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April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)

A Short Hike
Update #4


I got the Motorbike Key, and used it to complete the Boating Challenge. As a reward, I can now produce Terran Spectres for less resources. I also need only 8 more coins to collect the last shop check, but I can't find any more coins on the island without the Shovel.
 
Doom 2, Update #4

The Gantlet:
I unlocked this level from a hellgate in the Petalburg Gym, and found a Progressive Slingshot for Stardew, and Lucky Emblem for KH2, a TM for Emerald, and a Leftover Pizza, a joke item.

Dead Simple: I found a Piece of Heart for my LttP and Fishing Mastery for Stardew, from this very short realm of Hell that Setsuna found on Silph Co 2F.

Circle of Death, Pt. 1: Found on Route 110, this portal to Hell contained a Missile Expansion for Metroid Prime, a Small Key for Zelda 1, a Metal Powder for Emerald, and Tactical Jump tech for Terran Battlecruisers. I will need the level's Red Keycard to clear the rest of it and keep Route 110 safe from attacks by its seven remaining monsters.

Downtown, Pt. 1: This demonic city, which Setsuna found on Route 9, had Fusion Blue Magic for FFV, Melon Seeds for Stardew, a treasure map for A Short Hike, a Progressive Backpack for Stardew, Traveling Merchant Stock Size for Stardew, and a Mythril Staff for FFV. I'll need both the level's Yellow Keycard and Red Keycard to explore the last two buildings. The one requiring the Red Keycard has the hinted planet Hotbeat in it.
 
A Short Hike
Update #5


I remembered a spot I forgot to check, and got the last coins to get the 400 Coin shop item. It turned out to be a Mago Berry of all things.
 
Starcraft 2
Mission #3 (Whispers of Doom)


We sent Zeratul and some Stalkers to the Zerg world of Ulaan, which also had some Xel'Naga Shrines. Most of them didn't have much, but we found a TM for Emerald at the third. We also slew three Zerg Hatcheries to draw out Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, and each of these had something interesting. The first had a music tape for the Bomb Rush Crew, the second had the Finishing Plus ability for KH2, and the third had the Basement Key for Emerald, unlocking New Mauville.

We then sent Zeratul and the Stalkers back to our transport to bait Kerrigan into a trap, and then, when she got close, we revealed that it was full of a squad of Dark Archons, who mind-controlled her. This only gives us command of the Zerg on Ulaan, unfortunately, but we do now have a Zerg hero and a Zerg army.

EDIT:

A Short Hike
Update #6


I delivered the Shell Necklace, and May gave me Graduating Range tech for Siege Tanks. Now, when I get Siege Tanks, they'll have significantly longer range in Siege Mode once they've been in Siege Mode for a few seconds.

Doom II
Update #5


I got another Doom map, Tricks and Traps, from the summit of Mt. Pyre, and fully cleared it. It had a TM, Mach Bike, and Bright Powder for Emerald, 24 REP for BRC, a Progressive Axe, Power: Animal Catalogue, and Combat Mastery for Stardew Valley, and a Power Bomb Expansion for Metroid Prime.
 
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Starcraft 2
Mission #4 (Amon's Reach)


With Kerrigan under our control, the Xel'Naga Amon has taken control of the rest of the Zerg Swarm, and attacked our capital world of Shakuras! We sent a small squad of cloaked Dark Templar and Avengers to clear the launchbays, so that we can bring in a large force of troops to destroy the Zerg here. We also found a TM for Emerald, a Friendship Bonus (2 Heart) for Stardew, and a Mystic Water for Emerald.

Starcraft 2
Mission #5 (Smash and Grab)


We attacked the Tal'darim world of Monlyth with our Terran army, using mostly Marines and Marauders, plus a few miscellaneous mercenaries. We found Singularity Charge tech to increase the range of our Immortals, and later Annihilators once we can build them. We also found a Progressive Axe for Stardew, Siege Tank Jump Jets for ourselves, and a hellgate to Bloodfalls. The treasure the Tal'darim were guarding turned out to be a Nokia N-Gage, a failed handheld console from the 2000s and a joke item.

