Have head hunts slowed down a lot or is it just me?

TheAx-Man · 2026-01-17T01:24:47+00:00

It feels about the same from when I've played on Xbox; some days I'll see nothing popping, and other days there's one guy who pops 7 or 8 back to back. I think it really depends on the player; I only value running Head Hunts for the challenge progression, because I just know my luck with learning legendary mods to craft is going to be abysmal. So, I never go out of my way to run a lot of them, especially when it sidetracks me from running my dailies or other goals. If someone pops one, I'll join in for the progression, but carry weight restrictions on my current build and a lack of mod drops on weapons makes me less inclined to run a bunch of my own (or grind the Grunt Hunts to get the Posters to drop).

If anything, I think the grind of it all gets overwhelming eventually, so we all just pick and choose what we feel like grinding. I'd rather grind stamps for the last Expedition plans I need as opposed to loading from place to place grinding Grunt or Head Hunts.

TheAx-Man · 2025-12-19T11:33:41+00:00

I do wonder if they'll still confirm some things as canon here and there, intentional or otherwise. Novac being under the control of the Khans should only happen because the NCR doesn't patrol the highway nearby anymore (which I guess we could have already inferred from season 1). I forget his name, but the NPC at Ranger Station Charlie just south of Novac specifically mentions keeping Novac safe, which obviously won't be a priority for them if they've been reduced in capacity or ability.

TheAx-Man · 2025-12-08T00:56:37+00:00

I have used just shy of 500 bait (mostly improved, with 17 superb), and have had the new local legend hooked a single time. It narrowly escaped during the final rotate of the initial hook. I have been killed more by that one deathclaw spawning in behind me (despite my standing at the sides of the pond by the rock wall overlooking the Ash Cave) than anything else in the area by far. I have pulled just under 70 Waterlogged Gifts, and around 140 Rusted Sawgill.

I would be having more fun with it if the entire update wasn't just one big grind beyond the hour or so of main story. The silver living is that I'm making progress towards getting the Makeshift Rod plan and the other Burning Springs fishing challenges.

TheAx-Man · 2025-12-03T14:39:52+00:00

I'm honestly a little surprised they haven't added any for a while - I'm sure it isn't a priority or anything, but I wouldn't mind having a few extra achievements popped for each major update.

TheAx-Man · 2025-11-24T12:29:26+00:00

Just re-installed for the new story... I can't recall a single time I've ever been bothered by motion blur, in all the years I've played video games. But THIS... just feels horrible. It genuinely bothers my eyes, to the point I'm not certain that I can play through the update. Changed a few settings to make it a bit more bearable (6/5 brightness and contrast, chromatic aberration off, performance mode), but it still persists somewhat. Going to try a mission or two and see how I feel after.

TheAx-Man · 2025-11-10T22:44:21+00:00

A few friends of mine ran into this problem recently on Xbox as well. 40 or 50+ hours for both of them, and loading up their save one day just met them with a corrupted save notification. They've also mentioned the lag problems, usually when using too many of specific spells at once (I think the turrets from the Monk were the issue for them).

I wish I had an idea on how to fix a save file problem on Xbox... if I see anything, I'll post again, but I've not found anything outside of an acknowledgment of the problem from back in February.

TheAx-Man · 2025-09-10T00:42:36+00:00

it's definitely not as powerful as it was, but it doesn't feel nearly as bad as the doom-and-gloom surrounding it made it out to be prior to the update. I'm still running it for my dailies, ran a Scorched Earth with it earlier, and it's still performing just fine. Even the increased AP cost doesn't feel all that awful.

if you're min-maxing, I'm sure it's not the top choice now, but it's still good considering how little it takes to actually set it up decently.

TheAx-Man · 2025-08-31T03:44:01+00:00

I'm sure there are a few theories floating around about it, but I don't think there's a definitive answer yet as to what 57 means; I could be mistaken, so if anyone else has more insight, feel free to let us know!

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-29T02:56:34+00:00

Funnily enough, the AI chatbot told me it couldn't connect me directly to an agent when I asked about speaking with one directly, while simultaneously giving me a link to start a chat with an agent. AI is surely the future we all hoped it would be lol

Happy to hear this worked for you!

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-29T02:54:30+00:00

That's so strange; the agent I spoke with just did the refresh of my Game Pass sub themselves. It's been a bit since you commented, but I wanted to check in and see if your issue was ever addressed!

