Categories
Gaming

Confessions of a Borderlands Junkie

To the best of my recollection, 60% of my guns and shields legitimately spawned in the game. Couldn’t remember what backpack sizes 58s originally had (because I’d played with them at 300 for so long), but there was an attempt later on to thoroughly go through and figure out how much they should’ve had – and did that. Better late than never? It occurred to me one day: Wouldn’t it be fun to try to stay within the bounds of a legit backpack size?

Why did I say 60%? Because while farming at Knoxx’s Armory, 59s, 60s and 61s spawn. A 58 can’t use 59s, 60s, and 61s, so it was necessary to level them down. I’m not going to pretend like I was never greedy for a 58, either. Later, way near the end of my farming runs at Knoxx, I’d roll a 12-sided die and use that to decide what to do. You don’t have to lecture me on why that isn’t a perfect system, either.

Most the loot farmed through Knoxx in the last two years was obtained by 1-shotting Knoxx. If I had the money, I’d have been doing the same thing I was doing when I was playing on the PS3: 2-player game, use Sledge’s Shotgun to land behind the locked door. That was 99.9% of my farming route in those days. Fast-forward to recent days, I didn’t have the money, so I had to make one of those guns.

For what it’s worth, I’d never even picked up a 1-shot gun before. I’m sure, at one point, I’d picked up a chimera before I learned what loot was supposed to look like in the game, though. Always despised 1-shot guns. There’s literally no reason to ever have one. But then, if I wanted to farm at Knoxx, I needed to make one, so there you go.

I can count on one hand the guns I’d changed one or two parts because I was so heartbroken, too. Ever wanted a two-shot brl4 Red Hyperion? Well, with my 2-player game and shotgun in-hand, it extended an olive branch and gave me an AX420.W. Needless to say, a part of me died that day.

By the way, I really don’t know if 60% is accurate. Go farm Knoxx at 58 and make up your own mind.

Obviously, in the last two years, I was doing co-op with ‘four players’. It was when that Torgue Steel Mauler spawned, I thought to myself, ‘Well, I guess that does it!’, and haven’t played since. (Yes, of course, I cycled it in for awhile before putting the game down!) If I recall correctly, it was a 61.

There was a brief time (three to six months circa 2010), when I was passing off even leveled-down guns as legit on the forums. Sorry, I guess. Doubt that’ll make anyone feel better. On the bright side, my conscience eventually did catch up to me!

I don’t know if there’s any Borderlands nerd out there who feels, as I do, that it fucking sucks you can’t uninstall DLC on PC. Constantly having to level myself down is soooooooo absurdly dumb!

Also, there was that one time I gave a gun I’d upgraded the parts on to a random. It wasn’t long after I felt it sucked to have tried on that face. It’s lame shit, dude.

Uh…

Yea, I’m real sad that post that explained how to get GearCalc on Flash Point is lost to the ages. It wasn’t until I’d had to reinstall Windows that it became clear it worked (it’s a long story). The writing was on the wall they were going to shut down the new forums, but I didn’t feel the urgency. One day, maybe it’ll make its reappearance. Damn, I loved playing with GearCalc again!

Uh…

I want to put my Skyrim and Borderlands saves online. I think that’d be pretty sweet.

I don’t know what they did right with Borderlands (2009), but fuck, that shit was fun!

Rushing in with the spiderants @ Rust Commons West (by the cliffside)… Fuckin’ uh… spiderants and scythids @ Rust Commons East. Obviously, Crimson Lance out @ Old Haven gets a shout-out. As a rule of thumb, always start your day with a loadout of shock @ The Descent. Even skags were sometimes fun to wipe out! You know, I could literally just name every location and every mob spawn point, and that still wouldn’t tell you how much fun I had. This game is gold! Really wish I could’ve seen it with a working Vengeance.

Oh yea… I did make a Hornet Dove after around 200 runs (not to be confused with actual Doves). I do think I put in some time; nothing compared to what I’d seen other guys put in, but I did keep farming for it after making it, too! Maybe, really, only 30 or so runs, if I’m going to be honest…

Oh yea… I’m not even close to trying to fool you saying this: I had farmed up a pt. 2 Savior Bone Shredder after, I kid you not, ~40 runs – but then, lost it because I accidentally overwrote the toon somehow. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, sadly, but I did go and make a pt. 1 variant out of spite, and played with that a little. Put it on a new Lilith with (yes, a legit) Mercenary w/ regen. Had some good fun seeing how long I could go without needing to use anything else.

I put some stupid amount of time into farming in this game. You want to know how many Reapers I seen? Two. And they were like brl0 garbage!

At about this point, you may be wondering, ‘Why the hell were you farming at level 58?’

Easy! 69s have waaaaaaaay too many skill points, man! I don’t want to be a god on Pandora, man! I want to have to really, really, really try to spec the build for how I play! Yea, you could rebut with ‘Just don’t allocate the points, then!’ But my feeling was ‘I didn’t want to have to limit who I could play with (No-DLC Gang) – because I knew all the 69s were always turning up their noses at us 58s. (If you want an honest answer, you’d have to ask me back around 2010, but I do recall there being a mixture of things like believing the retards who’d jump into games 1-shotting everything would prefer to join 69-sessions.)

