#so like. Lappland is. not great

[honeylemony]

Just found out ark knights has a character named Lappland.... Like do they know that's the kind of derogatory name for the Saapmi land/people?

[haxorus612]

actually i'm going to list it here too sdlkfjsd

How i would personally "fix" the arknights "meta" *meta defined here as operators whose kits i personally find unbalanced or too powerful in a way that's unhealthy for the game. i will give no opinion on operators who are strong but i like sdklfjs

Eyjafjalla: she just does the entire job of splash casters while half the cost, either with her s2 or s3. unfortunately, that is also her entire identity as a unit. the real solution wouldn't be to change eyja, it'd be to make splash casters stronger as an archetype. barring that: s3: instead of hitting up to 6 enemies, it only hits 1 enemy at random, but it also deals a bit of splash damage, (1/2 or less) like her s2. to compensate for reducing dps by approximately 83%, the sp cost should be lowered and the duration increased to put it on equal footing with more modern skills. typhon deals >120k with her s3 at a 40 sp cost...

Silverash: he just does (did) way too much damage with his s3. like, did you watch how everyone dropped him nearly immediately after ch'alter's release? what about mlynar? he has more things he can do, technically, but the damage was always the main draw. take it away and those other niches become more interesting s3: halve the attack buff and drop the defense reduction. ideally, it would turn entirely into a support skill: instead of dealing huge damage himself, he'd apply a small fragile against all enemies that he's hit, then a much larger fragile to all invisible enemies within range. i'd even make it explicitly not buff his own damage

Thorns: same as silverash, except instead of just raw damage, he's just too dang convenient. range + damage + regen? the damage is the biggest draw, and the main way he stays alive: the enemies can't hurt you if they're dead. s3: does not double stats, doesn't last forever. instead, it'd be sick if it worked like blaze's module. first activation, it just gives the normal stats, second, it gives him a large defense boost, third, he gets resistance, fourth, his regen lasts even while attacking, etc etc. maybe it still does last forever, but you have to activate it 4 or 5 times first. thus killing the damage and convenience, but making him a very interesting pure laneholder

Skadi the Corrupting Heart: kills the entire bard class, and most of the medic class. her s2 combining healing, attack boost, and a defense boost is ridiculous role compression and convenience compared to the inconvenience of using sora, aak, or warfarin's comparable skills. s2: literally all you have to change is give it a limited duration. lower the SP cost a lot, give it a pretty long duration, maybe buff it a bit, and it'd still be useful.

Surtr: i've talked a lot (not here?) about how removing any piece of surtr's kit would instantly make her pretty reasonable. it's a combination of so many powerful abilities all on one skill that add together into a monster. s3: halve the attack buff, but add a stronger version of her s2's condition that deals bonus damage to singular targets. reduce target count, and raise the speed of HP loss. instead of capping at 60 seconds, 40-50 would be more reasonable. between the slow start HP drain and her invulnerability talent, she actually gets ~34 seconds with no healing support at all, which is quite good even on such a long timer. she'd still be fantastic between her res ignore and invulnerability talent, and she could still kill bosses (as long as you clear out the vicinity) she'd just be a bit harder to use.

Ch'en the Holungday: extremely boring kit. she gets ammo, the best mechanic, and all her skills do the exact same thing. if it were up to me i'd just remove her from the game sdlkfjs, or replace her with a more thematic ch'en alter. something to do with liberation and respect rather than. waterguns. ch'en defender alter that mirrors hoshiguma, ch'en caster or medic that forces her to really approach fighting from a different angle. as it stands though, fixing her is stupid easy s3: remove "attacks deal two hits". also, lower the ammo and ammo consumption respectively. she'd still be a monster, true AOE crowd control + defense ignore + massive damage is a great combination, but that sheer damage is the reason people build her.

Młynar: i fucking hate this guy so much. great character. he's an excellent shithead foil to nearl's impossible heroics, but as a kit he's atrocious. he outclasses his own skills for no reason. there are 3 skill slots, but for some reason the 3rd skill always gets a dozen extra lines s3: literally just remove the line "increase trait effect to 2x" and it's fine. very, very strong, but much more fine. personally, i would also change his extra damage from true to arts to be more consistent with tequila. no i do not think the thematic synergy with nearlter is worth it. she shouldn't have true damage either. blemishine made do with arts damage and you can too.

Texas the Omertosa: in contrast, an interesting and cool kit that you can really tell they tried to balance. her s2 isn't totally outclassed by her s3, they both have different, interesting roles to play. the numbers are also deceptively small. i would suggest only removing her "texas tradition" talent. it's just so impossibly versatile. you can use it as a bomb by dropping her on a weak enemy next to a strong enemy, you can nearly double her skill timer by dropping her on an elite while another important enemy is walking into range, you can even use it as a pseudo-revive. she'd still be absolutely busted without it, but you'd need to play a little more carefully.

Kirin R Yato: honestly i don't think she's that bad. i know she's like, busted, but she's got plenty of weaknesses. if i was going to nerf her, though? s2: lower the attack buff from 150% to 120%. when the skill level is less than 7, it reduces her attack instead of increasing it. s3: lower the attack buff a little. the amount of enemies that it's stupid strong against is so low that it isn't a huge problem.

