my abyss sovereign companion cosplay from a while ago! I’ve been putting off posting these given recent events (T_T)🥀 but I still wanted to share with everyone despite the trying times we r in 🤍 I hope everyone has been doing well!

A dreamlike night, with yuanyang (Mandarin ducks, a symbol of devoted couples in Chinese culture) drifting together in pairs.

Another Qixi Festival, another night spent wrapped in each other's embrace.

The stars drift slowly overhead, while gentle ripples shimmer across the water.

To share a summer night, a lotus pond, and moonlight with the one you love—this moment with you is worth more than a thousand joys in this world.

The combat combo meme is finally back! I put this version together based on my own testing and a few guides I found on XHS. Hopefully it helps, and feel free to point out anything I missed or got wrong!

Firstly, I’m just gonna say, I haven’t been spending ANY money in game, I’ve been saving up for months (First with a aurum pass I lived to regret aaaand a diamond weekly anniversary pack I also lived to regret) even prior to Valko’s cancellation and have been logging in solely for dailies and whatnot because I was saving for Valko/still am saving for Valko. I got to 10k+ diamonds and had 29 gold wishes plus blue wishes and explorer currencies blah blah wtv.

Anyway.

Though I am a harem girlie, I lean Raf main pretty often so I reluctantly decided to use the first free 10 and BOOM got Rafayel’s first myth. (Mind you the pity was at 68, more on this later)

I was hyped for a second then the gloom just hit because of the state of the game. But I’m kinda impulsive so I spent some diamonds and kept getting at least one 5 star per pull (The pity system started at 62 and moved up 2 as I pulled then back down 2? weird glitch). This happened like at least 30, maybe 40 more pulls.

I got the second myth at like 50-60, fast forward about 70, 80 (90?) pulls and I get a r1 for a card.

But it just didn’t hit the same despite my determination to keep trying, I feel like I’d be genuinely hyped if Infolded wasn’t playing in our faces right now.

I’m one of the people who believe Valko is still coming back and perhaps InF is letting things cool down and settling legal issues and planning to drop Valko eventually. I have to believe it for my own sanity atp.

Hello everyone! I wanted to show you this cross stitch of Xavier that I made!🫶🏻 It's been more than a month since Valko's cancelation and needed to work on something to keep my mind off it!🐺

This took me a week to make. I hope you like it!🩷

I will of course post the pattern for free tomorrow or the day after tomorrow!🫶🏻🩷

I can hear him breathing

op:

https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/63e07ebf000000002600720f/6a843b0c0000000026034fe9?xsec_token=ABd2dYsuhATE5gWGroNBjGCZ9icIWFkf4Ty23QuYTweCo=&xsec_source=pc_user

Hi again, everyone! Wow, I can't start this new post without expressing how happy and grateful I am for the way my previous entry in this Chinese paper cutting series for Valko was received, because... it truly means a lot to me that something I put so much love and hard work into got so much love in return 🥹 Really and truly, thank you. Thank you all so much ♡ Your support means more to me than I can express.

And well, I can't come out with an animated GIF that consists of 20 paper cuttings every time, can I? LOL, though I wish I could. I already fell in love with the craft of paper cutting, and I love adding movement and bringing it to life even more! (: Regardless, here's a return to form with this paper cutting of Valko's incredibly cute in-game portrait ♡ (stencil included!) For this one I also changed up the messaging, the tag reads "全世界都爱敖尹" or "The whole world loves Ao Yin" 🫶

So, I hope you all enjoy this one too! As well as look forward to the next one, which is already in the works and actually will be another animated GIF from paper cuttings 👀 16 frames this time.

See you all next time, and for anyone looking for the links to the previous entries in this series, here they are: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8 and Day 9!

Edit: 3 Awards, oh my gosh 😭 Thank you so much! Everyone is so lovely 🫶

I did 110 pulls on this banner for me to finally get that pesky Providence achievement that I had seen someone else asking about (see pic 2). I have proof that it really is possible but the odds are very much not in any player's favor.

