That doesn't make any sense though. Her DP doesn't increase so that's not a issue. I was already struggling with damage to begin with, so mobs were slowly pilling up, until I'd put out my second DPS that would clear it together with Jessica. Before they would, they were getting dangerously low, but they'd always pull it off. It isn't the case where I need to kill enemy at precise timing or need them for my on-attack/hit operators to charge or something. What I need is raw damage, so E2 Jessica and lvling her up, should make this run more reliable, not *un*reliable.

It's like saying you have a run you always clear with operator that has 100 damage, but once you increase it to 120 it suddenly always fall, because they deal more damage?????

Ok, I'm confused. So I promoted Jessica to E2 and even lvl'ed her to lvl 15 as well as give her first skill M1, so you'd think she's even stronger now and would make clearing AF-7 even easier, yet despite never before losing when auto-deploying (and I farmed stage quite a bit), every since I promoted her, I'm always losing and I'm lost why. I'd understand if her DP cost increased, but it didn't... In fact it kinda feels like she deals less damage now.

last edited at Aug 8, 2020 12:07PM

riverFlower posted:

Oh I never knew that. We all learn new things every day. XD

Yea, they always (I think) highlight special traits. Slow is also in blue. I just saw arts damage the most, so that was what stuck to me x3

Highly recommend two vanguard starting set-up, since it really can make life much easier in my experience.

Yea, I do it for almost all quests, unless it's really tight. I did it here at first, but then I was overrun, because I wasn't dealing enough dmg so I switched to starting with snipers and beginning was going well, but I couldn't deploy operators fast enough to both hold the left side and keep Defense Crushers in check, so after many trials and errors I finally went back to opening with vanguards. First with 1 and later with 2.

If you look at Penguin Stats and sort by ascending sanity per drop, AK-7 seems to have better drop rates than the best permanent stage farming location, 6-11.

I see. Good to know! Also thanks! It's a really handy site ;3

Regarding the event, I am happy they made it so easy to complete, but I wonder why they didn't extend the number of rewards.

Yea, I'm wondering the same thing. It kinda feels...small? Like there wasn't that much rewards or things to do. I think I cleared the ladder in first 5 days or less...

last edited at Aug 6, 2020 8:50PM

Rye posted:

It does apply to all banners. It just applies as separate pools, regular banners or limited banners. Just read the banner descriptions...how did you miss that?

I never read banners descriptions before. Nian's was the first one I did and there it talked about limited banners, so I didn't think there was separate one for non-limited banners, but I guess it makes sense.

Still not Nian.

I feel like a idiot. Because whenever operator deals arts damage it's highlighted in blue, I associated text in blue as arts damage. That's why when it said Frostleaf can attack in range in blue I assumed it meant she deals arts damage. I finally realized she doesn't and that explains why her skill deals physical damage as well. facepalm

After trying a lot of setups I finally figured out how to beat AK-7. Who would have guessed, it involved starting with 2 vanguards stares. So it drops Kohl. It says rare, but is it any better than regular quest? I did run it few times today to see and dropped it roughly ever second run, but I didn't really try farming other one to have comparison. BTW. beat it with this team. Outside of Ch'en I deployed everyone at least once, so I didn't even use any 6 stars. E2 lvl 20 recommendation won't stop me! Now gotta beat chapter 5 to even unlock chance to challenging AK-8.

Also I finally checked drop rates and wow no wonder I drop 5 and 4 stars so often. 50% on 4 stars is already great, but 8% on 5 stars is amazing. Compare to FGO's 3% to drop 4 star it's like night and day. Even 2% chance for 6 star is still higher than FGO's 1% for 5 star. On that topic, I was sure that the increase of 6 star drop chance by 2% every time you won't drop 6 star was universal to all banners, not only limited to... well... limited banners. That kinda sucks, especially since there are currently only 2 limited banners in AK?

Rye posted:

Edit: I like how 50% of my friend list is missing that clue 4, Istina gave me a 2 and a 7 >_>

Yea. I finally witnessed for myself the horror of clue 4. On the other hand rn I'm again missing just clue 1 though.

myrrhmidon posted:

We need justice for 3 stars. E2 for them please Hyperglyph.

Sadly they need to give you some reason to roll for 4+ stars.

Sakura Cartelet posted:

Who cares if she's any good or not from a gameplay perspective. She's cute and that's all that matters. I mean I like trashy units like Stheno and Medusa (Lancer) in FGO as well Hinano and Emiri in Magia Record too.

I never thought Chibidusa was bad from the get go and apparently with all her buffs on JP, she's actually now a very good servant. Since when Hinano is a trash unit? Sure she isn't the strongest, but she works just fine.

last edited at Aug 6, 2020 9:46AM

Finally joined the club. Free ticket bought me another copy of Hung. First orundum roll gave me Gitano and second was a 6 star... Aak x3

塞雷娅 posted:

I didn't try any challenge modes yet, but outside of bonus rules I assume enemies are stronger in general?

Yeah, all enemies have a slight increase in stats and you can't let anyone pass into your base at all in addition to whatever special conditions the individual maps have.

KK. That's fine by me since I always aim for 3 stars anyway.

Rye posted:

I like how Snowsant is a anti slug specialist but she's just a fatter Cliffy most of the time. She's cute.

Yea, she seems really interesting. Also she's cute. That's the most important.

