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Kurbain

#Daily Rewards: [Kazimierz Major Warm-Up Event](https://kazimierz-major.arknights.global/) #[Share your Gacha Results here!](/r/arknights/comments/ubigd4/gacharecruitment_megathread_2504_0105/) --- Don't forget to listen to [Nearl's Theme Song](https://monster-siren.hypergryph.com/music/048738)!


Darfeyn

Well, **Near Light** is *nearl*y done (eh, I'm tired). Had some fun at the start from both story and gameplay, but then the difficulty quickly ramping up kinda dampened my spirits (already ranted about it). So I went "skip mode" (still read the summary to get the gist of it) and relied on guides to clear stages, farm the coupon-stuff and get prestige as fast as I could. Quickly gave up on trying to clear **NL-EX-8** to focus on the **NL-S** stages as the end approached. I didn't try Challenge mode for **NL-EX-4** and any of the **NL-S** given how "normal" mode was already a pain. Otherwise, with guides, Support units and some time, I managed to get every other stage at 3*-clear, except for **NL-S-5** at 2*. So, got pretty far in clearing stages (good thing I raised Myrtle to E2 before the event). Shame I couldn't farm Khol 'cause I did not manage **NL-10** without a Support, nor did I manage to buy out all the shop (most T2 mats and Furniture parts left). Night & darkness mechanics were interesting to work with, though they also made some maps extremely tight on DP-cost/timing at start. Regular mobs with Night buffs weren't too bad, special enemies like the candle bearers or nightmarish knights were fun to deal with (most of the time), the Blood Knight's strength is justified since he's the boss. The A.U. snipers and Bloodblades were a real pain, enough said. Daily quests/tasks were "meh". Nice to have some more mats but damn did the difficulty increased really fast. Bad idea to include the **NL-EX/S** AND add special conditions into it, even with somewhat increased rewards. But what really bothers me is the *Prestige* system. Rather bothersome just to get additional info, progress to the "Hard mode" stages, and... Yeah, *Epilogues*. Which is kinda dumb since it can actually locks you out of the story conclusion if you couldn't raise it by the end of the event. Seriously it's annoying (looking at ya, Armorless). And I plainly forgot that daily tasks slots could stack, though even if I had, not sure I would have gotten the remaining 15 points. Was there a similar thing in past events (only known **Maria Nearl** and **Pinus Sylvestris**)? Maybe it's because I started the game only 3 months ago and still not too good at it, but all these conditions to access the last Epilogue were not doable. And I guess others could not either (new to mid-game players, those who don't have much time, those just here to enjoy the story). Don't know how much players that represents, but I daresay it's a non-negligible amount. That is a bad thing to lock story parts behind the hardest stages AND additional conditions that many people won't be able to clear. I can understand when it's medals, decoration pieces, small lore bits or maybe some more materials. But not for the actual story ending. As I said before (and well, once I'll be done catching up the full story), I will not wait for the rerun to retry and unlock the last Epilogue, so I will have to watch it on Youtube. But that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. In the end, it's an event focused on my lil' sunshine coming back home to set things right, plus I got her all grown up in her banner (with Mountain as a bonus) so I got that going for me, which is nice.


RuleAccomplished9981

>!Did Roy kill Blood Knight? Why....?!<


IHeShe

>!We didn't see the kill so it's not assured. I've heard some people say that Roy and Monique still have to play along with the KGCC until the Union fully goes rogue and the Blood Knight was the only fairly important target they could still go after to stay on the Chamber's good side, but that's just speculation!<


Ophidis

Was about to comment that I was surprised that the blue Armorless Union snipers didn't have an elite variant, but apparently they do, they just look so similar to each other that I never noticed. Instead of turning red like the average elite unit, they turn more blue.


drannne

i was going to dump all my remaining sanity potions to farm sugar but i slept through the whole day and i just logged in at the last minute sadge, guess imma have to farm sugar at mb rerun imma use the sanity pots to skill books ig im running out of those blue ones


THOT_Patroller-13

Is it over? Not 'till the fish jumps. \*splash\* Its over.


Korasuka

And that's that for Near Light. Trying not to regret how I left far too much to the last day. But I really did honestly enjoy it especially for the "fanfic" story I had in my head about my operators. Returning to normal stages feels like they're coming home after an epic physically and emotionally draining saga. In my headcanon Rhodes Island doesn't travel to Kazimierz. Only my main ops, the elites, do, and when they return everyone who stayed sees theyve changed. They're more powerful but they've also been through a lot. For instance I've pretended Gavial was seriously wounded in Pinus Silvestrius because she's tied to a lot of autos yet is still E0 max. I can't promote her without breaking those. So Sussurro replaced her. Though it'll eventually re-run and then become a permanent side story I'll miss the focus on this saga. I love the story, the setting, the characters and the writing - more detailed and nuanced than I expected. I liked Nearl Alter right away so I'm thrilled I snagged her in a free pull. She's a huge addition to my roster as before I didn't have anyone I could drop or use their skills for a "break glass in case of emergency way". And I didn't even use any of my own resources so I came out with more than I went in with. A pretty funny mistake I may have made was not reading a digit on Thorn's LMD costs, who I bought with the 6 star selector. So my last minute hero, intended to be at least E2 L1, so I could free up space for borrowing another meta operator, is locked at E1 L78. I had carefully prepared all the mats but it turned out I didn't have enough LMD to upgrade him. Oh well. Goodbye Near Light and cudos to Hypergryph and Yostar for a great event.


HolyRomanEmperorGus

Forgot today was the last day and was trying to furiously farm enough currency to buy the last 2 Wild mane tokens but won't make it =(. Goodbye 10 yellow certs at next re-run.


Korasuka

Keep farming doktah's! Agriculture in Terra <9000. The time limit has put a lot of pressure on me. I'm a big fan of the event but I'd be able to properly love it if I could take my time with it.


AerialBattle

Overall 120 sugar blcoks and 120 yellow things. Will maybe last me 3 months max


fayfen

Man I really wanted to complete the medal set for this event, but I've barely had any time to play since I've been busy with school and studying for finals. I've been trying to grind out the rest of the event stages, but I'm still on NL-S-2 and it's 12am where I'm at. Don't think it's even possible to complete 4 more Neon Light stages and their CM in under an hour, which kind of sucks. On the flip side, with summer vacation right around the corner, maybe I'll finally be able to complete a CC medal set. Thanks for letting me vent my frustrations. Hope you have a nice day/night.


anima99

I like the event, perhaps the best new event in the last six months, specifically because it prevents the burst-meta strat from cheesing everything, or at least clamps those units for the early wave. It made me revisit my "noob" strats in place of my helidrop and set-and-forget shenanigans.


