#literally all of them have high atk

[thecreaturecodex]

Psammead

Image © Wayne Barlowe

[Hey, a monster Barlowe illustrated from a book I’ve actually read! Of course, I last read Five Children and It when I was in single digits, but still. There have been a lot of filmed adaptations and spinoffs, but none of them have the psammead actually look like it does in the book. Most of them go for a more ET ugly-cute vibe, and all of them cut out the eyestalks, which is what I remember most vividly from my childhood.

Picking a CR for the psammead was somewhat of a challenge. In the book, there’s zero indication that It is a combatant, but creatures that can grant wishes, no matter how temporary, are typically mid-to-high CR. Although I toyed with giving It studied combat, the image of It slitting throats with its claws would probably make E. Nesbitt roll over in her grave. Instead, I took a page from the nereid’s book and gave it a powerful summoning ability. In the original, It talks about how he used to grant wishes to dinosaurs, which usually entailed food, so that seemed thematically more appropriate.]

Psammead CR 8 LN Fey This small strange creature is roughly mammalian, with fur and whiskers. It has eyes set on long, mobile stalks and oversized, bat like ears. Its body is pot-bellied, with long limbs—the arms are somewhat longer than the legs.

Psammeads are also called “sand fairies”, but their appearance is rather startlingly different from more traditional fairies. They are ancient, able to hibernate for literally millions of years beneath the sand. Their primary pastime is granting wishes, which they do with the full knowledge that such effects are temporary. When granting wishes, a psammead swells up like a balloon, as their tiny bodies are not used to containing such magical power. Psammeads usually use their wish-granting abilities in order to teach didactic lessons, and are known to twist the wishes in an uncharitable direction in order to achieve these goals. As they are immune to magical mind control and quite stubborn regardless, attempting to coerce a psammead into granting a wish it doesn’t want to is a fool’s errand.

A psammead has extraordinarily keen senses, and can use a combination of vibrations, echolocation and scent to detect almost all foes. Psammeads are physically weak, but magically strong, and avoid combat whenever possible. If enemies persist in pursuing them, a psammead will summon primeval beasts and earth elementals to defend itself. 

Although they are commonly found on beaches, psammeads hate water. They are vulnerable to cold and prone to hypothermia when getting wet, and so stay well above the high tide line. Psammeads are happier in deserts, where they may socialize with other desert fey such as hiderigami. They date back to an era when mammals laid eggs as a matter of course, and do so on the rare occasions they see fit to reproduce. Psammeads tend to a friendly, but somewhat condescending, attitude, and prefer the company of children to adults and solitude to either.

Psammead         CR 8 XP 4,800 LN Tiny fey Init +8; Senses blindsight 30 ft., low-light vision, Perception +18, tremorsense 60 ft. Defense AC 24, touch 21, flat-footed 17 (+2 size, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 insight, +3 natural) hp 91 (14d6+42) Fort +7, Ref +13, Will +13 DR 10/cold iron; Immune charm, compulsion effects; SR 19 Defensive Abilities insightful defense; Weakness vulnerable to cold Offense Speed 15 ft., burrow 10 ft. Melee 2 claws +13 (1d4-2) Space 2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft. Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +18 Constant—speak with animals 3/day—stone tell, summon nature’s ally VI, temporary wish Statistics Str 7, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 18, Wis 19, Cha 18 Base Atk +7; CMB +9; CMD 24 Feats Alertness, Defensive Combat Training, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Nimble Moves, Stealthy, Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +18, Diplomacy +18, Escape Artist +22, Knowledge (arcana, history) +14, Knowledge (geography, nature) +18, Linguistics +15, Perception +30, Sense Motive +22, Sleight of Hand +18, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +30, Swim -2; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception Languages Aklo, Sylvan, Terran, 11 others, speak with animals SQ primeval summoning Ecology Environment any deserts or coastlines Organization solitary Treasure incidental Special Abilities Insightful Defense (Ex) A psammead adds its Wisdom modifier to its Armor Class, including its touch and flat-footed Armor Class. A psammead only loses this ability if it is helpless. Primeval Summoning (Ex) A psammead draws its summoned creatures from a special list. With its spell-like abilities, it can summon a CR 5 or 6 elemental, dinosaur or other prehistoric animal, 1d3 CR 3 or 4 elementals, dinosaurs or other prehistoric animals, and 1d4+1 CR 2 or lower elementals, dinosaurs or other prehistoric animals. Elemental summoned in this fashion must have the earth subtype. Temporary Wish (Sp) Up to three times per day, a psammead can grant a wish for another creature (it cannot make wishes for itself). This functions as a wish spell, except that any objects or effects directly created by the wish disappear at the next sunset. For example, if a mortal wishes for a magic sword, the sword disappears at sunset, but anyone killed by that sword does not return to life. If any spell effects are generated by one of these wishes, the save DC is 22. This is treated as an 8th level spell.

[baeshijima]

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫!𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫!𝐲/𝐧

A/N : i have nothing to say other than the fact there will be an excessive amount of twitch slang bc why tf not + just,,, heavy streamer!albedo brainrot ;-;

masterlist

AIGHT

streamer albedo

…

pog—

so before we get into him being whipped for u, let’s go over the type of strimmer mr Kreideprinz is

fun fact that’s his twitch name—

albedo would be the type to do lots of variety streams of different games, but also the occasional art one if he wants to have a chill stream with his chat !!

speaking of chat… they’re an odd mix of wholesome supporters, KAPPA + POGGERS + catJAM (bc he always has some bangers on in the bg like yes u bless our ears my guy) + KEKW + EZ Clap + his own emotes spammers, mr albedo’s very own shrimps (me, ahEm—), and ppl who just appreciate his voice + gameplay

if there’s a troll he just bans them OMEGALUL

omg he has lots of emotes (which he made in some of his art streams so his viewers could choose some) for every scenario but we’ll get into the popular ones in a bit 👁👁

he’s most definitely one of the bigger, well-known streamers but with a smaller group of friends

his discord server has,,, a lot of ppl,,, 70k+ ppl big,,, rip notifs if ur in it ;-;

he has it muted tho 🐥 like, sir, that’s ur server pay the goddamn price smh

wait i forgot to mention this but he has his webcam on when streaming

so u can bet ur chickens that when ppl come to visit his stream bc of whatever category he has on, they stay for his visuals and voice <33

his twt 🤡 mans gets 1k+ likes, rts, comments within the first 5-10 mins

omg he gets soft when he receives sm support from his community 🥺🥺

gifts so many subs when hitting milestones, chat is wholesome or just whenever really HJKSDHKL 

also doesn’t swear much unless he gets played by his own game and/or someone is being incredibly annoying <//3

he also just,,, eats on stream

albedo straight up takes his webcam with him to show him cooking if his viewers ask for it

or he just orders food then and there and eats while chatting to everyone or watching youtube with his chat 🥺

nOW ONTO HIM BEING WHIPPED FOR U AS A GENSHIN STREAMER

this AR55 man 👩‍🦯

he can literally produce content from anything

from artifact farming, to spiral abyss, to running around mindlessly, to building characters he would normally never build, to him seeing how high up is considered too high to dive

and everyone eats it up bc it’s albedo <3

also !! he’s the type who includes the story quests in his streams so his reaction and thoughts on everything is just,,, there

now when u were first introduced in the prologue (yes ur one of the ogs + involved in the dvalin fight <33) he blanked and all his viewers could see was u on screen with him staring blankly in the bottom right of the screen

this man straight up saw u in a cutscene for one second and fell in love

his chat went wild omfg

he immediately made an emote for u and that’s his most popular one 😌

but i kid u not, the moment u appeared in that cutscene (one in which he will forever treasure in the crevices of his heart) was the moment he asked this exact question ;

“ so (y/n) banner when? ” 

and mihoyo heard his pleas and answered with ur event banner 

except it was like,, 4 months later 

at least ur finally here tho :’)

now he can have his lil science-y moments with ur voicelines ;-;

yes, ur the chief alchemist but ✨ 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 ✨

. . .

shut up

n e who

when he saw the notification from mihoyo’s official forums that u will be a playable character in the new update — along with new characters, region, events & a domain — i shit u not he did a rt, his own tweet, an announcement on the community feature on youtube, and made constant reminders to his viewers on twitch abt how he will be a (y/n) haver no matter what

he even added future (y/n) haver in his twt display name

what a shrimp—

the 1.2 update stream 🐥 he was there waiting for it to go live with like,,, 19k viewers spamming his chat abt predictions and obv ur official release + showcase

and when i say this man fell even more in love while watching ur trailer and character showcase 🥺 he wouldn’t stop smiling or being in awe bc ur just??? so stunning???

mihoyo clearly has a favourite child and it’s u

chat was spamming ur exclusive emote like crazy oml

u can bet it was also flooded with lots of POGs and POGGERS 

overall it was a very fun, chaotic stream filled with lots of (y/n) appreciation and love <33

also a very memorable stream for all his viewers bc of the side of albedo they rarely see unless ur involved

the day ur banner was to go live tho 🐥

the streams leading up to the fateful day consisted of him farming ur mats 

that’s it

boss runs, local specialties, hero wits, talent books, the mats needed for ur weapon he was inevitably going to pull for (only the best for the best, afterall) and many domain runs

many painful domain runs

all of it was worth it tho bc ur worth everything :’)

an actual quote said by him—

at least he can get u and ur weapon to lvl 90 right off the bat with all the artifacts tailored for u ;-;

and get u to that point he did HJSDKJF

once ur banner dropped? immediately started wishing

2 multis in and he gets u 😣

albedo nearly cried and was the literal embodiment of head in hands

wHEN I SAY HIS CHAT BLEW TF UP AND HIS MODS JOINED IN

modCheck has left the chat

everyone’s rooting for him :’)

pulled for ur weapon and got it in 1 multi

sir give me ur luck pls and ty

but yes he nearly choked on the gASP he let out while chat screamed even more

he blanked for a bit, i won’t lie ;-;

but when he realised this was real, he immediately went to his party set up and put u in

can we all get an f in the chat for his lvl 10 tartaglia 😔💔👊

his chat usually rages at him to build him but if he’s being honest, he cba

ur vl when he put u in the party tho <333

now he’s just spent half an hour running around with u, letting u do ur idle animations (will always be grateful for mihoyo creating u like this), reading ur very limited (for now—) character story and going through ur voicelines 

ur morning & about us (when he unlocks it) voiceline >>>>> his heart be running laps rn i swear

eventually he does begin to build u after much admiration on his end and at lvl 1 with lvl 20 artifacts, u already have 1.6k atk 🐥

now after he levels u and ur weapon to lvl 90, u have 2.8k atk 🐥

rip mobs <//3

he now plays u as his main dps 😌

the kit initially designed for u is meant to be more for support?? kinda like the whole ganyu or zhongli debate abt them being a dps or a support/sub dps ;-;

except ur more utility like venti or bennett

and even though the majority said at the beginning (aka, mihoyo, pretty much any other streamer and the larger part of the fanbase) that ur meant for support, he said fuck that and built u as his main dps

and i won’t lie, u do more damage than any of his characters, and ppl who co op with him

ur his pride and joy :’)

he went to take a look at ur consts to see if they were worth the rng suffering and, lo-and-behold,

they were

so now he’s using all his saved primos for u to try and get ur c6 const, along with making ur weapon r5 :’)

his chat gets a free view of him internally suffering when the gold light doesn’t come, and his external suffering when he loses the 50/50

in the end, he decided to whale for u <33

after nearly an hour, he has u to c6 and ur weapon to r5 ;-;

now all he’s been doing the whole stream is running around with u in open world, doing his daily farming, doing more domain and boss runs, exploring the new region (dragonspine) + ur story quest

he’s saving the event quest for another stream bc ✨content✨ 

in ur quest, he had multiple heart attacks and now has many, many screenshots <3

he now has a zoomed in pic of ur face as his twt pfp <33

okay so i also feel like he’s not all that bothered abt getting characters to friendship level 10 immediately and would rather let it happen through time

but obv ur not any other character *proceeds to debby ryan at u*

even if ur not fit for a particular domain or boss, he still puts u in the party so when collecting the blossom/rewards, u can get the friendship exp ;-;

he just wants ur name card so he can show off okay 🥺

when he lets his viewers pick out the playlist, 98% of the songs are from ur character demo theme 

they just know him so well 😩

they also just wanna see the way he smiles when he hears it play but shhhhhh

now he just has his in-game avatar as u, and ur namecard too <33

also his signature is just ;

