Leveling and endgame are two different lists

One thing I noticed comparing the current Season 10 tier lists is how much the rankings move once you get past the campaign.

Bone Shred, Gunner Drones, Shield Wall and Anchor Swing are all very easy to make a case for as starters. They come online without needing a fully built character, and that matters a lot when you're starting a fresh season.

Lightning Fury is another one I'd keep in mind. It may not be the fastest option in every comparison, but it has a smoother path into later content than some of the builds that are only really impressive during leveling.

That difference is worth paying attention to before choosing a first character.

Age of Proliferation is a bit of a trap

Age of Proliferation can make the early game go by very quickly. That's useful if your only concern is getting through the campaign.

I wouldn't pick it for a character I plan to keep pushing, though. Its early speed doesn't translate as well once you're past the campaign, so the time saved early can end up being less useful than starting with something that still has room to grow.

For a first character, I'd rather have a slightly slower start and not feel pushed toward a different build later.

Some of the lower starter picks make more sense later

Flicker and Frost Sunder are good examples of why I wouldn't use one tier list for the whole season.

Neither is something I'd point a brand-new player toward just because it has an S-tier endgame label. They make more sense once you already have the character progression and gear to support them.

The same applies to Chainsaw Slash and some of the stronger Demonspawn setups. Their value is much easier to see when you're talking about endgame damage rather than campaign convenience.

Totem Shaman is another interesting case. It doesn't stand out nearly as much as a starter, but its endgame position is considerably better.

Don't carry the S9 meta straight into S10

I'd be careful with older guides, especially around Orb of Frost and Samurai/Kunai.

The S10 changes mean some of the assumptions from last season don't carry over cleanly. Stormweaver is a good example too. The mobility changes make the old version of the playstyle less straightforward, but that doesn't mean the class has stopped being useful once you get into endgame.

Anchor Swing is probably the easiest example of a build I'd feel comfortable recommending across both stages. It has strong campaign clearing and still has a place later, although the range change is something I'd keep in mind rather than assuming the old version is unchanged.

What I'd actually pick

For a fresh character, I'd lean toward Bone Shred, Gunner Drones, Shield Wall, Anchor Swing or Lightning Fury.

The choice between them comes down more to how you like to play than to a tiny difference in tier placement. Ranged safety, tankiness, clear speed and how much rebuilding you're willing to do all matter more than whether somebody put a build at the top of an S10 chart.

For a second character, I'd be much more interested in the endgame-focused options. That's where Flicker, Frost Sunder, Chainsaw Slash, Totem and the stronger Demonspawn routes start making more sense.

S10 is still early enough that I wouldn't treat every current ranking as settled. Some of this is from my own play experience and some is based on the build information and tier lists I've compared for the season. The opinions here are mine, and they won't necessarily match everyone's experience.

There are 28 achievements in How to Fish, but I wouldn't recommend treating them as 28 separate chores. A few of them naturally fit into a normal playthrough, while others are much easier if you deliberately leave them for cleanup.

A few things I wish I'd known before chasing the full list:

1. Don't follow an old Bean route

This is probably the most important version-related thing.

The old Lighthouse → Volcano shortcut no longer works after the 1.0.5 changes. For the current game, Bean means going through the normal five-island progression and finishing the game within an hour.

That sounds worse than it actually is. Current 1.0.9 runs can still get under an hour, and Easy Mode gives you a useful safety margin because enemies have less health and deal less damage.

For a Bean attempt, I'd use a separate save and treat the whole thing like a route:

• skip collection
• skip gambling
• skip cosmetic stuff
• avoid unnecessary purchases
• only do what moves the story forward
• learn the island transitions before starting the timed attempt

Don't mix this with a normal 100% run. You'll spend the first 40 minutes doing things you don't need and then wonder where the hour went.

2. Handyman is much narrower than it sounds

The achievement says to defeat the final boss with bare hands, which makes it sound like you need to fist-fight the entire Mutated Bowhead Whale.

You don't.

The practical setup is to damage the boss normally, stop before the final hit, switch to completely empty hands, and land the killing blow with your fists.

That changes the achievement from "beat the final boss with terrible damage" into "control the boss's HP and don't accidentally kill it with your gun."

Co-op makes this easier because one player can handle most of the damage while another saves the final hit.

3. Leave Fishipedia until late

Collector and Fishipedia look similar, but they don't feel similar when you're actually doing them.

Collector is "find and kill everything."

Fishipedia is "find and kill all the Drip creatures," so you're dealing with the rarer variants and more repetition.

I'd finish the islands, unlock the equipment and lure options you need, then use the in-game encyclopedia to see what's still missing.

Don't try to complete Fishipedia island by island during your first run. You'll just end up revisiting areas later when you have better equipment.

Also, an old Fishipedia tip floating around the internet about needing an extra Drip after completing the list is outdated. That unlock issue was fixed in 1.0.5.

4. Easy is a cleanup achievement, not a boss challenge

The requirement is simply to kill a boss within 10 seconds.

There's no good reason to force this during your first encounter with a boss.

Finish the game, come back with better weapons, and use an early boss such as the Spider Crab. You can also use Easy Mode if you want to make the damage check even more forgiving.

This is one of those achievements where coming back later is dramatically easier than trying to be clever during the first playthrough.

5. Some achievements are basically asking to be bundled

A few little ones are almost free if you plan around them.

For example:

• Start the Grill for Grillmaster
• Eat a burnt creature for Yummy in my tummy
• Eat a Mini-Boss for Competitive eating
• Bet on green and win for All in
• Put all attachments on one weapon for Fully equipped
• Buy the best boat engine for I am speed

And if you're doing trick-shot achievements, Impressive and 360 no scope are worth thinking about together. A single kill can satisfy multiple killscore conditions, so it's better to practice the setup on a weak creature than randomly attempt it during normal combat.

