"Aristeia! is nothing but a game. I am the huntress and you’re my prey."
Dart is the richest heiress of Aura Biochemicals and uses her fortune to be the best extreme athlete in the Sphere. Will Aristeia! satisfy her thirst for risk and adventure?
DART
The deadly archer of Aura Biochemicals
Paola Duarte was born into a rich industrial family on Acontecimento. The Duarte family are the founders and sole owners of Aura Biochemicals, a conglomerate specialized in the use of natural resources to create biochemical compounds with multiple applications in the Human Sphere. As a future heiress, Paola was educated since childhood in a diverse array of subjects that would be a valuable tool in the management of her future birthright: biochemistry, business management, finance, law and many others. However, the young Duarte preferred to organize parties and enjoyed practicing all kinds of risk-taking sports to their fullest, which became her passion. Whenever she could, she would escape to a new adventure full of risk and danger.
One day, she left in search a magnificent trophy to add to her collection: a dangerous onças-pretas - huge cats that hunt from the trees, and the most fierce predators of Acontecimento. In order to do this, she climbed upside down from a Tubarão flying at full speed along the tops of the Great Arboreal Reserve. She tensed her bow ─ her favorite weapon─ pointing at one of these creatures when something went wrong with the engine and the air vehicle exploded right in the middle of the flight. Paola fell into the thicket, barely surviving the landing, to find herself alone in the jungle - miles away from any form of civilization. She spent three weeks equipped only with her bow and her knowledge of biochemistry and survival, hunting and stalking the beasts of the Great Reserve, until she located a Ranger Service patrol.
The joy of the meeting brought up mixed emotions of disappointment her all-time favorite adventure was coming to an end. That accident brought her to the brink of her abilities, her skills, and her knowledge. No extreme sport had ever given her the personal growth and rush of adrenaline that this experience made her feel.
As a result, Paola started on a campaign for the protection of the Grand Reserve, and it did not take much effort to convince the directors of the board that it would be better for the company by becoming the brand's representative rather than its manager. After participating in several promotional campaigns, last season ended with Dart as a guest star in an Aristeia! championship exclusive for celebrities, another challenge that reminded her of those old hunting days in the Reserve. Excited, she has decided to conquer the title of Bahadur this year, and has reformulated her image to become Dart, the hunter of the mortal bow, and the champion of Aura Biochemicals in Aristeia!
However this particular individual example is not universally praised, with some elements of the sculpt simply having overly large smooth areas and thus missing the texture which other more recent plastic sculpts have offered.
There was a limited edition metal Dart armed with a Bow, and thus ideal for Aristeia!, offered at GenCon in 2018 and as part of the "GenCon Bundle" by Corvus Belli online. This model features the usual high standard of crisp and clean Corvus Belli metal sculpting and offers an excellent alternative for those who can access it.
This limited edition Dart sculpt came with an alternative art card and was intended as an Aristeia! Skin as well as a model for the Infinity tabletop wargame, as Dart has a profile for the ALEPH faction and the Shock Army of Acontecimento sectorial for PanOceania.
More recently Corvus Belli have also added a third Dart sculpt, this one specifically designed for Infinity the Game, which is armed with an SMG rather than a Bow. While offering a satisfactory proxy if necessary, this weapon swap (to something more popular in the wargame) is less than ideal for Aristeia!
With decent Initiative, but average Speed, Energy, Brawn and Agility, coupled with low Hit Points and only middling Defense, Dart is far from a standout in terms of raw attributes.
Her native Switch however, in combination with her Automatic Skill, is where much of the "magic" of her profile is hiding. In her case quite literally. You need to remember two key things about Hidden:
1: A Hidden Aristo doesn't take damage from an opponents Success results.
2: The Hidden State isn't removed from an Aristo until AFTER the end of an Attack.
With those two points firmly in mind we can better consider Dart as an Aristo overall.
Her Automatic Skill, "Camouflage", allows her to enter the Hidden State at the end of her Activation after the States Step. You only need to stay away from opposing Aristos, which you don't want to be adjacent to in any case as your Attack starts at Range 2. This ability makes Dart tougher than she seems, as only Melee characters offer much threat, and can allow her to be an effective Scorer under the right circumstances.When considered alone, "Silent Death" can seem like a very weak ranged Striker Attack. However with the Hidden State very likely granting her the extra Orange and her Switch allowing every Block to cancel one rolled by the target, her deadliness is higher than might first be thought. And with the ability to turn Special results into Poisoned States as well every result on every Die is of direct use to Dart in killing.
