Put your back into it, Wis'adel

Doc rudely interrupts Gladiia's aura farming. Unfortunately, he cannot afford another write-up this month.

Why does she keep looking at mirrors dramatically? Like really, this is a thing Gladiia does. Her event ended with her checking her neck in a mirror, her module is a hand mirror she looks into periodically, and before her Abyssal Hunter surgery she just stared at a big mirror. Girl just needs to figure herself out.

Experimenting a bit today

Twitter

Pixiv

Introduction

Heya all, Mal here with another Module guide. This time it’s for the “Critical Phase Transition” event, AKA the Episode 17 release. This time around we have Modules for three new Operators, a few second Modules for existing Operators, as well as two Specialized Modules. There are no new Branch Modules releasing this patch. As always, my writeups can be found on the Lungmen Dragons website, as well as Sanity;Gone.

The new Operators are Closure, Viy, and Crackborne.

Closure is a 6★ Tactician Vanguard, and wow does she do a lot. But, while she does do a lot, most of what matters relating to her Module is her DP economy. She enables players to go into DP debt, which synergizes nicely with her skill. This Module makes Closure give you a higher credit limit because you loved her enough to upgrade her Module up to level 3. It’s kinda the most important part of her kit, and thus I’d say that everyone who builds her should also get this Module.

The welfare unit this patch is a new 6★ Mystic Caster, Viy. He’s really a peculiar unit, in this case not because he’s so strong or so weak, but instead because he’s so generic. His kit does have some interesting dynamics going on, but all it really does is affect the pattern of his DPS, which is also all he does. The result is that if you really really need an Arts DPS unit and don’t have any good casters…. You still don’t really wanna build him because you have Click and Amiya who are close enough and don’t cost as much to build. “But Mal! I love this guy because he’s a sexy horse twink!” Ok, even still, his Module doesn’t help his damage that much, so even if you do decide to build him, you could still probably stand to save your Module blocks by not building his.

Lastly, the 5★ of this patch is Crackborne, a Primal Protector. Crackborne is the next step in the path of HG gradually filling out the Corrosion Elemental Damage system. If you’ve been keeping an eye on these things, you’ve probably noticed that with only a couple exceptions, the 5★ Elemental Damage units have been quite underwhelming, and Crackborne is another example of this. She combines some Corrosion Injury infliction with tankiness to incoming Elemental Damage (especially Corrosion), but she simply doesn’t do enough. Her Corrosion infliction is fine, and the Module helps a little bit with this, unfortunately one Corrosion Burst is generally not that impactful, doing less damage than the other Elemental Damage Bursts, and with the DEF shred from one single burst being rather small. Her other niche, her tankiness against Elemental Damage, is just not noteworthy and is basically never called for; so the fact that the Module improves this niche isn’t that impressive.

As for the second Modules for existing Operators, Texas the Omertosa (Texas2), Degenbrecher, and Sankta Miksaparato (grandpa) all got one.

Texas2 got a nice Module. It leans into the FRD nature of Executors, improving her DP economy and also giving her a conditional Redeployment time reduction. Unfortunately, she gets these at the cost of some damage from her 1st Module. Furthermore, my estimation of Texas2’s place in the meta has been dwindling for a while now. I find that she often struggles to stay alive or get kills in many scenarios, the latter of which is especially important as her Redeployment timer reduction only triggers if she gets a kill. This Module definitely leans more into Texas2’s S2 use to kill individual or small numbers of enemies, you can use her more cheaply and frequently. However, this Module makes her even less capable at dealing with dangerous threats on the map, especially when it’s less important for her to be redeployed constantly and more important for her to make a significant impact each time she is deployed. If you have neither Module then I think I’d still probably recommend this one over her first but only barely.

Degenbrecher’s Module is a marginal upgrade over her first most of the time. Her kit works because it combines decent DPS with DEF-ignore. Her first Module leaned into the DPS half of that equation, while this one leans into the DEF-ignore half. The consequence of that is that this Module outperforms at higher levels of enemy DEF, while the other one outperforms against lower enemy DEF. (Un)fortunately, the difference in either case is still fairly small. There are some scenarios, such as where Degenbrecher receives various buffs, or enemies receive debuffs, where one or another can pull ahead, but it’s still fairly situational. Overall I think I would recommend this one over her first if you don’t have either, but you generally don’t want to bother with this one if you already have the other.

