I just made some room, let me add you. I think your invite expired.

..did you say Bagpipe is coming already!? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

Type "Let's have fun." in to the message box in game. Gets rejected as containing unallowed words.

Probably the ' - I know Iron Saga hates it for whatever bizarre Chinese reason.

I got the specialist Rope today from recruitment. Any advice on how to use her?

Find one of those stages with deep holes.
Locate a spot where she can reach across one.
Cackle villainously as hapless Reunioners fall to their dooms.

Bonus points for yoinking Crownslayer that way, as she's fully susceptible to push/pull abilities (for gr8 memery).

Memery shenanigans aside Shift Specialists aren't super useful in stages without environmental hazards to exploit, but the pushers (Shaw and FEater) can moonlight as AoE guards and also shoo away enemies you don't want to let into melee range for whatever reason. One worthwhile candidate that does come to mind is Red WeebsHateful Avengers because the offense buffs those guys get at under half health are pretty brutal.

last edited at Sep 8, 2020 4:34PM

Please come home Texas. I want you and your girlfriend Lappland in my Rhodes Island. I also need Scavenger's girlfriend Provence too.

Edit: How many of the Fixed Squad missions are there? I really hate those since you're forced to use units other than your own. :(

last edited at Sep 8, 2020 5:28PM

Fixed squad missions are tutorials so they'll be there every time the game introduces a new mechanic. Pretty sure there was some in chapter 6 too.

Please come home Texas. I want you and your girlfriend Lappland in my Rhodes Island. I also need Scavenger's girlfriend Provence too.

Edit: How many of the Fixed Squad missions are there? I really hate those since you're forced to use units other than your own. :(

Do I have good news for you. Provence is in the Distinctions shop and will be there until next week Friday so should be enough time to get the yellow certs to get her. As a new player, you should get enough from clearing Annihilation 1 and 2.

Also thanks to an anon for providing the source to the summer pic I posted recently. The artist also made art of Bagpipe x Ch'en.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84223403
Texas x Lappland NSFW

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84085298
Jessica x Snowsant NSFW

Do I have good news for you. Provence is in the Distinctions shop and will be there until next week Friday so should be enough time to get the yellow certs to get her. As a new player, you should get enough from clearing Annihilation 1 and 2.

Nice. I'm not strong enough to clear Annihilation. That and I wasted some on stupid stuff. So no Provence for me. I need 15 of them before she leaves the shop and it. Any other ways to get them (besides paying?)

last edited at Sep 8, 2020 10:42PM

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84223403
Texas x Lappland NSFW

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84085298
Jessica x Snowsant NSFW

Do I have good news for you. Provence is in the Distinctions shop and will be there until next week Friday so should be enough time to get the yellow certs to get her. As a new player, you should get enough from clearing Annihilation 1 and 2.

Nice. I'm not strong enough to clear Annihilation. That and I wasted some on stupid stuff. So no Provence for me. I need 15 of them before she leaves the shop and it. Any other ways to get them (besides paying?)

Gold certificates come from either getting new operators for the first time, or from higher-rarity duplicates of higher rarity operator. There's an in-game guide to it but it's a bit confusing; just know that the most reliable way of getting the yellow certificates is through the 4* operator tokens from Recruitment. 4*s aren't particularly rare from Recruitment since there's several tag combinations that guarantee them, like Sniper+Slow always gets you Shirayuki or AOE+Guard gets you Estelle (or Specter if you're lucky). Gamepress has a tag filter you can use to check.

Note that you can only trade them in if they're your 7th copy; you have to get the 4* operator to potential 6 before you can trade them in.

Also WTF top Jessica

last edited at Sep 8, 2020 11:03PM

Except for me because the RNG hates me and always gives me either crappy tags or if I do get semi-decent tags a 3* unit. :(

Edit: I really like the characters and story so far in the game however the gameplay is just tolerable for me- something I have to get through to see the next cutscene/story segment instead of something that I enjoy doing. I much prefer turn-based games like Disgaea or Fire Emblem over games real-time games.

last edited at Sep 9, 2020 12:21AM

Arknights is a game where it gets better the longer you play imo. You need to have a good understanding of your team's skills and roles before you can play stages comfortably. It took me a few weeks to get the hang of it, and the early chapters really doesn't show the full potential of the gameplay.

It's when they start introducing more enemy types, map types, etc that the gameplay gets interesting. You also have to get your operators to elite 1 before they can start showing their special skills. Every operator's first skill are generally very basic buffs and you need to get them to elite 1 before their specialized skill is shown. Like Siege's skill 1 is a basic dp generating skill while skill 2 is her smashing the ground with her hammer in a somersault, dealing AoE damage + generating some DP on skill activation.

I do wonder how much time I'll have once the back to back events in FGO start after the current one is over. I mainly started this game to do during downtime in FGO. There's always fanfics, doujins, and images when I want to get an Arknights fix after all.