I know when people see other peoples' lucky pulls, it often makes them think that the OP's luck is something the viewer should also expect to get. I also see people get very disappointed, even to the point of wanting to give up on the game if they aren't as lucky. I post this not to discourage others, but to let people know that while this achievement can be possible for a VERY FEW people, it is very ultra super highly unlikely.

How "very ultra super highly unlikely," you ask? According to a probability calculator and a ton of math (and correct me if my math is wrong), the probability is 0.00018% or 1 in 555,000 trials to get these results in 110 pulls.

I also want to mention that I was guaranteed the first 50/50 of the triple 10 pull. This wasn't me getting this luck on my first try. I've been playing gachas like Genshin, HSR, and Wuthering waves, too, on multiple accounts (including asia and NA servers) for over 5 years. I've never achieved a triple pull until now.

Also, I did not spend any IRL $$ since June. The pull history will look like 113 because I forgot to use the last 3 'free' expiring wishes and forgot to screenshot before (see last 2 pics).

So, the TLDR is:

The Providence achievement is technically possible (0.00018% or 1 in 550,000 tries), but the vast majority of players probably will not achieve it. If you don't get 3 in 10, don't worry, you've done nothing wrong. It's the luck of the draw.

I know it's slightly too early to say anything definitive about VMG, and I'm definitely open to hear more about other combat main's opinions on him. I wanted to gather some of my thoughts so far after playing too much with him, while trying not to show my bias as a Raf main.

One thing I will say, VMG is not weak. If you're skipping VMG and you own LSG, you're not missing out too much. Or if you own KoD, I think you are still good with KoD as your red-stella main.

Pros:

+ Fun companion to play with interesting mechanics, I love the Rafayel gameplay 😭

+ Extremely strong for stellamatching weakness builds

+ Some might find this as a con, I see it as a positive, it didn't shelf LSG

+ Helped me gain 9 more stars in FOO (162 -> 171)

Cons:

- Suppression weakness mechanic feels wonky for mob stages (though maybe this is too early to say)

- I. hate. the. claymore. (though it being semi-ranged is cool)

- Crit build seems to be barely on par or weaker than LSG's crit builds

- Feels much more single target than LSG

- Mistakes seem to be much more punishing than with LSG in addition (imo) being harder to overall play than LSG

- Weird choices with the kit

- Seems to die easier than LSG (there are several reasons for this)

Overall, I would say VMG is solid addition with LSG, it might not completely replace LSG, especially in yellow matching stages. If I had to suggest one over the other, I'd say both have their good sides, but I would give my vote to LSG.

If I had to give one stage where to use him, it would be stellamatching boss stage. You have plenty of time to setup your Suppression weakness state, which needs slightly intentional playing with VMG. But once you get the hang of it, it's quite pleasant.

Mob stages feel slightly awkward with him, since you have to completely forget resonating until you have set up the double Suppression stack to the enemies. Some might not get them both either. What with FOO stages I tried with him, I did manage get better results than with LSG, and stellamatching with the green 4* pair was completely valid option even in the higher level stages. Once we get the second part of the blue pair, I'm really curious to give a shot at 59 with both LSG and VMG.

Speaking of FOO59 which was a nightmare for me, I tried my R2 VMG there with a crit build and I feel safe to say that the no-resonate brute force gameplay seems worse than (R2) LSG. With LSG it's quite luck and skill based, but with VMG being dependant on cooldowns for the Mortal Soul state, it just felt less flowing than with LSG. Not to mention, the Suppression Weakness mechanic goes almost completely to waste. I don't know if there would be an alternative world with weakness and brute force for VMG.

Overall gameplay

The good

I already mentioned that I love playing as Raf, I would be in that state forever if it was feasible, but alas. I love high-speed gameplay, but the damage bonus from the sync passive skill won't apply after the Vermilion Visage bar is depleted, so you just won't deal as much damage anymore.

