Put 3 squads in the first base and 2 squads in the middle. Ignore the one with a crawling pest behind gate. Pray and hope the RNG is on your side.
I did it the opposite way. 2 on the top left and 3 in the middle.
Needed at least 1 squad in middle to circle once to take out one group of pest between the 2 whirlwind panels. The ones that don't go in the circle path go up and head towards the 2nd spinning panel to assist the other squad taking the top path from the top left base. And in case RNG in center is screwing with you, if the unit taking the top path is slow enough, the center units can even circle once because of all the whirlwind nodes.
Both way should work though. Unless RNG really likes to screw with you.
Ran out of stamina. Have to retry Advance and Ultimate stage
Attachment 3358
for Ultimate stage, the last RNG node is going to a fickle mistress - I put 2 to the side and 3 in the middle since there is an RNG node in the middle 4 dat 1 pest. None on the bottom camp
Well with Beginner to Advanced maps I got 3 medals on first try. Ultimate doesn't really seem that much more RNG heavy, but failed it on first try. With 3 squads in top-middle starting spot, you have 3 squads pass middle RNG node and thus 87.5% chance to kill that pest in the middle between whirlwinds. With 2 squads on the top-left starting spot and non squads from middle dying you then have 4 squads pass top RNG node and thus you have 93.75% chance to kill pest after that node. So technically there is 82.03% chance to 3 medal that map, but RNG can be an asshole. Map is doable with 65-75k power squads assuming you put best two on top-left, use solar blasts, and get average luck with skill activations.
Attachment 3360
On the screen-cap is the default starting set-up. You can use that to farm dumplings, as they aren't hidden behind RNG. For 3 medals thou I would recommend to move squad from left-middle to top-middle to maximize chances to succeed. And of course don't put Lilac or similar squads in top-middle.
Also helps quite a lot (as with all maps for this event) if the squads are of comparable speeds. Only the second squad leaving from top left corner could do with being slightly faster, but not by too much. About 50 speed faster would be ideal, wouldn't make it more than 150 speed faster. But squads at exact same speed works, you just might miss the right side moving pest, but those don't count for three medal anyway, they just drop some gold.
Yeah. Thou my squads are on the weaker side, in Ultimate maps at least few die on last boss if they got hurt beforehand. So for me even if squad going on the bottom way (so second from left-top starting spot) was a lot faster, it would probably die on last boss anyway ;).
My second squad is a bit weaker than my first, but about 45 faster (it's harder to match speeds with evolved Alpinia; that squad has every one of the slowest girls in the set on it). Even going the somewhat more roundabout route the first squad beat it to the last boss but just barely.
My third and 4th are a bit slower but that central node is less critical speed wise (still total variation is from 585 to 660 so not huge either).
Both runs were in the two to the left, 3 in center setup and both were three medal runs.
Every one of the 5 runs I've done in phase 2 has spawned a secret garden FWIW. In the unlikely event that I reach 4000 I may farm E-4 rather than E-8 for life crystals because it spawns the regular secret garden (although not very often).
I had a LOT of secret gardens as well. Every ?-8 I did so far spawned one, and Phase 2 overal gaining me about 700 dumplings just today. Which means I'll reach 4,000 dumplings in about 3 days. So when I break 3,500, I'll stop doing the Secret Garden, and just use the stamina to run 14-1 or 14-4 instead, I didn't 3-medal either yet, and those can spawn either SG or a Raidboss, which appear in short supply as well now.
finished phase 2 not close to 2 Grand
Attachment 3363
going to grind for Manyuus instead of dumplings until Manyuu tues is over
gotta lvl up Mei PlumBosom