Hey Guardians!

I’ve been a long-time lurker on here, but I’ve been having so much fun with this build I created that I just couldn’t help but share it. This build uses one of my favorite exotics, Tommy’s Matchbook. I fell in love with this gun the moment it came out and have used it enough for my warlock to be considered a masochist. But as much as I love Tommy even, I must admit the gun has some serious flaws. The most obvious of these being self-damage (duh), and an abysmal reload speed. So, my goal was to solve these flaws while also creating a synergistic build of my favorite class (warlock) that could take on high level content. This is the result.

Ok so what will you be able to accomplish with this build?
· You and your allies will be able to have a consistent character speed boost
· You and allies will have a 100 reload and boosted handling consistently
· You will have a consistent 50% damage reduction
· You will be able to heal yourself in large chunks on demand
· You will have boosted grenade damage and cooldown
· Your allies will receive boosted grenade cooldowns
· You will be able to stun overload champs
· Break barrier champs’ shields
· You will have a 30% modifier boost to your super damage (in our case chaos reach)
· And you will have the option to add and additional 25% damage modifier added to all your ability damage to frozen or slowed targets (pretty sure this includes your super haven’t tested yet)

I know that seems like a lot but if you stick with me, I promise to break this build up into small bites to make this as simple and painless as possible. Still here? Dope let’s get started.

Subclass:

Starting things off with our subclass we are going middle tree Stormcaller. Most warlocks go the bottom tree void walker route and for good reason. Devour synergizes incredibly well with Tommy as it solves the self-damage problem pretty well. But we won’t be going this for a few reasons A. we have other more effective tools to solve the self-damage problem, B. it doesn’t address Tommy’s reload, and C. bungie unfortunately hates Nova Bomb and it simply can’t hang with some of the other super options warlocks have at their disposal with some of these new seasonal mods and exotic support we got. These and the reasons below are why we are going middle tree Stormcaller.

Pulsewave:

This is the big one. In bungie terms Pulsewave does this “being critically wounded triggers an energy wave that boosts yours and allies’ speed”. What that actually means is you and your allies get a plus 100 to your weapons reload stat, a pretty generous boost to weapon handling, and a speed boost that is comparable to killing wind, oh and all of these boosts last ten seconds. All for the low low price of being critically wounded (shields depleted) which we were going to do anyway thanks to Tommy.

Chaos Reach:

While Tommy is an add clearing machine it’s not great at burning through bosses or generating quick bursts of damage. Luckily, we have this monster of a super. One of the best damaging supers we Warlocks have at our disposable, the Kamehameha absolutely shreds bosses and majors. Plus, we got a few fun new tools to make it even better, more on that in the mods section.

Ionic Trace:

This is just gravy at this point. Ability regen on kills, easy, straightforward, always helpful. Not much more to say here, it’s great.

Grenade and Rift:

My recommendation here is the pulse nade, the consistent ticks of damage means overloads stay stunned for longer. However, if you want to just drop a ton of damage storm is also great (just be careful not to kill yourself with them). As for rift you gotta go healing. We take lots of damage with this build so it’s never a bad thing to have another source of healing on demand.
Now that we know what abilities we are working with let’s talk exotics and other weapons.

Tommy’s Matchbook:

This is the center piece, a beautiful 720 that when you hold down the trigger for 20 rounds ramps up to 99% more damage, you filthy animal! While ignition trigger is doing its thing, we take burn damage which we can reduce by hip firing. Thanks to the catalyst while we are being burned our health recovers much faster too. Something that Bungie doesn’t tell you is this thing’s in air and hipfire accuracy is nutty, but that’s old news for most of you.

Verity’s Brow:

While we are burning through targets with Tommy we are also charging up this exotic. The exotic perk death throws goes up every time you get an energy weapon kill and stacks up to five times speeding up the recharge rate of your grenade and boosting its damage. This plus ionic trace should keep your grenade topped off very often. Plus, every time you throw a grenade you also get to boost your fireteam members grenade recharge. For those of you keeping score, that’s a max reload buff, grenade recharge rate, and speed boost your giving your teammates. Who says warlocks can only play support with middle tree dawn?

Geomags (Alternative Option):

I feel like I’d have to turn in my warlock card if I didn’t mention this as an alternative to Verity’s. This thing is nutty and with the mods we are going to use to boost chaos reach later on it only gets more powerful. Wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to go this route but I personal prefer the team aspect and utility of Verity’s.

Kinetic and Heavy weapons:

For your Kinetic slot you should be using a sniper, any sniper works but if you want my personal favorite for this build, I would use a Succession with recombination and reconstruction. This acts as a baby Izzy and is great for quickly swapping to and deleting majors and barrier champs. If you aren’t lucky enough to have one of those don’t worry any other kinetic sniper with perks focusing on single shot damage and auto reloading (pulse monitor is really good with this build too) will do just fine. As for your heavy slot this is really a personal preference thing. LMGs synergize with sustained charge, but swords and rockets are also super solid. I am mainly using my heavy as another way to take down big non boss targets, so I personally use my old Falling Guillotine (yes, I know this isn’t season of the arrivals. No, I don’t care).

Mods:

OK this is where things start to get a little complicated, so for simplicity sake I will be doing the mod break down armor piece by armor piece showing affinities and energy consumption and then writing a description for the mods used. This is the point where all the parts really start to come together and turn it from a concept to a full-fledged build. I’m going to go into this assuming you have at least some general knowledge about the charged with light system but if not do yourself a favor and find a guide on the basics. My personal recommendations are Fallout Plays’ and Ehroar’s guides, which you can find on their respective YouTube channels. With that disclaimer out of the way let’s dive in.

Helmet:

Affinity Solar
Ashes to Assets 3 cost (2x)
“Gain bonus super energy on grenade kills”
As we are a grenade-based build having a stack of A2A is super helpful for regening our super.
Taking charge 3 cost
“Become charged with light by picking up orbs of power”
Since Tommy can generate orbs of power off of multi Kills this is one of two ways we will get charged with light.
Minor Discipline 1 cost
Not necessary but a small boost to discipline can only help.

Arms:

Affinity Solar
Anti-Barrier sniper 6 cost
“Sniper rifles you are wielding fire shield-piercing rounds and stun barrier champions. Sniper rifles deal bonus damage against barrier champions”
Pretty straight forward. A tool to eliminate barrier champs (or that one phalanx that really deserved to get its head taken off)
Sustained Charge 4 cost
“Become charged with light by rapidly defeating combatants with auto rifles, trace rifles, or machine guns. Additional copies of this mod increase the time allowed between combatants that are defeated.”
Multikills, in this case three kills in rapid succession within roughly three seconds of each other, charge us with light. Since we are burning through adds with Tommy this is a reliable way to get charge with light from range. If you aren’t in a position to run in and grab an orb this will allow you to still charge up. You may wonder why run both sustained charge and taking charge? For me it’s more of a consistency thing. With this build you need to be charged with light pretty much the whole time and sustained charge provides a way for you to do that at range whereas taking charge allows you to leave orbs to pick up in a pinch when you can’t get kills or to guarantee that you end every fight charged with light and ready for the next engagement.

Chest:

Affinity Void
Stacks on Stacks 4 cost
“gain an extra stack of charged with light for every stack you gain. –10 recovery”
This is another ease of use and consistency thing, with this you have some room for error with how you go about your engagements and if you play it right you will always be able to use both Heal thyself and protective light which we will talk about soon.
Sniper Reserves 3 cost (x2)
Don’t think I need to explain why this is helpful. We use a sniper, so we want more ammo. You could also use this for your heavy weapon of choice, it’s up to you.

Legs:

Affinity Solar
Recuperation 1 cost (x2)
“replenishes health each time you pick up an orb of power”
This perk is hella underrated this doesn’t trigger regen which is great because Tommy would stop that almost immediately with its burn. Instead, this provides quick huge burst to your health (don’t have the exact numbers but trust me it substantial) further solidifying the playstyle of leaving orbs around as little healing and charge with light checkpoints.
Heal Thyself 4 cost
“while you are charged with light, grenade final blows heal you and consume one stack of charged with light”
Think of this as you oh shit button. Instant healing for when that orb is too far away, or a rift will take just too long to activate. This can be a crazy helpful tool for staying alive and while it isn’t the main star of the build its great for survivability and synergizes well with what we are trying to do. Note, your oh shit button does deal damage to you and can kill you if it hits you before it kills an enemy. Just to be safe make sure your targets are aren’t all up in your grill when you throw.
Recovery 4 cost
Needs no explanation, if recovery isn’t your jam pick a different stat, I just like it when all the numbers fit perfectly.

Class:

Affinity Void
Volatile Conduction 6 cost
“Grants bonus arc damage if cast while critically wounded. Lasts until the end of the super activation”
When bungie made this mod they were like Chaos reach is good, but it can be better. 30% better to be exact. While these are normally a pain in the ass to activate and often feel super clunky forcing you to let yourself get hit before activating your super, we have no such limitations as we are in an abusive relationship with our primary. This is some big boy damage especially when stacked with debuffs, geo mags, and Focusing Lens which I will mention at the end.
Surge Detonators 2 cost
“arc grenades disrupt combatants, stunning them, delaying ability regeneration and lowering combatant damage output”
Your oh shit button doesn’t only save your ass but stuns champs for long durations thanks to the continuous ticks of the pulse nade. Better yet this will be damage boosted too. Thanks to death throws often all it takes is one nade to just straight up kill a champ. Excellent utility for any content with the annoying teleporty boys.
Protective Light 2 cost
"While charged with light, you gain significant damage resistance against combatants when your shields are destroyed. This effect consumes all stacks of charged with light. The more stacks consumed, the longer the damage resistance lasts."
If Tommy is the star of this build than protective light is the glue that holds it all together. You gain a 50% damage reduction when in the red which allows us to just chill at low health no problem and gives us the time, we need to activate healing abilities. This last for 5 seconds on one charge and 10 with two but this will almost always be using two charges. This mod does so much for us, it lets us safely maximize the damage of Tommy, consistently apply pulse wave, and lets us be crazy tanky after we heal. You may think protective light clashes with heal thyself but since it can’t consume charges while the perk is up, we will still be able to utilize the nade healing as well as still having a backup five seconds after the fact if we take too long to get charged with light back.
Alternatively, you can swap Heal Thyself with sustained charge on your legs and replace sustained charge and your helmets solar affinity for protective light and a void affinity. This leaves room for Focusing Lens on your class item allowing you to sacrifice the ability to stun overloads and heal yourself on grenade kills with a 25% modifier buff to all your abilities on targets effected by stasis freeze or slow. This decision all comes down to team composition and activity. That being said you haven’t lived until you and your homie running stasis absolutely nuke a boss with the most powerful chaos reach super known to man.

Playstyle:

So, what does this build look like in action? Let me paint a picture for you. We lay into some ads with Tommy and get charged with light times two from a multikill, ignition trigger tics us down to the red and we get ten seconds of 50% damage reduction, a speed boost, and max reload. You use your newfound speed and damage reduction to run in and pick up the orb Tommy dropped from that same multikill and get sent back to like 80% health with 5 seconds left on your pulse wave and protective light timers and a fresh stack of charged with light x2 you burn through more adds with the rest of Tommy’s ammo and reload it in like a second. Repeat until you find the boss and nuke him with a chaos reach that is 30% more powerful. This damage increase is a modifier which means it can still stack with other modifiers, one buff, and a debuff for some absolutely crazy numbers.

TLDR:

Put these mods on your armor and use these weapons for a highly synergistic build that focuses on survivability with Tommy’s matchbook and middle tree Stormcaller.

Helmet:
Affinity Solar
Ashes to Assets 3 cost (2x)
Taking charge 3 cost
charged with light.
Minor Discipline 1 cost

Arms:
Affinity Solar
Anti-Barrier sniper 6 cost
Sustained Charge 4 cost

Chest:
Affinity Void
Stacks on Stacks 4 cost
Sniper Reserves 3 cost (x2)

Legs:
Affinity Solar
Recuperation 1 cost (x2)
Heal Thyself 4 cost
Recovery 4 cost

Class:
Affinity Void
Volatile Conduction 6 cost
Surge Detonators 2 cost
Protective Light 2 cost

Exotics:
Tommy’s Matchbook
Verity’s Brow or Geomag

Conclusion:

And there you have it. This was definitely longer than I was expecting but hopefully not too hard to get through. If you made it to the end thanks for bearing with me and hopefully you have fun trying out this build or some variation of it in game. This is my first time ever posting something like this so if you have any suggestions or feedback please feel free to share. Likewise, if you have any other cool synergies and want to talk build crafting hit me up, the charged with light system is one of my favorite additions to this game and I am always trying to brainstorm my next build.
Edited to fix information regarding chaos reach dps and fixing my inability to spell.

Dear Bungie: If you're going to keep yammering on about "player choice" and "playing how you want" can you stop tying anti champion mods to subclass elements?

With the new aspects Titans can instant freeze using their melee ability just like warlocks, so why is the Titan freeze duration so much longer in PVP?

