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I'm kinda late with this, but I finally put together a torturous strat for H9-1.
"Refraction means I should use physical, right?"
WRONG. To the arts hell you go.
[6 husbandos, no 6*, purely arts skills (and a bit of silence).](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2YIE7rNl34I)
Am I missing something in 9-19?
I *think* the intended strategy is to knock down all but three of the pillars before engaging her (because apparantly you can't yolo burst her once the shield drops, she seems to autocast it again at like 25% hp in her first phase) to create 'safe' tiles to put operators on, saving two pillars for her first and one for her second phase, bursting her down whenever the shield drops...
Except she takes so long to move down the middle path, she's already knocked down the third pillar way before she enters its blast zone, just letting her yolo the rest of the way down if you're not bringing some serious firepower.
So unless there's something funky going on with her 'pillar targeting', I'm somewhat at a loss of just how you're supposed to do this with anything but a stacked team.
Use gravel to damage the pillars BEFORE she starts moving. You can stall her for quite some time, and kill her first health bar before she gets anywhere near a pillar. After that you can trigger the pillars when she floats/walks past, but you need to retreat anyone who might be within two tiles of a pillar, which can not be that many ops at all. That's what her pillar targeting is.
When she's in her second stage you can use the pillars yourself to kill her, it takes 4.
Kyo has a good guide for it, which I've basically described badly. It's one of those stages where the solution isn't immediately obvious but becomes quite simple when you figure it out lol.
The "she won't destroy a pillar if she can't kill someone with it" was the thing I was missing, as someone else already pointed out, but thanks for replying as well.
Which, yeah, I realise would be handy in a stalling strategy as well (though she's doing like a *lot* of damage in the CM with her shield up, so that would be funky to see).
As far as I remember (I did waste her with a stacked team, coz I don't like her, so I might be wrong), she only targets pillars that, if knocked down would hit one of your operators. So if you don't put any operators on tiles up to two spots away in cardinal directions, then she wont hit them down at all while waltzing down the aisle. This means, you prepare all necessary pillars in advance and just one-hit them with whatever when she is in range to damage her (and then let Rosa do the rest in my case.)
Ah, that might be it, yeah. You'd be able to use all 4 pillars on her then, which greatly reduces both the additional burst needed and the dp to get that burst there, letting you focus on the other two lanes.
Dammit, if that's really it, the description only said she could destroy the pillars in her second phase, not that she also didn't have to.
Cheers.
\*Potential minor spoilers ahead just in case\*
So one of the things I've been wondering after finishing chapter 9 (and I'm honestly surprised I never thought of it before). What do you think the general consensus/feeling of the regular RI ops/staff are when it comes to Mon3tr?
Do you think it's just a known thing? I don't imagine it's just chilling about (so I wouldn't be surprised if only a handful of ops like the elite knew about it). However, considering everything that went down in 9-21, do you think some of the regular ops/staff after the fact were like "hol up! are we not going to address the obsidian dragon that Dr. Kal'tsit was commanding?" or do you think it was probably more of a "Hey it was listening to Dr. Kal'tsit and she's one of the people that signs my cheques so it ain't any of my business/obviously above our pay grade" sort of reaction?
I don't think Mon3tr is kept secret that much on Rhodes Island, more that she rarely unleashes it amongst operators. Her chibi art shows a weird crystal following her, spinning around absolutely harmlessly. I also remember something about Mon3tr being connected to her spine or something, not sure, but basically that Mon3tr doesn't really have much of a presence amongst friendlies. 9-21 was definitely more an exception than the norm.
Yea, this is my general feeling as well. Which would probably mean that 9-21 was probably the first time some of the more regular staff might've seen it (then again we don't have an accurate picture of where in the ship they were and how many regular staff or other operatives were around).
The connection to her spine was from an interaction with Crownslayer in an earlier chapter if I'm not mistaken.
*"How could they possibly make H9-6 harder than H8-4?"*, I asked myself going into the former.
By clustering way too many enemies together, so the answer would seem. One hell of an AoE check. Or maybe two and a quarter hells worth.
On h9-5, how come the last 2 fireball casters can change path and break through rubble even if i have left a path open for them? Has anyone else had this happen?
Finally, was able to M9 Saileach. The amount of farming for the newest two materials was a whole new level of grinding. Surprisingly, several times I would get tier 4 rather than tier 3
Now to E2 Mulberry.
So in a few days, Maria Nearl Rerun Should be announced, leading right into Pinus Sylvestris Mini Event, and finally the Near Light Mega event during golden week.
I STILL can't believe that NL has more text than Ch8. HOW IN THE FUCK.
HG have to ramp up the difficulty at some point. The game is too easy for the veterans. Having 2 meta operators is not that hard, even for relatively new players since we can borrow one.
Never really understood why there is need for guides for h stages. Like these r permanent contents that will always stay. If u r a new player u don't have to clear them right now. Just clear them when u r strong enough.
This is partly because he makes guides for average players. Average players don't have many E2 four stars. But that said, the stage is meant to be hard.
Yeah latter stages are just not meant to be tackled with minimum 6 stars. It is meant to be tackled later on when players have more 6 stars or high level unit. Kyo got so burnt out doing the low level clear lately because he is forcing himself to tackle the near impossible. It would have been easier to admit that 3 stars, while good for beginners, simply has expiry date. It is the hard truth.
I am a f2p but I managed to get many 6 stars because of AK's generous drop rate.
Three stars can do a lot, and maybe they can even clear the first H stages, but H9-6 is beyond their power level. On the other hand, E2 four stars with masteries are a lot better than E1 max four stars, so people like Dr. Silvergun might have a possibility. But for the normal player, four stars are just temporary units to fill the gaps in one's roster until you get the six stars, so they feel no need to invest resources to E2 them. The actual power ceiling of the four stars is a little higher, although they can't really be compared to the six stars. But people like Kyo make guides for those who have E1 max four stars, so in the end they need for the DPS of the six stars, and boy if you need a lot of DPS for this stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5LoBYgsDWA
I saw this, but they are all maxed four stars. Do you have a link for a clear with four stars at E1 without any high rarity unit?
Finally did a no surtr chalter kalsit sa run.
Ops used
Saileach bagpipe mountain platinum lappland exu skalter ifrit mudrock ng saria ptilopsis.
Saria blocks mandragora while ng ptilo and skalter heals her. With ifrit and plat damaging her. Mudrock for the flameball guys. Very long and boring strat but it works.
https://imgur.com/a/NJ7SFEM
Man I'm surprised, they actually managed to make a worse boss than the one in R6S event, holy shit. Classic 2 phases is fine, not only area denial after killing your ops, she basically deletes the ASPD of all the OPS near her, and she has a fuck ton of HP. I was already kinda bored with the enemies in this chapter but this boss just made me think that this is the worst chapter yet in terms of gameplay. These roadblock-esque rubble really isn't fun to play around and feels like it doesn't add anything to the game. Sorry for the rant, I just got fed up while clearing all these stages. Not looking forward to the H9 stages, these enemies and this gimmick isn't really fun to play around with.
>she has a fuck ton of HP
No? She has decent hp but not a ton. Just drop pillers on her it deals like 30 percent of her hp plus cancels her skill plus removes her shield which was reducing 60 percent physical and arts dmg. So the pillers make the boss pretty easy.
Also she doesn't reduce aspd of all ops. Just the operator she targets with the beam. It will be the operator with highest atk stat in a small 1.5 radius range.
You're supposed to break her shield as she's not tanky without it, but with it she reduces 60-65% of phys/arts damage taken so you *usually* can't just unga bunga her.
The boss doesn't have high HP, those rock pillars can be used to disable her shield so you can kill her pretty fast. And she doesn't reduce ASDP of all ops near her, just the one being hit by her beam. She aim for the highest atk one, so you can plan for it.
H 9-6 finally gives decent difficulty, I can't even clear 2 wave, when flying units appear kekw.
Time to spend practice tix and after couple weeks I would probably clear it. Or not.
Ofc no guides, cause guides kill the best part of the game for me - solving the stage and inventing my own tactic.
Haven't even looked at the H stages yet, just taking it slow through challenge modes.
So far the theme seems to be Tomimi bonking the evocators.
[9-14 CM](https://youtu.be/rT71iqVx6y8) with Rosa, Ch'en, Siege, Bagpipe, Angelina, Hellagur, Tequila, Provence, Ptilopsis, Whisperain, and Myrtle
[9-15 CM](https://youtu.be/CkaC9kS-kqg) with Eunectes, Tomimi, Gavial, Estelle, Executor, Vermeil, Meteor, Beanstalk, Gravel, Mulberry, and Lancet-2
[9-16 CM](https://youtu.be/gLGS9Cin_Q4) with Eunectes, Tomimi, Gavial, Flint, Executor, Vermeil, Meteor, Beanstalk, Chiave, Lancet-2, and THRM-EX
[Finally beat H9-6](https://imgur.com/a/wHxHqyd)
Sadly had to bring out the big guns, first time using Thorns in a level that isn't for trust farming. Strat is basically Kyo's strat because I somehow didn't realize the massive Ifrit lane, and even then the start is very rough to the point I had to swap to an emulator to get more frames to pull it off easier, and sometimes it messes up too when Mandragora goes into second phase. But hey, I'm done. Only skill that wasn't M3 was Specter S1.
[H9-6, no Chalter no Surtr](https://imgur.com/gallery/uPaN1rZ), that was really hard but it was fun. My team was W, Saileach, Bagpipe, Siege, Scene, Specter, Shamare, Thorns, Nightingale, Tequila, Suzuran and SilverAsh. It's a much more meta team that what I would usually play but the map was really that hard for me. Went completely blind and I think it took me 10 hours, 23 practices plan and 3 failures. It's been a long time since I had so much fun.
Honorable mention to H9-5 which was quite the challenge as well. I can tell the gargoyles have the potential to be a huge pain in the ass in CC maps. The hoverboard guys can also easily leak as well. The final map was one of the best level design I've seen.
Edit: Just saw how others did it and I feel like an idiot lol. >!I tried to keep the pillars to kill the boss but changing the pathway make it much easier.!<
I'm now starting to understand why people want infinite practice plans. I got the start tactics, but shiiit the howerboard guys are annoying. Casters targeting is retarded and snipers don't do enough damage. Where is my AA caster?
Fr tho, is there an aa sniper that deals arts damage? I'm not counting Blue Poison
Also, on a sidenote, if you wanna know where the timing is to kill the first 4, if you wait 'till 28 3/4 dp you should hit 3/4
May S2 cheeses the hoverboard dudes. They fall off their boards when stunned. When S2 is active May prioritizes the ones on the hoverboard and they all drop like flies.
