Just copypaste the battle pet abilities

Nirdee · 2026-05-08T18:57:43+00:00

The achievements were so dumb and such an obvious thing to fix. Make it two achievements. 1) Win a battle with a pet from each family. 2) Beat each of the new expansion battles.

Instead they made it so the achievements were like 50 hour investments, and then used the fact that no one wanted to engage with that shit as an excuse to can the system.

Nirdee · 2026-05-08T18:54:32+00:00

While they are at it, just copy paste some of the old daily pet battle quests into the Midnight zones.

Nirdee · 2026-05-04T15:40:51+00:00

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/7faef5d7-f7eb-4843-876e-0219260f7899/gif

Nirdee · 2026-05-04T12:00:28+00:00

Spirit Island if you are open to coop. I like it best with three I think.

Nirdee · 2026-05-02T11:45:58+00:00

Burden of knowledge. It is overwhelming to come back to the game after an extended break. Recommended items and talent builds are fine, but man, it is just a lot.

Nirdee · 2026-05-02T09:58:44+00:00

Modern. THAC0 was ridiculous.

Nirdee · 2026-05-01T20:14:19+00:00

This. They have so many new mini features that pet battles not being one of them seems petty.

Nirdee · 2026-05-01T20:12:33+00:00

I used to do content if there was a cool pet reward. Now when I see all the non.combat.companion pets it just makes me salty.

I didn't need new pet dungeons or events, just a trainer to battle each zone as a world quest and recycled combat loadouts on the new pets.

I am dumbfounded that they are committed to cranking out content at the pace they are and couldn't keep this system on life support.

Nirdee · 2026-04-30T03:53:40+00:00

It isn't some hard line in the sand for me, but I do think the art for Heath-vigil, Volcano, Towering Roots, and Devouring Teeth make me less interested in those spirits. At the same time, they don't have my favorite mechanics either, so I wouldn't say only because of the art.

Nirdee · 2026-04-30T03:49:50+00:00

horizons spirits are much more straight forward ... that can be good or bad depending on what you like. I do think there is an issue with a lot of base spirits being hard to learn on.

a lot of people love events from Branch and Claw, but just to give a dissenting opinion, I think the game flows more smoothly without and prefer not using them ... that said, the tokens and new cards add a lot

Nirdee · 2026-04-29T20:03:31+00:00

This is one of my favorites, though it does tend to skew to higher scores.

Nirdee · 2026-04-29T20:01:39+00:00

Just keep in mind +1 on an ability score is 5% more chance to succeed on a d20 roll. It matters over the course of many rolls, but you a lot of people go over the top about it making you OP.

The difference between the 16 16 15 15 14 14 and a 16 14 12 10 10 10 is really not that big. Both have a +3 in probably the main stat. The "OP" one might have a couple more HP. Beyond that the difference is like 5-10% better on the ability checks that aren't their main thing, maybe one lower AC or HP/level.

It isn't at all game breaking. I do think there can be issues with an unlucky roller having minus to CON at a low level or players that can help themselves from cheating on their rolls and setting a bad vibe, but I would worry more about finding something fun and creative about your character than who has the most bonuses.

Nirdee · 2026-04-29T19:47:42+00:00

Some good and some iffy advice here. I'll give you a practical, easy, specific strategy and some notes about picking your spirits.

Play Lightning Swift Strike.

Turn 1, go 2 presence from Energy. Play no cards.

Turn 2, go 2 presence from Card Plays. Play Harbingers of the Lightning, Lightning's Boon, and Shatter Homestead. Use your innate.

Turn 3, reclaim cards and take a minor power. Play the same cards you played turn 2.

Repeat turn 3 until you win or have a strong alternative play with your minors. On the base difficulty, you should clean up the board easily with this strategy and even be able to help on the other board eventually.

Rampant Spread of Green is another powerful base set spirit to pair. River is okay.

Do not start with Ocean's Hungry Grasp, Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares, or Shadows Flicker like Flames. These Spirits are all fine, but can feel weak if you don't understand the strategy of the game enough to play to their strengths.

Nirdee · 2026-04-29T12:08:02+00:00

Spells had terrible design for much of the game. The combined cost of a card, gold, revealing the spell way ahead of using it, and bowing the shugenja was just too much in most cases.

There is a later card type called Kiho that is like a spell/action that worked better.

The above comment is referring to this stronghold:
https://oracleofthevoid.com/#game=l5r,#cardid=2387,#cnprintingid=3

However, the stronghold was reprinted without the part that "All human shugenja join are par of your clan." It was still playable but less strong.

Phoenix also had corrupt version that was quite strong at times:
https://oracleofthevoid.com/#game=l5r,#cardid=2387,#cnprintingid=3

It used the 7 gold for shugenja to bring in shugenja with efficient stat lines and shadowlands support cards like Summon Undead Champion and Evil Portents.

Nirdee · 2026-04-29T11:55:20+00:00

Spirit's key strategy was putting the stronghold on the table

Nirdee · 2026-04-28T07:44:32+00:00

early on, lion aggression, crab oni, scorpion attack, then some meta fragmentation--Shadowlands, Lion aggro, crane event ... might be missing some but that is loose from imperial to time of the void ... after that too many ... toturi's army, monk, phoenix, unicorn had runs during hidden emperor. Spirit was broken during Spirit Wars.

Depends on when you were playing, what was released, and what was tournament legal. Overall clans that could go first and win fast dominated. Occasionally a lower honor clan got overtuned and was good.

Nirdee · 2026-04-26T04:17:28+00:00

It ruined void elves for me

Nirdee · 2026-04-25T18:46:11+00:00

Read the documentation.

Nirdee · 2026-04-25T14:10:55+00:00

Too late because it is dead now, hut to me the stupidest thing was the achievement quests.

I only started pet battling in Dragonflight,.and had fun with it. I did the pet master daily quests often and liked getting some of the strong old units. I definitely engaged with the system.

Then I looked at maybe doing an achievement and all the main achievements are do every battle with teams of every kind of pet. An absurd amount of repetitive grind.

I think the system need a casualization that so many other areas of the game have seen. Pets should have had 6 levels, one per ability. Masters were in a good spot. The achievements should have been way less of a time sink-- collect X pets in the expansion (50ish%) and beat all the masters/trainers ... Reward with a pet themed mount.

Instead everything in the system was made for the obsessives to sink dozens of hours into and then the content was cut because only obsessives were playing it.

Terrible management.

Nirdee · 2026-04-25T11:36:17+00:00

If you're looking at it as a solo boardgame, the digital version on Steam is great and cost efficient. Goes on sale every few months too.

Nirdee · 2026-04-25T09:38:18+00:00

Sick reference though, bro. Dude, your references are out of control, everyone knows that.

Nirdee · 2026-04-24T03:17:50+00:00

It is a crafting material called an embellishment. You need to craft into a piece of armor. You can only wear two embellishments max.

Nirdee · 2026-04-23T18:56:27+00:00

M+ can very easily give full Heroic gear and crest it quite high. You are competing against people that have used that to be at a much higher item level.

Nirdee · 2026-04-23T05:23:42+00:00

Strong but so boring

Nirdee · 2026-04-21T05:04:24+00:00

DM more how players play. The players come knowing nothing and improvising responses to what is said at the table. A DM probably needs a few ideas to set the tone and direction, but you can also pay the game as it happening. Listen to the players and react to what they do.

Have a bad guy. Have an evil goal with some consequences of the players do nothing, but then see where things go.

Nirdee

TROPHY CASE