This guide aims to outline all of the best gambling cashback offers available over a range of sites, following this guide you should be able to make over £500 in cashback
Note - Cashback often takes a while to payout, bear this in mind when completing offers as you may have to wait to cashout your earnings
When completing these offers don't chase any loses as the cashback will give you a profit with nerly every offer
A short review of each site and some referral links
Topcashback - Cashback will show as tracked within a few days, can take a few weeks to become payable, in some cases even longer, asides from gambling they have great offers for car insurance and mobile phone contracts, worth taking a look to save some extra money!
Ref - Extra £5 when you make £10 cashback
Non-Ref - No reward
Quidco - Much the same as Topcashback
Ref
Non-Ref
Minimum payment - £10
Ohmydosh - Faster Payouts but less offers
Ref - Extra £1
Non-Ref - No reward
Minimum payout - Any
Cashback Earners - A lesser known site in need of a fresh look, this site also has some bad reviews, referal income is paid to the site on a monthly basis with the dates for each site being different, offers don't seem to show as tracked until the website receive their payment, cashback should appear in your account within 1 month of completing an offer. Cashout amounts are specific, its best to build up a balance and then withdraw. Payment takes around 3 weeks.
Ref - Sign up bonus £6.5
Non-Ref - Sign up bonus £6.5
Minimum payout is £20
Payment Proof - Payments for all sites can be seen here, quidco isn't shown as i have signed up for all the casinos on offer through topcashback

How to Maximize Profit - IMPORTANT - READ THIS

For the majority of these offers you want to play blackjack following the chart found here
Any blackjack game will do, look for a normal version of the game at the site you are playing on and make sure it is a non live game as the hand sizes will be lower.
When playing blackjack there will often be more than one spot that you can bet on, allowing the player to bet more than one hand at a time, Its important to only bet on one spot at a time as it reduces the variance of the game and will ensure you get the maximum return possible from the game, stick to £1 hand sizes when playing and dont be tempted to bet larger amounts as you will be getting a nice amount of cashback from every offer
Through playing blackjack this way the player will get a return of around 98%, meaning for every £100 staked you will lose around £2. If you make a loss on a casino site after completing the required wagering amount, withdraw your remaining balance, don't chase loses as the cashback will make up for loses and give you a profit in most cases.
All offers are updated fairly regularly, make sure to check the terms for each offer as information in this post may become outdated. Also check for other offers every now and then as new casinos are added!

TopCashBack Offers - £400+ Profit

Topcashback Referral - Get an extra £5 - See the Ref Link at the top of the page!
If you dont already have an account at top cashback, you can sign up through my referral to get an extra £5 added to you account once you make £10 cashback
Lottoland - Cashback £15
Add £11 and play 11 separate £1 hands, following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Betfair Casino - Cashback £70
Note this is not the poker offer
Add £50 to your account and play 50 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Quidco are offering £100 for this offer
Party Casino - Cashback £26.5
Deposit and play 30 single £1 hand son blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Tombola - Cashback £24.5
Deposit £10 and open the tombola roulette game, choose a £1 chip size and choose 5 spots, repeat this twice, withdraw any remaining balance, you will likely lose money here but the cashback will give you a profit
Coral - Cashback £46
Add £10 and play 10 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Bingoport - Cashback £3
Sign up to bingoport to get an easy £3
Ladbrokes - Cashback £42
Add £10 to your account and play 10 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Pokerstars - Cashback £32
Add £25 and play 25 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
STS - Cashback £21
Add £30 to your account and play 30 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
William Hill - Cashback £54
add £25 and play 25 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Megacasino - £15.75
Add £25 - Play 25 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
LottoGo - Cashback £3.18
Buy a euromillions ticket
Slingo - Cashback £24.75
Add £10 play 10 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
PaddyPower Games - Cashback £20
Add £10 play 10 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
The Football Pools - Cashback £24.75
Sign up for the £10 a month subscription, cancel this after 30 days
Lottomart - Cashback £18
Add £10 - Play 10 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Genting Slots - Cashback £25
Add £30 play 30 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
OhMyDosh - Cashback £40+
Referral gives an extra £1, sign up through the ref link at the top of the post to get the bonus!
Gala Bingo - Cashback £17.50
Deposit at least £5, you'll get a £10 slots bonus and 100 free spins, these carry hefty wagering requirements, Open any slot and play the minimum spin size, play until you lose all of the money in your account or complete the wagering requirements on the bonus funds. Withdraw any remaining balance.
BGO - £10 Cashback
Deposit at least £15. Play 15 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance. DONT ACCEPT the welcome bonus from BGO.
Lottosocial - Cashback £4
Sign up to Lotto Social - Use your correct phone number when joining as it is the only way to login to your account. Purchase 10 lines for £1, after making a purchase go to your account page and find the list of syndicates your are in, leave the syndicates to avoid making any more payments.
Cheeky Bingo - £10 Cashback
Deposit £10 and get a £40 welcome bonus, just play bingo with all of your funds and hope to get some wins, bonus has 4x wagering requirements.

Quidco - Cashback £100+

Quidco don't offer a sign up bonus, find my ref link at the top of the post if you want to help me out!
All of the offers on quidco are much the same as topcashback, the only offer worth noting is the betfair casino offer which pays £100
Betfair - £100 cashback
Add £100 and play 100 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.

Cashbackearners - Cashback £180+

Sign up Bonus
Get a £6.5 sign up bonus, think this works with or without the ref link, links are at the top of the post!
To find these offers just search for casino on the site.
All of these offers state that you only need to make a deposit, its best to play through the deposit 1x to ensure that the cashback is paid.
LuckyMeSlots - Cashback £15
Add £15 and play 15 single £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Spin Genie - Cashback £12.5
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Cashmo - Cashback £10
Add £10 and play through £10 on any slot staking the minimum amount per spin. Don't spin the wheel that pops up after signing up or accept any other bonuses.
Ice36 -Cashback £15
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Spinhill Casino - Cashback £15
Add £15 and play 15 £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Galacasino - Cashback £30
add £30 and play 30 £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Casino765 - Cashback £12.5
Add £12.5 and play 12.5 £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
Casinosuperwins - Not recommended, bad site, awful support
Casino2020 - Cashback £15
Add £15 and play through £15 on any slot staking the minimum amount per spin. Keep track of spins and quit the slot after wagering the required amount. Don't spin the wheel that pops up after signing up or accept any other bonuses.
Pocketwin - Cashback £10
Add £10 and play through £10 on any slot staking the minimum amount per spin. Keep track of spins and quit the slot after wagering the required amount. Don't spin the wheel that pops up after signing up or accept any other bonuses.
The Sun Vegas - Cashback £15
Add £15 and play 15 £1 hands on blackjack following the strategy outlined at the top of the post, withdraw any remaining balance.
DrSlot - Cashback £10
Add £10 and play through £10 on any slot staking the minimum amount per spin. Keep track of spins and quit the slot after wagering the required amount. Don't spin the wheel that pops up after signing up or accept any other bonuses.
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ConquestAdor - Cashback £10
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MFortune - Cashback £10
Add £10 and play through £10 on any slot staking the minimum amount per spin. Keep track of spins and quit the slot after wagering the required amount. Don't spin the wheel that pops up after signing up or accept any other bonuses.
Thanks for reading, hope this of use to some people, happy earning!

Monster Hunter World was a pretty alright game. Considering everything they sacrificed in the name of graphical fidelity and accessibility, it all turned out to be a pretty darn good trade. It was the gateway game for many of my friends into the series and they loved it and I had some fond memories of coaching them through earlygame, fighting alongside them as relative equals in high rank, and telling them tales of my exploits in prevoius titles or discussing monster lore.
It was one hell of a time, but as things wound on and post-launch content began to come in, cracks began to show. A lot of cracks even, as the deluge of Arch-Tempered monsters and Behemoth and Ancient Leshen set an unfortunate standard for what was going to come. And while I don't hate my time with Iceborne, it picked up right where World left off with its post-launch updates and there's a lot I wasn't happy about. So let's dive in.
Weapons:
I'm a one-weapon kind of player whenever I play MH. I pick a weapon at the start of the game and come hell or high water, I stick with it. I started with the GS in Gen (later returning to it in GU much older, wiser, and skilled), then did bow in 3U, SA in 4U, Hammer in FU, and while waiting for Iceborne's PC launch I dove into Freedom 1 using the SnS. I also mained the SnS in MH Stories but Stories is an RPG so it doesn't really count.
But in World and Iceborne, my weapon was the Gunlance. And boy was it a blast. To Iceborne's credit, the Gunlance was not fucked up the way some other weapons were. All three shelling types made a return, and though Wide still was getting fucked over on launch, that was eventually remedied starting with the Guild Palace weapons. The Wyrmstake Blast also went a looooong ways towards making Long shelling even more powerful, to the extent that yeah there's no Long 7 Gunlance, but it's not like there needs to be one. FFs when you're shelling you don't even have to bother with tenderizing anymore!
Do to mostly sticking with the Gunlance, I'm hardly an authority on all the other weapons, so I'm not going to be too disparaging here. But it wasn't like I was not getting a first-hand view of systemic weapon imbalance though, specifically regarding the Guard skill.
Guarding in the old games was pretty rad. I've been doing G-rank Nakarkos recently a lot with different weapons. It's amazing how much that the Gunlance can block even without Guard + 1, let alone +2, and not take any chip. A far cry from World where after a point it feels like blocking is never worth it considering the chip damage and the knockback when you could just be a chad and dodge through it. And this really fucks over and de-incentivizes using your shield, which obviously hurts Lance worst of all.
Of all the major, endgame-y fights, it feels like the only one where blocking is the better option is Safi'Jiiva. But I'll rant about that fucker a little while later. I've got something else to complain about right now.
The Clutch Claw:
The slinger in World was a weapon that had a lot more depth put into it than was actually necessary. It made using Sonic, Flash, and Dung bombs more effective thanks to being aimed shots now, but otherwise it was just kinda there. Slinger ammo had extraordinarily niche usage and I almost never used it. I can't fault Capcom for trying to find a way to make it more relevant, it's just... the Clutch Claw was not the way to do it.
The Clutch Claw was the opposite of World's Slinger. Something meant to be used throughout the fight. You could tenderize body parts with it for more damage. You could bonk monsters into walls for more damage. It could even be used to yoink yourself to safety on the monster in the case of certain attacks. I don't fault Capcom for introducing new features; they've been doing that since Monster Hunter G, but the Clutch Claw felt obtrusive in a way nothing before it ever did.
It introduced a lot of new maintenance considerations into the fight where there hadn't been previously. Yeah Gen/GU had Hunter Arts, but those filled up as you did damage to the monster and in many cases you were only going to have an Arc proc a couple of times in the span of a hunt unless you were fighting an obnoxious damage sponge. And it was always just a matter of pressing a single button to get your intended effect. Not like in Iceborne where grappling onto the monster was just the start of the ordeal. Were you in the right place? If not, figure out which way to move the thumbstick so you move to the intended location. Is the monster attacking? Better hope you have a mantle on because otherwise you're coming off. Are you using a "technical" weapon? Better hope you're able to get to the intended spot a second time otherwise all this time will be essentially wasted.
And on and on and on.
And worse yet, the CC felt like it existed as a solution to justify the massive HP inflation in Iceborne, but then this became self-defeating with some post-launch monsters. Rajang could tear you off his arms for a free pin if you were careless, and Alatreon, Fatalis, and AT Velkhana could shred through your mantles when you were hanging off of them because fuck you, that's why. As hunters, we got drafted into a tech arms race where our supplier was also designing our enemies, and the closest we ever got to an admission of "yeah we fucked up" was the buffs that the Clutch Claw got in the Fatalis update.
You know: the last major update for the game.
The Guiding Lands:
I know I'm a minority but I didn't mind the endgame grind for decorations and Streamstones in base World. Throw yourself at it long enough and you'd get some good shit, and even if it wasn't good shit for what you specifically wanted, a Hero Streamstone was a Hero Streamstone was a Hero Streamstone. At worst it was an incentive for you to try out a weapon different than what you were using.
The Guiding Lands missed the mark for me because of the grind that was entailed for them. Different augments at different levels required different materials, and you were almost always bound to not have all the necessary regions leveled up. The grind thus became much more specific, such that your time and energy invested could only reward you with what you came for. In World, when I wanted Health augs I just kept doing quests until I got enough Streamstones and then called it a day. In Iceborne I'd need to level up the slots on my weapon, then do Tempered Namielle, and then do Tempered Whomever in the Volcano and then Tempered Other Whomever in the Tundra.
And if I wanted to do other augments? Well I'd have to sacrifice my setup, and fuck that because that meant when I'd decide I'd want to do it again, I'd need to repeat the process once more.
Now to Iceborne's credit, you can remove augmentations and be refunded the materials you used in the first place. I actually like this idea and wish it was more clearly expressed. But in my ideal world, World and Iceborne would have just married their two augmentation systems together and made something amazing. Streamstones like in World, but you could remove them and get the materials refunded whenever you wanted to stick them into something else.
The Story:
Story's not impressive. Yeah MH stories are never that big or complicated since all your problems have to be solved by "poke the big monster with a weapon until it falls over dead" but Velkhana was underutilized, Shara Ishvalda was just another "OH MY GOD, ANOTHER ELDER DRAGON WAS TO BLAME FOR ALL OF THIS!" and the Nergigante shilling got ridiculous by the end.