It's getting harder and harder to believe bungie doesn't hate Warlocks. Between all the direct and indirect Shadebinder nerfs this season (a subclass which was strong but not op in PVE, and greatly below the Titan and Hunter subclasses in PVP) why is there such a disparity in abilities?
The Warlock melee has slightly more range, but a travel time, making it easy to dodge, additionally with no way to shatter and the melee's undocumented damage nerf, its now impossible to do enough damage to kill someone with a primary outside of just meleeing them on warlock, defeating the purpose of it's only range advantage.
The Titan melee on the other hand is instant, gives full freeze duration, and makes crystals which they can shatter to do still insane AOE damage, AND also shatter to synergize for even more grenade energy (and melee energy if they run the other aspect). All of this is in addition to the Titans original melee ability that gives insane movement options/can one shot by throwing you into a wall or off the map.
This isn't even discussing the rest of the subclass imbalances, yet the changes we get this season are a single buff to the already super strong hunter melee, and multiple warlock nerfs to hammer it down even further below the other classes. What's the balance justification for these changes other than hurting Warlocks?
Edit: Since this has blown up a bit there are some things I want to clarify; I play all three classes equally and genuinely enjoy the power fantasy of each. I by no means am calling for a nerf to the new Titan aspect, I think it actually solves the biggest problem Stasis Titan has in pve (having a pretty lack luster melee that doesn't synergize with the rest of the kit). Now you can make crystals with the melee, which you can shatter for grenade energy, use for ad clear and it pairs very well with charged with light/heart of inmost light for ability spam.
The issue I'm trying to bring to light is the disparity with which things have been handled in terms of class balance. The way Warlock kit functions is such that it has no way to slow and relies entirely on freezing to get rolling, along with no way to shatter other than shooting frozen targets. Due to this Warlock cannot reliably benefit from Whisper of Shards for grenade regeneration and was dependent on Iceflare Bolts, which has now had its grenade regeneration ability removed. Then for PVP I'm not disagreeing that there are benefits and negatives to each melee ability, but the reason warlock melee was nerfed in the first place was because of how terrible it feels to get instant frozen for so long with no counter play, something Titans can now do yet with the original duration, an easier time shattering and all while having all the other additional benefits I listed above. On top of all this the new reduced damage to frozen targets unfairly hurts Warlocks the most due to not having any means of shattering outside of shooting.
Finally when it's time for balancing we get massive (mostly deserved, but as always too far) Warlock nerfs after just over a week and the only other nerf has been a slap on the wrist to Hunter shatterdrive after 2 months. All while nothing has been done to the Titan roaming super which is still active despite having been activated at the beginning of my post, and having damage resist that's even more ridiculous than the other roaming supers in the game. Now with the new season Hunters get another buff to their amazing melee ability thats basically a thrown sential shield in terms of tracking and Warlock gets a new slew of unneeded nerfs to the point that it now directly hurts the synergy of the subclass in all aspects of play. I just want all of the classes to have their new toys be fun, viable, and be as (relatively as stasis can be) balanced, yet time after time it feels like Warlocks hurt bungie when they were a kid and they will never let it go. VOG coming back must have brought back memories of all that pushing Aethon off the edge.
Edit to my Edit: Alright Alright Alright, it's a new day and I decided to offer some realistic solutions for rebalancing stasis in hopes some get implemented, rather than just wasting time complaining on the internet. I won't talk about the nerf to the Warlock melee (no the new one), which was reduced from 90 to 38, as it was an undocumented change and I am for now giving bungie the benefit of the doubt and assuming it is a bug. I'm also not going to talk about any direct nerfs to Titan or Hunter subclasses, just ways to bring up Warlock onto a more even footing. Also warning this somehow ended up even longer than my last Edit.
1) Let Whisper of Shards give grenade regeneration for killing frozen targets, not just crystals, to counter the nerf to Iceflare bolts.
As it stood I can understand why Iceflare needed a nerf, it was frankly a must pick for any stasis Warlock between its 3 fragment slots, grenade regeneration and the ability to freeze extra targets; but the grenade regeneration utility needs to move to something else for the sake of build synergy. Since frozen targets are relatively more common than generating ice crystals (my Heart of Inmost light Titan would beg to differ), make the timer last something like 1 second per frozen kill rather than the 5 seconds you get per broken crystal. Alternatively give this ability an internal cooldown if you don't want us to have 100% uptime on it (something very easily achievable on Titan)
2) Make all freezes in PVP last the same amount of time ~1 second (with the exception of supers).
I see this change happening inevitably at some point in the future, but I'll talk about it anyway. Frozen from whatever source is incredibly powerful and shouldn't arbitrarily last 5 times as long because you were slowed before hand (something Warlock inherently struggles to do). Frankly even if things were equal timer wise Warlock still suffers more due to lack of shattering and the multiple steps needed to get kills with the super, but I'll settle for parity (example: you freeze and kill someone with shadebinder, the kill spawns an Iceflare bolt that freezes someone nearby, due to the nature of Shadebinder, by the time you heavy and wait for the travel time in order to shatter that person, they have already thawed out).
3) Make the Shadebinder in super travel a little bit quicker and make the heavy shatter attack travel faster.
As much as I hate suggesting any kind of buff to a roaming super, Shadebinder is just too dam slow for PVP. It only has a projectile attack and as such can't propel itself forward for momentum like most other roaming supers/has no movement tech unique to it like icarus dash or ionic blink for speed (other than float longer which makes you slower overall). Its also the only super in the game that requires two steps to get a kill (freeze and then shatter), even the other stasis supers have a method of 1 shotting non frozen targets: Titans can light attack with their melee and Hunters can direct impact you with their Kama, all while producing other unique benefits to their class (Titan can create ice crystals to take advantage of even after their super is over and hunter gets a slowing tornado for long after to slow and freeze which they can build into).
4) Personally I would like it if the Warlock super upon ending did one larger sized shatter wave (think the Aoe freeze effect Titan stasis has on pop, but at the end and for shattering).
This would alleviate some of the issues with the last point and also help with another one of the supers problems, that using the freeze projectiles uses super energy while shattering does not, so you often exit your super having sent out a projectile to freeze something that you can't conviently shatter. Due to this probably requiring an animation change I imagine it's far less likely to happen (but just think about how cool it could be to freeze a whole bunch of ads while in the super and then letting one final massive shatter wave kill everything, sorry I digress).
5) Remove all the debuffs players receive from the slow effect other than.. you know slowing.
For anyone that doesn't know the slowed effect does more than just reduce your movement speed, it also: shuts off movement abilities (can't dodge, ionic blink ect.), reduces ability regeneration, reduces aim-down-sights speed, reduces weapon reload speed, weapon handling, weapon kick direction and weapon accuracy. PVP in this game is all about movement and a slowing effect is already powerful enough, why does it also need to make it incredibly difficult to aim, shoot, regenerate abilities and prevent you from using movement abilities to escape from it? There's a reason why there's a sentiment amongst top tier PVP players that slowing is about as free a kill as being frozen and making this change would bring the three Stasis subclasses more in line with each other, while also reducing the oppressiveness of stasis in the PVP sandbox overall.
There's a few more minor things I could add, but I think everyone gets the point by now if you somehow managed to stick around for this long (that Behemoth is just about coming out of his super). Bottom line is I fucking love this game and I want it to succeed. I want to have fun be it in PVE or lord save me in PVP, and I want to be able to do that with all the classes, not feel like I'm forced to play one (or two) over the other due to what feels like a constant stream of either knee-jerk reaction nerfs that go too far, or out of the blue unnecessary nerfs with no buffs or rebalancing taken into consideration. Warlocks aren't fusion rifles, you can't just nerf them without cause because you feel like it.

Warlocksaren'tfusionrifles

This Week At Bungie 1/28/2021

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/50040
This week at Bungie, we introduce Seasonal Challenges.
Welcome to the second-to-last TWAB of Season of the Hunt. Many of you have been navigating the secrets of the Harbinger mission, uncovering randomly rolled Hawkmoons and earning the Radiant Accipiter Exotic ship. Content-wise, we’re coming to a close for the Season, and we’re incredibly excited for what’s to come in just a few short weeks. We’ve been covering some upcoming quality of life changes to Destiny 2, like the return of Umbral Engrams, but it’s almost time to take a peek at fresh content.
Season of the [REDACTED] trailer goes live on February 2, 2021.
Before we get there, we have a new feature to cover, Seasonal Challenges, and a round of weapon-focused sandbox changes to walk through. As a warning, this is a pretty large amount of information in a small space. We've joked about "meaty" TWAB's before, but this one may feel a bit overwhelming if you rush through it. Let's take it slow, step by step, and get through it together in one piece.

Introducing: Seasonal Challenges

Over the last year, we’ve been looking at ways in which we can reduce the amount of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in Destiny 2. We’ve recently made some changes to Seasons and how Seasonal content is available throughout a given year of Destiny 2. This week, we’re looking to bounties and Bright Dust, introducing a new system not only to remove FOMO, but give fresh ways to earn XP and alternate rewards. To walk us through the ins and outs of Seasonal Challenges, we pass the mic to the Development team.

Dev team: During production of Beyond Light, we started looking at the problems of bounty fatigue and FOMO, as well as Seasonal legibility (i.e., “What is in a Season?” and “How to I engage with it when I log in?”). We created a few goals which we believe will improve the experience:

Provide a guide to new, returning, and veteran players for what to do today/this week.

Guide the player through the Seasonal content, week-over-week.

Encourage players to engage with complexities and nuances of the Seasonal activity and rituals.

Reduce the penalties on XP and Bright Dust for missing a given week.

To solve these goals, we are introducing a new pursuit type for players – Seasonal Challenges. The Seasonal Challenges live on their own page, are accessed through the Quest Log or Season Pass, and are separated by week.
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Here’s a quick breakdown of how this feature works:

Every week, for the first 10 weeks of a Season, between 3 and 10 new Challenges appear automatically for players.

Some of the Challenges deal with the Seasonal content.

Others push players to complete strikes, Gambit, and the Crucible, or to focus on non-activity focused Destiny rituals, like gaining Power, unlocking Seasonal Artifact mods, or improving guns and armor.

These Challenges can only be completed once per account, but once they become available, these Challenges can be completed at any time before the end of the Season, and do not need to be started or picked up from a vendor.

As an example, if a player doesn’t play for weeks 2 through 4, they can return on week 5 and have all of those Challenges waiting for them!

Completing each Challenge awards XP, contributing to your Season Pass ranks.

Other rewards could be Bright Dust, Seasonal currency, or other interesting items!

In moving away from weekly bounties, which were restricted to broad objectives tied to ritual activities, we have taken more leeway with creating some interesting or more difficult Challenges. These may be things you are already doing, or things that test your ability. Some examples include:

Defeating Primeval Envoys in Gambit

Defeating enemies in Nightfall: The Ordeal with Seasonal weapons

Gaining Infamy or Valor ranks

Acquiring the ritual weapon and its cosmetic ornaments

Winning rounds in Trials of Osiris

Completing a Grandmaster Nightfall

Not all the Challenges will require that level of accomplishment, but the harder or longer the Challenge is, the more experience it rewards. Challenges that focus on the Seasonal activity and ritual mostly need the Season Pass to complete, but most of the ritual focused Challenges can be completed without the Season Pass. Overall, roughly 60% of the Seasonal Challenges do not require the Season Pass.
With the changes above, we are removing weekly bounties from the three ritual vendors (Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter), Banshee-44, and the Seasonal vendor. These vendors will still have daily bounties which reward XP, and the three ritual vendors will still have repeatable bounties for those of you who want to pursue additional XP and Bright Dust.
Lastly – most of the Challenges disappear after the Season they were introduced, and anything that isn’t claimed will be lost. We don’t add any new Challenges after Week 10 – which should give everyone a few weeks to clean up any Challenges they didn’t finish. Any Challenge that rewards unique or Seasonal items (currencies, lore books, Seasonal weapons, etc.) – can be completed as long as the Seasonal activity is in the game, but XP awarded for completing the challenge will only be available during the season it was introduced.
Let’s Talk Bright Dust
Back before Beyond Light launched, we discussed some of the goals around the changes to Bright Dust. As a refresher, we wanted to change the way you earn Bright Dust and move more towards account-specific paths to give players with only one character significantly more Bright Dust than they've been earning over the last year. In Season 13, we’ll be continuing to move toward these goals by adding Bright Dust onto Seasonal Challenges.
Since you no longer have to purchase weekly ritual bounties, each of the strike, Crucible, and Gambit Seasonal Challenges will award between 75 and 300 Bright Dust. We are also introducing an end-of-Season Bright Dust bonus – if you complete (nearly) all of the Seasonal Challenges, we are awarding a single 4,000 Bright Dust pile.
Additionally, each ritual vendor challenge (“Complete 8 bounties”) awards 120 Bright Dust for each character who completes it each week. And because this is prompted by the removal of weekly bounties, the only Seasonal Challenges that will be awarding Bright Dust are the ones that both Season Pass owners and free players can complete. Here’s a quick breakdown of how much Bright Dust you should expect to earn over the course of Season 13.

Seasonal Challenges Bright Dust (All Players)

Free Seasonal Activities – 6,000

Seasonal Extra – 4,000

Total – 10,000 Bright Dust

Season Pass Bright Dust

Free Path – 7,500 (All Players)

Paid Path – 3,000 (Players who own Season Pass)

Total – 10,500 Bright Dust

Weekly Ritual Vendor Challenge Bright Dust (All Players)

120 Bright Dust per ritual vendor, per character, per week

14,040 total if completing all required weekly Challenges over the course of Season 13

Additionally, we still plan to offer weekly and repeatable Bright Dust bounties for Seasonal events, giving you a bit more Bright Dust towards desired rewards.
As a final note, please be sure to claim all Seasonal Challenges that award Bright Dust prior to the end of a Season. Once a Season ends, associated Challenges and their Bright Dust rewards will expire and can no longer be claimed.

It’s always exciting when we bring a new feature online for Destiny 2. We hope that the changes detailed above make it easier to create goals to complete each week. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback once you start finishing your first Seasonal Challenges, so please sound off with your thoughts!

Back to the Sandbox

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Every Season, we have a collection of changes to the Destiny 2 sandbox to spice things up a bit. This Season, we’re making some targeted changes to weapon archetypes that need some love as well as beginning some preparations for crossplay.

Dev team: In preparation for crossplay, coming later this year, we’re making some changes to the Recoil stat.
Currently, several weapon archetypes have their Recoil reduced by around 40% (dependent on archetype) when using mouse and keyboard. This results in an issue where players on mouse and keyboard are able to largely ignore the stability weapon stat, creating unintended discrepancies in weapon performance between controllers and mouse and keyboard.
The following weapon archetypes will have their mouse and keyboard Recoil adjusted closer to controller (reduced the difference from ~40% to ~20%).

Auto Rifle

Scout Rifle

Pulse Rifle

Submachine Gun

Hand Cannon

Machine Gun

In the case of Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun, and Machine Gun, we will also be introducing some buffs. In some cases, these weapons will have less Recoil across both Controller and mouse and keyboard input methods compared to what’s in the game today.

Submachine Guns are largely outclassed by Auto Rifles at medium range, and by Sidearms at short range, with player feedback often mentioning how hard they are to control. To address this feedback, we’re introducing the following change:

Reduced camera movement from firing a Submachine Gun by 24%.

Pulse Rifles with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.

Reduced camera movement from firing a Pulse Rifle by 7%.

Machine Guns with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.

Reduced camera movement from firing a Machine Gun by 9.5%.

We will pay close attention to how these changes play out when they go live, and plan to revisit individual archetypes in a future update as needed.
Outside of Recoil adjustments, we will also be tuning a few weapon archetypes in Season 13. Looking through backend data and community feedback, we landed on the following:
Buffs

Rocket Launchers have fallen behind other Heavy weapons in most measures of effectiveness, we’re pushing them more into a burst damage role.

Increased Rocket Launcher damage by 30%.

Exotic Rocket Launchers have been adjusted individually and are affected by this change to different degrees.

Paired with the buffs to reserves from last Season, we’re hoping you’ll explode many more things in Season 13!

Fusion Rifle usage is very low, and they feel like an unreliable choice in Crucible compared to Shotguns.

