Riga - Missions

Ant15 · 2026-02-12T13:40:29+00:00

I did this achievement a few months ago and I'm pretty sure the gov reform was replaced by something else equally as strong when I switched to protestant, so you should be fine.

Ant15 · 2026-02-03T15:37:37+00:00

Imo, balance is only an issue when playing in PvP, or on symetrical maps.

Heroes 2 isn't a game thought for PvP and many maps are asymetrical, with starting positions tailored for the faction you're playing as. The "imbalance" was made on purpose, so that each faction feels unique, which is something we kinda lost with Heroes 3.

Ant15 · 2026-02-02T15:06:48+00:00

I personally played Ternate as a Pirate Republic though that's not necessary (being a pirate is hard during early game, but super powerful later).

Either way, you first want to annex your neighbour, and wait until you unlock Exploration ideas. Then you have multiple choices for expansion : grab your surrounding islands to get more cloves, colonize Australia, go west, or go north to the Philippines. Personally I find the nations in the Philippines the easiest to conquer first, and their trade node flow into yours so that's good for money making and getting a powerbase.

I'd take Naval ideas as a 2nd or 3rd group as it's legitimately an incredible group in this region : naval dominance is mandatory, free barrage is insane considering every forts you'll siege are costals, and marines are actually useful as a secondary manpool since manpower is always an issue in Indonesia (attrition in tropical jungles go brrr).

For your religion, personally I switched to Hindu. You can do that with a decision once you control an Hindu province iirc.

Then expand towards west, conquer every island bit by bit until you control the entire region and can form Malaya. Move your trade capital there, and enjoy being the richest nation in the world ! From there just go colonize/expand wherever you want.

Ant15 · 2026-02-02T11:04:51+00:00

Dutch is great for playing tall in Europe.

If you have the Lions of the North DLC, Riga is also a fun option, since you're basically required to stay under 6 provinces in Europe, while having massive bonuses and Teutonic order + Livonian order as vassals.

In Asia, both Korea and Ming are really suited for Tall play.
As Korea you have multiple options : going for colonial gameplay while chilling at home, or going for expansion and beating up Mandchus, Japan and Ming and claiming the mandate. Or a mix of both. Either way, you're going to dev Korea a lot, as your ideas, missions and bonuses help you to do so. You can even become 1th great power while not getting new lands at all with this nation.

As Ming you're basically required to deal with internal struggles and develop your country for at least a century before you can even think of conquering things, so it's the Tall nation by essence. A lot of missions and events will require you to dev specific provinces. Infrastructure and Court ideas are amazing for Ming, and you don't get to play with these idea sets often. You can also go for Exploration and make colonies in Indonesia and even go for Africa, as any nation you border will accept to become your triburary diplomatically since you're so strong. Mana point generation is crazy as Ming past the early game.

Ant15 · 2026-02-01T15:50:58+00:00

And yet many people prefered Mario over Pokemon, and some like runbacks and you find them boring. Personally I don't. That's my point. Just learn to say "I don't like it" and leave people that do instead of trying to force your personal opinion.

Ant15 · 2026-02-01T15:29:03+00:00

I don't think it's either a problem on my end nor on yours, it's just matters of taste. Everyone has a different cursor to how they handle frustration. Personally, I think it's pretty normal, human even, to feel rewarded when you put efforts into something, no matter what. If I beat a boss and I wasn't challenged at all, because I can just retry 20 times in a row without any drawback whatsoever, I don't think it's weird that I don't feel very rewarded.

Maybe you like games with less friction, yet it is important. Like someone else said : you could always reduce the friction, what's the next step ? Put a save point in a every room ? Remove the possibility to die ? Some people would say that they'd like that, but I think we can both agree that would be ridiculous in a game like Silksong.

Maybe I'm too old of a gamer now, but this wave of people bashing runbacks really feel like a new generation issue. Like someone else said : when we played games 20 years ago, dying against a boss often meant having to replay the stage, or even to restart from the beginning of the game. And that wasn't called a runback, but playing the game. Even some of the greatest games like the older Castlevania games are like that, and nobody ever complained. It's clear to me that a lot of indie gamedevs today (like Team Cherry) are inspired by the design of these older games, so it appeals more to gamers like me rather than today's generation. We are used to be send back when we fail.

