That finger touching... of course it was just foreplay for handholding

Didn't realize we have two Arknights threads.

P.S. Ch'en x Talulah is the real OTP

I mean, sure, Reunion has too many of those typical anime-style "mwhahaha I'm such evil look at the edgy rubbish I say HA HA HA" characters so you can't really sympathize with them. But their motivation in principle makes sense to me. And wishy-washy Rhodos with, sure, an admirable goal of "we want everyone to get along!" but a rather nebulous plan on how to achieve it is ... weird to me.

I feel like only Mephisto is the outright FOR THE EVULZ Reunion member.

If you fought both sides as some sort of human-infected alliance that'd be against either extreme that'd make some sense to me, I guess. But just firmly sticking it to Reunion seems like a stupid course of action.

I've always thought of Rhodes Island as the neutral middle ground between the radical Reunion and the anti-Infected state governments. And I do think the latter will prove to be the bigger bad when the Reunion arc ends. Seems to be the direction we're going too given that Reunion is merely a proxy by Ursus and Kazdel

I just find it weird since usually I wouldn't expect much of a story from this type of game anyway. Just some really basic plot. Instead they went for something that certainly has some "shades of grey" but it's just not working for me.

Oh well. Ymmv. I do like the morally gray aspect of it... nothing like leading a pharmaceutical company with the goal of curing Infected and then getting asked "How many Infected have you killed today?" The answer is at least 2000 for that weekly orundum >:D

Interesting take, cause the common complaint I've seen (which I assumed was a Western bias) is that Reunion is all complete monsters and terrorists (not necessarily wrong). They don't get the motivations of why Reunion resorted to such bloody methods, completely missing the persecution of being Infected, and saying that if it was that bad being Infected, why not just join Rhodes Island the good guys instead of Reunion the bad guys.

A shame but a good decision to respect the mangaka's wishes. Many thanks for your efforts. I guess I'll have to settle with buying raws of the volume releases until (hopefully) it gets licensed for an official English release.

I took a look at the shop guide which was helpful as the shop is confusing as fuck. I did wonder though, the costumes provide no gameplay benefit right? As a F2P, I don't want to spend any gacha currency on things outside of the gacha. XD

No, skins are purely cosmetic. The ingame effects you might read about are just cosmetic too like visual effects during skills. Yeah as a fellow gacha player, best to resist the temptation.

Oh well that's something. Do any of the more common ships I see on here (eg. Texas x Lappland) have any canon backing?

Texas and Lappland are childhood friends or rivals depends on how you interpret it. Lapp's stalker like tendency does get interpreted as a crush so it does fall in subtext, arguably very subtext. There is more subtext for Texas x Sora at least on Sora's end since her whole motivation for joining Penguin Logistics and by extension Rhodes Island is to be with Texas for saving her from kidnapping. Schwarz x Ceylon also has, imo, strong subtext there. I'd advise looking up their lines and more especially, the chibi animation for Schwarz's Xmas skin. And then Saria x Silence, well canon is that Silence hates Saria but Silence's token, her feather, indicates possible past positive feelings, and Saria has one feather (so does Ifrit), indicating an emotional connection among them. Also, one of Ifrit's lines is basically just "Why are mom and dad fighting?"

And going off of that, what would be your evaluations of the main story, world lore, and/or character stories? So far the prologue and chapter one have started off with some interesting world-building elements, though I'm not a fan of the amnesiac self-insert protagonist and I'm wondering if the characters will get more depth to them.

Generally there is a ymmv on the main story as it does not get "good" until chapter 5 or 6 depending on who you ask. Imo, I liked it and the general direction it's taking. Yeah the world of Arknights is fucked and it' should not be a clear good vs bad thing. Like it does try to show the motivations behind Reunion and why they do bad things in world that hates them and basically has judged them to die inevitably. While it also shows that Rhodes Island is taking the positive outlook by trying to find a cure, it nevertheless allies itself with "enemies" of Infected since it needs to maintain a neutral stance and not get powerful enemies. As for character depth, I think the main focus is primarily on the main protags. Sadly the other characters that show up do not get much and you'll have to rely on actually getting the characters and reading their profiles. And yeah seems Doc is just self-insert as you play as a passive audience who is just watching the stories unfold. There are spoilers regarding the Doc's past that he may be or was something more but whether that plays into the present is doubtful. It will probably just be used to reveal more about Kal'tsit, Amiya and background lore. I doubt the Doctor will be an active protag of any kind

I became curious about this game cause of the recent outpour of related uploads. So far barely five hours in it seems like a decent gacha game. So two questions: is there anything approaching actual yuri in this game? And how fair is the game to new players?

