DRG 6x2 EDD: "Rippled Darkness" (solo scout)

Описание: Yes bosco, no deaths. Featuring overclocked firing mechanism gk2 + shaped shells boomstick + pheromones in Hollow Bough.

Good dive this week - no dreads, some janky refinery fun, and a couple of bubbles. The modifiers were solid, and it was overall just a pleasant experience. I was quite happy in my decision to take pheromones - it's been a while, old friend. They definitely did a fair bit of work, but I don't think I needed them in the first bubble (the terrain was actually pretty favourable for pheroless); however the second one almost certainly would have been an abject disaster without their hard carry.

Anyway, this is my first upload of pheros "post-nerf". To be honest I'm not 100% certain this is real and I could be gaslighting both you and me right now, but it's been said that the changes to enemy attention grabbery (the change that noticeably hurt LURE grenades on engy) - also impacted phero. If I understand the dilemma correctly: it used to be that bugs would have a higher target weight towards afflicted bugs than players, making them always focus the bug once their "update goal" ticked over in their AI. Now, it's apparently equal weighting between bugs or players - making it more strongly affected by things like distance or random chance - which in theory, would make pheromones more likely to have stragglers not affected by the pile and target you.

And the reason I said I'm unconvinced that this is a thing, is because honestly I didn't really notice anything different lol. There was a single stingtail near the very end of stage 3 interrupting a resupply when it should have been distracted by a phero pile - but beyond that I didn't really have any noticeable issues that felt different than classic phero. What could be happening is just simple density and my piles are big enough that I maintain the old behavior by sheer probability - if a bug has 3 equally weighted targets to choose from and one is the player, it's a good chance you're getting zoned in on. If that drops to like... 30 potential targets, having it randomly choose the player is such an effectively zero probability that it won't matter. I tend to play around "optimal" phero, which is basically never tossing just a single nade, but farming up a big stinky nerd convention where a bunch of bug nerds get together to talk about nerd stuff like "who's the coolest marvel bug character and why is it antman" that a complete jock like me cannot even fathom. The big nerd piles will leave behind a musty scent, but they sure are effective.

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Stage 1: definitely the hardest this week. A lot of difficult angles to push into, and my desire to limit myself to two resups made for some additional spice. Very satisfied I got the black box started before a swarm, because the timing was probably super duper tight, and if I had been delayed even a few seconds longer, it's likely I wouldn't be able to start without having the full brunt of a swarm on me (much more dangerous even with pheromone abuse). In this stage you can see the fullest extent of my big brain as I remembered a nitra vein back near the start that I stuck bosco on and ran away from. To any concerned doctors specialising in geriatric medicine: this is irrefutable PROOF that I am mentally capable and I do NOT need to be put in a home despite what my lyin' no good lazy millennial grandkids are saying.

Stage 2: I heard the upper pumpjack but didn't see it - I started building towards the sound with great optimism that it would be on the floor somewhere and I just missed it, but alas it was up in the penthouse suite. Of course I'm the main character here and I never get punished, because it just so happens there was a convenient land bridge that basically stuck right up towards where it needed to go anyway. So it alllllll worked out in the end. I don't know if it's noticeable in the run, but my brain basically shut down a fair number of times and I couldn't remember what year it was or how many nickels I needed to see a picture at the nickelodeon or why the roaches were coming to shake my hands and ask for my endorsement on their mayoral campaign. Either way, there was actually several times where I basically just completely stalled and had to wait for the brain modem to reset before I remembered what I was doing. At least that's what it felt like while playing...

Stage 3: remembering how much I love stingtails and how I want them to fill me up with their seed and implant little baby stingtails inside me that will burst through my stomach in a writhing mass of ecstasy as their little pincers burst through my skin (the second largest organ of my body hehe) and squelch out of me like the sunrise on a misty morning

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Loadout:
21211 Overclocked Firing Mechanism
21313 Shaped Shells
Pheromones

Perks:
Dash / Iron Will
Resupplier / Deep Pockets / Born Ready

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Highlights:

0:00 Build
0:40 Stage 1
19:44 Stage 2
40:07 Stage 3
50:05 Final stats