Matsukiri, 5★ Welfare Strategist Vanguard (new branch)
Hm—— Cheer up, live a little.
Kichisei, 5★ Spreadshooter Sniper
Don't worry, you will always be a VIP customer for "Kichisei".
Haruka, 6★ Abjurer Supporter
Hey, Doctor~ I just had a suuuper cute encounter, you wanna hear about it?
Hoshiguma the Breacher, 6★ Limited Arts Protector Defender
Defender Operator Hoshiguma, reporting for duty once again.
As always, you're safe with me around.
Operator Outfits Update
Total of 7 new outfits, 3 new additions for the Coral Coast brand, 2 new addition for the Misaligned Sightseer brand, 1 new addition each for the MARTHE and 0011/Yun brands
Coral Coast
Summer Flowers FA054 - May
Holiday HD79 - Ch'en the Holungday (21 OP)
Summer Flowers FA161 - Necrass (21 OP)
Misaligned Sightseer
Nuit of the Night Sky - Pepe (21 OP)
Horus' Rest - Sand Reckoner
MARTHE
Boundless Sail - Thorns the Lodestar (21 OP)
0011/Yun
Celestial Crane - Shamare
Sand Reckoner's outfit will be up for sale during Adventures that Cannot Wait for the Sun Retrospect
Operator Modules Update
Haruka and Kichisei being part of branches with modules immediately get their modules
BLS-Y module base effect allows Haruka to target 2 units at once
RPR-X module base effect increases Kichisei's ATK against enemies in the frontal row to 160%
Primal Caster branch gets 1 module type
Ch'en the Holungday gets her second module
The base effect of RPR-Y module is unknown at the time of writing
Swire the Elegant Wit and Pepe get specialized modules
Swire the Elegant Wit gets an Integrated Strategies module
Pepe gets a Reclamation Algorithm module
Events and Stories
ATO, a Higashi side story event
There are always people chasing the truth of the dark side.
The story never ends at just a "story".
They point to trust, hope, fear...
...Until the empty heart is filled
And what i want, is not the "correct answer" that people always say it is.
I have a choice to make.
CC#4 Battleplan Arclight, scheduled on the second week of ATO
Adventures that Cannot Wait for the Sun Retrospect, scheduled after ATO
Operator Archives update for Catherine, Kazemaru, Hoshiguma, Utage and Contrail
Record Restore update for So Long Adele
Misc Stuff
New QoL features
Retreating from operations no longer deduct sanity
Practice Mode no longer cost anything
SSS New Season #9, Grill Security Service - Spicy Krysztauowa & Mama John's Newly Built Plate
Passenger and Toddifons added to recruitment
Livestream Stuff
Showcased Hoshiguma the Breacher, our first 6★ Arts Protector Defender
Talent 1 - Karmic Flame stops Hoshiguma from retreating when her HP reaches 0 and instead makes her enter a special state where she can't be healed but can still take damage and when she accumulates damage equal to a certain % of her Max HP in this state she will then forcibly retreat, when she doesn't take damage for a certain amount of time in this state she will begin recovering HP every second and exit the state when her HP is above 0
Talent 2 - Ghost Stance gives her a [Tenacity] buff that increases her ATK and RES the lower her HP is
Skill 1 - Karmic Retribution is an infinite duration skill that increases her ATK & DEF and when an enemy attacks her, she will deal damage to that enemy with a certain % of her ATK as Arts damage
Skill 2 - Ignorance Without Beginning makes her throw her shield and makes her attacks deal 3 hits to multiple enemies equal to her Block Count, her shield will travel around her counterclockwise dealing Arts damage every 0.5s and inflict Slow to enemies within its AoE and healing her by a certain amount of damage dealt, the skill duration is tied to the shield being in the air and the shield itself will actually slow down when it's attacking enemies
Skill 3 - Hell Incarnate expands her Attack Range, increases her ATK & Max HP and makes her attack deal 2 hits to multiple enemies within range, the skill has a special mechanic where if you manually deactivate it, she will keep the skill buffs for a certain amount of time and will not retreat, additionally Hoshiguma's attacks will become a 4-hit combo and she will protect other operators within range from lethal damage (her protection is prioritized over other similar effects), then after a certain amount of time she will forcibly retreat
