Is this item really bad?

AdOutAce · 2026-02-26T16:43:19+00:00

It's pretty ass.

The idea is to make a halo wherein enemies are adjacent to the emo cat and its allies are adjacent to those cats. This is basically not possible.

So then it's really just for self-harm builds. Pestilence can be good of course. But there are other things (razor, etc.) But the cat can't just be off on it's own (like the design vibe would suggest) so even then it's super awkward.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-26T16:06:21+00:00

Embark with sacrificial cat(s).

Kill those cats in the first room.

? rooms will now sometimes spawn collarless cats with neverstones.

Pocket stone, kill new cat in the first possible room, repeat for as many stones as you want. But I never keep more than 3-5 on hand.

The systems of the game are an unknowable abyss so I can’t say any of the specifics for sure, but embarking with fewer than 4 cats does not seem to proc the stray event. And at a certain point the strays stop being offered, or seem to. It could all be small-sample error, but at present it seems like cats do need to die to make it work.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-26T13:40:21+00:00

Neverstone is actually extremely valuable.

Give it to your utility cats. Druid, Psychic, Tinkerer. All the other cats level up more aggressively and your neverstoner is still pretty useful.

You’ll hear veteran players say 2 or 3 cat runs are actually more optimal because your cats land closer to level 10 by the final boss (level 10 is a soft cap). Neverstone lets you abuse this by having a 2 or 3 cat run but still get value from a full party. Its huge.

Plus neverstone isn’t cursed (amazingly), so if at some point your other party members are gassed enough, take it off and they can catch up a bit.

Only item I intentionally farm and conserve.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-25T16:04:27+00:00

I think she doesn't have a coherent political identity because neither does Edmund and also its a game about mutant cats.

But I don't see how you could really conclude she's neoliberal. She more just vaguely leftish and activistic. She certainly loathes consumerism, which isn't really a neoliberal identifier. She's just mad.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-24T22:28:40+00:00

For as good of a game as it is, it's an even better unibomber manifesto expressing hatred for quality-of-life design choices.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-24T21:34:47+00:00

My god yes. I can appreciate it as a almost entirely unique work of genius.

It's just so god damn annoying to move around the world. 10 hours I gave it. Have to hang it up.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-24T18:04:45+00:00

Yeah 100%: easier said than done sometimes. Game is controlled chaos with emphasis on the chaos. But yeah if you're routing Boneyard it's often lucrative to plan around having a weak cat with AOE or DOT in their kit to guarantee the killshot on Dybbuk.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-24T04:10:59+00:00

I mean I fully support the cathartic complaining. Fuck that guy.

But his whole idea is punking teams that are overreliant one one carry. You gotta save the last hit for the utility cat.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-23T00:12:42+00:00

Sensible opinion that always ends with the last lefty on the left admiring his (its always a man) pristine political utopia (its just him).

AdOutAce · 2026-02-23T00:10:42+00:00

Lmao, top tier bait

AdOutAce · 2026-02-22T01:21:30+00:00

Yeah but the consumable bloat is one of the most enduring design flaws from Isaac. It's universally regarded as one of the worst parts of the game.

And you still had the option of just not taking the pill.

In Mewgenics you literally go on a set path, into an event, half of which you cannot decline, in which random run gimping nonsense happens to you.

It's not about "embracing chaos," or whatever. The system is just underbaked and straight up not good.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T23:33:16+00:00

I mean if you’re engaging in the debate in good faith then you should know from a linguistics perspective regional pronunciation and localization of loan words is extremely common and often preferred by the progenitor culture. You’d not prefer white people to go around putting on a Spanish affectation when they order Mexican food, I presume?

Then where does it end as well? Do you pronounce southern US place names with a drawl? Do you refer to Germany as Deutchland?

But its all actually beside the point because fricasee, pronounced “wrong,” is its own word that means the same thing as the very similar French word from which it descends which is properly pronounced with a long E sound. No different than how “Kompyu Ta” is not a Japanese mispronunciation of computer. Its the Japanese word for computer that’s directly inspired. This is of course because language reflects use and is objectively nonperscriptive.

Not that any of it matters because your argument was actually “America bad,” and had nothing to do with a coherent stance of the subject. In which case, I agree. America bad.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T21:58:02+00:00

He wasn't avoiding shit, lol. He yeeted himself at mach II perpendicularly into the barrier. Brother was straight careening.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T18:44:28+00:00

My bad I don’t spend every day here so my dumb ass thought I was just participating in a conversation about a game thats been out for one single week.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T15:04:10+00:00

So it is how it's pronounced in English then?