Another set of single rolls. I dropped Nightmare, who is really cute and she seems interesting. Also beat AF-5 and 6. 5 was easy af. In fact I totally forgot about lone melee tile, so I kept spamming snipers to protect device from breaking. If I had remember about it, it'd be even easier. Honestly all you need to do is protect device once you drop it to stop bombers. My sniper harem came in handy again. AF-6 gave me some trouble. I had setup figured out, but despite theoretically having roughly the same amount of DPS, 1 side was killing bullies much slower, which resulted in Gummy dying during wave 2. After dozen of attempts I finally noticed that for some unyurily reason Frostleaf S1 deals physical damage instead of arts... After switching her to Mousse, I beat it on first try. Also probably wouldn't beat it without Ifrit. She really was tailor-made for this map. Checked out AF-7, but will leave it for tomorrow. It looks interesting and I have already some ideas how to approach it. BTW. I didn't try any challenge modes yet, but outside of bonus rules I assume enemies are stronger in general?

last edited at Aug 1, 2020 4:10PM

Rye posted:

Is there any noble phantasms in this game?

No. All operators have skills that would count as special moves, but they're nothing like NPs. It's tower defense after all.

Oh? you haven't Ch'en S3 then lol. That shit looks like a lvl 3 super from a fighting game.

Lol. I'm not E2 any 5-6 stars anytime soon. Those mats requirements are brutal.

riverFlower posted:

I'm so disappointed. Nian's second facility skill increases morale consumed by two. Why on earth did they say it "reduced" consumed morale?

Yea, it was confusing me as well. It was clearly a mistake. Just wasn't sure which way, but I did think it increases it. It makes sense after all since skill is so good. It had to have some kind of drawback.

last edited at Jul 31, 2020 7:19AM

Sakura Cartelet posted:

Can I use a team of only female servants or do I have use male servants?

You'll be locking yourself out from some strategies/options, but I think it's doable. I think there's more female operators anyway (obviously).

I'm guessing trust is similar FGO's bond levels or Magia Record's episode levels right?

It's more similar to FGO bond points, where with 100% trust your operator gets permanent increase to 1 or few stats. Nothing special, but helps out and is actually useful unlike vast majority of bond CEs.

Is there any noble phantasms in this game?

No. All operators have skills that would count as special moves, but they're nothing like NPs. It's tower defense after all. Also you don't really need bonus copies and all they do is improve operators stats and abilities a little.

last edited at Jul 30, 2020 9:48PM

riverFlower posted:

Do you guys not use vanguards? Unless the stage is specifically designed to reduce dp recovery or force rapid operator placement, I typically end up with more dp than needed.

It's not about using vanguards and I obviously use them lol. It's more some stages are pretty tied when you need to deploy certain units so those increased costs can really limit which operators you can use. Also I know it might sounds like a crazy idea, but it's nice when I do not have to start stage spamming 2-3 vanguards, just to be able to deploy all operators I need to beat the map before I die...

random posted:

I'll give you Gummy's S2 is definitely trickier to use properly, though that +50-80% Def during the first phase

I tried to find some confirmation whatever her Def buff lasts for entire duration of skill or just first part, but I couldn't find it, so it's good to finally know for sure. It did make sense it'd only last for first 10 second, but I wasn't entirely sure.

Sakura Cartelet posted:

I was thinking I could fit this on my phone, but no way since Magia Record alone takes 4GB of space.

That's why I play it on emulator.

last edited at Jul 30, 2020 6:59PM

random posted:

That would be a completely nonsensical solitary aberration in the fundamental mechanics and I'm frankly perplexed you even assumed anything like the sort.

To be fair it didn't make sense to me either, because even if she wouldn't get any stats just from promotion alone, she'd still get level reset and cap increase. And of course idea of her not gaining any stats from leveling up and it being only done for maxing her out sake did sounds ridiculous. That's exactly why I wanted to make sure I'm not misunderstanding anything.

塞雷娅 posted:

Nawww, Nearl is literally an upgraded version of Gummy. If you're referring to the second skill, the difference is that Nearl automatically starts healing allies while Gummy takes time to rev it up.

Actually Nearl's S1 only targets allies with less than 50% which can be meaningful (but maybe it isn't). Also S2 doesn't increase DEF as opposite to Gummy's and I still do use her mostly for tanking and even with it Gummy struggles in some missions, so I'm afraid Nearl will be dying way too quickly.

The update that lets you replay event stories is called the "Information Processing System" and there's ways to unlock previous event stories you didn't get to play.

Oh, that actually sounds really good. It's a bit annoying in other gacha's that once you miss a story, you can't see it unless you find it uploaded online, which obviously isn't ideal. Especially since often those stories are relevant to main story and even progress it directly (looking at you MR).

That being said, what's point of maxing them and dropping all different units, if I'm not going to use them/not use half of them?

You do stuff like this.

Point taken x3 And yes that's the kind of stuff I was thinking, when I said I have some ideas to still make content challenging and fresh for me xP

random posted:

See the word "just", as in "only". Elite promotions increase the functional level cap and stats come from levels, so...

Oh. It was actually the word only that confused me, because it was implying that compare to other 4* who get mostly stats, Shirayuki only gets her talent and range upgrade.

last edited at Jul 30, 2020 6:19PM

random posted:

Uh. Uh. Just sayin' but 'Yuki is an exceptionally bad example because she only gets her talent (trading ASPD for moar damage) and final range upgrade at E2... Most OTHER 4*s just get the usual(ly) minor talent upgrade and universal statcap raise tho.

Wait. Yuki gets no stats increase at all on E2? Did I understand that right?

