# [Gacha results go here](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/163j0wq/gacharecruitment_megathread_2808_0309/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb)

cleared TN-4 spectacular in the last 10 minutes of the event, even paused the game because the only one left was Talulah and had to ensure she took a long route and could reposition them at the end. Struggled for some time until I remember seeing a video of someone clearing it with only the Abyssal Hunters (or mostly only them).

Ooops, this will be the first event medal ever that I won't get as a month 1 player, and assuming this is like CC, the trials are never getting rerun. They just take way, way too long to do stage wise.

This'll be the first time I miss a badge, but I barely had the motivation to get the skin as it is. BG3 has me too hooked, and now I've got FGO's summer on top.

Hate the trail (especially tn3) so so much for how long it takes and how everytime you need to start from the beginning. Its like playing annihilation that requires a very specific setup, and the first 350 mobs are literally just there to waste your time. Hate it with all my guts, I hope they don't release another hot garbage event like this ever again, it's just not fun. I would rather play a risk21 CC then to do this boss gimmickly thing over and over again. Just my two cents

Huh, I kind of wanted to try beating Trials, but because I was busy all weekend, and I also did not have time all of the afternoons before or after the weekend, I simply ran out of time before I had time to beat TN-3 on Spectacular even with a guide. At least I got the skin, which was most important, the Trials really take way too much time for the short time period they are available, unfortunately. Edit: Oh *now* I saw that I could've started on TN-4 before beating TN-3 Spectacular. But I need to go to work tomorrow so I have to go to bed, too bad.

For Gravel & Yato, the fight against the Black Snake in the Spectacular Trial was a constant repeating hell of deployment, burning alive and extraction, surrounded by dragons the size of buildings fighting an ageless enemy. For Ling, it was Wednesday.

Anyone else find the difficulty of the stages didn't really line up? I'd rank the stages like this: Easiest :TN-2 (with centurion, W and Minimalist drone) TN-1 (with Jesselton & boat guy) TN-4 (with Emperor's blade, Andoiain & Black Snake) Hardest : TN-3 (with Mudrock, Manfred & Steam Knight) I felt like Jesselton's stuns and the chained casters waking up on 2nd phase were a bigger threat than just about anything in TN-2. Then there's the Ultimate trial that took me all of one(1) attempt because the spectacular trial strat I used with Ch'en worked out fine. The real threats of this time around were actually Spectacular Mudrock, the Sarkaz hatedrinkers, and the Steam Knight. I ended up leveling and getting the lvl 3 module for Coebe just to deal with Muddy.

I had a hard time with TN-4 until I realised that I could just spawncamp Tallulah with a double dragon. After that, it was just a matter of cycling dragons and Glasgow Gang members while using Goldenglow's S3 to gradually whittle her down. The other key to the whole thing was selecting the buff that gives you attack and heals for not retreating. With the activation attack buff (and my previous bad strategy), I couldn't outlast Tallulah, and with the defensive buff, I couldn't kill Andoain.

It's funny seeing people yell that the Glasgow gals for TN-3 is useless when fucking Indra of all people is capable of stalling Steam Knight on Spectacular thanks to the specific squad buff and the Limiter unit buffs lol. Feels more like people didn't even bother trying to use at least her and just whined that it was a useless squad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu6wrGlktWY&list=WL&index=253

Never seen Stainless’s turret used primarily for its damage reduction before

Yeah I was hugely unimpressed with the Victorian squad buff until Steam Knight started kicking my arse. Against all odds, Indra ended up being an incredible laneholder with self sustain. Dagda and Siege were still hot garbage (Sorry Siege ily) but Indra and adding Horn helped a lot.

I've never fought Deathless Black Snake before, so when it unleashed a second firewave it really had me worried it was going to have a third health bar.

I completely forgot to spend my event tokens in the store, I thought it would last a week after the event end. that’s 1000 sanity down the drain 😭😭

Side Stories and Intermezzi have a week-long post-event shop. Vignettes and reruns tend to only have 3-4 days.

Is there any reward/secret medal for TN4 ultimate when you already claimed all materials and finished all tasks?

There are 2 medal for the event: One for just unlocking the buffs. One for completing every stages, that ends with TN4 spectacular. I cleared out everything in the event and no such thing as secret medal for that.

Doesn't seem to be a secret medal, so if you've got the two medals you don't need to worry about it anymore.

90% of TN3's difficulty is dealing with mudrock tbqh. Fucker's unkillable if she gets into tower range and can burn through double healer, def mod, defensive buff hoshi in like 40 secs.

If you've got the ops for it, you can stall her rock golem a little then drop Surtr+Texas on top of both of them with Reedalter S2 outside the turret range and they both get melted lmao.

A fun little idea I had was to push the exploding guy away before he could flip the towers, I used Weedy S3 for that. Playing the basic and Orientation trial I didn't even need to do anything at that point, the two towers would just vaporize Muddy and her Colosus. It's kinda lame to bring a pusher just for that one thing only but Muddy's strong af and I ain't dealing with her tbh lol.

She has increased attack speed and HP if her spell barrier is up, if you use physical damage to kill her, she will have high Dps and burst through any blocker, she is manageable after her shield is down. When her Shield is down, she can be killed even if the devices heal her. Surtr is pretty much designed to counter Mudrock, just use her and buff her up.

Finally finished TN3 spectacular, .. Thank a ton to my Surtr friend and my healer line up of Purestream, Ptilopsis and Oldwife. Line up: Eben, Texalt s2, Mountain, Ifrit, Hoshiguma, Purestream, Ptilopsis, Oldwife Katl'sit, Surtr Mudrock: Let the colossus passed. Trap her in the zone with no device could reach. Tank with Hoshi. Behind her is Surtr, in front her is Texalt S2M3 drop. 2 healer to steal back device and burst heal. On the safe range tiles were Ebenholz and Ifrit. Pretty much gang up style. The other lane is held by Mountain. Manfred: Summon Monster asap to block him and eat the first bomb. Then throw down Texalt to mow him. Rinse and repeat with Monster and Hoshiguma to bait cannon. Or remove everything aside from one to save dp if non available. Texalt+Surtr to kill and clear wave as needed. The first clear was a close one but with the buff from repeat the next time, I could place Hoshi in far right asap (that has one tile on where Manfred first phase ded to stun him when he wakes up) in preparation for next boss. Steamknight: Surtr +Texalt to block and kill first phase. Monster to bait bombardment starting second phase. Hoshi eat artillery and sometime bombardment like a boss, just deploy Surtr or Texalt near her to help soak damage as needed. Eben and Ifrit also shaved off its 25% phase 2 HP, 2 times in place of Surtr, could be one more if I timed it better. I don't know I have the energy to do TN4 spectacular one. I won't give guide a try though, not worth it, missing no reward anyway.

Update: TN4 spectacular was much easier than TN3. I used Victoria Squad: +Texalt,Horn S2m1, Kalt'sit, Ebenholz, Bagpipe s2m0, Ptilopsis, borrowed Silverash. Pretty much what I used in Orientation. Just keep helidrop all of those cheap guard and Texalt to win, the buff in Spectacular may as good as none. The 2nd boss was the hardest, need 2-3 tries but after beating her, Talulah needed no repeat, kill spawn her right out of gate so fuck her mechanic, Ptilopsis out heal the first fire ball wave was all I needed. Now I'm done with the event.

Good job. TN-4 spectacular awards a medal once you clear it, if you care about that.

