Arknights

Deployment order is important too, in some cases you could helidrop a distraction for ranged enemies to keep them from attacking your snipers and casters.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to do a helidrop when there is only one option left available and it's not surviving that long unless it's Gravel.

Even so, I think that I'm getting the patterns of the enemy down, even managed to survive a challenge-node last run on the first level.

Maybe I should just grab Gravel as a starter operator from the get-go and pick a higher-rarity sniper instead for the remaining points.

Yeah, map knowledge is very important here. It can save you from doing a map you're not equipped for, or at least help you make the best of a bad two choices.

Got to level 50 with 8/11 medals obtained, now it's time to ignore this mode until next month

I enjoy it a lot more than the previous two. I like how it offers more exploration and even some customization. Equipment/Collapse level are more intuitive than dice and keys, and there are more options to swing things your way if you screw up. It's also nice that you can speed up scouting thanks to bosky passages. Among units, I'm glad that my IS 2 MVP Robin is once again very useful here, IS 3 wasn't very Trapmaster-friendly. For the same reason, I actually pick W over other 6* Snipers like Ch'en if I have Hope to spare, since both her second and third skills are very good for crowd-control. Overall, I think crowd-control is more important here than it was in 3.

It sounds so easy when written like that.

On the other side, I guess banging my head against the IS 4 finally gave me a ray of pity/hope for once with the recruit-RNG.

Got a free Reed the Flame as a temporary recruit.

Hopefully I will get past the boss this time.

Update: and great, IS 4 decided to balance the RNG out by throwing a brand new mid-boss at me instead.

Update 2: And it turned out RNG was still in my favor. I finally beat the first mid-boss of IS 4! And realizing that I still have halfway to go on completely unknown territory from here on out.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 10th 2024 at 4:15:27 PM

I think I've mostly gotten used to the general pattern and flow of what IS4 wants from me but Unwell has rapidly become the equivalent of IS2's Beast Taming or IS3's Nest where if my early squad isn't really well built yet, I'm probably gonna take at least one loss.

and the emergency version puts in the guy who removes blocking civilians fuck me

Edited by Nouct on Mar 10th 2024 at 8:15:58 AM

Well... that happened.

I finally reached the actual boss of IS 4 and doing as best as I could against this Sandygast-looking vine-creeper freezing my operators when the absolutely worst thing that could have happened... happened.

The game FROZE.

Literally.

And due to having to start the game up again since it shut me down first...the game counted that as the same thing as if I had retreated/quit the fight all together.

Meaning that I lost this first successful run on IS 4 since it started... due to something that wasn't even MY FAULT or within my control in any way whatsoever!

(More incoherent growling.)

I guess it's just back on it again.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 10th 2024 at 5:03:45 PM

Yeah, that happens. Also best not to play IS in places prone to losing internet connection, like on trains that go through tunnels. It IS safe to pause anytime you're not in an actual battle, but I imagine that's cold comfort right now.

Managed to finally clear all three currently-available endings.

Second ending is not particularly hard, but it does require having at least two medics and a couple of bodies to stall the boss with. You can actually keep stalling him until all other enemies are dead - in fact it seems to the be desired approach.

Third ending, meanwhile... it was a pain. Teleporting boss that is invulnerable normally and you need to use a device on map to open a window to damage it. For 5s or 10s depending on whether you let the device supercharge or not. And if that wasn't bad enough, you have the other enemies to deal with. Which includes and assortment of Demonic Spiders like Lone Trail cars, chapter 8 stikers and other "fun" guys. I'm definitely not doing this 4 more times for a lore tidbit.

After Dorothy's Vision rerun, IIRC we should be getting Jessica's story event, then the lead-up to Chapter 13 (which would be a good time to make more progress for Chapter 12 lol).

There should be DoS somewhere between Jessica's event and Chapter 13. CN had it overlapping with Ch13 preparation, but knowing Yostar, global might get it as a standalone event.

CN has already released the EN voices for Jessica event (+ April Fools), so probably. Also I have a feeling the new event in CN after R6S 2 + R6S 1 rerun will introduce crusher mods to coincide with Hoederer release in Ch 13

Did well until the big drone showed up and ganked Reed. Lost 4 points to a stupid car as a result.

It says a lot of my experience with IS 4 when I do the new Annihilation instead and finding it incredibly relaxing instead of stressful as it was when I first started.

Well, that's done, back to Scandinavia with Matterhorn as a new approach instead.

Update: And lost it in the very same node due to it being a surprise-cameo of the Crimson Troupe from IS 2, destroying me in an instant.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 11th 2024 at 5:47:14 PM

Able to beat the new Annihilation without no guides. Big accomplishment for me.

Retried again, got the damn car and perfected the auto.

Didn't do well on my first two tries, then just went straight for Minimalist with Typhon when he spawned and swapped Medics in my squad, which went much better as my winning run.

Okay, for once IS 4 made me let out a chuckle.

I checked the unlock conditions for the squad formations and found one needing 1000 EXP in total to get unlocked.

My EXP: 999

So one more go before this one is unlocked and no, I still haven't beaten the first boss yet. Only ever seen it once so far.

Update: Got it and already it made IS 4 a lot easier now when I don't need Hope to promote operators.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 12th 2024 at 4:56:25 PM

We're getting the Chinese Nat Geo outfits with Jessica's event

Got a T Op tag yesterday. Wound up with Magellan dupe.

So what should we be expecting with Black steel event mechanically speaking?

Any news about the planned Destiny 2 collab yet?

nope, its safe to assume it was either canned or shelved until Actiblizz get their shit together (so basically canned)

Huh. I swore there were Halo fans who are fans of Arknights too here — and that Bungie took over publishing rights from Activision in 2019... (Destiny 2 was made by Bungie, the same guys who developed the older Halo games)

Edited by leafsaber47 on Mar 14th 2024 at 7:41:06 AM

I mixed up the studios. My bad.

Lv 50 in IS4 prize pool get :V

Now I can just grind to get my skill pool maxed out.