#after trying to find more generalized strats

[stat-strikes-back]

is holocure actually harder than other games like it or am i just really godawful at it for some reason

[da-mous]

How did you get the motivation to make games? Or the discipline and determination to actually go all the way thru?

I am just a bad developer, but i have some nice ideas and i actually write them down so I don't forget, like a mix of tunic and minecraft, but with a actual conlang for you to learn and not a english cypher

following through is actually something I really really struggled with for years, but I'm much more productive than I used to be, and I have a few strats that help

1: Structure!! The structure that works for me is working on weekdays (even if it takes time to get going!) and strictly taking weekends off, even if it means not working when I really want to. I don't have strict hours during weekdays, but I try to start early enough in the day so that I can work for 6-8 hours before I get sleepy. I always end up filling the time I give myself! Time tends to fly after the first hour or so

My weekends off are super important, too. I think periodically forcing myself *not* to work on my projects makes me enjoy working on them that much more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I really feel that in how much I tend to spend my Saturdays, surprisingly, wishing I could be working!! It also helps prevent burnout and offers guilt-free time to play other games, do other hobbies, take care of household chores, etc

2: Thinking time!! It's important to give your mind time to wander, undistracted. That's when inspiration will strike and you'll do your best thinking and planning. I think that's why "shower thoughts" are a thing. Showers are good for this, but they're short! I take daily walks that are between 40 and 120 minutes during which I only listen to music with no words in it--especially music that fits the vibe of my current project! I don't actively try to force my thought process to go anywhere in particular, but it often wanders excitedly to my projects anyway (By the way, I also listen to the same music while I'm working! It's the perfect way to get in, and stay in, the right mindset)

3: Deadlines!! Even soft ones! My roguelike is coming out in 2026. The more I work by then (without overworking myself!), the better the final product will be! The desire to make something really good really drives me

4: Making something you want to play!! Playing my own game is one of the most important parts of my process. The first thing I do every day when I sit down to work is play the game. This naturally drives me toward finding areas I can improve and polish, coming up with features I want, and being motivated to implement those things. The ideal is to feel like a fan of my own work, eagerly awaiting every little update. The more I play, the more I'll tailor the game to my own tastes. This leads to me enjoying it more, so I'll be even more motivated to improve and add to it!

My current project is actually perfect for this, because it's a roguelike (highly replayable, a genre I know I can enjoy for a long time. Binding of Isaac is one of my most played games ever) platformer (one of my favorite genres in general. immediately kinetically satisfying) with a high level of randomization and variety, meaning even I can be surprised by my own game!

The strategies that work for you will likely differ from mine (especially if you have a day job or something!) but hopefully that helps :)

[danieyells]

Help now I picture Jiro sympathizing with the baby trapped! mc through their pregnancy and after like

"I know Yuri said you shouldn't eat sugar but it must be hard, I 'heard' this candy is pretty good and helps with morning sickness" said candy he made after being fed up with puking every morning.

"Yuri could do a C section if you want, it's barely noticeable the way he made it" and he lifts his shirt and shows his abdomen between his hips there is a needle thin white scar "I heard waterbirth is a reasonable plan too"

"I know breastfeeding can be painful, do you want me to massage you? I learned a few ways to help the latch too" "did you breastfeed your baby?" "We wanted to try but I didn't produce enough so I fed it formula"

"Jiro, he doesn't stop crying because of teething, do you have a trick?" "I don't know, the day after Yuri found it a home" "wow Jiro, I never saw you as an uncaring mother" "I made sure they were able care for it and stable enough, I wouldn't say I was uncaring"

Re: one trip to mortkranken can make anybody submissive and breedable! Just ask Jiro! and being babytrapped by Jiro

Jsbdydisj that's adorable??? Jiro just supporting pregnant pc like sure he may be responsible for that they got pregnant but it's okay because he knows how it feels to have had gotten pregnant dubiously against his will! But now he gets to raise this one!!!

He's got all the strats because he'd been there and it sucked(and if it sucked as a ghoul it must be way worse for a human!) and in case Yuri makes him do it again he'd like it to suck less! But he can make it suck less for them instead!!! "I made a few things that'd help. Darkwick approved their human trials, if you're worried about safety."

"Haven't you only been here for like a year? How did you get all of this done in so little time!?" "Wasn't getting much sleep anyway, so I figured I'd use the time wisely."

Sitting pc in his lap while they go over all the pregnancy research he'd done for his own sake. Occasionally showing them the pictures and videos of his kid that the adoptive parents send along. The baby very much looks like Yuri and Jiro, but like. Six months old. Sends them messages asking for advice and gets the pc in contact with anyone else on campus with a kid. Fortunately Darkwick's big enough that they have a nursery somewhere! So the pc and Jiro aren't totally alone in caring for the kid and don't have to totally give up what they're supposed to be doing to be parents all the time.

Jiro's not the most caring parent--he's not very good at caring about things in general--but he absolutely does care and want the best for their kid. He intentionally got them pregnant because he wanted to find out what family was like after all. He gets more and more attached the longer things go on, but he's still very awkward and uncertain about if he's doing a good job parenting. But hey neither is the pc! They're both very new at this!! Learning about family firsthand is very difficult!

Although I'm imagining Yuri and Jiro kept working on some sort of lactation drug and Jiro produces a little more milk now so he can help with the feeding at least. He's a lot less bothered by the new teeth than pc is. In the meantime he'll work on some sort of painkiller they can safely rub on the baby's gums while the little thing gets a nice teething ring.

Also there's a creepy doll that keeps playing with the baby. . .PC keeps assuring Jiro it's nothing to worry about.

[mcl38]

going off his post from when he announced his extension as ceo, most people who dislike him seem to claim it's either because he's american and shouldn't be involved in european motorsport (which is already wild considering f1 is an international competition and not a european one), like this is an exact word-for-word critism that i saw more than one person use. or they're australian and feel that zak/the team unfairly favor lando at the expense of aussie drivers. just look at any mclaren affiliated social media after the australian gp. i personally think both are pretty irrational excuses and like don't get me wrong, i am all for people hating for the purpose of being a hater but if you're going to try to justify your hatred with reasons at least find one based in some sort of logic. or even reality.

anon a person after my own heart i too love hating for the purpose of being a hater but this isnt that, its a more widespread and vitriolic fandom phenomenon that clearly different from, say, me hating on clement novalak bc his eyebrows freak me out, ykwim?

i do think his obnoxious americanism is kind of hard to swallow and thats fair if u find him annoying but it rly doesnt explain to me y ppl immediately label him a villain? maybe bc he has that rich man in a black and white hollywood movie vibe abt him or smth but like surely its smth more serious than that. idk i think its just the american salesman core of it all... he's slimy and slippery and persuasive and he does it VERY well

also like i do think the idea that he mistreats oscar is frankly silly - mostly bc oscar keeps yapping on and on abt how much he likes having a team where hes finally wanted and appreciated, but also bc its clear zak loves the guy. i think ur right in that i do think some ppl think that: i keep seeing ppl on twitter saying that the fact that lando has done a couple factory debriefs that oscar wasnt there for means they clearly favour lando. but like.... if i were renowned introvert oscar piastri i would WAY prefer not having to fly 12h to speak in front of a crowd and instead be allowed to spend another couple days w my family in melbourne. like bffr please

also also can i just say re: team orders bc i think thats the other reason ppl think oscar is mistreated - do ppl not realise that last week oscar literally got the priority strategy? they helped cover him against russell instead of helping lando cover against leclerc, which is how lando ended up losing second place - he wouldve kept it if he'd pit on lap 9 with charles or even maybe lap 10 just after him (if the oscar pitstop was unplanned). and also, in general, lando and oscar often end up on diff strategies where lando shows up behind oscar with fresher tyres (and hence has to b let by w team orders) because lando is better at managing tyre wear. thats y he often gets the stay long - overcut strat (germany situation beloved), whereas oscar is often on the undercut - defend strat, and they'll often meet in the middle. the fact that we get these kinds of strategy team orders is GOOD. it means the team has enough faith in both drivers' skills to give them diff strategies and trust them both to execute them well. it also means the drivers r next to each other on track - id take lando team-order-passing oscar any day over lando blue-flag-passing daniel.... oof.

sorry a defense of zak brown turned into a defense of randy singh but like im just saying that the idea that the entirety of mclaren hates and mistreats oscar is rly quite laughable if ur actually engaged in the strategy game or like if u have eyes idk. im very very glad that oscar has become kind of a people's princess character and ppl rly do seem to universally love him but i find it so infuriating that they have to do so at the expense of mclaren. if u wanna find an enemy to hate on behalf of oscar carlos sainz is literally right there

[grandpa-cephalopods]

(I made a poorly recreated diagram of the DLC levels I hate since I bought it yesterday.)