Yes, this monster that was interfering with the attempts to drive Zorah Magdaros away from the LIfestream is Nature's "correcting force". Which is why it was trying to interfere with the only thing preventing Zorah from going nuclear and destroying the New World. Nevermind all the apocalyptic threats in the Old World that Nergigante didn't so much as lift a finger to stop.
The reason why finally confronting Shagaru Magala in 4U is so great is because Shagaru wasn't a case of Elder Dragon Ex Machina. It was the same damn monster you'd fought three times prior, and y;our fight against Shagaru was the culmination that Low Rank had been building up to since your first fight with Gore.
Gear designs:
Mixed bag. A lot of the armor looks neat, and I appreciate Capcom finally at least giving us the original Brachy designs courtesy of Raging Brachy, as well as layered weapons eventually. But on the opposite side of things, didn't like how seemingly all the armor ran thighhighs for women or how fucking long it took us to get layered weapons.
And now, most importantly...
The Monsters:
Beotodus is pretty much fine. Not that annoying of a Piscene Wyvern. He definitely feels like a "proof of concept" fight to prove the legitimacy of the Clutch Claw, since one of his weak spots is his legs and the best way to get those exposed is to bonk him against a wall. Fairly inoffensive.
Banbaro though... not a fan of how this fuck is a new Party Crasher and can show up in any environment. Typically Party Crashers carried a degree of "danger" to them. Deviljho and Bazelgeuse were bad news because you weren't really ready to fight them by the time you were running into them. With Seregios it was a bit less of a concern, but 4U's story mode also focused on Steve so it was fine that he was a bit weaker. Banbaro though is literally the second monster you're likely to fight in Master Rank. There's no cat-and-mouse dreading running into him and preparing contingencies. You just ignore the fuck or kill him instead.
I hate Viper Tobi-Kadachi and Nightshade Paolumu. I found them way harder than the old returning mascots that are fought after them, purely because of their status bullshittery. Vobi has poison and paralysis, a godawful combination, especially when his poison feels like it lasts forever. Nightshade Paolumu's clouds of sleep gas are also pure bullshit and Palicos are much less reliable in Iceborne in waking you up upon falling asleep. I can understand trying to get the most bang for your buck and subspecies are easy to implement because you don't need to spend time or money making entirely new monster designs, and they're not really hard, but they're really annoying and it didn't feel like my familiarity with the original species helped at all vs. them.
Coral Pukei-Pukei was neat though. Bright and colorful, with very clear-cut distinction between it and normal Pukei-Pukei, and it felt like it hit a lot harder but it was also using element rather than poison so it all works out to be fairly evenly balanced in the long run. Fun fight.
The returning quintet: Tigrex, Nargacuga, Barioth, Brachydios, and Glavenus though were sights for sore eyes. They fought just about the same way they always had before and I was able to put my experience to good use vs. them. Really fun and engaging, and even Tigrex benefited from a decade+ of the hitbox getting cleaned up. None of my newbie friends bitched or moaned about them either.
The wave of subspecies though... that's a really mixed bag. Shreiking Legiana wasn't too terrible for me as a Gunlancer (long shells could knock it out of the sky) but I can see how it would be hell on Earth for other melee weapons. Acidic Glavenus felt like it lost the point of the original Glavenus (staying defensive and sniping the weak points for mega-huge damage) and I hated how hard it was to get the tail cut on it vs. how it was easier to get normal Glavenus's. Ebony Odogaron feels forgettable. It's Odogaron except it can inflict Dragonblight. Poor man's Stygian, made all the more redundant when Stiggy showed up. But I really liked Fulgur Anjanath. Unlike the other subspecies, it really felt like the previous knowledge of fighting the mosnter was of use and could be used to make informed guesses about how to deal with Fulgur. Looked cool too, and it felt kinda heartwarming that this Anjy could at least force draws in its turf wars.
Seething Bazelguese was pretty neat. I liked the color scheme and it felt "true" to my understanding of Variants, going "one step further" and the carpet bomber really did take it to the next level. Really did feel like I was fighting a monster that was going critical before my very eyes. Just wished it wasn't confined to just Elder's Recess.
Savage Jho was an exercise in frustration. This was where the anti-Clutch Claw bullshit came into the equation. "HEY, HAVE A MONSTER THAT'S PERMANENTLY ANGRY!" Made worse by how hard it is for weapons with short reach to hit his weak points, let alone cut his tail.
Blackveil Vaal Hazak is a toxic fucker and I love it. Finally a reason to use the Cleansing Booster, against a monster not so bullshit that I feel bringing the Cleansing Booster along feels like dipping my arm in boiling oil because some sticky goo got on it. I appreciate how busting up its fungus can make the fight easier and diminish the amount of miasma being released, and the Resident Evil collab version of the hunt was a blast. Love fighting it as a zombie.
Namielle is a fight I have mixed feelings for. It's music is one of the few themes in the game that sticks with me and I like how it uses both water as a range multiplier for its electric attacks, but at the same time it feels like the core idea of it as "the wateelectricity Elder Dragon" feels uninspired. It exists to just tick a box off of a list. But the disinterest I have for it is nothing compared to the hatred I have for...
Velkhana. If Namielle is interesting visuals and mechanics undermined by feeling it it stems from a simplistic understanding of what can be done with Elder Dragons, Velkhana is a shit design with shit gimmicks and a shit core philosphy. It's the ice Elder Dragon. No, Kushala's not the ice Elder Dragon even though it's alwasy been associated with cold environments and its attacks get iceblight in those areas. Velkhana is. With its godawful turf war where it forces a draw vs. Nergigante by just kicking it with its spindly little hind legs (WHY THE FUCK DID NO OTHER ELDER DRAGON DO THIS?!?) and its essessive amount of visual clutter filling the screen, fighting it was always an exercise in frustration. I absolutely hate that the AT Velkhana fight also reduces your hunt length to a mere 30 minutes for no justified reason too.
Shara Ishvalda is a fight that starts off interesting. Big dumb rock monster? Sure, it's kinda in the spirit of Akantor and Ukanlos. We haven't gotten anything like those two in a while. The reveal it's some freaky-eyed monster with sound beams though... eh. Looks kinda ugly. The eye move is freaky though. I kinda like the gimmick shit it does with the sand but I also kinda hate it. Back in World, Xeno'Jiiva was clearly "strange", being an alien with a strange color scheme. Shara, however, is just plain weird though. Fuck that beam that chips you to death if you have Rocksteady on though. Getting the Tenderplates wasn't hard thanks to shelling though.
Zinogre is Zinogre. The OG Fanged Wyvern. The little doggo that could for numerous games until World graced us with Dodogama and the rest of the pack. I don't like how they butchered his theme, but they fucked up a lot of returning songs. He's ultimately still really fun. Feel the same way about Yian Garuga too. The Angriest Bird and its Tempered/Scarred incarnation were fun to fight just by how bonkers-ass stubborn and crazy they were. Felt like the hitboxes were cleaned up a lot too. Didn't fight them much but it was never on account of not having the energy to go another round with it.
Metal Raths are shit. Always have been, always will be. I hate how cutting off all Rathian tails felt like pulling teeth come Iceborne. I don't remember them being that hard to knock off in base World, but now it practically justifies the use of Partbreaker. Their capture thresholds are ludicrously low too. Unlike Ziggy and Garuga, I did my time with these fucks and got out as soon as I could. You don't give mostly-airborne monsters super bullshit moves that can only be mitigated by hitting one of their sturdiest spots a whole bunch. That can just go wrong too many ways.
Brute Tigrex is... well I hardly ever fought him. Same went for most everyone else, apparently. He just about fits in with what I remember him being like in 4U, though I find myself also going "It should've been Molten Tigrex".
Rajang was okay except for how they made his legs no longer be a weak spot. This ruins the fight due to the importance of knocking Rajang quickly out of Rampage mode. Beforehand, even if you missed his tail you still did good damage against his legs... but now, when going for the tail is so important, the legs are now no longer weak spots WTF?!?
Oh, and I WAS FUCKING RIGHT ABOUT THE JHO VS. JANG TURF WAR. People called me crazy when I predicted that they'd just reuse Jho's turf war with Nergigante, but my most bitter and cynical prediction turned out to be right on the money.
There've been few times in life where I've been more angry and frustrated about being right than I was at that point.
Speaking of which
Ruiner Nergigante is a chump that doesn't deserve to be a MR99 fight. When the game first game out? Yeah, sure. It gave you something to work for. But with the glut of fights far, far stronger than Nergigante that can be fought at much lower MR levels, it really undermines what they were going for with Nergigante. Also just... it's just pretty much another Nergigante. Not even like that bullshit AT Nergigante either. Fairly unremarkable, should've been fought much earlier with some other monster being the MR99 unlock fight.
Stygian Zinogre was great. Kinda flew under the radar because of Safi stealing its thunder, but I liked its new Pyscho Crusher and how it Dracophage Bug moves tested you in different ways compared to normal Ziggy's. Also it had the rising tackle move it would cancel into out of the recovery for the back drop. Missed that so damn much from normal Ziggy.
I also really liked Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang. Furious actually felt like it fixed my problems with normal Rajang. Because Furious's head is the weak spot to hit now to knock it out of Rampage mode, you're now no longer playing Ring Around the Rajang to hit its tail. The pace of the fight is thus more even. Raging Brachydios I have more mixed feelings on due to the steel cage deathmatch and barring the usage of Farcasters, but he's the same "Bigger and stronger, but also much slower" fight I've known him to be. And compared to my years of trying to clear Clashing Fists, he was nothing. His gear was godly too.
Frostfang Barioth came out too late but similarly I like his gear a lot. Fight is... a bit annoying due to freezing the ground, but otherwise the experience wasn't a bad one. Would've rather it have been Sand Barioth though. Hated the fact that it was event quest only though. No good reason for that, though now that most event quests are permanently available, that isn't an issue.
Now you'll notice I haven't discussed a few fucks yet, and the reason is I wanted to focus on the other guys who are postlaunch endgame-y first because, for the most part I like them well enough. Yeah Capcom wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel with Ruiner Nergigante or Stygian Zinogre but they were fun fights. I went, I did them, had some fun, and it was something to look forward to and to tell my friends about so they could prepare.
The problem is that those weren't the big post-launch releases. The ones that were really meant to draw people in. And unfortunately they just seemed to piss people off at best, and drive them away at worst.
We start with Safi'Jiiva. The raid boss. The monster that now scales for solo hunts even though it will still take a solo hunter about THREE HOURS for one kill. I fucking hate how people used "it's a raid boss. You can't complain about it being a raid because that's what raids are." I fucking know what a raid is, I just don't want it in my Monster Hunter.
Safi's moves have crazy bullshit tracking and AOEs. To their credit it's like the one fight in the game where Guard is better than Evade Window. I don't like how inexact the whole process of wearing it down is too. Say what you will about HR Kulve, if you were breaking off parts of her mantle or getting tracks you were building up towards P6. For Safi, you were only making progress if you were forcing it to draw energy from whatever region you were fighting it on. And dear fuck is it a damage sponge.
Then we got MR Kulve. The fight that was advertised as a "traditional hunt"... yet they still had DPS bullshit thrown in for no good reason whatsoever. Fucking hated it. Kjarr gear getting a new lease on life was good though, but fuck whomever made the executive descision and went "no, without the DPS check the fight will be too easy. We HAVE to include the DPS check. Fans will hate us if we don't!"
Then there was Alatreon. The fight that I feel irreparable split the fanbase. Iceborne's Alatreon is sure as fuck not Old World Alatreon. Anyone at Capcom claiming it was what they'd always wanted Alatreon to be like is a fucking liar whether they know it or not. Old World Alatreon welcomed player agency and players finding their own solutions to the hunt, be it raw, status, or some elemental build involving water (pretty good in both states), ice (good in ground state), or dragon (good in flight state). It was a calming fight for me, waiting for my openings and dashing in to snipe Alatreon's head before falling back to safety.
They couldn't even fucking give us Frostfang prior to Alatreon's launch either. Like wtf, Kulve and Safi were cycling back and forth with each other, the least you could do is give us a stopgap measure.
Alatreon broke at least one of my friends, making him vow he'd never fight the fuck again. I eventually helped him through it, but it was a depressing experience. He went in expecting bullshit but the Escaton Judgment was too much for him, and I'm firmly in the camp that had Alatreon not have had the EJ and maybe was a bit more vulnerable to status ailments, he would've been a lot more universally celebrated.
And lastly there's Fatalis. I've been on the record as saying the best Fatalis fight is the multi-phase hunt against him in Monster Hunter Freedom (and possibly the original MH on the PS2) and I am more than happy to die on that hill. But even then, Fatalis has just never been that great of a fight. I hate the lore revisions such that Fatalis explicitly is stated to have never been fought before (they kept it ambiguous regarding that issue with Alatreon) and I hate how we have only 30 minutes, again, for no good reason. Fatty also hits like a truck even with maxed-out armor, and I can't imagine what nightmare that fight would've been like had I not thrown Clutch Claw Boost into my build.
His gear is admittedly pretty damn great. Too great if you ask me in how it renders almost everything else obsolete. There's not really an incentive to go "hey, this weapon looks pretty cool, I'm going to make a build based on it!" like I can do in GU between various syngergies of Hunter Arts, Styles, armor skills, and individual weapons. You just get your Fatalis gear and you're good to go.
