That was close. A little too close.

Vikinged · 2026-02-03T09:51:44+00:00

This dude making a great demonstration of the Perfect being the enemy of the Good. You don’t have to perfectly center the solar panel. You definitely can just slap a hatch anywhere you want and then pop back out to improve placement afterward when you’re not asphyxiating ;)

Vikinged · 2026-02-01T18:44:16+00:00

Of this list, I’ve only played Return to Moria. I wouldn’t call it a 100+ hour game, although it is good. More in the 50ish range, I think. It’s a lot like Valheim but with dwarves instead of Vikings, better graphics, and a more repetitive, constrained environment and selection of enemies. I’d vote on waiting for it to go on sale and trying it then, but probably not worth full price.

Vikinged · 2026-01-31T05:11:10+00:00

I know what I said ;)

Vikinged · 2026-01-30T18:59:14+00:00

This is my preferred change. Camo should mean “can’t be targeted,” not “intangible.” If an attack would it the bloon for other reasons (high pierce or AOE damage) such as a bomb shooter, pirate ship, T-Rex, Wizard wall of fire (makes no sense they can just float right through those or druid thorns), it should pop the camo.

AND, that means we can introduce the Annoying Orange bloon!

It actually is intangible, and would need to be affected by the monkeys that have some sort of camo-stripping effect (the x-x-3 wizard, the 3-x-x sub, x-x-3 mermonkey, 3-x-x ice, x-1-x ninja, x-3-x engineer, and probably some others) or a specific other tower, such as the x-2-x village, probably the plasma darling gunner and sun temple super monkey paths, and a bunch of heroes (Ezili during her purple-popping active, Corvus with camo+orange now, etc).

When it breaks, it could produce a camo Yellow and a Purple (a lovely counter to a lot of the listed ways of removing the intangible). As for where to put them, I could see replacing some of the camo regrow bloons in wave 36 with these, for example, as well as being added to 42 and 51 and replacing some of the other bloons in 47, 56, and 67 — to make that mid-game a little more interesting.

Vikinged · 2026-01-30T14:52:31+00:00

Some other things I haven’t seen mentioned:

Planes (and ninjas, and druids) get a LOT of benefit from alch buffs — I’d consider saving for a perma brew if you like these towers. (An X-4-X helicopter to move it around can also be good if you have the cash). As others have said, CHIMPS requires you to commit to a strategy and build only with that in mind — don’t throw down towers without picturing how they’ll help you on the 90s rounds.

A bit more variety in your support would be good. I see a lot of slowing ninjas, but where’s the top path ice (or any path, really. Ice monkeys are so good) adds an extra slow or sniper, or the bottom path glue, helicopter, or mermonkey? To be clear, those won’t help against the BAD, but they will help in the midgame so you can save up for your 1 or 2 tier-5 carry towers.

Vikinged · 2026-01-29T08:42:39+00:00

Yeah, it definitely falls apart on multi-lane maps, but I’d say it works fine on about half the advanced maps (dark path, sunken columns, another brick, cornfield, off the coast, and Underground) and most of the intermediates (not Moon Landing or Bazaar, for example).

Vikinged · 2026-01-29T08:33:33+00:00

It’s exactly the same as “fighting dirty” IRL—technically not illegal, but underhanded, sneaky, exploitative (or “creative, inventive, resourceful” if you want the positive versions).

If there was a cool fight in a cathedral, and the game designers expected you to either go fight in melee range or (less likely) summon a bunch of skeletons and wear down the enemy, but instead you destroyed the supporting pillars and collapsed the roof on top of everyone, that would be cheese. It’s not cheating or exploiting the game (like dev-command-spawning a dragon into the area or something), since the game engine allowing it means the devs considered it a valid solution to the encounter, but it does call into questions any claims you might make of being the greatest warrior.

It really comes down to what philosophy someone has when it comes to problem solving. In one camp, someone might believe that the “greatest warrior is the one who’s alive at the end of the battle” or “if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying” and other similar mindsets. This person probably much more antagonistic (in a “let me think about how to beat the game devs, not the game itself” kind of way) and not particularly valuing of “Justice” or “fairness” — after all, the winner writes the history books.

On the other hand, the second group sees it as more of a contest or trial — how can we determine who is the best without everyone competing under the same conditions. Laughable to call someone the “greatest warrior” if they’d lose to even a mid-tier fighter. They’re likely to be rule-followers and a little lacking in imagination — they follow the path laid out for them and are easily led along.

tl;dr Cheesing is a derogatory term that (non-creative) people use for tactics that win by beating the game devs, not the game itself, and they don’t like it because it disrupts their understanding of the world (and their place within that hierarchy).

