Alva Review. Should You Pull? | Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium

Hi there. Corposant kicks off the update with  Alva, the new core support for the freeze element.  

Her kit brings both AoE and single-target damage,  strong amplification, and freeze-team staples like  

interceptions and shielding. Robella has been  waiting for her arrival for the past two months,  

and honestly, she should be grateful we’re not  getting another early burn unit instead. If you’ve  

forgotten how Robella plays by now, feel free  to revisit her video. Jokes aside, Alva demands  

your full attention. Her mechanics can feel a  bit overwhelming at first, so please bear with  

me as we break down her kit step by step. Without  further ado, let’s get into it. Alva starts the  

battle using her S2. The skill consumes her entire  confectance index to deal up to 90% of her ATK as  

freeze damage in a 4-tile AoE around the selected  position. She needs to have only 1 confectance  

point to use her S2, but the skill consumes all  available points and scales its multiplier and  

stability damage accordingly, 15% ATK and 1  stability damage per point. It summons an ice  

spike at the target location for 3 rounds, called  Liquid Nitrogen Fang. As the LN Fang appears,  

all targets in range are afflicted with the  debuff Hypothermia which increases their freeze  

damage taken by 20%. Then, any actively attacked  target within the Fang’s range has a portion of  

its HP converted into Hoarfrost, a special shield  that is consumed only after other shield effects.  

The HP conversion is equivalent to 500% of  Alva’s attack and can occur once per enemy  

per round. Now you might wonder what’s the point  of shielding the enemy? First, keep in mind that  

this shield is converted from the opponent’s  HP and in no way additive to its HP pool,  

so Alva is not trying to sabotage your Gunsmoke  score. Instead, she provides bonus damage against  

shielded opponents. Also remember that Robella’s  4th fixed key provides bonus damage and pierce  

rate against shields, clearly designed for this  very moment. Moreover, when an opponent’s shield  

breaks within Alva’s range, she will follow up  with an attack dealing damage equal to 40% of  

the shield’s HP. In the case of Hoarfrost, this  would be equivalent to 200% of Alva’s ATK. Then,  

when Hoarfrost breaks, it applies Frostbite  to the enemy, which adds another 20% freeze  

vulnerability. Together with Hypothermia, that’s  40% increased damage taken. Due to these effects,  

it is your priority to maintain the LN Fang  throughout the battle. You will also notice  

that Frost tiles spawned around the Fang’s  location. This is due to Alva’s first fixed  

key that creates the tiles whenever Hoarfrost  is applied. Remember that this occurs once per  

round before anyone on the team actively attacks a  target within the Fang’s range. Now at this point,  

there’s a noteworthy difference between a V0  and a V1 Alva. In this example she is V2, so  

following her S2, she enters Covering Mode, here  translated as Support Mode. Covering Mode provides  

a lot of benefits, and Alva is able to maintain  it permanently, though her method of achieving  

it differs at V0. Covering Mode increases her  personal crit rate by 20% and boosts the team’s  

freeze damage against shielded opponents by 20%.  This is the aforementioned bonus that synergizes  

with the application of the Hoarfrost barrier.  Finally, she gains the ability to intercept active  

enemy attacks within her range, dealing 60% of  her ATK as Freeze damage and converting 20% of the  

damage into Brumal Barrier for all allies. This is  another type of shield which we’ll explore once we  

get to her interceptions. As I’ve warned you, she  has an exorbitant number of mechanics packed into  

her kit, and it’s not going to get easier. As  noted, she enters Covering Mode following her  

S2 if she is at least V1 and only when she has 3  stacks of Battle Prep. Going back to the beginning  

of the turn, you can see that she started with 3  stacks of the buff due to her second fixed key.  

This grants her both bonus confectance points and  3 stacks. Battle Prep doesn’t have an effect of  

its own and simply serves as a counter. Normally,  she gains 1 stack after ending her action,  

so without the key she would not immediately gain  Covering Mode following her S2. Returning to where  

we were. If available, her S2 consumes 3 stacks  of Battle Prep to grant Extra Command. This is  

independent of the V1 effect that additionally  grants Covering Mode. Since Alva gains 1 stack  

of Battle Prep after ending her turns, she gains  Extra Command every 3 rounds. With her first fixed  

key equipped, she can perform two actions on turn  1, 4, 7 and so on. Note that even though the skill  

just consumed her confectance index, Alva is fully  recharged. This is again due to her V1 upgrade,  

allowing her another use of the S2 with a fully  stacked multiplier of 120% of her ATK. In a  

single-target situation, she’d use her ultimate  instead, which also increases its multiplier  

according to the confectance points consumed. But  more on that later. As Alva concludes her action,  

you can see her passive activate, restoring 3  confectance points and 1 stack of Battle Prep,  

here translated as Combat Ready. It will take  another 2 rounds for her to regain the stacks to  

activate another Extra Command. It's worth noting  that only one LN Fang can exist on the field. As  

you can see, the first summon disappeared after  she cast the skill a second time. Before moving  

on, let’s watch the alternative reality in which  you’ve decided to stay free-to-play instead of  

spending on your favorite gacha game. At V0, Alva  will again start by using her S2 with 3 stacks of  

