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Awesome Games Done Quick 2024: IT’S OVER

StericaSterica YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
edited January 21 in Social Entropy++
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Games Done Quick is a charity event brought to you by the Speed Demos Archive that consists of two week-long speedrunning marathons each year. The first, Awesome Games Done Quick, is a winter marathon that donates to the Prevent Cancer Foundation and was the original marathon that started it all. Eventually a summer marathon, the aptly named Summer Games Done Quick, was started up to raise funds for Médecins Sans Frontières known in English as Doctors Without Borders. Both marathons are roughly equal in popularity, and together they raise about $5 million a year for charity. There was also a sister event, Pinball Done Quick, that used to concurrently with both GDQ marathons, although this seems to have stopped around 2018.

In 2020, GDQ celebrated its 10th anniversary, and a lot of growth has happened in that time. It was in 2014 that the first marathon hit a million dollars, and a year later the first summer marathon would also hit that mark. In 2017, AGDQ reached the 2 million milestone. Then in 2019, SGDQ broke three million for the first time for GDQ as a whole. In 2016 a new series debuted, called GDQ Hotfix, that consists of smaller community events such as race tournaments, special runs, and more! All proceeds go towards charity, and offer another way to get your GDQ fix throughout the year. There is no formal schedule for Hotfix, so follow the official Twitch channel and check in from time to time to see if anything is happening. In recent years, COVID-19 has forced the recent marathons to be online-only, which dulls a bit of the atmosphere and money raised, but GDQ has still been successful regardless, and the new format has allowed for more experimentation, such as exhibition runs using esoteric or just too plain big to set up on location. In 2020, GDQ launched Frame Fatales, a women's speedrunning group that have their own week-long marathons twice a year: Flame Fatales in the summer and Frost Fatales in late fall/early winter. These marathons are a bit smaller in scope, only running in the afternoons before taking a break until the next day. Both marathons contribute towards the Malala Fund, which is a nonprofit focused on education for girls.

This thread in particular is for discussion of the marathon, but during the "off season" (aka the other 50 weeks of the year) feel free to use this place to discuss other speedrunning events going on, or just speedrunning in general.

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Below is this list of stream available when a marathon is live. If anything changes, they'll be updated as needed.
Official Twitch Channel
Spanish
French
German
Russian
Japanese

You're inevitably going to miss a run, but all runs are archived at the GDQ YouTube Channel. Note that while uploads are pretty quick (about 12 hours after the run was finished) initial uploads can sometimes be of iffy quality since tech people are still running the marathon. Normally a second batch of runs are uploaded a week or two after the marathon has ended, which tend to fix most issues. If you are super impatient, you can check out the Speedrunning Reddit that is fairly quick at collecting Twitch VODs in one post. Also, please note that the GDQ YouTube channel only goes back a few years, and the older marathons are archived at the old SDA Channel. If you want footage from some of the earliest marathons (and special marathons like the Spooktacular), then you're going to have to search YouTube and pray someone uploaded it. Some runs have simply been lost to time.

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The easiest way to donate is to head over to their main site and hit the big donate button. You can leave a comment, but be aware that it is highly unlikely to be read on air unless A] You know the runner personally or B] you donated a truckload of money at once. You may wish to hold off on donating, however, until a certain time in the marathon. Prizes are raffled throughout the marathon, and to enter a particular raffle you must donate during a specific portion of the marathon. For example, some Mario merchandise may be raffled to anyone who donates while a particular Mario game is being run, or some Sonic swag may be raffled during a block of multiple Sonic runs. Check out the main site for a list of the prizes and when they are raffled, and the stream itself will offer regular reminders about upcoming prizes being offered. Regardless of when you donate, there is a "grand prize" that is selected from all donations throughout the marathon that are above a certain amount.

One other thing about donate: bid war and incentives. Some games have inconsequential decisions that the marathon leaves up to you, the audience. Be it character names in an RPG, or what outfit to dress a character in, they offer fun ways to liven up the proceedings and get some extra money in the process. Incentives are a bit meatier, as they actually result in more marathon content when met. This can be things such as increasing the difficulty of an upcoming run, getting a bonus run of the same game, or having a totally new run squeezed into the schedule. You get to decide where you money goes when donating (and it doesn't affect the aforementioned prize raffles), so consider checking out what's available when you donate. It's totally optional, but it can a lot of fun.

