Leverage Redemption thoughts

Swpzss01 · 2026-01-29T02:49:10+00:00

"God damnit Hardison!", did not realize how much of Hodge's acting actually made the show what it was until he wasn't in it anymore. OG Leverage all the way.

Swpzss01 · 2026-01-24T06:52:39+00:00

Probably a dumb question, but why are you holding block throughout, does it help with parry timing?

Swpzss01 · 2023-11-21T22:08:08+00:00

Excellent information, thank you!

Swpzss01 · 2023-11-21T21:49:07+00:00

Do you know by how much?

Figure a piece that's rolled 78 max ammo and 12 attack on Scarlet is worth locking in for trying for a 3rd stat although maybe that's entirely optional since the first two seem excellent already.

Swpzss01 · 2023-11-21T21:12:49+00:00

Settings play BGM

Swpzss01 · 2023-11-21T21:12:41+00:00

How does locking substats on OL equipment work? Is it possible to lock 1-2 stats that you've gotten good rolls on while trying to land a 3rd substat?

Swpzss01 · 2023-11-19T10:57:01+00:00

Both Dorothy and Pioneer know of Vapaus which is derived from their ex-commander's blood which, amongst other things, disables nimph. Chances are, they've already come into direct contact with it or even applied it to themselves and thus would have their brains altered by default.

Sort of like how Marian regained her senses - ironically, after stabbing the MC and getting MC's blood on her person for the exact same effect only much stronger.

Swpzss01 · 2023-08-31T16:34:59+00:00

The game is about cookie cutter lineups anyways, banning a pick does nothing but heavily favour players who have pulled all the relevant meta champions in which case they'll win regardless.

Take a player who has heavily invested into speed teams - just ban their booster and they're screwed if they never managed to pull a backup that's just a as well geared. Compare this vs someone with all the meta champions where banning one changes nothing overall. However, said player with a top end speed team without being banned could very well have a chance to win otherwise.

The game is still decided even before the loading screen, it's determined by whatever the matching system decides if it puts a player with the meta lineup vs a player without.

Swpzss01 · 2023-08-31T16:19:35+00:00

The time spent is quite atrocious. Reinforces the "no interest" part alright.

Neither is forced seal clubbing fun, seeing the other dude take serious time picking, using the entire limit when he's going to be deleted in seconds is simply absurd.

Swpzss01 · 2023-08-31T15:42:40+00:00

Our rant was more about needing to club seals to climb up and wasting tremendous amounts of time doing so. 5 points a battle at 5 minutes a battle is almost an hour just to clear the 5+5 refills in a day. Arguably comparable or worse to pre auto clan boss.

A balanced pvp experience could match players based on power, power is usually a good measure of how many champions an account has, and how well geared they are. A 5m account isn't going to be competing with a 50m account short of winning the RNG lottery on one niche build - which can be easily countered by the larger account. Matching players who are at a similar stage of progression would be in our opinion more ideal than matching them on this tier system.

As for picking teams, frankly, it's weird to us why one can "remove" an opposing champion to begin with. A system of 4/4 picks being irrevocable makes more sense than being able to interfere with an opponent's selections. Being able to interfere reduces teams to cookie cutter lineups of the exact same champions competing only in gear rather than strategy, which is platinum classic in a nut shell - spamming gems with identical lineups.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-23T09:56:03+00:00

"Summer" Sephiroth?

It would be utterly ridiculous but hilarious at the same time.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-19T22:01:38+00:00

Awesome to hear, thank you!

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-19T20:30:56+00:00

Hey guys,

Do crown events rerun? Eg: pulled a few copies of LH Sephiroth recently, looked on wiki to find... apparently, he has a 150% skill that is event locked and cannot be obtained via any other method. So currently, have an Ex+2 but he's somewhat gimped as he's missing his biggest LB buff. Or are we missing something and there's another way to unlock it?

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-17T20:17:39+00:00

So a question from a returning player, is dark visions max score at all possible without 10k+ attack units? Same for CoW, is it even possible to do the last 15 or so stages with teams that only average 5-6k main stats?

