New Chapter/Guide — arknights

Guide

One of the two possible Dreadful Foes in the 6th floor of Phantom & Crimson Solitaire, added in its Expansion II and requires the player to have Act 1 prior to entering it, New Chapter pits the player against the true mastermind of Crimson Solitaire's events, the Playwright, as the final boss. While he lacks the complicated gimmicks that the Troupe Mouthpiece has, the Playwright is not to be trifled with due to his significant stats and being unblockable, strong ranged Arts attacks that also has both a global range and the ability to damage adjacent targets, as well as periodically dealing heavy Arts damage to all friendly units and those adjacent to them, and debuffing friendlies by gradually dealing Arts damage and halving their ASPD; retreat the debuffed unit at your own peril, as this will cause the tile they were on to become permanently undeployable! Furthermore, should the Playwright's HP falls low enough, he becomes even more resilient and hard-hitting, in addition to using his abilities more frequently! To seal the deal, the Playwright will deduct 30 Life Points upon entering a Protection Objective, resulting in an instant failure if the player have less than 31 LP at the moment.

The Playwright is also backed up by a host of very problematic enemies, most notably Winterwisp Blood Shamans and Magisters, Originiutants α, and Theater Golems, but unlike Twisted Every Way however, the DP generation is not penalized at all. Nonetheless, New Chapter is an exceedingly difficult Operation, moreso than Twisted Every Way and made worse by I.S.' roguelike nature. A solid team, a good set of Collectibles, and a significant amount of luck when building the player's squad is required to stand a chance against the Playwright, with the preparations starting from the beginning of the Crimson Solitaire run, as it is imperative to build up a solid defensive lineup and coherent strategy over the course of the entire run before taking on New Chapter, notably as the player needs to clear The Point of No Return or All I Ask of You first before they can enter the 6th floor!

General strategies

Although the Playwright is a powerful boss, the Blood Shamans and Magisters will likely be the biggest threat on the level due to their speed and unavoidable death explosions that can decimate Operators. It is recommended to prepare countermeasures to keep them away from the main defense, mostly through either stalling, crowd control, or focused burst damage.
If available, Nightingale is a good option to mitigate damage as all of the enemies except the Theatre Golems deal Arts damage. Also because of this, high HP and healing power will usually be more valuable than DEF.
Avoid placing units adjacent to each other, as the explosions from the Playwright's basic attacks and especially his screen-wide Arts detonation can overlap, potentially eliminating an entire defense line in one go. The Blood Shamans/Magisters and Theatre Golems also deal splash damage, further discouraging close-knit formations.
Keep a clear idea of the deployment order and who the Playwright is targeting at any time, as he will target the most recently deployed non-debuffed Operators with his debuff, making it possible to bait it. As Operators under the debuff will be permanently and severely crippled on top of leaving an undeployable tile when retreated, take utmost care to avoid letting key Operators be debuffed, or those in important positions.
The Playwright spends a long time moving around the edges of the map before moving towards the main path, leaving him out of range of the main defense line until the very end of the battle. Either endure his attacks and attack with impunity once he starts moving towards the exit, try to place down burst units to take him out as he's walking around the edges, or (if available) try to use long or global ranged skills (like Fartooth's Feathershine Arrows or Goldenglow's Crystalline Shine) to shoot him down.
If one decides to attack the Playwright early with burst options, it is not recommended to bring him below 50% HP unless it is certain that he can be finished off quickly. If he survives, then the Playwright will enter his enraged state, which spams his detonation/debuff more frequently and deals significantly higher damage, including from the DoT of his debuff; him being enraged and unreachable for a prolonged period of time can be devastating to the lineup.
- The Playwright's defenses will also significantly increase once he enrages (giving him 2000 DEF and 90 RES without modifiers), necessitating very high burst damage to take him down in a single engagement. Because of this, debuffers that can reduce his DEF or RES are extremely useful against him. Note that forms of damage amplification like Fragile only become effective if the player already has an offense that can overcome his inflated defenses, making them useful but ultimately less desirable than DEF/RES reductions.