Aristeia! - Aristo Analysis - Eclypse

"There is nothing higher than the starry sky."

Eclypse can wrap your team in shadows and expose your rivals to light. She is like a mysterious shadow of the past that has rekindled the rumors on Maya about her predecessor.

ECLYPSE: The shadow weaver

The tenth season of Aristeia! was supposed to be the beginning of a new era. Step by step, the aspirants were equipped with all kinds of military equipment and weapons were replaced by characters with strange abilities and exotic munitions that interacted in a spectacular fashion to create an astonishing audiovisual show for the viewers. Audience attendance made Aristeia! the best medium to sell anything, including technological advances of military application and private security.

Since then, hypercorps of the Human Sphere, specializing in areas such as biochemistry, nanotechnology, or armament ─among others─ fight every season to sell their advances as toys to the primary contractors of the great nations. It is a well known secret that the best way to get juicy contracts is to create a character that manages to overcome the Ordeals and win the coveted title of Bahadur.

StarLight Inc., one of the high-tech companies and part of the Ypsilon holdings, presented Eclypse - their first champion, for the eighteenth season of Aristeia!

He wore a gray jumpsuit with a short coat with gilded edging, the colors of the company. He was showcasing new technology to the world that condensed energy by capturing photons of light. Eclypse created shadows that seemed impossible, punished his rivals with his whip of black light, and supported his team by using all that energy to alter the conditions of the scenario. He soon became one of the favorites among the specialized press to win the biggest prize, and when asked if he wanted to be at the top, he always responded by quoting Copernicus: “There is nothing higher than the starry sky.”

Unfortunately, Eclypse made history as the first certified victim of a fatality. During a battle, the nucleus of his condenser overloaded and then imploded - creating a sphere of darkness that engulfed the aristo completely. It was impossible to recover the cube with enough integrity to reimplant it in a synthetic body, which is commonly known as ‘resurrection’. His death was final. The following season, StarLight Inc. featured a tentacular robotic grotesque called Shadow Crawler that purported to be the substitute for Eclypse. It was an absolute failure that caused the stocks of the company to crash and, subsequently, disappear.

A new subsidiary of Ypsilon, Baily Corp., registered a new champion this year, who has raised a stir for her dark clothing and her name of war: Eclypse. The woman behind the character, Sarah Wang, had the hard role to fulfill the expectations that her predecessor had created and make the Eclypse fans fall in love again . Her usual response to those who question her in the media is disconcerting and has generated rivers of rumors on Maya:

“There is nothing higher than the starry sky.”

As a member of the "Human Fate" expansion, Eclypse benefits from the early development work which added to the detail on the plastic sculpts in the Aristeia line. This particular example is very good, with interesting textures across the miniature and clean detail which allows for good shading.

Although there are no Skins or Limited Edition Metal options available for Eclypse, the high standard reached by the plastics in this example means that most hobbyists will be satisfied with what they have to work with, in the case of this specific sculpt, regardless. There is ample opportunity for a skilled hobbyist to do a lot in terms of adding character and subtlety to the model, while it also allows for the easy use of simple techniques by less experienced painters. 

In terms of her raw attributes Eclypse is relatively strong, with a couple of specific areas which stand out one way or the other. With 5 in Initiative, Speed and Energy Eclypse is immediately set apart as a quick option for Activation and Movement. Her 3 Hit Points and Blue + Black Defense are more limited however. Both her Brawn and Agility are enhanced with a Yellow die, making both above average but having a frustrating lack of synergy with her Switch.

That Switch, which costs a Success, places the Marked State onto the Target. This can be invaluable for setting up other attacks and means that even a Roll which was going to be entirely negated by Blocks from your Target can be made useful.

The existence of that Switch really changes the read of her Attack, "Black Lightning". This costs only 2 Action Points and throws a reasonable 2 Orange and Yellow at Range 2 to 5 within Line of Sight. Taking into consideration also the Switch on the Action, which imposes the Dazzled State on the Target for two Special results, between both Switches this offers excellent support in terms of State imposition. But it ALSO has potential in terms of raw damage output, especially if supported with bonus dice.

However, good 'though "Black Lightning" is, once you have run her a few times you will quickly learn that past the first Turn Eclypse leans heavily into her Action, "Moon Cycle". This allows you to Flip a State token on the Target, which can be useful to free your own Team from States AND to maintain them on the opposition. Once there are a few States in play you may well find youself spending more Action Points on this Ability than anything else for Eclypse. While the roll of a Blue and Yellow is not highly reliable, the cost of only 1 Action Point and range of 1 to 4 in Line of Sight makes this a very flexible and useful Ability.

