The SIFT Exam: What to Expect and How Best to Prepare
Just took the SIFT for the first time on 18 November 2020 and passed with a 61/80. Some background info on me:
31 years old
133 GT Score on the ASVAB
College/Grad-school E-4; BA/MA in English Lit (I know, you don't have to tell me)
Graduated Infantry OSUT December 2019
Currently submitting OCS packet (I know it's not a WOCS packet, I was thinking about it for a while and still decided on OCS)
High school English Teacher prior to enlisting
Absolutely no aviation experience
Because of my academic background, I’m pretty comfortable in a classroom/test setting. I don’t get nervous before or during tests. I also have a bad habit of procrastinating, particularly when it comes to studying, so I did literally all my studying the day before the SIFT. That’s NOT to say that the test is easy. If I had taken this test and crammed all my studying into the day before when I was right out of high school or even in my early 20s, I 100% would have scored significantly lower, if not just outright failed. So I’m going to tell you what to expect based on my experience and what I feel are the best study materials for the SIFT.
I. SIFT Background
Ia. The Sections
The SIFT has 7 different sections with varying numbers of questions and time limits for each. In order, the sections are as follows:
SECTION
# OF QUESTIONS
TIME LIMIT
1. Simple Drawings
100
2 min
2. Hidden Figures
50
5 min
3. Army Aviation
40
30 min
4. Spatial Apperception
25
10 min
5. Reading Comprehension
20
30 min
6. Math Test
Variable
40 min
7. Mechanical Comprehension
Variable
15 min
The first 5 sections are pretty straightforward and have a static amount of questions. The final two sections are 'organic' in that the questions will adapt to your performance (i.e. increase or decrease in difficulty or focus on certain topics) based on whether you got the previous question correct or incorrect. Although it's not entirely clear, it's suggested that the test will continue to give you questions on WEAK subject areas. So if you get a question wrong on averages, you'll likely get another question on averages. I agree with this supposition, and you'll see why below in the math section. For Sections 3-5, you will be able to go back and review all the questions if you'd like to change your answers for any of them. Simple Drawings and Hidden Figures (Sections 1-2) will NOT allow you to go back since they are kind of 'reaction' tests and being able to adjust your answers defeats the purpose of that. For the Math and Mechanical Comprehension (Sections 6-7), you CANNOT go back since the test adjusts the difficulty on-the-fly. Overall, the time allotted amounts to 132 mins (or 2hrs 12mins) for the entire exam. After Section 3 (Army Aviation) you will be granted a 10-minute break to get up and stretch, go to the bathroom, etc. If you take longer than 10 mins, your computer will lock and I suppose you're fucksville? But I literally took 1 minute to piss and went right back to it so I don't know what happens if the 10 minutes completely elapse. Though it may seem like you have crazy time crunches for some sections, your time pauses in between each question. The way it was explained to me by the proctor was that the answer goes from your PC, to somewhere (Pensacola?), to Ft. Rucker, back to Pensacola (?), and back to your PC (or something like that; the point is, it's not exactly instant, so there's a second or two pause in between each question). My test started @ 0810 and I finished at 0950 which is only 1hr 40mins, so don't stress about time.
Ib. Miscellaneous SIFT info
You can only take the SIFT twice in your life. If you pass on your first attempt, you cannot retake it in order to get a higher grade. If you fail your first attempt, you must wait 180 days before retaking the exam. Although grading is a bit hazy, a max score is 80 and the lowest is 20. The minimum for passing/consideration is 40. From what I read, most people do pass on their first attempt, and the average score is somewhere around 50. Do not take your score to heart, as it is not indicative of your aviation ability. I'm sure many people here have friends/acquaintances who scored in the 40s and are incredible pilots, meanwhile others have scored in the 70s and are otherwise average or substandard pilots.
II. The Sections, Broken Down
IIa. SIMPLE DRAWINGS (100 questions, 2 min time limit)
SECTION RATE: 1.2 secs / question OVERVIEW: Each question in this section will present you with 5 images. Four of them will be identical, the 5th will be different in some way. For example, you will have 4 clocks with the hands indicating 2pm. The 5th clock will be indicating 3pm, or 2:30pm or something to that effect. This section is incredibly easy, honestly just try the Trivium practice test for it once or twice and you should be fine. I answered all of the questions and I'm pretty sure I only got one wrong because I misclicked an answer. INFO/PRO TIPS:
Since there will be 5 images per question, the fastest and most efficient way to answer these questions is to stare at the 3rd image in the sequence (the one in the middle) and use your peripheral vision to determine which of the 5 looks different (it's very easy to tell even if your vision blurs a bit, which is what I did). I kept my eyes on the center image and reset my mouse cursor to the center image after every question (if I had to click one of the other ones) and was blazing through this section.
Take your time making sure you click the right one. Unlike most of the other sections, this one will not require you to select an answer and click "Next"; once you click an image, it will immediately send you to the next group of images. Shouldn't be too much of an issue, but just be sure not to rush, especially since you cannot go back in this section.
The Trivium Practice Test for Simple Drawings is good practice. I'd argue the SIFT is easier since the images are displayed horizontally left to right, rather than vertically, so you don't have to scroll up/down to see all of them (another pro-tip for this and Hidden Figures Practice Tests: hold ctrl + scroll down on your mousewheel to zoom out on the page so you can see all the options without scrolling). You also don't have to click "Next" on the SIFT, so that saves time. Again, just take your time and you'll honestly do really well on this part. Good confidence booster.
IIb. HIDDEN FIGURES (50 questions, 5 min time limit)
SECTION RATE: 6 secs / question OVERVIEW: So, real talk, this section fucked me real good. I've read anecdotes of some people that say it's not difficult, I've also read some that say it's impossible. I personally fall closer to the "it's impossible" camp, but YMMV. It's tough because you can't really 'study' for this section very well, as the practice tests I've seen for it absolutely pale in comparison to the actual questions on the SIFT. Of the 50 questions, I answered 20, and the last 4 I answered in the final 15 seconds or so because I was so far behind I just started clicking randomly and hoping for the best. This is one of those things where you either got it or you don't. I'm going to assume that this section is what hurt my score the most, but then again, I'm not exactly sure how the score is determined and if all sections are weighted equally. INFO/PRO TIPS:
For a series of questions, the possible hidden figures you're looking for do NOT change. For example: for 5 straight questions, the answers will ALL be the same. Each answer will be a different shape, and you have to determine which one of those shapes is present in the collage/image-jumble. After a certain amount of questions, the 'hidden figures' you're looking for will change and remain the same for another series of questions. Rinse and repeat for 50 questions.
The best advice I can give is to look for unique shapes in the hidden figure choices: it might be 3 sharp humps, could be a triangle, a certain squiggle, etc. Look for it as best you can in the image-jumble while not spending too much time on each question. My problem was definitely spending too much time because I couldn't find anything and kept looking, but perhaps your eyes will be better at discerning patterns faster than mine were.
The Trivium Practice Test is okay, but I'd personally say it was much easier than the SIFT. Expect the SIFT to be significantly harder. Again, ctrl + mousewheel down to zoom out on the Trivium test and see all the answers. Give it a few cracks, but you can't really 'study' for this section so just get used to identifying those unique shapes.
IIc. ARMY AVIATION (40 questions, 30 min time limit)
SECTION RATE: 45 secs / question OVERVIEW: Even if you have no background in aviation like me, this section can be a strength if you study. Like I said in my intro, I studied for this entire test only the day before and I felt pretty comfortable during this section, and was confident afterwards that I answered most of them correctly. Do keep in mind that the questions will vary from test to test, but this section focuses a lot more on mechanics and components and a tiny bit on trivia. For example, one of the questions asked where the Army trains its aviators (Ft. Rucker). INFO/PRO TIPS:
The Trivium Practice Test is actually surprisingly helpful here. There weren't exact question replicas of some of those on my SIFT exam, however, there was 100% some information present on the Trivium practice test that saved my bacon on a few questions on the SIFT.
Additionally, there are two things that should be your Holy Grail for this section:
1) Helicopter Lessons in 10 Minutes or Less. This YouTube channel is an invaluable resource in terms of getting the basics down. The videos I watched: - Dissymmetry of Lift and compensating for it; - Gyroscopic Precession; - Autorotations; - Types of Rotor Systems; - How Lift is Created; - Forces Acting on an Airfoil. I was jumping around the videos because I was kind of panicking as it was approaching midnight the day before the test, so I just hit what I felt would be important. The videos I watched were more than sufficient to give me a base understanding of important concepts that coincidentally (or not) appeared on my particular SIFT exam. I also watched the videos on Transverse Flow Effect and Airflow at a Hover: both were tangentially helpful for the SIFT (i.e. I didn't have questions dealing directly with them, but the concepts they addressed helped me to make what I feel were correct guesses on somewhat related questions). Definitely read up on Angle of Attack (AOA) and Angle of Incidence (AOI). I did not have many questions on either (I think I had one question on AOA), but these are important concepts that affect lift. The video on Airflow at a Hover has a concise but great explanation. Be sure also to read up on AOA and AOI in the FAA Handbook (FAA 2-12 - 2-13).
2) The FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook. Specifically: - Know the function/purpose of the tail rotor, cyclic control, and collective pitch control (FAA 1-5; 3-2 - 3-4). - Know what the antitorque pedals do/control (FAA 1-5; 3-4). - Know the four forces acting on your aircraft (FAA 1-5); you don't need to go in-depth, just be able to name them. You may encounter a question about Bernoulli's Principle/Venturi Flow. - Know the different rotor systems (FAA 4-2 - 4-4) and antitorque systems (FAA 4-7 - 4-8), particularly Rigid Rotor Systems. - I didn't get any majonon-common sense questions about Ground Procedures, Flight Prep, Flight Maneuvers, Night Ops, etc. I had one question each about: autorotation; the IMSAFE checklist; night scanning; and hypoxia.
