Once upon a time, raid units were game changing. Nowadays, people barely even notice them outside of their trust masters and former fusion-hell. This is understandable, given that most reviews are in terms of resource management, which includes pulls, enhancement spendings, and the occasional rare "others". That, and raid unit typically kind of sucks in comparison to their current equivalent-star bases. These units, however, do benefit newer players with a limited unit pool, and as such, will be written with that in mind.

As an old unit, Adam has been reviewed already by both TomAto and DefiantHermit. That said, I will restate that this review is mostly for new players to see how he fits with other units that they may have. For older players, scroll down to expedition. So without further ado...

Adam (NieR) - Raiders of the Free Review

Limit Burst

Scrap Hell (6★, 20 LB)

• 690%-810% ST 1-Hit Physical Attack
• Increase ATK by 89%-104% on self (3 turns)

Trust Reward

Vengeful Wrath (Materia)

• Increase HP (20%)
• Increase ATK (110%) for 3 turns when HP drops below 30%

Notable Skills

Bullet Wave

• 500% Physical damage with delay (1 turn) to all enemies 4-Fr32-20-20-20
• Mitigate damage taken (50%) for 1 turn to caster

His main chaining ability. The delayed attack should spark chain automatically, despite it being a small chain count that cannot be boosted with dual wield. The damage mitigation helps alot for his survivability. It should be noted that while it does take into account any elemental weapons and imbunes, it cannot be boosted by killers, nor can the ability/damage be doubled by dual wield.

Cube Explosion

• If used after Damage Cut
  • 500% Physical damage to all enemies
  • Decrease DEF (40%) for 3 turns to all enemies
• Otherwise
  • 225% Physical damage to all enemies
  • Decrease DEF (40%) for 3 turns to all enemies

Primarily a finisher requiring a setup to utilize fully. I'd use it over Bullet Wave and his LB only if your trying to cap an AoE chain for big damage on multiple enemies, probably to cross thresholds quickly.

Damage Cut

• Mitigate damage taken (50%) for 1 turn to caster

Beyond the setup for Cube Explosion, don't use it. Use the swipe-down guard instead.

Notable Others

• Fairly tanky for a physical damage chainer
• Three levels of crisis buffs
  • 50%: 1 stack of evasion for 3 turns
  • 30%: 80% DEF/SPR for 3 turns
  • 5%: 150% Full-buff for 3 tuns
• Immune to Confusion
• 100% LB gauge fill rate and low-ish LB cost
• 50% Physical Machine Killer

Notable Issues

• Low base ATK and no passive ATK boost beyond crisis buffs
• Low base SPR and only 10% passive SPR boost, making him somewhat fragile towards magic attacks if not mitigated
• Cannot provoke or cover to take advantage of his damage mitigation skillset (and mitigation only lasts for one turn)
• No safety net or innate skillset to reliably trigger his crisis, particularly his full-buff
• No innate MP recovery
• Very limited weapon options

Interesting Tidbit

• Not Eve

Nude Expeditions

^{Subject to rounding errors
Success capped at 16%, anything above is solely for comparison purposes
No gear equipped}
Expedition Charts

Nude Comparisons

• If any passive are conditional on equip, assume that the unit have a 0-statted variant of it equipped. For example, Marquis de Leon is wielding an I-can't-believe-it's-not-Not-a-knuckle ^{or a 0-calories Diet Knuckle, but with all the great taste}.
• Also assume spark chaining, whenever chaining math is done
  • Assume exactly 2 chainers, with the result calculation being damage dealt by a single chainer
  • Assume single-element for physical/hybrid, unless otherwise stated
• Base stat's only, no pots of any sort.
• If Limit Burst is used, calculation is done using a Lvl 1 version (unless noted otherwise).
• All units will get a minimum of 40% stat boost while in battle (via Leadership - Rain)
• Using the below formula for calculations, unless noted otherwise:
  • ATK² * Skill Modifier * Counter Chance * Imperil^{if any} (assume 4 attacks/turn: 2 mag, 2 phys)
  • ATK² * Skill Modifier * Chain Mod * Imperil^{if any}
  • HP * DEF / (1 - Dmg Mitigation)

Adam Adam

HP: 4708
Atk pre-buff:  142
Atk post-buff: 198/255 (Leadership and LB buff, respectively)
Def pre-buff:  151
Def post-buff: 207/262 (Leadership and 30% Crisis buff, respectively)
Spr pre-buff:  119
Spr post-buff: 163/207 (Leadership and 30% Crisis buff, respectively)
Dmg Mitigation: 50%

Phys e.HP
  Regular : 0.975/1.233 Mil (Leadership/Crisis, respectively)
  Mitigate: 1.949/2.467 Mil

