Agnes Rivera is the second Buster class to arrive in Solo Leveling: Arise, following Liu Zhigang. As a Dark-attribute character, she specializes in dealing massive damage during the 'Attribute Overload' state induced by a Stacker, with the ability to land additional hits once the overload ends.

Agnes is designed to deal high damage using her Common Skills, which are enhanced by the 'Overheat' effect. Note that her basic attacks are fired in a continuous stream; if she is hit by crowd control (CC) effects during this motion, the animation is interrupted and the damage is lost. She lacks innate shields or immunity to stiffness, and because her teammate Isla’s defensive capabilities (like shields) diminish the more aggressively she is played—combined with short buff durations that complicate swap rotations—Agnes is considered a hunter that requires a high level of adeptness.

True to her Buster class, Agnes Rivera is designed to unleash burst damage during the Attribute Overload window. Therefore, the optimal strategy is to swap her in exactly when the Stacker completes the attribute infusion, pour out as much damage as possible over 15 seconds, and then swap her out after the burst.

Her core mechanic is 'Overheat.' Using Common Skill 1 (Q) builds up the Overheat gauge at the bottom center of the screen. Once full, you can use an enhanced Q that deals massive damage in one go, which consumes the entire gauge. The gameplay loop involves repeatedly using Q to build and then discharge this gauge.

Q is not a single-hit skill but a continuous submachine gun barrage. Because it functions similarly to a channel, being hit and interrupted or using an emergency dodge mid-attack results in lower damage and prevents the Overheat gauge from building. Furthermore, since Q goes on cooldown, you face the issue of having to wait for it to reset.

While certain evolutions reduce Q's cooldown upon using basic attacks, making interruptions less than fatal, the Buster class relies on maximizing damage within a short window; thus, interrupted attack motions lead to significant damage loss. Observe enemy attack patterns and wait for safe windows to unleash your assault.

The rotation for Agnes Rivera is not inherently complex. It is easy to think of it as applying effects that increase the damage enemies take via E and Core attacks, then pouring in damage with Q.

The key is 'QQ.' Using Q consecutively builds the aforementioned Overheat gauge, which you then discharge. After using E, you can perform a full 2-stage Overheat charge with QQ and then discharge it. Following a Core attack, you must use Q twice to fill the Overheat gauge to 200%, then use Q once more to discharge it. The ultimate skill can be used at any time, but it is best used after a QQQ sequence.

The brackets around [QQ] indicate that you should use the skill to its full extent to trigger the 200% Overheat enhanced skill. However, for the QQ sequence after the second Core attack, the buff duration of your main supporter, Isla, is very tight, so it is usually better to use the ultimate skill before the enhanced attack.

As a main damage dealer, it is highly recommended to reach 5-Evolution for Agnes. Each evolution stage provides unique, core options, and damage drops significantly without them. Since damage dealers account for most of the team's firepower, a lack of evolution levels will drag down the entire party's performance.

1-Evolution provides effects that help with rotation speed and increases Agnes' firepower. First, using the Q skill builds 2 stacks of Overheat, allowing for faster enhanced Q shots. Additionally, basic attack hits reduce Q's cooldown by 2 seconds, a crucial feature that allows you to reset the cooldown and use Q again if it was interrupted. The high basic attack speed also allows for very rapid cooldown cycling.

Furthermore, it provides the 'Caligine' buff, which activates the Core attack upon using the enhanced Q skill, and increases Agnes' Q skill damage and Dark-attribute Overload damage whenever she hits an enemy debuffed with 'damage taken increase' from E or Core attacks. The recently buffed Dark-attribute damage-over-time debuff, 'Erosion,' is also added at 1-Evolution.

At 3-Evolution, the Caligine buff is further enhanced, increasing the damage boost and adding Crit chance. When applying a 'damage taken increase' debuff to a target already affected by Erosion, the Dark-attribute damage taken by the enemy from Agnes Rivera increases by 60% at once. Additionally, the enemy's Attack is reduced by 20%; given Agnes' semi-channeling attack style, she is often hit, making this Attack reduction quite useful.

5-Evolution further enhances Caligine and the 'Estasi' buff added at 2-Evolution. The Q skill's Overheat stacking becomes faster, and using the final enhanced Q skill reduces the ultimate skill's cooldown. The ability to instantly gain 50 stacks of Overheat upon using E also allows for a faster first enhanced Q.

Caligine's damage boost is further increased and now includes Crit chance and Defense penetration. Upon reaching the maximum of 50 stacks, she self-buffs with a massive 100% Q skill damage increase, 50% Dark-attribute Overload damage increase, 30% Crit chance, and 40% Defense penetration. Estasi, which only increased Core attack damage at 2-Evolution, gains significant value at 5-Evolution with an added 50% ultimate skill damage increase.

Like Liu Zhigang, Agnes does not have a wide variety of party combinations. The currently viable setup is Isla + Igris + Agnes. While there are two Dark-attribute supporters, Isla and Lee Bo-ra, Lee Bo-ra is less of a general supporter and more of a team-fight damage-supporter used primarily in Guild Boss battles; Isla is superior in terms of buff output. However, since Agnes currently suffers from mana issues, research is ongoing into utilizing Lee Bo-ra to help with recovery.

Note that Isla's buff duration is very short, making the team rotation quite complex. While the latest hunters can utilize 30-40 second buff durations to rotate through Supporter - Stacker - Buster or Striker, Isla requires an operation where you build basic attack stacks, burst, and then return to use her ultimate skill for maximum potential.

The most basic operation is: Isla enters, 3 basic attacks to activate Core attack - swap to Igris to apply burst or attribute infusion - return to Isla for E-ultimate skill followed by Core attack, then swap to Igris (or the damage dealer if the burst is already applied) - Igris ultimate skill - damage dealer enters to deal damage.

The Core attack buff lasts 12 seconds and the ultimate skill 16 seconds; considering swap times, the buff often expires before the Overload even ends. Therefore, when Agnes is actually out dealing damage, she must use her ultimate skill before the buff expires, which is why the ultimate is used during the second QQ cycle in the aforementioned operation method.

Because time is so tight, it is recommended to use forced swaps rather than QTEs for Dark-attribute parties utilizing Agnes.