Twitch Tuesday

[Chronicler06]

Great to see you finally reached Rank 20, and with just enough time left to complete the Turbo Acres race for the first of eight checkered flags you'll need to reach the Hauntsborough Grand Brick Arena. I don't yet know if reaching the apparent maximum of Rank 30 will be necessary for the story, but at least there's an achievement for it.

As for where to go next to start your next stream, I would recommend that you first go to Big Butte County to run the one new race available there. After that, go to Prospecto Valley for the two new races that are now available. You'll be able to start those three races right away, so you might as well get them out of the way before going after everything else in Hauntsborough. I have not yet watched far enough through the playthrough video to see what those last four races are like, but I'm pretty sure some of them can't be accessed until after you complete certain quests (and from what little I did glimpse so far, it seems they will be similar to the story-required quests you had done in the other two areas, so that would involve rescuing civilians from robots, protecting some generators from robots, and unlocking jetpacks for the area).

Anyway, I'll probably make use of the next week being off by watching the last parts of that playthrough video to see how those last few races will be like when you eventually reach them.

[Black Six]

On 10/24/2023 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

As for where to go next to start your next stream, I would recommend that you first go to Big Butte County to run the one new race available there. After that, go to Prospecto Valley for the two new races that are now available. You'll be able to start those three races right away, so you might as well get them out of the way before going after everything else in Hauntsborough. I have not yet watched far enough through the playthrough video to see what those last four races are like, but I'm pretty sure some of them can't be accessed until after you complete certain quests (and from what little I did glimpse so far, it seems they will be similar to the story-required quests you had done in the other two areas, so that would involve rescuing civilians from robots, protecting some generators from robots, and unlocking jetpacks for the area).

Sounds like a good plan! I'm not looking forward to some of those quests though...

[Chronicler06]

Well, looks like you decided to try a completely different plan, but at least you managed to make some good progress. Two of the three pre-race quests completed, and three of the four races in Hauntsborough completed.

For the next stream (whenever you're next able to stream), you should definitely go for the one race in Big Butte County and the two in Prospecto Valley (whichever order you decide to do them in). That way, when you later come back to Hauntsborough for the last remaining race, you'll already be in the same area of the final Grand Brick Arena and won't need to bother with waiting though the loading screen an additional time.

As I mentioned in the chat, once you complete the third and final Grand Brick Arena, you'll then return to Turbo Acres to go right to the Sky Cup Grand Prix to complete the story. If all goes relatively well, you might be able to finish this game after just two more streams.

[Chronicler06]

Quite unfortunate to have that rather annoying glitch where your vehicle takes damage every time you use the speed boost. Obviously this game is not designed to have that as an additional challenge (especially for the more difficult races and quests), so hopefully it'll go away the next time you load up the game. (If not, then you might as well start asking around if other gamers have had a similar issue and how you might resolve it.)

Well, I guess now you understand why I insisted on completing all those other races before trying to go for the one with that bats quest. It is now literally the only thing there is left to do in order to run that final regular race, which will allow you to run that final Grand Brick Arena, which will allow you to run the Sky Cup Grand Prix to complete the story. So, uh... yeah, I'm afraid it simply must be done. (I may have to rewatch that part of the playthrough videos, as I honestly can't remember the exact details of how to complete that quest.)

Now let's see if I can remember how to add a spoiler tag...

 

The winning vehicle from that Lego Masters challenge to appear in the game 2K Drive is an off-road vehicle that is basically a big shark.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

11 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Well, I guess now you understand why I insisted on completing all those other races before trying to go for the one with that bats quest. It is now literally the only thing there is left to do in order to run that final regular race, which will allow you to run that final Grand Brick Arena, which will allow you to run the Sky Cup Grand Prix to complete the story. So, uh... yeah, I'm afraid it simply must be done. (I may have to rewatch that part of the playthrough videos, as I honestly can't remember the exact details of how to complete that quest.)

Yeah, that was certainly very frustrating. I feel like I must have been missing something, but I certainly couldn't see any way around it.

As for the LEGO Masters car, that wasn't what I saw when I started up the game, so I have something to look forward to in the future!

[Chronicler06]

I just remembered something else I wanted to mention, so I'd better say it now before I forget again. Did you know you could spend a few hundred Insiders points on Lego.com to unlock a vehicle to use in Lego 2K Drive? Perhaps it might be worth taking a look at.

[Black Six]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

I just remembered something else I wanted to mention, so I'd better say it now before I forget again. Did you know you could spend a few hundred Insiders points on Lego.com to unlock a vehicle to use in Lego 2K Drive? Perhaps it might be worth taking a look at.

Thanks for letting me know! I got the code and will redeem it next week!

[Chronicler06]

Glad to see you were able to figure out the rather simple key to completing that quest, and from there was able to finish all three remaining races to complete the story mode. I don't know how much more effort would go into reaching 100% completion since I have not yet played the game myself, but with how much of the different areas there are to explore, I think it's fair to say there's quite a lot of things left to find and complete.

As for which games you could move on to next, you mentioned completing both of the Indiana Jones games as a probable next option. Another option I'd like to see would be Lego City Undercover (though after having just played a racing game, perhaps you might prefer to save that for another time). Let's also not forget about Lego Dimensions, where I recall that you have so far visited 13 of the 14 hub worlds from the Year 1 content, and that there's still quite a few more Fun Packs from Year 1 alone left to open and build before you can begin to replay all the story levels to try reaching 100% completion.