Increased Fusion Rifle damage falloff start distance based on Range stat. (6% with 0 Range, 16% with 100 Range)

Reduced camera movement from firing a Fusion Rifle by 9.5%.

Breech Grenade Launcher usage is very low (outside of Mountaintop). We believe part of the reason is that the loop of "hold the trigger to arm, then release to detonate” is challenging to execute, particularly since projectiles can bounce off targets if the trigger is held

Breech Grenade Launcher projectiles will now detonate on impact with a character, even if holding the trigger.

Nerfs

While Sniper Rifle usage has dropped in Crucible, we’ve observed that it’s hard to challenge someone with a Sniper Rifle – even if you get the first shot on an enemy, they can often respond and win the fight.

Increased ADS flinch to Snipers when taking damage from other players

Swords are extremely dominant in PvE. At this time, 65% of players are using Swords for the majority of gameplay encounters in Destiny 2. While we are introducing a buff to Rocket Launchers to make them a bit more enticing, we feel that Swords do too much damage compared to other options.

Reduced Sword damage by 15%.

Exotic Changes and Bug Fixes

Some Exotic weapons lose their buffs when you switch weapons, which is intended. They would also lose their buffs when pulling out your Ghost Shell, which is not intended. Fixed that issue on these weapons:

Ace of Spades

Tarrabah

Hawkmoon

Borealis and Hard Light now have a custom (quite short) animation for switching damage type.

Duality

Increased damage falloff distance by 1.25m (while both firing from the hip and aiming down sights).

Reduced maximum buff stacks from 7 to 5, each stack now grants more of a damage bonus, extended buff duration slightly.

Sturm will once again reload any equipped Special slot weapon on kill provided the Special weapon's clip isn't full already and there's available reserve ammo.

Fixed an issue that was preventing Merciless from increasing its charge rate on non-lethal hits.

Ah, and before we go – we are planning to take a quick tuning pass on Arbalest. This won’t be ready in time for February 9, but we are expecting to have this touched later in Season 13!

Now, we know it can be difficult to understand the scale of buffs and nerfs without having these changes in your hands. Not to mention, there will be some new perks for you to hunt as you start navigating content in Season of the [REDACTED]. As always, we’re excited to see these changes out in the wild on February 9, and will be eager to hear your feedback.

Crimson Days

Each year, we look to February as a time to celebrate bonds of friendship throughout the community. Guardians have come to know this celebration as Crimson Days. It was one of our first “Seasonal” events in Destiny 1, a tradition that we carried to Destiny 2. While there was great enjoyment of Crimson Days, we feel that it’s been missing the mark in terms of quality over the last few years.
As such, we have made the decision to discontinue Crimson Days moving forward. While we’ll miss the event, this move will allow us to maintain focus for alternate Seasonal offerings, ranging from quests to activities and more. We have quite a bit planned for Season of the [REDACTED] and our hope is that we’ve maintained, or even improved, the quality you’ve come to expect from this upcoming release.
Some of you may be asking about the fate of Crimson Doubles, our once-a-year Crimson Days playlist. This mode is currently being shifted to the Destiny Content Vault but may return in the future.
Many thanks to every Guardian who has joined us over the years for this event. Crimson decorations may not be hung in the Tower, but we have no doubts that you’ll continue to form Crimson Bonds over the years to come.

BugTrax

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For those who may be new to the TWAB, welcome to the Player Support Report. This section is dedicated to known issues, active investigations, and pending updates for Destiny 2. Our Player Support team navigates the Help forum daily, collecting info on new issues and dishing out help articles.
This is their report on the most frequently reported issues of the last week.

CRUCIBLE TOKENS AND FRAGMENT QUESTS
Due to the updates to the vendor progression system, Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts are no longer needed and will be deprecated into Junk that will delete as a full stack starting in Season 13. Additionally, current Stasis Fragment Quests will be deprecated at the end of Season of the Hunt. Players are advised to turn in all Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts and finish all available Stasis Fragment Quests before Season 13 starts.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:

Stasis abilities can be difficult to distinguish between enemy and friendly for colorblind players.

The Double Trouble Triumph is unobtainable.

In the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the augment lockout timer occasionally resets during the final encounter against Taniks.

During the final fight against the Sanctified Mind in the Garden of Salvation raid, sometimes a shielded tether box can become tethered instead of the correct glowing tether box.

Hunter legs clip through the Ten-Grasp Sword Sparrow.

In the Last Wish raid, the Shuro Chi puzzle room plates don't work if a Titan bubble or Warlock well are placed on them.

The Titan Phenotype Plasticity Helm eye clusters no longer glow red.

Weekly and daily elemental kill bounties have stopped rotating off of Void.

When overcharging grenades while using the Voidwalker top tree subclass as a Warlock, Super energy stops charging.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

[Bird Noises Intensify]

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It’s been fun watching Hawkmoon clips and montages throughout the Season. With recently introduced random rolls, players have been pushing the limits of this Exotic, taking on 1v1 encounters in the Crucible that they may have otherwise avoided. This week, our top pick not only got a sweet roll on perks, but a killer roll on audio, too!
Movie of the Week: Ting Ting Ting Ting
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Movie of the Week: Deep Stone Lullaby Violin/Piano Cover
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Movie of the Week: …That’s a lot of Hawkmoon
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As always, if you'd like to submit your creation to be featured in a future TWAB, make sure to create a post on the Community Creations portal of Bungie.net.

Credit Where It’s Due

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Every day, we take a moment to scroll through various social media apps to take a look at community artwork. We’re always awestruck by the talents that many of you possess, and eager to share your works with a wider audience.
Here’s a quick roundup of some sweet art, and direct links to their authors. Give them a follow if you want to see more of their stuff!
Art of the Week: Art Sharing

destiny art share!!! spread the positivity, doesn't matter how frequently you do art or how many pieces you've made - post your favorites!! #Destiny2Art #DestinyArtShare pic.twitter.com/bq6hHJrCLD
— 🥀alex🥀🏳️‍🌈 (@miyagiie) January 25, 2021

Art of the Week: Eris

나는야 내일부터 월급쟁이 #냙서 pic.twitter.com/MI6Y6Gi1LY
— 🧅김냘본™🍺 (@NyarNyarbon) January 17, 2021

Cheers, and make sure to tag your content with some form of #Destiny2Art so we can find you easily!
That’s it for this week, folks. Season of the [REDACTED] is almost here. We’ll have some patch previews to cover in the TWAB next week, so stop by if you’re interested!

If this gets 7 likes we'll add a new LZ on Europa next Season.
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 27, 2021

We’ll see you again next week, bright and early on Tuesday morning.
Cheers,
dmg04

This Week At Bungie 2/04/2021

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/50095
This week at Bungie, we revealed Season of the Chosen.
A new Season is upon us. Next week, Season of the Chosen goes live on February 9. Empress Caiatl has arrived to fight against the Hive. She has proposed an alliance, but the cost is too high, and whether he wanted it or not, Zavala is faced with a difficult choice. Check out the trailer to see how that conversation went down.
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We have a whole page dedicated to details about the new Season. Give it a visit to learn about the new private staging ground called the H.E.L.M., our new matchmade Battlegrounds activity, and more.

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Here is the full Seasonal calendar laying out what you can expect from Season of the Chosen, and what dates to carve out for universe saving.

Spoils of War

Season of the Chosen is delivering some shiny new things for you to collect.
We already spilled the beans that for the first time, some of the favorite weapons from Destiny 1 are showing up in Destiny 2 as rewards for completing Nightfall: The Ordeal. Here is the lineup:

The Swarm
Palindrome
Shadow Price

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Nightfall: The Ordeal weapons have a chance to drop at the end of the activity depending on your medal (Platinum, Gold, etc.) and difficulty. Master difficulty will give you the highest chance at a drop of the base versions of these weapons.
Adept difficulty weapons have a chance to drop at the end of a Grandmaster Nightfall when they go live later in the Season. Drop chance also dependent on your medal. Slay enough Champions to hit Platinum and you will have a high chance at an Adept weapon.

Hot Pursuit

Similar to Season of the Hunt, we will have a new Pursuit weapon for you to earn from your quest of choice. Choose between strikes, Crucible, or Gambit to earn the new Breech Loaded Grenade Launcher, Salvager’s Salvo.
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After you have obtained your new tool of destruction you will be able to earn three different ornaments for it from additional quests picked up from Zavala, Lord Shaxx, and the Drifter.

Trials

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You may have already seen some teases of the new rewards for the Trials of Osiris coming with Season of the Chosen. We also have three new Trials weapons.
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Here is another shot of the new armor you will be able to start earning when Trials goes live on February 12.
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Each weapon will also have an Adept version with special mods, you can read more about those here, as well as a special shader that can be applied to any Adept weapon, even the ones from the Grandmaster Nightfall.
For the first week of Trials, armor and adept mods will be in the Flawless Chest. The second week is when you'll have your first chance of the Season to grab an Adept weapon.
Along with these new weapons and armor, Trials has some new cosmetic rewards to show off as well. The Ghost Shell drop chances increases as you win matches and increases when you hit the 3/5/7 win and flawless milestones each week. The ship and Sparrow drop chances increase every time you go flawless. Here is a look at the rewards!
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But wait, there’s more. Season of Chosen has several new additions to your arsenal ready for the taking.
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Cult of Aeon

The team has some cool plans to shake up the Aeon suite of Exotics. Here it is straight from the Destiny Dev team on what you can expect when you equip these arms.

Destiny Dev Team: In redesigning the Aeon Cult Exotic armor pieces, we wanted to lean hard into the idea that these are the Exotics you and your fireteam wear when you really want to work together as a team. With that in mind, we had three main goals for the revamped mechanics:

Create role-based mechanics that reward you for doing the things that your role is supposed to be good at.

Create mechanics that reward other players on your fireteam when you fulfill your role.

Give your fireteam incentive for each player to take on a different role.

Instead of having a single, monolithic Exotic perk to handle this, we opted to take a page out of the Armor 2.0 book and give the Aeon Cult Exotics their own, unique mod socket and mods, which are all unlocked as soon as you acquire the Exotic and each of which is tied to one of the different Aeon Cult roles. These mods are identical across the Exotics for all three classes, so you can choose any role regardless of what class or subclass you are playing.
The three Aeon Cult mods, and their associated mechanics, are as follows:
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Each of these mods has one perk that focuses on the user, and one perk that grants benefits to their allies. Additionally, the second perk includes an extra benefit for anyone in your fireteam that has not chosen the same role, so for maximum efficiency each member of the 3-player fireteam should choose a different mod to reap the most benefits.

Catalyst Comeback

In a previous TWAB discussing the Destiny Content Vault we mentioned that some of the content being vaulted would affect several Exotic weapon catalysts and we would be temporarily removing them while we worked to update their drop and upgrade sources.
Catalysts for the following weapons have had their drop sources and objectives updated to not be associated with Vaulted content:

Bad Juju
Izanagi's Burden
Sleeper Simulant
The Huckleberry
Worldline Zero
Polaris Lance
Telesto
Legend of Acrius
Skyburner's Oath

The catalysts for Whisper of the Worm and Outbreak Perfected are still unobtainable for anyone who hasn’t already earned them and will be added in a future update.

Prime Gaming

Last week, a new set of rewards were made available through Prime Gaming. Once you sign up here and link your Bungie.net account, you can go and claim your rewards. They will be waiting for you in the safe care of Amanda Holliday in the hangar portion of the Tower.

Graviton Lance
Carina Nebula Exotic Weapon Ornament
Cosmos Shell Exotic Ghost Shell
Avalon Courser Legendary Sparrow

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Check back next month and we will have a new shipment of Prime Gaming rewards for you to pick up from Amanda.

ALL GOOD THINGS…

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As the Seasons change our team of experts have the important info you need to know.
This is their report.

SEASONAL TITLES AND BUNGIE REWARDS
Season of the Hunt ends on February 9. View our Update 3.1.0 timeline below for what time it will end, and Season of the Chosen begins.
Before the Season ends, player who earned the Flawless and Conqueror titles should claim and equip them to ensure that they don’t get removed.
Multiple items from Bungie Rewards should also be earned in-game before February 9, 9 AM PST, and claimed on the Bungie Rewards site by February 12, 9 AM PST:

Free Stranger Papercraft Figure

Stasis T-Shirt

Warden Seal Pin (players should equip the title to ensure that it’s earned)

Hawkmoon Mini Replica

ITEM AND QUEST REMOVAL
As we announced earlier this week, before Season of the Hunt ends on February 9, it’s recommended to turn in the following items and quests or they will be removed from player’s inventories or will no longer be able to be used:

Weekly Bounties: Strikes, Crucible, Gambit, Gunsmith, Crow

Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts

Memory Fragments for Stasis

All Crow Bounties

Planetary materials: Alkane Dust, Phaseglass Needles, Seraphite, Simulation Seeds

You will be able to turn these into Spider for Glimmer.

SAVE YOUR HALO DATA
A few weeks ago, we announced that on February 9, the halo.bungie.net website will be taken offline permanently. As a result of this, personal custom Halo avatars that are currently used on Bungie.net will be removed due to the functionality living on halo.bungie.net. We welcome everyone to go to their Bungie.net profile and save their avatars to their computer as we’re exploring options to possibly allow them to be uploaded to your profile in the future.
Additionally, we welcome everyone to save their Halo stats and files on halo.bungie.net however they wish, such as using screenshots, saving the pages to your PC, or using third-party archive sites.

SDR CONSOLE UPDATE
Steam Datagram Relay is coming to consoles during Season of the Chosen, but we need to do more testing and fixes before it's ready to go live.
SDR is used to mitigate against DDOS attacks. You can learn more about it from a previous TWAB.

UPDATE 3.1.0 AND MAINTENANCE TIMELINE
Next Tuesday, February 9, maintenance for Update 3.1.0 will begin. Below is a timeline of events:

8 AM PST (1600 UTC): Maintenance begins.

8:45 AM PST (1645 UTC): Players are removed from activities. Destiny 2 is brought offline.

9 AM PST (1700 UTC): Update 3.1.0 will be available across all platforms and regions. Players will be able to log back into Destiny 2.

10 AM PST (1800 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude.

Below are some issues that will be resolved with Update 3.1.0. A complete list will be shared when the update goes live.

The Crucible Valor and Gambit Infamy New Light quests can now be completed after resetting ranks.

Ahamkara Bones will now spawn in the Agonarch Abyss and Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenges.

Triumphs: Lore of Luna, Wisdom of the Witch, Run the Gauntlet in Cimmerian Garrison.

The Altar of Sorrows bosses will now rotate each day.

