Hi there I am a 33 year old homebody from CA. I really love guys with long hair. The longer the better. I am hoping to find my longhair here. If you're wondering ex: fierceflow is a good example. I prefer younger men so 18-28 only please.
I am an artist and love video games, healthy cooking, yoga and spending time outdoors. I would say I have a more alternative look and have been told I am pretty. I have my own place, a good job, and am very independent. I also really like metal music, mostly classic, thrash, and black. I am LGBTQ and 420 friendly.
I am looking only for longhaired guys (shoulder length or longer) Location can be anywhere in the world. I like slim/ fit guys and am not a fan of facial hair. I absolutely love blondes but you dont have to be! Personality wise, I like calm, laid back men who are kind, independent and ambitious
bisexual/ pan and nonbinary amab feel free to message
If this describes you please send a message. Your pic gets you mine, and I can also verify if you do so too. Please describe yourself in dm and include hobbies, age and location and any other information that may be important. Messages that just say "hey" probably wont be answered. Thanks for reading.

Credit to u/SpacePaladin15
Memory transcription subject: Salvek, Human-Venlil Exchange Program Candidate
Date [standardized human time]: September 3, 2136
I hate banks. Or, more specifically, I hate the United Banking Service. I've never really used another bank, on account of my mother signing me up for a twenty-five year family plan for a cash bonus that never came (it was twenty-five thousand credits, I can't really blame her) but that just makes me hate this one more.
The fat, lazy Gojid on the other side of the bulletproof glass teller window tapped away at his keyboard in order to process my application for a loan. Above him I saw the UBS logo and motto: "Speed, Security, Success." All a load of vyalpic if you ask me. (I will die of old age before this loan ever comes through)
"Sooooo....." Thank the Herd, he was finally talking. I was worried his fat ass had a heart attack and died with how little moving he did. "Your credit score issss....." Oh Protector, just spit it out already! Now I get why predators have such violent impulses. (What if I can't control mine? What if we're worse than them?)
Brahk my intrusive thoughts. How does Jack control his so well? I resolved to ask him when my loan got processed, assuming neither of us starved to death in the meantime. (Speed, security, and success this dick)
"Seven hundred and ninety." Oh, thank Inatala. (Inatala hates predators, can I still say that with one as my best friend?) Venlil credit scores go from zero, being applied to people who took out million-credit loans and blew all the money on gear to unsuccessfully rob the bank they got the loan from, to one thousand, which went to those who panicked over a two credit overdrawn balance and had a heart attack whenever they were a week away from a loan's due date and it still wasn't paid.
Seven hundred and ninety was above average, since my parents had always taught me to manage my finances well, but only slightly above average since Jack's presence and the constant racism that came with it were more trouble than the government stipend was worth. (I would never send him back home, he's better to me than many Venlil)
I thanked the Gojid with sincerity that I meant none of, and asked "Is my loan approved?"
He told me "Yes, it's been approved at..." Oh Herd, not this again. How do his coworkers interact with him? "5% quarterly interest." That's not even bad. (Five percent might be a robbery, but for UBS banks it's decent) "You'll have six months to pay it off in full... or the interest will double every quarter." (Somebody should disband the United Banking Service)
I agreed to these terms, since they were the best I was going to get, and left without another word. Eight thousand Federation credits had just entered my bank account, making me a very rich man. (Not really, but it was the most I'd ever had)
Jack was sitting on a bench outside the UBS building tapping away on his pad. A more skittish Venlil would have assumed that he was plotting something or bathing in the virtual blood of his prey, but I knew better than to assume the game he was playing was predatory.
Never mind, it was absolutely predatory. An army of huge winged beasts descended on what looked like a walled fortress in the middle of a hellish landscape, and lightning rained down from the skies at Jack's command to pick apart what I assumed were strategic defenses. (He might not actively do predator things, but he is excellent at them)
Within thirty ticks of the timer at the top of the screen, the beasts were above the fortress raining destruction on whatever they pleased. A few soldiers ran out of a building near the center of the base, attacking Jack's army, but they were quickly dealt with. Without the defenses that were destroyed by what I assumed was orbital bombardment, the base was helpless against the conquering predator.
A chill ran down my spine as I saw the defenders being slaughtered. A Venlil general or admiral (there were actually surprisingly many when compared to the rest of our military) could accomplish such results but those types of Venlil were very few and often had mild cases of Predator Disease. (That needs a new name. Maybe Arxur disease? No, too scary)
Seeing an average human, whose only military experience was four years serving on a war boat (They still have a boat military? Herd, those predators love their weapons) complete what many Federation officers would struggle to do terrified me for good reason.
We Venlil had treated Humans like they weren't even sapient, just dirt or pests that we had to tolerate. And the rest of the Federation treated them even worse. What if they decided peace wasn't worth it? What if, in our fear of the Arxur, we unleashed a threat worse than them? (Could Jack spare me from a human cattle farm? I'd have to kill myself if he couldn't)
Venlil Prime would be the first world to fall. We'd all die of our own hubris.
"Hell!" Jack turned his pad down so I couldn't look over his shoulder anymore. "I'm sorry you had to see that." Why did he have to be sorry for everything? The way my species, my Federation, treated him and his kind always angered me.
I told him "Don't be sorry. It's not your fault your hobbies are so... you know." I didn't like using the word "predator". At least, not to describe humans. Jack was cool with me using it as long as it wasn't in a derogatory way, (since they are predators) but it just reminded me of how unjustly he and his kind were treated.
Jack clearly didn't listen when I said not to be sorry because he kept apologizing. "Yeah, but it's not your fault you're so damn skittish either. And it is my fault I played Clash... I mean the game here. I should've known better." Herd, why did he never stand up for himself? The exterminators can't be that bad!
I explained to him "You don't have to apologize, Jack. You never meant to scare anyone." and before he could keep apologizing (I know him too well to think he wouldn't) I changed the subject. "We have money at our disposal now, we can buy something from the Mellow Firefruit on our way to the train station."
Jack agreed, but he was worried about "spacists". (Oh Herd, has he lost it?) I asked "What in the Arbor is a spacist?" In case you don't know, the Arbor is where followers of the Great Protector go when they die. It's a huge forest with plentiful and delicious food, and no predators.
When I finally mustered up my courage and told Jack that the god I worship hates his kind, I was half expecting to die horribly by his unusually short claws or extremely dull fangs. (Are they so peaceful because of their lack of natural weapons, or do they lack natural weapons because they're so peaceful? I should ask Jack that)
Instead, he shrugged it off and told me that, apparently, "Jesus still solos." When I explained the Arbor at his request, he had the brilliant idea to convert to worshiping the Protector and then kill himself in order to appear there and scare the afterlife out of everyone else. He quickly and profusely explained that he would never actually do that, but Inatala would never have accepted him anyway so it didn't matter.
Anyway, back to real life. Jack told me "Oh, spacists? They're just space racists except I mushed the two words together. It's a play on words type thing." The words 'space' and 'racists' do not fit together in Venlilese, and frankly, I was astounded that the translator even gave me the concept. (I bought it second-hand from a Mazic who stepped on it one too many times, but it was incredibly cheap)
I told him "If you told anyone but me that the words 'space' and 'racists' fit together then you would be screened for Predator Disease." and he covered his mouth in the gesture that was universally recognized as a prey-safe predator's laugh.
"God, sometimes I forget you guys have a sense of humor."
Just then, I started walking. I was tired, like any Venlil would be after a long walk, a long wait in line and the anticipation of another long walk, but the thought of the sweet, delicious food at the Mellow Firefruit kept me going. (I have to get Jack some, he's been underrating Venlil cuisine ever since he first tried my subpar cooking)
Jack fell in behind me, then he moved up to be at my side as an equal. Us Venlil didn't care where you were in line, but I guess predators have different priorities. (Is thinking 'predator' as bad as saying it? That's a dilemma I need to deal with later) I asked him "How come your claws and... uh... those pointy front teeth are so small?" (I don't like talking about fangs, sue me)
Jack turned to look at me, jerked his head away a little, then he turned and looked at me again. He responded to my question, realized I was a Venlil, and realized I was Salvek, in that order. I was good at reading people. He told me "First of all, they're called nails and canines. And second of all, we've never needed claws so they never evolved." A predator never needing claws was absurd! When would Jack learn that he didn't have to lie to me?
I interrupted my friend's explanation by telling him "Jack, I'm not going to run away or faint just because you tell me that ancient humans hunted. I get it. Just tell me how you lost your claws."
Jack sighed. He didn't sigh a lot, only when he was driven to the end of his very long rope (Turns out that's a human idiom too! Who knew?) by someone else's, usually my, stupidity. "Salvek, we didn't lose them. We evolved to eat fruit from trees, and by the time we were eating meat we had at least developed the art of throwing rocks at things. There was never any need for them, and they never appeared as a result. Satisfied?"
Developing weapons early on did make sense for humans, given how good they are at combat, so I nodded. It wasn't really a Venlil expression, but those in the exchange program had learned everything they could about their human partners. (I'm saying human instead of predator! Progress!) "Yeah, that makes sense."
Jack continued, explaining about human 'canines'. We just called them fangs. "Canines were originally fangs, yeah," He lowered his voice when he mentioned fangs. "but when we made fire around a million years ago, we didn't need them anymore and so they got smaller. I'm no expert, but that's what I know."
That actually made sense. I knew the Arxur didn't eat cooked meat, since I found uncensored raid footage on an internet rabbit hole when I was fourteen, (I peed myself and had nightmares for weeks but no one has to know) but I always assumed humans shared that trait. Maybe I was just like the rest with how I kept comparing humans and Arxur. (Why am I capitalizing one and not the other? No one knows!)
Maybe I was just like the rest. Maybe one day I would lose control and run from Jack, or freeze up, or worse, call the exterminators, and then it would all be over. I could never live with myself if my damned instincts got him to hate me or got him killed. I've only known him for a few weeks, but when we met we just clicked.
It's still weird to me how the concept of platonic soul mates doesn't exist yet.
"That's it, right?" Jack asked while pointing to a red restaurant a few blocks away. That was it. I was about to eat good.
"Yeah, that's it. Come on, let's go!" I ran to the Mellow Firefruit faster than most humans could, on account of my species being designed for sprints, (or we're just better than them) and Jack tagged along in a brisk walk. He was probably trying not to be mistaken for chasing me and shot dead, or worse, set on fire.
I know most predators don't feel pain, but humans do. Why in the Herd didn't exterminators at least have the decency to kill them humanely?
A couple seconds later, Jack was waiting outside the restaurant and looking at his pad while I waited in line (In case nobody noticed yet, I hate lines) for my meal. Jack's meal too, since nobody wanted their entire customer base to leave the second they began serving humans. At least, that was the official reason. The real reason is that most Venlil are still racist.
After an agonizing minute and a half of waiting, since the Mellow Firefruit was a popular restaurant (for good reason, as Jack was about to discover) I finally got to order my food. "I'll have two yaccay salads, and two red fires please." Jack only asked for a salad, but red fires were excellent drinks and if he said no to one I would drink both. I was being smart with this.
"Okay, that will be 43.8 credits." All right, maybe not so smart.
I asked "44 credits?" in shock as my mind struggled to wrap itself around this sudden increase in price. The last time I got a meal here it was only twenty credits.
The cashier, a large green Krakotl who was a tiny bit taller than me, explained "Inflation. Those damn predators brahked up the economy and now we have this." Putting hate on my friend Jack wasn't something I would normally tolerate, but my father had always said it wasn't wise to anger the people who made your food. I just swiped my card across his card reader and stayed silent, like dad would have wanted.
"If you ask me, Sovlin was right."
Was my father really that wise? He probably didn't know what he was talking about.
"How can you say that? No one deserves what he did to Marcel." I shot back, managing to contain the venom in my voice.
The cashier retorted "No one sapient. But those... things that Tarva's dumb ass let roam our planet don't qualify." with barely-contained hatred. (Thank the Herd Jack doesn't have to hear this)
Before I could respond, however, the manager came with my order and reprimanded his subordinate. "Don't get into politics with customers, and certainly don't spit those lies in my establishment!" Maybe the Great Protector was still looking out for me.
The manager handed me my items and apologized profusely. "My cashier here is still new to Venlil Prime. He hasn't gotten used to the... the new arrivals yet. Herd, even I struggle sometimes, and I'm in the exchange program!"
I thanked him, explaining that it wasn't a big deal but the cashier should still be reprimanded, and brought our food to Jack. He wasn't playing that predatory (it was predatory, but predatory didn't necessarily mean bad) game again, but he was scrolling through his account on UHerd.
UHerd was the Venlil's main addition to the galaxy at large, being a huge social media service that Jack had described as "just like Instagram." when he first heard of it. Bleat was another large website just like it, but it was much less known than UHerd. (Fun fact: the U stands for Internet! Maybe not in English, but in Venlilese it does)
Jack never posted much, but he had me and a few mutual friends from the Program followed and he liked hearing what we were doing. I plopped down next to him and handed him his food. "Here, I got you something."
He picked up the salad nonchalantly, but when I handed him his drink, he inspected it curiously. "What in God's name is this doohickey?" He asked.
I told him "Try it, it's a red fire. It's good." and he did try it.
Jack exclaimed "Holy christ!" and the look in his eyes was comparable to what I saw the first time I agreed to being pet. "This is heavenly!" He guzzled the spicy fluid with hunger that would have terrified me if I hadn't seen him devour meals a dozen times before, (He'll eat me next I have to run I have to run run run run for it [oh, shut up already]) stopping only to praise its taste. "This is like the nectar of the gods!" Then "Shit, this is what I was missing out on? We gotta desegregate the restaurants immediately!"
That got him thinking, and I could almost see the money-making gears turning in his head. "You know, Salvek, what if we opened up a restaurant? You could be the official owner and waiter, I could cook some delectable earth recipes, and as long as no one saw me, we could make bank!"
I didn't like that idea. It sounded a lot like a recipe for disaster. I told him "Nah, it would be too hard for just the two of us. And besides, we already have the clothing business." Selling shirts online is a lot easier and cheaper than owning a restaurant.
Since Jack asked me a question, I figured I could ask one too. "Hey Jack, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
Jack didn't care, and he told me as much, so I continued. "How do you keep yourself in check all the time? How can humans control themselves so well?"
He paused for a bit, causing me to involuntarily panic, (he's looking for weak points, or exterminators, he's going to snap my neck for this) but I quelled these thoughts and there was no visible change in my expression. Finally, the colossal man spoke. "How do you do it?"
"W-what?" I stammered, and he picked up a leaf that was blowing in the wind before cherishing his last sip of the red fire.
He held the leaf up to my mouth. "How can you resist the temptation to just chow down on every plant you see? It must be exhausting." I took a brief nibble of the plant, despite it being completely unappetizing in nature, and he told me "See? Your herbivore instincts made you eat it! How can you keep them in check all the time?"
I wasn't a fool, not by any means. I knew he was mocking me. But the thought of a predator not having any predatory instincts was an entirely unheard of concept, bordering on heresy for some. It would probably have gotten me screened for Predator Disease if I spoke of it aloud, but I still spoke of it aloud. (There were no exterminators, I was fine) "So you're trying to say that you don't have predatory instincts? But what about the drive to hunt?"
Jack sighed again, muttering "So smart, but so damn stupid." in a low tone before he explained to me exactly what I wanted to know. "We have the need to eat meat in the same way you need to eat plants, because if we don't do it we die." That made sense. "But just like you don't have a primal urge to devour all the greenery in sight, we don't have any instincts of our own. Make sense?"
It did, but I was still struggling to wrap my head around it, so I just nodded and finished off my salad. Jack had apparently forgot about his salad, as he hadn't touched it. He opened the plastic carton, looked at its contents weirdly, and took a bite.
"This is mid." He told me, point blank. "Like, I don't mean to offend anyone, but it is mid. I'm not even hungry."
I was mildly offended, but there wasn't much I could change about his honest opinion, so I just told him "I thought it was good." and left it at that.
Jack slid his salad over to me (I love these things like my only son) and offered "You can have it. I don't want it." I would have accepted, but I wasn't hungry. Jack didn't really mind, so he threw his salad out and told me "Then we should get going. We have only [1/8 of a claw], I mean... 1/8 of a claw before our train leaves."
I agreed, getting up and walking to the train station, and Jack followed. I was well rested by then, so the brief walk was easy. Jack... Jack was Jack. He never got tired.
We actually made a pretty good pace to the train station, and within 1/16 of a claw we were on our way back to my home district and my third-floor apartment. I had money to my name, I had a huge predator (Human! Damn, those words get mixed up too much) friend, and he and I were about to make a truckload of credits. Life was good.
Previous Next comes when I say it comes

Hey everyone, wanted to share this invitation: We're hosting a FREEEE women's self-defense seminar at Fight Syndicate Big Bear this Saturday 🎉
Instructor Jamie Gilbertson is a world champion jiu jitsu competitor and certified self defense coach. This seminar is free and open to women of all ages and experience levels. All you need to bring is water and comfortable gym clothes. The event is from 10am - 11:30am and will coincide with a cool grand opening event at the Fitness Source, which is located in the same building!
Location: Fight Syndicate Big Bear, 40679 Big Bear Blvd, Big Bear, CA 92315
More info: https://www.fsbigbear.com/camps-and-seminars and https://www.instagram.com/p/CrJNIUALSn3/

So my ex and I work in the same company, but not the same location. Toward the end of the summer our division is having a management “meeting” at the lake. The meeting is a facade and really it’s just a paid beach day. Call me petty and insecure if you want, but I’d really like to show up looking hotter than her. Not aiming to look like the Hulk, but it would be nice to tone up a little. Looking for some good work out routines and nutrition guides for the next two and a half months. 33/M, not in terrible shape but for sure nowhere near as fit as when I was a total meathead in my mid twenties. Would also love to hear some good recovery routines to keep me functioning.

