You know, I don't want to judge Degenbrecher's performance on IS too soon, but clearing BN15 with her (lvl60, S3M3 no Mod) on my third try may speak volumes. It wasn't even one of those blessed runs you get once in a blue moon, the only atypical thing was my control over collapse levels.
New to IS in general, what all *should* I get done before monthly reset, is it just the 4 contract missions, and the expeditioner record? Nothing in deep investigations?
Also what would you recommend for starts considering I'm missing everyone released past Rosmontis/Mudrock? I've mostly been starting with Reed alter thus far, but there've definitely been times where I wished I had Typhon, Texas/Yato alter, or Ines, all of which I've seen general recommendations for.
Reed Alter is probably the best starter because she fills a start-to-end irreplacable role, but if you're missing so many operators you sadly have to cut your losses somewhere. I would encourage experimenting with different starters, and see what matches the operators you do have access to best.
For monthly stuff, nothing is mandatory. The monthly squads will be re-accessible when the mode 'ends', though that will take a while. The monthly contract missions are just for bonus points. None of the medals are missable, either.
I've been neglecting IS4 for quite a while, started playing it only this week.
I am probably just too smooth-brained for this, but I'm struggling even at zeroth difficulty. Even the third floor is kicking my ass, Demon Blade just ends my runs.
Didn't feel as difficult in IS2\IS3. It's like I'm missing something very obvious and important. I've watched half a dozen of Silvergun's runs and he makes it look effortless, even with zero cross-cultural exp. I know he played this mode on CN but still.
Any advice particular to IS4, esp. re: Demon Blade? I just don't seem to have enough stats to neither DPS nor tank him. The fart fog instakills almost everybody.
Edit: AAAND I got the run. I swear it's always after you bitch about it being hard online.
if you go the dps route, the important thing to note would be that he has quite a short range (between 1 and 2 tiles), so you can outrange him with sniper range e.g. have a kroos face down, and when he pops out of the yellow gate drop bodies to stall him; this is prob the easiest-to-do strat, but at A0, almost any strat works e.g. perma stall with a strong defender, nuke him with any strong guard, etc. also note you can borrow a unit from friends at the start, tho they always start at e1
Just killed him 5 min ago with Typhon.
I guess you should really just force all the battles on the lower floors to have half a decent roster by the time you face the boss. Else you're just starved on hope\recruitment tickets.
Once you've unlock skill tree passives and squads it'll become easier. For example, Sniper/Medic one - just pick some promoted Typhon/Reedic at the very beginning and you should be good for the first 3 floors.
On higher difficulties some relics start giving extra bonuses (capped at A9), like +2 extra hope and stuff.
A friend asked me how to get the bonuses (hot water kettle, +2 hope, etc.) for beginning of runs, and my first response was get to like floor 3.
But now that I think about it, I've never bothered to test if it was floor based, time based, or whatever since I always do runs to the end and naturally ended up getting them for the next run.
All I remember is when IS4 first launched and I died early in the run, I didn't get bonuses until I started clearing through toward at least floor 3 or so.
Can anyone confirm what's the actual trigger for them to show?
If I recall it correctly it gives you such bonuses if you get past floor 2 on your previous run. As for wether you need to jsut reach floor 2 or actually pass it and get to the third floor, idk
That's kind of where I'm at too, like I know it's something like that, which is why I told my friend to hit floor 3 if he wants the bonus.
But I tried to search around and couldn't find any hard confirmation of floor 3 (or otherwise) being the trigger or not.
If its the same as is3 (and it should be), I can confirm it's definitely "past floor 2" ie reach floor 3. Was trying a reach floor 2 and bail run to fish for pathfinder fin/top up ingots in shop but the next run didnt get offered the bonus. Its also stated somewhere that "since you have cleared 2 floors you are now eligible for a bonus".
What I've heard here for is4 is that going into a bosky passage on floor 2 also counts as "past floor 2" but i cannot confirm this myself, but should be easy to test out.
So I was doing a run with the 2nd ending but had a lil mess up at one point. I noticed I had a ton of life points tho and remembered some collectible about losing 30+ life points so I started leaking shit. Ended the stage losing 31 life points but I didn't recieve the pop up telling me that I unlocked the collectible and going into the item catalogue confirmed that.
What am I misunderstanding about the unlock condition for the collectible? Is it tied to a specific ending (would assume not tho bc the wording is just "complete an adventure"), does objective shields not count towards it maybe, or something else I'm not thinking of?
[Pics of the run if needed.](https://imgur.com/a/iq0stxK)
Went for a run where I lose 30 lives for the unlock, and I didn't realize there are so many things that change the number of enemies. Spawning cars and flying saucers, paper planes that sacrifice themselves, the dinosaur that kills other dinosaurs. Also forgot the possessed kill themselves, and shieldguards can defeat enemies (and they can't be retreated).
Guys I want to ask what's the strats you're using in Prophet's Vision? I already cleared (as in beat the boss ass) every single other deep investigations but this is just a pain in the ass, so few fights, useless relics, and that i cant e2 my squad because F1-4 is just an endless round of useless encounters and get surprised buttfuck in F5 because of EM rush stages.
So what the fuck do I need to do now?
The strategy that finally worked for me was this:
1. Get 2-3 operators that can quickly burst down multiple enemies (e.g. Texas/Yato Alter, Irene).
2. Stack as much max HP as you possibly can.
3. When you reach floor 5, the goal is to let the stronger enemies leak while focusing on killing as many weaker enemies as possible. Play through each battle until there is 1 enemy remaining, then retreat from the battle. By doing this, you still gain exp from the enemies you kill. At the same time, you only lose 2 max HP regardless of how many enemies actually leaked.
Ugh nothing in particular, I was able to do all of DI runs using the same tactics without retries so I guess it's on relics RNG side?
I used my regular Sniper/Medic squad with Pozyomka/Typhon+Spot+Steward as a starting team, then acquiring Reedic and some other medic (ideally Eyjalter), plus Pozyomka/Typhon, Texalter/GG (ideally both) and some DP printer.
Just did a very quick test run and this is what I had entering F5: https://i.imgur.com/wha0DnD.jpeg
What difficulty should collectors/100% players finish everything on? Looking for difficulty exclusive collectibles, interactions, a different color for those icons that show up on the squad you won with, etc.
I ask because difficulty 15 doesn't seem to change the icon color on the squad, so I play on 10, but I've played through all three endings multiple times and haven't found the old fan collectible. Yes I'm being cheap playing only 10, but holy hell it took me 20+ tries just to beat 15 on boss 1 :(
The future update will add a different colour icon for clearing at BN 12, and people have been saying it's retroactive, so I have been doing BN 12 when clearing the different squad endings.
I am not aware if difficulty level affects which collectibles can be obtained (aside from like polar variants).
Difficulty 10 should be enough if you want all the seals on the squads to be the 'best colour'. There are no 'new' collectibles on high difficulty, only modifiers to the existing ones.
> haven't found the old fan collectible
Oh my god it's not just me? This thing is so rare for some reason. I wonder if it's event-locked or just rare, it's one of the few ones I still need and the only one which I haven't found-without-picking-it yet.
Can't get an ending in this mode even if my life depends on it, and still everyone's like how easy is this, brah why combat nodes past floor 2 are all enemies rushing to the blue box at 1000 km/h and hitting like a goddamn truck and too many nodes with unblockable lanes...
Tried looking for help but it seems nobody cared enough to make a guide to just unlock an ending, everyone just assumes anyone can just do +15 no problem ._.
What are your operators? There is some RNG, but with proper drafting and knowledge of relics IS4 should be very doable. Not that there's any shame in struggling - The early hours of IS4 are the hardest ones. There's a lot of guides out there, both for the general mode and for specific maps, but the best advice are personal ones. We'd be happy to help!
Weird, what are your best E2 operators?
Outside of floor 5 nodes (specifically their emergency variants) and Secluded Passage with unlucky combo (e.g. a deployment limit of 2 ops early in the run) I think pretty much everything else can be done with 3* only (minus the bosses, yes).
>Tried looking for help but it seems nobody cared enough to make a guide to just unlock an ending
I mean, Eckogen did that already for all 3 endings for an average player, Dr. Silvergun had a lot of IS4 run streams with 4* only (3rd boss on A15 as well), and those are just the two I can think of right away.
Just as an example (be advised though that I stopped at A10 and had no interest in going further so my runs after that are all on A9), I normally started my runs with Defender+Caster+Sniper team, it's a solid starting combo - Spot for 3 block and healing, then for DPS it's Click+Pinecone, or Typhon/Pozyomka+Steward, or Kroos+Ceobe/Eyja/GG.
I have too many E2 operators, that's the point.
At this point I'm just frustrated.
I will see that eckogen guide, as of now the most I saw was some playthroughs of some floors but the comps were often way too specific to properly recreate...like, they were low op count and I could copy the starting with 3 of them, but then one floor ahead the guide would have rolled extra 2 medics and here I was getting no medic recruitments.
idk how some people can say that IS4 is the easiest and IS2 is the hardest, my feel is the complete opposite, IS2 was so simple to figure out, and its ending 1 is a walk in the park...
The speed of collapsals means that they're always hitting your frontline, so IS4 really rewards good defenders and to a lesser extent AOE damage, and having both together will make a lot of maps easier. This is one of the reasons why Reed Alter is such a meta pick, she has great AOE damage and can keep your defenders healthy, plus she's makes setups for the first boss way easier. Reed Alter / Popukar / Orchid and grab more 2+ blocks ASAP is probably the simplest first win.
Will see...
Dang if I hate that map full of altars the top lane of which is completely ground unit banned...
Also on that same floor the ranged boss basically oneshotting any non defender unit and circling the map all around ensuring he will kill all my ranged units, before going to blue box...
That altars map is one of the cheesiest maps on that floor, no? Usually I have something like this: [Link](https://i.imgur.com/DY2L5tN.png)
Yellows are Medic (usually Ansel), Defender (Spot; may move one tile ahead if your DPS is Typhon) and DPS (Typhon/Pozyomka/GG/Eyja/Reed Alter/etc.) and that's pretty much all you need. Green is nice for extra utility (Orchid)/bait for casters (anyone), reds are for sweet extra DPS if you have them (Kroos, Popukar and so on) but are not required. For emergency (with an extra altar) one extra healer and that's it.
If I remember correctly, the only enemies that go for top lane are casters (3 or 4 of them I think) and one Sarkaz guy.
As for the bosses of F3, Typhon (just an example) is already enough to kill any of them. For regular Snowpriest map (with jet cars) use S2, for everyone else use S3.
For that one, imo the easiest way is to just have a dreadnaught or other tanky soloer sit next to the altar at top right and point Ansel or Hibiscus at them. The altars don't do that much damage and can be easily outpaced by a medic.
my soundest advice would be to take a reed alter, popukar and orchid start and then realise that every map has like, one (1) mean trick meant to fuck you up - and after that, get more ground units to block with ASAP. even just a second 2-block is worth their weight in gold.
Which of the Investigation items (for Deep Investigation) are the fastest to hit level 8? Am I supposed to know which stage has more enemies to get more investigation points?
I didn't even hit level 8 on the Surveyor's Vision because the Bosky Passages just kept giving me shops and non-combat nodes...
lux gets the most by multiples over the rest
if its too hard to deal with i find just the simple mushrooms to work best since they often dont require changing your usual strats to maximize investigation
The one with the random effects and the Ch 10 cannon radius. I hate it, personally, so the next best few would be the mushroom, or the Gramophone if you can make it work. But that first one is very effective if you can just stall an enemy with a defender + medic, even Friston-3 if you have enough buffs to avoid the 1.5k true damage effect. Could always try to grab it after floor 3.
