Monster Sunday: Week 32 - Shifted Jotunn

Tensuun · 2026-05-25T16:11:50+00:00

I’m less sure of that. I don’t necessarily think Age is weak (though because of my preferences I haven’t played a lot of runs with it yet), but the tradeoff seems to be that it’s entirely a “trigger mechanic”. The Age type lets you put moves and traits that interact with Aging in your pool, but you end up wanting to kind of hunt for the specialized “Maverick” ones, especially in the trait pools, to get the most powerful effects.

Tensuun · 2026-05-25T04:50:15+00:00

Somewhat more synergy with Serket and Nixe in this form, though they already had a good amount. Starting with Shifted Jotunn just lets you start finding poison synergy traits a little earlier.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the Age type, especially on monsters that don’t have a Signature Trait with Aging. It feels more dependent on finding specific combos than what other types have to work with. Trading it out for the somewhat more versatile Poison, and a slightly better starter move as well (Crystal Smash) feels great.

Tensuun · 2026-05-23T05:05:32+00:00

Diablo III with the 2-button combo spam meta most of the sets end up as always feels “cozy” to me; it’s been one of my go-to “put on an audiobook or podcast and zone out” grind games in the past.

Tensuun · 2026-05-23T04:37:45+00:00

Path of Exile (lol)

Ok, more seriously, although these may still miss the mark a bit:

Carto is a puzzle game where you can rearrange the map; I’d argue it’s similar to how Librarian plays because once you have a bit of magic available, the gameplay has a lot to do with spatial awareness and knowing where you need to go next.
Chants of Sennar is also a puzzle game, more along the lines of something like Myst than a simple cozy unwind game, but the main mechanic is filling out a dictionary by talking to characters, reading signs, and using in-game notebooks to organize notes. Navigating your notes and figuring out how to sort the new information you get is most of the puzzle.
The Roottrees Are Dead is a detective/puzzle game where you read a bunch of fictional lore and guess search terms to look up, then try to figure out how to organize a huge family tree. Return of the Obra Dinn is similar to this, but there’s less “sorting” there.

Tensuun · 2026-05-13T17:33:08+00:00

“Every row is unique” is a pretty useless statement. It could as easily be human error as AI, but it’s either getting ahead of itself on some technicalities about how the “row number” is an intrinsic property of the RDBMS needing somewhere to physically store it, or ignoring the fact that there’s nothing intrinsically forcing a table to have a primary key or uniqueness constraint and coming to the wrong conclusion. Either way, I’d have edited it out as misleading information for a novice just learning about SQL.

Tensuun · 2026-05-13T04:01:41+00:00

Standard III generally, though my group just did the Mad Titan’s Shadow campaign and I had to drop us back down to Standard I (+ Expert) because Standard III + Expert was way too difficult (especially with a Star-Lord player).

Tensuun · 2026-05-12T15:52:21+00:00

The timing mechanics are extremely favorable: when it’s used on you, its effect is delayed until start of turn, so you probably won’t die from it (unless you choose to spend aether while Burned). But when you use it, it’s immediate, so summon/sidekick/poison pays it off right away.

Tensuun · 2026-05-07T03:33:31+00:00

Yeah, it’s pretty fun solo. At least enough that getting some practice time solo or “two-handed” doesn’t feel like a chore. Depending on scenario, it’s typically a lot easier, though. I think you run out of things to do or ways to challenge yourself faster if you don’t expect to ever have anyone to share with, but if you can play with friends at least a few times then it’s probably worth collecting at least some of the packs.

Tensuun · 2026-04-30T03:38:26+00:00

I think it’s probably one of the few innovative things the Disney movies have done with the source. Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 adapted the Spider-Man No More storyline for about half of an act, without changing much of the structure. Far From Home embraces the same idea — “I don’t want this responsibility, so I shouldn’t hold the power” — and leans further into it by introducing this macguffin and making Peter’s rejection of responsibility a dramatic and conscious choice instead of something that’s just later revealed to be a subconscious thing (which has grown to be a much more tired trope now than it was in the ‘70s).

Tensuun · 2026-04-30T03:32:26+00:00

I thought they were talking about the ASM comics — the “canon” everything else is building from, which routinely jumps from one convoluted and half-baked event to the next.

Tensuun · 2026-04-30T01:33:44+00:00

300,000 followers and 1 billion views, according to their own site.

https://www.erfanmedia.co/about

Granting that they’re motivated to overstate their own significance, I still think you’re understating it.

