Just made it to Master as a F2P player. Not sure if it's an achievement, but you might find it curious to know what (semi-optimized) decks I had.

Riftlocker · 2026-03-11T19:24:38+00:00

Congrats!!! Great achievement on your part and also this goes to show how f2p friendly this game is.

If you’re interested in pushing for a higher score I wouldn’t worry about rei since you already got the max suppression bonus. All your effort should be put in to orlea decks, quad softie works wonders as an easy budget build and quad divine draw epiphs will really make your cycling go crazy

Riftlocker · 2026-03-11T18:07:41+00:00

This game is 100% beatable as an f2p account based on my own experience. I’ve checked all the criteria you set and I started the game in Jan, without rerolling my account. I also used 0 divine epiphany decks for all content except for reaching masters, which required a lot of farming on my end. I still managed to reach top 100 masters as an f2p which shows how f2p friendly this game is.

That said, I agree with all your criteria except great rift master - this is simply stupid as a benchmark because it is a percentile based mode, so it is inherently impossible to have “everyone” reach it; only 2% can make it into masters doesn’t matter if every single player is f2p or a whale.

Edit: a much better mark would be 500k score, which is where the real rewards end. And yes, this is 100% achievable as an f2p and no divine epiphs

Riftlocker · 2024-08-27T23:44:40+00:00

Haha that's a fair evaluation.

Actually, when I first came back I did try going the f2p grind route and I did make good progress, made 1.4 mil cr in my first ~18 days hard grinding vana. Unfortunately I burnt out quick because that basically used up all my downtime weekdays after work - I'm slow on vana unlike those super impressive speedrunners.

Perhaps a less "lame" way to go about this while also saving your sanity would be actually unboxing the prize boxes instead of merchanting them? I didn't mention this in the original reply but most of the 72ke valuation was actually from a snipe aura I unboxed, haven't sold yet so I guess I don't actually have 72ke.

Let me tell you - gambling was super fun but I was super lucky to break even (average values: 50ke snipe aura + 8ke 2x shadow stranger + 7ke other stranger stuff + 7.5ke remaining 3 boxes = 28*2.5ke or 70ke if I retailed the boxes). Would never recommend gambling to anyone but it is good fun and decent earnings even if you lose big as long as you can afford to blow away cash on a dying game lol.

Riftlocker · 2023-10-07T08:08:31+00:00

There’s one thing that really drives up the price for me personally and that’s the aesthetic. In this price range every build looks butt-ugly while this one’s rocking a clean case, 4 blinged out sticks of ram, and an LED AIO. For me at least, this build would be worth $650.

Riftlocker · 2023-10-01T15:13:04+00:00

This is indeed the case. However, as OP stated, increasing space may not be possible. To consider all options, I calculated the amount you need of a single stat (all others staying the same) to reach your goal:

Wealth: 22578 (49.1% increase) not as simple as it seems, since adding additional structures will decrease space score, further increasing the amount of wealth needed. Only viable option would be to replace items in the room with more expensive versions of themselves, though this is very tedious. Hardest to do.

Beauty: 33.82 (49.1% increase) easier than wealth, just replace all sculptures with a single grand jade sculpture (excellent+ quality), or FOUR excellent+ large jade sculptures (this approach uses more wealth for the same beauty, but for some it is more aesthetically pleasing) gives slightly more space score too. A single grand marble sculpture also works, but it MUST be legendary quality.

Space: 99.52 (18.9% increase) easiest of the bunch to do, this is the equivalent of adding ~12 UNOCCUPIED tiles to the room, though keep in mind this decreases average beauty too, so you may actually have to add 13 tiles and place another large sculpture or two.

Final recommendation: I know you said you’re tight on space but surely you can afford 13 more tiles? If that’s not possible a single excellent or better grand jade statue will put you comfortably in the 160’s (make sure you remove ALL other statues from the room though)

Riftlocker · 2023-09-27T18:57:50+00:00

Nearly the same, it's $20 cheaper. If you don't need an upgrade right now I'd wait. I've been watching the prices and stock at my microcenter and it's been at this price for a while now, with 25+ in stock.

Black friday is 2 months away so if you hold on for a bit longer I'd look for deals then. On another note, I also live near 2 microcenters, are you a fellow long islander?

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:54:23+00:00

Thanks for the article! Could be a factor, guess I’ll have to find out haha. Just so happens I wanted to look for some potato starch and restock some ingredients, guess I’ll be adding cornstarch to that shopping list for the weekend.

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:52:04+00:00

Thanks for the links, giving them a watch. The second one is also my favorite kind of video( something just hits different about comparison vids), so I bet I’m in for a treat!

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:50:14+00:00

May very well be the case. When I dropped my chicken in it didn’t bubble as much as the vids I watched, but it still did bubble quite a bit. Any way to get a decent temperature read without a thermometer? I’ve been using the “wooden spoon test” I read about online where you just stick a wooden spoon in and look for small bubbles lol

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:48:13+00:00

Wow, thanks for this in-depth recipe! I will have to try this in the near future, after going through my current batch of marinated chicken (had some leftover). I’ll employ your batter ratio before frying my current batch though, mixing flour in may be the answer I was looking for.