(I also have some side order tips I shared with friends since I'm now 3 weapon completions in but my strategy is pretty biased to being slow and steady so I'll put them under a readmore)

-puts crinkled tissue paper notes on table- general SO notes

-Defense up gud, especially if you go above 1.0

-Before you do a run, hit ZR on weapon select to check the weapon's preferred colortype. For example, if going with Marina's umbrella, you're going to want pearl drone hacks to benefit it's drone upgrade palette. Without them, palette rng will be a crapshoot. Pearl can equip as many bombs as she has slots, in order of importance I'd say: Splat > Mines > Burst > Wail > cooldowns > Sprinkler

-Lucky cards are actually REALLY good if you can snag the 7s chain upgrade. With that, bomb drop, and special drop +Pearl I was basically popping reefsliders every 5 seconds in floors 20-30 to clear rooms with suboptimal dualies. With the rates + 7s duration, I come to find that 3% is a lot more like 30%

-Ridiculous and silly strats have done better for me so far than standard main damage buffs. The numbers just aren't high enough without too much investment :(

-Keep an eye on what level types screw you over. I'm pretty bad at hard/ruthless enemy spawner levels so I try to avoid those even if they have "good" upgrades sometimes

-Poison ink + Sticky Ink + Hazard Ink god tier for damage builds. Speaking of, most spawners in floors 1-10 will not spawn more than a first volley, so just coat the entire floor for good measure. As long as they don't spawn sprinklers or minnows, it's free real estate

General boss- Almost always deal with the mobs first. If you ignore them, they're going to chip at you enough for the boss to finish you off. Think of it like salmon run, kind of.

-When your armor breaks, hide in ink as much as you can manage. It restores faster

-Remember you can always stall the hell out of these bosses, there's NO time limit. If it sucks hit da bricks

Octowhirl: Coat the entire floor (You're going to hear this from me a lot, it makes the spawned mobs a non-issue) He'll just sit there and wait most of the time, if he charges you make sure the wall behind you doesn't have a bumper and keep inking until you have the whole field coated. The other reason to do this is to keep up with him in his later phases where he starts to disco ball

Agent 4: Coat the floor before/between waves. Did you know these guys basically have octoling hp and ai? With poison ink alone, I managed to kill 3 without even engaging them, they're fragile and they turf worse than you. They're most dangerous at short range, but you can minimize the trouble by keeping their feet slowed down by your ink. Most of them spawn on the far side, so try to keep your side of the field inked to retreat when it gets bad.

Topman's revenge: Coat the whole floor. When you start inking, ink the little corner near the wall and hide behind the wall when the searchlight passes you, then follow behind the searchlight and ink in a counterclockwise direction until you reach the middle, hiding behind a wall whenever the light catches up. When you actually go to fight it after inking everything, you can stop it's aggro mode attacks by swimming outside of the inner ring, which will return it to searchlight mode. You can kind of fuck around with the ai by flipping between aggro and search mode quickly, which is what I do to keep the fight under control in phase 3

uwu: The outer sides of the battlefield are easy to ink for good reason. Whenever it starts looking nasty, retreat to the outer edge where your ink will remain intact outside of mob spawning. I can't offer any direct advice for this one because your damage output is going to be dependent on where your build snowballed (specials, drone, damage, ect) but the one constant is keep ink control of the field during his shield phases so you can always bail if it gets too bad. Shield Phase 3 has a lot of adds so it may be better to blitz when you get to that point

Personal bias tips: -Bombs on enemy splat are ALWAYS helpful -Main saver and turf ink spread also always good -Ball Levels feel the easiest in difficulty compared to the other three types (probably to prevent them from being impossible with mob spam) When you get them try to sink the balls at the same time to avoid enemy reinforcements

[carnelianwings]

Another week, another shop tournament!

Didn’t win the promo pack gacha but someone else did so I bought my 4th Thasus off of them, so now I’m all set for Set 11 Minerva. 🥰🥰🥰

Played Gandeeva this week, managed to go 2-0 into the 3rd round … where I promptly lost to Prison. Again. 😅 Still, 2-1 is a solid finish for me and I’m pretty happy with the result (but I’m happy with it every time I go net positive).

(More card game ramblings under the cut)

First game was actually a Gandeeva mirror. Won in the end going second because I had the stronger G3 turn and kept pushing advantage from there. Also helped my opponent didn’t get 5 into bind on his G3 turn so I didn’t have to use up as many cards to guard.

Second game was against Messiahs, also went second, so I had a turn to Do Gandeeva Things before my opponent went all in with the Locks. This is also my first game against the new Messiah Stride deck, so I was mostly going off of “generally good anti-Link Joker strats” I’d learned from going up against Link Joker and Messiahs in Zero. Kind of nice that the Lock effect doesn’t pass through into my turn, but to be honest Gandeeva naturally counters against Messiah somewhat because it tends to pass turn with 2 units on the board. This game ended because I managed to scale just hard enough my opponent had to no guard one of my rear guard swings despite having an 8 card hand (of mostly G1+ units, no triggers, and no PGs). After the game I learned he had to bot deck 2 PGs on a check Top 3, call 1 bot deck the rest skill, which is just ☠️ vs a high powered deck like Gandeeva.

Match 3 was Prison, and my god that match up just lives rent free in my head now. Despite actively trying to play against it (tried to empty Soul as much as I could for the Purelight turn), I still ended up losing because of Penetrate Aquas’ guard restrict. That said, I was starting to realize I needed to fine tune my deck some (the ratios just didn’t quite feel right and made some things kind of clunky) plus while running Bavs G0/G1 can help me deck thin I think I’d rather run pure Gandeeva Ride line so I can take advantage of the Dragon Empire cycler to maintain hand size and to either find more pieces or draw some defensive power. Definitely could’ve used it on the Snow turn so I think I’m going to do that.

All in all, another fun week of locals, I think next week we might all agree on a “fun” week so I’ll probably chill and enter with Bavsargra (because I do really enjoy how she plays with the Set 9 support).

[luminescentblade]

Ayra Recruitment Contactless Edition

With FEH and Engage more people are getting exposure to Sigurd and the rest of the FE4 cast and some decide to give FE4 a shot. FE4 is my second favorite Fire Emblem (FE5 is my favorite, naturally) and it's dear to my heart so I'm happy to see that. Ayra is my favorite FE character of all time and I would love nothing more than more people to get to know her, but a lot of people have trouble with her recruitment. I've played FE4 over 10 times and I have a strat I've developed over 10 years ago that works every time--it's very reliable and doesn't require tanking her, so it takes all the risk out of it. It also advances the army in the direction you want to go, so it's reasonably efficient.

Credit to FEWoD for the map---they also provide a different take on the strat so take whichever you prefer.

I used the FEWoD map since it has Ayra's starting position on the map. Purple indicates roughly where the edge of her range is. S is where Sigurd should be roughly when you start pulling her. X is someone squishier than Sigurd--most units should work. They won't actually engage in combat with Ayra so it doesn't really matter who as long as AI will find them a more enticing target than Sigurd to go after. I had Azel in my last run. The rest of your army should also be somewhere along that red path arrow, preferably bunched together at the top so we can move the army down roughly together. Sigurd should ideally start to pull the fighters, which triggers the AI to start moving. He should also be out of Ayra's range so Ayra's AI has to actually make a decision between who to go for (the squishy) whereas if Sigurd is in her range she'll go after Sigurd and then it's a cointoss who dies and who lives. In this setup Ayra will go left and up, so Sigurd can go around the castle, out of her range, right and down, and fight the boss. The rest of your army kite Ayra through behind the forest down toward where Edain will need assistance. I generally have Dew chokepoint the axedudes on the beach instead of trying to move Edain too close, this way their footie asses won't actually have to walk that much. Let the cavs come to them.

