Risk 18 cleared. Didn't use my Surtr which should have gotten me plus 3 risk lol. Didn't take any Grudgebearer risks so my Eunectes can 1v1 them and Skadi could almost do it too but she doesn't have the masteries. I could m3 her skill 2 but she costs so much rocks...

Yuri clear + Gay Rat Flex R18. I might have been able to replace mud/fol with Ch'en/Hoshi, but it takes a bit too much praying to RNG for Hoshi's talent to activate at the right times.

last edited at May 30, 2021 7:03PM

Pity(?) gave me another Hoshiguma. I hate this game. I'm never getting Bagpipe lol

Yuri clear + Gay Rat Flex R18. I might have been able to replace mud/fol with Ch'en/Hoshi, but it takes a bit too much praying to RNG for Hoshi's talent to activate at the right times.

Oh wow I can't believe I just saw this now. Nice flex and congrats! Your dedication to the yuri squad is much stronger than mine. Tho I think Scav felt a bit lonely without Provence since she's the only one there with no pairing XD

Pity(?) gave me another Hoshiguma. I hate this game. I'm never getting Bagpipe lol

Maybe a few months from now, she'll be in the shop so perhaps save up for that?

Art stuff: I do like how this artist draws Ch'en and Talulah as very handsome. W and Amiya in bed and perhaps TL request pls? Lastly, summer W and Amiya with some drama there.

That's strange I remember hearing about a Rhine Lab related event sometime in the past but I can't find any details about it. Am I remembering things that never happened?

Might be confusing it with Mansfield Break which does feature Rhine Lab but not actually about Rhine Lab.

Is Ambriel worth E2'ing? I was farming sniper chips today but I still don't have one of her mats.

Is Ambriel worth E2'ing? I was farming sniper chips today but I still don't have one of her mats.

Certainly wouldn't describe her as a high priority but stunlocking mages and whatnot in their spawn tile from across the map is always funny. ~(Ψ▼ｰ▼)

Also yay E2'd Mudrock, I already hate farming those crystal thingies ಥ‿ಥ

---

why is this so accurate lmao

I just finished M2ing my Murdock S2. E2d Vermeil, Magallan, Jackie. Working on Jaye, Meteor, Gummy, Gravel and maybe Ambriel or Spectre too. I had over 10M LMD RIP all of it lol
I love Jackie so much! She might take my second place after Utage...sorry Angie...
I haven't even touched the permanent CC map because of how much I hate the gimmick.

Maybe a few months from now, she'll be in the shop so perhaps save up for that?

I guess. I have enough for Blaze and Mostima for whenever the heck Yostar decides to put them in shop.

Is Ambriel worth E2'ing? I was farming sniper chips today but I still don't have one of her mats.

Go ahead if you got the mats, she's hilarious at e2.

last edited at Jun 9, 2021 5:38AM

If I don't roll Saria I'm probably going to buy her via the cert shop.

Risk 31 clear flex that took me a long ass time to do. Unfortunately couldn't get max risk cause my Ops aren't high enough level. Also I couldn't do max risk for all the dailies the previous CC, but I can now. It's just a personal observation that I've improved my roster since last time (basically M3'ed more people since that's genuinely way more important than just levels).

I E2'd Purestream today even though she isn't really that meta. Her debuff duration reduction on heal does sound useful however. Plus she's cute.

Edit: I got Haze, Fang, Matoimaru, Vigna, Haze, Plume, Kroos, Popukar, Kroos, Flint (New) spook :(

Second 10 roll was: Jackie, Saria (New), Shamare (New), Ansel, Haze, Utage, Deepcolor (New), Jackie, Fang, Ansel.

last edited at Jun 11, 2021 9:23AM

No joke, I rolled 2 6*s in one bag...all dupes! Shining and Saria. Couldn't ONE be Eunectes ffs!? OOF
Guess that's all the rolls I'll be doing until the next limited banner or if there's a Surtr rate up maybe.

M3d Murdock's Bonk and Jackie's S2.

