Beginners Guide to Drafting in IS4

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Foreword

This document was created with the purpose of helping newer players in efficiently drafting operators in IS4. IS4 has a particularly grueling hope curve, especially for those playing Eternal Hunting squad as they forgo the discounted recruitment cost of Class squads. I considered creating a tier list for this, but I think tier lists are extremely bait. It is better for a player to understand why they are drafting something rather than taking it because someone’s list said it was S tier. For the purpose of clarity, whenever a skill and its numbers are mentioned, it will be under the assumption that it’s Mastery 3. The same applies to Modules unless stated otherwise. Additionally there are certain entries in here that will refer to the relic “Empty Fowlbeast”, a relic that buffs summon’s HP/ATK by +30% and more importantly, it’s operator’s ATK by +60% so long as it’s on the field.

Guards

Degenbrecher

One of the best carries in IS4. Degenbrecher is one of the most common starting picks in IS4. Degenbrecher is meta because she has good matchups in most stages, including boss stages. So what does good matchups mean? Good matchups mean the operator does well into a majority of the stages that are commonly found in an IS theme. This is because at higher difficulty, you will be drafting operators primarily with endings and extremely difficult stages in mind. Another reason why Degenbrecher is great is because stages in IS4 will generally throw large waves of enemies at you with enough downtime in between to get your skills back up. This length of time usually syncs up with Degenbrecher’s 30 SP cost for her S3. Enemies in IS4 are also generally low in DEF so they likely won’t survive more than one usage of S3. You will not find a single stage in IS4 where Degenbrecher is not useful. Her [Disarm] talent is also very useful when it procs as it can buy you precious seconds to get skill up, but it is RNG so it’s not entirely reliable outside of S3. She usually serves as one of the main damage sources against the ED1, ED2, and ED3 bosses. Emphasis on the ED3 boss as it has a super high burst damage requirement that Degen fulfills perfectly. Everything I’ve explained here can be found in this playlist created by another guide maker, Bait. In it you will find guides on how to clear a majority of the stages as well as endings with Degenbrecher at the core.

Mlynar

Mr. Schwing himself, Mlynar is a powerhouse in IS4 for his massive on-skill DPS and somewhat rare utility of the taunt status. The taunt is incredibly strong because it allows you to ignore normal deploy order priority, meaning you can deploy frontliners early to charge skills and stall for your ranged units and not have to worry about them being targeted by ranged enemies. This can be particularly useful on stages where there are near global range enemies (such as March of the Dead) and when you have Barometric Disorder, which can limit your opening options greatly.S3 is his bread and butter skill. It’s great on every stage of IS4 for its long duration, AOE damage, and ability to hit aerial units like the Collapsal Drones. It also scales extremely well with ASPD so relics and folds that increase it synergize well with him. Small thing to note, because of how Liberator trait effect stacks, things that increase Mlynar’s SP recovery can lead to his skill being up before the effect is fully charged, just keep this in mind so you don’t auto pilot activate without it being charged up fully, this is really only relevant on enemies you can’t kill in one cycle like bosses. Speaking of, Mlynar is amazing in all of the bosses in IS4 and a core component of ED4, essentially a must draft for it because of his damage and taunt.

Zuo Le

Special thanks to Mei of May, another guide maker and translator for CN guides, for help on this entry. Unless you are playing Guard/Vanguard class squad, you will most likely never draft Zuo Le. Whether that be because of Hope constraints or lack of Guard vouchers since Degenbrecher and Mlynar take absolute priority in those tickets. But if you do happen to be playing Guard/Vanguard squad then he is draftable, but ONLY as a pre-promoted E2 unless you are literally swimming in Hope. He’s generally drafted later into the run as other units take priority. Zuo Le’s main strength lies in his CC and solo laning potential on boss stages. He also scales extremely well with the CC duration and SP recovery relics found in IS4 so he’s worth consideration if you’re able to stack multiple sources of them. As mentioned earlier, Zuo Le has great solo laning potential on boss stages so I’ll briefly list off a few places he can do so. On both versions of ED1 on the right side of the map, both versions of ED4 on the bottom left of the map next to blue the box, and the rightmost lane in ED2 alter. Doesn’t entirely solo but can hold with minimal support on the right side blue box on both versions of ED3 according to Mei.

