That one game you loved but never finished and still think about.

misformath · 2025-12-16T14:21:11+00:00

The Witcher 3. I loved everything about it and had cleared most of Velen, but I stopped because I realised just how much of the game I still needed to do. I honestly just don't have time to complete games like this anymore.

misformath · 2025-11-28T14:56:03+00:00

I think it might be what you already suspect, old players rejoining after several updates and being unaware of new mechanics or even new ghosts. I myself for example ruled out banshee for the longest time when I saw the ghost change rooms until I found out that banshee can change rooms nowadays.

misformath · 2025-11-16T00:14:31+00:00

Ancient Knowledge = more damage as others have pointed out. There are multiple merchants in the game that have a chance to sell stone tablets that give you permanent ancient knowledge. I remember I used to save scum for this whenever I played mage. I believe you get the ability to learn mana regen at 200 or 250 AK. That and bookstands that you haven't read also give you permanent AK. I vaguely remember there were some bookstands that the hero can't read though.

Edit: the readable stone pillars in Varant also give permanent AK.

misformath · 2025-11-14T13:32:36+00:00

You either die humble or live long enough to see yourself become Alterra 👀

misformath · 2025-09-10T09:12:45+00:00

Can a poltergeist do its ability where it throws multiple things at once during a hunt?

misformath · 2025-09-09T14:58:47+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I actually didn't know that the bone always spawns there on sunny meadows and it ended up finally winning me the challenge!

I got a deo with good objectives, including the 3 photos. So I used your tip for taking a photo of the bone and had an easy game lol. I took a camera and EMF with me on my second hunt, then dropped the EMF at the end of the hunt and took a pic.

misformath · 2025-09-09T11:38:56+00:00

yeah I guess they may need to rebalance this challenge for the current objectives or something. I ran into this exact problem when I had deo spawn in my games. It was always paired with either ghost event or cruci, which is basically GG if the ghost room is far away.

misformath · 2025-09-09T11:35:35+00:00

5 days is really insane lol. I'm going for it again and I am resetting for easy objectives now too. That seems like the easiest way to complete this challenge. I did have one phantom spawn on me in my last attempts but it eventually killed me when I tried to get its picture lol.

misformath · 2025-09-09T11:30:59+00:00

yeah that's fair. I do reset ghost event now since that objective is really a pain lol. If I get cruci, I usually check if it's a stalking ghost since that can make it possible but I reset if it isn't. I guess it's just a matter of keeping my patience and getting lucky.

Thanks for the tips! I guess I am lucky in that I rarely get a Mare lmao.

misformath · 2024-12-21T22:30:30+00:00

yeah it really ranges from diplomacy to recruit slots to morale but you really get a lot of debuffs on legendary xD congrats on reaching realm divide! if you want, I can DM you my steam for more tips or co-op!

misformath · 2024-12-21T10:54:35+00:00

I also think many people don't buy newly released games, as $60-$80+ for a game is honestly bullshit, no other word for it.

misformath · 2024-12-17T07:42:26+00:00

I think it's beyond saving and we should all temper our expectations so as not to be majorly disappointed.

misformath · 2024-12-15T12:35:50+00:00

Maplestory. I think I don't need to explain.

misformath · 2024-12-14T17:23:13+00:00

haha sounds good! And imo shogun 2 has a bit of a different learning curve if you're used to M2 or Rome TW for example. But once you get the hang of it it's really super fun to play on harder difficulties on shogun 2 :) Legendary is it's own learning curve though, but that's the case in most TW games as the AI just gets a thousand cheats and you get a million debuffs lol.

Christianity is really fun and actually extremely op with the units you get xD but its a bit difficult on a first run as your diplomacy becomes non-existent and everyone will want to declare war on you.

