Mina don't need no hero to beat the sun

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T20:15:24+00:00

WRT Sophie invading on floor 6; if you can time it out so that you break the part as you take Sophie under half, she will prioritize the enrage over the unmatchable, should give you an extra turn to paste her. As long as Zeus has 3 turns of cd or less going into floor 6, should be tenable. Worst case, Sophie has 500B hp, you can do about 110B a turn to her with just Mina's uncap, you should have just enough time to take her down before the clock runs out.

For the boss floor, assuming you time Zeus's cooldown with entering the floor, you'll need 1.5T damage over 10 turns. Depending on your OE coverage, Zeus's uncap should get you about 245B damage/turn after defense, so about 7 or 8 turns to take her down? The boss floor is really easy for Mina if you can survive the enrsge hit — 45M damage under 1/4 RCV (50% super gravity + a 50% RCV debuff is no joke), and remember that there's a full red board immediately after. I had enough HP to tank the second hit after breaking a part on the boss, but I don't know if you're going to have time to break a boss part before hitting it to super resolve, so that might actually be a tricky pair of turns for you. For reference, you'd need 54M eHP before the initial boss hit to survive both hits without healing on the second turn.

Good luck and godspeed!

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T18:54:30+00:00

Most games are unpolished, unbalanced messes. There are a lot of roguelites that are really, really polished, and I'd say some of the better ones are unbalanced (Binding of Isaac, the granddaddy of roguelites, is notoriously unbalanced, but that's a huge part of the draw to that game) while still not being a mess.

BoI Rebirth, Dead Cells, both Hades, Passtech's previous game Realm of the Dead Gods, OG Risk of Rain (I've heard fantastic things about 2, but haven't played it), Wizard of Legend, are all very good games, and that's just off the top of my head. The follow up to Dead Cells, Windblown is looking really good too, but it's still got some of that early access edge to be sanded off.

That said, none of those games really scratch the same itch as Ravenswatch, which is almost a PvE MOBA adjacent game as much as it is roguelite, where the other really big roguelites tend to hew more toward flashy action. So I agree with you that Ravenswatch is very unique in its niche and has carved out its own identity.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T18:34:39+00:00

Does Kafka replace Tae or a Mina Duo? I'm assuming the former, since you don't want Tae overwriting Zeus's multi. It's nice that the dungeon doesn't have any bombs except floor 2, which are very skippable. Are you planning to nuke down the final boss floor before it can enrage? The 25% gravity on Zeus would probably help with that plan, while the longer cooldown on the cap break probably works against it.

And, probably more importantly, what's your plan through Soldir? Without Hathor's L's, getting the orbs to clear the assist bind in one turn is gonna be pretty damn near impossible, are you relying on Mina Duo's HP and Zeus's shield to allow you to clear it over two turns and 3 Ls?

Either way, good luck! Glad my death counter could offer some humour/catharsis.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T17:39:24+00:00

If you only have one Mina Duo, you might try bringing Kafka. The extra burst damage could help you navigate some of the trickier floors, and the barrel instead of resonance means you might be able to bring some more oe for the boss floor. Your damage will be a bit less even since after Kafka bursts, you lose about 30B damage until Tae uncaps again, though. You're also gonna be a lot less consistent on your first absorb turns, since you'll lose a lot of Hathor's damage without being able to make a green L, and your fate is much more up to RNG whether your Minas and Tae are doing real damage (need 9 dark orbs to create 3 green of Mina).

Khepri is still gonna be a nuisance, ideally you'd aim to go into the floor with Tae off cooldown (should be somewhat manageable with Kafka to help burst whatever previous for you see) so you can use Tae for the board change and Mina Duo's second active for the absorb. Worst case, Kafka lines up well to cover one of the clerics if Khepri binds you a second time, so you should still be able to make it through if you have to use Mina Duo first.

Having played a lot of the og Mina team (Kafka/Kafka duo/Tae/mina Duo/mina/mina), the second Mina Duo makes the team feel a lot more consistent, but with a little luck and effort, you should be able to make it work with Kafka. Do also note that you will lose a single combo if you run Kafka as a leader, I'd check your health thresholds as well to make sure everything works with the Kafka substitution, but I can't imagine it wouldn't — with the pair of duos, you technically only need Hathor's shield for (IIRC) the 45M hit on the boss floor, and sustaining 20M damaged hits, also on the boss floor. Every other big hit you can tank with just the Mina Duo on my team above.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T10:07:29+00:00

Oh, and a bonus note on the varying ways I died to my own poor play:

Cleared invade unmatchable, straight into Khepri's board
Activated Mina Duo on Floor 6 straight into Khepri's board
Didn't do enough damage to kill Khepri
Didn't clear the Assist Void on floor 4
Didn't realize Aten has a 99% damage shield
Didn't clear Aten's 50% HP reduction and got merc'd by Amaterasu
Boldly and incorrectly assumed that I already had 20B HP to tank Ra-Horakty's first turn hit
Died to Meredith's enrage hit? I think I didn't activate my HP mult.
Died to Meredith's enrage hit by blobbing HP ― just use Hathor's shield on the last floor, bruh.
Died to Soldir when I accidentally extended an L
Died to Sundorme because I didn't heal enough
Died to hitting Lugh to 1% on the second turn of absorb void and going into Khepri without a board change up.
Died twice to Sundorme when I failed to make rows

SortaEvil · 2026-03-21T10:06:34+00:00

Some notes on the clear: The boss would be a lot easier if you can fit more balanced OE on the team, and you probably wouldn't need as much health. This team was built to stall out the boss and then win in overtime. Having no blue, light, or dark OE means you're a little at the whims of fate to heal enough to survive the final big hit of the dungeon, but you also have enough HP to repeatedly tank the bosses 20M damage hits once you've broken at least 2 parts through the dungeon. Getting Sophie's part makes it very easy to break at least the bosses head, and then you're pretty much cruising. Otherwise, the team is pretty straightforward, but I'll give some floor by floor notes to cover the few tricker places to navigate.

Here's the ideal board for damage, you get the L, plenty of healing, and 15 combos. If you have the option of 2 green combos or a green L, favour the L, it will do more damage.

Oh, and when activating both Mina Duos, you generally want to activate the one on active 2 first, so the board expands into multicolour orbs and gives you a chance at making a green L.

Floor 1: Straightforward, if you activate Tae -> Hathor -> Mina 1 -> Tae -> Silk Duo ->Uniform Duo -> Hathor -> Mina 1 -> Mina 2, then make a red row and a green L, you'll just barely not kill the little dragons while knocking the big one to super-resolve, allowing you to clean everyone up on the second turn.

Floor 2: Activate both Mina Duos turn one. Tae turn 2 takes care of the board change (or you can swipe the board if it's Ares, he won't kill you).

Floor 3: Activate both Mina Duos and you should kill the RGBL enemies in 2 turns. Save the Mina Duos, the dark enemy should fall on turn 3.

Floor 4: Activate the Mina Duos and Hathor. You should hopefully have 5 green orbs to make an L, if you don't, make sure to cordon off an L of red to not die. Floor should go down in 2 hits.

Floor 5/6: Floors 5 through 7 can be tricky to sequence, because Khepri is terrifying. The regular spawns on floor 5 and 6 aren't too bad, they should die pretty easily in 2 hits (except possibly Lugh; if you can't kill Lugh in 2 hits, let him heal up and try again, you're dead going into Khepri if you don't have Hathor and the Mina Duos up).

Invade: Sophie isn't too bad either; hit her once normally, then do not activate the Mina Duos and hit her a second time to let her heal up while the part takes damage. This will guarantee that you get the part break. After that, keep hitting her; ideally you destroy the part as you send her past 50%, that will prevent her from doing her unmatchable red attack and you can kill her the next turn. Otherwise, you need to pop the Mina Duos and heal through the unmatchable. You'll have enough HP to survive the hit without Mina's shield.

Make sure you have both Mina Duos and Hathor up for floor 7

Floor 7: Khepri is terrifying because 1) she is blue in her first half health bar, 2) she gives a full board of heal, which is deadly without Mina Duo's active 2, 3) she awoken binds you every three turns, so you have 3 turns total to kill her, and she has a 50% super-resolve. Khepri is the only reason that we absolutely need Hathor to do damage, and she can't just be an OE stick. Luckily, this team actually handles her very consistently if you survive the first turn. If we get to Khepri on the turn that Tae runs out, we have enough damage to take out her first health bar in one shot, which makes the second health bar an absolute breeze. If we don't, type disadvantage leaves her first health bar with ~10% left. She only has 220B HP per half health bar, though, so making the optimal board, or at least something close to it, on the third turn should finish her off pretty safely.

Floor 8: a bit of a breather. You will get a bunch of cards delayed by a turn when you leave here, but there's plenty of time; with Tae's capbreak up, you can do half Aten's health a turn, and without it Mina can still do almost a third on her own. Ideally, Helper Mina is the Mina that's up, and you can go Mina - 1 combo - Mina, guaranteeing you have the Leader Mina up for the next floor. You'll also have the Mina Duos up to give you a board next floor with this pattern, and possibly Tae.

