Lone Survivor: The Void Fiend

We have arrived at the last canon Risk of Rain 2 character. I purposely save him (them?) for last too. Technically since the Railgunner came unlocked with the 'Survivors of the Void' DLC you actually have to earn the Void Fiend and earned we did, by beating the DLC's boss 'The Voidling'. There is an alternate way but we are not talking about that way lol.

We actually earned him a couple days into getting the DLC but we decided to save him for last and boy, were they worth the wait.

So first, this 'Mastery' skin is amazing and easily one of the more creative ones. Not a simple color swap but a more unique model. On top of that, his head and arm low key reminds me of the these Bloodborne enemies.

It is also very suitable because both are nightmare fuel. Now the character itself is unique in that you do need to unlock any of it's alternative move set but instead the Void Fiend has 2 forms, one non-corrupted and one corrupted form and their move set changes accordingly. At first I thought it would be a bit much to micro-manage their health and certain stats so I would not constantly change on the fly but after I found the Void Fiend has a built in skill that heals them it began much easier to use them. Also a very good thing about the Void Fiend is I noticed they relied a lot less on items then their fellow survivors so it was nice to win more based on their skill set as opposed to the Engineer whom I felt is reliant on good items. Overall I felt they are a very strong addition to the cast and actually fun to play as well. Nothing quite turning corrupted during a boss battle and just melting their life bar with their 'primary' attack.

Also I have mentioned before some of the modded skins for this game but Void Fiend's one takes it to another level of awesome. Like check this out

This 'Demon of the Deep' skin from the Lost in Time mod skin pack is amazing and if I main-ed Void Fiend I would use it non-stop. I love how they took on the whole 'Survivor of the Void' underwater theme and applied it to the Void Fiend and trust me, it looks even better in motion. I've said it before, the mod community in the 'Risk of Rain' community is amazing and some of their mods are really deserve their props. I've never been a fan of mods but when applied correctly and tastefully they really add to and expand the overall experience.

However with this achievement, I've drawn to the end of my 'main' Risk of Rain 2 solo experience and the last couple days I've been playing other games. As noted before, 'Deadbolt' (also by Hopoo and will get it's own RAVE soon) and now 'Indies' Lies' (expect a RAVE for this one too) are my new favorite games. Sadly I do not know if I can get the 100% due to Mercenary's Ethereal challenge being near impossible (never getting below 100% health in a challenging Prismatic Trial) which is a shame especially because I actually like using the Mercenary but every-time I've tried so far has been nothing but spectacular failures. Maybe when the trial becomes easier (they reset every 3 days) I'll give it a real try but right now it is okay, I've definitely had my fun with it. Now I mentioned this was my solo experience, I might indulge in some co-op soon with some friends tho. What a ride it has been and I can honestly say I'm so happy I took a Risk on it. Hah, I'll see myself out.

Symbiotic: Engineer and REX

 Risk of Rain 2 updates are back! This week we focus on the 2 more characters we have played and earned their 'Mastery' skins. Ironically both of them have a symbiotic relationship with machines.

 First up, the Engineer. Honestly, the Engineer was the survivor I was the least enthused for. Learning he mainly relies on his turrets to establish a sort of 'Tower Defense' playstyle and his skills mostly played too that strength. I rather quickly earned all his alternative skills and most of them suited my playstyle more, instead of the passive 'Bubble' skill I went with the 'Thermal Harpoons' instead. Instead of the stationary 'Pressure Mines' I favored the 'Spider Mines'. Basically I rather played a more active playstyle then a passive one and I enjoyed it a lot more. However I can say, without a doubt, his turrets are his real strength and once I found out the turrets can inherit most of the items he picks up, he became much more interesting and pretty OP pretty quickly, especially with the Command artifact and the 'Bungus' meme. To understand 'Bungus' and why it is so important to the Engineer, one needs to talk about the item 'Bustling Fungus'. This item heals you if you stay still and because of item stacking in RoR2, stacking Fungus increases the healing immensely and even increases its range.

Our Engineer's turrets are mostly stationary so because they are always staying put, they put out a constant healing aura that can heal you and themselves. Add the fact that your turrets can also inherit your stronger damage dealing items like ATG missiles, bleeding tri-tip daggers and lens maker glasses for extra crit damage and well, setting up turrets correctly before a boss battle normally leads to a massacre for the enemies. This symbiotic relationship between the Engineer and his turrets really make him a very strong survivor and I agree with most people that with the right combination of items and bungus, a real easy win. Its a pity I still don't like using him much LOL. Heck, his alternative 'mastery' skin 'EID unit' is even one of the cooler ones and I still think he is just okay to mess with but not one I want to 'main' in this game.