Typhon: the fact that her kit has a lot of self-nerfing features is a really good sign. she's still very strong, but there's enough situations where she sucks that you can't throw her into every team composition. s3: increase SP cost. ammo + low SP cost is unreasonably versatile. give us one or another trade-off, please

Myrtle: look, it's kind of their fault. vanguards are barely necessary in the game modes that all but force you to use them. she's "strong", but only because vanguards are a weird bit of half-baked game design. to fix vanguards, you need to rebalance the entire game. let me propose two off-the-cuff solutions - make natural DP gen go down instead of up, you lose the map/lose HP seals if it hits zero. vanguards can be deployed for free (limited # of times?), generate passive DP and also generate heaps more DP. - DP does not generate naturally without a vanguard on the field, once they all die or leave the field it resets to zero. vanguards don't cost deployment limit, and can be repositioned for "free" once or twice per deployment. both of these add severe punishments for not having and not protecting your vanguards, which would fix the problem, but make the game way less fun. honestly, i think it's fine the way it is. i mostly use vanguards to open on certain maps before the enemies have time to move, therefore making it less "you need vanguards to play" and more "you can use vanguards to do very specific strategies"

anyway here are some of my meta thoughts. if you work for hypergryph just leave this on the CEO's desk and i'm sure they'll all be implemented by tomorrow. tysm.

[shuttershocky]

Hey shutters, is it alright If I could ask for a guide on WB9? I ain't got a clue on how to deal with two ya's at the same time

No problem!

So the thing about Ya is that while other bosses attempt to beat you with overwhelming offensive power, incredibly tough defenses, or by messing with the event mechanics, Ya has none of those options and instead simply tries to trick you with illusions, making them an incredibly easy boss once you figure out what they do (and have appropriate medics, they still deal arts damage after all)

Once the stage begins and you're printing DP with a vanguard, place a sniper anywhere on the red square to deal with the first wave of upper lane trash. Just marksmen will do, as the enemies in this stage all have pretty low DEF.

Do NOT let the enemy get far onto the high ground, some of the early enemies are Relayers who place Cipher Machines on every tile of high ground they can get on, boosting the movement speed and ASPD of all enemies on the field. If you let them plant all over your high ground, the enemies will get far too strong as Cipher Machines stack.

Next, you'll want a tank (i suggest a Guardian Defender, as Ya uses arts damage, but anyone with decent self sustain will do) on the bottom green circle to block Ya. This starts Ya's first trick, creating a floating illusion as soon as they're blocked, and then teleporting to that illusion if it's not destroyed which lets them "jump" over your operators. However, you are prepared for this, because on the red arrows are your Lord Guards like Arene and Lappland (you can also use Casters) ready to shoot down Ya's illusion. Without the illusion, Ya will remain blocked by your tank in the green circle, which isn't good news for Ya as they only do 600 (800 in the EX modes) Arts damage, which any decent Guardian can ignore. Take note that the biggest threat in bottom lane isn't actually Ya, it's the Desperados, as they're quite tanky and will need arts damage (or high phys) to properly take care of. Good thing arts or high phys is common with Lords!

The Lords will continue to pelt Ya with damage, and your snipers in the red circle should have no issue dealing with the trash, meaning it's time to set up for phase 2.

On any of the yellow arrows, you set up an ambush of burst damage (you can also move them back a bit if your operators are a bit more on the squishy side). Heavyshooters, Spreadshooters, Silverash, or Mlynar will do great, but even a buffed Marksman will delete Ya quickly as their DEF is only a measly 450. Remember to support them with a medic on the green squares.

Now once the Lords in the bottom lane kill Ya once, Ya's going to realize they came to the wrong neighborhood and will create a new, stronger illusion on the upper red gate, before swapping places with the illusion (meaning the real Ya goes to the upper red gate, while the illusion goes to the bottom one.) Ya is also going to realize that getting blocked is stupid, because they could fly all this time, and so both them and the illusion start flying.

This is when you make Ya see they fucked up, because you have a squad of burst damage boss-killers waiting right on the spot they fled to. Activate all skills and make Ya explode. Once Ya reaches low HP and see that this situation is even worse, they swap places with the illusion again, and move back to the bottom lane.

Now if you want the medal, you must retreat your ambush operators here, as the medal requires killing Ya without killing her special illusion (their Delusion). If you've already got it however, you can keep attacking the illusion, as killing it deals 35% of Ya's HP as damage to them. You can tell which is the illusion by looking at Ya's sword. Glowing gold means it's NOT the real one, the real Ya's sword is black.

If your Lords in the bottom lane are strong enough (or if one of them is just Thorns who can omegalul solo kill everything in the bottom stage with just one tank helping), they should be more than enough to finish off the weakened Ya. If not, just add more support.

Congratulations, the boss fight is finished! now you just have to kill the rest of the stage. Take note that Ya has a special skill where whatever tile they pass through, now gets the ability to spawn additional enemies every 30 seconds. Don't worry about it, the spawned enemies are all trash mobs any sniper can kill.

Now, what if you don't have the DPS numbers to finish Ya off before they get too far into the bottom lane? Their strategy will then be attempting to kill you by pincering you between both themselves and their illusion, making you take double damage.

Worry not. Place a Guardian Defender on any of the middle green circles. In Phase 2, Ya gets a really long attack range, which means placing a Guardian in those tiles will actually draw attacks from both themselves and their illusion, and Ya's ATK stat is so tame at 600 that even when they double up they'll have a hard time killing even Gummy.

Good luck!