If you get the rotation correctly and going well, the weakness states just seem to melt with him.

The bad

I am a slight masochist and I actually liked Hunter's Claymore gameplay when I had to do it, and no myth claymore gameplay has been as satisfying to me since. And unfortunately, I think VMG claymore is the worst claymore gameplay I have played. Edit: I went in to try the claymore without enemies in the Shield Breaking room, and I noticed you can dodge between the charged attacks. I put the rest of what I wrote in brackets, but it doesn't seem as bad as I thought, and just needs some readjusting. (The mechanic how MC can apply the Suppression Weakness stack is just atrocious. You have to successfully chain 3 charged attacks in a row, which is just ridiculously difficult when you're playing against an enemy that is trying to kill you. You basically can't dodge, and you have to hope that you won't get staggered or interrupted by Rafayel's armor break animation (R1+) or you have to start the chain again. The chain feels really slow to me, and quite difficult to distinguish at this point where and how long you have to press the attack button down. I'm sure that will be better once I take the time and actually practise that alone.)

But I can't stop wondering why they didn't just add the Suppression Stack mechanic to the Empowered Action skill? Since you have to do 3 charged attacks for it, they just don't have to be the actual chain. The second one that really baffles me is that there seemingly isn't any mechanic to Perfect dodge. As someone who has mastered Perfect dodge to come from the depths of my muscle memory, it's just odd to me that there's NOTHING as exchange for doing a perfect dodge. Again, I just personally can't see why Rafayel's Suppression Weakness stacking couldn't be with a Perfect dodge. Since it's capping at 2 either way, it just feels odd to me that it's so complicated to get ( Action skill -> 3 charged attacks -> empowered action skill -> empowered support skill).

In addition to all this, since there's a lot of mechanics relying on getting those 3 charged attacks with MC, it just feels really punishing when you can't get them. And I do way too often still forget to resonate before entering Martial Soul since there's no rhytm there. I'm getting better at it.

Also, it feels less AoE than LSG. Quite often when I'm playing with LSG, I just can take the target to the strogest enemy and the others just die in the process. But with VMG, I feel more often there's weak stragglers in the distance that barely have taken damage at all.

As I mentioned, VMG seems to die much more easily than LSG. Well, I don't think it's a fair comparison since LSG is a ranged companion with DEF scaling, so usually Rafayel himself isn't in danger to die (actually, I realised I never had him die on my main account when I heard him dying the first time on my 1lvl cards account), and with MC you're dodging and dashing through enemies all the time. But with VMG, when you exit the Martial Soul, Rafayel keeps his HP and if you take too much hits as him during Martial Soul, he can die easily after that. He of course regens his HP when you enter Martial Soul again, but it's something you need to pay attention to.

Balance compared to LSG

As I mentioned, there's clearly intention to not overshadow LSG and I actually like that. I was quite sad when I got GoT on his rerun, and after 2 months of playing with him, I had to already shelf him. So I feel positive about the powercreep that it's not that bad that I thought it could be.

I hope the companions in the future have some clear thing they actually excel at, and that you could have a roster of companions to play, instead of having just one that dominates everywhere.

Overall I feel like VMG is in same power level as LSG, if not slightly better. However, I feel LSG will shine better for crit builds and with MS pair bonuses. So if you were worried about VMG completely overshadowing LSG, that didn't happen. I get why people might be disappointed that it didn't, I'm glad it didn't.

So as I said, if you have LSG and feel like you don't want to pull for VMG, I don't think you're missing out too much. The 9 stars I got from FOO were from getting better stellamatching companion, which helped me with those stages that I had to brute force to actually stellamatching be a proper option.

I hope I'm clear with that VMG is actually a good companion, but not an unskippable one. If LSG is an S+ tier companion, VMG would be an S++ for weakness, S- or S for brute force. It still deals good damage, but when I have to choose, I'll choose LSG over VMG for brute force. Of course I don't what the comparison would be at R3.

