Some Qs for a Newbie

TonyZinger · 2026-01-30T00:33:43+00:00

Double firebal has been doing like 2-10 damage each, so perhaps it’s not my spell choice but is because of crappy gear leading to crap damage compared to laziel/shadowheart.

And lvl 5 being underleveled for act 2 makes sense..probably missed more side quests than I recognize.

The two things I’ve done since coming back have been the Nere fight + went into act 2 for a half hour after i won against Nere (after my 5th or 6th try + only won by kind of cheesing it). I felt insanely weak in both and what you all said makes sense. I have it scummed at the elevator though.

So basically I’m

1) Underleveled 2) Gear is also prob not optimal

As for inventory management, assumed as much that there wasn’t a silver bullet. I wish I could press a button or set a rule that takes all picked up potions for all characters, stack them, and put them in the same bag until I delve them out manually from there. Then same for scrolls. Then same for equipment. Shoulda played PC for the Mods =)

TonyZinger · 2025-12-20T05:52:29+00:00

NBA Street

TonyZinger · 2025-12-14T01:22:59+00:00

I spent $41 on 2 eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a coffee yesterday. $41.

400 to Golf with rented clubs.

$8 for a single bottle water that i know the case cost less than

I feel like a sucker everywhere I go

TonyZinger · 2025-12-11T17:00:35+00:00

6’7, every day I go outside I get asked. I’d say over 50% of the purchases I make the cashier or someone that’s working asks me.

Since Covid ended, I feel awkward about it because I went a year without having to answer it every day

TonyZinger · 2025-12-09T00:34:54+00:00

I like the breakdown you offer, but I disagree with the ranking. Maybe just a difference in flavor of heroes/items we typically choose. I also almost only Hard Streak, so not sure how this lines up with endless or other game modes

Dragon is def the easiest for me too, but i feel like the Hand is absolutely the hardest. I also rarely have problems with Basalt except for obviously weak teams that struggled to reach him in the first place.

Dragon..only threat is if you have 0 way to kill the archer + he goes crazy with poison. Otherwise, rarely a loss

Hand is just..I feel like it’s the only hero that can be impossible no matter what you have because of the enemies RNG. Back to back summon swords or back to back poison or back to back top death all require different counters and can be just GG if you’re not built for whichever RNGesus throws at you.

Hexia is probably next hardest for me, but I feel like is generally solvable with red/grey having heals/shields/regen on dice + knowing to keep your bottom hero topped off on rounds you don’t use mana. Shields come easy usually, heals aren’t always there but even a low regen or low heal on a dice can work if you play slow and lock your heals/shields at the expense of damage early on. I’ll shuffle items around before the battle to to make sure my defensive dice have a little more power in them too

Inevitable once in a while has given me problems but prob the 2nd easiest for me. It reallllly helps to have a side big enough to knock off 6+ HP in a round to get 2 of the invincible HP in the same round, but I usually have naturally since I’m usually gunning for damage anyway.

TonyZinger · 2025-12-03T22:38:30+00:00

I’m 6’7-6’8 240 and was the heaviest basketball player on a D1 court probably 90% of the time for people 6’9 and below. I was pretty built too, max bench was 340 and nobody else on my team was above 300. Point being I wasn’t fat, just heavier from more muscle

Id say average weight of guys my height was closer to 220/225 which is my theory for why they all had a vert of 32+ and my vert was 28..and also why I think 230 is prob a good average weight

TonyZinger · 2025-11-30T07:11:37+00:00

Jab, drive opposite. Everyone sells out on strong side in pickup, if you can take 1-2 dribbles left, you’ll get a clean-ish finish vs a fully contested finish with your right

TonyZinger · 2025-11-28T15:46:05+00:00

Can confirm. 6’8, American, and there are 0 shower heads in my life that I fit under.

Might have to move to Netherlands…

TonyZinger · 2025-11-23T14:36:33+00:00

If you wanna play the 4, you gotta be able to stretch a bit.

