Character Spotlight: Rick 15th Anniversary

Character Breakdown

Trait

Name: Strong

Role

Name: Damage

Description: Inflicts a large amount of damage to enemies through percent-based damage, damage over times, and/or other damaging effects.

Base Stats (Max 90)

Attack: 1,968

Health: 1,608

Defense: 1,319

Rush

Cost: 76 AP

Effect: Deal 940 Maim damage up to 2 enemies. Those enemies also get 325 Bleed damage and 75% Heal Reduction for 3 turns. All teammates get Focus for 1 turn.

Note: Maim damage is a specific type of damage that deals a flat amount of damage rather than being affected by Attack, Defense, and Bonus HP stats. A character afflicted by Maim damage will also have their max HP reduced by the same amount as the amount of Maim damage received. This affects the % calculations for how much healing they receive. Maim damage can be stacked, reducing max HP every time a new instance of Maim is applied. This reduction effect has infinite duration.

Active Skill

Turn Count: 2

Effect: This character gets Focus for 2 turns and +35% AP.

Note: Focus is a positive status that causes a character to ignore Confusion, Taunt, Camouflage, and the effects of Human Shield as long as Focus is presently active on the character. Focus does not remove Confuse, Taunt, or Camouflage if the effect is already present on the character at the time Focus is applied.

Specialist Skill

Name: Lacerator

Effect: Whenever this character attacks a character suffering from Bleeding, the damage of that bleeding effect is doubled.

Special Weapon

3rd Slot Effect: When taking damage, a better chance to Confuse the enemy for 2 turns.

Gameplay Walkthrough

Rick is a powerhouse Damage dealing character that has the ability to bypass traditional defenses (such as Defense Boosts or Bonus HP) on the enemy team. Rick’s Rush has 3 key aspects that provide him with his damaging capabilities: Maim, Bleed, and Healing Reduction.

Maim is one of the most powerful forms of non-traditional damage in TWD:RTS. Maim will deal a flat amount of damage (i.e. – not a percent) while also ignoring Defense Boosts and Bonus HP, which allows Maim damage to go straight to the base HP of the enemy. Additionally, it reduces the current maximum HP, preventing healing effects to exceed the new cap.

Example:

Current HP: 1500 / 2000

Maim Damage Dealt: 500

New HP (After Maim): 1000 / 1500

As you can see from the example, not only did Maim deal 500 damage, but the maximum HP was also reduced by 500 (going from 2000 to 1500). This makes it easier to take down an enemy without having to worry about recovering HP back to their starting maximum amount. Each time Maim is applied to an already Maim-afflicted enemy, the Maim HP reduction effect will stack (as well as dealing damage), further reducing the maximum HP the enemy can restore.

Rick’s Rush deals 940 Maim damage to 2 enemies, which puts a large amount of pressure on the enemy team (since their max HP has been reduced and also took damage). Over time, if the enemy cannot sustain their HP (or recover from Maim), then Rick or his teammates will likely kill that enemy. As a reminder, Maim ignores Defense Boosts and Bonus HP, forcing the enemy to rely more heavily on traditional healing methods.

In addition to Maim, Rick also applies a Bleed effect to the affected enemies, which combines very well with Maim’s HP maximum HP reduction effect (since Bleed doesn’t need to go through as much HP). Combined with Rick’s Lacerator ability, the Bleed effect acts a ticking time bomb before the enemy is killed. 75% Healing Reduction is also inflicted upon the same enemies, making it difficult for the opponent to offset the oncoming damage.

Rick’s Rush also grants Focus to everyone on his team for 1 turn, allowing for his teammates to bypass Human Shield during that turn; making for some interesting tactical decisions. By using the Rush first, you can empower your entire team via Focus, gaining access to key enemies that you want to take down by using your entire team. However, you risk Rick’s Rush be affected by Guardian II, Absolute Defense, or other status effects that may reduce Rick’s overall effectiveness. On the flip side, if you wait to use his Rush after using some other teammates, fewer teammates will be able to benefit from the Focus provided by the Rush, but the rest of the Rush is more likely to succeed (since some of the status effects would have already triggered).

That said, Rick’s Active Skill gives himself Focus for 2 turns and 35% AP, allowing you to set up Rick’s Rush or attack for the following turn. It also reduces his chances of being affected by debilitating effects such as Confuse or Taunt, without losing progress towards activating your Rush.

Rick’s Special Weapon helps defend himself against attackers by potentially causing Confuse his attackers for 2 turns. This ensures that Rick isn’t taking down as easily, and gives your medics some extra time to heal up Rick. If you want to have Rick be a little more offensive, you could always re-craft this effect for Stun when attacking to give you that offensive edge.

[6 Star] Synergistic Characters

Leaders

Strong Carl – As currently one of the better melee leaders, Carl is a solid choice to help increase the defenses of Rick. The extra +40% HP and +40% DEF to all melee characters really help mitigate damage dealt with Rick and provides that overall Medic sustainability for the team. A simple but clear choice for a Rick melee team.

Strong Garrett – If you are thinking about making an “out-of-the-box” team, Garret is an intriguing option. Garrett’s leader skill provides +40% HP and a huge bonus to AP when taking damage for all Alert and Strong teammates. Considering that there are a wide variety of synergistic or powerful Alert characters that can pair with Rick (Davie, Erika, Hershel, etc.), there could be a lot of hidden potential with an Alert + Strong composition.

Specialists

Fast Jesus – Jesus is an ideal pairing with Rick since Jesus provides 2 key effects: Human Shield and Maim. Human Shield can help provide coverage for Rick (since Rick’s defenses are on the lower end), while also applying Maim to enemies. Rick and Jesus have the ability to feed off each other’s Maim HP reduction debuff on multiple enemies, creating a massive amount of pressure against the enemy team.

Fast Shiva – Shiva (or any Lacerator character) synergizes with Rick’s own Lacerator Specialist Skill. While Lacerator cannot trigger twice on the same enemy in the same turn, if multiple enemies are affected by Bleed, then each Lacerator character can target a different enemy affected by Bleed, causing more widespread damage that keeps accumulating in strength over time. Shiva’s Rush specifically applies Bleed to 2 enemies, which provides the exact number of enemies needed for both Shiva and Rick to take full advantage of a dual Lacerator composition.

Fast Wayland – Rick provides Wayland (or any other Decapitate character) with some unique effects that help Decapitate characters tremendously. Maim forces enemy HP to stay low, in combination with Bleed damage to get the enemies into killing potential. Rick’s Healing Reduction also helps to prevent the target enemy from getting back their HP, as well as Rick’s Focus from his Rush opening up a clean shot for the Decapitate Character. In the case of Wayland, Wayland can provide the 100% Healing Reduction, which can potentially be applied to different enemies or override the 75% Healing Reduction to have a more potent effect. Either way, Rick with a Decapitate character can be a mean combination to take on heavy Revive + Human Shield teams.