Awesome / Arknights

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

In-Game

Main Story

Episode 00: Evil Time Part 1

• The Player Character is an amnesiac when they first woke up, and yet they still display a remarkable tactical genius they had always been previously known for in the past (as explained in "Darknights Memoir") by taking command of Rhodes Island's forces in the area against rioters. This is despite the aforementioned amnesia and their unfamiliarity with the cards and operators they've been dealt with and still, commanded them all towards safety. Welcome back, Doctor.

Episode 01: Evil Time Part 2

• Ace standing against Talulah and her powerful Fire Arts in order to allow Amiya and her squad to escape Reunion's ambush in Chernobog. Keep in mind that Talulah's Arts was so powerful that it melted the buildings around them and required Amiya to use her Chimera Skill in order to block it, yet Ace managed to last long enough for Amiya's squad to make a full retreat. And the epilogue shows that he survived her attack, admittedly missing an arm. Even Talulah, Mephisto and FrostNova are dumbfounded at his durability. Despite this, Ace still had the strength to tend a fellow soldier's wounds and even tries to get back at Talulah. When Amiya tried to look for any remaining survivors, Ace was no longer with the team when they returned home.

Episode 03: Stinging Shock

• The Wham Episode that is Operation 3-8. Despite her brother Alex's recent death, Misha disguised herself with his equipment as Skullshatterer in order to rally the remaining Reunion forces in the battlefield. It confuses and shocks the L.G.D. and Rhodes Island who saw how Skullshatterer died, which briefly traumatized Alex's killer Amiya. This is probably the first time where you'd get to see Reunion shouting for joy and declaring the event as a "miracle". It even has a unique background CG◊ to emphasize how this is a major revelation in the story.

Episode 04: Burning Run

• The entire chapter could be a spotlight for Frostleaf even though it's her first appearance in the main story proper — She serves as the Ms. Exposition this time who's shown to be knowledgeable about weather, originium crystals and even about the infamous Yeti Squadron. Then even though she, Jessica and Meteorite were in the middle of a fight, her Distress Call moved the story forward by warning Rhodes Island.
  • Rhodes Island and the L.G.D. did arrive at the city and they saw several signs of struggle in the area, implying that the three girls did manage to fight back and moved somewhere else.
  • Frostleaf's Big Damn Heroes moment by killing a Reunion Caster that had cornered Amiya and the Doctor, even though Frostleaf herself had been frostbitten.
  • Then a few moments later, Frostleaf reveals that she lured out Mephisto on her own in an attempt to distract him away from Jessica and Meteorite. How brave can she be in trying to take on Mephisto by herself.
• From the side of Reunion, we have FrostNova and her dramatic entrance on Operation 4-9.
  • First of all, her leitmotif, which can be heard in the background during her introduction is an Awesome Music on its own, which can be described as chilling, eerie, or haunting, all of which also suit FrostNova herself.
  • She saves Mephisto by freezing the legs of Frostleaf who's about to attack him.
  • Then when Mephisto introduces FrostNova to the opposition, he does so as if he's a host or a master of ceremonies welcoming a special guest, with this kind of description:
    Mephisto: All right, I need to introduce you to a new friend. Ahem— next up, put your hands together for the real star of the show... The nightmare of the northwest tundra, the master of the Yetis. Miss... Frost... Novaaaaaaaa! She will freeze every bit of your flesh, every drop of your blood... Bit. By, Bit!
  • Right off the bat, FrostNova already has an Establishing Character Moment. Her dramatic entrance shows how the rumors about her and the Yeti Squadron are true, that with FrostNova's ice powers, she can turn the surroundings into a deadly frozen environemt. Remember that burning building and the "effigies" of people that Mephisto set aflame previously? FrostNova dropped the temperature so quickly that those things completely froze, with the building now having an ice-layered symbol of the Reunion Movement on its front.
  • In fact, all of Chapter 4 can be considered an introduction for FrostNova. The entire chapter has a slowly growing sense of foreboding and buildup as reinforcements attempt to reach Frostleaf, Meteorite, and Jessica, all the while the eerie environment of the abandoned city, its growing Originum deposits, the frigid temperatures, and strange enemies further heighten the sense of dread. Then, after the confrontation with Mephisto, the player finally meets FrostNova, a boss who introduces herself by simply stating that she will give Rhodes Island a swift, painless death.
• Then during the fight between the Yeti Squadron and Rhodes Island, Frostleaf tries to cast her Arts via incantation by saying "Wherever there is blood..." but FrostNova notices this and freezes the girl's tongue to prevent her from completing the phrase. But then, Amiya chants another part of an incantation "Your mind can hide nothing from me" to distract and drive back the Yeti Squadron. This gives an opening for Meteorite to rescue Frostleaf and have her regroup with the rest of the team.

Episode 05: Necessary Solutions

• The counterattack led by Rhodes Island's forces against Mephisto and Faust on the roof of the L.G.D. HQ alongside their numerous subordinates. Ch'en and the small detachment of L.G.D. she led was at the end of their rope, being surrounded at all sides by Mephisto's seemingly unstoppable regenerating undead and Faust's invisible snipers. When all seemed lost, Blaze came to their rescue by literally jumping out of an airplane, followed by Amiya, the Doctor and the Rhodes Island operators. What follows is a massive Curbstomp Battle as the Doctor personally commands all Rhodes Island forces to whittle down Mephisto, Faust and their forces and open a path for Ch'en, Blaze, and Amiya to make the killing stroke against the Reunion duo. At the end of the battle, with the Reunion squad wiped out, Blaze and Ch'en manage to force Mephisto and Faust to retreat with their tail between their legs. Pure Catharsis Factor after Rhodes Island was forced to do the same in Episode 1 and 4.
  • The badass arrival of Rhodes Island in the scene. Mephisto was shocked at how his herd got distracted and cried in pain even though he supposedly wiped their memories already. But even after this confusion, he knew who's behind this sudden change — Amiya.
    Mephisto: My Arts should have wiped all their emotions, so why? What's going on? Is that you?!! Damn you!! The Rabbit of Rhodes Island!!
  • Amiya's Shut Up, Hannibal! moment at Mephisto who tried to break her will for a bit. It didn't work on her and she delivers a brutal honesty to him instead.
    Amiya: Not all Infected are the same. You and Miss FrostNova have nothing in common. Not everyone in Reunion is a psychopath like you.
    Mephisto: What did she tell you? That woman...!
  • Operations 5-9 and 5-10 are also notable for having a lot of background CGs within just two episodes... As a way to remind players that the finale of this chapter is action-packed despite the Visual Novel story-telling that usually limits any form of fight scenes through text or character reactions. To enumerate, here are just some of the CGs that are displayed in specific points of the chapter.
    • A blink-and-you-miss-it since the artwork flashes for only a few seconds, but Faust's entrance in the fight is signified by firing a stray shot at Ch'en, with his weapon's tip◊ being zoomed in, still hot after the first shot.
    • Ch'en unsheates Chi Xiao◊ for the first time against Mephisto, with the blade or its mechanism glowing red amidst the stormy clouds in the L.G.D. headquarters.
    • Ch'en preparing for yet another attack◊ against Mephisto's zombie horde, dual wielding Chi Xiao with her other blade.
    • Mephisto's psychotic smile◊ as he tries to goad Ch'en into joining Reunion.
    • Blaze surprising Faust◊ with her blood-activated incendiary Arts. During this scene, Faust barely even has any chance of fighting back, only left confused or silent at her abilities.
    • Blaze blowing a huge chunk of the building they're in with her explosion◊. It was enough to scare Faust's men away and have all of them retreat.

Episode 06: Partial Necrosis

• Basically everything Blaze does in the chapter is awesome, from jumping out of planes, handily blasting through Reunion soldiers with her chainsaw and heat powers, and even literally carrying the Doctor as they run through Lungmen.
• Projekt Red single-handedly wiping the floor with Crownslayer's squadron, before pinning Crownslayer herself. Then Kal'tsit purposely gives Crownslayer a chance to attack her, only to effortlessly subdue her with Mon3tr while calmly explaining the truth behind Crownslayer's father.
• FrostNova's final confrontation with the Doctor, Amiya, GreyThroat and Blaze shows what the Yeti leader is truly capable of once she lets loose. She flash-freezes the area so severely that it freezes the very air at a molecular level, renders GreyThroat incapable of firing, manifests streams of cold wind and ice blades that physically tear things apart, shatters incoming bolts by freezing them out of the air, completely and effortlessly shuts down Blaze's heat powers, and freezes Amiya's rings to neuter her Arts abilities - all in the span of the first few moments of the battle. In fact, Rhodes Island is so outmatched that their victory was essentially them surviving FrostNova's powers until she kills herself from overexertion.
  Blaze: "Nice win?" Win my ass...If you weren't dying, we'd all be charming ice sculptures by now.
  • Last of Me shows a short glimpse of FrostNova in action. First her instantly freezing an entire L.G.D. division in one attack, and then a single one of her ice bolts being able to stop a combined attack from Amiya, Blaze, and GreyThroat.
• While an understated moment, Amiya's confrontation with Wei Yenwu at the end of the chapter is a effective Shut Up, Hannibal! moment in that, no uncertain terms, Amiya refuses to allow him to play Rhodes Island the way he has any longer, pulling them out of their contract, a way that takes the dragon clearly by surprise.
  Amiya: "Mr. Wei, there is one more thing I must say.—The living are not pawns. People are people."
  Wei Yenwu: "Do you play chess, Miss Amiya?"
  Amiya: "Mr. Wei... Do you play black, or white?"