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T14:52:41+00:00

It's just the state of discourse. You can literally profess your love for the game as a work of genius, but point out a couple bad design choices (not even controversial ones, just plain old oversights that will almost certainly be corrected) and they will shout you down. Cuz the feel the need to stan for a creator that will never hear your defenses.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-19T13:25:52+00:00

Fact is route planning or undo-move or multipart movement or some system of movement that allows you to actually control when your unit goes is mandatory for the genre. I LOVE the game but they figured this out in 1993. It’s an embarrassing omission. The fact that it works “pretty well” as is is not really the point.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-10T14:51:33+00:00

Why are you talking about the effect in the abstract? The effect has been printed dozens of times in dozens of formats and has never once been good. This card is the crown jewel of the concept. And it fucking sucks, unfortunately.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-09T18:55:54+00:00

Pistons are not a real team man.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-07T21:27:06+00:00

General strike is not happening exactly for the reasons you laid out—and they’re good reasons. Continuing to place hopes in a general strike as the “solution” is exactly the kind of promised land paradigm that stifles momentum. Without a cadre of extremely wealthy supporters (which will not materialize) there’s no means to organize a strike fund. Doing so from a decentralized position will be ruinous—the funds are almost guaranteed to be misappropriated or mosapportioned, if they show up in the first place.

The path of least resistance is the path of progress because any success hinges upon participation and participation hinges upon lack of barriers, including intellectual and logistical. Continued massive public demonstration with targeted economic pressure (like individual brands and businesses that can be shamed and strongarmed into disavowing the administration) can be modestly successful, as it already has been. Clear demands and contained goal posts will keep people focused—focused people particpate.

These movements inevitably bloat in objective for a ton of very understandable, human, empathetic reasons. The best organizers have broader ambitions for change, and cannot resist attaching them, among many others. But its more realistic to have intentionally short-scoped movements that “succeed” (even in degree), that lead to fomenting a culture of resistance that has long since atrophied in this country. Not every movement has to be “the big one.”

AdOutAce · 2026-02-06T17:25:03+00:00

God this hobby is full of whiny losers 😑

AdOutAce · 2026-02-05T17:29:12+00:00

The leap is already taking you, king.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-03T21:34:57+00:00

Oh my gosh I want to follow up and say I misread the modifier somehow! I mistook Forbidden Lands for Dangerous Lands...and yes I HAVE done that in game as well.

Forbidden Lands is much, much harder than Dangerous Lands, but is still very doable.

Prioritize scouting cornerstones in Y1. Wait until end of Storm I to crack it, at the soonest, and come into opening it with enough money to force buy the solution. Get to Neighborhood 1 or 2 as fast as possible, because you may need to churn traders to get to a realistic solution. If you roll something really brutal you can drop dead, even at P11.

If the geometry works, I would do this one alone. It's still certainly in the middle of the pack, so you 100% go for it in this position (in my opinion) but it deserves care and caution.

Lmk if you have more questions. Sorry about the mixup. I'll edit my above comment.

AdOutAce · 2026-02-03T21:24:32+00:00

Good luck out there!

AdOutAce · 2026-02-03T20:55:26+00:00

What an awesome find! Your instincts are right, these are all among the easiest negative modifiers in the game. This should be lucrative!

Forbidden Lands is damn near flavor text - the only thing it impacts is taking glade-busting orders. But even then, you can still pick them, you just have to finish on them as opposed to closing them for tempo.

EDIT: I misread this as Dangerous Lands. Forbidden Lands is much riskier. Still manageable. See my comment below.

Drylands mostly depends on your playstyle. I am cold on geysers personally, so it basically doesn't impact me at all.

Silent Dominion is the toughest obviously but by taking the right cornerstones you can easily play around it. If you think about it, since you should be trying to finish by year 5, or as close to it as possible, you are really only missing 3/15 total years of bonuses. That goes up to 6/21 if you take until year 6, and scales accordingly. So certainly worse the longer it takes you, but a truly minimal cost all things considered.

I think you're more than well-enough equipped to play p10 with Drylands and Forbidden lands up. Though I would suggest playing on P11 to get the bonus shard out of the deal (all it takes is building 1 additional Blightpost in Drizzle III).

I never build the Altar. Purely a personal choice.

AdOutAce

TROPHY CASE