Flashfall's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkSpent a bit of time on Destiny 2 to experience the final update and so far I'm not disliking what they've added, but as someone that hasn't played since Final Shape, I will say this - the UI is...Spent a bit of time on Destiny 2 to experience the final update and so far I'm not disliking what they've added, but as someone that hasn't played since Final Shape, I will say this - the UI is somehow even more convoluted than it was before and I've already had years to get used to it, so I can't imagine how incredibly lost a new player would be trying to find a specific menu or activity. Some positive things though:
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All activities are pretty rewarding now and the ability to customize them with modifiers to either make things easier or harder with an impact to the score multiplier is nice.
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The hugely increased vault space and ability to access vault from the inventory menu is nice. Still not as good as DIM, but a big improvement especially for console players.
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Sparrow Racing League's alright. It's brutally simple and lacks a lot of the things that most kart-racers would consider core features but as a barebones racing game mode it works.
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Being able to swap between different seasonal artifacts is huge for buildcrafting since some of those artifact mods are super strong.
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Weapon tiers as a replacement for crafted weapons with enhanced perks isn't bad. Armor tiers are confusing to learn though, including the tuning slot you only unlock at tier 5. Armor archetypes are alright, being able to target certain ones through a ghost mod is neat.
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Armor set bonuses are an improvement from seasonal armor effects and actually give you an excuse to use non-pinnacle armor pieces.
Overall, definitely more positives than negatives, though still not enough to keep me around for a long time. I picked up the two latest expansions on the deep discount they're offering and I'll play through those, the new dungeons, and the new raids at least once.
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Comment on Are there any games that had their development abandoned that you followed where you wish that continued/completed development? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI saw a trailer over a decade ago for Little Devil Inside, and was immediately charmed by the artstyle and animations, but it seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth for a while after...I saw a trailer over a decade ago for Little Devil Inside, and was immediately charmed by the artstyle and animations, but it seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth for a while after that. Since then there's been like one or two more trailers a few years in between but the game is definitely in development hell and I'm surprised it hasn't been cancelled already.
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Comment on What are your gaming idiosyncracies? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI'll choose the "hard" difficulty for my first playthrough (this varies a lot between games, some Japanese games literally won't let you choose hard difficulty until you've cleared normal because...I'll choose the "hard" difficulty for my first playthrough (this varies a lot between games, some Japanese games literally won't let you choose hard difficulty until you've cleared normal because it's actually A LOT harder), but then I'll be aggressively chasing down upgrades to make things easier. I'll also try to 100% on my first playthrough within reason and I might not even do a second playthrough, depending on how long and/or tedious playing through the game again would be. My personal justification is that I'm trying to get the most out of my initial experience while also having a bit of challenge, but part of me says that I'm just trying to prove I'm not a casual playing on easy or normal.
Also, I never, EVER use numbers or special characters in my name for a multiplayer game unless it fits the character. Trying to come up with an actual unique name in an MMO is a core part of the experience.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results) in ~talk
Flashfall Link ParentOh I am aware, I went and watched the remade version of the cutscene that got me to tear up. It was good to see it in HD but they changed the voice actors for Zack and Cloud, and the original ones...Oh I am aware, I went and watched the remade version of the cutscene that got me to tear up. It was good to see it in HD but they changed the voice actors for Zack and Cloud, and the original ones just cut deeper for me.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkMy third and probably last update on Vintage Story for the near future since I've hit all of my goals and then some, and I've more or less reached the top of the current tech tree so I'm running...My third and probably last update on Vintage Story for the near future since I've hit all of my goals and then some, and I've more or less reached the top of the current tech tree so I'm running out of milestones. Last week's achievements:
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Didn't find a limestone biome but I scraped up enough lime to make plenty of mortar anyway
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Built a tier 1 cementation furnace and made just one batch of steel (it takes an absurd amount of coal)
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Maxed out my inventory capacity with sturdy leather backpacks, which was only possible after making steel pounder caps for my pulverizer to crush chromite into powder to make chromium sulfate
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Built a number of ceramic and langstroth hives from the "From Golden Combs" mod that expands on beekeeping, so I've got a very steady supply of honey and beeswax
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Planted a bunch of berry bushes and fruit trees, but it's going to take half an in-game year before they mature enough to produce fruit
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Made a full set of iron chainmail, and also bought a full set of broken blackguard armor from the treasure hunter trader and repaired it to pristine condition
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Built a three-speed gearbox for my windmill powertrain so I can adjust speed and torque depending on how much wind is blowing at the moment
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Built two more windmills because running any machines on third gear takes an enormous amount of torque and one windmill was just not nearly enough
I'll likely take a break once I get the sails built out on those additional windmills, and just in time for Destiny 2's final major update. My clan is planning on getting back on for a bit and enjoying all the stuff they're adding as a sort of last farewell to the game.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results) in ~talk
Flashfall LinkThis is basically an impossible question to answer because I've played a ton of games over the years and a lot of them have had different kinds of impact on me, but it's hard to pick one as a...This is basically an impossible question to answer because I've played a ton of games over the years and a lot of them have had different kinds of impact on me, but it's hard to pick one as a favorite or best.