Episode 07: The Birth of Tragedy

• Ch'en, having enough of Wei Yenwu's constant manipulation, lies and hypocrisies, called him out regarding his poor handling of the infected in Lungmen and gradually tore him for his poor attempts at justification towards their treatment. It ultimately results in Ch'en drawing Chi Xiao on Wei Yenwu and one of the latter's personal hitman having to personally step in and stop the situation. Ch'en is forced to escape, but not before giving Wei one last proverbial middle finger. Deserving of special mention is that for the first time, the seemingly unflappable and smooth-tongued Wei Yenwu is flustered throughout the latter part of the fiasco, which makes it all the more sweeter.
• This episode shows exactly why the Doctor is known as a feared and peerless tactical mastermind during his time in Babel by personally commanding Rhodes Island's forces against Patriot and his men. The odds are stacked against Rhodes Island, with Patriot's own presence on the battlefield managing to rally the scattered Reunion forces and his power armor and massive tower shield making the former Ursus General an Implacable Man, unstoppable in all but name while raising troop morale. This doesn't stop the Doctor from leading the men and women under his command to victory despite the odds. A true return to form for the Doctor, besting a veteran military man and his Reunion detachment.
• Rosmontis is horrifyingly awesome. She's one of Rhodes island's elite operator despite being 14 years old, with her role being an annihilation specialist, and we see just how true that designation is in the chapter. Rosmontis is so strong that seeing her fight is noted to be traumatizing, with the Doctor even being affected by what he sees, and both Rhodes island operators and Reunion soldiers are terrified of her. Later on Rosmontis would proceed to cleave a skyscraper in half, a feat that puts in perspective just how destructive she could really be if she wants to.
• In the very same event, Amiya, the previously and arguably the most unwanted 5★ Caster of a main protagonist manages to fight Patriot during battle and mortally wound him. Admittedly, Patriot hasn't been at his prime and he had been softened up by the Rhodes Island forces led by the Doctor, but this alone deserves a special mention. And when Patriot moves in to crush her under the belief that she's the demon lord of prophecy, she doesn't even flinch, glaring into his eyes as if daring him to finish the job.
• The entirety of Patriot's final stand. After a lifetime of tragedy and suffering he bore alone, it all came to head in the final battle with Rhodes Island. With spear and shield in hand, he advanced forward, never backing down, never surrendering, and never showing mercy to his enemies. It took all of Rhodes Island had just to stagger his advance, from Kal'tsit's Mont3r, Rosmontis' slabs of steel, Amiya herself and various other operators under the Doctor's command. Even in his death throes, he refuses to fall, and instead, dying where he stood, as proud and as unyielding as he was in life; never falling backward when others would have. Rest in peace, Captain.
  • The way he finally appears before Rhodes Island is also awesome. Throughout the chapter, Rosmontis has been built up as an absolute monster in combat, ending with her cleaving a skyscraper in half just in case people still have doubts about her strength. And then Patriot blocked her attack... with his bare hands. It is an amazing feat that reminds you that while you have 3 monsters of your own - Amiya, Kal'tsit and Rosmontis - Patriot is on another level, a monster of legend who is respected by everyone who has heard of his name.
    Patriot: Warriors. Victoria, with steam armor. Kazimierz, with Silverlance Pegasi. Laterano, with Apostolic, Gun-Knights. All of them, we defeated, utterly.
  • More awesome still is that while the Doctor's forces managed to mortally wound Patriot, he still had enough strength to get back up and attack Amiya once he realized she was the Lord of Fiends, only stopping inches away from crushing her skull because he chose to let her live and defy the prophecy. Even after firing everything they had at him and mortally injuring him, the only reason Amiya is still alive is because Patriot allowed it.
  • The music video for "End Like This" showcases Patriot in his indomitable glory, slowly but unstoppably marching towards Rhodes Island. His pace never slows even as his shield is broken and his armor destroyed, and even when his spear is cut in two by Rosmontis, he moves in to crush Amiya with his bare hands. And even when he finally succumbs to his injuries, he remains standing in death.
    Shield, shattered. Spear, snapped. The huge monster doesn’t even flinch. He keeps hulking forward.
    Having never taken a single step backward, unwavering for even a single second, in the end, death put a stop to the Patriot’s lifelong advance.
  • Even more awesome is the fact that Patriot is capable of taking and dishing out so much damage in a suit of poorly-maintained Power Armor in the first place.

Episode 08: Roaring Flare

• The brass balls on Talulah's adoptive grandfather to walk up to the Ursus Infected Patrol, possibly the most notoriously Infected-hating group on Terra, and straight-up declare that he's Infected, even slitting his wrist and casting Arts with his blood to prove it. While this gets him killed on the spot, his Heroic Sacrifice would have ensured that his village would have been cleared of the suspicion of harboring an Infected, saving all of his family and friends. Talulah then promptly kills all the patrolmen as revenge.
• When Talulah first met FrostNova, she's already heard about the Yetis and their legendary exploits, as well as Yelena's insanely powerful ice Arts - and the latter is currently distrustful of her. Talulah then identifies the source of her powers and unflinchingly challenges her to a duel to earn her respect. The resulting fight is said to have laid waste to the nomadic city they were in, although Talulah admits that the witnesses were embellishing it.
• Reunion's battle with the Emperor's Blades. Each of them is described as a mythical Super-Soldier who preys on fear, can move faster than the eye can see, and can exterminate entire squads by themselves - and there were five of them. Even though they vastly outnumbered the Blades, they struggled to handle them, but they still managed to hold them off long enough for reinforcements.
• Speaking of reinforcements, just as Talulah is getting overwhelmed, Patriot appears to back her up, threatening the Blades. The Blades, who were depicted as inhuman demons of war up until now, immediately back off, proclaim their respect for Patriot, and tell him that they don't want to fight him, even going so far as to beg him to return to Ursus and help them restore the old order. He not only refuses, but makes it clear that super-soldiers as they may be, they're still no match for him.
  Patriot: Two Royal Guards by their lonesome aren't enough to kill me. If you want to make an enemy of me, you’d better bring a third man with you next time. [...] I won't hold it against you for attacking our soldiers for the time being, or I could kill you two right now, wait for the Royal Guards to come and collect your bodies, and go to war with them until only one side remains...even if we find ourselves on the losing side.
• Continuing from the previous chapter, Ch'en arrives at Talulah and manages to go toe to toe with her when she fights Talulah all by herself, showing why she is one of Lungmen top operators in this chapter.
• Talulah finally decides she has had enough and decides to release her true power against both Amiya and Ch'en, with her fire completely incinerating Chernobog's control tower and burning away the very oxygen they're breathing, even sealing their mouths with flame so they don't interrupt Kashchey's Motive Rant.
• Rosmontis, who is previously a minor character, gets the time to shine as the elite operator that she is. Not only that, she leads her own army and shows herself as a frighteningly strong operator and tactician at the same time.
• Chernobog's sealing layer is closing in to seal the control tower, and nothing Rhodes, the Reunion defectors, or the Guerillas can do are stopping it. Then Rosmontis steps in and single-handedly tears it to shreds. The Annihilation Specialist of Rhodes is truly a force to be reckoned with.
• Special mention goes to Amiya herself, who finally decides to remove one of her rings and proceeds to create her own version of Ch'en's sword, Chi Xiao by borrowing the power of an ancient Sarkaz King and also copies some of Chi Xiao abilities as well, as she uses it to partner herself up with Ch'en to take down Talulah. The awesomeness is ramped up as Hypergryph gave us all the very first ever animated cutscene for this particular scene.
  And we'll burn the clouds away!
• Despite Amiya's 11th-Hour Superpower, the Deathless Black Snake still manages to withstand their attacks and ends up taking rather inconsequential damage throughout the ensuing battle. However, Amiya is able to help Talulah's Fighting from the Inside and eventually let her overpower and reject Kashchey, ending the fight.
• The standoff between the Emperor's Blades and the Shadow Guards at the end of the chapter. Even though no fighting occurred, the confrontation between the strongest elites of both Ursus and Yen is something to behold.

Episode 09: Stormwatch

• Even with her ideals challenged by the unjust scorn of the very people she tried to save, Saileach remains undeterred, and eventually takes up arms against Dublinn to protect the people of County Hillock. Touched by her bravery and forgiveness, the citizens of County Hillock are motivated to stand by her side and take the fight to their invaders, having realized that Dublinn never truly cared for them.
• Outcast's Dying Moment of Awesome. After rescuing Reed and mowing down countless Dublinn forces to buy her allies time, Outcast goes out in a literal blaze of glory, calling down divine light to vaporize herself along with the six Dublinn elites that cornered her.

Episode 10: Shatterpoint

• When Feist tries to take the Doctor hostage to discern Rhodes Island's true intentions, the Doctor immediately calls his bluff and points out that he doesn't actually have the means to harm them, just by observing his actions and equipment. Even putting that aside, Amiya and Siege make it clear that given that either of them could have easily dismantled any situation Eartha could plan with brute force, Feist was only able to take the Doctor hostage because Rhodes Island allowed them to in the first place.
• Everything that Horn does in this chapter qualifies. From her sheer mental fortitude to suffer capture, humiliation, and the deaths of her entire squad without going insane, to her tactical cunning when it comes to systematically uniting her captured allies, to her sheer determination and strength when it comes to facing the Sarkaz, with her unrelenting ferocity managing to hold off Manfred long enough for Rhodes Island to spring their plan. Such is her bravery that Manfred is convinced to spare her life out of respect.
• Misery makes his first on-screen appearance by saving Horn from Manfred and his soldiers, instantly incapacitating all of them with a single sneak attack with his spatial arts before fleeing with Horn in tow.
• Ascalon making her debut by rescuing W from Hoederer, implied to be by beating him into the ground to the point where his arm is crippled for the rest of the chapter.
• For a villainous example, once Mandragora oversteps her boundaries one too many times, Manfred demonstrates just how outmatched she is by single-handedly crushing everything she can muster without exerting any real effort. Mandragora herself was powerful enough to force Horn to perform a Last Stand to buy Bagpipe time to escape, so it goes to show how dangerous Kazdel is when even one of their ultimately lower-ranking elites can curb-stomp her so easily.
• Hoederer corners Feist and Rockrock during their escape. Feist knows that he can't take Hoederer head-on, so he manages to trick him into cutting open an escape route for them, then distracting him with bombs long enough for everyone to escape unharmed.
• Manfred manages to single-handedly hold off the coalition force of Rhodes Island and Eartha without any real trouble, only pausing once Misery and Horn's squad appear. Even then, he manages to handily defeat Horn's entire squad and push Horn to the brink of death, only retreating when Amiya and the Doctor detonate the control room of the Londinium artillery.

Episode 11: Return to Mist

• Catherine is so fearless in the face of death that she has the nerve to talk down to her Sarkaz captors, knowing well that she's schedule to be executed. In the process, she not only plants seeds of doubt in Paprika's mind, but stalls them long enough for Feist and his rebellion to ambush the executioners and free her.
• Feist and the other Eartha members work together to take out a massive Originium tank being used by the Sarkaz. Even without any special powers or superhuman abilities, they manage to bring it down just by identifying its weak point, then using ziplines to swing around it and take command of the war machine.
• Ascalon wipes out all the sentinels defending Colonel Lettou's command tower before anyone can even realize they're gone, then comes within a hair's breadth of killing Lettou instantly if Manfred wasn't there to intercept her just in time, only to then proceed to fight even with him.
• Logos' almost effortlessly stops the Sanguinarch's tide of blood from reaching Amiya, then holds off his attack even after whipping the Sanguinarch into a fury by insulting the way he clings to a decaying past.
• Just as the Confessarius guards arrive and start turning the tables on Eartha, Shining arrives and draws her sword, handily wiping the floor with her former kin. Even before this, when she's paying a visit to Salus and her brother, she inspires so much fear and respect that the Confessarius guards protecting the area are forced to cower and retreat just by her mere presence.
• Theresis quickly proves his threat in a direct fight by ambushing Amiya the second she lands from her last fight, striking so fast that nobody can react. Amiya is only saved by Kal'tsit performing a Heroic Sacrifice (where Theresis mortally wounds both her and Mon3tr in a single blow), and even this and Shining's intervention are only barely able to stall Theresis long enough for them to get away. Even with no notable Arts, no support, and a weapon described as an "unremarkable" sword, the Regent of Kazdel is still powerful enough to force a hasty retreat.
• Even after being betrayed and left for dead, the Steam Knights fought so hard that their remains are surrounded by an innumerable number of Sarkaz corpses, including many Confessarius and Royal Court elites. Even in death, Victoria's finest made sure to take every last enemy down with them.
• Charles Lynch, the Last Steam Knight, managed to survive in the Mausoleum of Kings for four years by himself in the darkness, living off of vermin, his armor's life support, and sheer willpower. Even after losing his mind and forgetting everything as he wasted away, he simply refuses to die and continues defending the Victoria in his heart, and still manages to be so unstoppable in this state that nothing both Siege and Allerdale's teams do can scratch him.