The Warsat Public Event in the Cosmodrome’s Mothyards will now count toward bounties.

The lift tube in the Warden of Nothing strike will now open for every player.

The boss from The Insight Terminus strike will now always teleport away after scanning the Vex terminal.

Lake of Shadows will no longer become blocked if players bypass trigger volumes.

Sturm will once again reload any equipped Energy slot weapon on kills.

Merciless will once again increase its charge rate on non-lethal hits.

Thunderlord, Reckless Oracle, and other weapons will once again render their scope and/or reticle.

KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

We continue to investigate PC FPS and Stuttering issues.

The Lightseeker Triumph is not unlocking after players have found all weekly feathers for the "Bird of Prey" quest, and feathers no longer appear after completing the Bird of Prey quest.

The black Blight Orbs left behind by the High Celebrant won't open portals if shot by Sidearms, and sometimes won’t open when in a fireteam.

We’re continuing to investigate various error codes, including ARUGULA and PRUNE.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Big Screen

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It’s about time we watch some movies, right? Let's get to it, no reason for me to dilly dally on about nothing. Just rambling and taking up time when we could be enjoying popcorn and flashing lights. Speaking of flashing lights, wait... what was I talking about? Oh right, here are the winners.
Movie of the Week: Titans vs Taniks
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Movie of the Week: Journey
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This week’s winners will be receiving a special MOTW emblem to show off to the world. If you are one of the winners, congratulations! Please make sure you post a link to your Bungie.net profile in the description of the video.
As always, if you'd like to submit your creation to be featured in a future TWAB, make sure to create a post on the Community Creations portal of Bungie.net.

Expression

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Damn I love me some Destiny art. It’s always a great time scrolling through all of beautiful creations from the sea of talented artists in this community.
Let’s share some love for these artists’ beautiful creations.
Art of the Week: Crow

pic.twitter.com/zIs607knc0
— 젬 Gem (@gemkimart) February 3, 2021

Art of the Week: Stalk thy prey

Stalk thy prey and let loose thy talons upon the Darkness. #destinyart #Destiny2 pic.twitter.com/SI21bhabWj
— Kim Mihok (@hapicatART) January 28, 2021

If you see your art above, congratulations! Please make sure you reply to your post with a link to you bungie.net account and we will ship your emblem to you.
Here we are, the last TWAB of the Season. It’s always and exciting time when new Destiny content is only a few sleeps away. With new story content, a new strike, two strikes from the DCV, a new matchmade activity, [Redacted] and so much more, this Season is jam-packed. We will see you on the Battlegrounds.
Season of the Chosen, I choo choo choose you.
<3 Cozmo

Call of Duty: Mobile - February 12th Community Update

300-400 Viewer Average and Partner in 5 Months Here is my Advice

Just yesterday I hit ~~free twitch turbo~~ partner on twitch after roughly 5 months of streaming (somewhat) consistently. Today I'm hoping to share some decent advice and give my own (learned) opinion on some of the frequent yet not always useful tips shared around here.
Before writing this I did a cursory search through the subreddit for frequently asked questions so hopefully this answers most of the ones that I myself have any experience to answer.
My simple request: I'm not going to be posting any links to my stream or anything but if you go out of your way to find it please don't follow/subscribe to the channel unless you are genuinely interested. Thanks big boss.

Should you stream?

If I have to read another thread or comment of a person asking if they should stream I am going to scream. What do you people expect to hear? Yes, please stream the world needs you, you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams and have all the clout to have ever been cloutted.
I know people who usually type out questions like that probably don't read posts but here is a hack I've used to answer my own dumb questions through out the years. Say that shit out loud and respond to it like someone asked you the question. Nine times out of ten, you end up answering it yourself and on the off-chance you actually don't you should have a more actionable question.
Example: Instead of asking "should I stream?" you end up realizing the only thing holding you back is having no mic or something. The question then becomes "I want to stream what's a good cheap mic?". Which is a lot better and doesn't make people want to pelt you with rocks.
For those of you who ask "should I stream or is it a waste of time?" please, I BEG YOU, stop. Most of the shit you do is a waste of time, you either want to stream or don't. Make a decision based on that.

Webcam, do you need one?

This question is asked so often that I see it every time I come on the subreddit. Unsurprisingly, the answer is always the same as well, yes you do.
However I disagree.
I have never streamed with a webcam, not a single time, yet I'm still here and somehow managed to get partnered.
Now, I know why every one parrots the same advice, it is because the people making tip threads, youtube videos, etc., all say to use a webcam. Harris Heller said it once and I'm pretty sure that was enough for the people who copy and paste what he says in text threads here to become their mantra.
The truth is, all that matters is the content. Ask yourself do you do/want to do a lot of react/just chatting content? If so, you probably want a webcam since your content will focus around reacting to content. Lirik doesn't use face-cam because his content is his gameplay and commentary, not his face. Corpse literally blew up and is famous for not showing his face (even though he is still a personality).
I know the whole "Lirik doesn't use a face cam" argument is going to be met with people saying "exception not the rule!!!" but seriously, just use your head. Half the people you watch probably don't need face cams. MoonMoon probably doesn't need a face cam, Critikal didn't have a face cam until he already had over a million subs on youtube, schlatt didn't either, Dream doesn't, AdmiralBahroo doesn't, almost every DBD streamer I watch doesn't, just think for yourself.
The point I'm trying to drive home here is not just that a webcam isn't required, but also you need to look at what you want to create and decide for yourself.
Edit: I saw someone say somewhere that you need a webcam for sponsors. That's cap. I've had a sponsor and nobody has seen this ugly mug.

Equipment in general

People like saying that they need this this and that before they start streaming. This is just stalling. Until last month I hadn't owned a desktop PC my whole life. Before that it was just laptops and using my phone to read chat or look up things. You obviously need SOME equipment to start, i.e. a computer and some form of internet connection, but that doesn't mean you need to pick up a shure, a streamdeck, 4 monitors, 6 consoles, and whatnot.
Here is my setup. Keep in mind I literally just upgraded this last month after saving up for several months:

Blue Yeti: Hell ya baby got a free game with it too so I'm for sure pleased with this purchase. Edit: I recommend shopping around for mics since the yeti isn't as much of a "get this for streaming" mic as it once was. Plenty of good options out there for cheaper
Two BenQ monitors: Like I said, I was using my phone for chat but that got old fast. These monitors are cheap and 144hz. There are some color issues but eff it I barely notice anymore
Streamer PC from NZXT: My old laptop was from 2016 and made editing literal hell. Averaged 3 crashes every time I would try and render (and the renders took about an hour). Upgrading to this was the most worth purchase I've ever made. Also, the streamer PC got upgraded since I purchased, so you can grab a 2070 instead of the 2060 ti like I have :)
Red Dragon Keyboard and Mouse: I'm a cheap ass so when I see light up peripherals for like 40 bucks total I am sold.
Earbuds: Legit don't know the brand. I stole them from my sister like a year ago. I prefer these over a headset anyway since I don't want that gamer dent lmao

For those of you who are probably saying "GROSS A PRE-BUILT" remember that part prices are actual aids right now, not to mention the availability of even finding good parts. If you have the cash go pre-built that shit is amazing.
My recommendation:
Stay with your shitty set-up as long as possible but make sure to pick up a good mic first. Big streamers (looking at you Ludwig) shit on the Yeti, but straight facts all you need is to EQ that shit a lil bit and nobody will bat an eye. You don't have to pick up the Yeti (there are lots of cheaper options) but that's just the one I and many others have gotten since it is reliably a good ass mic.
Audio <- chat engagement <- pc upgrade

YouTube

How many people have to tell you bums to focus on YouTube before you do it? Twitch sucks ass. I'll say it, i'm brave. No discoverability, especially to those of you at the very bottom. Make a goddamn YouTube and start pumping out videos, it is not hard.
Ludwig made a power point on how to be a streamer that talks about a few things but the most important point of all was what he said on creating content for stream/YouTube. This isn't the exact timestamp but it do be close: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/896089267?t=01h24m14s
That advice is coming from a top streamer who also has over a million subs on YouTube by almost exclusively taking twitch vods and editing them for YouTube.
As for getting views on your videos here is my advice from my personal experiences:

Thumbnail and title are important but there are outliers that can thrive without doing shit. One guy I saw has their most watched video (over 250k views) with a title like "[game] [character] gameplay" and the literal default thumbnail that youtube makes. AND to top that off it was just a VOD from their twitch channel.
Audience retention matters. There is a reason massive YouTubers have these weird zoom in pans and flamboyant gestures all the time. Lots of movement and noises keep our tiny attention spans happy and frequently cutting is usually the key to success, although don't overuse it. I do very light edits and have been growing but that's more of my personal preference rather than a growth strategy.
Respond and engage. If you have one comment on your video and they are complimenting you, why aren't you responding? This is by far the easiest way to get someone to continue to engage with you and trust me, that is the most important thing in the algorithms eyes.

My understanding of YouTube

So obviously, clickthrough rate and audience retention are the things that are constantly brought up when talking about gaining more views and what not, but I am fairly comfortable in saying that there are other metrics that you should be paying attention to.
Let me hit you with a something that would make Dream shake in his boots. I don't subscribe to anyone on YouTube. *gasp*
The reason for that being, I almost always have the videos I want to see on my home page. I never have to go, "wonder if x YouTuber made a video" since YouTube knows I watch and enjoy their stuff. The question for most people being, how does YouTube know what people like and how does it suggest it to them? Basically, by seeing how often people engage with your content AND also what type of content you create. (although keep in mind, youtube tries to throw new videos at you a lot as well, these are usually in-line with content you engage with though)
For engagement, think of it as like affinity points in a video game but in reverse. Before you get to bang that smoking hot sim, you got to woo them. Every time someone likes your video they get a point, every time they comment they get two, every subscription counts as like 10, watching an entire video might be 20, etc. Obviously, these are made up values but I hope you follow what I'm putting down here. Once they get enough points you start showing up more in their home page.
I know this because I have a different account on my phone that doesn't have the same suggestions as my main account because I watch different things on my PC than my phone. However, I do like to look at the comments while I'm taking a dump or something. Problem was, my videos were rarely every recommended. I solved this easily by liking a couple videos. I didn't even watch them, just liked and read comments. LITERALLY NOT EVEN SUBSCRIBED AND I GET NOTIFICATIONS ON MY PHONE SOMETIMES WHEN A VIDEO DOES WELL!
In other words, by getting people to like and comment on your videos you are almost guaranteeing they see future videos from you.
Now, keep in mind, engagement is only a small portion of the whole pie. And even though you might engage with a content creator often, there is still a chance you miss some of their videos because of one other reason, the content's genre.

Content Genre

You might have noticed this phenomenon on various different creators YouTubes, but sometimes they create a video that bombs. Usually, this happens when they create something outside of their niche. This could be as simple as changing games, or as radical as changing the entire direction of the channel. Even if you engage like crazy with a creator, if they change the content enough, you won't get that shit recommended to you.
This is the main reason some creators have several channels and why some even get pigeonholed to one type of content. The reality of it is, if you build your audience on one piece of content and then want to change it, you will be fighting an uphill battle. One of the best ways to fight that is to diversify early OR better yet, emphasize your personality over the content. Jschlatt shits views and he does whatever the hell he wants really. Same goes for jacksepticeye, markiplier, Ludwig, Critikal, XQC, and numerous other creators.
That being said, doing one game/genre isn't a bad strategy either. A metric fuck ton of OfflineTv's videos are the same game. DisguisedToast played Hearthstone on repeat, then switched to TFT, THEN switched to among us, and his videos absolutely kill. Valkyrae is one of the biggest streamers period and all she does is play/upload among us and rust. Then of course we have all the minecraft streamers too.
It's really up to you to decide, but I'd recommend going towards personality content since that allows the most flexibility.

Other Social Media (Twitter, IG, etc)

Lots of people here seem to think that they don't have time to do YouTube or some other BS they think up as an excuse, so they think that twitter, instagram, tiktok, etc are all ways to grow. Trust me, they are not good ways to grow.
These are all stupid treadmills that trick you into thinking you're doing something when in reality you aren't moving the needle by much if by any at all. Posting ten dumb tweets and reposting memes on IG seem "productive" if you frame it in the light of "content creation" but the two people that see all of these things don't really give a shit. Spend that time working on a video for YouTube.
Don't give me this "I don't have time" bullshit. Do small videos and work yourself up, become better and faster. Perfectionism is a cute word for procrastination.
Ok, now that I took a shit on them so hopefully, you won't grind on them all day, these are still ways to grow and are important. Having multiple platforms for fans to communicate and engage with you is always a good idea, but don't spread yourself so thin early on when nobody knows who you are. Prioritize the thing that will get eighty percent of your results.
I personally have a discord for people to come and chat in. Thing is, I had no intention of doing so because I don't really use discord that much. The only reason it exists is that people kept asking for it in the comments on my YouTube videos so I made one.
TL;DR: Don't put the cart before the horse :)
Edit: Oh ya I forgot to mention. TikTok is trash for growth. I won't mention names cuz that's probably toxic(?) but there is someone signed on luminosity who has 690k TikTok followers and 95k YouTube subscribers who barely cracks 100 views on Twitch and has a hard time getting over 1k on YouTube. So don't go thinking TikTok leads to immense fame ya darn kids

Hosting/Raiding

Getting hosted/raided means actual jack. I remember pretty clearly when I had like ten viewers, I got hosted by someone with twenty-five or something. I think only one person ended up saying anything in the chat to me about it and although some stayed for the entire stream, by the time I went live again I lost all of the people who were in the host. This seems to be something others have mentioned as well, you won't retain almost any views from hosts/raids.
Edit: Please do try raiding/hosting or otherwise networking with other streamers at least once. Your mileage may vary and it could end up blowing up your channel. Who knows?
Edit edit: Having something that you can do during the stream is huge when getting hosted/raided. Most of the time, if not all of the time, a streamer is ENDING their stream and sending viewers to you rather than timing it for your own content. So if you are doing something uninteresting or are in the middle of something you are going to get less retention than if you did something crazy to impress the newcomers. In other words, having a strategy for hosting/raiding growth is key.

