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[nvrndr]

Whoa she does look fun

 

[Pejo]

Yeah, for real! Maybe someone from Hypergryph saw me gassing up the game before release and secretly flagged my account with better odds for 6* operators, lol.

Jokes aside, this is definitely the best start I've ever had in a gacha. I'll almost certainly get Laevatain through grinding, so the only real question mark left is Last Rite.

And speaking of Yvonne, she's actually pretty fun to play.

Gun Lupa looks pretty stylish.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Seriously, this is actually fucking insane! I got Laevatain too from those 10x "urgent recruitment" tickets that don't even count toward building pity for the guarantee. I'm actually shook right now.

 

[Spyxos]

Yeah, for real! Maybe someone from Hypergryph saw me gassing up the game before release and secretly flagged my account with better odds for 6* operators, lol.

Jokes aside, this is definitely the best start I've ever had in a gacha. I'll almost certainly get Laevatain through grinding, so the only real question mark left is Last Rite.

And speaking of Yvonne, she's actually pretty fun to play.

Oh wow you can even play with her. I thought she would be unlocked in few weeks for you.

 

[Spyxos]

Live feed of Thick Thighs Save Lives and our pulls

But damn congrats!

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Oh wow you can even play with her. I thought she would be unlocked in few weeks for you.

Yeah, I could play her right away. Got her to level 30 and put her into my main team. She's really fun to use. ;D

Live feed of Thick Thighs Save Lives and our pulls

But damn congrats!

Pretty much, haha. I shouldn't complain, but I did lose five 25/75s trying to get her signature weapon. I'm in no rush though as I can guarantee it with 2k more Arsenal Tickets, which I'll get once I pull my next 6* operator, probably from the standard banner. For now I'm using the BP weapon, which is the 2nd best choice for her and about 15% weaker than her signature. Not that it matters anyway, since it'll be a while before I get to the endgame where that difference actually matters, lol. Anyway, I'm saving for Gilberta now that I've got both Yvonne and Laevatain.

By the way, did you get any 6* operators yet? Maybe from the beginner banner, since it takes around five or six hours to get all the tickets for that one?

Edit: Also, there seems to be a pull tracker like the ones for WuWa, ZZZ, etc. at https://endfieldrecords.com/tracker so here are my character banner pulls:

 

[Spyxos]

Yeah, I could play her right away. Got her to level 30 and put her into my main team. She's really fun to use. ;D

Pretty much, haha. I shouldn't complain, but I did lose five 25/75s trying to get her signature weapon. I'm in no rush though as I can guarantee it with 2k more Arsenal Tickets, which I'll get once I pull my next 6* operator, probably from the standard banner. For now I'm using the BP weapon, which is the 2nd best choice for her and about 15% weaker than her signature. Not that it matters anyway, since it'll be a while before I get to the endgame where that difference actually matters, lol. Anyway, I'm saving for Gilberta now that I've got both Yvonne and Laevatain.

By the way, did you get any 6* operators yet? Maybe from the beginner banner, since it takes around five or six hours to get all the tickets for that one?

Edit: Also, there seems to be a pull tracker like the ones for WuWa, ZZZ, etc. at https://endfieldrecords.com/tracker so here are my character banner pulls:

No nothing yet, not sure how far i am. Just met a boss chick and her underlings.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

No nothing yet, not sure how far i am. Just met a boss chick and her underlings.

Oh okay, you're probably about an hour and a half (maybe two if you get sidetracked) away from getting all the tickets you need to finish the beginner banner and get the guaranteed 6*. Anyway, good luck! Hopefully you pull a 6 star you'll like.

 

[Aenima]

Im now at the part where we start to learn how to automate the factory, and its way more interesting than it looks from the initial interaction we have with the factory thing. Its pretty much a second game inside the game.

Thick Thighs Save Lives Getting that much 6* chars in around 10 pulls in a game with 0.8% drop rates is beyond crazy. Go grab a lottery ticket.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Finally properly dove in, the amount of tutorials is insane, just got to lvl 15 so now i can continue the story, hopefully it gets going and has some permanent/recurring cast (that 100% includes Chen)
A bit scared it gets too time consuming.

Gotten Pogranichnik (discount Sephiroth keeps haunting me across games) and 2 Ardelia copies, not sure if thats good, copies seem kind of meh here, but thats a very good thing in my book, if it stays that way itll be awesome.

Combat is nice to look at, ive spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Bloodborne this week so maybe my view is a bit skewed by that, but it feels far too simple, not enjoying it for now. Base building on the other hand seems very promising, presuming it gets sufficiently complex and the exploration seems to have some bones to it which is very nice.