Vanguards

Ines

The best pick from the Vanguard voucher without a doubt. Ines provides you with utility outside of generating a good chunk of DP and has innate survivability. Her invisibility reveal is valuable because there are quite a few stages with dangerous invisible enemies with the biggest threat being on a F5 stage called “Where be No Mount and Seas”. This stage has the invisible Secret-Keepers from Chongyue’s event that will almost always one-shot the operator blocking them before turning invisible again. There are ways to play around this but Ines’ invisibility reveal just makes things a lot easier. There will be times in your runs where you find yourself tight on deployment slots and being able to retreat Ines but still have her utility on the field in the form of Shadow Sentry is extremely useful. The reduction in movement speed is great since IS4 specific enemies usually have something in their abilities that makes them extremely fast such as the Distorted Carcass’ sprint when damaged and the Distorted Caster’s sprint when not attacking ability. Ines’ [Bind] also allows her to safely DPS enemies for 5 seconds and get her skill up without being run over. The ASPD steal on Ines also has usage on both versions of ED2 if you are using Shu to block him. Ines can steal enough ASPD from the boss to unfreeze Shu momentarily so she can activate her S3 so you can safely burst the boss without him running away. The invisibility from S2 protects her from ranged attacks while she’s generating DP, allowing you to get the entire skill off so long as she doesn’t block an enemy that can kill her quickly. S2 scales extremely well with ASPD and any of the initial SP relics. It’s worth mentioning that S3 does see usage if you are in a Bosky and the effect is having much lower deployment limit but extremely reduced redeployment time.

Elysium/Wanqing/Myrtle

Extremely cheap to draft on Guard/Vanguard squad but should only be taken if offered as a pre-promoted E2 and you already have Ines (unless you don’t have the hope for Ines yet). Having only 1 of these flagbearers raised is fine unless you care about maximizing your chances of getting an E2 pre promote. S1 is all you really care about on flags and the other parts of their kit don’t really matter (most notable would be Elysium’s -DP cost to snipers when deployed). Module entirely unnecessary on any of them. For squads that aren’t Guard/Vanguard they are a luxury and should only be taken if you already have Ines and are swimming in hope, you can justify drafting them before Ines or even after Ines if you get hit with Barometric Level 2. Don’t draft them if you have Blunt Claws - Fuel, it’s more than enough for DP issues. Don’t draft Saileach, even if you’re Guard/Vanguard. She’s a hope sink and never worth the cost.

Specialists

Ela

Ela is the premier E2 starter for Specialist/Caster squad players and favored by the community for her insane role compression. Unfortunately she is a collab limited character so the chances of her coming back anytime soon is extremely low. Ela has various strengths, one of which being she’s cheap to deploy and can also be placed on ground tiles, allowing her to have extremely flexible positioning. This is incredibly strong in IS4 because a lot of stages will open very quickly and you aren’t always guaranteed a Vanguard. Additionally, there is a modifier known as Barometric which can reduce ur DP regeneration by up to 40%, making Ela’s ability to open stages even more important. Another strength Ela has is having access to both AOE [Fragile] and [Slow]. On top of this utility, Ela has excellent damage on S3 against [Fragile] targets giving her respectable DPS. She also benefits from Empty Fowlbeast, as her mines count as summons. Simply put down a mine somewhere on the map where it won’t be triggered and she’ll have permanent uptime.

