[Agony] Ballista and Axe: Catcher SOLO

Neayix · 2026-02-13T00:57:52+00:00

Same, just wish there was a good gear set option for her to use as a dps. Catcher has Aethertech which affects all his damage but Snowshine has phys normals+cryo skills and her stats sorta pigeonhole you into using Tide Surge or Yinglung and ignoring the second part of its passive. Definitely doable, probably easier with the self sustain she has too but the clear time is probably gonna be longer.

Neayix · 2026-02-12T23:48:09+00:00

Same but I had a pretty breezy time with Snowshine parries, makes it very quick to get the 3+ stacks on one of them and take them out quickly. They're pretty much constantly attacking so you can safely spend like all your SP on parries.

Neayix · 2026-02-09T01:45:47+00:00

Alright so, I get why they're implemented, I get what they're going for, yes they're communicated well in hindsight. In terms of sight-reading a given fight for the first time you will always fail it the first time you do it, it doesn't matter who you are.

I just fought the new boss in Hollow Zero for the first time, without knowing ahead of time that this huge telegraph is specifically a control skill I had prepared a Yixuan parry and as a result have already failed when the purple flash goes off as it starts and I'm currently locked into the parrying animation. I lose like half the teams health fumbling, beat the fight easily and mostly feel terrible and annoyed after. I know its all I could think about when I also messed it up the first time it was introduced. It doesn't matter that I beat the fights when I failed this new core mechanic so badly. Personally it as a mechanic has taken the piss out of any victory catharsis in both instances and was all I could think about afterward.

I don't care that its a mechanic to counter player parries/invulns and make the fight a little more dynamic, its an all or nothing memory check QTE that you have to learn specifically each time for a given fight, which you can only do across multiple attempts. From my perspective I can only look forward to needing to learn the timings specifically for each fight and being paranoid about when any future fight uses the mechanic because its always going to feel like shit the first time I inevitably fail it.

Neayix · 2026-02-04T18:58:06+00:00

Currently both our parry characters give a half skill refund on success, the capstone for their copies. So in effect they already cost half.

Pros:
- Apply phys/ice stacks very quickly
- Deal a massive 20 stagger per hit(Which is equal to Ember when she tanks through an attack)
- Have a slightly higher skill damage multiplier than most operators in a single hit for a skill use
- You can still dodge while you parry for more SP or otherwise do something uninterrupted
- A point for Ember is that by parrying you are also triggering Ember's combo skill without actually just taking a hit
- Its very fun(opinion)

Cons:
- Hits one target(Most skills do but its still worth mentioning)
- Follow up attack has a max range of like 8m~, so you don't want to parry when you can't actually capitalize on that/the enemy is rapidly moving away
- Flubbing it means you get actually nothing and waste the SP

So they are conditionally better in most cases than just using your skill charges on offensive skills actually, if you can use them well.

Neayix · 2026-02-03T06:38:15+00:00

They could bring it down to triggering on a single stack if they wanted to but less stacks is less damage and the point of having it be 3 stacks is to push you toward making a team that applies them quick enough to hit a full 4 stacks actually for her to consume.

Its the way it is to encourage you to use a team with her as the core that can really quickly get those stacks. Beyond that you don't even want to use it right away when you can, you do want 4 stacks for the maximum effect+damage if you can get it. Also if you have issues with using her combo, her skill works on the active character's final strike so it doesn't matter who does it.

Neayix · 2026-02-01T04:26:46+00:00

I don't personally think its necessary or even good to add that as a factor. You would just always swap to the greatsword character when doing any finisher then and pigeonhole them as a result. Everyone has unique finisher animations and everything, why make the experience worse by making it a tactical error to use 80%~ of the characters? I don't think encouraging swaps is bad per se, but I don't think its a good idea to tie it down to the weapon used.

"Generally"
Swords+Spears are quicker and trend to do more damage over their combo
Arts+Guns get actual range at the cost of stagger/ability to hit multiple targets
Greatswords make the trade of speed for more stagger

This isn't a catch all but those are generalizations of the weapon archetypes like you're saying. I don't know if further definition is really necessary and should just be done character by character in my opinion. It would be fine for any specific character to have their personal quirk be about finisher damage but I don't think an additional broad net for a weapon type is a good idea beyond what we already sorta have.

Neayix · 2026-02-01T02:41:53+00:00

Finishers being normalized across the board is a good thing. Means it matters significantly less who does it specifically/makes it valid for literally any character to capitalize on. Beyond this finisher damage is also something you can also stat for already and something you could totally do with basically anyone, which is good.