 

[Spyxos]

Im now at the part where we start to learn how to automate the factory, and its way more interesting than it looks from the initial interaction we have with the factory thing. Its pretty much a second game inside the game.

Thick Thighs Save Lives Getting that much 6* chars in around 10 pulls in a game with 0.8% drop rates is beyond crazy. Go grab a lottery ticket.

Don't give him any ideas, at this rate he'll hit the jackpot in first try.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Btw, in Endfield there's one shared server for the Americas and Europe, which is cool on its own, but if you're planning to stick with the game, I'd recommend we add each other, as we can take advantage of the different local prices to sell elastic goods for profit. Here's my UID, feel free to add me to your friend list: 6060084668

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Ugh, I ended up spending 10 bucks to just buy an account that had Last Rite. The rerolling in this game is truly boring as shit because you just watch the same cutscenes over and over again. To be fair, I guess that's a better deal than almost anything offered in game. I can see why account sellers make so much money when gachas launch

Now that I know virtually everything you need to do in the game until level 15 is actually preset and tutorialed, I don't need to faff around doing anything other than railroading the main story to catch up back to where I was. Now I can do it with my cutest corpse eater Last Rite

 

[cripterion]

I wonder how is the performance in the final version. In the beta they released the game was under 60fps on PS5 Pro always, usually in the VRR area, but looked like in endgame content with multiple effects could drop under 48fps

The game doesn't support VRR or HDR for that matter. Quality vs performance doesn't do anything on PS5 pro.

 

[Mayar]

The rerolling in this game is truly boring as shit because you just watch the same cutscenes over and over again.

To be honest, although Rerling is possible in this game, it is honestly not that important or necessary. This has more to do with the mechanics of the game than with balance.
It's a bit different from the main pack of Gacha games, where you can go in and look at the tier list of characters and start rerolling.

Spoiler

In this game, this is much more important, and this is essentially your DPS:

Spoiler

That is, ideally, you want a selection of strictly four specific characters, since DPS in this game is not based on a single character, but is built on the basis of a combo link between characters. And by rerolling and getting, say, a certain character, you essentially lock yourself into a single group configuration, and now you actually need not just one character, but three more.

DPS in this game looks like this:

Spoiler

This game has only one attack button, so the combat here is built not on one character, but on the connections between them.

There's no point in even bothering with that, as the game is too simple and easy. I have, for example, the ideal, strongest team in the game that can be assembled at the moment:

But I ended up dumping her for a weaker one:

Because I wanted at least some kind of challenge from the game. As I understand it, I eventually reached the final location and killed one of the bosses. And they locked me, i'am rank 30, but they told me I could only advance further once I reached rank 34. I've always loved that in games.

P.S - So, you can reroll, but there's little point in it, you'll end up building strictly defined configs, whether you like it or not. Plus, this is a game for those who like to press a single attack button.

 

[Spyxos]

Every time i go to the simulation mode for building, the game just crashes and afterwards it acts like i have copleted it. And then I have to figure out what it wants from me without a tutorial. I think that's it for me.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

So for some reason it was bugged for me yesterday, but after logging in today it seems to be working again. Once you've unlocked the ship, besides the elastic goods you can easily sell for profit, you can also give production assists to friends when you visit their ship. It takes two clicks, and you get credits you can spend on useful stuff in a dedicated shop.

Just made 31k profit on this elastic goods sale, lol. Bought them for 676 per unit and sold them for 2.6k in another friend's world.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Every time i go to the simulation mode for building, the game just crashes and afterwards it acts like i have copleted it. And then I have to figure out what it wants from me without a tutorial. I think that's it for me.

Sorry to hear that, bro. If it helps, you can find the 3 sim tutorials you need to complete in order to progress the main story on this YouTube channel:

 

[Spyxos]

Sorry to hear that, bro. If it helps, you can find the 3 sim tutorials you need to complete in order to progress the main story on this YouTube channel:

Thanks, very helpful, that's exactly where I got stuck.

 

[vkbest]

The game doesn't support VRR or HDR for that matter. Quality vs performance doesn't do anything on PS5 pro.

Yes, I just saw that. That is incredible because the beta I played VRR was not disabled and was better experience. Also, they have memory leaks too, so performance is going worse while you are playing for long sessions. Expected anyway, those gacha games have terrible ports

 

[Autistic_Pancake]

I really, really wish I liked this game. But god damn does it feel like a shovelware product sometimes. I keep slogging through tutorials, and somehow they aren't different from Early-2025-CBT at all. It's bizarre to see them not changing "Simulations" since then... Questionaries and surveys were pointing to the fact that they seemed to understand it was the weakest point, but for some reason it's still there in its pristinely excruciating form. Click this, click that, as if the player is being taken for an idiot.

