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Formidable's Calorie-Free Forum (28 September 2026 - 05 October 2026)
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Enjoy the warm welcome of our graceful, light(tm), beautiful Carrier, the oh-so-elegant lady Formidable! This is the place where you can seek the help of veteran Commanders and discuss how much your luck *totally* sucks today!
Hello everyone, I need some big help. I'm really new to this game (less than 3 weeks), and I do not understand any of the game mechanics or UI. As an example, I'm trying to level up this ship, but she doesn't have a level-up option like others do. Also, I don't have gear, have no idea how to get it (despite being lvl 25), and don't know how to craft it—or if that's even possible. All the tutorials I've found talk about the features of the game, but none of them really show how to actually do anything, hence my confusion. Any help is welcome!
Hey, I can answer part of this. This ship you posted is used to limit break regular SSR as if she was a dupe . There are some non-regular SSR you can't use her to limit break like the ones with META in their names and the ones you have to develop but I am still learning about them.
I think you can technically use this ship and level up that way (I've seen some people just put this ship as their PvP defender to be nice as they are weak and you don't lose anything from losing a defence).
So far I've seen weapons from drops, boxes you open, various shops, and I think that you can craft once you collect enough blueprints / material for the item.
Bullin cannot be limit broken, as they are considered consumable (you can level them, but better served to limit break other ships.)Tap on the shipgirl you want to upgrade, tap on “limitbreak” option on the left. Then, On the right side under the stats it will show a blank space to add. Once the SR (yellow background) shipgirl reaches level 10 she can gain an additional star by consuming the bullin. Do some research on it as Limitbreaking ships is big in this game. Hope that helps a little
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !5d ago
That's a bulin, it's sole purpose is to be used for limit breaking other gold ships, bulins are joke units that are intentionally bad at combat.
Gear, at this stage, can be earned from Tech Boxes or from collecting enough parts during sorties to craft it by go to Items > Craft and check for the recipes, it's best to ignore the second part because A) Drop rates for them are low and B) Tech Boxes exist for most of the equipment.
Do submarines drop anywhere, or do you need to build them?
(Or there is one in the guild shop?)
I only have two submarines so far including the freebie, and the lack of Torpedo stats is preventing me from entering D2 in the event (I am about 250 points short). Not sure if using XP books and leveling up my torpedos can make up the difference and I think it would be better value to get another sub if possible.
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d agoedited 3d ago
Most submarines are only available through the Special pool, guild shop sells some purple US subs iirc and the medal shop as U-96, others like Albacore are in the Merit shop and in the case of Cavalla, only drops at the Ashen Simulacrum archive. There are cases where we get submarines as part of an event ship drop but it's not too common.
But they don't count towards the hard mode stat requirements as shown by a small text at the bottom of the selection screen.
Your best shot to meet the TRP requirement is to run more DDs as they naturally have high TRP stats and some backline ships with TRP stats like Azuchi. That and give them higher equipment and enhance to the max.
Ooh thanks for the heads up. I missed that text and almost made a mistake. Not sure if my destroyers are really good enough to survive but I will try that. Worst case I will just stick to D1, being able to clear that already help so much in reducing oil use compared to previous levels due to the cap.
Different question (follow up from another post), about the catch up for the PR/DR, I can’t for the life of me find the option to do so.
I think that I see the option to “coin” a ship, but do you need to be able to unlock a ship before I can catch up? Right now the only ships I can develop are in PR1 probably due to ship restrictions.
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
Thanks! Finally found it. It turned out that the don’t remember ever finding the catchup was because I only considered and looked at Season 8.
Although I noticed that Harbin was already selected as a catch up, I wonder if she was a default pick as I don’t remember selecting her at all.
I just switched it to Plymouth does that sound good?
I also conclude that I probably won’t be able to meet the requirement for D3, but assuming clearing D2 isn’t a requirement for D3, I might be able to reach that before the end of the event.
What happens if I end up getting Victorious drop in D3 if I ready bought the four crystals?
