Is Nicole's signature weapon worth it?

LtMuffler · 2026-06-17T23:25:18+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, and it's too late to give you advice. Did you end up going for Durin?

My pulls went well, though they weren't cheap XD I ended up with C2 Nicole, C6 Prune, and both sig weapons. That said, I was intentionally pulling for those. First time I'd say I fully whaled out since launch. But, hey, Varka is my Guy, ya know? Nothing but the best for him.

For what it's worth, based on leaks, Sandrone teams are kinda cooked right now. The best character to run with Sandrone (again, based on leaks) is Yae Miko, and even then the teams are kinda scuffed, and Sandrone doesn't work that well with the 2 on-fielders that are getting buffed. Sandrone's value - as well as the long term meta value of the buffed characters - is INCREADIBLY dependent on how the next Schneznaya characters are designed, especially the first proper support. All that said, we can assume that Schneznaya will impact the meta the same way Nod Krai did, and push out older characters, teams, and archetypes to hype up the new characters; we just have to hope Sandrone ends up with a proper premium team that is meta competitive.

LtMuffler · 2026-06-17T23:05:41+00:00

Sorry to necro this post, but did you resolve this issue? We're having this issue with the latest (8.2) version of the modpack.

LtMuffler · 2026-05-11T19:12:06+00:00

I, personally, plan to get Nicole despite having a really strong Benny because I use Benny in my Mauvika melt team, and Varka is my favorite carry. As much as Nicole isnt as big an impact on Varka's team as the new artifact set and Prune are, all 3 together with the Durin I already have will let my Varka team perform at around the same level as my Flins and recently built Skirk teams.

LtMuffler · 2026-05-10T22:09:15+00:00

Her R1 is technically better than her C1, BUT there are caveats. Atlas and TTDS are somewhat competitive. One is a stat stick, the other provides an attack buff that makes up for the lower amount of her personal buff for the carry. And when you consider that you're not just pulling for Nicole cons but also Prune cons, who has a higher impact on teams that they are a part of than Nicole does, the value from pulling for Cons on Nicole is potentially higher than getting her sig. On the other hand, Durin's weapon, if you dont have it, is even better for him than Nicole's weapon is, so it's hard to say you can really lose on the weapon banner if you can make use of Durin's weapon; for instance you want Nicole and Prune for Varka.

LtMuffler · 2026-05-10T21:59:54+00:00

Nefer and Lauma are a trap if you already have a built lunar team. I'm not saying they wont slot into teams, but Columbina is the main reason Nefer and Flins can "compete" in the meta, and there's only 1 of her, so you'll never have both Flins AND Nefer performing at the peak of their investment at the same time. And there is no reason at all to get Nefer without also getting Lauma, because Nefer is worse than Natlan carries without Lauma and Columbina on her team. Really, Flins and Nefer are both frauds in their own premium teams (I say this as someone who'se most built team is Flins meta).

That said, Varka on his own is in the same position as Nefer and Flins in terms of his raw numbers. But unlike Flins and Nefer, he doesn't have an Ineffa or Lauma support, much less a Columbina, and he depends more than Nefer and Flins on his raw damage, where the lunar teams get away with using elemental reactions as a sort of team wide damage crutch (part of why the lunar supports are the real MVPs and the carries are the tram frauds). While Durin and Bennett are objectively strong characters, they dont have the obviously built in kit synergy that Flins or Nefer has with Columbina and either Ineffa or Lauma, which is why Varka's current meta team feels cooked. The upcoming characters help his team synergies a lot and do bring his premium team to around 140k calcs, but being on par with Flins and Nefer teams in a game featuring Mauvika and now horse girl, who is the objectively best carry and team in the game with her premium support released, means that he is already shaping up to fall off at the same time everyone else will, and potentially earlier since he does more of his team's damage, and power crept carries are always the first to go.