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

hey which arknights character would you want to be best friends with

This is a hard question because there’s so many good answers, especially depending on whether I want to get something out of it besides a cool friend. My thoughts below:

Firstly, Asbestos is my favorite arknights girl. However she’s also extremely noteworthy for being a huge asshole who has few friends and doesn’t want many. She’s also an explorer who spends months on end adventuring on expeditions, she would barely be around and when she is she would be insulting me constantly. She’s also 5’1” so it would be very funny to watch her try and bully me when I’m over a foot taller than her scrawny ass. I love her but in terms of what makes a good friend I think she’s a very bad pick, but that’s okay honestly

Here are some of the other operators that came to mind and why

Gravel would give you kissies even as a friend and would probably cuddle too

Whislash would get drunk a lot when we hang out and probably get all handsy. She’s an alcoholic wine aunt but shes very hot so I would enjoy being around her and helping her when she drinks too much I think

Ptilopsis seems like a lovely lady who I would really like to talk to and be friends with even though most people think she’s weird

Catapult would be fun to hang out with, she loves skipping out on responsibilities and having fun but she also has a good heart

If I’m a friend with a member of Pinus Sylvestris can I be friends with all of them? That would be ideal

I would love to get to know Margaret Nearl but I probably wouldn’t be able to help myself from falling for her like every other woman in the world

Lappland might stab me. This is not a downside it’s actually a bit of a plus

Tomimi is totally a himejoshi and I want to talk yuri with her. Also I hope she lets me touch her huge tail

I want to play Minecraft with Jessica

Utage would help me with clothes shopping and her knowledge of fashion and stuff would be very helpful to have for someone as ignorant about style as me. Also she seems fun to hang out with

Manticore has trouble making friends and that makes me pity her. I also love her and think she would be a fun person to be around even if she turns invisible if she stands still for 5 seconds. Autistic to autistic communication

Blue poison makes tasty treats but people don’t want to try them bc she has skin that secretes poison. I’d eat them I trust her

But if I really had to give an answer in terms of purely who would be a good friend to have, it would have to be either Blemishine or Cement. They’re both so positive and nice and also helpful. Their personalities are great and I want to be friends with them. Blem could also help you with her engineering skills and Cement could help you build stuff if you needed a hand, but that’s less important than them simply being kind people

[cerastes]

Which guards are good at is3? I have been experimenting with Gavialter and her pull was pretty decent for some maps, but I am not sure how she would fare on 5+ waves

Gavial the Invincible is pretty good for IS3, her S2’s stat heft and cycling lets her consistently go at high Waves enemies, though of course, she needs a healer in higher Waves where she wouldn’t in lower.

Thorns, Mlynar, and Surtr remain instawin buttons on lower Waves, but are ‘merely’ extremely good in higher Waves. They go from 14 out of 10 to just 10 out of 10. Mlynar needs more team support that can handle his off time, though (like Gavial Invincible)

Nearl Radiant Knight and Skadi (w/ investment) are great as heavy helidrops as well as strong duelists. Both their S2 and S3 will see use.

Lappland is legit godlike thanks to her Silence. Makes some latter maps trivial.

Specter (promoted) is always godlike but you double want her on Last Knight runs, she’s great Gopnik insurance. Also really good at handling singular snowbally mobs like Sargon Champions.

Mountain is Mountain, so godlike.

Irene is solid and her talent is useful since there’s a lot of Seaborn enemies. Having a delete button on her S3 is also always useful.

Cutter remains solid. S2 can be clutch on air-heavy levels.

Bibeak with artifacts can super stunlock 64 for life.

Blaze’s Resistance talent makes her a comfy Last Knight Guard.

[waheelawhisperer]

I was thinking crackships dreamed up for shits and giggles, but like LapTex and Saria x Kirsten are kinda hard to decisively beat unless you get into like Suzuran x Lappland territory. Though on the same topic, what are some relationships you like seeing explored for non-fluffy reasons, whether that's toxicity or more how I like Muelsyse/Saria because they're so different and the barriers that raises are just *interesting* to me.

Let's not get into any territory where children are involved. People sexualizing Amiya in my inbox was bad enough.

Saria + Doctor is really interesting to me because her talk lines and appearance in Dorothy's Vision demonstrate the existence of a lot of trust and professional respect between the two, but Saria's also one of the few characters that actually treats the Doctor as a peer or near-peer (allowing for the restrictions of Rhodes Island's corporate hierarchy) and can stand toe-to-toe with them in pretty much any arena where they specialize. Doc is an accomplished research and medical practitioner? So is Saria. Doctor is a skilled and intelligent leader on the battlefield? So is Saria. Doctor has experience with corporate politicking? So has Saria. They have a ton in common and the rare opportunity to connect with a (rough) intellectual equal. There is really so much to explore with them.

Given that Indra's files say she supposedly embodies the ideals of chivalry better than most of the actual titled knights of Kazimierz, I am desperate to see her and Nearl interact, or would be if I felt more Nearl content was a good thing

I really want to see the Penguin Logistics folks and related characters interact with Rhodes Island, because there are a lot of textual indicators that they work more closely with Rhodes Island on a more frequent basis than we really see in the story (Texas in particular served as the Doctor's bodyguard often enough for it to make a positive impression). I want to see someone explain Rhodes Island's 401(k) matching policy to Lappland.

Honestly, I'd like to know more about the Glasgow Gang in general, but the story chapters they feature in will still be releasing at a rate of one a decade when I die of old age, so I've kind of given up hope on that

I like seeing Bagpipe and Ch'en play off each other. Ch'en needs someone who doesn't take her too seriously.

More Nearl Family content would be great except it wouldn't.