REX on the other-hand is surprisingly fun to use for me and I actually enjoyed getting their 'Mastery' skin nickname 'Smoothie'. Like the Engineer's symbiotic relationship between him and his turrets, REX's is between a plant and a machine. The game best describe it as

"The Plant nor the robot could survive on this planet alone- but thankfully they have each other" and they work well together too. Using a bit of health, they are able to do big damage to their opponents and they also have unique traversal as well, from worming through the ground as their sprint to their 2 utility skills which can be used to either knock opponent's back or on themselves to travel faster.

Their special 'Tangling Growth' is also a cool skill where it draws opponent's into the planted seed and drain life to feed REX. Using it to draw the Alloy Worship Unit boss into a pillar to do massive damage was a highlight during my run with them. Now fun enough, just like Mercenary, I've grown to like using REX. Definitely not as much as Mercenary (whom is now easily a top 5 character for me) but I'll probably play him now and again for fun.

On that note: we only have one more 'Mastery' skin and one more character to beat the game with and that's the Void Fiend. The Void Fiend definitely looks like a handful but I'll give him his rundown when its his time.

Also since we are drawing to the end of canon RoR2 characters, I have consider adding some of the modded characters into the mix soon. The Paladin for example looks cool and the Executioner might get a shot too. We also playing other games too, like Hopoo's other game they made.

Right now, I am enjoying it even tho it is forcing me to learn Mouse and Keyboard and I'm so not used to using that combo. The Chris Christodolou OST rocks tho as I've mentioned before and depending how much further we get into it, I foresee a blog coming for it soon.

    

RAVE: Steam Deck: My Experience

 

It all started with the simple video above. A perfect little snap-shot of what it could do and what it came with. For a person whom was on the fence for so many years about PC gaming, I finally saw my gateway to the supposed PC Master Race.

Immediately I started telling everyone I knew about it, my friends and family heard me go on and on about it and soon, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and reserved my spot to get one. The Steam Deck.

Now anyone late to the Steam Deck (now abbreviated as SD) party does not know that part of the great hardware/ chip shortage of 2022, there was a reservation queue to get one and you had to wait your turn. Not the now instant, order one and get it 2 weeks later business, nope. From the initial announcement (July 2021) to the first SD being sent out (Feb. 2022) and the actual SD being in my hands (End of Aug. 2022) it took about a month after the announcement for me to put down my reservation. Long I waited for it and even crazier was the day I finally got my email to purchase it, I even consider not doing it. I've been saving my money for it since I decided to get it and well, I low key convinced myself it was too expensive. Thankfully my wife, who knows me so well, knew how much I wanted it and how much I spoke about it for months on end and she was the one that convinced me to just put the money down and get it.

It was the best gaming decision I had ever made.

Speaking of gaming, as I mentioned before the Steam Deck I only owed one Steam game and whilst Marvel Puzzle Quest is still my game, it felt a bit underwhelming to run it on something as powerful as this. No I wanted to test it limits so I started watching videos and I fell down the rabbit hole of emulation. Soon my SD had tons of games from my yesterdays like Shining Force Resurrection of Dark Dragon for the GBA, Brute Force for the Xbox, even PS3 games like Demons Souls. I even revisited one of my faves; Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer

I would come to learn very quickly how strong an emulation machine the SD was. On top of that, as a person who barely knew anything about gaming PCs and emulation, the SD was so easy to work with and the tutorial videos I watched were so comprehensive that I got all my emulations up and running pretty quickly (with the exception of some Saturn games but the Saturn is a real pain to emulate I've heard). I was in love, I had all these consoles of my past in the palm of my hand now and I could take them wherever I went.

However as powerful of a emulator it is, the SD is also capable of playing PC games I never had a chance too on the consoles I owned. I now had a chance to play Dead Rising 3 which I never had a chance to play before because I did not own a Xbox One and it was only release for Xbox and PC, I was able to play Thymesia which was only released for next gen consoles, Iratus; one of my favorite roguelikes and of course the big daddy of them all, I was (and still am) able to play Risk of Rain 2, the far superior PC version (with the DLC that looks like is never coming to console). My Steam Catalogue is much bigger now and these damn frequent but amazing Steam Sales always snatch my attention and I always grab a game (or two or three). On top of that, I continued to tinker with it beyond emulation and now I have so many plug-ins, intro videos for when I boot it up and my biggest achievement and modification for it, dual booting to Windows 11. With Windows, I can now play Risk of Rain 2 mods, I can get games from storefronts not Steam like Epic, Xbox Game Pass and Amazon Games.

For too long I played in the 'walled gardens' of Xbox, Sega, Nintendo and Playstation. I truly did not know what it was like to have the freedom to play games in which manner I saw fit. To modify them, to make tweaks and have full autonomy over the experience I was having.