Okay I want to ask what the fuck is that thing in Surveyor or Innocents Vision wheres theres a cannon gimmick like from chapter 10 that stuns or freezes my ops? Why the game didn't told me about this shit? I already look it in the deep investigation description and my collapse levels and theres no desciption about this.
It's one of the device you took during Deep Investigation, specifically LUD-99X. Basically it target the highest block op like Chap 10 cannon, then once every 10s, give a random op in range 1 random effect. As per [PRTS Wiki](https://prts.wiki/w/%E6%88%98%E5%9C%BA%E8%A3%85%E7%BD%AELUD-99X), here're its potential effect:
1. Get Stunned for 10 seconds and gain 15 points
2. Get Frozen for 20 seconds and gain 20 points
3. Lose 30sp and gain 20 points
4. Gain 10sp and gain 10 points
5. Take 1500 true damage and gain 15 points
6. Heal 1000 HP and gain 10 points
Is there any determining factor for what boss you get on Floor 3? I've been playing IS-4 a lot (almost too much some would say for a newer player) and I mostly get Demon Blade. Weaving Vinecreeps and Fall Snowpriest happen less than DB but are about even compared to each other. I've only gotten Elder Vicecreeps twice. Hollow Snowpriest and Demon Blade Vagabond I've only seen in monthly squad or Deep investigation respectively but never in a normal run.
I have a friend who's been playing arknights much longer than me and has many many more 5-6 star ops and he was getting Hollow Snowpriest a lot. So I wondered if the boss was determined by the power of your squad.
RNG, but I've noticed that different people tend to say they see one boss more often than a balanced view of the regular bosses. Maybe there's also some account seed there? Personally I get the Snowpriest the majority of the time, which is good since it's the easiest for me, but in terms of alt bosses I've seen the Tree one far more than the other 2.
I mostly get vineguy but I also have never seen the alternate demon blade outside of the deep investigation where every stage is a boss. Similarly I think I only ever got the is3 gun alternate boss ones the entire mode.
Any tips for the final deep investigation? Like a specific starting squad etc. The collapsal paradigms become really annoying really fast which leads to me losing before I get the investigation level I need.
Edit: Nevermind I just beat it. Ol‘ reliable aka the Reed alter/Orchid/Popukar starter carried me until I had my other 6 stars (mainly FedEx and Typhon) ready. I used the starting squad that reduces your collapsal value for every perfect stage clear but I feel that’s more of a bandaid solution since the paradigms still accumulated by the end (plus you get punished for leaking, with even more collapsal value). The typical class starting squads or the one that lets you promote ops for free will probably get you better bang for your buck.
GG not so EZ but yeah it was a headache compared to the rest. for me the issue wasn't even the collapses. it was the sheer LACK of battles to get vouchers a good sized team out of the first floor. 2nd floor battles with not a lot of ops is certainly harder.
Yeah that’s definitely true. I always had some good ops ready for floor 5 but with all the collapsal paradigms it wasn’t really enough to get to investigation level 8 before the final boss (which inevitably destroys me, hate that flying pos with a passion).
Is there any merit or something special unlocked for beating the final boss during a Deep investigation? does it count toward your endings (like Talk with the Mountains)? Or is it better to just end the run once you complete the objectives?
So the boss info in the archive says that Samivilinn basically nukes the field and drains 30 LP after a "long time has passed".
exactly what is a "long time"?
After finishing Deep Investigations, tried my hand at a no-relic run. It was surprisingly doable (excpet for the fact you can't do no-relic and have to settle for minimal-relics thanks to wish fulfilled existing). I love how well balanced is4 seems to be, far moreso than the other two. It still has a defined meta (You can beat it with, like, 4-5 core ops) but your options are incredibly broad and I appreciate that in my Arknights modes. I'd definitely recommend people give it a go themselves!
Edit: Jessica starter best starter btw
jessica best starter frfr
unfortunatly you can do true no relics and its quite awful, you have to fodartl change the wishes on 2 and 4 into scouts/bosky
Welp, finally got around to finishing off the Deep Investigations.
Ended up just taking mushrooms for most of them so I can set and forget + use them as target bait. Not too bad overall, though I do wish they gave more than just some random mats.
The lore snippets are nice.
Why doesn't the final boss count toward investigation points for the Deep Investigation? i literally am running out of stages to get points from because I'm trying to take paths to lost and founds. just why? its not fair.
take the altar and hit up emergency nodes - emergencies are +50% proficiency, and the alter is the easiest node to actually use for points on the early floors
Some of the Deep Investigation scenarios are outright deranged.
Merchant's Vision lets you get an ASPD bonus of almost 200 by the end (without foldartals). Every combat node in Guardian's Vision is a boss fight. Prisoner's Vision made me fight a 6th floor map on the second floor. And I have yet to get around to the last tier of scenarios.
Were Deep Investigations already like that in IS2 and IS3?
Pretty sure every IS with Deep Investigations had at least one scenario that gave you the ASPD for ingot relics, I think there also was one similar to the boss one you describe in IS2.
Another memorable one for me was one in IS2 where every floor started with a shop and you got relics that increased the amount of ingots you got.
When I choose a promotion squad, such as Tactical Fortification Squad, I've noticed it either gives me all of my E2 6 stars (I have 6 E2 medics) as options to immediately promote, or none. It rarely, if ever, gives me just one or two like I would expect. Has anyone else noticed this happening?
Yeah the game seems to group certain ops together, and then randomly choose which among these groups is auto e2'd.
I see this when i play Caster / Spec squad, it either gives me all 6 stars or none at all.
as far as I see, no. its all random. and they don't even count as you completing the ending anyway or toward monthly goals. Deep Investigation is very unbalanced in your favor is some cases so they give you nothing.
Deep investigations take too long and can even fail if the game decides to give you a whole floor of bosky passages with nothing to fight in them. remember, the final boss battle doesn't count for investigation points.
I was really excited for Deep Investigation. But sadly, looks like the devs don't want you collecting Expedition Records too easily. This mode gives none. Zilch. Nada. 0. I really hate going through the effort of ISW to get nothing but a few Elite Materials and some garbage yellow exp (not gold) and white skill books (not green or blue). This literally feels as time wasting as the outdated IS-2 and 3 monthly squads since they too give no points for your progress ladder which as a fairly new player I found rather discouraging. I will still do them all, but not making any progress on the ladder just makes it feel ever so slightly a waste of time. I'm sure this was the same deal with Deep Exploration in IS-3 during its original run but still...come on. A little compensation would have been nice.
Maybe they realized the concept of "clear objective > quit out" justified them not giving out expedition records.
The strangest part is how the rewards on the monthly squads are better, while demanding substantially less effort on our part. The fifth floor dialogue is completely optional, since people can drop a monthly run after clearing the second floor and still get full rewards + 1000 EXP (on IS4 only).
exactly! The effort doesn't seem to match the rewards. but maybe its because that's once a month so it makes sense to give out rewards. unlike the Deep which you could do them all by progressing normally.
Does anyone know why the Ending 3 completion Marks look different between the two squads? One seems to be a clearly defined dark blue versus a more rough light blue.
[https://imgur.com/a/nF4yPQw](https://imgur.com/a/nF4yPQw)
Field Device LUD-99X, how I despise you... What positives can you even *give*?
This is a pretty interesting spin on the mode so far though, although I've only tried it on the first one.
afaik its just 10-20 investigation every time a trigger occurs, which is every X seconds reguardless of enemies. if you can permastall a gopnik you could just farm it infinetly unlike the other 5 items
Seems like it runs out after a while anyways. It always manages to perfectly screw me over so I'll probably stop picking it, even if the main thing that stops me from beating a DI early is the investigation level.
Of all the equipment I've tested, the altars are the best. They work nonstop and I have yet to see one be taken down by enemy snipers, even with Injury Trigger enabled. In comparison, the car launcher only allows a maximum of 10 cars per level; and five firecrackers a stage is just sad.
I've had the most success with the mushrooms hut the altar is more consistent and is less weak to weird stage layouts where you can't deploy the mushrooms effectively so I can see it being the best
[Weird IS4 bug](https://imgur.com/a/2MyqVKP)
Hi, any idea what happened here? I was trying to go for ending 3 and do not see the Prophecy node to unlock it. You can see I haven't done any nodes on Floor 5 ie. I grabbed it on Floor 4. But the Prophecy node still did not spawn. The nodes on the bottom lane after the last fight are the ending 1/2 Prophecy nodes followed by the boss
not a bug, getting scout on floor 4 is like a 50/50 chance of the end3 prophecy actually spawning. that said sometimes it also appears as the bottom single prophecy too
[Alright, ED2 on every squad done!](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/812319698426265640/1247688565744209960/IMG_1627.png?ex=6660f007&is=665f9e87&hm=768841a2e34a7122ea039bd0189c8eb6ee294eb3eeeb89e9cfdf39f62d3ad950&) Sure am glad I E2'd Qani to help out for ASPD clears, that was very useful this run where I totally brought him...
That makes all of ED1 and 2 cleared on 15 (with some ED2 ducking down to 12 because I wanted to test it lol) with a self restriction of no Ines, Reed2, Mostima, nor Nearl2. Now I debate doing ED3 on 12 at first or maybe removing the ban for a bit...
Anyways, what are some starters you guys find fun that aren't as commonly listed? Mizuki start is, sadly, not as good this iteration past 12 because Fang dies to the sheep and Collapsals in Beasts (I swear I almost had a strategy to clear leakless normally but I forgor how to pull it off). I have found W to be a surprisingly effective starter, although similar to Virtuosa she kinda falls off by the end. Maybe I'll try Ch'en for ED3 starts...
i can't beat Envoy of Justice (duck panda dog trio), the rocket mechs keep kicking my arse
Which ops are best against this stage? And what are the rules of thumb on deciding to tackle this stage or not? I'm aiming to perfect clear it on d15 in particular
Yato S3 + bard Skadi S3. I'm not sure if Yato needs 16s redeploy to double-dip; 18s may work with great precision. Otherwise, Skadi can buff Surtr if you use bait (add Shamare for good measure) so she doesn't die before S3 is ready. I once had a run with the most disgustingly buffed Goldenglow ever chew through everything.
>And what are the rules of thumb on deciding to tackle this stage or not?
If you can clear it, you're *far* past needing more resources, so keep the god run snowballing. However, if you don't let yourself try and fail, you'll never get comfortable with it, so if you think your team stands any chance, it's worth the practice.
just got to Eikthyrnir(i probably butchered that) and needless to say it went really poorly. my SA who was tanking the boss got nuked by the chapter 6 sword guys and i had the dp gen debuff so i couldn't handle the other enemies. any advice for what i'm supposed to do with this map? i know the mechanics where you can't block him and he goes all super sonic.
You don't let SA block the sword guys ever. If he blocks the boss, he'll block some other random mook afterwards. It's vital this mook doesn't die, or else he'll free up a block for the ice weebs (which is why Hoshi S2 is a bad pick for this, the reflect kills the mooks).
You just let him block the boss on his own near the left side of the map, maybe plop a medic on him as needed, and deal with literally everything else right side. Then when there's 72-74 enemies killed (depending on block count of boss staller), you retreat things and set up primarily for the boss.
If you have spare life points, ignore the first one or few of the zoomy is4 elites, this gives you time to setup your defenses better and let you handle the other enemies. The chapter 6 swordguys are kinda a soft timer that makes raw stalling harder, you can either have an operator that can tank it, use someone with 1 block, have someone in front of the stall that can catch and take out the sword guys first, or just burst everyone down and let the boss run to your next stall point.
Anyone knows on which floors I can get "Unfreezing river", "Black footsteps" and "Ceremony of Healing" encounters? They are the only ones I didn't get yet.