Alternatively, you might also consider beginning to play Lego Bricktales (if you were able to purchase it sometime in the last few months) or perhaps even Lego Brawls. From my experience, Bricktales can be done relatively quickly compared to most Lego games (you could even go straight to 100% completion after just one or two additional sessions), and you might even find the building puzzles throughout the game to be quite interesting. Lego Brawls is very quick and easy to figure out (I don't think you'll have much problem with unlocking all of the achievements in a rather short amount of time), though it could be very time consuming and repetitive to try unlocking everything there is to unlock (my progress in that game remains ongoing, though it appears I might finally get everything by the end of December, so that's two sessions per week with less than two hours for each session over a period of about six months, as far as my experience with that game will end up).

Put simply, there's quite a lot of options to choose from at this time.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

17 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Another option I'd like to see would be Lego City Undercover (though after having just played a racing game, perhaps you might prefer to save that for another time).

Yeah, I definitely think I want to reduce my driving time after this one.

17 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Let's also not forget about Lego Dimensions, where I recall that you have so far visited 13 of the 14 hub worlds from the Year 1 content, and that there's still quite a few more Fun Packs from Year 1 alone left to open and build before you can begin to replay all the story levels to try reaching 100% completion.

Don't expect to see Dimensions again anytime soon. I like the game, but streaming it is very frustrating with my current setup. I think I would have to completely rearrange things in my room to really dive back into it.

17 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Alternatively, you might also consider beginning to play Lego Bricktales

I haven't picked it up yet, and $30 seems steep for two days' worth of playing. Maybe if it drops to $10 or so.

17 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Lego Brawls is very quick and easy to figure out (I don't think you'll have much problem with unlocking all of the achievements in a rather short amount of time), though it could be very time consuming and repetitive to try unlocking everything there is to unlock

Looks like it's on sale for $5 on Xbox, which is easier for me to stream than PC, so I picked it up. I think we have a winner for our next game!

Overall, I've been doing some thinking about what my streaming is going to look like in 2024, so there may be some change-ups come January.

[Chronicler06]

On 11/29/2023 at 2:31 PM, Black Six said:

On 11/28/2023 at 8:45 PM, Chronicler06 said:

Lego Brawls is very quick and easy to figure out (I don't think you'll have much problem with unlocking all of the achievements in a rather short amount of time), though it could be very time consuming and repetitive to try unlocking everything there is to unlock

Looks like it's on sale for $5 on Xbox, which is easier for me to stream than PC, so I picked it up. I think we have a winner for our next game!

Overall, I've been doing some thinking about what my streaming is going to look like in 2024, so there may be some change-ups come January.

Okay, wow, this is quite a nice surprise. And with good timing, as the seasonal theme for December is just about to get started, so you'll have the opportunity to unlock content from that special theme. (I did my semi-weekly session earlier today, and while the holiday themed map is available to play, the holiday theme with content to unlock is not yet available, though that might change by my next session on Monday at the start of a new week, so I'll let you know then if it becomes available.)

As far as how long you might be interested in playing this game, I think unlocking all of the mystery bag characters would be the equivalent of 100% game completion, since it'll definitely take much more time to accomplish than literally everything else. I suppose your goal for now should be to unlock all the achievements (a total of 18) and fully complete all of the themes (a total of 13, not counting the seasonal themes for October and December).

While I could share a lot of advice on how to play, I think the easier thing to do is simply read through all of the hints and tips, which you'll find among other options after selecting the question mark icon on the main menu. Of course, as you might recall from when you played the demo over a year ago, you'll first need to play through the tutorial before you're able to visit the main menu for the first time.

Of all the content to unlock, three of the four categories (characters, weapons, and victory dances) are just for appearances and don't really affect your abilities, while the one other category (powerups) come with unique abilities and you'll have options on which ones to give to your character. If you want to unlock as many powerups as soon as possible, then I would recommend the first few themes you should try completing are Castle, Space, Pirates, Western, and Monkey Kid (you can do them in any order you want, but my recommendation is to complete those five before any of the others). But personally, I think your highest priority among the themes at this time should be the seasonal one that'll be available this month, because it'll go away at the end of the month and you'll have to wait until next year if you missed any of it.

Lastly, while I am still quite eager to make use of the game's Party Mode to be able to play along with you, I'll just watch on Twitch for the first two or three streams so I can use the chat to share advice if you're struggling with something. Once you seem to have the game figured out (and once I'm sure I can access Twitch on my tablet rather than my desktop computer where I've been playing the game), then perhaps we could try playing together in Party Mode. (Yes, cross-play is enabled by default, so it should be possible for us to play the same game, even though I'm on a PC and you're on an Xbox.)

EDIT: I just checked the game again for a moment and it looks like the seasonal theme is now available, but only a limited amount of content is available to unlock for each week of this month. I would still recommend that your first theme should be the "Holidays" season theme, just to make sure you're able to unlock all of it while it's available for this limited time. If you happen to do good enough to get everything available for the week, then perhaps you could make use of additional time by switching to another theme and making a little progress over there. Don't worry, you can switch back and forth between themes and your progress in each of them will be saved.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

After playing another session earlier today, I can say that it might be unlikely that you'll find yourself tempted to switch themes while progressing through the "Holidays" theme this month (unless if you either have enough time for over a dozen brawls each session or if you somehow get super good super quickly, neither of which I honestly think are realistic).