Side Stories

"Grani and the Knights' Treasure"

• Skadi's reputation as the Walking Wasteland is not just for show. With the single goal of retrieving Carol in mind, anything that are dumb enough to get in her way are quickly taken out without even a hint of effort from the Abyssal Hunter, Reunion and bounty hunter alike.

"Code of Brawl"

• Bison somehow managing to outpace a gang of mafioso on motorbikes... while riding a bicycle.
• The Rat King takes on all 5 members of Penguin Logistics at once and utterly manhandles them, with the elite fighters only able to remove his coat in the end. It's the first time that PL has seemed so completely outmatched, and gives an idea of how powerful the guy is. He wasn't fighting seriously either.

"Ancient Forge"

• Nian, just Nian. Boy, does she not disappoint. Throughout the entirity of the event, she manages to just manhandle everyone and everything thrown against her. Up against an army, she simply raises a terracotta army; stopped by a blockade, she simply cuts through it; shield destroyed, she simply reforges it; when firecrackers hinder her as her one and only weakness, she shrugs it off and continues onward with her path of destruction. Most of it sounds too powerful to be true considering the event's nature as a film making effort, only for a post-credits conversation with Closure to reveal that she actually embellished almost none of it. One shudders to see just how Nian would easily annihilate even the strongest opponent were her abilities not hindered by gameplay balancing.
• Lava. The humble 3 star AoE Caster prodigy got an upgrade into an Elite Operator for Rhodes Island for the duration of the film. She shows her expertise in handling Nian herself, a Physical God of epic proportions when no one else managed to do so, manages during two instances to at the very least stall Nian. And while this was her admittedly embellishing her strengths for the movie, it is hinted that someday, Lava will actually get said upgrade and gain her much deserved power boost; something that would come to pass a year later with the playable introduction of Purgatory, a stronger variant of Lava wearing her movie costume.

"Darknights Memoir"

• W was just a nameless Sarkaz, only getting the codename by virtue of taking up the arms of the previous W. One wouldn't expect her to have the experience necessary to survive a warzone. One couldn't be more wrong. W showed her expertise in explosives she is well-known for and manages to secure herself a place in Hoederer's mercenary group. Not bad for a newbie.
• Props to the two children who try their best to stand up to W, who at this point is already a deadly mercenary. Trying their best to survive, they would stand up to W even without any adult supervision. The shy child of the duo would even raid an abandoned hospital in the middle of a potential warzone at W's suggestion to save his infected friend.
• W, seemingly left behind by Ines to become the bait for Sarkaz mercenaries, is also wounded and helpless, liable to be killed at any second. Just as the Sarkaz mercenaries are about to land the finishing blow on the wounded W, Ines returns and backstabs one of the mercenaries, with them both proceeding to take care of the ambushers. For all their bickering with one another, they have gone through hell and back and would trust each other with their lives.
• Hoederer also deserves a little bit of respect, not for his combat abilities, but for just how Crazy-Prepared he is. He had always been the go-to guy for setting up deals and jobs for his mercenary group that include W and Ines. For example, in his effort to hinder Theresis and his plot, he manages to resecure a communication bunker in order to be able to pass messages between his peers much more easily without the unwanted attention. As the mercenary business had always been hazardous, Hoederer stood out from the rest by having the foresight to predict future dangers.

"Maria Nearl"

• Maria's first duel against the Plastic Knight initially looks to be her loss, but she's quickly able to determine that Szewczyk is using an experimental suit that doesn't have a proper cooling system. She stalls out the fight until Szewczyk's armor overheats, then knocks him out in a single blow - by copying one of her older sister's signature techniques, no less.
• Maria repeatedly establishes herself as a grade-A Determinator during the entire event. Mlynar dragging her idealism through the dirt, and Whislash putting her through Training from Hell? Suck it up and keep going, to the point that by the end of the first week of training she was able to pick out an opening in Whislash's technique and knock her sword from her grip. Brassrust Knight knocking her around and hell-bent on permanently maiming her? Still manages to hold out long enough to fight him to a draw. Battling against the Left-handed Knight who is leagues stronger than her and ruthlessly crushing her spirit? Keep holding on long enough for his arrogance to give her an opening to strike back. Even when the General Chamber of Commerce sends the Corrupted and Withered Knights in a blatant assassination attempt, she refuses to forfeit, only halting her struggle when she physically can't move anymore. And even after nearly losing her life and being forced to witness the cruelty and corruption of Kazimierz firsthand, she still refuses to fully give up on her ideal of knightly chivalry. She might not be the strongest or the most experienced, but she's definitely among the most strong-willed.
• The guts on the Flametail and Ashlock Knights for choosing to defy the system as marginalized Infected knights, gathering as many other Infected knights as possible and fleeing the Major before staging a rebellion against the corrupt government, surviving an encounter with Platinum and the Armorless Union no less. Furthermore, at the end of the story, they actually got away with it, and are currently plotting to expose the Armorless Union to the public.
• Czarny outlines the story of the legendary Black Knight, a participant in the Major who was so insanely strong that she managed to win three Kazimierz Majors in a row despite being completely unable to use Arts. The only reason they stopped was because the monotony of having an undefeated challenger made the corporate situation very unstable and unsafe for her, and even then she managed to score an absolute win by escaping to Kjerag under the employ of a new company. And as of Break The Ice, the company that the Black Knight is currently employed by is confirmed to be none other than the Karlan Trading Company, where the Black Knight now works as SilverAsh's personal bodyguard.
• Just as Maria is about to be killed by the Corrupted and Withered Knights, Nearl literally comes crashing down from the sky in a beam of light to save her sister, before utterly manhandling the Sarkaz twins and showing just how big the difference between a regular knight and the Radiant Knight is. And she gets away with it too, because even the General Chamber of Commerce knows that without a concrete plan, they simply couldn't stop her even if they wanted to.
• Vogelwiede and Kowal get into a stand-off with Platinum and the Armorless Union, but then Shining and Nightingale appear. The second Platinum sees Shining, she immediately surrenders and lets them through, no questions asked. Considering Platinum had already taken on several seasoned knights in the event alone, and was ready to fight Vogelwiede, Kowal, and Mlynar without any hesitation, the fact that she instantly backed off at the sight of Shining speaks volumes.
  • Not only that, the government had sent the Union's two Lazurite assassins - the highest tier ones they have, outranking even Platinum - to intercept the enemy they detected was approaching. The moment they saw that Nearl and Shining were together, they immediately bailed out.

"Mansfield Break"

• Anthony gets attacked by several hitmen out of nowhere. He's totally caught off guard and has no idea why people are genuinely trying to kill him, yet he still beats them all to a pulp without any major injuries. He's then all but stated to have fought off similar assassination attempts for the entire four months that they planned out their jailbreak.
• Up until Jesselton gets involved, Anthony's prison break plan goes off without a hitch, with him and Kafka stealing key cards from Barton and the guards, easily demolishing the prisoners that get in their way, and collapsing the central tower of the prison into the ground where the guards won't be able to reach them quickly. Even Robin's betrayal doesn't throw the plan off the rails, and Anthony even manages to convince her to undergo a Heel–Face Turn against Jesselton by saving her life during the collapse.
• Right as they reach the tunnel they've dug to escape through, Jesselton appears and holds Domma hostage, threatening to kill her unless Anthony fights him or Robin kills Anthony. Robin pretends to attack Anthony, but strikes down the flunkies instead, freeing Domma and letting them take the fight directly to Jesselton himself. The hitman activates the restraining devices on Anthony and Kafka, only for them to shrug them off and continue battling despite being weakened. Even Jesselton is impressed.
• Anthony throws a ferocious punch at Jesselton, who pulls off a magnificent◊ Punch Catch without breaking a sweat before revealing his ability to control iron. Coupling them with the metal plates beneath his skin lets him selectively harden parts of his body, letting him effortlessly stop even Anthony's attacks in their tracks.
• Just as things look bleak for the prison break group, with Jesselton having fought them off long enough for reinforcements to arrive, Saria appears, having fought off all the guards.
  Jesselton: Listen. Here comes the reaper.
  Saria: Sorry to disappoint, but the reaper isn't coming just yet.
• Saria then proceeds to effortlessly beat Jesselton without even giving him a chance to retaliate. Note that Jesselton himself was easily handling Anthony, Kafka and Robin at the same time up until Saria showed up, yet Saria cut him down like he was just a random mook. Needless to say, everyone there was completely floored, with even the likes of Mountain stuttering when Saria addresses him.
  Kafka: S-So strong...I heard the Defense Director was pretty badass, but this is on another level. Thank God I've never crossed her.
• The finale of the event deserves some mention. Silence is convinced that Muelsyse wants Mountain for an unsavory purpose, and refuses to hand him over. When Muelsyse threatens Silence, she reveals that she had brought Mountain along in case of a situation like this, and that he's right behind them. As Mountain tells Muelsyse he'll go with her if she can beat him in a fight, Muelsyse surrenders and says she can't defeat him...with a clone. Not only is it revealed that Muelsyse had been interacting with them through a water clone that was able to perfectly replicate a person without any of them the wiser, her specific wording implies that she's actually confident enough that she'd take on Mountain if she was there in person.

"A Walk in the Dust"

• Kal'tsit defeats an Emperor's Blade all by herself. The Blades are repeatedly established in lore to be each equivalent to a small army and are souped up by powers from extradimensional demons, yet Kal'tsit manages to soundly defeat one, establishing just how strong the ageless doctor is. If it weren't for the threat of the eldritch dimension inside his suit leaking out and causing irreparable collateral damage, Kal'tsit likely could have outright killed the super-soldier.

"Under Tides"

• Skadi fighting inquisitor Irene without breaking a sweat, at one point even taking a blast from her hand cannon head-on and emerging unscathed. Keep in mind that Inquisitor Irene is by no means weak (as her playable incarnation as of "Stultifera Navis" demonstrates nicely), as Anita had trouble even just following her movements and her hand cannon destroyed the house they were fighting in, but Skadi is so far above her that she didn't even fight her seriously and still managed to soundly beat her.
• The High Inquisitor manages to fight evenly with Skadi and even wound her. Granted, Skadi still hasn't used her weapon yet, but the fact that the High Inquisitor manages to match her speed and actually held the upper hand against Skadi is amazing in itself.
• The Abyssal Hunters fighting against the mutated Priest. Keep in mind that Gladiia had just been impaled by the First To Talk, Skadi just had a Heroic BSoD and still hasn't rested yet after her fights with the High inquisitor, Sea Terrors, and the First to Talk, and Specter literally just woke up sane after who knows how long. Despite all this, the Abyssal Hunters thoroughly trounced the priest, even making jokes and taking barbs at each other, making it clear that he is just another prey for the Abyssal Hunters to hunt.