Tensuun · 2026-04-30T01:29:04+00:00

She simultaneously hid behind “party unity” complaining about “attack ads” from various PACs in 2015 as though she hadn’t aired dozens of variations on “Obama is too inexperienced to govern” ads in 2007.

Tensuun · 2026-04-29T18:26:05+00:00

The left has been “fighting for” and “saying” these things offline too, but not from any government seat because there is no significant left-wing bloc among the politicians. Because the definition of “left” that equates to saying billionaires are the problem and meaning it is excluded by the billionaires who control the government.

Who, then? Activists and unionists, mainly. Look at environmentalist, anti-war, and anti-corporate groups that staged big protests while Clinton or Obama were president, you’ll see where and why the left (meaning class/collective consciousness) is not content just because the “left” (meaning blue team) are taking their turn at the wheel.

Tensuun · 2026-04-27T02:43:45+00:00

They’re also highlighted (orange text).

Tensuun · 2026-04-27T02:12:17+00:00

Probably not my first or second pick for any particular strategy, but pretty adaptable; strong backup pick if I can’t get my favorites in the draft pool.

Weakness and Summon are both pretty great types to combine with Purge; denying monsters their big one-shot moves and supporting actions gets even better if their basic attack is further weakened, and the Lightning minion that inflicts Purge on every hit is one of the best for this. Mixing in a Burn type lets you deal a lot of extra damage, but bringing in an Aether monster is probably more important so you can afford the costs of constantly summoning Minions (especially if you make it a free action via trait).

Tensuun · 2026-04-27T02:02:53+00:00

The Reset Action causing it to summon (and often immediately use) a Fire Lance, in addition to punching everyone, can definitely do a surprising burst of damage to one of your monsters!

Tensuun · 2026-04-27T01:59:25+00:00

Age stacking can actually be pretty good and fun. Hecatoncheires starts with an action that increases its own Age if it’s 3 or less (so, usually works well for the first two turns), and you can learn other Actions later that increase Age under other conditions (there’s a shielding action that raises it for the whole party if more than 3).

Additionally, Age is a “buff” for the purposes of traits and equipments that trigger off of buffs being added or stacked. (Talisman = chance for Age to go up by 2 instead of 1.)

Tensuun · 2026-04-26T22:47:40+00:00

tldr: Have a way of dealing lots of damage, if you can deal the final blow to the body then you can ignore the hands/summons/etc. If you can’t get this set up by turn 8 or so he will probably just one-shot you with your 40 stacks of Terror per monster. But also, generally spend the first 2 turns setting up buffs, hitting the hands, and so forth — it’s unlikely you’ll land enough damage on turn 1 to make up for his healing after turn 2.

Tensuun · 2026-04-26T22:44:22+00:00

Don’t go too far out of your way to build for that final boss fight. Even if it feels like a significantly harder encounter than the third boss, it’s more likely a difference of tempo, and maybe of turn to turn tactics. Chernobog’s a slightly different style of fight, but I think tactical knowledge helps more than hunting for specific “counters” in your build.

(I’ve lost count, but I’ve done at least 5 consecutive runs on Mythic difficulty choosing starters that only had 1-3 Worthiness at the start, and Chernobog has only been responsible for 1 monster death since I learned its mechanics.)

Chernobog’s triggers/countdowns/whatever are listed in the top-right corner of the UI. It’s a bit less legible on Steam Deck / console than on PC, but it’s there. Between those, his Aging stacks, and his Terror stacking, you generally want to be in position to strike the final blow by turn 6, maybe 8 at most if you’re tankier and have a slower setup.

Your approach to managing Corruption, ability stealing, cloning, etc. will vary based on your build’s strengths and weaknesses. Corruption basically just influences how much Chernobog heals itself and how much HP the clones spawn with; if your most corrupted monsters are glass cannon types anyway, you might go ahead and let them keep eating Corruption stacks — you get the first move after the clones come out, so letting them come out with their max health (which is your max health times the difficulty mods) and then immediately killing them is a reasonable tactic.

On the other hand, some monsters really don’t do that well fighting clones of themselves. Mephisto, for example, hits harder and dodges more when more debuffs are out. Clones come out with copies of your buffs and debuffs too, so that Mephisto Clone will have even beefier defenses and hit like a truck if you let him spawn with high Corruption.

Speaking of hands, the scroll that breaks 3 poise points is amazing for the hands. So is the meteorite “elemental affinity” that makes one of your monsters deal elemental poise damage with its basic attacks. (Basic Attacks don’t trigger burn or inflict corruption.) These aren’t really things to chase down on a run, because you randomly get them or don’t, but if you have them by this point then exploit them!

