#meteorite module

[miku-module-showdown]

Brilliant Butterfly VS Meteorite

[sparkys-voca-corner]

[aftokrator-official]

for reference, sarkaz ops I already have at E2: Vigna, Flamebringer, Mudrock, Hoederer, Typhon, Shining, Ines (don't @ me she's culturally sarkaz so i say she counts. and relying entirely on poor Vigna for vanguarding is unfun lmao)

do not have: Surtr, Nightingale, W

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

How the Arknights Community was Wrong on One of Arknight's Most Powerful Classes

Or, alternatively, you all need to apologize to Rosmontis right now.

Flingers are experiencing a modern Renaissance right now. Thanks to the release of Wis'adel and the introduction of Rosmontis's absolutely busted IS module, it seems like things are on the up and up for Flingers. Even Greyy the Lightningbearer is a common sight in high level IS runs, and he doesn't even have a broken module.

How on Earth did this happen, when it wasn't very long ago that Flingers were the butt and punchline of their own joke?

The Original Let's start with how the archetype was introduced into the game: Rosmontis. Rosmontis was released alongside Mudrock for the Chapter 8 release event, and the reception was pretty mixed. Rosmontis was a limited operator, and to this point, limited operators in Arknights had been pretty middling. Nian wasn't really conclusively better than Hoshiguma, and W was good but nothing special. We were not at the point yet where Dusk or Skadi the Corrupting Heart had been released, so the running joke was typically to roll on the other operator on a limited banner. Mudrock was a really strong laneholder that still sees a lot of use today, and Weedy is by far the strongest shifter operator ever released.

It's also worth noting that Rosmontis was released during a general downturn of opinions on AoE ranged operators. Leonhardt and Meteorite were considered actually quite strong in the early days of Arknights, and I know this must sound crazy, but Mostima and W were actually super hyped for their release. People thought Mostima, base-ass Mostima with no modules, was good. But after CC Blade, and a general stint of CCs where AoE operators made relatively poor performances, the tide had shifted. Operators like Eyjafjalla and Angelina (god remember when Angelina was considered really good. Well I guess she is now. Regardless) had AoE capabilities but were much cheaper in DP and had solid secondary skills for dealing with single enemies. So people were generally pretty down on AoE operators, which wasn't helped later on by the release of Passenger, an operator considered so bad it resulted in several attempts by Hypergryph to make him better (the retrospective view is that while Passenger was bad, he was made out to be a lot worse than he was, a view I agree with).

These two factors did not help the views of Rosmontis as an operator, but it was also further not helped by what content was available to use Rosmontis in: Contingency Contract. Rosmontis, tragically, released after the first theme of Integrated Strategies came and went, and so the only high level content available to use her in was CC. CC is particularly harsh to Flingers as we'll discuss, but this is also something that Wis'adel has managed to avoid as there hasn't been a CC since her release. The only difficult content since Wis'adel's release has been IS and RA, two game modes that honestly favor Flingers as we'll discuss later on. There was just nowhere to use Rosmontis in more difficult content where she didn't feel bad.

Flingers are a pretty interesting subclass, and Arknights has really not designed any subclasses to be like them, ultimately. They have a very impressive attack range, higher bulk than other ranged operators, and a unique gimmick to their attacks: they will deal an additional hit of damage, but one that only has 50% of their ATK. In addition to this, Flingers are the only Sniper subclass that cannot hit aerial enemies without certain conditions being met (Wis'adel's S3, Rosmontis S3 with an aerial blocker).

In general, this results in a class that is very good at dealing with large groups of enemies with only modest DEF stats. This is because DEF ends up having an increased effect on Rosmontis' damage, because it will apply to both of her hits. An enemy with 375 DEF will, after the 175 Def ignore from her talent, reduce her attack damage by a total of 400.

This for a lot of people was sort of the final straw that broke the Rosmontis back. Her vulnerability to enemies having DEF was a problem, and it was generally stated to be in a way that other DPS checks would avoid. In addition, if we take a look at ideal DPS scenarios with the introductory 6-star for each Sniper class:

Ray: 1,346.22 Narantuya: 1,062 Schwarz: 880.28 Exusiai: 815.99 Chen the Holungday: 647.17 Rosmontis: 601.71 Fartooth: 583.88 Rosa: 539 W: 373.93

Rosmontis is very middle of the pack, losing in particular to Exusiai. Now, Exusiai also had the problem of being very soft to enemy DEF stats. Honestly, it should be noted that Rosmontis was always hitting higher DPH than Exusiai would for her normal attack damage.