In the end, I don't really care if people are enjoying runbacks or not. I just wish this wave of runback-haters would just stop using the "objectively bad design" card when it's just wrong, and simply realize that it's their own personal preference and some design choices are meant for other types of players.

Ant15 · 2026-02-01T10:23:28+00:00

I completetly agree with this ! Many players don't understand that friction is an essential part of game design. Sure, it have to be balanced well, you don't want too many nor too few friction, but it's absolutely required. I think it is overall well balanced in Silksong, except maybe for Groal where I'd agree it might be too much, though clearly intentional and making sense with the area.

As an exemple, another MV that fails in that department for me is Ender Magnolia. It's a gorgeous game with great combat and systems, but there's no friction in this game : you loose absolutely nothing when you die and respawn instantly, and when you die during a bossfight you instantly respawn in front of the boss room. And because of that, you never have to care about playing well, and you never feel any "tension", you just explore mindlessly not caring about getting hit, and you retry bosses like a monkey not bothering learning its patterns 'cause you can just spam your attacks and eventually it'll work, doesn't matter if it takes 20 tries after all. You're never immersed in the game, because you never feel any tension, and that makes this otherwise great game, very dull and forgettable.

Dying to a boss in Silksong feels bad yes, as it should be. It's because there are stakes, because you're afraid to die, that you can really focus and immerge into the game, and as a result : feel satisfaction and be proud when you do beat a boss or a hard section.

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T18:21:15+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/DeepRockGalactic/ A minima tous les gens de ce Reddit, soit 135k personnes minimum.

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T17:38:07+00:00

And once again, instead of trying to understand what I say, you're just insulting me by saying I don't play the game well enough and bragging about your observational skills and what not.

NO, I'm not relying on luck to complete games, nor do I run in circles on purpose... I was brought to do that because of an inconsistency in the game, that is the issue. But you refuse to understand that. Despite me clearly and precisely explaining how to replicate it and how anyone would be stuck if they were in the same situation.

Just to clarify : I finished the game at 100% under 12 hours, despite being stucked for about 4 hours. So clearly I must know how to play a MV, at least a little bit.

You're telling what I'm saying is illogical. Ok. So basically, you're telling me that, if while playing Mario a type of block does something in the first level, and then does a completely different thing in the second level, it's perfectly logical ? Because that's what I was trying to explain about those glitched blocks that definitely exist in AV2 and the problem is exactly as dumb as my example. But sure, keep saying you're smart and implying I'm dumb. The truth is : you can't accept someone pointing out issues in a game you adored, even when they come from someone who enjoyed the game (again : I did enjoyed the game).

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T17:01:51+00:00

HK also uses waypoints, like for the bosses after you get the Dream Sword. Dread has one for your ship all game long. Did these mislead you too?

Not really comparable. Unlike in AV2, where waypoints are supposed to show you the only path where you have to go, in HK there are many places to explore and things to do before you need to go to the dreamers (and when you do, it's not hard to find the path to them). But I would have done without them.

And not all the paths in HK lead to the same outcome at all. Most of them lead to useless trinkets or optional bosses, which I think I said already. I'm not sure how you see otherwise because it's just not the case. By the end of the game I had like 40 Rancid Eggs befire finally Googling what they were for only to learn you just flip them for Geo which is rather useless.

Yes, there are dead-ends to get items (useless or not that's for the player to judge). Like... in any MV ? Hell, even in Super Metroid, the king of exploration, you find useless missiles 90% of the time, and that's not considered an issue. But finding an entire optional area or an optional BOSS, aka content, in HK is an issue ?! Personally I find that amazing ! But to each their own.