Mag e.HP
  Regular : 0.767/0.975 Mil (Leadership/Crisis, respectively)
  Mitigate: 1.535/1.949 Mil

Bullet Wave Rotation
  Bullet Wave (T-1 & T-2)
    Reg : 198^2 * 5 * 3.1125 = 0.610 Mil (0.915 against Machines)
    Buff: 255^2 * 5 * 3.1125 = 1.011 Mil (1.517)
  Scrap Hell (T-3)
    198^2 * 6.9 = 0.271 Mil (0.406)

Long Avg: 0.764 Mil (1.147)

Note: Using 1-handed variance due to elemental coverage and weapon limitations

Due to the mitigations attached to his chaining move, I'll look at a mix of both eHP and damage, and compare him under the criteria of a damage dealer, with bonus survivability. For older veterans, below is his non-elemental BiS using Fixed Dice, ignoring STMR, limited, premiums, and IW stats. I won't use these gears for comparison purposes in my main discussion, but they will be mentioned for veteran comparison sake.

Fixed Dice Build Link

  HP:  5,916
  Atk: 987
  Def: 376
  Spr: 265

  Phys eHP: 2,224,416 (before mitigation)
            4,448,832 (after mitigation)
  Mag eHP : 1,567,740 (before)
          : 3,135,480 (after)
  Chain Mod: 2.325
  BW: 43,600,151 (2nd rotation)
  LB: 30,379,460 (max LB)

*No battle buffs or killers applied here, not even his innate automatic ones
*Ignoring level correction in math

Wandering Rain Vagrant Knight Rain

HP: 4657
Atk pre-buff:  214
Atk post-buff: 294 (via Escort Leader)
Def pre-buff:  238
Def post-buff: 322 (via Escort Leader)
Spr pre-buff:  137
Spr post-buff: 212 (via Escort Leader)
Dmg Mitigation: 30%/50%/65% (Standout/Swipe-Down Guard/Both)

Phys e.HP
  Provoke: 2.142 Mil
  Swipe  : 2.999 Mil
  Both   : 4.284 Mil (not possible without outside assistance due to 2-turn provoke)

Mag e.HP
  Provoke: 1.410 Mil
  Swipe  : 1.975 Mil
  Both   : 2.821 Mil (not possible without outside assistance due to 2-turn provoke)

D Rising Lava (Def-scaling; T1/2 out of 3-T rotation to upkeep buff; no chains)
  322^2 * 4.5 * 1.3 = 0.607 Mil (1.213 if DW)

Counter Dmg
  294^2 * 1 * (0.6*2) = 0.104 Mil

• VK.Rain has an Def-scaling attack
• VK.Rain has 60% AoE full buff
• VK.Rain has 40% full breaks on-demand (either ST full break, or AoE weird split breaks)
• VK.Rain has innate auto-refresh
• VK.Rain can heal and raise on the side
• VK.Rain has Entrust
• VK.Rain has provoke
• VK.Rain has 30%-40% Dark/Lightning/Ice/Wind/Water/Fire/Earth imperils
• VK.Rain has full elemental damage coverage (for those deal X elemental damage missions)
• Adam is tankier in his chaining mode
• Adam deals more damage, especially against machines

In terms of damage, Adam is better unless VK.R is dual-wielding. In addition, Adam requires no setup to acheive his tankiness. However, he has no party utility compared to VK.Rain's many, has less survivability that him if he rotates between his buff and provoke only. In addition, VK.Rain best damage is based off of his Def-scaling move, making it easier to build both tanky and still achieve comparable damage. Because of all this, Vagrant Knight wins in my books.

As a side note, VK.Rain's Phys Def-DW BiS's has significatntly less damage but more eHP, should you decide to build him like that for some reason.

Earth Veritas Enh. Veritas of the Earth

HP: 5558
Atk pre-buff:  135
Atk post-buff: 189 (via Leadership)
Def pre-buff:  223
Def post-buff: 295 / 367 (via Steel Body / 50% HP crisis)
Spr pre-buff:  153
Spr post-buff: 217 / 281 (via Steel Body / 50% HP crisis)
Provoke Mitigation: 30%

Phys e.HP
  I.Press  2: 2.342 / 2.914 Mil (Steel Body / crisis, respectively)

Mag e.HP
  I.Press  2: 1.723 / 2.231 Mil

I.Press  2 (Def-Scaling)
  St.Body: 295^2 * 2.7 = 0.235 Mil (0.470 if DW)
  Crisis : 367^2 * 2.7 = 0.364 Mil (0.727)

Counter Dmg
  189^2 * 1 * (0.6*2) = 0.043 Mil

• e.VoE has an Def-scaling attack, that also mitigates and provokes
• e.VoE can cover
• e.VoE has full AoE break resistance
• e.VoE can mitigate party damage by 20%
• e.VoE has 100% AoE earth resistance
• e.VoE absorbs earth damage
• e.VoE has a better crisis buff, and lasts forever
• Adam can chain
• Adam deals more damage, especially to machines

Before I continue, e.VoE's inclusion here is mostly due to his provoke, which has both DEF-scaling damage and mitigation. Otherwise, it feels like I am perverting him by trying to fit as a tanky damager.

