Can Nico Use This? - A Nico Character Guide

Pull pranks and ruin save Christmas with this character guide for Nico.

Introduction

Parts of this guide are undergoing updates. Please excuse the mess.

Nico is a character that thrives on chance and confusion. The nature of her passive means that she can play gift cards that would harm most characters in order to boost her star collection. Her hyper Miracle Walker gives her access to every hyper card in the game, albeit randomly. Once she converts her hand, her opponents will have to think twice when dealing with her. Will she counter my attack with Blue Crow the Second? Will she use Delta Field to ruin my day if I don't? What if she combos Cooking Time into a Magical Massacre? Anything can happen with Nico around.



Play Nico if:

• You thrive in chaos and enjoy sowing it wherever you go.
  
• You get a warm tingly feeling when you land on a blue treasure chest.
  
• You want to play powerful cards.
  
• You played as Claptrap in Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel.

Pros

• Immune to the bad effects of gift cards like Unlucky Charm and Banned for Life.
  
• Can gather stars more quickly than most characters.
  
• Can transform junk cards into powerful hyper cards.
  
• Has access to almost every hyper card in the game thanks to Miracle Walker.
  
• Can easily obtain multiple hyper cards.

Cons

• Low health means she is easily picked on.
  
• Poor in combat without battle cards.
  
• Weak to discard effects.
  
• Miracle Walker is unpredictable. Hypers that you get from it aren't always useful.
  
• Playing lots of hyper cards can be expensive.

Unit Card

HP: 4 | ATK: 0 | DEF: 0 | EVD: +1 | REC: 5

No effect from Gift cards.
Gain X additional stars from all sources, where X is the number of Gift cards in hand.
Can hold 4 cards.

Nico's stats are decent, but not amazing. While her low health and neutral DEF means that she is liable to taking big hits and being KOed, her +1 EVD help mitigate small attacks and can sometimes save you from a large lethal hit. Her 5 REC is on par with most characters, but a bit high for someone with such low health and defense.

The wall of text that is her passive can be broken down into three abilities.

The first blocks the effects of all gift cards. This includes positive effects, such as the speed boost of Windy Enchantment as well as negative effects like Unlucky Charm. It even allows you to complete normas while holding cards that would normally prevent you from doing so. It does not negate the cost of playing the gift card to discard it and negates effects that would pass the card to another player, so be careful with cards like Unlucky Charm and Banned For Life.

The second gives her extra stars any time she receives stars. The bonus is equal to the number of gift cards Nico is currently holding. Stars gained from the start of chapter, bonus panels, traps, battles and anywhere else are subject to this bonus.

The last gives her the ability to hold an extra card in her hand, just like Aru. This synergizes with your hyper, allowing you to convert more cards than would normally be possible.

Hyper Card

Miracle Walker

Type: Boost
Level Requirement: 3
Cost: 0

Turn all your cards, including this one, into random Hyper cards.
You may play one more card this turn.

Miracle Walker converts all of the cards in Nico's hand into random hyper cards. Nico can receive the hyper cards of any playable character in the game, not just the ones participating in your current match. In addition, Nico will be able to play an additional card the turn she plays this, so she can use one of her hypers immediately provided that she has the stars to pay for it.

The unpredictable nature of this hyper means that you can get anything from an amazing battle card like Blue Crow the Second to something entirely too situational like Final Surgery. Because of this, try to play Miracle Walker when your hand is full or close to being full if you need the cards sooner. It will increase your chances of getting something good. However, you may want to hold off of playing this card if you are in possession of one or more gift cards. Since gift cards give Nico some extra star generation, holding on to them can be better for your end game than taking a roll at some hyper cards now.

Behind the scenes, this card actually discards your hand and creates X new hyper cards for you, so there isn't any way to turn your cards back. If they are stolen or shuffled into the deck, they will not turn back into the card that they replaced.

Hyper Rankings

I went through all of the hyper cards that Nico can receive from Miracle Walker and ranked them similar to the way that I rank cards for deckbuilding. Since you don't get to chose the cards you get, use this as a measure of how situational each of these cards are. A fair amount of this is subjective and different game states call for different cards, so take these rankings with a grain of salt.

Gifts were omitted since they all get their effects negated by Nico's passive. They will help you get stars over time but can't be used to be sent to other players. Overall, they are nice to have for the extra star generation, which is far more useful than some of the cards on this list.

S: Incredible. This card will definitely swing the game in your favor.

A: Powerful. Good in most situations.

B: Very Good. Almost as good as A, but has consistency issues holding it back.

