Sure, there are plenty of posts from people who applied to a job and got an offer 30 seconds later. Good for them. But if you're on this sub, you're probably running into more difficulty. I did. Job hunting these days is inherently pretty hard, but there are plenty of things I did wrong during my job hunt that could have saved me time and trouble. I'm a 35 year old in product marketing in the bay area, so this advice may or may not apply to you.
Most of this advice is not new, you may have seen it elsewhere. Well, HEED MY WORDS! You should take that advice.
Here are my don'ts of job hunting:
e: Here's the real #1 piece of advice because someone brought it up in the comments: Don't Not Have A Network. The main reason I had such a hard time was I moved to a new city where I didn't have a professional relationship with ANYONE. I think if you're applying without a friend on the inside, it reduces your odds by 80-90%, based on random factoids we've all seen that say 80% of jobs are never posted publicly.
I went to networking events and coffee meetups and blah blah blah, but COVID put a stop to that before I could make much progress. The biggest piece of advice (by far) is just to have a friend who can get you a job. But if you're reading this, you would have done that already if you could have.
Don't try to get by without doing the standard "best practice" stuff.
I spent a while thinking I could get away without making a customized resume for different jobs. I also thought I would probably have the right keywords naturally, and that I didn't have to worry about that either. WRONG. I wasted many weeks submitting poorly optimized resumes and getting few interviews.
What you should do is have at least one version of your resume customized for each job title you're applying to. That means if you're applying for Sr. Widget Fiddler and Director of Widget Fiddling, you need 2 versions.
Keyword optimize each resume version by copy-pasting 50+ job descriptions for that job's title into a tool like Voyant Tools, which will spit out all the most common words and phrases. Find the most frequent ones that seem important and relevant, and work them into your resume, even if it seems weird to refer to yourself as a "team player" or "entrepreneurial".
Don't be bad at interviewing, not even a little bit bad.
Being a good interviewee is a skill. Most of us aren't born with that skill, and most of us are rusty when it comes time to look for a job. I knew I wasn't great at interviewing, but I really didn't want to go through awkward practice interviews with friends, so I told myself people would understand why I was all nervous, and realize I was still super talented and experienced despite my 'rough edges'. WRONG. I blew it on a lot of interviews before admitting that I had to practice, a lot. I did a bunch of practice interviews, got feedback, and I even talked to an interview coach. The latter was expensive, but I think the dose of outside perspective really helped. YMMV.
I practiced enough that I started getting to final rounds instead of washing out in the first couple rounds. It made a huge difference. Practice.
Don't wing it during the interview.
For 'behavioral' questions (i.e. "tell me about a time when..." questions) everyone says you need to have multiple answers memorized for every major category of question. Ugh! So much work. Greatest weakness. Success story. Failure story. Conflict story. Collaboration story. YAWN. I thought I could come up with good answers on the spot. It's "supposed to be a conversation", right? WRONG. I blew it on a couple interviews before realizing I was coming across as both unprepared AND inexperienced.
Sit down and work out your bullet points for every answer, BEFORE you land an interview. Pain in the butt? Yes. But not as big a pain as getting an interview, blowing it, then ending up doing the work anyway.
Don't apply to old job listings.
If it's still up, they're still hiring, right? WRONG. I have found that job listings are good for about as long as fresh bread. You mostly want to apply the day they're posted, 2-3 days is OK, 5 days is pushing it, beyond that, it's literal trash. I started out applying to anything relevant that was less than a month old, and my app-to-interview yield was around 1%. Started applying to new listings exclusively, and my yield went to more like 3%. YMMV.
Don't apply to listings that aren't on the employer's own site.
It's become disturbingly common for 3rd-party sites to steal and re-post job listings they have nothing to do with. You click on a link on LinkedIn or Indeed, and you end up on Neuvoo or some random BS. Don't submit any of your info on those sites. Very often the jobs are expired already, but these 3rd-party scammers are still re-posting them to steal your info. Even if they're not expired, there's no reason to think they actually send your application to the employer.
If you land somewhere unexpected, go to the employer's actual careers section on their site and find the listing yourself. Otherwise you're just giving your info to someone to sell, and the employer probably never sees it. Please report these listings as you go.
Don't be too picky with job titles.
Unless your resume precisely "fits the profile" employers are looking for, you're going to have to apply a lot. I had to apply a lot. At first, I was exclusively applying to one title, because although I didn't "fit the profile" I didn't want to compromise. I ended up getting a really solid job with a different title, after I loosened my criteria JUST a tad.
Have a serious talk with yourself about how many months you're willing to apply before broadening your search, and don't talk yourself out of good jobs because they have the "wrong" title.
Don't be too loose with companies you apply to.
At a couple points in the process, I ended up with interviews at companies that I seriously didn't want to work for. I was playing the numbers game and I would apply to anything with the right title, even if I hadn't heard of the company. I figured if I got an interview, I would worry about the company later.
