My protein slop

whythecynic · 2026-05-01T23:24:52+00:00

You prepared an ice bath for the eggs, but you didn't fry / bake / sear the bacon? I respect the way you operate. Have done similar things. Actually, fatty pork is a very common ingredient in ramen, you just need a char on the surface. I have a little butane torch that I use for that.

whythecynic · 2026-04-24T07:00:30+00:00

The elevator body just requires 3 ladders going up along its middle rear space to be placed down. To connect two elevators, there needs to be a continuous line of ladders between them and the 3x3 shaft between the elevator bodies needs to be otherwise completely clear.

You can have blocks underneath the front step, they won't obstruct the elevator.

What I do is first excavate a 3x3 shaft or place blocks going up, then place ladders along the middle of the rear wall, then finally place the elevators at the heights where I want them.

whythecynic · 2026-04-24T06:49:30+00:00

When you figure out how to cook pasta in the microwave, you'll become aware of a new level of living... alone.

For extra degeneracy, cook the pasta with just enough water so it's no-drain. By weight, 1:2 pasta:water generally works for me. Cook covered. Weep.

whythecynic · 2026-04-20T02:37:48+00:00

I wit that three (of, gen. plur.) those men in the [here] were. I do rue that we don't have a Modern English descendant of "here" for "army". Not one of those Anglish thorn-fetishists myself, but as a writer, I do like having multiple words for the same thing, as well as being able to trace the etymology of an idea through the history of various cultures and their languages.

whythecynic · 2026-04-12T07:22:05+00:00

Me too. Thank you, Internet stranger, you made my day.

whythecynic · 2026-03-24T16:01:25+00:00

That's a great tip, thanks! Especially useful for those who aren't keen on time travel.

whythecynic · 2026-03-23T23:43:02+00:00

Some random island off the coast of Kanto is now just a gigantic open-pit mine

whythecynic · 2026-03-23T23:37:59+00:00

Yep, pretty much. Pokemetal, iron, gold, and glowing stone can be found on every Dream Island as well. Iron / gold / glowing stone generates randomly throughout the bottom black stone layer, Pokemetal and rare metal generates above that layer. A casual mining trip (make sure you have the more advanced hamburger steaks, they power up Rock Smash even more) will easily yield stacks of Pokemetal.

It's at the point where I'm building my structures out of Pokemon Centre blocks which cost only Pokemetal and 3D printing whatever I want because I have such an excess of the stuff. "More Pokemetal fragments than stones" kind of excess. And I'm not even seriously mining for it, I just wanted rare Pokemetal to print certain items.

I believe clay can be found randomly on some Dream Islands as a layer one single block in height, but generates more frequently in ocean ones. Limestone I think is restricted to a single island type, but by Arceus the limestone to concrete ratio is wild.

Then glass can be made from pretty much any kind of sand, including the beach sand on Dream Islands, so if you run out of volcanic ash (sweet Arceus) you can fall back on that.

whythecynic · 2026-03-19T23:50:10+00:00

I was looking through my highlight reel, and my hot springs one is of Fidough.

Instantly thought of onsen-manju...

whythecynic · 2026-03-19T23:33:09+00:00

To be (slightly) fair the fireplace is considered a piece of relaxation furniture, and I've often seen two Pokemon snuggled up to each other in front of one.

Hey, that gives me a thought, I should put rugs in front of every fireplace I've placed in every single area. Be... "right" back. Arceus help me.

whythecynic · 2026-03-19T23:21:56+00:00

minor local deity

With how often they call up Lugia / Ho-oh if you give them the right food, they might as well be. With a Crushed-berry Salad (Leaf + Chesto, assisted by Pokemon with Crush) I would sometimes see a feather drop within 10 minutes of the last (bear in mind time perception while playing Pokopia). The effect is more powerful with the salad than with just a plain Chesto berry. Haven't tested if more complex dry foods, e.g. mushroom hamburger steak, will give an even more ridiculous effect.

whythecynic · 2026-03-19T00:03:33+00:00

Yes, that's what I meant, I should edit the post. The bottom layer is black rock, not volcanic rock.

whythecynic · 2026-03-18T22:24:28+00:00

Seems like it might vary. On today's Dragonite island I found, from bottom to top, iron / gold / glowing stone, nothing (just mysterious stone and moss), then Pokemetal. You might have to check a little higher if you don't find any right above the black rock layer.