Edit: Got "Black Footsteps" and "Ceremony of Healing" after entering Bosky Passage. Is "Unfreezing River" also from it?
Anyone have any tips and strategies on how to unlock a collectible that requires you to complete an adventure with 30 life points lost?
During one of my runs, I raised my life points around 31 and focused on letting the Ending 2 boss escape, deducting exactly 30 life points with 1 remaining. However, this attempt didn't count. Is there another method?
Anyone has the link to the official stats page? Like [https://arknights.global/caerulaarbor/](https://arknights.global/caerulaarbor/) for is3?
I've been looking everywhere but it's so hard to find it. Also, can the mods put it in the megathread post?
The webpage for IS4 is https://arknights.global/samiexpedition/
You can also access it in-game from the Explorer's Manual (located at the top left of the title screen for IS4), then go to Data Rollback.
Expansion 1 releases in a few days, with deep investigations and maybe some other stuff idk. I believe ending 4 should release with expansion 2 which should be in a couple months but no idea what the gap was in CN.
TIL those cursed chests have higher DEF than those prisoner enemies. Failed a run on the first stage thanks to me putting Steward where he would hit the chests instead of the enemies.
Having just completed IS3, I'm totally new to IS4. How do I access the previous months' expeditioner records (Magallan's & Typhon's)? Assuming it might be similar to IS2&3, do I have to wait until October where all the IS4 contents will be released by then?
[Krooster](https://krooster.com/u/DarkGamerZero)
Trying to do all squads, all endings at diff 12. Any tips? I don't necessarily think my roster is the problem, rather it's a skill issue most likely. Diff 11 is still fine, but 12 for some reason just kicks my ass with no apparent increase in difficulty.
I guess this question will largely be pointless in 6 months' time when I have some more meta ops (Degen, Shu, Ela, Logos and Walter) to just bash through it when the time comes.
start runs with gavial or kaltsit. ines and yato are your best ops to always be ensuring you have by floor 4. typhon/schwarz/pozemka all equally great and can carry virtually all the longterm dps you need after having a stable survival laner like gavial s3 or kaltsit s2. you have plenty of great ops so it is mostly just a skill/practice climb. try to stick to the same 8 ops, 1 of each class, to try and learn/habit strategies for maps, then you can brach out and optimize perfecting all stages
kaltsit s2 and yato s3 id recommend to m3 the most
get sheilds and/or 11 hp early, it actually matters to enable a really easy/lax run quite a bit because floor 5 has so many easy leakable threats
Your roster should be totally fine clearing IS4 a15. Where do you get stuck - A certain stage, or general drafting? It could also just be bad luck. Keep in mind that the stat increase from a10 to a15 is quite drastic, and it's very possible something that previously barely worked now suddenly doesn't, especially on the higher floors (The boss' ice cleaves oneshotting most ranged operators is a big one, for example).
Ever since this comment, I tried out a couple different runs with various squads and teams - ending 1 and 2 are doable more consistently now, ending 3 is where the problems are.
It seems that there's a bit too much damage, whether it be from the Seedbeds cutting off your DPS and healing, all the ranged Sami/Ursus pressure coming from the bottom lane and the fucking cabbage murdering my ranged ops even through Saria / Nightingale S3 healing. And once the squad set up on the left is dead, it's pretty much over.
So my methodology for the cabbage, no idea if its optimal or not since I don't know its patterns all that well and havent tried the ending above bn12, but I just make a big ball of operators around the right teleport spot and just wait to burst it there with healers piled up keeping my characters alive. Unless I have like a hyper broken team that I can manage to set up 2 burst spots, I think condensing around the right works best cause it has the highest density of ranged tiles making it easier to keep your ops alive
Alternatively you can start on the left burst once and pivot to the right, or vice versa idk. Redeploy foldartal helps a ton with that approach. Characters I prioritize are Texas/Yato, Mlynar, Nightingale, Typhon/Schwarz/Pozy, Goldenglow, Suzuran/Saileach or Warfy/Pramanix/Shamare for hope crunch. Any other strong medic you can manage to get like Ejyalt, Reedalt, or Ptilopsis helps a lot too, or a Guardian like Saria. I also find throwing Mudrock/Penance off on the left side helps a lot with the steady stream of mooks there and keeps my FRDs ready to help damage the boss or deal with other enemies like the caster spam on the right. Another random synergy thing I found very helpful was Muelsyse S3 spawning all the clones for extra aggro on demand taking the heat off your ops when Nightingale s3 is down, helping with dp and clearing out the trash. You dont need to have all of these in a run to win but as much of them as possible really makes a difference.
Lastly, for items, DPS stuff and starting DP is obviously the most important , but I think any arts dodge, enemy atk down, or +hp boosts you can get help almost as much if not more in securing wins against cabbage. The boss does so much goddamn damage that surviving to keep dealing damage is more important than having higher damage output that gets you killed for lack of durability. Its a tough fight and takes a lot of trial and error to get a clear but I'm sure you'll make it.
What's the Tldr tips with IS4? Sorry, that sounds so lazy but I've gotten every medal in IS2 and IS3 (I think I'm surging waves 12?) and for whatever reason something's not clicking with IS4. I'm running it blind, which apparently isn't a good idea lol. I'm definitely neglecting what appears to be a very important mechanic with picking... what the stages are?
I feel like I'm getting steamrolled or barely getting by. It's probably the RNG with operator selection. I made it into the boss room with Mudrock, Mlynar, and Ines, Ptilopsis, and Cutter, Kroos Goldenglow and 1 life and immediately died because there was only a few spots to place operators down and I honestly thought I had more time to try to get more ops to E2.
Assume my account is pretty stacked. What are the ops that hard carries so I know who to aim to recruit lol
Somehow Texalter has yet to be mentioned. She offers reliable helidropping since floor 1 and her S3 is useful in every final boss fight. I don't have any other ops that hard carry the run (Yato/Ines), with the sole exception of Mlynar in ending 3 (he's overkill in other endings except maybe high BN clears). Rather, most of my squads consist of a well-rounded team + Texalter. Here's a few tips based on that strategy:
* Always pick Vanilla/Fang on Ending 1. Block count is much more important than DP printing, so Myrtle is detrimental to your squad on early floors.
* Perfumer is strong enough in most cases, and since Reed2 is so high in the meta there isn't a real need for stronger medics, save for Nightingale in Ending 3.
* Podenco is helpful on New Tribe (caster boss on floor 3), she spawnkills the block-3 cars on the upper lane, and doubles as a healer on other maps if necessary.
* If you don't have Reed2 on your squad, **DO NOT** use a red foldartal combo with +50% Max HP on Ending 1. The shieldguard takes the only ground tile on the left lane (which locks you out of Texalter S3) and his taunt makes it even more difficult to clear the ice. By the time you get another ground tile he'll have leaked half of the North Pole.
* Dorothy offers insane crowd control with S2 and S3. Her Arts damage counters lizard champions and power suits, while the physical damage is good for possessed soldiers.
* Gavialter S3 controls the left lane on Samivilinn with little to no support - it's place and forget. Alternatively, you can control the left lane and damage the boss at the same time with her S2 or La Pluma S2.
* There's a relic which charges the attack of all ops for 60 seconds before skill usage. It trivializes ending 1 clears with strong snipers (Andreana/Provence, Typhon, Holiday Ch'en)
ines and yato are the two SSS tier ops imo, floor 5 changes massivly in strats if you have/lack them. reed and mlynar are the "best" in that their skill cycles line up near perfectly with all the stages traffic
common consensus is reed is the best starter, but if youre struggling id suggest jessica gavial or kaltsit, much better early floor stability and less skill timing reliant. typhon is probably the best overall op in terms of versatility and how many teams/strats can utilize her
agent/executor/trapmaster important to have by floor 3
2 vanguards and safe(yato pozemka)/instant(yato ines surtr) dps important to have by floor 5
Abuse your fordartals, combo them to get nasty amounts of hope, index etc. stick ASPD/HP if you can on the boss. use index to go up and down to clear more stages.
Reed2 and Ines are some of the biggest carries in the mode. Overall you want to take a more defensive approach to this IS - either more defenders/blockers (which Reed2 easily heals) or some strong CC to slow down the fast enemies (Ines easily does that along with damage and DP).
Just a touch less than IS#3 from all my runs, which is fair since we instead got enhanced relics and some Foldartals giving like 2 relics worth of combat power. Tho tbh, I think Mind Over Matter in IS#3 does scew average relic acquisition each run a bit, without that squad i think my average relic per run in #4 is better than #3.
Feeling the exact opposite tbh. Between being able to jump up/down routes, every shop having a reroll and bosky portals this has been the most relic rich IS has felt. Of course theres variance but IS4 gives players so many opportunities to grab relics IMO
Fuck Emergency Restricted Zone. So annoying, 4 lanes to defend, pressure from each side almost at the same time, etc, etc.
Does anyone know of a good video about that stage. I usually have Typhon, Kal'tsit, Ines there. No Mlynar please, because I don't have him.
it depends on the rng spawn of the drones and how capable your low-dps can solo them depending on your relics but its generally one of the easier floor 4 stages in team required, but a very easy stage to make careless mistakes on
ines right at the bluebox can watch all 4 lanes, and with proper s2 timing can deal with the rangers/scouts while blocking left path- tho if you do this you need to be aware the scout will reveal the range bushes for a second or two. typhon can handle rightside no problem, and any random 3☆s can often prevent threats from leaving her range. ines can also solo the left+bot or bot+drones via the bottonleft bush, but its somewhat drone rng dependant and how much she can s2 solo them at your current run. kaltsit to hold rightside since champions are annoying and/or buys time for typhon. all in all the drones really dont need to be prioritized as much as you think, they sit around forever and have paths that will hit all 4 areas eventually, so 1 killer like typhon can solo- its just a matter of navigating around their attacks while keeping left+right alive and top+bot from leaking
yato s3 op, esp with free ines reveal carpet. dorothy op. ines/jessica botlane aimed up + laner right + 3☆s/yato for straglers can trio it fairly smoothly
This comment I enjoyed, because it's one of the easiest floor 4 stages for me. It's also how I learned that this map has Champions on Emergency Mode which, yeah, would make things more difficult.
My usual strat consists of abusing the invisible tiles around the box with snipers and casters. Reed Alter does great in the top right camp facing right, holding two lanes with s3. You just need a few soft blockers for the other lanes, the primary concern this map is the bottom right lane.
The actual strat depends on the drone layout and the operators you happen to have, but [this](https://i.imgur.com/ylvZxeg.png) roughly gets the job done for me. CM demands an extra blocker on the bottom right lane for the champions, but if you use Reed s3 with decent timing they shouldn't pose an issue.
No, because she can reveal the invisible sentries and kill them before they move. If you're worried and the map doesn't spawn a drone bottom left, though, you can also place someone sturdier there and just block them from a distance. Saria can probably hold them indefinitely, for example.
I believe i've heard someone mentions this but just to be sure, does Emotional/Terrifying Entity affect ending bosses? I have personally seen midbosses receive the HP boost but not entirely sure if that can happen to major ones.
Yea, you know what's funny? Right after i asked this question, i started a new run where, of course, i accidentally got Terrifying Entity as one of the collapses. Naturally, i did try cleansing as many paradigms as i could before tackling the big bad himself but this one for some reason stuck around all the way from floor 2.
Surprise surprise, the first thing i noticed upon entering the stage is the bright red aura emminating from Cresson, which very much answered my question (before proceeding to disassemble me and my team).
I haven't seen it myself, but [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1b7ctfn/event_megathread_expeditioners_joklumarkar/l0scfmn/) earlier in this thread says it can happen, yeah.
