I think we're all aware by now of the conspiracy that's building in the background of 2077. Most of us know about the mysterious Blue Eyes who appears in The Sun ending to the game. He operates as The Stinger of sorts for (that) ending of the game; He and V discuss a job vaguely alluded to through out the ending sequence and then the ending cuts to V in space charging off towards The Crystal Palace. Cue DLC Hook and credits.
But, let's go back here. This is only the tail end of the conspiracy and where it actually intersects with V's story. Blue Eyes (and some connections to him) crop up multiple times through out the game and, when pieced together, start building a larger picture that runs deeper into Night City than the pockets of most corporats.
I've finished my second playthrough of the game and I've been drafting this post as I play and find more clues. I doubt I'll find everything or might completely dismiss some, but I want to be on the front lines of uncovering this mystery, especially if this will be our Gaunter O'Dim for Cyberpunk 2077. I apologize for the length of this post ahead of time, but I need to summarize a bunch of lore and at least 4 major side-quests; "I Fought The Law", "Dream On", "Full Disclosure", and "The Prophet's Song".
Here's a long essay incoming, but I hope you chooms enjoy and I hope you read through to the end because, oh boy, I uncovered some cool shit!
So, who is Blue Eyes? Who are his contacts? What is his role in the ecosystem of this city?
"I FOUGHT THE LAW"
Let's start with where he most appears in the game; Jefferson and Elizabeth Peralez, political family in the running for Night City's first family. Which I kinda have to summarize their questlines, including the first one which Blue Eyes never appears in. But I'd prefer to go in chronological order and not jump around, so stick with me.
Elizabeth first contacts you for the job "I Fought The Law". It's fairly basic, but the quest tells us she convinced her husband to hire V to look into the recent death of Mayor Rhyne. We get a BD of a cyberpsycho attack by Peter Horvath on Mayor Rhyne. Weldon Holt leaves the room before the attack and then the security gate crashes right before Peter walks in with billions of eddies worth of chrome. The attack is unsuccessful and stopped by Detective River Ward, who was only there because Peter went missing internally at the NCPD and he knew where Peter would go.
When investigating Peter Horvath, his previous boss describes him as paranoid that "probably thought Mayor Rhyne talked to him through the TV" and that the world was out to fuck him. She then mentions that someone "finally saw what he was worth" which cues into how Peter was thrown into this attack in the first place; he had a patron who funded his chrome and the attempt on Rhyne's life. Tellingly, River than goes into a little talk about how clues rarely make sense until put into the larger context, much like we're doing right now.
V goes to the club Rhyne died in; The Red Queen's Race. V sneaks through, takes out some Animals, and can investigate what actually happened to Rhyne. If we read the emails on the office terminal, we know that Weldon Holt arranged for Rhyne to be there. He initially mentioned this to Rhyne during the first BD; Rhyne asked Holt directly to arrange his usual room at the club. So, this doesn't inherently look too suspicious on it's own, but Holt knew where Rhyne would be. We also find out via the Animals Boss there that Weldon Holt is the one who hired them to smash up the club and they're currently waiting around for payment. Further, you can go to the room Rhyne died in, find the BD headset, and put it on... which INSTANTLY knocks V out and they need to be rescued by River (who, btw, takes out any Animals on the property you didn't get to! Ty bro!). They surmise that Rhyne was killed by a virus in the headset. Lastly, we find footage of Detective Han (River's partner) covering up the death of Rhyne. They confront Han, V goes off to the Peralezs, and quest ends.
Of note, finding the BD set is a hidden dialogue option with the Peralezes suggesting, yes, that's the correct deduction to make. You don't get that option otherwise. And V never actually comes to any real conclusion to what happened to Rhyne.
So, let's summarize what we know about the death of our Mayor. Peter Horvath was hired by an unknown Patron who spent a ton of money to turn him into a suicide bomb against Rhyne. They have connections internally to the corrupt NCPD which allowed Horvath to get access to Rhyne, both from escaping NCPD custody and for the security to give him access to Rhyne's conference room. That fails so our mastermind instead assassinates Rhyne at his usual sex club, one that we know for sure Holt knew about. Rhyne is assassinated via malware in a BD porno headset, NCPD comes in an Detective Han cleans it up. Later, Holt hires the Animals to take claim to the club and fuck it up.
Holt is looking suspicious AF rn, but we also don't have any direct evidence and V says as much if you accuse him. Personally, I think it's a little too clumsy if it's him. Holt leaves the room just as an assassination attempt goes down, sets up a sex club appointment for the Mayor where he's successfully assassinated, NCPD covers it up... and then he hires a gang to cover it up more? Something doesn't fit here.
My theory is Holt is innocent. He's a scum bag, but not the culprit here. Why would you EVER give your identity to the Animals you hired to cover up an assassination? The big dumb brutes of the underworld? A name they give up with almost no fight? No, I think someone hired them under Holt's name. And I think they hired them because they KNEW the BD Headset was left behind; Han dismissed it entirely as Rhyne dying of a heart attack brought on during sex. They needed that destroyed to cover the final footprints. It's the only piece of evidence that doesn't have Holt or NCPD's name on it and doesn't fit the narrative that both are pushing. If they're covering NCPD or Holt's tracks, why not delete the emails or footage of Han? And if Holt or Han were trying to push this false narrative, why leave the headset right there the first time?
And, while I have no evidence of this assertion, the Animals are only still there because they're waiting for payment to come in... I think our employer never intended to pay them and left them in the path of V, who is likely to shoot them and tie up the loose end for our mysterious entity. Animals destroy the BD set, V shoots the animals, no trace. And, even if he doesn't, Animals will point V to the wrong person.
No, we've got a third party here. But let's continue so we can finally let our lead actor take center stage.
"DREAM ON"
"Dream On" starts when Jefferson calls V and asks them to help in another case. Long and Short; Jefferson woke up in the night and found a man in a mask (or an implant) standing over him. Jefferson shot the man, only for his head to fry and knock him out. Coming to, he's back in bed with no evidence it ever happened. SSI, their private security, insists that there was nothing on the cameras, no evidence, and nothing happened. Elizabeth claims she slept through the whole thing event.
V investigates the apartment, with Elizabeth giving the tour, and finds a lot of evidence. Elizabeth is kinda dismissive at first thinking V won't find much. First small stuff leading into larger reveals. Let's start small and work our way up.
First room Liz takes us to is the campaign room. She talks about running the campaign entirely out of pocket and having to keep most of their supplies at the Penthouse; "It's cheaper that way". You find a picture of their daughter on the wall and Liz explains that she's off at university in Europe while Jefferson is running for office; "It's easier that way" she says. That phrasing again.
EDIT: A redditor in the comments pointed out that the Peralez are being controlled via drugs in their food as part of the tech. They mention they've been eating fast food lately, explaining why Jefferson was lucid enough to catch the agent and shoot him.
V can look at Jefferson's emails (which Liz slightly discourages them, saying there's nothing there) which reveals a bit more about their campaign. There's a video of the iconic commercial and poster of Jefferson pulling out a gun and shooting a bunch of paperwork. In the email, Jefferson HATES this commercial, but his assistant, Lea Patel, insists on it as it will air in television time slots with action-drama series and catch the attention of voters. Further emails have Eric Boucher, Jefferson's Campaign Partner (Manager?), saying Jefferson has been acting unpredictably lately; presumably referencing one of the next emails. Boucher is confused because they fired Lea Patel together, only for her to continue working and sent him a new ad for approval. When emailed, Jefferson is confused about Lea being fired at all and doesn't remember the event ever happening, even telling Boucher to be honest if he has some issue with her. A final email is from SSI Chief of Security, Wallace, discussing Jefferson's intent to hire a merc to look into Rhyne's death ("Dream On") and they suggest Jefferson drop it or have NCPD or themselves look into it. Private Security just... offering to investigate the former mayor's death? Huh... sounds more like they want to squash the issue to me.
We should now talk about the Peralez's campaign. As you explore the apartment, Liz explains that they're running on a corp free campaign; they want to get Night City out of the control of the corps and do so without ever owing any favors to them. She specifically cites "Night Corp, Militech, and Petrochem" as ones they've denied. Militech and Petrochem come up a few times in other quests but Night Corp is relatively obscure. And they choose that corp to be the first one she mentions? Stands out to me. It also isn't lost on me that we're talking about running a campaign out of pocket and refusing corp assistance... while walking on the fancy ass balcony of a penthouse in Charter Hill- North Oak.
Next room, we find Jefferson's office. Elizabeth and Jefferson both graduated with law degrees from Asukaga University in Berkley. V points out it would be extremely expensive for them both, but Elizabeth says that both got full ride scholarships from the Richard Night Foundation, run by Night Corp. To further fucking cement this moment, there's a Richard Night biography shard on the desk. But we'll drop this for now because I want to get to Night Corp a bit later.
The computer on the office desk has some emails on it sent by Elizabeth. One is between her and Judy where she's asking Judy for help on the original "I Fought The Law" quest and Judy is the one who gave her your contact in the first place. Another is from their daughter kinda asserting the same thing earlier; safer for her in Europe so she's not a target on the campaign trail. And here's the interesting one; Boucher emailed Elizabeth asking why Jefferson changed his mind on Lea Patel. Elizabth says Jefferson explained it to her that it "slipped his mind" and "circumstances changed in Lea's favor" and she asks him to drop the whole thing. She's dismissive and gives extremely vague details.
Next room, Bedroom. Elziabeth's gun is on the table. It's the one Jefferson claimed he fired and scanning it tells us that it has been fired recently. We also find the wedding photo of Jefferson and Elizabeth where she fondly talks about having blue roses because she loves them so much... except the photo's roses are red and V says as much. Elizabeth quietly corrects herself that they only had red roses instead and moves on.
In the hall, we find the blood trail and gun shots in the wall; both covered up hastily. Following the trail, we enter a tv room. The Smart Glass isn't working and Elizabeth says it stopped working recently; not like they use it much anyway. Passing a Tech Check lets us try and fix it... only to be quickly blacked out by it so hard Johnny felt it too. V asks Elizabeth about it but she doesn't know what V is talking about despite having been standing right there. We also find a hidden door in the wall. Unlike earlier, Liz is actually confused by the door but demands V try and open it.
Downstairs we have the security room. Liz says that it used to be her place but "Security had to set up somewhere" and that she had to make sacrifices for this campaign; "it wasn't the first nor will it be the last". One computer has a Welcome email from SSI to new recruits. It details that they have access to all areas except Section Zero, which is reserved for Blue or Black agents and that, should the encounter a Blue or Black Agent (SPECIFICALLY "in the night"), do not interact or acknowledge them. The next email from Wallace mentions an accident where there was a "behavioral anomaly" and "ALPHA" injured a Blue Agent (BLUE-66M) who is in critical and the SSI head is requesting access to Sector Zero to give medical aid. SSI gives Wallace the code to Sector Zero and sends a team to aid. SSI knew about the accident and lied. You go to the second computer, unlock it, and can unlock the upstairs door. On that terminal is a bunch of deleted files (presumably the security footage from that night) and emails discussing "normal maintenance procedure" and further informing security that ALPHA (Jefferson) hired a merc (V) and, should security encounter them, do not interact with them.
Small thing I found interesting, a shard called "You Are What You Slot" is found down here too. It details a fictional assassin who kills and then steals the identity of her victims. Small and doesn't mean much on it's own, but the shards are hinting at the story here; one of false identities and manipulation.
Now, let's get to the main event; the secret room. Inside is a control center. Elizabeth is horrified and feels violated. She shouts that she's not letting SSI anywhere near them, only for her head to start hurting and she tells V to do what he needs to do. She leaves him. Inside the control room is a box of bloody medical supplies. The computer discusses "behavioral norms" for ALPHA (Jefferson) and suggests amplifying "neural dampening". It discusses things similar to Wallace's terminal, but from the other side; ALPHA is displaying odd behavior by hiring a merc, the SSI teams avoided meeting the merc, and then the actual accident that occurred injuring BLUE-66M during regular 'maintenance'. The other side of the room also has another data shard, "Rewriting Synaptic Pathways", basically talking about using tech to rewire the brain a bit.
Following some wires from the control room to the roof, we find a signal dish. Johnny (replacing Elizabeth for conversation now that she's gone), joins in that the tech looks prehistoric but functional and that Militech used it in the war; it requires line of sight to transmit data but otherwise can't be intercepted. We can see the tower and go to investigate. V tells Liz the whole deal; V can suggest that the Van near the tower could be SSIs or that it might not be due to unconventional tech. Liz then itterates twice that it's a stressful campaign time for Jefferson and V should talk to her, NOT him. "Sure, whatever" V and the player dismiss.
(I SWEAR WE'RE ALMOST DONE WITH THE SUMMARIZING FOR DREAM ON, I'M SO SORRY.)
We drive after the van, Johnny is suddenly excited for smashing a corpo conspiracy and iterates that citizens do not choose their representatives, instead they're chosen by "key players" who watch the Peralezes for weaknesses or blackmail material. We arrive at the facility patrolled by Maelstrom and the occupants of our van park, get out, and climb ladders to the roof where they get into an AV that is cloaked to be near invisible (as shown in a couple of vids on YouTube and this subreddit).
At the place, Maelstom is explained; "UNKNOWN USER" contacted them while driving the van for protection to take care of V and then destroy the van. Van's data makes it pretty clear; the Peralezs' minds are being manipulated, new neural pathways are being created, and their memories are being created, changed, or erased. There are also a couple of other names of other test subjects. The data is then erased. We do see an almost flower like symbol before the data is destroyed.
The agents on the cloaked AV CAN be killed and do drop a shard, thought it doesn’t have many more details, merely that they’re contacting HQ to arrange extraction and that the Van’s data should be destroyed and echoing the arrangement with Maelstrom mentioned earlier in their shards.
