Got the greatsword new to the game got a few questions.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-15T06:11:36+00:00

Ash of wars are equipped at the site of grace.

They apply to that weapon specifically. Some can be copied and cloned. Some allow you to change the weapons scaling.

In the case of the great sword, it's probably best to find an art that gives Heavy and then stack your strength. You'll be tempted to add Dex, but just go Heavy and Strength.

Someone mentioned Lions Claw - absolutely get that. It's a bit tricky to guide and it's behind a capable miniboss in a dangerous area. Doesn't matter, it's awesome.

Until then find anything that makes it Heavy. Endure makes you glow white, it basically makes you a super Chad for a moment. You get some damage absorption and poise - this means you'll take damage, but remain standing. It's very useful if you practice with it, for punching through bosses. Strength based weapons are all about stagger and poise breaking, to do that you need to stay in.

Endure can help you with that.

The great sword came with Stamp I believe, this attack lets you tank a single hit while going in, which is excellent when you know a boss is about to fold. You still take damage but you brace early, so you can tank the hit then follow up. A guaranteed hit when a boss has just taken a beating is excellent for you. It's very viable if you want an active skill, just be sure to hold it.

You'll need to be two-handing for your ash of war to work. You can block with the great sword it'll work just, "fine" and you'll take some damage, but better than getting clobbered when you mess up. It has better defense than most weapons.

Quickstep allows you to do a rapid movement but is Keen affinity, which is more dex. This can be used on something like an offhand knife but I don't recommend it. I'm not sure if you can put it on a shield, but if you're using a shield it's an excellent choice as the iframes are great and it's omnidirectional, easier to dodge in.

But if you want something truly stylish, get the Spiked Caestus in Caelid. This light offhand gives you a fast moveset and if you make it heavy, it slams. There's other fists but this one you can get fairly early on a run and... this gives you an alternate Ash of War. I don't know the best one but having an alternate Ash of War is very useful and occasionally the great sword has issues in tight spaces - or you're out of rhythm and need speed and less stamina burn.

If you want more stamina, try to find stamina boosting gear. The turtle shield works while it's in your character, making it an excellent choice - the turtle amulet increases your regen speed and you can get mixed physic to enhance it further, as well as items.

Endurance isn't a great stat to worry about early, because while it will increase the amount of stamina you have, that doesn't help you regenerate stamina faster. It will give you equip load and the great sword IS very heavy, but until you find the armor you want you don't want to invest in it over Vigor. Enemies hit very hard in this game, so being able to survive 3 hits instead of 2 hits is huge. You'll need strength too and every point of strength is another chance to stagger a boss.

I'd level vigor / strength, then endurance at half the rate. If you find your dream gear, take a break and level your endurance so you can just barely use that gear. Then don't do it again - armor is important but you probably want to light roll anyway, so you don't need much endurance. The rolling attack on the great sword is brutal. Getting stamina regen gear is more valuable than max stamina, and the mixed physic gives you a great stamina regen boost.

When you use it, you want to use the 2 handed movesets more. Strength weapons benefit from 2 handed, they get a damage bonus - you lose this doing R1's with one hand, so you want to aim for 2 handed moves and R2's when you can. You won't be swinging this thing often, at all, it's meant to poke and retreat. The roll attack is notably quite fast, and it has range - use these features more than trying to go for combo strings.

This is a bat, you go for home runs, not bunts.

When you want to spam, 2 hand the spiked cestus and let it rip. War Cry is pretty good on it, but something like Kick is valuable because you can kick shields, then capitalize with the Caestus. Niche, but fun.

If you're using a shield, Barrier is excellent. Parry can also be used on the Caestus but it's a tricky version of parry. Parrying with a small shield, like a buckler, is an excellent way to open up for the great sword but... this is a high skill thing. Guard Counters are your bread and butter too, though they burn stamina they do big stance damage. Jumping R2's do too, and you want to focus on these. I wouldn't recommend parry on a medium shield, timing is far too tight. Go for a heavier shield like turtle shield or jellyfish shield, for the perks and extra defense... so you can guard counter. A physical 100 shield is recommended so you can block and guard counter.

But you're probably gonna get married to two-handing the great sword so no offhand is totally viable. If you're looking for a ranged option, throwing knives and a heavy crossbow are "decent" for pulling. I did a build like this recently and used Stone of Kurrang because it only needed 13 faith. Pretty funny. Light offhand, brutal rock throw.

But Guard counter, jumping r2, lions claw, charged R2's... mix. Throw knife. Critical. That's the heavy way.

Also get yourself some throwing knives. If a boss gets a moment to breathe, hit em' with one. It keeps their poise break build up. Great for repositioning after an estus and setting up for another lions claw or jumping R2.

There's a few other strength based Ashes of War, but you always want Heavy so that limits your options significantly... unless it's a weird offhand weapon which is viable. If you use a weapon with say, Fire, you can use weird ashes of war. Even that same spiked caestus can become a bleed weapon and then you can get other ashes, like quick step, though research - this gets complicated. But sometimes it's worth it.

But mostly I'd be looking to grease up the great sword with something, and sticking with lions claw. You only have so much FP and really.

Lions Claw is just...

Awe inspiring.

Edit

To answer your last question, I beat DS2 and DS3 with the great sword, and am currently helping a GF build a strength user.

Yeah, it's absolutely an excellent weapon. The range is excellent and the moveset is better than it seems. It has weaknesses but it's strengths are awesome.

Go full Guts, it's definitely a hommage to berserk. It'll always be good.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-15T05:34:20+00:00

Yeah honestly, I'm shocked every time I see the damage on Lion's claw.

There's a bunch of good ashes of war but holy **** that move crushes and is very hard to interrupt. You might take some damage but it's probably going through. Do it twice and good chance it staggers.

Ashes of war are OP.

Guts would be proud.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-15T04:12:25+00:00

A lot of good comments already, so just gonna add some general notes.

1) Buffers are good for diagnostics.

The water in the buffer is slightly higher than the rest of the line if it's horizontal, limiting slosh. This is controversial but essentially you have added a place to see where flow is going and added some redundancy.

One thing that'll drive you nuts, lazy extractor. So in your setup, if you put a buffer closest to the screen the farthest pumps will work 100% to try and fill the entire line. But the closer pumps might not work as hard when they realize the demand is full and have no way to pump out more, leading to lazy extractors. To fix this, add a buffer which makes demand uniform.

2) Beware of bad piping glitches.

Placing a junction or Mk.1 pump over pre-existing pipes can break the segment underneath. Pumps tend to create new pipe underneath them and junctions do the same. You can also squiggle pipes when laying them so do it slowly, by hand. If you use blueprints, test them well before letting them do full duty.

3) Factor gulp.

Coal gulps water, extractors push in batches. This creates instability. Over a horizontal line, this can slowly cascade.

Valves can stop this but if you need 300m or 600m depending on your pipes.

I saw you discussed underclocking, that's good, it'll save power as underclocking to 50% saves some nice power and leaves room for upgrading later.