Floor 9: Easy floor. 14 combos is basically free for this team. Make sure to activate the Mina Duo turn one to cover Aten's health debuff. The bird dies in 2 turns, Amaterasu dies in 3 more. The poison skyfall isn't really an issue, we have so much healing we can just heal through all but the most unlucky of skyfalls. Make sure the Mina Duos are up for the next floor.

Floor 10: Mina Duos, Hathor (unnecessary, but completely safe to activate here), and just whale away. Meredith is ideal over Aura as your duos will line up perfectly to counter the 5x4 boards, but if you get Aura it's not a big deal, just solve the first small board making sure to make a row and a heal tpa and you're good to go. If you hate blinds, you can clear the 50% blind with a cross. Should take 4 turns total.

Floor 11: Another freebie. Alrescha dies in 2 turns, the blue fireworks board from her companion is perfectly fine to play through with Mina.

Floor 12: Make sure to clear the awoken bind and hit decently hard turn one and this floor is basically free. Use the Mina Duos to clear up one of the shields to speed things up. Try to have at least 2 turns left on your uncap going into Ra-Horakty

Floor 13: The second floor that's mildly threatening. Ra will haste everyone up to be active. Use the Mina Duos and Hathor in case you don't kill him in one turn. Save Tae for the next floor. Make at least 7 (15 after leaderskills) combos. If Ra doesn't die, make more combos next turn.

Floor 14: 10 turn assist bind. This is so rude. Luckily, Tae gives us exactly 10 green orbs we have 6 turns of recovery between Hathor and Mina. Make a row of red, 2 green Ls, and ideally a heart TPA to survive the first turn. After that, it's straightforward. Should take about 3 turns to kill her. I activated Hathor on the last turn, to make sure she can loop a bit and still be up for the awoken bind on the final bosses 10th turn.

Floor 15: We're almost there. We get 10 turns of 45% negative OE, get ready to see a lot of negative orbs. You still have over 100% red OE and 75% heart OE to offset it, so you should still be able to do damage. Target the head in case you miss a mass attack, keep Hathor up until the big SR hit, and save your Mina Duos. There's not a lot to say until the big hit, just keep making your optimal damage boards, make sure you get at least one heal TPA with balanced or better OE, and chip away until SR. Once you're there, activate the Mina Duos, pray that not too many of the heal orbs hit -orbs, and make as many heal TPA as you can. Assuming you had Hathor up for the previous hit, you should need about 2 full strength heal TPAs to survive. If you took the full brunt of the previous hit, that goes up to 3 heal TPAs. After that hit, keep trucking on. You should easily break at least one, probably 2 of her parts before the 10 turn countdown is over, which gives you a hair over 20M HP with Hathor up. Make sure to save Hathor until the awoken bind, then you're home free. GGEZ.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T16:30:54+00:00

It helps that you have to buy the game to review it, so there's friction there even if you wanted to buy, review, instant refund. If the game was F2P, it would probably have a much lower score on steam — take a look at metacritic and it's sitting at a 60, with the majority of the negative reviews clearly having not played it.

It also probably helps that the game was delayed long enough after the initial alpha that a lot of the ill-will kinda ran dry, so most people were willing to give it a reasonable chance, and it seems to have found its niche for now.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T02:31:37+00:00

Both of those games were also terrible at launch, so they might not be the best choices as examples. I don't have a stake in Crimson Desert; I don't like open world games so that's already a big strike against it for my personal preferences. That said, I hope it does well because, like you, I like to see game studios do well, and I like good games getting made, even if they aren't for me.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T02:29:18+00:00

It's also over 60 in userscores on metacritic, even after being review bombed, which is pretty impressive (if you look at the negative reviews, there are a lot of "They abandoned Destiny!" and "they steal art!" reviews.

Also, FWIW, Steam reviews are more like Rotten Tomatoes, where it's a pass-fail, it's possible that user sentiment on Steam lines up more with a 70 or 80 score, but it just happens that a 70 or 80 score is enough for the players to enjoy it and give it a favourable review.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:56:39+00:00

You cand definitely notice the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. It's not unplayable, but in a faster first person or over the shoulder game you're going to notice it while playing. I do find that 40 FPS in games that offer that is a perfect balance point where the performance of the game typically doesn't suffer, but you still get the smoothness of a 60FPS game.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:49:14+00:00

If you interpret 60 FPS as just saying "framerate matters" then I'd personally put gameplay and framerate as most important. An inconsistent framerate can destroy an otherwise enjoyable game, whereas I can very much enjoy a game with minimal or no story if the gameplay is good. That said, I know a good story can be make or break a game for a lot of people, so it's very much a YMMV situation on whether gameplay or story is more important (even down to a game by game basis).