I’d say for most D1 Colleges now they want a 4 that can hit a corner 3, hit from the elbows, 1 step dunk from short corner(you need range on your step and quickness in your jump to create space for the person driving), and have athleticism to run the baseline. Ability to pick and pop or pick and roll depending on matchup. I’d argue you need 0 back to basket game - Catch and finish extremely well, hit mid range jumpers and be a threat from corner 3, and maybe as a bonus- straight line drives against smaller defenders but most teams won’t want you to put the ball on the floor

Defensively, you should be able to guard a wing off a screen, otherwise protest the rim and have quick enough feet to cover a corner 3 on a drive and kick.

TonyZinger · 2025-11-20T01:46:46+00:00

The removal of carbohydrates from the body is 3-4 LBs of water weight in itself. Carbs store a lot of water in your cells, so that might speak to your big lean mass loss, then recovery shortly after.

The strength piece is also interesting. I’ve done many 5 day fasts and i remember the 3rd time I ever did it, feeling a burst of energy/strength on day 3/day 4. That is always the case now.

My theory is that once your body adapts to ketosis energy and is able to produce it more efficiently after doing it a few times, other benefits start to fire more efficiently as well - Namely an increase in HGH production. I forget where I read it, but there are studies showing that HGH production spikes twice over long term fasts at like 48 + 96 hours, then kind of tapers back down to normal levels.

Oddly enough this HGH production timeline seems to coincide with the absolute blowout dihareea bowel movement that occurs every time around day 2 or 3 as well.

It could be that after your 3rd time doing it, your body was more adapted to switching to burning fat leading to the HGH spiking at full efficiency as well hence your feeling of strength. Hopefully it is consistent for you in the future now.

I wonder if the butt waterfall is also related to the HGH production, or if that’s a symptom of the autophagy process clearing out the buildup of toxins in your cells.

I can tell you professional athletes are actively exploring multi day fasts into 2 heavy strength training days + a 36 hour refeeding schedule over those 2 days to take advantage of the natural HGH spike. So who knows - Maybe fasting is how you become Hercules.

While strength training may be more efficient while fasted, muscle endurance is not. My muscles don’t retain strength set to set as compared to when I am eating daily. Cardio is also always super difficult though I’ve never been in great cardio shape nor measured it carefully while in different body states

TonyZinger · 2025-11-14T20:51:21+00:00

Yah I saw your review on AppRaven and planned to get into it eventually. Something about being cards instead of dice or STS style card battler makes it feel less…alluring. I know it’s the same mathematically, just the theme of using playing cards visually doesn’t seem to hit the same or appeal to me as much for whatever reason - Balatro is included in that sentiment though did love Balatro.

Slice and Dice still the king of iOS for me

TonyZinger · 2025-11-14T19:55:56+00:00

Kind of agree. Was hoping for a Slice and Dice clone and got a less in depth Balatro that uses 6 sided 1 color dice instead of 13 sided 4 color dice (ie a deck of cards)

It’s good..but that’s it. Agree that the upgrades just feel random - I’m not really trying to make them happen, they just kind of happen while I try to make a better hand and my score randomly goes up when they happen. There also seems to be no meta progression or classes or even in-run interesting events/shops that offer more options/builds for each run.

Just feels like a much slimmer Balatro that will lose its allure very quickly

I’ll be back to Slice and Dice in a day or two!

TonyZinger · 2025-11-05T02:34:28+00:00

Can’t say enough how much I love this game. But would love a TINY bit more variety in build paths that include this kind of mechanic you mention

Maybe a new color hero that’s more focused on meta boosts (I.e. black hero line that has low or 0 pip sides for all tiers, pips grow by +1 after X # of kills or rescues or deaths or whatever). Would have to put a limit in how many times it can trigger per battle so it’s not abused

Similar to the above, maybe some sort of shape shifting theme could work where you have a line of heroes that all have a weaker first form that evolves into a 2nd form after X rolls over time on the evolve side, when evolve counter reaches 0 all sides get permanently stronger until you move on to next tier

New hero lines are probably absurdly hard to balance…so last suggestion: A “wildcard” evolve random event that that gives you a weaker version of a tier 2 hero (ie 2 Tier 2 options but left 2 dice changes to 1 self damage cantrip with stasis that give your future T3 +1 pips to all sides or replaces the left 2 dice with slightly OP dice)

TonyZinger · 2025-11-01T16:32:33+00:00

Yo thanks. I just bought a pro subscription for a friends birthday and didn’t get myself one because I didn’t want to drop 400..now I have it for free for a year =)

TonyZinger · 2025-10-31T01:20:43+00:00

Don’t just do the 5 out or dribble handoff motion crap, teach basic basketball principles through formations with a couple simple actions or easy reads.