 

[Mayar]

Every time i go to the simulation mode for building, the game just crashes and afterwards it acts like i have copleted it. And then I have to figure out what it wants from me without a tutorial. I think that's it for me.

From what I've read in reviews, the game is not very stable for some PC users and does crash, which will likely be fixed with patches. On PS5, I haven't had a single crash or freeze during my entire time playing.

So for some reason it was bugged for me yesterday, but after logging in today it seems to be working again. Once you've unlocked the ship, besides the elastic goods you can easily sell for profit, you can also give production assists to friends when you visit their ship. It takes two clicks, and you get credits you can spend on useful stuff in a dedicated shop.

I also had two buggy quests. One of them just completed itself without me even realizing it happened. I actually accepted the quest, but the screen went black for about 5 seconds, and then I returned to the game and was simply given the quest reward (Maybe I had everything I needed in my inventory to complete the quest, it just looked extremely strange) . The second quest involved following markers that appear on the radar. I followed them for a while, spotted a sphere off to the side, and decided to collect it. I jumped onto a ledge and ran toward it. Eventually, I apparently hit the cutscene trigger, triggering a cutscene. After the cutscene, the entire route disappeared, and just the quest's finish point appeared on map.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I also had two buggy quests. One of them just completed itself without me even realizing it happened. I actually accepted the quest, but the screen went black for about 5 seconds, and then I returned to the game and was simply given the quest reward (Maybe I had everything I needed in my inventory to complete the quest, it just looked extremely strange) . The second quest involved following markers that appear on the radar. I followed them for a while, spotted a sphere off to the side, and decided to collect it. I jumped onto a ledge and ran toward it. Eventually, I apparently hit the cutscene trigger, triggering a cutscene. After the cutscene, the entire route disappeared, and just the quest's finish point appeared on map.

Yeah, hopefully they fix some of these buggy quest soonish, but aside from that it's been smooth sailing for me, no crashes and really good performance on my PC. Btw, if you've unlocked the ship, add me: 6060084668. I need to sell my stuff for profit, lol

Edit: Just got my shit kicked in by these worms. I'll have to come back later, since beating them gives three chests.

 

[Mayar]

Btw, if you've unlocked the ship, add me: 6060084668. I need to sell my stuff for profit, lol

I opened it a long time ago, I've almost completed the entire story. But I won't add , just out of spite.

Just got my shit kicked in by these worms. I'll have to come back later, since beating them gives three chests.

What's your level and group? I beat them, if my memory doesn't change, at rank 32. Are you using Wulfgard's AoE and Antal's fire damage boost?
(Laevatain without these two characters is not as good...)

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I opened it a long time ago, I've almost completed the entire story. But I won't add , just out of spite.

What's your level and group? I beat them, if my memory doesn't change, at rank 32. Are you using Wulfgard's AoE and Antal's fire damage boost?
(Laevatain without these two characters is not as good...)

Just managed to beat them by putting Ember on the team, but my Laevatain still died. Whoops. Have my main units at lvl 30 and some at 20 still.

Also, damn, you've played a shitton of the game already.

 

[Mayar]

Just managed to beat them by putting Ember on the team, but my Laevatain still died. Whoops. Have my main units at lvl 30 and some at 20 still.

Unfortunately, this game will kick you in the ass for the wrong characters in your group. If you want to play Laevatain, be sure to take Antal, he significantly increases your Fire damage and has a debuff that significantly buffs single-target Fire damage - insane on bosses (he a must-have for all Fire and Electric teams). Wulfgard - Free AoE Heat Infliction, the best boy for her, simply takes her to a whole new level.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Unfortunately, this game will kick you in the ass for the wrong characters in your group. If you want to play Laevatain, be sure to take Antal, he significantly increases your Fire damage and has a debuff that significantly buffs single-target Fire damage - insane on bosses (he a must-have for all Fire and Electric teams). Wulfgard - Free AoE Heat Infliction, the best boy for her, simply takes her to a whole new level.

Tbh, I don't really want to run meta teams for story or overworld exploration. But yeah, I've heard that guy is one of the BiS supports for Laevatain. I'll level him and gear him up so I have him ready for harder content.

By the way, since you seem to know her kit pretty well, which essence is better to use for her signature? Twilight, since it gives bonus Heat DMG and boosts basic attack DMG, or should I go with Intelligence or Attack instead?

 

[Icymanipulator]

I hate the focus on building & crafting. Doubt I'll play this much more.

The combat also doesn't seem to be anything special.

Character designs are nice but imo Etheria Restart and Punishing Gray Raven still have the best designs in the gacha space currently.

