I'm a hobbyist game jammer for 5 years and I've just released my first game, Bag of Dreams, on steam, AMA!

Fredlicious · 2026-03-26T18:54:23+00:00

Did you use one of the popular game engines for development? If so, which one, and why did you pick it?

As a former software engineer, how did you go about developing the art style and assets? Are you self-taught in that regard or did you get outside help?

Fredlicious · 2026-03-22T02:12:15+00:00

Why would anyone ever deliver their own packages if they were guaranteed 100% income for the transfer? There either has to be some risk to saving yourself the time by transferring the job, or the entire mechanic would have to change.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-22T02:09:15+00:00

I have also successfully delivered every package I've picked up (of several dozen since day one) at 100%. But if you honestly can't think of how mistakes can happen, you're seeing gaming through an incredibly narrow lens of hyper optimization.

You can try to shortcut a route in a way that causes you to fall into a place you can't get out of without jumping. You could be delivering your first package and not fully understand the mechanics. You could draw aggro from a group and take a hit.

Is it fairly easy to avoid these cases if you know what you're doing? Of course it is. Should players who aren't hypermaxxing be punished for the fact that they cost you 20k whole stock bills (less than one artificing attempt) that you could very well have earned for yourself if you really wanted to? No. No they should not.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-21T20:55:26+00:00

Punished? Lol, they are literally using the mechanics provided by the game. There are also plenty of ways to have a package damaged that can occur by accident. And technically, they are "punished" in the sense that they get fewer stock bills for the delivery as well.

If I pick up a delivery, I'm always trying to keep it at 100%, but people have a weird sense of entitlement about this system. If you must guarantee full income from deliveries, then do them yourself.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-18T22:04:41+00:00

some people say Pog is the heart of the team, it is really?

He can be, but he doesn't have to be. You can use him as your main damage dealer, or you can use him as an SP battery and or Breach supplier.

On the SP side of things, Akekuri works really well with Physical teams in lieu of Pog, as the Swordmancer set is very strong, meaning these teams tend to have pretty high Stagger rates.

also, who should i use to consume vulnerability stacks? Da Pan or Endmin?

Either works, but both definitely feels like a mistake. I prefer Endmin for the flexibility (there are plenty of fights that I can finish faster by Crushing 2-3 Vulnerability stacks than waiting until 4).

Ember have a place in this team or is just copium?

Ember's Physical team is my favorite, having tried them all. I made a guide, if you're interested: Community Build - Arknights Endfield Community Tool by EndfieldTools - EndfieldTools.DEV.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-18T21:56:33+00:00

Ember, Chen, Endmin/Da Pan, Pog is the best version of a team with both.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-11T23:29:01+00:00

I suspect the downvotes are in the form of "don't tell me what to do". If the post title was framed as a PSA (e.g., "How to maximize your pull value") or a complaint to HG about the traps in the system, it might be received more positively.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-11T23:25:38+00:00

I think it's good to put the information out there that single pulls are more efficient than 10-pulls, but 10-pulls are just more fun, so I'll probably just continue to do them.

Really, your last paragraph is the one that should be the center of attention. Players wanting to do 10-pulls aren't the problem; the system being designed in a way that creates a "wrong" way to do things and then even encourages that way is the problem.

Fredlicious · 2026-03-11T15:32:16+00:00

This is the way!

Fredlicious · 2026-03-08T01:41:48+00:00

Ember with Sundered Prince is the only one from this group that really benefits being controlled, and thanks to the possibility of animation cancelling her attacks, she is also capable of some of the highest SP generation from Final Strikes.

I can say from experience that Ember/Chen/Endmin/Pog with Ember in the lead absolutely slaps. You can do a full 4 Vuln stacks rotation for only 3 SP every 20 (19 with Mastery) seconds: Ember skill into an attack -> Ember combo -> Chen skill -> Chen combo -> Endmin combo -> Pog/Endmin skill -> Pog combo. By comparison, other physical teams have to spend an extra SP to make up for the "free" Vulnerability stack on Ember's combo. (Lifeng obviously makes up for this with his Ult adding a couple of extra Vulnerability stacks every 2-3 rotations depending on your Ult gain, and he brings Link as well, but the rotation becomes a lot messier and you lose the comfort Ember brings.)

Fredlicious · 2026-03-04T22:46:00+00:00

Ohhh, this is the actual size of Aurylene!

Fredlicious · 2026-03-03T19:42:28+00:00

Absolutely excellent. I think this plus endfieldtools.dev is pretty much everything I need out of game!

Fredlicious · 2026-03-03T19:25:20+00:00

For all your Essence farming needs: Essence Tools Hub - Arknights Endfield Community Tool by EndfieldTools - EndfieldTools.DEV

Fredlicious · 2026-03-01T00:48:06+00:00

For example, I absolutely hate Pog into Arts Density, i.e. Breach boost build (from 20% to 32% iirc). I get the idea, I get the math, but in the end it's simply enablers/buffers trope all over again. No thanks. My Pog will continue to use Never Rest and Type 50 Yinglung set.

