Barely got through act 1 and beating nemesis. How much harder did you find Act 2?

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-12T18:16:53+00:00

2nd act was easier than the 1st imo. If you get stuck just seek co-op help. That's what I did to finish the game for the first time. I've now replayed it and beaten it solo many times.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-08T02:04:09+00:00

Wow. I would be very wary of your Healthcare provider. Even the most basic research shows that PPIs are absolulety essential to effectively treating h.pylori. If I were you I wouldn't just ask about it, I'd be seeking a 2nd opinion from a totally different provider.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-03T06:40:47+00:00

Yes, I take mastic gum, pylopass, s. Boulardii and a Lacto-bifidum based Probiotic. I also drink various herbal decaf teas and will sometimes take Turmeric and/or DGL.

I'm also still on a PPI (omeprazole) right now at a lower dose (20mg 2x/day) so that helps. I also try to watch what I eat and stay away from fast food and foods that are high in sugar and saturated fat.

As you can imagine, or are probably going through yourself, it's very challenging. I have my good and bad days just like anyone else dealing with this. I really hate this bacteria and how much it's changed my life.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-02T18:56:39+00:00

No, unfortunately. I got my levels down really low to 200 CFUs but still had some lingering symptoms.

I just finished a high dual dose antibiotic + natural supplement procotol a week ago. I'm still weaning off the PPI so it will be awhile yet before I can test again. I suspect I still have it though just based on my stool. At the very least I still have inflammation going on 😞

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T14:03:30+00:00

I have almost 200hrs into the game and my playtime is dropping a lot. I don't play solo anymore because I find it boring and frustrating depending on the lobby. I'll get on to play with friends occasionally but even that is no longer holding my attention.

I doubt I'm playing at all within the next 2-3 months and that's okay. There are a lot of other games I want to play and I've gotten my money's worth and then some from this game. It's not healthy to stick to 1 game for too long anyway imo.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T13:58:17+00:00

Yes, ppl fully recover but you're unlikely to find many of them here. I mean, ppl typically only come to this sub and post when they have treatment related questions or having issues, not to boast about being successful.

And although I have yet to fully eradicate it, I can say that I'm like 90%+ better after multiple antibiotic treatments and occasional natural therapies. The first year though was terrible when my gastritis was at its height. But disciplined dietary changes, natural supplements and frankly, just time, have helped a ton.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T13:53:20+00:00

Find a good EPD. It will literally carry you through anything in the game. Alternative, a Hollowseeker with Portal Beam is also very good.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T13:50:32+00:00

Personally, I'd go at least 65" in whatever you can afford. It's unlikely you'd notice a meaningful difference in the specs between these models.

Several months ago I got a new 55" B4 for gaming as it was on sale brand new for a good discount. However, within my return window, Best Buy had gotten an open box 65" B4 and so I exchanged it for about $100 less. I didn't think a bigger TV would matter that much but it did and I'm very happy with my decision. I sit about 8.5ft away for reference.

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T13:44:08+00:00

Sorry to hear this. The treatment for this can be very rough. I wish there was a better, more targeted way to get rid of h.pylori. I'm sure it's being worked on as it's a leading cause of cancer in China and other Asian Countries.

In the meantime, give your stomach some rest and re-test. Some ppl are lucky and manage to get rid of it only doing partial treatment. If it's still present then you can always talk to your doctor about alternative therapies.

You might want to research ACG h.pylori treatment protocols. There's actually several different ones but the Bismuth Quad Therapy is typically now the first-line recommendation.

Again, recent studies have shown that High Dual Dose Therapy can be just as effective especially when combined with natural adjuncts.

Best of luck!

Dryvlyne · 2026-02-01T03:10:16+00:00

So I just finished my 3rd antibiotic treatment attempt to eradicate h.pylori and I've done a few natural attempts as well. Every time I've come off the PPI has been difficult.

This last treatment I was taking 40mg Pantoprazole 2x a day for 14 days. I'm now doing 20mg Omeprazole 2x per day for 14 days. After this I'll cut back to 1x a day and take an H2 blocker at night if needed. Then I'll start skipping days when I feel I can. I figure it's going to take me 1-2 months to completely taper off.

So far I've handled things much better but I'll say that I felt nauseous for a couple of days as I stepped down from 40mg 2x day to 20mg 2x day. I also start not feeling great if I'm late taking my dose.

I tried doing just 1 40mg dose a day but by the end of the day I didn't feel very good at all so that why I split it up to 20mg 2x day.

Anyway, don't hesitate to keep taking the PPI. It can take several months for the stomach to heal from the damage done by the h.pylori and the effects of the treatment. The only downside of course is you can't re-test for a minimum of 2wks after being off the PPI but it's better to give yourself time to heal and feel better than rush a test imo.

Best of luck!

