#is4

[harlequin-wheels]

bye is4

[oltammefru]

A lot of the (non-ending) IS4 stages don't really exist diegetically or in a way acknowledged by the story, but are merely just there for gameplay. In contrast to this, not only does Illusions in the Sand exist diegetically within the story of IS4, we know exactly who designed it in-universe, because there is in fact an in-universe character that designed the stage that imo is the worst stage in the entirety of Arknights.

YOU

Local Banshee designs "worst stage ever" asked to leave Rhodes Island Elite Op.

Please never let this man cook ever again.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

The Sentinel Dance

If you've ever wanted to know why Sentinel is generally considered the hardest IS4 boss in the game, this is at least part of it. Bro is just moving wherever he wants

[lanymme]

I gotta be honest. I don’t think I like IS4 anymore.

It’s always had some really frustratingly steep and specific checks, and a lot of killer stages, and I think it can be punishing in a way that’s not really fun. But it does have some really cool mechanics like foldartals and the bosky passage. And the Encounters are much better than they’ve ever been.

But I think this new update has pushed it beyond a mixed bag into active dislike.

I truly don’t understand what the mode wants from me now, or how it expects me to meet the extreme challenges it constantly puts forward. I regularly feel that I have no chance for victory and no idea how to solve the problems presented to me in a way I’ve never been made to feel previously in this mode.

[fylwertastic]

Trapped In White Walls

[superheavyloadermech]

Chongyue Tiles

[firebornamari]

There's so many goddamn ghosts in this resort

[the-cornuthaum]

IS4, preliminary impressions

significantly harder than IS3 on a per-map basis initially; almost all maps have at least one mean gimmick to fuck you with that you will probably counterpick or prepare for in the future once you know all the maps

much meaner enemies in general. is3 mostly just had stat sticks but not so much in terms of special abilities, while you will totally run into some of the more technically complex enemies from the last year in IS4 (I'm looking at you, surprise monster hunter enemies)

much better skill expression in play. the foldartal system is so, so goddamn good like holy shit I love it so much

oh yeah the same is true for the Index because you can choose information clarity of what's ahead vs. lateral connectors to squeeze in more fights

no more ending RNG holy shit they did it

so far I don't think there's been a single thing that was really negative, at most there's the annoyance of gimmicky "haha, gotcha" maps that kill you the first time you run into them... but that's absolutely nothing compared to the light system and particularly nothing as bad as metastatic aberration

[starlitsister]

After getting 4 wins in IS4 now from difficulties 0-3 I genuinely cannot understand the stupid ass decision they made to force us to start on difficulty 0 with -40% rewards (and very importantly, tree upgrades) when there's genuinely no meaningful difficulty change between those 4 difficulties at all and difficulty 3 is the real baseline difficulty of the mode which is easier than difficulty 0 because of all the buffs you get. It all just ends up with the start of IS4 being us getting our teeth kicked in for scraps of XP, for literally no reason other than the devs decided to gate getting more XP behind winning a few times, which for most people takes farming some XP first...

[joyeeuxe]

THEY ARE GIVING THE PORTAL IN THE NORTH AS A FURNITURE LMAOOO

[oarfishfever]

i kind of cant believe this worked; i absolutely scuffed this harder than i needed to

i am however justified in my decision to try and spark chalter next summer banner, this girl still dumb as hell

[itsmearia]

IS4 question: In IS3 I enjoyed trying to make attempts with the "if life points are 1, get <bonus>" collectibles. This node seems like it'd make those attempts not work so should I just not fill this node?

[oltammefru]

There's this one detail in the IS4 floor4 stage "Collapsals' Afternoon" I fucking love.

Specifically the part of the stage where Collapsed Constructs begin flying from one end of the map to the other in intricateish patterns.

Now what's up with that?

They're fucking birds now. After spending too long witnessing The Horrors and having their programming overwritten and having gained something like sentience they've decided actually being a Beachbrella icefield surveillance drone sucks shit I Want To Be A Bird And Fly Around In Patterns With My Buddies Now. And became birds they did.

[waitingongravity]

While I'm a little sad that my usual IS3 starting team (Texas, Jaye, and Bloopy. Seriously they've never let me down) is not applicable in IS4, I really appreciate how Integrated Strategies makes you consider operators that you may have replaced over time or simply looked over. Cantabile has been very fun to use, for instance.

That being said, I'm still just winging it I have no idea what a good starting team looks like for Sami.

[lanymme]

So far my time with IS4 has been pretty good. The aesthetic is cool, foldartals are an incredible mechanic, I like all the basic mechanics and in a lot of ways feel like it's an improvement from IS3.

However. There's some really fucked-up shit in this game mode.

I have some minor complaints, like how so many stages feel like hard checks for specific operators, or how a bunch of the early stages feel extremely unfair and can be pretty much unwinnable depending on your starting conditions.

I really want to talk about the Bosky Passage though. Yesterday I lost a run to it because it dropped my deployment count to 2, and did not inform me of this before I chose a stage with two blue box paths that regularly drained the health of your operators.

This is, frankly, unacceptable game design. I had zero counterplay for this stage, and no way of predicting what it would be. I can accept having to deal with tough conditions for some extra stage rewards. I can understand harsh, restrictive conditions that demands difficult choices.

Not giving you the information on what has changed feels like poor game design. Straight-up.

There might be something I'm missing in this equation, but as it stands to me now, this is a pretty serious black mark on the mode.

[seijatachiis]

i love is4!! i love leaking 5 enemies on the first stage bc my op died and i have no healer then being locked into emergency ops and having everyone die and leaking everything!!! i love is4 SO much guys you dont understand