(I've been getting really into Desmos lately)

Now this is all just auto-attack stuff and I don't want this to be exclusively a Rosmontis analysis by any means (although it's coming). The point here is that there was a pretty common conception that Rosmontis didn't really have a place in the meta, because Exusiai was so dominant in that spot. It's not hard to understand why. If we look at their S3 DPS really quickly...

At low DEF values, Exusiai is overdominant. This isn't super surprising, as she has a lot of factors working in her favor: a busted 5 hit S3, an attack interval reduction as well as a sizable ASPD buff from her talent. But it doesn't take a huge amount of defense for Rosmontis to come out on top. The specific DEF number is 580, roughly. Then, the perks of Rosmontis's S3 come to light: it's larger DEF ignore, it's halved attack interval, and it's much larger ATK buff.

This being said, there are still things working against Rosmontis, like her skill cycle being very long, and her own ATK buff resulting in Warfarin's buff being diluted compared to Exusiai. If you take a look at CC results, it is true that Rosmontis only has one top to her name: CC Spectrum, where she is part of a Risk 31 clear alongside Exusiai, which is pretty cool. But CCs, which often increase enemy DEF while reducing friendly ATK, are just very harsh to Flingers. Given that it is a class so sensitive to DEF and ATK changes to hit breakpoints, most CCs just hit Rosmontis in a double bind.

Funnily enough, Exusiai also doesn't have any top clears in CC past this point too, which is interesting to point out.

(For those counting: Rosmontis: CC5 Exusiai: CC1, CC5)

Rosmontis' position probably wasn't helped past this point by the release of Chen the Holungday either, and the rest is history. Rosmontis goes down as one of the weaker 6-stars in the game. People feel bad when they roll her. People on this website nurse weird ass grudges against her.

The Blip

It would be remiss of me to not remind people about Greyy the Lightningbearer. Greyy was a 5-star, which means that 99% of players ignored his existence, Gamepress made a dogshit summary about him that was made by people who don't play the game, and life moved on. We're going to talk about Greyy in more detail later on because he is important to talk about...

Oh well right now

Lone Trail: The Update That Should Have Changed Everything

Lone Trail was a super massive event, releasing three 6-stars that can be kindly regarded as "good but nothing amazing, bad, and my wife". It also introduced to the game the Flinger Modules, and I'm going to tell you all a secret. You and me, real close now.

It's fucked up these modules didn't receive more hype.

These modules gave Flingers a second shockwave hit. Now that doesn't seem all that impressive. After all, you might think to yourself, that shockwave still deals 50% damage. But the addition of an extra shockwave really changed the numbers of the game, because it meant a huge chunk more damage.

At minimum (673 DEF roughly) this module improves her damage by about 45%. That's pretty crazy for a module as it stands, but if you want to see the full chart, here you go. Arknights Youtubers hire me.

The extremely high peak there, where Rosmontis is doing more than triple the damage she was originally is actually getting to the exact point where Rosmontis without a module moves towards dealing scratch damage. This is pretty common with modules involving physical DPS operators, such as Blaze, to have very unique high points.

But this is 45% just off of, what is essentially

An extra shockwave

60 more points of DEF Ignore

+75 ATK attribute

This is a remarkably tame talent upgrade. The base effect, the second shockwave, is pulling so much work here. These numbers will be a bit more tame when you compare with S2 (already comes with +2 shockwaves) or S3 (already has some DEF shred) but this is still a very impactful module.

It also impacts the stun chance on her S2. Without her module, and having 4 total hits per attack, this puts her stun chance at roughly 59.04% per attack. The additional hit raises those chances to 67.232%. Not a massive increase, but it does help to patch up her odds.

This is also why Greyy's module was so important. Greyy's slow is tied to his talent, and hence the jump from 2 hits to 3 hits is very notable. Without his module, Greyy has a 64% chance to slow the enemy with every attack. With his module, those chances go up to 78.4%! That's pretty significant! He also deals 15% more damage to Slowed enemies too, which is a pretty strong mod on top of the extra shockwave. I haven't actually done Greyy's numbers, but it really does make him a lot more consistent at slowing enemies.

So now we're here, with Flinger's getting a surprisingly good module. They now deal 3 hits per attack, with Rosmontis dealing 5 hits per attack with her S2, which is actually relevant for Lone Trail (Rosmontis can remove a clean 250 DEF with every one of her attacks during her S2 against Arc Screenguards). So what happened?