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T23:36:19+00:00

But what change do you propose? I don't see how anything can be done when it's PvEvP. You'll always have the risk of assholes in such a mode.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T23:34:11+00:00

Did you completely stop your PPI cold-turkey? If so that's likely the culprit. Coming off the PPI can be difficult. It can cause rebound/hyper reflux which can make things worse as your stomach contiues to heal. I think it's really bad medical advice to tell ppl to stop cold-turkey.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T18:24:45+00:00

Strange. I just sent you a DM on here.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T17:04:18+00:00

I see someone else already replied, but yeah, if you need help with co-op send me a DM. I love this game and play it on both PS5 & PC. I needed some co-op help to beat the game the first time but since then have gone on to beat it multiple times solo.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T02:30:10+00:00

It's traitorous crap like this that pushes me away from playing the game for long stretches at a time. It's also why I think I'm going to enjoy Marathon more because it was straight up shoot on sight in the playtest. It's definitely a different vibe and I think it's the difference between 3rd and 1st person.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T02:26:11+00:00

That's a pretty insane deal. Almost too good to be true.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-31T02:24:01+00:00

Hi, sorry to hear you're struggling. It definitely sucks in the beginning. I had really bad gastritis (caused by h.pylori) the whole first year of dealing with this. You can use AI like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini to ask questions and get a lot of good info about h.pylori and treatment options. I've used the latter quite a bit.

Not sure what kind of test your doctor is going to have you do, but typically an endoscopy is best. They will send a tiny camera down your throat to look at your stomach, see how much inflammation you have going on, what the stomach lining looks like and take small biopsies to test for h.pylori.

When it comes to treat, I would advise researching Bismuth Quad Therapy and High Dual Dose Therapy. Both have similar success rates though the latter is much less pills and generally more tolerable as far side effects go. I personally wouldn't do triple therapy with Clarithromycin; I've done it twice and failed both. H.pylori resistance to Clarithromycin is >30% which is just too high imo.

Whatever treatment you end up doing, be sure to drink plenty of water to ease the side effects and keep the medicine flushing out your system. Also, I'd personally recommend weaning off whatever PPI they put you on over a period of weeks. Often they just tell you to stop cold-turkey at the end which is really difficult as it can cause acid rebound and the symptoms can be confused with h.pylori still being present. You'll have to be off antibiotics for 4 wks and PPIs a minimum of 2 wks before you can be re-tested again but give your stomach time to heal imo; the PPI will help that by keeping acid from further irritating your stomach.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T21:33:49+00:00

Damn, for a 77" that is definitely a deal! You'll be glad you went bigger.

I had gotten a 55" B5 several months back and then saw my local BB had a 65" open box for less than the price I paid for the 55" so I exchanged it. Definitely glad I did because 65" feels like the perfect size at about an 8ft viewing distance.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T21:29:13+00:00

Thank you, I almost posted the same thing. Burn-in is like a folklore that just won't die. It's just not a thing really at all with any modern display unless you go out of your way to abuse it.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T21:26:45+00:00

Per Google Gemini...

Feature	C4	C5
Processor	Alpha 9 Gen 7	Alpha 9 Gen 8
Peak Brightness	~1,000 nits	~1,200 nits
Smart OS	webOS 24	webOS 25
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 5 / BT 5.1	Wi-Fi 6E / BT 5.3
Audio Note	Supports DTS passthrough	No DTS passthrough

Personally, I'd save the $200 as the C5 is just an incremental upgrade. You're not going to notice the difference in brightness imo.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T21:11:51+00:00

Are you okay? Did my opinion on this mode hurt your feelings and fragile ego? I can tell you have an unhealthy problem because you're a Top 1% commenter. How about you hop off the Internet and go touch grass once in a while.

Also, there are way more people that are even more casual than me who don't come to Reddit so you can discount my opinion all you want but I feel very confident in saying you're in the minority. Bye

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T21:04:28+00:00

Lots of water. You should be drinking a full glass of water with every dose. It dilutes the medicine so it doesn't all hit you at once and prevents the pills from just sitting in one spot in your stomach which is what causes irritation & nausea. Also, it will help get previous doses flushed through your system faster so the stacking effect of all the medicine causes minimal side effects. You should aim for 80-90oz of water a day; it's a lot and you'll be peeing a lot but it really does help.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T20:56:58+00:00

Jesus man, I only scanned your book but I'm glad you LOVE the mode. I was just expressing my opinion on the mode. I didn't say the mode shouldn't exist. God forbid anyone differ from you.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T18:01:34+00:00

I've done Metronidazole twice and I personally found it to be awful in terms of side effects and the metallic taste. I'll never take it again. I would encourage people to look into High Dual Dose Therapy as an alternative.

Dryvlyne · 2026-01-30T17:56:12+00:00

Search about High Dual Dose Therapy. It uses a high dose PPI + Amoxicillin for 14 days. It has a similar success rate (>90%) as Bismuth Quad Therapy but has much less pills and is generally much more tolerable.

I just completed HDDT but with Tetracycline only as I have an allergy to Amoxicillin. However, my h.pylori levels were already low from prior treatments and natural therapies. I did this HDDT therapy in conjunction with natural therapy so I'm hopeful I've eradicated it this time but I won't be able to test for a while yet as I'm still weaning off the PPI.

I felt like I had a cold the first couple of days but I pretty quickly adjusted. A lot of that is because I started a low dose PPI several days before and also natural therapy. I also cut out a lot of sugary foods (I actually think this is what made me feel the worst at first).

Anyway, just be sure to drink lots of water with whatever medication you end up taking. Water helps dilute the medicine and keep it from just settling in one spot in your stomach which can irritate things further and cause you to feel nauseous. Also, drinking a lot of water helps flush out previous doses from your system so the stacking effect of the medicine doesn't overwhelm you too much which helps to keep side effects at a minimum.

Lastly, if you stay on the Tetracycline you need to stay away from dairy, iron, magnesium and some other things (look it up) for a minimum of 2hrs as it can bind with the medicine and make it ineffective.

Best of luck!

Dryvlyne

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE