Edit: I'm just trying to improve my farm efficiency looking for 5-7. I'm getting 2-3 rolls against the loot table a match, but not the boss fight S rank. (Typically I'm getting 1-2 other mobs plus S rank for the map). Just want that extra roll.
Cola is the nickname for SAA because she's obsessed with soda.
She's a good handgun, but not really the best for buffing a AR team thanks to her + shaped tiles. Ideal would be something like ump45 in the main tank slot buffing the back row and mk23 buffing most of the back row. SAA needs to be stuffed into the backline to provide buffs to multiple DPS.
Yeah, I played around a bit and I think I should go back to the line up I had but retreat an SMG when she gets too beat up. I believe I'll be able to knock out the S with that build. Thanks for the advice!
A voucher event is going to kick off right in the middle of Cube+ and continue on until early august. Just like before, you'll need to defeat the bosses of chapters 1 through 6 once per day to accrue currency to exchange for prizes in the event shop. This time, instead of a TDoll, the prize is a costume for Ameli.
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited July 2019
So I see 4-3e listed as a leveling area, but the 4-3 map doesn't look at all like the diagram.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I wish that I could tell you all what to have prepared for the collab event next month, but I don't know what we're gonna face. The version on the Chinese/Korean servers had some really late game enemies where you're supposed to make use of heavy weapons teams to help take down (which aren't released yet on EN)
They've confirmed that our stages will be different though. It's probably best to make sure that you have the basics covered and have a a rifle team setup in addition to your AR/smg teams so that you have some squad that's good against armor.
Tonight was a good night. I finished up E2-4 and completed Cube+. A team of Groza/AUG/G11/mk23/UMP45 and a Taunt Fairy was capable of taking down Ouroboros with S-rank. UMP45 got beat up pretty bad though. Maybe I should have fielded RO635 as my main tank instead.
My basic gameplan was to deploy an MG team with an illumination fairy down south to capture the helipad that was due south of the HQ, while leaving behind an AR and Rifle team to defend the HQ. Once the MG team captured the helipad to the south, I'd use it to deploy a rifle team capable of brute forcing the Jupiter cannon just north west of the captured helipad. At that point I'd activate the illumination fiary, reposition the illumination MG team up to the jupiter cannon's previous location, and then sweep down and counter clockwise to hunt for Ouroboros. Once found, I'd spawn in my boss hunter team and send her to Ouro's position.
Oh boy, look at the size of that manticore group. It really stung the squad that I used to kill it once. I avoided killing it when not necessary after that.
Afterwards I decided to roll on the pool party furniture gacha since I had decided that I wanted the swimming pool with the floaty alligator. I had resolved to spend 500 tokens to purchase it with exchange tickets. However I ended up pulling the pool on my second roll. Now I need to decide if I want to keep rolling to get enough exchange tickets to buy something else, or just maintain my token reserve. I'm kinda leaning towards maintaining my token reserve. The following are my furniture gacha desires atm:
*I'll probably want to roll on the Valhalla gacha a bit. I don't really like that some of the cosmetics are in the gacha, but that's the way things are. It's a divergence from how past collabs played out.
*I'll want some of Halloween costumes. I know that I want the Reaper costume for IWS 2000, but I think that might be a gem purchase costume rather than a gacha one.
*I'll want G11's Christmas costume.
*I want all of the "Darkest Dungeon" costumes/furniture. Gotta keep my stockpile up since I don't know when that will arrive.
Yes. At this point I've mostly given up. I figure she'll come around again at some point in the future, when I hopefully have better echelons for hunting her down.
I think I'll just strengthen my echelons enough to make a crack at some of the 2. stages in the last week of the event.
Yeah, that's what I'm currently doing. I don't mind too much as it's getting me xp on my squads and a steady drip of 3-star dolls, but at this point it's not something I'm dedicating time to.
From crafting I've got a stable of good dolls now, so once the event is over, I plan to do a serious shake-up of my echelons.
Yeah, this particular map is just garbage for trying to farm her. A night map with RNG enemy placement. Normally the way this plays out is you pick a map where a few relevant enemies are nearby, plot a few turns worth of commands, and then let the game do its thing for a few minutes. You still need to roll a lot but you don't need to assess every turn as a fresh new scenario.
