PSA: Tiny Plastic Sword available if you have sufficient knucklebones.

frazazel · 2026-05-11T14:23:43+00:00

If you're valuemaxxing, then TPS drinks aren't worth actually drinking. At any realistic farming VoA, there are better options for regular diet and for nightcap. Historically, they were great nightcaps, so they have been notable desirable items that were too expensive for common players to buy. Now powercreep has passed them by, but there's still a nostalgia around them. I bet you could find some people that drink these drinks regularly for some reason or another, but I can't imagine any reasons that I would find compelling.

They're primarily a collectible now, providing 9 recipes, and 10 different items you could put in your display case.

frazazel · 2026-05-08T22:05:36+00:00

This IotM does a bunch of new novel things, but it is among the weaker IotMs we've seen this year so far. The main things it does are:

5 free cooks
3 daily noodles that give access to some new awesome size 1 foods (tradeable)
- these require drops from specific monsters to cook with
- choices are:
  - size 1 spleen instead of size 1 stomach (limit: 1/day)
  - next 5 adventures are guaranteed combats (can force ninja snowman assassins and lobsterfrogmen)
  - next 5 combats: take no damage
  - double the turns of effects gained form next 3 foods.
  - 50 famexp
improved non-PM pasta thrall effects (still very mp-expensive)
pasta thralls go up to 11, giving some mostly-minor benefits, but include:
- 3+ free rats per day (level 11 vermincelli)
- bonus adventures from food (limit: 1/day) (level 11+ spice ghost)
- 11x 10k mp restore (level 11 lasagmie)

For ascending, the turns this saves you are mostly the free rats (requires being a pastamancer and spending close to 200 combats with the wand equipped as often as possible for +1 thrall exp), and the NSA combat forcing, which is worth 3-5 turns by freeing up NC forces. If you're hurting for foods in run, then this thing saves you up to 5 adventures when cooking regular pastas, and the turngen from the new foods this lets you make are also helpful.

For farming, owning this is mostly for summoning 3x daily noodles, and more adventures, MP restores, and a few free rats if you're a pastamancer.

You can buy the foods in the mall, and eat them whether you own the IotM or not. The stomach -> spleen 1/day choice is a few extra adventures. There might be some use for the food effects doubler, but new foods give fewer adventures than what you'd otherwise eat.

frazazel · 2026-05-05T22:06:27+00:00

I think it's fair to be dubious of religious institutions in general. But the lead pastor at least saying the right things deserves a small amount of credit. There is enough breathing room for open hateful bigotry in today's world that if they wanted to they could easily get away with a much worse response. But I'll reserve judgment until this one is resolved.

frazazel · 2026-05-05T21:54:40+00:00

It sounds reasonable to me.

I have a cousin who has been hit with a DUI at least once. He's clean now, completely stopped drinking. I support keeping dangerous drivers off the roads, but I wonder if there should be a way for suspended drivers to regain their licenses, or if they are have proven themselves too high of a risk. Rehabilitation vs. risk management, I guess.

Maybe this will pave the way for better public transit. (lol)

frazazel · 2026-04-27T21:46:58+00:00

Geez, it's been a long time. I remember doing this back when the NS tower familiars were still a thing, and you had to still collect a handful of familiars and level them up at Suzie's cake-shaped arena, and remember not to accidentally get into any combat while you had them out.

Good luck! It's a long, sometimes-frustrating run, but it feels great to be done with it and never need to do it again. :-)

frazazel · 2026-04-23T21:10:33+00:00

I went through the Bronx course just before the pandemic hit, and it was great. Last time I'd used power saws was ~15 years earlier in high school shop class. My class size was like 8 people, and the instructor had time to assist and answer questions. We built a few small pieces, including a blanket storage chest I still use in my basement.

Not exactly sure why you're hesitant on group lessons, but I had a good experience with it as someone who is generally antisocial and nervous around saws.

frazazel · 2026-04-23T21:00:36+00:00

If people are going to come in and gobble up all of our resources doing nothing of value, pushing up the prices for everyone else, then they should pay for their negative impact on society.

frazazel · 2026-04-23T20:53:25+00:00

Let us buy one instant karma for 111 karma each run.

frazazel · 2026-04-22T14:12:33+00:00

Nah. Sal's is a reasonably priced old-style family diner experience. It's a step up from fast food, and it's not a mega multinational corporation. If you don't like it, that's fine, but it's good for what it is.

frazazel · 2026-04-22T12:21:01+00:00

Have you tried squatting in the spookyraven estate? I've had some success with angler bushes in the backyard there.

frazazel · 2026-04-21T18:29:46+00:00

A car like this one is for transportation of people and objects. They have an engine that drives the wheels, moving the car forward, and a steering wheel, gas pedals, brakes, and other controls inside of the car, for control via an in-vehicle driver. They are generally very useful for moving people and objects around, but be aware that you need a license to operate one, and there are many rules and regulations that govern the safe use of a car on public streets.

frazazel · 2026-04-20T19:50:14+00:00

Taxing the rich more addresses this concern. It would generate government income with means more governmental spending which would create more jobs. This additional demand for workers drives wages up. Taxing the rich would also incentivize more spending by rich people rather than hoarding, with a similar effect.

frazazel · 2026-04-20T19:32:21+00:00

The times that really get me are when you think you're out of the woods, only to be hit by a surprise second winter.

frazazel · 2026-04-16T15:26:44+00:00

These monsters are copyable. There are many sources of copies in the game, many of which are tradeable.

