Video game lessons learned the hard way

Dungeons of Dredmor:

• You only get a reward for clearing out a Monster Zoo if you do so immediately after having exposed it (while the "X monsters left in zoo" ticker is beneath your minimap). If you change floors before you clear the zoo, you don't get the artifact.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin:

• Yes, some demons in the first dungeon block physical. Yes, this includes normal attacks.

• When spreading rumors, the last rumor you spread about a specific shop will take effect.

• Food wears off after a number of steps, not a number of battles.

• The sweepstakes and casino games roll off Tatsuya's Luck stat. Hope you leveled it!

Pokemon Reforged '97 (rom hack of Pokémon Gold and Silver based on the 1997 Spaceworld beta, currently playing through Gold version):

• This game, being based on the beta versions of GSC, uses a beta type chart made when Game Freak were still figuring out how the Dark and Steel types would interact with the other fifteen. You can change to the official type chart from the options menu, but that's no fun, so here's the lowdown on some of the differences:
  • Dark type moves are strong against Psychic and Ghost types, as usual, but also other Dark types. They're also weak to Normal type moves, which is baffling, I know, and absolutely busted, too.
  • Steel type moves do double damage to Rock types, but not Ice types, and are completely useless against other Steel types. Steel types aren't weak against Fire, Fighting or Ground types, instead taking double damage from Water and Electric moves. They also lose their poison immunity with the Spaceworld type chart.
• You're supposed to take a boat to Teknos City after defeating Bugsy in the Westport City Gym. You can’t do anything about the Slowpoke blocking Route 103 yet.

Spider-Man (PS4):

• this is for any open world type game, really: Don't try to 100% on your first go unless the game is really short (for me this limit is <5 hours) or you really want to do it - if you try to complete for the sake of completing, you will get tired and bored by the end.
• Do street crimes regularly, and don't hesitate to go do a street crime when you approach your destination. It's much less tedious than trying to do them all at the end.
• Firing a trip web at a guy near another guy to knock them both out is hilarious and effective, but try to make sure you've taken out all the solos - it's very easy for the thing to just stick out because you were a couple pixels off, meaning both of them are now alerted.
• Web tricks apart from "webbing-in-the-face" don't work normally on late-game Sable International mooks, so try to use other gadgets.
• Electric webs are never not useful. There are a ton of DLC enemies who just shrug off most web-based gadgets, but electrics still work on them!

Edited by arcanephoenix on Apr 17th 2024 at 9:22:56 PM

Bloodborne:

• When trying to climb the staircase en route to Vicar Amelia, lure the Church Giant down the stairs and destroy it before trying to deal with the gun-toting Church Servant.
• Pebbles are amazingly useful to lure enemies out from the pack. If you can lock onto an enemy, you can hit them with a Pebble.
• Once you kill Vicar Amelia and examine Laurence's skull in her room, consumables get more expensive. Make your purchases with this in mind.
• Don't try to get to Djura through Old Yharnam.

Honkai: Star Rail, especially as a 1.0 Genshin player who's been playing near daily... part 4!

• You can't cancel Ultimates, at all. You gotta commit.
• You also can't open the bag to heal or revive your team. At all. This just means that I gotta think carefully in every battle I do, assuming I don't feel like auto-battling at the moment. I like this, actually, the extra challenge is nice.
• I should be careful when leveling up Traces. I should probably treat this like Talents in Genshin. I don't need to level everything to max (unless I just really like them ig), just whatever works for them best.

League of Legends:

1. Nilah’s E, Slipstream, can only go through units and cannot be cast without a target. Even then it has a whole targeting mechanic that I’ve still haven’t figured out.

2. Nautilus’s Q, which has him throw out his anchor and drag himself towards the player it hits, has a hitbox that is slightly larger than the actual projectile. If you are a few inches away from it, it is still likely to connect.

Bear & Breakfast: Time does not stop when you're talking to someone or a cutscene is happening.

Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop: Some combinations of powerups on the CPU opponents are not worth trying to take on without your own powerups. Unless of course you're already a Puyo master.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side (Currently working my way through 2nd Season but these should apply to most of the other games in the series):

• Choosing an activity to do on a weekday (Mon-Sat) locks you into doing that activity for the rest of the week, so long as that week isn't interrupted by any holidays. Doing an activity on a Sunday only takes up that Sunday.
• Only sleep on days you have off. Not only is spending an entire school week sleeping a waste of stats, but resting on Sunday actually lowers your Stress more than it would during the week.
• Pay close attention to your weekly horoscopes. They determine the success rate and how much your parameters are raised when you do a given activity during the week.
  • Study affects studying, painting, and any club activities that don’t involve sports.
  • Leisure affects reading magazines and playing with your friends.
  • Health affects exercising and doing sports club activities.
  • Love affects dressing up and taking boys on dates.
• Calling a boy and setting up a date with him takes up an entire Sunday. Try not to arrange dates on days where you know that other events are happening. That's how you accidentally miss out on the seasonal flea market...

Edited by Pogakure on Apr 27th 2024 at 8:11:08 AM

i have a lot so i'll try to consolidate them to one post:

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  • Do not take unnecessary risks, and do not try to go for the crit if your character is on low health.
  • Always keep track of your weapon durabilities.
    • Related to the above, if you reset a map, remember what you messed up on.
  • Do not leave out your main lord or Professor. They'll be a good backup.

