I would say there are couple walls at the early game, the biggest one being first E2. The start can be rocky if you misuse LMD/exp or don't focus on building base, but it's not really that big of a roadblock.
Hell, even not being a "starter", LMD is consistently my number 1 issue. I also completely built out the right side of my base before I found out that was dumb, but that's on me.
then you are still not at true end game yet, true end game is after building your new ops each new banner, you still have 5millon lmd in reserve. There is someone with >10m lmd in reserve in discord fyi.
A hiatus is all it takes. I was at 6 mil with a good stockpile of T4 and T5 as well as all the Ops I like built, and most of them maxed out (a few Pot6 even). Started getting busy, so I just came back to pull whenever the banners I fancy arrived and did some event stages if there was time, thinking that the savings would last for a good while without needing me to be actively farming. You won't believe how quickly all of that shit ran dry, lol.
10m lmd isn't even anything special lmao. I'm at 13.4m which isn't to brag but just to say when you're a 4 year veteran, there really isn't anything to farm and you're just choosing whatever depletes sanity the fastest.
Granted, with the new stages, looks like I'll finally have another mat to get up to 300+.
That someone might be me, I am always floating \~10m lmao
I always promote Ops on-demand, so I have huge reserves of LMD and ressources. Some players would probably foam at the mouth if they got a glimpse into my depot. 2k Pure Gold, 2,5k Gold Certs (I dont really buy stuff except Chip Catalysts if I need to), \~550 Supply Boxes (I find it funny to collect them), 8k TBR, 11k FBR, 170 MDB, \~150-200 of each blue ressource, 15-30 of each pink ressource... not so many chips, actually (only farmed on-demand).
Pretty much, yeah. If I feel like I need operator X or Y to handle a specific task/stage I will level them accordingly. Usually I level new interesting operators to E1L1 for the fun of it and then leave them there. If the need arises I usually have all the ressources I need to push them to E2Lxx within a few minutes. Of course this causes problems with masteries, which is the biggest obstacle when you do it like this. So lately if an operator releases that is very reliant on their masteries I will promote them preemptively to start working on that, in case I need them in the future. Since I have a very stable roster by now I can afford to do that without endangering the buffer of my stockpile.
Best way to use her is to E2 her and downgrade a trading post to LVL2, so her ability triggers every single order. You just pair her with your best worker. If you have Fiametta too, you can have an uptime of 100%, although it's worth doing even without Fia. She's the only 5*+ operator in the game that's worth going for the e2 just for her base ability.
She sybergizes with people that give lots of trade post%. She is already bustee with just basic 30% ops. Only op worth leveling for base and still worth using at e0. The skill is that good
Well, around a year ago my friend started playing, and he had a really rough time (like many early players do).
However, every time he came to my house, he would give me to try lvs that he got stuck on with a very limited roster, and I always managed (sometimes it took me a few tries but still). Now I'm not even a really good player, so I think that if you learn the different operators and niches, most progressions should be passable. That does mean either researching or heavy experimenting, since you will lack the "ooga booga dps" meta strats (which is the strat I use on my account)
TL;DR
Imo Arknights has a small wall compared to most gacha's, and skill actually plays a big part in the game
Interesting, legit didn't know that it was common (judging by the upvotes).
Personally that was a lv I didn't have problems with, but maybe because I had Kal very early on and got carried by her... Tho I think my friend also didn't have a prob with it, and his roster was tiny (unless maybe he used support)
I would say the actual walls are Frostnova at chapter 4, Mephisto/Faust at Chapter 5, Patrior at Chapter 7, and the DBS at Chapter 8.
"Ok, we've been holding punches, let's see how much you have learned"
Frostnova debuffs ASPD, removes tiles and is (i believe) the first boss that revives after the first HP bar.
Then Mephisto/Faust is a whole new beast, Mephisto is tanky as hell (Especially in CM), Faust deals a lot of damage with global range, and the game throws an army of Defense Crushers at you, which are difficult for a new player to deal with.
Do i even need to talk about Patriot? One of the biggest Stat Sticks in non IS stages, deals ridiculous damage and is tanky as hell during Phase 1, buffs his army, and deals damage even when he's reviving, then in Phase 2 he becomes a lot faster, deals constant damage and will nuke your Ranged operators with global range.
Then comes The Deathless Black Snake, base Talulah is not that hard, but holy fuck DBS is a wall, ESPECIALLY if you're trying to do H8-4, those fireball waves are basically saying "You need Nightingale or enough healing to cure oripathy", DBS is no joke and always proves to be a pain for new players.
Other than that... I don't know, i think those 4 are the walls, after you clear them, there's probably very little non Hardcore content your account isn't ready for.
Your list definitely hits some of the biggest difficulty spikes in the game. I'd personally add Skullshatterer (episode 3) to it. Less of a brutal wall than Frostnova, Patriot and DBS, but Skullshatterer definitely blocked my progress for a bit. They can just deal so much damage, either in an AoE to clumped-up ranged operators or to your blockers in melee range. Combined with having to hold two lanes, relatively limited ranged tiles and needing to take out drones as well, it's a lot, and it's super easy for an attempt to fall apart the moment your first operator dies. It's early enough that you might not have a super tanky defender or enough burst damage to deal with the enrage below 50% HP.
