#and by random i mean they really are at the mercy of rng!!!

[protect-namine]

I find that jj gives you maybe too much freedom to choose who to hang out with sometimes. you'll just randomly see kai carrying a bunch of books, and you'd think that's just neji being neji. but if you happen to hang out with neji a few weekends prior, you'll know it's because enishi caught on to him making a mini library of his own. and in neji's character story, which happens during the newcomers' performance arc, apparently mitsuki already reprimanded neji before about making kai his errand boy lol. but you could easily miss all of that if you were just hanging out with one person!! fascinating, but also frustrating lol

[twstgameplay]

Is there a way to determine which spell the opponent is going to use next, especially if there are mixed spells? For example, it's a mix of flora and water, and turn 2 is flora, while turn 1 is a mystery. Do you go based on the spell before flora, after it, or is it really random?

It really is random. For the most part, it takes good estimation and random chance to successfully determine the spells that the opponent will throw at you.

I'll use the previous [JP] Omni test as an example of how I worked through statistically which attacks may come, as it uses every element, and it requires me to carefully choose my cards.

Turn 1: I see that Trey will be attacking first, followed by either Fire or Cosmic. My initial line up isn't bad, I can select Cater's Spell 2 for the first attack, countering the Flora attack. As for the second attack, I have a 50% chance to encounter either element. My best option here would be either to go with Idia's Spell 2, or Azul's Spell 2.

In this case, I went with Idia's Cosmic attack, and it paid off. Since the second attack of Turn 1 was Cosmic, I was able to minimize the amount of neutral damage I dealt.

Turn 2: Rook will be attacking second. Unfortunately, the game has decided to provide me with the option of any of the elements, which means whatever I choose for my first attack would be completely at the mercy of RNG. No matter which card I chose, I had a 25% chance that I would hit a weak element, a 50% chance of a neutral element, and a 25% chance of a resistant element.

In order to hedge my bets, I chose Cater's Spell 1. This is because in the current lineup, he was my weakest (non-healer) option, so even if the opponent were to attack me with another Fire, I wouldn't lose too much of my attack. In addition, his spell effect of Major Attack Down would help against taking too much damage if it was Fire.

For the second attack, I chose Azul's Spell 1 to counter it. This was a risk, since Rook has a chance to block my heal effect. But out of my three Water options, Trey's heal is stronger than Azul's heal so I do not want that blocked, and Azul's Spell 2 is too strong to use before the last turn.

Luckily, Trey's Cosmic attack appeared for the first attack, resulting in a neutral element exchange. In addition, Rook's Fire attack did not block Azul's heal, so I was able to heal my HP a fair amount.

Just like this, when going through exams, or battles, you have to weigh the probability of each type of element appearing. Sometimes the odds are not in your favor, but that's fine, just try again next time.

Good luck out there,

~ 🐬

[ladysmaragdina]

BEHOLD, ARTHUR MORGAN WITH POST-EPILOGUE HORSES IN CHAPTER 3. NO MODS, JUST EXPLOITS.

I’m way too fucking proud of myself.

explanations and ranting under the cut:

(I really want to stress that there are tutorials on Youtube on how to do both of these things)

The Turkoman was stolen from the Braithwaites, which is honestly super easy to do -- you can keep one (1) horse from that mission if you hang back at the end and feed it until it bonds with you (there’s not a prompt to feed them, but you can stand close enough and do it from your inventory. Just make sure Arthur doesn’t piss the horses off and get kicked in the head and die). The black and white horses are Arabians that Arthur can get through other means, so if you steal anyone but the Turkoman you’re stupid. When I brought him to the stable, the vendor made a smart comment about him being too fat, which is probably because I’d just shoved 15 sugar cubes down his dumb throat to make him love me.

According to the Braithwaite stableboy, his name was Cerberus. Now he’s named Belial because of the B on his butt (which unfortunately vanishes after loading a save)

The Missouri Fox Trotter? Is a bitch. 