 

[Mayar]

Tbh, I don't really want to run meta teams for story or overworld exploration. But yeah, I've heard that guy is one of the BiS supports for Laevatain. I'll level him and gear him up so I have him ready for harder content.

This will probably be the main mistake of many gamers that have come from other Gacha games. It's not about the meta - this is Arknights, a game not about characters, but about groups and their construction. Here, the game is built not around the character, but around the group itself. And speaking of a meta, there isn't one here, because there's no choice yet. That will appear when there are more character choices; right now, there are too few for that.

Let's just take the same Fire team and figure out why it is like this:
Laevatain - is a good DPS, but very stingy with stacks and extremely slow. We need to help her out and speed her up.
Wulfgard - Free AoE Heat Infliction is exactly what we need, this character allows us to mitigate her damage and speed up her damage output. Akekuri could be used instead, but she's slower and less effective.
Antal - is the only character in the game that increases Fire damage; there are simply no other options.
Ardelia - Heals, inflicts Debuff on enemies, applies Erosion increasing the group's damage. Again, there are no replacements or other options.

For example, why aren't we putting Ember on a fire team? She shields the team (nobody cares...). But looking at her entire kit, she doesn't have a single damage boost for the team or main character. While she could be used instead of Ardelia, it would be a significant loss of DPS. They handled her very poorly, since her kit is so basic that adding her to a fire team doesn't really add anything to the team. It's unlikely she'll be used in the future, unfortunately...

Too few characters, too few options to talk about meta, there is simply no choice.

By the way, since you seem to know her kit pretty well, which essence is better to use for her signature? Twilight, since it gives bonus Heat DMG and boosts basic attack DMG, or should I go with Intelligence or Attack instead?

Her Sig is the best weapon on her, by a huge margin. I just didn't get lucky. I use Nova, and even that's enough for me.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

This will probably be the main mistake of many gamers that have come from other Gacha games. It's not about the meta - this is Arknights, a game not about characters, but about groups and their construction. Here, the game is built not around the character, but around the group itself. And speaking of a meta, there isn't one here, because there's no choice yet. That will appear when there are more character choices; right now, there are too few for that.

Let's just take the same Fire team and figure out why it is like this:
Laevatain - is a good DPS, but very stingy with stacks and extremely slow. We need to help her out and speed her up.
Wulfgard - Free AoE Heat Infliction is exactly what we need, this character allows us to mitigate her damage and speed up her damage output. Akekuri could be used instead, but she's slower and less effective.
Antal - is the only character in the game that increases Fire damage; there are simply no other options.
Ardelia - Heals, inflicts Debuff on enemies, applies Erosion increasing the group's damage. Again, there are no replacements or other options.

For example, why aren't we putting Ember on a fire team? She shields the team (nobody cares...). But looking at her entire kit, she doesn't have a single damage boost for the team or main character. While she could be used instead of Ardelia, it would be a significant loss of DPS. They handled her very poorly, since her kit is so basic that adding her to a fire team doesn't really add anything to the team. It's unlikely she'll be used in the future, unfortunately...

Too few characters, too few options to talk about meta, there is simply no choice.

Her Sig is the best weapon on her, by a huge margin. I just didn't get lucky. I use Nova, and even that's enough for me.

You know me, my man. For easy content like story and exploration, I want to use my favorite units, even if they don't all have good synergy with the main DPS I'm running. If it takes a bit longer to clear stuff, I'm totally okay with that as long as I'm having fun. That said, I do appreciate the advice, and I'll keep it in mind for future team‑building when I get to harder content.

Btw, I'm now exploration level 2, so I raised both Laevatain and Ardelia to level 40. That should help a fair bit, even against slightly over‑leveled enemies if/when I run into them.

 

[Mayar]

You know me, my man. For easy content like story and exploration, I want to use my favorite units, even if they don't all have good synergy with the main DPS I'm running. If it takes a bit longer to clear stuff, I'm totally okay with that as long as I'm having fun. That said, I do appreciate the advice, and I'll keep it in mind for future team‑building when I get to harder content.

I'm unlikely to be a good source for this. I just want to finish the story and will most likely delete the game. I don't like leaving games halfway through. But there are already guides, and good ones, so I don't think there will be a problem. As I mentioned above, the open world is incredibly easy, and the bosses are too. That's why I even stopped using Laevatain and switched entirely to playing as Endministrator, so I don't expect any problems. However, the endgame content will likely punish players extremely harshly for not using optimal teams, which is exactly what happened in Arknights.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

One of the JP bros I talk to from time to time has fallen for Yvonne and is actually considering losing multiple 50/50s on the limited banner just to get her early, lol.

 

[Mayar]

Also, damn, you've played a shitton of the game already.