Doom II
Update #6


Bloodfalls had a Missile Expansion for Metroid Prime, the Mass Recall Spear of Adun ability, and the Bounce Ball for HoloCure. It also had two joke items, one called the Broodwitch which I had to look up and appears to be a cursed sandwich from Hell, and it happened to be in an appropriate location here. I also found Unskippable Cutscenes as the second joke item, clearly used to torment the damned souls that inhabit this realm. I can't explore the southern section of the map without the level's Blue Skull Key, though, so I'll have my Terrans fortify Monlyth's Hellgate until I receive the key and can close it.
 
@Alex_Among_Foxes Hinted for "Railroad Boulder Removed" to get Setsuna's Hammer. Finds this at Cooltrainer Darcy on Route 132, which is...not close, probably.

I'm... Not sure? I don't know the route numbers in Emerald, but it sounds like one of the water ones, which might be possible due to having Surf. I'll try my best to find it.
 
I'm... Not sure? I don't know the route numbers in Emerald, but it sounds like one of the water ones, which might be possible due to having Surf. I'll try my best to find it.

According to Bulbapedia, this is what you're looking for:
[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)

Just to the west of Pacifidlog Town. Since there's water currents pushing you west, you have to enter from Pacifidlog on the east side, and I recommend just saving and reloading if you ever take the wrong path.
 
According to Bulbapedia, this is what you're looking for:
[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)

Just to the west of Pacifidlog Town. Since there's water currents pushing you west, you have to enter from Pacifidlog on the east side, and I recommend just saving and reloading if you ever take the wrong path.

Oh, that might not work then. When I tried going that way Team Aqua guy was blocking it. If I can move him I shouldn't have any issues getting there.
 
A Short Hike
Update #3


With the Stick obtained from the FF12 clear, I played a game of Beachstickball, and won a fifth Golden Feather as a prize. With this Golden Feather, and the help of the Bucket, I was finally able to ascend to the top of Hawk Peak, fish up the last uncaught Fish, and fly down to Secret Island Peak to pick up a Progressive Club for Stardew Valley. I then raced Avery to the top, and won a Bottle with a Fairy in it for LttP.

I've hinted for all six of the remaining non-Seashell progression items. Coincidentally, every other person in this Archipelago has one of those six items. I'll need all of these to goal, as well as 9 more Seashells for a total of 15. I'll hint those once I get close enough to hint for the last three or four.

The most important item I need left is the Shovel, and it can be found at @Vendily's EotE Ship Log: Hidden Gorge Slide Reel 2 - Burned. This unlocks most of my remaining checks.

I will also need the Motorboat Key, which can be found at @Devalue's Friendsanity: Linus 10 <3 in Stardew Valley. This unlocks one check.

@Setsuna, Scientist Gideon at the Rocket Warehouse has stolen my Camping Permit. If you get it back, I can get a single check.

@Arcaneum, if you can catch a Ralts, often found while fishing in Route 19 with the Super Rod, it will hold my Headband, which will unlock a single check.

@Alex_Among_Foxes, In Route 121, there's a Shell Necklace in the second maze. Pick it up for me, and I can get one check immediately, and a second once I get all 15 Seashells.

In the Land of Dragons (LoD2), @Cherrim can find my Wristwatch on the Throne Room Palace Map. This'll unlock a single check.
I am not sure where Super Rod is and right know don't want to hint for it, so I'll see if I come across one somewhere else or I can just get one of the other two mons in the line and breed them or something!
Oh, that might not work then. When I tried going that way Team Aqua guy was blocking it. If I can move him I shouldn't have any issues getting there.
Without going into too much of the plot etc. I believe you'll be able to do this once you have the Magma Emblem and do the relevant stuff with that
 
I'll keep this one quick, but I will just say I got a lot done today and I wasn't properly tracking what progression items I picked up, so I recommend just checking your trackers/games if you haven't been on today.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is still BK but now a lot more has been done in it. I completely cleaned out Versum Hill and cleaned out most of Millennium Square. I was talking about how I was going to hint for my Camera App when possible, but I just ended up picking it up as I was playing, in the same game no less! Definitely lucked out. I am, of course, going to need more REP to proceed, but I've at least chewed through the beginning area or two and the run is starting to pick up speed. I don't think I picked up any useful progression for anyone else while playing, though. 76/247