Gavial's childhood harem.

^Crocodilians do run a version of the "harem" mating system IRL after all... :P

I need 15 of them before she leaves the shop and it. Any other ways to get them (besides paying?)

Worth specifically mentioning that you can recycle excess Operator tokens into certificates and distinctions from the big yellow "Token" ribbon at the lower left of that store tab. It's not exactly readily apparent ingame and it took me months to stumble onto it - pretty sure I missed at least one Operator I'd gladly have bought with Distinctions due to that. :c

Bagpipe is coming AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

@Sakura: just take your time and enjoy the game. You didn't miss much from the Ceobe event anyway...assuming you cleared most of the vouchers which were really easy to max out.

I assume you checked all the guides on the OP and the ones the others are sharing but I cannot stress this enough: you need to learn the shop! It is the newbies final boss.
Don't worry about tags either, you'll get better stuff eventually hopefully by the time you memorize the unique combinations just like us lmao.

Gavial's childhood harem.

This is the cutest thing on this thread.

Well I did get a few 4*s including a Shaw today from the Shift tag. Hopefully my luck is improving. The next problem I have is that while I have a lot of operators most of them are unleveled or low leveled. I was able to get Amiya to max level and have enough mats to E1 her... however I'm lacking on money to actually do so. Unlike QP in FGO this game is quite stingy with money.

last edited at Sep 9, 2020 4:30PM

Oh yeah LMD is definitely the single biggest bottleneck. Get in the habit of farming the Cargo Escort stages and try to get your base set up churning out Precious Metals and the tradepost contracts for them.

Well I did get a few 4*s including a Shaw today from the Shift tag. Hopefully my luck is improving. The next problem I have is that while I have a lot of operators most of them are unleveled or low leveled. I was able to get Amiya to max level and have enough mats to E1 her... however I'm lacking on money to actually do so. Unlike QP in FGO this game is quite stingy with money.

Yeah, money is pretty rough in Arknights, especially when starting out. That’s generally why it’s recommended to progress through the story so you can upgrade your base. With my current setup, I can make ~40,000 LMD a day

I need more twincest! Here's a Hibiscus x Lava image:

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/75133490

3-stars need more love~
Cardigan x Melantha pic with translations: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4062320
Now I'm sad though; there was another picture of this pairing I saw a while ago but now I can't find it...

Since I was looking through some artists I'm following, here's another rare ship: Magallan x Santalla https://twitter.com/sheep4267/status/1243442598900989953
You'd think this ship would be more popular, but this is the first picture I've seen of it. Hopefully there'll be more when Santalla is finally released.

last edited at Sep 10, 2020 12:12AM

3-stars need more love~
Cardigan x Melantha pic with translations: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4062320
Now I'm sad though; there was another picture of this pairing I saw a while ago but now I can't find it...

Since I was looking through some artists I'm following, here's another rare ship: Magallan x Santalla https://twitter.com/sheep4267/status/1243442598900989953
You'd think this ship would be more popular, but this is the first picture I've seen of it. Hopefully there'll be more when Santalla is finally released.

Thank you for that tweet. Because of it, I found these: Nian's birthday with Lava, Classic Texland, NSFW "Hey Olivia"

Would also like to share these: a different snek x croc, a doggo and her ox and this NSFW Skadi x Specter

last edited at Sep 10, 2020 1:36AM

Unlike QP in FGO this game is quite stingy with money.

Fake news. At least you can make cash for free with trading. QP hell is way worse. I was a millionaire 2 weeks ago in AK and only dropped under 1m after 3 E2s with some mastery. Norainhere is right.

Sorry guys, I was pretty much dead...

So I have a lot of catching up to do...

Ancient forge. In the end I only did challenges up to AF-6. For AF-7 I'd need to lvl up all my operators to be able to pull it off. So after that I focused on progressing with main story to unlock episode 6, so when next event rolls up, I won't be clamjammed by it, like with last one. I'm happy I didn't try to rush it during event, cos I'd definitely not manage to do it and would only ruin the fun of figuring out how to beat the stages. But it also only made me more annoyed about AF-8 requiring episode 6 unlocked, because difficulty between episode 5 and 6 barely changed. I managed to beat everything until 6:6 I believe with my E1 lvl 40 or below (with 3 exceptions lvl of 50 Executor and Texas and E2 lvl 20 Jessica). Even most of my skills were still on lvl 4. Especially considering that AF-8 had the same difficulty as AF-7, it really feels like only reason they were 2 episodes apart, was because AF-8 used terrain and enemies from episode 6 and they didn't want to spoil them I guess? Not because AF-8 was considered that much harder. I did got a little stuck and didn't go back to trying to progress with story yet mostly, not because difficulty become so hard, but because the new gimmick of Yeti Squadron with freezing is much harder to deal with, so I need to spend more time on figuring out how to beat them.