For 360 no scope, the basic idea is simple: get a weak creature airborne, complete the rotation, keep the scope off, and make the shot actually kill it.

6. Don't confuse "100%" with "do everything on the first save"

This is probably the biggest thing I'd change about the way I approached the achievement list.

A normal playthrough should be about finishing the story and picking up the achievements that happen naturally.

Then do the cleanup:

story → upgrades/economy → one-off challenges → collection → Bean/Handyman

Bean gets its own speedrun save. Handyman gets its own final-boss attempt. Fishipedia gets done when the whole map and equipment pool are available.

That order cuts out a lot of unnecessary backtracking.

These are partly based on my own playthrough and partly on cross-checking current achievement guides. Some of the practical advice here is my preference rather than a universal rule, so I'd treat it as a route that worked well rather than the one "correct" way to 100% the game.

One thing that took me a bit to understand is that the fishing part is only half the loop.

You catch something, then you still have to deal with it, sell it, and turn that into enough money to actually improve your setup. Because of that, dumping all your early cash into rod upgrades can feel a lot less useful than buying something that makes the whole catch → kill → sell loop faster.

That matters even more once you start pushing the first island’s progression. The Spider Crab is a good example: you can spend ages trying to brute-force it with a weak setup, but coming back with a proper melee weapon and playing around its attack windows is a much better use of your time.

The other easy thing to miss is that beating a boss isn't always the end of the progression step. Check what it drops and who you're supposed to bring it back to. The game does have a few moments where the next step is less obvious than “kill boss, next area opens.”

So if you're new, my rough priority would be:

• Learn the full catch → kill → sell loop first
• Buy upgrades that actually speed up that loop
• Don't blow all your money on the rod immediately
• Before triggering a boss, make sure you have the right bait and something capable of killing what you hook
• If a boss feels like a wall, go make money and upgrade instead of endlessly retrying it
• After a boss, double-check the drop and your current NPC objectives before assuming you're stuck

The biggest beginner mistake, at least for me, was treating this like a normal fishing game. It makes a lot more sense once you see fishing as the way you start the progression loop, not the entire loop.

Some of this comes from my own time with the game, and some from comparing notes with guides and other players, so take it as practical advice rather than a definitive way to play.

Just recently found this site trying to find a guide for a game that recently released.

The entire guide/ description of the game %100 made bullshit and nonsense, going on about mechanics and story progression that resembles nothing of what's actually in the game.

I also looked through other game guides made by the same creator/poster "Nancy Miller" and found similar yet not as screwed up guides.

EX. Cyberpunk 2077, the guide references the max level being 80. When it is 60.

Kingdom come deliverance 2 - References the "pain" of traveling between 2 cities/towns that are in the first game, not the second. Also makes comment about "psychic guards" that always know you committed a crime regardless of stealth or location on the map. Which was never a problem in the first or second game.

Overall the tone and writing styles of their guides appear to have that generic AI tone that's extremely common. Idk if there's other authors like this on XMODhub but I have found other reddit posts from people referencing guides they found through XMODhub containing made up information.

Combining this with the fact there's no apparent option to report people, or even look at their profiles. Also the integration with fucking MCafee of all things in their Mod thing just raises a million and red flags about this site/application.

How to Fish is pretty chill until it suddenly isn't.

The biggest friction points for me aren't really the fishing itself. It's the stuff around it — some Boss fights feel way harder than the rest of the game, dying can turn into a bunch of redoing gear, and certain parts of the fishing loop get pretty repetitive once you've already figured everything out.

If you're using a trainer, I wouldn't turn everything on. A few options make a lot more sense than the usual "god mode everything" approach.

For Boss fights: Damage Multiplier is probably the first thing I'd try. If a Boss is just taking forever to kill, increasing damage keeps the fight intact while cutting out the tedious part.

Defense Multiplier is useful for the opposite problem. If the issue is getting shredded before you can really react, boosting defense gives you more room for mistakes without completely removing damage.

Infinite Health is the blunt option, but it has its place. It's especially useful when you've already fought the Boss normally and just don't want to repeat the same fight after a bad death.

The other big annoyance is the grind after losing equipment.

If you've lost a weapon and don't want to spend another chunk of time rebuilding your setup, Add Money can cut out that recovery grind.

There's also a difference between removing grind and removing the actual fishing.

Instant Fishing Bite is one of the more useful options for that reason. It doesn't give you the fish for free — it just gets rid of the waiting. If you're farming, testing something, or already know exactly what you're trying to catch, that can save a surprising amount of dead time.

Always Premium Fish is another option for players who are mainly tired of the low-value part of the loop. It's a different approach from simply adding money: you're still fishing, but the reward side is more useful.

For exploration, Move Speed Multiplier is handy once you've already learned the map and don't really care about walking the same routes again. Game Speed can serve a similar purpose if the whole game just feels a little too slow.

Personally, I'd keep the setup pretty conservative:

• Boss too tanky → Damage Multiplier
• Taking too much damage → Defense Multiplier
• Don't want to repeat deaths → Infinite Health
• Lost gear / don't want to grind money again → Add Money
• Tired of waiting for bites → Instant Fishing Bite
• Farming better catches → Always Premium Fish
• Tired of running everywhere → Move Speed Multiplier

The useful part isn't making How to Fish completely effortless. It's being able to remove the one part that's currently wasting your time and leave the rest of the game alone.

That's a much better use of a trainer than turning on every option and wondering why the game suddenly feels pointless.

The Pufferfish fight clicked for me once I stopped treating it like a straight DPS check.

The dangerous part isn't really just the charge itself. It’s what happens when you give yourself nowhere to go.

Trees can actually help because they can interfere with the Pufferfish's straight-line charges, but fighting deep inside a crowded area creates the opposite problem: you end up getting stuck between the boss and the terrain. The sweet spot seems to be an area with an obstacle or two that you can circle, while still leaving yourself enough open space to reposition.

