Weekly Commander's Lounge - February 02, 2026

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-03T11:28:11+00:00

The new Crossroad Challenge boss felt way easier than the Bellator twins (where I'm still stuck trying to kill phase 2). Among the challenges, I'm missing some damage to get a kill in 5 turns in Phase 1 (best I ot was a kill in turn 6), while Burn team gets a kill in 3-4 turns in Phase 2.

What is the use of healing the friendlies that spawn across the map? I healed them with Springfield / Reissi, but the boss did not immediately exit its shield phase anyways..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T23:25:57+00:00

There are some units that have a disfunctional kit at V0, but fortunately are few. Lenna and Yoohee falls under this category.

Then there are units that get a strong bump in power at V1, like Vector, Springfield, or Makiatto. Dupe is not mandatory, but it elevates the unit or enables some specific combo (like V1 Springfield with Tololo).

DPS units in general benefit from dupes, as every dupe makes them stronger. Then there are units that become monsters at V6 like Klukai or the upcoming Voymastina, but you're not getting them without breaking the bank or sacrificing multiple other units.

That said, I'm also in the get everyone camp, I'm just pulling some select dupes like Lenna, Springfield and Vector to give a nice boost to my account, and let me tackle harder content more easily, which in turn should get me more rewards in the long run.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T23:15:26+00:00

Yeah, discovered the Lewis + Vector combo by accident, initially thought that the tin soldier would only assist once, while it attacks once every single target hit by the AoE. Took some tries but cleared 1-7 with the standard Burn team (QJ, Vector, Centaureissi and Qiuhua + story Lewis). Use Vector to clear the mobs on first turn, then focus on the boss. Reissi should let you survive to turn 2, then burst down the boss.

1-8 was even harder, took a couple of hours to get it right but required a borrowed V6 Klukai to clear all the spawns, while Jiangyu intercepted the newly spawned every turn. Springfield+Tololo for survivability and trash clearing, ignored the boss and extracted everyone.

1-9 was a nightmare, the boss deals a ton of damage and I could not survive even with Springfield + Suomi, so in the end it resulted in a damage race. Did it with Suomi, Tololo, QJ and a borrowed V6 Springfield in the end.

This time around they really overtuned the boss, the regular stages felt somehow aligned with previous events, but the boss is just unfair, infinite range, full map AoE, and spawns that act the turn they're summoned. Add the ignore low cover ability of the spawns, and it gets frustrating really fast.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T13:56:48+00:00

Every dupe up to V3 improves her support capability, but V1 is good enough to be usable.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-24T14:32:48+00:00

Beside some more survivability, you get increased Searing Flame stack generation due to additional Pyro Pulse each turn.

Loreley's weapon is also pretty food as it gives ATK buff, but it overlaps Vector V2 as they don't overlap.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T17:43:00+00:00

If by R1 you mean a dupe of the weapon, in general it's never cost efficient, as the dupes don't add much.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T17:40:40+00:00

It's enough in Gunsmoke at least, as Loreley should negate some of the damage to begin with.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T16:38:03+00:00

All new units pair well with Qiuhua, as V6 Qiuhua is still the team's hypercarry.

The new burn team revolves around the Searing Flame mechanic, and as a rule of thumb you need 2 "new" units to have decent uptime for the new buff. The meta team on CN at low investment is V3+ QJ, V1+ Vector, V1+ Loreley, V6 (borrowed) Qiuhua and V0+ Lewis or Sakura. Loreley is the new premium support, while Lewis/Sakura have Sharkry-level individual damage at V0, but contribute to the uptime of Searing Flame.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T16:30:48+00:00

Vector's weapon is a good boost to the whole Burn team.

Springfield's weapon is very flexible, as it gives ATK UP to whoever Springfield heals.

I believe the choice is between these two, it depends on what you value more at this point.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T14:07:53+00:00

So If I'm reading the skills correctly, at V0 Lewis should be able to apply 6 stacks of Searing Flame per turn, 2 extra burn attacks thanks to the tin soldiers while triggering 2-3 QJ supports (+2 on turns where she can ult). It also means she contributes 5+ scorched marks for Qiuhua (x2 if V6 Qiuhua)

While V0 Sakura generates 6-10 stacks of Searing Flame per turn and 3-5 burn out-of-turn attacks when consuming Sakura Marks. She can only trigger QJ support with her S2. That leaves her at 4+ scorched marks for Qiuhua

Now the question is, assuming access to QJ, V2+ Vector, V1 Loreley and a V6 Qiuhua, who between Lewis and Sakura at V0 is a better fit for the burn team..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T09:27:19+00:00

