The older I get, the more I realize it is harder to make friends irl than it was on my early 20s. While I do have friends and family irl, it's not always easy to talk with our busy schedules and that's a bummer. I figured there are others going through something similar, or simply needing a friend and using reddit would be a great way to find someone to talk to on a consist basis.
I enjoy reading, writing, cooking, baseball, football, golf, video games, cozy nights, exploring outside with my dog, Star Wars, documentaries and TV series.
If you're needing a friend, someone to listen, a person to vent to, silly or serious conversations etc., hopefully we can connect and have a genuine friendship!

The world bosses, visually are fantastic, but they feel super easy and not really rewarding to fight.... especially without the weekly cache. So my idea is to add mechanics to the world bosses to make them really rewarding but also create a greater risk of failure all around.
For Wandering death, visually this boss is amazing, but his attacks are very easy to dodge and his signature laser beam is just... bad and doesn't fit his theme. So I have ideas for 2 changes to his fight.
1st. Get rid of his laser, it makes no sense for his theme... it doesn't fit at all... instead, replace it with a death mist. The world boss starts channeling a mist that slowly drains all players health, after X amount of time, the entire arena explodes in a black mist and instantly kills everybody. Players need to stagger the boss to break his channel.
This is where the high risk/ high reward comes to play
2nd. At half HP, The boss creates two massive Hell Portals and enemies start pouring into the arena. Slowly at first, it gets faster the longer they remain open... the longer they remain open the harder the enemies become. 1st level, basic white mobs, 2nd, elites start to join in, and 3rd if you let the portal remain open long enough a boss gets summoned... now you have to fight the world boss and another boss, this boss is very difficult but drops very good rewards if killed.
Next is Avarice, The Gold Cursed
Visually I love this boss, he's so awesome. Attacks wise, he's fun the portal jumps keep you on your toes. However like all world bosses, I need be needs a high risk high reward mechanic.... here's my idea
At half HP, he opens his vault/chest and releases 10-15 treasure goblins the begin to run around the arena... your first thought is to probably kill them all right? Wrong. Here's the idea. When they first get released, their drop rates are significantly reduced of that of a normal treasure goblin... however as they run around the arena, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, think of the bomb enemies from Final Fantasy. The bigger they get, their drops get better and better, but they also get much much tankier as they grow in size so they're harder to kill.
Once they reach max size, they begin to glow, and you have X amount of time to kill them or else they will explode and do MASSIVE damage to the entire arena essentially wiping everybody. So the risk is, do you want to kill the goblins quickly and focus the boss down for the boss reward? Or do you want to let the goblins grow in size and try killing as many as you can for the rewards??
And risk being if every person dies at once meaning you took the risk and failed, and everybody died. The world boss unspawns and you lose out on the rewards all together.
I haven't thought of one for Ashava yet sadly.
Thoughts on this? What do you think? Cool or stupid?

My friends and family all definitely have decided I’ve gone insane this past week regardless of anything I’ve tried to explain based on all of the news that’s come out, and I haven’t stopped actively digging since Monday morning. I was just wondering, there’s a lot of former or current high ranking officials, or others of high regard like lawyers and whoever else, who have either vouched for Grusch or have supported themselves the claim that the government is lying about something and that they possess non-human craft. All of these names are spread across articles, social media platforms, etc. etc., and I was just wondering if there was a sweet soul who could compile into a list these officials and their titles, and maybe in what way they’re supporting the claim but I don’t mean to ask for so much lol.
I just can’t believe how all of these people, everywhere, all at once, decided they would rather have attention rather than regular lives, their own reputations, and further career advancements. And how are they going to equally split the profits among every single person in on it? Debrief was demonetized so is it literally just news rating they’re gonna split somehow? Do they all get gifts, do they all have dirt on them that somebody’s using as blackmail? I don’t really know. I’m going insane and having more difficulty trying to prove the conspiracy that everything happening right now is a hoax. I’m having an incredibly easy time validating the idea that the government has been lying for decades about this and they’re in possession of the things that are being claimed. However, if it is all bogus, then goddamnit I will wear my cone of shame with PRIDE. And I will not apologize for my stance on this regardless of the outcome.
I digress! Could there be such a list made? Thanks in advance! Lovely having discussions with all of you.

If you're trying to figure out the right business idea, it's easy to find generic lists like Top 100 business ideas. However, I've found those pretty frustrating because they're not unique to me.
Generic ideas aren't going to work long-term. If you or I start a business, it needs to be in something we're passionate about and knowledgable in. That will enable us to succeed long-term. In fact, some of the best ideas come from personal experiences. The idea for my prior business came from my exposure to customers having issues with a problem that industry solutions weren't solving well. I came up with a new idea based on what I knew of the technology at the time.
Today, the power of AI can make that process a lot easier. It's like having a business partner along-side, helping you ideate. There are a couple of tools I've used to do that. One is ChatGPT and another is a tool I created.

ChatGPT

Here are some suggestions for working with ChatGPT to create ideas:

1. Ask it to interview you. The AI will suggest better ideas if it knows a lot about you, and it can come up with healthy questions to get to know you. A suggested prompt is "I want help creating some custom business ideas. Can you ask me some questions to learn about me, then generate some ideas that might be a good fit for me?"
   
2. Invest Time. You'll get fairly poor results at first. They'll be generic sounding. However, if you dialogue back-and-forth about ideas you see that you might excel in and get passionate about, they can get better. Focus the chat in on those ideas and ask ChatGPT to expand on them, make variations of them, or morph them based on your feedback. For example: "Let's only focus on the 2nd idea for now. Please generate 3 variations of it and ensure they're applicable to the US market".
   
3. Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus. GPT-4 is quite a bit "smarter" than GPT-3.5. If you want to use ChatGPT to generate a quick idea list then either will work, but if you want really insightful conversations then GPT-4 is quite a bit better at that.
   

A More Organized Option

I felt like ChatGPT was too limited and frustrating when working through this process, so I created my own startup called CompanyCraft to provide a better alternative. I don't want to spam the subreddit with a detailed ad for it, but you can see my blog post here describing how to use it to generate custom business ideas if you're curious.

Is your idea from AI?

I'd love to hear if any of you have used AI to generate a business idea that you've gone on to start? What process did you use?

As I get older, it seems really harder to make friends, and I want to make long-term friends with similar interests or hobbies, but I know it takes time and effort. I enjoy learning about different cultures, ideas and ways of life. I'm open to anything, but I think starting and getting to know someone is the best thing to do! I like outdoor activities. I like camping and walking whenever I can. I like to travel, read, go to the movies and play golf. If you are interested in becoming friends, please provide some information about yourself, as this will help me get to know you better. I would appreciate it. Preferably you're 35 or close to my age. If you are interested in Platonic friendship, please chat with me! Thanks for reading and I hope everyone had a good time.

Unfortunately someone thought it would be a good idea to lock a Playstation trophy behind getting a character to level 50. Usually I don't bother getting Platinums but given how easy it is in this game to get every other trophy I know it's going to annoy me when that one is the only one left after I've got all the other ones just by simply playing the game.
So what is the most risk averse way of doing this?

Hey, people, hoping to pick the brains of a few relative experts here. I'm new to cars in general.
The heating in my Mk5 Golf is stuck on. Even with the fans off and the temperature dial to minimum, the car heats up to whatever temperature the engine is - to the point where in the winter I was having to drive with the windows open.
With the weather as it is right now, it's a little unbearable on longer journeys. Does anyone have any ideas about what's causing this, and if so is it something I might be able to fix myself with a technical mind but little experience with cars?

