Topaz and Numby Guide

Updated for Version 1.4

Note that the information given may change if new discoveries are made. More extensive testing is in progress.

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Introduction

Topaz is a 5-Star Fire unit following the Path of the Hunt. She is accompanied by her trusty Trotter Numby, and their gameplay revolves around collecting debts from enemies and following up on their threats. Topaz is a unique take on a Hunt character, contributing a significant amount of damage on her own while also providing a sizable damage increase for units that use follow-up attacks.

Infographic

Mechanics

During battle, Topaz will mark one enemy at a time with Proof of Debt, which increases all follow-up damage they take. Her damage comes from Numby, who she can throw at enemies with her Skill, but also acts as an independent character like Jing Yuan’s Lightning-Lord. While Numby’s base speed is low, Numby can have its Action Advanced by attacking enemies marked by Proof of Debt with a follow-up attack.

After using Topaz’s Ultimate “Turn a Profit!”, Numby will enter the Windfall Bonanza! state, increasing its damage and allowing damage types other than follow-ups to advance its turn. This buff will only last for a limited number of attacks.

Since an Ultimate Enhanced Numby will get an immediate 100% Action Advance when thrown via Topaz’s Skill, Topaz can easily front load both Enhanced Numby attacks immediately after activating her Ultimate simply by using her Skill. Numby will perform one Enhanced attack during Topaz’s Skill, and then will perform another Enhanced attack immediately afterwards, because of the two 50% Action Advances happening simultaneously, thus resulting in a 100% Action Advance in total. 

This can allow for a significant burst of damage and Toughness damage in a very short time, which can be useful if a Weakness Break is needed, or an enemy needs to be eliminated quickly, but the downside is that you trade away the strong Action Advance passive of her Ultimate; you will lose out on overall damage as a result of choosing to frontload your damage, so make your decision carefully.

Trace Priority

All of Topaz’s Traces are useful, either improving her damage or her support capabilities. Topaz’s Talent provides the bulk of her damage, even when she’s using her Skill on most turns. Her Skill still contributes significant DMG on its own, but more importantly, provides the sizable Proof of Debt debuff. Her Ultimate is less impactful than the other two, but still provides a significant damage increase while active. Her Basic ATK, while responsible for the smallest portion of her damage, still contributes a noticeable amount and should be leveled nonetheless, as it is a vital part of maintaining SP flexibility.

Traces

Note: Trace levels shown are 1/10/12 (Basic ATK 1/6/7).

Eidolons

Playstyles

Hypercarry

Nearly every damage dealer can be played as a hypercarry, and Topaz is no exception. In hypercarry teams, Topaz should be played SP negative, using her Skill on most of her turns. However, thanks to her Energy cost and A6 Bonus Ability, she can generally use one Basic ATK for every three Skills and lose only a little bit of damage while still generating enough Energy to use her Ultimate in four turns. This allows her to be very SP efficient, only consuming 0.5 SP per turn on average even as a hypercarry, and means Topaz is able to very take full advantage of SP-hungry supports like Bronya and Yukong.

As mentioned above, Numby deals damage during Topaz’s turn when she uses her Skill. This allows Topaz to take advantage of single-turn buffs like Bronya’s and Yukong’s Skill quite well, especially while Topaz’s Ultimate is active. However, using her Skill this way can waste potential Numby Action Advances during Topaz’s Ultimate and lead to lower overall damage and SP efficiency, so the option you choose will depend on which specific supports you’re putting with Topaz.

Secondary Damage Dealer and Follow-Up Support

Rather uniquely, Topaz can switch from a mostly SP-negative playstyle to a mostly SP-positive playstyle without losing much damage. Furthermore, because she has such a strong follow-up Vulnerability debuff on her Skill, she can amplify the damage of other follow-up damage dealers on the team.

There are two groups of damage dealers that Topaz can be used with in this way: characters that benefit from Topaz’s debuff due to high follow-up attack multipliers (such as Jing Yuan), and characters that can directly benefit Topaz via frequent follow-up attacks (such as Clara or Kafka). Currently there are no damage dealers that comfortably fit into both categories, so Topaz’s benefits as a follow-up support cannot be fully utilized yet.

