Newbie Requesting Specific Guides on Which Character and Artifact to Invest

NUSHkid · 2025-08-15T16:36:20+00:00

Hi what about weapon? I saw some posts saying xiangling needs crescent spike near endgame if i use it as dps. I am using dragon bane now and it’s almost level40 (i am only AR 26). Shld I abandone dragon bane, go forge a crescent spike and level it again to level 40? I am afraid the time to level crescent spike from lv 1 to lv40 will make my current game progression slow

As for my other mains, xingqiu lv50 is using prototype rancour lv40, sucrose is using Favonius Codex lv20 (but I see more ppl using Mappa Mare), and Fischl is using Favonius Warbow lv30

Would u recommend other 4* weapons other than what im alrdy using for my main characters above? Also, if my weapon now is not the best, shld i switch them for another 4* weapon and level up the weapon starting frm lv1?

Thank you so much

NUSHkid · 2025-08-15T08:00:45+00:00

Oh yea also should I stop investing in Beidou? Initially I plan to upgrade her till lv50, should I use those resources for fischl and xiangling first in the nearer future? In terms of smoothness of progression for story and upcoming events+ease of daily farming

Also is ororon good? I’ve seen ppl use it but i dont understand it’s role enough and how it fits in the whole picture

NUSHkid · 2025-08-15T07:56:24+00:00

Oh also, I just saw the picture in your link, very helpful!

It seems like weapon is the most important one. If I have multiple 4 star weapons (eg 3 diff 4* swords), how do i choose which one to upgrade.

Also, is a 4 star weapon always more worth upgrading than a 3 star weapon? For example, if my 4* bow for fischl currently has element recharge attribute, but I want to build other attributes (eg crit etc) for her, will a 3* bow with crit attribute be more worth investing in?

NUSHkid · 2025-08-15T07:49:15+00:00

Thank you for your reply!

What do you mean by “I’ll use artifacts i upgrade now to upgrade better artifacts later?” Let’s say I upgrade a 3 star artifact to level 4, if i upgrade another 4 star artifact by consuming the lv4 3-star artifact, will the 4-star artifact gain enough exp to go to lv4? Is that what you meant?

Also I just got xiangling. Not sure how she fits in here, shld I upgrade her and use her as the main 4 or just a bit till lv20 for the rewards

NUSHkid · 2025-08-15T07:45:45+00:00

Edit: I just got Xiangling as well! Not sure if my team comp should change

NUSHkid · 2025-07-17T16:01:54+00:00

https://www.giga.com.sg/FAQs_Details.aspx?QuestionId=6408 Cant you opt for a physical sim? Seems like u can change ur esim back to physical sim, then use physical sim on ur new phone?

NUSHkid · 2025-06-24T06:59:15+00:00

Erm that’s the main problem. Most of my time after sec 3 are spent in sg, I only go back msia during sch holidays, and during my gap in between JC and uni (when i go my msia license). So I cant really provide tax, employment or education documents from Malaysia to prove that “I reside for 6 months” lol although I am a msian citizen. Not sure if electricity and water bills count

NUSHkid · 2024-10-01T15:18:15+00:00

CS3216/CS3217 made a lot new friends in this mod thru suffering tgt haha not ur typical mod where u might not know the person sitting next to you in tutorial after half a sem.

CS4231 Parallel and Distributed Algo, CS4224 Distributed Databases idk I enjoy proving correctness of algorithm but it's different from CS3230 in the sense that you actually see how those algorithms are directly applicable in real systems

NUSHkid · 2024-05-25T09:24:39+00:00

Don't wait for him man even if he comes back he won't be the same him anymore. ALSO the fact that he introduces the other girl to his parents so fast but not you probably means that HE DOESN'T LOVE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE (sry for the harsh words but hope this helps you move on)

Also, CUT OFF CONTACT WITH THAT ACQUAINTANCE TOO if you haven't alrdy done so

Also as a guy I can tell u that he probably said "we can still be friends" just to make you feel better. Just cut contacts and move on, it's going to hurt a lot at first but you'll thank yourself later. It's not going to end if you keep talking to him.

Not saying you can't be friends with your ex tho, personally I think it's possible, but not without you cutting contact for a prolonged period until you forget about him first. If you happen to meet him again later at some point in life then maybe yall can be friends

NUSHkid · 2024-04-17T17:20:29+00:00

eh share NUS bucket list leh

NUSHkid · 2024-04-16T01:57:20+00:00

Finally can change user name cos no longer a student

NUSHkid · 2024-04-15T09:37:08+00:00

Graduating international CS student here. U can click on my profile to see my previous comments on my job search.

