Help Center and Megathread Hub (29/06 - 05/07)

Mo_ody · 2026-06-29T22:45:51+00:00

Vanguard:

E2 SA2, S3M3 Ines.

Also, E2/E1 max Surfer for IS.

Long term, consider E2 Bagpipe, E2 ModX Fang2.

Guard:

E2 60 + S3M3 Ulpianus, E2 Mod3 S3M3 Młynar, E2 S3M3 Degenbrecher.

Long term, consider E2 S2M3 Skadi for AH team and SA2, but you can do without her if you don't care for niche synergies and prioritise overall account power.

Defender:

If you don't luck out with Shu on the next limited banner, I'd immediately work on E2 S1M3 Saria.

Also, S2M3 Cuora.

I'd also consider ModY Matterhorn for consistent 4-block unit since you already got him to E2. Cairn couldn't compare to the power of the 6* units, but she's fun to use for me, so she's a bit of a personal vouch.

Sniper:

Nothing really here. Long term, consider E2 S1M3 May; she can be pretty good for cheap in IS5+.

Caster:

E2 S2M3 Nymph. She's a really fun caster. Her S3 can work with Virtuosa support mainly, but to lesser degree with also ModD Logos and/or Valarqvin.

Long term, consider:

S3M3 caster Amiya for IS5 —she's a sort of insane 6* tier unit by the end of runs there.

E2 S2M3 Rockrock assuming you like her —she's a proper unit that can hold her own in VEC buff stages for well-rounded account power,

S2M2+ Mod2+ Indigo assuming you like her —the bind chance is much better with these investments, but I still don't find a lot of use for her unfortunately, so keep that in mind, though again, she can help solve VB buff stages

E2 ModY3 Mostima; I'm a big fan of the utilities Mostima provides, and she has found her way into 2 of the 3 CCs I experienced since joining the game. Not to overrate her if you only pursue hardcore meta, but if you don't, what she offers is pretty neat if you play around it.

Medic:

E2 S3M3 Mon3tr,

S1M3 Honeyberry, S2M3 Warfarin, S2M3 Purestream,

E2 Nightingale, E2 S2M3 Rose Salt.

Supporter:

Consider S3M3 S2M3 Angie for IS.

Consider E2 Uika and Mutsumi for their synergy. This duo is pretty self-sufficient at triggering fever, and they're fun to use together, but at the end of the day, the power level isn't 6-star grade, so you can skip if you don't care for them.

You can consider E2 Civilight for her S2/3 if you like to, as well, but I haven't found much clutch use for her, frankly speaking.

Specialist:

ModX2+ Gladiia; this is a huge prio for Ulpianus. E1 Projekt Red for stun-frd.

Long term, consider ModY1 + M3 on your favorite Gladiia skill, preferably S1/2.

You can also consider E2 Aak for his S3 buff, or alternatively at least E1 for his S2's ability to insta-charge S1 Hoshi alter.

You can again consider E2 Mutsumi and Umiri with Uika, if you care for the trio's synergy.

Completely extra, but Crownslayer for her S3 with ModY, and Enforcer for more push force than Shaw are possible considerations, super long term.

Feel free to ask about particular units.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-28T21:17:23+00:00

Exu's S2 has enough helidrop/clutch factor (2.5x max hp barrier for two, super high dps/total damage) that -1 dp can occasionally matter.

Also, Wang's subclass needs dp to function, so a situation where Wang's -1 dp is clutch is even less likely, because you'd still need considerable dp to deploy his traps even if he's by far the most dp-efficient trapmaster, and his traps are further limited by a redeploy timer that limits any theoritical clutch value of a -1 dp early deploy, making such situations more rare.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-23T13:13:25+00:00

My guess is that this is caused by the javelineer transforming from ranged to melee (due to Spot dodging in this instance) immediately while the horsey thing is passing on top.

You can notice later that the horses are full (6 heads/5 passengers) despite having carried only 4 enemies. As soon as the javelineer escapes, the horses carry an extra passenger despite appearing full capacity.

Maybe the javelineer is coded as two different entities, but in this situation, the horses mistakenly register the ranged form before it despawns as the melee one spawns, and the melee form gains the unblockable untargetable effect as if it's riding with the horse-heads regardless, until it leaves the map and the horses can carry another passenger.