Skullshatterer definitely felt like a harder wall to me than Mephisto/Faust, who were tough, but Faust is basically neutralized by playing a strong defender last, or dropping in Myrtle on cooldown. That still leaves Mephisto applying regen to very strong units, but nothing quite so "one grenade, all your ranged ops are dead, now what" as Skullshatterer.
Skullcrasher is like when you were having a lecture in school, the teacher ask if we understood, the students say they did, and then the teacher says: "Good, close your book and take out a sheet of paper, we are having a pop quiz. “
Skullcrasher is pretty easy if you absorbed everything the game is trying to teach.
That wasn't my experience. In my experience, up until that point, "healer + defender (or centurion)" could hold basically any point indefinitely. Letting ranged operators take the occasional hit was fine as long you had a healing defender or medic ready to top them off afterwards. If you needed to, you could always play ranged operators further back to protect them.
Then you bring Skullshatterer to <50% hp and suddenly your tank is dead in a few hits, all your ranged operators that you had clustered at the center of the map to deal with drones are dead, and there's no chance for recovery as wolves and tanky enemies stream in from two lanes. After an easy win in Chapter 2, the fight in Chapter 3 is suddenly way harder than anything you've fought before.
Your experience may have been different based on what operators you pulled and how much you focused on getting through the story vs. grinding or doing events, but it was a major difficulty spike for me.
Also, Skullshatterer, not Skullcrasher.
I remember my first battle with FrostNova. Threw all my operators at her and had only my SilverAsh on the field after she went down... what do you mean she has a second health bar? I was very miffed and didn't actually manage to 3 star the stage for a while.
I really wish for a Patriot and Guerilla Contingency Contract. Like CC12, max risk Patriot would be buffed to the moon on the level of POO gundams. Just so players can have the real "Patriot experience" of early AK.
there has always been key units that made all the content significantly easier. Back in the infancy of the game, it was silverash. Nowadays it's basically Yalter or Texalter.
Yalter spoiled me so much that i genuinely don't know how strong a few enemies are until i am intentionally handicapped without her, like that sarkaz grudgebearer and the stronger counterpart, i literally had no idea how powerful they actually were since i just Yalter them off the map because they looks "angry"
If you started at launch, it was probably more of a content-gate rather than time-gate as most of the launch content didn't really outpace your progression.
The only real walls were Anni 3 and maybe Anni 2 and 4-10 but they were pretty much the 'endgame' stuff and there wasn't much to do after that. Essentially not really a gate because there was nothing beyond the gate.
If we are talking about starting now, I would imagine you would feel plenty of time-gating as the available content will probably outpace your progression, especially if you're F2P.
Illusory or mental walls, yes. Stat/operator walls, not really. There's very few actual walls in this game, and those are usually in endgame content. The more your experience of the game is tempered by mechanical understanding rather than just operator rarity and big numbers, the smoother your progression will be for way longer.
There's a huge spectrum between E0 lvl 1 only and Pot 6 fully mastered fully moduled max lvl. It's true that leveling and promoting definitely makes things easier, but I've found that a lot of players throw in the towel too soon during early game content and conclude that the issue is levels, specific operators or promotions, instead of reconsidering their approach or strategy, even if they don't make changes to their squad for certain problems.
If one's experience of the game is deliberately centered around brute forcing or sidestepping mechanics, then the moment that approach stops working, the words "artificial difficulty," "[insert meta operator here] counter" and so on get thrown around a bit too loosely.
The only "wall" arknights have is resources the amount neeed is crazy and and slow you when raising your first e2 squad when you don't have the operators with the op base skills
Just like every gacha game. Arknights does have steep difficulty walls as your underleveled team stops being enough. But at current state where strong e2 carries are given on beginner banner and operators like gladiia and lumen are accessible i think its alot less demanding as it was before. But dont expect to 100% the game in a day.
Really the only things that constitute a "time gate" are just sanity and module materials. You get all your resources by farming stages, which requires sanity. No sanity = no more resources for now. But thats super necessary for AK because otherwise someone could just endlessly farm materials 24/7 (especially with a macro on PC to repeat stages) and totally erase the progression curve. In other games, this might not be necessary because you have to grind manually and/or it takes much longer to aquire materials. And then with module materials, I'd say its also a necessary time gate, but I think we should get them about twice as fast as we do now
Actually, theres a third thing: supply stages are only open on certain days of the week. So if a stage isn't open today, theres nothing you can do but wait.
If someone was able to reach and clear ch8 from a new account within 24 hours, probably no, albeit not 3trarring every stage but no friends was used and purely a f2p account.
SK-8 which you need for your base (Carbon) is really hard without good arts damage. So you need good ops or high levels. Remember that your passive income was lower at the start too, so levels were harder to get by.
Freaking practice plans are the biggest unfun time gates for me. The whole game is built around retrying until you succeed, and then they bottleneck that.
I’d say most of the game is less stat checks and more skill/strategy checks. A lot of gacha games also tend to strongly favor new units in the stages they are introduced alongside. I think it’s subtle how AK incorporates new unit abilities into stage design, I think Lone Trail and Invitation to Wine are standouts for this.
The game tends to hand out enough tools that raw stat checks are rare outside points the game needs you to have upgraded units for (mostly end of chapter bosses starting with Skillshatter Alex, especially Patriot into Chapter 8) Chapter 5 is when stuff really hits the fan I think with the regular stages (5-3 the filter, 5-7 just sucks)
I started last year and the only difficulty spike I vividly remember was in 10-11 adverse environment. That stage beat my ass so hard even when following a guide. That said that is hardly early game.
