As soon as I get my ADHD brain committed to learning how, I'll add the First/Previous/Next links. In the meantime, the friendly bot in the comments has the rest of the chapters linked. I'll post chapters as regularly as I can manage, but probably not at set schedules. My writing days are limited to Sat-Tues, so expect fewer posts around the middle of the week. As always, happy with any feedback!
Chapter 5
Li’Taln Star System
Lagrange 1, 4th planet
Hephaestus Shipyard/Habitat 2aa44
The Epinian mercenary narrowed his eyes at the assembled team. If one could call this… collection of the worst kind of mercenaries a team. He hissed in frustration. If only I hadn’t gotten involved with that piece of shit Holder on Borr IV, he thought. I should have known the credits were too good to be true.
The Epinian winced involuntarily as he remembered the job. What was advertised as a simple salvage job had turned into the worst memory of his life. A Li’lii freighter was reported drifting among some asteroids, the victim of equipment failure. He had gone aboard with the rest of his team, only to find precious survivors of the Li’lii race holed up in a section of the hull that still had atmosphere, a feat managed by cobbling together life support from different escape pods.. Further inspection would reveal the life pods had been sabotaged to prevent ejection, likely by the same people who had arranged for the reactor to fail, but they had worked a small miracle in linking their life support systems together for mutual support. They had even begun piecing together a new power supply, not enough to escape the gas giant’s gravity, but more than enough to power a SOS message to reach a nearby patrol route.
His original orders were to take any Li’lii remains for genetic sampling, but primarily to salvage any of the strange “Terran” tech the Li’lii were rumored to be in possession of. But when he reported the existence of survivors, his orders changed. “Kill the Li’lii. No witnesses.”
Draisgors had been part of many morally questionable missions. From outright piracy to insurrection suppression, he didn’t much care why he was fighting so long as the credits were good. But even mercs have standards, and killing unarmed, defenseless members of a race noted for their peaceful nature definitely crossed the line. His refusal to execute the survivors was noted, and dismissed. “Kill them, or we blast that entire ship into dust with you in it,” came the disinterested reply from the captain of the Grei vessel that hired them.
Hardening themselves to the task at hand, he and his team breached the section of the hull that still had power and life support, only to be met by laser fire from asteroid mining equipment. Pulling back, the mercs simply waited, while blasting several more holes in their life support zone. Finally, only two life forms remained on scanners, and the mercs entered to find that two Li’lii children had been shoved into the only remaining functional space suit. The mercs, saying nothing, snuck the two children back aboard the Grei ship and later smuggled them aboard a space station, where they were picked up by security forces and sent to meet with the rest of the survivors of the massacre.
But that meant he and his team were marked men the moment the Grei Holders found out about his betrayal. Not to mention the bounty placed on him by the Council from the testimony of the children. While his sentence might be reduced for sparing the children, from torture before death to simple death, either way he was fucked. Kicked out of the mercenary guild, he and his team had been reduced to taking only black market jobs, which led to this current clusterfuck.
“Alright people,” he snarled when his team finally finished assembling aboard the Hephaestus, an automated fabrication station designed by the Terran. “The job is simple. Take over the control room. If we fail, we die. The fucking Grei will simply blow this station before they allow it to fall back into the hands of the Coucil. I want team one in the passageway in front of the control room, the rest breaches with me. We do not shoot unarmed civilians. Do I make myself clear?”
The team gave various half assed assents, and Draisgors resisted the urge to shoot them himself. I swear to god, if I get out of this alive, I’m buying a new identity and taking up farming on the most boring, distant planet I can find, he thought.
The mercs boarded the lifts as one, and used the time to check weapons. As soon as the lift doors opened, forty mercenaries stormed the hallway, weapons at the ready. Scum they may be, but they at least knew what they were about. Well, by some standards, anyway.
Unfortunately for Draisgors, and the rest of his team, what they found waiting for them was a team of commandos who fired stun grenades directly into their midst. The “fight” lasted around two seconds before the entire mercenary team was downed by a paralyzing agent, foam frothing around their mouths as they lay twitching. Or perhaps it was fortunate for Draisgors, though he could probably be forgiven for not realizing it at the time.
“Captain Braxxus, Hephaestus all clear. Monitoring for additional activity,” Lt. Jorei “Smallz” Li’aln reported as she allowed her visor to dissolve. Her eyes were black, reflective pools as she looked at the leader of the mercenaries.
“It seems to be a small galaxy after all, Draisgors,” she said in perfect, if rapid, Common. “Five trillion known sapients among two hundred and forty known species. And one of the people I most wanted to meet just fell right into my lap,” she purred, her voice no warmer than liquid helium.
“Tranq all of them except this one. Cuff ‘em and stuff ‘em,” she ordered, as nanites from their armors’ reserves were used to bind the mercenaries and to inject species appropriate sedatives. She picked up the Epinian by the back of the neck, and none too gently sat him on a nearby bench, her matte black armor boosted strength in no way strained by the task. She injected him with the counter to the neurotoxin and waited patiently for the paralytics to weaken.
In a few seconds, the Epinians groaned as he regained the ability to move, and he gently, slowly repositioned himself to lean back against the bulkhead. He looked up to see the emotionless face of what was now the most talked about race in the galaxy. “I don’t have much room to ask for favors, but please just kill me quickly,” he muttered, eyes falling away from the Li’lii and fixing themselves to the floor. He couldn’t look any of them in the eye anymore.
“Draisgors, former mercenary. Now just terrorist scum. You could have disappeared, and no special effort would have been made to find you. Your crimes are barbaric, but we have the recordings the Li’lii children gave us, and we would have let you disappear. But here you are. Why?” she asked, almost… kindly?
“The Grei decided they needed some disposable muscle. They use people like me, with no way to rejoin polite society. Sometimes prisoners that they bust out of jail, others just pirates. Some are just fucked up people who enjoy what they do. They made me a deal. One more job, with no violence if everything went well, and then I could disappear,” was Draisgors’s weary reply. “I just wanted out. I know the Holders aren’t well liked, but they understand the value of keeping to a deal.”
The Li’lii nodded. “I understand. As thanks, a gift.” With the unnatural speed of her race, a sidearm materialized in front of Draisgor’s face, and with a sharp crack, he ceased worrying about anything else.
“The rest of these scum can go to trial in front of the Council,” she ordered. One of her sergeants grabbed the corpse of the Epinean, and tossed it like so much trash into the appropriate receptacle. While normally the station VI would scan anything entering the garbage chutes to prevent evidence disposal, a simple override from the Lieutenant opened the chute, and the corpse was dropped in, then deleted from existence as plasma disassembled his corpse at the molecular level.
***
Report after report flowed in, and after the last station gave the all clear, I sighed in relief. Listening to the arrogant Grei ramble on had my left eye twitching, always a bad sign for those that knew the Admiral.
“Alright Jeanie. I make that a clean sweep. One casualty. Fourteen minutes from deployment to complete mission objective. Think they get a passing grade?” I asked teasingly.
“Sir, I hesitate to mention this again, but…What exactly have you unleashed on this poor, unsuspecting galaxy?” she asked, deadpan.
“Balance, Jeanie. Balance.”
I gave a quick, sharp gesture to the Sergeant, and the mercifully the Grei’s voice cut off in the middle of his villain’s monologue.
“Let’s move in. The explosives are neutralized. As soon as I’m through, I want a shield wall between the hostages and the Grei’s office,” I ordered.
“Yes sir!” came his sharp reply, and we jogged the rest of the way down the corridor, the team readying their riot shields either side of the door.
I raised my hand and projected a holographic view of the inside of the warehouse. “The gnom- I mean, the Tiknoli are here.” I pointed to the group of aliens huddled away from the entrance. “Whoever is leading them at least has the sense to keep them away from any breaching points.” I moved my hand over to indicate the rectangular, modular bunker on the far side of the warehouse. “Scans show no external weapons, but I wouldn’t count on it. It’s a standard Council Army deployable hab, which means it likely has recessed automated turrets. I can take them out as soon as they show up, but I want shields in front of the hostages soonest. For the love of all that is unholy, keep your shields between yourself and that bunker. I’m fast, but Murphy is faster.”
“Murphy, sir?” asked the Sergeant.
“I’ll explain some other time. Just, keep in mind things never go as planned,” I replied.
“Ah. We call her the Demon Foosie in Epinean, sir.”
“Huh. That’s… we’ll circle back to that.”
I dismissed the hologram, and prepared to breach. I activated the circuits for my shield, and with a mental command altered its shape. The shield’s dim blue outline grew, and the curve inverted, forming an enclosed space between the shield and the wall. Bracing the shield, I sent the breach command, and my armor began spraying foam from a port opened in the arm into the cavity created by the shield. In moments, the foam had solidified, and with a whomp, it detonated, the precisely calculated force blowing the door across the warehouse bay. The foam was detonated from the left side, causing the door to shear away to the right, towards the office and away from the hostages. I dropped into HH, and my artificial body accelerated through, following close behind the remains of the door. I dismissed the riot shield, and focused all of my attention on the bunker.
The bunker was a permacrete block that was used by both military and civilian agencies. They were pre-fabricated airtight structures featuring modular construction that allowed many configurations to be pre-assembled or altered on the ground. Built-in point defense, energy shielding, air filtration, and communication nodes came standard. Other modules included barracks, offices, hygiene facilities, armories… whatever was needed could be dropped and snapped into place, making them popular with both militaries and corporations that operated in hostile environments. Their use was so ubiquitous no one thought anything of the Grei installing one in the warehouse. Why lease office space aboard the station, when they were already granted access to the cargo bay? Many other companies had similar offices set up.
Small tactical drones deployed from their home on the back of my armor, and I sent them racing ahead to provide look-down coverage. In what felt like forever, but was in reality a fraction of a second, the blasted door cleared my line of sight, and I could see the Grei frantically, if slowly, reaching for a button. Confident, but not one hundred percent certain, that we had disabled anything that button would signal, I brought up my weapon, and still in a dead sprint, brought the targeting reticle across the Grei’s right side in my HUD. A mental command selected tungsten penetrators, and the nanites complied. Magnetic forces accelerated the 350g steel jacketed tungsten round down the 30 cm barrel, generating enough recoil to halt my forward momentum.
In the bullet time of Hyper Heuristics, I was able to watch the round leave the barrel and travel directly at the energy shielded window between me and the Grei. Too bad, I thought. Energy shields do fuck all against kinetic projectiles. And the crystal window is rated for this galaxy’s munitions. Not mine.
I watched the round punch through the glass and the Grei behind it at nine thousand, five hundred meters per second, then I shifted my attention to the feed coming from the drone. Hatches were opening on the top of the bunker. Four automated laser turrets snapped up on their mounts and began training on the hostages. The security team was already there, their shields up as they ran as fast as they could to cover them. A few shots landed harmlessly against the hand held energy shields. With a command, the two drones zipped down and self-destructed, taking out two of the turrets before they could overload the shields.
I used my robotic legs to leap directly on top of the bunker, four meters up. As the other two turrets came into view, I snapped off two more shots. The remaining two turrets crumpled under the force of the tungsten slugs, and I landed with a roll on the roof, my momentum sending me in a slide almost to the center. I had my armor spit out a breach charge, which I slapped onto the roof while bringing up my shield. I braced against the detonation, and as soon as the charge opened up a hole in the roof, I sent a much smaller recon drone through.
The Grei was slumped against the wall, probably unconscious. The slug had taken one of its four arms right above the elbow, and he was rapidly bleeding out.
I jumped in, switched to tranq ammo, and fired a dart into the already unconscious alien. I walked over and slapped restraining cuffs on its remaining limbs before applying an injection of medical nanites into the wounded arm. The bleeding slowed, then stopped quickly, and I deployed more surveillance drones to sniff out the space, before turning to the door and opening it up to the outside.
I checked the time. Eleven seconds from breach to clear. Meh. I should have brought more drones with me. Hindsight and all of that.
I walked up to the sergeant and his team, all on one knee holding their glowing energy shields in place between the hostages and the bunker. “Well done. One enemy down, no friendlies,” I called out, holstering my weapon.
The Sergeant tentatively stood and dismissed his shield. “Sir, what in the orbital orifice was that?” he asked, waving his hand in the general direction of the bunker. “Since when does power armor move like that? And what did you shoot? And can I get some of those drones? And that adjustable shield? And..” I held up a hand to forestall more questions. “That was just me being impatient. Tungsten slugs. No, but I can get you something similar. The shield is a part of the armor, but I’ll send fabrication instructions for the shaped charges, and the formula for the breaching foam. Sergeant, you and your team’s performance today was exemplary. I appreciate allies who can think and adapt on the fly. Former military?” I asked, reaching out to shake hands with the security officer.
“Yes, sir. Former drop trooper. Needed a new career after peace broke out.”
I read the name tag on his uniform. “Well Sergeant Ylig “Foosie” Falten, congratulations on your promotion to Captain. We are going to need a better staffed, integrated, and equipped security force after this, and your performance and quick decision making means you just got voluntold to lead it. I have some toys and sensor suites to issue that will make sure that nothing like this gets past scanners again. Also, I want no more of these bunker offices aboard. I'll offer rental spaces at no charge in return. If anyone gives you crap, please feel free to eject them from the system. In the meantime, there’s the small matter of dealing with the ships playing hide and seek.”
“Ships, sir?” Ylig asked, forgetting for a moment to clarify that his nickname was not, and would never be, Foosie.
“Yeah. I’m sending a brief out to all security teams now. I don’t plan on letting any enemies near the construction zone, but it doesn’t hurt to have everyone in life boats. Begin evacuation. If nothing else, we’ll get to see how well our evac protocols work. I want all hyper-capable ships out of the system for the next forty eight hours. If docked ships have sufficient crew aboard, they may depart and hyper out. Otherwise, they can wait in the life pods. Don’t eject life pods until and unless I or the Vice Admiral order it. I don’t want to have to chase them down if we don’t need to.”
The newly minted Captain saluted, then jogged over to his team, who were currently leading the gnomes out of the warehouse. I have got to stop calling them gnomes, no matter how puntable they may be, I thought to myself as the station's evacuation alarm sounded.
“Jeanie, update?” I called as I began making my way back to the bunker to investigate.
“Whatever they’re up to, it looks like they haven’t received whatever their trigger signal is. They’re still lying doggo. I’m guessing the button the Grei was gunning for was programmed to send a signal to blow the charges and activate the fleet,” she replied. “All Battalions are reporting green. We’ve covered pretty much every square inch of all the stations in nanite sniffers at this point, and we haven’t found anything else out of place. All mercenary teams have been sedated, and are currently being herded towards the pinnaces. We’ll hold them there until it’s time to interrogate them. None of them have comms gear powerful enough to reach the fleet, and we’re jamming anyway. So, what’s the play?” she asked, likely hoping to get to do what she did best, namely fleet combat.
“Wait one. I want to see what I can salvage out of their computers here.” I entered the bunker, this time in a more sedate fashion. I called up the armor’s user interface, projected onto my HUD. With a series of quick commands, I scanned the interior of the habitat, and located the computer core. A quick check confirmed no other evidence was to be found. Everything was basic, no physical documents, no hidden compartments the nanites could find. I reached out to the computer’s interface, and my nanites quickly went to work as I touched the keyboard. The Grei typically had very high quality hardware and first-rate encryption, as befitted a race of bankers. But.. not much use against an AI with access to more computing power than it knew what to do with.
“Ok. His ship is in hangar bay three, but whatever they were actually planning, they were at least smart enough not to leave the evidence here. I’ll head that way. Let me know the instant anything changes.”

