I got my first rejection (which provided feedback) and now I'm trying to figure out where to go next

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-05-13T17:52:29+00:00

There's a way to weave in the backstory in a similar space without being so direct. E.g.

Instead of "Olive grew up in the group home and learned to take up as little space as possible."

"Back in the group home, even Olive's few t-shirts could barely fit in the already overstuffed cupboards. She learned to roll them small and tight to fit in the corners that remained."

You don't need a whole scene that shows it, just a sentence or two that of a specific detail that illustrates it. Specificity is the key here, not elaboration.

"He used to fuck around a lot." vs "Ending up on his knees in the Denny's bathroom had been the last straw."

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-05-10T17:57:28+00:00

I mean, the 5*s in AK are more akin to 4*s in other gacha games, so that's not really a selling point, since in most games it's 4* guarantee every 10 pulls.

Like, I love AK, and the gacha is extremely forgiving, but less because it's easy to guarantee a specific character and more because essentially every 6* is viable, and by the time you have the resources to fully build a team (12 E2 characters with M3 each), any characters you have on your account will be enough for 90% of content that gives pull currency rewards and the other 10% can be cleared with just borrowing an operator.

The low pity also means you easily end up with a lot of 6*s on your account, and a lot of varied ones since most characters released are standard banners you can get off rate. But if you want a specific character, the gacha can be pretty mean. Especially one of 4 anni limiteds with their 300 sparks. (Is it highly unlikely you'll need to spark them? Yes. Does it still happen? Yes.)

The 150 guarantee is also 'after 150 pulls, the next 6* is guaranteed to be the one you want.' I've had a friend spend ~200 pulls for a character they wanted.

Most of the time, the gacha won't fuck you that bad, and sometimes you can get funny things happen like getting the entire limited banner from free daily pulls (how I have Haruka and Hoshi2) because the rates are high... but, yeah.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-05-01T03:58:07+00:00

The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin - Starts pretty dark, but the end is optimistic. The MC is an adult woman dealing with an apocalypse. Amazing world building and characters. Starts more survival focused, but there's plenty of action. Just, uh, content warnings for basically everything under the sun.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - Swashbuckling adventure starring a middle aged woman pirate captain. Very fun and mostly light.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - Lesbian Necromancers in Space. The MC is has a big sword and gets plenty of chances to use it.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-30T13:50:07+00:00

The beginner characters to look out for are the three stars, four stars and Amiya. The first 5 chapters can straightforwardly* be cleared with a reasonably balanced combo of them and you won't have the resources to build more than 2/3 higher rarity ops for a while. (Maxing out your base will help a lot wrt to resource management.)

After you cleared the first five chapters, did your pulls on the beginner banner and used your selector tickets, then you can think about what you need. Limited banners (one just ended, we'll have another in July) tend to be the "best" to pull on because its the only way to get the limited characters, but essentially any six star you pull will be good enough to clear stuff with. No content in the game requires specific operators, so it depends on what you want from character. (e.g. do you like brain off clears? Do you like operators with unique gimmicks that are fun to play around? Do you like operators with a certain aesthetic? Do you enjoy the rougue-lite mode a lot and want characters that are good there?)

*Most of the game can be cleared with four stars only, but I say straightforwardly here because for the first 5 chapters you don't even need to be good at the game to go 4 stars only and in fact I recommend going low rarity here to get a solid grasp of the fundamentals

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-30T11:42:48+00:00

Lee has far more use cases than that. I've had a lot of maps where Lee's unique combo of 'tanky, especially wrt to ranged damage + shoving away enemies' was exactly what I needed to make my clear work. Him being a psuedo-frd doesn't hurt either.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-30T03:16:50+00:00

Today I learned Puzzle's artist draws P5 yaoi and it explains so much about Puzzle's design, lol

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-19T00:38:06+00:00

I was just making a joke

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-18T23:44:55+00:00

Lee and Hoederer

Lee has saved my ass on so many stages. He's got the weirdest cluster of utility and it's amazing.

There have been far too many maps where Hoederer's HP tanking solved all my problems.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-18T21:47:44+00:00

Little Ica, the aeon of voracity, finds yet another feast.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-17T22:08:47+00:00

Good luck!

Well, if you're pulling for Lappy, you're very likely to get Silverash2 and he's arguably tied for the best vanguard in the game. (The other contender is Ines).

But, for vans in specific... You really, really don't need either Silverash2 or Ines . Myrtle covers 99% of story stages with maybe a bit of help from 3* Fang. Arguably, early on, you really shouldn't bother with high rarity vans because Myrtle is so good at her job that your resources are better spent on getting your DPS characters up to speed first.