“ (y/n)’s favourite streamer ”

[archived-kin]

obey me cast + their genshin mains

i woke up at like three in the morning and scribbled this all down

not a formal writing piece so i haven’t formatted it like one, but i thought this was a fun idea!!

lucifer: diluc

they both have Fatherly Issues (in very different ways though)

probably inwardly makes fun of diluc for not liking wine

doesn’t really have any emotional attachment??? he just keeps diluc because he does a lot of damage and helps kill enemies quick

he actually has pretty good luck with getting 5 stars before he’s even hit pity, but he has awful luck on the event banners in terms of getting the featured 5 star - he’s never once won the 50/50 when he actually reaches it

gets really good artifact and weapon drops though so all of his levelled-up characters have super overpowered kits

he’s never actually looked up any recommended character builds, he’s just smart enough to figure out what all the stats mean and build his characters accordingly

has not touched his serenitea pot since he got it

not actually great with battle strategy and elemental reaction, he just tries to hit as hard as he can at all times

all of his characters are built dps because he doesn’t know how to build supports or healers

never teleports anywhere (he still hasn’t even unlocked half the waypoints)

didn’t realise the statues of seven healed until really late into the game

doesn’t bother with the reputation quests/bounties

all of his characters are still on that black glider that amber first gives you

it took him ages to finish the archon quest in mondstadt because he didn’t want to go into the cathedral

mammon: zhongli

accidentally got zhongli on like his very first event wish and has mained him ever since

he thinks it’s really funny that zhongli never has money (even though he also often has no money)

apart from that he likes the idea of playing the character that literally makes all the mora in teyvat

was actually considering switching after he finished the liyue archon quests because he absolutely hated how zhongli handled the whole thing but he didn’t want to give up that big pp damage

still doesn’t know that you can climb up onto dvalin in the stormterror battle

mixes and matches artifacts, but the ones he does use have really good stats and sub stats though so the lack of a set bonus doesn’t make much difference

didn’t realise you could increase talent levels until ar 50

loves doing the blossoms of wealth and hasn’t let his mora drop below 100k ever since he accidentally used it all up levelling his team to lv60

immediately does a wish as soon as he gets enough primos, unless it’s an event banner for a character he doesn’t like

he also ignores the story and hangout quests for the characters he doesn’t like

dabbles in the serenitea pot but doesn’t have the patience to really commit to it

forgets to do his commissions until the very last minute and lets his resin fill up to 160 before remembering that he’s not supposed to let it get full

is terrified of spiral abyss on a molecular level

levi: barbara

he loves idols so of course barbara is his favourite

has her built dps and does more vaporise damage with her charged attacks than some people’s 5 star bursts

ended up building lisa as a dps too because she makes fighting the oceanid for the cleansing hearts much easier

somehow still gets barbara to heal enormous chunks of hp as well??

has all three of her talents crowned, she’s lv90 and so is her 5 star weapon, plus all of her artifacts are +20

he likes getting the event 5 stars even if he’s never going to build them, they just make him feel superior in his luck

has really bad artifact drops which makes him really frustrated because he knows exactly how to build his characters with the perfect stats, he just can’t get the right artifacts!!!!!

keeps getting crit dmg, crit rate and atk% sub stats on defence circlets and it makes him die a little more on the inside each time

he despises jean because of how she makes barbara feel and desperately wants mihoyo to make a moment where jean tries to fight something but fails and barbara then steps in and takes it down immediately

never gets barbara’s constellations with makes him very upset because he wants c6 so BAD

nearly cried when he got barbara’s happy birthday voiceline

somehow got his serenitea pot to adeptal energy 20k within like two weeks but it doesn’t look good?? it’s just a whole bunch of 4 star furnishings shoved wherever there’s room

is pretty much always online at any given time

has nearly every single achievement in the game (goddammit just GIVE HIM THE RELIABLE HELPER COMMISSION)

satan: diona

this is not up for debate

he saw her in the character archive and immediately decided that if he didn’t get her he was quitting the game

luckily for him it was xiao’s banner around this time and he managed to get c3 diona from that alone

much like levi with barbara, he managed to build her so that she does enormous amounts of damage but still performs her shielding/healing really well

he prioritises her over everyone else but because of this diona is still his only fully-built character

all talents crowned, all artifacts +20, etc

hates draff with all his heart and refuses to buy anything from him

will murder you if you refer to diona as a loli in front of him

i’m aware keqing also sort of looks like she has cat ears but as far as i know that’s just her hair???

if anything i feel like satan wouldn’t like her because he’s offended that people think those chunk of hair look remotely like a cat’s cute lil ears

chose all his other team members based solely on whether or not their skill set would benefit diona

refuses to use any of the characters lucifer uses and got legitimately angry when he found out lucifer had started building diona to help with spiral abyss

spends like five minutes at a time making diona jump into water because he thinks the cannon ball animation is the cutest thing in the world

if a boss he’s fighting manages to kill diona, he gets so angry that he pretty much obliterates it immediately after

asmo: lisa

partially because she’s pretty and her personality is right up his alley, and partially out of pettiness because he sees so many people slandering her

doesn’t know how to build anyone, he’s only got a good lisa build out of sheer luck

none of his other characters have remotely good builds. like, maiden’s beloved on tartaglia?? really, asmo???

squealed when lisa called traveller a cutie

talks to her while he’s running about doing quests or battles

plays pretty sparingly so his ar is relatively low and he barely has any characters outside the starters

usually gets levi to one shot the bosses for him when he needs to ascend/upgrade the talents of his characters

(levi agrees because it gives him a pretty big power trip)

he also likes kaeya and has him in his team but lisa’s magic is just so pretty to him

spends all his primos on the standard banner trying to get lisa constellations but he still only has c4

all of the solo boss battles he’s won were only won out of sheer luck

adores the concept of the serenitea pot, but he doesn’t like a lot of the furnishings available

desperately wants a character customisation function

died seven times trying to do the stormterror fight and had to have levi do it for him in the end

still doesn’t done any of the story quests that you need a key for

spends most of his free time finding some pretty landscapes, changing the time, and taking pictures of lisa doing one of her idles against the sunset

beel: xiangling

decided he liked her as soon as he did her story quest

he’s only gotten up to floor 4 of spiral abyss because he only did floor 3 to get her

still only has c2 :((((

always has to have snacks with him while he’s gaming because xiangling’s voice lines remind him of how hungry he is

desperately wishes she was real because he wants to taste how good her food is for himself

likes cooking a bunch of dishes in-game, but he also gets frustrated because they all look so GOOD and he can’t eat them

doesn’t really know how building works but he does vaguely know what stats are good and how set bonuses work

doesn’t like hu tao because she’s mean to xiangling >:( plus belphie despises her and beel rarely likes anything his twin dislikes

is low-key upset that xiangling’s story quest was so early in the game because he didn’t appreciate it enough at the time and he hasn’t seeb her in-game for ages

still doesn’t have any 5 stars apart from the traveller, but he does have literally every 4 star in the game

is the type to bring xiangling to pyro domains but luckily she does some pretty good physical dmg as well so his teammates don’t get as mad

takes some time out of every day to find every food/ingredient vendor in the game and buy out their entire stock

still has never run out of mora somehow????

belphie: qiqi

i made this choice partially because of that one halloween belphie ur where he’s dressed up in a jiangshi costume

aside from that i feel like she just sends his big brother instincts haywire

he cried a little bit when he read her backstory, not gonna lie

like satan, he will kill you if you call qiqi a loli

somehow managed to build her as a physical dps that does like 5000 per hit?????

(he has unholy artifact luck and all of qiqi’s artis have atk, crit dmg and crit rate as their stats and sub-stats, plus aquila favonia)

he started out building her as an all-around dps but then he realised that her burst and skill couldn’t do much in terms of damage since they’re healing-oriented, so he decided to build her physical since that the only type of dmg she can constantly apply

and qiqi still heals reliably because her healing is scaled off her attack, which is like monstrously high???

qiqi hates hu tao so of course belphie does too

he still refuses to do her story quest and didn’t touch her banner or character trial

really really wants a qiqi banner for constellations but is aware that that is incredibly unlikely

doesn’t trust baizhu and wants zhongli to adopt qiqi since he seems like a much more reliable dad

heard the theory that xiao is the adeptus that killed qiqi and therefore also despises him even though it hasn’t even been concerned or anything

diavolo: eula

don’t get me wrong diavolo definitely gives me pyro vibes but i feel like he’d just feel so bad for how the mondstadters misunderstand and mistreat eula in her story quest that he’d immediately go to spend all his primos on wishing for her

he’s got r2 broken pines and a full pale flame artifact set with some pretty decent stats and substats on her so she does pretty enormous damage

it’s lucky that eula’s move set doesn’t require anything too strategic because all diavolo does is button mash

all of his characters are physical damage dealers because he doesn’t really know how to do elemental reactions

(because of this though he’s awful at fighting a lot of the bosses, especially the oceanid)

his favourite boss battle is the weekly golden house trounce domain because he can always smack childe down really quickly

he’s stinking rich so he can afford to spend just about as much money as he wants to get any character he wants

like he got all the way to pity on eula’s banner and lost the 50/50 to mona but he just bought more primos and got all the way to pity again to get eula

on the other hand he got broken pines twice in two ten rolls on the weapon banner and he wasn’t anywhere near pity for that

he joined levi along with satan and asmo to have a go at doing the golden house fight in co-op and he managed to pretty much oneshot a lv90 childe in phase 1 and phase 3 with just eula’s burst

(he spent phase 2 recharging it)

barbatos: venti

this is at least 70% because venti is also called barbatos

he somehow knows pretty much everything there is to know about building characters well and he’s built venti with both attack and elemental mastery

got venti on his first banner and managed to get to c4 on his rerun

doesn’t appreciate how much venti drinks and actively buys the non-alcoholic juices from angel’s share to give him as if that’ll help????

is terrified of fighting the wolf because it’s immune to anemo

(don’t ask how he managed to get the hurricane seeds for ascending venti)

can pretty much fire off venti’s burst as soon as it’s over because his energy recharge is somehow also insane

diligently collects all the recipes and masters every single one of them

his serenitea pot is literally so perfect looking????? i don’t know how to describe it everything just fits together flawlessly

diavolo offers to buy him primos because he’s got more than enough money but barbatos doesn’t wish a whole lot so he usually refuses

(diavolo knew he mained venti and liked him though so he bought him a bunch for the rerun anyway)

he still doesn’t have any five star weapons but stringless works really well on venti anyway so he doesn’t mind

doesn’t really like co-op, prefers to just wander around in his own world

simeon: yanfei

simeon definitely gives me hydro vibes and he probably mained a hydro before yanfei, but i feel like he happened to get her on zhongli’s banner and decided he really liked her as soon as he started trying her out

he adores her little ‘boom boom!’

she also works really well doing big damage with vaporise which is good because simeon plays a lot with luke, who mains barbara

he low key identifies with how yanfei doesn’t want to focus on her identity as an immortal half-adeptus because simeon himself often wants to forget the fact that he’s a divine being and just live peacefully

often forgets that yanfei gets a lot of her dmg from charged attacks and just keeps doing normal attack combos until he registers the scarlet seals and realises he needs to hold the button down

nearly all of his characters were basically backseat-built by levi and solomon

even though his team is pretty powerful he still dies a bunch because his battle strategy is just ‘stand there and keep hitting the attack button until it dies’

keeps running off of cliffs and forgetting to plunge/glide and just dying to fall damage

back when he was like ar20 he accidentally wandered into liyue early and immediately got killed by a treasure hoarder

spent like ten minutes of his first stormterror fight just running off the end of his platform before someone told him he was meant to glide

luke: barbara as well

if you’ve seen my post about barbara and luke being siblings you’ll understand why i’ve made this choice

aside from that luke just likes barbara because she’s one of the nicest characters in the game

plus she’s a deaconess in a church and he’s an angel so

unlike levi he’s got her built purely as a healer, but she heals so MUCH

luke’s entire team is just support characters?? but their support is so good that they kind of make each other dpses in their own right??

his strategy is to keep his whole team at full hp and deal relatively small but very steady increments of damage

unfortunately this means he isn’t great at the artifact and weapon/character enhancement domains because they’ve got time limits

wants to have a pretty serenitea pot but he just can’t get it to look how he wants it to

like levi, he doesn’t like jean because of how she makes barbara feel (and also how jean just refuses to take any sort of older sister role for her)

got her to c6 on a single event banner because she just kept coming home (he wasn’t complaining though)

is contemplating building her dps because he thinks it’d be cool if she did a bunch of damage like levi’s barbara

likes to just sit and wait for her to do her dancing idle because he thinks it’s cute (will immediately make her move and cut off the other one though because it’s about jean and he doesn’t like her)

solomon: albedo

they both look sensible but they’re both just mad scientists on the inside

doesn’t really know how albedo’s burst and skill work, just keeps tapping buttons whenever they’re available

if he didn’t have albedo he’d probably main a catalyst but he relates to how curious albedo is about just about everything

(plus he does like his design)

always gets the limited time 5 star on his first ten pull on the event banners????? is he using his magic somehow??????

and also somehow gets really good weapons and artifacts????

he knows enough about artifacts to know what to put on who so all of his characters are really well built

he’s the type with eight lv90 5-stars with lv90 5-star weapons and fully upgraded artifact sets in his character showcase

his signature is ‘hack me i dare you’

constantly getting friend requests from fellow players who want an op friend to help them in domains and against bosses

but unfortunately even if solomon has a bunch of overpowered characters he is very bad at using them

gets all the elemental reactions wrong, uses the wrong element against the wrong enemy, forgets to do things like putting albedo’s skill down before his ult, and he can’t aim with any of the archers

like i said he just taps buttons and hopes for the best

because of this he’s still at floor 6 in spiral abyss

[crystalelemental]

Anniversary Steven - One Year Later

Imagine that you’ve been playing Masters since the early days.  I wasn’t, I started less than two months before this event, but imagine you were, and had context for what anniversary events are typically like.  SS Red at the .5 anniversary.  SS Blue and SS Leaf at the first year.  Leon and Champion Iris for 1.5.  All of these anniversaries introduced tremendous new units that came to define the game for a time.  Surely, second year anniversary will do the same!  I mean, look at Lear, and he’s the pre-anniversary bait!  Whatever’s coming up is going to be insane!

And then Anni Steven and Shiny Mega Rayquaza drops, and people lose their minds.  First because of how cool it is, and then because realization sets in.

At the time, the 7500 Master Mode meta focused on one thing: EX Strikers.  The sync nuke was expected to deal enough damage to clear out an entire stage in one shot.  Move damage was often an afterthought.  While it was nice to have, the main focus was on sync nukes that would blast a stage apart.  So you needed high starting offensive stats, and good multipliers.

Anni Steven had none of this.  His base attack is under 300.  In fact, it’s so bad it’s tied with Anni N, who at least has a ton of multipliers.  In contrast, he got...Clear Sync 5 and 9, which sounds like a lot, until you realize he’s operating with Mega Evolution demerits.  I have absolutely seen his sync nuke deal triple-digit damage.  But hey, mega evolution!  That’s worth stats!  What stats does he get upon the coveted Mega Rayquaza transformation?  Speed.  Just speed.  So...okay, maybe his self setup is really good?  Like Anni Lillie’s is good?  Oh, no, sorry, trainer move is just +3 crit, and maybe some speed buffs if he’s already mega evolved, with Supereffective Up Next, which is not saving his sync.  And X Atk is inefficient, and also needs MPR to cap.

Needless to say, people were pissed.  Anni Steven was considered the most painful release the game had ever produced.  He was considered laughably, memetically bad, and jokes are still made about him being the worst Master Fair.  Which...may have been a little unfair.

Sure, his sync is absolute butt, and his mega evolution is essentially worthless.  But Anni Steven is a striker in the sense of move damage.  Dragon Ascent is a fantastic move for base damage, getting a bit of a bonus due to the detrimental effect of lowering both defenses.  Draco Meteor is also pretty strong Dragon-type damage, with similar benefits, due to -2 special attack each use.  Oh, but there’s something important in those: Downside Up inverts debuffs to buffs, and Good Form boosts move damage based on the number of buffs.  This makes his move damage pretty solid, and makes him immune to any kind of debuffing shenanigans foes can throw out.  It also means that he can buff his defenses and special attack pretty reliably.  MGR4 and his naturally good speed make him pretty great for gauge control, which is nice when you have such high costs.  As the final boon, he gets Good Form, which is a limitless multiplier on move damage.  The more buffs he has, the stronger moves become.  It’s in small increments, but it doesn’t cap at 18 buffs like Rising Tide does for sync.  It just keeps going.

His main problems are being way too slow and inconsistent for buffs, and needing literally all of them.  This is hard to do.  On launch, the only option that could potentially help was Winter Rosa.  Who already isn’t that great, and is much more aligned to Hail, but does have effectively +5 to randomized stats each use of trainer move.  She also has X Atk All, which gets his specific need for attack.  But this is obviously wildly inconsistent.

But then, Halloween Caitlin, the savior of Anni Lillie, appeared to save him too.  Attack, speed, defense, and special defense buffs, all potentially to cap, with some added accuracy buffs as well.  Halloween Caitlin and NY!Lillie were the only means of potentially getting every stat boosted.

Unfortunately, it became apparent that this buffing game took forever to accomplish, and often wasn’t worth it.  His move damage was good, sure, but it wasn’t anything mind-blowing, and the amount of setup required often just didn’t make it viable so much as a fun possibility.  Usually, his best pick was Tech Farfetch’d.  An Eggmon.  Who at least kicked off theme skills and could debuff the foe’s defense.  Not exactly groundbreaking.  Or consistent.  I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve found it really hard to get specific eggmons, and that’s with three incubators up and running during egg events.

In the transition to the Gauntlet meta, hopes were high that Anni Steven could stage a comeback.  Debuffs were far more prominent here, and he turned all of that into benefits.  This didn’t last long.  Many of these debuffs involved hitting him, and his base stats were terrible.  Despite buffing his own defenses, he really can’t take hits reliably, especially when the spread moves get guaranteed crit.  He doesn’t have the same surprise bulk as Anni Lillie.  Worse, several stages use Icy Wind as their guaranteed crit spread move, which absolutely annihilates him due to his Ice weakness.  Unfortunately, it seemed that Anni Steven was just a doomed unit.  They wanted to limit Downside Up/Good Form so it wasn’t too overwhelming, but overshot so badly that they made him pretty underwhelming.

Well good news!  It took a long time, but eventually, Anni Steven finally got something, in the form of Anni Skyla and Flying Zone!  This was going to be the combo to end all combos; finally, he’d have his own Zone like Lillie to show off!  Flying Zone really emphasized just how good Anni Steven’s move damage was. I’ve seen values around 19k from one attack.  That is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.  His sync may be a disaster (though I’ve also seen that salvaged by Zone), but Skyla can take over sync duties for him, and produce a fantastic combo that synergizes well.

What I do think is a bit underrated in Anni Skyla for this combo is her potential to debuff offenses of a foe when they’re hit with confuse or trap.  This is, sadly, a 3/5 skill, but the potential to debuff offenses, alongside Anni Steven’s defense buffing, actually does have a chance to help him take hits like he needs, while Mini Potion All helps him stay topped off.  But man, it was just nice to finally have a win.  After all this time, finally, Anni Steven is the top of the Flying DPS metaga-

Hoenn Villain Arc.  This...is really where I think the current bitterness I’m experiencing toward this game started.  Because let’s be honest: Second Anniversary characters did, in fact, get shafted really hard.  They were given fairly experimental and unique options, but time has proven that this was not worth the tradeoff in power they were forced to make.  “But how bad can it really be?” you may be wondering.

Well, aside from SS Steven getting the same Downside Up on a unit with 550+ special attack and having virtually no drawbacks, how about the fact that Zinniquaza, a free unit, has higher Flying damage DPS than him?  How about that damage isn’t even close?  Nearly 1.3 million vs. 950k, according to the charts.  This is where there’s no longer any denying it.  Anni Steven was brutally, unethically shafted.  His damage was so bad a free unit outperformed him.  His tools were so bad that the defense buffs didn’t even save him in Gauntlet.  Anniversary Steven is like the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.  Every time I try to focus on the positives of this man, something else is revealed to be outright better, until at last, we hit rock bottom.  A Master Fair, one of the most elusive types of units in the game, has worse damage output than a free unit.  I really can’t summarize his misfortune any better than that.

[angrypaperearthquake-tbbb-main]

AkaYona characters if they were/had Pokémon

I’ve been playing Pokémon for as long as I can remember. I’m talking Gameboy color days with Pikachu walking behind you and N64 Colosseum days with Lickitung and sushi bars. Every year, my siblings and I purchase the new Pokémon game and play it together. It’s been a tradition of our since forever. 

This past year the new game was Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (remakes of the original gen IV games). A personal tradition of mine is to name my Pokémon after characters from my favorite series at the time. This playthrough used characters from none other than, Yona of the Dawn!

A couple of notes:

I only chose Pokémon found in the Sinnoh-dex, NOT the National-dex

These are my own personal interpretations

I chose Pokémon based on what I thought were defining characteristics

I will go through my main 6 fighters then the honorable mentions

Enjoy and let’s begin!

First we have our fierce leading lady: YONA

Originally a Ponyta, Rapidash was the greatest fit for our fiery and resolute Princess!

Pros:

Fire - this Pokémon literally has flames for hair

Yona likes horses

It will kill you if it gets mad

Likes to stab things

Modest nature (Yona doesn’t flaunt)

Somewhat vain (lol remember when she complained about her hair?)

Special ATK is her best stat (range attacks like the bow she uses)

Cons:

Does not come with bow

Second we have our super sexy leading man: HAK

Originally a Shinx, Luxray was the perfect choice for our Thunder Beast!

Pros:

It’s a literal “lightening beast”

Look at that color scheme (blue and black???)

Will literally kill you

Lax nature - Hak is chill (most of the time)

Loves to eat! (how many times did he ask Yun for food?)

Ability is intimidate

Cons:

Does not come with glaive (guan-do)

Next up is the most beautiful dragon of the group: KIJA

NO HATE, but this was literally the hardest pick out of all of them. There are no pretty dragons or white snakes with claws in the Sinnoh-Dex. Originally a Gible, Garchomp was the best I had to work with for our gorgeous Hakuryuu!

Pros:

A literal dragon type

It has SCYTHES for arms (way more effective than dragon claws)

Knows the move Slash and Dragon claw

Best stat is ATK for close combat

Good perseverance (y’all know how Kija can be)

Cons:

Not white

Not a snake

Not weak to bug types

Not that pretty

Next up is the best cinnamon roll ever: SHIN-AH

Originally a Riolu, Lucario was the ultimate/only choice for our little blue dragon and I will absolutely die on that hill!

