I am a proud Scaramouche hater. When he was first introduced, I couldn’t stand his obnoxious taunts, his weird coat-shorts combination, or his embarrassing bowl cut. I’ve since warmed to his now more-compelling backstory, but there are fans out there who have been waiting for this villain to be playable since he first appeared in November 2020. Two years later, they’re about to be rewarded for never having moved on. Even as Scaramouche’s most dedicated anti, I have to admire their loyalty.
Scaramouche (or “The Wanderer”) will be playable as an Anemo Catalyst character as soon as his banner begins on December 6. Players who want him will have to brave tremendous odds by rolling for him in the gacha. Remember—all characters will eventually come back on rotation, so if you miss out on him before his banner ends on December 26, then just wait patiently for him to return.
The Wanderer was first introduced as a villain in the Unreconciled Stars event, but that’s not why we started off so badly on the wrong foot. His fellow officer Childe was extremely cool, despite plotting to destroy my favorite city in the game. Even Dottore had a powerful gravitas about him. Scaramouche, though? He clearly had some kind of trauma, but he kept acting all tough about it. Every other word out of his mouth was an insult, and we constantly had to find out about his backstory from other characters. His entire appearance in the game was built around being incredibly difficult for players to love (though not to his incredibly vocal fanbase).
Which aligns perfectly with his in-game backstory. Scaramouche was originally the first puppet prototype for a warrior god, whom he regarded as a mother. Raiden Ei meant to give him freedom, but Scaramouche believed that she had abandoned him. After that, two of his friends died for unrelated reasons. He got so mad about this that he joined a villainous group and eventually tried to become an artificial god. So he’s definitely not the easiest character to love even from a fan perspective.
And his compelling family trauma is only a relatively recent phenomenon from last year. A lot of players were enamored with his character design, or masochistically enjoyed the character insulting them. After his debut event, players didn’t see him until the Inazuma main quest. He stole a divine power from his mother, and then he disappeared. We saw him in a flashback this spring, but he was notably scarce until the fall—we didn’t even find out about what kind of playable character he was until the leaks a couple of months ago. But now, fans are finally feasting.
The Scaramouche theorycrafting community is still deliberating over whether most of his damage comes from DPS like Xiao, or from Swirl reactions like Sucrose (which combines different elements with wind). Depending on which one he’s “meant” for, Scaramouche couldhave very different ideal team compositions. We won’t know for sure until he becomes available tomorrow.
I’m skipping him in anticipation of the Alhaitham banner, but I wish the best to all the Scaramouche math nerds out there.