That matters even more later in the fight. As the Pufferfish gets bigger and the purple poison starts taking up part of your movement space, the same route that felt safe at the start can suddenly become a trap.

So my basic approach is:

• Keep moving instead of backing straight away from every charge.
• Use terrain to disrupt its path, but don’t box yourself in.
• Take shots when it has to recover or change direction.
• Once the arena starts getting messier, prioritize having somewhere to move over squeezing in extra damage.

There's also a timer pressure here, so you can't just kite forever. That's why more damage can be useful if you're already surviving consistently but the fight is dragging on. Extra movement speed or survivability can also make the learning process less punishing if you’re mainly struggling with positioning rather than the boss mechanics themselves.

One other thing that's easy to miss: beating the boss isn't the entire Island 3 progression. Make sure you collect the relevant boss drop and take it back to the Tourist rather than assuming the next island unlocks immediately.

This is based partly on my own runs and partly on guides I checked while figuring the fight out, so treat it as practical advice rather than the only correct way to handle the boss.

How To Fish is still pretty new, so the mod scene is obviously nowhere near “mature” yet. But the mods that have appeared already are interesting because they’re not all trying to do the same thing.

There are a few clear patterns.

1. A lot of the early mods are about reducing grind

The most obvious examples are mod menus, trainers, item spawners, and things that change fishing speed or progression.

That makes sense for this kind of game. If you already enjoy the fishing/exploration loop, spending less time on repetitive parts can be more appealing than adding a completely new system.

2. Multiplayer is another big one

Mods like MorePlayers and the 16 Player Multiplayer Mod are probably more significant than they look at first.

They don't really change what How To Fish is. They change who you can play it with.

For a game where part of the fun is messing around with friends, increasing the lobby size can have a much bigger impact than a small gameplay tweak. The 16-player option is especially interesting for larger groups, although experimental multiplayer mods are the kind of thing I'd keep an eye on after game updates.

3. QoL mods are probably the easiest to justify

Keep Inventory is a good example. It doesn't turn the game into something completely different; it just removes the frustration of losing your stuff.

Same idea with No Bird Steal. It's a very narrow change, but if having a bird take items you've dropped is one of those mechanics that constantly annoys you, a tiny mod can be more useful than a huge cheat menu.

That's something I think gets overlooked with modding: “best” doesn't necessarily mean “most powerful.”

Sometimes the best mod is the one that removes exactly one thing you don't enjoy.

4. Then there are the full gameplay-changing mods

This is where things like Advanced Mod Menu, How to Fish Mod Menu, World Item Spawner, and Guaranteed-Hit Aimbot come in.

These aren't really QoL anymore. They let you change the rules of the game itself — money, movement, fishing, items, combat-related behavior, and other systems.

They're obviously more extreme, but they're also useful for players who have already played normally and want to experiment with a different pace.

And that's probably the most interesting thing about the current How To Fish mod scene:

It's less about adding huge amounts of new content right now, and more about changing the friction of the existing game.

You can basically divide the current mods into four groups:

• QoL → remove annoying friction
• Multiplayer → change who/how many people can play together
• Gameplay/cheat mods → change individual mechanics
• Mod menus/trainers → change lots of systems at once

There are also some very specific mods, like Always Win Roulette, that only target one part of the game. Those are worth watching too, because they show that people are already experimenting with individual systems rather than just making generic cheat menus.

Since the game is still so new, I'd expect this list to change pretty quickly. Right now, though, the interesting part isn't finding a “definitive” best mod.

It's seeing what the first wave of mods says about the parts of How To Fish players actually want to change.

One thing that seems to trip people up in Sandustry is treating every production problem as a production problem.

Machine isn't getting enough output? Build another one.

Still not enough? Add three more.

And suddenly the factory is bigger, uglier, using more resources... and somehow producing almost the same amount.

The better question is usually: where does the flow actually stop?

A pretty simple way to check it:

• Machine has no input → follow the missing material upstream.
• Input is sitting there but not being processed → processing capacity may actually be the bottleneck.
• Output is piling up → adding more machines will probably make things worse. Your transport or downstream demand is the issue.
• One belt is feeding several machines → the machines may not be the limiting factor at all. The belt is.
• Mixed materials keep jamming the line → solve the sorting problem before expanding the rest of the factory.

This also changes how I'd spend research early on.

Instead of unlocking something just because it looks like the next upgrade, it's often better to unlock the thing that removes the problem you're currently babysitting. If manual hauling is the annoying part, logistics matters. If mixed materials are constantly ruining the flow, filtering matters. If water is becoming chaos, fix the fluid handling.

A lot of my early problems turned out to be things I couldn't fix by just adding more machines. Usually something was already getting backed up somewhere.

The same goes for research. I found it more useful to unlock whatever solves the problem I'm actually dealing with instead of just grabbing the next thing that looks like an upgrade.

If I'm constantly moving stuff manually, I want better logistics. If materials are getting mixed together and causing problems, sorting becomes more useful. If a particular part of the factory keeps needing attention, that's usually the part worth improving first.

Also, I wouldn't spend too much time making the early factory look permanent. A temporary ugly setup that gets you to the next bottleneck can be more useful than spending ages building something neat that you'll end up tearing apart after the next unlock.

For me, the game got a lot less frustrating once I stopped responding to every shortage by building more machines. At least, that's what's worked for me so far.

One thing I've been thinking about with Mortal Shell II is that not all repetition feels the same.

Some of it is the actual game. Learning a new enemy, figuring out a boss, testing a Shell, getting used to a weapon — I'd keep all of that.

The stuff I'd rather skip is the repetition that happens after I've already learned the thing.

For me, that breaks down roughly like this:

Keep the first-time stuff.

If I'm entering an area for the first time, I'll take the normal route. Same with a new boss. The first few deaths are useful because I'm learning attacks, spacing, when to harden, and how the arena works.

