Operation guide: OD-8
| Operation | Guide | Story | Trivia |
The eighth Task Records operation of Operation Originium Dust, OD-8, titled Infiltration Battle, takes the difficulties of previous OD operations to a whole new level, to the point that it is widely regarded as one of the hardest operations in Arknights. While there are no Sandstorms to worry about, the player will face the Essence of Evolution, the first stationary boss in Arknights (so the player don't have to worry of it going for the Protection Objectives) who instead continuously spawns Originiutant Excrescences or Originiutant Tumors later on to head into the objectives at its behalf, the latter of which is particularly troublesome as the Tumors severely reduces the ASPD of friendlies blocking them, which can be detrimental since the blocking friendly usually can't kill the Tumors fast enough and other enemies can slip past them with ease!
Bursting down the Essence of Evolution is not viable either, as it takes greatly reduced damage from friendlies on certain sides to it and continuously releases a shockwave that deals Pure damage (fortunately, the shockwaves occur after a delay and telegraphed). In addition, the Essence will transform into more advanced forms as it loses HP or enough time has passed otherwise, making it spawn Excrescences and/or Tumors and release shockwaves more often; at the final Perfect form, the Essence becomes nigh-invulnerable to all but Pure damage and constantly release the shockwaves (though still having the usual telegraphed delay) in return for losing its HP over time.
The player is given three High-Energy Originium Bombs which is one of the few viable options to damage the Essence of Evolution in its Perfect form, but take note that the bombs can be attacked by ranged enemies and damaged by the Essence's shockwaves, so the player must deploy them carefully.
Due to its difficulty, it is generally not recommended to use Auto Deploy on OD-8 since the Essence of Evolution's Originiutant Excrescence/Tumor spawning are random, which can mess up the player's strategy. However, Auto Deploying OD-8 can be somewhat viable with the following strategies:
Strategy
- Squad composition
- SilverAsh or Surtr (Elite 2 Level 40+, Truesilver Slash/Twilight Mastery 3)
- Myrtle (Support β)
- Jaye (Shell Splitter)
- 1 Core Caster
- 1 Guardian Defender
- 1 Brave/Bladeweaver, Thresher, and Noble Guard
- 1 Healer and Ringhealer Medic
- 1 Rapid-Fire Sniper
- Notes
- Jaye can be replaced with Lappland (Wolf Spirit) or Ceobe ("Really Heavy Spear"), but a second Defender (preferrably Protector with good DPS) or Thresher Guard is needed to block the Originiutant Excrescences spawned by Mutant Giant Rock Spiders.
- If the Brave/Bladeweaver Guard have enough DPS to force the Essence into the Evolution form quick enough after it releases the second shockwave on the Newborn form, then the Core Caster is no longer needed and can be replaced by a ranged Operator with AoE capability (preferrably Angelina with Arcane Staff - Anti-Gravity Mode or Ifrit) to deal with the Originiutant Excrescences/Tumors.
- Haze is not recommended as the Core Caster since she will have lower HP with Crimson Eyes and can be easily KO'd by the Essence of Evolution's shockwaves, especially at the Evolution and Perfect forms.
- The Healer Medic can be replaced by a second Ringhealer Medic.