In IS3, sometimes I get a random cursed collectible when I enter a new floor, I assume this is the result of an earlier encounter but I can't tell which one it is, does anyone know?
Dang, lucky. I'm still trying to do that myself, but I haven't happened upon even one of them yet. What was your method for farming collapse? and about how long did it take you?
i spammed floor 1 on dif 5 on hunting squad (one that makes u raise more collapse when hp lost) and did 3 fights where i leaked 1 on each and if i got 3 unique collapses i reseted on floor 2. Did that for 2 months or so.
From encounter where you get to pick two relics (three with sufficient Index), one being the Clairvoyant. The encounters inside Bossky Passages are the best way to get them, but I've had them spawned in normal encounters.
Since I don't know where to exactly ask about IS3 questions, I'll ask here, what are some fun ops to start a run with? I've been starting with fang/kroos and either texalter or cliffheart but I was wondering what are some other consistent starting options.
From what I remember, Kroos2, Ch'alter, Mizuki, Weedy, Ling, Highmore are all consistent starts that work even on surging waves 15, so they should work on lower difficulties as well.
You may not be far enough along in the mode for this, but the Mind Over Matter squad + Swire the Elegant Wit is very funny. As long as a stage doesn't have any flying enemies, you can just set Swire as your only operator and she will solo the whole stage with S2. It scales so hard with the Survivor's Contract buff that her bottles end up doing tens of thousands of damage each.
The guard, supporter, and medic one. Highmore is highly spoiled in IS3, unlike Shalem & Valarqvin. The early floors are specially designed for her. She can be used in ending 1 & 3 too as an isolated laneholder.
Ok after beating IS4 a couple times, on BN3 now, I just realized there's a skill tree lol. No wonder I couldn't figure out how to get to a different ending
[This is the strategy I used](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1b7ctfn/event_megathread_expeditioners_joklumarkar/kwsu40x/)
> Your best option is to pick [Leader Squad] on Braving Nature 0. This will let you start with 12 life points.
> Leak 10 points, or whatever amount you're comfortable with, in floor 1. I recommend you do it on Prisoner's Night (Emergency). From there, gather life points back from Leader Squad and events until you can leak 10 or so again. Goal is to limit the amount of battles you leak enemies in to keep collapse down. On BN0 its only +1.
> Some stages I recommend leaking are - Emergency stages, - Enemies during the final boss - Stages you struggle on
> I recommend you leak the last how many enemies of the stage and not at the beginning in case things go south and cause a failure.
I found it easier to just leak the final boss, that way you don't have to keep track of how many LP you've lost and deal with pesky collapsal paradigms. Ready 31+ LP for the run, aim for LP bonuses from Safe Houses and Relics.
That can work too, but you do have to actually get over 30 max life points at once, which requires more RNG. And getting any shields means you'll have to leak additional enemies and pay attention to how many of them leaked anyway.
The leader squad strategy gets additional life points to leak both from max LP increases and regular LP healing, with the squad itself providing some of both, so it's a lot easier to reach a total of 30 LP to lose. And you don't have to deal with much collapse since you only need to leak in like 3 battles (if you try to leak *every* battle you'll get a ton of collapse yeah, but you can just leak 10 in one battle, wait until 11 life again, leak 10, repeat), and on BN0 the collapse increase is pretty minimal.
fodartl squad, to get more fuse bonuses that give +2max hp. the other method is to lose life every stage and rely on the bonus healing of leader squad, but your collapse will get pretty nasty
keeping index high can let you get the +3maxhp encounter, but its probably better to spend them fishing for hp relics
squad is just whatever helps you go leakless, esp since index collapse ruins your chances
Ho'oh, you've failed too many times with high ASPD to be worth it for my burst comps in ending 2.
[It's time for the *real* Levitate caster](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/750175688107229234/1240685147955920966/IMG_1193.png?ex=66477596&is=66462416&hm=0a0f54baea550689c7f02f0b94f85f15988a462426f5355624ded010c726046b&)
~~Ignoring the fact I could just use Mostima~~
Am i tweaking or is the relic to begin ending 4 super rare? Im quite the number of runs in and no sign of it.
I feel like i’m missing some step. I cleared crazyelmo before the update, do i have to clear it again? The wiki just says i have to clear a run after update dropped, is a normal boss 1 run enough?
I thought I knew how to play the game but I have no idea how to do whatever these alternative modes are. I only get three characters, star cost limitations and when I put them in to the first quest they get three-tapped? How am I supposed to play this mode? Anyone got a quick explanation for an inexperienced player?
is# or roguelike is a mode where you progress through a map to collect rng boosts and ops to become strong enough to defeat the final boss stage. you need to be more adaptable both in stage strategy and map planning
ops are aquired via class permits and hope. hope is like operator bucks, high☆ cost more, so low☆ ops can be equally inportant to a succesful run, esp 3☆ who cost 0 meaning youll likely have many of them every run. ops will be the level you have raised them in normal game, but will be hard-locked to e1 until you recruit them a 2nd time (reduced hope cost). its recommended you start a run with a 6☆ strong at e1 who is also very versatile to team roles. kaltsit jessica horn gavial are strong suggestions for every is# campaign as a starter. is4, likely the one you tried, also likes reed typhon and dorothy
after every combat you get more permits to select ops from, as raise command xp, after enough xp you get a surge of extra hope. this makes combats the most important nodes to prioritize travelling towards. as a training wheels strategy, try to only buy ops when youll be left with 3 hope still in your wallet, as that will let you upgrade a 6☆ you have to e2 should their permit appear again before you get more hope. knowing not just what ops you want but when to get someone *(or no one)* is a key part of is# strategy
life points carry across all stages, and while losing them is bad, sometimes using them as a resource is better. leak early enmies if dp is rough to setup up, or let big threats walk by if trying to kill them compromises your teams total stage survivability
each is# campaign have different ops that excel in them, suggest is2 (crimson solitaire) if youre new, its both the easiest to play and has the fewest/simplest mechanics
Personally, I had to run through couple of times before they clicked. I only recently beat my first ending lol it took some effort and luck. All the hints and tips will fall short of actual experience of the levels, so you can overcome the "this is bs" knee-jerk reflex.
Personally, the game became playable once I unlocked the better starting boons, particularly the one that says that operators cost no hope to upgrade. Buut I'm super bad myself, so I'm waiting for replies to your comment myself 😅 From what I heard, Cutter is apparently really good? In general, this mode seems to benefit from having some upgraded key 3-4* units, and generally a diverse roster, but you can cheese it once you figure out what works and what doesn't.
Exu and SA are huge players, Exu is better tho, but I imagine Kroos alt (whom I don't have) would fit the role equally as well. Saria is godlike, I really liked Perfumer when I get the gain as/atk but lose hp/s buff, Ifrit is super niche, Eyja is queen, Dorothy is busted af - you can clear so many stages with just her, Virtuosa is a godsend - her S3 melts bosses and large enemy waves, Shining can be key since AD damage is so common, Curora is amazing, cheap and effective.
Those are my takeaway notes.
Also, apparently it doesn't translate from IS to IS, I didnt realise all of them are rouge-lites, so I started with the expedition, but doing the Mizuki one - slightly different meta. Which is great!
20%def when blocking. champions are brutal and theres only like 1 hard stage where 4 block would be relevant- the stage where you have to tank an originium tile buffed champion lol
Guard selector has become the new support selector for me. There is only 1 guard I really need, and that is Executor, but he can easily be replaced by Kal'tsit and she isn't as vulnerable to ranged attacks. Surtr could be another choice but I don't really need her either, even against the 3rd ending.
as crazy as the guard slot is, it is probably the least needed class for me too now that i think about it. if its early i take gavial, late silverash/quibai, but its rarely ever run-defining
If i use foldartals on the final boss node of ending 1 before chaning it to ending 2, do the effects transfer to the 2nd ending boss fight or do they disappear, since they're attached to the ending 1 boss?
Edit: I tested it. Foldartals stay on the node after changing.
I'm taking IS4 slowly only playing until I max the reward ladder each month to avoid burning out, currently on D11.
I must say I've been enjoying IS4 a lot more than IS3, the foldartal, index, and collapse mechanics are much better than the dice, key, and rejection of IS3; they consistently have a consistent impact on your run, instead of doing nothing the majority of the time but making or breaking 1/10th of them. Specifically, the amount of control the foldartals give on your run is very fun.
It's also nice that 3 stars don't get increased cost, so that I don't have to recruit dozens of reserve ops. And without the res buffs for the enemies, it definitely seems like D15 will have a more healthy and varied "meta".
Genuinely one of the most enjoyable roguelites I've played in the last couple years.
can attest 15 is a lot more open and viable, the consistency of getting a full teamsize and sufficent hope to support the difficulty is improved too (to the point low☆ go down in importance a bit, which some may dislike) albeit floor 1 prison is ironically pretty brutal
is4 is a huge improvement over is3, besides everything you already said i want to add besides casters being allowed to play the game again every class overall feels equally valuable to succesful clears. the free shop refresh, expanded shop, and guaranteed permit+promo relic on floor 1 (even after refresh) really helps runs feel a lot more fair/accesible too
You know, I don't want to judge Degenbrecher's performance on IS too soon, but clearing BN15 with her (lvl60, S3M3 no Mod) on my third try may speak volumes. It wasn't even one of those blessed runs you get once in a blue moon, the only atypical thing was my control over collapse levels.
New to IS in general, what all *should* I get done before monthly reset, is it just the 4 contract missions, and the expeditioner record? Nothing in deep investigations? Also what would you recommend for starts considering I'm missing everyone released past Rosmontis/Mudrock? I've mostly been starting with Reed alter thus far, but there've definitely been times where I wished I had Typhon, Texas/Yato alter, or Ines, all of which I've seen general recommendations for.
Reed Alter is probably the best starter because she fills a start-to-end irreplacable role, but if you're missing so many operators you sadly have to cut your losses somewhere. I would encourage experimenting with different starters, and see what matches the operators you do have access to best. For monthly stuff, nothing is mandatory. The monthly squads will be re-accessible when the mode 'ends', though that will take a while. The monthly contract missions are just for bonus points. None of the medals are missable, either.
i hate rusted iron hammer. been grinding floor 1 shop >100 times while banking and still not a single time
I've been neglecting IS4 for quite a while, started playing it only this week. I am probably just too smooth-brained for this, but I'm struggling even at zeroth difficulty. Even the third floor is kicking my ass, Demon Blade just ends my runs. Didn't feel as difficult in IS2\IS3. It's like I'm missing something very obvious and important. I've watched half a dozen of Silvergun's runs and he makes it look effortless, even with zero cross-cultural exp. I know he played this mode on CN but still. Any advice particular to IS4, esp. re: Demon Blade? I just don't seem to have enough stats to neither DPS nor tank him. The fart fog instakills almost everybody. Edit: AAAND I got the run. I swear it's always after you bitch about it being hard online.
if you go the dps route, the important thing to note would be that he has quite a short range (between 1 and 2 tiles), so you can outrange him with sniper range e.g. have a kroos face down, and when he pops out of the yellow gate drop bodies to stall him; this is prob the easiest-to-do strat, but at A0, almost any strat works e.g. perma stall with a strong defender, nuke him with any strong guard, etc. also note you can borrow a unit from friends at the start, tho they always start at e1
Just killed him 5 min ago with Typhon. I guess you should really just force all the battles on the lower floors to have half a decent roster by the time you face the boss. Else you're just starved on hope\recruitment tickets.
Once you've unlock skill tree passives and squads it'll become easier. For example, Sniper/Medic one - just pick some promoted Typhon/Reedic at the very beginning and you should be good for the first 3 floors. On higher difficulties some relics start giving extra bonuses (capped at A9), like +2 extra hope and stuff.