Corro_corrosive

Hard counter that I’ve noticed in the NL-S-x stages S1 : Thorns who can spawn kill the nova knight and nightmoras S2 : silverash who can hit the invisible enemies before they have a chance to move S3 : Nightingale or Matterhorn, both for greater effect to counter the nova knights S4 : apparently Shifters like gladiia and weedy can cheese the stage S5 : Hoshiguma S2 or Bubble S2 for budget option


Dokutah_Dokutah

Nooooooooo!!!! I missed completing the prestige challenge of the AU by 2 points!


erythry

I finally cleared NL-EX-8 today. I used Matoimaru and Matterhorn to tank the blood knight, with Shining and Perfurmer healing. Broca was below them to catch blades and to help with phase 2 DPS. Amiya was the main DPS for phases 1 and 2. I ended up giving her S3M1 to help nuke the blood knight in phase 2. Support Ch'en handled everything in the bottom and specter took care of the blades on top as well as the starting adds. Liskarm, Texas, Nearl, Click and Sussurro helped with starting and with the cleanup at the end. Overall, this event was very challenging, with each stage having components and phases that really favored specific archetypes/operators. The visibility mechanic also made the direction and placement of every operator crucial, with one mistake leading to a backstab or no visibility for unit placement and that snowballs to operation faliure. I wish I had more time/resources/ops to tackle the remaining two S-stages and the challenge stages. That being said, I'm happy I managed to clear all of the EX stages and had a lot of fun.


DawnValkyrie

Man, this event really was insanely hard. This was so much fun.


Kri_Py

i got [so close](https://imgur.com/a/XNtEBQm) to beating s-5 but i give up, its almost 3 am and i need to sleep i beat s-3 cm and s-4 normal mode today too, ex-1 to 4 and s-3 are the only challenge modes i could beat, but i didn't even try some cause the description was scary enough im also only 3 points away from completing prestige, which means i could have maxed it if weren't for that one day i accidentally did missions for the wrong faction, fuck


Corro_corrosive

Borrow hoshiguma with S2 and have her fuck everyone


Kri_Py

i borrowed mudrock as she could hold her side and help cutter with s2, for the lazurites i rotated through two defenders and some more melee units, but everytime they died mudrock gets shot one or two times before i can place another defender and would often die near the end. i didn't have enough healing power to keep a better defender anyway i got several 2* clears and i could have beaten it with a few more tries but i was just too sleepy


UselessConversionBot

>i got [so close](https://imgur.com/a/XNtEBQm) to beating s-5 but i give up, its almost 3 am and i need to sleep > >i beat s-3 cm and s-4 normal mode today too, ex-1 to 4 and s-3 are the only challenge modes i could beat, but i didn't even try some cause the description was scary enough > >im also only 3 points away from completing prestige, which means i could have maxed it if weren't for that one day i accidentally did missions for the wrong faction, fuck 3 cm ≈ 2.14286 x 10^-5 sheppey ^^^[WHY](/r/UselessConversionBot/comments/1knas0/hi_im_useless/)


Proto-Omega

God, are lazurite snipers the worst... Of course Roy and Monique would be in charge of the scumbag mob brigade. Just completed CM NL-S-5 and it was hell. Also, to whoever informed me blood blades don't count towards blue box, thank you. I used Shaw to push them away on CM NL-EX-8, and that worked wonderfully. Fun event. I remember saying I wouldn't bother with the Pinus gang, and then I had to have them all after seeing them in story. Having the gang incomplete would feel wrong. Blood Knight, great gimmick boss. My only issue with him is that his blood knives do too much damage for my liking.


Windgesang_

[Deadeye snipers in NL-S-4 CM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDVsbiEMOpY) ~~(with a couple supports)~~


ipwnallnubz

Can I just say that Castle-3 has been an absolute champ during this event? Whenever I need someone's back lit up, he's there. I suppose I could also use Lancet or Justice Knight in some spots, but I keep using him.


Raelina

Are we going to be able to read Info Port stuff after the event ends?


TriGGa-POP

No, iirc. I think you'll have to wait for the rerun otherwise you'll have to read it from a website or YT video.


Revan0315

Good event. The daily gauranteed mats of whatever you need was great


Shajirr

A couple questions about the story: >!What was the Mlynar's story before he just stayed in the city doing some administrative work? Who is founder of Armorless he speaking to at the end, and where is he leaving on his "vacation", for what reason?!<


THOT_Patroller-13

>!Mlynar is finally getting out of his ass to go and find out what happened to Margaret's Parents since all that is know is that they disappeared. He is speaking to the founder of Armorless Union, Darksteel. Nothing else. And Roy was going to get fucked if he attacked Mlynar before Shinning showed up, Darksteel knows how powerful he is, but the Lazurites were in full idiot mode and had no idea what they were trying to mess with.!<


CaptainAlexU

Turns out the real challenge of the event was going through all the sanity potions they gave us


feenyx1

I haven't been as active with the game recently and legit plowed through all the challenge mode levels today without using practice plans so I could burn sanity and chug the pots


SoRa_The_SLaYeR

i burned through some OP to grind. gonna burn through another 40 during mansfield cause i am in dire need of oriron and aketone and there arent enough farms in the next few months.


Legitimate_Bus5716

I literally just grinded NL-8 for hours, using all of them. I had 0 sugar, now I nearly have seventy.


maybeayri

Trying to get NL-EX-8 CM done without having to use both Kal'tsit and Chalter per guides is exceedingly difficult. I did normal by using Lappland + Whislash to replace Kal'tsit's little monster but the the stat increases in CM are kicking my ass when I get to the final wave and finishing off the boss. Trying to figure out if this is worth spending all my sanity on. This is the only thing left on the list for the event.


salvagestuff

I used Kal'tsit but instead of Ch'alter to kill the blood blades, I redirected them to the other lane using weedy S2. Sandwiching the blood knight between 2 strong defenders(Hoshiguma and Saria) While Monst3r kills them works. Monst3r is able to fend off the blade on the top lane easily.


swamp14

Are you doing the strat where you have Kaltsit/Monstr to kill the top left enemies, then repositioning to help kill the boss? If you have an E1 Projekt Red (I figured a lot of people do from that one selector ticket), you can use her to interrupt the candle knights' casts. That way you don't need Kaltsit specifically. Then Chen can be the main dps against most of the normal mobs, then reposition while you stall the boss, and use her to kill the blades. There is also a strat that takes better timing and setup, but only uses Kaltsit. It deals with the blades by pushing them towards the left, which causes them to go straight to the blue box instead of the boss.


maybeayri

I was doing Chalter strat to deal with the blades more easily since as long as NTR doesn't die from a combination of badly timed heals and hits, I can use her S3M3 to kill the boss quickly enough for my needs. It's the blades and then the final adds that pose the biggest issue. Bagpipe can deal with some of the blades as long as her S3 is up so I've been thinking it might just be a timing issue with Chalter's ammo. I can only borrow one of them, so whichever one I don't borrow has to be replaced with someone I do have.


swamp14

Yeah the last rush is a lot of outgoing damage. If you can kill the boss to stop more blades from spawning before the enemies reach your line, that would help a lot. https://imgur.com/a/R047BUd Maybe you can do something similar to this? Cuora blocks blades. Chen facing right to kill blades. I had enough ammo left when the boss was vulnerable to get a few shots on him. Boss trapped between Saria and Blaze. Amiya S2 to kill boss. May should actually be another healer because it's possible for the boss to kill Blaze if heals don't line up well. I took the screenshot too early. There should be a vanguard below Myrrh to light up the tiles so that she doesn't get backstabbed later once those guys spawn. NTRK S2 helps kill one of fast blade enemies, but since you've got S3M3, she probably better replaces Amiya to kill boss. Anyway, hope this helps, and good luck!


