Good Doctors, have you enjoyed Under Tides, given that we Global players have experienced its rerun right before Contingency Contract Deepness? Well, rejoice: Sal Viento Karst, while having a rather standard yet a bit confined layout, features the first group of Sea Monster enemies introduced in Under Tides, who notably can inflict Nervous Impairment that, should its build-up reaches 1000, will heavily damage and Stun the victim for a good 10 seconds, which can (and will) wreak havoc on even the strongest of Operators by leaving them helpless and taking away a good chunk of their HP, which is fatal for ranged Operators! Not helping that the Originium Zone: Inertia Contracts will extend the duration of Negative Statuses – including Stun – on friendly units that would leave Operators crippled in the event Nervous Impairment procs on them!
Now for the fun part: the enemies. As expected, the following will be a menace in Sal Viento Karst.
- Pocket Sea Crawlers: No. Just NO. These god-forsaken cretins have kicked our asses hard in Under Tides, and now we have to face them AGAIN?! Anyway, these sea urchin-like Sea Terrors may look harmless as they do not attack, but they will release a burst upon losing HP which deals and inflicts both heavy Arts damage and Nervous Impairment to friendlies around it, and while the Crawlers have no defenses at all, use Operators with high DPS to take them down at your own peril, as this will make them release their bursts at an alarmingly high frequency that literally no Operators can withstand it! Stunning or Freezing the Crawlers will make all your problems go away as they won't release their bursts when disabled and thus can be popped with impunity, but the Objective: High-Performance Separation Contracts not only makes the Crawlers immune to Stun and Freeze, but also causes their bursts to inflict greater destruction in a larger radius and released much more frequently! To further add insult to injury, the Environment: Sea Crawler Proliferation Contracts cause more Crawlers to join the swarm... you may just want to quit and slam your smartphone, laptop, or whatever in frustration at this point. Seriously.
- Basin Sea Reapers: These menacing sea anemone-like Sea Terror moves frighteningly fast, quite durable, and has an aura that causes nearby friendly units to take Arts damage and receive Nervous Impairment (which is higher than the former) over time, but fortunately starts in a passive Standby state where they move sluggishly and won't attack and emit the incapacitating aura until they enter the Combat-Ready state when attacked at which their HP also degenerates, thus stalling Reapers until they expire on their own is usually the most effective way to deal with them. Too bad for you, their namesake Contracts will make Basin Sea Reapers much harder to deal with by decreasing their HP degeneration rate, allowing them to remain for longer than usual and, more often than not, constantly debilitate friendly units:
- The Predatory Need Contracts also buffs the Reapers' ATK and speed, but reduces their HP degeneration by the least. Nevertheless, the ATK buff (which also applies to their aura) will allow Reapers to literally scream at friendlies to their deaths and the speed buff makes it more difficult to stop them before they waltz past friendlies Stunned by the Nervous Impairment inflicted by the Reapers and goes for the Protection Objectives!
- The Survival Need Contracts also buffs the Reapers' HP and reduces their HP degeneration by the most, basically allowing them to remain almost indefinitely and ceaselessly terrorize friendly units!
- The First To Talk: The Herald of the Seaborn has good stats and the major annoyance is that there are two of them which also deducts 2 Life Points each in the event they made it to an Objective, and their Corrosive Vacuole special attack that makes them invulnerable while channeling it and inflicts widespread damage and Nervous Impairment which can be the bane of Operators in tight groups. Their namesake Contracts allow the Firsts to channel We Many deeper by making them immune to Stun and Freeze in addition to buffing them in various ways:
- The Tone Contracts buffs the Firsts' HP, ATK, and ASPD, and makes them invisible at Level 3.
- The Style Contracts buffs the Firsts' HP more than Tone, extends their attack range, and causes their Corrosive Vacuole to deal more damage and has a shorter cooldown at Level 3.
General strategies
- Pocket Sea Crawlers will only release their burst once if the damage they took in a single hit exceeds at least twice of the HP threshold. This can be exploited to burst down the Crawlers without putting nearby friendly units in too much risk.
- While the Crawlers and The Firsts To Talk can become immune to Stun and Freeze, there are nothing which can make them immune to Sleep, so pairing Operators capable of putting enemies to Sleep and those capable of attacking Sleeping enemies will work wonders.
- Lee is a good choice to stall the Basin Sea Reapers and the Firsts thanks to his Stun-blocking with Preparedness Averts Peril talent, as long as the player can sustain the increased DP drain and provide some healing for him. Do not use him against the Crawlers, however, as the latter's heavy Arts damage can overwhelm him.
- Horn is among the best Operators in Sal Viento Karst Cave since she can quickly blast the Crawlers from a safe distance with Ultimate Line of Defense.