Lilith > Roland > Mordecai > Brick.

I’d always imagined Mordecai being so much fun for people with good eyesight.

Tormentor (Spark, obvs., mat2) > Gunslinger (never got my hands on a Relentless +4, mat2) > Bombardier (Wide Load, mat3)> Catalyst (because bunnies, mat2) > Ranger (you know I love making it rain, mat don’t matter) > Sniper (4 don’t matter, mat3) > Tempest (Silent Resolve for giggles, mat3) > Heavy Gunner (just have every one of them in case) > Tactician (Quick Charge, mat3). After that, Shock Trooper can be pretty fun with Refire; Phoenix, Firefly, and Mercenary have a place in my heart (especially Phoenix, though bugs hurt); Mat3 Killer Assassin & mat2 Fast Hands Survivor are on my wishlist; If Bombardier weren’t so much fun, I could argue in favour of Blast Master and Titan. Of course, I’ll admit, a Revenge Blast Master is a little fun every now and then. And a Safeguard Titan + Pangolin is pretty good for the giggles!

Pretty well always use Tediore and Anshin. Pangolin are just so damn cool though, and a Muscleman’s all right for those times you want to feel like a powerhouse. There is a part of me that wishes I didn’t lose so much loot when shit got real in ’13 (a bunch of my stuff got destroyed), because I did used to have a perfect mat3 Atlas. Obviously don’t remember what level.

Yea, and that’s about all I can think to put here. Hope you enjoyed the read. If I find I have more things to say about Borderlands, I’ll put it on the site.

PS: Why does the Borderlands fandom not have all the barrels for repeaters and machine pistols? Maybe they’re somewhere else on the website?

Categories
Gaming

Blessed are the Footsteps to Enlightenment`

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆~Special update cz3f, 01-06-24~☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
I’ve realized how cool it would be to have an A/V capture box. I don’t have a CRT anymore, but with a capture box, I’d be able to really go ham! But for now, I’ll slowly add pictures for the titles appearing in this list, taken with my camera! ^^
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Welcome to another installment of Blessed are the Footsteps to Enlightenment!

Note: Upon multiple thorough five-minute skims of the Internet, it appears it’s up to me to get the screenshots I want for these 100-out-of-100 games. Expect massive delays in the follow-through of this article, because there are various celestial bodies required to be in alignment for any progress, in this regard, to be made. Apologies in advance!

Is This Thing Turned On, part 0003: Am I Being Diluded, or Am I a Gamer?

01. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997); played on: N64 | My infallible score: 100/100

02. Perfect Dark (2000); played on: N64 | My infallible score: 100/100

03. Liero (1999); played on: PC | My infallible score: 100/100

04. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002); played on: Xbox | My infallible score: 100/100

05. Borderlands (2009); played on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, & PC | My infallible score: 100/100

06. XIII (2003); played on: PC & Xbox | My infallible score: 100/100

07. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011); played on: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, & PC | My infallible score: 100/100

08. Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (2017); played on: PC | My infallible score: 100/100

Honestly, I’d considered putting a few other games in this list; however, doing so would be insincere. For example, IPs like Total Annihilation, Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, Earthworm Jim, Sonic, Clayfighter, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Silent Hill, Fallout, & maybe a few others, while being very meaningful to me, don’t quite satisfy the 100-out-of-100 brand. This is for various reasons such as the following: The release wasn’t played very much, nostalgia is a powerful motivator, after weighing pros against cons, its addition feels illegitimate, and ability fell short to ‘really’ enjoy.. Additionally, there are a couple entries from the Call of Duty franchise that could be mentioned: World at War, 4, & Black Ops. Though I certainly reaped much fun from these ones, how does one gauge the quality when fun is reliant on latency?

Now, instead of name-dropping these IPs and forgetting about them, let me tell you about my favourite things from the releases I’d played!

Is This Thing Turned On, part 0003.5: Where Do I Find the Time?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2:
 • Emerald Hill & Chemical Plant zone themes
Total Annihilation:
 • Title menu drone
 • Core Shadow bomber
 • Coast to Coast or Over Crude Water
Sonic 3D Blast:
 • Spring Stadium zone
Earthworm Jim:
 • THIS GAME ROCKS!
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2:
 • You’re literally a toy soldier! It’s fucking awesome!
Clayfighter 63⅓:
 • Taffy: ‘Gumball!’
Virtua Fighter:

 • Check out the scan of Akira there! It is devastatingly impressive! (You don’t have to make a Tumblr account! Become a Patron of The Video Game Archive TODAY!)
Silent Hill 2:
 • Literally the scariest game ever! So, it’s my favourite of being too afraid to play, I guess!
Mortal Kombat 3:
 • Smoke, obviously! (Wish I had MKII, too!)
Fallout 3:
 • Sniping w/ Ol’ Painless w/ 10 luck and missing every time
 • Stashing all the weapons in the women’s in Megaton
 • Save scumming for speech checks
 • Worshiping the lead pipe

つづく

Categories
Anime Being Gaming Music

次は初心者パート2の師匠です

Have you heard of ‘Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai’? The English title is ‘My Sister, My Writer’. I’m not particularly sure why it’s rated 43% on Anilist, 4.90 (out of 10, I’m assuming) on MAL, and 4.37 on aniDB, but at the very least, I enjoyed it. And now that I’m older and more mature (or is it because I’d seen so much anime?), the fun of the show shines through – almost blindingly so!