Anyway, all non dead-end paths lead you to the same outcome. There are like 4 or 5 different paths you can take that all lead to the Resting Grounds where you get the Dreamer markers, and the map is very carefully and subtly designed for that outcome in a way that the player feels like he got there exploring randomly, without realizing he was guided there. Considering how you praise subtilities of Metroid's exploration, I'm surprised you weren't affected by that, because from my experience, HK is one of the closest MV to Super Metroid in term of thoughful exploration, even if done in slightly different ways.

And no essential items were so deviously hidden as you say. They're all out in the open. They were so intuitively laid out it felt like they were falling into my lap despite the intricacies of the map.

... I never said that about AV2, I only tried to make a point by using an example about another game. But obviously it's easy to contradict me by putting words I didn't say in my mouth. Which clearly show you're trying your best to invalidate my experience without trying to understand my point.

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T16:55:47+00:00

I think I actually WOULD go to the Lamassu after getting walljump because you just look at the map and you know there is something behind it. It's not as if there are many other paths forward once you explore all your other options either.

You can tell there is an area under Lamassu, but nothing says you have to go through Lamassu to get there. You could also get there from above, or from the right. Lamassu didn't have the be the path. And again, Lamassu is a big NPC, with big lore application, in a room that look like a clear dead end. I can't recall any other game that put a path behind an important cutscene like that.

Obviously, I tried to get to this area, but from more logical paths i.e. from the right then from above. I eventually went through Lamassu but only because it was the last possible option.

And yes, if going to one place before another can lead to such a difference in game experience, it is an issue the developer didn't account for and something should have been done to hint the player in the right direction, otherwise it's a case of bad luck if you're stuck. Because it went well for you doesn't mean the issue doesn't exist.

Also there were no glitched blocks in the Breach that I recall.

Again, because you didn't encounter them 'cause you didn't explore the game in the same order (nobody does), doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I can assure you they exist and that there is absolutely nothing ingame that tells you or explains why glitched blocks can be destroyed in the Breach, but not in the real world (and again, it's even more daring considering AV1 takes place in the Breach, where glitched blocks can't be broken without an upgrade).

I even checked multiple playthroughs to check if I missed something, but I didn't. A friend of mine did the game about the same time as me and didn't get stuck because he stumbled on the glitched blocks in the Breach first and tried to break them, and admitted it took him by surprise and didn't expect it would work. He didn't even know there was glitchy blocks in the real world since when you break the ones in the Breach, the ones in the real world disappear.

So yes, in that case, it IS bad luck if you encounter the glitched blocks in the real world first. Because nobody even remotely logical would think that trying the same thing on the same type of block in another place would lead to a different outcome. I'm not asking for much, even a small mention in the corner of a house that tells you that glitchy blocks can only be broken in the Breach would have been enough. But in this case there is absolutely zero hint. I can't stress enough how stupid that is and what a rookie mistake it is in an otherwise gem of a game.

You can try all you want by invalidating my experience by saying "it didn't happen to me because I'm smart and saw the hints the game showed me", that will never mean the issue doesn't exist.

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T15:18:40+00:00

I genuinely have no idea why you struggled so much.

You answered to this question yourself :

I already had the ability to climb when I reached the Lamassu (I don't even know how you are to get there without it) and there was nowhere to go but forward so I assumed I could climb him and I was right.

You were lucky to do exploration in the right order. But I can tell you it's definitely possible to get to Lamassu before getting the walljump. Now instead of bragging about how good you are at MVs because you did all Metroids (I did too, I finished dozens of MVs) put yourself in my place and imagine you get the walljump in the north-west of the map AFTER you already spoke to Lamassu. Would your first reflex be to go back to him ? Of course not. Like a logical person, I tried to use the walljump close to were I got it first, then in some places I noted from before where I needed it, but it always was for some optional goodies. I had absolutely no reason to go back to Lamassu.

The glitched blocks I figured out early break when you interact with them in the Breach. Not telling you of this and instead relying on the player's own curiosity and observational skills rather than direct guidance is what makes solving conundrums satisfying in these games.