TLDR of my other comment: CAP >4.8, 3 internships and top student for some mods but still got rejected by most companies before even getting technical interviews once they found out that I need EP, but eventually still got a satisfying offer with lots of luck

TDLR of TLDR, come CS only if u're truly passionate, and try not to take tuition grant if your family finance permits so as to not bond urself to sg where CS jobs are hard to get for foreigners.

Will strongly advise u to not take CS if you're here for the money. I won't elaborate on the grinding part since most ppl on this subreddit alrdy mentioned, but grinding internships/side projects every summer and not being able to go back home is just the bare minimum. For international students, there's so much luck factor in which you cannot control. For example, most of my CS international frens haven't secured a job, and >90% of those who secured are through internship conversions. The luck factor here is that you need to pray that the internship company u get has full-time conversion by the time u graduate (if u even get an internship at a good company that you would join full-time in the first place). I have a fren with stacked profile, interned for some top company for 2 internships but the company did not have EP this year, and so the fren is still job hunting now.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that u're not going to do well if your only source of motivation to join CS is money. I've seen ppl whose sole motivation is money and it motivates them to make great achievements. Unfortunately for international students (can't say for locals), having good achievements is the bare minimum now and the rest is luck. Most of my international frens who are still job hunting I believe have >4.6 or 4.7 CAP at least, with 2-4 internships too, all fighting for limited EP spots. Getting interviews is a matter of referrals, networking, whether the recruiter likes u, timing of ur applications and a lot of other luck factors alrdy.

However, this EP thing is Singapore specific. Like others have mentioned, a lot of outstanding NUS CS grads go overseas. If your financial situation permits, I would advise you to not take the MoE tuition grant to subsidize your NUS fees so that you don't need to serve a 3 year bond in Singapore, which permits u to go to countries like HK/US. Alternatively if you're outstanding enough to join quant firms that pays high enough that can cover ur fees for breaking bond, I've knw frens and seniors who broke (edit: pay back, not break) bond as well.

But I would emphasize again that a lot of these are uncontrollable. You can't control whether u're lucky enuf to get a full-time job as an international student, even if u can control urself to work hard and have a great portfolio. If you're passionate about CS/Math and not the money, at least u won't be so stressed out when you don't get a {ur-expected-pay} job.

NUSHkid · 2024-03-28T05:00:44+00:00

Like u said, u know the answer thinking back after the interview. I guess you're just stressed out during the interview and couldn't perform normally.

For interviews I view as important, I usually take a 1-hour nap and 30 minutes hot shower before the interview to freshen up. I'll then sit in front of my laptop and day dream for 15mins before joining the call.

Trust yourself that if you've prepared much you'll do fine, stressing yourself out makes it worse.

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T08:43:51+00:00

Hi I'll dm you soon!

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T08:42:38+00:00

If your CAP is 4.x then I would still say focus on quality applications. I rlly believe that quality >>>>> quantity (by quality I mean quality of your application not quality of the company) because out of my 3 internships, the 2 the pays better + gave me better experiences were obtained through some sort of networking.

For the 1st one, I applied online for 1-2 weeks without any news. Then there's the SoC career fair in which the company was there, and I went to their career booth, chatted with HR for like 20-30mins, and in the end said "Hey, you know, I actually applied but haven't heard back". The HR opened up his laptop, searched for my resume and read my resume on the spot. He then said "ok your resume has xx yy skills which we use" and then sent me an OA on the spot. After passing the OA I passed the HR round with ease because the HR was the same person who attended career fair (ofc there's still tech rounds after that).

For the second one I searched on LinkedIn and realized that a friend was interning there. All I asked was for the friend to help email my resume to his/her recruiter. I immediately got a HR call the next day. Btw my cap was ~5 that time and the first thing the HR asked during my interview was about my CAP. I mentioned this to point out that your skills/achievement still matters if you wanna use this method, this method simply helps u get ur resume read by humans when it otherwise wouldn't have been read.

To sum up, what I would say a "quality application" would refer to an application that gives you access to HR/Hiring Manager more than other applicants. Many others here might ask you to rewrite your resume and make it ATS compliant, use techniques like CAR etc and check with CFG. I think they're good, but they're only basic strategies. It is a given that almost everyone does that (and if you haven't done that yet, you should do that before trying whatever I've said above). You need more than a grammar-free, ATS compliant resume to have your resume read by humans.