Once Sigurd seizes Genoa, assuming Ayra doesn't have anyone in her range of attack, she'll walk back to Genoa. Keep Sigurd out of her range, and talk to her when he can reach. Congrats, now you have Ayra!

[crystalelemental]

Every six months or so, I wind up doing a "favorite sync pairs" thing, where I post about my favorite general pairs.  And it's stale. I always post the same few, and guess what.  It still hasn't changed much.  Would it really surprise anyone that SC Jasmine, SS Kris, and H!Caitlin are my top three still?  My absolute favorites don't really change at all.  So instead, we're going to talk about my favorites from just the last six months.

10) Variety Lorelei.  Okay.  Okay, listen.  I know, the Variety scout system is bad. I agree with you.  I hear you.  It's cheap and shitty and I don't like it either.  But listen.  This is all Lorelei will ever get.  And after what they did to her base form, she needed something.  And this?  This is a pretty nice something, admittedly.  I know it is currently very popular to dunk on the Kanto Variety scouts, and in particular the Lorelei and Bruno are carbon copies of one another.  I also know Bruno seems to be the preferred due to Screech strats.  But I like Lorelei a lot.  I think her Cloyster is super good.  I think team Endurance is massively underrated.  I think her 3/5 grid offers some fantastic sustain tools.  I think there's fun to be had.  That said, she's also really limited.  I wish it were Pep Rally and not Fast Track.  There was no reason to limit her that way.  And Punishing Strike 1 is just insufficient for anything.  At least make it level 2, man.

9) New Years Lisia.  January brought me a great opener, with the New Years alts.  Lisia is a character I generally like well enough, but I really do not care for the idol aesthetic, so the outfit bugs me.  Her Altaria form is also...kinda bad.  So it's nice to see her get an alt that can be good!  And...it's fine.  It's a cute outfit, I enjoy the fact Lisia finally got her due, but...Galarian Rapidash.  I'm gonna be real with you, I would've prefered Ponyta.  It's cuter.  Moreover, I feel like Lisia is in this awful position where it's hard to actually use her.  We have three Fairy Zone setters, and they all skew special.  Being a physical damage dealer in this type is maddening.  She makes up for it well enough when on-type, but trying to off-type with Lisia is...frustrating at times.  I think she turned out okay, but the Zone situation is dire for her.

8) Anabel.  God, yes, they finally added Anabel!  I'll admit, Snorlax wasn't my initial favorite pick, but after reviewing the lore, it's basically her ace, so this tracks.  Anabel is a pretty fun sync pair...that I do not utilize as often as I would like.  The fun of Anabel is really just having Looker Fam and being viable, but that's more Emma's role.  Anabel on her own is riddled with limitations, but I find the overall concept fun.   Dual Screens, Crit Shield, Protect, staggering with Headbutt, and Max Moves to replenish MP.  If there's anything that does make me frustrated, it's the lack of shield extension, and general grid struggles.  Given Anabel's poor speed, the best means to counter this is always having an effect up at 4/5.  But the effects aren't too long lived, so it's mildly frustrating.  Still, I really like playing her.   She's a fairly tactical unit with a lot of options in her favor. The grid may be awkward, but it offers a lot of versatility in her effects.

7) Emma.  Emma's the real winner of Kalos VA, if you ask me.  The decision on Crobat is...unexpected, but the results speak for themselves.  Buddy Cross Poison is ridiculous.  She trucks even off-type stages like nobody's business. The only serious problem for Emma is that Poison is required, or she becomes borderline useless.  This makes Gauntlet a bit of a struggle when the opponent is immune, but more commonly, when they remove it halfway through the HP bar.  Emma definitely has limitations. Exceptional power, but at exceptional cost. But she's so much fun.   Like I love getting to run her, it's the best.

6) Champion Bede.  God, this is such a stupid good support.  Champion Bede offers the most ridiculous offensive support the game can currently muster, with unparalleled sustain for longer Gauntlet matches.  Like, the dude cannot fail.  It's absurd.  His offensive presence is divine, he has actual bulk behind him, free moves next applied at least once per rotation is hilarious gauge control for a guy with mostly 4-bar moves. And I love that it's Articuno.  I'm usually not big on the random application of legends, and this whole Galar event is not exception, but I love Articuno and I'm glad it got something nice.

5) New Years Dawn.  I think this was one of the more interesting reveals we had, based on what's not said.  When the Extra Special Ghost Damage skill was revealed, people didn't know what it would do, but largely assumed some passive buff of like 20-40%.  As a result, most people considered her extremely limited, and noted that hey, Anni Lillie is rerunning, just get her.  But then we found out that it was literally a second attack, at a full 100% damage.  And suddenly Dawn was worth looking at again.  And you find out...wow, her debuffing game is immaculate, and she has evade strats with a pop healing move.  Dawn's been hysterical in Gauntlet, and frankly achieves plenty in CS. She works well with lesser supports thanks to the double buff, and I've personally really liked using Speedy Entry 2 on her.  The gauge control matters. I think this is another of those pairs that is just Peak Dawn.  It plays ridiculously, but it works.  Like you don't expect it to, but then it does, and it's like oh.  Dawn's just a mad genius.  Got it.

4) Lodge Dawn.  Speaking of, Lodge Dawn is my favorite Lodge unit, and I think the best overall.  Lodge Dawn got exactly the right tools.  Built-in Vigilance, Team Sharp Entry, a buff kit to rival Roxanne, Natural Remedy and Escape Artist, Gradual Healing on entry, and potential evasion play on sync.  Oh, and she can double debuff special attack, as a support, which sets up Alder well. The only tool she didn't get is Endurance.  And with this incredible F2P sync pair, whose merits outshine all others, what Pokemon did Dawn bring?   Leaf Coat Wormadam.  A Pokemon I don't think anyone in history has thought about.  I absolutely adore Dawn.

3) Adaman.  Hey kids, it's the Sinnoh Hour, starring Sinnoh!  Yeah, recent events have been good to me, if nothing else.  Adaman rules.  My biggest thing with this alt is that it's Leafeon.  I fully expected Dialga, but no, the Eeveelutions get to be Master Fairs.  Can't wait for Penny on anniversary.  Anyway, Adaman's an obscenely powerful sync pair, bringing in Sun on entry and every sync, and having Sun Extension at 3/5.  Two applications of Grass-type Rebuff, hit AoE, makes him ridiculous, but the big money is that he never once touches gauges. If he crits, free moves.  It is ridiculous.  Dude even tanks well, thanks to defense boosting and Synthesis.  This is the kind of physical behemoth that Leafeon should always have been.  I'm so happy for it...

2) SC Zinnia.  I don't think I will ever truly be over this alt.  Zinnia is not at all a favorite character.  I don't think I'd typically even consider Zinnia.  I almost skipped her outright, but wild success on the Tapu let me double back for her, where she also showed on like track 2.  And man, that was such a great outcome, because this alt rules.  Thievul!  They let my fox baby be good!  So good that it's...actually kinda horrifying.  Like, 70% flinch rate, an AoE Snatch after they introduced Five Stats +3 to CS, rebuff, blocks opponent buffs, and has an absurd sync nuke?  Zinnia is so much fun.  And her kit finally, after all this time, completes Champion Calem.  Zinnia's X Atk All perfectly caps physical Dark-types in one turn, gives Rebuff, buddy move is a 3-hit move in CS so Calem gets to apply Dark Zone with reasonable speed.  Suddenly, Calem is looking competent.  Which is a statement I never thought I'd make.  And I think this alt cracked me a bit and I like Zinnia now.  Like, aside from the really cute outfit, I think just the way she's constantly being threatening and on about achieving justice in her own way...I can vibe with it.  I am a huge fan of this Zinnia.  Like she's so hilarious, I adore her.