Pros:

It’s blue and black and yellow and white (color scheme matching???)

Steel/Fighting type - Shin-Ah fights with a steel sword

Special ATK stat is most powerful (dragon eyes are most powerful)

Will eat ANYTHING

The Aura Pokémon - can see things that others cannot (dragon eyes)

Knows telepathy - can literally speak into your mind (hallucinations)

Loyal to a fault (if you haven’t seen the movie Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, then you’ll understand and probably cry)

Listen to these Pokedex entries:

It’s said that no foe can remain invisible to Lucario, since it can detect auras. Even foes it could not otherwise see

Not only does it perceive auras, but it has also gained the power to control them. It employs them in battle

It can tell what people are thinking. Only Trainers who have justice in their hearts can earn this Pokémon’s trust

Cons:

Absolutely none

Next up is our favorite perverted dragon: JAE-HA

(Don’t laugh) Originally a Starly, Staraptor was the best choice for our high-flying masochist!

Pros:

Legit bird that flies

SIDE BANGS

Strong legs

It’s HASTY, you know, excessive speed

Listen to these Pokedex entries:

It will courageously challenge foes that are much larger

The muscles in its wings and legs are strong

When Staravia evolve into Staraptor, they leave the flock to live alone

It never stops attacking even if it is injured

It fusses over the shape of its comb

Cons:

Hair (comb?) is not green

No ponytail

Does not come with throwing knives

Finally, the one that makes us all cry like babies: ZENO

Originally a Turtwig, Torterra was the best starter that seemed to fit anyone in the group, but most definitely our centuries old yellow dragon!

Pros:

Legit tank

It has a STURDY BODY

Carries the weight of the literal world on its shoulders

Highest stat is defense (obviously)

Shell Armor ability

Been around since ancient times

Cons:

Not yellow

Does not call out its own name

POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Look at them <3 One of the best teams I have ever raised!

Honorable Mentions:

The best genius pretty-boy, and mom, around: YUN

Originally a Happiny, Blissey was the obvious and most hilarious choice for our fave mom!

Pros:

Sassy nature

It’s frickn’ stubborn

Only females (lol - always getting mistaken for a girl)

Knows a ton of healing moves

The Chansey line has always worked as nurses in the anime

Literal mom of the group

Listen to this Pokedex entry:

If it sees a sick Pokémon, it will nurse the sufferer back to health.

Cons:

Haven’t found one yet

The only squirrel to ever steal an entire manga: AO (PUKYUU)

The only reason I raised a Pachirisu to level 100 is because it’s the only squirrel in the entire game. There are no other reasons. I call it the Death Squirrel.

Pros:

Will kill you if you look at it wrong

Always saves the day

Never not cute

Powerful but can still die easily

Picks up useful stuff

Always smiling

Cons:

Not brown

Does not carry acorns

The one that sat in my party for-ever and became an honorable member: MUNDOK

I raised this Gyarados from a tiny Magikarp and he sat in my party until I found Kija at gym number SEVEN. So he had to stay an honorary member, as none other than Gramps!

Pros:

Flying type (wind tribe)

Literally floats in the air (again, wind tribe)

Brave nature (dude literally stood up to Su-Won)

Stubborn!

Scary on the outside, but lovable on the inside

Ability is intimidate (just like Hak <3)

Will kill you if it gets the chance

Cons:

No scar

[metellastella]

In Honor of Deltarune Chapter 2, Lemme tell you about exactly HOW world-breaking Chara really was, and IS.

Here's the thing about Chara. It is implied that they are THE PLAYER's insatiable thirst for new video game worlds (or, they have latched onto it). As in, they accompany the player to the next world they go to.

Direct quote:

"HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV. Every time a number increases, that feeling . . . That's me. Chara. Now, we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next." i.e.: Let US move on to the next.

Every time THE PLAYER conquers and sets aside a new game . . . they have effectively DESTROYED it. Because they do not "exist" unless they are played and interacted with. Also, they only exist up until the end of the game anyway (most of the time)

And- I say usually- no matter how many times THE PLAYER plays a game- they will eventually tire of it. Also, if they play 500 games in their lifetime . . . it is unlikely they will re-play that many consistently. Plus, add on random internet "mini" games.

Now, that's only considering ONE player.

But since Chara is a multi-dimensional being, because they are aware of other worlds . . . it's not much of a stretch to say that the millions of people who are carrying around Chara "with" them count . . . as Chara.

Bill Cipher, from Gravity Falls, to my knowledge, despite his reality-warping godly demon powers, makes no such 4th wall shattering and domineering claim.

Let's assume for sanity's sake, that this current dimension you're sitting in and reading this screen on is the primary reality. There ARE no dimensions higher than this. All others are contained within human imagination. Bill Cipher was Created by a Creator.

All the 'lower' dimensions we can muck around in as basically gods. (gods or demigods either incarnate as weaklings, or come about some other way, in many mythologies, but then grow steadily stronger to realize their godhood. Ya know, Hercules. Krishna. In Hinduism. That sort of thing.) We can travel between dimensions on a whim by flipping a switch. With enough Determination, we can ALWAYS reach the end. Now, sometimes collaboration does expand these universes a little bit- through comics and fanfiction. But even these created 'higher spheres' nearer to this primary dimension, author 'omniscience' is taken as a given. Actually there is some debate about that, given the real-world phenomenon of novel writers in some cases having no clue where characters are taking them . . . they just sit down to write with a kernel of an idea. That's how I operate, for instance. In that case, they somehow have had their 'future sight' that should be default as a god, blocked. People who outline plots and know where they're going with a story beforehand, and then create characters to fill in the gaps, they're the type of 'gods' that could tell their characters future events, if they wanted to. Anyway. Back to video games specifically, and their fandoms. There is only so much CONTENT and it can always be recorded and shared. So there is still a limting factor.  Here's the weird thing about Undertale. You are there as a 'god.' Just as usual. That's nothing special. You're just there to muck around. But. The whole toe-curling horror aspect UT was demonstrating, for specific characters NPCs who realize this sobering fact . . . such as Asgore and Sans, they are driven to despair, mental instability, and in two cases, suicide, by the fact.

If Homestuck is considered a "game" that is destroyed once you reach the end? It is rolled into all of this as well.  Homestuck is a game. What evidence to I have of this, since it's a 'written story'? It has many playable elements and 90% of its lore and plot is based on deconstructing game conventions and sticking them back together in weird angled positions with crazy glue.  Therefore. If the player reads Homestuck after playing Undertale, (i.e., someone who is newer to internet culture, and entered it after Undertale came out, which was far after Homestuck) Chara has CANONICALLY destroyed the Homestuck Universe.  (or, if you re-read Homestuck after playing Undertale)

YOU. The PLAYER make or break all fictional characters. They live and die by your interest in them, or, for games, your direction, and no other character has explicitly taken YOUR control over the game, as Chara has. In Homestuck, it never gives you something to "do" and then takes the decision away from you, as Undertale does.

Chara, except for someone who has 100% control of that little dopamine rush that comes with leveling up (read: no one), is out there, gleefully wringing out, growing bored of, and then destroying hundreds of thousands of worlds. Chara is the first of zeir kind.  And possibly the last.  Or at least, anything that comes afterwards will be but a pale imitation.  Toby Fox is truly LEGENDARY, in this way.  I'm not sure even he fully understand what he's done here.  Let me try to explain this.  Our education system is currenlty ripping itself to pieces over back-breaking student loans and the realization that we don't actually need all these professors because of the easy availability of information on the internet (Demonstrated, in a roundabout way, in one or two deft lines of dialog in the movie A Beauriful Mind). Now, let's say colleges and universities do survive this shift in society, going foward. It's probable that at the very least technical colleges and vocational schools will. Any others, including high schools, will be replaced by students shrugging and just taking a G.E.D. certification, because why should they spend time at a high school if they hate it, or if they want to learn at their own individualized pace? No reason to do that at all. If the stuffy old guard of the outdated higher education system ever starts treating stories told by video games as literature, as they ABSOLUTELY SHOULD, because they're merely a different medium, not some weird separate thing . . . Toby Fox, having overturned the "trope" of the RPG "genre", wrecking and dismantling it so thouroughly that it has unsettled millions of people who ever again play an RPG where they slaughter any monsters for 'points.'  He should be immortalized. Just like any other author in history who has churned out a landmark piece of literature.  It's merely his fair due.  Perfectly logical, right?  He is the Ubermench game-changer. Literally.  I hope Sans appreciates the pun. Chara is the vehicle through which this overturning of the trope happens. Chara stares directly at the player, deconstructs a longstanding staple in the 'literary genre,' and gives a body and voice to the psychologically addictive quality of video games.

One estimate says there are more than 60,000 video games in existence. And millions of copies of each one.

Chara, as we've established canonically, has access to ALL that are played after a runthrough of Undertale. (or at the very least, genocide Undertale) In Hinduism, it is Shiva that is the god of destruction.  To quote Oppenheimer,  Chara has become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.  Checkmate.

Q. E. D.

Endgame.

[magiamemoriareview]

What I Once Hoped For...

Single Effect: Evade [15%] & Magia Damage Up [10%]

MLB Effect: Evade [20%] & Magia Damage Up [12.5%]

Effect Definitions:

Evade is an effect that will let a character dodge attacks for the turn it is active. Characters with Status Ailments cannot evade, and attacks such as Chase, Counter, Magia, and Doppels also cannot be evaded. Evade does not stack and if there are two sources of it, the highest percentage will be used.

Magia Damage Up increases the damage done by a Magia or a Doppel. 

TLDR: “What I Once Hoped For” is Enhancement Fodder. This memoria is exclusive to the “My Only Salvation” gacha. 

Review: “What I Once Hoped For” is a new addition to a list of passive Evade memoria. Like most memoria with passive Evade, it’s not very good. The only benefits it has going for it would be it’s unusually high ATK stats for a three-star memoria (which doesn’t mean much) and its secondary effect in the form of Magia Damage Up.

Let’s address the Evade portion first.

In general, prevention is the best medicine when it comes to keeping characters healthy-- so what makes Evade so bad here? Well, it’s a small amount of Evade chance and Evade won’t stack. Unlike Defense Up or Damage Cut which will always work and be effective regardless of how much (or how little) you have, Evade chance just means you have a chance at evading-- and if that chance is small, it’s possible your character won’t Evade at all, or at least not Evade when you need it. Because you can’t stack Evade, you can’t make the chance any better either. 

You can often find passive Evade chance in Attack-type character’s passive Spirit Enhancement, typically at around 15%. “What I Once Hoped For” would only be a 5% upgrade if equipped. Amusingly this memoria is actually pretty bad on Final Oriko, despite being part of her gacha. Final Oriko is an exceed type, meaning that she gains two extra passives in addition to her Spirit Enhancement. One of these passives is a chance to Evade of 20% (at one to three slots) and 25% (when fully slotted). This means that “What I Once Hoped For” literally provides absolutely no Evade benefit to her.

If you are looking for a decent passive Evade memoria, your best bet is “A Fake Smile Reflected in the Mirror” instead, which offers 25% Evade and 25% Attack Up. You can also compare “What I Once Hoped For” to other similar three-star memoria in the game with passive Evade on them:

(Limited 3*) “What I Once Hoped For” Evade [20%] & Magia Damage Up [12.5%]

(Limited 3*) “The Warmth of a Cool Guidance” Evade [20%] & Blast Damage Up [25%]

(Limited 3*) “The Wings from Before, Once Again” Evade [20%] & Accele MP Gain Up [15%]

(Limited 3*) “The Struggle Against Fate” Evade [20%]

(3*) “Feelings I Want to Know” Evade [20%] & Regenerate HP [3%]

(3*) “Sunday Morning Habit” Evade [20%] & Attack Up [10%]

(2*) “The Thing Before Your Gaze Is...” Evade [20%]

(2*) “A World Once Empty” Evade [20%]

(Limited 3*) “Staying Up Late Just for Today” Evade [10%] & Attack Up [15%] & Defense Up [15%]

None of these are particularly good. If you can’t afford “A Fake Smile Reflected in the Mirror” then your next best option is probably the unlimited “Sunday Morning Habit.” Unlike “What I Once Hoped For,” it’s secondary effect is more useful all-around, as Attack Up influences every attack and not just Magia, like what “What I Once Hoped For” does.