Tl;dr: Should we turn off /Schmigadoon for 48 hours because Reddit is going out of its way to kill third-party apps?
Hey, all. It's your friendly, neighborhood subreddit mod.
I have to reach out today as a result of some huge changes on Reddit. Since the beginning of Time, Reddit has let developers build programs to let users use Reddit in different ways using something called an API. For example, developers made various smartphone apps for Reddit before Reddit released official iOS and Android apps. Now, though, Reddit is making big changes to their API. They're making developers pay them a crazy high price every time the app contacts Reddit's servers, they're banning ads in the apps, they're preventing third-party apps from accessing NSFW content... This is making those developers' lives difficult. As a result, pretty much all of those apps will shut down on June 30. Because they simply cannot afford to continue existing.
A whole bunch of subreddit moderators are teaming up to take their subreddits private, to go dark and turn off a bunch of Reddit, in protest of these proposed changes.
I've hoped that Reddit would see the light, change course. But today's AMA with the CEO has been... discouraging.
I primarily use Reddit, including the moderation of this sub, through the app /redditisfun, which is one of the many being forced to shut down. I, personally, would like to join this protest. However, I'd like to leave it up to you, the community. I am responsible to all of you, after all.
So, as the title and tl;dr asked... What do you think? Should we go dark for a couple days? Feel free to comment and share your perspective. Do you use a third-party app? Do you care at all? Do you have another idea for how we can come together to send Reddit a message? Do you want this blackout to last forever?
PS: It's pretty easy to moderate this subreddit. We don't get much spam or NSFW content. We don't have much harassment. I don't get many reports for any reason. It's not too big, thousands of members vs tens of thousands or millions. It's pretty active when the show is on, but mostly quiet otherwise. I haven't done everything I can do for the sub, namely, adding custom banners and icons and CSS (on old.reddit) and such. Mods of other subs face many, many more challenges. Without amazing tools like the third-party clients, bots, the Reddit Enhancement Suite, etc, other, bigger, less well-behaved subreddits will become incredibly hard to moderate and may turn into the Wild West of bad, bad stuff going on.
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Ashes shaped like the entire rave remained in the outline of a single soaring rook. I awaited their arrival. I had known to go no further than Man's Bane. I first had to sort out the Choir. I had no choice but to choose which of them would stay and live with the animals and which ones could come with me and my talking crow Cory, back to our own world.
They had a chorus of questions, most of them difficult to answer, for they were the inquisitions of the enchanted and the insane. The gibberings of the transformed ravens, now escaped medieval asylum patients, earned the attention of the inhabitants of Man's Bane. I glanced around nervously at the various animals attempting to walk upright, some of them wearing a single article of clothing or clutching an artifact of the old world.
"We are here to sort out a few of you." I told them plainly. Many of the Choir were compulsive murderers and worse. I simply couldn't unleash them back on the world. They'd have to live among the animals.
I first pointed to Serene Sinclair. "Do you want to stay here or come with me?"
She walked over to where Cory and I were.
"Well if she's your first choice, why not all of them?" Cory squawked.
"You'll remain under my supervision, right?" I asked her.
"I just want to be helpful." She promised.
"You do? Is that right?" I stared. Cory made a grinding noise in the back of his throat that meant he found her words amusing somehow. He was laughing and said in Corvin:
"She quotes you, my Lord. Remember when you met my Winters?"
"Uh, yes." I clicked to him in annoyance. "She has magics."
"Oh. Is that all?" Cory sassed me.
We continued to argue in Corvin as I selected a few more of the Choir. I was being careful. If I picked the wrong one or wasn't careful of the commotion, I could have a riot of lunatics and beastmen. I just wanted to make it home in one piece.
"Dini Ghanat, Jessica Darling, Clide Brown." I called on several more dangerous ones, yet they were the ones that were too dangerous to leave behind. Cory clicked rapidly at me in disapproval.
"Your bird. It does not like me." Dini Ghanat said with his heavy accent. I reached into my bag and took out the little leather case with his serum inside.
"You will not operate without my oversight." I told him.
"Of course not. You are our fearless leader." Dini Ghanat grinned obsequiously. I trusted him as far as I could reach. I knew better than to leave him behind in the fertile world of unguarded labs and shuffling beastmen. He'd experiment on them and make some kind of weird animal-man realm that I would have to worry about. I wanted to leave Man's Bane behind and forget the world or time period entirely.
"Christo?" I asked the man with a different Christo in his mind. He looked at me as the Christo I could trust.
"You can come too." I told him. Then I told him he was on fire and the other Christo stared at me. I told that Christo: "Sorry. You gotta stay here. You will never have another birthday if you come with us. Here though, it is always Saturday. Tomorrow is your birthday, and you know what that means."
"I can play with Polly?" The other Christo asked. His menacing grin spread, reminding me vaguely of the cartoon of the Grinch from my childhood.
"Well, goodnight Christo." I smiled. Christo turned around and then looked at me and asked:
"Where are we going?"
"I'm going home and I am taking you with me." I promised.
"I don't think this is how this works." Cory advised me with mock cynicism.
"It was your idea!" I hissed back.
"Oh yeah." Cory made a noise that was his most mischievous.
I picked a few more before we took that final flight as ravens. I got Samual Monica, Castini Ishbaal and Father Dublin the Exorcist. We flew the rest of the way, backwards through time, as ravens. The Choir was split, I'd say those I left there became the Choir and those I took were no longer really of the Choir anymore.
The world had changed in many ways and yet it had stayed the same. What I mean, is that the disasters of the time when we struggled to close the book of evil, or the time we were in Dellfriar and the world ended, all seemed to be gone.
The effect of such horrors pressed in from the sides of the familiar world I had once known. I asked Cory:
"Am I experiencing hallucinations from the medications we were taking in Dellfriar?"
"No, my Lord. We are escaped mental hospital patients in the same world we left long ago. How is this possible?" Cory sounded amazed and spoke in English.
I looked at the assembled ex-Choir members with me. They were all somehow out-of-place if we weren't facing the post apocalyptic horrors I had expected.
"You look confused." Dini Ghanat told me.
"I thought." I stammered. "I thought things would be different out here."
"How? We escaped." Father Dublin smiled. "What did you expect?"
"A world in ruins and desolation. A world ruled by rampant monsters and vengeful enemies like the Folk Of The Shaded Places." I tried to explain what my expectations were. "This changes things."
"This world is coming apart at the seems. It is about to collapse. The ends of all worlds push at its sides, like a dying universe, everything dies." Serene Sinclair announced in proclamation.
"Now wait." I told her. "You sense all of that too?"
"Indeed. You have chosen a tribe of the most dangerous, and some might be too dangerous. You chose most of them not." Serene Sinclair prophesized me. "And you would know death either way. At least this way you shall know its form."
"I'm starting to like her too." Cory chirped meanly.
"Your bird doesn't like any of us, does he, Mr. Briar?" Dini Ghanat was somehow behind me. I'd taken my eye off of him for one second.
"He doesn't trust you. He's seen how dangerous you all are. I'm taking you home to my family, showing a lot of trust in all of you, despite what I too have seen you all do. However, unlike those we left behind, none of you have ever threatened me or Cory or my family. To be fair, you've never given me a reason not to trust you."
"You're speaking to all of us, then?" Clide Brown asked.
"Dude, you're a werewolf." I gestured that I was making my point anyway. He nodded and muttered:
"Good point. I see your point. Yeah."
"I couldn't leave you people behind. Over these years, stealing artifacts and everything, you all have become like this depraved, lunatic family to me. Stop drooling." I said. I was looking at Christo on my last beat. "The point is, I have another family. Can I count on all of you as I already have? I have to ask."
"You can't count on me. We don't know if the moon is full. I could kill everyone." Clide Brown had changed his discord as he spoke. His confidence always went out of him whenever anyone mentioned his other half.
"Cory, is the moon full?" I asked my talking crow. Cory called out and his crow's call was answered by another.
"Of course it is." Cory said in English.
"See?" Clide Brown started swearing.
"Relax, I am only joking. We have a few nights to get ready for your monthly puberty." Cory teased the agitated werewolf.
Clide Brown frowned but was obviously still far from any sort of anger. He had the best anger management skills.
We all got onto the back of a hay wagon with nobody driving it and rode into town. In the street outside Dr. Leidenfrost's apartment we stood, a gaggle of straight jackets and a gleaming razor sharp hook on the end of Jessica Darling's prosthetic arm. There were no other visible weapons, but I knew all of them were armed.
It was early evening and I sensed something watching us. They were in the shadows, moving along in the darkness and avoiding the streetlights as they turned on one-by-one in the gloom.
"What is it?" Father Dublin asked, fear beaded on his forehead as he realized we were being stalked.
"Folk Of The Shaded Places." I thought I saw one as a dark rod, moving in jagged animation through a patch of shade and shifting light. Somehow the Cambrian elder was like a centipede, in its general shape. They were intricate and with a hundred different limbs and their faces somehow evoked an image of all-teeth, the kind that snack on trilobites. I knew their intelligence too, an angry and ancient species, waiting for their world to return to their endless hands. It was just my imagination, but it was also reality. Folk Of the Shaded Places could travel instantly from one dark corner, into a dream, through a wall and back into another shadow. To see them in any capacity, always occurs as a partial glimpse, easy to ignore.
"What to they want?" Dini Ghanat was perplexed. He used a simple charm to look and try to see them magically. "I'd like to know them better."
"No, you wouldn't. Trust me." I assured the mad alchemist and disgraced scientist that stared after the spy from the darkness.
The spies in the darkness were gone, I could sense that they had left us.
"Daddy!" Came the voices of Persephone Briar and Penelope Leidenfrost, my daughters. They came running out to greet me.
"I knew you were coming. I've watched all of your flights." Penelope told me. Her heterochromic eyes were the most beautiful in the whole world. She blinked as she spoke to me for the first time in her life.
"Daddy, you're back. Sister told me you were here." Persephone told me.
I stared at her, unbelieving how she had grown. My mind flashed to the rampage of the giant horse, death, gemstones, all of it to serve the cats so that she would live. I had always loved her, even when she was not alive, at the beginning.
I hugged them both.
"Such a sweet reunion." Samual Monica commented. There was always a strange hint in his voice. Part of me was not happy to let him near my family, but also, he was family now too.
Then I looked up and saw the love of my life, after being away for so long. She stood there, every aspect of her was dark, as she stood in the shaft of light from her home. A fairy flitted from her shoulder back to the sanctuary of indoors.
"Heidi?" I stared and stood and trembled. My legs forgot their strength when I tried to walk towards her. Clide and Christo were there to hold me up.
"I can walk." I said softly and I did. I walked to Dr. Leidenfrost.
"Welcome home, Lord." Dr. Leidenfrost stared at me. I wondered if she still loved me too. I noticed Isidore approaching me. She hugged me and then stepped back next to Dr. Leidenfrost.
"Who are all of these people?" Dr. Leidenfrost asked me.
"These people are my new family members." I told her.
"A gang of murderers that have escaped from Dellfriar with you?" Dr. Leidenfrost asked strangely.
"Well - I mean -when you put it in that way." I argued against her wording.
"I've missed you so much!" Dr. Leidenfrost nearly jumped me in the parking lot.
"You all have to stay out here." Isidore told the escaped insane asylum patients. "Girls, come inside, now."
And our daughters obeyed and I went inside with my family and Cory flew on in ahead of me and landed on the back of the couch.
"Right now." Dr. Leidenfrost wanted to rekindle our marriage immediately. I went with her and did so. When we were rekindled we found it was almost morning already.
"Your friends are keeping quiet out there." Isidore told me, over breakfast.
"What is going on? You're the only people we've seen." I ate.
"There's a massive evacuation going on." Dr. Leidenfrost explained. "But Agent Saint called and told us to stay right here. She said it would be safe until she gets here."
"Why?" I asked.
"Supposedly there is to be a tsunami. That was more than two days ago." Dr. Leidenfrost nodded sagely. "It was all a lie."
"I see." I gulped. "We gotta feed them. No low blood sugar for our crazy people."
"I already fed them. I didn't want to stay in the apartment while you two, you know." Isidore blushed.
"Did you want some of him? He's still yours too." Dr. Leidenfrost teased her.
"Stop, Heidi." Isidore looked at me and our eyes met briefly. I wondered if she had ever loved me. It didn't matter, she loved me as a friend, which was fair enough. I hadn't felt particularly crazy about her, after-all.
Dr. Leidenfrost watched our gazes repulse each other like opposing magnets and made a clicking sound with her tongue. Cory appreciated the word and translated, hopping up and down with excitement:
"My Matron calls you both cowards!" Cory exclaimed in English.
"You are both cowards." Dr. Leidenfrost confirmed. "That's why I am the head of this family."
"Fair enough." I muttered. Isidore said nothing.
"I don't agree." The soft and melodious voice of our resident fairy spoke up. "Lord has shown courage when he fears for another's sake. I've seen him stand against wrongdoing with no guarantee he could survive."
I looked over and spotted Silver Bell alight upon Dr. Leidenfrost's shoulder. I smiled and greeted her:
"Hello Sylvia." I recalled her earthbound name and used it instead of her Faerie name.
"I've waited a long time to go home." Silver Bell was glowing. "Penelope has drawn my key, but she is not strong enough to conjure. She needs her father for that."
"What?" I asked.
"You stole the way for such a key to be crafted. In Faerie, it was your theft that removed the one who would have touched the gold to craft it into what we needed. No new key can be made, without the hand of a smith. Do you remember?" Silver Bell explained. In her voice she sounded tired, there was no resentment.
"I rescued a child from your queen." I recalled. "Is that the consequence?"
"There is a horror upon your world. If we do not reverse the ways of magic, Man will fall. Nothing good will rise in your place. I have learned of all these things while trapped in your realm. I must report to my queen that Faerie cannot stand and do nothing or we will be obliterated next. What happens to one part of the body affects the whole." Silver Bell spoke slowly and we all listened.
"What horror?" Dr. Leidenfrost asked, her voice hushed.
"Lord knows of it. That is why I know he will help me. Your daughter has drawn my key. Now her father will forge it for me. It must be done." Silver Bell demanded.
Dr. Leidenfrost stood up and went to her desk. She opened a drawer that contained a stack of drawings made by the girls that hadn't made it to the gallery on the refrigerator.
After a silent shuffling she found a drawing of a key. She stared at it and then her eyes watered. She hadn't known what it was.
I got up and walked over to her and said quietly:
"She is like me. She is also like you."
"I know Lord, that's what scares me."