Kirin R Yato (Yato Alter)

The go-to fast redeploy unit for IS4. If you’re playing Specialist/Caster squad, Yato is most likely going to be your first draft priority for Specialist unless you started her, it’s not that common due to the difficulty of knowing the timings for all the stages but it is a thing. She’s also one of the best E1 starters for those playing non-class squads. However, potential 4 is mandatory so you should be borrowing her from the support list if you don’t have that. She is also a collab limited character just like Ela and therefore will likely not be rerun for years if at all. One of Yato’s main strengths is versatility and utility. She’s one of the few characters where all 3 of her skills see some usage in IS4. S3 allows her to deal with pesky aerial units and grouped up enemies, of which there are many instances of such as the F5 stage “Stay Away From Strangers”. S2 is used to assassinate more dangerous and isolated enemies such as the Distorted Casters, but can also be used to clear out enemies grouped on one tile. S2 has the additional benefit of giving her Taunt for the duration, allowing you to draw aggro from your squishier units. Her S1 sees the least amount of usage but there are instances where it’s better than the other 2. Such instances include stages like “Breathing”, “Nameless Hero”, and “Penalty”. The reason it’s more useful on these particular stages is because S1’s total skill damage is quite high. In these stages, its weakness of taking longer to get out, having no innate ATK buff, and lacking the CC immunity of the other two skills, is largely irrelevant. Another reason why Yato is taken is because she refunds more DP on retreat. This is great because DP can be a very scarce resource in IS4 due to many stages opening extremely quickly and the possibility of being hit with Barometric. Never underestimate how much those few extra deployment points matter.

• Note: if you aren’t playing Specialist/Caster squad and wondering whether to draft Ela or Yato Alter first, check if your squad is strong enough to support a useless E1. Yato Alter has a lot more power at E1 than Ela E1 so if you need immediate power then pick Yato.

Texas the Omertosa

The 2nd go-to FRD for IS4 and probably the more accessible one to players since she’s a regular limited character unlike Yato Alter’s collab limited status. Texas has her own share of utility that differs from Yato. One of which is her access to 8 seconds of AOE [Stun] that can be even longer if you get a reset. Another utility she has is -30% RES shred on all enemies in the surrounding 8 tiles for 10 seconds. This gives her great synergy with Reedic’s S2 as you can sandwich the enemy. Her [Silence] doesn’t really see usage in IS4. Texas Alter has its fair share of weaknesses though that should be mentioned. One of which is that she gets countered by collapse effects much harder than Yato Alter does, namely Injury Crisis and Barometric. With Injury Crisis you’ll find that she often gets killed before getting her HP/Skill reset. In Barometric’s case, you’ll be starved for DP since Texas Alter doesn’t have the Y Module for Executors. She can eat into your DP very quickly and leave you without enough to open your other units.

Ascalon

The Specialist voucher is pretty competitive so it can be hard to find an angle to draft Ascalon outside Specialist/Caster, especially when Ela and an FRD take priority. But she has access to a powerful AOE slow that makes her a consideration since IS4 heavily favors CC. I won’t bore you with the math but she can apply up to an 85% MS (credits to DragonGJY) reduction to ground enemies in her range while skill is active. That’s a crazy amount, especially since Ascalon herself sports some respectable damage as well and has a very fast skill cycle. She does well into ED2 as the boss isn’t immune to movement speed reduction during his ability. She can assist with bottom right on ED4 as well if given some support. Her Movement Speed reduction is useful in most stages as well and buys you a lot of time for skills or redeployment timers to come up. One thing to note is that despite S2’s description saying it only affects ground units, it can affect aerial units as well in her range (but only the MS reduction portion).

Casters

Nymph

Casters have historically not been very good in most iterations of IS for a multitude of reasons such as enemies having 90 RES like in IS3 or simply not having enough damage/utility to be worth drafting even in Specialist/Caster squad. Nymph is an exception to this rule, her CC capabilities are incredible as a majority of enemies in the game are not immune to [Fear], her specialty. Her [Fear]’s 5 second duration combined with its low SP cost of 12 means you can very easily permanently CC a target which is important against enemies like Shattered Champions and the bosses in ED2 and ED4. She buys you a lot of time to get your team’s skill up. Her damage is also respectable as she can proc Necrosis on targets below 40 RES instantly. The [Enfeeble] from Necrosis can be useful as well as it relieves healing pressure from your medics for the duration of the effect. The low SP cost of her fear means it synergizes extremely well with SP recovery relics as well as the Portable Supply Station. As mentioned earlier She’s an amazing pick into ED2 because of her ability to completely bypass the boss’ sprint ability with [Fear]. She’s also great into ED4’s Red King as she can permanently CC him and prevent him from stacking his ATK.