Sankta Miksaparato’s second Module is the range extension one… And it’s fine I guess. If you want to use grandpa Sankta in every stage, then this new one is probably the one you’d prefer over his first, with its improvements to his Barrier, but if you treat your operators more like a varied toolkit where you pull out a tool that applies to a certain need, I think I would rather have his first Module, which provides Invis reveal. Grandpa Sankta doesn’t really have any particular meta relevance so neither of these Module are truly that impactful, so it’s largely a matter of preference.

We got two Specialized Modules this time around, both for Integrated Strategies. Specter the Unchained (Spalter) and Typhon.

Spalter’s Module is a really fun one, and one of the most interesting IS Modules in my opinion. Not only does it let her and her doll do a bunch more damage, and take less damage, it also lets her teammates be treated as temporary dolls for her, doing her signature praying the seaborn away Arts AoE (which is also substantially buffed by this Module) and Movespeed reduction, instead of dying. Ultimately it’s not that strong; she faces steep competition from the likes of Exu2, Wang, and so on, but the low price of 3 Module blocks erases a multitude of sins.

I’m a little bit cooler on the Typhon IS Module, but she also has the benefit of her ticket being much less competitive than Specialist tickets. W2, Lemuen, and Ray are stronger, but generally aren’t high priority drafts like those in the Specialist or Supporter tickets. As a result, picking a marginally less optimal Sniper from a ticket is less of a “throw” during high difficulty IS runs (though the upcoming Orchid Alter will slightly change this calculus). Anyway, Typhon’s Module lets her target the heaviest enemy on the screen, and repeatedly pepper it with a volley similar to her S3. The damage on this is nice but not incredible, but importantly it allows her to consistently stack up her DEF-ignore Talent, as well as clean up weaker targets around the primary one so that she can avoid wasting shots from her skills on them. Not the most gamebreaking IS Module, but still fairly easy to justify investing in for anyone remotely interested in using Typhon, once again, the low price of 3 Module blocks erases a multitude of sins.

Ratings System

This rating system aims to capture both the relative “meta value” of a unit as well as the strength of a Module. My aim is to have the ratings give an at a glance understanding for those just trying to figure out what is “good”, while those already interested in a unit regardless of the meta value of said unit, can read the detailed write-up of each Module to find out if it’s right for them, even if it’s a Module on a relatively low value Operator.

Each Module will be given a rating of [YES], [MAYBE], or [NOT RECOMMENDED] for whether it is worth building, as well as a recommended level to upgrade it to.

For Specialized Modules, ratings are given with the assumption that players are interested in the applicable game mode (for example Integrated Strategies).

New Operators

Closure’s strengths primarily revolve around three features: First, like any vanguard, her ability to generate DP; second, on her S2, her ability to refund DP under certain conditions; third, from her Talent, the DP floor reduction she enables, allowing players to go into “debt” so to speak. The combination of these three factors allows her to be an immensely potent DP-generating machine in the squad. Importantly, her Module substantially contributes to one of those factors, and thus represents a solid chunk of her peak power.

The Trait upgrade of this Module makes Reinforcements take 15% less damage from units they’re blocking. This typical Tactician Trait upgrade gets more mileage than usual on Closure. While many Tacticians provide little once they’ve successfully opened a stage, Closure can continue to perform even as the stage progresses due to the fact that allies within range of her summon get treated as additional Reinforcements for the purposes of the rest of her kit. This means that, as long as players take positioning into account, this is one of (several) buffs Closure can grant to allied units via her reinforcement buffs. All that said, this is probably one of the less impactful effects in her kit and isn’t what makes the Module worthwhile.

The Talent upgrade of this Module increases the magnitude of Closure’s DP debt. With no Module, she reduces the DP lower limit by 3, allowing players to reach -3 DP, with ranges in the negative reducing the speed of natural DP generation by 50%. At Module level 3, she reduces the DP lower limit to 5. While the negative natural DP generation might seem like a steep penalty, when combined with Closure’s personal DP generation, as well as the potent DP refund of her S2, Closure often enables players to go into DP “debt” and immediately climb back out before the natural DP generation penalty has a chance to have much of an impact. Increasing the “debt ceiling” allows players to take even greater advantage of this cycle by deploying even more expensive Operators earlier. Additionally, this Talent provides a small ATK buff to Rhodes Island Operators, this is increased to +8% ATK (up from +4% ATK). However, like the Trait upgrade, this is simply a nice bonus and not the main appeal of the Module.