Me, every time a new Gacha game comes out:

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Just recorded a 120 fps clip of Laevatain's plunge/dive attack, and then dropped the original frame rate to 1/4 to get a 4x slow‑mo. The resulting slowed animation looks pretty dope.

 

[Mayar]

Just recorded a 120 fps clip of Laevatain's plunge/dive attack, and then dropped the original frame rate to 1/4 to get a 4x slow‑mo. The resulting slowed animation looks pretty dope.

They have a trophy: you need to hit an enemy while falling from a height of over 20 meters. Now find the enemy and repeat the same process. You can also add a slow motion animation of putting on glasses at the end.

 

[FudgeIt]

I tried this game and it plays nicely. I'm kind of interested in continuing. I'm hooked on decent combat.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Is this a Factorio/Final Fantasy combo? I can't find it on Steam. Looks cool but I don't know what I'm looking at!

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Maaaaaan, I've so much to say after playing the game for 1,5 days and after what I've been through just to be able to even launch the game and make it working, but it'll wait until tomorrow, as for now... well didn't get anyone early before banner went live, but I got everyone and almost everything I wanted and then some - basically every character from the standard banner

Don't have Ember and Pogranichnik's sigs yet, but I'm close and it's just a matter of time.

P.S. Thick Thighs Save Lives I've sent a friend request your way

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Maaaaaan, I've so much to say after playing the game for 1,5 days and after what I've been through just to be able to even launch the game and make it working, but it'll wait until tomorrow, as for now... well didn't get anyone early before banner went live, but I got everyone and almost everything I wanted and then some - basically every character from the standard banner


Don't have Ember and Pogranichnik's sigs yet, but I'm close and it's just a matter of time.

P.S. Thick Thighs Save Lives I've sent a friend request your way

Damn, bro! Those are some nice pulls! Congrats! What's your in‑game username as you're probably not using your GAF name and I've accepted several friend requests today.

Btw, when you've got some free time, don't forget to add the download links (PC standalone client, Epic, PSN, App Store, and Google Play) to the OP, or to the second post if you want to make a cool asset for them later on.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Damn, bro! Those are some nice pulls! Congrats!

Thanks! I tought it'll be much worse but here we go. Can't complain

What's your in‑game username as you're probably not using your GAF name and I've accepted several friend requests today.

It's Akira with a # and some numbers I don't remember, I'm sure I'm the only one with that name

Btw, when you've got some free time, don't forget to add the download links (PC standalone client, Epic, PSN, App Store, and Google Play) to the OP, or to the second post if you want to make a cool asset for them later on.

Yeah, absolutely, they'll be there tomorrow

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Thanks! I tought it'll be much worse but here we go. Can't complain

Yeah, it seems a good number of people posting in the OT and actively playing the game have already pulled the limited character, plus a standard 6* they like, so that's cool to see.

It's Akira with a # and some numbers I don't remember, I'm sure I'm the only one with that name

Oh, Akira with the Last Rite as pfp. ;p I accepted your friend invite a short while ago then. ;D

Yeah, absolutely, they'll be there tomorrow

Awesome! Ty man!

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Hypergryph is a better music company than a game studio confirmed every day

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Got my Authority Level to 32 and my Exploration Level to 3, and there's still so much left to do in this first big region, including unlocking one more map, lol.

Oh, and here's Ember's first art, since I pulled her potential 1 (dupe) at soft pity on the standard banner…

 

[Unknown Soldier]

What's really impressive is the level of detail and other improvements made to the PC client of this game. This game was definitely made with PC in mind as well as mobile, texture detail, environment complexity, model detail, lighting and shadows all see dramatic differences between mobile at max settings and PC

You would not be able to guess it was also a mobile game if you only played on PC, it easily looks as good as any console game of this generation

Also the sound design is fantastic, it sounds great on my home theater. I've tried both the Chinese and Japanese voice work and both feature great talent despite not being heavily populated by "name" VA's

 

[Agent_4Seven]

This game was definitely made with PC in mind as well as mobile, texture detail, environment complexity, model detail, lighting and shadows all see dramatic differences between mobile at max settings and PC

I'm sorry, ma dude, but no, it is not, which is very, VERY unfortunate. It was primarily made for mobile and here's why - there's absolute zero Global illumination, SSAO, dynamic shadows, whether effects like wind or even slight sway of grass or trees as a reaction to anything, there's almost not cascade shadows of any kind, there's contact shadows setting in the game, but I can't tell you if they're working or not cuz I see no difference. There's also no dynamic lights or lights casting shadows, no volumetric lighting or fog, no sky boxes with volumetric clouds etc. etc. etc. Basically, Idk how the game looks on mobile (presumably way worse than on PC), but on PC it looks flat af cuz of what I mentioned and WuWa kills it without much effort on a pure technical front. Idk what happened here cuz on some screenshots you can clearly see shadows on and from the grass, but even considering all that WuWa again killing the game here with it's insane draw distance of grass and other objects, not to mention the amount of grass there is in the game. I'll ask them about all this in the survey, maybe they'll fix it later and add the actual PC-only visual features in the future updates. Graphics-wise the game looks good, but for now it's beign saved by excellent art design, use of color etc. which matches perfectly with UI design and persentation and character models are beyond amazing.