This does not mean that you will NOT see other topics covered. Don't say to yourself, "Hey, this dude only studied these things and got a 61, so I'll only study these things as well!" The SIFT exam is different for every examinee; the questions on one test will not be the same as the questions on another. DO NOT SKIMP ON THIS SECTION. Study everything that you can! Basically, if you read the FAA manual front to back, you should be able to ace this section; all the answers are there. Remember, I procrastinated like crazy studying for this. I simply did not have the time to study any more than the above. I made calculated risks and assumptions on what concepts and ideas I would familiarize myself with. Do not follow my example.
IId. SPATIAL APPERCEPTION (25 questions, 10 min time limit)
SECTION RATE: 24 secs / question OVERVIEW: You'll be given a primary image that shows a cockpit-view, and you will have to match it with an external view of a fixed-wing aircraft (i.e. plane). This section is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Just don't rush and you'll be fine; you only need 24 seconds per question to answer all of them. That's plenty of time. INFO/PRO TIPS:
When the plane is BANKING LEFT, the cockpit view will show a horizon slanting UP from RIGHT to LEFT; when BANKING RIGHT, the cockpit view will show a horizon slanting UP from LEFT to RIGHT.
All that's left for you to determine is whether the plane is heading: - from land towards sea; - from sea towards land; - or down the coastline.
Additionally, you'll have to determine if the plane is pitched up or down (i.e. nose-up or nose-down). It's quite apparent, don't worry.
The Trivium Practice Test is good for this. Just note that on the actual SIFT exam, the image quality is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than on the Trivium Test. It literally looks like something that's been photocopied 100 times, then snapshotted by flip-phone from 2004, and uploaded to the SIFT database. Not sure why they haven't updated them.
IIe. READING COMPREHENSION (20 questions, 30 min time limit)
SECTION RATE: 90 secs / question OVERVIEW: Each question will be accompanied by a paragraph or so of information. From this information, you must choose an answer that is provable only with the information presented. In other words, do not apply outside knowledge/personal opinion when choosing an answer. You can only use information presented to you when determining the correct answer. INFO/PRO TIPS:
I have a BA and MA in English Literature and reading/writing is my thing so it would be a dick move for me to say that this section was easy. It was very easy for me, yes, but I know that's not the case for many. I taught a lot of SAT/ACT prep as well, and those-style reading comprehension questions are very similar to those present on the SIFT.
My best tip would be to read the paragraph, and then for each answer, ask yourself, "Can I prove this answer based on the information provided?" If you cannot prove it, then it is NOT the correct answer.
What standardized reading comprehension tests try to do is mess with you by talking about well-known subjects or something that the vast majority of people have a certain viewpoint on. Then they try to bait you into choosing an answer that you have in your head, but isn't necessarily supported by the paragraph. For example: - One question on my SIFT dealt with child/spousal abuse in the military. We can all agree that this is abhorrent, and you can bet that one of the answers appealed to this emotional response. - However, the paragraph had nothing in it about the morality of abuse; instead, it talked about the responsibility of the chain of command to address the problem. - Therefore, the correct answer had something to do with NCOs and commanders being abreast of the issue and taking a direct approach to stopping spousal/child abuse within their direct chain.
The Trivium Practice Test is an okay reference, but not representative of this section on the SIFT. The SIFT will NOT ask you "The gist of this passage is..." or "Commanders are responsible for..." - You will simply be presented with a passage and then 5 statements to choose from. Only one statement is provable based on the passage; there are no "none of the above" answers. - I THINK (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) all of these questions are related to the military in some way or another. It honestly all blurs together in my memory. But I can almost guarantee that you will not get any paragraphs about Charles Dickens or Yellowstone National Park or something like that. Haha, thanks to Let_It_Ride_34 for making me look like a complete moron here. There are definitely non-military topics, but I still stand by no Dickens.
IIf. MATH TEST (X questions, 40 mins)
SECTION RATE: N/A (Ball-park it at something like 90 secs per question and you should be okay) OVERVIEW: My SIFT was absolutely full of questions dealing with averages and MPH/distance, which is why I feel like the hypothesis about the test giving you questions on weak areas is correct. One of my first questions was like:
Sally took 3 tests and scored 70, 68, and 75. Each test was weighted at 10% of the previous one. If her total average after 5 tests was 82, what score did she get on her 4th and 5th tests?
I feel like that's the exact question. I mean, I don't have problems with doing averages. I just honestly don't care much for these lengthy word problems and I couldn't be bothered to try it (and all the average-related questions were word problems such as this one) so I just guessed and literally ended up with like 10 similar kinds of questions. Then a bunch of MPH/distance/travel questions. Again, no issues calculating that stuff. Just more word problems. Don't be like me, lol. I honestly can't recall any questions dealing explicitly with physics or area/volume, mainly because I kept getting questions about averages wrong (at least, that's the assumption; kept getting them wrong, so it kept giving me questions on averages). Don't let this mess with your expectations, though. If math is a weak point of yours, study other aspects including: fractions, the order of operations (this was big for like two or three questions), and Algebra 2/Trig stuff. Don't worry about memorizing formulas; there will be a collapsible bar on the right-hand side of your screen with all the formulas for area, volume, etc. You'll be given a sheet of printer paper and a pencil/pen. You can request more paper if you'd like but I barely used half of one side of the sheet. INFO/PRO TIPS:
Take your time here. 40 minutes is plenty of time, I spent 10 secs on some questions and probably 2-3 minutes on others so don't panic too much about time, it'll balance out more or less. I ended up finishing the section with something like 3-5 minutes remaining on my time.
The Trivium Practice Test isn't that great of a reference. I'd say the SIFT is quite a bit harder. There always seemed to be an extra 1 or 2 steps in the word problems on the SIFT compared to this test, but it doesn't hurt to use it as a resource. Perhaps you could find better ones online.
Since anything from Freshman- to Junior-level high school math topics is fair game, it wouldn't hurt to do some SAT practice tests, too. You'll wanna try and find pre-2016 ones because the reformed SAT math section is significantly different from the SIFT/ASVAB/old SAT math section.
SECTION RATE: N/A (Ball-park it at something like 45 secs per question and you should be okay) OVERVIEW: Probably the hardest section of the test, mostly because the subject matter covered is so broad. There were questions on circuits, weight distribution on a pulley, see-saw imbalances based on weight. IIRC there were at least two questions on Venturi Flow/Effect. Nothing crazy, just asking where fluid speed is greatest or where pressure is the least, things like that. Honestly speaking though, while I do feel like this was the hardest part of the test, at the same time it felt like a lot of it was intuitive to some degree, even without much preparation. That does not mean don't study for this. Three questions I can distinctly remember:
A rope is hanging from the ceiling; a person is standing on a ledge nearby holding the end of the rope. A weighted object hangs on the rope halfway between the ceiling and the person. The question asked something about the weight/load distribution on each side of the hanging object (or something like that).
Two kids sitting on a see-saw with a fulcrum point directly in the middle, one kid is 80 lbs the other 120 lbs. The question asked where the fulcrum point should be moved so that the 80-lbs kid isn't hanging in the air.
A brick and a feather are dropped at the same time in a vacuum, which object lands first?
INFO/PRO TIPS:
The Trivium Practice Test is alright in terms of the types of questions to expect, but it's really hard to give specifics to study given how wide this section topic is.
I will say that I can't recall many word problems or ANY problems dealing with formulas. Obviously, YMMV here. I may just have gotten lucky on my exam.
III. Final Thoughts
You can 'study' for Math and Army Aviation. Reading Comprehension, Spatial Apperception, and Simple Drawings, imo, are easily-prepared-for with practice tests. Just keep in mind what I said about the differences between the Trivium Reading Comprehension Sample Test and the actual SIFT Reading Comp. Hidden Figures is un-study-for-able (and I feel very difficult to replicate difficulty-wise in practice tests). Still, take a bunch of practice tests. Can't hurt. Mechanical Comprehension, again, very broad subject. To prepare for this I took the Trivium Practice Test once and that was it. If I had to rank the SIFT personally in terms of difficulty, I'd put it in this order:
Hidden Figures (9/10)
Mechanical Comprehension (7/10)
Math Test (5/10)
Army Aviation (5/10)
Reading Comprehension (4/10)
Spatial Apperception (2/10)
Simple Drawings (1/10)
I only have Hidden Figures #1 based on the fact that I didn't even make it halfway through the section. I finished all the others with time to spare. Again, your mileage WILL vary. Reading Comp may be near the top for some. Simple Drawings may not be that easy for others. In the end, the SIFT is very doable whether you have aviation experience or not. Don't procrastinate like I did and you'll be fine. Study hard for Math and Army Aviation. Destroy those sections and you'll be in good shape as Spatial Apperception and Simple Drawings SHOULD easy enough. This way, you'll have really good outcomes on 4/7 sections. All you need is to FOCUS when doing the Reading and Mechanical Comprehension sections and you should be confident in your scores on 6/7 sections. Hidden Figures will be a crapshoot; don't let a variable like that make or break your grade. I bombed it hard, and obviously, I'm not too confident that I did well on the Math section and I still got a 61. Avoid my mistakes and a passing score is easily within your grasp :) If there are any questions, feel free to post here and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Good luck to those of you planning to take the SIFT!
So, I did some posts on team buildings to give tips on what teams to build and lately I have been getting some requests on team building and how to build your team both through the topic and by direct messages. I will just say upfront that I have only been playing the OBT for a few days and then played since launch so my knowledge is mostly from in game testing and what I have gathered from reading around a bit. This post is towards ppl who wants to increase their damage and/or get some tips on what teams to build, who to build and a bit about what to gear. This is not to be seen as an in-depth guide and I apologize if I give wrong information in any way, shape or form here. To start of I’ll briefly go over some gear choices and my own opinion on these. Since this guide is mostly geared towards these early stages and things that are fairly reasonable for everyone to get. I will only touch on 3-star gear and the 4-star weapons you get/craft for free in game, since pretty much everyone will get these, the 3 star weapons are gacha gated but I am pretty sure everyone who has done the gacha will get these at least a couple of times.
