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unfortunatelysirius · 4 years

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Wicked Charm, What’s Your Patronus? | Remus Lupin, Marauders Era

「 ❁ 」PROMPT 「 ❁ 」

One day in Defense, Professor Boomstick offers whoever can produce a corporeal Patronus an Outstanding on the next essay as well as an out on a test. When Y/N shockingly produces a wolf Patronus, well… you can assume the rest.

「 ❁ 」AUTHOR’S NOTE 「 ❁ 」

Why did I name a guy Boomstick? Because that word is fucking hilarious to me THAT’S WHY (also this sucks ass but tbh I'm just going with the flow nowadays whatever comes out comes the f out whether it’s shit or not) and for anyone who wants to get technical, believe me i already know what u will say

DEFENSE WAS Y/N L/N’S last class of every Friday and as of late, the only class she fervently dreaded. It was a mix of students from different Houses but dominated by Gryffindors. Three of the infamous sixth-year Gryffindor circle, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, were in there, each of the blokes gifted with a wand. Y/N didn’t pay them much mind at the start of the year but after a few months of mingling and getting to know her classmates, she had developed somewhat of an acquaintanceship with the boys, perhaps even a friendship. She was one of the other few Gryffindors in the room and after she particularly chewed out one of the Ravenclaws feet from the classroom for ruining her perfect attendance record (allegedly, the clumsy arse caused her a three-day sentence in the Hospital Wing) James and Sirius decided she had enough style and substance (“Marauder flair,” they called it) to invite her into their gang.

It was as unenticing on the inside as it was from a feet-on-the-ground outsider’s perspective. Y/N wasn’t very adventurous. She was miles away from Lily’s singlehanded definition of “studious”, but still a pretty mellow person, preferring to keep to predetermined routes and undetected on radars. She was an extrovert with introverted tendencies, mostly appearing at times with people who differed in lifestyle. Like James and Sirius, two peas in a pod.

Remus Lupin was much less of a firecracker inches from popping, his voice tampered and quiet, his disposition ripe with premature wisdom. Y/N found him likeable. Almost too likable—a noticeable kind of fancy that only prats would fail to see. Then that fancy became more; she didn’t remember how.

This was open to judgment from the gods, who could choose to interfere or leave Y/N’s recent change of heart alone.

Unfortunately for her with this newfound friendship and growing fancy, James and Sirius had enough arrogance to fit the Greek gods from ancient myth…

Zeus and Poseidon, at least. Maybe even Aphrodite, the bloody matchmakers.

Professor Boomstick, a stout, ashen man who oftentimes went into tangents about how the Muggle Army was a lousy old group of incompetent twats, liked challenges. He liked challenges for his students, specifically. He also liked favoritism and had yet to liken any students to his old pub buddies. Today Y/N and the Marauders all went to class expecting a test, but Professor Boomstick was already there waiting—and the room was empty of desks. Y/N stopped in her tracks, feeling Remus’s tall, lean frame smack into her backside. He apologized but she ignored him, sweeping her gaze across the floor. A group of students who found themselves there before her were huddling in a corner, nervous as sheep waiting to be sheered.

Y/N’s steps held an edge... She couldn’t deny she herself was nervous.

“Damn the test,” Professor Boomstick barked suddenly, catching Y/N’s bewildered eyes and holding them hostage. She swallowed hard. Surprises were not fun to her; she hated them with a passion. This old fart was just an arse to be incorporating one in place of a test on the history of Patronuses and Animagi she spent eons studying for. “We’ll see what you’re made of today without wasting parchment, can’t read your writin’ anyhow.”

“What exactly are we doing?” a long-faced, petite-nosed girl asked.

Professor Boomstick raised his wand and closed the door behind Y/N and the Marauders, throwing them further into the room. Y/N felt Remus’s arm brush her side and heat enveloped her from head to stomach. Glaring at Professor Boomstick, they all walked to stand with the other students, keeping a close eye on the crazy man they all called their teacher. Thank Merlin Defense professors never lasted.

“For any of you kids that can produce me a corporeal Patronus, I won’t just give ye bonus,” Professor Boomstick said, smirking at the huddle of students. “Ya got an essay due two weeks time on endangered species of the Wizarding World and that test we had scheduled today’s rescheduled for Monday. I’ll give any of ya who give me what I want a freebie on the quiz—and an automatic Outstanding on the essay. Still gotta turn three pages in though.”

The huddle of students struck up an excited exchange of whispers before going abruptly silent. Patronuses? That was hard-level shit and sparingly learned outside of class lessons due to its difficulty. Disappointment shuttered down the spines of each student, one at a time, as they all came to the same conclusion: this was a waste of time.

“What? None of ya have even tried?” Professor Boomstick demanded, bushy white eyebrows furrowing in the middle of his forehead. “May be a charm, but it could save yer life someday. All it takes is one loose Dementor and BOOM! Your soul’s been sucked right outta ya.”

Everyone flinched, some horrified at the sheer mention of Dementors. Professor Boomstick was right. No one really knew Patronuses and their uses. Advanced magic like that was too extensive, too dueling of a task.

Professor Boomstick was getting frustrated and impatient, glaring at each student individually. Crazy old man.

Y/N L/N nervously glanced at her classmates, mostly the marauding group of boys she befriended, before she stepped out of the huddle. All eyes automatically went to her.

James and Sirius were (in their opinion, rightfully) shocked she had this information under her belt the entire time—sitting on it, dwelling on it, never admitting to it where her friends were concerned. The two of them didn’t have any concept of privacy, both too invasive to be capable of secrets; Remus was nowhere near similar. Secrets were a part of his nature, only for the benefit of others and never his. If anyone could understand Y/N’s need to keep something like this close to her chest, it was Remus. Though, this wasn’t much of a secret. They all knew Y/N’s history and domestic life.

Remus glanced at her, an unreadable expression on his face, but her back was turned to him. She could feel everyone looking at her and picking out a single pair of eyes was too strenuous a task.

“Get on with it, L/N,” Professor Boomstick demanded.

“Okay, sir,” Y/N said. She would have never dared do this, but she was drowning in coursework from her other classes—any further work and she’d lose sleep, her grades suffering for it. Her mouth opened, inhaling a deep breath she braced.

Patronus charms were a complicated, beautiful species of magic. Arduous and dogging, it took someone particularly skilled to produce one—and you had to conjure one of your best memories, one of pure joy and exhilaration. Not just happiness, as one of Y/N’s old mentors incorrectly told her once upon a time. Y/N came from a family always preparing for the worst and through the years as the likelihood of a war reached its peak, her parents grew increasingly paranoid and enrolled her in a summer mentorship program as a precaution. She learned the Patronus charm from an eccentric man named Ellis Hawking.

Y/N’s happiest memory, the one that gave her pure, unadulterated joy, was when she was twelve and got to see her new baby sister.

“Expecto Patronum,” Y/N said when an incandescent smile reached her lips. All concentration went into her wand when she pointed. Her wand felt like it thrummed under her fingertips and she targeted the air just north of herself, where no one was in her line of sight.

Everyone behind her gasped when a shot of pure light emitted from her wand’s end, something growing larger as it left. Tendrils of silver and white swept the floor, coiling to become a translucent shape. The shape growled noiselessly, galloping on the ground like a wolf. It was a wolf. Majestic and sleek, making a turn to come running back at the caster herself—polarizing white eyes staring right into hers. Ears pinned back and slivers of silver hair standing on edge. All until it disappeared into the same device that made it. Creation and destruction, two separate words that meant the same: an inevitable, unavoidable cycle.

Y/N’s Patronus was last a dolphin when she first learned how to cast, not a wolf.

Her Patronus had changed.

“Bravo, bloody Hell—bravo, girl!” Professor Boomstick clapped enthusiastically. “For sure you’re gettin’ in my good graces rest of this here year. You’ve gotta be one hell of a witch casting a corporeal Patronus at sixteen! Bloody—”

Y/N stared down at her wand, completely bewildered.

Why did it change?

James glanced over at Sirius while Y/N was distracted, a grin breaking his shocked composure. Neither he, Sirius, or Remus expected that; while Remus was busy frozen and possibly panicking himself into early gray hairs, James was bursting on the inside from excitement. Sirius shared a similar expression.

“Looks like little Y/N’s in love with Moony,” he hissed under his breath, failing to lose his grin. “That’s gotta be it. I’ve read on this before.”

Sirius nodded, a faux solemnness combatting the electric shock darting around like butterflies on his face. “After General Prat’s done,” he said, and the two nodded like soldiers heading to war.

When no one other than Y/N could even produce an incorporeal Patronus, Professor Boomstick disappointedly released them—promising a nervous Y/N not to worry about the test or upcoming essay. James and Sirius automatically attacked at the last nameless student’s retreat, Remus trailing his two mates like a left-behind dog.

Sirius’s eyes zeroed in on Y/N’s wrist, where a charm bracelet dangled. It was covered in expensive-looking charms, one of engraved letters, a wand, a little wolf.

Whoa, cauldron’s bearings. There was a bloody wolf charm! What were the odds?

“Wicked charm,” Sirius said through a wink. Y/N’s eyes flickered between the two blokes then at her charm bracelet, not at all soothed in their presence. Still struggling to understand why her Patronus would be different, the two twats harassing her wasn’t desirable—especially since they looked like they did while meddling. Pranking. Causing mischief. Y/N made it clear ages ago she wouldn’t react kindly if they decided to fuck around with her the way they did with the rest of the Hogwarts student body. She liked her comfort bubble how it was, unperforated by buffoons best left six feet away. “Wolves. Did you get it to match your Patronus?”