V calls Liz, Liz wants to meet in person instead of over holo and send him to a Japantown Raman shop (same one that used to be Rainbow Cadenza, coincidentally). Odd choice for an upstanding congresswoman. She says her nerves are shot, the ramen shop is a quieter place to meet than the apartment, and she needs a moment to gather herself since she last saw V, with V even asking if something has happened since they last saw each other. Of note, Liz is stress smoking the entire scene, something she hasn't done until now. She then explains, no, it's been over a longer period of time. She's been watching her husband change and act differently for awhile; he stopped reading, his taste changed, and he even insisted he was an only child and never had a bother when Liz asks about visiting the grave. Of note, yes, Antonio Peralez has a Columbarium Vault, which proves Liz is correct on this. She confesses that she herself has been told by others she's been acting strangely. V says she knew what V would find and she asserts that she doesn't know the who, how, or why, but "they're changing us". Jefferson apparently went on in great detail about a trip she swears they never went on, but she doesn't know if the vacation is a fake memory or if she's the one that doesn't remember.
She saw a stranger in their apartment tinkering with a monitor, only for him to be missing when it was reported to SSI and they looked at the feeds. The next day, she got a phone call from a stranger (whom she refers to by "he") saying that she's walking on thin ice and Jefferson could have an accident. They later erased all data that the phone call had happened. Elizabeth claims she's terrified for herself and her husband's safety and doesn't want V to reveal the truth. V points out "they" could be telling her to say that but it doesn't really change how she feels since she just wants Jefferson to be safe. She tells V to tell Jefferson it was SSI spying for Holt. She asserts she wants SSI out of her roof if they're spying on their sleep. She will take responsibility for firing SSI, but wants Jefferson to be safe and out of that fight. She adds a meeting with Jefferson to his calendar at Reconciliation Park. But, ultimately it's V's choice (especially since she has no idea if she'll remember the conversation) and leaves. Johnny jumps and and talks and mentions that there were talks like this back in his day and worrying about the damage a puppet mayor could do.
V heads to Reconciliation Park to meet with Jefferson. Entering, V is called by an Unknown Number which blacks out V's optics. They claim to know who V is, *what* V is, and what V wants. It doesn't matter what V tells Jefferson, but "don't dare cross that line" and "you're playing with fire". Its a garbled male robo voice, so safe to say it's irrelevant to the owner.
Enter Stage Right, our missing lead; Mr. Blue Eyes. He is standing on a balcony watching the place where we meet Jefferson. In the Scanner, he is labeled "Mr. Blue Eyes", has no known affiliation, is wanted for "SC 370", and is wanted for "Classified". His eyes are electronically glowing blue you can even see from several yards away. You cannot injure him as grenades do nothing and you can't aim at him. Of small note, and I don't know if this ACTUALLY means anything, but his hair style asset is referred to as Morgan Blackhand in the files, but could mean nothing if this hair is actually used by other NPCs. MOST LIKELY THIS IS NOTHING UNLESS SOMEONE HAS FURTHER INFO.
(Plot twist: It meant something. But we'll get there.)
V sits with Jefferson and can reveal the truth; "SSI is on the take from an unknown group to control your lives". V can even point out the absurdity of Peralez being as successful of a politician as he is without any corp sponsors. "They want you to be *their* mayor. Molding you like clay". You can tell Jefferson how to proceed and additional details, but it doesn't matter. Later, Jefferson will send a text and delete your number and so will Elizabeth, who will call you out for telling Jeff. In the end credits voicemails, Jefferson has decended into paranoia about some vitamins Liz gave him which he didn't trust so he sent them to the lab, only to then not trust the lab results saying they're fine. Jefferson Peralez is confirmed the new mayor during Late Act 2 and the major difference is his state of mind at the end game; either hiring V to be on his security staff or descending into absolute paranoia over everything in his life.
Lastly, Johnny appears and cryptically talks about back in his day when they'd talk about rogue AIs. Personally... I kinda completely dismiss this? It comes out of nowhere, Johnny cites NOTHING for why he'd bring this up in relation to the case, and I can't fathom a motive. I’d also point out that this isn’t the only time Johnny is outright wrong. In fact, he’s wrong A LOT in the game. For example, he criticizes V for listening to the Netwatch Agent and that he’s bullshitting you. Except, the agent is 100% correct that VDB did spike V as a suicide virus and Johnny is actually wrong. He also claims he doesn’t know what happened with Thompson after Never Fade Away, but this is a lie because Thompson is flying the AV Johnny takes to Arasaka in 2023. The only connection I can find is "Who is controlling Blue-Eyes" which might make Johnny correct, if just not in the way 'Rogue AIs' initially implies.
So, what actually has happened?
The Peralez family has been molded for a very long time into being the perfect political couple. They got scholarships from the Night Foundation for two fancy law degrees, have successful political careers, and Jefferson is running for Mayor on an anti-corp platform, an insanity for Night City. And he's actually successful at it. During a maintenance service at night on the Peralez's apartment, Jefferson woke up and shot an SSI/Unknown agent making repairs. The Control Booth knocked Jefferson out and they pulled the agent out of the apartment into the secret room. SSI put the Peralezes back into bed and hastily cleaned up everything, but the damage was done and Peralez hired V who uncovered mostly everything.
Elizabeth seems to be initially very upset by the discovery, but wants V off the trail when we meet her next. However, she's not in on it as she's equally a victim to the brainwashing/gaslighting and that's for certain. I think she's a pawn who is either too scared or too programmed to break the rules of movement on this chessboard. It's worth noting that, while the unknown entity threatens Jefferson's life and V's well being, they do not make due on either of these threats. I call their bluff. They have put too much work into Jefferson to abandon or kill him.
But, where else have we heard of this gaslighting brainwash process before?
"FULL DISCLOSURE"
Ok, we're on the shorter end so I don't have to actually explain this quest in full. Sandra Dorsett is a netrunner and a very skilled on at that, actually collecting data from Night Corp. She was kidnapped by the savs we rescued her from at the beginning of the game shortly AFTER she stole this data, suggesting Night Corp was behind it. This data is on the shard she asks you to collect during the aforementioned quest. V has full ability to NOT read it, but let's look at it; "Operation Carpe Noctem" ("Seize The Night" in Latin)
Described in it is an experiment on Night Corp's own employees where they are quietly brainwashing them and getting them to do whatever they want. They specifically cite an empathetic and calm employee who they got to fight a co-worker and then jump from a 16th floor window. The shard ends on mentioning that they're ready to install CN-07 on "our actual target".
I think multiple quests discussing brainwashing and gaslighting is too coincidental to be utterly unrelated to each other. I think Night Corp's actual target mentioned here is Peralez.
So, what is Night Corp?
Night Corp is the most mysterious of the corps in Night City. It currently operates to better Night City via philanthropic ventures, fundraising, community support, and city infrastructure. Basically, while Militech and Arasaka and the others operate in the city, Night Corp basically RUNS the actual city. They're also noteworthy for the level of security they have that even the best netrunners can't get much from them and, since they keep to themselves and seemingly just do city infrastructure stuff, no one really super bothers them. It has been run by Miriam Night, wife of late-Richard Night, until recently and we currently don’t actually know who runs NightCorp.
Originally, they were the Night Foundation, but that requires explaining Richard Night... oh boy, Lore Drop. I'll make it quick as possible.
Richard Night is the founder of Night City. He started as a partner of a firm, but his ambitions grew beyond that to founding "Night International" to build his dream; a city that would be so grand it would make all other cities pale by comparison, Coronado City. A capitalist mecha of opportunity, Night City would be run by corporations and have next to no anti-business policies on the books. Arasaka, EMB, and Petrochem were his first backers and he came into claim of land on the central-California coast; Del Coronado Bay and Morro Bay would be the location of his dream city.
(BTW, irl, Morro Bay, California is a real place. Been there, have family there, go there regularly, kinda cool!).
Despite being a capitalist mecca city and run by corps, Richard Night also dreamed it to be "A sprawling metropolis, free of crime, of poverty, of debt. A place where people could live safely, peacefully, without having to worry about the dire situations that were growing around the world at the time".
However, due to the design plans, Night didn't employ local contractors and instead got expensive architects and builders from all over the world. Local builders didn't like that, they had mob connections, bloodshed started. And soon Richard Night was murdered by an unknown assassin, presumably a mob hitman. The city was renamed Night City in his honor and his dream utopia became to embody everything that was destroying the world. Mob took control and corps didn't give a fuck since it didn't hurt them any until they eventually had to take out the mob gangs, but not in any favor to Night’s dream either.
Miriam Night, Richard's Widow, founded the Night Foundation (later Night Corp) to stick to Richard's Ideal dreams of what he wanted the city to be. They invest heavily in ecological research, alt power sources, civic infrastructure, public works, and charities and scholarships for Night City youth. "They've even managed to stay out of the normal corporate power struggles which tend to plague every other corporation, both inside the city and out. Even the shadowy corporate rumors about them, like having underwater bases in the bay or access to orbital satellites, remain unsubstantiated despite extensive investigation."
So, where does this put us now? We have ONE last quest...
"THE PROPHET'S SONG"
Garry The Prophet is our local crazy man. He spouts off insanities to anyone who will listen near Misty's Esoterica in Kabuki. However, some of his ideas aren't quite as much off the mark as one might think. There ain't no technonecromancers from Alpha Centuri (or Spanish Inquisition) nor is Saburo Arasaka an immortal vampire, but he was correct that Saburo wasn't dead and in fact immortal; via Mikoshi and The Relic.
He send you on a quest to investigate a meeting; he says that his ripper mistuned some cyberware in his head and he can hear their communications. You show up to a meeting between corps and Maelstrom. They say some nonsense phrases and transfer a data shard. Reading it ("Destroy After Reading") it seems like nonsense. But does include the line "The cages of men melt as night descends". You can decode it via a Null Cipher; first letter of every line: “Project Oracle Command Execute Plans”.
We don’t know what Project Oracle is. In real life, secret project or operation names actually tend to be chosen at random and are unrelated to the actual project (you can google funny stories about names that ended up awkward to the actual project), so this could mean nothing. But, narratives tend to give meaning to everything. Oracles are mythical in references and could predict the future or see the unseen. Perhaps perfect prediction via behind the scenes manipulations? Not sure we’ll get answers on this one for now.
Going back to Garry, he's been kidnapped. His protoge is screaming he's been kidnapped "Black suits came by - blue eyes and all". Blue Eyes huh? Further, she claims that they threw him into an invisible AV... Huh, like the one we saw back during "Dream On"? "Night's comin... The eternal night"
So, it’s time to jump us to the final step in our Fool’s Journey: The Sun.
“THE SUN”
The Sun ending has V wake up in their new penthouse apartment (with their love interest if they have one). Checking the computer, we see emails from our dear Mr. Blue Eyes. He wants an answer from V as to the job to the Crystal Palace he has planned and that they’re on a tight schedule for “obvious reasons”. We meet with him at the Afterlife and he talks about the job; Casino security is going into maintenance and V mentions giving him the casino client list. V also asks him to “hold up your end of the bargain”. They never discuss eddies or payment. It’s all in such vague terms. “Your end” or “Obvious reasons”. Smaller point but an email from Vik on the space shuttle also tells us that he’s asked around about Blue Eyes and has nothing; either he works with people WAY above Vik’s paygrade or he’s shady as hell… or both.
I think Blue Eyes knows V is dying (the obvious reasons) and I think the unspecified payment is V’s survival. V always says that they want to come back to their love interest so it’s not a mindless suicide run and I don’t think V would risk it all for nothing but eddies; especially not after Reaper (both versions) paint suicide runs as a horrible terrible thing. To then glorify it in another ending… no, the game is smarter than that.
Your love interest doesn’t seem to be too upset about the situation either. Panam and Judy leave V in The Sun due to their lives taking different directions, but it seems mostly amicable and understanding. They even express desire to see V again because they know V needs to do this job. Kerry, who stays with V in The Sun and expresses worry and also a desire to settle down with V, also seems mostly understanding that V needs to go on this quest. I don’t think they’d be so calm and loving and understanding if this were a suicide run. They know more than the player does.
Further, I think Blue Eyes isn’t after the casino aspect of the Crystal Palace at all. While that’s the major commercial aspect of the station as marketed to the citizen world, the station also has embassies from every nation on earth, facilities from all the major corporations, and is pretty much THE place where all the dark corporate espionage goes down. There’s so much more to this location than ‘casino resort’. *EVERY* corp has space stations and hideaways in space because the Crystal Palace offers it’s own legalities and opportunities that are not allowed within Earth’s terms and conditions. If they want to do some research that would be frowned upon elsewhere and get up to some Top Secret shit, it’ll be in outer space. Night City is controlled by corps and has lax laws, but outer space’s are even more so.
I think the cure V wants is not only on the station, I think it’s what Blue Eyes himself is after, but I’ll get there when it’s time to theory craft about the future.
I think it’s worth noting; Blue Eyes IS IN THE TRAILER FOR THE GAME. Yeah, anyone remember that shot on a shuttle with a guy being burned out from the inside? Yeah, he’s there. In the foreground. *Smirking*. The shuttle also seems like they’re in space.
These events leading to the Crystal Palace and the conspiracy with Blue Eyes are blatant DLC Hooks for the future and suggest a post-game DLC. This isn’t the first CDPR has done so either; Blood and Wine takes place after the story of Witcher 3 and is explicitly incompatible with the worst endings of that game. I think, conceivably, other endings where V is still alive could be roped into this adventure; Blue Eyes merely needs to hire them with the same offer of survival. While The Star takes V to Arizona and away from Night City, I think that choice of location is appropriate as, to even get to space for The Crystal Palace, citizens go from LAX to Arizona for a space port to launch them off Earth’s surface. They could have chosen anywhere else to send Panam and V, but they choose Arizona, huh. I do think Reaper, Temperance, and Devil will be locked out of this future, however, as all make any point of Blue Eyes hiring V irrelevant; there’s no V left to hire/save. MAYBE a rejected Devil ending, but I wouldn’t blame them for not continuing that conclusion either as Devil is one of the bad endings.
So, it’s finally time to really compile a lot of this information into where I think this is going in the next comment below