Speaking on stream

This seems to be something a lot of people struggle with on Twitch since so many people ask how to do it when nobody is watching/chatting. Coming from someone who had this problem, the answer is pretty simple, talk for the content not the chat.
What I mean by this is you should be focusing on your content more than the chat. Since I play games, what I do is just say some shit about whats happening on screen and sometimes say something that is hopefully funny. Pick up a garbage item? Say something about how garbage the item is, ez.
If you're streaming to NO VIEWERS you shouldn't be streaming to stream anyway. What you should be doing is making a YouTube video in the hopes of getting viewers to watch your stream. The only way to do that is to have good content planned out that should effectively act as your script. Again, Ludwigs stream on this is good (it'll probably be a video soon) so make sure to check it out.
A more recent problem I've had was just how much I engaged with chat (suffering from success I know). When I went to edit the videos I had to cut large swathes of the video because I was just chatting to people. Make sure to avoid this when you are actually trying to get content out for YouTube as it can mess up the flow of a video and make it harder to edit. You still can chat with people just make sure not to go overboard. Again, Ludwig is a perfect example of this, just look at his videos and streams and notice the difference between the two.

Streaming as a job/hobby

I hate this dumb argument of streaming isn't your hobby or twitch isn't your job. You have 24 hours in the day, subtract 8 for sleeping and depending on your job, 9 for work. All that extra time can be spent doing whatever the fuck you want. Want to get big and make money streaming? Do work. Want to just stream while you're playing games anyway? Do that.
IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL AT SOMETHING YOU PUT IN THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT REQUIRED TO DO SO! So stop telling people it has to be a hobby or it has to be a job. It can be either for christ's sake.

Partner difference

I have a checkmark which makes me a better person.
No, but seriously, partner doesn't really do much other than add more emote slots and some quality options. Also, you don't gain extra cash as a partner either. I don't have the mystical bounty board or god-tier split, just the checkmark to flex baby.

Opinion on affiliate

Devin Nash made a video about how affiliate is a scam, which is kinda true but only for people with no viewers. Having the sub button is huge and even when I was small small, affiliate gave me a couple hundred bucks a month for no effort on my part. Patreon is probably better though, no lie.

Twitch "grind"

If you stream 5+ hours a day without making content that lives somewhere else please form a neat line so I can smack you all. People saying they have no time drives me nuts, but when they also "grind" all day AND say that, it makes me want to punch air.

Stream YouTube friendly content
Stop stream and edit content
Upload and plug twitch in the video
repeat

That is the only "grind" you should be on. Affiliate is stupid if the 3 viewers you have are all just you on a different ipad.

Luck

You know what? Maybe PewDiePie got lucky and that's how he is such a big YouTuber. Maybe early twitch streamers got all their views because they were early adopters. Or maybe these people only got lucky because they showed up and actually put the effort in.
There are plenty of videos on my channel that looked like flops at first. They got like a couple of hundred views and didn't do well. However, after continuously publishing, a whole bunch of them ended up blowing up and becoming some of the most-watched. Without publishing more videos they would have ended up dead in the water. Consistency > luck.
I don't believe too much in luck when it comes to doing very simple things (LIKE MAKING A YOUTUBE VIDEO) but you literally cannot win the lottery if you do not purchase a ticket, it's that simple.

Editing Software

A couple of people asked this so I thought I should add it here. I use davinci resolve for my videos. Previously, I used hitfilm or something like that I can't quite remember the name, but I had to switch because they don't allow you to have split audio channels (i.e. one for desktop audio and one for mic audio).
I've literally never touched any paid software like premier or anything because, again, I'm a cheap ass.

What should you upload to YouTube?

Seriously just look at Ludwig, smallant, DisguisedToast, literally every top Twitch streamer with a YouTube. All three of the people I just mentioned are over one million subs on YT and are top streamers, so they are definitely doing something right.
In terms of off-stream content, guides are king. If you're a small YT channel with ZERO subs you can still get thousands of views by hitting the search algorithm of YT. My first 3 videos were uncut gameplay, guide video, guide video, in that order. Guess which ones have tens of thousands of views and which has less than a thousand? Guide videos are insane for small channels.
Edit: Actually, let's just call it searchable content. Searchable content is king

Ending notes

I think that's about it for this post. Hopefully, I covered everything although I doubt I did. If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them and will probably edit the good ones into the post.

If we're kneecapping Samira for having a high banrate what about Darius?

[Video Games] "Too many swordsmen, are there?" The drama over Byleth joining the roster of Super Smash Bros Ultimate

What's Smash?

One of the premier fighting game franchises of all time, Super Smash Bros is a party series published by gaming giant Nintendo which sees characters from their various franchises (alongside several third-party characters) coming together for some family-friendly violence. Beginning with the original title in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, Smash has seen several outings in the years since, such as the iconic Melee for the Gamecube, Brawl for the Wii, the unoriginally named Smash 4 for the WiiU and 3DS, and the most recent title, Ultimate, which released on the Switch in 2018. Ultimate was seen as a huge celebration for the franchise, boasting that EVERYONE IS HERE- all seventy + fighters, ranging from staples of the original game to guest fighters and DLC, were in the launch roster. Helmed by Masahiro Sakurai, Smash is a household name and staple for parties worldwide, with Ultimate being one of the highest-selling fighting games in the world at over 12 million units sold.

What's Fire Emblem?

Fire Emblem is Nintendo's forray into strategy- a turn based fantasy seires that's one of the longer-running staples of the company with its roots in 1990 for the Famicom. Despite a lot of pushing from Nintendo, Fire Emblem failed to take off in the West for many years, with the future of the franchise being uncertain after several successive commercial flops in the 2000s. With the franchise risking cancellation if it failed to find a market, the team made a Hail-Mary pass of epic proportions thanks to Fire Emblem Awakening in 2013- a launch title for the 3DS that finally marked the series getting a foothold in the West. Since then, the series has released three big games: Fates, which wasn't very good due to pulling a Pokemon and cutting the game into three separate releases and having an awful story, Heroes, a free to play mobile game, and Three Houses, which saw the series move to the Nintendo Switch. In Three Houses, you play as Byleth, a mercenary hired to teach one of three classes in a military academy that are all led by House Lords- Edlegard, Dimitri and Claude. Three Houses combined Persona-style time management for social interactions with the tactical gameplay of the series, and was a critical success for the company, selling over 3 million units.

Smash and Fire Emblem's shared history

Fire Emblem and Smash have a tied history, due to Smash being part of the reason the series even began releasing in the West (Fire Emblem had such a small presense before this that a lot of people unironically thought Marth and Ike were original characters made just for the game). Two characters, Roy(Who's also our boi) and Marth, were playable in Melee, with their popularity leading to Nintendo beginning localisation efforts of the other games. Since then, Fire Emblem has gotten consistent additional represetation in each mainline title:

Brawl added Ike, protagonist of Path of Radiance and its sequel, Radiant Dawn. His massive two-handed sword and battle cry of "GREAT AETHER" made him stand out as a fun battler, with high damage potential but a weak mobility selection to balance him.
3DS/WiiU would bring back Marth, Ike and Roy, alongside newcomers Robin and Lucina from Awakening and, post-launch, Corrin from Fates as a DLC fighter. The Mii Fighter would also get an outfit themed on Awakening's co-protagonist Chrom as DLC.
Ultimate would launch with all prior Fire Emblem characters as part of the launch roster with a new addition- Chrom making the transition from Mii Fighter to Echo Fighter (the game's term for characters who are moveset clones, in this case for Roy while Lucina was officially made an Echo Fighter for Marth). Ultimate also saw a large collection of music from the series being available alongside three stages.

Perhaps one of the largest showings of how tied together the two series are, especially regarding FE getting off the ground in the West, can be seen in the announcement trailer for a re-release of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the first game in the series as part of 30th anniversary celebrations. The trailer shows two young boys playing Melee and wondering where Roy and Marth are from, leading to them discovering Fire Emblem at large.
It's at the launch of Ultimate, before the DLC released, that I'd like to dovetail and cover some of the tensions between Smash and Fire Emblem, alongside the post-launch support Ultimate got.

Smash fans vs Fire Emblem Fans: A Short History

Smash fans and Fire Emblem fans don't get along a lot of the time, it must be said (though Smash fans don't get along with anyone very well). Many Smash fans blame FE as the reason for Smash's roster being stereotyped as "Anime swordboys," due to Nintendo almost entirely drawing from the sword-fighting leads of the series instead of an axe or lance fighter. (Hector from Blazing Blade is often called an example of what a more atypical Smash rep would be due to wielding a large axe). While most of the fighters try and do different things mechanically (Robin is almost entirely a spellcaster for instance, while Corrin can turn into a dragon), that Chrom and Lucina were both moveset clones didn't help this perception.
Many other Nintendo franchise fans aren't happy additionally at how Fire Emblem gets blatant preferential treatment by Nintendo. While it is justified as them wanting to show off the new FE games in each Smash title, that Fire Emblem is all but guaranteed to get new Smash rep every time a new game releases has embittered fans of older franchises that Nintendo hasn't given as much love lately (especially F-Zero, Metroid, Golden Sun and more). Sakurai being an open Fire Emblem fan hasn't helped the perception of an inherent bias for FE, though this is usually countered by the low representation for the Kirby and Kid Icarus franchises despite Sakurai's own roles in them.
By Ultimate, a growing sentiment is that Fire Emblem is getting over-represented, as with the addition of Chrom it was now the third-most represented series in Smash after only Mario and Pokemon. Given FE's niche status in the West for most of this time, fans weren't very happy at this, partly for the aforementioned reason of wanting their own favorite franchises to get a new fighter (Metroid fans at least got a bone when Ridley joined the Ultimate roster and when Dark Samus became an Echo Fighter for Samus).

Ultimate's Fighter Pass 1: HOES MAD

Following Ultimate's launch, Nintendo released a season pass for five characters who would be added post-launch. Smash getting new fighters is notable not just because it means a new fighter and that franchise getting the prestige of saying it got into Smash, but because it means new music that can be used (unless you're Cloud) during matches. For the most part, the DLC fighters got really positive reactions due to the majority being unexpected third-party choices. Case in point, most players never saw it coming when during the Game Awards 2018, the first fighter would be revealed to be Joker from Persona 5. He'd be followed in 2019 by three more reveals: Dragon Quest's Hero, representing the more iconic protagonists in the legendary JRPG franchise, Banjo and Kazooie from the cult Microsoft series, and Terry Bogard from the SNK franchise (shout out to Sakurai's history lesson that's pretending to be a showcase for Terry, which also involves Sakurai's story of how they got 50 tracks from the SNK games into Smash)
Also Sans from Undertale got in. This unironically led to an increase in Mii Gunner mains.
Terry and Hero would generate some salt in the West due to perceived antiquity and lack of pedegree/mainstream appeal (Hero being "another anime sword boy" didn't help), leading to a mocking response of HOES MAD from Hero's fans especially, though Terry's got in on the fun thanks to the pun involving Terry's home series, Fatal Fury.
Thanks to the four characters seen thus far, the expectation was that Fighters Pass 1 would be made entirely of third party characters, and as January 2020 rolled around the expectations were high as to who would get in. Sora from Kingdom Hearts was a popular choice, alongside Geno from the Mario RPG series. Some dumbasses even wanted Tracer from Overwatch, partly thanks to Blizzard all but openly begging Nintendo for a Smash invite. The one with the most consistent support was Dante from the Devil May Cry series. And a few accidental coincidences boosted the idea of Dante getting in:

Dante's first three games had been ported to the Switch during Fighter Pass 1, with Devil May Cry 3 releasing in February 2020 soon after the final character was announced.
Brian Hanford, who played V in Devil May Cry 5, had a slip of the tongue where he talked about Dante in the context of Smash (“to be part of Marvel Vs Capcom, or Super Smash Bros., would be huge, which is what Dante is gonna be,”), leading many to believe Brian had leaked Dante as the fifth fighter.
Dante was experiencing a large-scale renaissance in popularity thanks to DMC 5 launching in early 2019, leading to him being on everyone's minds when it came to him joining the roster. Adding in his experience in fighting games already thanks to the Marvel vs Capcom games, it seemed set in stone that Dante would join the hallowed halls of Smash.
To hype up the final character, Sakurai posed with three fingers outstretched. DMC fans took this as a hint of Dante, given that DMC 3 would be coming soon to Switch.
On the same day as the character reveal, Capcom had planned a DMC announcement (it turned out to be an announcement that the game would have a co-op mode for Dante and Vergil in Bloody Palace).

With expectations set high, everyone tuned in on January 16th 2020 to see the final Season 1 character... and it was Byleth, the player character of Three Houses.
Another fucking Fire Emblem rep. The internet took it well, as you'd expect. Dante's fans just resorted to sad memes and jokes about one of Byleth's alt skins being "close enough" to let them pretend Byleth was Dante.

Smash likes to date around, and Fire Emblem is that girl that he always goes back to.
Byleth Joins The Roster: The Salt Mines Floweth

Byleth's announcement generates some of the most negative reactions to a Smash fighter yet seen, boasting the largest like-dislike ratios of Ultimate's DLC, and only matched for disliked announcements across the entire franchise by Corrin.
A lot of people weren't happy at Byleth's inclusion, suffice to say, though like Terry and Hero the HOES MAD crowd came back for another go around. It didn't help how utterly predictable it was given it was a historical recreation of Corrin's inclusion in WiiU/3DS. While Byleth had been predicted, many expected the mechanical variance would be that Byleth would function similar to the Pokemon Trainer (who swaps between the Gen 1 Pokemon) in that Byleth would command Claude, Dimitri and Edlegard from the sidelines. Instead, Byleth had four weapons- three representing each of the House Leaders alongside their own custom whip-sword, the Sword of the Creator. That being said, at least Nintendo were somewhat self aware about it this time, given the reveal had supporting character Sothis mock Byleth for losing a fight by going "Too many swordsmen, were there?" as a way to reveal that Byleth's female variant would join the roster.
While Byleth did offer some mechanical variety from the other FE reps, some were disappointed that Byleth specifically was representing Three Houses, due to Byleth's personality not being one of their selling points. Perhaps it would have been more preferable to have one of the House Leaders instead represent the game, but given how any one being selected would have been seen as favoritism of the Leaders (and the arguments about said Leaders being quite vicious), Byleth was the safest choice, if perhaps the most predictable. Fans of Xenoblade 2 were also unhappy at clear bias on Sakurai's part, given he'd previously said Rex, the MC, was from too new a game to qualify for a roster slot in Ultimate. In comparrison, Sakurai admitted in his presentation of Byleth that he pestered the developers to get early access copies of Three Houses to get to plan out Byleth's moveset, which only helped the idea of Fire Emblem operating on different rules from other series.
Overall, Byleth was seen as a disappointing inclusion to wrap up the Fighters Pass, with the announcement honestly being more notable for the memes about the salt over the character themself. (My favorites were the ones about Joker adding yet another teacher to his harem) After the shock reveals from relatively niche series such as Persona and SNK, Byleth was generally felt to be an overwhelmingly safe option to close on. While Sakurai did announce Fighters Pass 2 in the same event, promising six more DLC characters for Ultimate, a lot of fans from different franchises were still let down given how unpredictable the first wave had been.