Let's start from the beginning.
Forge World Graia is being invaded by Orks, who at this point have ships in-atmosphere, plus throughout the game are shown to have control of, or at the very least are contesting, anti-air emplacements. And, while in a thunderhawk, Titus makes the decision to put on jump packs, leap through a hurricane of fire, board an enemy ship, and spend the first section of the game just reconvening with his squad. Titus risks the entire "strategically absolute" mission on a gamble, and Leandros calls him out on it. Leandros at first is suggestive and follows along with Titus, but once Titus separates and nearly dies on a crashing ship, Leandros, who also nearly died, is understandably pissed. Even Sergeant Sidonus questions Titus at the beginning, and he's an experienced veteran. Instead of explaining his reasoning, Titus continues to belittle Leandros, openly taunting him while on the thunderhawk (Try to keep up) and then claiming that Leandros interprets the codex narrowly, again, as they land wildly off-course and have to footslog their way back to the objective. There's no "narrow" interpretation, it should be common sense not to run into a firefight and Leandros is absolutely right on the money.
Then, it's Leandros that gets the idea to blow up the macrocannon by planting a melta charge on the shell. This guy, who the community presents as not doing anything unless the Codex explicitly says, is the one who gets the creative idea to destroy the gun battery, by being resourceful and knowledgeable about how to take down a big gun. A lot of people might be tempted to dismiss this because it seems too easy, but that's the point. Leandros taking the simple, effective, and quick solution is not a fault on him, but instead a praise, and Sidonus does just that.Leandros doesn't really take issue again until Titus moves to get the power source. The entire facility collapses, and Titus suddenly rings out that he somehow survived, against the Inquisitor's expectations. Then Drogan reveals that the power source conducts warp energies, and Leandros takes the most aggressive jump by associating it with chaos. Titus and Sidonus, on the other hand, trust the Inquisitor at face value and ignore it, so Leandros once again bites his tongue. The Inquisitor then reveals another test project, which uses the Power Source, and Titus still continues to trust him despite repeated warnings that the weapon could destroy the planet on accident. Considering he was sent here to protect the planet, Titus is weirdly invested in protecting an inquisitor that has already repeatedly kept secrets that impaired their mission, and again, nearly killed a 2nd Company Captain.
Once the daemons emerge, Leandros' first words are "how is this possible?" Then, Titus is once again demonstrated to have warp resistance, in addition to Drogan's puppeteering also emerging. Nemeroth expresses both gratitude to the space marines for helping his plans unfold, and interest in Titus specifically. In addition, its discussed that Drogan was likely killed by chaos agents, and not by orks. So Leandros is led to believe that 1) his captain has overt warp resistance, 2) his captain has a thing for disappearing suddenly by making brash decisions 3) its revealed that Drogan was a highly convincing puppet and 4) chaos has been at work on this planet for some stretch of time, without their knowledge. What was he supposed to think? Chaos changes the game here, and Titus' odd behavior has never been reassuring all the while. If you were playing the game from Leandros' perspective, you would think the game was setting up Titus to be the villain, another puppet or perhaps an agent of chaos that reveals himself a master planner. That this ends up not being the case isn't incompetency on Leandros' part, but is instead simply a bit of dramatic irony. That you happen to play as Titus doesn't excuse the fact that Titus himself is simply not a very inspiring or trustworthy person at this point.
The strike force successfully destroys the orbital spire, and Leandros suggests giving the power source to the inquisition for safekeeping. Titus remarks that the Inquisition has already failed thus far, and suggests destroying it. This isn't Leandros making a bad call per se, but its a deliberate test, seeing as Leandros already suspects Titus of mega-ultra-heresy. If Titus moves to get rid of the power source, it would objectively be a bad call because of Titus' reasons. However, if he tries to keep it, Leandros might think that Titus is up to something. Titus, being reasonable for once, chooses the middle route and suggests safely destroying it once they get back to the chapter, while still carrying out the mission here. Titus passes on the power source to Sidonus, and Leandros falls back in line.
However, just as this occurs, a sizeable force of Chaos marines emerge, and Titus orders Sidonus to make a break for it. And as Leandros is preoccupied elsewhere, Nemeroth suddenly emerges, takes the power source, and kills Sidonus. And yet, despite not being there to confirm the story, Leandros takes Titus' advice and plans to carry out vengeance. He openly protests Titus once again making the genius tactical move to split up to take on a Chaos Lord alone, and calls out that Nemeroth might plan to take advantage of Titus' warp connection. During this conversation, it's noted that Leandros does not openly say that Titus has a connection to Chaos, even though its already been said. Once again, Titus decide to play aggressively with a hypothetical question, and ask if Leandros fears him falling to chaos. Leandros says no, but turns away and imagines another hypothetical wherein Nemeroth takes advantage of Titus, a sort of long-winded way of saying "yes" without actually saying it. Again, Leandros has some very valid concerns at this point, and while its a stretch to think that Titus will directly fall to chaos (which the player picks up on), Titus is not at all reassuring. He's not just ignoring the Codex, he's actively pushing against basic ideas of how not to handle a chaos incursion, written by Bobby G, who wrote the book with every ounce of knowledge he had for preventing Chaos. Titus rejecting the Codex and being so chaotic at such a pivotal moment is where Leandros really ramps up his suspicions.
Nemeroth and Titus then have a facedown, and Nemeroth himself openly believes that Titus is connected to Chaos. Not only does Titus have warp resistance, but Nemeroth calls out how the very specific events that have occurred are entirely in line with the intentions of Chaos. This is a point brought up many times in other books, that one doesn't have to worship Chaos to serve Chaos, and Nemeroth puts it on display. Regardless of what Titus was doing, he was going to end up "serving" Chaos regardless, and his unique connection to the warp was seeming evidence of that.
And finally, at the climax of it all, Titus once again emerges, killing a half-daemon prince after falling through the warp and somehow using the power source to just right himself back into realspace. Titus and Leandros have their last stare down, as Leandros comes to the same conclusion as Nemeroth that Titus is connected to Chaos, and informs the inquisition forces that showed up. Many people have said that Leandros should have gone to the Master of Sanctity, but I disagree. This is the Captain of the 2nd company, who is just now experiencing weird warp-related phenomena, who seemingly keeps popping in and out of reality after going on suicide missions, and whose every action is made in such a way that they either ignore Leandros despite his valid criticisms, or are downright hostile to his loyalty to the codex. Leandros was put on the spot, and had to make a decision, and like any decision, he turned to the Codex for guidance.
Leandros is adamant that the Codex contains the truth, and Titus says that its a set of rules with the test to see what a Space Marine can make with them. This is where Titus honestly loses me. People always like to go on about how the Codex is a set of guidelines and not rules, but honestly I've never seen it that way. It laid out the philosophical groundworks to describe the role of the Adeptus Astartes from galactic conquerors to humanity's defenders, it made explicit strategic organization and developed doctrine and tactics to explain where every unit type fit into the grand picture, it set the precedent for Imperial separation of powers from legions to chapters and Imperial to Navy and Militarum, and it overall served as a historical document that outlines different situations and how soldiers (astartes mainly) should deal with them.
We know that Guilliman himself didn't like how narrow the Imperium viewed the codex, but that often ignores a lot of the context about his opinions. Gman hates that 1) the High Lords abuse codex stipulations to their own end 2) soldiers follow the rules without accounting for the situation. In some cases, as Leandros points out, the Codex does account for the situation, because the Codex was meant to embody the wisdom of a tactical genius in a single document. If Titus was just willing to explain anything at all, Leandros would probably find it reasonable. He could have explained that he would rather protect the Thunderhawk for evac rather than risk it trying to land, he could have explained that he will submit himself to a chaplain once the battle was done, and he could have explained that him being warp resistant was not something wholly the result of Chaos (this is where I think Space Marine just has poor writing, there's nothing in the lore to suggest that the mutated and mad forces of Chaos are immune to the warp and there's plenty to suggest that loyal forces of the Emperor can resist warp powers. People will argue that its Leandros whose at fault for that, but those people are hypocritical to blame Leandros for quoting the codex if the Codex in this game explicitly says "Warp resistance = evil". IIRC Space Marine had no lore input from GW and was given free reign to make up whatever, so this checks out).
Moreover, this is an area I find to be hypocritical of the community. Leandros himself states that he uses the Codex for guidance, but he only references the hard and true facts that the game presents, which are "don't fly into enemy gunfire" and "Resisting the warp is something that heretics do". He has shown, through him going along with Titus' suicide jump and thinking to plant the melta charge, that he's fully capable of not acting directly according to the Codex. So I find it odd, in a community that continuously shits on the Codex Astartes and interpreting it too rigidly, that the community wants Leandros to wait until they get back to the chaplains(as the Codex intended) and not seek out a ranking Inquisitor. To me, I think the community got too wrapped up in playing as Titus that they go along with his "rules for thee but not for me" approach. Given the seriousness of the situation, Leandros had every reason to not want to wait and risk Titus corrupting other people.
One more thing I wanted to mention. People sometimes think that Leandros' original purpose was to show that Titus was right all along, and that throughout the planned sequels it would have shown Leandros coming to his senses. But I feel people are really taking that idea out of context, just because they hate Leandros. In an article by The Escapist, the director for Space Marine revealed his plans for the sequels.

“The second part of his story was to focus on a ‘Titus Unleashed’ plot … basically there were forces arrayed against him that would see his loyalty to the Adeptus Astartes pushed to its limit, and his reaction would be to kind of ‘go rogue,'” van Lierop said. “He would survive, and come back even stronger in the third game, where other Space Marines still loyal to him would rally around him and he’d return to ‘clean house,’ but as the head of a brand new Chapter that we would build around him.”

And this is why I ultimately think, even in the original vision, Leandros was right. Titus shows up, makes brash decisions, can be definitively tied to the Warp and is hinted at being connected to Chaos the entire game. So where does his original story go? He ends up becoming a renegade, and leads a breakaway faction with the forces that were loyal to him while he was captain, all the while doubting the position of the Adeptus Astartes in the Imperium. Goddamn, if that is not the most explicit depiction of a heretic they could have made, and it would have shown that Leandros had every reason to think Titus was a danger to the Imperium. Forget all that defense of Titus by being the main character and therefore we "know" he's innocent, they actively planned to have him give in to everything that he went through. If they had gone through this this original plan, I think I would know the exact reaction the community would have had to Leandros questioning Titus.
There are far more egregious examples of codex worship in the novels, but Leandros is not one of those people. He remains loyal, level headed, and focused while also trying to work out the situation. Titus never really defends his innocence that strongly because it relies on the player to trust Titus, but between Drogan, Nemeroth, and finally Leandros, Titus is up against the wall. Maybe its just poor characterization, but Titus is so bland throughout the game he never really backs up the idea that he's taking this seriously after everything that happens. Leandros might have turned in the player character, but honestly he had every reason to.

A decent chunk of this sub is pretty disappointed with the dungeons in TotK, as they were with the Divine Beasts of BotW. And I agree with most of the criticisms. They're too short, they're quite lacking in enemy variety, the sense of progression isn't as clear as in other Zelda dungeons, and there's often little need to backtrack since all of the puzzles tend to lie within their own contained spaces. I probably haven't listed all of the common complaints, but these are the ones that come to mind and they're complaints I completely agree with.
However, there's one other complaint that I have never really understood. Supposedly, the individual puzzles in these games are too easy and simple. When I read these criticisms, I have to wonder if those making them played the same Zelda games as myself... because creative individual puzzles tended to be few and far between in the traditional 3D games to the point that I think BotW and TotK pretty much blow them out of the water.
A bold statement to make, no? Well, let's illustrate this by looking at a dungeon generally regarded as being one of the more complex in the 3D Zelda games: Ocarina of Time's infamous Water Temple, of course. I'll give a truncated walkthrough of the temple and whatever puzzles it might contain in the following bullet points.
- The first "puzzle" is just a Triforce on a wall. You've seen this before, so you know exactly what to do: play Zelda's Lullaby. This changes the water level which allows a torch to be lit. Next, you simply use the fire from the torch to light two more torches in the same room.
- The next thing you'll probably do is go to another passage and just push a block. That's it. In the next room, you'll hit a switch that, again, you've seen before. The switch creates geysers that you can hop on to cross to the other side of a pit. An identical switch lies in the next room, but the puzzle is a little more interesting. You have to use your iron boots here or the current will keep moving you around. Simply use your hookshot to hit the switch, open a door, then use the hookshot again on a spot that should be fairly obvious if you were in the right position to hit the switch.
- Another section of the temple has you using your hookshot to get across certain areas. But the spots where you're meant to aim the hookshot are typically right in front of you. There's very little searching going on. Further along, you see yet another switch that you've already seen three times earlier in the dungeon. This time, though, you'll need to hit it with an arrow from afar since the switch's effect doesn't last terribly long. An interesting enough evolution of this mechanic, but still quite trivial.
- Skipping a good chunk of the temple here, the most interesting puzzle IMO is one where you have to alternate between raising and lowering the water level of the room in order to make certain statues rise or sink, which reveal their hookshot targets. It's not a difficult puzzle at all since everything is pretty clearly spelled out to you, but I give it points for creativity at least.
I don't think I should have to spell out the rest of the dungeon because that last puzzle is as complicated as it gets for the Water Temple, and the dungeon item is just a longer hookshot so the puzzles don't really change too much from here on out. The parts I skipped over up to now largely had to do with using bombs on obviously cracked walls, hitting clear hookshot targets, or simply fighting enemies for keys, which doesn't really fall into the realm of puzzle-solving.
Let's contrast these with the puzzles in the Wind Temple of TotK, certainly one of the simpler dungeons in the game if not the simplest. I'll just list a few here.
- You might head to the top of the dungeon and use Ultrahand to open a massive trapdoor. Below is a corridor with several lasers. Here, you should get around those lasers by opening and closing the paraglider so as to navigate around easier and mitigate fall damage.
- There are two doors near the front of the dungeon, and both seem to require pulling a lever to operate. However, the one you actually need to get through has a lever that doesn't work... it's just not long enough. You can, however, use Ultrahand to grab a nearby icicle, stick it to the lever, and then move the whole thing. The trick here is realizing that Ultrahand actually works on the icicles if you haven't already figured that out.
- Below the main deck, there are several gears that seem to operate another door. One side of the mechanism isn't moving, though, because it's not connected to the other side. The trick is to look up and shoot down an icicle, then lodge that to the moving gear in such a way that the other side of the icicle just touches the still mechanism and moves it. A rather interesting puzzle, I think.
- Another puzzle features a windmill lacking its blades. Use Ultrahand to stick blades together so that they form a propeller, then use Tulin's ability to blow the new windmill and activate a door.
The last two puzzles (particularly the third), I think, are more mechanically engaging than any in the Water Temple, and even the first two would fit in quite nicely among the Water Temple's more interesting puzzles in terms of difficulty... so much for easier puzzles. If we're only considering creativity alone without regard for difficulty, then all four of them are well beyond the Water Temple. Only the statue puzzle in the Water Temple really stands a chance here. The other dungeons in OoT are even weaker on the individual puzzle front except maybe the Forest Temple... and this is a game that is generally regarded as having some of the most interesting dungeons in the series. Bringing other games into the comparison here, MM isn't a whole lot tougher than OoT on the individual puzzle front except for maybe Great Bay Temple and its numerous stray fairies. WW and TP are definite steps down in difficulty, especially WW. SS, however, has some promising individual puzzles, I will concede.
So, circling back to the Water Temple, what's the deal here? The Water Temple's puzzles are pretty thoroughly outclassed here, as has been made clear. Yet I doubt anyone would argue that the Wind Temple is a trickier dungeon to complete. On the contrary, it's pretty easy. And while I don't think the Water Temple is as difficult as some may believe, it's definitely leagues ahead of the Wind Temple.
In truth, the individual puzzles were not what made the Water Temple difficult in the first place, and this is true of most 3D Zelda dungeons prior to BotW. To clear a room, one usually had to light a few obvious torches or hit a hookshot target that might as well have had a neon sign hanging over it. Not always, but usually. What made the dungeons difficult was figuring out which room you had to reach in the first place. If there are three locked doors and you only have two keys, where could that missing link possibly be located, and how would you even go about get there from where you currently are in the dungeon? There were also many intra-dungeon mechanics like changing the water level which I wouldn't consider an individual puzzle but rather a mechanic that affected almost every aspect of the dungeon. If I did so-and-so thing here, which paths would this open and which paths would this block? So not really puzzle-solving but navigation was the tricky part of the old Zelda dungeons.
BotW and TotK, on the other hand, indisputably have the most creative puzzles in the entire franchise, and many are far more challenging than your usual torch-lighting or switch-pressing Zelda shenanigans since they often incorporate several aspects of the game and rely heavily on one's spatial thinking and understanding of the physics engine. And the one shrine in BotW that actually did heavily feature the torch-lighting mechanic implemented it in puzzles that frankly left every other game in the dust (see here). Even cheesing the puzzles often requires a sufficiently deep knowledge of the game's mechanics that goes beyond simply knowing where to aim the hookshot (the Fire Temple in TotK is the one big exception to this, I think). However, these dungeons sacrifice the complex layouts and gated objectives that once forced players to really stop and think about where they needed to go and what they needed to get in the dungeons. There's only one gate that leads to the boss and the objectives are marked on the map for you, so it's not an imposing labyrinth anymore; it's five branching paths that hardly ever overlap with each other (the Fire Temple is another exception here).
THAT is what makes them easier dungeons overall, even though the individual puzzles themselves are mostly better than those of other games. So, to return to the post's title, the argument that these new dungeons are considerably easier is perfectly valid, but I would not pin the blame to the puzzles for this one. If anything, they're more interesting than ever and I would really look forward to a Zelda dungeon that has such fascinating puzzles while retaining the complex layouts and gated objectives of past dungeons. Make them longer too... while the puzzles themselves are great, there aren't enough of them to keep me very busy.

Read Chapter 25 Here: https://www.reddit.com/saw/comments/13kih9q/legacy_from_the_book_of_saw_chapter_25_the_final/
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*** CHAPTER 26 **\*
Traveling to the warehouse, Logan felt relieved knowing Melissa was in good hands, but his momentary comfort was quickly replaced with apprehension when he arrived at Hoffman’s lair. Checking his surroundings, Logan was unfamiliar with this place, despite living here for over a decade. Stopping the car, he tilted the visor down and looked at the photo of his wife.
Through the security camera positioned outside, Hoffman watched Logan enter the parking lot and smiled. He grabbed the bottle of chloroform that sat next to the aqua green box and a cloth from the table, then switched on the furnace. Walking towards the entrance, he turned off all the lights except the one shining on Elanor, who sat unconscious beneath the aluminum dispenser.
Walking towards the entrance, Logan removed a tactical knife from his pocket and held it surreptitiously. Finding the door unlocked, he breached the doorway and stepped into the building, his chest full of anxiety. Logan shuffled through the inoperable machines, boxes, and various tools until he found Elanor under the strobe light. On the floor, he noticed the chrome pool of aluminum that had dried and discovered the dispenser above her. Quickly pulling the chair out of reach, he removed the gag from her mouth just as the liquid started to pour.
Slipping out of the darkness, Hoffman watched as Logan attempted to cut through the ropes that bound Elanor, and while he was distracted, Hoffman slammed the grip of his gun into the back of Logan’s head with traumatic force. Falling to the floor, rattled and disoriented, Hoffman used this moment to render him unconscious with a considerable dose of chloroform.
***
Seth’s body is brought to the triage center, where the on-call doctors get to work. They extract the bullet from his neck and clean the wound. Then, fill several vials with his coagulating blood and immediately begin several tests. It doesn’t take long for them to find something unusual in his blood. The pathologist examines the results and calls the precinct.
Waiting to hear from Agent Kullen, Lincoln left a message for Autumn and contacted the patrol unit, which was watching over her. They spoke briefly and assured him she would be brought to the station as soon as possible.
With her safety guaranteed, he reached out to the crew sent to Gavin Beck’s residence. They informed him that an officer was found in the garage with his arms, legs, and mouth wrapped in duct tape, but he was still alive, suffering from a major contusion on his head. He was currently being transported to the hospital for evaluation.
Fixing his posture, Lincoln loosened the cilice, providing a moment of comfort, and sank into his chair. Through the window, he caught another glimpse of the remaining survivors. Obstructing his view and thoughts, Marlow entered his office.
“Linc,” he says, “I’ve been in touch with Agent Webb. She’s in recovery and would like updates on the case. Additionally, I’ve been in contact with Dr. Steward’s wife and son. They’re both okay. Presumably an empty threat. The same for Renee’s family.”
Lincoln squints his eyes, contemplating, and suggests, “They didn’t fit the code.”
Marlow shrugs and is about to speak when a call comes through, “Detective,” the pathologist says, “Please come to the triage center at once. There’s something you should see.”
Taking his jacket from the chair, they leave the room hastily and head next door, cutting a path through the other corpses, beelining for Seth’s cadaver. The site of the body hits Lincoln in the gut. They shared a long history, and this wasn’t how he imagined their friendship would end. Saddened by the loss, Lincoln backed away and placed his hands in his pockets.
Inside, he found the last canister of Nitrous Oxide, which he had forgotten about. Already inserted into the cracker, it was taunting him. With the pain of losing another friend, Lincoln’s urge to use was returning, and he felt he would never escape its grasp. Checking for an exit, Lincoln was about to give in to his compulsion when he caught sight of the pathologist using a centrifuge.
Detailing her findings into a computer, she greets Lincoln, “Thank you for coming.”
“What did you find?”
Moving around the device, she grabs a portfolio and takes a blood-filled vial from the rack. She hands the vial to Lincoln and says, “When we ran the first test, I found Seth’s blood was contaminated with some sort of bacteria.”
Holding up the vial and looking closely, “Agent Kullen said he was sick….” Lincoln explains.
Her expression is one of doubt, “I checked that too, but these cells reacted differently than a common cold. It’s microbial.”
Turning a page in the portfolio, she removes another vial from the rack that is filled with green fluid.
“Do you recognize this?” She asks.
Swapping vials, Lincoln shakes the cylinder and watches the fluid splash against the walls.
The pathologist elaborates, “It was confiscated from Dr. Gordon’s apartment.”
“So?”
“Well, Detective, my theory is that poison not dissimilar to this was injected into Seth’s body. I’m certain we will find an entry point with a little more time.”
Handing the vial back to the pathologist, Lincoln displays concern.
He says, “Have Logan assist you with the autopsy. Find the entry point and get back to me.”
Confusion drapes the pathologist, “Logan isn’t here, Detective. I thought you knew that.”
“Fine, get Elanor on it immediately.”
“I’m sorry, Lincoln, but she’s not here either.”
Marlow looks worried, and Lincoln says, “What are you talking about?”
“The on-call Doctors are here because Logan and Elanor never came in. I assumed they requested a break….”
Lincoln pushes past the physician, and Marlow tries to keep up. “Get a unit to Logan and Elanor’s addresses.” He says, “If you can’t get in touch with anyone, I want an APB out within the hour.”
“Chief Savino?”
“My orders, just do it.”
They enter the precinct, and Lincoln breaks off from Marlow, heading to his office while Marlow requests the attention of the other officers. Perched in the seats, eyes fixed, they await instructions. He explains, “Two of our colleagues are missing, Logan Nelson and Elanor Bonneville. Logan was last seen leaving the precinct between 7 pm and 8 pm last night. We must track them down as soon as possible.”
Listening to Marlow in the distance, Lincoln paces his office, trying to call Autumn. He leaves another message and fidgets with the Nitrous Oxide in his pocket. Needing a distraction, he contacts Agent Kullen.
**\*
Outside the Convention Center, Agent Kullen acquired an identical parking slip to the one they procured from Seth. He stood beside his vehicle, surveying the surroundings, taking mental notes of the area, including the security cameras and the construction site for the museum across the street then headed inside.
At the front desk, he finds two staff members and security personnel. Flashing his badge, he requests to see the surveillance footage taken from the last forty-eight hours. They informed him that a power outage corrupted the data, and the footage was essentially erased. Incensed by the revelation, Kullen shows them a picture of Seth Steward and asks if they’ve seen him on the property. The security guard holds the photo close to his face and recognizes the man. He saw him the night before, smoking in the parking lot, but he never entered the building.
Kullen’s stomach churned, and his hand twitched as he exited the convention center. Retrieving his medication from the car, Kullen consumed two pills and evaluated his surroundings once more. Walking towards the street, he looked up and down the road diligently.
Near the shoulder, across the street, he saw something glistening off the sun. About to head over, a call rang through his cell, “Kullen,” he said, still curious about the object.
“It’s me.”
Hearing the Detective's unsettled tone, Agent Kullen asks, “Lincoln, what’s going on?”
“Elanor and Logan are missing. Marlow is pursuing leads. Where are you?”
Crossing the street, Kullen discovers the reflective object to be a broken padlock. He carries the item towards the gate and says, “I’m near the Convention Center.”
He stops at the entrance and discovers that a new padlock has replaced the broken one. Suspicious, he looks to the Convention Center and then back to the gate.
Overwhelmed by his sudden emotions, Lincoln pushes through a fog of anxiety and asks, “Have you found anything?”
Kullen tilts the new lock in his direction and discovers a keyhole. “Send a team to the museum, now.”
Quickly returning to his vehicle, Kullen starts the ignition and drives towards the parking lot's exit. He waits anxiously for the road to clear before pulling out onto the street. When he reaches the gate, he makes a sharp turn and slams his foot into the accelerator. Crashing through the barrier, he speeds toward the construction site.
Pedestrians outside the Community Center observe the unexpected breach and appear excited and perplexed, with at least one individual phoning 9-1-1.
*** CHAPTER 27 **\*
Sitting at his workstation, watching the news, Hoffman can hear Elanor’s muffled cries for help. In front of her, she could see the limp body of Logan, handcuffed to a metal fixture that Hoffman bolted to the floor below the aluminum faucet. Pleading for him to wake up, she quivered in fear.
Unaffected, Hoffman increased the volume of the television. Showing footage of the National History Museum from a helicopter, it was reported that a new game had been discovered. In the video, Hoffman saw several cop cars and news vans positioned outside the building. They revealed that triggers and tripwires had been placed throughout the museum, preventing safe entry.
Photos of the victims flash on the screen, and Hoffman sees Renee Walsh, a test subject of John Kramer, who he had captured over a decade ago. For her game, John requested an eye for an eye, forcing her to remove the organ with a sharpened spoon. Unbeknownst to Jigsaw, Dr. Gordon provided a numbing agent for Renee that would aid her in the endeavor.
Hoffman’s eyes glazed over, and the memories of previous games rushed to his mind. Staring through the television, he heard a voice.
Hovering over his shoulder was the rotting corpse of Amanda Young, who said, “Hello, Mark….”
“You’re dead,” he replied calmly.
Watching the news, Amanda folded her pale arms and said, “I know it’s hard to concentrate.”
Having been haunted by these hallucinations since he escaped the bathroom, Hoffman felt exhausted and tortured, “Why?” He said, his voice drained of emotion. “Why are you still here?”
Amanda stared out the window while Hoffman watched the blood ooze from her neck, and she said, “By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.”
“When this is over, you’ll be gone….”
Smiling, Amanda responds defiantly, “Somehow, I doubt that.”
Photos of John Kramer are displayed on the television, followed by images of Dr. Gordon.
Seeing the pictures, Hoffman remembered sending letters to various news stations, hospitals, and local law enforcement, implicating Lawrence Gordon as an accomplice. For many years, he had planned his revenge on the Doctor, which started by exposing his true identity. However, with Gordon’s upstanding reputation, the implications were deemed a slanderous rumor, and nothing ever came of it.
Now with Gordon gone, only one obstacle remained; there was only one accomplice left; Logan Nelson.
*** CHAPTER 28 **\*
The sun is chased out of the sky by a flurry of dark clouds, creating a reddish-black horizon. An aft beautiful sight, if not for the crowd that has formed outside the precinct. Families of the deceased Jigsaw victims have led a throng of supporters to the parking lot, where they demand an end to Jigsaw’s legacy and the police department that has allowed this to go on for so long.
Among the swarm of bodies are the ex-husband and children of Sarah Harper.
Inside, Chief Savino preps a SWAT team on the situation at the museum, reminding them to be wary of traps, and displays a picture of Hoffman on the television for each of them to memorize. He insists that no one enter the museum until all the traps have been disarmed.
After the speech, Lincoln is informed that Autumn has arrived at her house and is collecting her belongings. The officer estimates that they will reach the precinct within the hour. With one problem solved, Lincoln allows himself a moment of comfort. When he is about to leave, Marlow approaches with more good news.
“We just spoke to Cameron, Logan’s Mother-in-Law,” He says, “She has Melissa, they’re fine, and Logan left around 7 am this morning.”
“Did she say where he was going?”
“He said he was going to work but to contact you if there’s trouble. Chances are he’s inside the museum with the others.”
Lincoln considers the possibilities and says, “Let’s retrace his steps. He took his vehicle, right? I don’t care how long it takes, pull CCTV, check gas stations in the vicinity, schools, everything. If we can triangulate his phone, do it. Find him."
“I will, sir,” Marlow says, without moving, "What about him?"
Lincoln glances at Daniel inside the Infirmary, “He doesn't leave my sight," he says.
“Sir?"
“What other options do we have? I'm not losing anyone else."
Forgoing his apprehension, Marlow said, “It’s your call, Lincoln.”
Within twenty minutes, Lincoln arrives at the museum with a SWAT team. Staring at the building, he feels a sudden surge of anxiety, dread, and a strange sense of relief, knowing this will all be over soon.
“Are you okay?” a voice asks.
His eyes move to the rearview mirror, and Lincoln can see Daniel Matthews in the back seat. Still awaiting a response from Autumn, Lincoln checks his cellphone and re-reads his message to Lynn.
“I'm ready for this to be over,” he said, tightening the cilice around his waist.
Looking through the window at the commotion outside the museum, Daniel responds, “This isn't your fault, Detective.”
Reminded of his conversation with Seth Steward, Lincoln ignores the words, "Let's go."
Both men exit the vehicle, and Marlow joins them.
"Kullen is sending in a bomb squad," Marlow said, "We've set up an observation terminal towards the south entrance. I'll move the witness there."
As the men separate, Daniel, notices the news crews positioned themselves just outside the parking lot. He stares at them approvingly.
Lincoln waded through his grief and reached Agent Marlow, who was relaying a message via radio.
“Get it done,” Kullen said.
Standing with the Agent, Lincoln asks for a breakdown of the situation.
“Come with me.”
Lincoln follows Kullen towards a police car, and the Agent removes the museum floor plans from his pocket. He lays the map on the car's hood and specifies the trap locations.
“The entrances are blocked off,” he said, “There’s no way through. Now, I’ve got a team working to deactivate the traps, but it’s going to take some time.”
“Have you had any communication with the survivors?”
Drawing a line on the map with his finger, Kullen says, “Not yet, but I’ve spoken with the construction crew, and they’re building an expansion right over here.”
***
TO BE CONTINUED

