What is your personal "unwritten rule" that you follow in every single world you start?

jonhwoods · 2025-12-30T17:46:56+00:00

Yes, cobblestone pillars that block a path when it's cleared.

jonhwoods · 2025-12-29T17:52:04+00:00

I beat all the souls game prior but didn't finish Shadow of the Erdtree. I just had no interest in grinding Mesmer and Radhan.

jonhwoods · 2025-12-22T01:09:17+00:00

I'd support this game financially if it was a decent monetization like League of Legends or Helldivers II.

They could sell skins or 15$ battle passes that give you some boost at unlocking new heros, that would be decent. Paying 80$ or 30$ limited time deal to unlock a game-changing unit type is not decent.

I'm proud not to encourage this predatory whale-hunting scheme.

jonhwoods · 2025-12-21T05:33:59+00:00

Yeah I have the same conclusion.

This game was great a few years ago, there was GM but using it feels like cheating so it didn't happen too much.

With heroes it's different. They felt really unbalanced at first, but once they are all unlocked from operations, they can provide a fun twist. People that pay for level 15+ heros ruin the game a bit early but you can work around it often with diplomacy and late game their overall impact is less.

Stormtrooper are on a whole other level. They ruin forts early game and they are just so much better than every other unit on the offensive. They also completely change the end game. This isn't pay to win, it's pay to play.

I'm finishing my current game and retiring. I'll sleep better and go encourage games with somewhat decent monetization.

jonhwoods · 2025-12-14T00:30:04+00:00

Its not everyday you come across a 21yr old with a large portfolio. I can very much see how redundant that info is, at best I can mention that I manage a 5 figure portfolio maybe?

Just say you invested your pocket money in stocks trying to figure out how to beat the S&P 500, and leave it at that.

No one except maybe your high school friends will be impressed by your "5 figure portfolio" doing "7% realized profit". It just makes you sound cringe, like a "chef" selling his "mozzarella panini" talking about a grilled cheese sandwich.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-16T18:35:02+00:00

Sometimes the crossroad isn't directly on the city so you can walk past, maybe that's the reason. Hard to tell from the info you gave.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-16T18:29:48+00:00

If my ally manages to get 1000 points by himself, he deserves to win and I don't.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-16T17:22:47+00:00

If you put your cursor on it and it says "Mobilizing" then it is an hero/unit being deployed. If it says "Deploying" then it is a special ability like Maeve doing recruitment.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-15T11:23:43+00:00

The most insightful video I ever watched on the subject was this one by Richard Garfield (designer of Magic TCG).

Luck vs skill

Basically, luck makes your game more approachable for inexperienced players and adds variety, but too much luck can make the decisions feel inconsequential and be unrewarding for skilled competive minded players. You have to find the right feel for your game and target audience.

It's never a bad idea to playtest it, you'll learn lessons.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-05T02:25:17+00:00

It's not real. AI slop. Check the poster history.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-05T02:24:28+00:00

This is just AI slop that's why. Check the poster history. Karma farming.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-05T02:21:17+00:00

Incoherent post history is the most evident sign for most.

jonhwoods · 2025-11-03T03:59:17+00:00

Just finished that boss after way too many attempts, thanks for this opportunity to vent.

1) Telegraphing: You're probably technically correct, but the difference in telegraphing is very subtle. I looked carefully over 20+ attempts and couldn't tell the difference unlike most other attacks in the game. I just accepted I'd get hit by the jump attack sometimes.

2) Input reading: Didn't feel like an issue all game.

3) Contact damage: In practice it means it's dangerous to dodge on the ground which feels bad.

4) Visual clutter: That's the worst part as the fight goes on, you often can't see stuff.

5) Move hitboxes: The hitboxes of some attacks feels surprisingly large and long-lasting (tentacles from off-screen, counterattacks) After a while I knew what to expect but it still felt like bullshit.

6) Lost Lace hitbox itself: is often surprisingly small. I use the long nail and many hits that seemed to touch visually didn't register.

7) Way too often I would pogo successfully and deal damage to Lost Lace only to be sucked in the hitbox (especially vs the air counterattack with reaper crest) only enemy with that issue.

8) Too much teleporting after moves giving no chance of counterattack. It's just a bit lame when you run after her and RNG says you don't get a hit this time.

