in no position to negotiate

arknights as a game is pretty forgiving of just fucking around and finding out. you can read guides and lots of people have typed lots of words about the best way to squeeze out the most digital resources but don't feel like you have to memorize all that or you fuck up your account forever, it's really not that serious. do prioritise building your base though, because it passively generates resources that make things easier long term.

if everyone is saying a unit is good then the unit is good but if everyone is saying a unit is bad don't fucking listen to them, first of all because a lot of units that got called bad turned out to be god tier if you just use them as intended, and second because every unit in this game is perfectly functional and your strategy matters far more than how strong your units are. arknights is a well designed strategy game first and gacha game second.

level your 3* units, they're cheap and completely serviceable, and their functionality is designed to teach you basic gameplay principles that higher rarity units will branch out from. they also have good base skills to help get you started.

if you just want to read visual novel arknights then feel free to follow video guides for every stage, but if you want to also play strategy game arknights then try to understand why the video uses certain units in certain ways. again, an understanding of the game mechanics will take you much further than rolling the latest powerful unit.

the monthly card is a good deal if you're not averse to spending on gacha games in general.

here's the best gameplay information resource

here's the best resource for non-gameplay information like upcoming events and external media like manhua

here's my preferred online story archive

here's the droprates database

Two 5* units

Three 4* units

Six 3* units

This is a chart that shows the cost in LMD and Battle Records for the different quality units to reach certain breakpoints:

The bottom right four numbers are to show off how much experience battle records give

The bottom numbers are the total LMD necessary to get a unit to module level- the bottom-most with a full level module too

Leveling up 3* and 4* allows you to explore what types of units do what, and if you enjoy their gameplay. 6* can have such exotic designs that they aren't always good representations of a class, and because they take so many resources to get to a serviceable point it can be a huge sink if you don't end up enjoying them or their gameplay.

sleipner

Suddenly I miss this sneki 🐍