IIRC this is at least the second if not the third time that she's been available for farming.
If you've otherwise completed cube, then you might as well make an attempt to farm her. But if you don't get her, then IIRC Stetchkin is the reccomended alternative to run in place of FiveSeveN. She'll serve well enough in FiveSeveN's place except for the occasional oddball formation like IWS Exodia that demands both Stetchkin and FiveSeveN be run simultaneously (IWS Exodia is IWS 2000 backed up by four specific handguns)
FiveSeveN is good, but Groza is the real star prize since we will have more night maps in the future and Groza is the undisputed Night Queen (well, until AS VAL mod 3 rolls around).
What I'm trying to say is that FiveSeveN is a great supporting unit to have, but you can replace her with alternatives who are nearly as good. Groza is in a league of her own and is the kind of unit that will find her way onto your flagship team whenever night battles roll around.
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Right now I'm just working through the main story in between trying to get my main team to 70. Everyone is at least 60 now, so at least I'm close.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
You'll want to make sure that you make it through chapter 6 soon since the next voucher event starts this week. It overlaps with Cube+.
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
btw i'm not sure if we've discussed this but you know how you get 1 combat sim energy every 2 hours up to a total of 6 bankable
so, capsule mode is available on mondays/thursdays, data sim is available on tuesdays/fridays, and xp sim is available on wednesday/saturday, and all 3 are unlocked on sunday
as new players, the calculus may vary especially when you're tring to get stronger or raise newly acquired units, but let me tell you this right now if you haven't felt it already
data sim is the most valuable because you will need vastly more data than you ever will capsules or exp and you should bank energy for data sims whenever possible. tdolls take something like 600 beginner, 1020 intermediate, and 500 advanced data to max out skills. for fairies it depends on the fairy (yes, i know that's bullshit) but it takes 1200 beginner data, 2040/1200 intermediate data, and 1000/1200 advanced data. in short you need a fuckload of data if you plan on getting anywhere in endgame so never skimp out when it comes to data. Capsules are useful only if you get very little time to play through maps and never farm enhancement fodder tdolls (which, if you xp farm at all, you will have more tdoll fodder than you know what to do with) or for instantly raising a new acquisition to max strength in conjunction with combat reports. xp sim is nice but is not essential.
There is also Defense Drill, which is a wave clear trial that requires a wide roster of tdoll types and teams to complete and which rewards a bunch of goodies the first time you reach any level and equipment calibration tickets whenever you do attempt it. You are best off saving up 5 data to try it on Capsule sim days.
the "ideal" strat is to spend just enough data that by the time the server rolls over to a new day that you are at or are close to 6 energy on Tuseday/Friday/Sunday so you can spend it all on data. Obviously this isn't feasible for everyone due to life or work commitments, but you should stockpile data whenever possible because it is extremely easy to blow through it just doing training on a regular basis.
I wish it rolled over at an earlier time because I've lost count of the days where I get home in the evening and realize that it was data day. Logging in during the day is unreliable since there is no wifi at my place of employment and the cell towers are over saturated to the point where it is not uncommon for my data rate to be measured in bytes per second.
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
How does one bank energy?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
By "Bank" energy, Orphane just means "don't spend all your energy before you go to bed because you want to have a full 6 charges when you wake up on data day"
Assuming that you remember to check the game in the morning before coming home in the evening and remember that it was data day.......
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
What is the benefit of completing the one weekly heavy production quest? It gives 1 core, but costs three to build...
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited July 2019
Welp, just pulled/crafted a Grizzly, after hitting K5 yesterday, I should probably just stop the HG crafts for now, right?
Edit: Also, I've noticed someone is running a MG/SG/HG echelon with FG42 in it, but I thought FG42 was supposed to be not particularly useful? Wondering if I should hold on to her, or just through her in the enhancement pile.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
Yeah, I'm not trying to make any aspersions on their maxed out echelon, just curious if I should keep her around over other 2* options that have been dropping.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
Yeah, I'm not trying to make any aspersions on their maxed out echelon, just curious if I should keep her around over other 2* options that have been dropping.
there's always the chance that a tdoll will get a mod rework that makes them viable
LWMMG went from being actually a pretty good budget option MG to being one of the top MGs with her mod 3, whenever we get it
Welp, just pulled/crafted a Grizzly, after hitting K5 yesterday, I should probably just stop the HG crafts for now, right?