Difficulty: If you are on unemployment, this can lead to a sticky situation - if you turn down an offer, you legally can't collect unemployment anymore in many places. It's also pretty hard to justify to yourself turning down ANY interview if you actually need the money.
Have a loose idea of who the company is before applying, to avoid those awkward moments.
Don't stop applying until the ink is dry on your offer letter.
My advice is to apply to every suitable listing as soon as it's posted, which could be as many as 10-30 per day depending on your field and geography. If things are going well, you'll also have interviews going on during any given week, which also put heavy demands on your mental energy and prep time.
It is tempting to stop applying for jobs if you are doing multiple interviews and they seem to be going well. You need the time, and one of them has to work out, right? WRONG. It happened to me multiple times - I'd get further along in an interview process, I'd be focusing on prep, and I'd let my application routine slip. Bad idea. If your application pipeline runs dry, it can be another 2-6 weeks before the interviews start flowing again. ABA - always be applying.
Don't get your hopes up. (maybe the most important tip.)
Your mental resilience to rejection and your self-regard are finite resources. They are resources you need to conserve to maintain your overall mental health and good job-hunting habits. Job hunting can burn through these resources like Joe Exotic through a bag of meth. Don't be like me and get emotionally invested in any given job before you get an offer. Don't start picking out all the stuff you're going to buy with the new salary. Don't start thinking of what doors are going to open up for you with this step in your career. Don't mentally pick out outfits for your new commute. Just don't.
I consider myself a mentally tough person, so I should be able to handle the repeated rejection, right? WRONG. If you allow yourself to start caring about a job before you GET the job, you WILL be crushed to bits. Maybe not the first time, but after the 5th, or the 10th, it becomes hard to take.
To some of the newer job hunters I've seen on this sub: Caring about a job from the day you APPLY? Sheer lunacy. You shouldn't even remember where you applied by the time you go to bed that day.
Keep in mind: It's a numbers game. It's not personal. You WILL get the right job eventually, if you keep going. You have to maintain faith in yourself, but hold no hope for any particular job.
In emotional terms, treat it less like a poker game, (where any hand can be a big deal) more like a slot machine (where you care zero until you finally win). No matter how tough you think you are, take care to maintain your mental state, especially during COVID where so many aspects of life are also wearing down our mental health.
Don't be afraid to be a try-hard.
The role I finally got was based largely on a "take home project" used to demonstrate my working style. It was paid, also really long, the minimum suggested time was 10 hours. Usually I put 70% effort into trial projects, because I don't want to bust my ass for a throwaway, and I don't want to look desperate. My thinking is "Well, we're all professionals, so as long as I mention a few of the right things, they'll know we're on the same level, right?" WRONG.
On this one, I decided to go HAM on the project. All or nothing. I ended up putting over 20 hours into it, (the max time they suggested was 20) and came up with a total overkill amount of material, it was probably 20 pages worth, if not more. To give some idea, I spent like 4 hours just doing addressable market sizing, which everyone including me acknowledges is fairly pointless.
Part of the project was also to see how we communicate about our work - they put me on their company slack, so I logged onto it pretty much every day to update them on my progress. It was firmly in try-hard weirdo territory. But it worked!
So I guess my lesson from this is, if you're going to bother with these projects, be the one who turns in the blue ribbon material.
NB: Be aware of "free work" scams where they try to get you to do the actual job without hiring you for the job. If it's pertinent to the actual job and it's more than an hour or two of work, it should be paid. Unpaid trial projects that don't relate to the actual business are OK, but you'll have to decide for yourself how much time you're willing to put in for free.
Don't assume ***anything*** until it's final.
In 3 instances, I got much further than I expected in a hiring process, and in one I was blindsided by a rejection where I thought I was a shoo-in. #1, they interviewed me for the role (up to the final round) even though the job called for an actual engineer and I have zero engineering experience.
In #2, I blew an interview and got rejected. I knew exactly how I blew it, I got the yips and did poorly. So I sent an email reply explaining what I SHOULD have said, and that I really believed in the company's mission, and that I realize I was a poor interviewee, but I was working on it - they actually gave me another shot and I made it to the final round.
In the last unexpected twist story, they actually scheduled a final interview, then CANCELLED IT. I have been rejected for about a million jobs, but I've never been cancelled on. They said that instead of an interview, they would just review my trial project. I couldn't imagine cancelling an interview with someone you intend to hire, so I assumed this 'review' was just a consolation prize and the job was going to someone else. On the day the cancelled interview was meant to take place, they offered me the job. Huh???? Later that day I rode to heck on a flying pig and bought a snowcone there. But I also got a job.
On the other side of things, I was told directly I was the top candidate for a role, the only one who was really qualified, but because of COVID they were putting the role on hold. OK cool, I figured I was a shoo-in once they actually hired for it. Well, they re-listed the job about 45 days later. They didn't reach out to me. I messaged them. They told me I wasn't even going to get a phone screen for it. WTF? They lied to my face for no reason whatsoever? Yep. They did.
The lesson: Do not assume anything! ANYTHING!

