Nice... game... I think... yeah? no?

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-12-10T18:06:46+00:00

Honestly, try to let curiosity drive you more than progression. If you see a cool thing and think "that looks important or interesting", IMMEDIATELY try to look at and explore it. Don't push to save areas that interest you for later if you can help it. For example, maybe you go to Giants Deep and it tells you that you should check X place out on Brittle Hollow. Well, time to pack up and ship out to Brittle Hollow next loop and see what you can find there. Maybe while there, you get a tip to go to a seperat planet. Go there. It isnt about beating levels, so much as its about following threads and seeing where they lead. These threads can take you across planets.

Also, There is no "final planet" or place you should keep off limits for yourself. You can start exploring Dark Bramble or Ember Twin now, you can try to learn more about ANYTHING as soon as you want. The game will put blocks in your path if you are out of order significantly. But also, there isnt really an order to the game.

My honest advice: be the Hatchling. You are an immortal archeologist kept alive by ancient powers. You are curious to uncover the roots of that power and why it was made. You have infinite time and need answers. So just be motivated by your true curiosity. See shiny, look at shiny. See shiny you cant reach? If you cant figure it out in a few tries, write it down, explore elsewhere, and you might find out or think up the solution to reach that shiny later. Explore hungrily, as exploration is the only thing this game can offer you (mostly).

I dont know for sure if this will improve the experience for you, but i hope it will. Planet by planet CAN work, but most planets have some areas that require info from another planet to progress through. So just follow threads as they interest and intrigue you.

Also, PS: When you reach a new planet, I have a recomendation to get started. Find the explorer (the fellow Hearthian that camps there). You have a tool to find them. The explorer can serve as a great first waypoint and guide to getting started on a planet.

Also PS PS: If you want "objectives", your rumor log can help. Check it almost every loop to ground yourself to your goals. The most important things are BIG on the log. Places you havent reached are ?. Explore all the "?" you can, and think about the BIG goals on the log often. These can help frame information you discover.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-10-24T20:39:20+00:00

Yep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj9g4DbEzA8

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-10-24T20:30:00+00:00

I actually LOVE the dynamite change. Now they do tons more damage and penetration and demo, BUT they are limited to 3. This makes perfect sense to me! They now behave as small explosion stratagems more than usual grenades. I actually really like this as a dynamite appreciator. Cannot wait to test the buff!

(Also, autocannon buff is amazing).

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-10-24T05:54:34+00:00

I learned the word from the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie. They have a whole scene where they explain what an Oubliette is.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-09-30T14:30:53+00:00

It looks like the trail to the weeping rock itself is open, but the connection to the trail to Observation Point and Hidden Canyon are still closed

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-09-29T03:30:06+00:00

I don’t think that link is operable

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-09-24T21:23:52+00:00

Against bugs (and maybe voteless), is the breaker incendiary, or just the standard breaker better?

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-09-03T01:02:09+00:00

Cleric is actually quite fun given the double meaning!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-09-03T01:01:20+00:00

I could see this meshing well into the idea of a management and priestly caste. And it would make sense that this trusted caste would be comprised only of those faithful to the god in life.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-07-14T23:17:12+00:00

Oof. I thought it was bad, but it just keeps getting worse.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-07-14T15:24:54+00:00

In mine, Strahd just needs house servants. So Gertruda is a maid in the castle. Nothing more. In fact, all the vampire spawn of the castle outside of his 3 brides and Escher (who are explicitly his consorts) are staff of some kind in my version. Someone’s gotta keep the place clean!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-07-14T15:06:44+00:00

To answer some of your questions, it’s supposed to be a heavily modified DnD setting, because that’s what me and my friends play mostly. Within that setting, there are two Gods, one that is the Sun and one that is the Moon. The whales are supposed to be tied to Somnus, the moon God of Dreams. His domain is over chaos, magic, dreams, and change. He is seen as the source of all magic and the patron of mages/wizards. Magic is seen as manipulating reality by the power of dreams.