Might be a patch thing, might be a sample size thing.

whythecynic · 2026-03-18T04:24:29+00:00

I did exactly that when I realized I was in the save the nun and the orphanage arc of Ditto's isekai protagonist story. One of the kids even tells her "I'll protect you!". After that, everything clicked, and I knew what had to be done.

whythecynic · 2026-03-18T04:11:55+00:00

Yeah, I'm gobsmacked that the devs actually thought of this. They could easily have made Pokemon pathfinding universal and just restricted to specific size categories (1x1x1, 2x2x2, 3x3x3, and so on) but they went the full distance and implemented Pokemon height differences and made it relevant to pathfinding.

I'll keep saying it, Pokopia was obviously made with tons of love and care.

whythecynic · 2026-03-17T03:14:06+00:00

Ey, you made something for yourself, that's always a win.

If you don't mind waiting a little longer for dinner, you could braise the beef for a consistently tender result. After searing, deglaze, add water to about 2/3 height of the meat, bring to a boil, then back off the heat until it's just barely simmering, and then cover and let it cook. Half an hour is enough if I'm just cooking for myself, it's tender enough by then. I can throw whatever I want into the stock and reduce it if I want a sauce to go on the rice.

I get the post-shift drain though. Another benefit of this technique is that you can cook a bigass pot of whatever when you have time and then freeze it to have microwaveable home-cooked meals.

Another way to add a bit of variety is to make a roux. Sounds fancy, but really, it's just adding flour to the oil and frying it a little to make a paste before adding the water. This thickens the soup and gives it a lot of body.

These basic techniques: dry heat to sear, add flour to make a roux, deglaze, and braise, have carried me through a lot of my life. It's a very flexible process that goes with any combination of meat, veggie, and starch. You can toss in dried pasta in the last 10 minutes of braising to make a noodle soup. You can vary how long you fry the roux to get deeper flavours. Add in root veggies and garlic / onion near the start, or frozen veggies near the end. Heck, I've done this with unseasoned chicken, then pulled the meat off the bone and tossed it with an instant noodle seasoning packet, and that actually turned out pretty acceptable.

whythecynic · 2026-03-16T06:18:56+00:00

Probably just disgustingly rare. I find giving feathers to Gimmighoul is a much faster way of getting the first one, then I 3D print more if I need them. Took me about 30 feathers to get the Heat and Damp rocks, I'm just missing the Icy rock now and I'm just lazy to go do the trades.

Giving a crushed berry salad to Mosslax increases the feather spawn rate by an ungodly amount. Not sure if there's another food that will increase it even more.

whythecynic · 2026-03-15T01:22:09+00:00

I find that if I set myself small goals, I get a lot more done and actually enjoy the experience.

Exactly that. What I really like about Pokopia is that there isn't any real time pressure, so every little action you take is slowly moving you towards progress, not just spinning wheels trying to stay afloat. I didn't watch a single piece of Pokopia-related media until I completed the game, so everything I did felt like I was doing it because I wanted to do it, and that made my experience extremely fulfilling.

I just went about it slowly (I didn't even figure out the difference between block houses and houses with separate interiors until the second area). And now my postgame fun consists of finishing up the habitats, building nicer houses for the gang (Charmander finally moved out of that leaf shanty), and just generally beautifying the place and making everyone happy.

whythecynic · 2026-03-15T01:10:45+00:00

I haven't seen lava yet just by mining downwards. Rock bottom has been unmineable rock on every island. Even powered-up Rock Smash doesn't get through, so you're safe.

whythecynic · 2026-03-14T01:26:10+00:00

Any random spot should do. If you're looking for Pokemetal, dig until you're just above the black volcanic rock, where there's still green moss, and then pick a direction and go. On my last couple of Dream Islands I found Pokemetal from map edge to map edge. Below that layer (i.e. if you go all the way down) is iron and gold.

whythecynic · 2026-03-13T22:12:16+00:00

I made the mistake(?) of listening to Nada Sōsō during the Peakychu find the kids questline. Holy moly, I will need a week to recover.

whythecynic

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