The gas giant loomed large in the viewport, ballooning as the ship coasted toward it, the colorful blue hues of its swirling bands reflecting the glow of the system’s star.
Darren could make out the bright, scarred surface of an ice moon drifting lazily past, framed against the rivers of flowing hydrogen and helium. Silhouetted against the Jupiter-mass object was their destination – Halfpoint Station.
Having come from Earth, which was still a backwater when compared to many of the Imperium’s more developed worlds, the sheer size and grandeur of the structure took his breath away.
It was hard to gauge its true scale in the vacuum of space where there was no atmospheric haze, and there were no landmarks for reference, the unfiltered light creating harsh shadows. As they drew nearer, however, he was able to pick out some of the massive fuel tankers that swarmed its ports like clouds of gnats.
Those vessels put anything created by Humanity to shame – their purpose being to dip into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, harvesting its resources to fuel the ships that made their berth here.
Calling it enormous was an understatement. It must have been nine miles tall, the main hull of the station forming a long, relatively thin vertical shaft. Surrounding that shaft were half a dozen rotating rings, each one connected to the central column by spokes, the pinpoints of innumerable windows glinting as they slowly turned.
At its apex was a dome of immense proportions, sitting proudly atop the structure, the crystalline material that made up its transparent hull glittering in the starlight. Inside, he could make out glimpses of regal skyscrapers and patches of parkland – an entire city encapsulated in a habitat that had a breathtaking view of the planet.
Darren pursed his lips as he looked down at the device on his wrist, the tiny display showing the familiar text of an article he must have read at least a dozen times by this point.
Halfpoint Station was situated on the outskirts of the Imperium’s sphere of influence, a region of space known only as the Periphery. This put it soundly outside of Purp jurisdiction, but the place still saw a lot of traffic, as the station was right in the middle of a relatively well-traveled shipping route between the three big powers.
While it had started its life as little more than a place to fuel up and get resupplied, being located outside any of the major spheres of influence had its benefits, and the station had garnered a bit of a reputation for its more permissive policies. Now, it was said to be populated by hired guns, smugglers, gamblers, and anyone else who might appreciate discretion.
The Human frowned as he looked out the window once more and tried to reconcile the gleaming edifice before him with the dark reputation the article in his hands presented.
He didn’t have long to dwell on it before the pilot’s crackly voice came through a hidden intercom in the cabin, informing the passengers that they were commencing docking procedures.
The woman spoke in accented Shil. What that accent was, Darren had no clue, but he knew it wasn’t the same one spoken by his professors – linguistic or mechanical.
He glanced around at his fellow travelers, seeing a few species that he didn’t recognize, along with the more familiar Shil’vati. The aliens were easily identifiable by the purple hue of their skin, their sharp tusks, and their seven-foot height.
Several of them returned his gaze, some curious, some covetous.
Males were rare in the Imperium.
Hell, males were rare, period.
By the standards of most races out in the galaxy, Humanity were the strange ones for having an equal number of men and women. Even six years into the occupation, most were still struggling to adapt to the new paradigm brought on by that reality.
Darren was no exception.
Still, he managed to ignore the stares, turning his attention to the smart display on his wrist, bringing up his itinerary. He was headed to Hab-Ring Five, and the only information that he’d been given beyond that were some coordinates to who-knew-where.
He sighed, wishing – not for the first time – that he might have a fellow first timer to converse with.
Unfortunately, that was a pipe dream.
The lack of other Humans on his ship wasn’t surprising. The Imperium had only recently relaxed enough to begin authorizing travel visas allowing Humans to leave Earth, and his kind were still a rarity on the Galactic stage.
As to why he was out here out in the ass end of space?
He’d been offered a job.
He was an engineer by trade, at least according to his degree, and he specialized in the combination of alien and Human technology. It might seem like an oddly specific skillset, but it was one that was in high demand, as just about every industry on Earth was trying to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Imperium’s literal space-age technology.
It was complicated work, but he was quite good at it, if he said so himself – and his professors seemed to agree. His gift had catapulted him through university and had apparently landed him a very lucrative offer to take up a position on Halfpoint.
How they’d heard of him, he wasn’t too sure. Nor did he truthfully know exactly what the job entailed. Apparently, he was to be briefed on-location.
Regardless, off-world work was a rare opportunity for any Human, let alone one fresh out of school, and visiting an alien space station was a lot more interesting than backpacking around Europe for a year.
Whatever happened, it was going to be an adventure.
The ship matched velocity with one of the rotating rings, the structure at least half a mile tall in its own right, covered in tiny windows that made it look like a whole city block had been condensed down into the shape of a donut.
Now that he was a little closer, Darren could see that the station was actually far from pristine. Its hull was pocked with haphazard repairs, the newer sections shining brighter than their older counterparts, its armored panels pitted with little craters from space debris and micro-meteorite impacts.
The ship lined up with a docking port, and an umbilical walkway began to extrude from the ring, reaching out towards them. It looked like the jib of a crane, covered over with a flexible material that bore a suspicious resemblance to a grey tarp.
Surely it wasn’t actually a tarp? No, it had to be some kind of alien supertech – too advanced for him to recognize at a glance.
Right?
His thoughts did little to reassure him as the umbilical connected to the shuttle’s airlock with a tangible thud.
Shaking his head, he retrieved his travel bag, then made his way down the aisle to join the queue of passengers who were waiting to disembark. More of them crammed in behind him, and he tried to ignore their uncomfortable proximity.
He hadn’t actually spent a lot of time around aliens during his schooling. One of his professors had been a Shil, but she had been professional to a fault and had always kept a healthy distance from her students.
Of course, she had still managed to be rather intimidating despite that, her head seeming to scrape the ceiling every time she stepped into the classroom. However, Darren was rapidly discovering that being surrounded by women who stood head and shoulders above him was a different experience altogether.
It was nothing to get worked up over, though. He just needed to-
The Shil standing behind him pressed close – uncomfortably close – Darren swearing that there was room enough in the aisle for her to keep her distance. Suddenly, he felt a sharp twinge in his rear.
Had she just...pinched him? No, it had to have been a mistake.
He turned to glance over his shoulder, looking up at the towering Purp. “Sorry, Ma’am, I must have bumped into you.”
Her sly smile faded as she furrowed her brow in confusion. Before she had time to formulate a reply, the intercom above the exit beeped.
“Oh, looks like we’re moving again!” Darren chimed as he began to follow the queue. “Sorry!”
He followed the procession of towering women into the passenger ship’s airlock. Both of the pressurized doors were open, and before him stretched the umbilical. The worryingly thin material that protected them from the deadly vacuum of space was wrapped taut around a metal frame, and the walkway beneath his feet was made up of a simple grate.
After a short walk, they emerged into a cavernous dock area, so large that it was more like standing in some kind of indoor stadium than anything that could be compared to a space station. There were stacks of shipping containers and unidentifiable machinery everywhere he looked.
It was a challenge not to stop and examine the equipment, each new sight piquing his interest, each strange device begging to be investigated. As he followed the other passengers to the far end of the room – his head on a swivel – he almost bumped into one of the containers. To his surprise, it was floating a foot off the ground, suspended on an anti-gravity cushion.
It was funny – no matter how many times he saw it, it never stopped being surreal to see something just…float.
As he stooped to look beneath it, an irritated dockworker leaned out from behind it to yell at whoever was in her way. She stopped when she saw him, raising a skeptical eyebrow. She was a Rakiri, if Darren remembered correctly. She resembled a towering werewolf, a pair of cat-like eyes peering out from beneath her black fur, her facial features strangely leonine. She was clad in dirty, yellow coveralls that hung loosely from her broad shoulders, exposing the ragged tank top that she wore beneath it. Tufts of her dark coat poked out around the faded garment, giving her a surprisingly fluffy appearance.
“You lost, boy?” she asked as she shooed him out of her path. “Stay behind the yellow warning markings unless you want to get that cute butt smushed,” she added with a nod toward the deck. She continued to push her heavy container, moving it effortlessly on its gravity cushion.
More dock workers were assembling to stare at him, perhaps having never seen a Human before. Or perhaps it was because he was male? It was hard to tell. Either way, a small crowd of yellow-clad women saw him off, a couple of them hooting at him and waving. Not sure if this was some kind of alien greeting, he shyly waved back, eliciting laughter from them after a moment of surprise.
One started to make her way over to him before a menacing growl from her superior made her freeze in place sheepishly. Darren took that as his cue to move on – he didn’t want to get anyone else in trouble by being in the way.
He arrived at a security gate, and after being asked to show his visa, he was subjected to a very thorough – and in his opinion unnecessary – pat-down. Once he was cleared, he emerged into the station proper. He stepped out of the way of the women behind him, then set his travel bag down on the metal deck, taking in the alien sights and sounds for a moment.
Far from being a sterile, clinical environment, he found himself in a bustling bazaar worthy of any city back on Earth. It scarcely felt like he was standing inside a station at all, what passed for the ceiling so high above his head that he could barely make out the crisscrossing support beams and maintenance catwalks.
It was styled like a cramped street, too small for cars, almost like the city center of some old European town had been reimagined in an industrial style. Civilian quarters that resembled apartment blocks rose up towards the ceiling, connecting to it in some places, likely leading up to higher levels of the station.
In every nook and cranny – anywhere there was room – the denizens of the hab-ring had set up little stalls where they were hawking their wares to the tourists who had just boarded. Colorful awnings fluttered in the artificial breeze from the air recyclers, and insulated cables that had been patched from the station’s systems trailed along walls and floors, powering streetside food stands and colorful neon signs.
Speaking of the denizens, they came in all shapes and sizes. Darren had never seen so many varieties of alien in one place before. He could make out a few Shil and Rakiri, but most were unknown to him, the varied hues of their skin and clothes creating a bustling sea of color.
He checked the device on his wrist again, pulling up the coordinates that his new employer had forwarded to him. This was indeed Hab-Ring Five, and he’d been given what passed for an address in this strange environment. Hefting his bag once more, he made his way into the throng, having to dodge and weave between the towering aliens. Many of them barely seemed to register his presence, probably due to his comparatively small stature, though some seemed to stop and stare in confusion.
Well, I suppose Humans are pretty new on the galactic scene, he thought to himself.
The scents of strange, alien food assailed him as he navigated the cramped streets, a few of the criers singling him out. They had sharp instincts, he’d give them that. It seemed the locals could smell a tourist at thirty paces.
Maybe it was all the staring he was doing?
Eventually, he arrived at his destination, glancing up from his display to see a dingy bar. It was open to the street, built into an overhang at the base of one of the many buildings, little more than a long counter with a few stools. Above it was a blinking neon sign in a script that he couldn’t read. As he made his way inside and struggled up onto one of the tall stools, the small handful of patrons who were sitting off to his left paused their conversation to examine him.
They were Nighkru, their goat-like horns and the bruise-purple hue of their skin giving them away. Their silver eyes were striking, almost seeming to glow in the dim light of the bar, as reflective as those of a cat. Their clothing was all tight leather and straps, their skin strategically exposed in places to show off their stunning bioluminescent tattoos, the swirling patterns trailing down slender limbs and across toned midriffs.
He kept his gaze aimed forward, knowing that their kind didn’t think much of the Imperium to which he now belonged.
…Then again, that was true for pretty much every race that wasn’t a part of the massive interstellar empire. Say what you would about the Purps, but they knew how to make an impression.
The bartender walked over to him, leaning on the counter as she looked him up and down skeptically. It was another Rakiri like the dockworkers, her feline nose twitching as she took in his scent.
“You lost, or do you want something to drink?” she asked.
“No thank you, I’m waiting for someone,” he replied sheepishly as he lowered his eyes to his device again.
He was right on time, but as he looked around, there was no sign of his contact. He was supposed to meet them here, right?
The Rakiri shrugged her furry shoulders, then left him to his own devices, moving over to the small group of Nighkru.
Perhaps one of them was his contact?
He certainly hoped not. While he didn’t have anything against a person enjoying themselves with a good drink after hours, it wasn’t a good way to make a positive first impression on a prospective employee.
Fortunately for him, the surprise on one of the trio’s grey skinned faces when she happened to blearily peer in his direction dashed that possibility. Just a trio of young women out for a drink.
Unfortunately for him, after a few hastily whispered words to her friends, the group made their way over to him.
“Don’t see many males round these parts,” one of them said, her faux leather getup creaking as she planted her hands on the bar to his left. Another leaned on the counter to his right, the third posting up behind him.
“A Human, too,” the woman to his right added with a sly chuckle. “Now, what’s a Human doing all alone out on the Periphery?”
“I didn’t think the Purps were letting their pets off the leash.” the one behind him snickered.
“I don’t know,” the first said with an exaggerated shrug. “Maybe he snuck out in search of a real woman? I think we’ve all heard how Humans can be.”
That set the three of them laughing.
All the while, Darren wasn’t sure where to look, turning his head left and right as he struggled to pick a Nighkru. He settled on the woman to his left, having to lift his head to meet her gaze, those reflective eyes shining like a pair of silver coins.
“I...uh...was actually supposed to be meeting someone here.” he stammered, a little of his anxiety bleeding through.
The Nighkru gave him a warm smile that wasn’t reflected in her eyes, leaning a little closer. He tried to pull away reflexively but found another Nighkru waiting for him, something rather soft pressing against his back.
“Well, I don’t see anyone else in here but me and my friends,” one of them said as she tutted dramatically. “Maybe they stood you up?”
“Poor form, that,” the one behind him whispered into his ear. He lurched in his seat, surprised by her proximity. “Leaving a pretty young thing like you hanging.”
The first one nodded, as if that was a piece of sagely wisdom. “I know – how about my friends and I give you a personal tour of the station to make up for it?” she asked, reaching out to brush a piece of errant fluff from his collar. “We’ll even carry your luggage for you – we’re nice like that.”
She signaled to one of her compatriots with a curt nod, who then plucked his travel bag off the deck.
“Oh, that’s really not-”
He tried to stand, but he was cut off as two of the women placed their hands on his shoulders, pushing him back down into his seat. Their touch was gentle, but firm, letting him know that he wasn't going anywhere.
Darren looked to the Rakiri bartender for help, feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the turn of events, but she was staying out of it. She was feigning disinterest, cleaning a glass with a rag that didn’t look clean enough for the job.
It was clear that he wouldn’t be getting any help from her.
Was this really going to be his first experience on the station – kidnapped by a gang of alien grifters?
Just as he was getting ready to – likely ineffectually – start swinging like his life depended on it, he heard a voice ring out in a language he didn’t recognize.
The Nighkru turned their heads as one, and he followed their gaze, seeing another of their kind step in from the street. Her skin had the same twilight hue, her silvery hair pulled back into a long ponytail that trailed behind her as she strode towards them. She wore a jet-black body suit that left little to the imagination, so tight that it might have been sewn onto her, the garment open at the front to expose a chiseled midriff and the beginnings of her cleavage. Her eyes were mesmerizing, his gaze drawn to the glowing tattoos that served to accentuate them.
Oddly, unlike the trio surrounding him, she had no horns.
The stranger walked with purpose, her heels clicking on the deck, her hair swishing behind her as she came to a stop to stare down the three other women. They were already backing off, the Nighkru who had taken his bag setting it back down gingerly beside his seat. Did they know this person? They seemed so wary of her.
“Maybe we’ll see you around,” one of them whispered, her hand lingering on his shoulder for a moment before she followed her friends out into the street.
Once they were finally out of sight, Darren breathed a sigh of relief and turned to thank the newcomer. Before he could utter so much as a word, she beat him to the punch.
“You shouldn’t wander around Halfpoint alone,” she said, skipping the preamble. Her voice had a melodic tone, one that was almost musical to Darren’s ears. She planted her hands on her hips, scrutinizing him with a skeptical expression. “You’re just asking for trouble.”
“I’m just...waiting for someone,” he replied. “Thank you, by the way. I’m-”
“Do you have a weapon on you?” she asked, cutting him off. “A handgun under that jacket? Defense spray? A pocket knife?”
“What? No,” he replied, his brow furrowing. “Why would I have a gun?”
Even with a few inches of titanium-alloy plating between everyone aboard and a messy death by explosive decompression, using a firearm on the station seemed risky.
She snorted derisively, almost as though she couldn’t believe his reply.
“For your sake, I hope that whoever you’re waiting for is smarter than you are,” she said with a roll of her silver eyes. “This isn’t Earth, boy. There are no Shil Marines around to babysit you. Next time you want to play tourist, go somewhere closer to home.”
With a flick of her long hair, she turned about, vanishing into the crowd once more to leave him sitting at the bar in confusion.
Darren felt another hand on his shoulder and turned to see an Edixi wearing grease-stained overalls standing behind him. The tool belt that hung loosely about her hips let him know that she was a mechanic before she’d even had time to open her mouth.
Her kind were evolved for an aquatic environment, and although they were fully amphibious, they retained many of their ancient features. Their bodies were smooth and streamlined, with lean, lightly-muscled frames that made them look like Olympic swimmers. Her eyes were a striking ocean-green, and her azure skin was patterned with faded tiger stripes, darkening as it neared her extremities.
“You’re the new engineer, right?” she chirped excitedly.
“Darren Fogle, pleased to meet you,” he confirmed as he extended a hand. She took it, shaking it eagerly, and he noted that her fingers were webbed.
He was a little surprised by how smooth her skin was. Given the sharklike appearance of the Edixi – and her vocation – he’d expected it to be rough and scaly. Maybe cold and slimy, too. By contrast, it was warm and soft, her small scales smooth like a snake’s rather than sharp like those of a fish.
Odd.
“Oh, it is. It very much is. The boss told me to fetch you,” she said before turning back towards the street. “Don’t get lost, you hear? There are some rough types around these parts.”
Yes, she could say that again. He stooped to pick up his bag, then hurried after her, trying not to lose sight of her in the crowd. He also belatedly realized that she hadn’t told him her own name.
Was that an Edixi thing or was she just in a hurry?
The mechanic led him through the streets, which seemed to be arranged in a kind of grid pattern, always flanked by the towering hab-blocks. It was as challenging as ever to navigate when so many of the station’s inhabitants stood a head taller than him. It made him feel like a bug that was trying to avoid being stepped on.
He could only assume he’d get used to it. His guide seemed to have no problem getting around, and she was a few inches shorter than him.
Their destination was some kind of service elevator – a large platform that seemed designed to carry heavy cargo up from the docks, wide enough that a couple of trucks could have parked on it side by side. There were still a few cargo containers stacked off to one side that hadn’t been unloaded yet.
He watched as the woman hit a touch panel beside the double doors, and they began to slide shut, the platform lurching as Darren felt it start to rise. There was no grinding of machinery, no vibrations, only a sensation of getting heavier. It was obviously gravity-manipulation tech. It wasn’t too surprising – the Shil seemed to use it for just about everything, so it wasn’t too strange that the rest of the universe did as well.
Convergent technological development, he could almost imagine his Shil instructor saying as they started to descend. Good tech is good tech.
The hab-ring’s many levels flashed by one by one, until finally, the elevator slid to a smooth stop. Darren followed the happily humming mechanic out into a garage, his eyes lighting up as he took in his new surroundings.
Were those… mecha?
The bay’s walls were lined with bulky harnesses that were obviously designed to hold the machines in place, a few of the berths already occupied by half-disassembled vehicles.
They were!
“Real life mecha,” he mumbled.
As a mechanic, he wasn’t ignorant of the genre. After all, what kind of engineer didn’t hold a soft spot for giant stompy robots? Of course, as an engineer, he also held an inherent disdain for anyone that actually thought said machines were even remotely practical outside of the realm of fiction.
The Square Cube Law was a harsh mistress.
The long and short of it was that if you doubled a machine's height while keeping it the same shape, you ended up with four times the muscle power moving eight times the mass. As a result, instead of having the same relative agility as the original, the double-sized machine actually had only half.
That was why ants could lift so much relative to their weight. If you scaled one up, you’d end up with a much less impressive power to weight ration.
And, the problem only got worse the bigger you went. Giant robots would be slow, cumbersome, and they would inevitably suffer from exploding ankles if they tried to move too fast. They’d also sink in just about any terrain that was even slightly porous.
All in all, mecha were a cool concept with absolutely zero real world applications.
Which was why he was so stunned to see some in real life. Sure, the Shil military liked to use exos, but they were really just power armor by any other name with thrusters attached. Besides, the only reason those things could skip around like they did was because they had anti-grav generators…
His thoughts trailed off as an idea occurred to him. He jogged over to the nearest machine, peering up at the twenty-foot humanoid monstrosity. Its legs had been detached, leaving only a bulky torso covered in half-stripped sensory equipment, lenses and scanners visible where their protective covers had been removed. The cockpit was open, revealing the pilot’s seat, along with the surrounding neural interface cables that hung loose like the entrails of some mechanical beast. Its weapon attachments were empty, but it was nonetheless an awe-inspiring sight.
Sure enough, there were two oversized humps on the back. One was clearly for the thing’s fusion engine – and the other must have held the anti-grav generator.
“Darren?” the mechanic asked, having only just realized that he wasn’t behind her. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Y-yeah,” he said, jogging for a few paces to catch up. “That’s a mecha!”
The blue-hued alien nodded slowly. “Yes?”
“A mecha,” he reiterated.
Which prompted another slow nod. “You’ve never seen a gladiator mech before?”
“No.”
“Didn’t they tell you what job you’d be doing?” the mechanic asked, cocking her head in a rather adorable manner.
“No?” This time it was his turn to cock his head.
Several emotions seemed to fly across the alien’s face. He saw surprise, confusion, and dismay before she finally settled on irritation.
“Typical,” she grunted. “Just… follow me.”
AN: https://youtu.be/a3Xp1WhRQ9Q

I've been using an RTL-SDR blog dongle with this cheap antenna for months with Kismet. I frequently pick up planes from over 150 miles, and it's not uncommon to see well over 50 planes over a 10 minute period, which ain't bad for Tucson. We aren't exactly a national hub.
Now I have a Rpi4 with the same dongle, running the adsbexchange image and the results are pitiful; I can see more planes with my eyes than I'm picking up.
Here's what I've tried:

• swapped the dongle with an identical one
  
• verified good reception with a hackrf portapak
  
• swapped the antenna for an identical one
  
• tried every antenna lying around
  
• verified antenna/dongle combo still works well with Kismet in the same location
  
• verified autogain is enabled
  
• powered the rpi with a portable battery in case the power supply is causing interference
  
• added a long USB extension cable in case the rpi is the source of interference
  

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

I have a 22Kw Generac with 200Amp Transfer Switch panel mounted next to the meter. I have an oversized gas line already running out to my detached garage for the HVAC out there. I have a pad for my shop air compressor (under a hut) and AC compressor behind the garage. (Machinist equipment work better in a climate controlled garage to remove excess moisture that would rust from the condensation, lubricants too cold to flow, and keep tolerances from temperature extremes.
How difficult would it be move the generator out behind the garage? Already have natural gas at the location. I can extend the communication data wires between the generator and 200Amp switch panel easily. Do I need to run new larger power cables all the way back to the Switch panel, or could I repurpose the garage feed cables already buried.
Or do I need a second transfer switch at the garage?
This would move the noise from next to the master bedroom to behind the garage with the other equipment on that secure pad.

