Operation guide: The Grand Knight Territory Outskirts
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The fourth of the Annihilation operations and the first Rotating Mission operation introduced in the Annihilation Rotation system, The Grand Knight Territory Outskirts is more difficult than previous Annihilation operations due to the Kazimierzian knight enemies previously seen in Maria Nearl making up much of the enemy's ranks here, including Roar Knightclubs that are nigh-invulnverable for a while upon spawning, Bloodboil Knightclubs that grows stronger for every enemy defeated, and Bladehelm Knightclubs that can revive themselves when defeated for the first time. Fortunately, Sponsor Drones and Luxury Sponsor Drones are present and will give many useful deployables when shot down, so try to do so when given the chance, as the deployables can be helpful when used correctly.
In addition, the Corrupted Knight and the Withered Knight are also present, but unlike in MN-8 and MN-EX-8, they spawn separately, and thus won't be enraged if one is defeated before the other spawns.
Strategy
The Grand Knight Territory Outskirts is a stage where arts damage is the key to winning. Lots of enemies with high DEF such as Training Gloompincers, Elite Knight Shielders, Bloodboil Knightclub Elites, and more appear. It is recommended to have operators that can do arts damage, such as good casters and arts guards, or operators that can do very high physical damage, such as Blaze and SilverAsh. The player should also bring a sniper or two to take care of offensive drones that appear like Frosts, Defender-4 drones, and Monster Mk II drones.
It is advised that the player make use of the sponsor drones that appear around every 50 kills. The Mieszko Coils, Mr. Boom, Rhodes Island Temporary Employees, and Portable Supply Stations that drop from the drones can come in very handy. For starters, the Mieszko Coils can be used on the top side to help take care of the Corrupted Knight. The Portable Supply Stations can be used on operators that benefit the most from constant skill activations, such as Myrtle. Rhodes Island Temporary Employees are also very useful for cutting down the Giant Mushrooms to allow space for more ranged operators.
As mentioned above, this stage features the Withered Knight and Corrupted Knight along with Bladehelm Knightclub Elites. The player should save the Mr. Boom that they get from the Sponsor Drones for these enemies and/or should have some operator that is good at stalling, preferably to stall inside the Mieszko Coils. This can easily be achieved by operators such as Gravel and Utage, though this is not necessary if the player has good enough DPS.
A general team would be composed of 1 Vanguard (preferably Myrtle or Elysium as retreating and redeploying snipers for shooting down sponsor drones uses a lot of DP), 2 Medics, 2 ST Snipers for drones, 1 Guard that deals arts damage for the bottom, 2 Defenders (preferably 1 healing defender), at least 1 Caster for the top side, some form of crowd-control on the bottom side, and another Guard (preferably a ranged guard as they can be placed behind the defender) or crowd-control for the top side. The team can be split and deployed on the top and bottom sides with the top being the G8 area and the bottom being the C11 area.
If the player has Ifrit they can place her on H6, H7, or F6 depending on the team composition. If the player has Thorns, it is highly recommended to bring him as he performs exceptionally well on long annihilation operations with his third skill due to it providing a lot of sustained DPS. The player should place him behind other operators as he will be protected and he will still be able to output 100% of his DPS (the ranged attack penalty gets removed on his third skill).
Do note that this is just a general strategy and the team composition and placements vary based on the operators that the player has.