And so, I’m on my second viewing, and it’s reassuring these eyes that had thought so fondly of this story before hadn’t succumbed to an exaggerated fondness all this time. It makes me wonder what goes into bringing the absurd to life. That, in of itself, is an art I’ve flirted with:

 • The MC is your average, normal guy.
 • He has to save the world when he’s reincarnated in another world.
 • At the end of the story, after he’d saved the world, it is revealed that every single person he’d encountered in the world is a family member who’d reincarnated after dying in his lifetime on Earth.

Or:

 • The year is 1995; the future is here.
 • A startup company grows into the most beastly industry, taking the world by storm through the sale of original products that serve no purpose nor have any aesthetic value.

Or my grand opus:

 • The money stops working.

That final idea has an amount of pen to paper behind it, but… well… anyways…

Here lies the crux of this article: It appears I’ve burnt myself out of anime again. I just don’t feel like watching anything, and we’re coming into Summer, of all the things!

I promise you: I have tried to stay not burnt out too! Like I went and tried starting Arte and Strongest Exorcist again, yet each of these viewings made it only to episode two! See? I’m burnt out! I can’t help it! Over the course of the past week or so, there’d been a sprinkling of other titles like Goburin Sureiya-san (2nd viewing; episode seven—GET THIS MAN A POTION PRONTO!), My Sister, My Writer (2nd viewing; episode three) among others, too.

And so, I am here writing this while listening to POP | CULTURE 2, though it should be noted, this is the third day of putting it together. I’ve, more or less, just been coasting along for this past week, listening to music and wishing for more chances to participate in conversations on Discord. Heck! I even tried starting Edgerunners the other day! Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the kind of anime I’m interested in. And so, I am here trying to figure out how to make this article the least bit interesting…

It is pretty dumb that I want to engage with the user base of this Discord though, honestly. It’s frustrating to want to share the joy I get from anime (and, to a certain extent, manga) with people who have all been swept up by Internet chatroom culture. Like ‘fire and forget’ is a phrase that’d never been more applicable to communications, when it, in fact, is meant to describe a mechanism in games. It’s simple, really: Accept no one gives a fuck about your contributions to conversations, that they don’t share the same principles as you, that there are genuine otaku amongst the bunch, but mostly all have dissimilar tastes to you, and that heavily sprinkled amidst the ‘community’ are snowflakes and retards.

I do want to organize a good community of otaku on—POP | CULTURE 6 is now playing—somewhere. Discord is a waste of time because their ToS/community guidelines are all about inclusivity and compelled speech and, in general, encourages being a retard.

It’s only when I’d sorted through my frustrations that I always come back to the same conclusion: Why don’t I just be happy with the friends I have? The obvious answer is, ‘There is a part of me that still desires something of a wider sampling’. Maybe that… or something. Who knows? I guess they really meant it when they said humans are social creatures. Yet, in the same breath, it appears I’ve gained enough experience (of mainly the disappointment variety) to realize it’s so easy to bark up the wrong tree.

I guess we’re going to see if we can be a bit more honest on Twitter. I must say, it sure is difficult to make progress in this technological world while simultaneously minimizing the broadcasting of my stupidity. It’s like the pipeline of a futuristic online–physical hybrid lifestyle relentlessly tricks you into thinking you’ve reached the end line. It is at the top of the sins: stupidity. I am forgoing the use of cardinal because I don’t actually know what it means.

Anime’s Greatest Hits, pt. V: How to Love Your Antacid

These 3x3s represent me at a time when I, too, was clouded by an unforgiving attachment to false ideals. It is no excuse, but I throw myself at your feet, so that you may reconsider it was I who, despite my honourable intentions, had not a sober thought in my mind! Here, I present to you the new, inspired, and enlightened me:

Personally, it’s hard to believe there is a brief moment in my recent history (07-06-22) stained with such incredulity! Surely, the depths of one’s error can be only so demoralizing! Well, I have seen the light! I am reformed!

R.I.P., Kohaku and S01 of Misfit; you’ll forever be remembered as favourites in a time not so different from days passed.

Anime’s Greatest Hi—

I may be merrily speaking to myself, but wouldn’t it be amazing if 1 x ½ got animated? Additionally, let’s all put our hearts together and let out a resounding hurrah for Slime 300 2, Isekai Ken 2, Arifureta 3, DanMachi 5, 100 Girlfriends 2, Chained Soldier 2, another Quintuplets season (3, I think), and, of course, Maou-sama, Retry! R (because Tron will alone—single-handedly—save the world from despair and corruption before the slime spirit sisters get a chance! Why will this not be up to Fran, you ask? Because Fran is too fucking busy fucking saving the world from pain and destruction!) Looking into the future, there obviously are other anime to get excited about, but I kind of feel like wrapping this up… Oh! That sister harem story—*researches*—’Shiunji-ke no Kodomotachi’! Really, no idea how that one will turn out, but we’ll see; I know it’s the Rent-A-Girlfriend author’s project. Oh!!!!!!!! I just seen it now! Second season of Dress-Up Darling is TBA, too!