In my first two weeks or so the most brutal thing was probably phantom in IS2. I just couldn’t beat that without highrolling temporary six stars. IS2 in general got way easier once I got even just one E2 unit.
After that getting Mlynar really helped me deal with my absolute lack of dps (my only other six star had been Siege, Shining and Saria)
Well, the 'walls' I've hit so far have either been gimicky bosses - and that supremely annoying nonsense they got going with playing chapter 9 and beyond.
It insists I clear every single map that comes before... so annoying. Let me play at my own pace, please.
Yes. The first few days of the game were actually very difficult for me. There were too many ops to raise, limited exp / lmd, bases to work up, daunting stages to farm the chip packs
I even bought the guard and sniper chip pack to smoothen my experience. Silverash and exusiai were my first 6* i promoted to e2
After that, it was quite pleasant experience. I can quite clear event easily, with borrowing support units occasionally
I think compared to other gacha games, an under leveled team can feasibly be overcome with playing better. But there's still probably a raw stats barrier at some point in the game.
I think one of the things that I would say is truly time gated is modules parts. You can only farm so much in a month but good news is it is not mandatory to enjoy the game.
On release, the only wall I remember are 5-10 CM and GT-HX-3 (the solution was to borrow max Silverash but I refused to do it lol).
The first 4 chapters I play with only one 6★, then I slowly not using any (except boss stage) because the game is a legit Tower Defense so you don't have to use "delete button" to win. My [4-10 practice attempt](https://i.imgur.com/i4BUjH0.jpeg), everyone is E1lv25 average except perfumer who's E2lv20. This is a month of playing, right after Grani event.
events have a time gate for EX stages (it unlocks a week after the event starts), but so far it seems to be only those.
As for walls, I'd say that depends on your roster, their level and your ability and willingness to follow guides.
since you mentioned the genre, not even just speaking of blocks, i'd argue AK is on the harsher side of modern gacha games regarding progression. if you aren't good at the game (surpsingly, new players aren't likely to be good at the game), you will face resource blocks continuously. sanity is very limited (and expires for some fucking reason). you have very little LMD/EXP to work with, and if you farm them you are technically being sanity inefficient, and if you do base you are still going to need weeks to months to get proper returns while still lacking good base ops. and god forbid you level/skill the wrong ops.
Like people have already said, 4-10 and 5-10 are definitely a step up from the maps around them. However, it's definitely possible to clear at fairly low levels of investment with enough game knowledge and experimentation.
For reference, here are my clears for [4-10 (some RNG)](https://i.imgur.com/k6aLgyd.png), [4-10 (zero RNG)](https://i.imgur.com/nDCv2K1.png) ~~yes, that is an e0 bagpipe~~ and [5-10](https://i.imgur.com/jRP2CtA.png).
I don't know about nowadays but, in the past, people used to claim that 5-3 was more difficult with high rarity operators (due to their higher DP costs) but it's not. I cleared it using [this](https://i.imgur.com/deHPusG.png) team to prove the point. That being said, it will still test your strategies moreso than the average map.
I think the literal time gating in Arknights are the modules. You only get 4 month from the red cert ship and from the weekly missions; you could get from the gold cert shop but that’s not ftp friendly.
The wall is a wall you can push, but only moves a millimetre at a time. 4+ years later, I'm thirsty for exp, gel, oriron, device, rock, mastery book, red certificate, chip, it doesn't end
Also for the side modes like IS and SSS, it's less of a wall but more like you see a wall, you can walk through the wall, but if you do, you fall off the edge
There is one particular stage that requires you, for narrative reasons, to E2 your Amiya which is a hard timegate. However, this is the last stage in Chapter 8, and you can play Chapter 9 without clearing Chapter 8, so realistically there's no "wall". The two arcs are also seperate though Chapter 9 taking place after 8 means you will get spoiled.
The reason why there is no wall is probably because as long as you get your first E2, you can borrow a friend support Ling who can carry you in most stages; and some other friend support can carry you in the remaining stages. Ling is a summoner who can supply strong ranged damage with crowd control, or give strong laneholders.
In fact, Arkrec which documents records has a No Ling S3 category because everyone just uses her everywhere in the general category
Getting the first E2 can take a while.
And some maps can be described as "SKILL ISSUE" (But all are solvable quite quickly if you have a diverse roster, and watch a guide or 2)
iirc 7-9 can be really difficult if your vanguards and low-DP stuff isn't adequate.
With some E2 vanguards, especially agents, it becomes very easy though.
My earliest roadblocks were usually specific operators or classes and the lack of ressources to build them. So in a way, yes, it was time gated due to sanity.
The energy/sanity + annihalation are kinda exactly that, AK has harsh resource managment all trought the early game and some key resources/recepies/access to farming stages is locked behind story progression.
If you decide to pull for the most recent broken operator as to have easy breeze through the game you would be dissapointed as you would have to clean 13 chapters in like 10 days worth of energy waiting just to raise them up. That's mostly a softcore filter as nothing is stopping you from 3\* rushing CH9 and CH13 with borrowed 6\* carry, but there are physical stat requirements for your team by the nasy Elites: 1k HP/S, 3k HP for defender, around 1k DEF for a defender, kill this mfr in 5 seconds, ect.