BUT! With all that said, it strikes back at WuWa with full force when it comes to absolutely god-like UI, overall art-design, menu design, overall presentation and kills it like it's nothing. Like, holy shit! It's simple by which I mean there is no overload of assets and stuff we can see in Metaphor for example, but it's how they're being used to creat striking and clean presentations is what matters the most. Character screens for example have much more personality and showing characters way better and their personality better than WuWa does with it's simple close ups, generic and basic af Genshin / HSR-like effortless crap as UI and backgrounds. Compare it with pre-3.0 and 3.0 UI designs for news, events, version live stream previews of the future version etc. - there's zero consistency and coherent UI presentation to match the games art, regions etc. It's all mish-mash of different UI designs and background while everything else in the game is basically the same as it was back when it launched almost 2 years ago.

Endfield:

WuWa:

I'm not saying WuWa is crap here, god forbid, no, but it just goes to show who cares A LOT about all aspects of the overall game presentation and coherent design and who doesn't. It's even more buffleling when you see drastic improvement for events and stuff in WuWa but not for the core game when it needs it BADLY and the most. Like, why can't they rework the whole UI design to match god-like 3.0 presentations and event's UI? Why, Kuro? Damn. Adding new icons to the outdated, bland and boring UI design is not it. Back to Endfield though. Hypergryph clearly haven't delayed the release of the game for so long just cuz they felt like it, and I'm not talking about making it more tolerable for people who don't like factory management gameplay, to make combat better and so on, no, they clearly did it to make all this better too, yes, but they also took all this time to scan gacha gaming space and tried to make things available in the game day one while other gachas like ZZZ and WuWa added them just a month ago or so in some cases.

Moreover, they also looked at GFL2 so unlike in WuWa or ZZZ with their fixed character menu animations, they also added character reactions for camera close ups and taps when you look at characters from behind and enable the option to look at all of the character details in 3D + they looked at ZZZ character menu animations and made it better and in full 3D to show and present characters better, so there's different animations and reactions for differet character menus. Team UI is also miles better than in any HoYo game and WuWa for that matter as well, with full 3D line up of characters. The animation quality is also top notch, very expensive, expressive and clearly mocaped. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows cuz unique gacha animations... well, they're just not there and WuWa, sadly, kills the game here. Like, idk, it feels like they just run out of time or decided that they're not going to compete with WuWa here, which is fine, cuz they can improve on that later.

And... unfortunately, they still have to improve on conversation system and it's presentation. I mean, it's not bad at all, no, but if WuWa has this very impressive anime-like character animations with great camera angles, character reactions to the camera position etc. etc. Endfield simply doesn't have that, by which I mean the cinematic quality of all this. There's different camera angles and all that but cinematic feel is just not there. Maybe it's just the beginning of the game and it'll improve laters during personal character quests etc. but for now it's not even close to WuWa in terms of cut scenes and conversations presentation. But again, it's just one thing they can easily improve going forward.

As for the gameplay... This is exactly what I meant when I said WuWa's combat needs to get rid of the BS stamina as a huge part of the combat and finally introduce element interactions to make the combat way better, deeper, fun and diverse. Arknights combat works completely differently than WuWa which is tied very hard to pitch perfect character rotations to maximize each character efficency to prevent quick swaping cuz you also need to worry about proper intros and outros to buff characters etc. In Arknights theres way more classes than in WuWa or ZZZ (you can argue that Bangboo can act as an off screen buffer too), so there's Main DMG Dealer, Support (Healer), Hybryd DPS and SP recovery for the whole team, proper Defender with shields and HP recovery, but you clearly need specific characters to maximize the efficency of others, except that you also need to worry about different elements and elements interractions and various effects they can provide during combat to deal with enemies and bosses faster. Like, yeah, there's only one basic attack string and there's no other variations like heavy attacks, hold attacks or anything like that (although I think they'll think about to do something like this later, I'm sure of it), but in compensations there's different character and elements interactions to achieve different effects.

