Archipelago (Completed)

Mission 3/83: Harvest of Screams

Next up, my band of Space Pirates sent my new Kerrigan Clone to the frozen planet of Kaldir, hoping to raid the Protoss there for valuable treasure, as well as hunt the Ursadon Matriarchs who are rumored to guard treasure as well. Thanks to Juno harvesting some rhubarb, the favorite food of Ultralisks, we were able to train some Ultralisks for this battle which were critical to winning the whole thing. 5qwerty got us the Solar Bombardment and Summon Fenix Spear of Adun abilities from Cerulean City, as well as Chrono Surge from Greenpath, to give us orbital support.

We slew the first Ursadon Matriarch and found a spell tome detailing how to cast Holy, which we sent off to Ivalice. Upon arriving at our base, we found a mere 5 Rupees which we sent off to LttP-era Hyrule. A Psi-Link spire we destroyed guarded a valuable Superposition Joker card which we sent to 5qwerty the Balatro player. Moving on, we found the corpse of the planet's previous Zerg Broodmother, Nafash, took a Soothe Bell off her corpse, and sent it to Arcaneum in LeafGreen. The real Kerrigan must've given Nafash the Soothe Bell to make her more loyal, but she really should've given her a defensive held item since she was killed by the Protoss.

The other two Ursadon Matriarchs had a projectile refill which we sent to help Confused_Piplup on her Mystic Quest, and a PP Up which we sent off to Raven in Red or Blue.

The second Psi-Link Spire had a Revival Herb that we also sent to Arcaneum's LeafGreen. The third contained both an Energy Cell Pack, which we sent to help Rafflesia in their trip through Hell, and a Slasher axe, which is cool-looking but way too low-tech for us Space Pirates, so we sent it off to Ivalice to Vaan and his band of aspiring Sky Pirates.

And with that, we left Kaldir. There are still more Protoss on this planet to raid, but that's for another level, one I don't have unlocked yet and will need much better Zerg anti-air for anyway.

EDIT: Updated now that I figured out how to check who sent me items.
 
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I am now at the end of the even remotely reasonable checks in my games, the only things being left in Z1 being extremely hard and annoying multi-room bombing runs requiring very precise movement to not die, while also making sure that my very limited supply of bombs all hit their targets... And I'm completely walled in ALttP unless there's an extremely obscure check I'm completely forgetting about, which is possible I suppose. So I'll be waiting for a little bit to see if someone finds something to help me out. Good luck!
 
Mission 4/83: The Dig

This mission, I played as the Terrans for the first time. I have strong anti-ground troops from the beginning with Siege Tanks and Banshees, but very weak anti-air with only the four Winged Nightmares (Wraith mercenaries) and whatever starting units/buildings I get to fight off air units. Thankfully, this mission is light on the air assault and gives me a giant laser drill that can quickly kill enemy air units. Thank you to Alex for buying me these Siege Tanks from Hyrule, and Arcaneum for finding these Banshees in Mt. Moon. Your support for the Koprulu Sector Space Pirate cause is appreciated.

The mission this time was to breach a Xel'naga Temple with the previously mentioned Laser Drill while defending it from an army of angry Protoss, and I plundered a few shrines along the way too. Getting to the base, I found a Safari Ball on the ground and gave it to Arcaneum in LeafGreen. The three shrines gave me a Protein for Raven, a Builder for Devalue, and a fully-intact Preserve district, which I Iet Devalue colonize since we have no more interest in this planet. With the Safari Ball and Preserve district, the purpose of Xil is clear: the Xel'naga used it as a Safari Zone to catch alien Pokemon!

Moving on to the main temple itself, we found some more Vespene Gas for ourselves, an X Speed for 5qwerty, a Gruesome Goo Yu-Gi-Oh card for Arcaneum, a Poisona spell tome to allow Vaan's party to heal poison, and a Glide ability for Sora in... Disneyland? (I'm not really sure where Kingdom Hearts 2 takes place.) Anyway, we have everything we need now, so on to the next planet. We won't return to Xil.
 
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Mission 5/83: The Spear of Adun

Our first Protoss mission with a base and I happen to have a very strong Protoss force already, with several ground ranged-attack options, Destroyers for a strong air unit that can hit both ground and air units for heavy damage, and Avengers to launch stealth attacks against ground forces. I could honestly go through the entire game without any more Protoss units with what I have so far, though Terran and Zerg still need much more in the way of anti-air.