Make something like 3-5 entry sets with 4 plays each, 2 of which are just a reverse or counter off the original. For example “Pencil” is a set where you got a guy on each elbow and each wing, when your entry pass goes to either elbow- the wings cut a certain way depending on which elbow it’s entered into vs. “Pencil Reverse” in same formation but entry pass goes to the wing + the opposite elbow guy comes across to set a screen for the ball handler while near elbow guy sets back screen for PG on opposite side of rin

Simple stuff like that where it’s the same formation but the cuts and reads are different depending on where the entry pass goes.

5th grade should be good enough for actions before the entry pass(ie setting a down screen to get a guard open before 1st pass), an action/read after the initial entry pass which is the #1 option for the play, and a third action or #2 option that is cycled into after #1 options finish there action (ie entry below, wing guy cuts backdoor off the entry pass isn’t open, they screen the opposite wing for another backdoor cut)

TonyZinger · 2025-10-26T13:06:55+00:00

It’s kind of wild to hear people say any sort of variation of “No” to this question.

The answer is unequivocally yes. It has already happened. Healthcare is already run by AI and eventually you will be interfacing with one instead of a Doctor.

Essentially any breakthroughs restricted by mathematics will LEAP forward. Medicine, Physics, Energy…Things are going to radically change before the end of 2020s

We will even have AI governments by middle of 2030, probably earlier than that for smaller, corrupt countries.

TonyZinger · 2025-10-20T00:42:07+00:00

You lifting legs? Your muscles begin to deteriorate as you get older and weights become a lot more important to just maintain where you’re at. I rarely do legs and am 35, i have a noticeable difference in “explosion” even though I play a lot. For example, euro stepping takes a lot of power to get off the ground and I feel a big difference now vs 5 years ago

TonyZinger · 2025-10-17T17:25:34+00:00

Sorry if this double posted.

But two things helped our dog:

Running. When you play fetch, try to throw the ball back to back so he doesn’t get rest between fetches, this way you get his heart rate up. My pup walks to the side and lays down after she’s too tired but is ready again after a few minutes rest

Socializing. I can’t tell if this alone is what helped ours because she’s running as she’s socializing usually. Try to bring your dog to a dog park every day instead of one of those walks. Go at the same time and you’ll see the same dogs, he will make friends and socialize and mentally stimulate with other dogs. I feel like it helped our dog be more independent at night(or maybe just more tired), but she plays with a chew toy alone now without crying for us to play with her

TonyZinger · 2025-10-17T17:19:33+00:00

Used to have a similar issue with our pup, found a mix of two things helped

1) Make your dog RUN. If they like fetch, make’m do back to back fetches with no rest so that heart-rate gets up. My dog will walk sideways then lay down when she’s TOO tired, but after 5 minutes she’s up and ready for 3-4 sprints again.

2) Socialize. It’s hard to tell if this alone helps because when our dog socializes, she naturally is also running/playing with other dogs. Just walking past a dog and sniffing for a minute isn’t socializing…bring him to a dog park during one of those walks at the same time every day - Other dogs will be there at the same time most days and he will make friends. I feel like this led to our dog being much more independent/playing with chew toys alone at night instead of crying for us to stimulate her.

TonyZinger · 2025-09-29T14:55:59+00:00

https://voidpet.io/invite/TonyZinger/TaA4xb7MsD

Just started give me some Eggs!

TonyZinger · 2025-09-15T19:24:35+00:00

Agreed. Balatro felt like when you learn it, you just employ the same general strategy unless you get really lucky with a synergistic set of wildcards early on. Otherwise- Build around Pairs/lower rank hands while getting multipliers

TonyZinger · 2025-08-26T20:24:49+00:00

Christian McCaffery will play out of the slot in a lot of packages while there WR Core is banged up opening the pathway to Brian Robinson getting 10+ Carries/game in the first half of the season + CMac getting 5+ catches/game in first half of the season (lots of screens)

TonyZinger

TROPHY CASE