"Dossoles Holiday"

• Despite their obvious animosity towards each other, Lin Yushia and Ch'en are able to coordinate up to a point when they fight alongside each other. Their skill is such that Ernest muses to himself that they were 'too strong' for even his measures to keep them out of the fight.
• Lin demonstrates her badass credentials by using a variation of her father, the Rat King's, Sand Arts in battle. Damaged glass windows? She can pull the fragments and shape them into difficult to see transparent glass knives. Need to catch a cruise ship? She uses her Arts to shape sand into glass pillars temporarily, using them as stepping stones to leap on board. Her other mean feats include: figuring out the bomb plot, stealing one of those bombs to escape a trap, and beating up the hostage-taker sentries so she can help the hostages all escape.
• Ch'en, despite not using her signature sword techniques and using a less-lethal water cannon, is able to fight her way through all her obstacles. Swire and Hoshiguma comment on how her bare-handed combat skill is still good enough to knock around the competitors in the championship.
• Candela is utterly unflappable in the face of the unrest invading her tournament. Rebellion? No problem, those youngsters who came in from Lungmen are bored - let them Scooby Doo their way into learning about it and interfere with the plot of their own accord. Terrorist attacks on the finale, along with a hostage situation? The show must go on! Make a production out of how there was an additional challenge added to the competition! Lin Yushia sunk the ship after rescuing the hostages and Ch'en defeating Pancho? That's a minor thing, just bill them for the damages, which will come out of their prize money. Not even the threat of civil war can faze her.
• Sideroca, Eyjafalla, Projekt Red, and Sussuro manage an offscreen moment themselves. When the hostage situation struck, our operators sprung into action and assisted in the evacuation of civilians and in subduing the terrorists approaching Candela. Their performance was impressive enough that Candela promptly agreed to let Rhodes Island open up a branch office in Dossoles. Not a bad result for their Busman's Holiday, especially since they weren't even coordinating this impromptu operation with the Doctor's tactical oversight.
• The official music video for You Ain't Seen Nothing Like This is awesome on multiple levels. Firstly, it demonstrates how dynamic Ch'en and Lin Yushia are in hand-to-hand combat on the first day of the Championship, while taking care to demonstrate that their relationship is still a little sore after various incidents. Secondly, the song itself is an in-universe creation by the D.J. D.D.D., who was inspired after watching the two fighting during the championship.

"Vigilo"

• The Doctor themselves proves how scary it is to cross them - when Mama Johns tries to rob them of their Oripathy suppresants in order to make cheap and convincing imitations for the Infected they hire, the Doctor proceeds to drag them into a scandal over certain Columbian federal drug import laws, as they did not keep proper documentation for the fake drugs they were making and distributing or the suppressants they stole. The result? Mama Johns loses several years of progress in making fake suppressants, the real suppressants they stole, and end up under the scrutiny of the Columbian government. At the same time, they impress a smuggler with Fiend Gang connections so much that they got safe passage through the wilderness.
• One of the Doctor's memories about their knowledge of Originium allowed them to napkin-math a course through a Catastrophe storm with minimal damage to the landship, relying on fragments of memories about one of their old Originum formulae, numbers from Earthspirit's recent analysis, and one of Eyjafalla's thesis papers. Kal'tsit describes it as an almost prophet-like action in how the formula led everyone through the storm, with everyone on the bridge trusting totally in the Doctor's direction even as the storm howled around them and Originium chunks rained from the heavens.
• Another memory of the Kazdel days showed that the Doctor was able to break a Sarkaz traitor who tried to kill them by correctly guessing said traitor had subconsciously loss of faith in Theresa's cause and that he subsequently made the Doctor a scapegoat for that loss of faith, leading to said traitor consciously realizing it and committing suicide out of shame. Keep in mind that the Doctor managed to talk the would-be assassin out of killing them while still being held at blade point.

"Pinus Sylvestris"

• Ashlock proves herself in the arena by taking on Brassrust Ingra, fresh from the hospital after he got defeated by Blemishine. She forces him on the defensive, zones him out and forces him back long enough to reload after depleting her magazine, then defeats him so thoroughly that he ends up being sent back to the hospital, complete with an evasive move where she dodged Ingra's axe by using the recoil of her cannon-lance to speed under his strike. Flametail is actually impressed that she even learnt some of her fast moves to supplement her cannon-lance technique.
• Margaret Nearl's badass credentials as the Radiant Knight are so strong despite being out of the country for years and technically exiled due to her current legal status as Infected, that the KGCC had to bow to popular demand and public pressure and allow her to immediately rejoin the Competition Knight circuit in pursuit of the Kazimierz Major. She also shows that her years spent with the Followers and Rhodes Island have only tempered her fighting abilities, as she handily forces Mlynar to concede in his challenge against her from the end of Maria Nearl's sidestory in a straightforward No Arts duel.

"Near Light"

• An animated teaser for Near Light was unveiled, that shows Flametail desperately fighting off assassins while trying to shield her friends and family from their attacks, before Nearl shows up in her form as the Radiant Knight and lends her a hand. Her arrival to the battlefield is a visually striking one, too, as her spear strikes the ground and releases stored Arts energy to protect Flametail and wipe out the Bombtail drones closing on her with their explosive charges, then she pulls it from the ground and assumes a ready stance with a poise and style that awes Flametail.
  • Platinum also deserves a mention for managing to hold her own against both Nearl and Flametail with incredible skill and agility in both ranged and close-quarters combat, showing why she's one of the Armorless Union's top assassins, and that her former career as an idol knight was not just for show. Bonus points for actually managing to force Nearl to unleash her Arts in order to counter her charged arrow at the end of the sequence. She even escapes the massive explosion that results when her arrow clashes with Nearl's spear, and the entire debacle actually let her convince Roy and Monique to give her the rest of the night off to recover.
• Shining has a ton of awesome moments in the event, but perhaps most prominently, she singlehandedly stopped multiple assassination attempts by the Armorless Union all by herself. To list some of them:
  • She stopped an assassin's dagger meant for Blemishine with just the hilt of her sword.
  • Roy, one of Lazurite assassins above Platinum, tries to assassinate Mlynar and is confident enough in his chances that he took his time to chat with the man first. However, the moment it's revealed that Mlynar is waiting for Shining, Roy hastily backs off and makes a hasty retreat when she shows up.
    • Mlynar himself deserves a point: while Roy isn't scared of him, his subordinates are, and are praying that Roy won't give them the signal to attack him so that they can walk away in one piece.
  • She managed to notice the arrow of Darksteel - the Lazurites' superior - targeting Nightingale, warns Nearl about it in time, and blocks it with her.
    • The Darksteel is also awesome for shooting an arrow so huge it could be mistaken for a spear, shooting from such a distance that the arrow has ample time to arc itself before falling down like a meteor, and Shining and Nearl failing to break said arrow even after striking it at the same time. Later on, it's revealed that had Roy followed his orders and made Shining look at any other direction besides North, she would have failed to notice the arrow in time and Nightingale would be dead, showing that they're a threat even to Shining.
  • Monique, the other Lazurite assassin, makes a deal with Shining; if she could block all three of her arrows, Monique will give up on tailing Rhodes Island. Shining agrees. The first shot was blocked without Shining drawing her sword; the second got split in half with no mention of Shining even moving; she draws her sword for the third, and it was then that Monique realizes that Shining could have killed her effortlessly from the very beginning if she had really wanted to.
    Shining: Like a hunter, waiting for an opening.
    (The second arrow got split in half)
    Shining: But I have no intention of becoming your prey.
  • At the tail end of the event, Monique tries to assassinate Nearl one last time when she's walking with the Blood Knight, and nearly succeeds as both Nearl and the Blood Knight realizes it too late; however, what touched Nearl's face is not the arrow, but Shining's hand instead, and then she looks at the direction Monique sniped from and silently mouthed "The fourth arrow" at her. Keep in mind that Monique is sniping from far away and is well-hidden to boot, but Shining somehow knew it was her and not, say, her fellow Lazurite Roy. Needless to say, this is what finally gives Monique the idea that she should bail out while she still can.
• The Corrupted and Withered Knights, the Final Bosses of the previous Kazimierz event who were on the verge of killing Maria, are sent to take out Tola under the orders of the KGCC. Tola's response is to single-handedly curb-stomp both of them, only stopping just short of killing them outright after Toland convinces him not to.
• Maria Nearl once again shows that she has what it takes to be a knight when the chips are down when she stands her ground and keeps Tola the Nightzmora from harrassing her sister for a rematch, and Vogelweide even supports her and berates his kin for this action. Even outside the arena, even full of doubt of her ability to be a Knight, even with Tola willing to outright kill her and hitting her harder than Tytus ever did, Maria eventually manages to convince Tola to stop trying to trouble her sister through her conviction.
• Bounty Hunter Toland firmly establishes his badass credentials by being a thorn in Monique's side multiple times throughout the entire side story. He saves Pinus Sylvestris by stalling Monique with infuriating banter that distracts her until she gets a call to regroup, rescues the Corrupted and Withered Knights from captivity by the Armorless Union, and drops in to lend the Nearls direct assistance against the Armorless Union hit squads, proving that only their Lazurite-ranked assassins can match him in combat prowess.
• Platinum and her squad of 30 assassins are tasked to confront the Silverlance Pegasi, and they find out that the Silverlance only sent 7 men. Platinum feels a little insulted, but then one of the Silverlances corrects her: they only need 3 to take her and her entire squad on, and he's right. Further dialogue from the Armorless assassins afterwards provide hints of the Silverlances' strength, with them casually snapping all of Platinum's arrows like toothpicks and cleaving through fortified structural pillars like they're made of cardboard.
  • The Silverlance Pegasi also reveal why they have such great respect for the Nearls: Kirll Nearl -Nearls' Old Gramps - once lead a group of other 6 knights, with Ioleta Russel the future Grand Knight amongst them, to rescue the Silverlance during the "Daybreak over the Golden Prairie". Only 7 knights total - both from the rescue squad and their target - made it back, fighting through impossible odds to the point that the numbers of enemies felled was around 3000, and brought the shields of all the knights back. Ever since then, the Silverlance have wholeheartedly adopted the Nearl family motto out of gratitude.
• After spending the entire event chasing after a forgotten era and having his delusions questioned by everyone he meets, Tola reaffirms his resolve, declares that he himself is is own Khagan, and summons an entire horde of shadowy soldiers to attack the Blood Knight during their match. Made more impressive on the Blood Knight's part is that this didn't even work - he takes a hit that disables Tola's weapon due to his blood Arts, dispels the horde, and defeats Tola with a staggering blow.
• In the aftermath of the fight between the Blood Knight and Radiant Knight, Margaret essentially flips off the Chamber of Commerce by hoisting Dikaiopolis onto her back and marching to the Champion's Hall to share their victory. The Armorless Union launches an all-out attack on the two champions, only for all of Margaret's friends and allies to swoop in and give them safe passage, with the mighty Silverlance Pegasi serving as their escort while Rhodes Island, the Followers and Pinus Sylvestris gather around them. Meanwhile, the Lazurites Roy and Monique are held up by Toland and Mlynar, who finally demonstrates his prowess by defeating Roy before he can even react.
  • Another one for the duel between the two champions, where they end up shattering each others' weapons mid-fight and are forced to create new ones with their Arts - a sword of blood for Dikaiopolis, and a spear of light for Margaret. The moment is even accompanied by a CG◊ showing them staring each other down, ready to clash one last time.
• Another one for Mlynar, who worked tirelessly without leave for ten years all so he could save up three months of paid vacation time. He then declares his intention to use those three months to go on a quest to find both himself and his old group (specifically Margaret and Maria's parents), even knowing that they likely won't be pleased to see him and might even try to kill him on sight.
• The Doctor once again demonstrates their chops in reading the situation in Kazimierz and profiting from it:
  • A few quick words with a number of Executives and Gravel, and it is enough for them to figure out that there were flaws in the perceived unity of the K.G.C.C. and ways to exploit them.
  • A couple friendly talks with Malkiewicz the Spokesman, and before long, Rhodes Island has reached an agreement with one of the major members of the K.G.C.C., and is perceived to be enough of a profitable partnership that the Spokesman is immediately able to tell Platinum that her orders were falsified by one of her seniors in the Armorless Union when she is sent to deal with Rhodes Island. This also has the side effect of showing that the factions within the KGCC are not united, and that one of the major factions under a Spokesman has already sided with Rhodes, and their words have such an impact on Platinum that she ends up seeking to join Rhodes Island after the events of Near Light.
  • When Platinum tries to assassinate the Doctor, Gravel defends them, only for the Doctor to fearlessly stand in front of her despite being a noncombatant. They then stare down Platinum - an elite Armorless assassin who could kill them in a heartbeat - and calmly informs her that not only do they know her orders were falsified by the Armorless Union due to the aforementioned deduction, Rhodes Island is currently affiliated with the K.G.C.C., and bringing harm to Rhodes is equivalent to attacking the Chamber. Right on timing, Platinum gets a call that the Doctor casually encourages her to take, which is her superior telling her to back down and refrain from harming them lest they provoke one of the governing bodies. To add insult to injury, the Doctor even asks Platinum to have tea with them after completely foiling her assassination attempt. This entire series of events is so jarring for Platinum that all she can do is ask in disbelief if the Doctor had set everything up ahead of time, before retreating once Amiya shows up.
    Gravel: An Armorless and a campaign knight are having tea together because of you, Doctor. You're really full of surprises.
    • When Platinum meets Amiya, for a split second she considers killing Amiya on the spot. However, she immediately has a premonition of what will happen to her if she continues to try and fight, and is implied to be so intimidated by Amiya's potential that she totally abandons the idea after realizing she won't be able to even draw an arrow before disaster strikes. This rejection is so fast that not even Gravel can detect any hostility from Platinum.
  • Their friendly conversations with Gravel are so thought-provoking that she ultimately ends up joining Rhodes Island of her own volition so she can continue to be their bodyguard.
  • The flavor text in the achievement system used for this event shows that with every little contribution Rhodes Island makes, the more all the factions of Kazimierz appreciates and values their presence. Spokesman McKee in particular ends up approaching the Doctor personally for advice when your reputation with the KGCC improves to a certain point.
• Malkiewicz shows that he has truly grown into his newfound authority during this event - he takes a stand and drags Ingra the Brassrust into serious legal trouble over the way he agitated the Infected Knight Jamie into killing himself with Arts abuse, impresses his predecessor Czarny with his resourcefulness and competence, and keeps a tight hold on his morals despite the corruption and skullduggery rampant around him.
  • Mr Czarny in turn chooses to honor Malkiewicz's deal on his own terms by poisoning himself to deny the K.G.C.C. the chance to send assassins after him, while still allowing his predecessor to report that he would hold his silence on any outstanding concerns.
• One of the additional epilogue scenes shows that when Rhodes Island ended up dragged into a fight with the Armorless Union when Platinum's attempt to quit being an assassin was rejected, it took only two operators to hold off Monique the Lazurite, being none other than Gravel and the Medic Instructor Touch. Another one shows Mlynar flat out threatening the Darksteel to call off the Armorless Union and instruct them to cease attacking his nieces and Rhodes Island, and having his threat taken seriously.
• Margaret's personal quest is shown to continue in her operator records, which takes place shortly after the ending of the main narrative of Near Light. The record details that Margaret stood up to her own uncle Liam, who was one of the Silverlance Pegasi campaign knights, in order to extend her protection to a number of Infected that were displaced and homeless at the end of the Kazimierz Major. While she had already done the paperwork to cement the stand and position she has taken to protect the Infected, she understood that her Uncle wanted to test her resolve and strength, and accepted his request to duel on the spot. One of the Infected present, who was a Knight himself and still resented the fact that her status as non-Infected was kept a secret, had trouble following the initial clashes between the Radiant Knight and the Silverlance Pegasi, as such was their speed and skill. Ultimately, Liam supports his niece's conviction and skill and accedes to her requests, letting the Infected enter Grand Knight Territory under her protection, and he even compliments her on putting a practical twist to what he considered the excessively flamboyant nature of a Competition Knight's fighting style.