Edit: Also, I've noticed someone is running a MG/SG/HG echelon with FG42 in it, but I thought FG42 was supposed to be not particularly useful? Wondering if I should hold on to her, or just through her in the enhancement pile.
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
She's my Raifu. I've oathed her and given her every upgrade. She's worked just fine against everything that Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive have thrown at her.
Edit:
I have the flex fairy to prove it too.
Edit 2:
I'm gonna rework that support echelon tonight to include said golden fairy. I haven't gotten around to leveling the fairy yet though.
General_Armchair on
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
Welp, just pulled/crafted a Grizzly, after hitting K5 yesterday, I should probably just stop the HG crafts for now, right?
Edit: Also, I've noticed someone is running a MG/SG/HG echelon with FG42 in it, but I thought FG42 was supposed to be not particularly useful? Wondering if I should hold on to her, or just through her in the enhancement pile.
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
She's my Raifu. I've oathed her and given her every upgrade. She's worked just fine against everything that Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive have thrown at her.
Edit:
I have the flex fairy to prove it too.
Edit 2:
I'm gonna rework that support echelon tonight to include said golden fairy. I haven't gotten around to leveling the fairy yet though.
i mean you do you man
MGs are divided into two camps, Lock and Loaders and everyone else - as long as they're in the "everyone else" category they at least have a shot at being viable, but i'm pretty sure you already know that
Orphane on
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I feel like I'm going to have to set up a dragging squad soon, but unf I don't think the dolls in my main squad are the ones I'm going to want to use, so I'll end having to level my draggers up first...
I assume UMP9 isn't great as a dragger tank since flashbang has a long intro, and I've heard FAL is one of the best draggers, but I don't have her on my main team.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I feel like I'm going to have to set up a dragging squad soon, but unf I don't think the dolls in my main squad are the ones I'm going to want to use, so I'll end having to level my draggers up first...
I assume UMP9 isn't great as a dragger tank since flashbang has a long intro, and I've heard FAL is one of the best draggers, but I don't have her on my main team.
If you're dragging 4-3E or w/e it should be fine
I haven't done it in forever but the requirements aren't super high for that stage or anything
I feel like I'm going to have to set up a dragging squad soon, but unf I don't think the dolls in my main squad are the ones I'm going to want to use, so I'll end having to level my draggers up first...
I assume UMP9 isn't great as a dragger tank since flashbang has a long intro, and I've heard FAL is one of the best draggers, but I don't have her on my main team.
UMP9 or any decent main tank SMG will work for some of the earlier leveling maps like 4-3E. The skill doesn't matter because the tank will have no rations and consequently will not activate the skill. All that matters is the unit's defensive stats, and UMP9 has a pretty nice pool of HP and an above average evasion stat. Ultimately you'll want to use M16 as your tank since she falls into the unique position of being the only doll in the game that can equip both an evasion boosting EXO and damage reducing armor. FAL and SOPMOD are the most popular Dragging DPS.
Welp, just pulled/crafted a Grizzly, after hitting K5 yesterday, I should probably just stop the HG crafts for now, right?
Edit: Also, I've noticed someone is running a MG/SG/HG echelon with FG42 in it, but I thought FG42 was supposed to be not particularly useful? Wondering if I should hold on to her, or just through her in the enhancement pile.
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
She's my Raifu. I've oathed her and given her every upgrade. She's worked just fine against everything that Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive have thrown at her.
Edit:
I have the flex fairy to prove it too.
Edit 2:
I'm gonna rework that support echelon tonight to include said golden fairy. I haven't gotten around to leveling the fairy yet though.
i mean you do you man
MGs are divided into two camps, Lock and Loaders and everyone else - as long as they're in the "everyone else" category they at least have a shot at being viable, but i'm pretty sure you already know that
I'd say that the other category worthy of consideration are the presence of armor buffs. Some fights like Garm and Judge really make it advantageous to have a strong armor boosting squad ready to go.
