the trick is to keep breathing

i have not died. i am, sadly, still here. i have been super busy with things both planned (Coven Weekend over Labor Day, yay!) and unplanned (new furnace/AC, $5K, "yay") and somewhat planned but out of my control (i have a new niece, yay! that makes three!) and with all of it going on i slipped downward in one of my usual "i am overstimulated, this has been too many people and too many things happening" depression spirals, the bottom of said barrel having hit wednesday of this week: so at least i'm on my way back up now.

my depression sneaks up on me like that, when i'm doing too much and yet not enough (i have 5 loads of laundry to do and that isn't even linens! yay!), but when it hits it's very familiar and recognizable. oh: it's you again. i acknowledge it, i respect it, i sit with it and in it and i vaguely hate, and then i try to move on the next day. it's the only way i can deal, and it usually works.

a part of this particular crash is that i've stopped playing all of my mobile games - all of them, yes. i probably haven't even logged in in 2 weeks. usually it's a comfort to play a bit and give my mind a break, but for whatever reason that's the switch that flipped that time, and i found myself morbidly uninterested in doing anything with them. so, no mobile game mondays, although they'll come back; it'll slowly come back, cause they're fun as hell, it's just one ladder to climb out of this hole.

i had also stalled with music, wanting something repetitive and comforting, so i listened to like two albums over and over again for 4 weeks running. again: hi, it's depression. i've been branching out again lately so i know that bit's coming back too.

that's the hardest part about the downward spiral for me: the loss of interest, of caring, of doing your ritual routine things that help give your brain some quiet time (my brain shouts, shouts, spins and shouts) - it just goes away, and like, you just end up staring?

this time i at least fell down a hole of fanfiction, all over the place but a lot of Avengers, although that isn't productive either. ha.

how did september happen? the fuck was i?

yyyyep, that's right, it's time for Mobile Game Mondays, that weekly series that doesn't know what day it is and doesn't quite care!

[FFBE]
In Pulls: the 5% 5* draw has been acting up; I have scored myself Dark Knight Cecil, Elfreeda, and Awakened Rain! I am stoked for A-Rain, as he is supposed to be an amazing magic tank (I do have Mystea, who is grand, but supposedly A-Rain is better?). Elfreeda seems to be a TM generator rather than incredibly useful, although I'll still level her for funsies; DK Cecil is disliked on the Reddit, but if nothing else, he'll be grand for expeditions. I'm still considering pulls for Squall/Rinoa, and I have 3 days left, but I may end up accepting status quo and saving up some tickets again. I have like, 7.
In Leveling: I awakened Wilhelm to 7*, and he's so pretty. NEED to run him in something boss for fun. Maxed A-Rain out immediately; working on Elfreeda and DKC. I'm still using all LB pots I get on HT Lid's Limit Break, but from there it will probably go to either A-Rain or Hot Dad Raegen. Considering taking Orlandeau or Lightning to 7*, but I'll probably wait a bit on that.
In TMs: I finally got Frye's sword TM and Vanille's accessory TM, so I sit with my DW Fryevia at 585/899 ATK/MAG at the moment and still building. So pretty. Onion Knight has not dropped his TM yet because he is a dick and I hate him. Trying to get one of the Orochi's 40% ATK TMs now, along with Crowe; probably will focus on A-Rain after that. Have to figure out who else to add once OK gets his lazy ass off the team; I may try to work on TMs for some of the folks I am planning to 7* when they arrive.
In Game: Still farming the MK VIII event; need a couple more things from it, and then I'll do the story event. After that I need to spend some extra time getting through plot Ch 2 before September!

[FFRK]
I've taken a break from Magicites to wrap up all the Jump Starts (that dungeon ends tomorrow? evening? i think?) that I haven't done before they go away. Looks like I have 11 left to do so I'm gonna have to devote some time tonight XD. There are a ton of motes lying there are rewards, and (unlike fucking Torments) I actually enjoy the JS setup and strategy, so they're at least entertaining me as I plug on through.
Haven't pulled on anything in a while, so I pulled on the XII banner; got a literal 1/11 dupe Ashe BSB. At least it's a shiny 7* now. Butts. That's never fun. I still have to do the August Crystal Tower, too.
I'll get back to the 4* Magicites soon, but I'm going to try a different one. Realized today I have a pretty good Water team that might be a better place to start (also considering a pull on the Water banner because a Water Chain to top it off would be a definite win), or even a Fire team. I've temporarily lost the interest in a lot of this game, so I'd like to get myself hyped up on the next level of challenge, so that I can get back into enjoying it.