Showcased Haruka, a 6★ Abjurer Supporter with special ways to mitigate damage
Talent 1 - Floating Light and Bubbles makes Haruka apply a Bubble to an ally operator within range after each Attack Interval, Bubbles grants Sanctuary and pops shortly after being attacked by an enemy
Talent 2 - Rouse the Fireworks makes her Bubbles heal the operator it's applied on when it pops by a certain amount of Haruka's ATK
Skill 1 - Night Crowing, Colorful Feathers increases her ASPD and makes it so whenever a Bubble pops it will apply Bubbles to allies within 8 surrounding tiles that doesn't have one
Skill 2 - Firefly in the Gap increases the amount of units she can target with her attacks/heals/talent at once and makes her heals deal Arts damage equal to her healing amount to enemies around her healing targets, after this skill is used a second time it will increase her ATK and become infinite duration
Skill 3 - Late Summer Fin Scales expands her Attack Range, increases her ATK, reduces her Attack Interval, increases the amount of Sanctuary her Bubbles grant and makes it so whenever an enemy attacks a Bubble during skill duration they will be Levitated for a few seconds and take Arts damage every second they're in the air
Showcased the event mechanic, machines that spit out pinballs that push aside enemies in their way and be attacked by ally units, players can catch the pinballs by placing units on special tiles to fill up a bar on the top of the screen, when the bar is full, the rightmost operator in the deployment waiting zone will cost 0 DP and gain +100 SP upon deployment
The cost required to spark Ch'en the Holungday will be reduced to 200 starting from this event, the cost to spark Nearl the Radiant Knight will be reduced to 200 in the CN 6.5 Anniversary event
CC#4 Battleplan Arclight will have the additional tags unlock at Day 1 and Day 7 of the event and one of the rewards for this CC is a Coral Coast outfit for Aciddrop
Announced a new permanent addition, Holographic Combat Matrix
Players can play a selection of stages and apply modifiers to it similar to CC
Players can get various rewards from it including CC#2 Operation Blade themed profile card and main menu background
Announced Duel Channel Honeydew, another season of the EvE multiplayer event, adding new enemies and mechanics
Announced Rebuilding Mandate, a new gamemode
In this gamemode players will have to deploy production modules, gather resources and fight enemies
Battles have a time limit and enemies can drop production modules
Players can combine production modules and certain modules can spawn enemies in battles
If there are too many enemies on the field at once, your Life Points will start to decrease
Announced the first expansion for IS#6, adding a new ending, new squads, new coins and collectibles and a second specialized module for Raidian
Announced Rhodes Island Icebreaker Games #2
The Positional Football mini-game has been replaced by a new raft steering mini-game
Players can now directly invite their friends from their friends list to play in custom rooms
Announced future QoL updates
The pop-up that shows what stages you can get a material from will show the one with the highest drop rate at the top
Friend limit increase from 100 to 125
The ability to mark friends in your friends list as Best Friends, they will be prioritized in the clue exchange list and their support units will show up more
The ability to preview Attack Range changes on skills from the operator screen and squad selection screen
Announced Ep16: Abnormal Spectrum, after losing contact with Raidian and her team who were headed towards Ursus to gather info on the whereabouts on the Sarcophagus, Rhodes Island follows suit into the tundra to figure out what happened
Players will get a free operator selector voucher that allows players to pick up Bagpipe/Saria/Surtr/Eyjafjalla and an outfit voucher
Announced a second Sanrio collab, coming with new icons/outfits/packs and also rerunning everything from the first collab
Holy shit, forget everything about the anniversary stream involving operators and modes and modules. They finally, finally included quality of life that would have been useful years ago!