Part 1 gear
Catalysts: 3-stars: Magic Guide: This catalyst is great for Lisa or Mona since it increases dmg against targets inflicted with hydro or electro status by a flat amount and since each of their basic attacks inflicts this every time, they hit an enemy that means the dmg bonus is always active for them while attacking. So even though it has lower base stats then 4- or 5-star catalysts it’s passive for hydro/electro casters makes them deal a ton of dmg and should not be underestimated. Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers: Now this one is quite the beast and might be usable for a long time. What it does is that when you switch characters the character switched to gets an atk % increase for 10 seconds, it can only occur once every 20 seconds but it can occur for any character switched. So, it doesn’t only affect the one wearing the Catalyst, it also increases hp % as it’s secondary, it is in my humble opinion one of the best catalysts to put on Barbara and one of the reasons I also strongly recommend bringing her to your team. I highly recommend refining this to 5 asap, if possible and you want to bring Barbara on your team. 4-stars: Prototype Malice: This is a fairly good weapon to put on Barbara for instance however it’s passive only activates when the ultimate is used and thus it won’t see as much use as the Thrilling Tales. Mappa Mare: This is probably your best catalyst on any catalyst user that is your main damage dealer, unless your using Lisa or Mona and your Magic Guide is refined to rank 5, even then eventually Mappa Mare will be the better choice once it’s refined enough. Triggering an elemental combo will increase your elemental dmg by a % and it stacks twice and lasts for 10 seconds however it doesn't have a cd so if you just keep them combos going, which is fairly easy for a mage character you’ll have your elemental dmg boost up at all time. Bows: 3-stars: Slingshot: This bow has a massive dmg increase for anyone using their bow users in close range, while decreasing the dmg at long range. Slingshot in short makes you use your bow user like a melee character and the dmg boost it gives is well worth sticking in melee range. 4-stars: Prototype Crescent: This bow is probably one of the strongest among when it’s passive is active with a massive boost to attack and a movement speed boost. However, it only procs when a weak point is hit, all enemies have a weak point and if it's not obviously pointed out in almost all cases it will be their head in that case. When your able to hit enemies weak pointsit is quite the beast this is however fairly hard to do while in combat. Compound Bow: This is probably your best bet for a bow outside of the Slingshot since normal attacks or aimed shots will that hit will increase your atk and atk speed by a % and stacks up to four times for 6 seconds, but you can refresh it over and over. Slingshot hold the higher dmg but requires you to stay in melee range or do less dmg, this bow can be used at any range. Spears: 3-stars: White Tassel: This spear is good if your using mainly basic attacks, which you should be doing with most physical users, what it does is increase the dmg of all your basic attacks. Halberd: This one is my recommendation amongst the 3-star spears since while White Tassel in theory will do more dmg in most cases you will not be able to hit the enemy at all time and therefore the big extra dmg attack Halberd does every 10 seconds will probably give you more bang for your buck. Xiangling’s skills also scales of her atk thus a higher base stat in atk and a secondary that gives an atk % increase helps more especially if she’s used as a support. 4-stars Prototype Grudge: I would not recommend this spear at the moment since Xiangling is the only spear user and it’s buff that activates on elemental skill use lasts for 12 sec but Xiangling’s skill cd is also 12 sec so it’s pretty much impossible to get 2 stacks of it going unless your using cd reductions which can be done by bringing two anemo characters on your team. Its secondary stat is also energy recharge which is not that great if used on your main dmg dealer. Crescent Pike: Is probably your best bet outside of the Halberd since you will be picking up elemental orbs/particles fairly often and the dmg % increase to normal/charged attacks for 5 seconds is pretty good. It’s base stats coupled with it’s secondary stats will mean your physical attacks will deal more dmg then with the Halberd which is great for a main dmg dealer, however this will not increase the effectiveness of Xiangling’s skills and thus is not a good choice if using her as a support. Swords: 3-stars: Harbringer of Dawn: This sword has a lot of dmg potential being able to increase both your crit dmg and crit chance by a large amount. However, it requires your hp to be above 90% for you to get the crit chance bonus. This means all your attacks will deal a ton of dmg as long as you keep your hp high. Fillet blade: This will be a much safer bet as it has a secondary stat that increases atk and every attack has a 50% chance to deal a massive bonus dmg attack but it can only occur every 15 seconds. Personally, this is one of my favourite passive effects since most of the time your not able to attack over and over and instead you will get a few hits in and then dodge to attack again. 4-stars: Prototype Rancour: This is probably your best bet if your using your sword user as a physical attacker and your main damage dealer. Simply hitting with normal/charged attacks will increase you atk and def and its secondary stat increases your physical dmg. Iron Sting: This sword requires you to deal elemental dmg to start stacking dmg % increases its secondary stat also increases your elemental combo dmg overall this will not be as good as the Rancour most of the time, though if you’re not using your sword wielder to deal physical dmg, Iron Sting will probably be a better choice Claymores: 3-stars: Skyrider Greatsword: This one increases your atk by a % up to four times on normal/charged attacks it also increases your physical attack as your secondary stat which means it is a great choice for anyone using their claymore wielders as their main dmg dealers. Debate Club: This one will probably be your best choice if your elemental skill has a low cd. While it does say it’s cd is 3 seconds between each trigger while using Diluc you can use his e once hit + trigger, e again hit + trigger and e again hit + trigger. This might get “nerfed” shortly to have it work as intended. But again this is a great choice for Beidou/RazoChongyun because of their short cd but not so good for Noelle because of her 24 sec cd which means she can't have the buff up att all time. The Skyrider Greatsword overall is the better choice. 4-stars: Prototype Animus: This is probably my favourite weapon when it comes to the 3- or 4-star claymores. Every normal/charged attack has a 50% chance to deal a large bonus dmg attack in a small aoe with a 15 sec cd on its effect and its secondary stat is bonus atk %. I will go a bit more in-depth on this effect in a little bit. Whiteblind: Now this would have been the best choice most likely if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s secondary stat is bonus def %. Like the Rancour this claymore stacks bonus atk/def % while hitting enemies with normal/charged attacks and stacks up to 4 times while lasting for 6 seconds. So while at maxed stacks it’s bonus atk % will be a bit higher then the Animus but it won’t have the bonus dmg trigger. Now on the mentioned Halberd, Fillet Blade and Prototype Animus weapons. How their effects work is that when they trigger on your attacks you will deal your normal attack at let’s say 100 dmg and then a bonus dmg trigger will pop up for an additional 300 dmg. How this dmg is calculated I am honestly unsure since for instance my main dmg dealer using the Animus deals 850ish dmg on a normal attack with a 300% attack dmg boost on the weapon will deal 850 + 2000 dmg with no gear it would be 381 + 998. But while testing the Fillet Blade my sword user with the Fillet Blade who deals 60 dmg on normal attacks with a 240% attack dmg boost will deal 60 + 390 dmg another sword user would deal 10 + 50 dmg. Doing another test with a weaker 2h wielder who deals 120 dmg on normal attacks triggered attack will deal 120 + 500 dmg. The halberd which has an additional 160% dmg boost would give the results of 25 + 98. Of note is that the claymore triggers in a small aoe, the sword on a single target and the spear only on normal attacks but It triggers on anyone hit by that normal attack. The bonus dmg is also able to crit. Most likely it has something to do with the dmg calculation which thus far I am unaware of how it works. Still this trigger works wonders in fights since most often you will not be able to attack at all times so you can actually see it as while dodging your actually “charging” a stronger attack so to speak. Most often while fighting against weak enemies this effect is strong enough to either instantly kill them or leave them with very little health. Artifacts: Here I will only mention some sets to aim for early on that are fairly common (I believe) and what main stats I personally prefer to see on artifacts. Sets: Berserker 2 set +12% crit, 4 set below 70% hp + an additional 24 % crit Marital Artist 2 set normal/charged attacks +15% dmg, 4 set after using elemental skill normal/charged attacks + an additional 25% for 8 sec. Sadly, the only artifact sets I have been getting a ton of so far is Berserker, Martial Artist, Instructor, The Exile, Traveling Doctor, Lucky dog and Adventurer. Of these I only find Berserker, Martial Artist and perhaps The Exile to be of any long-term use. There are some really great sets I’ve gotten a single drop of but again this guide is looking at early to perhaps mid game tips and I won’t dive into all possible sets and combinations. For goblets you’re mainly looking for the type of elemental dmg % your mage is using, physical dmg % for your physical attackers or atk % bonus for use on both.For sands you’re mainly looking for atk % bonus on your dmg dealers, elemental mastery if your using a lot of combos with the character or elemental recharge % if you want to regenerate a lot of elemental orbs/particles to use your elemental burst more often. Atk % is your best bet early on. For circlets you’re mainly looking for atk % bonus, crit rate % bonus or crit dmg % bonus. Again atk % is best bet early on but crit rate and crit dmg will probably later on be your best source of dmg once you get enough crit rate and crit dmg.
Part 2 who to build
Now on this part I will not go much into particular characters since most people rooster at the moment is fairly varied and frankly it would take too long. Instead I will go over the different weapon and character types. I am someone who is of the firm belief that characters who are useful in as many situations as possible are the best choice therefore for dmg dealers I strongly recommend building a claymore user for your first main dmg dealer, if this is the type of playstyle you like. So why do I prefer claymore users? While swords, spears, catalysts and bows attacks faster than the claymore they pack a bigger umph and also attacks in a very broad spectrum every attack a claymore does is almost a small aoe attack in itself. This makes it easier to hit multiple enemies with each swing they do have the weakness of slower attacks and in certain situations getting attacked too often will make you think about changing weapon, though the charge attack will let you attack over and over in quick successions after a short wind-up. However, this part is pretty much up to preference, what really makes me prefer claymores are as mentioned their overall usage. While out and about claymores will be able to destroy mining nodes and rocks in a matter of seconds there are also enemies with geo shields/armour that only claymores have a great effect against, these enemies become fairly common in Liyue and their commonness is what makes me like claymore characters especially. Catalysts also has the advantage of being great in certain puzzles and against enemies with elemental shields same with bows against flying enemies or enemies with weak spots. Swords and spears on the other hand does not have any enemy or place in the game their extra useful against so far, but hopefully in the future enemies that you have to hit rapidly or something similar appears that will make them shine more, but for now swords and spears have no enemies their especially good or important against. Still remember that you should enjoy the character you are using foremost and this is based on how and with who I like to play. Anyhow overall I suggest your main damage dealer to be a physical attacker to start with. This is because physical attackers will always be useful though they will deal little to no dmg against an enemy with an elemental shield or that only takes dmg from elemental dmg this will disappear once enough elemental dmg is dealt the break their shields most of the time, so far there are no enemy completely immune to physical dmg unless you count the final part of Electro Hypostasis (that I know of) but even then, all physical dmg dealers are able to deal some elemental dmg. Mages on the other hand are only able to deal elemental dmg, so far, certain enemies will therefore be a 100% immune to their dmg if used against enemies/bosses of the same element. So early on physical dmg dealers will have the advantage, mages will probably be the end game choice when used against the right elemental enemy since they get a 50% bonus dmg when used against the right element, for instance hydro vs pyro. Remember to always max out your basic attack talent for your dmg dealers since this will be your main source of dmg and the increase for each lvl is very big. For instance every lvl will increase your dmg by about 3-10% per lvl depending on your character, weapon type and the talents lvl. Outside of your main damage dealer you best bet is to build 1-2 supports and 1-2 healers. You’ll want your main damage dealer to be max lvl and with the best gear possible, your supports and healers mostly won’t need much investments above getting them into about lvl 50 early on and your probably better of building another dmg dealer once you’re at the point where you have a maxed our dmg dealer and the support + healers at lvl 50. I would strongly recommend building the free character Barbara and consider including her into your team, more on this later on, Xiangling is also a free character and a great addition as a support character to most teams. An honourable mention is Fischl though not everyone will have her and Qiqi if your lucky enough to get her is perhaps the best support/healer in the game at the moment.