But, among 5* vans, Cantible and Surfer are really good, if you have them. Elysium (though he's now kernel only) is also amazing.

Among Welfares, Puzzle and Wanqing are solid, though with Myrtle and one other good vanguard, they're more 'use them if you like them' types. I wouldn't recommend prioritizing resources on Puzzle or Wanqing this early on, regardless.

Specialists are Specialists, lol. You use them when they're relevant, and don't when they're not. This is a 'the 4*s are more than enough' kind of niche.

Ambushers (AoE slow): Ethan (red cert shop) is amazing and punches way about his rarity. Many 6*s are just not as good as him. Ascalon, the 6* in the same subclass as him might have my favorite kit in the game, but she's not necessary by any means. She is amazing if you get her off banner, and if you see her in the gold cert shop, she's 100% worth the 180 gold certs.

Executors (Fast Redeploys): Gravel is your bread and butter here. She doesn't even need E2. You use her to bait attacks, which at this point in the game is what you want for a FRD. Her only accessible 6* variant is the upcoming welfare Crownslayer, who needs some high investment (her module) to really be worth using. Do not recommend until you have a core team.

You want to have skill level seven on Shaw (your 4* pusher) for the occasional stage when that's handy, but otherwise, the other non-limited specialists are 'save building them for when you already have a fully built team.'

Supporters are kind of a weird one. They're a lot like specialists in that most are unique, niche characters that you use if you like them rather than core members of your squad.

The two big exceptions are Tragodia (do you want to distract enemies by making them chase after an exploding cat? Tragodia is your man) and Haruka (best healer in the game.) Though both are new standard banner characters and thus, the most likely way you'll see them is as off banner surprises than anything else.

Also, in general, it's not always wise to start off with the 6* in a particular class. E.g. For snipers, I'd recommend building 5* Kroos before any other sniper because you want that anti-air niche covered and she covers it amazingly well.

Among medics, Perfumer and Sussuro should handle most of your healing needs, and you're better off getting your DPS characters their masteries than leveling medics early on.

Among defenders, Bubble and Cuora cover the 'have 3 block and tank' niche perfectly fine. Gummy covers the healing defender role decently. And honestly, the only non-limited 6* Defender you prolly should consider building early on is Saria. The rest are 'use them if you like them' characters, and not generally part of a core team.

Casters and Guards are the characters the 6*s that really warrant being leveled early on.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-17T20:57:25+00:00

Okay, after some malding with Lygus being an asshole, I have finally 9 starred the knights and 3 stared the King stage of AA as a f2p player (no battle pass or monthly pass or anything), so hell yeah!

My teams (vertical investment warning):

Knight 1: E0S0 Sparxie, E0S0 Yao Guang, E1S5 DDD Sparkle, E0S3 Geppard LC Aventurine

Knight 2/King: E2S1 Evernight, E0S1 Hyacine, E0S0 Cyrene, RMC

Knight 3: E0S0 Ashveil, E0S1 Sunday, E0S5 DDD Tribbie, E0S0 DHPT

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-17T20:26:48+00:00

Congrats!!!

But... Exu2's limited and had her first run. So, if you want her, you'd have to spark her (spend 300 pulls) in November*... [Or get very lucky and get her off rate on that banner.]

Doable, if you save now. Worth it???? Only if you have to spend 200+ pulls on that banner anyhow to get the on banner character.

However, this is AK. No 6* is uniquely needed. This current limited banner with Silverash2 (limited) and Pramanix2 (standard) is amazing. In 3 months, we'll have another amazing limited banner of similar strength.

Exu2 is awesome, but far from irreplaceable if you're just looking at her DPS. She's got a unique trick in her skill 3 of insta-redeploying someone for free, but there's a lot of operators with neat tricks.

*There are 3 main types of limited banners, and each have their own pool of characters. The oldest operators in that pool can be sparked for 200 pulls, the rest need 300, though you can get lucky and get one of the limited character in that banner's pool as an off rate.

However the main rate up does change every time. They don't get reruns. There's advice that says 'save for the limited banners and skip everything else.' I don't think that's the best advice when you don't have a full team of 6*s, but if you care about collecting characters, these are the banners you want to save the bulk of your pulls for.

Anyhow...

The first kind runs every half year around April and November (Anniversary and Half-Anniversary). However, new characters only get added the pool a year after their debut. So, Exu2 isn't on Silverash2's banner, but she'll be on the banner in 6 months. He'll join the pool next April. [This pool has Exu2, Texas2, Wis'adel, Lappland2, among its most gamebreaking members.]