When looking a Material's description, which stage has the highest drop chance of that material will be shown.
Practice plans no longer are limited to 30/day. They are now unlimited.
Related, Sanity is no longer used up when losing/quitting a stage. There was a "sanity shield" for first-time losses, or some sanity lost when losing or quitting Challenge stages. No longer!
When a Skill causes an Operator's Range to change, the new Range will be displayed in the Operator's Skill Description!
So like, Primal Casters will eventually get a module that allows them to just deal a % of the damage they deal as their respective Element, right?
The big 6* Core Casters already get such modules. So it's not far-fetched for Primal Casters to get that as well.
The devs in Arknights surely wouldn't leave the Primal Casters hanging in fear that characters like, oh, Nymph or Alter!Blaze would become absolute monsters that no longer need a team of supporting Elemental damage-dealers to make their third skills reach their maximum potential.
Side episode in Arknights where Doctor, Amiya, and Kal'tsit go shopping at Hot Topic.
Doctor grabs some nick-knacks to pin to their coat and a new hooded sweatshirt with a chibi U-Official on it. They also grab some candy to snack on while continuing to shop in the mall.
Amiya gets some black nail polish and some decorative bracelets that look like "cool kid" fake-Originium Suppressors. Except these have studs or dull spikes on them. She even gets a necklace with a crown charm design on it.
Kal'tsit doesn't get much at first, instead deigning to talk about how Hot Topic started as a store chain. But before leaving, she grabs a few sets of coats or hoodies that are three sizes too large for her. She says she knows somebody who would enjoy them in the future but doesn't say who.
In the Terra Trading Card Game (that I totally didn't just make up), Gnosis plays a combo deck with heavy control to allow himself room to execute his combo. Whether the combo is a well-known one or "off meta" matter little as they typucally end with a brutally efficient direct-damage burn to his opponents' life totals.
The Doctor plays decks that seem like gag decks that inevitably throw people off because of using cards people consider weak. Until they show their deep undersranding of the game mechanics and general tempo to pull off plays that few would see coming (as Amiya would later be quoted saying, "the Doctor's deck HAS no useless cards!").
Arturia plays "pillow fort" decks to stay defensive. She really enjoys watching other people play out their combos and strategies, taking satisfaction in playing the game for its own sake. But in larger groups..., she ends up drawing out games substantially, leaning on politic-ing to manipulate the players instead of actually making a board presence that could win the game.
I'm surprised that I haven't heard anybody talk about how the [Flinger] branch was likely designed with Annihilation maps in mind? Rosmontis was the first Flinger and her file is constantly talking about she's an Annihilation Specialist.
That she has Armaments of Annihilation.
That Annihilation maps are (at the time of her release) composed of hordes or constant streams of low-armored/medium-armored enemies. And a class like a [Flinger], with good attack rate and AoE, could be helpful with that, in theory? Like, designed to be good against those kinds of maps?
Idunna, it's been on my mind and just wanted to get it out there.
Arturia in a studded leather jacket and a spiked collar and darker makeup, but spaced to still give her plenty of freedom of movement and breathability.
Exusiai with an outfit that has Too Many Belts or Zippers. Like a character from Digimon or Kingdom Hearts. And she's fiddling with the flaps or zippers all the time.
"To cover up one's own sins, is to invite disaster."
Gracebearer, 5★ Primal Guard (new branch)
Are only perfect things worthy to be objects of faith?
Sankta Miksaparato, 6★ Welfare Sentry Protector Defender
I will not fall, you will not fall, no one will fall.
Lemuen, 6★ Deadeye Sniper
Ah, the smile on your face. Giving trust is just as reassuring as receiving it, don't you agree?
Exusiai the New Covenant, 6★ Limited Geek Specialist
Yeah, I met the "God" of Sankta.
