I'll try to keep this short and sweet, like a good Any% ;)
The Good
-Higher base jump height means she can make certain jumps that Beck couldn't.
-The higher jump, combined with her hover means Ekoro effectively gets the best of both worlds. A higher base jump and a way to do horizontal air movement. Sadly no speed boosts from hovering. That said, she can do some ridiculous gap clearing with her hover jumps.
-Hover will automatically activate the moment Ekoro stops getting vertical movement if you're holding Jump. This means at the top of her jump, or if you hit a ceiling, she will start hovering.
-Hover comes in two flavors: Slow descent and no descent. No descent appears to last 3 seconds. Slow descent appears to last until you touch the ground. You can also spend extra CP to lock her facing direction. Good if you're using hover to line up shots and want to be able to move while doing so.
-She only needs 50% of her Heart Gauge filled to go invincible, but it lasts longer the more you have beyond 50%.
-Eating food boosts her heart gauge by 10% per item. This means if you do have to use food in a boss fight, you can at least make the time up with her invincibility (which also comes with an attack buff).
-Custom wise, she has all of Beck's options aside from different looking shots. So basically, Gunvolt's single bullet type, but all of Beck's customs (Homing, diagonal, etc). With hover being available, she may not necessarily need the Diagonal shot in Any% though. Her high jump + Hover will likely let her line up ideal mashing shots.
-Invincibility is ridiculous. Plus the attack buff on top of it. While you obviously lose about .5 seconds activating this, the tradeoff is boosted damage and the ability to avoid any damage whatsoever. Will probably be very helpful on bosses that required damage boosting for fast kills (Cryosphere). Can't wait to see what this does with the 1.5x ATK modifier added.
Now, the bad.
-What seems like less than half of Gunvolt/Beck's base health. Damage boosting with her will have to be a much more tactical decision and health pickups are far more important. Seriously, you cannot afford to just take every hit in the game as Ekoro.
-For maximum Heart meter gain, you need to get burst kills. Not always viable when trying to go fast as you effectively have to time your last shot to be point blank. You'll get a chunk of meter on a burst kill, and 2% meter on a normal hit. this means you need 25 hits minimum to have the meter for invincibility.
-If you do die, you lose all your heart gauge, even if you had some at the last checkpoint.
Long story short, Ekoro has potential, but players like me who are used to being able to damage boost through everything or not worry about taking excessive hits have a lot to be worried about here, as Ekoro ¤cannot¤ take hits. You basically have to be efficient in gaining meter and popping invincibility in dangerous spots to maximize her movement speed, as she lacks any sort of increased horizontal speed options. Her higher jump has its uses though, as does hover.
Her hitbox seems a bit fucked. I kept missing easy jumps to platforms and rings a lot for no reason. Invincibility did not prevent Cryosphere from freezing me. not impressed so far. She handles like shit imo