Aside from situational usage eliminating State tokens on your own team "Dendro-nanoids", the Action which Dart offers, can allow the elimination of an opponents Focus buff or the immediate transformation of another State directly into a damage. This can be especially useful when used on otherwise meaningless "Blue States" which aren't having an effect anyway.
As well as being an excellent tool for dealing massive damage, even to multiple opponents at once, "Batrachotoxin" is an amazing synergy tool. It takes any Aristo on your team who is able to apply Poison State tokens and offers a huge damage spike. Played well this can instantly wipe an entire opposing team.
But perhaps its greatest strength is actually as a counter. Between the Chemical Brothers and Gata, playing Poison Status tokens onto your own Aristos is hardly uncommon in the modern Hexadome. This Tactic offers the perfect response to anyone who might think that approach wins matches.
The first of those "less Generous than at first glance" Tactics mentioned earlier, "Predatory Instinct" can be played during any of your Activations, but still requires normal Attack range and Line of Sight from Dart.
The ability to throw out two additional Poison State tokens can be game changing in and of it'self. Especially with Aristos who can use those tokens themselves effectively as a positive.
However the real danger here is in the 1-2 combo of "Predatory Instinct" with "Batrachotoxin" which can instantly throw the vast majority of current Aristos (mostly only excepting dedicated Tanks) directly into the Infirmary. It even offers enough damage to threaten the very toughest, with only one damage and one Poison already out on Maximus (not too tough for Dart to achieve with a shot) to put down even the toughest Aristo in the game.
"Ambush" seems a somewhat counterintuitive card, putting a Dazzled State token onto your own ranged Striker hardly seeming like a great concept, but it is actually one of the strongest Tactics which Dart has available.
Offering total protection for the remainder of the Turn after it is played, Dart becomes impossible for an opponent to remove from a Scoring Zone that she can reach. Really only being directly blocked, or massively out of position, can stop her from Scoring once this goes down.
There is basically nothing an opponent can do once this Tactic goes out other than try to move their own Aristos into position to counterbalance Dart. Note that this Tactic doesn't stop her from using her Brawn (which isn't high, but isn't weak either) to stop opponents from moving past either.
This is a Tactic you'll see pull NO! a lot.
Last, but certainly not least, comes another Tactic which seems "Generous" 'till you get to the small print. In this case it's the fact that most of the effect only applies to an Aristo who has a Hidden State token.Of course, there's absolutely nothing wrong with even a single Movement Point, and I've seen matches won because another Team mate was able to get into the Scoring Zone because of this Tactic.
However it is a massively better Tactic for Dart herself, and further underlines her backup Scorer potential.
Don't underestimate the cross-Team potential of this Tactic however. Dart is far from the only Aristo who brings the Hidden State into play, and if one of her Team can also pull that token then they too can benefit from the full impact of "Surprise Factor".
Somewhat counter-intuitively, Scenarios where you are largely scoring based on Frags probably aren't the best for this particular Striker. This is partly to do with her slightly lower than average damage output, and partly to do with her fragility, but these likely aren't the places to put your first pick on the Optimate Huntress.
On the other hand Dart does better than it first appears in mobility based Scenarios and can be a strong pick for Assault, Scorched Earth et al. She also works well with a more Melee oriented Team in the Ziggurat Scenarios, as she wants to avoid close engagements and you weren't fitting 4 Aristos onto three hexes in any case.
In terms of team support, Dart does love Focus tokens, and she's so fragile that healing isn't often particularly useful for her. But as a ranged Striker who largely wants to operate independently Dart can slot into virtually any team, requiring little in terms of direct support.
That same fragility does mean that she does enjoy having a strong Tank in her Team, to keep her up before her activation, or through an opponents retaliation. The Hidden State isn't always there, and isn't an impenetrable forcefield.
If you are looking for more on Dart, check out the official writeup here:
https://aristeiathegame.com/blog/item/534-in-depth-dart
And, as always, we'd appreciate your thoughts. Not just on this article but on the series as a whole as well. Are these articles suiting what you want from Aristeia! content? Is there something more you'd like to see from them?
We've covered the 4 Aristos who are currently in the Deepwater Dragons team, playing with the Carano mod and thus a fixed team for the Preseason League and now the Otono Cup this weekend.
Next week you'll see a Team Analysis article on the Deepwater Dragons Carano mod team, and a writeup on the Otono Cup (which may be one article or three, one for each match).
We look forward to seeing you again, here at Heart of the Hyperpower!
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