Preamble

I primarily play Hunter, so this is from my perspective as a Hunter player. Dungeons are probably close to my favorite thing in this game. They're topped only by new raids and secret missions. Although generally I like the secret missions a little less than the dungeons (with the exception of Presage which was one of my favorite activities in the game when it was in the game). I'm not the best player in the game, and I experience good days and bad days. So usually my solo/flawlesses take about a week from the point where I start my attempts to getting the completion. The only exception to this was Spire of the Watcher for reasons I'll discuss later. The important point for the preamble is that I didn't complete Spire until last season, even though I made more than a few solid attempts during the week it launched and the weeks after. I just couldn't figure out a strat I was comfortable with for Persys.
​
There has been a lot of chat on this sub and others (and in my group lobbies) about this most recent dungeon's difficulty and it's boss HP scaling. Players like Gladd have made rant videos about the HP bars of the bosses (which is notable only because he usually opts to talk shit on people for things being too easy rather than too difficult). I myself spent the first two days of the dungeon's launch in three different 3-5 hour clears because I was helping out friends and figuring out the dungeon and DPS options. And then, I started my solo attempts. And while I haven't yet quite gotten my rhythm down for the final boss, I can reliably get to her solo now in less time than the first successful clear of the first boss took with a group. I also find that even though I haven't figure out how to consistently stay alive in her room yet, her shields are not all they're cracked up to be. I'm not even using Arbalest and they seem to go down quicker than some Barrier Champs... And this is what prompted me to write this post. Because I think people see things like final damage values in a certain light, and then they correllate that to their experience of fighting for hours without stopping to think about alternative explanations for what they're seeing and experiencing.
​
And don't get me wrong. It's brutal the first time. The second time. And the third time. Ghosts of the Deep (GotD) has the largest quantity of endlessly intense add phases I've seen since Prophecy. Not even Duality can hold a candle to the sheer volume of enemies you'll defeat by the end of a normal run of GotD. So I'm going to discuss add pressure, discuss boss HP values, number of phases to get the kill, mechanics with a kill timer vs. mechanics without one, and "artificial difficulty" (and probably some other things). So buckle up, because we're gonna be here for a while.
​

Difficulty of Dungeons in General

​
First, lets just talk about difficulty in general in a pre-GotD world. And to do that, I think a bit of a history lesson is in order.
Shattered Throne
A thing that everyone should keep in mind when evaluating dungeons is that Shattered Throne (ST) as the first came about in an era before we could customize mods in our armor, and long before 3.0 anything was even dreamed of as a possibility. ST came about when the most "efficient" solo strat for killing the final boss was to sit on a pillar and plunk away at her with an infinite ammo Whisper of the Worm. And back then, this dungeon was a slog. Getting to the first boss (The Ogre) was tedious, even though it wasn't too hard. The Ogre itself though would wipe groups because they didn't understand how to pick up the buffs or how to stay alive in a room with little to no cover and a boss that would pin you to the wall with it's eyebeam if it got line of sight on you. Even now, this boss room can still fuck you up if you aren't paying attention and don't treat the Ogre with respect. Back then, this was a 3-4 phase kill IF you had 21% Delirium (which didn't even come out until two seasons after ST launched).
Once you got to the final boss, Dul Incaru's room is still one of the most bullshit boss arenas I've ever fought in. It's small, you've got three fucking huge HP sink knights, a million Psions and a Hive Witch that deletes you if she can see you for more than a second or two. I don't know how people did this fight without Anarchy to chain down the knights, but man was this fight hard to just stay alive in. But if you could, then you were rewarded with a fairly easy 1-2 phase boss (depending on which meta you were playing in) because the damage buff from the Knights buffed your damage significantly. But it also had a timer that would just kill you if you didn't cleanse yourself or kill the boss. Oh and cleansing required you to jump on an exposed plate in the middle and then shoot a crystal with the HP of a yellow bar enemy before you died.
If this all sounds reasonable by comparison, remember that you could only do Shattered Throne one week out of the month (once every three weeks). So yea, it was easier by comparison because you couldn't just run it any time you pleased so it HAD to be easier so that people could actually complete it in a given Strong Curse Week.
Pit of Heresy
IDK what to say about Pit other than that it was my favorite for a long time because I liked how it used verticality to make things feel immense. This dungeon suffered from (and still suffers from) bugs and inconsistent enemy behaviors in the first encounter and the totem encounter. This was also my first solo flawless (I had gotten ST solo, but not flawless). Pit was very approachable as a solo flawless, and I would still recommend it to most people looking to try one out for the first time, because it only has one actual boss encounter. The opening encounter is about as easy as ST's was, but a lot more fun because you could sword fly around.
The maze with the Ogres is the first time I heard people say that dungeons were using "artificial difficulty" (there's that term...). But this encounter is not even a little bit hard IF you take the time to learn a route to go. If you didn't do that and just floundered around complaining about the ogres being too strong and doing too much damage, then this encounter was the bane of your existance. And to this day, if I join Pit groups most of the time at least one if not both of the other people have no clue how to navigate this area. But once you have your route mapped and know that you can punch jump to move quicker with a ball, this mini encounter becomes a breeze as you just run from one to the next in the space of a couple minutes. But you can't do that unless you come in and actually practice and learn the route, learn how to kill the Hive in the caves, and learn how to get past Ogres that are in front of you. And this takes believing that it was possible to do.
The Totems is the true test. So many people would refuse to do this encounter without the ball dupe cheese and would swear it's impossible. For my part, on my clear I would kill two knights and bring two balls back and dunk both to get only one add wave. Which is still somewhat of a cheese, but it doesn't just skip the encounter. This encounter was the second place I heard people say the dungeon was just too hard for no reason. And sure, at first this encounter was extremely hard. It is probably still one of the harder plate defense encounters in the game (if you play it correctly) simply because of how many things you have to juggle to get through it. We're talking a stacking debuff that kills you if it gets too high, a totem that kills you if you don't touch it every few seconds, boomer knights raining death from above, endless waves of acolytes throwing thousands of solar grenades at you while thrall and exploding thrall rushed to push you off the plate. Oh and you had to kill mini-boss knights to get the ball to dunk. And yea, everyone would just cheese this encounter because back then it was the latest version of the "this is too hard and unfair" encounter.
The maze that came next also still throws people for a loop, and again required you to practice your route so you could navigate it safely. If you don't know your way around, then this part could take a long time and you might die many times trying to find your way. But again, just like the Ogres, once you know the way through, it's a piece of cake assuming you can platform past swinging pendulums.
And after all that, the final boss was not too bad. The adds were nowhere near as oppressive as they were at the totem, and the mini-bosses were all close by and in set spawn locations so you didn't have to run all over the place like in the opening encounter. The only part of this that was somewhat difficult was the actual dps phase because there was a timer to it, but you didn't get to see the timer. The boss would swing his huge flaming sword and leave piles of fire everywhere and cursed thrall would come in from all sides and you could only damage him while being in the middle.
For this I remember distinctly choosing to just go with Celstial Golden Gun and Anarchy with the plan to just blap him once, stick two Anarchy's to him and then kill Thrall. This took me like 5 phases to do (I think... It's been a while... but it was at least 5, possibly 6), but because it was consistent and I could do the rest of the fight easily with my other weapons, I went with it.
Overall, once I did this dungeon once solo, I immediately jumped back in (as soon as I was done) to do the solo flawless attempt in one go. And it was easy the whole way except for totems.
Prophecy
Prophecy was brutal. Prophecy was the first one to take me a week to do. I lived in that dungeon all week and I swear it was impossible without god roll Falling Guillotine, god roll heavy GL, and Trinity Ghoul with the catalyst and Witherhoard. There is so much RNG in these fights that it's not even funny. And I remember seeing many threads back then complaining that this new dungeon, while cool, used RNG to create "artificial difficulty".
The first boss had RNG affecting which motes you needed to deposit and how the shadows moved when you banked those motes. He had at the time some of the most oppressive add pressure in the game and he'd boop you off if you got careless for even half a second. This fight was SOOO easy to get yourself stuck in a position that you couldn't get out of and die... Oh and about 1/2 way through the damage phase he summoned a couple dozen goblins to make him immune, so you had to save you super for that so that you could kill them quickly without just losing half the phase... Oh and his shield would block your damage and swords. You had to hot swap Witherhoard with a Guilliotine back and forth to get him down in any kind of remotely quick time, and I'm pretty sure this was a 4-5 phase when I was first learning it and I got it down to a 2-3 phase by the time I was done. But the add phases in between those DPS phases took forever because of how the mote spawning worked and just how many fucking psions he threw at you. Sometimes you even had ot purposely kill the mote spawning Knights to spawn the wrong motes just so that you could alleviate some of the pressure. So sure, this fight only took 2-3 phases once you had it down... but it still took for fucking ever because of what happened in-between.
The Desert is boring. idk what else to say about it other than Trinity Ghoul shit on it.
The Cube Room required Trinity Ghoul. If you didn't have it, you weren't clearing the Acolytes and their Eyeblasts in time. We didn't have Jolt, ignite, or easy access to volatile. But the add pressure was such that you'd think we did... Trin Ghoul with Catalyst was the closet thing you could get to that.
This fight has it all. Minimal cover, many holes to fall to your death on accident, endless waves of strong enemies, snipers that spawn above you and when you kill knights, knights on the ground with you when you kill snipers. You had to kill two snipers to spawn two knights to get orbs. But the moment the knights died, the snipers respawned, and the acolytes spawned endlessly with their eyes. So as soon as you picked up all your motes and now had no weapons, there was shit spawning all around and snipers bearing down. Oh and I forgot to mention that Toland spawned randomly and sometimes on the ceiling (which I STILL to this day do not understand how to choose a side when he's on the ceiling). If he was on the ceiling, your 6 room run was now an 8 room run. Oh and the room it drops you into, and the color of motes you'd need are completely random. Some rooms were equal, some rooms favored light motes, some favored dark. So you could get a room that favored light motes, but you needed dark motes and there might be only 1 or 2 places to stand to be able to spawn those motes... So when you finally get to the "boss" it's easy sure... again because everything else was so damn hard that a hard boss at the end would have just been beyond cruel...
Rainbow Road is pretty, but I hate it because it's just long and boring when you're soloing it. Don't sparrow because you might fall.
Final boss was the definition of a nightmare and early on you were LUCKY to get a group that could three phase this thing... Most groups were going to do four, possibly five, maybe even six if things went horribly wrong.
It has everything we had in the last encounters. Random mote colors needed, random rooms being dropped into, and absurd add pressure the likes of which had not been seen in 3 man content to that point. On top of that, there was literally no where to hide because the boss was in all three corners bearing down on you. So you had to start this encounter off knowing where the psions and knights spawn ahead of time, planting witherhoard on them before they spawn and then deleting them to create the correct color within a minute or you would get overwhelmed instantly and have literally nowhere safe to hide. There was not one single part of any of those rooms that you could hide in for more than a couple of seconds until you cleared off one of the bosses AND killed the Ogre that spawned in his place.
Once you finished all three sides, you were off to DPS where we have a boss designed to thwart Well of Radiance by not only teleporting away down a long room full of platforms to jump to and Taken hobgoblin snipers, but also by throwing a teleport wall at you. You had to flawless this room solo if you were going to have a shot at 5 phasing this boss. I remember mastering my jumps and making sure I was getting double Witherhoard stacks on him (tagging him and putting one on the ground) at every platform he teleported to, while juggling the platforming, the snipers and his teleport death wave. And at the end of the run, you got a chance to dump some heavy into him (also briefly at the beginning to, but you needed to leave early to get ahead of the teleports and enemy spawns).
For most solo completions, this was a five phase boss or more. There might have been some streamers out there who could get him to four. I'm sure having mountain top and not killing yourself on accident with it was part of those loadouts (I didn't have it so that wasn't an option).
This dungeon was a nightmare to solo and even now I imagine the final boss is quite challenging to solo flawless, even if you can probably kill it in far fewer phases now due to power creep.
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Modern Dungeons

This brings us to what I call the Modern Dungeons, which is Grasp of Avarice (GoA), Duality, Spire of the Watcher (SotW), and Ghosts of the Deep. We're going to spend less time here because these ones all have one crucial factor in play that the previous three didn't. They are all tuned with modern abilities and weapons in mind. So their bosses will be tankier than bosses of the previous three which were tuned for different times and different metas.
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Grasp of Avarice
Released too early. Everything through the sparrow race is fantastic, but the Servitor and final boss fights drag on needlessly. I firmly believe this dungeon was originally scheduled to release with Season of Plunder, but was bumped up to release early because they wanted to pad out the anniversary pack due to Witch Queen being delayed.
This dungeon is very easy assuming you can do two things: complete the sparrow section and deal with the sniper shank in the final boss room. This shank that respawned every damage phase has as much HP as a Hero Nightfall boss. He's tanky as fuck, hard to hit, no crits, and he hits you for half your HP if you let him see you. So unless you had heavy to burn on him, you were doing what I did which was sticking the Scorch Cannon blast to him and charging it up to detonate. Killing this Shank alone for every boss attempt took more time than it took me to kill the Ogre at the first part of the dungeon. Between this guy and the boss tier vandal that also spawned with him, this boss had easily 5x as much HP as any other boss (if we think of these two guys like the shields on the bosses in GotD).
I hate this dungeon, but I love the theme.
Duality
While the final fight was plagued by bugs, this dungeon was awesome. It put pressure on you the whole way but also gave you space to breath where you needed it. All the encounters were about managing add spawns and racing the red world timer. I don't like the Dungeon overall because the teleporting that you do between bosses can leave members of your fireteam behind, and there just isn't much going on in the maps in general. It's very bland looking. But I loved the fights and I love the Calus voicelines.
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Spire of the Watcher
I was so excited to get a Vex dungeon and Rasputin themed stuff. But damn was this dungeon a letdown overall. The chasing the node mechanic is a fantastic solo mechanic, but it sucks in group play because you end up with just one person doing it while everyone else just does adds. This is the same problem that RoN had, but that's a different topic. It's just not a good group play mechanic, and so in groups this dungeon just kind of sucks because you're stuck going at the speed of whoever is doing the nodes...
For solo play, this dungeon was mostly fine. The first half of it is a cakewalk once you have the nodes memorized.
The Harpy Boss is where everyone talks about the dungeon becoming a slog... but again this is a slog the player is in control of. The ask is to hit all the nodes to trigger damage, then you break a couple dozen eyes to render the boss vulnerable. The main thing people get stuck on is killing these eyes in a reasonable amount of time, but if you can do it then this boss was 2-3 phasable at launch with artifact mods. Currently it's about 4 phases on my Hunter, 5 if I make mistakes. But chaining the nodes together takes almost no time, so this fight overall has been reduced to a 20min fight at max, even if I do do a short 5th damage phase to chip off the last little bit of HP. But like Pit of Heresy from before, it requires you to memorize a route and a rhythm that allows you to do the nodes quickly. If you don't do that, then this fight will take an eternity.
For the final fight, I got very frustrated because I couldn't figure out a good damage setup, and I couldn't find any guides that didn't use gear swapping for hunters. It's frustrating because I think that while this is certainly optimal, it discourages creative problems solving that could lead to figuring out the best ways to actually do the encounter. I'm always feeling like were one or two patches away from this being nerfed (kind of how they nerfed it in Trials of Osiris). Once Strand came out, the mobility and damage resistance made this fight infinitely more approachable, and the super + a magazine of Xeno had this guy down in 5 quick phases. The only thing that would slow me down was if I had to farm for heavy ammo.
The hardest part of this fight by far is getting the first 5 red cable nodes hit. But again, this is something that the player can master if they spend time to actually study the fight. Just running in blind every time and raging at it for being "unfair" and "artificially difficult" will not get it done. But if you take time to figure out how to manipulate the supplicant spawns, then you can do this easily and you don't even need woven mail.
I don't like DPS on this boss because Wyverns are just too hard to precision hit without a mouse, so I feel forced to use non-precision weapons. I don't mind this sometimes, but for a solo boss I think restricting the player in this way is not good design.
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Ghosts of the Deep