[LN]
Working on the Ch13 suit (Magician of the Wild) to proceed in the story, and catching up in Princess too. The new event suits are cute, but it's just a roulette gatcha, so I'm not sure how much I'll spend diamonds on it. I'm still low on diamonds from whatever last crap I spent them on, lol.
Focusing on farming the suit and getting through story again XD

how about y'all? what's having fun on your phone?

heyyyy, welcome to mobile game monday, where we don't care what day of the week it is! this delay brought to you by an awesome vacation weekend that got extended into Monday, which was totally worth it, and you'll hear about later

[FFBE] well, i'm working through the burnout on this game, and keeping up with the raid (except for this wknd); not sure what to do with stamina, so dumping it into story chapter 2 at this point. i'm sure there will be another event coming soon to ruin my day.
More excitingly, I've managed to pull Hot Dad Raegen, a second Fryevia, and (x2) Heavenly Technician Lid! Raegen is great and can chain w Frye, and Lid is a top tier breaker, so I'm really happy to see them. I'm at 99.7% with Onion Knight's sword TM, and 96.3% on Frye's sword TM, which is awesome. After that I need to narrow down some TMs -->
Also, we are nearing the 7* meta, which requires 2x 5*s with one maxed out to 6* (and possibly 1 with TMR ...? will confirm), which could change my TM farming plans. I wasn't doing too well with dupes of my 5* when I first started reading about it, but now I have some good choices to make (Wilhelm, Fryevia, Purp Drank Lasswell, HT Lid, LM Fina, Orlandeau, Yuna, Kunshira...) and while I expect it to be expensive AF I'm just glad I have some options.
I wasn't going to pull on the Star Ocean banner bc I don't know SO or the units, but since we're getting so many Trust Moogles for those units, I feel like it's worth a daily pull and maybe a couple tickets to land some of the better TMs.

[FFRK] actually not a lot of progress here; just keeping up with the events. i've been grinding things for a while so i really need to go back in, figure out what dives I can make and what abilities I can hone, and start moving ahead into harder content like i actually intend to. haven't pulled in a while; sitting on about 100 mythril at the moment. hopefully will get back into measured goals this week.

[LN] FUCKING FOX BRIDE SUIT AND MY DIAMONDS. CAN WE TALK ABOUT IT. I HATE IT BUT I LOVE THE SUIT. i'm seriously at like only 200 diamonds left, FML. i'm done pulling but it's so tempting cause i want to complete it. aahhh! otherwise, just farming for an outfit and wrapping up story.

how was your weekend and how are your games?!

Mobile Game Monday and New Tunes Tuesday were stolen from you this week by a sad flareup.

this is my 4th or 5th week gluten-free, and it does seem to be helping - with some things. it hasn't helped with the pain yet at all. however, i do feel like my mind is clearer overall - less of the exhausting brainfog that usually hits me after a day at work and saps away my 1800-2100 mostly. that's a big improvement and if it continues i may get part of my evenings back after all.

it's harder than you'd think. it takes extra energy to manage my groceries for the week - ordering from online where costs are cheaper, ordering from my grocery delivery for fresh produce, stopping at the stores where gluten-free fad has made more products available but they aren't exactly cheap. planning my lunches at work and packing them the night before, cause all my easy lunch options have been eliminated. not being able to come home and generally snack or eat a fancy gourmet frozen burrito. not being able to order pizza OR chinese anymore. it's a lot of work to manage, so far, and i'm not doing a great job - but i'm still gluten-free, and i'm getting better at it.

i think a lot of it will be building a diet-friendly pantry, which i'm working on. making sure all my staples are gluten-free so that i can still choose nachos for dinner if i need.

otherwise, yeah. work is being interesting - more on that later.

riiiiiiight, here's sev again to run you through the details you don't care about on my mobile game monopoly! let's get this started, cause it's fest time all over, which means goodbye all my resources and time to hide my wallet!