I recently upgraded my precision 7530 from a quadro p3200 to a quadro RTX 4000 from a 7540 and thought id share the results. I saw another reddit post about upgrading to an rtx 3000, and assumed the process would be the same. I bought a RTX 4000 off ebay for 370 dollars. A lot, but couldnt find anything cheaper on aliexpress or ebay.
Installation
I went to put it in, and the holes for the heatsink didnt line up. apparently there are 4 different heatsink variants for the 7530/7540. there is the one without a dgpu, one called NV-128, NV-192(what mine came with), and NV-256. The quadro p1000 and p2000 use NV-128, the p3200(top end gpu for 7530) uses NV-192, and the rtx 4000 and 5000 for 7540s are NV-256. I ordered a NV-256 heatsink off of aliexpress, and was able to install it without issue. used the dell service manual to find out how to do it. the power cable for the GPU is in a slightly different spot on the new gpu, but i was able to move the power cable a bit and it went in fine.
​
Software
Upon first boot, the computer booted fine, but the display adapter showed up as "microsoft basic display adapter", which means the drivers arent installed. I had to INF mod my drivers to get it to work properly. After disabling driver signature enforcement, To INF mod, I extracted the EXE of the 531.41 driver using 7zip, and edited 531.41-quadro-rtx-desktop-notebook-win10-win11-64bit-international-dch-whql\Display.Driver\nvdispwi.inf. my edited INF file is linked below for you to replace yours with if you have my exact configuration and install the INF through device manager, but if you want to do it for yourself, I used this guide. I had to install the drivers by pointing device manager to the modded INF file inside the folder the INF came in with the "have disk" button in the install menu.
modded inf I used with 531.41. tried a newer driver version, but it didnt work. 531.41 is confirmed working.
Issues

1. Cant disable nvidia optimus

for some reason whenever I try to disable nvidia optimus, my drivers stop working, and the method i used to install them doesnt work. when i disabled optimus last time, i got a 10-20 percent performance increase. im sure if I buy a 7540 board it will work.