So talking about Nian here made me realize, I really damn want her and since it's just 1 time, I decided to buy starter headhunting pack. I actually got 6 star with my first 10 roll, but it wasn't Nian >.> In fact it wasn't even rate up on. In general I think most 5-6 stars I rolled so far weren't rate up ones. Still it was amazing roll and while second one wasn't as good, it was still good so I'm overall happy. I'm really happy I dropped Sora, because she looks cute and seems interesting gameplay wise.

Also holy fuck, they gave us 1 ticket and 1 10 roll ticket for free today! That was a surprise gift indeed x3 It meant more rolls for me x3. It was actually amazing. No 6 star, but I got 2 5 stars. I already had Astesia, but second copy for -1 DP was still nice, but then literally next after her was Nearl <3 that I wanted since I started playing! I really liked her design and she was cool in the story so far. Sadly on first glance Gummy's skills look better than hers? Also finally got Gitano. I'll keep spamming single rolls whenever I can until event ends, hoping for Nian spook, but I kinda already accepted I won't drop her. After that I'll go back to my tactic of only rolling each banner once and in fact, since I got so many operators now, especially 5 stars, I kinda feel like skipping some banners once in a while if there is nothing interesting on rate up (not that it matters stares).

Oh also after recruiting Ifrit-sama, I actually got my first robot tag! I could go for guarantee Lancet, but I run it solo in hopes of getting first copy of Castel and I did! He'll definitely come in handy and I actually like his talent gimmick. I'm actually on roll with tags for a change since after that I got debuff twice in a row.

As for event, I cleared AF-3. I ended up doing it my usual way of 1 Defender and shitload of Snipers. And yes, it's recommended E1 lvl 70 and my highest was lvl 51 Jessice and 40 Executor. Few around 30, rest 20 and honorable mention of Courier being lvl 10. Beat AF-4 as well, but this one was less of a clear win. I mean my strategy still more or less worked and I didn't leak anyone, but ending was not exactly stellar and I felt like I could still improve my strategy, but as I won't ever auto-deploy it, I figured I don't really need to perfect it. Now in order to do AF-5 I need to progress with story, since I didn't unlock chapter 5 yet. It's time to go snow bunny hunting.

Another random thing I forgot to mention. As much as I like the drill plan and refund on sanity, when you fail the mission, I wish there was some way to rewatch your last attempt, because many times there's so much shit going on, I can't really pay attention to everything and figured out which part of my plan exactly is failing. Or sometimes I'm sure I'm playing the exact same as before, but this time some enemy leaks/my operator dies, when before they didn't and I'm puzzled what exactly went wrong. Also I know it's asking too much, but sometimes all I really want to know is the exact pattern of enemies, so I can plan accordingly, but often I can't even get through first part, so after many attempts when I finally progress I get caught off guard with something completely unexpected, I didn't plan for and I'm back to drawing board, especially when it requires me to rethink my entire strategy until that point. Not to mention, it's kinda hard to memorize how stage goes, when you're entirely focused on staying alive. It'd honestly save me a lot of time. Then again, I guess I always try to beat stage with potential auto deploy in mind, so I want my strategy to be reliably repeatable and don't like just go ham spamming operators and hoping to hold up, but recently, especially for stages I know I won't be repeating anyway, I'm trying to just go for beating it with any means necessary and not care how clean the win is.

塞雷娅 posted:

The reason Amiya is so attached is because the Doctor wasn't always ruthless and coldhearted

Oh, that explains it.

If you missed the Code of Brawl event then you should look up the event story on Youtube or something

I'm playing since around 3-4 of July, so it's my first event in AK. I did start playing when previous event was still on-going, but I don't think I could participate in it, because I'd definitely notice a event section in missions, like we got right now. I guess it's because at first I didn't really progress with story too far and from this event I see the event progression is also locked to story progression (which I don't necessary like). I guess I'll have to watch those event stories online then. I didn't really want to go back, to avoid thinking about what I missed, but I guess if I want the world and story to make sense to me.

I saw some of your other responses too and just letting you know that you might hate Ch'en now, but chapter 5 really changed my perception of her and I also hated her before reading through it.

I kinda thought (hoped?) she had some kind of backstory or reason to act the way she acts, which will make me see her in better light, but so far I didn't see it. There was a brief moment after Misha part, where they kinda were hinting Ch'en has more going on with her than we know and I thought we're about to learn something about her past, but nothing like that happened, so I kinda lost hope for that. Good to know, we will get something more later. For now I need to defeat the snow bunny though.

One last thing, you should really read the operator's files and voice lines if you want to see why people like the characters.

Yea, I know... It's just it take times and I got so much into gameplay (and wasted spend so much time trying to beat maps), I was putting it off for later and never really got around to read them. Days are waaaaay too short.

Here's a site you can use to look through operator files: Aceship.

Oh yea, I know this site already and it's in OP, but thanks anyway ;3

myrrhmidon posted:

For context, the original meme is Chris Redfield from Resident Evil wanting Leon Kennedy, another RE character, to impregnate Claire Redfield, Chris' sister.

Now that you said it, I vaguely feel like I did hear about that once. It sounds somewhat familiar, but maybe I'm imagining things. Still, it sounds hilarious x3

A bit of trivia, the CN version of the meme is the opposite. In CN, SilverAsh is an overprotective big brother that will not let anyone dare touch his sisters.

Wait, why is that? Are there some differences between EN and CN versions?

The meme then spread in EN where it became fanon that Blue Poison likes the Doctor but Ptilopsis is already having sex with him in secret or as the meme goes "under the table".

Rotfl XD

You can actually check this in the sanity refund tab in Annihilation.