The world bosses, visually are fantastic, but they feel super easy and not really rewarding to fight.... especially without the weekly cache. So my idea is to add mechanics to the world bosses to make them really rewarding but also create a greater risk of failure all around.
For Wandering death, visually this boss is amazing, but his attacks are very easy to dodge and his signature laser beam is just... bad and doesn't fit his theme. So I have ideas for 2 changes to his fight.
1st. Get rid of his laser, it makes no sense for his theme... it doesn't fit at all... instead, replace it with a death mist. The world boss starts channeling a mist that slowly drains all players health, after X amount of time, the entire arena explodes in a black mist and instantly kills everybody. Players need to stagger the boss to break his channel.
This is where the high risk/ high reward comes to play
2nd. At half HP, The boss creates two massive Hell Portals and enemies start pouring into the arena. Slowly at first, it gets faster the longer they remain open... the longer they remain open the harder the enemies become. 1st level, basic white mobs, 2nd, elites start to join in, and 3rd if you let the portal remain open long enough a boss gets summoned... now you have to fight the world boss and another boss, this boss is very difficult but drops very good rewards if killed.
Next is Avarice, The Gold Cursed
Visually I love this boss, he's so awesome. Attacks wise, he's fun the portal jumps keep you on your toes. However like all world bosses, I need be needs a high risk high reward mechanic.... here's my idea
At half HP, he opens his vault/chest and releases 10-15 treasure goblins the begin to run around the arena... your first thought is to probably kill them all right? Wrong. Here's the idea. When they first get released, their drop rates are significantly reduced of that of a normal treasure goblin... however as they run around the arena, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, think of the bomb enemies from Final Fantasy. The bigger they get, their drops get better and better, but they also get much much tankier as they grow in size so they're harder to kill.
Once they reach max size, they begin to glow, and you have X amount of time to kill them or else they will explode and do MASSIVE damage to the entire arena essentially wiping everybody. So the risk is, do you want to kill the goblins quickly and focus the boss down for the boss reward? Or do you want to let the goblins grow in size and try killing as many as you can for the rewards??
And risk being if every person dies at once meaning you took the risk and failed, and everybody died. The world boss unspawns and you lose out on the rewards all together.
I haven't thought of one for Ashava yet sadly.
Thoughts on this? What do you think? Cool or stupid?