Well...Flingers weren't popular, were widely regarded as a flawed class, and mostly passed over. It just wasn't worth it to people to raise Rosmontis or Greyy the Lightningbringer even if you had some inkling their module was good.

The Return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm

A miracle the likes of which Hypergryph may never do again...well okay maybe they will, they do be kind of nailing it on the alternate gamemodes, we have the return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm. These modes are actually uniquely situated in comparison to CC to benefit Flingers over other classes. This is largely because of how these modes chose to scale difficulty and the tools they give you to combat this.

In IS, enemy difficulty typically results in scaling HP and ATK buffs, and that's it. It's rare to see enemy DEF buffs in IS. In addition, many relics in IS focus on increasing ATK or ASPD or improving damage dealt. Flingers get much and much better when they deal damage with their shockwaves, and it is pretty easy to do that in IS. Rosmontis's S2 is of special note here: with her module, it deals 5 hits of damage, which means it benefits from ATK buffs to the same degree as Exusiai does, but with a lot of added perks. DEF ignore, a moderate AoE radius, and a chance to stun. This skill is way more dangerous with additional ASPD.

Greyy also benefits a ton here. Extra ASPD allows him to basically permanently lock down entire groups of enemies with slow. This is something that can also sort of be done with Chain Casters, but notably, Chain Casters can only slow down a certain number of enemies at a time with each of their attacks. Since slowed enemies tend to create clusters, Greyy can slow down entire waves of enemies with his attacks, while still dealing pretty impressive damage.

The only issue is the aerial enemies. I haven't mentioned this up until now, because in my opinion, it is the single most overhyped drawback in the entire game. There are tons of events and chapter releases where this basically doesn't matter. Aerial enemies are, for all intents and purposes, rather rare in Arknights. But in IS this is important. Flingers need some degree of map knowledge to use well. But your Sniper ticket is not necessarily the only solution to aerial enemies in any IS, and chances are you'll find more than one. For IS3, you can pick up Kroos Alter and Rosmontis and in the grand majority of situations be completely fine.

Of course, if you play IS5, this basically isn't an issue and Rosmontis is the second stronger Flinger in the game, and I think arguably the second strongest Sniper pick?

I almost forgot RA by the time I went to post this, so it's a good thing I went back because, yes, Flingers and Rosmontis are also good there too. It's literally designed for Flingers to be good, it's huge mobs of enemies all clustered closely around each other. You can use Provisions to give Rosmontis a ton of ATK or ASPD and watch her go ham on like 115 exploding spiders. They also have amazing range for vision on resource maps and have multi-hit mechanics for those stupid locks.

It's like, impressive how nicely Flingers slot in here. I'm really curious how Greyy feels when you give him one of the ASPD provisions so he has +60 ASPD.

Rosmontis CRAVES your Coagulate Supplements!!!!

The End-Times: Wis'adel and Rosmontis's Busted Module

If you've ever wanted to know how we got to this renaissance, it was Wis'adel being released, having absolutely busted numbers on her kit that basically ensured that her shockwaves would always do damage, and then going and soloing IS3 A15 like it was fucking nothing.

Wis'adel proved Flingers could be fucking fantastic.

Rosmontis has actual problems in her kit, she's ultimately a pretty early Limited operator with all the design choices that carries. Wis'adel is what you get when you ask "how far can a Flinger go?" The shockwave mechanic works well with her huge numbers and her shadow status effect. Her summons work to keep as many enemies as possible attached with a shadow. Her blast radius is massive. Honestly the fact she can blow up the UFOs in IS3 barely matters.

Soon after that, Rosmontis got her specialized Module. I've seen people complain about this. You're wrong. There's no fucking way this module should be allowed to be used in general content. It is, in fact, maybe the most busted specialized module they've released. It completely changes Rosmontis as an operator. Benefitting from Caster relics is insane for themes like IS3 which has a ton of genuinely broken ones, her new and improved equipment are insanely powerful, and the fact that she allows every Sniper and Caster to create a free rather tanky blocker with a crazy debuff effect is like

You understand this module is nuts? Surely?

The trait wouldn't really make Rosmontis meta anyhow. It would improve her damage by a lot but puts her, rather frustratingly, into the camp of mixed offensive operators who now have to worry about enemy RES values coming into play. Plenty of the enemies with decent DEF stats that Rosmontis struggles with now also come with sizable RES stats. As I've mentioned in my brief thoughts on Dagda, there are a ton of enemies Dagda hits harder by brute force than Indra does by trying to side-step the bigger stat.

It's also okay that the module is IS only, because IS is where Flingers are just at their best. Nothing is stopping you from using Rosmontis in general content, especially with her still really good BOM-X module!