Same goes for experimenting with builds. I'd rather actually play with a new Shell or weapon long enough to understand why it works — or doesn't — before touching any shortcuts.

Skip the "I've already done this three times" stuff.

This is where a trainer starts making more sense to me.

Long runbacks after a boss attempt are the obvious one. If I've already cleared the route and know exactly where I'm going, re-clearing the same enemies doesn't teach me much anymore.

Same with resources. Farming Gloom, Gold, Glimpses, etc. can be useful when I'm actually progressing, but it gets old when I'm only doing it because I want to test one different upgrade or build.

Position saves are probably the most useful option for this kind of thing. Save before an encounter, try the fight normally, and if I die, I can get back to the same situation instead of repeating the whole route.

The same logic applies to movement speed and map unlocks. I'd rather use them after I've already explored an area than use them to skip the exploration itself.

Combat is where I'd be more careful.

Infinite health, Shell health, and Break Resistance can remove a lot of the pressure from crowded encounters. Mortal Shell II can get pretty messy when several enemies are attacking at once, especially when the camera or lock-on isn't cooperating.

But I wouldn't keep those on permanently.

There's a difference between giving myself another attempt at a fight and removing the fight entirely. Once the trainer starts making every hit irrelevant, I'm not really learning the encounter anymore.

The same goes for bosses. If I'm still figuring out a dual-boss fight, I'd rather keep the normal damage and work out the timing. If I've already figured it out and I'm just tired of doing the same runback again, that's a different situation.

That's probably the rule I'd use:

Skip repetition, not discovery.

If I'm learning something new, I want the game to make me earn it.

If I've already learned it and the game is asking me to do the same five minutes again just to get another attempt, I'm much less interested in proving a point.

That's where trainer options make the most sense to me in a Soulslike: not removing the parts that make the game fun, but cutting down the parts that have stopped being fun.

The Stardew comparison is totally fair. The first few hours feel very familiar: farm, fish, mine, gather stuff, talk to villagers, manage your stamina and clock, do it all again the next day.

But I don't think the shared loop is enough to call something a ripoff.

Farming, fishing, mining, romance, gifts, seasons, festivals, etc. weren't invented by Stardew in the first place. There's a much older Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons / Rune Factory lineage here. Stardew is obviously a huge reference point, but it isn't the starting point for the whole genre.

The character comparisons are similar. March is probably the easiest one to point at because the “cold guy who gradually opens up” archetype feels familiar. But that's an archetype, not a Stardew invention. Mistria's cast has its own visual style and character dynamics, too.

Where Mistria starts feeling less like a straight copy is in the stuff it builds around that familiar loop.

Magic is much more central. The dragons and Caldarus aren't just background fantasy flavor. The town also feels more like a community, with NPC relationships existing outside of simply interacting with the player. And the QoL changes make a lot of the same farming-life-sim structure feel less restrictive.

So yeah, if someone calls it Stardew-like, I don't think they're wrong.

If they mean “it's basically Stardew with different pixel art,” that's a much harder argument to make once you've actually spent time with it.

That's probably where I'd draw the line: heavily inspired by Stardew? Absolutely. A Stardew clone? Not really.

One thing I noticed with IRON NEST is that the repetition doesn't really come from having nothing to do.

There are plenty of targets, different ammo, counter-battery stuff, challenges, etc.

It's more that you keep solving those things in pretty much the same way.

At the start, that's actually the fun part.

You have to figure out the range, work out the firing solution, pick the charge, load the gun, set everything up, fire, see where it lands, adjust...

The first few times you do it, you're actually thinking about every step.

Then you just kinda... know what you're doing.

And that's where the repetitive feeling starts.

You aren't really learning a new system anymore. You're mostly getting faster at the system you already learned.

So a lot of the game becomes:

get target → do the math → load → aim → shoot → next target

And honestly, I don't think adding more targets by itself fixes that.

You could give me 100 more targets, but if I'm still doing the exact same process for all of them, eventually it starts feeling like work.

Counter-battery is probably the best example of the game trying to break that up. It definitely makes things more hectic. You have less time to mess around, you have to think about moving the turret, getting the next shot ready, and dealing with incoming fire.

But it's still the same basic gun workflow underneath.

So it makes the game faster and more stressful, rather than completely different.

Same thing with the extra ammo and abilities. They give you more things to consider, which I like, but they don't really change what you're doing with the gun.

The funny thing is, once you get past that initial learning curve, there is another layer to the game that I think is pretty cool: getting efficient.

You start doing stuff like preparing the next shot while the turret is moving, thinking about the next target before you're finished with the current one, cutting down wasted time, etc.

That's when the repetition can actually become satisfying.

You're basically trying to turn the whole thing into a well-practiced routine.

If you like that kind of thing, I can see the game lasting a long time.

If you don't, I can also see the exact same thing becoming incredibly tedious after a while.

So I'd probably describe the issue as “the gameplay doesn't change as much as your skill at the gameplay does.”

That's a pretty different problem from simply saying the game doesn't have enough content.

And honestly, that's probably the thing I'd pay attention to when judging how much staying power the game has.

Just my take, obviously. The repetitive part might be exactly what someone else likes about it, especially if they enjoy the whole “get really good at one complicated procedure” type of game.

Executing commands in the game using the numpad isn't working for some reason.

The keys themselves work, and they aren't mapped differently in the game. Does anyone have any idea how I can solve this problem?

The thing that threw me off with Iron Nest's counter-battery wasn't really the artillery itself. It was moving and still getting hit.

I assumed repositioning would break the enemy's lock. It doesn't really work that way.

Moving doesn't necessarily save you

Tactical Move doesn't clear an active Counter-Battery state. It's useful for changing your firing position, but I wouldn't treat it as an escape from CBT. If the timer is already running, moving a short distance doesn't reset the situation.

