Penacony is the third area you’ll visit in Honkai: Star Rail, and with it comes new treasure and puzzles to complete on the new planet. With over 100 new things to find, it can be a lot to scour out all at once.
A lot of the places in Penacony will only unlock once you’ve completed a certain part of the main Trailblaze Missions or have completed certain puzzles. Because of that, we recommend hunting all the treasure once you finish the story.
Most maps have loot hidden around and this loot expands beyond just treasure chests. When you open the map, you’ll notice a chest icon in the top left corner with numbers next to it. This indicates how many of the different types of loot you’ve found. However, this counter only lists treasure that isn’t locked behind puzzles or formidable foes (the powerful monsters that guard chests) and Warp Trotters.
Note that our maps are based off of beta content, so things may be different in the live version. We’re also missing a handful of chests that may be locked behind content that we didn’t get to in the beta. We’ll update this guide as soon as we can if there are any specific changes.
How Penacony treasure chests work
Opening chests and solving puzzles around Penacony will reward you with Clock Credits, which you can turn in to level up the Clockie statue in the center of Golden Hour. Leveling up the statue nets you rewards like Stellar Jade and other goodies.
There are lots of new puzzle types to Penacony, including block-sliding mirror puzzles and literal puzzles (with pieces you have to fit in to make an image). Most notably, there’s a new type of collectable found under the treasure chest drop down when you look at maps: “Lordly Trashcans.” These garbage pails will ask you a question, and if you answer correctly, they’ll give you a reward. If you answer wrong, they’ll engage you in battle — and you’ll still get the same reward after, so don’t worry about answering wrong.
Penacony also has quite a few maps where you’ll be walking on walls and the map there is 3D. While it’s obviously tough for us to convey information on where to find each chest, Warp Trotter, or Lordly Trashcan in these spaces, we did our best to indicate where the chests are located using circles to indicate which platform the object is on.
The Reverie (Reality) treasure chest locations
The Reverie (Reality) F1
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The Reverie (Reality) F2
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The Reverie (Reality) F3
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The first door from the left opens when you do the quest “Cosmic Star.” The second door from the left requires you to do the quest “The Trees as Peace” to open.
Golden Hour treasure chest locations
Golden Hour F1
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
Golden Hour F2
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
Golden Hour F3
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
Dream’s Edge treasure chest locations
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
A Child’s Dream treasure chest locations
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The Reverie (Dreamscape) treasure chest locations
We were only able to find 24 out of 29 treasure chests, even with Topaz and Numby sniffing them out. It’s possible that we missed some or that a room is locked by a quest or future content, but we’ll update this guide when we find the rest of them.
The Reverie (Dreamscape) F1
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The Reverie (Dreamscape) F2
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
The Reverie (Dreamscape) F3
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Hoyoverse
If you’re looking for more chests and loot in Honkai: Star Rail, you can check out our complete maps of the Herta Space Station, the Xianzhou Luofu, and Jarilo-VI, too.
This week’s episode of True Detective: Night Country opens with a clever bit of sound editing, as the signature white noise of HBO’s logo blends seamlessly in with Police Chief Liz Danvers’ (Jodie Foster) white noise machine, at her bedside, failing to relax her. She can’t stop obsessing over the video she and Navarro (Kali Reis) found of Anne Kowtok’s last moments, looking for more clues. It’s Christmas Eve, and Anne’s cries for help are about to be joined by a chorus.
“Part 4” of Night Country is the season’s most haunted hour, the ghosts in the periphery of the show taking center stage, even as its protagonists continue to deny them. The emotional crux of the episode rests on Navarro’s sister Julia (Aka Niviâna), whom Danvers finds wandering in the snow without a coat, shivering through some kind of episode. Navarro checks Julia into a facility for extended care, but it’s already too late: She sees the dead everywhere. And so she walks out onto the ice and joins them.
Night Country’s protagonists have been speeding toward the brick wall of their own denial, and Julia’s death is the collision. The injustices and tragedies that haunt Ennis and intersect with each other are boiling over, and neither Navarro nor Danvers can ignore them much longer.
That doesn’t mean they don’t try: Navarro, grieving, starts a fight and gets her ass kicked. Danvers, who has been slowly revealed to be a woman broken down and shoddily rebuilt like a work of jagged kintsugi, becomes so hostile and toxic that she can’t hit up her fuckbuddy Captain Connelly (Christopher Eccleston) for a drunken hookup without browbeating him, and ends up spending the holiday wasted and alone. This would be a quiet, sad episode if it weren’t for the growing choir of the dead.
Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO
The thin membrane between the living and dead in Ennis is one of Night Country’s richest thematic veins, and showrunner Issa López never turns down an opportunity to remind us of it. Sometimes it is in casual juxtaposition, staging mundane conversations in front of a horrific “corpsicle”. Other times it’s in the ways the planet’s history is engraved on its surface too deeply for us to scrub out, like the ancient whale bones frozen in the background of the ice cavern where Anne Kowtok died. And finally, it is in the angry shades of dead women who scream in Navarro’s ear.
We’re past Night Country’s midpoint, and the assorted hauntings of “Part 4” form a ghostly mosaic of the show’s many concerns about our past, and how we work hard to ignore it. The eerie secrets locked away in ice, Navarro’s distance from her Indigenous culture, the toxic entitlement of men that causes women’s opportunities to curdle — if it doesn’t snuff them out outright. History can suffocate us if we pay it no mind. We can forget the dead but the dead may not forget us.
Danvers has her own haunting to contend with, a monstrous one-eyed polar bear that causes her to drive into a snowbank — a bear that Night Country suggests is not real. It’s another haunting, the shape of Danvers’ lost son Holden’s favorite stuffed animal. It’s one of the few things of his she keeps around, one of the only signs that she’s never stopped grieving, never did the work of moving on.
“The dead are gone,” she insists to Navarro. “Fucking gone.”
Navarro says that if Danvers believed that, she wouldn’t keep that stuffed bear. And perhaps, the viewer can infer, she wouldn’t throw herself into this job, seeking justice for Anne Kowtok, working her way through the spirals hidden across Ennis, staring at horrors others look away from. The ghosts surrounding Ennis will not be ignored. The white noise isn’t tuning them out anymore.
Hazbin Hotel’s frenetic first season finished up on Friday, with a dozen reveals and dangling plot threads, all primed for a second season. The devilish comedy comes from creator Vivienne Medrano, who first posted the pilot episode on her YouTube channel, and follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, who opens a hotel in hopes that demons will rehabilitate and get to heaven. Oh, and it’s also a musical!
The first season finished with a bang, but it might be some time before we see the second season of Hazbin Hotel. So if you need something to sate your devilish desires for now, Medrano handpicked some of the show’s biggest influences.
Invader Zim
Image: Netflix
Where to watch: Paramount Plus
Merdano calls this one a “huge one” and it’s not hard to see why: Both shows share a similar kind of feverish sensibility, along with a strong, vibrant color palette. The spindly style of Invader Zim feels clearly at play in Hazbin, with characters like Alastor and Angel Dust feeling like they could fairly comfortably roll between shows.
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Image: Cartoon Network Studios
Where to watch: Max
The other childhood show Merdano cites is about two kids (one a clueless happy-go-lucky oaf, the other a cynical and smart-ass tomboy) who summon the Grim Reaper and beat him at a game of limbo, thus making him their eternal servant best friend. They get wrapped up in the paranormal world of demons, gods, and other supernatural creatures, but it’s all done with a goofy spin. The infernal through-line from Grim Adventures to Hazbin Hotel is pretty obvious.
BoJack Horseman
Image: Netflix
Where to watch: Netflix
While there were other shows she watched when she was younger, Medrano says Netflix’s BoJack Horseman — about an anthropomorphic, depressed washed-up sitcom actor (who is also a horse) — is the one that came at the “perfect time” to show her that she could tell a complicated emotional story in adult animation.
“[It’s] actually one of my favorites of all time; phenomenal show,” Medrano says. “It kind of showed me that adult animation can not only just be raunchy comedy, but it can be a story that has intense development of its characters. It can have incredibly flawed characters. It can make you cry. It can really get deep and dark.
“It had just started around the time that I was like, really making the pilot and they kind of made me go, Oh, wow, adult animation is starting to change. And it’s starting to evolve.”
South Park
Where to watch: Paramount Plus
Medrano calls South Park a “huge turning point” for her with adult animation — an experience a lot of people had around Comedy Central’s classic. The show tackled topical ideas and events, all with a gleeful, jaded humor that has kept it running since 1997. “From that point on,” Medrano says, “I kind of just kept watching [adult animation].”
Rick and Morty
Image: Adult Swim
Where to watch: Max
Similar to BoJack, Medrano cites this ever-popular Adult Swim comedy as a proponent of the depth and humor she tries to balance with her work. As anyone who has watched Rick and Morty can attest, there’s more to the show and more to Pickle Rick than the reputation it gives. “Something like Rick and Morty that is still very raunchy, and vulgar, and shocking in a lot of ways — it went this direction of like, Yeah, but let’s go a little deeper, let’s get a little darker. I think that also helped shift the space kind of more towards Oh, that works! That has an audience that did really well.”
Pokémon Go is having a Chansey Community Day event on Feb. 4 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time.
As expected with a Community Day event, Chansey will spawn in huge numbers with a high chance for it to appear shiny. There are also several other bonuses and perks, which we’ve list out below.
How do I catch a shiny Chansey?
As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 24, which means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon.
