Rhiannon Strategy Guide: Mastering Summoner Kits in Reverse: 1999

Rhiannon stands out in Reverse: 1999 as a specialized damage dealer who breaks the traditional mold of direct-attack Arcanists. Her playstyle revolves entirely around her unique summoning mechanic—deploying entities that act as independent, persistent sources of damage and utility. While her potential for sustained damage is among the highest in the game, she demands a disciplined approach to turn management and team composition.

To succeed with Rhiannon, players must stop viewing her as a "burst" unit and start viewing her as an "engine" that requires consistent, methodical fuel. This guide details how to master her summon uptime, optimize your action economy, and build a team that allows her to thrive in the game's most challenging content, such as the Mane's Bulletin or late-game limbo stages.

Understanding the Summoner Mechanic: The Core of Rhiannon’s Kit

Rhiannon’s performance is tethered to the presence of her summons on the field. These entities are not just visual flair; they are the primary source of her passive DPS scaling.

• Independent Scaling: Her summons inherit a portion of her stats, meaning that as you upgrade her Resonance and Psychube, the damage output of her summons scales exponentially.
• The "Maintenance" Cycle: Rhiannon’s kit requires frequent re-application or refreshing of these summons. If your summons expire or are cleared by boss mechanics, Rhiannon’s total damage output craters.
• Tactical Card Merging: Because she relies on specific spells to summon, players should prioritize merging her lower-level cards. Merging not only saves action points but often upgrades the summon’s efficacy or duration, preventing you from wasting turns on low-impact recasts.

The key takeaway here is that Rhiannon’s "damage floor" is high, but her "damage ceiling" depends entirely on your ability to keep the board populated with her entities.

Mastering Action Economy and Turn Management

In Reverse: 1999, action economy is the most precious resource. Every turn, you have a limited number of actions to split between your DPS, support, and sustain units. Rhiannon is an "action-hungry" character; if you aren't careful, she will cannibalize the actions needed by your healers or buffers.

The Front-Loading Strategy

The most effective way to play Rhiannon is to front-load her setup. In the first two turns of an encounter:

1. Prioritize Summoning: Use your early cards to establish your summon presence immediately.
2. Avoid Over-Recasting: Once your board is established, resist the urge to refresh summons unless they are about to expire. Use the extra actions created by this "maintenance phase" to allow your support units to build their own ultimates or debuff the enemy.
3. The "Idle" Turn: If you have no favorable cards for Rhiannon, use this window to move cards in your hand. Positioning her cards for a future merge is often better than forcing a sub-optimal spell cast that doesn't advance your summon state.

Synergy and Team Composition

To compensate for her high demand for actions, Rhiannon performs best when paired with "low-maintenance" teammates. You want characters who provide value through passive abilities, aura buffs, or ultimates that don't require constant card play.

• The "Passive" Support Archetype: Look for Arcanists who can provide healing or damage mitigation through their passive traits or ultimate skills. This ensures that your team stays alive without requiring you to spend precious actions on healing spells.
• The Action-Generator Meta: Teammates who can grant additional actions or manipulate the card deck are Rhiannon's best friends. By increasing the frequency of your turns, you give Rhiannon the breathing room to keep her summons active without sacrificing the team's overall utility.
• Avoid "Action Clashes": Do not pair Rhiannon with other characters who require heavy card usage to function. If your support unit requires two cards every turn to maintain defense, and Rhiannon requires two cards to maintain her summons, you will quickly find yourself unable to attack effectively.

Navigating Limitations and Trade-offs

Rhiannon is not a universal solution for every game mode. Understanding when not to use her is just as important as knowing how to build her.

• The Speed-Run Trap: In short, burst-heavy encounters or stages with very tight turn limits, Rhiannon can feel sluggish. Because her damage is "ramped" (it takes time for her summons to accumulate value), she is often outperformed by burst-oriented characters in quick-clear content.
• Action Starvation: If your team is struggling to survive, you may be forced to choose between keeping Rhiannon’s summons active and casting defensive spells. In these scenarios, prioritize team survival. A dead DPS deals zero damage; it is better to lose a bit of uptime on a summon than to lose a party member.

Long-Term Progression and Investment

Investing in Rhiannon should be a long-term priority for players looking to tackle high-difficulty boss content.

Resonance and Psychube Choices

• Resonance: Focus on Attack and Damage Bonus stats. Since her summons scale off her base stats, flat damage increases are significantly more valuable than survivability stats.
• Psychubes: Prioritize Psychubes that provide unconditional damage bonuses or bonuses based on the number of active effects. Avoid Psychubes that require specific "on-hit" conditions if those conditions conflict with her summon-based gameplay.

Portrait Investment

If you are a spender or a lucky puller, Rhiannon’s early portrait levels (duplicates) often focus on lowering the action cost of her summons or increasing their duration. These upgrades directly address her biggest weakness—action economy—making her significantly more flexible in late-game team compositions.

Conclusion: The Anchor Playstyle

Ultimately, Rhiannon functions as an "anchor" for your team. You build around her, you prioritize her, and in return, she provides a consistent, high-damage output that is immune to many of the RNG-based fluctuations that affect other Arcanists. By mastering the rhythm of her summon cycles and pairing her with passive-support teammates, you can turn Rhiannon into the centerpiece of a formidable team capable of conquering any era in Reverse: 1999. Remember: keep the summons active, manage your actions, and let the board presence do the work for you.