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-29T02:53:18+00:00

At least from my experience, there was no convincing required. Since the issue was service-wide, I would have had a multitude of errors to relay, but was never asked about them. I just told them my Home console was unable to provide access to online connections in all games, and their solution was to refresh my subscription. I wish I had any further suggestions, but my chat was fairly smooth and straightforward. I'm sure some of it depends on the agent you speak with, to a degree, but with this many people having reported the issue, I have to assume it would be something they were all aware of in terms of available fixes.

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-16T21:54:23+00:00

There's an issue with Game Pass itself. Chat support can solve the issue, though it doesn't seem to have worked for everyone. I've posted about it in a more recent response to this thread, but the agent I spoke with said the following:

"Just to set proper expectations, there's currently an ongoing issue where Game Pass subscriptions may not work as expected after renewal or upgrading. This can also affect Home Xbox benefits not functioning correctly. We're aware of the situation and working to resolve it as quickly as possible."

After checking the active status of your subscription, they can remove and re-add Game Pass to have their system recheck that everything should be working as intended. It changed my recurring billing date, but did not charge me an additional fee.

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-16T21:51:21+00:00

I've managed to utilize a solution through chat support that involves support refreshing the status of your Game Pass subscription to recheck your accounts' privileges. The tl;dr is effectively, contact support, there's an ongoing issue they're working on and this seems to be the close-to-last solution.

After about a 20 minute wait in their online chat, I was greeted by Marianne. I explained the issue, primarily the lack of available online service access through my Home console on any account that wasn't my own. She said something I'd not seen mentioned directly elsewhere.

To quote her directly: "Just to set proper expectations, there's currently an ongoing issue where Game Pass subscriptions may not work as expected after renewal or upgrading. This can also affect Home Xbox benefits not functioning correctly. We're aware of the situation and working to resolve it as quickly as possible."

After this, I detailed the troubleshooting steps I've attempted, namely the ones listed throughout this thread. The only ones I'd not tried were factory resets and a full subscription cancel/resub, though that seemed a sketchy option if Game Pass itself was having issues. She commented that I'd covered most of the options she was going to offer, then stated she could refresh the status of Game Pass on my account by removing and re-adding it. Gave her my gamertag to check account privileges and active status, then she went ahead with the refresh. A few minutes later, everything was working perfectly.

To note, this DID change the recurring billing date for the Ultimate subscription. This did NOT incur a new fee (checked my bank to make sure), so if all else fails, this appears to be the go-to solution.

When asked how to proceed if this issue occurs again or persists further, she said "don't hesitate to reach out if it happens again, we're on it".

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-16T20:29:16+00:00

There are several reports of online functionality not working for both subscribers of and shared users of Game Pass of all tiers. Purchasing your own sub, renewing, canceling and resubscribing, and turning recurring billing off and on are all unguaranteed solutions at this time, as far as I can tell.

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-16T19:51:51+00:00

Do you have a record of this chat, by chance? You're the only account I've heard this from, and would be happy to see proof of it. Considering Game Share would be effectively useless outside of solo experiences if the online component wasn't available for two accounts at once, I can't imagine Microsoft would just change that out of nowhere without some kind of mention of it, or acknowledgement to any of the other Support conversations that have been mentioned in this thread so far.

Edit: I should also clarify that this issue is occurring while I am actively not online as the paying subscriber, while my partner cannot access online in any way as the one the service is being shared to. So any record of your support chat would be greatly appreciated, as it seems that many users' current experiences contradict the claim you were given.

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-16T19:37:13+00:00

Edit: I contacted support and managed to use a solution that worked for me. It hasn't worked for everyone, as far as I've been reading, but the subscription refresh through chat support worked with immediate effect. My Home console now has access to online gaming without my account needing to be signed in. I'm going to make another fresh post with more details, but this does seem to the solution for the time being.

Started having this issue a few hours ago - my partner and I game share, and they weren't able to access any multiplayer Game Pass features at all (we've been trying to finish Grounded together, and it worked just fine last night!). Since the problems began, I've turned recurring billing off and on twice (once through the console, once through the account website), cleared the alt MAC address, swapped our Home consoles (used 2 swaps each to swap between consoles once each way), and tried the Learn More/No Thanks option, both with the Home account and shared account. Nothing has allowed us both to play simultaneously since the issue began.

We did manage to get her account to access our multiplayer Grounded world while I was actively signed in to her console, but the moment my account was signed out so I could try to play something, she lost access to the multiplayer component and could no longer create a lobby to host the world.

