Girls’ Frontline Newbie FAQ 2.1

Girls’ Frontline Newbie FAQ 2.1: Yuro edition

[GETTING STARTED]
Q: Why should I play this game?
A: Do you like cute 2D girls with guns? Are you a shameless weeb with too much time to spare and neetbux to burn? Are you sick of reroll hell and seek a different form of RNG torture? Don't want to spend thousands of dollars just to roll your waifu? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you might find some enjoyment in this game.

Q: Isn’t this just a chink knockoff of Kancolle with guns?
A: Yes and no, there are already a bunch of chinese Kancolle knockoffs looking to cash in on the boteslut market but GF plays slightly differently and targets a different demographic of military otakus.

Q: Well, I’ll give it a shot, who should I reroll for?
A: There’s no rerolling because crafting new T-dolls uses 4 different resources that automatically replenish and are needed for gameplay purposes, so you can craft anytime you want. However, crafting also requires Contracts that you can collect from daily/weekly/story quests, events and farming.
Many 2*s and 3*s are viable and you can still beat story mode and events with them.

Q: What server should I play on?
A: There are 2 mainland chinese servers, 1 taiwannese server, 1 korean server, 1 global server and 1 japanese server.



>CN
DigitalSky is the main server with the most up to date build and content. However, they use Alipay for IAPs which needs a chinese bank accound. Considered to be the most stable server.
Bilibili is the secondary chinese server with slightly delayed updates but is generally on par with Digisky. They use Paypal for IAPs so it’s a prime choice for foreign whales when GF first launched.
Both servers need you to create some fake chinese citizen ID details which can be done pretty easily.

>TW and KR
The taiwannese and korean servers use the Play Store/iOS Store/Paypal for IAPs, and sometimes the devs will release guns from their countries a month earlier in their respective servers before other servers get them. Both are roughly a year younger than the CN server but they have mostly caught up in content. Korean server considered rather stable due to GF’s high popularity in KR.
HOWEVER, some collabs may be unavailable due to licensing issues like the Gun GirlZ (Honkai Impact 2) collab.

>EN
The 2nd newest server and the largest community you'll find here. Despite a rocky start being released only in the anglosphere at first and a massive clusterfuck of an ad campaign, the server has stabilized somewhat to be more or less consistent in game updates and community interaction. If you don't live in the USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, UK or EU, you'll likely have to download the apk elsewhere and install it yourself, otherwise use a 3rd party store app like qooapp or APKpure to install it. However, don't worry about IAPs because you'll still be able to pay using your own local currency even if you didn't download it off the Play store. Do not be confused if CN players post gameplay features you don't currently have as the EN (and JP) game clients are slightly behind but will be sequentially updated to incorporate new gameplay features already in the earlier servers.
*Take note that the devs are making efforts to add the game to other regional Play stores as of this FAQ.

>JP
Due to publishing disputes, the Japanese server was delayed so long they managed to publish a global server beforehand. However, the issue has been resolved and the server was finally released after 2 years. Unfortunately, this meant that the game had to be renamed to Doll's Frontline or ドルフロ in moonspeak, so take note when scouring pixiv or twatter for art.　As the newest server, it's the most far behind in content, but that doesn't mean much as it's caught up to EN's pace and both are expected to catch up to CN eventually. Don't be alarmed if you see people playing the EN server get different T-dolls or gachas because both servers will have separate release schedules. Otherwise, both EN and JP are largely the same except one obviously being in moonrunes.

Q: I heard some servers are censored, are there any ways of getting rid of it?
A: Unfortunately all servers except JP are censored because of the chinese thought police. As of right now all censored servers have workarounds or can be uncensored with root. See the OP for the EN uncensor method, or the wiki for other servers' uncensor methods.

Q: What are the resources I have to manage in the game?
A: There are 4 main resources: manpower, ammo, rations and parts. The first 3 replenish at 3 per 3 minutes while parts replenish at 1 per 3 minutes, up to a soft cap you can see on your commander page by tapping your username. These resources are needed for crafting and playing the game itself.

Manpower is used for deploying and repairing T-dolls, easily the most underused resource and you’ll end up with a lot of it (unless you corpse drag).

