Table of Contents
Overview
Released in and serving as the highlight of version 1.3, The Shorekeeper is a 5★ rectifier user of the Spectro element filling the role of a premier supporter, providing her team with a metric ton of healing and several team-wide buffs, both offensive and defensive in nature. Story-wise, she fulfils the role of the Black Shores’ guardian while also working as a Lament researcher.
The Shorekeeper’s kit features several gimmicks that are more annoying to describe than use in practice, so I’ll try to keep it relatively brief and simple. For a far more detailed description of her kit where I use far too many words to describe her skill set, you may consult her pre-release early analysis.
Firstly, the Empirical Data. Every time she attacks an enemy with a basic attack, she gains a stack, filling a section of her Forte bar. Once she has five, she can consume them with either her heavy attack or plunge attack to either pull in nearby enemies or hit slightly harder, respectively. Truthfully, the latter effect is rather underwhelming, with Shorekeeper’s damage dealing capabilities being less-than-mediocre, so she’s better off abusing her pull-in for more Concerto Energy generation.
Secondly, the Collapsed Cores. Every time she hits an enemy with her left-click, she spawns a floating core around them, up to five at a time. After either 6 seconds pass or she casts her Forte attack, each core expires and spawns a butterfly to kamikaze itself into the nearest target. Again, the damage isn’t great, but she’s trying her best for you.
Thirdly, the Unbound Form. Using her heavy attack while her Forte gauge is not full transforms Shorekeeper into a butterfly, granting her increased movement speed and continuously draining her stamina. Every second spent in this form generates a stack of Deductive Data that effectively is just a stack of her Forte coloured blue. Once she consumes all of her stamina, uses her Basic Attack, or attempts to dash, she will revert to her usual form and consume all of her Deductive Data, gaining an equal amount of Empirical Data and spawning the same number of Collapsed Cores around her. The Shorekeeper flying as a butterfly doesn’t actually count as flying for the purposes of traversal, but she automatically gathers nearby plants in this form, which is nice I guess.
And finally, the thing that actually makes The Shorekeeper unique and allows her to power creep Verina - her Resonance Liberation and Intro. Upon use, Shorekeeper will create a Stellarealm centred on herself that provides a healing-over-time effect to all characters inside. Using any Intro skill inside it will then evolve the zone up to two times to also provide a Crit Rate (5%~12.5%) and Crit DMG (10%~25%) bonus that scales with her Energy Regen stat. After evolving it twice, Shorekeeper’s next Intro will consume the Stellarealm and deal a guaranteed critical hit (considered as Resonance Liberation DMG) to all nearby enemies while also healing all nearby allies. Unlike her other attacks, this one actually deals a decent chunk of damage (for a healer) since it scales with her max HP.
As for smaller but nonetheless unique quirks, The Shorekeeper features two. First, her Inherent Skill Self Gravitation - the one that increases her Energy Regen by 10% while someone is affected by her Liberation - also extends to Rover (Female) if they are on the team. Nothing crazy, but free energy is free energy. And secondly, The Shorekeeper’s Outro, on top of the standard All-DMG Amplify effect, allows for any character on the team to break out of a stagger or knock-up with but a press of a dodge button. Naturally, it’s preferred if you never need it to begin with, but it’s another layer of safety, just in case.
Being the first limited support released since the game’s launch, the expectations for The Shorekeeper were moderately tall, with a sizeable amount of people - myself included - expecting a sidegrade to Verina. What we’ve got, however, is almost a direct upgrade over our resident botanist, featuring a much shorter skill rotation, far more healing and desirable buffs more diverse than just ATK. On top of that, The Shorekeeper also scales absurdly well with her Resonance Chain sequences, with every single one bringing something valuable to the table for those willing to go the few extra miles for her. With that in mind, it is safe to say she has exceeded all expectations and will remain an extremely valuable pick-up for a long time to come.
Also did you know that post-story, approaching The Shorekeeper in the Black Shores disables co-op? Girl sure doesn’t like sharing her roving star with anyone.
