Arknights

I finished the Black Forest story, pretty fun spotlight for Magallan even if the ending veered too much into "so did you know we're dropping a new game mode? find out what happens to our characters there by playing it for hours!" for my tastes lol

CN modules preview: sentinel defenders & R6S ops

IS 4? And I just got comfortable with IS 3.

Also how many members of RB 6 are going to get Isekaid to Terra before Earth start noticing something weird is up?

Did a couple of runs, so far IS 4 feels a lot harder than 3.

Also, finally unlocked cutscenes for Dorothy's event. I indeed forgot to do the two extra stages last time...

Made it to the first ending. Impressions so far: normal stages and floor 3 bosses are hard, ending 1 boss is easy. Collapse is an annoying mechanic, but making prophecies is fun. Also, idk if it's just my luck, but Cannot had an option to deposit ingots on every run, I already saved over 50.

Going back to the start without all those built-up global bonuses makes it hard again lmao.

I think Foldartals are generally a glowup over Dice but the first three floors already expecting you to have block-3s is extremely annoying. Agreed the first boss is fairly easy if you have a decently built team.

the three civilian map is hell what was that ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I at least have a lapis lazuli Dungeons & Dragons dice set based on the Dice from IS3 because the stylised Aegir numbers are sick (in a good way).

Speaking of IS3, any tropers other than me have this showerthought about Mizuki?

I know Namie intended Mizuki to be more of a Pac-Man shoutout... but isn't there another Big Eater that more accurately describes him?

It's Kirby.

Not just because Kirby eats basically anything and anyone like Mizuki does, our moon jellyfish Specialist eats people like Kirby can do in Super Smash Bros., but Kirby and Mizuki despite their heroics — are actually tied to a major faction of blatantly Eldritch Abomination races by being actual members of that said eldritch faction themselves. Kirby is linked to Void Termina, which means he is a member of the Dark Matter horde. Mizuki is a member of the Seaborn, which follows the call of We Many like the Dark Matter horde follows the call of Void Termina.

Not to mention how Cicero and Hyness mirror each other as de-facto leaders of the Church of the Deep and the Jambandran Cult respectively, both being mysterious religion-ish figures tied to Mizuki and Kirby respectively in more ways than one.

It couldn't have been a coincidence. I guess Namie likes her Kirby games?

Edited by leafsaber47 on Mar 6th 2024 at 10:46:50 AM

Alright, I realize I'm getting tilted and I should take a break, but wow, this mode feels terrible compared to IS 3. If you thought Texalter was a mandatory pick for IS3, wait until you see such wonders as a starting map that throws six of those rushing sheep at you at once, or a map with 3-6 of the defense shredder brawler guys from Mansfield Break.

I realize I'm comparing a fresh run to one with the pretty substantial buffs given out by IS 3's meta-advancement tree, but this is a goddamn miserable experience so far.

Oh, just remembered. There seems to be a weird bug with Trapmasters? I was using Robin during one of my runs, and for whatever reason her bombs sometimes didn't work. I definitely remember one of these maps being the one with prisoners that break boulders, and non of them were Invisible. They weren't moving diagonally either, they just didn't trigger some bombs they walked on, but only some, others worked as intended.

Edited by Kara on Mar 6th 2024 at 10:57:49 PM

U-Official (AKA Eureka) is getting Lilypichu as her EN dub voice. Streamer voicing streamer for that extra authenticity lmao.

A curious thing about new CN update and the modules it introduced:

Apparently, Ela is getting the delta module for trapmasters, rather than X. With now two delta modules in existence, it looks like deltas are modules that are completely operator-specific. Not sure how it will play out if we ever get two operators of the same archetype that both have deltas, but it is possible that those modules will even have different base effects.

Edited by NHunter on Mar 6th 2024 at 3:36:20 PM

I also heard that CN is preadding EN voices for Conviction and the new ops for Jessica Blacksteel event too

That's interesting. I thought Dorothy would eventually get the trapmaster counterpart to the one instructor guard module, but I guess it doesn't really make sense to release a mod that'll benefit only a single skill for Dorothy (S3), while Ela's trap having an activation radius instead of requiring the enemies to step on it mean her mod will work on all skills. I guess the second mystic caster won't become a primal caster (or at least one that deals necrosis).

It's so funny to get to IS boss with Memories of The Shard. A couple of leaks and entire map is clear

Got and E2'd Valarqvin, though haven't tried her yet. I'm completely out of money now...

This new Sarkaz lady getting popular with the fan community too. Apparently if you can choose the option to stay put like a good Doctor you get some nice prizes from her.

The Cursed Artist has decided that going after Exu isn't enough and has done some cursed content for Arturia.

Edited by AceOfScarabs on Mar 8th 2024 at 11:57:24 PM

Ended up with a rather OP squad in IS 4, so I decided to try for the second ending. The boss was surprisingly fast, but thankfully he was blockable, so the battle was pretty easy once I trapped him in the middle of the map.

Also, I now plan to raise my Mostima after I got her from the temporary recruitment and she hard-carried entire run.

Ugh, whoever designed most of these IS 4 stages is a real sadist or something. Too many of them seem to require a very specific type of operator and/or strategy utilizing specific types of operators in a mode where the operators you get is RNG-ish. Especially the early ones for some stupid reason (even some of the FIRST stages!) before you've even gotten the chance to build up a roster.

Edited by TiamatRoar on Mar 8th 2024 at 8:37:58 AM

My usual starter team of Kal'tsit, Midnight and Orchid continues to work well here, I almost always make it to floor 3 boss at the very least.

I'm now partial to Yato alter - Kroos - Fang with Specialist team. Cleared BN 4 with that starter with no issues whatsoever. Did have a bit of luck with getting Gladiia and Specter alter with immediate promotion pretty early on, which solved a lot my laneholding problems.

The main point of annoyance is mostly just the DP regen slowed Paradigm is way more penalizing than I thought at a first glance compared to the other Paradigms

Reed the Razgriz is legit powerful for IS 4, her second skill makes enemies MELT when they hit your blockers.

She also trivializes the snow piles for the first boss with her S3.

And yeah, that DP regen down one is a real pain.

IS 4 really is hard. I get to the first boss but that is it, as I rarely can do much but cluster my operators by the blue box and pray the defense holds, even if that rarely happens.

I know that I have to keep slamming my cowl against the wall in order to get the perks which makes this a bit easier but it doesn't draw the tediousness of it away in the slightest.

The new operator in the point ladder is made with advantage for this IS, correct?

Crowd control and blockers are vital to the IS4 experience. Phalanx casters like Lin are great because they can smash an entire wave with a skill activation, Anti-Heavies like Rosa, Ceobe, and Typhon rock because of bulky enemies with high Defense, and Spot and Gummy are absolutely amazing early game operators for their healing skills.

Even Roberta's makeup machine Devices are useful in IS4 because the barrier and DEF buff are very useful for bottling up strong enemies.

Edited by AceOfScarabs on Mar 9th 2024 at 9:26:52 PM

In that case I have a lot to prep for to make it past the first boss then. As they keep bulldozing me and my luck with recruitment in the nodes keeps giving me little hope to work with when picking candidates.

I know it is all about position, position and position when doing this mode but figuring it out first is most of the work. Usually gets done in due to not knowing where the enemy will attack en masse from when having a crossroad to defend and where to put the bulk of the operators. Not to mention getting sniped by shamans from behind, losing my casters and snipers in the process and making the defense so much harder to keep up.

Also, working on to promote Lin to E2 as a phalanx-option for this mode.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 10th 2024 at 8:51:30 PM