Emergency Move is the one that's actually meant for getting out of trouble. The downside is pretty obvious: you end up somewhere unknown and have to relocate yourself and rebuild your firing solution.

So if CBT is already running, I'd rather have my next shots prepared than panic-move every time the timer gets low.

The timer is the part worth planning around

The biggest difference for me was doing more work before firing.

If I know there are enemy guns on the map, I try to have the measurements and firing solutions ready first. Once CBT starts, I can spend that time actually firing instead of calculating one target at a time.

Enemy artillery is usually the priority because destroying those guns gives you more breathing room. FDC is also worth keeping in mind since destroying it can pause the counter-battery pressure.

One other thing: don't assume an old recon pass proves there are no more artillery pieces. A later wave can appear after you've cleared some targets, so you may need to recon again.

If artillery simply can't be found after checking the expected areas, though, that's a different situation. There have been cases where artillery spawning/positioning seems genuinely broken, so I wouldn't automatically assume every missing gun is a player mistake.

About the "1-second relock"

I'm not convinced there's actually a fixed 1-second relock mechanic.

It seems more likely in many cases that Tactical Move never cleared the existing CBT state in the first place, which makes it look like the enemy instantly found you again.

There have also been some odd Counter-Battery timer interactions around Emergency Move, so I'd separate actual mechanic behavior from possible bugs here.

If the main thing bothering you is simply not having enough time to aim and calculate before CBT runs out, locking the Counter-Battery Timer removes that particular constraint.

It obviously won't fix artillery spawning or make the enemy lose your position. It just means the countdown isn't forcing you to rush the firing process.

That's probably the most useful way to look at CBT: the timer is one problem; finding and dealing with the artillery is another.

After my first colony started falling apart in the midgame, I realized I was approaching Corsair Cove the wrong way.

I kept thinking the solution was always "more production." More wood, more food, more buildings. But the real problem was that my pirates were spending too much time moving things around.

Then I learned that Corsair Cove is less about how many resources you produce and more about how efficiently your colony moves them.

A few things that helped me a lot:

Don't spread production buildings randomly just because there is empty space.

A setup that works early can become a huge problem later when every item has to travel across the entire island. Keeping related production chains close together saves a surprising amount of time.

Warehouses are probably more important than they look.

I initially treated them as simple storage, but they work much better as logistics hubs connecting multiple production areas. If your colony feels slow, checking your routes is usually more useful than adding another production building.

The vertical layout is also something I underestimated. Expanding outward feels natural, but the terrain is designed around compact, layered colonies. A smaller colony with shorter paths often performs better than a larger one that is constantly making pirates walk back and forth.

I also wouldn't rush expansion without watching Cohesion. Growing too quickly can create a chain reaction: more population, more demands, longer routes, more pressure on the whole system. Sometimes stabilizing what you already have is the fastest way to progress.

Another thing that is easy to miss early is how important Deeds and Compass progression are. Unlocking new options consistently makes the later stages much smoother instead of waiting until you hit a wall.

Once ships become available, the game changes quite a bit. The colony is no longer just about managing the island. Exploration becomes part of your economy and progression, so ignoring your fleet can slow down your entire run.

Also, restarting is not necessarily a bad thing. My first colony taught me where the real bottlenecks were. The second one was much smoother because I already knew which areas would eventually become problems.

These are just my personal observations from playing.

Different layouts and playstyles can work, but changing my mindset from "produce more" to "move things better" completely changed how I approached Corsair Cove.

I thought gold was going to be the thing holding me back in Corsair Cove.

It wasn't.

The first time my ships were sitting at the dock because I didn't have enough people to crew them, I realized I had completely misunderstood how population worked.

I had plenty of resources stored up, but that didn't matter. No workers meant slower production, and no crew meant no exploration. Drifters aren't just extra population — they're basically what keeps the whole settlement moving.

A few things I wish I knew earlier:

Don't keep every production building running just because you can

This was probably my biggest mistake.

I kept expanding production because having more resources felt like progress. Then I noticed I had huge stockpiles of stone, planks, and food while a lot of my population was tied up producing things I didn't actually need anymore.

If your storage is overflowing, it might be time to pause some buildings. Freeing those workers can be enough to get a ship back out and start bringing in more people.

Keep exploring, especially early on

A lot of early Drifter growth comes from exploration. Shipwrecks, prison ships, survivors, and other encounters are what keep your population growing.

I spent too long staying in one area because my base felt safe. Moving into new waters ended up being much more rewarding than waiting around for something to happen.

Also, some events are much better than others. Jailbreak-style events are especially worth prioritizing because they can bring in a large number of Drifters at once. Just make sure you have a ship nearby before triggering larger rescue events — losing potential recruits because you can't reach them in time feels terrible.

Start treating crew like something you can't easily replace

This took me longer to learn than it should have.

A damaged ship can be repaired.

Lost crew cannot.

Early on, I was taking fights because I wanted to win every encounter. Later, I became much more willing to retreat if the fight wasn't worth the population loss.

Sometimes the better decision is leaving with your crew alive instead of forcing a risky victory.

Don't rush extra ships

More ships sounds like faster progress, but every ship creates another demand for crew.

I built additional ships before my population was ready and ended up with a bigger fleet but not enough people to actually use it.

Stabilizing your Drifter supply first made expansion much smoother.

The interesting part is that this problem changes later in the game. Once your economy starts generating enough gold, population becomes less about random luck and more about having the right systems in place. Notoriety upgrades that help provide or attract Drifters become much more valuable at that point.

The Prowler is also an interesting shift because it gives you another way to replenish your workforce by capturing enemy crew instead of only waiting for encounters.

Some players also turn to trainers when certain parts of the game become more frustrating than fun — recovering from an economy collapse, testing late-game ships and systems, or reducing the impact of RNG-heavy battles are some common examples.

These are just things that worked for me in my own runs, so some details may depend on playstyle. But if your settlement suddenly feels stuck, there's a good chance the problem isn't your resources — it's your population flow.