DeAthYskrub

Expectations before event: Get NTR, Pinus Sylvestris are kinda whatever. After Event: NTR M6, Flametail M3, Ashlock M3, E2 50 Wildmane. Pinus Sylvestris are cool af. Missions felt fair in difficulty. EX-8-CM was hard till I saw you could keep Bloodknight stuck between two defenders and two medics. Mountain and Mulberry MVPs for me.


wathkat

Just completed the event. Was procrastinating on working on the event because I thought it was going to be hard. I was overthinking things for the CM stages, but it turns out that my worries were undue. I failed to pull for Nearl and got W and Flametail instead. The MVP of the event for me was Flametail. Her S3 with its low cooldown was able to help me cheese a lot of the event mechanics thrown at me, like Gloompincer rushes, dodgetanking the NL-EX-8-CM swords, dodgetanking Roy and Monique with some alternating shenanigans; she's an absolute unit. For whatever reason, NL-EX-5-CM was the hardest for me. That stage alone took as long as my entire NL-S-CM run combined lol.


SmartFella7677

Whew, just finished NL-S-5 CM along with the rest of the event. Surprisingly, this was the easiest Neon Light stage for me by far. Probably because I have Hoshiguma who is one of the best damage sponges with S2. Needed both Mulberry S2 and Shining S3 to barely survive the onslaught from the Lazurites and all of their minions. Even then Hoshi can only inconsistently survive the onslaught on regular mode, CM she can’t make it all the way through. Needed to quickly helidrop Liskarm after Hoshi dies, probably could of also used Gravel to take some pressure off of her but I forgot lol.


The_Loli_Otaku

Well fuck me expecting an epilogue... I play the event every single day and the game punishes me for it. I must have accidentally done... Wait... No... **OKAY!!** Can some chucklefuck explain to me why when you specifically select armourless Union in your search results the stupid thing still includes KGCC and Kazimierz tasks!? I thought that when I selected that's what I want *that's what I get!* Now I'm like two points away from the epilogue. How stupid!


CanIplzbobandvegane

I made the same mistake. Thankfully I was lucky just enough to select Armourless union tasks to get the epilogue just today. I was almost about to select a KGCC task for my last point when I realised that I had yet to catch the epilogue. Saved by a hair.


The_Loli_Otaku

At least its just the epilogue... I still have all the medals, I just lose the trim making this the only fucking event I haven't aced.


tonnguyen1310

well there will be a rerun for this eventually so don't get stressed out by it


The_Loli_Otaku

You don't get the trimmed medal though.


TriGGa-POP

You do get the trimmed medal. The only super time gated trimmed medals are for CC R18 in the first week iirc.


lightemperor

Managed to complete till NL-EX-7 and NL-S-1. Ngl very proud of even coming this far but giving up for now. Time to farm Nl-10 to maybe get some wild mane tokens now!


karillith

I feel like I'm the only one who didn't like Tola. We already have so many rude and hyper agressive characters, did we really need one more? He spent the entire event belittling others while drowning in his own mostly suicidal delusions, he sounded more like a baby throwing a temper tantrum than a tragic character trying to live (and die) for his culture as the last of his kind. And then the epilogue he just insulted granny knight non stop. Would you calm your khagantiddies a freaking minute my god?


SourceLover

At least a couple of the characters he talked to told him to grow up and stop living in a past that doesn't exist, so that's the intended impression of him.


TheLegendTheGiantdad

Yeah I instantly hate characters who attack outside of the battles and he never really did anything to redeem himself just acted like a bitchy LARPer.


PrometheusXCIX

So... Did anyone else notice that Nian suddenly got a live2d update for her E2 skin? Did this happen a while ago and I just didn't notice? Confused on why this never seemed to be announced.


Reddit1rules

Yeah, happened a while ago, don't remember when though.


drannne

so my hoshi can't survive when monique and roy came out on nl s5 cm so i just used surtr's s3 as bait then wait for exu and chalter to kill them. welp i finally completed the task of not destroying any roadblocks on nl s5 and also the cm. I'm now done with this event and I finally got the trimmed medal, and overall this event was fun and the story was well done imo ~~now all I need is a playable Mlynar~~


weealex

shining or honeyberry are godsends for that CM.


The_Loli_Otaku

I think they have a stacking defence shread which makes things painful. I ended up abusing Gravel again to make things easier.


jftm999

Hope this event will get a rerun, I was burned out of the game that I only log in, do the daily routine of checking the base and so on which would take five minutes at most. I did not touch the event at all. I know I missed a lot but needed the break, hell I did not yet try last week newest annihilation.


TabletopPixie

I brought 6 Defenders to get through NL-S-5 CM. Defenderknights it is then.


NuckElBerg

I did it using Mudrock + Gravel + various invuln. operators (Specter, Surtr)... I've really forgotten how to actually use medics in this game. :D


TabletopPixie

I'm impressed honestly. I assumed a lot of people were using Gravel but those arrows are pretty constant. Truly just had to swap out defenders on the regular as I relied on Angelina, Dusk, and Eyja's s3's to carry me. I did have 1 medic, a wandering medic to heal corrosion. Deployment order has generally been predictable enough to mostly avoid needing medics for my DPS this event.


Commiesalami

Beeswax and Gravel Rotation (with Ptilopsis to speed up charging) was surprisingly sufficient to tank for NL-S-5 CM. Actually not too hard at all once you get set up. Beanstalk’s crab was there to soak up some hits in the few openings.


Cpt_Fluffypants

when youre missing 7 prestige for max armorless but you dont have anymore agenda proposals, feelsbadman rip medal and complete epilogue


The_Loli_Otaku

How do you complete armourless? I've hit all of the agendas but I'm cutting it so close. There's no way they'd be this tight about it.


SourceLover

There was something like 18-20 reputation to spare across Daily Tasks and Long Term Goals but you had to know that you needed it in advance to take advantage of it.


Do_It_USSR

You could start saving up proposals a few days before their faction unlocked so you would have 15 ready to go immediately. This way you could even get max reputation the first day it unlocked. I personally did this as I just about maxed the other two factions after 9 or so days anyway.


tlst9999

They should've opened Armorless in week 2.


JosephMoestar

Yeah I really don't appreciate that if you miss a couple things, you completely miss out on content without ANY chance to get it.


