**** Nico Minoru (Runaways) ****

Cthulhu

Nico Minoru (Runaways) 

4 Star Rarity (Legendary)

At Max Level: HP:  15641    74/85/65/3.0x/11/12/13/43



When Blood is Shed - 0 Blue AP
(PASSIVE) "...Let the Staff of One emerge!"  When Nico takes damage, if one does not exist, create a 7-turn Blue Countdown tile which replaces Nico's powers with a new powers while it's on the board.

• Level 2: Countdown tile lasts 8 turns.
• Level 3: No change
• Level 4: Countdown tile lasts 9 turns.
• Level 5: Countdown tile lasts 10 turns.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Countdown tile lasts 8 turns.
• Level 4: Countdown tile lasts 9 turns.
• Level 5: Countdown tile lasts 10 turns.

  Changes after the When Blood is Shed Countdown tile appears and costs Blue 9 AP: 
  Nico stops her enemies in their tracks!  Removes an enemy Countdown tile and stuns the target for 1 turn.
   *Name of power changes to: Freeze, Don't Move!, Halt!, Stop it!, Cease and Desist!, Take Five!, Defuse!, Could You Not!,             Not So Fast!, Give It a Rest!

• Level 2: Stuns the target an extra turn for each Countdown tile removed. 
• Level 3: Removes up to 2 enemy Countdown tiles.
• Level 4: Stuns the target for 2 turns.
• Level 5: Stuns the target for 3 turns.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Removes 2 enemy Countdown tiles and stuns the target for 1 turn.
• Level 4: Stuns target for 2 turns.
• Level 5: Stuns the target for 3 turns.

Try Not to Die - 7 Yellow AP
Nico supports her team with an encouraging rallying cry!  Create 2 strength 40 Protect tiles.  

(PASSIVE): Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 15%, but they have no effect on Nico.

• Level 2: Creates Protect tiles of strength 47.
• Level 3: Creates 3 tiles.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 20%.
• Level 4: Creates 3 tiles of strength 64.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength si increased by 30%.
• Level 5: Creates 4 tiles.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 50%.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Creates 3 strength 91 Protect tiles.  Friendly Protect tiles strength is increased by 20%.
• Level 4: Creates tiles of strength 125.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 30%. 
• Level 5: Creates 4 tiles.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 50%.

  Changes after the When Blood is Shed Countdown Tile appears: 
  Nico conjures a healing spell with her Staff of One!  Create 2 strength 40 Protect tiles, then restore 185 health for each
  friendly Protect tile on the board (max. 6 tiles). 
  (PASSIVE) Friendly Protect tiles of strength 47.  Restores 206 health for each friendly Protect tile.
   *Name of this power changes to one of the following: Heal, Kaifuku!, ¡Curar!, Revitalize!, Shore Up!, Curatio!, First Aid!,                Chicken soup!, Caduceus!, Get Well Soon!

• Level 2: Creates tiles of strength 39 and increases tiles' strength by 12.
• Level 3: Creates 3 tiles.  Friendly Protect tiles' strength is increased by 20%.
• Level 4: Creates tiles of strength 64.  Restores 278 health per Protect tile.  Protect tiles' strength is increased by 30%.
• Level 5: Creates 4 tiles.  Restores 361 health per Protect tile.  Protect tiles' strength is increased by 50%.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Create 3 strength 91 Protect tiles, then restore 401 health per Protect tile.  Protect tiles' strength is increased by 30%.
• Level 4: Creates tiles of strength 125.  Restores 542 health per Protect tile.  Protect tiles' strength is increased by 30%.
• Level 5: Creates 4 tiles.  Restores 704 health per Protect tile.  Protect tiles strength is increased by 50%.

Mystical Affinity - 0 Purple AP
(PASSIVE) A natural affinity for magic runs through Nico's blood, even without her Staff of One.  At the start of the turn, if you have more Attack, Strike, or Protect tiles than the enemy, increase the strength of those tiles by 8.

