Operation guide: TR-19
| Operation | Guide | Story |
The nineteenth tutorial operation in Arknights, TR-19, titled Ruins Operation, gives an insight on Tattered Pillars and Demolition Devices.
At first four Dublinn Sniffer Hounds will spawn on F9, F10, G9, and G10; only a few tiles away to D11. Dobermann then explains that the area is littered with ruined structures which can be exploited to give an advantage for Rhodes Island forces. To demonstrate this, Melantha is deployed on F7 facing left and she attacks the Tattered Pillar on F8 as soon as she is deployed. After dealing enough damage, Melantha reduces the Pillar's HP to 0, but it is not outright destroyed; when a Tattered Pillar's HP is reduced to 0, it enters the "Damaged" state where the Pillar is left with 1 HP and becomes invulnerable for 2 seconds. As soon as the Tattered Pillar is vulnerable, Melantha attacks it again and it is destroyed, but with a twist; when a Tattered Pillar is destroyed, it collapses to the direction opposite to where the attack which destroys it came from, dealing massive Pure damage to enemies in a 1×2 area (which is more than enough to instantly defeat the Sniffer Hounds on F9 and F10) while friendly units will instantly be knocked out/destroyed even if they cannot be KO'd instead. Fortunately, to prevent players from bringing down Tattered Pillars by accident, they can only be attacked/damaged by friendly units adjacent to the Pillar. This makes exploiting Tattered Pillars essential in most Episode 09 operations, as many Dublinn enemies refract incoming Arts which makes them highly resistant to Arts damage unless when silenced, and some of them have good DEF – especially the Phalanxes which can be nigh-immune to Physical damage when given the chance.
In addition, if the tiles where the Tattered Pillar collapses are deployable, Battlefield Ruins will appear there, which reroutes enemies like Roadblocks; two Battlefield Ruins now cover F9 and F10, blocking the closest path to D11 and forces the enemies to take a longer way around.
Four Dublinn Scouts then spawn from H9 and H10 before advancing alongside the remaining two Sniffer Hounds. As soon as the Scouts and Sniffer Hounds are lined up on D6 to D8, a Demolition Device is automatically deployed on D4 – next to the Tattered Pillar on D5, and it activates right after, sending a shockwave that causes the Pillar to fall into the Scouts and Sniffer Hounds. As Dobermann points out, the Demolition Device's blast will instantly destroy Tattered Pillars without putting them into the Damaged state first and can be useful when the player need to bring down a Pillar as soon as possible, usually when strong Dublinn enemies break through the defensive line.
The last group of enemies which consists of three Sniffer Hounds will show up. To wrap things up, deploy Cardigan on G5 to block the Sniffer Hounds and deploy Matoimaru or a Demolition Device on F3 facing right to bring down the Tattered Pillar on F4 into the Sniffer Hounds.