C: Average. Not the best, but better than some other cards. Somewhat useful.

D: Poor. Useful in specific circumstances, but disappointing otherwise.

F: Awful. Literally does nothing, too expensive for what it does, or harms you more than it helps.

Overview

Gifts	Banned for Life Beast Witch Miracle Red Bean Ice Cream Santa's Job
S	Guidance of the Weathercock Magical Inferno Present for You Ubiquitous
A	Accelerator Another Ultimate Weapon Big Bang Bell Blue Crow the Second Ellie's Miracle Hyper Mode Plushie Master Special Stage
B	Beyond Hell Chef, I Could Use Some Help! Delta Field Deploy Bits Extraordinary Specs Reflective Shell Reproduction of Records Revival of Stars Rivals Rocket Cannon Big Rocket Cannon Saint Eyes Self Destruct Star Collector Waruda Machine, Blast Off! Witch's Hair Lock Zealous Salesman
C	Angel/Devil Hand Awakening of Talent Binding Chains Blazing! Cooking Time Crystal Barrier Evil Spy Work - Preparation Jonathan Rush Leap Through Space Lulu's Lucky Egg Magical Massacre Observer of Eternity Raging Madness Protagonist's Privilege Stealth On Upshift
D	Air Strike Dance in the Moonlit Night Do Pirates Fly In The Sky? Evil Mastermind Final Surgery Full Speed Alicianrone Gamble! Golden Egg Ideal World Immovable Object Intelligence Officer Little Magnum New Nobility Overseer Safe Journey Solid Witch Star Blasting Fuse Subspace Tunnel Sweet Guardian Turbo Charged x16 Big Rocket
F	Branch Expansion Strategy Rbit Hobby Shop Cast Off Extended Photon Rifle Melting Memories Twilight-Colored Dream Whimsical Windmill White Christsmasher

Hyper Rankings - S

Image	Name	Review
	Guidance of the Weathercock	This card not only lets Nico keep her distance from characters who would try to fight her, but it also massively increases her star gathering. It is insanely good on large maps, but a little less good on smaller ones.
	Magical Inferno	While this card is incredibly powerful, it is also situational. It's range and extremely high star cost make it difficult to use, but when everything lines up correctly you can easily steal games with this card. The advantage you have over Mio with this card is that your opponents will not see it coming and can't play around it.
	Present for You	This card is great for refilling Nico's hand after using Miracle Walker, gives you a boatload of stars, and even helps you draw more Miracle Walkers. It does, however, require you and your opponents to have empty hands to get the most out of it and helps your opponents draw cards as well.
	Ubiquitous	Free map mobility and you get to steal stars? No wonder Poppo always wins.

Hyper Rankings - A

Image	Name	Review
	Accelerator	A powerful, but inconsistent card that lets you roll two dice for movement, combat, and spaces. This card turns even the relatively meek Nico into a powerful killing machine. Just keep in mind that this hyper can whiff if you roll poorly.
	Another Ultimate Weapon	Dump all your stars for a potentially massive combat boost. Try not to use this unless you are guaranteed to KO your opponent and will win enough stars to make up for most of the cost. Very strong, but also very risky as it can leave you bankrupt.
	Big Bang Bell	An AOE mine that can snag you a whole bunch of stars if it has a chance to charge up. Place this on a home base to deny normas or any other high value space like draw, bonus, or battle spaces depending on your opponents. Don't be afraid to trigger this card yourself if it means taking a couple of your opponents down with you.
	Blue Crow the Second	Gives you up to a +4 boost to ATK and DEF in battle depending on your hand for only 10 stars. Nico wants to keep a full hand in order to fuel Miracle Walker, so this synergizes with her. This card will also reduce your EVD, so don't play this at 1 HP unless you know you can KO your opponent before they can attack.
	Ellie's Miracle	This card turns Nico into an offensive powerhouse for two chapters. Certain cards like Shield Counter and Reverse Attribute Field will ruin your day however, causing you to waste a lot of stars. Be mindful of who your opponents are and whether they bring these kinds of cards.
	Hyper Mode	A cheap get-out-of-KO free card that doubles as an ATK boost. Play in battles that you know you won't survive in order to mitigate your down time and deny opponents wins. It can even serve as a discount Big Magnum if you need the offensive boost.
	Plushie Master	One of the best cards in the game for causing chaos on the battlefield. The traps it lays will damage opponents, severely reduce their attack for their next battle, and will heal you. Landing on one of these traps won't affect you but it will destroy the trap.
	Special Stage	Basically makes you unkillable for a few turns. Events will still affect you. If you manage to find some gifts after getting this it will boost the stars you get. You can even attack during this for some reason! The high late game cost and positioning issues are the only things holding this from A rank.