Maplestory (2005) would be the easiest answer I guess, since it was a big part of my childhood and I still listen to the soundtrack while working even now.
Minecraft (2010) was a really fun and unique experience, especially back in the alpha days, and then playing with friends on a server with a ton of mods.
TERA (2011) was another MMORPG I sunk years into and did a lot of dungeoning and chilling with the small guild I joined there. Might be the closest I've been with an online guild.
Black Desert Online (2016) I only put 2 years into shortly after it released, but it was by far the most immersive experience I've ever had in an MMORPG. Met some fun people in that one too, we still chat and share things on discord.
Payday 2 (2013) still might be the most fun co-op shooter I've played with friends, not for just gameplay but how much we were clowning around in it.
Planetside 2 (2012) was a truly unique multiplayer experience and I loved being a small participant in actually large scale battles. I also joined a gaming community through this game back in 2019 and I'm probably one of the most active people in it now, at least if you're going off of discord posts. Shoutout to Voodoo Shipping Company, best NC outfit on the east coast bar none.
Monster Hunter: World (2018) was my first Monster Hunter game and it just blew me away. The graphics, the open world, the weight of the weapons, the music, the melodrama, the monsters? An absolutely perfect package (plus awful performance and a bunch of bugs on release but not enough to ruin the experience). Had a lot of fun going on hunts both solo and with friends, they weren't as into Wilds unfortunately.
Some notable PSP titles since that was definitely my favorite handheld, incredible little machine.
Ace Combat X (2006) was my introduction to the Ace Combat series and I still remember the music and missions pretty clearly, listening to some of the mission tracks sends a shiver down my spine even now.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010) wasn't my first MGS game (that goes to Portable Ops, also on the PSP but a bit of a mess), but it was definitely the one that got me into MGS and Kojima's games in general.
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (2008) was my first Final Fantasy game though not my first exposure to FF7, which would be the Advent Children movie. That said though, playing this game first made me like Zack more than Cloud, even after I've played through the two recent FF7 remake games. This might also be one of the only times a game moved me enough to make me tear up, damn that cutscene was powerful.
Honorable mentions: Battletech (2018), Frostpunk (2018), Advance Wars: Dual Strike (2005), Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (2007), Hunt: Showdown (2018), Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (2007), STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), and many other games that I no longer recall and can't just check my steam library to remember.
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Comment on Games journalist Jason Schreier has started a YouTube channel in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIf it's any consolation, SkillUp actually managed to create a gaming news website based off one of the video series he had going called This Week In Videogames that's got articles written by all...If it's any consolation, SkillUp actually managed to create a gaming news website based off one of the video series he had going called This Week In Videogames that's got articles written by all the members on his team and it's actually doing quite well.
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Comment on What do you think about Destiny 2’s imminent death and games as a service? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI only started playing Destiny 2 when Shadowkeep released, and then I put some 2000+ hours into it until Final Shape, which just seemed like the best time to stop. I had no former experience with...I only started playing Destiny 2 when Shadowkeep released, and then I put some 2000+ hours into it until Final Shape, which just seemed like the best time to stop. I had no former experience with Bungie games, not Halo, not even Destiny 1, so there's zero nostalgia involved in this, it's specifically about Destiny 2 and honestly, Bungie did pretty good for the most part.
Very, VERY few other companies can boast that they created a live service PVE game that wasn't an RPG and kept it going and highly populated with regular non-trivial content updates for over a decade straight. Maybe that was because their core gameplay wasn't as good, and Destiny 2's core gameplay is EXCEPTIONALLY good. Maybe they just didn't have the cash to burn, and Bungie has some magical means of tricking publishers into giving them lots of cash to burn despite their track record of, well, burning lots of cash. Maybe they didn't have industry veterans that sacrificed their entire lives' stores of passion to create a truly unique experience and were ultimately discarded once the company was mismanaged to the point of insolvency.