Speaking of the Magia Damage Up-- is it any good, if we ignore that Evade chance? 

Magia Damage Up is obviously going to be helpful for Magia teams, and completely worthless if you don’t plan on using any Magia or Doppels. There are plenty of better Magia Damage Up memoria to choose from in the game, including unlimited options:

(4*) “Here With You” Magia Damage Up [25%]

(4*) “The Invincible Snacks General” Magia Damage Up [20%] & Anti-Magia Seal [100%]

(Limited 4*) “Goodbye Fable” Magia Damage Up [15%] & Accele MP Gain Up [17.5%]

(Limited 4*) “Miracle Heroines” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Attack Up [25%]

(Limited 4*) “A Christmas Miracle” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Magia Damage Cut [20%]

(Limited 4*) “The 2nd Christmas Carol” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] Blast Damage Cut [15%]

(4*) “I Can Make a Serious Face Too, You Know” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Regenerate HP [6%]

(4*) “Super Soft Familiar” Magia Damage Up [12.5%] & Blast Damage Up [35%]

However, one thing to note here is that “What I Once Hoped For” actually offers a similar amount of Magia Damage Up as most of these-- 12.5% when max awakened. This is notable, because single copies of several of these will have 12.5% Magia Damage Up when max awakened, but only 10% when a single copy. “I Can Make a Serious Face Too, You Know” is better than “What I Once Hoped For,” but a single copy of “I Can Make a Serious Face Too, You Know” is not as good as a max-awakened copy of “What I Once Hoped For.”

The thing is, this is only relevant if you’re very very new to the game. Most NA Refugees will have the event reward “Goodbye Fable” which gives a pretty decent amount of Magia Damage Up alongside a much better secondary effect, and a single copy of “Here With You” will provide more Magia Damage Up than a max awakened “What I Once Hoped For” does.

So all in all, this memoria is Enhancement Fodder.

[twstgameplay]

Vargas Camp: New Characters

Hi, I’ll be the one to review the cards this time. The official name for the cards is Outdoor Wear, but I’ll use Camp for short~ 🦈

Gacha: Ruggie SSR & Floyd SR

Ruggie SSR

Type: Attack

Lv.80 Stats (Groovy):

No buddies: HP 6,766 / ATK 5,670

All 3 buddies Lv.10 (approximately): HP 10,148 / ATK 6,804

Lv.100 Stats (Groovy):

No buddies: HP 7,852 / ATK 6,677

All 3 buddies Lv.10 (approximately): HP 11,777 / ATK 8,012

Magic (Lv.10):

Water: 1 Strong hit & ATK UP (Large) (Self/1 turn)

Tree: 2 Strong hits & DUO with Floyd (3 Strong hits)

Buddies:

Ace: ATK UP Small

Floyd: HP UP Medium

Epel: HP UP Small

At Lv.80, Camp Ruggie has 169 less ATK than Dorm Leona and 366 more ATK than Dorm Jack. All 3 of them being Attack SSR with ATK UP Small for buddy bonus. Why I’m saying this? That’s because Camp Ruggie has the same ATK UP (Large) (Self/1 turn) as Dorm Jack, but with stats closer to Dorm Leona, and better elements (Water/Tree is better than Fire/Tree, since that means you can freely use both of his magic without worrying about bad element match up).

For reference, at Lv.80 and both magic Lv.10 used on the same turn, Dorm Jack can deal almost 22k total with his Magic 2 against Water, that’s without ATK Buddy. So Ruggie would do even better considering higher ATK stats and his Magic 1 being Water instead of Fire.

Ruggie is good for Water Basic tests, be it by himself or using Floyd to activate his DUO. Elements also work well considering Floyd’s Dorm SSR is already used for Water Basic, being able to pair the DUO with his Magic 1 on turn 4 (save Floyd’s for 2nd hit, so you can end the battle with Ruggie on the 1st hit). You can also use Robe Floyd SR (Tree/Water) or even his Uniform R (Tree/Water). His ATK Buddy is Ace, whose Dorm SSR also happens to have Tree DUO and Robe SR is literally the Attack SR with highest raw ATK Stats (not considering Buddy or Buff) and also has Tree magic.

Floyd SR

Type: Attack

Lv.80 Stats (Groovy):

No buddies: HP 5,906 / ATK 5,673

Both buddies Lv.10 (approximately): HP 7,677 / ATK 6,807

Magic (Lv.10):

Water: 1 Strong hit & Damage UP (Small) (Self/3 turns)

Fire: 2 Weak hits

Buddies:

Ruggie: ATK UP Small

Jamil: HP UP Medium

If I were to compare Camp Floyd with another SR, it would be Robe Cater. Both are Attack SRs with Damage UP (Small) (Self/3 turns), but Floyd has 13 more ATK stats. Both also have Magic 1 (1 strong hit) with type advantage to their Magic 2 (2 weak hits). In other words, Camp Floyd is a pretty good Attack SR.

I’d recommend using him for Fire Basic tests, Dorm Ruggie SSR (Water DUO) and Lab Ruggie SR (Fire/Water) being good options to use with him and activate his ATK UP buddy.

Event Freebie: Sebek SR & Leona R

Sebek SR

Type: Defense

Lv.80 Stats (Groovy):

No buddies: HP 10,688 / ATK 3,024

Both buddies Lv.10 (approximately): HP 12,825 / ATK 4,082

Magic (Lv.10):

Tree: 1 Weak hit & Damage DOWN (Medium) (Single target/1 turn)

Water: 2 Weak hits & HEAL (Small)

Buddies:

Leona: ATK UP Medium

Silver: HP UP Small

Camp Sebek is the Defense version of Fairy Gala Kalim, both free units have Heal (Small) on Magic 2, but Sebek has Damage DOWN (Medium) instead of UP. Due to being a Defense Card, he should heal approximately 3,326 at lv.80 and Magic Lv.10, something relatively easy to achieve if you properly play the event and gather enough items to max him.

He’s better used on Water Defense tests, thanks to both his high HP, debuff and heal. For buddies, you can use Leona’s Dorm SSR or Robe SR, as both have Tree magic and no weaknesses (Robe being strong/neutral). As for Silver, I suggest using his Robe SR (Water/Tree).

Leona R

Type: Balance

Lv.60 Stats (Groovy):

No buddy: HP 6,692 / ATK 3,319

Buddy Lv.10 (approximately): HP 8,699 / ATK 3,319

Magic (Lv.10):

Null: 1 Weak hit & ATK DOWN (Small) (Single target/1 turn)

Fire: 2 Weak hits & ATK UP (Minimal) (Self/1 turn)

Buddies:

Sebek: HP Medium

Leona is exactly the same as Fairy Gala Ruggie, except that he is Balance instead of Attack and has Fire magic instead of Tree, but both have the same buffs and debuffs.

As a R card, Leona is good as a filler. That one Tree test that would benefit a lot from having Leona as buddy? Why not add the free one with maxed magic from Vargas Camp. That [insert other rarity] Leona is ending the battle too fast? Why not try Camp Leona and see if his damage fits better.

Element wise, you can just use Uniform R Leona (Attack) instead, but are both his magic maxed? Most people, myself included, would rather use those hard earned books on a SR or SSR, so event ones, such as Leona, are good because they don’t need books.

[muffinrecord]

Kimochi and 5* Light Units

Uncapped list here.

This isn’t intended for high play, just a list for people who are struggling with who to consider. That’s why the list is divided into “good” “filler” and “bad”-- if you want something more substantial, look elsewhere.

Good: units that you absolutely want to include in here if you have them. 

Filler: units you can use if you don’t have good units, or if you want to round out your teams.

Bad: units who will actively bring your team down and should be avoided.

Good Units for this Kimochi

Momoko Togame (Sister ver.)

One of the best units for this. Charge conservation on self, good disk set, good SE. Charge combo count up, the works: if you have her, use her. (good even if she is only 1s).

Ultimate Madoka-senpai

One of the best units for this. Charge conservation, okay-ish disk set. Good SE. If you have her, use her. (good even if she is only 1s).

Mitsune Miwa

Charge conservation on connect, charge disks, ect-- very good for this. (good even if she is only 1s).

Riko Chiaki

Lack of charge conservation makes her not great, but you can make her work. Good disks, ect. (good even if she is only 1s).

Tart

All blast disks. What more could you want? Look at all that tasty blast damage up in her SE. (good even if she is only 1s).

Tart (Final ver.)

Same as regular Tart-- has her own strengths and weaknesses though. She’s slightly more rounded and has more of a magia focus than regular Tart does-- Tart IMO is better for blasting. That doesn’t make final tart bad-- it’s a matter of taste I guess. (good even if she is only 1s).

Filler Units for this Kimochi

Yuna Kureha

She’ll be fine if you want to use her. She has very high damage output and great stats, but her flaw is her disk set. Otherwise a good filler unit (note: she’s weird as filler though because if you use her, you’ll want to build a team around her). (want her to be at least 2s).

Edit: Yuna has a team aura that gives Blast and Damage Up passively

Ultimate Madoka

Not bad by any means, but not the best either. Her SE active will be really helpful at least for its charged attack damage up + blast damage up. (good even if she is only 1s).

Iroha & Yachiyo (Final Battle ver.)

Not bad by any means, but not the best for this kimochi type. You can use if you want filler, will protect your team from stuff. (good even if they only 1s).

Hikaru Kirari

The definition of filler. Her connect gives charged attack damage up and blast damage up which is what you want so... sure? Her SE makes it so that she’ll fit on literally every team, so she won’t be the star but she can help you round it out. (want her to be at least 2s, but at 3s is more preferable).

Sakurako Hiiragi

Good stats, okay connect. She’s more magia-focused with her SE, but she can work as filler. (want her to be at least 2s).

Kanagi Izumi

She’s alright. Great ATK stats but might need some protection. Filler. (want her to be at least 2s).

Yukika Nanase

She’s kinda... well, you can use her if you want, even if you don’t utilize her whole attack up at critical health thing. She’s like Yuna in that she has some requirements in her setup for optimal play, but slightly worse imo. (want her to be at least 2s).

Madoka Kaname (Haregi ver.)

Very magia-focused but she can kinda work as filler. (want her to be at least 3s so you can take advantage of her support nature).

Iroha-chan

Not great, but not bad enough to be a bad unit outright. (want her to be at least 2s).

Sayuki Fumino

VERY DEBATABLE PLACEMENT. She is a good buffer and will make your team do more damage if you get off her Magia/Doppel, but she’s really built for Magia teams and not charge ones. If you do use her, try to get her magia/doppel off ASP. (want her to be at least 3s).

Iroha & Ui (Miko ver.)

Borderline a bad unit. However, the light attribute attack up for three turns as part of their SE Active just pushes them above bad. (they can probably work as 1s, but more is better).

Bad Units for this Kimochi

Sakurako Hiiragi (Swimsuit ver.)

Magia focused with a bit of charge focus, but not enough to bring her up to filler level.

Madoka Kaname

Madoka is great for Magia teams but you don’t need a magia team here.

Homura Akemi (Swimsuit ver.)

She’s a Magia-type with some support elements. Not great.

Minou

Very magia focused. Not going to be helpful at all.

Kokoro Awane

Sorry Kokoro, but tanks aren’t good for this. Probably the worst unit outright to use. :(

[pinkprimrose05]

GX Month Day 7: Ojama Delta Thunder!!

