Character Guide - Nightcap!

Hey everyone,

This guide series intends to go over each of the characters with depth and detail as well. In this guide, I will cover Nightcap. I will add some more information to this guide soon, along with my other recently written previous guides.

For a bunch of this guide, I used this following link for part of the information, but the rest of this is my own information, and you may also refer to this link if you would like to know more about Nightcap, go here: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Night_Cap_(PvZ:_BfN).

Overview of the Character

Nightcap is an Attack character on the Plants faction that attacks its enemies with blades and has 75 health by default. It has a primary weapon that can pierce through multiple enemies.

Primary Weapon

Primary Weapon: Spore Strike. It is a weapon that shoots blades that have the capability of piercing through multiple enemies at a time. It deals 18 damage for each hit that you land on an enemy. The rate of fire of Nightcap's primary is fast. The maximum default ammo capacity is 20. 

Abilities

Casting Shadows: This ability throws out a shadow dome which casts shadows, and makes you and any allies inside it invisible to your enemies and any enemies inside it get a distorted effect and their movement is greatly reduced. It has many uses that benefits you and your allies, and hinders your enemies. This ability is very versatile, so it is a great idea to think carefully about when the best time to use this ability would be. This can be used effectively if either your allies or your enemies group up, or if your allies and enemies are close together, this can be used to assist your allies and immobilise your enemies at the same time. Covering you and your allies reduces chance of being vanquishes and trapping enemies in it makes them much easier to be vanquished by you and your allies.

Casting Shadows Character Upgrades:

• Incubate (2 upgrade points): If you revive allies inside of your Casting Shadows, you revive them twice as fast, or in other words, it only takes half as long to successfully revive them. This is really useful if you wish to revive allies as the Casting Shadows already hides you from enemies, and the faster revive will leave you vulnerable for even less time than normal. Your ally will have temporary protection from the Casting Shadows when you revive them as well. You may also be able to revive multiple allies quickly if you throw your Casting Shadows over multiple fallen allies, making this upgrade even more useful.
• Corrode (3 upgrade points): Any enemy that is trapped by Casting Shadows are further restricted in other ways. Enemies in the Casting Shadows suffer penalties such as losing ammo or overheating faster, increasing the time it takes for the enemies' attacks to charge up and stopping the refresh timer of their abilities completely while trapped. This will make it even harder for those enemies to escape and will not be able to attack as much, and will make it even easier for you and your allies to vanquish those affected enemies. 

Fung Fu: This ability turns you into a talented ninja for a short time, which constantly deals damage to enemies that are in range of you during this ability, by constantly striking the area that you are currently in, but negates jumping and reduces your movement speed. It takes a delay before this ability resolves, so try to start it up in a way that leaves you less vulnerable during this time, such as behind cover. You take reduced damage while this ability is active, you become much harder to hit and you can even reload your primary weapon during this ability. You are vulnerable for a short time after your Fung Fu ends, so you need to be mindful of this if you are in a position where you are surrounded by your enemies. This ability is much better utilised against groups of enemies as you will damage every one that is in range of your fury strikes.

Fung Fu Character Upgrades:

• Fleet Footed (3 upgrade points): You are able to jump and move about 40% faster while you are using your Fung Fu, overall meaning that you are more mobile during your Fung Fu. You can use this to chase enemies who are trying to escape your Fung Fu or you can jump to make yourself even harder to hit again and hit enemies that are currently in the air. This should also make you less vulnerable while you are starting up your Fung Fu and when it ends as well. You normally have reduced movement speed while using this ability and cannot jump, but you can somewhat negate it with this upgrade.
• Uppercut (3 upgrade points): Dealing damage to your enemies with Fung Fu reduces knocks your enemies up into the air and deals slight knockback to them as well, but you should be able to continue dealing damage to them. This actually makes it much harder for the enemies to escape your Fung Fu and the slight knockback can be really useful in particular situations. This should leave enemies more vulnerable while in the air as they can more easily be shot by your allies and they mostly lose control of their movement for a short time as well, so these extra effects can really prove to be useful.

Shadow Sneak: This ability allows you to turn invisible from enemies for about 3 seconds and you move much faster in this mode, compared to regular walking speed. You can still take damage from enemy attacks during this time, and you leave a small cloud of smoke, so they may still be able to detect your presence. This ability has up to 2 slots at once, meaning that you can use this up to twice in rapid succession. You can reload and activate your Casting Shadows even while invisible with Shadow Sneak, although you cannot attack while using this ability, but you can use it to sneak around enemies and surprise attack. This can be used to escape a battle or to approach your enemies without them detecting you in a fairly safe manner. Use this along with Casting Shadows and you can remain invisible for quite a long time.