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975

ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.

March 3, 1976

ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.

First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.

I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983

Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."

Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982

'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."

Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982

Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.

This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:

Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.

The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003

In this post I'd like to share my thoughts and counter some of the negative feedback I've seen on this sub over the past few days. I also like to add that I'm open for civilised discussion and for listening to people who see things differently, but please don't go HURR DURR UPDATE BAD, that's not helping anyone.
Bit of background: I'm a pretty hardcore player for a little over 2 years. I'm a Xennafarmer (over 100o% EB) and am part of a group that beats contracts in 1/3 to 1/2 of the allowed time. I of course have the pro permit and have pretty much unlimited GE. I very much realize I'm not the average player.
1. On the subject of the grind
Pre-update, most of my time went to prestiging. I like the SE grind, often doing multiple prestige runs each day. Now, I can switch between launching rockets and doing prestige runs. So that's a welcome change for me, and I currently always have all 3 rocket slots filled up.
But you don't need to do what I do. If you don't care about progressing as fast as I do, don't. This was the case in the past, and is unchanged. You don't have to launch a rocket every day, just like you didn't need to prestige every day. Not even every week. Yes, you'll unlock artifacts slower, but how is that an issue? You also made slower EB progress than the grinders in the past.
Also note that you don't need to max every prestige. When I'm launching rockets that require multiple fuel types, I simply hit prestige and go to the egg that I need.
2. But the game is not idle any more!
Again, you don't need to launch rockets everyday. But then don't expect to reach the end game as fast as people who do.
Higher up rockets take multiple days to return, giving higher rewards as well. Seems fine for people that don't want to open the app every hour. I honestly feel like that's a good balance. This game is as idle as you want it to be.
3. On the unlocking of rocket types
3.a. You need to launch a certain number of rockets to progress to the next one.
Was this absolutely necessary? Probably not. But you also needed a certain number of SE/PE to unlock a certain egg in the past. So why is this an issue now? Again, grinders get faster results.
3.b. I think I've seen a post where you need a certain number of SE to unlock a rocket (Can't find it any more, so don't quote me on this).
I think that's good. Lower artifacts for newer players, more powerful ones for the end game players. This also forces players to find a balance between prestiging and launching rockets, effectively pushing you to discover all aspects of the game.
This is very similar to the unlocking of epic research: you're gonna have a bit in the beginning, and all of it as you progress.
4. Change requests
I think it's hilarious to see people already demanding numerous changes. At one point, we had to get used to trophies, boosts, boost tokens, contracts, to the enlightenment egg challenge,... and so many other things. They turned out fine, didn't they? Some required tweaking, but the dev is responsive to constructive feedback.
Play the update for a bit, get used to it, reach the final rocket, see what the artifacts bring you in the game, and then come back and give feedback that is actually based on something.
5. The diamond Enlightement egg trophy
It was taken away, and it was a shock. They could've handled it better, by giving people the option to remove it. Auxbrain has already released a statement on this, which I feel like is a decent solution. I, for one, am happy that I'll be able to grind again to unlock it legit and play the game as intended. If they didn't do this, I would have reached out to the dev to remove my trophy. And along me, others as well, I'm sure.
6. It's a cash grab
Yes, GE's are flying out the door because of all the crafting. It gets expensive quickly. But we've also been complaining on this very sub about not having a use for GE any more, and we've been flaunting our huge piggy banks. Now you get to spend them, and it's also bad? Boy, y'all are a though crowd ;-)
I've broken the piggy 4 times over a 2-year span and ended up with 150m+ GE. Piggy doublers and unlimiters exist, so make use of them! That money investment feels OK to me, considering the hours of joy I get in return.
If you don't feel like the piggy or pro permit is worth it, you probably aren't a hardcore player and will unlock the entire game slower, with or without the money investment.
7. Do I absolutely love everything?
No. The one thing I dislike the most is that rockets introduced a luck factor into the game. You never know what that rocket is gonna bring back, and that annoys me. I just hope that higher rockets have high enough chances for unlocking all artifacts in a decent amount of time.
​
Tl;dr: I feel like a lot of people are jumping to conclusions, having not played the update properly. Give it a real chance, get used to it, and then come back with feedback that can be backed up with data.
PS: more updates are coming. The 'buy all button' was confirmed by the dev in the discord, for example, and is a huge QoL update.

