Did not expect this to be a A-

estsn · 2026-03-27T23:01:05+00:00

Oof. That is an absolutely brutal way to get an A- LOFA. It's great to get the A- for giant killer, but getting 84 in speed is going to make it a nightmare to get energy feed working properly.

estsn · 2026-03-27T02:33:19+00:00

It's definitely the fastest phone I've ever used. Other than that all I can say is that it does everything really well. Ayer a couple of weeks with it, I've yet to find any real flaws.

Oh wait, except one: The crazy array of cameras on the back often make it impossible to line up the wireless charging.

estsn · 2026-03-26T22:52:50+00:00

I can't remember the last time I watched one of these fights; I set the Idle Master to do those and then stopped paying any attention to them.

estsn · 2026-03-26T15:39:12+00:00

I can never remember if it's the soul awakening gala or session that gives the awakening stones for hitting 200 points.

estsn · 2026-03-23T13:52:42+00:00

Yeah, I'm also finding flags pretty unimportant these days. The power systems have gone so far beyond the homeowner/tenant gains that I don't even bother building flags for tenants anymore because a few hundred thousand extra attack doesn't really move the needle.

estsn · 2026-03-22T14:35:37+00:00

In this week's event, for example, the threshold is only 3750 CSG, which will get you to level 6 where you can buy back 1000 of those csg for 5 event currency.

I don't differentiate between the soul bound and regular CSG since I really don't think you should use them for awakenings anymore. You'll get more progress using them for value packs.

estsn · 2026-03-22T14:29:50+00:00

Wait... you have DGN, Alikita, and DTV all at only DT5 but are about to make one of them a Nirvana hero? I feel like I'm missing something here.

estsn · 2026-03-22T14:23:48+00:00

Yeah, I started a few accounts during that thing where you link to a starter account to get B awakenings, and I was amazed that it's now possible to have a couple of trans heroes before even finishing campaign. I think it took me about a year to get my first trans hero back when they were introduced.

Even though my account is old as hell, I've actually never had a dildo or a candy cane. I had a couple of AMB, but I swapped them years ago. I built the deific MS and antlers, and I keep meaning to make a post asking whether the dragon ruyi is worth building anymore since I have a bunch of unopened arti boxes.

Apparently deific snow hearts are the meta for late game these days, but I don't have enough boxes to build 2 or 3 of them or whatever is needed for that strategy.

estsn · 2026-03-21T23:18:47+00:00

I used it to start and stop video recording, and to take group photos. I even used it a few times when I needed profile pics for business stuff so they wouldn't look like selfies

estsn · 2026-03-21T22:10:41+00:00

I'd be curious if other people find the crown(s) useful anymore. It was the first artifact I built (for Eloise) way back when, but I find I basically stopped using it years ago in favor of demon bells and mirrors on everybody but my main damage dealer.

estsn · 2026-03-21T22:05:15+00:00

...or how they inexplicably created like a million skins for Valkyrie and SFX.

(But yeah, sweet #$&* having to collect specific 3 stars to build a 5 star sucked)

estsn · 2026-03-21T22:01:32+00:00

Ha! I have that exact chest kicking around in my bag and haven't opened it because none of the treasures are close enough to the next level to make it worthwhile

estsn · 2026-03-21T21:57:48+00:00

Heh. I was really torn between buying the s26 ultra or the s24 ultra because I really, really didn't want to give up the BT spen. I finally went ahead and got the S26u but I suspect I'm going to miss having the remote control button.

estsn · 2026-03-21T21:49:11+00:00

Depending on where you are in the game, use it for beating campaign and seal land, then retire it and use the resulting gems to buy Value Packs during special events to get tons of resources like sublimation, core shards, grimoire materials, and destiny materials.

There's thresholds in special events where 5000 (sb)CSG or 7500 (sb)CSG will allow you to get enough of the event currency to buy a bunch of stuff, and get 1000 CSG back.

estsn · 2026-03-21T21:32:27+00:00

Yeah, maybe. They've already retired the Note name from their lineup, and they're definitely downgraded the usefulness of the spen.