I can honestly say, the Steam Deck has changed my life and I feel if anyone gave it a try, it'll change theirs too. The possibilities are endless and the future is so bright. I am all ready planning on playing with more mods in Risk of Rain 2, playing games not available on previous gen consoles like the new Deck 13 (makers of The Surge) game 'Atlas Fallen' and participate in indie showcases like Steam's 'Next Fest'. The Steam Deck maybe the last gaming console I'll ever buy and I do not think I'll regret that choice. 

Flash of Steel: A Mercenary's Tale

 Well, for once I am glad I was wrong.

Going all the way back to our now infamous Skill Up Risk of Rain 2 which was part of the reason why I got obsessed with Risk of Rain 2, when Skill Up was describing the characters in the game, one of the characters he mentioned was the Mercenary.

Described as a mostly melee classed fighter, the description for him and what he could do really caught my attention. I said to myself, I'm going to main that one and even before I got the game I looked up more info about him, specifically how to unlock him. As a now veteran Souls player, I believed I would gel with this class and I would enjoy using him. However I kept hearing how he has a very high skill ceiling and that to really get good with him would take a lot of work and also how he is slightly outclassed in the later game when you want to avoid up and close combat and take things out from the range.

I still wanted to give him a try tho and then I got the game and I was immediately floored by how hyper aggressive everything was. The game with its focus on time and increased difficulty, the almost limitless amount of flying enemies (especially my arch nemesis' the blind pest... I hate them so much).

I quickly re-evaluated my love for melee classes and I wanted character who can hit things in the sky, so yes, I started to gravitate more towards Huntress, Commando and later on Bandit and my new favorite character the Railgunner. When I was using melee classes like Acrid and Loader I started to realize how melee character gets overwhelmed very quickly in this game by flying enemies, especially at the higher difficulties.

I actually began to dread using Mercenary then and he kind of consciously slipped to the back of the queue of characters I wanted to use. It is why he is in the back 4 and no longer one of the first characters I aimed to pick up. However, I am so glad I was wrong.

After learning him, I quickly realized the Mercenary is actually more up my alley then Loader and Acrid. He quickly surpassed another high skill level character like Artificer and I think I now enjoy using him more then Huntress. The actually really fun from playing Mercenary is how his gameplay loop is slightly different then everyone else's. You see, at the end of most of my runs, if I am able to control it, I end up with what I called the 'Zeus' build where I simply stare at folks and they die from the constant lighting strikes of my 'Royal Capacitor' equipment. No matter the class up until the Mercenary, to get through the later runs, I would rely on the 'Zeus'. It almost became a bit cliché even tho I was having fun, I felt less 'involved' with my runs and it gave me less self expression.

However with the Mercenary, I quickly discovered a better build for him and it all involves using skills unique to him only. Utilizing 'Blinding Assault' a dashing attack which can be chained 3 times in a row if it hits something and his 'Eviscerate' special which is a semi-heat seeking invulnerable attack which is anime AF when it hits, the Mercenary truly becomes the Demon of the Sky as one of his challenges describes him. Chaining attack after attack whilst attacking aerial opponent after aerial opponent and constantly staying on the offense is a feeling like no other and the mobility it affords him at later levels make traversing stages a breeze. I think this is the feeling Loader mains feel when she wins around the stages like Spider-Man which I never really mastered but the Mercenary is another story. Using him and a combination of 'Shaped Glass' lunar item that boosts damage and 'Lysate Cell' void item that gives me more and more 'Eviscerate' specials (and by default more and more heat seeking and invulnerability) I've been able to beat not only the final boss Mithrix, a Twisted Scavenger and even the incredibility overpowered DLC boss the Voidling without a sweat. This build lets me play Rainstorm (the regular difficulty and how the game is intended to be played) even with RNG items and still succeed.

On top of that, as I mentioned in my previous blog about MUL-T I am a fan of aesthetics and whilst the regular Mercenary is cool enough, his Mastery skin the 'Oni' is hands down one of my favorite skins. It changes a lot and you just look like a bad ass when you use it.

So yeah, the Mercenary it turns out is 100% my jam and I'm happy I eventually took a chance on him and learned him. Funny enough, he also might be one of the characters whom I can not unlock all his challenges because one of there requirement is way to specific and hard. But despite not unlocking everything for him (I heard the skill it unlocks isn't even that great and it replaces the skill I need the most for my build) I am having a blast with him and I foresee him being very high on my eventual Survivors tier list. On that note, next up: The Engineer. Another survivor I don't know if I'll enjoy but hey, I've been wrong before (points to this whole ass blog).

Speaking of next up; our next blog will be our Steam Deck one and boy, is that going to be a long one. Till then tho I'll see y'all on the battlefield.