Monthly Roadmap: September 2020

08/26 update: Added the New GFL Client Review.

08/25 update: Added all costume art and information about the v2.06 client update. 

In a surprising move, MICA team appears to be simultaneously releasing a skin batch to both CN and EN! This is confirmed by the silhouette being what appears to be AUG's costume: 

At the time the EN roadmap was posted, not even the CN server has gotten the full teasers yet. The costumes in this set that have been previewed so far are the five from M1897, Mosin-Nagant, AUG, Mk48, and NTW-20.

This is another Key Card ("bingo") event that awards G36's "Moonlit Wishes" costume for free after completing 8 lines! Who would say no to free costumes?  

Simply do the randomly-generated quests every day and you're all but guaranteed to unlock the costume. 

If you're not sure what a Key Card/bingo event is, you can reference the below page for an example of a previous bingo event with the same mechanic. 

Thought your contracts were safe? You thought wrong!

This batch, which is now confirmed to be the same as the original CN batch, brings us some of the more modern T-Dolls: 

These T-Dolls all have interesting kits - but how good are they? Here's a tl;dr:

• SIG-556: Great burst DPS AR.
  • Skill is very powerful even without much level investment.
  • Excellent DPS potential even lategame. 
  • Can be micromanaged for a slight DPS boost (~6-10%) due to how her skill works. 
• C-93: Strong but hard-to-use offensive buffer HG.
  • Teambuilding options are somewhat limited by her tile layout. 
  • Somewhat gimmicky relying on allied units to be debuffed for full potential. 
  • She's a specialist for situations where your team will be debuffed whether by map effects or fairy effects (e.g. Parachute).
  • Only recommended if you can fit units around her tiles without sacrificing much, which is typically not true. 
• CR-21: Average self-buffer DPS AR.
  • Can be considered RFB-lite due to her targeting quirk.
  • High base stats, but held back by weak skill multiplier. 
  • Can be a decent unit to train if you don't already have RFB.
• KAC-PDW: Specialized force shield SMG who can also remove debuffs from herself.
  • Low survivability and poor EVA multiplier makes KAC's non-skill survivability subpar. 
  • It is only recommended to use her if you specifically need her kit, though the specific situation of needing to block one hit doesn't really come up much.
  • She has some potential for being a maintank for Parachute Fairy echelons (since she can un-debuff herself), though the ICD is a problem. 

The full analysis for each doll will be made available in the upcoming few days; you can check out their unit pages for details in the meantime! 

No, this doesn't mean we're getting SF Capture. The client update is needed to make EN compliant with the Gunslinger Girl Collab. 

GFL EN is behind by two upcoming client updates: v2.0510 and v2.06. The Q&A has confirmed that we'll be jumping to v2.06 directly, so both sections will be relevant to read. 

Explaining all the changes in each client would take an entire article just by itself - so the most important QoL updates of each client will be briefly covered below. 

v2.0510

Formation Preview

Ever wonder what enemy formations look like and didn't want to rely on a third-party tool? Now you can do it all from inside the game!

You can drag this preview left/right to see the whole enemy lineup if they don't fit on one screen. 

Enemy AI Display

Enemy units AI is now visible next to their CE in battle! Some readers may already know this: enemy movement/aggro behavior is predictable based on their AI setting. Each enemy unit has its own AI rules, and this can be different for different units that are on the same map. 

See the below infographic for a quick rundown of each possible AI setting. 

Improved Daily/Weekly/Intelligence Missions

When client v2.05 made it to CN, players found out that they got a reworked set of missions!

While EN is not guaranteed to get this change (since we don't have SF capture/coalition units yet), some of the basic QoL fixes that might make it in are as follows: 

• Clear X Stages mission changed to 1/2/3 [6 total] from 1/3/5 [9 total]. 
• Complete X Logistics mission changed to 1/3/5 [9 total] from 1/3/10 [14 total]. 
• Kill X unarmored/armored weekly missions now count 100/200 total kills, regardless of whether the enemies are humanoid or machine-type. 
• New: Like dorms 5 times.
• New: Send expedition 3 times(weekly mission).
• New: Dismantle 50 T-Dolls (weekly mission).
• Removed: repair T-Doll 10 and 15 times missions.
• Removed: calibrate fairy weekly mission. 

For more information, check out DMesse's original blog post. 