Ammo and rations are needed to supply echelons you deploy in battle. Each echelon carries up to 5 units of ammo and 10 units of rations. Entering combat consumes 1 unit of ammo and 1 unit of rations, and ending the turn consumes 1 unit of rations. Dummy linking T-dolls increases their ammo and ration consumption. Generally considered the highest priority resources to stock up because they burn up quickly.

Parts are used for repairs, but regenerate the slowest. However, unless you regularly abuse your T-dolls, parts are mostly consumed in crafting.

Q: Why are T-dolls all female?
A: They’re converted civilian androids, fag.

Q: Ok I'm interested, but can I marry my raifu?
A: That depends on your interpretation of the OATH system, which is happens to be giving a wedding ring to T-dolls which you've maxed out their affection to make them fight better.

[CRAFTING]
Q: How much should I spend on crafting? Does more resources = better chances of rolling 5*s?
A: The number of each resource used only dictates which set of guns you’ll potentially roll.

There are several generic recipes for crafting:
>HG/SMG: 130/130/130/130
>AR/SMG/RF: 430/430/430/230
>AR/SMG/RF/MG: 730/630/130/430
However, some specific recipes have higher chances to score 4*s and 5*s than the others, so you may want to try them to snipe a particular T-doll.

Q: WTF I spent 999/999/999/999 and didn’t get a single 5*!
A: As said above, more resources doesn’t mean your chances of rolling rarer guns are that much higher, retard.

Q: Fuck I ran out of contracts, how do I get more?
A: Do logistics and your quests. Big success in logistics is guaranteed to give you a reward if the mission has them. Or you could always buy them...

Q: I rolled this T-doll, is she good?
A: If she’s in the tier list and has some special purpose, she’s good. Otherwise, invest resources in her only if you really love her. Refer to the T-doll analysis charts in the OP for more specific explanations why specific T-dolls are good or bad.

Q: I just started the game and rolled a 5*, should I use her?
A: Not for now, because she needs a lot of cores to dummy link, which new players likely won’t be able to afford. Unless your luck is good and you roll several copies of her which you can use to dummy link instead of cores.

Q: How do I craft shotguns?
A: You have to unlock Heavy Construction by beating 30 different missions.

Heavy Construction requires a minimum of 1000 of each resources, crafting contracts and dummy cores and is guaranteed 3* and above. You can spend more contracts and cores to increase the chances of getting 4*s and 5*s but it’s ultimately not worth it. Do note that instead of getting shotguns you can get shitty 3* SMGs for all the resources you spend, so if you're a new player don’t bother with crafting shotguns unless you want to bankrupt yourself.

Q: Why are some recipes listed as “4442” or “7614”?
A: Some recipes omit 30 from each resource so a recipe like “4442” actually refers to the recipe 430/430/430/230.

[MISSIONS]
Q: Why can’t I beat X boss?
A: Level your squads, dummy link them and feed them 2* guns or enhancement pills to raise their stats. Some bosses have special attacks which you need to micro your units out of their way.

Q: How’s my formation?
A: There are several tried and tested formations that work in most situations. Don’t experiment with unorthodox formations unless you’re high level enough.

Standard formations
>3AR/2SMG
Standard AR/SMG setup for most of the game, arrange in a F formation flushed to the left to maximize tile buffs on all guns.

AR SMG X
AR SMG X
AR  X  X

>2AR/1RF/2SMG
Earlygame build where formations don’t matter too much. Gives your RF some space to pick up levels while maintaining enough DPS for most situations. The RF will help against killing the enemy backline. F formation.

>2AR/1HG/2SMG/1AR and 1AR/1RF/1HG/2SMG
Earlygame night builds when HGs aren’t good enough to tank. Take a RF if you’re expecting to fight armored enemies. F formation.