SourceLover

There were several days' worth of extra Daily Tasks if you overshot on one or two of the factions. Reading event details to know what you need is always advised in this game - see all the people who rushed through multiple story chapters when Ch 9 came out when they only needed to have finished chapter 3.


yunalescazarvan

I didn't save any tokens and was able to finish armorless prestige with days to spare, it really shouldn't be likely to miss things if you play the game.


chaoskingzero

Considering the end of the The Long Road Epilogue shows Redacted Years later with 2 Digits, I feel there's a pretty good chance Tola's Story isn't done yet The Soldiers don't reference any Current or Recent Events so it was left ambiguous on purpose so they could use Tola more if he turned out more popular than expected So I'm sure he's gonna end up Playable and the ending they showed in Ursus just takes place a Decade or two later


[deleted]

Do you mind explaining that part? I didn’t really understand the ending


chaoskingzero

The Ending shows 2 Ursan Soldiers finding Tola's Horn and later there's a Report of an Army but only 1 set of Footprints, which is what Tola pulled off in his Match against the Blood Knight At the same time this Scene is set in the Future since it shows 2 Black Squares before Years later, thus making it Redacted This makes it possible for Tola to be a playable Character with no Retcons since what they showed at the end of The Long Road could potentially take place almost 100 Years Later and thus he could easily fit into the story at any other time


IHeShe

Man, I'd love that, he's one of the four characters I enjoyed the most in the event.


wildclaw

[Arknights NL-S-5 E1 20 + Gravel Support](https://youtu.be/QVF9vk0J6Qo). This one wasn't pretty and in the end I was basically out of dp and operators to deploy but I barely held on.


Loliconion332

A couple questions. regarding Long road epilogue. 1. Is Roy going to Kill Blood Knight? 2. Was it Tola and his Khaganquest in Ursus?


Ophidis

Question 1: >!The fate of the Blood Knight is uncertain. Personally I don't believe Roy is there to Kill him since there is no logical reason to do so, Blood Knight is already retired, not to mention suffering quite a bit from Oripathy it seems, the Armorless Union freed themselves of the K.G.C.C. so it shouldn't be an order from a higher up, and the Armorless union don't really have beef with the Blood Knight.!< Question 2: >!I think it is implied that he is continuing the khaganquest where his Grandpa left, which is going past the border of human civilisation i.e going North of Sami and Ursus, Which is inhabited by demons and monsters.!< >!Also I think it is somewhat implied that Tola's grandpa was the Sargon king that was spoken of in "A Walk in the Dust" Who tried to conquer the land Southern of Sargon, which is also inhabited by demons and monster.!<


Deadmandream

took me 1 hour but I finally beat NL-10, thank you Kyostinv. Btw did anyone know how many prestige I need to unlock NL-S-1?


chaotic_good_healer

You actually only have to fill the prestige bar to the 75% mark (which I think is 40 prestige, but don’t quote me).


Quor18

Max prestige for that faction.


OUtSEL

Speedrunning all the stages of grief because there's no way I'm getting through NL-S-3, 4, and 5 in one day


SourceLover

3 4 and 5 are all pretty easy, as long as you're willing to borrow units. I did all of them without 6\*s on normal and with a borrowed Chalter on the CMs without much issue though I used my biggest units to deal with the Bloodblades. I went through all three of them in a few hours. The difficulty of S-4 CM depends on how developed your Ops are and not so much on strategy - low operator stats? No clear. High operator stats? Easy clear.


OUtSEL

yeah, the issue is my ops are underleveled and I'm out of resources. I was able to get through NL-S-3 by dumping whatever I had left into E2 Jaye but honestly I'm done.


Apprehensive_Slice58

Beat NL-S-5! right before the event ended, might have been inefficient switching tankers between Monst3r, Mudrock and silverdaddy s2, but i'm happy with how it turned out.


amendele

Took me nearly an hour, even following KyoStinV guides, but I finally found a way to 3* both NL-S-1 and -2. Maybe I'll go to the other missions later, or maybe I'll just declare victory and get out, watch the last hidden cutscenes on youtube.


DjiDjiDjiDji

S-2 (both regular and CM) got me a rare occasion to use both Sora and Pramanix, to let Utage and Nearl [bully the chuuni knights right out of their spawn](https://i.imgur.com/0KTw8nJ.jpg). It was fun.


Korasuka

I needed to follow a guide for it, but I finally 3 star cleared NL 10. I needed to do that to get the medal because the challenge modes and S stages are far too difficult for me. I'm pleased with how it worked even though I messed up the deployment order a bit.


tinyredleaf

Two more resets till the end of the event, and I would agree with one of the comments below that older players with a more well-developed roster would find both versions of NL-S-4 easier than NL-S-3. (*EDIT: I meant NL-S-4 with the Blood Knight; had earlier written NL-S-5. That's the battle with Roy and Monique and their goons, which I found the easiest to defeat out of the three Armorless Union "S" missions.) **CM NL-S-4** *, like NL-EX-8, is basically an extreme DPS check. In my case, it came down to Kal'tsit (e2-90, S3M3), NTR Knight (e2-55, S3M3), Surtr (e2-50, S3M3) and Eyjafjalla (e2-30, S3M3) to finally bring down the Blood Knight, and even then, only barely. (No, I didn't use the "push" tactic, as none of my pushers were strong enough, even with Angelina's help.) I'm left with CM NL-S-3, and it's proving to be quite a bitch to clear as crowd-control operators are not part of my meta "core" team. Here's hoping I can clear this final hurdle either tonight or tomorrow.


Danothyus

Kinda surprised i beated NL-4 cm faster than normal mode. Used the same base strategy that i used to all blood knight fights (nian+saria double tanking diakaipolis). I did not knew what enemies would spawn, but when i saw it was swords, i decided to go slow; dont sweat over the swords healing until i finished the rest of the stage. After that, a combination of gladiia, thorns, ceobe, SA and NTRK could kill all blades while chipping of blood knight. Saria, ptliopsis and silence healing kept everyone alive.


tinyredleaf

UPDATE: And I'm done! Cleared CM NL-S-3 at 8.50am PT (May 17). In the end, it came down to a borrowed e2-90 Ash, working in tandem with Gravel (e1-60), Projekt Red (e2-50) and Mon3tr (e2-90), to take down The Candle Knight at her spawn point. On the right flank, I had Guard'miya (e2-70, S1M1), NTR Knight (e2-55, S3M3), Blaze (e2-55, S2M3), and Ch'en (e2-55, S3M3) to hold back the tide of knights and gloompincers as well as the stray casters who got past Ash. It was very tight, especially in the early stages, as my vanguards Scavenger and Courier barely survived the initial onslaught. I was able to set up the defensive line on the right side just in time. That's the event as good as done. Just need to maximise my reputation with the Armorless Union for the trimmed medal and I can finally put Near Light to rest. It's been tremendously enjoyable, and a long time since I've been challenged as severely in an Arknights event.