Once again, Adam deals more damage, although it drops to an insignficant amount more if e.VoE is dual wielding. In addition, thanks to his high mitigation, Adam is significantly tankier. However, there is alot in e.VoE's kit that makes him a great party member, compared to selfish Adam. To reiterate the point, e.VoE is a tank first, with potential damage thanks to DEF-scaling. For a simple 1v1 battle in a vacuum, Adam wins. Otherwise, e.VoE for pretty much everything else.

As a side note, VoE's Phys Def-DW BiS's has significantly more eHP, but significantly less damage. Once again, you can build him as a damager, but you'll get some raised eyebrows from me in the process.

Marquis Marquis de Leon^7★

**Without TMR or TM ability, assuming limited TMR moogles and similar**

HP: 5,499
Atk pre-buff: 468 
Atk post-buff: 546/624 (via Leadership/Fauna Fighting Spirit, respectively)
Mag pre-buff:  172
Mag post-buff: 230 (via Leadership)
Def pre-buff:  298
Def post-buff: 378/457 (via Leadership/Fauna Fighting Spirit, respectively)
Spr pre-buff:  259
Spr post-buff: 333 (via Leadership)
Provoke Mitigation: 20% (via Fauna Fighting Spirit)

Phys e.HP
  Leader: 2.078 Mil
  Fauna : 3.141 Mil

Mag e.HP
  Leader: 1.831 Mil
  Fauna : 2.289 Mil

Tanky/Buffed Chain Rotation
  Fauna Fightinng Spirit (T1/4)
    0 damage
  Wild Animaul (T2/5)
    No-Element : 624^2 * 1.8 * 3.27 =  2.291/4.582 Mil (second num benefits from break, first does not of any kind)
             DW: 624^2 * 1.8 * 3.635 * 2 = 5.096/10.192 Mil 
    Ice-Element: 624^2 * 1.8 * 3.645 = 2.555/5.109 Mil
             DW: 624^2 * 1.8 * 3.8225 * 2 = 5.358/10.716 Mil 
  LB (T6)
    624^2 * 15.1 * 3.645 / (1-0.5) [break] = 42.862 Mil
  Avg: 8.289 Mil (single-wield, no element, with breaks)

Counter Dmg
  624^2 * 2.5 * (0.5*2) = 0.973 Mil (no breaks)

Comparison Warning:
  No external basic breaks were applied in any of the comparisons, which would be Rain's -30% Undermine in this case.
  This is partially due to laziness, and partially because it only matters with MdL v Adam the way I am doing it.

• MdL can imperil and benefit off of ice
• MdL can provoke
• MdL can counter with both damage and Atk/Mag breaks with regens
• MdL has 50% innate provoke
• MdL has a strong -60% full break, stuck on a CD
• Adam is not furry (as far as I know)

First, 7★ stats are huge. Second, MdL has utility outside of damage, mainly provoke tanking. Also, here is a TDH BiS with Fisty High Tides. Definitely tankier with slightly more damage (almost all of it concentrated on his LB though). FD variance remains huge.

Viktor Viktor Marchenko^7★

If MdL didn't tell you anything, then I'm going to help you some more. This time, I'm just going to give you some pictures and smoke signals, and hopefully you can figure out what I'm trying to say.

★★★ ★★★ and Free
vs
★★★ ★★★ ★ and $$$

Conclusion - New Player Variant

He's fairly simple, but is fine as a free starter unit. Capable of dealing damage, while remaining fairly tanky. For those without good cover tank, or lack the ability to cover against certain moves, his mitigation with damage will be really decent. As a 6★ unit using a FD build, he is has the tankiness of 7★ meta damage dealers. To put it in perspective, he is around Hyoh level tankiness, and staight out surpasses Kurasame.

Conclusion - Veteran Variant

He's fairly simple, but is fine as a free starter unit. No party utility, low damage, trapped with old 6★ stats. Many of us have past that point. After all, how many of you hoarded for Hyoh?

Well, at least he's not Eve.

^{Math Fix Status: Satisfied}