And now we're here. And if you've read this far, thank you. Don't worry, this will be short.
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If we look back over the history of things, we can see that it wasn't uncommon for dungeon bosses to either have large HP pools, long mechanics phases, ammo/time sink enemies, bullshit ways to die, etc. It's just how these things go. And over time, all of them were moved into farmable status once we had time to figure out the best ways to do them.
The Shields
They are vulnerable to anti barrier. They melt to almost any super hit. But the critical part is that damage done to shields shows up in your total damage done. And since they take bonus damage from some things.... while they might go down easy with the right weapons, you'll still see numbers like 12million on damage because of the damage being done to the shields.
As I said near the beginning, I spent many multi hour attempts on these because we were using machine guns, and even when we'd wipe we'd get insane damage numbers. And I know for a fact that my Commemoration, no matter how good it is, doesn't do the dps that those numbers suggested. So stop acting like these bosses have HUGE HP values. They don't have any larger of HP values than any other dungeon boss on average. You're not doing 9million damage with your LMGs/Linears and a super. You weren't doing that against raid bosses, and you're not doing it here. This is simple deductive reasoning. For example one Light-Light-Heavy combo of Lament will destroy more than half of the first bosses' shield, if not completely destroy it. Lament combo does not do 1mil damage. But it does do close to that to his shield.
So the reality is that we don't actually know the HP values of the bosses. No one does. Anyone saying that do that doesn't have a reliable way to account for inflated shield hp/damage is wrong.
The solution then is not to complain that the bosses have too much HP, but to figure out ways of dealing with the shields. I just watched someone strip off the final bosses' shield with one Gathering Storm and a Levi Breath shot or two (and no he wasn't using Star Eater's either... He was using Assassin's Cowl and never swapped). He did enough damage that this boss was four phasable comfortably if you made no mistakes.
My own kill of the first boss also makes it feel like it's four phasable with no mistakes. But probably five phases typically while solo. And this puts them on par for other bosses in dungeon history. And like those bosses... a year or two from now, the new meta of the future will probably shit on these bosses and we'll be 1-2 phasing them and complaining that they're too easy.
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The Add Pressure
What makes these fights drag is the adds. You have to have a build that shreds adds FAST. Because of RoN and all of last season, everyone is defaulting to LMGs for this and then wondering why the bosses take an eternity to kill... Add pressure also makes getting the mechanics done quickly very difficult until you spend enough time with the bosses to understand the spawns well enough to abuse them in your favor. Once you can do that, you can blitz through the mechanics in no-time and that (just like the bosses from ST, Pit, Prophecy, Duality, and Spire) is where you save time in your run. That is how you take your runtime down from 2-4 hours to 1.5 hours. Because if you take a long time to kill the adds, or if the adds are constantly forcing you to hide to recover HP, then you are adding time to the run that you don't need to add to the run. And it makes the boss phases feel worse because you spent 10 minutes getting to the phase, only for it to be over at 7% of their HP bar damaged. But if you practice getting that in between time down to 3-5min, and figure out a good weapon loadout... you find that in the time it took you to do two damage phases before for 7% each, you're doing four phases of 10-15% or more. And that's when it starts to shine through as possible.

Closing Thoughts

I don't know what I'd use on a Warlock or Titan because I don't play them much. But you need to find ways to stay alive. You can heal yourself with sublcass abilities and mods. And you can do DPS with things other than what you see on a stream or a youtube video. If you've done these before, then you know how to solve this problem.
There is no such thing as "artificial difficulty". This term refers to challenges that the player feels frustrated by to an unreasonable degree. But all difficulty is artificial. It's all scripted to be a certain difficulty or not. A boss having a lot of HP is no more artificial than a boss having less HP but a long ass mechanics phase. Or very low HP but very short windows for DPS. The bosses in GotD have extremely long DPS phases for how little is actually happening during those phases. All they do is attack you, move around, and spawn some Thrall. And you have what feels like 30-40 seconds of time to shoot at them... So Bungie "artificially" reduced the difficulty there by making the phase take long enough that you have time to deal with the adds and the shield and then still have a comparable amount of time to hit the real HP bar (compared to other dungeons). But right now, it's all fresh and new. And right now you aren't comfortable in the arena. And right now it feels unfair. But it won't in a month or three.
You heard it here first. My predication is that this dungeon will be talked about as one of the easiest released in a long time. And I believe this will be said of it before The Final Shape launches.
So I believe in you Guardian. You can do this. It is made to challenge you to solve the problem. If your solution isn't working, then come up with another one. You don't need a streamer to tell you how to play, or how to do a build. Don't just go for only safety because that too will add full hours to your run that you don't have to spend. Get comfortable with being aggressive. Learn to love riding the red blinking HP line between awesome and despair, and get in there!
TLDR: Ghosts of the Deep is not even remotely out of band compared to previous dungeons in their given release metas. Many dungeons have been outpaced by power creep, but all of them were brutally hard to solo/solo-flawless in their day.

This is going to be one of my more serious, long posts, so strap in, as they say (though I cannot possibly detail out everything you might need to know. That would require at least three posts). To quote -- and set the stage through -- Dostoevsky (from Notes from Underground):
'Is it [history] many-coloured? May be it is many-coloured, too: if one takes the dress uniforms, military and civilian, of all peoples in all ages--that alone is worth something, and if you take the undress uniforms you will never get to the end of it; no historian would be equal to the job. Is it monotonous? May be it's monotonous too: it's fighting and fighting; they are fighting now, they fought first and they fought last--you will admit, that it is almost too monotonous.
In short, one may say anything about the history of the world--anything that might enter the most disordered imagination. The only thing one can't say is that it's rational. The very word sticks in one's throat. And, indeed, this is the odd thing that is continually happening: there are continually turning up in life moral and rational persons, sages and lovers of humanity who make it their object to live all their lives as morally and rationally as possible, to be, so to speak, a light to their neighbours simply in order to show them that it is possible to live morally and rationally in this world. And yet we all know that those very people sooner or later have been false to themselves, playing some queer trick, often a most unseemly one.
Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. It is just his fantastic dreams, his vulgar folly that he will desire to retain, simply in order to prove to himself--as though that were so necessary--that men still are men and not the keys of a piano, which the laws of nature threaten to control so completely that soon one will be able to desire nothing but by the calendar.'
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I would only add that he was rather harsh on the soldier and his general. Many-coloured, is he! The eternal shine of the ten million blades, the wooden hilt; the forgotten hammer, the ships of our forefathers. Ah! Such a pity to see nought in it but blood and sand -- now, that is monotonous. If man is to mean anything at all, it must be finding some honour in life... and death. War, it must be known, is the great stage-play of time. Surely, then, the warrior is the greatest (male) part to play? Otherwise, it's all for nought!
If you're going to, as the author, gift your setting a military and its honour, you have to actually put yourself inside the mind of the general, the trooper, the law-maker, the wife at home, the child in the street; otherwise, it's going to be a hollowed-out system, a mere mote. It does not matter to me if you believe in war or not, or if all war is just (certainly, it's not): what matters is that you do your setting and peoples justice, regardless of what they may find themselves. After all, this is your job as the writer, as the artist. It's your job to let your characters and their stories free, and follow them, as to see where they may lead.
I'm not even going to dig into the elements at play, such as brotherhood, inter-national conflict resolution, national defence, social structure, and physical fitness. These elements ought to be known to you all: they are some of the clear benefits to warfare and boot camp/training, in general. I have not yet found a defeatist army, for example -- or yet a nation without some kind of guarder force, vast or not. (Note: there are some claims that actual warfare did not exist until around 9,000 BC, but I find this very difficult to believe, and have seen some counter-evidence. For example, Jane Goodall and de Waal find that chimps go to war (raiding parties, sometimes wiping out entire tribes); and there are strong indications that pre-historic human tribes were war-driven, just on smaller scales, and often using wooden weapons (thus, no direct evidence is found). We know that modern hunting (and fire-making, and related matters) existed at least 1.5-2 million years ago, according to the books I own and more recent research. That's the entire history of humanity, ultimately. There is no way these spears and slings were not used against man.)
Well, a big part of space opera is, indeed, warfare (typically in relation to defence of the Good [nation] and psychomachy). Anyway, without further ado, I give to you...
Part One: A Brief History of Battles, Great and Small
Let's begin with Alexander the Great, because why not (though I could have started with Sargon of Akkad many years prior). Alexander's army was a powerful, fast-moving, and relatively small force of 40,000 men (equal to a Napoleonic corps or so). Often credited with inventing genius 'shock' tactics (the so-called hammer and anvil tactic) to overwhelm equally-sized forces. He even managed to break up, and then defeat, the vast Persian army under King Darius III (around 1500,000 strong). Alexander the Great's army is as close to the cinematic glory of 300 (2006) as you're likely to find. Soon after, Alexander was crowned King of Asia in a lavish ceremony.
Moving forward a few hundred years, at its peak, the Roman military possibly had over 500,000 soldiers across its regions (around 0.5% of citizens -- which is a fairly reliable standard across history) by 306 AD during the reign of Constantine I. Compare this to the Roman conquest of Britain under Plautius, with just a 40,000-man force (four legions and 20,000 auxiliary troops, including Thracians) in 43 AD. (It's also worth mentioning, if you're in a long-term space war, individual companies, legions, or otherwise could stay outfitted for as long as 500 years at a time without issue. The Roman Legion, Legio IX Hispana, for example, existed for at least 150 years, and led the conquest of Britain. And, within the Warhammer 40,000 universes, a single Space Marine sees battle for about 400 years before he's KIA (killed in action).)
During the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD, each side only had upwards of 5,000-8,000 men (around 15,000 in total). This was actually a common trend, from what I found: equally common was the notion of 'law of war' and related, which meant that each side wanted to be roughly equal to the other side. This is one of the most profound discoveries of my life (more on this later). (The Japanese invasion of China, for example, taught me that having too much control over your enemy leads to madness -- there must be an innate drive to some sense of honour, fair challenge in war-making. When men are without equals, they become titans, as it were. And, if you know anything about some of the Greek titans: they were not very friendly or sane.)
Around this time (960-1279 AD), the Song Dynasty of China had a remarkable standing army of over two million men, and made use of tank-like carts and newly-invented 'grandes' (known as 'thunder crash bombs'). However, this was financially exhausting, but it was sometimes capable of fighting against invading Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols, largely thanks to the great iron industry. Individual battles, however, were quite small.
By the time of the First Italian War (1494 AD), Europe was really starting to take its modern shape, and there were hundreds of what are ultimately power struggle wars and rebellions across Europe as we moved out of the Middle Ages. This was the opening phase of the Italian Wars, which existed between 1494 and 1559 AD. The Battle of Marignano was the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai (aka the wars between 1508 and 1516 AD, within the Italian Wars. The main participants were the French, Papal States, and Republic of Venice) and took place in 1515 AD, southeast of Milan. The Battle of Marignano pitted the French army, led by Francis I and the best heavy cavalry and artillery in Europe, against the Old Swiss Confederacy (within the Holy Roman Empire -- this was the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland), whose mercenaries until that point were regarded as the best medieval infantry force in Europe. The French had German landsknechts (mercenaries famed for pike and shot formations) on their side. The French won and suffered just half the losses, and did so with a fairly stronger force -- possibly 35,000 men compared to 22,000 on the Swiss side. This led to the Treaty of Fribourg, which established the 'Perpetual Peace', and ensured good relations between the two nations for nearly 200 years. This event is largely what led to Switzerland's world-famous diplomatic autonomy and militaristic neutrality. Nonetheless, this battle -- and countless others at the time -- saw similar numbers to centuries past: roughly 20,000 on each side.
Part Two: An Introduction to Military Divisions & the Numbering System
Enter Maurice de Saxe circa 1710 AD, whom you can thank, at least in part, for the modern military system, largely due to the major increase in soldiers by the 18th century, and his advanced thinking in response. A major battle felt by a young de Saxe was the Battle of Malplaquet during the War of the Spanish Succession. Battles pressed on in this manner, and at some point, de Saxe began to write about it. He wrote Mes Reveries, a profound work on the art of war, which was published after his death in 1757 AD.
He had the grand idea of reshaping the regiment system into large 'legions' (modern divisions), so that the effective officers were not wasted on smaller, single regiments. These divisions would consist of four regiments and would have a more even mix of veteran soldiers and new recruits, as well. On top of this, he -- along with some other key theorists at the time -- had the idea of simply numbering the divisions and regiments, replacing the traditional system of naming them by their commanders or by locations/regions: because that's a very temporary, rigid system that only works for small, tight-knit groups. The divisional system also allowed soldiers to climb the ranks, and effectively learn from the veterans.
The regimental system shatters command structure and weakens mobility, despite the fact you have smaller, often lighter units. Too many small, separate, disorganised units is highly ineffective when you're dealing with large armies, and quite an advanced enemy (be it the British or Prussians, in this case). What de Saxe noticed was a failing system of rigid tradition. He also hated this sort of grenadier mentality of the 17th and 18th centuries, as it displaced all the strongest and most experienced soldiers. Of course, de Saxe was not against the existence of grenadiers: the strongest soldiers, leading the assaults, such as storming fortifications. He simply wanted to evenly spread them out across all the regiments, and legions, so that every single unit was an effective tool. (This grenadier concept actually survives to this day, as a grenade launcher specialist of a typical four-man fireteam (traditionally, sharing much in common with WWII-era shock troops), and you see it all the time in movies, where he is still typically the biggest, strongest of the team.)
Battles were increasingly crossing the 100,000 mark in terms of soldier count; whereas, not long ago (that is, around 1650 AD), the numbers were more likely in the range of 20,000 for most battles, other than a few outliers.
Then, de Saxe died before he had the opportunity to actually implement his system, though the Duke de Broglie led some successful experiments with it during the Seven Years War, but it took until the French Revolution for the 'division' concept to be enforced, systematically. This ultimately fell at the hands of the French Revolutionary Army.
Enter Lazare Carnot. Like de Saxe, Carnot saw that some regiments were full of veterans, whilst others -- namely, the new revolutionary brigades -- were filled with barely-trained recruits. And, like de Saxe, his solution was to separate out the veterans and embed them within these new brigades. More importantly, he embraced de Saxe's idea of the 'division'. The new demi-brigades (regiments, as the Revolutionary Government hated and removed the term regiment) would be combined into brigades, and brigades would be combined into divisions. Later, under Napoleon, divisions themselves were combined into corps (which is and has always been the highest level of operational units for actual combat, with all units larger than corps being purely administrative, with a clear exception being Napoleon's Armee (i.e. modern field army), and a few other, smaller army groups).
This wonderfully created an intermediate level of control between the general and the brigade commanders. The Revolutionary Army became at once an army of mass and mobility. This allowed the army to move faster and more decisively than their enemies, who were still commanding at regiment or brigade level.
Full implementation of the divisional system was not realised until the French Revolutionary Government, in their centralising and anti-aristocratic ways, when they decided to entirely remove the old system of naming regiments after their commanders. They saw all of this as part of the 'ancien regime' (i.e. 'the System' or 'old system', language also used by Hitler in relation to what he called the 'Weimar Republic'. Not uncommon language from any new system). The second factor at play was that the French Revolutionary Government also didn't like the idea of merely naming regiments after regions of France. The final factor was scale: the Army was larger than ever, which made it very difficult to give specific names.
As a result, the Government began numbering their units by the late-1700s. Although the Roman legions themselves had been numbered, and de Saxe argued for it many years prior, some scholars believe that this was purely an administrative decision. (Obviously, your naming convention can be more on the religious/traditional or seculamodern side, depending on just how the entire system is set up. Warhammer 40,000 is a good example of a more Roman-inspired system, despite its far-future nature, so it's not uncommon to find very traditional, religious naming conventions within Warhammer 40,000, coupled with simple, administrative systems. And, again: Nazi Germany and other 20th-century powers, such as America and England, also shifted towards numbered and/or lettered systems for pretty much everything. Not shockingly, this is heavily featured in sci-fi, as well.)
Part Three: Napoleon & the Birth of Modern War:
Although the concepts of the 'corps' and 'battalion carre' (that is, four corps) existed, they were also not implemented until the time of Napoleon in the early-1800s. He began grouping divisions into corps, making the largest units in history -- equal to entire armies of older periods (three divisions and some cavalry regiments, for upwards of 30,000 men). He commanded dozens of these corps (I think, around 20 of them for his Grande Armee when he invaded Russia in 1812 AD -- or, 500,000-600,000 men, equal to the entire core Roman military at the height of its power).
Napoleon's genius -- despite his supreme failure to invade Russia -- was ensuring that these corps were typically independent fighting units. This meant they were self-sufficient armies unto themselves. This allowed for a vast force, without the whole system becoming sluggish and disorganised. Of course, as with Alexander the Great before him, this ultimately led to major decentralization and failure once the leader is defeated; thus, without a singular ruler, and without endless success, the entire system breaks down (unless there is something else binding them).
Nonetheless, by now, all the European powers had adopted the divisional system. The first British divisions were established by Arthur Wellesley in 1809 AD, for example. The Napoleonic corps system then became standardised, as well.
On the other hand -- and other side of the world -- the U.S. had its own 'legion', wholly separate from the European divisional evolution. They were independent units for the western wilderness, not sub-elements of a larger army. The U.S. finally adopted a more European system by WWI, however. (Mostly because the U.S. was simply not a large enough force yet, though it did have some major battles and unit examples.)
Regardless, the primary building block for all was still the regiment or division. This remained true through WWII and beyond.
Part Four: The Four Spatial Forms of Sci-fi
I shall skip modern history, because it's -- shockingly -- not much different to older history. This further tells me that there are some universal themes and elements to warfare, unless something changes beyond measure. As of 2023 AD, the basic building block of most armies is still the regiment or division, and 'shock' tactics, of smaller units are back in style, and have been since the 1960s or so. (I do have a few things to say about WWI and beyond, but I cannot fit it in this post, and it's not required reading.)
Technically, there is a fifth: space warfare proper (an admixture). But, we shall simply focus on the four primary. I use the term 'spatial forms' because I don't know a better term. See below.

• Space as an ocean (navy propeoceanic)
• Spaceships as submarines (navy/subaquatic)
• Spaceships as tanks (army/ground)
• Space as air with less stuff (air force/air)

You find, and should focus on, one of these as the primary mode (at least). This is true in most combative and non-combative contexts. All are workable and interesting, and have some notable examples, mostly in film/TV and novels. There is much psychology connected to each, and some innate differences to consider; and you have to think about such in relation to your nation/culture, as well, and their pre-spacefaring history.
An interesting, real-world example is America's Space Force. This is fundamentally army-and-naval driven (i.e. Marines), despite its primary air force-like nature in simple terms of the vessels and how it would function in a war. This is evidenced by the fact its ranking system and such is built around the Marine Corps. I guess, that means, going with American Marines (a complex admixture of both soldier and sailor) is not such a bad idea in sci-fi. We all know this is a decent idea, anyway, and it's seen heavily in sci-fi since the 1940s (hence, the term 'space marine'). Other marine forces are fairly in line with this, as well. The typical route here is space as an ocean. The ships are merely carrying the marines to their location (planet or otherwise). You see this with Star Wars' Stormtroopers (though I did not mention such above, I shall now: this stems from late-WWI when Germany created new advanced tactics for storming British trenches. But, most of all, it speaks to Hitler's Stormtroopers, fused with some kind of space marine position; thus, we end up with Lucas' forgetting Stormtrooper force). (Of course, the Rebels of Star Wars and the Empire's TIE Fighters go with the space as air with less stuff trope. And, there is a general sense of both army and navy from the Empire. You rarely get the 'submarine feel', in this case.)
Star Trek (at least, the original) takes the spaceships as submarines trope much of the time (other than the fact, their ships are far too wasteful, volume-wise -- but that's mostly for filming purposes, so I can accept it). I actually love this mode (though I don't care for Star Trek's version so much).
Battlestar Galactica (new series), among others, seems to take a mixed view.
Which form or mode you run with, primarily, really depends upon the exact setting, culture, story, theme, and style you're going with. I suggest figuring out which you want/which fits best, and then trying to stick to that singular vision as much as possible. To get ideas, you can research as much as possible -- both real science/history and fiction.