1) Irida.  If there's one thing Adaman fails to do all that well, it's let teammates shine. Adaman kinda takes over and gets the job done himself, and as a result, he's maybe not so strong at backing his team.  This is especially notable for weaker Grass-types; all the physical ones that like his defense debuffs are high-tier.  The lower tier options are mostly special.  And truthfully, I like it better when the field effect setter is good at helping, rather than being the best damage dealer present.  These effects exist to help, not override.  Enter Irida, whose support game is so strong I think she has legitimate claim to be one of the best sync pairs in the game.  Irida's Hail and Ice Zone, simultaneously, is so strong she pulls options like Pryce and Lorelei over the finish line for off-type clears. And to be clear, her DPS is not what's doing it.  Often her allies will deal better damage. Irida just helps.  I've seen complaints that she doesn't help the good pairs, and thus "doesn't have good partners," but this is nonsense.  She's giving what's needed to physical damage dealers just as much, thanks to Zone, and when you're carrying Lorelei off-type?  Like, come on.  What more do you want? And of course, Glaceon.  My second favorite Eeveelution gets to be a Master Fair, and one of the best around.  I love it.  So far this year, Irida and Glaceon is my favorite sync pair.  

[the-irken-pony]

Day late but here's those pointers for you

Asgore as a boss is unique, especially in the pacifist route, in that you have no choice but to fight him, at least at first.

~Equipment + HP management~

Your weapon will depend on your own skills and what you want to prioritize most. If you find yourself using healing items frequently, you'll want to equip the Burnt Pan. If you want damage output that's high risk/high reward, equip the Empty Gun. If you want consistent damage, equip the Worn Dagger.

If you're okay with "cheese" strats, the armor I'd recommend most is the Temmie Armor, especially if you keep dying. You'll have to grind up some money for it, but the price can get as low as 750G after enough deaths (after you pay for Temmie's college degree). It's the strongest armor in the Pacifist Route statwise, plus it offers the benefits of the Cloudy Glasses, Stained Apron, and Cowboy Hat combined (the exact numbers are different, but it's a VERY powerful piece of armor).

If you don't want to go to that extent, I'd recommend the Stained Apron, Cowboy Hat, or Heart Locket, depending on whether you want healing, increased damage output, or more defense, respectively.

In general, I would recommend higher damage output, since Asgore's attacks get more intense as the fight progresses, thus being able to deal more damage faster is your best chance at survival.

If you still have the slice of pie that Toriel gave you at the beginning of the game, I'd recommend bringing that with you, because it can heal you to max HP.

Additional items that heal a lot of HP are the Abandoned Quiche (found via a hidden room from the second bridge seed room in Waterfall), the Cinnabunn (bought in Snowdin), and the Glamburger (you can find one in a trash can in the CORE.

Additionally, sleeping at the Inn in Snowdin can heal you above your maximum HP.

~Surviving Asgore~

First thing's first: since you're doing pacifist you should be able to talk to Asgore. Do it enough and you can lower his stats a bit.

I listed some strategies for his attacks, in case there's one in particular that you struggle with.

His 2-handed fire attack is simple: go as far to the left as you can and wait for the flames to start closing in, then move all the way to the right.

His "flaming helix" attack is also fairly simple: position yourself so you end up in one of the gaps, then just move upwards as you need to. During repeats of this attack, the sides desync, so the gaps get smaller.

He has a similar attack that involves sending a swarm of flames on either side of the bullet board. Ironically, these parts of the bullet board are mostly safe when they aren't hazard zones, so I'd recommend swapping from edge to edge.

His multi-handed fire attack is a bit tricky, in that you need to both move from one side to the other and stay in the middle so that you don't run into another row of flames.

For his "fire rain", stay close to the bottom of the bullet board and move left and right to avoid the flames.

His trident swing is predictable enough, but the biggest problem is that he swings it both faster and in increasing amounts the more times he uses the attack. Just focus on memorizing the eye flashes.

His fire rings are probably one of his hardest attacks, especially at the later stages. Try to stick to the edges of the bullet box so that the opening in each ring is at their widest.

Finally, his "halfway" point is more like his 3/4 point in practice, because once his HP reaches half, the amount of damage you deal becomes greater and greater.

Ok I wanna know how many people played undertale and has done the Asgore fight. I have tried multiple tricks and stuff and still have not gotten even half of his battle done.

But I know I gotta….

[landthatplane-blog]

Post-race ramblings today…one day I’ll attempt to be more succinct.

To start, Daniel drove really well today, despite the car. I think he really showed his race craft, experience and skills. Despite the unfortunate ending, it felt clear his form is still there. Post-race he seemed pretty down (not surprising, after the few weeks and months he’s had) but I hope he regains some confidence and spirit. He’s a damn good driver. For someone who’s won and podiumed while never really being in a true race winning car - and has shown his talent and abilities, I truly believe he’s someone who has earned his wins and accomplishments. When opportunities arrived, he took them and created results. The most wholesome thing ever was Pierre Gasly showing Daniel such support today! He complimented Daniel over and over again today and repeatedly pointed out Daniel made no mistakes. The respect Daniel’s competitors and friends have for him says something. Pierre mentioned it with Buxton, in the Alpha Tauri post-race video and his own IG! Between him, George, Lewis and Seb - and I’m sure others - I hope Daniel feels the love and support! I hope he’s able to regain and build back confidence. Today’s race showed his skills and form.

I hope he takes the next two weeks off to be with family and friends. Know he’ll be making some big decisions. I hope there’s an opportunity for him that he’s excited about, and I hope they’re excited about him. What a shitty few months it’s been and there’s still a few more months to go.

Now, for the frustrating part of the weekend. As usual, I’ve never argued that McLaren had and has the right to make changes. The results haven’t been there, the car clearly doesn’t suit, but also the car is a tractor.

To be clear, not trying to make this personal when speaking about Lando, I’m trying to point out McLaren’s behavior.

McLaren isn’t even fighting for the championship this year. The year started with car isn't where it needs to be, we're a team...to Daniel isn't performing. Why does it seem like McLaren always feel the need to have Lando ahead of Daniel, at basically any cost? It just feels gross. Probably why seeing Daniel’s start today (whether it was Lando’s machinery, luck or skill) felt so satisfying! They literally couldn’t ask Daniel to hold position at a start. Started to think about how often we hear on the team radio Daniel being asked to hold position/give up the position. Has anyone compiled from this year every team radio asking Daniel to hold position, or switch positions sacrificing his own races? Just curious how often it’s happening.

Again it feels like they never address it. Viewers and fans call it out. Even Daniel doesn’t address it and is usually very diplomatic. It just feels maddening sometimes.

Fact is Lando is outperforming the car and Daniel, plus a combination of bad car/luck and it’s created a tsunami of a bad narrative.

Just a thought though -

In general - wish they’d just let them race!

Just asking for fairness in competition. Maybe the narrative wouldn’t be so damning for Daniel. Mostly, this is on Twitter, where the narrative is so toxic and visceral and all people write is that he’s washed, which just lacks such nuance. As Daniel has said, constructive criticism is one thing, telling him to leave the sport is another.

The narrative is Daniel isn’t performing but again very little mentioned about 1) the car 2) McLaren’s strat calls and 3) bad luck. Lastly, it feels like they courted a race winning driver to join their team but then did very little to take in his experience (10+ years) and actually help develop a better car, period. I get it, they’ve thrown in with their future, but sometimes I wonder - if they’d developed a car with his input - and yes, adapting more to his style (and helping McLaren change their notoriously difficult car to drive) - what could have been? Maybe it could have also better suited Lando too. What if, right?

Anyways, I hope he finds the opportunity he’s happy with. I want him to find a team that supports him. I hope there’s a great reward for both his skills, and who he is as a competitor and person.

Or as Susie Wolff has said "Sport is brutal. That's why you need to be ruthless, competitive. But I don't believe that to be successful you need to be an asshole."

Daniel has been a class act. Knowing he spoke to Oscar Piastri and Mark Webber also shows a kindness and maturity, and that he’s, Datsu again, a fantastic competitor and human.

Wishing the best for him! He deserves it.