>3HG2RF
Standard RF/HG setup with 2 DPS RFs and HGs with tiles and buffs for damage and RoF. Good for eliminating Jaegers (snipers) or Strikers (slow minigunners) hiding behind large blobs of Guards (meatshields) or Scouts (floaty bois), and killing bosses. Only viable with high level HGs which have enough dodge to tank, but beware of fast enemies like Dinergates (doggos) and Dragoons (robot cavalry). Same “F” formation like 3AR2SMG with one HG giving extra tiles to your better RF. Effective against armored mobs at night.
RF HG X
HG HG X
RF X  X

>Cannon/Nuke
Setup similar to 3HG2RF where one or both RFs have a snipe skill like Interdiction Shot. Often used to one-shot bosses, the HG’s are used to buff the cannon’s damage as much as possible, tank and clear out weaker mobs before the boss. The most widely used cannon is NTW-20, but you can use M99 and DSR-50 if you have them. The second RF can be a DPS RF like WA2000 or Lee Enfield if your HGs can’t clear the mobs before the boss. Be warned that this setup is bad for general use due to the low RoF of cannon RFs so you would want to escort them with other squads. Contender is a recommended HG to have as her skill makes her nuke's target take extra damage from allied attacks.

>Railgun/Exodia
A 4P1 setup which uses 4 HGs to buff a single strong AR or RF to ridiculous degrees. The most common core units are IWS2000 (RF that drops her RoF heavily in return for a massive damage buff) and G11 (AR which can inflict up to 3x damageper shot), but more will be added in future. For low RoF units like IWS2000, you will want to stack as many RoF buffing HGs like M950 Calico, Stechkin, FiveseveN and Welrod (for tanking) to compensate for her skill's RoF debuff. For high RoF units like G11, you will want to stack lots of damage buffing HGs like Grizzly, Mk23, Colt SAA and Contender, since RoF buffs will be wasted on her due to the cap.
HG HG X
RF HG X
HG X  X

>MGSG/MGSGHG
When you absolutely need to mulch basic infantry squads accept no substitute. Expensive to craft and field, MGSG should be your last resort if you absolutely need to steamroll through missions your ARSMG or HGRF squads cannot do safely. If you want to cut costs, consider replacing a MG or SG or both with HGs, which will lower their damage output a bit but still have it compensated with HG buffs. Damage HGs like Mk 23, SAA and Contender are recommended, but HGs that increase accuracy can be useful too, such as SPP1 and Type 59. Don't get to over reliant on them as a universal problem solver as they're usually bad against bosses who can easily punch through SG armor or use specials your units cannot easily dodge. There is also a variety of lategame enemies who specifically counter SGs or simply shoot past them to hurt your MGs, but nevertheless MGSG are still effective at chewing up most regular infantry blobs. There are several permutations to MGSGHG but just use whatever you have when you're starting out.

Q: I can’t clear mission X-Y, what do?
A: Train your squads, or add someone with a good support echelon and use it to carry your sorry ass. Remember to enhance your guns at the factory.

Q: Snipers hiding behind meatshields are raping me. what do?
A: Learn to kite. Enemies pause for a moment after stopping and before shooting the nearest T-doll in range. As such, you can manually move up your tanks to the front column at the start of battle, wait for the enemy to stop moving and pause, then bring them back to the 2nd column, forcing the enemy to start moving again instead of shooting you. Meanwhile your DPS will happily tear up the confused enemy. If you can't kill all enemies in the first movement, simply retreat your tanks and let your DPS mop up the rest as they're forced to move yet again without damaging any of your units.

Q: How do I S rank?
A: Check the mission info. You need to kill a certain minimum number of enemies under a certain number of turns and complete the mission. You don’t NEED to annex every node for S-rank.

Q: How do I get silver medals?
A: Complete the mission with every node under your control.

Q: WTF why did my node revert to the enemy’s control?
A: Nodes are automatically captured when you completely surround them with enemy nodes. While you can complete missions by surrounding the enemy HQ, be warned that your HQ can be lost the same way.

Q: My echelons ran out of ammo/rations, what do I do?
A: T-dolls who run out of ammo and/or rations cannot act in combat but echelons devoid of either or both resources can still be moved outside combat. Echelons can be resupplied at helipads or your HQ either manually or automatically at the start of the next turn if they are standing on those nodes.

[T-DOLLS]
Q: How do I get X?
A: Look at the index to see how to get her, or read the wiki.

Q: What do tile buffs do?
Units of the appropriate type standing in an allied unit's tile(s) in the formation setup gain the amount of listed stats (multiplicatively). ARs buff SMGs and vice versa, MGs buff SGs and vice versa, RFs buff HGs and HGs buff everyone. However, HG tile buffs scale with dummy links (see below) so be sure to link them as soon as you can.

Q: My T-doll’s skill seems useless, can I make it stronger?
A: Depending on what kind of skill it is, it may well be useless. You require skill chips to train skills under the Research menu, which are acquired from skill training combat sims. Don’t waste your fast training tickets if you don’t need to because you can only get them from events or login rewards.

Q: What does dummy link do?
A: Dummy linking adds another body which increases DPS, HP and exp gained, but also the amount of ammo and rations consumed. However, an important aspect of dummy linking is that if the T-doll gets hit by an attack which inflicts more damage than the health of a single body, the damage will only affect one body and kill it instead of spilling over to the other bodies, which most new players will find out in Chapter 5. You can use cores and duplicate T-dolls to dummy link but one time guns from events or story mode like the AR team can only be dummy linked with cores, as you can’t get duplicates of them.

The cost for dummy linking increases at each new body past x3
	 2x		3x		4x		5x
2*: 1		1		2		3
3*: 3		3		6		9
4*: 9		9		18		27
5*: 15		15		30		45

Dummy linking also increases the combat exp multiplier of a T-doll by +0.5x per link so it's recommended to link your T-dolls once the opportunity is available.

Q: Is X in the game yet?
A: Check the index, everything listed is what’s available on your server at the moment.

Q: When will X be added to the game?
A: I wouldn’t know, but certain T-dolls who appear in story events will only be added when the event comes. Check your server's twitter regularly for notices and take note of your server's regular maintenance day. Pre-maintenance in game mail will also tell you which T-dolls will be added after the maintenance.

Q: Why shouldn’t I ignore 2*s and 3*s over 4*s and 5*s?
A: Some 2*s and 3*s have good stats and skills, and they’re cheap to dummy link. 4*s and 5*s require lots of cores which may be hard for new players to cough up, and the biggest way to upgrade your guns is to dummy link them. Some non-5*s also get remodels later to make them stronger and more relevant in the lategame.

Q: How do I level grind faster?
A: 4-3E, 5-2E and 0-2 are the most popular grinding maps in order of difficulty. Do your exp combat sims and make combat reports from battery and global exp in the data room. Remember to gift the reports to your T-dolls in the dorms.

Q: What is corpse-dragging?
A: An autistic method of level grinding that saves lots of resources. It can be done on maps that can be completed in 1-2 turns and have at least 2 helipads, like the 3 mentioned above.
1. Set up the 1st squad with 1 maxed out AR, MG, or RoF RF (like WA2000 or SVD), 1 strong tank SMG/SG (or M16 if you have armor for her) and fill the rest with weaker guns you want to train
2. Set up the 2nd squad with only 1 other maxed out AR, MG, or RoF RF
3. Ensure automatic resupply is disabled
4. Ensure that the AR, MG, or RoF RF in the first squad has full ammo and rations (if neither carry has ammo, do steps 5, 6, and 8, then retreat the second squad and terminate the mission)
5. Deploy the 1st squad in position to clear the mission in 1 turn
6. Deploy the 2nd squad on another helipad
7. Clear the mobs with the first squad, using the weaker guns to tank
8. Resupply ONLY the 2nd squad containing the single AR, MG, or RoF RF
9. Finish the mission
10. Switch the AR, MG, or RoF RF and repeat steps 1-9 until satisfied
Corpse-dragging can be done on any map with 1 or more staring helipads, but is usually done on 4-3E, 5-2E and 0-2 which are more cost efficient. Once you have unlocked M16A1 of the AR team and brought her to level 100 with x5 dummy link, she will be your go-to tank for corpse-dragging as she can get the benefit of both a 5* armor plate and 5* T-exoskeleton which makes her incredibly durable.
Refer to https://i.imgur.com/2vRDdkD.jpg for a more detailed guide on corpse-dragging 0-2, which can also be found in the OP of /gfg/.

Q: What are remodels?
A: Remodeling or "Digi-mind Upgrade" is a system like that of Kancolle where you can upgrade a unit to have better combat performance. There are 3 stages to each remodel, MOD 1, MOD 2 and MOD 3. Each stage raises the level cap of the T-doll and require both cores and memory fragments. Frags can be farmed from the Neural Cloud Corridor combat sim, which functions like a harder pill sim. Sometimes the IAP shop will sell frags as part of the daily package if you're feeling desperate. Disclaimer: remodels do NOT reset a T-doll's level, affection or skill level. Cloud Corridor and Digi-mind Upgrade will be unlockable at Commander level 60 before the Singularity story event.

