August 3, 2019 August 4, 2019

Companion Spotlight
Bonnie Anne

One shot. One kill. The amazing lass everybody’s scared of as they hear her foot steps in the Spar Chamber. It’s the only fox we all know, Bonnie Anne. Or shall I say, Codename Annie?

Bonnie Anne is a free to play companion that you recruit at level 2. She’s arguably one of the best in the game in PvE and PvP alike. However, this article will focus solely on her PvP applications. But before getting any further, let’s discuss more about her promotions, powers, and talents.

Promotions

Bonnie Anne comes fully packed with 3 Promotions. Each promotion has a lot of potential, as it improves her talents and her stats line greatly.

Fox Sharpshooter at Level 8
Fox Sniper at level 31
Fox Highlander at level 57

Powers and Talents Setup

Bonnie Anne has several talent setups, depending on the nature of the match or the opponent you’re facing. The results are different and very effective. Here they are:

Anti-Summons: Overwatch 3 Burst Fire 2 Double Tap 3
Privateer Shredder (BUCKLERS, DO NOT USE THIS SETUP): Overwatch 3 Burst fire 2 Double Tap 2 Quick Draw 1
Anti-Musketeer, Alternate Privateer Shredder (for buckler) : Quick draw 3 Burst Fire 2 Double Tap 2 Return Fire 1

Bonnie Anne learns 17 normal talents. She should receive Agile 4, Accurate 4, Tough 4, Rough 4 and Dodgy 1.

Powers

She has 3 powers. 2 of 3 are very useful, while the 3rd has niche use at best as you will see in the highlights below:

Scatterblast – Reduces enemy’s dodge by -25

It’s definitely her best power and that’s for sure. One of the reasons is the dodge reduction bonus (It may not be a lot, but it helps vs dodge-buffed units) that helps you land chain hits. And of course let’s not forget, it is the best way to counter those little campers who like to rely on Contessa’s Gallant! This power is your best bet to bring contessa down to below half health. A scatterblast on a Contessa that is guarding all 3 other units on the battleboard will do upwards of 1600 damage!

Second Wind

Her Second Wind is a unique and useful power, as it restores 25% of a unit’s missing health. Furthermore, it’s one of the only single target heals in the game that is infinite range. You can use it to heal yourself if you take damage early, allowing you to save your other heals for later. You can also use it to buy a key unit (often Bonnie herself) an extra round or two of life.

Stock assault

Stock assault is her 3rd last power. I wouldn’t recommend using it against targets with First Strike or Vengeance Strike. It triggers their First/Vengeance Strike, allowing them to chain your Bonnie easily. However, it can be an effective way to guarantee kills on incredibly low health enemies without first strike.

Bonnie Anne in PvP

The Privateer Shredder/Chains Killer

This setup (overwatch 3 burst 2 tap 3 QD 1) is strong against privy and buck. The goal against privateer is to keep Annie alive for as long as possible, as she can single-handedly eviscerate their pirate. Use her scatterblast early game, if possible, to get their Contessa (99% of the Privateers use her to guard) to 50% health if she guards more than 2 targets. Then, focus on attacking the privateer pirate or other privateer units (such as Emmett or March). By the way, facing Emmett is one of the strongest arguments for running a Quick Draw 3 Bonnie, as she can counter-chain him before he has a chance to stun her with true grit 3. She will oftenbring their health down from 100% to 40% or lower in a short time frame. This is for 2 reasons:

Privateer units have the lowest Agility in the game. Their 39 agility (vs Bonnie’s 90+) means that they will get wrecked with crit chains. This will drain their health, thereby forcing them on the defensive for much of the match. Oftentimes, they’ll be forced to use valuable attacks, such as an Assassin, to finish off Bonnie.
Burst 2 Tap 3 combo is amazing as tap 3 is guaranteed chain hit that won’t miss often. Tap 3 is based off agility, and Bonnie has over 50 more agility than a Privateer pirate (she only has 40 more accuracy than they have dodge, assuming more buffs). Thus, against JUST the Privateer pirate, Tap 3 is marginally more accurate. In other matchups, Tap 3 will have slightly reduced accuracy (but Tap 3 remains a sneak attack, which is powerful against other chaining muskets)

Vs Buccaneer

I definitely recommend the overwatch 3 setup (there’s a strong case to be made for only giving her double tap 2). However, I don’t recommend using her vs Buccaneers, as her low strength makes her an easy target for the likes of Peter Quint, Temujin, and the buck pirate. If you plan to, give her the same setup, as overwatch 3 reduces accuracy by 50% for 1 round. This will lower their damage output, and potentially allow your other units’ riposte chains to trigger.

Anti Summons

This setup (Burst 2 Tap 2 OW 3) is very effective against the ever-annoying summons that witchdoctors tend to use. Due to the summons’ AI, they will consistently walk into Bonnie’s overwatch range, triggering her overwatch chains. This will drain the summons’ health, disable their accuracy (which will protect your team from their chip damage), and potentially eviscerate them entirely if she gets a couple of criticals.

Furthermore, Bonnie’s Scatterblast is very helpful against summons, particularly Terra-Cotta warriors. A single scatterblast, if timed properly, can eliminate half or more of each warrior’s health. Thus, her overwatch chains and your other units’ reactive epics will finish off the Cottas very rapidly. If you get lucky, you may even finish them off before they have a chance to use their charges.

Anti Musketeer

A quick draw 3 Bonnie Anne is one of the most effective weapons to use against a musketeer. Bonnie Anne’s 5 range is one of the reasons why this setup is so powerful. She trades damage quite well against units such as Chantal while out-ranging Exeter entirely! In addition, it prevents them from turtling in a corner with Contessa’s gallant, for reasons discussed above (not that musket should be doing that in the first place)

Bonnie functions as a win-con against the pirate, representing upwards of 1000 damage per round, even through a fort. They will struggle to out-range her, and her chains force them to constantly remain shielded. She also doesn’t get destroyed by a hidden sniper shot like Nausica does.

Furthermore, it prevents the musketeer opponent from effectively hiding with their pirate until she dies. She can just walk into their overwatch, immediately triggering quick draw. So, it doesn’t matter if their overwatch misses, quick draw still reveals them. Thus, their only way of attacking her without taking damage in return is through trick shots.

In the end, Bonnie Anne remains the best Musketeer unit (Even much better than Nausica at times) in PvP. And putting her to good use can put you at a huge advantage if used correctly. Now it leaves me to ask at the end…