1. bios flashing doesnt work

on my p3200, I was able to flash a 88w bios from the stock 65w one and get about a 15 percent performance boost. i wanted to flash a 110w bios onto this, but whenever i flash the bios i get a black screen inside windows with drivers. it boots fine in safe mode or without drivers, but not once i install drivers, even though the hardware ID doesnt change, so the INF mod shouldnt be an issue. I may buy a 7540 motherboard to upgrade my cpu as I have a bottleneck in some games with my 2176m. if i buy one, I will update this
Performance
Performance has improved a ton, but clocks dont boost up to the full 1560mhz at full gpu utilization because of the low 80w power limit on the max q variant. I can now play cyberpunk 2077 at a mostly locked 60fps with high-ultra settings. only dips are in cities because of my cpu bottleneck.
​
7530 compatible gpus drop in replacement
p1000 7530(NV-128 cooler)
p2000 7530(NV-128 cooler)
p3200 7530(NV-192 cooler)
​
7530 compatible gpus with INF mod
t1000 7540(NV-128 cooler)
t2000 7540 (NV-128 cooler)
rtx 3000 7530(NV-192 cooler)
RTX 4000 7540(NV-256 cooler)
RTX 5000 7540(NV-256 cooler)
​
Im happy with the results of this mod. Just wanted to post this, as i havent seen anyone else post this specific gpu in this computer. I will try to respond to this post as long as possible if anyone needs help messing with 7x30s or 7x40s.
​

Hello, fellow conlangers!
Around a year ago, the project known as The Two Constructed Continents was started, and around a month after its inception, we looked for new members here also. After a year, much has transpired, and many cultures and conlangs were thought of.
Now, we have decided to end that project, and begin anew in A Thousand Crowns! Like before, it is a collaborative worldbuilding game, where one can play either as a state or a culture and develop their people or species, and if they so choose, their language. We have attached a map of the world to this post, and we have quite a few nations already. The Discord invite is here if you want to join, or just take a peek: https://discord.gg/Brd2Cfxx
And now, we leave you with a message, translated into various conlangs made by members of the project. "Welcome to our game, 'A Thousand Crowns,' we hope the nation you (sg.) build prospers!"

The Froge

Gip~Gro'Gro Gip'Gro~Gro Gro'Gero'Gero GipGero~Gero'Gero GeroGro'Gip~Gip. Gero~Gero GroGipGip Gro'Gero~GeroGero.
(Froge is spoken by the Froge, a race of giant amphibians. As such, their sounds cannot be accurately transposed onto IPA.)
"Welcome and respect to all foreigners who have visited our home, a thousand crowns. The Froge give you the gift of great luck."

Gip~-Gro'Gro Gip'Gro~Gro Gro'Gero'Gero GipGero~Gero'Gero GeroGro'Gip~Gip. RESP-greeting other.species visit home respected.person Gero~Gero GroGipGip Gro'- Gero~GeroGero. The.Froge gift confirmed-stir.soup 

Kiepas Vientainis

Nïnos inis ïhïrta, Lutsa Atöveten. Tüö, des uhto tus, küühien iren likija.
/nɯˈnos iˈnis ɯhɯrta lutˈsa atøveˈten ty̯ø, des uχˈto tus, kyːˈhi̯en iren likiˈja/
"Welcome to our game, 4096 Crowns. A land, you build it, it prospers, we hope."

nïnos ini- s ï- ïrta lutsa atöveten tüö des uhto tu- s küühi- en iren liki-ja coming good-s 1PL-game 4096 crown-PL land DEM 2SG.form do[PFV]-PFV blossom-PROSP 1PL hope-IMPFV.IND.DIR 

Njinzo

Mǵonjokaguzý ńceriemi egi. Ndo ‘ńecige nkaǵymzua ńkiý nkaǵymke tandýnuampa’ muluo ńdy. Nunǵo beńdeluo sando, ndutata ńceńdeñebe va nkege.
/ˌmɣonʒokaˈguzə ŋʃeri̯eˈmi eˈgi ndo ŋeˈʃige nkaɣɨˈmzu̯a ŋkɨ̯ə nkagɨˈmke tandənu̯aˈmpa muˈlu̯o ŋdɨ nuˈnɣo beŋde’lu̯o saˈndo, nduˈtata ŋʃeŋdeˈɲebe va ˈnkege/
"Welcome to our game. It's called "A Thousand Big Hats." You build it, the nation will hopefully grow well."

mǵonjokaguzý ńce-rie-mi egi. ndo ńecige nkaǵymzua ńkiý nkaǵymke tandý-nuampa welcome 1PL-C7 -play LOC. 3S.C7 576 17 24 16 C8- crown mu- mu- luo ńdy. nunǵo be-ńde- luo sando nd-utata ńde- ñebe va nkege. 3.C7-3.C8-PRS call.IPFV REL.C1 2S-3P.C1-PRS build.PFV C1-nation 3S.C1-OPT well grow.IPFV 

Donyi

Coratré sae nyera syeri, "Dedí Storofram," nyem mi syunoai no patre de ja morol sonyoe.
/koraˈtre sae ɲera ʃeri deˈdi storofram ɲem mi ʃunoai no patre de xa morol soɲoe/
"Housed to our activity, "Thousand Golds," we hope the nation that you build succeeds."

coratré sae nyera syeri dedí storofram nyem mi syunoai no patre de ja morol sonyoe housed to 1P.POSS activity thousand crown 1P 3S hope.1P DEF nation what 2S 2S.build succeed 

Sahnalal

NaDas Ayani þis Piniek Goa, 'Xi Þûmegaþia'. Goa Avayeke Taseg kem Hu Car Þiapa Ayani.
/nadas ajani θis piniek goa ʃi θuːmegaθia goa avajeke taseg kem hu t͡sar θiapa ajani/
"Come well to our game, '1200 great-hats'. We hope the nation that you (sg.) make grows well."

NaDas Ayani þis Piniek Goa 'Xi Þûmegaþia'. Goa Avayeke Taseg kem Hu Car Þiapa Ayani come good ALL game 1P 1200 great_hats 1P hope nation REL 2S make grow good 

Í anárh

Źaca í poł í ńeśa "Í Tapalcce Suuka" í kýo mocoi ta. Źaca á í cámoja í kýe á tasaa l'á śokśćesaa l'á soku.
/d͡ʒaka i poɬ i ɲeʃa i tapalkːe sɯːka i kjo mokoi ta d͡ʒaca æ i kæmoja i kje æ tasaː læ ʃokʃt͡ʃesaː læ sokɯ/
"It is our good greeting of our game of name "A Thousand items of royal clothing". We hope the land you (sg.) create blooms well."

