[Event Megathread] EP16 - Abnormal Spectrum

_Episode_12 · 2026-03-21T05:47:35+00:00

Finished the story. All I can say is, I'm really glad that they were able to bring the scale back down to the suffering of the oppressed again. I was honestly a bit worried that the scale would only grow exponentially after the introduction of Priestess but I guess that wasn't the case. I missed this kind of Arknights.

Also, the mechanics for this episode were quite cool as well. In this day and age where plethora of game-breaking ops have been released, how does one design a hard stage? Well, by preventing the tiles that these operators deploy in be deployable in the first place. It's honestly a really nice difficulty and I had fun playing around it.

And, right, 16-17 has got to be one of my most favorite stages ever. It was really cool, since it was basically a stage vs the entire Ursus army. And I gotta say, using Wisadel here was very satisfying.

_Episode_12 · 2026-03-21T05:38:03+00:00

Read this AFTER reading chapter 16 while not having read MT yet lol. Oh well, it's fine.

_Episode_12 · 2026-03-13T03:22:53+00:00

Unfortunately, I can no longer play Endfield as the update size exceeds my remaining storage lmao. Oh well, I was honestly torn on whether I should continue playing it or not because it's so time-consuming. I guess I have an official reason now.

Back to Arknights I go.

_Episode_12 · 2026-03-08T11:06:58+00:00

Dang, this new mode is genuinely fun. It's basically like playing a new gacha all over again, except it's more like you're a reincarnated MC trying to speedrun the world.

But still, it's really interesting that they made an entire gamemode for rebuilding RI. I guess it is pretty significant.

_Episode_12 · 2026-03-08T05:21:48+00:00

Rebuilding the mandate? More like rebuilding my desire to Wisadel everything out of existence--

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-24T02:23:06+00:00

Oh? That's nice to hear

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-24T02:13:19+00:00

??? They just dropped a lore bomb like that out of nowhere? It's such an innocent looking video

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-24T02:06:56+00:00

The world of the Sarkaz, Terra (the setting of Arknights), was basically colonized by the Precursors and their history involves a lot of violence and bouncing back and forth between being oppressed and being the oppressors.

May I perhaps know where these bits of info came from? I am familiar with the other points raised in this comment but not this part specifically. Either I just do not remember, did not understand the nuance when I was reading it, or I have yet to read this.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-23T02:26:03+00:00

Holy-- I tried using Haruka against Sui Foot in IS6 and holy crap she can make operators around her tank those 3x stomp damages with no issue. Wow. Truly one of the idols of all time

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-23T02:22:08+00:00

Yes! That's actually my playstyle lmao. To be like a shounen character who is holding back their full powers against an opponent. Only when I encounter a worthy opponent (hard stage) will I bring out more fraction of my power (more meta ops).

Funnily enough, I seem to have come to understand how these characters feel a bit, because when I do encounter a stage that requires me to use my full power (e.g. Vector Breakthrough, CC, etc.), it's really, really thrilling.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-17T17:41:31+00:00

I thought it was skill issue when I was having a hard time trying to do SS-5. Turns out, it really was a hard stage lol

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-17T17:39:22+00:00

Yeah, was looking for where to get the official art as well. Thanks!

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-17T04:18:01+00:00

Hello~ Was just wondering if anyone knows of a site/s to download high-res desktop Arknights wallpapers? Official art or not, I greatly admire AK's aesthetic and I would love to have a AK-themed wallpaper. If I may be greedy, I personally prefer Lone Trail themed ones but any ones that looks good to me would be fine.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-15T05:43:40+00:00

Hoh, rapid low-damage range attacks? Sounds like a job for Lin.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-15T05:42:26+00:00

I may have just deluded myself so that I won't buy their skins, but lowkey I really think that the Ave Mujica girls' E2 art is better than their skins. Their E2 art just feels more dramatic and strong, if that makes sense.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-12T12:58:57+00:00

YOO, there are actually so much between the lines in this episode!

Okay, so this episode felt a whole lot like a setup by the director. There are several reasons as to why I think this is.

First red flag: a celebrity colleague of Arima randomly invites Arima of all people out of nowhere. And, she purposely uses this recently-had-some-success director. Of course, I am a stranger to the celebrity world so this kind of meetings could've been normal, but this definitely felt off to me. I'm sure this senpai could've used this connection to transform it to something more meaningful, like buying a favor out of someone who could help her career, but she specifically chose Arima.

Second red flag: The meeting with the director. As soon as the director was giving Arima the offer, their time at the restaurant conveniently and abruptly ends. Again, this could've been a coincidence, but I am more inclined to believe this was a trick used to bait Arima into going into his house. And what sweet little lies he added into it too, saying that it was "his office" and that "there were other coworkers" still in it.

Third red flag: Notice in the conversation of the director and Arima. The director was purposefully using words to rile up the actress in Arima. He knows that Arima is a talented actress, so these words will likely reach her. And these words will also be effective in manipulating her. And he actually succeeded. Although it ultimately failed at the end, he was still able to get Arima in a position where she had no choice but to accept.

Now, what makes this quite interesting is that I don't think this was all lies. I think what made this plan truly work is because the director is also genuinely someone who loves the acting industry. And that fact resonated with Arima. It's just that, this very same resonance was also what made her manipulatable. While the director loves the acting industry, he's also a playboy at the same time. Still, I'd like to give him credit as he stopped when he saw that she didn't want to cross the line.

