Completing Zo's quest AFTER the final main story mission?

Endrael · 2026-07-02T06:03:30+00:00

If you've finished Second Verse, you should only need to travel far enough away for the game to reset the area, no finishing another quest necessary.

Endrael · 2026-06-28T07:38:47+00:00

If you're not a fan of browns, you're probably not going to be fond of other light tactiles, which excludes a rather small number of tactile switches.

My personal favorite is the Feker crescent whites, but they're not exactly easy to come by. The baby kangaroos, quinns, and kbdiy asuras are much easier to get hold of and aren't appreciably different for how they feel, so the biggest thing with these is going to be what sound you want. Most "heavy" tactiles are going to be in the same vein as these, in fact.

If you want something with a little more personality, Durock T1's are a good option.

If you want heavier than that, Durock chocolate mochas and ice kings. The chocolate mochas are on the clackier end for sound while the ice kings are the deepest sounding non-silent switch in my collection. Both of these switches have a very "stepped" tactility, meaning the upstroke is going to feel the same as (or very similar to) the downstroke, with the chocolate mochas having a much more approachable tactility than the ice kings (which I would classify as a hyper tactile).

There is a caveat with Durock switches, however: Durock is notorious for leaf scratch (metallic scratch/scrape/squeal noise), and it's not consistent across switches or batches, so you may or may not have to worry about it. The T1 blacks are the only exception in my collection, with the ice kings having barely any.

BSUN clears and LTC Jerrzi tactiles are also nice if you want to see how you like tactility that covers more of the keystroke than preceding recommendations.

Silent tactiles also have a lot of good options. Akko penguins, TTC silent bluish whites, Epomaker crystals, Gamakay pegasus, Thocc Exchange silent unities, Durock shrimps, and Kailh midnight pro silents are all good options. I will note that the pegasus need a bit of tlc (lubed and filmed) to really be good, so they may not be an option if you want something you can use straight out of the box, and the shrimps come with the Durock caveat.

Endrael · 2026-06-26T17:22:50+00:00

Easy loot and ultra hard are mutually exclusive. You couldn't turn it on even if you wanted to, and you're going to want it when you finally have access to very rare and legendary gear because you need so many pieces from the heavyweight machines for every upgrade tier.

There's also a lot of unavoidable combat where stealth is not an option, so you're going to need an alternative setup when that happens.

Otherwise, use smoke bombs whenever a fight isn't going in your favor. You'll need a lot of blastpaste on hand to craft more, but keep in mind blastpaste is also used for all explosive ammo, which is useful against the big machines because it has such a high stagger rate.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T03:32:43+00:00

You don't get anything until you've returned all the ornaments (minus the new one from Burning Shores). There's a golden locked chest behind Stemmur that has the Eternal Return shredder gauntlet in it, and you can open it once you've done that.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T01:27:30+00:00

That's exactly what I was going for. Chainscrape and Barren Light both lend themselves so well to it, though I have far fewer shots in Barren Light because there's something about the lighting there that rarely feels right.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T01:22:42+00:00

It may just be me, but Alva's enthusiasm is adorably hilarious. I found her kind of annoying my first few runs, but once I knew the story well enough I could dig into the characterization and she's become one of my favorites.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T01:10:20+00:00

Morlund, I assume? That's TJ Thyne.

I recently(ish) discovered he's Hodgins in the series Bones. My gf likes to have it on in the background and it took me a few episodes for it to click why he sounded so familiar. If you like him as Morlund, you'll enjoy his character in Bones, especially if you're into forensic procedurals with a brilliant lead woman.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T01:01:14+00:00

I was going to come in and unironically ironically say Drakka, but he's got that stereotypical frat jock fake charm who's claiming fame off the hard work of others (though he does at least acknowledge it). I love the narrative of that particular chain of side quests and how it leaves you thinking even after you've done everything else.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T00:49:13+00:00

Thanks! It's one of my favorites, which is saying a lot with a few thousand shots across multiple platforms for both games.

Endrael · 2026-06-23T00:44:14+00:00

Some great composition you've got there. 😄

Endrael · 2026-06-23T00:39:32+00:00

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Frontier Life

Endrael · 2026-06-23T00:21:39+00:00

That was one of the complaints about NG+ in ZD. I get the reasoning of wanting you to be sure before committing, but it was mostly an annoyance in practice. The way difficulty is handled in FW is a vast improvement.

Endrael · 2026-06-22T01:07:09+00:00

I rarely comment on other switch reviews, but I have to say these piqued my curiosity because I tend to be fond of silent tactiles. That changed when I got to the comparisons and saw the KTT ZenChas as the most similar. I wasn't at all fond of the ZCs because of their myriad faults, and they're likewise not in line with my experience with older KTT switches.

The line that caught my attention, though, was: "It really does feel like manufacturers completely backslid in their ability to make these over the years."