Keep in mind that for the mystery bags to unlock, you must participate in 3 brawls to open the "common" bag, 5 more brawls to open the "rare" bag, and then 10 more brawls to open the "epic" bag, so that's 18 in total for each and every week. Something tells me that at least during these first few sessions you'll be more interested in taking the time to check out what you've unlocked and possibly create some custom characters, so perhaps you might be okay with passing on the epic bags for now. (Don't worry, you'll always be able to unlock any mystery bag characters you've not yet unlocked, with the only uncertainty being which specific characters you'll get. I figured this out from experience because I was fortunate enough to have the rare bag replaced with a second epic bag for a few weeks back in September (during a special event that month that introduced some "limited edition" characters), and now that I've got so few characters left to unlock, it seems I already got all the epic bags because now I find myself unlocking two rare bags instead of one of each. In other words, you'll never really miss out on anything as long as you continue playing the game, because you will eventually get everything (except maybe for some special events).)

One thing I forgot to mention previously was how to "master" the six Champion characters (which counts for six of the 18 achievements). When one of them becomes available to play, you must play as them and use each of their three special powerups a certain number of times to unlock them. Once that champion character is fully unlocked, the next one will become available after you play one more brawl, and you repeat the process until all six champions are fully unlocked. As for what makes the first champion character become available, I honestly don't remember how it happened for me, but after rereading the hints and tips, I suspect that you'll need to play as all three of the starting characters (who are also identified as Champion characters) and use each of their three special powerups at least once. If this is true, then you might be able to get started with the Champion characters rather quickly, and by the time you're done, you'll have plenty of content unlocked for making custom characters.

Now that I really see the wall of text I've left in my wake here this past week, I guess it's very obvious just how obsessed I've been with this particular game in recent months...

Edited December 5, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

A rather fine start to Lego Brawls. Not bad for someone just jumping right in with practically no experience at all. (Though once again, I would highly suggest you select the question mark icon at the top right of the main menu and read everything under Hints & Tips. I'm not going to share all of my expert secrets, so consider the one with the pirate cannons as the only significant one I was willing to share this week.) And I'm glad to see my suspicions about how to unlock the first champion character proved to be correct, so now you could just keep on playing as those champion characters until all six are unlocked.

Unfortunately, it seems I am reminded of the difficulty I had with figuring out how to unlock some of those other achievements way back when I had started playing. Apparently, you must play as a custom character to make progress towards those other achievements. You already got one for making one custom character, but not yet the one for making three custom characters, or for making a custom "loadout" (which can be done by simply selecting a different victory dance for your character). The really tricky achievements from my experience were the ones for being top brawler (once, five times, and twenty times), as I never seemed to make progress when I played as the exact same character (certainly not as a champion character), and also somehow made progress when I was only second best (regardless of whether or not I was on the winning team). All I can really say for that one is to just keep playing (and possibly modifying your custom character every so often so that it counts as a different character every time) and you'll likely get those achievements soon enough. As for the five wins in a row achievement, I suppose at worst you could look forward to the possibility of playing in Party Mode with me (which will also provide a couple achievements), as we will always end up on the same team and my immense experience can certainly be helpful (so long as we're lucky enough to play five team games in a row and no free-for-alls (don't expect me to go easy on you if we do end up playing in a free-for-all)).

In any case, now that you're already beginning progress with the first of the six Champion characters, I'll leave it up to you whether to keep going with that effort or to instead make some other custom characters to try going for the rest of the (mostly easier) achievements. (It should be noted that whatever new content you unlock will continue to be indicated as new content until you actually look at them in the character customizer, so be sure to as least briefly browse through every selection menu to clear away those indicators.)

Next week, I'll once again log into Twitch on my computer as always, but this time I'll simultaneously also try accessing Twitch on my tablet to see if I can watch your stream on that device. If that goes well, that'll really open up the possibility that we could someday play together in Party Mode.

[Black Six]

It was definitely a fun experience, except for those couple of maps where it zooms out your perspective. I'm looking forward to playing more next week. Thanks for all the tips!

[Chronicler06]

On 12/6/2023 at 5:14 PM, Black Six said:

It was definitely a fun experience, except for those couple of maps where it zooms out your perspective. I'm looking forward to playing more next week. Thanks for all the tips!

Are you talking about the smaller maps where there's almost no scrolling at all? Yeah, those kinds of maps are not exactly ideal (especially if you're trying to unlock the champion characters and can't use their powerups to make any progress with that). Pretty much the main advantage I see from those maps is that they tend to be very quick (except for the castle themed Base Race, which could go on for quite a while depending on which kind of players you end up playing with).

Anyway, while there's currently a day or two left until next week's Holiday theme content becomes available to unlock, I did check to see that there will be eight things to unlock (rather than ten from not only this past week but also for the third week to follow), so if you want to take some extra time to create a few custom characters and try going for those other easier achievements, your next stream next week (on Tuesday the 12th) could be the ideal time to go for it.

I'd also like to mention that a pattern I've noticed after playing this game for several months is that the final week of each month typically offers double studs, so as long as you're able to play specifically on that last Tuesday of this month (which would be the 26th), you'll very likely be able to not only complete the Holiday theme but also probably make significant progress through whatever other theme you decide to progress through next.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

I just remembered one more thing I had wanted to mention. Back when I had started playing Lego Brawls, I remember during like the first week of playing that I would get a free mystery bag character at least once a day from doing nothing more than simply starting up the game. If this turns out to be true for you as well, then could you do us a favor by starting the stream before opening that free mystery bag if it does immediately show up? At least so we can see which character (or weapon or powerup) you essentially got for free just from being a new player.

