Gear

Every buff line that appears on Overload (OL)-upgraded gear falls into one of three value tiers: Essential, Ideal, and Passable. Essential is a line that's practically mandatory for a character to perform as intended — for example, Alice needs Charge Speed at Essential level because her entire kit revolves around charge speed. Ideal is a line that meaningfully improves performance without being a hard requirement, while Passable is a low-value line that fills a slot without contributing much to real combat performance.

As a general stat priority, ATK and Elemental DMG sit at the top of the list for most characters. Between the two, Elemental DMG is usually rated slightly above ATK because it tends to have a higher stat cap and gets diluted less by other multipliers in the damage formula — the tradeoff is that it's less flexible, since it only reaches full value when matched against the target's element. This is why Elemental DMG is often treated as the "strong but situational" pick, while ATK is the safe, universally usable option.

That said, this general priority list doesn't apply rigidly to every character: some Nikkes have their own Essential line that outranks even ATK/Elemental DMG, such as Charge Speed for Alice or Max Ammo for MG-type characters. Before rolling OL, commanders should first check whether the target character has a character-specific Essential line; if so, prioritize that line above everything else. A realistic, sustainable target per gear piece is landing 2 Essential/Ideal lines — getting all 3 in those tiers is a lucky outcome, not something to expect as a baseline.

Overload (OL) is the gear-upgrade system accessed through the Custom Module, which allows a piece of gear to be raised from tier T9 to tier T10. Once at T10, the gear gains higher base stats and also unlocks up to 3 Overload buff lines — the same lines graded as Essential, Ideal, or Passable described above. In other words, T9 is "raw" gear, while T10 via the Custom Module is the finished form that's ready to roll OL lines on.

The most important thing to remember about this system: once OL-upgraded gear is equipped on a specific character, it becomes permanently locked to that character. The gear, along with every line already rolled on it, can never be unequipped and moved to a different Nikke afterward — this is a one-way, irreversible decision.

Because of this permanence, commanders should think carefully before equipping a well-rolled piece of gear: only lock it onto characters who are confirmed, long-term members of a main team, rather than testing it on a Nikke whose place in the roster isn't settled yet. Spreading OL investment across characters with an unclear role only wastes already-expensive upgrade resources on choices that can't be undone.

NIKKE does not use a "2-piece / 3-piece" set system like Genshin. The real mechanic is a per-piece bonus:

• From Tier 4 onward, some gear pieces carry a manufacturer tag (Elysion · Missilis · Tetra · Pilgrim).
• Equip that piece on a Nikke of the same manufacturer → the piece gains +30% equipment stats.
• On a different-manufacturer Nikke → no bonus (just a normal same-tier piece).
• Counts per piece, with no set-count threshold.

Prioritise Tier 4+ manufacturer-matched pieces for your main carry.

Two very different resources that players mix up:

• Core Dust = breaks a Nikke’s level cap (at 10, 20, 40… up to 180). Nothing to do with gear. This is the biggest F2P bottleneck.
  Farm: Outpost Defense (main, passive, 24h cap) · daily missions · one free Wipe-out/day · Recycling Shop (Broken Cores) · Story Hard mode.
• Custom Module = upgrades gear to Tier 10 (Overload), unlocking up to 3 buff lines. Farm: Anomaly Interception (after Chapter 22, main) · Special Interception (full-clear Stage 9).

Short on Core Dust → grind Outpost + daily Wipe-out; short on Custom Module → run Anomaly Interception.

Tier 9 same-manufacturer gear (at level 5) upgrades to Tier 10 (Overload), unlocking up to 3 sub-stat lines: line 1 guaranteed, line 2 at 50%, line 3 at 30%.

• Change Effects: rerolls which sub-stats you get (dump a useless line like Charge DMG on an SMG).
• Reset Attributes: only rerolls the % values of existing lines (do this last, deep endgame).
• Both cost Custom Module (farm Special/Anomaly Interception).

Locking lines — two ways:

• Custom Module (rocks): permanent lock until you remove it; each locked line raises the reroll price.
• Custom Lock (newer, from Anomaly Interception): one-time lock, consumed on reroll, must re-apply — better while farming Anomaly (saves rocks).

Optimal roll order: reroll the 3rd line until you hit a BiS stat → lock it → reroll the 2nd line → finally the 1st (always appears). Prioritise your main carry; only overload supports/tanks with spare resources.

ATK is the safe stat, almost never useless on any Nikke. But if a character's own skill/burst kit already grants an ATK% buff with high uptime (nearly always active), rolling an extra ATK% OL line runs into Dilution: the added percentage only applies to the "unbuffed" base portion, so the real-world gain is lower than the number on paper.

For characters in that situation, Elemental DMG is usually worth more than ATK because it multiplies directly into final damage when matched to the target's element, and is rarely diluted by other ATK buffs in the kit. In exchange, Elemental DMG is less flexible since it only reaches full value against the matching element, while ATK works everywhere. Beyond these two direct-damage stats, some Nikkes need "functional" lines (Charge Speed, Max Ammo…) more than raw damage — check a character's specific priority line before defaulting to ATK/Elemental DMG.

Since the May 2024 update, Overload lines no longer just affect CP indirectly through base stats — they also add CP directly based on the rolled lines themselves, following 3 rules:

• Number of lines with effects: gear rolled with more lines (2–3) gives more CP than gear with just 1 line.
• Combined tier of the lines: matters more than line count — a single high-tier line can give more CP than two low-tier lines added together.
• Number of Elemental DMG lines: most other stats (ATK, Crit Rate, Max Ammo…) give the same CP per tier, but Elemental DMG gives noticeably more CP per tier — the more high-tier Elemental DMG lines, the higher the total CP compared to the same tier on another stat.

So when comparing two pieces of gear to decide which to keep, don't just count lines — check both the tier of each line and whether an Elemental DMG line is present.