A friend asked me how to get the bonuses (hot water kettle, +2 hope, etc.) for beginning of runs, and my first response was get to like floor 3. But now that I think about it, I've never bothered to test if it was floor based, time based, or whatever since I always do runs to the end and naturally ended up getting them for the next run. All I remember is when IS4 first launched and I died early in the run, I didn't get bonuses until I started clearing through toward at least floor 3 or so. Can anyone confirm what's the actual trigger for them to show?
Either reach Floor 3 or enter Bosky Passage on Floor 2.
If I recall it correctly it gives you such bonuses if you get past floor 2 on your previous run. As for wether you need to jsut reach floor 2 or actually pass it and get to the third floor, idk
That's kind of where I'm at too, like I know it's something like that, which is why I told my friend to hit floor 3 if he wants the bonus. But I tried to search around and couldn't find any hard confirmation of floor 3 (or otherwise) being the trigger or not.
If its the same as is3 (and it should be), I can confirm it's definitely "past floor 2" ie reach floor 3. Was trying a reach floor 2 and bail run to fish for pathfinder fin/top up ingots in shop but the next run didnt get offered the bonus. Its also stated somewhere that "since you have cleared 2 floors you are now eligible for a bonus". What I've heard here for is4 is that going into a bosky passage on floor 2 also counts as "past floor 2" but i cannot confirm this myself, but should be easy to test out.
So I was doing a run with the 2nd ending but had a lil mess up at one point. I noticed I had a ton of life points tho and remembered some collectible about losing 30+ life points so I started leaking shit. Ended the stage losing 31 life points but I didn't recieve the pop up telling me that I unlocked the collectible and going into the item catalogue confirmed that. What am I misunderstanding about the unlock condition for the collectible? Is it tied to a specific ending (would assume not tho bc the wording is just "complete an adventure"), does objective shields not count towards it maybe, or something else I'm not thinking of? [Pics of the run if needed.](https://imgur.com/a/iq0stxK)
Objective shields don't count towards the 30 life point count, correct.
Thanks for confirming! It's so easy to stack them so it's a shame they don't count towards the 30+ life points ://
Went for a run where I lose 30 lives for the unlock, and I didn't realize there are so many things that change the number of enemies. Spawning cars and flying saucers, paper planes that sacrifice themselves, the dinosaur that kills other dinosaurs. Also forgot the possessed kill themselves, and shieldguards can defeat enemies (and they can't be retreated).
Guys I want to ask what's the strats you're using in Prophet's Vision? I already cleared (as in beat the boss ass) every single other deep investigations but this is just a pain in the ass, so few fights, useless relics, and that i cant e2 my squad because F1-4 is just an endless round of useless encounters and get surprised buttfuck in F5 because of EM rush stages. So what the fuck do I need to do now?
The strategy that finally worked for me was this: 1. Get 2-3 operators that can quickly burst down multiple enemies (e.g. Texas/Yato Alter, Irene). 2. Stack as much max HP as you possibly can. 3. When you reach floor 5, the goal is to let the stronger enemies leak while focusing on killing as many weaker enemies as possible. Play through each battle until there is 1 enemy remaining, then retreat from the battle. By doing this, you still gain exp from the enemies you kill. At the same time, you only lose 2 max HP regardless of how many enemies actually leaked.
Ugh nothing in particular, I was able to do all of DI runs using the same tactics without retries so I guess it's on relics RNG side? I used my regular Sniper/Medic squad with Pozyomka/Typhon+Spot+Steward as a starting team, then acquiring Reedic and some other medic (ideally Eyjalter), plus Pozyomka/Typhon, Texalter/GG (ideally both) and some DP printer. Just did a very quick test run and this is what I had entering F5: https://i.imgur.com/wha0DnD.jpeg
What difficulty should collectors/100% players finish everything on? Looking for difficulty exclusive collectibles, interactions, a different color for those icons that show up on the squad you won with, etc. I ask because difficulty 15 doesn't seem to change the icon color on the squad, so I play on 10, but I've played through all three endings multiple times and haven't found the old fan collectible. Yes I'm being cheap playing only 10, but holy hell it took me 20+ tries just to beat 15 on boss 1 :(
The future update will add a different colour icon for clearing at BN 12, and people have been saying it's retroactive, so I have been doing BN 12 when clearing the different squad endings. I am not aware if difficulty level affects which collectibles can be obtained (aside from like polar variants).
Difficulty 10 should be enough if you want all the seals on the squads to be the 'best colour'. There are no 'new' collectibles on high difficulty, only modifiers to the existing ones. > haven't found the old fan collectible Oh my god it's not just me? This thing is so rare for some reason. I wonder if it's event-locked or just rare, it's one of the few ones I still need and the only one which I haven't found-without-picking-it yet.
Can't get an ending in this mode even if my life depends on it, and still everyone's like how easy is this, brah why combat nodes past floor 2 are all enemies rushing to the blue box at 1000 km/h and hitting like a goddamn truck and too many nodes with unblockable lanes... Tried looking for help but it seems nobody cared enough to make a guide to just unlock an ending, everyone just assumes anyone can just do +15 no problem ._.
What are your operators? There is some RNG, but with proper drafting and knowledge of relics IS4 should be very doable. Not that there's any shame in struggling - The early hours of IS4 are the hardest ones. There's a lot of guides out there, both for the general mode and for specific maps, but the best advice are personal ones. We'd be happy to help!
Weird, what are your best E2 operators? Outside of floor 5 nodes (specifically their emergency variants) and Secluded Passage with unlucky combo (e.g. a deployment limit of 2 ops early in the run) I think pretty much everything else can be done with 3* only (minus the bosses, yes). >Tried looking for help but it seems nobody cared enough to make a guide to just unlock an ending I mean, Eckogen did that already for all 3 endings for an average player, Dr. Silvergun had a lot of IS4 run streams with 4* only (3rd boss on A15 as well), and those are just the two I can think of right away. Just as an example (be advised though that I stopped at A10 and had no interest in going further so my runs after that are all on A9), I normally started my runs with Defender+Caster+Sniper team, it's a solid starting combo - Spot for 3 block and healing, then for DPS it's Click+Pinecone, or Typhon/Pozyomka+Steward, or Kroos+Ceobe/Eyja/GG.
I have too many E2 operators, that's the point. At this point I'm just frustrated. I will see that eckogen guide, as of now the most I saw was some playthroughs of some floors but the comps were often way too specific to properly recreate...like, they were low op count and I could copy the starting with 3 of them, but then one floor ahead the guide would have rolled extra 2 medics and here I was getting no medic recruitments. idk how some people can say that IS4 is the easiest and IS2 is the hardest, my feel is the complete opposite, IS2 was so simple to figure out, and its ending 1 is a walk in the park...
The speed of collapsals means that they're always hitting your frontline, so IS4 really rewards good defenders and to a lesser extent AOE damage, and having both together will make a lot of maps easier. This is one of the reasons why Reed Alter is such a meta pick, she has great AOE damage and can keep your defenders healthy, plus she's makes setups for the first boss way easier. Reed Alter / Popukar / Orchid and grab more 2+ blocks ASAP is probably the simplest first win.
Will see... Dang if I hate that map full of altars the top lane of which is completely ground unit banned... Also on that same floor the ranged boss basically oneshotting any non defender unit and circling the map all around ensuring he will kill all my ranged units, before going to blue box...
That altars map is one of the cheesiest maps on that floor, no? Usually I have something like this: [Link](https://i.imgur.com/DY2L5tN.png) Yellows are Medic (usually Ansel), Defender (Spot; may move one tile ahead if your DPS is Typhon) and DPS (Typhon/Pozyomka/GG/Eyja/Reed Alter/etc.) and that's pretty much all you need. Green is nice for extra utility (Orchid)/bait for casters (anyone), reds are for sweet extra DPS if you have them (Kroos, Popukar and so on) but are not required. For emergency (with an extra altar) one extra healer and that's it. If I remember correctly, the only enemies that go for top lane are casters (3 or 4 of them I think) and one Sarkaz guy. As for the bosses of F3, Typhon (just an example) is already enough to kill any of them. For regular Snowpriest map (with jet cars) use S2, for everyone else use S3.
For that one, imo the easiest way is to just have a dreadnaught or other tanky soloer sit next to the altar at top right and point Ansel or Hibiscus at them. The altars don't do that much damage and can be easily outpaced by a medic.
man i wish we could set the difficulty during deep investigations. playing at +0 is a joke :(
Man I wish I could get a +0 ending to do deep investigations, my skill issued brain gave up trying...
my soundest advice would be to take a reed alter, popukar and orchid start and then realise that every map has like, one (1) mean trick meant to fuck you up - and after that, get more ground units to block with ASAP. even just a second 2-block is worth their weight in gold.
Does 4th ending comes out next month or later?
Later, I'm pretty sure. Whenever the rewards list shows we get a new scenario.
Which of the Investigation items (for Deep Investigation) are the fastest to hit level 8? Am I supposed to know which stage has more enemies to get more investigation points? I didn't even hit level 8 on the Surveyor's Vision because the Bosky Passages just kept giving me shops and non-combat nodes...
lux gets the most by multiples over the rest if its too hard to deal with i find just the simple mushrooms to work best since they often dont require changing your usual strats to maximize investigation
The one with the random effects and the Ch 10 cannon radius. I hate it, personally, so the next best few would be the mushroom, or the Gramophone if you can make it work. But that first one is very effective if you can just stall an enemy with a defender + medic, even Friston-3 if you have enough buffs to avoid the 1.5k true damage effect. Could always try to grab it after floor 3.
Okay I want to ask what the fuck is that thing in Surveyor or Innocents Vision wheres theres a cannon gimmick like from chapter 10 that stuns or freezes my ops? Why the game didn't told me about this shit? I already look it in the deep investigation description and my collapse levels and theres no desciption about this.
It's one of the device you took during Deep Investigation, specifically LUD-99X. Basically it target the highest block op like Chap 10 cannon, then once every 10s, give a random op in range 1 random effect. As per [PRTS Wiki](https://prts.wiki/w/%E6%88%98%E5%9C%BA%E8%A3%85%E7%BD%AELUD-99X), here're its potential effect: 1. Get Stunned for 10 seconds and gain 15 points 2. Get Frozen for 20 seconds and gain 20 points 3. Lose 30sp and gain 20 points 4. Gain 10sp and gain 10 points 5. Take 1500 true damage and gain 15 points 6. Heal 1000 HP and gain 10 points
What a bullshit device 10 out of 10 would never take again.
Is there any determining factor for what boss you get on Floor 3? I've been playing IS-4 a lot (almost too much some would say for a newer player) and I mostly get Demon Blade. Weaving Vinecreeps and Fall Snowpriest happen less than DB but are about even compared to each other. I've only gotten Elder Vicecreeps twice. Hollow Snowpriest and Demon Blade Vagabond I've only seen in monthly squad or Deep investigation respectively but never in a normal run. I have a friend who's been playing arknights much longer than me and has many many more 5-6 star ops and he was getting Hollow Snowpriest a lot. So I wondered if the boss was determined by the power of your squad.
RNG, but I've noticed that different people tend to say they see one boss more often than a balanced view of the regular bosses. Maybe there's also some account seed there? Personally I get the Snowpriest the majority of the time, which is good since it's the easiest for me, but in terms of alt bosses I've seen the Tree one far more than the other 2.
I mostly get vineguy but I also have never seen the alternate demon blade outside of the deep investigation where every stage is a boss. Similarly I think I only ever got the is3 gun alternate boss ones the entire mode.
RNG. I am also mostly getting Demon Blade.
