Linko is an S-Rank Anima character in Neverness to Everness who spends most of her time off-field, feeding the team follow-up damage through Synced Strikes. The question worth answering before her banner opens is simple: how much faster does a team actually clear with her in it, and which teams see no real change?
Quick answer: Put Linko in Hex-based teams. At one awakening and modest investment, she cut a Zankou run from 37 seconds to 28 and a Nanaly run from 1:16 to 48 seconds. She is optional in a Shinku team and a downgrade in a Hotori team compared to an A6 Joyuan.
Linko clear time comparison across four teams
Every run below used the same encounter, so the numbers are directly comparable. The baseline column is the free-to-play or alternative lineup each DPS normally runs.
| Main DPS | Baseline team | With Linko | Time saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zankou | 0:37 | 0:28 | 9s |
| Nanaly | 1:16 | 0:48 | 28s |
| Shinku | 0:43 | 0:31 | 12s |
| Hotori | Faster with A6 Joyuan | 0:53 | None |
The pattern is consistent. The two Hex teams gained the most, the Cosmos-led Shinku team gained a useful but non-essential chunk, and the Hotori team was better off without her.
Weakness Radar and Precision Tuning do the heavy lifting
Linko’s two passives are the reason the clear times move, and both are active the moment she is in the party. Weakness Radar raises the extra follow-up attack damage from Hexed to 30 percent and makes Hexed targets take 10 percent more follow-up damage. Precision Tuning drops the target’s Esper Ability Resistance by 8 percent for 12 seconds, matched to the element of whoever triggers the Synced Strike.
Resistance reductions for different elements can sit on the same target at once, and re-triggering refreshes the timer. That combination is why she slots into teams of almost any element, not just Anima ones. It also means she is functional at A0 — the passives do not need copies to work.
Note: awakening node ordering is listed inconsistently across resources, so treat any single node as a bonus rather than the thing that makes her viable.
Test setup: Silent Garden VI against Lvl 90 Serenetti
All runs were done on the Level 6 Silent Garden commission against a Lvl 90 Serenetti, a single-target flower boss with a break phase. It is a reasonable stand-in for endgame damage checks while the Hunter Crucible is offline.
Linko herself was at level 80 with one awakening, running the following stat line. This is a mid-tier build rather than a fully optimized one, which matters when reading the gains — the improvements come from her team-wide effects, not from an inflated personal damage number.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| HP | 22,301 |
| ATK | 2,483 |
| DEF | 1,294 |
| CRIT Rate | 77.00% |
| CRIT DMG | 171.00% |
| Universal DMG Bonus | 13.00% |
Zankou Hex team: 37 seconds down to 28
The baseline here was the break-focused free-to-play lineup of Zankou, Daffodil, Sakiri and Adler, which finished in 37 seconds. Swapping to Zankou, Linko, Iroi and Daffodil brought that to 28 seconds.
Zankou is an Incantation character, so pairing her with Linko produces the Hexed reaction, which is exactly what Weakness Radar amplifies. The Linko version also had noticeably better sustain thanks to Iroi’s healing, so the faster time did not come at the cost of survivability. This is the clearest case for using her.
Nanaly Hex team: the largest improvement of the four
Nanaly saw the biggest swing, going from 1 minute 16 seconds to 48 seconds. Nanaly is an Anima character like Linko, so the two do not react with each other directly, but both build toward Hexed with an Incantation teammate, and Nanaly’s high hit count and follow-up damage scale straight off Weakness Radar.
The practical difference was Hex uptime. With Linko in the party, the debuff stayed applied near-constantly instead of dropping between rotations, which is where the 28 seconds came from.
Shinku team: faster with Linko, but not required
Shinku’s baseline team cleared in 43 seconds and the Linko variant managed 31. That is a real gain, but it is not a reason to pull. The Main Character remains a cheaper and highly consistent option in that slot, and the resistance shred from Precision Tuning is the main thing Linko is contributing here rather than a reaction bonus.
If you already have Linko, she is a fine upgrade for a Shinku lineup. If you are deciding whether to spend on her, a Shinku team is not the argument.
Hotori team: skip Linko and use Joyuan
This is the one clear negative result. A Hotori team with A1 Linko cleared in 53 seconds, and an A6 Joyuan in the same slot was faster by a wide margin. Joyuan’s blossom duplication does more for Hotori than follow-up scaling does, and no amount of resistance shred closes that gap.
If Hotori is your main damage dealer, Linko is not the piece that unlocks the team.
Building Linko for these results
Synced Strikes take the element of the teammate who fires them but scale off Linko’s stats and her support skill level, so her crit stats decide how hard everyone else’s assists hit. That makes CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG the priority, with Anima DMG behind them.
| Slot | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Signature Arc | Voice of the Voyager |
| Alternative Arcs | Ready-Ready, Raging Flames |
| Cartridge | Fireflies and the Forest (Speedy Hedgehog as a support option) |
| Main stats | CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Anima DMG |
| Substats | CRIT Rate > CRIT DMG > ATK% > ATK |
| Skill priority | Support Skill > Ultimate > Basic Attack > Redirect Skill |
| Ascension material | Water Moon Pick |
Her console specialization grants 8 percent CRIT Rate per Type III module equipped, which makes hitting a usable crit rate easy without spending main stats on it.
Linko arrives on the Surfing All Channels limited banner on September 9th, 2026, running through September 30th at 5:59 (UTC+8). If you run Zankou or Nanaly and want a support who improves the whole team’s follow-up damage from off-field, the case is straightforward, and you do not need copies to get most of it. If your damage dealers sit outside the Hex reaction, the gains shrink fast, and in Hotori’s case they reverse entirely.