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Niantic
Notably, grabbing eggs from PokéStops during this event will net you 2 km eggs that will frequently have Happiny inside. These Happiny have a higher chance of being shiny, so if you want a shiny Happiny, this is your chance.
If you’re short on time or Poké Balls, you can pop an Incense, then quickly tap each Chansey to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Chansey you’ve already tapped will face where your player is standing, so that should help identify which ones you may have already checked.
What Community Day move does Chansey’s evolution learn?
If you evolve Chansey into Blissey from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. in your local time, it will learn the charged move Wild Charge.
If you miss out on evolving it during this period, you will likely be able to evolve it during a Community Day weekend event in December to get Wild Charge. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move.
How does Blissey do in the meta?
Blissey doesn’t see any use in PvP or PvE battles. It is, however, a fantastic gym defender. Blissey is bulky and a really sturdy tank, meaning that maxing out one and plunking it in a gym does a good job deferring some people from bothering.
How do I make the most of Chansey Community Day?
The following bonuses will be active during Chansey Community Day:
1⁄4 hatch distance for eggs placed into Incubators during the event
Doubled candy for catching Pokémon
Doubled chance for level 31+ trainers to get XL candy from catching Pokémon
Incense lasts three hours
Lure Modules lasts three hours
Chansey special photobombs when taking snapshots
One additional special trade
Stardust cost halved for trading
That said, you should definitely put all your eggs in incubators and pop an Incense and try to nab some powerful Chansey.
If you can Mega Evolve Pidgeot, Kangaskhan,or Lopunny, you’ll score additional Chansey Candy per catch.
In addition to all this, Niantic is still running special four-star raids from 5-10 p.m., where if you clear the Chansey raid, they will spawn in a 300-meter radius around the gym for 30 minutes. These raids cannot be done remotely. If the usual 2-5 p.m. spawn increase doesn’t get you the Chansey you wanted, you can try raiding for another chance.
Have you watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the 2005 Brad-and-Angelina action comedy, recently? Like, actually watched it, not just let your nostalgic memories of it play in your head. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was at the center of pop culture in the mid-aughts for a lot of reasons that had nothing to do with the actual movie, and a few that did: It’s sexy fun with massive stars, and director Doug Liman knows how to put together a good action scene. The elevator pitch — two professional assassins are married to each other, but don’t know about the other’s job — is a good one.
But right now, in 2024, it’s almost unwatchably strange. It’s one of those not-that-old movies that are so specific to their time they seem to have aged beyond their years. The bitter, marriage-is-hell humor lands wrong. The two leads look hot but sort of unreal, like they’re the premature product of de-aging technology. There are some iffy digital shots, and the cinematography and camera work — all handheld, all high-contrast, all orange and teal, all the time — are extremely 2005. It’s just not a film that plays anymore, and although it was a huge hit and the eye of a tabloid storm, it’s not much talked about today.
Which makes it an odd choice to be adapted into a Prime Video streaming series. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe, in fact, the choice by star Donald Glover and co-creator Francesca Sloane is a genius one.
In the current phase of the streaming wars (a phase we might be on the precipice of leaving behind, but that’s another story), the studios have not been shaken in their belief that any level of intellectual property name recognition is better than none, and creatives have been barraged with invitations to rework this or that old movie. Very rarely, as in the improbable success of Noah Hawley’s Fargo, an anthology series made in the spirit of the Coen brothers’ cinematic masterpiece, this has worked. More often it has not. Sometimes, the misbegotten results have at least been interesting, like Amazon’s curious reinterpretation of Dead Ringers. Sometimes, as in the case of the uninspired retread of Fatal Attraction, they have been both pointless and dull.
Photo: David Lee/Prime Video
Glover and Sloane’s inspired choice was to select a movie from the studios’ menu that is famous but unsophisticated and not especially beloved, with a dated iconography that could easily be junked and a strong concept that could be stripped to its core and rebuilt completely from scratch. This is exactly what they’ve done, creating a delightful series that is almost the inverse of its inspiration, while sharing its core values: It’s funny, sexy, glossy, and exciting, and built around the chemistry of its two leads.
The setup is markedly different. Rather than rival assassins who got hitched by accident, Glover and Maya Erskine’s John and Jane Smith have been purposefully paired up by the same shadowy employer, shedding their previous lives to begin a new one together. Where Pitt and Jolie begin the film as flawless pros trapped in domestic tedium, Glover and Erskine are awkward, hesitant newbies exploring their dangerous new profession and budding relationship together.
This sets up a show that is a lightly spiced, well-observed take on contemporary work and relationships with a side order of covert-ops hijinks. It might take viewers a couple of episodes to adjust to Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s unique world. It’s intimate and chatty, with a casual approach to the action stuff that isn’t concerned with realism or plausibility, and constantly lowers the dramatic temperature and the stakes, even as the Smiths get involved in increasingly outlandish mission-of-the-week scenarios. It’s a cool, easygoing relationship dramedy about people who just happen to be elite contract agents (but also gig workers, kind of). That’s not to say it doesn’t deliver thrills — there are some close scrapes, and one later episode set on Lake Como has an outstanding protracted chase scene — but it’s easy to tell where Glover and Sloane’s interest really lies: The action is as broad-brush and goofy as the Smiths’ dialogue is plausible, intricate, and nifty in its detail.
Photo: David Lee/Prime Video
Photo: David Lee/Prime Video
Mr. & Mrs. Smith — unlike the cinematically ambitious Fargo show, for example, which Sloane worked on, as well as contributing to Glover’s Atlanta — is also under no illusions about what medium it belongs to. This is very much a TV show. It has slick, aspirational visuals, with lovely location shoots around New York and Europe, handsome architecture, and cool fashion (Glover’s looks are on point). But the scale is small, and the 40-minute episodes are tight, discrete, satisfying short stories. Each one moves the Smiths’ relationship on while pairing them with a string of one-off guest stars, often as the couple’s mission target. It’s a murderer’s row of iconic actors: John Turturro, Sharon Horgan, Parker Posey, Ron Perlman, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Michaela Coel, and more. Perlman is magnificent as a mournful, childish oligarch with a killer Hitler joke, while Paulson provides a savagely accurate parody of a couples therapist.
This is just a great TV format, and in theory Mr. & Mrs. Smith could run forever like this; it’s reminiscent of Poker Face in the way it seeks to rehabilitate old-school case-of-the-week TV. Glover, however, likes to play games with form, as with Altanta — albeit to a much less experimental extent in this case. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is only a few episodes old before it starts to break its own format. It’s cunningly done, but it perhaps doesn’t leave Glover and Sloane with a lot of room to maneuver in a potential second season.
Perhaps, though, that’s because Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s primary motivator is John and Jane’s relationship, and it’s essential to the drama that this keeps moving forward. Glover and Erskine are simply irresistible: likable, simultaneously spiky and smooth, damaged but competent (up to a point), and very plausibly into each other. Their scenes together radiate with the comfortingly bitchy intimacy of two people who are inseparable partners in absolutely everything, and when things go wrong between them, the show’s insouciant surface cracks enough to expose real hurt.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a fun bit of escapism wrapped around a complex, warm, and relatable love story. Glover and Sloane made something new and refreshing out of a movie that is past its sell-by date. If we’re only allowed to watch new things based on other, older things, we’ll be lucky if a fraction of them are made with as much wit and creativity as this.
Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. So quiet up and listen down; no, scratch that, reverse it!
This week, Wonka, the musical fantasy starring Timothée Chalamet as the irrepressibly whimsical chocolatier, is finally available to stream on VOD. There’s other exciting new releases available to rent as well, like David Ayer’s latest action thriller The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham and Makoto Shinkai’s fantasy romance anime Suzume. There are a ton of other new movies on streaming to watch as well, like Orion and the Dark on Netflix, Freelance on Hulu, Past Lives on Paramount Plus with Showtime, and more!
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Orion and the Dark
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: DreamWorks Animation
Genre: Fantasy comedy Run time: 1h 30m Director: Sean Charmatz Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett
Written by cerebral screenwriter-director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, this animated fantasy adventure follows the story of a child with an overactive imagination and a constant fear of the future who is befriended by the anthropomorphic personification of darkness. Together, the pair embark on an adventure to conquer Orion’s fear of the unknown and embrace the many wonders the world has to offer.
By the end, Orion and the Dark has boldly transformed into a delightfully eccentric story, taking on even more metatextual layers. But it never loses its heart: It’s still a bedtime story, a parent and child working together to assemble an ending that satisfies the both of them. Their voices combine in a convincing way, with zany, kid-fueled ideas on one hand, and the careful guiding hand of an adult on the other. But child and parent both learn something from the other, and that turns Orion and the Dark from a simple fairy tale into a beautifully bizarre ride, and finally into a movie with a message that hits deeply for both adults and kids.
The Greatest Night in Pop
Image: Netflix
Genre: Music documentary Run time: 1h 36m Director: Bao Nguyen Cast: The biggest music stars of the 1980s
A behind-the-scenes doc of the making of one of the most popular singles of all-time, The Greatest Night in Pop takes you behind the scenes of the star-studded lineup that recorded “We Are the World.”
It doesn’t quite reach the heights of documentary classics, falling short of the insight into the tortured circumstances and frustrated production of Original Cast Album: Company, or the pure musical excellence of Monterey Pop. But there’s something special about seeing these stars mingle that makes this movie a fascinating document on fame and the people behind it.
