Dagger Jackie Guide by shouix

A guide for aspiring Jackie players on how to build, search, and fight using a dagger. (Image drawn by yeniu)

Introduction

Hi, I am shouix, and as of when I started writing this guide, I am the 4th ranked player in the Eternal Return: Black Survival closed beta.
Jackie is by far my favorite character in this game, and she is currently one of the strongest test subjects. With two abilities dedicated to movement, Jackie is able to quickly catch up to and kill any test subject that she finds.

Abilities

Passive: Bloodfest
When Jackie slays an enemy, her attack power is enhanced for 20/30/40 seconds.
Slaying another survivor or a beast increases her attack power by 8%.
Slaying any other wild animal increases her attack power by 3%.

This passive is very straightforward. It encourages something that is already good, which is killing animals that you pass by while looting. Past the first zone in a build, it is normal to kill any weak animals that you may come across in order to keep this buff.

Q:Slice and Dice
Jackie swings her weapon twice in the target direction and deals 20/40/60/80/100 + (0.45 AP), 30/50/70/90/110 + (0.65 AP) damage.
Hitting enemies causes them to Hemorrhage and receive 80/110/140/170/200 damage for 5 seconds.

Landing Slice and Dice is crucial to Jackie's ability to chase down a target. The horizontal range is bigger than people realize, so it is usually enough to cover any bush that you may find. People will likely use bushes to run from you, so if they choose to stay inside of it, a Q will normally connect. After landing this ability, Jackie will be able to slow targets with her E, so try to not toss out your Q too quickly.

W:Adrenaline Burst
By activating Adrenaline Burst, Jackie's movement speed increases by 15/18/21/24/27% for 5/5.5/6/6.5/7 seconds.
While Adrenaline Burst is active, she deals bonus damage when attacking a Hemorrhaging enemy and every attack heals 10/16/22/28/34 +(.1/.12/.15/.17/.2 AP) HP.

Adrenaline Burst is normally used right before a fight starts in order to close the distance. It is also used to run once you see the fight is not in your favor just yet. This ability is part of the reason why Jackie is so hard to catch for most survivors. This ability can be used very liberally, as you do not want to use E until your target is Hemorrhaging.

E:Leaping Strike
Jackie jumps to the target location and deals 10 + (0.5AP) / 80 + (0.6AP) / 150 + (0.7AP)/ 220 + (0.8AP)/ 290 + (0.9AP) damage upon landing.
Enemies that are Hemorrhaging have their movement speed decreased by 40% for 2.5 seconds.

Jackie can use Leaping Strike to jump through walls, allowing her to keep the pressure on any survivor. A lot of melee characters cannot use their movement abilities through walls, so this can also be used to quickly flee. This ability is very committal, so if you are not sure how the fight is going yet, do not jump in. Once you are in, it may be difficult to get out. Only jump on a target if they are bleeding, or if they are too far away to significantly punish you for it.

R:Chainsaw Murderer
Jackie takes out her chainsaw for 10/15/20 seconds.
Her attack speed increases by 30% and her basic attacks cause enemies to Hemorrhage.
When Chainsaw Murderer ends, she gives her chainsaw a big swing, dealing 300/500/800 + (1.0AP) damage before returning to using her previous weapon.

Jackie's ult should be used near the beginning of every fight to the death. Since her autos now Hemorrhage her target, Jackie's E will always be able to slow whoever she is chasing. This allows her to run faster than and quickly kill her target should they try to run. Once you turn your ult on, an icon will appear in your status bar showing how long it will last. Try your best to position near your target when the box is about to fade, as the chainsaw swing does a significant amount of damage.

D:Cloak and Dagger
Cloak: You become transparent for 2 seconds and your movement speed increases by 90%. Your movement speed will decrease again after 2 seconds.
Dagger: For 4 seconds, the dagger effect is added to the next normal attack. Attacking an enemy when the dagger effect is active moves you behind the enemy and deals critical damage.

Jackie's dagger ability is likely her strongest weapon ability. If you activate any ability during your invisibility, you will decloak. However, if you do use an ability, there is a 1-second window for your dagger effect to still trigger on your attack. This ability is used to close the distance to apply Hemorrhage with your ult, allowing you to approach in a way that is non-committal. Be aware that surveillance cameras will reveal you when invisible, and do not play like you're invisible when this happens.

