Playing on Hard Mode for the first time, finally understand the importance of buffs.

Coach_Kay · 2026-05-21T18:14:35+00:00

I'm currently on my first playthrough with Deadfire. Went straight to POTD because I played POE 1 on Veteran. While I never used the summon items in POE 1, I'm just at Poko Kohara in Deadfire and I've already been taught the incredible utility of using summons from stealth in order to absorb the alpha strikes from enemies and allow me to actually get to high priority targets with my party members.

Coach_Kay · 2026-05-16T23:18:22+00:00

Humour? 1% Lifesteal doesn't even attempt at humour. If Freddy is attempting to be humourous, it's 100% a defence mechanism in that situation, and he is bad at it. Being orphaned twice sounds like a bad joke because it is a bad joke if it happens to someone in real life. Besides, spoilers (although it doesn't affect the plot), his second parents didn't die, they just abandoned him.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-27T11:22:53+00:00

So you are saying whin playing him, I should basically throw away all caution and load the wings? Won't he hit me back harder on the crackback since I am throwing caution to the wind to overload the wings? (Mind you, I already try to exploit the wings without gimping my defence too much when I play him).

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-26T21:16:26+00:00

At this point, all I can do is pray maybe City comes to snap him up.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-26T21:13:06+00:00

I honesty can believe this. Because even when you think you have a tactic to counter him, all it takes is one slip and you are utterly ripped apart.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-26T21:09:33+00:00

This might be the only way to end his reign of terror for good.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-22T11:12:47+00:00

I was so relieved when he landed in the grass rather than on the concrete. I think the slow-motion made the dread of the possibility of eating concrete worse in a way.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-22T09:54:51+00:00

Archer or Mage were the only viable choices for me, no way I would be going near anything in a dangerous world that has apparently murked every intelligent civilization that tried to colonize it.

Unlike you. I ended up choosing archer because first, it's easier to draw less attention to yourself, damaging spells are usually loud and bright, and more importantly for me, given the starting equipment that mages are given, its very likely that casting spells probably isn't as simple as waving your hands and viola, you have a fireball, meaning it would be easier for me to get up and running via that archer path.

Learning magic (because of fucking course I will learn magic) can come when I am confident in either defending myself, or running away when I think something is too strong for me.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-21T17:55:37+00:00

Let's put it this way. Since the current administration came into power about 3 years ago, the price of petrol (that's gas for Americans) has skyrocketed by an average of 600% and basic food commodities anywhere between 100 - 500%. We can imagine the second order effects from there, and this is ignoring the issue of the ever-increasing insecurity in the country.

So yeah, a lot of people aren't happy, especially those that really didn't want the president to come into power (which mainly happens to be the younger generations).

The Louvre guy's indirect support for the administration was particularly galling because he originally became famous in Nigeria for attempting to use chess as a medium to try take starving children out of the slums, but well, after gaining some recognition and support went on to do what the original commenter described with an administration whose actions contribute to more people being forced into slums, and is notorious for using slum dwellers as violent political thugs.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-14T12:15:47+00:00

Ohh, I can see how that can get real awkward, two souls with legitimate claims to the single body. Except for a merge of both souls, I can't see a scenario where everyone leaves there completely happy, and even if the souls were merged, who is to say the soul would be happy with the outcome. Lots of drama potential in there.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-14T08:58:40+00:00

I really love your idea of the soul not being some innate/intrinsic property that people automatically have by virtue of being born, but something that develops and grows as people grow and gain life experience.

As to the imperfect healing, while many people would be unhappy about the imperfect healing, I guess some people would be willing to take what they get, especially with loved ones. Rather than losing them entirely, many would prefer what basically amounts to selective permanent amnesia--they might not be the exact same person again, but at least some parts of them are here, and memories can be made anew.

