After seven years and quite a few derivative games, Slay the Spire 2 is finally available in early access form. At the outset, StS2 feels a lot like the original. Ironclad, Silent, and Defect return with the same decks and unchanged card/combat mechanics. Mega Crit games clearly didn't burn everything down and start from scratch, but my first run left me wondering if the sequel used too much copy and paste.

A Body Slam deck for Ironclad with a few too many Defends.

I ran each character through Ascension 1 and found myself using the same builds that took me through Ascension 10+ in StS1. Ironclad used Body Slam, Silent used Poison and then Shiv, Defect used Claw and then Dark. Each of these builds had a few new, viable cards or relics but played the same.


Most of the new cards available for the returning characters didn't seem worthwhile for their core builds but also weren't numerous enough to indicate the existence of a good alternative build.

The Regent starting deck.

StS2 adds two new characters with their own unique mechanics:

• The Regent comes with a second action currency. It's not the most mechanic thing but his cards have a few build options.
• The Necrobinder has a summon called Osty. I did one Osty run that felt mediocre and one Doom run that was a bit like poison.

A Necrobinder Doom build with Seance for thinning and Catastophe to ramp damage. The Defends and Osty cards were the first to be Seanced, I didn't get much card removal in this run.

Enemies

Scrolls of Biting decrease your Max HP (permanently, I assume) if they land a hit.

The StS2 enemies are all new - pretty much, the "Ca-caw" and "My power is unmatched" cultists join forces in this one.


Squishy enemies, Elites, and Bosses alike have new abilities/tactics that are different from the mechanics of the first game but not disruptively so. One enemy steals a card from your deck, another enemy mob can take max 9 damage per round, the Decimillepede regrows sections after a one-round cooldown.


The bosses aren't pushovers but they're not quite as challenging as the first StS.

?s

The ? events are all new. There seem to be a few more opportunities to deck thin and some additional "carry this card until the next act and you'll get something awesome".

Ancients

In StS1 the reward for finishing an act was a gold-tier card and a relic that would often be "get an additional action point per turn, but also there is some unrelated downside". In StS2 there is no relic reward, instead you begin next act chatting with an Ancient. Some of the reward choices are similar to the extra action relics, others are very different. See below:


Moving away from additional action points definitely puts the squeeze on builds; 3-cost cards are far less viable when you're talking about skipping a round in the later acts. On the other hand, the new rewards are considerably more interesting and lend themselves to creating a unique build.

Neow's card pack blessing wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped.

Enchantments

Goopy enchantment: permanently increase the card's block value by 1 and add Exhaust.

Another fun addition to the StS universe is card enchantments which are found at ?s and encounters with Ancients. These permanent card modifiers do things like add card draw, increase numeric stats, or Replay (play the card multiple times).

Final thoughts

Unlockables are tied to lore snippets with artwork that is currently just in sketch form.

StS2 is still in early access so there's nothing definitive to say. My initial takeaways:

• The game mechanics largely resemble the first one but there is no shortage of new content.
• I haven't tried co-op mode but would very much like to.
• Act IV isn't yet developed so every run ends with defeating the Act III boss and getting a cinematic death at the hand of the Architect.

Me and J have mostly been playing Borderlands 4 (it is a big game) but when the connection quality has been too terrible we've gotten some Roboquest in.


PUBG is doing a ninth anniversary event. There are some lobby decorations, a festive purple ghillie, and chicken people that run around and drop loot.


The B8TE squad is still chasing that perfect bridge camp. Normally this means more boats.

	Yo, my buddy Keith had his car drop in a lake off a bridge just like this one here... Yeah, see, he was driving over it late at night and there in the middle of the bridge was what looked like, In Keith's estimation, like a dead bear, so Keith gets out his car to find a stick to poke at it right? Well, it turns out it's just some lady's fur coat that musta fallen out her car, so, hey, free coat, right? Now, owls won't normally attack a man, but in this case, they were hungry, and that made them reckless, man. Keith reckons that they musta been there for hours watchin' what they thought was a bear carcass, 'cause as soon as he picked it up, them owls had claws in him inch deep. Well, Keith figures his best bet is to jump in a lake, 'cause owls can't swim. Well, them owls could. He fought them for like 20 minutes treading water, and during that time, a boat came, bridge went up and down went Keith's car. Man, sometimes nature's just tryin' to teach us, if we'd only listen.	�
	From Ellis in Left 4 Dead 2 (pic unrelated)

Too much stuff is broken.

• My dreams of attending the 2026 World Cup
• My guest bathroom faucet
• My motorcycle charging unit
• The non-energy parts of my port

Here's a quick recap of my World Cup ticket chase:

1. Visa random draw: failed
2. Early random draw: failed
3. Main random draw: failed

This left the last-minute random draw and, to my surprise, a US Soccer insiders draw. The surprising part is because I was given a supporters code to punch in to the FIFA site during the main random draw to get access to the supporter allocation.


Tickets bought through US Soccer incur 10% upcharge but it didn't matter:

US Soccer

Thank you for being part of U.S. Soccer Insiders and entering the 2026 U.S. Soccer World Cup Ticket Draw. Due to the overwhelming demand and limited ticket inventory, your entry was not selected in this draw. We understand this is disappointing, and we are grateful for your commitment to supporting our National Teams.

The last-minute draw opens April 1.

