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You can defeat the Dream Devourer from Chrono Trigger using an int overflow

177 points · 106 comments · ronreiter

  1. PlunderBunny · · focus · HN ↗
    I figured out that, in the early versions of Realmz for the Mac, there was an enchanted item (a helm?) that added a few points to the wearer’s stats when equipped, but when removed it took away more than it added (i.e. left you worse off). It only took a few seconds for my programmer brain to start me furiously equipping and then un-equipping it, and sure enough, when that stat went to -127, one more equip-and-unequip was sufficient to give me a +128 bonus for that stat.

    I never understood how that particular bit of logic could have been coded that way - it seemed so unnatural.

    1. anon_cow1111 · · focus · HN ↗
      If you still like video games and are a bit of a masochist you might try playing Noita sometime, a lot of the late game is basically built around this type of logic.

      For example there's a wizard-type enemy that temporarily debuffs your max health by 50%, and the effect can stack if you get hit more than once. But what happens if you pick up a permanent health boost item while the debuff spell is on you? You gain the normal health boost, then it multiplies itself when the wizard's spell expires; you can can go from 100 to several thousand HP in seconds and there's basically no limit.

      In any other game this would be considered a bug and patched out in the next update. NOT NOITA, motherfucker. You're almost required to do things like this for a lot of the end-game optional content.

      1. Filligree · · focus · HN ↗
        The programmer adjusted the way it works to make it slightly less OP. Just so we could all be sure the bug was now a feature.
        1. anon_cow1111 · · focus · HN ↗
          Ah I haven't played in a long time, though it's good to see there's still some active updates
      2. angled · · focus · HN ↗
        Similar to the WoW diamond flask set: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wowhead.com&#x2F;classic&#x2F;item=20130&#x2F;diamond-flask#comments" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wowhead.com&#x2F;classic&#x2F;item=20130&#x2F;diamond-flask#com...
      3. somat · · focus · HN ↗
        Noita is mad, in the best sort of way.

        So it is this very hard amalgamation of rogue and powder toy that controls like terreria, Very hard, With none of that silly meta progression nonsense you find in most roguelikes, But you push through, get good and beat it. Guess what? That was at most 10% of the game(probably closer to 1%), the other 90% is deliberately obtuse, hidden and optional. What sort of madmen make 90% of their game a easter egg?

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