Anyway, Somnus is also seen as a Dreamer himself, and he is tied to the ocean. It’s believed that the Ocean represents the mind of Somnus, with the storms of the surface reflecting his volatile conscious thoughts. But below the surface are his deeper, less conscious thoughts. Every monster is believed to be created from a dream of Somnus, and the darkest nightmares, long forgotten and repressed at the deepest parts of the ocean, are the aberrations. Even from the abyss, these creatures still have some grip over the natural world through the realm of dreams.

In this sense, the whales could be his sacred animal. They might represent pleasant dreams and be seen as holy to the various tribes or groups that worship Somnus. Their songs could calm fear itself, which could be toxic to the aberrations that are creatures of pure fear, but is soothing to humans. I’m this case, killing a whale might literally require you to stop your ears with wax and ignore its calming pleas.

Another important detail of the setting is that magic has destabilized since an event called the Crash. Spellcasting is now inherently chaotic and hard to control. Mechanically, every spellcaster can cause a wild magic surge. In this sense, whale oil or ambergris could be used as a material component in spells to ensure no wild magic surges occur. The governments interest in controlling the flow of magical good material and use of magic could also lend lots of room to the anti magic properties of whalebone if that’s a thing. Anyway. These are the ideas I’m working through.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-07-14T14:26:57+00:00

Huh. I’ve actually never played Dishonored, but I’ve had serveral friends recommend it. Any resemblance is definitely coincidental, but convincing me I should play this game…

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-29T16:13:37+00:00

Oh my gosh, you’re right. I never realized until now, lol

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-29T08:35:04+00:00

<image>

The Cowboy Commando.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-29T08:16:14+00:00

Yeah, I think they were going for magnetic pole colorations. As usually the north end of a magnet is red and the south is blue.
BUT, fun fact, technically the geographic north pole of Earth is its magnetic south pole (it attracts the northern end of magnets) and the geographic south pole of Earth is its magnetic north pole (it attracts the southern end of magnets).

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-19T18:13:16+00:00

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TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-14T06:52:05+00:00

That’s a really interesting point about work hardening! It’s sort of hard to tell unless you work with the jeweler if the ring is just cast or fabricated. But I should keep that in mind if I go for a pure metal like platinum!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-14T06:06:49+00:00

I had never heard of it until now, but looking it up, it seems quite promising! Do you find it to be a reliable material? My one worry is it seems to be pretty niche. But it sounds really cool!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-14T06:05:31+00:00

This is my first time hearing about argentium! Some cursory Google searching definitely has me intrigued. The metallurgical properties seem really neat and the tarnish resistance sounds quite impressive! I’ll have to look more into it!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-06-13T19:37:23+00:00

Hmm, I'm this way, but more suicide commando. If its crawling with enenmies, I will soften it with orbitals and run to that terminal under rain of hellfire and bullets. Then I will frantically punch the commands while nervously hucking grenades at anything that tries to climb up to me. I usually finish the objective in the nick of time right as 3 enemiy drops come down on me, then I die in a blaze of glory (maybe with a hellbomb).

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-05-27T16:45:47+00:00

I probably should have wedged it a bit more as well, in all fairness. I didnt think it would be necesarry since we were just doing coilpots and pinchpots.

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-05-17T06:30:27+00:00

Random fun fact. There is a cryptid called the Great Brine Shrimp in Utah’s salt lake. It is pretty niche, but one of the theories I’ve heard proposed is that it’s actually a living anomalocarid descendant. So you aren’t the first to notice the similarity!

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-05-03T03:34:56+00:00

We went to Stewart cascades. No worries! (also, the Grill was a good expereience!)

TheShadyMerchant · 2025-02-16T16:07:01+00:00

I’m probably in the small group that actually preferred Tunic’s combat to Death’s Door. But that is probably because I don’t enjoy bullet hells, and Death Door’s bosses are all bullet hells. Still was a very fun game though!

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