Overall this Module is very impactful to Closure’s main gimmick, her DP economy shenanigans. While the Trait upgrade is more of a minor bonus, the Talent upgrades are almost essential, and thus any player building Closure should absolutely upgrade her Module all the way to level 3.

Viy is a puzzling unit who brings very little to the table. He is a generic Arts DPS with no particular advantages over his competition. Unfortunately, on top of that, his already mediocre DPS is not notably improved by his Module.

The Trait upgrade of this Module increases Viy’s ASPD by 30 when there are stored attacks. As a Mystic Caster, Viy’s ASPD matters even when there are no targets available, as it allows him to continue charging his attacks even more rapidly. Furthermore, Viy’s Talent allows him to have an effective 9 charges instead of the typical 3-4 of the rest of his Branch.

The Talent upgrade of this Module improves Viy’s DoT in a couple ways. The number of DoT stacks any enemy can receive is increased to 4 (up from 3), the damage of each stack is increased to 120 Arts/s (up from 90). As Viy’s kit encourages him to spread his damage out across multiple targets, relying on his DoT, his Module improving that DoT is theoretically nice.

Unfortunately, the numbers simply don’t all come together for him. Even in the optimal circumstances with the right enemy count and timing, his damage simply isn’t that impressive. Furthermore, even what damage he does is not improved that much by this Module. Under fairly advantageous assumptions, he still only gains about 8% skill damage from this Module. Viy and his Module are simply not worth investing in for most players, and even those that do build him should consider skipping his Module unless they need every ounce of DPS he can muster.

Crackborne is the latest Primal Protector, including the typical combination of tanking and infliction of Elemental damage. Unfortunately, Crackborne isn’t really good enough at it to be a big advantage over other options like Philae, much less the higher rarity options. Her Module, similarly, leans into this niche, but not enough to be a difference maker.

The Trait upgrade of this Module increases the Elemental Injury Crackborne deals when blocking enemies. When combined with her S2, this Trait allows her to inflict Corrosion Burst to non-Boss enemies with only 4 of the 5 charges the skill generates, instead of needing all 5, so long as at least one of those charges is consumed while she is blocking an enemy. This does help Crackborne be a more consistent applicator of Corrosion Burst, unfortunately Corrosion is still currently not a particularly competitive damage type, and Crackborne herself doesn’t take much advantage of the DEF shred.

The Talent upgrade of this Module improves the Elemental Injury reductions Crackborne has in her kit. She receives -13% Elemental Injury overall (increased from -10%), and an additional -18% against Corrosion (increased from 10%). This means, when facing incoming Corrosion Injury, she receives only 68% of it. Unfortunately, in most cases where Corrosion damage is particularly dangerous (for example high-difficulty IS), it arrives in such overwhelming amounts that this % reduction is simply not sufficient to make her advantageous over other options.

Strictly speaking, the Module is quite impactful for players who do plan to use her, for those players, Module level 1 is a good stopping point. However, for everyone else Crackborne simply applies too little of an element that doesn’t have notable selling points in the first place, and isn’t tanky enough herself to survive any particularly threatening situations. Her Module doesn’t change either of those facts and thus is not worth investing in.

Second Modules

Texas2 was the first strong FRD in Arknights, and while that first impression made a big impact in the game, her power level hasn’t remained as impressive over the years. This Module doesn’t bring her up to the level of the strongest modern Operators, but does help her retain some relevancy in the game compared to her baseline with her first Module.

The Trait upgrade of this Module changes the DP economy of using Texas2 by increasing the proportion of DP refund when players retreat her. By default, all Operators return half their current DP cost (rounded down) when retreated, however this upgrade makes Texas2 refund 80% of her current DP cost (rounded down). For an Executor Specialist who should be frequently deployed and retreated and so on, this change substantially reduces the pressure on a player’s DP economy to aggressively use Texas2.