Pros
- Grants the party a respectable bonus to both Crit Rate and Crit DMG within her Liberation’s area of effect
- Provides an insane amount of healing, even with a more damage-focused Echo stat lineup
- As of version 1.3, The Shorekeeper is the only character to feature a way to break out of a stagger
- Her skill rotation is one of the shortest in the entire game
Cons
- Her Ascension materials are locked behind completing the Black Shores storyline
- Her primary QoL feature of not ending her Liberation prematurely is locked behind Resonance 1
- Extremely low individual damage output, even for a support, before Resonance 6 (!)
- Reliant on a very specific combination of Echo substats
Shorekeeper Rotations
Rotations should always be taken with a grain of salt. Enemies are NOT sandbags and WILL ATTACK YOU. Several factors such as Parries, Dodge Counters, and being knocked back will affect how you approach the rest of your rotation.
Resonance Liberation Loop
This is Shorekeeper’s primary rotation, used to gain Concerto and cycle her Resonance Liberation as quickly as possible. There are no real gimmicks here worth mentioning, other than the combo assuming Shorekeeper has access to a weapon granting her additional Concerto Energy.
| • Intro Skill • Basic Attack 1 • Basic Attack 2 • Basic Attack 3 • Basic Attack 4 • Forte: Illation • Skill: Chaos Theory • Resonance Liberation • Echo (Bell-Borne Geochelone) • Outro |
There are two situations where an extension of the rotation may be required, both boiling down to executing one more Basic Attack chain alongside the Forte attack.
The first is when The Shorekeeper is not using any of the weapons granting her more Concerto. In that case, after she casts her Intro, execute the BA+Forte chain one more time to make up the difference. Otherwise, she won’t have enough Concerto to trigger her Outro after casting her Resonance Liberation.
The other one is when you are just starting an encounter - in Tower of Adversity or otherwise - and do not have access to her Concerto. In that case, replace the rotation’s Intro with the BA+Forte chain.
Parry Windows
Disclaimer: This is a work-in-progress section and will be updated as we learn more.
Within melee range, The Shorekeeper is able to parry with all four of her basic attacks, Dodge Counter and plunge attack. Note that a successful dodge will chain into Basic Attack 2.
Both her normal heavy attack and its Forte variant Illation are able to parry incoming strikes as well.
The Shorekeeper’s normal Intro is not able to deflect attacks, but its enhanced variant is able to do so.
Finally, neither her Resonance Skill or Resonance Liberation are able to parry.
Character Synergies
As a character tailor-made to fill in the support role, The Shorekeeper will synergise well with almost every Resonator in the game, save those filling the same role as her.
Team Comps
Premium
Budget
Skill Priority
- Intro Skill
- Resonance Liberation
- Resonance Skill
- Forte Circuit
- Basic Attack
In order to end encounters quicker, before the team really needs her healing, it is preferred to prioritise Shorekeeper’s Intro skill. Its enhanced variant, Discernment, is the only attack in her kit that scales with her max HP and is guaranteed to critically strike, while also providing a good chunk of healing to the whole party.
Her Resonance Liberation is a very close second in priority, with its levels increasing the background healing it provides to characters within range. Finally, level her Resonance Skill to squeeze in both some healing and damage - however small the latter might be.
The Shorekeeper’s Forte Circuit and Basic Attacks nodes only increase her individual damage. Because both scale with her ATK, the stat she doesn’t want to increase for herself, they are safe to either skip or level last.
Weapons
With her Resonance Liberation’s buff scaling gimmick in mind, The Shorekeeper’s best choice of weapon is her signature rectifier Stellar Symphony. Please at least pretend to be surprised. It offers an obscene amount of Energy Regen, as well as extra max HP and Concerto. On top of that, every time she heals anyone - regardless if that actually restores their health or not - the weapon will provide the whole team with extra ATK for 30s. And yes, it works extremely well on Verina and Baizhi too.