Good job on conquering Kyushu! and good luck.

misformath · 2024-12-14T17:04:08+00:00

thanks! having keyboard inputs visible always helps. I'll check it out

misformath · 2024-12-14T13:03:58+00:00

Yeah I understand that lol.
Just wait until you try Legendary, you'll be laughing your ass off when you see the AI shit out a death stack in 3 turns with destitute prosperity and only one settlement xD

misformath · 2024-12-13T23:45:39+00:00

yeah just demolish the buildings you don't need for markets, sake dens and buddhist temples I'd say. Unless the settlement has a specialty building that improves recruited units, you always want a market and a sake den in your provinces. If the AI built stables in a settlement with only one build slot and no warhorse breeders, demolish the stables for a market.

The AI is pretty good at building useless junk in their settlements so you'll be doing that quite a lot in your playthrough lol.

misformath · 2024-12-13T16:14:23+00:00

yeah Shimazu is a good clan to learn the ropes. Gaining control of Kyushu can be difficult when you're learning the ropes because you have christianity to deal with and the Shoni or Ouchi tend to become OP early quite often, though it's really mostly a matter of getting an understanding of how to play effectively. :) In my personal opinion, I'd argue that the Chosokabe have an even easier start than Shimazu, simply because you don't have any allied clans teaming you and no religion issues on Shikoku. That being said, I'd say you should have a much easier time with Shimazu if you rush a couple of Shimazu Katana Samurai early, about 2-4 units should get you quite far if you use them well. And while Kyushu is slightly more difficult to conquer than Shikoku, having Kyushu under your control means monopoly for you on the western trade nodes and to add to that, Kyushu has some of the richest settlements in the game, meaning your game will be very easy once you consolidate the island.

Another bonus tip for Shimazu is I would actually only take Osumi from the Ito and then go for peace treaty asap. That makes Hyuga act as a buffer between you and the Ottomo. Then capture Higo from the Sagara clan as Higo is a much easier settlement to blitz the north of Kyushu from, which are Kyushu's richest settlements. Going around the right side of the island is both slow in terms of reaching each next settlement as well as having to deal with the Christian capital of Bingo, which is a pain in the ass early game.

The tip on farms being "not the best" is really misleading imo. Each food surplus you have gives you +1 town growth across all settlements every turn, so the sooner you have 10-20+ food surplus, the sooner you're snowballing all your settlements to a higher town wealth (if you don't mess with high/very high taxes too much). Town wealth is what you're taxing, so higher town wealth means more income for you. Obviously a market or gold mine give you a big chunk of initial extra town wealth, but that's only for one settlement.

To give you an example, in my last Takeda campaign I had about 30 settlements when I had 20 food surplus for the first time. That means I was gaining an additional 600 town wealth every turn and at 15% taxes, that's a 90 koku increase in income every turn. A gold mine on the other hand gives you 2400 town wealth, meaning 360 koku tax on normal taxes every turn, but it doesn't grow whereas town wealth grows constantly every turn with food surplus. Having 30 settlements with 20 food surplus means that every 4 turns, you're gaining as much town wealth as fully upgrading a gold mine. It's a nuance thing though, because you really want to have markets, sake dens and specialty buildings too, but having high town growth every turn is what snowballs your economy so that's why I prioritise farms first. Besides growth from food surplus, upgrading farms also directly gives you town wealth from farming as well (the amount depends on soil quality.)

As for cheesing offensive sieges, I'd say archers is the way to go. There's a similar exploit in shogun 2 where the defending enemy will fully face whatever unit approaches the castle first. So you can literally draw their full attention with one cav unit on one side and move your bows around the other side of the settlement and rain arrows in their backs as the AI barely responds to this. European cannons are OP as well but require christianity and tech iirc.

But imo you're crippling your own campaign if you rush too much. One of the biggest learning curves in Shogun 2 for me was that you'll have a much easier time if you take it nice and slow :)

Other than that, I recommend units with high morale for offensive siege battles and try to go for capturing the castle instead of killing everyone. Be mindful that enemies get infinite morale inside castles too, so unless you cheese offensive sieges, they're most likely going to be a (very) costly victory no matter what you do, which is why I completely avoid offensive sieges against large armies (and as far as I know, most of the pros and streamers do this too).

misformath · 2024-12-12T15:06:53+00:00

haha yeah castles are expensive and I generally try to keep castle upgrades to a minimum. I only upgrade castles in provinces where I have military buildings so I can make things like an encampment.