Fighters Pass 2 and the Byleth aftermath

Byleth would launch a few weeks later and the reception was largely "Yeah they're fine," after an initial launch of "Yeah you're fuckin' overtuned and overpowered." They got some people who main them, others swore off them, much like any other DLC character in a fighting game, and the salt gradually diminished.
In February of 2020, Sakurai would tacitly admit during a Famitsu article about Byleth's development that he was aware of the criticism about the addition, saying that he doesn't have as much power over roster choices as people like to believe (Byleth apparently snubbed a fighter he was much more enthusiastic about) but that he agreed that there were a few too many sword fighters and Fire Emblem representatives specifically in the game. Given Sakurai has said Smash will never have a roster as large as Ultimate again, it's likely some of Fire Emblem's representation will be cut down in future games as part of this culling.

That being said, I understand. First and foremost: there are too many Fire Emblem characters; and what’s more there are too many sword-users.

So far, three of the six planned characters for Fighter's Pass 2 have been released, with Min-Min from the Arms series coming first, Steve from Minecraft literally breaking Twitter (Steve's addition could be a post of its own with how much salt he generated) and the OG Anime Sword Boy, the One Winged Angel himself in Sephiroth being announced at the Game Awards 2020. We're still waiting for updates on when the fourth fighter will be revealed and who they may be, but regardless of who it is, there will always be a few mad hoes in the background.
Also Geno finally got into Smash!... As a Mii skin which led to the character's fanbase collectively reaching for a noose. These hoes weren't even that mad, it was mostly just sad.
Still. At least it's better than whatever the Walluigi mains are up to.
Thanks for reading.

[Match Thread] Granada vs FC Barcelona [La Liga]

Lessons I learnt the long/hard way, so you don't have to.

	Barça	Granada
GOALS	4	0
Attempts	14	8
On target	4	4
Offsides	1	2
Corners	1	4
Fouls	3	16
Yellows	3	2
Possession	73%	23%

Update Thank you for all the comments below. I've tried to include as many tips and fail safes you have mentioned, in this post. I do recommend people read the comments as I may have missed some.
Firstly, thank you to this excellent community my PC is now built and working (pics to come in another post). I thought here are some lessons I learnt in building the PC, researching and other bits I thought would be worth sharing, as a lot of this I never had even heard about. Some will be obvious and others less so. I should note, that I'm not a pro or someone who does this regularly, just someone who spent a while reading around, so feel free to correct/highlight any mistakes, and I'll try to update the post. The descriptions, aren't really meant to be a full lesson about each part and will be lacking a lot of detail, but are more a jumping board for further reading if anyone is interested. For full information on building a PC I highly recommend looking around on YouTube and other sources.
If I get anything wrong, please correct me and I'll update.
On Monitors:

If you are after 144Hz 1440p gaming, use a Display Port (DP) cable, not a HDMI, if you can. As you could be hampering your refresh rate, (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/features/displayport-vs-hdmi-better-for-gaming) Update Although you could be fine if you are using HDMI 2.1, see link for more details
Freesync vs Gsync. For simplicity, both these technologies aim to match performance on screen with your GPU. Freesync works with Radeon, GSync with NVidia (although some Freesync monitors will be GSync compatible, likewise for the otherway around). It's complicated and due to changes in the standards over the years it can vary from monitor to monitor. Make sure to do research on the specific monitor you're wanting to get/have. If you are buying a new monitor keep this in mind. https://www.viewsonic.com/library/entertainment/g-sync-vs-free-sync-explained UpdateAccording to comments freesync monitors will almost always work with Nvidia. As always, do read around about it.
Windows by default is set to have a refresh rate of 60Hz, if you have a higher spec monitor you can change this to match your monitor in "Advanced Display settings".

RAM (All except point 1 was completely new to me)

2 Sticks of 8GB Ram will perform better than 1 stick of 16GB Ram (https://techguided.com/single-channel-vs-dual-channel-vs-quad-channel/). Also when installing them, put them in the correct channels, check your Motherboard for details.
Your motherboard will prefer your dual channel RAM to be in specific slots. I had an issue where I couldn't get the maximum performance of my RAM which I had placed in slots 1 and 3, but the moment I put them in 2 and 4 it worked perfectly. Check your motherboard manual.
Enable XMP in Bios (This might also be called DOCP or A-XMP). This will vary between motherboards, but if you don't your 3200MHz ram is likely running a lot slower. In my build, XMP wouldn't work till I put the RAM in the correct channels, hope this saves someone the hours I spent finding this out ;) Update You can use Task manager to verify you have done this correctly. 3b. Someone pointed this out XMP may void your CPU's processor (https://community.amd.com/t5/processors/xmp-profile-ram-3200-mhz-and-amd-warranty-policy-for-ryzen/td-p/145798) (https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/XMP-Warranty-void/td-p/1196241). If anyone knows any more, please message me directly so I can add the details. This was mentioned by someone in the comments and I would rather pass the information and ask you to do your own checking as well.
When picking RAM, frequency matters, but so does CAS Latency. You want high frequency but low CAS (CL) latency. I'd recommend doing more reading about it, if you want to know more I'd recommend doing some more reading, but the "true latency" can be calculated as TL = CL * 2000/Freq. E.g. CL 18 3600Mhz Ram has a TL of 10ns. Update Someone who actually knows what they are talking about found point (4) confusing if not perhaps misguided and I recommend you read their post here (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtdudd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Ensure the speed of the RAM is compatible with the board you are looking to purchase (or visa versa).
Motherboards will have Qualified Vendor Lists, listing RAM they have tested and certified to work. This may be worth looking at. Just because your RAM isn't on the list doesn't mean it won't work, or won't overclock, it just means it hasn't been certified to, so do take this into consideration. (I found this in my build, while it was from Crucial and some Crucial RAM was on the QVL, mine wasn't. Thankfully it was fine.)

Motherboards

Newer processors (e.g. at time of writing many AMD motherboards require a bios update for the 5000 series AMD CPU) may require you to install a new BIOS before they can be detected. Not all motherboards can have their bios updated without a CPU installed. When shopping for your motherboard looking to see if it does USB Bios flashback should be considered. This was completely new to me and glad I learnt it in time.*Addition* Newer motherboards don't require bios updates and so won't need this feature, though you will have to check.
Different mother boards are compatible with different CPUs, pick your CPU first
CPU coolers may need different mountings depending on the CPU. When picking your cooler keep this in mind, you may need to ensure there is an adaptor. Additions from the comments
Not all mother boards have connectors for front IO USB-C. If this is important to you and part of your case, it's worth looking into.
Using an M.2 usually disables some of your SATA ports. If you are planning on using all your SATA ports, make sure to check to see if this happens and how it happens on your chosen mother board.
Some motherboards are built with Debug LEDs now that will help you diagnose problems.
If you are after RGB effects, ensure your motherboard is compatible with the effects you want to add. There are 5V and 12V headers, so make sure they match. I'd recommend looking into this more yourself, as I've likely vastly oversimplified. (https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?110272-What-do-5v-and-12v-RGB-cables-look-like-you-ask#:%7E:text=You%20can%20also%20see%20the,as%20shown%20on%20these%20photos)

CPU

Some CPU's have integrated graphics. If you don't want to buy a dedicated graphics card, you need to purchase one of these CPU's. You then plug your monitor into the motherboard.
CPU's have a Thermal Design Power, if you are not using the stock cooler read up on it (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/tdp-thermal-design-power-definition,5764.html)

Component compatibility

Make sure all your components are compatible. PC Part Picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/) is generally pretty good at this. If uncertain, this is a wonderful community to ask.

Power supply

PC Part Picker gives you a good idea as to how much power your system will need, if not check the graphics card you intend to buy. Not all machines need a 1000W behemoth. Picking the right one will save you money
Power supplies come with a rating standard e.g. Bronze+ etc..., this is basically their efficiency. (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/what-80-plus-levels-mean,36721.html). I think it's safe to suggest people should at least go for Bronze.
Make sure your PSU fits in your case. I bought an ATX PSU, then decided on the 011 Dynamic Mini case, only realise it needed a SFX (smaller) PSU. I ended up going for a different case. Likewise an SFX PSU may not have the cable length you need or fit as snuggly in an ATX case (source: comments section)
Look into the build quality of the PSU. A faulty PSU can cause serious issues down the line, so it is worth taking time look at PSU Tier lists and review. (Link provided by several commenters https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/)

Tools (OP Note: I've only tried Ninite)

Ninite (https://ninite.com/) Is an easy way to download all the basic programs one tends to install onto a fresh Windows install, without having to go to 10-15 websites. E.g. you can select to install Chrome, Zoom, Steam, OpenOffice all from one installer. If you keep the install, it can also be re-run to update all the software in one swoop.
Patch My PC (https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/patch_my_pc.html) Patches software on your PC (Thank you to the sys admin in the comments for this.)
Chocolatey (https://chocolatey.org/) A powerful command line way to install and upgrade software.

Storage

M2 drives can be SATA or NVMe, NVMe is faster. (M2 drives are generally plugged directly into the mother board, for anyone who until recently was using a hard disk drive and considered SSDs "fancy")
I highly recommend reading this comment (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtn00w/?context=3) as it contains stuff I was unaware of.

Case

If your case has bottom intake or exhaust vents, don't put it directly on carpet, as it can block the air flow. (Yup....I did need to be told this ^_^, my previous computer just didn't have any bottom intake, hell it hardly had any intake).
Make sure your mother board, PSU, GPU and all your components fit in the case. This is particularly worth noting if you are going for a micro ATX or a ITX case. Worth noting is to remember to include fans + GPU length, any additional length caused by radiators (if you water cool), the size of your CPU cooler (if you air cool) Additions from the comments
When considering your case, if you are water cooling, "Room for 2x 140mm fans does not always mean room for a radiator as well". Make sure to double check the clearance. Measure twice buy once.

Advice on building (Notes and horror stories from the comments) 1. Many new coolers come with pre-applied thermal paste. If yours doesn't don't forget to apply it, to the CPU (See videos by people with more experience/knowledge than me on what to do). 2. Remember your mother board I/O shield (advice from the comments about making sure to put it in before you install the motherboard, mine came with it attached). 3. Make sure the CPU is correctly installed before you clasp it down. 4. If your motherboard has two slots to install a GPU. One of them (normally the top) will provide better performance. Make sure to use the correct one. 5. Make sure your CPU cooler doesn't block a RAM slot. In making my PC the AMD wraith has a notch on one side with the AMD logo, thankfully I put the RAM in first, so I swiftly learnt that I had to rotate the cooler 180 degrees to get it to fit. 6. If you can avoid it, do not build your computer on carpet (and do not stand on carpet when building) and be aware of static when building. If this is your first build, do some reading around this. Wear a static bracelet and attach it to something grounded. 7. Remember if you have a dedicated graphics card. Plug your monitor into the graphics card, not the motherboard. 8. If you are installing fans, make sure they are in the correct direction. 9. When playing the radiator of your AIO (if you are using one) make sure part of it is higher than the pump (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGomv195sk) 10. It's often worth the time to read the motherboard manual. 11. This may sound silly, but cables and the sockets on the PSU are often labelled. Be aware of this, it will help you in the build.
More subjective advice

I've been recommend by numerous people to go for Gold+ PSUs, with often being stated that while its more efficient, it will also be better made. Your budget may dictate otherwise. If you look through the comments you will frequently find the advice "don't cheap out on the PSU and go for at least Gold"
For most users if your CPU comes with a stock cooler. It will be good enough. You can always change it later. If your planning to overclock, you likely know more than me, so feel free to ignore. Update According to the comments, AMD stock coolers tend to be considered good enough, Intel, not so much.
A LOT of people below have said "Do not mix cables from different PSU manufacturers." as they are not universal. I don't know anything about this, so do some additional reading if you are considering doing so. Update From further comments this is something to take serious. Update from further comments, the word of advice is "Do your research before using cables not supplied with the PSU you are using."

Further notes from the comments: Below are points I've read in the comments that might be worth drawing to people attention. Please read around the topic if it applies to you. 1. One person has said XMP causes their Oculus Rift to do weird things.
Hope this helps some people. Addition I recommend reading the comments, as many people have put in their own tips/horror stories ;)
Take care all and Merry Christmas.

Dear CDPR: turning cyberpunk 2077 into a total masterpiece is VERY within your grasp.

[1.1 Update] Complete List of Verified Perks (Working / Not Working / Partially Working) [WIP]

Update: All items and perks testing completed. Still updating based on feedback as it comes in. I'll update the text below soon.
Update: Added a tab for bonuses per skill level and attribute level
Update: Tested the non functioning (Partially or Not Working) perks/items for the 1.11 hotfix. Several changes noted in the change log. I think I'll reserve testing the whole list for more significant updates, but definitely looking out for people posting/messaging about things they found that are not working/working. Already got 1 perk not working that was before.

Up to date Perks and Items and Skill Levels Testing can be found here: Link to Spreadsheet

Hope you guys find this helpful!
Reddit list last updated: 1/26/2021

Body - Athletics

Regeneration: "Health slowly regenerates during combat."
- Working
  - With this perk alone, regen starts only below 60% and heals up to 60%.
Invincible: "Increases max health by 10%."
- Working
  - Only applies to base HP. 10% of base HP at lvl 50 = 43 HP.
Pack Mule: "Increases carrying capacity by 60."
- Working
Divided Attention: "Allows you to reload weapons while sprinting, sliding, and vaulting."
- Working
Epimorphosis: "Health regenerates up to 70% of max Health outside of combat."
- Working
True Grit: "Increases max stamina by 10%."
- Working
  - Only applies to base stamina. 10% of base stamina at lvl 50 = 15 stamina.
Soft on your feet: "Reduces fall damage by 5%."
- Working
Gladiator: "Reduces the amount of Stamina consumed when blocking melee attacks by 20%."
- Not Working
Steel and Chrome: "Increases melee damage by 10%."
- Working
Multitasker: "Allows you to shoot while sprinting, sliding, and vaulting."
- Working
  - Aiming while vaulting doesn't use any sights, but works for firing.
Like a Butterfly: "Dodging does not drain Stamina."
- Working
Stronger Together: "Increases damage you deal while carrying a body."
- Working
  - Still requires Trasporter perk to fire shots, and the increase is about 2x
Cardio Cure: "Health regenerates 25% faster as you move."
- Overworking
  - Regeneration bonus active at all times. Also confirmed moving/still is the same
Transporter: "Allows you to shoot with Pistols and Revolvers or sprint while carrying a body."
- Working
Human Shield: "Increases armor by 20% when grappling an enemy."
- Working
Marathoner: "Sprinting does not drain Stamina."
- Working
Dog of War: "Increases Health regen in combat by 15%"
- Working
  - Note: Saving all health regen tests for last. They're the most annoying
Wolverine: "Health regen activates 50% faster during combat."
- Working
  - 90% faster activation might not be right, but it's definitely faster. Hard to tell when this counter officially starts when in combat.
Steel Shell: "Increases armor by 10%."
- Working
The Rock: "Enemies cannot knock you down."
- Working
  - Tested using cars again. You really have to be just on the edge to avoid death.
Indestructible: "Reduces all damage by 10%."
- Working
Hard Motherfucker: "When entering combat, Armor and Resistances increase by 10% for 10 sec. +1% per level."
- Not Working
  - This perk only works the first save instance where you learn it. Reloading the save will disable the perk no matter how many points you put into it.

