As promised, here he is: Darkin! His kit actually has a lot of synergy within itself, so if you don’t have Nungal, he actually can be a solid option for a long-range sniper. If you have any comments or questions, let me know! Enjoy 🙂
Notes
Darkin is sort of an Epic version of Nungal, the two have many similarities in how they function and how you'd want to build them. The build I'm going to suggest here is largely built around Darkin's [Pinpoint Elimination] skill. You can build around it in two ways, either stacking Crit, or trusting that you'll get the extra Crit bonus from the skill and instead stacking raw damage. In most cases, this will be discussed further down. Overall, building for damage is probably the better choice, and definitely has the most potential for highest damage.
Darkin's trait, like Nungal's, causes his attacks to do magical damage instead of physical, while still scaling off of his P.Atk. It also increases damage dealt based on how far the target is from him, meaning more range equals more damage, up to 7 tiles away.
For a basic attack, I suggest [Hypnotic Attack], both for its higher damage output and the chance to potentially put an enemy to sleep. His other basic attack isn't bad, but it does less damage and its bonus effect only works on [Injured] enemies.
For a reaction, [Strength Activation] is a great choice, since Darkin is a sniper and shouldn't be taking damage anyway, and it provides him with extra damage on his attacks.
[Pinpoint Elimination] is Darkin's big nuke, but it requires building around it to make it work. Its main restriction is that it cannot be used if he moved already (similar to Beryl's [BOOOOOOM!] skill). The second caveat is that it gives a guaranteed Crit and ignores 50% of the target's DEF. If the target hasn't moved, this two-in-one thing is pretty damn amazing. This can be difficult to work around, as most enemies can potentially move before he can use it. This does work, however, beautifully on large stationary bosses, like the Weaponry Trial bosses, etc. If you aren't confident in being able to get the guaranteed Crit with this skill, then build Darkin for extra Crit. If you are, then build him for extra damage with his equipment.
[Ace Sniper] is a great skill for Darkin, since it not only increases the range of his next skill that turn, but it's an [Instant] skill, meaning that he can then use [Pinpoint Elimination] immediately after using it. Additionally, if he kills his target, he's allowed to attack another enemy from where he's standing! Very useful stuff.
For his final skill slot, I like [Mobile Crew] as it gives him an extra 100 SPD (meaning enemies are less likely to move before he can shoot them with a guaranteed Crit). Additionally, if his SPD is higher than the target's, he does 10% more damage and ignores their reaction skill.
Bear in mind, you could also opt to bring [Lasso Shot] to immobilize enemies on the previous turn, before shooting them, but in my opinion, it's better to run this skill on one of the other Mobile Squad members and let them set Darkin up for the nuke.
For a weapon, either Star Rail Crossbow or Meteor Mega Crossbow work well. I personally suggest going with Meteor Mega and trying to outspeed enemies with Darkin (Flair will be nice for this, but an Old Scroll of Auguste helps a ton too). For a trinket, like most sniper characters, a True Lens works beautifully on him, though you can use a Space-Time Ring for convenient teleporting before a snipe, or really any trinket with an easy-to-use [Instant] skill to set up for sniping. For engravings, I suggest sword + pentacle, since he really shouldn't be taking damage, though sword + word works if you need crits. When rolling stats, aim for P.Atk, as although he does magic damage, it scales off of his P.Atk stat.
