[Hard to handle? Then don't handle any.]
[Wrong—handle them all.]
[What the Pyro Archon means simply is—I'll step in.]
[When's the Pyro Archon banner coming? I wanna pull right now.]
[Probably a long time; at least wait till Xilonen, Chasca, and Mavuika's banners, then the Pyro Archon can have his.]
[If someone cuts in midway, the Pyro Archon's banner might get pushed back even more.]
[Actually, releasing later's fine too—can stockpile more Primogems for him.]
[But I can't hold back my pulling urges; every new 5-star I wanna pull, new 4-stars too—if the Pyro Archon comes late, my Primogems will all be spent.]
[Then that's on you (confirmed).jpg]
[No worries, just wait for rerun.]
[No worries, just whale.]
[Use salary to buy joy!]
The mini-game in Arknights mode wasn't very hard; Mu Yang cleared it all easily.
Ding!
Five hundred Primogems received!
Though no such sound actually played, Mu Yang's mind produced the hallucination, and he felt like it was heavenly music.
Just play a few mini-games and earn five hundred Primogems—the meaning of the journey came rushing back.
"Whether it's arranging defensive facilities or combat personnel, you've done great."
"But the real battlefield is intricate and complex, so in the end, we'll use a complex scenario to simulate the battlefield."
"This time, you'll face off against Mavuika."
Rios said.
"Gonna battle Mavuika?" Paimon asked.
"You've got it wrong... more accurately, it's playing chess?" Mavuika said with a smile.
The screen for the third mini-game appeared.
In a scenario with cover objects and high-low terrain, the Traveler could control Natlan characters to battle against the Abyss monsters controlled by Mavuika.
"Girls' Frontline?!"
Anyone who'd played that game immediately thought of its gameplay upon seeing the third event's UI.
And, just like before, players could use not just ordinary Natlan NPCs, but even banner characters.
Even characters not yet released could be used together.
"So, Xilonen's a Geo resistance shredder support, Chasca can fly up and hit people, and Mavuika does motorcycle circles?"
Mu Yang had already seen these characters' skill mechanics while playing the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame.
But back then, he figured that when the characters released, Genshin would only use part of them.
Just like Childe and the Servant in weekly bosses—once in players' hands, they'd change.
The Natlan characters in event quests would definitely differ when pulled from banners.
But now seeing the Natlan characters in the mini-game still attacking that way, Mu Yang increasingly felt that post-release, they'd probably keep these attack modules.
After all, already-released ones like Kinich had output modes in the event mini-game pretty much matching what players had in-hand; the others were likely the same.
[Besides ones who've appeared in main story, even unappeared ones are here.]
[Ororon, Varesa, Ifa, Citlali... so there are these four characters later on.]
[Now that's Mihoyo spoiling—straight-up leaked the next few versions' characters and rough mechanics.]
[Didn't someone earlier say to plan Primogems? Now Natlan characters are all leaked—you can plan properly.]
[Xilonen, must-pull. Mavuika, must-pull. Citlali, still must-pull.]
[TL;DR: I want them all.]
[Iansan's also an ATK buffer for teammates?]
[Brave set 40% DMG Bonus plus ATK buff—Bennett's era's finally ending.]
[Not so sure; Bennett's ATK buff's still fierce—Iansa takes up Brave set slot, so her ATK buff might only be half of Bennett's.]
[Half's too little; at most a third less.]
[Speaking of, why no Pyro Archon?]
[Definitely miHoYo holding back.]
[miHoYo does sales predictions for each major version's characters. Ones predicted low sales get C-tier, decent get S.]
[Pyro Archon as one of the Seven, definitely top sales tier, so hide him to keep the mystery.]
[Maybe they haven't made him at all?]
[Impossible.]
[Look at Varesa, Ifa, Citlali—these unappeared characters are already done; you think the Pyro Archon's not?]
Hey, they really haven't.
Rios still hadn't designed his own mechanics by now, so naturally players didn't know how he'd perform on banner.
Forget players—even miHoYo might only know a few minutes ahead.
"We're gonna compete at chess with Mavuika this time?" Paimon looked at the board, finger hooked under her chin, thoughtful.
"I deal with Abyss monsters a lot; I understand their behavior patterns deeply, so I'm best suited to control the Abyss monsters."
Mavuika said with a smile: "Of course, if the Traveler's up for it, we can switch."
Lumine shook her head: "Nah."
She had zero interest in controlling the blood dogs.
The game's specific gameplay was pretty much like Girls' Frontline.
Both sides controlled their own pieces to attack each other until all the opponent's pieces were eliminated.
The Natlan pieces Lumine controlled had high combat power but low numbers and thin health bars.
The Abyss monsters Mavuika controlled were the total opposite: low attack power, but huge numbers and super tanky.
At the start, Lumine even lost a few rounds, her controlled characters all wiped by the Abyss monsters.
But later, after fully getting the hang of it, Lumine used her pieces to counter-kill the opponent; no matter how many times after that, the Abyss monsters were the losers.
"Traveler, your learning ability is strong—you mastered the game's mechanics quick." Mavuika praised the Traveler. "But what we're playing isn't just a game; it's simulating real combat."
"In actual combat, the Abyss numbers won't be that few; now we'll simulate the Abyss's numbers."
With that, Mavuika added dozens of pieces to it.
"What?!"
[What?!]
[Not this—from a dozen enemies to over two hundred?!]
[This number inflation's way too fast.]
[Was power creep before, now it's quantity creep?]
Upon seeing the enemies they had to face next, the players' hearts all jolted in shock.
The number of monsters was just way too massive!
[Suddenly get how tough it is for Natlan folks.]
[Just a few people fighting that many Abyss monsters—who wouldn't despair?]