Body - Annihilation

Speed Demon: "You deal more damage the faster you're moving."
- Working
  - Only applies to Shotguns and LMGs. Walking was around 1.5x, Running 2x, Speed glitches 4x+
Manic: "When entering combat, your movement speed increases by 20% for 10 sec."
- Working
  - Only applies to Shotguns and LMGs.
Burn Baby Burn: "Doubles the duration of Burn"
- Working
  - Works for Quickhacks (Overheat) and burn applied with other weapons than SG/LMG
Mongoose: "Increases Evasion by 25% while reloading."
- Not Working
  - All evasion related stats not working.
Momentum Shift: "Defeating an enemy increases movement speed by 10% for 10 sec."
- Working
  - Can only see difference on SG/LMG kills.
Massacre: "Increases Crit Damage with Shotguns and Light Machine Guns by 15%"
- Working
Pump it, Louder!: "Reduces recoil of Shotguns and Light Machine Guns by 10%."
- Not Working
  - Tested only using LMGs and the recoil pattern on fully automatic firing.
Hail of Bullets: "Shotguns and Light Machine Guns deal 3% more damage."
- Working
  - Damage increase doesn't show on weapon, but shows in final damage numbers on enemies
In Your Face: "Reduces reload time of Shotguns and Light Machine Guns by 20%."
- Working
Bloodbath: "Dismembering enemies reduces weapon recoil by 50% for 6 sec."
- Not Working
  - May not be tested properly. I can only dismember consistently with a SG, and switched to LMG to see recoil. That could mess with the buff, not sure.
Bulldozer: "Increases Crit Chance with Shotguns and Light Machine Guns by 10%."
- Working
Bloodrush: "Increases movement speed in combat by 5% while carrying a Shotgun or Light Machine Gun."
- Working
Dead Center: "Increases damage to torsos by 10%."
- Working
  - Only applies to Shotguns and LMGs
Heavy Lead: "Shotguns and Light Machine Guns knock back enemies with more force."
- Partially Working
  - Retested in 1.1.. I'm actually not sure anymore. Hard to eyeball distance so marking as partially
Skeet Shooter: "Deal 15% more damage to moving targets."
- Working
  - Only applies to Shotguns and LMGs
Unstoppable: "Dismembering an enemy increases fire rate by 10% for 8 sec. Stacks up to 3 times."
- Working
  - Only applies to Shotguns and LMGs
Biathlete: "Weapon spread does not increase while moving."
- Not Working
  - Several opinions saying spread does not change, with or without the perk.
Poppin' Off: "Shotguns have 25% higher chance of dismembering enemies."
- Not Working
  - Used a carnage again, but I do have trouble dismembering consistently. The smart shotgun shreds too much to use for comparison, so if anyone has any ideas please message me on reddit with them.
Hit The Deck: "Increases damage to staggered and knocked-down enemies by 10%."
- Not Working
  - Only tested on Knocked Down enemies. Staggering with Carnage barely leaves any time to fire again

Body - Street Brawler

Thrash: "Strong Attacks with Blunt Weapons reduce the target's Armor by 30% for 10 sec."
- Working
  - Enemies don't have armor. What this does very accurately though is increase damage against these enmies by 30%
Frenzy: "Defeating an enemy increases damage with Blunt Weapons by 100% for 10 sec."
- Working
Biding Time: "Blocking attacks with a Blunt Weapon restores 5% Health."
- Working
  - Countering does not count as a block in this case.
Human Fortress: "Reduces the Stamina cost of blocking attacks by 50% while using a Blunt Weapon."
- Working
  - Stun duration is short and can be seen with a teal icon above their head and a timer ticking down.
Opportune Strike: "Increases damage with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun by 50%."
- Working
Payback: "Increases damage with Blunt Weapons by 1% for every 1% of missing Health"
- Working
  - Working, but I don't know how low you can take this. It worked while I was around 40-50% HP
Juggernaut: "Increases Armor by 15% while blocking with a Blunt Weapon."
- Not Working
Flurry: "Increases damage from combo attacks with Blunt Weapons by 30%."
- Working
Crushing Blows: "Increases damage from Strong Attacks with Blunt Weapons by 30%."
- Working
Rush: "Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons regenerate 3% Health over 2 Sec."
- Working
Dazed: "All attacks with Blunt Weapons have a 15% chance to Stun."
- Working
Efficient Blows: "Reduces the Stamina cost of all attacks with Blunt Weapons by 25%."
- Working
Guerrilla: "Increases Crit Damage for 10 sec. after entering combat. +2% per level."
- Not Working
  - This perk only works the first save instance where you learn it. Reloading the save will disable the perk no matter how many points you put into it.
Relentless: "Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun restore 20% Stamina."
- Working
Reinvigorate: "Defeating an enemy by performing a Strong Attack with a Blunt Weapon restores 10% Stamina."
- Not Working
Breathing Space: "Increases Stamina regen while blocking with Blunt Weapons by 50%"
- Working
Unshakeable: "Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun restore 5% Health and 5% Stamina."
- Working

Reflexes - Assault

Bulletjock: "Increases damage with rifles by 3%."
- Working
Eagle Eye: "Reduces time to aim down sight with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 10%."
- Working
Covering Killshot: "Increases Crit Chance with Rifles by 10% when firing from behind cover."
- Working
  - Note: Behind cover without aiming down sights does not count. I had to aim for the crit chance to work.
Too Close For Comfort: "Quick melee attacks with Rifles deal 50% more damage."
- Working
Bullseye: "Increases Rifle and Sumachine Gun damage while aiming by 10%"
- Working
Executioner: "Deal 25% more damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns to enemies whose Health is above 50%."
- Working
Duck Hunter: "Increases Rifle and Submachine Gun damage to moving enemies by 10%"
- Working
Shoot, Reload, Repeat: "Defeating an enemy with a Rifle or Submachine Gun reduces reload time by 20% for 5 seconds."
- Working
Nerves of Steel: "Increases headshot damage with Sniper Rifles and Rrecision Rifles by 20%."
- Working
  - Tested again as working. Sniper rifles have high multipliers by default so it's hard to tell. Used the precision rifle and it was more noticeable
Feel the Flow: "Reduces reload time for Assault Rifles and Submachine Guns by 10%."
- Working
Trench Warfare: "Increases Rifle and Submachine Gun damage by 5% when firing from behind cover."
- Working
Hunter's Hands: "Reduces recoil with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 20% when firing from behind cover."
- Partially Working
  - Tested with Copperhead. Vertical recoil is lower, but not by much... definitely not 40% at level 2
Named Bullets: "Increases Crit Damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 35%."
- Working
Skull Skipper: "Each headshot reduces recoil with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 5% for 10 sec. Stacks up to 5 times."
- Working
  - Retested and it seems to work.
Bunker: "Increases Armor and Resistances by 15% when shooting with Rifles and Submachine Guns from behind cover."
- Not Working
Recoil Wrangler: "Reduces recoil with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 10%."
- Not Working
In Perspective: "Bullets fired from Rifles and Submachine Guns ricochet an additional 2 time(s)."
- Working
Long Shot: "Rifle and Submachine Gun damage increases the farther you are located from enemies."
- Working
  - 23.6 distance for 100% additional weapon damage. Distance can be measured with the Grandstead scope. It's shown on the top right corner of the rectangle in the sight
Savage Stoic: "Increases damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 35% when standing still."
- Working
Punisher: "After defeating an enemy with a Rifle or Submachine Gun, weapon sway is nullified and weapon spread does not increase for 10 sec. +0.2 sec. per Perk level."
- Not Working

Reflexes - Handguns

Gunslinger: "Reduces reload time for Pistols and Revolvers by 10%."
- Working
High Noon: "Increases Crit Chance with Pistols and Revolvers by 4%."
- Working
Rio Bravo: "Increases headshot damage multiplier with Pistols and Revolvers by 10%."
- Working
Desperado: "Increases damage with Pistols and Revolvers by 3%."
- Working
On the Fly: "Reduces draw/holster time for Pistols and Revolvers by 25%."
- Working
Long Shot Drop Pop: "Increases damage with Pistols and Revolvers to enemies 5+ meters away by 15%."
- Working
O.K. Corral: "Deal 50% more damage with Pistols and Revolvers to enemies whose Health is below 25%."
- Working
Steady Hand: "Reduces Pistol and Revolver recoil by 30%."
- Working
  - Previously not working. Used a Lexington and the recoil firing the whole clip did look lower.
Vanishing Point: "Evasion increases by 25% for 6 sec. after performing a dodge with a Pistol or Revolver equipped."
- Not Working
From Head to Toe: "Increases damage to limbs with Pistols and Revolvers by 7%."
- Working
A Fistful of Eurodollars: "Increases Crit Damage with Pistols and Revolvers by 10%."
- Working
Acrobat: "You can now perform dodges while aiming a Pistol or Revolver."
- Working
  - Fixed. Note that most people are probably wearing Kerenzikov, which actually enables this anyways
Grand Finale: "The last round in a Pistol or Revolver clip deals double damage."
- Working
Attritional Fire: "Firing consecutive shots with a Pistol or Revolver at the same target increases damage by 10%."
- Not Working
  - Previously working, but I can't remember how solid the test in the past was on this one.
Wild West: "Removes the damage penalty from Pistols and Revolvers when shooting from a distance."
- Working
Westworld: "Increases Crit Chance for Pistols and Revolvers by 10% if fully modded."
- Working
  - Fully modded means every slot is filled, regardless of rarity or number of slots
Snowball Effect: "After defeating an enemy, fire rate for Pistols and Revolvers increases by 5% for 6 sec. Stacks up to 5 times."
- Not Working
  - Tested again with Lexington, can't see any difference at max stacks
Lead Sponge: "Enables you to shoot with Pistols and Revolvers while dodging."
- Working
  - You can already do this with Kerenzikov
Brainpower: "After a successful headshot with a Pistol or Revolver, Crit Chance increases by 25% for 5 sec."
- Working
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: "After a successful Crit Hit with a Pistol or Revolver, damage and Armor increase by 30% for 5 seconds. +1% per Perk level."
- Not Working
  - This perk only works the first save instance where you learn it. Reloading the save will disable the perk no matter how many points you put into it.

Reflexes - Blades

Sting Like a Bee: "Increases attack speed with Blades by 10%."
- Working
  - Only works if weapon is not at attack speed cap. See appendix for more info.
Roaring Waters: "Strong Attacks with Blades deal 30% more damage."
- Working
Crimson Dance: "Combos with Blades have a 15% chance to apply Bleeding."
- Working
Slow and Steady: "Armor is increased by 15% while moving."
- Working
  - Only applies when holding a blade. Also do not have to be moving.
Flight of the Sparrow: "Reduces the Stamina cost of all attack with Blades by 30%"
- Working
Offensive Defense: "Defensive Attacks with Blades deal 200% more damage."
- Working
Shifting Sands: "Dodging recovers 15% Stamina."
- Partially Working
  - Hidden cooldown applied for stamina recovery. Dodging continuously, 1 in 3 recovered stamina.
Stuck Pig: "Increases Bleeding duration by 3 sec."
- Working
  - Only extends Bleeds applied by Blades
Blessed Blade: "Increases Crit Chance with Blades by 20%."
- Working
Unbroken Spirit: "Successful Counterattacks with Blades restore 25% Health and Stamina."
- Working
  - Previously didn't work for me. Retested, working now
Bloodlust: "While wielding a Blade, recovers 7% Health when applying Bleeding to an enemy or hitting an enemy affected by Bleeding."
- Partially Working
  - Only healed on first hit on a bleeding enemy. All other cases did not heal.
Float Like a Butterfly: "Dodging increases damage with Blades by 35% for 5 sec."
- Working
Judge, Jury, and Executioner: "Increases damage with Blades by 50% against enemies with max Health."
- Working
Fiery Blast: "Increases damage with Blades by 1% for every 1% of Health the enemy is missing."
- Working
  - Not 100% sure, but it felt like there was a cap in bonus damage. My damage went up to double.
Crimson Tide: "Bleeding applied with Blades can stack 3 times."
- Working
  - Stacking = applied at the same time, not extending the time.
Deathbolt: "While wielding a Blade, defeating an enemy restores 20% Health and increases movement speed by 30% for 5 sec."
- Working
Dragon Strike: "Increases Crit Damage with Blades by 25%. +1% per Perk level."
- Not Working
  - This perk only works the first save instance where you learn it. Reloading the save will disable the perk no matter how many points you put into it.