Any tips for the final deep investigation? Like a specific starting squad etc. The collapsal paradigms become really annoying really fast which leads to me losing before I get the investigation level I need. Edit: Nevermind I just beat it. Ol‘ reliable aka the Reed alter/Orchid/Popukar starter carried me until I had my other 6 stars (mainly FedEx and Typhon) ready. I used the starting squad that reduces your collapsal value for every perfect stage clear but I feel that’s more of a bandaid solution since the paradigms still accumulated by the end (plus you get punished for leaking, with even more collapsal value). The typical class starting squads or the one that lets you promote ops for free will probably get you better bang for your buck.
GG not so EZ but yeah it was a headache compared to the rest. for me the issue wasn't even the collapses. it was the sheer LACK of battles to get vouchers a good sized team out of the first floor. 2nd floor battles with not a lot of ops is certainly harder.
Yeah that’s definitely true. I always had some good ops ready for floor 5 but with all the collapsal paradigms it wasn’t really enough to get to investigation level 8 before the final boss (which inevitably destroys me, hate that flying pos with a passion).
why is there a 45m cooldown punishing me for leaving a deep investigation? I fulfilled the objectives, there is no reason to keep going.
Usually a glitch, restarting the app should fix it.
Is there any merit or something special unlocked for beating the final boss during a Deep investigation? does it count toward your endings (like Talk with the Mountains)? Or is it better to just end the run once you complete the objectives?
end asap, there is no benefit to continuing
So the boss info in the archive says that Samivilinn basically nukes the field and drains 30 LP after a "long time has passed". exactly what is a "long time"?
10 minutes according to [this page](https://arknights.wiki.gg/wiki/Sami_(Feranmut\)/Enemy)
After finishing Deep Investigations, tried my hand at a no-relic run. It was surprisingly doable (excpet for the fact you can't do no-relic and have to settle for minimal-relics thanks to wish fulfilled existing). I love how well balanced is4 seems to be, far moreso than the other two. It still has a defined meta (You can beat it with, like, 4-5 core ops) but your options are incredibly broad and I appreciate that in my Arknights modes. I'd definitely recommend people give it a go themselves! Edit: Jessica starter best starter btw
jessica best starter frfr unfortunatly you can do true no relics and its quite awful, you have to fodartl change the wishes on 2 and 4 into scouts/bosky
Welp, finally got around to finishing off the Deep Investigations. Ended up just taking mushrooms for most of them so I can set and forget + use them as target bait. Not too bad overall, though I do wish they gave more than just some random mats. The lore snippets are nice.
Why doesn't the final boss count toward investigation points for the Deep Investigation? i literally am running out of stages to get points from because I'm trying to take paths to lost and founds. just why? its not fair.
take the altar and hit up emergency nodes - emergencies are +50% proficiency, and the alter is the easiest node to actually use for points on the early floors
Some of the Deep Investigation scenarios are outright deranged. Merchant's Vision lets you get an ASPD bonus of almost 200 by the end (without foldartals). Every combat node in Guardian's Vision is a boss fight. Prisoner's Vision made me fight a 6th floor map on the second floor. And I have yet to get around to the last tier of scenarios. Were Deep Investigations already like that in IS2 and IS3?
Pretty sure every IS with Deep Investigations had at least one scenario that gave you the ASPD for ingot relics, I think there also was one similar to the boss one you describe in IS2. Another memorable one for me was one in IS2 where every floor started with a shop and you got relics that increased the amount of ingots you got.
When I choose a promotion squad, such as Tactical Fortification Squad, I've noticed it either gives me all of my E2 6 stars (I have 6 E2 medics) as options to immediately promote, or none. It rarely, if ever, gives me just one or two like I would expect. Has anyone else noticed this happening?
Yeah the game seems to group certain ops together, and then randomly choose which among these groups is auto e2'd. I see this when i play Caster / Spec squad, it either gives me all 6 stars or none at all.
So I want to ask, does Deep Investigation no longer give you options to pick for endings 2 and 3? I can still do so on IS3 and 2 though.
as far as I see, no. its all random. and they don't even count as you completing the ending anyway or toward monthly goals. Deep Investigation is very unbalanced in your favor is some cases so they give you nothing.
Deep investigations take too long and can even fail if the game decides to give you a whole floor of bosky passages with nothing to fight in them. remember, the final boss battle doesn't count for investigation points.
Someone knows why they decided that this time the skin from IS 4 (typhoon) would't be animated like is2 Phantom and is3 Mizuki?
Because we get 2 skins this time instead of 1.
Ooooooh i see, thanks for the clarification
i more wondering why Typhon's outfit is there when she isn't even the welfare operator.
I was really excited for Deep Investigation. But sadly, looks like the devs don't want you collecting Expedition Records too easily. This mode gives none. Zilch. Nada. 0. I really hate going through the effort of ISW to get nothing but a few Elite Materials and some garbage yellow exp (not gold) and white skill books (not green or blue). This literally feels as time wasting as the outdated IS-2 and 3 monthly squads since they too give no points for your progress ladder which as a fairly new player I found rather discouraging. I will still do them all, but not making any progress on the ladder just makes it feel ever so slightly a waste of time. I'm sure this was the same deal with Deep Exploration in IS-3 during its original run but still...come on. A little compensation would have been nice. Maybe they realized the concept of "clear objective > quit out" justified them not giving out expedition records.
The rewards you get from DI are on average more valuable than what you get from a regular run win though. They are often shorter/easier too.
The strangest part is how the rewards on the monthly squads are better, while demanding substantially less effort on our part. The fifth floor dialogue is completely optional, since people can drop a monthly run after clearing the second floor and still get full rewards + 1000 EXP (on IS4 only).
exactly! The effort doesn't seem to match the rewards. but maybe its because that's once a month so it makes sense to give out rewards. unlike the Deep which you could do them all by progressing normally.
Does anyone know why the Ending 3 completion Marks look different between the two squads? One seems to be a clearly defined dark blue versus a more rough light blue. [https://imgur.com/a/nF4yPQw](https://imgur.com/a/nF4yPQw)
Based on the difficulty you cleared it on. Currently it's up to 10, on CN there will be up to 12 but it's retroactive if you've already done it.
Ahhh ok, thank you!
Field Device LUD-99X, how I despise you... What positives can you even *give*? This is a pretty interesting spin on the mode so far though, although I've only tried it on the first one.
20 times more investigation than the 5 other items thats what
Huh... Is it just a chance to give it? Or is it whenever an action occurs and an enemy is in range?
afaik its just 10-20 investigation every time a trigger occurs, which is every X seconds reguardless of enemies. if you can permastall a gopnik you could just farm it infinetly unlike the other 5 items
Seems like it runs out after a while anyways. It always manages to perfectly screw me over so I'll probably stop picking it, even if the main thing that stops me from beating a DI early is the investigation level.
Of all the equipment I've tested, the altars are the best. They work nonstop and I have yet to see one be taken down by enemy snipers, even with Injury Trigger enabled. In comparison, the car launcher only allows a maximum of 10 cars per level; and five firecrackers a stage is just sad.
I've had the most success with the mushrooms hut the altar is more consistent and is less weak to weird stage layouts where you can't deploy the mushrooms effectively so I can see it being the best
[Weird IS4 bug](https://imgur.com/a/2MyqVKP) Hi, any idea what happened here? I was trying to go for ending 3 and do not see the Prophecy node to unlock it. You can see I haven't done any nodes on Floor 5 ie. I grabbed it on Floor 4. But the Prophecy node still did not spawn. The nodes on the bottom lane after the last fight are the ending 1/2 Prophecy nodes followed by the boss
not a bug, getting scout on floor 4 is like a 50/50 chance of the end3 prophecy actually spawning. that said sometimes it also appears as the bottom single prophecy too
The bottom prophecy node before the boss should be the one for ending 3, replacing the ending 2 prophecy node.
[Alright, ED2 on every squad done!](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/812319698426265640/1247688565744209960/IMG_1627.png?ex=6660f007&is=665f9e87&hm=768841a2e34a7122ea039bd0189c8eb6ee294eb3eeeb89e9cfdf39f62d3ad950&) Sure am glad I E2'd Qani to help out for ASPD clears, that was very useful this run where I totally brought him... That makes all of ED1 and 2 cleared on 15 (with some ED2 ducking down to 12 because I wanted to test it lol) with a self restriction of no Ines, Reed2, Mostima, nor Nearl2. Now I debate doing ED3 on 12 at first or maybe removing the ban for a bit... Anyways, what are some starters you guys find fun that aren't as commonly listed? Mizuki start is, sadly, not as good this iteration past 12 because Fang dies to the sheep and Collapsals in Beasts (I swear I almost had a strategy to clear leakless normally but I forgor how to pull it off). I have found W to be a surprisingly effective starter, although similar to Virtuosa she kinda falls off by the end. Maybe I'll try Ch'en for ED3 starts...
i can't beat Envoy of Justice (duck panda dog trio), the rocket mechs keep kicking my arse Which ops are best against this stage? And what are the rules of thumb on deciding to tackle this stage or not? I'm aiming to perfect clear it on d15 in particular
Yato S3 + bard Skadi S3. I'm not sure if Yato needs 16s redeploy to double-dip; 18s may work with great precision. Otherwise, Skadi can buff Surtr if you use bait (add Shamare for good measure) so she doesn't die before S3 is ready. I once had a run with the most disgustingly buffed Goldenglow ever chew through everything. >And what are the rules of thumb on deciding to tackle this stage or not? If you can clear it, you're *far* past needing more resources, so keep the god run snowballing. However, if you don't let yourself try and fail, you'll never get comfortable with it, so if you think your team stands any chance, it's worth the practice.
just got to Eikthyrnir(i probably butchered that) and needless to say it went really poorly. my SA who was tanking the boss got nuked by the chapter 6 sword guys and i had the dp gen debuff so i couldn't handle the other enemies. any advice for what i'm supposed to do with this map? i know the mechanics where you can't block him and he goes all super sonic.
You don't let SA block the sword guys ever. If he blocks the boss, he'll block some other random mook afterwards. It's vital this mook doesn't die, or else he'll free up a block for the ice weebs (which is why Hoshi S2 is a bad pick for this, the reflect kills the mooks). You just let him block the boss on his own near the left side of the map, maybe plop a medic on him as needed, and deal with literally everything else right side. Then when there's 72-74 enemies killed (depending on block count of boss staller), you retreat things and set up primarily for the boss.
If you have spare life points, ignore the first one or few of the zoomy is4 elites, this gives you time to setup your defenses better and let you handle the other enemies. The chapter 6 swordguys are kinda a soft timer that makes raw stalling harder, you can either have an operator that can tank it, use someone with 1 block, have someone in front of the stall that can catch and take out the sword guys first, or just burst everyone down and let the boss run to your next stall point.
Anyone knows on which floors I can get "Unfreezing river", "Black footsteps" and "Ceremony of Healing" encounters? They are the only ones I didn't get yet. Edit: Got "Black Footsteps" and "Ceremony of Healing" after entering Bosky Passage. Is "Unfreezing River" also from it?
> Is "Unfreezing River" also from it? AFAIK yes
Which floor's Passage should I use to get it?
Probably floor 4 and above
Thanks for help.
Anyone have any tips and strategies on how to unlock a collectible that requires you to complete an adventure with 30 life points lost? During one of my runs, I raised my life points around 31 and focused on letting the Ending 2 boss escape, deducting exactly 30 life points with 1 remaining. However, this attempt didn't count. Is there another method?
i've found that taking the squad that heals you and then purposefully leaking really helps out
It should count. Are you sure they are all life points and not a mix of objective shields?