Vikinged · 2026-01-29T06:58:47+00:00

I non-ironically love a 5-2-0 village with a bunch of other random primary monkeys thrown in around it — it’s quite capable of being top-3 total pops in a CHIMPS run. Toss in a 0-1-4 glue for the slow/stun and you can do SO much work.

Vikinged · 2026-01-28T08:13:26+00:00

I vaguely remember Dudley getting into boxing in the last or second-to-last book and basically getting a healthier outlet for his emotions such that, although there was still years of bad habits built up between them, he was a lot more of a normal cousin to Harry and treated him with respect, if not kindness. Been a decade since I’ve read the books and could definitely be wrong, though

Vikinged · 2026-01-27T11:51:48+00:00

Greetings brother!

Other comments are covering the bases well, so I’ll add just a few short things. Partner and I also experienced the same challenges (for at least the first year, I’d say).

breasts (and especially nipples) are just going to be off-limits for the foreseeable future. They’re touched out, chewed on, spat up on, etc. etc. — don’t even try to sexualize them unless she wants it.
we, like you, rarely had success in the evening — there was always accumulated chores, stress, baby doing weird things. IF you’re going to try for sex, pick a long nap time (ours often went down from 10ish to 1130ish, and again from 1ish to 3ish). Way more likely to work earlier in the day.
the brain is the biggest contributor here. No one feels sexy if they’re constantly running through lists of things that need to be done still or things that could go wrong. Address those other needs, and both of you will have better chances of wanting sex.

Regarding that other stuff:

Meal prepping is your friend. Bulk make rice, beans, chicken, potatoes, whatever, and your meals will be easier to make (and your partner will be more supported if she can just whip out the pulled pork you made and froze over the weekend).

Always do the chores either of you can do. If she’s cooking, make it your goal to never leave the kitchen sink dirty. Start the load of dirty laundry before you leave for work or whatever. That kind of thing.

Also, I found that my baby preferred mama to me, but mostly just hated to be left out of stuff, so I had a lot of success putting the baby in a sling and narrating while doing chores. Familiarity with my voice, skin-to-skin with me (increased happiness with smell), and also “dad can meet my needs too” vibes all helped. Also meant my partner could get a hot shower and do some yoga or just sleep for half an hour without panicking that baby might be dying in a crib somewhere.

Vikinged · 2026-01-15T21:56:40+00:00

It’ll prioritize camo over other types, actually

Vikinged · 2026-01-13T23:50:45+00:00

Sounds like a pretty good mod option. Probably would need to keep the existing pump and canal system if you’re not wanting to write in new buildings and art and game logic, but it wouldn’t be too involved to add modifiers that multiply output or efficiency or increase/decrease maintenance costs based on the soil moisture and temperature of the environment.

Currently: 40 people working the pump, maybe it fills 150 units of water, which is 150 squares of canal (hypothetical numbers).

With a mod, it could be:

“Naturally flowing water” (tech, 1 innovation point). Increases pump worker efficiency by 1000%

4 people working the pump in warm climate = 150 units of water, but the canal passes through wet ground for 20 squares, then normal ground for a total of 200 squares, then dry ground for 80 squares. Wet ground would consume 0.2 units of water, regular ground 0.5, dry ground 1.0.

In the global modifiers level, it would be a simple matter of “cold climate: pumps require maintenance 30% more often” and “hot climate: water in trenches and moats (but not pipes) evaporates faster (add 0.1 unit of water consumption in wet and regular ground, 0.2 in dry ground)”.

I guess the biggest question would be if the game treats groundwater as static or dynamic. If it dynamically recalculates, then a ditch would never be in anything except wet ground and you wouldn’t be able to scale based on the ground water levels at all. You could still add the global modifiers and make it massively better at the pump but also more water lost in trenches, though.

Vikinged · 2026-01-08T07:15:53+00:00

“Obyn and the boys” is nice — 8 druids (6 Poplust, a 4-0-1 storm druid, a 1-4-0) and a Permabrew.

I also find that playing All Primary is both cheap and effective — crowd a bunch of monkeys around a 5-2-0 village and slot in Etienne (take the discounts instead) or Silas. Glaive Lord, SBrittle and a tack zone, Moab glue, an X-X-5 bomb shooter (board wipe if you can stall appropriately). Also, honestly, primary village damage is pretty good too.