Flingers, ultimately, are just a well-designed class. They have great range, AoE, and having extra instances of damage is always incredibly powerful. I do think Rosmontis has some kit issues, but I also think that a lot of people immediately dismissed her as bad based on community consensus. You want to know a cool thing about Rosmontis I haven't brought up yet? She can attack invisible enemies with her S3. Invisible enemies feel a lot more common than aerial enemies do, hell Lappland the Decadenza's event is literally a bunch of invisible enemies.

But like, that's never seen as a positive to Rosmontis unless you're a Sniperknights player and then you might just say Totter is better (and I get that, he is a bit more consistent). Rosmontis can hit an entire enemy type with her S3 that Wis'adel can't, but it's seemingly never mentioned. It's just...this community is very strange, you know?

Try Rosmontis out, hell try her out with Shamare or Warfarin. If you use Exusiai a bunch (godspeed soldier it's been rough since the Chen days), you probably already have those operators. Try Greyy out too. Then, if you really want the challenge, E0 Level 1 Wis'adel. Come on. You know that's better than like half the cas-

[a-merciful-end]

@its-not-an-s

Conner lands on the surface of a brand new planet much further than he's ever been from earth before, the ground around him rippling and shaking from the impact much like it would if a meteorite hit the planet. He stands up and pushes his round framed sunglasses up, his bright red and blue costume with the black leather jacket and his family emblem on the chest makes him stand out no matter what planet he's on. He had gone as far as holding his breath in space could possibly get him and truth be told he wanted to brag but wasn't sure if that would be impressive to anyone here so he decides to keep quiet about it until he can go back home

Out from the tree line an armor clad woman appears. She’s holding some source of light. It’s like a sword.

“State your business!” She barks. Her voice modulate through the helmet she’s wearing.

[honourablejester]

Deep Carbon Observatory (Remastered) (OSR)

I was idly watching youtube reviews for various OSR modules (because honestly some of the adventure ideas are bonkers), and I was so fascinated by the description of one particular module that I went and bought it.

That module was Deep Carbon Observatory (Remastered) by Patrick Stuart & Scrap Princess. And. Look. I’m going to burble about this in extremely spoilery fashion under the cut, because this dungeon? Is fantastic, and the concept behind it is eating my brain.

The basic concept of the module is that you start in a badly flooded town downstream of a titanic ancient dam built by a civilisation no one knows or remembers that lived upriver somewhere around 2000 years ago. The dam has recently broken, flooding out everything below it between it and the sea, and emptying what used to be the reservoir lake above it to expose an entrance to … something. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to venture upriver, racing other teams of explorers all the while, through the flooded Drowned Lands below the Dam, somehow through the barrier of the Dam itself, and then through the strange alien landscape of the Profundal Zone, where the lake used to be, to find out what lies in that strange, newly-exposed Pit.

There are people with theories, prophets and scholars, who have ideas. There are some indications in the Dam and in the lake valley as you go. But the final dungeon, the Deep Carbon Observatory itself, is …

I love it. I love the concept of this dungeon so much. It’s so imaginative in a way that I really vibe with. If you like geology, caving, Deep Time, archaeology, it’s so good.

SPOILERS. The Deep Carbon Observatory is, as it sounds, an observatory. Hanging upside down across a pair of linked stalactites in the roof of an incomprehensible cavern over the vast blackness beneath. And the lens of said observatory, formed of extra-solar minerals that fell to earth in a meteorite, allows you to see through stone.

The Deep Carbon Observatory is a massive observation point, trading post and treasure vault that allowed an ancient civilisation to see into and trade with the vast strange empires in the stone underneath the world. There is a clock, in one of the rooms of the Observatory, that shows a cut-away hemisphere of the world and what lies within it, and I’m just going to quote it, because it’s amazing:

“The south wall holds a gigantic semi-metallic hemisphere showing the onion-rings of the world.

It starts at the iron core, home of the serious hells, then shows the outer core where the terrestrial sub-plains of fire reside, then the mantle with the numerous lesser hells.

Next is the Mohorovičić discontinuity, placed there in ages past by the Lich-Saint Hans Mohorovičić to separate the normal world from the threats below.

After that, the hemisphere shows the crust with continents and subducted plates, the Isles of the Imprisoned Moon, the Nightmare Sea, the Veins of the Earth, the Parliament of Orphan Moons, the inter-penetrating dungeon zones and then a smear of blue for the oceans.

The clock is moving, just incredibly slowly.”