But I reckon God is better off staying on 《The Saints' Travels》, from now on how we live our lives is up to us!
Operator Outfits Update
Total of 10 new outfits, 1 new addition each for the Epoque, Achievement Star, Iteration Provident and Rhodes Kitchen brands, 3 new additions each for the Bloodline of Combat and Test Collection brands
Epoque
Bard by the Lake - Cantabile
Achievement Star
A Player Forever - Mizuki
Bloodline of Combat
Primordial Ode - PhonoR-0 (Login Event)
Judgment Day - Fiammetta
Ignis - Vulcan (Event Reward)
Iteration Provident
Roar Against the Wilds - Młynar
Test Collection
Glory of the Devout - Archetto (21 OP)
Supernova - Wiš'adel (24 OP)
Doctor, won't you come and witness your masterpiece?
Come on, pull yourself together. At least we have time to do something about it.
星月漂流记 (The Drifting of Stars and Moon) - Kroos (Cumulative Login Reward)
Rhodes Kitchen
Secret Family Recipe - Savage (Event Reward)
Vulcan's outfit is a reward from Vector Breakthrough #1 「Inorganic Matter」
Kroos' new outfit is a 1000 days cumulative login reward
Savage's new outfit is a reward from the Arknights Link to the Limitless web event
Announced outfit reruns
Diversity Oneness - Virtuosa
Il Segreto Della Notte - Texas the Omertosa
Habitat - Silence the Paradigmatic
Operator Modules Update
All the new 6★s being part of branches with modules immediately get their modules
GEE-X module base effect increases Exusiai the New Covenant's SP Recovery rate by +0.25/s when her HP is above 80%
SPT-X module base effect reveals all Invisible enemies in Sankta Miksaparato's Attack Range
DEA-Y module base effect lets Lemuen restore 1 SP when her attack doesn't defeat/destroy the target
Liberator Guard branch gets 1 module type
Muelsyse, Thorns, Silence the Paradigmatic and CrownSlayer get their second modules
TAC-Y module base effect makes enemies blocked by Muelsyse's Flowing Shape more likely to be attacked and increases the trait effect to 165%
EXE-Y module base effect increases CrownSlayer's ATK by +10% if there are no allies units within 4 adjacent tiles
The base effect of LOR-∆ and BLS-Y modules are unknown at the time of writing
Events and Stories
The Masses' Travels, a Laterano side story event
If God intends for me to accept death as an angel
Then I would rather live on this land
in the ugly, fleeting, painful shell
—of a human.
Before faith came to be
A being imitating an angel began its prolonged yet transient pilgrimage
And the starting point of its journey
was but a single wish.
Vector Breakthrough #1 「Inorganic Matter」
Duel Channel: Green Grass Duel Centre Official, Cannot's April Fools event with multiplayer
Operator Archives update for Mostima, Broca, Nowell, Alanna and Arene
Misc Stuff
New QoL additions and changes
Starting from the Grand Bazaar annihilation mission, annihilation will start cycling on a 3 month rotation and future annihilation first clear rewards will give an additional 800 orundum to compensate for this change
Universal Certificates (blue certs) cost to hire 6★ operators lowered from 2k to 1.8k, cost for hire 5★ operators lowered from 500 to 450
Geek Specialist branch trait adjusted to lose HP slower and they will no longer go below 1 HP due to the trait effect
Auto deploy sweep feature upgraded allowing players to only need to watch one auto deploy for however many times they chose to sweep the stage
Added the ability to filter operators by their branch
Added a cumulative login reward system, after reaching level 80 and the corresponding number of logins players can claim dynamic profile icons and a special L2D outfit
Added 3 new activity rooms, improved performance when visiting friends bases and added a feature to instantly snap the camera to assistant operators
Saga, Mr. Nothing and Confess-47 added to recruitment
Asbestos' [Glen Sonata] Outfit will be available in the certs shop to players that don't have it
Livestream Stuff
Showcased Exusiai the New Covenant, a 6★ Geek Specialist with a unique support dps kit
Talent 1 - Firepower Radio makes it so when she's deployed and an operator consumes ammo she will immediately recover some HP and call a bombardment within that operator's Attack Range dealing a certain amount of AoE Physical damage