♥️♥️♥️

[zero-cycle]

I saw the thing about speedrunners fundraising for reproductive rights? I don't usually watch speedruns, so I was wondering if you could give me some more information on them? Maybe a suggestion on which to watch?

Hi, welcome and thanks for your interest!

If you just generally want to learn about speedrunning minecraft, this document created by twice former world record holder Couriway should cover most of the modern strategies used. If you want to dig more into the technical stuff (which is super interesting and after i started getting more into mcsr, I know now more about the f3 menu than I'll ever need), K4yfour on youtube is a great place to start.

There's a A Lot of runners participating and who you'll enjoy to watch will vary wildly, but I'll try to give you some different options, which should cover both streaming styles and timezones.

The most "beginner-friendly" is probably Couriway (he/him, twitch.tv/couriway). He's also one of the two people behind this whole thing and the person who had the initial idea! I have it on good authority (I'm friends with some of his mods) that he'll be streaming daily for this charity event and you can just check him out. He tends toward calmer and more relaxed streams and as one of the few people in mcsr with a lot of experience in no reset runs, he's probably the chillest streamer you'll find. He's also absolutely cracked at the game and does not run with calculators. He does, however, use axis calculated which is probably going to look like using a calculator to you anyway unless you're familiar with how it works.

He usually starts streaming in the middle of the afternoon for europe.

Mads (any pronouns, twitch.tv/madsenvy) and Eli (any pronouns, twitch.tv/elisthetic) would be two more beginner choices, since both of them aren't regular runners themselves. I can't vouch for their stream style since I've never watched them, but every time I talked to either of them they were very nice. There's also a decent chance that both of them will have more experienced runners on stream to help coach them through runs (no matter what Feinberg will probably show up in mads' stream since they are together), so that could also be a fun way to learn more about strats.

On the other end of streaming schedules we have Draconix (he/they, twitch.tv/draconix6) and Moley (he/him, twitch.tv/moleyg). They're from New Zealand and Australia respectively and both cracked out of their mind. Moley especially already has experience with no reset runs so tuning into his streams will probably be fun.

Another late-night (for them) and early morning in europe streamer would be Switch (any pronouns, twitch.tv/switch). Their streams are very similar to Couriway's in my opinion, very chill and relaxed vibes, though occasionally chat can completely derail a conversation and Switch enthusiastically participates in the derailing. Definitely always a fun time.

Also lovingly known as the only european streamer that actually streams at european times, Marcus (he/him, twitch.tv/fireworkss) is another, more laid-back streamer. He always likes to answer questions though and his chat is small, but very nice.

Fulham(he/him, twitch.tv/fulham), who's british and it is blatantly not reflected in his stream schedule, has announced he'll be coaching Jojosolos on friday, who's occasionally been running lately, so this is also something you might want to check out!

And then finally, President Poundcake (he/him, twitch.tv/president_poundcake) is my last recommendation. While he isnt't the best at speedrunning (notably compared to his peers, half of which are former world record holders anything between twice or thirty times over), he absolutely makes up for it with hilarious streams. He's extremely funny and can make every minute of eight hours of resetting straight entertaining.

Good luck, and if you have more questions, if you shoot me another ask or a dm i will Probably see it.

[lightns881]

DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 1):

The Gifted Child Syndrome is Real with this One...

*Rubs hands together in preparation for some juicy data and in-depth analysis of the typical member of the DTeam Tumblr community*

Ooooooooh boy! Here we go!

I want to start of by thanking you guys for over 400 responses to the demographics survey! Y’all have no idea how much I appreciate it! We have so much to cover, so I’m going to divide up different sections of the survey into several posts to make it more digestable and do justice to each topic explored in the form! We’re going to start of with, you guessed it, personality types!

Strap yourself in because we’re about to thoroughly dissect your sub-conscious innerworkings and find out how the typical DTeam Tumblr Fan thinks! (And judging by the majority personality types, you guys will probably enjoy it)

The Delicious Data

From the 449 responses we received, this is a pie chart displaying the personality types of all respondents.

Image Description: INFP (40.5%), INTP (15.1%), INFJ (8.9%), INTJ (8.9%), ISFP (6.9%), ENFP (4.2%), ISTP (4.0%), ENTP (3.8%), ESFP (1.6%), ISFJ (1.6%), ENTJ (1.3%), ENFJ (1.3%), ISTJ (1.1%), ESTP (0.4%), ESFJ (0.2%), ESTJ (0%)

In comparison, this is a pie chart displaying the personality type percentages of the population as a whole according to the MBTI website.

Image Description: ISTP (14%), ESFJ (12%), ISTJ (12%), ISFP (9%), ESTJ (9%), ESFP (8%) ENFP (8%), ISTP (5%), INFP (4%), ESTP (4%), INTP (3%), ENTP (3%), ENFJ (2%), INTJ (2%), ENTJ (2%), INFJ (1%)

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sensing a tiny difference here... Oh, right!

INxx’s on the Loose!

It’s funny. When I first found one of the 18+ DTeam fan servers through Tumblr, I asked everyone what their personality type was. I was pleasantly surprised when a lot of them told me they were INFPs like me!

It actually reminded me of MatPat’s (Game Theory) survey for one of his Life Is Strange theories that found the majority personality there was also INFP...

Funny enough, can you guess what the second leading personality on that survey was? The third? The fourth?

You probably guessed it right. MatPat found that out of the fans who responded, the leading majority was INFP while INTPs came in second, INFJs came in third, and INTJs came in fourth. The exact order for the personality types in DTeam Tumblr.

But why is it that some of the rarer personalities of the world are dominating DTeam Tumblr or Game Theory’s fanbase? What is it about these communities that attract the rare introverted Intuitive Perceivers (INxP) and Intuitive Judgers (INxJ) of the world like magnets?

The Gifted Kid Syndrome

To answer this question, first we have to examine our leading personalities. As we can see from the data, INFPs and INTPs make up 55.6% and INFJs and INTJs make up 17.8% of the total respondents. That’s nearly 3/4′s of the DTeam Tumblr population made up of INxx types!

Now, here’s me calling y’all out.

A lot of you probably relate to the quiet kid sitting at the back of the classroom who’s put into some type of TAG, gifted program, or some authority figure has probably called you smart and/or “gifted” at some point in your life. Academics probably came easy to you at one point, maybe they still do.

You’ve probably felt your chest swell up at the shower of compliments about your intelligence and at another... you’ve probably felt like people put you in a pedestal and overrate you so you’re stuck with this inherent fear of failure, and it causes you to completely shut down when the things that came easy to you at one point no longer do so. 

It’s gifted kid syndrome hitting you like a brick to the face. And if it hasn’t yet, oh you’re in for a surprise, honey.

And I’m sure many of you have come across funny, relatable posts like this:

And you want to know why most of you relate?

Image Description: INTP, INTJ, INFP, anf INFJ’s rate the highest in a giftedness per MBTI Type chart

No. You’re not hallucinating. It’s not even a joke at this point. It feels true because it probably is true.

(Granted, the study that captured similar results to this graph is long lost to the internet, but the best source I found with it was a reddit post I will be citing in the reblog.)

Now, my next point is where we find a split.

INFPs and INTPs and their Need to Question Everything (even if it’s about one sentence [insert creator here] said that one time during a 4-hour long stream)

The strongest connection I found between the two leading personalities of DTeam Tumblr is they share Extraverted Intuiting (Ne) as their auxiliary cognitive function.

I’ll use a quote that explains Ne better than I could ever explain it in my own words:

“Extraverted intuition or Ne is very much focused on patterns and making connections from information they gather... Ne dominant users enjoy being able to explore things in a much more open manner, not wanting to feel closed off to the possibilities around them... They are also highly imaginative people, who enjoy being able to come up with unique hobbies and experiences... They are not afraid of imagining things which seem almost impossible to others... [For INFPs,] Ne is what creates this detailed and incredible thoughts process which keeps them busy for long periods of time.”

And another:

“Auxiliary Ne manifests in people constantly questioning the world around them, but unlike ENxPs, they can be more pick and choose about this. But generally, they don’t take people, things and events at face value.“

Now, think about the community you’re in right now. Think about the post you’re reading at the moment.

