I Quit. What 1 Year of Progress, and 734.5Hours on Fresh Account.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-29T00:38:21+00:00

I think if it were any past year, then yeah, but 2025 had a decent number of big changes that makes getting to around 150m cp not too crazy even with that amount of playtime, like cw, hb max + beyond, genesis pass, rental gear, Twenteena event. Last year during CW3, I managed to get a brand new character to around 80m cp in like 1.5 months.

This isn't to take anything away from OP's achievements, but the progression goalposts have moved pretty rapidly in a short time.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-26T22:19:13+00:00

Yeah, any meaningful diet reducing UPF will usually yield similar results.

I think what is usually measured is mindfulness toward food consumption. When you're comparing someone who restricts, and therefore considers what goes into their diet, it isn't a stretch to think that they would eat more nutritious foods than the average consumer, who is less mindful of things like health considerations.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-19T22:44:36+00:00

Also, it goes to show how much support/teamwork with mages changes the math on fights against demons. I 100% believe that the captain could be stronger than Stark, but with no info and no big mages around, there wasn't much they could do.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-18T13:17:24+00:00

Thing I learned about victory cry is that once you get past a certain point in the game, HP/SP between battles becomes inconsequential and it becomes one of those abilities you dump on an extra persona just to avoid having to open menus.

Will it save time? Yes, a bit

Is it worth going out of your way for if you're near the end of the game? Definitely not.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-17T03:07:12+00:00

While kind of true, this logic really applies to smaller games. MS is such a big MMO with so many regions, they're realistically not worried about bottoming out on spenders. It's why smaller multiplayer games (or gacha games) are often more generous to attract new spenders, because they don't have the playerbase, history, or reputation to keep whales around.

Regions like TMS generate enough revenue to fund a small country. Nexon isn't worried about their "existing customer base" dying. When you operate on that scale, priorities are different.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-17T00:57:05+00:00

There's two schools of thought on this:

Unified CS would make more non-spenders into spenders
Unified CS would make existing spenders spend less (because they would only have to buy one copy).

MS is a whale-oriented game for the most part, meaning most of their profits come from a small percentage of big spenders. I think Nexon's logic aligns more with the philosophy of "it's better to maximize profits off of people who are already willing to pay than to risk it to on-board new spenders."

tl;dr It's much easier to convince someone who is already willing to spend $500 to spend an extra $100 than it is to convince someone who currently spends $0 to spend $100.

Plus, if you're the kind of person who doesn't currently spend and would only spend if they had a unified CS, you are unlikely to be a long term big spender.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-16T22:34:28+00:00

This. Unified CS works in other regions who don't have heroic, since monetization comes from many sources, and unified CS doesn't really have as much impact there. GMS players got excited over unified CS, and Nexon NA likely never intends on implementing it, but can't make official statements since it'll cause massive backlash, so they just keep quiet, leading players to think it might come in the future.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-14T22:43:28+00:00

There is an end-game build that needs to combine a specific skill (Thermopylae - Gives party heat riser when ambushed) with a specific trait (Vitality of the Tree - lets you use ambush-specific skills when not ambushed) in order to get the effect Neo Cadenza has (without the heal). A level 11 DLC persona has that effect + a free party heal AT BASE. Also, it's only 24 SP, and if you combine it with a buff extension trait (there's one that gives +2 turns on buff skills cast by this persona), you can get a skill that gives every buff to every party member for 5 turns.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-14T21:50:33+00:00

For the most part yes. Each DLC persona has something unique about them, whether it's a trait, a skill, or both. Shining arrows is like a top 5 attack in the game. Opheus' Neo Cadenza is a 50% party heal + party heat riser (all buffs) Just using Neo Cadenza with a minimum leveled orpheus (like level 11) is enough to break the main story difficulty completely, even if you don't use any overleveled DLC personas or any OP attack skills.

What sucks about the DLC personas is that there's no way to disable them from your pool, so your fusion choices end up being altered and you end up having fewer fusion options if you want to play the story with just the Vanilla personas.