Why do players constantly push main? I seriously don't get it, there's usually a minimum of 2 alternative methods to reaching either point, payload, or push bot. But NEARLY everyone seems to have this unnatural, masochist drive to push main regardless of the situation. Then they'll proceed to fight at the choke point for minutes.
This is significantly worse when the enemy team runs bastion or a relatively decent widow. They'll run into the bastion, the literal dps that shreds health. Consider taking height, consider not pushing bastion, consider waiting until he's not an actual moble minigun that will, more than likely, annihilate you before you even pull that trigger. Hell, a pocket bastion + zen means do not push into him. Same with widow, abuse the potential of them lacking object permanence. Some people will forget about you if you're not actively in their LOS.
Regarding widow, do not shoot her venom mine if you intend on flanking her. It still tells her that you're, at the very least, nearby. If you are going to destroy it, then fine do so, but take another position to at least confuse her. Believe me, from bronze - plat you can abuse the hell out of people who do not pay attention to their surroundings.
The single most important piece of advice; switch. Waiting to use your ult just so you can switch, isn't always the best option if you're actively losing the match. If there's a phara, don't just wait for your second DPS to swap, you have to take the initiative, you can't expect your partner to do so because they're probably expecting you to swap. Take control of your games.
Be an opportunist, there's always 1 player in your match that isn't on their best game. Find them, constantly kill them. Why? You'll change a 5v5 into a 4v5 constantly, that will significantly increase your chances of winning. If it's a support, that's even better because more than likely, their support will waste resources and time to assist their own support. Now you've turned a 4v5 into a 3v5 and your enemy team is starving for support, heals, or damage/speed boost.
Be the threat not the victim. Let's assume you're a support player, even better, let's assume you're Ana. How many options to deal damage do you have? Is it just your rifle? Nope, you have your sniper and your anti-nade. For a large portion of the time, your anti-nade isn't going to be helpful to your team, especially now at 60 HP heals, that's useless. However, do you know what's more useful? Denying the enemy the chance to get heals, they'll either back off or die and that's what you want. You want to be the threat, be the inconvenience to the point that they'll overextend just to kill you.
Ignore the tank, as a support or dps player, don't always dump your resources on the tank because for a large percentage of the time. All that damage is getting healed, supports are addicted to healing their tanks and partially for their DPS (assuming their DPS isn't just railing your team on a Sunday), so ignore that tank, find that one dude who isn't paying attention to you and screw them over, bonus points if it's the support that's pocketing the tank.
Use cover, please, I'm begging you to not just stand out in the open. Try sticking near a wall or behind a car, so long as there's something between you and the enemy. You will not believe how useful it is to just hide behind a pillar while a DPS has a hard on for your eventual demise. Move around the pillar, make it hard for them to hit you.
Change angles when you're in an active exchange between someone. Combine this with using cover and you can, more than likely, bamboozle someone. The concept of changing angles can also maximize your threat level, not only can you find other ways of targeting the slacking player, but you'll make it more difficult for the other DPS to secure a kill if they can't consistently find you.
Have an escape plan if you plan on flanking, you need to know where you can safely escape to regroup, where your enemies can pop up, and more importantly what cheeky angles can you claim.
Health packs, they're scattered all over the map and you're more than likely near one at all times. If you're a DPS, please use them to ease how much resources/time your support has to use on you. If you're behind your support, find a health pack because the last thing you want is for your support to not be looking at their enemy and teammates and risk someone dying because they had to give you attention. It's so much easier to ask for this if you're at least in front of your support or within their LOS.
Speaking of LOS (Line of sight) something extremely important is understanding it. LOS isn't just "Can my Ana see me" but also "Can my enemy see me" a lot of abilities rely on LOS. If you can't see it, then it more than likely won't kill you.
Now, we need to understand how certain ults (ultimate) work and possible ways of countering or minimizing the damage that you may receive. I, by no means, am a professional. I ranked at diamond5 on console as support, but I have experience in Overwatch 1 and now Overwatch 2. So, here's the deal and let's start with some common DPS ults (excluding phara because let's be honest, you're either consistently eliminating her or constantly getting eliminated by her. It's really just a good luck situation, and no, it's not a skill issue verticality in OW is just horrendou)
Anyways, let's start with Junkrat and I'll be honest, you're probably not going to destroy his tire, so here's what you should do. Run away from your team, stay away from everyone but don't extend to the enemy side. If you can make Junkrat kill 1 person that's better than him getting a full team kill.
For 76, abuse cover to break LOS because again, his ability requires LOS and a frustrated 76 may will overextend to maximize his ult. That's fine, you can capitalize this assume you have someone nearby. The same applies to Cass, B.O.B, Blizzard (Mei not the company), Sojourn, and surprisingly Sombra's EMP
Reaper will, more than likely, wraith form his way into an ult or teleport. If you see this, just back off from him since you REALLY do not want to fight him up close to begin with.
Bastion is tricky since it really depends on what kind of bastion you're going up against. Most will full dump their ult in one spot in some small circle, for this, you'll have to be quick in response and just run. If you have a more patient bastion that tracks, this is when you'll DEFINITELY need to be on your A-game for reacting. Don't jump, just run forward, not backwards, please do not run backwards you're significantly slower when moving backwards compared to moving forward. Pick a direction, move there, watch where he's targeting and move the immediate moment you see red (or whichever color you see). Since it's a circle, you only really need to move in a straight line in either direction, again, make sure you're moving FORWARD. Do not stop moving, but do not move in a single, constant, direction. For example, move forward when the first artillery comes, then quickly move left or right with the second, move the opposite direction for the third. (If you're feeling cheeky and know bastion will dump a full artillery in one spot, you can give it a moment before moving, it's a really short moment so stick to your A-game)
Now, let's chat about Mei, Sym, and Torb. These three dominate metal ranks, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond(?). For Mei, you do not want commit a push unless she used her wall. Now, assuming she's using her self heal, ice block or whatever, just ignore it and find something else to kill. Mei is effectively not a threat while in ice block, she does not exist until she comes out and by then you'd want to kill at LEAST 1 or 2 of her teammates.
Sym is like bastion, it depends on which one you're up against but, understand this, most players have repeatable habits, some good, some bad. You'll have a Sym that's solely dedicated to securing and preventing your team from securing point, push bot, or payload. Here's what you'll do, first figure out where Sym Sentry Turret is located (It'll either be all clumped up in one spot, or spread out). Next, find a different angle, Sym has 3 turrets and together they will shred you regardless of who you are, once you find them take it out ASAP. I'll make it an important note that this isn't law, overwatch is a game where a lot of odd things can happen, but if you have an opportunity do destroy the turret. Torb functions the same as well so the rule tip applies, find turret, eliminate turret, then eliminate Torb.
Now you might be saying, "But Kyeonji, what if Sym lasers me with a max out laser because nobody could stop her?" Or "What if Torb gets all angry and red and spew his shotgun sludge at me?" Well good question voice in my head, for Sym it's honestly going to be an aim and decision skill check. If her laser is max and you know this, keep distance and just rail her from there (assuming you have range, if not, switch to get range). If it's Torb, you'll have to either capitalize on your range, wait for overload to be on cooldown, or punish him after he uses overload. (You can also bait it by just getting some cheeky pokeshot, they'll usually pop overload when they're either half health or near death, when that happens you can full commit).
Now, as far as I know there are a couple of tanks that people have difficulties dealing with, so I'll list some counter plays for some tanks, but honestly they can be applied to most, if not, all tanks. For now, let's do Zarya. This one is very easy, don't shoot her bubble, or at least try not to constantly shoot it UNLESS she's near death. The moment she pops bubble, swap targets. Your teammate may not be aware of this, but as long as YOU don't contribute to Zarya damage boost, then you're at least minimizing how much damage Zarya will output.
Winston, oh boy this is a tough one. I'll be honest, you'll have to counter Winston most of the time, especially if it's a good Winston. Your average Winston will go after your support, this is when you'd NEED to back up your support. Winston is HEAVILY reliant on his jump skill, this is what you need to keep an eye on. If you see Winston jump, track him, find him, and punish him as quickly as possible. To better assist in this, try and stick near your support or preferably, suggest that your support swap to a more mobile one that can, hopefully, distant themselves from Winston.
D.va is a game sense check, typically you'll run into a somewhat repeatable D.va gameplay style. But, there's 1 thing you NEED to pay attention to and it's Defense matrix above all else. This will mess you up, deny some of your abilities, or downright make you useless. So, you'll have these options; you can either dump your abilities AFTER D.va defense matrix isn't being used, or swap to a Hero that D.va can't consistently deny abilities. Mei is a good option as her primary fire denies Defense matrix, it slows her down to make it easier to land headshots, plus wall can deny her escape. Other options include, Zarya, Rein, Winston, Sym, Echo (You'll have to time your abilities with D.va Defense matrix), Doomfist (You're gonna have to be really smart about this one, don't full focus D.va, but abuse her endless shotgun to max your rocket punch, you can also stun her out of bunny rocket), Brigitte (keep moving, swap between attacking and shielding to maximize your self-heal against her endless shotgun, stun her out of bunny rocket, rinse, repeat), Moira (keep moving, try not to rely too much on your orbs as she can deny it with Defense matrix, disengage if she uses bunny rocket if necessary, just don't risk it)
The remaining tanks that oppress others in metal ranks can be dealt with following these steps. Junker queen wants to get close to you or pull you to her, deny this by keeping distance and prioritizing her support, abuse cover if you're struck by jagged dagger, so instead of being pulled to Junker queen, you'll be pulled into a wall which is safer than Junker queen (although the wall won't dom you like Junker would so... Gotta sacrifice something for the W).
Orisa, same as Junker queen, prioritize support because you're probably not going to kill a fully pocketed orisa. If you can't reliably eliminate Orisa's support, then time your abilities with hers. What you're looking out for is mostly fortify, it's not worth dumping resources into it. Now, Javelin blocks both projectiles and melee damage, so you're either going to have to take that javeline, or swap to Sym, Mei, Zarya, Winston, Doom, or Brigitte to at the very least inconvenience Orisa during javeline spin. Why you may ask? Well, here's a list of abilities that Orisa javeline spin cannot block: Sentry Turret, Rocket Punch, Shield Bash, Swift Strike I wouldn't recommend relying on Genji to deal with Orisa), Accretion (You may find value with Sigma if Orisa keeps shooting at your kinetic grasp, but again, wouldn't really recommend), Deployed Turret (Insane right?), Petal platform (Get creative), and Immortality field (Helps if you have a Kiriko as protection suzu isn't protecting you from the javeline)
Reinhart, mister big boy, destroyer of galaxies, the big daddy. This one is easy, keep distance, Rein is mainly melee and really does want to close the distance. So, take height and unleash hell but don't shoot that shield, swap angles because you're just wasting both time and resources on something that, unless you're boosted by Mercy, isn't going away anytime soon, again you can ignore this if he's near death.
Ramatra, Sigma, and Doomfist. This one is tough, so let's start with Ramatra. Again, try to not dump your resources on the shield, ignore him while he's blocking unless he's near death. Ramatra, like Rein, also wants to fight you at close-range, so naturally you'll want to abuse range which also applies to his ult.
Sigma follows this as well, but he's more mid-range, instead what you're really looking for is the timing between Kinect grasp being online or offline, capitalize that moment and again, avoid shooting the shield.
Doomfist is where you're dancing with cooldown and movement. The Doomfist combo is rocket punch, hand cannon, melee. Of course, Doomfist has a lot of mobility so what you're looking for is the gap between his cooldown. If you can position yourself in an inconvenient position where Doomfist will either die due to being too deep into enemy line, or forcing him to expend all of his ability and having no escape. Like Ramatra, ignore him while blocking as to not boost his rocket punch. (Unless you can CC [Crowd Control] him with Sombra, Sigma's accretion, Rein charge, Javeline, Sleep dart, hook).
Anyways, this is a pretty long post. So I'll end it with this note. None of these is by any means an iron-clad law that must be followed, Overwatch isn't linear and every player is different. However, every Hero, including their abilities, has a weakness which is exactly why swapping exist. If your opponent isn't aware of these weaknesses, capitalize on it. Be aware of your surroundings, don't be afraid to swap if you're losing to another play. You can lose the battle, but at the end of the day you want to, hopefully, win the match. Don't be afraid of your opponents, make them afraid of you. Be the threat and make them submit. Good luck out there Heroes and if you found this helpful, share it with others. If you have questions, suggestions, criticism, then share them don't be afraid to speak your mind.

First persona game. I'm going in semi-blind just cheating on class answers and confidant responses. I just beat the 4th palace and saw the results with Medjed. Things are starting to come into focus and the dots are starting to connect. Still waiting for the plot twist.
I tried to keep it short (I failed) but this what I have so far. Some things contradict each other or would introduce huge plot holes if both were true but I'm just throwing every Idea I have out there. There are some opinions and random facts that I think are important but not sure where to fit them yet.
Please no spoilers for any Persona games as I plan on picking up 3 and 4 later on.
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palace one predictions : https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13odesi/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_my_horribly/
palace two predictions : https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13q3q9j/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_just_beat_the/
palace three predictions : https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13sl0vp/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_just_beat_the/
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Futaba /Alibaba and somehow Morgana

• The squid girl from the movie finally gets a name.
• Futaba's mom is the curry lady!
• The phone call Sojiro had about a printer makes so much sense now. When I thought he was taking care of an old lady I was like what is she printing out pictures of snowball or something.
• 2nd person to get the metaverse nav before awakening their persona. How does Igor know?
• the images that Futaba sees are the metaverse bleeding in or ... shes just plain nuts.
• translated some of the binary on the walls of her palace in to ASCII looking for a secret message but they were just the same odd symbols that were on the doors and such.
• Futaba picked Alibaba as her hacker alias. before we get to see the whole Egypt /pyramid theme of her palace it seemed like a really odd choice.
• It could be just a cool name that the writers picked but "Chekhov's gun" states that every element introduced in a story should be necessary to the plot. If the gun isn't going to be fired then the audience doesn't need to see it being loaded - or something like that.
• It got me thinking and for sure I remembered the name Alibaba but had forgotten the details of the story. I did a quick search and was able to find the story pretty easily.
• Short version: Alibaba was a dude who stole a bunch of riches from some thieves. Alibaba is living the good life when the thieves track him down and make plans to kill him. The plans are stopped by Alibaba's slave who kills the thieves.
• Also Alibaba's slave was named...... Wait for it....... Morgiana! Mind effing blown! If I'm not reading too much into that then its a friggin huge easter egg. It's way too similar not to be important.
• Morgana is a slave of the big bad. Slaves can be freed.
• Since I haven't seen the relationship between Futaba and Morgana develop yet it could just be she treats Morgana like a slave.
• this one is a bit of a stretch but the creature Alibaba uses in chat kind of looked like a "dark Morgana" it could just be the style that the artist uses for all creatures.
• Morgiana was female. Early in the game Ann ask Morgana if it's a boy or a girl. It says of course it's a boy, but it also says that it is human. (it's def still not). Morgana might be the Male version of Morgiana but this throws it's gender into question too. It's not like anyone had checked between it's legs as far as I can tell. (also where does it do it's business I haven't seen a litter box).
• Morgiana killed the thieves going after Alibaba. The big bad will take control of Morgana at one point and we will have to fight Shade / Evil / Controlled Morgana (not a shadow this will be different) to get the cat back.
• Was almost thinking Morgana could be the one who betrays us but no one can understand him and even Akechi would have trouble selling the whole "my informant is a cat" thing to Sae.

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Wakaba, Shido and the Owls

• The curry lady finally gets a name.
• The bald glasses man gets a name .
• In ancient Egypt owls were associated with death and mourning. Will be referring to the Agents as Owls for now on because I think it makes a great name for a secret organization.
• Wakaba discovered the metaverse independent from the government.
• She was working on a way to enter the metaverse without the use of the metaverse nav.
• The Owls that killed her work for Shido and Sae's boss.
• Not only did the owls deliver the news to Fatuba (mourning) but they also were the people who killed her (death)
• The owls killed Wakaba to keep her silent and then stole her research which they hoped would let them make a metaverse nav of their own
• The black mask user is an owl.
• Do owls eat butterflies ?

Medjed

• We learn medjed it's not so much of an international organization but rather was started by Futaba and then a bunch of posers co-opted the name.
• One of the owls came up with the medjed plan. They had leverage on a member or had a mole, informant etc.
• Sae's boss has a conversation about it where he mentions he didn't think *he* could come up with the plan on their own. he = Akechi
• Igor came up with the plan and told Akechi.
• The Owls couldn't expose the PT without exposing the metaverse. Sae's boss says something like if they (PT) keep this up then the public may find out about the metaverse.
• He called it the metaverse and not the cognitive world. Could be the writers didn't want to confuse the player by introducing a new term with no context. Could be that the Owls initially learned about the metaverse from an otherworldly being.
• The plan was to use the threat of an economic crash to get the PT crew to expose themselves and using misdirection to make them think it was medjed.
• additional benefit was to cause social unrest allowing Shido to make his power grab.
• They were going about the metal shutdowns slowly at first (Sae mentioned it has been going on for 2-3 years) messing things up so that certain government officials would resign in shame. After the PT crew became active they had to accelerate their plans to stay ahead of the curve or such.

Akechi

• Akechi says hes a psychic. He comes off as joking but in the same convo you can strait up tell him that Ryuji is a PT. Could be he is telling the truth and just expects no one to believe it. this would be his special "gift" that allowed him to hear Morgana. +1 for Akechi is good
• Akechi clearly puts the idea that the PT are involved in the mental shutdowns in Sae's head. +1 for Akechi being bad.
• Actually starting to trust him after spending some time with him. +5 Akechi is bad.
• At this point Akechi knows who the PT are. not 100% but hes like 95% sure. He's playing the long con and trying to get on Jokers good side.
• He got super pissed when he saw the PT made the 3rd change of heart happen. We already know he doesn't like them but he was PISSED.
• He cares too much about fame and the PT crew are stealing his thunder.
• I was told I can't sit on the fence with Akechi lol. My gut says he's bad but the cynic in me says the writers are setting him up for a plot twist.
• If I'm forced to pick one then Akechi is bad. I thought they were setting Sae's boss (really with I knew his name) up to look bad but be really good, but every palace there is another scene with him scheming. I don't think the writers are going to go for such a cheap plot twist with Akechi.
• Akechi being bad also is also now needed for one of my Kasumi theories to work so I'm firmly planting my feet in the Akechi is bad camp.

Kasumi

• Knows Akechi because her dad works at a TV station. Could be a lie. Every owl needs a cover story.
• Said she had a sister that was killed.
• Never had a sister it was her other personality.
• At the casino heist when she says My weak self depended on you that all ends today line that was the "sister" talking and Kasumi is the weak self she mentions.
• At some point it will be mentioned that she has no pictures of her sister.
• Her sister was an owl but had a change of mind (would say change of heart but that would be confusing ). regarding the agency and was going to leave / rebel / expose them / take them down etc. so they owls had her "killed"
• When her sister "died" it was actually Maruki suppressing her other personality.
• Her sister was the gymnast. Being an agent for the owls would require tons of training Gymnastics would be easy for someone like that. Her slump only started when her sister "died".
• Only has 5 star confidant rank. The other 5 will be with her sister.
• Kasumi started off as an owl but joined a group that opposes them. She was captured and then brainwashed by Maruki
• she had to transfer schools because her old classmates would know she didn't have a sister and notice the change in personality

Maruki

• should have been a red flag earlier. new girl transfers and a month later her doctor gets assigned to her high school. Given what we know about the principle and his connection to Sae's boss this is more then just a happy coincidence.
• after the incident with Kamoshida the owls were worried that the personality suppression didn't take so they sent him to keep a close eye on Kasumi.
• After the 2nd exam he calls you into his office for a little chat. the whole feel of this was different than the others I've had with him.
• It was like there was a sense of desperation under his statements. He was like how do you think people will react when someone fails to meet expectations after being given special treatment desperate people to crazy things. There's some misdirection here since the two girls in the hall were talking about Kasumi's exams being moved up a week. The writers want you to think he's talking about Kasumi and all the expectations the school put on her. but that makes no sense why would he be asking about what two random girls were talking about in the hall. He was actually talking about himself and the expectations the Owls put on him .
• The owls are putting pressure on him to complete some project and hes going to make a mistake when he rushes to meet the deadline they set for him.
• someone he knows is really depressed or has some other crippling emotional trauma. this was his original motivation but has since warped.
• wants to save people by fixing their hearts in a scientific way. want to go above counseling and actually remove/repair bad emotions.
• cognitive psience will be involved. he already knows about it and is almost done with his device/gizmo/doodad that will allow him to fix hearts. The conversations he's had with joker so far is his way of asking for "permission" to set his plan in action. He even says he wished he had the powers that the PT have.
• is it better to feel nothing than to feel pain? could see this being his "I really think I'm still a good guy" logic
• plan is to use his gizmo to turn every into emotional zombies where no one feels anything. This is what Shido meant when he was talking about his ideal society.

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Twins / Butterfly Lady
The number of new confidants that unlock after the 3rd palace was a bit overwhelming but It did give me plenty of chances to watch the new confidant unlock scenes. I was a little too hung up with her voice to really pay attention.

• I am thou, thou art I" - we are one and the same
• thou hast acquired a new vow. - you just unlocked a new confidant. to quote Jose "Good Job!"
• It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. - butterflies have wings also still talking about Joker "thy chains of captivity". Joker is like a caterpillar and when he obtains his true power he will become a butterfly (not literally). the chains could be a the cocoon that the butterfly breaks out of.
• With the birth of the Fortune Persona I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power - creatures with wings (like a butterfly) ride the wind. She is now referring to herself in this line "I have obtained..."