In any case, now that the only uncertainty I had about unlocking the champion characters is already solved, I would recommend for your next stream or two to save the champions for later and instead go for all the other easier achievements, which would involve creating additional custom characters and trying to get top brawler a certain number of times. Also, if you don't feel like waiting on me for an opportunity to get the achievements for playing in Party Mode, one of the two types of parties you can host (the 4-player team, not the 8-player free-for-all) allows you to play even if you're the only one in the party, which is how I was able to unlock those achievements.

[Chronicler06]

Some good progress today. Got to experience a few other maps, made two more custom characters (though you'll need to fill in the third open slot for that achievement to unlock), and even managed to improve your rank from Bronze to Silver and then to Gold (though such a pity you then got demoted back to Silver after losing just one rank point on your final brawl). And now that you also checked through some of the Hints and Tips (I couldn't tell you directly about the dash attack because my controls on a keyboard are definitely different from your Xbox controller), hopefully that'll help give you a bit of an edge now that you know some things that many other players never really seem to even be aware of (conversely, some of the highest ranked players seem to have perfected such moves in ways even I could only dream of, so watch out if such players don't end up on your team).

As for the achievements, good to see you got the custom loadout and the ones for participating in several brawls. Once you've created a third custom character, I guess that just leaves the achievements for being top brawler a number of times, playing in Party Mode a few times, and unlocking the six champion characters. While the eventuality of Party Mode now seems almost inevitable at this point (I won't be able to 100% confirm that until I try logging in and using the Twitch chat on my tablet instead of my computer, which I'll attempt for next week's stream), I think the real challenge for you now is to be top brawler (20 times, for that last achievement). As I said previously, I struggled to figure out how exactly progress was made on that particular achievement, so at least check your progress on it so far (if possible), and if you continue as you've done these first two streams, hopefully it won't be too long before you eventually get that achievement.

Oh, and if you're wondering how to check the global leaderboard (as mentioned in the Hints and Tips regarding ranks), just select the icon on the upper right of the main menu that displays your current rank, so remember to check that out next time.

[Black Six]

On 12/12/2023 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

I think the real challenge for you now is to be top brawler (20 times, for that last achievement). As I said previously, I struggled to figure out how exactly progress was made on that particular achievement, so at least check your progress on it so far (if possible), and if you continue as you've done these first two streams, hopefully it won't be too long before you eventually get that achievement.

Looks like I'm at 5/20 for this one, so by that math, still six more streams to go before I get it, in all likelihood. We'll see if I stick with the game that long.

[Chronicler06]

1 hour ago, Black Six said:

Looks like I'm at 5/20 for this one, so by that math, still six more streams to go before I get it, in all likelihood. We'll see if I stick with the game that long.

Maybe I'm remembering the past two streams wrong, but I feel like maybe you should've been at least a little bit further along, possibly closer to 10/20 (a quick check of the results of each brawl in the recorded videos you uploaded should help determine whether I'm right or wrong, but I don't have time for that today). Then again, I do recall some of the struggle I had with that particular achievement is that, for some weird reason, using the exact same character will never count more than once towards this achievement. Fortunately, you don't need to go through the effort of creating twenty entirely different custom characters. All you really need to do is swap out the weapon or one of the three powerups, pretty much any little thing that will prompt the game to ask if you want to save changes to your character. As long as you remember to leave the lobby and slightly modify your character after each time you manage to get top brawler, I think this achievement might be quicker to complete than you're anticipating. That's just my theory, but we won't know for sure until you try it out.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

The numbers don't lie, unfortunately. I'll try out your strategy next time.

[Chronicler06]

Okay, now that I had time to spare today, I decided to rewatch the two previous streams (skipping to all the brawl results to save on time and focus on just the important parts) and right away I discovered that you got the "High Five" achievement for being top brawler five times right on the very first brawl of the second stream, which indicates that at the end of your first stream your progress was already at 4/20 (though to be fair, most of them were probably from your first few brawls which were against just a bunch of bots). Upon further viewing, I have now counted a total of 4 times in the first stream and 1 time (possibly also a second time when you claimed to have the highest score despite being second on the final list after one of the Jurassic World maps) in the second stream where you got top brawler, so that actually doesn't leave much support for my theory.

I guess my perceptions have been skewed by the fact that I've gotten so good at this game over the last few months that I typically find myself finishing as top brawler more often than not, so it actually feels a little strange for me to watch someone else play this game and see how they're essentially still learning all of the tricks and secrets that I'm already well aware of. Now that I think about it, as much as I would love to try playing in Party Mode with you, I can't help but wonder if doing so would rob you of opportunities for you to reach top brawler if I'm there to always spoil your party. Perhaps I should either wait until you eventually get the achievement for being a 20-time top brawler, or we could do Party Mode only once or twice each week so that you'll still have realistic opportunities to become top brawler. (Another possibility could be to play in a private party without any other players (the 8-player Party Mode, I believe, where any empty slots would remain empty) and ask the other players you know to simply hold back and let you win by default, though I'm not sure if you would be interested in such an admittedly dirty effort.)

Well, in any case, no harm in making sure you slightly modify your character after each time you reach top brawler. Also be sure to remember some of the helpful things you learned from reading the hints and tips at the end of the previous stream (especially the controls for the dash attack, which you'll find can be faster than just regular running if you know when and where to use it).