• Level 2: Increases tiles' strength by 12.
• Level 3: Increases tiles' strength by 14.
• Level 4: Increases tiles' strength by 20.
• Level 5: Increases tiles' strength by 34.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Increases tiles' strength by 28.
• Level 4: Increases tiles' strength by 41.
• Level 5: Increases tiles' strength by 68.

  Changes after the When Blood is Shed Countdown Tile appears and costs 8 Purple AP:
  Nico casts a spell to boost her team's strength!  Create a Strike, Protect and Attack tile of strength 28.

  (PASSIVE) At the start of turn, if you have more Attack, Strike, or Protect tiles than the enemy, increase the strength of
   those tiles by 8.
    *Name of this power changes to one of the following: Trifecta, Triple Trouble, The Power of Three, Hat Trick, Three's                      a Crowd, Three to Get Ready, Three Course Meal, Three for Three, Triple Play!, Easy As 1, 2, 3!

• Level 2: Creates tiles of strength 39 and increases tiles' strength by 12.
• Level 3: Creates tiles of strength 50 and increases tiles' strength by 14.
• Level 4: Creates tiles of strength 73 and increases tiles' strength by 20.
• Level 5: Creates tiles of strength 118 and increases tiles' strength by 34.
• Max Level:
• Level 3: Creates 1 Strike, Protect, and Attack tile of strength 97 and increases the strength of those tiles by 28.
• Level 4: Creates tiles of strength 140 and increases tiles' strength by 41.
• Level 5: Creates tiles of strength 227 and increases tiles' strength by 68.

Anon

5/3/5

4Cage is a good partner.

Jaedenkaal

Also Grocket. “Oh, you don’t have 7 Strike tiles out after your first turn? Thanks very much”

Piro_plock

5/3/5

I appreciate different names for alternate powers with Staff of One - nice touch.

hopper1979

I think we are seeing a new partner for Medusa and Carnage.  She will be a great support on any time that produces tiles.  Oh how about a partner for Lockjaw and Mr Fantastic together they could take forever to kill.

Quebbster

Piro_plock said:

I appreciate different names for alternate powers with Staff of One - nice touch.

Seconded.

hopper1979

So the way I read her yellow, you only get the true heal and extra protect tiles once upon the powers transformation. The name of the power changes but there is no difference between any of the names (just flavor).  So if you need to heal again you need to remove her blue countdown and take damage again for the blue power to fire again.  

If I am correct this is an interesting passive and makes bringing a tile remover or a countdown reducer as a partner very important, so you can spam her heal when necessary.  I will also be interested to see if any of these passives cause Dr. Strange to fire.  I would hope not but we will have to wait and see.

I guess if she pairs with 4Cage, who looks like a great partner healing will not be too necessary as long as she is not tanking, her not receiving benefit of the shields is another interesting twist to the character which is why I am a little surprised it is as difficult as it is to heal her.  Or does she not receive benefits when it is in its initial form only can not tell from the text above.

I have high expectations for this character she looks like a great fit in the current meta, she is a kill first for sure, even though her buffs are relatively small they are happening every turn a strong tile team will be unbeatable very quickly.  I kinda want to put her Carol and Wasp on a team and see how buffed you can get the tiles. 

Piro_plock

5/3/5

hopper1979 said:

So the way I read her yellow, you only get the true heal and extra protect tiles once upon the powers transformation. The name of the power changes but there is no difference between any of the names (just flavor).  So if you need to heal again you need to remove her blue countdown and take damage again for the blue power to fire again.  

Nope, if you look at character preview in your roster you can see that all powers with Staff of One have an AP cost (9 for blue, 7 for yellow, 8 for purple) - this means you will be able to cast them multiple times per one countdown spawn.

hopper1979

Thanks I missed that.  Much better now, that eliminates many of my concerns.

Sandmaker

3/5/5

I find it curious that 5/3/5 is the leading vote right now.

I just don't see the value of 5 into blue. While the staff is not on the board, 5 blue does nothing. With the staff out, it adds 2 turns of stun, which is nice, but not that impressive for two covers into a 9 Blue AP ability. 

Whereas 3->5 in yellow gives more/stronger protect tiles, gives an additional 30% across the board increase to protect tiles, and more than doubles the true heal. 

