We independently assess all our recommendations. Purchases through our links may earn us a commission.
The Queen of Tournament Arena, Celestine the Living Saint is a great character to have in your arsenal in Warhammer 40K: Tacticus and can fit in a variety of game modes. While she mainly excels at PvP, you can squeeze her into a Guild Raid comp if you’re missing other key characters, and she does see some use in Legendary Release Events thanks to her power damage attack and Flying trait. If you’re interested in unlocking Celestine or have already unlocked her and are looking to learn more about her, check out this quick and easy guide to learn everything you need to know.
How to Unlock Celestine
Celestine isn’t exactly easy to come by in Tacticus, as she is a base Legendary character, meaning you’ll need a whopping 500 shards to unlock her. Luckily, you can easily farm her shards in the 4th chapter of the Fall of Cadia Campaign and Elite Campaign. It can be quite the grind, though, and Celestine isn’t exactly a “must-have” character for Guild Raids.
Unless you’re looking to dominate in Tournament Arena or fill out your roster, you might be better off waiting to get a lucky Requisition Scroll that contains her, which is the only other way to get her. Celestine’s shards aren’t found anywhere else in the game, making it either a grind to unlock her or a roll of the dice.
Do note that Celestine can only be pulled in a Req after you have beaten her in the Fall of Cadia campaign. If you really want Celestine, save your Reqs because you will have a 0% chance of pulling her until you beat her boss level in the campaign. This goes for most characters. You can see which characters are in your Req pool by tapping the dice icon in the upper left-hand corner before opening a Req.
Celestine’s Active and Passive Abilities
Celestine’s Active
Celestine’s active ability allows her to jump to the backline and easily kill any squishy targets that may be hiding, like Thaddeus Noble, Maugan Ra, and other ranged characters. Sky Strike states that from the second round, Celestine can move to any hex adjacent to an enemy and immediately attack, dealing +X bonus Power damage on top of her normal attack damage. At level 50, this is only a bonus 499 Power damage, which isn’t anything crazy, but considering Celestine’s high damage stat, to begin with, it’s just an added bonus at this point.
As you can imagine, this is an insanely powerful move. Especially considering that her passive almost ensures she will survive in the backline unless your opponent has a plan in place for dealing with her. They’ll either have to surround her to prevent her passive from working or blow everything they have to kill her, often helping you win the fight. With that in mind, let’s move on to her passive.
Celestine’s Passive
Celestine’s passive ability is what makes her such a beast in Arena, as she is essentially unkillable unless surrounded, but more on that later. Celestine’s passive is Geminae Superia. When Celestine is attacked, she will summon a Geminae Superia in any free adjacent hex, who will immediately take all of the damage of the incoming attack, thanks to its passive Lifewards. The Geminae Superia is a normal summon and will move and attack the following turn if it is still alive. This can trigger twice per battle.
If Celestine is adjacent to a Geminae Superia at any point in the game, Lifewards will trigger again, preventing Celestine from taking damage again. At max rank, these Superia are a force to be reckoned with, as they’ll have 4786 health, deal 2493 damage, and have 1994 armor, making them tanky as well as hard-hitting.
Unfortunately, there is a way for the enemy to counter this passive, as Geminae Superia can only trigger if there is a free adjacent hex next to Celestine. If the enemy surrounds Celestine, she will easily die. This can be done by just moving characters next to Celestine or by having a Bellator swamp her with Interceptors. Archimatos can try to spawn his summons around Celestine, but a Superia will immediately fill an adjacent hex after being attacked by one of the Bloodletters.
Celestine Stats and Attacks
Celestine has great stats, capping out at 4592 health, 1530 armor, and 1913 damage. She’s not exactly a tank, but she isn’t as squishy as other characters like Maugan Ra. She hits hard and can survive a mild onslaught of attacks after using her active or getting close to the enemy.
By the way!
Did you know we’re launching a Kickstarter campaign? In the next few months, our campaign for ‘Gentle Jack: The Party Game for Bad Friends‘ goes live! Visit the official website or follow the Kickstarter page to stay in the loop.
Celestine only has a melee attack, but that’s all she needs to smite the non-believers and agents of chaos. Celestine’s melee attack hits 3 times and deals Power damage.
For traits, Celestine has Act of Faith like every other Adepta Sororitas and Flying. Act of Faith turns her into a crit machine, as she gets +10% Crit Chance and +25% Crit Damage every time a friendly Imperial dies or kills an enemy. However, once she or another unit with Act of Faith crits, the bonus resets. Flying is straightforward and just allows her to ignore impassable terrain, enemies, and elevation. Celestine will not get the buffs from being in Tall Grass or Trench hexes, though.
Celestine has great mobility, flying up to four hexes away, allowing her to quickly reposition herself or chase after any enemy trying to flee her holy powers.
For equipment, Celestine uses a Crit Item, Defensive Item, and Crit Booster. For her Crit Item, you can choose between a Bolt Pistol or Combat Knife, but a Combat Knife is always better on the Adepta Sororitas characters. Her trait Act of Faith gives her plenty of bonus crit chance, so the increased Crit Damage on the knife is better than the unnecessary Crit Chance bonus on the Bolt Pistol.
For defensive items, she can either use a Mantle or Plated Greaves. Greaves are good when she is up against low-damage dealing characters or enemies, such as in Onslaught or LREs, while the added health from the Mantle might be more useful against tougher opponents. In general, a Mantle should suffice.
How to Use Celestine
Celestine is best used as a nuker in Tournament Arena or regular Arena. She is a pain to deal with, especially if the enemy player is unfamiliar with her passive and allows her to summon 2 Geminae Superia. You might be able to find a spot for her in your Guild Raid team if you are missing other meta-relevant characters, but there’s no real comp that calls for her when there are characters like Eldryon, Maugan Ra, Thaddeus, Calgar, the Neurothrope, Aleph-Null, Yarrick, Bellator, and more.
You essentially want to dive into the backline on turn 2 if it’s safe, cause some chaos, and then have the rest of your team swoop in for cleanup. Her active isn’t necessary to level up, so focus on upgrading her passive ability instead. If she is still alive and there is a Geminae Superia also alive on the field, you should try and keep them next to each other, with Celestine following the Superia after it moves and attacks. This is so that you can make full use of the Lifewards passive, keeping Celestine alive just a little bit longer.
Of course, if the Superia runs off to a corner of the map that doesn’t make sense, you can ignore them and continue on as usual. However, always be on the lookout for prime opportunities to make Celestine invincible to damage by being next to one of her summons.