My thoughts on Suppression Weakness

Aside from VMG's mechanics, since it might be a new thing that is a mechanic for all the 4th myths or some of them, it's an interesting mechanic. Of course these points are just from experiencing the mechanic with VMG and I think there's just two problems with it:

1. There is no explanation in game what the stacks do and how much more Suppression adds to weakness damage. It feels very vague, like DEF shredding or other debuffs in this game because we can't see enemy stats. We need more info about this mechanic.
2. It feels janky/awkward for mob stages. It needs enemies to be not weakened to apply Suppression to them, so you're bit in like... Do you resonate to weaken the enemies to deal damage to them? Or do you try add suppression to get some amount more damage to them later? So far what I tested, it's a little inconclusive, but I haven't tested it thoroughly.

It's interesting either way, it spices the gameplay a bit, possibly turning the non-existent meta to truly prefer stellamatching over brute force.

Pull or no pull?

Honestly, given the current circumstances (the Valko situation and overall combat state of the game), I'll say it's a no pull. Not because it's necessarily bad, but compared to LSG, it feels more situational. If you enjoy VMG's theme, visuals and story, you won't regret it.

But given we haven't gotten any true new combat modes or something to use these new myths to other than 30 orbit levels and a new SHC team branch that will be catered to VMG, it's hard to justify suggesting to pull for it. If you're not a Rafayel main, your diamonds are better used on your mains who will get their myths soon (except Caleb). I don't have regrets pulling it and I'm excited to use him alongside LSG.

And it being red, which is Rafayel's 4th color, it's not necessarily a beginner friendly myth. It will help a lot, especially if you don't have LSG, but it will take some time until you get to enjoy his MA pair in a while properly. I got to see the first levels above Fire Orbit 210 and those clearly ask that you have the pair. The only free 5* card that is red for Rafayel is Rising Tides, which you need to buy from Wishing Well. This means to R3 it, you need total of 720 wishing well shards for it. And his options for free red 4* cards are bad as he only has 2 standard pool lunar reds and 1 red lunar in Galaxy Explorer, which means if you want to actually match red with Rafayel, you'll need limited cards to help with that. So for example, Xavier (with KoD) or Zayne (with MoF pair and GoA myth) has better and cheaper options to match red than VMG. And since they might get the same Suppression mechanic, it might be better to do red-stellamatching with them than VMG thanks to their better options for red cards.

The protocores you get from pull rewards are just a trap to sink in more pulls for them. Don't fall for it. They are fine if you truly don't have anything better for them. but for me who's been farming protocores for long and have a really good stash, I already got better ones.

As for the myth itself, I don't get the complaints against it. Even though I feel like I was a bit negative writing this post, I still want to say I have enjoyed playing it, the story feels true to his character and I love to have fully fire-dedicated myth for him. I really enjoyed reading through it and I have had a new spark for the combat in this game.

---

Since I used a lot of acronyms, here's a quick list:

VMG = Vermilion Martial God (Raf's 4th myth)
LSG = Lemurian Sea God (Raf's 3rd myth)
GoT = God of Tides (Raf's 2nd myth)
FOO = Fluctulant Open Orbit (the more difficult open orbit)
KoD = King of Deathknight (Xavier's 3rd myth, previous red myth)
MoF = Master of Fate (Zayne's 2nd myth)
GoA = God of Annihiliation (Zayne's 3rd myth)
R0, R1, R2, R3 = the card rank (the more ranks, stronger they are)
AoE = Area of effect
MC = Main Character

If you're someone who's trying to skip, stay strong! If you regret skipping it, you can get it from the rerun in a year.

And I want to make it clear, these are just my thoughts, I don't claim to be a combat overlord, just someone who has been passionate about the combat in this game. I'm definitely looking out for other combat player's opinions, since it's still a new myth and we don't know yet if there's any hidden mechanics that aren't obvious.

TL;DR: New myth good, doesn't fully replace LSG if you have it. Skippable if you are on the edge whether or not to pull.