Also hate how the game again goes "Oh, you should probably attack this weak spot!" and then hilariously punishes you if you fail to make good on that. Spoiler alert: Fatalis's head is not always easily accessible for all weapons.
In general with the Big Four Problem Children, what hurts me the most is that I can see very simple changes that could've made things much more bearable.
For Safi'Jiiva, either lower the health (ESPECIALLY for solo hunts) or reduce the amount of times Safi'Jiiva can draw energy from a zone. Or make him drain more energy than he normally does. Anything to let you more easily wear him down.
For Kulve, just throw out the DPS check. Fight would be perfect. Had MR Kulve come out with no DPS check, nobody would've complained or demanded a DPS check be placed into it in order to "fix" the fight.
For Alatreon it's the same. Remove Escaton Judgment entirely. With the urgency of the fight diminished, you still have a really tough fight but you're not being punished for playing cautiously so long as it's not so cautious that you time out of a 50 minute fight. And again, had Alatreon come out with no DPS check, nobody would've complained or demanded a check to be put in place because otherwise "it's too easy".
For Fatalis, I'm actually fine with the nukes. They serve as a very useful metric to determine how far into the fight you are. But there are a host of factors that I feel should have gone under more scrutiny, because tweaking one or more of the factors would've led to a more universally well-received fight.
First, the time length is too stringent. Like Alatreon, it's a fight where you are punished for not fighting aggressively enough... but the monster is such a wrecking machine that over-committing to an attack will fuck you over. Giving Fatalis even fire more minutes, like how the old fights were, would've been great.
Additionally, they could've rolled back the damage of its supercritical state, or made its head easier to break. Older games where you had similar problems to try to deal with oftentimes gave you plenty of fallback options. Most notably, in Gen/GU, while fight Nakarkos, if you fail to stop its death ray it isn't a guaranteed cart. You can still dodge it just fine and the fight just continues on afterwards. Fatalis's hellfire state is just too penalizing, being able to one-shot hunters with 50 Fire Resistance, endgame defense, AND the Fireproof Mantle on. Like what's the point of prep if it's not allowed to be useful?
Oh and bring back actually damaging Fatalis's eye. Simply breaking off its horn is nowhere near as satisfying as tearing that fuck's eye out.
In Conclusion:
Iceborne hardly qualifies for my person "worst games I've ever played" list. I wouldn't even say it necessarily disappointed me that much either, since I went in with cautious expectations after all the missteps with World's post-launch content.
But it still feels like a letdown, especially considering Ichihara directed GU and I fucking love GU and still play it after 2+ years and can point to countless instances in the game where great ideas were built on top of good or even bad foundations. And it's also very frustrating, because I can look at many of the problems I have with Iceborne and go "all that needs to change is X, Y, and Z, and the problems would just go away!"
Do I regret my 1,274 hours spent playing it? Considering how many amazing games are still on my backlog like Deadly Premonition, Bayonetta, and the original Final Fantasy 7... I can't say I wouldn't mind trading some of those long exercises in frustration vs. bullshit fights in exchange for playing something else. But as a whole I think it's important to recognize when something you love takes some missteps. Recognize what you don't like in something, and be honest with yourself about why you don't like it. I play my MH solo, unless I'm doing a fight I know I've already won... at which case I afford myself the luxury of help to speed things up on my end and because maybe the other person really does need help and I do like lending a hand even though I'm so proud and stubborn regarding my own successes. Started out of necessity while playing the handhelds, and I always feel like I don't really come to "understand" a monster if I'm having other people cover my ass for me. That's why I'm so insistent that everything out to be soloable if there's concrete rewards behind it.
I hope to Gog that Rise lives up to my expectations. But I'll get my first taste of it next month with the demo.
Fingers crossed.

11:37 AM
Refugee Camp
Dmitri slurped down some of his stew and kept silent for a moment. “Dmitri.”
The girl sitting in front of him had introduced herself as Coral but she was most likely Andrea. She was a Vulpo just like Brenda and her hair was blonde as well. Even the way they were first meeting was similar with both sisters offering him stew and sitting down to chat. It had to be her.
Although, she looked quite happy. He already had his doubts about Brenda's claims about her sister's captivity, but this was a far cry from what he was expecting.
She conversed with her colleagues with eagerness and it seemed like she was even trusted with a weapon as Dmitri assumed one of the weapons at the weapon rack by the kitchen belonged to her. There was no way Rhodes Island would've given her a weapon within a few days if she was a prisoner.
“You came from Chernobog, right?” Andrea asked.
Dmitri reluctantly nodded. “Yes...”
“It must've been rough,” Andrea said.
“There were definitely times I wondered if I was going to survive,” Dmitri said.
“I'm from Chernobog too. I lived there with my sister, but she let me go on first; I hope she's okay,” Andrea said with a frown.
Remember the plan, we can't reveal ourselves yet.
“Do you hope to reunite with your sister?” Dmitri asked.
Andrea nodded. “I want her to be safe, I want to find her again. She's one of the few things I have left in this world.”
“Well I hope you do reunite with her one day,” Dmitri said.
Andrea sighed. “Thank you... If you've just come, go look for an Oni named Nozomi and she'll help find you a tent. Or if you wanted to keep moving now, I think a Kuranta named Nearl is organizing another escort for people wanting to head out.”
“I will do that... Thank you, Coral, you said? That's a strange name,” Dmitri said.
“Oh,” Andrea exclaimed. “My real name's Andrea, but in my group, I'm called Coral.”
So it is her...
A large group of refugees came into the tent which prompted Andrea to stand up.
“Looks like we got another lunch rush. Sorry we can't talk more, Dmitri. I hope things get better for you,” Andrea said before waving and walking away back to the kitchen to grab more stew.
Dmitri watched Andrea for a bit longer as he finished the rest of his stew. When it was done, he simply left the bowl on the ground and headed out of the kitchen tent. He looked around at his surroundings for a bit, watching the refugees walk about or talk with each other.
For a few more minutes, he stood watch outside the tent before heading off in the direction of the western half of the camp.
He continued observing the refugees the entire way. Dmitri could hear some of them cursing Reunion while others simply lamented at their situation. After all the fighting they had done to overthrow the Ursus oppressors, it seemed to have done nothing to rouse their fellow infected into joining them or at least bask in their newfound freedom.
Days ago these people would've been suffering under the boot of the Ursus Empire. They would've been subjected to random guard searches, their apathy to the crime in the infected slums, and many other actions that were far from an ideal society. Although, perhaps that could've been all tolerated as long as people had roofs over their heads and food on the table considering how ungrateful they seemed to be now that the Empire was gone.
Still, he definitely remembered a time when Reunion wasn't so aggressive. Would the Reunion of the past been able to cast off the Empire's Iron fist? Maybe not, but they would've possibly been able to keep the grace of their fellow infected. Wasn't that why all the fighting happened at all? But with the things he heard—and even sometimes saw—Mephisto had done, it seemed that ship had long sailed by now.
Before he could collect his thoughts any further, he heard footsteps catching up to him.
“There you are,” a voice whispered.
Dmitri turned around and spotted Kevin walking behind him. It took awhile to get used to him not constantly wearing his Reunion mask and hood. Without it, it revealed that he was a very young looking Vulpo with red—almost orange—hair that looked totally unkempt with many strands standing up and uneven all over.
“I've looked all over the west side and couldn't find her. I guess we got a bit too excited and forgot to bring Brenda's tracker. All we know is that she's here. Any luck on your end?” Kevin asked.
Dmitri didn't answer. He looked down at the ground and thought about everything he saw today.
Dmitri sighed. “She's not on the east side either.”
“Shit,” Kevin muttered before crossing his arms. “Alright, let's split up and look again, maybe she walked into an area we already checked. Let's meet up here again.”
“Alright,” Dmitri said.
Kevin nodded and ran off back to the west side of the camp while Dmitri watched him leave. As Kevin disappeared out of view, Dmitri waited and looked back in the direction of the kitchen tent.
12:22 PM
Dormitories, Level C, Room 21
Meeka tapped on Cyborg Feraldis' third skill. The robotic warrior shot off a great laser from his eyes and melted the barriers of the opposing team before launching several missiles that struck the entire enemy party. It dealt some decent damage, but her opponent's gear seemed to be on the more defensive side of things considering the opponent's Corillia's insanely powerful AOE barely did half damage to her units but still had a good amount of health left despite usually being squishy.
“Don't you have a mentoring session with the Penguin Logistics girls in a bit?” Spark's voice called from her bedroom.
Meeka looked up from her phone and adjusted how she laid on the couch. “They're coming over here.”
Spark came out of her bedroom and checked the pockets of her sweater for her wallet. She found it and took it out as she made her way to the door.
“I'm headed to the ship store, you want anything?” Spark asked.
“I'm good,” Meeka answered.
“Alright then,” Spark said. “Good luck with the mentoring stuff. There's gonna be a training session at 4:00; Jay wanted a slot for tomorrow but only today was open. Hopefully you'll have something to show us.”
“You gonna be okay for later without getting help?” Meeka asked.
Spark shrugged. “I should be fine. What can I do? There isn't a caster in the Penguin Logistics crew.”
“Have you asked any people?” Meeka asked.
“I thought about it but I think I can manage. I bet Jay's trying to find me one; I've told him like a million times now to just stop but he won't listen to me,” Spark said.
Meeka laughed. “Sounds like something Jay would do.”
“Yup,” Spark said. “Anyways, hope you learn something new from those Penguin Logistics girls.”
Meeka waved goodbye to Spark and quickly looked back down at her phone, only to see a victory screen and her opponent blasting her in chat accusing her of “bming” them for letting the fifteen second turn timer tick down and letting the unit AI pick a move. She sighed and left the pvp match without giving a response, taking some time to look over her heroes again before queuing up for another match.
After several matches, Meeka heard a knock on the door. She looked at the time on her phone and realized she had been playing for almost half an hour since Spark left. Meeka quickly got up from the couch and rushed to the door, peeking in the peephole before opening the door.
Outside her door were Croissant and someone wearing a cloak and mask. While she knew Croissant was with Penguin Logistics, Meeka wondered who the person in the mask was. Considering that Croissant didn't seem to be paying her any mind, the person was probably not someone she needed to be cautious around.
Meeka opened the door slowly and looked at both of them. “Hey, guys.”
“Afternoon, Meeka!” Croissant greeted. “Ready for a good session of trainin'?”
“I guess... who's this?” Meeka asked.
“We'll talk more inside,” Croissant said.
Meeka stepped out of the way for Croissant and the masked figure to come in. The masked figure was a bit shorter than Croissant and had a much more frail body under the cloak. She didn't have to wait long to find out the person's identity as the masked figure revealed themselves to be Sora.
“What's with the mask?” Meeka asked.
“Texas' orders. After we almost got mobbed by a bunch of fans, she's making me wear a disguise until everyone forgets about what happened,” Sora explained.
“You should've heard em'! One of em' wanted Sora here to step on em'! Buncha freaks I'll tell ya!” Croissant said as she let herself fall onto the couch.
Better close all my browser tabs in case they want to look at my phone for drone stuff.
Meeka faced Croissant and Sora so they couldn't see her phone screen. She began to open up her web browser and swiped away all her tabs containing problematic content, making sure to stop and bookmark any pieces that had more cultural significance before removing them.
“Aren't there supposed to be four of you?” Meeka asked as she continued removing tabs.
“Tex and Exusiai are gettin' ready for some mission in Lungmen. It's just the two of us,” Croissant answered.
Sora nodded. “Yup, but we'll make sure to do everything we can to help you.”
“Jay booked a training session later so we gotta make this quick,” Meeka said.
“Don't worry, we'll make you the best gosh darn supporter in all of Rhodes Island!” Croissant declared.
“So do you have any questions about being a supporter?” Sora asked.
Meeka finished up removing everything from her web browser. “Not exactly.”
“You sure? Anything you're unsure of?” Sora asked again.
“I guess...” Meeka started. “Do you feel like you're not as much in the spotlight or useful compared to everyone else?”
It was a sentiment she had been feeling ever since Chernobog. No matter how many times her friends, her psychologist, and others told her she was useful and contributing, she couldn't help but doubt it. To make matters even crazier, she was perfectly aware that what everyone was saying was true but she couldn't help but feel differently.
“What do you mean?” Sora asked.
Meeka sighed. “Like, do you feel like you're not as strong or always in the background? Like you're not important?”
“Hmm... I guess. I mean, they did only call for Tex and Exusiai,” Croissant said.
“You guys all have two skins and I only have one,” Sora said.
“What?” Croissant asked.
“What?” Sora asked back.
Croissant pointed at Sora. “You said something about skins I think.”
“It's nothing,” Sora answered abruptly. “Sometimes it does feel like that if they want Penguin Logistics, what they really mean is Texas and Exusiai.”
Meeka frowned. “Doesn't that make you feel bad?”
“I mean, they're our friends! Besides, when we're with them, we work pretty damn hard! My shield ain't just a decoration, ya know? We ain't some sidekicks! We're the real deal!” Croissant said.
Sora nodded. “At the end of the day we're all working together. Texas and Exusiai have told me plenty of times my support is great!”
Meeka still wasn't convinced about her own predicament. At least Sora was famous and Croissant had the strength of an army.