Intelligence - Breach Protocol

Big Sleep: "Unlocks the Big Sleep daemon, which disables all cameras in the network for 3 min."
- Working
Mass Vulnerability: "Unlocks the Mass Vulnerability daemon, which reduces the Physical Resistance for all enemies in the network by 30% for 3 min."
- Working
  - Retested for 1.1 and it is 100% working. Physical resistance doens't appear to show in the "Weaknesses" section when you scan enemies
Almost In!: "Increases the breach time for Breach Protocol by 20%."
- Working
Advanced Datamine: "Upgrades the Datamine daemon, increasing the amount of eurodollars acquired from Access Points by 50%."
- Working
Mass Vulnerability: Resistances: "Upgrades the Mass Vulnerability daemon, reducing all Resistances for enemies in the network by 30%."
- Working
  - Note that this Daemon isn't an option without Mass Vulnerability.
Extended Network Interface: "Automatically highlights nearby Access Points."
- Working
  - Highlighted in blue when scanning the environment
Datamine Mastermind: "Upgrades the Datamine daemon, increasing the amount of components acquired from Access Points by 50%."
- Working
  - The amount gained is different. Some more than 100%, and no extra legendary components
Turret Shutdown: "Unlocks the Turret Shutdown daemon, which disables security turrets in the network for 3 min."
- Working
Total Recall: "The ICEpick daemon reduces all quickhack costs by an additional 1 RAM unit(s)."
- Working
Turret Tamer: "Unlocks the Turret Tamer daemon, which sets the status of every turret in the network to friendly for 3 min."
- Working
Datamine Virtuoso: "Upgrades the Datamine daemon, increasing the chance to acquire a quickhack from Access Points by 50%."
- Working
  - Not really easy to test, but over time with this maxed I was almost always getting an upgraded quickhack from access points
Cloud Cache: "Completing a Breach Protocol reduces the RAM cost of your next quickhack by 1 time(s) the number of daemons uploaded."
- Working
Efficiency: "Uploading 3 or more daemons in the same Breach Protocol increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by 3 unit(s) per 60 sec. Lasts 5 min."
- Working
Mass Vulnerability: Quickhacks: "Upgrades the Mass Vulnerability daemon, causing enemies in the network to also take 30% more damage from quickhacks."
- Working
Totaler Recall: "The ICEpick daemon reduces all quickhack costs by an additional 1 RAM unit(s)."
- Working
Head Start: "Automatically uploads the first daemon in the list at the start of Breach Protocol."
- Working
Hackathon: "Uploading 3 or more daemons in the same Breach Protocol shortens quickhack cooldowns by 33% for 5 min."
- Working
Buffer Optimization: "Increases the duration of daemon effects by 100%."
- Working
Compression: "Reduces the lengths of the sequences required to upload daemons by 1. Cannot be reduced below 2."
- Working
Transmigration: "Increases the breach time of Breach Protocol by 50%. +5% per Perk level."
- Not working

Intelligence - Quickhacking

Bloodware: "Quickhacks deal 10% more damage."
- Working
  - Damage increase seems lower than described. Suspected lower base damage not visible to players for Quickhacks
Biosynergy: "Allows RAM to recover during combat. Recover 4 RAM unit(s) every 60 sec."
- Working
Forget-me-not: "Eliminating a target affected by a quickhack instantly recovers 1 RAM unit(s)."
- Working
Hacker's Manual: "Unlocks Crafting Specs for Uncommon quickhacks."
- Working
I Spy: "Reveals an enemy netrunner when they're attempting to hack you."
- Working
Weak Link: "Reduces the required cyberdeck RAM for quickhacks used on devices by 1 unit(s)."
- Working
  - Can't go below 1 RAM Cost
Daisy Chain: "Eliminating a target affected by a quickhack reduces the existing cooldowns for all other active quickhacks by 10%."
- Overworking
  - Still reduces CD to and not by the described percent
Signal Support: "Increases quickhack duration by 25%."
- Working
  - Don't see a description change of duration on Ultimate quickhacks
Subliminal Message: "Quickhacks deal 50% more damage to unaware targets."
- Working
  - 50% and 100% at level 2 are not applied on the final damage number, it's applied on a smaller base damage.
Diffusion: "Quickhack spread distance is increased by 2 times."
- Working
  - Can only confirm the distance is increased, but not that it's actually 2x
Mnemonic: "Reduces the cost of quickhacks used against an enemy already affected by a quickhack by 2 RAM units."
- Working
School of Hard Hacks: "Unlocks Crafting Specs for Rare quickhacks."
- Working
Plague: "Quickhacks that spread can jump to 1 additional targets."
- Working
Hacker Overlord: "Unlocks Crafting Specs for Epic quickhacks."
- Working
Critical Error: "Quickhacks can now deal Crit Hits based on your Crit Chance and Crit Damage stats."
- Working
Anamnesis: "Available cyberdeck RAM cannot drop below 2 unit(s)."
- Partially Working
  - This works in a very different way than described. The description should read "Resets your RAM to 2/3/4 when you reach 0 RAM and have not initiated ANY recovery of RAM at all." The last part meaning you have to actually 0 out and if any recovery happens along the way, it does not work. Recovery can be stalled with opening your menu or spamming lower level quickhacks with low cost, or doing what I did: Found a perfect combination of quickhack costs to execute on a group of enemies to 0 out immediately.
Bartmoss' Legacy: "Unlocks Crafting Specs for Legendary quickhacks."
- Working
Optimization: "Reduces the cost of quickhacks by 1 RAM unit(s)."
- Working
Master RAM Liberator: "Increase RAM recovery rate by 50%."
- Partially Working
  - The 50% bonus is actually not working, but the 1% per level is working (I tested with 50 points into the perk which is what made it look like it was working)

Technical Abilities - Crafting

Mechanic: "Gain more components when disassembling."
- Working
Scrapper: "Junk items are automatically disassembled."
- Working
True Craftsman: "Allows you to craft Rare items."
- Working
Workshop: "Disassembling items grants a 5% chance to gain a free component of the same quality as the disassembled item."
- Working
Innovation: "Consumables are 25% more effective."
- Working
  - Accurate translation: Consumables that provide timed buffs last 25% longer.
Sapper: "Grenades deal 10% more damage."
- Not Working
  - Not retesting this. I've done this so many times and even if it does work the damage range on grenades is too wide to tell
200% Efficiency: "Crafted clothes gain 2.5% more armor."
- Not Working
  - Still not working. Tested on hats that have consistent armor
Field Technician: "Crafted weapons deals 2.5% more damage."
- Partially Working
  - Still not working on Melee wapons. The increase in damage I saw on Katana was more like 1% at max perk leve
Grease Monkey: "Allows you to craft Epic items."
- Working
Efficient Upgrades: "Grants a 10% chance to upgrade an item for free."
- Working
Ex Nihilo: "Grants a 20% chance to craft an item for free."
- Working
Let there be light!: "Reduces the component cost of upgrading items by 10%"
- Working
Cost Optimization: "Reduces the component cost of crafting items by 15%"
- Working
Tune-up: "Allows you to upgrade lower quality components into higher quality ones."
- Working
Waste not want not: "When disassembling an item, you get attached mods back."
- Working
Edgerunner Artisan: "Allows you to craft Legendary items."
- Working
Crazy Science: "Increases the sale price of crafted items by 10%. +1% per Perk level."
- Partially Working
  - Only works until you reload your save, in which case it stops working.
Cutting Edge: "Improves damages and all damage-related stats of crafted weapons by 5%."
- Partially Working
  - Still not working on Melee. Keep in mind for Ranged, a 5% increase in all the stats is actually a lot more than 5% increase in overall DPS in the end

Technical Abilities - Engineering

Blast Shielding: "Reduces damage taken from explosions by 10%."
- Working
  - But even with the highest HP value possible, it is still impossible to survive an explosion. Tested with mods.
Mech Looter: "When looting drones, mechs and robots, there is a 25% chance of looting a weapon mod or attachment."
- Not Working
Can't touch this: "Grants immunity to all effects from your own grenades."
- Partially Working
  - NOTE: This works for every grenade type EXCEPT Flashbangs. So it's mostly working.
Grenadier: "The explosion radius of grenades is visible."
- Working
Shrapnel: "All grenade types deal 20 damage in addition to their normal types."
- Not Working
  - Tested and don't see any difference
Up to 11: "Allows you to charge Tech weapons up to 75% capacity."
- Working
  - Note that Tech weapons do NOT charge to 100% by default. They charge up to 50%, which is relevant to other perks in the tree that mention full charge.
Lock and load: "Increases Smart weapons reload speed by 5%."
- Working
Bladerunner: "Increase damage to drones, mech and robots by 20%."
- Working
Bigger Booms: "Grenades deal 5% more damage."
- Not Working
  - Can't see a difference. Like I noted above, the damage range is too wide to tell any difference
Lighting Bolt: "Increases Crit Chance with Tech weapons by 3%."
- Working
Tesla: "Increase the charge multiplier for Tech weapons by 15%."
- Working
Gun Whisperer: "Fully charged Tech weapons do not shoot automatically."
- Working
  - Does not work for the DR12 Quasar and Kenshin Pistols
Ubercharge: "Fully charged Tech weapons deal 50% more damage."
- Working
  - Needs "Up To 11" Perk to work. Tested originally with the Kenshin pistol and it did not work. Quasar worked, so please message me if you see that it doesn't work for certain tech guns.
Insulation: "Grants immunity to shock."
- Working
  - Shock = electric damage. Electricity on ground = electric. Enemy attacks applying shock = electric. Enemy grenades = EMP (so not electric damage), meaning this will not prevent damage from grenades. I don't know what other sources of EMP there are, but this is consistent with the clothing mod as well.
Fuck all walls: "Reduces the charge amount needed for Tech weapons to penetrate walls by 30%."
- Working
  - This is really hard to tell. Never had much issue having tech guns pierce walls, and the charge is pretty fast so I could be wrong.
Play the angles: "Ricochets deal an additional 50% damage."
- Not Working
Lickety Split: "Tech weapons charge time is reduced by 10%."
- Working
Superconductor: "Tech weapons ignore Armor."
- Not Working
Revamp: "Increases damage Tech weapons by 25%, increases charges damage from all chargeable weapons and cyberware by 10%. +1% charge damage per Perk level."
- Not Working
  - Only works after the first time learning the perk. Reloading save disables the perk.
Jackpot: "Enables grenades to deal Crit Hits."
- Working

Cool - Stealth

Silent And Deadly: "Increases damage dealt by silenced weapons by 25% while sneaking."
- Working
Crouching Tiger: "Increases movement speed while sneaking by 20%."
- Working
Hidden Dragon: "Allows you to perform lethal or non-lethal aerial takedowns on unaware targets."
- Working
Dagger Dealer: "Allows you to throw knives. Hold L2 to aim and press R2 to throw."
- Working
  - Still doesn't return the knife, but you can definitely throw them lol
Leg Up: "Movement speed after a successful takedown is increased by 30% for 10 sec."
- Working
Strike From The Shadows: "Increases your Crit Chance by 15% while sneaking."
- Working
Assassin: "Deal 15% more damage to human enemies."
- Working
Sniper: "Increases damage from headshots fired from outside combat by 30%."
- Working
Cutthroat: "Thrown knives deal 30% more damage."
- Working
Aggressive Antitoxins: "Grants immunity to Poison."
- Working
Clean Work: "You can pick up an enemy's body immediately after performing a takedown by holding R3."
- Working
Stunning Blows: "Quick Melee Attacks with ranged weapons stagger enemies, giving you an opportunity to grapple them."
- Working
From The Shadows: "Upon entering combat, Crit Chance increases by 25% for 7 sec."
- Working
Ghost: "Detection time is increased by 20%."
- Working
Commando: "You cannot be detected under water."
- No One Cares
  - Pretty sure in 1.1 this still holds true
Venomous Fangs: "All knives apply Poison."
- Working
Rattlesnake: "Enemies affected by Poison are slowed."
- Not Working
  - In combat they still move the same.
Silent Finisher: "Enemies with less than 15% Health are defeated instantly when attacked with a Knife. Does not work on enemies with a Very High threat level."
- Working
Hasty Retreat: "Temporarily boosts movement speed by 50% for 5 sec. when detected by an enemy."
- Working
Restorative Shadows: "While in stealth, increases Health regen by 25%."
- Working
Neurotoxin: "Damage from Poison is doubled."
- Working
  - Does not work with Contagion, but worked with all other sources of poison
Hasten The Inevitable: "Deal 20% more damage to enemies affected by Poison."
- Overworking
  - Still works on every weapon with or without poison.
Cheat Death: "When your Health drops below 50%, reduce all incoming damage by 50% for 10 sec. Cannot occur more than once per minute."
- Working
Ninjutsu: "Crouch Attacks from stealth with melee weapons deal 100% more damage."
- Not Working
  - Only worked specifically with Baseball bats. Nothing else.
Toxicology: "Increases the duration of Poison applied to enemies by 5 seconds. +0.2 sec. per Perk level."
- Not Working
  - This perk doesn't work even before reloading the save.

Cool - Cold Blood

Cold Blood: "After defeating an enemy, gain Cold Blood for 10 sec. and increase movement speed by 2%. Stacks up to 1 time."
- Working
Will to Survive: "Increases all Resistances by 2.5% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
Icy Veins: "Reduces weapon recoil by 2.5% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Not Working
  - Retested using a Copperhead assault rifle. 5 stacks recoil pattern looked the same as no stacks
Frosty Synapses: "Reduces quickhack cooldowns by 3% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
  - Previously not working, working now. Tested with Suicide
Critical Condition: "Increases duration of Cold Blood by 5 sec."
- Working
Rapid Bloodflow: "Increase Health regen inside and outside combat by 50% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
Defensive Clotting: "Increases Armor by 10% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
Coldest Blood: "Increases max stack amount for Cold Blood by 1."
- Working
Frozen Precision: "Increases headshot damage by 50%."
- Working
  - Hard to tell even with a low headshot multiplier weapon. Shows on the weapon, with or without cold blood stacks.
Blood Brawl: "While Cold Blood is active, increases damage with melee weapons by 5%."
- Working
  - Easy to mistake as this being a stacking perk. It's only a flat 10% increase with Cold Blood active, regardless of stacks
Predator: "Increases attack speed by 10% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
  - Works up to your melee weapon's attack speed cap. See Appendix for details.
Quick Transfer: "Reduces quickhack upload time by 1% per stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
Cold and Calculating: "Landing a Crit Hit has 25% chance of applying a stack of Cold Blood."
- Working
Bloodswell: "When your Health reaches 45%, a max stack of Cold Blood is automatically activated."
- Working
  - Does apply max stacks, but reminder that without Coolagulant all stacks will remove at once.
Coolagulant: "Stacks of Cold Blood are removed one by one, not all at once."
- Working
Unbreakable: "Increases max stack amount for Cold Blood by 1."
- Working
Pain Is An Illusion: "While Cold Blood is active, reduces damage taken by 5%."
- Working
Immunity: "While Cold Blood is active, you are immune to Bleeding, Poison, Burn and Shock."
- Working
  - NOTE: I don't see this working with Shock. If anyone can confirm please let me know
Merciless: "While Cold Blood is active, increases Crit Chance by 10% and Crit Damage by 25%. +1% Crit Chance and +3% Crit Damage per Perk level."
- Not Working
  - This perk only works the first save instance where you learn it. Reloading the save will disable the perk no matter how many points you put into it.

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[ASK] Been working on this deck for a while, Knight slot is a free slot. What would you play in it's place to compliment the deck? Also, any other changes? (Arena 10-11)

My Warlock is in an abusive relationship with Tommy's Matchbook and yours can be too! With the following build we explore the wonders of new seasonal mods, the charged with light system, self-damage synergy, and masochism.