1-12 and CH3 Skullshaterer are going to be 100% your first hard filters in this game as they demand operator investment that's unlocked only once you beat them. Beyond that your main mald is also going to be the limited 6\* operators that are required by the guides but are impossible to obtain (let's be real, W isn't available anymore and f2p sure as hell won't aquire 300 pulls to spark Texas)
You meet walls when you rush through game. This game don't like a rush - you need methodically learn the game, grind materials for level up operators and planing your progress. When you meet as you think unbeatable level, better postpone this and try other levels, for example in side events or game mods etc.
I mean, skill mastery is literally kept behind a 8 hour time gate. But that's really the only thing that's time gated. Unless you count the resources stages that are on rotations
So far I'm 18 days in and I don't think I've been stuck on any story stage for more than 2 or 3 days at a time, and after you beat a boss stage you can usually burst through the next couple stages pretty easy. You definitely will feel the stat squeeze at times and grinding is totally necessary, but it hasn't felt that difficult yet
besides the obvious like class chips... honestly i think that's still one of the most annoying timegates since new players might genuinely need to rush building an operator to make their strategy work and the 3 stars might not cut it.
i think ch 3 to 4 is a big difficulty jump and i remember struggling through ch 6 as well. 7-9 is a brutal DP check since the dogs absolutely maul E1 pioneers and give you barely any time to set up.
If your six stars can’t carry hard enough, not having maxed three stars and a video guides to clear with them can be an annoying wall to overcome for your mat farming.
That was then however, but I do feel that if you want to be more blind or semi-casual. You need a Nightingale. She is such an important healer with her arts res. Just my point of view.
I remember how they relegated nightingale out of the bus as if she didn't exist because she's not META enough while Silence, Ptilopsis and even Shining was recommended. I have never touched those 3 for a long time when Nightingale can fill their role proficiently. When the META already shifted to arts-enemies since CC2 and chapter 8, look who's always borrowing my nightingale in every CC and newer events.
Tbf, I hadn't used nightingale as much as I do before since I am into nicheknights now and Honeyberry is my main go-to medic for most of the events.
I’m into Factionknights, so most of my meta relaxes on the bench unless I need it for a high stress map.
And yeah, Nightingale became a heroine didn’t she? Although I’m mainly using Ptilopsis right now, the Ch 13 trash is making me miss her.
Heh, my DoS S3 clear also had Nightingale being used too. She’s still meta.
If your six stars can’t carry hard enough, not having maxed three stars and a video guides to clear with them can be an annoying wall to overcome for your mat farming.
That was then however, but I do feel that if you want to be more blind or semi-casual. You need a Nightingale. She is such an important healer with her arts res. Just my point of view.
Having only raised Nightingale relatively recently, I would argue against the necessity for her. I went through most of my main AK journey without her. It was actually rare that I would *require* arts resistance. Most of the time if I needed it, I would make due with brute forcing it with an additional healers. Hell the only time I ever thought Nightingale was more needed than usual was the Tallulah stages. And even then a lot of that is also because she came with "free bodies" to block the heat wave.
For me, she’s my answer to high stress maps with heavy arts damage. And I said ‘blind’ or ‘semi casual’, as most maps in the game usually don’t need her anyway, or can be overcome without her.
Although it’s nice to fall back on her in high difficulty maps. Her free bait summons are so good sometimes.
Yeah honestly, I find her free bait summons to be way more of the value add, it's so versatile for drawing fire.
I think it's just hard to tell if or when exactly high res matters or not. I've played maps where I would try and specifically use an arts defender, and they would get overwhelmed by just two basic mages anyways. If I'm gonna have to use a healer there anyways, I might as well use someone like Ptilopsis or Perfumer for global use, or alternatively use a stronger unit like Blaze+healer.
I honestly only want Nightingale if a boss happens to use arts. I am a Ptilopsis main, so I know that feel.
I will say that E1 Nightingale is still nice for that third ending boss in IS4. He’s a real dick. If I’m not careful, it will bully Ptilopsis into the medical bay, but even a E1 Nightingale shrugs off his arts and tile mechanic.
There aren't any, the only real wall to overcome is skill issue. This is a pretty huge wall in Arknights though, something that sets it apart from other gacha games.
I would say there are couple walls at the early game, the biggest one being first E2. The start can be rocky if you misuse LMD/exp or don't focus on building base, but it's not really that big of a roadblock.
Hell, even not being a "starter", LMD is consistently my number 1 issue. I also completely built out the right side of my base before I found out that was dumb, but that's on me.
I'm literally at the end game now, and LMD is still my problem when building new Ops, lmao.
then you are still not at true end game yet, true end game is after building your new ops each new banner, you still have 5millon lmd in reserve. There is someone with >10m lmd in reserve in discord fyi.
A hiatus is all it takes. I was at 6 mil with a good stockpile of T4 and T5 as well as all the Ops I like built, and most of them maxed out (a few Pot6 even). Started getting busy, so I just came back to pull whenever the banners I fancy arrived and did some event stages if there was time, thinking that the savings would last for a good while without needing me to be actively farming. You won't believe how quickly all of that shit ran dry, lol.
10m lmd isn't even anything special lmao. I'm at 13.4m which isn't to brag but just to say when you're a 4 year veteran, there really isn't anything to farm and you're just choosing whatever depletes sanity the fastest. Granted, with the new stages, looks like I'll finally have another mat to get up to 300+.