Oh I know about sanity refund mechanic and that you drop orundum proportional to how many enemies you kill. And when I was figuring out Anni 2, I did often retreat before 100 kills, if I messed something up.

One way of taking advantage of this is going for only 99 kills then retreating.... this costs 0 sanity and arguably a cheap way to finish the kill X amount of enemies daily or that one time during an event where there was a mission to kill X amount of enemies in Annihilation.

Oh so it wasn't about finishing weekly orundum, but some event quest. That's what kept me confused x3. Cos I'm pretty sure you're not rewarded orundum if you retreat.

Rye posted:

Did you know? You can tell the rarity of your bag by sound. 6* bags are pretty loud, disable music when you open bags and you'll notice the difference.

Yea, I knew about it. It's pretty hard to miss. Youtuber I watched at first said you need to disable music to hear it, but idk what he was talking about. I had no problem telling it apart from normal 5 star with music on.

this is not my week oof

pat pat shares the salt

Some OPs roles do overlap to an extend so you can always just NOT use your stronger units.

That is true and I already can think of at least few ways to limit myself and still have fun with the game, once I max everyone out. That being said, what's point of maxing them and dropping all different units, if I'm not going to use them/not use half of them? The fact some operators are straight better than others and there's no reason to use 1 over the other, outside of them being your waifu, really is a bit annoying. Still I feel like I'm a long way from that point though and that's why instead of rushing to lvl them up, I'm just progressing with story and lvl them up as needed, so this way I won't just breeze through it without any challenge. And from what I'm seeing events still have those high lvl missions, so they should still give me enough challenge between downtime of lvling up OPs.

I think I mentioned I have different teams for different content. I'm intentionally keeping a bunch of cheaper units at E1 lvl ~30 for that reason.

That sounds like good idea, but it's hard to decided who to pick for that + it kinda feels bad to intentionally not invest in your operators.

Except Kroos and Melantha, I maxed out those 2.

Yea, Kross was my first operator I fully maxed as well (and only operator so far).

Most 4* E2s are just small stats increase. Shirayuki is a great example, she needs a bit more survivability to clear ann 3 without dying and getting her E2 does just that.

Yea, in fact it kinda makes me feel like most of their E2 is kinda a waste, but looking at it like that is probably actually better idea.

The only annoying 4* E2s are the defenders because they get a +2 dp cost slapped on top for no reason.

Oh, that really sucks ;/ Yea. And normal DP increase is annoying already as it is.

Rye posted:

I forgot to mention: @Nev, get used to those rolls like in that image. AK doesn't throw 50+ useless rolls per session like FGO does lol.

Lol yes, I could see it already xD I'm dropping so many operators every 10 roll and game spoils me so much, it just makes me want to keep on rolling x3. I never expected to have so many so fast. The sole fact that first 10 roll guarantees at least 5 star already makes you feel much better about rolling, because you'll always drop something.

I'm sorry guys. Walls of text is kinda my thing x3"
I'm not actually sorry xP

last edited at Jul 30, 2020 5:22PM

So after mulling it over I decided to try getting Nian (she's also voiced by Shuten, so that's another reason). I spend all my orundum and tickets on single rolls. Got a bunch of 4 stars (seriously, I was dropping them almost every roll) and actually dropped Franka, who was the last one to complete the gang and Hung, who looks pretty decent. No Nian so far.

riverFlower posted:

Nian's cool, but she's not the type of meta-defining unit that every map needs. She is a good psuedo-Arts defender + blocker though.

Tbf, I don't really care and don't want her to be completely broken. She simply fits with the play-style I already most often go for. Aka 2 defenders blocking everything in the front and DPSs in the back filling everything in front with bullets. Most of content I cleared so far, I beat using Curoa as my main tank, so I'm very used to the kind of tactics Nian is supporting. Even her passive increases Defenders max health, which is just perfect for me.

On the topic of Nian, what enemies could her S2 be effectively used on? Because she has to receive an attack to silence them, she wouldn't be able to silence some enemies like exploding slugs right? But would she be able to silence ranged casters like the Sarkaz casters that paralyze you?

Oh, good point. I forgot spiders exploding slugs don't actually attack you. That was actually the first unit I was thinking about. About Sarkaz Casters, I guess it depends if their bind counts as attack, but I feel like it doesn't.

Really straightforward event, it's essentially spend 1600 sanity on stages with drops (almost all of them) to clear the ladder. Event currency is 1:1 ratio to sanity spent, assuming you three star it.

That's actually great way for event currency to work. You can easily clear it even without using pots, just on natural sanity.

Also beat first 2 stages, third one took me off-guard with the sudden difficulty spike xD Guess my normal strategy won't work for it. Perfect time to try out my new Reed.

last edited at Jul 29, 2020 8:05PM

random posted:

Crowny is the only boss enemy whose weight is the same as the random small grunts', which means she's fully susceptible to the push/pull Specialists AKA the Bully Squad.

Oh ok x3 Makes sense xP

So I assume I'm just supposed to play game normally and will farm ladder while doing it? Also of course beating all the event stages. Also damn checked Nian's skills again and especially S2 is insane. S3 is also amazing. And honestly, just her RIIC skill alone looks like worth rolling for. I might break my resolve already and try to fish her with single rolls after all...

last edited at Jul 29, 2020 6:34PM

Ok, bought all skins. I didn't yet invest in Liskarm and I never use Swire you say? They're cute, so who cares stares.