Hello Guardians, my name is u/PandaPaxxy. Today I am here to go over my process for evaluating weapons. From hand cannons to glaives I will go over what I look for in weapons and why. A lot of the time it will fall into “Reload gun and get damage.” But in terms of other stats to look for, why I choose certain perks sometimes and other perks other times. My guides serve to educate Guardians on weapons for the season. I work hard to test and find out what works on weapons so you can dedicate your time to playing with them instead of testing them for yourself.
Ultimately my guides and wishlists are a jumping off point. They serve as a great baseline but are neither gospel, nor all-encompassing. I build them to get you to a point where you can look at perk pools and decide for yourself what you want on your weapons.
Exotic armor builds are always a great place to start, see what exotic you gravitate towards and build your weapons around that. Do you like mowing through enemies? Well then Subsistence might be your best friend. Do you like punching things? Pugilist, Swashbuckler, One-Two Punch, and Trench Barrel just became your best friends. Depending on your build and what you use can drastically change perk recommendations one way or the other. Building into a specific play style with your weapons can not only get you to a point where clearing activities is easier, but it can also create your own identity within Destiny. Two players using the same subclass and exotic can choose very different weapons to pair with it and have very different play styles. My recommendations are purely that. Recommendations.
This guide not only serves as what I recommend on weapons but also a peek behind the curtain into my brain. To set you off right, I LOVE high handling weapons, if I could have Ophidians or Dragon’s Shadow on my Titan, I might never take them off. Any way I can bump up handling on my weapons is always going to be my forefront choice, that’s why a lot of the time I recommend Fluted Barrel, Fastdraw HCS, or QuickDot SAS. The faster the animation the better.
With all that being said, let me get into the meat and potatoes of this breakdown of my breakdowns.

Primary Ammo

Auto Rifles:
Auto rifles need some stability and a good recoil direction to make them work. Any base recoil direction less than 70 needs Arrowhead Brake, and even above that it might be necessary. It depends also on what magazine perks the auto rifle gets. Ricochet Rounds is the best as it marginally increases range while heavily increasing stability. Steady Rounds almost never gets recommended as it lowers the next best stat being range.
In terms of perks a lot of the time it will either be consistency for PvP or damage + reload perks for PvE. Reload perks come in all forms; Surplus, Threat Detector, Outlaw, and Overflow are easy choices. Ambitious Assassin and even Envious Assassin are also great choices depending on how you use this auto. They pseudo-bypass reload by giving you a bigger base mag each time the perk activates. They fall under Overflow because with Overflow you will never see your reload animation but get all the benefits.
In terms of damage perks all of them work perfectly. Golden Tricorn is the best overall and will be for most weapons as it has the highest damage increase and stacks with surge mods. As long as you keep the same element you will be golden.
For PvP there are few choices. Consistency perks like Tap the Trigger, Dynamic Sway Reduction, Zen Moment, and even Threat Detector are fantastic for keeping bullets on target. Autos need your full dedication to the engagement to kill and keeping your bullets on their head is the only way to succeed. There are “Win More” perks like Kill Clip that allow you to slay past that first engagement, but most autos I recommend will have full consistency unless there isn’t a consistency perk in the stereotypical “damage” column.
Combat Bows:
Bows were a fantastic addition to the game and provide a nice balance between scouts and snipers. Harder hitting than a scout but less damage than a sniper. Primary ammo over a sniper, but less damage per second (or shots per second) than a scout. Very cool choice. Most of the time I will recommend dropping draw time as low as possible and bringing up accuracy after the fact. This will make the damage per second go up a bit as you can fire more shots and keep your “range” and feeling sticky the further away the enemies are.
There aren’t a wide variety of perks to choose from on bows. Crowd control perks and reload perks are the only things. There are a few choice perks for builds specifically. Wellspring, Demolitionist, and Pugilist are great for specific builds or general ability uptime. However, I will, more often than not, recommend Archer’s Tempo or Rapid Hit over them. Bringing up the base reload speed and draw time means you won’t have to invest as heavily into dropping draw time, though the two do help together.
In the final column going with your damage perks or crowd control perks are the best. Headstone, Dragonfly, Explosive Head, or Frenzy. All of them work to clear rooms faster. This comes mostly down to player preference and what build you will ultimately use.
Bows in PvP have two main play styles, swap (blinting) or laning. With either Opening Shot is the best in slot whenever it is available. It allows you to almost always get a crit which will be helpful in either play style. With the swap builds you could also opt for Explosive Head for some added flinch, but you definitely want Quickdraw or Moving Target for added Flexibility. For a more laning approach I would always recommend Rapid Hit for a faster draw time after you get that first crit with Opening Shot.
Hand Cannons:
Well these are certainly my favorite weapons in the game. They really don’t feel good in higher end PvE. Shame. For the most part I look for a decent mix of stability, range, and handling. In that order. If the weapon has decent stats for each of those that aren’t way out of band I usually default to handling. Range does help in PvE but it can be mitigated through Explosive Payload or Timed Payload. You also can pseudo-break range with higher damage. Hand cannons experience a hard damage drop off, so investing into range isn’t a terrible choice either.
For the first column usually a reload perk resides here. Ensemble, Outlaw, Rapid Hit, Surplus, etc. Almost all hand cannons follow in the footsteps of Midnight Coup for PvE. Outlaw and Rampage was a beast in year 1, and while it still works in year 5 it isn’t as versatile. Headstone has replaced most damage perks for me, though there are some good alternatives like Frenzy and Thresh.
In PvP there are only really a few choice perks to look for. Even after the Rangefinder nerf it will still be a very sought after perk. Eye of the Storm is S tier on everything it rolls on, so are Opening Shot and Rapid Hit. Snapshot, Zen Moment, and Moving Target are great supplemental perks. Explosive Payload and Timed Payload might become more sought after if you want to consistently win your 1v1s.
Pulse Rifles:
The most important stat on pulse rifles is the recoil direction. Anything less than 100 should be dismantled immediately. That makes Arrowhead Brake almost a requirement on all pulses. Depending on the pulse and more specifically its archetype will determine what magazine perk is best. If the magazine is less than 30 I would usually go for Appended Mag or Tactical Mag. If the pulse has low reload I will often recommend Flared Magwell as an alternative or best in slot. It also bumps up the stability which definitely helps with a good recoil direction.
Almost all perks within the reload and damage column work here and will be great to maximize your pulses utility. Golden Tricorn is best when applicable. But I have been enjoying Void with Repulsor Brace for a small overshield in the legendary campaign. Being able to keep up a small overshield almost all the time is incredibly helpful in all activities you feel squishy in.
In PvP most of the above applies that recoil direction and stability are important. Range isn’t as important depending on the archetype You might even be able to go for Steady Rounds if you wanted more stability and aren’t utilizing all the range pulses get. I would recommend anything that helps you secure bursts on target, Moving Target, Heating Up, Rapid Hit all come to mind as they each help your burst patterns. Firmly Planted is an incredible shout out too if you slide into engagements or hold lanes instead. Lots of consistency perks. There are a few archetypes that are able to two-burst with a little help from damage, or that damage makes the bursts you need to kill more forgiving. Each of those are great ways to utilize damage perks; not all the time are they necessary in PvP.
Scout Rifles:
Scout rifles are most people’s first weapon type. They help you stay safe and far back while still doing respectable damage. I know I used them, and they still hold up in higher tiered content. High recoil direction is important but not necessary. None of the stats really do a lot on scouts until you get down into the faster firing scouts in which case you’ll want stability to keep shots on target. I always look for consistency perks over damage perks because the rise and fall of damage really shifts gameplay in higher level content. In GMs you’re not always running around with max stacks of damage so something neutral like Explosive Payload will pull way more weight.
In PvP scouts fall into a weird hot and cold. They are either the top of the meta or bottom. Scouts cater to a passive play style so depending on how games go they are either the best thing or you’ll get rolled for being too passive. Damage perks are great for streaks, and consistency perks are plenty. Depending on the archetype I might opt for one damage perk over another to push down the TtK but overall I tend to mix both damage and reliability perks.
Sidearms:
Sidearms are super interesting. Outside of exotic sidearms you don’t see too many people using them aside from niche builds or players looking at a shiny new toy. Range is what makes sidearms even remotely useful in this sandbox as you don’t want to use a sidearm that literally any other weapon could do the same job. Swords could even be better than sidearms sometimes. Pushing out the range as far as it can go, and pumping the sidearm full of damage will give you some great results but will be very hard to take into higher level content. Rat Pack go back in your dens, that is not a sidearm.
In PvP sidearms live and die by their range. Similar to PvE they need to compete outside of melee range. Shotguns will eat them up and fusions will turn them into space air. I find that the best sidearm users make effective use of their space and by manipulating sight lines. If you can control a small space effectively you can use sidearms, otherwise any other primary weapon might be better.
Submachine Guns:
Submachine guns in PvE are great weapons for being aggressive and spraying down enemies. While auto rifles do this job excellently, submachine guns are just smaller and faster versions. They make you feel agile running and gunning while doing great dps but less good sustained damage. They might be great against rank-and-file enemies but won’t scale up with their low magazine, high RPM, and medium damage. In order to make these weapons strong you will want to look for a way to circumvent the reload entirely or speed it up so it feels non-existent. That way you’ll be able to output incredible damage while still being able to weave in and out of cover.
In PvP SMGs will always have a place. They exist as shotgun deterrents and act as breaching tools. They can spray down targets faster than auto rifles while keeping your mobility up. Technically no weapon lowers your native speed, but SMGs with their high RPM allow you to hit your TtK fast in a way that auto rifles cannot. With damage perks they can really reach into auto rifle range, but those few are usually outliers. SMGs exist alongside hand cannons for fast paced, aggressive game play