On topic of main story, the Faust x Mephisto fight was a complete bs. The only reason it was hard, was because Faust is broken af and you need to set up your entire strategy before he spawns and you need to make sure you deploy strong defender that can tank his hits last, otherwise you're screwed. In fact those missions that forces you to deploy in specific order, so wrong operator won't get the aggro really annoys me, cos it limits your options and makes deploying operators flexibly impossible.

Story wise, while episode 5 did humanize Ch'en a bit, I'd be hard-press to say that it made me like her more. Her character didn't really change and she still acts the same way that made me dislike her in the first place. That being said I like Swire a lot and feel like they have really good chemistry. I'd ship Ch'en more with her than Hoshi.

I don't think I said it here, but after hearing opinions defending Reunion and understanding I should be looking at their actions from different perspective, I don't feel Skullshatter and Misha part was as bad as I initially thought. Sure, I still have some issues with it, but I can get behind it more now. That being said, I can't believe it, but game actually made me sympathize with Mephisto. The way he treats other Reunion members is of course atrocious, but it's also hard to entirely condemn him after learning how he got there in the first place. He's completely broken and a shell of a person he used to be. I don't want to say being a victim gives you a free pass on everything, but I at least think it's a bit more complicated than most people would like.

Blaze is amazing. Also Blaze lifting Amiya is double amazing. Blaze x Amiya is canon and nobody can tell me otherwise.

In the end I never got Nian, but with my last rolls on banner I dropped Silence which I was really happy about, because I wanted her based on what I heard about her. From standard pool 16, I got third copy of Mayer, because of course and bought Firewatch from shop. From standard pool 17, I got another Nearl I believe and since I already got Franka I didn't get another copy from shop. From Thousand Headed Arsenal I got Leizi. Was kinda hoping for Lappland, cos I heard so much how good she is, but meh.

Got my second senior operator tag and generic sniper, medic and vanguard. In all options I had chance for a dupe, but for sniper and vanguard the chance for dropping someone new was the lowest and with medics either Warfarin or Ptilopsis would be cool and second copy of Silence would be nice as well, but I was actually interested in Warfarin the most and I got her.

Finally got my second top operator tag. Only guarantee I could get was Saria or chance for either Shining or Nightingale or let game pick between all 3, so I picked Saria, but didn't really invest in her yet. Day before current banner I got another top operator and could either pick Sieg or again let game decide between Shining or Nightingale, so I of course picked Seiba. Didn't invest in her yet as well, mostly because I'm afraid if I do, I won't ever use Texas again.

Since standard pool 18 had almost all operators I already own (except for Provence and Skadi) and I already maxed all 3 stars and most of 4 stars, I decided to roll single rolls until I get guarantee on it. Got Provence with first ticket x3 Thanks to that I didn't need to buy her from the store. Since I saved quite a bit Originium and I didn't 10 roll current banner, I decided to roll rest of discounted rolls (I only rolled 1 10 roll on newbie banner for guarantee 6 star) and lol, I got Hoshi, the same 6 star I got rolling it for the first time xD

Also during running solo AoE tag once I randomly got Specter, so I have her as well and I really like her, she came very handy for SA-5.

Speaking of which, of course finished ladder in Stories of Afternoon and beat all challenges. Unlocking episode 6 paid off. I think I managed to beat SA-5 without really lvling up anyone, but challenge version gave me a lot of trouble. It finally forced me to lvl up all my operators evenly. I currently try to get everyone I use to lvl 55 and I also started investing in skills, trying to get them to lvl 7. I think I'd still manage to beat normal stages with my underlvl'ed operators, but I don't think i could pull it off for challenge quests, so I'm lvling them now, so I can challenge them without worry. Also I think I'll finally start E2 everyone, but for now I think I'll keep them on lvl 1 and mostly focus on mastering skills.

So... today we finally get the fabled Contingency Contract. Anything I should know or pay attention about it?

Long post lol congrats on your new units!

Didn't invest in her yet as well, mostly because I'm afraid if I do, I won't ever use Texas again.

Don't even worry about that. If you're only using S1 Texas is better unless you need more hp for some reason, S2 are completely different, and on S3 BurgerQueen becomes a ghetto guard so it's irrelevant. Texas and Siege actually compliment each other well rather than overlapping if you take a look at their kits(and if you have Zima even better).

So... today we finally get the fabled Contingency Contract. Anything I should know or pay attention about it?

If you check our past discussions here you'll see that CC is a pick your difficulty type of deal, the harder the challenge the bigger the rewards. Just know that the better your Saria, the easier it will be. There's also missions which are self explanatory.
You can go ahead and ask if you need help with something specific. We will probably post how we beat every map/risk lvl here.

I almost forgot to mention there's a new operator in the shop. She's good and can do some hilarious but effective stun meme strats. Here's what I mean: https://youtu.be/UapwBHAN_ww