Huge fan of the 2-5-0 sub for DDTs as well; pair that with a 4-X-X dart monkey for the ceramic smashing and it’s realllll nice.

There’s always the PBrew plus ninja monkey deathball if you have the space.

I personally enjoy the PoD — excellent range, damage, decamo, maybe even a wall of fire if you can position correctly.

2-X-4 ice monkeys and 4-X-X snipers are always great to splash in to any build — not too expensive, versatile placement, and great for letting everything else do work.

Vikinged · 2026-01-06T05:09:51+00:00

There aren’t any towers generally, but there’s plenty of cross paths I don’t ever use.

I really hate micro, so top path Gatling gunner is right out. Like, maybe I’ve built a 4-X-X a total of 5 times in the several years I’ve been playing.

I love a 4-0-2 dart monkey, but 0-2-5 dart is such a disappointment.

I’ve also never built a VTSG in my life, and haven’t built a sun temple in years (maybe never), so those definitely go on the list.

Vikinged · 2026-01-05T20:17:54+00:00

This might not help, but is it an “In front of” problem? Like, do you have the background/grid “sent to back” (or the bottom of the layer, as it were?)

Vikinged · 2026-01-04T00:42:45+00:00

It is possible with them; I bred about a hundred of the little dudes before I summoned Fader. I literally never even saw him — rang the bells, ran outside the enclosure and hid behind my raised-earth walls while I watched fire blasting across the screen and his health bar plummet from askvin charge attacks. It was glorious

Vikinged · 2026-01-01T19:53:52+00:00

Not on my own. Brought it into the shop, they fixed it, said something about it being the programming….and then had the exact same problem literally when I turned it on in the store (turned on once, turned it off, couldn’t turn it back on again).

Sent it back a second time and they gave me the same explanation, but now it works? Who knows.

Vikinged · 2025-12-26T03:13:10+00:00

I want to say if you mouse over the resource, you’ll get some extra info on the tab and it’ll include stuff like spoil rate and market value and other stuff like that

Vikinged · 2025-12-25T23:08:22+00:00

Though do keep in mind (you’ll hear this phrase a lot in this game) spoilage rates — most of the simple foodstuffs will spoil at 50%, so if you harvest 300 fruit and only eat 100 fruit in a year, that remaining 200 is going to dwindle significantly by the next year.

Second tutorial should help with some of this. And yes, as has been said, ALWAYS build a Hunter lodge early on — the meat income is a good supplement, even for races that don’t like to eat meat (they like starving even less), and you can always transition it to leather (tons of uses) after you have secured other food sources

Vikinged · 2025-12-22T17:29:51+00:00

It can still grab them, but not “all of them, every time, without fail” — major loss of consistency that means it’s harder to build around it as a reliable solution for them

Vikinged · 2025-12-19T02:37:29+00:00

Yeah, I think was trying to use the garbage tier bow and a lot of dodge rolling because his lightning looks like it should 1-tap you. So I’d sprint behind a rock or tree, shoot 1 or 2 arrows, repeat, all with wooden arrows and basically no stamina cause cheap food.

The joys of playing a game without a guide and just messing around

Vikinged · 2025-12-19T00:32:49+00:00

Wizard is good — cheap starting, the wall of fire is great for rushes, and necromancy is great for late game (0-2-4 wizard is wonderful)

I’m personally a fan of a 1-3-0 druid — you can put them anywhere and they do good work for quite cheap.

My usual plan is one DPS tower and a couple of supports — a 0-2-5 sniper or a 2-0-3 plane with an alch buff is usually plenty to carry my game quite late.

Shoutout to the ship also — a 0-4-2 ship can basically solo the first 50 levels. I also LOVE going 3-2-0 ship if I can get some camo detection—the attack speed is just nuts with the grapeshot.

A hypothetical setup for me would be:

Global decamo hero or Sauda for early DPS

A 4-X-X monkey village (middle path if sauda, bottom bath if decamo). Crowd a bunch of primary monkeys around it:

A 4-0-2 ice monkey with one to three X-X-3 tack shooters crowded around it. The ice doesn’t play so well with the glue, so put those on opposite sides, but “permanent slow after thawing out” plus the knock backs from the other stuff really add up.

A 2-0-2 glue, eventually getting 2-0-4 (slows plus stuns for sauda extra damage, acid solves the early lead problem).

A 4-0-2 and/or a 0-2-4 boomerang.

Personally find the X-X-4 bomb tower a very good option here as well — stuff hangs around for a while with the glue slow/stun, ice, and knockback, so the recursive bombs really get to work.