źa-ca í poł í ńeśa í ta-palcce suuka í kýo moc- oi ta. 1- PL POSS game POSS name ART one-thousand royal_clothing POSS good greet-NOM COP źa-ca á í cámoja í kýe á tas- aa á kýo śokśćes-aa l'á sok- u 1- PL SBJ ART land POSS 2SG SBJ create-FUT SBJ good bloom- FUT TOP hope-PRS 

Wosŭky

phåņă, khåtŭ wŏkykhœ phåkĕņi. tŭ sukytĭ "A Thousand Crowns". wŏky phåkĕkhœ mukhœ we
/pʰɔŋɜ, kʰɔtʉ wʌkykʰœ pʰɔkɛŋi. tʉ s̪ukytɨ ə ˈθuzɪnd kɹaʊnz wʌky pʰɔkɛkʰœ mukʰœ we/
"Welcome, this is our game. it is called "A Thousand Crowns". We hope your place prospers."

pʰɔŋɜ kʰɔ-tʉ wʌ- ky-kʰœ pʰɔkɛŋi tʉ s̪ukytɨ "ə ˈtaʊˈzænd kɹaʊnz" (greeting) DEM-INAM 1.EX-P- POSS game. 3S.INAM named "A Thousand Crowns" wʌ- ky pʰɔk<ɛkʰ>œ mu-kʰœ we 1.EX-P prosper 2S-POSS place 

Etleto Siv (Standard Etleto)

Nunos inis keyehhúystelleto dirixú, 'Ronotçú Zamáravxú', kúhi diri upuss halyo çumletxú yiloxú!
/nuˈnos iˈnis kejeχˈχuːjstelleto diˈʀiˌʁuː ʀonoˈt͡ʃuː ʒʌˈmɑːʀʌvˌʁuː ˈkuːχi diˈʀi ˈupuss ˈχʌljo ʃumˈletˌʁuː jiˈloˌʁuː/
"Welcome to our game, "1024 Crowns", we hope the nation of your creation succeeds!"

[nunos inis] keyeh- húystellet-o diri-xú Rono-tçú Zamárav- xú kúhi [welcome] DAT.SG-games- SG 1.PL-GEN two- five.hundred.twelve chiefdom.tattoos-GEN hope diri p•ss haly- o çumlet- xú yil-o- xú 1.PL.INTR succeed nations-INTR.SG creation-GEN 2- SG-GEN! 

Proto-Naguna

kʼilde hu, maŋgepgallu i nilus aw shihide she maja "imwa ittsaj"
/ˈkʼilde hu ˈmaŋgepgalːu i ˈnilus aw ˈʃihide ʃe ˈmaja ˈimwa ˈittsaj/
"Greetings, you are about to enter the game we call 'a great gross of hats'."

kʼil-de hu ma-aŋgep-gal- hu i ni- lus aw ʃihi- de ʃe maja imwa it- tsaj nod- PV 2PL AV-enter-PRSP-2PL IND DIM-spar REL be.called-PV ERG 1PL.EXC 1728 TOOL-cover 

Söntji

Nuyorar täpi sarrayan khwantos "xükülmä müü mänä"!
/nujoˈrar tʰɛˈpʰi ˈsarːajan ˈqʰʷantʰos xyˈxylmɛ myː mɛˈnɛ/
"Enjoy our game 'a thousand crowns'!"

nuyo-rar täpi sarraya- n khwantos xükül-mä müü mänä pour-IMP self board.game-ACC 1P.POS ring- PL head thousand 

Kasdior

Yehewesken melëdl d'ashen shwaküm, Aridion Atoweden. Ansludashen hitüm mad deke halen tolmashgin dar.
/'je.heˌwes.ken 'me.lə.dəl 'da.ʃen 'ʃwa.kjum 'a.ɾi.djon 'a.toˌwe.den 'ans.luˌdaʃen 'hi.tjum mad 'de.ken 'ha.len 'tol.maʃ.gin daɾ/
"Come good to our game, 1296 Crowns. We hold a rock because your nation will blossom."

Ye- hew- es‌ke-n melëdl d- ash-en shwak-üm Aridion Atowed-en. Anslud-ashen hit- üm mad IMP-come-3- P good GEN-1- P game- ACC 1296 crown- PL hold- 1P rock-ACC because de- ke halen tolm- ashgi-n dar GEN-2 nation blossom-3- P FUT 

Taadži

https://preview.redd.it/z9x5vs8sqiv91.png?width=4989&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8e556bc57ce6fa7fbb09bb3a2b52934dcc0d01e
Xummĩrugur paara aʻuaratmakàdžã, 'nadàà tsadà lirdà', aduu mmns łè syturde kapu aannã.
/xumːĩɾuguɾ̥ paːɾa aʔuaɾatmakɐd͡ʒã nadɐː t͡sadɐ liɾdɐ' aduː m̩ːn̩s ɫɵ sɨtuɾde kapu aːnːã/
"May we protect you in this game, '1296 jade styli', we hope great sweetness comes to your people."

Xummĩrug(u)-ur paara aʻu-aratma- kà-džã nan(tà)-dàà tsa(ʻe)-dà lir(so)-dà aduu game- INST associate 1P- protect-2S-IMP s10,000-VOC jade- VOC stylus- VOC 1P.NOM mmn(a)-s łè sytur(he)- de kapu aannã sweet -ACC INTENS foreign_land-POS 2S.ALL want.GNOM 

And finally, a map of the world. Hopefully, the quality is still good after I upload it. If not, there are much better versions in the Discord server.

Big HOLIDAYS BOARD GAMES Sale! Prefer to sell, to get some $$$ and mostly space.
. 75 Gnom Street (very good condition) 12$
. Abandon Planet (new in shrink) 7$
. Ashes Rises of Phoenixborn + Dimona promo, 1st edition (like new) 20$
. Back to the Future: Dice Through Time (new in shrink) 20$
. Black Hole Council (new in shrink) 10$
. Blackout Hong Kong (damage to box) 25$
. Civilization: a new dawn (new in shrink) 30$
. Cloudspire Miniature expansion (new in shrink / ding to corner) 50$
. Cosmic Encounter (some wear to outer box / missing rulebook) 30$

This is posted in my profile because it kept getting caught in /FortNiteBR 's automod's begging filter and I couldn't find what triggered it. (And frankly, if my past experience is anything to go by, because it would die in /new with 7 upvotes; at least here I can always find it again to link.)
I'll try to keep this post up to date with any new punchcards and secret challenges or extra sources of XP.
Hypex just released his list of the XP needed to reach every level this season, which lets me finalize my spreadsheet, so I can show you the hard numbers:

• Level goal this season: 220. This gets you the final legacy and holo style (silver, gold, and holo styles are unlocked one every five levels from level 105 to 220).
• XP to reach 220: 15,309,000
• By XP, the halfway mark to level 220 is level 101. (The halfway mark to level 100 is level 52.)
• XP you will get from doing every daily 10k-XP Quick Challenge and all of the weekly challenges: 6,700,000. This is enough to get to level 89.
• If you don't do your dailies, there is only enough weekly challenge XP to get to level 30. You should try to do your gold Quick Challenges every day.
• There are 255 punchcard punches (currently; last season they added some new ones with updates). (14.10 edit: There are now 283 punches available across 63 punchcards.) They have reduced the requirements for a lot of them from last season, making most of them attainable (I expect to get 213 of them). If you get 200 punchcards as well as your daily and weekly challenges, you will get 9,700,000 XP. This will get you to level 139.
• You have to grind 5,609,000 XP outside of challenges and after 200 punchcards to reach level 220.
• There are scheduled to be 94 days this season. By XP, that means that every day you should get just slightly under 60,000 XP that doesn't come from punchcards, gold Quick Challenges, and weekly challenges.

This list doesn't include XP coins and extra or hidden challenges (extra challenges like the Oro ones in season 2 that showed on the map, hidden ones like the AstroNot and coral buddies that only show up once you reach them in the game), which will help with the grinding. This is also based on every week having the same layout of 6 challenges for 25,000 XP and 1 for 50,000, which may change.
This list also only includes 10 weeks worth of challenges, even though the season is 13 weeks long. I don't remember any season that was longer than 10 weeks that had extra weeks of challenges (aside from stretch goals) (it might have happened and I just don't remember it). And I always think that it's better to underestimate than overestimate - so if we do get extra weeks of challenges, that will be a bonus and make our lives easier, but we shouldn't count on it before we know. Better to be safe than sorry.
Judging by the XP coin punchcards, there should be enough XP from coins to reduce the daily grind XP required to just under 50,000. However, last season we didn't get all of the XP coins, and I don't want to depend on it and then have it not show up, so I will be using 60,000 as my number.