I would like to thank Arcaneum for recruiting the hidden Avengers of Mt. Moon, Rafflesia for finding the Destroyer starships from the Slough of Despair in Hell and Instigators from the Deimos Anomaly, and 5qwerty for recruiting Adepts from the Nugget Bridge trainers on Route 24.

This mission was to raid Aiur, against a combined Protoss and Zerg force, and capture treasure from warp gates and power cells. The first Warp Gate we powered up instantly built a Mine Elevator on CoolKid's Stardew Farm, while the second gave us an Isma's Tear for 5qwerty in Hollow Knight, a valuable treasure that allows its wielder to swim in acid without taking damage. The third and final Warp Gate gave us a Rain Pendant that protects one from being frozen. This would have been useful back on Kaldir, but it's useless to us now so we gave it to Devalue's Earthbound party.

The power cells didn't give us as impressive treasures as the Warp Gates. The first two gave us a Nugget for Arcaneum and an Ether for 5qwerty, the south power cell gave us some kind of Boots we can't identify in our game that we gave to CoolKid in Stardew Valley, and finally the last power cell gave us a Chicken. I had planned to give it to one of the farms, but a mix-up resulted in it getting sent to Ness who is very much not a farmer. Perhaps they can sell it for some money, though?

In any case, we retreated from Aiur since it's way to heavily defended for us to take completely. However, it is the richest planet in the Koprulu sector, so we'll be back several times this Archipelago.
 
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Civilization 6 (Part 2)

Fixed the wrong techs/civics with wrong names through re-downloading the mod. No big deal on that front.

Started anew. Was pleased to see a Progressive Holy Site in there. Also picked up several more Progressive Eras. Felt considerably more workable.

Glanced at the new tech/civic boosts. Marked "Build a Spaceport" as a progression item. Assumed that to be in logic, due to having one Progressive Space Port. Problem: Costs a static amount of production to build, unlike other districts. Demands a lot of production in the late-game. Knew a way around that: Heroes & Legends Mode. Builds any district instantly with Hercules (the best hero). Tacked that gamemode on and started a new game.

Randomed into Wilhemina of the Dutch empire. Considered that okay...ish. Gives Industrial Zones an adjacency bonus on rivers. Also get a culture bomb from Harbors. Could not use any of the other bonuses (river adjacency for Campuses and Theater Squares, culture from trade routes, quicker dams and flood barriers). Should get them eventually, though. Good enough.

Had absolutely awful land. Consisted heavily of flat plains tiles. Remembers a singular forest to the west, two or three hills, and a few mountains. Might be better somewhere else nearby. Nooooope. Appreciated the nice long river, but not the featureless landscape. Lacks the farm upgrades (and builder charges) to make that kind of landscape shine.

Accumulated a couple of governor titles. Sunk them into Pingala, who gives science and culture equal to the number of citizens in the city (after upgrades). Needs science and culture for checks. Cannot get it many other ways. Comes at the cost of snowballing better with Magnus (namely, no population loss for making settlers).

Struggled along for a while, with poor production. Sunk some turns into Heroic Tales, in hopes of getting Hercules. Heard about Sinbad first, who is a pretty good hero. Deliberated for a bit. Recruited Sinbad, which makes Hercules more expensive to get later.

Regretted many decisions to come, but not Sinbad. Earns money by spending charges to damage enemy ships, as well as from exploration. Raked in 1500-2000 gold (on Quick Speed), which is a tidy sum. Crosses the ocean without the tech too. Met several other civilizations to exchange luxury resources with.

Spotted a nasty Man-at-Arms barbarian camp to the east. Out-teched everything nearby. Formulated a plan at that moment. Already met Brazil nearby. Cannot let Brazil have that river. ...Why not just hire some Man-at-Arms and beat up Brazil?

Describes the plan as good, but the execution as less good. Leaned harder into the war angle by going with the Sanguine Pact Secret Society for vampires. ...Did not really help much. Never trained the Man-at-Arms, which left the Vampire at 20 combat strength (basically, a standard Warrior).

Realized a flaw in the plan: Iron. Builds Man-at-Arms with Iron, normally. Requires at least one of that strategic resource of heal naturally. Meant the Man-at-Arms were injured regularly, especially after the barbarian camp decided to attack them. Could pillage farms for health or promote for health. Cannot do that prior to an invasion very easily, however.

Invaded with two Man-at-Arms and a few other weak units. (Waits 13 turns to recruit, which is forever.) Went to war. Waited one turn too many, which was enough time for Brazil to put walls in the city. Turned a city one hit from death into an impenetrable fortress. Re-loaded an auto save ~10 turns prior, now realizing that the Men-at-Arms did not heal. Took the city easily, plus Brazil's capital a few turns later. Could not press the assault further due to walls on another city, but not bad.

Sweated over maintaining loyalty in those formerly-Brazillian cities. Cost a governor title which could have gone into Magnus. Kind of regrets that. Crushed the effort of settling the vast plains. Likely would have regretted the other decision too, though.

Spammed out a few Heroic Tales. Found and recruited Hercules. Saved the game. Built the Spaceport for the item (a terrible Stone Joker for Balatro). Reloaded the game to undo that. Sent the item still, without wasting Hercules's power. (<- A very handy Archipelago trick: save-scumming items. May not work with your own items, though, depending on the game.)

Somehow managed to grab almost all the progression items in the logical eras, despite largely only using Pingala's ability, backed by a little bit of religion (Choral Music for culture and Cross-Cultural Dialogue for science). Missed out on researching a To-Do List Joker, but oh well. No big loss.

Plans to start fresh once again, one more time. Hopes for another Progressive Holy Site soon. Has enough Progressive Eras to make use of the Voidsingers. Earns pretty decent science and culture through faith generation. Should provide enough foundation for a tourism (or religious) win. Holds off on hinting that for now. Waits for others to get through their initial areas first.

Edit: Forgot to mention something about building the Spaceport. Counted that as a Sphere 15 check. Means it was a very late check, in terms of overall progression.
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Sidenote: Noticed a ton of progression items early on. Presumes this to be a consequence of all the progression items in the pool (like...40% progression, as a guess). Counted 127 notifications of "Could not Progression Balance [item]" while generating the seed. Likely dumped them all into the initial section to avoid making the seed unwinnable.
 
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Kingdom Hearts II - Part 1

:mareepwave: Hello all! I didn't post here to sign up because I was on a trip between the start of this thread and the start of the game, but I signed up on Discord so I'm here too!

After some issues getting it working (a Steam update broke it from last time we did Archipelago for GT), I finally got in this evening and was able to knock out most of what I had available. I'm not sure if you always start with Ultima Weapon or if I just keep getting lucky, but that was in my initial selection of keyblades lol.

Anyway, I've cleared out most of my checks! The only things I didn't get to (I think?) at this point were two bosses for the end of the world segment I was in because I feel a bit underlevelled and I don't have the usual abilities (or, like, Cure magic) that I'm used to at that point. I can probably knock them out if I work at it but also I know it'll be a breeze once I have more worlds to get through which I assume I'll probably have next time I sign on to play. :D
 
Mission 6/83: Temple of Unification

This mission, I used my much stronger Protoss forces again, and visited the colossal space station of Ulnar, where I opened up several Celestial Locks and found treasure within, and also slew a Titanic Warp Prism and plundered the Mechaleon Yu-Gi-Oh card contained within. This mission was pretty simple and I beat it mostly by massing Destroyers to launch a nigh-unstoppable air assault against the Protoss and Terran defenders. That being said, the fact that I have no static defenses apart from Nexus Overcharge made this mission a little more irritating than it should've been. I kept having to withdraw my fleet to protect my base and often lost sacrificial Pylons that I built open to the enemy to buy time. If anyone comes across Photon Cannons or Khaydarin Monoliths, please send them over, and the same goes for Bunkers and Missile Turrets on the Terran side and both Spine and Spore Crawlers for the Zerg.

The Celestial Locks held five treasures, a Compass to the Swamp Palace, which we gave to Alex Fox in LttP, a Vessel Fragment to 5qwerty's Hollow Knight, an HP Up to 5qwerty's FireRed, the Brynhilds mercenary company (modded Valkyrie/ground-Viking mercs) for myself, and finally the Red Skull Key to Limbo (E3M7) in the deepest depths of Hell. Upon opening the last Celestial Lock, the doorway to the most heavily-guarded treasure opened... and it was just a Heal Potion for confused_piplup's Mystic Quest. This is obviously a decoy, so we're heading deeper into Ulnar to find whatever was so heavily guarded here.
 
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Mission 7/83: Harbinger of Oblivion

Still in Ulnar, still fighting the Protoss and Terrans within, I called for reinforcements and brought a massive army of Zerg to assist my worn-down Protoss army. They quickly seized the three Xel'naga vessels and destroyed the four Void Crystals, sealing shut a corridor of void energy that my enemies were using to destroy my Zerg base.

Of the treasures, I found a Treehouse right by my base, a new Fishing Rod in the aftermath of the battle after winning the whole thing, and some Blueberry Seeds in one of the three Xel'naga vessels. I gave all of these to Juno. The other two Xel'naga vessels contained only Graffiti one being an XL Bomb Croc and the other being an M Pora, evidence that some other space pirate managed to make off with the goods first. Still, we were impressed with the quality of the graffiti and sent the designs off to the Bomb Rush Crew.

The Void Crystals themselves contained much more valuable treasure. The first of them contained within it a woman named Shine trapped within the crystal itself. We're not sure how she ended up stuck in it or even how she ended up in space in the first place, let alone a place so far from New Amsterdam, but we suspect she was the thief who graffitied the two Xel'naga vessels, so we sent her back to New Amsterdam to the Bomb Rush Crew. The second Void Crystal contained two Blank/Antimatter Vouchers, which are sure to help James cheat at poker in Balatro.

The third contained a so-called Lucky Emblem, which looks suspiciously like a horned head to us, so we gave it away to Cherrim in KH2. The final Void Crystal contained another Red Skull Key to part of Hell, this time to a part called "They Will Repent" (E4M5), and we sent this skull to Doomguy. Space pirates being a cowardly and superstitious lot, this second Red Skull Key scared off almost all the crew and we had to flee the station. I plan to send a couple of my most courageous space pirates to find the last of the treasures, but it will be a while until they find anything and I'm going to focus our efforts on other worlds for now.
 
I am now properly walled. I managed to squeeze a few more checks out of ALttP, but until I get a mirror or gold gloves I'm pretty much picking at carcasses of checks there. And Z1 is no different. I *really* need a more sustainable weapon to get through Level 6, 8 is bow locked due to giant spiders, and levels 4, 5, and 7 are completely locked out due to a lack of raft, ladder, and flute respectively. 1, 2, & 3 are fully cleared though, as is anywhere I have access to in the overworld, just as long as I know it's a check. (I've ran the proper game like 40 times or more, but I can't speak for the randomizer) Anyway, I'm glad I thought to check the north-east of ALttP's map, because I seem to have confused it's Zora area with the one from ALBW, but even then there wasn't much over there. Good luck people!
 
Mission 8/83: The Outlaws

While our Protoss and Zerg were retreating from Ulnar, I sent our Terran space pirates to raid the lightly-defended Terran Dominion world of Mar Sara, near an archeological dig we heard had a great treasure, but there wasn't much in the way of treasure on the planet. First off, we found another Lucky Emblem just lying on the ground near our base. After some fears that this emblem was cursed and was following us back after giving it away, a call to Sora relieved us with the knowledge that this was just a second, unrelated Lucky Emblem.

Soon after, we took our starting forces and met up with a local cell of rebels, who we let join our crew with the admission fee of their spectral Deja Vu card, which will hopefully be put to good use by James the card cheat.

Then we advanced forward, orbitally bombarded a bunker and sent a Box of Shotgun Shells contained within it to Doomguy, then bombed the local Dominion outpost to smithereens and excavated its treasure myself. This turned out to be a Sea Pendant, which was sent off to Ness in Eagleland, which should be stronger than the Rain Pendant we previously sent. While its fire protection would've been useful for one of our pirates (several Marines were burned to death by Hellions in the process of obtaining the Pendant), the fact is that every single one of our space pirates is expendable, and Ness and co. are not. Should his party of four fail in their quest, there's simply nobody left to save Eagleland, while we can lose a hundred space pirates and easily come back for more.

We're going to leave Mar Sara for now, but we'll be back. No leads on any more valuables here right now, though.
 
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Earthbound (Part 3)

Made good use of that Sea Pendant. Received a teleport to the Lost Underworld, which includes the Fire Springs. Contains a lot of enemies with fire attacks, unsurprisingly. Scored auto-wins on lone enemies there. Saved some healing (and attention), though. Paid it back by sending a HERC to Explorer of Time. Also found Ruxxtin's Amulet for Setsuna. Sounds handy for either quick travel or progression.

Also got a Carrot Key. Fed it to the rabbit statues in Dalaam. Trounced the enemies there. Delved to the sanctuary location. Completed 3 of 8 Sanctuary locations with the new stuff. Is still far off from completing the game, besides the Sanctuary locations. Needs a way to Saturn Valley, Paula, and the Meteorite Piece.

Currently has pretty good equipment for Ness. Considers the Goddess Band and Sea Pendent to be best-in-slot. Owns a decent bat and a good coin too. Picked up a Casey Bat as an enemy drop. Stinks for combat due to its huge miss chance. Helps for auto-wins because of its high offense, however.
 
Mission 9/83: Evil Awoken

This is the last Protoss mission available to me right now, and another baseless mission with Zeratul just like the mission that I started my challenge with. We heard of a great treasure hidden by the Tal'darim Protoss in a temple on the planet Atrias, so we snuck Zeratul, a bunch of Stalkers, and four High Templar down to the planet to steal it right from under the Tal'darim's noses.

First off, we destroyed the temple's three Particle Cannons to bring in reinforcements, and each had some treasure contained within. The first Particle Cannon had some Terran Reapers that the Tal'darim were holding prisoner, to brainwash with Terrazine into becoming Moebius Corps goons, so we freed them and sent them off to our Terran fleets. The other two had a Rare Fish Yu-Gi-Oh card for Arcaneum, a valuable clue as to just what this temple's treasure was, and a Nugget that we gave to Raven in their Gen 1 Pokemon game.

Moving forward into the temple we found a Berry Juice that a Tal'darim had left sitting on the ground after realizing he was a Protoss and had no mouth to drink it with, and a Big Mushroom growing on the Void Catalyst that contained the great treasure. We sent both of these to Arcaneum in LeafGreen. Finally, we found the true treasure of the Temple, a Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon card, among the strongest of all Yu-Gi-Oh cards from its era. After a mad dash out of the temple, Zeratul and two of our Stalkers escaped with their lives and the card. We briefly considered sending this to our favorite Poker players, James or 5qwerty, but eventually decided that not even they would be able to figure out how to use a Yu-Gi-Oh card to cheat at poker, and just gave it to Arcaneum to use in an actual Yu-Gi-Oh deck, where I'm told this card is nigh-unstoppable.

We aren't close enough to Atrias to warp a full base down, but once we are, we'll strike the Tal'darim base on the planet and loot that too.

I now have enough points to get a hint, so I looked up Mutalisks because my Terran and Zerg anti-air is quite bad and I'll need at least one good airborne and anti-air unit for both factions to progress. Mutalisks fill both roles for the Zerg, plus I already have two upgrades for them and need them (or Corrupters) to morph the Devourers I already have unlocked. As it turns out, they're nesting in the Ice Path in JBsundown's Crystal, so it'll unfortunately be quite a while until I can get them.

Mutalisks aren't the only unit that qualifies, though. On the Zerg side, Corruptors, Scourges, and Hydralisks could solve my anti-air difficulties, though not as effectively.

On the Terran side, I have quite a few options in Marines, Goliaths, Wraiths, Vikings, Liberators, and Valkyries. I only need one of the latter four to actually win everything, but the first two are more useful for the 90% of missions where I don't need my anti-air to be able to fly as well. If anyone finds one of these, please send it ASAP. EDIT: I got Goliaths and Wraiths and no longer need the others.
 
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Mission 10/83: Safe Haven

Before we started this mission, we got a lot of reinforcements from our allies. First, James won a huge supply of treasure in the Balatro poker tournament, completing his goal but finally got caught cheating and won't be able to send us any more spoils from playing poker. Thankfully, we also have 5qwerty as our group's other card cheat to win the rest of the Balatro treasures. Among the winnings that James got us are Protoss Sentries and Annihilators, Terran Medics and Ghosts, and Dusk Wing mercenaries, and finally Zerg Spine Crawlers to give us our first static defense building, alongside too many unit-specific upgrades to count.

Then, Juno descended to the mines of Stardew Valley and uncovered a massive supply of treasure hidden at the very bottom, completing one of our group's two Stardew Valley runs. This included Thors for my Terran army, Aberrations for my Zerg, and Arbiters for my Protoss, in addition to a large amount of minor unit-specific upgrades. The mine treasure also contained a Purifier Beam superweapon and a Reconstruction Beam to repair our mechanical units from orbit, both of which we mounted to our space pirate flagship.

Sora also got us some Zerg Swarm Queens from the Space Paranoids computer simulation, somehow bringing them into reality to serve in my armies. Confused_Piplup found us some Terran Warhounds in the Lava Dome, and finally Doomguy rescued our Protoss Zealots from Against Thee Wickedly, a castle in Hell.

On to the actual level, we traveled to the planet Haven, where a Protoss fleet was about to attack a defenseless Terran colony because of a Zerg virus that was about to infest it. Normally, we'd just hang back and let them stop this from turning into a colony-wide pandemic, but we heard that Selendis had some treasure on her Purifier Mothership and some of her fleets and Nexuses, so we intervened to destroy them.

I hired as many anti-air mercenaries as I could, then rushed through the three Nexuses, orbitally bombarding them with the Spear of Adun to bring them down quickly. Then, I hung back and let the Protoss destroy an extra two settlements so they'd send more Terror Fleets to loot, and then finally destroyed the Purifier with a combination of my mercenaries and yet another orbital bombardment from the Spear of Adun.

The first Protoss Terror Fleet had a Scout who had been taken prisoner, so we sent him off to Devalue's Civilization VI. The other two had a Full Restore, which we gave to Jbsundown to speed their way to freeing the Mutalisks in the Ice Path, and a Pinap Berry that we sent to Arcaneum's LeafGreen. Only two of the Nexuses held treasure, the third supposedly held farming equipment that would have gone to Juno had she not completed her game already. One contained a mere 21 coins, which we gave to Vendily on their Short Hike, and the other contained a valuable Defense Shower which quickly went to Ness and the rest of the Earthbound party since, again, they aren't expendable and need the protection. The Purifier Mothership contained a Silent Urn, which is used to contain the souls of monsters much like a primitive Poke Ball. An important archeological find, but not one of much use to us. We sent it to Arcaneum's FF12.

On the other hand, since we've stopped the Protoss, the Zerg infestation on Haven has gone into overdrive, and now we need to deal with that too before we can move on. That will be our next mission.
 
Mission 11/83: Haven's Fall

This mission, we had to go protect five defenseless Terran colonies from Zerg infestation and destroy the four already-existing Zerg bases. I mostly got through this with mercenaries since they're quick to train and my only source of anti-air that's good at it (i.e. not Ghosts) and not painfully slow (i.e. not Thors). Thankfully, I didn't lose many units, which was important since I could not replace any anti-air mercs that died. The Reconstruction Beam was very helpful at keeping everyone alive and the Solar Bombardment and Purifier Beam levelled the Zerg Hives and made base assault much easier. I also flew and grabbed some items sitting in vespene pockets using my starting Vikings.

The first Vespene Gas pickup contained the Devil Dogs Firebat mercenaries for myself, which I picked up and used this mission, and the other to contained the Ice Cream for 5qwerty's Balatro and a range upgrade for my own Banshees. One of the Hives contained an item for a completed game, but the second had Protoss Corsair blueprints inside that I added to my own Protoss fleet, and the last had a Pecha Berry that I gave to Arcaneum.

After beating the mission, I plundered the now-defenseless Terran colonies and got an item from each of them, plus one for winning the whole mission. I got 50 Time Shards for Setsuna the Messenger, an Iron for Arcaneum in LeafGreen, a Poke Ball for 5qwerty in FireRed, two Small Keys for Alex Fox, one in Zelda 1 and the other in LttP, and finally a Cure Potion for confused_piplup.

I think I'll keep Haven as a home base for my space pirates, but we won't have any more missions here. Vendily had a hint request for a Camping Permit, which as it turns out was accidentally eaten by a Brutalisk currently captured in a top secret asteroid lab orbiting the uninhabited planet Castanar. We'll go there next to get that camping permit.
 
Mission 12/83: Piercing the Shroud

For this mission, I sent squad of thirteen Marines, Medics, and Firebats, led by the hero Jim Raynor, to raid a Dominion lab and get the Camping Permit that Vendily wanted, alongside whatever other loot I could find.

Four items were for our completed games, leaving six for in-progress games. Three were for Arcaneum's LeafGreen, a Bluk Berry, Protein and Pearl obtained from two Protoss Relics and a Warbot, respectively. The Protoss Relic next to the Brutalisk cell was a device used to automatically construct a Barn, something which we don't need since we pillage all our food. We sent it off to Stardew Valley, where CoolKid can use it to build a barn and start up a farm whenever he wants now that Juno's left the valley to him.

Next, the Camping Permit, which, like its original game, was swallowed by a fish. Unfortunately, unlike its original game, that fish was swallowed by a Brutalisk, a giant Zerg monster and one of the game's most powerful units. We had to orbitally bombard the station to kill the Brutalisk without heavy casualties and even then we lost two Marines and a Firebat to its claws before we killed it and got the Camping Permit from its stomach. Make that Camping Permit count, Vendily. Three Terrans died for it.

There was one more treasure we needed, a Justice tarot card hidden in the Fusion Reactor that powered the station. Destroying the reactor unleashed an unkillable Hybrid Reaver that we simply didn't have the firepower to kill, so we fled the station as fast as we could, blasted the asteroid apart after we left, and tractored the Hybrid Reaver into the sun which hopefully killed it for good. Most Hybrid Reavers are strong but this is the only invincible one, so thankfully this won't be a problem when we eventually have to fight more of them.
 
Mission 13/83: The Infinite Cycle

We return now to Ulnar, where I've left Artanis and my Kerrigan clone behind to find the last few treasures. Moebius Corps and the Tal'darim left some guys here too, Terran, Protoss, and Hybrid units but no buildings. Kerrigan's gotten much stronger from other people's items since we last saw her, with her getting her Primal Form and several new abilities, Leaping Strike, Psionic Shift, Spawn Leviathan, Kinetic Blast, and the passive ability Fury.

We fought off the rival graverobbers and looted several Xel'naga Halls of Revelation and Devices. The first Device contained a map to something called In Her Shadow, which is close enough to where Vendily is hiking that we just sent them a copy. The second and third Devices both contained stuff for Stardew Valley, one containing a Red Eagle painting by Lupini and the other having something called a Darkness Trap that I can't find on the Stardew Valley wiki.

The first Hall of Revelation had a Duelist stuck inside of it, who we sent back to Earth so that Arcaneum can play some Yu-Gi-Oh with them. The second would've had a Bone Mill for Juno had she not completed her game already and our rivals not made off with it before we could get there, and the last had another Volcano Badge just like the one we found in the caverns of Ulaan. The Xel'naga must've liked this badge quite a lot if they had two of them. Perhaps a Xel'naga was a Cinnabar Gym Leader in ancient times?

In any case, we've found everything there is to find on Ulnar and will not return.
 
Big thanks to whoever sent me my Magic Sword and Infinity Key in Z1, I was able to get all the rest of the accessable checks there, unfortunately I'm now hard stopped until I get either the Bow, Ladder, or Raft. (or all 6 pieces of the Triforce I'm missing) I haven't checked ALttP yet, so hopefully I'll be able to make more progress in that one later!
Edit: Typo
 
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Big thanks to whoever sent me me Magic Sword and Infinity Key in Z1, I was able to get all the rest of the accessable checks there
That was Juno, she got both of them when she completed her Stardew goal earlier today.
 
Mission 14/83: Rak'Shir

My next mission was to travel to the planet Slayn and help the Tal'darim First Ascendant, Alarak, slay the Highlord Ma'lash. For this mission, I played as Protoss and it was quite simple since I could just steamroll everything with a Destroyer fleet, but my lack of base defenses made this mission more annoying than it had to be and I had to keep coming back to fight attacks on my base. Still, I crushed everything and also slew the three Slayn Elementals that had some treasure for us. After killing Ma'lash, Alarak stiffed us and only paid us 20 Rupees, which we sent to Alex's LttP run.

The Slayn Elementals had a Piece of Heart for Alex's LttP, a Dispel Mote for Arcaneum's FF12, and a Steel Gorget, also for Arcaneum's FF12.

We'll return to Slayn some other time to get revenge on Alarak for short-changing us, but we can't hold our position without his support right now so we'll retreat and raid someone else in the meantime.
 
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Hinted for all the remaining Progressive Eras in Civilization:
  • Supporter in the Shadows in ArcaneumYuGiOh's World.
  • (TT) The Woods Mythril Shard in CherrimKH2's World.
  • Black Deck Ante 3 Orange Stake in 5qwertyBalatro's World.
  • Lava Dome - Gold Bar Room Boulder Chest in @_confused_piplup_'s World.

Only needs one of them. Should be able to finish the game with it.


The second and third Devices both contained stuff for Stardew Valley, one containing a Red Eagle painting by Lupini and the other having something called a Darkness Trap that I can't find on the Stardew Valley wiki.
Gives the player a short debuff which makes the screen darker. Normally happens when fighting a certain monster. Turned on one of the YAML options add negative items to the pool, apparently.
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Earthbound (Part 4)

Received a big windfall from the bottom of Stardew Valley's mine. Included a teleport to Dusty Dunes, which lets you into Fourside. Turned in the Signed Banana for another Sanctuary location, the King Banana for the monkey caves, and the Contact Lens (4th item of the whole Archipelago) for a useless Golden Walnut. Traversed Deep Darkness and Threed area with another teleport and an item, respectively.

Upgraded Ness's bat to the Gutsy Bat, also, which is Ness's best weapon. Sports a little less offense than the Legendary Bat in exchange for a ton of Guts (criticals and occasionally survive at 1 hitpoint). Normally drops off of an enemy right near the end of the game.

Discovered a teleport to Saturn Valley in the monkey caves. Did not matter too much, however. Got the Zombie Paper from Rafflesia. Glued a bunch of zombies to the floor, opening up the path to Saturn Valley that way too.

Feels like no big item locations are left. Only found 53.39% of the items in the game, though. Cannot access Winters yet. Locked most of that behind another item. Picks up another small handful with the Overcoming Shyness Book, Key to the Shack, and Jar of Fly Honey (plus a Sanctuary location for each). Oh, right. Never entered the pyramid, which is also the route to the Dungeon Man. Has the key for that.

Civilization 6 (Part 3)

Decided to go in-game and at least get a decent start location. Remembered the boost for having Guilds was progression too. Could be something good for someone. Turned off Heroes and Legends (despite being good for faith) and chose a Pangaea map. Completed most of the boat stuff. Would rather de-emphasize Harbors.

Turned out to be a Progressive Campus on that Guilds boost. Neat. Incidentally rolled Korea, which basically revolves having their unique Campus. Bailed on that, however. Wanted a plan for faith.

Glanced through all the new techs/civics. Dismissed Progressive Preserve at first. Costs a lot to build its buildings. Realized the second Progressive Preserve could be good, however. Accesses National Parks, which are great for converting faith into a tourism win. Also had the other Progressive Holy Site in hand too. Definitely makes more progress now.

Randomed into...Wilhemina of the Dutch Empire again? Lacks any large benefits. Could combine her better Industrial Zone adjacency with the policy card for 100% Industrial Zone adjacency, though. Solves some of the production problem a Faith-focused build without Work Ethic (+production equal to the Holy Site's adjacency) faces. Seemed like okay land, with some Spices (the best luxury) a little ways off. Sure.

[PokeCommunity.com] Archipelago (Completed)

Lots of plains again, but more features than the last time. Notes the mountains along the rivers in particular. Improved the adjacency of Holy Sites and Campuses. Planned out some districts and wonders (Masoleum of Halicarnassus and Kilwa Kisiwani).

Realized an alternative strategy almost immediately: war. Started with two Scouts. Automatically upgraded into Rangers via the Rifling Tech. Calls them pretty weak in vanilla. Brings guns to bear against clubs, spears, and slings, though.

Met Teddy Roosevelt. Warred Teddy Roosevelt. Demolished the onslaught of Warriors and Slingers. Became a little awkward as a melee unit (a normal Warrior) needed to capture the city. Hopped Magnus around to keep loyalty good enough until the strike force did their job.

Admittedly was an iffy idea, given the tourism victory plan. Earns tourists slower with one less player in the game. Offsets that and then some by having monopolies on resources. Gives huge tourism boosts, on top of just having more cities.

Spotted Harald Hardrada to the south. Why not keep pressing the Ranger advantage? Does not need to completely kill him, either. Captured the first two cities easily. Stalled on the third because of the Warrior being too hurt and occasionally harassed by ranged fire.

Planned to stop fighting soon...until an emergency World Congress meeting for capturing one of Harald's cities. Tried to vote it down. Nope. Faced the Incans now too. Brought actual units to the fray (Man-at-Arms). Stands toe-to-toe with baseline Rangers pretty well.

Upgraded these two Rangers with the level 3 +20 combat strength promotion, however. Hits a little weaker than a Machine Gun now. Still dominates the field. Also finished a building that lets you buy land units with faith around this time. Turned a plan to stall for peace into a minor offensive.

Captured one Incan city. Prepared for a peace treaty...until a Meteor Shower landed. Awards you your highest tech cavalry unit if you touch it. Happened to gain the Composite technology from Juno's flood of items. Felt like an item had been sent straight from Starcraft 2, however, as a Modern Armor entered the battlefield. Carries the second highest combat strength (among land units) in the game, second only to the Giant Death Robot. Time for more war, then. (Tried to negotiate a peace treaty, to be fair. Noped out when Pachicuti, despite losing cities, wanted cash for peace.)

Carved a path straight through the Incan empire. Stopped short of completely eliminating them. Remembered the ticking clock. Entered the last available era not long ago. Could not defeat the Incans and two more civilizations in that time. Might stand a chance at a religious victory.

Declared peace with the Incans (and took all their money). Dumped faith into missionaries and apostles. Unfortunately entered an ongoing scuffle between the other two civilizations with religion. Saw a flurry of missionaries running around. Sniped a couple. Did not have a religious strike force ready in time to make the trip to them, however. Hit the time limit. Converted the majority of Egypt's cities. Likely converts the other Incan city in the next turn or two. Has not touched many of Indonesia's cities yet. Guesses maybe...10 more turns until victory?
 
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