Special Ammo

Fusion Rifles:
Fusions in PvE are either hit or miss. The charge time is a weird mechanic to get behind at first, and can cause some frustration compared to other special weapons. I always try to maximize the recoil direction to land all my bolts, and then try to stack damage after the fact. There are few perks I look for in order to really create a PvE fusion. Other things to look for are magazine replenishing perks. Subsistence, or Reconstruction. In terms of magazine I either opt for Accelerated Coils for more damage per second, or a larger mag. Oftentimes the extra damage per bolt from Liquid Coils is beaten by Accelerated Coils shooting a whole other burst.
Fusions in PvP are all about consistency. Sure you can find a few rolls that offer kill chaining potential. The biggest threat that came from the fusion community was the Xur Main Ingredient that offered only consistency perks. Under Pressure adds aim assist and stability. Tap the Trigger works on every burst. Firmly Planted works in a slide and pairs well with Kickstart. Rangefinder bumps out the stability and pushes out the zoom for deep one-bursts.
Glaives:
Glaives are interesting, they take out your charged melee, and offer both protection and a fusion rifle-lite experience. The damage protection and resistance is perfect for higher level content, but pushing out the range means your shot is more likely to connect. Depending on the roll you might want to bump one or the other. Impulse Amplifier is the real kicker so that will help with range and projectile speed, so bringing up their shield duration will keep you alive.
In PvP I don’t feel personally well equipped to speak upon. Every time I try to use them myself I get absolutely bodied. There are some quirky builds like a one-shot glaive or blinting with them, but I cannot use them to save my life and try to remain as neutral as possible when giving roll recommendations. I can see how to use them, my body just doesn’t input the right Konami code to win in PvP.
Grenade Launchers:
Grenade Launchers are great for chip damage and setting up for other weapons. Disruption Break is legendary tier on grenade launchers and I always look for it to boost not only your weapon damage but your teams. Debuffing an enemy so that all kinetic damage deals an additional 50% damage is incredible. I always try to maximize blast radius and velocity at the same time. Reload and handling are also incredibly useful as you will be swapping weapons often or reloading your single shot to become a double shot when applicable.
Grenade Launchers in PvP are as good as the other weapon attached to them. They live and die by how good their pairings are. Fighting Lion is the best as it can pair with anything and make things work. Special grenade launchers have a harder time because of the ammo economy. You’re almost always stuck with a primary ammo weapon and only sometimes is that a good thing. It can set up sweeps and kill chaining, but it can also mean your GL shot bounces thirteen times and blows up in your face and not theirs.
Shotguns:
Shotguns are the leading example of a DPS weapon. They shoot things good dead quick. They do high damage at the cost of range. Even the rapid-fire frames have great damage because they shoot so fast. Anything to boost that damage is worthwhile. Surrounded, Trench Barrel, and my favorite One-Two Punch. You are close enough to melee so throwing one or two in there will enhance your shotgun, or your melee. Kinda cool right? I also love seeing things like Grave Robber and Auto-Loading Holster on shotguns as they are one of the few weapons that reload each bullet one at a time. This can be both great and awful at the same time.
In PvP right now we are at a weird divide. You want to bump up your handling as high as you can, and bump up your range as high as you can. Preferably in that order. Things that enhance your animation speed or your handling are greatly preferred. Surplus is great if you keep your abilities but the gold standard right now is Threat Detector. This applies an animation scalar based on the number of enemies around you. Even at 1x it is incredibly strong and hopefully you won’t find yourself where 2x is active because you might be dead.
Sniper Rifles:
Sniper rifles serve one of two purposes. Add clear or DPS weapon. There is no inbetween. There are a handful of snipers that can bridge both but typically don’t particularly excel at either. A jack of all trades, master of none. DPS snipers are hallmarked by some sort of damage bonus natively like Firing Line, High-Impact Reserves, or Focused Fury. Alongside a magazine enhancing perk like Fourth Time’s the Charm, Triple Tap, Rewind Rounds, or Reconstruction. Anything to limit reloading by shooting. Add clear weapons have perks that are great at AoE such as Incandescent, Firefly, or Voltshot.
Snipers are not as meta in PvP but are the strongest weapon in the game. A one-shot from any range at any time without a charge up. They can be used as a shotgun, a follow up, an opening kill, set up, and many more things. They are great at doing high damage from anywhere, and most Destiny maps are not made to see sniper’s damage drop off they will maintain that high damage throughout the map. Snapshot is a must have for some users, other users like high handling. Opening shot is incredible for adding range and aim assist for some bullet bending capabilities.
Trace Rifles:
Trace rifles are beefed up auto rifles. Anything auto rifles can do, traces do better at the cost of special ammo. Without it, you’ll feel like you’re missing a weapon entirely, but with it you’ll wonder why autos and SMGs exist.
In PvP there is a similar handicap where you live and die by the special ammo you do or don’t have.