@gxmonth

"That’s right! You know what today is! Today we celebrate The Chazz, the one and only Manjoume Thunder! Give sparky boi a hug!"

...I'm not giving Manjoume a hug. I...*cackles evilly* am gonna make him suffer as much as the actual Duel Links players do, maybe even more. And I'm not the least bit sorry, because hey, he gets something out of it in the end!

Manjoume Jun was not having a good day.

The Ojama Duelist grumbled to himself, kicking a non-existent pebble into the air as he made his way to the Duel Studio. The picturesque environment of Duel Links -too clean, too perfect- never ceased to amaze him and many others, but right now, he was too damn pissed to care about that.

After all, it's hard for one to appreciate the technology behind a game's setting when that same technology had just fucked up their entire collection of cards- And in the middle of a Duel no less!

The door slid open as he walked through, revealing rows upon rows of multicolored tables placed on either side of the massive ground floor that was the Deck Editor section, leaving a clear path to the spiraling staircase of clear blue glass that led to the Card Catalog and several other, more obscure sections. After all, the Deck Editor was the single most popular part of the Duel Studio, if the couple dozen Duelists buzzing around all day long were anything to go by.

Manjoume plopped down on a chair at the first empty table he could find, fishing out the single Deck box in his pocket and dropping it on the yellow, round surface. The twenty cards inside the box spilled out over the table (he had hundreds of those for fuck's sake!), and their owner groaned in frustration as he rifled through his completely reset Deck....Scratch that, it wasn't even his own Starter Deck. Battle Warrior? Flame Manipulator? What the hell?!

Briefly, he considered the benefits of marching up to Isono and demanding an explanation and solution to what happened, but that idea was shot down almost immediately. It's not like the guy would be of actual help; the last time someone asked about a bug in the game Isono had literally told them, quote unquote "Please ensure that no other house utilites are interrupting your connection, such as a microwave oven.", and while Manjoume was no tech expert, even he could tell how much of a half-assed excuse that was.

Stupid Duel Links and its stupid customer service-

"Manjo-kuuuuuuun!!"

Startled out of his thoughts, Manjoume only had enough time to gasp before a familiar blue blur put him in an unexpectedly tight headlock, already rambling at rapidfire speed straight in his ears.

"I'm so glad I could find you today!!" Kylie squealed "Had no idea I'd see you here, but that doesn't matter- do you wanna Duel?? I've been working on a new Deck and combos for days now and I can't wait to show you-" the second-year abruptly paused when she caught sight of the cards spread on the table, letting go of Manjoume in favor of taking a better look at them "Waaiiiit a minute, what's with those cards? They don't look like anything you normally play-"

"-It's Manjoume-san." He sharply interjected in a mix of annoyance and exasperation, shooting a glare at the oblivious blunette standing next to him as he massaged his neck "And yes, those aren't my cards. The game just randomly decided to reset my connection in the middle of a Rank-Up Duel of all things, yeet off all my Decks into nonexistence, and then gave me a shitty Starter in exchange, so now I'm stuck with almost zero gems and no way to recover my progress, which is just fucking splendid considering how close we are to the next KC Cup."

Manjoume sighed "Fuck this. Just, fuck this."

Truthfully, he wasn't as mad about the progress he lost as he was about losing his cards. It hadn't even been thirty minutes and, while he'd never admit it out loud, he already missed his trio of obnoxious Ojamas. They've been through thick and thin together, and it felt unnatural to have them just up and disappear like that. The last time they've been away from him wasn't exactly something he wanted to remember, and while the situation here was nowhere as severe as the Dark World, it still felt wrong for the air around him to be so quiet.

Kylie, who was uncharacteristically quiet as she listened to her 'friend' ranting about his current predicament, nodded along "So you...basically got your account reset?"

"No shit, Sherlock." Manjoume deadpanned in response. Kylie put a hand to her chin, humming thoughtfully with closed eyes, before suddenly slamming a hand on the table and nearly shocking him into falling off his chair.

"I GOT IT!" She exclaimed, snapping her fingers with a bright grin "This reset bug happened once to someone I know- I don't know if you remember Ruby from Heartland Academy, but anyway, she also lost all her progress a couple months ago after she got booted out of a Duel, and it turned out that her cards were just scattered all around the Duel World, so we went around asking everyone we could if they saw them, Dueled those who had some, and we got all her cards back in the end. It must be the same with yours, so let's get going and find them all!!"

Without warning, she grabbed the Legendary Duelists's hand, hauling him up and out of the Deck Editor before he could even get out a word. Manjoume gasped and spluttered along the way, trying to tell his companion to slow down a bit to no avail; as talking someone like Kylie out of anything was like trying to build a Deck around Cold Feet.

That didn't stop him from actually looking around and asking, though. If there was even the slightest chance of him finding his cards this way, then he'd be damned if he didn't at least try and go through with it. Compared to staking it out at the North Pole for a barely synergic mishmash of a Deck, to going down a haunted well in an empty forest for a bunch of 0-ATK monsters that were -figuratively and literally- bottom of the barrel, Dueling a couple chumps and scavenging for some lost cards was nothing, and he was ready to do so much more to get his partners back.

"See? I told you Aniki would come find us in the end!"

...I take back everything I said, Manjoume thought, cringing in disgust as Ojama Green and Black hugged each other and began prancing around him in circles, babbling and crying tears of joy while they were at it How could I ever miss this shitfest?

He just did, somehow. It hadn't taken too long to find the two Ojamas anyway; the sound of them banshee screeching weeping their asses off by the fountain was all he needed to know they were somewhere out there, and by some lucky miracle, their cards didn't get sprayed to oblivion with all the water by the time he came to retrieve them. As for his other cards, he and Kylie had stopped by the Shop, the Card Trader, the PvP Arena, the Gate and the Duel School, asking everyone they could about his cards, and beating the shit out of those who had some and refused to give them back

(Well, Manjoume was the one who did that, and only to Evan and Zachary, but that wasn't the point here, was it?)

By the time they decided to return to the Duel Studio for a small break, they'd gathered practically all of his key cards. He couldn't care less for the bunch of staples he lost -he'd just reroll the Selection Box or whatever-, so the only missing card that actually mattered, as much as it stung his ego to admit it...

...was Ojama Yellow. And after what happened with his brothers (and with Fairy Dragon, which he found resting on top of a very inconveniently high branch of a tree), Manjoume fully expected the third Ojama to be sleeping in the trash can or somewhere equally stupid. Because if he wasn't, he'd have found him before any other card by simply following the sound of high-pitched crying mixed with a lot of screaming and weird Ojama noises-

-A sudden rattling sound interrupted the noiret's thoughts for the second time that day, and when he stopped to locate its source, he let out a long, drawn-out sound between a sigh and a groan. Surely enough, the sound was coming from the trash can by the cliff, which was shaking wildly and practically begging to be opemed. Feeling a migraine coming up, Manjoume turned left, walked up to the can, and with some difficulty, pried the lid off.

"ANIKIIIII!!"

He instantly regretted it (he didn't) when the snot-faced creature that was Ojama Yellow exploded in his face, crying uncontrollably as he tried to hug Manjoume (keyword being 'tried'). His brothers all but sprang up from their cards, meeting him in a hug midair and effectively plucking him off his master for a bit as they all laughed and cried and did everything in between.

"Aww, look at how happy they are!" Kylie gushed, eyes almost sparkling. She lightly smacked Manjoume's back "You sure have a funny bunch of spirits, luckyyyy~"

Swatting away the Ojama trio and a pair of Catnipped Kitties before they tried sneaking up on him for a hug, Manjoume folded his arms and snorted in response "Yeah, sure."

But regardless, he found his lips quirking up in spite of himself. If it were me from three years ago, he mused I wouldn't have bothered with any of this in the first place.

But this wasn't the him from three years ago. This was the him of today, the Manjoume Thunder who'd gone through so much shit and learned from it to become a better Duelist, a better Duelist, and a better person. And while he had many people to thank for that, he also had to give credit for the monster spirits that followed him through all of the aforementioned shit, because as cringy, messy, bombastic and obnoxious as they might be, they were his partners, and he wouldn't give them up for anything in this world-

"WILL YOU FUCKING STOP THAT??!!"

-Unless they tried to hug him again. Pissed beyond reason, Manjoume chased after the quintet of Level 2's, ignoring Kylie's hysteric laughter and the surprised yelps from other Duelists as they dashed around the area in circles, all the noise merging into a cacophony of angry hollering and frightened squeaking, among other sounds.