The Talent upgrade of this Module affects Texas2’s second Talent. Before defeating an enemy for the first time each deployment, she gains +15 ASPD (up from +8), reduces all damage taken by 30% (up from 25%). Furthermore, a brand new feature is added to the Talent, if Texas2 defeats an enemy, her next Redeployment time is reduced by 20%, down to 14.4s (down from 18s) at Potential 1 (down to 12.8s at Potential 4).

These two upgrades together allow Texas2 to be deployed much more rapidly around the map while also mitigating the effects on the player’s DP economy that would normally entail. The tradeoff is losing out on the extra damage from both the Trait and Talent upgrade of her Module-Y. While this Module does give Texas some more ASPD, the ATK bonuses from her other Mod win out the majority of the time, especially when looking at her S3 which doesn’t benefit from ASPD buffs. The question then becomes, how often does that extra damage matter? Texas2 is rarely enough to kill particularly dangerous enemies, and thus is often used on weaker but troublesome enemies. This Module leans into using Texas2 as an “eraser” rapidly across the map against weak enemies, instead of trying but failing to allow her to tackle more tanky threats. Often this tradeoff is worthwhile, and thus this Module is something players should consider if they want to use Texas2 more often. However, it still doesn’t do quite enough to bring Texas2 back into the pinnacle of the Arknights meta, and thus some might want to use caution before investing.

Degenbrecher has powerful physical burst DPS with high-quality damage due to her DEF-ignore Talent. This is her second Module, which leans into her DEF-ignore, and thus allows her to perform more capably against higher DEF targets, as compared to her first Module which gives her higher baseline DPS with less DEF-ignore.

The Trait upgrade of this Module grants Degenbrecher 70 flat DEF ignore. Unfortunately, this DEF-ignore doesn’t stack impressively with her %-based DEF-ignore in her Talent, resulting in this Trait upgrade being largely useless whenever her Talent activates.

The Talent upgrade of this Module gives Degenbrecher a +8% ATK buff, increases the magnitude of her DEF-ignore to 33% against Frightened targets (up from 25%), furthermore she will now apply Frightened for 6s to enemies that enter her attack range for the first time. This Talent makes up for the relative lackluster benefits of her Trait upgrade. The increased DEF-ignore allows her to take on higher DEF targets before her damage starts to fall off. The auto-Frighten on the other hand is largely less useful for her, as her main skill, S3, guarantees Frighten against affected Targets anyway in order to trigger her DEF-ignore consistently. The result is that the auto-frighten serves much more as a means of defensive utility for her instead of increasing her damage.

The output of this Module ends up matching the DPS of her first Module when dealing with non-trivial amounts of enemy DEF. As a result, this Module is generally better than her first, but by a very marginal amount. Furthermore, some scenarios such as +ATK% buffers will benefit her first Module more. In general, players building Degenbrecher for the first time should probably slightly prefer this Module over her Module-X, but those who already have her other one built probably shouldn’t bother with this one.

Sankta Miksaparato is generally a fairly utility-heavy Operator who synergizes cleanly with his fellow Laterano Operators. His DPS is generally fairly underwhelming, and unfortunately this Module, which leans more into his DPS, is largely worse than his first.

The Trait upgrade of this Module increases Sankta’s attack range by adding an extra tile in front. This upgrade doesn’t benefit his S3, as that has a range modification rather than a range extension, resulting in this extra tile not affecting it. It does affect his S2 use, but generally that skill is used for its survivability rather than DPS potential, in fact, sometimes this can be a downside as it results in him spending more ammo on autos instead of on self-revive. In general, while there may be some rare cases where this extra tile of range comes in handy, it doesn’t particularly synergize with Sankta’s kit, and pales in comparison to the utility of his other Module, which provides invisibility reveal.

The Talent upgrade of this Module improves his Barrier Talent. It reduces the time for the Barrier to be generated from 8s down to 5s without Sankta attacking. The size of the Barrier is increased to 20% of his Max HP (up from 15%), and grants him +15% ATK when he has a Barrier. This Talent upgrade does help Sankta’s Barrier to appear more consistently and last longer, as well as improving his ATK somewhat, but only the former particularly matters, as both his skills have large +ATK% modifiers that heavily dilute the ATK bonus.