Y/N bit her lip. “Well, actually—"

“Ah, Padfoot, obviously that wouldn’t be the case,” James said, slinging an arm around his mate’s shoulder. “She got it because it makes her think of a certain someone.”

“Who would I even think of? You guys are such prats,” Y/N said indignantly, narrowing her eyes now. Seriously, what were they getting at? They didn’t know anything, just perfectly well how drive anyone and everyone up the bloody wall. They’d drive a sane man mad!

“James, Sirius, don’t,” Remus said softly, appearing from behind. His eyes were wide with alarm, meeting Y/N’s at her sharp twist. He gulped at the annoyance in hers; James and Sirius had already done their damage. Idiots, they were.

“See, Y/N, I don’t think your Patronus has always been a wolf,” Sirius went on, pretending like neither Y/N nor Remus spoke in the first place. “Am I wrong?”

Y/N warily said, “No…”

“Did you know Patronuses can change to be complementary of their lovers’?” Sirius grinned obnoxiously. He shrugged his shoulders and nudged Y/N with one of his hands. “Just a thought. Maybe you fancy somebody, love ‘em.”

Y/N’s eyes widened and involuntarily, they looked at where Remus was standing. Remus froze again.

“We’ll leave you to it,” James said hastily, still grinning.

The bespectacled boy quickly lassoed Sirius around the neck and guided him to the door, calling to Remus that they’d be back in their dorm by the time he finished.

Remus awkwardly glanced over at Professor Boomstick. The man was just standing by his desk, drinking out of a flask, presumably waiting for his next class. Y/N sighed and unconsciously laced her fingers into Remus’s, dragging him away from their crazy-ass professor.

Once outside, Y/N faced Remus. “Is your Patronus a wolf?” she asked quietly, hurriedly. She didn’t want anyone to overhear, though the only likely soul left in distance was Peeves.

Remus looked at the ground. “Yes,” he reluctantly told her. He and the Marauders had yet to let her in on his furry little secret.

“Oh,” Y/N said and went silent. It’s not that she didn’t want to be in love with Remus, she just didn’t understand why she could have been so stupid to cast her Patronus in front of the entire class without contemplating her feelings for Remus first. Especially with prior knowledge that a wolf Patronus implied the chance of the charm caster being a werewolf. Students from the class would be beside themselves with rumors of Y/N being a werewolf herself.

As long as it wasn’t Remus being investigated.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, peeking up at her.

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Remus, why are you apologizing? Because of what animal the charm was? I’m not a bloody idiot. I know. Good thing I’m the caster, no one else, right?”

“Why would you like me, let alone love me?” Remus asked. “I don’t understand. I’m—”

“No, don’t even say it,” Y/N said, meeting his gaze. She reached forward and held his shoulders. “You’re handsome, funny, and intelligent. The least mad of any bloke I’ve seen. That’s all that matters to me.”

The heels of her feet lifted off the ground so she could peck his cheek. Remus flushed red and flinched back, not having expected any sort of affection—but Y/N deliberately ignored his confusion. She snorted and turned to leave.

Remus stood processing the unlikely events.

Y/N didn’t hear corresponding footsteps and stopped walking herself. “I hope you at least somewhat like me,” she said over her shoulder. “Else, that’d be one bloody embarrassing confession.”

Oh.

Remus’s shoes squeaked when he jogged to catch up. With his cheeks still aflame, Y/N hoped that meant he did, in fact, reciprocate.

I might need to do something about everyone seeing my Patronus, Y/N thought. Stupid Hogwarts and its plethora of assholes waiting for worthy gossip.

She was sure James and Sirius wouldn’t mind Obliviating the entire school for her and Remus. The idiots did supposedly do anything for their friends.

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xxbyimm · 3 years

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25 oc questions: 🌟🌙❄️🔥🌻💎👀 and I know who you wanna talk about 😆

Lol, you do???? I have no idea...

Thank you so much for asking me these questions, my dear sister from another mister! <3 I really enjoyed answering these. 🔥

🌟 When your OC loses all hope, who do they turn to first? What helps make them feel better? What calms them down and reassures them? Why?

Enya Blueheart always turns to her husband Thorin first. If something or someone is letting her down, she will needs his reassurance and support. Since a large part of their love language is physical touch, they’re often found hugging, kissing (among others things.. LOL). Within his arms, she feels safe and at home. Snuggling up with him in front of the fireplace is one of her favorite things in the world.

Secondly, Enya’s tiny pet dragon Dracarys never fails to make her laugh, because of he’s too stupid to be even alive to be honest. His cuteness has saved his tiny ass more than once!

When Thorin or Dracarys aren’t available, I can see Enya seeking comfort with Dís. Because Enya is about the same age as her sister-in-law’s sons, Dís is very protective of her.

🌙 If your OC could have one wish come true what would it be and why? Would there be consequences to this wish or would they regret it once they get what they want? What would they give in return for this wish to come true?

Hmmm… Quest Enya has one wish in mind, but that one will get granted fairly easily and she has no regrets. At all… ;D

I think Queen Enya desperately longs for some private time with her king. And with this I don’t mean quality time in their private quarters, but more like an equivalent of a holiday we humans have. She wants to go on an adventure with him, explore Middle Earth and have long, passioned make out sessions without having to worry which member of the court is playing peeping Tom. The consequence of this wish would be that the kingdom has to survive without its’ king and queen for a few weeks, but I think they’ll survive…

❄️ What makes your OC sad, so sad that they can’t help but cry all day? How do they cheer themself up? Does their sadness upset any of their loved ones too?

Losing Thorin. As we’ll see in the upcoming chapters of Enya’s journey, losing Thorin will devastate her. There’s no cheering up from that. At that point, En just wants to crawl into a hole and die.

🔥 If your OC known for having temper tantrums? If not, what gets them really angry? What makes their blood BOIL? Is there anyway to calm them down or are they unstoppable? What are they like when they’re angry? Do they take it out on their loved ones?

UM, YES! We’re talking about a bloody fire-witch here! Enya is notorious for her temper tantrums, in which she sometimes loses control over her powers (a.k.a. setting the bed on fire). She despises arrogant people, females who dare to even look at her husband (Dolvira and Elmilynn are honorable mentions) and gender inequality.

Calming this sassy lady down isn’t easy, especially when she has turned into a literal fireball. But somehow (I’m not sure how he does it), Thorin manages. He listens to what she has to say or simply distracts her from the topic that’s enraging her.

🌼 Write a short drabble from your OCs POV meeting their LI (or if they don’t have a love interest, their best friend. If you don’t want to do a drabble, describe their first meeting instead!)

Oh yass!! If you don’t mind, I took a snippet from the remastered Enya’s Unexpected Journey series I’m currently writing!

‘Ouch!’

She landed on something hard and unrelenting. Next thing she knew, the world was literally spinning on its axis and she was lying under a gruffy, very angry man with long, dark manes and a beard. The fight was over before it even had begun and Enya found herself being pinned firmly on the ground, a sharp blade pushing against her throat. She hissed in pain as her assailant’s deep blue eyes flashed over her, scanning the level of danger from his current foe.

Even to someone as inexperienced in combat as she was, it was clear that the man was overpowering her in both strength as deadliness. Resistance was futile. Enya stopped writhing under his tight grip and the can containing her only way to defend herself, rolled onto the ground.

‘Honestly, my dear.’ Her mind huffed. ‘Are you even trying to escape or what?’

For a moment, they were taking each other in and emerald eyes burned into their pale blue counterparts. Aside from those gorgeous eyes that looked straight into the depths of her soul, the man possessed a characteristic nose and a carefully kept -though no less majestic- beard. His mouth was set in a grim line. A strand of his unruly, dark hair brushed over her face. His scent, a mix between tobacco, musk and worn leather, was both soothing and intoxicating.

Good gracious. He was hot…

💎 Does your OC collect anything? Is there a reason? When did they start and is it beginning to turn into a little bit of a hoarding issue? What do they do with their collection?

I don’t think that other than pets, Enya doesn’t really collects anything. She loves animals and once Dracarys bonded with her there was no going back. Thorin often jokes that Erebor is a kingdom, not a farmhouse… xD

👀 Describe your OC through the eyes of another person! (bonus + specify who)

This is a snippet from a chapter I have yet to write!! Lady Dís meets Enya!

A slender female clad in black appeared behind her trusted informant Daniel. Dís, who wasn’t used to Dan bringing companions with him- especially not ones covering their face with a hood-, arched a brow. Dan caught her gaze and grunted something incomprehensible, making the princess of Durin smile. The poor ranger just couldn’t help himself, could he? He always had to play the hero.

‘I don’t remember asking you to bring me anything other than information, Dan.’ She spoke. ‘Who’s this?’

The female lowered her hood and a wave of chestnut brown locks fell over her shoulders. She had pretty, delicate features and though the lack of any apparent facial hair (not even a slight sideburn) was a bit disappointing, the fiery, determined gaze in her pale blue eyes made up for it. But there was something else. A small flicker in her gaze betrayed there was much recent hurt and heartbreak lurking beyond the surface. Whoever the girl was, she had been through much.

‘I’m sorry for intruding your home like this, lady Dís.’ The girl said, her light and melodic voice sounding polite but yet quite certain. ‘I didn’t mean to offend you.’

‘None taken.’ Dís replied. ‘What’s your name?’

‘My name is Enya Blueheart and I’m the last royal descendant of the firebeard clan.’

Ah, a dwarrowdam. Of royal ancestry no less! Dís neared her new acquaintance with curiosity. ‘You’re most welcome here, miss Blueheart.’ She said. ‘May I offer you something to drink and a place to rest? You look rather tired.’

‘Yes, thank you.’ Enya murmured as she let the princess of Durin guide her towards the long dining table near the fire.