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Election shenanigans

I put the latest info on Trump's phone call to Raffensperger in this comment.

According to experts, Trump’s conduct has potential criminal exposure:

A federal statute makes it a crime when one “knowingly and willfully … attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.”
A Georgia statute similarly provides that a “person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a felony under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.”
…The hard part for prosecutors would be proving Trump’s state of mind, because the statutes require proof of knowledge and intent. Prosecutors would have to show that Trump knew that Biden fairly won the election, and Trump was asking for Georgia officials to commit election fraud. And it’s not clear prosecutors could make that case.

At least 12 Republican senators plan to challenge Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to officially count the votes. The effort is being led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and includes Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), as well as new Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). Separately, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) is pursuing a similar plan.

"Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed," the senators said in a joint statement. “Accordingly, we intend to vote on Jan. 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."

Their plan is not going to succeed in preventing Biden from taking office, as majorities in both the House and the Senate would need to support a challenge against a state’s electoral votes. For an objection to be made, at least one member of both the House and Senate would need to submit it in writing. Then, the House and Senate separately convene to consider the issue. Debate is limited to two hours for each objection. After debate concludes, the House and Senate vote to uphold the objection and throw out the state’s votes. If the majority of the House AND the majority of the Senate does not uphold the objection, the state’s electoral votes are counted as cast.

• Vice President Mike Pence’s role is simply to preside over the joint session, opening and presenting the certifications from each state. In his absence, the Senate pro-tempore Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will lead the session. At the end of the process, the presiding officer announces who has won the majority of votes for president and vice president.

The most immediate danger from Trump and Cruz’s doomed election gambit is rightwing terrorism and general violence: Trump, in particular, is inciting his supporters to swarm D.C. on Jan. 6. “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” Trump tweeted last week. Four rightwing rallies are scheduled, including one headlined by George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone.
The Proud Boys and other extremists are planning to attend the rallies and may set up an “armed encampment” on the National Mall, according to the Washington Post. On social media platform Parler, the leader of the Proud Boys said that members will be there “incognito” and may “dress in all black” to impersonate leftwing protestors.

Enrique Tarrio: "The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist...We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams."

Rep. Louie Gohmert has more explicitly tried to incite violence, saying the failure of his legal challenge to the election means “you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.” (clip)

• At the same time, pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood suggested that Pence could “face execution by firing squad” for “treason” if he doesn’t go along with the attempt to subvert the election.

Obstructing the transition

Biden’s transition director has accused the Office of Management and Budget of stonewalling the incoming administration’s team. OMB Director Russ Vought is not allowing key staff to meet with the transition team to help prepare the president-elect’s first annual spending plan, a move that could delay major proposals. Vought pushed back on the charges, saying that his agency needs to focus on finalizing the Trump administration’s regulations before the president leaves office.

“OMB leadership’s refusal to fully cooperate impairs our ability to identify opportunities to maximize the relief going out to Americans during the pandemic, and it leaves us in the dark as it relates to Covid-related expenditures and critical gaps,” [Biden transition Exec. Dir. Yohannes] Abraham said.

Earlier last week, Biden himself said Trump officials are not cooperating with his team, singling out the Defense Department for obstructing information on crucial national security issues. “Right now, we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility,” Biden said. The Defense Dept. finally scheduled meetings with the incoming team this week, after not briefing the transition for weeks.

• The timing of the resumption in meetings is notable because it comes after the one year anniversary of the U.S. assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3. NATO officials are reportedly worried about the lack of coordination from the Trump administration: "We need the incoming Biden administration to be fully briefed and ready to deal with these very dangerous issues facing NATO's security."

Sabotaging the Biden Administration

U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack is taking steps to keep control of Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia during the Biden administration. As chairman of the boards of Radio Free Europe and Asia, Pack and his fellow members have added binding contractual agreements that will make it impossible to remove him or other pro-Trump allies from the board in the next two years.

In other words, although President-elect Joe Biden has already signaled he intends to replace Pack as CEO of the parent agency soon after taking office in January, Pack would maintain a significant degree of control over the networks.

The State Department is likely to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism “as an 11th hour effort to create hurdles for the incoming Biden administration.” The label, which requires the approval of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, would undo a major accomplishment of the Obama administration. To take Cuba back off the list, the Biden team would need to conduct a formal review, a process that might take several months.

Such a designation would impose restrictions on US foreign assistance, a ban on defense exports and sales, certain controls over exports and various financial restrictions. It would also result in penalization against any persons and countries engaging in certain trade activities with Cuba.

The Trump administration has been rushing to finalize a myriad of rules before Biden’s inauguration. Since Election Day, the Trump administration has issued about three to four times as many new regulations as it did during other periods of Trump’s presidency. Rules that haven’t been finalized or taken effect can be suspended by an incoming president, which Biden has said he intends to do. By contrast, rules that are finalized can take months, or even years, to undo.

“As a general rule, it takes at least as much process to undo or modify a rule as it does to put the rule in place,” said Jonathan H. Adler, a professor and an administrative law expert at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “The Trump administration is magnifying that challenge for the Biden administration.”

Trump loyalists are urging the president to stymie Biden’s efforts to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are working to get the agreements submitted to the Senate for ratification, requiring a two-thirds vote, with the goal of failure. While such an outcome wouldn’t prevent Biden from rejoining the accords, Cruz and Graham hope it would make their resurrection more problematic.

A vote against them would signal GOP opposition to the world and, they hope, undermine any unilateral action by Biden to rejoin the agreements. One senior congressional aide told RCP that sending them to die in the Senate “would be the final nail in the coffin.”

Further reading: “Biden To Be Saddled With Trump’s Payroll Tax Deferral Mess,” Forbes.
Further reading: Biden will inherit a backlog of tens of thousands of visa requests from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and a bureaucratic tangle that refugee advocates say President Trump ignored or made worse.

Trump money and properties

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is employing forensic accounting specialists to examine Trump’s finances and business operations. Vance is looking “for anomalies among a variety of property deals” and trying to determine “whether the president’s company manipulated the value of certain assets to obtain favorable interest rates and tax breaks”.

The analysts hired by Vance probably have already reviewed various bank and mortgage records obtained from Trump’s company as part of the ongoing grand jury investigation, and they could be called on to testify about their findings should the district attorney eventually bring criminal charges

In yet another shady business deal connected to Trump, the United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Israel for more than $67 million. The person who bought the residence is none other than Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. The property only became available due to Trump's controversial decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem. Furthermore, State Dept. representatives reportedly lied to Congress about the sale, perhaps to hide that Adelson purposefully overbid.

For now, there is no alternative residence for the ambassador, David Friedman, Trump’s former lawyer, who currently uses a suite at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel or rooms at the former Jerusalem Consulate General when he spends nights in Jerusalem… As a result, the United States appears likely to end up leasing the residence it has owned since 1964 from the GOP-affiliated casino mogul.
“It is very strange that we are now paying Sheldon Adelson,” a congressional aide told The Daily Beast. “It is not above board. We have a number of questions. Did they get two independent appraisals? Was it a sweetheart deal? Was Adelson the highest donor? Was there a reason to sell it now?”

Trump’s businesses have taken in $10.5 million of donor money over the course of his presidency. $8.5 million came from the Trump campaign and related entities that Trump controls directly; $2 million came from other Republican candidates and committees. The biggest beneficiary was Trump’s NYC hotel, taking in $3,039,979 over the four years of his presidency, with $891,003 of that in just the final four months of the campaign.
Trump’s DC hotel is ramping up room prices and requiring a two-night minimum stay for two key events this month, as the president tries to squeeze more profit out of his office. On Jan. 6, when Congress is set to formally count the votes cast by the Electoral College, room rates are listed at over eight times the price of surrounding dates. Trump is encouraging his supporters to attend a protest of Biden’s win on the 6th. A room during the inauguration costs five times the normal rate, at $2,225 per night.
Trump’s Turnberry Resort in Scotland posted a £2.3 million ($3.1 million) loss in 2019, marking the sixth year in a row it has failed to turn a profit under his ownership. Since Trump took over the historic property in 2014, its losses now total nearly £45 million ($61.5 million).

The fact Turnberry remains in the red comes in spite of significant tranches of payments it has received from the US government during Mr Trump’s single term in office… the US Secret Service spent nearly £25,000 to accommodate its agents at the resort during business trips by Mr Trump’s son, Eric, an executive vice-president of the family firm. Since Mr Trump’s election, the property has received close to £300,000 from the Secret Service, US State Department, and US Defence Department

A Florida state lawmaker is calling for Mar-a-Lago to be penalized - and possibly shut down - for flouting coronavirus restrictions during a New Years Eve party. While Trump and the first lady did not attend, son Don Jr., attorney Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Fox News personality Jeanine Piro were captured on video among the maskless crowd. Guests paid as much as $1,000 for access to the ballroom to be entertained by Vanilla Ice.

State Rep. Omari Hardy: “My constituents are not snowbirds like @DonaldJTrumpJr & @kimguilfoyle. My constituents live here. This is their home, and they're going to have to deal w/ the consequences of a potential super-spreader party at Mar-a-Lago long after Junior & wife leave here on their private jet.”

Are you ready for a Donald J. Trump Airport? According to the Daily Beast, Trump has been asking aides about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents.
Further reading: “Jared Kushner’s family real estate business wants to raise at least $100 million in capital through Israel’s bond market… Kushner has helped spearhead a series of moves that have been applauded by the conservative pro-Israel community, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognizing Israeli sovereignty in disputed areas such as the Golan Heights. Kushner also has close ties to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Miscellaneous

The Census Bureau missed it’s end-of-year deadline to produce numbers that determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College for the next decade. The agency is working toward Jan. 9 as an internal target date for completing the current stage of processing records. "If we miss Jan. 9, it's hard to envision that we would get apportionment done before inauguration," a Census employee told NPR.

The final timing of the 2020 census results' release could undermine President Trump's efforts to make an unprecedented change to who is counted in key census numbers before leaving office… If the first census results are not ready until after Trump's term ends on Jan. 20, it would be President-elect Joe Biden, not Trump, who would get control of the numbers, which are ultimately handed off to Congress for certification.