Shortcomings
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Sony Picture Classics
Genre: Romance comedy Run time: 1h 32m Director: Randall Park Cast: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki
Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) stars in this new comedy from actor-director Randall Park (WandaVision). Shortcomings follows the misadventures of Ben, a struggling filmmaker living in Los Angeles. When his girlfriend, Miko, moves to New York for an internship, Ben is forced to assess his lifestyle choices up to this point in order to learn to grow as both a romantic partner and a person.
New on Prime Video
Fist of the Condor
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Well Go USA Entertainment
Genre: Martial arts drama Run time: 1h 20m Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza Cast: Marko Zaror, Eyal Meyer, Gina Aguad
One of my (Ed. note: PV) very favorite action movies of a stacked 2023, Fist of the Condor is at once a throwback to the Shaw Brothers era of old school Hong Kong martial arts filmmaking, and a new exciting step for Chilean martial arts cinema.
At the end of the day, Fist of the Condor is the Marko Zaror show. And boy, does he deliver. The movie is at its best when it is a series of jaw-dropping fights, one after another, leaning on his incredible star power. As an actor, Zaror brings life and deep pain to the star-crossed brothers, and as a fighter and acrobat, he is unmatched. He seems to be able to alternate from raw animalistic movements to robotic, hypnotic defense (he calls it an “electrical impulse” in the movie) and balletic, gravity-defying spinning kicks that are simply poetry in motion.
Genre: Action comedy Run time: 1h 48m Director: Pierre Morel Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba
Taken director Pierre Morel moves to a more comedic mode in this movie about a former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who travel to a fictional country together to interview the nation’s dictator.
Genre: Musical comedy Run time: 1h 26m Director: Larry Charles Cast: Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, Nathan Lane
This musical comedy follows two longtime business rivals who inadvertently discover they are identical twin brothers separated at birth. Concocting a scheme to get their divorced parents back together, they switch places in order to orchestrate a reunion. Think The Parent Trap, but with more musical numbers, dick jokes, and Megan Thee Stallion.
Dicks takes shots at different kinds of modern movies early on, starting with other A24 movies. A24’s logo is accompanied by grandiose music, and its signature elevated horror threatens to become a tongue-in-cheek thematic inspiration when Trevor and Craig wonder whether their predicament meets the qualifications for abuse and trauma. The film’s New York-set, American Psycho-esque corporate saga is clearly filmed in Los Angeles, with the seams of several sets and stages showing in the margins, while the stock footage it uses of NYC is all distinctly anachronistic.
Genre: Romantic drama Run time: 1h 46m Director: Celine Song Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
Greta Lee (Sisters) and Teo Yoo (Decision to Leave) star in director Celine Song’s romantic drama debut as Nora and Hae-sung, two childhood friends who are seperated when the former emigrates from South Korea to Toronto with her family.
Reunited 12 years later, the pair find themselves unmistakably drawn together. As their respective lives and obligations pull them further and farther apart, Nora and Hae-sung must confront their feelings about the life they might have shared together had their past choices been different, and what to do with those feelings now in the present.
Song spoke with Polygon about how the film is all about “the way that life reflects upon itself,” as well as her brief foray into The Sims 4 theater production.
Genre: Documentary Run time: 1h 13m Director: D. Smith Cast: Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell
The first film from Grammy-nominated producer D. Smith follows the stories of four transgender sex workers living in New York and Georgia. Shot in black and white, the film offers insight into the embattled nature of not only their profession, but the cultural fault lines of gender and identity that intersect with their daily lives.
Genre: Action adventure Run time: 1h 24m Directors: Raman Hui, Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling Cast: Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu
Based on Laurence Yep’s 2003 novel, this action fantasy movie follows the story of Tom (Brandon Soo Hoo), a Chinese American boy living in Los Angeles who inherits the responsibility of acting as the guardian of an ancient phoenix after the passing of his grandmother. Aided by a talking tiger named Mr. Hu (Henry Golding), Tom must learn to harness his new powers in order to prevent the phoenix from falling into the wrong hands.
This documentary unpacks the storied 58-plus-year career of Dario Argento, one of the most prolific directors behind Italian “giallo” horror and the acclaimed mind behind such films as Suspiria and Tenebrae. Featuring guest appearances from the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noé, Panico also follows Argento as he writes the script for a new horror film.
New on Tubi
Sri Asih
Where to watch: Available to stream on Tubi
Image: Premiere Entertainment Group
Genre: Superhero action Run time: 2h 15m Director: Upi Avianto Cast: Pevita Pearce, Ario Bayu, Christine Hakim
The second entry in Indonesia’s Bumilangit Cinematic Universe, adapting comic book stories, is finally more widely available to watch in the US. The first, Gundala, was a very fun time, and director Joko Anwar returns as co-writer on this entry, which follows a young woman who learns she is the reincarnation of a goddess.
New to rent
The Beekeeper
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Amazon MGM Studios
Genre: Action thriller Run time: 1h 45m Director: David Ayer Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi
Jason Statham stars in David Ayer’s latest action film as Adam Clay, a retired “Beekeeper” (see: black ops secret agent) working as an actual beekeeper in Massachusetts. When Adam’s kindly employer loses her entire life savings to a nefarious phishing operation, he embarks on a one-man mission to avenge her and bring justice to those who wronged her.
Statham is his reliable self, mixing his effortless gruff charm with his comedy chops to help sell the ridiculous lines he has to deliver. And the movie looks great — Ayer and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain cleverly infuse the visuals with a yellow/amber color palette to match the title and the vibe, often making you feel like you’re watching the movie from inside a honeycomb.
Suzume
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: CoMix Wave Films/Crunchyroll
Genre: Coming-of-age fantasy adventure Run time: 2h 2m Director: Makoto Shinkai Cast: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu
Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Weathering with You) is back with another animated fantasy romance adventure about young people struggling with supernatural forces and the general ennui of youth. When high school student Suzume crosses paths with Souta Munakata, a mysterious wanderer on a quest to seal a series of magical doors around Japan to avert disaster, she joins him on his quest in an effort to save her home.
Also, Souta is transformed into a sentient chair by a malevolent cat. It’s complicated.
Suzume is about processing trauma and finally learning to live. Even after the movie’s turning point, Suzume is still recklessly throwing herself into danger to save others. Like Your Name and Weathering With You, Shinkai’s latest sees its young heroes racing against time to stop an impending disaster. But some key differences in Suzume make the final act cinch together in a way that soars above the previous two movies. Suzume has a personal connection to the looming catastrophe, one that snugly wraps around her entire character journey. The event itself feels vast and all-encompassing, but because the movie focuses on her instead of on the action, it gives the payoff more emotional impact. And when Suzume steps up to fight her battles, it’s less about making a dramatic choice or defying all odds. She simply reframes what she’s trying to do in a way that feels more personal than most action heroes’ journeys. She doesn’t want to give her life to save the world; she just wants to stay in it.
Wonka
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Musical fantasy Run time: 1h 56m Director: Paul King Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key
Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part One) stars in this new musical prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as everyone’s soon-to-be-favorite chocolatier, now simply an aspiring magician looking to break into the candy business. He’ll have to find a way to overcome the nefarious chocolate cartel and build a factory of his own if he’ll any hope of achieving his dream, though.
Normally, I consider it unfair to compare two movies like this, but as I said, I’m a huge fan. Yet more importantly, Wonka directly invokes the previous film in ways big and small, going so far as to have Chalamet’s version of the character speak in the same diction as Wilder’s, complete with a “Scratch that, reverse it” line. As this is a story about a young Willy Wonka, the film must leave a little room to get from here to there, so Chalamet is granted the space to make the character his own. But this is a version of Willy that’s too sanded-down, too approachable to be truly memorable.
Classroom questions and answers are a staple of Persona games, and that remains true with Persona 3 Reload.
While Reload is a remake of the beloved Persona 3 from the early 2000s, it features a completely new slate of classroom questions from the original game. Answering questions correctly in Persona 3 Reload will increase your Charm Social Stat as you impress your fellow classmates with your knowledge.
In this in-progress Persona 3 Reload guide, we’ll walk you through classroom questions and answers for each month.
Note: This guide features all classroom and exam answers through June 1 in Persona 3 Reload — about 15 hours into the game, depending on how you spend your time. We’ll add additional months of questions and exams soon.
April classroom answers in Persona 3Reload
There are three classroom questions for you to answer in April. There are no exams in April.
4/8
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: Among these phrases, “a rain of flowers,” “mystical mirage,” and “vivid carp streamers,” which one symbolizes summer?
A: Vivid Carp Streamers
4/18
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: The places where people dumped their waste in the Jomon period — what are they called nowadays?
A: Middens
4/27
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: Leader [protagonist], do you know which one’s not an algebraic spiral or whatever?
A: A
May classroom answers in Persona 3 Reload
There are three classroom questions for you to answer in May. May also holds the first big exams — Midterms — which run May 18 to 23. Make sure to increase your Academics score to two before the 18th.
5/6
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: What do you call the device that helps generate electric power for the train?
A: A pantograph
5/13
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: Do you know Leon Foucault? He’s a French physicist who performed experiments regarding the rotation of the Earth. Which tool did he use in his experiments?
A: The pendulum
5/15
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Q: What’s the other name for “May sickness” — the more casual one?
A: May Blues
May Midterms
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
Midterms start on Monday, May 18, and run for six full days of school, ending on Saturday the 24th. Once your exams start, you’ll have no free time after school or in the evenings. You’ll answer questions and the game will automatically skip to the next day.
You don’t have to actively answer questions on May 18 or May 23; how your character performs on those days seems to be based entirely on your Academics stat. If you have an Academics stat of at least two and answer all the below questions correctly, you’ll finish your midterm in the top 10 of your class and get some bonus Charm points, plus stat boost cards for your Personas as a reward.