[Chronicler06]

That was fun to watch. By my count, you got top brawler two more times, so at least you're continuing to make steady progress towards that top brawler achievement. And now that you got the achievements for creating three custom characters and playing one round in Party Mode (thanks to my new setup working well enough to allow me to give it a try this week), the only easy achievement you have left to go is to play five rounds in Party Mode.

Now that I've rewatched the part where I played alongside you, I will say that, yes, we actually were playing against another team, but you held back just far enough to not see how easily I used the mech to keep swatting them away from the control point. I guess now you saw an example of just how good I am at this game, and why I'm hesitant to play with you in Party Mode at least until after you eventually unlock the achievement for being top brawler 20 times. Perhaps once you finally get that achievement and can then turn your focus to mastering the champion characters, I'll be more open to playing more Party Mode rounds with you.

Worth noting for next week, once you unlock the last remaining content from the Holiday theme, it'll be just like completing any other theme, which means you will then be automatically prompted to switch to a different theme to complete (and unlike the limited time Holiday theme, everything in all those other themes will always be available to unlock at any time). And if my hunch is right that the last week of the month means we get rewarded with double studs, you may find yourself completing the final portion of the Holiday theme more quickly than previous weeks.

Looking forward to next week (and possibly a few more rounds in Party Mode with you).

[Chronicler06]

I can now confirm that double studs are indeed in effect this week, so that should allow you to complete the remaining content of the Holiday theme rather quickly. As for which theme to switch to next, I'll wait and see how long it takes you to reach that point before I make a recommendation in the chat.

Also, I don't know how much you would like to try Party Mode again for your next stream, but to respond to something I think you said in the previous stream, the invite code will always be shown on screen in the game if you are hosting, so you don't need to add in anything special as everyone watching the stream on its own will be able to easily see that code anyway. (Though I do recall that after that one round of Party Mode we did last time, we somehow ended up as hosts of separate parties (it was my first time actually playing with someone else in Party Mode, so it certainly surprised me that apparently that's what happens after each round), so I think it would be most convenient if you hosted so the rest of us wanting to join could just use the code we would see on the stream.)

Also keep in mind that it is possible to play in Party Mode even if you're the only one in the party (but only in 4-player co-op, not 8-player head-to-head), so perhaps you could take advantage of the small stud bonus from Party Mode combined with this week's double studs to make a lot of quick progress through the themes. (If I do decide to join you in Party Mode again, it'll probably be for just one round, as I still would like to let you have a fair chance at making progress on that top brawler achievement.)

[Chronicler06]

Good progress this week. Thanks the the double studs available this week, you not only completed the Holiday theme but also made a significant amount of progress through the next theme. Not only that, you even got top brawler three more times (or two, depending on whether or not my old suspicion turns out to be true), so I think that puts it at 10/20, so halfway to finally getting that achievement. (Even if I turn out to be wrong about needing different custom characters for that achievement, I will say that I also suspect that playing as the champion characters also might not count towards the top brawler achievement. In any case, just keep using your custom characters, and once you finally do get top brawler 20 times, then you can turn your attention to unlocking the champion characters.)

And with the Holiday theme now over, there are no more time limits left for you to be concerned about (at least until next October when the limited-time Spooky theme becomes available again), so now you're free to make as much progress as you want through whatever theme you like. Best of all, you can also switch between themes at any time without losing any of the progress you had already made on the other themes (so if you'd rather go with something other than Castle next time, you'll still keep everything you had already unlocked, and when you later decide to come back to Castle, your progress will continue right where you left off).

I had recommended Castle for your next theme because it's one of the longest themes to complete, and with double stud available this week, I figured it would be a good time to make a significant amount of progress through that theme. I believe I had mentioned earlier that the themes I had recommended for you to complete early on (in no particular order) were Castle, Space, Pirates, Western, and Monkie Kid, specifically so you can unlock a lot of different powerups as soon as possible. I'll leave it entirely up to you on whether you stick with Castle or switch to some other theme for your next stream.

Also, you probably didn't notice this during this month because of the ongoing Holiday theme, but selecting a theme not only gives you a list of things to unlock as you brawl, but also changes the setting and music you'll see and hear on the main menu (since you're currently on the Castle theme, that's what you'll get to experience when you start up the game next week).

EDIT: I just rewatched the parts of the stream where I was busy playing and couldn't hear what you said, and it's good that you were able to confirm that you really are now halfway towards the achievement for top brawler 20 times.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

I agree that things went well this week! (Except for Free For Brawl, which I don't think I'll ever come around to.) Hopefully I'll be able to get the 20 top brawlers by the end of January - I definitely feel like I am getting better as I learn the maps and their intricacies (thanks to your tips).

[Chronicler06]

On 12/27/2023 at 11:18 AM, Black Six said:

I agree that things went well this week! (Except for Free For Brawl, which I don't think I'll ever come around to.) Hopefully I'll be able to get the 20 top brawlers by the end of January - I definitely feel like I am getting better as I learn the maps and their intricacies (thanks to your tips).

Funny how you seem to particularly dislike free-for-brawl when that is apparently the kind of map (at least the small ones where you're limited to three lives and a specific range of available powerups) where I believe you have so far gotten top brawler more frequently than any other modes of play. I'm sure you might eventually get the hang of it (especially since I've found that your preferred strategy of sticking to the high ground and letting everyone else destroy themselves has worked out quite well for me). After all, I used to be terrible for quite a while at the Blacktron map and its objective of collecting crystals, but I eventually managed to figure it out (especially since that special event in September introduced some temporary special maps that played by similar rules, which gave me more opportunities to improve my game).