Part 3 what teams to build
Now to start of I will go fairly in-depth into the free character Barbara just to showcase why I think she is a staple inclusion into almost every team. First of as a catalyst user she can use the catalyst Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, this weapon will give the passive of “when switching characters, the new character taking the field has their ATK increased by 24/30/36/42/48% for 10s. This effect can only occur once every 20s.” this effect works as long as a catalyst user with it equipped is on your team. So what you want to do is start the fight with for instance Barbara active then switch onto your main dmg dealer for the atk % bonus for 10 seconds, you will then have to time your switches so this passive is always active on your main dmg dealer, but once you get used to it the dmg increase is massive, especially since most likely you’ll be able to get to refinement 5 fairly easy. The books secondary stat is also hp % which is what Barbara’s skills scales of. Her skill which gives a persistent over time heal on active character has the weakness of applying the wet status to the active character but what a lot of ppl don’t talk about is that it also deals hydro dmg and applies wet to enemies around the active character as well, this means that if your short on supports or characters to combo with often she can be a great addition by having her skill deal hydro dmg to anyone close to your character which you can then combo with, many times even though it barely deals any dmg with it’s attack it has helped me break hilly mages shields very quickly since it will combo with their shields on it’s own, unless it’s the hydro mage. In short the catalyst I mentioned on its own gives a great boost to any team and for now at least Barbara is mainly the only useful character to put it on who also adds support and healing on her own. So even if you don’t need her healing just the atk % bonus can be a great addition, of course you could bring another catalyst user to put it on. When it comes to physical dmg dealers what I recommend for early game is to trigger the superconduct combo, electro + cryo dmg, this gives a -25% def for 12 seconds on the enemy it triggers on and equals about a +30% dmg boost for all physical attacks. Therefore, you want to keep an electro and cryo unit on your team at all time when using a physical dmg dealer as your main dmg source. Fischl is the best choice for a electro unit since you can just switch to her use e summon bird and it will attack over and over with electro dmg for you, switching to Lisa and doing a single basic attack works as well, having Beidou or Razor as your main dmg dealers is also a choice to bring electro dmg. When it comes to cryo dmg your option is either to use Kaeya and switch him in to use his skill to hit with cryo dmg, Qiqi is the absolute best choice since her skill works similar to Fischl only in short range around you but it also heals you, using Chongyun as your main dmg dealer is also a choice though you’ll have to run out of his field after you’ve used it since it makes you deal cryo dmg instead of physical dmg and it has a fairly long cd compared to Kaeya. If you choose an elemental dmg dealer superconduct is your worst elemental combo to use since it deals a very small amount of bonus dmg and is mostly for its physical defence debuff which does nothing for you. Therefore, you never want to do electro + cryo as your combo. Xiangling is a free character who is also a great addition to almost any team because of her persistent skills that deal pyro dmg. I would almost always recommend at this point of the game to build a team with either two or three of Fischl, Xiangling, Barbara and if your lucky Qiqi because of their persistent effects and synergy with almost everyone. Building teams around the different elemental resonances is also a good choice with double pyro giving your team +25% atk, double geo +15 % dmg while shielded and so on.
Part 4 showcase
Lastly to give an example of what I am using at the moment, I am at AR 31 almost 32 so world lvl is 3 and I have so far cleared every content in the game that I could find, that means every elite/boss available at the moment, every hidden quest + their fights and every dungeon open to me. My main dmg dealer is Diluc but I pretty much use his normal/charged attack 95-99% of the time (mostly the charged attack) so you could pretty much use any claymore weapon user or really any physical dmg dealer for the same or at least if it’s not a claymore user similar effect. Here are some pictures of how he looks at the moment and what gear I have him using. https://imgur.com/a/CfMBFZt At the moment he deals about 850ish dmg on normal attacks and charged attacks deals about 650ish dmg without any buffs or debuffs applied, crits are of course higher and the trigger effect deals an extra 2000-3500 dmg on average depending on if it crits or is a normal/charged attack. With buffs and debuffs the dmg on average is anywhere between 1000-2400 dmg depending on crits or not (and I crit a lot) and if I hit the switch + atk or not with the trigger effects dealing around 3000-7000ish bonus dmg depending on if it crits or not. With this I am able to pretty much kill all normal enemies and some of the elite enemies in a single hit or within a few seconds. I am able to shave of up to 50% of the Regisvine when their in a downed state, most bosses that are incapacitated loses close to 25-50% of their health when their in a downed state, pretty sure this will go down as we move along the game but this is with a max lvl’d character (that can be switched for any other claymore character or physical dmg dealer for similar effect), max lvl’d 4 star weapon that everyone can get and refine to lvl 2 like me, three 3-star artifacts two at +8 and one at +12 and two 4-star artifacts at +12 and to be frank most of the artifacts either have bad or suboptimal secondary stats, lastly his basic attack talent is lvl 4. What I use in combat is pretty much only the superconduct debuff, the thrilling tales switch atk buff (though I still haven't really gotten the timing down) and then very rarely I will use Dilucs skills to deal pyro dmg to combo with Fischl's e skill when I am low on stamina, but I almost never do this since my normal/charged attacks deals more dmg most of the time. Any how this post became quite lengthy and I hope this helps at least someone out there and anyone is free to use this post or the info it contains however they like. I also apologize for any misspellings as english is not my first language and it became quite long at 6-7 pages.
Extra part:
So haven't really seen anyone mentioning this part but upon the 2nd, 3rd and I believe 5th and 6th ascension each character will get a boost in a certain area tied to themselves, in short 1st unlocks a talent, 2nd + 3rd boosts a stat, 4th another talent and I believe 5th + 6th will further boost the stat. I'll add the one's I know of so far and feel free to give info so I can add to the list. These additions are in the long run not game defining but in some cases they can show you towards what kind of stats/builds are most beneficial on your character. Since in some cases I wasn't paying much attention to this while ascending I'll just add the aproximate buff. 5-stars: Diluc: + crit rate, +4,8% crit at 2nd and another +4,8% crit at 3rd total +9,6% at this point, estimated + 19,2% crit rate at max lvl Venti: + energy recharge, +8% energy recharge at 2nd, estimated +32% energy recharge at max lvl Keqing: + crit dmg, +9,6% crit dmg at 2nd, estimated +38,4% crit dmg at max lvl Jean: + healing bonus, +5,5% healing at 2nd, estimated + 22% healing at max lvl Qiqi: + healing bonus, +5,5% healing at 2nd and +5,6% at 3rd total +11,1 % healing at this point estimated +22% healing at max lvl Traveller: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Mona: +unknown (would love someone with mona to tell me what it is and at what % sadly no friend of mine got her :/ ) 4-stars: Barbara: + hp, +6% hp at 2nd and +6% at 3rd total 12 % hp at this point, estimated +24% hp at max lvl. Fischl: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Chongyun: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Razor: + physical dmg, +7.5% at 2nd, estimated + 30% physical dmg at max lvl Ningguan: + geo dmg, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Razor) Beidou: + electro dmg, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Razor) Kaeya: + energy recharge, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Venti) Lisa: + elemental mastery, numbers unknown. Xiangling: + elemental mastery, numbers unknown Amber: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Sucrose: + unknown Xingqiu: + unknown Bennet: + unknown That is the info I have at this time but this does show you a little on what the optimal way to build some of the characters are, for instance Diluc and Keqing will benefit the most from crit rate + crit dmg builds, since they already get + crit rate/crit dmg. Razor is best as a physical dmg dealer and so on. These bonuses are as mentioned not game breaking but sort of like having an extra artifacts main stat on the characters. Edit: While finishing of the marksmanship achievement I found out that hitting enemies in the head count as hitting their weakpoints so I changed my take on the Prototype Crescent bow. Edit: Changed recommendations on the debate club to more be in line with how I intended. Edit: I just noticed not a lot of ppl have talked about the bonus stat each character get so added a part about it.