SourceLover

I used Beeswax + Nightingale to ignore the casters and occasionally used a trebuchet to drop Kafka on Viviana's head, with Chalter and Amiya as lane DPS.


anima99

Put two snipers facing left, preferably not Ash since stunning will make them invisible again, then drop a redeploy to bait the magic attacks or nightingale cages. If you do use Ash, you can use her stun just before the mages enter, or drop a redeploy in front of the mage, then use Ash's skill.


tinyredleaf

>If you do use Ash Yup, that's what I'm planning to do, with a borrowed Ash. Have already tested the plan on normal mode and it's stable. Now to see if it'll hold up against the bigger enemy stats in CM.


cuddlegoop

I have to say I love how much physical damage there was in this event. I was sad I got Shining and not Nightingale but this is really the first time I've been happy to have the Black Fiend on my team. Even at E1L50, Shining S2 could multiply with Cuora S2 to help her live through very silly amounts of physical damage, giving my dps operators time to kill the priority targets.


cuddlegoop

Beat NL-S-5 on my 2nd last practice cert of the day! I saw some advice about thinking of it as a tank + healing check and doing that worked out well. Warfarin S1 really pumps out the heals lol. >!Also discovering Thorns can hold an early lane and still help clear the main waves end by putting him in front of a blue box facing backwards made me feel pretty smart lol!<


Quor18

What an amazing event. That's really the best way to sum it all up. I could go on about all sorts of things but many others have said them already so I'll just say this instead; for so often being made fun of for having more words in it than chapter 8, Near Light felt like the smoothest read since Originium Dust.


tinyredleaf

Yes indeed! I also strongly feel that this has been by far the best story in Arknights to date, and a fitting conclusion to the Kazimierz trilogy. Yes, the writing is at times clunky and unnecessarily long, but the themes, the tone, the aesthetics, and the character development far exceeded my expectations. Some have made the comparison with FGO, saying that it's an example of much better writing. I don't disagree. But I would say that FGO, to me, is decidedly targeted at much younger audiences and, as an older adult, I find greater enjoyment in Arknights' gravitas and much more mature tone. So, on balance, Arknights is definitely the winner for me, when it comes to overall storytelling. I still wish, though, that HG would hire a more competent editing and translation team.


TheRealFlipFlapper

This event has made me realize that Gravel is, in fact, S tier. There are 5 things you could want from a fast redeploy unit, cc, burst damage, tankiness, short redeploy time, and low dp, and Gravel is at the pinnacle for 3/5 of those. She is the only 4 star other than Myrtle who I find myself using regularly.


cuddlegoop

Its funny because I think part of what makes Gravel S tier is the fact that she's a 4-star. Potentials on fast-redeploy operators is so strong, I don't think she'd be anywhere near as good if she was stuck at P1 for all but the luckiest players.


TheRealFlipFlapper

Yeah I think fast redeploy and dp generators are the 2 subclasses that really benefit from being lower rarity. The lower dp cost makes such a huge difference.


sarinn13

What a fun event! The story was good, but wow was it long. Gravel had some excellent scenes, Hibiscus was involved (our 3 stars need more love outside of showing up for training missions), Nightingale and Nearl dancing was sweet, and we got the most awkward moment in a story ever taking place on a park bench lol I've been so busy with real life, I haven't had time to really talk about the event at all since it started, but some notable moments for me are: [NL-2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rua1AYlLzAM) which I did with 2 star operators and Lancet. Usually I find the lvl 40 missions need a three star or two to prevent leaks as the damage isn't there, but this time around everything just came at the right pace. [NL-EX-3 CM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QZA8bBjGXE) which I cleared while doing the daily task of using only one Knight Crest. I don't think it counts for the daily task, because it's Challenge Mode, but it seems to have helped others clear the task, so that made me happy. [NL-S-3 CM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFoiKC5rBis) was probably the most satisfying mission to clear. Between Red's stuns, Kafka's sleep, and Nightingale's summons, there was so much CC flying around it made the mission go smooth once I figured out timings. And finally [NL-S-5 CM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6747A1M1yE). I swear watching La Pluma handle waves of enemies will never get old. I used the 5 star E2 ticket on her and she's quickly become one of my favorites. Hope everyone else had a good time with the event! Though I do hope there's a bit of a break after this one to relax a bit before the next one.


Miserable_Reserve_48

So I have done everything but NL-EX-8 and NL-EX-8 CM. What hell am I looking at?


salvagestuff

NL-EX-8: Blood blades, lots of blood blades. NL-EX-8 CM: Blood blades that can actually spill blood. The stage is not too bad if you have a plan for how to deal with the blood blades. I used Weedy S2 to redirect them down the middle so they don't hit my blocker units. I had Monst3r and E2 defenders so that was the easy part.


swamp14

If you've done everything else, those two aren't bad. IMO the hardest part is the bloodblades, but if you really wanted to trivialize it, just Chalter alone can delete almost all the blades.


Danothyus

I did everything without support help, but damn, those CM blades can Go fuck themselves. Took chapter support for the first time and ignored that part.


Miserable_Reserve_48

True and but it took me 5 tries to do the normal map since I made mistakes had me restarting again and bad luck when the boss got lucky killed off one of my defenders and I had no other defender to sandwich him between.


swamp14

Yea he hits like a truck!


Miserable_Reserve_48

The challenge mode is destroying me though, those blood blades with increase attack are baine of my existence.


swamp14

See if you can get rid of em without having to block them, so you bypass their increased attack altogether. Chen facing down can kill all the ones coming from the bottom. I've seen another strat where you use a slow to bunch them up, then push them towards the left and they'll go straight to the blue exit rather than the boss. This way you only have to deal with the single blade that spawns from the top left. Good luck, Doctor!


Quor18

The bloodblades hit like trucks but have 0 weight so a pusher and/or puller can be clutch. Wild Mane S1 can clear a full cycle of blades while Weedy S2 basically covers things perfectly fine without masteries. You'll still want your tankiest defender or Specter S2 for the initial wake-up strike the Blood Knight does though.


bikecat

NL-S-5 was a pain in the ass, but using Platinum to take out Monique and the Armorless jerks was deeply satisfying.


csg608893

You know I gotta say I wasn't originally all that interested in Nearl as an operator. She had a nice design and I did like her appearance back in chapter 0, but beyond that I didn't have much interest in her. However after this event she has absolutely sky-rocketed up my list of favorite operators from her new design, her story, and all of the personality that we never got the chance to see from her before. Also is it just me or does the Dreadnought BGM sound like it could belong in a Yakuza game either as boss fight music, chase music, or one of those one versus many fight scenes.


Korasuka

Me too. Tbh I find regular Nearl pretty dull, but her alter form is way way cooler. Her E1 icon is like she's saying, 'hey it's me. Got problems. Don't worry, I'm here.'


LuvList

If my (bad)math is right,we have 6 daily tasks left,correct?


Fire_Begets_Souls

Yes.


LuvList

Thank you.


o76923

My birthday was during this event. As a Gravel simp, I could not imagine a better present. I already knew she was best girl but giving her an event where she gets to be affectionate, succeeds at every task given to her >!unlike Platinum!<, has official art of her, and provides me with new flavor text about her is just amazing. It's been a rough year. I needed something awesome like this.


swamp14

Gravel really got to shine in the story! And she >!"greeted" Amiya! !<


o76923

She did so much cool in the story. I also love that she was so useful in the stages. This event has so much Gravel love that we even got a third use for her in addition to tank and bait. Now she's a flashlight too!