Talent 2 - Gun and Bullet Pact increases the ATK of all operators that have ammo when she's deployed, the effect is further increased for Laterano operators
Skill 1 - Clear the Skies is an ammo skill that makes her attacks deal a certain amount of Physical damage and prioritizes aerial enemies, if the skill is manually deactivated she will immediately fire all her ammo on random enemies within Attack Range
Skill 2 - Fire Unto Blight is an ammo skill that reduces her attack interval and makes her attack deal a certain amount of Physical damage, upon skill activation it also Steals ASPD from an ally operator within Attack Range and grants both her and the operator she stole ASPD from a Barrier that decays overtime, this skill gains additional ammo if she succeeds in stealing ASPD from an operator
Skill 3 - Mission Accomplished! is an ammo skill that has a passive effect of giving her a Delivery Marker on deployment. When activated the skill increases her ATK, makes her attacks hit 5 times in a row dealing a certain amount of Physical damage and if the marker is deployed before or during the skill is active, she will deal a certain amount of AoE Physical damage and deploy the melee operator with the longest redeployment time to the position of the marker, granting them some SP and retrieving the marker, each attack while this skill is active consumes 5 ammo
Showcased Lemuen, a 6★ Deadeye Sniper that has the ability to lock onto Elite/Leader enemies
Talent 1 - Cross-Border Pursuit License makes it so when she is deployed, Elite/Leader enemies that stayed within the Attack Range of Laterano operators for a certain duration will be marked as Wanted, attacks of Laterano operators deal more damage to wanted enemies and Lemuen can target all Wanted enemies
Talent 2 - Fugitive Extradition Procedures increases her ATK and max ammo after staying on the field for a certain amount of time
Skill 1 - Reunion Greetings is an ammo skill that increases her ATK and lets her attack an additional target
Skill 2 - Homecoming Invitation is an ammo skill that increases her ATK and ASPD and has a special mechanic where if there is a Wanted enemy on the field, she will immediately lock onto that enemy, take several seconds to aim and fire a shot that cannot be dodged. While aiming, her ATK gradually increases and if her ATK exceeds the sum of the enemy's remaining HP + DEF she will immediately stop aiming and fire
Skill 3 - Salute · Forced Memorial is an ammo skill that makes her stop attacking and consume one ammo every few seconds to lock onto enemies in sequence, when the skill ends she will carry out bombardment attacks on the locked-on enemies, each dealing a certain amount of AoE Physical damage with increased damage closer to the center of the explosions
Showcased Sankta Miksaparato, a 6★ Sentry Protector Defender
Talent 1 - Gun-Sweeping Welcoming Ceremony increases his DEF and ASPD for a few seconds every time he deals damage, this effect can stack up to several times
Talent 2 - Shield-Raising Send-off Ceremony grants him a Barrier equal to a certain amount of his Max HP after not attacking for several seconds, the timer resets when he loses the Barrier
Skill 1 - Gun Cavalry Inspector makes his next attack hit 3 times in a row dealing a certain amount of Physical damage and restores 1 ammo to a nearby Laterano operator with an ammo skill active
Skill 2 - Eight-Armed Chainsaw Man is an ammo skill that increases his ATK and DEF, if he happens to take lethal damage while the skill is active several rounds of ammo will be immediately consumed to block that damage instead
Skill 3 - Pre-Retirement Evangelism is an ammo skill that immediately restores several rounds of ammo of all other Laterano operators with ammo skills active upon skill activation, it also expands his Attack Range, increases his Max HP, ATK & DEF and stops him from actively attacking enemies. When attacked, he will counterattack and hit several enemies in his Attack Range at once (minimum counterattack interval is equal to a certain % of the regular Attack Interval)
Showcased the event mechanic, special tiles that make your operators fall asleep when deployed on, sleeping operators can eventually wake up on their own but can also be hit by allies to wake them up faster, there are also sleeping allied units on some stages that can be woken up to assist you