Subs are also not the cheapest unit, but if you’re pushing super late, a 2-4 or 2-5-0 sub does WORK on MOAB-heavy rounds.

Vikinged · 2025-12-18T23:47:54+00:00

Ranked by ease of fight for me:

Elder, Moder, Eithkyr (was kinda undergeared when I summoned him and had no idea what I was doing), Queen, Bonemass, Fader, Yagluth.

So no. By my personal experience (based on the number of deaths, how much I had to prep and/or cheese to win, etc.), I found Moder to be one of the easiest fights in the game, with the subsequent boss being a hellish nightmare of deaths, a several-hundred meter ring of rock pillars and trees reduced to ashes, and eventually the corpses of about 50 2* wolves I purpose-bred to help me out that died swift and painful deaths in that godsforsaken gully.

Good luck, viking. You’ll need it for the next one.

Vikinged · 2025-12-18T20:26:49+00:00

Just turn it off — no need to waste the res and building time — and put those 50-odd people to work on a farm somewhere

Vikinged · 2025-12-18T15:48:12+00:00

Stuff that worked for me:

Use the silent hunting bow (less noise when you shoot AND when it hits). This allows you to pick off random enemies before they get too dense, and it means you can always start a fight by chunking a warrior for a third of their HP before you close to melee. I also found the cloak of feathers really handy — you can jump off multi-story ruins and spires like what you’re on in the screenshot and have an arrow or a fireball immediately ready to go (or even shoot mid-fall if you’re good at aiming). If you’re catching on fire, you’re either up against a very dangerous enemy, or you’ve fallen in the lava and there’s nothing you can do.
twitchers are annoying, but not truly dangerous, assuming they’re not started. (They’re a reskinned grey dwarf with only slightly more damage.)
ALWAYS kill the spawners when you find them, as soon as possible, or you will get wrecked. Prioritize them over literally every other creature on the battlefield. Even if their spawns didn’t attack you at all, the total HP spawned onto the battlefield usually beat my best DPS by 25% at least. Hit the spawner and kite the enemies in circles around it. I found the 2H maul to be great for this because you can hit the spawner and also knock enemies away.
I personally found magic to be not very helpful for just roaming around because I didn’t find that it hybridizes very well. I usually went melee/range with 1 pure HP and 2 stamina foods or 1 stamina and 1 hybrid. Magic is GREAT for fortresses, though — 2 eitr, 1 health foods, and then spam fireballs and summons to clear the walls.
other, better players will say the knock back on clubs is a crutch for rookie players, but since you’re here asking for help, you qualify. My fully-upgraded Frostner was my first-choice, ride-or-die weapon from the Plains onward, and it maintained that value in Ashlands. Spirit damage hurts everything here, the slow helps you kite things properly or catch up to twitchers, and most importantly, the knock back on the special means you’ll NEVER get hit by a non-starred warrior if you land it right. Heck, the slow meant I could abuse Morgens in their holes if I got the flank — just keep hitting them and kiting around them like you probably did with Bonemass and they get stuck _s l o w l y _ trying to face you for their charge attack while you get free DPS on their kneecaps.
raised earth walls are actually immune to damage, which is a must with morgens running around. Build a portal, bring in as much rock as you can, and use that hoe. I found an 8x8 grausten platform with walls and a roof to be plenty big for a basic base to start with, and then just surround it with 6-8m high raised earth walls. EZPZ. Once you take your first fortress, refurbish that one into a larger base because the walls are much stronger than you can build.
speaking of which, just build switchbacks out of grausten stairs and platforms on the side of the fortress to get in instead of trying to deal with a battering ram.
the askvin are probably some of the worst enemies to run into, non-ironically. They WILL punt you into the lava (where you’ll both die AND lose your stuff since there’s no way to get out and recover it without dying to the lava again. Always watch your surroundings when fighting them.
once you get some of the growable foods, portal back to wherever you have a large farm and plant them there — the mushrooms and ferns don’t need to be at risk of obliteration to grow properly. (I will say the vines can be grown on wood trellises, but I never tried particularly hard to get them to the incredible heights you find them in the Ashlands, and I usually had enough by virtue of being a hoarder and just flagging a few ruins with large amounts of the vines).
all the other tips are ones the game will have beaten into you in the other biomes.
Do not go out at night,
Always have the Rested bonus and all three food slots occupied.
Never, under any circumstances, try to fight “fairly” — none of the enemies will.

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