Arknights

Preface

After the latest maintenance for the new event (Skógrinn Svartr Vill Einn Draumr), HG has preloaded assets related to IS#4. There are some posts on Reddit/Twitter talking about parts of it already, but in this post, I will summarize all major additions for this patch.

This post will be split into three main sections:

• IS#4 Mechanics

• IS#4 Lore

• Non-IS#4 related mechanics

IS#4 Mechanics

Some of the mechanics listed down below have already been explained in HG's official post on IS#4 mechanics. For a full translation, please refer to this post

There are three new mechanics:

• 密文板 (TOTEM)

• 坍缩 (CHAOS)

• 抗干扰指数 (VISION)

Totem

• There are two parts to a totem (TOTEM_UPPER, TOTEM_LOWER), you need to assemble them to use it

• Totems have "keywords" which can be used to create additional effects. Only obtainable on difficulty 3 and above.

• Totems have four colors: None (might be just a placeholder), Red, Green, Blue

• Totems have 2 positions: LOCATION and EFFECT

• Totems' effects are applied on nodes

• Totems have rhythm settings (unsure what it does)

• Totems' effects might need to be manually activated

• Certain totems might have synergy effects with each other

• Totems might be related to being able to vertically travel from one node to another (?)

• There's a child buff aside from the main buff that it gives (it might refer to "keyword")

• There's a setting called [Foresight] where you gain a certain totem after completing a floor

• There's a blurry node: The node becomes battle and non-battle node (which means you don't know what's the node type)

Chaos

(TL Note: Translated as "Collapse" in the translated explanation post)

• Chaos has three levels, there's multiple slots, and has a upper limit

• Its effects are unknown (actually it's because I can't understand at all) (TL Note: Please refer to the translated explanation post for more details)

Vision

(TL Note: Translated as "Anti Interference Index" in the translated explanation post)

• A type of resource, has an upper limit

• Vision has a specific number and certain levels

• Vision can be used to predict boxes, shops and totems

New Nodes

• STORY

• HIDDEN_STORY

##Added the source of items that were dropped from stages

• None

• Treasure chests

• Totems

Difficulty

• Players might need to use the talent tree to unlock difficulties

• The chance of obtaining totems for each difficulty is different, and the tier of relic upgrades is also different (please continue reading)

Shop

• Added a new upper limit for withdrawing your balance in the Shop

• Each time players withdraw balance, the consumption of system balance will increase (TL Note: Not too sure what system balance means)

• There might be something related to Totems and Vision

Monthly Squad

• Added sub team name (?), description of the squad's characteristics (?), and cross monthly tasks

• Added the ability to select the difficulty level

Others

• The buffs provided by talent tree only takes effect at a certain difficulty and higher

• Nodes now have sub-types

• Players can now exchange totems on Exchange nodes (Fortuitous Opportunity)

• Upgrades relics as difficulty increases (if I'm not wrong)

• You can bring back Equipments on Commission nodes (Regional Commissions), but certain Equipments are blacklisted and cannot be obtained from Commission nodes

Relics

For this part, the OP for the original post states that as the buff_template for IS#4 is not loaded in yet, the core logic is missing.

Hence, the effects listed as such are inferred by looking at the name and might not be 100% correct.

It should also be noted that any spelling mistakes in the name are not made by me, but rather HG's mistake.

Relics will be separated into two parts - on enemies, and on allies.

For enemies

1. enemy_get_damage[LevitateAndMassLoss]: Has a plus version (enemy_get_damage[LevitateAndMassLoss_ex]). When enemies are in Levitate/Weightless state, constantly takes damage

2. enemy_silence[levitateAndMassLoss]: When enemies are in Levitate/Weightless state, gains Silence

3. enemy_weak[levitateAndMassLoss]: When enemies are in Levitate/Weightless state, gains Fragile

4. enemy_lighter_while_massLoss: When enemies are in Levitate/Weightless state, decreases Weight by 1

5. rogue_3_hideEnemyHUD: Hides the UI for large enemies (e.g. Health Bar)

6. rogue_3_respawnSpeedUp: Increases the respawn speed for enemies

7. rogue_3_probDoubleEnemyHP: Enemies have a chance of doubling their HP

For allies

1. rogue_3_chargeSP[whenGetHealed]: Gains SP when being healed

2. rogue_3_levitate[whenManulSkill]: Levitates enemies when activating skill

3. rogue_3_decreaseDeployCost: Decreases DP Cost

4. rogue_3_atk_speed_boost[when_take_dmg]: Increases ASPD when being attacked

5. rogue_3_bornShield[via_MaxHp]: Gains a shield equivalent to a certain percentage of max HP when being deployed

