Agnes Rivera is the second Buster class character to join 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 take the form of rapid fire; 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. The optimal strategy is to swap her in the moment the Stacker completes the attribute infusion, unload 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, consuming the entire gauge. The gameplay loop involves repeatedly using Q to build and discharge this gauge.

Q is not a single-hit skill but a channeled submachine gun barrage. Because it functions like a channel, being hit and interrupted or using an emergency dodge will result in reduced damage and failure to build the Overheat gauge. Furthermore, since Q enters a cooldown, you will have to wait for it to reset, which is a significant drawback.

While certain evolutions reduce Q's cooldown upon using basic attacks, making the interruption less fatal, the Buster class relies on maximizing damage within a short window; any interruption leads to a loss in DPS. Observe enemy attack patterns and wait for safe windows to unleash your damage.

Agnes Rivera’s rotation is not inherently complex. Since her E and Core attacks apply a debuff that increases damage taken by enemies, the key is to apply these effects while weaving in Q for damage.

The point is 'QQ.' Using Q consecutively builds the aforementioned Overheat gauge, which you then discharge. After using E, you can perform a QQ combo to reach a 2-stack full charge and discharge it. After a Core attack, you must use Q twice to fill the gauge to 200%, then use Q once more to discharge it. You can use your ultimate skill 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, because the buff duration of your main supporter, Isla, is very tight after the second Core attack, it is usually better to use your ultimate skill before the final enhanced attack.

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

1-Evolution provides effects that help with rotation speed and boost Agnes' firepower. First, using the Q skill now grants 2 stacks of Overheat, allowing for faster enhanced Q shots. Additionally, basic attacks reduce Q's cooldown by 2 seconds upon hit—a crucial feature that allows you to reset and reuse Q if it was interrupted. Her high basic attack speed makes this cooldown reduction very efficient.

Furthermore, she gains the 'Caligine' buff, which activates a Core attack upon using an enhanced Q, and increases Agnes' Q skill damage and Dark-attribute Overload damage whenever she hits an enemy debuffed by E or a Core attack. The recently buffed Dark-attribute 'Erosion' debuff (damage over time) is also added at 1-Evolution.

At 3-Evolution, the Caligine buff is further enhanced, increasing the damage bonus 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%; this is quite useful given that Agnes often takes hits due to her semi-channeled attack style.

5-Evolution further strengthens Caligine and the 'Estasi' buff added at 2-Evolution. The Q skill's Overheat stacking becomes faster, and using the final enhanced Q reduces the ultimate skill's cooldown. Using E now instantly grants 50 stacks of Overheat, allowing for a much faster first enhanced Q.

Caligine’s damage bonus is increased further and now includes Crit chance and a Defense Penetration effect. At the maximum 50 stacks, she self-buffs with a massive 100% Q skill damage increase, 50% Dark-attribute Overload damage, 30% Crit chance, and 40% Defense Penetration. Estasi, which only increased Core attack damage at 2-Evolution, becomes much more valuable at 5-Evolution by adding a 50% damage increase to her ultimate skill.

Like Liu Zhigang, Agnes does not have a wide variety of party combinations. Current viable setups include Isla + Igris + Agnes, or replacing Isla with Lee Bo-ra. While Isla is the standard, Lee Bo-ra (who was buffed after Agnes' release) is currently being researched. Lee Bo-ra is increasingly valued for her buff composition, control aspects, and her ability to solve Agnes' chronic mana issues.

Note that Isla’s buff duration is very short, making the team rotation quite complex. While newer hunters can utilize 30–40 second buff durations to cycle through Supporter - Stacker - Buster/Striker, Isla requires a specific operation: building stacks with basic attacks, bursting, and then returning to use her ultimate skill to maximize potential.

The basic operation for this combination is: Isla enters, uses 3 basic attacks to activate Core attack - swap to Igris to trigger burst or infuse attributes - return to Isla to use E-ultimate skill followed by Core attack - 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 lasts 16 seconds; considering swap times, the buff often expires before the Overload state. Therefore, Agnes must use her ultimate skill before the buffs expire while she is on the field, which is why the ultimate is used during the second QQ cycle described in the operation guide.

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