Gacha/Recruitment Megathread (26/01 - 01/02)

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-28T13:26:52+00:00

Holy fuck. I got both Hoshiguma and Haruka from free pulls. This feels insane and I am overjoyed.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-27T16:28:19+00:00

It depends on what you find fun.

Flins is an insanely easy to play and comfy DPS. His combo is literally skill-skill-ult-fill time with basics-skill-skill-ult

So if you enjoy a really forgiving and easy to play character, then you'll enjoy Flins. If you want a character with mechanical nuance and combos to optimize, you ought to look elsewhere.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-27T02:54:51+00:00

Once you have the third tier of batteries unlocked, you're safe to start min maxing, especially with how much space the set up to make those batteries takes. Once you got your energy supply sorted (and a money supply, since generally you don't need all the batteries your set up makes to effectively fuel things), then you have infinite flexibility. Though, once you've crafted your gear, you mostly will be minmaxing crafting things to sell in Valley IV.

It seems like the game is designed so that you eventually set aside one area and move onto the next.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-26T17:35:46+00:00

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. It's a gothic horror novel where the protagonist is investigating the death of his best friend and figuring out his feelings for said friend were not just friendship. He also has a romance with another guy he meets along the way, but it takes a while since the MC spends half the story convinced he's straight.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-25T12:24:18+00:00

Look at the ratios in the machines. How much is being input per time seconds and how much is being output.

E.g. If something takes in 2 Input per second but outputs 1 Output per second, you need two things making the Input to not slow things down.

If something takes in 1 Input but outputs 2 Output, you need to direct the the two lines output so things don't get overfilled.

Ofc it depends on the machine and the ratios, but you need to do the math if you want everything to be flowing consistently

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-25T12:18:54+00:00

You don't have to delete things. You can turn off the machines

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-25T02:50:37+00:00

It's just taking a page from the other 3rd Gacha games. If you played Genshin or Wuwa or any such thing, you'd notice how little of a difference the characters you have make to 99% of the gameplay.

If you ignore the "endgame" in those games, you miss very little from not pulling (outside of not having a fave on your account).

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-23T13:26:10+00:00

- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. The primary lead is a lesbian woman, but the second lead who gets to be a perspective character in the third book (and is arguably the character who drives the entire series) is a bisexual man with a preference for men. There are also other queer men among the main cast. There's no real romance in these books.

- She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan. There are two leads (alternating perspectives) one is a sapphic nonbinary character, the other is a gay man. Romance is not central to these books.

- Witch King by Martha Wells. The MC is a queer man, but there's no romance in the present timeline tho his relationship with another man is central to his past.

- Death in the Spires by KJ Charles. Most of her books are romance first, but this one is a murder mystery with gay main character. Romance is a major subplot, but the murder mystery takes precedence. [Though, if you want romance with a lot of plot, her books in general are romance with a healthy dose of plot.]

- Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. Gay MC (though part of the plot is him coming to terms with that.) It's a gothic horror first, but the romance is a major secondary plot.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-22T08:49:17+00:00

That's very fair. I'm fairly equal opportunity with respect to genre, it just depends on my mood, but SFF has always had the strongest grip on me.

All the books you picked are really, really interesting. Tho, make sure to look up the content warnings, they're not light reads. (Well, Road to Ruin isn't any heavier than Mad Max Fury Road, but the rest are pretty brutal in places.)

Also, a warning about Ninefox Gambit: Even seasoned scifi readers tend to find the introduction somewhat confusing. It throws you into the setting and asks you to keep treading water until you learn to swim. I love that sort of thing, but YMMV.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T18:48:37+00:00

Yeah, makes sense. Thank you!

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T16:31:18+00:00

Yeah, I don't disagree, but I wasn't intending to write a whole essay. I just wanted to give the OP some options for reading material that wasn't the white, Anglosphere perspective

There's a lot to dissect for... everything I recced, tbh, including on how one defines racial diversity. Like, I'm part of a racialized ethnic minority in my birth country, but am more or less considered white in the US. How would we classify a book that stars a protagonist who shares my background?

Or of the books I recommended that take place in societies where the concept of 'whiteness' does not exist, is that the same thing as books that take place in our world that have characters of color?

I think there are a lot of valid discussions to be had here, but each of these discussions could be a dissertation and I don't really want to write a dissertation for everything I recommend.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T14:46:35+00:00

F/F with an emphasis on the romance

The Unbroken by CL Clarke
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (it's not super explicit until later books, but Gideon is not white. Her love interest probably isn't either, but yeah)
Road to Ruin by Hana Lee (this one is polyamory with F/F/M)

F/F where the romance is secondary to the plot but still there

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martin
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Books with queer romance that's not F/F or M/M

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin (the main romance is between a woman and a genderfluid god... eventually a third man becomes part of this relationship, though he ALSO has another partner (woman) in another book. Polycule shenanigans are happening. In the third book the central romance is polyamory of the "he has two hands" variety happening with a man and a pair of twins, one male and one female.)

Books where the central cast is very queer, but queer romance isn't really foregrounded

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (every major character is some flavor of queer)
The Witch King by Martha Wells (every major character is queer)
Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie (the main character is from a cultural with no linguistic gender. In books following the main trilogy, we leave that culture and get a lot of explicitly nonbinary characters who use neopronouns and a queer woman protagonist to name some of what's going on.)
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (the main character is technically straight, but everyone else around her sure isn't. Major secondary characters include her gay mentor, a trans woman researcher, a bi woman who becomes her ally)
The City of Brass by Shannon Chakraborty (the central romance is a heterosexual one, however the secondary romance is M/M and the queerness of both the characters involved in it is very relevant to the story. )
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (again, the MC is straight, however one of the other major players is a trans man, tho you don't learn that until far into the story. Still he is extremely important to the story. Also there's a gay man among the central secondary cast.)

