Not particularly worried about my equipment or the rate at which I'll be clearing the Whale missions honestly. It's just nice to see we'll be getting a long-term end-game to work towards finally.
Edit: From what I understand, Whale Missions come and go like regular events, but for shorter time periods, right? Are these Missions available during a set time of day/certain days of the week for a few hours, or are the Airship Missions triggered like Raids are, by spawning an Ancient Pest from a map run?

So, abilities that boost Solar Drive damage don't apply to the Whale Cannon, huh? Shucks. I was hoping I could power level my new Ardisia to throw her into my back-crew to get that sweet, sweet 40% bonus, and maybe finally get some use out of Bipinnia Cosmos. She's way too slow to use normally.

The ship cannot benefit from buffs or receive healing, but it has some chance to crit on attacks and "shield" itself when attacked in the boss fight (but then this version's defense mechanic doesn't have that, so meh......)

Speed doesn't matter because only the ship moves here.

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They're only playable in second half of events. 2 weeks every month.

Thanks a lot for the answers! You've been incredibly informative and helpful!

Tomorrow starts a new re-issued event. Forgot her name (personally call her Umbrella Girl), something with a D. She has this Umbrella special skill. She's a pierce type.

And probably a new permanent re-issue (Mountain Lily).

Dipladenia. Really useful girl to get if you don't have any speed boost or ignoring web node ability. But aside that, she is a bit too weak.
Hopefully this event is not really hard to 3 medals. There is just some boring precise speed managment to do.

Love Dipladenia's design, and the utility she brings to a team is great. I already have a few Ignore Web/Whirlwind and Speed boosting girls but I am heavily lacking in AoE/Multi-Target pierce units. With Anthurium she's in my top 3 favorite Knights. Really looking forward to her re-issue.

Mountain Lily's permanent re-issue is something I'm ill prepared for though. Been blowing so much stamina trying to farm I've been putting off the permanent re-issue over and over. Should really get working on those...

Dipladenia is a good girl.