‘My my.’ Dís muttered as her fingers accidently dug into Enya’s ribcage. ‘You are too thin for my liking. If I may inquire… Who broke you?’

@criminaly-supernatural, do you approve of this Dís and Enya scene? ;D

#enya blueheart #thorin oakenshield #thorin x enya #thorin x oc #25 OC questions #sister from another mister #i love enya more than life #ugh

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aros001 · 3 years

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Going in blind: Watching season 2 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Huh. Only 7 episodes. Not complaining necessarily. For series with an ongoing plot I've definitely become more in favor with their seasons only having as many episodes as they need rather than them having to stretch themselves out to full up a certain number of episodes, which can lead to padding and just bad character moments.

Episode 1: Jeez. Catra visiting Shadow Weaver's cell just to rub her success in her face and verbally abuse her back for once. It's like a twisted version of Zuko and Ozai from ATLA. Catra's upbringing under her was abusive but this is far from a healthy way for her to deal with it. She's basically deliberately swimming in her resentment.

Episode 2: It's not that I'm rooting for her but by-golly was it fun to watch Catra act like just the absolute worst she could while she was Glimmer and Bow's captive.

I touched on this in season 1 but part of the drama of the heroes feeling guilt over leaving Entrapta behind is kind of lost on me a bit simply because it was her own fault it happened. She deliberately went back into the purge room because of her machine obsession, which then closed on her and erupted in flames. It was more than reasonable to assume she was dead and no one but her was to blame, so I'm not really able to be invested in their guilt over it.

That said, weirdly enough I do like that her "abandonment" doesn't seem to be even a blip on the radar for Entrapta herself. She hasn't joined the horde because she resents the heroes or felt left behind, she simply is so obsessed with machines and experimentation that she'll be on the side of whoever lets her do the most of that. Like, it's selfish and irresponsible but it's very in-character and I'd far rather have a traitor motivation be based in that over something stupid like a misunderstanding.

Episode 3: I love the mental image of Shadow Weaver thinking up princess-themed ghost stories to tell Adora as a child.

So, if the previous She-Ra Mara separated Eternia from the other realms/planets/whatever she did and that's what cut off the She-Ra line for 1000 years, I'm guessing Hordak may be from the time before that happened, thus his drive to create portals and calling Eternia a backwards world. Either he's naturally long-lived or his technology is extending his life.

Episode 4: You know, you could maybe argue it was vague enough that it could be taken other ways but I'm definitely getting some vibes here that Scorpia is crushing on Catra. She literally refers to the two of them as soulmates at one point. I know she says she's trying to be friends but this feels a level beyond that.

Fun little reference to the original She-Ra cartoon thrown in there (and maybe Cowboy Bebop...? James Bond...? What was Glimmer's art style supposed to be?). I like how it is more like just playful ribbing than anything outright dumping on the original. Again, I've never seen original She-Ra but whenever remakes/adaptations go out of their way to trash to the original I always kind of wonder why they bothered doing an adaptation if the original is just that bad? Also, I was having trouble sleeping so it was about 2am when I watched this episode and the very Eartha Kitt Catwoman Catra made it very difficult for me not to lose my **** and stay quiet. With how much of a contrast that version is from the one in this series, that was hilarious. Bonus note, it's a nice touch that Frosta's version of Catra is a pretty crasher in that sweet suit, since that's the only impression of Catra she's ever had.

Adora being a chosen one is definitely elevated up simply by how much the pressure of what she's supposed to be is getting to her. I'm likely going to keep making Avatar The Last Airbender comparisons throughout the series but that's partly because I went into this series figuring it'd be at least structured similar to ATLA (season 1 being more episodic and a little more kid-friendly as it builds up the world before getting more serious later). Adora and Aang are interesting to compare here. Aang's worries early on were less apparent because he was more in-denial/choosing not to think about his problems that much, which fit with his character as a free-spirited Air Nomad. While Adora is much more military-minded. She can't keep herself from thinking about her problems and trying to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And jeez, that idea of who/how Catra is in her mind. Not only beating her but making her watch as she takes everything she cares about away. Not Shadow Weaver, not Lord Hordak, but Catra. That whole Lion King Mufasa/Scar moment between them in episode 11 and their fight in the S1 finale really did a number on her mental image of her old friend. Not reasonably so.

Minor note: I'm sure I'm the only one who got this impression but by the look of it, the way the robot's eye moved, and the music, after getting the soda spilled on it that little spybot gained sentience for half a second and then immediately died. It was so darkly comedic I had to laugh.

Episode 5: So that red disc is basically She-Ra's Red Kryptonite, having an effect on the mind rather than the body. The drunk Adora joke doesn't really do it for me but it did get some nice interactions going between Scorpia and Sea Hawk, two characters I certainly wasn't expecting to bond. I did really like Catra's panic when berserker She-Ra nearly beheads her. The implication is that is Adora really wanted to kill her Catra would already probably be dead. It's a thing I like about powerhouse characters like Superman or Aang, who could just demolish everything around them and don't simply because they're a good person...which in turn makes them the scariest person on the planet when they're well and truly ticked off. I'm not going to lie, I do kind of want to see a She-Ra version of Aang when Appa was stolen or when Superman fought The Elite.

Also, Catra's line of "I have control over Adora. I'm not giving that up for anything.". There's a lot to read into there.

Episode 6: I guess my prediction was sort of right. Shadow Weaver became basically a magic parasite and while it did increase the power she's capable of the implication seems to be that she needs a constant fix of magic to keep herself going, thus her attachment to the Black Garnet.

Have we seen Micah before? Given how long ago the flashback seems set, the fact that Shadow Weaver didn't kill him and thus he probably becomes someone important later in life, I'm guessing he's Glimmer's dad and the queen's late husband, since I think he's the only important male character whose face we haven't seen yet. Also, he's voice by Ezra from Star Wars Rebels and that cracks me up for some reason. It's the exact same voice and a relatively similar character.

I compared Catra and Shadow Weaver with a kind of twisted version of Zuko and Ozai and that definitely still fits here. Both Catra and Zuko confront their parent and call them out for the inexcusable abuse they put them through but while that moment was the start of Zuko's upwards journey this and SW's betrayal seems like it's going to cause Catra to spiral even further. Makes sense why Adora leaving affected her so much. She's probably the only one Catra's ever had that she could consistently trust and rely on, even if she did somewhat resent her.

Not surprised Hordak is getting along with Entrapta. She's not socially aware enough to be scared or intimidated by him, so she'll speak frankly, and since all she wants to talk about is the machines, experiments, and how they could get them to work Hordak probably doesn't take much issue with that. She's producing results, which is what he cares about, thus also why Shadow Weaver and Catra started losing favor with him. I wonder if Catra is going through imposter syndrome? Shadow Weaver had that line that Entrapta earned her place next to Hordak and, if you think about it, Catra hasn't really "earned" anything. We saw that she didn't really take her training or studies that seriously, showing up late to combat practice and even getting partial credit for what Adora beat. She wasn't promoted to Force Captain because of her own abilities but because Adora had defected when she was supposed to get that title. She's come close to a few victories but never really had any except for Glimmer and Bow's kidnapping...whom she then basically let escape when she returned Adora's sword to her. She doesn't have the slightest clue how the horde's bureaucracy works when trying to get things done, like simply getting troops armor. Given how much better than her Adora always was and how little she herself has to her name, I wonder is subconsciously Catra believes she doesn't deserve her current position and thus why she's fretting so much over trying to prove herself.

Episode 7: Am I mistaken or did Bow's parents say that he's the youngest of TWELVE siblings? I was going to ask whether Bow was adopted or if his dad's used a surrogate or if maybe there's even just simply magic in She-Ra's world that allows two people of the same sex to have a child together but now I'm just focused on the 12 kids thing. I get nervous just imagining myself having more than one. You should see me when I'm with two cats. I have to pet both of them because I'd feel like I'd be making one feel left out and like the other is the favorite. I'm a mess with kids.

The dad with dreadlocks (Lance?), his design looked familiar to me and I finally realized it reminded me a of a fanart design for a human Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Very different voices between those two characters though.

I wonder if there's any significance to the robot protecting the crystal having the same design as those in the artic in episode 5? Obviously both have the connection to the First Ones but the robot in the forest who was also protecting First Ones' tech had a more insect-like design over these more worm/Graboid ones.

I'm kind of curious what Hordak would have done if Catra had told the truth. Given his interactions with her and Shadow Weaver he doesn't seem like the time to tolerate failure but I suppose the implication here is that he at least would respect those who own up to their failures. Or I suppose more simply he was just testing to see if she would lie to him and since she did there's little merit in keeping her in a position of authority anymore where she could lie about important things again.

Season 2 verdict: Still enjoying it. Another person on this reddit recommended I view seasons 2 and 3 as one since they are basically just one season split in two. I was going to do that but this ended up longer than I thought I would, so I'll just do 2 and 3 separate to keep them semi-organized and easier to read.

I think overall Catra is my favorite character since she has the most interesting backstory, interactions, and just general path through the story out of everyone. She's like Pearl from Steven Universe or, well, Zuko. There's just so much baggage there that she's trying and kind of failing to deal with. I'm always invested in whatever's happening when she's onscreen. Hordak so far is a good big boss villain for Adora to face but Catra is a good archenemy for her.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o027y3/going_in_blind_watching_season_2_for_the_first/

#she ra #she ra spop #random thoughts #reddit repost

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monstersdownthepath · 5 years

Text

Spiritual Spotlight: Ceyannan the Shepherd

True Neutral Psychopomp Usher of Final Words, Lost Souls, and Searches

Domains: Community, Repose, Protection, Strength Subdomains*: Home, Psychopomp, Purity, Resolve

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 7

Obedience: Seclude yourself somewhere silent and begin a prayer that causes blood to weep from your nose or existing wounds. Reflect for 1 hour on the isolation and the sound of blood dripping. Benefit: Gain a +4 insight bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information and Survival checks when tracking.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals.)

