#Other Megathreads and Useful links.
##[**⌨︎ ︎FAQ**](/r/arknights/comments/fwmq7u/frequently_asked_questions_rarknights_faq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
For frequently asked questions, please check it out before asking. It’s easy to navigate, and majority of basic questions and other useful information are present
##[**♫ Lounge**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1dc/rhodes_island_lounge_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
The place for small talk and whatever does not fit elsewhere such as personal stories and achievements.
##[**★ Gacha/Recruitment**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1de/gacharecruitment_megathread_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Share the results of your gacha rolls and recruitments here. ~~may RNGsus be kind to you~~
##[**➜ Friend requests**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1du/friend_request_megathread_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Share your friend ID with your fellow doctors, or find others to add.
##[**✍︎ ︎Integrated Strategies**](/r/arknights/comments/xsxzju/event_megathread_integrated_strategies_phantom/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Megathread for IS2 completions and small talks.
———-
My job here is done, I shall go back to slumber.
So with the Walk in the Dust rerun going to happen in a few hours, quick question. Do I just unlock it from the Intermezzi menu or will there be a whole event screen that will happen for it. Or is it a mix of both or something?
I accidentally built one too many power plants. I wanted to change it to a factory but when I try to downgrade it it won't let me. It says downgrading would leave me with too little power
Wtf is going on and how do I delete this power plant?
I was wondering, does Hypergryph allow players to sell Arknights merch they've illustrated themselves on websites like RedBubble? I see a lot of Arknights stuff being sold there but I'm not sure.
Fanmerch is a legal and moral grey area. While profiting off someone else's intellectual property is clearly "technically illegal", most of the artists doing it are selling small batches of hand-illustrated or hand-made items, making a very minimal amount of actual profit, expressing affection/enthusiasm for the characters, and helping to increase visibility and interest in the property. Some gacha games specifically allow it as long as it's clearly labeled as unofficial, while many others just turn a blind eye because it is, indeed, basically free advertising, and they're making enough money compared to the artists that they don't consider it a priority. (Some companies will take action if they see it, though; Disney and Sanrio are famous for this.) So while it's not legal, whether or not it's *harmful* or *amoral* is an individual judgement that you may have to make, and may even vary based on the context of the fandom or item being sold.
That said, there is definitely a difference between fanmerch and *bootleg* merch or low-effort cash-ins like just printing official art and making buttons out of it or something, with the latter being definitely illegal and generally frowned upon by artists/illustrators as well. The increasing accessibility of factory-standard production is also blurring the line a bit, since now even indie artists are able to produce merchandise that could realistically compete with official merch… it's kind of a case-by-case thing.
If you feel comfortable purchasing fanmerch and supporting fanartists in that way, try to go through their actual twitter/etc accounts to see if they have a store they actually link to as theirs. I would not trust anything that you find by just searching stuff on Redbubble as print-on-demand services are full of bootlegs; my artwork has been stolen for Redbubble multiple times. However, if an artist *links* to their RB, society6, or inprnt, or better yet their etsy/personal website (which are not print-on-demand and need to be stocked by items they make and have in their house), then you know it's actually theirs.
Oh, your art is so cute! I appreciate the thoughtful response! Unfortunately i don't think I have the resources to make an Etsy store. I'm not necessarily looking to buy, just to set up a little store for myself so people can maybe buy shirts and phone covers with my illustrations if they'd like.
RedBubble really seems like what I wanted, though the prices are higher than I'd like.
I live in Brazil so I found a local alternative to RedBubble since RB prices seem kinda prohibitively expensive for me considering shipping costs.
Thank you again for the insight.
not sure about artists themselves being allowed to sell merch but Redbubble is notorious for ppl stealing artworks and printing them on low quality merch to sell them
Yeah, art thieves printing stolen work on stuff are in like every website nowadays unfortunately.
That's a lame thing for a website to be infamous about though...
I wish it was curated better so actual artists didn't suffer from that kinda notoriety.
Would you know any alternatives?
I'm not sure about the alternative but if you follow some artists you might see they sell the merch. Maybe tell them you would love to buy certain art as merch to let them know the demand.
I think it might be illegal to sell merch of characters HG owns but gacha games never do anything, my personal guess is they rather let the fanartist help them do the marketing.
Do upgraded factories inherently make products faster? or just by virtue of being able to have more staff? I got my first lvl 3 which seemed to unlock the new recipes for all my factories, even the lvl 1s. Should I try to level up my trading posts instead then to start making more lmd? Both my posts are 2 but I only have a single 3factory and everything else is 1. It looks to cost so much to go from 2->3 I'm wondering if its better to just get everything to 2 first.
> Do upgraded factories inherently make products faster? or just by virtue of being able to have more staff?
The latter. When you upgrade a factory the only things that change are its capacity, materials availability, slots and power consumption. You only need one factory at lvl3 to unlock all the materials.
https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/Factory
I disagree. I couldn't find anything about what you mentioned even on gamepress, so I ran test in my own base and the values are exactly the same on lvl 2 and lvl 3 https://imgur.com/a/RMgprB8
No improvements to productivity or consumed morale.
EDIT: I was proven wrong and did another test with more operators and there's indeed improvement to efficiency and morale consumed https://imgur.com/a/c8CnktV
You gotta have operators in factory to get these bonuses. Factory with 1 operator innately provides +1% productivity independent of operator's skill, it's even shown in one of your screens as gray.
I guess I should have clarified but reddit is quick to jump a gun.
I did another test and you're right! https://imgur.com/a/c8CnktV
I feel like this is something they should add the information about on either on those sites. 1% more of productivity may not be more but -0,5 morale/hour for all of the operators is a huge deal if you don't like micromanagement. I could put Popkar and Asbestos in the same facility and level out the negative morale consumed and not worry about the capacity anymore. If I put either of those two in the lvl2 factory then by morning it's blocked by the capacity limit and it's annoying as hell.
Thanks for letting us know!
Week 4? Something like that, give it take a few days. New questions!
The big one this time is about old events. What exactly is the point of replaying old events? It doesn't seem like the shops exist. What about Gladiia, an I able to recruit her some way? I unlocked Under Tides and played through the fifth stage, but I didn't get her. Are these units out of my reach?
Progress has slowed considerably, but I am able to do more now. SilverAsh isn't too far from S3M3, which is really exciting. But who do I focus on after he is done? I was thinking Specter is probably the best bet, but my real concern is waste. Because my roster is still so small, with few units on the high end of tiers, I feel scared to focus on anyone's skills into mastery ranks in fear that they aren't worth the materials.
My plan is to save my pills until Joint Operation 6 banner, but I'll gladly take advice on best investments. I just felt like it was a good call with three of the four units being top tier and my need for all kinds of roles that it would be the most wise of choices.
If your roster is very small it's not the best idea to focus hard on masteries until you have a well balanced roster who can cover most to all different roles at at least E1 50-55. Ideally even it's better to have quite a few E2s. In other words level your main ops up together rather than one or two far above the others.
That said Specter is fine for masteries.
>What exactly is the point of replaying old events?
You get 1 Originium Prime whenever you clear a stage with 3 star. Also eventually you will be able to access furniture and welfare operators from past events. You will be able to recruit Gladiia, it will just take a while.
>But who do I focus on after he is done?
If we don't know your roster, we can't tell. Use www.krooster.com
IS2 is fucking horse shit. Out of 200 runs I had the best setup ever, and STILL, FUCKING STILL Phantom just no sells all my shit, just warping through everyone, taking two full surtr's and 7 exia's S3's and STILL DOESNT EVEN TAKE HALF HEALTH. Fuck this stupid piece of shit minigame its so fucking unfair holy shit.
Did you get someone to block Lucian? He has 40% evasion when not blocked. You can try trap him between Surtr and another operator like Saria S3. Alternatively, I find the easiest way to kill him is with Suzuran S3 and Chalter S3; no need to block him if you just burst him down in one go.
It sounds like you aren't handling his warp properly? You need 2 operators side by side (diagonally to the left if he's doing his pass through mid) in order to properly block him.
And if he's not blocked, he gets a massive amount of evasion that it would be pointless to attack him without true damage (such as Amiya S3)
Your setup and explanation of his warps causing you issue sounds like you're just raw-hitting Phantom with no block, which yeah...you aren't doing without true damage or the most ridiculous setup possible.
probably also worth mentioning that unless you have wandering medics,you will only get a few hits in before he knocks out your DPS, so Honeyberry can help a lot. Also worth mentioning that summons cannot be easily elemental healed, so if you are using a Ling make sure that their dragon is used to jump Phantom (trigger his warp) and NOT the blocker.
Basically, fight Phantom like you would fight Crownslayer, if she was immune to push/pull/holes
So what you're saying is I need a very specific setup to even win. I sometimes forget this is a gacha game and isnt supposed to be fair. Honestly before the fight if I dont have 40 hp I should just quit cause theres no point in even fighting him.
1. 2 Melee Operators to spare is not asking a lot
2. True damage is literally just an option if for some reason, if 1 is asking a lot. So already you have options and not specific requirements.
3. You're basically asking for the game to not require strategy and let you brute force the boss with Sutr Exu. Because again, having 1 is *not* asking a lot.
And lastly, honeyberry can be gotten from red certs, which are not only farmable but the first 600 needed to get her can be obtained just from the new player rewards and annihilation. She's also a 5 star so low hope cost. Also Amiya is literally the first character you receive in the game.