It's also important to remind people that you don't NEED to use the very best dolls to succeed in the game. So long as you put together echelons whose strengths synergize and use those teams to their strengths, then you'll go far. The Big4 may be the best overall MG's for general combat, with the hunting impulse MG's hounding on their heels (especially with fairy buffs boosting their guaranteed crits ever higher). But the other Machineguns are still Machineguns. They still pull weight for fights where the use of machineguns are applicable. Like the lock and load MG's, Negev basically doesn't have a skill for 99% of battles. However, despite being weaker than the big 4 in general fights, the specialist Garm-hunter team that she spearheads was still more than capable of sweeping away whatever the ranking map threw at it. An MG team featuring a lock'n'load MG would likely have adequately performed on the battlefield just like the Garm-team performed adequately outside of their special fight.
There is a lot of wiggle room in this game to be suboptimal. If we look back at deep dive's ranking map, I only made one ranking attempt. I made a lot of mistakes. One of my strongest echelons which was entrusted with defending the supply line made use of FG42, who gets frowned on by many because she doesn't perform as well in the DPS charts as several other MG's. Several of my dolls were missing equipment, and only my flagship teams had enhanced equipment. Only seven of my echelons were suited for general combat. Echelon 8/9 could survive against what the map threw at it but repairs were often immediately required afterwards. Echelon 10 was me scrapping the very bottom of the barrel, and it was only suited for fighting some of the weakest enemies from the first few turns of the marathon and otherwise needed to avoid combat whatsoever. Despite all of that sloppiness, my ranking run scored high enough to put me in the top 5% of the playerbase. The "Important" rewards like 9A-91's scope cut off at top 40%, and I'm pretty confident that someone could EASILY breach that threshold despite running "nonviable" units like the lock'n'load MG's.
I strongly suggest that people use who they like. There are few dolls whose performance is so bad that their performance deficit will be catastrophically felt outside of competing for the very highest spot on the leaderboards, and most of them are bamboo rifles who are just bad for anything other than sniping a boss.
i mean if you are starved for options fg42 at least has Hunting impulse which makes her better than lock n' loader MGs but LWMMG exists as a better alternative
maybe they just like her design
Yeah, I'm not trying to make any aspersions on their maxed out echelon, just curious if I should keep her around over other 2* options that have been dropping.
MG teams aren't necessary for most content. They were desired heavily for Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive ranking maps since they excelled at sweeping away most mobs without suffering damage. Field repairs result in a score penalty, so doing everything that you could to reduce your damage per fight to zero was highly prized. However, everything that I've read points to the sun having set on MG's shining in the spotlight. Ranking events are the "serious business" mode, and the future ranking maps are basically all set at night where MG teams struggle due to the combination of their poor accuracy and inability to equip night vision.
You probably won't need to use many MG teams at all. Maybe one or two once you finish bringing a rifle team online alongside a few AR teams. If any particular MG really speaks to you, then you can probably make use of her without much issue. But if you ignore the waifu factor, you're better served ignoring MG's until later in the game and by then you may likely have crafted some of the Big 4, who are all MGs who have passive skills whose skills are in play from the first bullet of their first magazine. Ranking just below them are the Hunting Impulse MG's whose skills activate early in the fight. FG42 falls into the category of hunting impulse MG, but there are several HI MG's that objectively have stronger stat lines. If you absolutely want to run with a budget 2* MG, then LWMMG is the better choice. At the bottom of the barrel are lock'n'load MG's whose skills don't come into play at all during their first magazine, and the remainder fall between the Hunting Impulse MGs and the Lock'n'load's. Negev is notable for being one of the best units for some specific long duration fights.
spoilered are my teams from Deep Dive. They took me to top 5%. I might have been able to score higher, but I spent all my time farming Grozas instead of trying to improve my score.
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Well, I pulled a SPAS-12 skin, so I'm probably not going to be able to use that any time soon. Otherwise, I kind of really want to get a shotgun MG team going, just because it sounds dope.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
The voucher event makes me appreciate how a lot of the boss maps are set up so you can easily do them in one or two turns if you've got a powerful enough echelon. Also a bit different from the last one as I don't need to grimly hold on, while a friend echelon slowly advances upon the boss.
Also about the event, besides the Pug and the equipment, the rest seems just cosmetic? Does it make sense to just go for those 2 and then put the rest into cores?