Maybe my next piece will have to do with anime we are in dire need of. For now, I’m going to have to tie this one into a neat little bow!

Categories
Gaming

A particular assortment of necromantic details

(Last edited: 01-03-24) CTRL+F is your friend! Herein, I will try to communicate all I know about necromancy, with little snippets about Necromage because it is relevant here. This page will be updated infrequently, but will be as I become aware of things in the future. Check in when the ‘last edited’ part changes; I will try to make summaries of updates available at the end of this page too. Note: I do have mods installed, but nothing that modifies leveling mechanics of NPCs. Additionally, I do not play with Dawnguard or any DLC (other than that high-res textures thing that Bethesda released). I do believe Dawnguard modifies the leveling behavior of vampires, but I know NOTHING of that! And and and… this information is applicable to someone who plays ‘SKYRIM LE’ (Legendary Edition).I know NEXT TO NOTHING of later editions of this game!

THERE ARE LOCATIONS WHERE LEVELS ARE DECIDED FOR RADIANT NPCS WHEN YOU ENTER THE CELL THE MAP MARKER/BUILDING IS LOCATED IN!!!!!!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!! And no, I do not know how to get Silvia and Vals Veran to be the levels they’re ‘supposed’ to be (or at least, higher than their minimum radiant tiers)!!!!!!!!

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Targets I know you must kill before 40 AND ARE RADIANT (this list will specify the last level you can be when they MUST be spawned into the game. More details will be provided below):

 • PC=28: Bashnag and Drelas
 • PC=30: Master Vampires, such as Movarth Piquine and Vighar, w/o Necromage
 • PC=35: Northwatch Interrogator*
 • PC=36: Briarhearts (all that I know of)
 • PC=38: Master Vampires, such as Movarth Piquine and Vighar, w/ Necromage
 • PC=47: Ancient Vampires (Necromage not needed)†
 • PC=48+: Volkihar Vampires w/ Necromage

* While Interrogator is not a ‘permanent’ corpse, he will never level up once spawned in the game (none of them do). Sadly, this means you can never have level 36 Guards (in glass) and (the one) Mage at the same time as an enthrallable level 40 Interrogator.
† They are typically replaced by Volkihar Vampires at PC=48. I know of only one place in the base game that spawns vampires at their stated levels on UESP (and is guaranteed), and that is during The Wolf Queen Awakened. There are two that you can choose between… four, if you’re a way higher level (sorry! I haven’t figured out the specific level all four become Volkihar!)

Targets who level beyond 40 AND HAVE LEVEL MULTIPLIERS, i.e., targets who require you to stunt your level to or below 40:

 • PC=26: Erandur – has level multiplier of 1.5
 • PC=32: Thorek, Veren Duleri, and Archmage Savos Aren – have level multiplers of 1.25
 • PC=34: Ulfric Stormcloak, and General Tullius – have level multipliers of 1.2
 • PC=37: Fjola (Bandit Leader) – has level multiplier of 1.1
 • PC=40: Lu’ah Al-Skaven, Estormo, Ancano, Madanach, Borkul the Beast, Kaie, Skjor, all housecarls, Cicero, and everyone in the Dark Brotherhood. Note: Aela the Huntress, Vilkas, and Farkas resurrect for ‘hunting trips’, so they are not safe for storage! I’d read that Skjor does too, but he has never resurrected for me.

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THE RADIANT TIER LIST

BRIARHEARTS’ TIERS (7-51):

@11=7, @12=16, @20=27, @28=38, @37=51

BASHNAG’S TIERS (12-46):

@9=12, @10=19, 16=27, @22=36, @29=46

MASTER VAMPIRES’ TIERS (14-53):

@15=14, @16=23, @23=31, @31=42, @39=53

NORTHWATCH INTERROGATOR’S TIERS (14-50):

@15=14, @16=23, @23=32, @29=40, @36=50

DRELAS’ TIERS (19-46):

@15=19, @16=27, @22=36, @29=46

BUTCHER’S TIERS (1-25):

@3=1, @4=9, @8=14, @12=19, @16=25

CAPTAIN HARGAR’S TIERS (9-25):

@7=9, @8=14, @12=19, @16=25

SARTHIS IDREN’S TIERS (6-28):

@13=6, @14=10, @19=16, @25=21, @29=28
IMPORTANT: Sarthis’ level typically locks into the 1st tier! To circumvent this, save BEFORE entering Riften Warehouse, enter, load that save from the main menu. Sarthis and Orini should level up by doing this!