Respect The Chief

You're home now. We could finally make an officer of you. You'd have Admiral without much of an argument from anyone.
No offense, sir, but "The Admiral" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is the most important figure of the human race in the mid-26th century. Abducted at the age of six by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), he was conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program. The initiative was originally designed to crush human rebellion against the Unified Earth Government as the human Insurrection movement neared its tipping point. John endured harsh physical and mental training, survived the physical augmentations required by the program, and was later matched with state-of-the-art Mjolnir battle armor.
Throughout his training and early career, John emerged as a clear leader among the Spartans and was set to lead a successful UNSC campaign to stop a brewing human civil war. Though through circumstance, he became the sole savior of the human race several times over. First, in the face of an alien hegemony called the Covenant--an advanced alien empire bent on the complete destruction of humanity. Later, against an eldritch parasite known as the Flood which toppled both the Ancient Human and Forerunner empires of the past. Most recently, John defended humanity against the efforts of an ancient Forerunner general called the Didact, who returned to take his revenge against humanity for wars fought a hundred millennia in the past.
Notes

• Feats are shown in chronological order in-universe
• Feats showing relevant scaling or context will be indented
• Hover over a feat to see the source.

Height: 6'10" // 7'2" (In armor)
Weight: 130 kg // 451.3 kg (In armor)

General Info (Augmentations / Mjolnir Armor)

Pre-Augmentation / Training
Spartans were heavily trained almost daily since they were kidnapped at the age of 6, leading them to become physically and mentally prime by the young age of 14 even before receiving their augmentations.

Dr. Halsey marveled at what a spectacular physical specimen he had grown into. Fourteen years old and he had the body of an eighteen-year-old Olympic athlete, and a mind the equal of any Naval Academy honors graduate.

Description of an unaugmented 14 year old John; The Fall of Reach Ch 6

Augmentations
Codenamed Project: ASTER, the Spartan candidates were augmented to drastically increase their physiology and physical capabilities. Their bones were laced with powerful material to make them 'virtually unbreakable', their muscle tissue density was increased and lactase recovery time was decreased, they were given hormones to boost skeletal and muscle growth, increased eyesight, and had their nerves altered to drastically increase reaction time.

• At the age of 14, Spartans could sprint at bursts of 55 kph (~34 mph) and had estimated reaction times of 20 milliseconds, though they would likely be significantly higher in combat due to adrenaline. They could lift three times their body weight and they have night vision.

MJOLNIR Armor / Stat boosts

The feats in this RT will sorted by which armor John is wearing, as each iteration of Mjolnir armor increases his abilities further.
Unarmored - These feats occur after John receives his augmentation, but without any Mjolnir armor. They also all happen to occur when he is 14 years old and still recovering from his augmentations.
MJOLNIR Mark IV - The Mk IV was the first iteration of armor given to John and the rest of Spartan II's at the age of 15.

• General description, it doubles it's wearers strength and increases reaction times by a factor of five.
  • Their reaction times were previously given to be a low end of 20 milliseconds, meaning with Mk IV it is at a low end of 5 milliseconds.
• The suit is so reactive and powerful that normal humans would be torn apart trying to use it.
• The suit can operate in vacuum by recycling air for 90 minutes. It is also shielded against radiation and EMP.
• The armor possesses motion sensors and thermal imaging to detect enemy troops.
• The armor is almost immediately given additional prototype upgrades, such as thrusters, surveillance drones, wrist-blades and active camouflage.
  • The active camo allows Spartans to walk right in the middle of a group of soldiers without them noticing.

Neural interface / Onboard Computer
Mjolnir armor is linked to Spartans with a neural interface, which means they simply have to think and the armor would perform an action. Combined with the onboard computer, it allows Spartans to do things such as place Waypoint markers, or targets on their HUDs with a thought.

• An example of its use during a fight, John can move his limbs with a thought to overwhelm attackers.
• The suit 'knows what John is thinking before he does', it's able to control the suit functions and John can control the suits thrusters with his thoughts.
• The onboard computer can predict where artillery shots would land during an artillery barrage, and guide them to safer locations.
• Spartans can share targeting data.
• Mjolnir's onboard computer can place HUD markers at designated targets.
• The onboard computer can calculate probable landing zones for enemy dropships.
• Mjolnir predicting the optimal time to dodge plasma cannon fire from Banshees.

MJOLNIR Mark V - Deployed almost two and a half decades after the previous iteration of MJOLNIR, the Mk V now possessed recharging energy shields but retained the same double strength multiplier as the Mk IV.

• General description, it includes two major improvements being the addition of rechargeable energy shields and the ability to house an AI (See previous Cortana section).
• The suit has sound receivers that can hear a whisper a hundred meters away.
• Energy shields begin regenerating 5 seconds after last being hit and take 4 seconds to fully recharge from a total drain (Gameplay).

Cortana - Cortana is the AI that was paired with Master Chief for Operation: REDFLAG, she is present for the feats that occur while John is wearing MJOLNIR Mk V and most while wearing Mk VI.

• Cortana provides tactical and strategic information to John in the field, is able to infiltrate computer and communication systems and greatly improves John's reaction time.

Hacking

• Cortana was loaded with ONI's best insurgency/hacking software in preparation for Operation: RED FLAG.
• While put to work checking the ssytems of a UNSC warship, Cortana runs through ONIs computesecurity systems on the planet Reach for fun, easily overwhelming other ONI AIs.
• She hacks a Covenant carrier, first from the outside disabling it's weapons and communications systems for a short while, allowing her squad to board it. Then when aboard the ship she develops a path for her ground team, gives false tracking info to the Covenant hunter-killer teams and ultimately vents the ships atmosphere killing most of the thousands of Covenant aboard.
  • Outside of Cortana, the Covenant were generally far above the UNSC in terms of network security, with Dr. Halsey comparing the Covenants understanding of human systems within a few weeks of first contact to the UNSCs understanding of the Covenants after several decades.

MJOLNIR Mark VI - Due to the UNSCs rapid advances in technology, the Mk VI was deployed less than two months after the Mk V rendering it obsolete, containing major improvements in both shielding and stat multipliers.

• The Mk VI increases the wearers strength by a factor of 5, making them 2.5x stronger than in previous Suits. The Suit also has self contained biofoam injectors, pumping Spartans full of the UNSCs miracle drug in case they are ever injured.
  • Biofoam stabilizes most wounds and allows limited combat ability even in the event of limb loss.
  • A Spartan suffering from a gruesome headshot has his wound filled with biofoam and is back in combat within a relatively short time.
• The Mk VI's energy shields are much more powerful and recharge a lot faster.
• Energy shields begin regenerating 4.25 seconds after last being hit, and take 1.75 seconds to fully recharge from a total drain (Gameplay).

MJOLNIR GEN 2 - The second generation of MJOLNIR armor developed after the Human-Covenant war ended. Every aspect of the armor has been improved upon and thrusters are now built into each set of armor, drastically increasing maneuverability.

• Every suit now comes with built in thrusters.
  • Spartans can use their thrusters to effectively fly.
• The armor expects when combat is coming and optimizes it's systems automatically.
• GEN 2 armor has 360 degree vision that sees far into the EM spectrum.
• Magnet Boots - Allows Spartans to fight while walking vertically down the side of a skyscraper sized ship.
• The armor has self repair systems in case the shielding and suit is ever pierced.

Skill

Unarmored

• At the age of 14, John kills/cripples four ODSTs easily. - literature version
• John alongside three other Spartans capture a bunker from guards wearing the Mjolnir Mark I armor, which would have taken 2 to 3 platoons of Marines to capture. - Mjolnir Mark I info/picture.
• Spartans have been trained to fight in zero gravity.
• Spartan IV candidates are trained in several martial arts such as Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu and Krav Maga. Presumably the Spartan IIs are heavily trained with them.

Mk IV

• At the age of 15, John alongside Kelly, Fred and Linda wiped an army of well over 100 Covenant, including several Elite Ultras, Zealots and a Field Marshall.
• John and his Spartans are trained to identify high value targets based off subtle visual cues, making it easy to snipe enemy commanders.
• While defending a planet over the course of a few days, John alongside the rest of Blue team destroyed over 100 Wraith tanks.
• Speedruns through a Covenant carrier alongside Fred and Kelly.
• Both Dr. Halsey and Cortana conclude John is overall the best Spartan.
• He has been awarded every major service medal except the Prisoner of War Medallion.

Mk V

• During Johns testing for the Mk V armor, he faces off against a fighter jet that is so fast it regularly travels in and out of visible range. John tanks it's 50mm autocannons, then deflects and tanks an anti tank missile, afterwards sprinting away at 66 mph though he tears his Achilles tendon doing so.
• While fighting a particularly massive (10 ft+ tall) Sangheilli in low gravity, John uses his skill to beat the Elite even though they were evenly matched in strength.

Mk VI

• John escapes deadly situations so often that he almost believes that death is optional for him.
• He's confident he can wipe out an entire Covenant unit of 50 infantry and 4 Wraith tanks without any heavy weapons, but he chooses to save a group of soldiers instead.
• Merks 40+ Brutes by himself.
• Each Spartan II has 'the equivalent combat power of an entire Sector Fleet'.
• John is proficient in all aspects of infantry tactics, as well as low gravity combat. He is able to effectively lead detachments the size of battalions, and UNSC personnel of all ranks generally defer to his leadership.
  • John was offered to be made an Admiral by the UNSCs Fleet Admiral and head of their Security Council, but he refused.

GEN 2

• Alongside Blue team, John fights through a massive army of Prometheans.
• Spartans are able to punch out the Warden Eternal while evading his sword swings.

Strength

Unarmored

• During John's first time working out while recovering from receiving his augmentations, he notes that 1 G of gravity feels too light and 2 G's feels more normal.
• 14 year old John breaks the bones of ODST's and disfigures them with his strikes.
• At 14 years old, Spartans could not train against normal humans anymore due to repeatedly killing them by accident, so their trainers had to be placed in Mjolnir Mark I armor.
• At the age of 14, John kicks a man wearing a MJOLNIR Mark I exoskeleton eight meters away.
  • Another child Spartan could dent the heavy metal plates of the armor with his punches, the armor is impervious to light weapons.
• At the age of 14, John wrenches and rips a 30 millimeter minigun off a MJOLNIR Mark I exoskeleton with his bare hands.
• Shortly after receiving their augmentations, Spartans could lift three times their body weight.

Mk IV

• The Mk IV doubles it's wearers strength.
• During Johns first test of MJOLNIR he could shatter concrete targets with a punch
• John lifts a Spec Ops Elite overhead and folds him on his own energy sword.
• 15 year old John lifts and throws a cargo sled that was large enough to haul an entire platoon alongside a couple of pieces of artillery, and long enough to hold two Spartans lying end-to-end.
• John buckles the leg of a Special-Forces/Bloodstar Elite sideways with a stomp.
• John beats the arm of a Silent Shadow Elite until it's wrist is snapped sideways.
• Effortlessly punches through a weapons locker that was undamaged by a man bashing it with a large gas canister.
• John can effectively wield 110 kg Gauss cannons and use them for hit and run attacks against a column of 50 Covenant tanks.
• At the age of 16, John is able to withstand 12 metric tons of force on his legs.
• While 16 years old, John gets pinned down by an alien spider-like vehicle that was larger than a Warthog but it doesn't crush him, he is able to partially lift it. He also implies he has pushed Warthogs off of him before.
• Rips a steel and bullet-proof glass security door off of its steel reinforcing on a wall.
• An Insurrectionist general believes John can rip him in half.
• Crushes a Jackal's skull with a kick.
• John, alongside three other Spartans (one of whom was injured and missing an arm) push a 3x3x6 meter quartz monolith, an object that would weigh over 125 metric tons.
• John travels while carrying a half-ton Spartan over his shoulder.
• The Franchise Development Director of Halo, Frank O'Connor, states that Spartans can flip and bench press tanks, which correlates with their in game ability to flip tanks.
  • Halo CE's manual states that flipping vehicles is accomplished by his strength.
  • While flipping tanks is a high end / outlier for Spartans wearing earlier armor, GEN 2 wearing Spartans have been shown flipping tanks with only the shock wave of their strikes.

Mk V

• The Mk V possesses the same 2x strength multiplier as the Mk IV, so he should be able to replicate these feats in the previous Mk IV section.
• Runs through a field of razor wire, snapping them effortlessly.
• While specifically holding back to not kill them, John cripples many ODST's who are trying to kill him. Notably John breaks alot of bones, pulls a gun that is being held by an ODST so hard his shoulder dislocates, and bends the barrel of an assault rifle rendering it useless.
• A trio of Grunts landing on him and attempting to take off his armor is laughable to him.
• Caves in the skull of a Grunt with a pistol-whip.
• A melee attack breaks a Jackals energy shield gauntlet and launches him off of a cliff.
• Flips a Warthog.
• Flips a Warthog again but this time from grabbing it by the bumpers.
• Cracks the spines of a pair of elites with his strikes.
• Punches through a human skull inside a Flood Proto-Gravemind
• Crushes the skull of an elite with a punch and again reiterates he is strong enough to flip Warthogs.
• Crushes the skull of a Grunt with the butt of his assault rifle.
• Spartans are able to punch though tank armor.
  • Wraith armor is completely impervious to .50 caliber AA rounds.
  • Wraiths are durable enough to tank shots from their own mortars, which vaporize titanium battle plate, concrete and flesh within a twenty meter radius.
  • Spartans wearing Mk IV are shown in official artwork to be able to rip open tanks and toss armored Brutes (>1 metric ton) away with one arm.
  • A random Spartan wearing Mk V is able to destroy Covenant tanks in H2H, and several Spartans hold off a Covenant army of 30000.

Mk VI

• The Mk VI increases the wearers strength by a factor of 5, making them 2.5x stronger than in the previous Mk IV and Mk V Suits.
• Punches through the head of a Jackal.
• Tosses a Brute behind him.
  • Armored Brutes weigh over a metric ton.
• John can punch through UNSC ship metal.
• Tanks a melee attack from a Promethean Knight, then punches it off of him.
• John can rip off the arms of Promethean Knights and impale them with it.
  • Promethean Knights are strong enough to toss around Warthogs which weigh 3 metric tons.
• John stabs into the hull of a Lich (Covenant ultra heavy siege platform) while free falling with no leverage.
• John can overcome an Elites energy shielding with a single punch.
• Pushes and kicks a missile hammer several meters. (A 2x3x1.5m block of Titanium which is roughly the dimensions of the missile hammer would weigh over 40 metric tons.)

GEN 2

• Lifting Warthogs (3 metric tons), bending steel and shattering concrete is a baseline feat for all Spartans, not indicative of their limits.
• John shatters a Battle Rifle by hitting Spartan Locke with it.
• Overpowers Spartan Locke.
  • Locke is strong enough to flip over a 42.3 tonne tank with the shock-wave of his attack, effortlessly fly and run through walls as well as tackle aircraft out of the air, and boost through the bulk of a massive stone statue.
• Spartans can snap the necks of Elites.
• Spartans can instantly kill an Elite with a two-handed strike.
• Spartans can rip through Forerunner Armigers.
  • Forerunner Armigers are strong enough to throw humans dozens of meters away.
• Spartans can kill a Forerunner Armiger with a stomp.
• Spartans can punch out the legs of the Warden Eternal.

Durability

Mk IV

• The Mk IV doesn't possess energy shields, it relies entirely on the armor plating for protection.
• The armor has a refractive coating to help disperse incoming energy attacks.
• During Johns first test of MJOLNIR, bullets were harmlessly deflecting off his armor.
• The Mk IV can tank numerous Covenant Carbine shots, though they come close to penetrating the armor. Covenant Carbines fire 8x60mm projectiles at hypersonic (mach 5+) velocities making them far more powerful than almost any modern small arms.
• A .50 caliber depleted uranium round fired from an AA gun glances off John's armor.
  • [Limit] A young Kelly states that sustained fire from that weapon would penetrate the Mk IV.
• Tanks fire from hundreds of skilled marksmen with their rounds only 'dinging' his armor.
• Tanks plasma fire from a Covenant Ghost.
  • Ghost plasma is stated to be 5000 degrees.
• Tanks the nearby detonation of 1 MT nuke (John was at ground zero and had only 30 seconds to sprint away before it detonated).
  • Nukemap stats - Because the event was on a moon with minimal atmosphere and gravity, the heat and radiation figures are much more important.
• Tanks Covenant Needle and Spike rounds that can separate an ODST into pieces.
  • In the same novel it's stated that ODST's wear bullet proof armor that is effective at tanking armor piercing rounds, and someone wearing that armor harmlessly tanks small arms fire from several shooters.
• Tanks several Needle Rifle shots, with the needles shattering off his armor.
• Shrugs off being directly hit by a Hunters 2 ton shield.
• Spartans can tank anything short of a direct hit by a Wraiths plasma mortar, which vaporize everything within a 20 meter radius.
• Tanks Plasma Rifle fire from a hundred Drones who were chasing after him.
• Harmlessly tanks a nearby grenade detonation that spatters his faceplate with shrapnel.
• Spartans in Mark IV have similar durability's to light tanks.
• Covenant Needler shots bounce off his armor.

Mk V

• The Mk V is the first armor to possess energy shields, with each further iteration of armor gaining much more durable energy shields.
• A three round burst from an MA5B assault rifle drops his energy shields a 'hairbreadth'.
• Tanks shots from 30mm chainguns without even noticing he was being hit and without his energy shields breaking.
• Tanks 50mm autocannon fire from a jet without his energy shields breaking.
• Tanks the detonation of a nearby Scorpion missile designed to take out tanks. He was launched six meters and the missile itself created a two meter deep crater, though his energy shields did break.
• Covenant Needler shots bounce off his energy shields.
• Tanks a lifeboat crash that ripped open the craft and mangled everyone else aboard.
• Tanks a shot from a Hunters fuel rod cannon without his energy shields breaking and can tank direct hits even when his shields are low on charge.
• Tanks a melee hit from a Hunter while his shields are already low from tanking a fuel rod shot.
• Tanks an explosion from crashing a Banshee into a wall without any injuries.

Mk VI

• Tanks crashing into the Titanium hull of a warship at an extremely high velocity.
• Unharmed by a nearby Wraith's plasma shot which killed three other soldiers who were further away from it than him.
• Unfazed by a massive explosion.
• Tanks plasma fire from 6 Hunters.
• Tanks the detonation of a point blank plasma grenade that vaporizes a Brute Chieftain and scorches close to a dozen nearby Grunts.
• [Tanks a fall from orbit onto the Earth, and while his armor locks up automatically due to the impact, John himself is uninjured.]( "Halo 3")
  • Official artwork shows John falling from orbit.
• John tanks the laser blasts of 343 Guilty Spark, a Forerunner Monitor.
  • Another Spartan wearing slightly worse armor tanks more Forerunner monitor attacks, which are powerful enough to vaporize Hunters who weigh 5 metric tons and are covered in starship armor.
• Tanks being hit by a Warthog at very high speeds.
• Tanks a fall from orbit onto the planet Requiem completely unharmed, crashing into a lot of debris along the way.
• Tanks a melee attack from a Promethean Knight and punches it off of him afterwards.
  • Promethean Knights are strong enough to knock around Warthogs which weigh 3 metric tons.
• Unharmed after being thrown into a wall extremely hard by the Didact.
• Tanks a slipspace rupture crash that creates a massive crater from his impact (Ghost for scale).
• John had his evolution accelerated by the Forerunner known as the Librarian, giving him an immunity to the Composer which digitizes living creatures.

