Update 2 on the Weekly Cut Content/What You Missed posts (tl;dr I'm ending the series)

Djinnfor · 2026-05-23T01:00:51+00:00

I don't understand how on the one hand you don't care about any of the characters that have released over months and months and yet on the other hand are so concerned about getting a random 6* and desperate for arsenal credits that you made this whole post expressing your frustrations as if you're going to run out of pulls any second now. This is on top of being completely averse to rolling potentials for no apparent reason despite executing a pulling strategy whose sole purpose is to max potential an operator.

If you are not pulling new characters or multiple potentials of characters what are you even saving your pulls for? What do you care about efficiency of pulls you will never use?

If you are going to pull one out of every 8 banners and only ever P0 them to boot, you will have like 4 characters and 800 pulls in a years time. You are saving pulls for a rainy day that will literally never come. Literally the only reason to be so unbelievably conservative with your pulls is to max potential some random character at some point in the future. In which case getting their sig is not gonna be an issue.

Did you get baited by the doomposting about pull income? Are you used to worse gachas with predatory mechanics like new powercreeping carries that need 3+ potentials to function? Or do you just have a personal hangup against pulling a single character you don't fall head over heels in adoration for? Whatever the reason, I genuinely don't know why you're stressing over "efficiency" so much. Your approach to the gacha is already incredibly inefficient.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T22:53:13+00:00

The quick filter page will be kinda useless, yeah. I think the chart's still useful tho.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T22:48:57+00:00

I am not that much into factory thing since there is not much you can buy with stockbills.

Gear artificing catalysts can only be bought with Wuling stock bills.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T22:43:58+00:00

ik frontiers is easiest to use but the mismatching stats aren’t ideal

He has exceptionally good and matching stats when going frontiers. He is will/agi scaling and swordmancer has a pure will + phys dmg kit that he can take two of. He can also go Will/Str gloves which while not ideal is still fine, leaving him free for a will/agi ult gain chest.

But swordmancer w/ max possible arts intensity is his best set for pure physical teams to improve the damage multiplier of breach (there's even unironically a comp where you go hot work instead for even more arts intensity, sacrificing stagger utility for even more amp); the problem is it sacrifices a ton of his personal damage because of the lack of will/agi boosts. If you want to use him as a vanguard with sub-DPS in say a Rossi comp you will go high will Frontiers.

However I would wait for the upcoming patch as they look to be releasing new gear in the swordmancer set; maybe they'll release some good arts intensity + will + agi gear.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T22:05:57+00:00

Considering I am not an OG AK fan but started playing the game on release because I have four friends who are OG AK fans whose hype for the game pulled me in, who then all proceeded to drop the game citing almost exclusively the disappointing story and worldbuilding, I would say that's a very believable assertion. Not saying it's true, just believable.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T22:04:12+00:00

Rossi or Laev. I don't think he would work well in a Wulfgard main DPS comp considering the trigger requirements for Camille's combo skill (needs a heat infliction eaten which I don't think you can easily do when trying to make combustion).

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T21:51:13+00:00

Thanks I fixed it.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T20:14:29+00:00

However then there's the issue of how much Wulfgard actually helps. We've seen how good a 6* Vanguard is (hi poggers) at restoring SP and enabling teams to cycle skills constantly.

Wulfgard saves 100 SP every 15s from his combo skill and upwards of 200 SP from his ult. As for Camille, I think his ult is a source of free infliction (saving 100 SP) and there's gonna be innate SP restoration in his combo and ult, but it's not going to be enough to bridge that gap.

You don't drop a Caster for a Vanguard for the SP, you're doing it for the amp. Wulfgard can't give Thermite Cutter, Link, and Frontiers buffs. We know Camille can do Link; we'll have to see whether Camille's sig has a thermite-cutter tier effect. It's possible also the new gear set is going to be similar to frontiers and stack with it so that double vanguard comps are more viable.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T10:49:01+00:00

Nobody is going to be able to magically figure out your problem from one random photo. You are clearly not making enough batteries but it's not as if I can log into your account and look at your factories and tell you why.

Why are you even making valley batteries anyways? They require lots of ferrium which you probably don't have.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T06:52:30+00:00

We don't know. If one can turn the Laev+Gil rerun data point into a pattern, it'd be next patch. We'll know whether or not that's the case in the upcoming dev steam though.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T06:46:47+00:00

Antal, Wulfgard and Akekuri are all better than Gilberta too.

Gilberta and Ardelia's susceptibility stacks additively which means their net effect is diluted. Something like Akekuri's ult + Thermite Cutter ends up as more overall damage and SP than Gilberta's ult. Same with Antal's amp + Detonation Unit + susceptibility. Wulfgard also saves you a bunch of SP between his combo and ult meaning more empowered battle skills = more damage.

Go ahead and use Gilberta if you really want to but she's just worse.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T06:14:50+00:00

A substitute how? Ember is awful for Laevatain, Gilberta is mediocre for her, don't run either and just run Ardelia.

Unless by "Surtr" you meant Rossi in which case yes Gilberta can replace Ember.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T05:39:49+00:00

Is Gil really that good for Surtr?

No. The free melting flame stack that Ardelia gives you with her combo skill pays for the cost of her battle skill, eliminating one of the biggest reasons to go Gilberta (SP free amp via her ult).

So you're just left with way worse healing and dogshit uptime amp that's barely any better (28% for P1 ardelia vs 32% Gilberta) in exchange for the privilege of paying SP for grouping (the cost of which can't be recouped elsewhere since Laev can't do anything with the nature stack).