Also my 10 roll was amazing. No Nian, but I got all 4 stars I use all the time and I'm especially happy with 2 copies of Perfumer. Also I already like Reed because she's voiced by Altera <3 Since Nian is only 1 out of 2 limited operators I actually am tempted to roll more, but I'd need to think about it. I guess I'll try picking her from support and see if I like her. I do like her design and skills overall, especially since I use Curoa a lot. Also got another Sniper to my harem. I dropped a lot of Snipers in my first rolls and since I like to use them, I actually don't mind.

last edited at Jul 29, 2020 4:51PM

myrrhmidon posted:

For the challenge tho? I find it fun.

Yea, I approach all missions as puzzles to solve. I'm not getting discouraged when I fail them, in fact it only motivates me more. It's common for me to spend all 30 daily plans and half a day repeating the same map over and over until I figure out the perfect set up. It does make actually spending Sanity a bit hard though x3"

Goodluck with your attempts.

Thanks!

SilverAsh posting aka the Arknights' version of Chrisposting from Resident Evil.

Only posting I know is Baneposting. So SilverAsh has very quotable lines and perfect for any context?

There is also the "under the table" meme.

What the hell is that about x3?

Amiya is a donkey.

Oh I read about that on fandom wiki just the other day.

Crownslayer bullying.

Is there some special reason for that?

I think what is being referred to there is that X amount of kills in Anni can refund you sanity if you retreat or fail. I think?

Yea, but I didn't know you can retreat and still keep rewards?

Penguin Logistics is technically a courier service. They deliver goods. Just so happens the world is dangerous so they are an armed courier service bordering on paramilitary. They worked with RI cause they were supposed to secure a package aka Misha.

Oh, thanks. That makes a lot more sense!

On Misha, well, I respect your opinion, but honestly I kinda get her and the rest of Reunion in a way. Getting infected sucks. No cure and instant discrimination. The infected are just lashing out with no actual concrete goal in sight. Just revenge.

Oh no, I totally get that. It was mostly Skullshatterer talking shit about RI when in fact it was Reunion themselves that antagonized RI against them. And well I can't say I'm a fan of how radical RI is presented, making them to look like the clear bad guys instead of someone with the point and giving morality more gray area. And in the end I guess I am pretty naive and hope for happy endings, so I was kinda hoping the whole Misha thing will be resolved relatively peacefully and she might even join RI cos she seemed pretty cute. But I can mostly totally understand the way it went down though. It's just that it really left no emotional impact on me, which is annoying because I clearly knew I was supposed to make me feel things about it. The way game was presenting it was pretty clear on that.

riverFlower posted:

Wow already? Actually I don't remember how long it took me solve annihilation 2. You're in a good spot though since that's the primary way of getting orundum.

It was relatively easy. I guess I have really good tanks and dps. The hardest part was the last assault and killing the damn wrath leaders. My defense fallen apart at the end, but I still cleared everyone, so it wasn't clear win. I can easily auto it now though. I wish I knew about Shaw cheese, before I spend 200 ap figuring out how to kill those wrath leaders though >.> And yes I totally killed them...

Gamepress summon simulator gives me 1/8 or less chance of getting Nian in 40 rolls, which is sobering.

Remember that in the end it's all RNG and you can get her with first roll or you could roll 1000 times and not get her, so imo don't overthink it and just go for it. Don't think. Feel!

Forgot to mention, but as someone from Poland every time I see mention of Knights of Kazimierz I can't help but find it funny x3

Rye, I send you clue 7. As I said, they really love me xP

Also gj on and gl with your rolls guys!

Holy fuck. I complained about tags and after I refreshed just now I not only got crowd control and debuff, but also top operator on top of that! I need to complain more often xD. I can guarantee SilverDaddy or Ifrit, but I'm leaning more towards Ifrit, since I'm the most lacking with Casters and I don't really want BrokenAsh.

YarnGirl posted:

You can actually clear risk 18 of the next CC with an E1 squad, it's really easy.

https://youtu.be/mzwpy33P4Lo

The video used: E1 lvl 50 Nearl, E1 lvl 50 Gummy, E1 lvl 50 Cuora, E1 lvl 40 Courier, E1 lvl 30 Shaw, E1 lvl 30 Gravel, E1 lvl 50 Spot

Nice. Out of those I only don't have Nearl.

Thanks for all friend accepts! <3

myrrhmidon posted:

1. There were a bunch of welfare units that were given out during events: Grani, Flamebringer, Ceylon, and Bison. AFAIK, they are limited in the sense that they are tied to the events and have not yet been released outside of said events. There was also a choose a 5 star (iirc between Liskarm, Silence, Projekt Red, and Pramanix) but that was also only available for a limited time.

I thought I should have specified more, but yes, I meant the pick your free 5 star.

1. Nian is indeed the first limited operator. As of now, there will be a second one, W but we are expecting more to come. Limited banners make money after all.

Yea, I'm aware. MR is pretty good about it, FGO is atrocious. More than half of rare units are limited in 1 way or another. It's not like I don't understand why they do it, but it doesn't change the fact I don't like it.

This is not necessarily part of your question, but with limited banners, there exists a spark system. After 300 rolls, one is given currency to just buy one of the rate up units in the limited banner. That's a lot of rolls but at least that guarantee exists.

After posting I read through thread so I was aware of it. It's nice that this mechanic exists, but considering my approach to rolling, I'm not going to ever use it. I ask, since as I decided to only roll on every banner once, I was wondering if I'll be missing out on a lot of operators if I won't get them with my first 10 roll.

1. Savage is the other free op and yes, you will probably get her in the future, because in CN, Savage was given away again during the anniversary.