Ability Sequence

Skills	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Q		X		X	X		X		X
W			X														X	X	X	X
E	X											X	X	X	X
R						X					X					X
Passive								X		X

Skill Order Explanation:
When you are looting your first area, fighting is a detriment to both you and whoever you are fighting. Regardless of how much damage you do to them, you will both be at least 30 seconds behind any survivor that did not have to fight. This means that starting E is best, as you can jump over walls in the Chapel to make sure that you loot faster.
Next, you will want to max Q, as it is her main damage spell. As an attack damage build, Jackie's abilities are not too crucial, but I would max her passive next, and then her E. Every time you skill up E, its cooldown will reduce by 2 seconds, making it more worth it compared to maxing W. Levelling your ult whenever possible is a given.

Gameplay Tips

I cannot predict every situation that will happen to you, but I'll try my best to show my mentality in how I take fights in Eternal Return.

• Be very attentive towards the red markers on the map. The exclamation points that appear will guide you towards other survivors, which will help you figure out either where to go, or where to stray away from, depending on how strong you feel you are.
  
  
• Jackie does not have high HP, and thus it may be hard to take sustained fights with her. If you notice you are losing, you can simply run away. Any character that is able to catch a target will also have the ability to be unwatchable. Make sure to activate food while running, and be ready to turn back around and finish the job.
  
  
• If you are able to, make sure to check the scoreboard and see the build of who you are fighting. If you notice that they have more purple items than you do, you do not need to take that fight. Jackie is an aggressive character, but aggression does not mean carelessness.
  
  
• Conversely, if you notice that their armor is incomplete, it may be worth your time to kill them before they get stronger. Your route is very fast, and the best way to remain strong is to kill people that can be stronger than you.
  
  
• Cloak and Dagger sending you behind a target is very important. This can be used to get behind frontal abilities like Isol's W, Aya's W, Fiora's Q, Yuki's ult, or Zahir's tornado.
  
  
• Jackie's dagger skill can be used right after an auto-attack to reset, allowing her to quickly burst a target. Use this to finish off unsuspecting targets, as they will likely not take a double attack into account when calculating your damage.
  
  
• Remember that your dagger skill makes you invisible. This means that if you're erratic in your movement, any target you single out should not be able to hit you with their abilities. Use your dagger skill with your ult to target problematic ranged survivors, and in the case of Aya, never jump until she uses her ultimate. If you eat an Aya ultimate, it is almost always your fault, barring other crowd control effects.

Build

Weapon: Carwennan
Chest: Crusader Armor
Head: Laurel Wreath
Arm: Radar
Leg: EOD Boots
Accessory: White Crane Fan

Potential Adjustments:

• Killing both pairs of wolves in hospital may drop a meteorite for you. If this is the case, create moonstone and make Cube Watch. This will allow you to drop the glass, paper, and piano wire from chapel, freeing up your inventory space to create health and stamina items.
  
• The White Crane Fan is in the build for ease of access. If you find somebody that has a stronger accessory (e.g. Veritas Lux Mea or Schrodinger's Box), go ahead and equip that instead.

Route:

This is my route, in a vacuum, to get every item that you need in five zones. If a build goes beyond needing 6 zones, it is most likely too greedy. To get a tree of life for Laurel Wreath, you will at some point need to teleport to a spawning location (hotel, forest, or graveyard, in that order), where you will likely have to fight. Be swift in grabbing items in the first three locations, or you'll find that you may be too weak to finish your build.

Chapel:
As of the writing of this guide, Chapel is currently a very contested area. This means that you need to be quick in taking the items that you need. The indicator above your map will say that there is a fan in the Chapel, but do not take one here. This will needlessly fill up your inventory space, as your White Crane Fan cannot be finished until you enter avenue. Try to take 1 extra piece of bread here, along with milk, whiskey, and any holy grails that you may wish to deny from your fellow survivors. Make sure to take at least one branch in the chapel.