Overall this Module isn’t bad, the extra tile of range is sometimes handy and the Barrier improvements are sometimes nice. Unfortunately, Grandpa Sankta simply isn’t generally that powerful of an Operator. Furthermore, his other Module, while it doesn’t quite make him meta, does give him the powerful Invisibility reveal effect, which can much more often justify his inclusion in a stage than any other use case. Some Sankta Miksaparato fans will appreciate this Module as it allows him to be a more well-rounded unit, but for those looking for each unit to do something powerful or unique, this Module doesn’t really change much about him.

Specialized Modules

Spalter has never had a particularly dominant presence in Integrated Strategies, however this Specialized Module grants her a whole new IS playstyle that makes her worth consideration, albeit somewhat dampened due to her existing on the extremely competitive Specialist voucher.

The Trait upgrade of this Module makes Spalter and her doll, in IS, deal 40% increased Physical and Arts damage, as well as receive 40% less Physical and Arts damage. These buffs are simple yet extremely potent, effectively outclassing the Trait upgrades of both other Modules combined. Spalter (and her doll) both deal a bunch more damage and have a lot more bulk with this Trait upgrade.

The Talent upgrade of this Module, in IS, gives Spalter a whole new feature. First of all, her doll (and things treated as her doll) deal an additional 160% of ATK as Arts damage per second (on top of the base 40% ATK). This more than doubles her doll damage when compared to Module-X, and does 5x as much as while on Module-Y. However, furthermore, when Operators in the surrounding 8 tiles would normally have died, if Spalter isn’t in her doll form those Operators won’t go below 1 HP for 8s, during which they are treated as a Spalter doll, doing the corresponding Arts damage and slow in an AoE. Once that duration ends, Spalter will go into her doll form. This can only happen once while Spalter is in her normal form, and can only happen again once her resulting doll form duration concludes. The consequences of this are that players can have extremely high uptime on the Spalter doll form AoE by intentionally allowing nearby Operators to take lethal damage, then chain that into Spalter’s doll form, and so on. This, combined with the damage increases from the Trait and first part of the Talent, result in Spalter being able to output a substantial amount of AoE arts damage and help give her team some powerful survivability.

Overall this Module does a ton for Spalter in IS, enabling a fun new playstyle for her. While the competition in the Specialist voucher is fierce, this Module does enough to make her worth consideration, a very good bargain for a mere 3 Module blocks.

Typhon had a moment where she was used frequently in Integrated Strategies, however she has since fallen off considerably. Fortunately, this Module gives players a reason to choose her again in IS, as it adds a welcome addition to her kit for IS.

The Trait effect of this Module, in IS, grants Typhon 40% more Physical Damage and Physical Dodge ignore against heavy (weight 3 or higher) enemies. This increase is simple and potent. The damage amplification is post-DEF, however paired with Typhon’s built-in DEF ignore it has generally higher value than damage amplification typically does. The Dodge ignore is situationally useful, but not the main attraction.

The Talent upgrade of this Module, in IS, grants Typhon the ability to mark the heaviest enemy on the map. Whenever that enemy is Stunned or Slowed, Typhon fires a rain of arrows every 8s. This rain hits random targets nearby that enemy 8 times for 110% of ATK, and stuns them for 0.1s. This might not seem amazingly impactful, until accounting for Typhon’s DEF-ignore Talent. Building in these extra hits to Typhon’s kit allows her to much more rapidly stack her DEF-ignore Talent.

This is particularly noticeable on Typhon’s S2, as she normally takes several auto-attacks before she can fully stack up her DEF-ignore, but still quite helpful on her S3 as her volley can almost immediately start hitting at maximum DEF-ignore, as well as the Talent volley killing some weaker enemies to prevent Typhon from wasting ammo on them and focus on the stronger target. Overall, this Module doesn’t make Typhon absurdly strong, but the relative weakness of the Sniper ticket in IS allows her to regain some relevance alongside it, especially for the low cost of 3 Module blocks.

Small car

Just finished reading chapter 17 today and only had time for a quick sketch. There's a lot to say about this story, and Arknights as a whole. Terra may be fictional, but our lives are real, and they reflect each other in ways that I think few other games achieve.