There’s another way to get the same horse, via glitching the random encounter with the lady with the dead horse, but that requires endless save scumming and the mercy of the RNG and is just a matter of riding the same route over and over and over and over. This way requires SKILL. This way is real, real, stupid.

She’s the wild horse that Arthur and Albert Mason comment on in Arcadia For Amateurs III (you can actually get her as early as chapter 2, but I like saving the second part of that quest until after I have the Bolt Action Rifle). It seems like she’s always a girl. She’s supposed to run off and despawn while you’re talking with Mason to finish the mission. However, if you’re tracking her in Eagle Eye before you start the conversation and immediately skip the conversation, and time it just right, you can keep tracking her after the mission ends.

The moment you lose her trail, though, she’ll cease to exist.

And the tracking meter runs out much faster than normal since, again, she isn’t supposed to exist.

You have to frantically mash Eagle Eye as you chase this horse across half the goddamn map (she’ll usually run towards Butcher’s Creek, but God knows which direction she’ll turn when she hits it) while she sprints in an endless pell-mell panic in an effort to die like the game intended. Once you find her -- and again, she will NEVER stop running -- you can’t tame her normally. You can’t calm her or feed her or interact with her in any way. But if you’ve got an agile horse and infinite persistence, you CAN ride up next to her, vault on her back, and break her like any other wild horse.

She’s still a glitch at this point, not a fully realized horse -- you still can’t feed her or bond with her. If you get off her back for any reason before getting her to a stable and saving, the game will cease to recognize her as an interactable object, you won’t be able to mount her again, and you’ve got to reload and start Arcadia For Amateurs III all over. But if you stable her, and save, she’s yours.

...This took me two or three hours and over a dozen attempts.

The very first try, I caught her and tamed her and immediately got hit with a Murfree random encounter and she spooked and knocked me off. The next time I found her, several attempts later, I tried taming her in the mountains north of O’Creagh’s Run but she lost her footing on a steep slope and I fell off. One time I chased her all the way to the swamps of Lemoyne, vaulting over alligators, only to lose her when I got jumped by fucking wolves of all things. One time I fended off a Murfree random encounter while chasing her, tamed her, and was so desperate to beeline for a stable that I sprinted up a mountain, tripped, and fell off and shouted “NO” in real life. There’s a particular steep cliff just east of the ‘V’ in ‘Hanover’ on the map where I lost her trail at least four times that I now hate with a burning passion.

But I got her, and she’s fully functional and Arthur’s forever, and her name is Veruca because I want a pony and I want it now.

...There’s no practical point to this. This is in fucking story mode. I’m just proud that I broke the game and made it give me something I’m not supposed to have. 

And now, whenever Arthur rides by an NPC, sometimes they’ll comment on what a sweet horse I have.

[hoodiesncookies-blog]

So, since I don’t plan on doing anything significant with this blog anymore... might as well just share the headcanons I’ve had but have never had the chance to play out in story because of my procrastination and indecisiveness.

Best place to start that I’m sure everyone is fairly interested in is, of course, Hoodie’s genocide battle. So, here we go. Be warned, it’s a lot.

Will be approaching it from the perspective of it being a game.

‘Cause y’know, Undertale is a game.

The Buildup

The initial walk down the Last Corridor would go exactly as you expect it would; Frisk just goes forwards before being brought to a stop in the center of the hall, camera pans to show Chara standing in their way. 

Now, I haven’t decided on what Chara’s exact dialogue would be, but I do know that she wouldn’t be as good at staying apathetic and “not mad, just disappointed” as Sans is. She’d be sad. angry, and confused; and that would show on her face and in her dialogue. She’d want to know why this happened.

After she’d try asking why, and the only response is Frisk taking a step forwards... that’s when Chara’d force herself to be calm. Still very much pissed in an apparent way, but calm. And then, she’d make her threat.

