Kyogre

[kyogre-blue]

Endgame updates:

AA was actually... really easy?

The only thing I want from AA is to clear and get the purple die, so this was actually way more than I needed. Anaxa is surprisingly capable when given Phainon's team :/

MOC.... finally finished, though it was a goddamn nightmare.

I actually did Graphia with Ashblade first, also in two cycles, while Phainon on Sparxie was seven cycles. However, I started trying to re-do the Sparxie run with slightly different teams (of third-rate supports) and it kept going way worse than before. Sparxie is just a uniquely awful boss. So I ended up switching them like this. Graphia with Phainon just becomes some annoying RNG about who gets targeted, both for energy/coreflames and for Graphia's CC.

But in the end, it just barely worked out. Funny enough, the final two hits necessary were done by Phainon outside his ult. I think he was actually one coreflame short of going into ult one last time before the cycle ended.

...Using Bronya with Phainon is just so miserable. Having to make sure to ult immediately after her advance specifically... urgh.

Very satisfied with Gil in Ashblade tho. He barely does anything most of the time, but his ult is a real goddamn nuke. Like, half a boss HP bar just gone. It does feel weird in the context of how this team works, which is lots of little hits very FUA style, but hey, if it works.

[kyogre-blue]

Current at 75 pity for DHPT E2... So out of desperation, I ended up counting at which pulls I got my previous characters. The numbers on my main breakdown like this:

below 20: 4

20s: 1

30s: 1

40s: 6

50s: 2

60s: 0

low 70s: 0

74: 4

75: 3

76: 3

77: 5

78: 4

79: 4

80: 3

over 80: 2

The reason it's like this is that 74 is where soft pity starts. It escalates up from there, so in general you can expect to get a character by the 80th pull. I've only had to go over 80 twice.

This is counting only character banners, obvs, not the LC banner, which has a hard pity of 80 instead of 90, so the soft pity starts earlier as well. You generally get LCs at around 70 pulls.

...Absolutely no idea why my earlies are clustered in the 40s. That seems to just be random chance, like getting Bailu over and over again.

[kyogre-blue]

THE EVIL IS DEFEATED!!!

Now, the only memoir rewards left are 2 pulls in CW:

....I'm probably get them tomorrow.

[kyogre-blue]

Finally all done with 999 event.

For the story, tbh I started skipping really quickly. Overall, the premise of characters doing DnD just doesn't interest me, and while Mint is cute enough, I didn't find the character interactions enough to carry it. It really didn't help that Iroi... felt kinda off-putting. Glad we could play her here (and that the meta is quite mild right now) so I know to skip her, since I was considering her previously. It also doesn't help that the story seems to be just filler that introduces Shinku, who seems to not have any plot relevance either.

But that's fine. Skip button exists for this reason.

The gameplay is a mixed bag. It's fine for an event, but it's pretty shallow and not terribly refined. I liked the Jump King platforming the best out of everything. It was also fun getting to play Mint (and MC) for a good while before I got to the real endgame builds(tm). (btw, here is the video I used as a guide for those.) That said, it does start to drag later on because it's just mobs that die to the special event dot effects and are too tanky for literally anything else.

Probably the worst part was this damn accomplishment:

There seem to be very few sources of equipment to appraise? I think it's just mythic weapons and accessories that are repeatable. I got those endgame builds just for this and have vastly overfarmed the buttons in the process.

I'm actually a bit unsure how to spend them. I got all the MC outfit stuff, but I only like one of Mint's outfits. I did end up getting all the base versions for her too because why not, and I got the namecard and phone decorations. But the Shinku icon, icon border, costume, those are useless to me, I'm not going to pull her. I'm thinking maybe getting one of Iroi's outfits just in case, but they're currently locked anyway. The other option is really just getting the daily refreshing enemy drop substitutes anyway...