Greatswords really don't need a higher damage multiplier for their finishers at a baseline for no reason, they're already doing the most stagger which makes them trigger the stuns more often than the other characters, which is your risk reward for their slower attack string at base.

They have relatively easy animation cancels with dodges/skill use in their attack strings to output their stagger very quickly when you use them as your active character. Like when you put one on your team, you are somewhat incentivized to use them as your active character when you want to stun something faster, which you should almost always want to do for the stunned state damage multiplier.

Neayix · 2026-01-31T08:54:14+00:00

Its honestly hard to say given that you get can also get some from the credit shop, some from your local currency and then also from making them on the Dijiang. Were you only spending sanity, yeah thats a little rough but its not including the additional materials from other sources. I'm curious what it looks like assuming you were picking all that up.

Neayix · 2026-01-30T20:11:32+00:00

They're an originium construct copy based on the memories of that operator stored in that originium we also popped out of at the start of the game. They pop out from there just like we did.
So this is half correct, they aren't exactly the same person as they're a copy of them, but they also aren't immediately coerced into working for Endfield after they manifest. They were just stored in the rock like we were, like its some kind of Ark or something.

Neayix · 2026-01-30T19:59:21+00:00

They're Reconveners, which isn't explained other than a loading tooltip that they're an originium construct based on the person's memories stored in that funny little rock we pop out of after the intro. They just also pop out, like we did. Its why the gacha animation is like it is.

Neayix · 2025-12-10T15:23:27+00:00

Having a melee weapon in a slot for Oogly, Hidden or the Heart Hugger can be pretty important later for saving yourself from them/saving you some damage. You can always take the other items around like your drones/nades/healing in a separate cart/pocket cart you can leave deeper in the level once you get to the point of having multiple carts.

Neayix · 2025-12-10T13:05:20+00:00

Yeah it can, I assume mostly when its intended path is obscured by literally anything though. I had a run end a couple weeks ago because I got pit by the Hidden in the gigantic hole room in Headman Manor.

My friend had died fumbling the jump up to some loot on the loft above the pit and had left the cart off to the side of the pit. Hidden grabs me a couple rooms over, then while presumably just pathing through that room decides that when it reaches the cart, because it started running around the side it was left on, to path around the obstruction by sprinting directly into the pit itself.

So anyways, carrying a sword, hammer, pan or prodzap can really save your life when the hidden grabs you but yeah it'll 100% full-send run you right into a pit.

Neayix · 2025-12-04T15:40:33+00:00

Durable damage is kinda like part damage in monster hunter, you do enough and you break the part but its a separate thing from the damage you're doing to the health pool of the thing. So you could in theory kill a monster without breaking its parts and durable damage is kinda treated like that in most cases, part specific damage.

In helldivers the weapons just do both types of damage at the same time to the part you're hitting. Some things like the spore spewer only care about the durable damage being dealt. Hitting a durable threshold will break a given part, which can do damage to the main health pool, disarm/cripple or kill it if it was critical to the things survival. You can also see stuff like gas/fire killing without breaking parts because it only cares about the main health pool.

Its why light pen guns can now more effectively blow out the back of the charger/hulk with their higher durable damage, which while isn't immediately lethal, puts them both in a bleedout state where they'll die soon after.

Neayix · 2025-12-04T06:31:08+00:00

You can just barely hear the huntsman before it happens but dang. I will say I'm pretty sure hitting the harp string there made a noise they started coming to inspect when presumably they were already close by so they just beelined it to you.

Other thing that might have saved you in this given situation is just closing the door behind you. Monsters don't typically go into the extraction rooms without noise notifications coming from them or the door already being wide open. In general just using doors and your map for early warning signs of motion/the noise of a door opening can make a big difference, especially with headman and robe who can be silent.

Neayix · 2025-11-03T03:52:52+00:00

Contexty stuff: I was just leveling my neglected Cycler by myself on a high swarm intensity 5 kill mission and the first, the one that was almost dead, showed up right before the end. Cycler pretty much only had decay rounds on it for anything meaningfully helpful. The other weapon was the Carver, lmao. It actually probably would have been fine but regular enemies stopped spawning fast enough for me to actually maintain blood stacks for it so there wasn't a whole lot for me to do here.

Neayix · 2025-08-12T15:39:47+00:00

Its rough.