"Break the Ice"

• The sheer scope and execution of SilverAsh and Gnosis' Batman Gambit, and the Gambit Pileup that it relies on. Every piece falls into place perfectly according to Enciodes' design, and if it wasn't for the Doctor's interference, he would have overturned all of Kjerag in the blink of an eye. To elaborate:
  • Gnosis plays the part of the villain who is fired by SilverAsh for violent insubordination, using his 0% Approval Rating to his advantage as he "defects" to the Browntails to overthrow Enciodes out of seeming spite; selectively feeding them information, convincingly playing against SilverAsh by blowing up one of his trains, planting Monch as a mole, and taking advantage of Sciurus' desire to be in the spotlight. In fact, although he had to Kick the Dog to do so, he even decieved Monch herself by not telling her the full extent of his plan, taking advantage of her Undying Loyalty to ensure she genuinely believed it to be justice for Gnosis and not just a ruse.
  • During the leadup to the Holy Hunt, SilverAsh decides to follow the traditional way of climbing Mount Karlan, which involves walking to the peak on foot without food or water while praying constantly. He does this for over a day without resting, but this alone wins him the favor of much of the population.
  • SilverAsh brings the Doctor and Rhodes Island to Kjerag and gives the impression of trying to replace Gnosis using the Doctor, making the Paleroches keep a close eye on the Doctor, which in turn leaves them wide open to SilverAsh's plan until it's too late.
  • Sciurus trusts Monch with a plan to upstage Ratatos, only for her to attempt to assassinate SilverAsh and get captured. Sciurus pleads for mercy for her servant, but this only succeeds in tying her to the assassination plot, throwing herself and the Browntails into the fire. With the Browntails taken care of, SilverAsh launches the full force of his plan when the Great Elder falls ill to poison from the cup given to him by Arctosz, allowing him to accuse the Paleroches of trying to overthrow the Vine-Bear Court for power; this poison was in turn planted by Arctosz's general Valais, who was convinced to defect in order to avenge her late father's death at the Great Elder's hands. In the span of minutes, he manages to discredit both of his rival parties and turn them into public enemies, while also eliminating the Vine-Bear Court as a threat to his ascent.
  • Gnosis seals the deal when he launches a reckless assassination attempt on SilverAsh and fanatically denounces his ideals and actions, hammering in the idea that he's been conspiring with the other two clans to overthrow SilverAsh and seize Kjerag for themselves. The end result is a setup that is so successful and watertight that he has the entire Kjerag population crying for the heads of the Browntails and Paleroches.
• Of course, Rhodes Island and the Doctor show their ingenuity when they manage to derail SilverAsh's plans and stop him from seizing full control over Kjerag, foiling years of planning in the span of days.
  • From the get-go, they're so unflappable that Degenbrecher of all people warned SilverAsh about the Doctor in advance, noting how they showed no fear despite the sudden events.
  • The Doctor manages to make a plan and catalyze the demoralized and defeated Browntails and Paleroches into action, with Sciurus leading an assault to rescue her husband Yucatan from captivity and Arctosz leading the charge alongside the Doctor themselves. All of these are bait for an army led by Sharp to scale the mountain unopposed...and even that is a decoy for Cliffheart to sneak past all of the chaos alone and rescue Pramanix.
  • Sharp shows the power of an Elite Operator by handily thrashing all of SilverAsh's warriors, including Courier and the Tschäggättäs, and then going toe-to-toe with the legendary Black Knight.
  • Cliffheart climbs the legendary Mount Karlan all by herself, with nothing more than a climbing pick and her resolve to see her sister again. Not climbing up the path - climbing up the side of the mountain. All of her practice wasn't for nothing.
  • When the Great Elder goes on a Motive Rant about how Kjerag can only survive through the stagnation caused by blind faith, Pramanix delivers a gentle, but firm Shut Up, Hannibal!, asserting that faith can change more than he thinks, and Kjerag's stagnation was only because the Vine-Bear Court willed it out of fear of change, and as a means of keeping the population under their thumb. She rejects the ideals he tries to force onto her and her position as the Court's puppet, stating that she serves Kjerag as a whole instead of them, and heads out to face her brother on her own terms.
  • Pramanix reunites with her sister and, with the help of a miracle from the goddess Kjera, ends the entire conflict with her mere presence as she gains the will to descend down the mountain. She then asserts her role as the Saintess of Kjerag and her duty to lead the nation, and all of the parties, her brother included, immediately kneel to her in reverence.
  • At the end of the event, the Doctor and Enciodes play a game of chess, with it fittingly ending in a stalemate. In the end, SilverAsh still got what he wanted in the form of a Kjerag no longer torn by politics nor bound by religious stagnation, led by Pramanix who, while opposed with some of his beliefs, also believes in the need for change. However, the Doctor was able to change his plan, placing Kjerag in the hands of the Saintess instead of him, and even averting the casualties he thought would be unavoidable. This is what earns the Doctor his utmost respect to the present day, and what ultimately led to him offering his services to Rhodes Island.
  • And the capper of all of this? The Doctor knew going in during the span of just a few hours of arriving and being detained the entirety of SilverAsh's plan, deducing it from pure happenstance, and is able to recount it as the motions were made that they were able to confound Kjera, a God in Human Form, as she watched beside them. Then the Doctor managed to take that information, and turn what could of been a bloody conflict with countless dead into an Everyone Lives scenario that gives everyone what they wanted. It's no wonder that the Doctor is so respected and feared by all who know of their reputation.
• Ratatos Browntail demonstrates her courage when she hatches a plan to trap SilverAsh and herself in a burning building in order to kill them both, using knowledge of his parents' death as bait. Even with the assurance of suffering an immensely painful death by fire, and even knowing that she cannot repair the damage to her clan's name, Ratatos was perfectly willing to go down as long as she took her enemy down with her.
  • SilverAsh one-ups this again by figuring out it's a trap and intentionally going anyways, totally unflappable even as the house is burning around him. At the same time, he manages to find out the truth of his parents' death, have a heart-to-heart with Ratatos where it's implied he manages to partially sell her on his ideals, seize nearly total support of Ratatos' clan, and project the image of a merciful leader when he spares Ratatos in front of her people who at this point, mind you, have been won over so thoroughly that they're calling for the execution of their own leader.
• The Black Knight Degenbrecher finally makes her first on-screen appearance, and she doesn't waste any time demonstrating that she earned her legendary reputation:
  • When Gulo and his men are accosting the Rhodes Islanders to take the Doctor to Silverash territory, their aggression and assurance instantly deflates the instant Degenbrecher appears, with Gulo immediately falling silent and listening to her directions. Her aura is so threatening that Sharp, an Elite Operator, instinctively feels a need to draw his weapon when seeing her - and she feels the same way about him.
  • She effortlessly pins a hostile Gnosis before he can even launch a proper attack on Enciodes.
  • During Ratatos' aforementioned trap, Degenbrecher arrives at the estate, which has heavily armored walls and was designed to be an impenetrable death trap. Her response is to draw her swordbreakers and tear through the wall like paper anyways.
  • Under Enciodes' orders, she moves in to intercept the Doctor's march on Mount Karlan, only to be met by a disguised Sharp, leading to this exchange:
    Degenbrecher: I am not Enciodes. The admiration and respect of my enemies mean nothing to me. The only thing I need of my enemies is for them to be strewn across the ground.
    Sharp: Then you're in luck. You've got a whole army of opponents right in front of you.
    Degenbrecher: You're the only one in this crowd worthy of being my opponent.
  • Sharp vs. the Black Knight. Their fight lays waste to the the surrounding environment as both fighters move faster than the naked eye can see, but neither of them are able to gain an advantage until Degenbrecher draws her swordbreakers, overpowering Sharp and maiming his arm. Even though he was forced to concede, Sharp still succeeds in stalling Degenbrecher long enough for the Doctor's plan to come to fruition, and even manages to earn the Black Knight's respect with his strength and professionalism.
  • All of this, and the Black Knight is implied to still not be at her full strength. She decided against using her signature greatsword to avoid scaring the locals, and is still this strong with weapons she's less comfortable with.
  • Even the Doctor, who is a master tactician, could only come up with "distracting her" as a plan to deal with Degenbrecher. As Sharp mentions, she's so frighteningly powerful that even the Doctor knows there was simply no way to stop her from single-handedly foiling any plan that didn't have a way of pulling her out of it.