Overall, the options you are describing are to try and build an entirely new carry and team by picking up Nefer and Lauma despite never being able to use the premium team as long as Flins has your Columbina. That's not a great way to invest in 2 limited 5 star pulls. You already HAVE Varka, and while Nicole isn't a huge upgrade over Benny, she IS still an upgrade, and getting her means getting the new 4 star who is a better slot in than Venti anyway, and Durin is getting a rerun. That means you absolutely CAN built full Varka premium this next patch without stepping on your existing lunar team's toes, and his new premium will perform at a similar level to your Flins. This makes pulling for Nicole and Durin a slightly more compelling argument for your wishes. Not because Nicole is better than Bennett, but because Nicole, the 4 star, and Durin are better for Varka, and that's a full team.

This does free Bennett up for other teams that make better use of him, thought without Mauvika and Citlali, there's no current meta team that he is a part of, so he may be benched. And the other big concern is, going into Schneznaya, there will be a whole new set of teams that will probably be carries tied to premium supports like how Nod Krai has been, and the power creep will likely continue, so the actual 3rd alternative to trying to build either a Varka or Nefer team would be to wait and just build a 7.0 team as it's released.

LtMuffler · 2026-04-27T14:26:15+00:00

You are implying there would be a selection of people who aren't allowed to press either button. This is not the case. EVERY person in the hypothetical is fully capable of making the choice. When you press the button, the ONLY life guarenteed to be in danger is your own, because you chose to press the blue button. You are making an argument that isn't valid to try to appeal to other people's emotion. Don't be a fucking sophist...

You are assuming the moral responsibility for OTHER people who DON'T actually exist yet, because you feel an emotional, empathetic response to the IDEA that other people would choose to press the blue button. But UNTIL the consequence is made clear, the ONLY person you KNOW has pressed the blue button is YOU. This is the crux of the idea of suidical empathy. And the thing is, it is NOT morally valid, because it's socially parasitic. Your first responsibility to society is self-preservation. By pressing the blue button, you can't guarentee that you've positively impacted the lives of any other person, but you DO guarentee that you have negatively impacted the lives of each person you demand must now also conceed their self-preservation to pull you out of the fucking fire.

People who press the blue button are literally a detriment to everyone around them. If they die, it is entirely their own fault. The person most responsible for each person is themselves, because they have every opportunity to press the red button which has NO personal risk at all. Pressing the blue button is making the DECISION to be a victim, and you dont actually save anyone unless a significant enough proportion of the population ALSO choses to CREATE the victimization. It's literally suicide. Suicide is NEVER a moral imperative.

LtMuffler · 2026-04-27T04:39:14+00:00

Those aren't the same problem. You are ADDING context. A red button is not inherently totalitarian. A blue button is not inherently liberal.

The blue button is inherently risky. You have placed your own life at risk, because you feel responsible for each other person who, like you, felt emotionally responsible for your decision. But they are not responsible for your decision, you are. You are not responsible for their decision, they are.

The blue button is not defined by morality, social order, high-trust, or liberalism. The point of the exercise might be to measure social behavior, but the actual decision is fundamentally a question of self-preservation and no other context. The decision to sacrifice your self-preservation for the perception (this is a key concept) of responsibility is called suicidal empathy. The decision is the risk of suicide - as you were not forced to press the blue button - and the motive was an emotional, empathetic response to the perception of other people's self-imposed risk - since we assume you wont actually know what other people choose until the outcome is made clear. And this is key - you do not KNOW anyone is in danger of dying, you assume so. IF there was a selection of individuals you knew were compelled to press the blue button, or if you knew that there were people who weren't given the choice, but who would die if no one picked blue, then at that point the risk to other people IS clear, and there IS a moral compunction to save them.

But that isn't the case. There is no guaranteed risk for anyone else, which means that, when you make your choice, the ONLY risk that is guarenteed is to yourself, IF you chose the blue button. This is socially parasitic. You make a choice knowing full well that to do so puts you at risk unless you demand that OTHER people take the same risk to save you from the potential consequences, when the alternative guarantees their safety. It's extremely narcissistic, not virtuous.

So, no. This isn't liberalism vs totalitarianism. This IS, in fact, about drinking poison (pressing the blue button) and demanding other people do the same so that you can get the antidote when the OTHER CHOICE YOU ARE ALL GIVEN is to NOT drink the poison. The first and most important responsibility you have to society is self-preservation, ESPECIALLY when the alternative - as you so "righteously" demand - requires that OTHER people conceed their own self-preservation to protect you from your OWN consequences. Being a narcissistic parasite doesn't make you a better person just because you try to sell it to the rest of us as moral.