Logos

Great pick for Specialist/Caster squad players when pre-promoted, especially since Caster voucher has little competition. As a certain EN representative likes to call it, “he’s basically Arts Mlynar.” Logos’ main strength comes from his amazing DPS when S3 is active and ability to remove a flat -10 RES from enemies he hits. He can reliably proc Necrosis by himself which just adds to his total damage and provides [Enfeeble] utility to your team if you don’t have Nymph. His ability to both be a boss DPs and clear groups of enemies makes her a powerful pick. He also has a great match up against ED4’s Red King and his incredible DEF.

Snipers

Ray (Best Bnnuy)

Sniper vouchers aren’t too competitive in IS4 and it can be hard to utilize most of them because enemies sprint outside of their range often. This weakness doesn’t apply to Ray as she has the ability to CC enemies on her own during skill, locking them down in her range so she can DPS them. Being able to extend her own range as well gives her access to more versatile positioning which is important on maps with restrictive ranged tiles. Her skill also has a relatively low cycle, allowing her to constantly have it in time for the next wave of enemies. Her extremely high base ATK means she synergizes well with buffs from other operators like Warfarin and relics like Empty Fowlbeast, since Sandbeast counts as a summon. Ray’s high ATK and DPS on skill allows her to have usage on most stages (so long as ranged tiles aren’t scarce). It also makes her a potential solution for ED4’s Red King if she’s paired with Warfarin as she can actually break through the King’s incredible DEF.

Wisadel

Cockroach go boom, enemies die, repeat. That’s the gameplay loop with Wisadele, ok but actually now. She synergizes exceptionally well with Empty Fowlbeast. The camouflage provided by her revenant shadows gives her protection against ED1 and ED3 bosses’ ranged attacks and can serve to draw their aggro which is particularly useful against the ED1 boss’ freeze ability. She can mess with the cannon cycles on the Kings in ED4 so be careful when using her there. Her slow and RNG stun is also useful as CC is power in IS4. She’s useful on basically every stage.

Medics

Reed The Flame Shadow

Reedic is a powerful tempo pick in IS4 and great enroute to the bosses. But she doesn’t scale as well as someone like Ela into the later floors. She generally isn’t worth drafting past F3. Earlier than that though, she’s an amazing pickup for your squad for her utility, versatility, burst healing, and respectable damage. [Cinder] is extremely powerful because both parts of it increase Reedic’s healing output and provide safety for her team, healing pressure is no joke in IS4 when you’re forced to block. She has amazing burst healing and damage on S2 and S3. It’s important to note that when using S2 you want the fireballs to land in a way that an enemy is being hit by both sets of fireballs. There are many ways to do this, whether that be sandwiching an enemy between two melee units or one ranged and one melee. The burst healing from S2 is so high it can keep your operators alive even while blocking a Shattered Champion. S3 is great on multiple stages with grouped enemies as well such as F3’s “So Close Yet So Far” and F4’s “Collaspal Afternoon” (provided she has some support in killing an enemy to start the chain reaction). The chain explosion is also great into the normal version of ED1 where it can clear the ice on the tiles well. One thing to note is that without the HP boost from Reedic’s Module at level 1, she will get one shot by the ED1 boss instead of surviving with a sliver of HP.

Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska

Elemental Damage isn’t really an issue in IS4, and Wandering Medics are usually supposed to have weaker heals in return for being able to heal elemental injury. That being said, Eyja2 completely throws this out the window. She has very high total healing from a single auto because of her talent. Eyja2 has incredibly powerful burst healing during skill and provides your team with a significant 40% Max HP buff for its 50 second duration. Emphasis on the long duration of her skill as 50 seconds is more than enough time for your units to recharge their skills, giving her stall potential. It’s important to note that Eyja2 does not fare as well as ED3 at D15 if you don’t have an external source boosting your Max HP as the boss will just one shot, rendering that burst healing useless.

