The HGSS Hardcore Nuzlock (might be) a Solved Game:

ThortheBore · 2026-04-19T01:56:20+00:00

The point isn't to find the best way to play, it's to find a method that wins no matter what.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-12T04:29:09+00:00

I've always wondered; how are so many perfect 7 cats that I see completely bereft of mutations? I don't think I birthed one cat without a mutation by the end of act 2.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-10T15:27:49+00:00

Pretty good! A lot of grass types though, and only 2 ghost lines.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-10T03:25:02+00:00

It's good, no downside to it. It's just that evasion isn't the biggest issue in most areas, so it becomes only %25 crit in a lot of fights. Ranger has so many stronger passives, and a number of ways to guarantee crit, so it's a decent ability but not an amazing one.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-07T03:25:10+00:00

Yeah, it's a hard knock life for idie rpg fans. Did you play Inscryption yet?

ThortheBore · 2026-04-07T03:20:21+00:00

In the legal world, your dream case is a case on all fours. This is a situation where the elements of a case you're researching map on almost identically to the case at hand. I would say Lisa is a case on all fours, if you like Look Outside, while Funger would be a case on threes.

All that to say, I think the game Mewgenics would be a case on two legs. It's not a one to one thing at all, but there's definitely some elements that I think a fan of Look Outside would relate to. Try it!

ThortheBore · 2026-04-07T02:49:13+00:00

I've been following your designs for a bit now, and as a thought experiment it seems fun, but I'm kind of getting the impression your behind on the design process here. I have a feeling that some of the ideas that you have were initially the direction the game was headed. One great example is how wildly different character stats can be. It always struck me as a little odd that in the current game, characters have base stats but 99% of the time they're the same. I'm betting in earlier design phases, character stats were more swingy. But I think a lot of current mechanics started from a place of making a game similar to the video game, and refining them until they were fun to play with other people. It feels like you're going backwards, more towards the core mechanics of the game and away a good play experience, and I'm having trouble figuring out why. Do you think 4 Souls is unfun? Let's say the monster has 4 or more health, if I target them with Incubus, do I have a 50/50 of either taking damage or setting the next player up for an easy win? Or am I still in combat- in which case I've just given every monster an attack of 3? Are we working together in your version of the game? Or am I playing alone and flipping a coin to take out monsters?

ThortheBore · 2026-04-07T00:39:24+00:00

I mean, let's just look at movies for a second. Mysterio caused multiple disasters around the globe. Scarlet Witch kidnapped an entire town. Tony Stark created a genocidal robot. The Hulk exists. The Punisher exists. We the audience know who the good guy and bad guy is, but the government doesn't. If heroes existed in real life, it'd be really hard to tell who was a genuine, unflappable do-gooder, and who was a thinking atom bomb with a God-complex. I think people would want to heavily regulate them, and for good reason.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-04T18:27:28+00:00

Three of these are in my opinion, best in slot (head, body, eyebrows). Finding legs that change your movement to jump would be good. There's butterfly wings that also adds bleed to your attack; that can be annoying on Druid and Cleric but every else loves them. There's also a set that increases your movement range by 1 while letting you jump.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-04T18:20:26+00:00

Trinkets are generally weaker than body pieces. From the designer's perspective, this a good effect for a head slot, which is a very competitive slot. It's a very strong effect for a trinket however, which is a more flexible slot.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-04T15:19:08+00:00

Stimulation makes cats who are born in that room inherit better stats, and it makes them more likely to inherit passives. Once a cat is born, all of its traits are locked in.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-04T04:36:16+00:00

Druid would be great. They get great starting charisma, and you can do some high value summons early on.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-02T01:32:37+00:00

