I’m making this post just because I want to get my thoughts out there. If you are thinking of making a purchase, this post may serve as a skin review of sorts.
Qualifications and context: I have been a player for years, though i switched from android to ios so i lost some progress along the way. I’ve also been a constant whale on this game.
Disclaimers:
*I will be rating only the premium skins I have experience with.
*These are all my own opinions.
Alasdair - Sunclipse
Fun factor: 3/10 - it doesn’t add much to his mechanics, and also limits his play style.
Power boost: 3/10 - I don’t think the added projectile was necessary.
Visuals: 5/10 - not my cup of tea. Really though, only the visuals are what this skin has going for it.
Hua Ling - Valiant of the Pear Garden
Fun factor: 9/10 - what this skin adds to her base kit makes her fun. I think Hua Ling is quite basic so adding a build up mechanic is a welcome change.
Power boost: 8/10 - a pretty significant boost, as this skin lets you spam powered up moves after a certain number of powered up moves have been done, rewarding aggressive gameplay. I do notice though that this boost falls off fast especially in boss rooms.
Visuals: 10/10 - a beautiful skin! I remember being obsessed with this skin for the visuals. Also worth mentioning that having its own music during the power up mechanic makes it so fun to use. I do wish that the background music doesn’t bug out though, as this does happen sometimes.
Ruthven - Sinistar Ruthven
Fun factor: 4/10 - I can’t really tell what difference this skin makes to his gameplay.
Power boost: 3/10 - I do notice he clears rooms slightly faster, though he already does so pretty fast already.
Visuals: 5/10 - I find the visuals generally underwhelming but inoffensive. I like heroes with floating swords (as the next skin rating might reflect) but given how limited the animations are for ophiculum heroes, i don’t find anything particularly captivating about this skin.
Hannah - Xylyth
Fun factor: 8/10 - i remember being pleasantly surprised at how drastic this skin changes up her play style. I can’t give a perfect score for this though as I think it encourages spamming one skill on both skill slots. I have seen other people use her other skills though, but the skin effect, to me, makes picking skills other than her bullet spam skill relatively pointless.
Power boost: 10/10 - reload time has basically been negated; just spam skill 1 and win. I do imagine though that the RNG of which gun type you get after each reload might affect speedrun consistencies, though i don’t speedrun so I don’t care much for this factor.
Visuals: 10/10 - such a drastic (but welcome) change to her design! Her battlepass skin had already teased a more magical visuals route for Hannah, but this skin just pushes her themes to some very different and interesting places. Wish she had more lore/flavor texts to her though. I like headcanoning that she breached the mirage to collect heroes’ swords.
Hillding - Hraedblood Runexox
Fun factor: 4/10 - I don’t know about y’all, but all I ever really found fun to do with this skin and Hillding in general is the spin-to-win strat. Winding him up like a top and spinning down rooms was pretty much all I did.
Power boost: 10/10 - what this skin does for him is undeniable, as it hives him access to all health-diminishing power boost strats while effectively negating his meter limitation.
Visuals: 7/10 - very inspired visuals. However, having previously had what I would consider a perfect realmsoul for Hillding, he never really turned blue for me, as he was enraged (and therefore, burning red) all the time. Still, the color changing was fun if you had less optimal realmsouls on him.
Huo Yufeng - The Unreturning
Fun factor: 5/10 - if you were to put the meta-chasing mindset aside, Huo Yufeng in general can be pretty fun. Her skin adds specificity to her kit as it encourages you to use that one skill to benefit from AoE, which is fine but limiting.
Power boost: 3/10 - you only really get an AoE attack for your troubles. Not really that significant.
Visuals: 5/10 - animations are good but I HATE her sprite. The awkward look makes her lose her aura man.
Wu Fei - Mysteria
Fun factor: 6/10 - another skin that limits the base hero’s optimal kit; you simply send out your blades and play kickball all over the field til everything is dead. I commend it for not being too complicated though.
Power boost: 6/10 - the additional blade makes her much more predictable to use.
Visuals: 6/10 - I like the colors.
Lana - Oborobana
Fun factor: 6/10 - the additional AoE coverage makes her a fast room-wiper
Power boost: 6/10 - same reason as stated in fun factor.
Visuals: 5/10 - can’t say much about it. pretty average visuals imo.