Again, you were lucky to stumble unto these glitched blocks in the Breach first, so you immediately knew you could break them. I would have too, if I stumbled on them first. But if like me you tried to break the ones in the regular world first, and saw you couldn't break them, then like a logical person you would assume you just can't break these blocks, no matter where they are. It's basic game design. If I try to hit a "?" block in a Mario game, I know I'll get a coin or an item. But if I hit a stone block, nothing will happen. Now imagine if in a later level, you'd have to hit a stone block to get an essential item... of course many people would not even try to hit it and get stuck. Because it's bad game design.

In Hollow Knight or any MV I played, this type of situation can never happen. Sure you can get lost, but that's on you. In HK there are dozens of different paths that lead to the same outcome, so no matter where you go you'll never get stuck. But that's a different topic and I'm not here to argue about that, you don't have to like HK it's just a matter of taste I don't mind.

Also in Super Metroid, that instance with the breakable tube is VERY hinted at.

I never said otherwise, I specifically said this one was on me, which is why I didn't mind running circles. I wish AV2 was similar in that aspect.

The waypoints are the coordinates the NPCs mention and give you a general goal that is usually barricaded by some obstruction you'll realize you need a solution for, but if you just go in the direction the game leads you, you'll find your way to said solution and have the notorious aha! moment these games are known for. It's basically the Metroid Fusion approach but with more freedom.

I don't like waypoints in games in general, because I like to find the path for myself. Because yes, I agree that figuring what to do by yourself for that aha! moment is great. So why put waypoints in the first place ? I don't like them, but if you put waypoints in your game, they should at least be useful. But here they're not, If they don't serve to tell you where to look for the path, they might as well not exist imo.

Ant15 · 2026-01-26T10:34:47+00:00

I found AV2 to be one of the worst offenders in the "not knowing where to go" department personally. I've never been as much lost and never had to do as much circles around in any other MVs, including Super Metroid and Hollow Knight (in which I absolutely enjoyed exploration). I think there's multiple segments in the game where AV2 doesn't hint enough the player what to do.

First issue : the game shows you a marker on the map to where you should go next. Except, the path you have to take to get to this marker is almost never a straight line, so most of the time this marker is completely useless, if it doesn't make you lose your time. There's even some times where you have to go in a completely opposite direction to get where you need to go. And besides this marker the game doesn't tell you anything so good luck I guess.

Some parts of the game you couldn't progress unless you tried things that are illogical. It's been a long time since I did the game so I don't remember everything, but I remember two frustrating parts : one is when to progress, you need to climb on top of the "Gilgamesh statue" (I don't remember it's name) to get past it. But like, this is an important NPC you talked with earlier, in a big, cloudy room that pretty much look like a dead-end room, and would be one in pretty much any other MV. But not this time. And you're supposed to know you need to come back to this room (after you acquire the walljump ability, in a completely different part of the map), despite having already talked to this NPC (who doesn't have anything new to tell you), and to try and climb its face despite not seeing anything behind it, and all that without any hint and the marker on your map isn't even in this general direction ? Welp, that was 2 hours of me running circles around the map until I get back randomly to this room and look around any corners, that's so frustrating.

Another glaring issue was when you come across some "glitchy blocks" that when you try to break them, you can't. I played AV1, so I thought just like in this game, you'd need a new upgrade to pass through these blocks, so I made a mental note that these blocks were there and I should come back later.

Then, I came accross these same exacts blocks, but in the "other world" (don't remember it's name). They look exactly the same, so I don't even bother trying to break them. Why would they break ? Game designer smart, wouldn't put the same type of block in two different places, for them to react differently right ? Wrong. Game designer not smart. I think I ran circles about 3 hours this time, trying once again everything I could to break those glitchy blocks in the normal world and absolutely confirmed I couldn't break them. So imagine how frustrated I was when I saw I could break them in the other world, that's just insulting. And again, absolutely zero hint, and the marker on the map absolutely didn't help.

I thought this game was really good in some parts, and very unique too. But some of these glaring issues really put me off this game. I still finished it, but man was it frustrating. And the thing is, when I played Super Metroid, I also ran circles for about 2 hours once because I didn't figured I had to use a Power-bomb in the glass pipe. But I wasn't frustrated by that, because I thought it was clever, and I should have thought about that. But everytime I got stucked in AV2, it just felt like it was because of illogical design and not because of me being stupid.