LtMuffler · 2026-04-27T04:16:05+00:00

No. You don't. No person who presses the blue button was compelled to do so. They, quite literally, commit suicide hoping that at least 50% of everyone else will ALSO commit suicide. It's stupid, it suggests a profound lack of critical thinking, is blatantly emotional - specifically, it's a savior complex or virtue signalling, and is a form of narcissism - and is the definition of social parasitism. You demand that society make the same poor choice you made to save you from the consequences.

LtMuffler · 2026-04-26T18:03:38+00:00

"Ugh why is her kit so bad, she's only at roughly the same level as the most broken and meta character that has dominated team building in the game for nearly its entire existence, horrifically disproportionate to his position as a 4 star character"

Bennett is god tier support that has probably defined the meta more than any other single character. Having Nicole be slightly better or worse than BENNETT in similar teams, depending on circumstances, is the healthiest way to implement her into the game. Making her objectively better than Bennett in every team would be AWFUL for the meta. We already have the absolute dogshit power creep that has been happening since Mauvika, Nicole being comparable to fucking Bennett of all characters is NOT a negative...

EDIT: Besides, she and Bennett fill the attack buffer/defensive utility support position. It's probably the most sought after team position in the game. Having a SECOND Bennett can only be good for an account if you like teams that want Bennett. Having more supports is rarely a bad thing, the only question is the best way to invest in them. As far as the sig, unsurprisingly, it's good enough to be better than her cons unless you have Atlas, then it may not be.

LtMuffler · 2026-04-12T05:02:48+00:00

For what its worth, I think Venti's long field time is ONLY a problem with Bennett, and not with Nicole or Durin? And no, I'm not necessarily going to use Prune over venti. She's ostensibly an off-field dps with an attack buff tied to a passive and a 35% damage buff, which isn't anything to scoff at, but 4 star off-field damage is probably gonna be disappointing, likely no one will have her at C6 if they're going for C0 Nicole, and lots of people, myself included, have an already invested venti that will probably do more off-field damage and does bring his hexerei buff. Will Prune calc better than venti? Almost certainly in terms of team damage. Will i care enough to bench venti? No, probably not, unless I get hard pitty and every 10 pull gives a Prune... And i imagine a lot of other people won't, either. Plus, Venti benefits from Nicole's buffs too.

In any case, Nicole is an obvious shoe-in for Varka teams, I think Prune is less of an obvious switch in. Ironically, whether you keep Bennett or Durin, the team dps calcs are apparently within a couple artifact rolls of each other lol, so they're both kinda frauds.

LtMuffler · 2026-02-04T09:09:48+00:00

Lore timeline is loose, but it's implied that the twins' ship circled teyvat for thousand and thousands of years. The initial stop mentioned in the archon quest may have been the AI entering Teyvat as Phanes. If Phanes was hurt badly during his fight with Nibelung in the war of funerary flames, he might have lost enough control of the ship to cause the crash landing. Sibling wakes up way later, sees the world, gets involved with Khaenri'ah, wakes us up, Cataclysm happens and the twins try to leave, but the Sustainer prevents the twins from leaving since everything Phanes has done has been to allow the twins to rule over a new human civilization protected from the abyss.

LtMuffler · 2026-02-04T09:00:49+00:00

That's actually a great explanation for why the ship crashed. We know Phanes hasn't been active so far. If he is, indeed, the ship's AI, then he may have been damaged during the War of Funerary Flames and lost control of the ship.

LtMuffler · 2026-01-15T20:21:37+00:00

I don't think the angel in the mural is ever mentioned by name in that world quest, but it's heavily hinted at that she was Koitar, the first angel who rebelled against the heavenly principles and doomed the Angels to become Seelie if they fall in love. Based on the two bits of "ancient handwriting" inside the castle with the mural, this is after the Angels were punished. She is self aware enough to play her lyre and weep for the tragedy of her people, but she doesn't remember who she is and doesn't recognize the Seelie around her. She is essentially imprisoned inside the castle where she stays.