This is … such an amazing pile of world-building to build directly into the concept of your dungeon. It does have treasure, some absolutely spectacular treasure, but the point of this dungeon is knowledge. Knowledge of an ancient civilisation and what killed it (more on this later), knowledge of the history and geology of the world, and current information on the goings on of the civilisations beneath the stone. Because the lens is, at least for a little while, still active. You can use it.

The dungeon is laid out across two stalactites dangling into the abyss, with some rooms above both of them linking to the surface. If you descend through one of the stalactites, you eventually reach the mechanisms and the lens of the observatory itself. If you descend through the other, from the massive winch-hall at the top through the trade halls beneath, following the massive Nightingale Chain, you’ll eventually penetrate out into that abyss, and can venture into the strange dark realms beneath. The Chain used to operate a trade elevator for that purpose.

It's so cool. There are such strange things in this ancient abandoned observation post, such eldritch things, because the things down there are weird, and these people brought some of them up here. And, um. Would you like to guess why this ancient, decadent, opulent, slave-owning society of underworld traders abruptly locked their observatory and flooded the whole damn valley above it to make sure nothing could get in or come out ever again? And were so damaged by the effort that they vanished so completely that 2000 years on no one knows who the hell they were anymore?

Yeah. There are several weird things down here, and one very particular large thing down here that, uh. Would very much like to kill you and everything above you until its finally sated. So.

But. The concept of this dungeon. I’m going slightly insane about it. It’s so scientific, in such a bonkers fantasy fashion. There are treasures and monsters, yes, things to kill and raid, but behind all that there is science. There’s an observation point that lets you see into the earth. There is information, maps and instruments and geological samples and eldritch information storage. The dungeon is not a tomb or a fortress, it’s an observatory. Dangling inside a stalactite above a vast Deep Time abyss of stone and fantasy and hells. It’s a scientific station. It has rock cores of nightmare fossils, it has a magical map that tracks the subduction of continents, it has an eldritch lens that lets you see through stone to vast subterranean cities and nations and biomes. It has a chain that would let you expedition downwards.

One of the first books I ever read for myself, gotten out of the library at seven years old, was Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’. Okay? This dungeon is like a high-grade drug to me. What a concept.

This is an OSR module, designed for early D&D clone systems, but if someone ran a 5e conversion, I so want to go down there as like …

I want to say a warlock? I want Eyes of the Rune Keeper so badly. I want to be able to read all this scientific information, and the language of the Dam-Builders, while there are NPCs who have some grasp of it, is still a barrier to understanding. So. Possibly a warlock. Or a knowledge cleric or wizard with Eldritch Adept. It’s for a party of level 3-5 in OSR terms, not sure how that’d map to 5e, but assuming somewhere around 4th level? I want to build a full archaeologist type character.

One of the suggested hooks for your character, by the way, is the following: “Hollow Earth Theorist. THE WORLD IS A HOLLOW SPHERE! YOUR THEORY PROVES IT! Yet you have received only mockery in response. You believe final proof lies in the mountains somewhere upriver of Carrowmore. You WILL penetrate the Hollow Earth!!!” Which. Yes. Yes I will.

I love the concept here. I love seeing a dungeon that isn’t just a retread of ‘necropolis complex’ or ‘enemy fortress’, that is something bonkers and scientific and cool. And, like. This carries over. The treasures you can find in here are weird and cool and quite a lot of them will do ill-advised and interesting things to your character’s brain. But it’s fine! Who doesn’t want to go mad in pursuit of knowledge?! Live a little!

I love this. Just to summarise here, to finish up. I love this dungeon. The concept is pitch-perfect. Absolutely no notes. Excellent idea is excellent.

[heretichromia]

Reductive endgame tier list.

Operators within a tier are just sorted by class. I'm not trying to argue that Cantabile is stronger than Młynar.

This tier list largely applies to endgame general content, which means things like Adverse Environment story stages, EX- or S-stage challenge modes, Trials for Navigator, risk 0-18 CC, and the like. It does not apply to high-risk Contingency Contract or Integrated Strategies, which would require entirely different lists.

This is also not a new player recommendation list. Several units on this list will not reach their tier without E2, masteries, or even modules (e.g. Gladiia), or without other units (e.g. Guard Skadi, who'll require at minimum Gladiia to achieve her real boss 1v1ing potential). New players, additionally, really don't need a fully kitted-out Flagpipe lineup when just Myrtle will do in most cases.

I'm open to argument about the placements of several of these operators. Some of them could easily raise or drop a tier or two, and their placement on these lists will always be pretty subjective. Operators not on the list aren't completely useless, and in fact might be recommended builds early game (e.g. Steward), but will be used by basically nobody once better options are available.