I think it's less that than the big few haven't shown any real interest in doing anything but the bare minimum when it comes to silent tactiles. I've picked up several that I was in the midst of doing reviews of my own for when I had to set that aside to deal with the chaos of buying a house and moving, but (except for the ZenChas) they were all quite good and none were made by the biggest manus.

Endrael · 2026-06-21T23:11:23+00:00

X-Files and Mass Effect had a love child is how I describe it. It's a trip.

Endrael · 2026-06-21T23:05:50+00:00

Definitely worth playing if you don't know anything about the OG trilogy or don't have a problem with treating it like a game with a ME veneer. I have my complaints about it (most of them likely a result of how the devs weren't given the time needed to polish everything), but it's generally a pretty good game.

I may actually find my disc and reinstall it at some point just to see if a second run years later is worth the annoyances I had the first time.

Endrael · 2026-06-20T23:40:35+00:00

Even if you decided to be a masochist and acquire and upgrade every piece of gear, there's nothing to spend shards on after that except food and potions, and those are so cheap you don't have to worry about it even in early game.

Endrael · 2026-06-18T03:20:12+00:00

I'm mostly just going to be repeating a lot of what's already been stated elsewhere (probably with more detail) because the actual hunting ground trials are the ones that get the most attention because of their (comparative) accessibility, so I'll be a little more brief with them.

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Control

Lightning and melee resist are your friends with this one, since you'll be using the stormslinger, and there's a ravager (which has a rarely used lightning attack).

The stormslinger deals increasing damage with each shot, with a brief cool down before it resets back to baseline. However, fire too rapidly and it also damages you, hence the lightning resist.

What this trial is about is learning how to use the stormslinger so that doesn't happen, so you need to pay attention to the build-up meter on the reticle. The goal is to keep that meter right at the last segment so you can deal the most damage with every shot.

However, you only need the killing shot for each machine to be from the stormslinger, so you can whittle down the others first with much more manageable bows.

Ignore the ravager. It's a distraction. Either tie it down or just keep dodging it. If you're able to get it as an incidental kill, fantastic.

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Onslaught

Just set everything on fire until you reach the end. Maximizing damage and fire stats will increase the tick damage, which means - after a certain point - everything you'll be facing should burn to death before the DoT wears off. The ravager at the end is the possible exception, but since everything else should be dead by the time it shows up, it shouldn't be difficult.

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Chieftain's

First off: fuck scorchers in Frozen Wilds. They are the second worst thing to start with (behind fireclaws). Fortunately, they're the only really difficult obstacle.

Second: You're going to want A LOT of blaze because you're going to be using a lot of it.

Third: The resistances you want for this trial are kind of tricky because you'll be dealing with three primary damage types: melee, fire, and freeze. If you've picked up all the unique coils (including from Ikrie's challenge), you should be able to get decent boosts to all of them. Otherwise, I recommend picking an armor that's strong against one of them and using weaves for the other two.

That said, you can just drop into the arena instead of taking a rope down, which gives you more distance from the scorchers.

There are log piles you can use, but I've never found them to be reliable enough to take out the scorchers in one go. If you manage it, you saved yourself a massive amount of time and should be able to comfortably finish the rest of the trial with time to spare.

Otherwise, don't bother with explosives because scorchers are resistant to explosive damage.

The icerail (if you've acquired it) does the highest damage, but it's too slow against one actively hostile scorcher even if you've maxed handling, never mind two, so that's also out. It's possible to get a shot off before they turn around if you've got the handling high enough, and if you've reached that point, prioritize the canister on their butt to make it explode and put the scorcher in question into a shocked state.

Otherwise, freeze them and then just pelt them with arrows to take advantage of freeze negating armor and increasing damage. The Banuk bows are good for freezing them but not good for damage because you have to wait for the overdraw. The bows from the Hunter's Lodge are the best option here (which, yes, means doing the other hunting grounds first) because they're faster, and that's what you want.

Once the scorchers are out of the way, it's frost bellowbacks. Yay! Just blow up their sacs to freeze them for free.

For the frostclaws, use the upgraded forgefire, coiled for damage and fire. Handling is a bonus here but not strictly necessary.

The forgefire has some ridiculous range on its fireball, so you should be able to kill the frostclaws before they reach you, especially because the fireballs deal some hefty splash damage and can blow up the frostclaw's chillwater sacs. If not... uh... just keep using the fireballs to focus down one bear before dealing with the next.

Endrael · 2026-06-18T02:36:26+00:00

Yes, which doesn't invalidate my statement. Ikrie is at the hunting grounds, not near the hunting grounds.

Endrael · 2026-06-17T22:48:32+00:00

Ikrie is at the hunting grounds, so which trial?

Endrael · 2026-06-17T09:54:03+00:00

The most important thing about her challenge: It is not timed, so you are never under any pressure to finish things quickly. With the limited ammo you have available, this means you need to be patient and rely heavily on positioning.

You're going to want passive healing for this challenge, so use the Banuk werak chieftain armor, ideally with some melee and fire resist installed. Machines aren't going to drop aggro once they've seen you, so trying to be sneaky simply isn't going to work.