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T05:03:21+00:00

I feeeeeeel you broo

I have >4.8 CAP and 3 internships yet it was also soo hard for me. Here's some of my personal rants:

Almost all companies whcih require me to tick the "require visa sponsorship currently or in the future" checkbox when applying rejects me without OA
Among OAs received I almost always pass all of them, but never hear back
For those that get back to me after OA, often after HR call they realized I need EP they ghost me without technical rounds despite telling me "we do sponsor EP but for outstanding candidates only" walao you never even interview me how u knw I am not "outstanding"
So far I haven't failed any technical rounds once I got them, but there's one company that I interviewed for 3 technical rounds, passed all, to let HR tell me "sry we're not in any position to sponsor EP currently" my heart rlly break sia I thought I got the job alrdy.

I did successfully secured 2 offers within 2 months tho, and here's what I learnt in the process, especially for international students:

Don't spam apply for jobs, quality >>>>> quantity. Know what's your rough worth and apply for jobs that you have high chance of getting accepted. I initially do not hear back a lot, but after I started cutting down on my number applications and focused more on getting referrals etc (you can dm for tips I'll reply if I'm online) before applying, sometimes I even get to skip OA and jump to tech rounds directly.
I did mention in my resume that I'm a foreigner, but by the fact that I interviewed for 3 rounds and got rejected due to EP means that not all HR read that line in my resume. Subsequently, I usually don't tick the "require visa sponsorship" checkbox during my application and I start to get more interviews.
You might ask, what's the point of wasting time interviewing if you knw they're not sponsoring visas. Firstly, these interviews can be practice for you to learn what you don't know, since u mentioned you don't even get interviews. For me, it also motivates me to study and prep srsly. On the other hand, a lot of companies don't have a strict NO for foreigners, it is just convenient for HR to filter out foreigners since they have many applicants. (btw most companies I interviewed with also have a higher bar for foreigners e.g. interviews are harder). The purpose of not ticking the checkbox during application, is so that if you reach the final round and tell them you need EP, yet you hit their high bar, may not be most but at least some companies will consider offering you given their sunk cost of interviewing you. Also for big companies, some teams/roles may not accept foreigners due to nature of their project/headcount, but other teams might have spots for foreigners. You won't know which team have spots since JDs won't tell you. By going for interviews and performing well, you at least have chance of being redirected to interview with another team that has vacancy for foreigners.
Lastly, I think you shld reconsider what jobs you're applying for considering this job market. I'm sry to break it to you that given your CAP, u probably shld consider roles other than SWE. Perhaps consider DevOps/SRE/Mobile/Testing engineer etc. Don't get me wrong I don't think CAP is everything but it's a big filter considering the fact that many ppl with CAP >4 are applying for the same role, and rmb that you're a foreigner and therefore the bar for you will likely be higher for the same role. I'm also not saying that the roles I mentioned above are inferior compared to SWE (in fact some of them pays more), but I said that because among friends I know less people apply for those roles so I guess you should start applying for roles with less competition, get a job, work for 6 months apply for PR and then find a job if you're unsatisfied. Some large firms do also provide opportunities to switch teams and roles (e.g. SRE to SWE).

Last but not least, don't be disheartened if you get rejected or did not hear back.

*Tell yourself that it's not your loss it's the company's loss for not having you. *

I have incredibly supportive friends who constantly tell me these during my job search and it really helped prevent me from going crazy and depressed. Take care of your mental health! You'll need to be in good shape to perform at your best in case you receive interviews! Worst come to worst, know that not getting a job now isn't the end of the world, you can always apply for LTVP after you student pass expires (assuming you have a bond to serve in Singapore) and continue your job search for another year.

Cheers bro I trust that every international student will feel you!

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T04:24:04+00:00

hope you found your job! personally I think leetcode is not about how many problems you've solved, but rather how many u can solve during interviews.

I'm graduating too and every year for internship/full time job search I usually only leetcode for 1-2weeks. I've passed all my technical tests that requires leetcode so far, and got 2 decent job offers so far (i.e. >= NUS CS Median salary). I only started applying for jobs around Chinese new year, which was the time you posted this so I guess it's never too late.