And it is beautiful when art inspires us to become better people. The task of stewarding civilization is a difficult one, and perhaps in the absence of an immortal cat, it falls to us to do what we can in ways that matter to us. Kal'tsit, to me, represents a lot, but she is more than anything else a reminder of the complexity, vastness, and beauty of life. In our own lives, don't forget to search for hope and a future, and to find ourselves, too. These commands are contradictory, but in her long journey she found her own answer. We can strive to do the same.

Yeah idk what made me do this

IS7 Ending 4 story introduces Casas, a Liberi orphan raised by a Perro couple in Bolivar who currently studies history at university in Columbia. After learning about conflicting accounts of Iberia's colonization of Bolivar, he begins to fear that his ancestors were among the Iberian invaders who oppressed the Perros. Raised by Perro parents, he feels ashamed of this possibility and becomes determined to prove the existence of an ancient Bolivarian civilization, partly to make amends for his ancestry before facing his adoptive parents again.

Through his research, Casas discovers evidence of two ancient Liberi tribes in the Columbia-Bolivar region, which he provisionally names the Solar Tribe and the Eclipse Tribe. He spends more than half a year's savings on a stone tablet he believes is an artifact of this civilization from the black market. Hoping to uncover the truth, he joins an archaeological expedition into the Blackflow Tree, carrying the tablet with him.

Casas's search takes an unexpected turn when his stone tablet leads the expedition to an ancient ruin that shouldn't exist. Turns out the tablet stone contains the consciousness of two deities from ancient Bolivar civilization (Sources of Ideals) who then possessed him, since their ideals clash, they start fighting. Fortunately, Aphrissa and Paryaqaqa intervene and destroyed the two Sources of Ideals.

Casas eventually wakes up and remembers the incident only as a dream, including a war he saw between two ancient Bolivarian rulers over the right to interpret and worship the sun.

Later, Aphrissa and Paryaqaqa discuss what they discovered in the Balckflow Tree. and what kind of another powerful entity might be behind it:

1. The tablet Casas excavated was not an ordinary physical artifact. It was made from information, but previously had a physical form outside the Blackflow Tree.

This raises a possibility: whatever controls the Blackflow Tree may be able to control the phase transitions between information and physical matter, even without Originium. Paryaqaqa compares this phenomenon to a video game. Imagine a game that can generate an entire world, complete with objects, history, and people.

1. Sources of Ideals can fulfill the desires of the inhabitants of Utopia and Realutopia, and can even transform living beings. This phenomenon remind them to the demons.

However, the two possess opposing natures:

> Demons distort information and the laws of reality, giving rise to chaos.

> Utopia and Realutopia, by contrast, exhibit an excessive degree of order.

In other words, both phenomena may affect how reality works, but they seem to do so in opposite ways. This is only a hypothesis, though, they do not yet understand the true nature of the Sources of Ideals.

1. Aphrissa explains that the ancient ruin and its inhabitants were likely information-based constructs created by an unknown will. The civilization Casas's saw has no record in Cadejo's information and may never have existed in Terra's history. Maybe artificial civilization or civilization from another timeline?

2. Aphrissa suspects that the President's speech about attacking the Blackflow Tree might have been a pretext for the Department of Defense to launch an operation. However, their discoveries also seem to support some of the more bizarre conspiracy theories: that extraterrestrial beings could be occupying human bodies and secretly disrupting human society. These theories no longer seem entirely impossible given what they have witnessed. Still, they do not have enough evidence to confirm them.

Paryaqaqa is a classmate and colleague of Aphrissa's father, Robert. Aphrissa tells him he doesn't owe Robert anything and shouldn't risk his life simply out of obligation to help his friend's daughter. Paryaqaqa denies it and implies that his involvement is driven by personal reasons.

When he asks why she continues investigating the Blackflow Tree, Aphrissa explains that she was initially motivated by resentment toward Columbia, unresolved feelings about her father, and guilt over the Blackflow Tree and its victims. Now, however, her curiosity and desire to uncover the truth have become her main driving forces.

"You must understand this too: the more knowledge you acquire, the more things you discover that you still can't explain with what you already know. And when you seize an opportunity that might allow you to understand them, you inevitably cling to it with all your might. It's an irresistible temptation."

Raidian

Genuinely love him sm, i hope he is next year sui, he is the goat in chinese zodiac and next year is goat year, pls pls HG make him playable soon (i accept all suiblings but i just think hed be perfect next 🤤🤤🤤)

Expecto Draconum!