Risk 31 clear flex that took me a long ass time to do. Unfortunately couldn't get max risk cause my Ops aren't high enough level. Also I couldn't do max risk for all the dailies the previous CC, but I can now. It's just a personal observation that I've improved my roster since last time (basically M3'ed more people since that's genuinely way more important than just levels).

Nice. Tho there were quite a few moments for me when max level 90 ops would have helped me more but I do agree masteries are more significant. Will probably work on mine. Didn't realize until this CC that I really need to M3 my Suzuran's skill 3 and I'm still being lazy on M3 skill 3 Exusiai.

M3d Murdock's Bonk and Jackie's S2.

Fellow doctor of culture. The moments for it are extremely rare but Jackie dodge-counterattacking is hype to see.

So because I couldn't get the probably-mildly-autistic techno-fiddler demographic cool snek the last time around I threw 30-odd pulls at the banner (RIP reserves) and got her, a dupe of Saria and Pramanix each (plus Mayer but she maxed out long ago so eh) plus Shamare.

I consider that Orundum well spent, though farming the mats to E2 her for the Ghetto Gundam bootleg Gorkanaut Ironhide hilarity was kind of Spain without the S given I recently E2'd Mudrock and, having grown tired of relying on the RNG of the friendlist for them, just now S3M3'd my Eyja and Silverdad (╥﹏╥)

...also is it just me or does Gavial's note in her medical file ("Your body's pretty well built!") totally lowkey sound like a pick-up line in their cultural context? ●ω●

Speaking of Gundams her future Bloodline skin is on my must-buy list; is the red Ironhide three times faster than the standard model?! Some others on it are Schwarz's Striker one (the blue birb is a nice touch) and I think Folinic's rerun one gave me a foot fetish (send help)

The moments for it are extremely rare but Jackie dodge-counterattacking is hype to see.

Guessing Jackie dueling one of those boxer-type enemies is a sight to see?

The moments for it are extremely rare but Jackie dodge-counterattacking is hype to see.

Guessing Jackie dueling one of those boxer-type enemies is a sight to see?

Exactly. Or giving enemies atk speed buff cause otherwise her skill 2 has lower DPS than her skill 1.

Btw with Pinecone getting announced, we can expect Mansfield Break soon, probably next week. Tho, there is a maintenance schedule for the 17th. AFAIK, only Operational Records will be released at that time.

Anyway, I have to share this: W gets trust tapped by Amiya

For any Platinum fans here, a recent CN patch muted her and removed her VA, Ai Kayano from the game. Ai Kayano had visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine earlier this year. The backlash caused her removal and apparently other servers will be affected too. Info from the subreddit which got it from NGA

No Bipolar Nanoflakes from this event shop. :( I guess my new Saria will take a long time to E2 then.

Edit: I got them but now I have no money after getting Saria to level 80 E1. :(

last edited at Jun 20, 2021 12:17AM

For any Platinum fans here, a recent CN patch muted her and removed her VA, Ai Kayano from the game. Ai Kayano had visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine earlier this year. The backlash caused her removal and apparently other servers will be affected too. Info from the subreddit which got it from NGA

groan FFS East Balkans

Happy I got Mountain. I like his character and his story. We got to know a bit more about Columbia and the evils of capitalism in it. That said, I do wish we could get a Rhine Lab event. All the snippets in this event just makes me more curious about Rhine Lab. Saria saving Ifrit is now explicitly canon. Interestingly Muelsyse seems have not met Ifrit and Silence yet. This seems to indicate that Ifrit's story in Operational Intelligence is set further into the future. Likely, Muelsyse ends up in Rhodes Island prompting that flashback that Ifrit had.

I got Jaye, Perfumer, Liskarm, Utage, and Perfumer as pot increases. Pinecone and Aerene were new operators.

Edit: Has anyone tried the new Paradox Simulation yet? Right now I only have Kroos and 12F's unlocked in my base.

last edited at Jun 23, 2021 12:00AM

Let's see today I did a single roll. Got a 6* bag with Mostima in it. :) I'm thinking of spending some gold certs on Schwarz even though I already have both Exusiai, Rosmontis, and W as 6* snipers.

Got Platinum on the multi I did...damn you CCP!