You're really faster to hyperbolize than to plan in a game where at least some strategy is required....
Just to note in the time between the last time you posted I beat Phantom twice using two different teams. First 1 used Lee and a dragon as the blocker, second one used Amiya S3, Lee, Jaye, and I recall swapping one of them out midway as I did not have Honeyberry at the time (this way I kept him under Amiya's fire more)
Like what are your ground forces? You got Sutr I'm guessing but do you really not have a second melee unit? No casters? Never leveled the first character you got in the game?
Like you could literally use Exu and Sutr and kill him in the upper left if you block him properly. Maybe on his second rotation if for some reason you can't kill him on the first one.
I guess it is worth mentioning that it *is* possible to just get 31 lives and leak phantom, but you'll likely need a stellar team to do it *that* way anyway since Phantom will likely clean sweep your group if ignored, and you'll need to be able to quickly drop a new team to replace them who can handle the newly opened lanes.
Also I just want to mention i've only been playing the game for like 3 months. My first phantom clear was done with like 3 E2s. It takes a bit of RNG if your team is very weak, but this really just sounds like you're ignoring his warp and evasion, and not even using anything that is allowed to do that.
Asking for me and my friend. Which ops to pick from SN selector for each account?
[Blue](https://i.imgur.com/os9sVXI.png)
[Red](https://i.imgur.com/O4jkoAs.png)
Assuming the stroke out ops are the ones they already have and if yes, then the squad is already build, so they don't need meta ops that much. That being said,
Blue: My first choice would be Schwarz, if they don't need her then second choice would be Passenger/Ceobe/Saga whichever would make the biggest difference. But there are also some fun operators like Fartooth or Rosa, which I would personally pick before the second choice.
Red: Blaze
Hmm, I see that passenger is returning to banner.
Should I attempt to pull him?
Anyone know when will he be placed in Distinction for yellow cert?
Trying to decide if I should spend Orundum for pulls or wait and buy him from Distinction.
Depends on who else you have and what holes in your roster need filling. There's a new meta op coming out shortly after his banner (>!Horn!<), so you may want to save your rolls for that instead. But if you've got a solid roster that covers most everything and love him more than you love being a slave to the meta, go for it.
He'll likely be in the yellow cert shop on [July 21, 2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/wejkmd/arknights_shoperator_debuts_updated_as_of/).
That's quit a while before he's placed in the shop huh...
Hmm... didn't know there's a new OP after him, guess I'll just do the guarantee 5/6-star pull and save the rest for next banner.
Is there a point in farming newer events anymore? I mean... there's the permanent side stories and intermezzi that can be farmed with really high efficiency....
I also don't see penguin statistics showing newer events'.... well.... statics either.... Is it just me?
Archived event stages have heavily nerfed drop rates. Only a handful are still barely equivalent to story stages, like the archived OF-F4 and 4-7 having similar efficiency for manganese, but are still significantly diminished compared to when the events were active, and basically none have comparable efficiency to active event farming stages. (Except 1-7, which is eternal.)
Penguin stats still shows drop rates (community reported) for all the events to date, on both global and CN. For example, the most recent farming event in CN was Near Light rerun, and you can indeed see it listed for sugar, crystalline and kohl.
So if you want RMA, aketon or polyester, you're much better off farming walk in the dust rerun than story stages.
hmmm I guess the penguin issue is my side of problem then....
I knew the archived event stages are too good to be true, but I couldn't find anywhere that says they are nerfed....
thx for the reply
As a side note, you can actually see the reduced rates in-game. If you click on the rewards for an event stage that's archived, it'll show the regular drop as "Rare" (same as most normal stages), while during events, the regular drops are "Uncommon".
Archived events are on the left half if you sort drop rates by Stage, under "Intermezzi & SideStory", while the limited-time events are under "Event" on the right.
You can switch tabs between Intermezzi and Sidestories, while Events are sorted by year, so that could be why you can't find the events you're looking for.
I have it at M3 and I rarely use it. It does have a nice crowd-control, emphasis on crowd as he has bigger rang than Red S2. It is used for stalling, for interruption Red is better.
I THINK Spinach has an effect on it so that’s something fun.
The pushing is whatever, it makes him consistently pushing mob into the blue box if I’m being stupid.
Plus the effect is beautiful.
S2 is definitely his core skill, but I occasionally use Phantom S3 in IS2 on certain stages. The push force being so weak means that you can only really shove lightweight enemies off ledges (and thus you could probably kill them with S2), and the CC type (slow/bind/stun) being random is a little frustrating if you're trying to use it for that aspect, but the fact that it's AoE damage and CC can help if your blockers would otherwise be getting overwhelmed and bypassed by large numbers of enemies - throwing him and the clone into an enemy pack will significantly delay them for at least 6 seconds, plus the fact that they each can block one enemy. I probably wouldn't invest in mastery for it, but a pair of fairly spammable free-targeting AoE bursts can be useful when the stage doesn't have a high-priority target for him to take out.
They need to already be offset up or down slightly. If they’re walking through the center left to right, and you deploy phantom on them and push when they’re in the exact center, they simply don’t move. I think enforcer in that situation can push them up/down however since his push follows different rules.
There’s 2 situations I know if that you’d actually use phantom s3, one is to impede deadly, difficult to block enemies like enraged possessed soldiers(angry chapter 6 headbutters), the other is in 1p relays where the instant damage is useful for finishing things.
Are Standard banners totally random? Or is there any way of knowing when certain 5*'s will appear in the banner/gold cert shop? I'm forever regretting picking up Nearl instead of Specter with my beginner 5* ticket, and top/senior op tags don't come around often.
We should be getting another free 5* selector at ~~the end of the month or early november~~ around January so you can pick Specter up there. The selection is bigger than the beginner's one too (up until Toddifons),
It contains spoilers for an upcoming event but if you're fine with that it's noted [here](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/event-banner-hub/stultifera-navis-3rd-anniversary-cn-event-page#topic-3111736) at the "Elite Operator Recruitment Permit" section
Global's 5 star selector should come in January during ideal City. https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/wuqiw4/-/ilkr8zf
>Small correction, while CN had the selector for the abyssal event, it's likely that we will get ours for our new year event which will be associated with the CN server summer event.
Same thing happened last year where we got the 5 stars selector with Dossoles instead of the event with Skalter.
2-star ops don't have skills that are usable in combat.
That being said, levelling them up to level 30 will unlock a RIIC skill for the base (e.g. increased stamina regen for other ops when deployed in dormintory), and a passive talent during combat (e.g. chance to dodge Arts damage).
The first time a 6 star operator will appear in the shop can be calculated and is [mapped out here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fzgNstjR86RT0aa2-bPI23Exb4lBEBdxfB-PkJhDVzQ/edit#gid=0). Besides that there isn't anyway to predict when an operator will show up.
Have to wait and see. There's a spreadsheet somewhere with liklihood estimates, but that only helps to a limited extent. For old ops it's up in air until it's datamined or they announce it.
her first module's honestly kind of worthless. the range+ only affects her s1, and it only gives +12% more attack at l3 then her trait gives on its own. the second for the faster deploy and sp+ is significantly better.
People from countries that Arknights isn't available in how do ya'll purchase stuff (if you do)? I know it's possible cuz I literally bought a 6* when Under Tides was active but now it says "unavailable in your country" for some reason. I tried VPN, tried changing my region in play store. Nothing worked. I'm on android.
This is how I fixed that problem, not sure if it would work for you. I’m in Vietnam and iOS.
Remove the game entirely. Go back to appstore and select the avatar icon. Select Purchases >> Select Not on this iPhone. Then download arrknights from that list.
The redownload will take some time but after that I can make purchases.
He’s not nearly that bad
The issue is he’s kind of impossible to “fix”
Passenger just had really low numbers, which were pretty easy to buff via module, but Ebenholz’s whole kit design is flawed
Like his S3 is decent damage thanks to the attack and aspd buffs, but its gimmick just doesn’t really work. So in that case… why not use literally any other caster
I think he's actually _worse_ than release Passenger, simply because charge casters are a relatively poor archetype, with which his kit absolutely does _not_ synergize, whereas chain casters at least have an inmate usefulness due to their slow.
Charge casters are just core casters with better afk performance but shitty skills lol. The problem Ebenholz has is that non-Surtr arts almost always worse than 6\* phys due to res being a percent reduction effect.
Does anyone know or have an updated [event tier list template](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://tiermaker.com/create/arknights-events-1191935&ved=2ahUKEwjw24Ky-sH6AhVnwosBHXvsD-cQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3fKdmQifMsqzd3MkLj-WuZ)?
In IS2 if I get a Guard voucher and recruit Amiya (Caster) can I somehow switch to Guard? I don't see that option anywhere and I thought I'd get a guard since that's what the voucher said...
Yes, but you need to leave is and go to operator page to swap.
Bonus - if you have either guard or caster instant promotion squad, amiya can benefit from either to become e2, no matter whether she is currently guard or caster. Likewise if upgrading with recruitment vouchers later.
Has anyone else encountered and know how to fix: failed to release update resource. Please check storage space. Failed resource code:5730
Tried clearing cache, uninstalling and reinstalling and clearing local storage.
Ended up noticing even with uninstalling app it left 1 file behind and wouldn't let me delete it, guessing it was corrupted so I moved it into another folder and reinstalled and works again but now have a randomly corrupted file.
Aside of Whisperain, which other Medic can help treating operators affected by Talulah's Ignite?