​

• The butterfly lady is our persona or at the very least out power levels are connected.
• Part of the butterfly lady's power is sealed in joker. Was not intentional but will be the key to rejoining the twins.
• When there is a fusion alarm the twins do this adorable back stretch where one kicks her legs. They then do this weird like side stretch that looks like the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z.
• the recarm ability has a blue butterfly reviving the party member. butterfly = rebirth ?

Limo Girl.

• Is in the opening movie both the heist scene and the smash the city part. Will be joining up.
• Ran in to her in the hall at the star of the game she was labled as a senior
• Riding in a limo. daddy is loaded.
• At the park cleanup she asked Mishima for the bottle cap so they can be used for medicine. What we should take away from this scene is she's a really good person.
• We need to know see that she's super duper good because her dad is bad like really bad.
• daddy's money is dirty money and she knows it or at least suspects.
• We will change daddy's heart and make him admit his evil ways.
• Shido is her dad.
• We don't know when she's going to join up or if the casino heist is her first. Stealing her dad's heart will prob be her first mission so the fact that shes on the comms at the start of the game isn't too much of a problem.

Opening Casino Heist

• on 7/29 Morgana says "But it's true that an observant criminal could have a true to reality city in their Palace."
• The opening casino heist wasn't in the real world but was the Shido's heart. His palace just included a 1:1 of the city in it. He also says in the scene at the start of the game where joker has a flashback that he owns the cops. Would make sense that the shadows in his cognition would take the form of the police and security guards. The 2nd palace had two types of shadows (male and female) and the 3rd/4th had people/dogs. Multiple types of shadows is not unheard of
• Also looks like we did manage to steal his treasure but not sure if they were able to get it out.
• We don't actually see joker get taken in by the cops. It's possible that the traitor grabbed us after the shadow cops took us down and turned us in to the real world cops. Doesn't mean the world's can't be merging but my reasoning for it is off.
• One thing that bothers me is when they ask if everyone remembers where they have to meet up. Why was joker separate from the rest of the PT? The PT all leave the metaverse together so far. Could just mean where they're going to meet up near the exit (if there is an exit with the palace being the whole city). Hoping for more clues to clarify this.

The Metaverse, Velvet Room and the nature of things.

• at the meeting for the 2nd palace Ryuji says something like I never even thought there were other worlds besides ours. Morgana responds with eh don't worry too much about it.
• Igor says the Velvet room exist between mind and matter dream and reality
• If the real world is the matter and the metaverse is the mind then the velvet room exist in the place between them
• If there is more than one prison (everyone Igor recruits gets there own) then it's possible that there are other "rooms" in the space between the two worlds
• the big bad is trapped in one of these other rooms. the key and or entrance is located in mementos.
• on 7/19 Igor says "After all, you must hone your powers.... and become a magnificent thief..."
• he is being literal as he needs is to steal the key to the big bad's room.
• before the big bad was imprisoned the metaverse was formless. His presence started the corruption and gave it form. this is the sea of souls that the personas mention then you capture them.
• They are getting pulled out of the collective and twisted into shadows.

​
Sae and Sajiro conversation
was going to have a huge section here but most of my questions got answered after the 4th palace I typed up my initial thoughts right after the convo took place I'll leave it here since it was part of my thought process but this can be mostly ignored.

• "as long as there's a possibility that cognitive psience can be linked to psychotic breakdowns."
• what is cognitive psience ? did the curry lady make it ?
• Psi as in Psionics ? Mental powers are always cool.
• Curry lady was trying to fix her maternity neurosis but some how created her own metaverse nav.
• Or she never had maternity neurosis and that was just part of the coverup. (Tried to search if maternity neurosis is an actual thing. most links came back to this subreddit so I didn't go any deeper to avoid spoilers) --- got this one right lol
• The tech was stolen by Sae's boss and he had her killed her by doing something in the metaverse that made her jump in front of the car. -- half right (i think)
• The black mask person doesn't work for Igor but used the Curry Lady's device to enter the metaverse.
• Igor not bad or is bad but not affiliated with black mask.

Best Girl current rankings - Nothing is set yet no decisions have been made just the current rankings.

1. Makoto - the scene where the lights go out and she grabs jokers leg just made her more endearing. Amazing driving skills the PT would have died after the 4th palace if not for her. She asked joker to be her "fake" boyfriend. she may have had pure intentions but on some level she wanted to gauge his reaction to the idea.
2. Futba - who doesn't like a quirky redhead. Her being Boss's adopted daughter is a good thing as he seems to like Joker at this point in the story so he wouldn't have to give him the whole "let me show you my gun collection" talk. Although I'm thinking shes more like the quirky best friend type then best girl material (so sorry Fatuba Fans plesedonthateme)
3. Dr.Death - shes a doctor who really cares about her work. Cares more about helping the little girl then getting the credit for it. She basically broke down when she thought the girl was dead. Also SP Adhesives are amazing.
4. Kasumi - 100% little sister vibe. The batting cage scene just oozed I want my big bro to be proud of me. Maybe her "sister" is more likeable.
5. Chihaya - nice lady with a super power. A bit too gullible. Could totally see her sending all of Joker's savings to a Nigerian prince.
6. Chess girl (I know it's not chess) - mid maybe she will get more interesting. If she does I might remember her name.
7. Ann - Not even in the running really because She's going to end up with Ryuji. If Ryuji wasn't around I would say shes not the brightest bulb in the pack. shes not dumb and seems to at least have passed her exams but we have honor student Makoto and super nerd Futaba to compare her to. she is empathetic and has a high emotional intelligence. No way shes going to make it as an Actress with her (lack of) skills I cringe every time she tries. She would make a great councilor though with how she relates to people and to seems to be able to get along with everyone. Alternatively she could end up in professional sports with her throwing arm. She launched Morgan like she was shooting off a rocket after the 4th palace.
8. Kawakami - Yes she's ranked lower than someone who's not even in the running. First off she lied about her sister WTF! She just seems like a mess. Her clothes don't fit and her hair is never brushed. Shes going to end up as a cat lady. She is forever in "the help" tier doing my laundry and making me coffee.

Best Bro current rankings.

1. Ryuji - dude is our bro 100% He's the bad influence with a heart of gold and will stick with Joker to the end. He's the Ron Weasley to Joker's Harry Potter. He would be the most fun to go drinking with.
2. Yusuke - you will only ever be his 2nd best friend. His true loyalty lies with art. If Joker was hanging off the side of a cliff and Yusuke had to make the decision to save Joker or paint the perfect sunset it would be a real nail biter to see what he decides
3. Sojiro - Ok so not our bro but the Boss-Chief is the man. He took us in feeds us and is teaching us how to pick up chicks with coffee. He took in Fatuba because he felt guilty about not preventing her mother's death (even though chances are if he tried to help the owls would have killed him too). Would take a bullet for Joker and his friends and would die with a smile knowing he saved someone (may this never happen). Would not be surprised if he is the get away driver when the PT crew breaks Joker out.
4. Akechi - he's too full of himself and his sweater is dumb. Hanging out with him you would only ever be "Akechi's friend"
5. Mishima - such a wimp physically and emotionally. We just chilled at the park after he got picked on at the Diner. Unless he can fix his issues without the help of the PT crew then he's bottom tier for sure.

Best Kitty current rankings.

1. Snowball - he didn't deserve to go out like that.
2. Morgana - is a spy and slave of the big bad. Also needs stop hitting on Ryuji's girl or it's desires are gonna get all warped and it won't be able to summon it's persona.

If you made it here your a champ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odg2K25sLGg

Here are some ghost ideas that I thought of for Phasmophobia!
I will be putting ideas I like more on the top (the top three are the ideas I personally like the most), but I thought all of these would be pretty fun and/or interesting ideas. (the names can change, as I'm not great with names)
Parts that have stars/are italicized are ideas that I don't think are necessary as part of the overall concept for that particular ghost or might be too difficult for the devs to implement, but would still be a cool addition if it could be done.
Stalker -
When taking a photo, if the ghost is anywhere in the frame of the photo, the ghost will appear in the photo (even if it is not actually visible like in a hunt or ghost event). This will count as a ghost photo for the purpose of objectives. Capturing a photo of the stalker like this will consume 7 sanity every time this happens (the ghost will continue to appear in photos even when you already have the ghost photo).
The Stalker will constantly follow the closest player to it around. The Stalker's favorite room is based on player location - it will always be within 10 meters of the player it is following (the stalker can still change favorite rooms even if that setting is turned off, although it will only do it if every player moves too far away from it's favorite room). The Stalker will always start its hunt outside of the vision of the player it is following.
The Stalker, when hunting, will be extremely slow if not being looked at by a player, but will be quieter than a myling, not being able to be heard while hunting unless you are within 5 meters of it. If any player looks at it while in line of sight of the ghost, it will travel at 2.5m/s towards that player, but will be extremely loud, being able to be heard while hunting up to 30 meters away. If multiple players are looking at it, it will travel to the closest one.
Evidence -
Fingerprints, D.O.T.S, Ghost Writing

Strigoi
When the Strigoi kills a player, the hunt is extended much longer than normal, and the Strigoi gains a +0.5m/s speed boost, a +10% hunt threshold, and a 25% increase in activity for the duration of the game. The Strigoi can stack these bonuses if multiple people have died. A player being revived does not remove these bonuses. A strigoi will gain a bonus even if a player is killed via hanged man or the monkey paw.
The Strigoi will become more enraged and bloodthirsty if players keep escaping it during hunts. It will gain a -1 second to smudge blindness, a -10 second to smudge hunt cooldown, and a -2 seconds for general hunt cooldown every time it sees a player during a hunt but that player lives to see the end of the hunt.
The Strigoi are invisible if they don't see a player or aren't chasing a player. They also have a similar chance to an obake to transform into an animal when they are visible.
Evidence:
Ghost Writing, Freezing Temps, Ghost Orbs

Ayakashi
The Ayakashi is more powerful in the presence of water.
The Ayakashi is more likely to turn on sinks and showers. If there are no showers or sinks that are on in its ghost room, it will roam to the nearest shower or sink and turn it on.
The more sinks and showers that are on in a 30 meter radius (this should cover the whole house of a small house, but should make it so it's not extremely fast on a map like sunny meadows), the faster and more aggressive the Ayakashi is. Every sink or shower that is on in this radius adds +0.1m/s to the Ayakashi's speed and +4% hunt threshold.
The Ayakashi does not gain LoS speed.
The Ayakashi has a rare ability to create a fake "obstruction". A door that used to be there will disappear, or a hiding spot will seemingly be blocked. But if a player intentionally walks into this fake obstruction, it will disappear and it will be revealed the door or hiding spot was there all along.
Base speed (clear, sunset, windy) 1.0m/s
Foggy/any type of snow - Normal ghost speed
Light rain - 2.0m/s
Heavy rain - 2.5m/s
Evidence:
Ghost Orb, Freezing Temps, D.O.T.S

The Fool
The Fool is my idea for another "tricky" ghost like the mimic, but more focused on evidence.
The Fool's main gimmick is that it can fake evidence, unlike the mimic. The Fool has three "true" pieces of evidence that never change, and one changing piece of evidence. However, due to the Fool just pretending to have that evidence, there is a 25% chance it gives evidence in a messed up form. For example, a fool that is faking fingerprints might give a dog print instead of a human print. Or a handprint with only 4 fingers. More examples of "messed up" evidence: Spirit Box - Chance to speak gibberish or just giggle. D.O.T.S - Chance to appear as the big head ghost model. Ghost Writing - chance to draw a unique drawing, maybe the fool model from the tarot card.
The fool has a higher chance to do that giggle thing ghosts can do.
*The fool's hunt threshold is usually 50%, but if someone draws a fool card from the tarot card deck, that sanity threshold is temporarily raised like a yokai to 80%, and the fool goes straight to where the player drew the fool the next time it hunts. *
*If someone draws a card during a hunt (making it a fool), the ghost will know where the player was at the moment they drew the card. *
The fool does not consume sanity when you joke with it on the oujia board.
Possible idea I had was to make the fool act sort of like a mimic but in excess. So if it pretends to be a mare, for example, every action it does is excessively mare like - it constantly breaks lights, turns off lights, or uses its mare lightswitch ability - it rarely does anything else. Basically, "overdoing" it’s act as another ghost. This idea doesn't fit for all ghost types, makes the fool a bit too much like the mimic, and also makes it too easy to identify, so that's why I'm not putting it in the main idea, though I do think it would be a fun addition.
The fool is more reluctant to give its actual true evidence. It will take longer to get freezing, EMF 5 is more rare, and ghost orbs are harder to find.
True evidence:
Ghost Orb, Freezing Temps, EMF 5

The Spider
The spider is a patient ghost that prefers to ambush players.
The spider, when it wants to hunt, will instead wait to initiate the hunt until a player walks into its ghost room. The second someone walks into its ghost room, it will immediately begin hunting. The Spider will never hunt if no one ever walks into its ghost room.
The spider does not hunt like a normal ghost. It will instead crawl on the roof from room to room. Every time the spider enters a different room during a hunt, it waits 10 seconds to see if a player enters this room or is in this room (most hiding spots will not work on the spider). If a player walks into the room OR is in this room and not in something like a locker, the spider will travel at normal speed towards the player and drop on their head and kill them (unless they are holding a smudge stick).
If there is no consistent roof like on camp woodwind, the spider hunts on the ground instead, but will still always crawl. The spider will still lie in wait to pounce a player if they try to enter a room, but all hiding spots will still work.
*The spider has a ghost ability it can activate that creates an invisible "web" where ever it walks for a 10 second period (not during a hunt). If a player walks into the web during a hunt, they will be slowed by 50%. The spider will know if someone is caught in their web. *
Evidence:
Freezing Temps, Fingerprints, D.O.T.S

The Memory
The memory is consumed by regrets and visions from its pasts.
I thought it would be cool if the lore questions from the ouija board had some actual use, so the Memory's behavior is affected by its cause of death, reason for being here, and how it's feeling.
A memory that was choked is more likely to interact with fans. If a fan is on in its ghost room, its hunt threshold is decreased to 40%. If there is no fan or if it's off, it will hunt at 60%.
A memory that was drowned is more likely to interact with sinks and showers. If a sink or shower is on in its ghost room (or the sink is full of water) or if it's raining, its hunt threshold is increased to 60%. If there is no sink or shower or if they are turned off and it is not raining, it will hunt at 40%. A drowned ghost is able to drain the sink.
A memory that was shot or murdered will have a base 75% hunt threshold.
A memory that was killed by an accident/slipped/fell will have a 25% hunt threshold.
Ghost speed, interaction rate, preferences, the noises it makes during a hunt, and certain hunt behaviors are affected by its mood. An angry ghost is fast, an empty ghost is inactive, a hurt ghost is slow, etc.
Ghost event rate, hunt threshold, and certain hunt behaviors are affected by what a ghost wants. A ghost that wants revenge has a 5% higher sanity threshold, for example.
A memory will always remember where players last were and will always check.
Evidence:
Spirit Box, Ghost Orb, EMF 5

What are the lightest laptops currently on the market with dedicated GPUs? I'm looking for something under 1.6 kg, in the US, for around 800-1200 USD (new or used/refurbished). The Dell Precision 3480 seems to fit the bill perfectly, but is a bit too pricey. Suggestions would be much appreciated, especially laptops similar to the Precision 3480! I have filled out the subreddit's questionnaire below.
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LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US:
1200 USD
Are you open to refurbs/used?
Yes.
How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life?
Does not matter, as long as it is light and small.
How important is weight and thinness to you?
Very.
Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A.
N/A
Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run.
Yes, Ableton Live with lots of plugins, Adobe Creative Suite, etc
If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?
Cities Skylines with mods, Planet Coaster, GTA V and Online, RDR2, settings do not matter, as long as I get a stable 35-40 FPS
Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)?
N/A
Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.
N/A

Hey y'all, I'm moving to town soon. Anyone have an good recs for gyms in the area? I use free weights, so planet fitness is no good. I.e. places other than Planet Fitness, Gold's Gym, 24 HR fitness, etc. Thanks!

Updated May 2023
I recently changed Reddit accounts and it's been about a year, so it seemed prudent to repost this for visibility. :)

Link to the Below Zero guide

https://subnauticamap.io/ - This is an interactive map of the crater. However, be warned that it will show the general location of things you need to find. This can be toggled but if you have zero point of reference for the places mentioned in this guide, this map should provide one.

General tips are at the bottom, however, they rely on you having played at least part of the way through the game so I don't recommend checking them until at least part 3, AKA "Going Traveling"

Subnautica is a game primarily about exploring your environment while overcoming the trepidation that the game sets up in you over doing so. Although there isn't a perfect guide to being able to clear the game, there also isn't an unambiguous path of progression for the player, either.
Consequently new players often find themselves at an impasse in terms of progression and where to go. The following is a no-nonsense, straight to the point guide on how to progress, but it's not a bible. You can do most of this just by exploring and wandering around.
A blind playthrough is critical to the first time player experience. This is often true of every game but for Subnautica it makes or breaks the whole story - you need to have no idea what the hell is going on the first time you clear the game. If you spoil it for yourself you will regret it, please believe me in this. This guide is meant to give you a nudge when you find you don't know where to go next, it's not really meant as a walkthrough, even though it can be used as one. Do yourself a favor friends, don't go wandering /subnautica or the wiki too much and this guide will not lead you astray. It is written specifically for brand new players.

The Beginning

When you first arrive on 4546b, you find yourself with basically nothing. You're hungry, thirsty, your lifepod is broken and your cookies are gone. The Aurora is burning (and you nearly did too) but despite all that, you're alive and this planet is about to get some Ryley in it.
The environment around you has most of what you need to get started. The metal scrap strewn around the shallows provides an easy source of Titanium while you can break limestone and sandstone to get the minerals you need for your starting tools. You'll want the quartz you find for glass.
Although you have a number of options for making equipment, at this stage I don't recommend using resources for the air pump or pipes. Truth is they don't really have much use; they create a breathing line from the surface for when you're diving, but they're expensive and there's better alternatives in your near future.
Once you have a scanner and knife, take the time to scan everything you can. All the local wildlife can be scanned and most of the flora.
Your objective at this point is to build a repair gun, knife, seaglide, flashlight and scanner.

Branching Out

Now that you've got your basic tools and you can get around a little, it's time to begin exploring. At this point you've seen the deeper waters on the edges of the kelp forest.
It's time to go take a look.
The red grassy plains have what you need to progress to deeper waters. You'll want to explore the wrecks there. There are four grassy plains surrounding the shallows at compass points and cave systems exist in three of them which will become relevant later, but are largely out of your reach for now. It is out here that you will find fragments necessary for an important task you must complete soon. Raiding the aurora will require the laser cutter you learn to make here. You'll also want a propulsion cannon, which you can find the fragments to near the side of the Aurora. DO NOT GO AROUND THE BACK OF THE AURORA. SERIOUSLY. You are not prepared for that level of giggling insanity yet.
By now you've fixed the radio and may have triggered the sunbeam event, in which case you will want to go follow that. Give yourself the full span of time to go to the island and explore unless you'd prefer to explore after the event, but don't let yourself get distracted by what you find there and miss the ship arriving. The signals you've been getting are important prompts and need to be checked out when possible, so make sure you take the time to do that. Also, when you go to either island DO NOT PARK YOUR SEAMOTH NEAR THE BEACH. DO NOT PARK YOUR SEAMOTH NEAR THE BEACH. There is a real risk of it phasing through the ground and becoming inaccessible and then you'll end up on this subreddit asking how to get it back like the other 5 guys a week. Seriously.
Also note that bringing an ion cube to the top of the mountains caves will let you do something interesting up there, but I won't be specific. A scanner room at this spot is ideal not just to track the reaper leviathan on the eastern side of the island but there is quite a lot of shale and lithium here as well, which is probably something you're gonna want.