Warfarin

Warfarin offers your team one of the most powerful buffs in the game and an SP battery passive for a lower recruitment cost by virtue of being a 5*. She has a great match up in ED4 against Red King when combined with Ray,allowing her to punch through his DEF. She also does well in ED3 as a Degenbrecher S3 buffer against the boss’ very short burst window. Warfarin scales well with most generic ATK and SP relics, but also scales well with relics and folds that buff your teams % Max HP because of her S1. Her SP charging potential is really strong when properly utilized but can be somewhat difficult and awkward to use due to its random targeting. You’ll often find yourself ditching the SP battery portion of her kit to ensure that the S2 buff lands on your main carry.

Supporters

Quercus

There will be times while playing IS where you don’t get a single Medic voucher for a majority of the run. This is where Quercus comes in to help you salvage your run, acting as your medic that you can draft from the Supporter voucher. Her HPS is pretty high and compares to the likes of Eyja2. Being a 5* also means you aren’t sacrificing a lot of hope in order to draft her, but chances are if you’re that starved for heals you don’t really have the room to be picky. Her limitation is that outside of healing she doesn’t have much utility outside a small [Sanctuary] buff.

Heidi

Degenbrecher’s best friend and ideal buffer. IS4 players love Heidi because her S1 provides a very high ATK [Inspiration] buff to carry operators like Degenbrecher and Mlynar. The block removal is also a benefit as it allows dangerous enemies to pass by, saving your setup from being demolished. It also cycles really well alongside Degen’s S3 so you’ll have them up around the same time. She provides a small ATK buff as a cherry on top. Heidi and her potential can be picked up for free by doing the Main Story (chapter 10) so she’s easily accessible to players. Having such powerful buffs and being cheap to recruit makes her a very strong pick from the supporter voucher.

Skadi the Corrupting Heart

Skalter is very much a luxury pick in IS4, especially when Heidi exists for cheaper and Angelina takes priority in the Supporter voucher. This puts her in a similar situation to Ascalon. But like Ascalon, Skalter has her fair share of utility in the form of her skills that makes her a consideration. S3 serves as your go to for ATK buffing. Useful if your run is lacking some damage in the form of relics. It’s especially good against ED3 where every source of damage increases matters and serves a similar role to Warfarin S2 and Heidi S1. The bonus DEF from S2 has historically seen usage on ED2 to help tank the boss by relieving healing pressure if your team is lacking some defensive power. S1 isn’t too important but can act as a powerful defensive buffer on stages like F5’s “Instinct Containment”. She has good synergy with the Empty Fowlbeast relic as more ATK to Skalter = more ATK to allies.

Angelina

One of the biggest glow ups in Arknights history. Her IS Module turned her into a top priority draft for her damage and permanent CC on skill. She can permanently [Levitate] up to 5 enemies for 25 seconds while also doing an insane amount of damage to them. Her skill’s low SP cost and respectable duration means Angelina can cycle between waves easily. She also makes the relics that [Levitate] actually have some value to them. One of IS4’s most dangerous elites, Shattered Champions, gets 1 cycled by Angelina S3 at D15 on F6 where enemies have the most amount of stats possible. If Angelina’s damage isn’t enough, 25 seconds is usually enough time for your other carries to get their skills back up. It’s hard to emphasize how incredibly broken Angelina is. Build her immediately if you can.