Anyway, seeing as you apparently got confused at one point about what kind of game mode you were playing, I'll provide here a quick list of which maps play by which set of rules...

• The standard team maps with a central control point that your team must hold for a long enough amount of total time are Castle, Pirates, Western, Jurassic World (daytime version), Ninjago Legacy, Ninjago Seabound, Vidiyo, Hidden Side (with the special condition that the control point vanishes after a minute and then reappears in one of three random locations and the process repeats), and Ninjago Dragons Rising (with the special condition that you must hold the control point not just once but for at least three rounds with the map shifting around at the end of each round).
• The other type of team maps where your team must collect over 50 items are Blacktron, and all of the special limited time maps and themes (such as Spooky and Holiday).
• The small free for all maps (where you're limited to three lives and options for powerups are visible but limited) are Castle, Space, Pirates, Western, and Ninjago Legacy (all of which are labeled in the voting lobby as Free-for-Brawl and are differentiated only by the background art).
• The large free for all maps (where you have standard access to powerups and you must score 15 points or at least have the highest score when time expires) are Jurassic World (nighttime version), Ninjago Prime, Alien Conquest, and Monkie Kid (with the special condition that points are scored by collecting peaches).
• There's also the Castle themed Base Race map, which are limited in powerups and your team wins by gathering 200 resources at your base.

I think that covers all of them, so hopefully you'll find this quick list to be a little helpful.

Edited January 1 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

Man, it seemed like whenever I joined in the other players were all bots, and when I left you alone you had to compete against some rather good players, so as much fun as I had, I really do feel bad for taking away what could've been three easy opportunities for you to get top brawler. Well, at least you did get it twice anyway, so that's some progress. At this rate, I think I'll limit myself to just the last round of each stream from now on, and only after you finally do get top brawler 20 times will I be okay with joining you in Party Mode more often. (On the bright side, at least we didn't have the misfortune of ending up playing on a free-for-brawl map, where I'll confess that I would not have given you any mercy.)

I heard you mention you would like to get more powerups available soon, and after double checking the themes, it seems the Castle theme has only one available which is a flying dragon. Seeing where your progress is, I think you'll almost certainly unlock it during next week's stream. And since I heard you mention an interest in going for the Monkie Kid content, I would recommend that once you unlock the dragon powerup from the Castle theme, you could then select the theme option at the bottom right of the main menu and then select "change theme" so you can immediately switch to the Monkie Kid theme (remember, you can always return to the Castle theme later and continue its progress from where you left off).

Anyway, as I had mentioned in the chat, I have just recently unlocked every single mystery bag character that's currently available (that's all three tier bags every Monday and Friday, so for you it might take more like two years if you continue at just one hour per week). Even so, it would not surprise me if at some point in the next few months some new content comes out for all of us to unlock. Looking back through the game's update history since it's release (on consoles and PC), it seems certain maps like the Pirates Free-For-Brawl and the Castle Base Race had been added at some point, with the most recent major addition being the Ninjago Dragons Rising theme and map back in June of last year (literally just a couple weeks before I had started playing for the first time). There was also the special event in September which was "Brawl Out" where each week had a special map featuring two themes mashed together (Week 1 had Western vs Castle, Week 2 had Ninjago vs Vidiyo, Week 3 had Pirates vs Hidden Side, and Week 4 had Blacktron vs Jurassic World). Another feature of that Brawl Out event is that eight "limited edition" characters became available to unlock in special mystery bags (I honestly have no idea if it would even be possible for you to unlock those eight characters now that the event has long since passed). Since I recall it being advertised as the return of Brawl Out, that leaves open the possibility that such an event might actually return in some new form later this year.

I'll now rewatch the parts of the stream where I had played with you to find out if I missed anything important...

EDIT: From my experience, any player that you see without any rank icon will almost certainly be a bot. If you might recall from your first stream of this game, you got to the Bronze rank after only one or two brawls, so anyone who managed to lose even that lowest rank must be pretty terrible, so even if one of those non-ranked players happens to not be a bot, chances are they'll still be pretty easy to beat.

Edited January 3 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

I decided to really check how many powerups are available to unlock in each theme and here's what I've counted: one each from Castle, Jurassic World, Ninjago Prime, Alien Conquest, and Hidden Side; two each from Space, Monkie Kid, and Ninjago Seabound; three from Pirates; four from Western; and all the remaining themes (Vidiyo, Ninjago Legacy, and Ninjago Dragons Rising) have none at all. Perhaps now that I've made a more accurate assessment, that might help you decide which themes you might prefer to select sooner rather than later. Oh, and there's also the special powerups unlocked from mastering each of the six Champion characters, while all of the remaining powerups to unlock can only be obtained by opening certain mystery bags (specifically from the Rare and Epic tiers).

By the way, did you check to make sure you actually made progress towards the top brawler achievement? If I counted correctly, you should be at 12/20 by now.

[Black Six]

22 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

I decided to really check how many powerups are available to unlock in each theme and here's what I've counted: one each from Castle, Jurassic World, Ninjago Prime, Alien Conquest, and Hidden Side; two each from Space, Monkie Kid, and Ninjago Seabound; three from Pirates; four from Western; and all the remaining themes (Vidiyo, Ninjago Legacy, and Ninjago Dragons Rising) have none at all.

That's definitely good info to have! I'll make a note somewhere to reference in the future. I'm still feeling Monkie Kid is next though.