Hyper Rankings - B

Image	Name	Review
	Beyond Hell	Free to play and very strong as long as you have any damage. While it requires you to be low on health to make a big difference, this card can quickly turn you from an easy kill to the one doing the killing.
	Chef, I Could Use Some Help!	Hire Sora Chef to fight on your behalf, protecting your stars and slightly increasing your ATK. Chef does a great job of absorbing hits in battle and can even net you some wins. Keep in mind that you will be unable to play battle cards to assist Chef.
	Delta Field	This card gives you the upper hand in combat and severely limits enemy movement. Use it to clean up after a fight, keep opponents stationary, or force someone to land the next space in front of them (particularly Boss panels).
	Deploy Bits	While this card is less reliable than Blue Crow the Second due to the random stat distribution, it is also capable of much higher boosts. The relatively low cost makes it a strong defensive card with good offensive potential.
	Extraordinary Specs	While not as explosive as Accelerator, Extraordinary Specs is a much more consistent tool for slamming opponent. Just keep in mind that Nico's mediocre offensive stats can fail to KO the opponent if they use a battle defensive battle card or even just roll really well.
	Reflective Shell	This is a great defensive battle card that absorbs damage and lets you hit back hard. Don't be afraid to block low attack rolls to gain some ATK, the shield will block the damage.
	Reproduction of Records	While situational, this card allows you to copy the last two cards that were discarded by any player. This includes hyper cards, but not ones created with Miracle Walker due to the fact that they get removed from the game after being played. Instead, use it to copy the hypers of opponents or get back cards you discarded with Miracle Walker. The cards you create are even free and not bound by level restrictions!
	Revival of Stars	This card is really helpful for maintaining a lead by removing troublesome panels and by nerfing the ATK of your opponents. It isn't very helpful when you are already behind however.
	Rival	Does the same job as Johnathan rush with three major differences. First, this card boosts your ATK rather than decreasing the foe's DEF, making it better against evasive characters. Second, you do not move to the space of the player you are attacking. Finally, you can continue your turn as normal after using this card.
	Rocket Cannon	Nico doesn't really get many wins, but the poke damage can be useful for chipping someone into KO range, especially tanks. Being relatively cheap makes significantly more useful than other damaging hypers. You can even charge it up for more damage.
	Big Rocket Canon	It is possible to pull a pre-charged Big Rocket Canon from Miracle Walker. Just remember that playing another card will turn it back into regular Rocket Cannon.
	Saint Eyes	This card provides a decent offensive stat boost for a low price. It can be especially strong if you pull multiple copies of it, as the boosts stack. Just remember that you don't get the stat boosts when you are attacked.
	Star Collector	It's free stars. Stars that you steal from your opponents with no effort on your part. Neat.
	Self Destruct	If you know you are going to be KO'd in a battle, this can help save your stars while punishing the opponent. At 1 HP you can even suicide into opponents by defending against their attack.
	Waruda Machine, Blast Off!	This is a similar boost to Blue Crow the Second, but relies it on the opponent's hand instead of yours. Since you can't control this factor, it is a bit less reliable.
	Witch's Hair Lock	This is an amazing utility hyper. It can be used to keep an opponent from moving or to force them to land on a detrimental space space twice. You can even play it on yourself to hold your position or to level up two turns in a row if you meet the requirements.
	Zealous Salesman	For the low low price of free, you get a bunch copies of Tactical Retreat. The only issues are that your hand is usually full when you get this and the Freight can be easily countered by battle cards. At worst it's a few extra stars next time you return to your home base or some extra cards to transform with Miracle Walker. Just remember, Freight are battle cards, not gifts!