BANDIT CHIEFS, GHUNZUL, & EISA BLACKTHORN’S TIERS (6-28):

@20=28 Note: Obviously not done yet!
IMPORTANT: Ghunzul’s level is locked in when you enter the CELL Cracked Tusk Keep is located in, not when you enter the building itself! ********In Ghunzul’s case, you can kill him, bring his body outside of Cracked Tusk Keep. Put an anchor in his inventory, leave for dur1 period, take anchor from him, wait dur3 period. Then, when you come back to Cracked Tusk Keep, wait an hour before entering the building. (From what I’ve investigated, this is how you get him to level up. No, the trick you can do with Sarthis to get him to level up doesn’t work with Ghunzul! Oh yea, and there are extra steps here, but you’ll have to forgive me, as I don’t have tons of patience to try everything for everything related to necromancy. I just know that this method does work. So, sorry if this is more work than really needed!)

ARONDIL’S TIERS (7-40):

@9=7, @10=14, @16=21, @22=30, @29=40

SILD THE WARLOCK’S TIERS (7=40):

@18=7, @19=14, @27=21, @36=30, @46=40
IMPORTANT: Sild’s level is locked in when you enter the CELL Rannveig’s Fast is located in, not when your enter the ruin!

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CORPSE BEHAVIOR SECTION:

Typically, the rule is, corpses are swept away once a ‘duration-one’ period (aka dur1 period) has passed. That is, one day plus to the next round hour. The periods of certain significance to a necromancer are ‘duration-three period’ – 30 days plus to the next round hour, ‘duration-two period’ – 10 days plus to the next round hour, and ‘duration-one period’ – one day plus to the next round hour. There are permanent corpses (they’ll never disappear nor need an anchor), and also, corpses that will reset/respawn dead back in the dungeon they were found in, too! I am not aware of any instances where a corpse will respawn, resurrect, or reset before a dur2 period has elasped. A number of corpses can be anchored-to-permanency. The general rule for corpses that can be anchored is, if they last a dur1 period, they’ll at least, be anchored until just short of a dur2 period. It’s fairly straightforward! The idea is to make them last longer in the game without needing as much maintenance!

Corpses that last dur3 period w/o anchor, i.e., permanent corpses:

Anska, Old Orc, Jaree-Ra, Ritual Master (and her three helpers), Sulla Trebatius, Umana, J’darr, Madanach and all his friends, includes Kaie, Duach, Odvan, Borkul the Beast; Atar (his relevant quest in Karthwasten must be halted. Otherwise is SFR, i.e., he is scripted for removal – and there is nothing you can do about it); Eisa Blackthorn (you cannot enter Frostmere Crypt, which means you cannot get all three Ice Form words); Salma (must be killed instead of Beem-Ja. If I recall correctly, she is SFR as soon as you leave Ironbind Barrow and Beem-Ja is dead); Kornalus; Telrav; Sild the Warlock; Chief Yamarz (beefy version (I don’t know about the weak version) will be permanent provided you haven’t finished The Cursed Tribe. It is possible to ‘legitimately’ progress through the quest and keep Yamarz as a permanent corpse if you either take Shagrol’s Hammer or let Yamarz confront you before he takes the hammer himself).

Corpses that last dur2 period w/o anchor:

Vighar (Dark Ancestor must be halted, i.e., cannot receive reward for this quest); Ghunzul; Rigel Strong-Arm; Bashnag

Corpses that last dur1 period w/o anchor:

Movarth Piquine (Laid to Rest must be halted, i.e., cannot receive reward from jarl lady)

Corpses that last dur3 period w/ anchor aka anchored-to-permanency:

Northwatch Interrogator, Drelas

Corpses that last dur1 period w/ anchor:

Any dremora (excluding summons)

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not named section

Drelas’ affinity (and level) is locked in when you enter his cottage, i.e., all you have to do to get the Drelas you want is save before entering.

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FOLGUNTHUR’S INVISIBLE WALL

Relevant if you want the strongest Gaulderson, Gaulder Blackblade and/or Blackbow (because if you lock one the other locks too)!

These three are from position #1! I chose it because it’s close to a tree! Originally, I thought you could walk up to the water, but you really can’t!

These two are from position #2! I chose it because I wanted to find out if you could pick this deathbell, and you can; just don’t walk past it!

This is position #3! I chose it because there are dragonflies here that you can catch, though I don’t know how liberal one can be when pursuing them. All I know is, you can stand here and not worry! TIP OF THE DAY: Stay way the hell away from Folgunthur! Don’t even go to Morthal until level 36 (the level when Blackblade and Blackbow are max!) In fact, don’t leave Riverwood until you’re level 100, just in case!

RANNVEIG’S FAST’S INVISIBLE WALL

Relevant if you want the strongest Sild!

Don’t run past this rock pictured in these screenies! You’ll lock Sild if you walk farther than this point!

GEIRMUND’S HALL INVISIBLE WALL

Relevant if you’re trying to get the strongest Gaulderson, Blackbow and/or Blackblade!

If you’ve ever wondered why the Gaulder Blackbow and Blackblade were weak as heck? It’s because you crossed any of the relevant invisible boundaries I’ve shown on this page, or you’ve read the book! The key level of importance is 36 when it comes to these weapons.

TELRAV’S SPAWN BOUNDARY

Relevant if you want the strongest Telrav!

This is spot #3! It’s right outside Sarethi Farm! It’s a good idea to approach Sarethi Farm from the east or south instead of by road. You’ll see why in a second.

