Arknights

The time it takes between announcing they got the license for a crossover and the actual crossover has always taken a while, so I'm not particularly fussed about the Destiny one not being detailed.

Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures PV is out now.

Jessica gonna have her character development now.

IS 4: Level 25.

And still haven't made it past the mid-boss.

That one time I got to the final boss feels more and more like a lucky fluke at this point.

The worst being that the mid-boss either snipes me from afar (the Shaman), stomps over me (The tree or whatever that is) or straight up coats the whole battlefield in dark fog while having Russian bears destroy all of my defenses (the Blade).

I'm never properly prepared for any of them it feels like and at this point, I might as well need all the perks in the tree to even stand a chance of seeing the final boss again.

I am getting better at the regular maps though.

Maybe try to accumulate life points and just leak the boss? I think they eat 5 lives. It should be doable with the doll, though with how Emperor's Blades work it's less feasible. Also check if you are lucky and have Foldartals you can buff yourself with, tthough by the first boss I usually don't have anything useful.

Typhon pretty much destroys the blade, even at e1-max. She also completely removes shaman as a threat at e2 since you can just s3 it with ease and it running around so much is suddenly a non-issue. Vine creeper wants someone who can unleash a lot of damage during its self-inflicted fragile. You can also steadily hurt it with good DpH long-range ops.

Anyway, anyone else ready to SSSuffer?

Thanks for the tip. I will see if my bad streak of RNG regarding the recruitment post-battles will get any better for me to get Typhon in.

I think that is the one thing that keeps messing my runs up. Bad RNG.

The one run when the RNG gave me Reed for free and let me face the final boss for real the first time? That was me being lucky.

I am currently taking the approach of "Take on EVERY single fight in my way" when doing IS 4 now just to get more to work with. It gives me plenty to upgrade the tree at least even if it doesn't get me past the mid-boss yet.

...

I am already suffering with IS 4.

How much more suffering could this SSS even bring to my table at this point?

What's your starting squad? You can choose a Typhon from the beginning and fill the other 2 classes with 3 stars

So far, I've been going at it with the "Medic, Supporter, Guard" squad. The Medic being the high-ranked one with Popukar and Orchid as the others.

Or the "Specialist, Archer, Vanguard" squad with Jaye, Blue Poison and Fang as members.

Either work fine all the way to the mid-boss. Jaye in particular taking me by surprise how effective he is with his second skill active.

I have yet to try using Typhon as the Starter Archer though.

I'll do it right now.

Update: so far a little rocky start but got two besieger-snipers on the team now to deal with the enemy.

(In case this turns out to be the Shaman at the end again.)

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 16th 2024 at 2:18:45 PM

IS 4 in particular wants either high damage-per-second or block bulk. There are a few stages early on that really want a low-cost Defender like Spot or possibly Gummy or Cuora, due to how many rusher-type enemies there are. Medic tags are still good (hi Reed) but you'll want damage first and foremost.

That said, for the midbosses, they really want people who can poke at them for a long time from a long range. The shaman will wreck your entire backline if people are too close together, while the tree boss will stun and then walk right past your central Defender if you don't kill it Real Fast. The boss in the stage with the roadblocks can be made to walk a long path after stepping on the bleed tile but you still want to damage it when you can, and the Emperor's Blade... yeah, you'll need someone with an unusual range like Typhon or Platinum. Alternately, bring a strong ranged attacker and enough FRDs to stall him.

FANART: There's something hilarious about using real cat pictures as templates for drawing Feline operators.

I feel like a fool for not trying this formation sooner.

Those pesky lizards that destroys all roadblocks and running around as if there are no free restrooms in the area?

Destroyed.

I am actually feeling hopeful for once.

Edit: Spoke to soon, it's The Shaman as this run's mid-boss.

Please let having two besiegers work this time!

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 16th 2024 at 2:36:44 PM

That Shaman who is a chain caster and buffs his buddies into running faster? Yeah, trying to Besiege him early is usually the plan since he's such a pain.