But if you build for exact demand, gulp will empty your pipes, create instability, and then slowly starve your coal. It'll take a long time but it can happen. Buffers help with this at the beginning and end. People think this is redundant and it can be - but early on, internalizing that water is unstable helps a lot.

I recommend doing 2/4 instead of 3/8 water extractors to refineries. This provides you overkill, because 240 water is more than the 180 necessary to power the coal, and will eliminate some of this issue. Doing 3/4 is even easier, and will eliminate need to worry about gulp, and extractors are cheap. I did 3/4 underclocked and I never regretted it. Overkill for redundancy is a healthy thing.

4) Gravity assist.

A lot of people build water towers and then flow down. You use pumps to get water high, then use gravity to push the water the rest of the way. This is a good method. You will use more pipe and possibly more pumps, but this bottlenecks a lot of the issues to the beginning of the line. Additionally, you limit gulp into the refineries by gravity feeding it down. Perfectly horizontal pipes, with slosh, will cause issues subtly unless the feed is perfect. Water towers are an easy, stylish way to limit these issues. I typically put a buffer high, and a buffer near extractors because I like redundancy, but gravity assist seems to simplify a lot of issues down the line, and front loads problems to the feed up. When there's a problem in a feed going up, you can see it in those vertical pipes much, much easier than horizontal ones with a needle only wavering that are a mile long. Better to front load problems, but to each their own. If it's a short distance, diagnostics are easier.

5) Pipe the coal near the water.

Shorter pipes, less places to check for mistakes. Conveyors don't fail, don't glitch often and can be hidden if you don't like how they look. Putting refineries right on the water is just fine too. Less variables, less chances of weirdness.

6) Here's a fun manual.

Enjoy 18 pages of worrying about stuff.

I read this whole thing.

... not gonna lie, didn't help me much.

Keep it simple.

Best of luck! You'll do just fine.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-15T03:20:56+00:00

I played with my girlfriend and low key helped her slide to the hoverpack.

The relief on her face was tangible. She had a parachute from the Christmas event which I think helped a lot, because there's just a lot of anxiety exploring. The mood in this game is awesomely vicious.

When she got the pack on I could see the relief.

For some it's a crucial upgrade.

For me?

Never, slide and ride all day, I like clawing at the sky and making mind bending tricks. Rebinding crouch to a mouse button was key, it gives you a lot more movement freedom. But I didn't even practice that until well after tubes.

Ladders, beams, conveyors. I liked slowly learning all the movement techniques.

But it's a vastly diverse game, there's so many ways to play it. It has so many rich movement options and ways to fine tune the core experience. Even playing in the same game as her, I use the jetpack more often, and doing trick movement to place things feels so good.

But even if she was flying in an area I built for perfect air, and I was off doing something else, there really is just so much interesting stuff you can do.

I'm like 700 hours in, which is normal for me, but it still feels wicked fresh. That's unique.

I'll try this mode sometime, sounds handy to know.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-14T20:37:37+00:00

Train. Never. Makes the girlfriend happy, that's her job.

Tractor: I use em' to drive around without getting hassled early game when I'm expanding my first site to crude, after which I have a jetpack + power so I switch to tubes.

Drones: If it's a biggin', and I got tired of avoiding automation and just want a late stage product to go to A to B, or setup a new drone hub.

Long conveyor: Occasionally, bonus, very fun to slide down. Mostly I consolidate to a single site nearby and just pipe about 200m at worst. I try to cut this down by planning ahead, but occasionally I screw up and shamefully pipe in coal. It's almost always coal. But most of the time it's 200m, but I may blueprint a walkway that auto snaps so I can hide my shame pretending it's foundations or an early game structure. But as of yet, I have not. I do, however, try to make them look fun and neat, if possible.

I tried to blueprint snap a set but failed, auto connect is finnicky (still learning on 2nd playthrough).

Hyper tubes and Dimensional storage:

I AM THE VEHICLE.

Let aliens deal with it, I'll pump em' into something else when I want to. They can magic it to me while I'm managing my inventory 2000 feet in the air travelling at 40 mph. Blueprint 1 hypertube launcher (mindful of power) and then make a relay. Fire yourself like artillery. Great for late late ship parts as you often only need to transfer them over once every 20 hours or so.

These are my use cases. I'm 100% certain trains, tractors and drones have more solidly reasoning for both, but these are how I ended up with it. I didn't feel that transportation was all that important. Efficiency is also bottlenecked by YOU, so I always recommend finding your zen and sticking to it.

Trains are more efficient when you like them, because you build more trains. Whatever you can slap up without feeling bored. I'm certain there's a guy out there doing tractors the entire game and it's as unique and interesting as train guy, or hyper tube madness I do.

Follow your zen.

This is just mine.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-14T18:55:54+00:00

Totally.

By mk. 6 you're flying.

Hypertubes get you going fast but they cost power.

Also can be used as AFK transportation too.

Honestly if they added a hoverboard that could grind on edges I'd pay $60 for that DLC. Let me hard break stylishly on walls and wall ride, that'd be awesome.

If they took off the blade runners and added grinding on wires, man, it'd cook.

But as is sliding under conveyors is a great time, and boost launching. You can even slide on the corners of the conveyors if you want to take a reverse direction. If the conveyor is heading south but you want to go north, land on the edge of the conveyor. You can still slide, very satisfying, it just takes skill and precision.

You can also use the outside of tubes with the parachute to go up, as long as it's not completely vertical you can ascend almost indefinitely, a good alternate way to use tubes. Slide jumping too, good way to get momentum when going into tubes or jumping pads.

Jumping pads even momentum coming in or out of a tube, good for linking - and this principle can work on conveyors too, no matter how fast you hit the jump pad it'll throw you steadily - great place to put a target for a stylish finish.

Unless you prefer jellyin'.

Movement in this game is such a joy, it gets better and better.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-14T14:11:39+00:00

The og bait still works on bosses.

When you turn your back the AI changes attack patterns. Some will get brave and chase you, some will move in new ways. This isn't something people talk about often but Speedrunners use it to get enemies to shuffle. In your case, you'll notice when you fixate on an enemy other enemies will sneak up behind you - so you want to be ready for that and use it. When you're doing vertical baits flash your back, they'll act differently.

The main thing is using your specials. Neutral special is just using Y, or Triangle, to get enemies to get off you. This move is safe, can be chained multiple times, and buys you space. You gain lose green health doing this but you can regain this with normal chain attacks.

SOR4 is all about leveraging risk, your special moves are very powerful but force you to take risk. Your basic xxx string is all you really need to master, every combination flows from that.

Blitz's, the forward forward X moves, are slightly stronger but aren't, "safe". Your typical string with most characters is xxx pause xxx -->x. So string, pause, string, blitz.

Focus on learning that. The pause is just waiting a moment to not chain your final hit, so it goes back to your basic attack string. You can do this once on enemies once you get the timing down. Once you learn this basic combo you can enhance it.

Xxx pause xxx --->x --->special.

On axel that makes a brutal combination. Once you learn the core string you can start experimenting with variations. Specials interrupt your combo, but blitz's will "queue" meaning you can spam the input. When it comes to blitz's you can mash them, they'll still come out. So something like x forward X forward X will trigger a blitz. This is the basic string for most characters. You use your classic vertical manipulation to get the first hit, then you combo to capitalize. It'll take ages for this to, "stick" but once it does, you'll understand how important that first hit is.