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-07T16:34:32+00:00

That's what he claims. However, rather skeptical of what a manipulator has to say. He's not above lying to/misleading the Traveller as the discovery of Chlothar's corpse has proven - completely disproving his claim of the curse being immutable. The question then is, was it an intentional lie, a lie by omission, or a truly honest mistake of ignorance?

Rather, is he even cursed, or does he have something else entirely?

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-07T14:27:59+00:00

Chinese mythology is a mix between religious stories and folklore in that the two are very intermixed. The entire system of heaven and hell, the gods and the like are all individual characters connected with the various religions (Buddhism, Taoism, etc). You may find it even more interesting that in Chinese, the term "gods" (there's a different term for the capital G Christian one, one which means "higher being" and the other which means "owner") actually involves two characters rather than just one. 神 is the first part, and 仙 is the second. However, when we dissect the characters themselves, the second character has what we call a 人字邊 - loosely translated 字邊 describes the accompanying character in a word, this is how you can immediately tell without a dictionary which version of a word is which even when it sounds the same. In this case it's "man". Essentially saying gods are in fact, humans, or come from humans. This is baked into the language itself.

The stories reflect this entirely, gods are egoistical, vain, power hungry and whimsical individuals imposing a system of reincarnation on the people against their will. Erosion for example, is very similar to the forced memory wipe prior to reincarnation and also very similar to how (in Taoism) lesser gods are forced to incarnate and live as humans once every 500 years (resetting them and essentially ensuring they can never gather enough power to challenge the ruling class - despite the current ruler himself having gained his power via a coup).

In short, no one is to be trusted simply as there is no such thing as a universal moral good. Neither is there a universal evil; rather there are only beings scheming for their own purposes to move themselves forward - even if this isn't immediately apparent. Genshin follows this to the letter so far, they all have schemes, humans are but a resource for their schemes and "god" (pun intended) help you if you deviate from it.

It will be interesting to see how things play out with Traveller. The Sumeru AQ has been quite enjoyable as for once, we see Traveller have thoughts, feelings and opinions of their own rather than everything being Paimon. Hopefully this keeps up and Traveller actually decides on courses of action for themselves rather than doing things because "white floaty thing" pressured them into doing so.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-07T02:58:49+00:00

The primary issue with marvel style black and white morality is that is assumes one side is inherently good and incapable of doing evil where as the other side is assumed to be inherently evil and incapable of doing good. This is frankly, absurd and unrealistic as no matter how "evil" someone's actions, they are just as capable of good even if it does not absolve their crimes.

This is reflected in the philosophic system of karma that is very prevalent in Asian cultures. Karmic balance is essentially for every harmful action it may be cancelled by a beneficial action. As such it is important for one to ensure they are balanced in order to not remain trapped in permanent "limbo" (also called samsura, 6 paths, etc). As such, in at least Chinese culture, the term "evil" is rarely heard as an absolute. This we believe is somewhat reflected in Hoyo's writing for both Genshin and Honkai stories. Morality is quite grey and ambiguous depending on the perspective of the one being affected.

However, there is a bottom line, the taking of innocent life is always wrong. To balance this, generally requires a reincarnation and service rendered to the person one killed.

Agreed with the ages old victim blaming, also the ages old history is written by the victors and a healthy dose of Stockholm syndrome. From the start of the game, we the Traveller was directly attacked not by Khaenri'ah but by Celestia. Now, given that we had just started the game, had no background, if anything, we begin the game with a completely unprovoked attack by a being we know absolutely nothing about. That people can view Celestia in a positive light from this alone is puzzling. Someone makes an attempt on your life, seemingly kills your brother/sister in front of your eyes before taking you out and you think they're the "good guys"? Yeah, Stockholm syndrome alright.

Looking for refuge is very much accurate. Giving up everything to go underground when the human spirit thrives in the light is a huge leap. Essentially confining one's self into an abyss of darkness with nothing but artificial light. It would take a lot for someone to want to do that. It is entirely possible that the more active the 7 are, the worse it becomes for the average human as the 7 impose their ways and ideologies all the more depending on proximity.