DTeam Tumblr is full of over-analysis posts, whether about Dream and George’s secret love for each other or about the inherent problems with Dream’s shipbait and gay jokes or theories about what’s going to happen next in the dream SMP lore and the dramatic betrayals and creator’s descend into madness and more theories about sexuality and charts depicting creator’s personalities and what they’d be likely to do in different scenarios and... ooof, I’m out of breath here. You get my point.

DTeam Tumblr is literally a group of ex-gifted or gifted introverted people who love to read or write analysis, theory, and discussion posts about sweaty Minecraft Youtubers because they’re probably too overwhelmed by real life and find joy in obsessing over “dumb” things.

That’s it. That’s literally the post. I might as well end there.

But I won’t. 

Because obsessions is exactly what I want to focus on next.

The Inherent Nature of the INFP and their “Micro-Obsessions”

This is me having a one-to-one conversation with all my INFPs reading this.

Do you sometimes just set your mind on a goal--like, let’s say, writing a book--and you spend so much time obsessing over it to the point where you burn out and suddenly it never sees the light of day because you move onto your next goal or obsession because now you’re getting ready to launch your freelance website so you can start a business on [insert new hobby here]?

Or do you just suddenly find a fandom or a show or a channel you really enjoy and you spend the next few months doing nothing but engaging with it and reading fanfiction and drawing fan art or making dumb analysis posts on your main Tumblr account where suddenly you get an influx of followers from that community and now people are expecting you to just post about MCYT!?

Oh, sorry, I got a little carried away at the end there...

Anyhow, my point is, do you ever develop an obsession over something all the sudden only for it to just disappear when you find something new or just fall into the deep crevices of your mind only for it to maybe reemerge a few years later after you get a deep sense of nostalgia remembering it?

I call them micro-obsessions. And I recently found out, I’m not the only one who does this!

Here’s another quote for you: 

“According to Carl Jung’s theory of cognitive functions, when an INFP makes a decision, Ne comes in second to another process known as Introverted Feeling (Fi). Fi does not use logic to make a decision. It uses how we feel about the decision according to our values. In other words, it asks, “Which choice feels right for me?”

Ne, on the other hand, craves new ideas and experiences to explore, which causes INFPs to always be on the lookout for something novel.

Unfortunately, INFPs can get stuck in a loop, going back and forth between their Ne and Fi. They search to understand their values by constantly trying new things. They ask themselves, “Does this feel right?” then throw it over their shoulder as they move on to something else.”

So, you’re probably asking right about now, Light, how the heck does any of this have anything to do with the Dream Team and MCYT!?

Well, my friend, it has EVERYTHING to do with the Dream Team and MCYT and DTeam Tumblr as a whole.

Because INxx’s are predisposed to end up in places like this--fandoms on Tumblr, channels that speculate whether Mario is evil, watching dramatic Minecraft smp wars and elections as opposed to looking at the news that depicts Murphy’s Law as 2020′s new favorite epigram. 

The introvert in them causes them to prefer socializing in small communities online where they’re not forced to engage in conversations if they don’t want to or put into uncomfortable situations where they have to talk to that one friend of their friend who wants to make meaningless small chat.

Their Intuition causes them to wonder into places like Tumblr where they can engage in deep discussions about their newest obsessions, and they won’t be judged for writing a 500+ word post about why Dream’s shipbait tactics are a genius algorithm strat or simping over sweaty Minecraft boys.

DTeam Tumblr is a safe haven for INFPs and INTPs who might be placed in the “other” category or marked as weird for being interested in “childish” entertainment or being different from the general population overall, whether that’d be sexuality, point of view, age, gender, etc. A place where you can fully be yourself and not have to worry about disappointing people.

INFPs are predisposed for drowning themselves in their micro-obsessions to avoid all of the madness in the world--even if that means giggling like a little girl while reading memes about your favorite Minecraft YouTube creators.

That is a deep-dive into the mind of a typical DTeam Tumblr user. What do you think? Is it accurate at all? Is it completely off? Let me know in the comments!

And with that, I digress. I’m not sure whether I’ll be covering general demographics next week or diving into the topic of ships (could be a mix of both), but I will be posting about it eventually, so make sure to hit the follow if you got to the end of this post and enjoyed it or learned something new from it!

Friendly reminder that this survey and post is in no way supposed to be taken 100% seriously. These are just the ramblings of a math major INFP with too much time on her hands and way too big of an obsession for MCYT. My asks are always open for literally anything, whether if you want to ask me about this or any DNF related subject, my own opinions, or just criticize the whole of this post and tell me it’s complete trash! I’ll answer as long as it’s appropriate!

And, again, thank you everyone who filled out the survey. Without y’all, this post wouldn’t be possible. I really enjoyed writing it! Adios!

[eastgaysian]

@annevbonny yeah for sure! i make a lot of semi-incoherent rant posts on here because i treat tumblr like my diary but i can definitely expand and explain a bit more.

by nature i think good/enjoyable gameplay is always going to be a little bit subjective. like i don't think i'm ever going to enjoy real time with pause in a game, it's video game nails on a chalkboard to me, and of course gameplay that requires fast reflexes and precise inputs can just be impossible for people to perform, much less enjoy. i do believe bg3's gameplay is pretty well-constructed on the whole, though. i have my quibbles (inventory management is a pain, non-lethal attacks are poorly implemented, you can get the ability to fly but it's hard bound to z which is also jump and will default to jumping...) and i definitely think the start of the game can be a bit of a slog just because there's less things you can do and you'll die way easier, and that sucks as the beginning of your game experience. i also don't love the crime system but you can just circumvent that by not getting caught ❤️ which isn't that hard once you gain access to, like, fog cloud and potions of invisibility.

my kind of nebulous definition of 'well-constructed gameplay' is that as a crpg bg3 enables you to do most things that you're willing to try, and rewards you for it. the map design is less well-executed in act 3 (tangent here's a link to a short post sorry) but in act 1 and 2 you are incentivized to go exploring any odd corner you find and you'll probably get at least a chest for your troubles, or even a completely unique item. for combat, there's a lot of different builds available to you both through classes and unique items available to you, and in most situations you have a lot of options. i ended up loving combat in bg3 so after my first playthrough i deliberately fought everyone i could, but i think it's great that you can talk your way out of a lot of combat scenarios and still get the exp, for one. alternatively, if you find enough boxes, you can create a nightmare physics-defying tower and use an arrow of transposition or misty step or feather fall and jump over an obstacle in your way. or you can have karlach drop 15 oil barrels and blow your enemies up. or you can just pickpocket them for the quest item you need. or you can turn into a grizzly bear and goomba stomp ketheric thorm, which is a real speedrun strat. a lot of styles of gameplay are supported: straightforward, silly, and complex, and that flexibility to have fun in a lot of different ways is great! ...i just wish the rest of the game felt like that.

(i do really recommend watching bg3 speedruns if that at all piques your interest! i think they're super fun and interesting in terms of displaying what batshit things you can pull off in bg3, and they're not long - any% is i think like 3 minutes at the moment, though that means it gets into less of the wacko later-game strats.)

talking about writing is definitely way harder to discuss objectively, but i feel safe saying bg3's writing is all over the place. for one, it's just very obvious that certain characters (karlach and wyll) got less time and care put into their scenes and their quests. in general the story is also... kind of spotty, which i'm honestly more willing to forgive, but it is telling. like how exactly everyone got onto the nautiloid and tadpoled gets more questionable the more you think about it. gortash getting his brain exploded by the netherbrain if you side with him is also very silly and feels like a 'no time to implement an ending with him in it, gotta have him die somehow' situation to me. as is the emperor arbitrarily deciding to side with the netherbrain against you if you free orpheus, as if his entire motivation hasn't been trying to maintain independence from the netherbrain the entire time.

the story/character changes added by updates have felt more contrived to me than like they were 'missing', if that makes sense. and in the first place, those missing bits... shouldn't have been missing from a game that was supposed to be finished. you were really just going to have karlach get screwed over no matter what? who makes a crpg with no epilogue??? minthara's good recruitment is incredibly contrived and poorly integrated from a story perspective (another linked tangent, sorry), and uh. Apparently the latest update makes it so lae'zel doesn't break up with the player if they become illithid? which is an unbelievable change to me and makes no sense for her character.