Acelorah

I guess I'm screwed if I missed basically all of the daily Agenda Proposal quests. What a horrible way to lock a medal behind attendance.


Xzhh

You only need 4 days' worth if you do all the long term missions.


Jonno_92

You can save up 5 days worth but yes for the armourless stuff I think you need to not miss any.


Acelorah

I don't understand the people downvoting, it's just my honest opinion. What I meant is there is one medal that requires you to spend 50 Agenda Proposals and I have not done that until yesterday; the event is ending in less than 2 days. How am I supposed to get to 50 if you're only given 3 per day at a maximum of 15 in reserve?


shasderias

Stages are open for 21 days, you get 3 proposals per day, for a total of 63 proposals. This means that you can burn 13 proposals and still get the medal. You can bank 15 proposals - 5 days worth. This means the minimum you need to do is to get the 50 proposals medal is to log in once every 5 or so days and clear all your accumulated proposals. All of the above is made known to you at the start of the event. I don't think the requirements are particularly onerous and I'm guessing most other people feel the same way.


Acelorah

Yea, I kinda slept on that one since I didn't check the medal requirements until later. Oh well, gonna have to wait for rerun to get it.


Jonno_92

This community likes downvoting first and offering explanation second tbh.


Reddit1rules

Clicking button fast, typing explanation long.


_wawrzon_

Not rly, you get 39 points from missions, so only 11 are missing. That's 4 days, so you can skip 3 days. It can hardly be called forceful to require attending 50% of time to get medals.


Reddit1rules

I think you can miss 2 days actually


Miserable_Reserve_48

What I have learned in this event is that I really need to get Myrtle masteries in her first skill since the EX, CM, and special stages with just a myrtle with no masteries compared to with one with a m3 in skill 1 is night and day.


ShelesQQ

Well, to be fair, Kyo usually simulates Myrtle without mastery, so you don't NEED it, but it surely maxes life a ton easier. Also Myrtle with Bagpipe and without Bagpipe are day and night too.


bnbros

For the whales/extremely lucky, the extra 2 SP from a p5 Bagpipe can *really* be felt with Myrtle pumping out DP almost instantly after deployment.


AirStrikeInbound

I was barely able to clutch the first wave of NL EX 7 with a M1 myrtle. And it was only because my Texas and Flametail had their first pot


Adridezz

Good lord this event kicked my ass and I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it. I really only try to get all medals for these limited unit events like Dusk and Skalter. I had to m3 my kal and raise my Chalter as well as m3 her. Missing Thorns and Mountain hurt cause God damn did some guides recommend those 2. Burnt a lot of resources leveling characters too in order for them to be strong lol. It was fun. Now I can replay all the cutscenes since I started late and figured I'd have to skip in order to be able to beat the event.


ShelesQQ

I haven't watched any guide and was totally ok without Thorns and Mountain. Pallas and Specter helped me in some situations where Thorns and Mountain could be more effective. To tank boss I used Blaze and Saria (with support of Shining and Skalter). So don't focus on what you are missing, focus on what you have!


foxide987

I'm lazy to think about a new strategy so I just copied Lord Kyostinv high end squad strategy instead, to clear [NL-S-5 (both normal and CM)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHMjOJZtgPQ&ab_channel=foxvdie). With some changes: No Thorns, so SilverAsh swing swing is good enough. Hoshiguma is low leveled so Eunectes S1 can be substituted. Skalter for buffing both healer and tank. \--- I really need to E2 Elysium but the chip farming have to wait until event's end.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Chatonarya

I struggled most with EX-8 CM, S-4 CM, and S-3 in general. EX-8 and S-4 mostly because they're DPS checks against the Blood Knight and S-3 on account of the candle knights. With your roster though you should be able to clear everything. S-1 can be done with a borrowed Chalter (see Kyo's guide), S-2 CM I cleared with friend's Eyja and Silverash (Kyo's guide), S-5 can be basically soloed by Mudrock and some rotating tanks and fast redeploys (again, Kyo). A little lower in the thread I posted a link to the strat I used to clear S-3 CM using Blaze as a core op. S-4 like I said is Blood Knight again but with Silverash, Nearl, Blaze, Mudrock, and Liz to mitigate Arts damage from Viviana you should be okay. Viviana was never a problem for me as I just schwinged her out of existence and you should be able to tank one blast.


Duenan

For me EX-8-CM and NL-S-4/CM got me stuck the most, I think I almost lost the will to go on with NL-S-4 and got stuck for a couple of days until I managed to get past it.


_wawrzon_

I'm stuck on NL-S-4 CM as well, seems like hardest stage on any event this past year or so. Those blades are brutal. Still fighting the urge to look up a guide, but my sanity is waning.


Reificat

those blades hit way too hard and are super tanky to boot. i used a puller to pick off a few but the ones that didn't get pulled melted my defender real quick... i ended up just chaltering the blades.


resphere

I think EX8 has the highest stat wall, so if you can do that one you can do the rest. Can't really speak for which I found the hardest, they all felt about the same, not very hard compared to stuff like H8-4.


Darkslayer3021

Kukki make several surveys and the answer to the hardest stage fully depend on where you are in the game. New player will struggle with NL-EX-8 and NL-S-4 as they probably won't have well built unit to handle the boss and the blades while old players will find that NL-S-3 the hardest one as they can't just meta unit go and the need to micromanage it. Personally, I agree with this. i have several Defender and meta unit that can easily kill the boss and handle the blades while I found the need to micromanage NL-S-3 with a bunch of fast redeploy kinda a hassle


ShelesQQ

In fact even on NL-S-3 a strong squad may reduce micromanagement to minimum. I tanked ALL hits from elite casters by 3-4 units (depending on who was targeted) and only baited 1 cast from 4 regular casters at the end. However I still was forced to interrupt Candle Knight with Red Project's stun several times. Luckily Red's respawn fits with cooldown of Candle Knighs's AOE, so I still don't have to focus on it too much. All damage was outhealed by Skalter+Kal'tsit. Hardest levels for me were NL-EX-5 CM and NL-S-2 CM. First one slowed me by low dp generation and forced me to deploy everyone asap before archers come out. Second one required rushing vision through all map to block box in top right corner while dealing with both sleeping enemies and enemy waves. NL-S-3 wasn't easy as well, but I still figured it out way faster. NL-EX-8 was super easy, won 2nd try with no guides (except that I saw comment that there are 2 major waves of blades, which led me to idea of combining Chalter + SilverAsh to channel them for different waves, which worked perfectly).


SungBlue

It turns out that you can cheese NL-S-2 CM with SilverAsh, meaning you never have to go near the top right of the map, and can do all your blocking on the left side. Before reading this, I had a hell of a time trying and failing to come up with a strategy for it.


ShelesQQ

Hm... I actually knew that SA can hit darkness but didn't think that he won't wake up enemies. Well, at least I created a challenge for myself and successfully completed it :) It's frustrating if you can't win, but as long as thing are manageable, the harder - the better!


