INTRODUCTION 

Aphrodite is the signature weapon for Umbral Rose(UR) introduced in v2.7. It is her best weapon, allowing her to reach peak performance in battle.

 

 OVERVIEW 
1 - Active skill deals AOE Physical DMG, has a low SP cost and low CD. If used properly, it can improve UR damage output every cycle. 

2 - Gives 20% Physical DMG, which is good for UR. This makes it usable but not the best for other Physical Scythe DPS (Stygian Nymph(SN) and Swallowtail Phantasm(SP)).

3 - Even against her best matchups such as Arena Shadow Knight, UR is outperformed by a handful of valkyries, such as Stygian Nymph, Molotov Cherry and Void Drifter. Therefore, obtaining Aphrodite is not a top priority.
 

 SKILL ANALYSIS  

• An active with low SP cost and CD that deals moderate AOE damage.
• On UR, this active can benefit from Laceration marks (gain 20/40% TDM) and Relentless Skullcap (gain 20/40% Physical DMG).
• If used correctly, the active can significantly improve UR damage every cycle.
• Not suitable for Stygian Nymph since you can't use weapon skill in Veliona Form.

Gif demonstrates active skill

 

• UR has more TDM than Physical DMG, so the 20% bonus Physical DMG will benefit her. (Eg. Charged ATK has around 40% Physical and 90% TDM at 40+ combo, against enemy with 2 Laceration marks)
• The bonus Physical DMG makes Aphrodite usable on other Physical DPS besides Umbral Rose, such as Swallowtail Phantasm and Stygian Nymph. Although, they still require their signature weapons for best performance.
• Extra 200% Physical DMG every 4s is not a big deal, but it helps in the long run.
• Note that the 100% Crit Rate against MECH-type only applies to this specific damage proc.
   

 PERFORMANCE COMPARISON  
Here's a rough performance comparison of Aphrodite on UR, SP and SN, compared to their signature weapons - Undine and Acheron. In the battles, UR used fullKafka set, SN used full Allan Poe, while SP used either full Dirac set or Allan Poe TB Dirac M.
 

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What about Onyx Iron, Senescence, Skadi Odungurd and Skadi of Thrymheim?
Without getting into details...

1. Onyx Iron and Senescence provide less ATK and buffs compared to the signature weapons. For performance comparison, UR with Senescence gets around 29546 score against SK.
2. Skadi Odungurd has 20% TDM. That's it.
3. Skadi of Thrymheim has higher ATK, but it lacks any additional traits that make them good for the users.
4. In a nutshell, on UR, SP and SN, these weapons are worse than any of the signature scythes, and that is the reason I didn't include them in the comparison.

 

 RECOMMENDED USER 

Aphrodite is the best weapon for Umbral Rose. The active can benefit from UR's skills, and if used correctly, can effectively improve UR damage output. UR is best used against MECH-type enemies such as Shadow Knight, so Aphrodite's bonus damage proc will always get 100% Crit Rate.

Stygian Nymph and Swallowtail Phantasm can benefit from 20% Physical DMG bonus, but overall performance is worse than their signature weapons.

 

 GAMEPLAY EXAMPLE 

Here's a few examples of Umbral Rose with Aphrodite against Exalted Arena bosses

UR vs Shadow Knight 30773

UR vs Heimdal 30026 [BILIBILI]

UR vs Kallen 29600 [YOUTUBE]

 

 SHOULD YOU GET APHRODITE? 
Aphrodite is the best weapon for Umbral Rose, but UR herself is only good against a few Memorial Arena bosses. On top of that, she is outperformed by other valks such as Stygian Nymph, Molotov Cherry and Void Drifter. 

The next issue is… how can you get Aphrodite.

Focused Supply - Aphrodite is usually paired with Wilde, a suboptimal stigmata set. Therefore, it's not worth it to get Aphrodite from gacha. 

Schicksal Store - In v3.9, you can get Aphrodite from Schicksal Store! However, you can only earn a very limited amount of Schicksal Store Token, and it's hard to pass up getting 11th Sacred Relic for Celestial Hymn over Aphrodite. If you already have 11th, then you can consider getting Aphrodite.

Those are the only methods of getting Aphrodite in the current version, and neither of those gets my recommendation. Perhaps if there were any other ways to get this weapon, such as from Exchange Shop or Bounty Pass, it would make the Umbral Rose + Aphrodite combo much more accessible for F2P players.

 

 CONCLUSION 
Aphrodite is the best weapon for Umbral Rose, and she is very dependent on Aphrodite to reach maximum potential. However, the biggest problems with Aphrodite are:

• Umbral Rose herself is outperformed by other valkyries on her best match-ups
• Aphrodite supply is usually paired with Wilde, a suboptimal stigmata. 

These two factors made Aphrodite an equipment not worth aiming for with crystals. But, if you happen to get it, your UR is gonna get pretty wild-e! Hehe~ 

If you wish to learn more about Umbral Rose's mechanics and playstyle, check out this Umbral Rose Strategy Guide by iH8Ecchi. 

If you have any comment/suggestion, you can find me in Official Honkai Discord.