Greetings everyone and welcome to another Rotation meta report for Shadowverse!
As always i'll be relying on a variety of sources to stitch together a decent picture of the Rotation Meta. Using Gamewith, Shadowverse-wins.com, tournament results along with my own experiences.
Forestcraft
Deep in the great woods of Forestcraft, in an ancient oaken hall that has stood there since before anyone can ever remember. We find all the leaders assembled trying to figure out what is up with Xeno Sagittarius. Doesn't help that no one can understand it's strange language, in the end the issue gets pawned off on Selwyn as everyone else suddenly has more important matters to attend to.
For Forestcraft Accelerate Forest continues to rule the forests followed by Loxis Forest which has overtaken Aggro Forest. Forestcraft continues to be a strong class with several strong decks and remains one of the dominant tournament classes atm.
Accelerate Forest
A whirlwind of activity, swift and ruthless as the wind! A flurry of arrows and blows strikes down any foe, allowing for a mighty warrior to finish the job
A midrange-combo deck. A strong deck with a higher skill requirement. This week has seen Accelerate forest pull up a bit and start to include Xeno Sagittarius, likely in response to an increase in Rally Haven and board heavy shadow decks, but in other matchups can also serve as card draw and cycle.
Loxis Forest
An outrider of the forests, patrolling its borders and keeping it's safe from all those who would seek to harm its denizens
A midrange-combo deck built around amulets. Loxis Forest has been steadily climbing in popularity, both on ladder and in tournaments as the deck continues to be refined and understood better. While skill intensive, in the right hands it can be potent.
Aggro Forest
The wrath of the forests made manifest, a horde of raging beasts and outcasts ready to strike down all before it!
An aggro deck built around a variety of strong threats and disruption. Seeing a slight drop off in the current meta as Loxis Forest and accelerate forests gains better understanding and refinement, while Aggro Forest just sits about. Still good and a far more straightforward deck than the other two.
Swordcraft
In the eternal Castle of Swordcraft. Past countless banners and standards, tapestries depicting glorious battle. We find Albert being gently taken aside by Seofon after asking Arthur why he's shrunk since last. Seofon requests that Albert avoids questions like that since apparently there's a million Arthur's about out there in the Multiverse. Keeps producing them, that and Jeanne d'Arcs.
For Swordcraft Evolve Sword continues to rest its flaccid buttocks on the throne, followed by Walfrid Sword, Rally Sword and Aggro Sword. Overall Sword remains in an awkward spot, since while it has a decent variety of decks, most are struggling in power level and consistency and generally good tempo plays.
Evolve Sword
Paragons of their art. These heroes stand ready to strike down those without honour!
A control deck built around Evolve Synergies. Evolve Sword continues to be a good deck but one struggling to close out matches at times and there continues to be a lot of experimentation with the deck, but so far, no great results .
Walfrid Sword
An army of men and women devoted to one man's cause. This fleet of the blue skies will follow him to the end of the multiverse
A midrange deck built around Walfrid. A decent deck that suffers from being very linear and a bit slow. Continues to see play here and there, but has consistency and tempo issues.
Rally Sword
A Legion on the march. It's numbers will result in victory, either by breakthrough or by sheer attrition!
A Tempo deck built around the Rally mechanic. A decent deck that continues to see fringe play. This version was recently posted on Twitter and personally i've used it to climb to Grandmaster. So it's fairly decent at least. That said, can struggle with consistency. But it's fun.
Aggro Sword
A wild band of outcasts and outlaws. Their mission to ruin the day of anyone who gets in their way
An aggro deck built around Vehicles. Continues to see fringe play, some versions may experiment with Naht's Henchman and Oluon continues to see some usage as well.
Runecraft
In the mystical Academies of Runecraft, where knowledge rules above all. We find Erasmus supervising the expansion of the Runecraft council chambers, since the recent massive influx of leaders has made it way too cramped. Caglisotro really wanted to do it, but after having seen her plans. All the other leaders left the job to Erasmus.
Runecraft sees Control Karyl rule from the ivory tower, followed by Spellboost Rune, Vincent rune and finally Earth Rite Rune. Rune's in a decent position, but does have it's issues in the current meta.
Control Karyl
Destruction and annihilation is all that follows in the wake of this Girl, as she has concluded that it is the only way for her to get some peace and quiet
A control combo deck built around Karyl. Continues to be the top Runecraft deck, but is a more skill intensive one. Additionally with Karyl rotating out at the end of March, it is tough to recommend.
Spellboost Rune
Magical Servants for every purpose ! As long as that purpose is destroying your foes
A midrange deck built around Spellboost Synergies. A solid yet slightly tricky deck that continues to see a good amount of play. Do keep in mind that Kuon will rotate out at the end of the expansion and we don't know what Kuon will be replaced with.
Vincent Rune
A man who forges the law on his own, and he enforces it as well, ruthlessly!
A tempo deck built around Vincent and Vehicle Amulets. A decent aggressive deck that continues to see play, though does lack some strong threats.
Earth Rite Rune
The peak of Alchemy ! Mighty golems and wonderous magicks that will sear the very flesh of your enemies bones!
A midrange deck built around Earth Rites. A decent deck existing on the fringe. Continues to see play with a small group. Keep in mind that both Karyl and Forbidden Darkmage will rotate out at the end of the expansion, making it slightly tough to recommend.
Dragoncraft
In the great caverns of Dragoncraft, where all manner of behemoths can be found sleeping, waiting for the right time to awaken and bring doom upon the world. We find Hiro on cleanup duty as punishment for his little power trip a few weeks ago. Turns out Forte is quite the slob and he ends up spending days cleaning up her room alone.
For Dragoncraft Face Dragon remains high in the skies, followed by OTK Dragon, Ramp Dragon and Discard Dragon. Dragoncraft remains in a strong position with a good variety of strong decks and no real threats to the class short of any nerfs.
Face Dragon
An incendiary storm unleashed upon its enemies. This deck is full of pyrotechnics and death!
A tempo deck built around a variety of strong threats and answers. Easily the strongest dragon deck and still fairly popular even as Haven has risen up to keep it in check. A part of its strength though is that it can highroll to a degree where it becomes difficult for other decks to stop it. Additionally Jerva has become a staple in the deck with most decks running a copy or two now for extra burn that also happens to work well with Bahamut.
OTk Dragon
A terror from the deepest seas, swallowing up the entire world in its abyssal maw!
A combo deck built around Disrestan. A strong deck though vulnerable to more aggressive and tempo based decks that can run it down. But great vs slower decks as they can find themselves crushed by its OTK.
Ramp Dragon
Soaring high in the skies, ever higher until it unleashes its payload of fire and doom upon those beneath it
A ramp deck built around Resplendent phoenix. Continuing to see some play, there's overall been no real changes to the deck this week either. Solid, but not as fast as Face Dragon or as consistent as OTK dragon.
Discard Dragon
Tossing all to the winds in the hopes of gaining everymore. For this deck, no sacrifice is to steep in the quest to destroy its foes!
A midrange deck built around Discard cards. A bit of a fringe deck at the moment as it isn't as fast as the other decks nor as splashy. So it is mostly played by a small dedicated group of players at this point.
Shadowcraft
In the great Catacomb of Shadowcraft. Where death rules eternal. We find the leaders assembled for a small concert headed by Niyon. A soothing affair deep in the sepulchral depths and Luna ends up gently falling asleep to it.
Shadowcraft Finds Gremory as always at the peak of the Pyramid, followed by Aggro Shadow, Reanimate Shadow with Evolve Shadow arriving to push out Vaseraga Shadow. That deck is still about, but is on a lower power level and so doesn't get a writeup this week. But it does mean Shadowcraft now has 5 decks. Overall Shadow is in a great spot, good variety and good strength.
Gremory Shadow
A vortex of death and souls, all centered around a little girl. Her wicked grin dispelling any notion of innoence
A midrange deck built around Gremory and Necromancy. A strong deck with multiple ways of winning the game, either by Necroimpulse or simply building a board the opponent can't clear. Combined with lots of card draw and a decent amount of healing. The deck is quite potent.
Aggro Shadow
A shambling horde of the dead, their mortal coils motivated only by anger and hatred of the living.
An aggro deck built around very potent threats and Necroimpulse. A strong deck and one of the best Aggro decks in the meta, but is weak to certain control decks and so finds itself surpassed by Gremory Shadow. There has been some experimentation as of late with Winged Zombie for extra burst damage.
Reanimate Shadow
Death is not the end with this deck. it is only the beginning of eternal service for its undying master
A midrange deck built around reanimate and burial rites. Less popular than Gremory but with more control tools built into it, so while slower, it can deal with certain threats better.
Evolve Shadow
Something stirs in these corpses, a new form of unlife! Whatever twisted shreds of their souls remains, formed into something new and terrifying
A midrange deck built around Evolve Synergies. Something that's been brewed on for quite some time but now seems to be catching on. A bit slower in some ways but much heavier on board and can set up for some big bursts of its own.
Bloodcraft
In the great decadent manor of Bloodcraft, where every manner of sin can be found. We find Medusa and Vania grumbling about the lack of remakes and vengeance support. Also Volteo keeps conning Medusa out of her allowance, although Mono is always quick to get it back for Medusa.
For Bloodcraft Wrath Blood continues to rule from its throne of Opulence followed by Volteo Blood and Control Blood. Overall the class is in a decent spot but largely carried by Wrath Blood and really could do with some help to form other archetypes.
Wrath Blood
Pain and Strength are the same thing in the mind of this deck. The greater the pain, the greater the glory!
A midrange deck built around the Wrath mechanic. Continues to be a good deck that does fairly well, even in tournaments. Beyond that, no real changes this week.
Volteo Blood
Everything can be found in Volteo's magnificent Casino, even victory. Just be careful not to get bamboozled
A highlander deck built around Volteo. A fringe deck that continues to have a dedicated following. Fairly skill intensive, it is not for everyone.
Control Blood
A terrible demon propels this deck forward, promising death and sweet destruction, if only its requirements are met
A control deck built around Xeno Diablo. A fringe deck that does continue to see play, but not one i'd generally recommend.
Havencraft
In the mighty summit Temple, where the light shines eternal! We find Eris in her personal quarters, going through her investment Portfolio and really being upset that she didn't invest in Skullfanes in time. She could have made a killing.. All for the greater good of course and not at all for her retirement fund.
Ruling from the holiest of holies we find Sanctuary haven followed by Rally Haven, Control Haven and finally Ward Haven. Amulet and Summit also exist, but out of the 6, those are the weaker ones and so won't get a writeup this week.
Sanctuary Haven
An ancient sanctuary, providing its boons to those who seek to sooth and bring comfort so they will not have to fight, doing so in their stead
A control deck built around the Sanctuary. A strong control deck that continues to see good play as it performs well against Face Dragon. But does struggle against more board heavy decks as it doesn't have a lot of AoE.
Rally Haven
A holy army seeking to bring down those who would stand against the righteousness of Havencraft! Their numbers and their faith are their weapons
A midrange deck built around Rally and Goddess of the West Wind. A strong deck that can overwhelm a lot of slower decks and decks tha don't generate enough tempo. Goddess of the West Wind, Set and Noah being the core of the deck.
Control Haven
The righteous Judgement of one god shines burning light down on the enemies of the Divine as everything else is banished away
A control deck built around Ra and a lot of removal. A less played deck and more skill intensive. But in the right hands can perform well, but does see less play than both Sanctuary and Rally as it does end up lacking a more offensive gameplan.
Ward Haven
A host of Shielded warriors, these holy knights will stop at nothing to protect the weak and innocent!
A midrange deck built around wards. A solid deck but one that does rely a bit on highrolling and in the current meta does have issues with the top decks. Also Wilbert will be rotating out at the end of the expansion.
Portalcraft
In the Vertex Colony, high in orbit over a long dead world. Many of its passages unexplored and abandonded for centuries. Yet strangely, dust never accumulates. Today we find that Lishenna decided to show off and so assembled everyone for a great dance contest to determine who is the best dancer (obviously thinking she'd win it easily).. Turns out her dance skills are nothing compared to Yuwans. Apparently working for Nerva gives you some real smooth moves.
For Portalcraft Rally Portal continues rule from beyond the outer stars, followed by Evolve Portal and Artifact Portal. Portal continues to struggle a bit, lacking stronger plays for the class in general. Though still has some diversity at least.
Rally Portal
A shambling horde of puppets, mastered by some unknown puppeteer. What sinister purpose do they work towards ?
A midrange deck built around Rally and Destruction. A decent deck that continues to perform alright in capable hands. There is some light experimentation with the deck, but so far nothing solid.
Evolve Portal
Wonderous warriors, their movements refined beyond belief, their skills beyond peer. What sort of bargains must they have made to attain them ?
A control combo deck built around Evolve synergies. A decent yet skill intensive deck that mostly exists on the fringes of the meta.
Artifact Portal
Mysterious machines and artifacts, their origin unknown, their method of propulsion.. alien. What secrets do they hide ?
A midrange deck built around Artifacts. A fringe deck at the moment, lacking more payoffs for its artifacts currently. The deck being more skill intensive as well finds itself played by a small dedicated cadre.
So there you have it. Meta continues to very slowly evolve, with decks responding and changing. And we even see a new one here and there. A bit impressive for sure and certainly one suspects there might be a few surprises to go.
That said with an update coming soon we could see a balance update as well. Dragon, Shadow and Forest would be the likely candidates for a nerf. But there's also a chance we may just see some buffs instead, as Cygames does seem to prefer doing that if it can get away with it. That said, nothing may also happen. As there is a fair amount of deck diversity going about at the moment and no deck is showing really dangerous patterns from what i can tell. So we'll have to see tomorrow what is posted if anything is. Since Cygames does seem to be getting more cagey about things like that as of late.
But until next week, have fun playing Shadowverse!

Me and my friend are greek, we want to be able to spin the wheel and generally do stuff in the casino. Are there any side effects if we change our sc region to America for a short/long time?