When played in this role, Topaz should generally aim for a 5-turn Ultimate, achievable with 4 Basic ATKs and 1 Skill. A 6-turn Ultimate is possible with only Basic ATKs, but it is generally not worth the loss in damage and Ultimate uptime. With the 5-turn Ultimate rotation, Topaz generates an average of 0.6 SP per turn while still contributing a strong debuff and significant personal damage.

Build

Relics

Relic Sets

4-Pc Genius of Brilliant Stars	This set is highly competitive, even against an enemy without Quantum Weakness or any external DEF Reduction — and against an enemy with Quantum Weakness or additional DEF Reduction, it out-damages all other options. Additionally, since DEF Reduction grants increasing returns and all other set options for Topaz simply provide stats that can be obtained as relic mainstats, substats, or from common buffs, this set scales slightly better with buffs than other options.
2-Pc Firesmith + 2-Pc Musketeer	Good generic bonuses, but falls behind 4-Pc Genius of Brilliant Stars when enemies have Quantum Weakness or suffer from any additional DEF Reduction, as in teams with Pela or Silver Wolf.
4-Pc Firesmith of Lava-Forging	The damage bonuses from 4pc Firesmith of Lava-Forging are so conditional and short-lived that they provide less damage overall than even 2-Pc Firesmith of Lava-Forging paired with a second set like 2-Pc Musketeer of Wild Wheat. Unless you somehow have no 4-Pc Genius set and no Musketeer pieces, do not use this set.

Planar Ornaments

Inert Salsotto	Topaz does not have much DMG% in her kit and all of her damage is follow-up damage, so Salsotto easily comes out on top.
Rutilant Arena	Since Numby deals both Skill DMG and follow-up DMG when Topaz uses her Skill, Arena is a solid choice when playing her SP negative.
Space Sealing Station	Topaz definitely appreciates the ATK from this set, but she prefers ATK boots over SPD boots, so this is a more questionable choice than for most characters. Her high base SPD of 110 means that she only needs 10 SPD (4-5 total SPD substats) to activate the bonus, but even that can be difficult to achieve, especially when chasing CRIT and ATK% substats at the same time. If using SPD boots on Topaz, this set tends to perform slightly better than Arena, but still worse than Salsotto.

Light Cones

Worrisome, Blissful	Great stat stick and the best overall Light Cone for Topaz, providing both sizable amounts of CRIT Rate and follow-up DMG%, with utility for enhancing all teammates’ CRIT DMG as well. Notably, the Tame status can be applied to multiple enemies at the same time and increases CRIT DMG from all sources against those targets.
Cruising in the Stellar Sea	Topaz appreciates all of the stats this Light Cone offers, and because Numby’s damage is split up across many small hits, Topaz is able to consistently benefit from the conditional CRIT Rate gained against enemies with less than 50% HP. This makes Cruising in the Stellar Sea the best free-to-play option for Topaz.
Swordplay	Numby hits 7 to 8 times per attack, allowing Topaz to fully stack the DMG% bonus from this Light Cone nearly instantly. At S5, this Light Cone is competitive with Cruising in the Stellar Sea, but provides more consistent damage.
Return to Darkness	The large number of hits Numby performs means Topaz can consistently take advantage of the Dispel effect on this Light Cone. As it has high base stats and provides a good chunk of CRIT Rate, this Light Cone is a surprisingly solid option for Topaz, especially against enemies with troublesome buffs.
Only Silence Remains	Good unconditional ATK% with a strong bump to CRIT Rate when there are two or fewer enemies on the field. The second part of the passive is unlikely to be active at the beginning of fights, but is very likely to activate a few turns in when any surrounding trash mobs are defeated, resulting in a noticeable performance increase even in double Elite encounters. The second part of the passive should not be relied upon for the purposes of meeting the CRIT Rate requirements for Inert Salsotto or Rutilant Arena.

Stats

Body	Boots	Sphere	Rope
CRIT	ATK% / SPD	Fire DMG%	ATK%

Substats

CRIT > ATK% > SPD

ATK or SPD boots?

Even when played as a hypercarry, a significant portion of Topaz’s overall damage comes from Numby attacking outside Topaz’s turn. Since Numby receives a 50% Action Advance every time the marked enemy is hit by a follow-up attack, Topaz’s damage depends less on her SPD than characters that deal damage on their own turns. Furthermore, since Asta is one of Topaz’s strongest synergies and provides the team with a large amount of SPD, Topaz will benefit even less from SPD boots in most of her teams. SPD boots are still a viable option, but scenarios where they outperform ATK% boots are uncommon and/or niche. Your individual preference will come down to support options and substats.