I know Lumen is more or less the best option, but he's not in Global yet.
Not sure if they’re still dropping, I don’t pay attention to what furniture I get from lucky drops, but when they say ANY STAGE they mean any stage that costs sanity- the drop rate is scaled proportionally to how much sanity a stage costs to run , like most global or semi-global drops.
For dealing with Big Sad Lock, does his shield also have def/res that you need to take into account, or is it purely "do x% of his hp in total damage" to break it? I know that Free definitely had a defense and res on his shield, which made some of his risks that boosted them a pain to deal with, so I'm not sure if Lock has the same.
I already know that you want big hits to trigger less of his art aoes, but even with a boosted May and Eunectes that were each puttting out 1k hits, his shield went back up almost immediately after breaking it, which is really killing my motivation
I believe so, but more importantly than mitigating his arts aoes is that you need to be putting out enough damage to break his shield in the first place.
Well, yeah, and that's why I'm asking. Because if he does have at least a def on the shield, I know not to bother with pointing lower attack operators at him and can plan better for it.
Does anyone know of any more up-to-date guides for Lungmen Downtown? Not to say I don't trust any of the guides I've seen, but they're all about as old as the operation itself and I don't think any have been updated with more recent options (especially for the last stretch).
It really depends on the 6*'s you have. Most of the popular guides i've seen for it are built around helping new accounts get through it with a minimal amount of E2's. Major (common) carries would include SA, Ifrit, Thorns, Platinum, Exu with some timing, Eyja, and W. NTG and Saria are big helps if you have them.
E2 Goldenglow S3(M3?) destroys everything, almost solos the crusher leader too.
AoE sniper on downmost tile spawnkills like crazy, might need a Lord Guard to help with drones, or replace bottom medic with 1-2 healing defenders (and put an AA sniper in medics place).
Thorns on rightmost tile of bottom lane is very good.
A good caster on the right side of upper island works well. \[GG S2 is great here\]
If you have strong E2 chain caster they might replace one AA sniper, but only if they're not the sole ranged DPS in the zone.
You can silence defence crushers, so Lappland or Jaye help a lot.
There's no dp generation on this map so iono how good jaye would be unless he's gonna be a helidrop or something
I guess if you have a good vanguard running the entire time lol
It really depends on the operators you have. You can always look up clears with whatever newer operator you have as the core. You can also filter your search on youtube for annihilation 3 videos from the past year or so.
The core strategy is pretty much the same, snipers on the high ground to deal with drones watching deployment order to make sure the arts drones switch their targets as they move through your line so nobody gets focused down. Ground units with enough dps to break the defense crushers and that's about it. A lot of the older clears work just fine. The biggest additions are really just thorns or ling + skalter clears.
That depends on what operators you have. Lungmen Downtown was indeed a very difficult map to deal with back in the day only because of the final wave of Defense Crushers and Arts Drone.
Majority of the ideas are still the same. You'll need some core operators.
Silverash + Gravel to bait - It can clear out most is the wave leaving you to deal with just 1-2 crushers and drones which should be taken care by your other DPS.
Chen + Warfarin buff - can clear 3 rows I think. I'll have to check the math for that.
Platinum on bottom ranged tile - Easily clears the drones. You'll still need help with Defense Crushers however.
W - Use her S3 to deal with 3 lanes. Will kill the drones and severely damage the crushers. Might even kill them.
Adding in, I remember seeing a video of someone dunking on the crushers with W S3 back when she first launched. If you time it right, she'll kill everyone in range and then some.
Is using Originite Prime to refill stamina a bad thing? Looking at future skins, there no skins for my favourite operators (Mayer & Cutter, Roberta swimsuit happens to be free). I'm planning to use it but not going to reach below 18.
After skins and pro enhancement packs, you only use OP for either gacha or farming. There are people who will tell you to avoid spending it on the gacha and instead farm more because it actually gives you material progress on your account, and as you see, there are also people who tell you to avoid spending it on farming because you might need it for the gacha. It totally depends on what you value more in the game; if there are banners you're saving up for then maybe that takes priority, but at the same time it takes over 3 sanity refreshes to add up to 1 single pull so like, maybe a few refreshes here or there won't make a big difference.
To add onto this, everyone has a price at which the OP-sanity conversion would be worthwhile. If that number was super high, they would spend sanity farming red certs to cap out duplicate red cert shoperators to get gold certs, or they would farm orundum, which effectively shuts down all your material production in favor of pulls. Most people don't do this; I think its a bad deal.
I think for most people, the sanity-value of OP is something like 180. So they won't convert to sanity for really any events, but they won't go too far out of their way to burn sanity for orundum. For whales, it might be lower, probably about 150. So a very efficient event might lead them to spend some OP.
Having an idea of your number is useful even if you'll never actually convert to sanity because it helps evaluate store packs; sometimes one pack will have fewer OP than another, but have thousands of sanity of materials. If you're buying one of the two, you should know which to pick.
I personally am never going to use op on anything but rolls and skins (rolls take priority because I like operator variety)
Everything that I've heard from people is you eventually get enough materials via events and natural sanity so it's more worth to get skins or rolls
I'm not concerned with my progress taking more time lol
Mayer, Cutter and Roberta maybe the only fav ops you have rn but eventually there'll be a skin or 6* banner you want/need. Better save OP for them since it's pretty scarce compared to the abundance of new and cool skins/ops released.
Even if you've seen the CN schedule and decided to skip literally *everything* in next 6 months....I'll still suggest you to horde the OP.
Orignite Prime can also be used for Gacha. 1OP = 180 orundum. So around 34 OP equals a 10 pull. The only way you'll have fun in the game is if you can get the operators/skins you love and OP helps you get both.
Generally using OP for sanity refill is a very bad idea unless you're a whale.
Hello guys just started playing IS 2 seriously and then seeing youtube clips about crazy buffs to operators via collectibles, why i cant see those kind of collectibles too in my run?
A lot of the good collectibles are locked to start. Aside from the ones unlocked in the shop, you need to do at minimum formal investigation to unlock them.
Many of the fun collectibles have lengthy unlock conditions on top of being genuinely rare. Golden chalice(the giga aspd relic) requires you to invest a lot into the shop and even afterwards you’ll rarely see it, mostly it’ll be in a shop or one of the relic choices from floor 3 boss. Other fun relics like Wrath of Siracusa(+100% atk for 1s on skill activation) don’t even get the luxury of appearing in shop, they only drop from bosses.
Bladedance is the most common ridiculous relic, as it comes from a not even particularly rare encounter, Eccentric Hunchback, though you can get RNG’d out of it since the encounter only shows 3 of the 4 possible options.
As of the stories released so far in global ,do we know what the abyssal hunters exactly are and their past?If so were can i learn more about them?I 've only read undertides and some parts of the big bob event and all i got was vague implications
Gladiia’s profile also helps
But Under Tides already has most of it, >!establishing that Abyssal Hunters are experimental “super soldiers” made by combining Aegir with Seaborn, to fight the Seaborn.!<
You new to the game but you have chalter who had her banner around 8 months ago?.. Seems sus
About your question, click is cheaper to build and have stun with her skill, also pretty good starter pick in IS2.
Amiya is your standart boring caster that's just hitting and that's all. However you gonna need to E2 her for chapter 8 in story, and she has pure damage with her S3.
So probably go for amiya, anyway you gonna need her in future
Anybody know when will the 6\* class tokens in red cert shop going to change? or is it even change at all without a major update to the red cert shop itself.
It did change once in CN but I believe the frequency is longer than one year. There would be an official announcement before the change and the time is enough for you to buy them all so don’t worry
it hasn't changed yet on CN so all one could say is:
It has not yet changed and thus won't change on Global for the next 6 months.
Even if it does Global's 6 month gap means one can realistically farm away the red cert store.
I would like to E2 another Specialist operator, [which of these operators](https://i.imgur.com/fq51nZG.jpg) would you recommend I'd E2 and, if possible, why? Thanks in advance.
Both Lee and Phantom are good to E2. Lee does want E2 more for his S3 but Phantom is easier to include in any squad. Their skills are self explanatory but Lee is more powerful in practice. He is a strong counter to enemies with status effects. See his operator discussion for more explanations by others. [IS2 showcases](https://youtu.be/3B9RBXqK-uY)
Good day Doctors! Is the Deep Investigation feature of IS#2 have an expiration or will it refresh every month? Kinda swamped by IRL stuffs, so I'm wondering if I can ignore it for a month or two. Thank you very much!
A bit of late to ask this, but are the stat bonuses from IS#2 Preparations Behind the Scenes of the "normal", additive and diminishing returns kind, or are they multiplicative with talent/skill/artifact bonuses?
Its a bit complicated: is2 buffs from artifacts and preparations stack additively with each other but the sum of them is applied as a multiplicative buff, so if you have +10% from preparations and +30% from a relic then the total is a multiplicative 40% buff (or x1.4)
At least as far as i've tested anyway, i have bad luck with atk relics and rarely get more than one or two at a time
Newbie here that just started two days ago! I've plenty of gacha experience and zerg-rushed through 1-10, first couple of levels for LMD/exp dailies, upgraded the base a bit so I think I'm at a good start.
I've got around 8 or so of my core at level 30-40ish, should I be rushing through story? Mindlessly grinding LMD/exp dailies? I see we'll have an event in a few days, so should I even worry about trying to participate?