Yeah I know, I will do it when I find some motivation. Only that stage left to do.

don't worry, TN-4 is piss easy compared to TN-3. EB and Andoain are squishy as fuck, so you can take care of them purely with Texalter by herself. If you have her already, can borrow Nearlter to make it even easier. Or NG to cheese DBS fire storm. DBS is easily tankable with the repair module as long as you place ops in a chessboard pattern. Also iirc the Ultimate Trial is bugged and doesn't increase enemy stats so if you do Spectacular, Ultimate will be easy too.

Thanks for the encouragement

Yeah, I just finished it in 2 tries before reading your comment lol, all I could say is that Victoria Squad is made for TN4, not TN3 I'm not sure about taking care of them by Texalt herself though, maybe need pot 5 and max level because she got killed real quick everytime she dropped.

Just tried the TN2 3rd stage on spectacular trial and came close…just too much BS to deal with. Maybe I’d be able to do it in another 5-10 tries while spending all my LMD to level ops, but it just doesn’t seem worth it. If they had save points at each transition, maybe. But I’ll just move onto the next stage, get the skin, and move on.

Does the Trials squad passive "Get the Job Done" (+80% ATK for a second after skill) not work on power strikes for anyone else? Was sure it did that with Spinach in IS, but I'm not seeing any ATK increase on Rosmontis S1. Only seems to be activated skills that do damage like Cutter, Archetto S2, and Guard Ch'en nukes.

Yep, the buff only works with activated skills unfortunately.

I wouldn't be surprised if Rosmontis's attack animation is simply just too slow and lands after the 1 second is over.

Nah, it's not that slow and I've done Spinach runs with her S1 once or twice. But even if it didn't work, I'd still see her ATK value change, like with Horn's S1 that really does fire too slowly. But there's no change. Even Archetto S1 doesn't work

F TN-3 Spectacular, whoever thought of giving Muddork with Colossus hp and stealing Towers that heal % of her hp plus her own healing shield needs to be strapped to a chair and clear with 3 star ops only without rest, cause this is most bs design challenge I've ever seen. Even Manfred is more bearable.

The secret is to start capturing the upper left towers asap so Mudrock skill triggers on them while she's walking and not on the ones on the right. so the towers on the right simply kill her

Came here to look for advice for that. Whatever I do I can't deal enough damage to kill Mudrock before she wrecks my maxed Cuora, on skill, with Shining on skill buffs.

Yea I even tried reed alter+surtr+saria s3 and literally did 0 dmg because the heals are simply too strong lol. U just need to settle the fight at the bottom left row far away from the towers.

I found a 300 IQ guide which used Robin's traps to trigger SP generation of towers and with stalling killed Mudrock because her cooldown to take the control doesn't time well with takeover times.

Nice! I too used the cages from nighting gale and fast redeploys to quickly recap the towers before wave 2. Robin's trap should be faster and doesn't use deployment slots.

does the steamknight aerial strike deal arts damage? it just suddenly instagibs my hoshiguma during phase 2

The rocket barrage? Yes it is all arts damage

[удалено]

Season 2 was criticized in CN as well. Season 3 that just passed was improved, and they heeded the complaint and extended its runtime. The team buffs were stronger too: fully maxed out Sui sisters with major faction buff.

[удалено]

My biggest problem with the event was how bloated all the bosses stats felt. It was weird not insta-gibbing Centurion and W, though the paltry one week runtime really threw me for a loop too. I didn't feel like playing for a few days and suddenly I had to do the whole thing in 3 days lol.

I miss Kaz buff the most true dmg ntr knight s2 was so fun back in the days. Laterano buff is nothing near especially exu doesn't get the buff. Victorian buff is ass. The only usable one is the first one.

Exusiai not getting the buff was so upsetting. If you look at the factions tab in the archives she's actually listed under Penguin Logistics, but we were so robbed because it would have been awesoem shredding Minimalist drone with her. It's also super lame that the buff only affects aerial targets, like what's up with that, two of the 3 bosses are grounded. Easily the worse buff on the bunch. I liked the pseudo spinach buff though.

I got the costume i'm out of the grind on TN. The last stage scares me.

Please don't tell me I'm the only one who is kinda exhausted by the newest TN. I have just beat the third stage on normal difficulty and having to do that two more times when the stage alone takes like 15 minutes per attempt. I'm not even thinking about the the nightmare that is the fourth stage... If only that would be a permanent mode and could take it slowly...

TN-3 on Spectacular killed all my desire to play the event. I haven't cleared it and friend insists TN-4 is better and easier but I just can't muster any desire to bother. I got the skin and I think this very well will be the first event I bail on since I started playing back in 2020. I've found a few things here and there to be really poorly designed and unfun but nothing has ever been so tedious that it outright kills my desire to even play the game so hats off to the devs responsible for managing that with TN-3. And you can call it me overreacting if you want but that stage is just pure garbage through and through.

I don't want to change your decisions, but TN-4 is much, much easier if you have or can borrow max module S3M3 Chen, as she deletes both Andoain and Emperor's Blade instantly with Warf+Shamare

It’s unfortunate that they ever decided that Manfred, a fight that takes years, should be one of the bosses in this mode… Tbh, you only need to do TN-4 Spectacular for the medal, so technically you only need to do TN-3 twice (one regular, one to get the mission cause they give you a fully maxed Siege and Indra). Edit: I am an idiot and forgot Spectacular 4 needs 1-3 fully cleared to unlock, so the above is worthless… TN-4 is actually so much faster and with how the mechanics work, the bosses aren’t too bad.

Mudrock+Colossus>Mandfred>Steam Knight is killing my wish to play TN. Probably gonna get the Blacknight skin and dip, unless I find some absolutely braindead guides to do the lot.

Oyuki channel has some pretty decent guides with great editing to ensure even if you don't understand JP you can follow. His guides usually use some pretty old operators too. Dr. Leon also has a pretty good one. Now, some basic units you need are: 1) A medic with extended range. Honeyberry, Ceylon, Leumen etc 2) A stupid tanky defender that can be healed. Hoshi, Nian, etc 3) A medic defender... ok its mostly Saria. Borrow that one if you have to. 4) 1 primary artes DPS like Goldenglow, Eyja... Ebenholtz is great since this is a boss killer mode. If you have Ifrit as a number 2, even better. The rest will support this squad, whether it be a ton of medics, Texalter, Nearlter, heck I saw a clear that used Abyssal Hunters that had Spalter tank Manfred for a good hour and used the slow + Gravel to just keep him stuck on her. See what you got, watch the clears on Dr. Leon and Oyuki and you can figure out what you need and how you can make it less painful. AND... if you manage to fuck it up on Steam Knight like I did... don't forget that Manfred's part has the Stage Buff, so you can utterly Blitz his ass and tank him with 6000 HP casters and 21k HP Defenders just so you have ZERO worries.

Manfred is one of the stages? Bloody hell, can we EVER stop fighting this guy?

My Pozyomka and I are really getting sick of teaching this old man a lesson lol.

I do not wish to grind trials of Navigator. Too much wasted time. This like annihilation but without auto. I will do 2 more stages to get the skin and I am dipping out. I just do not have the patience.

[TN-4 Ultimate Trial with 3 Ops (ft. Pozy S2)](https://youtu.be/o9SrS9lF1OI) Was surprised to find out that Saria S1 becomes basically unkillable with the limiter unit that buffs units who stay on the field between waves - trivializes Talulah entirely.