If pulling for her weapon is not an option, then the next best choice is Variation, a 4★ rectifier that is somehow harder to get than most five-stars. Aside from granting a high amount of ER%, it pays for keeping its extra Concerto gain with dropping every other bonus it might’ve had instead. This is beneficial however, as it allows Shorekeeper to keep her rotation short.
Rectifier#25 is an easier accessible flipside to Variation, offering The Shorekeeper the same amount of Energy Regen bonus while dropping the extra Concerto gain in favour of some ATK... which realistically does nothing for her. Using this rectifier will have you extend the combo with additional basic attacks to make up for the Concerto Energy loss.
If neither of the better options are available, Rectifier of Voyager is a valid stand-in, with the caveat of locking you into the double ER% Echo setup in order to meet the Energy Regen quota for her Liberation buff.
| Weapon Name | Energy Regen % | Extra Concerto Gain | Notes |
| Stellar Symphony | 77% | 8/10/12/14/16 | Best-in-class performance for The Shorekeeper and rectifier supports in general. Provides a metric ton of Energy Regen, buffs the whole team with extra ATK when healed by the wearer, and the extra Concerto Energy on skill use helps keep rotations short. The extra HP granted is nothing spectacular, but it's welcome nonetheless, boosting Shorekeeper’s Intro damage and overall healing. |
| Variation | 51.8% | 8/10/12/14/16 | The premium budget choice for a utility weapon. Provides a high amount of Energy Regen bonus and extra Concerto Energy to keep character rotations short and consistent. Extras not included. |
| Rectifier#25 | 51.8% | --- | Functionally Variation with a different paint job. Drops the extra Concerto Energy for some ATK, which doesn’t do a lot since The Shorekeeper doesn’t build ATK. The difference in Concerto gain forces Shorekeeper to cast a few extra basic attacks to make up for it. |
| Rectifier of Voyager | 32.3% | 8/9/10/11/12 | The bottom-of-the-barrel choice that, surprisingly, isn’t useless like usual. Provides just enough ER% to just barely function with The Shorekeeper’s Resonance Liberation. Unlike the other three listed however, it requires a double ER% Echo setup to do so, regardless of substats. |
On the off-chance that you’ve somehow managed to not acquire any of the options listed above, or you are building The Shorekeeper in a less orthodox way, you may reference the following table for your alternate weapon choices. Standard legal clause of it not being advised applies.
Echoes
Sonata effects
| Set Effect | Comparison | Notes |
| Rejuvenating Glow 5p | N/A | The most obvious choice for a support sonata. Grants more healing and buffs the whole team with more ATK. Ol’ reliable. |
| Moonlit Clouds 5p | N/A | Used to buff the DPS units on Outro with extra ATK. As the set is more likely to be run on the sub-DPS already and the effect is impossible to stack with itself, there is never a realistic reason to use it on The Shorekeeper. |
| Celestial Light 5p | N/A | The less orthodox set for when you really want to have Shorekeeper deal damage. Provides a hefty amount of Spectro% damage bonus tied to Shorekeeper using her Intro. Realistically, it puts The Shorekeeper somewhere around Yangyang and Taoqi in the damage output competition. Did I mention building her to be a damage dealer is a bad idea? It’s a bad idea. |
Active Echo Recommendation
Rejuvenating Glow: Bell-Borne Geochelone - A universally strong choice of an Echo, providing a team-wide 10% All-DMG Amplify effect and a shield blocking 50% of incoming damage for the next three hits on use. It does not stack with itself if multiple characters use its active effect. Contrary to a surprisingly common misconception, the damage amplification effect is actually better than the Fallacy’s ATK bonus due to its multiplication of the end damage number after all other modifiers. See table for comparison.
Rejuvenating Glow: Fallacy of No Return - The flipside to Bell-Borne Geochelone, offering a team-wide buff of 10% ATK Bonus and 10% ER Bonus, as well as scaling its damage dealt with the user’s max HP.