Digital tickets and transferring them

For no particular reason I looked into whether or not the tickets could be transferred, here's what I found:

• Tickets are digital-only using an official app that is not yet available
• "Transfer" in FIFA dictum refers to reselling tickets, not giving them to a friend or family
• Tickets can be exchanged between people in the app and it's okay to give your tickets to someone else

In most cases, a leaky bath/shower cartridge isn't a huge deal - it leaks into the bath/shower until you replace it. This was the case with the master shower a few years ago and so it was about time for the guest bath to bust an o-ring. Alas, leakage from the guest bath shower cartridge followed the handle stem back into the wall for me to later discover it the murder room.

When we first renovated the bathroom almost 20 years ago, I went with Pegasus fixtures. They matched the style I was going for and were one of the upscale options (but a Home Depot house brand). I typically avoid Home Depot brands these days but in 2008 I didn't have the funds, bandwidth, or experience to be choosy. And, for what it's worth, the too-plasticky Moen cartridge in my master bathroom died after about ten years versus the Pegasus's twenty.

Irrespective of quality, you'd think that a house brand would continue to receive support from the parent company with new products or, at least, replacement parts. Nope, Pegasus is long gone and according to the HD rep, "you might be able to find replacement cartridges at a specialty plumbing store." A fixture without a cartridge is approximately equal to a full bathroom remodel, so I checked the ebays.


Sure enough, someone had the same hardware sans tub spout.


I haven't yet moved this one over to the Done column because there's at least one lingering obstacle: pulling the cartridge. The fixture uses an RP20006 cartridge that isn't removed with a standard cartridge puller, instead you need to remove a housing sitting within the recess.


A few years ago my Zero S stopped charging. The dealership said the onboard charging unit had failed but Zero offered to replace it about a month or two out of warranty. It happened again earlier this month. I plugged in the charging cable and heard a faint sizzle from behind the connector. The internet says the charging units on these bikes have a very high failure rate.

I really didn't want to spend $800 for another doomed unit, not that this really compares to maintenance costs in desmoland.


The same web forums indicated that the OEM quick charger bypasses the onboard unit and can be used as a (possibly more reliable) alternative. It's also $800.


I had to go through the local dealer but two weeks later I had my new charging solution. Never mind the fact that I hadn't actually confirmed my issue was a bad charger.


I followed the instructions and ended up with a two-flash "low voltage" indicator.


AI said there could be a few things to try but the real answer didn't come from the instructions or some clanker, it came from Keith Thomas:

Zero days

It probably shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Zero has some security issues:

Persephone Karnstein

Around the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, Mitchell Marasch and I performed a security assessment of the Zero Motorcycles Android app, which quickly ballooned into an assessment of their PCB potting strategies and bike firmware. And fam, the results were bad. We were able to bypass authentication, sign arbitrary firmware, and even pseudocoded out The Malware That Kills You Instantly.

The company sent an email that they're working on it:

Zero Motorcycles

Separately, we recently became aware of potential issues in our motorcycles' firmware and are taking steps to address them with your safety and security in mind. This work is ongoing, and we remain committed to strengthening system protections across our platform.

Excalibur test failed.

We started bombing Iran a couple of weeks ago. Things kind of went south for the global economy when Iran did the thing that's probably Step 2 in every warplan of theirs; they closed the Strait of Hormuz. Oil and oil tankers are now stranded in the Persian Gulf. This has been great for OIH holders, the share price has spent far too many months below $250. And it's been great for traders who bought oil every time Truth Social featured a "China talks going well!!!"-style tweet. Weekly calls on USO have been like 4% for a strike a few bucks OTM.

Oh yeah, I'm taking the cynical road on this conflict - there's nothing to do but minimize losses and let the trainwreck proceed. Trump and his voters got their war, Netanyahu got his war, Khomeini got his war. No one else's opinion has any bearing on the direction this thing goes.

There were some trading days, especially in the eastern markets.

Reality and alt-reality finally intersecting

/u/hopewellroad Why has the market started to act rationally?

/u/JugoShvili Because we're not solvent anymore

The president has historically been successful at providing his supporters an alternative reality that exists alongside the real one. He can be "good on the economy" because QE makes everyone feel rich until inflation kicks in during the next president's term. The Mueller report can be "total vindication" because Congress never acted on it, likewise with the deus ex machina of being re-elected while being prosecuted for the open-and-shut Jan 6 and classified documents charges.

During Trump's first term, we eventually saw reality and alt-reality collide with the pandemic. No amount of "over by April" would change the infection rates and hospital censuses. It happened again ten months later when the "stolen election" narrative bounced off of the vote tallies and willingness of states/congressmen to reject reality.

We're again witnessing reality and alt-reality clash over the Iran conflict. Their incompatiblity has made itself evident in the official messaging:

• The war is 'complete'
• The war is almost done
• We're just getting started
• Oil tankers are traveling through the strait, it's perfectly safe
• Iran better remove any and all mines they placed in the strait
• We will escort ships through the strait... just not now
• We don't need help from allies
• Why aren't allies helping us?
• Pete and Marco talked me into this
• We're going to bomb infrastructure in 48 hours... okay 5 days... okay 10 days but only because the Iranians requested it during negotiations that are absolutely occurring

Occupation?

jarkon-anderslammer

Good news for the boys who spent 2024 listening to 3-hour podcasts about becoming alpha males. The government has a free testosterone challenge waiting for you. It's called the Middle East, the dress code is camo, and Joe Rogan is not going.

It's hard to say what will happen next. The sides might come to an agreement to end hostilities due to the threat of a ground invasion or some concessions on the part of the US and Israel. It seems more likely that the global impact of the strait being closed will result in an occupation of, at least, the regions surrounding Hormuz.

Two stuffies enter, one stuffy leaves.

	The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?	�
	From Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja (pic unrelated)