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is BK but with a healthy amount of progress! Made it out of Millennium Square, did practically all of Brink Terminal, and ended up back in Millennium Mall, which is about the halfway point of the game. I think I'm sitting somewhere around 400 REP and I believe I'm looking for something in the 500s to end this area. Felt really good to get so much progress done! I'm considering hinting for the bigger amounts of REP sometime down the line, because BRC is a game that doesn't really need any hints. You get really well stocked on graffiti very early and then just continue being REP gated the rest of the game. 124/247

Final Fantasy V is Soft BK because I didn't really get any main progression done, but the Walse Tower key definitely helped me at least dig up something. I finally managed to buy Hastega and made quick work of the Walse Tower boss (who unfortunately was not Garula) with a two-handed Enhancer. With the Tower cleaned out I figured it was a good idea to check behind Walse Castle since I was in the area to see who was there instead of Shiva, and it happened to be Titan. I thought I could take him out, and I did! That is, before he dropped an earthquake on my team right before he died, wiping my party. At least it's nice to know where he is so once I can float it's an easy victory. I cleared out North Mountain and the Library of the Ancients, who both had checks I realized I just flat out missed instead of being locked behind bosses. I decided to check Ifrit anyways, and found a Golem being terrorized by a couple of monsters, so after an unfortunate stray Bolt sword magic tapped him, we managed to save him and get him out of there. Now more than ever I think Adamantite is what I'm really looking for to open up my game, but gear progression is pretty slow. I'm happy to have Monk, but it's not particularly doing anything for me right now. Obtaining lots of Gil or some sorts of magic (given I have the mage ability to cast it) or weapons still help a lot. 124/360

Final Fantasy is finally BK and not just Soft BK! Being able to finally grab my own Adamantite from Leaf Green was awesome and it meant a good chunk of items were open to me. Between obtaining things like Excalibur, the Ninja and Samurai job crystals, and some actually solid Black and White magic (though they're only the high level expensive magic, draining my MP quickly), it meant taking care of most bosses I was up against was a breeze. Minotauros and Omniscient are still going to be a problem since I learned the former is not supposed to actually be able to cast Holy, and the randomizer just allows him to cast an extremely overpowered spell before you can do anything to counter it. Grinding is probably my best bet to get out of that alive, and I'd like more magic to have more options against Omniscient. But those aren't very important. What is important is gathering lots of Gil and obtaining my Anti-Barrier and Bracelet to unlock the rest of the game. My four tablets are also necessary to beat the game, but the rewards for obtaining them are essentially junk again. I'll hint for those later down the line if necessary. 177/360
Anti-Barrier is at ExplorerOfFuture's Zero Hour: Hold Just a Little Longer
Bracelet is at CherrimKH2's (PR) Boat Fight Bonus: Donald Slot 1

Kirby Super Star is once again in BK but has been progressed as well. Being able to grab Spring Breeze from FFV and obtaining Milky Way Wishes from EoT meant there was a good amount of stuff to do, though I didn't feel like I got anything exciting the entire time I was playing. Great Cave Offensive is the big thing missing, but Dyna Blade is also the only sub-game I've yet to unlock, so that's been hinted for as well. Besides hinting for the planets I'm missing in Milky Way Wishes (Aqualiss, Hothead, Skyhigh) the only thing I'm still after is Hammer/Stone. It's been going really well, even if nothing exciting has happened. 48/131

Kirby Super Star is BK with a little progress done. Most of the game has been cleaned out, the only things I'm missing are the Garden, the last area of Great Cave Offensive because I don't have enough gold to access it (which will just be obtained over time as I collect treasures) and the remaining planets for Milky Way Wishes. I'm also missing a decent chunk of treasures in the Old Tower since you're required to have Hammer or Stone for them. On second thought I think Stone is going to be the more helpful of the two, but one of the two will at least get me a good amount of stuff. I'm mostly done with the game, I think it just needs a little push, and I'm very excited. 99/131
Hammer is at DevalueStardew's Magic Ink
Skyhigh is at ArcLG's Rocket Warehouse - Maze Team Rocket Grunt Reward (Left)
Hotbeat is at ExplOfDarkness's Downtown (MAP13) - Yellow keycard
Stone is at AlexM&L's Beanstar Piece Hermie