The relentless and unstoppable retriever of lost mortal souls demands that you sit still and quiet while you bleed for an hour. There’s just something amusing by that to me.

Anyway, getting somewhere nice and quiet can be a lot harder than it sounds in some areas of the world, so I wonder if the Shepherd allows for areas of relative silence? It’s got to be quiet enough for you to hear your own blood dripping, so I suppose anywhere with little enough noise for that would suit this Obedience just fine. You’ve also got to seclude yourself, so someone barging in on your ritual voids the ENTIRE thing and forces you to start over, which can be harsh if an enemy attack interrupted it in the first place.

Now, for the elephant in the room: Bleeding everywhere. It’s not pretty. It’s going to smell. It’s going to stain everything that can be stained, so it’s best to get yourself some magical healing beforehand to shut up your other wounds to keep the blood flowing from your nose and only your nose. At that point, it’s like the world’s goriest and most unpleasant netti pot, except you’re more stuffed up afterwards! God, bleeding from your nose every single day is going to wreak unholy havoc on your poor sinuses. imagine the scabs! Imagine them. I did so you have to, too.

That can’t be healthy, either. A cruel DM may have some consequences for your daily bloodletting, so be prepared with Potions of Cure Nosebleed on the side. And speaking of, I find it a little strange that Ceyannan knows a prayer that makes you bleed on command. I’d imagine that takes a bit to learn--perhaps it’s a questline itself?--but I’d also imagine that pulling it off to freak out your allies or enemies on command can lead to a lot of hilarious scenarios that you should totally do at every opportunity.

Ironically, bleeding from your face apparently makes you a better diplomat than an intimidator. Unfortunately, both of these skill checks are narrow in their application; you can only gather information and track people more effectively, which DOES make you a scary bounty hunter... but little else.

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons.

Boon 1: Death's Hound. Gain Tireless Pursuit 3/day, Whispering Wind 2/day, or Countless Eyes 1/day.

Oh hey! It’s Tireless Pursuit again! And it’s just as bad here as it was with Barzahk!

Yawn. Moving on,

So, Whispering Wind and Countless Eyes! Wind is a strange spell to me. It travels an enormous distance over time (1 mile/level at anywhere from 1 mile an hour to 1 mile in 10 minutes), but aside from picking the destination of the spell, you have no real say in who gets to hear the message you deliver. Once it reaches a predetermined destination, it spouts your message whether or not anyone (or everyone) is around to hear it. One thing that confuses me is the second-to-last line in the spell: “When the spell reaches its objective, it swirls and remains in place until the message is delivered.” This seems to state that the message is only delivered when someone CAN hear it... But every single other portion of the spell indicates that the spell ends immediately upon reaching the objective. It’s weird!!!

Countless Eyes is weird in a different direction. Whoever you touch with this spell--including yourself--gets eyes growing all over their body. For an enormous 1 hour/level, the target has a swarm of disquieting eyes everywhere on their person, granting them all-around vision and immunity to being flanked. It’s funny to me that it mentions immunity to flanking when the universal monster ability All-Around Vision already confers immunity to flanking, but I suppose it’s just reminder text.

Anyway, it gives no real advantage to Perception or any huge combat benefit, but being immune to flanking can come in useful against monster swarms, and having eyes literally in the back of your head can prevent lots of ambushes. Slapping it on your scout before sending them in to get a look-around is just as viable as giving it to the squishy member of the party to keep them alert to incoming threats and preventing them from being crunched by flanking monsters, and its lengthy duration means it’ll likely last all day... Which is a double-edged sword if you have to interact with mundane folk.

Boon 2: Smell of Death. You gain the Scent ability. Your sense of smell is particularly acute in regard to Undead, granting you Blindsense (30 feet) for the purposes of detecting all forms of Undead.

Huh! Turns out having your nose bleed every single day for months sharpens your sense of smell! So much so that you gain a supernaturally acute nose that makes you very difficult to catch by surprise. Scent is a very low-key ability that can save you a lot of pain if you have it, catching wind of hidden foes lurking within 30ft of you and giving you a heads up as to what kind of enemies are nearby. Just make sure to actually pause now and then to actually take a deep breath, because a powerful nose is less useful if you’re huffing and puffing while you charge down a hallway!

Blindsense is Scent Except Bigger, a distinction that was always blurred in my head due to the similarly-named but significantly more powerful Blindsight, but Blindsense allows you to pinpoint the exact square a creature is hidden in and alerts you to the presence of beasties sneaking around you, though you still rely on your actual sight to properly hit them or defend against them. While limited to the Undead, the ability generously points out that it detects “all forms” of Undead, including invisible and incorporeal spirits or lurking haunts (ghostly ‘traps’ waiting to be sprung). If your DM frequently uses haunts, then this ability is just as valuable as some method of detecting traps, if not MORE due to its radius.

So yes, this is indeed a good ability even though it’s not as impressive as some Boons are. Being able to keep sneaky ghouls, wispy vampires, or creeping ghosts from getting the jump on you is worth quite a bit, and the general usefulness of Scent is something many may not expect.

Boon 3: Soul Lock. 1/day as a full-round action, you can trap the soul of a sentient creature that has died in the last minute, creating a soul gem (size Fine; 1 HP, 2 hardness). Anyone attempting to resurrect a creature whose soul you have trapped must make a caster level check (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + Cha mod) or the spell fails. If the soul gem rests in an unholy location, the DC is raised by 2. On success, the soul gem is shattered and the soul is freed. You may also destroy a soul gem you have created as a standard action. You can maintain a number of soul gems equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1).

Ever wanted to make damn sure someone stayed dead? This ability is the equivalent of a level 9 spell, Soul Bind, but with some very important and powerful differences. Normally, trapping a soul is unfeasible due to the ridiculous material component cost (1000gp per HD of the target) and the fact it’s negated entirely by a save... However, Soul Lock bypasses both the need for materials AND grants the poor soul no save against being trapped in a gemstone, which technically means that this ability is more powerful than a level 9 spell.

Or, well, as powerful, since the tradeoff is that Soul Bind flat-out prevents all forms of attempted resurrection, whereas Soul Lock can be defeated with a caster level check. Still, though, having the gem potentially shattered due to the Big Bad’s minions bringing them back is a small price to pay for the fact that you can no-save-allowed slorp up the soul of any creature as soon as they die, no matter where they are. it even works on nonhumans, allowing you to snatch up the fleeing souls of powerful monsters with mechanics that allow them to come back over and over. ... No, you cannot trap a Great Old One, as most of them only debatably have souls and they tend to come back immediately, just manifesting in their slumbering forms.

The biggest issue with this power is what you do with the souls you’ve acquired. Delivering them to their proper afterlife is likely the best course of action, or dropping them off with the proper authorities in the Boneyard. Just leaving them to languish seems unnecessarily cruel and useless, considering the restriction to how many you can maintain, but assuring that they get what they deserve is a good enough use for this power. Interestingly, you can also steal a soul from a fate they don’t deserve and save them, this power technically allowing you to yank a soul back from the grips of a Devil, a Devourer, a Hag, or any number of foes with the power to tear the soul from the body.

You don’t even have to be present for the death itself to capture or rescue someone, because if you’ll notice, there’s no listed range limit on this ability. You can actually snatch away a soul that died a world or even a whole plane away provided you’re aware of it!

You can read more about them here.

#Spiritual Spotlight #Neutrality Notes #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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tonystarktogo · 7 years

Note

1- About Tony being the Villians' Favorite: CW happened and they get access to footage of the Siberia fight and they realize that cap could have killed Tony and they're like "how dare you???? Who do you think you are???" and at this point it's not even about who is going to kill Iron Man anymore, it's because Tony is the only one able the keep up with them, he gives them a good challenge, he has the best sarcastic answers for all the villian monologue, they don't even want to harm people anymore

2- they want to fight Tony to see who has the best weapons, who is smarter (it’s always Tony) so the rogues come back and they realize something: the bad guys barely attack Tony, they go out of their way to avoid attacking Tony and antagonize team cap and when confronted with this they say “well someone has to defend Mr Stark since all his supposed friends wouldn’t hesitate on turning their backs on him for some spoiled hydra agent who doesn’t know how to control their anger but sure knows how

3- how to control their anger but sure knows how to fuck up people’s mind” (and they keep getting her name wrong, they call her wilma, wendy, marta omg i love this headcanon where no one gets her name right)

Why thank you for this brilliant headcanon, darling! (I love that mixing up Wanda’s name post too, wasn’t there one where Thor always got it wrong and played stupid? It’s brilliant)

I just really like that the villains enjoy fighting Iron Man because he’s as much of a drama queen as they are–he knows how to put on, and more importantly how to appreciate, a good show, you know? Fighting Iron Man is like playing a really challenging game of chess, where they take each other’s weapons and minions out without hesitation, but even when the king loses, he’s never actually taken off the board (yup that metaphor sucks, I apologise to every chess player out there).

And well, of course it’s also about pride. Everything is about pride. The villains who most frequently engage with Iron Man in combat obviously keep a score. They keep an eye on who gets the most hits in, who deals the most damage, who does a strategical retreat and so on. They also keep track on which Avenger is the most likely to interrupt their fun, so they know whom to take out in the beginning of a fight.

Only then one of them gets their hands on footage of a certain Siberian bunker and this shit suddenly gets serious. Iron Man could’ve been taken out (worth 150 points) by someone who isn’t even recognises as an official player and THAT CAN NOT STAND.