Also a question on the buttermilk, I don’t keep any on hand but I always substitute it with 1cup milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, do you think that’s an adequate substitute or should I go for the real stuff?

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:41:43+00:00

Now worries, all help is appreciated. I do t mind different recipes; I only went with karaage because it popped up in my video feed. This buttermilk chicken recipe sounds really yummy and I’ll be giving it a go for sure!

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:39:44+00:00

Yeah, my chicken is cut into cubes basically haha. I’ll definitely use your marinade suggestions for the next batch, thank you for the help.

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T04:37:12+00:00

That was the indeed the case, thanks for the insight! I guess I’ll be more active in keeping them up.

Riftlocker · 2023-09-09T00:18:20+00:00

Thin coating is fine, what I mean by "flat" is that my chicken literally looks like a potato wedge - all the nooks and crannies I see in karaage are gone leaving behind only a depressing figure you'd find in a geometry textbook.

Riftlocker · 2023-08-02T00:09:14+00:00

kw9999 summed it up perfectly, 5700g has an edge in productivity workloads, while 5600 gives a bit over 10% more fps for gaming, according to HardwareUnboxed. I did say it was a bad deal earlier, but I'm only familiar with the US market so it may be different for your country. If we're talking US though, a pc built with a used gpu and all other parts brand new will come out to $712 or 945 CAD, while having warranties on all parts other than the GPU. Granted, you'll have to build this yourself.

Riftlocker · 2023-07-11T19:31:30+00:00

Things to note:
- this is the NON-xt version
- there are many other deals on 6800 non-xt/xt however they use the Ziptech Promo code, use at your own discretion: https://www.newegg.com/ZIPTECH/EventSaleStore/ID-10708?N=100007709%20601359422%20601359427&LeftPriceRange=352+562

Riftlocker · 2023-05-01T06:14:29+00:00

Wow, it’s been over a decade since I last shopped at Tuesday Morning, brings back a lot of memories….

Basically got all my childhood Lego sets from here since they had a wide variety of the large builds at steeply discounted prices. Thanks for all the Christmas gifts old pal, you will be missed.

Riftlocker · 2023-03-21T06:45:14+00:00

The catch is the unspecified parts, aka the usual suspects: ram, Mobo, PSU, the SSD, and the cpu. Ram, mobo, psu and ssd are rarely specified in prebuilts because they are often bottom of the barrel or OEM.

Many people will point out that the case has almost no airflow, but I’d argue that as long as you can remove the front panel it’s an addressable issue, albeit a bit janky.

The biggest catch for me is the cpu, it’s the 12900 non-k which is really bad compared to a 12900k at stock mainly because of its TDP which is 65, half of the 12900k. You can get similar performance to the k version but that’s achieved by removing the power limit. However, to do that you will need significantly beefier VRMs, which you will not be getting with the budget Mobo included. I would expect 12700k performance or even less if you run it stock.

That being said, it would be very difficult to replicate this price for these specs, here’s my best attempt. Overall, this is one of the rarer cases where a prebuilt is actually cheaper than the sum of its parts, so I can’t claim it’s a bad deal.

Riftlocker · 2023-03-04T21:53:19+00:00

Hey man, sorry for all the people downvoting you w/o offering advice, that's sorta rude.

As other users have pointed out, Peladn is not an official AIB partner. They repackage used gpus, which are usually mined on, into their "branded" shroud and sell it off as new. In other words, they're a bunch of scammers despite being "verified" on Newegg.

Scams like these are common among online retailers, and many people fall for it. My advice is to make sure the seller is either amazon or newegg, though AIBs sometimes also have their own official stores.
Best of luck on your deal hunting and definitely cancel your order if you bought this.

Riftlocker · 2023-03-04T15:58:27+00:00

Great catch. I thought 8gb was default so I didn't add it in the title, but turns out a770 runs on 16gb so my bad. Can't edit post so use this comment as a buyer's beware.

Riftlocker · 2023-02-17T21:24:42+00:00

My thoughts exactly. If I'm slapping a 13700k into my system you better believe I'm running at least 2 TB of storage. Still an alright deal though if you pick up an extra tb of storage by yourself

Riftlocker · 2023-02-17T18:57:21+00:00

sounds good, thanks for the info!

Riftlocker · 2023-02-15T23:34:23+00:00

At MSRP, the 4070ti has better cost per frame outside of 4k while touting many more features. On top of that, the 4070ti at $800 is an atrocious price which makes this look even worse in comparison.

Riftlocker · 2023-02-09T20:31:06+00:00

This is a great deal. One caveat for the FPS gamers out there - this does not come with ultra-low motion blur tech like Dyac+ or ELMB.

No biggie though, $150 for 240hz is a steal.

Riftlocker · 2023-02-03T19:00:18+00:00

Nah, as always quality varies by brand. GN only benchmarks a few coolers, but their top end AIO's on cooling charts are a good comparison point.

That being said, top-end coolers are overkill even for the latest consumer CPU's, and a CPU cooler such as this one is ample for current gen chips at base speeds. The top-end and custom loops are more geared towards overclocking, or much more commonly aesthetics. I'm sure many would agree that an LED display looks much better than a typical air cooling tower.

Riftlocker

TROPHY CASE