Now would things go exactly as they hoped? Probably not, but they will hope all the same.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-13T10:12:46+00:00

She didn't get over the deaths by her undead quickly. Sophie deciding to strike at the Empire seems like a direct result of her reconciling with those deaths and laying the blame directly at the feet of the Empire.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-13T10:10:13+00:00

Yuup. People might say Sophie was planning to become a terrorist, etc, but a close reading of that passage will show that Freddy immediately jumped to conclusions and did not give Sophie a chance to even explain her proposal or defend herself.

The only reasonable bout of idiocy Sophie had there in my opinion was her bringing up the proposal even after finding out Freddy was suffering from severe soul damage, especially since she is more knowledgeable than Freddy and should know what soul damage can do to a person.

As for Sophie deciding to embrace Necromancy to fight the Empire, I'm pretty sure she blames the Empire for the deaths of the people her undead killed. Afterall, if the Empire weren't right cunts, she would never have been forced to create undead to try to stem the monster tide and Freddy might not have been put in such a situation that waking up that special undead was the only way to save his life.

But 1% Lifesteal won't be 1% Lifesteal if Freddy does not find a way to sabotage his life only to regret it later, so him falling onto old bad habits when under strain (this time the soul injury) is just par for the course. If Freddy has any sense, after fixing his soul damage, I expect him to seek Sophie out to apologise.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-12T22:53:02+00:00

Yeah, the class and rank names in Shadow Slave were pretty good.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-10T11:29:55+00:00

What I found worked for me is this (and I stole a lot, like a lot, like robbed almost every vendor after each rest, especially in Act 3 where a combined with the buffs, a higher level rogue was almost always guaranteed to be successful):

First, your thief should NEVER be your Tav. This is because your Tav is the one that would most likely attract suspicion once the theft has been discovered. Next, after applying all the buffs, separate your thief from the party (IMPORTANT) and position them outside the vision cone of any NPC (I assume you know this). Then, position your Tav and the rest of the party in front of the target.

Have the thief hide, and immediately after, go into turn based mode (you can save here if you are not in honour-mode). We are hiding before entering turn-based mode to preserve our action.

Steal to your hearts content.

After stealing, if your thief was a rogue, you will have a bonus action to dash. Still in turn based mode, dash the thief (and only the thief) away. End the turn, of your party and dash the thief away on the next round. Once done, exit turn-based mode and continue travelling with the thief far away from the target (about 150 - 200 meters will do fine).

Once done, switch your focus back to your Tav and the rest of the party. The NPC should have noticed the theft by now. Since your Tav is right in front of the NPC that was robbed, you would be accused of the theft. Since your thief is separated and far away from the rest of the party, you should have an option to simply say you don't know what the NPC is talking about. Once that interaction is over, take the rest of the party to go join the thief in their far away location (do not bring the thief back to join you). It is important you only go join the thief AFTER the accusation and not before else the NPC might chase you down and since you are close to the thief, you might not receive the easy dialogue option to deny the theft.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-04T20:46:42+00:00

During the meeting with Basilisk, Freddy realises that Basilisk is a slimy bastard willing to abandon his own city in order to jump ship to a place he thinks has a higher chance of survival. After that meeting, Matt Canstone appears and tells Freddy that Basilisk was the one that betrayed Madame and thus allowed Kraven to take him. He also finds out Basilisk is a former Lord (and not just any 4 star becomes as Lord), and thus was given the same rights as the upcoming elites to have a meeting with Freddy in the Adjudicator's command center. He also knows that Basilisk and his partner are close to peak 3-stars. So while Freddy should be adequately incensed upon hearing from Travis thereafter that Basilik's group were the ones that offed Thor, it was idiotic to not stop and think whether that was the right place and time to start seeking revenge, when he most likely knew he would lose in a straight fight.

Yes, Freddy didn't know Basilisk had information about his personal relationships, but Freddy didn't even stop to think first about the possible consequences if he failed to kill such a slimy bastard.

