Guard Vanguard Silverash Guide

Arknights IS5 DLC2 - SUH2A VGG Strategy Guide

Author: Eyanx
Translator: @karpechan (Mei of May)
Original Video: Bilibili

Glossary

Abbreviation	Definition
SUH	Silverash + Ulpianus + Hoederer
SUH2A	Silverash + Ulpianus + Hoederer + double Agents
VGG	Vanguard Guard squad
SNP	Sniper Medic squad
en route survivability	the ability of an operator, playstyle, relic, etc. to keep you alive during the run before the bosses.
playstyle	a systematic and specific set of draft plans, squad, Fated Encounter relic that together form a coherent overall strategic plan.
Highroll/lowroll run	A run with high/low power due to relics, thoughts, pathing, ending RNG, etc., or the lack thereof.
Power ceiling/floor	the maximum/minimum power of an operator.
home classes	the two classes which get a Hope discount for a particular class squad
away class(es)	classes which do not get a Hope discount for a particular class squad
hard stage(s)	stages that are particularly difficult or challenging
one-shot threshold	the damage it takes to one-shot an operator or enemy, a useful metric to measure survivability

Full Strategy Guide

Please allow me to introduce the greatest discovery in IS5 DLC2: the Silverash Ulpianus Hoederer double Agent strategy…

A guide to using Guard Vanguard Silverash start with Ulpianus, Hoederer and agents

Credits to @karpechan for TL

【请允许我向你介绍萨卡兹dlc2最伟大的发现——银乌雷双情报官打法】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1u399YCEaf/

The following is a translated transcript of Eyanx’s IS5 DLC2 VGG strategy presentation video. All credit goes to him for creating the strategy and the original video. My intention is to share my favourite IS5 strategy with the EN IS community. Original video link

Strategy Introduction

Please allow me to introduce the greatest discovery in IS5 DLC2: the Silverash Ulpianus Hoederer double Agent strategy, after the release of IS5 DLC2 [on the CN server], I spent over a month developing the Silverash Ulpianus Hoederer strategy. After practical testing and with the only winning condition being ED245 (145, 24, 25 all count as losses), I have achieved several 5x or 6x winstreaks [he has a 17x winstreak] and the overall winrate is above 70%. The runs that were lost were primarily human mistakes, and there are very few unwinnable runs, it is overall quite a relaxing playstyle. VGG is a weapon, and it relies heavily on how the player uses it. When used well, it is a formidable weapon, but when used poorly, you’ll stab yourself in the back. And so in this video, I will teach you all to play VGG effectively with this playstyle. In my opinion, VGG in the current meta is the strongest class squad with a Wiš’adel ban, and slightly weaker to SNP with an unrestricted Wiš’adel. Of course, not all would agree, but I’m not here to convince everyone, just to teach everyone how to use this strategy. Play it in practice yourself before deciding whether I’m correct or not.

Core Strategy Details

The SUH2A playstyle, or the Silverash Ulpianus Hoederer Double Agent playstyle in full. Silverash is responsible for a high power floor during a lowroll in the early game and a high power ceiling in the mid-late game when paired with collectables. I needn’t say more for Silverash’s power ceiling, but his power floor is also incredibly high, especially his dominance on F2 under mental load. He can beat all Epochs and hidden enemies, and even carry up to F5 as the only E2 6-star under extreme circumstances. Ulpianus is responsible for the midgame en route survivability when lacking King’s and an extremely high power ceiling with an infinite S3. Ulpianus is much stronger than Hoederer on the first 3 floors or without Lance, which is why Ulpianus is prioritised over Hoederer, en route survivability is more important than anything else. Hoederer is responsible for F4/5 en route survivability with Lance at E1 and soloing bosses with Chalice for a high power ceiling. I can only say that Hoederer with full Lamp including Chalice is a brain smoothening experience, you’ll feel it when you use it. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that these three ops are top level in both power floor or ceiling. Double Agent of course refers to the newly released Surfer and Cantabile, two 5-star Agents rather than Ines [TN: personally, Canta into Puzzle/Chilchuck is sufficient for now].

Drafting

(You can also reference a tiered drafting guide in this Reddit post, Note that this guide was created by the translator, Mei of May, and does not reflect the original author’s opinions.)