6. rogue_3_increaseMaxHPWhenHavingShield: Increases max HP if the unit has a Shield (max HP might still increase even without a Shield)

7. rogue_3_dmgScaleViaTargetHpRatio: Increases damage dealt to enemies based on their HP percentage

8. rogue_3_damage_block[stack]: Gains a certain number of Shield when deployed

9. rogue_3_dmg_penetrate[filter_tag]: Gains Physical/Arts penetration based on the target's tag

10. rogue_3_extraDamage[whenAttack]: Deals additional damage after attacking

11. rogue_3_tokenEvolution: Unable to guess effect. Might be related to summons and can increase ATK

12. rogue_3_DoubleInitialSP: Doubles initial SP

13. rogue_3_unmovableAndDmgAura: Inflicts Bind and deals True damage every 2 seconds to all enemies within 1.2 tile radius of self

14. rogue_3_rangedATKSpeedUp: Increases ASPD within range

15. rogue_3_DefIncreaseAura: Increases DEF for all allies, can be stacked

16. rogue_3_MaxHPIncreaseAura: Increases max HP for all allies, can be stacked

17. rogue_3_lossHP: Loses HP every second

18. rogue_3_SetSpineColorBalck: Turns the color of the chibi model during battle to black

19. rogue_3_blackfog[random_tile]: Selects a random deployable tile on the field, similar to Emperor Blade's Dominion effect. Units on these tiles will have reduced ASPD; can be stacked, when stacked multiple tiles are randomly selected (will not repeat)

20. rogue_3_camouflagRange: Selects a random deployable tile on the field, this tile will become the center tile of a 9 tile area, units can gain Camouflage

21. rogue_3_SPChain: Selects a random deployable tile on the field, this tile will become the center tile of a 9 tile area, ??? (Unable to guess effect, most likely related to having max SP and dealing damage)

22. rogue_3_duplicate_self: Duplicates self onto 4 adjacent tiles after deployed, only effective for devices

23. A modifier that changes the stage's natural DP regen speed

IS#4 Lore

The ending text for each of the three endings are listed down below in a Pastebin link (not going to TL them):

• Ending 1: To Talk With The Mountains (Pastebin link: https://pastebin.com/ZuMVt38Z)

• Ending 2: Winterfall (Pastebin link: https://pastebin.com/cwSivey3)

• Ending 3: Long Into An Abyss (Pastebin link: https://pastebin.com/8EejuS5M)

Non-IS#4 Mechanics

...Or so I would say, but there's a chance that these mechanics might be related to IS#4 as well.

New Operator

• threye, most likely the welfare operator for IS#4 (Confirmed in official post, her name is 凛视)

New Archetype

• ritualist, deals Arts damage (Relevant Reddit post on it)

New Damage Type

(TL Note: There are two terms that I use here - elemental impairment and elemental damage. Elemental impairment refers to the damage taken to an unit's elemental bar, whereas elemental damage refers to the new damage type introduced. I know we often call elemental impairment as elemental damage, but in order to differentiate between these two terms (even the CN names are extremely similar to each other), I have chosen to change the wordings as such)

• We can deal Elemental Impairment to enemies now, but the effects are different from the one that enemies inflict on us

• The only elemental damage we can inflict on enemies is Corrosion Damage: For 15 seconds, gains Elemental Damage nullification (no longer receives any Elemental Damage), takes 800 sourceless Elemental Damage per second, and decreases ATK by 50% (gradually restores to 100% within the duration; there's a possibility that the highest value will be taken when paired with a future ATK decrease effect)

• Elemental Damage: The fourth damage type after Physical/Arts/True (fifth if you want to count in healing damage type). Damage dealt = Damage * (1 - target's elemental resistance * 0.01), which is similar to the damage calculation for Arts damage. Fragile and other similar effects (like Inteference Mine) does not apply to elemental damage. Other effects that does not target specific damage types (e.g. Black Snake/Kristen's damage reduction) can be applied to elemental damage

• Fragile has also been changed to only increase Physical/Arts/True Damage taken as a result of this

New Attribute

• EP_DAMAGE_RESISTANCE - Elemental Damage resistance. As mentioned above, it decreases elemental damage taken by the specified amount

• EP_RESISTANCE, Elemental Impairment resistance. Decreases elemental impairment taken by the specified amount

Credits:

1. https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv24879653

2. https://bbs.nga.cn/read.php?tid=36917680

3. https://ngabbs.com/read.php?tid=36915394