Bought Schwarz from shop but had to waste a LOT of sanity for sniper tokens. I'm still broke from M3ing Jackie and E2ing Jaye, Meteor and almost May. At least I reunited her with her GF.

Fellow doctor of culture. The moments for it are extremely rare but Jackie dodge-counterattacking is hype to see.

That and love her for the other reason too. She's a fantastic Operator haha!

That and love her for the other reason too. She's a fantastic Operator haha!

Cute doggo drawn by a cute artist. WAH!

Btw the next CC confirmed for mid-July. In CN, this CC came with the rerun of the Nian banner.

Sorry, was more busy than I expected. Welp, got a lot to catch up on...

Also last time when I was writing my post, I was actually rushing, so I forgot to mention few things.

myrrhmidon posted:

Kal'tsit the philosopher has entered the chat but lol yes, that's just how it is and I've accepted it already.

To be fair, I never had issue with it before. I thought so far dialogue was perfectly fine and never dragged more than necessary. It was first time (at least in main story, I barely read any event stories, but from ones I read, I didn't have issue with them either) I felt that way.

Have to disagree with this one but I suppose YMMV on possession.

Well I guess my main issue with it was that the story was depressing as is and I got invested in Reunion's story, so the fact their downfall wasn't really their fault stung that much more (outside of possessing someone is just shitty thing to do and feels bad in general). And sure, I get dark stuff happens in the stories, especially ones like Arknights and I used to be fine with it, but over time I became much weaker to that kind of stuff and usually need to be in mood for more depressing stories. Which bring me to one of things I forgot, I have to say Arknights' setting is really good not just in the sense that world building is done well, but that it feels so realistic and captures actual reality so well, It felt a bit too real for me. At some point reading episode 8 became kinda too much for me, because of how realistically shitty the world is and I just wasn't in mental space for that.

Also, the one monologue of the heretical priest in M8-1 is implied to his previous host before Kashchey since they both espoused the same Social Darwinist idea.

Och, interesting. I thought more he was just agreeing with him, but that's interesting take.

For the main story, the possession of Talulah serves as a contrast to what maybe a "possession" of Amiya

Och, I totally understood that.

tho it remains to be seen how that will go since interpretations can go from all of Theresa is in Amiya to Amiya just has her powers and bit of her memories but she's her own person.

Based on trailer for episode 9, my personal take is that Theresa did possess Amiya body, but at some point she decided to give control back to Amiya and disappear completely, leaving the Fiend's power or w/e that is to Amiya.

Before I even finished reading it, I immediately thought "Magneto right?" and lo and behold you did mention him as your analogy.

Funnily enough, I didn't really think about him at first. I was thinking about my issues with story and how I'd change it and when I got to point where I had to explain why Talulah would start killing and not caring about normal humans, I came up with my reason and then thought "Huh. Isn't that totally like Magneto?"

That was a fun read.

Thanks!

myrrhmidon posted:

Not a fan of the artillery drones and definitely the overall difficulty felt higher than before.

Well, I do hope they start to increase diff of at least main story or it'll stop being challenge at some point.

But nothing as gimmicky as chapter 6.

You mean chill/freeze mechanic? I hate those with passion. With other mechanics, you usually can at least work around them, but with it you have no option and just need to accept the disadvantage.

Tho I could also see just having high res defenders tank the fireballs since they only come from one direction.

Yea. That's partially what I did.

The exploding crystals tho. Not quite sure how to deal with those other than having snipers on hand.

You can use fast redeployment too. I kinda ignored them, cos they either missed my operators, got destroyed cos they got caught in crossfire when throwing everything at Talulah or simply my operators were able to tank the damage.

Add the creepiness of being obsessed with Talulah and becoming Talulah.

Yea, that was another reason why I was so confused and had hard time telling whatever it was supposed to be Talulah in control or Snake, cos sometimes he'd talk as if he was Talulah

Only the Rosmontis and Feline Shieldbro one was significant.

And even that arguably didn't amount to much. Like until he removed helmet it was all information we already knew. He respects Rosmontis and is willing to let her join Gurillas, but she's too gay for Amiya to do it. And even the fact he's a feline really didn't mean much outside of being unexpected.