Hyper Rankings - C

Image	Name	Review
	Angel Hand	Use this card to heal an opponent with high base HP to gain a bunch of stars. You can also use it to deny a bully a KO. Worst case scenario, this ends up being a 3-star pudding that may or may not cost a few stars. On even-numbered turns, it becomes Devil Hand.
	Devil Hand	This mode is significantly more risky, as you can't chose the target. If you are willing to get hit with this every once in a while, it can be a great tool for weakening tanks. Use when the players are at 4 or more health to make the cost back. KOed players can't be hit with this, increasing the odds of hitting your intended target. On odd-numbered turns, this turns back into Angel Hand.
	Awakening of Talent	Roll fives for everything this turn. It may not be as powerful as Extraordinary Specs and it doesn't have the burst potential of Accelerator, but it makes up for it by being cheaper and having the option to play it as a battle card.
	Binding Chains	Stop everyone else from acting for a turn and reduce their EVD for only 10 stars. This card is good for catching up to players or putting distance between you. Also lets you get an easy hit on evasion based characters.
	Blazing!	The attack boost is nice, but the defense drop makes it easier for you to be KOed by strong attacks. Make sure the boost has a good chance of letting you take a KO or you will be in a bad position for a painful counterattack, especially if you tagged your opponent with the buff as well.
	Cooking Time	Get a bunch of stars for healing everyone. Nico don't have Natsumi's star-generating passive, so you will earn fewer stars if you play this card. Use it mostly for the heal, as the scaling cost will make it hard to make a profit late game.
	Crystal Barrier	This will quickly deplete your health, but is useful for denying attackers from KOing you and destroying traps. Use it to protect your lead or to avoid Boss panels.
	Evil Spy Work - Preparation	Puts four special gift cards into the deck. These gifts will hurt your opponents unless they discard them, but have no effect on you other than boosting your stars. The cost of this card can be easily made up if you manage to pull a couple of gifts from it. Wait until the deck is almost out for the best chance of drawing them.
	Jonathan Rush	Jump on an enemy and steal their lunch money from anywhere on the map. Make sure they are injured or you have some strong battle cards before you commit to an attack.
	Leap Through Space	Place a mark, then gain a card that warps you to the mark and slows everyone around it. Feel free to reroll the warp card for another hyper, but make sure to place a mark beforehand. You have no reason not to place the mark, as the card is free, replaces itself, and any marks you get later will transform into warps.
	Lulu's Lucky Egg	Every effect this card can produce is insanely good for Nico. The stat boost turns her into a Suguri with positive defense, the cards give her a whole new hand of gift cards or cards to convert, and the stars help her complete normas. The high cost, HP restriction, and RNG make it risky to play however.
	Magical Massacre	While situational, this can be a good card to delaying your opponents and reducing your REC. Try not to KO yourself with it unless you are taking everyone else with you so you can revive quickly.
	Observer of Eternity	This card will give you two damaging cards, including hyper cards. While most damaging cards are situational at best on Nico, this card is a free +1 to your next Miracle Walker hand at worst.
	Protagonist's Privilege	Nico doesn't really have the stats to back this one up as an offensive tool. She can however use it to more of less negate boss encounters for a few turns or hang behind opponents that would defeat her in battle.
	Raging Madness	Without the ability to stack rage counters, this card becomes a small but noticeable stat boost. Whether the 30 star cost is worth it or not depends on whether you can pick up a KO on your target or whether they get KO'd before you have a chance to face them in battle.
	Stealth On	This can be used for the ATK boost or to avoid confrontation for a few turns. The stealth effect is lost when you enter a battle, so try to avoid encounter panels if you used this to avoid battles.
	Upshift	You aren't Lone Rider, so this just makes you a little faster. It's alright, mostly because it's cheap for a semi-permanent speed boost.

