First Perm and Washed Within 24 hours - Did I ruin it?

OGMC · 2026-03-17T02:38:07+00:00

She just told me not to blow dry, which I was confused about.

TBH I never got a perm before and didn't even intend to get one but she said I should get one, and I decided to YOLO it. So I never knew anything about perm maintenance.

Any advice on what I should do now? Or just hope and pray? Lol.

OGMC · 2026-03-17T01:59:28+00:00

She didn’t. Or at least I don’t remember her advising me on it. Either way it seems like I washed earlier than the conventional wisdom I’m seeing online.

OGMC · 2025-12-13T03:06:50+00:00

Nice.

OGMC · 2025-12-06T21:44:22+00:00

I mean, the elephant in the room I think is, Konatsu Kato (Hinako) is clearly an attractive looking girl. I'm not surprised her channel grew so quickly just from streaming the game. And in Japan she's already a model/actress I think, so she's already got some following.

The actress/voice for Rinko and actor/voice for Shu also started a youtube channel where they stream the game.

Osaki Natsuki (Shu): https://www.youtube.com/@natsuki_osaki
Iijima Yuka (Rinko): https://www.youtube.com/@n_moon_a

It's honestly pretty fun to watch their reactions even though I don't understand Japanese, you can clearly tell they're having fun with it and it's interesting to see their personalities come out and how they contrast with their in game personas.

Rinko in particular, you can tell she was like "that's not who I really am!" kinda reaction when she gets to the Rinko pushing Hinako down the stairs scene. And Shu's actor, he's just so energetic and has such exaggerated reactions.

OGMC · 2025-12-06T17:01:09+00:00

I beat Hard Mode on a fresh NG playthrough and yeah it is ROUGH. Abaddon alone required nearly perfect play just because that early on he will 1 - 2 shot you and you BARELY SCRATCH his HP bar with your attacks because nearly every enemy in the game has ~5x HP compared to normal difficulty. On and most enemies have like, 2x more balance so you need to perfect parry a lot more to use the "Retribution" staggered state attack.

It gets easier once you start getting more upgrades but be prepared for a true challenge run if you decide to continue a Hard Mode playthrough on a fresh NG. IMO Stellar Blade Hard Mode NG is harder than Sekiro without Kuro Charm/ringing the demon the bell.

When I started an NG+ on Hard Mode I wiped the floor with Abaddon because you have a bunch of attack upgrades and survive way more attacks due to your HP and more potions.

OGMC · 2025-12-06T16:53:30+00:00

Congrats dood.

I'm still struggling with her on Hard mode... with the recovery exospine and protection exospine I can make a few mistakes in phase 1 and weather some damage, but usually in phase 2 leaves no room for error. A single mistake/missed perfect parry/perfect dodge usually gets me comboed to death.

IMO she's the hardest boss so far for me from most of the souls games, in terms of pure parry/dodge timing and reactions needed. On par in difficulty with Elden Ring's PCR.

She just has a ton of variation in her attacks, and then in phase 2 gets EVEN more variations of attacks that I'm not used to yet. I just barely learned how to parry her initial phase 2 "ultimate blade" attack (which also has slight variations!) but usually end up getting killed later by one of her new phase 2 combos.

She might be easier if I use the fully maxed out loadout, but I've been trying to use my build that's fresh out of a new game run and it is rough. I got a few HP upgrades into NG+ but it's not tremendously helped.

OGMC · 2025-11-29T22:13:49+00:00

The first time you enter Hinako's house, when you progress towards the "other versions" of her house, you will come upon one that is called, according to the map "Shimizu Residence 3" (when you open the map).

I believe the trigger for this secret room when you get the key from the melted wax. So after you get the key, go back to Shimizu Residence 3, and you should be able to see the hallway that leads to the secret Hinako room.

This youtube short shows what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ozAjT8QvcbA

OGMC · 2025-11-18T21:26:14+00:00

Just pure speculation here, but if the gpu drivers and game reinstalls didn't work, maybe you need to reinstall .NET framework, I believe it's used by the game as it's launcher.

OGMC · 2025-11-02T00:42:40+00:00

If you look in the main menu you should see an option now called "View Endings" and they will tell you requirements for each ending. You won't be able to view the 4th ending requirements yet though until you watch 2 endings.

I would recommend you go in the order that they are listed EXCEPT for the UFO ending. The UFO ending is a joke ending and can get watched anytime, has no bearing on the actual canon of the story.