In practice however, it should be called a Fallacy of No Benefit, as its team buff on average proves itself weaker than Geochelone’s by a noticeable margin, the damage it deals is not enough to cover the difference, no character will ever realistically be enabled or fixed by its 10% extra ER if built properly, and its effect on Shorekeeper’s crit bonus is an afterthought at most. Cool new Echo, Kuro!
Even if we take the argument of “enemies can break the shield and the turtle’s buff will disappear!” into account, we run into the following consequence: if they broke the shield, it means you most likely needed it; and if they did not, then you have no reason to use Fallacy’s inferior buff.
To humour the question of what would need to happen for Fallacy of No Return to end up better than the Bell-Borne Geochelone in the vast majority of cases, either the Echo would need to provide over 24% ATK (instead of the current 10%) or the character using it would need to have over 100k max HP to make up the difference through raw damage. Good luck doing that outside of Illusive Realm.
Rejuvenating Glow: Whiff Whaff - A half-decent choice of an active Echo for when you’re just starting out and can’t easily farm Bell-Borne Geochelone. It lacks any buffs and its damage is very far from spectacular - especially on a character that doesn’t build ATK like The Shorekeeper - but when combined with Shorekeeper’s pull effect on her Forte attack, it can be used to stall enemies and generate some extra energy for it.
Main stats
| Cost | Stat |
| 4 | Healing % / Crit DMG % |
| 3 | Energy Regen % |
| 3 | HP % / Spectro% / Energy Regen % |
| 1 | HP % |
| 1 | HP % |
The Shorekeeper’s main Echo stats mostly depend on whether you prefer to use a more offensive or defensive setup.
For an offensive setup, it is recommended to use a 4-Cost Echo with Crit DMG% bonus and a 3-Cost Echo with Spectro% bonus in order to boost Shorekeeper’s enhanced Intro skill as much as possible without sacrificing her healing potential. Though the damage still won’t be anything phenomenal pre-Resonance 6, it’s still a noticeable improvement.
For a more defensive setup, The Shorekeeper will prefer to use a 4-Cost Echo with Healing% bonus and a 3-Cost Echo with HP% to boost her healing output across the board. Realistically you shouldn’t ever need this much healing, potentially being able to heal most characters for up to 200% of their health bar, but it’s a valid option to go for.
Regardless of preference, you will want the remaining 3-Cost Echo to be Energy Regen in order to give yourself more wiggle room with substat RNG. Keep in mind that if you’re using Rectifier of Voyager, you will want both 3-Cost Echoes to be ER% regardless of your choice - this is because otherwise you won’t reach the minimum required Energy Regen to execute Shorekeeper’s skill rotation consistently, let alone get close to her crit buff cap.
A 4-4-1-1-1 setup, while now possible to use thanks to the Fallacy of No Return, is highly not recommended, as it either fails to match a standard offensive setup (with 2x Crit DMG%) or doubles down on the existing problems of the defensive setup (with 2x Healing%). On top of that, it creates a new problem of being both reliant on having Stellar Symphony and being unable to hit the Resonance Liberation’s buff cap without high-rolling all five ER% substats.
Sub stats priority
| Sub Stat Priority |
| Energy Regeneration (until 130~140%) > HP% > Crit DMG = Resonance Liberation DMG > ATK% = Flat ATK |
The Shorekeeper has two bonus Energy Regen targets to clear. The first one is 100% (200% on stats screen) - this is the line of basic functionality under which she fails to consistently execute her skill rotation.
The second one is within the range of 130% and 140% (230~240% on stats screen). Within that range, she will execute her rotation consistently regardless of team she’s in and either hit, or be close enough to hitting, her Resonance Liberation’s crit rate/damage bonus cap thanks to her Inherent Skill Self Gravitation granting her another 10% while any character is affected by her Liberation.
And no, The Shorekeeper really doesn’t want Crit Rate at all - her only skill that actually deals damage, the enhanced Intro Discernment, is a guaranteed critical strike regardless of her critical strike chance.