Battle Prep due to her fixed key. This summons the  LN Fang and grants extra command, just as before,  

albeit with a 30% lower multiplier. The main  difference is that she did not gain Covering  

Mode nor did her confectance index recharge.  Since both her S2 and ultimate require at least  

one confectance point, she will now have to use  her S1. This is a single-target attack dealing  

100% of her ATK as freeze damage. Crucially, she  gains Covering Mode for 3 turns before the attack.  

The duration of the buff decreases at the end  of the round and her S1 has 2 rounds downtime,  

so as noted before, she can maintain Covering  Mode permanently even at V0, just with less AoE  

power. After her turn concludes, she recharges  3 confectance points and 1 stack of Battle Prep,  

so everything stays the same. On the enemy’s turn,  Alva launches her first interception. Remember  

that this is tied to the activation of Covering  Mode and there’s no downtime to this state.  

A portion of the dealt damage is converted to a  shield for the team, 20% below V4 or 30% after.  

This Brumal Barrier is capped at 200% of Alva’s  initial attack, or 300% at V6, so building ATK  

on her is your main priority to increase both her  damage and shielding. While having Brumal Barrier,  

a character enjoys 1.5% bonus damage per 1000  HP shield, plus a crit damage bonus depending on  

Alva’s dupes. As you can see here, the 16k damage  translates to a roughly 3k HP shield. That should  

illustrate that her ability to sustain and to  amplify are diminished against targets with  

high damage reduction. Note though that Alva’s  passive automatically converts other shields to  

Brumal Barriers, so someone like Suomi can help  her out. Alva also passively boosts the strength  

of shields generated by the team by 30%. After her  interception, Alva restores 1 confectance point.  

Remember that she restored 3 points after ending  her turn. If she manages to intercept 3 attacks  

per round, she is able to repeatedly cycle her  confectance index. Now let’s zoom in on the next  

target that Alva intercepts to observe more  closely what happens as Alva’s pseudo shield  

breaks. Remember that her LN Fang converted a  portion of the enemy’s HP into this Hoarfrost  

barrier. Following Alva’s interception, it is  Robella’s enhanced Unity damage that breaks  

Hoarfrost. Immediately after, Alva launches  her attack, dealing damage equal to 40% of the  

shield’s HP value, here amounting to about 50k  damage including a critical hit. The target is  

also affected by Frostbite, stacking more freeze  vulnerability against it. Tallying up the total  

damage from Alva’s 3 interceptions this round,  she dealt about 54k damage, amounting to a shield  

of about 11k HP. That is pretty much close to the  limit given the scaling based on her initial ATK.  

The opponents chip away at the shield, so let’s  say the team carries a 10k HP Brumal Barrier as  

the round ends. That equates to a team-wide 15%  damage bonus, plus 15% or 30% bonus crit damage  

at V3 or V6, respectively. Jumping ahead to  the final round of the battle because Alva  

prioritizes her S2 so long as there are multiple  targets to deal with. With only the boss left,  

Alva shifts to dealing single-target damage  which her ultimate does most effectively. It  

works the same way as her S2 in that it requires  1 confectance point to activate but consumes her  

entire index for increasing skill and stability  damage. The total damage is essentially double  

that of her S2, up to 180% of Alva’s ATK at V0,  or 240% at V2 and above. As mentioned before, the  

Alva in this showcase is V2. Before the footage  continues, take note of Robella’s confectance  

index. She is currently at 3 points because  she used her ultimate in the previous round.  

After Alva fires her shot with a multiplier of  240% for a total of 160k damage, Robella restores  

1 confectance point. With her V2 upgrade, Alva  doesn’t just get a higher multiplier, but also  

recharges 1 point for all Freeze characters on  the team, excluding Alva herself. As you can see,  

she is still at 3 points that were restored by her  passive after ending her turn. This effect is the  

reason why Alva’s V2 is considered a reasonable  breakpoint for her role in supporting Robella,  

who suffers from an excruciatingly slow  confectance regeneration. I believe that  

falls under the classic “create a problem, sell  the solution” concept. So now that you’ve seen  

all of Alva’s kit, let’s put everything together.  Her playstyle is actually quite simple despite her  

complicated mechanics. There are two key elements  you have to be mindful of: her Liquid Nitrogen  

Fang and Covering Mode. Both last for 3 rounds,  so on turn 1, 4, 7 and so on you have to refresh  

their duration. At V0, you do this by starting  these turns with her S2 to summon the Fang, which  

grants extra command every 3 rounds, followed  by her S1 to activate Covering Mode. What you  

do in between depends on the stage. In situations  where you can target multiple enemies at once,  

you’d prioritize her S2, otherwise her ultimate.  In normal map content where you move around, you  

may have to use her S2 more often regardless of  the number of targets to reposition the LN Fang,  

since many of Alva’s mechanics depend on its  proximity to the opponent. With her V1 upgrade,  

you no longer need to use her S1, since Covering  Mode now gets activated by her S2 every 3 rounds.  