I often say that in IS, you can’t only look at the strength of a playstyle after you’ve drafted all operators, instead, the en route survivability that allows you to draft all operators in the playstyle is what actually matters the most. This is also a display of one’s ability to strategise. SUH2A with three 6-stars and two 5-stars have almost perfect en route survivability, there won’t be cases where you’re stuck with dead tickets, you’re able to draft from any ticket given. But if you draft Ines who costs 5+2 Hope, then my condolences, there goes your Hoederer or Eyja2. Ever since the release of IS5, I’ve proposed that VGG’s Cantabile had a higher priority over Ines, not necessarily because Cantabile was stronger than Ines, but rather because in that playstyle, Cantabile had higher en route survivability, and so overall has higher priority. Why is this the case? Simple, it’s Silverash. Out of Ines’ main three strengths of anti-invis, FRD, and DP gen, Silverash alone encompasses the first two, and thanks to his Leader talent, Surfer and Cantabile in Silverash playstyles have an innate decreased redeployment time. Two 5-star Agents for 2 Hope is significantly stronger than Surfer/Cantabile + Ines for 8 Hope, not to mention the en route survivability on F4/5 when there is typically an E2 plus an E1, in which case double 5-star completely destroys single 5-star plus Ines. This is also Silverash’s biggest advantage over Mlynar which I have proposed ever since the release of IS5, it was doubted by many back then, but time and practical play has given us the answer. Alright, enough chit-chat, let’s discuss operational strategy, my turn!

Floor 1 Strategy

Unconditionally pick 2 Plans for the F3 bonus. Since DLC2 has increased pressure, draft Amiya start to start snowballing early. Vertical movement in DLC2 has been increased from 2 Plans to 3 Plans, so some may think F1 triple combat now provides very low value, but this is not the case. Our strategy here takes triple combat whenever possible, including refreshing an encounter into a combat. What advantages does this provide?

Clearing out your Mental Toll to allow free pathing on F2. If you path linearly on F1 and reserve 4 Plans, your Mental Toll will certainly become overloaded on F2, which would waste a significant amount of resources. The most optimal strategy for DLC2 VGG is to take ED5 on F2 and leverage the high early power floor of class squads compared to Ingot/Blueprint to farm collectables from the Ghost. This means we need enough Inspirers to craft into shields to leak the Ghost and so F1 triple combat is utilised to clear out Plans for space for Inspirers and Lingerers.
That being said, the most important purpose for F1 triple combat is to immediately draft Ulpianus in the F1 shop. If you get Witchcraft or path for a Scout on F2, then E2 Silverash + Ulpianus can carry the first 4 floors. This greatly improves your power in the early-mid game, allowing you to take Boskies or EMs effortlessly.
With enough Hope from F1 triple combat, you can draft from whichever tickets the game throws at you, such as Surfer/Canta for Vanguard, or even E2 Tin Man for Specialist. These two tickets can help you to start snowballing and differs to 2 Hope start, where you have to pick between Agent OR Tin Man in addition to Amiya.

Alternative Strategies

Of course, not every run has possibility for F1 triple combat, but that’s fine, our old friend from DLC1 Tachanka enters the squad. Due to the release of Surfer, DLC2 Tachanka has lower priority than in DLC1, but you can still take him, especially from combat Guard tickets before the shop. If your first Guard ticket comes late via the shop, then either buy bonus Hope collectables to draft Ulpianus or draft Amiya to increase power and Mental Toll when Hope is low, don’t draft Tachanka here. Since combined VG+G tickets will most likely go to Surfer, Tachanka has a good chance to remain at E1, F2+ Guard tickets will almost always go to Ulpianus and Hoederer, so it’s quite likely for an E1 Tachanka to get carried all the way up to F5. Of course, it’s fine to use wasted Guard tickets on F5 to E2 Tachanka, but then you’ll be missing out on E2 Amiya’s instant power and Mental Toll on F2/3, so it becomes more difficult to snowball and en route survivability is decreased. If Amiya is E2 already and F1 Guard tickets are otherwise in excess, you can draft Tachanka exclusively with those and wait for a wasted Guard ticket to E2 him. After completing the Silverash Ulpianus Hoederer trio, I lean towards Nearl the Radiant Knight ≥ Qiubai for the 6-star guard 4th draft. Some may be confused by this, “I get why Qiubai, she has ST permaCC, but wdym NtRK deserves the ticket? She needs to block to deal True damage, doesn’t that mean she’s completely outclassed by Vina?”. Sigh, allow me to explain. As the strongest Guard trio in IS5, the SUH trio are coherent and sufficient by themselves. In runs where you’re able to draft all three, the outcome of the run is basically already decided, and a 4th E2 6-star doesn’t make a big difference. Essentially, we want to draft a Guard who is more suited for the SUH trio to create a 3+1>4 effect.