Sources of XP

• Since the Yacht is gone now, the best loot route for grinding is probably Steamy Stacks again this season (5k-ish per match, depending on chest spawns and upgrades; I've got up to 7.5k). If you run out of things to loot but are still alive, go fishing.
• Upgrading grey weapons still takes only 30 materials and gets you almost as much XP as a chest (120), but upgrade benches can no longer be carried, making that harder to utilize.
• Shooting down loot drones gives you 145, but is obviously more dangerous. If the landing site near Dirty Docks is active, landing near there to clear it out and then moving to Steamy Stacks to loot isn't a bad idea.
• Here is a map of XP coin locations, via ProGameGuides
• Marvel Takeover LTM can give you over 10,000 XP, if it's a highly contested game or you do a lot of reactor captures. The games where it's heavily one-sided are closer to 3,000, but it's still nothing to sneeze at, and it gives you Superpower damage and uses to count toward your punchcards (plus being quite fun).

Hidden challenges
14.00

• Oh No - 25,000 xp - Description: visit the coral buddies from last season (small island west of the lighthouse)
  • NO LONGER AVAILABLE; the Coral Buddies island is gone.

14.10

• The Event of the Year - 20,000 xp - Visit gnome at billboard on rock on east side of Authority island
  • Might be available at multiple places; there are also gnomes looking at posters for the event on the north side of the easternmost building in Retail Row.
  • There is a billboard on a a tree slightly northwest of Apres Ski.
  • There are posters in the alley beside the Taco shop in Sweaty Sands.
  • There is a gnome looking at posters in the upgrade garage room in Steamy Stacks.
  • There is a billboard of a hill facing the beach southwest of Holly Hedges.
  • There is a gnome looking at posters in the top floor of the garden store in Holly Hedges.
• GNOM Talk - 25,000 xp - Visit gnome demonstration at the circle of rocks at an unnamed shoreline point south of Apres Ski

NO LONGER AVAILABLE? Gnomes have moved away from their posters and the amphitheater.
14.20

• The Aftermath - 25,000 xp - kill the blue gnome handing out flyers in various locations (for instance: north of the lighthouse, behind the ledge between the shops and houses in Retail Row; only one is needed and the blue guy disappears from all the other locations when you get him the first time).
• The Lair - 20,000 xp - visit the basement of the Ghost House, see the map of the traps.
• Disarm the Traps - 20,000 xp - Destroy the slurp barrel bombs which are around the map, at the locations on the map in the lair.
  • The first is in the garden center in Holly Hedges, by the upgrade bench.
  • 2 is under the deck in the restaurant in Craggy Cliffs.
  • 3 is in the northern stack in Steamy Stacks, on the bottom on the southern side, beside a pipe.
  • 4 is under the eastern side of the bridge in Misty Meadows.
  • 5 is behind a palm tree in the corner of the hotel patio is Sweaty Sands.

14.30

• Most Wanted - 20,000 xp - Find the spray paint on the wall in the water just north of Hydro 16 (or in various other places)

14.40

• Clean the Tanks - 10,000 xp - Jump into the slurp tanks in Slurpy Swamp's factory.
• The Escape? - 10,000 xp - Find the gnome trying to escape through a hole in the wall near the tanks.

14.50

• Grave Mistake - 20,000 xp - Visit a grave just east-northeast of the Slurpy Swamp northern dock.

Normal Gameplay XP

Action	XP Gain
Storm circle	140
Ammo box	95
Chest	130
Supply drop	135
Llama	730
Loot drone	145
Upgrade	120
Sidegrade	28
Shakedown	100
Scan henchman	120
Henchman kill	80
Assist	125
Knock opponent	25
Elimination	150
Kill boss	165
Open vault	210
Gatherer	40
Gorger	185
Fishing spot	80
Forage	25
Weak spot streak	10
Discover named location	8000
Discover landmark	1000
.	.
Weapon specialist accolades	60
Weapon expert accolades	105
Headshot	45
Distance shot	165
Long shot	235
Ludicrous shot	281? Depends on distance?
Double elim	150
Multi elim	105
10 kills	585
Survivor I	155
Survivor II	110
Survivor III	90
First elim	200
First landing	210
First chest	210
First supply drop	200
First fish	200
First upgrade	205
.	.
Reactor capture	650

Things which seem like they would give XP, but don't:

• Hacking starkbots
• Killing lootsharks
• Winning

Should I Buy Tiers?

To get your 60,000 grind XP per day, this is about 12 decent (5,000-xp) games (again, not counting XP coins or extra challenges, so if you get all of the extras it will actually be a little easier than this). If you don't think you can commit to that and want to hit 220, you may want to buy tiers.
If you do need to buy tiers, wait until you're level 20, so you'll get the most use out of your money. The reason behind that is the amount of XP needed per level:

• Level 1-19 cost between 40,000 and 70,000 to level up.
• Level 20-99 cost 80,000XP to level up.
• Level 100 drops down to 50,000, and the XP needed per level increases by small amounts, usually about 250, at every level.
• Level 215 is when the XP needed to level up reaches 80,000 again.

This means that if you buy the Battle Pack or any tiers before you're level 20, or if you try to put off buying the Battle Pack (battle pass with 25 tiers) until you're level 100 to try to skip levels, you'll actually be skipping the easiest levels in the game. You should buy your tiers after hitting level 20 naturally.

XP Tracker

I have a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my XP; it's a little bit complicated, but if you want to, you can use it as well. To do that, go to "File -> Make a copy", and it will give you one of your own. It basically works by you filling in all the squares with a green background, and everything else will calculate based on what you put in. The two columns on the front page with purple backgrounds will fill in a number every day, but you have to finalize it by writing over it at the end of the day (or else it will update to the next day's number).
The punchcard page isn't formatted the same way, but it has instructions.
You will have to add any new challenges and update the challenges and XP coins available in every week.

What Level Should I Be Each Day?

This is evenly divided according to XP required, not according to just level number.

Date	Level
August 27	4
August 28	7
August 29	9
August 30	12
August 31	14
September 1	17
September 2	19
September 3	21
September 4	23
September 5	25
September 6	27
September 7	29
September 8	31
September 9	33
September 10	35
September 11	37
September 12	39
September 13	42
September 14	44
September 15	46
September 16	48
September 17	50
September 18	52
September 19	54
September 20	56
September 21	58
September 22	60
September 23	62
September 24	64
September 25	66
September 26	68
September 27	70
September 28	72
September 29	74
September 30	76
October 1	78
October 2	80
October 3	82
October 4	84
October 5	86
October 6	88
October 7	90
October 8	92
October 9	94
October 10	96
October 11	99
October 12	101
October 13	104
October 14	108
October 15	111
October 16	114
October 17	117
October 18	120
October 19	123
October 20	126
October 21	129
October 22	132
October 23	134
October 24	137
October 25	140
October 26	143
October 27	146
October 28	148
October 29	151
October 30	153
October 31	156
November 1	159
November 2	161
November 3	164
November 4	166
November 5	169
November 6	171
November 7	174
November 8	176
November 9	178
November 10	181
November 11	183
November 12	185
November 13	188
November 14	190
November 15	192
November 16	194
November 17	197
November 18	199
November 19	201
November 20	203
November 21	205
November 22	207
November 23	209
November 24	211
November 25	213
November 26	215
November 27	217
November 28	220

Punchcards

This is a list of the punchcards and their requirements, with what you have to do every day to complete them. The ones without labels are the ones I haven't personally unlocked yet to know exactly where they go - if last season is anything to go by, they may be rearranged in future updates anyway. (They were reorganized again in the 14.20 update and I have reorganized the list to match.)
In the beginning of the season, some reliable sources were reporting that some punchcards from last season, like Chomp and First, were still here, but they are not.
Some of the numbers originally given were inaccurate (Anglin', Up and At 'Em, and Efficient, at least), so I can't guarantee that the number for the new superpower punchcards are currently accurate either, until I get to them myself. The ones I've found to be wrong have been fixed as of Sept. 10.