The one with random operators felt like the biggest waste of potential. Like, I get what they were going for, but it was neither informative nor funny. Also Pith showing up only meant anything if you played Integrated Strategies and still all it boiled down to was a easter egg.

I do want to consider the Mephisto one as significant but I was expecting more. It does imply he might be back in some form but I didn't need an entire speech from Kal'tsit and most of that speech being redundant.

Exactly. I really expected something more concrete. I was sure we'll actually get to see Mephisto in it, but it ended up really feeling like waste of time. On that topic I was really disappointed with that part of story. Like the whole Mephisto got turned into a bird was weird and kinda anticlimactic. Like when I heard about it (and all I knew/saw was stages where you fight him) I thought the twist was like he wasn't human from the get go and he got turned into human from bird or something, which made sense with him being good at singing and being force-fed orginium, but no, he just randomly went into machine that Doctor was in. Like, why? I thought the explanation will be that he was in such bad shape, other reunion members put him there trying to heal him or something and it went horribly wrong. It just didn't make any sense and felt more like they had that idea, but didn't know how naturally get into that point. Honestly after Faust's sacrifice and Mephisto being broken I wanted to have a proper another encounter with him again. Maybe we'd see him being change/moved by what happened. Hell, maybe we could start his redemption arc or something there. And sure if they ever do bring him back into story, I bet that's when we'll get it then, but that wouldn't feel nearly as organic.

I guess it does bring the question who the fuck is Doctor anyway, another ageless? some immortal being? Something entirely different? All I'm sure, he's clearly not human. On that topic Kal'tsit is clear not normal either.

The 12F one lol. Lowlight might as well appear on the screen, look at the player and go "You. You're the Doctor."

Yea. Like it'd be cool if he addressed players directly and thank us for playing, say he hopes we like the story and maybe drop some hints for stuff that's to come (that would be actually worth the hassle unlocking it), but instead we got this mad rumbling that made no sense in context of the game.

And then the reveal that Wei's Shadow Guards are former Emperor's Blades.

Och! I didn't quite catch that, so nice!

Personally, I was satisfied with the post-battle Ch'en and Talulah interaction. Yeah shame we didn't see the initial talk but tbh, that would have mostly been Koshchey anyway and would just be him calling Ch'en his "sister" and that was creepy enough with the number of times he kept doing it.

Fair point. And yea, I was happy with post-battle part too. As I said, it was really good. On that topic, another thing that kinda ended up never being properly explained (or at least I couldn't figure it out/follow it) and is clearly a important event that is constantly brought up is what the flying fuck happened exactly the night Talulah got kindapped? What is that whole thing about Ch'en betraying her. And what's up with implication Snake might have messed with Ch'en's mind as well?

This being the last scene was a good end.

Yea. It struck me right into feels. On that topic, forgot to mention Ch'en is looking amazing here

myrrhmidon posted:

If it wasn't for her weird way of charging skills, she'd be OP. Skill 3 is so good.

Well, they had to balance her some way xP Then again looking at operators like Thorns, Mountain or Surtr...

Rye posted:

Still amazed by the speed some of you e2'd Murdock. I'm like halfway there with bad rng and chip pre farmed.

Think I'll do a 10roll for Mostima when I finish farming Orundum. Blaze in shop when.

I mean, I had all mats ready for Rosmontis and insta E2 her as soon as I dropped her, so it's just matter of being sufficiently prepared beforehand.

塞雷娅 posted:

E1 Vermeil + E2 Ceobe + E2 Scene
E1 Jaye + E2 Silverash + E2 Cliffheart

Is Vermeil specifically E1 or you just aren't going to lvl her up further? Also wasn't Jaye supposed to be left on E0 cos he's better there?

Rye posted:

I also still need Waai Fuu but she's been alluding me for a year now. Hoping she comes to shop soon.

Hope so too. She was fun to use in the rogue like.