GEN 2

• Survives getting his head crushed by the Didact, then being thrown into Fred extremely hard.
• Tanks an extremely deep fall without any problem.

Speed

Unarmored

• John notes how objects appear to move in slow motion to him shortly after receiving his augmentations
• Special Forces appear similarly slow to John.
• John could move in blurs and was able to dodge point blank stun rounds from a 30mm cannon.
  • Another child Spartan dodges the stun rounds in mid air.
  • 14 year old Kelly dodges fire from several shooters and is too fast for the self-targeting system to track.
• At the age of 14, Spartans could sprint at bursts of 55 kph (~34 mph) and had estimated reaction times of 20 milliseconds, though they would likely be significantly higher in combat due to adrenaline. This is shortly after they received their augmentations and is expected to increase as their bodies adjust to the changes, and likely as they age as well.
  • Spartans experiencing the world in slow motion due to adrenaline is something they refer to as 'Spartan time'.
• [Limit] John is unable to completely dodge close range fire from three shooters, getting hit by three bullets.

Mk IV

• The Mk IV increases it's wearers reaction times by a factor of five. Their reaction times were previously given to be a low end of 20 milliseconds, meaning with Mk IV it is at a low end of 5 milliseconds.
• The first thing John does in MJOLNIR is move his arm almost FTE to his already augmented self.
• During Johns first test of MJOLNIR at the age of 14 he was fast enough to dodge bullets.
• Evades fire from hundreds of skilled marksmen while he was in a low gravity environment that limited his maneuverability.
• Moves to block a Needle Rifle shot after it was fired.
• Moves out of sight of several people faster than they could see.
• Jogs at 25mph for 10 kilometers alongside other Spartans.

Mk V

• ODST's move in slow motion to John.
• Dodges bullets after they are fired by an ODST, and again but after they are fired by three ODST's and again.
• With the help of Cortana, John deflects a Scorpion anti-tank missile that was tracking him.
• Immediately after tanking an anti-tank missile, John sprints ~66 mph across a half-kilometer distance though he tears his Achilles tendon doing so.
• He's able to dodge the laser weapons of Forerunner Aggressor sentinels.

Mk VI

• Immediately sprints at a speed of ~45 mph from rest.
• Intercepts and blocks a Covenant Beam Rifle shot after it's fired from roughly 30 meters away, which is a weapon that fires at ~Mach 10.7.
  • Another Spartan wearing the same armor dodges beam rifle shots twice including once from point blank. It's also being fired by a specialized Spartan Sniper if there are any doubts on it's accuracy.
• Maneuvers in mid-air to dodge gunfire from numerous Brutes.

GEN 2

• Spartans can avoid a sword swing from the Warden Eternal without even looking.

Marksmanship

• While running, John scores several headshots on Jackal snipers with his pistol.
• While Sprinting at around 45 mph, Chief is able to land multiple head and neck shots on several Jackal snipers who are around 30 meters away from him, shooting fast enough that his Magnum shots bleed together.
• Spartans can routinely land accurate sniper shots over a kilometer away while they are on the move.

Mobility

• John could balance atop and leap across ten meter tall wooden poles 10 centimeters in diameter even though he weighs half a ton in his armor.
• Spartans can jump ~25+ meters vertically onto a moving vehicle using his thrusters. (Mammoths are 27.1 meters tall.)
• Without using thrusters, Spartans can leap into the air 'like crickets' and engage aircraft.
• Spartans can easily scale cliffs.
• Spartans in GEN 2 armor can use their thrusters to effectively fly.

Endurance

• At 15 years old John is capable of sprinting 7 kilometers while expecting to do combat immediately after.
• 16 year old Blue Team covers 19 kilometers in 33 minutes, stopping twice to do weapon checks, running on rough terrain with support equipment, and running with their weapons in their hands. Roughly 24 mph sustained over 19km, with no intended rest before initiating combat.

Other Spartan Feats / Additional Scaling

Weapons / Equipment

Enemies / Additional Scaling

The four Spartans that composed Blue Team covered his back, standing absolutely silent and immobile in their MJOLNIR combat armor. Someone had once commented that they looked like Greek war gods in the armor … but his Spartans were far more effective and ruthless than Homer’s gods had ever been.

"Power is like a bionic upgrade. Anyone can get it, but it takes true wisdom to use it for good."
In the 1980s, 'Project Albatross' was discovered by the Imperial State, which are definitely not and have no relation to Nazis (so long as you're playing the game outside of Japan). While they try and enact the plan, the US-like Republic (already at war with the Imperial State) send the renown commando Super Joe behind enemy lines to try and bring a stop to it. He failed, getting captured. As such, a second commando was chosen to both carry on his original plan as well as to perform a one-man rescue mission: Nathan (or Rad) Spencer. But it wasn't just his skills, talents, and weaponry that allowed him to rescue Joe, put a stop to the Imperial State, and kill a reanimated Hitler Master-D. He had a bionic arm, which can grapple things. Beyond this base story, each different canon tells a different interpretation of events.
Every individual canon is listed separately below, with different sources within the same canon being tagged separately. Elements of the Rearmed games appear in the 2009 remake (characters introduced in Rearmed appear in 2009, Rearmed 2's ending lays out the public mistrust in bionics and Joe's betrayal of Spenser which is a key part in the remake), implying they may be in the same canon, but with the lack of direct confirmation on this as well as the radical difference between the games they are listed separately.

Bionic Commando (NES)

Weapons

All weapons can break shield generators, large machines, and vehicles with repeat shots, unless a stronger weapon is used.

• A regular gun
• A machine gun
• The wide gun shoots a spread of three projectiles
  • When used in a top-down level, it shoots a spread of four projectiles
• The three-way shoots blasts either up, forward, and down
• The rocket launcher shoots forward powerful, piercing projectiles
  • These two can both break girder barriers which other weapons can't damage
  • They can also blow open a metal door
• A hyper bazooka which destroys a large helicopter shooting through its cockpit

Arm

In this game, the bionic arm is a wrist-mounted device, rather than the entire arm.

• Used to swing off of surfaces and pull himself up onto them
• Holds onto a flying helicopter while carrying another person
• Grabs items
• Spins it in a circle around him, deflecting a bullet

Other Equipment

• The medicine can be used to fully heal Spenser, and the iron boots allows him to kill enemies in melee
• The communicator allows for video calls with head command
  • Can wiretap into specific locations in enemy bases to pick up messages left by others and to listen in on enemy conversations
  • There are different kinds of communicators which work in different zones
• Uses the flare bomb to light up a dark cave
• The pendant deflects one projectile from hitting Spenser
  • The helmet does this twice, while the bulletproof vest does it for every other shot
• Can pick up power ups which have a ball of energy orbit him for a while

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Feats marked '1' come from the first game, and feats marked '2' come from the sequel.

Strength

• Smashes a large amount of stone blocks by slamming on them from a height²
• Can grab enemies and use them as human shields before throwing them aside¹
• Throws a large barrel¹
  • Throws a barrel hard enough to cause an explosion against the D-1 bot¹
• Yanks apart stacked segments of a stone column¹
• Yanks the bolts that connect a siege machine to its armor, making it fly back from the recoil¹

Durability

• Falls down a large shaft in a cavern¹
  • In general, falling from great heights does not hurt him¹
• Seemingly jumps out of a helicopter without a parachute¹
• Is on a giant missile as it hits the ground, which failed to explode but still wrecked the surrounding area, and is unharmed²
• His arm "deflects most conventional enemy firepower"¹
  • Stated to be able to block bullets²

Speed

• Stated to be capable of blocking incoming gunfire with his arm²
• Whips a bullet out of the air with his grappling hook¹
  • Spencer says his arm can "deflect most conventional enemy firepower"¹
• Repeatedly catches rockets out of the air in a boss fight¹
  • Does it again¹
• Ducks under bullets in flight¹

Arm

General

• Can pull himself up to higher levels and swing from the ceiling¹
• Can pull large objects towards himself¹
• Can whip the grappling hook around as an attack¹
• Access codes for doors can be uploaded to his arm¹

Upgrades
In Rearmed 2, Spencer can obtain a number of upgrades to grant his bionic arm extra abilities, though he can only have one active at a time.

• Can make a powerful uppercut²
• A grenade launcher²
• Can be electrified to disable or stun foes²
• Hacking capabilities, allowing him to instantly cause a door to open²
  • Capable of compromising enemy units individually, or en masse if used on a relay station²
  • Without this upgrade, can hack enemy systems¹
• Can release drones which orbit around him, diving into and exploding on nearby threats²
  • Can intercept missiles²
• In Rearmed 2 he requires an upgrade to have his arm whip around him in a circle, with it being able to pass through walls while doing so²

Weapons

Types

• Revolver¹
• Machine Gun¹
• Shotgun²
  • Can be fired to swing Spencer back and forth on his grappling hook¹
  • Can be fired rapidly¹
• Plasma Rifle¹
  • Can charge up a more powerful shot¹
  • Capable of neutralizing energy shields, seen here¹
• Vector Cannon, which shoots a reflective beam¹
  • Shoots a second beam once upgraded¹
• Bazooka¹
  • The rocket can be manually controlled¹
• The WASP Bazooka launches multiple missiles simultaneously²
  • Has a 99% hit probability after locking on²
• Goliath Launcher fires a metal ball, which it attracts back to the weapon through magnetism to fire again²
• Napalm launcher²
• Yoro Viper shoots electric attacks which runs along surfaces and can overload generators²
• Grenades¹

Strength - Regular

• Breaks through a force field projector¹
• Breaks through a small turret¹
• Destroys a large, flying turret¹
• Blows up the treads of a large siege machine¹
• Destroys a barrel dispenser¹
• Blows up a tank droid¹

Strength - Explosive

• Blows through rock to reveal a hidden passage¹
• Blows up a military vehicle¹
• Blows through a wall¹
• Destroys notable amounts of stone²
• Destroys a thick barrier²
• Blows up a huge aerial war machine with repeated rocket shots¹

Other Equipment

• Uses Biovision to scan for valuable information and weak points¹
• Uses a parachute¹
• Has iron boots, hurting enemies when he swings into them¹
• Has a bulletproof vest¹
• Has flares¹
  • They automatically light up in dark areas¹

Other

• Fights and defeats someone who has similar bionic augmentations as Spencer¹
  • Groder survived, but was severely injured and had to be placed in some kind of life support suit¹
• Acts without issue on a giant missile as it flies through the air²

Bionic Commando (2009)

Comic feats are tagged with 'C'.

Strength

Striking

• Cracks before shattering reinforced glass
• Punches a robot in two
• Punches a terrorist across a room
• Pulls an enemy in before hitting them away
• Pulls himself in to an enemy to drop kick them a distance
  • Does this to a large flying drone, striking it back in the air
• Punches crates into the air before striking them away
• Hits a forklift into the air before striking it away
• Strikes a car into the air before backhanding it away
• Can slam the ground after falling, creating a shockwave which hurts people around him
  • Takes out four people surrounding his landing site^C
  • Breaks through a concrete shell
  • Repeatedly strikes an enormous robot like this to force them back into the hole in the ground they had dug

Pushing / Pulling

• Takes out a helmeted terrorist by slamming their head into a missile with his regular arm
• Tears off the head of a robot
• Pulls off two of a robot's wings, one with his bionic arm and another with his regular one
• Tears out a portion of a monorail car from the building it's embedded in
• Presumably pulls off the door of a mid-flight hoverjet

Lifting / Throwing

• Lifts enemies into the air and slams them down
• Throws a large rock, breaking a fragile cave wall
• Lifts and throws a boulder
• Lifts and throws cars through the air

Other

• Pulls around a car
• Stabs through a robot with its own wing
• Cuts off a robot's arm and head with its own wing

Durability

• Blocks hits from a speedster bionic
• Dropped out of a jet^C
• Takes several kicks in the face before dropping from a helicopter, falling an incredible distance to the ground, landing unconscious making it unlikely his boots could have taken the impact. He later awakens without notable injury
• Gets launched into a city through a missile
• Launched away from nearby missiles but grabs onto a nearby hoverjet to fool his attackers that he fell and died

Speed

• Hits away Joe's pistol pointing at his head before he can fire
• Blocks hits from a speedster bionic
• Avoids rotary gunfire and a missile^C

Arm

• His hand swaps between being shaped like a regular hand and being a grappling claw at will
• Can extend, having a long reach and letting Spencer swing on objects
  • Chains grabs to swing over gaps
  • Can rapidly reel him in, throwing him over a ledge
• The arm can grab onto flat surfaces, like the outside of buildings, and not just poles
  • Can reel in to pull those objects to him, like enemies
• After building up adrenaline, can spin his arm cable around him like a whip, hitting enemies away
  • Seen here
• Grabs onto an object to clothesline a speedster with its cable
• Can hack into machinery, deactivating nearby air mines and reading messages
  • Hacks a plane after pulling a panel off the top, causing it to move as he wishes
  • Possibly used to neutralize a turret, though it could have just been pulling a sensitive part
• Projects a holographic screen for video calls^C
• Is his wife
  • Was able to briefly talk to her while unconscious after learning this

Weapons

• His base weapon is a small, automatic gun
• A shotgun
• A machine gun
• A sniper rifle
• A rocket launcher
• A grenade launcher
• Throwable grenades

Other

• His boots break his falls, allowing him to drop lethal distances without injury
  • Drops multiple storeys without harm
• Will sink in water due to the weight of his arm
• Bionics, like his arm, are particularly sensitive to radiation

Marvel Vs. Capcom

Feats marked '3' are from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and 'I' from Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.

Strength

• Cracks the ground coming in on his intro³
• Can hit and juggle enemies high in the air³
• Bounces an opponent off the ground before slamming them down with his grappling arm, cracking the ground both times³
• As a super move, tears up the ground while charging forwards with a punch^I
• Pulls in and punches away an Ultron Sigma drone^I
• Pulls in an Xgardian before throwing them away^I

Durability

• Has his arm grabbed by Ultron Sigma, who swings him up and then back to the ground^I
• Blasted down by Ultron Sigma^I

Arm

• Can continue to use his arm to pull himself towards walls or opponents, and to pull opponents towards him³
• Grabs a coupling from a distance^I
• Has the electricity of Avenger's Tower channelled through his arm to electrocute Ultron Sigma, though this takes him down for a while after^I

Other

• Throws grenades^I
  • As a super move, knocks an opponent down, shoves a grenade in their mouth, and has them blown high into the air as it explodes^I

Bionic Commando (Worlds of Power)

The Worlds of Power series was an collection of children's books based on popular NES games, with Bionic Commando closely following the plot and levels of the original. The protagonist of Bionic Commando is named Jack Markson, but as this was before there was an official name given to the character I'm including the book's feats in this thread.
Chapter numbers are included in the feats.

Strength

• Can punch with the force of ten men
• Punches the first two people in a group of eight, knocking them all down
• Using iron boots, karate kicks a ten foot tall iron door, smashing it down
• Tears open a heavily barred door
• Tears off a giant octopus' tentacle
• Before getting his bionic arm, beats up some ninjas, kicking away one's sword, stunning them with a neck chop, then flipping another

Durability

• Survives falling twenty storeys into a swimming pool, but needs medical attention, as well as the amputation of his arm between the fall and the injury from a shuriken. He is unconscious for days after this fall
• Once got shot by four bullets intended for elephants, but it's unknown what state he was in after
• Withstood some kind of torture from Nazz agents, though what kind is never stated

Speed / Agility

• While under fire from Badd snipers, springs twenty feet across a room "just beating two bullets" to a safe spot
• Activates his arm as semi-automatic gunfire is shot at him, the arm reaching a building's second storey and pulling him out of the way of the bullets by inches
• Dodges a sniper bullet
• Evades an electronic ray
• Avoids a ninja's sword swing, flipping them in the air

Bionic Arm

• In the novel his arm is made of plastic, appears real at a glance, and releases a grappling hook by touching the palm
  • Reaches the second storey of a building and pulls him out of the way of bullets before they can hit him
  • Latches onto the side of an elevator shaft
• Has two grappling hooks, the second one activated with a second press, which attaches to an opposite wall as the first one was. These two pull him out of the grasp of an octopus which was keeping hold with one grappling hook
  • Alternates between these two to swing across a gap
• Can shoot a laser of almost a thousand degrees celsius, allowing him to evaporate a container of water by his hospital bed in an instant
  • Instantly melts ice which is causing him to uncontrollably slide
  • On setting its strength to max, sets fire to a giant venus fly trap eating him
  • Heats the guns of twenty Badd commandoes to the point where they're too hot to handle in a second
  • Lights a candle
• Can scramble electronic fields, allowing him to evade enemy monitoring devices while seemingly still allowing him to send his own messages
  • Scrambles the electronics of a robot that was otherwise immune to his attacks, freezing it
• The fingers are extremely sensitive, allowing the arm to be used to open safes and disarm bombs
  • Runs over a brick wall on seeing a narrow crack between the floor and the wall, feeling out its trigger lock
  • Feels the clicks of a safe, allowing him to crack it
• Creates a unique electromagnetic field that compels whoever it's pointed at to tell the truth
  • When used on a Badd soldier, their face glazes over and speak in a robotic tone while answering his questions

Weapons

• He starts off the book with only a pistol strapped in a holster on his chest
  • Shoots through a metal cord supporting a chandelier, sending it crashing down on some ninjas
  • Has a stun mode, shooting chemical darts which instantly knock out people they hit
• Uses the wide gun to blow up robotic killer-copters
• Fires the rocket gun rapidly to blow up killer-copters
• The three-way gun shoots forwards, left, and right
  • Used to cave in and collapse a fragile tunnel
  • Destroys a killer-copter
• Disables four tanks with a machine gun
  • Seemingly uses high-power explosive rounds

Skill

Combat

• Along with Super Joe, senses that they're being watched by snipers and gets to the floor before they fire into their apartment
• Trained in martial arts with the federation
• Received training from ninja masters in swordfighting, and manages to take down some Badd ninjas

History

• At the beginning of the book, he's spent 10 years going on missions around the world with Super Joe, who he met in Federation spy school. Together, they've been on missions to Thailand and France
• In a mission in Argentina, he and Super Joe managed to locate and arrest all the leaders of the Nazz terrorist organization, though they weren't able to secure plans for a secret weapon called Albatros
• Saved Joe from some Nazz thugs, and apparently has saved him from many situations before

Other

• Has been trained to fly a helicopter

Helicopter

• Used a helicopter he could have hover and signal to pick him up from his location
• Can alternate between hovering and rapidly flying up at the push of a button of his transmitter, and quickly flies so far up that they'd need surface-to-air missiles to hit him
• Has an autopilot to fly to areas he chooses, as well as a medkit
• Alerts him to nearby hostiles
• Has an ejection seat which can automatically go off

Other

• Uses a flare bomb to reveal killer-copters flying towards him without lights at night
• A helmet he uses deflects a bullet
• The bulletproof vest has sniper bullets bounce off it
• Would never fire a gun against an enemy first

"How could I lose? I have a bionic arm."

EDIT: I've solved this issue. I have been successfully connecting all of my devices over a powerline adapter and this NUC is the only device that would not work. Plugging into my router directly got me a working connection, then power cycling the router got my NUC working over the powerline connection.
Additionally, the I225-V ethernet controller on this NUC has issues with the Verizon G3100 router. I was getting extremely slow upload speeds until I disabled IPv6 on the ethernet adapter in windows settings.
Slow internet speed only on Intel NICs : Fios (reddit.com)
Also if anyone here uses a Topre Realforce 87U keyboard and was unable to get it working with this computer, flip the 4th DIP switch on located at the rear side of the keyboard!
​
I've just put together this NUC 12 Pro Kit Wall Street Canyon, but I'm unable to get my ethernet port to work properly. I had trouble getting Windows 11 set up and needed to use the oobe\bypassnro command in command prompt during the setup because network drivers weren't installed. After finishing the Windows 11 setup, my ethernet adapter has been attempting to connect every few seconds, but never makes the handshake.
Troubleshooting I've tried:
My router and modem are online and allowing other devices to connect, no security policies should be in place to block wired connections.
My ethernet cable is functional on other computers.
My ethernet cable is seated into the port at the rear of the intel nuc and I'm periodically seeing the green blinking light on the port.
Ethernet LAN is enabled in BIOS and BIOS version is up to date.
Latest Windows 11 Ethernet LAN drivers for Intel NUC are installed.
Ethernet adapter is enabled in Windows settings.
No network policies or security software has been modified or installed, this is a fresh installation of Windows 11.

