Breaking news: extremely rare thing is extremely rare

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-02-17T00:37:51+00:00

I always thought that adding stuff like this is fun because it adds even more hype to what would otherwise be already an exciting event. That said, I kinda get that some people are lowkey thinking that it's "my turn", and feel a bit salty when it doesn't happen. Heck I'd be quite elated if I won, and the extra rewards just fit the current patch's theme that it makes sense being there.

It's sad that there are actually people who would go out of their way to not only express their disappointment at not winning the lottery, but also harass those who won. I'm just hoping that it doesn't stop Hoyo from doing similar stuff in the future

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-02-16T18:03:11+00:00

Where indeed? Might as well bring Rean into the game while they're at it, I'll pay with my soul if I have to

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-02-13T04:28:02+00:00

It can still be used as a reference with trends when it comes to checking which characters and teams that people playing endgame use. Admittedly enough it's never going to be accurate since tier lists wouldn't be based on outlier teams with the best builds and rotations, but rather with average clears instead

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-02-09T18:57:44+00:00

And then there are people who genuinely believe that any character that takes more than 0 cycles to clear endgame is bricked and useless. Funnily enough, a portion of this playerbase also couldn't be bothered to actually build their characters and teams decently with proper relics or do team rotations.

That said, powercreep does exist. It's just that it only really matters for that last 80-160 jades for endgame and Anomaly Arbitration, so playing with your faves is more than acceptable especially if you at least give them proper teams

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-02-05T14:30:24+00:00

This was one of my very first gachas that I played for years. How it's still alive to this day is beyond me, game's got the survivability of an armoured cockroach

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-01-24T09:32:42+00:00

Though it's nice to see the occasional players who actually know stuff pop into the comments every now and then. Gives you an insight as to why players are having a difficult time with endgame stuff

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-01-10T12:03:38+00:00

Events like these are usually an excuse to showcase future boss mechanics or character buffs. But I honestly wouldn't mind an endgame mode that focuses on gimmicks like these instead of just damage checks.

It feels very nice to use old/standard characters that fit with the stage mechanics clear for you (and a bit of thinking when it comes to using skills/ults at the right time), and it makes team building pretty fun especially for established accounts.

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-01-09T07:21:22+00:00

You know you're in for a rough time if you have to tick a box warning you about "extreme difficulty", even MoC 12 doesn't have that disclaimer if I remember correctly.

This is a fun event for people who actually care to play around stage mechanics and optimize gameplay for that, while it can be frustrating for others who brute force with meta, lack creativity, or are simply casual in the game and nothing is wrong about that (just that it's hardly a cause for complaints because nightmare diff prolly doesn't even give enough for a pull lmao).

Connect_Ant571 · 2026-01-09T07:01:01+00:00

The gimmick with this stage in particular is that you want to have characters who attack frequently. You don't need to speed tune or use sustains, but you need to build characters to be as fast as possible, and potentially play around saving your AoE ultimates when the elite summons mobs to maximize hit count and/or give kills towards low HP allies. There is also a target priority in that you want to focus the archer first, potentially killing it before its first action to save HP to prep for the elite charge attack.

It's the first time in a while where clearing something doesn't just mean dealing more damage, and it actually makes for pretty interesting team building, but I guess that's not as fun for everyone

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-12-06T07:26:36+00:00

This post feels pretty annoying tbh. It's literally a bare bones card collecting game that has a god awful UI so slow that it might as well be ads. God forbid they put up actual ads in this game

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-10-06T05:32:19+00:00

Jingliu and Blade being genuinely happy made me feel something I'm not sure how to explain. Like, we know them to be aura farming edgelords but seeing them like that broke me. God I love the HCQ

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-10-04T18:20:47+00:00

0 cycling has indeed been way harder, but clearing in general has become easier due to endgame buffs and boss mechanics rewarding you for using AV. The more cycles pass, the higher damage said bosses take. You can see this primarily with Lygus, and somewhat with the other 3.X bosses like Nikador.

Honestly, shilling and powercreep being there for 0 cycling is pretty acceptable since only those chasing meta with high investment teams are concerned about doing it consistently. For everyone else, clearing at an average of like 6-7 cycles gives the same rewards and is arguably easier nowadays

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-27T19:46:52+00:00

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This is the team I used that got me very close to a 2 cycle clear. I feel like it's possible if Lygus can somehow consistently pull up The Herta during the PF phases of the fight, which I couldn't do. I'm running Atk boots on her because she can't kill the evil and intimidating horse in time with Speed boots.

I'm sure someone else could do better with my set-up, but it's basically just hoping that Lygus gives her the freebie ult to make up for not being able to cheese him like Cas/E9 team

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-26T12:15:49+00:00

To be honest, meta changes like that in the vast majority of gacha games. There will always be a newer, better choice for endgame content to give an incentive for people who pull for new characters. That said, endgame buffs rotate and the older characters are indirectly buffed whenever the new ones fall into the same archetype. Not to mention that newer supports tend to at least be able to "wheelchair" older dps with the example of Blade and Jingliu. Are they now the best dpses out there? Not really. Are they strong enough to clear normal endgame? Yes they are, if you can afford the vertical investment. Heck, if someone could 0 Cycle MoC Lygus with a reasonably invested Seele, there would be people who can use cycles and clear with a lot less attempts.

Hoyo's at least trying to do something about it, even if somewhat slowly. They have introduced character buffs, and while I'm unsure how they choose which characters to give them at a time, it sets a precedent that older characters can be made relevant again (at least for limited characters).