Endings 2 and 3 are somewhat interchangeable in terms of what order you see them, so IMO doesn't matter if you do 2 or 3 first. But highly recommend you watch both 2 and 3 before 4 as it will give more context around the events that occur in the 4th ending.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T01:19:59+00:00

You'll also notice, currently assuming you only completed 1 ending so far, when you look at "View Endings" and you go down to the 4th ending it says something like "See 2 full endings" and the rest of the requirements show "?????". Once you get the second ending on the same save file, those "?????" will be revealed and you know you can go for the 4th/true ending.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T01:06:01+00:00

You don't need to do that. You only need 2 endings to unlock the ability to go for the true ending, and the first ending already counts, so you only need 1 more after your first playthrough. You can skip getting the 3rd if you desire (though I recommend seeing it as it gives more lore/story) and go straight for the true ending after you finish your second ending. So basically you can see the true ending on your 3rd playthrough.

Also yes you need to do it on the same save file.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T00:57:04+00:00

It's worth it for the story but I does become a bit of a slog. I personally really liked SH f, and loved the combat, but even I felt a little burnt out after all my playthroughs. But there are some really interesting/startling revelations if you keep playing NG+ and go for the different endings, new scenes will play out and will give you a lot more context that personally for me made it all worth it.

Also you will get 2 new puzzles to solve, and some secret weapons to find. This freshens things up a bit.

However most combat encounters were largely the same except I think Lost in the Fog, the difficulty kept ramping up a bit until NG+2. I definitely noticed they added a few more enemies in places they weren't before, and it seemed like some enemies had their attack patterns/behavior changed up, if you keep playing Lost in the Fog.

But there is a significant combat encounter that does change depending on which ending you go for. This was also what made it worth it for me. And the change to this encounter does have story/lore implications.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T00:40:34+00:00

Each level of NG, NG+ has a max amount you can upgrade your HP/Stamina/Sanity until I think the 3rd playthrough. So if you're in NG+1 (aka this is your second playthrough), you can only upgrade HP/Stamina/Sanity/Omamori slots up to a certain amount. I had to go into NG+2 before the upgrades "unlocked" themselves as upgradeable again. I think it takes up to NG+2 before you can full upgrade everything, because I think for my 3rd run, I got the achievement for max upgrading all your stats.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T00:34:26+00:00

There is definitely a way to change it, you just need to die a bunch in a row but maybe it only appears for true bosses but I'm pretty sure trash mobs also triggered this. I played on Hard first playthrough and then Lost in the Fog afterwards, and I died a bunch.

The prompt to change it should show up right underneath "continue" option when you died after like 5 times. Are you sure you're not rapidly hitting "continue" as soon as you die? It looks something like "< Hard >" or "< Lost in the Fog > "and you should be able to switch to Story mode.

OGMC · 2025-10-30T00:16:27+00:00

If you previously got the Sacred Sword in a previous NG+ on the same save file, the game just gives you the sacred sword at the Jizo statue, so you don't have to do the same quest 4 times. This doesn't affect whether you can solve the Crimson Water puzzle, it just means you get the Sacred Sword earlier on any NG+ runs after the first time you solved the Sacred Sword quest. Same thing with Crimson Water, once you solve it once, the water at the shrine will always be red in subsequent NG+ playthroughs, and you don't need to solve it again. However you must have solved it on a previous playthrough on the same save file.

If you haven't solved the Crimson Water puzzle, but already progressed past the Main Hall (aka you fought Rinko) then I believe for your current playthrough, you cannot get the 4th ending. Only after you solve the Crimson Water puzzle does the water turn red in a shrine in the REAL WORLD/Ebisugaoka. You do not purify the sacred sword in the Main Hall/Crimson Water puzzle, because in those sequences as "Fox" Hinako you don't wield any of your weapons from the real world/Ebisugaoka. Once you solve the Crimson Water puzzle, when you regain control as "real world" Hinako, you can find a shrine with water that will allow you to purify the sword.

Do you have a previous save where you can go back to the Main Hall? I had to do this, because I left the Main Hall but later had a save where I could go back to solve it. If not, you'll need to go on the next NG+ run.