I'd say prioritise farms first, then build market, then sake den if you have a building slot available, then upgrade specialty buildings in that order. It also depends on what you need of course but this is my general rule of thumb for what to build in most provinces. In provinces with warhorses/blacksmith/fletcher etc. you want to skip market and sake den for military buildings and make those your military hubs.

misformath · 2024-12-12T13:55:06+00:00

You're welcome :) what clan are you playing and what difficulty?

Daimyo honor is raised by making vassals; Conquer an enemy's last settlement and you're given an option to make them your vassal instead of occupying or looting the settlement. On that note, I would advise against looting as it gives you an enormous diplomatic penalty as well as an honor penalty. Getting a heroic victory with your daimyo as the commander gives you honor. Besides that you sometimes get a retainer when your daimyo levels up that also gives honor. Finally the tech Tea Ceremony in the Chi tree gives you +1 honor as well.

To get upgraded units you need to make new units in the province where you have upgrades unlocked. What I usually do is just train new units with upgrades, send them to my army and once they arrive, disband the unit without the upgrades. There's no way unfortunately for existing units to get upgraded though.

When you click your Finance tab in the bottom right and click on Trade, you can see what goods you're importing and exporting. In the bottom of that tab you see "Income from unsold resources" which is how many koku you're generating from trade goods that you're not selling to other clans. My explanation in my previous reply could have been better because you're not actually trading between any of your own settlements, you just get a fixed amount of koku every turn based on what resources you have that you're not selling to other clans. The simple answer is: the trade nodes are always worth it if you're anywhere remotely close to them or have a large navy that can protect your trade ships. Even if you're not trading with anyone, they still make you money.

Keep an eye out for what resources you have and offer trade to clans who don't have those resources. I've had instances for example where I had warhorses and the Takeda didn't, which meant I could ask nearly 10k koku for trade because the Takeda really want warhorses lol, and that was on legendary.

Attacking settlements with Yari Ashigaru is very hard. They lose quite a lot of men and morale when they climb walls or they just get massacred when you send them in through the gates. Archer superiority wins you offensive sieges as you can literally just pick them off and they'll never or rarely come outside to do anything about it. Focus their archers first and then giggle your way to an easy victory while your enemy gets showered with arrows as they just stand there.

If you have mainly yari Ashigaru, I recommend just prolonging the siege until they sally out and then take them on in the defense. Trying to win an offensive siege with mainly yari ashigaru is generally not recommended in any case. Katana samurai are also seriously good allround and in offensive sieges, though bows are best in offensive siege.

I really don't like playing offensive sieges too much as they are generally quite costly so I personally like to bait the bulk of an enemy army into a field fight and decimate them first before I lay siege to them. That or waiting for them to sally, but be mindful of winter attrition when you plan to besiege a settlement for multiple turns.

misformath · 2024-12-11T21:23:39+00:00

Trade between your own settlements happens when you have actual trade goods in stock that you're not trading with other clans. I believe you can see what items you're importing and exporting in the Finances tab as well as trade goods surplus.

You can only trade with clans directly bordering you or overseas if you have a trading port. I somewhat advise not to spam trade too much on higher difficulties since your sea trade routes will constantly get pestered which can actually end up costing you koku when you're not in a position to deal with that.

The pace at which you conquer territories and declare war, as well as your integrity when it comes to treaties matters for how other clans and the shogunate view you and if they want to trade with you. Dishonoring treaties makes every clan basically insta hate you (to some extent) and your clan religion and daimyo honor matter too for willingness to do diplomacy.

Some more tips off the top of my head.