• Splatoon 3:
  • Some weapons are really only good on Turf War. (i had to learn this lesson because i bought the game during a Splatfest)
  • Learn how to play weapons before buying them. Do not impulse buy.
  • Turn on motion controls. (i still don't have them on)
  • Try to kill campers instead of directly rushing to mid.

• Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler II:
  • Magic-only and Physical-only teams are not good ideas.
  • Concoct is not a first option—it is a last resort.
  • Pay attention to the turn order. (really RPGs in general, but i learned it from these two games)
  • (II only) Prepare yourself if you're going to use EX Skills instead of using them impulsively.
  • Keep your party members alive.
    • Related to the above, keep your healer alive for last.

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:
  • One strategy working against 7 CPUs does not mean it will work against real humans.
  • Camping sucks, don't do it.
  • Do not edge-guard unless you are confident in your ability to.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 2nd Season:

• Hikami Itaru is a stickler for punctuality. To get the most out of dates with him, take him out on Sundays that aren't public holidays, because whenever you go out with him on a public holiday you'll end up being late and he'll always chew you out for it.
• When it comes to the Sports Day races, don't go flicking your stylus at mach speed like it's the Pokeathelon. You'll want to slide the stylus over the arrows slowly so you can hit all of them and maximize your speed.
• If you are not absolutely confident in your ability to keep a steady grip on your Nintendo DS stylus without your hands shaking, then it's probably in your best interest not to attempt the Valentines Day homemade chocolate minigame.

oh boy more stuff i learned just now:

• Splatoon 3:
  • In Salmon Run, do not rely on your teammates. Treat it like a online battle—you're basically on your own until you die.
    • Speaking of dying, if you're a corpse, move towards your teammates.
  • Also in Salmon Run, though it extends to Side Order as well—the small enemies are not there for flair. They are actually dangerous, so try to deal with them.

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe:
  • Just because you're consistently getting first in CPU races does not mean that skill translates online.

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder:
  • Sometimes the solution is right in front of you.

League of Legends

• Tahm Kench’s passive, An Acquired Taste, stacks up to a maximum of three stacks when he basic attacks the same enemy. When reaching max stacks, if he hits them with his Q, they are stunned, and he can swallow them with his ult, meaning you should auto attack as much as possible to ult enemies so you can carry them to your team.

welcome back to another post of "this guy does not know how to play video games":

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  • For Sothis' sake, the weapon triangle does not exist in this game outside of the Breaker skills. Do not take it into account.
  • In Cindered Shadows, you have limited money. You do not in the main game. Remember this.
  • If you don't want to play Classic, don't. No one is forcing you to.
  • Speaking of Classic, remember, your units can PERMANENTLY DIE.

• Persona 5 and Royal:
  • This goes for all RPGs: always remember, SP is far harder to recover than HP.
  • Royal only: finish Maruki and Kasumi's Confidants immediately. Remember, Maruki is only available until November, locking you out of his benefits and, by extension, the entirety of the Third Semester, if you haven't completed it, and if you don't complete Kasumi's by December, you'll be locked out of the later 5 ranks of her Confidant.

• Splatoon 3 (wow i must be learning a lot):
  • Catalogs might be limited, but you pretty much have three entire months to complete them. Even if you have spare time, please don't spend all that time grinding the catalog. It might not even be worth it to you.
  • Do not hit ZR if you accidentally get Sheldon rambling again. He will go through every single weapon, including locked ones. Mash through it instead. ZR is only effective for when you level up.
  • In Return of the Mammalians, your Hero Shot will be painfully inaccurate, but that's not inherently a bad thing.
  • After Alterna will be unfair as shit, so do not hesitate to abuse the game's relatively bad AI. Especially on the waves of Elite Octolings.
  • In Side Order, if you are not going to use the Low-Hacks Eight's Palette badge on your Splashtag, just don't go for it. It might look nice, and you might be a completionist, but you're not going to use it, and that run is painful.
  • Also in Side Order, if you're willingly getting every Color Chip, and getting every comment on all of them, focus on the weapon-locked chips first. Specifically, Extra Dodge Roll on Pearl's, No-Launch Brella and Brella Cooldown on Marina's, and Splatling Barrage and Midfire Charge on Octavio's.
    • Remember to turn off your Pearl Drone hacks if you're not getting every Drone Chip this run.
    • Also remember to turn off Color-Chip Bias if the Color Chips you're looking for are not the common tones.
    • No, missing Color Chips is not your fault. If you don't find what you need in time, you might as well just give up the run, since it's luck-based.
      • Unless you have Risky Rewards on. If you have that hack on, finish the run.
  • For both RotM and SO: remember to revisit Alterna and the Spire everyday to pay the Shel-drone and to buy from Cipher. There's a 10% chance they can give you money, which is very useful.

• Luigi's Mansion 3:
  • There's no harm in searching up a guide.

• Mario Party Superstars:
  • The CPUs will always use a Chomp Call when the time is right.
  • Master CPUs will pretty much cheat on mashing minigames, but try anyways.

Dungeons of Dredmor:

• Diggle God blessings don't wear off over time.
• If there's a lot of noise, keep an eye on your HP meter - you may very well miss an "Your health is critical!" warning and stumble into Yet Another Stupid Death.

• Sonic CD:
  • Unless you're collecting those Time Stones, if you don't thoroughly check every single level for Past signs, and then the robot generator machines, and destroy them every single time, you will screw yourself out of the good ending of the game from Level 1!
  • The Bad Futures… are genuinely terrifying.
  • The Metal Sonic race requires you to jump all the damn time. You are not Sonic The Hedgehog in this race, you are Jumpman.