Arknights' Fundamental Issue with Progression

#arknights

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[CANNONLOWY_E_Lvl]

I started playing Elite 0 Level 1 over a year and a half ago. Back then I started it as a joke thinking to myself "how far could I possibly get doing this?". Now I have gotten to ch 5 and cleared a good number of event story boss stages. I get off and on comments saying how crazy I am for doing it but honestly it has been some of the most fun I have had playing Arknights. When I was starting this out at the time on my normal account I was getting to the point where event story stages besides the boss didn't really challenge me anymore with my well built account making it easy to ignore a lot of event mechanics by the high stats I had until the said boss stage stage or EX stages and even then it wasn't until the later EX stages where I really felt challenged (EX-5+) enough to need to learn the mechanics well (although events have gotten harder generally since). Sure I could've used my unbuilt operators but I didn't find those operators interesting enough to build so why use them now? Going down to E0 Lvl 1 it has made it so whether I like it or not I HAVE to learn the event/stage mechanics right from the start because of how weak my operators are and it has made experiencing these events so much more fun because of it with thinking of creative solutions to solve the stages. Also I come in each event with no expectations so it is always a surprise on how far I can get whereas on my normal account I always beat all the stages.

I guess the point I wanted to make with my essay is that if I can get this far with such weak operators by "gitting gud" then surely you can build whomever you want as long as you know what they do and can be good for. Just like when you use crushers against super high def enemies that (I and) other players would just use arts dmg instead but still works. Doing crazy stuff like that and still being able to clear stages I think is what makes Arknights so special.

[SuzakuBlitz]

The one thing I appreciate the most is that you aren't telling people "you aren't allowed to play how you want because it's inefficient / terrible / bad / stupid" and instead just state a differing viewpoint with a rationale behind it. I can respect that level of thought as flexibility and open mindedness seems rare nowadays.

[CreamNeapolitan]

This vid explains why I want level modulator. Once you level up an ops, there's no going back. Playing your favorite ops on 'easier' maps on its intended difficulty to appreciate the map design of it is not possible.

[YJoker]

A polite way of saying AK community have a massive skill issue

[asadekai]

This is just my interpretation of it, but I imagine a big draw for building meta is the social aspect of it. When all your friends are at max level running whatever they please, it forms a sort of pressure to catch up so you can be in the conversation of what's new. I was lucky enough to start at launch, back when there really wasn't anything to chase. Medals and the like didn't exist yet and the playerbase was new enough to where Warfarin was considered bad up until the point someone used her with Exusiai. Under that lack of pressure I really got the chance to just build whoever I wanted to try and my skill level went up with the difficulty curve. If I started nowadays, I'm not sure if I'd do the same. We're at a point where a lot of the basics are simply assumed by the veterans, so newer players who choose to learn from videos or whatnot sadly end up missing the finer details in their rush to be up to date on the game.

I don't think this is unique to Arknights. There are plenty of people who are in the community who are not in it for the game, so to them, learning the fundamentals isn't as important.

[WulanaVwlina]

that's why every operator under 4* ops had their base skill unlocks at e1.

they encourage you to use/up them first then use/up those *5 ops above after you have more resource or getting understand more complex mechanics of higher rarity.

[frosted-flaky]

i remember seeing an arknights youtuber taking the "vertical progression" idea to the extreme: they tried to clear every single (mainstory) stage with a new account that only raised the first 12 gacha operators, most of which ended up being 4-stars. obviously this person was not new to the game (and had a pretty long history of running alt accounts) and i don't think anyone should endure this challenge if not for the sake of making content, but it was definitely a wild ride to see someone fumble through ch 8 with about the most anti-meta squad you could make... a lot of the stages were brute forced through sheer levels, but honestly i didn't think even that would be possible.

tbh i find a lot of community discussion around arknights meta a bit strange, because... on one hand, the game *has* to be clearable without 6-stars besides the ones you are literally handed for free. 4-stars at maximum investment are more than capable of clearing content, which led the competitive-minded players to optimize for double the flex... on the other hand, it's a gacha game that falls into all the gacha trappings of time limited events, daily grind, obvious design bias towards high rarity, and of course all the small RNG annoyances designed to make you waste in-game and IRL sanity. i'm sympathetic to people who just want to get their stars and move on with their day, and that mindset leads people to gravitate towards the same operators that show up in every easy AFK high end guide.

although it is really sad to see many operator discussions devolve into trying to figure out who has the highest DPS when the thing i love the most about arknights is how it offers many viable solutions to a stage. of course DPS will always be one of the more straightforward solutions (why bother reading mechanics when you can just watch a youtube guide on how to animation cancel with degenbrecher), but this is also the community that discovered the mr nothing + erato permastall, which is still one of my favorite synergies for how much they were obviously *not* intended to work together...

anyway i don't know where i'm going with this comment other than confirming arknights does still have a chokehold on my 3 remaining braincells... oh yeah. raise indigo. (stop saying ebenholz fixed mystic casters!!! indigo fixed mystic casters before he even existed!!!)

[eidoll]

Nice video, I can see most points, but I feel the idea that the idea of "two paths of progression" are more just 2 axes. When I started arknights a year ago one of my first operators was Mlynar, which lead to him being one of my first e2 operators. However early on I also quickly realized additionally areas I lacked meaningful gameplay interaction in, such as defenders and snipers, leading me to heavily utilize 3 stars constantly as well. I feel this caused me to use both ends of "meta" and, uhhh, "trashfire", as I have maxed out both Kirara and Vigil and use them as much as I can. I feel being able to do whatever I want and do weird clears with my favorite operators is one of the main draws to Arknights, regardless of meta or not. All in all I'm excited to see more content in the future.