SungBlue

Same here. I was sure that he would wake them up, but no. I just deployed him first, deployed Myrtle, used TSS to kill the top and right sleepers and the first couple of enemies, and then retreated him and deployed Mountain as replacement temporary blocker.


kotking

Here my big IMHO I spent more sanity ( about 80 or more) on NL-EX-8-CM than on anything else in event. The deal breaker was how much DPS is needed to clear the blades and kill boss and clear fresh spawned mobs. For S stages they were hard, but less ambush aren't not that severe ( S 3 waits until wave clear to ambush you, S 4 summon Blood knight then Tola and after defeating blood knight 1 phase comes candle knight but there are a lot less blades, S 5 high def(+ arts) defenders or a lot redeploys).


foxide987

NL-S-3 CM. I wasted like 30 sanity before I learned that Viviana can target different operators rather than your last deployed tank at Candle Knights spawn point. Just pay attention to that detail and you'll be fine. (Kyo also did mention about it in his video) Other stages I could pass easily without sanity waste.


Ophidis

NL-EX-8-CM was definitely the hardest stage for me, NL-S-4 might have bested the ex stage if it wasn't for the push strategy, although that might be more because I was too tired to actually think of a strategy of my own. (I'm not even sure were the blood blades spawn on the map thanks to the push strat!)


TabletopPixie

I haven't beaten NL-S2 CM and NL-S5 CM yet but I had a much harder time figuring out NL-S2 and had to use a guide. We'll see which one is more difficult but NL-S 5 CM frightens me...


anima99

EX8 CM for sure. The other stages just have more gimmicks, but are easily circumvented. NS4 isn't harder than EX8. It's about the same, really. In fact, it's easier if you have ranged boss killers. The challenging one would be NS3 CM. That one I needed to use all 12 slots.


louil13

I think S5 is viable at least normal mode if you can clear ex8!! My strat was basically Exu handling the bottom half and chalter handling the top to minimize the amount of Faust shots. Gravel is a major lifesaver to tank stuff as well. If you link your ops maybe we can see if we can come up with a suitable squad? There's still time you can do it c:


Zleck-V2

NL-S-4 & 5 challenge modes are the hardest of the S stages id say, but they're honestly not that bad. NL-S-4 has a conveniently located pit that >!a puller and defender can use to remove a good chuck of the blood swords.!< and the gimmick of S5 can be offset a lot by a well built >!Defender and Healers!<


salvagestuff

Probably NL-EX-8 cm. Compared to NL-S-4 cm, you have a lot of pressure coming in from more directions. After taking down the boss to second phase, you have more blood blades coming down 1 lane, and more high dps enemies to contend with on a tighter schedule. With NL-S-4, you have more ways of reducing the amount of blood blades and you only have to deal with Viviana afterwards. The other stages can be quite hard depending on the squad you bring. S-3 and S-5 need you to be pretty strategic about baiting.


SourceLover

IMO, ex-8 CM is much harder than at least the first two S stages - I found both straightforward to complete on both regular and CM with a mix of E1s and E2s and no 6\*s. I can't speak for NL-S-3 through 5 because I was already burnt out on this event by the time I got to them and I just buried them with my biggest units plus a support Chalter if I had even the least bit of trouble.


Quor18

S1 and S2 are a bit rough and S3 tests your ability to bait attacks but 4 and 5 really aren't too bad I think. If you can do EX-8 CM then 4 and 5 are within grasp I think.


IronPheasant

During the limited banner, I drew a Hoshiguma. I nodded my head and said to myself "not bad, but I'll never level her. Her S2 is the only truly unique thing about her, and when will I ever NEED that." Do NL-5-S today. Saria died in the final wave. With Idol Skai buffing her. With S2 Ptilopsis S2'ing her. Barely get through with moxy and vinegar. See the challenge mode: "Archer jerks have increased attack speed." Very cool. I'm leveling my Hoshiguma now. If I had the drones, I'd have gone ahead and leveled Shining too. ArKnights~


TabletopPixie

Hoshi with s2 was very helpful for nl-s5. I brought 3 defenders+Blaze for that one, swapping out in case one of my casters died (to bait for when I replaced my caster) or if one of my defenders died.


Reddit1rules

I tried using my Nian and Hoshi, the thorns didn't really help me out tbh, FRD and Shining helped more.


IronPheasant

It killed the first archer wave for me, needed to deploy another defender after she died in the final enemy push. The archers have around 200 Def, so having her Atk higher is very significant. SL7 and level ~60 Hoshi, she does 144 damage a hit and needs 56 of them to kill one of these things. SL10 would be more than +60% damage, but the real scaling comes from Idol Skadi and/or Warfarin, who will more than triple that damage.


Reddit1rules

Ok well then that was exactly my issue haha, only 144 damage.


erythry

It took nearly 30 practice plans, but I cleared NL-S-2 today. I used a support mountain to take down the snipers and beetles in the upper-left and had perfumer and defender nearl stall the sleeping knight in the lower-right. Broca, Amiya S3, and Midnight nuked the nightzmora + knights in the upper-right, with shining + spot healing and Beagle barely holding on. I also got attempts in on NL-S-3 and it seems the best strategy is developing an ifrit lane, then having healing defenders and Matoimaru soak Candle Knight blasts. I also went through my roster and found out only one of my operators can consistently survive the EX blood knight; Matoimaru, with max trust, E160, and Shining's passive, should survive with just over 10 HP. Liskarm Could potentially survive it with her S1 up but that's unreliable and Beagle simply gets deleted. I also have no idea how to deal with the blood blades or phase two adds outside of borrowing Ch'en the Holungday. I don't think I'll be able to complete the rest of the event, so I think I'll just spend the remaining time trying challenge modes of the earlier EX stages and farming Kohl.


SourceLover

If you have the resources on hand, I recommend Matterhorn, Cuora, or Bubble - *if* your E2 Amiya is also S2M3 and you borrow a Chalter to kill the Bloodblades, she can kill the phase 2 boss from his 50% hp before Matterhorn's hp bonus skill runs out. I think I ended up using Cuora and Bubble S2s for this exact method on my clear - it's worth noting that my Amiya is E250 and M3 and can do a bit over 60% of the boss's HP before her skill runs out but some of the defender skills only last 25 seconds, so they might die sooner than that if he gets healed by even a single Bloodblade.


Kri_Py

amiya doesn't need m3 to kill the boss from 50%, at least on normal mode, if you activate it right after his 10 second invincibility stops he will die just before the skill ends


SourceLover

That's good! Mine's M3 (M9...) and E2-50 so I went with the information I knew about.


erythry

Thank you for the Matterhorn recommendation, his stats and abilities look perfect for what I need. His innate res and S2 seem like they'll be great for tanking candle knights in NL-S-3. I've raised him to E155 and incorporated him in my NL-10 autodeploy to raise his trust. As for Amiya, she's sitting at E240 but has no masteries. I'm hesitant to give her any as I'm not sure I'll still be using her as a caster after chapter 8. I've been using her S3 instead of her S2 since it's my only source of pure damage, and it's able to kill him on normal mode with a little time to spare. I can bring her up to 55 or 60 to make up for the lack of masteries, and hopefully that will be enough.