There are other ways to contribute!
  1. The Yetee: every year, a selection of shirts are made available only during the week of the marathon. All profits from sales of these shirts go to GDQ!
  2. Twitch Subscription: Money from Twitch Subscriptions to the GDQ channel go to the total.
  3. Fangamer: Various merchandise for the event, a portion of sales going to charity!
If any alternative ways to donate pop up, they'll be added to the list.

Can't afford to donate? Then you may consider submitting the aforementioned prizes that are raffled away during the marathon. This can include games, relevant merchandise, and even homemade crafts so long as the quality is high enough. You can check out the guidelines for submitting prizes over here. You can also help out by just spreading the good word of going fast, and mentioning GDQ on social media or wherever while a marathon is going on. Hit up the Twitter account to find banners, hashtags, and whatever kids these days are using to advertise.

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NOTICE: None of the following applies as marathons have been online only for the past couple pandemic-ridden years.

You can attend a GDQ marathon in three ways: as an attendee, a volunteer, or a runner. The main site covers how to sign up for these various roles, so I'll mostly describe what each entails.

Attendees go to GDQ like you would a small convention or other game-related event. These events are far too crowded to let you get even close to the TV the game is being run on, so you'll be relegated to watching runs on a large projector. If you are really into speedrunning, this may be up your alley: you get to meet some of the biggest names in the community, enjoy really exciting moments in person, and just chill in general with like-minded people for a week or however long you stay. On the downside, it's not like a traditional convention, as runs can happen at any time of day, which may not work out so hot for you if that obscure RPG you love gets run at four in the morning. It also runs for a week in the middle of January/July, so you will either have to take additional time off work or just hope the good runs are happening on the weekend. I also question how long a speedrunning marathon can hold your interest for a few days, much less a week, but that's a subjective thing. More details on attending can be found here.

Volunteers help run the show. This is a lot of work, and you will be assisting with setting up TVs and consoles, breaking stuff down, reading donations, helping attendees, and so forth. This is a charity, so while you won't have pay for registration, you will have to pay for travel and other accommodations. You're also working as this is a job and not a vacation, so keep that mentality when deciding if you want to volunteer. Details on volunteering tend to be on the GDQ forums, so head over there if this sounds like something you'd be interested in.

Finally, the stars of the show: the runners. Obviously the process to be selected for running a game at the marathon is way more demanding, and your odds of getting in are slim. How slim? For AGDQ 2017, over 1500 hours of submissions were declined. That's only 12% of submitted hours actually making it into the marathon. I'm not entirely sure what helps get you in, like maybe a YouTube/Twitch channel to show you can handle being in the public eye? There's no guarantee, however. Even GDQ superstars get their submissions declined. Also, keep in mind that runners are volunteers. You're not playing video games for money, and you're most likely going to do a lot of practicing and traveling just to spend an hour playing one game. There is always the chance of attracting people to your fledgling Twitch channel if you really hit a chord with people, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Do it for charity, and not dreams of internet superstardom. You can find a fairly detailed guide on submitting runs over here.