In the end, some things never change....for better or for worse.

~~~~~~

Screw the actual Duel Links game for not including most of Manjoume's low-ATK monsters in his Starter/Lv 10 Deck (why tf is Catnipped Kitty a main Box card 4 years after his release?), and double screw them for splitting his Ojamas and Dragons into separate Decks.

I hate how his higher level Decks in the game completely disregard the former half of his cards; those are the ones that actually stuck with him in a meaningful way, not the Armed Dragons...they deserve some more recognition, so why not mix both archrtypes and slap in Ojamatch?

Also, yes, Standard Duelists actually exist here, so I decided to throw in my favorite GX girl AKA Kylie and have her interact a bit, and boy is she fun to write.

Headcanon: Kylie considers Manjoume (and everyone else, but especially him) her best friend because she basically has Yuuma's mentality of 'Anyone I Duel becomes an amigo!', and by sheer dumb luck, the two keep logging in at the same time and often get matched up in PvP Duels.

That's part of why she's so familiar with him (and also why she calls him Manjo-kun) and as you can see, Jun does not approve.

Aaaand this would be everything for Day 7! Expect to see me again...in a week from now. By Day 15 to be exact. In the meantime, if you’d like to follow my prompts for the month, I’m posting them all on ArchiveofOurOwn: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33473653/chapters/83489824

[mrslittletall]

It is now time for my review of Nier Replicant... and I won't put all the numbers in there! Who decided to name the game like this? Let's go over my points as usual. Graphics As a remastered games, of course they weren't the best. The character models looked fine, but were pretty stuff, the backgrounds were a bit muddy. The cut scenes looked really well though, loved how smoothly everything was animated and the character expressions. What I also liked was the boss design. They got some really unique designs in there and the effect on the shades was really cool with that ripple of letters appearing on them. Music/Sound OMFG, like Automata, the game SHINES here. The music is amazing, there is literally not a single bad song in the OST, a lot of them turned into my favourite songs of all time and I could stand in the Aerie and listen to Cold Steel Coffin for hours. Outside of the area and battle songs, there are a LOT of emotional songs for cutscenes to set the mod. They are so fitting and wonderful, beautiful. And the best thing? At certain parts of the game the emotional song replaces the area song for a while, letting you dweel in the feels for a while longer. Like in Automata, lyrics are used in a lot of the songs, in the chaos language often, which adds even more depth to the already high quality songs. While in Automata most lyrics were clearly duets or like songs though, in Replicant a lot of the lyrics are actually "ominous chanting". But it works, it works so well. "The Lost Stone", "The Aerie", "Snow in Summer", all have ominous chanting and I wouldn't have it any other way. Some of the songs even get into a music box version. The moment in the Shadowlord fight when the music changes into the music box version? That hits me every single time, every single damn time. Outside of the music, the voice acting. It's phenomenal. Every major character (I played with english voices) has such a good voice and delivers their lines beautifully. Brother Nier and his childlike naivetity in the beginning, turning to bitterness and rage as an adult, Kainé whose voice actor clearly had fun delivering all the f-bombs, Emil, with the voice of a cute innocent young boy and my favourite, Grimoire Weiss, whose voice drips sarcasm and which I absolutely love. And even the side characters had great voices, like Devola and Popola or the Red-Bag-Couple. Every single NPC was voiced as well, even the ones without names and I didn't find their voices to be annoying. Only voice that annoyed me was kid Gideon. Gameplay Ok, I can't praise the game too much here. It's not a bad game, not at all, BUT... Let's start with the good things. The battle system works well. You can use the four trigger buttons to use martial arts or magic and use your weapon with the square and the triangle button (yeah, I played on PS4). You have a range of different weapons, but there isn't really much difference between them. In the end I just equipped the weapon with the highest atk power. Upgrading all of them feels like a waste of time, unless you really want to read those weapon stories. The bosses are pretty unique and have to be fought in different approaches, but of course there are also a few "hit them until they stagger" bosses. The magic is pretty fun to use and you can use word edit to customize it a bit. Ok, but now the buts... That were mostly the sidequests. A few of them were fine and really worth it... and then I got a sidequest that was like "Bring me ten titanium alloys and ten broken lens." Which are super fucking rare items! So you basically ran into the same area multiple times to farm them and earn like 20.000 G for it.... and you probably have so much money already that you don't even need it. Yeah, a lot of the sidequests boiled down to "Farm some materials for me". Even Brother Nier commented on it, because he often said "That will take a while." I would have wished for more side quests like in Automata, they certainly bettered the process there. I just wonder why they didn't tone down the farming sidequests

in the Remaster a bit. Farming for rare items is a drag in this game and you sadly need it for 100 % (remember all the weapons to upgrade?) So yeah, definitely don't rec to 100 % this. Maybe do the sidequests, but I wouldn't do all of them a second time. Also, in order to see all the endings, you have to play through the second half of the game a bunch. That gets a bit repetitive... Story/Lore Yeah, time to SHINE again. I know this sounds strange, because I was a bit bummed that Nier Automata left so much lore outside of the game, but that kinda didn't bother me here? Probably for once, because my friend explained it to me and second, because the main point of the lore/story I could figure out myself. At first, the game left me pretty confused. We were in 2053, it snowed in summer and there were these kids, these shade creatures and these books and everything went horrible horrible wrong. And then we were 1.400 years later and saw the same kid and his sister just walking around like nothing happened? What? Regardless, I moved on and slowly unraveled the mysteries. Halfway through route A I thought that shades might be humans, but didn't had all the puzzle pieces yet. Only at the very end was it clear what happened. Also, thanks to Automata I knew about Devola and Popola being androids. Like my friend put it "They are the biggest walking spoiler for Nier in Automata." But like... I absolutely love the lore and the story of the game. See, the story is about Nier wanting to rescue his sister. Of course we should be on his side, right? Those big bad shadow creatures got her! Of course he is our hero! But then Route B happens and we get to see the side of the shades... and it turns out that they never were the bad guys at all. In truth, neither the Gestalts nor the Replicants are the bad guys here. I read in a Youtube comment that Yoko Taro designed the game about "Humans will be able to kill other people when they think they are right." That is what Nier is about. That is literally what the game is about. The last battle with the Shadowlord? Just a desperate brawl between two boys who both think they are in the right. We see this a lot in the shade stories, but it is especially prevelant in the story about the wolves and the shades in the Shadowlord's castle. The story... is about humanity... and somehow it tells a beautiful story about humanity, even though there aren't humans in the game anymore... Also, the main characters? Adorable, great, precious! I love all of them! I love Brother Nier, I love Kainé, I love Emil, I love Grimoire Weiss. They are written so WELL. I definitely feel like I want to hunt down the lore that got omitted this time, because I very much fell in love with the world of Nier. Hm, maybe when I play Automata again with the Nier knowledge stuff makes more sense as well... Overall: I give this game an absolute rec when you like good music and good stories! And when you want your heart ripped out of your chest and trampled over it several time.

[thecreaturecodex]

Beholder, Death Kiss

Image © Wizards of the Coast

[I mentioned when I discussed the beholder that I love the idea that beholderkin are dreamed into existence, so I knew I had to stat at least one variation. The death kiss has existed since 2e’s Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendium, and has cropped up in every edition since then. The 4e version was a literal undead vampire, but this reverted back to an aberration in 5e.. I like how apologetic and shy this one looks, like it’s sorry that it has to drink all of your blood.]

Beholder, Death Kiss CR 10 NE Aberration This spherical horror is pale and leathery, with a single red eye set in its center. It has ten long tentacles, each of which ends in a bloodstained, lamprey-like maw.

A death kiss is a beholder-like horror, created when a beholder has a nightmare about losing blood. A newly created death kiss flees from the dreaming beholder as soon as possible, as these creatures have no ranged capacity and can be slain easily by a beholder on a rampage. Death kisses are blood feeding predators that leave the drained husks of their prey behind to feed scavengers. They usually hunt alone, but occasionally team up if two come across each other and neither thinks they have the upper hand.

When a death kiss attacks, it does so from ambush, lashing out with its tentacles extended to their full length. Each tentacle is tipped with a rasping, muscular mouth, and a death kiss may drink from multiple enemies simultaneously. They do this only if they are confident that prey cannot escape—otherwise they wrap a single foe in multiple tentacles and drain them dry. A death kiss is often cocky in melee—their electrically charged blood delivers painful shocks to any creature that would spill it—but flees when badly injured by spells or ranged weapons.

A death kiss can speak through any of its mouths, either one at a time or in unison, and they do so in reedy, high pitched voices. They do not intentionally collect treasure, but when slain, their brain shrinks and crystallizes into a faintly luminous red gem called a “blood-eye”. A blood-eye gem is worth the equivalent of ½ of the normal treasure value of a creature of the death kiss’ CR.

Death Kiss               CR 10 XP 9,600 NE Large aberration Init +6; Senses blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., Perception +21 Defense AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 20 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +11 natural, +1 dodge) hp 144 (17d8+68) Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +13 Immune electricity Defensive Abilities lightning blood Offense Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect) Melee 4 bites +15 (3d6+4 plus grab) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks blood drain (1d4 Con), grab (Huge), multigrab Statistics Str 18, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 10 Base Atk +12; CMB +17 (+21 grapple); CMD 35 (cannot be tripped) Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Lunge, Power Attack Skills Escape Artist +22, Fly +28, Perception +21, Stealth +18 Languages Aklo, Undercommon Ecology Environment underground Organization solitary or pair Treasure incidental (see above) Special Abilities Lightning Blood (Ex) A creature that injures a death kiss with a piercing or slashing weapon takes 1d10 points of electricity damage. Manufactured weapons with the reach property do not endanger their wielders in this way. Multigrab (Ex) A death kiss can grapple an opponent with one or more bites instead of using its full body. When it uses a single bite, it suffers a -10 penalty to its CMB check made to grab, which is reduced by 2 for every additional bite that is attached to that foe, but the death kiss does not gain the grappled condition. A death kiss deals an additional 1 point of Con damage per extra set of jaws past the first attached. A death kiss can maintain multiple grapples and drink blood from multiple opponents as a swift action, but can make attack rolls with only four of its bites at a time.

[starlightshore]

ok more thoughts on No Mercy part 1- Chara’s LV destroyed the world

ok i turned around again and i’m going to shamelessly talk about the game i love to death. if you ain’t already knowin that i’m hyperfixating on ut my whole life than you don’t know me at all

anyway. no mercy. i watched a play through last night after a long time of not playing/watching it. i still have studied the text and wikis but never in full, so its a little more of a blind spot of mine when it comes to theories.

ok biggest thing i noticed. how does chara destroy the world exactly? like, what’s the in-universe explanation? throughout the route it’s talked about and foreshadowed. Undyne realizes that it’s not just monsterkind but humanity as well that is at stake. That you’re not human, and that the whole world is beating as one to stop you. It’s what pushes her to maker her own DT to live past death.

This escalates to not just that humanity will be destroyed as well, but sans’ talk of timelines straight up implies the universe stops and can’t be saved. Of course this refers to how soulless pacifist runs Chara is implied to still go off in a killing spree. (more so confirmed by the easter egg fangamer cards given out if you make a deal over (i think it was toriel’s plush?) saving a dollar on a purchase.)

But... it’s never explained in-universe HOW.

In pacifist, the reason is very clear why flowey is able to become hyper goner. the waterfall plaques explain that it’d take the souls of every monster to equal one human soul. True lab explains flowey was made to be a vessel for the souls, and that monsters can’t absorb monster souls AND human souls. You can only absorb what you’re not, and flowey is neither.

Because you befriend everyone (and you fail at befriending Alphys until pacifist, because you don’t truly know who she is until true lab) he’s able to call onto everyone (well, a LOT of monsters, not everyone. But it’s enough to absorb ALL the underground’s.) And thus he’s got the equivalent of 7 souls to break the barrier without killing Frisk.

Neutral routes Flowey has 6, and it’s not enough to break the barrier but it’s enough to rewrite the world. And he only gets them because Asgore already shows off the 6 souls collected and fights you. You weaken him down and he’s able to kill him.

But... back to no mercy, the big thing is that the underground is empty. Either from slaughter, or from evacuation. You’re powerful and unrecognizable, therefore Asgore isn’t expecting a real fight and is taken down in one hit. (monsters are weaker when unprepared,  and your killing intent is huge).

However... before you can take his soul... flowey destroys him. (killed by BOTH his kids. harsh.)  so like........ chara didn’t gain any souls. only huge lv. how do they have the power to destroy the world?

Maybe their determination and stats getting so strong?

“* Therefore, if a being with  a powerful SOUL struck with  the desire to kill... “

I know this is referring to how you gain strength and level up against monsters. but it’s also the power that brought chara back from the dead, as chara explains at the very end.

“I realized the purpose of my reincarnation.Power.Together, we eradicated the enemy and became strong.HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV.Every time a number increases, that feeling...That's me.”