 

22 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

By the way, did you check to make sure you actually made progress towards the top brawler achievement? If I counted correctly, you should be at 12/20 by now.

Yep, I'm 60% of the way there!

[Chronicler06]

Looks like I made the right choice to avoid participating this week, because you managed to get top brawler an impressive five times! If I've been counting correctly, that means you now have to do it just three more times before you finally unlock that achievement. (Please be sure to let us know if your progress on that achievement really is at 17/20 or if I miscounted somewhere.)

At the end of the stream, I didn't have a chance to explain some things I wanted to mention on the two things on the main menu I told you to check out. On the worldwide leaderboard, I've noticed that the score for the guy at the top (Crazy Pumpkin) has been unchanged as far back as I can recall, so whoever they are, they obviously haven't played at all for a long time. (I also wanted to see if you noticed the characters "Super Man" and "Incredible Hulk" among that top 50.) And if you're curious where my rank falls on that leaderboard, my score of just over 20,000 puts me somewhere in the 400s. As for the collection page, you can see which characters, weapons, powerups, and victory dances you've unlocked and how many you've not yet unlocked. A strange quirk I've noticed from the collection pages is that the characters page does not count any mystery bag characters among those you've not yet unlocked (though any weapons, powerups, and victory dances you'd get from mystery bags are counted, so if you select some of those locked items, you would get to see which mystery bag character you will get along with each of those items.)

Anyway, congrats on the success this week. Who knows? If you do manage to get top brawler three more times to get the achievement, I think I might return to the party right away after that and this time actually stick around.

Edited January 10 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

Since you found the information of powerups unlocked from certain themes helpful, I decided to check again to count the total amount of all content to unlock from each theme, so that you would have a better idea of how long it would take to fully complete each theme.

• Ninjago Dragons Rising - 24
• Ninjago Legacy - 35
• Juassic World - 22
• Castle - 49
• Ninjago Prime - 20
• Ninjago Seabound - 26
• Alien Conquest - 14
• Space - 16
• Monkie Kid - 25
• Hidden Side - 15
• Pirate - 29
• Western - 24
• Vidiyo - 26

Of course, this doesn't include the two seasonal themes, but you've already completed the Holidays one in December and the Spooky one won't become available again until next October, by which point it's possible you may already have every other theme completed. Also, from what I've counted of your current progress, you've unlocked 29 from Castle and 8 from Monkie Kid (with just four more until you unlock the second powerup from that theme), to give you an idea of how much further you have to go.

Interestingly, while I was checking that out, it seems double studs are back in effect for this coming week (which I find kind of odd since I've come to expect it on the final week of each month), so that should allow you to make some significant progress through the themes in your next stream.

By the way, I'm still eager to hear confirmation if I correctly counted how many times you've gotten top brawler so far. I've noticed that thing in your signature that seems to display your achievements progress on many games, but since it seems to falsely state that you last played Lego Brawls back in late December, I can't rely on that potential source of information.

Edited January 14 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

On 1/13/2024 at 9:30 PM, Chronicler06 said:

By the way, I'm still eager to hear confirmation if I correctly counted how many times you've gotten top brawler so far. I've noticed that thing in your signature that seems to display your achievements progress on many games, but since it seems to falsely state that you last played Lego Brawls back in late December, I can't rely on that potential source of information.

Weird - True Achievements usually does a pretty good job with syncing. Looking at my Xbox profile, it says I'm 69% of the way there, which I think is only 14/20. Not sure where the disconnect happened.

[Chronicler06]

1 hour ago, Black Six said:

Looking at my Xbox profile, it says I'm 69% of the way there, which I think is only 14/20. Not sure where the disconnect happened.

Well, I did mention my own struggles with figuring out what did and didn't really count towards that achievement, and that my only real suggestion (besides my speculation to use different custom characters) was to simply keep checking it every time you thought you made any amount of progress to see if it actually registered as such. I'm sure I recall at least once that you were able to check the progress on that achievement while you were still playing the game, so perhaps you should at least keep that in mind for the next stream or two.

[Chronicler06]

Well, pleased to see that you made further progress on the top brawler achievement, even if it did not quite get all of the times you should've gotten progress. But hey, just three more to go, so it won't be much longer until you'll get it.

When it comes to items to unlock, I never bothered to specify the weapons like I did with the powerups because, as far as I'm aware, they all perform just about the same. Regardless, if you intend to create a character that uses the Monkie Kid staff once you unlock it, I would highly recommend you also include the two Monkie kid powerups (the skyboard and the food truck), because you saw how effective they were being used against you, so they might be worth trying out to see if they work for you.

As for which theme to switch to after you complete Monkie Kid, I was going to suggest either Space, Pirates, or Western and let you chose between those three, but it seems you've already decided on Western, so I'll just leave it at that.

Hopefully, things go good enough next week that you'll finally get the top brawler achievement. I'll be looking forward to returning to party mode with you soon enough.

[Chronicler06]

It may have taken a while, but congrats on finally getting the top brawler 20 times achievement! And with that finally accomplished, all there is left to do among the achievements is unlock the six champion characters. As I said in the chat, performance is no longer necessary, all you have to do is pick and use powerups as quickly as possible. It should be noted that when you're in the voting lobby, whatever option is at the bottom of the list (either Base Race or one of the small Free-for-Brawl maps) will always be a map where the powerups are pre-selected, meaning you will never find any of your character's powerups and thus you won't be able to make any progress towards unlocking the champions characters, so be sure to avoid voting for whatever that last option might be.