Heavy Ammo

Grenade Launchers:
Grenade launchers in your heavy slot are primarily used for damaging bosses but have small niches where they can be used for add clear. They don’t have the best damage but they make up for it in continuous damage. Being able to fire repeatedly and quickly for high burst damage makes them good for short damage phases and champions.
In PvP think of a rocket launcher, now cut it in half. That’s what you want in a heavy grenade launcher. A quick firing easy kill that you can run around with.
Linear Fusion Rifles:
Very few times are you using a linear fusion rifle on a red bar enemy, and far less often are you using it to clear rooms. Linear fusion rifles excel in high damage per shot and as such you want to make it easy to hit crits for getting the most per shot. Arrowhead Brake or Fluted Barrel will make it easier to swap to this weapon when it is time for damage, while specifically the former will be best for lining up shot after shot. I prefer faster firing fusions too so Accelerated Coils and a charge time MW would be best DPS. You do lose some impact but you will be able to make up for that loss in impact in more shots fired.
In terms of first trait you’ll want either Field Prep or Triple Tap / Fourth Time’s the Charm. While the latter doesn’t roll on any linear fusion, yet, it will still be a great perk to look out for.
Linear fusions in PvP should have the fastest charge you can obtain while giving you the highest range possible. The idea is to have less of a fusion rifle and more of a sniper with a charge time.
Machine Guns:
Machine guns are the kings at clearing rooms. Either through AoE perks like Dragonfly or Incandescent or through pure damage like Rampage, or Killing Tally. I like perks that either keep the ammo in the magazine or make it so I never have to reload my machine gun. Auto-Loading Holster is perfect, but Subsistence and Reconstruction are fantastic too. Mag boosting perks like Appended Mag and Extended Mag also keep my shooting going.
In PvP Machine Guns are pretty niche. They used to be incredibly strong and they still are but the time to kill has gone down with more grenade launchers and it's been getting harder to hit enemies with abilities that cause them to zoom around the map or change directions on a dime. Consistency perks are the name of the game as I don’t think kill chaining will be as strong anymore.
Rocket Launchers:
Rockets are both the Gold Standard for damage as well as the bar. If you can beat rockets in terms of DPS either for an encounter or boss, you’re on a good track. These weapons do insane single shot damage only lessened by the fact they cannot do precision damage. If a special weapon beats out a rocket for damage, we are in for a wild meta. Rockets need two things in order to succeed. A damage boosting perk and a reload perk. Which feels like I am saying this often. The downfall of rocket launchers is the fact you cannot shoot more than three at a time and even that is under specific use cases. Rockets would be incredibly strong if you could still stack multiple rockets into one tube to keep firing.
In PvP Rockets will obliterate almost anything so your goal is to get splash kills either via Chain Reaction or Cluster Bomb for multikills, they are often fire-and-forget weapons that don’t need a lot to succeed. Just fire in the general direction of an enemy and hope it kills.
Swords:
For the most part these weapons are the easiest to choose, you will want high Impact, decent guard depending on what the weapon tries to enforce. A shorter Charge Rate is better for damage, and a better Guard Resistance is better for add clearing or general use. If you have a zoom sword with Valiant Charge you will want decent Guard Resistance to stop damage from coming through. On a different zoom sword with Eager Edge you will want high ammo capacity for as many zooms as possible.

I have been with this great project since I had a while before launching the tokens in tip.cc, I was researching about all this and I discovered an incredible potential never seen before and it is the great utility that they gave to this project based on the seasons that we live every year
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As time went by I realized that this was a great hidden gem about to explode, its way of mining, its trading simulator to learn about this market is something amazing and very easy to use too, the most that I liked like this is your amazing team behind it all with these great ideas to lead us to success.
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Your discord community is very cool, new users arrive every day and among all of us we help guide each one to become HOLDERS and thus learn much more about this great project, the truth is spreading very quickly , every day more and more people come trying to know more about Seasonal Tokens , you are also on time what are you waiting for to join our Hype Train.
The great mechanic of Seasonal Tokens is knowing when your tokens ( SUMMER, AUTUMN, SPRING and WINTER ) can be exchanged to get more tokens:
Example: the price of the SUMMER token can be: $0.015 while the price of the WINTER token is $0.0015, you can quickly exchange 10 SUMMER for 100 WINTER and wait for the price to rise in its season, join us to learn much more about this great growing crypo project.
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Website: https://seasonaltokens.org/ Discord: https://discord.gg/6pxyFDmn Twitter: https://twitter.com/Seasonal_Tokens

I've been at this for 2 days and haven't removed a single bolt from the bell housing. There are guys on YT who say they've been doing this and I've seen so many pictures of the gearbox removed to swap the slave cylinder, but despite having the repair manuals.. this job is like a fractal. the more i do the more what's left becomes a bigger list. Does anybody have tips on how to actually remove the transmission? People talk about it like it's easy.
I've already:
- Removed the battery / carriage and Fuel Filter (let it hang there like in the manual)
- Removed the air cleaner box and intake hose
- Removed the turbo intake pipe between the intercooler and the throttle body
- Removed the Left side front wheel
- Removed about a dozen bolts from the sub frame
I feel like I can see dozens more to remove, but all with nuts on the other end that are practically in accessible.
I don't have an "engine lifting beam" and I have never even heard of such a thing. Why do I need to lift the engine if I'm dropping the transmission out the bottom of the car?
I'm warned not to let the pinion drop into the gearbox when I remove the speedometer cable (which I don't know where it is and now I"m terrified of trying to remove it because I don't know what a pinion looks like. But guaranteed on a speedometer cable it's small.)
I'm supposed to separate the selector rod in half, which I finally just SAW for the first time, but I have no idea where the "clip on the dust cover on the intermediate drive shaft" that I'm supposed to remove. or what an Intermediate drive shaft is....
What is a Steady bar? And where is this mythical thing that is attached to the intake manifold, and why do I have to remove it? (i'm guessing to access both bolts on the starter?)
and WHY did the Trolls in Trollhattan decide to use such a vast assortment of Imperial and metric fasteners all over the place?
This is seriously breaking me. I just want the damn gearbox out so I can swap the slave cylinder.
Does anybody know of a video or a guide with pictures I can actually see (not grainy black and white) to figure out how to do this?

I hate using the term “competition” but I don’t know what else to call it. I’m in my 20s and signed up for Hinge earlier this year. Recently I got the idea to change my gender to male on the app to see what the women in my area were like & get picture ideas for my profile. Maybe that sounds odd, but it was honestly quite illuminating.
Most of these women had pictures with their friends, gym photos, swimsuit photos. Photos showing off their “assets” in skimpy clothes. I’m not trying to be a pick me whatsoever. I’m not judging them for doing that. What I am doing though is realizing how weird I seem. I kept swiping through profiles and it was tough to find one like mine. Most of my pictures are of me, by myself. I don’t have trendy clothes. I don’t have party pictures. I seem so boring and asexual in comparison to them.
I thought I was average, but the beauty standards are out of control now. Why would any man swipe right on me when they could have an Instagram model? The most hilarious part though is that a lot of these women probably don’t even reply to guys on there.
I don’t recommend doing what I did because it will probably bum you out too. Dumb guys on Reddit act like women have it so easy when it comes to dating. Attractive women do. It’s much harder when you don’t fit the mold.

So I also see there are a lot of complaints. Here's the thing, the dodge is great, the iFrames are pretty generous as compared to Souls games and as well even the perfect block is great. I found the first boss to be very easy however I do have an issue with the game. Maybe it's just me so please others chime in because I hope it's not just me.
The issue I'm finding is the recovery frames from a light attack takes WAAAYYYY to long to recover from. Again the dodge is great, attacks are well telegraphed even the bosses were a piece of cake. However I'm finding it impossible...or difficult killing medium sized enemies, ones that don't suffer hit stun. Like I said the attacks from enemies are well telegraphed but I find myself circling them endlessly waiting for them to use their big attacks that leave them slowly recovering because every time I go in for one single quick stab they tend to have attacks that are quick and un-reactable only when you get close to them and 9/10 times I'm stuck in the recovery animation of a single quick stab and I get hit regardless of what I try to do. Is it just me? Otherwise I am absolutely loving the game.