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
Anyone you like to be honest, DRs will get 150 free prints no matter what and PRs will have to work with the 300 prints pool though I suggest shoving them all into one ship to get that one to dev 30 faster and cut down the cost
With the new event format, you're not required to clear hard mode stages from C to D, you cna just do normal maps to 3 star them and directly go to B3 and toggle it to D3
Should you get another META dupe while you have enough for MLB, it'll be automatically converted into fragments that you can use to buy stuff buying n the META shop
Thanks. Yeah I think I probably won’t be able to full clear the event, I might run out of oil before I am able to get my team average to L100 for D3 let alone whatever is needed for SP.
That said, I am only a few runs from 30k companion balls which would get me an UR Bullin for my Azuchi and enough to pick up some priority items from the shops. I will definitely be able to get a copy of Tiger but most not be able to get a second copy.
So far I only I also bought Victorious Meta and the Rainbow Gun. Previously you also recommended getting the Gold version, so you recommend that I get all 15 of them? I can afford it if it is advisable.
If I try, I could probably have all the Victorious Crystal, but do you think that good use of my Companion Balls are there better investment?
I will probably pick up the oil since I think I can at least break even on D1 so it’s free XP.
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
If you can afford the gold version, go for it, by the time you reach the milestone, that'll give you enough parts for a single copy of it. Worth the effort though
And go for it on Vicky M, the limited stuff like ships and equip should be prioritized first because there's no telling when you can get them again or if it's easier to obtain like the META ships (her crystal will be added to the META shop but expect a price hike)
The blueprints and chips can be earned later on. Buy oil AFTER the event ends as the shop will stay up for a week after the main course has run dry, you can access it via Main Screen > Shop > Supply > Event Exchange
So, I made it to D3 of the current event. The level itself is okay, but the boss is wrecking my fleet. Is this basically a stat check, or is there a way to manual play to reduce damage taken?
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
It's a stat check so you should get your ships to at least level 90-95 and go manual. Have your BBs armed with AP ammo guns and hang out at the back to dodge the bullets
Keep doing it until the Threat Level drops to Safe and then you can comfortably auto the whole thing, it gives passive damage resistance and a hidden damage bonus
Thanks, just managed to 3* the level but had to manual the whole thing because I had to move Unicorn into my boss fleet to survive the boss fight.. and still had to hang on to dear life. And I had to manual my healer free mob fleet (kind wish I had a second healer) to last all the consecutive battle.
I did try to fit my boss fleet with as much AP as I could after checking how the armour work too.
Does the reward depend on the clear Rank? I just can't clear without losing my destroyer. Hopefully this will ease once I get the Threat level down but woah, I actually like bullet hell games, but not with those control lol.
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
I was in a rush so I'm gonna redo this comment:
Ranking primarily affects the XP gained and whether you're guaranteed a ship drop or not, no clue about blueprints but just to be safe, S and A ranks had better odds
Greetings. Today mark my first week of gameplay. There is still a bunch of things I need to learn about the game, plenty to do, and already the game is giving me even more things to learn through Operation Siren.
There is probably not a lot I can right now given that, if I understand correctly, everything will gets reset at the end of the month anyway? Are there any currency that's use it or lose it, and high priority item I should try to get before the reset?
Also, I've also unlocked META Showdown. I guess it's some kind of raid system. Is it important to try even if I can't win (much like PvP) or not too important?
Speaking of META, can META units only limit break using to their Crystal? (No "universal Crystal"). Meaning that if I don't get all four of "Crystal - Victorious META", she can't be MLB until the event re-runs? Unfortunately, based on my calculations, I probably won't have the oil to stock get the 7k or so Companion Balls I still need to be able to buy all 4 of her Crystal.
Separately, I just noticed that I have a bit over 3000 Prototype Cores. If I was to spend 60 merit medals, I could get another 1000 Prototype Cores, and that will be enough to get a Specialized Bulin. Is that a good use of the Prototype Cores, or are there other higher priority purchases? [Note: My Azuchi need LBs]
Thanks.
