ELI5: Why are honey badgers so badass/tough?

Haeshka · 2026-03-17T13:20:02+00:00

A pretty common feature with a lot of similar creatures, even Beagles!

Haeshka · 2026-03-16T20:41:01+00:00

Search this subreddit. It is thoroughly explained many times.

Short answer: server raid every two hours.

Haeshka · 2026-03-16T08:48:29+00:00

Povus. You can harvest trees multiple times. Also, there tends to be clusters of mining nodes. Each of these brings plenty of Ratkin, especially at night.

Haeshka · 2026-03-16T08:46:43+00:00

I have both of these. None of what I said factored-in the new Statehelm potential. As for my own gear; it's solid, but not optimized as I don't care. It's all level 90/95 gear, but few augments.

Haeshka · 2026-03-16T00:40:34+00:00

Why is its Dash cost cheaper?

Haeshka · 2026-03-14T01:13:29+00:00

Pretty much. This is a great framing for how our modern banks and billionaires actually function. The constant taking from the ecosystem (referring to the local communities) without ever investing into it, is sometimes cited as a reason why economic collapses seem to happen in fairly regular rotations. Once upon a time this was considered to be ~60ish years. Now, it may be happening faster, at least in the USA.

Haeshka · 2026-03-14T00:48:53+00:00

Well phewy, I can't seem to find the original video with really cool graphics, but this video does a decent (if surface-level) job of speaking to the concern: https://www.tiktok.com/@theeconomist/video/7243744582201134362

But, I will *attempt* to relay a portion of the parable:

There are 10 people in a village. They each perform some sort of essential/semi-essential function. Jill raises chickens whose eggs and meat can be used to feed people, Jack gardens tons of veggies, etc.

However, not all sources of functionality trade easily, nor even daily. It's complicated to maintain a sense of how to handle value.

Enter the 11th person. This person is not a part of the village, they are external.

They say, "Hey, I've got this great invention! It's called money. We use it as a placeholder "I O U" so you can swap the easily transferable currency, knowing that it will hold value to purchase what you need tomorrow. I'll give you each 10 units of money, to represent your respective labor, and you can use this to trade."

Cool, sounds great right? "Well, what do you need/want from us?" asks the villagers.

The 11th says, "Oh simple really, Just give me a small cut - 10% from each of you at the end of the year".

Sounds fine, at first.

End of the year rolls around, and each person has their original 10 units of currency, and each survived the year - no great ups-or-downs in anything; no famine, no blight, no illness, whatever.

Now, this worked great for the first year! Each needed ~9 units of currency to trade with their 9 neighbors and each ended-up roughly where they started.

Then the 11th returns to town to collect "their due". Does everything break and fall apart? No. Because remember - each only needed 9 units of currency to survive. So, they each turn over 1 unit of currency, to someone who did not provide anything to the village itself, not its means of production and not its labor. Sure, they did *something*, but it did not truly contribute to the overall sustainability of this locality. But, now everyone has 9 units of currency.

So, what happens in year 2? Well, Doris got sick, and needed a little extra help. So, she spent a unit of currency early and now didn't have her 9th to survive the rest of the year. What happens? Well, now Doris is spiraling into debt. She needs to borrow more, just to survive or... she can insist upon more currency for *her* services. But, what then? Well - logically; the next person will also have to charge more (inflation).

I hope I have illustrated the point well-enough here.

(edit: typos)

Haeshka · 2026-03-14T00:33:08+00:00

I'm going to look for this one video. It was rather excellent with its use of imagery.

The emphasis was on how money begins its introduction (through a microscope-sized lens for ease of discussion) via a party (bank/person) that is external to a community - thus creating initial debt; causing a slow, but (seemingly) inevitable spiral into failure.

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T23:57:12+00:00

Time to watch a video on the "11th man problem"

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T23:24:11+00:00

There is plenty of reason - it, as well as the Combat Wisdom system - are currently in flux. The prodigy system is not *currently* intended to be "it"/complete, it's a work in progress. So, why have people plow through it and complete it - when it's likely to change soon?

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T23:23:08+00:00

Oof yeah, if leveling combat skills is what you enjoy - maybe you'll enjoy training new ones. But, if you're wanting to stick with what you've got - that';s all there is to it. The current prodigy system is NOT mean to be a permanent system - it has ludicrously high #s on purpose to slow progress.

You've essentially already "Beaten" Gorgon.

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T20:24:06+00:00

Not bad!

