Originally Posted by Zandel

New whale missions still easy enough to clear, 6-5 comes close but with that new break mechanic it's not terrible.

Pretty much this. If it's too hard for some, then that's a prime indicator that you need to improve your girls; level, evo/bloom, equipment, affection/2nd affection, ampies. Don't forget about the new Promotion skills (1st turn ATK up is by far the best choice, a tanky unit with Taunt (and some form of Evade) can help ensure your stronger units don't die first).

Oh, and 6-5 is not advisable to just hit Start and ignore; make use of your Solar Blasts (try and reserve for the Ancient Pest exclusively since it adds a lot to the faint meter). Have one girl in the crew who can spawn solar shrine nodes on the map (Strawberry Candle, Nigella); having another who spawns healing nodes (Chocolate Cosmos, Lantana) can help (though usually it seems like 1-2 nodes spawn after the mid-boss Pest).

I lost on whale boat mission 6-5...

I was literally 1 hit away from victory...

Welp. There goes the rest of my motivation for the rest of the day. DX

I don't lose a single girl to the deck battles and start each ship battle with a solar blast, yet failure is still possible. My teams aren't that imbalanced. Being doable doesn't mean it's not harder than it was designed to be.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't lose a single girl to the deck battles and start each ship battle with a solar blast, yet failure is still possible. My teams aren't that imbalanced. Being doable doesn't mean it's not harder than it was designed to be.

Oh, no question that there is a significant jump in difficulty from 5-5 to 6-5. In fact, while I haven't failed 6-5 yet, I've been farming 5-5 this evening since the reward difference is only 20 medals and I don't have to pay attention at all while earning a mix of manyus for my new girls.

What sort of power are you guys going into 6-5 with? I go into it with a red ship and 1.1 - 1.2 mill TP depending on helper and I have yet to come close to losing a map, the deck battles have come close to my first squad being wiped out a few times on that chance mob (down to 1 girl standing) but the ship is always 30%+ at the end. In fact the case where I almost lost the girls my ship was still 50% at the end.

Originally Posted by Zandel

What sort of power are you guys going into 6-5 with? I go into it with a red ship and 1.1 - 1.2 mill TP depending on helper and I have yet to come close to losing a map, the deck battles have come close to my first squad being wiped out a few times on that chance mob (down to 1 girl standing) but the ship is always 30%+ at the end. In fact the case where I almost lost the girls my ship was still 50% at the end.

1.01 mil TP here, and I lost my first squad against the deck-boss once (not a single special triggered on the second round of the battle, and it's a trigger-team!) and the whaleship against the ancient pest once (again, not a single skill trigger except 1 Grand Slash at the start of the map when the boss was about to run anyway, while the boss got several critical hits).
Generally, I finished the map with 30%-60% health left on the whale ship. Haven't tried the map again with Fritillaria's new earrings yet, but I don't expect major differences, just the deck-boss might be slightly easier.

Originally Posted by Zandel

What sort of power are you guys going into 6-5 with? I go into it with a red ship and 1.1 - 1.2 mill TP depending on helper and I have yet to come close to losing a map, the deck battles have come close to my first squad being wiped out a few times on that chance mob (down to 1 girl standing) but the ship is always 30%+ at the end. In fact the case where I almost lost the girls my ship was still 50% at the end.

My red ship base is 1.096M, helpers add anywhere from 70-100k. I've never lost my first squad, but it's been close a couple of times (way to hold that line Alpinia!). Like you, I've not had the whaleship fall below 30%.

I can only grind 6-4

I got lucky w/ RNG for 6-5 - sometimes, the Whale doesn't like to do special moves all the damn time LOL