I think it is relatively fair. When I started on my sister's account during the summer event, I was able to clear prologue, clear Annihilation 1, level units to elite 1 level 30-40, clear annihilation 2, then clear event (except EX stages and challenge modes). Almost every map can be cleared with the 3 stars and 4 stars you are given. The notable exceptions are hell modes and challenge modes. Also, relatively good timing, starting tomorrow/day after tomorrow, free 100 sanity and all the dailies are available every day so good opportunity to catch up.

As for actual canon yuri

That supportive kiss and cheering for her gf. I knew Nanoko and Shuu are in a relationship. Now hoping for progress for the main duo

Just went down to 1k LMD after E2 Firewatch then I lost more mats to mastery 1 her skill 2. But worth it for triple nukes.

Also wanted to share art of my favorite Arknights family

I meant when the skin comes back at later, I know it's 18 ori rn. At least, that's what I've heard.

Oh. Didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Tho I bought all the summer skins... No regrets lol. I will keep the future discount in mind for other skins.

I did not get my first E2 until the Grani event 'cause I got the mats I needed from there. I think Skyfire's swimsuit costs 18 btw. Also my thanks when you E2 Indra and Istina. I could use surplus clues 4 and 5 :D

Wow. Already an E2 with less than two weeks since you started. Nice.

Speaking of the story, I wish there was an in game way to read events. Having to use 3rd parties is kinda inconvenient. Even FGO has that feature lol.

Apparently that feature is coming to the CN version soon

Edit 2: OMG Sora is so cute XD. I finally deployed her.

I really appreciate the effort they put into her dancing animation.

It's like Kal made a point of scooping up as many people with alarming backgrounds and connections as she can find pretty much just to have them somewhere she can keep an eye on, really.

And thus Rhodes Island Foster Care

That was also my interpretation with the added caveat that apparently the Abyssals (not sure if applies to Aegir as a whole so including Skadi, Specter, Deepcolor, etc.) are relatively sane and humanoid when young but they turn into monsters as they grow older

The convo read to me rather like the Aegir are pretty much the traditional enemies of... whatever the fuck the undersea Things now are, hence Abyssal Hunters. Apparently Skadi at least carries some kind of unusual 'scent' of yet-unrevealed significance the AUS gals noticed, too. Probably also noteworthy that they seemed to be both uninformed of and curious about (which is why they approached Kal who's pretty much in charge of being the X-Files of RI and generally knowing way too much for comfort) some kind of important undersea encounter that, given the context, implicitly at least Skadi and possibly also Specter were involved in...

OFC the heavily hinted-at longstanding if rather hostile relationship between the Aegir and the Abyssals puts Deepcolor's particular skillset and choice of codename in rather interesting light, given she's obviously Aegir by race and her file states outright the background info she gave RI was to a large degree confirmed total bullshit... Kal and Skadi (and whoever else might be familiar with such matters, possibly incl. Blue Poison who's hinted to have worked with the Hunters in the past) don't seem to be too concerned about her tho so she's presumably safe.

Speaking of, notice how the trust/relationship map groups Poison (who straight up has a link to Specter) and Deepcolor right next to the two Hunters and assigns them the same series of "identification code" (AA0X)...? Yeah that's totally not suggestive as all get-out. >_>

Oh my interpretation is Aegir is the race that came from the place of the same name, and it encompasses all the marine beings that live in/spawn from Aegir. However, there is the faction, Abyssal Hunters that go against the seemingly malevolent Abyssals. Both are Aegir in the sense that they are marine beings. It is possible the Abyss itself is a separate thing that corrupts Aegirians and that's what the Abyssal Hunters are fighting against (Arknights is the Dark Souls of gacha games lol). The things is, the final words of Alty were a warning that "They" supposedly referring to the Aegirians we have are potentially becoming older and "hungrier" suggesting that becoming sea monsters is the end phase for Aegirians.