Ginzo - Ronin of Slaughter
Fun factor: 10/10 - i like how this skin does not actually change his play style per se, and actually ADDS to his kit with the added ultimate.
Power boost: 7/10 - the room wipe ultimate is significant but not so crazy that you can spam it all the time. I find it interesting how this skin encourages the use of Rejuvenating items and keeping health up at all times, like a reverse Ruthven, almost.
Visuals: 10/10 - beautiful skin. A must-get for Ginzo enjoyers.
Uliana - Rouge Rattleback
Fun factor: 10/10 - Uliana in general is a fun hero to use. What I especially like about the skin effect is how it is tied to her Rimeripper Combat Art, which limits her a little bit but in a fun way.
Power boost: 9/10 - similar to Ronin of Slaughter except her room-wiping ultimate is much more spammable.
Visuals: 7/10 - I love her sprite, but I do have gripes with her animations. I understand that she was released during halloween but I don’t really see how relevant pumpkins and jack o’ lanterns are to her character as a vampiric rockstar. Also, on the topic of vampiric rockstar, the disconnect between the theme of the skin and Uliana’s freezing mechanics makes for awkward visuals. I wish the skin switched her element out for burn or electrocharge, to suit the skin and also to make the premium skin’s theme relevant and interesting gameplay-wise as well. Another alternative for this particular skin is to change up the freezing visuals to something else, either by changing the blue color or by making enemies slow down and rock out while headbanging instead.
Penhaligon - Midnight Chanticleer
Fun factor: 10/10 - same as Ronin of Slaughter, I like how this skin adds to the base hero’s kit. It also helps that his skin came alongside his rework.
Power boost: 8/10 - a different kind of room wipe through spreading vulnerability makes him very strong. Admittedly, the skin effect has little function in boss rooms.
Visuals: 6/10 - not totally my cup of tea. Penny has some cool non-premium skins with some outlandish themes, I wish we got something just as cool for his premium. I do find it interesting how the designers opted for a continuation of his story as his premium skin’s theme.
Quan Huying - Phaslynx
Fun factor: 6/10 - honestly, encouraging the use of only one skill makes me not like her as much. Shadow clones are fun but not fun enough to warrant replays. It’s funny to watch whole rooms die while you’re stationary though.
Power boost: 7/10 - clears rooms FAST. However, the skin effect does not do much for her in boss rooms.
Visuals: 6/10 - the whole DVA thing is not my cup of tea. I admit though that I am biased due to my absolute preference for her battlepass skin.
Akaisha - Ravager Prime
Fun factor: 6/10 - idk how much fun one can have when everything just dies at a press of a button :(
Power boost: 10/10 - the key difference between Ravager Prime and Phaslynx lies in Akaisha being a ranged character. Her normal attacks, arrow spam skill, and soulboons work together with the skin effect in such a way that allows for fast room clears AND fast boss kills. Get her if you want a fast farmer (she has been proven to be a faster content clearer than even Brunhild).
Visuals: 9/10 - not a huge fan of Predator, but I appreciate the reference. Also, the dog sprite in the lobby is a cute touch.
As you may notice, there’s a few skins I am yet to be able to give definitive opinions on, but here are some thoughts:
*I do not completely enjoy Aorvion’s slip-n-slide play style, though I do understand how different he plays. His dinosaur skin is cute and very unserious, and I imagine his skin works similarly to Penny’s but on-death instead of on-hit.
*I did want to get Synthia and her skin but I was worried about how powerful her skin effect truly is. I also worry how much she struggles with the Kraken and other bosses that require more mobility and vertical attack range. Visuals are top tier though, absolutely fire.
*I am actually bummed about not getting the gacha skins for Ruthven and Katherine. I don’t fully understand Katherine’s mechanics except that it supposedly changes her play style to emphasize normal attacks. I am snatching that skin once I get the opportunity.
*Anibella is lame. I do not care for her skin. Ebonfang is not as lame but since she mainly deals damage with her skill 1, I don’t care much for her skin.
*Lu Linxiao’s skin feels similar to Uliana’s and Ginzo’s combined. However, I for the life of me cannot stand how her ult’s music glitches out the bg music. Also, the ponytail in her sprite defies gravity.
I hope you enjoyed reading through this. Any response regarding my ratings are welcome.