Update: And he is DEAD!

Yes, I lost five life points anyway since he still managed to take out my defense-line before he bit it but from there on, the besiegers could hold the line until proper defense could be re-deployed. (And considering how all I have in the terms of ground-troops are Fang, Popukar and Reserve Operator, it's not much of a defense-line) but he is actually DEAD!

I am smiling so much right now. And got a folderal that could return half of my lost life-points as well.

This is farther than I've come in a long time.

Update: Ohhh, I am on the final stretch now. The boss is in sight at the end of it. As long I don't mess this up now.

Update: And I lost.

Not even to the boss. I stepped into a battle-node I never attempted before, ending up in the dark, and got stampeded by lizards in a cruel re-enactment of a scene from the Lion King.

Still, this formation did a good job. Definitely will considering promoting the second Besieger (Toddifons) to E2 for covering the blind spot of the battlefield that Typhon couldn't do herself at the time of deployment.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 16th 2024 at 3:32:00 PM

I have E2 Totter, and he does double duty of taking out stealthed enemies (Did you know he can hit enemies in the darkness in Near Light-themed maps without waking up enemies?)

No I didn't. Thank you!

I also have Totter, E1 and max-level, just waiting for a promotion.

I should probably promote him next after Toddifons.

One can never have enough stats.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 16th 2024 at 3:34:43 PM

I promoted him to employ as a trump card against Degenbrecher during the Break the Ice rerun, since she stealths up for phase 2 :V

Between Rosa and Typhon, I have a lot of heavy Besieger firepower already.

Silverash and Ines can also hit invisible enemies in the NL maps too

Okay, doing a practice-run on IS 4 to complete the "Hunt the crying thief 3 times" quest. Using Totter, Spot and Q-...Q-...(I have to look it up)...Qanipalaat as squad.

I don't expect to get past the mid-boss with this one but I'll go as far as it goes since I lucked out and got the specific "Crying Thief" node as a random encounter, completing the mission with Totter easily.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 17th 2024 at 9:12:27 AM

Today on fan community shipping goggles, I've started to see Reed/Saileach start gaining traction. Apparently the basis of this ship comes from their connection starting from chapter 9, where Saileach saves Reed, and the operator file lore that they spend a lot of time together in the library.

And then they use the ship to get Eblana all posssessive of her sister

Also fanart of the ship

I finally beat The Tree mid-boss.

Tried a different position for Typhon, to ensure that no matter where the enemy came in, they would choke in the bottleneck while bombarded from orbit.

At least I got the strategy down for this one, even if I might not win this in the end.

Update: Oh Duck Lord I actually reached the final boss this time!

Update 2: YES! YES!!!

I ducking BEAT HIM!

Yes, Holding the line was immensely stressful and the last wave of twelve enemies made it through but once that happened, the Sandygast-looking lump of snow HAD NO MORE FOES TO THROW AT ME!

He couldn't kill me as I had healers and DP-generation wasn't an issue anymore.

At that point, it might as well have been the ocean rolling up against a steep cliff side.

My victory was all but assured then.

(Laughing and grinning so much right now.)

I finally beat IS 4 for the first time!

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 17th 2024 at 8:36:55 PM

Ending 1's final boss is mostly a matter of having some healing and enough power to hold both lanes, you can defeat the main boss with some carry DPS quickly.

Is the upcoming National Geographic skins limited and can never be bought again or you can buy them another time?

They are marked with crossover tag, so probably they won't be rerunning normally like usual skins do.

We did just get reruns of previous crossover skins (the skins for Thorns and Blaze, I think), but those came out basically in years 1 and 2 of the game's lifetime, to give you an idea of the time frame.

If you have the OP and like the costumes, the safest bet is to grab them when you can.

Thanks. I just want to be sure if I can save enough for the 2nd Rainbow six crossover skins.