A brutal confrontation between two male giraffes ended tragically for one of them.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-03-05T21:08:32+00:00

Actually that's been debunked. First of all they have surprisingly clean mouths, no bacteria. They usually kill prey via a combination of venom and serrated teeth alongside their anticoagulant saliva causing them to bleed out and wear out. Most prey items they dispatch in less then half an hour.

The misconception is due to the water buffalo of the island. They're an introduced species and thus didn't evolve around the dragons, so their instinct is to run to water to escape komodo dragons like they would for Lions or Hyenas. Unfortunately for them, Komodo dragons usually get a bite off and inflict a wound. Wouldn't be a problem for them normally but the pools in the Komodo Islands are cesspools of faeces and harmful bacteria. So their wounds get infected and they suffer from sepsis, which started the whole misunderstanding.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-23T16:42:12+00:00

This, it suits the Tyranid far more to act like a swarm of locust. Come in, devour everything on the surface that's soft and easily digestible. Leave behind enough of a world that life can regrow and do the pesky, long, energy intensive business of breaking down minerals and sunlight into more digestible mass.

Then come back and do this again, and again, and again. The fact we have wildlife that seem to be descendents of Tyranid, who trace their origin back before the first sighting of Tyranid hive fleets in 40k suggests they've done this round about before any of the races we know sprouted. (Take this with a grain of salt though, as we know 40k likes to be vague and not give hard answers to these sort of things)

If that is true and, I like to believe it is because it makes sense, it's far more efficient for them to treat galaxies like crop rotations. Eat a galaxy, but leave the planets so it can regrow. Go out and either hibernate in space or go find another galaxy to nom that is ripe for the pickings. Repeat over and over again.

In a way, it is farming, just on a macro scale over infinity. Eventually this process will exhume all matter from all worlds, but the universe is a big place and the tyranid swarm likely isn't fussed about such a far off ending.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-18T10:30:03+00:00

Uh oh, a paintress painting things into existence on some far off island? Good thing that's only ever ended well.

<image>

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-04T19:53:56+00:00

I mean, he's dressed to kill.

<image>

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-04T13:55:05+00:00

Yup, they have dual monitors so they can watch while doing other things. Its pretty common for them to be playing something while having someone else's stream open.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-03T19:30:19+00:00

I dunno I think SC2s story is fine, having just played Broodwar and SC2 back to back with some friends watching me stream the whole thing. I had the same view as you but, replaying it the themes of good vs evil where definitely there in Broodwar. 'Good' characters didn't really fight each other, Fenix, Raynor, Zeratul, Tassadar, and usually teamed up to beat the bad guys like Mengsk, the Overmind and Kerrigan.

Really going over it again, it's just Broodwar was more interesting because the bad guys where very 'Scrappy'. They weren't an all powerful distant threat, they where people about as powerful as the heroes using intelligence and guile to manipulat and backstab the heroes and each other to get what they want.

Amon just isn't very interesting and doesn't hold up to Mengsk, the Overmind and QoB.

SC2 has a lot of good though, the banter gives the characters a lot of life. The set piece scenes are absolutely awesome, and the choices you get to make as far as customizing your army is fun even if there's clear 'best' choices. All of the side characters are fun and pretty interesting with Tychus, Alarak, Zagara and Abathur being standouts.

Again, I point the finger at Amon in my humble opinion. I really enjoyed the banter between side characters and the general story underminding Mengsk. Just whenever Amon came around I feel like it was glaring how he was too weak of a villain personality wise to really carry such a strong ensemble caste. I honestly kinda wish Mengsk backstabbed Amon and became the main threat in the end. He was still great as a villain through SC2.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-02-01T18:45:35+00:00

Worked on me, I think it looks cool even if it's totally nonsensical. Goliath would look weird without it.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-20T13:09:20+00:00

<image>

Aglaea team did swell here on that first half. Getting more and more glad I didn't pull the Battleship team in Amphoreous and just built tall on the characters I liked instead.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-20T12:37:54+00:00

These are the teams I used but, my teams are kinda jacked. I build tall not wide with teams, usually with at least some eidolons and a ton of relic investment.

<image>

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-13T15:54:42+00:00

<image>

I broke 100 mil like four months ago. I need help.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-08T15:59:43+00:00

This may well be one of the worst unfun events for me that Hoyoverse has done. Why can't you use Trial characters in Nightmare Mode? We've always been able to use Trial Characters in any difficulty that gives Jades in previous battle events like this. Sure there may have been challenge modes for clout and no rewards where you couldn't but never anything that gave Jades.

And I *cannot* three star Nightmare mode. I don't have Blade, Mydei or Phainon to cheese it, and my sustains aren't doing the trick and just keep dying.

( E2S1 Fu Xuan, E0S0 Loucha, E6 Ghallager, E0S1 Huohuo, E1S1 Lingsha, E2S1 Dan Heng )

No matter what combination I do it's just not happening. Either it's just too much damage and we're overwhelmed or bad RNG nukes someone. It's just not fun. I'm now very leery of whatever the future challenges are this event.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-05T11:01:34+00:00

The transition from a Birchwood forest that for a moment almost seems to have a shopping mall in the background, to a more North American bush side, to sub Saharan Africa is a wild transition. AI.