E1 or S1?

While both E1 and S1 apply a debuff that enhances CRIT DMG dealt to an enemy, Topaz’s Signature Light Cone Worrisome, Blissful is generally more valuable than her first Eidolon. The Tame debuff that Worrisome, Blissful applies enhances all CRIT DMG dealt to the enemy and does not expire or disappear if Topaz switches targets. On the other hand, the debuff from Topaz’s first Eidolon can lead to a higher DMG increase in specific scenarios, but the CRIT DMG only applies to follow-up attacks and can only be present on an enemy while it is marked by Proof of Debt.

Character Comparisons

Seele

As Seele is the only other 5-star limited Hunt unit currently available and has a rerun alongside Topaz’s first banner, a comparison is inevitable. 

Seele can circumvent the weaknesses of the Hunt path through her Talent’s Resurgence activations, which grant her an Extra Action upon defeating a target. Using this, Seele can become a pseudo-AoE unit who can abuse weaker enemies to further improve her already substantial single-target damage against more durable foes like Elites and Bosses. Seele has the additional benefit of being in full control of her own damage. Coupled with Seele’s Extra Actions, this means that Seele is extremely buff-efficient and benefits significantly more from the support characters typically found in hypercarry setups.

While Topaz also deals impressive single-target damage, it is more difficult to maximize the capabilities of supports due to Numby having its own action in the turn order. Topaz is also unable to circumvent the intrinsic weakness of the Hunt path and is therefore a true single-target damage dealer. 

Topaz has the potential to be a strong secondary damage dealer in the future with more dedicated follow-up characters, but as far as a hypercarry setup is concerned, Seele is the superior choice.

Clara

Although Topaz is usually going to be used in the context of buffing Clara’s personal follow-up damage, they are both capable of being used as a solo damage dealer in a team. Both deal follow-up damage, and both deal a majority of their damage outside of their own turn.

The same sorts of arguments appear here as mentioned before; Topaz is an exclusively single-target based damage dealer and will struggle a fair bit against multiple strong targets and AoE content. Compared to Topaz, Clara has a significantly higher damage ceiling due to her ability to directly counterattack against every enemy that hits her, going even higher with outside buffs and Ultimate-enhanced Counters. Clara gets stronger as enemies get faster and more plentiful, although her specific method of damaging enemies does have a degree of randomness due to the need to be hit.

Ideally you just use both together, but if you can really only pick one for whatever reason, then as far as dedicated damage dealers who have follow-ups are concerned, Clara is a more generalist pick in this role.

Jing Yuan

Lightning-Lord has no trouble both clearing the field and dealing significant damage to remaining tougher foes in a single action. Lightning-Lord ignores 0 HP enemies dynamically as well, so any enemies that are defeated during the multiple hits of its attack will no longer be considered valid targets, and this prevents losing out on damage.

Topaz is only capable of attacking one enemy at a time, significantly slowing her clear times due to needing to deal with smaller enemies one at a time. However, Topaz’s upfront single-target damage is quite impressive, even while remaining largely SP positive, which is something Jing Yuan is not able to accomplish. Thus Topaz is actually a strong competitor when AoE damage is not necessary.

Both characters also have similar buff limitations due to having summoned units making certain buff timings somewhat awkward. Either is a perfectly fine choice, it just depends on what content you’re facing and what supports you have available for the team. The biggest difference is probably that Numby is still able to act on its turn even if Topaz is affected by Crowd Control…

Notable Synergies

Follow-up Damage Dealers

As mentioned previously, there are two groups of follow-up characters that work with Topaz; the first group benefit from Topaz’s debuff, and the second group directly benefit Topaz herself.

