Topic: Honkai Star Rail

@z0d15g0d @Shigurui This is what I was saying about in #686 and earlier about why I usually dislike some of this end game content, it's PURPOSEFULLY designed to be tanky and hit overly hard with BS rotations in order to try and push you to spend more/ engage more. Typically I refuse to play their game.

That all said... I 12 starred this quite easily this time. My Firefly team (Ruan mei, Harmony TB, Gallagher) completely wasted AS 3 & 4, even getting around 3600+ points on AS4 phase 1 on my first auto run (more than subsequent runs) which ended 3475 I think.

But in the second phase Fu Xuan just can't sustain my Acheron Team, even if I switch lightcone to Gepard's* and use her skill more often than needed to try and get back her Ult to heal. (* I usually use Trend of the Universal Market, which significantly lowers Acheron's DPS as she loses a lot of stacks.) Instead I switched to Aventurine with Trend of the Univeral Market for Acheron Stacks, he never got close losing shields, and along with Acheron, Silver Wolf and Pela and got 3310 to easily 12 star this AS.

@z0d15g0d @Shigurui as a complete aside. Did you guys see the final 5 shortlist for FAN voted GOTY 2024 at the game awards?

Drumroll

• Genshin Impact
• Zenless Zone Zero
• Wuthering Waves
• Elden Ring DLC
• Black Myth Wukong

(FINALLY an award I have plenty of experience in this year...)

But more seriously I laughed so hard when I saw this. Every time people whinge about "gamers" not having enough of a voice... THIS is why. Make it a popularity contest and the most popular and most played games will get a massive leg-up especially F2P. Games that DO give you rewards in game when they win and are nominated even more so. So called "Real" gamers are going to be so triggered.

ROFL

@themightyant - I don't watch the Geoff awards or even read about them tbh. I assume that fan list is games not up for the circle jerk awards? I did see about the Elden Ring DLC being problematic for goty but I've no idea about anything else.

@Shigurui Ah no worries. Ignore the post then, it's not that deep, just amused me that so many people had their noses put out of joint when the popular vote wasn't the games they wanted it to be.

So... there's a very strong chance I will pull for Fugue. Just finished the TB continuance and she complimented all the teams I tried her with nicely. Even team Clara with no break was doing insane damage. It's good that they changed from auto assign to let players choose if they want the new characters on their team during the story. I did not choose Sunday lol.

I'm on 67 pity with 15 tickets from event and ember exchange. I've decided to only use tickets I get and leave Jades to accumulate till some point in 3.0 onward.

@z0d15g0d Good luck with Fugue. I've not got round to the TB continuance yet, been busy finihsing a few other games. (Indiana Jones is excellent)

I'm in a slightly strange place with HSR right now. I like the game a lot but haven't enjoyed most of the story the last 6 months. The PlayStation wrap up stats have been a bit of a slap in the face wake up call when I see I spent the VAST majority of my gaming time in live services. The trouble is the opportunity cost, my backlog just keeps getting longer and i'm playing less other games.

Quitting ZZZ has felt very liberating. My goal for 2025 is to keep playing them but to try and cut down how much I play to focus my time on other games. I've even started to skip some events I feel are not worth my time in Genshin, I aim to do the same in HSR and stop worrying so much about FOMO.

@themightyant Not sure what to think of Indie yet but I hear it's been getting top scores in reviews.

I agree, the Penacony arc has been such a letdown especially since we had the excellent Deer and Phantalyia boss earlier.

I seem to be racking up live service times also but thankfully on steam I can see how many hrs spent on each game in my catalogue and from my patterns the live service games drop off one after another so there's hope on the horizon lol.
I don't feel the FOMO in HSR anymore now I just want to get characters for my preferred teams DPS leaders. DHIL, Acheron, FF and Clara. I seem to be following that same logic in Wuthering Waves.

I rather enjoyed the TB continuance quest so that was a good start. Was nice to see Tingyun finally back. And the room building mission wasn't as much of a time sink as the museum, Aurum Alley and some of the others. Quite cool having out own space even if it's ridiculous how big it is, Tardis like (Bigger on the inside?) and we get the massive room over Welt and Himeko. But that aside I like it.

@themightyant Yea Tingyun was the 2nd half of the quest. They knew Sunday couldn't carry the whole thing. I actually preferred the museum as they had Belabog lore for the items you had to acquire. I mashed X to get through the room building and in doing so missed out on the "get 50k in briefing challenge" only 60 jades so not really bothered about that. It's the completionist itch that's bugging me lol. Yea the train randomly became a Tardis even though for over a year it's interior seemed appropriately sized. Did anyone pull for Sunday? Main or alt accounts?

@z0d15g0d Errrrr.... I mashed X too (isn't that how you play these mini-games. lol) not even sure what the get 50k challenge was. But I got all rewards.

No I didn't pull for Sunday, though I think he's good now I think he will likely be a beast in about 6+ months time. I don't run an alt account. I did that on Genshin for 2 whole years and just felt it wasn't good use of my time. Over 1000 hours on account 2. I could have played all of Yakuza series &/or Final Fantasy 14 + all expansions in that time.

Talking of time... I relapsed... and went back to ZZZ. (damn it, only lasted a month) to be fair they were offering a free 5-star character and the other banner 5-star Miyabi is the current Meta DPS by a distance and the character I wanted the most since the game started. And I was rewarded with her and her weapon early. They also have made HUGE changes to the game cutting down on most of the TV bits which I hated, and making large changes to combat e.g. allowing each of your characters to actually use their ultimate's. I don't know how long I'll last back on it, but I might try and play it more casually. One really nice bonus is the amount of rewards I had waiting for me, lots of freebies and double drops and over 2200+ trailblaze power equivalent meant I could immediately build my characters which was pretty sweet. Maybe this is how I will play in future, in bursts then drop it. Maybe.

@themightyant Curse you trying to tempt me back to ZZZ lol. I do the same with one of the mobile games I play and it gives you pulls for returning players so every few months I get a new 5*.
I did the free trial for FF14 but got to the point where you need to co op and gave up. If it's something you intend to continue playing (paying past the 30 day free trial) then let me know as I want to see what my maxed character would be.

I never played past the first Yakuza as it felt like a watered down version of Shenmue but I've heard great things and there was that Shenmue 3 abomination. Got it for free on the Epic store and still haven't gotten past the intro cut-scene.
I'm currently hooked on Wuthering waves, The Finals and Marvel rivals till a proper marvel game gets released with Hulk...or Cyclops.