Hyper Rankings - D

Image	Name	Review
	Air Strike	If you are far ahead, this card can be a decent way to trip up your opponents, especially if one or two of them are low. The high star cost makes very situational though.
	Do Pirates Fly In The Sky?	The effectiveness of this card tends to be matchup dependent. Bulkier characters will be far less bothered by the traps than squishier ones. If your pirate rolls well, it has the potential to deal a lot of damage and net you a bunch of stars while setting someone back immensely. However the 20 star cost makes playing this card hard to justify.
	Evil Mastermind	Nico doesn't generally put traps in her deck, so the usefulness of this card depends on your opponents. It usually just ends up a mediocre way to refill your hand for a Miracle Walker, although it is prone to whiffing if your opponents aren't playing traps.
	Final Surgery	Deny KOs, including on your self, and get some stars too. It is much more situational for Nico than Kiriko due to the fact that you can just heal rather than off yourself. Nico doesn't even bring the same support cards Kiriko does to make this hyper shine.
	Full Speed Alicianrone	President's Privilege can help soften the blow to your wallet, but this card is really only useful for getting home faster late game. Wins aren't a reliable norma condition for Nico, so using this to get them is generally a waste of stars. At least Nico has the star generation to take advantage of the speed it can provide.
	Gamble!	You know that meme where Yuki always KOs herself with this? You can do that with Nico too. Use only as a last resort if a bully is after you. You may either KO them or deny them by KOing yourself.
	Golden Egg	This trap ruins star collectors by treating the next three bonus panels they land on as drop panels instead. However, it can be tough to get opponents to land on it due to it being a trap. Keep in mind that you are not a chicken and will suffer the same fate if you land on your own trap.
	Ideal World	This places a trap on your home as well. This mild annoyance isn't worth 20 stars unless you are desperate to stop a norma.
	Immovable Object	Prevent someone from passing by you without a fight. Use this to pick off a low health enemy who is trailing behind you.
	Intelligence Officer	Nico can't use this to spy on the deck due to that effect being part of Arnelle's passive. Since you have no way to see the deck, you will also have no way to know what stat boost you will get. An unknown effect for 20 stars is pretty risky.
	Little Magnum	While this card can be used to blow out an attacker, Nico struggles to make the best use of it due to her low HP and defenses. Oftentimes, the hit to your HP required to get a solid counterattack in isn't worth the risky position it puts you in later.
	New Nobility	Since Nico can't turnt his card into Affluence and stack it like Fernet can, all you can do with it is debuff your opponents slightly in their next battle. At least the effect is free.
	Overseer	At best, this is an expensive get-out-of-battle-free card while the boss is out. Nico really doesn't want the boss to be out, so it's other use case is rarely useful or wise.
	Safe Journey	This card is extremely situational. It can serve as a counter card against trap characters like Krila or sniping characters like Suguri 46BY or on boards with lots of drop and damage panels. The 5 star per turn cost and make it hard to justify playing outside of these circumstances.
	Solid Witch	A single turn of invincibility. Use this card to fight people on boss panels or to stay behind scary opponents by attacking them.
	Star Blasting Fuse	While Star Breaker's invisible bombs are a terrifying thing for opponents to land on, the high cost of this card makes it generally not worth playing. Even with something like Rival or Leap Through Space, the bombs can be hard to take advantage of.
	Subspace Tunnel	Nico doesn't get bonuses from warping like Poppo does, so this one doesn't end up doing much. You can at least use it as an emergency escape tool though.
	Sweet Guardian	Draws you some cards to convert into hypers. Might get you some Pudding if you are lucky. The 20 star cost on this hurts due to the fact that you don't gain stats from holding pudding cards like QP (Dangerous) does.
	Turbo Charged	Nico's low base heath and mediocre ATK makes this card a bit difficult to take advantage of. With full health, this card boosts Nico to +3 ATK in exchange for putting her to 1 HP. Anything less than that tends to be not worth it. This card is risky, but can be useful if you have a large healing effect to play the next turn like Pudding or Dinner.
	X16 Big Rocket	Although this card is great for picking off opponents from across the map, the high star cost and Nico's inability to consistently get wins means it is better suited for dealing damage to an opponent before engaging them in battle.

Hyper Rankings - F

	Branch Expansion Strategy	The traps this creates are not a reliable enough source of stars, especially considering that you will likely have to sacrifice some hyper and gift cards to use it. Remember, Nico doesn't gain extra passive income from the shops simply existing like Arthur does. Your stars are better invested elsewhere.
	Rbit Hobby Shop	Yep, it's possible to get a single Rbit Hobby Shop. Careful not to get it confused with Branch Expansion Strategy, which gives you a bunch of these. Pulling this is like winning a box of tissues from the lottery.
	Cast Off	This card literally does nothing most of the time due to Nico's ATK and DEF both being 0. You are better off discarding this card for a regular card that you draw later.
	Extended Photon Rifle	It's random, it's a bit expensive, it doesn't do much, and Nico doesn't need the wins. Overall, it's just a waste of stars.
	Melting Memories	The reason this card is good for Sweet Breaker is because it interacts with her passive and turns her into a player-killing monster. You don't have that passive, so this just causes some minor confusion for a huge star cost. Feel free to play it using President's Privilege if you get the chance though.
	Twilight-Colored Dreams	Why would you pay so many stars to turn off bonus and draw panels and subject yourself to so many chances to be KO'd by a seagull?
	Whimsical Windmill	Even Sherry doesn't play this that much. Nico is much less suited for combat than she is, so playing this will range from dangerous to suicide depending on your opponents.
	White Christsmasher	The part that discards your hand makes this card horrible for Nico. Don't bother with this unless you can afford to lose your hand.

Stages of the Game

Level 1-2

Early game, scramble to draw as many cards as you can in order to find gift cards to start generating stars and fuel Miracle Walker later. Shift towards star collection once you have a gift or two.

Level 3-5

Once you hit level three, you have access to Miracle Walker. However, just because you can play Miracle Walker doesn't always mean that you should. Star collection your primary win condition, and Miracle Walker and many other Hyper cards are expensive. Try to hang on to your gift cards for as long as possible to acrue a star advantage over your opponents, then use Miracle Walker to gain tools to protect your lead.