From the bits of chatter from others that were ever made about C2, it was always about the usual suspects: Jay's leadership, Spark's competence as a deputy, Alabaster's strength, Labcoat's aggression when she got angry, and Eddron's general aloofness and previous unsavoury behaviour. But what did everyone say about Meeka? Frankly, it seemed like she didn't even exist at times.
Maybe Mom and Dad were right... all I do is play phone games...
But she wanted to be talked about.
Meeka stepped up to Sora and clasped her hands in front of her face. “Please teach me everything you do as a supporter!”
“Well that's what I'm here for!” Sora said. “But you want me to teach you everything I do?”
“If that's what'll help me become a better supporter,” Meeka said.
“You sure?” Croissant warned with a concerned expression.
Meeka nodded as confidently as she could. “I need this. I don't just want to be the girl that plays phone games all day. I want to be somebody!”
“Alright, if you insist. Can you sing and dance?” Sora asked.
Meeka was almost taken aback by the question. “What?”
“Sora here channels Originium Arts through her singin'; you'd be surprised how good it feels to get sung at by Sora,” Croissant explained.
“Singing...?” Meeka muttered to herself.
Singing wasn't really Meeka's forte, neither was dancing. Even if she did know them, she didn't exactly have the ability to channel Originium Arts, assuming she had any at all.
“You want me to sing and dance?” Meeka asked.
“You did say you wanted me to teach you everything I do,” Sora said.
“Well... if you're gonna sing, you're gonna have to put on some music,” Croissant said.
Meeka reluctantly went into her phone's music playlist and hovered her finger over the random option. She took a deep breath and tapped it, immediately recognizing the beginning of the song that was playing to be an opening to an anime she watched not that long ago.
As the lyrics were fast approaching, memories began to return to her. These weren't memories of the anime she had watched, these were memories of a specific talent show many years ago at a public school in Victoria. A young Feline girl stepped up on the stage and grabbed the microphone from the stand while everyone at the school was watching her.
“Jibun wo...” Meeka sang briefly before stopping the music and squatting down and covering her face.
Her entire body began to heat up and she could feel her legs shaking. The memories of that talent show went away immediately and went back to the abyss they were supposed to stay in.
“I-I don't want to sing...” Meeka said.
“You don't have to. Sorry if you feel a little embarrassed,” Sora said.
Meeka slowly stood up. “Can we try something else?”
“Sure. Let's try dancing. I'll even show you some cute poses you can do too,” Sora said.
1:09 PM
Refugee Camp
Dmitri stared at the kitchen tent. He had been keeping watch for almost an hour now, making sure that Andrea was still in the tent. All he could see were refugees coming and going from the tent while Andrea or any of her Rhodes Island companions had yet to show up. He began to wonder if Andrea had already left.
“There you are, big guy,” Kevin called.
Dmitri kept watching the tent and waited for Kevin to come to join him.
“Any luck?” Kevin asked.
Dmitri shook his head. “No.”
“Guess this camp's a bust. Maybe they already know about the tracker,” Kevin warned.
Dmitri sighed. “Then we should leave.”
What am I doing? Isn't this technically treason? Yet...
“Let's grab some lunch first. At least let's stick it to these Rhode Island assholes and take some of the free food,” Kevin suggested.
“There could be Rhodes Island in the kitchens. We could blow our cover,” Dmitri warned.
“Holy shit...” Kevin exclaimed while looking past Dmitri.
Kevin immediately jumped behind Dmitri and peeked around him. Dmitri tried to squirm away from Kevin but eventually gave up and looked at what he was staring at. Andrea had left the tent with a very small looking girl.
“It's her... it's Andrea...!” Kevin whispered, his surprise still making him a little loud.
“Are you sure?” Dmitri asked.
“I've known Brenda and Andrea since we were all kids; I know what they look like, Dmitri. Come on, we gotta phone this in so we can prepare the next phase,” Kevin said.
Damn it...
“Come on, Dmitri,” Kevin called as he ran away from the kitchen tent.
1:17 PM
Dormitories, Level C, Room 21
“When you blow the kiss, make sure you lean forward as far as you can and keep the other hand on your butt or hip,” Sora instructed.
Meeka sighed and prepared herself. She made sure her legs gave her a strong foundation as she leaned her entire upper body forward as much as she could while keeping her left hand on her hip. With her right hand, she pantomimed blowing a kiss.
“Now for the finish!” Sora yelled before clapping her hands together loudly.
Meeka brought both her hands together and used them to form a heart. She did it slowly, often hesitating during every step.
“Come on, Meeka! That was sloppy! You gotta show some love!” Sora cheered.
“Don't forget to tell your squad how much you love em'! That's what Sora does for us,” Croissant said.
Sora clapped her hands. “Again!”
I hate this...
Meeka sighed even louder and did the move again. This time, she moved with a bit more swiftness, looking a lot more smooth which prompted a smile from Sora.
“There you go! You've got the spins and footwork down and now the finish too! You're gonna do amazing at your training session!” Sora said while giving a thumbs up.
“And don't forget about saying nice stuff about your friends! That's real support right there!” Croissant said.
Sora nodded. “But you can just make up stuff on the fly, what we really need you to nail are the moves and poses. Let's keep practising! We still have time until you have to go for training! Let's take it from the top!”
Meeka wanted to groan out loud but managed to hold it back as she planted her feet firmly on the ground and readied to do her routine.
4:02 PM
Training Facility
With the exception of Labcoat—who was watching from up in the catwalks—the entire squad looked a little excited to be gathered together to fight alongside each other again. The last time they had done so was in Chernobog and while the horrible fighting back then lingered in her mind, the optimism emanating from everyone seemed to be overpowering it.
Labcoat wasn't the only one watching from above. Other than Dobermann and several instructors and staff, Sora and Croissant were also there to see how Meeka would do after their lesson.
Despite being a little eager to practice for the promotion test, Meeka still felt a little nervous. She had heard her squadmates talking about techniques and abilities they learned during their time with the Penguin Logistics girls. All Meeka had to show for was a few dance moves and poses.
“Alright guys,” Jay started, “I wanted to do a field battle but Dobermann suggested we practice in urban environments again. Although, things are a bit changed up: we'll be fighting on a massive street flanked by skyscrapers so it won't be like Chernobog at least.”
“Will we be okay without Labcoat?” Spark asked.
“My training with Croissant has given me many keen insights on being a defender; I believe it will help make up her having to sit out,” Alabaster answered.
“Good luck, guys! You can do it!” Labcoat called from the catwalks above.
“Let's do this!” Eddron declared as he drew his pistol from his holster.
“One more thing guys, the enemies during the promotion test will be using live ammo so no more red lights and stuff like that from now on. They'll be blunted and won't be fired at full strength but they'll still hurt like hell if you get hit. We have a bit of practice with live ammo while training for Chernobog, but still be careful everyone,” Jay warned.
“You could probably still die if you get hit in the face or something,” Eddron said.
“Did you really have to say that?” Spark asked nervously.
“Miss Meeka,” Alabaster called. “Are you prepared for today's training?”
Meeka nodded. “I just finished my training with Croissant and Sora earlier.”
“Good. Although, you do look a bit worried,” Alabaster said.
“Oh... It's nothing. I'm good,” Meeka said.
A buzzer immediately rang which put everyone on edge.
“Let's get moving everyone!” Jay commanded as he moved ahead of everyone.
The battlefield was a long street that was also wide enough to be almost impossible to cover the entire way without spreading out too much. There was one advantage in that the squad's position had several lines of concrete barriers that provided cover and obstacles for whatever enemies were incoming. To the flanks of the street were giant blocks that were supposed to represent skyscrapers just like Jay said.
“Everyone spread out and take cover! We'll hit them when they come!” Jay yelled as he rushed up to the very front row of concrete barriers and knelt behind it.
Meeka took a position at the second row while Alabaster joined Jay at the front. Spark and Eddron each set up to Jay and Alabaster's left and right respectively. Once everyone was in position, the squad simply waited as they could see a large group of approaching animatronics.
Other than the live ammunition carried by the ones with crossbows, the rest of the animatronics didn't look that intimidating as they only carried clubs as opposed to the spears and shields the ones for the Chernobog practice runs carried.
“Here they come, guys! Get ready!” Jay called.
Meeka sat down with her back to the concrete barrier she was taking cover behind. She had yet to launch her drone and her phone was still in her pocket. With all the dance moves and poses she needed to remember, it was hard to prioritize what she needed to do.
“Jay! They close enough yet?” Eddron asked.
Jay peeked over his cover. “Looks like it! Spark! Eddron! Light em' up!”
Spark and Eddron rose from their hiding positions and let loose their ranged attacks at the enemy. Strands of lightening and bullets launched at the incoming enemy formation, prompting them to spread out which halted their momentum. Meeka watched the carnage, only letting her eyes and forehead rise above the concrete barrier.
“Incoming return fire! Watch out!” Eddron warned.
Right after Meeka ducked down, she could hear bolts bouncing off of the concrete barriers, some even getting close to her.
“Meeka! We need support!” Jay yelled.
Meeka hesitated for a moment and looked around at her comrades still taking cover from enemy return fire with Spark and Eddron occasionally rising up to take a shot. The enemy was now halfway across the long street and would soon arrive at the squad's defensive position.
“Meeka! Come on!” Eddron called as he ducked from an incoming crossbow bolt.
Meeka looked up at the catwalks to see Sora leaning over the railing and looking down at her. She gave an assertive nod and a thumbs up which made Meeka sigh.
Let's get this over with.
Meeka stood up and immediately planted her feet firmly on the ground.
“Meeka?” Jay asked as he stopped paying attention to the enemy.
She immediately put her arms up and spun around, graduating into a bow while extending her arms out.
“What the hell...?” Spark said, completely stopping her Arts attacks on the enemy.
When Meeka rose back up from her bowing, she did little sidesteps. The routine was simple: she moved her left foot left and then brought her right foot next to it and then moving the right foot back to the right. Once she brought the left foot over to her right foot, the routine was finished and she repeated the process a few times while wagging her finger.
Alabaster stood up from his cover and looked at Meeka, fortunately still keeping his shield orientated toward the enemy as their bolts hit his shield. “Miss Meeka?”
A crossbow bolt whizzed by Meeka's face which made her stop for a moment. Undeterred, she resumed her motions and went for the final finish. She kept her feet firmly on the ground and leaned forward while blowing a kiss.
“Mwah! Y-you g-g-guys can do i-it! I love you!” Meeka yelled awkwardly while bringing her hands together to make a heart.
“Um...” Eddron muttered.
“Meeka, what was that?” Jay asked.
Meeka could feel her entire body warming up, especially her face. She wanted to scream and run but all she could do was keep looking at everyone looking at her.
This was a mistake!
Before Meeka could answer, she felt something slam into her gut which made her stumble backward. She groaned in pain right as another hit near the same spot and forced her to the ground. The pain stayed and felt like a really hard punch.
“Meeka!” Spark called.
“Oh shit! They're right on top of us!” Eddron yelled as he turned around and unloaded his magazine at the enemy.
It was too late. Meeka's squadmates were too distracted and were now getting overrun by the first of the melee animatronics arriving.
Jay barely managed to get a few hits in before he fell to a fetal position and got beaten up. Alabaster valiantly swung his halberd and pushed away enemies with his shield but also ended up getting overrun. Spark stopped shooting lightening as she desperately kept enemies away with her staff and eventually succumbed to the enemy assault. Eddron was the final squadmate to go down, not even getting a chance to reload his pistol when he took a swing from a club.
The buzzer rang and the animatronics immediately stopped and started heading back down the street.
Meeka still writhed around in pain from the two hits to her stomach in quick succession. Soon, she managed to get herself back up and got to her feet. She could see those of her squad that recovered staring at her with looks ranging from concern to confusion.
Not giving any of them a chance to speak, Meeka stormed out of the training facility, tears running down her face.
“Meeka! Wait!” Spark called.
4:25 PM
Corridor
After running down several different hallways, Meeka eventually leaned against a wall and slowly slid down to the floor. She wiped her face and sunk her face into her knees. Ever since the talent show back in her childhood in Victoria, she had never felt so embarrassed. The feelings of embarrassment were exactly why those memories were banished from her mind until now.
I don't wanna be in the spotlight anymore. But how will people know I'm useful?!
Meeka sighed loudly into her knees and sniffled a little. She rocked side to side and occasionally slapped her head.
I'm so stupid! Why did I think stupid little dances were enough to change things?! I'm so damn stupid!
“Meeka...” Spark's voice called.
4:27 PM
Corridor
“Meeka...” Spark called.
Spark waited for her to look up. She looked terrible as her face was almost fully red and shining lines on her face showed where the streaks of her tears were.
“Spark...” Meeka replied.
Spark knelt down in front of Meeka and stared straight into her eyes. “What happened?”
“That's what I learned from Sora,” Meeka answered.
“Dancing? Really?” Spark asked, stifling a snicker.
“People like her and notice her so I thought she could teach me how to get that,” Meeka explained.
“You don't seem like the type of person to crave attention,” Spark said.
Meeka nodded. “Yeah... but I want to be useful; I don't want to be some side character.”
Spark laughed. “You've got too many games on the mind, Meeka. This isn't a game, you're not a side character.”
“I'm a supporter. What good are supporters?! Every game I've played supporters get shit on! Even I've complained about supporters! I can't even fight!” Meeka yelled.
Spark sighed. “Meeka, we've told you this a million times already, you're really useful. That drone of yours has helped us so much.”
