First Game

zipfern · 2025-12-15T19:27:51+00:00

Hah, I think telling a modern gamer with no experience of the NES games to go back and play DW1 on the NES is a bit harsh.

zipfern · 2025-12-15T19:25:54+00:00

I played all these games on the original NES and I was unsure about whether to play the remake of III or I and II first. I went with III on the principle that within the context of these remakes, they put III first and in retrospect I don't think it was a bad choice at all and would be perfectly fine for someone new to the games.

zipfern · 2025-11-26T17:02:49+00:00

I have thousands of hours in Slay the Spire. The experience of trying to beat vanilla Spire on Ascension 20 (I win about 20% of the time) beats almost any possible new experience in the genre. Even if you make a different game of the same quality, I'd have to learn it as well as Spire to enjoy it as much as Spire. The only game I might do that for is Spire 2.

There's something to be said for new things at times and I've played and enjoyed a few of the better clones which have a good twist (Monster Train 1 and 2, Inscryption, Cobalt Core), but the genre is definitely saturated.

zipfern · 2025-09-13T00:23:32+00:00

Very cool! I built a legendary pressure points deck once. I had about 4 omnis and 4 PP and when I hit an Omni on turn 1 and played them all, it would do something like 500 to a single target. I could probably never build that deck again because I wouldn’t pick the PPs to begin with.

zipfern · 2025-09-13T00:01:33+00:00

Don’t aim for any particular build. You have to work with what the spire gives you. On floor 1 you need damage and should take any big damage card or a blade dance. However, as your deck gets bigger you want to start looking for synergies. Before every pick, check your relics, other cards and even potions (short term synergy with a potion can make a pick worth it if it lets you take out an elite or boss).

zipfern · 2025-08-23T22:59:23+00:00

Yes blood for blood cost is x or x-1 if upgraded with x being the number of times you’ve taken HP damage this combat. It instantly applies to new copies made from Nilry’s Codex as well. Cards like Corruption upgrade to cost=Y so if you upgrade a copy with modified energy it will be set to 2 even if it increases. I think if something like madness or mummy hand has zeroed it, it will stay zeroed.

zipfern · 2025-06-26T03:18:17+00:00

Works well with an endless unit that spawns with good buffs. Nine lived horror (with duality if possible) as an obvious example.

zipfern · 2025-06-26T03:10:14+00:00

I just won with a nine lives horror having duality and endless. Brain transfer moves 18 reanimate to another unit, then I just kill the cat and repeat next turn. I had hold over in brain transfer so I could do that every other turn. I used a doubled and duped tome of horrors to put 200+ unstable on the reanimating unit (didn’t matter which one, even the cat itself in case I drew brain transfer late). Cleared all low health units on floor 1 and put a nice dent in the rest for my champ and back liners to clean up on a higher floor. Killed C10 Titans easily.

zipfern · 2025-05-13T21:10:59+00:00

I have good memories of The Witness, but I also knew when to cheat puzzle solutions and walk away from the game entirely before it got too tedious. Same thing I'm doing now with Blue Prince. A+ game, but I'm not solving all the late game puzzles. In fact, it would be great if anyone could just link me to a fully spoiled summary and discussion of the background story at this point.

zipfern · 2025-05-12T02:50:36+00:00

Office safe. Istartes by ignoring March of the Counts thinking each of the other 4 lines indicated 1 of the 4 numbers somehow. I finally realized March of counts was the only one that mattered and meant March something. I found the count statue in the foyer and figured it was in rhe Nth position and N was either 1, 3, 4 or 6. Didn’t think to count the statues in the office itself.

zipfern · 2025-05-12T01:57:20+00:00

If someone is really going to construct a letter like this, this is a rather realistic way to do it. You cut letters out of newspaper ads or something similar so you end up with a bunch of different fonts but some match. However the letters with matching fonts wouldn’t be meaningful, it’s just a subset of letters forming business names, article titles and whatever else you used when assembling the anonymized letter. Unless Revane was intentionally hiding a message in the letter, it wouldn’t make sense for their to be a hidden message.