If you do find a good opportunity to play Miracle Walker, do not throw out your hyper cards willy-nilly. If your opponents are playing really aggressively, save your battle cards for when they try to attack you. Play around your utility cards and try not to spend too many stars on cards.

The Boss

Nico's distress upon landing on a boss space isn't just for show. Bosses tend to have very high ATK and their high health and DEF means that you cannot hope to OHKO them with a lucky roll. You will be hard-pressed to make it out alive without a defensive battle card. Avoid boss spaces like the plague until it's health is low, then try and defeat it with the help of a battle card.

Deckbuilding Overview

Ranking

I use letter ranks to rate cards. Cards are sorted by type, then alphabetically within each tier. This is by no means an absolute measure of how powerful each card is. Feel free to use any cards you want to fit your strategy, although I advise against bringing F cards. When it comes down to it, play what you think will be the most fun for you.

S: Necessary. Godlike synergy or required for the character to function. (Note: Not every character has one of these.)

A: Powerful. A high priority card that will usually be in your deck.

B: Very Good. Not necessary, but should always be considered.

C: Average. Nice cards to have, but might be outclassed. Also includes situational cards.

D: Poor. Helps your opponents more than it helps you.

F: Awful. You are actively hurting yourself by bringing these cards.

Overview

S	Bloodlust Lost Child Metallic Monocoque Poppo the Snatcher Price of Power Unlucky Charm
A	Rainbow-Colored Circle Rbits Nice Present Windy Enchantment
B	Serious Battle Dash! Extend Nice Jingle President's Privilege Princess's Privilege Lucky Sevens
C	Accel Hyper Dark Side of Business Extension I'm On Fire! Portable Pudding Passionate Research Reverse Attribute Field Shield Shield Counter Tactical Retreat Backdoor Trade Mimic Overtime Path Blockers Pudding Saki's Cookie Stiff Crystal Accelerating Sky Dinner Here and There Home Improvement Mix Phenomenon Serene Hush We Are Waruda BanaNana Dangerous Pudding Encore For the Future of the Toy Store Go Away I Wanna See You Piggy Bank Sky Restaurant 'Pures'
D	Desperate Modification Big Magnum Quick Restoration Sink or Swim Ambush Completion Award Flip Out Gentleman's Battle Lonely Chariot Long-Distance Shot Sweet Destroyer Treasure Thief Cloud of Seagulls Forced Revival Indiscriminate Fire Support Oh My Friend Out of Ammo Party Time Pet Snacks Scary Solicitation Sealed Guardian Star-Blasting Light Super All-Out Mode Unpaid Work Assault Heat 300% Invasion Mimyuu's Hammer Piyopiyo Procession Poppoformation Sealed Memories Wanted
F	Deceptive Disarming Final Battle Gift Exchange Holy Night Little War Play of The Gods Scrambled Eve Lucky Charm Bad Pudding Brutal Prank Exchange Flamethrower Present Thief Tragedy in the Dead of Night

Cards of Note

Gift Cards

Gift cards have no effect on Nico, instead giving her an additional star every time she receives stars. In general, gifts with negative effects are the best for Nico to run due to the fact that they help her if she draws them, but hurt an opponent that gets them. Since there aren't enough negative gift cards to make a full deck, you will have to slot some in that are either mostly detrimental, or neutral in the hands of other players.

Unlucky Charm is by far Nico's best gift card as the only other characters that benefit from it are Star Breaker and a very desperate Tsih. Bloodlust and Poppo the Snatcher have downsides that will make many characters toss them at the soonest opportunity. Price of Power, Lost Child, Metallic Monocoque, and Windy Enchantment have pretty neutral effects that will rarely come back to bite you. If you still need more gift cards, Lucky Sevens is a viable, but more dangerous option to include. Lucky Charm is the only gift card that Nico should never run under any circumstance because it allows her opponents to match her enhanced star collection.

Card Draw

Gifts are important for Nico's game plan, so drawing cards to find them is often a high priority. Cards like Nice Present and Princess's Privilege will help you draw cards to find your gifts, refill after Miracle Walker, or reshuffle the deck faster if you missed out on your gifts. In addition, the trap Encore can be a good way to get more bang out of draw panels. The exception to this is Passionate Research. While it can reveal gift cards in the deck and grab Miracle Walker, this card will benefit your opponents more than it will benefit Nico. Unlike cards like Ubiquitous or Hyper Mode, duplicate copies of Miracle Walker are a waste of hand space.