Introduction:

https://ibb.co/Y88HkpK
In my opinion, Marvel Phase 4 was not this giant disaster as some people (mainly racists, homophobes, grifters and sexists) made it out to be.
However, the fact that Secret Wars is happening this early, and The X-Men won't be introduced until after Phase 6, made me decide to make my very own MCU canon, and plus, if I was in charge, I'd heavily change some of the movies and Disney+ shows and save Secret Wars for five years later in my timeline (2031), when The X-Men and many other characters from the comics are already introduced like,
Wolverine, The X-Men, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Venom, Miles Morales, Black Cat, Inhumans, Nova, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Blue Marvel, Ghost Rider, Sentry, Tigra, Brother Voodoo, X-Force, Spider Woman (Jessica Drew), Beta Ray Bill, Hyperion, The New Mutants, X-Factor, Captain Britain, Psylocke, Iron Lad, Alpha Flight, etc.
My MCU canon functions extremely similarly to Star-Wars Legends, but if the canon version wasn't utter garbage, compared to it, in my opinion, anyway.
Also, in my continuity, Phase 4 would last four (hehe) years like the previous phases did, and if we got 18 movies and shows combined, in two years, it will be a long four years of content. (Hypothetically, anyway)
I'm completely rebooting Ghost Rider, Blade, The Fantastic Four, Hellstrom, Inhumans and especially The X-Men. However, the previous versions still exist and appear in films involving the multiverse.
The FOX Universe is a separate universe, and I'd completely reboot The X-Men. However, Deadpool and his supporting cast, like Vennessa, Colossus, Domino, Cable, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio, Weasel, etc, would transport to The MCU through the multiverse.
As for SONY and their horrible Spider-Man Universe. In my ideal universe, SONY and Disney deal extends to other Spider-Man characters like Venom, Kraven, Morbius, The Black Cat, Silver Sable, Silk, Miles Morales, Ben Reilly, and Gwen Stacy (Spider-Gwen), it's not just Peter Parker himself that the deal extends to.
I'd do my own MCU versions of Eddie Brock, Morbius, Kraven, Black Cat, Silver Sable, Silk, Man Wolf, Prowler, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Scarlet Spider, etc.
While SONY can make live action films about all the alternate versions of Spidey, such as, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, Spider-Punk, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4, and The Amazing Spider-Man 3, after the events of No Way Home. This can build up to a live action adaptation of Spider-Verse.
(Don't worry, the animated version would still happen in my ideal universe)
That would be done, in my timeline, instead of making villain films that don't even mention Spider-Man.
Also, regarding Marvel Television, before Disney+. Most of these shows are canon in My MCU Continuity, and this includes,
-Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
-Daredevil
-Jessica Jones
-The Punisher
-Luke Cage
-Iron Fist
-The Defenders
-Runaways
-Cloak and Dagger
-Agent Carter
However, Inhumans and Hellstrom are so horrible, in my eyes, that they are considered non canon and will be rebooted.
With all that out of the way, let's completely rewrite Phase 4 and make Phase 5-6 completely from scratch.

THE LINEUP

Movies

-Black Widow
-Shang Chi: Legends of the Ten Rings
-The Eternals
-Spider Man: No Way Home
-Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness
-Thor: Love and Thunder
-Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
-Ant Man: Quantumania
-Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3
-Captain Marvel: The Rogue Assault
-Blade: The Daywalker
-Deadpool: Maximum Effort
-Captain America: New World Order
-Thunderbolts
-Spider-Man Returns
-War Machine: Armor Wars
-Fantastic Four
-Avengers: Secret Invasion

Disney+ Shows:

-WandaVision
-The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
-LOKI (Season 1)
-What If (Season 1)
-Hawkeye
-Moon Knight (Season 1)
-Ms Marvel
-She Hulk
-Nick Fury: Secret Invasion
-LOKI (Season 2)
-Marvel Zombies
-Ironheart
-Echo
-What If (Season 2)
-Spider-Man: Freshman Year
-Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
-Ghost Rider: Spirits Of Vengeance
-Vision Quest
-Nova

Special Presentations:

Werewolf By Night
Wonder Man
Agatha Harkness: Coven Of Chaos
The Valkyries: Tales Of Asgard
America Chavez
Without further ado, let's begin my Post-Endgame Universe with...

WandaVision:

The Plot: I liked the show, it was slow, but the last 2-3 episodes really saved it for me. However, Wanda turning evil after this is way too soon to me, and it's done in the most poorly written way possible in Multiverse of Madness. Also, references to sitcoms are reduced.
Episode 1: Filmed before a Live Studio Audience: We start at a S.W.O.R.D facility, where we see S.W.O.R.D scientists breaking down Vision's corpse from Infinity War, and taking his vital components and implementing them into a new pale white vibranium body. Meanwhile, we see Wanda Maximoff from a window, watching in horror, as Vision's body is being broken down instead of a proper funeral or burial.
(Roll the Marvel Studios logo)
Wanda, stealthily takes out the guards by putting them to sleep, hypnotically, then she busts into the main lab, angrily, with furious red eyes and she attacks the scientists using her telekinesis. But the scientists explain themselves and calm Wanda down and explain that they are trying to revive Vision, but they are stuck on how to get Vision's memories back, but it's revealed that Wanda has the memories.
Wanda uses some of her hex abilities to insert Vision's memories into his brain module. Vision activates and appears to remember and recognize Wanda, but something's off about him, he has his emotions removed from him, but Wanda doesn't mind or even notice at first.
Wanda and the newly revived Vision, head to the neighborhood of Westview, which is where the original Vision wanted to settle down with Wanda before The Infinity War happened. Wanda creates a bubble around the area with magic that she didn't even know she had and Wanda turns the color around her and Vision into black and white.
Episode 2: Don't Touch That Dial: Wanda and Vision are enjoying their time in this black and white, sitcom-like, world and their haunted looking house. This is where we can make references to several sitcoms, and Quicksilver even gets revived and Wanda eventually has kids, Billy and Tommy, but they grow up fast into their teens like in the actual show.
Sparky is created as a pet for Billy and Tommy, like in the actual show. Meanwhile, The Hex’s amount of energy and magic catches the attention of S.W.O.R.D, Jimmy Woo, General Hayward, Darcy and Monica Rambeau.
We keep the scene where Monica was snapped and when she came back, her mother, Maria, died five years ago. S.W.O.R.D is curious as to what Wanda did with the Vision body they created, since they checked the security footage and they see that Wanda just walked out with it and why there is a bubble of magical energy and many people in the middle of a known ghost town, so they send a transmission to Wanda.
Meanwhile, Wanda tries to leave the hex to make sure she actually revived her brother and creates children out of pure magic. Quicksilver goes along with her sister but when he tries to leave The Hex, he glitches out and almost dies, but Wanda telikenicly pushes Pietro back into The Hex. Panicked, Wanda returns to The Hex and realizes that her own magic alone cannot create life, let alone bring back the dead. But she finds a book underground and it’s a copy of The Darkhold, The book of the damned.
(Note: Calling this Darkhold "a copy", keeps Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. canon since Robbie Reyes took the original Darkhold to Hell to prevent it from being in the wrong hands, and this also writes off The Darkhold that Morgan Le Fay has in Runaways as a copy)
She tries to find some spell that will work to allow Quicksilver and her children to survive outside The Hex, but she also has to deal with Vision, he might have his memories back, but he lacks his emotions and his colors, since his body is just pale white, regardless on what world he’s in, Hex or otherwise. He often acts cold and takes things literally, So Wanda has to fix that as well.
However, Wanda is slowly being corrupted by The Darkhold, and she even is more aggressive and overall, has a more violent and sadistic demeanor. She hears the S.W.O.R.D transmission and she tells Vision, Quicksilver and the kids to stay inside The Hex, as she exits the area.
Wanda confronts the SWORD agents, who are right outside The Hex’s location. The SWORD agents ask Wanda about The Hex and the Vision body that was taken and Monica tries to reason with Wanda, and Wanda just screams “Leave me and my family alone'' and a huge action scene happens.
Wanda starts by blowing up the Armored SWORD vehicles with her hex bolts, when they attempt to open fire on her. The agents try to shoot Wanda with their energy weapons, but she blocks it with her energy shields.
Wanda brutally kills many of the S.W.O.R.D. agents by snapping their necks, burning them alive with her hex blasts, telekinetically ripping them apart or choking them to death. It's the most brutal that my version of The MCU has gotten up to this point.
Monica, Jimmy Woo, Darcy and General Hayward retreat to make sure they don't get killed by Wanda. After all the S.W.O.R.D agents are dead, Wanda walks menacingly back into The Hex with her eyes bloodshot red.
Episode 3: Now in Color: The S.W.O.R.D team formulates a plan to disable The Hex and apprehend or kill Wanda, if necessary. Much to Monica's protest and dismay. Meanwhile, back in The Hex, which is now colored, Wanda is still trying to find that spell that will allow her brother and two children to survive outside The Hex. But then, Wanda is approached by a mysterious person named Agnes.
Agnes teaches and manipulates Wanda about The Darkhold and Wanda is succumbing more and more to The Darkhold's influence. Meanwhile, S.W.O.R.D. Forces are surrounding The Hex and they are about to launch an assault on Wanda, they plan to take her in, but they'll kill her if they see it as necessary.
They send Monica to see where Wanda is located from the inside, and as Monica enters The Hex, her body begins mutating as she hauls through the extra-dimensional energy field, but she ultimately makes it through. Wanda manages to perform the right spell to allow Quicksilver and her two kids to survive outside The Hex, but Agnes just grins in a sinister manner.
Monica spies on Agnes and Wanda and Monica sees The Darkhold and she realizes what's happening to her. Monica tries to warn Wanda of what The Darkhold is doing to her mind and overall sanity.
Unfortunately, Wanda sees no harm, especially because she was successful in bringing her brother back and having two kids. Wanda, cheered on by Agnes, telekinetically throws Monica out of The Hex, and back into the real world. The SWORD agents retrieve Monica, who is barely conscious, we see her body and eyes are glowing yellow.
Episode 4: Breaking The Fourth Wall: Vision, after seeing Monica being violently thrown out of The Hex, begins to question Wanda's ethics and what are Agnes's true intentions, since she did cheer Wanda on to do this but she claims that she wants to help.
Vision talks to Wanda about this and the two begin getting aggressive and arguing with each other like in Episode 5 of the show that we actually got.
Meanwhile, General Hayward is fed up with Wanda's violent demeanor and devises a plan to execute her and Monica immediately protests this plan, since she knows that Wanda is being manipulated by Agnes and The Darkhold, but the S.W.O.R.D scientists and personnel don't believe her.
Darcy also stands with Monica. The S.W.O.R.D soldiers immediately point their guns at Monica, after noticing her eyes glowing yellow. They fire at her, but the bullets just phase through her torso, like they are shooting at air. Monica runs away and she instinctively energy blasts a chunk through a brick wall in the S.W.O.R.D facility to escape along with Darcy.
Monica and Darcy are hiding in a house in The Hex, Monica is extremely shocked to learn that she has superhuman abilities.She tests her energy blasts, which can blast through concrete and solid steel. Her energy form, which allows her to be superhumanly fast and phase through physical objects and Darcy does some energy tests and it's also revealed that Rambeau can transform herself into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum.
Among the many energy forms she has assumed and is able to control are visible light, cosmic rays, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, electricity, infrared radiation, microwaves, radio waves, and neutrinos. By assuming an energy-form, she gains all of that energy's properties. She can bend the light around her to camouflage and seem invisible.
However, she does have limitations with her abilities, Rambeau is only able to retain her energy form for an hour at a time, before having to recharge herself and she can only transform herself into one wavelength of energy at a time.
They later bump into Vision, who is investigating The Hex's properties and trying to find any dirt on Agnes. Vision also states that he's not amused with how suspicious Agnes seems. Vision agrees to help Monica and Darcy to bring Wanda back to her normal self. Meanwhile, back at the S.W.O.R.D. facility, General Hayward reveals that the S.W.O.R.D scientists still have Vision's schematics and they build another Vision, which they intend to use on Wanda and to detain Monica Rambeau.
Episode 5: This is Halloween: Vision briefly returns to Wanda, but he will check on Monica and Darcy, to spend some time with his wife. Which subtly shows that some of his emotion is returning. It's basically the Halloween episode we got, from here on out. Just without the Vision and Agnes interaction, since we already saw her prior, in this rewrite.
Agnes still kills Sparky behind Wanda's back. Quicksilver is very protective of Wanda like in the comics, Pietro got encouragement from Agnes. Vision is still investigating what is going on with Wanda's behavior and what are Agnes's intentions. The Comic Accurate costumes still show up as Halloween costumes and as a reference to comic fans.
Episode 6: Previously On: General Hayward, Jimmy Woo, White Vision and the S.W.O.R.D. forces begin to make their way toward The Hex. Vision, who is scouting the area, sees the S.W.O.R.D forces making their way to Wanda's location, so he warns Monica and Darcy.
Meanwhile, Wanda discovers Agnes's basement and this is where Agnes reveals herself to Wanda, Billy and Tommy, as Agatha Harkness and a witch. She enthralled Maximoff, projecting visions into her mind that revealed herself to have manipulated the recent events, which included, lying to Vision to further distance him from Maximoff, killing Sparky, and manipulating Pietro to watch over Maximoff.
Agatha also states that she came to Westview because she sensed the immense power involved in all the magic and was impressed.
She wanted to know what had allowed Wanda to have such immense power and how she could cast so many high level spells all at once and even have them self perpetuating without Wanda's direct involvement, Agatha is an experienced witch and knows how difficult that is. She wants that kind of power herself.
Wanda attempts to read Harkness' mind, but this proved ineffective as Harkness had placed a protection spell around the room with runic symbols and in turn bound Maximoff in magical bonds. She then demonstrated her magical powers to Maximoff including transmutation and mind control and explained to Maximoff that she is capable of performing such magic but on a grander scale.
Harkness then demanded to know how Maximoff created the Hex in the first place, but Maximoff was unable to recall how she pulled it off.
Harkness plucked a hair from Maximoff's head and used it to open a gateway into Maximoff's memories and to ensure Maximoff would follow her. Harkness revealed she was still holding Tommy and Billy somewhere in her dungeon, and having no other choice Maximoff followed Harkness through the door.
Agatha then goes into Wanda's memories, which puts Wanda in a lot of pain, on top of being mind raped. We see that Wanda was in reality, was really born to Erik Lehnsherr and Magda England, which shocks Wanda, since she remembers being raised in Sokovia. We also see Pietro and a second sister, who is in a green blanket. (This will set up Magneto and Polaris, appearing in later movies)
We then see Magda screaming and dying in a house fire due to an angry mob forming, and they are chasing Erik out along with the three kids. Erik put up Wanda and Pietro for adoption in Sokovia.
We then see her childhood in Sokovia, the Stark Industries missile blowing up her parents, but Wanda used her probability powers to save herself and her brother, which is the first display of her powers, and Vision comforting Wanda and watching sitcoms shortly after Quicksilver's death, back in Age of Ultron.
Having seen all she needed to put the pieces together, Harkness applauded Wanda Maximoff's display of Magic, before teleporting Wanda and herself outside, where she held Tommy and Billy Maximoff with magical nooses around their throats, Harkness then revealed to Maximoff that she was a being long thought to be a myth, a being capable of creating something from nothing with the great power of Chaos Magic, and Maximoff was in fact the Scarlet Witch.
Her mother, Magda, also had magical potential, but her child would always be 100-times more powerful. Maximoff attacks Harkness to release her hold on her children, before ordering them both inside of the Vision Residence to shield themselves. Attempting a second attack, Maximoff soon discovered that Harkness was able to not only absorb her chaos magic, but take a portion of her life force as well.
Harkness attempted to strike a bargain with Maximoff, She would be able to maintain the Westview Anomaly and her reclusiveness, but she would have to give up the chaos powers. However, Wanda declines, flies up towards Agatha and the two begin to fight. Vision, Monica and Darcy show up to help. Darcy gives Monica a suit, and she even nicknames Monica, Photon. General Hayward, White Vision and the S.W.O.R.D. military forces show up on the ground and begin to open fire on Wanda and Agatha.
Wanda, who has had enough of General Hayward, brutally burns him and most of the agents alive using her hex energy wave, with a smile on her face. Vision tells Monica and Darcy that he'll deal with the White Vision, who had his target on Wanda, and the two living synthezoids fly towards each other and start shooting beams at each other. Monica, despite her disdain for Hayward, calls Wanda out for her actions.
But Monica knows the pain of suddenly losing a loved one, she tells Wanda that she can connect and empathize with her, despite Wanda being sadistic, brutally killing many S.W.O.R.D soldiers, scientists and General Hayward, and Monica was attacked by her on two separate occasions, although those were merely fits of rage from a grieving Avenger who couldn't let go of a life she almost never had, and she was manipulated by Agatha and under the control of The Darkhold, which fuels her anger and aggression, so Wanda is not exactly irredeemable ether.
Wanda, using Monica's words and her own willpower, manages to break free of The Darkhold's influence, despite Agatha taunting Wanda about her failures and blurred morality, as they are in a standoff, levitating in the red sky. Wanda epically transforms into The powerful Scarlet Witch to fight Agatha and to end this madness.
Episode 7: The Series Finale: Wanda fights Agatha, just like in the show that we got. Vision and White Vision have the same fight as they did in the actual show and Vision gives his memories to White Vision. I'd keep the "I am Vision" line, and like in the show we got, White Vision flies away, which is setting up his own series.
After Wanda defeats Agatha and destroys The Darkhold, she breaks down in tears after realizing what she's done, as she sees the burned skeleton of General Hayward and the many S.W.O.R.D soldiers that she has slaughtered during her Darkhold rampage. However, Monica comforts Wanda and congratulates her on overcoming her dark side and doing the right thing in the end, but the S.W.O.R.D. forces are about to arrive to take her in and Wanda flies away with Quicksilver, Billy and Tommy.
Wanda is not completely off the hook for her actions. Though she is hiding in a haunted house, raising her two sons and reconnecting with Quicksilver, trying to redeem herself.
Post Credit Scenes: Doctor Strange and Wong, senses The Scarlet Witch's presence, which sets up the Multiverse of Madness, with Wanda's redemption, instead of ruining her character further.
Magneto, in shadow, with only his helmet visible, sees footage of Wanda on the news, and he immediately knows that one of his children is alive and well. This sets up The X-Men, and Wanda meeting her biological father in the future.
S.W.O.R.D, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Quake, Coulson, Jimmy Woo and Monica, now known as Photon, discuss Wanda's actions and Fury decides to let Wanda off the hook, for now, since she did stop Agatha, felt extremely remorseful about her actions and she did destroy The Darkhold, which especially after the events of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, they know it is a dangerous artifact.
But they will execute Wanda, if she shows any aggression. So, Wanda is now a controversial figure among the superhuman community, going forward.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier:

The Plot: Most of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier would stay the same, except for Sharon Carter, who is a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. against The Power Broker, who I'd later reveal in the Echo series, to be The Kingpin.
It's revealed that Sharon is working with Fisk, for S.H.I.E.L.D. to get information for an eventual sting operation. She doesn't enjoy selling superhuman enhancements and dangerous weapons, but she sees it as necessary. Sharon Carter still shoots and kills Karli, and Sam Wilson is not fine with this.
Sharon would reveal to Sam what she's doing and her intentions, this will cause some extreme tension between Sam Wilson and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the future.
This isn't the last time that S.H.I.E.L.D. would do some shady things in My MCU Continuity. This also makes Sharon Carter way less evil, and more in character for her. She'd seem like the type of person that does what she thinks is the right thing, even if you do some very questionable things in the process, kinda like a more extreme Steve Rogers.
Other Changes: Battlestar doesn't die, but he is, however, in a coma. I think it's extremely hypocritical that Marvel wants to push a black man as Captain America, when in the same series this happens in, they use the racist "The Black Guy Dies First" trope.
They could have easily just said that Battlestar was badly injured or in a comatose state and that could have pushed John Walker to cross the line and take the life of that Flag Smasher, which causes him to be stripped of being Captain America.
Also, I think Battlestar could be a good member for The Thunderbolts and be another positive role model for black boys. There was some wasted potential with this character.
Steve Rogers' status of being dead or alive is way more clear in my rewrite. I'd have Bucky say that Steve is retired and the serum prevents the user from dying of old age. That could be a backdoor for Steve Rogers to return in the future.

LOKI:

The Plot: LOKI would stay exactly the same, but Sylvie has Lady Loki as her codename, instead of it being ambiguous. Enchantress would be later saved for my version of Love and Thunder.

What If…?:

The Plot: Most of What If would stay the exact same in My MCU. However, Natasha from Earth-29929, or the Earth that Infinity Ultron completely annihilated and took over. After Infinity Ultron is killed, instead of being sent to an Earth that Loki took over, The Watcher sends Natasha to The MCU, where The Prime Earth Natasha is already deceased.
I think Natasha had some wasted character potential, so a variant taking her place would be a compromise. It wouldn't necessarily ruin her sacrifice in Avengers Endgame, since the variant is a separate character. They also did this with Loki and Gamora, so this would make the most sense.
This would set up a Black Widow sequel, where the variant Natasha would have to loosen up and adjust, since the Earth that she's displaced in, is not a complete apocalyptic hellhole.

Hawkeye:

The Plot: Hawkeye would stay mostly the same. My rewrite is very similar to TheMan5991's small rewrite. The link is placed here.
https://www.reddit.com/nandovmovies/comments/s7xuza/hawkeye_rewrite_spoilers/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
The only real change I'd make is during the final battle with The Kingpin and Kate Bishop in Episode 6. My main problem with Kingpin in the Hawkeye series is that he is both too weak and too strong at the same time.
Fisk is too strong because he is able to completely rip a door off its hinges and later gets full speed rammed by a car which, rather than killing him, cartoonishly knocks him through a window where he gets up with barely a scratch. In the Daredevil Netflix series, Kingpin was very strong, but he was still just a normal human being.
His main power came from the fact that he controlled everyone and everything around him. On the other hand, he is too weak in that he is able to be beaten by a college student with like a week of superhero experience. Yes, I know that Kate trained growing up, but up until the show started, she had never fought someone in a life-or-death situation. Especially not someone as dangerous as Wilson Fisk.
The fact that Kate Bishop beat him is supposed to be impressive (Clint says as much later on), but the action sequence felt less like a compliment to Kate’s abilities and more like an insult to Fisk’s threat level.
I want to fix these issues. So, here is my version of the events of Kate Bishop's fight with The Kingpin.
Eleanor gets in the car, tells the driver they need to find Kate, then realizes the driver has had his head crushed and he died. Fisk appears and calmly opens the door. Fisk still wears his Hawaiian suit. Kingpin tries one last time to convince Eleanor to continue her services for him. She refuses, knowing that continuing to work for Fisk would endanger her daughter.
(One of my favorite things about Netflix Kingpin was his simmering anger. He felt like he was moments away from decapitating a guy with a car door. I never felt that from his reappearance. I want that to come across in this conversation between Eleanor and Fisk)
While Eleanor is denying his offer, we see him slowly getting angrier until he finally breaks and grabs her by the throat, dragging her out of the car. He is holding her up by her neck when Kate arrives. As Eleanor struggles, Kate aims her bow at Fisk and yells "Get away from my mother", but he doesn’t even glance in her direction. She shoots him in the chest with an arrow, but as we learned in the Netflix series, all his suits are armored, so it doesn’t penetrate through. He looks over at her and Eleanor chokes out to Kate telling her to "run" before Kingpin snaps her neck, killing her.
Kate, in her rage, fires an explosive arrow directly at Kingpin, and Fisk immediately gets caught in the explosion, and gets sent flying through the building wall. Bishop entered the building through the wall, and tried to stop Fisk from leaving. Bishop shot a trap arrow at the gap in the building, causing electric wires to form over the hole, preventing Fisk's escape.
Kingpin became aggravated and began tossing Bishop around the room and pulverized her with his punches, leaving her bloodied, several broken ribs and defeated. Fisk pulled her quiver off of her back, pulling her arrows out, snapping them in half, and tossing them on the ground.
Kate, refusing to give up, and wanting revenge for what Fisk did to her mother, gets up, lunges towards Kingpin and tries to kick him. However, Fisk easily punched her in midair, sending her crashing into a window, cracking it. As Bishop sat on the ground, cornered by Fisk, she used his cufflink that she had picked up to flick and activate the head of one of her magnet arrows on the floor. The magnet arrows activate the nearby explosive arrows, causing an explosion that blows up the store, and Kate smashes and jumps out of the window that is behind her and she survives the blast.
(Now, obviously, Eleanor does not die in the actual series, but I told you there was an exception and I think this works better for two reasons. First, it gives Fisk the threatening presence that everyone has been talking about throughout the series with their comments about “the big guy”. This level of terror makes Clint’s comment about Kate surviving an encounter with him meaningful. Second, Eleanor dies in the comics as well and is later brought back as a vampire. With the Blade franchise coming up for the MCU, this leaves open the possibility of a return if they wanted to bring her character back. It also gives more character development for Kate, to overcome her grief of a loved one, similar to Spider-Man, or The Flash)
Still wounded and burned following the explosion, Fisk painfully made his way through the streets of New York City, until his path was blocked by a car. As the car pulled up in front of him, Kingpin had then realized that the driver was Maya Lopez, as he breathed a sigh of relief, only for Lopez to grab her gun and point it directly at his head.
Fisk soon realized that Lopez had indeed learnt that Fisk had been responsible for her father's death at the hands of Ronin. Fisk then told Lopez that they were family, and that families did not always see eye to eye. Lopez responded by shooting him, causing Fisk to fall down, knocked out.
Kate eventually makes it back to Clint and the rest of the episode plays pretty much as is. It is, perhaps, a little more somber as Kate’s mother was murdered instead of simply going to jail, but that just gives her even more reason to go with Clint back to his farm. His family welcomes her in and their love for each other spreads to her and helps her recover.
Post Credit Scene: Laura Barton received her SHIELD watch from Clint, with her name and Agent 19 being engraved on it. However, Laura gets a call from Bobbi Morse, with a hologram of her picture.
Yes, the only addition I'd make is to have Clint and his wife have a mystery third woman, who Clint has been extremely close friends with in the past, and he still is intimate with both her and Laura. I'd reveal that woman to be Bobbi Morse, Mockingbird. The same character from Agents Of SHIELD.
This sets up Mockingbird returning as Hawkeye's new love interest in his hero-life, while his home life with Laura, and both women are friends and are more than alright with that.
They are literally sharing Hawkeye. Then again, Hawkeye was always a ladiesman or womanizer in the comics. Clint is still happily married to only two people. Bobbi is even an aunt to Clint and Laura's children, similar to how Black Widow was in that role, before she passed away in Endgame.
Not to mention, Agents Of SHIELD Season 2 mentioned that Hawkeye and Bobbi went on a few missions together, so it's implied that the two agents have some romantic history. Don't worry AoS fans, Lance and Bobbi are still really close friends and an iconic duo, just not lovers anymore.
Also, Lance Hunter will show up in a future SHIELD movie or Disney+ series. Along with Bobbi and Clint, I can also see a lot of jealousy ensuing.

121 - 91
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo

GAME SUMMARY
Location: Spectrum Center (18768), Clock: Final
Officials: Bill Kennedy, Gediminas Petraitis, and Phenizee Ransom

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Chicago Bulls	31	31	28	31	121
Charlotte Hornets	23	23	31	14	91

TEAM STATS

Team	PTS	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	OREB	TREB	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK
Chicago Bulls	121	45-88	51.1%	13-31	41.9%	18-22	81.8%	9	47	25	13	12	7	4
Charlotte Hornets	91	35-77	45.5%	14-37	37.8%	7-10	70.0%	4	45	27	21	3	21	5

PLAYER STATS

Chicago Bulls	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
DeMar DeRozanSF	32:52	23	8-15	1-2	6-7	1	2	3	4	1	0	1	0	24
Alex CarusoPF	20:37	10	4-7	2-5	0-0	1	3	4	3	1	2	0	3	16
Nikola VucevicC	30:06	21	9-14	0-3	3-4	2	6	8	0	0	0	0	0	25
Zach LaVineSG	28:31	23	7-18	3-6	6-7	0	3	3	3	1	0	1	1	25
Patrick BeverleyPG	24:10	4	2-3	0-1	0-0	0	5	5	2	2	0	0	1	12
Coby White	26:19	11	4-7	3-5	0-0	1	4	5	7	1	0	2	1	13
Patrick Williams	24:26	15	5-10	3-6	2-2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	13
Ayo Dosunmu	23:50	2	1-4	0-2	0-0	0	0	0	4	1	1	1	3	18
Andre Drummond	13:56	6	3-4	0-0	0-0	2	9	11	1	2	1	1	1	6
Dalen Terry	04:20	3	1-2	0-0	1-2	0	1	1	1	2	0	1	1	-1
Marko Simonovic	03:58	0	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	-1
Carlik Jones	03:58	0	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	-1
Terry Taylor	02:57	3	1-1	1-1	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Javonte Green	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Derrick Jones Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lonzo Ball	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Justin Lewis	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Charlotte Hornets	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Bryce McGowensSF	23:49	8	3-7	1-3	1-2	0	5	5	2	0	0	2	2	-13
P.J. WashingtonPF	11:31	8	3-6	2-4	0-0	0	2	2	2	0	0	1	2	-10
Mark WilliamsC	35:27	6	3-6	0-0	0-0	1	7	8	0	1	1	3	3	-22
Svi MykhailiukSG	33:54	16	7-12	2-5	0-0	0	2	2	5	0	1	2	1	-27
Theo MaledonPG	33:18	9	4-13	0-5	1-3	0	4	4	9	1	0	3	3	-28
James Bouknight	31:09	22	8-16	6-11	0-0	1	5	6	4	0	0	2	2	-15
JT Thor	28:25	10	3-10	2-6	2-2	1	2	3	0	0	0	4	1	-12
Nick Richards	12:33	5	2-2	1-1	0-0	0	3	3	1	0	1	1	4	-8
Xavier Sneed	07:49	4	1-2	0-1	2-2	0	1	1	1	0	0	2	2	0
Kai Jones	18:07	3	1-2	0-0	1-1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	-16
Kobi Simmons	03:58	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1
LaMelo Ball	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gordon Hayward	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cody Martin	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kelly Oubre Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Terry Rozier	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dennis Smith Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

rnbapgtgenerator by f1uk3r

"Power is like a bionic upgrade. Anyone can get it, but it takes true wisdom to use it for good."
In the 1980s, 'Project Albatross' was discovered by the Imperial State, which are definitely not and have no relation to Nazis (so long as you're playing the game outside of Japan). While they try and enact the plan, the US-like Republic (already at war with the Imperial State) send the renown commando Super Joe behind enemy lines to try and bring a stop to it. He failed, getting captured. As such, a second commando was chosen to both carry on his original plan as well as to perform a one-man rescue mission: Nathan (or Rad) Spencer. But it wasn't just his skills, talents, and weaponry that allowed him to rescue Joe, put a stop to the Imperial State, and kill a reanimated Hitler Master-D. He had a bionic arm, which can grapple things. Beyond this base story, each different canon tells a different interpretation of events.
Every individual canon is listed separately below, with different sources within the same canon being tagged separately. Elements of the Rearmed games appear in the 2009 remake (characters introduced in Rearmed appear in 2009, Rearmed 2's ending lays out the public mistrust in bionics and Joe's betrayal of Spenser which is a key part in the remake), implying they may be in the same canon, but with the lack of direct confirmation on this as well as the radical difference between the games they are listed separately.

Bionic Commando (NES)

Weapons

All weapons can break shield generators, large machines, and vehicles with repeat shots, unless a stronger weapon is used.

• A regular gun
• A machine gun
• The wide gun shoots a spread of three projectiles
  • When used in a top-down level, it shoots a spread of four projectiles
• The three-way shoots blasts either up, forward, and down
• The rocket launcher shoots forward powerful, piercing projectiles
  • These two can both break girder barriers which other weapons can't damage
  • They can also blow open a metal door
• A hyper bazooka which destroys a large helicopter shooting through its cockpit

Arm

In this game, the bionic arm is a wrist-mounted device, rather than the entire arm.

• Used to swing off of surfaces and pull himself up onto them
• Holds onto a flying helicopter while carrying another person
• Grabs items
• Spins it in a circle around him, deflecting a bullet

Other Equipment

• The medicine can be used to fully heal Spenser, and the iron boots allows him to kill enemies in melee
• The communicator allows for video calls with head command
  • Can wiretap into specific locations in enemy bases to pick up messages left by others and to listen in on enemy conversations
  • There are different kinds of communicators which work in different zones
• Uses the flare bomb to light up a dark cave
• The pendant deflects one projectile from hitting Spenser
  • The helmet does this twice, while the bulletproof vest does it for every other shot
• Can pick up power ups which have a ball of energy orbit him for a while

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Feats marked '1' come from the first game, and feats marked '2' come from the sequel.

Strength

• Smashes a large amount of stone blocks by slamming on them from a height²
• Can grab enemies and use them as human shields before throwing them aside¹
• Throws a large barrel¹
  • Throws a barrel hard enough to cause an explosion against the D-1 bot¹
• Yanks apart stacked segments of a stone column¹
• Yanks the bolts that connect a siege machine to its armor, making it fly back from the recoil¹

Durability

• Falls down a large shaft in a cavern¹
  • In general, falling from great heights does not hurt him¹
• Seemingly jumps out of a helicopter without a parachute¹
• Is on a giant missile as it hits the ground, which failed to explode but still wrecked the surrounding area, and is unharmed²
• His arm "deflects most conventional enemy firepower"¹
  • Stated to be able to block bullets²

Speed

• Stated to be capable of blocking incoming gunfire with his arm²
• Whips a bullet out of the air with his grappling hook¹
  • Spencer says his arm can "deflect most conventional enemy firepower"¹
• Repeatedly catches rockets out of the air in a boss fight¹
  • Does it again¹
• Ducks under bullets in flight¹

Arm

General

• Can pull himself up to higher levels and swing from the ceiling¹
• Can pull large objects towards himself¹
• Can whip the grappling hook around as an attack¹
• Access codes for doors can be uploaded to his arm¹

Upgrades
In Rearmed 2, Spencer can obtain a number of upgrades to grant his bionic arm extra abilities, though he can only have one active at a time.

• Can make a powerful uppercut²
• A grenade launcher²
• Can be electrified to disable or stun foes²
• Hacking capabilities, allowing him to instantly cause a door to open²
  • Capable of compromising enemy units individually, or en masse if used on a relay station²
  • Without this upgrade, can hack enemy systems¹
• Can release drones which orbit around him, diving into and exploding on nearby threats²
  • Can intercept missiles²
• In Rearmed 2 he requires an upgrade to have his arm whip around him in a circle, with it being able to pass through walls while doing so²

Weapons

Types

• Revolver¹
• Machine Gun¹
• Shotgun²
  • Can be fired to swing Spencer back and forth on his grappling hook¹
  • Can be fired rapidly¹
• Plasma Rifle¹
  • Can charge up a more powerful shot¹
  • Capable of neutralizing energy shields, seen here¹
• Vector Cannon, which shoots a reflective beam¹
  • Shoots a second beam once upgraded¹
• Bazooka¹
  • The rocket can be manually controlled¹
• The WASP Bazooka launches multiple missiles simultaneously²
  • Has a 99% hit probability after locking on²
• Goliath Launcher fires a metal ball, which it attracts back to the weapon through magnetism to fire again²
• Napalm launcher²
• Yoro Viper shoots electric attacks which runs along surfaces and can overload generators²
• Grenades¹

Strength - Regular

• Breaks through a force field projector¹
• Breaks through a small turret¹
• Destroys a large, flying turret¹
• Blows up the treads of a large siege machine¹
• Destroys a barrel dispenser¹
• Blows up a tank droid¹

Strength - Explosive

• Blows through rock to reveal a hidden passage¹
• Blows up a military vehicle¹
• Blows through a wall¹
• Destroys notable amounts of stone²
• Destroys a thick barrier²
• Blows up a huge aerial war machine with repeated rocket shots¹

Other Equipment

• Uses Biovision to scan for valuable information and weak points¹
• Uses a parachute¹
• Has iron boots, hurting enemies when he swings into them¹
• Has a bulletproof vest¹
• Has flares¹
  • They automatically light up in dark areas¹

Other

• Fights and defeats someone who has similar bionic augmentations as Spencer¹
  • Groder survived, but was severely injured and had to be placed in some kind of life support suit¹
• Acts without issue on a giant missile as it flies through the air²

Bionic Commando (2009)

Comic feats are tagged with 'C'.

Strength

Striking

• Cracks before shattering reinforced glass
• Punches a robot in two
• Punches a terrorist across a room
• Pulls an enemy in before hitting them away
• Pulls himself in to an enemy to drop kick them a distance
  • Does this to a large flying drone, striking it back in the air
• Punches crates into the air before striking them away
• Hits a forklift into the air before striking it away
• Strikes a car into the air before backhanding it away
• Can slam the ground after falling, creating a shockwave which hurts people around him
  • Takes out four people surrounding his landing site^C
  • Breaks through a concrete shell
  • Repeatedly strikes an enormous robot like this to force them back into the hole in the ground they had dug

Pushing / Pulling

• Takes out a helmeted terrorist by slamming their head into a missile with his regular arm
• Tears off the head of a robot
• Pulls off two of a robot's wings, one with his bionic arm and another with his regular one
• Tears out a portion of a monorail car from the building it's embedded in
• Presumably pulls off the door of a mid-flight hoverjet

Lifting / Throwing

• Lifts enemies into the air and slams them down
• Throws a large rock, breaking a fragile cave wall
• Lifts and throws a boulder
• Lifts and throws cars through the air

Other

• Pulls around a car
• Stabs through a robot with its own wing
• Cuts off a robot's arm and head with its own wing

Durability

• Blocks hits from a speedster bionic
• Dropped out of a jet^C
• Takes several kicks in the face before dropping from a helicopter, falling an incredible distance to the ground, landing unconscious making it unlikely his boots could have taken the impact. He later awakens without notable injury
• Gets launched into a city through a missile
• Launched away from nearby missiles but grabs onto a nearby hoverjet to fool his attackers that he fell and died

Speed

• Hits away Joe's pistol pointing at his head before he can fire
• Blocks hits from a speedster bionic
• Avoids rotary gunfire and a missile^C

Arm

• His hand swaps between being shaped like a regular hand and being a grappling claw at will
• Can extend, having a long reach and letting Spencer swing on objects
  • Chains grabs to swing over gaps
  • Can rapidly reel him in, throwing him over a ledge
• The arm can grab onto flat surfaces, like the outside of buildings, and not just poles
  • Can reel in to pull those objects to him, like enemies
• After building up adrenaline, can spin his arm cable around him like a whip, hitting enemies away
  • Seen here
• Grabs onto an object to clothesline a speedster with its cable
• Can hack into machinery, deactivating nearby air mines and reading messages
  • Hacks a plane after pulling a panel off the top, causing it to move as he wishes
  • Possibly used to neutralize a turret, though it could have just been pulling a sensitive part
• Projects a holographic screen for video calls^C
• Is his wife
  • Was able to briefly talk to her while unconscious after learning this

Weapons

• His base weapon is a small, automatic gun
• A shotgun
• A machine gun
• A sniper rifle
• A rocket launcher
• A grenade launcher
• Throwable grenades

Other

• His boots break his falls, allowing him to drop lethal distances without injury
  • Drops multiple storeys without harm
• Will sink in water due to the weight of his arm
• Bionics, like his arm, are particularly sensitive to radiation

Marvel Vs. Capcom

Feats marked '3' are from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and 'I' from Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.

Strength

• Cracks the ground coming in on his intro³
• Can hit and juggle enemies high in the air³
• Bounces an opponent off the ground before slamming them down with his grappling arm, cracking the ground both times³
• As a super move, tears up the ground while charging forwards with a punch^I
• Pulls in and punches away an Ultron Sigma drone^I
• Pulls in an Xgardian before throwing them away^I

Durability

• Has his arm grabbed by Ultron Sigma, who swings him up and then back to the ground^I
• Blasted down by Ultron Sigma^I

Arm

• Can continue to use his arm to pull himself towards walls or opponents, and to pull opponents towards him³
• Grabs a coupling from a distance^I
• Has the electricity of Avenger's Tower channelled through his arm to electrocute Ultron Sigma, though this takes him down for a while after^I

Other

• Throws grenades^I
  • As a super move, knocks an opponent down, shoves a grenade in their mouth, and has them blown high into the air as it explodes^I

Bionic Commando (Worlds of Power)

The Worlds of Power series was an collection of children's books based on popular NES games, with Bionic Commando closely following the plot and levels of the original. The protagonist of Bionic Commando is named Jack Markson, but as this was before there was an official name given to the character I'm including the book's feats in this thread.
Chapter numbers are included in the feats.