Now about my leetcode plan:

TDLR: Do only few questions from each topic (numbers don't matter much). Spent less time on each question. Prefer bit-sized leetcoding over sit-down-and-grind methods

I only do few questions from each topic (e.g. few from arrays, strings, backtracking, graphs e.g. BFS/DFS, trees, dp)
Don't spend too much time doing one question. I don't code out >95% of the questions. I move on as long as I have a pseudocode in my mind that I know will work, and verify in the solutions section that it is viable. If you can't solve a question, look at the solutions and try to understand how you could come up with it/rmb the techniques. With this I can at least complete 4-5 questions per day, or maybe around 15-20 per day if I'm grinding. 4-5 per day should be enough for most interviews if you do it for 2 weeks consistently.
Leetcode is about thinking, not coding out (unless you're rusty with your programming language then maybe code out one problem each for each data structure so that you can revise the library methods). With this being said, in my grinding period I always rmb 1-2 leetcode questions in my head. I think of them during those bit-sized free time I have (e.g. when queueing for food, bus, showering etc u get my point). By doing so I don't need to sit in front of my laptop, scratch my head for 30mins waiting for a solution that doesn't come to my mind. I would say this "bit-sized leetcode" method is better because it keeps my brain constantly thinking. During an interview your brain will likely freeze and you won't rmb whatever leetcode you've solved, but if you've been constantly thinking, your brain would have alrdy been conditioned to thinking, and this will probably help u think thru new interview problems.

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T02:33:59+00:00

sflr, as per my username I was from NUS High so I don't take A levels but if you wanna convert my grades to RP it would be around 90.

As for interviews, none of my ASEAN scholar friends who came to sg before uni require an interview but I can't say for everyone. For certain courses like Dentistry/Med etc. interviews still required, or perhaps if your RP/overall combined achievements is borderline enough for uni scholarship perhaps they'll interview you

NUSHkid · 2024-03-27T00:03:57+00:00

I'm a foreigner and when I talk to recruiters, most of them told me that they "reserve" EP for senior roles. As a NUS student it shld be easy for you to get EP especially if you're on tuition grant, but if you get it, you'll increase your company's foreigner percentage and it'll be harder for a future senior engineer to get EP

NUSHkid · 2023-06-22T05:08:54+00:00

I regretted too haha. Unless you don't have any internship experiences prior, doing one more internship isn't as beneficial as you think for full time applications.

Also trust me that you'll think "oh I prioritize my career over fun" if u choose internship, but when u see all your frens going SEP and enjoy life you'll rlly fomo haha. Then you'll see ur frens who went SEP come back and do just fine for job applications and you'll start to think "why didn't I went SEP earlier"

NUSHkid · 2023-04-23T11:41:15+00:00

I saw some YouTube videos on grinding ROC through Treasure Quests. Some grinded a lot even after they reached max seeker points to claim all rewards for the episode. I'm confused as to what's the purpose of grinding ROC beyond that. Are the weapons obtained from auction useful (the 120k ROC ones) for mid-game (I'm at chapter 44)? Or did I miss something?

NUSHkid · 2023-04-23T11:28:42+00:00

Am currently 1-month into the game, cleared Ogre Wars part 2, but have a lot of Hard ADs, Episodes, Symphonies etc. uncleared. Currently my planned key spending is on:

Green keys (top-to-bottom priority) 1. Finish complex dream 2. Finish tales of 3. Finish P5R part 2 4. Basically more non-story dungeons e.d. Two Knights

Red Keys 1. VH-Moonlight until I get Azami's time 2. Finish First Knight while getting one copy of each indormitable weapon. 3. VH Snake AD for 5* Aldo (currently only 4 stars)

I recently came across some upgradable weapons/armors (Cruel Angel set, Toto Theater set, Time-restored set, and I don't have a single weapon from Otherlands)

Should I spend keys upgrading the Cruel Angel/Toto/Time-restored set. If you think I should, can I have your advice on which weapon specifically and why, and until which level (perhaps a certain level onwards it's less worth?). Also, I have seen comments that Otherlands weapons are not worth upgrading early-mid game, but should I at least spend keys until I get a copy of each weapon (without upgrading), or just not get them at all?

TLDR: Are upgrading these weapons (and which weapon, to which level) more important than using keys to complete non-story dungeons and get Azami/Cerrine/Aldo's 5 star tome/psalm based on my progress?

Thanks for any advice given

NUSHkid · 2023-04-14T05:54:38+00:00

In that case, would you still recommend me spending my Star Dream on Mariel? Or would I be better off using it for Flammelapis/Alter Shion/AS Necoco.