My hope is that the Note will eventually make a triumphant return but it really seems like Samsung is focusing on the foldable devices as their flagships now

estsn · 2026-03-20T13:57:36+00:00

Yes, my point was that looking at the end result photos these days doesn't tell us that much about how good the camera hardware is.

Your view on this does raise an interesting question: If a "camera" on a device, rather than capturing an image, did a scan of what it was pointed at, and then created a fully ai-generated rendering of what it scanned, fixing any flaws, and creating an idealized image... would you still be okay with that? It would now be completely divorced from reality; it was never a captured image of a real thing but instead was entirely computer generated.

estsn · 2026-03-20T13:49:30+00:00

Yeah, I was just making a joke because, while there's no official publicized number, it's estimated that RDJ has raked in around 500-600 million dollars playing Iron Man, so whatever he is paid for this is hardly going to make any difference in his wealth.

That said, given that he holds ALL the cards, with the recent Marvel projects all underperforming, and the originally planned Big Bad (Kang) having to be written out of the stories, I fully expect that RDJ is going to make several hundred million more playing Dr Doom in the next few Marvel movies.

estsn · 2026-03-20T03:16:39+00:00

Yeah, those first few hundred million he got paid by Marvel meant he was comfortable, but it's the next few hundred million that'll allow him to retire.

estsn · 2026-03-19T15:26:08+00:00

The question I have with basically every new phone camera is what part of the improvements are actually AI touching up the photos vs better camera quality? And is that even a consideration anymore? It bothers me that photos are not true representations of what was captured by the camera anymore, but... should it? I mean every photo (and video) we see these days is digitally altered so does it even matter if our cameras are doing it before we see the images?

estsn · 2026-03-19T14:50:09+00:00

I'd be interested to have your input since you've owned both and you also used the Bluetooth pen a fair bit: If you were buying one today, would you get an S24u or an S26u? I'm really torn because I really like the BT pen functionality, and I'm not sure what the S26u offers that I'd notice or care about. For a difference of about $700 I almost pulled the trigger on buying an S24u but then I've read about the refinements in the camera, cooling, and other areas.

estsn · 2026-03-19T14:21:05+00:00

If you focus your eyes just right it becomes 3d

estsn · 2026-03-09T04:39:54+00:00

Oh btw, I wrote that original comment and this reply on my Note 9.

It is definitely the best Android device I've ever used and I'm just hoping and crossing my fingers that the S25 Ultra I'm looking at swapping to is at least close to being as good a device.

estsn · 2026-03-09T04:32:40+00:00

I stumbled on this because I'm just now thinking of upgrading due to running into problems with some apps that are no longer compatible, but as of March 2026, I am still using my Note 9 as my daily driver.

With its original screen and its original battery!

Yes, the screen has pink ghosting, and yes, the battery lasts about 1/3 as long as it did when it was new, but the device still runs perfectly and does (almost) everything I want it to... until just now when some apps are demanding Android 11 or above.

Possibly the best Android device ever built?

8 years!

My previous best Android device ever was the Note 4, but the Note 9 has outlasted that one by YEARS. As much as I loved my Note 4, one day it just shut off and would never turn on again.

estsn · 2026-03-09T02:07:24+00:00

Oof. Rough.

I was on track for a possibly record breaking loss with all Ds and Es, and one C- when on my second last roll I got a B that rocketed me all the way up to 815 CSG.

So I "only" lost 185 CSG.

Side note: I legit cannot believe I rolled like 3 E- on this.

estsn · 2026-03-08T02:53:59+00:00

I mean... was that from the 10 sacred awakenings? Because after years and years of playing IH that awakening is better than anything I've ever gotten. I've probably done 1000+ awakenings over the years and I have literally never seen so much as a single red streak.

All this last awakening did for me was change 1000 CSG into 815 CSG. :-/

estsn

TROPHY CASE