Strength

• Can punch with the force of ten men
• Punches the first two people in a group of eight, knocking them all down
• Using iron boots, karate kicks a ten foot tall iron door, smashing it down
• Tears open a heavily barred door
• Tears off a giant octopus' tentacle
• Before getting his bionic arm, beats up some ninjas, kicking away one's sword, stunning them with a neck chop, then flipping another

Durability

• Survives falling twenty storeys into a swimming pool, but needs medical attention, as well as the amputation of his arm between the fall and the injury from a shuriken. He is unconscious for days after this fall
• Once got shot by four bullets intended for elephants, but it's unknown what state he was in after
• Withstood some kind of torture from Nazz agents, though what kind is never stated

Speed / Agility

• While under fire from Badd snipers, springs twenty feet across a room "just beating two bullets" to a safe spot
• Activates his arm as semi-automatic gunfire is shot at him, the arm reaching a building's second storey and pulling him out of the way of the bullets by inches
• Dodges a sniper bullet
• Evades an electronic ray
• Avoids a ninja's sword swing, flipping them in the air

Bionic Arm

• In the novel his arm is made of plastic, appears real at a glance, and releases a grappling hook by touching the palm
  • Reaches the second storey of a building and pulls him out of the way of bullets before they can hit him
  • Latches onto the side of an elevator shaft
• Has two grappling hooks, the second one activated with a second press, which attaches to an opposite wall as the first one was. These two pull him out of the grasp of an octopus which was keeping hold with one grappling hook
  • Alternates between these two to swing across a gap
• Can shoot a laser of almost a thousand degrees celsius, allowing him to evaporate a container of water by his hospital bed in an instant
  • Instantly melts ice which is causing him to uncontrollably slide
  • On setting its strength to max, sets fire to a giant venus fly trap eating him
  • Heats the guns of twenty Badd commandoes to the point where they're too hot to handle in a second
  • Lights a candle
• Can scramble electronic fields, allowing him to evade enemy monitoring devices while seemingly still allowing him to send his own messages
  • Scrambles the electronics of a robot that was otherwise immune to his attacks, freezing it
• The fingers are extremely sensitive, allowing the arm to be used to open safes and disarm bombs
  • Runs over a brick wall on seeing a narrow crack between the floor and the wall, feeling out its trigger lock
  • Feels the clicks of a safe, allowing him to crack it
• Creates a unique electromagnetic field that compels whoever it's pointed at to tell the truth
  • When used on a Badd soldier, their face glazes over and speak in a robotic tone while answering his questions

Weapons

• He starts off the book with only a pistol strapped in a holster on his chest
  • Shoots through a metal cord supporting a chandelier, sending it crashing down on some ninjas
  • Has a stun mode, shooting chemical darts which instantly knock out people they hit
• Uses the wide gun to blow up robotic killer-copters
• Fires the rocket gun rapidly to blow up killer-copters
• The three-way gun shoots forwards, left, and right
  • Used to cave in and collapse a fragile tunnel
  • Destroys a killer-copter
• Disables four tanks with a machine gun
  • Seemingly uses high-power explosive rounds

Skill

Combat

• Along with Super Joe, senses that they're being watched by snipers and gets to the floor before they fire into their apartment
• Trained in martial arts with the federation
• Received training from ninja masters in swordfighting, and manages to take down some Badd ninjas

History

• At the beginning of the book, he's spent 10 years going on missions around the world with Super Joe, who he met in Federation spy school. Together, they've been on missions to Thailand and France
• In a mission in Argentina, he and Super Joe managed to locate and arrest all the leaders of the Nazz terrorist organization, though they weren't able to secure plans for a secret weapon called Albatros
• Saved Joe from some Nazz thugs, and apparently has saved him from many situations before

Other

• Has been trained to fly a helicopter

Helicopter

• Used a helicopter he could have hover and signal to pick him up from his location
• Can alternate between hovering and rapidly flying up at the push of a button of his transmitter, and quickly flies so far up that they'd need surface-to-air missiles to hit him
• Has an autopilot to fly to areas he chooses, as well as a medkit
• Alerts him to nearby hostiles
• Has an ejection seat which can automatically go off

Other

• Uses a flare bomb to reveal killer-copters flying towards him without lights at night
• A helmet he uses deflects a bullet
• The bulletproof vest has sniper bullets bounce off it
• Would never fire a gun against an enemy first

"How could I lose? I have a bionic arm."

This is my first raised bed using the Hugelkultur method (or something close to it). My neighbor has three such beds, and his are much more uptown in construction than my attempt.
The initial need was to move some tuberose bulbs, that I have had growing in 3-quart pots for the past four years, into something more conventional. The pots were a stop gap measure. Four years ago I received a gift of two dozen tuberose bulbs (one dozen each of the single and double varieties). At this point, they have multiplied into somewhere between 200 and 300 bulbs. It’s safe to say they like the growing conditions here.
I am located in rural north Florida, on pine sandhills, USDA zone 8b. The soil here is mostly sand, with a hint of clay. Beneath the sand (somewhere) is karst limestone. The water table is 35-40 feet down. A week back it was in the high 30s here, and next week the forecast says low 90s. The 3-quart pots were located on the east side of a stand of tall pines, so they were getting direct sunlight in the morning and mid-day. The new raised beds are slightly east, and should get an additional 15-30 minutes of direct sunlight per day.
The beds are constructed using mobile home skirting, with a rough bed dimension of 40 inches wide by 126 inches long (at the center). This is an experiment to see how the skirting will hold up. The skirting on my mobile home has been there for ~25 years, with almost no degradation. Individual panels are being cut to 23 1/3 inches, so a 140 inch sheet yields six panels. A completed bed uses 20 panels. The panels are inserted into the ground about 7 inches, into a narrow trough, created with a dibble stick (used in the forestry industry to plant pine trees). Thus the top edge of the panels are (roughly) 16-17 inches above the ground level. A hard rubber mallet is used to tap each panel until it’s height is even with the panel next to it.
As the cut edges of the panels are rather sharp, I came up with a trim system, made from old garden hoses and cable ties. You can see this is the last two pictures.
Once the panel parameter was established, then I dug into the sandy soil about 4-5 inches. The sand was piled along one outer side of the bed. After the first bed, I learned to put a black 10-foot long piece of 6-mil house wrap down first, otherwise the soil was difficult to scoop up and put back into the bed.
Larger diameter oak went in first. Over the larger diameter oak, I put in a layer of small oak sticks and twigs. At that point, I was several inches about outside ground level. Then I dumped in 20 garden cart loads of oak leaves (I have an almost endless supply), then 3-4 garden cart loads of composted oak leaves.
Next came the original soil, and finally 3-4 bags of garden soil (Bacto brand, 50 lb bags). Construction of the bed happened in mid December 2022, and took several weeks (as I was figuring it out as I went). Then it sat until early March when I began moving the tuberose bulbs into the bed (next to last photo). The final photo shows how they are expanding (about 2 weeks after being moved into the bed).
I have high hopes for the Hugelkultur method. A second bed was constructed over the past 3 weeks, and is just now finished loading with tuberose double bulbs. A third bed is about to be built so that I can finally get all the bulbs out of the 3-quart pots, and into a better growing space.
When the tuberose are at peak stalk and flowers, and the wind is calm, you can smell them up to 100 feet away. It’s going to be nice little gardening space. Eventually I will also build a couple beds for vegetables, using the same method.
Images …
Oak logs in bottom https://i.redd.it/dt2q6g4jy5ra1.jpg
Sticks and twigs https://i.redd.it/l3recgl9z5ra1.jpg
Oak leaves https://i.redd.it/v73ef26hz5ra1.jpg
Loading soil/sand https://i.redd.it/tcpqfi3sz5ra1.jpg
Tuberose March 17 https://i.redd.it/haindw8zz5ra1.jpg
Tuberose March 31 https://i.redd.it/3oc1sih706ra1.jpg

It's another big weekend of local fun in Blacksburg, at Virginia Tech and throughout the New River Valley with over 65 events. However will have to keep our fingers crossed the weather cooperates on Saturday for any of the outdoor events (some for tonight & tomorrow are already cancelled or postponed including this weekend's top 15 softball match-up).
The Hokie Women's Basketball will have most of the attention tonight and hopefully on Sunday afternoon, though I have included a few late Friday events for those that are interested.
Here's the Weekend Rundown: 1. Performance with Rissi Palmer Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg Friday, March 31, 2023, 8:00 - 10:00 PM General Admission: $15.00, Students with ID and Youth 18 and Under: $10.00 Rissi Palmer's 2017 twangy mid-tempo anthem, "Country Girl", made her the first Black woman to grace Billboard’s Hot Country charts in over 30 years. Rissi Palmer's gift lies in reaching across all musical boundaries. While Palmer made her mark in country music, she is equally at home in R&B music, bringing the entire spectrum of popular music to bear on music she calls "Southern soul". Raised in a musical family that loved both country and R&B, she was a part of a singing and dancing troupe sponsored by a local television station at age 16, and by the time she was 19 years old, she had already been offered her first publishing and label deal. A few highlights throughout Palmer’s musical career include performances at the White House, New York's Lincoln Center, and multiple appearances on the Grand Ole Opry stage. She has toured extensively across the country, sharing stages with Taylor Swift, The Eagles, Chris Young, Charley Crockett, and many more. She has also made numerous national appearances on Oprah and Friends, CMT Insider, CNN, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America to name a few. Palmer is also a special correspondent for CMT's Hot 20 Countdown, featuring chart-topping music videos, news stories, live performances, and candid interviews from country’s biggest stars. This performance is part of "Up 86," a trio of spring performances is the culmination of a new collaboration between the Moss Arts Center and North Carolina artist Shirlette Ammons, who is serving as the center’s first independent guest performing arts curator. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=679928
2. College Baseball: UVA vs. Virginia Tech English Field, Virginia Tech Friday, March 31, 2023, 8:00 PM, Saturday, April 1, 2023, 7:00 PM, Sunday, April 2, 2023, 1:00 PM Adults: $10.00 Youth Ages 6-18: $5.00 Youth Ages 5 & Under: Free Watch the Virginia Tech Baseball Team compete against ACC conference and in-state rival the University of Virginia in a three-game series. Gates and ticket booths at English Field will open 90 minutes before first pitch on gamedays. Fans accessing English Field on gameday are encouraged to use free parking in Lot 16 ("The Cage"), located northwest of the stadium along Duck Pond Drive. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685268
3. Phlegar Hill in Concert Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill, Blacksburg Friday, March 31, 2023, 9:00 - 11:45 PM Admission: Free The Phlegar Hill band plays a variety of music and crosses many genres and is based in Floyd, VA. NOTE: Due to Virginia Tech Women's Basketball playing in the Final Four on Friday at 7:00 PM, the concert will start after the game. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686142
4. 2023 Annual Bob and Sue Duncan Memorial 5K Virginia Tech Cross Country Course, Blacksburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Participants Ages 13 & Up: $25.00, Participants Ages 12 & Under: $10.00, College Students: $20.00, Canines: $5.00 The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (VMCVM) and the VMCVM Student Chapter of the American College Of Veterinary Pathologists present the 16th Annual Bob and Sue Duncan Memorial 5K to honor Bob Duncan, a beloved veterinary college professor who passed away in May of 2007 and his wife who passed away this past October. Both walkers and runners are welcome. Leashed dogs are welcome too with a proof of rabies vaccination and signed waiver required. Following the 5k, participants can enjoy raffles, music, freebies, lawn games and food trucks at the Veterinary Medicine Instruction Addition. The entire run will be on the Virginia Tech Cross Country Course. Water will be available at the finish and at the halfway marker. T-shirts are guaranteed for those who register by March 24th. For those who register after, shirts will be available on a first come, first serve basis. All profits from the race benefit the Bob Duncan Memorial Diagnostic Veterinary Pathology Scholarship which awards a fourth-year veterinary student for a commitment and zeal for diagnostic veterinary pathology. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685940
5. 2023 NRV Home Expo Christiansburg Recreation Center, Christiansburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Sunday, April 2, 2023, 12:00 - 5:00 PM Early Bird Tickets: $5.00, Day Of Tickets: $7.00, Children under 18: Free when accompanied by paying adult The New River Valley Home Builders Association has put all your home care needs into one convenient location. This is the place to be if you are looking to: Build a new home, Remodel your current home, Find your mortgage lender, Meet service providers to help you with your current project list and more. The floor will be full of local, trusted professionals who are available to answer your home care questions, provide you reliable resources and quick quotes, as well as show you samples of their skills and services. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=680019
6. 2023 Spring Craft Show Auburn High School, Riner Saturday, April 1, 2023, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM Admission: Free The Riner Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary presents their 5th Annual Spring Craft Show. Find unique gifts for that special someone or something for yourself. Vendors include wood working, crocheting, sewing, essential oils, jewelry, glass work, wreaths, food, direct sales and more. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=684665
7. Historic Smithield Opening Day 2023 Historic Smithfield, Blacksburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Adults: $8.00, AAA, Military, Seniors (55+): $7.00, Virginia Tech Students: $5.00, Children (Over 12): $5.00 Kids (6-12): $3.00, Kids (5 & Under): Free Join Historic Smithfield to welcome the first day of their 2023 Visit Season. Tour the Manor House, site and outbuildings, engage with our knowledgeable interpreters. Onsite you can watch blacksmithing demos and living history presentations. Join them for a presentation at 11:00 AM from author Heather Cole and her book "At Home with the Virginia Presidents". The book is an engaging armchair travel talk about the eight Virginia-born presidents and the sites that shaped their lives. Attendees will learn a bit about the presidents’ lives, take a peek inside their homes and get ideas for their next history road trip. Heather Cole's book will be available for purchase in the Museum Store. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685719
8. 2023 Easter Egg Hunt for All Ages The Crafter's Corner, Christiansburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Admission: Free The Crafter's Corner presents their 1st Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Eggs will be hidden all throughout the store for anyone to try to find. And, make time to meet the Yzma-Bunny and take a picture with her. This event is for all ages, but some eggs will be more difficult to find. The event will go on all day until eggs run out so this is first come, first serve event. Eggs will contain different things such as candy, small free items, discounts and there will be one Grand Prize Egg. No purchase necessary, however if you find a discount egg you might want to use it. Countryman Jamaican Grill food truck will be onsite for food sales from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM so bring your appetite. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686152
9. Yoga on Tap Long Way Brewing, Radford Saturday, April 1, 2023, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Admission: $15.00 Join Big Body Yoga at Long Way Brewing for no-experience-necessary yoga classes every other Saturday on Long Way's outdoor patio. Expect an upbeat playlist, laid back atmosphere and all-levels yoga class followed by a fresh cold beer. A ticket to the event covers the yoga class and your beer after. Be sure to pre-register for each class you plan to attend. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=684784
10. College Softball: #13 Duke vs. #12 Virginia Tech Tech Softball Park, Virginia Tech Saturday, April 1, 2023, 12:00 PM, Sunday, April 2, 2023, 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM (Doubleheader) Admission: Free Watch the #12 Virginia Tech Softball team compete against ACC conference opponent #13 Duke in a top 15 match-up and three game series. No tickets are required for Hokie Softball games. Parking is available behind the outfield at Tech Softball Park and enter along the right field side of the stadium. Stands open one hour prior to the start of the game. UPDATE: Due to the inclement weather, the three game series schedule has been updated from the original schedule. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685862
11. JH Bards 2nd Anniversary Celebration J.H Bards Spirit Co., Radford Saturday, April 1, 2023, 12:00 - 8:00 PM Admission: Free Enjoy the release of their Spring Cocktail Menu from noon until 8:00 PM with the Bluegrass BBQ Food Truck serving from 1:00 PM until 7:00 PM. And, Jen Bertiaux will be hosting their first ever no covers Open Mike from 4:30 PM until 6:30 PM. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685906
12. 2023 Mercedes Cup: UVA vs Virginia Tech Polo Match Alphin-Stuart Arena, Virginia Tech Saturday, April 1, 2023, 12:00 - 5:00 PM Admission: $5.00 The Polo Club at Virginia Tech presents the Annual Mercedes Cup featuring a polo match with Virginia Tech hosting the University of Virginia. After a three year hiatus, the Mercedes Cup is back in-person. There will also be a wine tasting, food served by Block & Bridle, a silent auction (ending at 4:00 PM), vendors and fun halftime events. All are welcome. All profits goes towards care for the Club's horses and the equipment to play. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686156
13. Free Drive-Thru Lunch with Grilled Cheese and Homemade Vegetable Soup Park United Methodist Church, Christiansburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 12:00 - 2:00 PM Admission: Free Enjoy a homemade lunch consisting of Vegetable Soup, Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Dessert which will be prepared and packaged for carry-out and delivered to you in your vehicle while supplies last. There is no charge, however donations will be graciously be accepted for local neighborhood missions. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=696157
14. Above The Fray and Triquetra in Concert Buffalo Mountain Brewery, Floyd Saturday, April 1, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Above The Fray) and 6:00 - 9:00 PM (Triquetra) Admission: Free Enjoy two concerts on Saturday. Above The Fray is a Virginia band that performs blues, old rock and Americana. Triquetra Band is a new take on a classic jazz ensemble featuring multi-passionate, multi-instrumentalists with a strong penchant for music that moves the listener both gracefully and intelligently. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685836
15. Mike Gangloff, Solar Hex, Gina & Jason Dilg in Concert Rising Silo Farm Brewery, Blacksburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Fiddlers Mike Gangloff and Gina Dilg, cellist Kaily Schenker (Solar Hex) and Banjoist Jason Dilg present an evening of music traditional and less so. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=684806
16. Wayne Henderson & Friends in Concert Floyd Country Store, Floyd Saturday, April 1, 2023, 7:00 - 10:00 PM General Admission: $25.00, Reserved Seating: $30.00 Wayne Henderson is a musical legend known worldwide for both his lightening fast "pinch picking" guitar style and the beautiful guitars, mandolins, and banjos he crafts in his shop in Rugby, Virginia. His guitar playing has also been enjoyed at Carnegie Hall, in three national tours of Masters of the Steel-String Guitar, and in seven nations in Asia. In addition to his reputation as a guitarist, Henderson is a luthier of great renown. He is a recipient of a 1995 National Heritage Award presented by the National Endowment for the Arts. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685929
17. Lucy the Spy and Tripolar Express in Concert XYZ Art Gallery, Blacksburg Saturday, April 1, 2023, 7:00 - 10:00 PM Admission: $5.00 XYZ Art Gallery presents a concert with Tripolar Express opening for Lucy the Spy. Lucy the Spy is an indie rock band from Roanoke, VA. Tripolar Express is a garage rock and grunge band based in Blacksburg, VA. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=696148
18. Naturally Sharp Spring Concert: Natman, The Sharp Knight Rises Haymarket Theater (Squires Student Center), Virginia Tech Saturday, April 1, 2023, 7:00 - 8:30 PM Preorder Tickets: $7.00, At the Door: $10.00 Naturally Sharp presents their Spring Concert titled "Natman, The Sharp Knight Rises". Join the caped crusader, the boy wonder, and Virginia Tech's best dressed a cappella group as they tackle the greatest supervillains of all time. Founded in 2002, Naturally Sharp is Virginia Tech's premiere all male a cappella group. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686155
19. Brad Heller and The Fustics Camp Culture in Concert Dogtown Roadhouse, Floyd Saturday, April 1, 2023, 8:00 - 11:00 PM Admission: $8.00 Hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, The Fustics continue to expand their audience throughout the East Coast with spirited live shows, and acclaimed studio releases. Blending an array of musical genres into their own distinctive style, the band has evolved from humble acoustic beginnings to a high-energy touring outfit. Incorporating a slab of blues, gallons of folk, a pint of punk, and a hint of country within their blue-collar rock, The Fustics have increased their base through radio, the internet, print media, and a heavy touring schedule. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686150
20. 2023 Sinkland Farms Easter Eggs-Travaganza Sinkland Farms, Riner Sunday, April 2, 2023, 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM General Public: $10.00 Seniors, Military & First Responders: $9.00, Babies 23 months and Under: Free UPDATE: Due to the weather forecast of rain and high-gusty winds, Sinkland will not open on Saturday as planned and just open on Sunday. Sinkland Farms presents their first Easter Eggs-Travaganza with Easter Egg Hunts for ages 2-10 groups by age starting at noon and visit from the Easter Bunny. Enjoy baby farm animals, Kidz-Zone playground, special kid’s activities, and face painting. Join the Music Sing-along with musician Leslie Brooks (performing at 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM daily), Kid’s Karaoke, and Story Time at 11:30 AM! Dress-up for the Princess and Superhero Parade at 2:30 PM with prizes. Parents can listen to music, explore Arts & Crafts vendors, enjoy beer, wine, food trucks and more. Remember to bring your baskets. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685257
21. Sip-N-Stitch: Italy Blacksburg Wine Lab, Blacksburg Sunday, April 2, 2023, 1:00 - 3:00 PM Admission: $35.00 Blacksburg Wine Lab continues their Sip-N-Stitch series featuring Italy. Your ticket includes a tasting of three Italian Wines, a selection of house made dips with crackers & pita to snack on and a yarn tasting featuring Italian Yarn, along with several pattern suggestions for knit and crochet from New River Art & Fiber. Bring your work in progress and enjoy great company while trying new wines. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685386
22. Virginia Vineyard Month JBR Vineyards LLC, Pearisburg Sunday, April 2, 2023, 1:00 - 5:00 PM Admission: Free Wine Tasting: $5.00, Glasses of Wine: $5.00, Bottles Range from $10.00-$25.00 Start Virginia Vineyard month by tasting wines rarely grown in Virginia with our Pinot Noir and Riesling. Picnics, kids, and dogs welcome. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685911
23. Virginia Tech Flute Studio and Flute Choir Squires Recital Salon, Blacksburg Sunday, April 2, 2023, 3:00 - 4:30 PM Admission: Free Start Virginia Vineyard month by tasting wines rarely grown in Virginia with our Pinot Noir and Riesling. Picnics, kids, and dogs welcome. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=686148
24. Award-Winning Wine Pairing Dinner The Bad Apple, Pembroke Sunday, April 2, 2023, 5:00 - 8:00 PM Admission: $85.00 A Governor’s Cup winning winemaker brings gold medal wines to pair with six delicious courses at The Bad Apple. Live music will be provided by the Mood Swing Duo. Tickets include all taxes and gratuities. Reservations are required. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=685925
​
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading! Go Hokies!