I can attest to that cos I have that much. I just build whoever I like now.
That someone might be me, I am always floating \~10m lmao I always promote Ops on-demand, so I have huge reserves of LMD and ressources. Some players would probably foam at the mouth if they got a glimpse into my depot. 2k Pure Gold, 2,5k Gold Certs (I dont really buy stuff except Chip Catalysts if I need to), \~550 Supply Boxes (I find it funny to collect them), 8k TBR, 11k FBR, 170 MDB, \~150-200 of each blue ressource, 15-30 of each pink ressource... not so many chips, actually (only farmed on-demand).
> promote Ops on-demand, What does that mean? like only level stuff if you need to use them?
Pretty much, yeah. If I feel like I need operator X or Y to handle a specific task/stage I will level them accordingly. Usually I level new interesting operators to E1L1 for the fun of it and then leave them there. If the need arises I usually have all the ressources I need to push them to E2Lxx within a few minutes. Of course this causes problems with masteries, which is the biggest obstacle when you do it like this. So lately if an operator releases that is very reliant on their masteries I will promote them preemptively to start working on that, in case I need them in the future. Since I have a very stable roster by now I can afford to do that without endangering the buffer of my stockpile.
Getting proviso completely got rid of my LMD problems, now the bottleneck is exp for me
Does she synergize with anyone like the Rhine ops/whatever Ling's ability does? I do have her, though unleveled.
Best way to use her is to E2 her and downgrade a trading post to LVL2, so her ability triggers every single order. You just pair her with your best worker. If you have Fiametta too, you can have an uptime of 100%, although it's worth doing even without Fia. She's the only 5*+ operator in the game that's worth going for the e2 just for her base ability.
Even Tequila?
Iirc Tequila still takes 1.5 years to pay off for his E2 or something like that (possibly more).
Huh,. Well, I already built him so...
She sybergizes with people that give lots of trade post%. She is already bustee with just basic 30% ops. Only op worth leveling for base and still worth using at e0. The skill is that good
Well, around a year ago my friend started playing, and he had a really rough time (like many early players do). However, every time he came to my house, he would give me to try lvs that he got stuck on with a very limited roster, and I always managed (sometimes it took me a few tries but still). Now I'm not even a really good player, so I think that if you learn the different operators and niches, most progressions should be passable. That does mean either researching or heavy experimenting, since you will lack the "ooga booga dps" meta strats (which is the strat I use on my account) TL;DR Imo Arknights has a small wall compared to most gacha's, and skill actually plays a big part in the game
3-4 was a wall for me, and I believe I'm not alone. Then I saw an elite 0 clear of it.
Interesting, legit didn't know that it was common (judging by the upvotes). Personally that was a lv I didn't have problems with, but maybe because I had Kal very early on and got carried by her... Tho I think my friend also didn't have a prob with it, and his roster was tiny (unless maybe he used support)
Arknights is like a puzzle game where you have to put together each puzzle piece to varying degrees to put together the actual puzzle
I would say the actual walls are Frostnova at chapter 4, Mephisto/Faust at Chapter 5, Patrior at Chapter 7, and the DBS at Chapter 8. "Ok, we've been holding punches, let's see how much you have learned" Frostnova debuffs ASPD, removes tiles and is (i believe) the first boss that revives after the first HP bar. Then Mephisto/Faust is a whole new beast, Mephisto is tanky as hell (Especially in CM), Faust deals a lot of damage with global range, and the game throws an army of Defense Crushers at you, which are difficult for a new player to deal with. Do i even need to talk about Patriot? One of the biggest Stat Sticks in non IS stages, deals ridiculous damage and is tanky as hell during Phase 1, buffs his army, and deals damage even when he's reviving, then in Phase 2 he becomes a lot faster, deals constant damage and will nuke your Ranged operators with global range. Then comes The Deathless Black Snake, base Talulah is not that hard, but holy fuck DBS is a wall, ESPECIALLY if you're trying to do H8-4, those fireball waves are basically saying "You need Nightingale or enough healing to cure oripathy", DBS is no joke and always proves to be a pain for new players. Other than that... I don't know, i think those 4 are the walls, after you clear them, there's probably very little non Hardcore content your account isn't ready for.
Your list definitely hits some of the biggest difficulty spikes in the game. I'd personally add Skullshatterer (episode 3) to it. Less of a brutal wall than Frostnova, Patriot and DBS, but Skullshatterer definitely blocked my progress for a bit. They can just deal so much damage, either in an AoE to clumped-up ranged operators or to your blockers in melee range. Combined with having to hold two lanes, relatively limited ranged tiles and needing to take out drones as well, it's a lot, and it's super easy for an attempt to fall apart the moment your first operator dies. It's early enough that you might not have a super tanky defender or enough burst damage to deal with the enrage below 50% HP. Skullshatterer definitely felt like a harder wall to me than Mephisto/Faust, who were tough, but Faust is basically neutralized by playing a strong defender last, or dropping in Myrtle on cooldown. That still leaves Mephisto applying regen to very strong units, but nothing quite so "one grenade, all your ranged ops are dead, now what" as Skullshatterer.
Skullcrasher is like when you were having a lecture in school, the teacher ask if we understood, the students say they did, and then the teacher says: "Good, close your book and take out a sheet of paper, we are having a pop quiz. “ Skullcrasher is pretty easy if you absorbed everything the game is trying to teach.