[FFRK]
Summerfest is still ongoing, and my prizes have been sporadically good and bad. i've been pulling once on each banner, and while i've landed some useless stuff, i've also landed stuff like Tidus' ASB, Rikku's BSB2, Snow's Ice Chain, and Ramza's holy chain 150 if i didn't mention that before. it's nice to have all the power-up dungeons open, so that i can run that and near-immediately learn the new soul breaks.

i've been really at a loss as to what to focus on, though. originally i was going to focus on magicite farming & motes, since they're half-off-stamina, and that's what i should be doing - except that they require attention, so i've instead mostly been using my stamina to autobattle orb farming. i really need to organize some targets and work towards those, but at this point, who knows.

i also need to pay attentions to the date! i have 1 stage left in the FFI event (ends 04), two left in IV + four left in twins + jump starts (ends 09), all 12 left in dissidia (ends 07), AND I STILL HAVE TORMENTS (ends 12)! plus the summerfest dungeons: the Weapons, the quiz & music stuff (ends 17)! Sev needs a nice focus list with things to cross off, or i'm le doomed.

so far i've still only beaten the one 4* magicite (earth), so the next goal (loolol aside from all the shit above) is to move on to another 4*.

[FFBE]
2nd anniversary fest is going on here! my character gains have mostly been bad - other than last week's Trance Terra, i think the most remarkable friend i've gotten is Seabreeze Dark Fina (who is apparently not too bad and also helps fill out my 5-Fina team for Fina Arena shenanigans). She was from the step-up pull, which I did for the Mage/Tank banner. They aren't actually as great as you think going in; save your lapis.

I'm sitting on some good tickets, too, but I want to wait until that Just Cause III banner goes because IDGAF about those characters at all.

i have been using half-price-stamina to RACE through a lot of the story, and i am having SUCH FEELINGS because of it. Lasswell needs to confess his love for Rain. Raegen in flashbacks calling them both his children. Sakura needs to join up with Citra. Jake needs to decide whether he wants to hit on Nichol or Lid. Did I mention Rain and Lasswell are aaaaaaaaaaaaa? Plus the ends of all the Veritas, the way they're all no longer really antagonistic and most everyone ends with honor and pride. I'm severely dead. I'm in the Crystal Tower thing, which I think is near the end of Chapter 1, which means i'm nearly out of Ch 1 lapis to haul (i don't do expeditions at work due to the attention they require walking characters around, so there's still some there) and i spent most of it on that step-up. oh well, there's always Chapter 2!

that's about all that's going on there, until/unless we get something new for 2nd anniversary.

[Dissidia OO] - just noting that i have to log in this week to get Ashe because waifu reasons

[LN] - i blew my diamonds on the Mirage suits because I loved them and Wasteland is apparently my Jam. otherwise, i'm working my way through Princess now because i need to farm some shit from Princess, especially the special stages which i usually skipped cause lazy. need to build my diamonds back up just in case. nothing else really going on.

[Mobius] - should probably log in here as well for FFXII event, which i haven't yet done; i have enough going on with these fuckin festivals haha

that looks like about it for me; tune in next time when i'm probably still making no (0) progress in anything. what have you done this week? what are your fun milestones?

(yes it's tuesday, but i had a hecking colonoscopy yesterday, so we're doing both of my posts today)

happy Mobile Game Monday! What's in your wallet?

[FFRK] - last week was ridic so i haven't been doing much except sporadically farming orbs, until yesterday... when i took another stab at Dark Dragon Magicite and suddenly found myself with a sub-30 clear thanks to Orlandeau USB and two copies of Assault Sabre plus Agrias OSB. Dang! I managed to skip the Fang that usually instant KOs a character consistently, so now I have to rework my strategy (which was based on sacrificing Shelke) to be even more consistent, and then I have a great way to farm dem Dark Orbs.

I haven't gotten many great relics from the 5-myth Realm Parade draw, but I did land braska USB and Vanille LMR, as well as Relm USB which looks pretty promising. (not as promising: Strago OSB, a couple dupes, and some SSBs.) I have some vague ideas for starting to rebuild my elemental teams, meaning SPREADSHEETS,,,,,, why do I exist

I need to catch up on events this week, as well as continue on Torments -- I took a break once I found out I had more time, but I need to keep pushing on them because it's less than a month now!