I want to see Schwarz again. It feels like the narrative forgot she existed after the Rainbow Six crossover. Would love to see how she interacts with other characters

I want to see post-Stultifera Navis Laurentina making friends and just chilling or getting into trouble because this shark is a mischievous little brat

All of Gavial's interactions with the Acahualla gang are funny as hell

I want to see more of the funny stuff Logos apparently gets up to in his spare time

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Propaganda under the cut.

Lappland Saluzzo:

What if Goro Majima was an Italian wolf girl, and also a lesbian? Lappland is a disgraced mafia assassin who hates the famiglia for how they've ruined her country and hurt countless people for the sake of the egos of a few old men. She thinks organized crime is inescapable, though, so her rebellion is to pick fights with other mafioso to justify killing them brutally as possible. She believes turning herself into a violent wild card the leadership is afraid of will stop them from treating her as a person they think they can control. The only person she truly respects is her old rival/childhood friend who DID manage to escape the mafia, whichs fuels Lappland's extremely homoerotic obsession with her that includes at least two duels to the death. At one point her rival is arrested on suspicion of murder, so Lappland visits her in jail to chat and hand-feeds her chocolate through the bars of her cell (it's intentionally her least favourite flavour). The next day she crashes a semitruck into the courthouse in the middle of a hearing to take credit for a car bomb assassination the she didn't do to keep her rival from being falsely convicted. Lappland is the toxic girl shonen rival that tumblr keeps saying they want.

Avrana Kern:

First of all, read Children of Time its great. Avrana Kern was the one of the greatest scientists of old Earth, she spearheaded a project to terraform other planets a principal part of which would be sending down a "barrel of monkeys" armed with a virus to encourage their evolution towards sapience to do a lot of the legwork so the planet would eventually be ready for human colonisation, so great morally grey girlbossing there we can all agree creating new forms of slavery, to her credit she does actually care more about her monkeys than she does other humans but still #Girlboss am I right? Anyway she was caustic, she was blunt nobody liked her but she got the job done what a girlboss. Until an anti technology cult managed to spread a computer virus that destroyed all technology just as the project was beginning the final stages, destroying her barrel of monkeys before if could reach the planet below, Kern was the sole survivor managing to jettison herself from the main station and get into a stasis pod.

Over milennia her body even in stasis began to degenerate until she was more or less fused to the pod, more AI than human. Also spiders get the evolutionary virus and began to develop sapience and a society. The last survivors of humanity arrive on their last ditch colony ship the Gilgamesh and Kern awakens from her slumber, she refuses to acknowledge the humans aboard as human and say the planet below belongs to her monkeys (as we have covered there were no monkeys below, only spiders) and she'll destroy them with her advanced pre collapse of humanity tech if they try to land, they're forced to leave #Girlboss am i right? Eventually the spiders get high enough on the technology ladder to get in touch with her and she basically sets up as their god but she doesn't understand they're spiders, not monkeys so there's a big disconnect there, there's some religious wars done its not a great time in spider society its mostly her fault we gotta say but #Girlboss am I right? Eventually the message gets across that they're spiders not monkeys and she has a bit of a breakdown gets downgraded from god but still very influential in spider culture.

Anyway eventually the spiders develop spaceflight, the spider astronaut chapter is the best its so good, and bring her down to the planet, she now runs on an Ant based operating system and doubles as an AI for the starships created by the spiders. Trust me it all checks out please read Children of Time. This is only stuff from the first book she does more morally grey girlbossing in Children of Ruin and Children of Memory but I won't go into those, have some air of mystery going forwards.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Sometimes it's fun to just find a cheese strategy, even if that strategy isn't the fastest at dealing damage or what not. "The Immortal" my friend I have bad news for you.

I'm a really bad fighting game player. I subscribe to the School

OF NO BLOCK!

To explain this cheese for people who aren't aware and are wondering why my friends here aren't getting sandblasted to death, "The Immortal" has an interesting AI quirk where the attack he uses is dependent on the tile your unit is on, not whether or not he can hit them. If the enemy is on one of the ranged tiles around the map, he will hit them with his sand blast.

But if they're on a melee tile, he will always use his axe swing. This means that melee units with 0 Block can actually attack him with impunity. This means that Ambusher and Dollkeeper Specialists are at zero risk of dying to him and can freely whittle away at his HP.

There are two risks however: the first is the weather, so it might be a good idea to have a Healing Defender (like Saria) to keep their HP up. I had Thunderstorms and that can kill operators deployed, which will restore 12,000 HP to the boss, which is not great. As long as Saria doesn't damage the boss, she won't be attacked by him too. You might even be able to use her S3 instead of her S2, I haven't tested that yet.

The second is that _one_ of the Ore Guardians will decide to waltz his ass in the middle. We hate this guy. It's not super likely he kills anyone straight out since he'll also be whittled down, but importantly, it's annoying as shit. Once you see him, it's a good idea to block it with either Jaye or Lappland (since Silence turns off the retaliatory Arts damage iirc) and kill it off.

Ambushers:

Ethan: Ethan can actually damage The Immortal with his S2, but he'll only do about 250-360 damage with each swing depending on his Module progress and this is assuming E2 Max Level and Mastery 3. You'll want to use his S1 instead, because The Immortal actually has 0 RES and so the 100 Arts damage per second will be a much higher DPS.

Manticore: Manticore barely misses the 1000 DEF mark for her normal attacks to do damage, so it's best to use her S2 for this stage. She won't contribute all that much to DPS outside of doing a lot of damage to the Core Guardian, so she's not the most useful here.