Which, of course, Frisk isn’t gonna heed.

*Battle Encounter Sound Effect*

Intro

Again, exact dialogue isn’t something I have right now, all I know is that it wouldn’t just be a copy-paste of “it’s a beautiful day outside”. Headcanon whatever you want, send me your ideas, I’m welcome to it.

Now with that out of the way... nearing the end of the dialogue, Chara would lean her head down so that her hood is partially concealing her face; pausing with a “...” before looking back up. 

Her final line being whatever replacement for “burning in hell” you want, the text coming out slowly... all while at the same time, her sprite’s face would gradually turn disfigured, goopy, and dare I say, demonic. Think of Flowey’s face going creepy at the end of a neutral route, that’s the right idea.

All silent, aside from the Undertale’s text sounds.

... and then, not waiting for the player to click ahead, a jumpscare will flash across the screen with accompanying demonic laughter, loud sudden music, and a flashing background. Think something between what happens at the end of genocide (here, jumpscare warning), and a traditional scare from any number of horror game’s; FNAF being a prime example. Hard to put into words.

The scare only lasts for, at most, two seconds; it’s just transparent enough that most people would be able to see that. while it was happening, the initial attack had already started. Literally as the the scare is flashing on your screen, Chara has already pulled out her knife and taken a swing at your soul.

And if it hits because you were busy being spooked, that’s half of your HP gone already. And after the jumpscare fades away? You’ve still got the rest of her attacks to deal with. A fire pattern is very quickly gonna appear on the bullet board, accompanied by ten knives circling around the board and launching towards your soul, one by one while the fire magic restricts your movements.

It ends with three quick & successive real knife slashes, without jumpscares.

It’s not an exactly complicated string, and Chara makes a point of saying that it is in no way her “strongest attack”. It relies on shock to work.

And considering we’re all human, it’ll probably work on all of us.

Into the Fryer

Opening up at the battle screen, there’s nothing much to explain.

My personal theme for Chara’s battle, regardless of my outdated broken autplay, is Zenith. And, just like with Megalovania, it only starts playing when you get to this point. Otherwise, the menus are all the same.

Now, going into player actions...

CHECKing Chara we’ll yield this description.

*CHARA, 10 ATK 5 DEF.

*The strongest enemy. Humans aren’t effected by your LOVE.

*Still, no one is invincible. Knock em’ dead, darling.

FIGHTing Chara will of course, yield nothing but a MISS (and invisible battle progression). But, in a way that is different than Sans’s battle.

When the attack is made, Chara’s sprite will temporarily disappear; and in it’s place, a bullet board opposite to yours will appear with another, paler red soul already inside of it. The soul will move to dodge your attack, resulting in the MISS, and afterwards Chara’s sprite will reappear.

And taunt your inability to hit her, as quote, “I’ve fought Froggits harder than you.” The point of all that being that it’s a LOT easier to dodge a child swinging around a chainsaw than it is to dodge bullet patterns.

And, with that, it’s time to enter into the actual fight.

Unique Mechanics

Chara would have a lot of uniqueness as far as how her battle would go in comparison to every other battle we see in Undertale. She needs unique rules, because her actual attacks aren’t exceptionally strong or intense.

The main things she has on her side are battle length, RNG, and defying the player’s expectations. To break down constants in her fight:

LV doesn’t mean shit- AKA, your stats are all back down to default. This is to supplement for the fact Chara’s magic doesn’t hit as hard as say, Sans’s; your HP is back down to twenty for this entire fight. 

Randomized Attack Order- Meaning, while her different attacks have mostly set patterns, the order those attacks come in over the course of the fight is randomized from the beginning. All that’s guaranteed is that you’ll see each of her attacks at least once... beyond that, there’s no way to know what you’re gonna get. 

Random Additions- Before, during, or after any of her attacks, Chara has the possibility of adding something else atop of them. A breakdown of possible editions will be somewhere below this section.