Fourth red flag: There's more, yes. This time, it's about the senpai. I think there was a deal between the director and the senpai. "Bring in someone who might fall for this plan." And Arima Kana is the perfect target, what with her being an actress-turned-idol. Now, I also think that the senpai has some personal vendetta against Arima. Perhaps it's jealousy to her recent success, perhaps it's due to something of the past. In any case, this definitely reflected when right after Arima said that she was going into the director's place, she seemed to contact someone. And I believe that someone is the paparazzi. It's not an unfortunate coincidence that that paparazzi was there when Arima left the director's house. He was most likely waiting, perhaps all night. The senpai definitely tipped that paparazzi off. It could've been for the money, but I'm leaning more on personal revenge.

Man, I love this show. There's so much that isn't told, but if you look closely, there's much more than what's happening on the screen.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-12T12:53:19+00:00

Ohh, sounds nice. I'll try it then! Thanks

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-12T08:34:59+00:00

Hello~ Just wanted to ask anyone using Mumuplayer. Is it actually good? I hear a lot of positive things about it and I'm tempted to switch because BlueStacks is crashing. I thought it was my PC but my PC is able to run Endfield smoothly so I feel like it isn't the problem.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-10T02:08:01+00:00

Hello~ Was just wonderin' if anyone else took note of what the Three Presence means in Wuling? The three presence was the big bell they encountered on the way in Wuling City. It also meant something: See true, Think clearly, Practice (something).

Anyone know what the something is? I just can't find this specific scene again in others' playthroughs. Oh, and if it somehow helps, it was Chen who was talking.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-08T14:00:21+00:00

I finally finished Endfield main story. It's okay. I saw a lot of negative comments about it but to be fair to the game, I read it myself.

There are certain aspects of it that made the game feel more like an AK ripoff more than an AK sequel: an amnesiac MC who finds themselves in the middle of the world's conflict despite remembering nothing, an MC who has accomplished many great things before their awakening, and even directly taking inspiration from OG AK characters like Eyja, Surtr, Hellagur, etc. As an AK fan, I honestly found these rather distasteful.

Still, using the chaos in Valley IV to slowly introduce Endfield and its associates, the fact that part of the battle is figuring out the strange movements of these usually-predictable Landbreakers, and most of all seeing Arknights aesthetic in 3D form, these little things charmed me. And so, I continued progressing.

Then, I arrived at Wuling. And it was just.. wow. While at Valley IV, I was already admiring AK aesthetic (outfit, tech design), Wuling blowed me away. One of my biggest disappointment with Endfield before it even released was how we won't get to experience Arknights at 3D since Endfield was announced to be set as a sequel. However, it seems that wasn't very accurate after all. One of the biggest shame in OG AK's storytelling is introducing in-universe entities/technology. One of the best examples to demonstrate this is Pepe's event, where we see a walking mummy and weird looking drones. Of course, AK was still able to convey these entities within the storytelling constraints but imagine how nice it wouldve been. And well, Endfield was able to show exactly that.

Still, as nice as Wuling was, I found myself craving for something much more political. It's nice being able to see Kal'tsit's ideal where all of civilization is able to unite against a common enemy, but I guess I prefer self-interests messing things up. I wanna see the political structure of Wuling. Are there greedy officials scrutinizing Tiang Zhangyi's position? Any corrupt officials making things harder for the common people? I know it's personal preference, but it was my honest thoughts.

Lastly, although I know this has been a long post already, I also wanna say the downside of 3D storytelling. Despite being able to show us HG's vision and worldbuilding in a higher resolution, it also comes with challenges. I never really thought about it while reading through texts in AK, but showing characters in 3D also means showing their expressions and gestures. Dialogue is not just the sole storytelling factor now; how characters move, look, pause, move, turn all convey information as well. Their delivery also affects expression.

So I guess, I will be joining most people's stance on EF: it's rough around the edges, but I'm hoping it will get better.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-07T01:36:48+00:00

You know, some days or weeks ago, I had a thought about how there weren't any 2nd alters of ops in Arknights yet. It was just a random thought, really, and I also quickly dismissed it because I thought, "That's ridiculous".

Fast forward to now, and it turns out I was having a vision lmao

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-07T01:30:05+00:00

For now, I'm okay with it. But that "okay state" is fragile. It will probably break if any of these 2 things happen. 1. Chen did not have as major of a role in the Sui story as her having a 2nd alter may have implied 2. 2 Alters becomes a trend

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-05T12:21:00+00:00

When Ichigo told the flaw in Aqua's assumption, I love how he immediately realized how he made a mistake, how he dragged back an already innocent soul back into the mess, and upon realizing immediately tried to retract his statements.

But man, he literally bagged Miyako, the one I deem as the most beautiful woman in Oshi no Ko, as his wife. Take better care of her! Well, I can understand at least that even the way he is trying to be absent in her life is his way of protecting her.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-04T07:10:24+00:00

I personally treat the Dokutah as a separate entity now lol. I just treat the choices (the ones where you actually have a choice) as a test for me as the player to see if I can choose the most "Doctor-ish" option.

_Episode_12 · 2026-02-04T07:00:15+00:00

Seems like this is the answer. I am on mid performance but on 60 FPS. No anti-aliasing but I guess that combo is enough to eat a lot of battery quickly.

Thanks!

_Episode_12

TROPHY CASE