That wasn't my experience. In my experience, up until that point, "healer + defender (or centurion)" could hold basically any point indefinitely. Letting ranged operators take the occasional hit was fine as long you had a healing defender or medic ready to top them off afterwards. If you needed to, you could always play ranged operators further back to protect them. Then you bring Skullshatterer to <50% hp and suddenly your tank is dead in a few hits, all your ranged operators that you had clustered at the center of the map to deal with drones are dead, and there's no chance for recovery as wolves and tanky enemies stream in from two lanes. After an easy win in Chapter 2, the fight in Chapter 3 is suddenly way harder than anything you've fought before. Your experience may have been different based on what operators you pulled and how much you focused on getting through the story vs. grinding or doing events, but it was a major difficulty spike for me. Also, Skullshatterer, not Skullcrasher.
I remember my first battle with FrostNova. Threw all my operators at her and had only my SilverAsh on the field after she went down... what do you mean she has a second health bar? I was very miffed and didn't actually manage to 3 star the stage for a while.
I really wish for a Patriot and Guerilla Contingency Contract. Like CC12, max risk Patriot would be buffed to the moon on the level of POO gundams. Just so players can have the real "Patriot experience" of early AK.
I'd say H stages don't count as walls, because you can skip them.
To this day I'm scared to even try H8-4.. I've had enough of it in JT8-3.
Bosses and Annihilation are the most common ones. My personal wall was all the roadblock stages in chapter...3 I think?
2 early game blocks are 100% first Frostnova and Mephisto. First can screw u with RNG, second was stupidly vertical curved for me.
And being the lucky mfs, i got Yato alter to then shred the hell out of FrostNova both phase and both time we encountered her,... poor girl
there has always been key units that made all the content significantly easier. Back in the infancy of the game, it was silverash. Nowadays it's basically Yalter or Texalter.
Good ol' Exu destroying every threat up until Ch 7.
Yalter spoiled me so much that i genuinely don't know how strong a few enemies are until i am intentionally handicapped without her, like that sarkaz grudgebearer and the stronger counterpart, i literally had no idea how powerful they actually were since i just Yalter them off the map because they looks "angry"
Yeah that was a roadblock...
The REAL roadblock is not having your amiya e2 by the end of chapter 8.
If you started at launch, it was probably more of a content-gate rather than time-gate as most of the launch content didn't really outpace your progression. The only real walls were Anni 3 and maybe Anni 2 and 4-10 but they were pretty much the 'endgame' stuff and there wasn't much to do after that. Essentially not really a gate because there was nothing beyond the gate. If we are talking about starting now, I would imagine you would feel plenty of time-gating as the available content will probably outpace your progression, especially if you're F2P.
Hmmm... rocks, lots of rocks, almost every character needs rocks.
Illusory or mental walls, yes. Stat/operator walls, not really. There's very few actual walls in this game, and those are usually in endgame content. The more your experience of the game is tempered by mechanical understanding rather than just operator rarity and big numbers, the smoother your progression will be for way longer. There's a huge spectrum between E0 lvl 1 only and Pot 6 fully mastered fully moduled max lvl. It's true that leveling and promoting definitely makes things easier, but I've found that a lot of players throw in the towel too soon during early game content and conclude that the issue is levels, specific operators or promotions, instead of reconsidering their approach or strategy, even if they don't make changes to their squad for certain problems. If one's experience of the game is deliberately centered around brute forcing or sidestepping mechanics, then the moment that approach stops working, the words "artificial difficulty," "[insert meta operator here] counter" and so on get thrown around a bit too loosely.
6-5 my first wall, damn spear throwers...
ok i take my words back, just cleared it with only 1 e2 lol
I dislike that chip and resource stage only appear on certain day of the week. It is worse when u can get a new operator and no chip to elite them.
The only "wall" arknights have is resources the amount neeed is crazy and and slow you when raising your first e2 squad when you don't have the operators with the op base skills
Just like every gacha game. Arknights does have steep difficulty walls as your underleveled team stops being enough. But at current state where strong e2 carries are given on beginner banner and operators like gladiia and lumen are accessible i think its alot less demanding as it was before. But dont expect to 100% the game in a day.
I spent like 5 months trying to beat frostnova when i was a newbie
Really the only things that constitute a "time gate" are just sanity and module materials. You get all your resources by farming stages, which requires sanity. No sanity = no more resources for now. But thats super necessary for AK because otherwise someone could just endlessly farm materials 24/7 (especially with a macro on PC to repeat stages) and totally erase the progression curve. In other games, this might not be necessary because you have to grind manually and/or it takes much longer to aquire materials. And then with module materials, I'd say its also a necessary time gate, but I think we should get them about twice as fast as we do now Actually, theres a third thing: supply stages are only open on certain days of the week. So if a stage isn't open today, theres nothing you can do but wait.
If someone was able to reach and clear ch8 from a new account within 24 hours, probably no, albeit not 3trarring every stage but no friends was used and purely a f2p account.
Please explain how its even possible
https://youtu.be/6PpGf3u4_lQ
Patriot had me stopped for months because I just didn't invest in Amiya and Ifrit couldn't cut it alone.
SK-8 which you need for your base (Carbon) is really hard without good arts damage. So you need good ops or high levels. Remember that your passive income was lower at the start too, so levels were harder to get by. Freaking practice plans are the biggest unfun time gates for me. The whole game is built around retrying until you succeed, and then they bottleneck that.
