Operation guide: Destiny of We Many

Operation

Guide

One of the two possible Dreadful Foes of the 6th floor in Mizuki & Caerula Arbor which requires the player to have the Caerula Animus prior to entering it, Destiny of We Many pits the player against Skadi – who sadly has given in to the blood of the Firstborn Leviathan Ishar'mla, now known as Ishar'mla, Heart of Corruption – as the final boss. At first Skadi appears to be harmless, as instead of attacking friendly units, she heals enemy units anywhere on the map, but she will periodically spawn Ishar'mla's Tears that intermittently deals True damage to friendlies on top of it; any unoccupied ones will charge up Skadi's transformation to Ishar'mla Himself, who uses multi-targeting ranged attacks dealing True damage but (somehow) not as durable and resilient as Skadi. Should Ishar'mla fell, He will regress into Skadi who retains her HP prior to her transformation and recovers a bit of her maximum HP before repeating the process again, and she must be defeated to bring down Ishar'mla once and for all. Be wary that Skadi will be enraged, having her ATK increased (which also carries over to her transformation as Ishar'mla) and immediately spawning two Tears once her HP falls below half, and either she or Ishar'mla will deduct no less than 30 Life Points upon entering a Protection Objective, resulting in an instant failure if the player have less than 31 LP at the moment.

Unlike the previous 6th floor Dreadful Foes, Skadi/Ishar'mla's backups are not too strong (aside from Primal Sea/Nourished Piercers) and there are no handicaps at all, but Destiny of We Many is a difficult operation nonetheless, particularly due to the roguelike nature of I.S.. A solid team, a good set of Collectibles, and a significant amount of luck when building the squad is required to stand a chance against Destiny of We Many, with the preparations starting from the beginning of the Caerula Arbor run as it is imperative to build up a solid defensive lineup and coherent strategy over the course of the entire run before taking on Skadi/Ishar'mla, notably as the player needs to clear Curse of Cognition or "Fate's Favored Child" first before they can enter the 6th floor.

General strategies

• Prioritize defeating the Heart of Corruption ASAP, as the rest of the enemies are almost trivial in comparison. A squad that can clear Curse of Cognition or "Fate's Favored Child" will easily be able to handle the normal enemies.
• As Skadi does not pose a threat, the player can block her with a powerful duelist to deal as much damage as possible before she transforms. Single-block units in particular will be able to focus on Skadi without having to deal with the other enemies.
• Try to constantly keep pressure on Skadi to prevent her from refilling her HP too much.
• Deploy units on Ishar'mla's Tears to slow Skadi's transformation, although they'll need healing support to survive the bursts of True damage. Executor Specialists are useful as, although they can't survive for long, they can still occupy the Tears long enough to delay the transformation.
• If unable to quickly defeat Skadi, save burst options for when she transforms into Ishar'mla, as although He can do massive long-ranged True damage, He doesn't have nearly as much durability, allowing players to swiftly end the transformation if they act fast. Because of this, squads with enough damage output can opt to ignore managing the Tears and simply attack Ishar'mla with impunity whenever He appears.
• If possible, burst down Skadi ASAP once her HP falls below 50% and she enrages; her instantly summoned Tears will very quickly charge her transformation and the +50% ATK buff Ishar'mla gains while enraged can allow Him to decimate an entire squad if given even a small opening.