Over the years I have thoroughly enjoyed throwing together playlists for different occasions (making coffee, working out, weddings, seasons, etc.) and thought I'd share! Please let me know your thoughts, favourite mixes, as well as recommendations for future playlists. All feedback is welcome! Hope you enjoy them:
That Weekend Feeling
Skip to the good bit; weekend grooves to wave away any weekday blues.
Awesome Mix: Ultimate Edition (Mixtape)
A great hero, named Kevin Bacon, once taught an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is. The legend of Footloose comes alive with Awesome Mix: Ultimate Edition - Songs from and inspired by the Guardians of the Galaxy series.
Morning Motivation: Steal Some Sunshine
Soak up the sun with energetic jams and breezy classics!
I'd Drink To That: Party Playlist
Mix it up with a party playlist to keep the night buzzing.
I'd Sing To That: Carpool Karaoke
Pack up and take those pipes on a roadtrip! The catchy. The memorable.
Just Jams 🎧
Nothing but jams to fill a pair of headphones or stadium.
Brendan's Listen Local
Funky & Thumpy! Some of my favourite energetic jams, classics, and BBQ party starters from our local Australian & New Zealand artists.
Friday Fire
It's Friday! Friends. Family. Fun.
Groovin' The Brew
Nothing but rockin' party grooves on tap.
Diverse Pop Sounds
It's pop, but not as you know it.
Break Thru
Ear Candy.
Sunday Sesh
Beers & bangers on a weekend!
Run To Paradise
Set up goals, and knock them down with an energetic running playlist.
Summer Daze
The heat is on with a playlist of crisp summer tunes.
Autumn Mix: Volume 1
A breezy & brilliant playlist for the ever-changing Autumn seasons.
Chilled Pop
Soft, chilled winter pop songs.
Warm Tunes
Warm songs of Spring, like a comforting embrace.
A Mid-Summer Night's Drink 🍻
Lord, what fun these mortals be!
Wind Down 🌚
When the night winds down, so does some great music.
90's Baby! 📼
It is the sound of the roller disco, BMX bike track and arcade!
The Hip Hip Hop
Only the hippest of the hip. My modern and classic hip hop favourites.
Indie Bops: It's ALT Good
Get your alternative bounce on.
Not Your Final Form: A Workout Playlist
All the other licks with the pumped up kicks to keep you going during a workout. My favourites and a few other choice tunes for pushing harder, faster, stronger.
Easy On The Ears
Easy, Easy, Easybeats.
Life Is Good ☀️
Today is gonna be a good day.
Dial M For Music
Deep, cathartic music.
JOY
Smile.
Vibe Hard
Get into the zone, and vibe-out to infectious tunes!
Rock & Roll Never Dies
Who says rock & roll is dead? Commercial radio? It's always been around; you've just got to roll with it and look harder. Get your kicks!
Brainfood
Introspective acoustic, calming strings, uplifting anthems, and a touch of nature. Food for the brain, and perfect background noise for studies.
Game Night 🎲
For every occasion... casino, tabletop, videogames; a soundtrack to a brilliant game night!
Sizzlers: BBQ Playlist 🍔
Fire up the burner and the anthems with a barbeque playlist hotter than the bright ball in the sky.
Kickstart My Heart: Classic Rock Radio
Rocking all over the world.
Rush Hour
Grinding Gears.
Riff Raff: Party Rock
Some rowdy rock to turn up the night.
RE : FRESH 🍹
SUPERDOPE. Piña colada's and Caribbean Rum.
The Driver
There's a voice in my head that drives my heel.
Country Road
Might as well cruise. Might as well banjo.
Born to be Wild
Life's an adventure; you can't be tamed.
Night Moves: Dancing In The Moonlight
Unwind with the moonbeams. Night drives & night lives.
Funk Right Off
Get Funk'd.
Rambling Roses 💐
Beauty and Love are as body and soul. Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.
Sweat. Reset.
Whatever it takes. 'Cause you love the adrenaline in your veins.
Power Pop: Marathon
Power pop to push and electrify a workout.
Cool Beans: Coffee Playlist
Recharge with some warm tunes.
Kitchen Crooners 🎀
Now we're cooking!
Now We're Cooking!
Tasty tunes for the Kitchen.
Pool Party
Dive in to great poolside swing.
Inspiration 💡 Takes Flight
Reach for the Sky!
Going Places
Always push forward.
First 💍
Songs for special days.
DisNeat - Taking The Mickey
Nothing but Disney favourites.
Road Trip: Spinning Wheels
Hear the call for adventure and hit the road.
Guilty Pleasures 🍨
You like the Grease soundtrack? Word.
Catchy AF POP
Pop that bops. Essentials and the catchiest of the catchy.
Acoustica
Stripped Back.
Playlist + Chill
Cool off with some chilled beats and sweet acoustic.
Making Waves
Unwind with breathy, breezy songs perfect for a walk on the beach.
The Playlist Of The Decade (New Years Eve)
We welcomed 2020 with the ultimate party playlist jam-packed with familiar throwbacks and modern favourites from the 2010's! Good times!
Rhythm Heaven
Step up and dance.
Sax on the Beach 🎷
Gratuitous? Nah! An instrument to elevate a song from good to great!
BedroX 🔥
Sparks.
Pump It Up: The Playlist of Champions 🏆
Winner winner, chicken dinner.
Retro Rewind
Twist & shout to killer Jukebox Classics.
Classic Se7ens
Nothing but 70's favourites.
Great Eight's
Nothing but 80's Favourites.
Noughty & Nice
Nothing but great 00's Throwbacks.
The Best Playlist Never Heard
It's unheard of!
Best Songs You Might Have Missed
Potentially slipped under the radar.
Songs for Soundtracks 🎬
Royale with cheese.
The Grand European Playlist
About to take off!
EPIC 🗡
Fortune & Glory!
SUPERHOT VR : ROCK
The champ is coming.
SUPERHOT VR : HIP-HOP
Kings never die.
SUPERHOT VR : ACTION
John Wick Schtick.
Cowboy Bebop : Spike Spiegel
Spike Spiegel is an ex-Syndicate goon and a bounty hunter aboard the Bebop. He is proficient in martial arts, zipcraft flying, and gunfights, but he also has comical and aloof sides of his personality. If there's three things he can't stand, it's kids, pets, and women with attitudes.
Cowboy Bebop : Faye Valentine
Faye Valentine is a coma survivor of over 50 years and she is trying to regain her memory. She got into a lot of debt upon entering this futuristic world, and she had to resort to a life of crime and hustling to survive... that is, until she decided to live on the Bebop and become a bounty hunter.
Cowboy Bebop : Jet Black
Jet Black is an ex-ISSP Special Forces Officer and the Captain of the Bebop. He is a bounty hunter and is called the "Black Dog" because once he sinks his teeth in he never lets go. Jet enjoys American Jazz music, taking care of Bonsai trees, and has a knack for investigative work.
Cowboy Bebop : Radical Edward
Edward is a net diver from Earth. Edward is a child prodigy for hacking and has an aptitude for anything mechanical, even though Edward has some eccentricities in other parts of her personality. For instance, Edward speaks in third person and sometimes behaves like a wild animal.
At The Movies 🎟
Lights, camera, playlist.
James Bond Classics 🍸
A martini, shaken, not stirred.
The Word Is Bond 🍸
The world is not enough; but this playlist comes pretty close.
Live Love LIVE
Blistering live performances.
Future Nostalgia
Neo-swing, retro swagger; it's future nostalgia.
B-Side Yourself
Hidden Gems, Deep Cuts & Rarities.
Punk'd
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid.
Building Houses: Hit By Hit
Baby let's play house.
Far ALT
A playlist rocking that weird shit.
Stay Home: The Safety Dance
Stay safe out there.
Day Tripper
A playlist for a long drive - a day trip.
In Tents
Music For Camping.
Roots
Bluesy classics to strut to.
All That Jazz
Get jazzy on it.
Focus Features
Take a breather.
Australiana
Paradise.
Drive Time
Coast to coast. Songs for a spin.
Stone Cold Classicals
It's classically classic.
Hall of Fame 💎
Songs for the career climbers and L.A. dreamers. Glitz & glam; all that jazz.
This is Halloween
Everybody Scream!
It's Beginning to Sound A Lot Like Christmas!
Christmas Classics.
Just For Laughs 🎭
What a Joker!
Two Nights In Tao🎙
Karaoke? There's a first time for everything.
GAME
Take control.
Game On : Borderlands Psycho-delic
CHOO CHOO THE PAIN TRAIN'S COMIN'
Red Dead Redemption II
Songs For Bloody Duels, Whiskey-Fueled Gambles, and Rolling Desert Plains.
Energy Shot
Keep animated with an energetic dose of catchy music!
Party Fillers
A background mix for any event.
The Essential AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Although their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, the band themselves call it simply "rock and roll"
The Essential One Republic
OneRepublic is an American pop rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002. It consists of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder, guitarist Zach Filkins, guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellist Brent Kutzle, drummer Eddie Fisher and keyboardist Brian Willett.
The Essential Shinedown
Shinedown is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, formed by singer Brent Smith in 2001. Shinedown has sold more than ten million records worldwide, and has had the most number one singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts out of any band, with 16.
The Essential Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa is an English singer and songwriter. After working as a model, she signed with Warner Music Group in 2015 and released her self-titled debut album in 2017. The success of the singles helped her self-titled album become one of the most-streamed albums on Spotify.
The Essential Preatures
The Preatures are an Australian band from Sydney. The band was formed in 2010 and features Isabella 'Izzi' Manfredi on vocals/keyboards, Jack Moffitt (guitar), Thomas Champion (bass) and Luke Davison (drums). The band won the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition with their song Is This How You Feel.
The Essential Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Morton and multi-instrumentalist Sam Farrar.
The Essential INXS
INXS were an Australian rock band, formed in 1977 in Sydney. INXS was fronted by Hutchence, whose magnetic stage presence made him the focal point of the band. Initially known for their new wave/pop style, the band later developed a harder pub rock style that included funk and dance elements.
The Essential Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The group, whose best-known line-up comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, are regarded as the most influential band of all time. The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time.
The Essential Volbeat
Volbeat are a Danish rock band formed in Copenhagen in 2001. They play a fusion of rock and roll, heavy metal and rockabilly. Their current line-up consists of vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen, guitarist Rob Caggiano, drummer Jon Larsen and bassist Kaspar Boye Larsen.
The Essential Chromeo
Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk. As of 2018, the band has released five studio albums.
The Essential Queen
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals) and John Deacon (bass). With estimated record sales ranging from 170 million to 300 million, they are one of the biggest.
The Essential Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century.
The Essential Brian Setzer
Brian Robert Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
The Essential Florida Georgia Line
Florida Georgia Line are an American country music duo consisting of vocalists Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley. Their 2012 debut single "Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was downloaded over seven million times, making it the first country song ever to receive the Diamond certification.
The Essential KISS
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley. Well known for its members' face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1970s with its elaborate live performances.
The Essential Sheppard
Sheppard is an Australian indie pop band from Brisbane, formed in 2009. At the 2014 ARIA's ceremony, they were nominated for Album of the Year, Best Group, Best Independent Release, Best Pop Release, Song of the Year, Producer of the Year, and Best Video.
The Essential Matchbox 20
Matchbox Twenty is an American rock band, formed in Orlando, Florida, in 1995. The group currently consists of Rob Thomas (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Brian Yale (bass guitar), Paul Doucette (drums, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Kyle Cook (lead guitar, vocals).
The Essential Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band that were formed in London in 1996 consisting of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion. Coldplay have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling.
The Essential Daughtry
Daughtry is an American rock band formed and fronted by namesake Chris Daughtry, who was a finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. Their self-titled debut album was released in November 2006 and reached number one on the Billboard 200. To date, Daughtry has sold over 9 million albums.
The Essential Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group, consisting of rappers will.i.am*, apl.de.ap, Taboo, J. Rey Soul and singer Fergie. Originally an alternative hip hop group, they subsequently refashioned themselves as a more marketable pop-rap act and have become best-selling artists.*

Update 1.01
The Kiddions mod has made GTA 1,000 times better. No more grinding away, only to lose it by some stupid mistake.
I just started moding, but I've done some research into how to make it reasonably safe, and as way to give back to the community, I created this list of Do's and Don'ts so maybe there will be less "is this mod safe" posts. Maybe the sub moderators will sticky this or make an FAQ.
Banning and ban waves - I did some research and I see back in August a lot of people got banned. At the time, there was some kind of casino glitch, so maybe R* was looking at players with high bank accounts that they mostly received from the casino.
From what I have read, people get a temporary ban the first time, and a permanent ban the 2nd. So it's not the end of the world. If I was banned once, I would still use the mod. I would just not use anything that shows most of my money coming from the casino. I'm not saying don't use the casino rig, just don't use it after your first ban.
I would make sure that you change your Social Club settings to only be viewable by yourself, or maybe just your close friends.
I wonder if R* banned someone with their SC settings set to private, would open them to being sued in the real world?
So if you get banned, claim ignorance. Claim some modder put that money into your account and you didn't want it. Maybe they will take pitty on you? At least post on this sub what you were doing and why R* banned you. Give us much detail as possible.
Do not mod from December 8th - December 22nd because of the update and the possibility of a ban wave during that time. Some people even recommend waiting a month after the update.
I'm not going to do the casino rig on holidays or weekends because I think there are more people on the servers. This might be overly paranoid.
I welcome suggestions and constructive criticism!
Do be careful about using the casino rig. Either empty the lobby (last option on the online menu), or at least make sure no one else is in the casino when you hit the jack pot.
Do not brag in the game online about moding. Don't even mention it, or the vast amount of money that you've gotten through it. Loose lips sink ships.
Do not be a jerk to other players so they report you.
Do not give money drops to people you don't know and don't go crazy with it, because the person that you give money to could get banned.
Do not raise your RP level really high, or make it something stupid like 666. Maybe someone could post a comment below about "safe" RP levels.
Do not use godmode - I would think it would get you notice. I don't use it anyway.
Do be careful about what you buy. The yachts come to mind. Once you request yours, other players can see it, and they might get curious. Having an extremely popular night club also comes to mind. Showing off lots and lots of expensive cars. Even the Oppressor could be problematic, but since R* just gave 1 mil away, and maybe they are on Black Friday special, they might become very common. The update is supposed to come with a bunch of new weapons, and I think you can buy a sub. Not sure how those will look. Just be careful. Fly under the radar!
Do not teleport, but if you do, use ghost mode so no one knows you're going all over the map.
Do not grief. So I wouldn't do this anyway, so this is easy for me to say. But I think griefing pisses people off, so after destroy what they took hours to build, they might want to come after you. Filing a report is one of the steps that they could take. And that could put you on R* radar.
Do set your Social Club privacy settings so that only you can see what you have and where you got it.
Do set your payout for the Bunker method to below 2.5 million it won't work.
So this was update 1.01. As always, I welcome suggestions and comments. Please post below.