Kirara: This might actually be one of the best stages for Kirara in the game, which is absolutely hilarious to think about. We've done it. We've finally broken Kirara. I'm not entirely sure whether her S1 or S2 is better, I think her S1 has better overall DPS than her S2, but her S2 boosts her survivability in the stage and she's pretty easy to position for the bonus.

Mizuki: Mizuki is actually the only Ambusher who can deal more than chip damage with his normal attack (only 97 though), but he does so much Arts damage its not really a fair comparison. You can use either his S1 or his S2 on this map, depending on which one you find has better DPS against a lone enemy.

Dollkeeper:

Bena: With Dollkeeper's, their skills don't tend to matter because they pretty much always instantly die. You might be able to get some use out of her S2, but Bena is more important due to the fact that her Substitute deals Arts damage, and a fully upgraded Bena can deal about 800 per attack, which is pretty reasonable.

Kazemaru: With proper timing, Kazemaru might actually be able to deal some damage with S1, but the big draw is the burst damage she gets off of her Substitute being summoned. This being said, she won't contribute that much damage even with her Module since the Substitute does physical damage and is just barely under 1000 ATK. Like Manticore, she's not really needed.

Specter the Unchained: This probably will not be surprising, but she's easily the best Dollkeeper for this bit. While it's highly unlikely that she'll survive to use her skills (even with the help of Gladiia and Skadi) her best one is obviously her S2, and she'll even do pretty good damage with it. Her Substitute is one of the big damage dealers here, as a full rotation will do about 17,000 damage and gradually wear him down. Skadi's Mod Y will also be a big help her for increasing her damage output.

I don't have everyone maxed out, so I can't say if this cheese can kill him within the 5 minutes for the stage. If not, it can get a good idea to supplement with a high damage Operator (they need to deal at least 12,000 damage in order to be worth it).

[bentosandbox]

What do you like about your favorite Arknights character(s) like what makes you like them? (If you don’t make me asking 🫣)

And do you have any character that you only like them for their designs but not their lores?

if they're a handsome gnc 姐姐 its basically joever for me jk well not jk but also uhh

gap moe (eg. earthspirit talking to her rocks, shu fishing in a water jar) idgaf spirit (chen, swire, lappland, degenbrecher & many many more)

but hmm i think characters i want to study under a microscope have something... human about them (?) like when Lin had her near-death experience and she was wondering about of all things 'hmm... at least id get a +1 to my good morality scale right' posturing still in your final moments??? I Get It Though and chen just shitposting right after that instead of asking if she's fine great example why she's one of my faves ig or even how LGD is basically just office drama in a way like yea... theyre kemonomimi slayges but they are also very humanly stubborn does that make any sense . wait no i got it 'character flaws (possibly to probably) from childhood trauma'

Swire is a special case because i usually dgaf about ojou archetypes but they cooked up a perfect storm (banger outfit character design [alter too] + irregular tsundere + girlbosses and failgirls + HK refs + world-changing kuroblood outfit. damn) with her that i'm willing to draw her drills 70% of the time (i felt some kinda deja vu when i started typing about chen so ill just stop here for now) i wouldve preferred if there was more trauma in there but its ok... thats what fanwork is for

damn i can't think of anyone for the second question tho. and i scrolled through the entire aceship gallery npcs included LMAO i can't even think of any lore i dislike tbh design for me comes first anyway since designs i like will usually mean lore i like

[xekstrin]

3, 6, 9, 15, 27, 29 for AO3 wrapped :]

3 what am I most proud of this year?

Finally finishing that SRC fanfiction. It weighed me down like a millstone but idk, something finally unrusted in my brain and i was able to finish it after putting it on the shelf for two years.

6 favorite title?

“second childhood”! I just thought it was apt. I was going to name it “there’s a dog in your heart” but i had just titled a fic “bet on losing dogs” and for some reason didn’t want two dog titles in a row. So i really like it now!

Also, “from the other side of the apocalypse” is a great title for a love story set after a climactic final battle!

9 favorite pairing

— lappland/sora. Answered before but im answering again. I saw the neat and tidy and well-established basis for lappland/texas and sora/texas and i went GASP!!!! And shoved them all aside and went for lappland/sora because i cannot control myself

15 what WIP are you taking into the next year with you?

First order of business is finsihing up my nian/pozy/lava!!!! Then maybe I’ll return shortly to kda to write more mommy kink…. Its still in my brain

27 what do you listen to while writing? 

I tend to make character/ship playlists and listen to them on repeat! Right now I’m listening to Wuthering Heights on repeat and thinking about Lappland/Texas

29 — a favorite passage i wrote this year

BEING A GIRL FELT LIKE BEING A KING TO HIM

[foxgirlplushie]

im interested . . .

YEAH OK SO

It started with this drabble (god it was the second one I ever did) which started me thinking about it. Because they both have a tendency to push themselves Too Far in combat and be Extra about it. And like I said, they're both sociable and funny and very very good at killing people brutally! They both have a fixation on one specific person (Doctor and Texas respectively) but like. I think they're open enough to sleep around.

Then I wanted to write a fic where lappland was a good(debatable) puppy sub for someone and I remembered that drabble, and then this happened.