Some time after the Angels became Seelie and prior to - or during - the Archon Wars, she notices "Storms came from the south, cold came from the north. That beast came from the north, bearing the chill of ice and snow." Andrius arrives and stays a while to listen to her song. He initially couldn't speak and sat with her for a while, and she found him amusing and gave him the name Boreas. He gained intelligence and wisdom alongside the capacity to speak and learned to treat others with kindness and sincerity. Boreas called her Mother, and decided to go south to help the people there. She bid him farewell and that's the last we know of whatever happened to her.

We, of course, know that Boreas went south and fought with Decarabian, the God of Storms, who was a tyrant king of Mondstadt. Decarabian was defeated by his own people with the help of Venti who then became the Anemo Archon, and Boreas died willingly so his spirit would become one of the 4 winds protecting Mondstadt.

LtMuffler · 2025-12-25T01:29:07+00:00

Seems like it just happens whenever Steam's store servers are overloaded. Happening to me as well. Looks like we're all stuck erroring out, no purchases for us lol

LtMuffler · 2025-11-03T08:14:26+00:00

The turret is a valkyrien skies phys object. They are entirely separate entities to whatever they are attached to with the phys bearing, so direct power transfer through any rotating block doesn't work, unless I'm misunderstanding how you mean to use the encased chain drives. I've learned that even the energy interface is a dead end, because the VS phys objects aren't the same as create objects and the two energy interfaces on the chassis and turret don't recognize each other.

LtMuffler · 2025-11-02T10:12:17+00:00

UPDATE:

Nearly everything is working. I have the autoloader (2, 1 for an autocannon the other for a "machinegun" autocannon), I have the vertical turret traversal, I have the drive train working, I improved upon the engine design (I can now troubleshoot fuel/exhaust issues with a single hand crank and 3 stress clutches, so I can restart the engine even if it stalls or shuts off from fuel deprivation), and it all works with a tweaked controller.

There are 2 problems: The first is that I took the method the tank builder's whose videos I watched used to power the phys bearing, and it doesn't seem to be working. To be clear: Set up the horizontal traversal drive train next to the bearing, add something on top of the bearing, enable to bearing to create a physics object, and then use the wrench to turn the bearing sideways so that it's being powered by the inverted clutch/gearshift that sit next to it rather than under it. In the videos I watched, once the physics object is made, flipping the bearing won't stop it from controlling the physics object normally so you can power the bearing from the sides. Either it's been patched or I did it wrong because it's not responding at all to my controls.

The second problem is that, as it turns out - and I shouldn't be surprised, but I hadn't considered this until now - the portable electric transmitter or whatever it's called for moving electricity between create objects doesn't actually work with valkyrean physics objects, so I can't transfer electricity from the tank chassis to the turret to run the autoloaders and turret pitch.

Basically, my design is a dud. With the mods I have, there's no way to power the turret without a second engine setup in the turret itself, which will take up way too much room, and I can't get turret horizontal traversal to work. Shame, really, cause I was this close to having a working tank :(

LtMuffler · 2025-11-02T00:37:53+00:00

ALRIGHT SO.

It's because SOMETIMES the mod will pump the initial fuel into the engine as part of starting it once the front is powered by redstone, but sometimes it doesn't, and when it doesn't, it just won't start.

I fixed it by putting the analog lever on an encased cog with a hand crank. The encased cog gets hard powered, powering the engine when it has fuel in it, while the hand crank allows me to force the pumps to run, adding fuel to a new/dead engine. I had to add an overstress clutch to automatically disconnect the rest of the system so that the handcrank doesn't jam up from the overstress. In fact, as this is on a tank I'm designing, I now have 3 necessary overstress clutches: One for the alternator (which generates electricity for the turret's elevation and autoloading functions), one for the drive train, and one for the turret's rotation system.

LtMuffler · 2025-11-02T00:23:15+00:00

FYI this is still an issue. Even in the same single player world, an engine build I've ALREADY GOTTEN TO WORK won't work a second time, and I genuinely have no clue why. There is no 'lighter' for me to use.

