Video game lessons learned the hard way

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance:

You will come to despise the camera and the Parry system. ESPECIALLY during the boss fight against Monsoon.

This game has made me into an utter convert of the belief that Dark Souls 3 has one of the best combat systems and controls in the business. None of this crap where you're at the mercy of whether or not the game decides to interpret your pressing of left stick+square as a single forward slash or the parry guard.

At least the Offensive Defense dodge move has some invincibility frames in it; that was a godsend against Armstrong.

i never had much trouble with parrying though

Yeah, it's pretty clear. Hell, the Monsoon fight is basically "if you haven't learnt to parry by now, you better brush the fuck up".

Stellaris: Pops that are suffering from Stellar Culture Shock can't be used to colonize planets, so conquering that bunch of primitive desert-dwellers to have them colonize all those Desert worlds in your borders doesn't work, at least, not right away.

• On the other hand, what you can do is send a Droid or Synth to colonize the planet, and then resettle some of the other species on to the planet.

Fire Emblem Heroes

• Having a healer that can attack from a distance isn't quite a 1:1 substitute for bow users.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Want to have an easy life in Lorule when playing Hero Mode? Go to Swamp Palace first. The Blue Mail will make your experience less frustrating.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Collect lots of iron. There are weapons and armors that will sink your iron supplies like there's no tomorrow. Spend wisely your Armor Spheres as well.

Warframe: Don't do the second part of The Sands of Inaros (the part where you take the second relic from Inaros' tomb) with Oberon equipped or you'll bugger up the fight with the Kavats. (Oberon's passive makes all non-infested animals allied due to proximity.)

edited 13th Feb '17 1:10:12 PM by PilotSolaris

Fire Emblem Heroes: When on the enemy turn, be sure to watch where you are are smashing the A button... erm I mean touch screen. You may end up tapping on one of your characters and ending their turn before you realize it.

Another lesson is "Scan every Kavat in that horde, you're bound to get some DNA outta that".

Oh, I had the foresight to do that, even after restarting the mission.

More Fire Emblem Heroes advice: if you lose a unit on a map, they don't get to keep the experience they got on that map. Keep this in mind if you have someone specific you're trying to train.

Crusader Kings 2:

When you've isolated your court from the Black Death, don't throw a party unless you have supernatural events turned off. Yes, the bonuses look good, but Death Herself will show up and kill you and five or so members of your court in a shout out to the Masque of the Red Death.

edited 16th Feb '17 12:09:39 PM by lrrose

Uh, Frank, why is Death a woman?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. ^_^;;

Death first shows up as a randomly generated masked character. I've only got the event once, but presumably the gender is randomized.

Nioh: If you die and leave behind lots of Amrita, you'd better be good enough to fight your way to your corpse. If you die again, you get your guardian spirit back, but as for that Amrita? Let it go, man, 'cuz it's gone.

Puzzle of Empires:

• Pay attention to enemy charge gauges. The last thing you want is getting hit with a skill that causes instant loss.
• F2P players are in a massive disadvantage due to lack of certain powerful characters, but getting into gold III is not a problem.
• Pay attention to skill activation order. Toga Heihachiro's and Oda Nobunaga's skill trigger first, followed by Shokatsu Ryo's and Kan U's.

edited 20th Feb '17 3:54:58 AM by murazrai

Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Leaf Green/Etc: If you are going to go and catch a Legendary, make sure that you have a good amount of time without plans.

Stellaris: If you've uplifted a pre-sentient species, further genemodding on them will cause them to lose their Happiness bonus from living on planets owned by their benefactors, for some reason.

i'm not too sure about stellaris and its mechanics but perhaps its because you took an entire sentient race and altered their genes forcibly

i know that'd make me a bit unhappy

Pokemon Sun And Moon: Wishiwashi will not stop calling in allies until it Struggles itself to death, and there is nothing you can do about it. Oh, you wanted to actually catch the original? HA HA HA—No.

That just sounds like REALLY bad SOS luck to me.

x3 The funny thing was, in this case it wasn't the entirety of a species, but one particular population unit who had decided to migrate from their preferred Desert World to an Arctic World - I had thought to make their stay more pleasant by modifying that particular individual to prefer Arctic Worlds (giving them better Habitability, which would in theory improve their Happiness and growth rates), and ran into the problem I just described, and basically gained nothing from the deal.

I suspect that it's because, due to a quirk of the game, when you genemod only some of a given species, they get counted as a new species.

edited 23rd Feb '17 8:26:36 AM by Reflextion

Steam in general: You can't stream Game A from Computer B to Computer C while Computer B is playing Game D. You can, however, ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL of Game D. Appropriately enough, Game D in this case was Mass Effect 2.

Puzzle of Empires:

• Just because your opponent is a top player doesn't mean you can't win. It takes a lot of luck and knowledge of player tendencies.
• Placing units in corners has its own risks, namely getting figured out and attacked.
• Maid Chinggis Khan is not suited for frontlining attacks despite being a sword user. Use it in the same way as regular version.
• A double enraged Oda Nobunaga is dangerous even if the attack down skill hits her, especially if her skill hits.
• Elizabeth's healing will lead to comebacks if not prevented early.

edited 25th Feb '17 6:54:30 PM by murazrai

Fire Emblem Fates:

Wyrmslayers do extra damage to any of Corrin's kids, not just Kana.