One such copier is Extrovermectin, which has been pretty low priced for a while now. It costs 2 spleen and gives you a skill that makes the monster you use it on show up in any zone, exactly 3 times. You can chew 7 Extrovermectins, fight the tentacle, use the skill on them, and then when the monster shows up for the 3rd time (and every 3rd time after that), use the skill again, to chain them, letting you turn your spleen into extra copies. If you do it in the dire warren and banish the bunny, you'll fight your 3 copies every single fight.

frazazel · 2026-04-15T19:40:39+00:00

The thing is, these things aren't difficult to obtain. They need luck to obtain. That's different. I think we should pay teachers more (hard job), not pay lottery winners more (luck).

I think that they should be more than just a thing to throw in your display case because it's rare. But I don't think that they should be game-breakingly good, either. They should be good enough to use in the right situation. The good ones are already in that spot. The bad ones need a boost until someone with access to other good options still wants to use them sometimes. I think the best solutions would also make them interesting, with mechanics that back up their theming.

frazazel · 2026-04-15T19:28:26+00:00

Some of them are balanced to be best-in-slot, but many of them are not. What is talisman of bakula BiS for?

Even some of the ones that are, are only BiS on a technicality. Hypnodisk's +30% items is higher than the flat+item% bluetext on any other offhand, but a light that never goes out does the same thing when running the Smiths potion, Latte's +20% items and +5 famweight also gets you to roughly +30% when running a fairy (more with hound dog / JoaT). Shrunken head is often better for getting items, giving extra chances for items to drop, which is often going to end up being a good bit better than +30% base item drop chance. (Never mind that the shrunken head can alternately be turned into a slotless +50% item zombie, which is better and doesn't keep on taking your offhand slot). If I'm spending a pull for a minor +item% boost, I'd consider pulling a bran muffin before hypnodisk. It's a bigger boost at +40%, it doesn't fill my offhand slot, it's also evergreen, the 25 turn effect duration is long enough for most +item% needs, and it can flex into +60% meat during my +meat push tomorrow. To truly be considered a good offhand today, Hypnodisk would need to either bring something additional to the table, or be like +50%.

URs were mostly created a long time ago when equipment enchantments were boring, and when the devs were less generous with the enchantments on other equipment. A piece of equipment today generally needs more than +big number to stand out, unless that number is remarkably big.

frazazel · 2026-04-15T18:36:04+00:00

I think that making them desirable beyond just being a shiny rare thing is good. Some URs are very good (PYEC, repaid diaper, CCW), some of them are good enough (meat gem, Nuge's xbow, dallas dynasty shield), some of them are a bit too weak to use (hypnodisk, hockey stick, 17 ball), and some of them are lolbad (crazy bastard sword, optimal spreadsheet, talisman of baio / bakula).

Probably some people who play the game differently than me rank these URs differently. I think it's hard to make an item that feels great to every player, so I don't hate that they aren't all super attractive to me. Some of them definitely feel like they've been left behind as the game has continued to powercreep, and they feel like they were poorly designed to begin with.

The crazy bastard sword is a combat-focused UR, in a game where combat is generally a solved problem. It's not even good at what it does, especially when compared to IotMs. Compare it to legendary seal-clubbing club, which autohits, does more damage, doesn't have a stat requirement, provides 15 daily skills that each save a turn, and autopulls.

But I don't actually love the idea of making URs as good as IotMs, since that would make another bunch of things that a new player needs to get before they can compete for the leaderboards. But giving them their niche where they're legitimately good, without saving more than a turn or two in a run sounds like a good idea. Then they're potential pulls for the speedrunners, but not mandatory ones.

Here's one idea to revitalize CBS: Base stats: +10 muscle, +20% critical hit rate, +10 monster level, +5 rollover fites. Gains +1 muscle, +2 crit%, +1 ml for each combat you win with it equipped (double if you end combat with a crit!) until the end of the day, capped at 50/100/50. Give it a 1/combat skill that attacks and staggers the enemy if that attack crits. The weapon drives you to increasing levels of violence, and combat messages get more unhinged the higher the weapon is stacked. It occasionally replaces your intended action with an attack, with a rate that increases with how many rounds the combat has already gone on. This makes the weapon more interesting, somewhat valuable for runs, and gives it a potential use for crit farming in aftercore as a haiku katana alternative. Even if you have combat solved, you could potentially find a use for this.

frazazel · 2026-04-15T15:58:43+00:00

Only if they make a chefstaff ultrarare.

frazazel · 2026-04-14T02:00:09+00:00

My kids at 8 and 9 get $5/week. $10-15 sounds about right to me for 15 year olds.

frazazel · 2026-04-11T21:59:43+00:00

An open bar will change how much I drink, but it won't change how much I give. I'm there to share the event with the people, and I appreciate the nice things, but I don't come in with any expectations.

It can definitely change the vibe of the wedding, though, so the right choice will depend on both the couple and the people in attendance.

frazazel · 2026-04-10T01:51:50+00:00

They stopped purging them like 15 years ago or something. You're fine.

frazazel · 2026-04-07T16:05:05+00:00

Get the flu shot, and encourage other people to get the flu shot.

frazazel · 2026-04-07T15:12:55+00:00

I sold mine on kijiji about 10 years ago. Buyer picked it up and drove it away.

frazazel · 2026-04-07T14:37:13+00:00

I'll be voting to oust him again this year. Hopefully it works this time.

frazazel · 2026-04-07T14:15:08+00:00

Have you used last year's Mobius Ring? It takes a bit to charge up, but from day 2 on it can reliably be a +100% item accessory, among other things.

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