Going traveling

At this point you should have a seamoth, your basic tools, a laser cutter, propulsion cannon and lead suit. You are prepared. It's time to go to the Aurora... but only if you've gotten the communication from Alterra with the captains door code. Otherwise, you must wait for that radio event. You can go explore the ship anyways of course, but not having the code means you can't get into the captains room, requiring you to go back and get it later. So it's up to you. You can open the door anyways if you get the code off the internet or something but since the game gives it to you anyways, you can always wait for the prompt. If not, the door code is 2679
If you have a cyclops I don't recommend taking it, since reapers hang out at the front and back ends of the ship. However, a seamoth is small enough to fit through the broken superstructure of the ship at the front and thus avoid this danger. There are two ways to access the ship and although it seems impossible, you CAN in fact climb up to access the open one. Otherwise, you can use the prop cannon to move the debris out of the way of the door near water level. Be sure to take the time to explore inside and use the carry-all bags to leave stuff you want to keep from the ship out the front so you can come back and pick it all up later. There's lots of useful stuff in there.
As a side note here, the leech-like things that annoy you in the reactor room are called Bleeders. I hate Bleeders personally, but I noted that if you grab one with the propulsion cannon and fling it into the wall out of sheer spite then other bleeders will be attracted to the body, which makes grabbing and doing the same to them quite easy. Clearing the entire room of those little #*([email protected]'s only takes a couple minutes.
You can get the codes for various rooms inside from the PDA's you find. Also note that some doors can only be opened once you repair them. Sometimes the Aurora glitches and these repair sections don't work but because the ship has two entrances, you can always go around the back to clear the whole thing, which is... annoying. If you don't mind being patient, leaving the Aurora and doing other things for awhile will reset the wreck, allowing you to come back later and potentially be able to repair the doors then.
The codes for the ship are:
Cabin No. 1: 1869
Captain's Quarters: 2679
Cargo Bay: 1454
Lab Access: 6483

Time to go down

With the Aurora repaired you have the ability to wear things other than the lead suit, so it's time to chuck that in the trash 'cuz you won't need it again. It's time to get the outer wrecks in the zones beyond the shallows and hoo boy ain't that gonna be an experience.
The cyclops is your friend here. But what's this, you don't have a cyclops? Well, that's okay. You may have found one of the engine fragments on the aurora in the cargo bay but if you missed it, it's not really a big deal. Your next objective to build one is to go explore mushroom forest and the underwater floating islands for the fragments you'll need. If you've been following your radio signals you've probably been to the aurora rendezvous point by now, but if not, take the time to go thoroughly explore that island. One of the PDAs you need to find the next place is not at the degasi base, but on one of the paths of the island near an arch of rock. You'll need to explore the island thoroughly to find it. Make sure to scan everything and bring back plant samples if you have a seabase. You can use plant pots to keep food trees on your cyclops for easy access to food without worrying about curing everything all the time.
Once you have the cyclops, you need to take the time to upgrade your seamoth to depth so you can explore the various wrecks, supplement your PDA database and establish yourself properly for long-term operations. At this point in the game you should be aiming for or already have:
A seabase, even a basic one. A couple corridors with lockers are invaluable for storage and operations and the scanner room is MISSION CRITICAL. If you haven't built one yet, get on that!
A seamoth, either at or being upgraded to 500m depth
Knife, flashlight, repair gun, seaglide, scanner, laser cutter, propulsion or repulsion cannon, rebreather
Be sure to check everything, then check it again! It's easy to miss things on the island. Be sure to check the buildings on the tops of the hills there too. Although it would be nice to be able to plant land beacons (hint hint, Unknown Worlds), it's not feasible for marking out the precursor gate on the floating island so unfortunately, it's not of much use unless you have your base on one island or the other. I don't recommend the floating island for this for reasons which will become apparent later in the game.

Looking into the abyss

If you've explored most of or all of the wrecks and no longer have missing technology, it's time to go deeper. If you've been following your PDA signals you need to check out the degasi bases and follow their story, as they lead you to a large, deep cave which is the path to deeper places you need to explore.
There are several inlets to the place you need to reach. Northern Bulb Zone where it meets Mountains has a large entrance. Blood Kelp Zone and Trench both have entrances. The last one is in deep grand reef, where the final Degasi base is. I personally recommend either Deep Grand Reef or Bulb Zone but the latter has the most accessibility.
Raiding the final Degasi Base before exploring this cave system will get you the orange precursor key which you'll need to access something hidden at the southern end of the caves near blood kelp trench's entrance. While working down here I strongly recommend making liberal use of beacons as navigational guides if you're new to this place. It is VERY confusing and looks very same-y if you haven't spend a lot of time here.
Deep inside the caves you'll come upon a chamber with a massive skull sitting on a chunk of land in the middle and access to a slightly lower part of the cave system which is not green. This is the Cove Tree Cave and the brine there will not hurt you the way the green brine does. This leaves you able to free dive there to gather materials without needing to rely on your prawn.
This chamber with the skull is, in fact, the central chamber of Lost River. It is an excellent place for building a scanner station and the entire area is ludicrously rich in resources. It's a perfect place to stock up and catch up any upgrades, tools or devices you may be lacking so far. You'll want the resource stocks for later and honestly, it's just a really cool place to have a base in general.
The Disease Research Facility is in the north-eastern arm of Lost River, accessible through the Bulb Zone entrance. A juvenile ghost leviathan guards the path but as with most leviathans, operating in silent running and staying above or below it while sticking to the cave walls will get you by without any issue. If they do notice you, just pop a decoy, go full speed for about 5-8 seconds and then drop the engine to low and stay in silent running until you get far enough for the big ugly to stop bothering you.
The southern part of Lost River holds a large chamber with a ghost leviathan juvenile and houses another rather large skeleton. This area in particular is rich in large ore deposits and crystallized sulfur that you'll be needing for some big upgrades.
By the way, remember the cyclops shield? By now you're probably noticing that using the auxiliary functions on the cyclops eats a lot of power. Redundant power cells are your friend and if you feel you're worried about power costs while exploring, you lose nothing by having a buttload of spare power cells. It can pay off, being able to spam the shield for awhile and run away.
You'll want that shield for what's coming next.

Once More Unto The Deep

By now you've probably explored Lost River a bit and you're wondering where to go from here. If you've built a scanner room in the central chamber, you'll have noticed that the scanner, when at full range, shows a chamber below Lost River.
This is the inactive lava zone and it is here your answers lay.
You have two access points to reach this chamber. The North-east arm past the disease research facility and the cove tree caves. Both entrances are equally difficult to get through but the first one feels more open, if you don't mind the ghost leviathan circling around above the opening.
This chamber is rich with even more valuable resources, if you somehow haven't got enough already. The cove tree cave entrance leads to the western part of the ILZ chamber. The North-east entrance leads to the north edge of the chamber. The chamber itself is rather oval-shaped, with the western edge of it relatively empty and the eastern part containing a massive lava bubble.
If you wander around down here long enough the PDA will prompt you to take a look at that bubble a bit more closely. You will need two purple precursor keys to access the facility inside. Now that you're down here you'll notice there's a fair number of warpers, crimson rays (who are harmless) and leech-like things which will attach to the hull of your ship and drain power. That sounds like a problem, doesn't it?
Don't worry though, we got you covered. Once you're down here, go grab some kyanite and you can build the cyclops thermal reactor which pretty much eliminates the whole running out of power problem. The shield is a great way to get the leeches off your hull at the same time.
As for the leviathan, the sea dragon isn't actually a whole lot of threat. It might spit fire at you and is capable of picking up and biting the prawn but will mostly ignore you if you don't go hanging out in front of it.
With that said, treat it like any other leviathan while in the cyclops. Drive slow, keep an eye on it and if it gets curious, drop a decoy and move away ASAP. Cutting your engines once you've gotten a little distance will almost always make them lose interest.

But Wait, There's More!

If you've explored the inner depths of the lava bubble, then you have the blue key, ion battery plans and have opened the portal to the QEP. Great! Now coming down here in the prawn isn't a big deal and you don't have to drive the cyclops all the way down here to go grab resources. A small scanner base down here would be great for quickly finding what you need.
As you can probably guess, there's an even deeper chamber than this, which is the active lava zone. You can find the entrance by following the lava flows around the ILZ and keeping an eye on the floor. You'll find a large space big enough for the cyclops to lower down into.
Down here you'll find 2 sea dragons to avoid, so don't you get conservative with your power. By now you'll probably have built ion power cells and those can run your shield and sonar together for a full 5 minutes with silent running going so don't be shy about using them!
Getting into the alien base down here will require two blue keys, one for accessing the facility, the other for accessing the inner facility. It is here you will find the ion cube fabricator which requires the prawn. You can use this to open the warp gates in the facility. Six ion cubes in total are required for this. Four for the warp gates on the upper floor and two in the Sea Emperors tank. One of these leads back to the upper floor, if you find you're struggling to get back out. This gate in particular is about halfway up the tank at the back and sits on a large ledge. An ion cube is provided to activate it, giving you a way to walk out of the tank if you find you're struggling to get out.
And... that's pretty much it, really. After that encounter you'll know where to go and what to do. The paths laid out for you in the final facility lead you to the places you need to go to find the things you require.

Tips and tricks

• Keep floaters in your cyclops. When you're operating above 500m, running out of power, floaters will allow you to passively bring your ship to the surface without power expense so that you can resupply it. This is pretty much a last ditch move but it never hurts to be prepared.
  
• You can fit up to 8 basic plant pots in an observatory, which will grant you twice the amount of growing space as an indoor grow bed for the same amount of floor space while also making the crops more easily accessible.
  
• The engine comparment of the cyclops has a lower deck behind the vehicle bay which everybody ignores, but it's a great spot for plant shelves and marble melons for food security.
  
• Load your vehicles. Dedicate storage in them to supplies. Water, food, medkits, beacons, flares (bonesharks and crabsquids react to them) and spare power supplies for the vehicles. Keep this kit supplied and you will never be caught unprepared for an 'oh crap' situation.
  
• Okay, so you don't want to give up inventory space for your vehicles. The next best thing is then to fill a watertight locker or two with food, water, medpacks and maybe a couple spare batteries and power cells, then drop them someplace with a beacon next to them. Do this a dozen times in random spots around the map as you travel and now you have emergency caches you can access if you get into trouble.
  
• When you reach the point where materials gathering is easy, consider creating vehicle-creation drop points. 2-3 spots on the map with a mobile vehicle bay, a couple lockers with everything you need for a new seamoth and some basic supplies. If you lose your vehicle, it's a lot easier to make a replacement and get the mats than to get the mats to make a replacement.
  
• The propulsion gun is your friend. Use it to grab items to pick up, use it to grab cave crawlers and yeet them into low orbit, use it to pick up rocks and fling them at things you particularly don't like. Use it to collect gas pods from gasopods without getting hit by the cloud. Use it to move debris in wrecks. Bring a spare battery specifically for it because flinging things around uses a lot of power but the sheer utility of the tool makes it worth the cost.
  
• You'll be tempted to deck your seamoth out with all the toys but the truth is once you have the prawn, it's obsolete. Don't fall into the temptation of continuing to build tons of upgrades for it unless you plan to use it for a fast-fetch vehicle for things you need from far away. However, with that said, the seamoth is really the superior vehicle for wreck-diving.
  
• Keeping a second air tank in your inventory and swapping them mid-dive is a perfectly viable option. However, the tanks only refill when wearing them, so make sure to switch again once you're back in breathing space. This can and will save you when wreck diving and two ultra high quality tanks equals 450 seconds of air in total, or 7m30s of air.
  
• Speaking of air, you can use the air bladders alternate use key (F on PC - the same button for self-scanning) to get a few seconds of air out of it into your tank. It's not much - 20 seconds or so - but sometimes, that little bit extra can save your life if you're just out of reach of your vehicle.
  
• You can collect flora and fauna samples as you progress through the game and have a garden base specifically for growing plant samples from around the crater. Obviously this looks really nice (creepvine in an alien tank under the floor provides the room in your base with a nice golden glow) but is also useful later.
  
• SCANNER ROOMS. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. If you're struggling to find the magnetite, go to Jellyshroom. If you're struggling to find Jellyshroom, always remember that lifepod 17 is directly next to one of its exit points. The range upgrades are incredibly important and the HUD chip makes the whole thing work.
  
• Farm supplies! You don't need to work or power anything to grow crops. Consider dropping a foundation with some growbeds, a beacon and your farmables (gel sack, creepvine seeds, creepvine samples, acid mushroom, blood oil and deepshrooms). Now you can stock up on things like batteries, rubber, lubricant, benzene, polyaniline. Keep a few of these crops in your cyclops for planting in new spots and never run out of the stuff you need while keeping your home base nice and lag free.
  
• Creature decoys can be deployed both by hand and by prawn propulsion arm, which lets you pull items out of your inventory to 'throw'. You can also do this with the propulsion cannon by using the F key (the alternate tool use button, the same one you use to self-scan, for all you console folks).
  
• Turning off your engines greatly reduces the chance of a leviathan damaging the cyclops, even if it's right on top of you. Moving is what gets their attention. If one is swimming near the sub, cut all engines and just wait patiently for it to get a little distance, then silent running and max speed for a few seconds. Pop a decoy for good measure if you want to make absolutely sure.
  
• You can access the right side of the Aurora relatively safely by going south to Crag Zone and then banking east into the deeper parts of crash zone. Most of the reapers are up by the ship, sticking to the bottom will keep you relatively safe and net you as much titanium as you will ever need.
  
• Blood kelp zone, the sea treader wreck and the meteor crater in Dunes all have secrets that you may find interesting.
  
• Remember the Bleeders in the reactor room of the Aurora? Bring a grav trap along - they're cheap, it's disposable - and enter through the top door by climbing along the wreckage up there. Pop the grav trap in the reactor room and kill one of them with the propulsion cannon - the others will come for the body and be stuck in the trap, making picking them off much, much easier than it would be trying to find them all individually. You can just leave the trap behind. If you have the stasis gun, you can wait for them to stack up in the grav trap, stun them, then drop gas pods amidst the several bleeders and watch them get bodied.
  
• Gas pods 'o doom also work against leviathans. They work against EVERYTHING. You just need a lot of them, but getting a lot of them is really easy with the propulsion cannon (which can fire them too, by the way).
  
• Reefback barnacles are a good source of copper and silver, but beware the tiger plants on their backs. If you have a reinforced dive suit, tiger plants can't hurt you, but without one they're a pain. You can yeet them with the propulsion cannon. That trick works for drooping stingers too.
  
• Beacons everywhere. No seriously, everywhere. You'd be amazed how few people use them as much as they ought to be used.
  
• Eastern red grass plains has deep caves with a type of plant which can only be found in a few select spots on the map. Bulb Zone's lifepod has caves with some nearby and the Dunes also has some, but a Reaper is guarding them. If you do manage to find the spot though, it's GREAT for rubies!
  
• Scanner room cameras are a good way to keep track of nearby leviathans. They also force the terrain to load, which is required for the scanner room to actually pick things up. Stalkers will snag the cameras and move them around, but they're pretty useful for quickly getting the scanner room working right. The wildlife ignores the cameras too, so if you want a really nice picture of some creature you really hate getting close to, they're a great way to get it.
  
• Breed some stalkers, release them outside your base next to a pile of metal scrap and never worry about finding teeth for glass again. Barring that? Drop a random beacon in the kelp forest and wait for a stalker to collect it, follow it back to their stash and drop a grav trap.
  
• Light sticks can be good for wreck diving, as are flares. Flares provide much better lighting in large open spaces than the flashlight or seaglide. It makes them a good alternative to the flashlight in the early game.
  

• DO NOT PARK YOUR SEAMOTH NEAR THE BEACHES. DO NOT PARK YOUR SEAMOTH NEAR THE BEACHES. DO NOT PARK YOUR SEAMOTH NEAR THE BEACHES.

• The following is a list of zones where one can find particular ores. It isn't a complete list, but will allow you to find everything you need in a timely fashion:
  

Lithium - Jellyshroom, Bulb Zone, Mushroom Forest, Lost River
Loose Lithium - Mushroom Forest, Mountains, Grand Reef, Shale, lost river
Magnetite - Jellyshroom is the only biome with large nodes
Loose Magnetite - Jellyshroom, mountains, cove tree cave, blood kelp zone, lost river
Rubies - Dunes, Spare Reef Caves, Lost River, Grand Reef, Underwater Islands
Diamonds - Lost River, Shale, Inactive Lava Zone, Sea Treader Path, sometimes caves
Table Coral - Shallows, Lost River
Copper - Mushroom forest, blood kelp zone, bulb zone, lost river, limestone, Inactive Lava Zone
Silver - Crag Zone, Mountains, Lost River, sandstone, Inactive Lava Zone
Gold - Jellyshroom, Blood Kelp Zone, Lost River, sandstone, shale
Lead - Sandstone, mountains, crash zone, lost river, Inactive Lava Zone
Titanium - Crash Zone, Dunes, Limestone, Lost River, Inactive Lava Zone
Metal Salvage - Crash Zone, Crag Zone, Kelp Forest
Kyanite - Inactive Lava Zone
Crystalline Sulfur - Lost River
Nickel - Lost River
Uraninite - Blood Kelp Zone, Blood Kelp Trench, Lost River, Inactive Lava Zone, Grand Reef
Quartz - Dunes, Crag Zone, Lost River, Inactive Lava Zone, Red Grassy Plains
If you're reading this guide and have any suggestions for additional information, feel free to share them for the next iteration.

Good luck, survivor!

Updated May 2023
After changing reddit accounts and about a year since posting it, it seemed prudent to throw this up for visibility. :)
Few things are worse than not knowing what happened to a loved one. Which is what convinced Robin Ayou to get into a drop shuttle with a lifepod with basically nothing, then fire herself down onto an ocean planet where the only place that she could investigate was a tiny little patch of barely-even-land and pray she can survive long enough to find a way to get off the planet.
Nobody ever told Robin she was great at forward planning.
https://subnauticamap.io/belowzero - This map will provide direction/orientation for this guide, but BEWARE! It marks spoilers if you turn those on!

Touchdown

Once you've landed, you'll find some food and water to start you off scattered around the ship. You won't have to worry about getting cold, since standing next to your now-burning ship will warm you up and the meteors coming down don't actually paste you, they're mostly to stress you out.
Note that may not be the case later. The weather in this game is a serious thing.
Once you have your stuff, you'll find the drop pod on your HUD. Don't go straight to it, though. As soon as you hit the water, look for an indentation in the ground. You'll find some copper in there. Then, follow the northern glacial wall (That's to your right when you're looking at your lifepod) until you find a small cave, which will have some silver and gold. That'll get you started off nicely. Get to your lifepod, take a look at your fabricator. You'll find that the items you have blueprints for can be pinned to the top-right in your PDA by clicking on them in the blueprints tab, a useful feature when hunting for materials.
Your goals right now are your basic survival tools. Note that the kelp forest is a bad place to hold your stuff in your hand. The sea monkeys are kleptomaniacs and will gank your stuff. You can totally get it back though, it just means chasing after them a bit, which is annoying and wastes time. However, if you pull out a flare and hold it in front of them, they freak out and run away from you for a little bit.

Time To Get Rolling

Your first task, as indicated by the PDA, is to find Delta Island. This becomes relatively easy once you find a compass. If you've gone to the emergency cache you'll have the beacon blueprint so stock up on them before traveling so you can mark things. You're going to be making a lot of these but since you can toggle them it's not so bad, you'll just need a lot of beacons. Its south of where the drop pod lands. As you spread out your searching range you'll find that the sea floor drops down among twisty coral structures.
This area is called Twisty Bridges. It's the main go-to for coral samples and you'll want those. There's small bits of Alterra stuff scattered around the area. It's here you'll find mobile vehicle bay, sea truck and seaglide fragments. When you've been in the area for a bit, you'll hear what sounds like an SOS. It's worth checking that out and you'll find that this spot goes deeper than you might suspect. Makes you wonder what's down there, doesn't it?
Beyond Twisty Bridges lies the thermal spires, an area of volcanic activity and thermal smokers. Many sea truck fragments are here. The wildlife here is noisy and menacing sounding but if you don't hang out next to them they're easy to avoid. Smacking one with a blade will made it instantly turn and get the hell away from you. They don't like being hit. On the border between thermal spires and twisty bridges someplace is a small foundation platform with external grow beds for you to scan, but you can get these at Omega Station later if you're not sweating on it. There are large crevices and a few volcanic fissures out here. Beware the heat vents, but exploring those areas can pay off, later.
On the island, you'll find blueprints you need, as well as some materials like sulfur and horseshoe nuts. The latter are very useful to plant in the seabase you'll be wanting. Take care to look around thoroughly for blueprints you'll find useful, as not all of them are inside the buildings. Also, keep a sharp eye out for music disks which you'll find scattered throughout the game, especially in bases.
On the south-west corner of the island is a precursor artifact you can scan. Look for the beach with all the pengwings on it. The habitat builder can be found on a box outside Delta Station. Make sure to scan the map inside the sea base. There's also a PDA up by the comms tower.

Let's Go Explorin'

So, by now you've visited Delta Island, have had a good look around Twisty Bridges and you've probably discovered the sea monkey caves in Kelp Forest. If you haven't gone exploring in those, you really ought to. You'll find more MVB fragments there but that's also where the propulsion cannon blueprint can be found, the laser cutter, as well as a fair amount of gold and some precursor artifacts as well. Once that's all done with and taken care of, you've probably got at least a tiny seabase, but if you don't... what are you doing?
Go on, shoo. Go make a base.
...
Okay, got one now? Good! Hopefully it's someplace nice. Your basic sea truck can't get down to where you want to be going next but a depth module will take care of that. A MkII depth module will let you get to the very bottom of where you want to go. Where do you want to go? Koppa Mine. You'll find it on the western side of the island. Take care to look around when you find the door eventually, since there is a databox just inside the main doors, before you head down. It has the moonpool and will allow you to get that much earlier than you would through scanning it.
To drive the seatruck inside the mine, drive north from the entrance of Koppa mine, you'll come across a volcanic fissure in the seafloor nearby which has JUST enough space for you to fit your seatruck through it. The fissure leads right into Koppa Mine, allowing you to drive the seatruck inside!
The other alternative is actually spare air tanks. Totally a viable solution so long as you remember to refill them by equipping them once you're out of the water. You can swap them out mid-dive and extend your breathing time, which is handy since the prawn fragment blueprints you require are kinda far down there. If you're free diving in this way, note that the bottom chamber of the mine has a hole in the ceiling leading to a small cave system which will lead you back to the surface, as well as having a number of oxygen plants to keep you from choking on the way. The entrance to that is almost right next to the Delta Station docks.
Also note that Site Zero, which has useful blueprints, can be found by hugging the northern glacial wall and heading east along it. You can find it by checking breaks in the ice, one of them leads up to a small hidden cave where the base lies. But if you don't find it, you'll be directed here later. It just has some useful things to scan and a lantern fruit tree. There is a music disk here.

