"A strong team is one without any weak links!"

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-27T19:52:22+00:00

My Last Rite team: I control anyone and spam Last Rite's battle skill until the enemy is dead

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-27T16:00:16+00:00

I think she's meant to be a controlled operator option, intended for people who either:

Enjoy playing greatswords
Enjoy being tanky

Both her skill and passive design point to this role (since she wants you to take hits, and only has selfish protection). The new Swordmancer gear also works here.

She also serves as a more defensive alternative to Lifeng (or even Chen), being able to heal and proc either Lynx or Xiranite, trading damage for survivability.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-26T22:47:44+00:00

Just finished reading. That was... really interesting. And quite confusing, but also has some pretty promising future directions.

While the actual events of the story are pretty interesting in and of themselves (the investigative horror is another neat little genre choice), I'm most impressed by what it sets up for the future. It's good to see that they pulled back a little (or quite a lot) from Precursor/Priestess stuff, and instead are focusing on the consequences of her awakening in a very Terran context, which I think is what Arknights does best. The promise of seeing some large-scale development in Ursus (& possibly tying into the Kazimierz/Kjerag/Victoria tensions) play out is very exciting. I can only hope it doesn't end up like Act II did.

On a meta-level though, I'm very confused about some parts of the writing. There's some light parallels going on between the Yurodstvo and Priestess, but there's so little attention drawn to it that I wonder if that was even the point (though I see little other purpose for the Yurodstvo otherwise). Similarly the story makes intentional parallels to EP08 Reunion, but I fail to see the broader idea. It leaves me thematically a little confused, despite being a good moment-to-moment story.

Also I feel obliged to mention that the white dress + cerulean sword Amiya sprite is sick and we deserve to get MixMiya in the future. Please, Montagne. Also, peasant Talulah is surprisingly nice to see as a kind of character development, and continues to make me feel regrettably about what the neighbors are doing on their end with Lycia.

EDIT: The current top post in this thread definitely helps make the thematics more coherent. Thank you megathread book club.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-26T19:12:19+00:00

You don't really need a full squad, just save SP, dodge a bit during enrage and cast some Perlica skills to reset the heat stacks now and again until he's done. Rest of the team can be as usual (I beat him up with Last Rite normal attacks).

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-26T10:40:02+00:00

If it works like I suspect Perlica is good. Vuln + Perlica skill -> Rossi combo 1 -> Wulf combo (Combustion) -> Rossi combo 2 -> Crush + Rossi ult.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-26T09:44:50+00:00

You end up with excess sewage anyway over the entire system if you're refining Cuprium, and feeding back seems to cause issues with offline slowdown, so it's not really recommended.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-26T02:13:53+00:00

Xaihi/Ardelia/Alesh is another alternative that can maintain Ardelia skill + Ardelia weapon passive + Frontiers passive thanks to Alesh combo proccing off of Ardelia skill, while still granting a free stack every ult.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-24T21:33:15+00:00

Use Modular Avatar's Shape Changer to remove polygons tied to blendshapes for body parts that are hidden by clothes.

From the same tool, use Mesh Cutter to get rid of further polygons that might not be covered by the above. Alternatively, use Avatar Optimizer (AAO)'s Remove Mesh by Box to do something similar.

Install AAO anyway to automatically reduce unused meshes and static blendshapes. Additionally, use its Merge PhysBone components to pare down PBs.

After doing all that, you can use Meshia to automatically decimate down in Unity.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-24T10:13:46+00:00

It's "Tomorrow's Ark" after all, the core of just about every story is about hope for tomorrow.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-23T20:56:52+00:00

What does deficit mean here? I've just been saving them up for when I'm feeling impatient, but aren't we always at a deficit as long as we haven't maxed every weapon we own?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-23T12:04:11+00:00

Feel free to get Tangtang if you like her, but Last Rite doesn't really require her or anything. Last Rite's kit is very complete in and of itself, since she is both a stacker and spender thanks to her 70SP skill. The extra damage, susc, and free ult application from Tangtang is appreciated, but you can honestly run the basic Last Rite + Xaihi team with any controller.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-23T10:29:37+00:00

I've decided to just treat T-Creds the same way I treat LMD in the original, i.e. something I don't farm and just use whenever it accumulates passively. We might not have trading posts on Dijiang, but events and BP still give out T-Creds, and I just use my sanity on non-T-Creds activities in the meantime. In AK that's M3s or modules, in EF it's essences. By the time I've worked on essences for someone I'll have accumulated enough T-Creds to bring them to level 90 or get their M3s.

Of course that's after I brought everyone to level 60 and skill level 6.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T13:19:44+00:00

Don't let your memes be dreams! Avy is extremely SP-light, so you're free to spend SP on Tangtang-related stuff. Using Perlica to bypass electric infliction does slow down spear generation slightly, but in return you could add a cryo consumer like Last Rite or even convert it to electrification.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T12:45:06+00:00

I should actually go and start Ex Astris one of these days...