Lastly we have the Automatic Skill "Penumbra", which allows Eclypse to impose the Hidden State onto an Adjacent Ally. This means that you will often want to hold a couple of Movement Points in reserve to get next to one of your Team mates once you have used your other Action Points on "Black Lightning" or "Moon Cycle" in order to allow "Penumbra" to fire. But this can make it very difficult for many Aristos to deal with the target thus protected, making it another key tool in Eclypse's set of support options.

In terms of her Tactics Eclypse is an entirely "Generous" Aristo. All four of her options can be played during the Actions Step of the Activation of any member of your Team. This level of flexibility is uncommon outside the "Core 8" Aristos and can be a positive factor to keep in mind when considering Eclypse.

At the same time this whole set of Tactics has been criticised by some managers as being underpowered. Certainly there is no clear "game winner" as other Aristos might bring to your deck. However each has clear application and unlimited range meaning that they all allow you to affect targets anywhere in the Hexadome.

"Polarization" is the first of the potential choices for Eclypse and, like her "Moon Cycle" ability has both offensive and defensive applications. Even considering only the Marked and Dazzled State tokens which Eclypse can apply herself there will be a lot of situations where it is worthwhile flipping both back up on an opponent who has just escaped their effect. 

Likewise with the wealth of State stacking which is in the game doing the same to flip down multiple States on one of your own Aristos can also save an Activation. Best of all its selective, so you can affect positive and negative States individually depending on the target.

Next up is "Luxumbra", which can hit either a Hidden or a Marked Target with a Displace. This might be a very minor and marginal card on the surface, but remember both the potential for Displace to provide extra movement for an ally, or disengage them from an opponent, or to shift a Team mate who has already acted into a space vacated by one of the opposition.

On the other side it can just as easily shift an opponent out of the range they prefer, away from one of your Team mates or out of the Scoring Zone (or another key position). And with Eclypse on the table neither Hidden, nor Marked, should be uncommon Status'.

The third potential choice from Eclypse for your Tactics deck is "Baily's Bead" which simply Imposes the Marked State on a Target anywhere in the Hexadome. 

The advantages for any ranged Striker in being able to hit targets from outside of Line of Sight is huge, but this can also make a massive difference for other ranged characters who rely on Actions. 

The biggest win is probably against any team which uses Smoke heavily. These teams often rely on the inability of ranged Aristos to interact with them thanks to a lack of Line of Sight and applying Marked to them obviously means this isn't effective.

One factor of taking advantage of the Marked State is that your opponents Successes aren't turned into Hit Point damage. This can be especially useful for Aristos with aggressive Switches which allow them to swap out Block results.

Last, but certainly not least, we have "Veil of Darkness". This offers many of the advantages of "Baily's Bead" for a ranged Striker, 'though given the Hidden State comes off after an Attack it doesn't have the same sustained effect.

This is probably most useful dropped early onto an Aristo who is acting late in order to protect them from the opposition through 'till their Activation.

But the Hidden State can also allow effective Scoring, making it difficult for many Aristos to use their Abilities and Attacks to interfere with your Team mate.

One strong play is to use this on Eclipse herself, given she can already ensure that one of her allies is protected. Combined with the right Team you can have every Aristo in your roster all hidden at the same time.

Eclypse is a more aggressive Support character, more focused on debuffing your opponents than on protecting her allies. Her State management, however, does help many Aristos and certainly plays into her value in the Hexadome.

As she isn't slow Eclypse makes for a fine pick in most Scenarios, offering a fairly strong all 'round package of capabilities. The key gap in her selection is anything related to healing, so you likely need other strategies for managing opposition damage output or another Aristo to cover that gap.

Eclypse doesn't have the longest range and requires Line of Sight for her Attack and Action. This means that she will be mixing it up on the front line. She benefits a lot from the support of a good Tank and may even do well with a healer for herself.

Her own abilities offer so much to ranged Strikers that you would have to seriously consider including at least one in any Team including Eclypse. This probably shapes her Scenario suitability as well, with a significant investment being made in damage output. But her State management will also reward play with Aristos who put out good States on either side.

Of course, the only States you will ever need to get the most our of Eclypse are the ones she puts out herself and minus 2 Energy, which she will help get into play!

So, to conclude we'll let the latest enigma of the Hexadome speak for herself: “There is nothing higher than the starry sky.” 

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?

But, also, do you use Eclypse?
What kind of team do you like to run her in?
Has she been effective for you?
What limitations have you run into?