When Cygames said they were giving us new characters with unique kits, I’m tempted to think that was their way of saying there were going to try to pass up Gala Cleo in power level. It’s too soon to say if Chelsea is actually that good, and the fact that she’s at least weak to Water hinders her in cross content applicability, but what is certain is that she has the potential to have some of the highest DPS of any Adventurer.

Chelsea’s S1 is a basic damage ability on it’s own, neither particularly hard hitting nor weak. However, once you roll her S2 Obsession into the mix, her S1 gains a self sustain aspect, healing for 5% of the damage done (capping at a maximum of 49% of your max HP for the entire skill). That’s pretty good already, but Obsession does a whole lot more. With a rather quick charge up time of only 7000 SP (low for an S2), you can activate Obsession almost immediately to gain a self buff of 30% Strength. This is on top of another 30% Strength buff from Chelsea’s passive Obsessive Love, though it also lowers her defense by 20%. This comes at a cost however, causing Chelsea to take 3% damage for every hit while Obsession is active. Or at least, it would be at a cost, if Chelsea didn’t get 20% Strength and 10% attack rate increase when her HP was 30% or below. This makes Chelsea very similar to Natalie, and players familiar with her will know that both Natalie and Chelsea will be high risk, high reward.

What this means is that Chelsea players will have to walk a fine line. They’ll need to use their S1 at the right times in a fight to keep themselves alive when they’re going to take a hit, like during Storm Chaser in HMS for example, but the rest of the time they’ll want to keep their HP low to maximise damage output. Since Obsession lasts 60 seconds, you can easily keep it up for nearly the entire fight, keeping in mind that you have 20% lower defense and are draining your own HP while Obsession is active.

Now normally, a character as powerful as Chelsea would get an unconditional Yes from me. A constant 30% Strength skill increase and an additional passive 30% Strength and 10% attack rate plus an HP conditional 20% strength and 10% attack rate lead to Chelsea putting up monster numbers. However, this comes with a caveat: Due to her lowered Defenses and the need to redline her HP, Chelsea has one of the highest skill floors we’ve ever seen. An inexperienced or poor player will simply have a bad time with Chelsea. Any additional avoidable damage, a mistiming of your self heal, or taking a big hit when your defense is reduced will lead to a dead yandere rabbit. And as the wisdom of ancient gamers says: “Dead DPS does no DPS.”

If however you are willing to learn a challenging character and push your abilities to the limit, Chelsea has a ludicrously high skill ceiling and damage potential. Chelsea is poised to make a huge impact on the metagame, and though I’m hesitant to say she’s Gala Cleo levels of metagame warping (mostly because unlike Gleo, Chelsea’s buffs are only for her and not your whole team) she could very well be close to or even across that line. Thus, while Chelsea more than earns a “Yes” for summoning, it comes with a caveat. This is in comparison to Gleo, who requires relatively little skill to get maximal use out of, and has much broader cross elemental applicabilty. Gleo would be an unqualified yes, while Chelsea comes with a warning label.

Verdict: Yes, but be warned. You are going to have to play at a higher level to get the most out of Chelsea. Inexperienced players or those with poor internet connections may want to pass instead.