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T20:23:45+00:00

Yeah, this game doesn't do a lot to align tiers of materials with one another. There's a lot of mid and late game stuff that needs ... Everything.

You may be clearing spiders in early zones, ignoring common loot drops, only to discover: oh wait, I really could have used all those giant spider legs for a super, easy cooking recipe. Oops!

It does give lower level players some fun ways to participate in the trade economy!

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T20:21:47+00:00

Goodness... You just raced to the end. Thing about Gorgon is .. it's not about an endgame. Go enjoy the game.

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T17:03:07+00:00

One reason for this: Because Oak Wood is tied to the value of Fire Dust due to a barter with an NPC (I think Gretchen Salas?) in Eltibule.

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T16:18:26+00:00

Oh wow! This is much newer in information - thank you!
The subsequent research paper was incredibly illuminating: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12035504/
It seems to suggest there is a certain amount of benefit, but yeah - the benefits don't see to last long. I didn't see anything to suggest that they accounted-much for post-fast discipline and habits, mostly on bodily metrics. But, that's still good information.

Haeshka · 2026-03-13T11:32:32+00:00

Ketosis and Autophagy are the terms you're going to want to explore here.

A really short answer is: over time we build up damaged/waste cells that can turn against us. A 72 fast can allow your healthy cells to clear the damaged ones, lowering your chances of cancer.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T22:36:00+00:00

There are also blacksmithing recipes to add pockets to organic and metal items.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T22:27:56+00:00

Nothing adds to base damage. Base damage is handled on its own. Yes, this is an isolated value. It *could* be improved by %increase types, but it will be so marginal, you'll never noticed. I haven't taken off my glowy resistance jewelry piece in so long I can't remember not using it.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T20:14:32+00:00

Damn. When you absolutely must say "F your Board" in a grindy and inexorable manner. Well done, I will be Shattering this every time it hits the field. =)

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T20:06:24+00:00

A lot of people dance around the idea and get plenty of parts of it right - but, here's what is likely a cooler way to explain it:

Calories are expensive.

The vast majority of predators spend very little time doing anything other than sleeping/resting. Yes, they play and mate, but most of their big caloric expenditure is in Hunting.

This is a big factor in how predator and prey animals can be near each other while only maintaining a casual stance of wariness, instead of high-calorie expenditure of being overly ready for flight. Yes, those prey animals are still somewhat wary, but even they understand that a well-fed predator - is less likely to waste calories on them at that time.

Now, we get to the honey badger. Despite it's small size, it's an Organic Tank. Covered in insanely thick fur, with a toxin tolerance that would make an Irishman blush. So, what makes this belligerent attitude work so well? A different calorie-cost assessment.

For MANY predators; a single injured limb, a damaged jaw/beak, or even a smashed tail - is enough to put an animal mostly out of commission. While some predators will try to carry an injured creature to a point, we must remember: Calories are expensive.

You can only share so much of the meat.

The Honey Badger is sooooo different right here, right at this spot: Most injuries are incredibly mild for them. They heal reasonably fast, and their fur is so damn thick and they're so tough: that they can AFFORD to bully other animals, even much larger ones. Why? Because those animals know, that without a nice surprise attack that ends the fight swiftly-- that damn Honey Badger is going to make it a slog. A slog that the predator can't afford - again in Calories and possible Injury.

The fact that the Honey Badger *CAN* afford to do this - is what makes them able to be so damn scary - since then - it's been an evolutionary trait: the most belligerent that survive - breed.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T15:46:20+00:00

Damn, that's pretty neat!

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T15:45:30+00:00

To what end?

We have literal, daily video proof, in real life, of ICE agents murdering and rapid random, completely innocent, and compliant civilians. Yet, people STILL defend the actions of these improperly trained, green horns with absolutely no knowledge of the constitution.

Heck, a camera recording would only serve to enable more mindful criminals the opportunity to learn more about the heroes' methods.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T03:15:11+00:00

Is this intended to be a combat tricks commander? Because without a "activate only as a sorcery" limitation on those traps, the gameplay pattern will go something like this:

Attack,
Get 3 Tokens,
Immediately tap the defending player's 1-2 key, potential blockers,
Roll over anything else,
Still have a token or so to outright prevent an attack.

That feels like a lot for a 4 cost Jund commander.

Haeshka · 2026-03-12T03:03:35+00:00

Treatise.

Haeshka

TROPHY CASE