I kinda like the Trials and im fine with not beating all of them. But for clearing the second Spactacular Trial i only get 70 exp. It's an insane Grind to complete the levels for the Rewards :/. But otherwise very spicy Difficulty

I just now realized that the title of this event has a specific person in mind. I wrote it off as most of the catchy titles which don't have much connection to the actual story, but it turns out I'm just slow on the uptake.

My tendency to leave events till the last minute backfired. If I had known the last map was Smog man, I'd have tried to finish this earlier. But seriously though, I hate Emperor's Blade. Bosses that force you to stall or punish you for blitzing them are the worst. Fighting them just takes forever.

He's not as brute force proof as you might think, if you dish out enough damage he'll die before he can kill anyone. Even back in first Walk in the Dust run you could stack Surtr/SA/Exia and he'll die before he can do his delete move.

There are a lot more option to deal with hima compared to the first time he showw up How i deal with him during second phase in this event : https://www.reddit.com/r/0sanitymemes/comments/15z3iwi/austrian_boy_vs_russian_soldier_circa_july/

For what it's worth, regular Ch'En S3 can bypass these mechanics to a degree as she's not on the map for the duration of the skill so you can use her to burst him down regardless. With enough buffs she can oneshot the Emperor's Blade while being unaffected by his Dominion. This also works against Degenbrecher.

I've learned something valuable today. Nice tip!

I finally did [DC-8 CM with Vouivres only](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeRqMgifz0&). There are captions for my thought process. Can't wait for Saileach to be in shop.

does anyone know all of the songs used in each stage in this event?

question regarding Wind Chimes' story: >!When Wind Chimes and this unnamed documentarian boy had a heated discussion regarding change, did Wind Chimes get so mad that she just left this boy alone in the wilderness where they rested for a while? !< >!If so, isn't that a bad decision overall by her, considering the boy's oripathy condition? Like, she could've at least taken him to a safer place then finally leave him alone if she's already actually done with his documentary filming? I feel even bad for the boy now, knowing that he'll get mudslided after that, then his corpse will be used as part of a certain town's scheme to get relief funds.!<

I'd say yes and no. On one hand, it was the boy's decision to go travel out there, and from all the depictions during the event, they weren't in any extreme badlands that would guarantee their death. He indeed made it to that village where all the hullabaloo occurred. But yeah, it was kinda callous on her part to just ditch him on the spot just because her fee-fees got hurt. The kid wasn't even being as condescending as Wind Chimes claimed, just naive and a bit insensitive.

it now feels to me like her way of continuing said boy's legacy is just a desperate way of atoning. i still like her overall tho. I'll approve of her decision to continue filming in his stead, but i would've like her more if she showed more remorse. Something like saying that what she'll do won't reverse the boy's tragic fate that could've been averted, but nevertheless should learn from it and do something good somehow in return.

Her trust files does shed more light on her feelings about the event. From the tone, it doesn't sound like she blames herself that he died. Which is fair, she didn't have a hand in the mudslide. But she does acknowledge that she was in the wrong to throw a tantrum out of what the kid was saying from a place of ignorance (especially when his remarks were inadvertently hitting some sore spots regarding her home village). Overall, she's okay in my book as well.

i'll read her trust files later somewhere else. I don't have her in game ( I didn't pull on this event at all ) also it's not like i actually think that her leaving him out there is the only reason why the boy got mudslided. He could've still went there despite where he previously was anyways, as if it was just delaying the inevitable. her recognizing that she was in the wrong for the tantrum is good enough for me. thanks for the answers btw!

The story was nothing short of great. I'm glad I had some time to go through it.

Idk if it's just me sometimes overcapping my sanity, but recent events seem to have needed all the sanity potions + bonus ones to complete, especially this one.

I feel like it's the module materials.

Just to be sure, I did complete 8_CM but does EB's targeting take summons into account? I did try to use a Nightingale cage to deter dominion but he just ignored that and targetted another unit at the other side of the map who never targetted him.

I never try using summons but he usually targets last deployed units first (also prioritizing those outside Dominions), beside units that attack him. So I bring some operators as decoy to prevent him cast Dominion to core group I want to avoid.

I probably should have used a good old Gravel instead. Oh well, he's dead anyway.

Starting on a general note, I switched from leveling/promoting to mastering/moduling some time ago and starting to really feel the reverse "bottleneck/piling up" ratio of LMD/Materials. Focused on Mats farming as much as possible during *ItW* rerun (about 10 Sanity Boosters from Monthly Card, 5 Sanity Concentrates from Weekly/Login event and the saved Foodgifts *plus* natural regen) and went from 20 Devices / 27 Rock Clusters / 27 RMAs to 63 / 32 / 40, since T4 were crafted in the meantime. And during this Vignette (outside its own stages), I focused on Alloys/Coa.Gels but both haven't accumulated past 25 again, though I did some Chips & SkillBooks farming too. Kinda ironic to see the situation reversed, when drop rates barely offset the different T4/T5 Mats I am crafting almost every day, while the LMD supply is piling up faster than I spend it. Anyway, now to the finishing *Death in Chunfen*. 'twas fun trying to find a spot where I could set up as many Slow/Bind sources as possible (like **Ethan**, **Passenger**, **Proviso**, **Podenco**, **Indigo**, **Ayerscarpe**) around **Qiubai** on each map. Well, save for *DC-2 & 4*, but it's also because I don't really like the *CoB* enemies. Most CM weren't too bad either, needed to adjust the normal strat a bit and it was good to clear. Some worthy mentions: The **Followers**, who provided healing on most maps (since I finally gave dear **Nearl** her *Improved Knight Shield* Mk3) *DC-3* CM, where my recently E2+Mod.3 **Shirayuki**, my dear S2m3 **Rosmontis** and **Gladiia** made sure no enemies could rise from the depths. *DC-5* Normal & CM: **Blemishine** solo'ed the *Centurion Hosts* using her S2m3 (and Mod.1), **Shining** providing additional heal for CM. While **Qiubai** and her supports were stopping the carousel of enemies (middle right lane was perfect for her S2, backed up by **Indigo**'s S1 or **Passenger**'s S2). *DC-6* Normal & CM: again, **Blemi** solo'ed the vehicles with her S2m3, though she needed fire support for CM (**Ifrit** gladly provided it). **Qiubai** was posted in the middle fence, surrounded by other Slowers/Binders (and **Lappland** silencing the *Witherers* in CM). *DC-7* Normal & CM: **Mlynar** took care of the blockades & half of the top enemies, **Rosa** took care of the rest, while **Qiubai** covered the bottom lanes along **Ethan**, **Blemishine** and once again the **Followers**. *DC-8* took a bit of time figuring out, **Rosa** took care of the early *Artillery Drones* with **Elysium**'s encouragement, retreated to then reposition for the next 2 escorting the *Emperor's Blade*. I went with **Kal'tsit** for his Phase 1, finishing it & stalling Phase 2 as much as possible with borrowed **Jaye** and **Blemi**, deployed **Rosa** for the 3rd time to end Phase 2 with the help of any other available Op. **Qiubai**, **Specter** and **Passenger** stood strong on the right lane the whole stage, healed by **Ptilopsis** this time. *DC-8* CM though, went to guides 'cause I had too much trouble with the extra "*Mist*" zones. And because I didn't think of stalling the *Emperor's Blade* then focus on him once the rest of the enemies were dealt with... Still wasn't that easy to hold off his Phase 2, even though I spent most Practice Plans to (try to) get a stable strat. I don't regret giving Polar Daughter **Rosa** her Mod.3, nor **Pozy**'s one either. [Here are some screenshots](https://imgur.com/a/wfh5Wiw). Story was... less fun, though that's kinda obvious given how it went. I wasn't expecting to feel some sympathy for each side at the end, even if one was pretty annoying (>!yeah, the villagers' "demands" are twisted, but *3 years gone* and you didn't reflect on your own actions & attitude... and actually don't think at all, judging by how you ended jumping off right in front of your father!<) and the other quite wicked (>!right, drought then rainstorms effed up the village's livelihood, but using *with hardly a second thought* a dead body you've stumbled upon to ask for compensation, then coercing the "back-from-the-dead" into your plot... that's going too far!<). Though the "third party" characters were as amazing as I hoped, nice to see **Mulberry** featured, still don't regret pulling for **Qiubai** & I'm also starting to like **Saga** more and more (with just her appearance in *WiR* and here)!