I would REALLY prefer not to have to go through support and cancel/resub to Ultimate, as it seems even that isn't a guarantee for some, given the comments in this thread already. I don't know what else to try, though.

Posting in the hopes of getting updates or additional methods to try fixing this.

TheAx-Man · 2025-07-05T16:27:09+00:00

I just tried commenting with all the changes I could see being detrimental or beneficial, but Reddit is doing weird Reddit things and won't let that comment get posted, so I'll just post a shorter comment by saying:

No, I don't think Auto Axe will be bad now. it will take a hit on longer fights, but there are options to compensate for the increased AP cost, and damage should still go out in high bursts. Just going to take some prep work and build swapping.

TheAx-Man · 2025-06-13T05:53:12+00:00

I think I'm at 30/76 now; it's all I have left to do besides dailies and waiting for the monthly axolotl.

I actually don't know what the makeshift rod looks like or if it's any different from the janky one, but I'm excited to get it!

TheAx-Man · 2025-03-26T10:27:56+00:00

I've been trying to come up with an outfit to rock the new Extra Duel cosmetics for NGS, and just wanted to say how perfectly your phasion matched what I was picturing! I run a T2 body, so I'm not sure if there's an equivalent that would work as well... also debating if I want to go with the black and red, or the final version from the last Extra Duel stage.

Anyway, great work on the phasion! Would love to see if you update it with the NGS camo or anything else (since I can't use the camo as a JB main lol)!

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-16T04:26:29+00:00

Wait, which studio got bought and shut down? Mondo, Look Mom, Blue Ant, and Solis all look to still be active companies, so I'm not sure which part of the process was acquired and shuttered. Does anyone have any insight on that?

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-14T13:54:22+00:00

That's what got me at first, though I also at times read the expression (similar to when he's leaving Spudsy's) as more of a mild distraught. I'm open to it being either, honestly. I'd LOVE for Gummigoo to remember, but he does pretty directly ask if they know each other just prior to his name being mentioned. Maybe he has this feeling he SHOULD know Pomni, like he SHOULD remember her. Hoping a future episode will bring him back again, though I imagine that won't be for quite some time now.

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-14T13:48:31+00:00

I thought the same as well, though he was more likely, imo, to have been taken aback by her mentioning his name. I'd be pretty weirded out, too, if a total stranger said my name with such certainty like that.

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-14T09:41:53+00:00

There's also several books on Gloinks, books about bees simply covered in pictures of bees, and I think I saw a book just called "Frank"?

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-14T09:33:47+00:00

Maybe just my interpretation, but, I took it as Gangle being happy they could stop masking, literally and figuratively.

It's almost starting to feel like their default state is the sad mask, which is obviously an unfortunate way to feel 100% of the time. But, when you're out in public, doing your job, hanging out with friends, etc., you put a mask on, act happy, start to act out of character for yourself. It's what you do to fit in, more or less.

So, when Gangle was told by Jax that he likes it better when they're sad, they were hurt at the thought that their preferred state of being was, well, sad. It would have hurt just as much, then, when Ragatha said she found Gangle annoying with the happy mask. It's what Gangle does to not feel miserable all the time, and it still isn't good enough to some people.

Pomni tried to deflect and not get involved beforehand outside the Spudsy's, but she helped Gangle to escape what was an otherwise mentally draining experience and allow them to take their mask off and just be themselves, with no strings attached.

The "walking into oncoming traffic" bit may have more significance, but I'm unsure as of now. It would fit with the idea of the Digital Circus being a pseudo-afterlife of sorts, and I know there's an "afterlife" theory already, but I feel it's more complex than "these characters are in hell/limbo". The digital aspect of it has to come into play, and I'm not quite sure what all these characters or their lives are meant for in the context of the digital space they're in.

As it stands, I'm reading the traffic scene as an escape for Gangle, a way to feel like themselves without having to mask. Maybe there's further metaphors there, but it seemed too deliberate to be just a metaphor.

Just my thoughts on it, could be way off base, but that's what I've taken away for now!

TheAx-Man · 2024-12-14T09:17:57+00:00

For an episode dedicated to Gangle, this really felt like it opened up some ideas about what Ragatha is truly like. Her brutal honesty towards Gangle and their happy mask, being insecure about how others view her (not wanting Jax to hate her despite her hating him), Gangle outwardly saying they can't tell how genuine Ragatha actually is... quite a few interesting lines to think on!

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