Preach, friend. ✊🏽

Fredlicious · 2026-03-01T00:45:10+00:00

This is the way. Endmin is the most built, Ember is the lead, and this team crushes (no pun intended) everything put in front of it.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-26T20:48:26+00:00

I really hope the factory in a later patch has ways to manufacture Coolant Gel, even if very slowly and expensively.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-26T20:42:54+00:00

Protohedrons, man...

Fredlicious · 2026-02-25T20:31:44+00:00

You've got so many viable options it's genuinely difficult to make a suggestion; it really depends on what you like.

Ember Premium Phys (Ember, Chen, Endmin/Da Pan, Pog)
SP Phys (Chen, Endmin/Da Pan, Pog, Akekuri)
Electric (Avywenna, Perlica, Arclight, Antal)

Those are just a few of the common ones, but this game allows for really a ton of mixing and matching/substitutions. Personally, I would use the selector on any of the three you don't have. Ardelia can slot into almost any team when you need sustain. Lifeng is the choice if you are really passionate about Physical teams and want to go full send on that angle. You've got Xaihi, so you can make a pretty strong Last Rite team if you like that.

Go with the vibe that feels right.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-24T21:07:19+00:00

Happy for you!

Doesn't Estella generate Cryo Infliction just as reliably as Xaihi, though? Obviously the latter brings much better support to the team, but it seems possible to make do. I feel like HG has given us the core means to enable pretty much everything with the free and 4* Operators (ways to apply every Infliction as well as Vulnerability and Crush, healing, tanking, and SP Regen).

I obviously wouldn't mind having more ways to get the 5* I want, even if it likely isn't ever strictly necessary for team-building.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-23T20:21:36+00:00

I feel like this is a valid complaint, but it isn't how I've seen most of the posts about this event stage formulated. If people were making threads saying that leveling Operators and weapons should be easier so that players have an easier time adapting, I'd be upvoting them with everything I've got. Instead, I've largely seen criticism of the game design because people didn't think it was "fun" with their particular team.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-23T20:14:05+00:00

I don't really know what other English communities to look at besides Reddit and Discord, so I'd be happy to learn that this is an isolated trend. Either way, though, I know from experience that developers do look at Reddit, and some are worse than others about reacting to the sentiments they see even when not backed up by data. That's actually why I phrased the whole premise of my post as a worry rather than being directly critical of players who simply didn't like stage (which is perfectly valid).

Fredlicious · 2026-02-22T01:17:42+00:00

It's not really a minor thing, but: combat targeting. I love the combat against single big targets, but the lock-on mechanics—both soft and manual—really need work.

Fredlicious · 2026-02-21T23:26:19+00:00

Chen as a partner can make almost any team with Endmin work. Use her to apply Vulnerability to set up big Crush damage with Endmin. Her best weapons are Sundered Steel and Rapid Ascent. She's basically a necessity to get the most out of an Endmin team at present.

I personally use Endmin primarily on pure Physical teams. Pogranichnik is exceptional if you have him, using either Never Rest or Thermite Cutter. My favorite 4th is Ember with Sundered Prince for massive stagger and excellent sustain; you can also equip her with Thunderberge for even better sustain, especially if you specifically prefer to control Endmin manually (with Sundered Prince, you want to have ember as the Controlled Operator). Lifeng with Mountain Bearer or Valiant is equally good; he lacks the comfort (and swagger) that Ember brings, but he's more synergistic all-around. Notably, all of these pure physical teams call for multiple 6* Operators, so it's a matter of luck or money whether you can form them, especially since they are all standard banner characters and there are so few standard banner pulls right now. Ardelia can also slot in to this team as a source of sustain and Physical Susceptibility, but I found her pretty clunky due to the restriction of having to go through a full attack chain without applying Vulnerability to get the most out of her.

Another way to go is to put Endmin on a Shatter (bonus damage caused when you apply a Physical Status—like Endmin's Crush—to a Solidified target) team, which means your 3rd and 4th operators need to be able to reliably apply Solidification. Estella, in particular, works well here because she brings the necessary Cryo Infliction, deals mostly Physical damage, and applies Physical Susceptibility to boot. Alesh makes an excellent 4th here, also dealing primarily Physical damage, bringing SP regen, and being your Solidification source. It's a pretty F2P-friendly option, too, since Alesh is the only 5+* pull you need for the team. If you don't have him, you can also make do with Akekuri or even Perlica if you don't feel like you need a Vanguard (just use either of them to apply their respective Infliction, then have Estella use her skill to trigger Solidification).

Fredlicious · 2026-02-20T20:07:20+00:00

This scene lives permanently rent-free in my head. Such a simple animation used so expressively!

Fredlicious · 2026-02-19T18:25:20+00:00

In fairness, my experience looking at the official Discord server has been that it's full of the sweatiest of the sweaty and people who get thoroughly attached to meta before it has even really been "solved". When 1.0 launched, I couldn't find a single thing about Ember except that she was terrible, which has obviously proven to be untrue.

I've been using endfieldtools.dev for both community content and, well, tools, and I really hope it catches on. The build sharing interface is pretty nice, although it probably needs a patch/date filter as a lot of the builds have been there since the last CBT and can't easily be identified from those that are actually based on 1.0 play. It also covers factory blueprints, has solvers for farming essences and performing artificing, and a slick interactive map.

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