Spot #1! I chose it because it’s on the road to Nilheim! Walking toward Nilheim, Telrav will level lock beyond this point if you take the road. You can give this section a wide birth to get to Sarethi Farm, i.e., stay off the road!

These are screenies from position #2! I chose it because it’s on the way to Snapleg Cave. Just trying to show that you can’t get the paralysis staff without level-locking Telrav.

GHUNZUL’S SPAWN BOUNDARY

Relevant if you don’t want to go through the trouble of trying to get him to level up after he’s spawned stunted!

You’ll notice here that I am far away from Cracked Tusk Keep. You walk past this point, Ghunzul will spawn in level-locked, indeed…

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AND MORE TO COME AS I GET AROUND TO TAKING NOTES, LEARNING, AND ADDING IT… I am currently in the process of putting together an anchor list, so there’s that… I do want to post pictures of the ‘commonly crossed’ boundary lines for NPCs whose radiant tiers are set in the ‘wilderness’ and not when entered indoors, e.g., Ghunzul, Sild, Mikrul, and Sigdis, etc.

As a closing note, I do really hope it doesn’t take me long to finish up this info package. I am hoping that by writing this as I am now that it makes me want to get those pictures up pronto! Let’s all cross our fingers! But in the meantime, I’ll release it as is because that’s the responsible thing to do!


NEW ADDITIONS SUMMARY SECTION

For edit date 29-02-24 (later in the day):
 • Added pictures of Folgunthur’s and Rannveig’s invisible wall
 • Added Tip of the Day. Blackbow & Blackblade are strongest at level 36!
For edit date 01-03-24:
 • Added more pictures: Geirmund’s Hall, Cracked Tusk Keep, & Telrav/Nilheim invisible walls

Categories
Gaming

… of toon analyses!

You’ll notice, given their filenames, that some toons have been revised. Namely, Keedra (technically not given away by the filename), Farelda, Yath-Ra, and Qa’ashi have had their perk points adjusted, with the intent to either increase the replayability factor or ‘correct’ oversights. While it isn’t something I pride myself in having done, I do think it makes sense to try to make the game even more fun, not a slog.

To make Aurnace’s build ‘possible’ after restarting her four times, I did give her a bunch of gold. The idea was to chop wood for however many nights, leaving the game on overnight, so that it did turn into legit gold, but I ran into a bug during my woodcutting that is quite widespread in the Skyrim world: NPC dialogue would cut out a word or so dependent on which way your were facing or something. (That was how a fine fellow over there on the Internets explained it.) This bug is SO stressful; I hate it! Not really because there is no fix, but because you never know if the fix will one day stop working, so…Suffice to say, I did two nights of woodcutting. Man, I’m so sorry about that, guys! I want it to be legit gold so bad! If you were curious, to fix this bug, delete your Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini. You will need to re-enable ‘Data Files’ selection for mods after booting up the game the first time. This is quite painless! Just type

I want it to be legit
gold so bad!

[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1

in SkyrimPrefs.ini (after it has been recreated!) I suggest finding the ‘[Launcher]’ parameters section and writing ‘bEnable…’ under it there, unless somehow your SkyrimPrefs doesn’t have one. There have been those who suggest you make a copy of the SkyrimPrefs.ini and Skyrim.ini before you delete them or move them. To find those two files, you’ll need to locate your Skyrim folder inside ‘Documents’ on your OS data drive. It should be pretty easy to locate! Steam keeps all your game saves and such inside the ‘my games’ folder. There are other ways I’d ‘cheated’ too, but you know, I’m really not going to list them all because I don’t want to tarnish my name. My mom already thinks I am a no-good cheater as it is; I don’t need my fans thinking all I do is cheat too!

LevelNameClassRaceHomeMarried toFavourite
thrall
Corpse
counter
18DunlagBlacksmithNordHoneysideNo oneNone0
20HarikNecromancerBretonHouse of
Clan Shatter-Shield
No one41
26TajiinNecromancerKhajiitProudspireNo one17
32Opal the Dragon Slayer
NecromageNordGoldenglow EstateNo one32
34Dastan the RunnerNecromancerRedguardHelgen KeepNo one30
37WillioNecromancerBretonBreezehomeNo one15
38Aurnace RirnellNecromancerBretonNilheimNo onePoacher?
Vighar?
21
40FareldaVampiric
Necromage
DunmerVlindrel HallAngrenor
Once-
Honoured
100
40KeedraVampiric NecromageArgonianHouse of
Clan Cruel-Sea
No one34
63 (unrestricted)WezzarFailed Pacifist, TraderBosmerArchmage QuartersNo one?None0
74 (unrestricted)Yath-RaVampire ArcherArgonianHall of AttainmentShahveeNone0
78 (unrestricted)ThaindilVampire
Thief
BosmerSarethi FarmNo oneNone0
81Riddle ‘The Legend’Max Heart Vampire BrawlerKhajiitHoneysideNo oneNone0
81Qa’ashiMax Heart Vampire
Brawler
KhajiitHoneysideNo oneNone10
‘Vampiric’? ‘Vampire’?