Defenders

Shu

Defenders suffer a similar fate to Casters in IS where it’s hard to justify their expensive Hope cost for the value they bring. Even more so in IS4 where blocking is not recommended as most melee units get rolled over by enemies with short attack intervals and high ATK. Shu is an exception to this rule for 3 reasons. She has great burst healing on S3, grants the powerful [Sanctuary] effect to allies on her sowed tiles, and can teleport enemies back to a specific tile using S3. That last point is especially important in ED2 and ED3. She also doesn’t have to fight with any competition in her voucher like Specialists do. Shu can additionally provide your team with %ATK and ASPD buffs while her S3 is active. The burst healing and buffs from S3 are nice but the teleport is what makes her really stand out. It’s effectively 30 seconds of CC on an unlimited number of enemies and is the core of ED2 and ED3 solutions. To elaborate more on why Shu’s kit is extremely important against ED2 and ED3. Refer to the section about “Drafting for Endings” below.

Important Note

The section below will contain operators that are unnecessary at lower difficulties but an essential requirement at higher difficulties. The reason they are not included in the area above is because these are exclusively picked for boss reasons and don’t serve much of a purpose outside of them. I also just didn’t feel like making another document for them.

Nightingale

Nightingale is an absolute necessity in ED3 at D15 due to the boss mechanic dealing an insane amount of arts damage at higher difficulties that will oneshot your operators without RES boost from S3. She does well in ED4 as a healer against the Yellow King who does Arts damage. Usually drafted later into the run due to her anemic levels of healing and hope sink if you’re not playing Sniper/Medic squad. If you do find yourself with her earlier, her cages can serve as decent bait.

Gravel

Drafted exclusively for ED4 as bait and an emergency blocker. For Specialist/Caster squad players you can draft her earlier if you somehow have a throwaway Specialist voucher but that will rarely happen. You use Gravel to block the boss and force him to use his ability on himself. More information found in this guide on ED4

Low Rarity Units

Big thanks to Fibrinogen for writing this entry!

Sometimes it is better to pick a 3 star over a temp 4 star if the temp 4 star is bad (eg: taking ansel over temp chestnut). Additionally, it is better to take 2 star units or robots if you do not need the raw strength/power that the 3 star offers, typically later into the run when you already have your core 6 stars. The main 2 star to note being yato vanguard, being a pseudo fast redeploy that is good for baiting (eg: baiting bomber drones in confusing appearance or baiting the first attack of the secret keepers in where no mounts and seas) Durin can also be considered since she is just a cheap caster (dp wise) vs 3 star temp caster for summoning rosmontis pillars. Robots serve a similar purpose to yato being a low dp cost bait (notably important in net variants of march of the dead especially with injury trigger) but they can still have some utility, such as lancet can serve as extra hp/s for ed2 tanking when you dont roll any deploy limit relics, thermex can serve as fragile source in ed3 burst

Drafting for Endings

If you’ve reached this point then you’ll likely have read the entries on the operators and understand what purpose each operator serves. Now we’re gonna put it all together. In high difficulty IS, you’re meant to start drafting for the ending you’re going for as soon as possible, given that your squad is strong enough to not explode to the stages on the later floors. What does “drafting for endings” mean exactly? It means taking a look at the boss’ mechanic for each ending and going “what operators can I use to counter this?”. I’m going to use Ending 2’s boss, Eik, as an example. Eik’s boss mechanic is that when reaching certain HP thresholds, he will begin to sprint and cannot be blocked or CC’d (with exceptions!). So what do you draft to counter this? You can draft operators that have CC abilities that ignore his CC immunity such as Nymph’s [Fear]. Another method is drafting an operator to block Eik until all the enemies in the stage are gone. Someone like Shu is a perfect counter in this case. She can effectively tank Eik and CC him by teleporting him back to her tile when he begins to sprint. By drafting either of these options, you have now effectively countered the boss’ mechanic. What follows is drafting operators that can do large amounts of damage to the boss and hold their own against the other enemies in the stage.