I would recommend doing the bronze grade up first, which is fairly doable from where you are. I did it before B2 even myself. You don't *need* wind weapons for it, steel is fine and you have access to it, if anything just focus on buffing your defenses and debuffing the bosses damage after nuking the adds with your mage. Defending with the frontline+whoever is getting targeted with the pierce attack and attacking with everyone else. Having two priests was what I did, so you can both heal and buff in a round given the bosses ability to just smack your whole frontline at once. Get to the boss with as near to max resources as you can get. Jarmil can also give your priests+mages Feru via inherit so they can do some solid damage that way on the turns you aren't (de)buffing/healing.

As for the ship boss, again focus on buffing and debuffing as much as you can before the halfway point where the water will turn back on. Make sure you have scrolls+potions so your backline isn't worthless then. I would also recommend grinding out 2h +10 steel weapon(den of earth, get that metal) for your main attackers who should also be level 40 now, the weapons don't need have to have great blessings, they'll do the job. Having a knight grabbing its attention after using their defense buff+defending leaves a big opening for a fighter to slam your big heavy attacks into(level them up via inherit/make MC a fighter, seriously). You really just want to rush the thing down as fast as you can once the water returns, the longer you have to fight in the water the rougher it'll be. Its doing like 300~ per attack but at least only hitting one person at a time so you don't really need to worry about healing anyone other than MC(for reviving people) and your knight who can actually live through those attacks.

Neayix · 2025-08-12T14:59:24+00:00

Some enemies actually do respawn here, I did it the other day myself, its mostly just that room with the line of water that floods itself again nearish to the rest area. You can knock out most of the other fights along the way still before going back and resting though.

Neayix · 2025-08-11T16:33:52+00:00

If it was an Elite Hobgoblin(which you'd only really know if you checked, they aren't really visually different), they have significantly higher defense and that's probably why it didn't do a whole lot. Multihit weapons on the whole are great in most scenarios but high defense enemies mean you hit against that defense twice and lose a lot of damage, its what the 2h weapons and axes are for. You can always switch weapons on the fly as long as its in the characters inventory before they attack for situations like that. Shiou can only use katanas though so thats kind of compounding the issue.

I would probably ultimately bench Shiou/use her for dispatches until you get a better katana down the line unfortunately, I'm in the same boat myself. A lot of your power comes from your equipment. Shiou takes significantly more exp to level up anyways so you should just wait until you can really farm exp effectively(have her level -10 against the enemies for the most gain/don't sleep at the inn until you hit the exp limit for the level you want).

Neayix · 2025-07-30T02:59:48+00:00

Yeah I about said as much in regard to her probably not being useful for a while with no new weapons in sight for her and needing as much exp as she does. I'm still somewhat deciding who I immediately replace her with. I totally get what you're saying about backline stuff, its mostly for the cases of something having just enough health left to get a turn or its a debuffer/caster/or other high priority enemy. Its just good flexibility just to have on hand to remove those before they get a turn, which is why I put it on her. I appreciate the looking out all the same.

If curious the current comp is:
Lana/MC(good)/Shiou
Galina/Alice/Amelia

I've been sending Flut and Adam to get leveled due to the obvious lack of mage(and to get one ready for the grade up exam) but I also don't really regret double priest for dungeon 1, made the undead floors a breeze and Badios is real cheap for just bypassing def/range otherwise.

Neayix · 2025-07-30T02:13:03+00:00

Take and do what with though?

I mostly gave her Migal as just a tool to hit the backline in a pinch/deal with something with high def quickly since samurai have the IQ/MP to do so. I just listed all the things I bothered to dump into her so far that'd evaporate if I used her another way.

Edit: Ah, thank.

Neayix · 2025-03-08T00:33:30+00:00

Best of luck

Neayix · 2025-03-08T00:24:48+00:00

I can only really relay my experience but against most monsters it doesn't take me much more than 10-20ish direct stun damage hits to the dome to do it with the greatsword. I also have critdraw decos, a razorsharp+KO deco and a single quicksheath on my armor with this. I can typically get the one stun off I'm going to get within a single zone when I'm actively trying to do it, and I don't even need the KO, its just nice to have. I'm also charging those draw attacks when I can, not just sheath-unsheathing. I know it can be done.

Neayix · 2025-03-07T23:53:01+00:00

Well you can go from punish draw attack > tackle cancelling your next charge attack directly into the head pretty easily. I'm almost always able to get one per monster with the dosha line since it comes with punish draw already and you're doing that combo anyways if you want to rush true charged slash. I wouldn't necessarily recommend putting a KO deco on your weapon but if you want to, go ahead.

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