I literally am so excited I can't contain myself yet I have no idea if I should just sign up for the earliest slot available (next Monday) or wait and give myself some time to prepare and shoot for Tuesday or Wednesday!
The first tech screen was mostly Java focused questions(abstract classes, data structures) and two leetcode easy questions. I was able to answer them, but my Java was a little rusty and I finished with 5 minutes remaining.
What should I be focusing on? Should I just shoot for the first available slot? Would one or two extra days really matter? I really don't want to mess this opportunity up because this could literally change the trajectory of my career!!
I've lurked this sub alot and know that there are the basics: Breathe, communicate your thought process effectively while you're coding, and don't be an arrogant jerk.

Toxic Rats: DJ, Scott, Trent, Sammy, Sierra
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Molly, Scarlett, Geoff
Episode 08: The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" The recap montage opened with several RCMP helicopters flying around before cutting to the Mutant Maggots entering the mining elevator. "The players went on an impromptu to environmental coveru-uh, clean-up challenge," Sammy, DJ, and Sierra were shown running down a mineshaft, then Scott and Trent tripped on a rail, "and tried not to get a toxic make-over like everything down there." Geoff was shown struggling with Molly, both looking sickly, and a few shots followed of various mutant gophers running and squealing.
"Max came back to the island," the host continued over clips of the super villain revealing herself to Scarlett, "and E-Clone wasn't far behind," the alien was shown tackling DJ, "and after overcoming his germ phobia," Chris said as Dave was shown hitting the gopher and saving his teammates, "he voluntarily took the old heave-ho," the normal guy was shown getting hurled.
"Makes you wanna reflect, don't it?" Chris asked as the last clips finished up. "Maybe...with a cup of Chris McLean Instant Coffee," he said as the scene cut to him standing on the docks holding a mug with his face on the side. He took a sip, his eyes went wide, and he spat it out. "Bitter...better!" he quickly corrected with a forced smile. "Better than the rest." He dumped the mug out into the lake, and a fish promptly surfaced where the drink had landed and vomited in disgust.
Chris held his awkward smile for a second before regaining his composure and walking to the side. "Who will survive? Who will wish they didn't? Find out right now, on Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"
XXXXX
The episode opened to a shot of the sun rising over the lake, a few seagulls calling in the distance. The camera slowly cut from close-up to close-up of the sleeping campers – Sammy and DJ, Trent, Sierra, and Scott, Scarlett and Geoff, and Molly and Anne Maria. All nine of them were sleeping on wooden rafts in their usual clothes, until the shot cut to an alarm clock tied to a buoy with large acoustic horns next to the bell. The hands struck approximately 7 o'clock, and a loud ringing sang through the morning air.
DJ bolted awake with a gasping start, and so did the others a few seconds later.
"What? Where are we?" Anne Maria asked in confusion, the camera cutting outward to show the two rafts floating next to each other and the buoy-alarm amid a mass of debris mostly consisting of wood, furniture, and waste barrels. Each raft had a signpost with their respective team logo on it – the Rats on the left; the Maggots on the right.
"No!" DJ griped, the camera coming out even further. "Chris must've set us adrift after we went to sleep!"
"Yeah," Scott said as the camera moved behind him and Sammy, showing the island of Wawanakwa off in the distance. "Wait, I don't remember anything after dinner."
Scarlett's eyes widened in realization. "Dinner! Of course!"
\
The footage flashed to a close-up of a meal tray, held by Scarlett as she collected her dinner. The meal was a slimy pile of spaghetti, tomato sauce, butt-shaped meatballs, and feathers, plopped down onto the tray without ceremony.
The shot zoomed out to show her eyeing Chef with mild disgust.
"Turkey buttolini," Chef explained with a grin. "Enjoy your na~ap!" he said before realizing his slip-up. "Err, meal..."
Scarlett just pursed her lips at the man as he laughed darkly to himself.
\
The scene flashed back to the Maggots. "Turkey makes you woozy, so mutant turkey can easily knock us all out," Scarlett deduced.
The focus moved to Trent, still sleeping peacefully on the raft.
"He can't be sleeping forever," Scott said as the camera moved to show him looking down on his teammate. "Come on! Get up!" he said as he bent down and picked Trent up.
Trent opened his eyes. "How did we even get here?" he asked before smiling at Scott. "Hey Scott."
Confessional: Trent
"Scott's really cool. I think we made a great connection these past few days. Either way, it'll be hard for me to vote anyone off the team," Trent said.
Confessional: Scott
"Trent makes me feel weird, and it feels good. I like the feeling, but it's distracting. I have to get rid of it somehow," Scott said.
Confessionals End
The scene cut back to the Mutant Maggots on their raft.
"I'm never gonna eat turkey again!" Geoff said to Anne Maria. "That food can knock you out!"
"Not as much as I'm gonna knock Chef out for serving us this," Anne Maria replied back.
"Take it easy. We're still alive and all," Geoff calmed her down.
Anne Maria took in a deep breath. "Alright, but I'm avoiding breakfast until further notice."
The shot cut over to Scarlett, who was pulling Molly aside. The indie chick raised an eyebrow and the quiet brainiac leaned in close and whispered "Have you noticed how close Anne Maria is getting with Geoff ever since he switched to our team?"
"I'd have to be blind to not notice," Molly remarked.
"With that as the matter of hand, I'd suggest us joining forces if they'll be cooped up with one another," Scarlett said.
Molly raised her eyebrow. "Even so, we have four members on the team after Dave's elimination last episode."
"I know that, and we'd have to convince them to vote individually for both of us," Scarlett strategized. "That way, we can easily target one of them."
"I do work alone, but I also want to save my butt from being eliminated," Molly said back. "You've got a deal."
Confessional: Molly
"Scarlett's not exactly my go-to as an ally, but given we're both closed off, and I don't have Dave to talk to anymore, we might as well stick together," Molly accepted.
Confessional: Scarlett
"We're nearing the merge, and that means I must analyze the remaining contestants and see their strengths and weaknesses," Scarlett smiled in satisfaction.
"Trent and DJ are major physical and social threats. The sooner they are eliminated, the better. Sierra and Scott are wild cards, though I sense Scott has more intelligence."
"Sammy and Geoff are fit and in good shape, but I'll save them for later as they can't outscore me in intelligence. And as for Anne Maria and Molly, they're average in every single way. Going up against them in the finale will be beneficial to winning," the brainiac finished proudly.
Confessional Ends
The static cut away to a shot of the rafts from a perspective a little higher, a little further away, and at a right angle to where the camera had been before. The roar of engines and the honk of a horn heralded the arrival of Chris and Chef from the right, the two men riding jet skis and wearing life jackets.
"Morning, suckers!" Chris greeted with an exuberant grin. "How'd you enjoy your turkey buttolini?"
"I've eaten better," Sierra said, irritated. "It tasted good and didn't knock people out cold enough for you to kidnap them."
"I'm sure you have," Chris replied teasingly.
"And what's with all the kidnappings?" Sierra continued. "You can simply ask us to meet you someplace like a normal person, not lock us in extremely cold trucks or do this."
"Because," Chris answered, "that wouldn't be good for ratings. As Total Drama's biggest fan, I thought you'd already know that?"
Sierra narrowed her eyes at the host.
Confessional: Sierra
Sierra was shown to be feeling furious. "Okay, mom? I know how hard it is to end a crush, but he's a total jerkface! When I come home, the Chris McLean museum/guest room better be destroyed!" the uberfan hissed lowly.
Confessional Ends
Chris regained his usual demeanor, "First thing's first: If any of you are still trying to find that McLean Brand Invincibility Sculpture I hid at the beginning of the season," he announced, taking out a photograph of the head in question, "you can stop now. Somebody's already found it," he said, dropping the picture into the lake.