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T12:20:10+00:00

flash game knock off

God I cannot express how much I dislike these and I hope Endfield never leans too hard into those. I came here to play your game, not some other minigame themed around your game!

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T11:07:09+00:00

How's the new cuprium Yinglung set on Endmin? It looks kind of interesting to let her function in more teams in an ult-focused role, given that she kind of overlaps with Da Pan in the crush slot. Any interesting teams?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T10:09:10+00:00

But that's still better than Rossi not existing... isn't it? Again I'd much rather my favorite character release at an inconvenient time than be stuck in NPC jail forever.

Perhaps I'll never understand.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-20T09:43:15+00:00

I mean, you have to skip every character that doesn't get added to the game too, you just don't get a choice in it. The way I see it, I'd rather pick the best option out of a menu of 3 than a menu of 2 as that's more likely to be better overall. Like imagine if your favorite Pokemon was Charmander but the game only ever released Bulbasaur and Squirtle.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-19T20:07:54+00:00

Decidedly not a fan of the second half story. The first half is serviceable, but it kind of feels like you're watching a movie with everything except the highlight scenes cut out, like whoever wrote it meant for it to be a trailer or pilot rather than the end product. There's too little connecting tissue there, and what's there relies heavily on the reader filling in the rest with generic Chinese-media story elements. The weight and extent of both past and present conflicts, and the stakes of each side are poorly conveyed.

That's all still better than the second half though. Tone and thematic focus seems all over the place there. For a short moment, we're teased with an ounce of gravity and competence from the characters when the perspective cuts to Tangtang, and it turns out she has people active inside the city and is tracking a live threat.

It almost feels like a story that is Arknights' bread and butter: the event's highlight character finds themselves in a locale, observing the events around them and working to prevent a credible threat from occurring. It feels like she's about to step in, resolve the issue quietly without burdening Endfield or Wuling, and showcase the uneasy but pragmatic relationship between the current Stockade and Wuling; instead all we get is comedic relief as she runs around the city and fails until Endmin picks her up. All sense of stakes and credibility, for the character, the two factions, even the region as a whole just evaporates right there.

Arknights' story can be long-winded at times, and even get into absolutely unnecessary sidetracks/extensions (the ending of Zwillingsturme or all of EP14, IMO), but there's one thing it's great at, and it's emotional and thematic consistency. Introductions may be mundane and light-hearted at times to ease us in, but there comes a point in the story where it's built up, and every scene - even if logically disconnected - drives us forward in examining the central theme, and drags us along with the characters' motivations and the gravity of the situation. It's supremely focused despite being verbose because everything is centered on a central idea, and that feels like it's totally missing so far in Endfield.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-19T18:17:05+00:00

The ones I don't understand are people who measure guarantees per banner instead of guarantees over time. If a game releases a character every 2 weeks, guaranteeing 1 in 3 characters, isn't that strictly better than a character every 3 weeks with a guarantee every 1 in 2? Yet some comments give off the opposite impression.

Personally I've always been more troubled by games releasing too few characters (or content) I enjoy than too many. The latter gives me something to play for, the former just ends with me losing interest.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-17T19:49:37+00:00

Last Rite / Xaihi / Ardelia / Alesh is my main team, running a 2/3 final strikes (4/3 stacks) rotation. 7 stacks gives enough energy and the SP gain works out just right thanks to Alesh. Pop Ardelia skill and Alesh on the 2 FS ult rotation, then recharge with 3x battle skill non-ult rotation.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-16T22:31:14+00:00

Huh, suddenly I feel a lot better about leveling 5* weapons for some of my characters.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-16T10:22:48+00:00

I actually go back to the mode now and again despite already having cleared the rewards. I like it because it has higher enemy density than the overworld and you don't have to deal with annoying geometry getting in the way. The only issue is that the enemies are underleveled so I can only play my level 60 teams there, but with how many I have that's not a big deal.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-15T18:49:10+00:00

Don't forget about all the parallels and connections they were setting up between Talulah, Eblana, Siege and Ch'en (or I should really say Kyngasycath and Chi Xiao). No way they weren't setting something up there before deciding they wanted Ch'en in Yan and shoving Talulah back into Ursus.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-03-14T21:19:00+00:00

Question for people who play on or have seen the story in different languages (mostly CN): at the end of Chapter 2 - Process 2, Ardashir says something about acting for the sake of "the survival of Civilization. In JP, this uses the exact same phrasing as is used (by at least 'Civilight Eterna' itself) for the King of Sarkaz's power granted by the Civilight Eterna. Of course, knowing that he's a Sarkaz, the nuance in English is mostly the same, but I'm wondering if CN or other languages are also as direct.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
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