Some elaboration below the cut.

General Explanation of Tiers

Powerful generalists Operators who excel in basically all content. These alone are probably enough to beat every stage in the game by themselves. That doesn't mean operators from the lower tiers won't make your life easier, but it's almost never wrong to bring these guys, even in situations where they aren't optimal (and they're very frequently optimal). -

Powerful niche operators Extremely powerful units, though you will want to know why you're bringing them. Make sure you understand what they accomplish and how before you take them to a map, because they're less good at brute-forcing general content than the above tier. Several of these, like SilverAsh, Qiubai, and Penance are solid generalists as well, though they're a cut below the operators above in that regard when not used within their specific niches. -

Good generalists Like the top tier, just...not as good at it. They're still units who are fairly generally powerful and will serve you well in most stages. These operators are still frequently the best or close to the best at what they do, but that job just isn't as necessary as it used to be. As mentioned above, several operators from the above category also match or even exceed operators in this category. -

Solid niche operators Operators who are still optimal in some niche, but that niche just isn't as prevalent as the 2nd tier. That doesn't mean they aren't good. Shining is the single best unit at keeping a tank alive in the face of overwhelming physical damage. Irene provides useful crowd control and obscene burst damage. That said, if you're using them outside of their niches, they'll significantly underperform. -

Decent substitutions These operators are, generally speaking, inferior versions of operators in higher tiers who don't often excel beyond their counterparts in meaningful ways. However. Some of these, like Sussurro, are very close to the above operators in most circumstances. To fully replace Sussurro, you'd need a number of much more expensive medics. These operators, if cheaper, might end up being more valuable to you in the long run, as you'll be able to invest sooner in units where you'll get more significant gains. -

Usable It's difficult to recommend that anyone build most of these, unless they're the best options available to them. Meteorite or Ashlock or Ayerscarpe might very well be the strongest operators available to a new player, and they'd be right to build them in those cases. That said, an endgame player without any of these on their lineup will basically not feel it at all. In the very few cases where their niches are optimal, they can just bring them as a support unit if need be—or, in the case of Ethan in Invitation to Wine maps, as a low or zero-investment unit.

Further Commentary

I complained about Gamepress yesterday, so I figured I might as well try my hand at making a list myself. It's...not easy, obviously. Ranking operators comparatively in a game like this is pretty hard, unless you're comparing things that clearly belong at least two tiers apart.

The further down you go, the less confident I am with my placements. Many of the operators in the bottom tier I have limited hands-on experience with, and so I wasn't positive if they should belong in higher tiers, or just shouldn't belong on the list at all. A lot of it was just me extrapolating from what I think they could be used for given their kits.

Hellagur, W, and Rosmontis were operators I have used, but agonized way too much over their placements. Really, I think they're a cut above the operators they're grouped with, but I'm not sure if they belong with the "solid niche" crowd. Conversely, Cliffheart, Enforcer, and Stainless are operators who are invaluable in challenge runs or high-risk Contingency Contract, but are considerably less useful in general content, so I fear I may have ranked them too highly.

Edit 1: Moved Ebenholz and Myrtle up a tier. Myrtle's cheap cost due to easy potentials means she's just as if not more powerful than Elysium for most players. Also moved Meteorite up a tier. She was in the lowest tier by mistake, despite being very helpful for newer players without solid AoE options. Sorry, Meteorite.

[lizalfosrise]

New AK ask. What region (Columbia, Sargon, Kazdel, etc) do you want to learn more about the most? Who do you think we should be following in an event that explores it?

Ooh this is a neat one, yeah. Let's start with considering those 3 first as there's certainly things to say there.

Columbia - We still have Lonetrail yet to drop and any further storyline following that for the Rhine Lab arc, plus there's now the upcoming Blacksteel Worldwide event Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures to give us further exploration.

I want them to free Domma from NPC jail but that might require a Mountain Alter-worthy event :/ Orchid, Frostleaf or Vigna might have more potential there.

Sargon - We have the Acahualla storyline that may get a third event, and now Reclamation Algorithm: Fire Within the Sand has provided an expansion of the Sand Soldier/Old Isin section of Walk in the Dust story. Manticore gets some story time from that one too, which was nice to see.

A look at Beeswax getting to do her own thing more confidently might be fun, but then personally I'd be more down for something following adorably-precious Estelle who has been given snippets so far of her getting through her anxieties and dealing with that 'being seen as a battle goddess' moment. That IS2 mapping with the Archosauria trio was perfect, we need more.