Note: When crafting items, try to only craft if your inventory is full, as you do not have the time to craft in the open. Should you need to craft, make sure to only craft while searching through boxes. This will allow you to process what items are in the box while your animation for crafting is happening.

Cemetery:
Ideally, you should be reaching Cemetery with 1:30 on your clock during Day 1. If you were able to get milk, grab a second branch as soon as possible, as you can combine it to make butter, giving you solid healing in pound cake. You're going to need it, as hospital can get very crowded after you exit the cemetery. You will still need a third branch for your circlet.

If you entered from the leftmost entrance, search the stump to your left and in front of you, but do not get close to the research center. These boxes are a waste of time, and while you may get unlucky, and your perfect items could be up there, the time you waste is not worth that chance.

If you enter from the right entrance, search the coffin to your left, and then jump into the center. Search everything in the center, then go to the bottom right, slowly scaling up the wall in a square until you reach the last entrance to hospital. If you find everything before the last entrance, just make your way in early.

At this point, if you were able to find glass bottles in chapel, I would use one to make a water bottle. Your inventory space will be running low, so dropping an item to make glass pieces could get awkward.

Hospital:
You should be reaching the hospital by the beginning of Night 1. If wolves are still up, great! Go ahead and kill them. If the stone next to the wolves is also not taken, go ahead and grab that as well. Do not get rid of this stone until you get your tree of life. Wolves can drop any green crafting material, and most blue materials, so you may get lucky and accelerate your build. Search hospital to your heart's content, but try to get to the teleporter with a minute to spare. There's likely also going to be another survivor here, so watch the red pings and see if you can get a free kill. If you find the scrap in time, you should be strong enough to kill almost anybody in this area.

Flexibility: Avenue or Hotel
If you kill the second pair of wolves in hospital and do not find meteorite, immediately teleport to Avenue, grabbing as many critical items as possible. This area is key to finishing your Radar, so be as fast as possible. Fights here can be worth it, but make sure to teleport with a few seconds to spare towards hotel. If you do find the meteorite, enter hotel immediately.
There is also a watch here, so you can make Cube Watch while preparing to grab tree of life. This first tree of life may be contested, so get ready to fight, but you would really like to get tree of life right here.

Finishing the build
If you grabbed the tree of life, congratulations! Go ahead and run to school, as Alley is likely out of lighters by now. You should be looking for as much oil as you can, as many lighters as you can, and the running shoes that you need to finish your EOD boots. Stock up on food, drinks, and get ready for the end game. There's not much else I can do for you now, so good luck!

If you were unable to grab the tree of life in hotel, grab lighters still, and be ready to fight for the forest tree. If the zone is restricted, it is normally worth it to run into forest from the bottom of uptown to harvest the tree. You will lose 10 to 15 seconds on your restricted area timer, but the strength you gain will be worth it. The tree of life spawn in the cemetery can only be reached from the chapel if the area is restricted, but the same idea applies,

Conclusion

Jackie has a low skill floor, but that doesn't mean that you have to play her in a simple way. A character is just a way to express your own skill, so I hope that this guide will help the community improve. This build has already been nerfed twice in the closed beta, so I will likely be updating it as the game continues to patch. Good luck running around Lumia Island, and maybe I'll see you around!

Note: I apologize for any errors in this guide, and I'll be sure to fix them as soon as possible! Summer classes are keeping me a bit busy, so I'm sorry in advance.

[shouix]

Hi, this is shouix, and seeing that some people may not have realized this, this build was posted in July. There are several things that show this, which include the actual date of post and the ranking screenshot. Please do not continue to use this build, it is clearly outdated. As this is posted by Nimble Neuron and not myself, I am unable to take it down. Thank you!

[garfield]

jackie players fucking YUCK

[Hellhounfd3223]

This just isn't working in the higher tiers. It's even hard to effectively run/hide before u get dagger against the other builds cause no shoes. I'm guessing the build is now dated? you dont use it either anymore looking at ur match history.

[Hellhounfd3223]

At what time do you delay the build and kill others? AFter the hospital? Or do you invest
in opportunity in or before the hospital? I really don't have a feel for how important kills are in this game yet.