Let's actually just look at this objectively for a second:

SRobin legitimately is his Novaflare. We've primarily seen Nova's work in tandem with new or very-recently-released characters.

HuoHuo Nova works with Elation
Sparkle Nova honestly kicked Sunday out of Phainon teams, but also worked with Archer probably to set up new Fate banners
Jing and OG Blade Nova's in order to work with Hyacine
BlackSwan Nova to work more fluidly with DOT archetype and ''recent'' Hysilens release (emphasis on "recent")
- Hysilens also reran right after this
FF nova - just because she's CN and Hoyo's baby, but probably also to re-sell Dahlia on rerun
Seele Nova pretty much the only true "1.x char and needed it"
Welt Nova in prep for HimeNova

Sunday's slot has either already been taken by Sparkle, or is about to be taken by SRobin. His Nova would have to put him in an equal-or-better spot (better is probably pushing it, so at least equal).

Essentially, his Nova would take away from SRobin sales, and they're both filling similar spots.

Quick tangent about this, I also think this is exactly why there's no Nova announcement for 4.6. This may be the only saving grace to the idea that he might get a Nova. If they dripped Sunday Nova in 4.6, no one owning or wanting Sunday would pull SRobin. Instead, Hoyo makes the playerbase believe he's not getting one, then players pull SRobin, Hoyo then announces 4.7 Nova's with Sunday.

But if we're not playing "Honkai: Future Rail", then even elsewhere, places Sunday could go (MDPS Saber, Seele, etc), those slots either don't exist (MDPS Saber is now Saber/Gil and SRobin is about to be BIS, with RMC currently filling, or MBlade/E1Tribbie), or he'd have to have better value than Sparkle (Hypercarry Seele, Archer), and he's not about to replace SP hungry teams that Sparkle occupies.

He also has a whole kit that's been powercrept, rather than needing minor tweaks to make him workable. Released in 2.x:

20% CR - at this point this just makes up for poor DPS builds
- We have a myriad of ways to hit 100% CR nowadays
CD - most modern DPS come with loads in their kit, and CD is a diminishing-return stat
DMG - newer supports are giving loads of ATPR/DEF Shred/etc. Once-rare stats are now becoming more common

Meta archetypes are also getting locked-in

Archer/Rin = pretty locked, either sustain gets replaced or a new SP support replaces Sparkle
Saber/Gil = If Sunday gave the buff he does in CW he may work here (everyone get's energy). Otherwise, SRobin goes here and Sunday would have to be equal-or-better (not happening)
Elation - no
HimeNova - currently only good with E0S1 sustain HimeNova, otherwise, there are a variety of better options
MonoRem - no
- including MDPS E9
Hypercarry Seele - Sparkle does it better, SRobin also going on this team
FUA - definitely not, now locked with Feixiao Wheelchair on Ashblade, or just Waventurine
Acheron - now has Mblade, was never really great here
Phainon, maybe. But again, needs a full kit rework
Break - obviously not
DOT - same as break

All that leaves are still semi-viable, but lower tier DPS - Mydei, Agalea, Therta, Anaxa. And Sunday benefiting them (maybe Anaxa, but again Cerydra, Cyrene, SRobin all do it much better), doesn't really do anything i.e. it's not an incentive for Hoyo.

I genuinely hope he gets a Nova for Sunday mains, but I don't even see it happening.

Sorry for the length. I'll leave a TL;DR at the bottom!

Source on Robikini Photo above

I cannot stress enough - pull who you like. At the end of the day, meta is temporary (truly in this game), having characters you love on your roster is forever.

That being said, there's a distinct line between pulling or 'defending a pull' of a character you like, and advertising or pushing them as BIS for a DPS, obviously in this case, Eva.

I also want to add, I really like both characters, so please don't assume I'm doomposting them into the ground. I'm actually planning on getting Robikini for Seele, and will most likely test her out on Eva as well. But my main draw isn't pulling her for Eva, and I think a lot of peoples opinions are going to push players in the wrong direction, especially those with E0/E1 (who should be saving for E2) Eva and/or F2P's with limited pulls who should be saving for Elation sustain and potentially Nihilux (big on potentially).