And killing their father and then brother in fact the instance after flowey is dead, we meet chara in the void. plus with their combined speech, the only logical conclusion is here that chara’s LV is so high and powerful it literally destroyed the world.

So yeah... guess its just that simple.

Next up for part 2: how I feel about chara and the player’s roles between routes.

[ritasalami]

Masara Kagami - Assassin done wrong - Part 1

I´ve mentioned it before so now I´m going to explain why I think Masara is the epitomy of misused potential for character design in all of Magia Record.

This is part one and will focus on her gameplay. Her visual design will be part two. In terms of character writing and personality I´m actually quite fond of her.

So, lets get going. Disclaimer: I don´t mean to hate on her or people who like her! I really do like her myself which is why I´m upset about how lazy the designers were when it comes to her. 

Overview

Rarity: 3*-> 4*

Disks: AAB(<->)CC

Type: Attack

Personal: 100% Chance to Critial hit to self for one turn

Stats: 21.930 HP | 9.295 ATK | 6.963 DEF (SE 100/100)

Connect: Chance to Critical Hit 75%/85%

Magia: Damage One Enemy | Chance to Chase - Self / 1 Turn / 100% | Chance to Evade - Self / 1 Turn / 30%

SE (memorable nodes): Chance to Anti-Evade 35% | Charge Disc Damage up 10% | Blast Damage Up 16.5 % | Chance to Evade 15 % | Chance to Defense Pierce 15% | Charged Attack Damage up 10 % | Chance to Critical Hit 15%

SE Active: Chance to Critical Hit 35% - Self - 3 Turns

Now lets get going. Masara´s fighting style (ingame and story) is simple. Go in and strike. She is essentially an Assassin. She turns invisible and goes for the backstab. She is a glass canon and her stats reflect that. 

But it doesn´t quite work. Now we gotta keep in mind she is not a limited special unit but I feel like even with her being low rarity she was done dirty. Why is that?

Let´s start with her disks. Double A and Double C with one B. This is the disc set of a support/magia type. Masara does get buffs for her charge discs, but how does she use them? Does she contribute to charge combos? No. She isn´t a chargius and doesn´t have tools the likes of Tsukasa (Charge +1) or Hagumu (Charge draw personal) have. Does she use her charges for blasting? Not really. She does have blast up in her SE but only one blast disc. Does her connect support charge? Not really, it is not consistent.  Being able to give a charge conservation 20 stack blast combo a crit chance of 85% sounds lethal but it´s not 100%. There´s a saying in the Pokemon fandom that goes: If it isn´t 100% accurate it´s 50% accurate. It´s high risk somewhat high reward and all her connect offers. Most people prefer consistency in connects so they won´t use her for anything other than basic content. The really good synergy is missing.

Maybe she´ll slot well into blasting. Obviously not. Without connect(s) she will never be able to pull of her own puella blast combo. If you really want to slot crit into a blast combo, just use Yachiyo. Her crit chance might be lower at 70% but the blast up is guaranteed. Plus she can reach 5 stars, something Masara can not do yet.

Since Masara can´t use her charge disks for blasting she can use them to boost her own mp gain, right? Yes! Buuuut...

She gets no sources of AC or MP gain up pre 100. This will slow her down. But she can get there. Once she does, what does she do?

She will destroy a single unit. Her attack is rather high for a capped four star and with the buff to single target magias she can even oneshot challenge bosses. But does her magia benefit her team? Not at all.

She gets a 30% chance to evade which is just her passive evade chance times two. Why. Whhhhyyy. She can turn invisible! Her evade should be 1000%. Tsuruno and Oriko can evade 100%, but the invisible assassin can´t. But maybe thats because the other effects are so broken? Nice one. It´s chase 100% for herself for one turn. Now here´s the problem with that. It´s useless if you use three magias in one turn. It´s also bad if you only use her magia and two discs cause you won´t maximize the damage. If it would last for two turns you could chase on a puella combo. But that´s a luxury she wasn´t given.  What her magia should do is provide Defense pierce. Assassins literally exist to bypass defenses. Either 100% to self or like 50% to her team. It would be good but nowhere near too broken for a free character. But you know who else is free to play, light type and can oneshot single target enemies. Shizuku. Her magia, being random targets, will outdamage single target magias. She is also uncapped and her Magia gives crit to her team for three turns. Thats more than Masara does. She also gives herself Attack up for three turns. Masara doesn´t do that either. So if you need a strong single target light magia, pick Shizuku (who also gets more mp and has evade as an SE active which makes her more  reliable).

Now, Masara is still capped and once she can reach 5 stars her stats will surpass Shizuku´s. But who knows when that will happen.

Lets summarize: She gives herself bad evade and mediocre chase. She gives others a very high crit chance but nothing else. By the way her chrit chance is bad on magia teams who don´t care about disc damage. Her SE gives her a mediocre crit chance for three turns and her personal gives her 100% crit for one turn. Her magia is outclassed by Shizuku´s who does more for herself and her team. She has no niche to fill in this game other than brr connect almost 100% crit but not quite brrr

Masara´s only source of defense pierce is a low chance from SE. Defense pierce should be her gimmick and her evade should be 100%. You can´t get more invisible assassin than this. This would make her unique but still balanced around being free to play. Her connect should be 100% crit chance PLUS another effect. Get creative and pick your poison. Ingore Dmg cut / Anti-Evade/ Evade/ Defense pierce/ Damage up whatever. 

I know that she might get new abilities once she gets uncapped but I´m not very optimistic. She is not a teamplayer and thats okay. But her not living up to her assassin theme is such a shame. The only thing 100% about her kit is chase which is a fun mechanic but no saving grace. Everything that makes her lethal in concept is weak in execution. 

So that wraps up everything wrong with Masara´s gameplay as an Assassin. Also let her throw knives from behind her enemies that would be so cool. 

BYeee

[crystalelemental]

[REDACTED] has been released to the public.  Witness now, Sygna Suit Serena, the ninth Master Fair in the game.

General Impressions Coming in as the first protagonist character with a Master Fair (suck it, Red), we have Sygna Suit Serena and Zygarde, who is...look, I wish the hair was still long.  I know that's a minor detail and she still looks good but I liked the long hair.

Zygarde is a neat approach to Serena.  Her trainer focus tends to be on big damage facilitated by status.  Delphox does Sleep and Trap, Whimsicott does Paralysis, and Zygarde does Restrain.  This is the least valuable supportive effect, but I guess it's because there's no Lessen skill, and to my knowledge doesn't get removed naturally, so it has better staying power?  I dunno.  At 20/20, offenses are over 550 in its complete form, and its main attacking moves are both 4-gauge with 140 and 160 base power to start.  She's another in a growing list of units who cap their offenses at the push of a button, this time giving up crit to get max attack and special attack, and gradual healing for good measure, for only two gauge.  But don't worry, she has Dire Hit+ too.  And gains both Physical and Special Moves Up Next on entry.  Oh, and has Head Start so she works with Max Move units.  Thousand Waves applies Restrain to all foes, kicking off a 50% multiplier on sync, then both sync and moves when transformed, while her Dragon-type move is just huge.  Oh, and her sync nuke?  Yeah, she got Brainpower, which is the 100% version of Brain Sync.  Why didn't Anni Lillie get this again?

The main detriment to her is that she's Dragon-type by default, which is an over-saturated type.  That said, she combos really, really well with the new tech Dragons in Lucas and Anni Raihan, and still has a secondary damage move in Thousand Waves for Ground-type damage.  Which is second only to Maxie, but not as short-lived as Maxie's due to the need for Sun.  I don't have Maxie, but I imagine the lack of Gauntlet clear videos on Reddit of the weather duo suggests their limitations do in fact hold them back now, so arguably Serena is the most consistent Ground-type damage dealer in the game.

If it seems like I'm struggling to come up with weaknesses to this unit, it's because I am.  She's so overwhelming by default that her Complete state changed its passives to include Impervious and Piercing Gaze.  Note that her moves are 100% accurate.  So these exist because there was literally nothing else it needed, and are great anti-Gauntlet tech.  Piercing Gaze hits Latias and Cresselia no matter what, and Impervious shuts down debuffers like Azelf who can destroy the whole team's defenses.  The only thing stopping her from running train on every game mode is Gauntlet demanding specific gimmicks for fights, but she even gets around some of those with Restrain as well.  She's a serious contender for best unit in the game.  Teambuilding is almost irrelevant, but if you wanted to really go for the gold, here's some recommendations.

Team 1: SS Serena, SS Dawn, Lucas You have no idea how excited I was to learn she combos well with SS Dawn.  Literally all they could need is speed buffs for move gauge control, and they're golden.  But hey, we can always push damage higher, right?  And who better to do so than Lucas, who sets Dragon Zone and also gets Free Move Next after using his trainer moves, bypassing the gauge issues.  How anything is supposed to survive this, I don't know.

Team 2: SS Serena, Anni Raihan, NY!Sabrina But maybe you didn't pull Lucas.  I can't blame you.  Here's another option for your damage: stack those Special Moves Up Next effects to high hell.  Anni Raihan stacks one every use of Sandstorm, and applies Supereffective Up Next on trainer move.  NY!Sabrina can stack one every trainer move.  Serena gets a stack on entry.  So here's the play.  Raihan uses two Sandstorm and Trainer Move.  NY!Sabrina uses X Sp Atk All three times.  Serena uses two Dire Hit+ then Thousand Waves before taking sync.  When she goes for Sync, have Sabrina use a trainer move, and Raihan use Sandstorm again if possible.  This gives her: Max offensive stats+50% for supereffective up next +50% for Restrain effect Between +120% and +320% damage on her Core Enforcer post-sync And if all that wasn't enough, remember that Raihan also has an absurd flinch rate, and Sabrina can apply Confuse to foes, and Endure to allies.  Have fun!

Team 3: SS Serena, Phoebe, Kukui/Palentine's Dawn You know how Phoebe is kinda frail, and it's hard to feel like she's fitting on teams in Gauntlet?  Or is that just me?  Anyway, all you need is the crit buff, and SS Serena can save two turns to start firing off Ground-type damage to the tune of 140BP at minimum.  Kukui is here to debuff defense and make her even stronger.  You know!  For fun!  Or you can bring Palentine's Dawn for special defense debuffs and off-type with Dragon damage.  Either way.

Team 4: SS Serena, Allister, BP Morty Let's say you want to focus a supporter just on defenses, and SS Serena is left alone to buff her offenses and crit, right?  Okay, you may be thinking, that sucks, we can't get Restrain on the foe.  Enter Allister, whose Max move can hit the entire field for Restrain.  And because of SS Serena's Head Start, using the Max Move in round 1 doesn't even slow down first sync.  She still gets it in time, with full buff benefits.  You just slap a defensive supporter like BP Morty on there and now she's Impervious to stat reduction and will destroy you.

Team 5: SS Serena, Calem, Viola Remember when I said that Restrain counts as a status change?  Yeah, look who combos well with that.  Calem has Thunder Wave, and a personal healing move.  SS Serena and Calem make a great anti-Uxie force.  Following that, it's really whoever you'd like for support.  Viola can debuff special attack and trap, has First Aid on grid, and gives max Flag Bearer benefits to the team.  Otherwise you can swap out with someone like Mina for a physical debuff focus, or Nanu for a defense debuff option, or a secondary Ghost-type damage dealer for Uxie specifically.  That last one might be cutting it close, Calem's not the most defensive of friends.

Final Thoughts SS Serena is outrageous.  Her damage potential is tremendous, and Ground-type coverage in particular is valuable.  Her major problem is that, like many mega evolution/transformation units, she needs to take first sync, which means not getting EX support bonuses first most times.  But that is a small price to pay for a unit with this much potential.  It's really, really hard to identify a flaw in Serena.  She's actually just that good.

[tariah23]

I still hate how just as soon as a new ‘OP’ servant is released into fgo, that the annoying fans who only care about stuff like meta and the usability of a character are like, really weird and obnoxious about it almost all of the time? These people will literally cry and go on rants making really over the top and edgy, unfunny memes (as soon as Casturia was released, someone made a comic about Tamamo *committing* and I.... it’s not that... serious 😐...? People still think being edgy = peak comedy but that’s for another story-) and I even saw someone go “Merlin is basically OBSOLETE-“ and I SCREAMED. Imagine saying that about MERLIN of all supports in the game lmfao. Jesus. And I read a long thread on gamepress of players going back and forth about how “useful” Waver even is anymore 🤡....... as if he’s completely useless now that Casturia is here. He still has the best party wide defensive buffs in the whole game lmfao. Also, a really great party atk and crit buff. And he’ll always be perfect for stall teams (just like Tamamooooo) and tbh, defense (to ME) will always go a long way over evade and invincible buffs because even if you use Casturia’s ignore invul piece skill, it could just as easily be removed when facing off against an enemy who could simply just... REMOVE IT lmfaooo. Though the latter isn’t as common but still. Y’all are still afraid to fight Amakusa during challenge quests if you can’t even get ride of him fast enough lol. Also, most evades and invincibles only last for one turn in the game but after there turn is up, you’re still gonna be in hot water if you don’t have a guts at least? But with multiple defensive buffs, you could definitely survive getting nuked by a NP or stray crit from a Berserker lol. So thank you Waver 🥺...! The thing that gets me the most is of the weird mindset that so many players have about “OP” servants in general. They’ll act like their favorite character/ support, whatever is useless now, like they can’t even use them anymore just because they got POWERCREPT lmfao. It’s so strange... and I had no idea that players were so pissed about Arjuna Alter being stronger than Raikou lol. Like... it’s OKAY!!! You can still use her??? She’s strong af so why feel like using her is completely pointless now........? I don’t get it. They make interacting with the other players really intense for no reason because of their usually um, elitist personalities? The fate franchise as a whole is so crazy and fun, especially when you think about just how far both Nasu and Takeuchi’s push to even make it a thing... like, they’ve been working on Fate and their other Type-Moon stuff since they were in High school I think? I’m not entirely sure but wow. That’s a lot of dedication... I think they just want mfs to have fun with what they and they’re other friends have created, too? Idk... it’s just, the “all about meta” fans are annoying as hell.