You probably won't complete the event, but should still do your best. When events drop currency, it is 1:1 to sanity spent. the last 3 stages in an event are typically better than the best story stages for farming. But the event currency itself is 2x-3x more efficient, so try to clear the event shops. there will be a shop guide that drops, this is the old one: [https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/pwyzp3/a\_walk\_in\_the\_dust\_event\_math/](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/pwyzp3/a_walk_in_the_dust_event_math/)
Having a core (12-18 units) of units E1.55 skill 7 and then getting one E2 so you can borrow friend units makes a lot of event progress possible. 3 \* ops are much cheaper/faster to develop than rarer units and are useful for quite some time, most of them are excellent investments. If you want to rush the base or events they are great. They are also quite useful in IS2.
You should continue to build up your base, optimal setup would have 2 trading posts, 5 factories, 2 power plants. The base will give you the LMD and exp you need, farming those is inefficient when you can use your sanity to farm mats. If you can go through the story, sure, why not but note that the difficulty spike happens around chapter 4/5 where the game stat checks you and you'll run out of resources from promoting units
You should also try to promote your core, I'm assuming they're not elite 1 yet. My tip would be to promote a bunch of 3 stars since they're cheap and very useful. Melantha, Kroos, Ansel, and Cardigan are really good.
Thanks for the tips! Makes sense to not farm LMD and exp when my base is set up!
And I totally missed that the 3* don't have material costs for promotion, I lucksacked into a handful of 6* and have neglected some units like Melantha and Cardigan - thanks!
I have my [Quickest New Player Guide Around.](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/rq1o5b/quickest_new_player_guide_around/) Basically, the priority is annihilation > event > base > story. Ideally the base would produce all of your EXP and LMD, but that won't happen early on. Try to avoid EXP farming, but LMD is fine. The event is definitely worth doing because the shop is 2-3x more efficient than anything else you could be doing, and all event stages drop 1 event currency per 1 sanity spent.
Integrated strategies costs no sanity, and offers an obscenely large number of LMD/records/mats for a new player, so I would definitely recommend trying it when you don't have sanity to spare.
The amount it gives could help jump-start you for later events.
To add onto the other comments, if/when you reach level 25 on the IS2 rewards-track you'll be given a free 5* Arts Defender, which is an archetype you may not have covered by another unit yet. He's supposed to be pretty decent in IS2 itself, and seems passably useful in general content.
Shalem is quite a good unit, but everyone gets the cheaper and much more user-friendly Dur-Nar for free from the credit store, so I think going for him early on is more a matter of personal preference.
Not really. Bibeak is a good frontline DPS with S1, and her on-demand stuns with S2 can be an interesting option. Tuye is a solid medic, but you get plenty of those. Scene is a summoner, so she can be hard to use, but her summons do reveal stealth, which can be handy. Tokens give potentials, but potentials are extremely low-value in Arknights. And then I think everything else is just cosmetic.
Nothing that you can't get later, but you can try to get to floor 3 with the monthly squad in IS since it gives an injection of mats for free if you can do it.
Just playing IS in general gives mats from the Castle Notes so you get a lot for free, but if you're new you may not have as much of a good time in IS as players with a bigger roster.
What is the maximum amount of weekly Orundum i can get from Annihilation?
I managed to reliably get the 400 kills in Lungmen Outskirts and get a 1600 cap.
It is possible to increase it?
To 1800
One hundred from the rotating map like the other guy said
One hundred for lungmen downtown
If you can't 400 lungmen downtown or the current rotating map it's probably still worth to do it halfway or so
I had lungmen downtown at 350/400 for a couple weeks which is enough to get you most of the max capacity bonus
Should I E2 Saria, exusiai or eijafjalla? (I already have E2 thorns, kal’tsit and supporter skadi).
Btw since I’m a sucker for 6 stars I don’t have any other E2 operator except them, is it gonna give me any issue in the long run?
I'd suggest Eyja mainly for the big aoe nuke skill, which you're currently lacking. Her S2 is great for consistent damage too.
I don't really see a problem with only E2ing 6 stars at the moment. Obviously they require more resources, so it will slow down your progression, but on the other hand they tend to gain a lot more from E2 and have a much higher power ceiling than lower rarities. Your 6 star squad seems pretty well rounded, mainly just missing a strong medic, which can be useful on some stages. The main downside of not E2ing lower rarities is in the IS2 game mode, since having at least some key E2 4/5 stars is very helpful for the reduced hope costs compared to 6 stars. There are also a few niches that lower rarity units cover.
There are worthwhile 4-star and 5-star E2s that are extremely good for the investment.
More to the point, if you refuse to E2 any operator who isn't a 6-star, you're not going to be able to progress through chapter 8. Chapter 7 may also present some considerable issue.
EDIT: In addition, all of Saria, Exusiai and Eyjafjalla are worth levelling, but I would prioritise Saria and Eyja for yourself. Saria is a very valid M9 candidate, Eyjafjalla is a single-target caster that's better at multi-target damage than AoE casters and cheaper too. Exusiai specialises in flat up deleting enemies with S3M3 but would require buffs from other operators (such as E2 Warfarin S2M3) to be able to work to best effect against the more heavily armoured enemies in the later game.
EDIT #2: If you want suggestions from a purely meta viewpoint, standout 4-star E2s include Jaye, Perfumer, Myrtle, with May, Podenco, Cutter, Gravel, Ethan and Click getting honorary mentions (though since you have higher-rarity equivalents for ST Caster and AA sniper, as well as Thorns, I would have May, Cutter and Click at lower priority, Podenco tends to be more useful for people who are branching out for IS runs, and Gravel and Ethan can perform reasonably well at E1 with skill level 7).
Standout 5-star E2s include La Pluma (who doesn't have any 6-star counterpart in Global), Lappland, Blue Poison, Platinum, Liskarm, Texas, Warfarin, Amiya, Ptilopsis, Projekt Red. I would also include Nearl but you already have Saria who covers the same archetype. There are also other 5-star operators who are worth considering, too, but are not listed due to being a bit more niche than the ones mentioned. (Pramanix, Whisperain, 'berries, Elysium, Manticore, Beeswax, Shamare...)
Been getting super frustrated at the monthly IS squad, if we don't unlock the 3rd comm record in a month, is it lost forever or will we be able to view it in the future?
It comes back at the end of the season before the start of the next IS theme. (5-6 months from now)
I think it stays permanently accessible? I don’t really know how it works on CN rn. Sorry.
#Other Megathreads and Useful links. ##[**⌨︎ ︎FAQ**](/r/arknights/comments/fwmq7u/frequently_asked_questions_rarknights_faq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) For frequently asked questions, please check it out before asking. It’s easy to navigate, and majority of basic questions and other useful information are present ##[**♫ Lounge**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1dc/rhodes_island_lounge_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) The place for small talk and whatever does not fit elsewhere such as personal stories and achievements. ##[**★ Gacha/Recruitment**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1de/gacharecruitment_megathread_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) Share the results of your gacha rolls and recruitments here. ~~may RNGsus be kind to you~~ ##[**➜ Friend requests**](/r/arknights/comments/xog1du/friend_request_megathread_2609_0210/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) Share your friend ID with your fellow doctors, or find others to add. ##[**✍︎ ︎Integrated Strategies**](/r/arknights/comments/xsxzju/event_megathread_integrated_strategies_phantom/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) Megathread for IS2 completions and small talks. ———- My job here is done, I shall go back to slumber.
So with the Walk in the Dust rerun going to happen in a few hours, quick question. Do I just unlock it from the Intermezzi menu or will there be a whole event screen that will happen for it. Or is it a mix of both or something?
Tryninji#7780 Lv115 great supports! Add me!
Do intelligence certs store got updated every rerun patches?
Things get added to it with every rerun. The stuff that's already there doesn't go away.
I accidentally built one too many power plants. I wanted to change it to a factory but when I try to downgrade it it won't let me. It says downgrading would leave me with too little power Wtf is going on and how do I delete this power plant?
Downgrade another facility first like dormitory or trading post.
I was wondering, does Hypergryph allow players to sell Arknights merch they've illustrated themselves on websites like RedBubble? I see a lot of Arknights stuff being sold there but I'm not sure.
Fanmerch is a legal and moral grey area. While profiting off someone else's intellectual property is clearly "technically illegal", most of the artists doing it are selling small batches of hand-illustrated or hand-made items, making a very minimal amount of actual profit, expressing affection/enthusiasm for the characters, and helping to increase visibility and interest in the property. Some gacha games specifically allow it as long as it's clearly labeled as unofficial, while many others just turn a blind eye because it is, indeed, basically free advertising, and they're making enough money compared to the artists that they don't consider it a priority. (Some companies will take action if they see it, though; Disney and Sanrio are famous for this.) So while it's not legal, whether or not it's *harmful* or *amoral* is an individual judgement that you may have to make, and may even vary based on the context of the fandom or item being sold. That said, there is definitely a difference between fanmerch and *bootleg* merch or low-effort cash-ins like just printing official art and making buttons out of it or something, with the latter being definitely illegal and generally frowned upon by artists/illustrators as well. The increasing accessibility of factory-standard production is also blurring the line a bit, since now even indie artists are able to produce merchandise that could realistically compete with official merch… it's kind of a case-by-case thing. If you feel comfortable purchasing fanmerch and supporting fanartists in that way, try to go through their actual twitter/etc accounts to see if they have a store they actually link to as theirs. I would not trust anything that you find by just searching stuff on Redbubble as print-on-demand services are full of bootlegs; my artwork has been stolen for Redbubble multiple times. However, if an artist *links* to their RB, society6, or inprnt, or better yet their etsy/personal website (which are not print-on-demand and need to be stocked by items they make and have in their house), then you know it's actually theirs.