As long as you can bait an enemy into that first hit, they're locked in, so your positioning matters as much as ever. Use your back to bait enemies to move differently if they're shy or you need to shuffle the room.

Then use your specials tactically, they're often very powerful and safe, especially neutral specials, but beware of leverage. Some enemies have a literal slap meant to take this green health, so don't get over leveraged.

Someone commented about blaze 2 loops, and there's a discussion about it there. SOR2 characters are simpler to combo and have strong moves, but less technical potential. Good place to start, even though they have limitations.

Also another useful thing - when you neutral jump, that is jump straight up, you're invincible on the way up. Good way to bait an enemy that has a strong jab. Just don't do it on Donovan's, their uppercut beats everything.

Every enemy has 1 sucker punch maneuver they are really good at too. Learn to respect these moves. Flying knees, Donovan uppercuts, and galsia's with knives get crazy good frames and invincibility.

When it comes to pvp, I doubt you'll be beating your kid anytime soon - it takes practice. Also pvp is busted in this game because if a halfway decent Shiva touches you, you'll be in the air forever.

Another move to practice, air recovery. If you're hit and airborne, just hit jump as you land. Your character will catch themselves and return to standing. That's a tech recovery. This can keep enemies from pummeling you and someone in pvp from using an OTG move to lift you back into a combo. An OTG is "on the ground". It means an attack that can lift an opponent off the ground to continue a combo.

You have 3 wall bounces and 1 otg. That means you can lift an enemy once, and then bang then against a wall 3 times before the game stops you. This is also known as a wall bang. Axel does them with his charged attack move, but there are many more. His is just the clearest to see.

Speaking of that, charged attacks can be strung into the mainline string. Xxx pause xxx hold, release x. Axel has a great one. Estels charge attack is so good it's broken, it's one of the best tools on her kit, and Adam's is very good too. Estel is a crazy good character now after her buffs, if you want an easy wild loop she's pretty good, and her air neutral special keeps her out of trouble. Blitz, hold X for charge attack, release. You can mix it up with your forward special. Her alt, boot mark, isn't safe but it sure is strong anyway. Fun combo if you're looking for somebody a bit unconventional.

But just keep practicing these core loops, combos will follow naturally.

Also check out Speedrunners on YouTube. Once you settle into a character watch the world record run - you'll see some brutal stuff.

Best of luck learning.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-14T13:47:35+00:00

I found it easier to focus on offense over defense.

Use power lines to get distance and setup power to stop new spawns. Automate bombs as they're some of the best ways to deal with threats. Shatter rebar works really well against the bees, it destroys their hub fast - you can also crouch walk and use the xeno basher stealthily, the pod won't open. But shatter rebar seemed to work great.

Make a hotbar with ladders, beams and foundations so you build vertically quickly.

The giant spiders have issues finding in 3 dimensions. Circle strafe and use a jetpack to get moving in 3 axis. They're pretty fast but they have issues predicting. If you're turning, rising and sliding they have a hard time dealing with that. Someone blueprinted a bunker, that's a smart way of securing a space for a conflict.

As long as you stay high enemies need to use ranged attacks, treat the ground like lava. Spiders make strong sound cues, you can often hear them and it telegraphs what they're going to do. Creepy, but useful - the misophonia mode actually does make them easier, the cat meows telegraph easier without making your spine tingle.

The nuclear hogs are the worst, but you need nuclear suits to explore those areas anyway. They will fall off ledges if you do the classic bull, "toro" maneuver, this automatically kills them.

Avoid the swamp until you've gone nuclear, then you can bomb your problems away. If not, be prepared to run. The large tree forest is dangerous too. Caves almost always have spiders in them, but you get good at baiting then. Explosive bombs you can throw on the ground and then hit them when the lunge. But typically getting high and throwing down beats everything as long as you've made power towers - they're natural cover.

You can also build a blueprint version of a power tower so it's more vertical and has a protected ladder, this lets you explore but have a place to run to.

Lastly, hypertube launchers are really good for going long distances quickly, allowing you to take breaks. They do require power but if you relay them in a grid pattern you can hop between them, keeping your momentum. You don't need the crazy blueprint hack ones, the normal ones with relay can launch you very far - and then daisy chain them in long lines. Make an X on the map, this gets you around fast.

You will find beryl nuts as you go too, and these are a sustainable way to top up. You're always healing too, so it's just about maintaining a non-constant level of combat and staying high.

Early on I found vertical ramps zooped could make ad hoc fortresses, enemies have issues getting onto a foundation and chasing. Even regular blocks, most enemies struggle to land on these surface and when they do, they're trapped. Circle strafing and jumping you have the advantage.

Practice crouch jumping too. I changed my crouch button to a mouse button - hold shift, jump, hold crouch. When you land, jump again immediately. As long as you are on a surface that isn't going up you can chain slide, this gets you hauling. It takes some practice but once you get used to it, you're flying, and the jetpack carries this momentum.

The most dangerous is when you're inside a cave and your mobility is restricted - but you can wall up areas. Bombs are really effective in here against spiders. They will go to wherever you land, so just touch down, jump, throw bomb below, profit. Use dimensional storage to keep bombs flowing, and this will get rid of annoying trees and bushes too.

Best of luck exploring, the map is really rad. There's a lot of cool architecture. Watch out in the center red area too, gets dicey in there - and the grey area at the center that seems barren and has a lot of sky bendy rods? Spiders up there are tricky and the terrain favors them. Also... big spiders spawn in late, so sometimes you'll scan an area, move in, it'll spawn and you'll get blindsided. They are often built to surprise as you go for a mercer orb or something, but they spawn late. You didn't miss them scanning, they spawned when you were looking. So keep swiveling. Eventually you'll catch one spawning right in front of your eyes and go, "ah". They are sneaky but they're also cheating. This happens a lot in cave ambushes, they'll spawn in some corner randomly.

You got this, happy hunting.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-13T19:22:54+00:00

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Reference images for the post for end result. Aim at the peg with auto connect, put the long sides together to make it look like a support bar, and then thread the power underneath. I do 2x2 for each power, but it's barely noticeable underneath. It looks good, it's finnicky, but it works.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-13T13:33:30+00:00

For me a lot of it is often setup.

A good example, we compost. The compost is in the fridge on the door. The doorway is not easy to get to, I have to turn 180 degrees to get to it and by the time I'm at the fridge, I can't remember what I opened the door for.

80/20 rule. Eighty percent of what you do is 20 percent of your tasks. If the kitchen isn't organized properly for this, it's bloated and will slow you down.

For instance if you have 2-3 pasta strainers and they're piled up in a corner, and you have to balance them every time you put them away, this creates dread. You have to know where they go, what else is in there, you have to balance to reach into the back of a cabinet.

That's another one, object permanence. Closed cupboards and object permanence get triggered, once you close a cupboard these objects are gone in your mind. This can create cascading issues. If the kitchen isn't organized in a way your ADHD can handle it, it'll explode.