Leaf Green remains in BK, completely unchanged. 111/1054
Poke Flute is at SetsunaLG's Pewter Gym - Prize

Leaf Green is unblocked, I just don't have the time to play it right now. Obtaining the Blue Tea really cracked a lot open, as I could travel to Saffron City from Cerulean, cleaning out most of Silph Co., and then finally reach Lavender Town, without needing the PokeFlute! From there, things like Pokemon Tower and Rock Tunnel could get cleaned out, before heading to Celadon to completely raid their Department Store. I bought one of everything!~ Thanks to the Tri Pass, I could also head to the first three islands, and grab a little bit of loot there. I didn't realize how many items were in Berry Forest.
I managed to find my Soul Badge while playing other games today and my plan is to take Surf and crack open most of Kanto with it. I'll tie a few of the loose ends around the areas I've been, and then it's south from Lavender down the entire road to Fuschia, across the water to Cinnabar, eventually reaching Pallet Town, Viridian, Pewter, and all the way around back to Cerulean. I am extremely excited. 394/1054
Poke Flute is at SetsunaLG's Pewter Gym - Prize
HM01 Cut is at AlexPrime's Phazon Mines: Ventilation Shaft
Cascade Badge is at SetsunaKSS's Garden - Kong's Barrel
 
Without going into too much of the plot etc. I believe you'll be able to do this once you have the Magma Emblem and do the relevant stuff with that

If that's the case I'll need @Explorer of Time to get that from here:
[Hint]: AlexEM's Magma Emblem is at Trouble In Paradise: North Base: East Hatchery in ExplorerOfFuture's World. (priority)
if possible.
 
[Hint]: AlexEM's Magma Emblem is at Trouble In Paradise: North Base: East Hatchery in ExplorerOfFuture's World. (priority)
I will try and get this tomorrow, but it may take me until Sunday since it's at the other end of the grid from the two hints I'm currently aiming for.
 
Covers a lot of ground in these two updates. Works with pretty large improvements, compared to the end of the day. Leads with some hints for better visibility.

  • @Explorer of Time Stage 4 Hard at Welcome to the Jungle: North-East Relic in Starcraft 2. No big rush. Hinted for the last stage to give just winning outright a shot.
  • Arcaneum: Progressive Fishing Rod at Pokedex (Nidoqueen). Appears at Route 23 (Water), Route 3 (Land), Trainer Tower Exterior (Good Rod), Trainer Tower Exterior (Old Rod).
  • Cherrim: Progressive Fishing Rod at (STT) Sunset Terrace Hi-Potion.[/b]


Holocure (Update 4)
Unlocked Stages 3, 1 Hard, and 2 Hard. Also received some good upgrades, such as G Ranks. Adds 20% to Hitpoints, Attack, and Speed to all characters. (Maxed it out for everyone.) Amounts to about +5 Max HP, +3 Attack, and +3 Speed, which is kind of like 5 upgrades in one (based on how they are split up for Archipelago).

Relied on pretty similar strategies, due to the available items. Chose characters with a focus on ranged damage.

  • Stage 3: Reine. Relies on crits and getting money. Satisfied the former with Sake (+crit for not getting hit and also eating food) and the latter with the Greed stamp (chance to hit coins of out enemies). Assembled everything for the Jingisukan supercollab just about as the final boss spawned.

  • Stage 1 Hard: Haato. Describes this more as a process of elimination. Depended less on healing and skill damage than the others, on top of having a ranged weapon. Buffs Spider-based weapons. Already used those. Appreciated the Devil Hat here, thanks to Haato's very short special cooldown. Provided a constant x1.3 ranged damage buff. No real issues.

  • Stage 2 Hard: Aqua. Chose on the items given again. Ran into far more troubles here. Built Aqua like a glass cannon. Sports the lowest base hitpoints of all characters. Cannot explode all of your problems in later levels, unfortunately. Used the Chicken Feather revives for the first time...multiple times. Absolutely melted to some mistakes. Stuck on a wall? Dead. Had decent healing, but not enough health/damage mitigation to benefit.

    Reached Nodoka, the boss of the stage, with no revives left. Stood a little too close trying to get damage in. (Risks regular enemies spawning again if you take too long.) Died in a hail of bullets at the 20:59 mark. Partially blames getting unlucky on getting Spider Cooking. Really needed that for Jingisukan for a small heal and +50 max hitpoints (more than Aqua's base hitpoints).

Led to an awkward scenario. Gets 1 item from beating Nodoka, plus another for clearing a stage with a new group. Is 20+ minutes worth two items, if successful?

Returned after some Stardew Valley. Received an extra +16% hitpoints and Cooking. Chose the "33% less damage from projectiles" meal.

Went poorly the first time. Died at 12 minutes without getting Chicken Feather. (Forgot about having Holds. Saw it once, and then never again. Could have simply gotten it on the next level-up.) Jumped right back in. Played much better. Beat Nodoka without using a revive at all (which was kind of necessary because of not getting it until about 18 minutes in).

Screenshotted one of Nodoka's attacks. Touhou, anyone? Emphasizes dodging a lot more than Vampire Survivors.
[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)

Turned out to be a waste of time, sadly: Metal Coat from the JP Gen 2 clear and 25 Pons from Nodoka.


Stardew Valley (Update 4)
Start of day notes: some really good items.
  • Furnace recipe. Turns ore into bars for crafting stuff now. Creates crab pots without buying them too.
  • Two Progressive Fishing Rods. Catches some fish now. Goes a little slow without bait, but oh well.
  • A Stable. Struggled for movement thus far. Relied on a coffee machine for a short buff. Is not a huge fan of the horse. Helps for getting around town, however.
  • One movement speed buff. Finally. Stuck in 6. Expected one sooner.
  • Desert Obelisk. Provides quick and easy access to the Desert. Prefers this over the bus repair any day (despite way more checks from the bus repair), especially without the Golden Clock to advance time.
  • Shipping Bin. No longer needs to wait for Pierre's shop to open to sell crops. Could not sell a Treasure until now. (Potentially could have to Clint. Did not try.)

Crafted a whole bunch of things. Caught a bunch of fish and leveled Fishing too.

Put in a lot of time into Stardew Valley. Barely went anywhere in terms of in-game time. Played...about two-and-a-half weeks. Kind of blames fishing for that. Goes slowly with no bait. Hit level 10 in Fishing, if that tells you anything (with x3 experience).

Took on a Qi quest too: 100 Qi Fruit by the end of the season. Needs 35 Qi Gems for a bundle. Figured there would only be 30 Qi Gems in the multiworld, same as last time. Nope. Received another batch of Qi Gems later on, making it unnecessary. Continues anyways. Either grabs the Key to the Town or deconstructs stuff into Radioactive Bars for crafting.

Stopped in the middle of Squidfest. Needed 3 Squids for Day 1. Spent all day (in-game) and barely got enough, with no missed catches. Stands no chance of getting 5 the next day. Might end up leaving it and hoping it is not good. Still needs a better fishing rod to not get irritated at the required fish.

Received some other really nice items throughout the day:
  • Greenhouse: Helps for the crops to be closeby. Neglected the Ginger Island farm because of having to take the Parrot Express to the Docks to return to Stardew Valley every time. (Got the Farm Obelisk that kind of fixed that just before, though. Still prefers the Greenhouse.)
  • Golden Clock: Speeds up time. No longer needs to idle in place for a festival or a shop to open.
  • Foraging Level: Sounds minor, unstandably. What makes the 4 out of 10 Foraging levels good? Tappers. Combines with Mystic Trees from Foraging Mastery to create Treasure Totems. Helps a lot for Museumsanity.
  • Bite Rate bonuses. Made fishing without bait slightly more bearable.
  • The other Progressive Backpack. Sacrifices much less stuff now from being too full.

One gripe about Museumsanity: Expects you to grab all artifacts in logic immediately. Happened with Setsuna's Blue Tea (Sphere 2). Received Progressive Mine Elevators to reach floor 40, which is where you can first get Frozen Geodes, all in sphere 1. Contains 15 different artifacts. Has a 50/50 chance per geode of even getting an artifact. How many geodes do you need, on average? Good question. Stats time.

Does not know how to modify the coupon collector problem to fit the situation off-hand. Will just simulate it instead of getting a precise number. Assume a 1 in 30 chance of getting any individual artifact. Ran 100000 simulations. Takes a median of 93 Frozen Geodes (or an average of 99.4) to get all 15. Considers 10 Frozen Geodes a pretty decent haul, for context.

Mitigates the problem somewhat with the Traveling Merchant Metal Detector. Sells artifacts you do not own for wildly varying prices (like, 40 to 10000+). Even so...
 
Starcraft 2
Mission #6 (Infested)


We attacked a Dominion space station with our Zerg, and infested several garrisons with our Infestors, supplemented by Hydralisks and Kerrigan's Primal Drop Pods. Most of what the space station had were consumable junk, but we did find a Teeheespresso to permanently boost a random stat of a Mario Bro, a Golden Feather, and most importantly the Old Rod for ArcLG. We also found a Very Expensive Toaster joke item in one of the intro garrisons. Once we were done getting items, we used Time Stop and rushed the victory objective, destroying the station headquarters and bypassing the most heavily fortified Terran base.

@Explorer of Time Stage 4 Hard at Welcome to the Jungle: North-East Relic in Starcraft 2. No big rush. Hinted for the last stage to give just winning outright a shot.
As it happens, that's an immediately-available level, so I was able to get it quickly tonight.

Starcraft 2
Mission #7 (Welcome to the Jungle)


We received a request to conquer the Tal'darim world of Bel'shir, where they had secured HoloCure's Stage 4 Hard. We not only retrieved it, but razed the main Tal'darim base with permanently-cloaked Wraiths before they could harvest any Terrazine. They had a TM for Emerald, a Grab Badge for Mario and Luigi, and had captured Fenix as a prisoner of war, so we rescued him and got him as a Spear of Adun ability.

Starcraft 2
Mission #8 (Enemy Within)


We found a starship of Protoss space pirates, and decided to infiltrate it with a single Zerg larva. We evolved this larva into a broodmother, Niadra, and had her spawn a small army of Roaches and Hydralisks. Niadra found level 1 Regenerative Bio-Steel tech to allow our Terran mechanical units to heal like Zerg do, and also found a Bucket for Kirby and Phenix Esper Magic for FFV. We tracked the origin of this ship to the planet Kaldir, apparently the home port of many other Protoss space pirates.

I'm done for the night. Since I have a lot of in-logic SC2 hinted items and no hints in my LttP, I expect to focus on my SC2 tomorrow even though LttP has very little progress. My other three games are all BKed.
 
I think I've done just about every check in KH2 that I have access to. I haven't hinted anything at this point because I think it's perfectly likely people will get some more world visits for me by the time I have a chance to get back to this in a day or two, but if anyone hints anything important or I remain with nothing to do by the time I'm back at it, I'll toss some hints out there. :)
 
Doom II
Update #6


Courtyard, found in Route 120, had MP Haste for KH2, a Charity Badge for M&L, 8 REP for BRC, a TM for Emerald, a Progressive Mine Elevator for Stardew, a Motivational Video joke item, and Protoss Vanguards. The other Doom level I received, Gotcha! from Route 113, had Scan White Magic for FFV, a TM for SetsunaLG, and Incinerator Gauntlets to increase my Firebats' damage radius. Doom II is BKed again.
 
@Devalue Island Resort in your Stardew Valley unlocks all of Nyakuza Metro, which contains nearly a fifth of my A Hat in Time checks (and over a third of remaining checks), including a hinted Surf HM for ArcLG and Artifact of Chozo for Metroid Prime.
 
Finally getting around to my LG checks now I have Cut and things are opened up a lot more and I can actually catch Pokémon again!

Items found

Spoiler: EoT

Spoiler: Setsuna

Spoiler: Cherrim

Spoiler: Alex

Spoiler: Deva

Spoiler: Vend


This is now ALL of my checks done outside of evolving Pokémon!
 
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