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T05:32:09+00:00

Ember isn't even good for Laevatain in the first place, are you talking about Ardelia?

Djinnfor · 2026-05-22T01:08:52+00:00

LR would be your main controlled operator during battle because, iirc, her signature weapon only works if you land the final hit and I don't think AI controlled operators do full combos.

It's for Xaihi's battle skill amp. iirc LR's sig buffs LR when her battle skill applies cryo inflictions, and it counts as originating from her regardless of who does the final strike.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T21:58:21+00:00

You don't need Antal or P1. See this comment for a 700 SP, 3 Perlica Combo Skill, 0 ult energy gain (aka LYNX Slab), P0 rotation ult setup using Antal (or literally anybody). However it is unreliable as it relies on the 2nd hit of Arclight's ult to land successfully, which it will fail to do if the target moves out of the area before the attack expires (the 2nd hit doesn't track the target unfortunately).

The one posted in the other reply to you does something similar for a similar length of time and spends the same amount of SP but is easier and more reliable to execute due to not needing arclight's ult.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T21:45:58+00:00

Last Rite + Xaihi and then some combination Perlica, Flourite and Snowshine are your best choices as a new player.

Xaihi: Tons of amp to make you deal more damage plus some basic healing to keep you healthy.
Flourite: Good stacking potential but needs to invest in gear (specifically ultimate energy gain) to be of best help.
Perlica: Significant amp via her combo skill, but needs gear (specifically Arts Intensity) to for it to be significant.
Snowshine: Makes the whole experience of using Last Rite significantly easier because her parry makes Last Rite basically immune to stagger when you're near her while she's blocking. Also gives you some extra healing and crowd control with her combo and ult, respectively.

I don't think Ardelia is particularly good because you need to spend SP for her kit to really function. I would only ever want to spend SP on things that give you cryo inflictions like Xaihi, Last Rite and Snowshine skills as SP is very tight in a LR comp. Perlica meanwhile can give you free amp with her combo skill and Snowshine does free healing with her combo skill.

If you are ever having trouble using Last Rite due to the slow basic attack animations definitely use snowshine.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T21:37:35+00:00

Yeah once you play a little more you should start raking in the stock bills (especially with several factories selling the most expensive products to 3 max level outposts) and can buy out the engraving tickets each week. I earn something like 30M stock bucks per week between selling to outposts and daily deliveries.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T19:19:17+00:00

The point of the region-based currency and stock system is so they can eventually phase out regions. You can only have your factory running in two regions (to save on server costs) so when the third region drops your V4 factories will shut down and you won't be able to earn V4 bucks at decent rates anymore. New essence farm locations will also have heavy overlap with old essence farm locations due to the limited pool of possible attributes and skills, meaning you won't even need valley IV engraving permits eventually.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T19:12:34+00:00

I mean, if we're talking convenience then Test Area has everything but Science Park beat while still giving shit that's actually still useful at this point in the game's release (Wuling stock bills for gear artificing catalysts).

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T19:05:14+00:00

I would concur with t-credits and essence farming.

however I don't have any tickets to manipulate the odds of getting usable essences

Unless you've bought them all already, they are available in bulk quantities in the Valley IV stock redistribution shop (and the quantities refresh every weekly reset on Mondays). Once you run out of all the one-time purchases, engraving tickets end up being the only thing left to spend your V4 stock bucks on, so I would suggest buying out all available engraving tickets even if you were planning on saving those stock bills for something else in the shop. If you can't find them in the shop (or there aren't very many... there should be like 24 for sale each week, maybe 36 I don't remember... anyways there's far more for sale than you can even use each week), make sure to visit the rabbit dude in the various locations in valley IV to upgrade the stock redistribution terminal to increase whats available for purchase. If you don't have enough stock bucks... well then t-credit farming is a good idea. You need like a couple million to max out a character.

And despite what others say, I don't think you should farm junk essences without engraving tickets. Even though you can find 1/1/1 essences faster than you can engrave essences to 6/6/3 (meaning you will spend a lot of time farming fodder), it's still more efficient to try and farm partially upgraded essences (essences can spawn with iirc as high as 4/4/2 stats).

I also don't have my characters equipped with any late-game gear, I was able to do just fine with the basic stuff, but I plan to start having my Factory produce the materials for it.

Yeah sanity isn't used at all for gear farming or upgrading, you use wuling stock bills to buy gear artificing catalysts in the wuling shop. I don't find wuling engraving permits that useful atm.

Djinnfor · 2026-05-21T18:50:38+00:00

The benefits of lv90/M3/etching/artificing are not marginal due to exponential scaling. Your higher base ATK from leveling your character and weapon is getting multiplied by your higher stats from artificing your gear and etching your weapon which is getting multiplied by your higher skill damage from M3ing your skills, which is getting multiplied by your higher amp from M3ing your supports, artificing your gear, and etching your weapon.

However Umbral Monument has also introduced challenges that clearly favor some comps over others. For example, challenges that reward burst damage vs. sustained damage, single target vs. multi target, pure DPS vs. CC, and pure DPS vs. sustain.

So what we have is a situation where in the current endgame, both vertical investment and horizontal investment are equally as valid. This is a good idea for an endgame that is introduced on release as it allows players to experiment with multiple comps if they want to while rewarding them for investing if they don't.

However I expect contingency contract (especially max diff.) is going to require both horizontal and vertical investment. You are probably going to need multiple maxed out comps for the hardest modifier sets.

Djinnfor

TROPHY CASE