Way Down South

By now you've probably answered the SoS. If not, go do that. As you hang out with Al-An, he'll give you prompts to artifacts that you haven't found yet, if you dawdle in looking for the required number. At this point you should have the following:

• A sea base, even a basic one. The databox in Koppa Mine's entrance will grant you the moon pool but if you missed it, you can get the blueprint later following the storyline.
  
• Seaglide, knife, propulsion cannon, beacons, repair tool, scanner, flashlight, builder tool
  
• Seatruck with at least one depth module
  
• Prawn blueprints
  

Building the Prawn is surprisingly easy, but requires lithium, a material you probably haven't seen a lot of yet. There's a little scattered around in thermal spires, but only a little. You can find a lot at purple vents, but be careful to avoid the doom shrimp. A chelicarate hangs out here. There are other things in this area which are relevant to you which you'll want to mark out for later. There is a small seatruck crash site with a variety of fragments out here, if you find it, look around carefully for the music disk that's here.
Following the marker for the unknown pilots last position, you will find a green area rich in confusing cave systems. This area is the lilypads zone. Old girl can be found down near the signal, just look for the shimmering things on the wall, the hive minds. She's near them. Grab the seatruck defense module she has in there. Be sure to pick up the databox directly outside her base to get the stillsuit as well and if you follow the caves down where they turn blue you'll stumble on an old thermal plant of hers, where another databox lies. There's fragments scattered all over this zone as well as The mercury II stern, which lays on the border between lilypads and purple vents, as well as the bow, which is a little further in on the western side of lilypads. Be sure to explore the area thoroughly and take note of the massive crevasse near the middle of the zone. Inside the chunk of land here is Omega Lab, which will net you the external grow beds, nuclear plant, nuclear disposal as well as a couple new beds and the antenna plants. It's in this area you'll need to search for nickel later, so building a scanner station here is a good idea. Deep Lilypads holds an Al-An body part you'll require. Deep Lilypads is also the only place you can acquire the materials to manufacture benzene.
Don't go too close to the Lily Paddlers, unless you like being off your face, in which case go say hi, it's hilarious. Trust me. ;D
In order to disable the satellite for Dances-With-Reapers, you're going to need to wreck dive the Mercury II. Two of its sections can be found in purple vents, while the bow - the largest - can be found in Lilypads, west of Omega Labs floating island. You'll need the laser cutter for this. Your goal is to scan the parallel processors in the wreck, but there's all kinds of really useful stuff in there too, not to mention all the titanium. ALL the titanium. So be sure to drop beacons on these things, bring a spare air tank and bring your pathfinder tool. If you don't have the pathfinder tool, go look around in the caves full of emeralds between Phi Robotics docks and Phi Robotics itself. There is one up on a small ridge in one of those caves. If you can't find it, don't worry though, just bring flares and use them as breadcrumbs while diving to prevent yourself from getting too lost. The alien containment tank, reinforced dive suit, parallel processor can be found in these. A music disk is in the bow section on a bridge console.

LAND HO!

Aaah, glacial basin. How I hate thee. The basin is split into four sections, two for each part of the basin, north and south. South is where you'll probably end up first. You can find the docks to access this area by tracking along the northern glacial wall and continuing west until you come to the eye jellyfish. Check the radio tower next to the docks, there is a music disk there. The upper southern area is where Phi Robotics lays, as well as frost vase plants and spicy peppers. Both of those are excellent crops to grow, as they net you useful things. The spicy peppers scattered throughout the entirety of glacial basin essentially means that you'll not starve while out here so long as you're paying attention to what you're doing. Note that snow stalkers REALLY HATE FLARES. They'll make your trips out here annoying, even in the prawn, which is the best way to ensure the weather isn't a factor for you. Sometimes they're in the caves. Flares will make exploring these much safer.
You can get to lower glacial basin through the upper part, but it's a bit confusing and I prefer to access it via the glacial tunnel. Head south along the western glacial wall from the glacial basin docks and you'll find a tunnel which eye jellyfish are hanging out near. This tunnel leads directly to lower glacial basin and provides a convenient way to access the area without needing to travel through upper GB every time.
Northern Glacial Basin can be accessed by scanning the hydraulic fluid on the bridge, then repairing the bridge to cross it. DO NOT GO HERE WITHOUT THE PRAWN. SERIOUSLY. The grip arm is very handy to have out here and if you haven't found it, use a scanner room in Lilypads to find the sea monkey nests but it's not necessary so don't stress if you don't have it. Just don't use the snow fox. It's useless and handles like crap.
The iceworms here are dangerous if you stay still too long. Take your time, explore thoroughly and mark out any Alterra sites you find with beacons. A couple of these have the blueprints for the Thumper and this is your ticket to working in this area safely. A thumper will keep the iceworms away within a radius, ensuring you don't get whacked while picking stuff up outside the prawn.
Along the western wall of this zone is a small cave with three large ion cube deposits. Keep a sharp eye out for it, you definitely want those. At the north-east tip of the zone you'll find ice worm corpses you can scan that don't put you in mortal danger during the attempt.
Really funny seeing them pop up and chow down on snow stalkers, though. Pay back sucks, don't it? Al-An's body part is out here. Keep an eye out for the precursor cables and make sure to check all the caves, because the master gateway leading to Phi Robotics is here as well. The room containing the gateway leads to a small docks and tunnel with an ice wall you can cut through to easily access the middle of northern glacial basin from the docks. There is a music disk at those docks as well.

Going Down?

By now you're probably wondering where to go. Remember purple vents? The engine part of the mercury II has a crevasse leading down to where you need to go next. Once you've found the crystal caves, you better hope you picked up the defense module at Marg's base. It's sitting inside her room and sometimes gets knocked to the floor when Preston jumps you. You'll be wanting it for what's down here.
The Shadow Leviathan.
Ohhhh boy are they ever aggressive. Good news for you though, they patrol around on a set route and they don't go through the whole of crystal caves. You'll be looking for fragments here, as well as materials. Lots of gold, silver and kyanite in the crevasses in the floor of these caves. An Al-An body part, the final one, can be found at the bottom of a tunnel which is mouthed by a circular formation of crystals. Once you have it, you'll want to go even deeper to find the fabrication facility, forcing you to wander crystal caves until you find the blood crystal caves.

Oh Yeah, It's All Comin' Together

So, you now have everything you need to build your home boy a body. Once that's done, you'll be wanting to wrap up the bit with Sam. If you've explored lower southern glacial basin, you'll have found the cave with the frozen leviathan. Oh, and grab the music disk in the security bunker. Exploring this cave gets you some useful stuff. You know the little caves here with the blinking markers? Explore these with spy penglings! There's some useful stuff in some of them, actually. Including the antidote Sam hid. You can use that on the loader located on the upper part of the leviathan in the cave.
And... that's that! That's the whole game.

Tips and Tricks

• The air bladder can pull a tiny amount of air into your tank. It's not very much but those 10 seconds of extra air can save your life in a deep pinch.
  
• You can find lots of quartz if you hug the northern ice wall and roam east of west, but be careful of the brinewings. They'll freeze your ass, which can be inconvenient if you're low on air.
  
• Frost Anemone Hearts are actually a really great food source and should be picked up any time you can get them. They'll last forever in the fridge.
  
• Made your base with some helpful sea monkey neighbours? After awhile they stop stealing from you and begin trying to help you - but they don't know what you want! If you mark blueprints in your PDA, they'll try and bring you materials for that if they can.
  
• Most predators will back off if you feed them a fish before they bite you. This includes leviathans. You might still get hurt from them slamming into you or something but feeding them a fish will usually cause them to stop attacking you. This doesn't work against the shadow leviathan, it hates you and everything you hold dear. It doesn't know what those things are, but it doesn't care either. It just does.
  
• Spare air tanks are great and can be kept stocked in your sea truck, but remember to put them on to refill them.
  
• Animals will react to your behavior in some instances. Feel tree to try new things with them like feeding fish. You can even ride on glow whales! Some of them really hate flares too, like sea monkeys and snow stalkers.
  
• Surface bases are a completely viable thing in this game and some of the ice sheets have holes in them, allowing you to have a surface base with a dropped section for moonpools and water filters. Water filters will work outside of the water, but you don't get salt and they're much slower.
  
• Get the cold suit as soon as you can. It's in Phi Robotics. It changes your outside time from 2 minutes to 7 minutes, which is a huge difference. Without it, the prawn is the only way to explore the surface without constantly stressing about freezing to death. You can find the tufts of fur in snow stalker caves where the pups are, make sure you have a flare if you don't like getting nommed on.
  
• Can't figure out how to get on top of the ice sheet, but you want a base up there? Swim down deep and use the air bladder to get some height. You can build a hallway up there, then drop a ladder down into the water to make a surface base with an underwater docking section. Alternatively, you can probably get up there with the prawn and the grip arm.
  
• Speaking of the prawn and grip arm, you can totally launch yourself with it. Attaching the grip to the ground and using it to pull yourself into a jump will get you some serious air time, which is helpful for getting up small ridges on the surface. If you break the map and managed to get above it in the prawn, return to the player area. Being up there breaks progression completely and the only interesting thing is a leftover animation testbed east of glacial basin. The collision on terrain is also patchy here and it's possible to fall through the ground into the void. In your prawn. So don't screw around up there too much.
  
• Spicy peppers and coffee will both warm you up while on the surface, which makes the spicy peppers scattered all over the place pretty valuable.
  
• The greenhouse you get sent to can be found in Lilypads on an iceberg. The three large icebergs here all have things to find so be sure to search thoroughly.
  
• The crashed ship is a great place to get a lot of metal very quickly and will basically hand you a free sea base so long as you're willing to go keep picking it up. If you've already looted it all, give it awhile and check back later, sometimes new scrap shows up as the wrecks continue their eventual rot.
  
• Drop emergency caches of food, water, medpacks, batteries, power cells and flares along with a beacon and never be caught short on supplies because you went out looking for stuff and forgot to bring rations. D'oh!
  
• A small base specifically for replacing vehicles is very helpful when you lose one. Have the materials gathered beforehand and you won't have to spend a long time struggling to get them together after the bad feeling of having your stuff crunched.
  
• Be sure to look for creature eggs out in glacial basin
  
• Rock punchers are jerks and will kill stuff in your containment tank, so now you know, and knowing is half the battle. And the lives of your fish.
  
• There is no good way to scan the leviathans, but your scan progress gets saved if you don't scan other things, so letting it chow down on your seatruck and scanning it while it's distracted, then repairing your vehicle after, will allow you to get the whole scan after a couple rounds.
  
• Make scanner rooms everywhere. Solar panels and bio reactors are your friend. Nuclear power is better but not viable in early game. If you need magnetite, go to the glacial tunnel and look at the ice walls just where the tunnel curves upwards, you'll find ore fissures there with magnetite inside.
  
• Beacons, beacons, beacons. I can't stress this enough, litter them EVERYWHERE. You can toggle them on and off in your PDA, so having a bajillion around the map isn't really a problem and they're really useful.
  
• There are more precursor artifacts than Al-An mentions to you. Keep a sharp eye out, look everywhere and scan for ion cubes. Check icebergs for moulins, AKA hollow chambers inside. You'll need a laser cutter to access the ones you find.
  
• Tree Spires has a hell of a lot of uraninite in its cave systems, it's a good spot to stock up on it. Beware the chelicarate in the zone.
  
• The crystal caves are roughly the shape of a spiral. Knowing this makes navigating them a lot less mystifying. Mind you, it's still difficult. As usual, use beacons a lot. Also make sure to explore the cracks in the floor of the cave!
  
• Penglins/Pengwings drown if you leave them in the alien containment tank after hatching :( They have to hold their breaths. If you breed them, make sure to set them free.
  
• There are no large nodes for lead. You must search for galena outcrops with the scanner room. It's pretty much the only way to stock up on the stuff. The other one people have a lot of trouble with is Magnetite, which can only be found in lower glacial basin. You'll want a scanner room to find it. Upper glacial basin has a TON of lithium if you can handle the ice worms... as well as three large mining nodes for ion cubes hidden in a cave.
  
• Keep exploring Upper Glacial Basin even if you find the precursor body part. There are ice worm corpses and a slipgate out here for you to find. The slipgate links to the Phi Robotics slipgate and has a tunnel which leads directly back out to the docks that you can only cut open from the inside. There's also a music disk down there on a crate so keep a sharp eye out when you find it.
  

Good luck, Robin!

https://imgur.com/a/Ht7YYBC
Hey mm!
I'm doing a spring/summer cleaning in order to make space for more stuff. All prices are shipped within CONUS with all prices OBO.
Feel free to reach out if you want additional pictures! Please leave a comment before pm.
Located in OC 92843. Willing to meet local.

Keyboards/Numpad	Description	Price
Keychron Q1 V2 Knob	Black. Barebones, excellent condition. Stabs installed and tuned	$120 shipped SOLD FOR ASKING to u/toadx60
Ginkgo65	Black/copper bottom. Stabs installed and tuned. PC plate	$180 shipped
Idobao Montex	Black. Alu top/bottom + extra acrylic bottom + stabs installed and tuned	$60 shipped
Keycaps
Bolsa Supply pbt WOB Hiragana	New, opened box to check contents.	$50 shipped w tray or $40 in bags
PBTfans Twist	Used for less than 1 week. No shine. Excellent condition	$75 shipped w tray or $65 in bags
CK Nicepbt Black-on-Grey	Used for less than 2 weeks. No shine. Excellent condition	$50 shipped w tray or $40 in bags
Drop Skylight Series (Valiant)	BNIB	$35 shipped w tray or $25 in bags
NK K-2SO	Used for less than a month. No shine, excellent condition	$80 shipped w tray or $70 in bags
Switches
JWK T1 (110x)	L+F, Broken-In. 150k actuations	$125 shipped
KTT White Kang (98x)	Lubed	$50 shipped
Black Inks V2 (107x)	L+F, Broken-In. 1.2m actuations	$140 shipped
Black Cherry Pies (70x)	L+F, cherry top, carrot stem, MM nylon bottom with 55g springs	$85 shipped
Kailh Pro Purple (66x)	Lubed on railings only	$30 shipped
Kailh Box Red (91x)	Stock, factory lubed	$20 shipped
Gateron Green (90x)	Stock, factory lubed	$20 shipped
Ink Dream Creams (90x)	Oiled and lubed. NK dream cream housing, 70g springs, V2 gat baltic ink stems	$45 shipped
Gateron Milky Yellow Pro (87x)	Stock, factory lubed	$20 shipped
Gateron CAP Golden Yellow (70x)	L+F	$45 shipped
Wrist Rest
Purple Resin Wristrest	Fits up to TKL	$20 shipped - PENDING

​

I have the following manga and anime goods available for trade (sale, if necessary). Prices are fixed for shipping to the US. International shipping is available at an added cost per location. All books are in excellent to NM condition, unless otherwise stated. PayPal G&S preferred.
Part 1: https://imgur.com/a/X90wg15
Part 2 (NSFW): https://imgur.com/a/O1D8bN6
Boys Be Vol. 1-17. $108 shipped
Girls Bravo Vol. 1-10. $70 shipped
AI Yori Aoshi Vol. 1-17. $108 Shipped
Harukana Receive Vol. 1 $8 shipped (volume 3-8 SOLD)
Vampire Knight Vol. 12. $8 shipped
Maison Ikkoku Vol. 1-14 (complete). SOLD
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 1-8, 10. $220 shipped.
Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist Vol. 16 with included sealed card. $40 shipped OBO
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Vol. 1. $8 shipped
Scryed Vol. 1-4. $35 shipped
Gurren Lagaan Vol. 2. $25 shipped
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project Vol. 2, 3. $30 shipped
Inukami Omnibus Vo. 1-3. $12 shipped
Skip Beat Vol. 43. $8 shipped
Hayate the Combat Butler vol. 16. $8 shipped
Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter vol. 1. $18 shipped
Pandora Hearts Vol. 15. $10 shipped
Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition Omnibus vol. 2. $15 shipped (slight dent on corner of cover)
Sailor Moon Picture Guide: Meet Sailor Moon. $9 shipped
Sailor Moon Picture Guide: Sailor Moon, Friends and Foes. $9 shipped
Sailor Moon vol. 2-4. $20 shipped. (some wear at top of spine)
Sailor Moon SuperS. $9 shipped
Cardcaptor Sakura. Vol. 1-3. $25 shipped
Oreimo Vol. 1. $8 shipped
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (1st Edition) Vol. 2, 8, 9. $45 shipped
Vagabond VizBig Vol. 1 SOLD
Collector’s Value Guide Pokémon 1999. $8 shipped
Japanese Manga
GATE Tatakaeri Gaiden LN Vol.2 (signed by Yanai Takumi). $30 shipped
Law of Ueki vol. 1 (Signed by Tsubasa Fukuchi). $50 shipped
"King Game Origin" Vol. 1, signed/sketched by Yamada J thick. $50 shipped
Sumeragi Dressers Vol. 1, signed/sketched by Yutaka Matsumoto. $45 shipped
To-LOVE-Ru Darkness Vol. 5, sealed with thank you illustration card. $30 shipped
Naruto Exhibition Fuu no Sho Guest Book. $15 shipped.
Negima Limited Edition Vol. 22. $25 shipped
NIsekoi Limited Edition Vol. 9 (with drama CD). $30 shipped
Zenki Vol. 1. $10 shipped
Maburaho Vol. 1. $10 shipped
High School of the Dead Vol. 1, 2. $20 shipped
Hellsing Official Guide Book. $20 shipped
Artbook
Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Edition. $25 shipped
Doujinshi (NON-18+) $65 for this lot, including the CD-ROM games and CDs, OR splitting for trading.
Puella Magi Nakachan Fleet
戦艦キリシマくん / RABBIT HOLE Works.
CD-ROM game
Motto!? Fushigi no Gensoukyou Plus - The Dungeon of Dreams and Magic
Youyou Kengeki Musou
CD
Higan/C-CLAYS Touhou Doujin Soundtrack CD
Doujin music CD Hanahira HANA-KAGARI / K2SOUND
Autographs 8x10 (all Beckett certified)
Neil Kaplan (Uchiha Madara) (250c). $45 shipped
Yuri Lowenthal (Uchiha Sasuke). $30 shipped
Jeremy Inman (Android 16). $25 shipped
Wendee Lee (Queen Serenity). $25 shipped
John Swasey (The Undertaker) [Black Butler]. $20 shipped
Jen Taylor (Salem) [RWBY]. $20 shipped
Adam Gibbs [Haikyuu]. $15 shipped
Aaron Robers (Uta) [Tokyo Ghoul]. $15 shipped
Other
Cardcaptor Sakura Cerberus Spinel Sun Playing Card Design Tray. $25 shipped
Disgaea 4 (PS Vita). $30 shipped
Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita). $30 shipped
Japanese Doujinshi (18+) All doujinshi are in excellent condition, with no visible damage and no signs of personal use. Doujin are $18 shipped each.
[PIGGSTAR] JET FORM (Various) (COMIC1☆2) . 127 pages. Parodies: Code Geass, Gundam 00, Ichigo 100, Busou Renkin
(C91) [Kuronisiki] Urakaze no Dakigokochi 2 (Kantai Collection -KanColle-). 30 pages
Muchi Muchi Paradise 2 [Full Color] (Martian Successor Nadesico). Full Colo23 pages
[Hinakan (Kusunoki Hina)] Blood Revenge II
Kuroneko ga Okasareruuuu (My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute!) 22 pages/ First pages in full color, rest in B&W
(SC33) [PLUM (Kanna)] Lovetoru 2 (To LOVE-Ru)
To LOVE-Ru Syndrome＋αFan Book. 52 pages
(C58) [Hellabunna] Love Hena 4 (Love Hina). 46 pages
(C74) [Studio Wallaby] Ecchii no wa Suki Desu ka? 2 (To LOVE-Ru)
(C91) [Nekomataya] The Boy's Chair and the Forbidden Fruit (The Idolmaster)
Battle Girl High School
[Grace] UmiTra! Umimi to Issho ni Nantai **xercise! (The Idolmaster)
(C90) [Uninigumi (Unini☆Seven)] CANARY CODE (Qualidea Code). 16 pages/Full Color
[Book, Signed/Sketched by ITOYOKO] Momokura boarding house Yu and Piaan. $45 shipped
[Book, Signed/Sketched] Meat Festival Sakazaki Furede Inochi Gokuezu. $30 shipped
Primarily looking to trade for these specific volumes (in ENGLISH):
To Love Ru Darkness (any)
Bleach Vol. 4-6
Berserk Vol. 2-4, 19, 22-25, 27-29, 31->
Dragon Ball Vol. 2, 13
Eyeshield 21 (any)
Video Girl Ai (any)
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Vol. 22
Iron Wok Jan: Vol. 2-4, 10, 12-15, 19, 23
Mars Vol. 2, 3
My Love Story Vol. 6, 10->
Busou Renkin Vol. 9, 10
Cobra (any)
Cyborg 009 (any)
Fruits Basket vol. 15, 16, 18
Hayate the Combat Butler Vol. 30->
Master Keaton Vol. 2-3, 5->
My Monster Secret Vol. 14->
Rosario Vampire s2 Vol. 10-12
Sgt. Frog 8 ->
Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Vol. 9->
Super HXEROS (any)
Yuuna of the Haunted Springs Vol. 4->
Demonizer Zilch (any)
Also looking to combine volumes to trade for Food Wars Shokugeki no Soma Blu-Ray Season 2