...i also just don't think bg3 deserves a fair amount of the praise it gets for character writing in general, though this is more dicey territory. i don't believe john corcoran (halsin and shadowheart's writer) could have a character demonstrate a personality trait to save his life. insofar as astarion feels like he ended up with the most thought and care put into his writing and arc, there's still the fact that uh . apparently his racist tangent is a relic from a scrapped early access plot that just... never got neatened up, i guess. there's genuinely impactful character moments in the game, but i'm a lot more willing to give credit to the voice actors and animators for that than the writers lol

what pisses me off is i think bg3 is a fun game to play. there's a lot of freedom of player choice! i like the combat, i like the unique items that allow you to create all kinds of builds, i love how crunchy you can get to deal with honor mode encounters, i love the bizarre quirks and exploits that make speedruns so fun to watch. but i think the marketing exemplifies that larian didn't think A Fun CRPG To Play would sell, and maybe that's a correct assessment, but it's like. so deeply frustrating, especially because each update has made the lackluster writing surrounding the gameplay worse. like actually yeah it is a bad sign that you don't see people talking about bg3's gameplay.

[potsmart]

How Weed Helps You to Live a Healthier Lifestyle

As surprising as it may seem, marijuana can help people to lose belly fat. In fact, there is evidence to support periodic cannabis use as a gateway to better eating habits, and an overall healthier lifestyle.

But how can this be? Most of us are quite familiar with the close relationship between doobies and munchies. Many of us can imagine the stereotypical “stoner”, smoking some weed, grabbing the biggest bag of potato chips they can find, lying back on their couch all evening, and watching their favourite stoner movies. But that’s just it. Notwithstanding the stereotypes, another consistent image in and around the culture, is that so many cannabis users are skinny (ironically, an image that is inconsistent with the stoner’s propensity for post-fatty feasts).

These stereotypes are mostly myths, but it does make one wonder how one can be both lean and a munchie-gobbling machine. Is there something about pot that might explain this odd phenomenon? Can the thing that possesses us to gorge on shitty food, ultimately be healthy for us and help us to lose weight? The answer is a resounding YES! According to a national survey review by Doctor Yann Le Strat and Bernard Le Foll, people who use marijuana had lower obesity rates than the rest of the survey subjects. More recent studies have confirmed this finding, and have restated the apparent connection between cannabis use and a generally lower Body Mass Index (BMI).

Global obesity rates, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar are at an all-time high. These can all lead to a myriad of health issues, including fatty livers and diabetes. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women, and everyone is looking for a realistic weight-loss solution. So how can weed help people to live healthier lives?

Mashing the Munchie Myth

There is a reason people associate marijuana use with frequent snacking. Marijuana contains the chemical THC, which activates the parts of the brain that signify hunger and raise our libidos. In a given moment, a session of the joint chiefs could turn into a full-on junk-food free-for-all. But oddly, in the long-term, smoking pot actually lessens the appetite.

However, there is another chemical in weed, THCV, that acts as a hunger suppressant. It triggers the brain to feel satisfied. While the common response to using weed might be to get some snacks to munch on, people who use cannabis regularly will ultimately have fewer food cravings. This goes against general perceptions, but weed actually makes the brain crave food less.

These two chemicals seem to be working against one another. How can weed make someone both crave food and not crave food? It’s not that the chemicals work against each other, rather, they influence the body in waves. THC activates first, triggering the brain to want more food. This initial response comes quickly, and diminishes just as fast. Then, after the THC wears off, THCV suppresses food cravings long after the initial cannabis use. While smoking some weed may lead to some munchie moments, it ultimately helps users to cut back on unnecessary or habitual eating in the long run.

Marijuana and Metabolism

Another reason cannabis connoisseurs tend to have lower BMIs is that marijuana has been shown to raise the body’s metabolism. Cannabis users report feeling energized, active, and wanting to do something in the moment. Cannabis can cause the body to burn more energy, making it easier to stay active and lose fat. This is why so many of our pot-smoking friends are jammed with so much vim and vinegar.

Weed Lowers Stress and Reduces Boredom

People often forget that losing weight is more than just exercising and trying to eat less. Mental health is just as important as physical health when it comes to weight loss. The health benefits marijuana can provide have been shown to tackle some of the psychological triggers that can cause people to overeat. Smoking weed not only satisfies food cravings, it can assist in managing the triggers for extra eating.

In moderate doses, the THC in cannabis has been shown to help reduce stress levels. When the body gets stressed or feels anxious, it naturally seeks out emotional relief. Eating releases feel-good chemicals to the brain. Stress makes our bodies crave food to feel emotional relief.

Similar to stress, boredom has been linked to overeating as well. The body craves something fun to do, and snacking sure can be fun! We’re not saying pot is a cure for boredom, but there are studies that show marijuana can help alleviate boredom. This goes back to the feeling of satisfaction that marijuana triggers in the brain. By making the brain feel fulfilled, it will be less likely to look for food as a form of entertainment.

Cannabis and Getting Better Sleep

Sleep is more important than we realize to avoid over-eating. Our bodies know when to get hungry based on our circadian rhythms. Getting too little sleep or having irregular sleep patterns causes the body to crave food outside of the usual mealtimes. Plus, a poor sleep schedule leads to lower quality sleep. This causes general exhaustion and makes people less likely to “motivate”. And you guessed it, marijuana can help you sleep better. 

Marijuana might not give you a bedtime reminder and tuck you in at night, but it can make it easier to form a regular sleep schedule. According to a study that recently appeared in an article in the Sleep Foundation medical journal, after one month of regular cannabis use, 65% of participants saw their sleep improve. They not only had an easier time falling asleep, they experienced a higher quality of sleep. Imagine how much easier it would be to follow an exercise routine and stay active if you were to wake up feeling refreshed each morning.  

By the Potmaster General, for Potsmart

[tf2-hellhole]

How about some Among Us hcs? Like if the mercs see their S/O playing the game and want to give it a try? If you could do how the mercs would react to being the crewmate and their reaction to being the imposter, that would make my year. Thank yooouuuu!

Scout:

Scout loves all sorts of games, so he’s so excited to try a new one with his S/O.

He actually prefers being a crewmate, because he enjoys all of the little tasks.

He’s following his S/O around like half the time as he’s learning the mechanics, no matter if he’s playing crewmate or imposter, which gets him kicked early on several occasions.

It’s really easy to tell if he’s the imposter, because he’s really, really quiet during the discussions. 

He’s really bad at first and gets caught several times the first few games where he’s the impostor, but he catches on after a while and gets pretty good.

Soldier:

He insists on being the color red every single time.

As a crewmate, he’s excellent at tasks but horrible at discussions. He calls like half the team sus and then is the first person kicked because he’s acting like a really defensive imposter.

Will target anyone who susses his S/O.

He always laughs at the animations he sees when he gets killed.

He’s also a horrible imposter. The first time he was the imposter, he actually excitedly announced it to the server. He was obviously ejected quickly.

He tries to get super strategic as an imposter, though he fails miserably.

Pyro:

Pyro loves the hats and pets in the game.

As a crewmate, Pyro typically sticks with their S/O, despite the fact that they could be the imposter

Lowkey gets salty if their S/O kills them; they betrayed Pyro’s trust.

Pyro is a terrifyingly excellent and calculated imposter. They very believably imitate a crewmate and are not against sacrificing the other imposter if there is one for their own survival.

Despite this, Pyro will never ever kill their S/O, even if they have the perfect chance to. Pyro will also defend them every discussion.

Demo:

Demo fumbles with the game a lot the first few times and has a little trouble picking up the mechanics and controls but he gets it eventually.

When he’s a crewmate, he will intentionally try to creep out his S/O and the other players by following them around. This usually gets him ejected early on in the game.

Gets a little pouty when he gets killed but he gets over it quickly.