Hello everyone,
​
Today I would like to share a little project I took up recently - making a pure MF character. I ended up creating barbarian who at lvl 86 has 1258 Magic Find (https://imgshare.io/images/2020/12/08/mf-barb.png). Below I'll briefly describe the build and answer the question - Is it worth it??
TL;DR: I made 1250 MF barb to run pits only. After 150 runs I've found Mang Song's Lesson and some other nice items but I am still not sure if this is worth it.
So the general idea was to create highest possible MF character and check how he does in terms of finding items compared to other characters with medicore MF. I choose barb because of his hork ability which adds unique value to every run. Also, warcries and the huge HP pool allows you to completely ignore the resistances (I haven't even done any Anya quests). Warcries also buff your merc, who does all the job adding some MF to the party.

1. Skill tree build

You max your Battle Orders, Battle Comands and put enough points into hork so that it has 50+ chance. It should be around lvl 20-something with +skills included. Investing more skills into hork is not efficent because it has 52% of success on lvl 21 and 60% success on lvl 60. I also put enough points to have Battle Cry at lvl 20 (with +skills) which has -25% phys resistance. This helps a bit with clear speed and travincal immunities. Other than that you put some points in Natural Resistances and Increase Speed. Honestly it is totally up to you how you distribute those points. Having natural resistances lvl 10 (with +skills) gives me +56 reistances and results in around -8 fr, cr, lr. It is not much but makes you tanky enough to tp in those packs and not die instantly. I prefered to put the rest in Increased speed as you run around very much.

1. Item build

• 40% mf IK helm socketed with 2 topazes
• 32 mf, 17 all resist amulet
• 2x ali baba with 2x ists each
• Perfect skullder's with ptopaz
• 32 chance guards
• 39 goldwrap
• 48 wartravs
• perfect (both ar and mf) nagel
• 35 mf nagel
• Spellsteel on switch
• Torch, 2 self found warcries skillers and a lot of 7xmf SCs

Merc: Full IK set with 6x ISTed maul, ptopaz armor and 2x ptopaz helm
As you can see there is some room for improvement and all in all you should be able to reach as much as ~1500 MF. But as you can see on this chart (https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/images/9/97/Magic-find-diminishing-returns.jpg) there is very little difference between 1000, 1250 and 1500 MF regarding Unique drops.
​

1. Gameplay

So you merc is a killer and you are his bit**. Use spellsteel's blink to get to tamoe highland and walk to pits. Blink into elite and champion packs, change to ali babas and let your merc swing his sword 3 times. Then hork, gather loot and move on.
I focused only on elite and champion packs since they can drop highest level items. Please note that your merc does the finishing blows so his MF is added to yours.
Between the pit runs I ocasionally did some travincal runs but I must say this build is not optimal for this. While in pits most monsters have cold immune, the travincal ones very often explode due to IK's cold damage. The clear is pretty fast - around 1:30 with horks but I think its not worth it due to not all bodies being possible to hork.

1. 150 pit runs results

So with this setup your runs (from the moment you enter the game, to the moment you close the game) take from 2:30 up to 4:00 minutes depending on the map. Avarage speed is 3 minutes - this includes repairing your Spellsteel at charsi (once very run), clearing, horking, opening the chest in lvl 2. Below you can find my drops. In the list I included runes above pul and items notified by Kryszard's loot filter. Other than that I've found couple of trangs/gris armors, IK/tal rasha set pieces, whole mavina's set, a bunch of useless uniques, WSS shards and a lots of gold.

Run 5 - Medusa Gaze 2 cold skill 39 FCR Run 20 - !!!!!! ETH Cranium basher 265 ED !!!!!! Run 26 - Rainbow facet 4/4 poison run 40 - mal rune run 53 - pul rune run 63 - pul rune run 67 - halaberd's reign run 75 - unique ring - nagel run 81 - occulus run 83 - !!!!!! mang song's !!!!!! run 85 - medusa gaze 1 skill run 90 - !!!!!! 39 life shape shift skiller !!!!!! run 95 - another trangs armor... this time gave it a try and rolled 3 soc with corrupt! run 124 - gerke's sanctuary 30 res run 126 - pul rune run 128 - kira's guardian 9/10/9 run 147 - stormshield run 148 - string of ears 

As you can see, the results are pretty good but not astonishing. I found my first Mang song's, a huge value of ETH Cranium Basher and a GG shape shift skiller. Other than that there were a lot of empty runs. The thing is we should compare the 150 runs of this build vs 150 runs of another build. I believe this would, on avarage, have better results. But on the other hand, well equipped singer or sorc can do the runs in half of this time probably. But then again, they wont have so much MF. So I guess time/loot wise it all evens at the end of the day. Well equiped sorc does lets say 300 runs in that time and I believe with 200-300 mf she can find just as good items.
What I am salty about is the lack of HRs. Of course, MF does not affect the runes drop but this is the most unlucky season in terms of HR drops for me ever. I have a 91 lvl sorc and this 86 lvl barb, done houndrets of Chaos, pits, AT, baal, you name it. And my only HR (I consider runes vex and above as HRs) drop was a Cham rune. Just sick sick RNG.
​

1. Conclusion

Is it worth to make 1200+ mf barb? - Well... Not sure. This could be also called the casino barb since every monster pack and every hork gives you that rush since with this much MF the possibility of a GG drop is relatively high. And this is fun part. Other than that the build is a bit dull to play. I created this more for fun and a reasearch itself than making a tons of HRs on it.

hi, i'm on Switch and have finally completed RO2 in the Rimac DS. I have about 390,000SC left with a 1* Rimac locked.
should i use the SC to unlock GR-1 and star-up the Furai, or bet 4 x 10packs (320K SC) on Rimac packs to get a jackpot?
are Furai and Shelby going to be readily available in future? will they be needed for any SE/unleashed events?
i understand the chance of getting a Rimac jackpot is extremely low, but if Furai/GR-1 will be for sale in legend store or will have car hunts (e.g. 100% guaranteed availability), and there's no rush to get them (e.g. no immediate car-wall), i might as well take a punt since we're playing a casino game.

{2020-10-29 22:00 (UTC) }
---
​
Players: 3-5
​
Duration: 6 Hours
​
Communication: Roll20 and Discord
​
In-Game Location: Depends ​
Game Theme: Depends
​
Music: Clams Casino - I'm God (feat MC Ride)
​
Style Guide
​
Threat Levels
​
Meat: High
​
Magic: High
​
Matrix: High
​
Overall: High
---
​
Description:
CONNECTING TO RUNNERHUB CONSULTING…
​
PLEASE ENTER YOUR EMPLOYEE LOGIN...
>>>LOGIN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
>>>ENTER PASSCODE: XXXXXXXXXXXX
...IDENTITY SPOOFED
...ENCRYPTION KEYS GENERATED
...CONNECTED TO ONION ROUTERS
​
... BIOMETRIC SCAN CONFIRMED
WELCOME TO THE HUB. DON'T DIE ON US NOW
---
Current Time: 2082-10-26 18:24:23 PST
---
USER STATISTICS
There are 67 Active Users.
There have been 55 Posts in the last Hour.
Site Traffic is up 143%
---
>>>Connect to Job Server? (Y/N)
>>> Y
>>> CONNECTING...
...CONNECTED TO JOB SERVERS
...CREDENTIALS VERIFIED
...YOU HAVE 3 JOB LISTING(S)
>>> Open Job 3 (Y/N)
>>> Y
>>> Opening...
// Job Post
// Fixer Username: Turkish_Jerkey // Payment Status: Pending
Hey there champ, I need a thing, as an acquirer of things, I'd like to hire you to get this thing I want. Let's talk.
​
Mr. Johnson
Accept Job: Y/N?
​
**Y**
​
Required Information: Role, pdf, if you've had a run in the last two weeks, and if you've had less than 5 runs
Additional Required information: Take as long or as short as you like, please describe why both mechanically and thematically your character is interesting.
​
​
Picks will come out an hour beforehand, feel free to PM me questions, they are always open, or ping me in the rolling thread
The way you get picked is by being friendly, non aggressive, having a fun interesting character, and not being an obvious GMP cheater.

{2020-10-28 22:00 (UTC) }
---
​
Players: 3-5
​
Duration: 6 Hours
​
Communication: Roll20 and Discord
​
In-Game Location: Depends ​
Game Theme: Depends
​
Music: Clams Casino - I'm God (feat MC Ride)
​
Style Guide
​
Threat Levels
​
Meat: High
​
Magic: High
​
Matrix: High
​
Overall: High
---
​
Description:
CONNECTING TO RUNNERHUB CONSULTING…
​
PLEASE ENTER YOUR EMPLOYEE LOGIN...
>>>LOGIN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
>>>ENTER PASSCODE: XXXXXXXXXXXX
...IDENTITY SPOOFED
...ENCRYPTION KEYS GENERATED
...CONNECTED TO ONION ROUTERS
​
... BIOMETRIC SCAN CONFIRMED
WELCOME TO THE HUB. DON'T DIE ON US NOW
---
Current Time: 2082-10-26 18:24:23 PST
---
USER STATISTICS
There are 67 Active Users.
There have been 55 Posts in the last Hour.
Site Traffic is up 143%
---
>>>Connect to Job Server? (Y/N)
>>> Y
>>> CONNECTING...
...CONNECTED TO JOB SERVERS
...CREDENTIALS VERIFIED
...YOU HAVE 3 JOB LISTING(S)
>>> Open Job 3 (Y/N)
>>> Y
>>> Opening...
// Job Post
// Fixer Username: Turkish_Jerkey // Payment Status: Pending
Hey there champ, I need a thing, as an acquirer of things, I'd like to hire you to get this thing I want. Let's talk.
​
Mr. Johnson
Accept Job: Y/N?
​
**Y**
​
Required Information: Role, pdf, if you've had a run in the last two weeks, and if you've had less than 5 runs
Additional Required information: Take as long or as short as you like, please describe why both mechanically and thematically your character is interesting.
​
​
Picks will come out an hour beforehand, feel free to PM me questions, they are always open, or ping me in the rolling thread
The way you get picked is by being friendly, non aggressive, having a fun interesting character, and not being an obvious GMP cheater.

With Cold Steel III fresh in my head 12 hours after beating it, I wanted to jot down some things that stood out about the game beyond the good stuff that most people agree on--i.e. the stellar gameplay, voice acting, scope of each chapter compared to predecessor games, music tracks and the way plot threads from earlier in the series are further developed and expanded on. Here's my list:

What Stood Out

• Patrick apologizing to Gaius for the racist comment he made all the way back in Cold Steel. I liked his development from an insufferable teenager to someone who's more humble and, like a lot of people, embarrassed of the way they were in high school.
• Toval's new nickname: Zero Artisan Randonneur. I remember seeing screenshots on this subreddit a few weeks ago of that scene from the top of the Pantagruel in Cold Steel II where the villains are listing off the titles of their opponents: "look, it's The Radiant Blademaster, Sylphid, Purple Lightning... and the guy who's good with Arts!" It would've been funny if they kept that up here. Despite his title, I don't really ascribe a lot of hype of Toval in my head despite what the game wants me to believe. I think it's his chill personality: it's not anime-chill like McBurn lounging on a couch in the Pantagruel while aloofly answering Rean's questions in Cold Steel II, but the kind of chill that seems relatable.
• The Courageous getting blown up. The Courageous flies in, everyone on the battlefield is rejoicing that the cavalry has arrived, and within minutes of arriving it's blown up--the whole thing made me laugh because of how pointless the intervention was. And then Alfin faints for the second time in 24 hours. In addition, the villain's side has enough powerhouses that I don't think Toval would really turn the tide, but that's my anti-Toval bias showing.
• Rean and the rest of the original Class VII finally having a decent showing against the power players. We don't have any "Bleublanc's mask shattering" moments like in Trails SC, but I enjoyed watching strong villains recognize Class VII as threats before or after various battles in the story. I was one of the people who was annoyed by all the victories in the Infernal Castle in Cold Steel II being undercut by Class VII having to be bailed out, so this was a nice change of pace.
• Four vs. four battles. I know storyline-wise, this was actually 7+ people vs. 4 in the few instances I saw this happen, (battle vs. Arianrhod and Stahlritter, battle vs. Intelligence Division, battle vs... misfits from the evil group), but damn I've been waiting since Trails the 3rd for the strong people to actually fight as a party instead of summoning some robots to help out or fighting a large group in pairs. Falcom, please make more of this, and make them all as hard as they would be if fought individually.
• Lechter winning big at the casino in Zero was explained, and the explanation surprised me. I didn't think too deeply into this at the time, especially because Lechter came off as a real anime-cool character, and these types usually have good luck. To have this explained as a form of precognition was a little surprising. I still don't think Lechter is particularly well done as a character but good job Falcom.
• NISA's resolution to the Tio English voice-actor problem. The problem itself is one that I'm sure those of us who played through the series in JP release order anticipated. Altina, who superficially resembles Tio personality, appearance and character-wise, had an English VA in Cold Steel II who sounded a lot like what we thought Tio would sound like when rendered in English. That led to the irl version of the in-universe "Crossbell Problem" - how were they going to voice Tio in this game? I'm pleased to say that although Tio's voice sounds a little nasally/breathey, it kinda sounded like what I'd expect her voice to sound given that an Altina soundalike was off-limits. I could not have done a better job, so great work NISA casting director.

Petty Complaints

Most of these are specific to Cold Steel III but can be applied to the rest of the series as well if I had more time to think about it.

• Women spend a lot of time extolling, fawning over, or staking their claim on Rean. I first noticed this in Chapter 2, when a lot of the opening scenes, taking place in different parts of the Empire, involve different women talking about how they miss Rean, how attractive he is, etc. I thought Aurelia Le Guin would be immune to this, but then there's a scene later in the game where she interrupts a group of girls talking about Rean in the bath and advises them on how to win his heart. This is way too much wish fulfillment and crosses into ridiculous and corny territory.
• Women are just not super well-done. I was playing through Chapter 3 with my roommate watching and doing his own thing and we were laughing at the baseline anime nonsense in the game: cleavage, short skirts, exaggerated sighs when resting at an inn/taking a shower, 95% of Musse's dialogue, etc. Then Sara recounts her sad backstory which we've seen or heard some variation of in other work (and probably earlier in the Trails series) and has her boobs out the whole time. Then this heavy conversation is punctuated by her kissing Rean and saying she's coming around the idea of being involved with younger men. What. Then, a few minutes later, Claire recounters her also sad-but-familiar backstory and the conversation ends with "'you remind me of my brother....' (kisses Rean on the cheek.) '... but after tonight, I won’t think of you as my brother anymore.'" Come ON. Late in the Chapter, Arianrhod takes off her helmet and among the first reactions from the crowd of onlookers is "she's beautiful," which I noticed comes up a lot when important women are introduced, including Alicia earlier in the game--there's always some comment about their attractiveness or physical appearance? Why? McBurn is objectively an attractive dude but no one comments on how hot he is unless it's in the context of the mesothelioma they contracted from him.
• The "haha, wink-wink, nudge-nudge" of pairing older men with younger women/girls. Tita is like what, 16? And Agate is in his mid-to-late 20s in Cold Steel III and it's been clear since Trails SC/the Third that they're being set up romantically. And then depending on the choices you make, Lloyd and Tita's bonding event basically ends with "when you're older, then maybe..." And now they're pushing Jusis and Millium. Ew.
• Lack of agency in individual games. This has been covered over and over in the context of Cold Steel discussions, especially the way you don't really get a clean victory over any big bad in Cold Steel II without it being undermined in some way, and especially the way that most Enforcer battles end with a "haha, this was planned from the start anyway." I won't retread that stuff much, except to say that when the final battles had Osborne and Alberich funneling the party into an arena with the dragon they needed dead to execute their plan, I knew Rean and co. were going to cause the end of the world. I know the game tries to get around this by saying "OK, let's restrain the dragon now" once the dragon is down and then Rean loses control of himself and kills the dragon anyway, but come on... why not swing your sword at that dick royal Cedric instead?? Cut off the dragon's arms and legs and let it contemplate its crimes. This really challenged my suspension of disbelief because I can say with some certainty that if I was overcome by an overwhelming demon power I'd target the dick royal over a dragon.
• Lack of agency in the world. In the context of the continent of Zemuria it really sucks when even the big things that you achieve, like the Liber Ark resolution, or the rescue of KeA from the Azure Tree, etc. get undercut at the end by stingers revealing that this was part of a larger chess game between world movers like the Grandmaster, Ein Selnate, Giliath Osborne, etc. and played out mostly as they intended. Come on, y'all do such a great job of worldbuilding somewhat familiar political structures and relationships between nations--why fall into the trap of ascribing the history of this world to the actions of a handful of "great" individuals? This somewhat relates to my next point:
• A lot of the horrible things that happened in the series stem from an evil curse, and not the follies of humankind. This undermined a lot of the backstory of the series and made me annoyed. False flag attacks like Hamel and a lot of the “evil” stuff ascribed to the curse of Erebonia happen in real life and have have rational causes. Like yeah two brothers fighting over a company, and one arranging to have the other offed in a car accident is not out of the realm of possible for humans in our world. That Osborne is following a plot laid out by the Black Records is equally ridiculous. The impression I had for most of the first two games is that he was a master of realpolitik and was pursuing the ends of realpolitik: amassing power for himself, and power for Erebonia, and projecting power as a deterrent for Calvard. But it all goes back to a plan that’s been written for centuries. Even Ash's assassination attempt couldn't just fall under bog-standard regicide that happened because he was pissed at the King for being aware of and participating in the cover up of the Hamel incident... there had to be some weird eye thing and evil fog coming over him. It cheapens some of the real politics/actions taken in the context of those politics when it all goes back to magical prophecies.
• "However, were it possible to reforge [the Great One's] scattered pieces into an even stronger being, I could use it to drown the world in conflict, the endless struggles leading humanity to even greater heights." For a series that lays out its themes explicitly in each game and then reiterates those themes over and over the theme that conflict makes humanity better had little to no explicit buildup that I can recall. I mean, I suppose the theme can be gleaned through the subtext of all the battles that are had just to get a better understanding of the opponent's motivations, like with Rean vs. Azure Siegfried, or self-improvement, like with Rean's training bouts vs. Aurelia.. but Trails isn't a series that has people infer, it puts its themes front and center... so I don't know.
• (cont'd from previous) did Osborne's allies know this was his goal? Like, Claire would go along with this crazy-ass goal because of the debt she feels she owes, but why would Millium go along with miring the world in endless conflict? Was it just me or did Lechter look surprised after Osborne revealed this at the end? Clearly Ouroboros sans Stahlritter grunts and most of the other Divine Knight pilots knew this was the goal, but I'm scratching my head at the more "gray" of the bad guys going along with this.
• Parts of the structures of these games borrow a lot from earlier games. As soon as I got on the Pantagruel in Cold Steel II I thought of the abduction to the Glorious in Trails SC, and there wasn't a lot done differently here--including the confrontation between the heavy hitters of both groups on the deck--that made me think this was a decent setpiece. Cold Steel III borrows from Trails SC with each region involving Enforcer(s) from Ouroboros enacting some evil scheme involving the region. And who can forget scaling a tower and fighting a lieutenant or lieutenants of the big bad at various checkpoints? It showed up in SC, Azure, Cold Steel II and now Cold Steel III. This game continued a new tradition established in Cold Steel II: the fake final dungeon. It's a dungeon that feels a lot like the final dungeon and has an epic battle against a final boss-like opponent, but oops that wasn't actually the final dungeon. I guess I don't mind it too much but it's funny to see how much is reused between games. Last thing I'll say about this is that Dudley from Zero/Azure is totally Michael from Cold Steel III.
• War criminals get way too many passes. From Colonel Richard being allowed to open his own intelligence agency after his first one led to a coup, to Arios playing house with Lloyd, Kea and Shizuku after what he did to Crossbell, to Jusis's dad somehow not being executed for everything he did, to Vita staying in the well-wishes of all of Class VII after spending weeks taunting them, generally being a dick, and embroiling Heimdallr in magical shenanigans that almost destroyed the city, Crow being beloved by all of Class VII... this series loves rehabilitating its war criminals. Now Mariabell is still at large but I love how the Azure had to give her a glimmer of potential future redemption by her revealing that she deliberately wounded Grimwood in such a way that he could be saved, and "don't be too pissed at my dad, he's not too bad of a guy" before teleporting out.
• Doctors, especially the mild-mannered kind, are shady individuals. So the "amoral scientist" embodied by G. Schmidt and F. Novartis is a well-worn cliché in fiction, but the series features so many mild-mannered researchers/doctors who end up being evil. There's Professor Alba from Trails FC, Dr. Guenter from Zero, and now Professor Lughman from Cold Steel III--shout out to G from Cold Steel, who was the most "gray" of all of the unintimidating professors who end up becoming villains so far. In the case of Guenter, Estelle and Joshua make a point of reiterating how much of a budget version of Weissman he is, which--while true--is a weird way to undercut the magnitude of the SSS's achievement in stopping him. Like, yay... I beat a lamer version of an earlier villain and even the game is rubbing that in. How many times will Falcom draw from the evil professor well?
• The existence of monarchs and royalty isn't really questioned. The closest we get to this is the concept of the nobility being interrogated in the Cold Steel games, but the interrogation never goes a step further to question why the institution of the royal family who established and presided over all of these nobles shouldn't be abolished entirely, especially given how passive Eugent is to Osborne. Even back in Trails FC, Duke Dunan provided the greatest argument for abolishing the monarchy but no, he gets rehabilitated by the time of Trails SC and people continue to love their monarchs without question. At least Ash attempts regicide, but it's only because Eugent isn't even sure Osborne is still mortal, lol.

Baseless Gripes

These are basically things I hope don't happen in the next game or later in the series:

• What if... Osborne... good? I am going to be super annoyed if Cold Steel IV reveals that this guy had good intentions all along and gives him a redemption moment. I'm already pre-emptively annoyed because given the games' track record, I can see this happening. What would make such a turn funny is that the dude has a clearly villainous voice--a bombastic voice that doesn't really change whether he's giving a speech, having a private one on one conversation, or talking into the speaker at the Morges' drive-thru, and always sounds like it's concealing some hidden agenda. He's clearly a villain. And yet the voice director for the English version had him put on this same bombastic voice in those flashbacks when he was praying to Aidios to let his son live. I did not take this seriously and now I'm imagining him putting on this same voice while trying to convey regret and kindness in a potential future "I was a good guy all along" reveal.
• Ok ok..... WHAT IF.... OUROBOROS GOOD??? I am going to be even more annoyed if future games in this series reveal that Ouroboros was operating for the greater good the whole time. Like he's a B.S. example I made up: Ouroboros saw that dragon veins were being drained far to the east due to Zemurian nations over-mining and over-processing sepith--the life energy of the planet--for orbments, and they wanted to stop the ecological catastrophe that currently threatens to consume the world if this goes unchecked (see: mass immigration to Calvard to escape barren land.) Ouroboros' goal is to gather the original Sept-Terrions to recalibrate the dragon veins--that means they were the good guys all along. What this doesn't explain is why the individual Enforcers and Anguis acted like aggressive, belligerent, evil dicks to the people who clearly had their hearts in the right place by protecting the cities, villages etc. being caught in the crosshairs of their plan. I know the game explains some dickish behavior by saying Enforcers are chosen because of darkness in their hearts, but I'm also thinking of Vita taunting and being a dick to Class VII from the time of Osborne's assassination through their adventures in the a spirit shrines, only for them to really be worried about where she is a week later after the final battle. At least most of the Anguis agreed that Weissman was a bigger dick than any of them. But yeah I hate that trope of "even though we acted evil and antagonistically, and we did nothing to endear ourselves while we taunted you and wasted your time with our games and tests, we were the good guys all along, what a twist!!" and I will be annoyed if the series does this with Ouroboros.

Another season of Zohnster Survivor in the air and we travel to Australia where we will follow the battle for survival and the achievement of 1 million dollars.