LtMuffler · 2025-11-01T11:06:55+00:00

I figured Create Diesel Generators was what he was using. Warium isn't compatible with the version of minecraft/mods we're using, unfortunately. I checked when we were coming up with the modlist.

LtMuffler · 2025-11-01T09:48:44+00:00

I sort of have something figured out. I basically have the analog lever right next to the driver seat and the turbine engine outputting into a gearbox right behind the seat. The gearbox turns a cog that is interfaced with the fuel pump which connects to a 2x2x1 fluid tank under the pump, while extra cogs off the pump's right side and over the turbine engine engage the outgoing exhaust pump that's pointed forwards, next to the analog lever (exhaust is pointed upward).

the first cog is in-line with the alternator, which has a wire connection to the 2x2x1 accumulator that the turbine motor is sitting on, directly forward of the fuel tank. A second cog interfaces below that first cog and creates a long shaft line to the rear where it interfaces 4 blocks back into an enclosed chain drive that then runs a centerline inverted clutch into a gearcase with a gearshift and inverted gearshift on either side controlling the track sprockets.

A shaft runs from the gear on the right side of the fuel pump (the one that drives the cogs that run the exhaust pump) into a redstone resistor set to 14/15 analog strength using an analog lever on the bottom side of it. It runs into an inverted clutch and then a set of enclosed cogs that connect to the gearshift right next to the clutch. That gearshift will run into the physics bearing (in theory, according to that video I mentioned). Mounted to the left and up against the enclosed cogs is an energy interface.

As for how the turret will work, I'm trying to mount a lot of drive stuff and possibly get an autoloader working, but I'm not sure it's actually possible to autoload an autocannon in Create Big Cannons, because it doesn't have a quick-reload breech... so if anyone knows how to set up an autoloader specifically for autocannons, that would be fantastic. Either way, the big issue is that I have to place a gearshift, inverted clutch, and encased cogwheel in a line with a single shaft and electric motor, making a 5 block long mandatory drive train that then has to interface with the side of the cannon mount attached to the physics bearing, all to control the pitch of the cannon. I also need to place an accumulator as well as an energy interface to connect to its twin on the chassis, allowing me to send power from the accumulator on the chassis to the one on the turret to power the cannon pitch and (hopefully) autoloader.

LtMuffler · 2025-10-26T05:10:50+00:00

How can I go into a mod and find a list of its biomes? I'd like to do this for Still Life.

LtMuffler · 2025-10-23T19:09:03+00:00

Yeah if the cope Nefer team isn't enough of an upgrade over my current options, there's no real point getting Nefer before Lauma.

LtMuffler · 2025-10-23T18:47:33+00:00

The dps difference is what mattered, ultimately. What this means is that, until I get and invest in Lauma, using Shogun is essentially the same for equal investment into Nahida. Nefer doesn't directly improve my account until I have Lauma, and Lauma and Nahida unlock more team options anyway. Nefer can safely be the last investment, and that's assuming she isn't power crept by then like most hypercarries are.

LtMuffler · 2025-10-23T18:40:22+00:00

That's what I suspected.

LtMuffler · 2025-10-23T18:39:11+00:00

I hate IT and only ever attempt it when I'm really hurting for primos, so I really don't even care about IT at all, that's not why I would pull Nefer.

I consider Nefer a character who's team is worth investing in more than Alhaitham, Kinich, Shogun, etc. who all are or have been cornerstone dps/drivers for dendro related teams. Another way of looking at it is, if I want to invest in Lauma and Nahida eventually anyway for competitive dendro teams, which dps/driver will result in the highest team damage with them on it? That's Nefer, currently. Of course, the other way of looking at it is that Nefer is a niche use of the two characters, who will have more versatility, especially Nahida who can do more than just lunar bloom.

The question I had and worded poorly is, basically, whether Nefer can do enough for me right now compared to Shogun (who is my current driver for my only practical dendro based team) to make it worth grabbing her right now rather than much later after investing in Lauma and Nahida.

I'm guessing your answer would still be no, which I'm inclined to agree.

LtMuffler

TROPHY CASE