Gotta get around into investing in mine one of those days...

myrrhmidon posted:

For any Platinum fans here, a recent CN patch muted her and removed her VA, Ai Kayano from the game. Ai Kayano had visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine earlier this year. The backlash caused her removal and apparently other servers will be affected too. Info from the subreddit which got it from NGA

That's retarded... Cancel culture at its finest >.>

I forgot about 10 roll tickets, so I actually did 137 rolls. After mulling it over a lot, I figured I don't really care about anyone in the future that much and I was really hyped about Rosmontis and I saved all those resources, so there's no point not rolling them, so I rolled more. With all my stuff + free daily rolls, I reached 300 rolls. Got 2 more Rosmontis and sad Aak spook (first on Nian banner and now, now. Well, gotta promote him someday for all the back-shooting memes stare) Got another dozen of Whisperains, few more 5 stars I don't remember now, but I think I liked half of them. I do remember I finally dropped Beeswax in like last 2 rolls. So overall got 4 copies of Rosmontis (1 from token shop) so I can't really complain and I have been using her all the time since then. Also immediately mastered all her 3 skills (had mats prepared for S3, had to farm a little for S2 and wasn't in rush with S1, so it took me a week or 2. I do like those kind of skills and I think her's is not bad, but yea, I never used it once so far, but I mastered it just for completion sake) I regret nothing.

Beat all stages and challenges in Code of Brawler without much issue. CB-EX7 gave me a little trouble, but I still won it relatively easy. My strategy didn't really work and I kinda brute forced it. Bought copy of Red from cert shop and got her guarantee from recruitment, which was awesome. Also got another copy of Indra around the same time and got another Top operator. I could get guarantee Siege I believe, so I run it solo hoping for getting someone I don't have yet and make picking from my guarantee 6 star easier, but sadly got Shining dupe. Also got elusive senior tag like week later. I also had nuker and caster + healing (Nightmare guarantee) with it, which sucked and like, as per usual, but I still run it with guard + dps cos that guaranteed either Swire, Astesia or Indra. As long as it wasn't Swire, I was fine with either, but I lucked out and got another Indra. Pretty sure I could also try to go for Glaucus, but I figured I'm in no rush to get her and I think I could get her with crowd control which meant potential Mayer and ignoring fact I already maxed her, i'd really hate if I got her again.

I was really miffed that we got another CC already, cos I still didn't fully prepared for it (and now i'm even more miffed that another CC has been already announced not that long from now). I got much more E2 operators, but still not everyone I wanted + I'm nowhere near finishing with mastering all skills I want. I was in middle of slowly mastering skills of operators I E2 so far, before planning to E2 more, but as soon as I saw it was announced, I knew I had to prioritize, so I spend week before CC E2'ing Bagpipe, which paid off in spades. Managed to reach risk 18 relatively easily on second day. I'm pretty sure I put Angelina here when trying to beat some contracts, but she kept dying to Grudgebearer when I pulled him, so I guess for risk 18 I put her at the bottom instead. I actually didn't save my risks/end card after my first 18 clear, cos I assumed i'll try for higher risks and so saving 18 will be pointless, but I wasn't really in mood/didn't have time to mess too much so I ended up not going for more risks. Either way ignoring Angelina, that should have been my setup for risk 18 (the guy you can't see hiding under Grudgebearer is Hellagur). Bagpipe got later replaced with Mudrock. As for risks, I think I got those.