MOD 1 requires a T-doll to be 5x dummy link, level 100 and 100 affection. It will raise the level cap to 110, raise the rarity of the T-doll to 4* (5* if the remodeled doll was a 4*), increase her stats and tile buff percentages slightly and raise her skill multipliers to match their new rarity. For example, G36's 70% damage buff becomes 75% when she's upgraded to MOD 1 as she goes from 4* to 5*, matching the 5* G41. Sometimes a remodeled T-doll will get an updated tile buff layout like G3, especially if they have a completely retarded and unintuitive tile layout.

MOD 2 requires a MOD 1 T-doll to reach level 110. It will unlock a 2nd skill, usually a passive skill, that must be levelled up separately from her normal skill.

MOD 3 requires a MOD 2 T-doll to reach level 115. It will unlock a new skin (which functions like any other gacha skin), new voicelines and a unique 5* equipment exclusive to the T-doll. Note that exclusive equipment take 3x more fodder to upgrade compared to regular 5* equipment.

However, do note that remodels are a massive grind and not all remodels actually fix problems with weak T-dolls, so be certain before you invest in any particular remodels. But, OATH rings double the amount of exp gained from both combat and combat reports by any remodeled T-doll, AND increases the affection cap from 150 to 200 upon mod 3, where the T-doll gains an additional 5% stats for 15% total at 200 affection.

Q: Who have the best remodels?
A: M4A1 and AR15 should be your priority because they skyrocket in power and are the introductory remodels in the Singularity story event.
G36, M14, SOP 2 and Colt SAA were strong but become even stronger, while BAR, FN49 and G3 gain substantial performance boosts to send them high up tier lists when they were previously trash tier. Type 64, Nagant Revolver and MP446 aren't particularly OP but their updated performance is respectable than they were before.

[EQUIPMENT]
Q: How do I unlock equipment construction?
A: Beat 2-6.

Q: What does heavy equipment construction do?
A: Heavy equipment construction guarantees 3*s and higher, and has a chance of rolling tactical fairies (which will be introduced before the Deep Dive story event). It requires equipment production contracts and cores, and has several tiers just like T-doll heavy construction where you spend more contracts and cores for better chances at rolling higher rarities and equally not as worth. Heavy equipment construction requires 60 different story missions to be cleared.

Q: When can I use equipment?
A: T-dolls unlock equipment slots at level 20, 50 and 80. However, each class of T-doll unlocks different types of equipment slots at each mark, so prepare accordingly.

Q: What does the MAX at the corner of the equipment mean?
A: Equipment can have a range of stats. MAX indicates that it has the maximum possible stats already.

Q: How do I upgrade equipment?
A: Beat 1-4N (Protip: craft some good AP ammo) and go to the research menu.

Same deal with T-doll enhancement, you use 2* and sometimes 3* equipment to increase the amount of stats an equipment has. Don’t bother enhancing 2* and 3* equipment because they don’t scale well.

Q: How to I make my equipment MAX?
A: Unlock equipment calibration by beating 2-4N (Protip: craft some good laser pointers) and go to the research menu.
Equipment calibration requires calibration tickets that can be acquired by doing the Defense Drill combat sim where you must face continuous waves of enemies until you lose an echelon, gaining rewards at every 10 waves. Defense Drill is available all the time but requires 5 sim points so do it on pill sim days.
Calibrating equipment raises and/or lowers one or more stats of a piece of equipment, initially costing 5 tickets but raising the cost by 5 each time until 15. Sometimes nothing changes and you lose 15 tickets for nothing :^). If you’re not happy with the result, you can revert it but your tickets won’t be refunded. Once all stats are maxed out the equipment will display MAX and cannot be further calibrated.

Q: What equipment should I use on who?
A: Read the equipment guide in the OP.