Fourth Guard Draft

Normally, the 4th 6-star Guard can be drafted on late F5 or F6, and there’s a good chance they’ll be stuck at E1. If the game gives you two tickets to E2 them, then even Lessing would work. However, what about cases where there isn’t a second Guard ticket and they’re stuck at E1 for the rest of the run? In that case, only NtRK and Qiubai have immediate power, similar to the aforementioned E1 Hoederer’s en route survivability. Fundamentally, E1 Qiubai is a ST Ethan, but Ethan is a must-draft, so they overlap on the same role. So unless a run doesn’t have Ethan, I personally always lean towards E1 NtRK as a precaution for Congestion Epoch, assist with damage in ED4 p3, or as a stun bomb in ED5. In essence, she functions a seatbelt. Often optimised out and unused, but when mistakes are made or in extreme lowroll runs, she becomes such an unreplaceable operator. “Doctor, NtRK’s appearance here indicates that the situation has turned for the worst.”, indeed, such is her existence. Of course, there is no steadfast rule, drafting Vina isn’t bad if you could skip her weak phase in E1 with an insta-E2 ticket or Witchcraft. In extreme runs with few collectables but an abundance of Guard tickets, Vina can indeed save you from Oddities or Congestion ED2.

Vanguard Drafts

For Vanguard tickets, the unconditional first draft is Surfer or Cantabile, whoever has higher potential. After one Agent has been E2ed, draft the other. Do NOT draft Ines unless you have enough initial SP to allow E1 Ines to activate S2 upon deployment AND you have an absurd Hope overflow. This is my sincere advice. Of course at around F5 with a complete squad (E2 SUH2A + Eyja2), you may begin considering Ines draft, she’s not bad at adding some useful fluff.

Ulpianus vs Hoederer Priority

In our SUH2A playstyle, Ulpianus’ role is to carry en route because he’s stronger than Hoederer on F3/4 when you own few King’s. With normal ticket drops, you’ll have both Silverash and Ulpianus at E2 on around F3/4 with only Lance, if you get handed a Guard ticket in this phase and draft an E1 Hoederer, your squad power will peak. The trio can cleanly sweep F5 with just an extra Medic like Purestream or smth. But if you switch the order of Ulpianus and Hoederer, you’ll notice that, for E2 Silverash + E2 Hoederer + E1 Ulpianus, the latter serves very little purpose so that playstyle suffers from lower en route survivability. Don’t worry about en route survivability if you’re deprived of Guard tickets in extreme lowroll scenarios, just draft Hoe immediately to counter Quilon and Amiya and use Greyy2 or Yato or Tex2 or Ela or something to replace Ulpianus. There’s one run where I got my first Guard ticket only after ED2. The game is inanimate, but the player is animate, you must adapt flexibly to the specific circumstances. I typically use the floor number to decide whether to draft Ulpianus or Hoederer, if the first 6-star Guard comes after the F3 boss and you have no means to E2 Ulpianus immediately, drop Ulpianus, go for E1 Hoederer.

Medic and Defender Drafts

After our home classes, it’s time for VGG’s big mommy Eyja2. It’s best if you can draft her, but in +1 Hope runs, you’re often unable to draft her, in which case Silence is a fine pick too. After all, Eyja2 has weak power in ED4/5, and especially ED5. But you’ll have to be careful of hard stages like Regular Army and Frequent Dispute en route, since Eyja2 is moreso for hard stages en route.

There aren’t many good drafts for Defenders, I typically draft one of Cuora or Matterhorn. The difference between these two is that Cuora is stronger en route, Matterhorn is stronger in ED2 (that’s right, Matterhorn has the highest one-shot threshold vs Theresis out of all 4-star Defenders), and Matterhorn completely destroys Cuora in ED1. But then again, if you have Ethan and Hoederer, you can use Ethan to blockless CC Theresis and have Hoederer hold the trash mobs to forgo Defenders entirely. This makes Matterhorn’s placement a bit awkward, so I typically draft Cuora to help en route.

Specialist and Sniper Drafts

It’s actually quite hard to figure out Specialist drafts. Tin Man is icing on the cake, but Ethan saves lowrolls. On F1/2, draft Tin Man unconditionally, but once you’re on F3/4, you’ll have to start considering your Specialist ticket carefully, since it could very well be your last. I personally lean towards Ethan to guarantee a higher power floor. With double Agents and Silverash’s redeploy reduction, Gravel ranks third in Specialist draft order, but in extreme cases, you can replace Gravel with double Agents to bounce orbs in ED5. If you’ve recognised you don’t have enough damage for ED2 by F5, you can also draft an E1 FEater or Shaw to push Theresis. Alternatively if you have the +force Inspirer or the minus weight collectable, you can straight up use Ulpianus S1 on the +force tile to pull Theresis, this sounds insane, but it really does work.