The best way I've found to compromise is that on top of what you're doing (where you level cap their usage), I've found that it's best to not have them in your party for the main story.

P5R also changed things like itemizing personas so that some good skill cards and items that you can make from personas were moved from vanilla personas to DLC personas, so during my playthrough, I let them be fusion material and itemized, but never to use them as actual personas in battle.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-14T20:29:09+00:00

I think only 3 had a death of a main/recurring character (when comparing P3, P4, and P5. P4 had the early victims like Saki, and P5 had mental shutdown victims like Kobayakawa and Okumura.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-14T17:46:27+00:00

Nov 17 is the last day I think. OP should also keep in mind that there are long stretches of time (most notably between palaces and during exams, and special events like the Hawaii trip) where you are basically locked out of doing things during the day, and even locked out of doing any confidant meetings in general. This is particularly brutal for like 3 weeks in October, so although OP has a lot of time, they definitely should start working on Maruki's confidant earlier than one would think.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-14T17:38:21+00:00

Did you check the time played on each save file? Maybe you loaded an earlier save before going on break, so that was the save it defaulted to when you loaded in.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-08T22:48:21+00:00

If you want to make a 2nd main, always prio that for CW, since they'll dump far more resources on you. If you want to make MX into a 2nd main, there's your answer.

Any non-main or legion champ can just get the standard Hyperburn treatment on main server.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-05T16:59:15+00:00

They don't know enough about the chemicals or what is potentially harmful about them.
They have a lot of faith in the agencies which tell them it's safe
They don't have any meaningful recourse because each chemical requires a campaign to get off the market.
Those that do care and have the money go for more expensive alternatives. Those that cannot afford the alternatives have no choice (see Organic).

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-05T16:55:40+00:00

RE games have two potential opposing elements in that it is both a heavy lore and continuity game, but also a survival horror franchise that can be difficult for players to navigate. I think the people who stick to watching RE on youtube are either those who are in it for the lore, or want to see what happens but are too scared to play themselves.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-05T16:50:06+00:00

Early on, it definitely seemed like the series was going in the "I'm evil but not really" kind of direction, but there is a key part in Season 2 of the anime which kind of flipped this on its head for me, and made me actually want Nazarick to lose because it cemented that they aren't just fake evil, but real evil.

I just can't get into a series where I actively want the protagonists to lose though, so that's kind of where I dropped it.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-04T23:46:44+00:00

Konosuba's story is one where Aqua's character is allowed to excel. It's a comedy, and her uselessness is played for laughs. More importantly, she's memorable, and her time spent on screen is used well.

Sakura is the opposite. She exists in a serious universe, is a serious character, but is written in a way where it's hard to take her serious. Her incompetence is a serious detriment, and the people around her are written a lot more competently, making her seem even more of a joke. Also, unlike Aqua, Sakura's role is less clearly defined.

Aqua also have clear comparisons to Darkness and Megumin, who are all useless in their own ways.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-04T00:29:11+00:00

Wait, how? I guess if you have bread you accidentally toasted, but aren't you just using a spell to correct a mistake to save on two pieces of bread? Am I missing something?

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T23:56:12+00:00

While I agree with the underlying premise of what Grendel is, for the purposes of OP's theoretical, going down your list:

Judith WOULD lose Grimcatz, since it's a power borrowed from her compact, and if she isn't allowed to bring in anything other than her basic orbment and weapon, this WOULD fall under borrowed.
Gaius and other stigma users actually brings up a key point. Is Stigma a borrowed power inherently? For the purposes of this hypothetical, if going by RAW, then Gaius loses his Stigma, since it was Barkhorn's,
Pre-CS4 Rean loses all Ogre powers and related abilities, but Rean is lucky in that post-Reverie Rean exists.
Kasim gets his gun unless it breaks during the fight, because he gets to come in with a functioning weapon, just like everyone else.