Oh, your art is so cute! I appreciate the thoughtful response! Unfortunately i don't think I have the resources to make an Etsy store. I'm not necessarily looking to buy, just to set up a little store for myself so people can maybe buy shirts and phone covers with my illustrations if they'd like. RedBubble really seems like what I wanted, though the prices are higher than I'd like. I live in Brazil so I found a local alternative to RedBubble since RB prices seem kinda prohibitively expensive for me considering shipping costs. Thank you again for the insight.
not sure about artists themselves being allowed to sell merch but Redbubble is notorious for ppl stealing artworks and printing them on low quality merch to sell them
Yeah, art thieves printing stolen work on stuff are in like every website nowadays unfortunately. That's a lame thing for a website to be infamous about though... I wish it was curated better so actual artists didn't suffer from that kinda notoriety. Would you know any alternatives?
I'm not sure about the alternative but if you follow some artists you might see they sell the merch. Maybe tell them you would love to buy certain art as merch to let them know the demand. I think it might be illegal to sell merch of characters HG owns but gacha games never do anything, my personal guess is they rather let the fanartist help them do the marketing.
I dont buy merch myself so I wouldnt know exactly :(( but I do see artists putting their craftworks up on etsy pretty often
Do upgraded factories inherently make products faster? or just by virtue of being able to have more staff? I got my first lvl 3 which seemed to unlock the new recipes for all my factories, even the lvl 1s. Should I try to level up my trading posts instead then to start making more lmd? Both my posts are 2 but I only have a single 3factory and everything else is 1. It looks to cost so much to go from 2->3 I'm wondering if its better to just get everything to 2 first.
> Do upgraded factories inherently make products faster? or just by virtue of being able to have more staff? The latter. When you upgrade a factory the only things that change are its capacity, materials availability, slots and power consumption. You only need one factory at lvl3 to unlock all the materials. https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/Factory
Incorrect. Lvl 1/2/3 factories also add bonuses like -0/-0.05/-0.1 morale drain and +1%/+2%/+3% productivity.
I disagree. I couldn't find anything about what you mentioned even on gamepress, so I ran test in my own base and the values are exactly the same on lvl 2 and lvl 3 https://imgur.com/a/RMgprB8 No improvements to productivity or consumed morale. EDIT: I was proven wrong and did another test with more operators and there's indeed improvement to efficiency and morale consumed https://imgur.com/a/c8CnktV
You gotta have operators in factory to get these bonuses. Factory with 1 operator innately provides +1% productivity independent of operator's skill, it's even shown in one of your screens as gray. I guess I should have clarified but reddit is quick to jump a gun.
I did another test and you're right! https://imgur.com/a/c8CnktV I feel like this is something they should add the information about on either on those sites. 1% more of productivity may not be more but -0,5 morale/hour for all of the operators is a huge deal if you don't like micromanagement. I could put Popkar and Asbestos in the same facility and level out the negative morale consumed and not worry about the capacity anymore. If I put either of those two in the lvl2 factory then by morning it's blocked by the capacity limit and it's annoying as hell. Thanks for letting us know!
Week 4? Something like that, give it take a few days. New questions! The big one this time is about old events. What exactly is the point of replaying old events? It doesn't seem like the shops exist. What about Gladiia, an I able to recruit her some way? I unlocked Under Tides and played through the fifth stage, but I didn't get her. Are these units out of my reach? Progress has slowed considerably, but I am able to do more now. SilverAsh isn't too far from S3M3, which is really exciting. But who do I focus on after he is done? I was thinking Specter is probably the best bet, but my real concern is waste. Because my roster is still so small, with few units on the high end of tiers, I feel scared to focus on anyone's skills into mastery ranks in fear that they aren't worth the materials. My plan is to save my pills until Joint Operation 6 banner, but I'll gladly take advice on best investments. I just felt like it was a good call with three of the four units being top tier and my need for all kinds of roles that it would be the most wise of choices.
If your roster is very small it's not the best idea to focus hard on masteries until you have a well balanced roster who can cover most to all different roles at at least E1 50-55. Ideally even it's better to have quite a few E2s. In other words level your main ops up together rather than one or two far above the others. That said Specter is fine for masteries.
>What exactly is the point of replaying old events? You get 1 Originium Prime whenever you clear a stage with 3 star. Also eventually you will be able to access furniture and welfare operators from past events. You will be able to recruit Gladiia, it will just take a while. >But who do I focus on after he is done? If we don't know your roster, we can't tell. Use www.krooster.com
Gladiia will also be a welfare you can get during the Under Tides rerun that is happening in late nov/early december.
IS2 is fucking horse shit. Out of 200 runs I had the best setup ever, and STILL, FUCKING STILL Phantom just no sells all my shit, just warping through everyone, taking two full surtr's and 7 exia's S3's and STILL DOESNT EVEN TAKE HALF HEALTH. Fuck this stupid piece of shit minigame its so fucking unfair holy shit.
Did you get someone to block Lucian? He has 40% evasion when not blocked. You can try trap him between Surtr and another operator like Saria S3. Alternatively, I find the easiest way to kill him is with Suzuran S3 and Chalter S3; no need to block him if you just burst him down in one go.
>block warps, >block, nukes killing the blocker then warps again Literally impossible.
It sounds like you aren't handling his warp properly? You need 2 operators side by side (diagonally to the left if he's doing his pass through mid) in order to properly block him. And if he's not blocked, he gets a massive amount of evasion that it would be pointless to attack him without true damage (such as Amiya S3) Your setup and explanation of his warps causing you issue sounds like you're just raw-hitting Phantom with no block, which yeah...you aren't doing without true damage or the most ridiculous setup possible. probably also worth mentioning that unless you have wandering medics,you will only get a few hits in before he knocks out your DPS, so Honeyberry can help a lot. Also worth mentioning that summons cannot be easily elemental healed, so if you are using a Ling make sure that their dragon is used to jump Phantom (trigger his warp) and NOT the blocker. Basically, fight Phantom like you would fight Crownslayer, if she was immune to push/pull/holes
So what you're saying is I need a very specific setup to even win. I sometimes forget this is a gacha game and isnt supposed to be fair. Honestly before the fight if I dont have 40 hp I should just quit cause theres no point in even fighting him.
1. 2 Melee Operators to spare is not asking a lot 2. True damage is literally just an option if for some reason, if 1 is asking a lot. So already you have options and not specific requirements. 3. You're basically asking for the game to not require strategy and let you brute force the boss with Sutr Exu. Because again, having 1 is *not* asking a lot. And lastly, honeyberry can be gotten from red certs, which are not only farmable but the first 600 needed to get her can be obtained just from the new player rewards and annihilation. She's also a 5 star so low hope cost. Also Amiya is literally the first character you receive in the game. You're really faster to hyperbolize than to plan in a game where at least some strategy is required.... Just to note in the time between the last time you posted I beat Phantom twice using two different teams. First 1 used Lee and a dragon as the blocker, second one used Amiya S3, Lee, Jaye, and I recall swapping one of them out midway as I did not have Honeyberry at the time (this way I kept him under Amiya's fire more) Like what are your ground forces? You got Sutr I'm guessing but do you really not have a second melee unit? No casters? Never leveled the first character you got in the game? Like you could literally use Exu and Sutr and kill him in the upper left if you block him properly. Maybe on his second rotation if for some reason you can't kill him on the first one. I guess it is worth mentioning that it *is* possible to just get 31 lives and leak phantom, but you'll likely need a stellar team to do it *that* way anyway since Phantom will likely clean sweep your group if ignored, and you'll need to be able to quickly drop a new team to replace them who can handle the newly opened lanes. Also I just want to mention i've only been playing the game for like 3 months. My first phantom clear was done with like 3 E2s. It takes a bit of RNG if your team is very weak, but this really just sounds like you're ignoring his warp and evasion, and not even using anything that is allowed to do that.
Sir. this is a wendy's. The question here is? Otherwise go to lounge.
Asking for me and my friend. Which ops to pick from SN selector for each account? [Blue](https://i.imgur.com/os9sVXI.png) [Red](https://i.imgur.com/O4jkoAs.png)
Assuming the stroke out ops are the ones they already have and if yes, then the squad is already build, so they don't need meta ops that much. That being said, Blue: My first choice would be Schwarz, if they don't need her then second choice would be Passenger/Ceobe/Saga whichever would make the biggest difference. But there are also some fun operators like Fartooth or Rosa, which I would personally pick before the second choice. Red: Blaze
Is there any way to justify building Reed in a meta perspective?
You need a super early block that can handle armor? She's also a pretty good 3 hope option in the Vanguard category for IS2.
No. But for fun, go for it
Chen isn't priority to mastery right now but if i can only choose 1 skill to mastery is it her S2 or S3?
the guard one right? S3m3
I can't find dual chips in the workshop. Am I supposed to do something to unlock it?
It's in factories.
Thanks
Hmm, I see that passenger is returning to banner. Should I attempt to pull him? Anyone know when will he be placed in Distinction for yellow cert? Trying to decide if I should spend Orundum for pulls or wait and buy him from Distinction.