Not mention that active yellow are still pretty rare, whereas there are a ton of better active blues. 

DrDevilDinosaur

I feel like she's a "win more" character in that she doesn't really have anything that will help you turn the tables but if you're already ahead then she'll help bring things to a close.

Interesting that we have another CD that it would be beneficial for players to increase the timer (after MEHulk and Yondu), so I'm still hoping we get someone to bring that functionality to the 4* tier.

fanghoul

I'm a little concerned that she has zero ability to deal damage on her own, except if she gets lucky with her tile creation with her purple power. Even Medusa, who I think is the runner up for being mostly support, turns out to be able to pump out quite a bit of damage with her countdown and the attack tiles she generates.

Nico's Clash of the Titans is probably going to be quite difficult.

Anon

5/3/5

I think she will pair well with Blade. Blade makes strikes every turn and Nico buffs them as they spawn. The attack tiles her purple makes can also double dip on Blades strike tile. Once you get enough red ap, Bloodlust hits them while Nico continues buffing the strikes so every turn he does more damage. Complete rainbow as well. 

STOPTHIS

5/3/5

Sandmaker said:

I find it curious that 5/3/5 is the leading vote right now.

I just don't see the value of 5 into blue. While the staff is not on the board, 5 blue does nothing. With the staff out, it adds 2 turns of stun, which is nice, but not that impressive for two covers into a 9 Blue AP ability. 

Whereas 3->5 in yellow gives more/stronger protect tiles, gives an additional 30% across the board increase to protect tiles, and more than doubles the true heal. 

Not mention that active yellow are still pretty rare, whereas there are a ton of better active blues. 

I value stuns more than protect tiles. It's not hard to get her countdown out when playing against a character, you simply make a match. Goons would be a different story. But against goons I'd rather have Cage with passive protect tiles and use that yellow for a nuke. Against characters, I'd prefer to use that yellow to have Carol to extra buff tiles by getting rid of Niko's countdown.

Rick_OShay

Cool power set(s). I was hoping her blue would also be able to remove Repeater tiles as they are technically a type of Countdowns, but it's still good - stun Carol and remove her CD, heh. 
I was thinking that her 7-10 turn CD was crazy high, but then I remembered that she cannot stun unless this CD is out. As mentioned this will be unfortunate vs non-tile-moving goons.
 
Don't forget, her passive of increasing the value of protect tiles by up to 50% is only occurring when she active in the battle - not when stunned or sent airborne (and doesn't protect herself anyway). When stunned, protect tiles will be current strength. I realize that her every-turn buffing could be more of a difference maker in most battles anyway.

Even with the color overlap, she will still play well with Coulson, as long as you have the other colors well represented with Blade as mentioned, or even maybe Ghost Rider? Gasp!
With her cheap powers, Coulson will be generating CD's, damage, and AP. I'd use her blue since it's rare to get great effect out of Coulson's blue. Sure that can happen, but that needs his yellow and I think you may want to use Nico's. Choice on purple, Maybe Coulson's once to build AP for other powers, then her purple afterward. 

Wasp would be good to flip/buff all of these protects, but the overlap in yellow may be trouble. Plus you'll be wanting to spend blue instead of holding it for Wasp's CD.

Punisher5784

5/3/5

mexus said:

fanghoul said:

I'm a little concerned that she has zero ability to deal damage on her own, except if she gets lucky with her tile creation with her purple power. Even Medusa, who I think is the runner up for being mostly support, turns out to be able to pump out quite a bit of damage with her countdown and the attack tiles she generates.

Nico's Clash of the Titans is probably going to be quite difficult.

Loki doesn't either deal damage but he's one of my favourite 3* characters.

I've never seen anyone complain about OBW either. She is full support and she's the best 2* that greatly helps you reach 3* land.

notamutant

This is going to be the first 4 star I will intentionally not spend any iso on since I ran out of iso for my five stars. Despite others positive comments about her, I can never see using her even when boosted. Other characters provide support better along with actual damage. I have every 4 star champed except Prof X, MEH, Devil Dino, and Howard. So she is going into the never champ bucket while I focus on 5 star catch up. 2 4 stars equals 1 5 star about for iso cost, so that 4 star better be worth it, and she doesn't seem like she is.

vinsensual

Punisher5784 said:

mexus said:

fanghoul said:

I'm a little concerned that she has zero ability to deal damage on her own, except if she gets lucky with her tile creation with her purple power. Even Medusa, who I think is the runner up for being mostly support, turns out to be able to pump out quite a bit of damage with her countdown and the attack tiles she generates.