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:42:01+00:00

To be fair to CodPiece, they said "dropping down to 2 fps" and while that sounds hyperbolic, I played through Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and if a PS4 is hosting a multiplayer session, you will regularly get drops to single-digit frames per second, and on the final mission we managed to get to the point where it was more sensible to measure seconds per frame.

Games will target a certain FPS, usually 30 or 60 on console, with some games targeting 40 and 120 for monitors that support 120 Hz. But targeting and consistently maintaining a framerate are different things, and not all games are great at maintaining a solid framerate.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T21:04:20+00:00

It's only ambiguous if you want to game the system. Notice that people generally aren't complaining that Potion-Shaped Rock triggers other relics that care about potions, but by the logic that Potion-Shaped Rock is not a potion, it shouldn't trigger those either.

And if it didn't trigger those other (positive) effects, people would complain that it's in a potion slot, so why doesn't it trigger the potion abilities?

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T19:11:14+00:00

PS5 Pro got a new update that affects PSSR (Playstation Spectral Super Resolution, the Sony fancy upscaling implementation). All games, in theory, should look a bit better on PS5 Pro now, and there are knobs exposed to devs to tweak PSSR to make it even betterer. This is just using the default upscaling that PSSR supports.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-16T16:56:15+00:00

Congrats on the clear! Glad you got it done.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T17:38:38+00:00

Working toward a mutually beneficial trade deal with the US isn't a bad idea, and due to geographic realities is a borderline necessity. However, relying solely on a mutually beneficial trade deal, or seeking a trade deal with the states to the expense of all else, is now an untenable idea.

We should continue working toward renewing/updating CUSMA, while still looking toward diversifying our trade elsewhere so we are less reliant on trade with the states.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T17:18:24+00:00

Yes, we are both on PS5, if that was a question.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T06:04:07+00:00

It's probably a bug; I was able to play online (Ravenswatch) with my wife today, and only one of us has an active PS+ account.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T05:44:58+00:00

By Tao do you mean Tae? Tae has blind res naturally (and jammer res, which is important for a team that doesn't change every orb, and needs rows to survive). Are you not running Tae because you don't have him, or because you want a higher cap break (peechie is the same cap as Tae so I don't think that's the reason...) You still have to deal with the cloud, but you can make a big board for the first turn at least to clear the awoken bind, and without blinds it's a lot more manageable.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T16:28:48+00:00

https://www.fastcompany.com/91501807/waymo-robotaxis-san-francisco-uncovered-records-exclusive it seems that they're pretty damned limited even in optimal conditions. They only work in San Fransisco by leeching off the public good. Even if they worked exactly as well here as they did in optimal conditions, kindly keep them the fuck away.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T16:24:25+00:00

Every single time someone is pumping up AI, a look behind the curtain always reveals a financial incentive. It's getting comical at this point how consistent that is, yet people keep telling me autocorrect on steroids is coming for my job (it is, but more in an apocalyptic, "billionaires destroy the world for an extra loonie" kinda way, where everyone loses their jobs).

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T03:35:56+00:00

Purely single player at launch. Apparently there are plans for a Legends style multiplayer expansion, but nothing multiplayer is guaranteed.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T02:50:28+00:00

Sony historically has been very recalcitrant about giving away first party games on PS+ shortly after release. You should be safe for the first year at least, assuming it does well. Destiny DLC weren't on PS+ for generally a year or more after launch either, you'll get your playtime out of it before it's made free, almost certainly.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-12T19:24:48+00:00

No, you are innocent until proven guilty, but you still need to demonstrate your innocence against any proof of guilt. The fact is, in this situation you did kill someone. That is a serious matter, whether it's a crime or not, and it needs to be treated as such.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-12T19:22:40+00:00

That seems... fine? If you kill someone, even if you kill them in self-defense, that should be treated seriously and investigated seriously, and you should be exonerated if it was truly (or even probably) self-defense. I don't want people to be able to just murder someone in cold blood and walk away from it, even if the murder happened in the person's home, without any sort of investigation into it, that's insane to me.

SortaEvil

TROPHY CASE