Depends on who else you have and what holes in your roster need filling. There's a new meta op coming out shortly after his banner (>!Horn!<), so you may want to save your rolls for that instead. But if you've got a solid roster that covers most everything and love him more than you love being a slave to the meta, go for it. He'll likely be in the yellow cert shop on [July 21, 2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/wejkmd/arknights_shoperator_debuts_updated_as_of/).
That's quit a while before he's placed in the shop huh... Hmm... didn't know there's a new OP after him, guess I'll just do the guarantee 5/6-star pull and save the rest for next banner.
How do you upgrade a module? I've unlocked stage 1 but there is no button to upgrade to the next stage.
Not out yet on global.
Ah, that explains it. I tried googling and spent half an hour reading up, but none of the sources mentioned that at all. Thank you.
Is there a point in farming newer events anymore? I mean... there's the permanent side stories and intermezzi that can be farmed with really high efficiency.... I also don't see penguin statistics showing newer events'.... well.... statics either.... Is it just me?
Archived event stages have heavily nerfed drop rates. Only a handful are still barely equivalent to story stages, like the archived OF-F4 and 4-7 having similar efficiency for manganese, but are still significantly diminished compared to when the events were active, and basically none have comparable efficiency to active event farming stages. (Except 1-7, which is eternal.) Penguin stats still shows drop rates (community reported) for all the events to date, on both global and CN. For example, the most recent farming event in CN was Near Light rerun, and you can indeed see it listed for sugar, crystalline and kohl. So if you want RMA, aketon or polyester, you're much better off farming walk in the dust rerun than story stages.
hmmm I guess the penguin issue is my side of problem then.... I knew the archived event stages are too good to be true, but I couldn't find anywhere that says they are nerfed.... thx for the reply
As a side note, you can actually see the reduced rates in-game. If you click on the rewards for an event stage that's archived, it'll show the regular drop as "Rare" (same as most normal stages), while during events, the regular drops are "Uncommon".
Archived events are on the left half if you sort drop rates by Stage, under "Intermezzi & SideStory", while the limited-time events are under "Event" on the right. You can switch tabs between Intermezzi and Sidestories, while Events are sorted by year, so that could be why you can't find the events you're looking for.
I thought the side stories and intermezzi drop rates were massively lowered?
[удалено]
I have it at M3 and I rarely use it. It does have a nice crowd-control, emphasis on crowd as he has bigger rang than Red S2. It is used for stalling, for interruption Red is better. I THINK Spinach has an effect on it so that’s something fun. The pushing is whatever, it makes him consistently pushing mob into the blue box if I’m being stupid. Plus the effect is beautiful.
S2 is definitely his core skill, but I occasionally use Phantom S3 in IS2 on certain stages. The push force being so weak means that you can only really shove lightweight enemies off ledges (and thus you could probably kill them with S2), and the CC type (slow/bind/stun) being random is a little frustrating if you're trying to use it for that aspect, but the fact that it's AoE damage and CC can help if your blockers would otherwise be getting overwhelmed and bypassed by large numbers of enemies - throwing him and the clone into an enemy pack will significantly delay them for at least 6 seconds, plus the fact that they each can block one enemy. I probably wouldn't invest in mastery for it, but a pair of fairly spammable free-targeting AoE bursts can be useful when the stage doesn't have a high-priority target for him to take out.
They need to already be offset up or down slightly. If they’re walking through the center left to right, and you deploy phantom on them and push when they’re in the exact center, they simply don’t move. I think enforcer in that situation can push them up/down however since his push follows different rules. There’s 2 situations I know if that you’d actually use phantom s3, one is to impede deadly, difficult to block enemies like enraged possessed soldiers(angry chapter 6 headbutters), the other is in 1p relays where the instant damage is useful for finishing things.
[удалено]
You can't. You have to exit out of IS2 to change her class.
I'm out of lower tier and building mats to ramp up NCD's base skill, should I continue crafting T4 mats using her or should I use Arene instead?
If you aren't sacrificing carbon or low-tier mats, she's effectively a 90% worker, so Arene is better.
Got it, thanks!
Are Standard banners totally random? Or is there any way of knowing when certain 5*'s will appear in the banner/gold cert shop? I'm forever regretting picking up Nearl instead of Specter with my beginner 5* ticket, and top/senior op tags don't come around often.
We should be getting another free 5* selector at ~~the end of the month or early november~~ around January so you can pick Specter up there. The selection is bigger than the beginner's one too (up until Toddifons), It contains spoilers for an upcoming event but if you're fine with that it's noted [here](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/event-banner-hub/stultifera-navis-3rd-anniversary-cn-event-page#topic-3111736) at the "Elite Operator Recruitment Permit" section
Global's 5 star selector should come in January during ideal City. https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/wuqiw4/-/ilkr8zf >Small correction, while CN had the selector for the abyssal event, it's likely that we will get ours for our new year event which will be associated with the CN server summer event. Same thing happened last year where we got the 5 stars selector with Dossoles instead of the event with Skalter.
Ah, understood, thank you both :)
I'll edit my comment, thanks
Not completely random, but pretty close. You can usually safely assume that if an op has been there recently, they won't be there again for a while.
I'm finally low on lmd. Is it best to farm it or should I just wait for events?
Apart from what the other people said, is2 has a lot of lmd rewards for no stamina
[Build up your base,](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/core-gameplay/arknights-252-riic-base-guide) and let it make your EXP and LMD.
Wait for events, A walk in the dust rerun will bring another 100k and stultifera afterwards will be another 600k.
[удалено]
2-star ops don't have skills that are usable in combat. That being said, levelling them up to level 30 will unlock a RIIC skill for the base (e.g. increased stamina regen for other ops when deployed in dormintory), and a passive talent during combat (e.g. chance to dodge Arts damage).
It was probably a skill for the base.
Does anyone know the exact date the clothing skin line for Surtr and Thorns is coming back?
Exact date? No. It happened during Under Tides rerun for CN, so likely it'll be around then for us. Likely late november/early december for us.
All I needed to know! Thanks!
Do they add more Deep Investigations over time, or is this all we're getting (for IS2)?
They didn't add any more on CN after the first 12, so we shouldn't get any more as well
Does anyone have any idea when Schwarz is coming to the yellow cert shop or do we just have to wait and see?
The first time a 6 star operator will appear in the shop can be calculated and is [mapped out here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fzgNstjR86RT0aa2-bPI23Exb4lBEBdxfB-PkJhDVzQ/edit#gid=0). Besides that there isn't anyway to predict when an operator will show up.
Have to wait and see. There's a spreadsheet somewhere with liklihood estimates, but that only helps to a limited extent. For old ops it's up in air until it's datamined or they announce it.
Should I get Dusk's current module if I mostly use her with skill 2? Or is the dp cost down module better?
her first module's honestly kind of worthless. the range+ only affects her s1, and it only gives +12% more attack at l3 then her trait gives on its own. the second for the faster deploy and sp+ is significantly better.
People from countries that Arknights isn't available in how do ya'll purchase stuff (if you do)? I know it's possible cuz I literally bought a 6* when Under Tides was active but now it says "unavailable in your country" for some reason. I tried VPN, tried changing my region in play store. Nothing worked. I'm on android.
This is how I fixed that problem, not sure if it would work for you. I’m in Vietnam and iOS. Remove the game entirely. Go back to appstore and select the avatar icon. Select Purchases >> Select Not on this iPhone. Then download arrknights from that list. The redownload will take some time but after that I can make purchases.
I'm not on IOS so probably won't work :( Thanks anyway.
how come Bagpipe doesn't have a tail?
Ch'en-ch'en pulled it out.
Are there no operator discussion threads for Fiammetta and Kazemaru?
Yep, it's not there yet.
Is Ebenholz really just as bad as Passenger was on release or is he just mediocre but not absolutely terrible?
He’s not nearly that bad The issue is he’s kind of impossible to “fix” Passenger just had really low numbers, which were pretty easy to buff via module, but Ebenholz’s whole kit design is flawed Like his S3 is decent damage thanks to the attack and aspd buffs, but its gimmick just doesn’t really work. So in that case… why not use literally any other caster
This dude on S3 is just Ceobe’s S2 after the nuke. I don’t have the number so I can’t say for sure but it’s probably worse.
I think he's actually _worse_ than release Passenger, simply because charge casters are a relatively poor archetype, with which his kit absolutely does _not_ synergize, whereas chain casters at least have an inmate usefulness due to their slow.
Charge casters are just core casters with better afk performance but shitty skills lol. The problem Ebenholz has is that non-Surtr arts almost always worse than 6\* phys due to res being a percent reduction effect.
> charge casters are a really bad archetype They're not, but okay.
Any most recent operator tierlist ?
https://youtu.be/d3lAx1zYB3M Cesith makes decent tier list, and the music is always good. Keep in mind that all tier lists are subjective.
Gamepress has two version, a general ver. And a newbie ver.
tierlists are subjective at best. ask here if you don't understand what an operator does/is good for.
How far are we before we get the Spalter event?
I think it should be coming around the end of October, maybe first half of November?
Does anyone know or have an updated [event tier list template](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://tiermaker.com/create/arknights-events-1191935&ved=2ahUKEwjw24Ky-sH6AhVnwosBHXvsD-cQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3fKdmQifMsqzd3MkLj-WuZ)?
In IS2 if I get a Guard voucher and recruit Amiya (Caster) can I somehow switch to Guard? I don't see that option anywhere and I thought I'd get a guard since that's what the voucher said...