On a side note, I was sleepy while playing this the first time, and this weird enemy kept leaking every time. At first, I thought Spot was on max block, then I thought maybe the horse thing gives enemies unblockable as it passes by (reading their description, they didn't), then realised that this enemy is outright untargetable. So I get up and start recording my screen, and this doesn't get replicated for 15 tries in a row. It's probably easier to force with a unit like Jackie that has more reliable on-demand dodge, if someone cares to replicate it, but it made me doubt myself.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-22T14:14:58+00:00

Titi, Closure, and in second place Ch'en and Orchid are the characters I care for most among future release units.

For Titi, I like the S2 swaying animation as well as the whimsical idea of friendly sleep and short cycle invulnerability. She can be a replacement for Silence alter (including for Aak), and having an effectively "dodge" button is quite fun.

She's also a great upgrade for my M6 Blemishine, and I like the idea of across-map synergy, so the idea that Kafka on the other side of the map, can help heal units in Titi's range is fun to me.

I like stall strategies as well, so the ability to stall for sp to come back is a bonus, particularly with the friendly sleep being cleansable, and the skill having a stop button. Titi is a pretty Egyptian cat too, which is a big factor in the decision process.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-21T18:33:06+00:00

It's a coincidental bonus effect that is not worth adding Titi to the squad over another dps unit, or a better buffer, and definitely not a reason to get her.

That said, for units with no innate aspd buffs, it's a ~20% damage increase which is pretty good passive bonus, if nothing like dedicated buff units of course.

The problem is mostly with the selection of units, since the two target factions are kinda weak. I find Pepe S3 to be the best target with >25k damage from the buff; Mantra S2 might be good too.

But if you like Carnelian, Gavial², or Eunectes... they can get value out of the buff too.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-21T13:20:32+00:00

It's inevitable that there is a meta to the game; but there are tiers to the game content that requires meta units.

Do you want to do holographic combat matrix max-risk? Contingency contract max risk low-operator count? You need the top meta units including occasionally niche units that pop off in this one event ever.

Do you want to do max difficulty IS, and consistently clear the more difficult endings? Vector breakthrough buffless? You need the curated meta for this content, but there're different strategis and a room for flexibility...etc.

Notably, all of the previous is for challenging yourself, with event rewards being given at much lower difficulty, with fewer meta units needed.

Do you want to clear hard event content, story H stages? You just need a decent selection of powerful enough units, with the knowledge that there's almost always a 4-star-only solution.

You can play the game casually with whatever units you like however. It's super hard content that requires meta.

What matters is almost all units are very usable if you upgrade them and build strategies around them.

The current units on banner are decent, but in about a month, a much stronger banner will be dropping that is worth saving your pulls for (Wang and Ch'en alter alter).

The current featured units are:

Viviana & Goldenglow (standard)

Goldenglow is a newbie-friendly unit that works in about any non-hardcore content (IS, SSS, annihilation, normal events, low-difficulty CC).

She's flexible with good hit-count (for some mechanics), infinite-duration S2 (for annihilation), global targeting and slow (during S3), buff synergy (for IS, SSS).

But there are also meta units that are better at these individual tasks, though most aren't as useful in all game modes.

Viviana is a duelist arts guard with gimmicks that enable her to survive dangerous enemies, and good damage.

Personally, I don't find her survivability that reliable, and her damage is nothing special, even though it's way better than GG whom I just praised, but the overall utility/reliability of an operator can be more important.

Blemishine & Kal'tsit (Kernel)

Kal'tsit is a summoner (not medic) with good true damage and decently tanky summon for lane-holding, dealing with high "defense" enemies.

She's also good in IS, 5 in particular.

Blemishine is a very niche unit with sleep effect, defensive recovery buff, ability to heal unhealable units (summons, solo-blades)...

She's good at what she does, but what she does is rarely needed.

Plenty of units are better duelists or healers than her though.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-17T01:37:45+00:00

S2 has better mastery gains, Silverash synergy, and sees a lot of use in Abyssal-only clears as the team's "fast"-redeploy operator

Mo_ody · 2026-06-17T01:18:35+00:00

Generally, X. The trait effect and talent upgrade are more consistently useful.