“I know, which is why I feel so stupid about this. I've heard you all tell me and I even know I'm useful. But I keep thinking I'm useless! Why do I think like this?!” Meeka cried.
“A lot of people think like that. Reminds me a lot about Jay. He keeps thinking he's not worthy of the captain's chair even though he lead us through Chernobog. Maybe some people just wanna put themselves down while others just don't wanna believe they're good,” Spark explained while sitting down next to Meeka.
“I don't wanna think like that,” Meeka said.
“It's a hard habit to break. All you can do is believe in yourself and that's a lot harder than it sounds,” Spark said.
Meeka wiped her face. “Because of how stupid I was, all of us got hurt.”
“Well at least none of us got shot in the face like Eddron said. Let's make this a learning experience,” Spark said.
Meeka sighed. “I guess...”
“You know, if you talked to someone about this instead of brushing off every time we said you were useful, we'd probably get to the bottom of this quicker,” Spark said.
“I do talk to someone about this. I have appointments. But... I don't really say much,” Meeka explained.
Spark tried to hide her shock. She had never heard about Meeka going to speak to a psychologist, she almost felt like she had failed her not just as a squadmate or a roommate, but as a surrogate big sister as she declared back in Chernobog.
“How... how's that going for you?” Spark asked.
“Not good actually. Most of the time I don't say much and she doesn't press me too much so I don't end up getting a lot out of it,” Meeka answered.
Sounds like she still needs to build some rapport with the psychologist. But what about me? Why didn't she talk to me?
“Remember back in Chernobog when I said you could consider me your big sis? Why don't you talk to me about this?” Spark asked.
“Because...” Meeka started but stopped.
She stayed silent for a couple of seconds and swallowed a lump in her throat. “Because I'm a little jealous of you.”
Spark wrapped her arm around Meeka and pulled her close. “Why are you jealous of me?”
She tried her best to smile through the devastating revelation but could only go as far as a grin. Still, it proved enough to show Meeka she wasn't mad.
“Because in some ways I wanna be more like you. The way Jay talks about how awesome you are and how everyone cares for you opinions and stuff like that. Whenever that happens, I'm just standing around,” Meeka answered.
“Do you think I'm stealing the spotlight away from you?” Spark asked.
Meeka shook her head. “No... I don't even know how to describe it. It just feels like people like you more.”
“Do you care that more people like me?” Spark asked with a stern expression.
“No. It's hard to explain. But... I do want someone to care about me. All of you guys have all the attention, who cares about me?” Meeka asked, sniffling through her words.
Spark pulled Meeka as close as she could and hugged her tightly. Meeka started sniffling even more and Spark could even feel Meeka shake a little.
“I care,” Spark declared. “I cared enough to call you my lil sis back in Chernobog. Jay cared enough to get you a mentor to help you pass your promotion test. Alabaster cared enough to see if you were ready for today's training. I can't think of any specific examples for Labcoat and Eddron, but we all care for you.”
“Well, there was that one time Eddron made me join him in some stupid scheme with that Executor guy,” Meeka said, starting to smile.
“You see?! We all care for you! Who cares if the spotlight's not on you? As long as you got us, you don't need anything else, right?” Spark argued.
“I guess. But I can't help it,” Meeka said.
Spark stood up while pulling Meeka up along with her. “As long as we're all around, we'll be sure to keep telling you that you're awesome every time you think you suck. Okay?”
Meeka smiled and nodded. “Okay. Sorry for being an idiot.”
“Don't be, I'm really glad we had this talk. You might even get what you wished for; everyone's gonna be really happy to see you flying your drone again instead of doing whatever the heck that was,” Spark said.
Meeka suddenly started looking around her. “Oh my god, where's my drone?”
“It's back at the training facility, silly. You didn't take it with you. Come on, let's get back,” Spark said before laughing.
4:41 PM
Training Facility
“Keep it up, Meeka!” Jay called as he swatted away an incoming animatronic.
“Got it!” Meeka answered proudly.
Meeka looked over to Spark who looked back at her and gave her a wink before going back to shooting lightening at the enemy.
It felt good to do something she knew instead of dancing. In a change of strategy, Meeka flew her drone way ahead of the squad's position and gained the attention of the enemy crossbows. With them trying to shoot Meeka's drone down, it left Spark and Eddron to easily dispatch of the incoming melee animatronics. Any that made it through were in turn quickly dealt with by Jay and Alabaster.
Alabaster grunted loudly as he swung at three animatronics, destroying them instantly. “That's the last of the first wave!”
“Give us a second! Spark and I will clear this up in a jiffy!” Eddron declared as he ducked down to reload his pistol.
Spark stopped shooting her lightening. “First wave is down!”
Meeka looked at her phone's drone feed and could see the next wave of enemies coming down the street. She prepared to fly ahead to distract the crossbows again but got the sudden urge to check the infrared camera. Her instinct proved to be decisive as she did a complete spin to see a stealth animatronic trying to sneak up to the concrete barriers.
“Steal animatronic right in front of you, Spark!” Meeka warned.
Spark stood up and shot lightening at the area in front of her. “Am I hitting it?!”
“Yup! You got it!” Meeka answered.
“Good stuff, Meeka!” Jay said.
Meeka grinned from ear to ear as she flew the drone ahead to draw the enemy fire.
I've been doing this all the time, I just needed to see things from a new perspective to see that I was useful after all!
With her expert manoeuvres, even with several bolts coming at her drone at once, she was easily able to dodge them all and leave the enemy open to Spark and Eddron's barrage. After a few rounds of dodging, Meeka flew the drone away and dived right in front of the melee animatronics.
She kept flying from left to right and weaving between them in an effort to slow them down so that Spark and Eddron would have more time to take them all out. The plan worked for a bit as more and more animatronics dropped a good distance away from Jay and Alabaster.
“Take cover!” Jay yelled.
Without Meeka's drone distracting them, the crossbows opened fire on the squad. Meeka quickly brought the drone back up into the air and flew above the heads of the crossbows to entice them to switch targets. Most of them did but some continued to be a nusaince for the squad.
“Spark! Let's take out the ones shooting at us!” Eddron called.
“Already on it!” Spark replied.
After a few barrages, Meeka could see that most of the crossbows had been taken out and the squad's ranged attacks turned to what remained of the melee animatronics. Thanks to Meeka's earlier slowing of the enemy, they weren't even able to make it to Jay and Alabaster.
The final Animatronic going down prompted the buzzer to ring which signalled the end of the exercise.
“Awesome work, guys!” Jay cheered.
“If the promotion test is as easy as this, we got this shit in the bag!” Eddron declared.
“Let's not get ahead of ourselves now,” Spark warned.
Meeka smiled and waited around as Labcoat ran down with Sora and Croissant not that far behind her.
“Wow, guys!” Labcoat exclaimed. “That was great! I wish I wasn't still recovering so I could fight with you guys.”
“Your health takes priority, Miss Labcoat,” Alabaster said.
“Of course, Gramps,” Labcoat said.
Sora clapped her hands. “Great work, Meeka! That was some great supporting!”
“Couldn't have done it any better ourselves,” Croissant said.
Meeka nodded at Sora and Croissant. “Thanks for the lesson, but I think I'll stick to drones instead of dancing. That lesson really taught me that I didn't really want the spotlight after all.”
“Really?” Sora asked. “Well... Hahahaha... That was my intention all along!”
Croissant turned to Sora. “What?”
“When you asked if me and Croissant felt like we were in the background, I sensed that you wanted to be in the spotlight. But I also sensed you didn't really need to be in the spotlight so I made up all this stuff about dancing to show you what was up,” Sora explained, stumbling through most of her words with an awkward grin.
“Really? Wow, Sora, I never thought of it that way. That's smart as heck,” Croissant said.
Meeka smiled and pulled in both Sora and Croissant for a hug.
I don't think that was your plan at all, but thanks for the help, you two.
10:27 PM
Refugee Camp
Andrea yawned as she stepped into the tent where the girls of D5 would be sleeping. After a long hard day of working and helping the refugees, she was more than ready to get some sleep.
Powder and Lucid were already sleeping while Nozomi's sleeping bag was empty, probably still out on patrols as she wanted to make a good impression to Nearl. Despite them sleeping, the tent was far from peaceful as Powder snored incredibly loud and it was quite grating to the ears.
The squad needed to get some good sleep as Andrea had heard from Nozomi that D5 would be headed back to Rhodes Island tomorrow morning. She wondered why they would be headed back on such short notice but thought nothing of it for now as she wanted to sleep so she wouldn't be tired on the trip back.
Andrea emptied her pockets and slid into her sleeping bag but immediately stopped when she felt something inside pressing against her foot. She immediately looked inside to see a phone and a note stuffed into it.
Considering she still had her phone issued to her by Rhodes Island, there was no way that phone was hers. She kept the phone under the covers of the sleeping bag as she turned it on to see what it was. It looked like it was freshly bought and Andrea was greeted with a lock screen with a pattern password she didn't know.
The note that came with the phone was what soon caught her attention. Not only did it contain the password to the phone, but it also contained a message that was hard to see in the dark. Using the phone as a light source, she read out the message that made her eyes widen.
Andrea,
Your sister is safe. Use the password on this note and call her from the contacts. Do not let anyone else find this phone or note.
Andrea looked at Powder and Lucid who were still sleeping soundly. Wanting to know if the note was legitimate or not, Andrea carefully sneaked out of the tent with the phone and note in hand. Once she left the tent, she was careful not to get noticed by any refugees and acted like she was doing something innocent.
Even though it shouldn't have been a big deal, the part of the note telling her to keep it secret from everyone concerned her enough to take precautions.
She had found a good secluded area between some tents and turned the brightness down on the phone to not get spotted by anyone looking around in the dark. When she was sure she was alone and away from any prying eyes, she unlocked the phone and navigated to contacts where the only name that was registered was Brenda's.
Andrea immediately tapped on Brenda's name and held the phone to her ear as it began to dial. It dialed for several seconds before the dial tone stopped. There was silence on the other end for what felt like a full minute, but Andrea could hear someone breathing on the end, or maybe it was just her own breathing.
“Andrea...?” Brenda's voice answered.
Andrea gasped. “Brenda...”

9:26 AM
A Cave
Brenda kept a hand on her forehead as she rose up from sleeping. Her back ached as usual from the lack of proper beds as she saw the tossing and turning in her sleep had scattered the pile of leaves and grass she rested on.
She looked over to where all the others were sleeping to see most of them were gone with a few stragglers still snoring loudly. Light was coming from the outside so it seemed like everyone had gone outside to scout or forage. Brenda rubbed her eyes for a bit and yawned before using the cave wall to help her stand up.
After gaining her bearings, she headed outside to see a crowd of people gathering around something. Judging from the sounds she was hearing and the bits of chatter she could pick up, her comrades were opening crates and looking through the contents. She managed to find a gap in the crowd and squeezed her way in to see Faust overseeing his men unloading things.
“Morning!” Kevin's voice called.
Brenda turned to Kevin. “These are the supplies that Faust said was coming?”
“Yup,” Kevin answered with a nod.
Brenda stepped up to the three crates to see them segregated by content. The first contained the usual water and whatever ingredients could be scrounged together. In the second were a few weapons and ammunition while the final one had peculiar items like cell phones and tattered rags.
“Where's Dmitri?” Brenda asked.
“He's out with the foragers today; they needed an extra hand and he was standing in front of me so he ended up going,” Kevin explained with a laugh.
“Brenda!” Faust called. “You're finally awake.”
Brenda nodded at Faust. “I'm ready for whatever happens today. What's the third crate stuff for?”
“Now that the supplies are here,” Faust started, “we're going to get a bit more aggressive with observing the enemy. With more disguises, we can have more men nearby Rhodes Island to see where your sister is the moment she leaves the ship. The cell phones are so we can all keep in touch and also in hopes that we can contact your sister somehow.”
“You have a plan to speak with my sister?” Brenda asked, not hiding her excitement.
“It's a straightforward plan. We don't know her number and she doesn't know ours so there's no way we can call her. However, if we were to get her one of ours, she'd be able to contact us,” Faust explained.
“What do you need me to do?” Brenda asked.
Faust smiled. “You're excited, I understand, but for now you're going to do nothing. When we get the phone into her hands, she'll be much more comfortable speaking to you. You will get as much information as you can out of her and help us plan how we're going to rescue her.”
“Okay, Faust. Please... Bring my sister home...” Brenda said.
Faust nodded. “The time will come soon.”
11:44 AM
Corridor
Eddron kept putting his hand near his holster. Even if the gun inside of it was just a water gun, he felt so much more complete having his gear. Since the very first day C2 existed when he almost drew his gun out during the scuffle with C1, he had been prohibited from having his pistol and even his holster when not on missions. The days since Chernobog had been quite taxing on Eddron's patience, wondering if his equipment which he worked so hard to be certified for was being taken care of.
Thanks to Exusiai's supervision for today's training, he was allowed his holster and they would've even given him his pistol if not for Exusiai's insistence that it was not needed. It was at that moment that Eddron began to appreciate the benefits of being a higher ranked Operator. Despite her somewhat quirky attitude at times, the staff and other Operators on the base were always ready listen to her the moment her status as an Elite 2 was apparent.
I need to work hard so I can be high ranked like her. I can only imagine the things I could do with power like that.
“So where are your friends? I thought they'd be helping me out like they helped out Jay,” Eddron asked.
Exusiai gave Eddron a mischievous grin. “They're already helping us.”
