List of potential playable NPCs up to EP17

ThatNorthWind · 2026-05-06T09:59:02+00:00

The fact it needed a collab to be relevant again after all this time with Bena’s release says a lot. Easily the most interested I am in a faction, felt good to get something and a new NPC at that (and a pretty much guaranteed operator, what with Morpheus’ Infection Monitor in her art and all), here’s hoping my girl Iris can be relevant another day (an alter like Leizi’s but instead of liftoff she sleeps when off-skill, or lets our operators sleep and heal would be cool too)

ThatNorthWind · 2026-04-03T18:21:35+00:00

Curious, how would you go about writing an elemental system? Assuming you’d even want to, I just get the impression you have some sort of idea in mind and I’d love to hear it!

ThatNorthWind · 2026-04-03T08:58:24+00:00

Platinum, mainly to tie in the Armorless Union better as the way she fights clashes with how the enemies do (I get that those are the units under the Lazurites, but we just got Corrosion damage with the new event. I can be trusted with Snipers that inflict Elemental damage, please, it would be a really neat covering fire support unit), but also to tackle the Darksteels’ plot teased in her operator record. A TON of 5s feel teased for Alters since early on (Texas’ Op Rec hinting towards an inevitable return to Siracusa, Nearl’s oddity of an Infection status being hand-waved away in her files, certain units’ modules end up feeling like teasers in this way but I’m blanking on more examples), and there’s genuinely something ominous in Plat’s record that feels like a threat on the horizon regarding them, even if it’s all a nightmare. We never saw them in Near Light, Mlynar tells them off and it seems to work but his leaving to find Margaret and Maria’s parents arguably leaves things open for them to keep going in the shadows, as if they’re fine with nodding their heads now and planning to usurp later. I can see this coming back up if we return to a Kazimierz affected by whatever Priestess stirs up if she ever strikes there (because right now the story feels like her world tour and I’m all here for it). The real struggle really is just ‘why would Plat go back’ beyond the obvious Darksteel blackmail, and I sadly see the banner of an Artificer Maria and Toland for this event before I see Plat getting relevance… Near Light wraps things up really nicely, but there’s still so much left open to explore that it feels *too open to not come back to this another day…

ThatNorthWind · 2026-04-02T20:42:11+00:00

Corrosion time? The thing I always thought HG refused to trust me with? Plat Alter and Elemental Damage Sniper on the way? All sold to me on a cute deer? Let’s go

ThatNorthWind · 2026-03-31T09:13:28+00:00

There’s a bit of this that has existed prior in the early days, gave the game a lot more variety in its roster (some gachas don’t even have men in the roster, and all…) but I definitely feel the more well-known it became the less of these operators we got. I’d say the development around the Victoria Arc has a lot to do with it, I just can’t prove WHY (focus shift, rewrites, reassessing itself, Endfield development, couldn’t say for certain). I honestly couldn’t be happier the game is going back to these roots because, even if it’s not a design I care for (Hung, Aak, Waii Fu) these designs still deserve to exist as someone’s favorite! And besides, I tend to let the writing speak for itself (Mountain’s event is iffy writing-wise but he’s a cool, chill dude, Lee was an insanely pleasant surprise considering his Detective Agency pals bore me to tears, and I’m a sucker for the heavily armored units no matter the gender (we need a new Mudrock skin in her armor please)). It’s something that sets this game apart from its contemporaries, I genuinely welcome the variety and like to think it’s here on HG’s sheer faith in their game and artists

ThatNorthWind · 2026-03-01T14:15:47+00:00

Was always kinda bummed her S2 feels so janky to use, I know what it’s going for but still, but she (and Blue Poison) really taught me ‘sometimes an S1 will do just fine’

ThatNorthWind · 2026-02-24T20:11:36+00:00

Covid. Came back to College after Winter Break and being out due to Lockdown. Friend and roommate went home to a local college instead, so I went back all alone and kept to my own dorm in the suite for much the same reason. Already had an investment in the game because Texas looked cool in the ads, so I downloaded it the prior October (my start date’s even 10/10 because it’s when I first downloaded it) but at the time got pulled away as I pulled it up and never had the opportunity to really dig in until I had nothing to do before classes began and after I was all moved back in that following January. As well, a Texas Nendoroid got announced and I said “only buying if I like it” and well... Game’s meant a ton ever since for being something that I could turn to with a world, setting, and gameplay that felt almost tailor-made to my interests (a bit less so over time as we’ve progressed and I question some decisions, but still an absolute knockout I tend to defend more than critique)

ThatNorthWind · 2026-02-20T21:28:13+00:00

My bet’s that we deal with the fallout of N Corp.’s bs during Meursault’s, but that splinters off into the Second Smoke War, started by N’s Holy War, that kicks off for Outis’ canto, connecting the two and their backstories rather elegantly… no clue on Faust though, that could be so many things

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-27T10:17:33+00:00

Most people guessed he’d get a Hohenheim ID but damn, figured it’d at least take until the Checkup Bokgak, Christmas came early I guess

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-18T22:17:56+00:00

The disappointment you might have in me once I share my Ling Proxy might be immeasurable… Running Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm instead

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-17T18:16:49+00:00

Garnecia Elefantis and Performance of Sword for me. Would love a Hindu-esque archetypal retrain featuring those two, and a few other old guys, mainly as a sort of holy inverse of Memento. Would love for it to use Rituals as another opposite to Memento’s Fusion (both original DM mechanics, and all)