All of the below questions are reframed versions of questions you’ve already answered in April and May. Nonetheless, we’ve listed them all out here for your convenience — and because the rewordings can be a little tricky.
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
5/19 Q: What is the other common expression used to describe “May sickness?”
5/19 A: May Blues
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
5/20 Q: Which of the following did Leon Foucault use in his experiment on the rotation of the Earth?
5/20 A: A pendulum
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
5/21 Q: Which of the following is generated by a pantograph?
5/21 A: Electricity
Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon
5/22 Q: During which historical period were middens most commonly used?
5/22 A: Jomon
More classroom answers for Persona 3 Reload are on their way!
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an incredible role-playing game experience, a gift for RPG fans and a wonderful introduction to the genre for newcomers. It’s got everything a good RPG needs: memorable characters, exciting, strategic battles, and a textured world to get lost in as your party goes questing across the map. It’s a showcase for just how good RPGs are when they really connect, and fortunately for us, there’s plenty more where that came from.
So, in the event that Baldur’s Gate 3 has inspired you to explore the genre further, here’s a list of games that similarly nail the RPG experience in ways that will leave you itching to get back to the character you’ve created — provided, of course, you didn’t immediately roll a new one to take into Baldur’s Gate 3 all over again.
If your favorite parts of Baldur’s Gate 3 were the turn-based combat, the character interactions, and the branching narratives, then Fire Emblem: Three Houses might scratch that itch. The actual gameplay itself doesn’t have a lot of story-defining choices, since you pick a set path in the first moments of the game. But that choice does grant three completely different ways the game can play out (and a fourth secret one), as well as variations in which characters come along with you and survive till the end. There’s also a lot of options for character interaction built into the game mechanics. Not only do you, the player, build a rapport with the characters, it’s literally part of the game to pair characters off in different interactions so they can build their bonds outside the battlefield and support each other while in combat. And yes, that means romances. So. Many. Romances. —Petrana Radulovic
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Image: Larian Studios
Where to play: Windows PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Larian Studios’ previous game is a natural next step for Baldur’s Gate 3 fans, as it’s about as close as you can possibly get to “more of the same” without waiting for a sequel. There’ll be some adjustment — as it’s not a D&D adaptation, the rules are different and combat here has a different set of quirks you’ll have to learn to navigate — but the transition is surprisingly seamless. Most importantly, Original Sin 2 has what Baldur’s Gate 3 nails in spades: a rock-solid focus on character and permissive design that encourages you to come up with oddball solutions and surrounds you with a cast of characters you’ll think of fondly. Shoutout to the homie, The Red Prince. —Joshua Rivera
Pillars of Eternity
Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Paradox Interactive
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
One of the first big attempts at a throwback to the Baldur’s Gate franchise is still one of the best. Pillars of Eternity tells a sprawling tale with a great hook — children are suddenly being born without souls — as a mystery meant to draw you into its strange fantasy world and characters. A little more old-school in its design, but with the option to crank down the difficulty if story is why you’re here, Pillars of Eternity’s biggest strength is in its elegant narrative, in which the answer posed by every quest intersects with at least two other equally interesting quests. It’s easy to lose an evening navigating the game’s tangled web of short stories, but what a tremendously satisfying way to get lost. —JR
If there’s one thing I enjoy more than Pillars of Eternity, it’s Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Whereas the first game took place in an atmospheric if derivative take on a classic fantasy continent, Deadfire puts you in control of a customizable ship on the high seas. Along with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Spiritfarer, and the recent Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Deadfire is proof that archipelagos make for perfect video game worlds: As you build your party of travelers, you’ll encounter vastly different factions, cultures, and ways of life, both linked and separated by the waves between them. Exploring the world of Deadfire feels at once like a singular journey and a collection of potent short stories, all connected by vivid writing and myriad chances to role-play. —Mike Mahardy
Wasteland 3
Image: inXile Entertainment
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
If you can stomach the hyper-goofiness of its post-apocalyptic storytelling, Wasteland 3 stands among the best that the CRPG genre has to offer. Its script and character writing leave a lot to be desired, but in terms of structure, Wasteland 3 is as open as they come: You pursue three major quest lines across a ruined Colorado, all the while building up your headquarters and recruiting a massive party of survivors. If inventory management and improving your team composition are your favorite aspects of CRPGs, Wasteland 3 is a dream. And while there are compelling story beats strewn throughout, it’s the mechanics and systems that make inXile’s 2020 release sing. —Mike Mahardy
After a dozen or so hours investing in your party in Baldur’s Gate 3, they start to feel like superheroes. Battles hinge on incredible (and very fun) stunts that can excite the storyteller in you narrating the whole fight. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is entirely built around that feeling, a strategy game where winning a battle largely depends on you figuring out the most dramatic move possible every turn. It’s also got a character creator for your original protagonist and lots of fun RPG-style conversations between said fights too, so the social butterflies among us won’t feel left out. Just don’t come looking for romance, which unfortunately is not part of the experience. —JR
Planescape: Torment
Image: Black Isle Studios/Interplay Productions
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS, Android
Going back to the original Baldur’s Gate games is a very different experience from Baldur’s Gate 3, as they come from an entirely different era in game design that may or may not speak to you in the same way. In spite of its similarity to those older games, Planescape: Torment, a sister title to the OG Baldur’s Gate games, is worth giving a shot. In it you play The Nameless One, a man with no memories in search of his identity and the reason he can’t seem to die. Taking place in Dungeons & Dragons’ Planescape setting — a sort of interdimensional halfway point in the multiverse, where anything could be a door to Someplace Else — Planescape: Torment is among the most bizarre, existential, and contemplative RPGs ever made. It’s a game where combat barely matters (seriously, just play on easy and put all your stats in Wisdom and Charisma), but deciding who The Nameless One becomes as he learns more about himself is everything. —JR
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Image: InXile Entertainment
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Maybe you tried Planescape: Torment and found it too clunky. Or maybe you loved it and want more. In the way that Pillars of Eternity was a spiritual successor to the original Baldur’s Gate games, Torment: Tides of Numenera is a new attempt to recapture the magic of Planescape: Torment with more modern sensibilities. In this game, you play as the Last Castoff, a sort of rejected avatar for a being known as the Changing God, who has achieved immortality by hopscotching across bodies like yours. What’s up with that? What else has this Changing God done, and who else have they left in their wake? Tides of Numenera retains the focus of its inspiration, emphasizing role-play over combat, using the mystery of an immortal being and an indelible science fantasy setting to probe at troubled characters and ask big, sweeping questions about fate and existence. —JR
Dragon Age (all of ’em)
Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts
Where to play: Windows, Mac (for earlier entries), PlayStation 4 (Dragon Age: Inquisition), PlayStation 3, Xbox One(Dragon Age: Inquisition), Xbox 360
For over a decade, the RPG void left between Baldur’s Gate 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 was filled by Dragon Age. Beginning with 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, the Dragon Age games mixed dark fantasy with bright, snappy characters to create one of the most beloved fantasy RPGs in recent memory. Each game has a slightly different flavor — Origins is the closest to the “classic” RPG feel, where combat strategy is just as important as role-playing through an epic plot, while Dragon Age 2 focuses more on straightforward action and smaller character drama, and Dragon Age: Inquisition splits the difference with the most modern design of the three. Play all or one, in any order you choose. Each has its strengths, and all of them have at least one character destined to become your favorite. —JR
If you appreciate how a game will throw your best-laid plans out the window with one failed dice roll, then Disco Elysium is the obvious follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3. Not only do your choices have the same level of impact, but both games embrace creative problem solving in the way only a good role-playing game can. Disco Elysium lets you talk your way out of (but usually into) trouble in some mind-bending ways. Although it’s a more modern setting than Baldur’s Gate 3, both games relish their moments of bleakness. Paladin-type role-players may struggle with the inner demons of Disco Elysium’s amnesiac main character, but he’s the hero for those who revel in messy choices. —Chelsea Stark
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Image: Harebrained Schemes
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Yeah, fantasy is cool and all, but what if you want a Baldur’s Gate 3-style adventure in a sick Blade Runner-ass setting? Shadowrun: Dragonfall is your answer. A relatively short and self-contained RPG set in Shadowrun’s totally rad, magic-but-also-cyberpunk universe, you play as a shadowrunner (a mercenary, but cooler) hired to join a crew for one big score. It goes sideways of course, and once you escape the chaos, there’s only one question on your mind: Who set you up and why? Perfect for anyone who wants to trade swords and spells for guns and cyberdecks (and also spells). What’s more, if you love it, there are two more games widely available (and optimized for consoles): Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. —JR
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Image: BioWare/LucasArts
Where to play: Windows, Mac, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Another big appeal of RPGs is getting the chance to traipse around a very familiar setting and seeing what trouble you can get into. In Baldur’s Gate 3, that’s the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons. But let’s say you wanted to do that in Star Wars — lucky for you, there’s Knights of the Old Republic. Made by BioWare, the folks behind Dragon Age, KOTOR (that’s what the cool kids call it) is set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, at a time when both the Jedi and Sith were numerous and at war. This setting gives KOTOR a flavor that’s impossible to find in modern Star Wars, as one of the premier RPG developers was given free reign to define its own corner of the universe and infuse it with all the charm of its acclaimed role-playing games — and a killer mystery to boot. —JR
Will, Netflix’s imported Belgian movie about the moral impossibility of life under Nazi occupation during World War II, announces itself with shocking bluntness. Within its first 10 minutes, it’s made clear that co-writer and director Tim Mielants intends to confront the grisly horrors of the Holocaust head-on. But it’s also apparent that the film is constructed more like a thriller than a somber drama, and it tightens the screws on its lead character — young policeman Wilfried Wils (Stef Aerts) — in a series of breathless setups with escalating stakes.