“With what?” Eddron asked, looking even more confused.
“I told Tex, Sora, and Croissant to give us thirty minutes before they start hunting for you,” Exusiai answered.
Eddron's confusion turned to a slight fear. “Hunting? What do you mean by that?”
Exusiai nodded. “Your aim's not that bad but that's something you can practice by yourself on the range without us. Your captain Jay tapped us to try to find ways to bring out everyone's potential. He told me you guys game together.”
“Yeah, fighters, shooters, the usual stuff,” Eddron said.
“Well if you're good at games, you must have some decent reflexes,” Exusiai said.
“Good enough to beat Jay a lot,” Eddron bragged with a proud smile.
“Well today's exercise has you pitted against my friends who all have water pistols. They'll be coming at you from every direction or waiting in ambush for you. Get hit once, and you fail,” Exusiai explained.
“Then how do I pass?” Eddron asked.
Exusiai froze for a moment. “Huh... I guess I didn't really think that far.”
“Because you don't have confidence in me?” Eddron asked in a disappointed tone.
“Of course not!” Exusiai said abruptly. “Okay, if you can make it through... let's say... five encounters with my friends, you pass.”
“Alright, has it been thirty minutes yet?” Eddron asked.
Exusiai pulled out her phone. “Looks like they're already on the prowl.”
Eddron immediately looked behind him just in case he was being followed by one of Exusiai's friends. As a Sankta, he was already quite an easy target to pick out but he was also being accompanied by Exusiai which practically made a beacon for her friends to get him.
I got this. This is gonna be just like me running circles around Jay on the labyrinth map in Super Shooters of Honour.
“Can I draw my water gun now?” Eddron asked.
“Sure, but if you show me how quick you are on the draw, I might give you bonus points,” Exusiai said.
Eddron debated whether he should draw. With superior combat experience than him, the Penguin Logistics girls had too many advantages for Eddron to risk getting caught with his pants down. As much as he wanted the bonus points, he didn't feel totally confident in being able to survive five encounters with Exusiai's friends, especially Texas.
Eddron drew his water gun and kept his eyes scanning around any intersecting corridors and doors for any threats.
“Not the funnest decision, but definitely the smartest one,” Exusiai said as she eyed the water gun.
“I've heard enough stories about you guys to not want to take any chances,” Eddron said.
Eddron spotted someone just appearing out of the corner of the next intersecting hallway. Without taking the chance to identify his target, Eddron pointed his water gun at the appearing figure and pulled the trigger, sending a small stream of water forward.
To his horror, the target wasn't one of Exusiai's friends and was instead Executor. The man simply stood still as the water splashed off of his coat, he looked down for a moment before looking at Eddron and Exusiai with a most displeased expression.
“What the heck is that Executor guy doing here?!” Exusiai yelled.
Eddron lowered his water gun and held his hand out. “Dude, I'm so sorry! Don't worry it's just water!”
“I've been looking for you two,” Executor said.
“What? Why?” Exusiai asked.
“After the mess you made yesterday, Citizen Exusiai, I've been meaning to speak to you about your conduct and how it poorly reflects on Laterano,” Executor explained in his signature monotone voice.
Exusiai crossed her arms and snarled at Executor. “Listen, Executor, we were helping out a fellow Operator with their training. Also, since I'm an Elite 2, I technically outrank you so why don't you forget about whatever you wanted to do with us and let us continue with our work? Alright?”
“My contract with Rhodes Island gives me authority over matters involving Sankta. As a representative of Laterano, I must make sure you act in conduct that reflects well on us. To achieve that, I will have to supervise your activities for the time being,” Executor said.
“Come on man, it's been awhile since I've been back in Laterano. I might as well not be a citizen anymore,” Exusiai whined.
“You are Sankta and born in Laterano, you are a citizen,” Executor said bluntly.
Eddron tugged on Exusiai's arm. “Careful, you don't wanna mess with him.”
“What is this training you're giving Citizen Eddron? Does it involve firearms?” Executor asked.
Exusiai shrugged. “I'm just looking at his reflexes; it'll help him become a better sniper.”
“You should focus on the fundamentals,” Executor said.
“Oh come on, Executor,” Eddron called. “I'm more than ready for an actual exercise; I don't need the basics.”
“Clearly not since you're not practising proper trigger discipline,” Executor said while pointing at Eddron's water gun.
Eddron reflexively looked down at his water gun to see that he had his finger in the trigger guard the entire time. He took it out and awkwardly kept his finger on the gun's side for a bit until he got used to not having his finger on the trigger.
“Citizen Exusiai, what's the first rule of firearm safety?” Executor asked.
“Huh? What? Why are you asking me all of the sudden? Eddron's the one getting the lesson here,” Exusiai argued in a panicked tone.
“Please answer the question,” Executor demanded.
“You're really putting me on the spot here, Executor. It's been a long time since I got my certification. But it's don't keep your finger on the trigger unless you intend to kill, right?” Exusiai asked.
Executor shook his head. “That's one of them, but not the first. The first is to treat every gun as if it were loaded. Clearly both of you need to go over the fundamentals. Please come with me.”
“To where?” Eddron asked.
“I will help you both go over the fundamentals,” Executor answered.
Exusiai groaned. “You gotta be kidding me! I'm the teacher here today!”
“Exusiai, I know you're tough, but I don't think you could take him,” Eddron warned.
“Ugh! Fine!” Exusiai whined.
11:58 AM
Cafeteria
Andrea eagerly picked up her sub and took the largest bite she could out of it. It was as tasty as the posters and ads from a chain that only operated in the nicer parts of Chernobog claimed it to be.
Despite the hundreds, almost thousands of mouths to feed, the cafeteria was always bringing up new meals to make sure they didn't repeat too often. Their policy gave Andrea the opportunity to try out so many things she had seen in magazines and advertisements and helped bridge the gap between her and a world she never had the privilege to experience.
As she took another bite, she remembered that her and her squad were here for important business. She put down her sub and waited as Thorax—the final member of D5 not at the table—came over with his tray and settled himself down.
“Alright everyone,” Nozomi called, “now that we're all here, we can begin discussing who's gonna be captain of this squad. Drill Instructor Dobermann gave us until the end of the week but we should figure things out right now.”
“I agree, and I think it should be me,” Thorax declared.
“Why you?” Nozomi asked.
“I'm big, I'm strong, and I'm pretty damn handsome if I do say myself. I think it's kind of an unwritten rule that the leader has to be good looking. You guys have seen captains Nearl and Siege right? Total babes if I do say so myself. Nozomi here... eh... she's kinda got the whole coconut thing going on with that haircut,” Thorax explained.
Nozomi slammed the table. “They are captains because they are skilled warriors with great leadership qualities.”
“Oh I got those too of course! We'll find a quiet place away from everyone else and I'll show you who's the best fighter in this squad,” Thorax boasted.
“No,” Nozomi said abruptly. “Drill Instructor Dobermann told us to make our choice peacefully.”
Andrea stayed silent while the two argued. She didn't like to see her squadmates fight considering how much they needed to rely on each other. Even after Gelly yelled at them for the squad's poor performance during their first training exercise, there was still yet to be any peace. She began to wonder if Gelly's squad had any trouble when they were also starting out.
“With me as the leader, this squad can go even further beyond!” Nozomi declared.
“You know, we've done so much arguing when we should just have the damn vote right here and right now,” Thorax said.
“How about a compromise? Instead of either of you becoming captain, you just let me become captain,” Gale suggested with a smug grin.
“How is that a compromise?!” Thorax and Nozomi asked in unison.
“It's been nothing but arguing between you two! If you guys make me captain, neither of you can be jealous of the other while I get to be the cool guy in this squad. I see it as an absolute win. Thanks to the great teachings, I feel as if I am one with Terra and that will make me an excellent leader,” Gale argued.
“Then we'll just be jealous of you,” Thorax said.
“Well then, I guess we're at an impasse,” Gale said.
“Like Thorax said, we'll have the vote right here and now. We'll have Coral, Lucid, and Powder decide who gets to be captain,” Nozomi explained.
Andrea began to alternate between looking at the three candidates. She was worried that casting a vote would make the other two upset at her, but what choice did she have? From what she could observe from Gelly, it seemed like she liked Nozomi the most out of the three. With her experience and the fact Andrea cared for her opinion, it seemed like the logical choice was to back the candidate that Gelly would've supported.
Thorax nodded. “Alright girls, take your pick, let's get this over with.”
“Wait,” Nozomi called while raising a hand. “Let's agree that whoever gets the majority of the votes is the captain and let it be the end of it. Even if I don't get picked, if we can end this, then let's end this.”
“Agreed,” Thorax said.
“Glad to see you two are gracious in defeat,” Gale said.
“Coral, who are you voting for?” Nozomi asked.
Everyone at the table turned to Andrea which made her pause. She looked everyone in the eyes and squirmed for a moment before opening her mouth.
“She hasn't told me who she'd support, but if I had to guess, I think Gelly would support Nozomi so I support her too,” Andrea said.
Nozomi clapped her hands together. “Yosh! I must thank Senior for her support later!”
“Alright, that's one, but don't get your hopes up too soon,” Thorax warned.
“What about you, Lucid?” Gale asked.
Lucid gasped and looked around at everyone before staring down at her lap. “Oh... I dunno... you guys all seem great. As long as we all keep each other safe, I'll be happy with whoever.”
“Nice cop out, but who you voting for?” Thorax asked.
“Oh... um... I still don't know...” Lucid said softly.
“With my big shield and strong scales, I think I can keep you all safe,” Thorax said.
Lucid nodded. “Okay. I vote for Thorax.”
Nozomi stood up and slammed the table again. “I can protect you too, Lucid!”
“Oh... then maybe I might switch my vote...” Lucid said.
“Hold on a second there, Lucid!” Thorax called. “If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you can vote for Nozomi. Does she have a shield? Does she have strong scales that can stop an arrow. And is she tall and muscular?”
Lucid reluctantly shook her head. “No... I guess I'll stick with Thorax then.”
“You bastard!” Nozomi yelled.
Andrea sighed and turned over to Powder who was busy chowing down on her sub. “It all comes down to you, Powder.”
Powder gulped down the end of her sub and patted her hands together to wipe away the crumbs. She looked at Nozomi, Thorax, and Gale for a good minute each before raising up her finger and pointing at Nozomi.
“You're voting for me?” Nozomi asked, a smile forming on her face.
Powder's finger began to move toward Thorax. “Eeenie meenie miney mo...”
“You can't seriously think voting randomly like that is gonna work out good in the end, do you?” Nozomi asked in a panicked tone.
Everyone at the table went silent as Powder went through her little rhyme. It was going a lot longer than usual as she was using verses nobody remembered at all from the times they were all children and frankly it seemed like she was making things up to draw things out. Although, her ability to come up with rhymes on the fly was quite impressive.
Andrea had hoped for a more decisive victory, or at least one that wasn't based on random chance, but for now, she could only watch with great anxiety as Powder neared the end of the rhyme.
“...goodbye my friend, I have reached the end,” Powder finished as her finger ended up pointing at Gale.
“Shit... what do we do with a three way tie?” Gale asked.
“We do another round of voting,” Nozomi suggested.
“What if nobody changes their vote?” Thorax asked.
Nozomi scratched her chin. “Hmm... we'll have to chose someone to eliminate so that no matter the outcome, someone will have more votes.”
“How do we decide that?” Coral asked.
“Not it!” Thorax blurted out.
Gale scrambled to open his mouth. “Not it!”
Nozomi also moved to speak but by then it was too late. “You're kidding me... You can't do that, that's completely arbitrary!”
“As a wise man once said: 'You snooze you lose,'” Gale said with a smug grin.
“What kind of Kjerag priest told you that?” Nozomi asked.
Powder sighed and pointed at Thorax. “Eenie meenie miney mo...”
“You can't be serious? This is totally insane! We should be discussing who should be the best captain not choosing at random!” Nozomi argued.
Another bout of silence took the table as Powder went through the rhyme which had new verses this time. Nozomi sighed and sunk her face into her hands as Powder was reaching the end once more after a much more shorter rhyme.
“... without further ado, I choose you,” Powder finished as she pointed at Nozomi.
Nozomi gasped and stood up on the table. “Yatta! I did it!”
The entire cafeteria from the many tables of diners to the staff in the kitchens went silent as all eyes turned to Nozomi who had raised her fist high up in the air. She looked at everyone staring at her before silently sitting back down and staring at her lap like Lucid did earlier. After the longest minute Andrea had ever experienced, the cafeteria went back to the usual hustle and bustle.
“Great... instead of a captain, we got a cringelord,” Thorax said while crossing his arms.
“What are you like twelve or something?” Nozomi muttered.
“We've got an image to maintain here, Nozomi, and now you just made us look like a squad of weirdos,” Thorax explained.
“And weren't you just whining about Powder choosing randomly? Kinda hypocritical of you to accept her vote,” Gale argued.
“But we also agreed that whoever gets the most votes is the captain and that's the end of it. Unless Powder wants to change her vote, that's the end of it,” Nozomi said.
“I think this is great! Now we can stop arguing and become an actual squad!” Andrea said with a cheerful tone.
The atmosphere was still quite tense despite Andrea's attempt to clear the air. She maintained her smile and kept looking at everyone which eventually assuaged everyone's anger as they all went to silently eating their lunches.