I'm 30 years old and my BMI is 31,6. I used to be very skinny and muscular. Unfortunately I gained a LOT of weight during a pregnancy and ever since it has only climbed. I have tried cico and intermittent fasting, unfortunately my weight loss was very slow and during 3months of calculating everything I ate this summer there was only a 5kg difference, which was mainly water. Once I gave up counting the weight came back with a vengeance. I am in chronic pain and due to this exercise is very limited as I spend most days on pain killers simply to be able to take care of everyday tasks. The weight is only adding to the pain, so you could say this is a downward spiral. I hate how my body looks and mostly how it feels. I have been told (by well meaning friends) that I am "lucky" because the fat is mainly on my boobs and ass, I have been told that I am curvy and not fat. Which is just not true. Now my latest blood test suggests I suffer from low metabolism, which explains a lot. Does anyone have any ideas on how to approach this shituation? I am waiting for surgery (this may take a very long time thanks to covid) but before I go under the knife I need to have a normal BMI which means I have to get rid of around 20KG. Physical therapy in warm water pool has been great for me before both as exerzise but also pain management, but that's not happening anytime soon (thanks covid). Right now my best bet is to go back on cico and move as much as I can, but I'm honestly not very motivated. I need to have more tests done to determine what the situation is with my metabolism but if it is in fact low I should not be doing IF any longer. I am actually at a place where I'm wondering if I should start taking some form of weight loss supplements but I don't know anything about those except that they are expencive and people in general don't tend to have great results with them. Are there prescription drugs my doc could help with? If anyone has any advice or ideas on what to try please share them with me. And before anyone suggests I was doing cico/IF wrong I will assure you that is not the case. I also had a brief affair with keto but It was not for me.
So I’ve been wondering who really is the strongest Pokémon champion/ which champion has the strongest competitive team. To figure this out, I have decided on making a system to determine the overall score of every champion! Here are the rules:
This is based on current gen 8 standards. I will mark the Pokémon’s tier in Showdown/Smogon and give them the following points for each of the ranks:
10- Ubers 8- OU 7.5 - UUBL 7- UU 6.5 - RUBL 6 - RU 5.5 - NUBL 5 - NU 4.5 - PUBL 4 - PU 3 - Anything else. If the trainer has 3 Pokémon of the same type, they lose 3 points. This can happen multiple times. If the trainer has 4 Pokémon of the same type, they lose 5 points, if they have 5 Pokémon of the same type, then they lose 7 points, and if they have 6 Pokémon of the same type, they lose 10 points. If the trainer has multiple of the same Pokémon, 5 points are subtracted from each repeat. If the Pokémon doesn’t exist in the current generation then I will be giving it its previous meta score. Also, if the champion has multiple teams I will give them their best scoring one. Also, only their champion teams, no rematch battles, or any other battles. So let’s start! Blue - Og Rival with Pidgeot(3), Alakazam(7), Rhydon(4), Gyarados(7), Arcanine(5), Venusaur(6.5) This leads up to a grand total of... 32.5! Solid, but not the best. Lance - Oh boy Lance... his team is Gyarados(7), Charizard(5), Aerodactyl(5), and 3 Dragonites(8). His team would be 41, but we need to cut off some points due to the repeats in Pokémon and types. First we have to subtract 10 due to a monotype team, and subtract another 10 due to three Dragonites. This leaves him with a total of 21 points, not bad all things considered. Steven - How will the steel and rock user fare against this system? We are about to find out. Starting off with Skarmory(7), then Claydol(5), Aggron(5), Cradily(4), Armaldo(3), and rounding off the team, Metagross(6). So doing the calculations and subtracting the two type overlaps... Steven rounds out with 24 points, but if we count his Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire teams with Mega Metagross then his team is 28 points, which is definitely better. Wallace - I don’t expect Wallace to do well at all. He has Wailord(3), Tentacruel(7), Ludicolo(4), Whiscash(3), Gyarados(7), and Milotic(5). Subtract 10 points from the total and you get 19 points, the worst so far. Cynthia - Is Sinnoh’s top dog really number one of all champions? Everyone seems to think so. Here is her best team: Spiritomb(4), Roserade(5), Togekiss(6), Lucario(5.5), Milotic(5), and, of course, Garchomp(8). This leads her with a grand total of... 33.5! Just fractions above Blue and securing her spot as top dog so far. Maybe the Cynthia Stans are right? Alder - I mean I don’t even know with this guy. My bet is that this is probably is the worst “balanced” champion team of them all. I’ll include N too, just because he serves as the true final boss. Alder has Accelgor(4), Bouffalant(3), Druddigon(5), Vanilluxe(5), Excavalier(5), and Volcarona(7.5). The final total(subtracting the type overlap) is 26.5. The only thing actually good about his team is that Volcarona, everything else is painfully below average. N - Probably a huge underdog pick for best champion but due to his Zekrom/Reshiram, he might have a chance. His team is Zekrom/Reshiram(10), Carracosta(4), Vanilluxe(5), Archeops(5), Zoroark(5), and Klinklang(4). His team adds up to a whopping 33, almost enough to beat Cynthia, but barely missing it. Iris - Definitely a better dragon master than Lance, but how does she match up? Her team is Hydregion(8), Druddigon(5), Archeops(5), Aggron(5), Lapras(3), and Haxorus(6.5). A solid team but Lapras lowers the score. Iris got a 29.5 due to her type overlap but if she just replaced her Druddigon and Lapras she could easily have won. Diantha - People likely May have misjudged her champion team due to how easy X and Y was, let’s see if her champion team would be any good in battle. Starting with Hawlucha(7.5), Tyrantrum(5), Aurorus(5), Gourgeist(I’m assuming normal size)(3), Goodra(5), and Mega Gardevoir(6/7.5). Her team without the mega Gardevoir is 31.5, while her team with the Mega Gardevoir is 33. So close to Cynthia again, but she just barely missed it. If you count her Gourgeist as super than she would have one more point but I assumed she would have a normal sized one. Kukui - Kukui is one of the rotating champion teams like Blue and Leon, and his best team is either the primarina or Incineroar one, but due to him already having a fairy type on the team, I am gonna go with Incineroar. So his lead is Lycanroc-Day(4), Alolan Ninetales(7), Braviary(5), Magnezone(7), Snorlax(6), Incineroar(7). This team is very well balanced, and actually manages to destroy the rest of the competition with a whopping 36 points! Even though he wasn’t the true champion, he definitely was as strong as one. Hau - I mean I guess he should be here too as he is the champion battle in Ultra Sun and Moon. I don’t expect much from Hau but let’s see if his team is any good. We will be using his Primarina team as Flareon is better than Leafeon. His team is Alolan Raichu(5), Flareon(4), Tauros(5), Noivern(5), Crabominable(3), and Primarina(7). This team underperforms in a lot of spots and gets a total of 29, significantly worse than Kukui. Didn’t expect much from Hau and didn’t get much from him either. Trace - The definitive mad lad. I mean the nerve to only put three moves on each of his Pokémon for his champion team is already insane, but I’ll cut him some slack and just measure the potential of the team. Jolteon isn’t better than Raichu so we will be using that team. Starting off with Mega Pidgeot(3/7), Vileplume(5), Marowak(3), Rapidash(4), Slowbro(8), Jolteon(4). This team really gets carried by Slowbro and Mega Pidgeot and ends up with a score of 27 or 31, depending on whether you use megas. Really lucky for Trace that he has a slowbro and a mega, or else he would be sitting near the very bottom of the ranking. Leon - Last, but certainly not least is Leon. I’ve had some experience using some of his Pokémon but won’t spoil anything. We will be using his Cinderace team as Cinderace and Seismitoad are strong. We start of with Aegislash(7.5), then Dragapult(8), Haxorus(6.5), Seismitoad(6), Cinderace(8), and Charizard(5). Ironically enough, Charizard is Leon’s weakest Pokémon but still is relatively powerful. His team adds up to a jaw dropping 41 points, slaughtering every other champion and being more than double Wallace’s point total. I knew from the start of this list that Leon’s team would be at the top or at minimum near it, but I didn’t expect to see it have such a high score. I’ve used this team in OU in Pokémon showdown with success and wins, and this team can definitely succeed in this meta. It’s definitely the strongest current team for competitive, and has the most potential out of all the teams. So here are the teams in a Tier List/Ranking System S+(41): Leon S(36): Kukui A(33.5-33) Cynthia, N, Diantha(with mega) B(32.5-31): Blue, Diantha, Trace(with mega) C(30.5-28): Iris, Hau, Steven(with mega) D(27.5-24): Trace, Alder, Steven F(23.5 and below): Lance, Wallace At the end of the day, all champions are meant to make the game more difficult and be a hard final boss. Some succeed at being difficult and others fail, but some of these are due to the game. Leon could have easily been the hardest champion in Pokémon, if only he was given higher level Pokémon with slightly better move sets, as well as not being able to catch Eternatus right before the battle. Another thing that has to be mentioned is that the champions of Pokémon now actually have consistently had better teams than ones before, and their lack of difficulty sometimes is mostly due to player experience and game difficulty. A champion such as Wallace will be a cakewalk in any game, but if a Leon equivalent team was put in place of Wallace in emerald, people would have extreme trouble. To be honest, it’s a little bit disappointing to see how much potential some of these champions had compared to others and how they wasted it(especially Diantha) by making the game easier or the player being over leveled. In conclusion, Leon has the best team, Wallace has the worst, and using legendaries to destroy the champion is cheap. Also, Pidgeot and Crabominable are the only Pokémon on any of the champion teams that aren’t in the Galar Pokédex. Extra Stuff: Best Possible Champion Team: Zekrom(10) Cinderace(8) Slowbro(8) Garchomp(8) Hawlucha(7.5) Mega Metagross(10)/ Aegislash(7.5) (This is only including the best teams for each champion) This leaves a grand total of 49 or 51.5! Yeah, this champion would definitely be a mess to fight.