The cost required to spark Skadi the Corrupting Heart will be reduced to 200 starting from this event, the cost to spark Ch'en the Holungday will be reduced to 200 in the 2025 Summer Carnival event
Revealed more detail on Duel Channel, an improved iteration of the Cannot April Fools event
Players can play the gamemode in single-player, 8-player and 30-player lobbies
Each round during the pre-battle countdown players can choose which side they think will win and can freely switch their choices back-and-forth, players can see each others' choices until the last few seconds of the countdown where they will immediately be hidden
On the first 5 rounds, players have a one-time pass that lets them get away with one incorrect choice
The pool of enemies have been expanded
Vector Breakthrough will return with a number of adjustments as an annual gamemode
Amount of stages increased from 8 to 12
Added new challenge stages that can be attempted after beating the 12 normal stages
Buffs have a higher tier variant and players will be restricted to only 4 buffs active at a time
Teased future events, one involving the Crimson Troupe and one possibly taking place in Higashi
IS#2 will be updated to adopt the newer difficulty system going up to D15
Players can start on D3/6/9 depending on if they cleared easy/normal/hard difficulty before the update
The chance to obtain alternate ending encounters/collectibles are greatly increased starting from D10
Starting from D11 combinations of certain Hallucinations can trigger special effects
Starting from D13 the Proof of Glory collectibles have stronger debuffs, but the effects can be reversed upon meeting certain conditions
Announced Trials for Navigator #5, no details yet other than that it will feature bosses from IS#2 and IS#3
Announced IS#6 Sui's Garden of Grotesqueries
Implemented a new "dungeon-crawl" type floor that players can enter via a special node
Upon entering the floor players are given a number of candles, these candles are used to move from node to node on the floor
When you run out of candles you will be immediately kicked out of the floor, but entering the floor again in the same run will place you exactly where you left off
Implemented the ability to store recruitment vouchers, players can use the vouchers upon reaching a new special node and it will cost less Hope to recruit operators there
The core mechanic of IS6 is Tongbao coins, players can collect coins throughout their run, the coins have different effects attached to them
Implemented general improvements to the investment system, changed the Cannot's Mark collectible to automatically convert a % of ingots obtained after beating a stage into investments (up to a certain amount at a time), increased the amount of starting operator class options, optimized support reward options and adjusted initial resources for different difficulty levels
Raidian is a special operator you can obtain from IS#6, she cannot be raised via normal means and can only be upgraded by completing weekly/IS missions
Showcased the new Kroos skin obtainable from 1000 cumulative logins, it has 2 different animated art that players can freely switch between
Discussed the new qol features and announced plans to adjust the pop-up that appears when you tap on a material and it shows every stage it can drop from
Revealed the Arknights Link to the Limitless web event, which opened for all servers simultaneously, players can get a special icon and a Rhodes Kitchen outfit for Savage
Arknights PC client announced
Arknights anime season 3 [RISE FROM EMBER] trailer released
More episodes of the U-Official mini series confirmed
Announced Arknights Art Book Vol.4 is in the works
Revealed Taiko no Tatsujin collab, confirmed to be a mini collab bringing collab outfits and furniture
Revealed BanG Dream! Ave Mujica collab, confirmed to be a side story event
I've decided I'm going to break the cycle of reincarnation by not playing IS5 anymore. Not until I've leveled the necessary Operators to actually beat the new ending boss. The requirements on that boss are too high, and the Operators I've invested in are pairing poorly with the both that boss stage and the new combat stages introduced.