Nico's Clash of the Titans is probably going to be quite difficult.

Loki doesn't either deal damage but he's one of my favourite 3* characters.

I've never seen anyone complain about OBW either. She is full support and she's the best 2* that greatly helps you reach 3* land.

Espionage allows you to double tap, it's  very good offensive passive.  

Jaedenkaal

notamutant said:

This is going to be the first 4 star I will intentionally not spend any iso on since I ran out of iso for my five stars. Despite others positive comments about her, I can never see using her even when boosted. Other characters provide support better along with actual damage. I have every 4 star champed except Prof X, MEH, Devil Dino, and Howard. So she is going into the never champ bucket while I focus on 5 star catch up. 2 4 stars equals 1 5 star about for iso cost, so that 4 star better be worth it, and she doesn't seem like she is.

Sure, she's the 60th 4-star. And to be fair, Reed doesn't really do actual damage either. And she does make and (potentially) boost both Attack and Strike tiles, so it's not like she literally does match-only damage.
Boosted to 366 she should strengthen tiles you have the most of by 139 each, every turn (until your opponent has more, I suppose). It's not insane, but could combine well with characters that make tiles on most turns pretty well, like Blade or Cloak and Dagger. And the obligatory Cardusa reference, of course.

vinsensual said:

Punisher5784 said:

I've never seen anyone complain about OBW either. She is full support and she's the best 2* that greatly helps you reach 3* land.

Espionage allows you to double tap, it's  very good offensive passive.  

Sure. You still need someone else to actually make the Strike tiles, though.

Sandmaker said:

I find it curious that 5/3/5 is the leading vote right now.

I just don't see the value of 5 into blue. While the staff is not on the board, 5 blue does nothing. With the staff out, it adds 2 turns of stun, which is nice, but not that impressive for two covers into a 9 Blue AP ability. 

Whereas 3->5 in yellow gives more/stronger protect tiles, gives an additional 30% across the board increase to protect tiles, and more than doubles the true heal. 

Not mention that active yellow are still pretty rare, whereas there are a ton of better active blues. 

Actually, there are plenty of Yellow actives. There just aren't many good Yellow actives. And I don't think this would make the list over Hero for Hire or Call the Cavalry or whatever. I'm also really wary of active abilities that (mostly) only heal. If you don't need the health, firing the power is pointless (sure, this one also makes some small-ish Protect tiles that she also buffs). When you need the health, you might not have the AP.

zodiac339

Interesting notes:
Mystical Affinity/Trifecta. By “if you have more A/S/P tiles, increase strength of those tiles”, it means if you have more attack, but enemy has more strike, your attack get increased, but enemy’s strike get increased, rather than taking the sum total of special tiles.
This is the fist character to benefit from being stunned before an attack. Say you have a big, heafty protect tile out there and she’s about to take a decent nuke. If she’s stunned first, her passive “doesn’t gain benefit of protect tiles” gets turned off. Was hit by a wind storm team up shortly after realizing this and smiled that she took the same damage as allies rather than more damage.

fork1977

zodiac339 said:

Interesting notes:
Mystical Affinity/Trifecta. By “if you have more A/S/P tiles, increase strength of those tiles”, it means if you have more attack, but enemy has more strike, your attack get increased, but enemy’s strike get increased, rather than taking the sum total of special tiles.
This is the fist character to benefit from being stunned before an attack. Say you have a big, heafty protect tile out there and she’s about to take a decent nuke. If she’s stunned first, her passive “doesn’t gain benefit of protect tiles” gets turned off. Was hit by a wind storm team up shortly after realizing this and smiled that she took the same damage as allies rather than more damage.

Fairly certain she does NOT increase enemy tiles at all, regardless of the count on the board.