Battle Cards

Rbits
Rainbow-Colored Circle
Tactical Retreat

Choices like Serious Battle and Shield Counter can also help Nico against opponents, especially ones with high base stats or powerful buffs. These same cards can also be used to counter some of Nico's powerful hyper cards, like Ellie's Miracle. Try not to be too obvious when playing your ace in the hole battle card if you decide to deck these.

Filler Cards

While not particularly exciting, these cards are decent enough in most situations to be worth thinking about putting in your deck. They can fill in the empty spots if you are going for a more general deck or if your collection is a bit lacking.

Dash!
Extend
Pudding
Saki's Cookie
Here and There
Mix Phenomenon

Counter Cards

Hand Control

Discard effects are the bane of Nico's existence. She depends on her cards at all stages of the game, and being affected by any one of these effects can be a huge disaster for her. Brutal Prank, Play of the Gods, and Exchange also fall into this category.

Star Generation

One of Nico's greatest advantages is her increased star generation. By playing these cards, you are giving your opponents the possibility to match your star generation and throwing your lead out the window.

Sample Decks

DLC Free

1x Price of Power
1x Bloodlust
1x Poppo the Snatcher
1x Lost Child
1x Lucky Sevens
1x Nice Present
1x Princess's Privilege
2x Rbits
1x Rainbow-Colored Bits

I hope you've been grinding for lots of stars, because even without DLC you're going to need a lot of community packs and luck to pick up those gift cards. These five gifts are the only ones you will have access to without DLC, so you can't afford to be picky with your choices. Nice Present and Princess's Privilege will assist you in finding these gifts. The last three cards are up pretty open. I have included Rbits and Rainbow-Colored Circle as defensive battle cards, but any filler will work here depending on how threatened you feel by your opponents.

Example Deck

1x Unlucky Charm
1x Poppo the Snatcher
1x Metallic Monocoque
1x Price of Power
1x Bloodlust
1x Lost Child
1x Nice Present
2x Encore
1x Here and There

This deck is mostly gift cards and draw effects. With a deck like this, you will mostly be relying on your opponents cards for defensive support. Encore and Here and there are swappable for other cards to suit your needs.

Jank

2x Mimic
1x Nice Present
2x Gift Exchange
1x Holy Night
1x Scrambled Eve
1x Unlucky Charm
1x Metallic Monocoque
1x Price of Power

Some people just want to watch the world burn. If you are one of those people, then this deck may bring you some joy. You won't win, but it will be funny to see all those hypers getting tossed around all over the place.

Who To Watch Out For

Offense Characters

Nico's low health and defenses mean that characters with high attack will be able to do a lot of damage to her. Battle cards will help you survive and some hypers will even let you turn the tables on them, but Nico should avoid these characters if possible. After level 3, you will have more tools to avoid or fight these characters.

High Base Stats

Characters like Marc, Tomomo, or Sherry will often employ discard cards in their deck to force opponents to fight against their strong base stats unassisted. Nico is especially vulnerable to these types of cards and is at a huge disadvantage against them in combat. Keep your distance from these characters and try to build a star advantage with your gifts while you still have them.

Tsih

Tsih also likes to run a lot of gift cards, so you two will be fueling each other's passives. While you will be able to gather stars more quickly, Tsih will almost constantly have a +2 ATK boost. Paired with her hyper Stealth On and Super All-Out Mode, her ATK stat alone is sometimes enough to OHKO you. Stay away from her and save your best battle cards to deal with her when she comes around looking to KO you.

Sumika

Sumika's offensive stats make her a threat to an unarmed Nico, but her hyper is is what you really have to watch out for. Reproduction of Records allows Sumika to copy the last two cards that were discarded. Although it does not copy the hyper cards created by Miracle Walker, she can potentially grab Miracle Walker if you discard it with another card to fuel it. She can also use it to pick up gift cards that she knows you were holding before using Miracle Walker. This matchup is highly skill dependent on the Sumika's end. If she knows what she's doing, you could be in big trouble however.

Sweet Breaker

Her hyper Melting Memories will reveal your hand to everyone but you and cause you to replace one of the cards. Although the positions are the same, you will be playing cards blindly until you figure out which one was replaced. In addition, your increased hand size will come back to bite you in the butt, giving her a up to +4 boost to all of her stats if your hand is full of reversed cards. Dump your hand ASAP if she uses Melting Memories behind you and try to stay away from her if you can. Do not play Melting Memories unless you want to entice her into KOing another player.