Maybe I should ask Gelly to give us some advice on how to make this squad get along.
“Right before training at 4:00, we're going to tell Dobermann we made our choice,” Nozomi declared.
Thorax tapped the table a few times before sighing. “Fine.”
12:07 PM
Classroom 13-B
Eddron remembered taking the written portion of his promotion test in the room Executor had taken him and Exusiai to.
“Take the seats closest to the front of the classroom,” Executor said as he set down his bag and shotgun at the instructor's table at the front.
Exusiai groaned as she took her seat while Eddron cautiously sat down.
He didn't know what to expect from today's lesson. With the serious demeanour Executor always walked around with, even a mundane lesson would probably instill fear in any student.
Executor picked up a marker and began to write on the whiteboard. “The first rule of any firearm safety course will tell you to treat every gun as if it were loaded. This way, you will always be cautious when handling any firearm, even if they're unloaded.”
“Got it,” Eddron said.
“You're such a stickler for the rules, Executor; you'd never fit in with us Penguin Logistics gals, we play fast and loose but always get the job done,” Exusiai said.
“He probably knows all the rules by heart, he is an Executor after all,” Eddron said.
“Heh, I bet he can't tell us what's on the two hundredth page of the Laterano Road Safety Handbook,” Exusiai joked.
“There aren't two hundred pages in the handbook,” Executor said abruptly.
You're joking... There's no way...
Exusiai laughed and shrugged. “Alright, that was a fluke. What's on page thirty-four?”
Executor stayed quiet for a moment, staring at Exusiai with an intensity that made Eddron uncomfortable by proxy. Exusiai on the other hand grinned at what looked like Executor struggling.
“'...must ensure that those that ride with them are secured safely with their seatbelt,' Executor recited.”
Exusiai almost jumped out of her seat. “No way... you're bluffing... you're bluffing!”
She swiftly drew out her phone and typed a few things. Her face grew pale as she read what was on her screen while Eddron leaned over to get a look.
“He's right... it literally starts continuing off what page thirty-three finishes on...” Exusiai said.
Was I wrong? Is this guy a robot after all?
Executor didn't respond to the two's shock and simply began writing down the second rule on the whiteboard. “Always point your muzzle away from non-targets. In most ranges, you would easily be removed from the premises the moment you muzzle sweep someone. Unless responding to a threat, try to move with only your head when looking around instead of moving your gun along with you.”
“Not gonna lie, I've muzzle sweeped Tex at least once on the job,” Exusiai sheepishly said before whistling inconspicuously.
“This is why it's important to go over the fundamentals. Onto the next, only put your finger on the trigger if you intend to kill. We Sankta are privileged to have easy access to firearms and therefore must act responsibly,” Executor explained
Eddron sighed. “I'm starting to remember all the stuff I learned during my certification course.”
“Same here, and that was ages ago...” Exusiai said.
Executor tried to write the next rule but saw that his marker was starting to get dull. He put the cap back on and replaced it with another marker on the whiteboard.
“Identify your targets and what's behind them. Do not underestimate the power of a bullet, with the power of Arts, they can penetrate things even a sword can't. If you are firing at an enemy or their cover or concealment, take note of what's behind in order to limit the collateral damage you could cause,” Executor explained.
“What if I have no idea what's behind their cover? Should I just leave them?” Eddron asked.
“It's not an absolute rule in the sense that you must refrain from firing if you are completely unsure as they still may pose a threat to you. But make sure you take into consideration the potential to cause harm to civilians or property in order to limit it happening,” Executor answered.
Eddron nodded at the explanation. While his certification course and his training at Rhodes Island briefly went over that point, Executor was able to make it so much more clear for him. In fact, Eddron was excited for the next rule, seeing as he was finally learning things instead of getting refreshers.
The door made a noise which made everyone turn to it. Eddron looked to Executor who was slowly walking back to the instructor's desk.
Suddenly, the door burst open and Croissant stormed in with her water gun drawn.
“You thought you could hide from me, Eddron?! Guess again and now you're trapped! Get ready to-” Croissant yelled before locking eyes with Executor who was in the process of grabbing of his shotgun and flipping over the instructor's desk.
Executor took cover behind the flipped over desk and aimed his shotgun at Croissant.
Holy shit that was badass!
Croissant dropped her water gun and put her hands up. “Eek! Hey, Eddron! That's cheatin'! It was supposed to be just you versus all of us!”
“Oh this was a part of your exercise? It was a good thing I kept my finger off the trigger then,” Executor said as he relaxed himself.
Exusiai sighed and covered her eyes. “I forgot to tell you guys we got picked up by Executor.”
Texas stormed into the room with her water gun drawn as well closely followed by Sora. The two looked confused at the scene of Croissant keeping her hands up while Eddron was in his seat. When they turned over to Executor who was still holding onto his shotgun, they looked like they understood what was going on.
“Sorry guys, because of the mess we made with Jay, Executor's keeping an eye on us Sankta,” Exusiai said.
Texas holstered her water gun. “We'll have to restart the exercise.”
“Before we do that,” Eddron started while looking at Executor, “can you teach me how to do that awesome table flip? It was like something out of a movie!”
12:38 PM
Corridor
Eddron advanced down the hall, carefully creeping along the wall while running across any intersecting corridors. He kept his water gun pointed downward at a forty-five degree angle from his face so that he'd be ready to respond to a sudden threat while also not obstructing his field of view by having to stare down the rudimentary sights made of plastic.
Exusiai and Executor were watching him from a distance, always trying to stay hidden so that they wouldn't stick out and expose Eddron's position. Frankly, Eddron was surprised that Executor allowed the exercise to happen and even more surprised that he stuck around to watch. Although, it did seem like he believed Exusiai would do something even if he wasn't around to supervise and therefore stuck around as insurance.
Eddron remembered to keep his finger off the trigger as he moved. The discipline paid off as he aimed his water gun at an uninvolved bystander coming out of a restroom but didn't accidentally discharge his weapon. He bowed his head at the bystander who ran away in a panic before he could explain the situation. Fortunately, the bystander ran into Exusiai and Executor who likely gave him the heads up on what was going on.
After a few more corridors of nothingness, Croissant suddenly jumped out from an intersecting hallway and fired a stream of water. Due to the distance between them, the stream of water soon curved downward and splashed onto the floor. Eddron took the chance to flee back the way he came while Croissant whined about how weak the water guns were.
“You're mine, Eddron!” Croissant yelled as she pursued.
Eddron turned his head back and pointed his water gun at Croissant while still running down the hall. He took a few running shots before ducking into a hallway and aiming down the corridor he came from. Croissant also took cover in an intersecting corridor near her and the two were in a standoff. Neither could hit the other at the distance they were at, especially with the cover.
Eddron didn't want to run as it would give Croissant a chance to close the distance. He wanted to keep her where he could see her while also keeping an eye out for Texas and Sora.
“Go ahead and stand there! It'll just give Tex and Sora plenty of time to catch up!” Croissant taunted.
“Why don't you just rush me?” Eddron asked.
“I'd love to! But then Tex'll just tell me I'm being reckless again,” Croissant answered.
Eddron soon realized standing still would be the worst move he could make. His objective was to survive five separate encounters with his opponents. By waiting, he'd give Texas and Sora more time to arrive and attack him from every direction.
He was about to prepare to move out when he suddenly heard loud footsteps. Across the hall from him and down the other corridor, Texas suddenly appeared and began rushing toward him with her water gun pointed forward.
Eddron gasped and ran away as fast as he could. He briefly looked behind him to see Texas gaining up on him with a determined look in her eyes.
S-She's fast...!
Eddron blindly aimed his water gun backward and fired a short stream of water. He looked back to see Texas immediately react and sidestep to be right along the wall before continuing with her advance.
She isn't shooting me yet? Maybe she wants an easy shot. As long as I keep moving, I should still be okay. But... there's no way I can keep this up!
Eddron immediately took the next left in the corridor. Instead of running, he suddenly turned around and waited with his water gun aimed at the corner Texas would be coming around. As soon as she did, Eddron let loose with two pulls on the trigger, sending water right at Texas.
However, Texas immediately dove to the floor and did a combat roll. During this, she tried to get a shot off but extending her arm out ended up causing her to fumble the roll.
Without wasting the opportunity, Eddron immediately ran down the corridor while Texas stood back up.
“Tex!” Croissant's voice called “You okay?!”
“I'm fine! He ran that way!” Texas yelled.
Eddron kept moving, taking turns at random in hopes of forcing Texas and Croissant to split up and to eventually lose him.
12:59 PM
Corridor
Eddron leaned against the wall and kept looking down both ends of the hallway while he took stock of his situation. As he was catching his breath, he held his water gun in front of his face and gave it a slight shake. He could hear and feel how empty it was getting which made him sigh.
Guess I gotta hit a restroom soon to fill up, but I can't risk getting cornered.
Exusiai and Executor were nowhere to be seen either which meant they wouldn't be able to see him do well. If Exusiai and Executor couldn't keep up, that probably also meant he had lost Texas and Croissant which gave him the courage to seek out a restroom to refill his water gun.
He quickly barged into the nearest restroom and looked under every stall to make sure it was empty before heading over to the sink and turning the gun over and pulling open a slot on the bottom of the grip. The slot revealed a small twisting cap that covered the reservoir where he could put in more water. Eddron kept looking at the door while running the sink over his water gun, not enjoying the peace that allowed him to listen to the faint echo in the restroom.
When he was done, he headed over to the door and waited for a moment before opening it and pointing his water gun outside. There was no one there and a quick peek to his left and right revealed nobody either. Feeling safe, he left the restroom and continued down the hall.
He moved as silently as possible. His progress was slow, but he couldn't even hear his footsteps with how careful he was.
I've made it through two encounters so far... I can't mess up now. But if I'm too slow, they could catch up again.
Eddron stuck close to the right side wall and picked up the pace. He didn't get to go far when someone came around the corner.
It was Sora. Because of how close Eddron was to the wall, he was able to see her first and get his water gun aimed at her before she could raise hers up.
Sora gasped. “Uh oh...”
Eddron had his finger on the trigger and easily could've taken the shot. However, he paused. While Sora didn't play the helpless victim act, she was just too cute for Eddron to shoot. It didn't help that he had a few of her songs in his playlist.
“Not gonna take the shot?” Sora asked.
“Well... I'm a big fan,” Eddron said, letting off a light laugh.
“You are?” Sora asked.
Eddron nodded. “Always have been.”
Sora's eyes kept looking past Eddron, before he could turn around, she opened her mouth.
“You were always behind him?” Sora asked.
“Always have been,” Texas' voice answered.
Eddron gasped and turned around to see Texas. Before he could raise his water gun, Texas took hold of his wrist with her free hand while her water gun pointed right at Eddron's gut splashed water on his shirt.
Damn she's good!
“You totally knew he was going to lower his guard with him focusing on me! You weren't gonna let him shoot me, right, Tex?” Sora asked with a great big smile on her face.
Texas nodded. “Yeah.”
“I didn't even see or hear you following me. And I was looking for you!” Eddron said.
“When you're in our line of work, discretion is very important,” Texas said.
“Not gonna lie, the way you executed me was pretty badass,” Eddron said.
“I simply made sure you wouldn't be able to shoot back while I shot you,” Texas said dismissively.
Damn, she's like, super duper badass; she even has the badass humility.
“Is it over?!” Exusiai's voice called from down the hall.
Exusiai and Executor quickly arrived to join the group, both of them looking slightly disappointed to see the wet stain on Eddron's shirt.
“Aww, it's a shame you couldn't make it to five, but two is pretty good!” Exusiai said.
Executor nodded. “You managed to exhibit some of the lessons I instilled in you. That was quite satisfactory.”
Coming from a robot, I'll say that's a great compliment.
“Wait, let's say it was three encounters. He could've taken the shot on Sora but didn't,” Texas said.
Eddron awkwardly laughed. “I gotta a little starstruck I guess.”
“That could prove fatal on the battlefield,” Executor warned.
Exusiai shrugged. “Well if you do catch a glimpse of a pop idol among Reunion, send me a pic will ya? But if Eddron made it to three, that's pretty good for the first run. We could do this again if you want.”
“Sure. But where's Croissant?” Eddron asked.
“I dunno,” Exusiai answered. “She's probably catching her breath or lost somewhere. I'll send her a text to let her know we're going for another round.”
Eddron nodded. “Alright.”
“You have another thirty minutes to get a head start on the hunters,” Exusiai said as she pulled out her phone.
3:54 PM
Training Facility
Andrea and her squad were waiting outside the training facility door. She was next to Nozomi who looked like she was on top of the world.
During the trip from the cafeteria to the training facility, Nozomi always stayed ahead of the column and asked lots of questions about everyone. It almost seemed like the leadership was starting to get to her head. Although, her questions about everyone pertained to preferences and other mundane topics which gave Andrea the impression she just wanted to get to know her squad better now that she was captain.
It had been a few minutes since the buzzer inside rang which signalled the end of a training exercise. The lack of a buzzer after the first and the time being so close to 4:00 meant that the squad training before was probably wrapping up and getting ready to make way for D5.
As expected, Dobermann stepped out of the doors and looked over to everyone waiting.
Nozomi bowed her head. “Drill Instructor Dobermann, we're here for our training.”
“At ease, Nozomi,” Dobermann called.
“Drill Instructor Dobermann, over lunch, we finally voted on who should be leader. I will be the one leading Reserve Op Team D5,” Nozomi declared.