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Also about the event, besides the Pug and the equipment, the rest seems just cosmetic? Does it make sense to just go for those 2 and then put the rest into cores?
I can't log in to the game because my mobile network sucks out here (RIP data day), but traditionally there is a finite supply of inventory for the voucher shop, and that you can collect everything if you complete all of the boss fights every day. Sometimes there is wiggle room to miss a day or two, and IIRC any excess voucher currency leftover after purchasing 100% of the shop inventory gets converted into a few tokens at some exchange rate once the event ends.
Also, since you've said that data is hard to come by, is there specific comps/dolls that excel in data mode? Is it worth making a data mode team?
Yes. Usually people throw four MG's and a handgun at it. Sometimes a bamboo rifle makes its way into the "optimal" team. There is a leader board for the best performance in the data Sims, and you can just copy their teams. Maybe ignore the tippy top positions because sometimes they're hackers who are at the top because of hacks and not because their team is good. Said hackers who show their face on the leader board routinely get banned.
Posts
Edit: I'm just trying to improve my farm efficiency looking for 5-7. I'm getting 2-3 rolls against the loot table a match, but not the boss fight S rank. (Typically I'm getting 1-2 other mobs plus S rank for the map). Just want that extra roll.
She's a good handgun, but not really the best for buffing a AR team thanks to her + shaped tiles. Ideal would be something like ump45 in the main tank slot buffing the back row and mk23 buffing most of the back row. SAA needs to be stuffed into the backline to provide buffs to multiple DPS.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
4-3e stands for 4-3 Emergency
Are you sure you have the right stage?
Somehow I thought for sure I was in 4-3e, but I guess I had the wrong one open.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
They've confirmed that our stages will be different though. It's probably best to make sure that you have the basics covered and have a a rifle team setup in addition to your AR/smg teams so that you have some squad that's good against armor.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
My basic gameplan was to deploy an MG team with an illumination fairy down south to capture the helipad that was due south of the HQ, while leaving behind an AR and Rifle team to defend the HQ. Once the MG team captured the helipad to the south, I'd use it to deploy a rifle team capable of brute forcing the Jupiter cannon just north west of the captured helipad. At that point I'd activate the illumination fiary, reposition the illumination MG team up to the jupiter cannon's previous location, and then sweep down and counter clockwise to hunt for Ouroboros. Once found, I'd spawn in my boss hunter team and send her to Ouro's position.
Oh boy, look at the size of that manticore group. It really stung the squad that I used to kill it once. I avoided killing it when not necessary after that.
Afterwards I decided to roll on the pool party furniture gacha since I had decided that I wanted the swimming pool with the floaty alligator. I had resolved to spend 500 tokens to purchase it with exchange tickets. However I ended up pulling the pool on my second roll. Now I need to decide if I want to keep rolling to get enough exchange tickets to buy something else, or just maintain my token reserve. I'm kinda leaning towards maintaining my token reserve. The following are my furniture gacha desires atm:
*I'll probably want to roll on the Valhalla gacha a bit. I don't really like that some of the cosmetics are in the gacha, but that's the way things are. It's a divergence from how past collabs played out.
*I'll want some of Halloween costumes. I know that I want the Reaper costume for IWS 2000, but I think that might be a gem purchase costume rather than a gacha one.
*I'll want G11's Christmas costume.
*I want all of the "Darkest Dungeon" costumes/furniture. Gotta keep my stockpile up since I don't know when that will arrive.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I think I'll just strengthen my echelons enough to make a crack at some of the 2. stages in the last week of the event.
just do 1-3 attempts a day to see if you get lucky
like, yes, obviously 5-7 is great but there will be more chances to get her
From crafting I've got a stable of good dolls now, so once the event is over, I plan to do a serious shake-up of my echelons.
IIRC this is at least the second if not the third time that she's been available for farming.
If you've otherwise completed cube, then you might as well make an attempt to farm her. But if you don't get her, then IIRC Stetchkin is the reccomended alternative to run in place of FiveSeveN. She'll serve well enough in FiveSeveN's place except for the occasional oddball formation like IWS Exodia that demands both Stetchkin and FiveSeveN be run simultaneously (IWS Exodia is IWS 2000 backed up by four specific handguns)
FiveSeveN is good, but Groza is the real star prize since we will have more night maps in the future and Groza is the undisputed Night Queen (well, until AS VAL mod 3 rolls around).