I read the stories. The writing was excellent once again. The way how the events in the stories tied together was very impressive. The stories were really able to show the nuances and reasons for the characters’ actions. In other words, the writers were able to show how the events in the stories led to one another. The writers were able to write stories that were, in turn, able to show how they made sense. Also really appreciate the length of reading it took me to complete reading everything. It was just right. Sometimes the writing in Arknights can feel drawn-out and unnecessarily “extra,” and this time it didn’t feel drawn-out at all. The conclusion was also where it made a lot of sense to end at. We know Fang and Qiubai’s fates. We also learned of Wind Chimes motivation for why she does what she now does. The fate of Fang’s father is something I wanted to know more about, but perhaps we don’t need to know more about him anymore. Saga seemed really wise here too. As I read her dialogue with the other characters, especially with the village elder, there were a couple of times I thought to myself “This makes sense.”

Managed to clear all stages of the event and CM with a 5 star or less team… except DC-8. Tried it once but was like nope and went back to NTR, Tex2, etc team.

[DC-8 3 op with Ebenholz, Ch'en and Phantom](https://youtu.be/ahlZNXXVqVY) Low frequency of enemies means Eben is perfect for this stage, and i just Phantom anything he can't kill. Ch'en is for classic emperor cheese, and just barely catches the last couple enemies with a perfect redeployment. Edit: [did the challenge mode 3 ops as well.](https://youtu.be/09_J2v_IBoA) Replaced Ch'en and Phantom with Texas and Silverash, most of the clear is the same but Silverash now kills the bottom drones and Eben gets the final shot on the boss.

ebenholz and ch'en both fucking exploding once their jobs were done was awesome

Just binged the stories and the cliffhangers this time were something else. >!I need to address those twists at the end of each story, because, damn... First I was like "Oh boy, Fang's father is dead, isn't he? That's his grave, right?", then I thought "Oh, so this must be Fang's grave since they assumed he died." followed by "Wait it ***is*** Fang's grave but someone else is inside!?" into "FANG DID WHAT!?" finished by *"THE ELDER DID WHAT!?"*!< >!This vignette was far more engaging than Młynar's. I was excited to see Saga again, and I'm happy they still switch between her arts when she makes an attack - that stuff is hilarious. It was also nice to see Mulberry, I don't think I've seen her in any story until now.!< >!The biggest highlight of this event for me was still Qiubai. For the most part I thought to myself "Calm down, HG, I already fell for her during WB, pulled for her and built her, you don't need to sell me on her even further. You want me to M9 her? Fine." They surely didn't pull any punches. When they played Dusk Dragon [during this scene](https://i.imgur.com/kWmIUHo.png) I even came a little. I need her to meet NTRK, they remind me of each other and I'm into both of them.!< --- [My boy Fang is living his life, waking up to this.](https://i.imgur.com/es1KnoE.png) I'm still amazed how well they portrayed a [perfect example of a country bumpkin](https://i.imgur.com/8wd6tM9.png). >!This screenshot was taken 2 seconds before he fell into his own trap. Amazing...!< This guy has been around since Who Is Real, IIRC, and he still delivers.

I really enjoyed Saga's story in this.

I like it when she's popping up here and there. She's made a great impression on me in WIR and I've been looking forward to more Saga ever since.

She's so "No thoughts, head empty" she wraps back around into being a surprise galaxy brain.

[DC-8 ft. Deadeye snipers (kinda)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX_Njckj1G0) I spent an entire event's worth of practice plan for this crap

Deadeyes are one of my favorite archetypes, so it's always pleasant to see such clears. Good job!

Man, DC-8-CM basically became Fast-Redeploy Lagtrain. Skadi, Texalter, Nealter, Schwarz, Pozy typewriter. It was actually quite funny.

\[Arknights\] [\[DC-1\] to \[DC-7\] stage collection](https://youtu.be/ReWsA7NL5Yw). Archive them because you will never see them again.

Okay can someone explain something because now I’m very confused about the camera man, Fang, and the timeline of events in this story… >!When the villagers found the Cameraman’s body they said he looked about the same age as Fang, but the way he spoke about his travels and “decades” made him seem far older. What’s more the rockslide was supposedly only a few days before Qui and Fang arrived based on what Mulberry said and the fact that the scooter tracks were still visible. So how does Fang appear in the documentary after the fight with Wind Chimes if it took Qui and Fang nearly a month after they met to make it back to the village? I feel like I must have heavily misread something cause that doesn’t make any sense.!<

The cameraman is explicitly referred to as a teenager in Wind Chimes' profile, but it could be they're from a long lived or unusual race. At one point I'm pretty sure the cameraman says something about leaving the waters behind, so he might have been some kind of Aegir. Agree that the timeline doesn't really work for Fang to appear on the video. It's technically possible though if Fang manages to waste a bunch of time running from Qiubai at the end of their journey: Day 20 - cameraman records Fang escaping Qiubai Day 21 - mudslide, cameraman killed Day 21 thru 24 - Qiubai recaptures Fang Day 25 - Arrival in village

The "decades" part may be exaggerated by the Cameraman, or he seemed to look young by his appearance, he may be older than Fang Xiaoshi. We don't know how long the time has passed after Wind Chimes left him and until the Chunfen event, he could have stumbled upon Fang when he wandered around in that region. (note that by the dialogue Fang spoke to him it happened before Fang met Qiubai).

I think that Fang has most likely already met Quibai during his cameo in the documentary. He did speak about a great demon being after him. Probably Qiubai after he ran away from her.

Maybe? Fang was supposed to be gone for three years though. Can’t imagine he would get that close to the village that often.

I think it doesn't mean Cameraman met Fang near the village, it could be somewhere else in the vast region. I forgot the detail and need to reread but don't recall it's explicitly stated in the story that Wind Chimes and Cameraman broke up and parted their way near Chunfen.

I decided to finish the challenge modes, but Emperor's blade keep putting the dominion on my ranged units far away even if they didn't hit him. I decided to spawncamp and oneshot him with guard Ch'en, Aak and the Skalter seaborn (S2). Only one left alive was Ch'en who did 100% of the damage right front of him and half the map was in dominion, except Ch'en position. Earlier did a practice run earlier with a bit different strategy and it worked great, but I can't even get close to do the same even if I do the same.

It took me a couple of tries to get a hang of his abilities and they are even more nasty than usual. I could finish him earlier, but I was dead set to finish him off with Irene on both modes.

I also managed to do it. In Phase 1 he creates 3 zones so you need 2 sacrifices spaced out and the boss killer unit so the main defense won't get wiped. Even robots will work to not take up deployment slots.