Basically! I think they both have a lot of trauma and shit and sadism/masochism is a great way for them to Actually Feel Something and they take turns turning each other into bloody messes. They're not actually dating or like Into Romance but they do both care in their own fucked up ways (see the end of Puppy Time where gravel leaves lappy the Good Painkillers) and this isn't going to change either of them but they're having fun so it's fine (probably) (if you ignore the screaming)

Maybe one day I'll do a sequel where lappy doms and we get to see how much Gravel actually likes being beaten (I read a fic once where she gets recalled from combat, masturbates in the medic tent while they patch her up, then goes back out and that changed something in my brain), but I make no promises

[snowlilly]

Also, what about Corroserum?

Corroserum's got it rough. He has to compete with Ifrit, who's the one of the most powerful operators both offensively and as ally support, and Lappland, who can cause silence with any of her attacks, not just on skill.

I still think there are occasions where using him instead of Lappland or alongside her is preferable. Several Annihilation maps have multiple lanes you should cover with silence, and Lappland's multi targeting is very unreliable because you have no control over her skill timing. Speaking of which, Corroserum is great at that! His S2 can be manually deactivated, and recharges even faster with his talent, so you rarely don't have it ready when you need it. He might not be a damage monster like his 6★ counterpart, but he can pull his weight.

This might be a bit biased because I really like him as a character. Works not one bit more than he has to. Terminally afflicted with business talk. Likes melting things with acid. Snake boi

[arkiwii]

Rambling about Il Siracusano event - a subjective review

Il Siracusano event having been out for an entire week now, and with the survey Yostar gave us about the event, I would like to ramble a bit about the event and what I thought of it; of course, this is mainly going to be something subjective, so not many might agree with it, feel free to give out your opinions in reblogs/comments! I'm very open with it, no problems at all!

So, warning, small spoilers about the event, long post and probably bad english, I'm doing my best

What I liked about the event

Map design and layout

Of course, I think this is very original to have a direct map of Siracusa as a field of exploration, and more than all, having not only the stages, but different places; it really makes Siracusa feel real, realistic, almost like a real city, rather than "just some stage levels"

Some events have been pretty original with their map, like Maria Nearl's map looking like a tournament, or Mansfield Break looking like the prison's design, or the amazing Stulifera Navis's map, but none were as elaborate as Il Siracusano

We can see a lot of worldbuilding and originality from it, and it's very pleasing to see! The only small downside I can see is that when we first open the event's stages, there's no indication to where to start - of course, by looking around and clicking on everything, we can find our path, but it's slightly overwhelming at the first glance and we feel a bit lost

Characters and story

No surprise, Arknights characters are very attaching as always, and even side NPCs have been really amazing in it, may it be Giovanna, Sicilla, Agenir, but even less remarkable characters like Danbrown and Ben - who thought an event would have made me feel attached for a carwasher guy? The little side quests where we follow each of the main's characters in the city was really interesting, because we could experiment their point of view and life outside of the main story, making them feel human and alive

The whole story about the influence that the famiglias occupy in the city, making it an anarchy where each decide their own rules, and the only law being the one brought by the Judges, yet their power is still meaningless, was really great

It really takes us away from our sense of morales by showing us a place where crimes are casual, and a day without blood flowing sounds like more of a surprise than a day without; the characters all have a different way to react to this life, some decide to live with it without complaining, some decide to oppose to it, and some prefer to go away

I rarely pay attention to events stories, at least, not if I'm not interested in the characters; Texas and Lappland being not the characters that I'm the most attached to, I could have just ignored it, but yet I still felt taken in the story

Side note to la Critica Artistica, some reviews are truly funny and the winks to the event's main story are awesome

Rewards and event shop

Are you telling me there is a stage with guaranteed orirock clusters? For real?!

The entire's event rewards are truly great, may it be the rewards given by the side quests or the event's shop, we really have nothing to complain about - we literally can get 600k LMD from the shop alone, not given all the LMD given by the side quests as well; this event allowed me to promote three six-stars in a single day

And of course, not to mention the free six-stars operator given out, Vigil, even if a Tactician Vanguard is not the most ideal in the gameplay, and apparently the character is not the best gameplay wise, it's still a good gift for new players

What I did not liked in the event

Complicated dialogues and foreign language

Of course, a common criticism about Arknights in general is how complicated it is to understand what is going on; the whole plot often revolves around politics and other complicated subjects, it's difficult to grab a hand on what is being told if we don't have a basic knowledge on the subject

While the event was slightly easier to understand, some details went above my head easily, - but it could be fault to the fact that I am not a native English speaker and also cursed with ADHD - the dialogues were still very long and if it's not about the characters we care about, we quickly lose interest or barely read it; you know the rules, thirty or fourty minutes of cutscenes, and in the end, not even five minutes of gameplay

Not mentioning the characters using Italian terms; it's not the first time that characters use their native language in a media, Pokémon and Disney movies being good examples, but there is a fine line between "using local expressions time by time" and "using key terms in this language" - I have to thank myself for being French, since the languages are quite similar, I could guess what some words meant, but sometimes I really had no clues. Having important terms like Il Signore dei Lupi can be confusing, and we miss some important points or small details, and not many enjoy playing with a translator open near them

Complicated politic talk is already confusing, complicated politic talk in another language is even more confusing; I think it's an important role of a translator to know how much they should remove, and how much they should keep, to have dialogues that we can understand while showing the cultural references used behind

Way too easy

I'm not a new player, nor an old player, I already have a bunch of six-stars, and very good ones, and Elite 2 characters; but for having done almost all Side Stories/Intermezzo in the course of the last weeks, I can definitely tell that even at my level and with the units I used, some were seriously challenging, and I'm not talking about the ex stages, but the main ones