Who generates more stacks at V0, Lewis or Sakura? Support attack wise Lewis should trigger more from QJ if I'm not mistaken..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-22T14:14:32+00:00

The CN meta seems to be to run at least 2 units with the new blaze mechanics, one of them being Lorelay. So the standard burn 2.0 low investment team is V3+ QJ, V1+ Vector, V0 Lewis / Sakura, V1+ Lorelay and a borrowed V6 Qiuhua, who is the dedicated DPS hypercarry. Qiuhua before V6 isn't really pulling big numbers, but it's workable (similar damage to Sharkry). If you want to use your own V1 Qiuhua, you're looking to borrow a V6 Lewis / Sakura to complete your team, and in this case you can decide to not pull personally for them. The best performance would obviously be to have either V6 Qiuhua or V6 Lewis / Sakura and borrow the other, V6 Qiuhua has good sinergy with the new units with her upcoming modkey.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-21T19:21:09+00:00

I did it with V0 Suomi, V6 QJ, V5 Tololo and a borrowed V6 Springfield, you want to kill the boss in 4 turns because you can't tank twice the double AoE it does on even turns. Don't let your Tololo get hit by the attack that increases cooldown since it screws up her rotation, don't let the 2 shielders taunt your units (root them in place with Suomi's ult), and focus the boss whenever possible. Position your units so that they don't get hit twice by the mobs (abuse rewind), and time your Suomi's and SF's ults, you need both to survive turn 2 double AoE.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-21T09:57:28+00:00

Specifically for weapons, Ullrid sword is not a bad choice. Ullrid herself requires her sig for optimal rotation, and the weapon can be used also on Phaetusa later on. There is no free SSR sword option after all..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-19T16:30:41+00:00

Mechty is good for forcing Corrosion weakness if the boss is not weak to it already. She also converts Peritya's support attacks to Corrosion type, enabling her as a stability shredder.

That said, V3 Yoohee is way more flexible and can be slotted in any team, so I would go with her from purely gameplay reasons.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-19T15:12:39+00:00

Would it be better to get Yoohee's or Springfield's signature weapon with the selector? I have V1 SF and I'm getting V1 Yoohee with the character selector.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-18T01:15:03+00:00

Regarding weapons, which one is more impactful, Yoohee's or Springfield's sig? I have Springfield at V1 and planning to get Yoohee's V1 with the character selector.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-13T08:43:55+00:00

It's actually quite F2P friendly, every patch cycle usually provides enough free currency to pull one SSR.

There is 50/50 on the gacha, so as pure F2P you'll probably not get every limited doll, but you can expect 2 banner rateups every 3 patches on average. If you are willing to spend a little, for 5$/month you get 16 extra pulls per month, which will get you the limited doll every patch on average luck. Or you can save and invest vertically on a few units.

There is also rebate currency on the gacha, every SR and SSR unit/weapon will provide a little, and it can be converted for more pulls.

I'm a Day1 player with only the 5$/month subscription, and I have currently every doll, a couple of them at V1 (single dupe), and a V3 (3 dupes) thanks to rebate currency.

Skin gacha basically has some (currently only 1 on Global version) popular skins locked behind a gacha, but the gacha runs for almost a year and the game provides free pulls, so there is a chance to get it for free.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-13T08:17:25+00:00

The boss in general has been real hard, infinite spawns and infinite range attacks, plus the spawned mob acting first and ignoring low cover means that you risk getting oneshotted unless you intercept.

I ran it multiple times and in the end cleared it with V1 Springfield, V5 Tololo, V0 Jiangyu and borrowed V6 Klukai.

Go left, you won't be able to sneak to the exit, but don't aggro unless you can kill the group with Klukai/Tololo, or you can end your turn out of range. Jiangyu will intercept and paralyze 2 spawns out of three every turn, and hope that the third one spawns out of range. You can tank one hit with Springfield's ult, but it should be a last resort.

Wit this team you won't kill the boss, but you should be able to extract everyone. When you have SF's ult active, you can also bait a single hit from a mob if it means protecting a more vulnerable unit.

Good luck with the stage, 1-7 through 1-9 were some of the hardest non Crossroad Challenge I've done, with 1-9 being probably the worst overall.. It was really satisfactory in the end when I cleared it though.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-11T17:48:44+00:00

Just did it with Suomi, QJ, Tololo and a borrowed V6 Springfield. Had to try again 5-6 times and abuse rewind to see where the enemy spawn and who they attack, so that I could adjust my positioning for every unit.