What I'm trying to say is that FiveSeveN is a great supporting unit to have, but you can replace her with alternatives who are nearly as good. Groza is in a league of her own and is the kind of unit that will find her way onto your flagship team whenever night battles roll around.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
so, capsule mode is available on mondays/thursdays, data sim is available on tuesdays/fridays, and xp sim is available on wednesday/saturday, and all 3 are unlocked on sunday
as new players, the calculus may vary especially when you're tring to get stronger or raise newly acquired units, but let me tell you this right now if you haven't felt it already
data sim is the most valuable because you will need vastly more data than you ever will capsules or exp and you should bank energy for data sims whenever possible. tdolls take something like 600 beginner, 1020 intermediate, and 500 advanced data to max out skills. for fairies it depends on the fairy (yes, i know that's bullshit) but it takes 1200 beginner data, 2040/1200 intermediate data, and 1000/1200 advanced data. in short you need a fuckload of data if you plan on getting anywhere in endgame so never skimp out when it comes to data. Capsules are useful only if you get very little time to play through maps and never farm enhancement fodder tdolls (which, if you xp farm at all, you will have more tdoll fodder than you know what to do with) or for instantly raising a new acquisition to max strength in conjunction with combat reports. xp sim is nice but is not essential.
There is also Defense Drill, which is a wave clear trial that requires a wide roster of tdoll types and teams to complete and which rewards a bunch of goodies the first time you reach any level and equipment calibration tickets whenever you do attempt it. You are best off saving up 5 data to try it on Capsule sim days.
the "ideal" strat is to spend just enough data that by the time the server rolls over to a new day that you are at or are close to 6 energy on Tuseday/Friday/Sunday so you can spend it all on data. Obviously this isn't feasible for everyone due to life or work commitments, but you should stockpile data whenever possible because it is extremely easy to blow through it just doing training on a regular basis.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Assuming that you remember to check the game in the morning before coming home in the evening and remember that it was data day.......
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
That makes sense now that I've had more coffee.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Edit: Also, I've noticed someone is running a MG/SG/HG echelon with FG42 in it, but I thought FG42 was supposed to be not particularly useful? Wondering if I should hold on to her, or just through her in the enhancement pile.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
maybe they just like her design
Yeah, I'm not trying to make any aspersions on their maxed out echelon, just curious if I should keep her around over other 2* options that have been dropping.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
there's always the chance that a tdoll will get a mod rework that makes them viable
LWMMG went from being actually a pretty good budget option MG to being one of the top MGs with her mod 3, whenever we get it
She's my Raifu. I've oathed her and given her every upgrade. She's worked just fine against everything that Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive have thrown at her.
Edit:
I have the flex fairy to prove it too.
Edit 2:
I'm gonna rework that support echelon tonight to include said golden fairy. I haven't gotten around to leveling the fairy yet though.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
i mean you do you man
MGs are divided into two camps, Lock and Loaders and everyone else - as long as they're in the "everyone else" category they at least have a shot at being viable, but i'm pretty sure you already know that
I assume UMP9 isn't great as a dragger tank since flashbang has a long intro, and I've heard FAL is one of the best draggers, but I don't have her on my main team.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
If you're dragging 4-3E or w/e it should be fine
I haven't done it in forever but the requirements aren't super high for that stage or anything
UMP9 or any decent main tank SMG will work for some of the earlier leveling maps like 4-3E. The skill doesn't matter because the tank will have no rations and consequently will not activate the skill. All that matters is the unit's defensive stats, and UMP9 has a pretty nice pool of HP and an above average evasion stat. Ultimately you'll want to use M16 as your tank since she falls into the unique position of being the only doll in the game that can equip both an evasion boosting EXO and damage reducing armor. FAL and SOPMOD are the most popular Dragging DPS.
I'd say that the other category worthy of consideration are the presence of armor buffs. Some fights like Garm and Judge really make it advantageous to have a strong armor boosting squad ready to go.