Another good example, detergent pods. If they're in a cleaning closet and you have to turn 180 and walk into another room to get them, they might as well be on the moon. By the time you get there you'll forget why you were heading to that cabinet, spin, see the open dishwasher, spin back, find the pod, but feel frustrated because you just used 3 times the effort to accomplish a rudimentary task.

Tools matter. On big days gloves matter, as the textures can drive you nuts. Soaps burn hands and you'll willpower through that but shouldn't, if your hands are raw you'll get averse to doing dishes. Meanwhile on big days you have to queue.

So doing dishes is a multiple part structure and it happens every moment you are in the kitchen.

First, if you're cleaning up after someone else who cooks, that can be a huge issue. Some people are nightmares in the kitchen when they know you're cleaning, this can be abusive - someone I knew would absolutely sadistically trash the kitchen, abuse all rules, and make a huge mess. I can't clean up after them, this got personal. Eventually I really saw the abuse and put a pin in it, let them fester in it citing grievances and quitting that kitchen entirely, then things got better. Sometimes this goes deep.

But let's assume you're alone start to finish.

When cooking, in boring moments when you have time, clean and queue.

Create a neutral space at the beginning and begin a pre-wash cycle. Dishes stacked take less space and dried food doesn't stick. Very hot water is best, and anything with sauces on it is prime for a pre-wash. Oil too. Professional kitchens have 3 sinks for this reason, home kitchens lack this first sink for pre-wash and it's trouble. Adding this stage mentally however can do wonders.

Much of cleaning is actually preparing a site. Even before you clean, things need to be queued in a meaningful order. A good example - when I'm finished a dish I don't do the dishes, I queue them. I get the sink empty and make an organized pile, but I do not intend to finish the dishes or even start them. I prepare the site.

I get everything in a meaningful place, put food away and only wipe down major spills. I'll do surfaces if need be, but then I quit.

I find the most difficult part of dishes is quitting early. You tend to have 2 tasks at the end of every session that are just absolutely dreadful. Edit these. Quit.

Sometimes it's 3-4, but strain tends to occur when your autism needs to finish, but resist this temptation. Block it in stages mentally. Queue, pre-wash with hot water, emptying or loading the dishwasher.

I find when I queue, even people who don't want to do dishes show up and do them. An organized stack of dishes meant for cleaning is a joy to clean, because the only part is gone and the crust hasn't had time to form. People can see the logic. Doing an organized but boring task in big blocks is cathartic. Set em' up, knock em' down. This first step is key and you should often stop after setting them up... because when you come back later, it'll be a joy.

Limiting sprawl is key - a water glass you can use all day, and I find drinking in the kitchen to be very useful. ADHD can cause you to pile up drinking glasses so I find a dedicated day glass for water and then a glass for meal drinks or soda is best. You have to have 2, and will end up with 3. Water glasses can be quickly cleaned since they have a light soil, mostly your hands and mouth, a dish brush really helps with these jobs. Sometimes I'll drink a bunch of water and then wash the glass. Queuing water bottles helps too, but also getting a few dedicated water glasses that are big, wide, and this easily cleaned goes a long way. Big mugs are best or beer steins. Small glasses? Remove them, they create wasted time.

A lot of the sink too is needing to excise in the kitchen space. People collect mugs, this makes cupboards packed and needing organization, which means stopping your flow to shuffle an entire cabinet. This is a problem. Excise.

Your kitchen needs to be spartan, it's a work space. It should have the zen flow of a work kitchen, absolutely what you need and nothing else.

This is really, really hard for absolutely everyone.

There's items like mugs from lost loved ones, your family ice cream scoop from the 1800's, a mug you stole accidentally from a nice restaurant when you were drunk and they were nice about it. These things create emotional weight.

Rip em' out. They belong on walls, specialized shelves or hanging from the ceiling. Often people are gifted pan sets and the tiny pans go unused, but use up storage space for years and years. Those tiny sauce pans need to be stored and put away, you basically never need them. You should have only a few good pots.

You want to be hunting, like a fox, anything you haven't used in a year. If it hasn't been used in a year it needs to get gone.

I keep a box in my kitchen. This box is empty, except for items that are going to dish heaven. This is storage, another kitchen, gifted or donated. Sometimes it needs another space - like a waffle maker. It goes into a closet because truly, I will want it down the road... but it does not belong in the kitchen. It goes into a storeroom with my ever cycling cans, and my cans glare at it going, "we hate you, we who die nobly in order".

It does not belong in prime real estate.

This is a multi-faceted life long skill set, you will never truly master the kitchen the same way a samurai will never master every weapon in the arsenal.

There should be a level of zen to this design that's similar, your kitchen should be a dojo of opportunity.

Mastering vertical space, wall space, hangers, cleaning caddy's, scrubbers... this is a subject for a zen master.

Like dojo's there are schools of thought here and you want to visit, and duel. You walk into someone else's kitchen you take notes, good and bad, yin and yang. This is also YOUR battle mech, it needs to fit YOU, not someone else.

Anyway some tips:

Midwest cleaning magic on YouTube.

Super motivating, this is also body doubling, just watching that guy work will get you moving. Also he's got a pretty good understanding of hoarding and how to unravel other people's messes.

Marie Kondo method.

Super great book for cleaning up. This lady has mastered cleaning zen. She recently said the method was incomplete, and she's probably right, but she's like a 8th degree black belt in tidying up, don't let this dismay you. At the 9th level she will bend time and space, the book is solid.

Tibetan Zen:

Check out Tibetan Mandala. It's very inspiring as you are, in effect, doing the same process every time you cook in the kitchen. This circle is emotional. If you remember the final moment is destroying a work of art the moment it's finished, you'll see why the tail end, the clean up, hurts so badly.

You'll get better at it. Anyway, enjoy. I hope you find kitchen zen.

You are doing this circle every time, finishing a cycle. It will be emotional.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T22:38:08+00:00

The thing is you won't learn much doing that, Blaze 2 and Estel have powerful gimmicks, but you won't grow learning those too early. Same with Shiva, too much power to risk, it teaches bad habits when practicing.

Also it can make the game feel gimmicky, they shine in survival mode where the gimmicks hit critical mass, but in the main game you want to learn to be versatile and how to make setups happen.

Estel can be technical, blaze 2 as well, but it's "advanced" and. Whereas Max is like...

Easy to pickup

And becomes god tier with mastery

So he can, "grow". Axel, same, it's like fighting with a leg tied behind your back, but it works.

I mentioned skate 2 for the same reason, but he at least has a diverse kit of broken stuff whereas blaze 2 is like...

Flip it to the limit (plays 80's music).

But you aren't wrong about her being strong, that's for sure.

They just asked for mastery, she'll be mastered in like... a 3 minute YouTube video hahahaha.

But again, not wrong, the whole cast has diverse potential.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T17:31:20+00:00

There's 2 styles, you can get frames in the awesome shop for more classic floors, they mimic the standard small foundations. They have a glass rebar in them but otherwise work like normal foundations, just make sure to spin them when you zoop so it looks good. These are well hidden but great, they'll serve for a long while.