Ultimately I think Destiny 2 as a game will be remembered fondly, and most of the retrospective scorn will be directed towards piss poor management and an incredibly unsustainable content cycle (seriously 4 seasons plus an expansion every year is mind boggling amounts of work) and some very strange and perpetually idiotic design choices like vaulting story and PAID content. Destiny 2 may die, and Bungie may very well die with it (let's be real Marathon is not going to save them), but the memories remain. Watching raid races or trying to learn raids and dungeons blind, getting god rolls or exotic loot drops, posing with your friends with the absurd amounts of emotes for screenshots, getting destroyed in crucible, getting destroyed in iron banner, getting destroyed in trials of osiris, getting destroyed in gambit (I'm not big on the pvp lol), clearing a strike on grandmaster difficulty for the first time, and getting a proper and glorious finale to the Light and Darkness saga.
It was fun.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkSunk another entirely too many hours into Vintage Story and while I am much better established and have almost made it through my first winter relatively smoothly, I still have a number of things...Sunk another entirely too many hours into Vintage Story and while I am much better established and have almost made it through my first winter relatively smoothly, I still have a number of things to complete, especially once it gets warm enough to actually grow crops again. In the past week, I've managed to:
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Build a decently large greenhouse to extend the growing and harvesting seasons for my crops
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Build a large windmill using a metric ton of flax linen to power my pulverizer, quern, grindstone, and helve hammer
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Put together a full gambeson armor set (again out of a ton of linen)
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Build a sailboat, which is a massive upgrade over the raft I was using before
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Switch from stews to pies as my primary food source (pies are cool)
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Upgrade from bronze to iron tools
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Produce a lot of leather, enough to equip myself with multiple leather backpacks for more inventory space
The goals I'm aiming to achieve this week are:
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Finding a biome with a limestone layer so I can mass produce mortar
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Constructing a cementation furnace to begin steel production (which will take a lot of mortar)
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Setting up a basic apiary once it's warm enough for the bees to come out
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Capturing some chickens and goats for domestication
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Beginning a berry/fruit farm for additional food and winemaking
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Making a full set of iron chainmail
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkFinished a full rewatch of the first season of The Ancient Magus' Bride, and it's actually kind of incredible how this manga/anime just gets magic right, as in it actually feels like the world is...Finished a full rewatch of the first season of The Ancient Magus' Bride, and it's actually kind of incredible how this manga/anime just gets magic right, as in it actually feels like the world is magical, rather than magic just being an alternate form of science or technology, or some kind of bloodline superpower. It really is the closest thing to "what if all those folk stories were real?", with no over-the-top fights or flashy but trite demonstrations, just a very natural beauty and terror, and a very deep respect of old traditions. It still manages to strike a great balance between focusing on the characters and the magical phenomena, whereas something like Mushishi leans a lot more into the folk creatures themselves, and the more shonen magic anime are almost entirely about the characters and the magic itself is just there to highlight their character traits.
Also going to gush about Nippon Sangoku again because episode 8 was somehow the best yet. Damn this show's good.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkOne of the folks in the gaming community I'm in just started hosting a Vintage Story server and as an enjoyer of Minecraft both without and with extreme amounts of mods, I was intrigued. First...One of the folks in the gaming community I'm in just started hosting a Vintage Story server and as an enjoyer of Minecraft both without and with extreme amounts of mods, I was intrigued.
First off, this definitely does not play like Minecraft, at all. Yeah it's got the same general voxel style and block breaking/placing, but the act of doing basically anything is significantly more methodical. Just started and want to go mining? In Minecraft you can punch a tree, build a crafting table, and make a wood pickaxe within 30 seconds. In Vintage Story, to make your first pickaxe, you have to find pieces of loose copper on the surface or pan for copper pieces from sand or gravel, then once you have enough you need to add those pieces to a crucible that you had to first form from clay then fire in a pit kiln, then you need to heat the crucible to the copper's melting point using sufficiently hot fuel (charcoal most likely, or coal if you get lucky and find it in a ruin), then you need to pick up the 1100 degree celcius crucible with tongs and pour it into the ceramic pickaxe head mold you made (again, formed from clay and fired in a pit kiln), and once that's solidified can you then combine it with a stick to make a copper pickaxe. That whole process, going in completely blind, took me 10 hours from starting, and I had to learn more things just doing that than I did in the entirety of base Minecraft.
Everything in this game is skews heavily towards realism, and as such everything you do is much more deliberate and slower-paced but significantly more rewarding. Simply avoiding freezing and starving to death in your first winter (there are seasons, naturally) is already a huge milestone. It's not just a total realism mod though, there's some eldritch horror stuff mixed in to keep you on your toes with little tears in reality that show up temporarily on the surface that spawn monsters at night, or "temporal storms" that roll through every 2-3 in-game weeks that allow monsters to spawn basically anywhere, even in your well-lit house.