Number	Name	Description	Total Punches	Required for last punch	Required per day to complete
W1 (1)	Snack Time	Opponents hit with Venom ability	4	100	2
W1 (2)	Goddess	Opponents hit with Storm ability	4	150	2
W1 (3)	Vibranium Suit	Black Panther Armor Damage	4	10000	107
W1 (4)	Outta My Way, Bub	Damage with Wolverine claws	4	25000	266
.	Does not count damage from Dash or Air Slash, only from hitting with a normal attack.
W1 (5)	Galactus Hungers	Gorgers Destroyed	4	100	2
W1 (6)	Doom Stands Alone!	Doom weapon damage	4	25000	266
.	Damage must be done to opponents, not AI or structures. As of 14.10, only counts damage from the Mystic Bomb.
W1 (7)	Stark Tech	Iron Man repulsors damage	4	25000	266
W1 (8)	Worthy	Damage with Thor ability	4	25000	266
W1 (9)	Rampage	She-Hulk Fists Damage	4	25000	266
W1 (10)	I Am Groot	Damage absorbed with Groot shield	4	15000	160
W1 (11)	Faster Than Light	Distance traveled on Silver Surfer's board	4	25000	266
A1	Champion	Victory in modes	5
A2	Shared Glory	Win with a friend	1
A6	Thriving	Top 10 placements	6	250	3
B1	Chop Chop	Trees destroyed	6	25000	266
B2	Nest Egg	999 of each material	1
B3	Scrounging for Grub	Foraged consumables	5	1000	11
B4	Collector	Materials harvested	6	500000	5320
C1	Jackpot	Llamas	6	50
C2	Stocking the Armory	Ammo boxes	6	5000	54
C3	Prized Loot	Fancy chests	6	100
C4	Whack a Drone	Drone elims	4	100
C5	Look What I Found!	Chests	6	5000	54
C6	Free Fallin'	Supply drop shot down	1
C7	Free Delivery	Supply drops	6	250	3
D1	Never Stood a Chance	Eliminations	6	2500	27
D2	POW!	Damage	6	1000000	10639
D3	Insolent Fools!	Doom henchmen elims	5	500	6
D4	Robot Army	Stark Robots eliminated	5	500	6
E1	BANG!	Explosive elims	6	500	6
.	For the purposes of this punchcard, Doom's Arcane Gauntlets and Stark's Repulsors count as explosive weapons.
E2	BRRRRRT!	SMG elims	6	750	8
E3	Never Saw it Coming	Long distance elims	4	50	1
.	150+ meters
E4	BAM!	Sniper elims	6	750	8
E5	CRACK!	Shotgun elims	6	750	8
E6	Tools of the Trade	Elims with weapon types	6
E7	POP!	Pistol elims	6	500	6
E8	RATATATA!	AR damage	6	750	8
F1	Back in the Fight	Reboots	6	100	2
F2	Up and At 'Em	Revives	6	250	3
G1	Fishy	Complete fishing collection	1
G2	Snagged	Fish fished	6	500	6
G3	Anglin'	Fishing spots used	5	500
H1	Rainbow Arsenal	Upgrades to different rarities	4
H2	Working Out the Kinks	Upgrades	4	250
H3	Now For Something Different	Sidegrade	1
I1	On Fire	Elimination streak accolades	5
I2	Versatile	Different weapon accolades	6
J1	A Legacy to Remember	Legacies	5	50
J2	Punchy	Punches	4	200
J3	Efficient	Quick Challenges	6	500
J4	Hero	Level 100	1
J5	Overachiever	Completed punchcards	5	40
J6	Consistent	Weekly challenges	5	60
K1	Purple Power	Purple XP coins	5	20
K2	Good as Gold	Gold XP coins	5	10
K3	Deja Blue	Blue XP coins	5	30
K4	Dream of Green	Green XP coins	5	40
L1	Precision and Power	Elimination with Stark rifle	1
L2	Hot Seat	Fire trap elim	1
L3	Well-behaved	Bus driver thanks	4	100
L4	Q&A	Shakedowns	4	100
L5	That's Handy	Bounce on Sentinel hand	1
N1	Wheelman	Distance driven with passengers	5	250000	2660
N2	Rideshare	Eliminate driver of your vehicle	1
??	Power Hungry	Power chests	4	100	2
.	Power chests do not seem to be in the game yet and there is no space for that punchcard in the current layout.

Presumably all the other superpowers are or will be available in loot drones, but I can only currently confirm Mjolnir (Thor's ability).

Legacies

These are interesting, and necessary for one punchcard, but don't give any XP or anything.
Some of them reference mechanics that aren't in the game right now, like using a flare gun. It remains to be seen if that's an oversight or these mechanics will be added back in later this season.
List via ProGameGuides.

Sup all! I finally achieved legend rank this season after playing exclusively Renolock. I am by no means some expert with the deck and I am looking to start a good dialogue here about it and to learn from other players who are better then me while sharing my own experiences that allowed me to pilot the deck to legend. I initially used some renolock decks that I copied from pros and hsreplay and bounced around ranks 5-4 for like a week barely holding my head above 50%. So I decided to actually use my own brain, and made my own "version" of the deck that I have not seen elsewhere. Once I started playing the deck below, I just couldn't stop winning! With my deck, it took me only 56 games (40-16 record) from rank 5 to achieve legend (previous best was ~125 with Maly Druid).
Proof of Legend: https://imgur.com/a/bVYwqMc
Proof of Stats: https://imgur.com/a/GC0cgyo
​
Deck List
Core Cards: While very few lists may NOT run some of these cards, I couldn't imagine playing the deck without them
Kobold Librarian - Great 1 drop, draw, and possible defile/godfrey setup
Darkbomb - 2 mana deal 3 is amazing
Defile - Best board clear in the game hands down. 2 mana twisting nether if set up correctly
Dirty Rat - Combo killer, YOLO against aggro in desperate times. Combos well with nether at 10 mana
Doomsayer - Amazing on curve against aggro. 99% of the time I would play him proactively, rather then trying to hide him behind taunts. If you know your opponents power plays, he's super useful to come down the turn before
Gnomeferatu - One of the strongest cards to set up games in your favor for fatigue. Possible backup if you can't find dirty rat against combo, though obviously not at all consistant. Against aggro not a bad play on curve
Brann Bronzebeard - The swiss army knife of the deck, the possibilities with him are almost endless. The most obvious plays are with kazakus, gnomferatu, and dirty rat but many others also exist. Obvious synergy with zola
Shadow Bolt - FU Totem Golem
Zola the Gorgon - The second part of the brann/zola combo, another minion with near endless utility in the deck.
Hellfire - Standard AOE spell, excellent at clearing wide boards
Kazakus - The reason to play a highlander deck. On curve play against aggro is ridiculous for potentially getting you out of literally any situation, and has insane value plays in slower matchups
Voidcaller - Not a bad body himself, and the one chance this deck has for highrolling shenanigans. Pulling a larger demon can be game winning, especially against aggro
Despicable Dreadlord - Overall solid minion, ability is obviously great against aggro
Emperor Thaurissan - The combo activator, can allow for some outrages brann/zola plays. Sometimes you can just play him on an empty board because he demands an answer or the game just gets out of control
Reno Jackson - We're gonna be rich!
Siphon Soul - Awesome one target removal for shooting down a fatty that your opponent plays. Also a nice follow up card to use on your own Rin
Lord Godfrey - I love this guy, SO much better then twisting nether because he leaves a 4/4 body on the board. Often the MVP against Even Shaman
Twisting Nether - Automatic board reset is nice, can end most games against aggro
Mal'Ganis - My favorite minion in the deck and the deck's only real source of a true, proactive threat. Can also be used in some crazy ways to avoid fatigue or ruin a pirate warrior's day
Voidlord - A big fatty who clogs the board. Game winning if pulled early from void caller against aggro
Bloodreaver Gul'dan - Strongest card in the deck for obvious reasons. Reviving an entire board that usually threatens 30+ lethal damage is just unreal. The hero ability is also just insane.
​
Tech Cards I used:
Shriek - The only new card from RR, 1 mana deal 2 to all is just crazy. This card can halt aggro in their tracks, and for longer games can work well with defile and godfrey against those nasty big priest boards.
Corrupting Mist - Its like a twisting nether... that takes another turn to activate. I found this a great swing card against aggro as often you could afford to get your face smashed for a turn if you have strong tools to stabilize later on.
Deathlord - Some lists don't run him but he is such a great card for many reasons. I found against aggro he is better played then not in almost all situations, and as long as you could have an answer in mind for what he might pull out when he (eventually) dies
Gluttonous Ooze - FU kingsbane
Antique Healbot - I would probably call this the 30th card in my deck, but the healing is really important in some games. Can be like a mini-Reno when combo'd with brann, and can also help save you in fatigue games
Rotten Applebaum - Your midrange voidlord, similar to healbot the healing is invaluable in many games, not to mention he can soak up some damage that otherwise might go face
Zilliax - This card is just insane against aggro, in almost all situations he requires an opponent to remove him ineffectively (either surrendering at least 6+ healing to you, or using burn to kill him). One of the latest additions I made that I truly believe helped me win with this deck
Rin - The game winner in control mirrors, and odd warrior. Being a taunt, she has some use against aggro as well.
N'Zoth, the Corruptor - He basically operates as a second guldan. Insane value in one card, and the fact that this deck runs two cards like this is what makes its lategame so crazy
​
Tech Cards I didn't use (or used and then dropped):
Mistress of Mixtures - What is actually funny about this card is that I've never not run her and when I made my final version of the deck I simply forgot to put her in... realized this after cruising from ranks 5 to 3 and just said 'oh well.' In all seriousness though, I think shes amazing against aggro on turn 1 ... and that's about it.
Mortal Coil - To me this card felt low impact, yes the defile plays definitely make it worth something but never at any point did I miss it in my final version of the deck.
Baneful Banker - I also included him initially, and then came to the realization that having Rin + Gnomferatu meant I had plenty of options to win long games already. And against aggro, he doesn't do anything since shuffling a minion is far less effective then using zola and having a second copy immediately. (And lets be honest, if you are already using Reno against aggro you should win most games anyways).
Big Game Hunter - I could definitely see him being used over Healbot, but for me he was just too low impact in MOST games, and most games against even shaman and big priest opponents would be won and lost in the heels of godfrey and kazakus, not him.
Sludge Belcher - I basically replaced him with Zilliax in my deck and never looked back. A good minion by all accounts and has Nzoth synergy, but I felt like he didn't do enough against aggro in comparison.
Sylvanas - As much as I like the card, she doesn't do anything against aggro and really not high impact against anything overall except Big Priest. If the meta were overall slower, would probably find a place in the deck.
​
Win Conditions
The deck is a generally fatigue-oriented control deck that doesn't have a ton of proactive threats. What makes this deck interesting is that it is incredible at simply beating your opponent's win condition. It has answers for everything, some obviously easier (more favored) then others but this deck really can't lose against anything if you get the cards you need. Really the ONLY true weakness is decks that can go infinite, but luckily those are mostly gone (mill rogue, DMH warrior, Jade druid). Anyways, when facing an opponent I considered what deck they were playing and then determined what I was going to do to win. The nice thing about this deck is that it can do just about everything you need, but I came down to there being several ways to win:

1. Surviving - Against any aggro deck, the way to prevent them from reaching their win condition is to simply NOT DIE BEFORE THEY RUN OUT OF THREATS. One problem I initially faced was I felt like I was getting my faced kicked in by aggro, and adding more taunts (zilliax, deathlord) really helped. This deck also has so much removal, that I felt as though you can really survive just about any onslaught as long as you spread out your removal, and use minions carefully. One of the things that I think helped me the most was to just tempo out minions against aggro, didn't matter if it was brann, gnomferatu, etc - you forget about the value and just try to stay alive through minion combat, because your deck will always crush them if you can reach turns ~7-8 in half way decent standing.
2. Combo disrupting - Your main targets here would be decks like reno priest and exodia paladin, both of which aren't terribly popular but I did see some of in my climb. Basically, you are just tapping for dirty rat (and preferably brann with him). Especially against a deck like exodia paladin, literally nothing else matters so you best empty your hand so you can continue tapping to find your pieces.
3. Rin - Rin should be kept against anticipated control matchups (mainly warlock mirror, and above rank 3 almost all warriors were odd) as she will just flat out win the game. When using Rin, its best to play your seals as fast as possible and in most games I neglected hand-size when it came down to it. Unless you mill Guldan or nzoth, rarely is anything going to prevent you from winning once you get the seal train rolling
4. Fatigue - This deck operates excellently in fatigue and has SO many tricks up its sleeve. Obviously you have the hero power, you have kazakus potions to generate more value (armor, extra minions, etc), you have nzoth (who can certainly be saved for fatigue as guldan should be played almost as soon as you can ), you have crazy shenanigans possible with malganis (my all time favorite game in my climb was beating an odd warrior in a game that looked helpless to me... malganis was card #30 in my deck so i saved for fatigue until we both had basically nothing and he couldnt deal with him even though he had way more armor then me), and of course... reno himself (and mini reno healbot!). Very few decks can compete with you in fatigue, and against opponents who would like to try to (odd warrior), you can flip the tables on them with brann/gnomferatu plays.

Matchups
One of the things that obviously makes this deck work is that it can be played 50 different ways with the tech cards available. As the meta changes, the core of renolock stays in tact but cards can be added to improve its matchup spread drastically. Obviously, the best cards to use are cards that target the popular decks.
​
vs Druid (0-1)
Honestly, without geist you can't beat Jade Druid. This deck just sucks to play against, since they can pressure you AND fatigue you. If this deck ever gets mainstream again, just tech geist and its actually not bad at all. Luckily for me, I only met 1 - actually almost won by milling his idols with brann/gnomferatu but then died to a bunch of 11/11 12/12 13/13 craziness.
​
vs Hunter (3-0)
I faced all spell hunters on my climb. They can't beat guldan. Keep some AOE for his early game pressure (if you can beat turn 5 wolves you don't have much else to worry about). The funny thing about hunter is they actually really suck at dealing with a bunch of mid-sized minions without rexxar, which our deck has. Survive the early game, and then crush him in the value game late. He has almost 0% chance to answer a Guldan board (needs the poison/aoe beast which is obviously pretty low probability). Mech hunter also exists, didn't face any but I'd imagine the matchup is basically about not dying by turn 4 and then stabilize.
​
vs Mage (3-0)
I faced all aluneth mages. Just simply delay as much as possible, take the board from them, and hope they don't have aluneth on 6 (or that you have ooze to counter). Our deck has so much healing that they usually struggle to pressure you after turns 4-5 as long as you don't let their board get out of control. Also, void caller in this matchup is just hilarious, as explosive runes gives you opportunity to pull out free malganis/voidlord early so look for this play. I felt like this matchup isn't bad at all as long as they don't have aluneth on 6 that you cannot answer. I did not face any face any reno mages, though that matchup is not too different then the renolock mirror matchup which I talk about below.
​
vs Paladin (3-0)
Paladin these days has a ton of variety, though most are still on the aggressive side. I faced 1 exodia paladin and 2 odd paladins on my climb. Exodia is pretty favored IMO, unless they get everything REALLY fast probability would state that you should find rat by the time he combos. In this matchup, nothing else matters so dump your hand as appropriate to tap until you can rat and (if possible ) brann. The key to winning here is to wait until he uses emperor (he has to to pull the combo off) and then hit him with brann/rat and kill beardo. Odd paladin is just clearing the board until you can take it from him. You can generally let him build up a bit in turns 2-3 since he can't really buff anything early on so you don't run out of removal.
​
vs Priest (1-1)
Ok, ill admit I couldn't believe it when I saw this but maybe it speaks about the meta? I faced two big priest around rank 5 and after that - gone. I did not face ANY. Somewhere around rank 2 I was like, why haven't I faced hardly any? In any event, I do believe this matchup is actually not bad at all unless they completely get out of control (aka barnes 4 into yshaaj into rag into reviving him 13 times). Basically, you line your removal up with his threats. Your deck has nether, godfrey, smaller AOE (sometimes necessary to set up godrey), individual removal, kazakus (who can be used up to 4 times with brann/zola). The other tip I would suggest to plays is to save (if possible) your guldan/nzoth boards as a counter board to his spellstones. For instance, if you clear his first spellstone with nether, and then throw down guldan on an empty board... he just screams you and then puts 30/30 of stats on the board the next turn that you can't deal with. Make the bastard kill you, and give him hell while he tries. Save guldan and nzoth until he MAKES you play them. Once you run his deck out of threats, they can't do anything and you can just eat his face with your hero power and emote "your suffering with be legendary!" and wait for him to die.
​
vs Rogue (5-7)
Perhaps my stats suggest that I am not the best at this matchup but I will give my two cents. I found odd rogue and kingsbane to be about equal in prevalence, and both matchups are difficult. They can pressure the board and your face fast and furiously, have ways to deal with annoying taunts (sap/vilespine), and generally put you in situations commonly where you think stuff like "please no leeroy!!" What I did to some success in these matchups was to forgo value completely and try to fight for the board as much as possible. The name of the game is delay delay delay and do this to the best of our ability. Don't worry about using minions for maximum value, just use them to survive until the next turn. Take calculated risks, and always keep reno in your opening hand (he will almost always win on the spot). Ooze is also great in both matchups, but especially against kingsbane where it can be game winning if you hit a big weapon and he can't it back immediately.
​
vs Shaman (15-4)
I would consider this matchup to be one that renolock absolutely destroys, despite most "statistics" saying its about 50/50. My general mindset in the matchup is to simply do whatever it takes to keep the board empty for as long as possible. Even Shaman gets out of control fast if they can get even a few cheap minions on the board as this leads to the ability for him to get out giants and other crap really early... so dont' let him! In turns 2/3/4, I would suggest only tapping if you CANT do something better and something better includes playing a minion. It doesn't matter what, just play anything in hand and kill something with it. If you can survive in one piece to turn 5/6, you have taunts and other mid sized minions to delay. If he dumps his hand around turn 6/7 once he "finally" thinks you won't have an answer, punish him hard with godfrey (this is the only matchup were I would actually consider keeping godfrey... he IS that good). Your ideal scenario gets him to around turn 8 with 2-3 cards in hand dropping one or two threats at a time... which should be totally manageable. I found the only games I lost were insane openings (turn 4 double TFB stuff) or getting highrolled with crackle after stabilizing. Also, if you can ever get him to actually USE his burn on your minions, that in it self is a HUGE win since you know it means hes struggling to even keep the board.
​
vs. Warlock (4-2)
Renolock mirror is the ultimate battle of craziness. There are so many ways to win and to get an edge that to say that there is one "strategy" would take away from your potential to be successful in the matchup. In most games, my suggestion is you assess your hand and remain flexible while looking for certain power plays as they become available. Rin is obviously the strongest play in the matchup and an all but guaranteed win if you can pull off the seals without getting killed. Brann zola plays with kazakus, rat, gnom are also very important, as sometimes milling a big card or ratting a nzoth can win you the game. Mind your hand and fatigue counter, as many games will go to fatigue and the person who enters last will win most of the time. One matchup that I did feel was unfavored was evenlock. (they were both of my losses). The problem with evenlock is that they are like even shaman in that they can cheat out big threats, but when even shaman is out of gas by turn 8... they will have 9 cards in hand. I felt like the matchup is winnable if you can delay the board in any way and at some point you are generally going to need to have guldan and his revived board to save you.
​
vs Warrior (6-1)
During my climb I faced almost all odd warrior. Faced 1 or 2 pirate. Pirate warrior is very straightforward, they go face with everything and if you can stop them in some way by turn 5-6 you usually win. If you can't, you die. Luckily, our deck has lots of ways we can. Normally 1 AOE will put them in near topdeck mode and its just about not dying in the next 2-3 turns. Odd Warrior is a very interesting matchup. If you can play Rin on curve, you should almost always win. They have absolutely no answer and can't pressure you down in time. For the most part in this matchup, don't lifetap. Measure your fatigue compared to theres and think about ways to put yourself ahead. Brann + Gnom + Zola can surprise them and put them down 6 cards (not to mention burn potentially high impact cards). Overall the matchup is about managing the fatigue counter and finding your power plays. Guldan should be played ASAP to start armoring him down.
​
Closing Thoughts
I really have enjoyed learning to become better with the deck in this climb. I still would consider myself a 'novice' of playing renolock, but I have learned a lot about how to deck operates and hope to be able to share that with people looking to learn how to play the deck. I am very interested in having a discussion about the types of decks people are using and hope to hear from some more experienced players about how I can better myself with the deck (especially against rogues!)