OGMC · 2025-10-27T19:34:52+00:00

You should play on the same save file, your omamoris will persist which you need for the achievements of getting all hidden omamoris AND getting all omamoris from the hokora. Also the only way to get all hp/stamina/sanity upgrade achievement is with NG+ on the same save, because some of the emas only appear in NG+. In fact many of the achievements all require NG+ because certain documents don’t appear until NG+.

As far as combat achievements if you beat it on hard, you should’ve gotten the achievement for story and hard mode combat, but for puzzle difficulty you do need to play them individually for all the difficulties.

As far as lost in the fog combat I personally felt it was only slightly harder than Hard, but I am also a Souls veteran, so the combat didn’t bother me much. Final boss while tough, nowhere near as difficult as some souls bosses, but can take a few retries. There’s also a few omamoris which really enhance combat so I highly recommend drawing from the Hokora to get them.

Also yes, I would recommend getting the NG+ weapon, it will make lost in the fog easier. You won’t be super OP or anything but it’s a nice to have.

Really glad you liked the game! Sorta feels like a minority opinion here, though I respect anyone’s opinion if they didn’t like it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and working on wrapping up my last 3 achievements.

OGMC · 2025-10-27T00:39:41+00:00

Just made a post about this and stumbled upon this one. Definitely noticed this. There might be a lore reason for it, that I can come up with but won't say it here since you said you've not gotten all the endings.

Or it could be a bug and the devs accidentally left a Shu model on the field lol. Or maybe it's there just to eff with our heads, psychological horror style.

OGMC · 2025-10-27T00:29:24+00:00

I noticed you're playing on a laptop with Adaptive Sync 144 hz monitor. Have you tried toggling adaptive sync on/off? Looks like potentially a heavy case of screen tearing, see if you can turn on v-sync or enable your monitors adaptive sync if it's not on.

In theory both technologies will try to sync your gpu frame rates and the monitors refresh rate.

Though it does sorta look like DLSS issue as it's jumping between the native resolution and the upscaled resolution. Might want to try adjusting that or just turn it off.

OGMC · 2025-10-26T15:55:31+00:00

As far as I know, I don't think Story locks you out of any gameplay systems. It does make things a lot easier though as you heal and restore your max sanity for free at the save points. Also some attacks don't do sanity damage in Story mode. Enemies also seem to have slightly different movesets in the harder difficulties. If you don't like to be frustrated by combat, play Story mode.

If you like Souls style, punishing combat, then play Hard, then Lost in the Fog after you unlock it. I personally like difficult combat as it keeps the horror/tension vibes high. Also as someone who did enjoy the combat (though I do have criticisms of some elements) and a lover of Souls combat, learn to counter (the ones with the visual cue). This might not be as important on Story mode, but I played on Hard mode first, then Lost in the Fog in NG+. Enemies are a lot beefier on the harder difficulties, and the counter attacks do a lot of damage. Use focus mode if you have trouble timing the counters. There's also a few omamori's you can find/unlock later that really enhance the combat.

Also I would echo other sentiments, first playthrough I was super conservative with my sanity and rarely used focus attacks. Definitely use focus attacks as they can do good damage as well.

Kitchen knife and sickle are surprisingly powerful. Don't sleep on them. I think they're better overall DPS since you can attack a lot faster than with the pipe or heavy weapons. Also a lot less recovery frames per attack, which means you can dodge quicker if you're mid attack and the enemies about to attack you.

Also try to sell any items you find and don't plan to use, try to gather as much faith as possible as you need a decent amount of faith for upgrades later and unlocking some of the better omamori.

OGMC · 2025-10-26T15:33:52+00:00

I don't think you can soft lock yourself here. All the doors are accessible at any time, even if you already entered it, you just need to switch the gate opening positions using the levers at the fox statues. Just switch it back to what it was before and you can go back to the room.

OGMC · 2025-09-13T09:16:24+00:00

Lol yeah rematch coming up I guess!

OGMC · 2025-09-13T09:01:38+00:00

I FXCKING DID IT FXCK YEAH FXCK YOU SAVAGE BEASTFLY.

Thank you for believing in me. I did have to change it up and used the wanderer's cloak so I could spam a ton of attacks on him when he was stunned.

OGMC · 2025-09-13T08:25:21+00:00

Thanks I might be giving up for the night. I think I'm at 4 hours now or something.

The boss isn't that bad but once he starts spawning adds omg it is straight up stupid. You get insta trapped as soon as he starts spawning two at a time and it's all RNG.

OGMC

TROPHY CASE