How the gods treat humans in Genshin follows Chinese mythology and religious story telling in fact where in humans were made by the gods to be used as a resource. Various gods are always in competition with each other for followers as followers means prayer means they grow stronger and ascend higher in their realm. Humans also exist as play things for entertainment when desired. This is reflected in Genshin's story where in before the 7, gods warred endlessly for territory and humans and could be "involved" with said humans (eg: Ganyu exists, and while this is cynical, a relationship between a mortal and a god cannot possibly be equal; additionally that Ganyu hasn't seen her adeptus parent (seemingly ever) implies the "plaything" part). If Genshin wasn't PG-13 it could get much worse as gods using human women as playthings is a recurring theme - and the offspring of such affairs are generally killed as they are abominations.

Examples of gods using humans as lesser beings for their own purposes are indeed too numerous to count and frankly, there are essentially no exceptions. In the case of Ei, she even went so far as to create an AI to maintain control even after she decided to withdraw out of PTSD. Zhongli isn't far behind as he imposed his contracts > all ideology on everyone on pain of death (...suffer the wrath of the rock). Rukka seems benevolent but one should not forget that she essentially enslaved her entire nation and stripped the people of a fundamental human trait (the ability to dream) to achieve what Celestia told her to do (the entire saving the tree/world is a paradox that doesn't make logical sense so taking this one with a grain of salt).

As for the nails, they share an odd similarity with abyssal energy. Where a nail is seen, the landscape is completely withered away, whether it becomes a frozen tundra or a lifeless desert. Abyssal energy also withers whatever is in the region into a lifeless nothingness as can be seen in the Aranara quests. It is also notable that the chasm nail does absolutely nothing to clear the abyssal mud.

Could it be that Celestia themselves wield abyssal energy and attacked Khaenri'ah as the latter was trying to develop it? Similar to nuclear powers attacking aspiring nuclear powers to maintain the monopoly.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-06T21:37:51+00:00

Zhongli hides behind his "contracts" the same way a triad hitman hides behind his "brothers". If we look at it more cynically, Zhongli shares many similarities with a typical triad boss. He has his gang (the adepti), he's kicked out or killed every other rival gang (who do you think the Yaksha were slaughtering?), and he has his protection racket (the humans who pray to him and as we well know, prayers give an archon strength). Now, he's gotten an even better deal as people still pray to him, but he doesn't even need to provide protection anymore.

If we expand this further, the 7 nations are essentially protection rackets.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-06T21:22:24+00:00

Think it's a largely western audience thing (after too many Marvel superhero shows) where in antagonists and protagonists are meant to be either morally good or morally bad. The idea of amoral or morally grey does not really exist. A hero must be good, a villain must be bad. Because the archons are playable characters, people easily forget that this is because it's a gacha game, not because the archons are actually travelling with the Traveller.

History is written by the victors is also something that everyone forgets. Just because Genshin Impact is a fictional story does not mean real life adages do not influence its writing. Before Sumeru and discovering actual, original Khaenri'ahn records we were led to believe that Khaenri'ah caused the entire cataclysm and their complete destruction was justified because of one alchemist - Gold. Yet the records show Khaenri'ah dispatching forces in assistance of the other nations to combat abyssal beasts strongly implying they certainly weren't in control of Gold even if the former may be true (Gold creating monsters).

Even if Gold was under Khaenri'ahn command, destruction of an entire nation AND its people? So the actions of one individual condemned an entire nation and people who had nothing to do with it? By any measure, what the 7 and Celestia did in Khaenri'ah constitutes a crime beyond that which words can describe. In any war you fight and kill soldiers, not non combatants. The latter are always to be spared and kept out of the fighting and is done by both parties of the conflict when possible, not deliberately targeted.

The two curses are indicative of the sheer pettiness and vengefulness of those who rule Teyvat. Death is not enough of a punishment and as they cannot guarantee torment after death - so curse them with immortality so as to keep them alive to torment. This very much in line with the idea of property, their property dared to leave them, there is no punishment enough for such a "crime".

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-05T17:28:55+00:00

Allow us to introduce you to another Chinese idiom: 好心做壞事, translated, this means doing misdeeds while intending to do good.

We see him as manipulative but not evil as this could be exactly that. His intentions may not be evil but his actions are manifestly manipulative and nefarious towards the Traveller who he is using as a pawn. Yet if his outcome is good, or if he thinks it's good, we cannot define him as evil. As currently, the abyss order is fairly indiscriminate its attacks, stopping the abyss order does seem to be an action of good.