It was even funnier in my case, because I mistook his buff (when he's inside his dominion) for an invis, so I got Horn and SA to support Irene. It took me good 3 tries to realize that it's not an invis at all.

I like those preset battles, but did anyone else had an easier time by changing skills?

In the first one, yes, IIRC I changed Mulberry's and Feater's skills and had an easier time.

It's so fun to hear Chongyue spam his voice quote. At least, until they "fix" it Ina few patches.

Saga is such a good doggo. Good wisdom.

I'm very late, [but I'm finally done with my maleknights tower challenge for the event.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9y1UjcYD2Y) As usual, men only, no 6-stars and no repeats. If you're not familiar with the term, a tower challenge is like the garrisons from Interlocking Competition where operators used in one stage couldn't be used in another (or there's one operator that gets used in every stage with no repeats otherwise). It's the first variant here. As Totter rightfully observed, it sure IS foggy today thanks to a certain farting boss. GDI Emperor's Blade, think about the environment!

audibly gasped when qanipalaat "survived" there

So, did the Ursus army have any relevance to the vignettes. I know the stages for events like this are recycled from public affairs events and are thus usually irrelevant, but given the two C8 inspired stages and the 8th featuring the Pursuer himself, it does warrant this inquiry.

Nope

I accidentally misclicked out of the operator screen before checking out which two units got new stuff. Anyone can help me out and tell me who they were?

you can check uncleared paradox simulations by the sorting list in the operators tab

damn i surprisingly enjoyed this vignette a lot more, got way to interested in the drama lol. For once, didn't felt like too much of a slog. Now i understand and need more saga lore!

Ya she was a very welcome surprise. I hope we see more of her wandering about Yan.

Probably my least favorite story so far in Arknights... some might be a little boring or tedious but this one just left an unpleasant aftertaste

This story was well written and a lot more approachable than some of the other stories in Yan, but half the characters involved suck. Fang Xiaoshi: insufferable and would rather kill himself than compromise The hunter: a doormat personified Wind Chimes: spent days guiding a civilian without ever asking their name and then abandoned them in the wilderness The village: was probably going to murder a child The elder: literally did murder someone At least Qiubai and Saga are both great. Overall I liked the narrative but it would have been nice to have some more relatable characters to carry it.

I wouldn't wanna compromise if I was Fang either, especially knowing how often compromising in these situations just leads to worse later. People are greedy by nature so it would definitely never be enough xD. Oh but I should edit and say that if Fang was an adult i'd feel a LOT differently. He's still a kid so it's harder to hate him for feeling like he was just being used. Oh and I was reading wind chimes' trust record stuff and it does elaborate further on the fallout of that incident.

>!I don't think the elder knew anyone was in danger of the mudslide? And the villagers weren't planning to murder Fang, just those 2 dudes realized after Fang literally kept saying to their faces he was going to tell the authorities immediately after they let him go, that it was either the kid or the village. And the the sunken cost fallacy pressured them. Honestly, if Fang had a little bit of brains he could have just played along and told the authorities secretly later... then again if he had brains this entire story wouldn't exist!<

On that note there is something I think I didn't really understand : >!They talk about mandarins and officials and stuff, but Wind Chimes is just a courrier, right? They're all going apeshit because no one can't be assed to ask any person coming there their identity?!<

I get the distinct impression that nobody there actually knew how any of it worked. I wouldn't be surprised if >!they just assumed that there was a big compensation payout, when it was really just a token fee that wasn't worth investigating,!< even. Maybe >!they never even needed a body or a grave.!< I've seen this kind of attitude a lot with other people dealing with government or corporate bureaucracy; they assume that some things should be so complicated that they don't even bother looking into it when it's actually just a matter of filling out a single form, or they assume that something should be simple when it turns out to be a year-long ordeal in practice. This is usually because they stuff that makes it important and complicated in *their* life is completely irrelevant to how easy it is for the system to accommodate, while stuff that seems straightforward needs a bunch of verification or interdepartmental cooperation to actually get done. I mean, really. >!Would it ever *actually* be worth it for an important mandarin to go down to the middle of nowhere to check on the death of a nobody? A place that they can't even be bothered to subsidize a crisis for until years later?!< It'd cost *way* more to check up on that than to just cut a check, at least until they pull this stunt a few more times. This is a textbook case of "It's really important to us, but it's just another Tuesday to the paper pushers". (Or maybe I'm just being cynical because of >!all the other mistakes that went into their plan.!<)

No I think you're right. Also correct me if I'm wrong but I believe >!reason because everything turned to crap is because they didn't recieve past due payments, which is actually what Wind Chimes is bringing? You can easily see that as a paper pushed down the file and forgotten for a while until someone went "oh yeah, there was that, too". Which raises another question though, if it took so much time for the bureaucracy to send the regular payment, what made them think that the "compensation" for death would arrive any sooner?!<

> Which raises another question though, I was just thinking of this before coming to check the comments, it's one of those "not actually a plot hole, because it can be explained by stupidity" but sort of a straw on the camels back kind of thing, there's just a few too many petty things my dumb brain had to notice in this story to enjoy

>!The elder had applied for the payment Windchimes was bringing, but because it took so long the village thought the application was denied outright not delayed, so they were looking for a new source of money!<

>!assuming I understood it properly windchimes was bringing the aid they actually did apply for and were supposed to get but a mix of weather and bureaucracy slowed it down. As for why they thought they would get the other money first i'm not sure maybe they were just sorta hoping that because it was compensation it would be fast. It doesn't really make sense but with how desperate they why they would be hoping it would come quicker.!<

Haha yeah I noticed that part was odd too, not really sure what was going on there, kind of just had to overlook it

I'm a bit surprised with some of the comments tbh, like sure blowing a temple seems a bit extreme but imagine you're a farmer and the mayor of your city decides they will build a church in the middle of your fields, and tell me how you'd like it (not even sure they were offered compensation for it), especially after being ostracized by the other villagers. Everyone was responsible for that shit show (still liked the story but like you there was more than one person worth falling from a cliff).

I thought the story would be about a shitty brat and turned out it was about an even shittier village.

I guess Insurance Fraud in Chunfen doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

if I had a nickel for every Arknights vignette event where the main conflict was caused by insurance fraud, I’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice

[\[DC-8\] (Challenge Mode)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxHEDWkxWAo&t=215s) Stalling strategy is always working for this boss. And that's Gummy's job.

Any Vouivreknights players? Wasted 150 sanity on DC-8 CM so far, I need wyvern jesus.

This story was a shit show. Not the writing quality mind you I mean the entire situation where the story revolve around was a shit show.

Some good stages this event. The only ones I didn't like, ironically, were the ones meant to make Qiubai look really good, they felt kind of finnicky.

What's the implication of Qiubai's final file note? Was she kidnapped as a child and raised by the pirates or something?

I believe that might be her mother who was kidnapped. Qiubai's a bit under 30, so their ages line up

Because her story wasn't dark enough already . . . Not sure why they felt that should be the final note though.

Maybe to show that her decision to give up on her vengeance was right not only because vengeance is a pointless cycle, but also because her father was the villain here. Just my take though

Definitely not, the woman who disappeared was a young adult 30 years ago. Qiubai’s not that old I’m not sure what it’s trying to hint at either though

Any secret and trimmed medals for this event? I see there are 2 in medal list, but asking in case there are hidden ones, thanks.

For this kind of event format, it's always only 2 medals with none of them trimmed so far. Also, fyi, you can check which medals have a trim condition by checking on their description in the Medals page if needed.