It’s an effective way to pull viewers into empathizing with the awful dilemmas faced by an occupied population, and into bearing fresh witness to familiar horrors. But the thriller genre sets up expectations — climax, catharsis, redemption — which risk trivializing the material, and set something of an ethical trap. Who’s going to fall into it: the filmmakers, or the audience? Mielants is too tough-minded to be caught, it turns out, but that’s bad news for the rest of us. Will nurses a glimmer of hope in the darkness, only to snuff it out completely. This is a bleak, bleak movie.
It’s 1942, and Wil (referred to in the subtitles by the Dutch spelling of his name, despite the English title Will) and Lode (Matteo Simoni) are fresh recruits to the police force in the port city of Antwerp. Before their first patrol, their commanding officer, Jean (Jan Bijvoet), hands out regulation platitudes about the police being “mediators between our people and the Germans.” Then he sheds that pretense and offers some off-the-record advice: “You stand there and you just watch.” The ambiguity of these words echoes through the whole movie. Is it cowardice to stand by and watch the Nazis at work, or heroism to refuse to cooperate with them? Are the occupied Belgians washing their hands of the Nazis’ crimes, or bearing witness to them?
Wil and Lode don’t have long to contemplate these questions. No sooner have they left the station on their first patrol than a ranting, drugged-up German soldier demands they accompany him on the arrest of some people who “refuse to work”: a Jewish family, in other words. The young men are initially paralyzed by the situation, but things spiral out of control, more through desperation than heroic resistance on the part of the two policemen. In the aftermath, Lode and Wil return to work in a state of paranoid terror.
Image: Les Films Du Fleuve/Netflix
Mielants, working with screenwriter Carl Joos from a novel by Jeroen Olyslaegers, wastes no time in using this premise to explore the paranoid quagmire of the occupied city. Can the two young men trust each other? Where do their sympathies lie? Wil’s civil-servant father leads him to seek help from local worthy Felix Verschaffel (the excellent Dirk Roofthooft), who boasts of being friends with the Germans’ commanding officer, Gregor Schnabel (Dimitrij Schaad). Suddenly, Wil is indebted to a greedy, antisemitic collaborator.
Meanwhile, Lode’s mistrustful family — especially his fiery sister Yvette (Annelore Crollet) — want to know more. Does Wil speak any German at home? What radio station does he listen to? In occupied Antwerp — a region where German and French phrases naturally mix in with the local Dutch dialect — an innocent choice of word or of leisure listening comes freighted with dangerous political significance. “There isn’t much on the radio,” Wil responds. “Can you recommend something?”
Time and again during the movie, Wil uses deflections like this to squirm out of taking a position on the occupation. But eventually, he starts working to save Jewish lives. Actions may speak louder than words, but even in the teeth of a febrile affair with Yvette, Wil continues to keep his words to himself. As Schnabel’s net closes in, Wil’s caution keeps him and his friends alive, but the cost is heavy.
It’s a bold move to center a thriller about the Holocaust on a protagonist who, on some level, refuses to pick a side. We can only empathize with Wil because Mielants so effectively loads almost every scene and line of dialogue with implicit threat. Will is a tense, dark, frightening movie, filmed claustrophobically in a boxy ratio with lenses that blur the edge of the frame. The acting is intense (sometimes to a fault), and there are frequent bursts of unpleasant, graphic violence as the pressure builds.
Photo: Les Films Du Fleuve/Netflix
But even though Schaad sometimes seems to be doing a weak impression of Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Will isn’t that movie, and Mielants isn’t interested in Tarantino’s style of catharsis. At the end of the movie, the vicious, inescapable trap he set for all the characters simply snaps shut. Will shows that under the remorseless illogic of Nazi occupation, survival is collaboration, and resistance is death.
That’s a miserable payload for the movie to carry, and it’s debatable how constructive it is. Jonathan Glazer’s chilling The Zone of Interest, currently in theaters, shows that challenging new perspectives on the human mechanics of the Holocaust are as essential now as they have ever been. Thirty years ago, Schindler’s List achieved something similar, and just as necessary, through radically different means: It found a thread of hope and compassion that could lead a wide audience into the heart of the nightmare and throw it into relief.
Will is too burdened by its point of view to manage anything similar. It’s clear-sighted on the cruel compromises of occupation and collaboration, but so fatalistic about them that it winds up wallowing in its own guilt and hopelessness. That’s a dark kind of truth, and not necessarily one that anyone needs to hear.
The finale episode of the first season of Disney Plus’ Percy Jackson series finishes up the adaptation of The Lightning Thiefwith a fight on the beach, a traitor revealed, and a teary reunion.
Previous episodes ended with a post-credits tease of what comes next, but is there a preview for season 2? No, but there is a little post-credits scene that shows the fate of one important character.
In the post-credits scene, Sally Jackson’s scumbag ex-husband Gabe (Timm Sharp) tries to get inside her apartment while on the phone with his lawyer. She wisely changed the locks, though, so he can’t get in. But he spots a package on the Jacksons’ doorstep and decides to open it. This happens to be a return-to-sender package, addressed to Percy — aka the one containing Medusa’s severed head.
He opens it, looks directly inside, and immediately gets turned to stone. Get wrecked, Gabe.
Gabe doesn’t appear in any of the books after the first one, and considering the only reason Sally married him is because his gross mortal-stink masked Percy’s scent from monsters, it’s no one’s loss. In fact, we’re all pretty glad to see him out of the way.
Image: Disney
This is actually similar to the infamous movie’s post-credits scene, where Gabe returns to the apartment to pack up his stuff. He goes to the kitchen to get a beer, only to find the fridge locked and a note from Percy saying that no one should open the fridge. Unperturbed, Gabe smashes open the lock — and then is frozen by Medusa’s head.
Yet, somehow, neither of these versions is anywhere near as deliciously brutal as his fate in the book series. In the books, it’s actually Sally who uses the head to freeze Gabe and then sells his petrified corpse as a sculpture. It’s a big hit in the art world, and she uses the proceeds to put down a deposit for a new apartment and fund a semester of tuition at NYU, where she goes on to study writing. She reports Gabe as missing, but he never turns up! (“Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks plays in the background.)
Word’s out on if Sally will find the frozen Gabe and profit off him in the show, but she definitely deserves to make a splash in the art world and finance her passion for writing.
A glider is essential for getting around Enshrouded’s Embervale, a sprawling realm that usually demands a lot of walking. While there are a few fast travel points — called Ancient Spires — due to their spire-iness, they make perfect places to jump off of with a glider and explore new corners of the world.
Our Enshrouded guide will explain how to craft the glider, and run down what you need to craft the two improved versions: the advanced glider and the extraordinary glider.
How to craft the glider in Enshrouded
Image: Keen Games via Polygon
Your first glider can be made pretty early in your game. You’ll need:
8 Shroud wood. Shroud wood is, get this, wood you find in the Shroud. Not just any wood is Shroud wood, though. You’ll need to find a tree that is fully in the Shroud and chop it down with an axe. The Shroud wood that drops will look different from normal wood — it’s grayer and more twisted.
2 animal fur. The goats and the wolves you encounter on the surface drop these.
2 string. String can be manually crafted (no workbench necessary) from 2 plant fiber that you pick up just about anywhere.
2 Shroud spores. The human-like Fell that populate the Shroud (and spawn outside of your Flame Altar’s influence at night) will drop Shroud spores when you kill them.
Once you’ve gathered the materials, head to your workbench to craft the glider.
That basic glider doesn’t have the best glide ratio — you lose a lot of elevation for the distance you fly forward — but it will revolutionize how you get around.
That first glider is also going to last you a while — at least until you start making linen.
How to craft the advanced glider in Enshrouded
A lot of things need to happen before you can craft the next glider — the improved glider. You’ll need to find the Hunter and the Carpenter, and you’ll need to find the Hunter’s Hand Spindle.
The Hunter and the Carpenter can be found in their respective Ancient Vaults. You’ll find them as part of “Hunter Becomes The Hunted” and “Carpentry Assistance” quests. You’ll be tasked with finding the Hunter’s hand spindle in the Revelwood for the aptly named “The Hunter’s Hand Spindle” quest.
Image: Keen Games via Polygon
Once the Carpenter, Hunter, and hand spindle are all in place, you’ll be able to craft the improved glider at the Carpenter with:
6 Shroud wood.
4 linen. Linen is made at the Hunter’s hand spindle and requires 2 flax for each 1 linen. Flax is a purple flower that you’ll find around the Revelwood biome in the north.
4 string.
8 Shroud sack. Around the Revelwood biome, you’ll also find spitting plants. You’ll get poison sacks from the regular, purple and orange ones. Inside the Shroud, you’ll find similar plants that glow blue and drop Shroud sacks when killed.
How to craft the extraordinary glider in Enshrouded
Just like crafting the advanced glider, there’s a lot of work you’ll need to do before you can craft the extraordinary glider.
The Hunter will ask you to retrieve a tanning station from the Nomad Highlands to the east as part of her “In Need Of A Tanning Station” quest.
You’ll have to have gotten the Blacksmith’s crucible as part of “Crucible Needed For A Smelter” and be able to make copper bars.
The Carpenter will need a table saw from the “Table Saw For The Carpenter” quest that takes you to Thornhold to the northeast.