So, I did some posts on team buildings to give tips on what teams to build and lately I have been getting some requests on team building and how to build your team both through the topic and by direct messages. I will just say upfront that I have only been playing the OBT for a few days and then played since launch so my knowledge is mostly from in game testing and what I have gathered from reading around a bit. This post is towards ppl who wants to increase their damage and/or get some tips on what teams to build, who to build and a bit about what to gear. This is not to be seen as an in-depth guide and I apologize if I give wrong information in any way, shape or form here. To start of I’ll briefly go over some gear choices and my own opinion on these. Since this guide is mostly geared towards these early stages and things that are fairly reasonable for everyone to get. I will only touch on 3-star gear and the 4-star weapons you get/craft for free in game, since pretty much everyone will get these, the 3 star weapons are gacha gated but I am pretty sure everyone who has done the gacha will get these at least a couple of times. Part 1 gear Catalysts: 3-stars: Magic Guide: This catalyst is great for Lisa or Mona since it increases dmg against targets inflicted with hydro or electro status by a flat amount and since each of their basic attacks inflicts this every time, they hit an enemy that means the dmg bonus is always active for them while attacking. So even though it has lower base stats then 4- or 5-star catalysts it’s passive for hydro/electro casters makes them deal a ton of dmg and should not be underestimated. Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers: Now this one is quite the beast and might be usable for a long time. What it does is that when you switch characters the character switched to gets an atk % increase for 10 seconds, it can only occur once every 20 seconds but it can occur for any character switched. So, it doesn’t only affect the one wearing the Catalyst, it also increases hp % as it’s secondary, it is in my humble opinion one of the best catalysts to put on Barbara and one of the reasons I also strongly recommend bringing her to your team. I highly recommend refining this to 5 asap, if possible and you want to bring Barbara on your team. 4-stars: Prototype Malice: This is a fairly good weapon to put on Barbara for instance however it’s passive only activates when the ultimate is used and thus it won’t see as much use as the Thrilling Tales. Mappa Mare: This is probably your best catalyst on any catalyst user that is your main damage dealer, unless your using Lisa or Mona and your Magic Guide is refined to rank 5, even then eventually Mappa Mare will be the better choice once it’s refined enough. Triggering an elemental combo will increase your elemental dmg by a % and it stacks twice and lasts for 10 seconds however it doesn't have a cd so if you just keep them combos going, which is fairly easy for a mage character you’ll have your elemental dmg boost up at all time. Bows: 3-stars: Slingshot: This bow has a massive dmg increase for anyone using their bow users in close range, while decreasing the dmg at long range. Slingshot in short makes you use your bow user like a melee character and the dmg boost it gives is well worth sticking in melee range. 4-stars: Prototype Crescent: This bow is probably one of the strongest among when it’s passive is active with a massive boost to attack and a movement speed boost. However, it only procs when a weak point is hit, all enemies have a weak point and if it's not obviously pointed out in almost all cases it will be their head in that case. When your able to hit enemies weak pointsit is quite the beast this is however fairly hard to do while in combat. Compound Bow: This is probably your best bet for a bow outside of the Slingshot since normal attacks or aimed shots will that hit will increase your atk and atk speed by a % and stacks up to four times for 6 seconds, but you can refresh it over and over. Slingshot hold the higher dmg but requires you to stay in melee range or do less dmg, this bow can be used at any range. Spears: 3-stars: White Tassel: This spear is good if your using mainly basic attacks, which you should be doing with most physical users, what it does is increase the dmg of all your basic attacks. Halberd: This one is my recommendation amongst the 3-star spears since while White Tassel in theory will do more dmg in most cases you will not be able to hit the enemy at all time and therefore the big extra dmg attack Halberd does every 10 seconds will probably give you more bang for your buck. Xiangling’s skills also scales of her atk thus a higher base stat in atk and a secondary that gives an atk % increase helps more especially if she’s used as a support. 4-stars Prototype Grudge: I would not recommend this spear at the moment since Xiangling is the only spear user and it’s buff that activates on elemental skill use lasts for 12 sec but Xiangling’s skill cd is also 12 sec so it’s pretty much impossible to get 2 stacks of it going unless your using cd reductions which can be done by bringing two anemo characters on your team. Its secondary stat is also energy recharge which is not that great if used on your main dmg dealer. Crescent Pike: Is probably your best bet outside of the Halberd since you will be picking up elemental orbs/particles fairly often and the dmg % increase to normal/charged attacks for 5 seconds is pretty good. It’s base stats coupled with it’s secondary stats will mean your physical attacks will deal more dmg then with the Halberd which is great for a main dmg dealer, however this will not increase the effectiveness of Xiangling’s skills and thus is not a good choice if using her as a support. Swords: 3-stars: Harbringer of Dawn: This sword has a lot of dmg potential being able to increase both your crit dmg and crit chance by a large amount. However, it requires your hp to be above 90% for you to get the crit chance bonus. This means all your attacks will deal a ton of dmg as long as you keep your hp high. Fillet blade: This will be a much safer bet as it has a secondary stat that increases atk and every attack has a 50% chance to deal a massive bonus dmg attack but it can only occur every 15 seconds. Personally, this is one of my favourite passive effects since most of the time your not able to attack over and over and instead you will get a few hits in and then dodge to attack again. 4-stars: Prototype Rancour: This is probably your best bet if your using your sword user as a physical attacker and your main damage dealer. Simply hitting with normal/charged attacks will increase you atk and def and its secondary stat increases your physical dmg. Iron Sting: This sword requires you to deal elemental dmg to start stacking dmg % increases its secondary stat also increases your elemental combo dmg overall this will not be as good as the Rancour most of the time, though if you’re not using your sword wielder to deal physical dmg, Iron Sting will probably be a better choice Claymores: 3-stars: Skyrider Greatsword: This one increases your atk by a % up to four times on normal/charged attacks it also increases your physical attack as your secondary stat which means it is a great choice for anyone using their claymore wielders as their main dmg dealers. Debate Club: This one will probably be your best choice if your elemental skill has a low cd. While it does say it’s cd is 3 seconds between each trigger while using Diluc you can use his e once hit + trigger, e again hit + trigger and e again hit + trigger. This might get “nerfed” shortly to have it work as intended. But again this is a great choice for Beidou/RazoChongyun because of their short cd but not so good for Noelle because of her 24 sec cd which means she can't have the buff up att all time. The Skyrider Greatsword overall is the better choice. 4-stars: Prototype Animus: This is probably my favourite weapon when it comes to the 3- or 4-star claymores. Every normal/charged attack has a 50% chance to deal a large bonus dmg attack in a small aoe with a 15 sec cd on its effect and its secondary stat is bonus atk %. I will go a bit more in-depth on this effect in a little bit. Whiteblind: Now this would have been the best choice most likely if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s secondary stat is bonus def %. Like the Rancour this claymore stacks bonus atk/def % while hitting enemies with normal/charged attacks and stacks up to 4 times while lasting for 6 seconds. So while at maxed stacks it’s bonus atk % will be a bit higher then the Animus but it won’t have the bonus dmg trigger. Now on the mentioned Halberd, Fillet Blade and Prototype Animus weapons. How their effects work is that when they trigger on your attacks you will deal your normal attack at let’s say 100 dmg and then a bonus dmg trigger will pop up for an additional 300 dmg. How this dmg is calculated I am honestly unsure since for instance my main dmg dealer using the Animus deals 850ish dmg on a normal attack with a 300% attack dmg boost on the weapon will deal 850 + 2000 dmg with no gear it would be 381 + 998. But while testing the Fillet Blade my sword user with the Fillet Blade who deals 60 dmg on normal attacks with a 240% attack dmg boost will deal 60 + 390 dmg another sword user would deal 10 + 50 dmg. Doing another test with a weaker 2h wielder who deals 120 dmg on normal attacks triggered attack will deal 120 + 500 dmg. The halberd which has an additional 160% dmg boost would give the results of 25 + 98. Of note is that the claymore triggers in a small aoe, the sword on a single target and the spear only on normal attacks but It triggers on anyone hit by that normal attack. The bonus dmg is also able to crit. Most likely it has something to do with the dmg calculation which thus far I am unaware of how it works. Still this trigger works wonders in fights since most often you will not be able to attack at all times so you can actually see it as while dodging your actually “charging” a stronger attack so to speak. Most often while fighting against weak enemies this effect is strong enough to either instantly kill them or leave them with very little health. Artifacts: Here I will only mention some sets to aim for early on that are fairly common (I believe) and what main stats I personally prefer to see on artifacts. Sets: Berserker 2 set +12% crit, 4 set below 70% hp + an additional 24 % crit Marital Artist 2 set normal/charged attacks +15% dmg, 4 set after using elemental skill normal/charged attacks + an additional 25% for 8 sec. Sadly, the only artifact sets I have been getting a ton of so far is Berserker, Martial Artist, Instructor, The Exile, Traveling Doctor, Lucky dog and Adventurer. Of these I only find Berserker, Martial Artist and perhaps The Exile to be of any long-term use. There are some really great sets I’ve gotten a single drop of but again this guide is looking at early to perhaps mid game tips and I won’t dive into all possible sets and combinations. For goblets you’re mainly looking for the type of elemental dmg % your mage is using, physical dmg % for your physical attackers or atk % bonus for use on both.For sands you’re mainly looking for atk % bonus on your dmg dealers, elemental mastery if your using a lot of combos with the character or elemental recharge % if you want to regenerate a lot of elemental orbs/particles to use your elemental burst more often. Atk % is your best bet early on. For circlets you’re mainly looking for atk % bonus, crit rate % bonus or crit dmg % bonus. Again atk % is best bet early on but crit rate and crit dmg will probably later on be your best source of dmg once you get enough crit rate and crit dmg. Part 2 who to build Now on this part I will not go much into particular characters since most people rooster at the moment is fairly varied and frankly it would take too long. Instead I will go over the different weapon and character types. I am someone who is of the firm belief that characters who are useful in as many situations as possible are the best choice therefore for dmg dealers I strongly recommend building a claymore user for your first main dmg dealer, if this is the type of playstyle you like. So why do I prefer claymore users? While swords, spears, catalysts and bows attacks faster than the claymore they pack a bigger umph and also attacks in a very broad spectrum every attack a claymore does is almost a small aoe attack in itself. This makes it easier to hit multiple enemies with each swing they do have the weakness of slower attacks and in certain situations getting attacked too often will make you think about changing weapon, though the charge attack will let you attack over and over in quick successions after a short wind-up. However, this