Hello, it's me again, the wordiest of birds, with another analysis and design post. This could easily be ten different posts, but I'm cutting it down to two main themes. As always: I mostly play PvE, but spend time on every class in every mode; The goal of this is not necessarily to wildly invent new systems for the game, but to identify themes, and what it takes for them to flourish, not condemn and start over, and invite conversation; I find spoiler-hiding my walls of text helps keep it digestible. Part 2 will cover non-attribute designs and tech in GW2, and open discussion about whether our current obsession with "hit big monster make big numbers go up more" is stifling the diversity of the game, and whether there could be a place for builds that aren't exclusively about damage or boons. A lot of this has been cooking for a long time, and as much as I love the game, I do worry about it's longevity, and the diversity of elite specs, builds, and challenges that we've been getting for the last several years, and what it'll mean for content in the future.
TL;DPremise/Highlights:

• Identifying each gear attribute as a distinct gameplay loop or objective, while limiting which of the nine any single player is meant to fulfill at the same time, would help educate players on the importance of each attribute, make a greater assortment of gear prefixes be valued, increase build diversity, and help the devs design future challenges, elite specs, and core mechanics that goes beyond "stack and whack" basics.
• Precision should proc more effects than just crit damage more often, and Ferocity should enhance melee-range hits more than ranged hits to promote melee play.
• Expertise should not be limited to propping up Condition Damage, and be the key to several non-damage challenges in game, while different enemy types should be more or less vulnerable to specific damaging conditions.
• Toughness is awful and should negatively impact incoming condition duration, not just strike damage, and not be undermined by Protection, which should be converted to a stacking buff to encourage multiple applications.
• Baseline healing and boon duration should be close to zero without first building for Healing Power and Concentration, which should be their own roles, separate from one another.
• Different content shouldn't be defeated by the exact same gear as everything else, and more professions should benefit from a wider variety of gear, and different gear sets than each other.
• Gear prefixes with different purposes should be found in specific, but not unique, places in the game, to promote maps and content that lack replay value.
• 4-stat gear often outperforms 3-stat gear by a wide margin, and Celestial even more than that. 4-stat gear should represent fulfilling multiple roles to a lesser extent, whereas 3-stat gear should perform one role greater, at the loss of every other role. It currently does not, outside of Berserkers, due to the relative weakness of every other attribute combo's roles.

First, the state of the game. While GW2 is both celebrated and chided for it's [relative] departure from "holy trinity" teamcraft, it still fails to present the 'role' of RolePlaying Game especially seriously. Increasingly, traits and skills lack any kind of narrative or thematic flavor, opting instead to slap numbers and % increases around until some unseen meta god is appeased, while teamcraft has identified a flexible DPS/boonDPS/boonHeal to be the main way to approach challenges, but with severe consequences should they be played off-design. This leads to an ENORMOUS amount of dead traits, dead equipment prefixes, dead runes and sigils, and some dead weaponry, plus oversimplified gameplay with spammable moves, and while a limited number of meta/best-in-slot equipment makes it easier for the developers to target overperforming builds, it means that there are many elements of buildcraft that sneak under the radar, unnoticed and unassuming.
Questions are asked, "Are there any advantages to melee combat over range?", "Are we expected to stand still or move around during combat?", "Should every profession be viable at every challenge, or should they have unique advantages?", and "We don't believe that profession complexity should translate into an increase in DPS," among others. In attempting to form a baseline for the game, and make it's various components easier to balance, the game runs the risk of becoming too homogenized, too bland, reliant increasingly on roleplay themes that the devs don't seem interested in mechanically representing, while as many as 30 different non-PvP attribute combinations fail to see use. All the while, powercreep slowly inflates the average player's output, undermining the difficulty of old content, failing to teach players how the intricacies of the game works, and shocking inexperienced players who jump from location to location with difficulty and mechanics they are neither prepared for, nor understand.
Gripes aside, Guild Wars 2 has perhaps the strongest foundation for MMO buildcraft I've ever played. It's huge array of diverse traits and swappable weapon sets, and diverse component interactions, both within a profession and between professions, is what drew me to the game, kept me playing the full range of content, and what leads me to make these lengthy, passionate articles. There's a good reason why many other MMOs see GW2 as an inspiration, or even copy from it directly. For all it's challenges, all this game needs is a slight clarification in philosophy, even without making any of the changes recommended here, and the pieces will fall into place over time.
Guild Wars 2 is sometimes compared to Magic the Gathering.>! They both share an incredible number of sub-mechanics and themes that all fold together in intricate, and sometimes unexpected ways. Fans of each game are probably aware of the remarkable confidence that MtG has in it's color spectrum: for each color, there are a series of powerful, and well-documented sub-themes, many of which overlap with other colors. It's when the colors combine that the game truly shines, creating dynamic playstyles and themes that appeal to an incredibly diverse audience, with 3-color decks having much more tech available, and much stranger themes, than 2-color, or 1-colored decks. From the moment that a colored card is revealed to you, a practiced player can instantly make inferences to what their opponent's strategies may be, and begin to move in a way to counteract it, while pushing their own strategies. This "foreknowledge of theme" rather than "foreknowledge of event" means that two players can effectively combat each other, despite never having met or taken the chance to look through each other's deck list, and makes for more personalized decks, and more enjoyable games.!<
I give this example because such a case could be made for Guild Wars 2's attribute system.>! Much like MtG colors, each attribute aligns with a purpose, some objective that promotes value when travelling the world or the Mists alike, with each "color combo" coming together to form an attribute prefix. The problem with this analogy is that Guild Wars 2's gear prefixes aren't each designed to carry a mechanic that helps the player succeed, either while travelling alone, or in a group. Many traits exacerbate this with attribute conversion, usually from +Power, and if your selection doesn't result in you or an ally killing an enemy faster, it's generally regarded as a dead choice. !<
Were GW2 to shift to recognize each attribute as a genuine gameplay mechanic, it would grant the designers a foundation from which to design content that harnesses specific challenges, and grant the players of the game confidence in their build, as well as flexibility in purpose, when approaching said challenges.
(As an aside, first: many MMOs have rather abstract stat and buff systems, that make it impossible to understand without extensive out-of-game research, and even once understood in concept, Guild Wars 2 doesn't always communicate how these effects are supposed to interact. An across the board UI fix here would allow players to see a breakdown of where their stats are coming from, by source, and what % impact it has on each of their attribute, such as from gear, food, utility consumables, or traits, without having to actually slot it first, possibly at an armor-repair station so as to not blow out the during-gameplay UI. Being able to see the exact number of points they are away from their next +1% or 1sec effect increase would be helpful too. )
In the case of the attributes themselves, each attribute should be viewed as a component of a larger puzzle, that each have their own, special identity. By considering which professions, skills, weapons, and group content are defined by which attributes, much stronger combinations of those attributes should arise.

• >>>Power:
• Well understood as the de-facto, go-to attribute for inflicting instantaneous damage. However, defined as a role, it should be more clear that inflicting damage every strike is the target objective; too many prefixes grant Power, as a sort of "This is all you need"-attribute instead. ANet once stripped the damage from disables for purity of purpose, but several weapons still fail to deliver adequate Power-based damage while lacking damaging conditions, controlling conditions, utilities, boon effects, or trait interactions: examples include Thief and Ranger MH sword and Willbender OH sword, Dragonhunter longbow, and Guardian scepter, Necromancer axe, or Daredevil staff. (This isn't to say these things aren't used, just that for purely power-based damage, they are sometimes subpar and with clearly better alternatives of weapon or trait.) If Power is a role, it should reflect in high-damage, long-cooldown abilities, or features used to set up or recover said abilities: Ranger's Hilt Bash > Maul, Guardian's Banish > Mighty Blow, and Gunslinger's Gunstinger > Dragon's Roar are excellent examples of this.
• Should a challenge be defined by a Power requirement, it should>! mostly be a DPS race, or swamped with weaker foes to cleave through. They don't need to go down in a single hit, but it should enable the fantasy of being powerful.!<
• >>>Precision: (a big one)
• Crits are simple, but misunderstood: inflicting a critical hit to gain the damage multiplier does result in higher damage, but that multiplier is the result of Ferocity, not Precision. As well, several traits generate different special effects or inflict conditions on critical hits, or increase your crit chance in various circumstances, such as striking a disabled foe, or attacking from the sides or behind. This would indicate that Precision is not the stat of "extra damage", but the attribute of "special effect". If so, then Precision could take on an entirely new meaning in buildcraft, based on which other attribute you combine it with:
• Precision+Ferocity: Inflicts higher damage multipliers on crit, and the current standard application of the attribute, crit-capping essentially translates to "permanent damage increase" rather than a rare event like it should be. Berserker and Assassin gear is easily available for this, but on it's own, fails to present any kind of real downside to not inflicting tons of damage on every hit.
• Precision+Healing Power: Could apply healing or barrier to self or in an AoE on crit. Several frontline assault builds fail to scale well with +Heal, leading to strange skill intentions from Spellbreaker, Willbender, Daredevil, Scrapper, Soulbeast, Vindicator, and Weaver. Battlescars especially is abhorrent, with an +Heal modifier of x0.006; if the skill simply required crits and high healing to function, rather than require neither, it would encourage buildcraft and purpose-selection of traits. Ele's Healing Ripple could AoE heal not just on attuning to water, but on crit,>! barrier-on-crit would help enable "effect on barrier" professions like Scourge and alacDPS Mechanist, and heal-on-crit would help grant Vindicator some license as a group-healdps, a role that currently does not exist. Zealot's, Marshal's, Seraph's, and Magi's gear are all seldom used, but could see new life with this interpretation.!<
• Precision+CondiDMG and Expertise: Applying conditions on crit leads to very reasonable hybrid-dps builds, but controlling conditions on crit, like cripple or chill or slow, creates some very intriguing debuff builds. Paired with traits that could trigger on "application of a non-damaging condition", and suddenly Necromancers, Mesmers, Rangers, Thieves, or ice/stone Elementalist become very real control casters in competitive play. The Bringers' attribute set, with Expertise, precision, and vitality sees no use, but becomes interesting for this purpose.
• Precision+Concentration: Traits and weapon skills that grant a variety of boons on a crit, or escalating boons up a ladder the way Specter's Well of Bounty and Sorrow works, would create a frontline boon-DPS that doesn't rely on feverishly mashing utility skills off-cooldown, something the devs don't seem to be able to stray away from, quickness and alacrity boon-providers being the obvious winners here.>! They could then consider using Commander's or Seraph's gear instead of Diviner's, but the lack of a 3-stat Precision/Concentration block is troubling.!<
• Should Precision be considered a role, gameplay that includes a Precision requirement should>! involve durable champions in some way. Precision/Ferocity builds would chip health down much more effectively, and Precision/Expertise builds would assist in controlling the enemy. That said, Precision could easily take a role in just about any team-wide content that involves striking quickly and often to proc the various effects.!<
• >>>Toughness: (a big one)
• I think that most players have a poor understanding of the impact Toughness has on the game, and I don't think anyone at ArenaNet much cares for it. This is a big flag, considering the popularity of tanks and bruisers in other games, and shouldn't be underestimated. Raid tough-tanking was an interesting concept, while it lasted, but more of a chore than an actual pursuit of an attribute. The theming is clear: the more Toughness you have, the less damage you take. What shocks the would-be bruisers is that this only affects strike damage, with tanks burning to death just as easily as anyone else. While this should create an identity role for Condition Damage over strike damage, the unpopularity of Toughness means cDPS never feels this advantage. What's more, as the only attribute that demands incoming effects, rather than outgoing action, it doesn't feel significant to play around, and when increased on champions and bosses, it results in purely hidden information that doesn't lend to player choice or agency.
• To top it off, the protection boon grants a whopping 33% damage reduction in strike damage from one boon alone (or 40% as a Tempest or shield Engi), while Concentration benefits many other builds outside of high durability, and boons affect up to 5 targets. Even with 3-stat, Toughness-priority heavy armor, good food, a utility, and Rune of the Dolyak, getting 30-40% damage reduction out of Toughness is extremely difficult, with heavy diminishing returns, with 10-20% being a more realistic useage case. Add in that most damage-reduction traits are a flat value that doesn't scale with Toughness (or any other stat), and Toughness becomes one of the most worthless attributes in the game.
• Recommendation 1: Flip those values, protection granting 20-33% damage reduction, while Toughness on a heavy armor class maxes out at 50% with full investment. Recommendation 2: Make protection a stackable boon, at 5% reduced incoming damage per stack, to a maximum of 5 stacks, with profession tech like Hardy Conduit or Over Shield granting 7% reduced damage per stack instead. This would mean that there would have to be a far more significant commitment to "keeping protection up" on allies as a defender, than to simply spec Concentration, and passively churn out enormous damage reduction, and create a space for more than one defender to contribute. Recommendation 3: Change damage-reducing traits and skills to scale with Toughness as well. Recommendation 3.5: Make Taunt duration scale with Toughness instead of Concentration? This would be a weird one I dunno I'm just spitballin ere
• Recommendation 4: Either additionally or alternatively, grant Toughness the added effect (either universally, or as a common trait tech more likely) of %-reduction of incoming condition duration, at -1% per 15 points of Toughness, to a maximum of -75%, as a form of negative-Expertise, if you will. This would help cement high-toughness, heavy-armor builds as a durable tanking effect in game: protectors who can grant allies Toughness, like Firebrand's Unbroken Lines, allow them to power over area hazards, while those who can pull conditions off allies and onto themselves, like Necromancer, Guardian's Save Yourselves, Rev's Pain Absorption, and Specter's Hungering Darkness, can help snuff out conditions in a way that doesn't rely on condition cleansing skills or traits, truly tanking for the team in more ways than one. It combos with the resolution and resistance boons without supplanting them, much like how Toughness already combos with protection. Above all, it creates a distinct gameplay intention, one that can be proactively built around, using forgotten prefixes such as Crusader, Captain's or Knight's, Cavalier's, Nomad's, Settler's, Giver's, or Trailblazer's. Minstrel's, Cleric's, and Apothecary's are all great for heal-tank builds as well.
• Should Toughness be considered a role, gameplay that demands Toughness should involve a lot of sudden or prolonged threats, and regular condition application in groups. Dangerous traps, or an environment that applies conditions over time, would be repelled by anyone who has better armor and defenses, and the overall nerf to protection as a boon would means that proper healing, blocking, dodging, and relocation are all made more important.
• >>>Vitality:
• Simple: more +VIT, more health. There needs to be some purity of purpose, however, where traits granting Vitality should be a distinct tanking/front-liner option, or have traits that convert their Vitality into other, more thematic attributes; various alchemical effects make sense, as does Necromancer's manipulation of life forces and Ranger's Wilderness Survival, but Guardian Power of the Virtuous, Force of Will, and Imbued Haste, and Virtuoso Quiet Intensity, are questionable sources, especially given their other effects and themes. Specter's Strength of Shadows feels custom-made for Ritualist's, not just a convenient coincidence, since it doubles or even triples up on different technologies and build requirements, while Plaguedoctor's, Shaman's, and Sentinal's all fail to see use by comparison.
• Should Vitality be considered a role, having a Vitality challenge would mean enemies strike hard and often, in a way that having less than a certain amount of health could put you on the floor. This may be through strike damage, possibly after a knockdown or disable, or repeatedly applied damaging conditions, or fights with a strong opening strike, requiring either high Vitality, or barrier application to survive for those first few seconds. Alternatively, an applied debuff that prevents the player from receiving health for a period of time would be a great test of their Vitality.
• >>>Ferocity:
• A UI element showcasing the end value of a critical hit on weapon and skill tooltips would help describe the value of this attribute at a glance.
• As a rule, traits that grant Ferocity or extra critical hit damage should be a benefit predominantly earned by front-line fighters, in melee range: Warrior's Axe Mastery is a great example of this, having a passive attribute benefit, but mostly benefitting axe skills, which are melee range specifically. This isn't to say that ranged damage should be nerfed, but there needs to be a very clear distinction of what the advantage to melee fighters is over plugging away with shots from a safe distance, which also negatively impacts the value of defensive and mobility skills and effects. An alternative could be creatures that take extra damage from crits, but only from players within short melee range, or designing certain weapons to have specific skills that inflict individually increased critical hit damage. Snipers and other 1hKO builds, and professions with high or guaranteed crits such as arcane Elementalist, Spellbreaker, or Renegade, would be a great example of this feature, making use of prefixes such as Valkyrie's and Crusader's, which without extra precision, have been left to rot.
• Including Ferocity as a role in a scenario would likely mean>! fevered combat in a close-quarters space, inside a room or hallway, or otherwise have some kind of barrier or line-of-sight obstacle that discourages trying to take potshots from a 'safe' distance. Once combat is met, high-Ferocity fighters should clean house very quickly, perhaps as a result of a short window of high vulnerability to crit damage, much like how Exposed works.!<
• >>>Healing Power:
• While healing is recognized to be a valued role in the game, as spoken by ANet's 'design philosophy' document considering "Damage, Boons, and Healing" the main roles in PvE, the actual applications of healing are a bit scuffed. "Pure DPS", "boon DPS", and "boon healer" are all used often in instanced and competitive play alike, but "Pure Boons", "Pure Healing", and "Heal DPS" are essentially nonexistent.
• As a role, Healing Power should do what it says, and actually be responsible for healing, something that it doesn't currently actually do very well. Fast-moving, selfish assault units like Revenant (battlescars and Vindicator), sword Weaver, Willbender, and various forms of Thief, all have insanely low multipliers to their healing skills, or features that don't scale with Healing Power at all, such that even heavy investment into healing power is sometimes meaningless.
• (again: Battlescars has a Healing Power multiplier of 0.006, and even less in competitive. With maximum Healing Power, runes, and tapioca pudding, on Devestation/Salvation Vindicator below half health, that means you can only squeeze an extra 13.4 extra health per strike out of Healing Power scaling alone. If the healing done by battlescars was a serious problem in competitive play, the solution should have been to nerf the base healing to essentially zero, and crank the multiplier to reward gear investment, not crash the multiplier to rely on the unmodifiable base heal instead).
• >! Warrior's Vigorous Shouts grants power->healing power conversion, almost as a joke, given Warrior's overall lack of heal tech, as is the heals available to Necromancer, several Mesmer skills, and even some effects from our very own pocket-medic Specter. The regeneration boon is often the only consistent source of healing, and often scales more than twice as powerfully as skills or passives with healing attached, and even then requires Concentration, which is just ye olde "Boon Healer" raising it's head again.!<
• Given how Healing Power begins at a base of 0, if healing skills received a significant buff to their multipliers, especially on single-target or self-healing skills, while hammering down their base values, perhaps 'group healer' may actually get an opportunity to breathe in this game, the way the devs like to pretend it does. If this is tied into Precision's special-action identity, gear such as Magi's and Seraph would have a use as well, and if battlescars only inflicted their lifesteal on a crit, or Elementalist's Healing Ripple caused AoE heals on a critical hit, there would be a very real incentive to put Healing Power in the hands of front-line fighters, and not just in the back row of people who have Concentration and provide other boons.
• If a scenario was described with the Healing Power role, then there would likely be prolonged exposure to a damaging effect, such as a smog or psychic effect, as the party rushes around to solve puzzles or explore zones. Or, a space where the party is expected to split up, and be responsible for their own healing for a time.
• >>>Condition Damage:
• The UI should reflect both how much damage a skill does across it's lifetime, as well as how much damage it does per second, to help get a feeling for the moment-by-moment effects in combat.
• Condition Damage suffers many well-documented difficulties. Compared to power-crit DPS, the nine different professions having varying access to each of the five different damaging conditions means that while there's a greater incentive to use some classes or builds over others, it's extremely difficult to balance all cDPS roles against each other, especially if they don't bring some kind of other value to the team. Additionally, enemies succumbing to their injuries wipes the conditions attached to them, forcing you to start over; this should mean that bosses, who can withstand the stacks, should be the intended target for cDPS, but many bosses have the unfortunate tendency to phase, becoming immune to further condition applications, and breaking flow. Plus, some bosses having different Toughness levels means it can be difficult to recognize when a fight would benefit from condition damage over strike damage, when then that information is hidden from the player.
• My first proposal would be that different, specific enemies have telegraphed vulnerabilities to one or more conditions: "burning destroys plants and undead" is always a popular one, but few enemies, if any, have this effect. Torment should have extra effect on spellcasters and ghosts, while bleeding and poison should have extra effect on beefier, beastlike enemies, and humanoids. Confusion is fine, since it already has an identity against enemies that make many attacks at a time. Destroyers used to be immune to burning, and frankly, the game was better for it.
• My second proposal would introduce "stacks for stacks" trait technology in professions that predominantly use long-duration conditions, such as poison and bleeding, to inflict an additional application of those conditions for every 10-15 stacks already applied to the target. This would help with ramp-up during fights where those durations actually matter, without infringing on the ability of hybrid-dps and pDPS to deal damage quickly.
• This wouldn't all be so bad (just requires an affirmation of intention), if Expertise wasn't so monumentally instrumental in propping up competitive cDPS, and had it's own identity. Grieving gear and Sinister should have been fantastic for burning hybrid-dps, Trailblazer's for tank-dps, Seraph for heal-dps, and Ritualist's for boon-DPS, but Viper's is so overwhelmingly useful on every single profession in the game, that there is very little reason to pursue these gear sets.
• Describing a scenario with the Condition Damage challenge would probably mean>! a challenging, single-monster fight, ideally one without phases for it to drop conditions uptime during. It would likely have some form of content that discourages Power damage, such as moving around a lot, or an aura effect that damages anyone who gets too close for too long, which would allow Condition Damage to continue to tick away unabated. Identifying exactly which conditions are meant to be effective against which targets would also help grant the fight some much-needed identity, such as a boss that consumes poison stacks to suffers damage instead of healing, or a boss that cycles through vulnerability to different condition types throughout the fight.!<
• >>>Concentration:
• What a nightmare of an attribute this thing is. Singularly responsible for Might and Fury, Protection, Regeneration, Vigor, Resistance, and Resolution, and Alacrity and Quickness uptime, there basically isn't a single build in the game that doesn't benefit from Concentration in SOME capacity, especially in a group, and between Harrier's, Ritualist's, and Diviner's, there isn't really a single build in the game that can't climb into bed with it.
• As covered, Regeneration has an enormous advantage from Healing Power over other skills that heal, provided it has longer duration. The only builds that don't benefit from it in some way are "hi, DPS" types who otherwise need to trade their ability to generate their own boons for traits that increase their damage output. What mostly grinds my gears is that boons are so pivotal to the balance of the game right now, that there are no easy solutions on how to fix it. The main alternative could be maintaining our current level of boon cap, with full Concentration investment, but amplifying the % increase of Concentration's contribution, so that without it, boons only last for a second or so. Otherwise, having significantly more access to boons would mean that having to stack boons is the only way to keep them up, creating new "Boon Only" spellcasters who's EXCLUSIVE contribution is to buff the team.
• Concentration as a role in content would probably require the team to split up for long periods of time, such that the more duration you have, the longer you can benefit from the effects, until you can safely return to your healer or boon-giver. Moving ground hazards and social-distancing mechanics that discourage group stacking for very long would also enable this.
• >>>Expertise:
• My favorite. Expertise carries the same foundational problems as Concentration, but at least only for one aspect of dps-gameplay. That said, it deserves better than to simply prop up Condition Damage, and should have much more diverse options. Bleeding is a good example: in competitive game modes, the already-long duration of bleeding locks enemies into combat longer, making it harder for them to break out of combat and flee. Poison, for it's lack of damage, inhibits healing, while chill and slow impact cast speed and cooldown. Weakness, vulnerability, cripple, taunt, and fear, all spell out an exceedingly powerful PvP/WvW advantages, and alternative gameplay styles of battlefield control.
• As a role, Expertise is the attribute of pressure, committing to the long game and working to undermine enemies long enough to see them fail or falter. Personally, I'd like to see more underperforming traits get swapped out for more traits that apply, or benefit from, the application of these conditions, and much in the same way as Healing and boons, SEVERELY limit the base durations, while amplifying the %-duration-increase gained from heavily investing in Expertise. Even halving some existing durations, and making expertise grant +2% duration per 15 points instead of 1%, would help open up some variant gameplay builds, especially if combined with precision for "apply condition on crit" or "gain advantage when striking a foe with X condition" builds, for gear-dedicated gameplay effects.
• Rangers should be using mud, thorns, and conditions earned from taking Trapper's Expertise to be hit-and-run guerilla fighters. Elementalists should be chilling with ice, and entombing in stone, and Necromancers should be a dark beacon from which the land and people suffer debilitating curses. Thieves have no trait or gear interaction with preparation skills, and could gain a unique condition for each trap, and Dragonhunter actively competes with itself between it's trap trait, Piercing Light, and Dulled Senses, which inflicts cripple on disable. Even a trait, "Traps and preparations have longer effect duration based on your Expertise" would reinforce the role of control artist, and help introduce more and varied prefixes than the five that we currently abuse.
• Using Expertise as a role in content design would likely mean the same singular boss from the Condition Damage role, but ideally, would involve challenges that encourage the use of NON-damaging conditions. The Snowblind Fractal is a good example of an encounter where ice elementals try to put the fire out, and need to be slowed or stopped, as is having to immobilize the ghosts during the Gorseval raid boss, to prevent them from getting to the boss the middle.