You’ll need to get the both the Alchemist’s mortar for “The Alchemist’s Mortar” (if you haven’t yet) and the black cauldron he requests for “A Black Cauldron For The Alchemist.” You’ll find his mortar in Lone Thistle north-northeast of the Ancient Spire — Springlands fast travel tower. The black cauldron takes a lot more work (and more fighting) to find in Rattlebleak far to the northeast.
Image: Keen Games via Polygon
When you return to the Alchemist with the black cauldron, you can craft an alchemy station (20 fired brick, 6 wood planks, 10 nails, 3 wood logs, 5 copper bars,and 1 black cauldron).
4 Shroud wood.
2 leather. Leather can be made at the Hunter’s tanning station from 10 dried fur, 20 salt, and 2 ammonia glands. For ammonia glands, you’ll have to head into the Shroud in the Nomad Highlands to the northeast of your starting point. You’re looking for the red walking mushrooms. Those creatures(?) drop ammonia glands when you kill them.
2 linen.
4 alchemical base. Alchemical base can be made at the alchemy station from 1 Shroud liquid, 1 mycelium, 1 water, and 1 Shroud Spore.
Once you (finally — it’s going to take you a long time) have everything in place, head to the Carpenter to craft the advanced glider.
How to equip the glider
Image: Keen Games via Polygon
Once you craft any of the gliders, you have to equip it before you can use the wing suit. Head to the Character menu. The fourth slot down on the left is for your glider. Open it and select the best glider you’ve crafted.
Silent Hill: Ascension hasn’t made a big impact on the video game world, but maybe its licensed T-shirts will. Konami recently announced some tie-in merch, which is now available on its website. The store features some generic shirts, a hoodie, and a green beanie, but, most importantly, a light blue T-shirt and mug that say “It’s trauma” surrounded by rainbows and stars in the bubbliest font.
If you’ve ever wanted the most emotionally problematic merch that looks surprisingly great and reflects how you feel on the inside, this is the purchase for you.
When Silent Hill: Ascension was announced, it promised a new take on the series by being an interactive, live, choose-your-own-adventure-inspired experience. It was the tagline “It’s trauma,” though, that made a big impact on me, specifically because it was so bewildering. It was very on the nose for a story that was, as we were told, about trauma. Even worse, it was insulting to both people with trauma and Silent Hill fans who knew the franchise’s history with the topic.
For example, Silent Hill 2 offered a profound commentary on trauma, grief, and guilt, creating a character-driven story that differentiated itself from the first game’s dense lore-based world. These are themes the Silent Hill franchise has been chasing throughout its lifetime, sometimes successfully (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories) and sometimes not (Silent Hill: Downpour).
Silent Hill: Ascension is just the latest to try and capture that magic, and it’s been a huge failure. Critics have slammed the interactive story for failing to understand the core concept of “Silent Hill as trauma,” for stilted dialogue, and for being a general slog to sit through. The completely arbitrary season pass and microtransactions, which featured cosmetics and allowed players to choose characters’ actions, didn’t help with making it feel like a tonally consistent experience. It’s tough to take any piece of media seriously when it releases a purchasable sticker that shouts its theme. You didn’t know this was a game about trauma? Now you do.
A T-shirt or mug isn’t going to make Ascension any better, but the “it’s trauma” sentiment makes for some perfectly ironic merch. Plus, with how the world is right now, you can do much worse than a T-shirt or mug that screams “I have a relationship to trauma.”
It seems relatively routine — some “hillbillies” scuffling in the waiting room of a hospital, calling Danvers (Jodie Foster) away from an interrogation. Navarro (Kali Reis), left behind to monitor the bedridden victim, pokes her head around the corner, craning to see the commotion. And then, behind her, the man in the hospital bed suddenly sits up.
The scene is spooky enough on its own, a casual startle like a bag rustling in Audition. But the sound design makes it even more hair-raising: first a gasp on the audio track; now the man’s voice is different, gravelly and growling. “Hello, Evangeline. Your mother says hello. She’s waiting for you.” Then he points, lies back, seizes, and codes out. True Detective is on some shit with this one.
This seems as strong a case for the supernatural hanging over the town of Ennis as any, in an episode littered with unreal details like this. Heck, even at the beginning of the interview, Navarro was on edge, after the victim muttered the spectral phrase she previously heard in her car: She’s awake. But episode 3 is also concerned with the practical matter at hand, the murder of Annie K., giving us our best glimpse yet at the woman and whatever happened to her. The hour spends a lot of time tracking Annie’s movements — an Ariana Grande sweatshirt marking the start of a relationship, blue hair dye leading to someone who knew about Annie and her secret scientist boyfriend, the impact she had as a midwife and the vacuum she left behind.
Ultimately, the best piece of evidence so far comes out of last week’s cliffhanger, Annie’s phone containing the chilling final video she recorded somewhere in the ice, the screams of which play the episode out. It’s stomach-turning (Prior can’t even bring himself to watch it again), and just as chilling as the moment between Navarro and the surviving scientist. Something about this mystery feels beyond our comprehension, and paranormal explanations are increasingly looking like the easiest reason why. But there again, episode 3 is careful to remind us that not all is as it seems: As Danvers recounts the case that drove her and Navarro apart, we get her voice-over laid on top of a memory of the pair raiding a home the last time they worked together. There’s a weariness to Foster’s voice here, on all sides. She seems tired of the dead man’s excuses, of her inability to help a 19-year-old girl out of an obviously bad situation, of her own limitations. And as she relays the story, everything went to hell there: An abusive asshole killed his 19-year-old girlfriend, “then he shot himself.”
Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO
Two different huts, two very different interrogations for Navarro (Kali Reis) in True Detective: Night Country episode 3.Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO
Only that’s not what we see; right after that line from Danvers, the man in the flashback turns, with a ghoulish look on his face, and begins whistling. It makes sense that Prior isn’t getting the full story from Danvers, and in the same way, that the audience isn’t getting all the gory details from Night Country (yet — hopefully). We can’t make sense yet of Annie K.’s murder, or what that damned orange is doing on the ice (and again in the opening credits, peeled and spiraling out as “Bury a Friend” plays over flashes of important scene-setting). One sympathizes with Navarro trying to cut through Danvers’ Socratic method — fuck your games — and still following up on the demand: Ask the question.
In this way, True Detective: Night Country is making a strong case for itself as the best season yet, making the journey along the way feel just as important as who killed Annie, or whether Navarro really saw a man get possessed. When the show tells us to look one way over another, it feels worth it, even when it might seem like a distraction from the matter — whatever matter — is at hand.
At the end of each Night Country credits sequence, there’s a new image. In episode 3, it’s a small fishing hut, isolated and lonely on the ice. What happens there is a breakthrough for the case, sure — Navarro finds the location of a former Tsalal researcher — but it’s more a personal breakthrough for Navarro, recounting some of her life story for one of the few people she trusts, who breaks a small smile when she huffs back into the hut to fulfill his ask. The conversation she has there goes beyond merely the case, and Night Country is smart to linger there. True Detective isn’t telling us everything, but that doesn’t mean it’s telling us nothing.
Catching Pokémoncan be exhausting these days. At time of publication, there are more than 1,000 different species of the fictional monsters. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet don’t contain the full National Pokédex, but the base game has 400 Pokémon and hundreds more when you count additional monsters added in the DLC. Even when trying to complete the reduced Pokédex, the process of collecting creatures can be a slog. Now, playing Palworld, I can breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in a long time, it feels I can finally “catch ’em all,” with under 150 Pals in the game.
Palworldis a hit game from Japanese indie studio Pocketpair. Before it came out, many described it as “Pokémon with guns.” Now that the developer has released it in early access, it’s clear that the game goes well beyond just Pokémon influences. It has climbing and exploration reminiscent ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and mechanics common to survival games. However, one way that it is like Pokémon is its incorporation of creatures called Pals. As you explore its world, you can catch the cartoony monsters and register them to a digital encyclopedia called a Paldeck, similar to the Pokédex.
My Paldeck contains 111 Pals (although there are alternate forms and might be more). Just from a numerical standpoint, that’s way fewer than Pokémon. There’s no need to robotically cycle through hundreds of battles to fill up the Pokédex like in a modern Pokémon game. On top of that, there are no “version exclusives” in Palworld. Every copy of the game contains every Pal, so it’s actually possible to find and catch every single monster without needing another player or setting up trades outside the game.
If you do have friends who are playing, well, that’s helpful to the collecting process, too. While Pokémon does have multiplayer functionality, the online co-op in Palworld better supports playing the entirely of the game with friends from start to finish. Features like guilds allow you to group up with friends and share Pals easily on your settlement. These Pals won’t be registered as “caught” in your Paldeck, but it allows you to see more Pals and get an idea of which Pals you need to catch.
Image: Pocketpair
Catching all the Pokémonobviously isn’t impossible — loads of people do it — and I get why it appeals to certain players. The repetitive nature of catching Pokémonafter Pokémoncan almost be relaxing, but it’s a massive time commitment. You have to fight and catch each and every one of them,and some require unique rituals to evolve them. For others, you might need to trade to get version exclusives and train Pokémonto prepare for challenging fights to catch stronger monsters. In the recent Scarlet and Violet DLC, you even have to grind in-game points to unlock the appearances of certain Pokémon in the wild.