Kazdel - This would be interesting since they only ever showcased it as cold, snow-covered ruins until that one scene in Episode 11 of the capital that repeatedly got destroyed and rebuilt. Most of the related cast are major players of the main story Act 2, whether as NPCs unlikely to join or Operators resolving certain threads and fates.

(Playable Closure is so close yet just out of reach...) Hoederer might be a good solo event candidate as a What the F... style interlude if we regroup with him in Episode 13. Or hey, Meteorite Alter please? She needs something after the whole 'traumatised by autopilot!Specter fighting' gag and her story with Firewatch... W Alter could be an Episode-related moment if that has any possibility.

Sami is going to be covered by IS4 and its coinciding vignette event for Typhon, Skógrinn Svartr Vill Einn Draumr. Aegir will likely be explored through the next installment of the Abyssal Hunters storyline.

We need events for Durin, Higashi, Rim Billiton and Minos for further explorations/catching up to other locales.

Seeing Croque and Deculture again would be great but not anything new Durin-wise so maybe we could have sleepyhead Durin visiting elsewhere. We don't particularly need a Myrtle Alter unless she's gonna be the Ultra-Super Flagbearer to show up Saileach...

So far Higashi has effectively been vaguely explained as doing their own thing and one additional loadscreen lore tidbit established how they curbstomped Ursus trying to invade. The recent Leaves Chasing Fire/A Flurry to the Flame Monster Hunter collab featured a rather isolated mountain village, as MonHun is wont to do. My picks for a lead would be: Matoimaru, Tsukinogi and Utage. Overlooked launch unit, niche Supporter, and cute gyaru needs justice for that damn module 'Talent'.

For a Rim Billiton event it could center on April and/or Savage; Ansel; Asbestos on her solo travels. Getting to the bottom of either the incident in Kroos the Keen Glint's past or Popukar's Lumberyard would be neat too.

And Minos - Sideroca or Perfumer Lena, I'd like. They need some appreciation. Rather little to work with compared to others, so yeah we really need some kind of story there.

[aresmarked]

oooh can i request a little ramble about firewatch?

i don't know why i can't find it now but i know i posted about how meteorite and firewatch's trust lines are more about each other than themselves, which wraps around to being about them again. i'm obsessed. anyway.

it speaks volumes that firewatch's module is about a tale in which she clearly sees herself. that the part beyond the source for her vengeance is burnt. only she knows how that tale went. who can say how hers will go? she probably sees herself as another in this cycle, and is ready to spend her life. the question is, does she see it as defiance or embracement?

[ashton-ryder]

"The world's up there too," he nodded his chin up towards the sky they looked at. It looked like Aspen would agree though, enamored by the beauty above as Ashton always did. Hopefully she wouldn't make the same mistake he did looking up and walking as a kid. ..he doesn't talk about the number of things he ran straight into for not looking at where he was going. "Plenty to look at, doubt we could ever run out." Every second the earth spinning to reveal new parts of the universe, who could ever get bored?

He chuckled at the idea of anything he says sounding like poetry, "sounds like I should've taught poetry at NYU instead then." The arts wasn't his strong suit, any form of it really. Not without a lot of tries from his mother back then while they looked for an interest for him, he just had more affinity on a pair of skates and hitting things with a hockey stick. "It's just a sobering food for thought I usually started my freshmen module with. Freshmen are always too cocky."

Ash paused at the request before laughing with an apology, perhaps simply assuming she'd smile and nod and move past it, not expecting her to be genuinely interested in the topic, "sorry- Eta Aquarids is the name of the meteor shower, named after that Aquarius constellation," he tried to at least vaguely point in the direction of the constellation before he calmly continued, "meteorites are just broken off rocks, dust and debris from large space rocks, this one comes from Halley's Comet. We sometimes pass through their orbits and thus we see the meteor showers as the debris enter our atmosphere. This one during the peak you'll hafta stay up past 3am though." Ash glanced back to add, "there are also meteor showers named after the Cancer and Taurus constellations too."

"I dunno at the world." There was always something to grab her attention at ground level, in fact, nothing held her attention long before something else would steal it away, and thus maybe she'd never had the chance to look up. Now that she had, though, it was definitely a direction she was going to spend a lot of time looking. Though, probably mostly at night. Day time just seemed boring when all you'd be likely to see was clouds.