With these roles defined, each attribute combination becomes not just a build type, but a distinct element of encounter design. Simply select two sets of 2-3 different attributes, combine them together, and you have a meaningful encounter:

• The front gate of the Ascalon Fractal sees many enemies together (Power), with a constantly occurring arrow barrage (Healing Power and Toughness), boiling oil (burning, healing again but could be solved with the Toughness change), and a champion guarding the gate (Precision, Ferocity).
• A boss that suffers extra critical hit damage from melee range (Ferocity), but which sheds extremely damaging conditions (Vitality, Healing Power, and fixed Toughness), on a timer that demands at least some players take advantage of the melee-range crit increase to win in time, would mean an active decision between how many DPS, healers, self-heals, and boons are necessary to win. Boneskinner comes close to this, only undermined by the fact this wasn't entirely intentional.
• A Healing Power + Vitality + Toughness fight where the boss will die after a 5-minute chase sequence requiring you to jump through an obstacle course would require ENTIRELY different technologies to win than most players are capable of spinning today. Spirit Vale's Spirit Run could have been this, but instead, was limited to a series of DPS checks against walls, and the River of Souls is instead steeped in cheese mechanics and demands for superspeed and stability.
• A Power + Precision + Expertise fight, where the boss gains Exposed for 2 seconds before inflicting a devastating blow, but who's Exposed state can be drawn out by additional time based on the defiance-damage inflicted by non-damaging conditions, would require several control artists to debuff the boss, long enough and often enough for the DPS to take it down. Disable builds already enable this, in a way, but Defiance Bars completely invalidate the non-damaging aspects of Expertise.

The main problem with these "Attributes as Roles" designs, is the gear combinations themselves. 4-Stat prefixes carry such a staggering advantageous weight over 3-stat prefixes, and Celestial over most 4-stat prefixes, that the more 'roles' are added to an encounter design, the more 4-stat and Celestial gear carries the day. While all the rest of this can be done fairly easily without disrupting metas too badly, I would honestly, personally, recommend lowering the stats associated with 4-stat and Celestial gear, even by 5% total, to help 3-stat gear, which is infinitely more narrow in application, stronger and more specialized for purpose. Additionally, changing which stat conversions exist on which professions, how, and increasing what % they take from other, less ideal attributes, could mean that each of the nine professions stand to benefit from different attribute combinations than each other, which would help enormously in bringing value to the 33 underperforming stat combos.
Otherwise, were these to be adopted, many different dead or unrecommended prefixes stand to open up, which really highlights the extreme extent to which gear has been made useless in this game, by merit of the narrow outlook the balance team takes when viewing each profession.
Disappointing outliers include:

• Nadijeh's Marshal gear (PoweHeal, precision/condi) (no such thing as a healDPS)
• The Twins' Grieving gear (PoweCondi, precision/ferocity) (no Expertise? Garbo, apparently)
• Maklain's Minstrel gear (Toughness/Heal, vitality/concentration) (not unused, just unpopular)
• Pahua's Trailblazer gear (Toughness/Condi, vitality/expertise) (should be ideal jungleguerilla fighter)
• Thackeray's Seraph gear (Precision/Condi, concentration/healing) (to craft this gear you need to actually farm the map and buy the inscription.)
• Ruka's Wanderer gear (PoweVitality, toughness/concentration) (bizarre)
• Ossa's Crusader gear (PoweToughness, ferocity/healing) (bizarre, ferocity with no precision)
• Laranthir's Vigilant gear (PoweToughness, concentration/expertise) (expertise, but no condition damage?)
• Tizlak's Commander gear (PowePrecision, toughness/concentration) (precision but no ferocity)
• Apothecary's, Clerics, Bringer's, Rabid, Shaman's, Sentinel's, Settler's, Nomad's, Cavalier's, Knight's, Soldier's, and Zealot's gear from the core game are all a strange mix of healing power, toughness, and other stats, that should all present exciting, meaningful gameplay structures, but are all dumped and forgotten as random loot to be salvaged and forgotten.

Much of this is exacerbated by the fact that stat-selectable gear is so readily available, with every single stat an option. Gearing a new build has turned from what used to be, at minimum, an excuse to run certain dungeons or farm Heart of Thorns, and devolved into a fairly meaningless scramble to grab up stat-select gear from any source, select either Berserker's, Viper's, Harrier's, Diviner's, or Celestial, and sigh in relief as you ignore the game's 33 other options. (Not that all those are ignored, I'm just being facetious. Easily 90% of all online builds use the above 5 options though.)
So. This concludes Part 1. In part 2, I aim to cover how we might pair these 'attribute roles' with mechanical effects in different classes that help produce roles not currently recognized by ArenaNet. In the meantime, I'd like to open discussion:

1. Should each professions be expected to benefit from a more personal set of gear attributes? Overlap is guaranteed in many cases, but should we see more cases such as Ritualist's, which is only desirable on professions with Vitality conversion? Or should all professions benefit identically from the same prefix options?
2. Are there any archetypes or build fantasies that you think our current selection of attributes could be used to address, but currently aren't in the game, such as Expertise affecting trap duration? If so, what are they, which profession would be doing it, and which attributes do you think would enable it?
3. Do you think stats being freely available is a good thing, or would you be interested in different attribute sets looted from specific zones or content types? For example, high-durability gear looted by roaming open world, or that different metas drop gear with prefixes that are explicitly designed to help you defeat it? Or that 'raid-ready' gear prefixes be looted from champions, strikes, and raids themselves?
4. Should 4-stat and Celestial be nerfed, or 3-stat buffed, in order to make them more appealing? If not, what purpose do you propose for 3-stat, non-Berserker gear?
5. If more content started to use a greater variety of challenges, other than just "hit big monster make big numbers go up more", would you be excited to experiment with different gear setups, in order to be better prepared for the challenges of each encounter? Or, do you prefer having a small number of loadouts, that can handle any and all content in the game?

As always, thanks for reading! If you have critiques, let me know! And if you're interested in Part 2, find it here! [link later]

Hey there! This is a little bit of a read, but you can think of it as a high effort post from someone who means business. I've clearly marked and categorized everything, so feel free to skim the parts that interest you.
What brings me to reddit for dating: For the short of it, I've been doing online dating for about 7 years, and could only describe my experience as a sisyphean struggle. With more traditional dating platforms having been absolutely worthless and a complete waste of time less than productive, I'm hoping this might give me a breakthrough.
Age: 26, open to 18-32~. I’m less about age, more about attraction.
Appearance: 5'8", short blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, slim fit body type. I dress almost exclusively in black if I can help it, hence "closeted goth". I've been told I'm fairly handsome, but I'm including a few (poorly taken) pictures, so you can decide for yourself whether or not I've been lied to!
Face: https://imgur.com/a/ykiCkwQ
Body (Warning: Shirtless): https://imgur.com/a/zO96e63
Interests: Many of my interests fall into the "nerd" category. Games (video and tabletop), anime, music, art, sci-fi and fantasy stuff of all varieties. I enjoy a lot of RPG's, and some of my favorite game series include kingdom hearts, fire emblem, dark souls, and a fair few others. I play a lot of league at a fairly high level, but I'm not exactly proud of that because the game damages my sanity at times.
In general, I like to keep in shape, play games with friends, share music I think is great, watch tv/movies/anime (horror and psychological stuff especially), share memes, read, and do some amateur writing. I'm also rather intelligent/insightful and enjoy some nuanced discussion.
Location: Currently in central NJ, somewhere in the no man's land between nyc and philly. I'd prefer someone local who I can meet in person, but won't pass up someone great online who's willing to eventually relocate or that I can eventually relocate to.
Looking For: Monogamous relationship, ideally something serious. I feel that what I'd like the most is to find someone very special to me, who I can love with all my heart and spend my life with. It'd probably be my greatest joy in life to be able to do that, and have someone do so in return. That said, this is just a description of my ideal scenario, not what I'd expect out of every relationship.
Traits I'm Looking For: Kind, loving, trustworthy, understanding. Good sense of humor, emotionally intelligent, communicates well. In this regard, I wouldn't ask for anything I don't freely give. I also very fond of women who are dominant/aggressive in a playful way, as well as role reversal dynamics.
Personality: Generally cool headed, laid back, and kind. Introverted, but can be extroverted when I'm in my element and otherwise comfortable. Deceptively intelligent despite how incredibly basic my pictures look, but I also tend to clown around a lot so that's not easy to discern at first. I’m also very reasonable, with a strong preference for peacefully resolving issues, so you can expect very little to no drama and good communication. Oh, and according to a myers briggs test, I'm an INFJ?
Fun facts: I have a deep and sexy voice which many people don't expect, and a great many people tell me I should get into radio or voice acting. I'm also a bit dead on the inside but that's probably because there's a skeleton living inside me.
Partner preferences: I'm a big fan of goth/alt girls, as well as tomboys. I also really like short hair, usually between pixie and neck length, and have a sizable interest in women that are taller than me. But these aren't dealbreakers! As long as I find you attractive, everything is fine.
Dealbreakers/Requirements: Similar interests are pretty important for me. I tend to play a lot of games in my free time for entertainment, so having a partner that I can do that together with is my ideal. I do have a strong preference for body type that I unfortunately can't get past, with that preference being the thinner end of the spectrum when it comes to proportions/body fat. So basically petite/slim/fit/muscular. PLEASE DON'T BE A SOCIOPATH, OR ACT LIKE ONE!

Hey there! This is a little bit of a read, but you can think of it as a high effort post from someone who means business. I've clearly marked and categorized everything, so feel free to skim the parts that interest you.
What brings me to reddit for dating: For the short of it, I've been doing online dating for about 7 years, and could only describe my experience as a sisyphean struggle. With more traditional dating platforms having been absolutely torturous and a complete waste of time, with me rarely ever finding matches and those I do get ending up being ghosts or people who just don't respond less than productive, I'm hoping this might give me a breakthrough.
Age: 26, open to 18-32~. I’m less about age, more about attraction.
Appearance: 5'8", short blond hair, blue eyes, white skin, slim fit body type. I dress almost exclusively in black if I can help it, hence "closeted goth". I've been told I'm fairly handsome, but I'm including a few (poorly taken) pictures, so you can decide for yourself whether or not I've been lied to!
Face: https://ibb.co/album/rk62jF
Body (Warning: Shirtless): https://ibb.co/album/kJB64j
Interests: Many of my interests fall into the "nerd" category. Games (video and tabletop), anime, music, art, sci-fi and fantasy stuff of all varieties. I enjoy a lot of RPG's, and some of my favorite game series include kingdom hearts, fire emblem, dark souls, and a fair few others. I play a lot of league at a fairly high level, but I'm not exactly proud of that because the game damages my sanity at times.
In general, I like to keep in shape, play games with friends, share music I think is great, watch tv/movies/anime (horror and psychological stuff especially), share memes, read, and do some amateur writing. I'm also rather intelligent/insightful and enjoy some nuanced discussion.
Location: Currently in central NJ, somewhere in the no man's land between nyc and philly. I'd prefer someone local who I can meet in person, but won't pass up someone great online who's willing to eventually relocate or that I can eventually relocate to.
Looking For: Monogamous relationship, ideally something serious. I feel that what I'd like the most is to find someone very special to me, who I can love with all my heart and spend my life with. It'd probably be my greatest joy in life to be able to do that, and have someone do so in return. That said, this is just a description of my ideal scenario, not what I'd expect out of every relationship.
Traits I'm Looking For: Kind, loving, trustworthy, understanding. Good sense of humor, emotionally intelligent, communicates well. In this regard, I wouldn't ask for anything I don't freely give. I also very fond of women who are dominant/aggressive in a playful way, as well as role reversal dynamics.
Personality: Generally cool headed, laid back, and kind. Introverted, but can be extroverted when I'm in my element and otherwise comfortable. Deceptively intelligent despite how incredibly basic my pictures look, but I also tend to clown around a lot so that's not easy to discern at first. I’m also very reasonable, with a strong preference for peacefully resolving issues, so you can expect very little to no drama and good communication. Oh, and according to a myers briggs test, I'm an INFJ?
Fun facts: I have a deep and sexy voice which many people don't expect, and a great many people tell me I should get into radio or voice acting. I'm also a bit dead on the inside but that's probably because there's a skeleton living inside me.
Partner preferences: I'm a big fan of goth/alt girls, as well as tomboys. I also really like short hair, usually between pixie and neck length, and have a sizable interest in women that are taller than me. But these aren't dealbreakers! As long as I find you attractive, everything is fine.
Dealbreakers/Requirements : Similar interests are pretty important for me. I tend to play a lot of games in my free time for entertainment, so having a partner that I can do that together with is my ideal. I do have a strong preference for body type that I unfortunately can't get past, with that preference being the thinner end of the spectrum when it comes to proportions/body fat. So basically petite/slim/fit/muscular. PLEASE DON'T BE A SOCIOPATH, OR ACT LIKE ONE!
If you have any questions about anything I mentioned (or didn't), just ask and I'll absolutely answer them for you. I'm very friendly so absolutely feel free to come talk to me.

Looking to offload a bunch of stuff I have absolutely no use for. Bundle deals are absolutely welcome and appreciated. Trying to price under pricecharting/ebay just to move it all.
Console Nintendo GameCube DOL-001 (w/ digital AV out) - Indigo. Comes with a matching OEM controller, OEM power supply, and OEM A/V cable. Tested & working, original laser. $100
Console Xbox 360 e 4GB - Black, tested & working. Includes OEM power supply & AV cable, as well as a black wireless OEM controller w/ battery pack/holder. Pics here $80
Games

Title	Price	Notes
NGC Mario Kart Double Dash	$60	Disc only
NGC Mario Party 7	$40	Disc only (resurfaced)
NGC Medal of Honor Frontline	$7	Disc only
X360 007 Quantum of Solace	$7	Case & disc
X360 FIFA Soccer 13	$2	Case & disc
X360 LEGO Batman/Pure Dual Pack	$5	Case & discs
X360 LEGO Dimensions	$5	Case & disc
X360 LEGO Jurassic World	$5	Aftermarket case & disc
X360 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes	$5	Case & disc
X360 LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean	$10	Case & disc
X360 Madden NFL 15	$2	Case & disc
X360 Minecraft	$10	Case & disc
X360 NBA 2K9	$2	Case & disc
X360 Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit	$5	Aftermarket case & disc
X360 Spider Man 3	$15	Case & disc

Skylanders Bundle Includes 2 portals, 2 games (Giants, Spyro’s Adventure), and like 22 figures. None of them are valuable, from what I can tell. Pictures of everything here. $40 for all of it
Kinect Xbox 360 Sensor & Kinect Adventures Game $10
Shipping is not included in prices and will be calculated based upon location. Thanks for looking!

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First, I realize that the product says "up to 1gbps" so of course a bit of variation is expected, but I am curious if others have seen this performance profile, or if there are tricks to apply:

• direct connection to the cable modem yields 700-800 Mbps down (whatever up, don't really care)
• over wifi, I get *maybe* 300-400 Mbps with several tries, different times of the day, etc. This is a "ac" capable wifi router (issued by spectrum) which should exceed the wired connection on the 5GHz net. Ok sure it's theoretically capable, but c'mon

Based on an on-site spectrum tech's test and a replaced router, it appears that the connection to the wall is as good as it's going to get, and Spectrum says that one should realistically expect about 70% of the maximum, which is fair enough, but if I cannot get close to that 70% max with their equipment, I think that's pretty cheesy. Am I wrong to expect an 802.11ac wifi router to be able to carry the 700-800Mbps?
So, looking for corroboration before I Have a Cow with Spectrum. (I'm in southern california on what I expect is old infrastructure in an apartment block).

I live on the border of Queens and Long Island NY, I live on the Queens side. I was recently driving through Nassau County and saw that Optimum cable is doing a lot of work in the area. I don't know who owns Optimum cable but Spectrum cable(NYC) and Optimum cable(Long Island) don't have any overlap. Could this be indicative of high split coming soon or is it just upgrades coming to Nassau only?