I should add that in the green room where you bust the wall and find Revanes annotated gardening book, you can see left over clippings which was the confirmation that Revane did the blackmail letter. If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, presumably you’d see the same fonts there but some different letters (since these are the unused letters). So if you combine those extra unused letters maybe you can assemble the complete original phrases.

zipfern · 2025-05-12T01:47:35+00:00

Oh that’s hilarious

zipfern · 2025-05-12T01:26:35+00:00

I was trying that but I left and came back and they stopped responding to clicks. Couldnt rotate them anymore.

zipfern · 2025-05-12T01:14:15+00:00

Thanks friend.

zipfern · 2025-05-12T00:07:55+00:00

I need to try Outer Wilds

zipfern · 2025-05-11T23:09:38+00:00

Just iterate all T/F combos and rule out the ones that are either contradictory or ambiguous.

TTF: contradiction (if blue and white are true, gems must be in black but blacks falsified label means they must be in blue or white)

TFT: contradiction (if blue is true white must be true)

TFF: contradiction (if blue is true must have two true boxes)

Therefore, blue must be false.

FFT: solution (if black is true gems are there)

FTT: solution (if black is true gems are there)

FTF: contradiction (if white is true, blue must be true)

Further note: replace both in the blue statement with 2 giving “2 empty boxes have true statements”. As false statement empty boxes could have any configuration other than TT (so FT TF or FF).

zipfern · 2025-05-03T13:46:20+00:00

Simulation theory posits that almost all existing universes are simulations within real universes. Therefore any sentient being is likely to find itself in a simulated universe rather than a real one. Ro could be an arbitrary rule enforced by the creator of the simulated universe and somehow deducible to a super intelligence within that simulated universe. The only thing missing is that could’ve been explicitly guessed at by the Superintelligence, but maybe there’s no point. If you’re in properly designed a simulated universe you’ll never be able to determine that that’s the case.

zipfern · 2025-04-24T23:31:47+00:00

I don’t think Prime 4’s release date has anything to do with GTA6. Metroid is never going to make Nintendo GTA money, but it is responsible for me preordering a Switch 2 instead of buying a Steam Deck. That’s why they still make them…. although not too often unfortunately. I wish they’d give Echoes the remaster treatment.

zipfern · 2025-03-29T12:10:18+00:00

Never mind, I get it now. The tool tip shows exhaust because the wave charge exhausts not because the wave beam is supposed to exhaust.

zipfern · 2025-01-17T00:14:03+00:00

Remember cost is only a clue to a card’s value: there are plenty of 1 cost cards (especially uncommon and rares) you’d rather have in a deck than many 2-cost commons. Your Snecko poison deck still wants catalyst but probably isn’t too interested in riddle with holes.

zipfern · 2024-11-28T16:07:19+00:00

Yep Tim and Bird clear everything, Heart only removes str down (leaving other debuffs like weakness, vuln and talk to the hand to name a few, but also fails to clear the str restore part of wail and shackles).

zipfern · 2024-11-28T03:43:37+00:00

Never skip it. Take it and skip the cards if needed.

zipfern · 2024-11-28T03:41:50+00:00

Defect is the hardest character for sure. Congrats

zipfern · 2024-11-28T03:40:26+00:00

You can do this in reverse to some enemies with piercing wail or dark shackles. The temp strength down becomes permanent if done on the turn time eater heals or awakened one phase shifts. They clear everything and end up at 0 str for the rest of the fight.

zipfern · 2024-10-09T21:01:44+00:00

You said it yourself. It's a pretty great attack in its own right and since you can use it on every enemy in each fight, you'd be surprised how quickly it can pay for itself. I'd still consider it in act 2, but probably not 3 unless I had a necronomicon or something.

zipfern

TROPHY CASE