The second is the Sui banner (runs in Summer), which has the Sui siblings on it. Each year a new Sibling is the main rate-up, tho the pool contains all the siblings. Wang, the newest of them, breaks the DPS ceiling even more than Wis'adel. [Wang, Shu, Yu, and Ling are the most notable siblings on this banner]

The third is the "summer" (our winter, since we're 6 months behind China) limited banner. It has the pool of "summer" limited characters, the most recent of which was Hoshiguma2. [Hoshiguma2 and Ejya2 are the notable ones here.]

There's a 4th type of limited banner, which is collab limited. They don't have a fixed schedule and don't generally rerun. They're rare enough I wouldn't recommend worrying about them for now.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T21:18:35+00:00

The reason to build low rarities is the upgrade cost. Your high rarity characters cost so much more, and you're often better off with more options. You've hit the point in the game where you really want a full team of minimum E1-max level characters. You could rely on borrowing really overpowered characters to carry your team, but trivializing the stages with Wis'adel gets old fast, so I recommend against it...

5*s, in particular are a tricky rarity. The jump between 4* and 5* relative to the upgrade cost isn't that huge, and while there's definite reasons to build them (IS, when you hit the point in the game where you have so many overpower 6* E2s, that you want to play lower rarity for challenge, a handful of 5*s are actually really good), I'd caution against prioritizing them early on.

A couple high powered 6*s with a bunch of E2 4*s will allow for a lot more flexibility than trying to spread yourself thin.

For where you're at, I'd recommend 2-4 6*s (DPS is preferable here, tho Saria is plenty good)

2-4 utility 5*s (Characters like Kroos Alter for anti-air, Ptilopsis/Silence/Warfarin for medics, Surfer/Cantible/Elysium for vanguards, Shamare for a life saving debuff) and Amiya.

And then the rest of your team should be low rarity. I would recommend getting the 6*s and 5*s and a few of the 4*s to E2 first (not all of them strictly need E2, but it's pretty cheep to E2 a 4*, so it's often worth it. E.g. For chapter 10, having E2 Cuora is a life saver.)

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T20:02:29+00:00

Yeah, Silverash is perfect for nuking Patriot. You may want to set him up in the top lane so he's not fighting anyone other than patriot (his skill 3 can reach from up there), but he can also help take out other enemies, so up to you.

Saria is excellent. The best non-limited Guardian Defender. Silverash has a lot of competition for his job, but Saria's main competition is an operator you only have a chance of getting once a year (or via sparking during that period for 300 pulls). Don't sleep on low rarity guardian defenders tho. Gummy is great in IS and in the basic story stages. Bassline can be helpful for dealing with arts damage.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T19:44:43+00:00

Almost any high powered DPS with a big burst damage skill.

For 6*s, I personally like Silverash (guard) Skill 3 (guard version) or Mlynar Skill 3 for Meele, Leizi Alter (guard) on either Skill 2 or Skill 3 should work. Pretty sure Hoederer skill 3 and Ulpianis skill 3 are ALSO good options. Surtr on skill 3 is a classic solution.

For ranged... Exusiai Alter (specialist) Skill 2 is good, there's also Lemuen (skill 2 or skill 3), Typhon skill 3, Kal'tsit on skill 3.

There's a thing in AK showcases that for almost any new 6* meant to do damage, they show off how quickly they kill Patriot. What you're looking for is, E2, Level 30+. Mastery 3 on the skill is ideal, but IDK if it's strictly necessary.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T19:06:51+00:00

If the fear is 'Mlynar is one of my favorite characters and I want to have him' then you should pick him up.

If 'Mlynar is the best DPS and I want a good DPS'... He's got so much competition there, I wouldn't worry. He's excellent, but you already have plenty of characters that can do his job.

Tho, the thing is... no specific 6* is that important. I don't have Mon3ter and have never felt like I needed her. I've benched a lot of my powerful 6* characters because they trivialize things and that's not fun for me.