It's also important to remind people that you don't NEED to use the very best dolls to succeed in the game. So long as you put together echelons whose strengths synergize and use those teams to their strengths, then you'll go far. The Big4 may be the best overall MG's for general combat, with the hunting impulse MG's hounding on their heels (especially with fairy buffs boosting their guaranteed crits ever higher). But the other Machineguns are still Machineguns. They still pull weight for fights where the use of machineguns are applicable. Like the lock and load MG's, Negev basically doesn't have a skill for 99% of battles. However, despite being weaker than the big 4 in general fights, the specialist Garm-hunter team that she spearheads was still more than capable of sweeping away whatever the ranking map threw at it. An MG team featuring a lock'n'load MG would likely have adequately performed on the battlefield just like the Garm-team performed adequately outside of their special fight.
There is a lot of wiggle room in this game to be suboptimal. If we look back at deep dive's ranking map, I only made one ranking attempt. I made a lot of mistakes. One of my strongest echelons which was entrusted with defending the supply line made use of FG42, who gets frowned on by many because she doesn't perform as well in the DPS charts as several other MG's. Several of my dolls were missing equipment, and only my flagship teams had enhanced equipment. Only seven of my echelons were suited for general combat. Echelon 8/9 could survive against what the map threw at it but repairs were often immediately required afterwards. Echelon 10 was me scrapping the very bottom of the barrel, and it was only suited for fighting some of the weakest enemies from the first few turns of the marathon and otherwise needed to avoid combat whatsoever. Despite all of that sloppiness, my ranking run scored high enough to put me in the top 5% of the playerbase. The "Important" rewards like 9A-91's scope cut off at top 40%, and I'm pretty confident that someone could EASILY breach that threshold despite running "nonviable" units like the lock'n'load MG's.
I strongly suggest that people use who they like. There are few dolls whose performance is so bad that their performance deficit will be catastrophically felt outside of competing for the very highest spot on the leaderboards, and most of them are bamboo rifles who are just bad for anything other than sniping a boss.
But to get back to the original question:
MG teams aren't necessary for most content. They were desired heavily for Arctic Warfare and Deep Dive ranking maps since they excelled at sweeping away most mobs without suffering damage. Field repairs result in a score penalty, so doing everything that you could to reduce your damage per fight to zero was highly prized. However, everything that I've read points to the sun having set on MG's shining in the spotlight. Ranking events are the "serious business" mode, and the future ranking maps are basically all set at night where MG teams struggle due to the combination of their poor accuracy and inability to equip night vision.
You probably won't need to use many MG teams at all. Maybe one or two once you finish bringing a rifle team online alongside a few AR teams. If any particular MG really speaks to you, then you can probably make use of her without much issue. But if you ignore the waifu factor, you're better served ignoring MG's until later in the game and by then you may likely have crafted some of the Big 4, who are all MGs who have passive skills whose skills are in play from the first bullet of their first magazine. Ranking just below them are the Hunting Impulse MG's whose skills activate early in the fight. FG42 falls into the category of hunting impulse MG, but there are several HI MG's that objectively have stronger stat lines. If you absolutely want to run with a budget 2* MG, then LWMMG is the better choice. At the bottom of the barrel are lock'n'load MG's whose skills don't come into play at all during their first magazine, and the remainder fall between the Hunting Impulse MGs and the Lock'n'load's. Negev is notable for being one of the best units for some specific long duration fights.
spoilered are my teams from Deep Dive. They took me to top 5%. I might have been able to score higher, but I spent all my time farming Grozas instead of trying to improve my score.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I can't log in to the game because my mobile network sucks out here (RIP data day), but traditionally there is a finite supply of inventory for the voucher shop, and that you can collect everything if you complete all of the boss fights every day. Sometimes there is wiggle room to miss a day or two, and IIRC any excess voucher currency leftover after purchasing 100% of the shop inventory gets converted into a few tokens at some exchange rate once the event ends.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Data mode doesn't use your existing echelons, so you can just build w/e team you want.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Yes. Usually people throw four MG's and a handgun at it. Sometimes a bamboo rifle makes its way into the "optimal" team. There is a leader board for the best performance in the data Sims, and you can just copy their teams. Maybe ignore the tippy top positions because sometimes they're hackers who are at the top because of hacks and not because their team is good. Said hackers who show their face on the leader board routinely get banned.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012