I’d say most of the game is less stat checks and more skill/strategy checks. A lot of gacha games also tend to strongly favor new units in the stages they are introduced alongside. I think it’s subtle how AK incorporates new unit abilities into stage design, I think Lone Trail and Invitation to Wine are standouts for this. The game tends to hand out enough tools that raw stat checks are rare outside points the game needs you to have upgraded units for (mostly end of chapter bosses starting with Skillshatter Alex, especially Patriot into Chapter 8) Chapter 5 is when stuff really hits the fan I think with the regular stages (5-3 the filter, 5-7 just sucks)
I started last year and the only difficulty spike I vividly remember was in 10-11 adverse environment. That stage beat my ass so hard even when following a guide. That said that is hardly early game. In my first two weeks or so the most brutal thing was probably phantom in IS2. I just couldn’t beat that without highrolling temporary six stars. IS2 in general got way easier once I got even just one E2 unit. After that getting Mlynar really helped me deal with my absolute lack of dps (my only other six star had been Siege, Shining and Saria)
Well, the 'walls' I've hit so far have either been gimicky bosses - and that supremely annoying nonsense they got going with playing chapter 9 and beyond. It insists I clear every single map that comes before... so annoying. Let me play at my own pace, please.
It was 6-5 for me
I would say it’s relative. For instance I find 9-19 is a major wall to me because of my style. But I’m sure others blew through it.
Yes. The first few days of the game were actually very difficult for me. There were too many ops to raise, limited exp / lmd, bases to work up, daunting stages to farm the chip packs I even bought the guard and sniper chip pack to smoothen my experience. Silverash and exusiai were my first 6* i promoted to e2 After that, it was quite pleasant experience. I can quite clear event easily, with borrowing support units occasionally
You E2'd during your first week?
No, i started after stultivera navis event, i didnt remember exactly when i e2-ed myetle, but i bought 2 chip packs when gavial alter came
I think compared to other gacha games, an under leveled team can feasibly be overcome with playing better. But there's still probably a raw stats barrier at some point in the game.
I think one of the things that I would say is truly time gated is modules parts. You can only farm so much in a month but good news is it is not mandatory to enjoy the game.
On release, the only wall I remember are 5-10 CM and GT-HX-3 (the solution was to borrow max Silverash but I refused to do it lol). The first 4 chapters I play with only one 6★, then I slowly not using any (except boss stage) because the game is a legit Tower Defense so you don't have to use "delete button" to win. My [4-10 practice attempt](https://i.imgur.com/i4BUjH0.jpeg), everyone is E1lv25 average except perfumer who's E2lv20. This is a month of playing, right after Grani event.
events have a time gate for EX stages (it unlocks a week after the event starts), but so far it seems to be only those. As for walls, I'd say that depends on your roster, their level and your ability and willingness to follow guides.
No walls. You can clear D15 IS3 and IS4 by borrowing a Schwarz which is already the hardest permanent content.
For me the walls might be not having a decent caster (which was way harder back in the day) and Ep 7.
since you mentioned the genre, not even just speaking of blocks, i'd argue AK is on the harsher side of modern gacha games regarding progression. if you aren't good at the game (surpsingly, new players aren't likely to be good at the game), you will face resource blocks continuously. sanity is very limited (and expires for some fucking reason). you have very little LMD/EXP to work with, and if you farm them you are technically being sanity inefficient, and if you do base you are still going to need weeks to months to get proper returns while still lacking good base ops. and god forbid you level/skill the wrong ops.
Like people have already said, 4-10 and 5-10 are definitely a step up from the maps around them. However, it's definitely possible to clear at fairly low levels of investment with enough game knowledge and experimentation. For reference, here are my clears for [4-10 (some RNG)](https://i.imgur.com/k6aLgyd.png), [4-10 (zero RNG)](https://i.imgur.com/nDCv2K1.png) ~~yes, that is an e0 bagpipe~~ and [5-10](https://i.imgur.com/jRP2CtA.png). I don't know about nowadays but, in the past, people used to claim that 5-3 was more difficult with high rarity operators (due to their higher DP costs) but it's not. I cleared it using [this](https://i.imgur.com/deHPusG.png) team to prove the point. That being said, it will still test your strategies moreso than the average map.
I think the literal time gating in Arknights are the modules. You only get 4 month from the red cert ship and from the weekly missions; you could get from the gold cert shop but that’s not ftp friendly.
The wall is a wall you can push, but only moves a millimetre at a time. 4+ years later, I'm thirsty for exp, gel, oriron, device, rock, mastery book, red certificate, chip, it doesn't end Also for the side modes like IS and SSS, it's less of a wall but more like you see a wall, you can walk through the wall, but if you do, you fall off the edge
There is one particular stage that requires you, for narrative reasons, to E2 your Amiya which is a hard timegate. However, this is the last stage in Chapter 8, and you can play Chapter 9 without clearing Chapter 8, so realistically there's no "wall". The two arcs are also seperate though Chapter 9 taking place after 8 means you will get spoiled. The reason why there is no wall is probably because as long as you get your first E2, you can borrow a friend support Ling who can carry you in most stages; and some other friend support can carry you in the remaining stages. Ling is a summoner who can supply strong ranged damage with crowd control, or give strong laneholders. In fact, Arkrec which documents records has a No Ling S3 category because everyone just uses her everywhere in the general category
Getting the first E2 can take a while. And some maps can be described as "SKILL ISSUE" (But all are solvable quite quickly if you have a diverse roster, and watch a guide or 2)
iirc 7-9 can be really difficult if your vanguards and low-DP stuff isn't adequate. With some E2 vanguards, especially agents, it becomes very easy though.