(It’s got nothing to do with the fact that maybe Tony Stark isn’t all that bad, you know, for a superhero. Nope. It’s all about the game and wanting those 150 points to themselves. Their professional pride is on the line here, okay. It’s not because of feelings. Feelings aren’t a part of the villain manual.)

So, they adapt. They’re villains, they’re used to it. Admittedly usually because the hero pulls some impossible stunt at the last second because they stubbornly refuse to die, but that’s neither here nor there.

First, they assign someone to keep track on Stark. It’s not a protective duty. It’s just…an insurance. To make sure no outside influence becomes a serious threat to their fun. Besides after all this time they’ve invested into fighting Iron Man, should he ever actually lose, they all agree they have earned this honour. Not some lucky upstart or fucking turncoat.

Second, certain forces need to be taken out. Officially it’s destroying the competition–a perfectly acceptable, villainous goal–, unofficially some people take their hatred for Iron Man a little too far. And when you already have to watch out for the supposed heroes, you can’t afford some crazy nutcase to pop up every time you turn your back on Stark.

Then the Rogue Avengers come back. The villains have dragged it out for as long as possible, an obscene amount of bribes have gone into ensuring the Congress isn’t too forgiving too quickly, but Stark is determined to get the Rogues pardoned for whatever reason, and that’s not a battle they can win in the long run.

And that’s a problem. The Rogues have access to Stark in ways they have not. Thankfully at least Stark doesn’t stay at the Avengers’ compound anymore. That gives them a small reprieve.

(They don’t worry. Villains do not worry. It’s not in their genetic code, nor their moral codex for that matter.)

There’s a very serious discussion about grazing the stupid compound into the ground, but in the end they decide not to do it. For one, the risk of the Rogues being granted access to the Stark Tower is just too great. For another, it’s convenient to have a return address they could graze into the ground, should the Rogues ever cross a certain line.

Next, the villains create a time table. Whereas the media used to joke about the ‘weekly villain attacks’ back in the day, there are now carefully scheduled weekly attacks for real. It helps them to vent some of their frustration, at the right target no less. It also has the added benefit of keeping the Rogues busy.

Of course Iron Man joins in on the fun more often than not, but he isn’t the main target like he used to be, isn’t singled out. If anything it’s the Rogues that are being singled out, and they always bear the brunt of the fight.

(They do not go easy on Iron Man. They do not. They have simply shifted the focus of their game. Damage dealt to the Rogues is now worth way more points than before, and since every villain wants to take the lead, it’s only rational they concentrate on the most worth-while targets. That’s all there is to it.)

The first time one of them makes Wanda Maximoff scream in rage is an accident. To their great shame it’s not even a real villain who accomplishes it, it’s a fairly new minion who interrupts the shouting match between his boss and the witch with an annoyed, “Oh, shut up, Wen–Vick–Wally, whoever the fuck you are, I’m trying to concentrate here!”

It becomes a running gag then, to never call the witch by her name, and the longer they keep the joke alive, the more frustrated the witch becomes.

(The minion gets a well-earned raise.)

Eventually the Rogues catch on. Eventually they begin to ask questions. Giving them more ridiculous answers every time becomes another running gag. Inevitably though Rogers eventually runs into Cross Bones who has a tendency of taking his fights with Captain America too personal.

“Well someone has to defend Mr Stark since all his supposed friends wouldn’t hesitate on turning their backs on him for some spoiled hydra agent who doesn’t know how to control their anger but sure knows how to fuck up people’s mind!” he snaps. Then uses the frozen state of the stunned Captain to his advantage to break the man’s nose with a very satisfying crack. Because, hello, villain.

(He then promptly dives to the side to push a crying kid out of the way a crumbling building. Not because he cares about who gets hurt of course. Villains don’t care about this stuff. But everyone knows Tony Stark cares about it.)

He gets twenty-five points for breaking Roger’s nose. He also gets a “I don’t know why, but if a guy like Cross Bones decides to save a kids’ life I’m not gonna sit around complaining about it.” and a thumbs up from Tony Stark in that night’s talk show.

(He does not care more about the thumbs up than about the points. His fellow villains are not jealous.)

There are a lot of villains-saving-civilians-and-innocent-bystanders incidents after that.

(Not that anyone cares what Tony Stark thinks. The saving people thing simply earns them bonus points. Bonus points are important.)

#ReRe answers #bitter Sunday #Tony as the Villains' Favourite™#Tony and villains #headcanon #t-starkasm #Tony Stark #protective villains #everything is a game #denial is not just a hero thing #Post CW #Not Team Cap friendly #Post CACW #Protective Cross Bones #The Villainous Competition #Where Points Are Everything

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ruffsficstuffplace · 7 years

Text

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 30)

“Are you sure you want to do this, Weiss?” Penny asked as she and Weiss stood in a public bathroom. “Your body's stress hormone levels still haven't returned to normal.”

“Yes,” Weiss said before she splashed more water on her face. “I'm a Schnee, and as my grandfather Nicholas famously said: 'Where other people see desolation, failure, and the writing on the wall, I see motivation to keep on going until we turn this shit around,'" she continued as she dried her face with a paper towel.

Penny nodded. “Calling the Watcher's Roost...” she said as she held up her arm, the “tablet” section flipped out.

Weiss threw the towel away, checked her reflection in the mirror: her eyes were red and puffy from crying, she had the ominous beginnings of eye bags thanks to all the stress and less than ideal sleep she'd been getting recently, and just an aura of unpleasantness had settled on her from having been screwed over far too often and frequently.

She would have killed for make-up, some concealer at the very least, but she supposed she'd just have to work with it. Who knew: maybe looking like someone you wouldn't want to mess with would be a plus in the Watchers.

They left the bathroom and headed to the nearest Tube station, and off they went to the Watcher's Roost.

The Roost was situated on the side of one of the highest mountains of the Valley, overlooking all of the Bastion and a great deal outside the walls, too. Like the city itself, it was a series of trees and platforms connected by bridges and rope, along with a number of extra Tube stations, elevators, and zip lines for getting around quickly.

As Weiss arrived at the main entrance, she looked up and noticed giant birds perched in the higher branches, racks with saddles, bags, and harnesses with folded mechanical wings nearby. “If the Valley had an air force, this would be it,” she thought to herself as Penny arrived.

The two of them walked up to the doors, where there were already two Watchers waiting for her. One was an orange squirrel with all the chipper demeanor and hyperactivity that entailed, the other gave Weiss pause as she stared at him.

Most of the Fae she'd seen in the Bastion were based off mammals, and she'd only seen a handful of bird-like Fae such as Qrow. The one before her looked like a snake or a reptile of some sort, slit pupils in his pink eyes, pink-green scales creeping in on the sides of his face, his neck, and his hands, and what looked to be horns poking out from his forehead.

“Oh hi, you must be Weiss!” the squirrel said as she ran up to her. “Oh who am I kidding? EVERYONE in the Valley knows who you are! You're practically famous! Or is that supposed to be infamous? Anyway, I'm Nora, and that's Ren, and we're going to be helping you in your run through the Grinder!

“Hope you don't come out the other side as meat paste~!”

Weiss blinked, confused and more than a little concerned.

“'The Grinder's' what we Watchers call our entrance exam,” Ren said. “It can get pretty brutal.”

“Super brutal, you mean!” Nora cried. “There's a reason the Guild stopped offering 'Watcher' as part of the Job Gauntlet! Well, aside from the fact that we kept getting so much Moss and people who just didn't want to join up clogging up the ranks, but there's that, too!”

Weiss nodded slowly. “I… see...”

“So, are we going to stand here all day? Or are we going to see if you are Watcher Material?!” Nora said, grinning and leaning ever closer to Weiss' face with each word.

Ren calmly coaxed his friend back to a more polite, less uncomfortably close distance. “Sorry about that; Nora's been dying to meet you since Ruby told us that you were staying here permanently, and Penny's call got her excited all over again.”

“Why wouldn't I be?!” Nora cried. “We're going to be just like the Void Claw Clan and Lang-Lang from 'The Last Bear Ender!' An outsider, scared, confused, thrust into a new, dangerous world they are completely unprepared for, seeking guidance and protection wherever she can find it, fighting the wilds, her enemies, and her inner demons to rise up as their new CHAMPION!”

As Nora was busy with her monologue and dramatic posing, Weiss discretely asked Ren, “HV addict?”

Ren nodded. “It's how we both learned Nivian.”

“Figured...” Weiss muttered.

Nora turned back to her, put her fists on her hips and attempted a serious, dramatic look. “So, outsider, do you wish to grow strong with the darkness, or continue to cower in the light?”

Weiss wondered if it was too late to back out, and go see just what being a paid guinea pig would entail.

“There's a sign-on bonus of 1,000 Shinies if you pass, plus a regular monthly salary even if you'll probably be spending the next year or so training and shadowing senior Watchers in the less populated districts here in the Bastion.”

And at the promise of 22 Triple Chocolate Cake Shakes with change to spare, plus a year's worth of compensated on-the-job training, Weiss' mind was made up.

“Let's do this,” she said, smiling.

Nora cheered, while Ren smiled back. “Alright,” he said. “Let's head inside, and get you started.”

The interior of the Roost was a bizarre mix of a military base, a police station, and a hunter's lodge.

There was a giant board with announcements and notices about dangerous and criminal individuals, and suspicious activity in general. An army of operators manned terminals, screening and updating the others on important tips from citizens and their sources of information. A holographic “Heat Map” of the entire Valley was projected from the ceiling, lighting up in different colours depending on how dangerous an area was, sometimes with images of particularly deadly animals, always with a name in Actaeon or Nivian and a corresponding bounty for taking them down.