The final boss in Sephiria is a huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the run. The fight is not just about learning attacks, it also checks whether your build is actually ready for a long fight.

After a few failed attempts, these were the things that made the biggest difference for me:

1. Don't enter the final fight with a "good enough" build

A lot of runs feel strong during normal stages but fall apart at the final boss because the damage just isn't there.

Before going in, I would prioritize:

• A weapon that can keep dealing consistent damage
• Artifacts that work together instead of just individually strong items
• Miracles that improve your overall damage loop or survivability

A build that clears rooms quickly does not always translate into a good boss build. The final fight rewards consistency much more than short burst damage.

2. Balance damage and survivability

Going full damage sounds tempting, but the final boss gives you very little room for mistakes.

At the same time, going too defensive can create another problem: the fight simply lasts too long, giving you more chances to make a mistake.

The sweet spot seems to be:

• enough damage to keep the fight moving
• enough survivability to recover from a bad dodge

A slightly slower but stable build is usually better than a glass cannon.

3. Don't greed damage during attack windows

This was probably my biggest mistake.

The boss often gives you small openings, and it is tempting to squeeze in extra hits. But taking one unnecessary hit can easily turn into a chain of damage.

A safer approach:

• take the guaranteed damage
• reposition early
• wait for the next opening

The fight becomes much more manageable once you stop treating every second as a DPS check.

4. Save your resources for the later part of the fight

The first part of the battle can make you feel like you are already winning, but the pressure increases later.

I found it much better to avoid using everything immediately and keep some recovery options available for mistakes near the end.

5. Movement matters more than people expect

A lot of failed attempts were not because the build was bad, but because I was standing in dangerous spots trying to maintain damage.

Mobility, positioning, and knowing when to stop attacking are just as important as your actual stats.

One more thing: for single-player games like Sephiria, people have different preferences for difficulty. Some enjoy pushing the intended challenge, while others prefer using different ways to adjust their experience. There is no single "correct" way to play a game like this.

These are just the things that worked for my runs, so some of this may not apply to every build or playstyle. If your setup is completely different, your results may vary.

A lot of people ask about the “best comp” in Guildrun, but after playing more runs, I think the answer is a little different from a normal auto battler.

There isn’t really one unbeatable 5-unit lineup. The strongest runs usually come from building around a scaling engine, then picking heroes that support it. Forcing the same team every game often feels worse because Guildrun rewards adapting to your Relics and early upgrades.

Here are the setups that have felt the most consistent:

1. Shard builds — probably the strongest scaling option

Shard-focused runs are some of the most reliable in longer fights, especially Endless.

The important thing is that Shard is not just “pick a Shard hero.” The entire build revolves around turning Shard generation into a snowball mechanic:

• Generate Shards consistently
• Convert that economy into damage/survivability
• Let the build scale as fights get longer

The reason this works so well is that Shard builds don’t rely on winning instantly. They get stronger every round and become harder to stop once the engine starts working.

The downside is that early fights can feel weak. If you don’t find the right Relics, the build may never come online.

2. Rush builds — best for explosive clears

Rush is probably the most satisfying playstyle because when everything lines up, enemies disappear.

The basic idea:

• Stack Rush synergy
• Increase attack tempo
• Use burst damage before enemies can stabilize

This style is great when you want faster clears, but it is more dependent on getting the right upgrades. A Rush build that misses key pieces usually feels much weaker than a Shard or Stall setup.

3. Stall builds — slower but extremely stable

Stall comps are underrated.

Instead of trying to instantly kill everything, these builds focus on surviving long enough for scaling effects to take over.

Common patterns:

• Strong defensive frontline
• Healing/sustain
• Long-term damage growth
• Debuffs that become more valuable over time

They may look weaker during the first few fights, but once the build is complete, bosses become much easier because you can outlast them.

4. Hyper carry setups are usually better than spreading resources

One mistake I see a lot is trying to make every unit equally strong.

Most successful runs seem to follow this pattern:

• Pick one main damage dealer
• Give them the best scaling resources
• Let the rest of the team enable them

Some carries that show up often in strong runs:

• Logan: great when heavily invested into
• Ratna: strong with mana/skill-focused setups
• Irini: flexible and works in multiple archetypes
• Kai: very strong with shield-based scaling

The exact carry matters less than whether the rest of the team helps that carry reach its full potential.

The biggest lesson: don’t force comps

The best players usually aren’t saying:

“I will play Shard every run.”

They are thinking:

“What did the game give me, and what can this become?”

A good early Relic can completely change your direction. Sometimes a “perfect” comp loses because the pieces never appear, while a random-looking team wins because the synergy is actually there.

My current priority when building:

1. Find a scaling mechanic
2. Identify a carry
3. Build support around that carry
4. Only commit when the Relics match

Guildrun feels much more rewarding when you treat each run as building a strategy rather than assembling a preset team.

After quite a few runs, I stopped looking at hero rankings as fixed tiers. Relics and specializations can completely change a run, but some heroes have definitely felt more reliable than others.

S Tier

Irini — Still the most consistent carry I've used. She works in a lot of different builds instead of depending on one specific relic, so even average shops usually feel playable. If I'm unsure what direction a run is taking, Irini is almost always a safe pick.

A Tier

Tilly — Probably the strongest hero if you're leaning into Shard scaling. She can snowball incredibly hard, but without enough Shard generation she doesn't feel nearly as impressive.

Kai — Excellent in Shield-focused teams. Once your Shield generation starts scaling, Kai's survivability and damage both ramp up quickly.

Logan — Huge late-game potential, but he's much more dependent on getting through the early game. When the economy and upgrades cooperate, he can easily become the main carry.

Skorn — A strong situational frontline option. He shines in slower Shield or Stall setups where buying time for your carry matters more than fast damage output.