"Invitation to Wine"

• The major revelations of how the Great Lung of Yan managed to defeat the powerful Sui Xiang entity and shatter it, ultimately resulting in the creation of Nian and her siblings, shows how much raw might Yan can bring to bear if the situation demands it. The various officials are shown to be either brilliant planners like Miss Ning and the Great Tutor, or Elite-level combatants like Leizi's colleague Taihe and his nephew.
• Kroos, now in her Keen Glint incarnation, proves that she can really throw down with the best of them as she tussles with some of the locals, and even escapes attempts to keep her stuck in a teahouse. She also demonstrates that despite her upbringing in Columbia, she can still talk down a fellow Rim Bilitonese like Blacknight, who was about to try and capture a small spirit, having mistaken it for an animal.
• Confronting an image of the greater Sui Xiang, with Nian and Dusk unable to do much against it, Ling dispels the image as though it were an illusion.
• The Imprisoned Sibling, one of Nian, Dusk, and Ling's fellow godlings, set forth a very long-scale and almost successful plan to force the greater Sui Xiang to reincarnate, in a manner that his siblings had difficulty countering.

"A Light Spark in Darkness"

• Haze manages to talk Susie out of suicide when she reaches her Despair Event Horizon, and Susie later returns the favor when she gets Haze medical assistance when she's about to die of an acute Oripathy attack. Her conversations with Haze, along with encouragement from Grani and Quercus, is what convinced Susie to join Rhodes Island as the Operator Goldenglow.
• Red the Redblade is revealed to not only be THE Crimson Avenger of Reunion, but he is still focused on their present, more moderate stance of supporting other Infected. He pops into the plot to help Susie out several times, culminating in him tossing Susie over a fissure and staying behind to hold off the hired goons chasing her, drawing his blade and cutting them down with little trouble.
  • A number of his compatriots still don the old Reunion symbol to serve as a decoy, pretending to be the only Reunion remnants left in Ursus while the rest of Nine's group can rally in order to investigate Theresis in Victoria.
• When Haze is seemingly about to die of Oripathy, she passes on her title as a witch of the Witch Forest onto a young Infected girl she was helping. This later pays off when the mafia members Grani is chasing break into her house, where she promptly uses what Haze taught her to drive them off and straight into Grani's clutches.
  • Furthermore, Haze has been wandering for so long that she's broken out of prison seventeen times across a myriad of cities and settlements, all while suffering from untreated Oripathy.
• Grani shows that she still has an influence in the Victorian police body even after she left the force, as she turns up to help collect evidence and arrest the corrupt cops that aided and abetted Count Bishmer's scheme.
  • When her superior (who is in cahoots with the Count) obstructs her investigation into the events and belittles her one too many times, Grani coldly reminds him that she technically shares a rank with him, and thus he has no right to order her around. When he threatens to report her to the Duke, Grani simply dares him to do so before storming out.
  • When she appears at the Boil to interrogate some suspects, nine armed men decide to gang up on her. She proceeds to effortlessly curb-stomp all of them before chasing the last two through the city, eventually using an Arts-powered lance blow to pierce ten centimeters of concrete wall in order to force them out of hiding. All the while, she isn't even fazed by her numbers disadvantage, merely noting it as a source of extra paperwork.
• Skyfire proves her boasts about her talent with Fire-based Arts are not just for show when a bunch of mercenaries mistake her for a certain noble and kidnap her. She patiently waits until she's heard enough of their scheme, then effortlessly burns through the ropes restraining her and wipes out all of the kidnappers with a meteoric fire blast, while also showing enough precision to avoid detonating the nearby bombs or harming the other victims.
• Quercus shows off her power when she uses her Arts to conjure up vines to easily restrain the goons that are standing in her way, making them back off immediately. She later ups this by creating vines thick enough to pry open collapsed rubble, tearing open the ground to rescue Susie.
• Count Bishmer finally comes face-to-face with Susie and, while initially bold enough to slap her and belittle her, is soon reduced to sniveling and begging for mercy as Susie snaps and electrocutes him to near-death, before Quercus snaps her out of it and leaves Bishmer at the mercy of the authorities. After everything Susie went through because of Count Bishmer's machinations and all of the suffering he caused to the Infected out of petty greed, it's immensely cathartic to see his comeuppance at the hands of the girl whose dream he ruined.
• A Reunion squad led by Red meets with Cannot to trade for parts to finish their aircraft, only for Cannot to reveal that the parts are being held by an Ursus military convoy. Despite the convoy being armed to the teeth and Reunion calling him mad for even trying this, his Rusthammer backers appear and effortlessly destroy the convoy despite having far more primitive tools and weapons, securing Reunion the goods.

"Guide Ahead"

• Ezell goes to impressive lengths to ensure Cecilia isn't left alone or harmed throughout the entire sidestory, in spite of the task going above and beyond his usual range of responsibilites and qualifications. He takes detours, ends up giving up his leave, and is heavily hinted to be willing to protest the decisions of his superiors just to make sure he can continue to protect her. By the end of the sidestory, the Pope himself gives Ezell the official task to escort and protect Cecilia as she departs Laterano for her personal journey, as he has full confidence in the Notarial Hall rookie.
• Federico, or rather Executor, pulls a really impressive Big Damn Heroes moment when he bails Ezell out of trouble when Oren and a bunch of Pathfinders make trouble for the rookie on his day off. Having your leave cancelled by your superior isn't supposed to come with a moment where you strike a really badass pose back-to-back with him, but getting to do it is almost worth giving up your break.
• The Pope shows that he is capable of some impressive feats. Politically, he has the clout to invite foreign dignitaries to come to Laterano from all over Terra for a peaceful conference. Personally, in spite of his advanced age, he is still spry enough to defend himself when Andoain resorts to violence when they meet at the climax of the story, and not fall from pointing his weapon at a fellow Sankta.
  • The Pope also offhandedly mentions a Noodle Incident where he caused some property damage to the Basilica during an arm-wrestling competition, where he claims to have been only doing wrist exercises. Not only does this mean he's physically strong enough to destroy architecture and furniture without even trying, but he also won a Basilica arm-wrestling competition where some of the participants are implied to be Apostolic Knights.
• Lemuen is repeatedly stated to be one of the best shots in Laterano despite her injuries, and she proves her credentials when she shoots Andoain's gun out of his hand with a sniper rifle, from a faraway rooftop, while still wheelchair-bound. And that's not even mentioning how she somehow got onto the roof in her wheelchair.

"Stultifera Navis"

• The Animated Teaser for this 3rd Anniversary Sidestory shows off Specter rediscovering her true power with the recovery of her lost memories gloriously, while Skadi runs interference on the Seaborn trying to engage her. She then takes up her old saw and starts sweeping away the Seaborn with the easy strength of an Abyssal Hunter.
• Inquisitor Dario protects the last Eye of Iberia with his life, and in doing so, taught the otherwise fearless Sea Terrors to fear him, even in death, with the Sea Terrors giving his standing corpse a wide berth.
• Jordi, despite being left to his devices with nothing but the knowledge handed to him by his parents, ends up keeping the Last Eye of Iberia running beautifully up until the Penal Battalion arrives to provide relief, with Kal'tsit in tow.
• Elysium keeps his wits despite being menaced by the cultists of the Church of the Deep, and ends up escaping when they get ambushed by Mon3ter. He helps Jordi stay out of the clutches of the Church of the Deep, too.
• The Last Knight of Kazimierz is still around, and clings fiercely to his sense of humanity despite being turned into a Seaborn. His faithful steed, Rociante, stays by his side despite suffering the same fate.
• Ulpianus's machinations throughout the event, despite being at odds with Gladiaa's plans to return to Aegir, turn out to be extremely vital, as he reveals a lot of information about the Leviathan Ishar-Mla, who was slain by his squad. His request that Gladiaa put off her plans to return to Aegir saves the timeline, as he cuts off one of the possibilities highlighted in Integrated Strategies 3, where the Church of the Deep, having infested Aegir proper, would have taken action if Skadi had returned to Aegir alongside Gladiaa, and end up having the blood of Ishar-Mla within her awakened.

"Lingering Echoes"

• Ebenholz and the others track down Gertrude to the Afterglow Hall and immediately discern her plan. And although it doesn't accomplish much in the end, Ebenholz manages to defeat Gertrude in single combat - an impressive standing for an amateur who spent most of his life locked in a tower.
• Czerny goes outside in the middle of a poison gas attack to negotiate for the treatment of the Infected who were severely injured by the gas despite being Infected himself. He even goes so far as to sign over all of his copyrights as collateral just to convince the hospitals to take them, and successfully returns home in one piece.
• Czerny's sheer determination to finish what he believes to be his final piece, with the full intention of taking both Ebenholz and Kreide's Voices of Terra into himself to save them at the cost of his life. This man is bleeding from the mouth, facing the utter hopelessness instilled by a curse from the world's most powerful Sorcerous Overlord, and aware that the process will likely kill him - and not only does he end up twisting it into a triumphant journey of self-realization, he succeeds. No wonder why even Gertrude was forced to concede that he was a musician without compare.
• Even faced with the terror and nihilism of the Voice of Terra, Kreide manages to take both of them into himself, then retain enough sanity and goodwill to hold on until he's outside the hall to spare the onlookers, give Ebenholz a life-changing speech, and beg Ebenholz to kill him. Only then does he transform into a monster that Ebenholz is forced to put down. Gertrude is left in utter disbelief at Kreide's sheer willpower and dedication, before Biegler decides he's had enough and finishes her off.