Yet, I have never seen an event as easy as Il Siracusano; the new enemies were nothing challenging, sure, the debt progress was an original adding, but the challenge was not that complicated - not only there is no downsides in letting civils die (while in other events, you would lose a life point), but the enemy that appears when the debt is full is not that bothersome. It could be for the first stages, but later, with a good defender and good healing, it can be really easy to counter it

And here comes the final stage and boss; annihilated. I never cleared a boss stage this fast ever, and I had no help or anything, it was all improvised and a surprise - I don't even know what the final boss's ability was, as I killed him before he could even use it, and no support unit were used

Of course, there is a true debate about if the main stages of an event should be easy or complicated; on one hand, if they're too complicated, new players will struggle to finish the event, or even not finish it at all in due time, and even old players might have to use a guide or playthrough to know what to do; but on the other hand, if it's too easy, old players will find no pleasure in playing the stages, and with the dialogues being way too long, it really is "95% of cutscene, 5% of gameplay"

I think it's something that the game still has to work on it; of course, I would like to have stages I can clear without having to use Deus ex Ch'alter and our Savior Kyo, but I would like them to be challenging enough to not clear them in a blink of an eye; it's a true balance that still needs to be found, something not as complicated as SN-10, but not as simple as IS-10, and finding balance in a gacha - so a game with a lot of units, each with their own abilities and strength, and allow every player to be able to use who they like - is the most challenging

What I would love to see in the future

"Showcase" stages of new operators

A very good idea that I loved in An Obscure Wanderer was the stages with given operators, and more than all, Mlynar himself; it was a very good introduction for the players to directly test out the new operator's ability, and if it was not for these stages, I would not have been convinced to roll for him

May it be Texalter, Penance, Vigil and Lunacub, we did not had any stages where we could use the operator or see them in battle directly; not a lot of players might feel comfortable enough to test out the character as a support unit, since it's a bit "testing new waters", and three new six-stars can feel imposing

But I feel like if there's some special stages - those "tutorial stages" that costs no sanity, and with no rewards, or at most just one Originite Prime, would help to test the true potential of the character in a given stage where the operator would have a perfect niche, to help the player how to use them, but also to convince them to roll the character

Lore guide and event sum-up

For people who have a hard time focusing on the dialogues and just what is going on in general, I think that a lore guide and sum-up for each event would be truly useful; quite like the small lore hints given in Chapter 10 and 11, but more elaborate, probably without rewards, but a new page at each stage and cutscene cleared

The lore guide could introduce each characters with their name, role, affiliation, and small profile, an introduction to the place where the event take place, and a sum-up of the important events and key points of the event, in an easy language; and why not use this guide to translate/explain cultural references used in the event? It could be interesting, not only to educate us, but also it would allow to have characters speak in their native language without making it hard to understand since there'll be an explanation given

Alright, so that's it with all I can come up with! I have no idea how pertinent it is to put my review and opinions on Tumblr, cause the chances that a personal of Yostar comes by are very low, but we never know!

[shuttershocky]

shutters do you have a surtr-less way of solving DV-EX-8? I feel like I don't have enough operators to handle the boss, dorothy, the unpowered suits, and the creations thing

DV-EX-8 may feel like a bit of a time rush, having to get rid of all the power armor before they're awakened while dealing with the boss' constant pressure, but if you hold a few choke points and learn how to mitigate Awaken's global blast attack, you actually have quite a lot of time to work with.

Since there are actually many different ways to attack the stage depending on your operators, instead of a fully realized layout, I've illustrated chokepoints to hold as well as drawn the boss' path.

Blue arrows are holds to deal with the sleeping Power Armor. Placing an operator with here blocks the blobs from entering the Power Armor units and activating them, allowing you to plink away with Casters as you please.

Red arrows are chokes you hold because these are where the regular enemies actually run through. Thankfully as long as none of the Armor is awakened, the enemies in this stage aren't particularly dangerous.

The purple line shows the boss' path. Since it teleports around, you may be wary of how to set up to kill it, but if you notice, it always stays a reachable distance to where your holds are. As long as you can kill the Power Armor units before you kill its Phase 1 (which activates all sleeping Power Armor on death), you can wear it down nice and easy.

Now to learn to deal with the boss' pressure. Every time Awaken teleports, it charges up a huge blast that hits for 6750 damage, on top of its regular attacks. However, there's two important things to note:

Despite looking like an Arts blast, this move is physical

The 6750 damage gets SHARED equally across all friendly units hit, meaning the more of them out on the field, the less damage gets taken by each unit.

This means that if you don't want your casters instantly deleted from full health, you'll want as many friendly units out on the field as possible (throw Beanstalk Crabs, extra medics, Gravel for good measure), and making sure your ground units (who are already being pummeled by the regular enemies) are quite tanky. Centurions and Defenders are you best friends here, but a certain Caster Class is especially great.

The Phalanx Casters boast high DEF when their shields are up, and happen to have a wide range for when they actually attack. They can pull double duty quite well, helping to tank the boss' special AOE blast while also switching to offense mode and taking down the sleeping Power Armor while the boss recharges. (The boss takes 38 seconds to teleport to a new tile and blast again, so you have a reasonably long window between blasts.

Again, take note that the picture here doesn't include which tiles to place your casters and medics as well as your other melee units, this is going to be very dependent on which units you have (read: depending on which Casters you have raised, who sits where is going to be very different), but this should give you a basic foundation of the overall strategy. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed, you can slow down the pace of this stage with good old Block-3 operators and medics for sustain, then kill the boss when you're ready.