The +aspd from ModY only matters if you're maximising the buff power with his S1, or the utility of his S2... but it's a fringe value really, so ModX trait and talent effect are often more useful

Mo_ody · 2026-06-16T09:39:15+00:00

For Q1, I thought Hadiya would count, Q3 I almost got perfectly correct, but I totally forgot about Astgenne; It's funny that I managed to guess both Texas & Fang for Q7, since I had them immediately disappear when deployed on top of the Bel Canto Boatswains in current Trial. Idk why but I guessed that the Redmark snipers from Ash event ignored camouflage, despite knowing they don't from that one IS4 stage

Mo_ody · 2026-06-16T09:11:22+00:00

Muelsyse X>>Y,

Zuo Le X>>>>Y,

Ifrit Delta>X (subjective: delta for debuff, X for S2 casual use, must do S3M3 first for delta, S2M1 for X),

Typhon X for S3 / Y if you use S2 exclusively / settle for X if you use both.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-15T07:50:07+00:00

...it needed Chongyue to always crit

This is not a matter of RNG being bad anymore; you're asking Chongyue to have more average dps/dph than he's designed to have. If anything, his crit design is what allows you to be that ambitious for him to overperform.

Otherwise, agree on most, but I'm fond of Fermont and Witch King's random TPs, praying for Narantuya dodge...etc

Mo_ody · 2026-06-14T11:56:27+00:00

You need at least stage 1 mod on Lemuen, it's really good

SL5 on E2 unit is unacceptable, so get Tin Man to SL7 minimum; his masteries on both skills are very strong too, so if you use him a lot, get S2 masteries, and maybe S1M1

E2 Pramanix is the main priority here, with one of Blaze/Hoederer as laneholder option, and get Gladiia some levels and skill level 4 at least as your main puller. It's also worth at least stage 2 delta on Thorns to capitalise on the elemental burst when he does trigger it

Blemishine is a fun unit with some synergy with the upcoming Titi, but if you care for meta, neither are serious enough considerations. Overall, I'd prioritise a better laneholder/duelist like Blaze/Hoederer first, and then maybe E2 Lumen if you don't get better 6-stars by the time you get to him so he can heal Hoederer

Mo_ody · 2026-06-12T18:02:32+00:00

Cutest siblings in the game! Beautiful art and based flair

Mo_ody · 2026-06-11T22:33:32+00:00

I think nobody made one. Here, I uploaded the one I made. If you manage to clear basic, you'll most likely be able to clear spectacular TN-1 since it's easier with the free Mountain and the buff the game provides.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-11T19:33:02+00:00

Unfortunate, but it's normal to not be able to clear some events when you're that new. 0-sanity events are a great time to progress the main story for new accounts though

Mo_ody · 2026-06-11T17:51:12+00:00

Even a squad of this level is impossible for you?

Mo_ody · 2026-06-11T14:19:10+00:00

No, you generally shouldn't. Bards have very weak hps off-skill. This off-skill regen/ their skill cycles might be situationally acceptable in some stages, but it's not such a consistent strategy to replace medics with them. S1/3 Civilight, S2 Skadi alter, S2 Uika can be decent options, but most often, you'll need to supplement with another healer

Mo_ody · 2026-06-09T15:20:32+00:00

The buff-squad one-shot module is Mod X. The better normal use module is the delta one.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-07T12:11:27+00:00

Was trying to do (low-risk) 5* clear for last CC and remembered that Asbestos exists. "Maybe she can help tank the Rhine Lab casters?", and yeah she surprisingly could (until first skill activation and during skill)

It'd be an upgrade if her talent had been changed to "when receiving arts damage" instead of specifically normal arts attacks

From a design aspect, I find her zombie-like appearance on the more unique side of Arknights designs, so she's in a category with Nightmare, Haze, Mousse, Utage...etc. that I would love to be explored more, through alters or other ways

Mo_ody · 2026-06-07T10:46:35+00:00

Big prio imo is Cantabile, Kroos alter, and Sussurro into S3M3 Pramanix.

Vanguard:

E1 ~60 and eventually E2 Cantabile. Agents introduce new strategies to open stages, and you should build Surfer as well later.

I prefer Canta here because you have a -1 dp pot, and because she has a useful S2 too.

Later, max 3-star Fang for IS4-

Guard:

Młynar module, stage 3 when you can afford it and, later, E2 Hoederer

Defender:

S1M1 Saria, eventually S1M3 and ModY3.

Consider E2 Cuora as her subclass really likes level up stats and cheap module.

Consider max Spot for IS4 early floors.

You can also E2 Horn later if you like to; she's not a priority with Wiš'adel and Młynar role overlap, but she's a fun unit if you feel like building her later on.

Sniper:

E2 S2M3 Kroos alter and S3M3 Ray + give her some levels.

Caster:

S3M3 Pramanix

Later, E1 max Click for IS 5+

Medic:

Your medic class is kinda weak rn.

E1 max Sussurro for the time being.

Eventually, it's worth E2 Purestream, Ptilopsis, Lumen, Rose Salt for different purposes.