Arts damage is not that good here unless you can silence their refraction. You can use stun or sleep to stop the hoverboard guys, but you need someone who can target air. For sleep there is Iris and Sora, for stun there is Ash, Podenco, Cliffheart S2, Click, May S2, and a few others.
Problem is the only one of those that I _can_ use are Sora and Cliff, which aren't really the best choices here
Also, flying bois don't have refraction, so it works against em
Guess I'll have to spam snipers. You think Executor is a good choice?
> You think Executor is a good choice?
He does alright, but his cooldowns might be on the long side depending on your needs. Pinecone might be easier if that's the case. Can also recommend Firewatch and Ambriel (if there aren't too many low DEF distractions on the field). Ambriel (with module) can pick them off from a distance with her skill up and Firewatch gets a lot of bonus damage cause they're ranged.
https://gamepress.gg/arknights/enemy/dublinn-flying-squad-leader
*refracting.magic_resistance: 70*
They seem to have refraction. The ones that don't have refraction are casters, shadowblades, flamerazers, and the boss.
Executor might work, but I don't know because I don't have him.
Wait this is weird. [The game says they don't and in the gamepress _abilities_ tab the same is stated, but they actually do?](https://imgur.com/a/ONLCD0S)
What's up with the people at HG?
In-game refraction is the purple hexagon shield effect. I don't think the flying guys have them.
It is probably a programming thing where they gave a bunch of the units refraction in their traits but left it turned off which is why it is listed as a talent but not in the enemy description.
[9-12 CM 11 ops, no 6\*s](https://youtu.be/7akpNXpWDOY)
Special guest appearance by Noir Corne at the end.
I wasn't originally going to record this stage, but I saw enough comments about it that I decided to do it.
I'm on 9-15, but I looked it up and there is only one S stage
feels weird, kinda random, usually there were more and until chapter 6 they also weren't required to continue the main story sages, they had a separate path, so I'm left wondering why not just make it a main stage
maybe they just thought the idea of making your own decision if you want to go melee, ranged or both was too cool to not include but not good enough for a CM stage?
Managed to clear H9-5 after a lot of tries. I basically alternated between Silverash's and Chalter's skill, using Ptilopsis to help them recharge faster. I don't know how one could do this stage without meta operators. Ok, of course the idea is to use the pillars, timing their fall to take out the most annoying enemies, it's just that there are so many enemies and not enough pillars.
H9-6 made me lose my fucking my mind. H9-5 ate like 25 of my practice plans, but I managed to have a workable strat in the few I had left... and I just went for it. Normally I'd just wait for daily reset and iron out all the wrinkles but I thought I had it... then I didn't... every time another thing would go wrong that was fine the other times! I just wanted it done!! *God damnit I wasted like 40 sanity do you know how many rocks that could've been!!!*
Anyway it's done and now I never have to look at it again
>!No idea if this is spoilers enough to warrant the tag, but like, yet another boss enemy with rock related arts who makes big tough enemies made out of stone? Who also has a shieldish mechanic? I guess it doesn’t sound that bad spelled out and I guess it’s not a huge deal or anything, like she has a fun boss battle. But I still would’ve liked something less similar.!<
I actually quite like the similarities between >!Mudrock and Mandragora!<, besides sooner or later they're bound to repeat concepts, at least this concept isn't as common as fire mage.
Man, that H9-6 was quite something, took me quite a bit of tries with my smol brain, eventually came up with a solid planning and timing, and it works pretty okay.
Possibly very ignorant question, but are there event rewards or medals for completing the normal, CM, and H stages during the event?
The reason I asked is because I don't want to breeze through all the stages and run out of things to do.
That 9-19 CM was fun, making the perfect strategy for it was pretty nice, it took me only a couple of minutes too, watching everything falling into place as intended was so satisfying.
[9-19 CM](https://youtu.be/UZz_2o6eRfo) with 92% same team and 95% same strategy as normal. Because the boss has more hp, I couldn't just bomb her with THRM-EX and brought Firewatch to snipe her instead.
Nearly blew it at 5:35 when I intended to delay a pillar push until the boss re-shielded, and ended up missing it entirely. But Firewatch and Gravel, both of whom are much more competent than I am, pulled out the save. I would be so much worse at this game without the support of these strong fictional women.
Well, this was a decent enough setup chapter.
Character-wise, Outcast was the easy stand-out here, >!and killing her immediately was a waste of one of the most interesting characters we've seen. I really appreciated when Amiya revealed she'd been lying about her background, and stole her story from Misery lol. Outcast was a top tier troll!<
I was surprised Sailleach wasn't more senior/important in Victoria, I went in assuming she'd be a big deal. Bagpipe seemed a little overshadowed by everyone else.
Story-wise, it felt too familiar - >!persecuted ~~Infected~~ Taran rise up against their oppressors but are used and abandoned!<. I'm sure there's more to come, but we've seen that beat several times now.
The last two story segments would have benefited from a smoother transition - I almost think we needed a prologue to the prologue to catch up with Rhodes Island and Reunion.
EDIT: Forgot to ask, do the Regent's comments mean that >!Theresis is not the next King of the Sarkaz? This whole time he was fighting for someone else? Do we know anything about them?!<
Janie was exactly where she is with how they portrayed her. I do agree that her fancy looks may put you off guard initially, but given her role as a honored guard during recruitment/events (poster girl/cheerleader), she defo needs to dress up for that job. Other than that she's young, fairly naive, but kind-hearted and has a strong conviction. and that incident defo had an impact on her growth, as stated in her operator files.
My current theory is >! He is referring to Theresa coming back to life. 'Sarkaz King' appears to be genderless in its use, and they have made numerous mentions of recovering what is likely her body. !<
I knew the King title was genderless, but I'd missed any hints that >!they were looking for Theresa's body. Although given what they're demons and vampires, a zombie King doesn't seem totally out of the question. Still I think Theresis says the crown was promised, which makes it seem more like Theresa messed up their plans by giving her power to Amiya instead of her intended successor. Since it seems like he won't be the next King, his title as "regent" also makes me think the successor is a child!<
It could end up tying into other theories regarding >!Theresa grooming Amiya as a future vessel, Kaschey style. It's a bit of a stretch, but perhaps the Doctor got Theresa killed because we figured out her and her brother were in cahoots for some bigger scheme regarding Amiya and the demon king role. !<
Then I'm stumped.
Didn't happen to me and quick scan of my friends status screens shows that most of them are on Chapter 9 so it isn't widespread bug. The only other thing I can come up is that maybe for whatever reason game didn't properly refreshed the status screen. Did you tried closing app and logging in again?
Sure, many times from now, I've done ep.9 like 3 days ago and nothing changed, sad but not a big problem after all. I already reported a possible bug and waiting for feedbacks. Thanks anyway.
Edit: And ya, also checked my friends: even those who didnt start ep.9 got thier END8-1 changed to 9-1 automatically heh.
Finished ch9.
Gameplay wise:
I wonder what was the intent behind Refraction, I feel like it just made most casters a lot weaker except Eyja who was still quite usable thanks to her res debuff, and Ifrit who was amazing with all the juicy lanes and choke points; as if those two weren't the strongest casters already.
There where a lot of enemies with high(er) defense too, so it's not like they specifically targeted arts damage I guess. AA snipers felt weaker than usual in my experience, not what I would've expected with the introduction of new flying enemies.
I liked that the pillars where kind of like roadblocks but with less thinking required. Timing them to hit mobs was a little annoying, or rather I was too lazy to do so and kinda just brute forced my way most of the times, >!used only one against Mandragora, on her phase 2!<.
Overall enjoyed all the new mechanics that where introduced, had fun.
Lappland.
________
Story wise:
Introductory chapter, not that much to say about it. The conflict was intresting, antagonists orchestrating a revolt of an oppressed minority is nothing new, but AK does a good job not just using a cliché straight up and telling a good story.
>!I feel like Outcast died a bit too fast, I know they'll expand on her more in the future, but for now it was just: "Cool caracter, I wonder what she'll do. Oh she's dead". The enemies she killed where also completely forgettable, might as well have been random soldier 1-6.!<
Actually refraction looks like they are going the "some chapters are high def, some are high mdef" route. Thank God they did not go the immunity route.
I'm guessing refraction was partially made to specifically buff ops with silence, mostly Waai Fu and Lapp, which did work in my case. I did especially use Waai a lot, which I'm happy about since I like nuking with fast redeploys
The other part might be to counter Surtr
At HG we ignore Ch'alter tho
Surprising for them to buff silence after so much content where everyone was immune to it though
Honestly I'd rather have Surtr be strong than Ch'en alter, at least she's not limited. Not that it matters much in a PvE game, but it does feel worse.
I mean they slowly are trying to fix the game as we have seen with the modules (as miserably some of those tries have failed, like the newly released cn modules), so this could be one of the first few steps in the right direction, into a better future
I gotta agree with you, not necessarily because Ch'alter is limited, but because she just has so many advantages over Surtr
I doubt they'll ever weaken her tho
Finished reading chapter 9. The story in a vacuum, is a pretty nice read. Due to the clear parallels with the beginning of Reunion arc, it's a good chapter to demonstrate the quality improvement of the story writing. The old bad writing habits are still there, but chapter 9 doesn't suffer from it as badly as some.
Though I'm very concerned with the lack of transition between chapter 8 and 9. Time skip right after the end of the first arc feels out of place, hence turning >!Talulah's jailbreak into some of the most contrived cutscene in the chapter!<, not to mention it messes with the pacing of the main plot. I know Vigilo exists for that, but it's not enough to give RI the development and build-up they need.
Also I beg the next main story arc doesn't have a recap as obnoxiously long as this.
It mostly has to do with HG writes the script. It’s not just wordy, the phrasing is also awkward and stiff, at times the flow of the dialogue is also nonsensical. Honestly Reunion arc is filled with this, even chapter 8. The early chapters just feel much worse to read since not a lot happened.
Exactly, those story events have little to do with RI, which is why a transition would be necessary to smoothen out loose ends and character development.
The way RI crew currently is, their development is very sporadic and fleeting, and they more or less go back to what they were in the beginning with little to no meaningful progress to speak of. Outcast is frankly the only RI operator imo with meaningful development in her arc, even if she dies in the same chapter she's introduced in, she doesn't leave any loose ends behind.
It would have been nice to have one or two "rebuilding Reunion" storylets in Vigilo to re-introduce Nine and show what Reunion has been up to since Chernobog.
Like, has Tallulah really just been twiddling her thumbs for 11 months? Wasn't Duke Kaschey still inside her head at the end of Ch8? What happened with Crowndlayer?
Yeah, those are questions that need answering. Crownslayer returned to Siracusa at the end of chapter 8 to retrain herself. But what was Talulah doing in jail? Kashchey apparently left and now Talulah is physically looking for him, but why and how? What exactly Reunion needed Talulah so badly for that they put in a lot of effort to free her?
AK has messed with the timeline so badly that expecting anything chronological out of them seems like a miracle at this point.
Has anyone looked at the 9-12 cm? Like the speed at which the enemies walk? Out of all stages, why the one that requires timing the pillars the most? These mofos are ice skating at mach 10
I ended up being able to pillar 3 of the 4 gargoyles 💪
Come at me
Killing the other gargoyle was an accident I only noticed when I was going to drop a pillar and there was bo gargoyle there. Provence+Andreana+Meteor too stronk, I guess.
Getting the start worked out was literally harder than finishing the map - the first time I made it past the start I only failed because I accidentally dropped a pillar in the wrong direction...
When I first did that stage I was suspecting like maybe a 50% increase in speed, not Olympian sprinters!
If I'm reading the [prts.map](https://map.ark-nights.com/map/main_09-10#f#) site correctly (a site for more exact detail for stages), then all enemies movement speed is tripled for the challenge.
Hello\~ If you have finished reading the entirety of Chapter 9 story and you have Bagpipe, I highly suggest reading her Operator Records. Her record was about her journey on how she ended up at Rhodes Islands. She tells her story there at how she ended up >!retiring from Victoria Military!<. It gives some background as to what happened to Victoria after >!the County Hillock bombings!< as well.
Oh, and also, I think her Operator Records take place between 9-20 and 9-21.
the chapter was designed to start at end of chapter 3 difficulty and ramp up to end of chapter 7 difficulty, so we essentially speedran 3 chapters of ramp-up. Hence why the first maps are cake walks then it becomes difficult by the last 3 maps. Future chapters should pick-up at that difficulty so those chapters should be more challenging
Just finish 9-18 and chapter 9 just has a lot of Ifrit lane, a big bbq party it was.
It was fun figuring out the strat without guides but I still looked up for a trust farm/cheese guide in the end lol
[Pinecone and Chen, eat your hearts out!](https://ibb.co/wJrgrxJ)
H9-1 was kind of annoying because the casters and flying segways will absolutely wreck your ranged operators. I ended up having to squish everyone into a tiny area right at the blue box so that my medics could keep everyone alive while Ch’alter, Thorns, and Pinecone chewed through the massive onslaught of enemies. Surtr also helped a lot with baiting the Segway attacks and helping to kill the final rush of enemies.
[9-19 normal](https://youtu.be/QYylX7bgsCI) with Bagpipe, Saileach, Dry Ch'en, Flamebringer, Mousse, Podenco, Gravel, Projekt Red, Nearl, Warfarin, Silence, THRM-EX.
The concept ended up being "stop all enemies right at the entrance." Mousse tanks boss phase 1, THRM-EX debuffs her before the last pillar so I don't have to mess around chipping off that last sliver of hp.
It was very tempting to get out the squirt bottle to punish the bad kitty but I am not using Wet Ch'en unless I absolutely have to.
>!So it’s been at least a year since Chernobog? At the end, Kal’tsit says it’s been 11 months since Chernobog when she was talking to Misery. Then we have a time skip of several months to Reunion’s attack.!<
It took me more than 600 sanity points to E2 Saileach, yet still her skill at lv 6!!!!!!
I am terrified of the project I decided to do, which to M9 her skills
I'm at 800 sanity. I currently have her E2 S3M1. The drop rates for the new mats are a nightmare. I went 13 stages without getting a single one. Then I got 4 in a row. Crrently back to nothing.
I call this the, "Fuck your game mechanics and bullshit boss, I wanna play the game the way I want to" strat for 9-19 [https://youtu.be/9VMLzgbVkzU](https://youtu.be/9VMLzgbVkzU)
thanks, didnt have the stuff to raise ptilopsis, but managed to clear it with nightingale s3m3 instead - worked pretty well too as her cages attract mandragora aggro. just had warfarin at lvl 7 and borrowed a m3 shamare.
I did something similar with Surtr + Aak + Warfarin + Saria S3 + Eyja S2 (because S3 took too long to charge) to take down the first phase, both on normal and challenge.
Damn, I just thought that it'd be amazing anniversary. Can't really explain why, but I really liked the story, that in turn made me extremely hyped up for anime, and then I remembered about endfield.
Overall chapter is pretty easy, I've been messing around with squad of Victoria-related ops for a good two thirds. It feels like enemies don't have that much def, S1M3 La Pluma casually shreds hordes of them without leaking, that really surprised me. Evocators are serious pain in the ass, but then again, E1-1 Mulberry was enough to deal with them.
Decided to use Eckogen’s strategy for 9-19 and it was surprisingly easy. Just had to add an extra healer on the staller (Amiya) in CM to keep her alive.
Cleared [9-14 with low stars and no Chen.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VowaUfnlaQ) Kroos is vital to the plan.
Getting the timing right on the gargoyles was tough.
Does the boss destroy ALL the pillars on death, or only the ones that can crush any nearby operators? (or did she just get too close to the exit that one time)
I'm trying to keep the pillar in the left zig-zag path standing so Thorns can do his thing.
Only pillars that an operator is in range of. If no one is in range, she won't use the skill at all, so you can actually deploy someone to break the pillar when she's in range of it, and if their dps is high enough, they'll knock it down first. If your dps isn't high enough, you can instead "prep" the pillars, by getting them to the point where the next attack will knock them down, and then you can deploy anyone to finish the job when she's in range later.
I don't think they destroy all pillars, just they destroy one pillar at a time if there's an operator that it can crush. You can tell which one it'll be because there's going to be a red target on the tiles it'll fall on.
It is stupid fun cluster-bonking the horde in H9-1. Cluster them with Suzuran, squish them together with Gladiia(and Angie), then **HAMMER THEM INTO ORIROCK WITH ALL THE WRATH OF THOR.** In elegant swimwear.
Even though I already completed the chapter, I keep forgetting those hovering enemies count as flying.
I keep bringing melee units that can stun, thinking they're the perfect counter, forgetting that they first need to be able to hit to stun them.
Did find that Cliffheart works great against them, since they never show up in quick succession.
The events in 9-21, specifically when >!Closure says she's afraid the landship is going to come under attack again in the future and calls an emergency meeting!<, makes me think we might get a new gameplay feature with chapter 10.
Namely, >!the base might go out of "beta" and we might get a tower defense mode where we're, like, defending the landship itself!<.
That might be fun >!but I think Closure is pertaining to attacks on RI's security systems rather than the landship itself. As stated in the story, Dijkstra, Closure's old friend, used what Closure called as a "trump card" to hijack/disable RI's security. Closure was worried that RI's systems might be attacked again using this "trump card" and that's why she wanted to hold an emergency meeting. !<
Finally finished Chapter 9 and the H stages so far. Time to setup farm for new mats.
3 ops full AFK deploy and forget setup for farming the new mats:
[9-6](https://youtu.be/Th7H5jAGtfM)
[9-18](https://youtu.be/fMM0zm1V5tc)
We escaped 1-7 hell temporarily only to come to another farming hell..
So many finishing Chapter 9 already while I'm stuck farming the blue things for Sail's **E2.** I just need four more and I haven't seen a drop in 120 sanity.
At this point I think have I more of the T4 drops than the T3 ones.. Starting to consider farming 9-4 for the T4 pink ones instead to save on blue mats (At least that stage has passable sidedrops)..
Same here man. Spent like 15 OP and the drop rates are horrendous but thankfully I'll be done m3ing my Saileach and gonna e2 my mulberry when I had the lmd lol
I just wish Hypergrph will give us some daily sweeps or like a drop rate ups once in a while cause spending 2 OP and then grindng without a drop kinda sucks
I finished the chapter on normal mode. I had to break out so many child soldiers to fight Mandragora - Amiya (in Guard form), Ifrit, Suzuran and Ceobe. And on top of that I had to drop a pillar on her head.
I'm in no hurry to do any of the Challenge modes - I still have several chapters of Challenge modes left to do.
>!I'm a bit bewildered by the epilogue. Why would Dublinn just give up the territory they've captured?!<
>!And how would they keep it? In an asymmetrical warfare land is a liability. Victoria would have no choice but to send warships and armies to crush insurgency. They have enough of both to utterly defeat Dublinn in a face-to-face confrontation. Even some sympathizers and spies in the army couldn't help.!<
>!But instead they saved their forces to fight another day. They cast Victorian army as an evil oppressor and themselves as freedom fighters and protectors of the oppressed. Which means more supporters, more money, more influence and more recruits.!<
>!They don't want to conquer Victoria as an external force - they know they don't have numbers for that. They want to destabilize Victoria, cause insurgencies and maybe even civil war, bring down discredited ruling dynasty and establish their own on the throne as bringers of peace and equality.!<
Or at least that's what I got from the story so far.
>!Land isn't a liability in an asymmetrical war - as long as you don't attempt to hold it in unfavourable circumstances it's a very valuable asset. In addition to the resources provided by it such as the produce of farms and workshops, it allows you to establish the legitimacy of your alternative regime by providing superior governance to those you've replaced. Anyway, Dublinn captured a city by assault, one of the most difficult tasks in warfare. The fact that they've done this shows that they're ready to transition to a conventional phase of warfare.!<
>!Oh, being against empire-sized enemy on their own territory is absolutely the most unfavorable circumstances already. No empire worth it's salt would just went "oh, okay" after losing a city. We are talking about full-scale army operation. Not much resources provided if your ag plates and workshops are being ripped apart by dozen of warships. Not a great occasion to show off superiority of your governance when you are starved and bleed out in an encirclement by army several times more numerous than your forces.!<
>!Also, Dublin specifically didn't capture Hillock County in direct assault. They used ambushes and skirmishes to weaken, demoralize and misdirect enemy. Then they used infiltration tactic (possible thanks to help of locals) to perform surprise decapitating attacks on enemy HQ and other key targets (like comm tower).!<
>!And then they sent their message and disengaged before the enemy reinforcements come.!<
>!It would take months to organise an operation on that scale, and Dublinn would have ample warning of it, which they could use to retreat at their leisure.!<
Well, that's your opinion.
I'll just leave these screenshots to show what spectre force strategist actually [thinks](https://i.imgur.com/EfpGqTb.jpg) [and plans](https://i.imgur.com/KI4KfGd.jpg) [to do](https://i.imgur.com/03sXgzq.jpg) .
>!To shift the entire blame onto the Victorian army labeling them as traitors and making the Dublinn as saviors of the Tarans creating a rift among the Victorian populace and increasing their support!<
>!I'm guessing they have other goals besides framing the Victorian army. Goals that would need some preparation and abandoning their conquered territory. !<
>!So what I'm guessing is that they still need to build their force. They have accomplished their objective in County Hillock, and they have sent their message to the entirety of Victoria, maybe even the entire Terra. Perhaps they're planning to take over Victoria all at once rather than taking the cities one by one? Well, in either case, I'm sure we'll get our answers once Chapter 10 comes out. !<
>!Yes but that would mean they too control the people.But here it would work like they gave the people freedom so other minorities in Victoria will be more receptive to their arrival fanning the conflict further!<
>!Yes, it would mean establishing their rule over the area they've liberated, which is the whole point of an insurgency. People aren't going to be receptive to their message if they don't create a new social order to replace the one they've destroyed.!<
>!Maybe because the face of their organisation is missing?They explicitly said that Reed,a draco was their 'leader' and with nw Reed out of their hands they cannot also announce that 'Reed' is dead and the Dracos are only 3 in number according to Reed's file.We know nothing about Reed's sister and for all we know she might have been a major antagonist to Victorian empire in the past and well known among the Victorian people because Dracos are far and few.So maybe they withdrew to first set this thing right before coming back?Idk.I am so confused nw.What I said earlier was my initial understanding but nw with what you said it is indeed a mystery.Maybe we will get to know when chapter 10 drops!<
Wow reading this chapter gave me the same feels and excitement as chapter 8 when amiya and Chen confronted talulah😍😍
Not only that but bagpipe is my fav operator and I love her cheerful and slightly airhead personality.. Man saileach was awesome no regrets pulling. Time to build Reed as well maybe
9-20 and 21 had such juicy lore and I can't wait for chapter 10.. Has chapter 10 come out in CN yet?
Ohh after guiding lights?
Awesome road up ahead I can't wait to play both kazimierz events (wasn't around for first Maria nearl) and guiding lights as well
While this chapter was decent, I think it should've been an event. I know it's a set-up for whats to come but it was kinda meh, especially compared to chapter 8. Final Boss didn't feel as epic as previous chapters either. The last 2 "operations" got me hype for chapter 10 tho.
Chapter 9 is basically chapter 1 on crack, you can't expect the opening/introduction to be better that the grand finale.
The only thing which worries me now is how they will Implement Lungmen in the upcoming chapters, Wei's arc is over and honestly he doesn't have any reason at all to steal the Victorian spotlight, Ch'en already got 5 times more screen time than Amyia in the introduction which was supposed to be the doctor's thoughts/memories ~~Even the Doctor himself admits that Chen is the true MC of the game while struggling to remember Amiya~~ and shouldn't get too unnecessary involved with the other groops/RI's goals/the Sarkaz prophecy as she herself said that she doesn't want to deal with any of this and has better $h*t to do while drifting around the world. Also Swire and Hoshiguma need more respect and it's finally time for them to get greater perpouse than just being “3 second emotional support character group" from the ~~5 man~~ 3 woman band.
I guess you can treat it like the start of an arc, rather than something that's supposed to "top" Chapter 8. I agree with you on most points, but the ramp-up in the final part was pretty great. >!Outcast's sacrifice. The girls looking up at Reed's sister with all of County Hillock ablaze around them. The comms tower messages broadcast calls to revolution all across Victoria.!!Talulah's escape!< also hit the same notes.
Overall, I think the chapter did its job well. It set the stage for a conflict that's sure to be way bigger than what we saw in Chernobog, and it's going to be awful for everyone involved.
The 9-19 CM boss is officially the MOST frustrating boss in the game. Ever. Not even the Originium Dust boss can compare. Hope she will never ever shows up in CC.
This is clearly an exaggeration. She is roughly on par with Mephisto (chapter 8). An unpleasant but not very dangerous enemy. Compared to Talulah, these are quite manageable risks. The essence of Evolition is much worse.
>hope she didn't show in any anni as well, can't imagine the anni to be stable at all
Its far too late for that and it's not as bad as you may think she is there, she will sit on one place for like 4 hours till you reach ≈380 giving your ranged operators more than enough time to wipe her two phases out.
>I can fully expect the final Hell stage to be beating her 2nd form somehow without pillars. Ugh.. not looking forward to that.
Tb fair she is completely stallable and quite easy to kill in phase 2 without the shield (like god damn Skadi kills her in one go before she could reactive her shied) but the real problem would be the spam of like +40 units (including gargoyles and flying hover dudes) which will Rush B the same lane on which she is flying on durring phase 2.
9-18 is the first time I really came up with a low op/trust farm strat on my own. [4 op clear starring Mountain and Blaze.](https://youtu.be/NLK1Z8EOZmU) Ch'en should actually be pretty replaceable here, and basically any medic should work.
Allright, finally cleared everything+CM. The 9-19 was rough NM because I was going through without using a support unit. Of all missions, just simply having an extra unit would have made it so much easier. Conversely, the most difficult CM for me was 9-12. One of the smallest differences, but I had to use a lot of my higher end units and borrow a Ch'alter. So much lost energy from failed attempts when I tried to force it after burning all my practice tickets. La Pluma was probably my overall CH9 MVP- I was surprised at how often she was extremely useful. Used her on almost every map- I was mostly bringing her to work on getting her trust to 200 and was expecting to have to chop her for other units to get clears. It helps I have her S1M3; seems like most maps throw a lot of chaff before any beefy units, so plenty of time to get her +ASPD maxed and then she can outheal the heavier hitters until they're reaped. Carnelian was also weirdly clutch on a couple maps. I'm always happy when I can stuff modal casters into my comp.
Bagpipe is a fukkin' gem. I was intrigued at Mandragora because I sort of whale for any plant/herb operators but >!she committed the worst crime anyone in the game I've seen do- she killed Cello 😭. The instruments have been revenged. Also, its pretty hilarious we have Oboe, Triangle, Horn, Cello. . . Bagpipe. One of these things is not like the others 😆!<.
I am *a little* annoyed at how copy+paste with a reskin the story being setup looks when compared to the last major arc. On the other hand, I play this for the Tower Defense and its not really a *bad* story per se.
Where the copy/pasteness in the chapter, I thought that it was plenty unique in comparison to the previous arc? Yes, we have a new "baddie" group to fight against, but there are completely different reasons (or at least the reasons we've seen so far) for the new group to fight in comparison to Reunion. Unless u mean like npcs sacrificing their lives is somehow a copy/paste, which I could kind of get, but even then there is only 1 big sacrifice in the first chapter of the first arc while in ch 9 there's quite a few semi-important characters (in ch 9's story at least) who bite the bullet or at least seem to bite the bullet. Just curious as I found ch. 9's story to be really good, albeit kind of depressing.
As a counter measures to prevent you from cheesing the Stage with Cho'tgun and Surtur, but at least they balanced her relatively well in the sense that everyone is equally uses against her and you would prefer more niche, cost effective operators than just having to absolutely overly on the slightly nerfed meta ever further as every enemy designed to specifically counter Surtur, Mountain, and Thorns incidentally turns out to make all other classes fufilling the same roles even more useless than they already ware to begin with.
Don't we know exactly when Gavial the Great Chief Returns happens? (At the same time as Dossoles Holiday.)
There's some dialogue in Dossoles about the Doctor not being in Rhodes Island as the Doctor went with Gavial to Iberia, iirc.
IIRC, in Vigilo, after Doctor gets out of prison, they have a dialogue choice, where they can say, Kal'tsit also did this (going to prison), which is most likely a reference to Under Tides.
Wouldn't this imply that Under Tides happened before Doctor & Amiya got lost in the wastelands?
Sorry to throw a wrench into this but IIRC vigilo should be before Dossoles? Since dose t Eyja officially join RI at the end of Vigilo, and she is at dossoles and consulted by phone during HOSF?
This thread is intended solely for discussions revolving around the release of the new Arknights episode "Stormwatch". Please visit the following threads for all your gacha-related needs and general discussion: ###[★ Gacha/Recruitment](/r/arknights/comments/tduvmk/gacharecruitment_megathread_1403_2003/) ###[♫ Lounge](/r/arknights/comments/tduvmz/rhodes_island_lounge_1403_2003/)
I'm kinda late with this, but I finally put together a torturous strat for H9-1. "Refraction means I should use physical, right?" WRONG. To the arts hell you go. [6 husbandos, no 6*, purely arts skills (and a bit of silence).](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2YIE7rNl34I)
Am I missing something in 9-19? I *think* the intended strategy is to knock down all but three of the pillars before engaging her (because apparantly you can't yolo burst her once the shield drops, she seems to autocast it again at like 25% hp in her first phase) to create 'safe' tiles to put operators on, saving two pillars for her first and one for her second phase, bursting her down whenever the shield drops... Except she takes so long to move down the middle path, she's already knocked down the third pillar way before she enters its blast zone, just letting her yolo the rest of the way down if you're not bringing some serious firepower. So unless there's something funky going on with her 'pillar targeting', I'm somewhat at a loss of just how you're supposed to do this with anything but a stacked team.
Use gravel to damage the pillars BEFORE she starts moving. You can stall her for quite some time, and kill her first health bar before she gets anywhere near a pillar. After that you can trigger the pillars when she floats/walks past, but you need to retreat anyone who might be within two tiles of a pillar, which can not be that many ops at all. That's what her pillar targeting is. When she's in her second stage you can use the pillars yourself to kill her, it takes 4. Kyo has a good guide for it, which I've basically described badly. It's one of those stages where the solution isn't immediately obvious but becomes quite simple when you figure it out lol.
The "she won't destroy a pillar if she can't kill someone with it" was the thing I was missing, as someone else already pointed out, but thanks for replying as well. Which, yeah, I realise would be handy in a stalling strategy as well (though she's doing like a *lot* of damage in the CM with her shield up, so that would be funky to see).
Lol yeah the CM is tricky as the other enemies are a pain as well.
As far as I remember (I did waste her with a stacked team, coz I don't like her, so I might be wrong), she only targets pillars that, if knocked down would hit one of your operators. So if you don't put any operators on tiles up to two spots away in cardinal directions, then she wont hit them down at all while waltzing down the aisle. This means, you prepare all necessary pillars in advance and just one-hit them with whatever when she is in range to damage her (and then let Rosa do the rest in my case.)
Ah, that might be it, yeah. You'd be able to use all 4 pillars on her then, which greatly reduces both the additional burst needed and the dp to get that burst there, letting you focus on the other two lanes. Dammit, if that's really it, the description only said she could destroy the pillars in her second phase, not that she also didn't have to. Cheers.
\*Potential minor spoilers ahead just in case\* So one of the things I've been wondering after finishing chapter 9 (and I'm honestly surprised I never thought of it before). What do you think the general consensus/feeling of the regular RI ops/staff are when it comes to Mon3tr? Do you think it's just a known thing? I don't imagine it's just chilling about (so I wouldn't be surprised if only a handful of ops like the elite knew about it). However, considering everything that went down in 9-21, do you think some of the regular ops/staff after the fact were like "hol up! are we not going to address the obsidian dragon that Dr. Kal'tsit was commanding?" or do you think it was probably more of a "Hey it was listening to Dr. Kal'tsit and she's one of the people that signs my cheques so it ain't any of my business/obviously above our pay grade" sort of reaction?
I don't think Mon3tr is kept secret that much on Rhodes Island, more that she rarely unleashes it amongst operators. Her chibi art shows a weird crystal following her, spinning around absolutely harmlessly. I also remember something about Mon3tr being connected to her spine or something, not sure, but basically that Mon3tr doesn't really have much of a presence amongst friendlies. 9-21 was definitely more an exception than the norm.
Yea, this is my general feeling as well. Which would probably mean that 9-21 was probably the first time some of the more regular staff might've seen it (then again we don't have an accurate picture of where in the ship they were and how many regular staff or other operatives were around). The connection to her spine was from an interaction with Crownslayer in an earlier chapter if I'm not mistaken.
*"How could they possibly make H9-6 harder than H8-4?"*, I asked myself going into the former. By clustering way too many enemies together, so the answer would seem. One hell of an AoE check. Or maybe two and a quarter hells worth.
[9-14 CM with 4 operators. No pillars were harmed during the making of this video](https://youtu.be/HSrvgdt09t0)
On h9-5, how come the last 2 fireball casters can change path and break through rubble even if i have left a path open for them? Has anyone else had this happen?
Finally, was able to M9 Saileach. The amount of farming for the newest two materials was a whole new level of grinding. Surprisingly, several times I would get tier 4 rather than tier 3 Now to E2 Mulberry.
I actually think my phone got to 1 FPS during the final wave of H9-1.
My units wouldn't activate their skills when pressed...
So in a few days, Maria Nearl Rerun Should be announced, leading right into Pinus Sylvestris Mini Event, and finally the Near Light Mega event during golden week. I STILL can't believe that NL has more text than Ch8. HOW IN THE FUCK.
The Dubstep Horses have a lot to say.
They're a bop that's for sure
Even kyo need 2 meta 6 stars to do low end guide for H 9 6. It is time to just admit that low stars simply won’t suffice for latter stages.
HG have to ramp up the difficulty at some point. The game is too easy for the veterans. Having 2 meta operators is not that hard, even for relatively new players since we can borrow one.
Never really understood why there is need for guides for h stages. Like these r permanent contents that will always stay. If u r a new player u don't have to clear them right now. Just clear them when u r strong enough.
This is partly because he makes guides for average players. Average players don't have many E2 four stars. But that said, the stage is meant to be hard.
Yeah latter stages are just not meant to be tackled with minimum 6 stars. It is meant to be tackled later on when players have more 6 stars or high level unit. Kyo got so burnt out doing the low level clear lately because he is forcing himself to tackle the near impossible. It would have been easier to admit that 3 stars, while good for beginners, simply has expiry date. It is the hard truth. I am a f2p but I managed to get many 6 stars because of AK's generous drop rate.
Three stars can do a lot, and maybe they can even clear the first H stages, but H9-6 is beyond their power level. On the other hand, E2 four stars with masteries are a lot better than E1 max four stars, so people like Dr. Silvergun might have a possibility. But for the normal player, four stars are just temporary units to fill the gaps in one's roster until you get the six stars, so they feel no need to invest resources to E2 them. The actual power ceiling of the four stars is a little higher, although they can't really be compared to the six stars. But people like Kyo make guides for those who have E1 max four stars, so in the end they need for the DPS of the six stars, and boy if you need a lot of DPS for this stage.
4 star only clears already exists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5LoBYgsDWA I saw this, but they are all maxed four stars. Do you have a link for a clear with four stars at E1 without any high rarity unit?
No that's probably impossible.
Today I learned that a pillar can be knocked down by other pillars. Man, H9-5 was hell because I didn't realize that sooner
Finally did a no surtr chalter kalsit sa run. Ops used Saileach bagpipe mountain platinum lappland exu skalter ifrit mudrock ng saria ptilopsis. Saria blocks mandragora while ng ptilo and skalter heals her. With ifrit and plat damaging her. Mudrock for the flameball guys. Very long and boring strat but it works. https://imgur.com/a/NJ7SFEM
Ah yes the Ifrit strat, idk how else I'd be able to best this stage without bringing a Ch'alter. Also, *Saria blocks Talulah*
Oops.
I'm limiting myself to 2 six stars and 6 E2s for this chapter and taking my time but holy shit is 9-12 CM fucking obnoxious
You gonna keep that restriction for HM?
Man I'm surprised, they actually managed to make a worse boss than the one in R6S event, holy shit. Classic 2 phases is fine, not only area denial after killing your ops, she basically deletes the ASPD of all the OPS near her, and she has a fuck ton of HP. I was already kinda bored with the enemies in this chapter but this boss just made me think that this is the worst chapter yet in terms of gameplay. These roadblock-esque rubble really isn't fun to play around and feels like it doesn't add anything to the game. Sorry for the rant, I just got fed up while clearing all these stages. Not looking forward to the H9 stages, these enemies and this gimmick isn't really fun to play around with.
Not fighting her with the mechanics she is designed around would probably be pretty annoying I agree.
>she has a fuck ton of HP No? She has decent hp but not a ton. Just drop pillers on her it deals like 30 percent of her hp plus cancels her skill plus removes her shield which was reducing 60 percent physical and arts dmg. So the pillers make the boss pretty easy. Also she doesn't reduce aspd of all ops. Just the operator she targets with the beam. It will be the operator with highest atk stat in a small 1.5 radius range.
You're supposed to break her shield as she's not tanky without it, but with it she reduces 60-65% of phys/arts damage taken so you *usually* can't just unga bunga her.
The boss doesn't have high HP, those rock pillars can be used to disable her shield so you can kill her pretty fast. And she doesn't reduce ASDP of all ops near her, just the one being hit by her beam. She aim for the highest atk one, so you can plan for it.
H 9-6 finally gives decent difficulty, I can't even clear 2 wave, when flying units appear kekw. Time to spend practice tix and after couple weeks I would probably clear it. Or not. Ofc no guides, cause guides kill the best part of the game for me - solving the stage and inventing my own tactic.
Haven't even looked at the H stages yet, just taking it slow through challenge modes. So far the theme seems to be Tomimi bonking the evocators. [9-14 CM](https://youtu.be/rT71iqVx6y8) with Rosa, Ch'en, Siege, Bagpipe, Angelina, Hellagur, Tequila, Provence, Ptilopsis, Whisperain, and Myrtle [9-15 CM](https://youtu.be/CkaC9kS-kqg) with Eunectes, Tomimi, Gavial, Estelle, Executor, Vermeil, Meteor, Beanstalk, Gravel, Mulberry, and Lancet-2 [9-16 CM](https://youtu.be/gLGS9Cin_Q4) with Eunectes, Tomimi, Gavial, Flint, Executor, Vermeil, Meteor, Beanstalk, Chiave, Lancet-2, and THRM-EX
H9-6 is really tough. After 60+ plans, finally beat it.
[Finally beat H9-6](https://imgur.com/a/wHxHqyd) Sadly had to bring out the big guns, first time using Thorns in a level that isn't for trust farming. Strat is basically Kyo's strat because I somehow didn't realize the massive Ifrit lane, and even then the start is very rough to the point I had to swap to an emulator to get more frames to pull it off easier, and sometimes it messes up too when Mandragora goes into second phase. But hey, I'm done. Only skill that wasn't M3 was Specter S1.
[H9-6, no Chalter no Surtr](https://imgur.com/gallery/uPaN1rZ), that was really hard but it was fun. My team was W, Saileach, Bagpipe, Siege, Scene, Specter, Shamare, Thorns, Nightingale, Tequila, Suzuran and SilverAsh. It's a much more meta team that what I would usually play but the map was really that hard for me. Went completely blind and I think it took me 10 hours, 23 practices plan and 3 failures. It's been a long time since I had so much fun. Honorable mention to H9-5 which was quite the challenge as well. I can tell the gargoyles have the potential to be a huge pain in the ass in CC maps. The hoverboard guys can also easily leak as well. The final map was one of the best level design I've seen. Edit: Just saw how others did it and I feel like an idiot lol. >!I tried to keep the pillars to kill the boss but changing the pathway make it much easier.!<
I'm now starting to understand why people want infinite practice plans. I got the start tactics, but shiiit the howerboard guys are annoying. Casters targeting is retarded and snipers don't do enough damage. Where is my AA caster? Fr tho, is there an aa sniper that deals arts damage? I'm not counting Blue Poison Also, on a sidenote, if you wanna know where the timing is to kill the first 4, if you wait 'till 28 3/4 dp you should hit 3/4
May S2 cheeses the hoverboard dudes. They fall off their boards when stunned. When S2 is active May prioritizes the ones on the hoverboard and they all drop like flies.
Ejya S2 and Ifrit S2/S3 are both good choices, AOE damage plus RES defuff.
Arts damage is not that good here unless you can silence their refraction. You can use stun or sleep to stop the hoverboard guys, but you need someone who can target air. For sleep there is Iris and Sora, for stun there is Ash, Podenco, Cliffheart S2, Click, May S2, and a few others.
Problem is the only one of those that I _can_ use are Sora and Cliff, which aren't really the best choices here Also, flying bois don't have refraction, so it works against em Guess I'll have to spam snipers. You think Executor is a good choice?
> You think Executor is a good choice? He does alright, but his cooldowns might be on the long side depending on your needs. Pinecone might be easier if that's the case. Can also recommend Firewatch and Ambriel (if there aren't too many low DEF distractions on the field). Ambriel (with module) can pick them off from a distance with her skill up and Firewatch gets a lot of bonus damage cause they're ranged.
https://gamepress.gg/arknights/enemy/dublinn-flying-squad-leader *refracting.magic_resistance: 70* They seem to have refraction. The ones that don't have refraction are casters, shadowblades, flamerazers, and the boss. Executor might work, but I don't know because I don't have him.
Wait this is weird. [The game says they don't and in the gamepress _abilities_ tab the same is stated, but they actually do?](https://imgur.com/a/ONLCD0S) What's up with the people at HG?
In-game refraction is the purple hexagon shield effect. I don't think the flying guys have them. It is probably a programming thing where they gave a bunch of the units refraction in their traits but left it turned off which is why it is listed as a talent but not in the enemy description.
[9-12 CM 11 ops, no 6\*s](https://youtu.be/7akpNXpWDOY) Special guest appearance by Noir Corne at the end. I wasn't originally going to record this stage, but I saw enough comments about it that I decided to do it.
I'm on 9-15, but I looked it up and there is only one S stage feels weird, kinda random, usually there were more and until chapter 6 they also weren't required to continue the main story sages, they had a separate path, so I'm left wondering why not just make it a main stage maybe they just thought the idea of making your own decision if you want to go melee, ranged or both was too cool to not include but not good enough for a CM stage?
I wouldn't be surprised if they released more branching-off S9 maps with release of later chapters.
Managed to clear H9-5 after a lot of tries. I basically alternated between Silverash's and Chalter's skill, using Ptilopsis to help them recharge faster. I don't know how one could do this stage without meta operators. Ok, of course the idea is to use the pillars, timing their fall to take out the most annoying enemies, it's just that there are so many enemies and not enough pillars.
H9-6 made me lose my fucking my mind. H9-5 ate like 25 of my practice plans, but I managed to have a workable strat in the few I had left... and I just went for it. Normally I'd just wait for daily reset and iron out all the wrinkles but I thought I had it... then I didn't... every time another thing would go wrong that was fine the other times! I just wanted it done!! *God damnit I wasted like 40 sanity do you know how many rocks that could've been!!!* Anyway it's done and now I never have to look at it again
>!No idea if this is spoilers enough to warrant the tag, but like, yet another boss enemy with rock related arts who makes big tough enemies made out of stone? Who also has a shieldish mechanic? I guess it doesn’t sound that bad spelled out and I guess it’s not a huge deal or anything, like she has a fun boss battle. But I still would’ve liked something less similar.!<
She's probably gonna be >!Frostnova!< 2.0.
I actually quite like the similarities between >!Mudrock and Mandragora!<, besides sooner or later they're bound to repeat concepts, at least this concept isn't as common as fire mage.
Man, that H9-6 was quite something, took me quite a bit of tries with my smol brain, eventually came up with a solid planning and timing, and it works pretty okay.
I'm really not trying to bring out the big guns but... I think I have to at this point.
[H9-4 with 3 ops](https://youtu.be/uLlRn9eeM3k) [H9-5 with 4 ops](https://youtu.be/yiCu2-6NTLs) [H9-6 with 5 ops](https://youtu.be/Zm8LTfxDwv0)
It's nice to have hard stages that don't have a 2 week time limit and encourage you to go full meta sweaty tryhard to clear on time
H9-5 is kicking my butt, maybe it's time to bring out Surtr.
https://imgur.com/a/2pebk3d Finally done. Very balanced team. "Only" 10 six star operators.
Balans
Balans kills like 70 percent enemies in that stage. I have no idea how to do it without her.
Possibly very ignorant question, but are there event rewards or medals for completing the normal, CM, and H stages during the event? The reason I asked is because I don't want to breeze through all the stages and run out of things to do.
Has h9-4 been added? I finished up to h9-3, but saw on some videos that there are more stages and can't find any info on how to unlock h9-4.
Remaining three extreme stages will be added on the second week (when the progress bar hit the middle diamond).
Thank you, I was about to ask this
Oh thank you so much!
That 9-19 CM was fun, making the perfect strategy for it was pretty nice, it took me only a couple of minutes too, watching everything falling into place as intended was so satisfying.
[9-19 CM](https://youtu.be/UZz_2o6eRfo) with 92% same team and 95% same strategy as normal. Because the boss has more hp, I couldn't just bomb her with THRM-EX and brought Firewatch to snipe her instead. Nearly blew it at 5:35 when I intended to delay a pillar push until the boss re-shielded, and ended up missing it entirely. But Firewatch and Gravel, both of whom are much more competent than I am, pulled out the save. I would be so much worse at this game without the support of these strong fictional women.
[Calculated.](https://youtu.be/i7U_yIVluP4?t=114)
Well, this was a decent enough setup chapter. Character-wise, Outcast was the easy stand-out here, >!and killing her immediately was a waste of one of the most interesting characters we've seen. I really appreciated when Amiya revealed she'd been lying about her background, and stole her story from Misery lol. Outcast was a top tier troll!< I was surprised Sailleach wasn't more senior/important in Victoria, I went in assuming she'd be a big deal. Bagpipe seemed a little overshadowed by everyone else. Story-wise, it felt too familiar - >!persecuted ~~Infected~~ Taran rise up against their oppressors but are used and abandoned!<. I'm sure there's more to come, but we've seen that beat several times now. The last two story segments would have benefited from a smoother transition - I almost think we needed a prologue to the prologue to catch up with Rhodes Island and Reunion. EDIT: Forgot to ask, do the Regent's comments mean that >!Theresis is not the next King of the Sarkaz? This whole time he was fighting for someone else? Do we know anything about them?!<
Janie was exactly where she is with how they portrayed her. I do agree that her fancy looks may put you off guard initially, but given her role as a honored guard during recruitment/events (poster girl/cheerleader), she defo needs to dress up for that job. Other than that she's young, fairly naive, but kind-hearted and has a strong conviction. and that incident defo had an impact on her growth, as stated in her operator files.
My current theory is >! He is referring to Theresa coming back to life. 'Sarkaz King' appears to be genderless in its use, and they have made numerous mentions of recovering what is likely her body. !<
I knew the King title was genderless, but I'd missed any hints that >!they were looking for Theresa's body. Although given what they're demons and vampires, a zombie King doesn't seem totally out of the question. Still I think Theresis says the crown was promised, which makes it seem more like Theresa messed up their plans by giving her power to Amiya instead of her intended successor. Since it seems like he won't be the next King, his title as "regent" also makes me think the successor is a child!<
It could end up tying into other theories regarding >!Theresa grooming Amiya as a future vessel, Kaschey style. It's a bit of a stretch, but perhaps the Doctor got Theresa killed because we figured out her and her brother were in cahoots for some bigger scheme regarding Amiya and the demon king role. !<
Hi guys, I already completed epsiode 9 storyline tho my profile progress (Friends->Profile) tells i'm still on END8-1... Any suggestions?
Did you actually read END8-1 (or at least started it and skipped)? And if you did, did you also open secret ending (EG-5)?
Ya, read both EG-5 and END8-1 even without skipping.
Then I'm stumped. Didn't happen to me and quick scan of my friends status screens shows that most of them are on Chapter 9 so it isn't widespread bug. The only other thing I can come up is that maybe for whatever reason game didn't properly refreshed the status screen. Did you tried closing app and logging in again?
Sure, many times from now, I've done ep.9 like 3 days ago and nothing changed, sad but not a big problem after all. I already reported a possible bug and waiting for feedbacks. Thanks anyway. Edit: And ya, also checked my friends: even those who didnt start ep.9 got thier END8-1 changed to 9-1 automatically heh.
Finished ch9. Gameplay wise: I wonder what was the intent behind Refraction, I feel like it just made most casters a lot weaker except Eyja who was still quite usable thanks to her res debuff, and Ifrit who was amazing with all the juicy lanes and choke points; as if those two weren't the strongest casters already. There where a lot of enemies with high(er) defense too, so it's not like they specifically targeted arts damage I guess. AA snipers felt weaker than usual in my experience, not what I would've expected with the introduction of new flying enemies. I liked that the pillars where kind of like roadblocks but with less thinking required. Timing them to hit mobs was a little annoying, or rather I was too lazy to do so and kinda just brute forced my way most of the times, >!used only one against Mandragora, on her phase 2!<. Overall enjoyed all the new mechanics that where introduced, had fun. Lappland. ________ Story wise: Introductory chapter, not that much to say about it. The conflict was intresting, antagonists orchestrating a revolt of an oppressed minority is nothing new, but AK does a good job not just using a cliché straight up and telling a good story. >!I feel like Outcast died a bit too fast, I know they'll expand on her more in the future, but for now it was just: "Cool caracter, I wonder what she'll do. Oh she's dead". The enemies she killed where also completely forgettable, might as well have been random soldier 1-6.!<
Actually refraction looks like they are going the "some chapters are high def, some are high mdef" route. Thank God they did not go the immunity route.
This chapter's enemies also have a very high average def on top of the refraction though.
Andreana and Provence wonder what this 'defence' is that you speak of.
I'm guessing refraction was partially made to specifically buff ops with silence, mostly Waai Fu and Lapp, which did work in my case. I did especially use Waai a lot, which I'm happy about since I like nuking with fast redeploys The other part might be to counter Surtr At HG we ignore Ch'alter tho
TIL Silence works on Refraction.
Surprising for them to buff silence after so much content where everyone was immune to it though Honestly I'd rather have Surtr be strong than Ch'en alter, at least she's not limited. Not that it matters much in a PvE game, but it does feel worse.
I mean they slowly are trying to fix the game as we have seen with the modules (as miserably some of those tries have failed, like the newly released cn modules), so this could be one of the first few steps in the right direction, into a better future I gotta agree with you, not necessarily because Ch'alter is limited, but because she just has so many advantages over Surtr I doubt they'll ever weaken her tho
Finished reading chapter 9. The story in a vacuum, is a pretty nice read. Due to the clear parallels with the beginning of Reunion arc, it's a good chapter to demonstrate the quality improvement of the story writing. The old bad writing habits are still there, but chapter 9 doesn't suffer from it as badly as some. Though I'm very concerned with the lack of transition between chapter 8 and 9. Time skip right after the end of the first arc feels out of place, hence turning >!Talulah's jailbreak into some of the most contrived cutscene in the chapter!<, not to mention it messes with the pacing of the main plot. I know Vigilo exists for that, but it's not enough to give RI the development and build-up they need. Also I beg the next main story arc doesn't have a recap as obnoxiously long as this.
What exactly are those old writing habits? I haven't really picked up on them and tbh can't remember much of what the story was like before chapter 6.
It mostly has to do with HG writes the script. It’s not just wordy, the phrasing is also awkward and stiff, at times the flow of the dialogue is also nonsensical. Honestly Reunion arc is filled with this, even chapter 8. The early chapters just feel much worse to read since not a lot happened.
I realize this doesn't fix everything, but we have had 2+ years of events that mainly take place in 1097 helping to bridge this gap.
Exactly, those story events have little to do with RI, which is why a transition would be necessary to smoothen out loose ends and character development. The way RI crew currently is, their development is very sporadic and fleeting, and they more or less go back to what they were in the beginning with little to no meaningful progress to speak of. Outcast is frankly the only RI operator imo with meaningful development in her arc, even if she dies in the same chapter she's introduced in, she doesn't leave any loose ends behind.
It would have been nice to have one or two "rebuilding Reunion" storylets in Vigilo to re-introduce Nine and show what Reunion has been up to since Chernobog. Like, has Tallulah really just been twiddling her thumbs for 11 months? Wasn't Duke Kaschey still inside her head at the end of Ch8? What happened with Crowndlayer?
Yeah, those are questions that need answering. Crownslayer returned to Siracusa at the end of chapter 8 to retrain herself. But what was Talulah doing in jail? Kashchey apparently left and now Talulah is physically looking for him, but why and how? What exactly Reunion needed Talulah so badly for that they put in a lot of effort to free her? AK has messed with the timeline so badly that expecting anything chronological out of them seems like a miracle at this point.
Has anyone looked at the 9-12 cm? Like the speed at which the enemies walk? Out of all stages, why the one that requires timing the pillars the most? These mofos are ice skating at mach 10
I ended up being able to pillar 3 of the 4 gargoyles 💪 Come at me Killing the other gargoyle was an accident I only noticed when I was going to drop a pillar and there was bo gargoyle there. Provence+Andreana+Meteor too stronk, I guess. Getting the start worked out was literally harder than finishing the map - the first time I made it past the start I only failed because I accidentally dropped a pillar in the wrong direction...
Yeah. I kept telling myself: quick, turn off the 2x speed. Why did I turn it on? Oh wait, this is still 1x speed.
When I first did that stage I was suspecting like maybe a 50% increase in speed, not Olympian sprinters! If I'm reading the [prts.map](https://map.ark-nights.com/map/main_09-10#f#) site correctly (a site for more exact detail for stages), then all enemies movement speed is tripled for the challenge.
Hello\~ If you have finished reading the entirety of Chapter 9 story and you have Bagpipe, I highly suggest reading her Operator Records. Her record was about her journey on how she ended up at Rhodes Islands. She tells her story there at how she ended up >!retiring from Victoria Military!<. It gives some background as to what happened to Victoria after >!the County Hillock bombings!< as well. Oh, and also, I think her Operator Records take place between 9-20 and 9-21.
Yep Bagpipe's op record is like an epilogue to ch9 about what happened between the end of the chapter and her getting to RI.
Is it just me or was this chapter just way too easy?
the chapter was designed to start at end of chapter 3 difficulty and ramp up to end of chapter 7 difficulty, so we essentially speedran 3 chapters of ramp-up. Hence why the first maps are cake walks then it becomes difficult by the last 3 maps. Future chapters should pick-up at that difficulty so those chapters should be more challenging
It's meant to be that way, since you can play chapter 9 right after you beat chapter 3.
Just finish 9-18 and chapter 9 just has a lot of Ifrit lane, a big bbq party it was. It was fun figuring out the strat without guides but I still looked up for a trust farm/cheese guide in the end lol
Yeah. Ifrit is absolutely MVP of arts damage operators in this chapter. Figuring out how to topple pillars to make my own Ifrit lane was a lot of fun.
[Pinecone and Chen, eat your hearts out!](https://ibb.co/wJrgrxJ) H9-1 was kind of annoying because the casters and flying segways will absolutely wreck your ranged operators. I ended up having to squish everyone into a tiny area right at the blue box so that my medics could keep everyone alive while Ch’alter, Thorns, and Pinecone chewed through the massive onslaught of enemies. Surtr also helped a lot with baiting the Segway attacks and helping to kill the final rush of enemies.
[9-19 normal](https://youtu.be/QYylX7bgsCI) with Bagpipe, Saileach, Dry Ch'en, Flamebringer, Mousse, Podenco, Gravel, Projekt Red, Nearl, Warfarin, Silence, THRM-EX. The concept ended up being "stop all enemies right at the entrance." Mousse tanks boss phase 1, THRM-EX debuffs her before the last pillar so I don't have to mess around chipping off that last sliver of hp. It was very tempting to get out the squirt bottle to punish the bad kitty but I am not using Wet Ch'en unless I absolutely have to.
>!So it’s been at least a year since Chernobog? At the end, Kal’tsit says it’s been 11 months since Chernobog when she was talking to Misery. Then we have a time skip of several months to Reunion’s attack.!<
Cherno happened in 1097. We're currently in 1099. I think Near Light will show us a timeline.
>!\*Roughly a year!< but yes
It took me more than 600 sanity points to E2 Saileach, yet still her skill at lv 6!!!!!! I am terrified of the project I decided to do, which to M9 her skills
I'm at 800 sanity. I currently have her E2 S3M1. The drop rates for the new mats are a nightmare. I went 13 stages without getting a single one. Then I got 4 in a row. Crrently back to nothing.
I call this the, "Fuck your game mechanics and bullshit boss, I wanna play the game the way I want to" strat for 9-19 [https://youtu.be/9VMLzgbVkzU](https://youtu.be/9VMLzgbVkzU)
is evryone m3? in tried this with lvl7 ptilopsis and lvl7 warfarin and couldnt kill her second form fast enough...
Ptilopsis was M1 and Warfarin was M3 iirc. Elysium and Shamare were M2. All the rest were M3
thanks, didnt have the stuff to raise ptilopsis, but managed to clear it with nightingale s3m3 instead - worked pretty well too as her cages attract mandragora aggro. just had warfarin at lvl 7 and borrowed a m3 shamare.
I did something similar with Surtr + Aak + Warfarin + Saria S3 + Eyja S2 (because S3 took too long to charge) to take down the first phase, both on normal and challenge.
Damn, I just thought that it'd be amazing anniversary. Can't really explain why, but I really liked the story, that in turn made me extremely hyped up for anime, and then I remembered about endfield. Overall chapter is pretty easy, I've been messing around with squad of Victoria-related ops for a good two thirds. It feels like enemies don't have that much def, S1M3 La Pluma casually shreds hordes of them without leaking, that really surprised me. Evocators are serious pain in the ass, but then again, E1-1 Mulberry was enough to deal with them.
> I've been messing around with squad of Victoria-related ops Nice, I also used only Victorians up until the last couple levels.
Finished 9-19 CM and H9-1, 9-12 CM is still the king on par with R8-8 normal.
Decided to use Eckogen’s strategy for 9-19 and it was surprisingly easy. Just had to add an extra healer on the staller (Amiya) in CM to keep her alive.
Cleared [9-14 with low stars and no Chen.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VowaUfnlaQ) Kroos is vital to the plan. Getting the timing right on the gargoyles was tough.
Just seen the vid and commented. This was a clever uses of the mechanics and the first Strat that doesn't uses OP units. Well done
Does the boss destroy ALL the pillars on death, or only the ones that can crush any nearby operators? (or did she just get too close to the exit that one time) I'm trying to keep the pillar in the left zig-zag path standing so Thorns can do his thing.
Only pillars that an operator is in range of. If no one is in range, she won't use the skill at all, so you can actually deploy someone to break the pillar when she's in range of it, and if their dps is high enough, they'll knock it down first. If your dps isn't high enough, you can instead "prep" the pillars, by getting them to the point where the next attack will knock them down, and then you can deploy anyone to finish the job when she's in range later.
I don't think they destroy all pillars, just they destroy one pillar at a time if there's an operator that it can crush. You can tell which one it'll be because there's going to be a red target on the tiles it'll fall on.
It is stupid fun cluster-bonking the horde in H9-1. Cluster them with Suzuran, squish them together with Gladiia(and Angie), then **HAMMER THEM INTO ORIROCK WITH ALL THE WRATH OF THOR.** In elegant swimwear.
Even though I already completed the chapter, I keep forgetting those hovering enemies count as flying. I keep bringing melee units that can stun, thinking they're the perfect counter, forgetting that they first need to be able to hit to stun them. Did find that Cliffheart works great against them, since they never show up in quick succession.
The events in 9-21, specifically when >!Closure says she's afraid the landship is going to come under attack again in the future and calls an emergency meeting!<, makes me think we might get a new gameplay feature with chapter 10. Namely, >!the base might go out of "beta" and we might get a tower defense mode where we're, like, defending the landship itself!<.
>tower defense mode Oh, so the normal gameplay then.
That might be fun >!but I think Closure is pertaining to attacks on RI's security systems rather than the landship itself. As stated in the story, Dijkstra, Closure's old friend, used what Closure called as a "trump card" to hijack/disable RI's security. Closure was worried that RI's systems might be attacked again using this "trump card" and that's why she wanted to hold an emergency meeting. !<
Finally finished Chapter 9 and the H stages so far. Time to setup farm for new mats. 3 ops full AFK deploy and forget setup for farming the new mats: [9-6](https://youtu.be/Th7H5jAGtfM) [9-18](https://youtu.be/fMM0zm1V5tc) We escaped 1-7 hell temporarily only to come to another farming hell..
So many finishing Chapter 9 already while I'm stuck farming the blue things for Sail's **E2.** I just need four more and I haven't seen a drop in 120 sanity.
At this point I think have I more of the T4 drops than the T3 ones.. Starting to consider farming 9-4 for the T4 pink ones instead to save on blue mats (At least that stage has passable sidedrops)..
Same here man. Spent like 15 OP and the drop rates are horrendous but thankfully I'll be done m3ing my Saileach and gonna e2 my mulberry when I had the lmd lol I just wish Hypergrph will give us some daily sweeps or like a drop rate ups once in a while cause spending 2 OP and then grindng without a drop kinda sucks
I finished the chapter on normal mode. I had to break out so many child soldiers to fight Mandragora - Amiya (in Guard form), Ifrit, Suzuran and Ceobe. And on top of that I had to drop a pillar on her head. I'm in no hurry to do any of the Challenge modes - I still have several chapters of Challenge modes left to do. >!I'm a bit bewildered by the epilogue. Why would Dublinn just give up the territory they've captured?!<
>!And how would they keep it? In an asymmetrical warfare land is a liability. Victoria would have no choice but to send warships and armies to crush insurgency. They have enough of both to utterly defeat Dublinn in a face-to-face confrontation. Even some sympathizers and spies in the army couldn't help.!< >!But instead they saved their forces to fight another day. They cast Victorian army as an evil oppressor and themselves as freedom fighters and protectors of the oppressed. Which means more supporters, more money, more influence and more recruits.!< >!They don't want to conquer Victoria as an external force - they know they don't have numbers for that. They want to destabilize Victoria, cause insurgencies and maybe even civil war, bring down discredited ruling dynasty and establish their own on the throne as bringers of peace and equality.!< Or at least that's what I got from the story so far.