I see. From what I read gameplay-wise her and other 4 welfare operators aren't that good, so I'm not too bothered by missing on them, but still they're free units and Savage and Grani do look cute. So it's nice I might still get her. Also I wasn't exactly sure how the whole "preregistration" thing worked in the first place?

1. Recruitment. Be wary of recruitment tags as certain combinations guarantee an operator and no to mention the mythical Top Operator tag that guarantees a 6 star.

Yea, I read all about recruitment. Sadly I wasn't too lucky with tags so far. I obviously already maxed all 3 stars and I'm half way done with maxing starters, but I'm really not getting any guarantee 4+ star or specific operator combinations. I got debuff tag once. I got AoE few times, but almost never with tags that guarantee at least 4 star. I got Specialist once I think. I got senior operator once, but couldn't guarantee anyone outside of Mayer (and from what I read she doesn't seem that good), cos I also got my first (I think) summon tag with it, so i picked senior operator solo to get spooked by someone and of course I got Mayer XD. Got crowd control once, so of course when I picked it I got another copy of Mayer. Got support once and recruited Dobermann. Never got nuker, robot or top operator. For how supposedly rare they are I get fast redeployment and shift quite often, usually together, so I already maxed out potential of Gravel, Shaw and I'm 1 away from maxing Rope. And that's counting 2-3 times when solo shift tag on 9 hours got crossed out...

I understand it's free way to get operators, so I can't really complain how unreliable it's, but it's really frustrating when tags seems to barely change after every refresh. I legit had more times than I count situation where I press refresh and only 1-2 tags changes, rest stays exactly the same in the exact same position, making me to start believe it only refreshes 1 tag, not entire set of tags.

Also the certificates shop. Good source of mats if you have gotten a lot of dupes.

Yea, I got the hang on shop already. Especially considering I roll every banner I already got good amount. Also was able to buy Meteorite and Liskarm from it (I really like they let you do this). I have to admit it took me a week to notice refund tokens button. Before that I was wondering what you can do with them or if they'll just keep on accumulating and collect dust in depot.

1. Yes, but clue 4 is a myth.

I started playing with a friend and we can collect other clues just fine, but we both would often not get clue 1 for 2-3 days in a row leading to it becoming our in-joke. In fact clue 7 seems to really love me stares

riverFlower posted:

Wow this is a review. XD

I just had a lot good to say about it x3

I'm still playing MR

Oh I'm still playing MR, but mainly for the story since I pretty much maxed out my account. I'll get around to catching up and writing in thread... someday...

1. Free units are sometimes provided with events. Most recent time that happened was roughly two months ago in Code of Brawl where Bison (5* defender) and his tokens could be acquired through completing missions.

Yes, I'm aware of welfares and their concept is nothing new to me xP

1. Limited operators are really rare in Arknights. From what I know, there's only two in CN, with Nian being one of them.

Oh, that's good to hear!

1. a. Because sanity is hard to come by, acquiring materials for promotion is time-locked, but half a year would be a long time to not have any E2s, unless you're playing very casually.

Yea, getting highest rarity materials and dual chips seems like the hardest part, real pain and will take forever, but from what I read in thread it seems like you can get them in events, so I guess it makes it somewhat easier. And honestly, when I was trying to get a feel about game I watched 1 random youtuber and later all his beginner guides videos and he really scared me with how whaling, getting top operators and maxing everyone makes game incredibly easy and not challenging at all, so I kinda was afraid to pull best units and max out my operators too fast, as I really enjoy the challenge at my current levels.

b. If you haven't already, be sure to buy stuff from the cert and credit shops.

Yup. Got hang of credit shop as well.

c. Hit the orundum limit in annihilation every week. Try to increase the limit by clearing as much of annihilation 2 as possible. Annihilation 3 also increases the limit, but your units probably aren't strong enough.

I already defeated 400 in Anni 2. Anni 3 is indeed completely out of my reach for now, but I still did managed to reach 250 enemies milestone. Got close to 300 with 283 defeated, maybe I should try again now that I lvl'ed up/promoted some new operators, but I'm already done with limit for this week and planned to give Anni 3 another shot next one.

1. Once you friend enough people, you'll see that clue 4 is the real devil. E2 Saria increases clue 1 rates though.

If only I had her xP And I'm bullied by clue 1 anyway stares

Norainhere posted:

While they're pretty niche in battle, they do have very useful base skills.

I really like idea of Lancet, but so far I didn't really had any success in actually using her outside of using her as sacrifice to Sarkaz casters, since she costs next to nothing and doesn't have deployment cost. Also she really only becomes more useful as emergency burst healer once you max out her potential.

random posted:

They're also cute. :3

Yup. Lancet is adorable.

Rye posted:

You can always check the OP for useful links if you still need more info or just the recruitment link.

Yea, I already found all those sites. I'm also using (obviously) fandom in conjunction with gamepress,

Also, try getting Angelina, I know you'll like her.

I see. We'll see if rng will be kind to me xP

And now that the next CC was mentioned. You should probably think about getting some E2 before that drops.

Yea, from what I got from your conversation about CC, seems like that's the place to challenge yourself and really get mileage from all the operators you E2. Obvious downside is that it isn't available all the time. And well there's still issue of E2 potentially trivializing all the content outside of it.

Rye posted:

Weird question: do you guys farm skill books CA-3 or CA-5? I usually need more green books so I swapped to CA-3, but now that I'm doing mastery lvls I am running a bit low on both.