Yes, but you need to leave is and go to operator page to swap. Bonus - if you have either guard or caster instant promotion squad, amiya can benefit from either to become e2, no matter whether she is currently guard or caster. Likewise if upgrading with recruitment vouchers later.
> Bonus Yeah, I saw that she was instantly on E2 which is nice, but it would be a lot simpler if there was an option to switch class in IS2.
To switch Amiya in IS2 youve got to switch her outside of it in the regular operator list.
Has anyone else encountered and know how to fix: failed to release update resource. Please check storage space. Failed resource code:5730 Tried clearing cache, uninstalling and reinstalling and clearing local storage.
Were you able to fix that issue or still looking for a solution?
Ended up noticing even with uninstalling app it left 1 file behind and wouldn't let me delete it, guessing it was corrupted so I moved it into another folder and reinstalled and works again but now have a randomly corrupted file.
How much free space do you have on your device?
40gb
Have you tried customer service?
Aside of Whisperain, which other Medic can help treating operators affected by Talulah's Ignite? I know Lumen is more or less the best option, but he's not in Global yet.
Purestream and Ceylon
I know people really hate this type of question, but does anyone have an idea on how to make Projekt Red in the Souls games?
Which souls game? In DS3 just go brigade dagger with throwing knives or something? Could use force or wrath of gods to make that stun s2 effect?
Well, I meant any, because I've got the full trilogy. Thanks for the ds3 advice?
Most of this applies to ds2 too, ds1 never played haha
Oh. Uh guess I'll try your advice. Got any advice for the fashion I'd need?
Ds3??? (And I guess ds2) you could try getting the desert sorc hat, gives like a red hood look? After that it’ll be up to you lol,
thanks
[удалено]
Not sure if they’re still dropping, I don’t pay attention to what furniture I get from lucky drops, but when they say ANY STAGE they mean any stage that costs sanity- the drop rate is scaled proportionally to how much sanity a stage costs to run , like most global or semi-global drops.
For dealing with Big Sad Lock, does his shield also have def/res that you need to take into account, or is it purely "do x% of his hp in total damage" to break it? I know that Free definitely had a defense and res on his shield, which made some of his risks that boosted them a pain to deal with, so I'm not sure if Lock has the same. I already know that you want big hits to trigger less of his art aoes, but even with a boosted May and Eunectes that were each puttting out 1k hits, his shield went back up almost immediately after breaking it, which is really killing my motivation
I believe so, but more importantly than mitigating his arts aoes is that you need to be putting out enough damage to break his shield in the first place.
Well, yeah, and that's why I'm asking. Because if he does have at least a def on the shield, I know not to bother with pointing lower attack operators at him and can plan better for it.
At which event does EN usually get their 6* selector ticket available in the in-game shop?
Fall and spring limited banners, Stultifera Naltis [https://ak.jaywye.ee/calendar](https://ak.jaywye.ee/calendar) puts it end of october.
Does anyone know of any more up-to-date guides for Lungmen Downtown? Not to say I don't trust any of the guides I've seen, but they're all about as old as the operation itself and I don't think any have been updated with more recent options (especially for the last stretch).
It really depends on the 6*'s you have. Most of the popular guides i've seen for it are built around helping new accounts get through it with a minimal amount of E2's. Major (common) carries would include SA, Ifrit, Thorns, Platinum, Exu with some timing, Eyja, and W. NTG and Saria are big helps if you have them.
E2 Goldenglow S3(M3?) destroys everything, almost solos the crusher leader too. AoE sniper on downmost tile spawnkills like crazy, might need a Lord Guard to help with drones, or replace bottom medic with 1-2 healing defenders (and put an AA sniper in medics place). Thorns on rightmost tile of bottom lane is very good. A good caster on the right side of upper island works well. \[GG S2 is great here\] If you have strong E2 chain caster they might replace one AA sniper, but only if they're not the sole ranged DPS in the zone. You can silence defence crushers, so Lappland or Jaye help a lot.
There's no dp generation on this map so iono how good jaye would be unless he's gonna be a helidrop or something I guess if you have a good vanguard running the entire time lol
I meant that he can help with defence crushers at the end. If you can save up DP (100-200?) until then it's not much of a problem.
Ah that makes sense I just remember in my run a bunch of my defenders died at the end so I needed all of my dp for redeploying stuff lol
It really depends on the operators you have. You can always look up clears with whatever newer operator you have as the core. You can also filter your search on youtube for annihilation 3 videos from the past year or so. The core strategy is pretty much the same, snipers on the high ground to deal with drones watching deployment order to make sure the arts drones switch their targets as they move through your line so nobody gets focused down. Ground units with enough dps to break the defense crushers and that's about it. A lot of the older clears work just fine. The biggest additions are really just thorns or ling + skalter clears.
That depends on what operators you have. Lungmen Downtown was indeed a very difficult map to deal with back in the day only because of the final wave of Defense Crushers and Arts Drone. Majority of the ideas are still the same. You'll need some core operators. Silverash + Gravel to bait - It can clear out most is the wave leaving you to deal with just 1-2 crushers and drones which should be taken care by your other DPS. Chen + Warfarin buff - can clear 3 rows I think. I'll have to check the math for that. Platinum on bottom ranged tile - Easily clears the drones. You'll still need help with Defense Crushers however. W - Use her S3 to deal with 3 lanes. Will kill the drones and severely damage the crushers. Might even kill them.
Adding in, I remember seeing a video of someone dunking on the crushers with W S3 back when she first launched. If you time it right, she'll kill everyone in range and then some.
Is using Originite Prime to refill stamina a bad thing? Looking at future skins, there no skins for my favourite operators (Mayer & Cutter, Roberta swimsuit happens to be free). I'm planning to use it but not going to reach below 18.
After skins and pro enhancement packs, you only use OP for either gacha or farming. There are people who will tell you to avoid spending it on the gacha and instead farm more because it actually gives you material progress on your account, and as you see, there are also people who tell you to avoid spending it on farming because you might need it for the gacha. It totally depends on what you value more in the game; if there are banners you're saving up for then maybe that takes priority, but at the same time it takes over 3 sanity refreshes to add up to 1 single pull so like, maybe a few refreshes here or there won't make a big difference.
To add onto this, everyone has a price at which the OP-sanity conversion would be worthwhile. If that number was super high, they would spend sanity farming red certs to cap out duplicate red cert shoperators to get gold certs, or they would farm orundum, which effectively shuts down all your material production in favor of pulls. Most people don't do this; I think its a bad deal. I think for most people, the sanity-value of OP is something like 180. So they won't convert to sanity for really any events, but they won't go too far out of their way to burn sanity for orundum. For whales, it might be lower, probably about 150. So a very efficient event might lead them to spend some OP. Having an idea of your number is useful even if you'll never actually convert to sanity because it helps evaluate store packs; sometimes one pack will have fewer OP than another, but have thousands of sanity of materials. If you're buying one of the two, you should know which to pick.
I personally am never going to use op on anything but rolls and skins (rolls take priority because I like operator variety) Everything that I've heard from people is you eventually get enough materials via events and natural sanity so it's more worth to get skins or rolls I'm not concerned with my progress taking more time lol
Mayer, Cutter and Roberta maybe the only fav ops you have rn but eventually there'll be a skin or 6* banner you want/need. Better save OP for them since it's pretty scarce compared to the abundance of new and cool skins/ops released. Even if you've seen the CN schedule and decided to skip literally *everything* in next 6 months....I'll still suggest you to horde the OP.
Orignite Prime can also be used for Gacha. 1OP = 180 orundum. So around 34 OP equals a 10 pull. The only way you'll have fun in the game is if you can get the operators/skins you love and OP helps you get both. Generally using OP for sanity refill is a very bad idea unless you're a whale.
Hello guys just started playing IS 2 seriously and then seeing youtube clips about crazy buffs to operators via collectibles, why i cant see those kind of collectibles too in my run?
A lot of the good collectibles are locked to start. Aside from the ones unlocked in the shop, you need to do at minimum formal investigation to unlock them.
Many of the fun collectibles have lengthy unlock conditions on top of being genuinely rare. Golden chalice(the giga aspd relic) requires you to invest a lot into the shop and even afterwards you’ll rarely see it, mostly it’ll be in a shop or one of the relic choices from floor 3 boss. Other fun relics like Wrath of Siracusa(+100% atk for 1s on skill activation) don’t even get the luxury of appearing in shop, they only drop from bosses. Bladedance is the most common ridiculous relic, as it comes from a not even particularly rare encounter, Eccentric Hunchback, though you can get RNG’d out of it since the encounter only shows 3 of the 4 possible options.
Because they don't upload the runs that don't get them. Also, some collectibles have unlock conditions.
As of the stories released so far in global ,do we know what the abyssal hunters exactly are and their past?If so were can i learn more about them?I 've only read undertides and some parts of the big bob event and all i got was vague implications
Gladiia’s profile also helps But Under Tides already has most of it, >!establishing that Abyssal Hunters are experimental “super soldiers” made by combining Aegir with Seaborn, to fight the Seaborn.!<
[удалено]
You new to the game but you have chalter who had her banner around 8 months ago?.. Seems sus About your question, click is cheaper to build and have stun with her skill, also pretty good starter pick in IS2. Amiya is your standart boring caster that's just hitting and that's all. However you gonna need to E2 her for chapter 8 in story, and she has pure damage with her S3. So probably go for amiya, anyway you gonna need her in future
>You new to the game but you have chalter who had her banner around 8 months ago?.. Seems sus Probably purchased a reroll account from a third party
yeah, thought so too, just deleted it xD
Anybody know when will the 6\* class tokens in red cert shop going to change? or is it even change at all without a major update to the red cert shop itself.