That's just the survival mechanics though, for the folks that prefer a more creative experience you can go hog wild here as you can chisel individual voxels out of blocks, and even mix other materials into the same block, so the potential for artistic expression is limitless. Personally I was never much of an artist so I haven't gone into that (plus still trying to survive winter and all), but some people on their creative worlds have made some truly impressive things.
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Comment on 'The Boys' has ended. What are your thoughts? in ~tv
Flashfall LinkI'm glad that it is finished, not so much because it got bad but more because the showrunners got to end it on their own terms rather than Amazon dragging its lifeless corpse through another few...I'm glad that it is finished, not so much because it got bad but more because the showrunners got to end it on their own terms rather than Amazon dragging its lifeless corpse through another few seasons to milk it dry. Were there a whole bunch of underutilized characters and side plots that just ended abruptly with not much point? Yes. Did it feel like they just cranked up the gratuitous violence and gore even more to compensate? Yes. Would it have turned out better if Eric Kripke didn't feel forced to raise the stakes in the story to make sure this was the last season? Who really knows. But I had a good enough time with it, and I didn't hate the ending, and honestly that's alright.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkJust finished seeing Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe in IMAX and I'll avoid spoilers since it only just came out in the US, but I'll say that a lot of this movie is...Just finished seeing Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe in IMAX and I'll avoid spoilers since it only just came out in the US, but I'll say that a lot of this movie is definitely a slow burn, even compared to the first one. Animation is top-quality as usual, especially during the fights, and musical composition and song choice is excellent. If you saw the first, then you'll enjoy this one a lot too. If you haven't and also aren't familiar with Hathaway's story from UC, go watch those first otherwise you'll have no clue who or what's going on.
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Comment on Stranger Than Heaven | Cast and story reveal trailer in ~games
Flashfall LinkSnoop Dogg I knew about before, but Ado and Satoshi Fujihara (lead singer of HigeDandism) was a genuine surprise. There's a fair bit of musical star power in this game, huh?Snoop Dogg I knew about before, but Ado and Satoshi Fujihara (lead singer of HigeDandism) was a genuine surprise. There's a fair bit of musical star power in this game, huh?
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Comment on Tildes Survey #5: Pineapple on pizza? (Results) in ~talk
Flashfall LinkI think there's a real case to be made for sweet or sour things to be pizza toppings, pineapple among those. As long as whoever's eating the pizza understands and accepts that there will be...I think there's a real case to be made for sweet or sour things to be pizza toppings, pineapple among those. As long as whoever's eating the pizza understands and accepts that there will be pineapple, that's all good and well.
Personally though I just don't like pineapple that much, pizza or not. I voted yes for freedom of choice but I'll never ask for it myself.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall Link ParentIf anime about rakugo is what you're into (I haven't seen Akane-banashi so I can't comment on that), definitely try Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. This story is absolutely loaded with emotions....If anime about rakugo is what you're into (I haven't seen Akane-banashi so I can't comment on that), definitely try Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. This story is absolutely loaded with emotions. It's heavy but beautiful.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkUpdates on what I've been watching now that we're halfway through this season: Witch Hat Atelier is really gorgeous to watch, there's always something in each episode that just makes you go "wow"....Updates on what I've been watching now that we're halfway through this season:
Witch Hat Atelier is really gorgeous to watch, there's always something in each episode that just makes you go "wow". Writing so far's been good but nothing amazing yet, still a good amount of lightheartedness and humor with an occasional brief and jarring interruption of darkness but if what I've heard is true, we'll be seeing a lot more of that in the future. Shoutout to that one scene in episode 5.
Yomi no Tsugai follows the shonen formula so tightly that I can't be surprised by anything that happens. It's still good, but I don't think I would have followed this one normally if the FMA author wasn't behind it. Problems of consuming too much anime I guess.
Re:Zero and Iruma-kun Season 4 are both more of what they are, which is good if you want more of that. I do and I'm happy with them, nothing's blown me away but I didn't really expect them to either.
I started MARRIAGETOXIN at the recommendation of a friend and it's good, dumb fun. A very silly plot, well-animated action sequences, cute and awkward romances. Very comfy show.
Also caught up on Jigokuraku Season 2 from the previous season, and it's just as intense as the first. Good if you want something still shonen but more serious in all aspects.
Last but definitely not least, Nippon Sangoku continues to be the best thing I'm watching this season, every single week too. The characters, plot development, and presentation are incredibly compelling and leaves me wanting more at the end of every episode.