"Ideal City"

• Gavial and Eunectes, having lost their way in the caverns and unable to find the lift down to the Durin city, make their way down via jumping into the dark unknown depths. They make it in record time too, complete with Avdotya in tow.
• Amongst the things Gavial does at the Durin's seemingly-endless summer festival include some of her more over-the-top feats seen in the animated trailer:
  • Using her tail-held chainsaw-bladed axe, she slices watermelons in midair with enough precision to make the cut slices fall into a decorative arrangement.
  • Her cooking on the grill is done with so much style, she can twirl and make the flames swirl into a small firestorm under her control.
  • She can launch a beach volleyball via her tail with so much force that the shockwave carries across the beach, toppling Stitch's sandcastle and frustrating him.

"Dorothy's Vision"

• Saria continues from where she left off in Mansfield Break as a one-Vouire wrecking machine, casually smashing down prototype unmanned combat armor that can give normal operators a hard time in combat with her Arts and her fists. She also demonstrates the control to check her punch when the Doctor warns her to hold back, breaking Muelyse out of the suit she was imprisoned in instead of accidentally killing her. This also demonstrates the Doctor's ability to read the battlefield and people, quickly figuring out Muelsyse's situation in a matter of seconds from when the armored suits begin moving to fight.
• Greyy demonstrates that his growth into the Lightningbearer has given him the maturity and skill worthy of a full-fledged operator as he fearlessly faces down Dorothy's experimental masterpiece in the climax, giving Ptilopsis and Dorothy the time they need to stop it from causing more destruction.
• Astgenne demonstrates her cunning, guts, and willpower, as she stands up to Ferdinand in the climax and stalls him long enough for Kirsten and Saria to send Rhine Labs security to detain him.

"Il Siracusano"

• Signora Sicilia's reputation of having brought Guns and Order from Laterano to Siracusa is pretty impressive in light of how difficult the event shows it to attempt to bring the Mafia Families under control. Additional side dialogue from Gambino and Capone shows that she was harsh enough to even destroy her own Family in order to enforce control.
• Lappland throws countless monkey wrenches of the Mafia Family plots, preventing them from starting too much open violence while gleefully following Texas around the city. She disrupts a trial, interferes with several assassination attempts, and crashes the Opera.
  • 'Disrupting' the trial is putting it lightly. Rather, Lappland proved that she is legitimately psychotic by driving a truck clean through the courtroom wall. This especially serves to emphasize how literally fearless Lappland is, because the Courts of Siracusa are direct symbols of Signora Sicilia's authority over Siracusa. As if rejecting Signora Sicilia's personal invitation isn't enough, she then proceeds as good as burn her flag!
  • In the epilogue, after satisfying her obsession with Texas by having a duel with her, she encounters Zaaro in the wilderness and spends three whole months fighting him, resisting both his physical strength and force of will the entire time. Lappland proves so tough, so unbreakable, and so incomprehensible to Zaaro that in the end the only thing he can do is submit to her instead.
• Old Don Bellone's most impressive feat involves him deliberately throwing the Great Game the wolf spirits of Siracusa were playing by engineering a situation where the Families would lose power and influence over the newborn Mobile City being constructed in Siracusa. While it requires that he die, the way he stymies Zaaro and opens the way for Lavinia and his own son to take up his torch makes even his death scene impressive.
• The Emperor shows up in the climax to not only stop Zaaro from massacaring mortals, he also takes the time to show that he, unlike Zaaro, was able to change with the times and adapt to the world, by transforming himself from a Leithanian musician into a Columbian rap superstar. He also brought Zaaro's kin, who were unhappy that the old Wolf was a sore loser who broke the rules of their Great Game and forced him to retreat. In the face of a strong ancient Wolf Spirit, this immortal penguin shows that he has absolutely no fear of them.
• Sora's new EPOQUE skin comes from this event, and it demonstrates how skillful and charismatic she is that she can transition from a cutesy Lungmen/Higashi-style pop music idol into a stylish Siracusan opera songbird without losing her appeal.

"What the Firelight Casts"

• Once Reed comes to terms with her Draco heritage and accepts that her sister truly wanted her to grow into her own person, her Arts transform as she figures out how to use her inner fire to heal people, in addition to using them to counter her sister's flames that were reanimating the dead of Dublinn to continue fighting beyond their mortal lives. This development also neatly explains her transformation in-character into an Incantation Medic, exchanging her spear for an Arts staff of healing, and marks the start of her new role as the Shadow Leader of Dublinn, who will take care of the people and protect them, where Eblana leads the military.

"Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow"

• The duel between Chongyue and Huai Tianpei. Even in VN form, the duel is an incredible clash between two true masters of kungfu. And even though Huai Tianpei ultimately loses, having only managed to land a single hit on him... well, Chongyue puts it best:
  Chongyue: My duel with him, you ask? He trained for forty years, and landed a single heavy blow on me. But how many comings and goings of spring and autumn have I trained? All things considered, I was the one who lost.

"Flurry to the Flame"

• Yato and Noir Corne are shown to as talented and skilled as their profiles suggested. They're able to quickly piece together the truth of the circumstances behind the sudden onslaught of Oripathy amongst the locals, and are able to hold their own against Rathalos even before they get their equipment.
• The crossover event itself proves to faithfully capture the mood and feel of a hunting expedition from Monster Hunter, clad in the guise of an investigation being carried out by Rhodes Island.

"Lone Trail"

• The Doctor shows that Sideroca's diligent attempts at getting them to attend physiotherapy and their commitment to caring for their operators when Loken angers them to the point that they physically haul off and strike Loken. At this moment, the only things the player can choose from are the options to punch, kick, or slap Loken, indicating that not only is the Doctor fiercely protective of their operators, they are willing to commit to violence themselves if their antagonist is sufficiently unpleasant.
• Saria continues to show off her absurd strength, surviving a direct hit from an anti-tank rifle and getting back up not long after, taking down Ho'olheyak, Muelsyse and Kristen in single combat, and (with a bit of help from Muelsyse) surviving a fall from orbit. At the same time, she also once again proves that she's a through and through Genius Bruiser by piloting an experimental craft into low orbit in the middle of a warzone, and hotwiring a power armor on the fly so that Ifrit can pilot it to help Silence.
• Rosmontis and Ifrit prove that the time spent with Rhodes Island has helped them grow and mature. Ifrit has gotten even taller, has total control over her Fire-based Arts, and even (somewhat) learnt how to drive, and is on the path to becoming an Elite Operator with Rhodes Island. Rosmontis has gained more control over her emotions, such that it takes less effort to help her manage her anger, and her mastery over her combat style has improved to the point where she can wield her blunt swords indoors with less collateral damage than ever before. Together they help the Doctor solve problems and confront the ghosts of their past at Rhine Labs.
  • When Rosmontis loses control thanks to Loken's meddling, Ifrit fearlessly dives into her psychokinetic storm and almost instantly manages to calm her down with a short pep talk about the things she looks forward to in life. She later does the same thing to snap Silence out of her Heroic BSoD after witnessing Parvis' death.
  • Rosmontis demonstrats how much she's developed from her Black-and-White Insanity by refusing to kill Loken out of revenge, instead watching him die naturally and forgetting him, both moving on from her past and denying him his last wish of engraving himself into her memory.
• Realizing how much she's relied on Saria and her mentors, Silence affirms her ideals and takes matters into her own hands, searching for a way to stop Project Horizon Arc even if she has to come to blows with Jara and her old mentor Parvis.
  • Parvis also showcases his own mad resolve when Silence destroys his Transmitter hub he was using to control Kristen's flight, unflinchingly sacrificing himself and using his own mind in place of the hub to ensure Kristen succeeds.
• Ferdinand shows his willpower as the Galleria Stellaria is crashing and burning, ignoring the risk of death and even Blake's forces holding him at gunpoint to do what he sees as truly meaningful - salvaging as much of Kristen's miracle data as possible and bringing it to land so it can be used for scientific progress.
  Colonel, do you know how to stop a curious scientist? You either satisfy him, or you kill him.
• After seemingly killing the Tin Man with the help of Nasti's Banshee curses, Ho'olheyak gets an unpleasant surprise when he turns out to be Not Quite Dead, and effortlessly subdues her when she tries to interfere with the Doctor and Kal'tsit's plans.
• Kristen Wright ultimately triumphs and manages to do what she always wanted to in the end, even with the Columbian Union Army, the Maylander Association, and Saria after her. She manages to pierce the heavens and ultimately reveal the truth of the false sky to the entire world, such that even the Seaborn in Iberia pause what they were doing to observe the new developments in the heavens above them. Even faced with a near certain death, she falls asleep peacefully, having achieved her lifelong dream and paved a path for Terra's future.
  If, in a century or a millennium, our descendants walk among the stars, the masses will sing her praises.

"Come Catastrophes or Wake of Vultures"

• Jessica manages to cling to her idealistic and caring heart despite all the terrible things she has endured since Chernobog and Victoria, and shows how much she's grown as a person, as she ultimately decides to make a stand and side with the impoverished townspeople of Davistown in defiance of the bank's brutal pressure being applied to encourage them to leave and become Pioneers. As her career at Blacksteel became an obstacle to her ideals, she straight-up resigns and even goes so far as to help the townsfolk with their final defiant kick at the bank's side by robbing it to steal their ill-gotten gains back. She even manages to stall her former colleagues from pursuing the townsfolk all by herself.