Like, when I looked at Pogranichnik (guard of the country border in Russian) During Beta phase I thought - maaaaaan, what a boring ass generic dude which reminded me of Calcharo back then, will never pull this motherfucker ever and if I will accidentally, will never play as him, but man oh man was I SO WRONG. He's so effin' cool and badass like, daaaaamn. So you have his Ult where he summons a squad of heavy armored dudes and smashing the enemy together with a very satisfying punch and sound to deal massive DMG, but if you play it right, you can actually continue this Ult after characters skill activations to make an even more impressive final strike with this summoned squad and you can do that for every other character and their Ults, so instead of dealing with specific rotations by following milliseconds, concreto regen and shit like that in WuWa, you need to learn different character interaction and just execute them right without worrying about cooldowns, BS activations of buffs for 5 sec or somethin' and other crap. Yeah, in WuWa Carlotta can freeze the enemy and a boss with her Echo skill, but that's where element interactions end and it's limited to one character, not the whole squad to contribute to the end goal.

I'd say what Hypergryph did with the combat is much more interesting that what Kuro did with WuWa's combat and you don't even need to worry about the stamina during combat at all, like, it's there but at the same time it's just isn't and I never was even close to run out of stamina during combat so it's not an issue at all, moreover, I might as well just say that it's not a problem during exploration as well and it's not running out when you close to enemies or just passing them by so you can keep running as much as you want. Granted, you don't need to scale walls here or anything like that, so it helps, but still, I think they could've just got rid of the stamina altogether cuz I can't see any reason as to why it must be in the game, but here it's a good problem to have unlike in WuWa. Also, combat reminds more of what Namco did in Tales of Arise and I like it way more than what we have in WuWa, cuz not only characters in the party are alway with you on the screen, but they can also help you farm and grab items and it completely eliminates the need for quick swapping cuz all you need to do is just activate their skill and Ults and that's it and unlike in Xenoblade where enemies have absolutely gigantic HP bars which makes combat extremely long and boring, Endfield doesn't have anything like that, but of course if you run into enemies which are 10 lvls above you, then you'll have to fight them way longer (or just ignore them until all of your squad is lvl 30), but it's just a lvl issue, not the BS core design to make the game insanely long for no reason whatsoever.

So yeah, combat in Endfield imho is much better, more interesting and complex than in WuWa, but I'd like to see the introduction of dedicated heavy attacks and holds later on to make it even better, add more skill expression and variety to already excellent combat gameplay. More to the point, I highly recommend to go through each character tutorials to see, experience and learn how characters work so that you can use them well in the actual combat, I can't say tutorials are better than in WuWa or ZZZ, but they will make you know and show you things and then it's up to you to use them well. As for exploration... it's good, nothing to complain about here, but even though team members can help you gather and farm stuff, I'd love to see automatic materials collection in the future as a great QOL feature for those who need it (same goes for WuWa btw). What I don't like in terms of explorations is that character ascension mats are on cooldown and not available in huge quantities like in WuWa which SUCKS! I just don't get why it has to work like this, it's just bad.

Factory gameplay though... maaaaaaan, to say I don't give a shit is to say nothing and the whole beginning of the game is all about it, so you have to literally endure all this shit to progress through the story and get anywhere. Also, you absolutely must go through all the factory tutorials to unlock blueprints to use later and there's a ton of them for each phase of which there are 3 iirc. Man, what a fuckin' pain to go through, but the rest of the game is so good that I don't have a choice, but I can totally see people droping the game cuz of this boring and tideous shit. Like, I unlocked the second Phase yesterday and now need to go through tutorials of the second one... UUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHH! FUCK! Man, I hate it, there's no way I can just dance around the issue, it's just the way it effin' is. I hope to GOD that they won't be introin' more and more features for this crap for us to deal with in the future, cuz it's clearly and not even close to the best thing the game has and it reminds me of ZZZs TV gameplay from early to mid 1.X. I haven't used other people's blueprints yet cuz I didn't dive into that yet, maybe there's already fully built factories for absolutely everything in the game, but if not, they need to add already fully prebuilt factory blueprints into the game that will cover everything when you unlock all 3 phases. Man, if some people like all this shit, fine, more power to them, but I just want to focus on things the game does way better cuz they're way better and infinitely more interesting to me and I want to interact with the factory shit as less and humanly possible.

But, I do think that what the game has to offer besides this factory crap is more than worth it, so... Idk effin' know, ma dudes, if you hate factory crap or don't like it just as much as I do,... eh, just fire up some podcasts, play your favorite music while powering through all this nonsense and be done with it, cuz at least early on there's no way you can avoid it. Also, there's stuff you can build that will collect mats automatically and put them into storage which is a huge feature, but they need to make a menu where you can collect it all without interacting with different machinery to collect it manually, same goes for adjusting crafting mats and stuff. Like, it's a game, it must be fun and nothing even close to boring or tedious, why force people to collect shit manually if it can be done via a simple menu for everything? Ugh. Thick Thighs Save Lives how far are you in the game? Are you at a point already where you don't need to worry about the factory crap? I only unlocked the second phase, how much more I need to endure all this?