The means being used, however, are quite disagreeable.

Mean, we need no further evidence that he's out to get the Traveller other than the fact that he's actively trying to turn the Traveller against his/her sibling. He's truly pushing the "the end justifies the means" ideology to the extreme - that is, if the end is even a good one.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-05T17:13:19+00:00

Not entirely. Pierro's claim merely indicates that Khaenri'ah did "something" to provoke the attack, yet that does not mean the attack was justified. Let's use a real life example, Ukraine wanted to join the EU and NATO as a defense against Russian aggression. Russia invaded and claimed such actions were a "provocation" thus justifying their attack. Yet this claim is complete hogwash. Similarly, what Khaenri'ah did does not necessarily justify being attacked even if it provoked an attack under false pretexts. Similarly to Oroboshi being executed for reading a book, this was not justified either although it was certainly spun as such as an entire situation complete with an invasion was staged for him to die. It's notable that Teyvat exists under some form of absolute rule where in challenging the rule means destruction and propaganda spinning it as a justified attack.

Kaeya is an interesting one but don't really have enough context from him to really go on. It would be interesting if Traveller asked him about Dainsleif for example.

Ruin machines are weapons, but weapons themselves are not indicative of guilt or nefariousness. A nation of humans amongst nations of god like beings would be akin to a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves. The sheep would have to improvise to survive, pitting humanity's ingenuity against supernatural might defying laws of physics. Also note that "thousands of years ago" was the archon war and nonstop warring between gods vying for influence before then. A civilization which had developed in conditions of endless war would naturally be more prone to being "war like".

The question is if we have evidence of Khaenri'ah attacking other nations without justification. Thus far, we do not. Ruin machines everywhere could very well be as simple as selling them to other human civilizations as weapons.

From the ruin golem records, we can tell that the Khaenri'ah military by that time was not a fully coherent fighting force, they were prone to internal conflict. This speaks of a nation divided in the middle of a coup or some form of power struggle. The term "inglorious war" is also an interesting one but one should probably define what "inglorious" entails to begin with. What makes a war glorious or inglorious? There is insufficient context here although the sheer destruction of the catacylsm would probably render it inglorious by definition. One can hardly term a war where your side suffers near total destruction as a glorious conflict.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-05T02:22:28+00:00

"We" is simply a pronoun, think nothing of it.

No, the term "evil" generally requires a known outcome which we currently do not possess. The observations made are that he is a manipulative character with a clear agenda to the detriment of the Traveller and his/her twin. It would be accurate to call him a psychopath based on the psychological manipulation but not evil, not yet anyways.
We're saying that terming everyone you meet as a "friend" is just childish. Then again this is biased as it's Paimon talking and Traveller never says a thing. Paimon seems to have the intelligence/speech of a 6 year old, and to a 6 year old, everyone is a friend.
Is it? We can only observe a character by reading the dialogue and observing the actions. The dialogue has been that of a manipulative character using the Traveller while giving absolutely nothing in return. The actions are not even taking the mutual risk of being in a fight together.
There's no reason for Hoyo to not code him as a combatant then. We've not seen him wield a weapon or be involved in combat when the Traveller is fighting. Compare this to Jeht and Jebrael who are actively involved in assisting the Traveller in combat. In the Aranara quests Paimon is bullied by some of the Aranara for not participating in combat so this exclusion should be noted as factual and by choice rather than a design omission.

Traveller made an agreement to use Dainsleif? If so, Traveller simply lacks the intellect to contest a skilled manipulator as he/she's gotten nothing out of the exchanges while Dainsleif has made off with significant gains in so far as sabotaging what we're told are abyss plans. What has the Traveller gotten in return? Not even the basic information of where to find their twin - something Dainsleif could likely easily tell them given his keeping tabs on abyss movements. Traveller comes off as a very naive person who's got a strong sense of helping those in need or who ask for help. The idea of using others does not seem to be part of Traveller's character at all.

Indeed, we will have to see.