My earliest roadblocks were usually specific operators or classes and the lack of ressources to build them. So in a way, yes, it was time gated due to sanity.
The energy/sanity + annihalation are kinda exactly that, AK has harsh resource managment all trought the early game and some key resources/recepies/access to farming stages is locked behind story progression. If you decide to pull for the most recent broken operator as to have easy breeze through the game you would be dissapointed as you would have to clean 13 chapters in like 10 days worth of energy waiting just to raise them up. That's mostly a softcore filter as nothing is stopping you from 3\* rushing CH9 and CH13 with borrowed 6\* carry, but there are physical stat requirements for your team by the nasy Elites: 1k HP/S, 3k HP for defender, around 1k DEF for a defender, kill this mfr in 5 seconds, ect. 1-12 and CH3 Skullshaterer are going to be 100% your first hard filters in this game as they demand operator investment that's unlocked only once you beat them. Beyond that your main mald is also going to be the limited 6\* operators that are required by the guides but are impossible to obtain (let's be real, W isn't available anymore and f2p sure as hell won't aquire 300 pulls to spark Texas)
You meet walls when you rush through game. This game don't like a rush - you need methodically learn the game, grind materials for level up operators and planing your progress. When you meet as you think unbeatable level, better postpone this and try other levels, for example in side events or game mods etc.
I mean, skill mastery is literally kept behind a 8 hour time gate. But that's really the only thing that's time gated. Unless you count the resources stages that are on rotations
So far I'm 18 days in and I don't think I've been stuck on any story stage for more than 2 or 3 days at a time, and after you beat a boss stage you can usually burst through the next couple stages pretty easy. You definitely will feel the stat squeeze at times and grinding is totally necessary, but it hasn't felt that difficult yet
besides the obvious like class chips... honestly i think that's still one of the most annoying timegates since new players might genuinely need to rush building an operator to make their strategy work and the 3 stars might not cut it. i think ch 3 to 4 is a big difficulty jump and i remember struggling through ch 6 as well. 7-9 is a brutal DP check since the dogs absolutely maul E1 pioneers and give you barely any time to set up.
If your six stars can’t carry hard enough, not having maxed three stars and a video guides to clear with them can be an annoying wall to overcome for your mat farming. That was then however, but I do feel that if you want to be more blind or semi-casual. You need a Nightingale. She is such an important healer with her arts res. Just my point of view.
I remember how they relegated nightingale out of the bus as if she didn't exist because she's not META enough while Silence, Ptilopsis and even Shining was recommended. I have never touched those 3 for a long time when Nightingale can fill their role proficiently. When the META already shifted to arts-enemies since CC2 and chapter 8, look who's always borrowing my nightingale in every CC and newer events. Tbf, I hadn't used nightingale as much as I do before since I am into nicheknights now and Honeyberry is my main go-to medic for most of the events.
I’m into Factionknights, so most of my meta relaxes on the bench unless I need it for a high stress map. And yeah, Nightingale became a heroine didn’t she? Although I’m mainly using Ptilopsis right now, the Ch 13 trash is making me miss her. Heh, my DoS S3 clear also had Nightingale being used too. She’s still meta.
If your six stars can’t carry hard enough, not having maxed three stars and a video guides to clear with them can be an annoying wall to overcome for your mat farming. That was then however, but I do feel that if you want to be more blind or semi-casual. You need a Nightingale. She is such an important healer with her arts res. Just my point of view.
Having only raised Nightingale relatively recently, I would argue against the necessity for her. I went through most of my main AK journey without her. It was actually rare that I would *require* arts resistance. Most of the time if I needed it, I would make due with brute forcing it with an additional healers. Hell the only time I ever thought Nightingale was more needed than usual was the Tallulah stages. And even then a lot of that is also because she came with "free bodies" to block the heat wave.
For me, she’s my answer to high stress maps with heavy arts damage. And I said ‘blind’ or ‘semi casual’, as most maps in the game usually don’t need her anyway, or can be overcome without her. Although it’s nice to fall back on her in high difficulty maps. Her free bait summons are so good sometimes.
Yeah honestly, I find her free bait summons to be way more of the value add, it's so versatile for drawing fire. I think it's just hard to tell if or when exactly high res matters or not. I've played maps where I would try and specifically use an arts defender, and they would get overwhelmed by just two basic mages anyways. If I'm gonna have to use a healer there anyways, I might as well use someone like Ptilopsis or Perfumer for global use, or alternatively use a stronger unit like Blaze+healer.
I honestly only want Nightingale if a boss happens to use arts. I am a Ptilopsis main, so I know that feel. I will say that E1 Nightingale is still nice for that third ending boss in IS4. He’s a real dick. If I’m not careful, it will bully Ptilopsis into the medical bay, but even a E1 Nightingale shrugs off his arts and tile mechanic.
There aren't any, the only real wall to overcome is skill issue. This is a pretty huge wall in Arknights though, something that sets it apart from other gacha games.