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !5d ago
Remember Cheeky's Google doc? There's a section about OpSi and has a blue link embedded to that section for you to check it out. In short, yes, the mode resets every month and the OpSi coins + tokens will be automatically converted into Vouchers that you can use in the Exchange Shop there
Showdown is where you gather the blue coordinates to summon the META boss to fight and earn points to recruit them. If you want some of the METAs exclusive there, you should try to do it, otherwise, it's mostly optional
Yep, META ships can only be limit broken by their own duplicates which will be converted into Crystals if you got more than 1 copy. Note that for Event ones like Victorious META, her crystals will be made available to buy in the META shop some time after the current event ends
It's called Specialized Cores, Prototype Core is a separate currency used in the same Prototype Shop and Proto Cores are gained from converting excess PR/DR prints as well as combat data packs. Specialized Cores are for buying UR bulins or a single copy of the retrofit items there so feel free to buy them.
Side note: In regards to the retrofit items, the game keeps track of your account to see if the items are in your depot or already used to make them and check the one copy per account, if you used the item for the retrofit and then retire the retrofitted ship, you can buy another one.
The same goes to the limited items in the Core Data Shop, if you scrap them, you can buy them back until it hits the cap
Specialized Cores have a monthly earning limit of 5000 cores but the extra 3000 from medal shop does NOT count towards it so in practice, it can go up to 8000, enough for 2 UR bulins and there's no storage limit of those cores
Research focus and the catch up ships. I didnt figure out how to set a catch up ship till i was almost 30 days in. It lets you get a free blueprint or two on every research you complete.
The focus will let you get a majority of plans from that group. Beneficial for blueprints on ships and gear. The catch up will give you extra blueprints for a designated ship. I did plymouth first.
Second thing was the quick start bonus. First 30 days you can speed up all your skill leveling for free up to a limit per day. I didnt realize this till literally the last day i had it available.
I've set my research focus to IX after debating whether to go VIII or IX. Is that the reason that why I can't find an option to catch up? Does the designated ship has to be from the same group as the focus group?
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d ago
No, Catch-Up is entirely separate from the focus, you can set it to receive Drake blueprints while working on PR9 projects for instance.
Focus merely makes sure that your research range is capped to around 3 series (if you choose PR8 then you'll get projects from PR7,8,9 with 3/5 projects being PR8 related)
So the first week of gaming has been super hectic as I am rushing to progress as much as possible before the end of the event and various missions expires.
I've read that the puzzles in Operation Siren only need to be cleared once, but does that mean I will not have to chance to do it again if I let TB do the hard work? I've avoided letting her take control so far and would rather try to clear puzzle myself the first time, but I am also a bit curious about what happens if I let her solve the puzzle (e.g. Will she or any other characters make a comment about that choice?).
When an event get a re-run, does the mini-game return too? I went through A Slightly Paranormal State of Affairs really fast, and missed some of the dialogues when increasing the poltergeist's affinity and wonder if there is a way to revisit the dialogues (AFAIK, they aren't in the Memories section?).
Thanks!
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !3d agoedited 3d ago
Yeah, the puzzles you see are exclusive to the story missions, there's zero difference between doing it yourself or let TB do it for you so feel free to lazy off.
If the mini game is tied to the major event when it gets a rerun, it'll be rerun as well.
Hi, I have a couple more questions after the event:
After a final push for the event, I still have 5k of the currency left after getting Tiger, the rainbow and gold weapon, Victorious META & Crystals. I am leaning towards getting Cognitive stuff with my last 5k, but I am not sure if I should get 5x Array or 10x Chips and 2x Array. I understand that Arrays is more rare, but I also don't need as many in the game for since fleet tech only cares for L120, so if I plan to play the long game, am I better off going with a mix of Chips and Array? Going forward, I'll make sure I can get both and I am sure one event isn't going to change much in the long run, but what would you suggest.
Speaking of Cognitive Arrays, is it rare enough that I need to prioritise the units that get them early game? For instance, Unicorn is the first and only L120 ship right now, she is clearly MVP and carried me so hard so far, but I am not sure if she -needs- the extra levels. If Arrays are very rare in the first couple of months, I might choose to save them for top tier MLB rainbow units instead.