[FAIRIES]

Q: What the fuck are fairies?
A: UAVs with AIs that behave like dumb children which will be introduced before the Deep Dive story event. They perform all sorts of tactical and strategic tricks on missions, provide passive stat buffs and have a chance to activate another buff during combat. Fairies require command points to use their abilities which regenerate every 6 hours. You will gain access to a new room in the Dorm which will allow you to use batteries to upgrade the rate of exp fairies earn in combat, the command point cap and the rate of command point regeneration. Fairy skills must be leveled like that of T-dolls in the research menu, but they require nearly 2x more data and take 2x as long to train, so I hope you'd hoarded a decent number of quick training tickets.

Fairies are split among 2 types: tactical and strategic. Tactical fairies usually provide a buff in combat or unleash a form of nuke upon your enemies to soften them up for your squad. They don't have cooldowns in between using their skills. Strategic fairies generally affect the map itself by directly damaging enemy units from a distance or applying buffs to specific nodes. Their skills have cooldowns and generally cost quite a number of command points to use, so use them wisely.

All fairies come with a randomly generated talent, which is a RNG based stat buff that may trigger during combat. Talents can be rerolled using 60 calibration tickets each roll in fairy calibration in the research menu, so make sure you're feeling lucky before committing. In general, the best talents are Damage up I and II (+12% and +15% extra damage respectively) and Assault Mode (ARs get +10% damage and +8% RoF). Raising the rarity of a fairy (see the next question) increases its chance of activating its talent.

You will get a complimentary Command fairy once heavy equipment production is unlocked, which is a tactical fairy that grants a small increase to exp gained after battle, and provides some strong passive stats buffs too.

Q: How do I upgrade fairies?
A: While fairies can gain levels and be fed with combat reports, you will need to raise the rarity of your fairies if you want them to have a bigger impact on your stats. Fairies require other fairies to upgrade their rarity, which will greatly increase the magnitude of passive stat buffs the fairy provides. Fairies can be enhanced in the research menu and can cost several hundred to several thousand resources to enhance, so resourcelets beware. Fairies normal grant 10 enhancement points to each other, but duplicate fairies grant 10x and fairies with the same talent grant 1.5 times, which can stack together although you must be a major luckchad to roll 2 completely identical fairies.

[DORM]
Q: How do I get more dorms?
A: Shop > Infrastructure.

Q: How do I buy furniture?
A: Open procurement and roll the gacha, goy.

Q: How do I get coins?
A: Quests, logistics and whaling.

Q: Why are the hearts over my T-dolls?
A: T-dolls in an echelon corresponding to an open dorm (Echelon 1 can be found in Dorm 1) will gain them after the daily reset. Pop them for a tiny affection boost.

Q: What does comfyness do?
A: Increases the amount of affection gained by T-dolls if you pop the heart bubble above her head, and increases battery generation.

Q: What does battery do and how do I get it?
A: Battery is used to upgrade your infrastructure in your data room, rescue station and fairy room, make battle reports and buy stuff from the cafe (not on EN yet). Don’t spend your batteries on anything but battle reports and data room upgrades until your data room is maxed out, after which you should focus on your fairy room (once it’s added).

You can acquire your passively generated battery at the indicated times in your dorm, in the UTC-8 (UTC+8 for CN/TW, UTC+9 for KR/JP) timezone. Battery cap is determined by number of dorms, with 80 battery per dorm, so remember to collect your battery as you obviously won’t get more once you hit the cap. You can also collect battery by visiting up to 10 friends and collecting their batteries, the amount of which is determined by the number of dorms they have, for 1 battery per dorm. Friend batteries appear at set timings depending on version, and only 10 friends can collect batteries from another user per reset, so it’s good to have multiple whale friends to choose from. You’ll get an additional 20 FREE batteries from a daily quest so always remember to collect your friend batteries. You can lock your dorm to exclude most friends from collecting your battery but expect to get kicked if you aren’t in a whale circle.

Q: How do battle reports work?
A: A small percentage of exp earned by T-dolls below level 100 in battle is converted into global exp (level 100 T-dolls don’t gain exp and convert a large percentage of the exp they would’ve received into global exp). Tap the table in the data room to produce battle reports using 3 battery and 3000 global exp. Battle reports can then be gifted to T-dolls in dorms for instant exp boosts.