Arnelle

Arnelle has the ability to see the top card of the deck while holding her hyper Intelligence Officer. Since it isn't a gift card you won't even know when she is watching your every draw. With this knowledge, an attentive Arnelle player can deny you crucial cards from the top on the deck. An attack boost from Intelligence Officer can easily KO you as well.

Co-op

Nico is unchanged in co-op mode. Miracle Walker is the main reason to pick her over other characters due to the sheer card power it is capable of giving her and her team. While fun to play, she struggles on harder difficulties where consistency is king. Dealer has the highest synergy with her kit, allowing her to send Miracle Walker, gifts, and hyper cards to allies as well as boosting her hand size to 5, giving her and extra card from Miracle Walker. She does alright in the other roles, but other characters can do those roles better more consistently. Nico synergizes nicely with other gift-hoarding characters like Tsih, allowing her to boost the speed at which her team collects stars.

Attacker	Nico isn't the best attacker, but she does have some powerful hyper cards at her disposal that make her very strong in combat. If she can manage to find them that is.
Defender	Nico makes an alright defender. She can't dispense many shields thanks to her low HP though.
Support	Nico does well as a support thanks to her decent EVD and average bulk and REC. Hyper cards like Air Support and Cooking Time can be a big help to allies.
Avenger	Nico lacks the stats to make good use of this role, particularly in the HP department. Your avenger role level will need to be reasonably high to make this work.
Dealer	This role is the best way to make use of Nico's unique strengths. She needs to be able to draw cards for her hyper (including finding it) and the hand size bonus allows her to convert more cards. Giving hypers to characters that can make better use out of them, Hyper Mode to an attacker for example, is an effective way she can support her team.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you felt this guide was missing something.


Images: 100% Orange Juice Wiki[100orangejuice.gamepedia.com]


Click here for more OJ guides!

[Hugo]

Hypers that I disagree with the positions.
Reflective Shell:
Up from B to A.
Justify:It greatly increases the chance of survival and still has high chances of a heavy retaliation.
In addition to the cost being very low for great benefit, this certainly justifies the A Rank.

-

Awakening of Talent
Up from C to B.
Justify: Exactly same for Extraordinary Specs,5 is still an excellent number and you can handle a lot with it.
In addition to the cost being 10 stars less than Specs, you still have a chance to use it in battle if you get caught somehow.

-

Safe Journey
Up from D to C
Justify:In addition to your justifications being worth a C, you can also use Safe Journey near your house and mark a norm in it with a trap.

Even "throwing the card away", this can still save your victory.

-

For the other hypers I have no disagreements or they are not enough to be mentioned here.

[Yozu]

Thank you for the in-depth guide and the frequent updates! Nico is so much fun to play.

[Tekkahedron]

I've been helping finish the wiki after a bit of an OJ hiatus. I have some other guides planed once that's wrapped up, but Arthur wasn't one of them. He will happen, but not for at least a month. Were there some specific questions you had about playing him?

[Puke!!!]

Arthur guide? =)

[Tekkahedron]

* Hyper rankings has been updated. The cards from the newest character pack have been added and a bunch of other cards have been moved around.

[Puke!!!]

I need an Arthur guide!!!

[Tekkahedron]

Thanks for the feedback

@Noob & Spammer How so? Is there not enough info or do you think I ranked/reviewed them poorly? I'm always open to suggestions.

* Fixed Banned for Life and Unlucky Charm. Playing them discards them instead of the usual effect. They still cost stars though.
* Fixed Blue Crow the Second. Didn't realize it counted itself.

[F IAaP n]

You can't send neither Unlucky Charm nor Banned For Life to other players. So the latter—along with Santa's Job and Miracle Red Bean Ice Cream is a dead hyper draw, that only useful for the increased star gain.

Also your hypers and cards ranking is pretty questionable as a whole.

[Fun Pak]

Blue Crow The Second (Peat's Hyper, +1/+1/-1 for each card in hand) counts itself as a card in hand - due to Nico's 4 card limit it can actually give up to +4 to Attack and Defense depending on her hand. You pull that with a max-value Miracle Walker and anyone who attacks you will wish they didn't.

[Kraleck]

Another Con: She cannot *benefit* from Gift Cards in the normal way, either.
-Want the +1 Attack from Miracle Red Bean Ice Cream? DENIED.
-Want the +1 Movement of Windy Enchantment? DENIED.
-Want the +1 Usable Card Level of Price of Power? DENIED.
-Have a Gift card in hand at all? Have more Stars generated per gain instead of some otherwise useful stuff! Yay!