Misc. changes that EN may or may not get

• Adjutant can now be resized and repositioned. 
• Maximum echelons available increased from 10 to 14.
• Maximum echelon presets available increased from 4 to 6. 
• Maximum dorms available increased from 10 to 14.
  • Yes, you do need to buy the additional echelons, dorms, and presets with gems if you want them.
• Enemy Index feature added to the game. 
• "Combat Summary" information improved and shows more information about Advantaged T-Dolls.
• During Equipment Enhancement, "Auto-Select" can now select higher rarity equipment than 2-stars.
• Loading screens now show an image fade transition effect instead of a black screen. 
• Loading screen tips have been updated. 

v2.06

This is the latest client version that CN only released very recently. EN will get this version which will also include all of v2.05's QoL updates. Note that it is not guaranteed that all features will be available! This update contains an extremely large number of changes that likely won't all make it into EN (since some are dependent on features not yet available, such as SF capture), so only pertinent QoL changes that EN may get will be mentioned here. If you are interested in a full list of possible changes, viewing the doc below is highly recommended. 

2020 Summer Developer Stream Translation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17p-t4fzIvq38ej9hd_OuQhRIiqAH1KLzeKsE5hHphu0/edit

Echelon Preset Generator

Girls' Frontline finally has an auto-formation feature in-game! Put your T-Dolls in an echelon, select the correct preset type, and the game will automatically try to form the units into the right formation for you!

There are tons of presets to choose from - there'll be at least a few for each major echelon archetype (ARSMG/RFHG/MGSG etc.), and they come with a short description to help the player understand what that formation is good for. You can access this feature from a new green button at the top-right corner of the formation screen. 

This tool isn't perfect though - sometimes it'll place your dolls incorrectly due to weird tile buffs, so knowing your formation basics is still an important skill if you want to play optimally!

Quick Unequip

This feature has been requested countless times in the GFL EN Q&A sessions, and it's finally made its way into the game! Just click this new button above your echelon's CE in the echelon screen and it'll remove all equipment from your T-Dolls! 

You can also go into the Armory and use a new button there unequip all equipment from all T-Dolls, if needed. 

Equipment Enhance/Calibrate Shortcut

Tap and hold any equipment and a menu opens, letting you jump directly to the enhance/calibrate screen should you want to enhance or calibrate this particular equipment more. 

Multiple Adjutant

You can now set 2 T-Dolls as your adjutant at the same time! You can also configure a "pool" of adjutants to display randomly if so desired. 

This leads to all kinds of... uh... possibilities. If EN is lucky enough to get this feature, have fun!

I.O.P. Special Order

This is a type of special equipment production that guarantees equipment of a certain type. By selecting from a list of fixed-resource recipes, the player can place up to 20 special orders per week that will 100% yield equipment of the selected type. These productions will be marked "SPECIAL" In the factory screen. 

Misc. changes that EN may or may not get

• Equipment enhancement level is now displayed in the Echelon Formation screen.
• Added option to disassemble all 4-star furniture (lol)
• When adopting a pet, the game now displays the total number of identical pets you already own. 
• Equipment and Chip enhancement menus now sort already-equipped equips/chips to the top by default. 
• 5-star fairies are no longer displayed in the "Fairy Enhancement" screen. 
• Auto-battle now displays the high-rarity drops first. 
• The "Repeat Combat Simulation" message can now be toggled off. 

Video Review

If you would prefer to see these changes in-game, this video has you covered!

Chapter 10 Night is finally coming to EN!

The limited equipment drop is for TAR-21 and a welcome upgrade. I have to wonder though - isn't she already wearing this in her base art?

Clear guides will be made available when Chapter 10 Night releases on EN, so stay tuned!

This General Production Rate-Up will likely be similar to the same event from May, providing commanders with four production rate-up events that each span two days, in the following order: 

• T-Doll Standard Production rate-up

• Equipment Standard Production rate-up

• T-Doll Heavy Production rate-up

• Equipment Heavy Production rate-up

A HOC Analysis Rate-Up will also run concurrently with the above events (for example, BGM-71's pull rate may be increased while the T-Doll Standard Production Rate-Up is underway, rotating out to other HOCs after 2 days).

Regarding the actual math behind rate-up events, the developer of EN’s revamped GFDB website has performed some interesting statistical analysis on the previous rate-up event during the anniversary, showing that the heavy production rate-ups provide much less of a boost compared to the standard production rate-up events (a ~20% or sometimes 0% boost, as opposed to the consistent >100% increase in rates observed for the standard production rate-ups). 

To maximize the value of this rate-up event, it is therefore recommended for commanders who still need a lot of units or equipment from standard production to spend their resources in the earlier standard rate-up events, as opposed to waiting for the heavy production rate-up.

For more information regarding rate-up mechanics, please check out the articles below.

The General Rate-Up Guide will be updated for Shattered Connexion shortly, so stay tuned!