Shadow Sneak Character Upgrades:

• Shadow Tribute (3 upgrade points): When you vanquish an enemy, you immediately gain a slot of Shadow Sneak, which is great as this can be used to vanquish an enemy and then escape, even if you did not have a charge of Shadow Sneak available before. This allows you to deal sneak attacks more effectively, as you can keep changing positions and confusing your enemies as to where you are. Getting multiple vanquishes will give you all your stacks of Shadow Sneak back, so this upgrade is great in keeping you cloaked for longer and allowing for more frequent sneak attacks.
• Shadow Sling (4 upgrade points): You teleport a short distance in front of you when you activate Shadow Sneak, which can be massively helpful as the distance will make it much easier for you to escape, as you have travelled much further in a much shorter amount of time. This can actually allow you to escape certain enemy abilities that would trap you in place as well as the teleport will move you elsewhere, so this upgrade can really prove to be useful. This can be used to become even more unpredictable with your movement, as you cannot normally teleport by default, and the teleport allows you to dodge lots of enemy attacks quickly and for a much quicker escape as well.

Exclusive Character Upgrades

Nightcap's exclusive character upgrades are as follows:

Piercing Power (2 upgrade points): When you deal damage to multiple enemies using the piercing ability of Spore Strike, you gain 10 ammo. You can actually increase your maximum ammo capacity this way, up to 60 total ammo at once. The maximum ammo boost is temporary and does not carry over reloads, until you trigger it again with the piercing effect. This is great for continuous fire without the need to reload at all, and you can deal damage much more efficiently with piercing and constant ammo resupply.

Parkour (3 upgrade points): Your second jump has a faster movement speed, depending on which direction you are travelling. It does not affect the movement speed of going forwards, but you gain a movement speed of 20% when moving backwards or 40% when moving sideways, and this only applies to your second jump. This upgrade is useful for dodging attacks, becoming more agile, confusing your enemies in where you are and for getting around more easily

Spore-ratic (3 upgrade points): The velocity or projectile speed of your Spore Strike is increased greatly, by about 100%. Your attacks will travel much faster, so your enemies will have less time to react to your shots and will more likely get hit by them. If you can get close to your enemies, your shots will land almost instantly. Use this to your advantage by constantly attacking your enemies with these high velocity Spore Strikes, try and change directions frequently to confuse your enemies even more about where you are.

Clear Coating (3 upgrade points): While you are invisible, you get 50% armor, meaning you will actually take half damage while invisible. This can be done with your Casting Shadows, a different Casting Shadows, or Shadow Sneak. This is very useful for escaping, especially if enemies had noticed you and know which kind of area you are in, or to sneak around and attack your enemies by surprise while trying to avoid taking as much damage as possible.

Usefulness in Situations

General

More effective against grouped enemies, due to having piercing on your primary weapon and Fung Fu excelling against multiple clustered enemies at once.

Reviving Allies

• Use your Spore Strikes to attack multiple enemies in front of you if possible, or otherwise just use it to attack nearby enemies.
• Activate your Casting Shadows before you start the revive to cover yourself in invisibility and give enemies that enter a hard time.
• Move around during the revive, this should help you survive as you are already quite a small target.

Contesting the Objective

• Use your Spore Strike to try and clear out multiple enemies.
• Your Casting Shadows can be used to cover yourself and your allies while contesting more easily for a short time, as well as giving your enemies a harder time with retaliating.
• Your Fung Fu can be used to make yourself much harder to hit momentarily, and you can possibly vanquish enemies as well.
• Use your Shadow Sneak to be invisible for a short time to contest more easily.

When Abilities are Negated

• Your Spore Strike can be used to attack multiple enemies at once that are near you.
• Activate your Casting Shadows a small distance in front of where you want to collect the item, you can quickly collect and walk through it as you go, making yourself invisible for a short time.
• Move around and jump constantly while holding your item, your enemies will find it harder to shoot you.

Tips

• Try to line your Spore Strikes so that they are able to hit multiple enemies at once, due to the piercing effect that they have. You do need to be mindful of shields and some other obstacles, as your shots will not pierce through them.
• As you are a small target already, moving around constantly or jumping around will make it much more difficult for your enemies to deal damage to you. This may reduce your accuracy if you are attacking, however in some situations, this should be beneficial overall.
• Use your Casting Shadows to either make your allies invisible for a short time for protection, or to trap enemies making it harder for them to escape and an easier vanquish. If you can throw it over you or allies, and enemies, at the same time, you can basically gain double the benefits out of a single use of this ability.
• Use your Fung Fu against clustered enemies, or enemies that have taken lots of damage already. Try to activate your Fung Fu in a safer or more unpredictable position to reduce your vulnerability during the start up, and try to end the Fung Fu with some cover available as well, this will help you to escape.
• Use your Shadow Sneak to escape tough battles, or to approach your enemies in a safe manner. You could even use a single one to approach, and then the other one to escape after. Alternatively, you could use a single one to position yourself where you want, then change position with the other one shortly after.

These are my Nightcap tips. Thanks for reading!

@TheSprinter85