While I didn't engage with perma map too much, I did my best to try max risk daily missions. I didn't bother with Broken Path, because I really hate invisible spiders risk and flame ground mechanic is too unreliable and pain to use. I only did risk 8 for new Area 6 Ruins map as well, cos I run out of time, but I feel like if I had worked on it a bit longer, I'd do the max risk. I was really proud of max risking Transport Hub cos I really hate this map. I was really proud of beating Deserted Factory as well, since I usually struggle hard with lower dmg risks, since my operators are not strong enough to offset it, so during CC#2 I avoided picking it. My setup. Wasn't much different from what I did for perma map. The biggest problem was with killing both Red Avengers and Faust. From what I remember I ended up letting 1 weeb pass, cos I just couldn't find a way to kill him, since I blown all cooldowns on first one. I had issues with killing first one as well, but Rosmontis stunlock in deathzone ended up being just what I needed. Considering I hate freeze mechanic, I did really well on Frost-Covered Ruins. Had to skip Iceclevers risk, not because I wasn't able to kill them, but because it took all I had to kill 1 and so skills didn't recharge before next one would show up and I couldn't figure a way to stall them. Pyrite Gorge on week 1 wasn't too hard. I couldn't max risk East Armory, because I have no idea how to beat it with 10 tiles restriction and even if, I wouldn't be able to pull it off with my current operators. Also It made me realize, that while I have a lot of snipers, I don't have a lot of them E2'd so after that I started working on them. Also After E2'ing Bagpipe, I started initially working on E2'ing Mudrock, but then I figured I should finally E2 Saria instead, since I do use her often as healer defender and her S3 is really useful for high difficulty challenge missions like this.

Week 2 I give Broken Path my all. Couldn't pull it off with -50% attack, so not max risk, but for map I dislike, I still did well. My setup since I really like doing it in weird way (cos doing it with "proper" way is pain and unreliable). Again, couldn't pull max risk on Area 6 Ruins, cos couldn't do it with -40% attack and run out of time to try. Pretty much copypasta my strat from week 1 for Transport Hub with slight modifications and really proud, cos I never figured a reliable strategy for this map, especially with terminal removal, until now. Not happy that I only did risk 8 for Deserted Factory second time, but that was mostly cos I never picked balista risk before, so I had to figure out my strat from scratch and I run out of time for it. I was actually pretty close, but meh. Support ban really hit me, since my main slowers are all supports, so Saria's S3 really came in handy for Pyrite Gorge. Again, couldn't pull East Armory with lower dmg risk. If I had master May's skill/E2 Platinum, then maybe I'd pull it off. Was happy with everything else otherwise.

I really didn't care about Mountain, since he seemed like another boring broken operator you deploy and then forget about them, as they solo entire line for you like Thorns, so I was positively surprised when I got spooked by Rosa. Sucks didn't got Kafka, since I like fast-rede operators, but can't exactly complain.

Game trolled me again, when I got 6 star from my 10 roll on Eunectes banner and got really hyped, only for it to turn out it to be another Siege stare. Also was really hoping Shamare would be in cert shop, but she wasn't. It was fine, since I dropped her on my first 10 roll on Schwarz banner. I really lowkey wished I'd drop her, as then Mostima would be the last option from my guarantee 6 star ticket. I was thinking a lot about it and I really don't need Schwarz asap and it'd probably take me some time before I'd get around to investing in her anyway. She's cool and when her niche applies, she's great, but also I don't really feel like I really need her rn. I ended up trying to roll a bit, since not like I'm saving for anyone. Rolled my tickets first and literally with my 10th ticket (out of 16) I got 6 star... Surtr ;v Madoka damn it game! I rolled 20 rolls more, but didn't get Schwarz and only 1 5 star (Ptilopsis I think), which like was nice, but not that much. Kinda felt like those 30 rolls were wasted, but w/e. So since that was last banner before my ticket expires, I went and picked Mostima. Sadly since I spend my certs on tickets, I don't have 180 certs to buy Schwarz (and still not sure if it's good idea), so I guess I'll see if i manage to get enough before banner ends and if not, then I'll grab my first copy of Glaucus instead (I currently have 122, so it's not like I'm not close).

E2'd Utage, Graval, May, Ambriel, Cutter, W and Platinum. Also M3 Platinum's S2 already. Sucks it got sored a bit, by this whole stupid controversy.

Also beat all Mansfield stages on first day and perma farm MB-7 for Aketon. Can't wait for challenge stages to open so I can be challenged. I like the new gimmick and Jailer's design is great. He has so much personality. Can't wait for challenges so he'll be actually hard to beat (then again I used 6 stars so). Skipped story for now, idk when I'll actually read it.

Also finally tried Hell stages, since I didn't even touch them yet. Beat H8-1 only after 5 attempts, but H8-2 is already giving me trouble, so I'll need to spend more time on it.

Hopefully I didn't forgot anything I wanted to say...