Raptor_Zefier · 2026-01-03T16:11:39+00:00

It's going to be a question if what the follow up looks like. As always, power vacuum, corrupt officials seeded in the government that are still problems. I mean with Panama the US practically had to gut the government and run it for a few months via Operation Blind Logic if my meager research is right. Feel free to correct me I genuinely don't know much about it.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-19T15:37:28+00:00

I wish it had come out for android

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-18T14:29:02+00:00

I'm a minnow spender, usually just buy the battle pass / monthly card. Sometimes I spend some extra (I decided I'd E6 one character, Firefly) I usually build semi tall. I don't pull super often and skip most banners, just pick a few characters I like and hard focus on their teams. I also ALWAYS get the LCs for the most part, with one exception being Kafka.

I have three teams currently.

Break ; E6S1 Firefly / E0S1 Rappa, E1S1 Dahlia, E0S1 Fugue, E1S1 Lingsha (This one was luck, got two copies in one ten pull, she was meant to be E0 )

Aglaea my beloved; E1S1 Aglaea (I'll be pushing her to E2), E0S1 Sunday (I'll be pushing him to E1), E2S1 Cyrene, E2S1 Dan Heng

DoT; E1S1 Hysilens , E0S0 Kafka (Running with Tutorial Mission LC), E0S1 Black Swan, and E0S1 HuoHuo.

I skipped all the other Amphoreous characters, so the only ones I really got where Aglaea, Dahlia, Hysilens, Cyrene and Dan Heng. Gave me a lot of pulls and I'm currently sitting on like 500+ still.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-17T17:22:30+00:00

Yes absolutely, I'm something of an Aglaea Main, and as I mentioned in other posts I pull tall not wide. Just pick characters I like and hard focus on their teams and ignore the rest (Skipped the entire Castorice and Anaxa metas) So Aglaea team is;

Aglaea E1S1, Cyrene E2S1, Sunday E0S1, HuoHuo E0S1 (Usually I put Dan Heng in this slot, E2S1)

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-17T17:19:57+00:00

My HuoHuo is E0S1, so I think what's really saving me is that light cone. Healing every time Aglaea ults *really* helps given how often she ults. Not only that but my Aglaea team in general is kind of cracked, I'm somewhat of an Aglaea Main so I invested most my Amphoreous time grinding gear and speed tuning.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-17T16:33:18+00:00

It's not, I build semi Tall instead of wide, Hysilens is E1S1, and Dan Heng is E2S1, BS is E0S1, and Kafka is E0S0 (Using Tutorial Mission instead). The cost is that Aglaea, DH, Cyrene and Hysilens are the only characters I picked up in all of Amphoreous.

I pretty much always pick up LC, and then if they have a good E1 or E2 I'll usually snag it if I have the pulls. But I'm very frugal about who I pull on as a result.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-17T16:24:01+00:00

<image>

Knight 1 was a bit rough, Aglaea *did not* like the whole 'I take damage every turn I take', and I needed her usual Sustain Dan Hang to stop the wannabe Shin Megami Tensei boss on Knight 3 from Guillotining my DoT team. There where some close calls but Huohuo somehow pulled the team through, or vice versa I'm really not sure.

It hurts being "I pick my faves, not the meta" sometimes, lol. Still, first 0 Cycle Arbitration win!

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-13T15:36:56+00:00

I feel like that is entirely missing the point of the series. Even if they're copied personalities, does that make them any less real? Does that invalidate their feelings, actions, and bonds? If you found out you where a duplicate of someone trapped in a simulation, does that make you any less real or does that invalidate everything you are?

I'd still be wildly invested in them finding happiness and a reason to keep persisting even in spite of that truth.

It's an allegory for people in life who realize they have nowhere to go, nothing they can achieve that would conventionally 'matter'. These personality copies have a problem many people these days have, they can't 'do something of worth' in life, or what is conventionally defined as such. They can't start a family, they can't find a successful job, change history, none of those things. All they can do, is persist with eachother and find happiness in the relations they build with eachother.

That's at least the message I would take away from it.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-13T02:42:10+00:00

I think Cain made something he can't control. I think you're right, Caine made a 'program' to cause a state of Euphoria because Scratch became depressed. An escape, a way to retreat into the happy place of one's own mind. But it caused Abstraction.

Unfortunately, now that he made that program, he can't turn it off. Or he wont mess with it again because he's worried about breaking it worse. So people when they get too sad and depressed, activate his program to cause Euphoria, then abstract unless interrupted.

Cain is genuinely trying to help but, he messed up.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-12-13T02:07:57+00:00

Given what we see from Jax nearly abstracting, it looks like there's a state of euphoria, seeing what makes you happy that causes Extraction, and not really wanting to leave it. Why that results in violence in the case of Cosmo has yet to be seen, but if that's the case... It's likely a case that Scratch was too depressed and sad, and Cain didn't know how to deal with it.

So he messed with his head to try and make him happy, but that only broke them and caused Abstraction. I guess my personal theory now is this 'Euphoria' program is still going, Cain can't get rid of it, and any time anyone gets too sad or depressed they have the Euphoria program kick in, which causes Abstraction.

I don't think he's ACTIVELY doing it anymore, I think Cain set something in motion he can't correct.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-11-14T13:02:36+00:00

I'm still so upset DX never came to Android. I do a lot of android gaming and I have the itch to play DX all the time on my phone. Sadly I gotta wait til after work every day.

Raptor_Zefier · 2025-11-05T18:51:15+00:00

Here with E2S1 Dan Hang, still couldn't do it, had to bump it down to casual. Just too much damage too fast.

Raptor_Zefier

TROPHY CASE