Q: What should I get first?
A: 8 echelons -> 8 dorms -> T-doll space if needed -> 10 echelons -> 10 dorms -> OATH rings/more space

[META]
Q: Is there a tier list for this game?
A: Yes, players from older servers have regularly updated tier lists that get posted around /gfg/ sometimes. But, please do not take tier lists as gospel. Different enemies need different T-dolls to approach and those tier lists have changed to rank T-dolls by weapon type and skill classification, such that they're only compared against T-dolls with similar skills, not against everyone else. Learn to understand the meta yourself and how to build your squads so you can get the most out of even "non-meta" dolls. Refer to the analysis charts linked in one of the OP pastebins for more detailed information on individual T-dolls and why they're meta/not meta.

Q: Ok but who should I roll for first?
A: Start rolling for good SMGs because the game gives you free strong ARs from story mode. UMP45 may be 4* but she's consistently top tier since her introduction, and being 4* means dummy linking her isn't too hard on your cores as a new player. Also, you'll likely get many Thompsons since she has an extremely large pool where she can be built so avoid using cores to dummy link her. As stated at the beginning of this FAQ, avoid spending too many cores on 5* guns or you'll cockblock the dummy link progression of your other guns very quickly.
Alternatively, roll for good ARs since the best defense is a good offence, and good ARs will prevent even weak tanks from taking excessive damage. Even 3*s like FNC and OTs-12 can serve you well until you roll better ARs and train your AR team. It's also very likely that you'll get many copies of HK416 so don't waste cores dummy linking her either.
If you have trouble going through story mode, add some friends with strong support echelons or post your player ID (found on your friend menu ID card) on the general.

Once you have 1-2 ARSMG squads at x5 dummy link, begin rolling for 5* HGs and good RFs like WA and SVD. Keep in mind that this squad starts off weak and only really begins to shine when everyone is around level 80. You will need HGRF squads to deal with certain enemy mobs that other formations have trouble with and begin doing night missions. Story events have night missions full of armored units that you'll need HGRF to deal with.

After securing at least 1 HGRF squad and economic stability for resource income, begin crafting SGs and MGs which will put a huge dent in your resources. Getting the big 4 (PKP, MG5, PK, M2HB) should be the goal of your MG crafting, and SGs don't really differ too much so just use whatever if you're short on SGs.

[EVENTS]
Q: How does GF do collab events?
A: There will be about a chapter's worth of missions (between 4-10) which you must clear like a regular story event. Several characters in the collab can be recruited as T-dolls (or rather a T-doll copy of the original is recruited) while some others will cameo as collectable fairies. Collab T-dolls count as 5* in terms of dummy-linking and buyback, and many of them are rewards for clearing the event or map drops. Collab events usually have a currency mini-event similar to boss farming events, where you can farm a limited number of event currency every day and buy event exclusive shit from the event store. Event stores for collabs usually sell stuff for your ID card, dorm furniture, Collab T-dolls, Collab fairies, skins for Collab T-dolls (sometimes they require real money instead) and assorted goodies like tokens or combat reports once you've cleared it out.

Q: I'm a new player and I missed some events, how do I get those event T-dolls?
A: Fear not, event T-dolls pop up in future story events, collabs or rescue events so you'll eventually have a shot to farm whichever event T-dolls you missed. There will also be a Campaign Mode that will let you play past story events and farm event exclusive T-dolls. However, this is only limited to map drops introduced in that particular event and past login reward T-dolls, so event rewards like OTs-14 and M1887 cannot be unlocked via Campaign mode.

Q: Are there event reruns?
A: While it's largely unneeded due to the aforementioned Campaign mode, events have tedious ranking missions not incluced in Campaign mode where you must survive waves of enemies and accumulate score via kills or in later events, a variety of subobjectives. You will then receive a reward based on which percentile your score falls in, usually an exclusive equipment and fairies alongside a bunch of resources (includes gems and gacha tokens). Ranking missions will have reruns so you will have a chance to get the rewards if you'd missed the events themselves, although they may have some differences due to new gameplay features.

Collab events like the one with Arc Systems Works don't get added to campaign mode, but evidently they will be rerun so that new players can unlock collab T-dolls like Elphelt Valentine and Noel Vermillion.
Collab events include: Arcsys (Guilty Gear + Blazblue), Honkai Impact 2 (CN only for now due to licensing issues), DJMax Respect, VA-11 Hall-A (no fucking joke)


Coming Soon(tm): Heavy weapon teams, Information Center, Data Analysis and other gimmicks