There's supposedly a great Summer Fest coming up, so resist the urge and save that mythril!!

[FFBE] - the grind continues. I have had little luck on banners lately, but I did end up with the cute witch from the Nichol banner and managed to pull Lotus Mage Fina (I've now gone from Tilith to Ayaka to LM Fina; I have healers out the ass). I'm sitting on 5000 lapis and I want to pull on the Nichol banner again for the trust moogles, BUT I am sitting on it until the anniversary.

I'm finishing up the ongoing events; only grinding the raid until I get enough Dark Orbs to craft a second sword, and then I'm done with that. I'm still grinding Mog King FFIV for some of the TMs, the burst pots, and the cactuars, but that's all I have left. (Ended up with a party of Yangs + Kunshira for my clear team, plus the highest % unit I can find on my FList.) Then next is that story event, who will compete for stamina with my desire to actually finish chapter 1 of the fucking story mainly to treat Fryevia with that 100% moogle, yes yes.

Also need to finish enhancing Frye and consider enhancing Reberta. She looks like a really fun powerhouse, but her enhancements are soooooo expensive...

[LN] - I got super behind on this due to the crazy last week and my butt-prep weekend. I'm really at this point just trying to do dailies and farm for the outfits I have listed until I have some more mental space to advance it. I'm almost into the last chapter in Maiden so that's going well at least.

how about you? What was your best win this week?

here we are - another Monday morning, another bar of stamina, another extended lunch break where Sev writes on DW...

FFRK
As it turns out, I have until the end of JUNE to finish Torment CMs, which was quite the relief - although I made it all the way up to FFIX Torment in record time. (If anyone needs tips on Torments, I'm happy to help!) I had to rush through the FFVI event, but I managed to clear the realms, the Jump Start, and half of the Multiplayer (by myself) before the event ended, so that suits me just fine.

In terms of deadlines there's a challenge dungeon leaving first, then 3rd Anniv dungeon, then FFXV event, then Crystal Tower. However, I'll probably tackle Crystal Tower earlier, to get the motes. In between that I still have 7-8 Torments left, and I need to grind my 3* Magicite dungeons, to make tackling the 4* ones easier.

I've made some good progress though: I fully legend-dove Orlandeau (I have his USB and it makes him a powerhouse), Yuffie (have her Glint and ASB, plus diving ninjas with double-cast is always a great idea), and Mog (IDGAF, he has been CLUTCH MVP for me in so many fights; plus, his LD2 is chance of medica after dance, which is awesome; PLUS IT IS ADORABLE). Most of those 5* motes came from the Torments I completed. I also honed the water ninja skill to R3 (6 uses), which is only significant because fuck dark and ice orbs - I want to get all the top ninja skills to R3, at least, but then I have to work on knight skills and heavy abilities, not to mention I should make some decisions about a Dark Team and finally work on them.

I am ALSO sitting on like 300 mythril, because I haven't really been tempted by any banners lately AND we have been getting a metric fuckload of myth from various things in the last month. I'm pretty sure there's a fest coming up at the end of June, so I'm trying to save it rather than, say, going in again on the XV banner for realm coverage, because........ reasons?

FFBE
I was hoping to make this post saying "I beat the giant rat", but I didn't beat the giant rat, although I did get it down to 15% health. My team was Ayaka (heals & esunagas), Roy (breaks & buffs), Cagnazzo (provoke tank), WoL (cover tank, also breaks), and my Fryevia + a friend Fryevia. My Frye is still pretty undergeared, resting at around 500/500 ATK/MAG, but I do have FFB +1 and thought hey fuck it why not. so chaining FFB Frye does a tonnnnnn of damage, it was pretty cool.

I just lost the fight when damage and paralyze just became a bit overwhelming - Ayaka had to spend turns removing paralyze, and when it hit Cag or Roy it worked like a cancel of whatever they were doing, so things started falling apart. I need to look up items for paralyze resist and, possibly, gear to make an evading WoL. I'll try again when I have a chance for a break this afternoon - it could just be RNG. I also have Mystea I could sub in for someone; i think she has some kind of status effect skill.