The contestants were all upset and angry about the news. "And speaking of digging things up, today's challenge is all about winning the ultimate reward: Life, itself!" His tone became deeper and more dramatic as he made his declaration. "Your first challenge is to race to the shore, by any means possible." The camera panned over to the island in the distance. "First team there wins a handy reward. Last team gets a heinous penalty, before you embark on a quest for buried treasure."
"You're using us to dig up buried treasure?" Trent asked. "That's just weak."
"There was treasure here once, but I found it years ago," Chris emphasized. "How do you think I bought the island?"
"It must've been a small treasure," DJ mumbled to himself.
"I thought it was through all your movies and songs you put out before becoming a host, and I own a hundred of them," Sierra smirked.
Chris' brow shot up in shock, and Chef snickered behind him. "Just get moving already!" the host demanded, backing up his jetski then speeding away with Chef.
"I thought Sierra liked Chris, but now she's insulting him?" Sammy asked DJ.
"She must've seen how rotten he is both on the inside and outside," DJ quipped.
Confessional: Sammy
"Mocking someone who's the host of the show is definitely a risky move," Sammy admitted. "Sierra will be lucky if she doesn't get disqualified."
Confessional Ends
"Are you all just gonna stand there or are you gonna come help me pry this off?" Anne Maria asked, the shot cutting to her trying to break the rigid signpost.
"What? Oh, yeah. Sorry, Anne Maria," Geoff said, quickly turning around and moving to help her with Scarlett and Molly following right behind. All of them grabbed on to the sign and pulled, and after a moment of effort, the post snapped at the bottom.
"I use poles for canoeing back home," Molly said as she held the broken sign, "but we can use this to paddle to shore."
"I'll do the paddling, girls," Geoff volunteered, taking the broken sign from her. "I can kick this raft into high gear!"
"Be sure to take caution while you do so," Scarlett said. "There are sharks in the water."
The focus shifted over to the Rats, who were watching their rivals. "We have to do what they're doing," Sammy suggested.
Sierra put one hand on the top of their sign, bending it slightly, then snapped it with a swift kick.
"That was excessive, but we can row now," DJ said as he took the sign.
Confessional: Trent
"Using that sign will be much better than using my guitar as a paddle," Trent said. "It wouldn't flow well in water."
Confessional Ends
The focus cut back to the Maggots and it heralded the start of challenge music, and Geoff began to row with his sign-paddle. "We need to put some distance between us and the Rats!" Scarlett ordered. "Stroke like you mean it!"
The camera cut outward, revealing that DJ's own paddling was keeping the Rats about neck-and-neck with the Maggots, and the shot focused in on them. "Not to be a downer, but we need more than just DJ on this," Trent said.
"If we want to catch up, we'll have to get in the water and kick," Sierra realized.
"No way!" Scott protested. "Remember the shark?" He got shoved into the water courtesy of Sierra.
"The faster we get to shore, the faster we won't be eaten," Trent said, walking to the back of the raft and jumping into the lake. Sammy and Sierra then dived in as well.
"Fine," Scott gave in and pushed the raft with the other three.
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The scene cut to the Maggots, Anne Maria and Molly and Scarlett standing near the back of their raft as Geoff continued to paddle them forward. A whoop of excitement caught their attention, and the shot zoomed out to show the Rats' raft moving ahead quickly in the foreground.
"That's it," Molly said in an upset tone. "We need to paddle and push the raft at the same time."
"Into the water!" Scarlett immediately commanded and dived into the lake alongside Molly while Anne Maria lingered with Geoff. "You too, Anne Maria."
"You know," Anne Maria said, "Geoff should be in the back with you guys. His legs are better suited for kicking."
The shot cut to Geoff as he paused his paddling. "My calves are toned now that you mention it."
"I'll agree to this, but you have to be the one that paddles now," Scarlett told Anne Maria.
Geoff handed Anne Maria the sign post and dived in shortly after and the camera lingered on Anne Maria paddling the raft.
Confessional: Geoff
"I do a lot of leg exercises, and my legs never let down if I need them for a race or for swimming," Geoff summarized.
Confessional Ends
"Keep kicking your feet and we'll be on shore!" DJ told his team, but stopped abruptly along with his team's raft as it smacked into something that sounded pink and fleshy. He looked warily ahead, the camera panning on to his reflection in the massive yellow eye of a truly gigantic octopus that was resting just below the surface with only the top of its head in view.
It shuddered, then bellowed deeply and angrily and lifted its tentacles out of the water. DJ and his teammates screamed in terror.
The shot cut to the sky above, where Chris and Chef were watching the challenge unfold in their helicopter. "Awww, it's playing with them," the host laughed.
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The focus moved back to the Rats, all five now on the raft with Sierra holding their sign post and DJ being held captive in one of the octopus's many tentacles. The shot cut to Sierra as she screamed "Let go of my teammate!" and swung at the tentacle several times, only to repeatedly hit DJ in the face.
The camera focused on the captive brickhouse, and his face looked more bruised with each whack. "You're hitting me!" DJ wailed with every whack.
"Giant squid dead ahead!" Anne Maria yelled as the focus cut over to the Maggots' raft floating a little ways away.
"Keep it down," Scarlett hissed, her eyes still locked forward. "We should be able to sneak by it if it's focused on the Rats."
"You might want to look behind you," Molly fearfully pointed at a circling shark fin.
The shark circled around to the front and jumped onto the raft, revealing itself as Fang. As the mutant grinned menacingly at Anne Maria, she held up her sign-paddle in front of her.
The camera briefly cut to Geoff frozen in fear, and when Fang jumped into the water, he screamed and swam around the raft in a circle screaming "Shark! Shark!"
"This is just going to get us killed!" Molly hissed.
As this went on, Anne Maria became frustrated. She held the sign above her head and slammed it down on Fang, causing the shark to be sent flying off-screen.
"Thanks for the save," Geoff said as he got back on the raft.
"Now you owe me twice for saving you twice," Anne Maria replied.
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Technically, I didn't make the gopher go away, but I prevented it from attacking Geoff, so I'd consider that a save," Anne Maria prided.
Confessional Ends
The shot cut to the Rats, all of them being held captive by the octopus. Then, to the shock of the team, Fang flew into the octopus's eye. It shuddered and bellowed in pain, then dropped its captives into the water as Fang sank down.
The camera panned right to show the Rats resurfacing away from the octopus.
"Let's get out of here while we still can!" Sammy shouted, diving into the water with Trent following shortly after.
"Hurry!" Trent shouted as he and Sammy hastily swam off towards the right, with Scott, Sierra, and DJ quickly joining them.
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The scene flashed back to the Maggots, all of them now on the raft.
"Okay," Molly whispered back to her teammates, "I think we're clear now."
Their raft promptly rammed into something. She turned around, and yelped as the shot zoomed out to reveal the angered giant octopus surfacing in front of them.
"That doesn't look clear," Anne Maria told her fearfully as they scrambled to the back of the raft.
"Now how are we going to escape this?" Scarlett griped.
Geoff was lost in thought until an idea came to his head. "Wait a minute! I have an idea! Get as far back as you can!"
Geoff made his way to the squid and faced him. "I bet you can't even smash us with your jelly fins, Octo-Guy!" the party boy mocked and grinned at the octopus.
The octopus raised a tentacle high and curled it almost into a fist while Geoff's teammates gasped and spoke in fear at the same time.
The curled-up tentacle suddenly sprouted several large spikes, and the three Maggots at the back of the raft screamed...
And then the footage and music ground to a halt, a 'pause' symbol appearing over the slightly-faded scene. "Will Geoff's shouting outsmart the octopus's punching?" Chris asked, standing up in front of the paused screen wearing a hat shaped like an octopus head and tentacles. "And what's up with Sierra? Find out, after the break," he finished, crossing his arms coolly.
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(Commercial Break)
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