Speaking of connections to the Abyssal Hunters, I'd like to think Cuora is connected somehow. Conveniently has amnesia and has baseball bat and backpack made of unknown materials. No explicit connection to Skadi's sword, but... strong and made of unknown materials too...

Speaking of the event, if I interpreted the last story scene (loaded with ominous vagueness as usual when Kal is on screen) correctly the AUS is a band literally made up of Eldritch Abominations from the depths that have taken an interest in mortal shenanigans?

Because that's metal as fuck if you think about it. \m/

That was also my interpretation with the added caveat that apparently the Abyssals (not sure if applies to Aegir as a whole so including Skadi, Specter, Deepcolor, etc.) are relatively sane and humanoid when young but they turn into monsters as they grow older

Just want to say that if you cleared the event's lottery boxes, you should have gotten the mats for elite 2 Ifrit.

^ ...jeez the only ones featured in those I don't yet have are Big TailProvence, Skyfire and Skadi. Might as well start hoarding Ori for W sometime down the road I guess.

Fortunately for you, Skyfire will be in the yellow cert shop and Skadi just recently appeared in the shop for CN, so her being the shop for EN should be sooner. I'm thinking either late this year or early next year since EN is rushing things.

Dancing Lava confirmed for next banner

I was able to 3 stars OF-F4 not long after clearing OF-8, having Perfumer helped a lot

I have been watching KyoStinV's guides for a few days, they definitely help a lot when I am stuck (though I prefer to do levels without looking up guides)

I am currently working on getting the Operators I use a lot to max level E1, they are all E1 Lvl 40 or higher currently

Nice. I have Perfumer at elite 2 and imo, its worth it unless you get Angelina and even then, AoE medic with global heal is really good. Hope you clear the event as in empty the 5 lottery boxes in time. The grind is for real

I managed to 3 star OF-8, now I need to go 3 star OF-F4

Congrats @YarnGirl

Personally found OF-8 harder than OF-F4. Does not seem to be linked here yet but I recommend KyoStinV's Arknights guides in his channel:. Though I used another guide for clearing EX-6 and its corresponding challenge mode. Damn was that hard.

Actually am currently hoping to clear the event with my sister's new-ish account. Managed to clear all the main stages but I am not sure if EX stages are worth it. Worth it for the lore imo Abyssal idols?! but since I have already read it in my main account, the ticket rewards just do not seem worth it. Anyway, my sister's account is Llan#8141. Added you guys too.

Many thanks to Hachimitsu Scans for the translations. Glad to see they return.

Anyway, new arc with "family". Looks like it's gonna be heavy. There are at least some wholesome moments here and there. Favorite is Tetsu referring to his big sister. Very heartwarming.

Meanwhile Sakura may have an eating disorder. Life at home does not seem pleasant.

You called it.

I'll be honest. I read the raws.

Anyway, nice to have some fluff moments despite the family drama arc. Was hoping Mogu would sleepover tho and maybe meet the mom.

Many thanks to Hachimitsu Scans for the translations. Glad to see they return.

Anyway, new arc with "family". Looks like it's gonna be heavy. There are at least some wholesome moments here and there. Favorite is Tetsu referring to his big sister. Very heartwarming.

Meanwhile Sakura may have an eating disorder. Life at home does not seem pleasant.

Age gap then? Schwarz has been taking of Ceylon since she was young, and as someone mentioned, a 9 year age difference.

What is the best way to grind? Should I just go through the main story stuff?

Yeah try to clear chapters 0 and 1 (Prologue and Episode 1) and maybe Episode 2 cause there are still a few tutorials there but there is a difficulty jump. To level your units you need to grind the Supplies stages. Unfortunately, not all of them are open everyday. Only the exp stage is open everyday. You would probably want to grind up to LS-3, CE-5 for general leveling and then CA-3 for skills. Materials are found in the story stages like FGO. Then there are chips to be farmed in the Chips stages. I think you can do this casually. Probably finish Prologue then try to clear the first stages of Supplies then finish up to chapter 1 or early chapter 2. Maybe getting your units to a comfortable level to grind the third stages of Supplies.