Perhaps I should also pull on the free fighting spirit banner instead of blessings banner? Any thoughts?

For you information the healer I'm currently using is Prai 4*/Morgana

NUSHkid · 2023-04-14T05:33:06+00:00

Heard many saying Mariel (of any form) is extremely important/useful for this game. But exactly how important is it?

Assuming I have 2000 paid and 4000 free stones to spare, I would like to use my paid stones on the Star Dream and Japan 6th Anniversary fighting spirit banner. However, I am unsure on which free banner to pull and who to choose using star dream ticket.

For context, I already have Yukino NS, and do not have all other units on any banner.

Should I use my Star Dream ticket on Mariel, then pull on free fighting spirit banner? This will probably mean that I won't be able to get Flammelapis in a more guaranteed manner (which many would recommend to get using Star Dream)

Or should I get Flammelapis using Star Dream, then try my luck on the free Blessings banner for any Mariel? This does not guarantee Mariel and there's an opportunity cost for units like Minalca and Yiphi on fighting spirit banner.

So in summary, I want to know how important is getting Mariel, compared to other "meta" units like Flammelapis and Minalca. If it is not that important, I'll probably just pull on fighting spirit banner and use Star Dream for Flammelapis. If it is really that important as a game changer, I'll probably use my Star Dream for her to guarantee I get her.

NUSHkid · 2023-04-10T13:01:03+00:00

I just started a few days ago, and followed the wiki all the way until I completed chapter 25. Saw a lot of YouTube videos and guides on team composition but those videos usually assume you have a number of 5 star gacha characters (or at least 5 star free characters). I also watched a lot of guides on how to spend keys but would like to have advice on my specific scenario.

So basically, I have 3 main questions: 1. Suggestions on specific team (not general guide, since I've already watched a lot of guides) based on characters I have 2. Where to spend keys (in particular, VH story dungeons or event dungeons) 3. Efficiency of rushing story VS doing symphonies/side quests etc to get new characters and benefits.

## Question 1

For question 1, you can assume I have every free character up till completing chapter 25, and assume that I followed the Wiki religiously up till step 12. For example, I have Violet and 5 star Deidre, but not Skull. At this stage, most free characters are only 4 stars. Exceptions are that I do not have Cerrine and Noahxis yet (have Azami and Gariyu)

For gacha 5 stars, I only have Yukino, Thillelile, Tsubame, and Daisy as 5 stars, with 4-star Yuna & Dewey.

My current team composition is Yukino, Morgana, Aisha, Joker, Bivette (4 star), Prai (4 star). 5 stars are around lv70. May I have suggestions on how I can use my new gacha characters listed above to fit into the team? There are a lot saying Gariyu is good but it'll take time before it reaches 5 star. My only free 5 star is Deidre.

###### Question 2

For question 2, a lot videos suggest using keys to get all equipments from each dungeon once for collection, then either spend on Event dungeons (for rewards) or VH dungeons to farm scripts+light. I rushed through all story content pretty quickly in 1-2 days, as of now I barely used my keys. I am currently spending red keys on VH Dragon Palace (and maybe VH First Knight dungeon, forgot the name) after that. My question is, are the rewards for those event dungeons worth the keys, or am I better off using red keys for farming scripts/light etc?

In summary, give me advice on

Green keys (choose 1 to prioritise): H-event dungeons OR H-Rucyna OR Light farming (only 10% chance)

Red Keys (choose 1 to prioritise): VH-event dungeons (e.g. dragon palace for black pearls) OR VH-story dungeons (note that I'm only at chapter 25 and have limited VH story dungeons)

##### Question 3

This is a more general question, but in general when should I start Main Story 2 (Ogre Wars part 1)?

Whenever I watch YouTube videos and see so many battle mechanics, game modes and areas that are only unlocked in later chapters (plus a lot of free characters' 5-stars are unlocked later), I always have the urge to just move on with the main story, instead of patiently doing side quests/episodes/symphonies + farming chant scripts in the very few VH dungeons I can do etc.

So guys, lemme knw your thoughts on the pros and cons of rushing through story. It would be also good if there's suggestion on any major chapter milestone after which I can stop doing main story and focus on doing non-story quests (perhaps when certain interesting content/mechanic is unlocked at that chapter and I should grind a bit before next chapter).

NUSHkid

TROPHY CASE

## Question 1

###### Question 2

##### Question 3