part is pretty much up to preference, what really makes me prefer claymores are as mentioned their overall usage. While out and about claymores will be able to destroy mining nodes and rocks in a matter of seconds there are also enemies with geo shields/armour that only claymores have a great effect against, these enemies become fairly common in Liyue and their commonness is what makes me like claymore characters especially. Catalysts also has the advantage of being great in certain puzzles and against enemies with elemental shields same with bows against flying enemies or enemies with weak spots. Swords and spears on the other hand does not have any enemy or place in the game their extra useful against so far, but hopefully in the future enemies that you have to hit rapidly or something similar appears that will make them shine more, but for now swords and spears have no enemies their especially good or important against. Still remember that you should enjoy the character you are using foremost and this is based on how and with who I like to play. Anyhow overall I suggest your main damage dealer to be a physical attacker to start with. This is because physical attackers will always be useful though they will deal little to no dmg against an enemy with an elemental shield or that only takes dmg from elemental dmg this will disappear once enough elemental dmg is dealt the break their shields most of the time, so far there are no enemy completely immune to physical dmg unless you count the final part of Electro Hypostasis (that I know of) but even then, all physical dmg dealers are able to deal some elemental dmg. Mages on the other hand are only able to deal elemental dmg, so far, certain enemies will therefore be a 100% immune to their dmg if used against enemies/bosses of the same element. So early on physical dmg dealers will have the advantage, mages will probably be the end game choice when used against the right elemental enemy since they get a 50% bonus dmg when used against the right element, for instance hydro vs pyro. Remember to always max out your basic attack talent for your dmg dealers since this will be your main source of dmg and the increase for each lvl is very big. For instance every lvl will increase your dmg by about 3-10% per lvl depending on your character, weapon type and the talents lvl. Outside of your main damage dealer you best bet is to build 1-2 supports and 1-2 healers. You’ll want your main damage dealer to be max lvl and with the best gear possible, your supports and healers mostly won’t need much investments above getting them into about lvl 50 early on and your probably better of building another dmg dealer once you’re at the point where you have a maxed our dmg dealer and the support + healers at lvl 50. I would strongly recommend building the free character Barbara and consider including her into your team, more on this later on, Xiangling is also a free character and a great addition as a support character to most teams. An honourable mention is Fischl though not everyone will have her and Qiqi if your lucky enough to get her is perhaps the best support/healer in the game at the moment. Part 3 what teams to build Now to start of I will go fairly in-depth into the free character Barbara just to showcase why I think she is a staple inclusion into almost every team. First of as a catalyst user she can use the catalyst Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, this weapon will give the passive of “when switching characters, the new character taking the field has their ATK increased by 24/30/36/42/48% for 10s. This effect can only occur once every 20s.” this effect works as long as a catalyst user with it equipped is on your team. So what you want to do is start the fight with for instance Barbara active then switch onto your main dmg dealer for the atk % bonus for 10 seconds, you will then have to time your switches so this passive is always active on your main dmg dealer, but once you get used to it the dmg increase is massive, especially since most likely you’ll be able to get to refinement 5 fairly easy. The books secondary stat is also hp % which is what Barbara’s skills scales of. Her skill which gives a persistent over time heal on active character has the weakness of applying the wet status to the active character but what a lot of ppl don’t talk about is that it also deals hydro dmg and applies wet to enemies around the active character as well, this means that if your short on supports or characters to combo with often she can be a great addition by having her skill deal hydro dmg to anyone close to your character which you can then combo with, many times even though it barely deals any dmg with it’s attack it has helped me break hilly mages shields very quickly since it will combo with their shields on it’s own, unless it’s the hydro mage. In short the catalyst I mentioned on its own gives a great boost to any team and for now at least Barbara is mainly the only useful character to put it on who also adds support and healing on her own. So even if you don’t need her healing just the atk % bonus can be a great addition, of course you could bring another catalyst user to put it on. When it comes to physical dmg dealers what I recommend for early game is to trigger the superconduct combo, electro + cryo dmg, this gives a -25% def for 12 seconds on the enemy it triggers on and equals about a +30% dmg boost for all physical attacks. Therefore, you want to keep an electro and cryo unit on your team at all time when using a physical dmg dealer as your main dmg source. Fischl is the best choice for a electro unit since you can just switch to her use e summon bird and it will attack over and over with electro dmg for you, switching to Lisa and doing a single basic attack works as well, having Beidou or Razor as your main dmg dealers is also a choice to bring electro dmg. When it comes to cryo dmg your option is either to use Kaeya and switch him in to use his skill to hit with cryo dmg, Qiqi is the absolute best choice since her skill works similar to Fischl only in short range around you but it also heals you, using Chongyun as your main dmg dealer is also a choice though you’ll have to run out of his field after you’ve used it since it makes you deal cryo dmg instead of physical dmg and it has a fairly long cd compared to Kaeya. If you choose an elemental dmg dealer superconduct is your worst elemental combo to use since it deals a very small amount of bonus dmg and is mostly for its physical defence debuff which does nothing for you. Therefore, you never want to do electro + cryo as your combo. Xiangling is a free character who is also a great addition to almost any team because of her persistent skills that deal pyro dmg. I would almost always recommend at this point of the game to build a team with either two or three of Fischl, Xiangling, Barbara and if your lucky Qiqi because of their persistent effects and synergy with almost everyone. Building teams around the different elemental resonances is also a good choice with double pyro giving your team +25% atk, double geo +15 % dmg while shielded and so on. Part 4 showcase Lastly to give an example of what I am using at the moment, I am at AR 31 almost 32 so world lvl is 3 and I have so far cleared every content in the game that I could find, that means every elite/boss available at the moment, every hidden quest + their fights and every dungeon open to me. My main dmg dealer is Diluc but I pretty much use his normal/charged attack 95-99% of the time (mostly the charged attack) so you could pretty much use any claymore weapon user or really any physical dmg dealer for the same or at least if it’s not a claymore user similar effect. Here are some pictures of how he looks at the moment and what gear I have him using. https://imgur.com/a/CfMBFZt At the moment he deals about 850ish dmg on normal attacks and charged attacks deals about 650ish dmg without any buffs or debuffs applied, crits are of course higher and the trigger effect deals an extra 2000-3500 dmg on average depending on if it crits or is a normal/charged attack. With buffs and debuffs the dmg on average is anywhere between 1000-2400 dmg depending on crits or not (and I crit a lot) and if I hit the switch + atk or not with the trigger effects dealing around 3000-7000ish bonus dmg depending on if it crits or not. With this I am able to pretty much kill all normal enemies and some of the elite enemies in a single hit or within a few seconds. I am able to shave of up to 50% of the Regisvine when their in a downed state, most bosses that are incapacitated loses close to 25-50% of their health when their in a downed state, pretty sure this will go down as we move along the game but this is with a max lvl’d character (that can be switched for any other claymore character or physical dmg dealer for similar effect), max lvl’d 4 star weapon that everyone can get and refine to lvl 2 like me, three 3-star artifacts two at +8 and one at +12 and two 4-star artifacts at +12 and to be frank most of the artifacts either have bad or suboptimal secondary stats, lastly his basic attack talent is lvl 4. What I use in combat is pretty much only the superconduct debuff, the thrilling tales switch atk buff (though I still haven't really gotten the timing down) and then very rarely I will use Dilucs skills to deal pyro dmg to combo with Fischl's e skill when I am low on stamina, but I almost never do this since my normal/charged attacks deals more dmg most of the time. Any how this post became quite lengthy and I hope this helps at least someone out there and anyone is free to use this post or the info it contains however they like. I also apologize for any misspellings as english is not my first language and it became quite long at 6-7 pages.
Extra part:
So haven't really seen anyone mentioning this part but upon the 2nd, 3rd and I believe 5th and 6th ascension each character will get a boost in a certain area tied to themselves, in short 1st unlocks a talent, 2nd + 3rd boosts a stat, 4th another talent and I believe 5th + 6th will further boost the stat. I'll add the one's I know of so far and feel free to give info so I can add to the list. These additions are in the long run not game defining but in some cases they can show you towards what kind of stats/builds are most beneficial on your character. Since in some cases I wasn't paying much attention to this while ascending I'll just add the aproximate buff. 5-stars: Diluc: + crit rate, +4,8% crit at 2nd and another +4,8% crit at 3rd total +9,6% at this point, estimated + 19,2% crit rate at max lvl Venti: + energy recharge, +8% energy recharge at 2nd, estimated +32% energy recharge at max lvl Keqing: + crit dmg, +9,6% crit dmg at 2nd, estimated +38,4% crit dmg at max lvl Jean: + healing bonus, +5,5% healing at 2nd, estimated + 22% healing at max lvl Qiqi: + healing bonus, +5,5% healing at 2nd and +5,6% at 3rd total +11,1 % healing at this point estimated +22% healing at max lvl Traveller: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Mona: +unknown (would love someone with mona to tell me what it is and at what % sadly no friend of mine got her :/ ) 4-stars: Barbara: + hp, +6% hp at 2nd and +6% at 3rd total 12 % hp at this point, estimated +24% hp at max lvl. Fischl: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Chongyun: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Razor: + physical dmg, +7.5% at 2nd, estimated + 30% physical dmg at max lvl Ningguan: + geo dmg, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Razor) Beidou: + electro dmg, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Razor) Kaeya: + energy recharge, numbers unknown (guessed to be same as Venti) Lisa: + elemental mastery, numbers unknown. Xiangling: + elemental mastery, numbers unknown Amber: + atk, +6% atk at 2nd and +6% atk at 3rd, total 12% atk at this point, estimated +24% atk at max lvl Sucrose: + unknown Xingqiu: + unknown Bennet: + unknown That is the info I have at this time but this does show you a little on what the optimal way to build some of the characters are, for instance Diluc and Keqing will benefit the most from crit rate + crit dmg builds, since they already get + crit rate/crit dmg. Razor is best as a physical dmg dealer and so on. These bonuses are as mentioned not game breaking but sort of like having an extra artifacts main stat on the characters. Edit: While finishing of the marksmanship achievement I found out that hitting enemies in the head count as hitting their weakpoints so I changed my take on the Prototype Crescent bow. Edit: Changed recommendations on the debate club to more be in line with how I intended. Edit: I just noticed not a lot of ppl have talked about the bonus stat each character get so added a part about it.