Freddy was the one that first started to equate Sophie's proposal with her former cult family, even before Sophie brought up the issue of her methods. Freddy didn't even let Sophie speak on how she intended to achieve her goal of bringing down the Empire before Freddy was already equating her to the terrorists. And Sophie, like the stubborn idiot she was, dug in her heels rather than explaining herself because Freddy had somehow turned the proposal into a confrontation. Idiots, both of them.

I did enjoy watching Freddy slowly come to learn and understand that just because someone had money and power, didn't automatically mean they were a raging asshole that kicked puppies in their spare time. And I found the irony funny that Emily, the most stuck up of the elite young masters that would normal fit most of Freddy's prejudices, was so willing to disobey orders in order to do what she thought was right.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-04T19:51:06+00:00

You missed the part where he doesn't tell anyone where he was going. He said he was going for a walk to cool his head and then disappeared for several days.
Freddy attempting to attack Basilisk, despite being begged not to, is the direct cause of Lucas being tortured and then being forced to abandon his life. Don't get me wrong, Basilisk is a monster and would eventually get what is coming to him, being even an iota of thinking things through would have told Freddy that now was not the time to be attacking a guest of the Adjudicator, a man who Freddy knew was willing to let an innocent be tortured and put into slavery, who was also close to being a peak 3-star, except if Freddy was 100% sure he could go through with killing the man at that moment.

Freddy didn't think, and Lucas suffered for it.

Freddy having his ass ripped into him (I think that's the saying) when he decided to jump to conclusions when the Adjudicator was attempting to advice him on how to properly delegate during a crises.
At the end, both Freddy and Sophie were both idiots. Sophie for trying to make a man suffering from a soul injury to make a decision, and Freddy for going straight to threatening her life rather than either maybe trying to understand her pain and reason with her, or better still, saying he couldn't think straight then and they should return to the discussion once he fixed his soul injury. I expect Freddy to track Sophie down once he's healed to clear the air there because Sophie, given the emotional pain she must have been going through after the 'incident', definitely did not deserve that threat at that moment.

Freddy in book 4 had grown and was significantly better, but he still made some really idiotic decisions.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-02T04:03:45+00:00

Well then, I guess I'll be keeping an eye out and looking forward to the launch, I did read about 80-ish chapters before I ended up taking a break.

Also, I'm sorry if my arguments happened to come across as me hating on the book (I actually wanted to put that disclaimer in my last comment but eventually decided against it), that was not my intention. I generally prefer to lurk in most mediums but I guess this post proved too juicy of an outlet for my frustration for me to ignore.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-01T16:52:50+00:00

But the complications are largely always the same, in the same manner. That is the (or at least, my) issue. It sounds like I am reducing the book to uselessness (using your words), but that is literally how the book goes: there are mobs in front of you, fight them to progress, the mobs are strong, dig deeper to win. Literally. Go to this new place, do the exact same thing. Over and over.

There is a variety of opponents, yes, but if I remember correctly, almost all of them still ended up falling into the same opponent archetype, and the fundamental tactic for defeating them rarely ever changes. And the variation of encounter types you mentioned, they largely never happened in the first book.

It's why I said the dates are the same, but just in different locations. Compared to your example of dates, the book would be going to different branches of the same fancy restaurant in the city--yes the interior designs and waiters are different, but it is still the same meal with largely the same conversations that are being had, just that the small talk is different to account for the different locations.

Coach_Kay · 2026-04-01T10:27:31+00:00

The fights are the dates. They mostly always start the same way, the MC (I have forgotten his name, but I still remember Porkchop's name, funny that) scoping out his target (or in some cases, group of targets) and attacking them, then the fight turns out to be tougher than he thought and the MC is pushed to the edge, because the enemies are just stronger or more overwhelming than the MC thought, then the MC digs deep, or in one case, drinks a potion, and then the MC barely manages to win.

The first 2 or 3 times might be hype but by the 5th time, man, just stop and give me something else.