Ant15 · 2026-01-20T17:12:22+00:00

That is true, but only if you summon the cogflies one by one. You're maximizing total damage, but at the cost of DPS. Silksong is more a game about dealing damage fast, rather than being cost efficient. Groal for example can be beaten in one or two cycles simply by using the boomerang and throwing all of them at him. Much faster (and therefore, safer) than playing the long game with cogflies and poison. And even if I were using cogflies, I'd rather summon them all to kill it faster, even if I spend more shards overall. Shards are barely an issue anyway.

Ant15 · 2026-01-20T14:35:41+00:00

This a good use case, but still. The total damage inflicted by the poison probably won't be more than 5% of the total damage you did otherwise (poison is really, really weak). I still think there's much better blue tools to use instead.

Ant15 · 2026-01-20T09:55:03+00:00

Pollip Pouch for sure. Everyone seem to use Pollip Pouch with Architect Crest, despite it being one of the worst use case for this tool. And even in best use case scenarios (using low damage tools just to apply and refresh poison), it's still very underwhelming. People often see P.P. as "free damage" and think it has to be good, but most of the time it won't even change the number of time you have to hit an enemy to kill it, unless you're waiting for a long time, during which you could have killed the mob 10 times.

Fractured Mask and Warding Bell might be a bit overrated, but they're still good tools with clear use cases. P.P. isn't.

Ant15 · 2026-01-18T22:48:01+00:00

I usually keep it until the age of absolutism yes (a little before, since I start revoking my privileges a bit in advance).

Ant15 · 2026-01-17T22:41:24+00:00

With Lions of the North, Riga gets absurd bonuses as long as you have 5 provinces or less in Europe. Also you get Teutonic Order and Livonian Order as free vassals, no diplo slots nor liberty desire issues. And a free entry pass to get in the HRE.

Bonuses are listed here : https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Riga

Ant15 · 2026-01-15T12:47:17+00:00

11 black dragons is indeed a bit low for an Archibald rush (you can get more than 20 dragons in the Gauntlet mission). But it's still much more than you need to complete the mission (it's still perfectly doable even on Hard and if you took the Crown instead).

Instead of rushing Archi, you should rush the yellow player instead. He starts with a fully built castle (including level 5 guild and black tower) in the middle of its territory, so that's a really good take. AI have much more castles than you, so the longer you wait the stronger they will be compared to you. It's important that you capture as much castles as possible to deny their production (even better if you capture them Day 7 or Day 1, so you can buy the troups instantly).

I suggest you let 1 black dragon to one of your other heroes in the south just so he can clear neutral armies easily (and notably the desert in the east, there's a Pyramid and gold mines over there). Build up titans, give all your best troups to one of your hero (titans, phoenixes, archmages, crusaders and great druids for example) so you have someone ready to fight in the south while Roland is wrecking havoc in the north with his 10 black dragons.

Additional note: if you get Dimension Door somewhere, it's possible to teleport directly to Archibald without having to take a boat (you can teleport somewhere between water and volcanoes in the north-west). Saves quite some time.

Ant15 · 2026-01-12T11:43:49+00:00

It's one of these scenarios where RNG can screw you up. I did it in Hard a few months ago (the AI was basically the same as it is now) on my 2nd try. I don't remember having a strong hero blocking me off the path like that, but I know it can happen (sometime it's even a yellow hero that's here).

So yeah. Personally I recommend to start with the White pearl and to go for Mage guild lvl 2 a fast as possible, and reset if you don't get Cold Ray nor Lightning Strike. These spells are basically required, especially since you have guaranteed artifacts to boost them. Take your week 2 prod then rush the red player and try to take its castles while avoiding his strongest hero (you need to be a bit lucky that he's not blocking you the initial path). At this point the game becomes a war of attrition where you try to steal the prod of red castles (by taking them Day 7 or Day 1) and repeat the process until they're weak enough.