I haven't even seen Dijian btw, so I'm looking forward to that as well and can't wait to get there, see how it looks, how it works, what you can do there and all that - don't spoil it for me you guys, I want to discover it on my own and I've seen very little of it on the stuff they released so far. As for what happened on launch, well, to say it was a clusterfuck is to say nothing. I had to redownload the game 3 (!!!) times cuz I thought launcher was bugged, but it turns out goddamn Norton firewall decided to delete the main .exe file and launcher could not restore it properly and decided to redownload the whole game. Then, it turns out that Putin's cuck suckers and anus lickers installed some blocking shit at the headquarters of the internet providers so we couldn't even launch and download the game without... well, something I won't mention, so I had to deal with this crap for 2 days to even make the game working. Then it turns out that Norton firewall decided that UP.exe was a virus and deleted it as well, and cuz of that a lot of update functions like news, patch notes, promo codes and account center weren't working so I couldn't redeem promo codes! FUCK! I can't tell you what I've been through to figure it out and it's just pure and dumb luck that I decided to check goddamn Norton again.

Ugh, but at least the game is working now, I don't have to worry about VPN and found a solution to watch YT, use Discord etc, without using VPN at all, which allows me do to other things now which VPN prevented me to do before, so I guess that's good.

 

[Mayar]

He fell to me after all...After I had actually completed the entire game and I didn't really need him... There is no God.

Nothing new, though, just everyday life in Gacha games.

 

[Jibran#one]

I have a 2 gacha rule , wuwa and zenless were in the list
I really can't and won't maintain 3 gacha games
And I'm really close to dropping zenelesss for this tbh

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

He fell to me after all...After I had actually completed the entire game and I didn't really need him... There is no God.

Nothing new, though, just everyday life in Gacha games.

What's your authority level, btw? I heard you need around 45 AL just to unlock Wuling.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Ugh. Thick Thighs Save Lives how far are you in the game? Are you at a point already where you don't need to worry about the factory crap? I only unlocked the second phase, how much more I need to endure all this?

I've been ignoring it for the most part with a few exceptions, but yesterday I built several power generators at the Sub‑AIC in Valley Pass to increase my grid capacity since I hit the 200 cap. I also added a bunch more ore miners to boost ore yield and keep up with the increased spending. I'm actually planning to stash some of the miners in Valley Pass since the yield there is lower than in the main hub, and I'll get enough ore from the ones available in the hub anyway, which should help reduce the load on my power grid.

That said, I want to craft better gear though, so today I'll focus a bit on the factory and get the necessary buildings set up for that side of things.

Other than that, I mostly used the system to relay power across the important zones on the first 3 maps so I could unlock all areas. Today I'll be doing the same for the 4th map, and we'll see what I can manage on the 5th once I get to it later today.

 

[Mayar]

What's your authority level, btw? I heard you need around 45 AL just to unlock Wuling.

I finished the game (main map) at level 41, and as soon as I killed the last boss I immediately got 42.
Want a really funny joke, just to understand who the game's target audience is? Right when you reach the final boss. A tutorial window will open, and you'll never believe what's in there...
They'll seriously tell you before the final boss (Main map) in tutorial that it would be nice to craft sets, equip them, and improve your weapons. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. As for bosses in general, the game doesn't have a single decent or well-designed boss. They're all incredibly boring and, frankly, poorly designed. The final boss is especially disappointing; it's a very boring fight.

P.S - Only for those who have completed the game (As I understand it, showing the final boss of main map and spoiling his cutscene in the very first trailer for the game was a commercial and strategic move?)
Wuling - No spoilers here, but the game has portals for level 50 and bosses for level 60, just in case. This is what I saw while running around the map. This shouldn't be a spoiler in any way, as there's a lot of story and cutscenes, and that's your goal. So I won't write anything about it. We're only talking about the main map, which is visible to everyone at once. Any questions are welcome here.

I haven't logged into the game yet; I haven't had a chance. But I need to log in and rework all the factories... to accommodate the new resources and production...
For completing the main Intermission on PS5, rewards the gold trophy - Conference of Four trophy, which only 1.7% of players currently have.
Arrival in Wuling gives you a silver trophy - Arrival in Wuling, which only 0.3% of players have so far.
This is essentially endgame, so no spoilers here. Just get there and see, it's beautiful.
I apologize for adding to the post as I go, I'm on the road and writing from my laptop.
I still need to update Nikki's topic under these conditions.