All that said, I'm starting to notice a growing trend across threads here (and elsewhere) that one of the two 4.5 limited's is going to be an EMC replacement, and that's just not true. Beyond that, to reiterate, it's a terrible waste of pulls when we know Pearl is around the corner, and we have no confirmation of EMC replacement being (or not being) Nihilux. At the very least, wait till the end of a banner (where Pearls kit should be in full swing); at most, skip altogether. I also know once these banners drop, the trend will grow exponentially.

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

Table of Contents: Each section marked with 🦊

🦊What Eva Wants🦊
🦊EMC's current benefit to Eva🦊
🦊Robikini🦊
1. 🦊The Downsides to Robikini🦊
🦊Waventurine🦊
1. 🦊The Downsides to Waventurine🦊
🦊Summary🦊
🦊TL;DR🦊

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

🦊What Eva wants🦊

Current standard team: Eva, Yao, EMC, HuoHuo

So, we need to improve on what EMC already provides without disrupting Eva's synergies. What matters most (in no particular order):
- Energy
- CB generation
- Punchline
- Elation skill activations
- PARTICIPANT ID LOWER THAN EVA's
- Standard bonuses (Res pen, elation, vuln, def ignore)
- Additional turns that don't disrupt CB flow

It's not crazy to think that there are plenty of people running her that don't fully understand her kit, so let's just touch on some important aspects:

https://preview.redd.it/8x0yohhjkohh1.png?width=1378&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d12b473df9c4ff52c0b8e43854ab6ec8ba646b7

Ult cost 240 energy, but can store 480 max energy
Whenever she gains energy, she also gains the same amount of CB, and vice versa. Up to 100 CB can be mirrored this way
Skill generates 30 energy and 10 punchline
Hitting either 240 threshold triggers master fox
Loves CD

At E2, conversions and a variety of factors increase the above aspects of her kit, and reward team synergies

https://preview.redd.it/heml92w5lohh1.png?width=1185&format=png&auto=webp&s=c879566145942dc260cf19734afbf135433c2eea

So, these factors become the standards for which replacements should be judged.

🦊EMC's current benefit to Eva🦊

At the end of the day, we just can't ignore the fact that EMC is free. But beyond that, let's see what they actually do:

https://preview.redd.it/qu9ma5p5mohh1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=647e0e07792da01f4377425246fa6fdffe4de267

50% CD for 3 turns + cleanse ✔️
12% Elation from E2 ✔️
10-16 CB on Ult from stacks (e1 amplifies from the above pic, and can stack up to 3x) ✔️
Eva auto skills with fixe 20 punchline ✔️
10% increased damage for 2 turns (E4) ✔️

EMC's skill also generates 20CB for themselves, and since their Participant ID is 120 (lower than Eva's 146), Eva gets the copy.

So, all-in-all, EMC supports pretty much every part of Eva's "engine".

🦊Robikini🦊

Again, I'm not trying to doompost, and I'm also not trying to undersell the characters, because Robikini is actually busted lol, just not for Eva. She provides good buffs, but is she the intended long-term BIS worth using pulls on and replacing EMC in an Eva comp?

https://preview.redd.it/vhyab1guqohh1.png?width=628&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f3fe5202e4155c6a797352adfc55f8c855b2cd2

As above, so below. Lets see the kit:

^(I'm gonna have to do this in multiple parts, since there's a memosprite in there too:)

https://preview.redd.it/mb5myh88nohh1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=58ed88b1204c9ea8e81586aea51f536e79cf8165

Skill does skill things, nothing currently affecting Eva
Ult
- 100% AA
- Energy restoration of 20% to Eva
  - 20% of 480 (eva's max energy cost) = 96
  - Eva also gets 96 mirrored CB (because of her own kit, not Robikini)
- Eva turns into "Special Guest"
  - Each attack by Eva grants Robikini 2 additional vibes
  - Duration is 2 turns, and since Eva has no summon (still salty about this) I'm unsure if Master fox would actually give 2 additional vibes
Vibes (what we play games for)
- Robikini gains 1 vibe when
  - any ally attacks (important, not just eva - but yao as well)
  - Robin or birb-trio receive healing or shields (shields would be important because Pearl is currently leaked as a shielder)
- E0 cap on vibes is 50
Fever
- Once Robikini hits fever, there's CC immunity, no more normal turns, and zone deployment. But for Eva's benefit, it's DEF ignore:
  - 15% + (0.5 * current vibes)
  - At 50 vibes, that's 40% Def ignore
In total at max kit setup
- 40% DEF ignore
- 20% enemy damage taken
- Personal damage from Robin
  - Substantial over EMC