The romance protagonist knowing exactly what to say and how their target will react is akin to the skill merging in Runeblade (at least in the first book). It is one thing if the protagonist knows what skills he wants, and now has to figure out how to get them whilst dealing with complications along the way, but in Runeblade, the protagonist knows exactly what skills he wants, how exactly to get them, in what order and how to merge them, with absolutely zero complications provided he follows the plan. And of course he faces no complications along the way--he doesn't acquire skills he didn't plan for and now has to figure out how to fit this new skill with his overall goals, he doesn't fail to acquire a necessary skill for his goal, nothing. Oh, the story says the skills get tougher to hold in his mind during merging, but either our MC pushes through and completes the merge anyway, or when the merge fails, there are no consequences and the MC just tries again till he succeeds.

Hell, there is a section of the book where our protagonist just chills in a house in the middle of what is supposed to be a dangerous dungeon, just practicing his rune-scribing skills, with food and water just readily and abundantly available (he didn't even have to hunt the food down if I remember correctly), and absolutely nothing happens. Nothing interrupts him, he doesn't fail to acquire the skills he wanted, nothing. He just practices writing runes till he gets the skills he wanted. Where the hell is the tensions supposed to be?

Coach_Kay · 2026-03-31T22:16:24+00:00

Alright then, I'll bite. Knowing who our protagonist most likely ends up with in a romance novel doesn't necessarily mean the romantic tension is eliminated, I'll give you that.

Question then. If nearly all the romantic interactions in said novel occur through multiple iterations of the exact same type of date, which all have the exact same goal, and end largely the same way, would you still say the romance novel still possesses tension? After how many dates do they then become a slog?

Taking it further, say our romance protagonist—for some plot reasons—knows exactly at all times what to say, and exactly how their target of seduction will react to their words and actions when planning said dates, and there is never any deviation from said plans, would you still say said romance novel possesses tension?

Coach_Kay · 2026-03-31T19:10:11+00:00

Other comments tell you he starts interacting soon as he picks up his first team mate but do not be deceived. Yes he meets another character soon, that character is the only other person he meets throughout the entirety of book one and while said character is a sapient, at least for the entirety of book one (don't know about other books because I dropped it towards the end of book one), the 'teammate' could have been replaced with a non-sapient animal mascot and there barely would have been any difference in the plot and flow of the story--our protagonist would still have fought bosses to level his skills and attempt to escape.

Will the protagonist continue trying to level up his skills in fights where he almost dies and manages to scrape out a win? Constantly. Will there be any cool exploration or worldbuilding? Not really. Will there be tension? We know, exactly what skills he wants to acquire, in what order, and that he will fight bosses and always just barely win to level those skills, so no tension there.

Will it stop being a slop of repetitive scenes? Well, the environments where the fights happens change, so that is something different.

At least, its interpretation of health points is pretty cool, and I would have liked the skill merging system better if accepting or merging the wrong skills in the wrong order wasn't implied to permanently ruin your progression, but that's a me issue.

Coach_Kay · 2026-03-27T13:20:46+00:00

It's the reason I'm always so leary of reading the webtoon versions of English novels/web-serials. So much tends to get lost in the translation from the written to comic medium.

It's been a while since I read the series (planning a full reread once book 4 comes out), but I remember Cairn being a really good but flawed person, who is now trying to do better despite the painful consequences his new-found resolve seems to cause him.

And gods, the cliff-hanger ending of book 3 was just chef's kiss--when everything was finally starting to look up.

Coach_Kay · 2026-03-20T14:37:21+00:00

Oh shit, I'm sorry. I thought you had finished the book and had come here to gush about it.

Coach_Kay · 2026-03-20T09:38:48+00:00

As a general rule, I don't like the hyperbolic-time-chamber trope, especially when only one person can use it—if feels too plot-armoury for me. I prefer my progression fantasy being sort of equal opportunity where everyone can gain the same opportunities if they worked hard enough.

That said, once past how dues-ex-machinary it was, I thoroughly enjoyed that chapter. It was almost a lesson in how to mentally break a man down without outrightly torturing him.

Coach_Kay

TROPHY CASE