I'm "finished" grinding the Raid (meaning I got that last 4* ticket) but I'll still run raid orbs when bored to get materials -- I could probably use a couple of those EXP boosting hats for fun or expeditions. When that's done I'll probably go back to story - I want to clear Mysidia finally and keep working for that 100% moogle! - as well as TM farming, and farming Wilhelm's dumb limit break before I awaken him to 6*. Oh, and farming crysts to better awaken Frye -- so much grind!!

Love Nikki I was sort of phoning it in on LN last week; after Memorial Day weekend with nieces and party and family and stepfamily and aaaaaaa well my brain was pretty easily exhausted. This week, I picked some suits to work towards, which means I have to grind through some story so that I can open up some of the levels I need to grind. Ha.

I'd like to have a completely automatic (Finish ASAP button) Stylist's Arena, because I am a lazy ass, so I'm going in to each theme and upping my entry in the hopes of getting them all above about 55K points. That way I can watch my opponent, reset until I'm higher, and the only way I'll lose is if momo lies (MOMO LIES, THO).

otherwise, just plugging along. I have my share of wedding stuff so I'm honestly picking up the background/foreground stuff mostly, haha.

What about you and your Monday? and your Games?

we're back at it: Mobile Game Monday! Let's talk phone games!

FFRK Having become overly frustrated with the Type-0 Apoc+ fight - the fuck was that damage??? - I let the event pass incomplete, because I do not have time for that shit. I had a slow week in RK so I still have to clear the Dimensions event (0/7), the III event (0/17), the 3rd anniv (0/10), and the new CT -- while also making my way through the Torments before the end of June (ideally before the end of May, since the Cid Missions are going away!!!!!!). Luckily a lot of the events will be auto-battle I can do at my desk.

I picked up new toys for Yuffie, Cloud, and Zack on the half price VII banner, so I'll need to dive Yuffie and hone up the 5* water ninja skills (damn u Dark Orbs) because I now have her Glint and her Arcane which is apparently a water gamechanger combo. Other hones I'm focusing on ATM are the new Heavy Combat abilities, because I have Cinque's USB, which uses them to great effect; and the earth-based Knight abilities, which similarly work with Dorgann's USB. Both of these can step up my physical earth team A-Game (magic earth team is covered solely by Maria, who is a goddamned beastmachine).

All of that being said, I really need to focus on the Torments. My normal strategy is to bring healer with BSB, at least 2 BSBs with AOE to make it through the trash rounds, at least 1 powerhouse person who just attacks the whole way and then unloads, and a buff/debuff package. (Sometimes these overlap). That being said, sometimes I think I go through the trash "too easily" and instead I should just spend more time on them building gauge to make whatever boss is at the end that much easier. ugh. UGH! I will share results.

FFBE I have declared myself done farming the MK event, which has freed up my stamina; I'm probably going to focus on catching up with story while it's half-price. I'm happy to see the story event mainly because I need crystals very badly - I need to farm crystals and EXP both, because I have decent pulls I'm still leveling (Wilhelm, Mystea, and Ashe #2) and enhancements I want (Fryevia, Olive).

Since I'm hoping to trip over the 100% moogle from the story for Frye ;), I'm working on TM farming some other weapons: Drace's sword, Excalibur, Robbin Hood's axe.

Trying to decide on a power party to maybe start tackling the harder dungeons (lollllll@self): I have Ayaka, Wilhelm and/or Mystea can tank, and I have Ramza and Roy for buffs. I guess my best bet would be DW chainers, either my two Ashes or the Agrias/Oldmandeau duo, but I gotta work on gearing everybody. I did get Emperor's rod so that's a nice tool.

Love Nikki farming suuuuits~~~ doo doo doot. I have to catch up on Princess levels to farm some of the items I need, and I'm trying to do it without using my profile at lninfo to tell me how to win. The White Queen outfit up now looks pretty cool, so I'm trying to farm that out in time -- which means going back to earlier stages where I didn't quite know what I was doing yet and skipped the bonus stages. Gotta get those Ss!

I went in for 3 of the band suits; wasn't worth going for them all, but I thoroughly enjoy the pieces.

How about y'all? What am I missing this week in mobile game world?