We're going to compare at E0, since we're replacing a free unit (but yes, E1 is crazy). The Eva-specific buffs are:

100% AA
96 CB + Energy generation
Eva then feeds back into Robikini for her to get fever
40% DEf ignore
20% damage
- Robikini will provide greater damage output on the team than EMC, especially at low-cycles where we don't factor extra aha instances in prolonged fights

https://preview.redd.it/98wzpqh0uohh1.png?width=1140&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c7b73cbfbb1bba2ff74705506151046fb6b1e3b

In summary, Robin provides better teamwide damage output, one large Eva energy/CB injection, one 100% AA, and then a strong zone window.

🦊The Downsides to Robikini🦊

〰️Trace: Deviate Chord (pic above)〰️

Eva will almost certainly have higher atk than robin, especially considering some people run ATK% boots on her, and Robikini is HP-scaling. This means she most likely gets the ATK branch.
- You could probably mitigate this with Spd boots, but it may throw off other rotational elements (I run speed because the subs are too good to pass up)

Either way, CD or ATK, it's still decent, but now we have to revisit what our biggest improvements for Eva would be:

Energy ✔️ (1 time, ult)
CB gen ✔️ (1 time, ult)
Punchline ❌
Skill frequency via turns ❌
Lower participant ID ❌

The key takeaway isn't "oh this doesn't work, scrap the character", it's just "objectively, a major targeted trace buff doesn't land in a valuable bucket for benefiting Eva consistently throughout a fight". Also remember, higher CD has diminishing returns, and Eva is already ripe with CD.

To simplify that last statement, going from 500% CD and 1000% CD is not 2x the damage. You can calc that yourself here:

https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Damage

〰️Trace: Improvised Blues (pic above)〰️

Her strongest Eva-interaction, the AA, is tied to a 140-cost Ultimate that is dependent on healing
- This is clearly why she's designed specifically as a Cyrene sidegrade, and gives creedence to the whole Remembrance archetype. It's why she's so strong with Hyacine, and thus strong with HP scalers.
Essentially, her rotation via this trace is sustain dependent (luckily, the best sustain for wherever you place Robikini will be HuoHuo)
- I personally believe Hoyo hates sustainless comps (makes sense, they want people gambling). But this just shows that without regular healing or shielding, she loses a good chunk of her energy engine.

Lastly, something that is lost on Robikini, but not on Waven, is that she's not Elation. So:

❌She doesn't participate in an aha instant
❌no lower-ID (or ID at all) means no CB sharing
❌No elation-specific interactions with Eva
❌Punchline generation

What we're really evaluating here is long-term concern. Yes, in shill this will look decent. Especially considering 4.5 AA King is irontomb. But the bigger concern is a future elation support can potentially provide both generic amplification and direct participation in Eva's engine.

Lastly, Robikini’s personal damage is HP-and-memosprite-based. Yao’s Elation sharing does not directly help it, and Huohuo’s ATK buff is mostly irrelevant to her. (Yao's RES PEN and vuln still help).

🦊Waventurine🦊

As said before, I'm not doomposting. Let's start off with some immediate benefits that Waven has over Eva:

He's an Elation character, so benefits in elation mechanics and participates in Aha instants
Provides teammwide CD outside of a specific ult window
Buffs aren't necessarily dependent on a sustain comp
Solid subdps option providing the team with good damage output alongside an MDPS

All-in-all, Robikini is more "target Eva for buffs", Waven is "buff myself, but give the team some stuff along the way".