[GreyEnneract]

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[dusk-ak]

Really appreciate the fact that someone well articulated like you is getting good reach in videos on this topic. People should be able to play however they want but something that really bothers me is some circles force this "only x units are worth building", "building y is throwing resources in the trash" mindset so hard on new players who haven't had the chance to engage with the game and decide how they want to play. With such strongly worded advice from older players it's only natural they end up insecure about building anything not recommended. It's nice to see people get reassurance from your content and hope that continues being the case.

On the limited resources front though, while I believe you were talking about resources required for early progression / getting a broad and reasonably leveled roster, in which case yeah, I agree people value resource efficiency way more than they should, I'd argue saying resources aren't limited is something that doesn't leave the realm of "technically accurate". Having been playing actively for over 3 years, actually spending for farming purposes, and wanting to build a lot of different units, I'm still broke the whole time. Module blocks are also the worst thing they ever introduced. "Catching up" in its full sense is pretty much something that won't happen for years and years unless you're a massive whale. (And I'm talking solely about building units, fully disregarding pots.)

[HighfireX]

Early vertical progression moment, my first E2 6 star was Ifrit. Ifrit requires certain maps to clear but as long as you have one tile you can bring her to annihilate mobs. She influenced the way I handled stages and the strategies I used when clearing a majority of my early game. At one point I decided to max level all 3 stars for a baseline set of characters, and max levelled up Matoimaru as my "Duelist" operator with her massive health pool. I used her to beat Talulah by sheer hp brute force. End game my vertical ceiling stops at modules, but sometimes I go the extra mile if I want to see the full potential of an operator (poncirus, bryophyta, swire alter).

[SkySilverKnight]

this is a really well made video, i never thought about progression with as much detail as you have here and this is a very cool way to explain it.

[jeffwu]

tbh this is why I love integrated strategy so much because tldr it just forces you to use everything

[meriabreadsticks]

I feel exonorated for my decision of maxing skadi, heidI, and delphine

[B.Benedajenzo]

one thing i love about arknights especially compared to other gachas are
the rarities all have a function, even in "end game content" and not just to collect dust in the inventory (they even give free skins for them just in case a low star is a persons fave unit)

1* doesnt cost deployment limit.
so if you have an extra slot in the team put in a 1*, they can help. like in cc1s2 i wouldnt have gotten 620 if it wasnt for the terra cats delaying the cars. in pinch out friston took on the bots, also like extra flashlights in near light

2* are bait units.
yato is cheap fast redeploy, and when chp 10 was released noir was mvp for a bunch of people, durin and 12F has straight up 50% dodge which i use for ammo type enemies like the sanktas.

3* are the general line of the game.
even during anniversary streams when the developers showcase stages they use 3* squads. to show that for main and event story stages you can clear it with 3* and 1 6* and not gatekeeping content under paywall.

4* are the most common units
most of the ops are made for general content as this is the most accesible from the gachas and easy to build

5* are for niche/unique roles
alot of the 5* have a unique skillset that not even 6* have. showing more to what the gameplay can do.

and 6* bring damage

[byeguyssry]

4:09 Who on earth is calling Exusiai and Archetto bad lmao. I think most would agree that Archetto is decent and Exusiai is niche. And people are really disappointed by Hoerderer's kit but he's still mid and not unusable

[vvey]

I'll believe anything you want if you show me Kroos clearing is-4

I know that "skill issue" should sometimes be the first conclusion you come to when you get your ass kicked but come on, coming back to arknights after years, getting absolutely smashed by the new integrated strategy stages, and realizing new sniper operators deal roughly 100 hundred times the dps than older 6-stars and their use is expected to clear content is kinda funny

[MrPendulum]

So don't normally comment on vids, but your vid helped out with shifting my view on arknights a lot. Want to say after much frustration with current event (PV-10 is madness and I was woefully under leveled) but then ran across this going "Certainly there is something wrong with the game or my playing or some progression bullshit" but was refreshing to watch this... then look at all my neglected 3-5 stars(and some of my two stars, and poor lancet) and the vid made it kind of click of "Oh. I'm playing with an incomplete deck of magic cards. This explains a lot."

And your vid helped me shift my goals from "I must level up all these REALLY expensive six stars (Hell I still only have Exusai and Silverash at E2 six star wise) but now my goal is "I should level the rest of my neglected operators" so I have a full deck of cards so to speak. So thank you good sir for making this vid.

[risee]

Very well done analysis! HG is really between a rock and a hard place when it comes to stage balancing, because they can't really stagnate material progression (ex. by not introducing powercreeping characters) since that fundamentally goes against the allure of Gacha, and they can't exponentially increase a stage's difficulty to encourage spending resources because it fundamentally goes against the nature of being a somewhat competitive strategy game. I feel there's a parallel to draw to something like Plants vs Zombies, which I'd say has linear material progression, but is eventually crossed over by skill progression as you learn the mechanics of each zombie and timing of your plants.

[nanodmcgow]

My guy, this video is amazing. I freaking love the way you analised the game, being objective about the way things work and the many ways to see them;

Instead of rights or wrongs and why they should make us angry/happy at the devs decisions, you talked about the push and pull game that the developers of any game go through when making any decision during development.

I could talk so much about this game and how it, weirdly, borders on both being trully amazing and frustratingly flawed is.

Point Being, I subscribed