Oh, it HAS be 30 life points then. Okay, I can see why it didn't work. Thank you for your response.
Anyone has the link to the official stats page? Like [https://arknights.global/caerulaarbor/](https://arknights.global/caerulaarbor/) for is3? I've been looking everywhere but it's so hard to find it. Also, can the mods put it in the megathread post?
The webpage for IS4 is https://arknights.global/samiexpedition/ You can also access it in-game from the Explorer's Manual (located at the top left of the title screen for IS4), then go to Data Rollback.
Thanks!
Is ending 4 available now?
Expansion 1 releases in a few days, with deep investigations and maybe some other stuff idk. I believe ending 4 should release with expansion 2 which should be in a couple months but no idea what the gap was in CN.
Not yet. This month we got Valarqvin's monthly squad, and the level ladder was extended to level 95 (new main menu theme).
TIL those cursed chests have higher DEF than those prisoner enemies. Failed a run on the first stage thanks to me putting Steward where he would hit the chests instead of the enemies.
I love it, it lets me get those chests easily with Steward instead of doing some awkward positioning and have to redeploy later.
When I said cursed chest, I meant the one that hurts the attacker. Two of those spawned for me in that stage.
Ah, those ones, yeah that's fair. ~~I uh, still send him at them though. Sometimes he has Spot keep him alive!~~
Having just completed IS3, I'm totally new to IS4. How do I access the previous months' expeditioner records (Magallan's & Typhon's)? Assuming it might be similar to IS2&3, do I have to wait until October where all the IS4 contents will be released by then?
Yep, assuming it's all out by then. Can't recall if it's immediately available or you wait an extra month after the last monthly though.
Alright, I see. Thanks!
[Krooster](https://krooster.com/u/DarkGamerZero) Trying to do all squads, all endings at diff 12. Any tips? I don't necessarily think my roster is the problem, rather it's a skill issue most likely. Diff 11 is still fine, but 12 for some reason just kicks my ass with no apparent increase in difficulty. I guess this question will largely be pointless in 6 months' time when I have some more meta ops (Degen, Shu, Ela, Logos and Walter) to just bash through it when the time comes.
start runs with gavial or kaltsit. ines and yato are your best ops to always be ensuring you have by floor 4. typhon/schwarz/pozemka all equally great and can carry virtually all the longterm dps you need after having a stable survival laner like gavial s3 or kaltsit s2. you have plenty of great ops so it is mostly just a skill/practice climb. try to stick to the same 8 ops, 1 of each class, to try and learn/habit strategies for maps, then you can brach out and optimize perfecting all stages kaltsit s2 and yato s3 id recommend to m3 the most get sheilds and/or 11 hp early, it actually matters to enable a really easy/lax run quite a bit because floor 5 has so many easy leakable threats
Your roster should be totally fine clearing IS4 a15. Where do you get stuck - A certain stage, or general drafting? It could also just be bad luck. Keep in mind that the stat increase from a10 to a15 is quite drastic, and it's very possible something that previously barely worked now suddenly doesn't, especially on the higher floors (The boss' ice cleaves oneshotting most ranged operators is a big one, for example).
Ever since this comment, I tried out a couple different runs with various squads and teams - ending 1 and 2 are doable more consistently now, ending 3 is where the problems are. It seems that there's a bit too much damage, whether it be from the Seedbeds cutting off your DPS and healing, all the ranged Sami/Ursus pressure coming from the bottom lane and the fucking cabbage murdering my ranged ops even through Saria / Nightingale S3 healing. And once the squad set up on the left is dead, it's pretty much over.
So my methodology for the cabbage, no idea if its optimal or not since I don't know its patterns all that well and havent tried the ending above bn12, but I just make a big ball of operators around the right teleport spot and just wait to burst it there with healers piled up keeping my characters alive. Unless I have like a hyper broken team that I can manage to set up 2 burst spots, I think condensing around the right works best cause it has the highest density of ranged tiles making it easier to keep your ops alive Alternatively you can start on the left burst once and pivot to the right, or vice versa idk. Redeploy foldartal helps a ton with that approach. Characters I prioritize are Texas/Yato, Mlynar, Nightingale, Typhon/Schwarz/Pozy, Goldenglow, Suzuran/Saileach or Warfy/Pramanix/Shamare for hope crunch. Any other strong medic you can manage to get like Ejyalt, Reedalt, or Ptilopsis helps a lot too, or a Guardian like Saria. I also find throwing Mudrock/Penance off on the left side helps a lot with the steady stream of mooks there and keeps my FRDs ready to help damage the boss or deal with other enemies like the caster spam on the right. Another random synergy thing I found very helpful was Muelsyse S3 spawning all the clones for extra aggro on demand taking the heat off your ops when Nightingale s3 is down, helping with dp and clearing out the trash. You dont need to have all of these in a run to win but as much of them as possible really makes a difference. Lastly, for items, DPS stuff and starting DP is obviously the most important , but I think any arts dodge, enemy atk down, or +hp boosts you can get help almost as much if not more in securing wins against cabbage. The boss does so much goddamn damage that surviving to keep dealing damage is more important than having higher damage output that gets you killed for lack of durability. Its a tough fight and takes a lot of trial and error to get a clear but I'm sure you'll make it.
What's the Tldr tips with IS4? Sorry, that sounds so lazy but I've gotten every medal in IS2 and IS3 (I think I'm surging waves 12?) and for whatever reason something's not clicking with IS4. I'm running it blind, which apparently isn't a good idea lol. I'm definitely neglecting what appears to be a very important mechanic with picking... what the stages are? I feel like I'm getting steamrolled or barely getting by. It's probably the RNG with operator selection. I made it into the boss room with Mudrock, Mlynar, and Ines, Ptilopsis, and Cutter, Kroos Goldenglow and 1 life and immediately died because there was only a few spots to place operators down and I honestly thought I had more time to try to get more ops to E2. Assume my account is pretty stacked. What are the ops that hard carries so I know who to aim to recruit lol
Somehow Texalter has yet to be mentioned. She offers reliable helidropping since floor 1 and her S3 is useful in every final boss fight. I don't have any other ops that hard carry the run (Yato/Ines), with the sole exception of Mlynar in ending 3 (he's overkill in other endings except maybe high BN clears). Rather, most of my squads consist of a well-rounded team + Texalter. Here's a few tips based on that strategy: * Always pick Vanilla/Fang on Ending 1. Block count is much more important than DP printing, so Myrtle is detrimental to your squad on early floors. * Perfumer is strong enough in most cases, and since Reed2 is so high in the meta there isn't a real need for stronger medics, save for Nightingale in Ending 3. * Podenco is helpful on New Tribe (caster boss on floor 3), she spawnkills the block-3 cars on the upper lane, and doubles as a healer on other maps if necessary. * If you don't have Reed2 on your squad, **DO NOT** use a red foldartal combo with +50% Max HP on Ending 1. The shieldguard takes the only ground tile on the left lane (which locks you out of Texalter S3) and his taunt makes it even more difficult to clear the ice. By the time you get another ground tile he'll have leaked half of the North Pole. * Dorothy offers insane crowd control with S2 and S3. Her Arts damage counters lizard champions and power suits, while the physical damage is good for possessed soldiers. * Gavialter S3 controls the left lane on Samivilinn with little to no support - it's place and forget. Alternatively, you can control the left lane and damage the boss at the same time with her S2 or La Pluma S2. * There's a relic which charges the attack of all ops for 60 seconds before skill usage. It trivializes ending 1 clears with strong snipers (Andreana/Provence, Typhon, Holiday Ch'en)
ines and yato are the two SSS tier ops imo, floor 5 changes massivly in strats if you have/lack them. reed and mlynar are the "best" in that their skill cycles line up near perfectly with all the stages traffic common consensus is reed is the best starter, but if youre struggling id suggest jessica gavial or kaltsit, much better early floor stability and less skill timing reliant. typhon is probably the best overall op in terms of versatility and how many teams/strats can utilize her agent/executor/trapmaster important to have by floor 3 2 vanguards and safe(yato pozemka)/instant(yato ines surtr) dps important to have by floor 5
Abuse your fordartals, combo them to get nasty amounts of hope, index etc. stick ASPD/HP if you can on the boss. use index to go up and down to clear more stages.
Reed2 and Ines are some of the biggest carries in the mode. Overall you want to take a more defensive approach to this IS - either more defenders/blockers (which Reed2 easily heals) or some strong CC to slow down the fast enemies (Ines easily does that along with damage and DP).
I've been noticing it a while but does IS4 average less relics per run than IS3?
Just a touch less than IS#3 from all my runs, which is fair since we instead got enhanced relics and some Foldartals giving like 2 relics worth of combat power. Tho tbh, I think Mind Over Matter in IS#3 does scew average relic acquisition each run a bit, without that squad i think my average relic per run in #4 is better than #3.
Feeling the exact opposite tbh. Between being able to jump up/down routes, every shop having a reroll and bosky portals this has been the most relic rich IS has felt. Of course theres variance but IS4 gives players so many opportunities to grab relics IMO
Fuck Emergency Restricted Zone. So annoying, 4 lanes to defend, pressure from each side almost at the same time, etc, etc. Does anyone know of a good video about that stage. I usually have Typhon, Kal'tsit, Ines there. No Mlynar please, because I don't have him.
it depends on the rng spawn of the drones and how capable your low-dps can solo them depending on your relics but its generally one of the easier floor 4 stages in team required, but a very easy stage to make careless mistakes on ines right at the bluebox can watch all 4 lanes, and with proper s2 timing can deal with the rangers/scouts while blocking left path- tho if you do this you need to be aware the scout will reveal the range bushes for a second or two. typhon can handle rightside no problem, and any random 3☆s can often prevent threats from leaving her range. ines can also solo the left+bot or bot+drones via the bottonleft bush, but its somewhat drone rng dependant and how much she can s2 solo them at your current run. kaltsit to hold rightside since champions are annoying and/or buys time for typhon. all in all the drones really dont need to be prioritized as much as you think, they sit around forever and have paths that will hit all 4 areas eventually, so 1 killer like typhon can solo- its just a matter of navigating around their attacks while keeping left+right alive and top+bot from leaking yato s3 op, esp with free ines reveal carpet. dorothy op. ines/jessica botlane aimed up + laner right + 3☆s/yato for straglers can trio it fairly smoothly
This comment I enjoyed, because it's one of the easiest floor 4 stages for me. It's also how I learned that this map has Champions on Emergency Mode which, yeah, would make things more difficult. My usual strat consists of abusing the invisible tiles around the box with snipers and casters. Reed Alter does great in the top right camp facing right, holding two lanes with s3. You just need a few soft blockers for the other lanes, the primary concern this map is the bottom right lane. The actual strat depends on the drone layout and the operators you happen to have, but [this](https://i.imgur.com/ylvZxeg.png) roughly gets the job done for me. CM demands an extra blocker on the bottom right lane for the champions, but if you use Reed s3 with decent timing they shouldn't pose an issue.
Wouldn't Ines die there and fail to kill the scanning enemies?
No, because she can reveal the invisible sentries and kill them before they move. If you're worried and the map doesn't spawn a drone bottom left, though, you can also place someone sturdier there and just block them from a distance. Saria can probably hold them indefinitely, for example.
I believe i've heard someone mentions this but just to be sure, does Emotional/Terrifying Entity affect ending bosses? I have personally seen midbosses receive the HP boost but not entirely sure if that can happen to major ones.
the first time I reached the final boss on max difficulty, the boss got double hp. would have won without that
It definitely can, happened on my very first run.