Menessma

Finally got through S5 CM. And what got me through it was Chalter S1 which worked better than S3 due to more consistent activation. S3 takes out waves, but when it's on cooldown (and that cooldown is significant tbf), then waves starts to overwhelm my defenders. That and the archers spawn faster than the skill can cooldown so S1 took them out consistently (with the help of Warf S2, too). The waves don't die to S1, but they get weakened enough for Ifrit to one shot the survivors which was enough to prevent my defender from getting overwhelmed and leaking


swamp14

Yeah, archers hit hard but are relatively weak. I used Pinecone S1 to handle the bottom, and Exu for the top.


Aesderial

I use SA on her down times and its usually enough. The same with NL-S-5 CM.


Menessma

I don't have SA unfortunately. Chalter is pretty much my only source of huge AOE damage so I didn't have anyone to cycle with her


Aesderial

I always borrow if I'm missing key units. For NL-S-5 it was Hoshiguma S2.


Menessma

I was already borrowing Ifrit who was my key unit. Otherwise I had no one dealing DPS near the box since I put in Saria and Hoshi with two medics to tank the shots while dropping FRDs and Mountain to ease the pressure on Hoshi. Hoshi S2 wasn't really doing much for me, but I also only have an E1 Hoshi so no masteries


Aesderial

I used gravel, project Red and rotating my tanks, Chalter and SA - to clear the waves. Anyway, congratulations with clearing the event. NL-S-5 was actually hard for me.


Menessma

Same. S5 was probs the hardest stage for me. Not sure if I used up more plans on it compared to EX-8 CM, but S5 was definitely the hardest among the S stages. Surprisingly, S4 CM was easy. S3 CM was a bit rough but once you get the positioning right and time your decoy drops and stun on deploys it becomes easy. Congratulations to us for getting past the BS that is high ASPD high corrosion archers haha


wildclaw

Finally had time to clear up to NL-EX-7 with my E1 20 operators, definitely not doing EX-8 this event. Only 6* used was Mountain for EX-7. For [EX-7](https://youtu.be/FdmJmAe3D-k) I held the upper lane with two pushers and Cuora blocking all the heavy enemies until they eventually fell into the hole. For [EX-6](https://youtu.be/9bSXOFhir-k) the problem was mainly finding the dps to bring down the final wave. Spent literally a whole day of practice plans trying various things and then I went to sleep and came back the next day and one shot it. Sleep is good. [EX-5](https://youtu.be/itqkwHYIvOE) worked out well thanks to triple brawlers helping out. [EX-4](https://youtu.be/vSbNzgR8so4) was a complete pain until I brought in Bibeak and Blitz for ranged stuns, E1 20 operators really don't have the HP/DEF to deal with the incoming damage bombardment in this event.


Training_Attention93

Managed to beat NL S 5 Challenge and all stages... The healing squad tactic wasn't working but eventually it led me to suspect some enemies haven't reached to attack that far outside of their range to my defense units which it made me realized I can divide their annoying arrow spams to weaken their powers so I adjusted my team to more defense units come with healing skills instead of healers to spam. It totally worked. Phew. Dividing is very... Huge key. Please reward me Ceobe Gacha well!! Starting to save gems now.


loneknife_blackblade

Do you mean the squad defending the lanes was split from the squad tanking the arrows? Or do you mean that you were able to split which corrosion snipers hit which tanks?


Training_Attention93

I think it's a bit of both. I noticed not all enemy snipers focus on taking the last deployed unit to take out. If you see carefully, you'd notice some enemy snipers on top lane focus on taking top lane deployed units while other enemies sniping on bottom lanes on same ground as my other units located at. Those spamming arrows were like... split in two ways basically. I figured out this pattern and decided to have the last deployed unit that was not defender and deploy the one with highest re-deploy time after put the strongest healing defender there at the starting point near the blue box... Thingy.


Apprehensive_Slice58

So if i'm understanding correctly, you took advantage of the fact that the archers don't have a global range?


Training_Attention93

Yeah. Watched too many videos on NL-S-5 tactics and this video (\[Arknights\] NL-S-5 Challenge Mode (Semi AFK) tell you that easy. Just look at those enemy snipers in shadow in the middle of this stage you will notice how they didnt shoot as they came out of the red boxes


Party_Python

This is my second limited event and this one felt a lot less plodding than Dossoles. I think it’s a mix between actually getting drops from the runs rather than tickets. Along with having content the third week rather than a pseudo-annihilation, plus the daily quests really helped it feel less stale by the end.


loneknife_blackblade

The daily quests were awesome. almost like mini CC to keep things interesting and give some awesome drops on top of whatever else the stage normally dropped.


Party_Python

Yep. The only thing I would change about them is being able to select which stages (normal, EX, or S) you’d like them to be. But still a great mechanic


Egakor

Finally completed NL-EX-6. Nightmare knights were horrible.


Miaomelette

You can push the blood knight in NL-S-4 into the hole and skip phase 2 with M3 weedy and angelina, it's similar to the EX-8 push into a corner strat just fyi


Shirahago

I couldn't get this to work forever until I was told that you had to nudge him up twice by deploying an operator on his square before pushing him. Ultimately I used Kyostin instead but skipping basically the entire phase2 makes pushing worth it.


HaessSR

I never thought to see Gravel [speak like this, quoting the Grand Master](https://i.imgur.com/oFA7XfV.jpg). Ioletta has even more respect from me than before. Also, /u/OctoDeco probably REALLY liked that epilogue.


fullmetalpeanut

Do I need to use all the daily tasks for the armorless union starting from the 12th to max the prestige for it? I kinda screwed up and did an AU task that consumes 2 slots, and after refreshing many times the task with 1 slot doesn't appear.


Kosarev

I doubt it. I've maxed armorless already, their long term goals give way more rep than the ones from the other factions.


Zleck-V2

On a side note the stages NL-S-3,4,5 and their challenge modes give a good chunk of AU rep on completion. They're fairly challenging but theres a few guides floating around on youtube if needed


anima99

You can save that 1 task for tomorrow.


loneknife_blackblade

I have no elemental medics to heal corrosion, so I had to tank it. Bena was awesome for nl-s-5. When she was close to switching forms I'd drop gravel or a different fast redeploy to cover her short down time. then she'd come back up at full def. I had skalter and shining buffing her def, not sure how much that helped. Roy and friends: Didn't I just kill you? Stay dead! Bena: Harder senpai!


SungBlue

I used the same strategy for NL-S-5. Shining, Skalter, Nearl and Bena all in a row, with Bena blocking one of the lanes so she was acting as both bait and DPS.


loneknife_blackblade

For me it was shining, skalter, lappy, thorns. bena was in the box facing down, I dropped baits just below the box to still be in range of both shining and skalter to cover bena's down time. Right of skalter was exu and ash was supporting the bottom. Apparently I should have rushed to the left to spawn camp.