. Replaces T/X-Exoskeletons. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +15 FP, +25 ROF, -50% critical damage.

This is an interesting one, giving major FP/ROF bonuses in exchange for losing a lot of critical damage. For a full analysis, see my writeup here. Note also that the newer focus chips largely replace these. A few basic things:

Chips, when paired with the right scope, are around a 25% DPS buff over classic VFL+Exo combinations. Don't pass these up. ROF selfbuffers see much less benefit, if any.
At night you don't crit much anyways, making them even better picks (in the range of a 40-50% DPS increase, see tables 3 (Artillery fairy) & 4 (command fairy) here).
Chips use an exo slot, so ST AR-15 and M4 SOPMOD II are not able to equip them.
Picking the right scope is rather complicated, and a damage simulator or this calculator will usually be your best bet. More details on the chip writeup. For some general rules, I'd approximate it like this:

What is a faster frame? See this ROF calculator or this spreadsheet for a precomputed table.

For overall DPS optimization, I have a few more detailed damage-over-time comparisons on this page. Keep in mind that many dolls have skills damage simulators can't represent well, and there are many external variables.

The #2 Chip is very strong and will see use in many ARSMG formations. It is not always optimal - high ROF, crit rate, and crit damage may lessen its value. This is only likely to be a problem with pure ROF selfbuffers, so pretty much any other AR will prefer chips. It can reasonably be paired with both VFLs & EOTs, depending on the situation.

MK1000 SLAP Rounds^#

Equippable by MG. Replaces AP ammo. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +500 AP, -5 ROF.

ROF only has a minor effect on MG reload speed and doesn't change their actual firing speed. Use this over standard AP ammo when enemy armor is greater than 195 (180 AP ammo + 15 base AP). Applications are currently limited - few enemies have this much armor, and those that do go a bit above 200 are often best fought with RFHG echelons. This has a bit more potential with Kord, who loses 50% of her AP in pierce mode. Future (unreleased) enemies will also have even higher armor values.

A few examples of how it affects reload speed (or rather, how it doesn't):

No, a frame or two isn't going to make a difference. Ever.

(Reload speed in seconds is 4+200/ROF, or floor((4+200/ROF)*30) for the exact frame delay.)

Green SLAP rounds are a nice budget alternative to normal AP ammo on MGs - they provide ~190-195 AP before any calibration/enhancement, and are trivial to get from the IOP Special Orders (though the 5-star rates are also high there). You can look up enemy stats on any map with GFLMaps.

M1022 Sniper Rounds^#

Equippable by RF/MG/C-MS/6P62/Contender. Replaces AP ammo. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +120 AP, +10 FP.

For enemy armor>AP, FP is largely interchangeable with AP. Use if enemy armor is less than 145 (120 ammo + 15 base AP + 10 FP), or a bit more if you have some FP buffs:

Some mods have SPEQs that are a straight upgrade from this - KSVK & NTW have AP ammo that gives +180 AP/+10 FP, for example. Otherwise, it's a nice damage boost - ~7% for typical RF statlines - against low/no-armor targets. As before, GFLMaps may be helpful to look up enemy stats. For a general sense of what to expect, here are some approximate armor ranges:

Expect lower stats on early chapters/maps. Bosses not included for space reasons, though they tend not to have much armor.

Pekola ignores armor no matter what, so she prefers sniper rounds regardless for the extra FP. Before you ask, these don't make 6P62 meta in any way.

#7.5 Birdshot^#

Equippable by SG. Replaces SG shells. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +12 ROF, +2 targets, -10% crit damage.

More targets means more potential knockback. The relative value of this compared to Buckshot (shoots the normal 3 targets/+15 FP/+22% crit damage) will likely vary per encounter. Useful on FO-12 to vastly speed up her stack building. The next ammo option makes these substantially less exciting, overall.

Shotgun Flash Shells^#

Equippable by SG. Replaces SG shells. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: +20 ACC, -3 DMG taken (min. 0).

Do you like immortality? For a more defensive option, this ammo directly reduces the damage SGs take, to a minimum of 0. Shield SGs (especially with M500) can normally last a while with the right setup, but this is still a massive upgrade for tanking. You should almost always be using these over any other ammo type.

As an added bonus, the -3 damage taken comes out of the box. Enhancement/calibration only affects the accuracy bonus, which is totally irrelevant.

Unfortunately, the damage reduction is treated as a skill effect. Unsupplied shotguns won't benefit from it, so you don't get repair-free corpse dragging.

On the other hand, these work quite well on a leveled, 1-linked shotgun (particularly LTLX or M26-MASS) for farming. If you have a dupe of these, it may be worth keeping a unlinked copy. A 1-link SG costs just slightly more than a HG, and can make many farming routes 0-damage with sufficient armor. Common formation: M4A1+optional HG+1-link SG, Artillery/Armor fairy depending on the armor requirement.

Signal Flare^#

Equippable by HG/SMG. Replaces HP ammo. Stats at maximum calibration/enhancement: -1 ROF, +10% echelon ACC.

HP ammo won't magically transform non-damage dealing HGs/SMGs into DPS dolls. This is fine to use on your non-DPS dolls, if you expect to face enemies with evasion and especially so when using RFHG echelons at night. HP ammo is a very substantial damage increase for DPS dolls (Desert Eagle's FP improves by 34%, for example), so this doesn't replace HP ammo across the board.

Be careful - if a fight needs massive amounts of accuracy buffs to work, you may be better of looking at surehit options instead. Don't use this to try and fight Patrollers with regular ARSMG/RFHG teams. See also: the limited value of the Accuracy II talent compared to Damage II, or this general summary of accuracy & evasion.

To get a general sense of how much these do, here are some charts for the average DPS boost 1, 2, and 3 flares give you given your pre-flare accuracy (including base stat, equipment, tiles, fairy aura, and relevant skills):

At day, it takes 3 flares to start getting a 5%+ DPS boost against normal evasions on ARs and RFs. Any other accuracy buffs (like from fairy auras) will greatly diminish their value.

The 40% accuracy debuff from a SL10 para fairy makes these a bit more valuable, but nothing too dramatic yet.

At night, flares are awesome - even one flare is a 5%+ DPS boost against most targets, and getting three in a normal RFHG can up your rifle's DPS by ~15-20%. Still, this is the DPS improvement from the pre-flare state. Rifles will be missing a lot more than they would be at day either way. Keep in mind that ARs would follow the day chart, as PEQs negate the night penalty.
While helpful, these are not needed for Type88 - her accuracy is completely fine as-is, especially considering how much acc most good HGs have on their tiles.
Please don't para echelons that need accuracy at night. I'm not just saying that to avoid making a fourth chart.

These make triggering Pekola almost free if you don't have a 5-star Fervor fairy. They are treated as a skill effect and can be cleansed/don't work while unsupplied.

SPEQ buffs^#

To help a few dolls whose SPEQs got left in the dust by these new equipment pieces, some SPEQs have been adjusted. For the full list of changes:

The MG scopes are essentially enhanced RMRs, so VFLs are still better against 0 evasion. Otherwise, these will all generally be the best option for their respective doll.

While not part of the initial batch, ST AR-15 and M4 SOPMOD II also received some adjustments.