Shu

Shu is a 6-star character in Arknights. Shu's weapon type is Gui (ritual jade scepter) and class is Defender. Faction: Sui.

As a Guardian-type Defender, Shu puts out healing numbers that stand out even next to dedicated Medics. Her Skill 3 covers a wide area, healing allies while also buffing their damage and repositioning enemies, which makes for a surprisingly multi-functional support kit on a frontline unit.

Shu's character alludes to Shennong, the mythological Chinese ruler known for his contributions in agriculture.

Shu carries a burr puzzle around her, specifically known as the "Lu Ban's Lock"（鲁班锁）to the Chinese, which was applied in Chinese folk architecture and educational toys since ancient times.

The style of her puzzle is specifically called the "Eighteen Arhats Lock" (十八罗汉锁) for its formation by eighteen puzzle pieces.

Lu Ban was a Chinese carpenter that lived during the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally credited with the invention of various tools such as saws, hand planes and escalades, among others.

He is deified by later generations as the Chinese god of carpentry and masonry.

Shu wields a gui (圭), a ritual jade scepter.

Originally a sacrificial tool during the early Neolithic period, around the start of the Western Zhou dynasty, it became a symbol of authority and status given to the regional lords by the imperial court.

Most gui scepters originated from the Spring and Autumn period, the same period of the Lu Ban Lock's invention.

Shu's character concept and cultural themes are rooted in the Song dynasty:

Shu's base outfit is the modern rendering of the hanfu during the Song dynasty in the model of ruqun with beizi.

The scroll painting in her Elite 2 artwork is seemingly based on the famous scenery painting, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (《千里江山图卷》) by Wang Ximeng of the Northern Song era.

Her color scheme ties in with the painting as it resembles the blue-green shan shui (青绿山水) drawing technique.

The same motif is also used in The Land With Me.

Shu represents the culture of the Minnan region (the province of Fujian):

She speaks Hokkien as her dialectic language.

Her cultural symbolism is tied to the significant agricultural history of Fujian, where Dahuang is inspired.

Shu's third skill name in the English localization, Samsara, is the term used to refer to cycle of life and death in Buddhism and Hinduism.

Distinctions

Shu is the first 6★ Guardian Defender to be released since Blemishine in nearly 4 years.

Shu is the second limited Defender, and the first to be released since her sibling Nian from 4 years ago.

Shu is one of two Guardian Defenders to not wield a shield, the other being Bassline.

Shu is one of two Defenders to not wield a substitute for a shield, the other being her sibling Yu.

Shu is one of the few Operators to have a special musical cue upon deployment, which doesn't briefly override the in-game music.

Homeward Bound: The clouds part to reveal a fine day, the clear blue sky an open invitation to act at your leisure.

Once you have stepped into the fields, what rush is there to leave?

You may as well join her as she rests, and enjoy the fine view together.

Y6 Paradox Simulations

GUA-X: "Hey, Tianshi Shu, there are some things I just don't get no matter how much I think them over, and I thought you could help teach me."

Shu raises her head, the Tianshi apparatus that was hovering before her gracefully collapsing into a cube before falling back into her palm.

Her young visitor's arms and legs were hooked into the branches of a tree, her hands grasping some brilliant red fruit, her sharp eyes quite unlike her youthful figure hanging upside-down, and staring at the apparatus in Shu's hand.

Shu laughs, holding the apparatus tight, and says: "It's rare to see you in the fields.

Do you not have schoolwork to mark?"

"That group of layabouts? Let someone else who cares take charge of that lot!" The child wipes the fruit with her sleeve, gobbling down a bite, its sweet scent clear even from two or three zhang away.

"What about you? You're hardly an ordinary person yourself, so what are you doing mucking about with a Tianshi apparatus for?

Can't you decide how good the harvest will be with a point of your finger and a glance of your eye?"

"And what if I don't have this mystical power you speak of?

What if I have simply seen enough to know if the weather will change, or if the seeds will successfully become crops?"

"You do, though! Look, don't play dumb, I'm asking you seriously here."

Shu stoops down towards the field, her cloud-like tail slowly sweeping across the chilly crop ridges.

These plants had just passed the seedling stage, and would soon join the sprouts that had been brought onto the agricultural plate alongside their fields, gleaming in the burning embers of the summer evening.

"Chun yu jing chun qing gu tian, xia man mang xia shu xiang lian." She recites this softly, as if reminiscing on the prior night's dream.

"One person's strength alone could not order the myriad grains everlasting.

But before I was I, before Shu was Shu, there was already someone who had achieved half of what was dictated in this song of the jieqi solar terms.

"A thousand years hence, those that came after her created this Tianshi apparatus.

It can take on six forms, knows how seeds will develop, can share data between different plates, and can direct Sky Poles." The little green cube floats above Shu's palm once more.

"Although mine is somewhat different, its functions are still interlinked: whether it is the song of the jieqi or a Tianshi apparatus, they are but manifestations of the power of the architecture of time."

"Pah." A fruit pit leaps into the heavens like a signal flare, its furious rise startling some featherbeasts roosting in the tree, only landing far away a long while later.

"Forget I ever asked. Breaking out some old Shennong cliche again to avoid the question, how boring."

The child leaps down from the tree, walking off along a small path without another look.

As if coming to a sudden realization, Shu lightly claps her hands.

"Could it be that the reason you came...

is that you don't know how to use an apparatus?

How about I go ask He Sheng to teach you..."

"Don't talk rubbish!"

Talents

Limited Operator, only available in Limited Headhunting - Festival banners starting from Reap of Millenia (70% rate-up in that banner, 30% in the next three Festival banners); also available via the Headhunting Data Contract Store