R. Nergigante Archer

R. Nergigante Archer (The R standing for Ruiner) was one of the five Champions released during the now-ended Monster Hunter X RAID: Shadow Legends collaboration that took place between January 9th to March 5th 2024. The only one of the five Champions who was not "guaranteed" in some way. Rathalos Blademaster being a free Log-In Champion, Zinogre Blademaster being a Fragment Collection Fusion, Fatalis Blademaster was from a Deck Of Fate Event and Alatreon Blademaster was available in a Hero's Path Event - but R. Nergigante Archer (let's just call her RNA for short!) was only available from Shards with no Guaranteed Champion Event at any point. Like with the other Monster Hunter Legendary Champions, RNA is now unobtainable in the game.

In a way, it's quite easy to see why Plarium was enticing players to dip into their shard reserves for her, as RNA was to many the most versatile and beneficial of the five Champions across many areas of the game! Beginning with the A1 "Charged Shot" it is but a simple single target hit that grants [Increase Accuracy] to RNA, although you will typically be building her with enough ACC for the content at hand anyway. A2 "Spinning Shot" has an adaptive effect for whether you are against Champions or Bosses - either Stunning an entire wave of enemies with an additional 20% [Turn Meter] penalty for enemies Stunned this way - a skill very similar to the "Skittering Death" A2 of Lady Mikage-alt. Against Bosses this [Stun] changes to [Decrease SPD] which is much more useful against the Hydra particularly but other bosses are also vulnerable to this debuff.

A3 "Rapid Shot" fits a vital need for most players in terms of placing [Hex] on the enemy team with other crucial utility - with the [Provoke] extending to a 2-turn effect against Bosses, most notably the Head of Decay from Hydra but it's also more than usable against Kuldath the Magma Dragon from Doom Tower. For players short on Legendary Skill Tomes, this skill only books for damage and cooldown, unlike A2 "Spinning Shot" which has a 75% chance of placing debuffs when not booked.

Therefore, against waves of enemies in Dungeons, Cursed City etc. RNA has 2 ways to CC an entire wave, both of them on a 3-turn CD when fully booked. While 2 AoE effects can stack up damage quite quickly across a full screen of enemies, RNA does not have particularly high damage multipliers, nor any ways to ignore Defense or damage mitigation effects. Building her with 100% CRIT will often prove beneficial, especially in Hydra where you try to do every single point of damage that you can, but RNA will find her role is better suited with extra investment into SPD rather than C.DMG to continuously cycle through her skills, given how her A1 is little more than "Attacks 1 enemy." most of the time.

Regardless, the Passive "Nergigante Ambition" supplies RNA with up to 30% extra DEF merely for performing her role in the battle, with the healing effect resolving for each target attacked, resulting in each of RNA's AoE attacks potentially healing the entire team for 40%+ of their max HP every time, making her a brilliant healer in addition to all of the other utility she provides!

Perhaps when Monster Hunter Wilds is released, Plarium may once again re-visit the Monster Hunter collab and players may get a second chance at acquiring this stellar Champion, but until then, those who have her will find themselves requiring her skillset time and time again.