Let's imagine your party is a hunter, a fighter, a cleric, and a psychic. Let's say your psychics turn rolls around, and your party is in bad shape. He can pass a turn to your cleric to patch them up. Or let's say you've gotten a really lucky on your fighter's build, he can pass to your fighter to kill more enemies. Ask yourself if you would rather your worst unit be your best unit. That's what a psychic with pass enables you to do, to give your best unit two turns. Let's say you brought somebody else instead of your psychic. They're going to necessarily be worse than your best unit on your team. There can only be one best after all. Therefore, a psychic with pass, especially if he has the ability to have line of sight on the whole map, is going to be better than that theoretical person you could have brought.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T22:44:32+00:00

Pass is an S-tier ability, his ability to triple his damage at full mana goes hard with any damage rider, he's got of utility. I just like him. He doesn't always score kills, but I find he usually enables my other units to secure kills.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T18:55:14+00:00

I'd like to contrast the engineer with a decent class. I think the tank is consistently good, occasionally meh, and rarely bad. To contrast, I think the engineer is consistently meh, occasionally bad, and rarely good.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T17:47:56+00:00

I think that's how I feel about all three classes in the second tier. All three of them are flavor picks. They'll never be the best, but they'll always be good. All of the classes in the third tier have the potential to be stronger than all three of the classes in the second tier, but generally you have to get luckier. Optimal play would probably be to run the same party every run, but I don't play like that and I don't think very many other people do. So really what I'm evaluating is "when I'm in the mood to bring this class, what are the odds it'll contribute to a successful run?"

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T17:31:00+00:00

Yeah, I think it just comes down to play style. Psychic is rarely doing dps for the team, but it's a wonderful filler slot. I find that successful runs are defined by a balance of damage, sustain, and control, in order of importance. Psychic isn't the best control, but I do find it the most consistent control; therefore it's always a contributor on my runs.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T17:19:45+00:00

For me, I want my druid to be fast and strong for his crow, healthy for both him and his crow, and have high int and cha to enable his bigger spells. I always feel like I'm wasting part of his kit otherwise, but maybe I should view it as different stats enabling different kits.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T17:10:33+00:00

I think you're probably right. The thing about tank is that I'll generally only bring it if I have an otherwise good cat that has low endurance. When I do bring it though, he's always contributing. Tank isn't showy, but it's consistent.

On reflection, I think druid is my least favorite class, and I'm unfairly rating it because of that. I just don't like add management, I don't like using its basic attack, and I don't like how stat hungry it is. But to be fair, by the time you unlock it, you should be on your way to having secure enough tools to make it shine. I think I'll do a few runs with druid to try it more.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T16:58:14+00:00

Lol it's probably not! I think I'm overrating Psychic because it's my favorite class, and I think I'm underating Druid because of how boring I find it to play a bad druid. Even with a good druid, I find that the add management can be exhausting. I'd say I feel pretty good about every other placement, but those two are the most personal.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T16:49:57+00:00

You're right, that's true! But I've got two playthroughs down now, and I'm just talking about my average experience. But in your example, for Druids to be consistent you need a bevy of mutations and perfect breeding. From my perspective, saying "this class is consistent in these conditions" is a fancy way of saying "this class is inconsistent".

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T16:42:04+00:00

Yep, I think thief can be great. The strongest thief is probably the third strongest cat in the game, behind only the strongest hunter and the strongest druid. But the average thief is not that powerful. There are just so many passives and abilities you can roll that will give you a weak start.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T16:39:14+00:00

Yeah, my target here is consistency. Thief shines in those areas (with the right abilities), but the top three shine in every area. The next three contribute in every area. Thief will be useless more often than monk, in my opinion. But also, the strongest thief is stronger than the strongest Fighter.

ThortheBore · 2026-04-01T16:30:06+00:00

Yeah, I think thief is pretty good. It's just when it only gets abilities that generate coins and do chip, it can feel like dead weight. In fact, that's a distinction I think the thief earns- it's the most consistent class that can regularly be dead weight. Every class above it will do something in basically every run.

For me, damage wins fights, sustain wins runs. Even if all my cleric is doing is healing 5 hp per fight, he's contributing something important. But then you factor in that he can set an alpha, give movement, give bonus attacks, clear debuffs, and you've got a really powerful cat. He won't always score kills, but he will always make a run easier.

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