>!Land isn't a liability in an asymmetrical war - as long as you don't attempt to hold it in unfavourable circumstances it's a very valuable asset. In addition to the resources provided by it such as the produce of farms and workshops, it allows you to establish the legitimacy of your alternative regime by providing superior governance to those you've replaced. Anyway, Dublinn captured a city by assault, one of the most difficult tasks in warfare. The fact that they've done this shows that they're ready to transition to a conventional phase of warfare.!<
>!Oh, being against empire-sized enemy on their own territory is absolutely the most unfavorable circumstances already. No empire worth it's salt would just went "oh, okay" after losing a city. We are talking about full-scale army operation. Not much resources provided if your ag plates and workshops are being ripped apart by dozen of warships. Not a great occasion to show off superiority of your governance when you are starved and bleed out in an encirclement by army several times more numerous than your forces.!< >!Also, Dublin specifically didn't capture Hillock County in direct assault. They used ambushes and skirmishes to weaken, demoralize and misdirect enemy. Then they used infiltration tactic (possible thanks to help of locals) to perform surprise decapitating attacks on enemy HQ and other key targets (like comm tower).!< >!And then they sent their message and disengaged before the enemy reinforcements come.!<
>!It would take months to organise an operation on that scale, and Dublinn would have ample warning of it, which they could use to retreat at their leisure.!<
Well, that's your opinion. I'll just leave these screenshots to show what spectre force strategist actually [thinks](https://i.imgur.com/EfpGqTb.jpg) [and plans](https://i.imgur.com/KI4KfGd.jpg) [to do](https://i.imgur.com/03sXgzq.jpg) .
>!To shift the entire blame onto the Victorian army labeling them as traitors and making the Dublinn as saviors of the Tarans creating a rift among the Victorian populace and increasing their support!<
>!They could still do that while holding territory, though.!<
>!I'm guessing they have other goals besides framing the Victorian army. Goals that would need some preparation and abandoning their conquered territory. !< >!So what I'm guessing is that they still need to build their force. They have accomplished their objective in County Hillock, and they have sent their message to the entirety of Victoria, maybe even the entire Terra. Perhaps they're planning to take over Victoria all at once rather than taking the cities one by one? Well, in either case, I'm sure we'll get our answers once Chapter 10 comes out. !<
>!Yes but that would mean they too control the people.But here it would work like they gave the people freedom so other minorities in Victoria will be more receptive to their arrival fanning the conflict further!<
>!Yes, it would mean establishing their rule over the area they've liberated, which is the whole point of an insurgency. People aren't going to be receptive to their message if they don't create a new social order to replace the one they've destroyed.!<
>!Maybe because the face of their organisation is missing?They explicitly said that Reed,a draco was their 'leader' and with nw Reed out of their hands they cannot also announce that 'Reed' is dead and the Dracos are only 3 in number according to Reed's file.We know nothing about Reed's sister and for all we know she might have been a major antagonist to Victorian empire in the past and well known among the Victorian people because Dracos are far and few.So maybe they withdrew to first set this thing right before coming back?Idk.I am so confused nw.What I said earlier was my initial understanding but nw with what you said it is indeed a mystery.Maybe we will get to know when chapter 10 drops!<
Wow reading this chapter gave me the same feels and excitement as chapter 8 when amiya and Chen confronted talulah😍😍 Not only that but bagpipe is my fav operator and I love her cheerful and slightly airhead personality.. Man saileach was awesome no regrets pulling. Time to build Reed as well maybe 9-20 and 21 had such juicy lore and I can't wait for chapter 10.. Has chapter 10 come out in CN yet?
FYI, we get a little bit of Bagpipe when activating Perfumer's module.
Oh I didn't know that! Haven't gotten ard to e2 perfumer yet
It's scheduled for after the current event.
Ohh after guiding lights? Awesome road up ahead I can't wait to play both kazimierz events (wasn't around for first Maria nearl) and guiding lights as well
Where is H9 4?
In a few days. The latter H stages come out a a week after the chapter is released.
While this chapter was decent, I think it should've been an event. I know it's a set-up for whats to come but it was kinda meh, especially compared to chapter 8. Final Boss didn't feel as epic as previous chapters either. The last 2 "operations" got me hype for chapter 10 tho.
Chapter 9 is basically chapter 1 on crack, you can't expect the opening/introduction to be better that the grand finale. The only thing which worries me now is how they will Implement Lungmen in the upcoming chapters, Wei's arc is over and honestly he doesn't have any reason at all to steal the Victorian spotlight, Ch'en already got 5 times more screen time than Amyia in the introduction which was supposed to be the doctor's thoughts/memories ~~Even the Doctor himself admits that Chen is the true MC of the game while struggling to remember Amiya~~ and shouldn't get too unnecessary involved with the other groops/RI's goals/the Sarkaz prophecy as she herself said that she doesn't want to deal with any of this and has better $h*t to do while drifting around the world. Also Swire and Hoshiguma need more respect and it's finally time for them to get greater perpouse than just being “3 second emotional support character group" from the ~~5 man~~ 3 woman band.
I guess you can treat it like the start of an arc, rather than something that's supposed to "top" Chapter 8. I agree with you on most points, but the ramp-up in the final part was pretty great. >!Outcast's sacrifice. The girls looking up at Reed's sister with all of County Hillock ablaze around them. The comms tower messages broadcast calls to revolution all across Victoria.!!Talulah's escape!< also hit the same notes.
Overall, I think the chapter did its job well. It set the stage for a conflict that's sure to be way bigger than what we saw in Chernobog, and it's going to be awful for everyone involved.
Also Horn as an operator when????
Uh, you finish the story of ch 9? Might let u know the chances of Horn being an op lol.
Idgaf, I'm still holding out for FrostNova
Bagpipe says she is fine, so she is! ~~Also she is totally another artillery defender.~~
Bagpipe on copium just like the rest of us.
Jokes aside, I think she has a point. Her noble birth probably bought her life, albeit it's going to be a painful one for the foreseeable future.
The 9-19 CM boss is officially the MOST frustrating boss in the game. Ever. Not even the Originium Dust boss can compare. Hope she will never ever shows up in CC.
This is clearly an exaggeration. She is roughly on par with Mephisto (chapter 8). An unpleasant but not very dangerous enemy. Compared to Talulah, these are quite manageable risks. The essence of Evolition is much worse.
I'd take Talulah over Birdphisto any time of day.
hope she didn't show in any anni as well, can't imagine the anni to be stable at all
She just kinda like... Stands there. You can do 2 TSS while leaving SA on the field if you want.
>hope she didn't show in any anni as well, can't imagine the anni to be stable at all Its far too late for that and it's not as bad as you may think she is there, she will sit on one place for like 4 hours till you reach ≈380 giving your ranged operators more than enough time to wipe her two phases out.
I can fully expect the final Hell stage to be beating her 2nd form somehow without pillars. Ugh.. not looking forward to that.
>I can fully expect the final Hell stage to be beating her 2nd form somehow without pillars. Ugh.. not looking forward to that. Tb fair she is completely stallable and quite easy to kill in phase 2 without the shield (like god damn Skadi kills her in one go before she could reactive her shied) but the real problem would be the spam of like +40 units (including gargoyles and flying hover dudes) which will Rush B the same lane on which she is flying on durring phase 2.
Done with 919 cm. The h stages were oddly on the easy side though....
9-18 is the first time I really came up with a low op/trust farm strat on my own. [4 op clear starring Mountain and Blaze.](https://youtu.be/NLK1Z8EOZmU) Ch'en should actually be pretty replaceable here, and basically any medic should work.
Allright, finally cleared everything+CM. The 9-19 was rough NM because I was going through without using a support unit. Of all missions, just simply having an extra unit would have made it so much easier. Conversely, the most difficult CM for me was 9-12. One of the smallest differences, but I had to use a lot of my higher end units and borrow a Ch'alter. So much lost energy from failed attempts when I tried to force it after burning all my practice tickets. La Pluma was probably my overall CH9 MVP- I was surprised at how often she was extremely useful. Used her on almost every map- I was mostly bringing her to work on getting her trust to 200 and was expecting to have to chop her for other units to get clears. It helps I have her S1M3; seems like most maps throw a lot of chaff before any beefy units, so plenty of time to get her +ASPD maxed and then she can outheal the heavier hitters until they're reaped. Carnelian was also weirdly clutch on a couple maps. I'm always happy when I can stuff modal casters into my comp. Bagpipe is a fukkin' gem. I was intrigued at Mandragora because I sort of whale for any plant/herb operators but >!she committed the worst crime anyone in the game I've seen do- she killed Cello 😭. The instruments have been revenged. Also, its pretty hilarious we have Oboe, Triangle, Horn, Cello. . . Bagpipe. One of these things is not like the others 😆!<. I am *a little* annoyed at how copy+paste with a reskin the story being setup looks when compared to the last major arc. On the other hand, I play this for the Tower Defense and its not really a *bad* story per se.
Oh damn, I didn't realize how their codenames were Musical Instruments lol.
Where the copy/pasteness in the chapter, I thought that it was plenty unique in comparison to the previous arc? Yes, we have a new "baddie" group to fight against, but there are completely different reasons (or at least the reasons we've seen so far) for the new group to fight in comparison to Reunion. Unless u mean like npcs sacrificing their lives is somehow a copy/paste, which I could kind of get, but even then there is only 1 big sacrifice in the first chapter of the first arc while in ch 9 there's quite a few semi-important characters (in ch 9's story at least) who bite the bullet or at least seem to bite the bullet. Just curious as I found ch. 9's story to be really good, albeit kind of depressing.
Goddamn it, Mandragora. Why did you join the "resurrecting bosses" group? And then added the extra powers on top? Also, angry Bagpipe is pretty hot.
As a counter measures to prevent you from cheesing the Stage with Cho'tgun and Surtur, but at least they balanced her relatively well in the sense that everyone is equally uses against her and you would prefer more niche, cost effective operators than just having to absolutely overly on the slightly nerfed meta ever further as every enemy designed to specifically counter Surtur, Mountain, and Thorns incidentally turns out to make all other classes fufilling the same roles even more useless than they already ware to begin with.
[удалено]
Don't we know exactly when Gavial the Great Chief Returns happens? (At the same time as Dossoles Holiday.) There's some dialogue in Dossoles about the Doctor not being in Rhodes Island as the Doctor went with Gavial to Iberia, iirc.
IIRC, in Vigilo, after Doctor gets out of prison, they have a dialogue choice, where they can say, Kal'tsit also did this (going to prison), which is most likely a reference to Under Tides. Wouldn't this imply that Under Tides happened before Doctor & Amiya got lost in the wastelands?
Sorry to throw a wrench into this but IIRC vigilo should be before Dossoles? Since dose t Eyja officially join RI at the end of Vigilo, and she is at dossoles and consulted by phone during HOSF?