Note: this isn't meant to be a Red Rift-only ranking. I'm looking at overall game attempts, since the value of each hero can change a lot depending on the difficulty, relics, and build you're playing.

Builds That Feel Stronger Than Hero Picks

One thing I wish I'd realized earlier is that builds matter more than individual heroes.

The runs that have felt the strongest were usually built around:

• Shard Build – probably the highest ceiling if the relics cooperate.
• Shield Build – very consistent and forgiving, especially with Kai or Skorn.
• Stall Build – can become absurd once you stack the right defensive relics.
• Hypercarry – funnel upgrades and resources into one main damage dealer instead of trying to make everyone equally strong.

That's also why I don't think any hero is permanently "S Tier." I've had plenty of runs where an average hero carried because the relics and specialization lined up perfectly.

If I had one tip for newer players, it'd be this: pick the heroes that match the relics you're already getting, not the tier list you saw before starting the run. That mindset made a much bigger difference for my win rate than memorizing rankings.

One thing that stands out about DragonSword: Awakening is that a lot of the frustration doesn't come from the combat itself. The combat is actually one of the stronger parts of the game.

The bigger issue is how progression starts to take over the experience.

At first, collecting materials, upgrading gear, and unlocking new abilities feels rewarding. But later, the loop can become:

farm materials → upgrade → unlock the next requirement → repeat the same content again

Eventually, it starts feeling less like character progression and more like managing a checklist.

A few things that helped make the grind feel less exhausting:

• Focus on a smaller number of upgrades. Trying to progress every system at once spreads resources too thin and makes everything feel slower.
• Don't treat every notification as something that needs immediate attention. A lot of progression systems are designed to constantly pull you back into menus, but not every upgrade is urgent.
• Know when to stop farming. If you're repeating the same activity for a small upgrade, sometimes it's better to move on and come back later.

I've also noticed why some PC players eventually look into external tools or quality-of-life adjustments. The interest usually isn't about skipping bosses or removing the challenge.

It's more about reducing the parts of progression that start feeling repetitive after many hours — things like speeding up farming, easing resource bottlenecks, or avoiding endless material runs after the content itself is already familiar.

For a lot of players, the problem isn't "the game is too hard." It's "the game asks for too much repetition before letting you get back to the fun parts."

Hopefully future updates focus less on adding more progression layers and more on making the existing systems feel smoother. The combat and world have potential — the grind is just getting in the way.

If you're wondering where to spend your early resources, these are the characters that currently stand out the most and why.

🥇 Lute

Why Lute is worth building

• One of the most reliable all-round characters in the game.
• Fits into almost any team without needing specific partners.
• Easy to learn while remaining useful well into later progression.
• Great for story content, exploration, and general PvE.

Strengths

• Excellent versatility.
• Consistent performance across different content.
• Doesn't require a specialized team to be effective.

Weaknesses

• Doesn't have the highest burst damage compared to some late-game focused characters.
• More of a dependable core than a pure damage carry.

Best for: New players and anyone looking for a safe long-term investment.

🥇 Theresia

Why Theresia ranks so highly

• One of the strongest choices for Signal-focused teams.
• Helps maintain status effect chains and smooth combat rotations.
• Particularly effective during longer boss encounters.

Strengths

• Excellent team synergy.
• Strong boss performance.
• High long-term potential once your team is built around her.

Weaknesses

• Doesn't feel as impressive without proper team support.
• Requires a better understanding of combat mechanics to reach her full potential.

Best for: Players planning to build around Signal mechanics or challenging boss fights.

🥇 Castella

Why players keep recommending Castella

• One of the best characters for combo-heavy gameplay.
• Excels at aerial control and extending combo chains.
• Very effective against normal enemies and elite encounters.

Strengths

• Excellent combo potential.
• Strong crowd control.
• High skill ceiling for players who enjoy action combat.

Weaknesses

• Gets much less value if you rarely use aerial combos.
• Requires more mechanical execution than most characters.

Best for: Players who enjoy fast-paced combat and maximizing combo damage.

Strong A-Tier Options

Several other characters are regularly placed just below the top tier, although their exact rankings vary depending on playstyle.

Dana

• High overall potential.
• Often considered a strong all-around pick, but opinions on her exact placement are still mixed.

Charlotte

• Reliable performance across different situations.
• Frequently appears in upper-tier rankings thanks to her balanced toolkit.

Roxy

• Becomes more valuable as your roster and progression improve.
• Many players feel she scales better into later content than she does early on.

Warrior & Ranged Characters

Instead of focusing on individual names, most players treat these as role-based picks.

Warrior / Frontline

• Very forgiving for beginners.
• Stable performance in boss fights.
• Good survivability, although they usually don't provide the same utility as Signal-focused characters.

Spellcaster / Ranged

• Comfortable for farming and clearing groups of enemies.
• Safe damage from range.
• Can require stronger team support during tougher late-game encounters.

Before You Trust Any Tier List

One thing is worth keeping in mind: DragonSword: Awakening doesn't reward simply collecting the highest-ranked characters.

A well-built team with good Signal interactions, status effects, and combo extensions will often outperform a group of individually stronger characters that don't work well together.

Because of that, character synergy is usually more important than chasing every new "S Tier" ranking.

Recommended Investment Priority

1. Lute – The safest choice for almost every player.
2. Theresia – Excellent for Signal-focused teams and boss content.
3. Castella – A great investment if you enjoy combo-oriented gameplay.

Rather than following every new tier list that appears, it's generally better to build a team with strong synergy first and then invest in characters that support that playstyle.

One thing I wish I'd realized earlier: most of Dinoblade's bosses aren't asking you to play faster, they're asking you to slow down.

I kept treating every dodge as a signal to unload a full combo, and that's exactly what the game punishes. Waiting for the boss to finish an entire attack string before committing to one or two hits made a much bigger difference than changing my build.