Don’t get me wrong — Palworld still contains its fair share of monster-catching grind. Depending on how common each creature is, you might catch up to 10 copies of each just to grind out the needed experience points to unlock items. You likely won’t just speed through collecting the Paldeck in a sitting or two. Barriers to exploration like your level or what kinds of Pal spheres you use will guide your overall journey. But so far, I have enjoyed the slow, meandering process of gradually exploring and discovering the Pals one by one to fill up my Paldeck in its entirety. At this rate, I might just catch ’em all.
This initial report on The Greatest Night in Pop comes from our team following the premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. We’ll update this piece when there’s more information about the movie’s release.
Logline
On Jan. 28, 1985, more than 40 of the United States’ most famous musicians, from Michael Jackson and Diana Ross to Paul Simon and Billy Joel, gathered in secret to record a charity song. “We Are the World” was intended as a fundraiser for famine relief in Africa. The Greatest Night in Pop, a documentary coming to Netflix soon, is about how that song got recorded in just one night.
Longerline
“We Are the World” is one of the bestselling, most popular singles of all time, featuring perhaps the most star-studded lineup to ever record together. Bao Nguyen’s film runs through the making of the song, from the initial idea to the writing to getting talent on board to the recording itself.
Nguyen presents all of this through archival footage from when the recording session was initially filmed, as well as talking-head interviews with some of the musicians involved, including Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, and Kenny Loggins.
What’s The Greatest Night in Pop trying to do?
Besides just documenting one of the most important moments in 20th-century pop culture, The Greatest Night in Pop also tries to communicate the sheer star power that came together in A&M Studios on that night in 1985. It was a who’s who of the most famous musicians on the planet, which meant that there was both a clashing of egos and an easiness that came from shared levels of fame: These superstars were in the only room in the world where most of the people around them truly understood what life was like at that level of celebrity.
Does The Greatest Night in Pop live up to its premise?
The Greatest Night in Pop is after a more relaxed and celebratory version of the harried energy that director D.A. Pennebaker captured in Original Cast Album: Company, his filming of that album’s all-night recording session. Mostly, Nguyen gets it there. His doc is airy and fun, and while it narrativizes the night well, thanks in large part to Richie’s fantastic narration, it mostly has the good sense to get out of the way of the personalities that were actually in the room. This approach holds it back from being a truly great documentary: It rarely adds much context to the footage we’re seeing, beyond the backstory, and it pointedly avoids any controversy, or any criticism of even the most difficult celebrity participants. But the footage-forward approach does make the whole thing tremendously fun to watch.
Seeing Bob Dylan look uncomfortable in a sea of famous faces, Stevie Wonder joking around with Ray Charles, or Huey Lewis nervously working out a harmony is as close to unguarded as most of these stars have ever been on film. It’s a fascinating document. And the way every second of that footage is still captivating nearly 40 years later is a testament to the raw, all-encompassing, absolutely magnetic star power that everyone in that room has.
Image: Netflix
The quote that says it all
As the movie itself points out, the most important aspect of the whole night was when producer Quincy Jones posted a sign inside the recording studio that said “Check your ego at the door.” That’s what makes The Greatest Night in Pop feel special: It lets us inside the room where all-time great musicians simply felt like they were among friends and equals.
Most memeable moment
There are a number of incredible moments, like Waylon Jennings walking out of the recording studio while muttering “Ain’t no good ol’ boy ever sung in Swahili,” or Cyndi Lauper realizing that her massive necklaces were making so much noise that the microphones were picking them up alongside her voice. But if anything from this movie is going to be a meme, it’s Bob Dylan’s awkward grimace, right smack in the middle of the most famous faces in music, as he desperately tries to figure out how to sing in chorus with them. It’s incredible, and as Bob Dylan as anything could be.
Is The Greatest Night in Pop good?
Absolutely. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of documentary classics, falling short of the insight into the tortured circumstances and frustrated production of Original Cast Album: Company, or the pure musical excellence of Monterey Pop. But there’s something special about seeing these stars mingle that makes this movie a fascinating document on fame and the people behind it.
When can we see it?
The Greatest Night in Pop will be released on Netflix on Jan. 29.
Terry Pratchett is one of our favorite fantasy authors here at Polygon thanks to his immensely popular work on Good Omens, and the Discworld saga. If you’d like to engage with some of the best comic fantasy works ever penned, we recommend checking out the Humble Discworld bundle before the offer expires on Feb. 1.
There are plenty of other awesome deals to check out, like a big sale to let you expand your collection of Switch games without spending as much. We’ve also found some impressive deals for desktop gaming, too, including an awesome headset and ultrawide gaming monitor, each of which are on sale for their lowest prices ever.
In addition to sharing our favorite deals from the worlds of gaming and entertainment, we’ve also included the best-selling products that have made a recent appearance on our site.
The best entertainment deals this week
The Humble Discworld book bundle collects 38 works by comic-fantasy author Terry Pratchett for just $18, and is still available through Feb. 1. While a Kobo.com account is necessary to access these purchases, this deal remains a fantastic way to add the popular saga to your collection while benefitting Room to Read, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting literacy in historically low-income communities.
Image: Penguin UK
If the recent reveal trailer ofIndiana Jones and the Great Circle has got you in the mood to revisit the adventures of the iron-fisted archeologist, you can currently find Steelbook box set of three classic Indiana Jones films and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on sale at Best Buy for $76.99 (was $104.99).
Despite the conveniences of streaming and other digital media, the Polygon staff will always defend the ownership and preservation of physical media. If you share this notion, and you’re in the market for a new 4K Blu-ray player, you’ll want to check out the current sale at Walmart which discounts the Panasonic DP-UB150-K to $149.99 (was $199.99). There are plenty of other models that offer a more robust suite of features, but the UB150 is an excellent choice for playing 4K Blu-ray discs, 1080p Blu-rays, and DVDs.
The top-selling stuff on Polygon this week
The best gaming deals this week
QVC might not be your first stop when shopping for new titles, but new customers should stroll through, as you have the opportunity to save $20 on any purchase of $40 or more by using the code NEWJANUARY at checkout. This deal is happening through Jan. 31, and it’s redeemable for new releases like Tekken 8, as well as 2023 greats like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Looking for more game deals? Nintendo and other retailers are offering excellent discounts on a variety of Switch titles. You can save on an impressive collection of essential games for the Nintendo handheld, like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, New Pokémon Snap, Splatoon 3, and more. We’ve highlighted some of our favorites below, but you can head over our coverage of the sale for a bigger list of titles.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro is a feature-rich gaming headset that’s compatible with a variety of platforms, including PlayStation, PC, Switch, and mobile devices. It’s currently discounted to $219.99 (usually $329.99) at Woot, which is its lowest price yet. In addition to superb sound quality, this comfortable gaming headset features a detachable boom mic, swappable battery with a charging station, and active noise cancellation.
The LG 45GR65DC-B is a 45-inch curved monitor with some impressive specifications for the price. It recently went down in price to $549.99 at Amazon, the lowest price we could find for the gaming panel that’s usually $699.99. Sporting a maximum resolution of 5,120 x 1,440 with a 1ms response time, 200 Hz refresh rate, and AMD FreeSync compatibility, this QHD monitor is worth checking out if you’re in the market for a very wide gaming display.
Pokémon Go is refreshing the Team Rocket encounters in the latest event, “Taken Treasure,” which runs from Jan. 27 until Feb. 1.
The event has the usual Team Go Rocket event bonuses that we’re used to seeing: Team Go Rocket balloons will appear once every three hours and you can use Charged TMs to remove the move Frustration from shadow Pokémon.
For the non-shadow Pokémon lovers, this event also adds Varoom, which can be hatched out of 12 km eggs.
Below, we list all the event perks and Timed Research for Pokémon Go’s “Taken Treasures” event.
Pokémon Go ‘Taken Treasure’ event Timed Research
This research is ticketed only. You’ll need to pay $4.99 for the research in the shop. We don’t really think this research is worth it due to the timed nature of it. It’s only worth buying if you really want the special pose you get for completing it.
Note that you need to finish this research before Feb. 1 at 11:59 p.m. in your local time or else you will lose out on the rewards.
Step 1 of 4
Spin 10 PokéStops (25 Poké Balls)
Defeat 5 Team Go Rocket grunts (Bruxish encounter)
Make 20 curveball throws (15 Great Balls)
Rewards: 1,000 Stardust, 1 Egg Incubator, 1,000 XP
Step 2 of 4
Catch 20 Pokémon (5 Hyper Potions)
Transfer 25 Pokémon (Scraggy encounter)
Defeat 5 Team Go Rocket grunts (5 Revives)
Rewards: 2,000 Stardust, 3 Silver Pinap Berries, 2,000 XP
Step 3 of 4
Make 30 curveball throws (5 Max Revives)
Defeat 10 Team Go Rocket grunts (Weezing encounter)
Catch 5 shadow Pokémon (5 Max Potions)
Rewards: 3,000 Stardust, 1 Incense, 3,000 XP
Step 4 of 4
Transfer 30 Pokémon (3 Fast TMs)
Defeat 10 Team Go Rocket grunts (Vullaby encounter)
Purify 10 shadow Pokémon (3 Charged TMs)
Rewards: 4,000 Stardust, 1 Boss Pose, 4,000 XP
Pokémon Go ‘Taken Treasure’ event Field Research Tasks
Spinning PokéStops and gyms during the event period may yield one of these tasks:
Catch a shadow Pokémon (1 Mystery Component)
Defeat 1 Team Go Rocket grunt (Ekans, Koffing, Poochyena, or Croagunk encounter)
Defeat 2 Team Go Rocket grunts (Paldean Wooper, Scraggy, Mareanie, Bruxish, or Nymble encounter)
Defeat 3 Team Go Rocket grunts (Hisuian Qwilfish or Sableye encounter)
Purify 3 shadow Pokémon (1 Fast or Charged TM)
Pokémon Go ‘Taken Treasure’ event raid targets
These Pokémon will appear in raids during the event period:
Layer-2 network Polygon is reported to have competed with Ethereum in 2023, as both networks saw the most influx of new users. This development has once again raised concerns about MATIC’s price, considering that such an achievement should potentially mean that new money moved into the ecosystem last year.