Now, tomorrow I start the prop hunt event, haha

[kyogre-blue]

Continuing to collect reddit posts about gachas: 2025 Number of employees(+new hires in 2025) at Chinese ACG companies

From the comments:

1. Mihoyo 6891 (+214 hires) 2. Kuro Games 2368 (+363 hires) -> Wuwa, PRG 3. Hypergryph 2165 (+493 hires) -> Arknights, Endfield 4. Happy Elements 1036 (+429 hires) -> Ensemble Stars, Silver Palace 5. Manjuu 661 (+184 hires) -> Azur Lane, Azur Promilia 6. Yostar 657 (+96 hires) -> mostly a publisher, Stella Sora 7. Seasun 565 (+84 hires) -> Snowbreak 8. Yongshi 554 (+13 hires) -> Aether Gazer 9. Hotta (Perfect World) 516 (+125 hires) -> ToF, NTE 10. Bluepoch 509 (+55 hires) -> Reverse 1999

and

For the people curious about mihoyo specifically As of the beginning of 2025 hoyo had -about 1000 employees for the studio working on ZZZ and tears of thermes -about 1300 working on HSR -about 2600 working on Genshin And had 100 working on HI3 back at that time, though om sure thats been cut since.

That said, there's obviously going to be special considerations for each company. Some of these are notably working on major new projects, so these employees aren't working on their actually live games.

[kyogre-blue]

A very minor thing that I've been amusing myself with: collecting all 4 star Eidolons in HSR.

Right now, the only ones I'm missing are these four:

It does show how random 4 stars are, when we haven't gotten new ones for two years, and I still don't have them all maxed out.

Incidentally, I also only have S4 DDD. I'm also missing one more copy of Misha's 4 star LC and Luocha's.

[kyogre-blue]

Okkkkk, skipping through 4.4 story is done, new maps are done, and I also went back and did all the wispae and star rabbit stuff that I didn't realize gave rewards.

Now I am..... 30 pulls into a guarantee. I need 20 more pulls to get Gil LC (in a week). I'll definitely get that, since the collab event alone gives a ten pull, but I'm not sure how much I show focus on pushing past that for DHPT E2. Still thinking about it... If I stop at 50 chara pity (40 LC pity), I'll be able to really easily get to E1S1 Ashveil next patch. You know he's rerunning since the event LC is for him. That would also be pretty good.

Anyway, regarding the story, it's kind of sad that they're making an effort in some areas I've seen complaints regarding. They re-used the idea of altering "peacetime" maps into post-devastation maps from Amphoreus (with the city and the TV tower), which in theory helps lend more atmosphere to the story, showing actual changes in the world, and they seem to have tried to make more dynamic presentation. There was one moment when the next quests starts by having Sunday, outside an actual scene, run up to you. Those kinds of little touches should help with the presentation shortcomings that are such a sore point for people.

Of course, at the same time, you have "boss fights" in Interplanar Jump which is... just not really going to do much here.

They're also just drama-ing up their hearts out, there are sooo many unskippable cutscenes going on in the last section, so much pageantry about whatever is going on. I was just rolling my eyes because you have to rewatch those things if you retry any of the Asshat boss fights. Man, I am not looking forward to this useless fuck in some endgame mode. I think I might give up on AA here and now, preemptively. The freaking dice rolls and selectable effects and bombs... god. I don't want to deal with that ever gain.

[kyogre-blue]

And here's how the endgame is going:

Badly!

Actually, Phainon and Ashblade do passably if they have their proper teams. I think it was like 3-ish cycles each? BUT the third team is such a mess that it's functionally meaningless.

Of course, I don't see any of the banners this patch being able to fix that. E2 DHPT is nice, but not THAT big an upgrade, Himenova would need Phainon's team (also, she feels miserable to play), Evernight needs mono rem, and Sparxie needs both Yaoguang and Sparkle. Second half is just trash banners.

Depressing that I can't even get a full set of Starward medals. I kinda wanted that.

[kyogre-blue]

How the pulls are going:

"Funny" enough, I actually just got a copy of her on my alt too. I actually use her on my alt tho.

I think it's extra funny that the game makes a red popup to tell you to switch the E6 out of your celestial invitation when... you want to keep them there... there's an entire system that wants you to get past E6... filthy deceiving game.

[kyogre-blue]

An.... "interesting" thing about NTE is that the nature of the gacha board means it is actively possible to be really fucking unlucky and actually go to hard pity.

Here is me on 89 of 90 for standard banner:

You cannot get this in other games. The highest I've ever gone in HSR is 84. Genshin was either 84 or 85 as well. That's the point where the soft pity escalation gets to be so high that you can't really go past that. But I'm not an exception for hitting 89 in NTE. I've seen comments and screenshots from other as well.

(Btw, for those curious, if you hit pull 90 and trigger the hard pity, you roll the die -> a backhole appears and your die is swallowed up, disregarding whatever number you rolled -> you get the character -> your position on the board does not change.)