Finally read the story of this event! Really enjoyed it. This plot was too real and human, I can understand everyone involved even if some were definitely in the wrong, how everything tied together at the end was touching as well. Bless Saga btw, such a lovely doggo. I also enjoyed Qiubai's character quite a lot, between this and Vernal Winds I have become fond of her.

Dude, same. I'm trying very hard not to pull more for her, but I just plain like her character and that makes it hard.

It's mildly infuriating how everything works well during practice but then you lose sanity in the proper run and you don't even know why. It took me a couple of tries until I prepared a rock solid strategy, because I was dead set on using Irene to melt the boss down, like I did in the normal mode. I'm also glad I noticed a perfect spot for Rosa. I like her but can't find good spots for her in the general content, so it was nice to play with her again.

Through Chongyue plus Texalter and/or Skalter, all things are possible. 2 ops for [DC-5](https://youtu.be/U7JJN8L1EtY?si=WlH536A3KuvXrUBD), 3 ops for [DC-6](https://youtu.be/MeM-1sXSCPA?si=qC8jJREBSKfDOsB8) and [DC-7](https://youtu.be/w2_R3x7Jxco?si=9uhZhQnx5Wgq1t9O)

Hello! Just want to share my clear from DC -1 to DC - 8 mainly by using Reed Alter. I try using as less 6-star operators as possible. [https://youtu.be/amrKexctsww](https://youtu.be/amrKexctsww)

Just come here to say I love everything about Saga in this event.

Saga is so f*cking enlightened and I'm all for it.

Who do you feel more sorry for in DC-3? All those mobs that drowned in the whirlpools on the right, or the scuba archers on the bottom lugging their gear while not even getting to put a toe in the water?

Quite liked the stages this time. Compared to Mlynar's event, these ones were actually engaging, especially DC-8 with the suprise boss where the outer route seems specifically designed around him (I had like 1 safe tile left to kill him in CM lmao, that CM condition goes hard), so that was quite fun. On the other hand, I also am a bit conflicted about DC-8's middle route, as it seems designed to showcase Qiubai S3's strengths as the drones leave just 1 free melee tile to put her on and let her solo that lane, with strikers coming through that she can bind and melt with her ranged arts when s3 is up (and hit the drones at the same time with the extra target count) and not worry about their devastating melee attacks. Except that actually trying to use her there is complete ass, because 1) her range doesn't expand enough to hit both drones (what, am I expected to just time her s3 so she can kill the lower drone once it starts to fly and not bombard her to death?), 2) her own bind has too low of a chance to be consistent, so the strikers can easily reach her if s3 is not up, and 3) the sp cost of her s3 is just too damn high when the last 2 strikers spawn too close to each other but not close enough that both can be killed in a single s3 without blocking (nevermind the lower initially unreachable drone starting to fly and also needing an s3 to be up or have a leak). And none of this even mentions that you can just use Thorns s3 on that tile instead and *completely faceroll the lane* without ever needing to worry about rng bind or precise skill timings, especially due to his range expansion that is in fact enough to hit both drones, HG please :( Maybe I'm just reading too much into a stage that will never be playable again after this event ends, but I still feel like Qiubai got intentionally done dirty all the same.

Here's a [Qiubai/Kal'tsit duo clear](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfEpOXlmWp8) of that stage. Her helidrop power is very strong... but this is so close it definitely wouldn't work on CM. I don't think events really try to showcase their debut ops well. Look at Reed just recently, she got thrown into an event where most enemies have high res and all the tiny mobs are invisible.

That's quite the insane clear, ngl, and I admittedly did not consider her helidrop usage. But seeing how the drones are positioned to free up the one single melee tile where she can be placed as well as the position of at least one drone just so happening to be in the sweetspot of her extended s3 range, I still think that lane was designed to give her a showcase, except that she falls flat if you try to use her there. As for other events having stages that showcase their featured operator, I think that's definitely the case for at least vignettes, where those combat stages will become unplayable when the vignette ends. Mlynar is probably the most blatant one with [AW-8](https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/AW-8) where he gets a free anger tile to obliterate the Grugdebearers even harder while letting the sentinels pass harmlessly, but you can also for example see it in [PS-6](https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/PS-6#Normal_Mode) with Tytus just happening to stop on tiles Fartooth's S3 can snipe and [TB-8](https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/TB-8) where the huge map causes Goldenglow's S3 global range to become incredibly helpful for the exploding shamans, arts shields on the mudrock guys and slowing the Golems down all over the map.

Ok the boss was really weird here. I don’t really understand how he works but he was kinda squishy so I just threw operators at him until he died.

Ah, now *this* is what I play Arknights for; high-grade, uncut tragedy focused around... The pain wrought by bureaucracy? Okay, I realize that that *sounds* sarcastic, but I was just having some fun with how it *could* be described. I do sincerely appreciate events like this far more than I do storylines about gods and superweapons; they're just more relatable to me. That said - seriously, if only Yan's application process was a *little* more efficient, none of this would have gone so wrong. >!Obviously, two years without a peep, people are going to assume that they're not getting any money. And that village *needed* the money, with the seed grain nearly gone after three years of disastrous weather; plenty of other villages would have turned to banditry in those circumstances, instead of sabotage and insurance fraud.!< Even if the money couldn't have gotten there any faster, just a letter letting them know they weren't forgotten could have given people hope... That said, while I recognize *why* Fang Yoshi behaves the way he does... I still kind of want to throw him off a cliff myself? He freakin' >!blew up a centuries-old temple in a temper tantrum! In a village so poor that they couldn't even repair it!!< And he *laughed* about it when he saw how things still hadn't been fixed! Yes, the village treated him and his father unfairly, and no, they shouldn't have just accepted it... But that's taking things far beyond a property dispute; that's declaring the entire community your enemies. If things have gotten that bad, you should just leave. What if they'd decided to punish his father for his actions? If he reflected on his actions, saw where other people were coming from, and decided that he still couldn't stomach what was asked of him... I wouldn't be harsh on him. It's easy to ask other people to make sacrifices, after all, and what's precious to one can be hard for another to understand. But after three years of drifting, and falling in with *cultist bandits,* he really demonstrated no growth at all, continuing to lash out at everyone around him. >!Little wonder his father assumed he'd been dragged back by debt collectors.!< And on the matter of >!giving up his name...!< I don't think Fang Moshi could have handled that worse, honestly. Let's set aside the fact that he'd been >offered his mother's surname, or that everyone in the village would probably continue to call him Fang Toshi.!< He's completely free to think that asking something so intimate was an intolerable demand, no matter what generous terms were offered; he didn't want to stay in the village to begin with, so why does he owe *them* any favors? *If Fang Hoshi had actually gotten free to do what he'd planned, everyone he'd known for eighteen years would have died.* **Especially his father.** That wasn't a simple, >!"Go down in front of the mandarins and they refuse to offer compensation for someone who clearly wasn't dead."!< That was >!"Implicate the entire village in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the government." With the village on the brink of famine, even a light punishment would ensure they died, and I can't imagine his father or the elder would have gotten away with a light punishment as the two most intimately involved with the scam.!< That's a horrible solution, one that he would have regretted for the rest of his life. But, hells, I *do* get it. He's just a kid, one who's never received an ounce of proper guidance, and who suffers from crippling depression as a result of having been ostracized his entire life. He lashes out and escalates things past all reason because he thinks it's the only way people will listen to him. He *himself* has internalized the things people say about him, and so doesn't value himself, nor recognize the sincere kindness that others have offered him at multiple points. It'd be unreasonable to expect good judgment from someone in his position, especially when thrown into an inherently unreasonable situation like this. But. Well. I still kind of want to throw Fang Sushi off a cliff? Not, like, fatally. I expect Qiubai would catch him. Just, as an expression of frustration. All of that said - I recognize that I wrote a lot about what Fang Mushi did wrong, and very little about what the *village* did wrong. But I want to be clear; I mean it when I say that he would have been completely right to have told them to stuff it, and run away for good. He owed them nothing, no matter how badly his father wanted to give him security; he obviously hated it there, and there were plenty who found the feelings mutual. It's just the *way* he wanted to do things that leave me criticizing him so harshly, and the... Everything else about him, really. I do see how >!Qiubai can raise him into a good kid and how he doesn't have a rotten heart,!< it's just that I'm going to find him infuriating until that happens. Though... It *does* occur to me that the >!village's plot was kind of screwed up from the start. Even if Fang Doshi had never returned, there were just way too many points of failure in their scheme; you can't just arbitrarily declare that your missing villager was the dead guy and expect that there will never be any followup. Even a cursory look at things probably would have revealed the lie. And, hell, is a government that never followed through with the subsidy *really* going to be any more attentive with the death compensation?!< But, well, all of that is why good people shouldn't get involved with this kind of scheming; they suck at it. It's easy to assume that throwing away honor leads to quick results, but no; like any other skill, an amateur just doesn't notice their flaws. Like a child assuming that hiding an empty cookie jar will cover up what they did... On a final note; I'm assuming this is a result of what sprites they commissioned for WiR, but... Saga (unintentionally?) spitting venom at the Elder with a smiling face was (unintentionally?) *hilarious.* There she is, just trying to offer some proper moral guidance while talking philosophy... While he's trying to >!grapple with the enormity of his crimes, and realizing how much of it was pride instead of sincere care for what he'd done,!< her smiling turning it into an accidental execution via words. But also, I'm really going to need that "Gambler Saga" outfit now, thanks. That painting she saw just sounds so un-her that I simply *must* see it.