Let's look:

https://preview.redd.it/x3o1j6hnoshh1.png?width=1383&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c8f059fe1532def460936ee66e77185c2e0657e

Skill does skill things, however:
- Deals ok damage
- Gains 4 punchline
- Gains 4 fervor for himself
- Gen 30 energy (pretty standard)
Ult
- 130 energy cost
- big damage
- gains 6 punchline
- gains 8 fervor
- give's himself 30% SPD for 4 turns
Talents
- He's less-geared towards "talents that do or do not help Eva" and more geared towards "my talents help myself". But there are some important duo synergies that exist if he runs on this team
  - talent gives 1 fervor and 1 punchline after every teammate attack
  - at 10 fervor, waven immediately launches his elation skill
  - fervor cap is 30
- The important thing to note is a 30 fervor cap, with gains off teammates actions, means he wants teammates attacking often, hence why he loves FUA.
CD
- Teamwide 48% CD

There is a discrepancy to note:

Revel in Surging Waves trace in-summary says, "If another Elation character is present, Waven’s Elation increases by 80%". However, the Chinese wording shows that the V5 changes reduced from 100% to 80%, and actually reads, "20% for all allies, and Wave gains an additional 80%".

Essentially, the mistranslation on EN has omitted the teamwide gain.

So, all-in-all, Waven offers:

likely 20% team Elation (pending translation) ✔️
48% CD ✔️
9.6% converted elation for Eva 〰️
Personal buffs ❌
dual-dps output ❌
- This is an ❌ because we're looking for eva-specific synergies

Waven is good, and a decent dual-dps here, while being a stronger sub-dps elsewhere. His kit is selfish, highly akin to his character on some levels (no shade, love Aven).

🦊The downsides to Waventurine🦊

Remember, we're not just asking "Does Waven work with Eva?". We're also asking, "Does Waven improve Eva’s team enough to justify spending limited pulls over free EMC, especially when EMC already matches Eva’s mechanics relatively well?"

Let's just note the EMC's package real quick:

50% CD for 3 turns + cleanse ✔️
12% Elation from E2 ✔️
10-16 CB on Ult from stacks (e1 amplifies from the above pic, and can stack up to 3x) ✔️
Eva auto skills with fixe 20 punchline ✔️
10% increased damage for 2 turns (E4) ✔️

Waven's direct support is not much better, because most of his kit is centered almost around fixing himself lol (or buffing himself).

Participant ID
- I have to highlight this, Waven is at 156, Eva is 146
  - Eva can't copy his CB gains
  - She can recover a part of the remaining CB when it expires, which is nice. At E2 Eva, this expiration-return become stronger
He may not accumulate nearly as much CB in Eva setups as elsewhere
- Technique gives 20 CB
CD ratio is the pretty much the same
- EMC = 50%
- Waven = 48%

〰️Revel In Surging Waves〰️

The "grants 2 CB after teammate attacks" applies when Waven is the team's only Elation characters
- This is similar to the issue we noted with Robikini, where a major trace is clearly intended to buff him, but a footnote has been added in to help him be universal, but it's really not the intended goal

Combine all these together, and it's essentially that Waven isn't entering the team with enormous buffs like what we would want to see in a replacement. Instead, he's adding his own personal damage.

In conclusion:

Waven gives Eva a comparable passive buff package
Removes several Eva-specific mechanics
Attempts to recover the lost team value through his own personal damage

There are plenty of reports on his kit-specific issues, CN analysis, and gripes and complaints. I'm not going to get into those here, because then we would be doomposting. Instead, we're just focusing on whether this kit, good or bad, helps Eva.

For someone who loves him, this could all be fine. But is it worth it if you're trying to make Eva the strongest long-term?

https://preview.redd.it/1lb8dkzq1thh1.png?width=235&format=png&auto=webp&s=b6f9b82b43198c0b6afa26710b011a835cca66ff

🦊Summary🦊

As objectively as possible: Neither Robikini nor Waventurine is bad with Eva. Both can work, and both may produce higher team damage than EMC in certain encounters or investment levels.

That's the cleanest take. However, "working with Eva" is not the same as "optimal for Eva" or "worth pulling for Eva"

Robikini
- Has the clearest direct interaction with Eva (and hypercarries in general)
Waven
- Contributes to teamwide damage output and provides some close-to-equivilant buffs as EMC, with some areas slightly lower, and some higher

〰️What're we actually looking for in Pearl? What would justify waiting for her?〰️

Participant ID below 146
CB generation
Punchline generation
Is elation - participates in the aha engine
Potentially speed scaling, raising aha's speed (not as the 4th fastest, rather the 2nd fastest)
Provides energy
- I doubt this will ever happen again after HuoHuo lol
Standard buffs (vuln, res pen, def shred, elation)

But this comparison would also then take Huohuo into account. For now, we're using this as a "where are my pulls going" analysis.