That way, you still have to use her S2 on turn  1, 4, 7, etc. but the other actions simply  

depend on the aforementioned considerations.  Keep in mind that Alva’s personal damage and  

amplification depend on her interceptions, so in  mobbing stages you want to position her close to  

the action. As for the action order of the freeze  team, you typically have Alva go before the damage  

dealers like Robella or Makiatto, though Robella  sometimes acts first when she needs to use her S2  

to reapply Radiant Rise. As you can see from the  stats overview of this showcase, Alva contributed  

a respectable amount of damage for a support  character. Her expected damage is about 20%  

lower at V0, but that still makes her output more  relevant than most other lower invested supports.  

That brings us to Alva’s investment breakpoints.  Here’s her power progression chart. You’re already  

familiar with her functionally most relevant  upgrade when it comes to her supporting role,  

which is her V2 for the bonus confectance  point for freeze allies. As mentioned before,  

her V3 and V6 both add crit damage bonuses  based on the value of Alva’s Brumal Barrier,  

and starting from V4 her ability to sustain the  team becomes better by improving her shielding  

capability. As for her personal damage, you’re  only seeing significant changes at V5 and V6.  

It may not look like much when you’re used  to seeing power spikes of 300% and more,  

but keep in mind that Alva’s baseline performance  is quite strong. As a reference, her V6 output is  

comparable to that of a V6 Springfield. Now,  Alva’s personal damage is one thing, but we  

also have damage calculations for Alva’s impact  on Robella’s damage output at various investment  

breakpoints. In this graph, the 100% baseline is  Robella’s personal damage at V6. Having a V0 Alva  

along for the ride increases Robella’s output  by 25%. Adding Alva’s signature weapon provides  

a further increase of 11%. The V2 requires two  more dupes and only adds as much value as the  

signature weapon, providing a boost of about 10%,  thereby halving the cost-effectiveness as compared  

to the weapon. You can hopefully appreciate the  diminishing returns. This may be counter-intuitive  

because Robella gets to use her ultimate more  often, which is the biggest nuke in her kit.  

However, every use of the ultimate means one  less basic attack, and consequently less sense  

weakness stacks, thereby lowering the ultimate’s  multiplier. The V3 is included in the calculation  

because it adds 1% bonus crit damage per 1000 HP  shield, but at this point Alva’s shielding is too  

weak to benefit meaningfully from the effect. At  full investment, Alva boosts Robella’s damage by  

82% as compared to baseline, or by 31% relative to  her V3. Similarly to her personal damage output,  

the most significant improvements come with  the final upgrades. Given Alva’s impressive  

V0 performance and significant boost to Robella’s  damage even then, I suggest no further investment  

unless you’re going all the way with the intention  of running a freeze core with both a V6 Alva and  

a V6 Robella. That said, Alva’s signature weapon  is a worthy and manageable investment if you plan  

to use the freeze core regularly. It boosts the  crit damage of the team’s freeze attacks by 10%,  

up to 20%, and grants another 10% up to 20% damage  bonus when allies have shields. There aren’t many  

support weapons that offer this much value, though  it’s partly tied to her element. As alternatives,  

you can use Golden Melody or Planeta. Golden  Melody is often recommended due to its ATK bonus,  

which is better for Alva’s supporting role.  Planeta’s crit damage substat favors Alva’s  

personal damage, improving it by about 5%, at  the cost of lower shield values. Despite the  

new attachments sets, there’s nothing out of the  ordinary here. Use phase strike for efficiency or  

invest in a freeze boost set for minor gains. You  want to build as much ATK as you can with crit as  

a second priority. Note that Alva benefits from a  permanent 20% crit rate bonus via Covering Mode,  

so you only need to build crit rate up to  80%. Moving on to Alva’s fixed key setup.  