MEET THE CAST:

Kucha Tribe
Inez Sabrillo, 22, swimsuit model (made by u/swoldow)
Inez was born in San Diego with the blessing and the curse of being an early bloomer, who was known in high school for having the perfect body. This led her to be sought after by numerous guys, all of which she turned down because they solely liked her due to looks. Despite having a job where she sexualizes herself daily, she wants to use survivor to find the one guy who likes her for more than her body, and settle down with him as a happy couple. She will be loyal to anyone, until they turn on her, and an angry, meaner Inez takes her place.
Shawn "The Syncopation" Voldoski, 23, drummer (made by u/swoldow)
The Syncopation is a behemoth in the music industry, as his band Phantom Kage is critically acclaimed by teens of all ages due to the rebellious nature of the group. That rebellion came easy for him, as he was born and raised in poverty, his mother walked out on him at a young age, and he was left to live his vulnerable teenage years with an abusive, alcoholic bum of a father, who made sure his life would be miserable. Music was what saved his life, as he related to the pain expressed in punk and metal music, and learned to drum on the down-low, and snuck out to join a band in high school. He ran away from home at the age of 17 to live with his band's singer, whose father just so happened to own a record label. His band recorded their first EP, and The Syncopation's fame skyrocketed. Now in his early twenties, you could barely recognize the abused impoverished kid who started the group. Adopting his stage persona, 'The Syncopation' as a full identity, he has grown reckless and vile, and is addicted to fame like it's a drug. As a result, he has become a master at manipulation, using higher-ups in the music industry to turn his label into a multi-million dollar operation, blackmailing venues into giving him gigs, flirting with, cheating on, and manipulating many female songwriters and singers into doing his bidding, and now has many huge faces in the industry feeding from his hand. He plans to run the game the same way, and dominate the game no matter how many backs he has to stab.
Adrian Blair, 28, casino chain owner (made by u/UltDragon)
Owning a business is never easy and to make it in this world you have to stab a few backs. This is what Adrian was told about owning a business growing up. Adrian will use every advantage to win and should not be trusted. Adrian plans on donating the million as he has no use for it.
Darci Crossley, 41, radiologic technologist (made by u/Nahuelfire39)
Darci Crossley is a fairly competitive woman. She was born in a medium sized house in London, England. She only has her mother Betty Crossley, as her father abandoned her mother when he found out she was pregnant. When she was a teenager, she watched an Australian show called "It's A Knockout!" and has since become a fan of the show. Yellow is Darci's favorite color because of Queensland (QSD). Darci accepts challenges for fun, although she can be too competitive. Darci and his mother traveled to the United States for a life and for Darci to have a job, and he did, as a Radiologic Technologist.
Crustino Agelero, 31, carnival carney (made by u/Ripecornball60)
Rusty was born to a family known for there car sales. Rusty, being the black sheep of the family found out a better way to scam. Scamming children! When his school went to the local carnival, he scammed his fellow students out of there spending money, and used it on himself. Fascinated by the carnival, Rusty decided to scam someone out of a carney station, where he rigged the games to his favor. With people beginning to become suspicious of his actions, Rusty has come onto Survivor to gain more money.
Kade Briganski, 22, beachfrontstore clerk (made by u/chia923)
After being raised in an orphanage, Kade quickly became associated with a bad group of people. He eventually made a lot of bad decisions, one of which led to his tattoo. After a brief prison stay, he eventually turned his life around. He hopes that this experience can prove to the world that he is strong.
Fabia Oakland, 61, full time grandmother
Lover of her calm life and of her grandchildren who visit her every day, Fabia is a simple and happy person with life. It does not have strong physical aspects so it conquers with the cooking that it does.
​
Ogakor Tribe
Roseanna "Rosie" Steen, 21, diver (made by u/CapybaraWookiee)
Rosie has always loved the water. Born to parents who are the children of Guatemalan immigrants, she wants to make a name for herself. She is already a semi-pro diver, and her dream is to make the U.S Olympic diving team. Another one of her dreams? Competing on Survivor, and winning the money, as she is a superfan of the show.
Jasper Bishop, 28, economist (made by u/CapybaraWookiee)
Jasper is good with numbers. That is why he decided to become an economist so that he can work with numbers, and do what he is good at. He always puts 110% into everything he does. That is why he thinks he will be good at the game because he doesn’t quit easily, no matter the circumstances.
Griffyn Wright, 20, fast food cook (made by u/chia923)
After failing his college entrance exams, Griffyn went into a low-paying job to earn what he could. He wants to prove that he is a strong competitor by coming into this game and the money could help him financially. He is squeamish around water as he almost drowned as a child.
Adelyn White, 27, event planner (made by u/TDSwaggyBoy)
Adelyn wouldn't consider herself to be "special" in any way. She's just.. herself. She was born to a middle class family, grew up in a loving environment and was taught to always love and respect others, rules that she now lives by. Meeting her eventual husband when she was three years old, Adelyn's family was always close with the family of Jay - Who was now 28, working as an engineer. The two were best friends for as long as Adelyn can remember, and she hopes to win this money for the both of them.
Carter Haynes, 24, barista (made by u/TDSwaggyBoy)
Carter had a rough childhood. Ever since he was a child, Carter had to work part time jobs to help his lower class family. Being the eldest of three kids, Carter also had to help his parents with taking care of said siblings, as neither parent really had the time to do so. Carter always managed to get through, though. No matter how hard life had seemed, Carter continued to fight and continued to survive. And in a game like SURVIVOR, that's exactly what you need. He now works as a part-time barista and a full time artist. That's his dream - be like Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. He hopes that this game might help him out with said dream.
Zoey Williams, 22, game designer (made by u/UltDragon)
Zoey was always a creative person and she loves to express herself. However, since being an artist is risky and you have to be very successful in order to make a good living off of it, she decided instead to get a job as a game designer. She is here to get out of her comfort zone and to (maybe) win the thing.
Marcelino "Rock" McGeorge, 29, tango dancer (made by u/Nahuelfire39)
Despite his Spanish nationality, Marcelino was born in the United States, hence his American last name. His father is American while his mother is Spanish, therefore Marcelino can speak both English and Spanish. Marcelino prefers to be nicknamed "Rock" because he doesn't like his real name and because he thinks that way he will be more respected. Marcelino works as a Tango dancer for major shows such as children's shows; but when he is already a professional dancer, he wants to be a dance teacher. Marcelino can be conceited, flirtatious, competitive, calm and audacious.
Estelle Noir, 19, barista/aspiring actor (made by u/Ripecornball60)
Estelle was born into a low class, yet loving family. When she was younger, all she wanted was stardom, and always wanted to go into the big city and work as an actor. Her parents disapproved of this, despite her really wanting to move. The only reason why she stayed was to keep her relationship with her boyfriend Wendell alive. At the age of 18, she found Wendell sleeping with another woman, and she promptly ran away, not seeing any reason to stay anymore. In New York, Estelle was homeless, only to be picked up by Garret, a Starbucks manager. Garret offered her a job to keep her on her feet, and she has worked there for 1 year now. During her breaks, she goes to auditions all across the city to try to get an acting job, only to fail. She is coming onto Survivor in order to gain self-confidence and recognition.
​
ZOHNSTER SURVIVOR: THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK
WRITTEN EPISODES
​
My thoughts:
A good season with good participants. I preferred Borneo, but I liked some relationships here in that game. The Borneo simulator was much easier to work with, it showed several things that I managed to put better in the written episodes, since I had to think more about what to do to create the summaries. But it was cool and the victory deserved for Carter who has a second aspect of the game, very different from Jamal who worked more in social. I am hoping that Africa will give us a simulator with more surprises with the first swap of the game.
Winner: Carter Haynes
Deserves to return: Jasper, Zoey, Rosie, Griffyn, Fabia, Adrian, Melly, Sync
​
Leave your opinions about the game below and who you think should return for another season. What do you expect for the next season? Do you have suggestions for simulators not to use? Leave everything below.

The RAoC Mod Team hopes you're staying safe and healthy during these trying times.
Many nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, and similar locations are now on lockdown. This increased isolation can be very hard on residents. We're seeing more card requests here and around the internet, so we've decided to compile a list, and we need your help!
 
We've got 2 tasks we're asking for your help with:

1. Send some cheer and support in the form of cards to some of the places on the list! Some tips for content & addressing cards are in the pinned comment below the post.
   
2. Check out the social media of or contact a local nursing/assisted living/group/etc. home and ask if they would like to be on the list to receive cards! Get permission to publicly share the address, then fill out our form so we can add it to the list! You'll need a. the name of the place, b. the mailing address, and c. the name and contact information for who gave permission (this will be kept private) or the link to their request on social media.
   

 
You're also welcome to put more than one card per envelope to save on postage! Check your country's weight limits per stamp, but then feel free to load them on up to send the most cheer possible!

Places to send cards:

Note, list is not ordered by name or country, but by most recently added to our list. That way, the most recently added are easily found. Check back regularly! Countries are now bolded for visibility.
 

• Skylark Assisted Living

Skylark Assisted Living
900 Skylark Place
Ashland, OR 97520
USA

More Info: 100 Residents in assisted living and memory care ranging in age from 59-104!
 

• Lake Gibson Village

Lake Gibson Village
ATTN: Pen Pals
771 Carpenters Way
Lakeland, FL 33809
USA

 

• Hallmark Healthcare (Assisted Living and Rehabilitation)

Hallmark Healthcare
255 Midland Parkway
Summerville SC, 29485
USA

More info: Please write "Cards for Residents" on the envelopes
 

• Bupa Villages & Aged Care, Australia

72! Addresses available here.

More info: This company has 72 care homes you can send mail to. Also, they give a few ideas of things you can write about!
 

• Community Partnership on Aging

ATTN: Therese
Cards for Residents
1370 Victory Dr.
South Euclid OH 44121
USA

 

• The Reserve At North Dallas

c/o Jan Hacke for RAoC
The Reserve At North Dallas
12271 Coit Road 2404
Dallas Texas 75251
USA

Extra Info: A RAoC member lives here and wants to share the joy of random happy mail with her fellow residents. The facility has been on lock down since March 12 and will remain on full lock down for the foreseeable future because many residents have additional susceptibility beyond just age. Some live independently, others are in assisted care. However, all are restricted to their rooms, most alone for nearly 23 hours per day. Note: On the outside of the envelope, please write "RAoC" and if there is more than 1 card inside.
 

• Zearing Health Care Center

Zearing Health Care Center
404 E Garfield St
Zearing IA, 50278
USA

Extra info: Good morning all! If you or your kids need something to do our residents would love some mail. They are really missing contact with the outside world. Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your continued thoughts, everyone here is happy, just missing family and friends!!!
 

• Thompson House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center

Thompson House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center
80 Maple Street
Brattleboro VT 05301
USA

Extra info: Thank You so much! Any corospondance or card will make the world of difference in the lives of the Thompson House residences and will be greeted with appreciation and joy.
 

• Esplanade Senior Living at Palisades

The Esplanade
640 Oak Tree Rd.
Palisades, NY 10964
USA

Extra info: Not only can't they have outside visitors, but they're being quarantined to their own apartments, so cards would be very appreciated.
 

• Oak Creek Terrace Nursing and Rehabilitation

Oak Creek Terrace Nursing and Rehabilitation
2316 Springmill Rd.
Kettering, OH 45440
USA

 

• Brighton Gardens of Raleigh

C/O Activities Director
Brighton Gardens of Raleigh
3101 Duraleigh Rd
Raleigh NC 27612
USA

Extra info: A Sunrise Senior Assisted Living with a section for Memory Care, called Reminiscence. There are about 110 residents, and they'd love some cards! They were very excited that we reached out with an offer to add them to this list!
 

• Silver Linings Personal Care Home

Silver Linings PCH
407 Harvey Street
Stapleton, GA 30823
USA

Extra info: We are a small assisted living facility for seniors and house 11 residents.
 

• Veterans Home of Wyoming

Wyoming Veteran
Veterans Home of Wyoming
700 Veterans Lane
Buffalo, WY 82834
USA

Extra info: This home provides food, shelter, and assisted living care to any Wyoming Veteran that needs it, free of charge. They're on lock down and can't leave or have visitors. Many of these Veterans do not have family or friends, so a card could/can help lift their spirits!
 

• Heartis Senior Living

Heartis Clear Lake
14520 Highway 3
Webster, TX 77598
USA

Extra info: They'll share cards between all residents, but if you'd like to see if anyone in particular would like a card addressed to them, ask on their facebook link above!
 

• Stadtresidenz im Casino Wetzlar

Stadtresidenz im Casino Wetzlar
Bewohner der Junge Pflege
Kalsmuntstrasse 68-74
35578 Wetzlar
Germany

Extra info: This is a facility for young people with disabilities. Many of the residents do not understand why their family can't come visit anymore, so any sort of care and outreach would be greatly appreciated!
 

• Jenner Court: McCarthy & Stone Assisted Living

Retirement Community
Jenner Court: McCarthy & Stone
St George's Rd
Cheltenham
GL50 3ER
United Kingdom

Extra Info: Elderly residents who are around 80+ years old. Some of whom have mobility issues or are technologically illiterate, so they wouldn't know how to use social media. The residents very much enjoy playing Rummikub everyday, but due to social distancing, they can't really play anymore. They are no longer allowed visitors, but are still accepting packages, so snail mail communication would brighten them up.
 

• Park House Care

Park House Residential Care Home
Martinstown
Dorchester
Dorset
DT2 9JN
UK

Extra info: They provide care for patients with a variety of needs, and are primarily a dementia care home. All you need to do is pick a room number (1 to 21 - no number 13) and send your card to the above address! They say "If you would like a letter or card back from one of our residents, please feel free to include your name and address."