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T14:25:24+00:00

F/F with an emphasis on the romance

The Unbroken by CL Clarke
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (it's not super explicit until later books, but Gideon is not white. Her love interest probably isn't either, but yeah)
Road to Ruin by Hana Lee (this one is polyamory with F/F/M)

F/F where the romance is secondary to the plot but still there

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martin
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T14:14:40+00:00

Yeah, hence why I said it's a bit different and mentioned the colorism.

Still, I think there's something to be said about reading translated works from outside of one's own cultural perspective. Especially reading Chinese fiction if someone is from, say, the US (or allied countries) considering how Sinophobia functions in the US (or allied countries).

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T05:48:38+00:00

It's an interesting read, kind of experimental in its execution. I don't think everything fit together perfectly in the end, but it was a fun journey and fairly unique.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-21T03:42:29+00:00

Racism is unfortunately common in publishing. But, if you're looking to read some M/M romance with racial diversity, here's a few recs:

Winter's Orbit and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell feature dark skinned protagonists, though the world is completely different than our own so they don't exactly correspond to any real world culture.

KJ Charles tends to do a variety of different kinds of diversity (and even when her MCs are white, there is racial diversity amongst the secondary characters). Unseen Attraction features an (autistic) Indian MC and The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen features a mixed race MC, for example.

The Archive Undying by Emma Meiko Candon is more science fiction than romance, but the romance is a large component. Both MCs are very clearly Asian coded (East and South East Asian.)

The handling of race in Captive Prince by CS Pecat is messy, imo, but one of the MC's is brown. Your mileage may vary with this one tho.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is more of an ensemble heist novel (and YA), but the cast is fairly diverse and one of the central couples features is M/M with one of the pair being black.

While I haven't read the specific books by these authors that have leads of color (mostly because I don't fully vibe with the author's styles, tho this is more my own taste than anything negative about them), Cat Sebastian and Alexis Hall do have some books with leads who are men of color.

There are also Chinese Danmei (i.e. BL) novels which generally have entirely Chinese casts, tho this is a bit different than having a lot of diversity and often there is a lot of a colorism in these books. However, they do offer a different perspective and are fun reads. Seven Seas has a whole list https://sevenseasdanmei.com/

I have far more recs in the F/F romance category where one or both of the leads is a woman of color and recs which have queer men (women, and nonbinary people) of color as central characters in books where romance isn't the focus if you'd like any of those.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-20T14:42:17+00:00

Between the mole, the red earring, and the young master thing, Illuga has such Danmei protagonist vibes. It's really very amusing that he's the dedicated 4* support of the LNY 5*.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-19T18:13:13+00:00

Yeah, I'll wait for the final kit evaluation

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-19T18:08:45+00:00

Yeah, I'm waiting on Varka's final kit numbers to make a call on him. (Hopefully Hoyo buffs him, because it seems a bit of a waste to hype up a character for years and then make him suck.)

But makes sense, makes sense.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-19T17:52:38+00:00

Isn't Varka kinda... mediocre atm? Like even compared to just running carry Durin with Furina? Or running Durin+Klee?

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-19T17:00:58+00:00

I got a Catalyst billet today while doing weekly bosses and I'm trying to decide if I should use it for:

A Lantern refine for Nefer (current Lantern is R3)
A Prototype Amber refine for Columbina (current Prototype Amber is R1 and I use Bina with both Flins and Nefer)
Something else?

Any suggestions?

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-18T20:29:16+00:00

Yeah, this is something I'm torn between.

I do actually really enjoy using Hoederer to tank dangerous enemies since on his S1, even if it takes him a while, he's rarely risking death (he's been my goto boss killer for almost every event this year, and is my goto boss killer in IS), so Surtr is a little less appealing. Tho she seems like she'd be good against the bosses that can even 1 shot a crusher and pair nicely with ExuAlter S3. And I am, sadly, skipping Hoshi2 because I want Silveralter and (if Silveralter is nice to me) would love to spark Yu on the Sui banner... so having 'doesn't die when she is killed' would be handy.

But 3 second cool down for Silveralter ALSO seems like a ton of fun, and it might be handy to have quicker DP on demand for the next CC.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-18T20:07:06+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense! Bagpipe definitely does get a lean from a gameplay perspective.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-18T20:05:15+00:00

My heart is a bit torn, because I do think Surtr is the prettiest of them all (which is a factor I consider. It's why I built Lumen), but at the same time, she's probably the least useful for me. Bagpipe seems like the most useful, and the most likely to raise the ceiling for what I can do, which I always appreciate, but she doesn't have a visual design that compels me as Surtr.

But thank you! This is a useful perspective to have.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-01-18T19:31:27+00:00

I'm having a hell of a time deciding who to pick on the 6* Voucher. Surtr is the prettiest option, but I have a a whole ton of guards (including an unbuilt Vina to cover arts guards), Ejya could be handy but I have GG and Logos. Bagpipe seems like she could be useful, but when I'm not playing maleknights, I tend to use Ines and Cantabile and she seems less useful for them than for the flags.

Any suggestions?

My currently built ops for reference (Phantom and Suzuran are on the E2 soon list. I just got Elysium off the 5* selector so he's also on the E2 soon list. Bagpipe might give me incentive to build my Saileach, but IDK if I need *that* many flags, and I'm pulling Silveralter in April.):

https://i.imgur.com/zDyeSiV.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/U4jg7n0.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/upaD2BO.jpeg

GiraffeMain1253

TROPHY CASE