〰️What're we looking for in Nihilux〰️

I personally think Nihilux is EMC's replacement. I could be dead wrong, and unsubstantiated leaks say she's MDPS, but I'm going to assume she is.

Participant ID below 146
Energy to elation characters
- This would be annoying, but would also make sense. If we have a DPS that needs energy, the simplest way to cut the support off from being universal, is energy-buff to a specific path
Manipulate Aha speed via flat spd buff
Standard buffs (vuln, res pen, def shred, elation)

I'm not trying to play "Honkai: Future Rail"; however, we do have to recognize that limited pulls should offer something durable, long-term, and justify replacing an already-decent unit.

All that said, pull who you like lol. If you genuinely like Robikini or Waven, more power to you. Both are powerful, both have teams outside Eva, and neither is going to make an account directly worse (roster dependent). In particular, Robikini. Robin seems to be the "have her on your account and you can only benefit" character.

But, if you don't have E2 Eva, Yao Guang, want to vertical in E1 Yao, or are prepping for Pearl, I would hold off.

Also understand my intent here: If you're a whale, or you're clearing endgame but just want the character, or you have 300 pulls in the bank, etc, then it's not directly a matter of objective analysis. But telling limited-pull players that they need one for Eva, that they're BIS, or that they're "must-haves" is misinformation.

🦊TL;DR🦊

Robikini offers stronger direct interaction with Eva
- 100% AA
- 96 Energy + 96 CB
- Def ignore
- Vuln
- Strong verticals
Waven offers
- 20% team elation
- 48% CD
- Strong sub-dps damage

Neither of them have a Participant ID lower than Eva, which is a huge factor into future teammates.

For now, both are viable and strong alternatives to EMC, but nothing about them screams "Confirmed long-term upgrades".

Pearls kit should be coming in 4.5, for her 4.6 release (assumed) as Elation sustain. Nihilux may or may not be an MDPS, and if she's not, she may also fit into our 2 future-mono-elation teams. At the very least, waiting towards the end of banner or for reruns on Waven or Robikini may be the most valuable way to save your pulls and decide accordingly.

Let me know if I missed anything! Feel free to check out my other guides!

u/astraldebri

The Novaflare is never coming: An Agenda-Analysis

Big Island Annoucement via X. Looks like extended outages underway. How’s power where everyone is on BI? Hope everyone is safe!

Finally made it to WTF. Now the grind to AEON begins

Since we're sharing our Pearl Meme's

Trying to expand the vocabulary for future agenda-maxxing and doomposting. Can't way for Pearlantir aka PearlGBT. Right now I've got "Pearl Harbor"

Topazz wheelchaired my bum Elation team to 40k. Another win for the Queen

With V5 come and gone, is it too early to start Agendamaxxing PearlGBT aka Pearlantir?

Aventurine Waveflair is the strongest DPS ever released in Honkai: Star Rail and will be future proof until the game reaches End of Service: A guide

Are Waventurine or Robikini BIS for Evanescia?

🦊What Eva wants🦊

🦊EMC's current benefit to Eva🦊

🦊Robikini🦊

🦊The Downsides to Robikini🦊

🦊Waventurine🦊

🦊The downsides to Waventurine🦊

🦊Summary🦊

🦊TL;DR🦊

Finally, Charmony Dove Buffs

Sunday mains waiting for a Novaflare. The Novaflare:

Can't wait for Miyabi and Saber to meet up in the ZZZ collab (@KuroiJ)

E0S1 Seele closes out another Starward mode sustainless. Excited for Robikini!

Another Agenda has hit the second tower: New-character-Eidolons are just "old" Characters entire kits

T2 at E2 is wild

The ultimate "How to play Honkai: Future Rail" Guide

But fr we need funny flairs and the ability to add images/memes in the comment section

I’ll never let go, Jack. I’ll never let go.

Asking the important questions

To be ballin, you need to “be all in”