(I got Daffodill A1.)

[kyogre-blue]

lol the fish tank update in NTE is so buggy.

Aside from the text box issues, it's also just kind of confusing about what is needed or how things are used.

Also, you can't see to set the pH adjustment to run manually, despite having that possible for feeding and temperature, and it's unclear if the temperature setting will use up multiple regulator items. And of course, there's no auto-delivery feature like with the cafe, so you will need to continually go and buy these items from the shop.

[kyogre-blue]

I've finished skipping through the Planarcadia story and cleared out all the maps, now the only thing left is the side quests, though the rewards for that are only about a single pull in total, not really worth it. The total I have now is 100 pulls (just barely lol), which is... hopefully going to be enough when combined with the rest of this patch and everything in 4.4 to get 200 pulls for the free LC.

Regarding Planarcadia's maps, it's... interesting? Because they definitely were trying something with the Interplanar Jump system.

The only other kind of puzzle in Planarcadia is the color puzzles, which basically use the same style and models, just with the 3D rotation gimmick. And the maps overall are definitely smaller than Amphoreus because so much of the map "exploration" is actually in the Interplanar Jumps. There's entire sections of areas that you traverse only through that, most obviously in the TV tower but in other maps too.

This is very different from the previous worlds, which had multiple puzzles types that got updated with new versions and maps, including those that added to the map exploration, like the past/present gimmicks on Amphoreus or the wall running and bird's eye view stuff in Penacony. The 2D replaces that here.

And it's... it's hard to really pin down how I feel about that. I think that, if I felt positively about Planarcadia as a whole, I'd find some of it very cute. There's a lot of little gimmicks in the Jump sections, like assembling the robot, the fake kaiju reenactment, the Cocolia and Phantylia fights, or the drink mixing and the helicopter. Some of the stages are visually interesting and there is variation in the exact requirements for the gameplay (going by HSR standards, at least). I can see it being charming.

But I don't like Planarcadia, and this is very... in line with it in the worst ways.

Like, why is the avatar Pompom, but dressed in a bunch of kindergartner outfits? Why is the game so insanely patronizing, with the wispae constantly praising you for nothing? And just the blocky retro video game visuals on the whole... yes, all of Planarcadia is like that, but it's just not good? Akihabara But Even More is not a good or cohesive concept for a whole ass planet, especially not when you account for the supposed backstory of this place. And that's before you even get into the contents of these maps as a whole (the AE fes that recaps our "journey" when we just had the anni event doing the same thing?? and we have only three worlds to recap anyway??).

But aside from that, it really just feels very strange. Why does HSR need this kind of heavily used... side mode...? in the middle of its maps and story? They have working 3D models and 3D maps, we ran around very similar city maps in Penacony with more aesthetically suitable gimmicks, so why did we end up with this? Why did the team think this was the way to go?

I do have an entire rant about the weird mismatch in the story of HSR and its gameplay, but I'm not sure whether it's related. Maybe the team really did think that this was just such a cool (and money saving?) concept.

I'd say this is just kind of a step down to previous worlds, especially Penacony and Amphoreus, but given that we're now getting freaking... summer units... I guess HSR as a whole has stepped down anyway.

[ac-liveblogs]

thoughts on the retcon genshin did with arle and sandrone?

The one where Arlecchino simultaneously didn't care about Sandrone and went to the all-girls Harbinger slumber parties she hosted?

Idk, female friendships can get wild. That could have happened.

Realistically though, I think there was a definite decision to reframe/retcon the Harbinger relationships that hasn't gelled very neatly with the groundwork the game laid for them (HSR has also very obviously done this with the Stellaron Hunters). Like "I... guess that could have happened, but that's not really the impression the game gave and I think it actively contradicts a few things, but... whatever..."

It's happened in a few places lately, but when it comes to Sandrone and her relationships with literally anyone it is very very funny.

The idea that the Traveller was worried about the Fatui being empowered to recruit more foot soldiers in that recent event is hysterical. I'm sorry? Aren't we basically an honorary member at this point? You can't have it both ways!

(tbh I was also very disoriented with collei and cyno's conversations regarding collei's condition and some other small bits in the latest archon quest for the same reason. i don't know if they're deliberate changes or just the result of lack of care/knowledge about what was established before, but it was very strange to see play out. and also less interesting than what was implied before, haha)

[kyogre-blue]

The thing is that some level of retcon is fairly common for any serialized story that goes on long enough.