There were also the stuffed heads and carcasses of famous kills throughout the ages, portraits and pictures of proud Watchers and their trophies, and sometimes statues and reliefs of their more legendary figures, frequently portrayed in combat with their most infamous opponents.

Weiss passed by a giant statue of what looked like the bastard child of an alligator, a shark, and a tank that had also been heavily irradiated with magic, then injected with several gallons worth of steroids, because apparently whoever had designed it thought it wasn't terrifying enough.

There was a plaque underneath it: “Death Claw, the First Soul Eater,” Penny translated.

It was definitely just a statue, but the detail in its six eyes, the rows of serrated fangs within the three flaps that made its “mouth,” and the giant, twisted horns atop its head gave Weiss the chills. “That's a Soul Eater...?” she whispered.

“Yeeep!” Nora said as they passed it by. “Big reason why we Watchers are paid and funded so well—and also why we recruit year round, too!”

“We keep it largely as a reminder to never get complacent,” Ren continued.

Weiss gazed it at one more time, before she resolved never to turn her head in its general direction again, and hurried on after the others.

They went deeper into the Roost, into a series of underground caverns. She could hear the echoes of training and fighting, shouts and war cries from both Fae and animals. And from even deeper in…

“… Is that music?” Weiss asked.

Ren nodded. “We share our facilities with the Pits for extra funding and convenience.”

“Plus, a lot of Watchers tend to be Pit Fighters when they're off-duty, or vice-versa! You're going in there later as part of the Grinder, by the way.”

Weiss' eyes widened in alarm.

“Don't worry, we have safety measures and really good equipment,” Ren explained. “Your opponent's also skilled at roughing folks up without actually causing lasting harm.” He paused. “Physical harm, at any rate.”

“But for now, we're going to do Part 1 of the Grinder: The Reflex Test!” Nora said as she opened a door that led to a training room. It was very basic with a safety mat in the center, some machines for exercises and drills, and a rack of training dummies.

“It's very simple,” Ren explained as they headed to a table. “For 30 seconds, I'm going to try to touch you on your nose, you try and stop me or dodge. To pass, you only need to do either once. Ready?”

Weiss nodded and stood in front of him. “Ready,” she said as she held up her hands.

Nora put her hand over to a giant timer and turned on a camera. “On three: 1… 2… 3!”

Boop.

Ren lightly tapped Weiss on the nose, just enough for her to feel it.

Weiss blinked. “Wait, wha--”

Boop.

Weiss scowled. “Hey--!”

Boop.

Weiss raised her arms in front of her face.

Ren effortlessly weaved his hands around her defense.

Boop.

Weiss growled.

Boop.

Ren was unfazed.

Boop.

Weiss started flailing her arms in the air.

Boop.

Weiss grabbed both of Ren's wrists.

Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop.

“Gah!” Weiss let go, unable to stand against the assault. She spun around.

Ren sidestepped.

Boop.

She hid her face in her hands.

Ren gently pried her hands from her face.

Weiss looked him straight in his pink, slit-pupil eyes.

Boop.

Ding!

“Time's up!” Nora yelled. “Reviewing the footage now and…. yeeep… looks like you dodged a grand a total of zero Boops!”

“Don't worry,” Ren said, “you need only get a score of 2 out of 4 to pass, and the Combat Test counts for 2.”

Weiss grumbled as she rubbed her repeatedly booped nose.

“To the Endurance Test!” Nora said, walking off to the side and wheeling in a device that was composed of a tank with a valve, a hose, and a nozzle pointed well away from the operator's side.

“What is that?” Weiss asked.

“A Soul Fire Thrower!” Nora replied cheerfully.

“… What's Soul Fire?”

“A magical substance used for non-lethally taking down powerful targets that shrug off more instantaneous methods, or to weaken strong enemies to level the playing field,” Penny explained.

Weiss worriedly eyed the nozzle. “… Is this going to hurt?”

“Yep!” Nora replied, nodding her head. “Gonna hurt LOTS!”

Weiss stared at her. “Wait--”

“On 'Burninate!' 3, 2, 1: BURNINATE!”

FWOOSH!

Weiss screamed and ran around as she was suddenly engulfed in green flames. She patted herself, stopped, dropped, and rolled and rolled on the floor, but the fire wouldn't let up and kept on burning, and burning, and burning.

Then, as quickly as it started, it ended, leaving Weiss sprawled out on her back, eyes wide and breathing heavily, her body, hair, and clothes unburned, though tendrils of leftover magic rose up from her like smoke.

Ren stopped the timer. “5.27 seconds,” he said, before he walked over to Weiss, uncapped a bottle from his belt, and poured its contents over Weiss.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!” she screamed as she scrambled up, rejuvenated.

“Testing how long you might last out in the wilds,” Ren replied. “The time you can stay alight is a very accurate predictor.”

Weiss groaned. “Please tell me I passed...”

“Nope!” Nora chirped. “Gotta burn for 15 seconds at the least, 30 seconds ideally, and at least 72.08 seconds to break the record!”

“There's still the Combat test, don't worry,” Ren said. “I'd recommend at least a repeater, a melee weapon of some sort, and the lightest armour we have for speed and agility.”

“Do you have rapiers?” Weiss asked.

Ren nodded. “We do.”

“Good.”

Weiss stood in one of the smaller arenas in the Pits, armed and equipped exactly to Ren's advice.

Tall rocks and waist high barriers were strewn about, alongside a miniature mountain range behind her back and a deep ditch on her opponent's side, but hiding behind them wouldn't count for much with how small the arena was, how easy it would be to get flanked.

She looked at her repeater—a wrist-bound machine-pistol of sorts—then at the rapier of carved bone in her other hand. She'd been given time to practice with both, and a vigorous warm-up before the fight beside, but no one would tell her who or what her opponent was going to be, exactly.

“Are these darts live?” she asked earlier as Ren taught her how to reload her repeater with a fresh canister.

“As real as your sword,” he said calmly.

Weiss frowned. “Aren't you worried I'm going to hurt someone?”

Ren smiled. “Weiss, believe me, your opponent's going to turn out fine, and you will, too.”

She complained and cajoled anyone to give her a hint, but everyone kept their mouths shut, wanted her to find out for herself as she had with the Tubes. And as the lights dimmed, the crowds in the stands howled and cheered, and her opponent's gigantic cage was lowered into the ring, Weiss could take comfort in the fact that the mystery was finally going to be over.

She got into the stance Ren had taught her—sword for defense and deflection, repeater to actually do the actual hurting.

Nora got on the mic. <And now, Weiss Schnee's opponent for her Combat Test: ZWEI!>

The crowd cheered and howled as the lid opened and crashed to the ground with a massive thud. Zwei casually trotted out, both heads panting happily.

Weiss smiled.

A bird dropped a flaming pot of soul fire on Zwei's back. The flames engulfed his entire body in an instant, but he was completely unharmed. Heavy metal music began to play as he raised his heads up and howled, twin jets of green flames shooting out from his mouths.

Weiss eyes widened as several hundred pounds of burning, giant, mutant two-headed Corgi came bounding towards her, jaws open and tongues flapping in the wind.

#white rose #rwby #fanfic #the keeper of the grove

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waynekelton · 4 years

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Hearthstone: Battlegrounds: Tips & Tactics

Hearthstone Battlegrounds is Blizzard's take on the Auto Chess phenomenon, but done so through a very specific lens. The problem many current Auto Chess games have is that they can feel very same-y - from the pieces, to the round-to-round admin, to the raw action, you're basically playing the same game. Some games have tried to come up with innovations - Teamfight Tactics uses a hex grid instead of a square chess board. Might & Magic Chess Royale has mashed both Battle Royale and Auto Chess.

But only Hearthstone Battlegrounds feels truly unique, and it's down to one simple reason - instead of taking Auto Chess and trying to be creative, they've instead taken their existing Hearthstone CCG and tried to create an 'Auto Chess' version of it. Making it an optional mode within the main Hearthstone client (a la TFT and League of Legends) keeps it grounded in the existing eco-system as well, giving them the breathing room to experiment and develop.

We've put together a guide to some basic Battlegrounds principles for anyone who's yet to experience this intriguing mode.

How to Play Hearthstone: Battlegrounds

Hearthstone Battlegrounds is available on both PC and Mobile, iOS and Android. I've been playing it on my Google Pixel 3XL. It’s part of the main Hearthstone card game client, so as long as you can download and play that, you’re fine. Simply go to ‘Modes’ in the main menu and it is listed next to the ‘Arena’ mode.

When you start up a match, you’re offered the choice between two randomly drawn heroes out of a total of 24. Each hero has a special power (similar to how the main game works) that you can spend gold on to activate. Not all abilities are considered equal, but you won’t know that until you start playing the game and trying each one out. We might do our own heroes guide at some point, but not now.

Recruit/Buying Phase

Like other Auto Chess games, Battlegrounds is a series of rounds that comprise of both a buying phase and a combat phase. The buying phase again is similar but with some very key differences:

Every minion, regardless of tier, costs 3 gold to buy.

You can get 1 gold back by selling a minion from your board (not your hand) to the tavern.

You can spend gold to ‘level-up’ the tavern so that you get access to higher tier units.

It costs 1 cold to refresh the trade row to get a new draw of minions.

For free, you can ‘freeze’ the row in place so that it doesn’t reset at the start of the next round.

You start the game with 3 gold, and your gold maximum increases by one gold a turn until it caps out at 10 gold.

At the start of every round your gold pool will fill up to the current maximum.

As long as you’re under 10 gold, you can increase your gold pool beyond your starting limit via selling minions back to the tavern.

It can be a bit fiddly to manage your minions and your board sometimes, but essentially you drag the minion you want from the row to your hero, and it goes into your ‘hand’. As far as we know there is no hand-limit. Once in your hand you can then deploy it from the board.