To Whom it may apply or help, here is a list of current resistance values in the game. If I missed any, please let me know. Minos is not included as there are no known set values. (25 points, 33 comments)
Ep 1: Strap on your fantasy seatbelts and brace your asses for... The Adventure Zone! Ep 2: What otherworldly horrors will the McElroys face this week? Let’s find out together... in The Adventure Zone! Ep 3: Once again the yawning portal opens before you. Abandon all hope, ye who enter... The Adventure Zone! Ep 4: Double, double, toil and trouble, we’re cooking up a fresh batch of danger for you this week in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 5: I’ll drink up all the potions that you’ve got on your shelf, so just let me introduce myself... it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 6: Someone flies, someone dies... Seriously, this week someone flies and someone dies. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 7: What will our heroes find on the moon? I hope it’s not aliens because I’m afraid of those. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 8: Can our heroes survive the most treacherous job interview? I see myself in five years in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 9: What if the game is real life, and everything else is just a game? Think about it, The Adventure Zone! Ep 10: Are you not entertained? And if you are why don’t you make it rain on our ass? It’s a MaxFun Drive Adventure Zone! Ep 11: Are you a MaxFun Drive donor or a MaxFun Drive boner? Time to make up your mind as you enter... The Adventure Zone! Ep 12: Come on, ride the train. It’s the choo choo, and ride it. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 13: This week someone reaches their final destination... heaven. All aboard The Adventure Zone! Ep 14: Can our heroes solve the greatest mystery of all? Love? Also murder? Let’s find out in The Adventure Zone! Ep 15: Put on your thinking caps, gumshoes. It’s time to solve a murder in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 16: If our heroes can’t stop this runaway train then I’m going to have to find a new podcast to introduce. Is serial hiring? It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 17: I’m nearly jacked up on corn dogs and dippin dots. We’re going to the carnival this week in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 18: Come on in, come to the place where fun never ends. Come on in, it’s time to party with Garfield and friends it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 19: If you don’t like this episode you can make like a tree and leaf! I’m sorry I didn’t mean that it’s been a really rough week. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 20: Goonies never say die, but dungeon masters do! Ohhhh, it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 21: Hey everyone this is Mark, I’m filling in for the usual guy, took his family on vacation. I think they went to Dollywood. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 22: I certainly hope none of you are allergic to pickles! Because our heroes are in one... it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 23: Klaarg and our heroes are reunited. But does it feel so good? Let’s find out in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 24: Get out of my dreams and into my battle wagon! Hop in the backseat baby! It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 25: This episode’s a regular stunt spectacular! Don’t try this at home kids, unless you happen to live in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 26: I don’t have anything to say here, these stunts are giving me palpitations! It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 27: Can our heroes reach out and take a bite of that sweet checkered flag? It’s the final lap of... The Adventure Zone! Ep 28: Who’s ready to do some character management? Cmon guys we gotta do it at some point. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 29: Where’s our campaign going next? A haunted amusement park? A haunted candy factory? I don’t know, it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 30: Does anyone have Anthony Michael Hall’s phone number? Because we’re about to encounter some weird science. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 31: Hell yes he is, elevators are sweet! Anybody who says differently can take a hike... to The Adventure Zone! Ep 32: I hope our heroes know their long division, or else they’re going to get long divided. The robots going to cut them in half I mean. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 33: What mortal danger will our heroes not take seriously this week? Maybe they’ll make some boner jokes at some skeletons. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 34: Hey gang, I’ve got to keep my voice down because I just put the spooky kids to bed. Anyway, enjoy the episode. It’s The Adventure Zone. Ep 35: I hope Merle’s proficient in unarmed combat... I’m sorry, I’m better than that and you should expect more from me, it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 36: Are you ready for the greatest adventure of all? By which I mean donating to MaxFun Drive? Make it rain on... The Adventure Zone! Ep 37: Can our heroes claim victory once again against their old nemeses? I don’t know, I haven’t listened yet. Don’t spoil it for me. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 38: Aw dang, ghosts? I didn’t sign up for ghosts. Guess that’s the cost of doing business in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 39: But wait! They already killed the big skeleton king. What else could be left in this arc? Two skeletons? It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 40: What kind of nasty things do our boys get into betwixt adventures? I’m almost afraid to find out in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 41: Can our heroes recover the final three grand relics before they’re crushed by the weight of their incompetence? No, they can’t. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 42: If that old lady is some sort of spooky ghost, I’m out of here! I need a ghost-free guarantee if I’m going to stay in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 43: Okay campers, rise and shine. And don’t forget your booties because it’s cold out there today. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 44: Wow, this arc is going to wreck the boys’ KD ratio. Let’s hope they can break the cycle and escape from... The Adventure Zone! Ep 45: I hope our boys have a very big salt shaker. I don’t actually know if salt kills worms. It’s hard to think of things to say sometimes. The Adventure Zone! Ep 46: You’re about to see these boys on their baddest behaviour. Lend them some sugar! They are your neighbour. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 47: I hope these boys never find my journal! My live journal that is. Unless you wanna hear all about My Chemical Romance. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 48: Let me do some quick calculations. According to my math, there’s a 0% chance the boys don’t wang this one up. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 49: That’s enough dilly-dallying and pussyfooting around. These heroes are out of time. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 50: Ha! Bet you goobers didn’t see that one coming! What other tasty twists and turns await you in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 51: Hmm! What a devilish twist! What other mysteries await us down the winding path toward... The Adventure Zone! Ep 52: What will our boys find in Wonderland? Well, this arc’s called ‘The Suffering Game’ so... nothing great. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 53: Sounds like our boys are having the ‘slime’ of their lives! I can ‘bear’ly contain my excitement! It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 54: I don’t think our boys are having much fun playing The Suffering Game. Maybe their luck’ll improve in round two. But probably not! It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 55: Fret not, dear listener. It’s always darkest before the dawn. Unless of course you’re locked in some sort of pain dungeon. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 56: What’s waiting for our heroes at the end of Wonderland? It’s not a cool-ass weed-smoking caterpillar, I’ll tell you that much. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 57: Aw dang, what a cool cuss! I think you might be doing some cussing of your own by this episode’s end. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 58: Like Chilean miners rising, our comfy casual champion has returned. What other twists await us in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 59: We’re nearly caught up now. Have you been paying attention? This next part is... well... it’s important. It’s The Adventure Zone. Ep 60: Before the day the hunger arrived, before this... crisis. Before wonderland. Before the time-sick town and the crystal lab. Before races and trains and moon bases gauntlets. Before the beach and the sizzling and the roost. Before everything I’ve told you, there was a journey beyond imagination. Seven explorers lost their home to the same force that threatens us now. Their impossible trajectory carried them between wild, desolate, beautiful, deadly worlds, where they faced terrible hardships, and experienced immeasurable joy. They lived, and died, and loved, and... in the end, forgot. It’s time to remember. It’s time to go back to where our story truly started. Because only then can we prepare for how it ends. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 61: And so our heroes find themselves leaping from world to world, hoping each time that their next leap will be the leap home. Or something like that. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 62: Who the heck was that nerd? The intro is my job. Just watch how it’s done. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 63: I know, I know. This flashback’s been going on forever! But you might find this one illuminating... it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 64: We’re almost caught up. Do you understand yet? It’s imperative you pay attention, this isn’t just some story... it’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 65: Our heroes’ journey has been... difficult. But they’ve been lucky. I wonder what happens when that luck runs out. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 66: To understand this next part, I need you to imagine the apocalypse. Imagine it happens tomorrow, and that everyone you ever knew, every place you've ever been, every performer whose work you admired, every band who’s ever written a song that meant something to you- all of it was gone. And that you survived. Imagine that feeling of loss, imagine that guilt, the pressure it would put on you. How you would change beneath that pressure. Now imagine that apocalypse occurring annually, a hundred times over. What would you do to stop it? What would you do to protect the ones you loved, the ones who also felt that terrible weight? That is the reality of our heroes. That is what will lead them down the path to their destinies. Further from home, away from each other, into… The Adventure Zone. Ep 67: You’re ready. Ready for the final piece of our story. Ready for the end to begin. It’s The Adventure Zone! Ep 68: Did you see them? Did you see the lights above? It’s time to play your part in... The Adventure Zone! Ep 69: [N/A]
A Lucky 31 is named as you have 31 different bets from 5 selections. The bet is then made up of 1 fivefold, 5 fourfolds, 10 trebles, 10 doubles and 5 singles. Some bookmakers will offer an All Winner Bonus if all four selections win which is applied to the total return, a One Winner Bonus if just one selection wins and a One Loser Bonus if just one selection fails. Use the Lucky 31 Calculator to work out your potential sports betting payouts. Free to use Mobile friendly bet calculator with William Hill. A Lucky 31 Bet is a bet on 5 selections taking part in different events consisting of 5 Singles, 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 Four-Folds and a Five-Fold Accumulator totalling 31 bets. A single win from any selection ensures a return. Lucky 31 Calculator For Football and Horse Racing Bets. Use our Bet Sharks Lucky 31 Calculator to work out how much you have won on your lucky 31 bet. Popular for horse racing and football betting you can work out winning on both win and each way E/W Lucky 31 Bets using the calculator below. Use the Lucky 31 return calculator to work out your winnings online for all sports. Free, easy to use and mobile friendly bet calculator. Already, in front of you are the profits and returns of your bet calculated by our Lucky 31 bet calculator. A Lucky 31 bet is a popular betting wager on 5 different selections, and it consists of 31 bets. The Lucky 31 bet includes 5 Singles, 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 Four-Folds and 1 Five-Fold. Enter the details of your Lucky 31 bet, and our calculator will instantly tell you how much your winnings will be. There is an option to make it each way. To calculate the winnings of a Lucky 31 bet, one must calculate the outcome of 31 bets on five selections. Lucky 31 bets are often only allowed on horse racing and greyhounds. The Lucky 31 Bet Calculator allows you to calculate the stake, return and profit for Lucky 31s, permed from up to 20 selections if required, with the same comprehensive range of options available to the Free Bet Calculator. The 31 different bets are; five single bets, 10 double bets, 10 treble bets, five fourfold bets and one quintuple bet (fivefold accumulator). A $1 Lucky 31 bet therefore costs $31, as $1 is placed on each of the 31 bets. The return for a Lucky 31 bet is calculated by totalling each of the 31 separate bets together. Lucky 31 Bet Calculator. A lucky 31 bet is very similar to the hugely popular lucky 15 that many people use when placing a bet on horse racing. Just like a lucky 15 though, a lucky 31 can be used on any sport and is a great bet to place, offering full coverage across your selections.
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