In Praise of the Grind

Happy Pocky Day!

In the side-scrolling rogue-like "Dead Cells," you play as the Beheaded, and your goal, at least at an initial glance, is to escape from the prison, fighting through hordes of undead infected by the "Malaise," so you can kill the King and hopefully bring about change. The gameplay is simple to grasp but difficult to master as you fight monsters. For the less adroit, reaching the end of each level, or Biome, may take several runs. Dying and starting over is a core mechanic of rogue-likes and, in my most humble opinion, one of the most genius methods of teaching perseverance that any game or real life hack has to offer, if you let it.

When you first boot up the game, you start with a measly rusted sword, a wooden shield, and a simple bow, from which you have to choose 2 out of the 3. As you progress through each Biome, you're likely to find Blueprints for better weapons, shields, and skills, thus upping your chances of survivability. As you collect the game's currencies, you can purchase additional upgrades, both permanent and for that run only, which make you stronger, all at a trickle so that you can learn what kind of player you are.

Some people are fast and brutal strikers, melee combatants who like to be in the fray of enemies hacking and slashing and dodging and parrying. Others may prefer distance and tactics, using bows and deployable skills to get the job done from afar. A third group may prefer heavier, mid-range weaponry and higher health to increase their survivability, slow-swinging broadswords or heavy crossbows that require constant reloading but pack a wallop.

The game itself helps you by giving you better equipment, but if you take time to consider it, the power creep between you and the enemies is nothing more than an elaborate illusion, because what the game is actually teaching you is how to predict enemy attacks and fighting styles. You make it through the first Biome because you've unlocked better weapons or skills, but you've also learned that the green zombies will jump at you from far away or swipe at you from close up, and you can thus dodge or parry accordingly depending on your play style.

The game forgives mistakes on the lowest difficulty, because it expects the amateur to flub and fail. That's how we learn. But as long as you can make it to the rest area between each Biome or after each Boss, you're guaranteed a replenishing of any health flasks you may have used to get there.

The overarching layout follows a simple pattern,

Biome → Biome → Biome → Boss → Biome → Biome → Boss → Biome → "Final" Boss

with some variation intermixed as you unlock access to additional areas.

When you beat the game for the very first time, which in and of itself feels like an achievement after dying repeatedly, you receive a "Boss Stem Cell," which, when active, increases the difficulty of the game.

You can collect 5 overall Boss Stem Cells, and each one makes the game progressively more challenging. Enemies attack faster, they deal more damage, more of them spawn in each Biome, and once you unlock the 5th BSC, you unlock the Malaise itself as a mechanic, a bar that fills over time and further increases the aforementioned difficulty of the enemies while also spawning in random enemies.

Also, there's an inverse relationship between the higher difficulties and the game unlocks making you a stronger player through equipment alone. Fewer blueprints drop, replenishing health in between each area decreases until it disappears altogether at higher difficulties, mistakes become more lethal, and Curse can end your run in a single hit if you're reckless. The plus side is that you get more Scrolls to fit your play style, allowing you to deal more damage to keep up with the enemies' ever-increasing health.

Overall, however, the higher the difficulty, the less the game revolves around upgrades and more around skill, taking careful chances, and practice. You're expected to die dozens if not hundreds of times, and it can be a frustrating experience when you're on a roll, just a couple areas away from the final boss, and then — BAM — die to a trap of spikes you didn't notice until it was too late because you were Cursed.

All for the glory of unlocking the secret final Biome and the secret final Boss on 5 BSC, thus earning you the "true ending." But to get that, you need grit and discipline and patience, despite the game being fun, because it is challenging, but the challenge makes it worthwhile.

Yes, you can turn on certain modes to help make it easier, such as restarting the Biome where you died instead of all the way back at the beginning. You could even beat the game once at the lowest difficulty and decide to learn the rest of the lore via a Wiki page or YouTube. You might even be one of those people who takes the challenge to the extreme and decides to beat the game without taking any damage whatsoever. I myself certainly will not be attempting that level of insanity, but I do believe there are benefits to overcoming the challenge of the game when played as intended, the least of which is the satisfaction of success.

Because while killing monsters may not be a transferable skill outside of other rogue-likes, perseverance and dedication when bumping up against challenges or frustrations is. Learning to look at larger trends and go, "Okay, this run sucked compared to yesterday's, but I'm consistently making it further than I did previously," matters when working on long-term projects or self-improvement. Stalling, regressing, improving, and even quitting all provide data on where you were, where you are, where you fall, and where you throw in the towel.

To me, anything that can teach those skills subliminally is a harvest ripe for picking, because what better way to practice for the test than first through play?

Summary of Notable Accomplishments (11.4 - 11.10):

• Reworked my workout schedule (I know, I need to stop switching things up and just commit) to what I hope is a more manageable spread

  • For example, I dread leg day because not only did I have the hardest leg/glute exercises scheduled (Bulgarian Split Squats, Heel Lifted Goblet Squats, etc.) but because the tedium continued with lighter leg exercises afterward. So, I'm trying a "Exercise-Forward" style setup, where the hardest moves for legs are on my "Legs-Forward" day, and then I do lighter leg exercises elsewhere in the week as a counterbalance to, say, the hardest arms exercises on my "Arms-Forward" day. It lessens the load of the harder day and forces me to work the same muscle group at least twice a week.

  • These experiments are mostly me trying to organize what I feel is sustainable for myself

  • Still keeping to the 5-day split though!

  • Oh, and it was the first time I organized my own workout routine instead of letting the app decide what moves go when. I put everything into Excel, color-coded them by muscle group, then spread the exercises according to what I thought would be manageable.

It looks like a lot, but in this case, I'm only doing one working set per exercise pushed as close to failure as I can manage without injuring myself. I add sets on an exceptionally good day. Like today!

• Transcribed the rest of Session 151 and the first part of 152

• Wrestling with the 22nd of Nudon journal still

  • With how wile it's being, I might need to dedicate a full day to it instead of following my usual afternoon routine

• On Book 5 of "Shogun"!

• Wawfuls, a whole stack o' wawfuls

Real Talk:

• What mediums have taught you valuable skills subconsciously, and what skills were they?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Mura