I was wondering the same thing and wasn't sure if CA-3 is more efficient than CA-5, but I figured while farming CA-5, you also farm skill 3 summaries, which you can never have too many, especially since 6 star operators gulp them down like crazy. And yes, I already beat all the highest levels of "daily" missions.

Rye posted:

TeaAppleSauce

Wheeze this is probably the only memorable thing WatchMojo has ever given us.

Oh, I was wondering what that meme is about and if it has any connection to Exusiai saying apple pie while fighting. On that topic, what memes do AK have? Very important question.

Rye posted:

Just don't overflow and exit for the final run since you don't get saninty back even if you only get rewards for 100 kills.

I tried really hard, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by overflow and why would you want to exit?

Stuff I forgot to post last time + few other things:

This, ngl, looks amazing. Also my sides xD

Is there a way to check 6 star pity counter?

Also I really like that game doesn't force you to use support like all other gachas, because I really enjoy beating stages using only my own operators. On that topic. I know using support daily give you guys few credits, but I feel like it's not really that necessary once you have a lot of friends and can reliably get clue exchange going all the time, but still do any of you want me to try and remember to always use their support once? I can do it while farming some low level mats.

Speaking of mats, I really like that while you can farm them the normal way, you also have a option to just make them. One of most annoying thing in other gachas was when you had few mats that you never use and they keep on piling on, while others you are constantly low on, so I appreciate that you can just turn them into something else. Same reason I like option to exchange 3 chips for 2 of other class.

So now about story and lore...

While I understand the reason for Doctor's amnesia, it kinda feels like a waste that they apparently were some amazing tactician and chemist, which we know will never become a focus since player character can't have actual character and backstory. In fact them getting the amnesia actually hurts a bit, because they were supposed to find a cure to Oripathy and were one of few people even capable of doing it, but now that thread is completely lost. I mean sure, even if we weren't Doctor, I bet there would be a lot of talk about trying to find cure and failed attempts, but no cure would ever be actually found, but still there would be some kind of sliver of hope running through entire story. Doctor having amnesia removes all of that. And man, Doctor is really boring and their presence completely irrelevant. I feel like I might as well pick only "..." dialogue options since Doctor has no personality or charm whatsoever. Even Gudako, that technically is self-insert character as well, has more personality and even have some great lines.

I read that from what we do know about Doctor past, they were apparently very ruthless and coldhearted, deploying operators without caring about their safety. Why the hell then Amiya is so attached to them? Knowing that also made parts when Kal talks to Doctor and tells them to watch over Amiya and support her really weird, because from my impression they wouldn't be the person to do that? I know they technically have amnesia, so they're not exactly themselves, but what guarantee Kal has that those traits are not inherent to Doctor and they won't still act similar to their past self despite the amnesia?

I'm not sure I understand how Penguin Logistics is supposed to work. Or what they even are I guess. At first they were presented as some sort of company that helps you get from place to place. Simple enough. They supposedly are the only ones who know some super extra secret routes, but can't anyone simply hire them as well? But ignoring that, what kinda lost me was when they actually actively engaged into combat with Reunion. What happens if opposite site hire them as well? Are they going to fight each other? Unless it was more of them self-defending against Reunion that attacked them and I guess in this world being able to defend yourself isn't anything weird or surprising and makes sense.

So Reunion... I have nothing against the world and setting so far. Even the whole Infected are oppressed works fine for me. But as was mentioned before, even if Reunion's goal is understandable to a degree and I can even get behind them deciding to fight back and not hold back after all the discrimination they experienced, what makes it really hard to sell them to me is the fact that all of their leaders seems to be complete psychos, in there for the lulz or not giving a damn in general. I mean, if they at least were presented as somewhat better alternative to their current live, but they made a point to show and tell you multiple time that Reunion's leaders don't care about their solders at all, leaving them to die or sending them on suicidal missions. How I'm supposed to take them seriously as a group with a point, when even they seems to not give a fuck about Infected? That scene where Amiya was talking with Misha on phone and we were hearing Reunion solders was totally supposed to humanize them to us and show that we're killing normal people just like us, but it didn't work for me, because so far all Reunion's leaders ever did was acting like stereotypical evil villains.

On topic of Misha, that entire little arc was cringe af to me. While reasons for Misha to join Reunion was somewhat understandable, I couldn't take it seriously, because the main reason she turned against Rhodos Island was because Skullshatterer fed her bullcrap. He talks how RI is just as evil as everyone else and are killing Reunion members. He seems to forgot that it was them that attacked us first when we were minding our own business rescuing Doctor and in fact didn't even know Reunion existed at this point. And not only they attacked us, they did it deliberately and tried to do everything in their power to kill us. So yea, sorry, but your argument is invalid. And of course we kill Skullshatterer in front of Misha's eyes and she joins them to avenge him. I saw it coming from miles away and only thing I didn't predict was us actually killing Misha soon after.

last edited at Jul 29, 2020 10:33AM

So... I got bored with MR and YTer I watch made entire video praising the game and since I always liked tower defenses (didn't even think gacha games can not have a generic rpg-like turn base gameplay) I decided to give it a shot little over 3 weeks ago. So far I'm very impressed and happy with the game. We'll see how long that lasts. I got to 4-10 in story and until that point it feels very generic and nothing special. I understand what they were going for, but I don't really think the way they handled Doctor as gimmick for player self-insert is working for me. I like Amiya just fine, but she's not Mash or Iroha. I really like the aesthetic and designs of characters, but sadly not many really stood out to me in terms of personality. Then again, I didn't really try to read up on them much yet. As much as I like to shit on FGO gameplay-wise, story-wise and character-wise they're killing it.

