Arknights Endfield

Pyros

Pyros

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Tuco said:
This is the first "gacha" game I've played, although the concept of gambling and loot boxes pervades many other games of course.

When reading about the game the amount of focus, and whining, on the Gacha mechanics is so bizarre to me. It's like going to an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas and seeing shows, buffets, amazing buildings, street entertainment, strip clubs and everything else, then you go see what your buddies are up to and they're bitching about the returns on the slot machines.
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There's a lot of gachas on the market, including their more or less direct competitors with Genshin and WuWa, so people are going to compare to gambling mechanics. Fact is in this game, it's kinda shit so far, they needlessly made it more complex, and added extra layers of FOMO, and there's nothing to counterbalance that, it's just roughly the same odds on average, just in a shittier package. It's not absolute dogshit like some ppl say, but it's certainly one of the worst aspect of the game, long term(it has like 0 impact currently since it's 1.0 and even the free chars are good).

Gachas in general I think get a worse reputation than needed, I was pretty surprised when I picked one up on a whim(ZZZ when it released, in 2024) and found out it's actually much easier to play one F2P than the vast majority of F2P MMOs(especially KR ones but even others). Edit: Modern gachas that is, the older ones are still dogshit, and JP still makes obvious cashgrab anime IP gachas that close within 6months constantly.

Like at no point are you required to spend, and they usually have various levels of spending schemes so if you spend only a little bit you get more relatively than if you whale, although obviously the impact is less. Stuff like the 5$ sub or the battlepasses(sometimes, not all games) let you spend a little bit and get good value, or you can skip entirely and still have a good experience provided you're not a degenerate and can plan your pulls.

Meanwhile you try to play Black Desert or even PoE without spending anything and it's like shooting yourself in the dick. You don't need to spend THAT much to fix that, but there's definitely a you need x$ to actually play even if it's "free".

I played ZZZ for like a year or so and spent about 30bucks(half of which was definitely not needed but I didn't know what I was doing at first) and I have all the best teams, I just don't have all the flexible options and niche stuff. And obviously I don't have 7copies of every char to compete with the .1% whales but wtf cares.
 
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Lenas

Lenas

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I don't know about the FOMO aspect. Unlike other gachas, the limited characters in this game stick around for three banners before they rotate out. In other games if you don't get them when they are featured, you're fucked for like a year. The 120-pull system with no 50/50 guarantee still sucks dicks though and the pull economy is going to be terrible after the initial burst of starter currencies.

Character abilities from multiple copies also aren't fucking busted in this game like they are in others, so whales don't even get that much of an advantage here. It has me thinking that any amount of money spent on this game would be kinda silly tbh.
 
Springbok

Springbok

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I got Yvonne to lvl 90 last night, great dps and a super easy/cheap team to build around. Nobody else is above level 60 and kind of feels like they don't need to be. Got all of the valley IV bases maxed out with depots and size, but my rudimentary factory skills are starting to show and my output is pathetic.

Best stock generation I've seen is buying the stock items low and going to a friends ship who still has high value. Made a million yesterday.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Springbok said:
I got Yvonne to lvl 90 last night, great dps and a super easy/cheap team to build around. Nobody else is above level 60 and kind of feels like they don't need to be. Got all of the valley IV bases maxed out with depots and size, but my rudimentary factory skills are starting to show and my output is pathetic.

Best stock generation I've seen is buying the stock items low and going to a friends ship who still has high value. Made a million yesterday.
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Note, you can make up to 6 Package & Delievery missions each day. Do your normal 3, it seems Power Plateau pays the best, and then check the Job Listings tab for jobs that other players have sent up and do 3 of those. Might take a bit of refreshing to find ones you want. If you want to take the slight risk, you could offer up your own jobs for other people to do, you'll get paid the same as long as the other player doesn't fuck it up.

Pyros Pyros I got it all setup. My only goal in Wuling atm is to craft up 1600+ Xia Components to make 6-8 sets of gold gear for the characters I like to play. So I'll just feed 2 Forges, one for Comps, and the other for Batteries. After the gear is made, I'll double up on the Batteries to make more Bucks to use on whatever the gear enhancement system it (haven't touched it yet).

Speaking of Water, there is a side quest that has you drain a big pond...fucking tedious. I have 3 pumps draining that pond atm and its not even making a dent. It will take hours I guess.
 
Pyros

Pyros

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Zindan said:
Note, you can make up to 6 Package & Delievery missions each day. Do your normal 3, it seems Power Plateau pays the best, and then check the Job Listings tab for jobs that other players have sent up and do 3 of those. Might take a bit of refreshing to find ones you want. If you want to take the slight risk, you could offer up your own jobs for other people to do, you'll get paid the same as long as the other player doesn't fuck it up.

Pyros Pyros I got it all setup. My only goal in Wuling atm is to craft up 1600+ Xia Components to make 6-8 sets of gold gear for the characters I like to play. So I'll just feed 2 Forges, one for Comps, and the other for Batteries. After the gear is made, I'll double up on the Batteries to make more Bucks to use on whatever the gear enhancement system it (haven't touched it yet).

Speaking of Water, there is a side quest that has you drain a big pond...fucking tedious. I have 3 pumps draining that pond atm and its not even making a dent. It will take hours I guess.
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For draining I think you need to use the other thing that transfer water from one place to another on the other end and then it does it super fast? I haven't done the quest yet though, I think I know which one I picked it up yesterday when I was putting up ziplines everywhere but I'm still working through Valley sidequests/chests/aurylene.