Clara	Clara’s counters, when enhanced during her Ultimate, are notable in that they can trigger the Proof of Debt Numby Action Advance even when countering enemies that are not the marked target, due to their ability to hit adjacent targets. This gives her the highest potential number of Advances per enemy turn cycle, but is dependent on enemy targeting order and aggro luck. As both Clara and Topaz have good personal damage, they’re a solid pairing. Clara is currently the closest unit to fitting into both of the aforementioned groups of follow-up characters, but is kept in check by the randomness of enemy aggro.
Jing Yuan	Jing Yuan falls under the first group of characters mentioned above; he benefits significantly from Topaz’s debuff, but is unable to meaningfully benefit Topaz herself. Compared to Jing Yuan’s usual teams, you end up backloading Lightning-Lord’s damage even more but dealing heavier damage. It is important to note that Lightning-Lord dynamically ignores enemies whose HP is at 0, meaning you do not need to worry about hits being wasted on “dead foes”. Even though Topaz contributes decent damage of her own, Jing Yuan’s general team setup is largely “solved” already, and is not necessarily stronger with Topaz compared to his usual double Harmony setup; he can lose out on too much by replacing either Tingyun or Asta, so the individual player would need to check whether the inclusion of Topaz results in increased performance.
Kafka	This initially seems like an odd pairing but is surprisingly effective. Kafka falls under the second group of damage dealers mentioned for Topaz; by enabling Topaz directly via very frequent follow-up attacks, she consistently Action Advances Numby. Kafka herself does not benefit tremendously from the inclusion of Topaz, as Kafka’s Talent follow-up is a quite insignificant portion of her overall damage. Kafka is self-sufficient enough with her own damage that both end up working together without too much trouble, though realistically Kafka does not need Topaz to be competitive, and this is just yet another possible team for Kafka to take advantage of. Nonetheless, the inclusion of Topaz in Kafka’s teams does not alter her optimal Relic configuration; please do not build CRIT.

Buffers/Debuffers

Asta	Topaz benefits fully from everything Asta provides. The persistent ATK buff is useful because Numby often attacks outside Topaz’s turns, the SPD is useful for the entire party, regardless of the team composition, and Asta’s party-wide 18% Fire DMG increase is nothing to scoff at, especially since Topaz doesn’t have much DMG% in her kit. Additionally, Asta can equip Planetary Rendezvous for an even larger Fire DMG% increase — although high Eidolons are necessary for Asta with Planetary Rendezvous to consistently outperform the Energy generation effect of Meshing Cogs or Memories of the Past.
Silver Wolf	Since Topaz is a Hunt unit and can only target one enemy at a time, she can take full advantage of Silver Wolf’s powerful single target debuffs. Because Topaz’s A4 Bonus Ability provides her with extra DMG% against enemies with Fire Weakness, Topaz also appreciates the Weakness implant that Silver Wolf can provide. Additionally, because Asta and Topaz have such good synergy already, it is very easy to draft a team with two Fire characters and two Quantum characters, as long as you have Fu Xuan or Lynx. As usual, however, Silver Wolf loses a lot of value if the enemy already has Fire Weakness, and in that case another buffer or debuffer may be a better choice.
Bronya	Bronya always comes up when discussing hypercarry setups, and it’s no different for Topaz. Being able to Action Advance Topaz results in more Action Advances for Numby, leading to substantially more damage over the course of a fight. Bear in mind that actions taken directly by Numby will not benefit from Bronya’s Skill’s buff unless Bronya is E6, and that using Topaz’s Ultimate optimally is quite difficult with Bronya, as you’re almost always partially wasting either potential Numby Action Advances or Bronya’s 1 turn buff duration.

Notable Anti-Synergies

Topaz is incredibly flexible in her team-building because she loses no utility and only a relatively small amount of damage by going SP positive. This allows her to slot into almost any team and still contribute value, even if she isn’t necessarily the most optimal pick. Because of this, she has no notable intrinsic anti-synergy with any characters in the current roster. 

Do keep in mind that Topaz’s greatest weakness is her exclusively single-target damage profile, so it is recommended to construct teams that offset that weakness, lest you end up creating an anti-synergy of your own.

Teams

Hypercarry

Topaz can be used as a hypercarry in much the same way as most other damage dealers. Flex support options are rather simple; just pick any two from the standard list of Harmony buffers and Nihility debuffers and have at it.

Example Teams

A double Harmony setup that forgoes the SP efficiency of Topaz to instead have Bronya constantly Action Advance Topaz forward. Topaz should be seeking to use her Skill whenever buffed by Bronya as the buff also affects Numby’s attack, especially during Topaz’s Ultimate in order to make use of Bronya’s huge 1 turn DMG% boost to the fullest. Keep in mind this team reduces the efficiency of the Action Advance that is part of Topaz’s Ultimate, but with Topaz getting far more actions overall, this ends up being largely mitigated.