Also, nice to see you've not only completed the Monkie Kid theme, but also made significant progress through the Western theme. If you somehow manage to complete that theme in next week's stream, just remember that what I would recommend among the remaining themes are either Space or Pirates, and of course I'll let you decide which of those to go for next.

And since I got to join in Party Mode for the last few rounds, I'll now rewatch that part of the stream to hear what you said while I was busy playing.

EDIT: After the rewatch, just a couple things I'd like to say. On our first round together, I voted for Monkie Kid because I kind of had that theme on the mind after watching your recent progress, and since it was just us with a bunch of bots, that's pretty much what we ended up with. At least we got to prove that the free for all maps really are a complete free for all, even if there are players together in Party Mode. The other thing, I will say that when we were on the Ninjago map, I was amused by your unintentional demonstration that while the tranquilizer gun can immobilize someone in a chicken costume (or whatever costume on other maps that provides instant kills), you can still get hurt if you run into the immobilized costume character.

Edited January 24 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

I suppose if you're going on a month-long hiatus from streaming, the end of today's progress seems like a good stopping point. Fully unlocked your first Champion character and gained access to your second, though not yet made any progress towards unlocking that new Champion. Also completed the Western theme and just getting started on the Space theme. In addition, I finally figured out that the key to staying in a party is to simply wait for the host to return the the party room, then the guests will be able to automatically stay without needing to re-enter the code every time.

At this point, you now know how to unlock everything there is left to unlock in the game, so now it's just a matter of putting in the time and effort to unlock the Champion characters with their respective achievements, as well as complete the themes and open the mystery bags. (Speaking of achievements, I noticed your True Achievements listing of Lego Brawls finally updated last week. I guess it syncs only when you complete an achievement, rather than merely make progress towards an achievement.) Since unlocking all of the mystery bags is obviously going to be an immense effort, do you think at least completing all of the themes would seem doable for you? At this point, you've completed two and a half out of 13 themes (not counting the seasonal themes), so I guess it would depend on how much further progress you'll make by the time you've got all six Champions unlocked.

Anyway, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any updates regarding your new streaming schedule. Besides, I've got plenty of other things I'd like to get caught up on, so I'll make use of these free Tuesdays over the next month to try clearing my to-do list a little more quickly.

[Black Six]

20 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

Since unlocking all of the mystery bags is obviously going to be an immense effort, do you think at least completing all of the themes would seem doable for you?

I would certainly like to play more LEGO Brawls. It may just be something that goes on the back burner for a bit while I build LEGO sets or go back to some of the TT Games. To be determined!

[Black Six]

The Future of Twitch Tuesday
Digging back through pages and pages of YouTube videos, it looks like we first started doing our Twitch Tuesday streams in July of 2015, about seven months after our first live build in December 2014. While that's not quite a decade, it's still a long time! Our streams of videogames and set builds have changed a bit over those years, especially the latter, and 2023 found my personal life making it difficult to stream on the weekends building LEGO sets. And I miss that.

While I love playing videogames, over eight years of Twitch Tuesdays means I've played just about every TT Games title and quite a few of the more recent additions like LEGO Brawls. I enjoy striving for completion and finding every widget and collectible, but there is a point where the tediousness sets in a bit. So while I want to keep playing games, I want to bring back the set builds as well, and I don't want to be tied down to Tuesdays every week.

Ergo, Twitch Tuesday as we know it is coming to an end. My goal is still to stream at least once a week, and maybe even more than once a week, switching between LEGO sets and LEGO games depending on my mood and what's captured my interest.

There are still some details to be worked out. I'd like to come up with a catchy name for this new venture, and names are always hard. I also need to determine what my schedule is going to be and how far in advance I can share it. It would be great to be able to post it at the beginning of the week, but real life doesn't always accomodate things like that.

Also, when I decided to take February off from streaming, I did not plan far enough in advance to realize that BrickFair Fredericksburg is at the beginning of March, meaning no streams will resume until March 18th at the earliest.

So there's still some work to be done, but I'm looking forward to building and playing live for you all over on our Twitch Channel soon. Your feedback and input is always welcome!

[Chronicler06]

Now that I'm finally not so busy with other things, I can take this opportunity to share my thoughts on all of this.

I will say that now that I know I'm capable of accessing a Twitch livestream on my tablet, that'll make it a little more convenient for me to be able to watch whenever the stream is on. The reason I had suggested a notification at least a day ahead of schedule is because I'm not exactly checking in on BZPower more than once a day. I typically check on things here around the early evening (6 or 7 pm Eastern time), so if the word gets out just hours ahead of a stream, there's a possibility I could miss out if I happen to be later than usual to check the site for whatever reason. Of course, that's more of a problem that I would have more control over, so long as I can remember to at least briefly check in early enough to find out whether or not a livestream will be on soon.

While I'll definitely continue to watch livestreams of you playing Lego games, live builds are a more open possibility for me. While some builds would interest me more then others, I was usually never able to watch any such streams because my weekends are usually preoccupied with other interests, not to mention those build streams tend to last longer than the game streams which makes it difficult to me to have much interest in such live builds (unless of course if it's a particular set that I really like a lot). Now that I know that I have the option of accessing Twitch on my tablet, that'll make it possible for me to do other things on my computer while I listen and occasionally watch the stream on my tablet beside me, so I just might be able to join in on some of your lives builds (though weekends are still going to be very unlikely for me).

Overall, I'm okay with whatever you decide to do moving forward.