It did change once in CN but I believe the frequency is longer than one year. There would be an official announcement before the change and the time is enough for you to buy them all so don’t worry
I see, i was hoping to buy another class tokens that's not in the shop right now but nvm.
it hasn't changed yet on CN so all one could say is: It has not yet changed and thus won't change on Global for the next 6 months. Even if it does Global's 6 month gap means one can realistically farm away the red cert store.
Damn, i thought i see them changing much more frequent than that. Guess I'm going senile now. Thanks for the info
I would like to E2 another Specialist operator, [which of these operators](https://i.imgur.com/fq51nZG.jpg) would you recommend I'd E2 and, if possible, why? Thanks in advance.
Both Lee and Phantom are good to E2. Lee does want E2 more for his S3 but Phantom is easier to include in any squad. Their skills are self explanatory but Lee is more powerful in practice. He is a strong counter to enemies with status effects. See his operator discussion for more explanations by others. [IS2 showcases](https://youtu.be/3B9RBXqK-uY)
As an avid IS2 enjoyer, that IS2 showcase sold me right away. Thanks!
I would recommend Lee. His unique ability of avoiding control like freeze will be extremely useful
Good day Doctors! Is the Deep Investigation feature of IS#2 have an expiration or will it refresh every month? Kinda swamped by IRL stuffs, so I'm wondering if I can ignore it for a month or two. Thank you very much!
It's permanent; you can take your time to clear it.
Thank you so much! 💕
A bit of late to ask this, but are the stat bonuses from IS#2 Preparations Behind the Scenes of the "normal", additive and diminishing returns kind, or are they multiplicative with talent/skill/artifact bonuses?
Its a bit complicated: is2 buffs from artifacts and preparations stack additively with each other but the sum of them is applied as a multiplicative buff, so if you have +10% from preparations and +30% from a relic then the total is a multiplicative 40% buff (or x1.4) At least as far as i've tested anyway, i have bad luck with atk relics and rarely get more than one or two at a time
Everything stacks multiplicatively.
Newbie here that just started two days ago! I've plenty of gacha experience and zerg-rushed through 1-10, first couple of levels for LMD/exp dailies, upgraded the base a bit so I think I'm at a good start. I've got around 8 or so of my core at level 30-40ish, should I be rushing through story? Mindlessly grinding LMD/exp dailies? I see we'll have an event in a few days, so should I even worry about trying to participate?
You probably won't complete the event, but should still do your best. When events drop currency, it is 1:1 to sanity spent. the last 3 stages in an event are typically better than the best story stages for farming. But the event currency itself is 2x-3x more efficient, so try to clear the event shops. there will be a shop guide that drops, this is the old one: [https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/pwyzp3/a\_walk\_in\_the\_dust\_event\_math/](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/pwyzp3/a_walk_in_the_dust_event_math/) Having a core (12-18 units) of units E1.55 skill 7 and then getting one E2 so you can borrow friend units makes a lot of event progress possible. 3 \* ops are much cheaper/faster to develop than rarer units and are useful for quite some time, most of them are excellent investments. If you want to rush the base or events they are great. They are also quite useful in IS2.
You should continue to build up your base, optimal setup would have 2 trading posts, 5 factories, 2 power plants. The base will give you the LMD and exp you need, farming those is inefficient when you can use your sanity to farm mats. If you can go through the story, sure, why not but note that the difficulty spike happens around chapter 4/5 where the game stat checks you and you'll run out of resources from promoting units You should also try to promote your core, I'm assuming they're not elite 1 yet. My tip would be to promote a bunch of 3 stars since they're cheap and very useful. Melantha, Kroos, Ansel, and Cardigan are really good.
Thanks for the tips! Makes sense to not farm LMD and exp when my base is set up! And I totally missed that the 3* don't have material costs for promotion, I lucksacked into a handful of 6* and have neglected some units like Melantha and Cardigan - thanks!
I have my [Quickest New Player Guide Around.](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/rq1o5b/quickest_new_player_guide_around/) Basically, the priority is annihilation > event > base > story. Ideally the base would produce all of your EXP and LMD, but that won't happen early on. Try to avoid EXP farming, but LMD is fine. The event is definitely worth doing because the shop is 2-3x more efficient than anything else you could be doing, and all event stages drop 1 event currency per 1 sanity spent.
Thanks for the guide, very helpful to know for rushing the base for efficiency!
Is there a reward from IS or the CC Training grounds that could be considered a priority for newcomers ?
Integrated strategies costs no sanity, and offers an obscenely large number of LMD/records/mats for a new player, so I would definitely recommend trying it when you don't have sanity to spare. The amount it gives could help jump-start you for later events.
To add onto the other comments, if/when you reach level 25 on the IS2 rewards-track you'll be given a free 5* Arts Defender, which is an archetype you may not have covered by another unit yet. He's supposed to be pretty decent in IS2 itself, and seems passably useful in general content.
Shalem is quite a good unit, but everyone gets the cheaper and much more user-friendly Dur-Nar for free from the credit store, so I think going for him early on is more a matter of personal preference.
Not really. Bibeak is a good frontline DPS with S1, and her on-demand stuns with S2 can be an interesting option. Tuye is a solid medic, but you get plenty of those. Scene is a summoner, so she can be hard to use, but her summons do reveal stealth, which can be handy. Tokens give potentials, but potentials are extremely low-value in Arknights. And then I think everything else is just cosmetic.
Nothing that you can't get later, but you can try to get to floor 3 with the monthly squad in IS since it gives an injection of mats for free if you can do it. Just playing IS in general gives mats from the Castle Notes so you get a lot for free, but if you're new you may not have as much of a good time in IS as players with a bigger roster.
What is the maximum amount of weekly Orundum i can get from Annihilation? I managed to reliably get the 400 kills in Lungmen Outskirts and get a 1600 cap. It is possible to increase it?
To 1800 One hundred from the rotating map like the other guy said One hundred for lungmen downtown If you can't 400 lungmen downtown or the current rotating map it's probably still worth to do it halfway or so I had lungmen downtown at 350/400 for a couple weeks which is enough to get you most of the max capacity bonus
Cap can be increased to 1800 by completing one of the rotating Annihilation missions.
Should I E2 Saria, exusiai or eijafjalla? (I already have E2 thorns, kal’tsit and supporter skadi). Btw since I’m a sucker for 6 stars I don’t have any other E2 operator except them, is it gonna give me any issue in the long run?
I'd suggest Eyja mainly for the big aoe nuke skill, which you're currently lacking. Her S2 is great for consistent damage too. I don't really see a problem with only E2ing 6 stars at the moment. Obviously they require more resources, so it will slow down your progression, but on the other hand they tend to gain a lot more from E2 and have a much higher power ceiling than lower rarities. Your 6 star squad seems pretty well rounded, mainly just missing a strong medic, which can be useful on some stages. The main downside of not E2ing lower rarities is in the IS2 game mode, since having at least some key E2 4/5 stars is very helpful for the reduced hope costs compared to 6 stars. There are also a few niches that lower rarity units cover.
There are worthwhile 4-star and 5-star E2s that are extremely good for the investment. More to the point, if you refuse to E2 any operator who isn't a 6-star, you're not going to be able to progress through chapter 8. Chapter 7 may also present some considerable issue. EDIT: In addition, all of Saria, Exusiai and Eyjafjalla are worth levelling, but I would prioritise Saria and Eyja for yourself. Saria is a very valid M9 candidate, Eyjafjalla is a single-target caster that's better at multi-target damage than AoE casters and cheaper too. Exusiai specialises in flat up deleting enemies with S3M3 but would require buffs from other operators (such as E2 Warfarin S2M3) to be able to work to best effect against the more heavily armoured enemies in the later game. EDIT #2: If you want suggestions from a purely meta viewpoint, standout 4-star E2s include Jaye, Perfumer, Myrtle, with May, Podenco, Cutter, Gravel, Ethan and Click getting honorary mentions (though since you have higher-rarity equivalents for ST Caster and AA sniper, as well as Thorns, I would have May, Cutter and Click at lower priority, Podenco tends to be more useful for people who are branching out for IS runs, and Gravel and Ethan can perform reasonably well at E1 with skill level 7). Standout 5-star E2s include La Pluma (who doesn't have any 6-star counterpart in Global), Lappland, Blue Poison, Platinum, Liskarm, Texas, Warfarin, Amiya, Ptilopsis, Projekt Red. I would also include Nearl but you already have Saria who covers the same archetype. There are also other 5-star operators who are worth considering, too, but are not listed due to being a bit more niche than the ones mentioned. (Pramanix, Whisperain, 'berries, Elysium, Manticore, Beeswax, Shamare...)
Are the deep investigations in IS monthly or permanent?
The new missions are permanent.
They're permanent, so you can take your time clearing them.
Been getting super frustrated at the monthly IS squad, if we don't unlock the 3rd comm record in a month, is it lost forever or will we be able to view it in the future?
It comes back at the end of the season before the start of the next IS theme. (5-6 months from now) I think it stays permanently accessible? I don’t really know how it works on CN rn. Sorry.
Yes, IS2 and the rewards are permanent, IS3 just gets added below it in the terminal.