Note - Don't forget you have more Arts options than Casters! Arts Fighters that aren't Surtr, Lords with Arts damage like Lappland and Arene, they're great at dealing with this stage.

[one-bunny-a-day]

Hello, I hope you're having a good day/night! I just stumbled upon your blog and I have to say each bunny was like a massive boost of serotonin and was just what I needed. They're so cute! Anyway, if you don't mind a request, I saw you made a Lappland bunny (a good choice, she is so cool!), so would it be possible to make a Texas bunny so she's not lonely? Feel free to ignore, and enjoy the rest of your day!

wahh thank you so much anon ;;w;; I'm really glad my silly little creatures make others happy the way they make me happy ♡

I don't mind requests in the slightest !! lappy was actually a request from a friend and she asked for texas as well sdgfdhgf but I'm holding off on her till the texas alter event/banner is released in global so I can post something relevant sdgdhgf

hope you have a great day/night too !! sending you many kisses <3

[cerastes]

Wait if Mizuki is a Seaborn then what’s stopping our local resident Hunters from choosing and tearing him into pieces. I mean yeah he’s a baby boy but I doubt Skadi would really care that much to be honest. A Seaborn is still a Seaborn right?

Would she not care? I think you picked the Abyssal Hunter that would in fact care the most, as she's had the most hands on experience on the surface compared to Gladiia, who's mostly stuck to working by herself and on the shadows, and Laurentina, who spent a considerable amount of time being insane and half-brainwashed as Specter and not cognizant enough about her surroundings to truly consider as someone who knows the surface. Keep in mind, and important part of Under Tides is showing that Skadi, rough and stoic as she is, ultimately has changed immensely from how she used to be as an Abyssal Hunter, questioning her role, her worth, and the worth of those around her. Her interactions with Old Man Jose paint a clear picture of how Skadi used to be pretty much a cold fighting machine who just did her job and little else, and how she gradually came to see surface Terrans not just as inferior lifeforms with paltry technology, but as fascinating, lovable people that had struggles just as meaningful and terrifying as her own Aegir people did.

Compared to Gladiia and Laurentina, who have rather negative views of the surface and who have no qualms in voicing these views, Skadi is stoic but ultimately gentle and intentionally holds back when fighting because she knows inherently superior compared to the vast majority of Terrans as far as physical ability and martial prowess are concerned, with her only really fighting seriously twice so far: Against the Great Inquisitor (and even then, she refrained from using a weapon), and against Seaborns, where she (and her fellow Hunters) held nothing back and showed us what they actually can do when they take a fight seriously (read: Specter going full Metal Gear Revengeance ME JACKY on the mutated Bishop and hitting it with an air combo that had her jumping from wall to crumbling boulder mid air for like a full 3 minutes of maneuvering and mauling this giant laser-shooting monster). Hell, on Specter's 2nd Operator Record, it's Skadi that more or less demands Gladiia and Specter both hold back a bit on account of them going to go fight regular ass non-supersoldier non-Seaborns for a bit.

Now, back to the Mizuki case, I have no doubts that the moment she detected Mizuki's presence, Gladiia's senses told her to send him to the principal's office and have him expelled from existence, BUT Consider The Following:

Rhodes Island is not a melting pot of cultures and factions, it's THE melting pot of cultures and factions. You have Silence and Saria in the same side, with Silence hating Saria's guts. You have the entirety of Pinus Sylvestris, Gravel, Blemishine, Whislash, Nearl, Shining and Nightingale in the same room as Platinum who, by all means, all want to eviscerate to different degrees. Their situations is a bit different, but you have SilverAsh and Pramanix who are by all means political enemies, under the same roof, hell, you have Greythroat who is absolutely terrified of the Infected, working as a Rhodes Island employee, you have Actual Enemies Texas and Lappland working the trading post together, you have Rosmontis, Blaze, and other Elite Operators in the same room as W, who they explicitly want to kill. And, I think the most important example out of all of these: You have Doctor in Rhodes Island, who Kal'tsit, Flamebringer, and W (and possibly Ascalon alongside other Sarkazians) explicitly want to murder, but won't because of Doc's own particular, exceptional situation, as well as them being an undeniably powerful asset.

What I'm trying to say is that Rhodes Island is exactly the kind of environment in which Abyssal Hunters wouldn't obliterate a Seaborn if they have a properly signed contract for the same reason a lot of these other factions are not at each other's throats. It's also well known that the Abyssal Hunters do personally like the Doctor (with Skadi being very sweet on them, Laurentina being more than anything thankful they watched over her when she was Specter and wanting to know them better, and Gladiia appreciating Doctor both as someone who watched over her subordinate Laurentina in her time of need as well as a fellow tactical mastermind), and in the case of Laurentina and Gladiia specifically, they like and respect Kal'tsit (Skadi doesn't like Kal all that much but clearly still respects her), with Laurentina specifically even joking around with Kal'tsit as if they were pals instead of seeing her as an inferior land-dweller. It makes a lot of sense, then, that if Doctor and Kal'tsit both approve Mizuki for whatever reason to be an Operator for Rhodes Island, that the professional Gladiia would accept this decision, with caution, but accept it nonetheless, and that would carry on to Skadi and Laurentina both, with Skadi likely not wanting to cause a ruckus anyways, and Laurentina feeling much the same the way.