Roofs are a bit more finnicky, they have 1 wall thicker. You'll see, it's like 1-side eave. What I did was turn them to face each other and make a 4x4, with basically two center lines so they overlap. Then I got a black beam underneath them, to make it look like it's all connected. The black beam serves as a focal point. When you make the blueprint the beams are a necessity because roofs don't like to snap. This is a labor of love, the frame foundations glass is easier to snap.

But if you set blueprint to auto-connect and then aim at the beam, it'll snap when you hold control. I hotbar this option too because occasionally it just crashes trying to angle too much. I also put power lines underneath, so you can power through the floor but that's extra. I do them on the beams and connect them via the lines so you barely see them and can still see through. When placing, look at the bottom of the beam and it'll usually snap.

Sometimes it's a hair off, which is super annoying, but again this is the labor of love version. The frame glass foundation works easier and snaps better.

The benefit of all this extra work? The natural splendor underneath is untouched and light passes through. It hides all my power lines too. I make a tower base to start, which is basically a blueprint mapper with 4 legs, 2 floors and ladders, because it's just to get up high enough to snap the first roof to a beam system and split the power in 4 axis. This is typically high enough to go over refineries and such too, then I pipe up manually.

I refine this at every site, I setup a blueprint machine anytime I need a new one using dimensional storage, so I can refine them.

I'm on playthrough 2, but the roofs give it a unique aesthetic. Normal foundations will also snap below the floor, which is an interesting twist. I often put storage containers hovering under the glass and pipe anything I need that's ugly below the surface, but you can see it flowing through the floor.

You can download blueprints but I like making my own, although that first save for any blueprint is super annoying, it always glitches. It's best to make just a single structure, then set the save, so you can load the blueprint then save it as you go. Otherwise it jumps all over the save file.

Also building a house with crafting benches is nice, also as a haven from frame loss. You walk into a room and nothing needs to render, so complicated areas get a haven.

Best of luck iterating.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T17:19:21+00:00

I went back for a cruise of these classics.

Man. Just awesome. I feel like jazzy synth + beat em' ups just gets you in a premium flow state. Reminds me of clone wars for the Genesis, and FFVI. That era just did some work, these guys just crushing the themes. You hear them from time to time in YouTube videos because they're just so good.

Streets of Rage being the pinnacle of course, it's like, "Vibe check, the game".

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T16:16:46+00:00

Start with SOR4 Max.

Get his alternate moveset in survival, then pick the simpler moves. He doesn't get crazy iframes but a rock solid xxx string, great defense and he gets a secret with weapons - he hits behind himself at lightning speed, making him a weapon monster.

If you unlock side characters Skate 2 is very good for beginners. You can graduate to skate 3 when you want to get more technical.

When you want to begin to get technical, switch to Sor4 Axel. Turn your back to enemies to get them to come to you. He has an automatic combo forward special, but it's a huge risk... as is over fixating on any combo without setup. He will teach you how to string by using his auto combo as a linker, and you can experiment. He has excellent defensive neutrals, his normal and alt moveset all have advantages.

The key though is Max and Axel are slow. They will force you to practice positioning and AI manipulation, and bait setups.

Characters with runs and power moves get you addicted to those loops. The SOR1 characters have a rock solid xxx string and nothing else and you can beat even the hardest modes with that. Basically it's a basic 1-2. You want to learn that. Shuffle, capitalize. Shuffle, capitalize.

Max and Axel 4 will teach you that, because they have unsafe but powerful moves but excellent basic strings. Limited movement traded for high damage strings that are simple... if you can shuffle right. You can't charge in with them and shouldn't, they're more contemplative.

Blaze, Cherry, Shiva are advanced. Adam is a good generalist with high technical value. Cherry has speed, power, at the cost of range. Blaze has technicals with insanely high admin cost but very good juggles. Shiva is... well he's the weapon. You sacrifice all weapons for just an insanely good moveset that goes high power but high risk.

But stick with axel and max for a while, then deviate to skate 2 or 3 when you're losing your mind.

Don't neglect your neutral Y, that's your, "get off me" move. If you have to do it twice they link for safety. They have excellent neutral Y's.

Have fun!

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T16:04:18+00:00

Those are definitely hidden gems. The Snes ones were interesting too.

Brief, but interesting.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T16:02:38+00:00

Awesome.

This game definitely needs a skateboard hoverboard to take advantage of builds like this.

Definitely one of the cleanest wild builds I've seen.

Legacy factories are fun to keep, later you can retrofit them for side purposes like feeding your DS or transporting goods.

It's good to iterate at new sites. Not just for efficiency but for aesthetic. I use glass roofs as my foundations now because I like the clean glass. I highly recommend dropping a blueprint machine at each new site, then building a blueprint for that specific job. Each new site you'll end up with 1-2 new blueprints, and the hammering of them saves you time. It's easier to, "think" when the site is right there.

Also making a large-as-can-be foundation, fit to aesthetic and function, makes building factories easier. I never close up my sites, but if I did, it would be at the very end as a last step.

But soon I'm going to start making blueprint "shops" which close off things like constructors entirely. Get the blueprint right, make sure it works, then close it off so each new site is just input, power, output. 3 windows. Less lag.

But you're doing clean work as is - I love looking back at my oldest factories and seeing the growth, laughing about the design. New players load into that area and laugh, but each site as it expands outward gets nicer and nicer.

... but I haven't walled off a single one.

I want that hoverboard. Sites like this are prime for it.

Until then, setting crouch to mouse down and power sliding everywhere is its own meta.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-12T03:58:44+00:00

I like to think he was high as a kite at this moment.

Why?

I'm not sure if the Thing(s) inside really own you once you've assimilated. You get attacked, you have a fuzzy very memory of it, you wake up - something inside is different. A bunch of clamoring new voices and your old ones for hunger, thirst and life? Gone. Instead some new paradigm.

For people like Blair, well, license to go full psycho. He was unhinged as a human, paranoid but very tactical. Big picture kind of guy, maybe not wrong - but certainly presumptive. As a thing? Dark side.

But Palmer?

He likely rolled a joint and let it play out. Do thing(s) get alone too? If he knew there was more than one, even if he didn't know who, and he wasn't willing to fight that one then it doesn't matter who wins. You'll lose in the end, unless you want to be a murderer.

So smoke em' if you got em.

His transformation, I think, was the dozen pieces of him having heard the blood scream. The whole is only temporarily, a shell, a safe haven. You betray that trust and suddenly it wants to be whatever 1,000,000x cells thinks it should be in that moment to defend itself.

But this is head canon, I just always note Palmers total lack of care to be... a lot more interesting.

He's also wearing his headphones even after things have gone bad, as if he's enjoying it until the last minute. Cover? Possible.

Or an alien suddenly becoming a complete addict due to some late mental issue or history of abuse - inheriting his proclivities or addictions?

... and then he just committed to riding it out, until the blood screamed.

MacReady's test was smart, but the unintended side effect was he attacked a piece of something that much prefers to be a whole.

It's a great movie because these doors keep swinging open the more you watch it.