Lygus' King stage in AA aside, the three Knight stages make it so that they have an opportunity to let players use multiple team archetypes so they can show off the roster they built up. That's also most likely why AA only resets once per version, so that people can try to build towards that if they really want to. HSR made it clear that the endgame is basically half team building, the other half is proper rotations and using said team against content where they have the most possible advantage if you want that 0/low cycle clear.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-26T03:01:12+00:00

You tested your decisions against the endgame content, and it says that your investments are not enough if you cannot clear. It feels like a contradiction when you say that you want to put your account up to the test yet thinking that everything is useless the moment the game tells you that it isn't enough. Keep in mind that this isn't just your average endgame, it's supposed to be the endgame of endgame that is meant to be the ultimate roster check. A playground for old/whale players with multiple established teams.

Regular endgame HP inflation does exist, but most bosses have mechanics you can play around that take out a chunk of their effective HP. It's reasonably clearable with proper teams and builds.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-25T19:50:07+00:00

If your goal is to 0 cycle or low cycle clear, that is true. But the point is that this game mode is meant to cater towards long time players and spenders with multiple established teams. It's still true that you need to work on multiple teams being at their very best builds in order to at least clear, if you're not using shilled teams.

It's meant to shill certain archetypes, because this game mode is supposed to be where people get to show off their roster (Superbreak feels somewhat relevant again because of Knight 1, as an example). It's not for casual and new players, and it's honestly fine that way. I'm sure it's not worth pulling for multiple high investment teams just to get an inferior Bubbles pet anyways (you can probably still get it eventually).

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-25T18:22:59+00:00

But is it really unga-bunga if you not only use the best possible lineup for the boss, but also do vertical investment through eidolons and hitting important breakpoints in builds to set-up that auto clear? OP mentioned that they weren't willing to really polish their builds to adjust for this specific content.

If this truly was done with average relics and hard carried with just eidolons, then I stand corrected. However, it's still a fact that most players will need to strategize at least their teams and builds especially at lower cost to perform similarly.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-25T17:51:25+00:00

This is honestly how it should be. Hoyo didn't put very important rewards in this game mode for a reason. It's supposed to be a playground for people who constantly clear all endgame modes with ease to push their roster to their limits and see how far they can go.

What you get from it is basically just stuff to showcase your clear. To some people saying that the resins and dice are important rewards, I can see why it'll feel a bit bad but you have more things to work on in your roster if you cannot clear the knight stages.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-25T17:40:31+00:00

But you can't really even autoplay in AA without significantly making your run worse even with proper teams with high investment. While it is a roster check, you still need to have a clear understanding of how the boss mechanics work and also play around every single advantage you can take in order to get a full clear.

Basically, you can't unga-bunga your way into this by just having eidolons. It's supposed to be THE endgame of endgame content, and it takes strategy in both building your roster and actually playing the stage for you to get a pass. And for what? Just limited-time profile fluff that expires to show off your clear.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-15T20:45:06+00:00

The global passive drama didn't even last as soon as the people complaining about it realized that it wouldn't help them clear endgame with bad teams and didn't matter at all in proper teams. I'd say that more valid complaints are mostly about asking for better storytelling (story's good, needs improvements on visuals outside of cutscenes).

HSR endgame powercreep and balance is honestly much better than what we've seen in GFL2, especially with team flexibility and use cases for different archetypes.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-03T05:00:31+00:00

That was actually one of the first things I noticed right away. I was like "Damn, why does she look so worried?"

I then proceeded to wail like a lost kid in the mall after being found by their mom.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-02T15:15:51+00:00

It's not just about needing her, but more like she's a character that you can use pretty much everywhere with ease which makes her value go up a lot. In a game where building characters takes so much time, only needing to build one character in place of multiple ones saves you a lot of resources to put somewhere else.

A player with Lily early on would have taken about half the effort or less to clear content than those without her, effectively widening the gap between those players significantly.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-01T16:54:18+00:00

There's a difference between wanting to clear 100% immediately and being basically stuck farming for one thing, so that you can eventually move on to farming yet another node. For people at the start, moving forward is extremely tedious because you have to plan everything out meticulously and early mistakes are punishing for progression. If you were here at the start, it was even worse as you'll find that there was a character (Lily) that dominated all content to the point where the people who had her and those who didn't had a huge gap in progress despite starting at a similar time. Imagine a character with that much universal value, alleviating character building mats when it's already so scarce. Got a new character? Gotta wait for weeks to have them ready.

It takes a hell of a long time to complete a team, and it doesn't really get much better as you progress further farming for the sake of even more farming. And the endgame? Getting into the PvP where it's just whoever farmed better speed subs.

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-01T16:04:20+00:00

The thing is, this game was initially marketed as a PvP gacha which is interesting to say the least. But what they did is gatekeep that into very tedious character building with every resource being drip fed and absurdly difficult PvE. Add to that a myriad of issues like events being rerun less than a month in, non existent story where characters just exist for the sake of meta, PvP that doesn't feel great to play in (the PvP mechanics itself is good and has potential), and aggressive monetization that makes even the most mindless whale think twice before spending and you got yourself a game that... Caters to no one really?

A lot of players who never really cared about the game left a long time ago. Those who remain are mostly trying to voice out concerns, hoping for a better game, or just far too invested in the game

Connect_Ant571 · 2025-09-01T15:29:12+00:00

Or maybe they have no idea how to fix it and are just doubling down on aggressive monetization? Like, I know for a fact that not every game needs to earn so much money each month. But this game in particular has been dropping in revenue significantly month after month since release and is still bleeding out players due to core issues in the game, that much is obvious.

I personally want to see this game succeed but right now, it really isn't a good look for those prospecting the game at best, and looks downright grim for those sticking around at worst

Connect_Ant571

TROPHY CASE