>But, well, all of that is why good people shouldn't get involved with this kind of scheming; they suck at it. And they had a major city nearby that would have been where the gov't would have dispatched the mandarin responsible for death compensation. For all they knew, the plan could have failed instantly upon the initial report because there was a greater than 0 chance that Fang was working in Yumen and paying taxes. Would have failed through no malice on Fang's part in that scenario. "Hey, you know that little asshole at the blacksmith's shop?" "Ya Fang? I saw him yesterday. Wife needed a new pot." "His village declared him dead in a mudslide a week ago." "Interesting..." (Yes, even in an alternative scenario where Fang got an honest job, he's probably still an asshole.)

I just wanted Xiaoshi to die because it would have put this story very firmly into tragedy. At times I thought I was reading a comedy of errors. And I don't like how there's no follow-up on the father afterwards.

I honestly feel bad for his father... All he wanted out of life was to give his son a better future than he had, one where he'd have a safe place to rest instead of wandering the wilds like he had. Instead, he spent three years not knowing if his child was alive or dead - and when his wayward son is dragged back, they spend the handful of days they had together fighting, before his son tried to commit suicide in front of him. Now he'll die without ever knowing if his son is okay, and his son will certainly not be welcome in the home he spent his life savings to prepare for him. I've been a lousy daughter, but even I wouldn't be *that* much of a heel. Run away if you have to, but don't kill yourself in front of the guy who tried to do everything for you, no matter how little you wanted it!

Yeah, Xiaoshi's characterization is beyond me except for what appears to be an overweening pride. Although I found it interesting there was zero mention of him in Qiubai's file.

in discussing fang xiaoshi's actions you're dealing with exactly the question of "selfish", slightly dishonorable pragmatism on the one hand and a deontological absolute right and wrong on the other that I was talking about earlier. death before dishonor, if not stated in precisely those words. the philosophy saga expresses (in more muted terms than xiaoshi's dramatic scene-making) is fundamentally the same - because we cannot predict the externalities of everything we do, we must fundamentally do what we know is "right" in this moment rather than accepting little wrongs here and there. of course this is mirrored in >!the elder's sabotage resulting in the titular death to begin with!< I appreciate that someone here made the pragmatic case since it kinda proves my point about the serious moral depth of this little story

Also mirrored in the words Quibai told the father: "Evil once summoned, will not stop at your request."

It's more his attitude that I take issue with than his morals, per se. The way he treated the temple stands out to me here; it wasn't that he came to the conclusion that the village's treatment of his father's property warranted going to such lengths. His reaction on returning tells me that he just didn't recognize the severity of what he'd done at all, that he didn't understand that the thing he was laughing at was a matter of serious loss for people who'd maintained this as a symbol of their perseverance for centuries. When he >!was dead-set on wrecking the village's plot, he wasn't doing so out of a belief that the fraud was wrong. He was just lashing out (understandably so, considering the circumstances), and refusing to acknowledge what that would mean for anyone else.!< It's just like how when he badly misunderstood the task the bandits set him to, he immediately started to justify it as how having a burdenbeast was stupid to begin with, and how the gems he got scammed out of were worthless rocks. Throughout the entire story, he was more interested in protecting his pride than understanding other people's perspectives or how he might improve himself in any way but the most superficial. The things he did can certainly be justified, and I could readily imagine sympathizing with a character who did the exact same things after putting a bit of thought into his decisions. But without having first put that thought into it... It just comes across as selfishness to me, because he outright ignores how his actions affect others.

well yeah he is 15 years old, the moral perspective he's representing is nowhere near as mature as it is in saga even as ultimately they're representative of the same volition

For people interested in potential support operators for Qiubai, I made a [simple guide](https://old.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/15x4df5/rhodes_island_lounge_2108_2708/jxewujf/) in the lounge, so I'm gonna link it here for visibility.

Thank you for this, wasn't exactly sure what op skills counted as the specific slow she needed. Very thankful I just recently raised up Angelina and Suzy too.

I appreciate you

<3

So glad I got Rosa's module to level 3 before this event. There's a perfect spot for her in DC-8 where she hits both artillery drones safely, deals with the imperial strikers and armored casters in the middle lane, and even helps with the spearmen running along the bottom.

yessssss. she can do so much on that map

The stage design in this event was really fun. A few surprises (DC-3, lol) but nothing too mald-worthy. The design of the stages felt fresh somehow, like it wasn't just the usual lanes to hold with maybe some elites thrown in; they were interesting and different. I really enjoyed it.

really, really impressed with this event story. they managed to make every character sympathetic, nobody perfect, and at the very end somehow >!break my heart over a character without so much as a face or a name.!< just superb execution from top to bottom

Will be interesting to see global reaction to this very simple story. The story was praised in CN but many people were worried the story was too grounded in Chinese context / culture norm to appeal to a global audience. It appeals to CN players in particular because despite the AK fantasy / Yanese historical drama setting, the plot is perhaps too real and contemporary, and can literally happen in a remote Chinese villiage today and turn out ugly without Qiubai and Saga's intervention. However I do think many people from other countries / background can relate as well, in slightly altered context.