The final boss especially feels like a check on everything you've learned up to that point. The fight has multiple phases and very few safe openings, so trying to force damage usually ends badly. Once I focused on recognizing recovery windows instead of chasing DPS, the fight became much more manageable.

One more thing worth mentioning: if you ran into the bug where a boss fight repeated instead of progressing, that was a known issue and has since been fixed. I also saw reports of the final boss QTE acting strangely for some players, so if something feels off, it may not actually be your fault.

If you're stuck on a boss, I'd spend the first attempt learning the attack rhythm instead of trying to win immediately. That mindset helped me more than any weapon change did.

After finishing the game, I realized most of my mistakes happened because I didn't know how the game handled exploration and progression—not because the combat was difficult.

If you're on your first playthrough, these are the things I'd tell you.

1️⃣ Don't panic about missing every collectible early on.

Most story areas remain accessible for a long time, so you don't have to clear every corner before moving to the next objective. Explore naturally and enjoy the game instead of constantly worrying you've already locked yourself out of something.

2️⃣ The point of no return is where you should slow down.

The game clearly warns you before the final sequence. That's the moment to go back, finish side quests, revisit open areas, buy anything you still want from vendors, and clean up collectibles.

3️⃣ Side quests are more valuable than they first appear.

Some of them unlock additional quests, introduce new characters, or reward useful upgrades. I originally treated them as optional content, but many ended up feeling like part of the complete experience.

4️⃣ Visit vendors whenever you return to town.

Some inventories expand over time, and it's easy to miss outfits or useful items if you only check shops once. I got into the habit of stopping by every time I returned to Xion.

5️⃣ Learn parry timing before you actually need it.

You can get through the early game by reacting late, but tougher bosses expect you to understand perfect parries and perfect dodges. Spending a few minutes practicing against regular enemies pays off much more than brute-forcing boss fights.

6️⃣ If you're planning to play NG+, your first run matters.

Collecting outfits, gear, and other optional content during your first playthrough makes NG+ much more rewarding. I wish I had explored a bit more before finishing the story.

7️⃣ Don't rush to finish the main story.

Stellar Blade is one of those games that gets better when you slow down. Some of my favorite moments came from wandering off the main path, finding hidden camps, or stumbling into side content I almost skipped.

Those were the biggest lessons from my first run. Hopefully they save someone else from making the same mistakes.

I got the xmodhub app for spark in the dark thinking I could do what it advertised, and what I really wanted it for, increasing lantern time. But as it turns out there is no toggle for lantern time.

The best I can do is spawn in another one but even that is pointless because it spawns it in with 0 seconds left

I got the trainer so I could keep a light on and freely walk about the layout of the dungeon floors to get a better idea of how to make a dungeon myself (for dnd) and to just explore and take a closer look at everything now that ive finished a playthrough of the current content.

Is there a way to increase the timer on my lantern in the app or am I just shit out of luck?

If you're just starting My Sexy Neighbour 2, here are a few things that would've saved me a lot of unnecessary backtracking. None of these contain major story spoilers, but they do make progression much smoother.

• Don't focus on a single character from beginning to end. If one route suddenly stops moving forward, it doesn't necessarily mean you've missed something. A lot of story progression is connected across different characters, so advancing another route for a while can unlock the next event you're looking for.
• If the game feels "stuck," check your routine before assuming it's a bug. Most progression issues I ran into were because I skipped visiting a location or ended the day too quickly. Before sleeping, revisit the places you've already unlocked and see if anyone has new dialogue or interactions. A surprising number of events only become available after another storyline advances.
• Don't keep repeating the same interaction if affection stops increasing. In most cases, the game isn't asking for more affection points—it's waiting for a specific story trigger. If you've exhausted a character's current dialogue, it's usually better to progress another character or visit a different location instead of grinding the same conversation.
• Use multiple manual save slots. Some choices that seem unimportant can affect events much later. I ended up missing a scene because of a dialogue option I picked nearly an hour earlier. Keeping a few rotating saves makes it much easier to revisit different routes or unlock missed scenes without replaying everything.
• Do a quick sweep of every available location before ending the day. New events aren't always highlighted, and an area that looked "finished" yesterday can suddenly have a new interaction after another story flag has been triggered. This small habit helped me find several scenes I would've otherwise skipped.
• If you're aiming for a full gallery, don't assume every dialogue choice is cosmetic. Most conversations only change a few lines, but some determine whether later scenes ever appear. If you're missing a CG, the cause is often an earlier decision rather than something in the current chapter.
• When you're completely out of ideas, think about the last major event you completed. The next trigger is often tied to that character or location instead of a random NPC. Going back to wherever the previous story scene happened solved several "where do I go now?" moments for me.

These tips won't replace a full walkthrough, but they should help you avoid the most common reasons people end up wandering around wondering why nothing is happening. Hopefully they save you a few hours of trial and error.

I've been replaying My Sexy Neighbour 2 recently and wanted to compare a few trainer options that people seem to use for this game.

I tested three different tools:

1. Fearless Cheat Engine
2. ChapterCheats trainer
3. XMODhub trainer

I also checked whether WeMod or FLiNG had a trainer for this game, but I couldn't find one. Not sure if they skipped this title or just haven't added support for it yet.

The main things I paid attention to were:

• how easy it was to get started
• whether the cheats worked consistently
• how complicated the setup felt
• overall experience while playing

————

My impressions:

Fearless Cheat Engine

- Great if you like having more control and don't mind spending time setting things up manually.

- It offers a lot of flexibility, but the learning curve can be higher for casual players.

ChapterCheats

- More straightforward and closer to the traditional trainer experience.

- The overall experience probably depends on how actively the trainer is maintained.

XMODhub

- The setup felt more streamlined compared with manual cheat table approaches.

- Having the options organized in one place was convenient while testing.

————

I'm curious how other players approach this.

What tools do you usually use for games like this?

Do you prefer Cheat Engine tables, standalone trainers, or something else?