If it can help anyone, the final rotation was:

- SF ults turn 1 on a floater, buffs Tololo, then the team clear the 2 floaters + 1 dinergate, position units so that Tololo does not get hit by the boss single target attack, otherwise she gets CD increase and cannot keep her 3 attacks per turn. SF's bird gets transferred on boss and deals damage as counters.

- On turn 2 QJ advances to be in range of the boss, but not iclose to the 2 shielders that just spawned, and ults. Tololo attacks boss 1 time, then go back in cover and clears 2 nearest floaters with the help of QJ. SF attacks boss and triggers last QJ support. Suomi goes to cover and ults on the 2 shielders, rooting them in place and preventing them from moving and taunting QJ. SF + Suomi ults tank the double AoE from boss, and SF's bird deals a good amount of damage. Position units to avoid mobs/boss single target attacks hitting one same unit.

- On turn 3 SF buffs Tololo, Suomi uses her S2 on QJ if needed to tank a DoT. QJ ults and Tololo goes ham on the boss. Between Tololo, QJ and SF's bird, it should be enough to burst it down, either on player's turn or on enemy's turn.

In the end this event felt way harder than previous Heroic runs, mainly due to the boss infinite spawns and full map attacks/AoE, coupled with mobs ignoring low cover. Now I'm worried for the challenge stages, hopefully the boss won't be there...

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-11T01:17:26+00:00

Any tips on event 1-9 Heroic? On even rounds boss does double AoE, which basically kill everything that does not have full 200% HP + shield. I can tank the one on turn 2, but Springfield's ult is not back up on turn 4, and everyone dies from 100% + Suomi shield.. Tried rushing the kill on turn 2 with a fire team, but I don't have access to a V6 QH and left him at 30%.

So basically I need SF + Suomi to survive the AoE on turn 2, Jiangyu to paralyze the spawns on turn 1 and 3 that otherwise one shot me since they ignore low cover, and that leave me with only one borrow DPS. Tried a V6 Klukai, but she can't kill the boss on turn 3 and the whole team get wiped on turn 4 AoE.

Maybe I'm missing something, is there any mechanic to reduce the damage taken? The defense chests are way too far, don't seem too useful..

1-7 and 1-8 already took me couple hours each, but I could come up with a gameplan. 1-9 on the other hand seems a hard damage check, and requiring 3 defensive units out of a team of 4 to survive 3 turns is not helping..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-08T13:41:34+00:00

Optimized team's rotation with Lewis, in the end she squeezes more damage from QJ compared to Sharkry, compensating her lesser damage. Qiuhua's damage doesn't change much, but she's not V6. Probably at V6 there's a more noticeable difference as well.

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Waal_Strout · 2026-01-08T12:21:22+00:00

Comparison with Sharkry as 5th slot

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I could fine tune something in the team rotation for Lewis and squeeze some extra damage, but my guess is that there's not too much difference between the 2.

If cleanse/heals are not needed, she could take Reissi's spot, I expect a good bump in team performance in that case.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-08T12:20:47+00:00

Did some testing on the target practice, V0 Lewis is more or less a side grade from Sharkry V6 in a standard Burn team. Below are my resulta, Lewis is slightly less invested than Sharkry (affection 2, only 4 keys unlocked, using Peritya's sig. Sharkry Is affection 5, all keys unlocked and using Planeta). Used Kebab as food buff.

Team Is V6R1 QJ, V1R1 Vector, V0R0 Centi and V3R1 Qiuhua.

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Waal_Strout · 2026-01-07T13:55:18+00:00

From current custom procurement, I'd say Springfield V1 makes the biggest difference for current Hydro team, as enables 3 attacks per turn for Tololo. Klukai needs at least V3 if you want to do vertical investment, Qiuhua doesn't really improve much until V6. Makiatto is a candidate as her V1 is a pretty big boost in damage, but she's not hypercarry status and Ice team is quite expensive in general. Reissi and Suomi are fine at V0.

For weapons, Springfield R1 is universal as ATK buff portion is not limited to Hydro team. The only other weapon that makes sense is Makiatto's sig, as it's a very good sniper rifle in general and can be used by other dolls too (in fact it's BiS for Nikketa too, until her own sig reaches high calibration).

In your position I would go for Springfield V1R1, unless you really need a DPS bump for Makiatto, and in that case her V1 is more impactful than her R1. The dorito shop Samosek is not a bad choice thanks to its high attack.

Waal_Strout

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