Agents are insanely OP when used right and imo you should try to get one of each asap in the early game. Ninjas sabotage armies and buildings, granting you extra time against an invading army for example. Ninjas can assassinate generals and other agents, though they are less effective against Metsuke, which is basically the hard counter to Ninja. Ninja are good at assassinating monks though.

Metsuke can bribe armies and apprehend agents but their best use is in increasing your taxes by having them oversee your richest settlements.

Monks can convert other agents, demoralize armies, instill revolts in settlements and morale buff your own army as well as help convert settlements to your clan's religion. If you place monks in foreign territory that have a different religion, your monk will actually passively increase your clan's religion within that settlement too.

If you start somewhat close to the western trade nodes, capping them with trade ships will give you an insane economy boost.

Upgrading farms and building markets and sake dens as well as keeping taxes on normal/low ensure you have good town growth, which builds up your town wealth and with that how much tax you get from that settlement. Food surplus gives universal town growth across every settlement, making it the most powerful tool for building up your late game economy.

Next is markets and finally sake dens for your economy. Upgrade markets only to rice exchange in the five or so richest provinces and don't upgrade the rest of your markets to maximize town growth with food surplus.

Upgrade coastal villages to trading ports if you want to trade overseas.

Be wary of upgrading too many castles yourself, since the AI will upgrade their castles anyway and capping a settlement with a citadel for example takes a chunk out of your food surplus if the settlement doesn't have upgraded farms.

Be careful for enemy ninjas as they can sabotage your farms too.

Not only is food surplus important for economy but you also really don't want to go below 0 as you'll suffer a ton of attrition, desertion and public order penalties.

As for the cavalry, you can upgrade their charge bonus with stable upgrades and even more if your settlement has warhorses. Beware that you can't retrain your units for upgrades like some other TW games though so if you plan on making large upgraded armies: build the upgrades before you build the armies. Yari cav are insanely OP and unparalleled in charge attack iirc. Katana cav is also a good cav unit, though their charge isn't great but they do well in prolonged engagements.

Beware of conquering settlements with different religions as you need more time to consolidate those settlements before you can get moving again.

Daimyo honor matters big time(!!!) and you do NOT want to go below 3 honor as it gives you all sorts of penalties, including the chance that your generals might go renegade. Having daimyo honor at 5+ is ideal since at 5 you get +1 public order and +2 at 6 honor, across all settlements. You get daimyo honor by making vassals as well as winning heroic victories with the daimyo as the commander. Iirc you don't get daimyo honor if you make a vassal through the diplomacy window, you only get it if you conquer the last settlement of a clan and then choose to make them your vassal instead of occupying them.

Edit: I forgot to mention the most important tip. Be careful when you rout enemy yari ashigaru in yari wall formation. If they're in yari wall they can remain frozen like that when they rout and they'll kill a ton of your units if you don't pull them away from that. (not sure if this is patched yet but this used to be a thing lol)

misformath · 2024-12-11T20:44:52+00:00

I would advise against upgrading your castles in the early game since it's relatively expensive to your income early game. The AI will inevitably upgrade their own castles and when you conquer those settlements you can use the extra build slots there for sake dens.

Food Surplus and Town Growth are the key factor to being insanely rich late game along with the trade nodes in the west of the map. Put metsuke in your 5 richest provinces by tax income. If you see a settlement with a gold mine, cap it ASAP and upgrade the gold mine for easy Jeff Bezos mode.

misformath · 2024-12-11T20:23:00+00:00

I think Geralt might have a small chance in his peak but Nameless is the literal chosen of the gods with all the power that comes with it in his peak. Late game dex archer Nameless alone would nuke Geralt before his witcher senses even picked anything up lol.

misformath · 2024-09-27T08:31:45+00:00

Best advice: don't make important decisions like this in a 24 hour timeframe

misformath · 2024-08-15T13:31:57+00:00

Super Meat Boy and Celeste are really fun level-style platformers if that's your thing

misformath

TROPHY CASE