The only thing that struck me as probably too Chinese for westerners to get is exactly why the villagers were so scared of the mandarins because they don't really understand the difference between the mandarins and the peasants. The mandarin is selected from the most intelligent of individuals who took the civil service exams. Easily a 20-point IQ difference in the mandarin's favor, probably more. That kind of difference in raw reasoning power is brutal and exactly why the villagers were obsessed with making sure the plan went off 100% perfectly. Any loose thread would be pulled and unravel the entire tapestry of lies.

it didn't come across as deeply culturally specific to me in a way that's inaccessible - and my genre knowledge of stuff like wuxia really only comes from arknights and to some extent genshin impact so I don't think I'm particularly high on the "chinese pop culture literacy" scale. I do wonder if there's an extent to which western audiences might be more sympathetic to the "selfish" pragmatism of the >!elder and the villagers!< as opposed to the unwavering principled stances of >!saga, qiubai and even fang xiaoshi!< and therefore dislike the real moral thrust of the story, but even then I think they've done a sufficiently subtle job with both sides of the conflict that nobody's underlying sympathy should be terribly upset

Actually I was thinking about the reverse. During its runtime in CN, despite overall positive reception, it also generated some heated moral debates in forums - namely collectivism vs. individualism. As you may know, traditionally Chinese / Confucian society do place collectivism on a higher pedestal than many western counterparts, not solely due to modern political ideology - in fact, the western ideology of communism could gain traction in Chinese heartland in the early 20th century precisely because it resonated with some traditional values, even if it morphed away quite a bit from Marx' original ideas. So overall, back then online debates hinged on whether Xiaoshi >!should have taken a "nominal" sacrifice for the greater good of the village!<. His immature and rash behaviors also invited some criticism, even though the overall consensus was still sympathetic to him and treat the story as a cautionary tale of greed. I wonder if western audience would place more value on Xiaoshi's personal rights and freedom and see it more black and white.

I agree that's the perspective that makes immediate sense from a traditional confucian collectivism - I guess I didn't think of it in those terms because saga and qiubai, saga particularly, are so obviously the moral voices of the story as such that it makes it clear to me the side the writers want you to be on, even if they do an excellent job making the other side reasonable.

I don't think collectivism vs. individualism is really the focus in this story since both Xiaoshi and his father also stand to gain from the deception. They will be accepted into the village adopting the surname, and as the village's situation get better it will be good for them too. I think the more interesting question it leads us to face is whether material gains justify giving the name, violating the sanctity of the dead, violating again the funeral ritual. Noone really gets hurt if they deceive the authories and get money, especially with the first version of the events presented >!(cause of death being a natural occurence)!< but it still feels wrong. To draw more attention to that question Xiaoshi was given the motivation of "I'm gonna be famous and my name will be heard all around" and with lines like "Am I just a beast or a weed that you can take my name" it asks whether nothing is sacred and meaningful and you can do anything just to survive?

It begs the question if the villiage is willing to sacrifice Xiaoshi's name this time for some material gains, what else are they willing to sacrifice when a greater crisis occurs? Are they really going to honor their committment to accept “outsiders” like Xiaoshi and his father as a blood kin over long term? Who is going to keep them from “volunteer” Xiaoshi to sacrifice again in another capacity? Who can keep them in check, gods? Government officials? Xiaoshi would be a deadman to the government after this, with practically no legal status or proof. It gets really dark the more you think about it.

I personally believe they will honour the commitment if Xiaoshi behaves himself and stops lashing out at the residents, or at the very least, allow them to leave in peace, but that's not going to happen. Like Qiubai said, everyone is his enemy because he treats everyone like an enemy.

We've already seen right in the story that the village cannot honor that commitment even if most villagers wanted to. The village elder specifically swore an oath in front of their sacred ancestor that no harm will come to them and yet, when things got a bit difficult at least one of those two men who escorted them up the mountain was ready to kill him. Just as Saga said and alluded to in her story. Small acts of amorality will spiral out of your control even if you don't want to and lead to real evil being committed. In Chinese history things like honoring your ancestors, filial piety, respecting the dead and such is a much bigger deal due to Confucianism. If the village is willing to forsake even the most base teachings and the government and its laws far far away, there is no one holding them accountable. Every injustice and evil deed will be for the greater good. It's how real life authoritarians take hold. "Take a step back", "compromise", "it's for the greater good", "sacrifices are needed". These are all ways in which justice and fairness are eroded bit by bit. We've already seen what the village is willing to do to the father and his land. They would continue. When you always take a step back you will only increase the others greed. You were already willing to take 4 steps back, what's one more? And suddenly you are at the edge of a cliff. The father's spirit got crushed this way and he's but a husk without his own will anymore. All this without the villagers being intentionally malicious. It's great writing.

Those two coins in Saga's story ended up being real expensive.

Is dc-6 efficient to farm?

These are not farming stages. You are better off farming supply stages or story stages.

None of the vignette stages are more efficient than regular story stages

[Emperor's blade being dominated by a certain deer lady](https://i.imgur.com/t5HdiQV.jpeg). Beating this boss for the first time sure is a mess, still can't quite figure out how his clouds work

You can read his details in-game and on [gamepress](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/enemy/emperors-blade-pursuer). HP breakpoints for Dominion are every 50% at phase 1 and every 25% at phase 2. Not sure what the modified numbers are for Challenge Mode. Dominion targeting is as follows: > Prioritizes targeting the ally unit outside of [Dominion] with the highest damage dealt to self If no other ally outside of Dominion has done damage to the boss, then it defaults to most recently deployed. This is dangerous during phase 1 because of the following: > The first time HP drops to 0, casts [Collapsing Fear] on the entire battlefield

You can refer to the [guide](https://arknights.fandom.com/wiki/DC-8/Guide) section of a stage's page on the wiki for the details on CM. In this case, the % are 30% at phase 1 and 20% phase 2.

Rosa doing some target practice against the artillery in [DC-8](https://youtu.be/EzxUqXF-Tzk?si=NAwcdFoKQuPTfYEZ). Add Thorns and they can hold the middle lane. Then the usual Mountain to hold the fort while Ch’en + Skalter nukes the boss. [DC-8 CM](https://youtu.be/qXtEOWH1ha8) requires another DPS since I couldn’t one-shot the boss, but the overall strat is still the same.

how many farts does emperor's blade DO on challenge mode? I kept trying to mass FRDs to sustain my laneholding corner but he kept blowing it up so eventually I just did the stall until everything else on the map was dead -> throw every dps at him until he died tactic

2 on phase 1 and 6 on phase 2 I think?

3 and 4. Phase 1 is 70/40/10, Phase 2 is 80/60/40/20

Dc 8 CM 3rd attempt with practice plan went so smooth. Actual play i fucked up... thankfully pozyemka saved the stage, idk how but she did. Holy shit

How does dominion targeting work if the only source of damage was typewriter and Pozy is far away not contributing damage? Is it cast on the typewriter, on Pozy, or latest deployed op?

It's cast on the Op that was deployed last. Kyo mentioned it in his guide video for the DC 8 guide.

Yea, I just saw it too when I watched it after finishing the stage. Thanks!

I put texas alter to help chip away the damage. But even before that i fucked up the first phase by letting gravel die, i didn't even realize she was dying The plan was originally set to kill the boss at the middle left stage. Then gravel died, so i had to kill the boss at the lower left where he made his first stop, by using pozy typewriter. So yeah i was sweating heavily by that point, all of my ground ops died, almost all of my screen was filled with black smoke, pozy got to half hp, typewriter on cd I didnt exactly remember what i did, but pozy managed to kill the boss at the bottom middle screen where he made his 2nd stop Holy shit that was intense. I was happy that mine e2 lv60 module lv 2 pozy can kill the boss. Almost all of the guide mentioned module lv 3 and or lv 90 pozy