Companion Spotlight: Chantal Livingstone

The Spring update is still new to Pirate101, and it’s brought plenty of great things – new companions included! All of the class companions are great assets to any Pirate’s crew, so we’ll be dedicating some companion spotlights for them, starting with Chantal Livingstone. As the new Musketeer class-specific companion, Chantal brings a great deal of potential to both traditional combat and player verses player matches.

Powers - Sniper Shot!

Musketeers have seen this power before; it originated from the Ol’Quigley weapon after completing Cool Ranch and now it’s available through other means. It can be obtained from the new Skull Island bosses, but it’s also one of the key aspects of Chantal!

What’s interesting about these powers is that they’ll always land a super critical. Combined with her receiving two of them, that’s approximately 1,400 damage. Keep in mind that these powers also have infinite range, so, as long as the enemy is within Chantal’s line of sight, you can use them from the complete other end of the battleboard.

This alone makes Chantal Livingstone a unique companion, set apart from other Musketeers. Zeena is still a great companion, for instance, but she only has one set of fires now and they will only damage an enemy if they walk over them. Additionally, she can’t Burst Fire anymore after the initial hit of the fires, so you might find her falling slightly on your companion roster. In the case of Chantal, however, she’s a great alternative to using Bonnie and Zeena consistently, so it’s quite possible for her to be one of your top three companions, mainly because of those Sniper Shots making her unique.

Epics

Unique powers aside, Chantal’s epics are also great. She can train Burst Fire 2, Overwatch, and Quick Draw, making her very similar to Bonnie Anne. Having high Agility allows her to Burst Fire more often, boosting the base 35% chance. There are multiple ways to raise her Agility in order to increase the effectiveness of Burst Fire; one of the easiest would be to use her own Agility power. It lasts longer than Sky Spirit would, so you can go ahead and use it at the start of the battle before the enemies approach. When they do, your entire lineup of Musketeer and Swashbuckler units will be ready.

Furthermore, keep in mind that Chantal is Musketeer-exclusive, so you can use your own Sky Spirit and other Agility buffs to increase her rate of activating Burst Fire. Remember that Sky Spirit now only lasts for three rounds, though, so you’ll want to use it when your companions are into the action. And, of course, remember to give her multiple ranks of the Agile talent! It’s essentially the easiest way to increase her Agility and it will last for the entirety of every fight.

Overwatch and Quick Draw are fairly straightforward. If you’d like, you can even use your Pirate’s power that gives all units an extra rank of Overwatch – that will increase Chantal’s to rank two, letting it activate up to three times per turn. Or, if you’d like, you can even train Overwatch 2 for her, so that power will give her Overwatch 3, decreasing the Accuracy of approaching enemies. That’s certainly an interesting strategy if you’re willing to try it out.

As for Quick Draw, it’s a great counter against other ranged units. Considering that it could Burst Fire, it’ll put Chantal at an advantage against Musketeers who would generally be some of the greatest threats in the fight.

Strategy

As a Musketeer, Chantal can effectively hit Swashbucklers with naturally high dodge due to her naturally high accuracy. Taking advantage of this, be sure to aim for tough melee units who would be able to severely weaken your own Musketeers with their own Relentless.

Be sure to avoid anti-Musketeer units like Nausica – if Chantal has Quick Draw trained, True Grit would activate in response, followed by consecutive Burst Fire attacks. Also, if Quick Draw causes Chantal’s own Burst Fire to activate, that would result in even more activations of True Grit. Be sure to keep fragile Musketeers like Chantal out of anti-Musketeers’ range or use a protection power on her first; for instance, Valor’s Fortress is a great resource for all Musketeers to have and would work very well on a powerful Musketeer like Chantal Livingstone.

Make use of her Guaranteed Critical Strike power, too – that combined with her Sniper Shot powers will put any enemy at a huge disadvantage. Essentially, you can deal 1,400 damage at the very beginning of the fight and 700 more when the enemy approaches, combined with her Overwatch and Burst Fire attacks. Few enemies will be able to withstand that!

Farming

Chantal Livingstone is great for farming – on larger battleboards, it’ll take a long time to reach the enemy. The main goal of farming is to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible, so Chantal’s Sniper Shots are very useful here. As long as the enemy is within her line of sight, she can hit them immediately. For lower level bosses especially, fights can be over within one turn, and, for higher level ones, she’ll be able to weaken them so that your other units can move in and finish up.

Goronado and Nausica are also very useful here, as they can generally attack within the first round, too. They both have powers that let them move twice as far as they normally could, creating the possibility of finishing a fight within a single round even for upper level bosses. In case they don’t end up finishing the fight, however, Chantal Livingstone can stay back and shoot away at the enemy’s health.

There are countless ways to use Chantal, and it’s up to you to create your own unique and diverse strategy with her. Just remember to keep her leveled and promoted throughout your journeys across the Spiral… she’s certainly worth it!