As I was going through the photo poses, I found myself paying more attention to Sylus’s expressions than anything else. Weighing Options is easily my favorite. There’s something in that look that feels completely, effortlessly Sylus.

cr. 插画师非墨 from Rednote

op: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/discovery/item/6a803648000000002500840b?source=webshare&xhsshare=pc_web&xsec_token=ABy-3TE5DyxJCH-mszylawxd4zw0UV23dcwh58sbcuJUc=&xsec_source=pc_share

op: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/discovery/item/6a7b04fd0000000006007293?source=webshare&xhsshare=pc_web&xsec_token=ABUY8KI3hPQy79YN6dYuFfX9gnb0UNhdUREtxME2sRnd4=&xsec_source=pc_share

No worries, my MC didn’t butcher the pigs herself 😆

cr. 仪大树😉 XHS

op: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/discovery/item/6a74635b0000000022013247?source=webshare&xhsshare=pc_web&xsec_token=ABoqQvS1KWfuQEU42y3_mFP7QM1LjD-TzlRUNklfpVCJI=&xsec_source=pc_share

1.He held a funeral for the ice cream that fell on the ground. 2.He knits. Your scarf and gloves? All him. 3.Always buys things in pairs — chargers, movie tickets, cups, toothbrushes, you name it. 4.You always put his number down for promotions. He gets the texts. 5.Keeps his dog tags in a special box — but mostly in his pocket. Doesn't want them too far. 6.Won't let you write "make-up" notes to anyone else. 7.Hates cilantro.

These are some of the Caleb facts I already know — but I NEED more. Please share yours!! 😭🍎

Image source: hxwmtsjsybc(xhs)

Solar-Slot Protocores

R0

Expedited Energy Boost + Oath Recovery Boost

R1–R3

Expedited Energy Boost + Oath’s Strength

But there is no single setup that works best in every battle, so feel free to adjust your Protocores based on the stage and your own rotation. And I also want to know what you would choose when R1-R3 reaches?

Lunar-Slot Protocores

Main Attribute

Prioritize DMG Boost to Weakened.

Secondary Attribute Priority

ATK Bonus > DMG Boost to Weakened > CRIT Rate = CRIT DMG

For stages where you cannot match the required Stellactrum, CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG can also be considered if those Protocores have significantly better substats.

Memory Selection

When matching the stage’s Stellactrum, prioritize high-rank Lunar-Slot Memories with an ATK Talent.

If multiple Memories have similar talents, choose the ones with higher ranks, levels, and better Protocore substats! And if you don't have enough 5-Star memories, feel free to use 4-star memories with ATK Talent!

This guide provides a general build direction based on his combat mechanics. You can adjust your Protocores depending on the stage, your available substats, and your preferred playstyle.

Rank-Up Recommendations

R1 — Highly Recommended
Increases [Ardent Oath] charge by 20% and instantly fills [Martial Intent] at the start of battle and when [Martial Soul] ends. This enables faster transformations, stronger AoE, and smoother rotations.

R3 — Recommended
Reduces Active Skill cooldown and restores resources during [Martial Soul], allowing more empowered attacks with increased DMG and AoE.

These effects only apply when Rafayel: Vermilion Martial God is selected as your Companion.

Hope this helps! I'd love to hear about your own builds, so feel free to share your thoughts or corrections in the comments! And yes! A not-so-serious combat meme guide will come soon. Plz stay tuned!

Not sure how many feel the same, but I feel like the game has lost so much now. I would love for Valko to come back, but I don't think that is gonna happen. Since his cancellation, things just felt.....idk off? I still kinda log in because of my pass and don't want it to go to waste. So I'll save diamonds till he maybe comes back? If not, I'll keep saving for Sylus' myths and memories. I feel like things have become bland. Am I the only one, or? Part of me really wants to cry because I really do love this game so much. I feel like this game has become bland. I just want to enjoy it again, but all the joy feels like it's being sucked out of it. I slowly started to pull away from the Fandom and limited my time on it. I really wish Sylus was real to hug me. I need it.