"That was like a poem." She couldn't help but glance over at him with a little smile before returning her gaze back to the night sky. Truly it seemed like there was endless things to look at, attention never having to hold long because another twinkle, another cluster, was there to pull her focus in such a glorious way. She'd even already made her wish before he'd agreed she should try, wishing for Anora to never leave her, in the same passing way that came with knowing it was already true.

Brows rising as her gaze once more skipped back to his face, they rested high on her forehead as she tried to comprehend the string of words that just came out of his mouth. "Okay in English this time? All I got is meteor shower in a few days, and I'm SO here for that. I dunno about Aquarius, though, I'm a Cancer. I think my Dad was a Tarus."

[miku-module-showdown]

Anode Electronica (left) VS Meteorite (right)

[doodlebug-posting]

why are you here?

Where? Like... On PNF-404?

Took a nasty hit from a meteorite a little ways away from this system. Decided to stop in orbit for a while to do some repairs, but halfway through I started losing altitude. No idea why... but something tells me it wasn't a natural occurrence.

Anyhow, ship crashed. It's a modular freight ship, and of course most of the modules detached on the way down. It's flight-capable, only needed minimal repairs, but of course I'd really rather retrieve a good amount of cargo before trying to leave, which is absolutely still a work in progress.

I'm doing pretty well for myself, though, and Destiny seems to love the environment, so I'd say it isn't all bad!

[mariverses]

i have many characters but who's good.....

ok you have some Really Good units actually. i won't have you throw your team upside down, i'll just give my suggestions for some good units and utility! you can assemble how you like it. lappland, suzuran and meteorite i said are already really good!!!! and since you said about steward and phantom..........

phantom maay have been powercrept but he is not bad. his clone gives him unique flexibility. the only problem is that he can get expensive with multiple redebloys but so can other operators.

steward's targeting talent is good, since he targets the most def-heavy enemies. which is what you want casters to do. he doesn't waste charges on trash mobs.

blue poison is a great sniper. can hit multiple targets and poison them which does arts damage over time. not very flexible generally since both her skills are similar but she is really fucking good at her job

poca is!!!! fire!! she kinda fell off since she is an old op but her module will make her relevant again.. she can do crowd-control and nuke heavy enemies out of existence

gitano is very practical. since her range can expand by a row she reaches spots that other aoe casters can't. she eats multiple high-def low-res enemies for breakfest. but her talent is rng and she is extremely expensive

pinecone is a great spreadshooter! she does great dps and her skill 1 is manual so you have a lot of flexibility with it. spreadshooters are generally expensive though so you need good vanguards

click is one of the best casters. her atk looks low but she is a drone caster so she attacks twice every hit. cheap again. leveling-wise And just a dp more expensive than steward

perfumer is amazing too. she has global healing and you can get it extremely cheap because of her rarity

jaye is actually a 6☆ in disguise. the ratings are lying to you. amazing self-sustain on skill 2 and silence on skill 1. he's a great unit for is2 because he's cheap to pick And deals good damage. though you're gonna have trouble against high-def enemies with him, he makes small-enemy-sashimi

gravel is necessary for every account. sure it might seem like you don't need her but. you get 5000 hp on your map. for nothing. nobody does the baiting better than gravel. when in doubt your defenders will not survive the hit? gravel. somewhere else

whisperain can cut status effects in half. i don't think it's essential to early-game but damn it's very convenient to have on certain maps and You Will Notice.

liskarm is an sp battery for those around her. she just has to be hit. she's an offensive defender, which at the beginning is not necessary, but when you want to get more tactical with your plays she has a lot of value

this is the most important out of all of these. you have myrtle. build myrtle. watch.

the 3☆'s are generally nice to have built! they're cheap to build and can slot in for archetypes you've not yet built a better option of, or if you need to get something on the field quick. also they give a little extra orundum which is nice to have always.

[sparkys-voca-corner]

thinks about them

[just--space]

Apollo 14 Heads for Home : Fifty years ago this Sunday (February 7, 1971), the crew of Apollo 14 left lunar orbit and headed for home. They watched this Earthrise from their command module Kittyhawk. With Earth's sunlit crescent just peeking over the lunar horizon, the cratered terrain in the foreground is along the lunar farside. Of course, while orbiting the Moon, the crew could watch Earth rise and set, but from the lunar surface the Earth hung stationary in the sky over their landing site at Fra Mauro Base. Rock samples returned from Fra Mauro included a 20 pound rock nicknamed Big Bertha, determined to contain a likely fragment of a meteorite from planet Earth. Kept on board the Kittyhawk during the Apollo 14 mission was a cannister of 400-500 seeds that were later grown into Moon Trees. via NASA