Singularity Prep Guide
Singularity is where this game starts turning from raifu collector into something that could be called a pretty nice strategy game. As such, prepping for this is pretty key if you're not already a strong player.
Here I'll be going over the new things introduced in Singularity as well as the recommended echelons to fully clear the event. The TL;DR for those echelons if that's all you want is: 2x AR/SMG, 1 RF, 1 MG. It's also highly recommended to get something like Contender or C-MS to bust Typhons. You can use other options, but those are the easiest.
I WILL NOT be going over the bosses in this overview. If you want to see those I have proper writeups for them in their own maps.
The major thing that gets introduced in Singularity is the Military. In 10-4e you get a preview of what fighting the Military can be like, but in Singularity you'll properly fighting them. Since this is an ENTIRELY new faction, they get a slew of new units to go with them. So let's go over each one of them.
Military Units#
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Cyclops#These guys are the generic foot soldiers for the Military. They come in two flavours, SG and AR. They're classified similarly to our T-Dolls, so ARs would be generic damage dealers and SGs would have armour and deal overall less damage. They also have some quirks, ARs come equipped with a grenade launcher, which work similarly to our grenades. SGs have lower range because they're supposed to be tanks. Overall though, nothing too special. |
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Hydra#These are the real killers that the Military commonly deploys. The big thing about these fucks is that they do roughly infinite damage and will end your life. If they get to you. They move slow as fuck and you can kite them a bit if you're careful. The less big thing, but also important to know thing, is that they sport 200-ish armour. Yeah. That much. To put that in perspective, I believe the DD ranking enemies were around 130 armour. So tack on another 70 to that. It's no joke. So you're looking at using MGs or RFs to put these down. You can use either, but RFs are more consistent. To add to that, since EN most likely won't get the AP update before Singularity drops, +FP RFs like Lee Enfield are better to use. +RoF will be losing a fair bit of damage to the armour. |
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Aegis-GA#These are the Military version of the Aegis. They're essentially the same as the SF one. |
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Cerynitis#This is the Military version of Nemeum. Unlike the Aegis, the Cerytus is significantly more threatening than their Sangvis counterpart. They boast an all-around stat boost compared to the Nemeum so they're pretty scary. The best way to deal with them is to just...shoot them until they die. It's the same as dealing with Nemei. Only difference is that you can't cancel their attacks as easily as a Nemeum. |
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Dactyl#Mines. That sums up a Dactyl. These guys are lightly armoured units that will rush you in attempts to lay mines down on your side of the field. They'll run under your T-Doll's feet and pass them entirely to lay even more mines. They won't cause you to lose if they get all the way past all your T-Dolls, so don't worry about that. However, you do have to worry about those mines if they somehow don't die immediately. Which they should. They're really fucking weak. The mines themselves won't do anything unless you step on them. (wow what a concept) If you do step on them, they'll explode dealing damage to whoever stepped on them. I wouldn't worry too much about these guys unless you're trying to use an RF echelon. Then you gotta worry about them due to RF targeting. So...try not to fight them with RFs. ARs and MGs should be able to gun these guys down quite easily. |
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Typhon#The rare fuck your shit up enemy. These are pretty similar to Jupiter Cannons. Except they can move. And usually bring friends. And likes to ignore link protection. It's a bad time if you don't know how to deal with these guys. What do these guys even do? You know Dreamer and her laser? They do that. Constantly. Did I mention they come in packs of 3 so every row gets a nice laser to the face? Yeah. At least they're nice enough to give a charge up time and glow when they're gonna skullfuck a row. They also don't all fire at the same time, so you even have a chance to live. So, how do you deal with these? The easiest solution is actually to run 4 MGs and 1 HG. Or 4 MGs and 1 something else. Weird setups. The main reason for this is to use the MG's burst to clear out all of the friends that the Typhon brings with it and then retreat them. This leaves you with one unit to micro around. Ideally you'll have Contender to do this since she's a HG with armour pen. The HG part is for the movement speed, making it much easier to dodge the lasers. So what you do is after you're down to just the one unit, you need to get up close to the Typhons. About this close:
and yes, specifically in the bottom row as well. Be sure to not be in the front column until you get there, else you won't run up far enough. Once you're there, the Typhons will now forget how to do anything and just sit there until they die. Yup. That easy. Be sure to have something that has enough movement speed to dodge Typhons lasers as WELL as be able to kill them without spending a literal eternity. SMGs should be fast enough, ARs probably can too. So pick your poison if you lack Contender. |
"New" mechanics#
Since Va-11 Hall-A's collab kinda....used most of these, I'll just go over them in brief.
First, we have NPC echelons. Or friendly echelons. Something. They're essentially friend echelons but supplied to you by the game and you don't need to deploy them. A lot of the ones you'll find are super buffed because they're used for something. Not all of them are like this, though. Really depends on the map. You can set them to the three strategy modes that friend echelons abide by. Standby, elimination, or HQ capture. Standby makes them stand still, elimination makes them go after the nearest enemy, and HQ capture makes them rush to the enemy Command Center.
Second, we have aggro ranges. This is really introduced in Chapter 10 as well, but fuck it.
Essentially, if you're in the set of nodes that's within an enemy's aggro radius, it will pursue whatever echelon(s) are in it. Typically it'll go for the closet echelon, but it can vary depending on the enemy. To see an aggro range of an enemy, you can tap and hold on top of an enemy. It'll display its aggro radius. If you're in the aggro radius, you'll mentally hear a MGS alert sound in your head and a "!" will be above the enemy's model on the map like so:
Third, we have Radar Towers. Yes, I know they already exist. But now they have an extra component. Now, depending on the map, you can cause things to happen if you move to them or capture them. These things are typically helpful, like maybe eliminating some enemies, or maybe spawning a friendly echelon to assist you. These are especially obvious when you see them in day maps.
Prepping for story#
So, the specifics for each chapter will be covered in the outlines for each chapter. But if you're expecting a full clear without too much trouble you'll want 2 AR/SMG echelons, 1 RF/HG, and 1 MG/SG echelon. In addition, you'll want something that can deal with Typhons.
This can be something with AP but moves quickly, like Contender or C-MS. You can get creative with this, just as long as it can dodge the Typhon lasers. So...not RFs or MGs. You can try but it typically won't work out. Just be sure whatever you pick does enough damage to something with around ~100 armour.
The MGs are mostly meant for the Typhons, but what about the RFs? These are mostly picked for dealing with Hydras. MGs can have some trouble with them due to mag size, so +FP RFs like Lee Enfield or IWS are good picks versus them. (This does not mean you should only use those two RFs.)
AR/SMG is just there for boss killing and general clearing. You may want to pick up Suomi for some of the bosses in Singularity. The fights go on long enough to get some good value out of her skill. DO NOTE that MP7 gets introduced in this event and she's a strict upgrade from Suomi. It's not a requirement, but it does help you a lot.
Prepping for ranking#
To be added, in the meantime, go bully Ceia: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bVvmRp6rcIvJzA1ct9U2tjsKu_BOAbL7YteNCTGS5sY/edit#heading=h.kkz319gx6pl1
Author: Kazuki
Tags: Singularity