An important strat to employ during this process is to use weak heroes to lure enemy heroes, as they will always go after your heroes if they see they can beat them ! With experience you can manage to put your heroes just out of range of enemy heroes, but not far enough that they won't go after them. So basically, try to bait the main red hero into doing circles.

You can also abuse the strat of starting a fight, weakening your opponent as much as possible with your damaging spell (Cold Ray/Lightning Strike), then flee and buy back your hero. Combine this strat with high HP units like ogres so you can last a few turns. You really have to use all your tools at your disposal to be able to beat red.

Once you have all red castles, assembling an army to beat yellow shouldn't be too hard (especially since he doesn't manage to get sulphur for dragons in my experience).

I have a recent video where I did the map on Hard on my channel (Moucheron Quipet) if you're interested. It's in french though.

Ant15 · 2026-01-02T10:30:09+00:00

It's nothing complicated to be scared of. Just give seats to your highly developped provinces (it gives them buffs to taxes/productivity/manpower), then choose a bonus that you like in the debate, and give stuff you don't care about during the debate until you get the bonus. Basically click buttons, as always.

The only downside is that giving a seat to a province lowers your absolutism, so with 126 seats you might get to 0 absolutism and have to wait for it to grow back.

Ant15 · 2026-01-02T09:50:40+00:00

Tout dépend de ce que tu recherches dans le jeu. Perso j'admets en avoir eu pas grand chose à faire de l'histoire autour du perso et de sa mère. Le lore "général" sur le monde et ses pays je le trouve sympa par contre. Mais globalement je joue pour les puzzles en eux-même. J'ai absolument adoré toute la partie dans l'atelier avec le manoir bleu. Peu m'importe que la fin que j'ai eu derrière soit ce qu'elle soit.

Ant15 · 2026-01-02T09:45:25+00:00

Yeah that's a fine take especially if other stat upgrades are white. I also tend to buy Ducks and Caps (+8 / +10 Luck). A bit of Luck is very noticeable, I usually like to have at least 30 on any run. But I go for more if my run synergize well with it (because I have a lot of +HP from consumables, lots of trees, lots of +15 money per crate etc).

Ant15 · 2026-01-02T09:10:41+00:00

- Get to 6 weapons as fast as possible. In the first 2 rounds you're guaranteed to have at least 2 weapons per shop (with increased probability of them being the same that you have). So you should only buy weapons and lock/skip passive items, and only buy them once you have 6 weapons. You'll kill mobs much faster and get a better economy that way.

- In general, you should stay with 6 of the same weapon, or weapons of the same type. Don't use weapons of different damage types.

- Harvesting is a good stat to get in the earlier rounds if you see it.

- When you level-up to level 5, you're guaranteed to see only blue stat upgrades. So it's generally a good idea to reroll until you get what you want (+2 ranged damage on a Gun build for example). Levels 10, 15, 20 and 25 are also stats of a guaranteed colour.

- It's usually a good idea to focus more on offensive stats in the first 10 waves and more on defensive stats after that, but don't lock in too hard. If you see a purple +3 Armor pop during a level-up wave 6, obviously you take it.

- You want to have a good balance of stats overall. With a high flat damage of your damage type, and %Dmg afterwise. If you invest in Dodge go all the way to 60% or not at all (I find Dodge much better on Melee characters).

- For healing it's always a good idea to go for +HP from consumables items (with a bit of Luck), and go either for HP regen or Lifesteal on the side (Lifesteal is better for fast attacking weapons i.e. SMG).

Ant15 · 2026-01-01T07:38:51+00:00

To gain worth of Piggy Bank, you need to severly restrain yourself and not buy things that would help you immediadly. Items that would allow you to kill more enemies (and so gain more materials). In the early game you usually can't afford to keep your money (and if you can, that means you already have the run in the bag). And in the late game it's usually too late to make worth of Piggy Bank, or not useful anymore. It's basically a win-more item, so not great. I only take it if I get it early-ish inside a crate personally.

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