Character-Related

• Throughout numerous parts of in-game cutscenes and lore, it was shown quite often that Rhodes Island operators are VERY talented and overqualified at their job, with the higher rarity operators being a veritable One-Man Army on their own. The list includes:
  • Skadi showing up and easily making a short work of both bounty hunters and Reunion forces alike in her and Grani's event, while showing no visible efforts doing so.
  • Vigna single-handedly clearing out the city hall of Cronin's security forces despite being a 4★ operator. She was so unimpressed by their lack of combat prowess that she compared their fighting ability to that of originium slugs after she knocked them around.
  • Hellagur doing the same in a previous encounter against Cronin's forces while also tackling Schwarz at the same time.
  • Hoshiguma handling an entire squad of Reunion casters single-handedly within 30 seconds. This in spite of her class not suited for tanking Arts damage that well.
  • Platinum was a part of an anti-armor squad before she joined you. Specifically, a team of assassins specializing in killing Knights from the same order Nearl used to be a part of. With a bow. That's the same as being very good at blowing up tanks by throwing rocks at them. In the 2.5 Anniversary PV we see her and Nearl clashing. Three words: Cool vs. Awesome.
  • Shining's files indicate that she defeated an entire enemy platoon singlehandedly when she had no choice but to draw her sword. Her mere presence alone is fearsome enough that every enemy she has stood against so far has immediately backed down, even the likes of the Lazurite assassins of the Armorless Union.
  • Suzuran demonstrates her potential during the riots in Wolumonde by using her fledgling Arts to hold back the entire crowd by herself, standing up to the few agitators and calling for everyone to calm down.
  • Cardigan impressed several veteran operators in her backstory with her determination, when she travelled a great distance overnight to seek rescuers and medical support for Steward and Adanachiel.
  • During the Monthly Logs for Integrated Strategies, Ceobe reveals that she has the strength to lift the massive sledgehammer of the Rusthammers, and she only discards it because it was too bulky and cumbersome for her to carry around.
  • Degenbrecher won the Kazimierz Major three times in a row, with her third victory serving as a huge middle finger against the KGCC for thinking they could control her. She then promptly fends off the multitudes of assassins sent to try and stop her, and she does it with ease. Not even the dreaded Darksteel manages to stop her, with Degenbrecher managing to single-handedly block several of his exceptionally lethal arrows, a feat that required Nearl and Shining to work together to block one. The end result? Degenbrecher only gets barely scratched, and the only things she actually lose are her greatsword and her trophy, which doesn't bother her in the slightest.
• For the Phenomenal Agents sequence of Ambience Synesthesia 2022, Tequila singlehandedly saved Nian's spy movie by encouraging Phantom, Reed, and Mudrock to put their own touch on the roles they played, improvising just enough to save the movie despite Nian's overeager and off-key writing and characterizations.
• In Texas the Omertosa's Promotion Record, Emperor recounts how he first met Texas, and basically founded Penguin Logistics so that she could regain a spark of life by keeping busy. The awesome part? When Texas asks if Columbia is the reason why Emperor likes rap, his reply is simple, but momentous. From anyone else, it's a baseless, self-aggrandizing boast... but from Emperor? It's most likely fact:
  Emperor: No, I'm the reason Columbia likes rap.

Gameplay

• Some Operators have skills that are so absurdly powerful that activating them becomes an awesome moment in itself. Activating Exusiai's Overloading Mode to turn everything in sight into grated cheese, using Eyjafjalla's Volcano to instantly melt an armored Reunion squad, deleting enemies with Ch'en and her S2/S3, using SilverAsh's Truesilver Slash to wipe a horde off the face of the planet, the list goes on.
  • On the defensive end of the scale, several operators can make holding off the enemy a spectacle. Cuora with her second skill active becomes immensely tough, allowing her to just pin enemies down in her lane right where your snipers and casters need them. Gummy can sustain herself and stall enemies impressively, given that her frying pan also has a chance to stun them when she takes a swing between heals. Pushers like Weedy, FEater and Shaw can keep enemies trapped simply by shoving them back up the lane. Gravel can just airdrop into the fray only when needed, then leave and repeat as needed later in the fight. Emnity Guards like Hellagur, Utage, and Akafuyu can lock down a single tough opponent and sustain themselves while doing so. With careful use of defensive plays, prospective Doctors can control the flow of battle and maximise the time their Casters and Snipers get to unload on their opponents.
• Taking down a boss enemy, especially on the final stage on each chapter, is always a great moment; more so if they happen to be That One Boss. However, arguably just as good as taking them down is finding strategies/units that can rip them apart in an instant.
  • Combining these two points is a pretty fun and awesome thing to do, especially combined with Saria's third skill and or Angelina's. For laymen, this means you're making them basically stand still while SilverAsh and Eyja are still shwing-shwing-ing and spewing lava at them, which is the more fun if you're dealing with wraiths.
  • The collections from Integrated Strategy can provide advantage to your team in a wide variety of ways. Ranging from more initial DP cost to stat buffs and all the way to skill cooldown buff. Pairing with the right operators of with the right skills can give the player a pleasant surprise because their operator can trounce the enemy with ease, especially from the less popular operators.
• Completing any given battle with a minimum number of operators is an amazing feat in itself. Rather than using a full squad of operators to bring down enemies, you take a handful of highly-trained and heavily-equipped Elite Operators (Elite 2 promotion with high experience levels, Mastery 3 skill, Customized Module Equipped) and through use of superior tactics, bring down dozens of foes without any of them managing to get past (up to four hundred of them during Annihilation Missions). Guard's in-story warning to Nine about her attempt to take Talulah from the Rhodes Island Landship being doomed, should as few as three Elite Operators be on board, seemingly acknowledges this potential of the Doctor and Operators to best overwhelming odds. And yes, this extends to the concept of Trust Grinding missions, where this handful of Elites allows a number of inexperienced operators to tag along and do nothing but observe them in action live on the battlefield, in order to hype them up and build their trust in the abilities of Rhodes Island and the Doctor.
• Operation Basepoint, the twelth and final season of Contingency Contract before its hiatus. It's a tremendous Call-Back to CC Beta where it all began, with a new boss version of the infamous Hateful Avenger who is outright confirmed to be the same one that was defeated all the way back in the Area 59 Ruins. But more amazingly, the trailer for the event features snippets of every prior CC season, which are actually taken from the current world records for the max risk clears from every CC, complete with URL links to the original recordings - immortalizing the game's greatest challengers and their hard work in an official trailer.
  • When Operation Basepoint hit global servers, the trailer was noticeably different from the CN trailer depending on which server it was for (EN, JP, KR), with the footage changed to feature runs from their respective regions, with a particular focus on niche/restricted clears instead of just max risk (as showcased here). Hypergryph/Yostar could have easily made do with a simple translation of the CN trailer, but went the extra mile to commemmorate players and trailblazers from all over the world.

Other

Animated Adaptation

Episode 1

As a retelling of parts of the prologue from the game, some moments were embellished, and others were re-timed to fine-tune the pacing. Plenty of high points are brought out of this:

• Dobermann introduces herself by reinforcing Amiya's squad, helping to bail them out from an initial attempt to encircle them by Reunion's thugs.
• When another bunch of Reunion members attempt another more successful ambush, Ace drops in with a flashbang and immediately sweeps them aside, as befitting his status as one of Rhodes Island's Elite Operators. The lead-up to the ambush also sees the Doctor reveal their keen tactical senses, as they try to warn Dobermann against stepping out into said ambush after suspecting something off about their position leaving the tunnels. Said warning meant that instead of being killed by crossbow bolts, the one operator who was dropped managed to survive despite being turned into a pincushion since he was able to react to the attack.
• As Amiya despairs over the her potential inability to save a woman and her daughter from a more bloodthirsty Reunion thug and his large host of comrades, the Doctor immediately reveals that their tactical acumen is still there in spite of their amnesia, by offering to take command with PRTS support. With a multi-phase plan, the small squad of Rhodes Island operators present are able to defeat all the Reunion thugs present and save the woman and her child, all without any more combat losses:
  1. The Vanguards lead by picking off the Reunion scouts from a protected angle, taking advantage of a tipped-over van as shelter from the crossbow bolts shot at them by Reunion snipers.
  2. Having shot their loads, and before they could reload, Amiya begins pelting the enemy snipers with Arts from the high ground, where they are unable to retaliate. As the bloodthirsty Reunion thug takes charge and tries to command his cohorts to surround her, Dobermann leads a flanking attack that further thins their numbers.
  3. Finally, Ace and his Elite buddies helidrop on the bloodthirsty thug (and other hostage-takers) and drops him with a chokehold, rescuing the woman and child.
  • Do note that in this adaptation, the fragile state of the Doctor is more visible, as they break down coughing and unable to talk out loud moments before they take up PRTS. The very fact that they're still able to strategize a way through such an immediate threat despite being severely weakened physically says something about the Doctor themselves. No wonder why operators speak so highly of them.

Episode 2

• Nearl's entrance is suitably dynamic, as she busts into Mephisto's trap and sweeps away his men with crushing strikes from her warhammer. Her skill is such that even Faust is unable to hit her directly with his charged crossbow shots, although they're still powerful enough to drive her back several feet every time she blocks a charged bolt with her shield.
• Talulah's fiery Arts are depicted with suitably searing power, with massive streams of flame washing away everything. Players who've made it to her boss fight in the later chapters can attest to how accurately powerful the portrayal of her flame wave attacks is in the anime. The menacing click of her heels as she walks up to the camera helps sell the aura of power she exudes.

Episode 9

• FrostNova's debut this episode is done with gravitas, as she strides confidently into the scene after freezing Mephisto's macabre bonfire solid. The anime goes all out to show that she's capable of freezing communicators to the point of uselessness, and that with preparation she can cover an entire neighborhood with ice and freeze out a burning building in short order.

Episode 10

• FrostNova's power over ice is depicted with appropriate flair, with her effortlessly blocking everything Rhodes Island can throw at her with little more than simple flicks of her hand that summon massive spires and walls of ice. A single direct hit is already enough to nearly flash-freeze Frostleaf and kill her on the spot.
• After identifying Amiya as a credible threat, FrostNova decides to cast her musical incantation. We're then treated to the scene of FrostNova singing a haunting Japanese rendition of Lullabye as her powers ice everything in her surroundings, freezing bolts and spells alike out of the air as she conjures up a Flechette Storm of her infamous black ice spikes from her boss battle, each of which drains the temperature from its surrounding so thoroughly that one flash-freezes a whole building and causes it to collapse on itself. It takes everything Amiya has to just temporarily repel the attack, and even then, while Amiya is left wounded and on the verge of collapse, FrostNova simply prepares to cast a second time.
• Frostleaf's Heroic Second Wind is depicted as her managing to cast one final Arts spell of her own, disrupting the cold surrounding FrostNova long enough to temporarily neutralize her black ice. This buys enough time for the Doctor to identify the Originium crystals FrostNova has scattered around the area to drain the surrounding heat, directing Jessica and the others to shatter them and break her spell, causing her to break into a coughing fit the next time she tries to sing and giving them the opening to escape.
  • Props go to Jessica too - despite having only just overcome a Heroic BSoD thanks to Amiya's help and being as terrified of FrostNova as everyone else, she doesn't hesitate for a single second during their counterattack.

• The animated PVs, ads, or commecials for this game are well done, more so in global servers. Even if they're individually short, they're comparable to the PVs of Fate/Grand Order. One could say that Yostar and Hypergryph aren't slacking in the hype and marketing department.
  • Take this image◊ from the trailer of Episode 6: Partial Necrosis, for example. While the trailer itself contains a lot of well-animated short scenes or quick previews for the entire chapter, this could probably be the first time we're getting a glimpse of how large Kal'tsit's Mon3tr looks like in comparison to other characters.
  • Forget animated ads, the Global server's first anniversary brought Holy Knight Light, a full on OVA. 10-odd minutes of the characters' hijinks and them laying into the mafia? Hell yes!
  • You think that's awesome? What about the fact that we're getting a full Arknights anime soon? There's even an announcement up already!
• The 2nd anniversary livestream brought us this short but stunningly high-quality 3D animation of Amiya duking it out with Talulah.
• On March 18 2022, Hypergryph revealed a CG Trailer and a Gameplay Demo for a spin-off titled Arknights: Endfield. Arknights now has a real-time 3D RPG game, a sign that the franchise just keeps on expanding.
• Arknights (specifically Ambience Synesthesia 2023) winning a 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Live Concert for Virtual Media. Just in case there was any remaining doubt that Hypergryph is, indeed, a music company.