Lofty Silverfrost/Ice-Cold Image (A)

First thing you’ll notice about the map is that most of the tiles are locked down by Ice Bulwarks that you have to remove before you can set up. In LS, this can be easily accomplished by Reedic. Yato also works as you can clear a path to set up someone like Degen or Mlynar in a good position to clear more ice. In ICI, Reedic is not an effective solution to the ice as they have massively increased HP. Yato remains a very good choice for clearing ice here as do Mlynar and Degen. In LS, the boss has a mechanic that will freeze the last deployed operator every so often. Below 50% HP, this ability will target the last 2 deployed operators. You’ll need two tankers to eat these stuns. Mlynar + any operator that’s not your Medic or blocker. You can also just bait this stun with a FRD and retreat them afterwards. Do note that in the alternate version of this stage, the boss doesn’t use this stun and instead applies the cold effect to all units (both friendly and hostile) on the field. It doesn’t matter too much who you use to DPS the boss, so long as they actually do damage. Mlynar and Degen are popular choices for this role, but operators like Logos and Ray will also work (with support).

Ending 2: Sami’s Entropy/Hollow Visage (A)

We briefly went over this ending’s boss in the notes above but there’s a few additional details I should mention. You’ll need someone to help with unfreezing Shu since she will be your blocker, and therefore become permanently frozen while Eik is attacking her. Ines and Degen both work for this. With Ines you steal his ASPD on S2 so Shu can unfreeze (WARNING! This does not work if you have Non-Linear Action as he gets bonus ASPD from it). With Degen you have her hit him over and over until he becomes Disarmed long enough for Shu to unfreeze. You can utilize any number of DPS and burst to damage the boss so long as you trigger his sprint before Shu skill runs out.

Gardener/Sentinel (A)

The boss for ED3 is a brutal Burst check as you can’t damage the boss without activating the pylon in the middle of the map. The normal version gives you anywhere from a 5-10 second interval to damage him (depending on how charged the pylon is) , while the alternative version gives you 2.5-5 seconds to do it. It is for this reason that Degenbrecher is currently the most consistent operator to use against this boss, but she requires support from other operators. This is why buffers like Heidi, Warfarin, or Skalter are mandatory (any one of them will do). Heidi is preferred because of her skill cycling matching Degen’s. Nightingale is another mandatory draft at higher difficulties because without her RES bonus to allies, they will get one shot. This is due to the fact that the boss deals arts damage and gets increased ATK against allies on purple seeded tiles that he spawns in. Instead of Nightingale, you can draft Eyja Alter. But this requires a significant amount of bonus Max HP as without it, all of your ops will just get one shot anyway. Shu is another core component of this ending. Her S3 is used to lock the boss to one side of the map so he can’t teleport to the other side and spread his purple tiles. Her [Sanctuary] buff is also very good at keeping your units alive alongside Nightingale. This boss essentially boils down to you funneling as much survivability into your comp as possible while buffing 1-2 carries as much as you can.

Ending 4:Sands of Time/Enter Eternity (A)

For more information see this guide. When drafting for this ending you’ll have to keep in mind that it has 2 bosses, the Yellow King and the Red King. For the Yellow King, you’ll want to draft a physical damage DPS against him as he has an incredible amount of RES. It’s easiest to just kill him instead of trying to stall him. This is because he has an ability similar to Crownslayer that lets him TP past the operator blocking him. The best way to deal with the Yellow King is to use Mlynar. Mlynar has 0 block initially so he won’t trigger the Yellow King’s dash and his skill (when activated at a specific time) is short enough that he goes back to 0 block before the Yellow King reaches him. To deal with the Red King you’ll want Arts damage since he has a very high DEF. Possible options include Logos, Ceobe, or Nymph. Nymph works best when paired with one of the other two, but if you find yourself with Nymph only it’s still fine. Nymph can permanently CC the Red King with S2 given some assistance from relics or operators. An alternative solution to Red King is to use Ray and Warfarin together. This is because the buff from Warfarin give’s Ray enough ATK to bypass the Red King’s DEF. This requires the assistance of outside sources of damage like relics or Ela mines.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Tsunderekermit, Bait, Oltammefru, and Polymer for providing me with some of the information in a few of the entries, to Mei of May for her help on the Zuo Le and the Flagbearer’s entries, to Fibrinogen for writing the Low Rarity Units entry, and to Euthy, Jackpilot, Eidolon, and Dest for their help in formatting and filtering what entries should be included so this didn’t end up being 90 pages long.