CampaignPlaystyle-flexible buff team: Crust · 1 flex tank · 1 flex CDR · 2 flex damage dealers. Crust adapts to both normal-attack and Full Charge squads via her Maillard/Blanching states, suited to mixed-weapon lineups.Arena / PvPFast-buff team: Crust · 1 flex Burst generator · 3 flex damage dealers. Her Burst, True Flavor, adds an immediate 20% damage buff — useful for short matches needing a quick finish.Raid & InterceptionPlaystyle-sustained DPS team: Crust · 1 flex tank/Taunt · 1 flex healer · 2 flex damage dealers. Her Skill 2's recurring DEF buff helps the team tank hits better through long raids.

Crust — Stats, Skills, Best Teams

Q: Should you pull?

CONSIDER. Crust is a rare flexible buffer that adapts to both normal-attack and Full Charge teams, valuable if your roster lacks a versatile buffer. Her Burst, True Flavor, adds situational damage bonuses depending on the active state. However, the mutually exclusive state mechanic requires understanding her combo before she's used effectively, making her less of a plug-and-play pick for newer players.

Q: Skill Investment Priority

Skill investment roadmap (Skill 1/Skill 2/Burst): 1/1/1 → 1/1/7 → 7/7/10 → 10/10/10. Why: Burst, True Flavor, sets the base team damage buff and should be prioritized first; Skill 1 and Skill 2 share the role of sustaining the Maillard/Blanching states, so they can be leveled together later — neither is clearly better since each adds 10% of a different stat (ATK vs DEF).

30-second summary of Crust

Crust is a Water Nikke in the Supporter class, manufactured by Tetra. Stats and skill text below come straight from the game's data.

“She tirelessly attempts to replicate the taste of food from up on the surface. She also believes that eating is one of life's greatest joys. Her current goal is to create a dish that will make Bready feel truly happy after taking a bite.”

Updated: 2026-08-02

Should you pull?

CONSIDER. Crust is a rare flexible buffer that adapts to both normal-attack and Full Charge teams, valuable if your roster lacks a versatile buffer. Her Burst, True Flavor, adds situational damage bonuses depending on the active state. However, the mutually exclusive state mechanic requires understanding her combo before she's used effectively, making her less of a plug-and-play pick for newer players.

Review & Analysis

Crust is a Water Supporter manufactured by Tetra, part of Squad Cooking Oil. Her kit revolves around two alternating states, Maillard and Blanching, depending on attack style: Skill 1 extends the duration of whichever state is active when Full Charging, and triggers Maillard (+10% ATK) after 3 normal attacks or Blanching (+10% ATK, replacing Maillard) after 3 Full Charge attacks lasting over 1 second — each state removes the other. Skill 2 works similarly but grants +10% DEF and dispels 1 debuff under the name Reliable Cooking. Her Burst, True Flavor, boosts team attack damage by 20% for 10 seconds, adding +60% Distributed Damage while in Maillard or +10% sustained damage while in Blanching — letting Crust adapt to both normal-attack-focused and Full Charge-focused squads.

Base Stats

HP647,453

ATK21,307

DEF4,485

Max Ammo6

Reload Time2s

Burst II

Skills

Normal Attack

Affects target enemy. Deals 61.3% of ATK as damage. Charge Time: 1 sec.
Full Charge Damage: 250% of damage. Deals 200% damage when attacking core.

Grill and BoilSkill 1

Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Maillard status. Affects all allies. Maillard Duration ▲ 1.48 sec. Activates when attacking with Full Charge and self is in Blanching status. Affects all allies. Blanching Duration ▲ 1.48 sec. Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies. Maillard: ATK ▲ 5.9% of caster's ATK for 10 sec. Removes Blanching. Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies. Blanching: ATK ▲ 5.9% of caster's ATK for 10 sec. Removes Maillard.

Reliable CookingSkill 2

Activates after landing 3 normal attack(s) without Full Charge. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status. Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 5.91% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff. Activates after landing 3 Full Charge attack(s) for more than 1 sec. Affects all allies not in Reliable Cooking status. Reliable Cooking: DEF ▲ 5.91% of the caster's DEF for 10 sec. Dispels 1 debuff. Activates when entering Full Burst. Affects all targets in Maillard or Blanching status. ATK ▲ 11.81% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.

True FlavorBurst Skill

Affects all allies. Attack Damage ▲ 11.81% for 10 sec. Affects all allies when in Maillard status. Distributed Damage ▲ 35.45% for 10 sec. Affects all allies when in Blanching status. Sustained Damage ▲ 5.91% for 10 sec.

Skill Investment Priority

Prioritize Burst (team-wide damage buff + state-based bonus) → Skill 1 (alternating ATK buff + state extension) → Skill 2 (DEF buff + debuff cleanse, mirrors Skill 1 mechanics).

Skill investment roadmap (Skill 1/Skill 2/Burst): 1/1/1 → 1/1/7 → 7/7/10 → 10/10/10. Why: Burst, True Flavor, sets the base team damage buff and should be prioritized first; Skill 1 and Skill 2 share the role of sustaining the Maillard/Blanching states, so they can be leveled together later — neither is clearly better since each adds 10% of a different stat (ATK vs DEF).

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

Adapts to both normal-attack and Full Charge playstyles through her dual Maillard/Blanching system.
Burst True Flavor adds a different damage bonus depending on the active state, flexible to the match situation.

Weaknesses

The Maillard and Blanching states cancel each other out, requiring constant tracking to keep the beneficial one active.
Skill 2 needs 3 consecutive attacks of the same type to re-trigger after losing its state, causing some delay.

Overload Priority

Overload priority by weapon type — applies to every Nikke using this weapon.

Sub-stat	Priority	Rolls
Max Ammo		2-4x
ATK		2x
Charge DMG		2-4x
Charge Speed		2-4x
Elemental DMG		1-2x

Gear →

General Info

Meta Tier

C

Class

Supporter

Element

Water

Weapon Type

RL · Whip, Pop, Ding!

Manufacturer

Tetra

Squad

Cooking Oil

Voice Actors

Park Ha-jin · Mia Paige · Fūka Izumi

Illustrator

Yoya Yogurt

Release date

10 april 2025

Recommended Teams

Campaign

Playstyle-flexible buff team: Crust · 1 flex tank · 1 flex CDR · 2 flex damage dealers. Crust adapts to both normal-attack and Full Charge squads via her Maillard/Blanching states, suited to mixed-weapon lineups.

Arena / PvP

Fast-buff team: Crust · 1 flex Burst generator · 3 flex damage dealers. Her Burst, True Flavor, adds an immediate 20% damage buff — useful for short matches needing a quick finish.

Raid & Interception

Playstyle-sustained DPS team: Crust · 1 flex tank/Taunt · 1 flex healer · 2 flex damage dealers. Her Skill 2's recurring DEF buff helps the team tank hits better through long raids.

Lore & Trivia

“She tirelessly attempts to replicate the taste of food from up on the surface. She also believes that eating is one of life's greatest joys. Her current goal is to create a dish that will make Bready feel truly happy after taking a bite.”