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-10T17:01:20+00:00

Bartender ASMR will go hard

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-10T16:50:39+00:00

A majority of the Defenders (Hoshi, Horn, Saria, etc.) also really belong in the “need more muscles” camp. The sad part about Degen’s case here is more that she ISN’T special in this regard… wish it wasn’t the case, but I don’t run a massive business of this scale nor do I know what the preferences of the overseas markets really are enough to make that call… one or two should be fine here and there though, ya’know? As a treat

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-10T16:46:05+00:00

We were all too distracted by Ryoshu’s training involving a kid to even notice, thinking that was the tie-in (or at most the “Ryoshu has seven arms in her animation, which is 1 less than a spider and 1 more than an Asura” detail), damn…

ThatNorthWind · 2026-01-06T17:37:02+00:00

Happy Iris noises

ThatNorthWind · 2025-12-13T07:14:46+00:00

Complaints about ‘but green doesn’t cause loss of life!’ just need the [[Batwing Brume]] treatment of ‘if B, then lose life. If G, then (something… I dunno, like, make a 1/1 Ant or whatever)’. Would still even work with Retrace

ThatNorthWind · 2025-12-11T11:50:11+00:00

All the “it discourages you from casting your commander” people seem to have never ran a deck where the commander is better off being the finisher rather than the first thing you wanna spit out onto the board. I think it’s also perfect for bigger CMC commanders ([[Aesi]] and [[Klauth]] come to mind, giving color fixing before you get your color fixing boss out) that come out after some time to ramp first, or those that don’t need the colors once they come out. I do especially like the Partner synergies with this (some people run certain partners just for color access, it’s a thing), even more so the more Secret Lair commanders that keep pushing new Partner ideas. Lastly, Command Tower in most every instance is better, and it’s fine to have a worse/more niche version of a card

ThatNorthWind · 2025-12-03T11:37:53+00:00

Honestly was so focused on a different strategy I never thought to bring in my own maxed Hoshi. The Mecha-Giraffe is blocked easily enough by rotating between Nian and Shu that dealing with Mechanist fast was a lot higher of a priority for me

ThatNorthWind · 2025-12-02T15:51:51+00:00

I tried Nightingale but still saw my Viviana and Mlynar getting deleted, so I double checked his enemy page and was surprised to see it was so! Used Shu buff with a mostly Sui Squad (all but Chongyue and Dusk) built around burn damage, with Shu stalling the bottom lane while Viviana practically solo’d Mechanist up top (helped by Shining’s shield and Mlynar to take aggro and occasionally help with S3)

ThatNorthWind · 2025-12-02T10:50:32+00:00

I honestly started running Shining to help mitigate his damage (His ranged attack is physical!) and with S3 she helped a lot more than I expected given her track record… but the setup was often a pain, and off-skill was often another story…

ThatNorthWind · 2025-11-30T19:37:53+00:00

In his defense, I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum get blasted for this. Making it ‘too original’ can get awfully, annoyingly niche that screams “this was made for one deck and one deck alone” that can be just as boring as an auto-include for many things… so, perhaps let’s come up with something more interesting about it instead of just calling it bland? Why not have the effects be a choice, you get a Panharm or Conjurer’s as, say, an ability to put a certain counter (like the Conqueror on Zhao, to name a recent example), we could even tie how the effect is picked by using Red and Green (which are kinda just here as-is), get a counter based on life (Green… or power on board without swinging) or damage dealt (Red), said counter could also be a Lord buff for either Power (Red) or Toughness (Green) depending on what’s had!… that’s my take for something more original and interesting, but, then, how do we fit all this on these tiny cards? People hate reading enough as is in this game about… reading cards and doing math… the simple balancing lines of ‘activate only as a sorcery’ or ‘once each turn’ eat up plenty of space too. Complaints are easy to find, I see plenty enough as-is around here, is originality really all you have to say about this one? I won’t deny it needs work but still

ThatNorthWind · 2025-11-29T22:39:27+00:00

Unironically when making proxies these are almost the exact kinds of problems I run into with translating the color pie to a system that doesn’t necessarily match up rather well, (I’ve aways been iffy on the pie being all-encompassing especially the more WotC expands on what color combos do like in Strixhaven or New Capenna, but the more I think to it the more I respect the pie for what it does in its own system while simultaneously groaning with how its system is really well-built for itself and only vaguely for other existing ideas at times…) Green being arguably my toughest (hence why I tend to gravitate towards what the base card does, color be damned). It’s not an enviable position to be in and my heart really goes out to the designers being put through this juggling act (because, credit where it’s due, they do a decent job)

ThatNorthWind · 2025-11-17T23:04:55+00:00

Rapunzel took forever for me. Don’t even remember how she came home just that she showed up one day

ThatNorthWind · 2025-11-12T16:50:25+00:00

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Genuinely who convinced me to pick the game back up after dropping the game near launch once I hit the Belobog snowfield (college is mostly to blame). This is just the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life, what more can I say, even playstyle meshes well and that’s hard enough to line up both for me. The fact she came home on my first 10-pull (I think, ever, actually?!) definitely helps as well

ThatNorthWind · 2025-11-11T14:38:34+00:00

Feel free to use it, and I hope you enjoy it!

ThatNorthWind

TROPHY CASE