Willio is, technically, a failed stunted build presently. I overshot my goal of 37 by some amount when it came time to collect on some briarhearts. I have a save at 26 or 24 or somewhere in there, which may be utilized one day farther down the way to make him legit. All around: a very upsetting realization! Note to self: Be more wary of leveling one-handed and sneak! Putting that aside, he is a really hard build, like Aurnace, because avoiding Speech experience means lots of woodcutting. Really, Willio wouldn’t have been so hard to ‘pull off’ if I’d just resorted to dremora summons. You know, dremora summons are fun! They are! But it is nice to pull something else out of your toolbox once in a while!

I don’t know what Dunlag is doing. He’s just kind of running around with Benor in ebony gear right now. Hopefully, one day I’ll figure out what he’s doing.

Keedra is currently squeezing out every drop of potency from her potions with the use of the hair/head bug. It’s something I am sure she’ll move away from in the future because it’s a novelty type thing; just like it was for Wezzar, the idea is to have fun. Wezzar doesn’t use that bug to his advantage anymore though. It does make you feel like a dirty cheater, and really, when you’re trying to figure out legit build capabilities, exploits like that get in the way. There is an experiment somewhere in there, where we were going to discover how potent potions and poisons were as a vampiric necromage plus that exploit. We found out! And it’s over 9000!

Qa’ashi really isn’t a necromancer… Really! Really! I am being totally straight-faced right now! I don’t know why she has bodies! No, I don’t! It just sort of happens sometimes!

Yath-Ra is a blast to play! He’s got the most stamina regen. possible, forgoing exploits. And it’s hilarious! He doesn’t even ever dig into the other 7/8 of his total stamina. I did go with the thought folks had on Predator’s Grace: It bestows 100% stamina regen. now. I had always wondered about that 1%, man! Course this was before I learned muffle has different strengths… It’s actually quite the coincidence that I thought it would be fun to give him hide gear. It just works!

Opal is my darling toon. She kept the cursed ring of Hircine, so that Ra’kheran wouldn’t despawn. And it was some insane process to get him out of Bloated Man’s Grotto. I don’t know what I did, but it is on my bucket list to try and put together a how-to… how to do it. Her and Harik each have a glaring error, if you want to call it that, in their perk trees. I’d provided to you the perk trees; see if you can spot them without knowing their playstyles!

Dastan is really on the back burner of back burners because he somehow got Madanach and friends’ AIs to break. And of course, I’d tried to uncover what it was that caused that with Harik (because he has them too), to no avail. And I tried everything I could think of! Well, the only things I have left to try is, cause Thonar to go home somehow (because he’s currently bugged out… just standing there). My guess is, Dastan got him to go home, and that broke their AIs. Something like that. Long story short, he lost ages of progress! And I mean ages! And you know, under these circumstances, the only right thing to do is do it all over agin! I am just so thankful he still has all his good gear!

My vampire thief, Thaindil, is pretty awesome despite not being able to really take advantage of pickpocketing enchantments and potions. But that’s okay… He was fun to bring to fruition!

Tajiin, Farelda, and Riddle seem to be the last three guys here that I haven’t talked about. Well, Farelda takes advantage of the restoration loop exploit to make custom smithing potions. I’ve been on the fence trying to figure out if that’s what she’s going to be doing forever. There is a mix of sunk cost fallacy involved plus basically being content with leaving her for the archives. I know I took the time to play around with her perk points a bit. I guess I could put that up on the screen. Here:

So, as you can see, I fiddled with her destruction tree, her alteration tree, and her enchanting tree. I rather came to a realization after having rearranged things that the way I want to play her hasn’t changed, and by that token, she’s still particularly annoying. It has to do with the spell absorption plus circle of protection exploit when undead yourself. It is very possible to break the spell absorption effect, e.g., when giants strike the ground with their club, dragon swoops when they’re close enough (I seem to recall), dragon AOE attacks—basically anything that causes the screen to shake. It can be restored with a friendly fire storm atronach AOE attack, mind you, but it is pretty inconvenient… and deadly when you’re magicka is constantly depleted and you can be killed in like one hit from anything… haha! It’s called an exploit by many; however, to a stunted build, it’s opportunity, and the skill ceiling is much higher than any other playstyle I can think of in Skyrim.

Tajiin is just a guy hanging out… no… I guess there’s a little bit more to him than that! He killed Cicero. Please don’t be shocked! Mirnayne killed him too… She’s one of four level ones I have though, so does that really count?

And finally, Riddle! Riddle likes the brawl and beat people up with his FISTS!!!!!!!! Not sure if there’s anything else worth mentioning for him. Yea, Qa’ashi is his daughter, but she likes to mix things up a bit more than her father!

And there you have it! A brief look into 14ish of my 20 characters (excluding Vulk because he’s a failed waste of space). Make sure lo treat your dead with care, folks. You never know if some necromancer will come along and give them new life!