She Remembers- While this would probably push what is possible by Undertale’s standards, this is just me writing so let’s go with it. Chara will remember what attacks you, the player, are good at dodging, and what attack you’re not good at dodging, and will make additions based on that information. If she might deliberately change her attack order next go-around so you have to do the one you’ve died the most on first, or she might add stuff to an attack pattern she knows you don’t have trouble with. She will do anything to make this harder for you.

*This will likely not happen until you’ve died at least like, five times. If you beat her before then, you won’t have to deal with it. Good hecking luck doing that, though.

Now, onto those randomized additions I mentioned!

Jumpscares- Yeah, that jumpscare that happened in the beginning? She throw that into any attack pattern, at any time she likes. It doesn’t do anything on it’s own, but is meant to disorient and distract you while her attacks continue. And, if the player has a heart attack because of it... well, I guess that means Chara won right?

*Sometimes she’ll jumpscare you after her attacks end, just out of spite.

Attack Additions- Yes, she can add straight up more attacks into her set patterns. These can be any of her attacks; as long as it doesn’t disrupt the way the pattern is set, of course. No overlapping knife circles or fire patterns or real knife slashes. 

Counters- Sometimes, when YOU do your attack, when it misses you’ll be immediately thrown into the middle of an attack pattern with no warning. 

*And yes, all these additions CAN be made on top of each other, and become more and more common as the battle goes on.

I can’t really go over actual attack patterns and stuff because... I’m just not smart enough to come up with them okay. I’m not a game designer.

Out-of-Battle Shenanigans

Thanks to Chara remembering everything after LOADs, she’s gonna be very proactive about challenging the player’s expectations outside of just randomizing her attacks. While these changes will only show through her attacks and insults at first, the player will encounter others the farther they manage to get in her fight.

A couple of examples of the kind of stuff you’d see, just to give you an idea of what she’ll pull, both occur after the player gets to the midway point of the fight; AKA, the spare offer that, of course, is completely fake.

No hard feelings right- If the player chose to SPARE Chara, and got rekt because of it, the next time they enter the battle Chara will start things off by offering them the chance to spare her again... and doing it again will lead to the same result. Choosing to FIGHT her will, of course, lead to a MISS and her throwing you right into her initial attack.

*Each time you accept the SPARE, her sarcasm and patronizing “Mercy is good” act will grow more and more obvious to the point it will be pretty much mocking the player’s intelligence. If you continue, Chara will just stop saying anything out of boredom.

I’m impatient- The first time the player gets to the midway point, if they chose to attack, and ended up dying afterwards; after they LOAD and respawn, the second they start to move Chara’s sprite will run down the hall and force them into a fight, completely skipping the dialogue and going straight into a jumpscare & the initial attack.

*If you survive this, and didn’t have an episode because of the shock, Chara will follow the attack by saying “What? You thought I was just gonna wait for you to make your way over?”.

Again, this is just SOME of the shit Chara would pull, I’m just not creative.

Second Half

Upon denying Chara’s mock spare attempt and FIGHTing instead, you might initially think you managed to score a grazing hit. Chara’ would be grasping her arm, red dripping from it and her looking like she’s in pain... but, her health bar wouldn’t show up. Why?

Because, as she will reveal... that red stuff was ketchup.Specifically, ketchup packets; y’know, the ones she uses for the handshake prank when Frisk first meets her? Yeah. As she’ll say, “It’s never too late for pranks.”

And with that, she will toss the ketchup packets at you; or, from the menu’s perspective, your whole UI. Several parts of your menu will be splattered with red; most worryingly, parts of your bullet board.

Because your soul blend in with it when you’re fighting, so in portions of the bullet board you won’t be able to see your soul. For the rest of the fight.

From an in-character perspective, what Hoodie did was toss ketchup in Frisk’s eyes. She just used ketchup offensively. Step up, Snas.