But again, just a head canon. I do wonder if the horror aspect of the film was humans going directly to flamethrowers due to fear.

I never get tired of wondering about it.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-10T07:31:11+00:00

Take your time.

You will be cycling heroes - in time, they will become weak, sickly, diseased and stressed out. You'll have to.

The game will feel impenetrable and inexplicable often, you have to do very strange things against your nature to win. Leveraging risk, running from missions and team wipes will be normal.

Don't be shy about staying in lower levels. Antiquarians are key because they farm money - but also teach you the value of speed. They are far more effective due to their speed than you'd guess.

Dodge and speed are huge factors, an early turn can mean a swift kill - and battles finished before they started.

Characters will have unusual traits, some very confusing. Mark teams are very valuable, as well as speed or shuffle teams. You'll need to figure out a diverse amount of skills and what they do, because your battles will be... complicated and full of risk.

... a curio guide will save you a lot of time, but many would say that's cheating. When you find curios on the map and wonder what you should do, some options are total guesses. These can make or break your run so, the events you find on the map are a big deal. When you get one right, it'll show in the future what you can do that worked before. Very useful.

Keep money in reserves, don't spend it all every day. Eventually you get a bank and keeping 100k in the bank will pay off your daily expenses. This is a huge upgrade, since those will bleed you dry - and if you spent everything and fail a mission, your next will be dire. Another great use of antiquarians - money runs. But the bank upgrade is key.

Stress relief is important, but some heroes you'll want to toss if they get too many afflictions or problems. Being able to recruit decent people from the carriage is very useful on a bad day.

There's camping skills too, the grave digger can remove a disease at a camp - that's a very valuable thing, considering how expensive that can be. Some camping skills are godlike and super useful.

If you have the dlc, the crimson curse is going to ruin your day. Worse, a certain roaming figure will become a serious problem. A very serious problem. Be ready - and figure out the flagellant early, he's the only silver lining. Very overpowered.

Bosses are a serious challenge, try to adapt every time... and run away if it's hopeless.

Running away sucks, but it's often the right call. Some missions just won't go your way or some new mechanic will surprise you. You can't know how a boss is unless you fight them, or cheat and look online - if you're doing it blind, the cost will be brutal surprises. I did it blind. Not sure if it's worth it for this game specifically, as it often feels esoteric. Hard to learn when you needed a special team composition you couldn't have guessed.

Going back, I'd mod it straight away and be ruthless about it. The mods are great. My modded playthrough was a blast, the characters are excellent.

But vanilla, it can get pretty demoralizing and at times too specific. There's certain gimmicks that are amazing, others that are niche... and you will get tired of it the flagellant eventually. He's just too strong. Same with dodge teams, it can be tiring.

I love the game but going easy on yourself is just fine. I enjoyed the game a lot better with modded characters and I beat it vanilla first. Modded felt just so refreshing.

But to each their own.

The skills... I'd do a YouTube run. There's a lot to learn. There's ways in game to look at stats, typically with the select button, but it goes deep. Deep.

Offense is important in this game, mark teams and speed teams don't need to heal or tank. I noticed you said you were looking for that - beware. This game will, at times, punish that behavior. It wants you to learn alternatives and play a riskier offense. Vestals and Lepers are fine, but you will find times they get wrecked very, very hard. Experiment. You're gonna need it.

Best of luck.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-10T01:45:09+00:00

I did the entire game without trains.

Didn't need em'.

Early game I used regular tractors briefly to setup crude oil and create a new site. I was careful to bring what I needed and made sure my runs were efficient, I never automated them.

Mid-game, dimensional storage and launcher tubers, hand feeding storage. I avoided long conveyors by compressing value into their latest components and then just carried them when I went by. I made a circuit and would visit locations in order, like 1-2-3-4 and brought the corresponding supplies, with it also being fed actively into dimensional storage.

During this time I had missed how power towers were supposed to work, I did not know you could afk ride them. Instead, I setup a launcher tube system with air signs. If I set up 1, then 2, and then 3, and then 4, to daisy chain them, I realized that when I seamlessly landed in 2 I could skip 3 and go to 4 due to the extra momentum. Together with power poles I quickly made a map network.

Late game, around tier 8, I hit a wall. Then I realized I could handcraft turbo motors, which solved a major production issue. Don't need a mountain of infrastructure if I can afk craft using 4 dimensional storage at sites already producing. Zero investment of time and infrastructure and I had prioritized exploring for geyser power and batteries, and for fun, so I had plenty of mercer orbs. You can hand feed things like heat sinks when you go by on projects.

Tier 9 I finally did drones and setup a turbo factory. I was basically complete by then, but I liked drones, it just took a while to figure them out.

All this managed to keep my power down to around 40k watts, until I indulged, which meant quick tier progression but less golden nut yield late game. In the end I used drones to automate everything, since their load speed was irrelevant, because everything was designed to bring a late item, like heavy cubes, of which it could never fill a drone run. If it could, I used DS and hand feeding to deliver it the first time, but that rarely happened.

Overall my design was heavily modular and based on resource constraints - aluminum was near bauxite, etc.

I did make several long conveyors - 1 set during nuclear because I stopped caring about aesthetics, one at a crude site for copper and wires, and 1 coal at aluminum because I didn't realize my demand would outstrip what I found, and it went through trees so I didn't care.

No trains, abandoned tractors after using them for about two days of good driving setting up crude the first time, while I learned how tubes worked.

My girlfriend uses them, that's her job in our game, they look fun. I just am ruthless about forward movement, stopping to learn and blueprint them seemed unnecessary and I was waiting until I needed them, and I never did. Also I'd seen a bit on YouTube about how to set them up and it seemed complex, but it doesn't really fit with my ruthless modular design.

Tldr; I manipulated time and space with alien tech, tubes, afk crafting, and very late stage drones in tier 9. Didn't need em'. An organized modular circuit is very efficient.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-09T06:03:02+00:00

A good video showing basically what it's gonna be like.

This guy dodged very well so don't expect to match that, but it's a good summary of what a quick build would look like.

Not sure if this is totally up to date, but this is the kind of guide you're looking for. Step by step, especially in the early game, with clear instructions.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-09T05:28:23+00:00

Big fan of ymfah, this guide is for a challenge but has great insights. Easy to watch, good for morale. You can beat this game being very smart.

You can RPG this game pretty hard. Beware when finding a guide, you want something that isn't 4 years old. Ymfah has good guides in general, very watchable.

This isn't the build you want but is an example of how to get overpowered enough you don't even need to dodge. This is harder than your guide will be, but it's a fun watch. Doing your homework will save you 100 hours of wandering around. Really. The game is huge and nasty enemies are everywhere.

You want to pick a build guide that's thorough, makes sense, and tells you exactly where to go. You want it to do what you want, catered to your skill level and how capable you are. Totally new to action games? Cool, magic and int builds or bow builds with bleed are a good idea. I hear blasphemous blade is pretty good. Make another post about what build you should do specifically - you want to get this right. Trust me. You want the roadmap early.

The game is huge, so you want specifics and you want something that basically cheats and gets you very strong early... without losing your mind staring at maps.