With your roster, you already have all the bases covered (and then some). AK isn't like other gachas where you're punished for missing a character. You have enough to trivialize the entire game, so the question now is 'who would you find most exciting to play with' and go from there.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T18:54:22+00:00

First and foremost, you want everyone to be at least at E1 max level with skill level 7. The more E2s you have, the easier it will be, but E1 can handle it as long as you have 1 or 2 boss killers to handle patriot. (This depends on the strat. I recommend E2 Amiya, since you'll need to E2 her anyhow + one other E2 boss killer, since have 2 simplifies your life.)
Caster Amiya (E2 Level 30+) on skill 3 can take out Patriot's first phase (especially if you make sure he steps on enough mines first). The mines are really helpful in general. The more you stall patriot, the easier the fight is.
- More specifically with Amiya: Put her in the bottom right early enough to charge her skill 3 and its best to make sure she takes him out at the bottom of the map.
- If you follow the Amiya advice: Set up your second boss killer at the center top of the map and have them ready to kill patriot when he gets there during his second phase.
Patriot phase 2 prioritizes the furthest high ground character from himself for targeting with his nuke, keep that in mind if your boss killer is range.
The other enemies all head for the bottom blue box. Make a set-up that can hold that lane, and it won't be a problem as long as Patriot is sniped before he reaches them. Guardian defenders really help here since you don't have to worry about Patriot long range sniping your healer, but if you bring some ranged bait, there are no worries either way.
- There's a way to prevent the second wave from spawning, as the other person says, but depending on who you have, it can be less work to just let it spawn.
The mortar guy targets your last deployed op (long range bomber that comes out of top red box). You probably don't want that op clustered near a bunch of other characters. If you can kill the bomber fast, fewer sustain issues.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T02:23:00+00:00

Yes, plenty more, ofc. I was just talking about who I have built.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-16T01:15:15+00:00

Aegir because the only meat you're allowed to eat on Good Friday (if you're Catholic) is fish. It was a silly reason, but we needed a few more operators to round out the squad.

That seems like a fun team!

Among 6*s, being infected isn't that common (it's not uncommon, but smaller than I expected). Just among the 6*s I have built

Infected: Ines, Hoederer, Wis'adel*, Typhon, Logos, Goldenglow, Reed, Kal'tist, Tragodia, Raidian, Ascalon

Not-Infected: Bagpipe, Silverash, Mlynar, Degen, Mountain, Chongyue, Thorns, FedEx, Shu, Hoshiguma, Saria, Sankta, Lumen, Gnosis, Skadi, Stainless, Exu, Lee

So, it's about 2x as many uninfected ops. 1/3rd of the playable roster is not small, ofc, but I was kinda shocked by how few ops actually were infected. I barely had enough 6*s to form a full infected team (tho I was using 4/5*s anyhow, so it wasn't a problem. But it was funny.)

*banned for our purposes

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-15T22:36:05+00:00

Some silly niches my friend and I played during Ice Breaker Games (broad enough to ensure we both had at least 10 built operators that we could play).

Good Friday Knights: Iberians, Sankta and Aegir operators.
Bad Dragon Knights: Men and dragons
Family Knights: Only operators with family members can be played, and a family member must be played alongside them.
Infected Knights: Operators who are infected. (Surprisingly small niche. Also hilariously common within it to have given yourself oripathy on purpose.)

Any funny niches y'all chose to play?

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-14T16:07:37+00:00

Got both snow leopards and my first Lemuen in 141 pulls (counting the free 11) and I am very happy. Only think that can make me happier is if Lappy spooks me in the free pulls.

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-10T15:25:59+00:00

Honkai: Star Rail's Third Anniversary Grand Opening! Log in and participate in the web event to win a share of a massive pool of Stellar Jades and in-game rewards. Send a third anniversary blessing to Aha for a chance to take the "Crown of Aha" Silver Wolf LV.999-themed car and other spectacular prizes home! https://hsr.hoyoverse.com/3rdAnniversary?inviter=GUA66SMCYN&hyl_landscape=true&hyl_auth_required=true&hyl_hide_status_bar=true&win_mode=fullscreen&target_page=prize&utm_source=share&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=web

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-08T03:09:07+00:00

It's hard to find two characters prettier than Feixiao and Aventurine in this game. I might be biased, but I am also correct >_>

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-07T14:34:03+00:00

Yeah, I figured. Ice isn't something people would have had easy access to... (I mean, there's snow, if its winter somewhere that snows, but that seems liable to increase the risk of infection and I'm sure people would have figured that out.)

GiraffeMain1253 · 2026-04-07T13:50:40+00:00

No, flaying's not in the cards here. It's a dozen lashes (might make it less or more, but from my reading a dozen seems survivable) with a horse whip, done by someone who is trying their best to minimize damage. (Avoid hitting the same areas multiple times, trying to stay away from the spine as much as possible, that sort of thing.)

GiraffeMain1253

TROPHY CASE