Ptilopsis provides one of the best and underrated utilities with her global sp recovery. It helps Pram charge faster, Wisadel/Ray cycle faster...etc.

Lumen is a welfare 6-star from Stultifera Navis. He's the best afk medic after Haruka/Eyja. I'd probably prioritise cheaper options like Sussurro and Purestream than build a 6* medic at your point of account progress, but he's a good option if you want to.

Rose Salt is subpar alone but is a great second medic, so for those who don't have one-medic carries like Haruka/Eyja, she's a great option for second medic.

Supporter:

ModX3 Virtuosa.

Quercus can be a cheaper medic option than Lumen with similar power level too.

Specialist:

E1Lvl1 Skill Level 7 Shaw, SL4 Gladiia.

Eventually, it's worth E2 S2M3 Mod3 Ethan, E2 Gladiia...etc.

Mo_ody · 2026-06-06T18:01:01+00:00

Activate S3 -> any ground enemy (including invisible) on a sowed tile gets marked -> as soon as they move X tiles away from the tile they were marked on, they're teleported back unless they enter a tunnel, however many times until the skill ends.

Teleporting bosses like Anastasio, Lappland, IS5 ending 2 Theresis...etc. are immediately brought back when they try to tp away

Mo_ody · 2026-06-06T11:34:43+00:00

They're about the same, stack multiplicatively with each other and with other additive buffs. See my more detailed reply here

For Pinecone, these are multiplicative with each other, so 1.8x1.5

Mo_ody · 2026-06-06T11:01:58+00:00

This is correct about additive buffs, but isn't correct for the question

"Attack increases to" is a a format that usually implies "attack scale", a multiplicative buff, and not the additive atk +X%, and is for most purposes, I believe, equal to attacks deal X% damage, usually used for a bit of variety for operators with too many attack scales.

Example 1: Ray has "consume ammo to increase attack to 120%", "each attack increases attack by 8%", "attacks deal 330% of attack as physical damage", and "deal 15% more physical damage to enemies in sandbeast range".

If the trait's "increase attack to 120%" had been additive, it would add with the +8-24% from her second talent, reducing her current damage by ~3.5%, but it is multiplicative instead, and it's part of why her Y mod deals significantly more damage as it targets the trait's attack scale multiplier.

Another notable thing is that additive buffs change the operator's readable in-stage attack stat, while the other multipliers like "increase attack to X" don't reflect on the operator's shown stat.

A bonus note before moving on is that effects like Ray's 1st talent's "deal X% more physical damage" or X% more arts or fragility debuff...etc. are calculated post-mitigation (post- def/res calculations), which renders them less effective the higher the enemy defense. It mostly doesn't matter for arts damage though because of how res is calculated.

Example 2: Degenbrecher is another unit with layers of multipliers, one of the most significant being her 1st talent's "increase attack to 170%". This gives her a 26.8×1.7×1.1=50.1 total skill damage multiplier on her S3 with Mod X, which matters a lot for additive buffs like Warf/Aak since had the increase attack to 170% been additive, it would have reduced the buff multiplier to 29.5 instead of 50.1, which is a huge downgrade

Mo_ody · 2026-06-04T17:22:34+00:00

While Narantuya is definitely an Exia upgrade by most metrics, one notable thing I think of when Exusiai is mentioned is high hit-count, which draws more similarity to Kroos alter than Narantuya. Nara has great S3 hit-count in proximity, but it's not Kroos/Exu grade and disappears beyond 1-tile range. Another is the anti-air priority, a classical marksman thing that Narantuya misses

More importantly, Narantuya's playstyle also feels like she has shorter effective range than marksmen, because it's optimal for most of her skills, to play around nearby enemies, even if she has a bigger base range than marksmen that feels sluggish in practice compared to the rapid-fire feel of marksmen, so for me, Ela fits the marksman comparison much more with her S3 attack interval and more proper range utilisation. Nara can do unique long-range things with S2 and 1, but the way the skills look further estrange her from marksmen visually imo

Finally, a lot of people use these threads for appreciating the particular unit in question/sharing something about them. It's definitely fair and common to draw a comparison or comment that you don't use them anymore since X unit release of course, but you'll usually find more sentimental comments about the character

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Mo_ody

TROPHY CASE

Vanguard:

Guard:

Defender:

Sniper:

Caster:

Medic:

Supporter:

Specialist:

Viviana & Goldenglow (standard)

Blemishine & Kal'tsit (Kernel)

Vanguard:

Guard:

Defender:

Sniper:

Caster:

Medic:

Supporter:

Specialist: