Video Game Strategies

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Tell us your strategies for one of your favorite videogames.


I love old video games. One of my favorites is the old Nintendo version of Sim City (1989). My strategy on how to get a lot of money to grow my city is that I start my city at bedtime, with just a small, basic amount of each kind of property. I then leave the game on all night so that my income from taxes will grow and grow so that I'll have enough money by the morning to build a big, fancy city.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Once I find a way to power level a character in a video game - my autism gets a boner and I will not stop until my character is capped.

I'm happy with that repetition. Right now I'm replaying Dying Light, and there's a suspension bridge with hundreds of zombies. In fact, when you reach the end of the bridge and walk back, the zombies you'd killed before have respawned. Literally hours spent going back and forth.

But as soon as I stop levelling up - I stop playing a game. I can't stand "end game" content or not gaining experience etc. I'm all about those early levels. In fact, I have a real problem with remaking characters.

For instance - I have over 2500 hours on Fallout 4. I've completed the main storyline once. I haven't played most of the quests, or completed any of the DLC. I've not discovered at least a quarter of the original games map. But I've made in excess of 300 characters - and that is a very conservative estimate.

The problem I have with a sandbox game is being told in a quest what to do, or where to go. Don't give me freedom - then start railroading me. Then again, if you have a game like Ark or Dayz where you have a sandbox and no narrative - I'm bored. So it's a fine line with me. It's fair to say, whilst I love gaming, I hate most games. I'm the same with music.

"You're a very particular person" is how a close friend described me. Kristy often just says "Well you hate everything". Correct on both accounts haha.

I am obsessed with power levelling and remaking characters. Also, Fallout 4 has building of bases, a big skill tree and randomly generated Legendary enemies with rare loot. I understand the gripes people had compared to New Vegas - it does feel dumbed down, and yet - it ticked so many boxes that I can still go back to that game and I don't feel bored.

One thing I've found ever since childhood and it exists to this day - if I reach a point where I struggle in a game - I tend to quit and never return. Sometimes, in childhood I did return, but as I approached said point, anxiety built. Every now and then I got past those points, but usually I buckled once again and never completed the game.

Total War is a franchise I love - I travel with 2 armies. Once made up entirely of artillery. I always spawn in a corner of the map and lay out my entire army in a corner - so they can't be flanked. I always let the enemy come to me.

Then, I "unleash hell" as they said in Gladiator. I lay waste to most of an enemy army before they've come within distance of my archers, slingers or gunners etc. I love trebuchets, and seeing the carnage unfold as countless explosives and flaming boulders crash into thick rows of enemy troops. Seeing people on fire and flying through the air. Seeing that small bar which shows balance of power rapidly fill up in the colour of my army as the enemy army is decimated before I take a single casualty. On Rome II and Attila I always invested heavily in war dog units. There's nothing quite like seeing a sea of Mastiff sized dogs rushing the enemy and eating them alive. Phwoar - exciting. Also, those units suffer no casualties unless the dog handlers die. So you just unleash the dogs, then tell the men to withdraw - that way the dogs still kill the enemy and get EXP, but the unit will never deplete in size.

Didn't like Warhammer Total War though. I've outgrown high fantasy kind of stuff - and Warhammer has always been way too over the top with their character and weapon design. It's sort of beyond high fantasy and becomes rather cringeworthy in my opinion.

Ed

 

[Wulven]

Original Star Wars Battlefront. Take Bespin first. It gives access to sabotage greatly weakening enemy vehicles in the game. Lots of fun blowing them up.

 

[Misery]

Alright I'll ramble a bit about this but something tells me nobody will have a bloody clue as to what I'm talking about. I dont exactly see many indie-focused gamers on here.

So, Binding of Isaac, one of my all-time favorite games, here we go:

Strategies can vary depending on character choice. Well, overall approach, I guess. Most characters dont really require a specific approach, but some do:

Lilith: My personal favorite, and one of my favorite characters in any game. Lilith is unusual in that she is blindfolded... she cannot fire tears on her own (yes everyone attacks by crying real hard at things). She uses familiars to fight for her, which means her aim is weird. It is best to take a fairly defensive approach to combat, with more of a focus on familiar position than anything else. When it comes to items, anything that recharges her active item faster is important. Taking new active items is a total no-go with her. And anything that gives her even more familiars is a definite boon.

Lazarus: If anyone is gonna make a deal with ol' Satan, it's this guy. Much more likely to do that when using him, but if he does end up resurrecting he'll need some defense or a way to get more heart containers fast. Theoretically the power from the devil items will give him an edge once he's in his Risen form.

Forgotten: Well he's got a club and can do that weird ghost thing. Doesnt need many bombs and range-up items do little for him. The real trick with him is switching between skeleton dude and ghost form and understanding how to use both.

Bethany: Really, REALLY wants active items. Preferrably something that has a low recharge to it. Having any items that can cause the fear status in enemies is also helpful, to keep her wisps from getting popped as easily. Also anything that can help her not get hit. She cant use soul hearts, and that makes getting angel or devil deals harder than with most characters.

Tainted Lilith: Well first you have to get over how freaking disturbing she is. I just... how does someone think up that method of attack? I mean, "demon fetus on an umbilical cord that explodes like a Xenomorph chest burster out of her stomach and smacks things like a whip" isnt exactly what I'd call a traditional attack. Kinda gross too. Much of the art of her just makes it worse. But anyway, once you're past that nightmare, she really, really needs damage upgrades, and items that are all about tear effects do little for her. She also could do with speed upgrades of any sort as she is bloated and slow.

Tainted Bethany: The strategy is that you choose her and then you win because she's extremely overpowered.

Tainted Lost: no


And for non-specific strategies, I just take it slow and think things over. You never know what is going to appear in this game, so the decisions are different every time. Make careful choices or my character build becomes a self destructive mess. And choose the route through the game based on the build I have at the time. Dont even think about fighting Dogma, Mother, or Delirium unless I'm already quite strong at the point when the decision needs to be made.

And beyond that... I never, ever give up. Thousands of hours of both bullet-hell games and roguelikes will tend to give you that tenacity.

 

[QueenOfFrance87]

I have found that there are two strategies to get Shiny Pokemon in Sword and Shield

1. The Masuda Method is when two Pokemon of different languages raise the likelihood of hatching a shiny. I have a Japanese Ditto that I breed with most Pokemon that I want. With the shiny charm, it raises the odds to 1/500. My number of tries to hatch one shiny can range from 13 to around 3,000, and my average is 1,000.

2. Dynamax Adventures
As unfair as it can be, as you can only use rental Pokemon, its shiny odds are 1/25, which is amazing. However, the only way to see if it's shiny is when you get a choice of which Pokemon you get to keep. I would then check the Pokemon's information, and check if it's shiny. If it has no star symbol, then I usually assume it's not a shiny and pass. I traded for all my missing legendaries and mythicals this way.

 

[Metalhead]

Any standard JRPG - spend an obscene amount of time overpowering the party by grinding a couple of hours before the first boss. Repeat the process throughout the entire game, grind, grind, grind more than a two dollar hooker looking for her next fix. Most JRPGs are easy when one takes this route.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I miss game sharks. Do they even have those anymore?

 

[Misery]

I miss game sharks. Do they even have those anymore?

No, they wouldnt really make a whole lot of sense at this point.

The old ones worked because the game code was a bit simpler, didnt require as much effort to do, and because the stuff coming from the disc / cartridge could be intercepted by the device. That simply doesnt happen anymore. Things are installed.

Instead, we have modding. But that is PC only, for the most part.

Any standard JRPG - spend an obscene amount of time overpowering the party by grinding a couple of hours before the first boss. Repeat the process throughout the entire game, grind, grind, grind more than a two dollar hooker looking for her next fix. Most JRPGs are easy when one takes this route.

This is one of the reasons why I just couldnt ever finish a game in this genre. These games were usually way too easy to begin with (particularly the Final Fantasy series from 4 onwards, they were nearly mindless), and then they get even easier if grinded. And then there were games where you were FORCED to grind, like Disgaea, which... well, that's a cure for insomnia, that game. I'll never understand the appeal. I remember seeing my friend (who played through everything in the series) and he'd do the same map, over and over, for hours on end. No strategy whatsoever. And I just.... why. WHY.

I always liked the IDEA of the gameplay in JRPGs, but outside of Atlus's games (where mere levelling simply doesnt work and you're probably going to lose a lot no matter what) they're just so... ugh.

The old RPGs though, like NES era stuff... those were different though. The original Final Fantasy was never afraid to just flatten your entire party via random encounters.