The game is seriously generous with free stuff, pity systems are really good and prices are actually reasonable and worth the money compare to MR and FGO (for the most part). In fact it's so good, the game pretty much makes me want to spend money on it. Still, I decided to go mostly free to play. I bought Gummy pack (cos it's dirty cheap and because Gummy), the Guarantee 6 star pack (obviously) and monthly pass (because it's actually amazing compare to MR's) and in future I'll probably spend money on skins if I run out of originum and I really like the skin. So far I have no waifus or characters I must have in general and I hope it'll stay that way (so I don't even check future characters), because so far I took approach of rolling on every banner once for guarantee and being happy with w/e I get from it. So far I am very happy with stuff I got.

I like that it takes time to lvl up operators even from early levels and game forces you to invest in many different ones and you can't just rush through game with few units, because it gives you a lot to do and I don't see maxing everyone out and getting bored with the game anytime soon. I mean, I didn't even max level any single E1 operator I have yet and I don't see E2'ing anyone for at least next half a year and I actually like that. In fact for very long time I was barely lvling them and enjoyed challenging and beating stages despite being half recommended level most of the time. Only now I'm starting to hit the cap and I need to level them up. Only thing I don't like so far is that promoting increases DP cost. It's annoying, because it makes me not want to promote some operators and a lot of times my timing and strategy was very tied, so promoting them actually make those unavailable. It also makes -2 points from potential pretty much required. Instead of being a nice bonus for dropping another copy, it becomes more of a way to going back to default state. You no longer gain advantage, but rather nullify disadvantage.

At first the base felt overwhelming and I didn't really like it, so I was considering just not paying attention to it at all, but now that I got hang of it I actually really like that you have something else to do, especially once you run out of AP Sanity. Managing operators is pretty fun and thanks to maxing facilities, I don't need to farm exp anymore and I only need to farm LMD occasionally when I'm in serious need for it. Having to wait for drones to recharge was a huge pain, but now that I don't need them anymore (for now), using them to speed up trade/production is really handy and makes you even more self-sufficient. Also spending almost a hour decorating your dormitories, so they'll look actually livable, despite it having no gameplay effect whatsoever stares.

I got Hoshiguma from my guarantee 6 star, Exusiai on her Drillelectric banner and Ch'en from guarantee pack. I was the most interested in Eyjafjalla, but I like Ch'en gameplay-wise (hate her as character).

So I have few questions:
1. I keep hearing about some free unit. Was it something only given at launch or it was only available for short period after creating account and I missed it?
2. So I'm hearing Nian (outside of welfares) is the first limited operator in AK. Does she start a trend or limited operators are actually rare? Cos I really hate limited stuff and was wondering how bad AK is with it.
3. So I'm reading that Savage is given as a preregistration reward for EN players. Can I still get her?
4. Is there anything else I should be aware of?
5. Does clue 1 actually exist?

Nobody is adding me, so I need friends: Nevri#5685

EDIT/ Also forgot to praise how amazing auto deploy is. After having to deal for so long with MR's dumb AI that can lose even unlosable fights, having only small chance once in a blue moon that something goes wrong, as long as you cleared it in reliable way, is such a nice change of pace.

last edited at Jul 28, 2020 9:52PM

Rye posted:

It was a bit of a joke cuz my Nero got one shot crit'd. I mentioned it before. Full team < Nero solo.

Oh, my bad. I totally forgot about it x3

Oh and Valk is more Skadi dependent when it comes to looping.

If by "more" you mean "is useless without" then yes. And you still need at least np2 for them to be good at it.

Sakura Cartelet posted:

Still the fact that they're both quick servants stands.

You could still want them just because you like them as a servant. Who plays FGO for meta and gameplay anyway stares.

Hopefully the anniversary will give a reset on the mana prism shop like other big events in the game have in the past.

It should.

Ok, so last one from story part. I think I actually could pull it off with Bride as well and maybe I'd even win it faster. I actually tried to solo Medusa as well, and I'd totally did it if game didn't show me middle finger after all my efforts. After spending 2 days fighting bad rng, I finally had perfect run. There was a lot of factors, but the most important one was to time my skills with breaking her bar, so I could wait their cooldowns while they're sealed anyway. I could cleanse it, but because she uses her stun twice and chance for it to miss/guard is low, I much preferred to save cleanse for when I really need to remove stun, but I still also could use it to cleanse skill seal in emergency. I really liked it, because it was giving my run a lot of flexibility and especially with how unreliable Imperial Privilege is, the less rng I need to deal with, the better. So the skill seal wears off and my skills recharged... 1 second. We deal with skill seal so rarely and it's usually 1 second, I never really paid attention to the fact that it fucking stops your skills from recharging. On one hand, it makes sense, cos that's how NP seal works on enemies. They can't use NP but also don't charge their bar while they're affected by it and player has advantage, cos they can charge NP like normal, just can't use it. The thing is, it's nowhere near fair when applied to skill seal, cos enemies can use them every turn, while we have huge cooldowns, so 3 second skill seal and then losing additional 2 turns of skill recharging is just 1 huge pill of bullshit. After that I tried with saving cleanse for skill seal, but I kinda lost motivation at this point and I wasn't even guarantee that I could pull it off if I got perfect rng again. I think I would do it back then, but without cleansing at least 1 stun, I'd be losing too much damage and hoping for it to not land wasn't realistic, cos at this point I could as well play lottery instead.

Oh, also I did challenge quest as well I guess...

last edited at Jun 27, 2020 11:30AM