He’s not a very good imposter. He’s decent at getting good kills but he always forgets to vent when he’s killed someone in a secluded area.

He always hisses a “Yes!” under his breath after a kill

Heavy:

He’s very confused by the tech. He’s like an old person being given an iPhone

As a crewmate, he’s actually very good at finding out the imposter, mostly due to the fact that he’s very suspicious of everyone, even his S/O. He’s good at being able to tell who’s an imposter through actions/ verbal diction and stuff like that.

He’s not very good at tasks, but he won’t leave a task until he finishes it.

The first time he gets imposter, he turns to his S/O and says, “(Y/N), why are (other teammate) and I’s names red?” because he still doesn’t really understand what’s going on.

But other than that, he’s a pretty good imposter. He figures out the strats pretty quickly.

Engie:

Engie is able to pick up the game controls and mechanics pretty easily, but he still struggles the first few games.

He thinks the little characters are very cute.

He’s a very strategic crewmate; He always plans a path to get his tasks done as quickly as possible. He still ends up taking a long time the first few games because he’s trying to figure out the controls.

He gets ejected early because he wasn’t paying attention to the location names and didn’t know any, so when he got asked where he was during a discussion he didn’t have an answer.

He’s a pretty decent imposter once he gets to play it a few times; he gets good at defending himself in discussions so he’s very good at convincing the crewmates someone else is the imposter.

Medic:

It takes a lot of convincing to pull him away from work long enough to play a few games; But luckily he really enjoys the game and wants to play more in the future.

He’s generally a very good crewmate, but he has a tendency to get distracted from his tasks.

He’s always very suspicious of everyone, even his S/O. Because of this, he refuses to be alone in a room with anyone, even if it’s been basically confirmed that the other person isn’t an imposter.

He’s a pretty good imposter. He’s very good at picking the right time to kill someone and getting away or pretending to find the body, but he’s decently good at defending himself in a discussion

He thinks the killing is the most fun part, but he does enjoy the manipulation during discussions.

Sniper:

Sniper takes a little while to catch on to all of the mechanics of the tasks, but other than that he catches on quickly.

As a crewmate, he’s kind of a lone wolf. He’s never around other players, and will leave if they enter the same room as him. This usually makes everyone very suspicious of him.

He’s very calm during discussions, so it’s sometimes really hard to tell if he’s lying or not.

As an imposter, he always goes for his S/O first, just to annoy them. He always laughs when he sees them frown at him as the death animation plays.

He’s excellent at killing the other players, but he’s horrible at defending himself in discussions. It becomes easy to tell when he’s the imposter: if he’s calm, he’s a crewmate, and if he’s really quiet or takes a while to respond, he’s an imposter.

Spy:

He’s very confident during the first match and starts trash-talking the other players, except for his S/O of course.

As a crewmate, he’s often by his S/O’s side to make sure they don’t get killed, though he also likes to run off and disappears for like a whole minute

He’s a very sore loser when he’s killed and will talk shit about the imposter to the other dead crewmates.

Unsurprisingly, he’s an excellent imposter. He’s very good at getting away from bodies without anyone seeing, and is even better at defending himself in a discussion.

He’s absolutely not against throwing the other imposter or his S/O under the bus for his own gain.

[calciumcryptid]

BNHA STREAMER AU

This alternate universe is set in a universe where the cast does not have their quirks.

|• Izuku Midoriya

Midoriya was constantly bullied as a child, so he would let himself escape by watching streamers. He was fascinated by the career in general, and while he was getting through school he started to study the trends.

He convinced his mother, presentation and all, to help jumpstart his hobby. After a while, he decided to choose the channel name Versatile (based on my alternate hero name for him).

Nervous about his Identity, he decided to remain faceless and started to play games completely out about the speedrunnimg strats and the statistics behind drops.

He decided to start speedrunnimg himself, and he found his first friend in the gaming community.

|• Iida Tenya

Iida is the younger brother of game designer Iida Tensei. Surrounded by games, Iida quickly began coding and trying to break the games his family would develop. Eventually he got his own job at the company test playing games.

He eventually decided it would be a great marketing tactic to start streaming so he began under the channel Ingenium. His start was easy given his family's reputation, so his career quickly took off the ground.

He met Midoriya by watching other streamers speedrun his family's games. At first he was very critical, but soon was endeared when Midoriya found new ways to break the game no one at the company was able to.

One day, after streaming, Iida noticed Midoriya was live and raided his channel. Midoriya was very flustered as this was the first truly huge raid he had ever received but was thankful. The two eventually became friends on discord after their fans wished for them to collab, and as they say the rest was history.

|• Hatsume Mei

Hatsume is a developing game designer. She learned coding when she was young and has an internship under the head game developer at Loading Power Ent. She streams under the name CodePink as a play on CodeRed where she showcases her mods and rough ideas.

She met Iida online when he wanted a mod, and basically used him as free promo with the promo built into the game. Iida was annoyed with this at first, but behind the scenes the two talked more and more until they grew a romantic interest in each other until they started to date.

The stream where Mei jumped on Iida while was streaming is still saved in many personal libraries.

Mei actually did not meet Midoriya through Iida, but charmed instead by the smaller streamer's murmurings. She asked him privately to play test a couple of her new mods with her, and he was nervous but thrilled to find another friend.

Iida did attend that livestream, and Midoriya found it about Iida and Mei's relationship through Iida bragging about his girlfriend.

|• Uraraka Ochaco

Uraraka knew that her family couldn't afford to much when she expressed interest in wanting to become a streamer so she started small with a YouTube channel instead. The channel Uravity was a blend between diys and gaming.

Her and Midoriya met outside of their personas one day at a cafe. The cafe was so busy that Uraraka was knocked into the chair across from Midoriya. He was surprised, but Uraraka noticed he was working on some new screens for his streaming. The two launched into a lengthy conversation about graphic design.

Uraraka revealed her channel, and Midoriya was nervous to reveal his channel but Uraraka didn't know he was but was impressed with the amount of followers he had.

The two exchanged numbers, and one day Midoriya found himself playing Smash Bros with YouTuber Uravity. Uraraka was beating his ass.

Midoriya let Uraraka have all the money gained from that stream so she could kickstart her own streaming career.

|• Asui Tsuyu

Unlike the rest, Asui is not a streamer.

She was simply a viewer of Uravity who gained the mod title so she mainly goes around through Uravity and her friends chats moderating and keeping the peace.

Simply known as Froppy, Asui gained a reputation among the forming Izucrew and was soon her name was in all of their mouths with thank yous.

Asui, feeling a bit confident, decided to get a bit more friendly in DMs and while it took a while the Izucrew happily welcomed her into their group. Uraraka eventually asked her out, and the two have been dating ever since.

|• Aoyama Yuga

A French YouTuber under the name Prince Charming who is known for criticizing fashion and reviewing style in media. He started to streaming when he found his newfound interest, and hasn't let go of it ever since. He even started to make clothes for his friends.

One day, him and his parents moved to Japan where he announced his moving with a vlog. Luckily Japanese was his third language with his father being Japanese.

He gave an apartment tour once their moving was complete, and was excited to show he has his own room to decorate for his art and designs.

Midoriya, fascinated by Aoyama's channel, bashfully sent art to his PO box (remember Midoriya is an art god) and Aoyama was so touched that he hung it up in the studio.

Midoriya squealed about it on stream, and word quickly got around to Aoyama. The two were soon in each others dms messaging back and forth until Aoyama suggested Midoriya come over for a video.

Midoriya explained that he was faceless, which gave Aoyama an idea for a video. Aoyama refused to tell Midoriya what the idea was, just that it was a secret. Soon a video was released showing Aoyama creating a face mask for Midoriya to wear using the green bunny aesthetic. Midoriya opened it on stream, and put it on. He commented it was very breathable and that he would be using it for any future vlog or content that required his body.

Aoyama and Midoriya eventually did the video together where Aoyama made Midoriya more fashionable while in turn Midoriya invited Aoyama to an Izucrew Mario Kart stream.

•| Closing Notes

That is it for now! I might write more tomorrow (which will contain Todoroki and Yaoyorozu), but for now I shall leave it at that.