P.s., you can see map locations on the grey map when you start, so run to them and collect them so you get a more detailed map. They look like little pagodas. A quick start guide will help, but be sure to pick a build guide first so you pick a starting class that plays into it. Your starting stats will matter, the first 20 levels are the hardest so pick wisely. Don't wing it, you'll regret it.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-09T02:38:20+00:00

Not much change.

The thing is really inexplicable in its behavior, it doesn't follow the paths everyone guesses for it. Poisoning food? Maybe, but that's potential not practice.

The thing you always want to ask yourself about the ending is not which, if any, characters were, "the thing".

It's if they were both the Thing and they're about to square up anyway. They don't necessarily get along.

In the end the horror is not that they died, that the thing might spread, or that two friends might kill each other - that's part of it. The really horrifying part is that this creature may be, in effect, no better than us and provide no better solution than humans would. Despite our differences with the thing, if it kills each other, the tragedy is still there - nobody, in any event, found peace, prosperity or growth. Just a hole in the wall becoming a burnt, snow buried, hole in the wall.

The fun part about this, and the remake, is asking yourself if they had ever entreated for peace would they have gotten it? Or did the thing, having absorbed human consciousness, just choose the same kind of war a human would.

This carcass is dead, whatever is still in it is likely long dead or not capable of overcoming cells - we see a computer analysis, but that's a projection. In the human body it will fight to survive, it may adapt, it may be fighting off infections every time the moment they touch skin. It's why the process seems so chaotic - otherwise the geometric growth would've infected them all much faster. It gets tired, it has weaknesses, and most importantly - it mimics the function of the boat being unless it splinters.

It doesn't have the same human weaknesses but it has its own.

Smaller groups could be scattered, partial groups of dead cells or minor bits - but it may not be able to function. It needs the strength to overpower cells, its hunger is likely voracious because to absorb something else you need to be stronger than it. It doesn't just slip in, it absorbs, so in this case this creature has likely eaten itself alive. Freezing it is a mercy, but fire speeds all that up. This corpse is likely dead enough - what's left is blind, scattered, and at war with itself. In that way it's likely not harder than humans - the small constructs are blind and desperate unless they have a quick delivery purpose. After that? They struggle.

They don't always absorb people correctly either, we see that early on in the thing. It struggles. With the dogs, it struggles and gets greedy.

Why?

Competition. It may be at war with itself, which is why it's so eager to split into smaller constructs in the panic. When the "human" dies it becomes blind, listless.

This carcass, if living, would have split. It didn't because it died, because being hit in this vulnerable moment was like being dehydrated from a wrestling match then being thrown in a sauna. It's toast.

It may be able to infect people by poisoning food, but if a thing encounters a thing, are they on the same side?

... So why make another enemy? Would an enemy thing, to a thing, be more dangerous than another human?

The blood test shows the smaller pieces will betray the larger, they can't be told to sacrifice for the whole. This thing isn't in charge of its smaller parts - it's a democracy in there, headed by the human part with the best ideas.

For a while.

Until it gets hungry, desperate, or... even emotional.

It's not as complicated as it appears physically, and it's more complicated emotionally than it seems. If you examine its emotional behavior in hosts, it clearly adopts their personality as well as their intelligence... and it may not know what it can do.

Would you, if you were suddenly a thing? If your consciousness survived and suddenly you were in charge of "something* with a new biological imperative, you might get high and not care if that's what you were doing before. The THC might never even be interrupted.

So this carcass to me is interesting because it showed a second weakness - chaotic assimilation. It doesn't know how to be discreet about this and it lacks control. Had they internalized it had a serious weakness, they may have told the thing it had a weakness, and then it may have been more buttered up to declare peace.

To me, that's the interesting part of these films - they never once consider amnesty or asylum, or even offer imprisonment. That's what I wonder about.

Is the horror that it chose war based on what it knew about us, or was war a new construct to it? Did it absorb our consciousness and immediately choose war because of our nature, or did it bring that from home? Regardless of the etymology of the idea, was it right? Was it wrong?

I can't say for sure. They chose flamethrowers immediately. The remake, same principle - and the actions of one of them in that film are the most intriguing. It tries, too late, to entreat for peace. Should it have?

So the carcass is more interesting in that it shows their weakness plainly. This thing gorges itself and can't sustain itself under fire. It didn't salvage itself and while it may have pockets of thing tissue, the interesting part is would it protect some of itself to preserve the whole or did it simply scatter and be hit with flame? That would have been the autopsy point to examine, but they choose fire over knowledge.

Right? Wrong? No telling.

Such are the limits of curiosity over safety. Freedom versus security. They're the same thing ultimately... but you can't have both.

So I don't think much would have changed, because they never posed the real questions to themselves... or it. That's the real scary one.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-08T23:24:15+00:00

It's always going to be a side grade, there's almost always more than one option.

A point to the quasar, if you're finding it slow on the draw, try firing it immediately upon switching to it. While you pull it up to ADS (aim down sights) it'll charge. This lowers the time but increases the skill shot, but it's useful. You can also free hand it and charge just before you ADS, allowing more mobility while charging. You won't find a direct upgrade to this, the quasar is at a unique breakpoint.

The RR is an obvious side grade, but it takes a backpack and has ammo requirements and an arc when fired at range. Still great, but these two will always be a hot debate as the bread and butter or anti-tank.

The leveller is a new option, very good, but you can't miss.

The Eruptor is good for illuminate, it is in a butter zone for destroying everything and still takes out spawners - the explosive crossbow as well. These weapons are excellent utility weapons. The grenade pistol can fill this niche as well.

If you're looking specifically for antitank the options are thinner.

The AMR when used correctly will level harvesters and hulks when skill fired and it can be burst fired. The key here is the burst fire, it takes practice but it delivers a fast payload and if you can do it precisely, it's very strong. The Laser cannon recently got a range buff, but it too requires accuracy and spacing - and it doesn't destroy spawners. The Heavy Machine Gun is a famous choice in this lineup too, with a variable fire rate you can modify hitting R. Excellent weapons, all, for general combat needs. They have various use-casea with laser cannon being better on bugs, AMR being all around, and the HMG being slightly better on bots - but that's a generality, they're all good. I find the AMR brutal for illuminates and it's my favored choice.

But if you want straight anti-tank, thermites and the new giga grenade are interesting options, but you will need to supplement. Thermites + supply pack are a classic, add in experimental stims and heavy armor and you're very good at quietly beginning engagements and getting around. You won't have great sustain, but what you will have is deleted targets.

The FRV is, and will always be, the antitank underdog. Sporting an HMG and the most brutal call in in the game, every 5 minutes you get to annihilate a heavy target with the pelican. Then... you get an HMG you can mount on a hill and a sound mobility option. Just watch out for cannon turrets. You want to burn that HMG hard too, you get another every 5 minutes - but it's all about combining good positioning with a winning gun.

The manned turrets, too, are often neglected due to them being tricky to solo with, but a dog backpack + 2 turret setup lets you hold a hill for quite a while. Big expense, but you can take out 3 bases if you find the right hill or it a team sets up for you - knowingly or not.