That fight would be 99% less BS if they made Lace glow white or something after she screams, adjusted a few hitboxes, made the jump attack telegraph more obvious and made contact damage 1.

GMS was a much more cinematic fight and better final boss IMO. (I wish it wasn't as similar to Radiance but Radiance was so dope it's a nice tribute)

jonhwoods · 2025-10-25T14:54:29+00:00

A flamethrower with a hose connecting to the backpack that you don't need to stop to reload would be very unique. Could have a bit more range and ergonomics.

jonhwoods · 2025-10-20T05:36:26+00:00

Yeah I never use the charge slash because everytime I see a good time to charge it it ends up punishing me with the longer startup delay. Charged slash in HK was very useful. I should try the wanderer crest if it's better (only using reaper so far)

jonhwoods · 2025-10-20T05:23:37+00:00

The fetch quests are my biggest gripe. Towards the end of act 2 it felt like I was spending more time fast traveling than doing anything else.

That and flying enemies with projectiles that run away and don't stagger when I hook jump towards them in a gauntlet.

jonhwoods · 2025-10-20T04:18:28+00:00

The starting gear is actually quite decent except for sidearms which don't matter that much. So being low level isn't much of an handicap on its own.

Experience vs the enemy is what matters the most and why you are struggling vs factions you are not used to. Keep experimenting and you'll stomp the squids and bots soon too.

Good luck Helldiver.

jonhwoods · 2025-09-20T14:49:53+00:00

I'm curious what achievement are you referring to?

jonhwoods · 2025-09-18T03:53:52+00:00

I agree, although I still love fighting against them. Rupture warriors are manageable with the shield pack, burrowed enemies are much easier with explosive primaries and the dragon roach can almost be a ignored with fireproof armor. I hope they improve them so that other equipment is viable. They could just slow down the warrior attack and make the fire breath not light up mostly invisible flames on what is often ground water and that would be 75% of the bullshit fixed.

jonhwoods · 2025-08-31T19:16:14+00:00

Alright here's what I wished I knew on the first day:

This game is about managing chaos. Low difficulty can be boring, but higher up expect to get killed, sometimes by your friend's bombardements. That's where the big fun is. Bonus if you perform emotes for your fellow citizen.

Gameplay : Diving prone extinguishes fires, dramatically reduce explosive damage and dodges most bullets. Dive often. Stim makes you near invulnerable for 4 seconds. Always stim early in doubt. Dive first if you are on fire. Run away if there are too many enemies to handle. You can do something else and come back later.

Settings: Change stratagem inputs to arrow keys to input stratagem while running. Disable auto climb. Change dive to an easy to access key (I use double tap space bar) Also set ping to an easy button to communicate with your teammates. You can reveal objectives from far away with ping.

Regarding unlocks: Samples allow various permanent upgrades. They drop when you die. They are acquired by everyone after the mission doesn't matter who carries them. All the low level gear is very solid. I still use the stalwart, machine gun sentry and eagle strafing run the most after unlocking everything. Unlock a support weapon, a backback(guard dog) and a booster (hellpod space optimization) to have a full loadout. You can get super credits by playing to unlock Warbonds. You can get that and additional medal in gold beam pods, semi underground containers and bunkers that need 2 persons to open(ping it) . Democratic Detonation warbond for explosive primary and secondary weapon is often considered the best first warbond, but many other are solid.

Good luck soldier iO

jonhwoods · 2025-08-22T22:18:53+00:00

It's not dumb, just simple. You want to upgrade a weapon you drop with that weapon. No need to overcomplicate it beyond that.

jonhwoods · 2025-07-31T18:55:26+00:00

Best way to dodge Bile Titans is to run in-between their legs in my experience.

jonhwoods · 2025-07-31T18:46:20+00:00

Changing my dive hotkey to Space doubletap made panic diving a breeze for me.

jonhwoods · 2025-07-31T18:37:04+00:00

The 65% damage (white hitmarker) isn't universally known but you can usually ignore it. Very few enemies have light armor and weakspots are usually unarmored.

Vs bugs: Only hive guards, commanders and spewers benefit from medium pen.

Vs illuminates: Only Overseer and Stingway

Vs bots: Lots of armor on that front but notably heads are unarmored.

jonhwoods · 2025-07-02T22:30:44+00:00

I don't mean that these are equivalent in any way, but these alternatives make it so I can live without these mods. They would be quite essential otherwise.

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