There’s a big change to Sniper drafts too, thanks to double Crusher in ED4, Greyy2 has fell off hard and became unnecessary. Draft May unconditionally with Sniper tickets in DLC2, she provides perfect en route survivability: free to draft, costs only 1 Hope to unlock all her kit, can even help with Boats, and helidrop with Chimera Castmiya to DPS Theresis. There are no Supporter drafts, just draft some free 4-stars. For extreme lowrolls, you could E2 Deepcolour to survive en route and bait orbs in ED2. For Caster drafts, unconditionally E2 Amiya, excess Caster tickets from the first three floors go to Click and her stun to guarantee a higher power floor, past F3, I lean towards Caster Greyy to replace Sniper Greyy’s ability to counter hit-based enemies and hard stages en route such as Heavenly Desire or Heretics.

Ending Strategy

Ending side, my personal suggestions are: take Ghost on F2, take Petal on F3, defeat Ghost on late F4, and take Egg and Boat on F5. Of course, it would be best if you’re able to take Boats on F4 to free up F5 pathing to take more encounters to prevent against lowroll ED5 RNG (my most extreme run had 4 encounters with no ED5 [TN: was 4, now it’s 7 lol]). In VGG ED245 the most difficult section is en route, the next difficult is ED2, and then ED4/5. You can stay alive en route from proper survival drafts, but ED2 is straight up a stat check and since en route takes precedence, you’ll rarely ever draft Shu to counter ED2. Extreme lowrolls with only 4 King’s versus Oddities or Congestion Theresis is basically a death sentence (though this is quite rare, don’t hesitate to use Rise and Fall if it does occur. My personal solution to this is to rob shop ASAP on F4 if possible and use Chalice + Toy to outstat ED2, in which case even a forced EM Army or Rhine becomes easy. F4 shop rob can greatly increase survivability to hard stages en route. The SUH playstyle inherently requires very few tickets, so it’s fine to skip F6 shop tickets in favour of F4 rob. Of course, some runs will forbid you from robbing shop whether you like it or not, such as shopless F4 or solo Lance with +20% all stats. This isn’t to say that shop rob is required for ED2, since double Crushers have good resistance to ED2 even without Chalice. Especially against Congestion, an Ulpianus with high initial SP can very much solo lanehold the trash mobs while helidropping May and Castmiya to DPS Theresis, not to mention Ulpianus straight up pulling Theresis with +force/-weight. Having one of either Children of the Walls Hoe or high initial SP Ulpianus provides a massive power boost against ED2.

Negative Collectables Management

For the negative collectables, I strongly recommend unconditionally trading away the +20% to all stats at LnF, you don’t have to trade away the other collectables. Many people have a misconception about the -20sp, thinking that Ulpianus becomes unusable with it, but this is not the case. -20sp only removes Ulpianus’ ability to infinitely spam S3, his ability to AoE CC is still present. For example, Victory Horn + King’s Buckle + Essence Ulpianus can still almost AoE permaStun, not as good as infinite S3 with +25 initial sp, but still not bad. He can still solo Quilon’s leftlane, Theresis’ three lanes of swallowers, Regular Army midlane. For Silverash’s resistance against -20sp, I personally feel that Crane plus -20sp Silverash is stronger than default Silverash, every other game has a Crane, every fifth game has a -20sp, and even in runs with -20sp and no Crane, there’ll still be other SP collectables to greatly reduce the impact of -20sp. +3000 DEF is even easier, its difficulty is concentrated at Kingless F3, but thanks to our F1 triple combat tactic, we’re very likely to sweep F3 with E2 Silverash and E2 Ulpianus. After triple King’s, everyone becomes able to penetrate 3000 DEF, so the debuff becomes useless later on. +1 Hope cost even more useless. This playstyle doesn’t require much Hope in the first place, draft a bit conservatively and you’ll still be able to draft the full set of ops. I won’t touch on -30% ATK, it’s ezclap.

Conclusion

There’s actually still a lot to talk about, like specific placements for each stage, strategies for each different negative collectable or with yellow mental toll, but that would take way too long. That’ll be the end of this video, if you have part you didn’t understand, then you can come ask me, I stream ED245 every day and I welcome you to come learn and communicate.

[TN: he no longer plays SUH2A, instead playing Ulp + M3 + SA + Mly + Exu2 Talons VGG]

For more detailed strategies, specific stage placements, and different approaches to negative collectables, please refer to the original video or join the community discussions.