But, beyond that, the new changes include new, more intense attack patterns; which, again, are randomized in order and additions. After three attack patterns that follow what she’s been using, however, new attacks will be added into the mix. Specifically... imitations of her family’s attacks.

These being:

Hand Sweep- Mimicking Toriel’s attack where her hands would float across the edges of the bullet board creating tracking fire patterns, Chara’s attack will be similar except, instead of a boss monster paw, it will be a mitten-covered hand will sweep across casting fire magic. 

Eye Flashes- One of the few times you’ll see Chara’s sprite change in battle, during this attack she’ll lean her head down so her hood is casting a shadow over her face; underneath he hood, her eyes will flash red in a specific order, showing where red knives are gonna come flying. This is an imitation of Asgore’s Orange & Blue attack, but because Chara doesn’t know how to cast orange or blue magic, she’s just going with what she knows; red. 

Galacta Blazing- The most accurate of Chara’s imitations is of her brother’s special attack; sadly, she can’t make her stars quite as colorful. They all come out red and hit for the same damage as her magic knives do, but act in the same way Rei’s stars do.

These attacks have their own patterns, but are also implemented into the random additions as soon as you get to this point.

*You feel like the act is coming to a close.

The Finale

By this point in the fight, it will have become apparent that Chara is no longer being as much of a little shit taking pleasure in wrecking your shit.

Because, she’s getting tired and she’s getting scared.

So, reaching the homestretch, you enter into what Chara reveals is her actual strongest attack. And, it should be noted, she doesn’t seem entirely confident.

Still, it’s a hecking insane attack; and the only one of hers I’d say matches up to Sans’s level of intense what-the-heck bullshit.

Problem is, I’m too lazy to create an entire attack pattern.I can promise she’d make use of literally everything she had used up until then, like you’d only expect her to. But, eventually you’re gonna get through it.

The final portion of this attack pattern would be Chara spamming jumpscares and wildly slashing the bullet board with her real knife the entire time, trying to dice your soul like a tomato. She’ll give everything she’s got.

Eventually though, the jumpscares will grow... slower, quieter, less intense. As will her knife slashes. Up until the point they stop altogether.

Chara would inevitably slip to her feet out of physical & magical exhaustion, having used up all of her magical reserves and completely worn her body out. She’s only a kid, and a sickly kid at that. This is to be expected.

... because of her knife slashes, the bullet board will fall apart, and you’ll be able to freely move your soul over to the FIGHT button. And when you attack, her bullet board will appear and her soul won’t even try to dodge it.

But, her HP will only drop down to 1. Her chest will have big slash across it like San’s does, but because she’s human she’s able to just barely stay alive.

She’s about to try and stumble back to her feet, when a second, automatic hit goes through... finish her off. Thanks, Mettaton.

Post “Victory”

After the battle ends, Chara’s body won’t disappear; she’s not a monster after all, she doesn’t turn into dust. Thankfully, in the lighting of the last corridor, the player won’t be able to see much besides a black lump on the floor with something pooling on the ground around it.

Examining the corpse will be met the lovely message of *You got the Real Knife. The description is as follows:

*”Real Knife” - Weapon ATK 20

*Finders keepers, losers weepers.

Walking by the corpse will cause Frisk step in the pool of blood forming around Chara’s body, and as such leave footprints. That’s nice.

I’m not gonna go over what happens if you LOAD your save after killing her, because my ability to type has degraded tenfold since I started writing this. All I’m gonna tell you is that it’s sad and you’d be a horrible person for doing it.

[hypexion]

Hatestone: Priest of the Thief

Welcome back to Hatestone. It’s finally time for a gameplay related Hatestone, as I attempt to create a sensible rationalization for my sheer, unfiltered antipathy for Priest copy cards, the actual worst mechanic.