As you should be aware by now, her second fixed  key is mandatory at V0 because the bonus stacks  

of Battle Prep allow you to use the S2 and S1  at the start of battle. This creates the Liquid  

Nitrogen Fang and activates Covering Mode. At  V1 and above this is not absolutely necessary,  

because you achieve both with just her S2, but you  will still want it for the turn 1 double action  

and the synergy with her fourth key. That said,  her fourth key is another must-have, granting Alva  

3% bonus ATK for each consumed stack of Battle  Prep, up to 18% at most. Remember that Alva’s  

S2 consumes 3 stacks for the activation of Extra  Command. That means she gains 9% ATK on turn 1,  

assuming you have her second key equipped, plus  another 9% on turn 4 for the limit of 18%. The  

bonus remains in effect for the entire battle. The  most common 3rd key option is her 6th key which  

increases the stability damage enemies take within  the LN Fang’s range by 2. This is mostly relevant  

for bossing content since stability shields are  often tied to damage reduction effects. Of course,  

it is also great when mixing the Electric and  Freeze cores. If the enemy is not innately weak  

to freeze damage and you don’t have another tile  generator on the lineup, you will have to take  

Alva’s first key instead. As you’ve seen in this  showcase, this key creates Frost tiles whenever  

the LN Fang applies Hoarfrost to targets in  range. You’re essentially switching between  

key 1 and 6 depending on the situation. However,  if you bring Dushevnaya or Suomi along you should  

leave the tile generation to them. Lastly, her 5th  key grants buff removal for her ultimate, allowing  

her to dispel 2 buffs before skill activation.  This is mostly relevant for Gunsmoke or other  

bossing content. If you have no other source for  this effect, Alva can fill that role. Her third  

key can be ignored as it only reduces the received  stability damage by 1 when having Brumal Barrier.  

In summary, Alva is the new core support of the  freeze element and Robella’s favorite partner.  

Just with her baseline kit, she boasts impressive  damage and provides a lot of amplification. For  

one, she applies up to 40% freeze vulnerability  to targets. She also grants a 20% damage bonus  

against shielded opponents, which she temporarily  enforces via her own Hoarfrost mechanic. This  

also serves to activate Robella’s fixed key for  even more bonus damage against shields, though  

Hoarfrost will break quickly when it is the only  shield. Then, she creates shields for the team  

via her interceptions, which further boosts the  team’s damage depending on the shield strength,  

1.5% per 1k HP. At V2, she also gains the unique  ability to restore 1 confectance point to freeze  

allies via her ultimate, which helps Robella and  holds potential value for future characters. At  

full investment, Alva becomes a strong sub  DPS akin to Springfield while also providing  

significantly more amplification for Robella or  other freeze allies. She also has a bit of utility  

packed into her fixed keys, allowing her to fill  the role of the tile generator or buff remover. On  

the flipside, her shields are not too reliable at  lower investment and likely unable to sustain the  

team through harder hitting content. It should be  enough for Gunsmoke, but you'll lose some of the  

variable damage bonus when the team takes hits.  Since the shields scale off the damage she deals,  

it will also be diminished against targets with  high damage reduction. Notably, she also lacks  

debuff cleansing in her kit, which can be relevant  for Gunsmoke. All that being said, she is more of  

an amplifier than a sustainer. Then, like most  support characters, she is tied to her element,  

providing mostly freeze-specific benefits and  synergies that rely on shielding. At the very  

least, she wants Robella by her side. Lastly, like  the hydro team’s counter mechanic, interceptions  

rely on the opponent to play along. Alva needs to  intercept enemy attacks to create Brumal Barrier  

and to restore her confectance index. While she is  still functional without interceptions, both her  

damage and shielding will suffer significantly  when enemies don’t attack 3 times per turn.  

In conclusion, the recommendation for Alva is  fairly straightforward. If you obtained Robella  

or wish to dust off an invested Makiatto, you  should get Alva. She has core member status and  

can help revitalize the mono freeze team or slot  alongside Robella in mixed elemental lineups. She  

is strong at V0 and doesn’t require further  investment. If you want to splurge a little,  

consider her signature weapon. If you’re a  spender and want to use her and Robella regularly,  

V6 is worth a consideration. Anything in-between  is not cost-effective, though most of her upgrades  

provide at least some value, in particular her  V2. That brings us to the end of this video.  

Hopefully, I was able to clearly convey Alva’s  mechanics despite the many different terms I had  

to introduce. It’s always challenging when major  parts of a character’s kit operate under the hood,  

forcing me to explain rather than demonstrate.  Don’t worry if some of it still feels unclear.  

Her actual gameplay is quite straightforward, so  you’ll be able to use her effectively either way.  

And if you decide to dive into the finer  details after getting some hands-on experience,  

this guide will still be here for you. In  the meantime, before Voymastina’s arrival,  

I’ll be working on an updated CN meta roadmap  since we’ve now caught up with the previous one.  

After that, I’m considering covering current  CN releases more consistently, potentially in  

a shorter preview format. Let me know if that’s  something you’d be interested in, and feel free  

to share any suggestions. In any case, thank  you so much for watching, see you next time.