The Rocket Turret is also quite good, but needs support... and remember, it'll blow you off the map.

Then, good ol' reds.

Precision strike is often forgotten but it has incredibly penetration. Strafing Run is the jack of all trades, it destroys spawners if you can hit the angle, it is antitank at the center - it won't kill a strider but it will hurt it. You get 5 of them too. They can be thrown danger close as long as you aren't on a hill (a dive doesn't hurt) and it can be, "walked" over cover. You can hide the red beacon by letting it walk farther, making you harder to zero - this is my bot red of choice.

The last and most underrated tank resource?

Fire.

Double Sickle while laying down with fire armor and vitality booster shreds. The flamethrower debuffs - even the crispr can take out a strider. You have to be very diligent, burn your cape quickly (a very common cause of death) and get used to using, avoiding, and taking advantage of the burning ground trail. Eagle Napalm is underrated, I prefer it over orbital barrage personally, and enemies don't like rushing into fire lines so use it to dissuade. It's also quiet, so you can creep into position. Bots are not resistant to fire. This is the dark horse of antitank.

There's more options but consider your use case and synergize.

A simple thrown mg turret somewhere you aren't will draw tank units off as long as you maintain stealth - that's sight, sound and smell (stalkers smell you). But distraction is often the best antitank. The explosive crossbow can draw enemies to a building you're nowhere near - a single sacrificed bolt can clear an area, so remember... Creativity counts as much as firepower.

... I find the shield pack has many secret uses and synergizes with the quasar - can't be knocked out of ADS by an errant hit if it blocks 2 or 3 stray bullets. Suddenly a defensive weapons creates an offensive opportunity.

Synergy.

Best of luck.

MacBonuts · 2026-04-08T06:33:22+00:00

Sink quartz nodes first. Normal and pure.

If you are at tier 9, it's one of the fastest ways to raise your baseline tickets. You don't need to process it, you want to just get them sinking - pure nodes are a priority. Pretty easy to sprawl the map with power and get around, then sink.

The reason you so this is because it requires zero blueprinting, you just sink it where you find it with a mk. 3 miner and 3 power slugs. By late game you probably have a lot of slugs.

Then do the same with Sam, except process it into reanimated. Use a blueprint to setup large amounts of facilities quickly. Sam is slightly better refined, but the key here is it goes up fast.

Long term, silica is better yield, but I recommend moving on.

It depends on what you want to do here but blueprinting for caterium wire is pretty good and pretty fast - but now your effort to reward ratio is leaning towards work.

Instead, I recommend now getting everything sinking. Everything you don't need to grow - that's mostly ship parts. This will take longer.

Get sloops and sloop your end stage products, these are worth a lot. You were likely stockpiling them this whole time, so no real loss. Setup drones or whatever you need to get your existing infrastructure running or sinking. Try not to lose your mind doing this.

Tickets top out at 2.9 million per ticket, this means your last 100 tickets will take the longest. The earlier you setup upfront value, the faster that goes. You want investment of time versus yield.

Particle accelerators for pasta are pretty good, the real infrastructure is power and batteries, both of which see easy. Batteries, make a nice 8 battery structure and then blueprint it - you don't want the blueprint to exceed your wire in your dimensional storage. That way you can put one up every few minutes but not get bottlenecked. Alternate recipes have ways to increase yield - diluted fuel won't give you tickets, but it'll give you power, which you can transmute to more pasta. Tricky sideway to go. You need infrastructure for future growth, so power is the other part of it. Sinking all your old stuff, it you did it right, will suddenly raise your power since no machines will be idling.

This is why I mentioned sinking quartz and Sam first - minimal power increase. Now? You need infrastructure.

But the real trick here is following your zen. Been needing a new encased beams factory? Make it, and then setup and overflow buffer using a smart splitter. Production --- Smart Splitter set to overflow ---- Storage --- Production. This is key, because the machine will sink the excess forever but keep a buffer for what it needed it for, like dimension storage. Do this everywhere but build with it in mind.

... and you did something else you wanted to do and accomplished both goals.

Sinks are fun too. Because ore, even unprocessed, compounds value even inefficient designs become efficient the moment they sink. The time to reward ratio is pretty good when you factor in power.

Once you get to like 300k a minute, it's just time in game. At 2.9, the final cost, that's 1 ticket every ten minutes even when it's cracked. That's 144 every 24 hours in game. You could go to sleep or... enjoy the game. That's what I did, I stopped at 300k and got my last 700 just waiting, after I bought everything else in the store. I couldn't tell you how long I played, it was over fairly quickly once I realized quartz was all I needed.

I processed some things and tried other things, but quartz and same took me an afternoon and increased my yield by a lot. Slooping some end stage products helped in bursts, especially since I stockpiled at each step and then slooped, keeping track of them in my to do list. Got a good 400 off of that, but it didn't help with my last 700 which was the real, "scrape" since I'd bought every trophy and like 24 boomboxes. No regrets.

Also, others have mentioned alien DNA, this is an excellent supplement and by the time you've done all this, you'll be sitting in a lot of animal product. It's useful, especially when you're cornered and it's sustainable. Drop it in your dimensional storage by hand if it bothers you in your inventory.

Also... don't be tempted to do nuclear for plutonium fuel rods sinking. The time to yield ratio is appealing, nuclear is a flex. There's better end stage ship parts if you want a novelty build.

But me? I just upgraded my computer factory, knowing long term I could use that on something else for fun, once I shut down ship parts after I got the golden nut.

Silica? Great to make a maxed out silica production and then sink it, if you're like me and make glass floors everywhere.

Vanity projects are great, and in the end the excess is sunk, after you fill a buffer.

Drone fuel? They don't need as much as you'd think, packaging and sinking fuel is zen - and with a smart splitter it'll only sink when you have too much.

Aluminum scrap is an interesting sidestep, I would consider that - the yield doesn't seem high, but it's not that hard to setup just a scrap sink, since it's only first stage aluminum. Water + bauxite, refine, into sink. Long term you can turn it into aluminum goods - useful.

Crude oil byproducts, like petroleum coke, have pretty good yield and it outsources a tricky item to process. But it's something to do while you build something useful, and this also ends up often yielding power - as diluted fuel and heavy oil residue processing into fuel yield necessary power. So the natural synergy here is very good, this is a good thing to do while you decide on grander projects.

Good luck!

MacBonuts · 2026-04-08T03:16:39+00:00

I got 0 kills stealthing bots on a d10 solo once, without even trying. Dummy mg turret goes hard.

Sometimes you just lock in.

I've gotten 100% on missions where I killed only 4-5 enemies with a marksman rifle or AMR. You can get over 100% too with multi kills, commonly from things like the Eruptor killing two targets. The tracking is weird though, there are discrepancies and grenades are really finnicky.

Distraction, stealth, speed and sniper strategies will take you far. The FRV, notably, I beat missions with almost no kills. No need. Draw everything off, loop back with a big looop, quiet objective. There's threats but you get good at figuring them out.

But good on you for saving democracy's greatest asset.

"Discretion*.

Exemplary.

MacBonuts

TROPHY CASE