BEWARE - at the time of writing, once a minion is on the board, it can’t be taken back like in other Auto Chess games. We imagine this is to control keywords like Battlecry, which only trigger once upon a minion’s initial summoning.

Collecting triples of a minion is still a thing in Battlegrounds, but it’s more limited. You only need to do it once to get a ‘Gold’ version of a minion, which has better base stats (and keeps any stat buffs) and potentially a better ability, depending on the card. Combining three is automatic and the minion is returned to your hand in its gold state for you to play again.

When you play a gold minion, you get given a bonus card that lets you choose one card from a randomly drawn set of three from the Tavern tier above the one you’re currently at, so you essentially get two minions for the price of one.

Combat Phase

Once the timer runs out, the Tavern will close and you’ll move onto the Combat phase. You’ll be assigned a randomly selected opponent from the other 7 players (their avatar will be highlighted in red on the side column).

There are no ‘econ’ or ‘mob' rounds in Battlegrounds (and no items either), so the only respite you get is if there is an odd number of players in the game. In this instance, you will face Kel’Thuzad - essentially an AI opponent who will use the board state (and Tavern Tier) of the most recent previously defeated player. It's worth noting that Battleground's most recent update means that in every three combat rounds, you won't face Kel’Thuzad (not another player) more than once, unless there are only two players left.

Each player’s board of minions square up to each other, and combat begins using the following rules:

Start of Combat phase abilities will trigger first.

Then, starting with the first minion on the left, each player’s board takes turns attacking the opposing player one minion at a time.

The target of a minion’s attack is randomly selected, unless there are ‘Taunt’ minions on the board, in which case those get attacked first.

Attacking works like it does in Hearthstone, the attacking and defending minion apply their attack and defence stats to each other simultaneously.

If it’s a minion’s turn to attack, but it’s attacked by an opponent’s minion mid-sequence, it survives long enough to do it’s own attack before anything else happens to it (we think).

Once you’ve gone through your board, the sequence starts again with whoever’s left.

This continues until one player is the only person left with minions on the board (or no players, in which case it’s a draw.

Damage is dealt to the losing player’s health pool. Damage equals the star rating of all surviving minions + your tavern rating.

Keywords and card abilities obviously modify the above. For example if a minion’s Deathrattle ability summons a new minion in their place, that minion will then become the next in line to attack, and not the minion that was originally supposed to be next. Once a winner has been determined and damage dealt, on to the next round. Barring one exception, Heroes start with 40 health.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tips

There’s a lot to unpack as to what makes Battlegrounds different from other Auto Chess games, and almost all of it stems from the fact that they’ve based it on the Hearthstone CCG. The fact that it looks like a Hearthstone match means there’s no animated pieces jumping around (which makes it less interesting to watch, IMO) but it also means the tactical decision making in Battlegrounds is richer.

The order in which you place your minions is very important, as triggering the right keywords in the right sequence can make or break a strategy. If you’re relying on summoning minions through card abilities, you need to make sure there’s space on your board for them to go. Minions also get a bit more disposable, as you can summon a minion for its battlecry effect, and then instantly sell it so you can fire off your hero ability, or buy someone else if you’re one gold short.

There’s still some recognisable elements, such as building around minions of the same type. There are less ‘tribes’ in Battlegrounds, and there are no benefits for having a certain number of each tribe. They instead synergise with card abilities much like the main card game.

At the time of writing, the principal tribes in the game are:

Demons

Mechs

Beast

Murlocs

Murlocs tend to be stronger in the early game, whereas Mechs are stronger in the late game. Demons are interesting but require the right hero, or the right build to really work (And can damage you for using them). Beasts are a bit middle of the road, but can buff each other and have a lot of triggering and summoning effects.

Along with Tribes and card abilities, Keywords make up the third important tactical dimension in this game. These are lifted straight from Hearthstone and behave largely as they do in the main game. Important keywords you may recognise are:

Taunt

Divine Shield

Battlecry

Deathrattle

Charge

Magnetic

Taunt/Divine Shield are the most valuable of these - Taunt allows you to control your opponents actions to some degree, while Divine Shield buys your minions that extra lease of life so that they can remain useful. Managing Deathrattle and Battlecry abilities is a natural part of Battlegrounds’ flow, so while they are prolific they’re not exactly ‘essential’ per se.

At the time of writing, we would say the most prevalent universal strategy is stat boosting - there is a lot of potential for boosting your minion’s stats in a Battlegrounds match (which is a mechanic that doesn’t really apply to other Auto Chess games, making it unique here), to the point where you’ll see some crazy numbers in the late game.

You HAVE to be building with this in mind. A lot of the stat buffs in Battlegrounds are permanent and persist from round-to-round, which means they can stack buffs as they come up. This is essential for keeping momentum. Summoning additional minions is probably the second most important strategy, as it will help ensure you’re the last Hero standing. A general rule of thumb is that any stat boost that occurs curing the Combat phase is only temporary for that fight, but any stat-boosting that takes place in the Tavern phase will be permanent.

Being able to do deal damage outside of a minion’s attack, and attacking multiple minions with a single attack are also excellent means of crowd control as well.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tier List

Like with any good competitive title, there's a Tier list. Now, this is a bit of weird one because it's not like you get a choice in terms of what hero you get assigned when playing a game of Battlegrounds. You're served up two and get to pick one. We'll go through the currently accepted top tier, so you know what to look out for and why, but I wont' break down every hero as I don't want to risk depressing you before you even start a match when served a couple of Tier 4's.

Tier 1 Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes

Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End

Yogg's primary ability makes reliably building up a tribe strategy difficult, but he's an excellent early-to-mid game player. Not only can you get a minion for 2 gold (the only way this is possible at the time of writing), but you get to buff its stats by +1/+1. During the initial stages that extra bit of health and/or attack power can make the difference between winning or losing. Or, as I've had some several occasions, the difference between losing and drawing.

Note the minion you get is tied to what minions are currently present on your shopping row. This means you can manipulate which one you get somewhat by buying other minions, selling them back if you don't want them, although this strategy doesn't hold up towards the lat game.

Dancin’ Deryl

This is a strong hero but one that can be quite tricky to pilot. Essentially you will need to buy token generating minions so that you can use that for trade-in fodder, as well as buying up minions from the row so that the 'right' minion gets buffed. Note that both +1/+1 buffs can go to the same minion, meaning that it's even more important to make sure you're pulling out all the tricks to get those buffs in the right places.

Ideally, you'll do all this in one turn, but the freeze function will allow you to carry over minions to the next buying phase.

Arch-Villain Rafaam

You can sense a theme building - all of the strongest heroes at the moment involve getting minions through alternative means. Rafaam doesn't have the stat boost that comes with the above two heroes, but he makes up for it by making the overall quality of the minions you get theoretically higher.

For one gold, you essentially get a free minion (providing you actually kill one during the combat phase), and if you don't like it you can sell it back, meaning that at the very least you break even. This can be a great way of getting triplets of minions that you're fighting over someone else with, but obviously you can't really 'choose' which minion you'll get.

Edwin VanCleef

I mean, I've been saying from the beginning that this game's principle problem is out of control stat buffing, but sure - let's have a heroe who's single theme is out of control stat buffing. This is an ability that scales over time, as it's tied to your ability to buy minions - it becomes stronger in the late game when you have more coins to spend.

Beyond that though it has a lot of tactical applications: you can use it to buff a single minion to redoink levels over multiple turns, or you can use it to shore up key support minions so they last longer in the combat phase. Given my experience so far you'll want to do the former, as it's the 'super minions' that can make or break a board.

Tirion Fordring

Like must Auto Chess games, tribes are key to victory and are often the source of strategic strength. It means that cards that don't have any tribe form more of a support role - they're there to either provide a specific service or effect, or are otherwise junk to be used as fodder. Tirion lets these plucky underdogs stand as genuine contenders, and provide a good way of buffing cards that often can't get buffed outside of another hero power.

Tribe-less minions are often less contested within the card pool as well, so you're more likely to find copies of the minions you want vs. trying to go after Demons, or Mechs or whatever strat you would have settled on otherwise.

A. F. Kay

Last, but not least - Miss Kay. She's another tricky one, because for the first couple of turns you're not going to be able to do anything, which means you'll have to come out swinging on Turn 3 onwards. Having two tier 3 minions will help with this, as they'll likely be better than what everyone else has, but you'll have less time to pull a strategy together and will need to make up for lost ground.

On the plus side, this means you can be a bit more aggressive with your tavern upgrades early on as you won't need to worry about saving money to buy minions.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds | Final Thoughts

I like Hearthstone Battlegrounds. It’s got a lot going for it that make it superior to other Auto Chess variants, but I think it’s also being held back by the fact that it uses the card game as a base. Hearthstone has developed a bit of a reputation for facilitating ridiculous combos and strategies, and all of that nonsense seems to already be embedded into Battleground's meta.

I’m personally not a fan of how prevalent stat buffing is - it pretty much is the only strategy that matters and it can be hard to keep track of what your opponents are capable of. In other Auto Chess games the escalation was mainly in the form of key pieces and then how many two and three-star minions you could assemble. In Battlegrounds, there’s more math involved and so it’s harder to predict how strong your opponents will be.

Still, the economy system is better, and the tactical descision making is a lot more rewarding. Hopefully the above tips & tricks will give you some grounding to help spur you on in future matches with this intriguing game mode.

Do you have any Hearthstone Battlegrounds tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

Hearthstone: Battlegrounds: Tips & Tactics published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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technologyasyouwish-blog · 7 years

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Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I Started 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

This week has been interesting. This is probably the most hours per day I have ever put into a game in order to hit an embargo in such a short time span. I woke up every day at 6 AM, started up Mass Effect: Andromeda, and played for 10 or 11 hours straight. 60 hours of the campaign later, plus some multiplayer, and here I am.