I did some crafting today to upgrade the gear(gold gear can be upgraded, KR mmo style with chance to fail and a pity system, but the gear doesn't get destroyed so it's not so bad) and ran out of stock bills so fucking fast. I think I have like 6k components left, but I just can't craft because no stockbills, and eventually also no tickets to upgrade(which also cost stockbill and are in limited quantity). So yeah you really don't need many crafting components at all, I switched to 2 batteries setup a couple days ago.

And I always post my own quests, saves a bunch of time since I'm already doing 3 from other people. At best I'd keep the Wuling one since I don't care that much about the bills on valley anyway, but I still post it, helps other people and even if I don't get paid the full amount it's not gonna be a big difference since it's only like 60k bills anyway. And so far I haven't seen someone fuck it up and I guess most people setup their ziplines once they do the run once cause it's horrible enough it's worth the effort lol. Even in ziplines it takes like over a minute to deliver, on foot it's like 10mins of running.

Started farming for my chars too, shit's fucking slow as hell, you need crazy xp past 60. Got everyone to 70 and my main char to 90 after using up all the stamina items that were expiring, gonna get Wulf to 80 since he does some dmg but probably leaving it there after. Need to farm mats to get my weapon to 90 too since I finally got it from the battlepass. Also I did the lvl 90 boss fight against the triangle fuck and it took fucking forever. There's way too many invuln phases bullshit in that fight. Good thing is unlike other gacha the boss fights don't seem to drop anything exclusive, so you can just farm the deep dive mode normal fights instead.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Pyros said:
For draining I think you need to use the other thing that transfer water from one place to another on the other end and then it does it super fast? I haven't done the quest yet though, I think I know which one I picked it up yesterday when I was putting up ziplines everywhere but I'm still working through Valley sidequests/chests/aurylene.

I did some crafting today to upgrade the gear(gold gear can be upgraded, KR mmo style with chance to fail and a pity system, but the gear doesn't get destroyed so it's not so bad) and ran out of stock bills so fucking fast. I think I have like 6k components left, but I just can't craft because no stockbills, and eventually also no tickets to upgrade(which also cost stockbill and are in limited quantity). So yeah you really don't need many crafting components at all, I switched to 2 batteries setup a couple days ago.

And I always post my own quests, saves a bunch of time since I'm already doing 3 from other people. At best I'd keep the Wuling one since I don't care that much about the bills on valley anyway, but I still post it, helps other people and even if I don't get paid the full amount it's not gonna be a big difference since it's only like 60k bills anyway. And so far I haven't seen someone fuck it up and I guess most people setup their ziplines once they do the run once cause it's horrible enough it's worth the effort lol. Even in ziplines it takes like over a minute to deliver, on foot it's like 10mins of running.

Started farming for my chars too, shit's fucking slow as hell, you need crazy xp past 60. Got everyone to 70 and my main char to 90 after using up all the stamina items that were expiring, gonna get Wulf to 80 since he does some dmg but probably leaving it there after. Need to farm mats to get my weapon to 90 too since I finally got it from the battlepass. Also I did the lvl 90 boss fight against the triangle fuck and it took fucking forever. There's way too many invuln phases bullshit in that fight. Good thing is unlike other gacha the boss fights don't seem to drop anything exclusive, so you can just farm the deep dive mode normal fights instead.
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60k for a Wuling delivery seems low, is that Depot fully upgraded? The maxed out Power Plateau missions are 300k. Still need lots of Bucks for Valley to buy those tickets that let specify the stats you want on weapon Essence. They cost 400k each. Though that won't be a hassle now that all facilities are fully upgraded there.

Not sure what goods the upgraded sub base in Wuling will want, but I'm assuming it will buy the Jincao(?) medicine, so I've been stockpiling bottles and parts. Will need to spend a few hours making a good supply of the Liquid Xia to clear the few Blight spots left.

The water quest I mentioned, Treasure Beneath the Pond, took about 2hrs for three pumps to drain it. Sent the water to another pond to the south. Note, keep the pumps around there since you can use them to drain some smaller ponds to open a keyed chest near there.

I have to admit that Wuling, as an area, has become of my all time favorite places in a game. Such amazing work.
 
Springbok

Springbok

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Yeah Wuling looks absolutely spectacular and excites me for what they have coming down the road because the step up from the first two zones is enormous.
 
Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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What's funny is that I started playing once I heard "squad based action RPG with basebuilding mechanics" because I love Kenshi. Now that I've gotten a few hours it does feel like Kenshi, just with a bunch of things being inverted.

Arknights Endfield is beautiful, Kenshi is an OGRE hellscape. Kenshi gives you exactly zero guidance, this game holds both your hands, feet and dick and forces you through a tutorial for every feature. Kenshi's world is apathetic to you even when you're a legend, this game you wake up as the apparent leader of your faction, albeit with amnesia.



Whenever this game leaves me alone for more than five seconds I start to really enjoy it. Hopefully this endless tutorial ends soon.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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The problem with the tutorials in Endfield is that they are 1) Automated, this is the worst part, and 2) They are doubled up, almost every tutorial has that automated sequence you go through, then follows it with the exact same information in a more standard way. Got REALLY tired of that while doing all 26 of the base Simulations + Character trials.

The most refreshing thing about this game, at the moment, is the total lack of an activity that -requires- multiple teams to clear fully. Hate that with a passion in gacha games. I imagine they will release such content eventually though.
 
Kobayashi

Kobayashi

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So I gave this a shot. After downloading the game, then waiting for it to download another 20 gigs of resources, I'm met with some adventure game shit where I have to jump around and kill a bunch of trash. The factory stuff seems cool, but I don't think I will have any interest in the fighting mechanics. Can I just do factory stuff or will I need to slog through the other half of this game?
 
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