Holocure (Update 5)
Unlocked the final stage. Stands pretty far out of stat logic for this. Needs one more Attack upgrade, one more Speed upgrade, and two Growth upgrades. Equals +12% Attack, +12% Speed, and +2% damage on main weapons and Special Attacks per in-game level. Usually hits level 50 right around 20 minutes, for the record.
Turned to Noel. Considered Fauna, the character with the first clear in vanilla. Loses a good bit of damage without Beetle (extra skill damage), however. Trusted in Noel's hitpoints. Ate the Pufferfish Meal, granting a massive +20% to Attack/Speed/Pickup Range AND +10% max HP/critical/haste. Mainly cared about the hitpoints and speed.
Needed that speed so badly. Targets you with lightning bolts all stage long. Strikes very quickly, to the point of not being able to get out of them, despite moving the whole time. Lost a revive this way. Seemed pretty grim, at first.
Never received any of the three +Speed items. Resorted to a desperate solution: the Lightness Stamp. Boosts your Speed by +20% at the cost of -20% of your main weapon's damage. (Improves to +40% Speed by strengthening it with other stamps.) Cannot recall ever taking this. Proved essential here, however. Helped just enough to outrun the danger indicators.
Led to a new (or, rather, a continuing) problem: killing enemies. Focused entirely on defensive items to simply survive. Left damage on the weak side. Remembers reaching the 14 minute mark with some bosses from the 10 minute mark still alive. Turned the corner on damage with the Elite Cooking collab. Racked up good damage while running.
Made it to Goriela, the 20 minute boss. Worried about damage once more here. Survives much easier by staying far away from the boss. Deals far less damage, in return. Struck a balance between damage and not dying. Won with one Revive to spare at 22:51. Spawns tough enemies at 23:00, if memory serves, so just in time.
![[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)](https://data.pokecommunity.com/attachments/89/89185-fd567cbc90e5e4c0f9be8ac63f17bd2a.jpg "[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)")
Listed all the released "progression" items.
- Arcaneum: No. 1 Brig Key, Balfonheim Aeropass. Already finished, so kind of useless.
- Cherrim: Donald Fantasia
- Explorer of Time: Shredder Rounds (Viking), War Pigs, Phase Blaster (Warp Prism), Small Key to Ice Palace
- Setsuna: L4 Qrter Blue Magic, Steal ability, and Dance ability. (Not progression, but potentially helpful?)
- Alex_Among_Foxes: Z1 Heart Container
- Devalue: Haley <3 (not that great)
Was there anything good behind the remaining talent stage clears? The Aeropass, Donald Fantasia, and the L4 Qrter Blue Magic. Did not have the group for the Aeropass either.
Lesson for next time: drop it down to 10 minutes per group, if not less. Was not interested in spending 20+ minutes for one check. Figured a situation this bad was unlikely, to be fair. Got most of the talent groups so early.
Stardew Valley (Update 4)
Finished Squidfest. Somehow managed to catch 5 squids without bait. (Got the third Progressive Fishing Rod a hair after that. Still helped for all the fish ahead. Would not mind the last Progressive Fishing Rod still.)
Found a new hated location: Gus at the Island Resort. Carries zero multiworld items with these settings. Sells every single item in one of the bundles, including a Pina Colada, which you can only get there. Took three in-game weeks for him to finally go there. (Picks a few random villagers to visit each day if it is not raining at the resort.) Thank goodness for the Gold Clock from Setsuna. Probably saved a literal hour of idling.
Dipped into the mines for a Help Wanted quest. Needed to go pretty deep anyways. Aimed for the bottom of the mines. Literally came this close:
![[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)](https://data.pokecommunity.com/attachments/89/89186-0e4ea37902f659a0df66215649843e40.jpg "[PokeCommunity.com] April 2025 Archipelago (In progress)")
Received the Key to the Town from Alex_Among_Foxes at a good time. Almost bought it for Qi Gems when it came in. Purchased Hoppers instead and deconstructed them for Radioactive Bars. (Thought those were more useful. Only crafts Hoppers and Heavy Tappers with those.) Wound up being a good choice. Crafted a Heavy Tapper for Arcaneum's Boulder Badge.
Got more value out of Mushroom Boxes from Alex_Among_Foxes than expected. Came with a Dehydrator. Needed that for Raccoon bundles. Really appreciated the new Automate mod, on that note. Set it up to automatically collect from Crab Pots, Mushroom Logs, Mushroom Boxes, and Tappers. Is a big hassle to do that regularly, particularly the Crab Pots.
Tore through the rest of Winter and then Fall. Fast-forwarded through most of it except for a few birthdays and events. Probably should have done that sooner, given how "early" these seasonal events were (Sphere 2). Hates having to return to a season for something like fish. Might as well fiddle with crops for cash. Oh, and crafting. Maybe go to the mines too? Winds up being several hours later before long.
Went through the crafting list. Crafted everything available except Tub of Flowers (requires four different seeds), a fertilizer that wanted Radioactive Ore, and a few calling for tons of Iridium Bars. Even crafted the Anvil (50 Iron Bars) and the Mini-Forge from Combat Mastery.
Edit: Oh, and one unexpected bottleneck in crafting: Moss. Grows on older trees. Disappears during the Winter. Gets a ton from the Green Rain event...in Summer. (Another nice Automate mod thing: gathers the moss on connected trees too.)
Picked Stardew Valley pretty clean. Is not walled, but kind of close. What remains out of the 258 items?
- Scouted bundles and shop items. Knows what all of those are, minus a few Raccoon ones. Probably accounts for 75 checks, as a guess.
- A few expensive recipes and some from skills or as random multiworld items.
- Summer events, Summer quests, and friendships from people born in Summer. (Could do friendships now. Goes faster in Summer. Logically expects that too.)
- The bottom of the Mines. Also now level 25 and 100 of the newly unlocked Skull Caverns.
- Three fish, two of which are from Summer rivers.
- 8 Museumsanity checks.
- Four Traveling Merchant days that are not unlocked yet.
- Edit: Alllll the Special Order Board quests.
Maybe a few other odds and ends too, like the Maple Syrup and Sweet Gem Berry in the secret forest spot. Also the complete Rarecrow collection.
What is needed for completion? Ought to be getting close.
Kale Seeds. Got them.- A Pond for Caviar.
- Strawberry Seeds.
Summer. Just got the Dig Site Bridge, so good on that.- A Fish Smoker (likely the recipe).
- Removal of the railroad boulder for a fish.
- Amaranth Seeds.
- Artichoke Seeds.
Still quite a bit.
Not playing today, for the record, barring a quick hinted location.