My official scored review went up yesterday, which is 3,400 words of detailed thoughts and opinions about the game. I suggest you go and read that if you want my full analysis, as today, launch day, I have a different task: To impart some practical wisdom from all that time spent with the game.

This is a game where you’re going to want to know a few things up front to help with your experience, so hopefully my advice will be useful. Here are ten things I wish I knew before I started Mass Effect: Andromeda. No story spoilers follow.

1. Don't Use Default Sarah Ryder

All anyone can talk about in the run-up to the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda has been the often awkward animations with human characters. While this is something of an issue, and I do wish more improvement had been made in the last five years, it does not define the experience. One thing I would recommend, however, is not using the game’s default Sarah Ryder model.

While Scott Ryder is a perfectly normal pre-rendered face, something is just off about Sarah Ryder’s visage. It’s based on a real-life model, but something got lost in translation, and it just does not look right in the game. A lot of the early game footage you’ve seen has her talking and it just looks uncomfortable. If you want to play female Ryder (as I did), I would definitely design your own rather than using Sarah. I spent a decent amount of time making my Ryder look acceptable, and lo and behold, that does translate into the game itself. While there are animation issues elsewhere in the game, I found that my custom Ryder never looked as strange as Sarah Ryder has in all these previews. Not to say whoever you make has to be some supermodel, but Sarah is not the ideal face for this game purely from an animation perspective, so I would suggest forging your own path in that regard.

2. Don't Quit After The First Two Planets

I said this in both my early preview and my review, but Andromeda does a very poor job introducing players to the new open world concept because of how bad the first two planets are. Eos is a radioactive wasteland that throws up invisible walls in the form of a toxic environment when you stray too far. Havarl is a confusing mess of a jungle planet where you cannot even use your car, and fighting enemies you can’t even see through overgrown shrubbery is a nightmare.

I’m here to say it gets better. Without getting into specifics, you’re able to make Eos a lot more friendly to exploration as the zone expands dramatically in size with its toxic barriers lifted. And the last three planets you find, Voeld, Kadara and Eladeen, are without a doubt the game’s strongest environments, both in terms of their visuals, and how fun they are to navigate. There’s also a bonus planet you’ll find later that’s the most fun to drive around by far, but I’ll leave that one a surprise. My point is that even if you think Andromeda has made a serious mistake going open world judging by the first two planets (which is exactly what I thought), power through and get to the other environments, which are way better.

3. Turn The Nomad Into The Mako As Soon As Possible

Part of how much you’re going to enjoy the open world is how much you enjoy driving around your Nomad, and for reasons that remain unclear to me, the vehicle is designed to make you hate it when you first start using it. It’s slow, sluggish and can barely navigate even the most basic of terrain like mild slopes.

You have the power to change this, and upgrade the Nomad into something more accurately resembling the Mako from the original Mass Effect. In order, the upgrades you should research in implement are six-wheel drive, which lets you climb slopes faster, a longer boost capability, better top speed, and a longer hover capability. Combine those together and you can race up pretty much every cliff in the game and get hang time over sand dunes and mountains alike. These upgrades were the key to enjoying navigating these planets, so get them as soon as you can. They’ll be in your R&D station, and new ones are added as time goes on or you find/buy more.

4. Invest In The Cache Finding Upgrade

As you play, you will get points to invest in the Nexus, unlocking different “cryo pods” that give you passive bonuses in the game, rather than specific bonuses to your character like the R&D system. A few of these are useful, like getting materials and such delivered to you regularly, but I would only deem one upgrade absolutely essential: the cache finder.

This upgrade will put a smattering of treasure chests across any planet you explore. These chests are in such remote locations most of the time, you would usually never find them without this upgrade, and they often contain very valuable gear that would have been much harder to find, craft or purchase otherwise. These caches will scale to your level, so don’t hunt them down all at once, and spread them out over the course of the game.

5. Here's How The Ridiculously Confusing Crafting System Works

I really, really hate the crafting system in this game, but by the end I mostly have it figured out. It’s convoluted and awful, but it can be used to make the best items in the game. Here’s what you need to know.

The Research half of crafting uses three types of tech, Milky Way, Kett and Remnant. You get points in this tech for scanning objects in the wild. Everywhere you go, always check with your scanner to see if there’s something to add. If so, it will glow. Scan every type of enemy you come across as well, living or dead. Your controller will rumble if you’re by something very valuable to scan, but ABS – always be scanning. You have to research each level of an item, and there are 10 levels of every item, not just five the way it initially appears. The problem with this system is that even if you have a lot of scanning currency, you will use up almost all of it on just a few items per class if you’re researching upgraded versions of items. Pick your favorites, and stick with them. Do not bother researching N7 armor. It will obviously be attractive, but eventually you unlock a Nexus perk for vendors who will sell more “special gear,” and guess what? A full N7 set is part of the product line. I wasted probably 1,200 Milky Way research credits on this. You can add mods to weapons and armor as you craft them, which will give you innate bonuses. But when you upgrade to the next level of an item, those bonuses are gone, right? No. The game does not explain this at all, but you can dismantle your old crafted item and get all those mods back for future use. You only get a fraction of the minerals and materials, but all the mods should come back. It is crazy this isn’t made clear.

That should get you started. I hate this system but focusing on a few specific weapons, I did manage to craft some pretty great stuff by the end of the game.

6. Squadmates You Don't Like At Hour Three You May Love By Hour Thirty

I’m going to take a guess and say that many of the characters, particularly the crew members, you meet in Mass Effect: Andromeda you won’t take to right away. I felt this way about the initial two squadmates the game gave me, Liam and Cora, and then I thought that the hyper Asari Peebee was going to annoy me all game. That was true at first, but you have to give them a chance.

Having conversations with everyone, taking them on missions, and doing their loyalty quests will make you bond with them. Liam and Cora became two of my best buds on the ship, and Peebee uh, well let’s just say we became more than friends, even though my original intention was to romance my science officer Suvi. I just spent so much time with Peebee that I liked her, and it seemed like the right path. These kinds of relationships take dozens of hours to develop, so don’t expect to love everyone right away.

Also, side note. At a certain point, your romantic “choice” seems to be permanent. While I could flirt with everyone for a long time, once Peebee and I declared we wanted to be “exclusive,” I no longer even had the option to flirt with anyone else in conversation. So if you’re presented with that sort of ultimatum by whoever you’re romancing, know that’s what it probably means. But yes, I know there is a way to have a three-way in this game, but you can find that on your own.

7. Loot Containers Are Very Easy To Miss

One thing I don’t really get about Andromeda is its desire to hide loot containers from players. Many games will highlight them either on a minimap or in the environment, but Andromeda does neither so they are incredibly easy to overlook.

One problem is that pretty much any shape in the environment can be a loot container, so you have to wander around pretty close to almost everything to see if you get a prompt to open it. Some containers have a light blue shading that highlights them a bit but many don’t and it’s often hard to see. Scanning does not reveal containers either.

Nearly all landmarks will have at least one “big” chest with more stuff in it, so don’t leave until you find it. Cleared landmarks with no more stuff to get in them will turn blue on your map, but I swear sometimes I couldn’t figure out what I was missing. Also, at the end of story missions during boss fights, look around for a big loot container that will usually have a hefty prize in it. I am positive I missed quite a few of these during my first few missions before I figured this out.

8. You Can Save Preset Skill/Specialty Loadouts

Combat is a lot of fun in Mass Effect: Andromeda, and it’s made even more fun by its flexibility. It took me a while to figure this out, but you can actually save up to four preset power/class loadouts for your character in the skills screen. This will save the three powers you’re using and their assigned buttons, but also your class. Unlike past ME games, you can actually switch classes on the fly, based on how many points you’ve sunk into Combat, Tech or Biotics. For example, I had a hybrid Biotic/Combat build which let me pick between Soldier, Adept or Vanguard classes that I could flip between. Pick your skills and your class and even in the middle of combat you can totally change your play style.

9. Shotguns Are Stupidly Overpowered

I would rarely call for something to be nerfed in a PvE game like Andromeda, but by the end, the damage imbalance between my shotguns and everything else I was using was absolutely crazy. If you have even a halfway decent sustain build (like mine, which focused on shields), you can shred pretty much every single enemy in the game with nonstop shotgun blasts. At first, shotguns are limited by their small ammo pool, but upgrades and skills fix that, and it got to the point where if I felt like if I was using anything else, I was just being inefficient. If you don’t know where to sink combat points, you really cannot go wrong with shotguns.

10. You Can Keep Playing Normally After The Story Ends

I am certainly not going to get into ending spoilers here, but in a game like Mass Effect, players are going to want to know if there’s a hard or soft ending -- meaning if they beat the game, if they can keep playing and do the stuff they missed. The answer is definitely yes.

The ending of Andromeda is structured that you can not only keep playing the game and doing missions you missed with no penalty, but it’s not even one of those situations where you’re playing in the final save point before being told to go to the last mission. No, the main storyline can end and you are free to keep doing stuff.

With that said, if you want to be safe, you may want to consider doing at least your crew’s loyalty missions and the main planetary story missions before the last few missions. I do not actually know if there’s a downside to not doing that, but that’s been the case in past games, so it’s possible you might be risking something here. But since I did them, I can’t say for sure what happens if you don’t. But yeah, the point is don’t worry about finishing every little thing before the end, which is what I did. It isn’t necessary.

Alright, that’s all the advice I have for now. I may be back with more, but that should be enough to get you started. Happy exploring, and enjoy.

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