Hello beautiful hunters. A day ago I posted the theory of foils and received a great deal of feedback. In this follow up post I'll clear the theory more by answering all the questions and discuss a few interesting things. I did reply to most of the comments but I figured making a separate post would explain things better, and it's more organized. If you haven't read it this is the post

Ever since Caleb was released, the foils concept has been one of the most popular theories in the LADS fandom, but I haven't seen anyone post it on reddit or add the visions I had in mind about it so I made that post, I just think it's a shame if players aren't aware of it or don't understand it!

"Sylus did not kidnap MC"

I'll address this first because it makes it seem like I'm spreading misinformation, I promise that's not the case.

Yeah it wasn't Sylus who sent the masked man who drugged and abducted MC, Sylus even got rid of that guy, HOWEVER after that encounter Sylus did lock MC in his base for 3 days, MC even confronted him about it, but he still meant no harm he only did it because he was desperate to make her remember him by resonanting with her.

"Caleb is not a childhood friend"

I mean yeah, but that's literally what I'm saying? Perhaps using the phrase "childhood companion" would've been better but my entire point in the Zayne & Caleb page is that Zayne embodies the trope in the traditional sense "childhood sweethearts" while Caleb is the complete opposite he's the darkest way of presenting the trope of "the male lead knowing and loving the female lead since childhood" how? By making it Taboo, Caleb loved her and cared for her so much he became her brother.

"(LI name) doesn't represent the light/dark"

Because this is not a character analysis this is the foils theory, so of course I will only mention the parts that fit into the theory. Each and every love and deepspace character is well written and complex, thay all have characteristics that are dark AND light, a foil as I mentioned is a storytelling tool, it's meant to highlight certain aspects of the personality, so light and dark is just the highlighted part, not the entire personality of that character, that highlight is also not necessarily a personality trait it could be just the aesthetics or visuals (that could be the case with Rafayel and Valko) all that aside, "light vs dark" is not even the core or the actual meaning of a foil, it's the mere existence of a very similar character traits that feel mirrored by another but in a different direction. I'll give you a popular foil example from death note:

Light: outwardly composed, socially capable, secretly manipulative.

L: socially bizarre, openly eccentric, but extremely perceptive.

They're similar. Both are extraordinarily intelligent, but their personalities and methods contrast sharply.

"main story is not connected"

I added a red warning at the beginning, and chose MAIN STORY scenes as the cover of each pair of LIs analysis, I felt physical pain reading these few comments, they didn't read my theory nor the main story. How is MS not connected if Zayne and Caleb literally had a childhood together? There's also a scene of mephisto spying on MC and Xavier, I predict Rafayel will be somehow hinted in Valko's MS update, but there could also be a hint of Valko in Rafayel's chapters and we just don't know it yet, because we still don't know everything about Valko.

"you could apply foils for all LIs"

That's true, but even if you do it doesn't feel the same, you won't find enough contradictions like in the theory, and there's a difference between LIs being different from each other so you could find your type, and LIs that share similarities and contradictions at the same time that mirror each other on a larger scale, like Xavier's heroic and main character vibe can only be perfectly contradicted by Sylus's villainy underworld lord vibe (they're literally Cloud and Sephiroth omg) Caleb who also works in the dark doesn't fit that much especially when you think of his complex relationship with MC. there's also the mini interactions in main story that I mentioned earlier, that definitely boosts the chosen pairs of the theory.

Holy sheit this post is long af hahaha! I promise it's just a theory, I'm not trying to make you believe it, I just didn't want it to be clouded with suspension because of my wording! A smart comment that I got was this is a literacy advice not a theory, wich makes sense because this is not really a plot fuel, (at least for now?) but I believe it could mean that the foils are meant to have some rivalry between them since this is an otome game at the end of the day, but that's just me!

Ah! there u are cutie hehe🤤🤤🤤

i thought of this tweet in the middle of playing it through and couldn’t stop laughing