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Because Asta’s A4 Bonus Ability grants the team 18% Fire DMG%, Asta is a naturally powerful pairing with Topaz. Additionally, Asta’s ATK% boost from Charging Stacks is easy to maintain due to Topaz’s relative SP efficiency. Silver Wolf then greatly increases the damage output against a single foe with her Ultimate’s DEF Reduction and her Skill’s Weakness implant, and Fu Xuan covers the team’s survivability while offering passive CRIT Rate bonuses as well. This is a strong single-target setup that allows Topaz and Asta to contribute significant Toughness damage against any foe.

Be aware that if you’re facing enemies that already have Fire Weakness, Silver Wolf’s effectiveness is drastically reduced, and you’d be better off taking a different support unit.

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A Topaz team with only free units. Yukong offers significant bonuses, but is potentially challenging to utilize fully. Natasha is on the weaker end of sustain options, but with Topaz’s relative SP efficiency, there should be enough SP for Natasha to use on emergency healing. Careful consideration must be made to make sure Yukong can buff Topaz properly. Refer to the KQM Yukong Guide for more details.

Dual Damage Dealer

As mentioned above, Topaz can act in a more supportive role for other follow-up attackers. You pick one character out of the two groups of damage dealers (either those that benefit Topaz, or benefit from Topaz) and fill in the remaining flex slot with a support, ideally one that can benefit both Topaz and the chosen follow-up damage dealer, either by buffing both characters, or by debuffing their common targets. For more info on how to play Topaz in these teams, please refer to the Playstyles section.

Example Teams

Clara is a great pairing with Topaz due to having both frequent follow-up attacks and having them be fairly powerful. As Clara is likely to be counterattacking every enemy on the field, Pela does a great job of reducing all foes’ DEF with her own Ultimate, thus increasing the total damage of Clara’s many Talent counters, as well as Topaz’s strong single-target damage. This team mitigates the downsides of Topaz being exclusively single-target, and is one of Clara’s strongest teams. Keep in mind that Clara’s counters do have a degree of randomness to them, so her damage output may fluctuate.

The order of this team can matter. Clara should be placed between the two support units, who have higher aggro and survivability than Topaz. However, if you’re willing to take the risk, placing Topaz next to Clara can occasionally allow Topaz to gain her Ultimate slightly earlier than she otherwise would, leading to higher team damage overall.

When playing Tingyun in this team, it will almost always be better to focus her buffs on Clara.

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Tingyun or Asta can occupy the flex support slot and help to bolster Jing Yuan specifically to ensure he gets the Talent stacks he needs for Lightning-Lord to take maximum advantage of Topaz’s debuff. Fu Xuan adds passive CRIT Rate with her Skill and can also prevent Jing Yuan from being affected by Crowd Control, ensuring Lightning-Lord gets to act as normal. As Lightning-Lord is quite slow, this team is almost exclusively benefitting Jing Yuan; Numby will not benefit much at all from Jing Yuan’s infrequent follow-up in Lightning-Lord.

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The premier team for AoE situations with Fire-weak enemies. Bailu can be replaced by another Abundance unit equipped with Multiplication, or a particularly fast Gepard. Otherwise, it may be difficult to maintain SP balance on this team. It is highly inadvisable to run this team unless there’s plenty of Fire-weak foes to Break, as Himeko’s effectiveness — and subsequently Topaz’s effectiveness — will plummet without that condition. Situational, but strong.

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An unconventional Kafka setup. Kafka functions well on her own already, but her Talent’s follow-up is consistent and easy to use, and greatly improves Topaz’s personal damage. Asta provides a large ATK% boost and extremely significant and appreciated SPD for both Kafka and Topaz, increasing the frequency of attacks and Weakness Breaks. Topaz can dynamically change her SP consumption to allow for consistent Kafka and Asta Skills. Overall a surprisingly potent setup for both characters.

Do NOT build CRIT on Kafka.

Credits

jas
Soul Fish
Sushou
MasterDank47

Changelog

• 10 November 2023 – Published for v1.4
• 10 November 2023 – Changed wording of Traces and Eidolons explanations