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Like any community, a certain amount of jargon gets kicked around during marathons. This section includes lingo for both speedrunning and GDQ marathons. Check out below for any terms you may not understand.
100% - completing a run while grabbing every item, collectible, etc. The definition of 100% varies from game-to-game, although it's usually deign by in-game stuff such as the game's percent complete, unlocking the best/true endings, etc.
any% - completing a run as fast as possible. The only thing that matters is speed, although some games have "warpless" or "glitchless" Any% runs to keep things interesting.
Awful Block - Happening during the winter marathons, this is a block of games typically run one late night during the marathon. It's a series of runs of truly bad/weird games, where the emphasis is less on speedrunning and more showcasing hilariously bad games. It's not uncommon for awful block runs to fail because the game has a tendency to lock up or crash. A tradition of AGDQ, whereas SGDQ tends to have a "weird" games block that focuses on titles that are more niche but necessarily bad.
bonus stream - during older marathons, this was a period after the event where runners would do random runs, play Smash money matches, or even competitive games like Yoshi's Cookie. These would sometimes last a while, like a week of more after the original marathon had ended. As the marathons grew larger, however, the logistics made bonus streams more difficult to manage. They would grow shorter and shorter until they were officially ended in 2015.
damage boosting - taking advantage of the brief invincibility that most games have after you take damage to bypass certain areas quickly. Sometimes the knockback from taking damage is also useful in accessing areas.
estimate - The maximum amount of time a runner believes their run will take at the marathon. Estimates are typically a below-average time that gives the schedule a bit of a cushion in case the runner has lousy luck and goes long. Some estimates are more reflective of consistency, and may be tighter because the runner feels they can routinely finish in that time. Failing to finish within in an estimate is something of a mark of shame for a runner. Typically runners are allowed to continue past the estimate, but at a certain point the run can be "mercy killed" and ended prematurely to keep the marathon on schedule.
frames - refers to frames of animation. Tends to be a fancy way of saying "portions of a second" as games tend to animate at 30 or 60 frames per second. So in a 60 fps game, a "frame perfect" technique means you only have 1/60th of a second in which to pull it off. There's also terms like "I-frames" which refers to "invulnerability frames" during which your character (or sometimes an enemy) cannot be hurt.
IL - Individual Level. These means a run of just a specific part of the game, which means when something goes wrong there's less to lose because restarting is less painful. As a result, runners tend to use riskier strategies and tricks since flubbing them means you just go back to the beginning of that stage instead of having to start the whole run over.
low% - the opposite of 100%: completing the game while grabbing only the bare minimum of items necessary to finish.
marathon luck - normally invoked with some sarcasm, but basically odd flukes of (usually bad) luck that only seem to happen when you are streaming in front of an audience of tens of thousands. Usually followed by statements of "this didn't happen in practice"
manipulation - doing a particular set of actions to manipulate a quirk or portion of the game's code. One example is item drops in the original Legend of Zelda, where a runner will kill a specific enemy after killing an equally specific number of enemies because it is guaranteed to result in a bomb dropping.
mercy kill - to end a run before it is complete. This is a rare occurrence for when a run goes well beyond the estimate, and is done so that the marathon stays on schedule.
OOB - Out of Bounds. To leave the intended playable areas of the game, which can allow the player to skip large chunks of the game. Some games have No-OOB categories because, in many cases, you can go out of bounds so much you're not really playing the game anymore.
PB - Personal Best, the fastest run a particular person has done for that category. During something like GDQ, a runner tends to use their personal best as a metric to judge how well they did for their run at the marathon.
race - Multiple players do independent runs at the same time to see who finishes first. The quality of these can run hot or cold, as sometimes one person takes a lead and dominates whereas others they get very neck and neck. Races can lead to exciting moments not see in normal runs, as a trailing player may be encouraged to do high-risk, high-reward strats in order to catch up.
RTA - Real-Time Attack. Basically the opposite of a TAS, where you do the run in real-time and have to rely on your own weak human reflexes. Also refers to using an actual timer instead of relying on any in-game timers.
safety strats - (aka "marathon strats") doing something that slows you down, but will save you a considerable amount of time if you mess up a particularly difficult upcoming section, such as grabbing extra health or taking time to hit a checkpoint
save/kill the animals - A very old donation bid war for Super Metroid runs. During the final moments of that game, there is a room you can detour to in order to free some animals. Normally this wouldn't be done in a speedrun, but it's been used as a bid war where people can vote with their dollars to save or "kill" the animals by going to or skipping the room. Super Metroid is no longer run every single marathon, but when it is you can expect this battle to begin anew
sequence break - Performing a trick or exploiting a bug so that you do an unintended skip over large chunks of the game, or go through segments of the game as unintended by the designers. For an extreme example, using a glitch in Ocarina of Time to jump straight to the Ganon fight.
TAS - Tool-Assisted Speedrun, in which the runner uses an emulator when running the game. Normally involves having the game play at very slow speeds, sometimes frame-by-frame so certain strategies can be pulled off that would be impossible or extremely difficult with normal human reflexes. Obviously very dull to watch live, but there is a usually short segment during the marathon to show some recordings of neat TAS stuff.
warp - skipping directly to a level. Can be intentional (the numerous warp zones of Mario) or through glitches (Ocarina of Time's "wrong warp")
WR - World Record, the fastest time known for that category. Extremely uncommon during a marathon, as you don't tend to play the game near perfectly in one run. Still, every marathon tends to have one or two WRs occur, typically in more niche or less popular games.
X% - some games have special runs that have been found fun to run. This can involve grabbing all of a specific item that may not count towards 100%, playing as certain characters, or restrictions regarding glitches.
zip - causing your character to fly through a stage or segment. Usually done by trying to squeeze your character into the stage itself (like a block or the ground) so they get stuck and the game forces them out by warping you at high speeds. Tends to be rather tricky to pull off.

And remember...
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Sterica on
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Posts

  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    Hype

    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • The BetgirlThe Betgirl I'm Molly! Registered User regular
    oh i'm ready

    Steam PSN: YerFriendMolly
    ineedmayo.com Eidolon Journal Updated
  • Kevin CristKevin Crist I make the devil hit his knees and say the 'our father'Registered User regular
    Hype to see how many daughters get donated this time.

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    Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    oh jeeze it's this time again already huh

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  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    fuck, already?

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    WHERE DO THE YEARS GO

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  • KetBraKetBra Dressed Ridiculously Registered User regular
    Fuck yeah

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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Is PJ running anything this year?

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

    I see a PJ running Actraiser 2 and Mohawk & Headphone Jack

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  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    I'm continually glad that I'm not the only member of the PJ fanclub here.

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    I'm excited!

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    facetious wrote: »
    I'm continually glad that I'm not the only member of the PJ fanclub here.

    I will occasionally watch his lagoon runs when I am bored

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • mageormikemageormike Registered User regular
    I might try to watch this live this year!

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    This will be the first year I try to watch some of this live.

  • Knight_Knight_ Dead Dead Dead Registered User regular
    agdq isn't during pax south this year hooray. i missed so much of last year's.

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  • ShortyShorty touching the meat Intergalactic Cool CourtRegistered User regular
    facetious wrote: »
    I'm continually glad that I'm not the only member of the PJ fanclub here.

    I already liked him because he runs Lagoon, but then I found out that he also runs Robotrek

    dude runs almost every one of my favorite SNES games

  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    Knight_ wrote: »
    agdq isn't during pax south this year hooray. i missed so much of last year's.

    Honestly I loved that it was during PAX. I brought my Fire TV stick with me and would just have it on so when I came back to my hotel room I could catch whatever was on. Plus you can go in to the channel from the Fire TV Twitch app and watch VODs, too.

    Instead it'll be a nice thing to pass the time until PAX week.

  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    The first run is a Hollow Knight true ending estimated at 15 minutes.

    It says no major glitches, so presumably there will be some glitches, but that's still a hell of a time.

    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • PeewiPeewi Registered User regular
    Baidol wrote: »
    The first run is a Hollow Knight true ending estimated at 15 minutes.

    It says no major glitches, so presumably there will be some glitches, but that's still a hell of a time.

    The 15 minutes is the setup time. The estimate is 1:35.

  • klemmingklemming Registered User regular
    I assume there's some BS controversy about someone who got banned for doing something harmless like drop kicking a baby on stream? There usually is. They really should add it to the schedule.

    Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    so... you're pro drop-kicking then? I'm having a little trouble parsing what your hot take is about

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  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    Does that banner up top mean there’ll be a Final Fantasy IX run? Presumably including the collection of Excalibur II?

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

    any% run late late friday night/saturday wee hours of the morning

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  • klemmingklemming Registered User regular
    so... you're pro drop-kicking then? I'm having a little trouble parsing what your hot take is about
    It needed sarcasm tags.
    There's usually a rage somewhere about someone being banned for doing something 'totally harmless', like using a slur on a charity stream with hundreds of thousands of viewers, or harassing someone at the event.

    Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
  • NeveronNeveron HellValleySkyTree SwedenRegistered User regular
    klemming wrote: »
    I assume there's some BS controversy about someone who got banned for doing something harmless like drop kicking a baby on stream? There usually is. They really should add it to the schedule.

    The current hubbub is about a relatively-famous GoldenEye speedrunner turning out to be a heinous Nazi on Discord, which thankfully is obvious enough that even the the speedrunning subreddit (generally fairly toxic about these topics) turned against him.

    But that might be because it was less a "he's not actually a Nazi but some other variety of alt-right racist I'm calling a Nazi for convenience's sake" thing and more of a "there are discord logs of him talking about how they need to stay on the down-low about the Jewish Question until the Overton Window shifts enough" thing. It's really hard to deny, basically, which makes it really easy to weed out other Nazis because they're pretty much the only ones who still defend him after being presented with the evidence.
    Incidentally, I would recommend not watching Apollo Legend's videos since he was incredibly disingenuous in his video defending his friend RWhiteGoose (said Nazi).

  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

    any% run late late friday night/saturday wee hours of the morning

    Thanks!

    There’s a lot of good stuff lined up.

    I’m glad that Aria of Sorrow is specified glitchless; otherwise it would be over as soon as you get a giant-transformation Soul.

  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    looks like a pretty good schedule this year...

    They have DKC early which is one of my favorite speed games, that will definitely get me in the mood

  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    All Stages is an important one there. I saw the kind of wrongwarping shenanigans that can happen in that game. The reverse-order run was a sight to see.

  • OmnipotentBagelOmnipotentBagel floof Registered User regular
    Damn, Sunday's starting off strong with a lot of stuff I wanna watch

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  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    Fucking FF9 estimated at about 10 hours. Why not.

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  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    Seems about right for the game’s internal speed run prize.

  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    I assume the incentive is gonna be collecting Excalibur II and doing that weird Tantalus event that was discovered recently.

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  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    Getting E2 is easy if you’re already speedrunning to that level; it’s on the critical path.

  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    Yeah and it's also an easy thing to walk past unless people paid 2000 bucks for it or whatever.

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  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    oh wait there's also the regular "name everyone" incentives

    I hope they name Dagger Spoon

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  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    SimBen wrote: »
    Yeah and it's also an easy thing to walk past unless people paid 2000 bucks for it or whatever.

    I guess so. I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it is a few frames. I feel like making Steiner as powerful as possible is helpful for speed against the final bosses, since you’re not gonna be grinding for max damage Thievery, Dragon Crest, or Frog Drop.

    The way that Trance is managed through the run should be interesting.
    SimBen wrote: »
    oh wait there's also the regular "name everyone" incentives

    I hope they name Dagger Spoon

    That would be hilarious.

  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    SimBen wrote: »
    Fucking FF9 estimated at about 10 hours. Why not.

    Yeah, the WR is 8 hours and 44 minutes, but that's considered to be pretty difficult, but sub 9 hours is doable.

    Likely, with whatever incentives they'll do for it (probably just character names and the optional boss fight) plus the fact that its multiple runners doing it will add time.

    Excalibur II is part of the routing, however, so I doubt they do it as an incentive (Steiner hits for 9999 when he equips it) unless they want to add time to the run.

    I may have been watching a few FF9 runs lately.

  • klemmingklemming Registered User regular
    A good incentive for FF9 would be doing Ozma and/or doing Ozma at low level.
    You wouldn't be able to do that on the run unless you add an hour or so for all the Chocobo stuff, but they could have a save set up.

    Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    klemming wrote: »
    A good incentive for FF9 would be doing Ozma and/or doing Ozma at low level.
    You wouldn't be able to do that on the run unless you add an hour or so for all the Chocobo stuff, but they could have a save set up.

    yeah, doing ozma would add a ton of time
    and ozma is theoretically really easy assuming you have the correct setup, just possibly reset heavy

  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    edited January 2019
    I think they usually just do an incentive for Tantarian.

    EDIT: Also, potential run spoilers, Trance and mechanics stuff:
    Trance is actually funny because, except in certain circumstances, it's mostly just ignored as it's more of a time waste due to the animation involved than a time save, especially once Steiner learns Charge!, which becomes the main tactic toward the end of the run.

    Charge lets all of your characters at low HP physical attack as part of Steiner's turn, including Steiner himself, thus making it possible to theoretically do 7 physical attacks for every turn the enemy gets

    Goose! on
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