Realistically, it is both hard to plan everything ahead of time years in advance and also hard to stick to that plan when there is inevitably some degree of drift in characterization, plot direction, and other such things. Even more so when the writers change.

Think of even something obvious like the nine tailed beasts in Naruto, which were very clearly not planned from the start. Or that one short scene in the early Fairy Tail manga where Jellal inexplicably brings up Igneel. Even FGO, as much as I glaze its writing, ends up with some weirdness regarding Koyanskaya or even Holmes because those plot threads dragged on for so long.

It's obviously just hard too manage. But really, it's not the retcons that are the problem. Yes, we all know Shukaku wasn't meant to be part of a set with Kyuubi from the start, but who cares? Mashima just ignores that Jellal scene, but who cares? FGO fudges Mash's age for LB6, but who cares?

The real question is, imo, if what we end up getting is better that what we had imagined based on the story until then.

Obviously, it's subjective, but I think that's really what it comes down to.

The two pronged problem with Hoyo's stuff ends up being that they give a lot of info ahead of time... way too much info, probably. It allows for a lot of lore discussions and theorizing, but that also means that people come up with very detailed and interesting theories. And then the thing we actually get is generally... well. It often feels like the easy way out, or it leaves the interesting stuff off-screen, or some other thing that just makes it feel like we've been cheated out of something.

[kyogre-blue]

Took the screenshots while checking Chaos build in NTE, so I might as well use them.

Chaos build while out of the active party, 57% crit:

When in active party but not yet in combat, you can see Street Boxer's first +14% crit has been applied (71% total):

After triggering Remora, second +14% applied (85% total):

I plan to run him with Hathor for her passive, so he'll get an additional 10% crit from her. It's when attacking Remora-affected enemies, so it probably won't show on the stat screen though. Still, the aim in Genshin and Wuwa was around 70% crit, so 85% should already be fine.

NTE is really nice in regard to the gear because there are no duplicate rolls into the same substat, unlike Genshin/HSR. Rather, you unlock a set of substats as you level up, like Wuwa, and you can see them when you get the module, like Genshin and HSR updated later to be.

But even better than Wuwa, there are no min/max rolls on substats. For example, Crit rate is always exactly 1% per square block on the gold pieces. So a Type II module (has two blocks) will always give 2% crit, a Type III will give 3%, etc.

Since Chaos can fill out all 20 of his grid, he can get a max of 30% crit rate (one of his type IIs doesn't have crit here, so he's only getting 18%). The console meanwhile can give 18% for the mainstat of 10% for the substat. These can double up (same main and sub stat), like in Wuwa, but this only applies for the console, not the modules.

So the total you can get on a character from console is 30+10+20=60% assuming they can fill their entire grid... though some characters can't, the requirements of the set make it impossible to maneuver the pieces to fully fit, like Hotori on Lost Radiance:

Those gaps are unavoidable from what I can see.

Chaos's sig gives 24% crit rate, while the BP arc on Hotori gives 22%.

So the total you'll get from console and arc will end up for 87-89%, counting the base 5% crit rate. But of course, this also means that character who don't have a crit arc or any other form of crit boost in their kit will end up with only 65%.

That said, my other DPS, Nanally who doesn't have a crit arc but does have the crit rate bonus from equipping specifically Type II pieces, up to 36%.

This means that for her and also Chaos, it's actually possible to overcap on Crit rate if they get it from every source they can. This is why Chaos should not run Crit rate console main stat (I'm trying to decide between Lakshana and cdmg for him), same for Nanally if you have her sig (though I don't).

Now that I'm finally Hunter level 50, it's almost time to start the console grind, so I've been trying to organize my thoughts, sigh...

[kyogre-blue]

DU has advanced to the last reward level:

Unfortunately, it is... ridiculous:

lmaooooo

I already barely got through the previous threshold level. It is insanely dependent on getting the exactly correct equations and blessings, and it's very easy to just... not get them, and there's nothing you can do about that. You can't even just give up on a failed run because you lose a point toward completion from doing that. Combined with the forced negative curio, which you have no reliable way of ditching...

Yeah, I'm just gonna leave this as is. It's not worth it.

[kyogre-blue]

lmaooooo

OK, might actually be quitting after 4.4

[kyogre-blue]

The issue I have with Baicang.... is that he and male Zero just look like siblings.

He definitely looks like an older brother character? And for what??