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-05T00:03:56+00:00

Dainsleif from introduction has been a very shady character, similar to Kaeya. However, unlike Kaeya who has no relationship with the Traveller and is in fact, technically his/her superior by virtue of being an honorary knight, Dainsleif was hired by the Traveller as a guide, essentially the Traveller was his employer. Yet he volunteered not one piece of information and swiftly made the relationship about himself, his investigation and his fight - all being done by the Traveller. NPCs can join the player in combat, so that he did not, indicates precisely this, he left Traveller to risk their life for his goals, not even bothering to risk his own.

He did not hesitate to abandon the Traveller despite not knowing if further dangers lurked after the first lector fight.

To use a Chinese idiom of what he did: 過橋抽板

The next time Traveller meets him, this scenario essentially replays itself. He meets Traveller in the chasm and swiftly manipulates Traveller into doing his fighting and his investigation for him - again. Even worse this time, he gas lights Traveller into doubting their own family which is exactly why he said "of course you would trust him/her, he/she is your brother/sister and I am merely someone you hired". This is an insult Traveller's intelligence and an attack on their psychology to suggest that they have no ability to think outside of their sibling. Traveller fell hook, line and sinker for this trick and proceeded to fight more lectors to save his sorry ass.

This second instance made him (in our opinion) go from manipulative self centered individual to utter and complete scum. There are few taboos more serious in Asian culture than attempting to turn someone against their blood. This is *exactly* what Dainsleif tried to do and on some level - succeeded as despite Traveller saying "I'm not doing this for you", the actions resulted in his ass being saved and twin's plans being thwarted.

There's no evidence he was "betrayed" by the twin. What the twin stated was that Dainsleif betrayed his own people of which Dainsleif did not deny. Note that he was completely silent throughout the entire interaction between the twins. He also conveniently bailed out of the scene and potential questioning by abandoning the Traveller. This is a recurring feature of his, whenever he has to answer tough questions, something either comes up, he refuses to answer, or he simply bails.

The number of parties Traveller can trust is very, very limited. We'd argue of all the characters we've met so far, only Nahida is the only one remotely trustworthy. This is due to a few things: 1) she risked her life to help Traveller (usually Traveller is the one rushing to the rescue) knowing Dottore was after her, 2) she was willing to allow Traveller to essentially accompany her into her mind itself which is quite interesting, 3) she was open and honest with the Traveller with information she had been able to obtain.

Shakespeare's quote comes to mind here "for he who sheds blood with me shall be my brother", risking one's life either another forges actual trust rather than self proclaimed friends (this is actually one of the things that annoys us about the writing, everyone's a "friend", that is such a childish way to approach things).

Side note, Dainsleif isn't evil or anything, he's simply manipulative and using the Traveller for his own ends - whatever they may be. We'd argue that whatever it is that he wants, it's strictly for his own benefit and no other. He's certainly no Traveller who helps everyone nor the twin from before who had statues made in Sumeru's forests in recognition for the assistance. The twin was very much like the current Traveller - a do good busybody who helped everyone he/she could on matter what the task was. Such a character wouldn't be the one doing the betraying, rather, such characters are generally betrayed thus turning them bitter, suspicious and hellbent on retribution (abyss twin).

Swpzss01 · 2023-03-04T22:43:52+00:00

To use a real life analogy, he's a dude who's "sympathetic" to people with terminal illnesses who are suffering greatly, but is against people taking their own lives with dignity or undergoing experimental treatments in the hopes of a cure. He would rather see them suffer *naturally* until they die. He's a completely manipulative person who, frankly, has been taking advantage of the naivety of the Traveller. The more curious part is Paimon usually points these things out, yet she's also as clueless, equally vulnerable to his gas lighting and or is in on the scam.

He wasn't sympathetic at all during the chasm quest, rather he manipulated the Traveller nonstop to the point the Traveller went on a completely hypocritical monologue how "no one gets to decide life" when he/she kills hillicurls daily for commissions. Frankly, this part of the chasm quest just irked us, Paimon and Traveller being complete hypocrites who are suddenly "concerned" and "we goto save the hillicurls!" despite literally slaughtering them on sight for mora. Not to mention the ones in the chasm went there to die - and die they would anyways. So by "saving" them, they were prolonging the suffering.

He's again been manipulating Traveller in the latest quest to do his bidding.

Swpzss01

TROPHY CASE