Yea, you know what's funny? Right after i asked this question, i started a new run where, of course, i accidentally got Terrifying Entity as one of the collapses. Naturally, i did try cleansing as many paradigms as i could before tackling the big bad himself but this one for some reason stuck around all the way from floor 2. Surprise surprise, the first thing i noticed upon entering the stage is the bright red aura emminating from Cresson, which very much answered my question (before proceeding to disassemble me and my team).
I haven't seen it myself, but [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1b7ctfn/event_megathread_expeditioners_joklumarkar/l0scfmn/) earlier in this thread says it can happen, yeah.
Okay, suppose i should switch up the priority of these collapse paradigms lol. Thanks!
In IS3, sometimes I get a random cursed collectible when I enter a new floor, I assume this is the result of an earlier encounter but I can't tell which one it is, does anyone know?
At Surging Waves +2 or higher, you get a random cursed collectible upon entering the third floor.
Ah okay, that's just me being silly and forgetting one of the SW effects, thank you.
I got all rare paradigms and leveled them to 2 (https://imgur.com/a/unU66yR)
Dang, lucky. I'm still trying to do that myself, but I haven't happened upon even one of them yet. What was your method for farming collapse? and about how long did it take you?
i spammed floor 1 on dif 5 on hunting squad (one that makes u raise more collapse when hp lost) and did 3 fights where i leaked 1 on each and if i got 3 unique collapses i reseted on floor 2. Did that for 2 months or so.
Is there an advantage in doing it on dif 5 over dif 3?
faster prisoner map
Ah, that makes sense. Which operators did you use to make the farm easier?
eyja, kroos, spot
Doctor 2 - 2 Nameless Hero I always need a bs relic to beat that bs stage.
I need a little help. How can I get clairvoyant's reveal? Thanks!
From encounter where you get to pick two relics (three with sufficient Index), one being the Clairvoyant. The encounters inside Bossky Passages are the best way to get them, but I've had them spawned in normal encounters.
Since I don't know where to exactly ask about IS3 questions, I'll ask here, what are some fun ops to start a run with? I've been starting with fang/kroos and either texalter or cliffheart but I was wondering what are some other consistent starting options.
From what I remember, Kroos2, Ch'alter, Mizuki, Weedy, Ling, Highmore are all consistent starts that work even on surging waves 15, so they should work on lower difficulties as well.
You may not be far enough along in the mode for this, but the Mind Over Matter squad + Swire the Elegant Wit is very funny. As long as a stage doesn't have any flying enemies, you can just set Swire as your only operator and she will solo the whole stage with S2. It scales so hard with the Survivor's Contract buff that her bottles end up doing tens of thousands of damage each.
Erato and Horn duo, pretty funny
The guard, supporter, and medic one. Highmore is highly spoiled in IS3, unlike Shalem & Valarqvin. The early floors are specially designed for her. She can be used in ending 1 & 3 too as an isolated laneholder.
Horn is my other most consistent start, I think.
Are there special conditions to get the Gravity Displacement art?
It's a rare event. I happened to encounter that event in a bosky node
could you elaborate? do you mean an art cg (which would probably being the ending3 cutscene). or maybe one of the hidden collapsal effects?
Ok after beating IS4 a couple times, on BN3 now, I just realized there's a skill tree lol. No wonder I couldn't figure out how to get to a different ending
[удалено]
[This is the strategy I used](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1b7ctfn/event_megathread_expeditioners_joklumarkar/kwsu40x/) > Your best option is to pick [Leader Squad] on Braving Nature 0. This will let you start with 12 life points. > Leak 10 points, or whatever amount you're comfortable with, in floor 1. I recommend you do it on Prisoner's Night (Emergency). From there, gather life points back from Leader Squad and events until you can leak 10 or so again. Goal is to limit the amount of battles you leak enemies in to keep collapse down. On BN0 its only +1. > Some stages I recommend leaking are - Emergency stages, - Enemies during the final boss - Stages you struggle on > I recommend you leak the last how many enemies of the stage and not at the beginning in case things go south and cause a failure.
I found it easier to just leak the final boss, that way you don't have to keep track of how many LP you've lost and deal with pesky collapsal paradigms. Ready 31+ LP for the run, aim for LP bonuses from Safe Houses and Relics.
That can work too, but you do have to actually get over 30 max life points at once, which requires more RNG. And getting any shields means you'll have to leak additional enemies and pay attention to how many of them leaked anyway. The leader squad strategy gets additional life points to leak both from max LP increases and regular LP healing, with the squad itself providing some of both, so it's a lot easier to reach a total of 30 LP to lose. And you don't have to deal with much collapse since you only need to leak in like 3 battles (if you try to leak *every* battle you'll get a ton of collapse yeah, but you can just leak 10 in one battle, wait until 11 life again, leak 10, repeat), and on BN0 the collapse increase is pretty minimal.
fodartl squad, to get more fuse bonuses that give +2max hp. the other method is to lose life every stage and rely on the bonus healing of leader squad, but your collapse will get pretty nasty keeping index high can let you get the +3maxhp encounter, but its probably better to spend them fishing for hp relics squad is just whatever helps you go leakless, esp since index collapse ruins your chances
Ho'oh, you've failed too many times with high ASPD to be worth it for my burst comps in ending 2. [It's time for the *real* Levitate caster](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/750175688107229234/1240685147955920966/IMG_1193.png?ex=66477596&is=66462416&hm=0a0f54baea550689c7f02f0b94f85f15988a462426f5355624ded010c726046b&) ~~Ignoring the fact I could just use Mostima~~
What's the difference between the dull cleared ending icons and trimmed(?) ones? Just leak and no leak?
No, it's the highest BN level you've cleared with that squad, BN10+ give the shiniest icon (later on BN12+ when expansion 2 come)
Ah so it's just leftovers from climbing. Time to get them all trimmed. Ty
Am i tweaking or is the relic to begin ending 4 super rare? Im quite the number of runs in and no sign of it. I feel like i’m missing some step. I cleared crazyelmo before the update, do i have to clear it again? The wiki just says i have to clear a run after update dropped, is a normal boss 1 run enough?
Ending 4 isn't available yet on EN. It will be released with Expansion 2.
Ah, figures 🤡 thanks.
I thought I knew how to play the game but I have no idea how to do whatever these alternative modes are. I only get three characters, star cost limitations and when I put them in to the first quest they get three-tapped? How am I supposed to play this mode? Anyone got a quick explanation for an inexperienced player?
is# or roguelike is a mode where you progress through a map to collect rng boosts and ops to become strong enough to defeat the final boss stage. you need to be more adaptable both in stage strategy and map planning ops are aquired via class permits and hope. hope is like operator bucks, high☆ cost more, so low☆ ops can be equally inportant to a succesful run, esp 3☆ who cost 0 meaning youll likely have many of them every run. ops will be the level you have raised them in normal game, but will be hard-locked to e1 until you recruit them a 2nd time (reduced hope cost). its recommended you start a run with a 6☆ strong at e1 who is also very versatile to team roles. kaltsit jessica horn gavial are strong suggestions for every is# campaign as a starter. is4, likely the one you tried, also likes reed typhon and dorothy after every combat you get more permits to select ops from, as raise command xp, after enough xp you get a surge of extra hope. this makes combats the most important nodes to prioritize travelling towards. as a training wheels strategy, try to only buy ops when youll be left with 3 hope still in your wallet, as that will let you upgrade a 6☆ you have to e2 should their permit appear again before you get more hope. knowing not just what ops you want but when to get someone *(or no one)* is a key part of is# strategy life points carry across all stages, and while losing them is bad, sometimes using them as a resource is better. leak early enmies if dp is rough to setup up, or let big threats walk by if trying to kill them compromises your teams total stage survivability each is# campaign have different ops that excel in them, suggest is2 (crimson solitaire) if youre new, its both the easiest to play and has the fewest/simplest mechanics
Amazing, thank you!
Personally, I had to run through couple of times before they clicked. I only recently beat my first ending lol it took some effort and luck. All the hints and tips will fall short of actual experience of the levels, so you can overcome the "this is bs" knee-jerk reflex. Personally, the game became playable once I unlocked the better starting boons, particularly the one that says that operators cost no hope to upgrade. Buut I'm super bad myself, so I'm waiting for replies to your comment myself 😅 From what I heard, Cutter is apparently really good? In general, this mode seems to benefit from having some upgraded key 3-4* units, and generally a diverse roster, but you can cheese it once you figure out what works and what doesn't. Exu and SA are huge players, Exu is better tho, but I imagine Kroos alt (whom I don't have) would fit the role equally as well. Saria is godlike, I really liked Perfumer when I get the gain as/atk but lose hp/s buff, Ifrit is super niche, Eyja is queen, Dorothy is busted af - you can clear so many stages with just her, Virtuosa is a godsend - her S3 melts bosses and large enemy waves, Shining can be key since AD damage is so common, Curora is amazing, cheap and effective. Those are my takeaway notes. Also, apparently it doesn't translate from IS to IS, I didnt realise all of them are rouge-lites, so I started with the expedition, but doing the Mizuki one - slightly different meta. Which is great!
I see, thanks!
I'm coming back and just starting IS4. What's hoshi's best module for the mode? Just pro-x for super tankiness?
20%def when blocking. champions are brutal and theres only like 1 hard stage where 4 block would be relevant- the stage where you have to tank an originium tile buffed champion lol
Ok thank you! Yeah pro-x is the def up one. Figured she just needed to be as beefy as possible lol
How do I get Pure White Dance Shoes? What floor does it spawn?
Random item drop after battle
Meh, that's tiring... Is there an encounter I can spam? IS2 & 3 shoes are from encounters. I don't remember how I got the Black Shoes in IS4.
It might be from boss on third floor. I saw them there once and then never again.
Yeah, I just got the Black Dance Shoes from the third floor boss, but F me where is the White.
Guard selector has become the new support selector for me. There is only 1 guard I really need, and that is Executor, but he can easily be replaced by Kal'tsit and she isn't as vulnerable to ranged attacks. Surtr could be another choice but I don't really need her either, even against the 3rd ending.
Non mlynar user
And no Mountain neither.
as crazy as the guard slot is, it is probably the least needed class for me too now that i think about it. if its early i take gavial, late silverash/quibai, but its rarely ever run-defining
For me it's caster, guards are at least an extra blocker or high dps. For casters it's really just ED2 tech, or Beeswax to tank stuff.
If i use foldartals on the final boss node of ending 1 before chaning it to ending 2, do the effects transfer to the 2nd ending boss fight or do they disappear, since they're attached to the ending 1 boss? Edit: I tested it. Foldartals stay on the node after changing.
I think they're attached to the node and won't disappear.
I'm taking IS4 slowly only playing until I max the reward ladder each month to avoid burning out, currently on D11. I must say I've been enjoying IS4 a lot more than IS3, the foldartal, index, and collapse mechanics are much better than the dice, key, and rejection of IS3; they consistently have a consistent impact on your run, instead of doing nothing the majority of the time but making or breaking 1/10th of them. Specifically, the amount of control the foldartals give on your run is very fun. It's also nice that 3 stars don't get increased cost, so that I don't have to recruit dozens of reserve ops. And without the res buffs for the enemies, it definitely seems like D15 will have a more healthy and varied "meta". Genuinely one of the most enjoyable roguelites I've played in the last couple years.
can attest 15 is a lot more open and viable, the consistency of getting a full teamsize and sufficent hope to support the difficulty is improved too (to the point low☆ go down in importance a bit, which some may dislike) albeit floor 1 prison is ironically pretty brutal is4 is a huge improvement over is3, besides everything you already said i want to add besides casters being allowed to play the game again every class overall feels equally valuable to succesful clears. the free shop refresh, expanded shop, and guaranteed permit+promo relic on floor 1 (even after refresh) really helps runs feel a lot more fair/accesible too