Polygon and Ethereum Acquired The Most Users In 2023
According to a report by Blockchain analytics firm Flipside, Polygon and Ethereum led the pack with 30.6 million acquired users in 2023. Giving a further breakdown, Polygon is said to have acquired 15,24 million users, while Ethereum attracted 15.4 million users. Meanwhile, these users are defined as persons who performed at least two transactions on the networks.
Despite falling about 160,000 short of Ethereum’s numbers, Polygon’s numbers are still impressive, considering that it ranked ahead of other networks like Bitcoin and Solana. The layer-2 network also outperformed other Ethereum L2 networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, which recorded 7.3 million, 3.3 million, and 1.9 million acquired users, respectively.
Notably, Polygon hit the ground running as soon as 2023 began, setting the record for monthly acquired users with 2 million in January. Interestingly, January 2023 was the first time MATIC rose above $1 in a very long while. It held above that level until the end of April 2023. After that, MATIC traded below that level for most of the year, only rising above $1 towards the end of December 2023.
A recent analysis by Blockchain intelligence firm ChainArgos suggested that the Polygon team has been secretly selling off MATIC tokens, something which could have accounted for the significant sell pressures that have risen at different times for the crypto token. This could also serve as a plausible explanation for why MATIC has struggled to hold above $1 despite enjoying great utility.
The Polygon team was accused of not executing its token allocations in line with the publicly stated plan, with part of the allocated funds accounting for some of the tokens that were sold. These secret sales, which have for long gone under the radar, are said to be circumvented through wallets linked to the crypto exchange Binance.
So far, about 767 million MATIC have apparently been offloaded in these secret transactions. ChainArgos hinted at how these transactions have no doubt affected MATIC’s price on different occasions, as they noted that the outflows are a “good indicator for an upcoming top and subsequent move lower.”
At the time of writing, MATIC is trading at around $0.73, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Featured image from CoinGape, chart from Tradingview.com
Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.
There’s a lot about Enshrouded that’s just part of the survival crafting genre of games — crafting and workbenches and cooking, for example — that makes it feel familiar. But there’s also enough different and unique about it that the mere act of diving in can be really intimidating and confusing.
Our Enshrouded beginner’s guide will give you tips from our 50 (or so) hours with the game to help you get started exploring Embervale.
Enshrouded is a survival crafting game through and through
If you’re familiar with the genre, you already know nearly all of the beats to Enshrouded. That’s not meant to be disparaging — it’s not the old derivative vs. homage distinction. Enshrouded just hews to the genre in ways that make it familiar.
You pick up materials to make workbenches to make new items to make new workbenches to make better items, lather, rinse, and repeat. Enshrouded has its own takes on the genre and mixes in some elements from other genres as well, but the basics are there. Basics like…
Pick up one of everything to unlock new recipes
You’ll start your journey as the (a?) Flameborn with a few recipes for things like torches and a simple axe. The first way you’ll unlock new recipes is to just find new resources. Pick up (at least) one of everything you find — the first time you place these new items in your inventory, you’ll unlock new recipes.
The other way you learn new recipes (and progress the game) is by finding other survivors.
Progression in Enshrouded is tied to survivors and their quests
You’re not alone in your journey through Embervale. There are other survivors — five of them — who will aid you. In the story, these are other Flameborn (like you) who you have to journey around and wake from their magical slumber. Waking them up means traveling to their Ancient Vault, doing some light dungeoneering, and then summoning them to your base.
Functionally, these other survivors are a lot like quest-giving workbenches. Finding the Blacksmith, for example, allows you to start working with metal. The Hunter unlocks furs. The same goes for the Farmer, Alchemist, and Carpenter.
Image: Keen Games
As you add survivors to your base, they’ll all come up with new quests for you. The Blacksmith needs a crucible. The Hunter needs her hand spindle. The Alchemist needs his mortar. The Farmer needs her kettle.
Their quests aren’t just busywork, though. They’re how you progress through the game. They’ll unlock new technologies and materials for you, add new workbenches, and send you out into the world to explore new locations and new biomes.
Getting to those places means walking across Enshrouded’s giant map, and that means…
You’re going to walk a lot in Enshrouded
Yes, Enshrouded has some very cool traversal tools like the wing suit-like glider and a grappling hook. Your opportunities to use those, though, are going to be fairly limited. Instead, you’ll be doing most of your exploration on foot.
When you’re on one of these hikes, stick to the roads as much as you can. First, it’s just easier to see where you’re going and it’s less likely you’ll run straight off a cliff. But, more importantly, being on a road makes your stamina drain more slowly — the “on the road” condition means your stamina drains 90% as fast.
The other reason you’ll be walking so much is…
There aren’t many fast travel points
For as vast as the world of Embervale is, there aren’t many fast travel options. There are only five permanent ones, in fact. There’s the Cinder Vault where you begin the game, and then an Ancient Spire in each of the four biomes — the Springlands, the Low Meadows, the Revelwood, and the Nomad Highlands.
You can also fast travel to any Flame Altar — basically the starting point for a base — you’ve built. You start off able to build two of them, but can increase that number eventually with upgrades to the Flame Altar, but early on it means that you can have a base and an outpost and that’s it. You can always destroy a Flame Altar and build a new one elsewhere after hiking there (see above).
Flame Altars are cheap to build — they only require 5 stones that you can find just lying around on the ground. And that means you can make your own (temporary) fast travel network.
The only place you can’t build a Flame Altar is in the eponymous Shroud. Speaking of which…
Treat the Shroud like another biome
The Shroud is, as the game says, a “ruinous fog.” You’ll usually find it in the low-lying areas of the map, but it pops up in random locations as well. Entering the Shroud means you become Enshrouded (hey!) and a timer starts counting down. When the timer runs out, you die.
Image: Keen Games
And that all makes the Shroud seem worse than it actually is. Sure, there are (slightly) nastier enemies there and your time there has a limit, but it’s not an instant death sentence. In fact, there’s a lot of useful stuff that you’ll only find inside the Shroud — like Shroud wood and torn cloth.
With a little time and not too much work, you’ll increase the timer up to nearly 10 minutes. And that means you can treat the Shroud like just another biome. Respect the timer, but don’t avoid going there out of fear.
When you’re not traipsing through the Shroud or marching off on a quest for one of the other survivors, you’ll need a home base. Which brings us to Enshrouded’s best feature…
Spend some time on your base
There’s just something super satisfying about Enshrouded’s building mechanics. There are a ton of pieces to assemble in a variety of sizes. Play around with the shapes and how they fit together. Building up (and out) your base is just as satisfying as the exploration and combat.
According to on-chain data from SolanaFloor, Solana is dominating other blockchains, including Ethereum and Polygon, across various non-fungible token (NFT) activity metrics in the third week of January.
Solana Dominates Ethereum, Bitcoin In NFT Activity
In a post shared on X on January 23, Solana maintained its NFT dominance among competing blockchains, mainly Ethereum and other high throughput alternatives. Thus far, the blockchain has the highest numbers in unique wallets, transactions, unique buyers, and first-time wallets over the past week.
Solana unique wallets | Source: SolanaFloor via X
To illustrate, Solana had over 106,000 unique wallets by the third week of January 2024. This is more than twice those created in Ethereum. Meanwhile, there were over 22,000 first-time wallets on Solana, roughly 3X those in Ethereum and 2X in Bitcoin.
At the same time, more than 2.8 million transactions were posted on Solana. This figure is over 20X those in Ethereum during the same time frame.
Extrapolating from this data suggests that the blockchain is increasingly popular among NFT projects, collectors, and traders. Several factors could be contributing to Solana’s NFT success.
The platform is known for its high throughput and low transaction fees. Considering how minters and active traders are sensitive to trading fees, Solana is emerging as a layer-1 option for projects wishing to enjoy the security of the mainnet while also benefiting from low transaction fees.
Legacy chains, including Ethereum, continue to struggle with on-chain scalability. Minting on the mainnet often translates to high fees, which can decrease profitability, especially for active traders and collectors.
Beyond scalability advantages, Solana’s ecosystem is rapidly expanding. Despite the catastrophic drop of SOL prices at the end of 2022, the spectacular revival in 2023 activated on-chain activity with meme coins blooming and NFT projects opting to launch on Solana.
The ongoing recovery of SOL and the increasing number of projects opting to deploy on the mainnet could further drive on-chain activities, including NFT minting and trading, to new levels in 2024.
Developers At Work, Will SOL Reclaim $125?
As the network draws users, its developers are also working to make the platform more robust and decentralized. In 2024, Solana developers plan to activate Firedancer, a validator client developed by Jump Capital. This client will help further decentralize Solana’s infrastructure, improve performance, and substantially improve reliability, eliminating network hitches that plagued the blockchain in 2022 and early 2023.
SOL is cooling off, trading at around $80 when writing. The coin is down 34% from December 2023 peaks and below the dynamic 20-day moving average, pointing to bears.
Key support remains at around $70. If there is demand at this price point, SOL may recover and retest $125 in the sessions ahead.
Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView
Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.
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