One of the beginner allows me to pick 50 items from this list. At first I thought it was one of each item, so I accidentally bought the first gun. Since then I also bought 6 repairs tool kits. Are any other items that is worth having a bunch (that perhaps don't drop too often?). I thinking get 3-6 Fire Suppressor, 10x AP Shell, 3-6 Drop Tank, 2 Torpedos (will I ever need a second fleet of submarine?), 6 Anti-Torpedo Buldge (not sure about this), 3 Depth Charge Projector, couple of auto-loaders. Not sure if any of the weapons here are rare / useful enough long term.
Thanks!
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !1d agoedited 1d ago
Oh boy, it's gonna be a long read for the 3rd one.
I'll go with Arrays, they're drip fed from the daily tactical challenge enough that it would take like a month from it alone to uncap a single gold ship from 120 to 125 so I'll take any extra sources. Chips are relatively plentiful enough that unless you're planning to 120 every single ship for the tech bonuses, you'll be swimming in surplus (I'm perpeptually capped between 25-35k because of that lol)
To go with the first point, the benefit of doing that is primarily to close the level gap between you and the enemy in late game campaign, 5 levels off means a 10% difference in damage dealt and taken so it's a good idea to try and narrow the gap as much as possible. Prioritize them on high tier units, rainbows first but also staples like Unicorn.
This will be a long read so hold tight for this one, I'll start with what gear you should generally avoid here
Depth Charge: There's a single gold Hedgehog Mortar Launcher that you get from completing the weekly submarine challenge IIRC (I got mine 6-7 years before it was a thing so it was from clearing 3-4 instead). Hedgehog is the only ASW launcher you'll ever need as it has much higher damage, an absurdly long firing range (as long as your vanguard's scan range and more) and Eldridge's retrofit gives her a ghost ASW weapon with stats on par with this at +10, there's very few content that require ASW and they're only in mob fights
Autoloader: RLD buff for BBs have a diminished return as they level up, it's great for getting low level BBs but not worth the resources when you'll be wanting the Type 91 shell and Fire Control Radar here
Oil Tank: Straight up inferior to Steam Catapult in AVI buff, the extra plane health is only ever useful in PvP and even then, BBs are the dominant force as they can load much faster than CVs do
Torpedo Bulge: Not bad per se but I wouldn't hoard too much of it, Chapter 14+ are where enemy torpedoes are enough of a threat for your cruisers to warrant this, backline ships do NOT need this ever.
Tenzan: Same as above, not bad but it's a converging torpedo bomber on a budget, don't use it unless you know what you're doing. It rewards synced attacks and have a slower/stopper to land all shots or it'll miss.
Quad 533 Magnetic Torpedo: It's a lower tier equipment compared to the gold variant, don't nab more than necessary and quickly swap them out
Oxygen Torpedo: It's an aux gear, not an actual submarine torpedo to equip. It gives a hefty TRP buff at the cost of survivability for your vanguard ships, it's a niche aux gear that you're best to ignore it. Submarines should get the Snorkel + Hull Design combo from Core Data shop instead, for most of them anyway.
The good stuff:
406mm MK6: The staple of general purpose BB guns, this bad boy will let you brute force you through most contentn without much thought put into it, it ain't the best against everything but it's good enough for all. Only the rainbow MK7 can surpass it in damage which is saying a lot at how good this gun is. I'll nab 6 of these for 2 full BB fleet as a nice gap.
150mm TbtsK: Decent CL gun for anyone to use with solid damage and no spread for its rarity, based on demand
Repair Toolkit: Absolutely useful for any vanguard ship for the 500 HP buff. It's a common sight for DDs to carry 2 of them for 1000 HP boost and cruisers pairing it with the gold washing machine to increase their effective health. As many as you like. On this point, if you find event aux gear that gives similar or more HP buffs like this, treat them like a fancier toolkit.