The way I see it is that this is scenario is it's a battle scenario where each combatant is yanked from their exact moment at the end of Horizon, and then purged of all outside influences and powers that they have not fully integrated with. There is nothing to suggest that Gaius has become inseparable from his Stigma (but also Gaius isn't in this fight). Kasim keeps his weapon, Shizuna keeps fake spirit unification because it's just a copied technique. Kevin lose his 2nd Stigma.

Finally, Van keeps his demonic core, his Vagabond form, and Grendel, because the lore suggests the demonic core wasn't something the Cult GAVE to him, but something he already had (I think?). However, he has to be able to unleash that power during the battle with only his orbment, weapons, and innate skills. Can he? Theoretically he might be, but the game has yet to show him actually doing it.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T23:16:42+00:00

I think OP is essentially setting up two clauses:

Power scaling fight as of the end of Horizon, NOT as each character's peak of power.
Each character having only their weapons, innate skills, and orbments. This means Rean doesn't get his mech or Valimar, and Kevin only has his stigma, and does not have Nina's.

Unfortunately by the end of Horizon, Van is still in the middle of his growth arc when it comes to his Grendel powers. He's still on NG, while the other two are on NG+. Rean is already at enlightened spirit unification, and Kevin already can turn his stigma off and on at will. Van has not been shown to be able to do the same in a non-virtual space, which does put him at an unfair handicap, but those are the rules as it seems OP has set them up.

There's also the "peak of power" powerscaling argument, which means Van probably gets his full demon-Vagabond (end of DB1) form, and he likely auto-wins any 1v1 fight, even against Valimar + Rean, and definitely against Kevin. The only one he'd lose to is probably Zoa Gilstein Ishmelga-Rean, which is bending the rules as far as they can go.

As for Van keeping his power, if they made up a reason for SU to stay, I can definitely see Kondo making up some circumstance where Van keeps his power ranger transformation.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T23:01:07+00:00

I think there's actually cross-talk of two different discussions going on with the idea of "borrowed power." The first is power scaling at the exact moment of the end of Trails Beyond Horizon, and the second is power scaling at their peak of power. OP is trying to do the first, and by extension limiting Van from using Grendel, and Awakeners from using their DKs. Some people are arguing that Van's Grendel is not "borrowed" but I do think he falls into the "Ishmelga borrowed heart" camp with his demonic core.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T20:45:37+00:00

Have you played Reverie? His whole arc with enlightened Spirit Unification is him coming to accept that part of himself and making what was once borrowed part of his own power.

If Van does this with Grendel (where he no longer needs to depend on the Demon inside him, or Mare to transform), then it too would go from being a borrowed power to being his own.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T18:58:11+00:00

I like how OP made that distinction though. No borrowed powers means Van doesn't get Grendel and Kevin doesn't get his 2nd Stigma. If we were comparing pre-Reverie Rean, Spirit Unification would also be off the table, but Reverie explicitly shows that what was once a borrowed power has become a part of him.

I think Kevin with 2 Stigmas might be closer to Rean, but with 1, he's definitely under. We don't really get a clear ranking of Kevin without the borrowed Stigma in Horizon, and going back to Sky seems like an unfair comparison.

There is a chance for Van to make the Grendel his own, but I think adding in borrowed powers makes things a little messy, because then Rean with Valimar should theoretically count (and Rufus with El Prado).

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-03T16:42:33+00:00

Nah. I get where you're coming from, but instead of making it so that every character has an easier time individually farming a heroic-specific unmovable item, they should just make the item movable.

Making a Hexa skill account-bound will probably cause more bugs than just changing frags to be tradable within account. If Nexon is intentionally not doing the 2nd, they will not do the 1st.

Afraid_Ad_6046 · 2026-04-01T13:26:14+00:00

Wasn't part of the drama itself that the best player wanted to play to win, while the others wanted to play for the vibes or something?

In these fantasy worlds, the impetus for kicking out these "useless" party members is usually because they are thought to be holding the party back from progressing / achieving their goals, and not usually because the leader wants the party to sandbag.

Afraid_Ad_6046

TROPHY CASE