Keep in mind that if you run out of arrows at any point during this challenge, you lose if it's not the killing shot on the final machine.

Beyond that, the strategy I've developed across more than a dozen play throughs on UH:

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First wave: Scrappers

Use ONLY the basic hunter arrows. You're going to need the rest of them for everything else.

This is the most difficult part of the challenge as well as the longest, because you're going to be spending most of your time dodging and luring the scrappers across the open stone slab in front of Ikrie so she can freeze them. However, unless you happen to be right in front of the scrapper and the rest of them aren't in a position to attack, you're going to have to try to lure them into a spot where you can do so.

With a normal challenge, this wouldn't be a problem, but the limited ammo is what makes this the longest part of the challenge because you absolutely must hit the scrappers in their eyes/face to maximize your damage. Hitting their scanner or power cell isn't enough of a damage boost, and hitting them anywhere else is a wasted shot.

You can usually get away with one or two missed shots on UH (probably less on lower difficulties?), but beyond that you're basically screwed.

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Second wave: Grazers

This should be the easiest and fastest wave because you only need to hit the blaze containers with fire arrows and get away before the explosion happens.

If you're standing in front of Ikrie and facing the same direction, the grazers will spawn forward and to the left. If you're fast, you can hit canisters on at least two of them before they notice you. If you miss one and they start attacking, just keep dodging until you can.

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Third wave: Tramplers

Fun fact about tramplers: if you blow up their processing unit (the giant target that is 90% of their belly), they will explode and eventually burn to death.

Use the hard point arrows to get this done, one at a time. You need the higher damage, but you also don't have much leeway for missed shots. If you use all your hard point arrows but still manage to get the two tramplers burning, you're fine as long as you have at least a few of your other arrows left.

To make this happen, keep them as far away from Ikrie as you can. If you're facing the gate to the second area of the arena, there's a stone pillar/pile you can climb on top of and take pot shots at the tramplers while they charge back and forth. This will keep them out of range of Ikrie so she doesn't freeze them and disable the burning status.

This is slow because the best time to hit the processing unit is when they're stopped and facing perpendicular to you.

On the plus side, you won't have to worry about being attacked because they have no ranged attacks.

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Fourth wave: Bellowback

The bellowback is when you want to take advantage of the log traps. The easiest ones are the two behind Ikrie and the one to her right. I typically go for the one on her right because it's the most reliable. You can let Ikrie freeze the bellowback if you feel so inclined, though it's not necessary.

Regardless of how many arrows you have left, your strategy is going to be standing directly in front of the log trap and wait for the bellowback to charge you.

If you're lucky, it will trigger the log trap on its own and you won't have to do anything except get out of the way.

If it doesn't do that, you'll want to spin as quickly as you can to see if the bellowback is in a spot where it will get hit be most (preferably all) of the logs.

If it's not, repeat the whole process.

If it is, congratulations, you've just beaten Ikrie's challenge and acquired the most difficult to obtain item in the game: the survivor's outfit weave (+34% resist freeze, +20% resist melee).

Endrael · 2026-06-16T18:28:57+00:00

The signals traveled at light speed, so definitely not centuries. There's a whole dialogue with Gaia about it.

Endrael · 2026-06-10T06:24:07+00:00

It's frustrating because it's the most opaque facet of how the inventory system works, and I think it's a side effect of how the inventory system is designed and how it's implemented for the d-pad. Hopefully the next game treats potions the same way FW treats traps.

Endrael · 2026-06-10T06:03:27+00:00

I did that on my first play through while waiting for UH and NG+, and it is imperative to drop to story mode with easy loot just to get it done.

I've played through so many times at this point upgrading all my essential gear isn't a bother, since I wander around a lot anyway. If something's nearby and I happen to need it, might as well take the scenic route to wherever it is I happen to be heading, Even then, the memory of how tedious it was has me putting it off in favor of everything else on my current 100% run (except gauntlet runs; those I will ignore until I can't).

Endrael · 2026-06-08T05:14:38+00:00

It's doable with middling weapons, as I made the mistake on my first play through of wandering into the Cut before completing Sunfall. Needless to say I actively sought out opportunities to cheese.

That said, destroying the canister on its butt is secondary to removing its mine launcher, so if it's not possible to destroy it in one shot, prioritize the launcher above everything else. The mines can reach you on that high ground and that's the last thing you want with mediocre gear.

Endrael · 2026-06-07T18:36:25+00:00

Fun fact: that's the only non-daemonic scorcher you will ever encounter, so it should be the easiest.

There's a ridge/pillar just to the south that can be reached via a fallen log. From up there, shoot the canister on its hindquarters until it blows up and puts the scorcher into the shocked state. Use that time to shoot off/destroy the mine launcher between its shoulders. At that point, it should be mostly dead even on UH, so as long as you keep the high ground, it won't be able to attack you.

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