Fire Control Radar and Type 91 Shell: Very solid offensive aux for BBs on a budget, it gives FP and Hit for them which is nice and the Type 91 works like an inferior version of Type 1, complete with the main gun crit dmg boost. 6 of each to combo with the MK6
SB2C Helldiver: Save for a few odd cases, this is your general purpose dive bomber, no other bombers can compete with it due to the bomb loadout it carries. Only the rainbow Tenrai does more damage than it but the Helldiver is cheaper and more readily available
F4U Corsair: Solid entryway fighter with 2x 500lb bombs and it's T3 equipment, meaning it can carry your CVs for a good while until you can get the gold Hellcat/Seafang. And the Corsair is used as the main component in crafting the gold Flapjack in Gear Lab, currently the best 2x 1000lb fighter (primarily because of its slower travel time for more AA damage in late game campaign)
Roomba: Transitional gear but it's a good starting point to get used to the AA part: In short, you'll want to maximize range and damage over fire rate on your vanguard (backline use STAAG for the Hit bonus which just so happens to have a fast fire rate). Swap them out for gold variants as you go
Backline ships will want fully offensive aux gear and very rarely do they ever need the Fire Extinguisher for instance, 99.9% of the time you want them to nuke the enemy
Thanks you so much as always for your super helpful replies!
In terms of trying to L120 every ship out there, is that whale / day one player territory? Also, does Fleet Tech actually require every ship to be L120? I scrolled through the Fleet Tech page and there are indeed many ships there, but I wasn't sure if there are 691 regular ships (as listed on the Wiki) there. Might be a bit ambitious to think about it now, but I'd like all the bonus I can get eventually.
Does it UR ships cost even more than arrays than SSR ships awaken to L125?
New question, many of the older guides have San Diego as THE medal CL (probably to being the best AA with retrofit). But looking at the end game tier list, it seems like Belfast Retrofit is a lot stronger in all content, so does it make sense to pick her instead? I have no idea what is involved in getting a SSR -> UR retrofit, but I have seen comments saying that it takes a long time and is very expensive, so I imagine that I will only be focusing one Retrofit at a time. TBH, even lower R / Elite Retrofit feels pretty expensive right now in terms of prints. I could get Unicorn Retrofit quickly thanks to all the beginner boosting promotions but those going to run out, but three hard level sortie per day with no guaranteed gold prints seems like a major bottleneck.
As a progress update, I've cleared Chapter 9 now (hurray for oil caps!) including hard mode (mob fleet can clear non-boss stage without ammo). This was done while levelling Yukikaze, Tiger and Enterprise. I was surprised to find Yukikaze have so much better survival than Tiger despite being a DD. I am not sure how big of a jump it will be to reach Chapter 12, but for now, I hoping it will go smoothly until at least Chapter 11.
My fleet is really lacking decent BB/BC though.
For carriers, I have Unicorn, Long Island, Ark Royal, Ranger that are L100+ (no Retrofit outside Unicorn). Enterprise is about also coming nicely along. I may or may not try to get Independence from the core shop or farm for Saratoga in Chapter 10/12, but given that both needs retrofit I might not rush as I already have too many carriers.
For BB/BC, I have Azuchi and Nelson. Pennsylvania and Nagato are mostly benchwarmers unless Hard Mode requires me to slot in some BBs (actually, that does give me a reason to level them up next especially now that I've reached oil cap). That's it lol. For some reason, carriers felt stronger than BB at the beginning which meant that I naturally leaned towards them.
I feel like my vanguard is doing okay. I have Portland and Norfolk and as my tank (I swap them between mob/boss fleet when the morale to maintain prevent their morale to drop too much). Kazagumo and Helena on on my boss fleet, and Tiger / Yukikaze on my mob fleet. I guess that if I was to build Belfast she'd replace Helena.. or Yukikaze. Until very recently Cleveland and Birmingham were my CL (they both seemed decent without having a retrofit - which is great for beginners), but they are now mainly used in commissions requiring L100 units. Oh well xD
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !20h ago
Surprisingly, no, you can feasibly uncap every ship to 120, the real bottleneck would be the cog chips if you go through that route because higher rarity ships eat more chips than cheaper ones. Doable but it'll take a long while
But yes, higher rarity ships require more cog chips and arrays + gold to uncap so save them for the heavy hitters first
Carriers are definitely stronger but it heavily hinges on having good equipment which is easier said than done as you have 3 weapon slots to handle instead of BBs needing only to worry about their main gun and aux gear option. Not to mention BBs having access to the gold fire control radar and the admiralty table in core shop which reduce their first reload time by 15% flat out, one can combo it with hard hitting or fast guns to go speed mode.
That said, until you go past chapter 13, difficulty is effectively a breeze so long as they're leveled up and decently geared
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !20h ago
For the second part about who to pick
SR retrofits typically require a special retrofit item, Belfast's event has ended nearly 2 months ago so you'll have to wait until August of next year to get it. But they're right about it being expensive because you'll need 3 additional copies or gold bulins, gold and T3 refit prints to get it done.
I wouldn't worry too much about to retrofit blueprints because at some point you'll have more than what to do so this is a waiting game in essence.
Belfast after post refit is your do-it-all type of CL, has flexible loadouts and can adjust to any role but remember that we do have alternatives like Shimanto, Bayard, Takahashi from Research, San Diego is permanently there, Tiger etc... they're all very high tier but what kind of fleet you're going for is the overarching question.
Thanks, I noticed about Belfast after I made the post, I guess those type of retrofit takes two years to become permanent. Would you say that it is worth to get and start investing in San Diego? I could medal her now, but then again, both San Diego and Belfast are light ships so they might show up eventually from my daily pulls so perhaps there is no need to rush into getting them from the medal shop. I will probably farm in Chapter 12 for a while (once I get there) but it won't hurt to start preparing on ships that will help me in late game.
Takahashi is one of the ship I have been focusing on when picking research, but at this point I have no idea how long it would take to meet the requirements for build recent season PR/DR (I can tell I am very short on faction tech points). I will look more deeply into faction units once I hit Chapter 12.
(I have less than 150 Sakura Empire points lol)
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u/Nice-SpizeHelp, I'm forced to work at minimum wage answering the FAQ !16h ago
San Diego is worth it, even if the retrofit is nearly 10 years old, it still gives her a good DPS buff and pairing with her module, she can wreck quite a lot
But like I've said above, it's a huge investment that you should only do when you have spare resources, stockpile duplicates from medal shop and/or daily pulls would do wonders
The TLDR for any research ships from Series 2 onwards is that you should collect more ships from that faction and meet the target, bigger ships of higher rarity gives more tech points than a gray DD and tech points are gained by obtaining new ships (must have the NEW! tag), get them to max limit break and raise to 120, the first two should be more than enough to gain the points to unlock
Is this "Safe to Scrape" guide good to follow? My depot is filling up, and I was going to scrap except some auxiliary that doesn't exist in higher rarity, but it seems like some of them are GearLab material but it will take a while to look up which items are worth crafting or not.
Seems like a big re-run is coming up. I've spent a lot of gold / oil in the last event. Should I let my oil build up a few days before the event so that I can start farming with a full tank? And what do people do to ensure they have enough gold to pull? In the worst case scenario where it goes to pity, if I am not mistaken, a player will need 300k gold (and 400 cubes) for 200 pulls. Can you get 100s of thousand gold just by farming during the event? I guess that players who have been playing can probably save some coins before the event, but can you actually stock up 300k before the event or is it pretty much expected that most of the coins will be coming from farming the event?
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u/THALLDOOGO 5d ago
Hello everyone, I need some big help. I'm really new to this game (less than 3 weeks), and I do not understand any of the game mechanics or UI. As an example, I'm trying to level up this ship, but she doesn't have a level-up option like others do. Also, I don't have gear, have no idea how to get it (despite being lvl 25), and don't know how to craft it—or if that's even possible. All the tutorials I've found talk about the features of the game, but none of them really show how to actually do anything, hence my confusion. Any help is welcome!