Categories
Gaming

A smattering of Hyperion // Borderlands (2009)

b4 AR520.W Punishing Cobra lvl58 Hyperion
b5 AR520.W Deathly Cobra lvl58 Hyperion
b5 AR500.W Punishing Pounder lvl58 Hyperion
b4 AR500.W Punishing Pounder lvl58 Hyperion
bo3 TCH320.W Lightning Destroyer lvl58 Hyperion
bo5 AR520.W Deathly Destroyer lvl58 Hyperion
b4 ZPR43.W Angry Brute lvl58 Hyperion
bo3 ZX43.W Lightning Death lvl58 Hyperion
b4 TMP8.W Double Torment lvl58 Hyperion
b3 TMP8.W Lightning Machine Pistol lvl58 Hyperion
b4 HRD5.W Double Raptor lvl58 Hyperion
bo3 TK5.W Lightning Needler lvl58 Hyperion
b4 HX 540.W Double Stinger lvl58 Hyperion
b4 HX 540.W Red Stinger lvl58 Hyperion
bo3 TEK330.W Fulgurating Bitch lvl58 Hyperion
bo3 TEK330.W Fulgurating Stinger lvl58 Hyperion
dg RWL770.W Spread Rocket Launcher lvl58 Hyperion
Categories
Gaming

Gurzgo The Greatest Arch Necromage | Dead Thrall Guide No. 0001: Broken Oar Grotto pt. 0001

This is a big ol’ copy-paste from my Facebook group (that no one is a member of because I am super popular). Be sure to join! *whisper* There’s actually no point in joining it because I plan to bring everything there here! Hurray!!!!!!!!

EDITⅠ̅Ⅴ̅: As it turns out, this guide is still relevant too, because Bethesda neglected to fix this bug in AE (‘Anniversary Edition’) and SE (‘Special Edition’)!

*by ‘anyone else’, it is meant ‘any NPCs that are spawned in or native to Broken Oar Grotto’. There is another separate way to retrieve thralls that were brought inside the place.

This part is intended for ‘Oldrim’ aka original Skyrim. Broken Oar Grotto may very well have been patched in later releases.

① Things you will need:
Fear, Unrelenting Force, some way to deal damage at a distance (there is killing involved, go figure)

② Optional:
Calm, some way to paralyse the target

• Now… kite the individual you wish to take from Broken Oar Grotto over to the entrance. You will then want to coordinate it so that your soon-to-be dead is fleeing to the entrance by using Fear. I recommend using Calm when you need a break to replenish magicka. Prior to this you will want their health to be low enough to kill easily as well.

• Make a save around this point; saves you some trouble!

• There are two cowering ‘positions’ at the entrance you will take note of. They must run to the right-hand one as it is far closer to the raised ground at the mouth of Broken Oar Grotto. This raised ground is the target when using Unrelenting Force. And, at this point, by encroaching on him, he will attempt to run past you, and this is when you must use Unrelenting Force to throw him up atop the hill. (Remember to look a little down and a little to the right of his person. This is so that the force will direct him up and slightly to the left.) The body MUST land head first out the grotto and MUST land stable and still. If the body begins to slide down or is feet first, his person will reanimate undead inside the disconnected area. You do not want this. You want his person to reanimate undead atop the hill in the accessible-to-the-rest-of-Skyrim area. This will take a lot of trial and error. I guarantee it! The body also cannot be moved by using Ice Spike or any other means of ‘artificial’ placement. Any post-mortem adjustments are a waste of time. Initial position of death HAS to be quite precise, really. It is possible to blow them too far, too! Expect to waste a lot of time!

• Make another save after you kill them (and know you have to glitch them into a moonwalk…).

• Causing a moonwalk on purpose:
⒜ Cause an enemy to fall over by any number of techniques; for example, Paralyze, Deep Freeze, Unrelenting Force. These will all succeed to this end.
⒝ Kill enemy when they begin to get back up.
⒞ Enthrall
⒟ Do not reload. Saving and then reloading ‘resets’ the status of the body so this glitch will not happen.

REMEMBER: They have to die in exactly the right way. Expect to do this a lot! We’re talking perfection here!

• There is a Slaughterfish spawn just outside Broken Oar too. You will need to kill it before any of this. Sorry! I just remembered it! Quickness may not be essential because you are causing the reanimated thrall to moonwalk, but nevertheless, you WILL want to leave Broken Oar Grotto before you see the animation (because that may be required; just in case, am I right? Feel free to go bonkers testing this out!). Also, don’t worry about how the target moves after being hit by the Dead Thrall spell! ‘It only matters where they died’.

• After enthralling (and exiting almost instantaneously), I found success by Fast-Travelling to Windhelm. I then entered Candlehearth Hall, and then reloaded the auto-save. I exited Windhelm via main gate. It is here that I saw Captain Hargar running towards me (he was my first success). You may find some other ‘Fast-Travel combination’ that works better. I do believe a minimum distance/time spent in fast-travel is required for this to work. It is, after all, kind of similar to GR’ing….

I wish you nothing but the best of luck retrieving characters from Broken Oar Grotto! It is possible!

Original method discovered ~Jan. 16th, 2015. Tested and proven on both Xbox 360 and PC (at a much later time).

I, also, kind of lied: I have made some alterations to the text from the Facebook group guide post. Some changes, I felt, were necessary.

And now on to the next Skyrim guide thing that’ll not yet be released!

PS: If all this sounds crazy, it’s because it is, and it took a super long time to get one achievement; and then an equal amount of super-long time to figure out what it was that was working to begin with.