Edit: Also, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe releases in US theatres starting Friday. The first movie, Hathaway's Flash, was on Netflix only, so I'm looking forward to getting the full IMAX experience for this one.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentAgainst bosses with large hitboxes, conchcutter can do some disgusting damage. It hits multiple times as it passes through so if you just throw em all while the boss isn't moving for a second you...Got any memorable scenarios you found different things useful?
Against bosses with large hitboxes, conchcutter can do some disgusting damage. It hits multiple times as it passes through so if you just throw em all while the boss isn't moving for a second you can do a ton of burst damage. Flea brew synergizes especially well with Wanderer due to its already high attack speed and improved silk gain, so you can basically trade blows with some bosses and heal the damage back.
Magnetite dice might feel like a really low chance for what it does but it's still one of the best blue tools for combat, and any chance to ignore damage is valuable. Weighted belt is actually big for increasing Wanderer crest DPS since you don't need to waste time moving back into range, while spamming attacks.
For yellow tools, injector band + multibinder is the safest combo. Fractured mask is also very popular for survival but you only get value from it if you take a lethal hit. Longclaw's popular with Wanderer since it mitigates some of the range disadvantage. Pollip pouch is a must if you want free extra damage from red tools, particularly with threepin or cogfly. If you are going for more direct red tool damage instead, Quick Sling doubles the amount you throw. Druid's Eyes (the upgraded version) is less popular since you need to get hit to get value from it and it doesn't give a lot of silk back but it's not bad if you're using the damage trading tactic. And this last one is a very personal choice, but I quite like snitch pick since you can get a bit of silk from clawlining an enemy, and I like to be aggressive with clawline.
I didn't play with flea brew much because it costs something to use and is even more of an annoyance to refill
I take it you haven't gotten to the end of the flea caravan questline? You should, the reward is well worth it in multiple ways. Also if you hit Kratt while he's peeping on you in the spa, he stops charging you to use it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentSilksong's crests and tools open up a lot of flexibility between spell usage and healing so you might find yourself with more silk to spare for spells by changing that up a bit. I know there's one...I like the system of hitting enemies to get mana then using that mana to heal, but unfortunately this means I almost never used my mana for spells because healing was too valuable.
Silksong's crests and tools open up a lot of flexibility between spell usage and healing so you might find yourself with more silk to spare for spells by changing that up a bit. I know there's one tool that increases the base amount you regenerate, which when combined with a few spool upgrades gives you enough to cast one spell without needing to hit anything.
Most of the benches require money (rosaries) to unlock
There were a good amount of benches that cost Geo to unlock as well. Rosaries are a lot easier to come by than Geo, at least.
There is one area that has toll benches (lower cost to open but require payment on each use), and the concept feels much worse in my brain than it is in practice
That's supposed to feel shitty, that whole area is an awful place and the devs want you to feel shitty there. But at least it's still not as shitty as that other place.
Retying certain boss fights in "memories" is so frustrating. The full sequence of unskippable (non-?) cutscenes - where your character takes 5 seconds to wake up, then you have to hold Y + down for 5 seconds, then wait another 5 seconds to enter the memory, then 5 more seconds to wake up inside the memory, then sometimes a bit of minimal platforming or clearing a few bozo enemies to get back to the bossfight - is completely disrespectful of the player's time.
Oh yeah I hated that so much too, that didn't feel like it added anything of value.
It also only has 1 slot for tools so I played with them that much less.
I used Wanderer's crest for basically the rest of the game after unlocking it pretty early on but I still messed around with a lot of the usable tools, you don't need Architect crest to get good value out of them.
Right now I'm at the end of Act 3. I haven't been able to beat the main boss yet. I checked reddit for tips and they suggested using basically my exact build, so I'm on the right track but just need to git gud I suppose.
Took me more tries than NK Grimm did and I had to sleep on it but once you do git gud it feels like a great fight. Also, poison cogflies. Game is hard enough, cheese is a valid tactic.
Also kinda stuck on the Hunter's March memory boss (Karmelita) right now
Have you tried chugging flea brew and just going apeshit (and healing while she's staggered)? That's what worked for me.
The dungeons are doable but very challenging for a solo player. Basically all of the dungeon bosses have mechanics where you need to complete a task to open up a temporary damage window and it takes notably longer solo since you can't divide the work and you're also drawing all of the aggro. They're the best structured content outside of raids though, and significantly less punishing if you make mistakes since there usually isn't a wipe mechanic outside of the whole team dying, so I'd say they're worth it.