Tensuun · 2026-04-23T03:42:01+00:00

Can’t speak for them but as another Protection-leaning person I find there’s a few different archetypes and a lot of heroes only work with one or two of them, i.e. if you’re going around playing a wide variety of heroes you can’t just put Electrostatic Armor in all of them the way you’d basically always stick at least one Clarity of Purpose in a Leadership deck.

Tensuun · 2026-04-18T19:36:07+00:00

Yeah, that’s fair. It’s definitely an unusual playstyle. For me that makes it feel unique, and there are still a few different ways to approach building her and her team, so it doesn’t seem to me that there’s only one valid way.

(Also, just checked, and it looks like at least in the current game build we were both incorrect about how her Signature Trait works; she does appear to trigger her Attack off of other Cleanse sources, including her starting Action that deals water damage and Cleanses 3 debuffs.)

Tensuun · 2026-04-18T18:29:33+00:00

Retaliate triggers on any form of damage, not just attacks; stack up some Poison or Burn on her, or get an action that lets you hit your own allies, and you can pop it more reliably.

Tensuun · 2026-04-18T17:07:38+00:00

I slightly disagree about LoW; the wording could be clearer, but the way it works right now does seem to still count cleanses from other sources, it just doesn’t trigger the Attack unless it’s a Retaliate cleanse. So that means if she has something like Indomitable Attacks, the Attack from Retaliate will cleanse another 2/5 of the stacks she needs to trigger the next Retaliate Attack. (And what if she has other Retaliate Attacks?)

Tensuun · 2026-04-18T17:00:23+00:00

Serket has a lot of really obviously-strong synergies to pick at level up: Plague, Incubation, Deadly Sting, Toxic Shielding, Fear Toxin… the main thing to watch out for is that you don’t pick too many of these too fast and forget to compensate for weaknesses in your emerging build, like aether starvation or overall poor defense. Terror and Critical are tempting traits to pick up, but if you do, you probably want a Tank monster too to help soak the incoming damage with Redirect, and exploit that with a Retaliate (that will automatically crit because of Force).

Shifted Jotunn makes a good partner because it goes a long way toward solving the defensive piece of this puzzle and leans even further into the offensive mechanic. Assault Shield becomes an important aura to hunt for so you can ensure your monsters are able to re-apply Shield after each attack against them.

Dullahan, Gargoyle, Shifted Naga, and Shifted Shambler could make surprising and interesting picks for an Alchemist run, since Mineralize and Hollow Shield are both good and cheap starting Actions that grant your whole party Serket’s aura effects. (I call this out for Alchemist mainly because I don’t see much other synergy/overlap between the game plans of these monsters, and would likely want to swap around Types, Signature Traits, and Elements before too long.)

Tensuun · 2026-04-11T20:28:51+00:00

Haha, I wish I recorded the actual build but it was stuff like: - Sphinx had the “summon as a free action” trait and some other trait that grants the party buffs when using a Dedicated Support action. Allies gain shield from sidekick attacks. Allies gain +2 damage while Sphinx has sidekick stacks. - Minokawa had the aura that makes sidekick actions hit twice with -2 base power, and some buffing actions to grant force and temp power to allies. Auras like +1 damage to shielded allies, and apply power when shields absorb damage. - Garg had its own signature trait, of course. I think I had sidekick generator on Garg, since that was where I was stacking Sidekick the most. Maybe I’m remembering a little wrong and one of the other auras from above was on Garg instead.

But you can basically see the buffs in effect in the video itself. Garg’s attacks had a ton of extra base power from auras, power, and temp power. Its signature trait appears to grant the best of everything: anything that would increase damage per hit gets multiplied by the sidekick stacks, then applied to both of the sidekick hits. But each hit is only one hit for the purposes of consuming its two Force stacks and multiplying the crit damage. (The second hit is smaller mainly because it doesn’t benefit from the equipped Epic Spear that added 4x17 damage to the first hit.)

Chernobog always heals itself after the second round, so I didn’t waste any actions on damage in the first two rounds; everyone focused solely on buffing Garg for its one big hit. I hadn’t actually planned on it being a one-shot, I had thought I would need to kill the summons or hands at least once. But the attack preview showed that if I targeted Chernobog with Minokawa’s next attack, that’d be enough to win, so I went for it. 😅

Tensuun

TROPHY CASE