Some time ago, a member of Team Five suggested that the reason that Priest wasn’t getting better cards was due to the class being unpleasant to play against. This was then revealed to be one their many deceptions, as this statement was made before Drakonid Operative and Crystalline Oracle were printed. These are both what I call ‘Priest Copy Cards‘, and these kind of cards are the worst thing.

There is a perfectly logical emotional reaction to a Priest copying your cards. Fury. Furious fury. A first turn Mind Visions leads to a wonderful situation where there are only worst case scenarios - either they’ll answer your early game with your own early game, or a dodgy mulligan means that they now have a powerful card, rewarding them for not actually having a real plan to win. Thoughtsteal and its ilk leads to you suffering twice for not drawing certain cards - not only do you not have them, but your opponent does. It’s almost commendable that Team Five found a way to make draw RNG more frustrating. Almost, because they could have added more cards like Shadow Visions, which copy from their owner’s deck, and thus reduce frustration.

The worst offender when it comes to Priest copy cards is, of course, Drakonid Operative. A card purposely designed to make Dragon Priest work via sheer power is one thing. Taking the worst mechanic attached to Priest and removing its only weakness is another. Before Drakonid Operative, you at least had the hope that the Priest would be punished for their thieving ways, copying a synergy dependent or conditional card. But with this secret agent, Priests can avoid any unusable cards and go straight for the good stuff. And they get deck information as well. I’m not really a fan of the way Team Five pushes deck archetypes, but there are way better ways to do it than this.

Of course, the sting of having a card copied is an emotional response. And as much as game feel directs some of Hearthstone’s balance changes, it’s unlikely that copy cards will die. Which is a real pity, since they’re awful game design in addition to inducers of irrational hatred.

That’s right - Priest copy cards are not just an annoyance, but a design choice that is harmful to the general Hearthstone deck construction game component. This is because copy cards directly punish you for adding good cards to your deck. And due to the limited deck size and lack tutor of effects in Hearthstone, it is effective impossible to counter these cards at the deck building level. Putting duds into your deck hurts you more than Priests, so it’s a complete non-option. And putting an excessive number of synergy dependent cards into your deck puts you at the mercy of draw randomness.

So you can’t deck build around copy cards. Which means your only option is to play around them. Somehow. There are two problems here, one minor, and one major. The minor issue is that copy cards are a subset of card generating cards. Random card generation is already an issue when it comes to playing around your opponent’s cards - it all but the smallest of generation pools, there are simply too many possibilities. And until you’re down to a fifth or sixth of your deck, there’s a good chance that a copied card could, in a sense, be anything. The major problem is that you can’t actually play around these cards. It’s not actually possible within the Hearthstone mechanics. For most copy cards, the cards are copied from your deck. And the only way to remove cards from your deck is to draw them. At random. Wonderful. Then there’s Mind Vision. Sure, you have more control of the cards in your hand. But to protect cards from Mind Vision, you have to not have them in your hand. So either you play them, which you can’t always do, or you don’t draw them. Which means all the other copy cards can get them.

As for Convert? Shockingly, Convert is the only Priest copy card that is not a design train wreck. You know what got copied. Some minions can’t be copied by Convert, and all of your spells and weapons are safe. Of course, barely anyone remembers Convert. It’s vastly overshadowed by Entomb, which while infuriating, isn’t technically a copy card. And in some cases, it’s just an Assassinate with a silence effect.

So that’s Priest copy cards. Bad and no good. Can they be good? Unlikely. Will more appear? With almost tragic certainty. But we can hope that they won’t, and that if they do, they’ll be pushed out of decks by better cards. I mean sure, the first card that makes attacking cost mana will probably be a Priest card. And we could see a minion with an attack reduction aura for Priest. But that’s a price I’m will to pay to see copy cards die.

So perhaps I haven’t created a true rational reason for hating a type of card. But I’m sure success will happen eventually. So what will be hated next? It’s a mystery to everyone. (Even me. I need to decide.)