Hy everyone, first time writing here. Ive been facing a lot of Hadronox druid decks and at first i was struggling a lot. Then i decided to change my deck list a bit into this.

Cubelock

Class: Warlock

Format: Standard

Year of the Raven

2x (1) Dark Pact

2x (1) Kobold Librarian

1x (1) Mortal Coil

2x (2) Defile

1x (2) Gnomeferatu

1x (3) Stonehill Defender

1x (3) Tar Creeper

1x (3) Voodoo Doll

2x (4) Hellfire

2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone

2x (5) Carnivorous Cube

2x (5) Doomguard

2x (5) Faceless Manipulator

2x (5) Possessed Lackey

1x (5) Skull of the Man'ari

1x (7) Lord Godfrey

2x (9) Voidlord

1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul'dan

2x (12) Mountain Giant

AAECAf0GCMQIm8ICysMCrs0Cl9MC2+kCt/ECnPgCC5ME9wS2B+EH58sC8tAC+NACiNICi+EC/OUC6OcCAA==
What you want to do vs Hadronox who will always out value you if you play like normal Cubelock? i Think i found the answer. I won my last 4 games vs that deck by fatigue war. If you have luck and manage to pull Hadronox with gnom then play like normal cube and win. Otherwise dont even try to cubeing your doomguard of voidlords. What you want to do is to pull your Voidlords as soon as possible but not cubeing them. Keep your HP save with them and try to keep board clear. LET DRUID SUMMON 1ST HADRONOX AND NATURALIZE HIM, CLEAR THE BOARD AFTER THAT. AFTER THEY SUMMON 2ND HADRONOX AND CUBE THEM, YOU FACELESS MANIPULATOR THEIR CUBE. After that you have 2 cubes for cubeing hadronox and win trough fatigue with guldan hero power, guldan battlecry for aditional board control and you spellstones and dark pacts for hp regen. With your defiles, hellfires, lord g and voodoo doll you shoud have enough board clear. Also you have 2 nice taunts with Stonehill and Tar.
This deck is also good vs aggro cause of aditional taunts and boardclear.
edit: example of match. https://hsreplay.net/replay/xGvM3MGSnvcYQVhkFCG76F

It's kind of disappointing how badly most control decks have completely fallen out of the meta and into obscurity. The only decks that I see on ladder these days is either aggro decks like face hunter or aggro paladin, or combo decks like oil rogue and grim patron warrior. Rarely do I see another control warrior, or control priest.
I am not saying that hearthstone should not have burn decks, as they are important to keeping control decks in check, but when there is nothing but aggro, it creates a stale experience on ladder and is not healthy for the game.
Combo decks are also good in their own way to, because it creates an interesting game play experience of playing around certain thresholds of your hero's health, while balancing applying pressure in order to force them to use components of their combo in order to deal with your board. However, hearthstone has a severe lack of giving heroes the ability to interact with the opposing player's hand, This coupled with the fact that draw for combo classes is way accessible makes it impossible for control decks counter them, unless you get lucky and have an extremely fast start every time.
This is not to say that there are no viable control decks on ladder. Control warrior is one of the more popular control decks because of their weapons and cheap removal. This is also coupled with them having their own burst combo threat with Gnom. However, there definitely is a problem when there is only one viable version of a control deck on ladder. Decks like control priest and paladin have completely been eradicated from ladder. It is nearly impossible to try and win games consistently through small increments of value anymore, especially since every other deck in the game puts you on the clock. These other control decks also lack a versatile and easy to incorporate burst combo into their decks, making their ability to pressure opponents severely handicapped.
As long as hearthstone keeps developing in this direction, as aggro continues to get more and more tools each expansion, even control warrior will eventually become unviable. What I am hoping for is not a complete control meta, just the opportunity to play some control decks and not feel terrible about it.

(Sorry for my bad english). I played the new Season after the last wing of BRM. I lost some i won some, i met a new archetype the Heal(war)lock (plays every card which heals you). Then i met a lategame aggro Priest with Mekgineer Thermaplugg, he was winning but the game was close. I was playing my Dragon Paly with tons of tech cards (MCT included) his board was Mekgineer 3x Lepre Gnom and a Dark Cultist, my was something that killed one Gnom and Ashbringer equiped with 2 swings. I played MCT after i left him just 2 Gnomes and get Mekgineer, my Ashbringer killed the dark cultist, one turn later he surrendered. I thought cool match interissting idea etc. Then he added me on b.net ... just to say 'fucking lucky fucker' ...'1 of 4' ...'you get that one' etc. ... how old is he 11 years old? If you can't lose better don't play PvE.