Dobermann looked at the rest of the squad. “Is this decision unanimous?”
“In the sense that we agreed to respect the results of the vote,” Thorax said sarcastically.
Dobermann sighed. “In any other circumstance, I'd have you all go back and think really hard about it, but we're pressed for time. Command wants your squad ready to help out with the refugees immediately because of Coral's ability to speak Ursine.”
Andrea could see the rest of the her squad was actually very excited to go on their first mission. It seemed so sudden to her though. She had heard from Gelly that it took her squad weeks and months of training before they were finally sent into Chernobog while D5 wasn't even a week in. Gelly's squad was probably just as excited for their first mission back then as well which sent a shiver down Andrea's spine as she began to wonder what sobering experience they'd face out on the field.
“What will we be doing?” Nozomi asked.
“You will help distribute supplies to refugees and help them keep moving away from Chernobog. You will be attached to an elite squad to ensure your safety and any questions you have can be answered by them.”
“That sounds great, we're actually helping people instead of fighting,” Lucid said.
“You think the kids will like seeing me pop off a few rounds of my big boom gun?” Powder asked.
“You talk about your grenade launcher so much you might as well marry it,” Gale said.
“Well I tie my hair to it's stock. We're joined by the hair instead of the hip!” Powder joked.
“So who's the elite squad we're working with?” Thorax asked.
“That will be decided at a later time,” Dobermann said.
Nozomi held up her finger and pointed it as high as she could. “As captain, I will make sure this squad performs to your expectations, Drill Instructor Dobermann. Believe it!”
Andrea smiled at Nozomi's determination.
At least the one Gelly wanted is leading us.
She couldn't help but shake the feeling of going on their first mission. It didn't help that she wasn't just worrying about the baptism of reality they were going to go through on that mission, but also about what Gelly was going to think.
Yesterday she straight up told her that she didn't think Andrea should've been an Operator. It was hurtful, but she could tell that she cared deeply for her. As much as she wanted to take on a cause and fight for what she believed in, she also didn't want to hurt her by making her worry. But she couldn't stop, not after hearing they'd be helping the refugees of the city she once called home find safety. It wasn't just about her or Gelly, it was about all the people Rhodes Island could help. She needed to do this.

This guide was developed with help from: ʚ༺Helen༻ɞ
Please keep in mind that this guide is geared towards beginners and is a “general” guide. It is not meant to be a specialist guide on how to build for certain situations or guild boss raids.
In the beginning you will start getting grey or clear halidoms from shielded mine. From there you will slowly progress up to green, then blue, purple, and finally orange. As you progress, don’t worry about investing into grey or green halidoms. Additionally, halidoms below purple will only drop either health or attack upgradable bonuses. I will refer to these as secondary stats from here on out.
It is my recommendation that you do not invest past lvl 4 for blue halidoms. While you will get 100% back from what you invest into them, your materials for upgrades are rare, and you really want to make sure you have some around when you start getting purple and oranges. While you could dismantle blues to get the materials back, getting purple and orange halidoms from mines is a rarity. I typically only get from 2-6 a week from mines. Your mileage may vary. Because of this you will still need to keep your blues around since halidoms are so rare in mines.
One important thing to note is that the secondary bonuses on higher tier halidoms upgrade further. What I mean by this is that a blue will typically upgrade .8% per level where as a orange will upgrade at 1.2% per lvl. Aka you get more bang for you buck investing in higher tier halidoms.
Lastly, while the game UI reports that you will get roughly 80% of your investment back from an upgraded halidom, you will actually get 100%. I’m not sure if this is an intended bug or not, but I recommend that junk halidoms that you’ve invested in be scrapped sooner rather than later in case this gets fixed soon.
That said, my general advice on equipping halidoms on heroes is to try and augment what that hero is good at. So if you have a tank hero, you generally want a set of abyss halidoms with health secondaries. The higher their maximum health, the more health they regen
In terms of early game, always assume you have either blue or purple heroes, which means you either have two or four halidom slots to work with. This encompasses lvl 1-50. Mid game you should hopefully have moved on to a full team of purples or are very close to a full team, which means all 4 slots, so a full set means a 4 set bonus. This encompasses lvl 51-100. Late game you’ve moved on to half to mostly orange units, which means 6 slots. So when I mean a full set, I mean a 6 set bonus. Lvls 100+
Here are some charts to help you understand how progression works:
Max halidom level is current 10. Here is a cost breakdown:
[Halidom Cost]
1->2 = 100d (100d)
2 ->3 = 160d (260d)
3 ->4 = 260d (520d)
4 ->5 = 420d (940d)
5 ->6 = 670d (1610d)
6 ->7 = 1070d (2680d)
7 ->8 = 1710d (4390d)
8 ->9 = 2740d (7130d)
9 ->10 = 4380d (11510d)
-------------------------------------
Total Cost to Max = 11,510d
[Halidom Substat Scale]

1. HP, ATK

+1.2% per level -> 15% max (SS)
+1.0% per level -> 12.5% max (purple)
2) Tenacity, Accuracy
+180 per level -> 2250 max (SS)
+140 per level -> 1750 max (purple)
3) Critical, Dodge
+120 per level -> 1500 max (SS)
+100 per level -> 1250 max (purple)
Charlotte is a great tank and therefore benefits mostly from lots of health.
Early game: Abyss with health secondaries. Mid game: Start moving to a magnetics to offset some of her incoming damage. Focus on health and tenacity. Late game: As damage, especially crit damage ramps up, moving towards a full set of ocean halidoms with health secondaries is a better bet. Additionally, deep wounds will start to pop up more, so being able to heal through healing reduction will be important. Any chance you have of not getting crit will also be important.
Phoebe is a bit of an oddity in that she acts as an off tank with strong crowd control capabilities. As such she doesn’t do a lot damage, but she also doesn’t have strong healing like most tanks do. What she does have is some damage immunity. So we are going to stack up on that
Early game: Either a full set of abyss or magnetics. Midgame:Mix and match abyss and magnetics (aka 2 abyss +4 magnetics, or vice versa depending on what you have) Late game: Full magnetic set. (health and tenacity secondaries)
Side note: You don’t have to worry as much about accuracy with Phoebe, because currently you can only miss damage. So even if there is high dodge unit in the opposing team, you can still land stuns. Incidentally, aoe is also a decent counter to someone like rapha because aoe hits typically aren’t very high damage and because they also hit the whole team, thus removing healing prayer if its out and clearing the way for someone like Poll to one shot someone. Therefore, accuracy may be warranted for that use case.
Poll is one of the strongest offensive units in the game at present. His skillset also heavily relies on crit damage because it means he gets “free” followup hits.
Early game: 4 corals with attack. Midgame: Mix and match corals and twilight (aka 4 corals + 2 twilight). I recommend all attack secondaries, or a few that boost crit chance. Late game: Dodge becomes an issue very quickly. You may have to supplement some of your secondaries with accuracy to still get hits. But otherwise the sets stay the same.
Sidenote: a 4 abyss set is interesting here situationaly. Poll does a lot of damage, so being able to spread heals around might be helpful in certain situations where sustain is more important than raw damage. Admittedly those situations are rare given the 30 round limit, but something to think about.
Samuel is a versatile support hero with changing roles as you get later and later into the game. Early game he’s great because he buffs your damage heroes, he removes cc effects (which there are a lot of due to phoebe’s ubiquity), and he has heal. A lot of uses see him as a Poll trap early, meaning he is poll’s first target due to his low health. Therefore, he needs some counter to deal with that, which is dodge. Late game however, he transitions out of that role and more into an extra healer to help rapha out in clutch situations. Phoebes aren’t used as much because stuns aren’t important given there are now a lot of Sams around
Early Game: Magnetics or abyss with attack or health secondaries. Mid game: Start trying to transition to limbos as soon as you can. The 4 set bonus is extremely powerful here and very useful for staying alive. Dodge secondaries are also really nice on top of that bonus. If you can’t get dodge, look for tenacity (due to Poll being common) or attack (for better heals). Late game: If dodge is no longer useful for you because people are starting to equip high accuracy builds, move to high crit and damage builds (corals and twilights) to get really good heals.
Garuda is an interesting healer in that she herself isn’t really doing the healing. She gives out blood sucking buffs which then require that hero to heal based on their attacks. This makes her a poor healer in team comps that are light on raw dps and instead do damage through dots. It also means setting her up for high attack doesn’t really help her heals either.
Early Game: Abyss or magnetics. Midgame: Move to limbos as soon as you can, set her up just like Sam, aka high dodge. late game: because her heals aren’t focused on her damage output, focus on oceans or magnets with health or tenacity.
Harpe is strong damage over time or DOT hero, not only through his skills, but through his exclusive weapons as well. Also, because his off hand exclusive puts dots on the enemy team as they kill your team, it is extremely important that harpe is the last to die. Interestingly, he also has really good base stats given his role. He has high health and high defense. Early game you aren’t going to have his off hand yet, so he can play as an off tank in slot two. He doesn’t do high crit damage, so that’s not important to focus on.
Early game: Mix and match abyss and twilight with health and attack Midgame: Same as above: Lategame: No change.
A-Zhao, has a very interesting kit that works well in some situations and terrible in others. Her skills focus on target kills and crit damage, therefore her build will be very similar to Polls. She does great damage early game, and given her damage immunity can easily carry you through some tough battles since she can’t be killed for a turn. However, as you start to progress in the game and get better damage units like Poll, she tends to drop off in usability very quickly. Thankfully late game she redeems herself at her first awaken level where she gets a self heal on the middle skill, and her exclusive weapon adds tearing damage.
Early game: either full set of corals, or full set of twilights, or mix them in two set bonuses Focus on attack secondaries. Midgame:no changes here, and she should only be used if you don’t have something better. Late game: same setup as poll. Attack, Crit and Accuracy secondaries. I don’t recommend going a full set of corals, because the accuracy on a set two set of twilights is really important.
Drefyus is another oddball in that he’s billed as an attacker, but is really a tank. He has a skill that forces enemies to target him before anyone else on your team. Therefore, he’s going to get hit a lot. However, he doesn’t have the same type of survivability skills that a tank like Charlotte does, or even Phoebe. So to achieve that survivability, he’s going to need a lot of dodge to function. (also paring him with Mist or another good Fallen camp hero will be important for that dodge camp bonus)
Early game: Unless you don’t have a better dps unit, I suggest you sideline him for the time being. Given his taunt, he’s going to end up dead a lot, and that means he’s not doing damage. Mid game: when you start getting your limbos, put them on him ASAP, and laugh as people try to hit him and he dishes back dps. late game: he still needs a lot of dodge, but he’s going to be potentially facing accuracy builds. Swap between limbos, and magnets/oceans as the situation demands.
Gilbert is another glass cannon build like poll, but with the weirdness that he goes to sleep for a bit after he does damage. This means he’s more of a burst damage hero rather than a constant dps heroes like poll.
Early game: Same as Poll and azhao, you want to max damage and cirt, so corals and twilights with attack. Midgame and late game: No real changes here.
Nymeria is a high dodge tank even though she’s billed as an assassin. She doesn’t have the same taunt as dreyfus, but she has a lot of built in dodge, which means even late game, she will still be hard to hit because of how stacking works. Also, because she has built in dodge, she’s usable a bit earlier than someone like drefyus, but the builds are pretty similiar.
Early game: Abyss or magnetics. Mid game: when you start getting your limbos, put them on her ASAP. late game:s he still needs a lot of dodge, but she’s going to be potentially facing accuracy builds. Swap between limbos, and magnets/oceans as the situation demands.
Wassily is a great AOE dps unit with the side benefit that when he crits he inflicts deep wounds which blocks healing. Therefore, that makes him a great counter to Raphael comps. Because of his skillset you want to focus on crit all the way to ensure he’s passing that heal block out as much as possible.
Early game: Corals with attack all the way. midgame: A mix of corals with attack and crit. late game. 4 corals and 2 twilights again, need to start manage dodge builds, so high crit with accuracy and attack secondaries.
Kratos is nothing special, but he is a bit of a mix of AOE DPS and heal block, just not as effectively as Wassily.
Early game: Corals with attack all the way. midgameA mix of corals with attack and crit. late game: 4 corals and 2 twilights again, need to start manage dodge builds, so high crit with accuracy and attack secondaries.
Raphael. Ah yes, the elephant in the room… Rapha is hands down the best healer in the game, especially when you are facing Polls and Gilberts because his healing prayers buff heals based off incoming damage. Getting hit from someone like Poll is basically a full heal for your lowest health unit. Healing prayer also can’t be blocked by CC because it’s a passive effect, meaning that it happens regardless of if Rapha is stunned. On top of this, he also dishes heals based on his max health.
Early game: abyss set with health secondaries. Mid game: Limobs with health secondaries. A dead healer ain’t healing no one. Late game: Same as a typical tank build, but with a focus on maximizing total health
Side note: because of the way rapha works, he can also be a main line tank or an off tank depending on what your team make up is.
In conclusion, you should now have a basic idea how to equip halis to your heroes. I didn’t mention every hero because a lot of the early heros don’t stick around long enough to matter. Of the mid range heros like Christina, their builds are also similar to other units, like Poll. What you're really trying to do is just max out a given hero’s skill set to make the best use of their role. That means you have to read their skills!
Hope you enjoyed this guide. If you have any questions, the Official Discord or Official Facebook group are great places to start!