With GameHive’s latest Dev Update asking for the community’s thoughts, I thought I would share my perspective as somebody who has been managing top raiding clans since raids were released. I am, after all, an important member of the community.
Ultimately my issue with what has happened to this game is that it has gone from a casual, idle tapping incremental game to a time-sink that feels like a job to keep up with. So, here are some suggestions (mostly regarding raids) that I think would make the game more fun and feel less like work.
Section A: Raid QOL Improvements Please
People at cap have nothing to do at cap, so we raid. The raids have desperately needed some quality-of-life improvements, but somehow a lot of the raiding systems remain unchanged since the introduction of 3.0. Here are some things that I think should be addressed and would create a better raiding environment.

1. Help us raid efficiently by building a method in which to prevent "wasted" damage. 3rd party tools are an absolute requirement here, and they shouldn't be. Why on earth is it possible for 2 people to submit hits that both kill a titan just because when they started the attack it wasn't dead yet? The responsibility of preventing this wasted damage should lie on the game dev's shoulders, not the clan leadership or some discord bot.
   
2. Why is there still no easy way to see exactly how much HP/Armor a titan part has remaining? The 'toggle health bars' button should display the total HP/Armor remaining for that part NUMERICALLY within the health bars.
   
3. Tracking our members' missed hits should be easier. GH recently added the “max” number of raid attacks on the clan roster, but it’s not helpful. When implementing it, they just multiplied the number of attacks per cycle by the number of cycles currently in the raid and put that number next to everybody's name. If a member missed 2 hits in the first cycle, their attacks should read 2/6 when the 2nd cycle begins, not 2/8. Now I have to have a separate discord channel to write down missed hits every cycle. More "work" they've put onto clan leadership.
   
4. Create a new clan tab showing all the attacks/decks submitted to the raid in real time. There are already plenty of buttons within the clan tab, what's one more? I don't care for my clanmates' privacy when it comes to submitting raid attacks. This is a clan raid, if you're submitting an attack that I deem stupid or irresponsible, I want to know about it. If somebody doesn't like it, they can find a clan that doesn't care as much.
   
5. Clan chat needs to update more frequently. Restarting the game or sending a message yourself to refresh the chat is a dumb work-around.
   

Section B: Selfishness Tops Charts
Being selfish in clan raids is promoted by punishing people who do the clan’s dirty work, like hitting the debuffed parts of a titan. There are a couple things I’d like to see changed to negate the instinct to be selfish, which ultimately results in raids “stalling” at certain stages.

1. Raid debuffs: If the titan's armor is debuffed, the people who hit the armor are punished, and the people who selfishly wait for others to take the penalty are rewarded. In this case, the easiest solution is probably to just increase the amount of armor the titan has by a similar amount it's being penalized by. That way everybody's damage numbers remain unchanged and only the titan's ratios are adjusted. This prevents the raid stalling out when all that remains are debuffed titan parts.
   
2. Clean-up/transitions: We have to have somebody sacrifice their damage nearly every cycle for the sake of cleaning titans up (clearing the small remainders of HP left on various titan parts that aren't big enough to focus an entire attack on). We currently have 29 total raid cards, and most of them don't fit into the current meta. One of these cards could assist in the "clean up" process so raids don't stall out while waiting for somebody sacrifice their damage. Maybe this card could buff damage for each part you kill during the attack. I wouldn't want this card to be tuned in such a way that people are fighting over who gets to clean up, rather just punish people less for doing it.
   

Section C: The Thief of Time
Every major update of this game seems to put more demands on my time.

1. Raids: Insanity Void has again changed the way top clans raid to maximize their output. With every overpowered deck created, we lose flexibility at which times we can make our attacks. EVERY raid cycle from now on is looking out for when VM and IV are at their optimal states and sending out the alerts to my clanmates (more clan management handled by a 3rd party tool! Yay!). Gone is the dream of having 12-hour windows to perform all my raid attacks. I need to baby this app if I want to utilize my cards efficiently.
   
2. Events: Capping daily prestiges at 99 and then forcing the entire community to compete against each other for top 10th percentile is a far cry from what events originally were. It's obnoxious to feel obligated to put 15-20 prestiges a day into this game on top of the other demands if we want to keep our badge. I'm not even sure how to un-fuck this since badges give you permanent damage now.
   
3. Abyssal Tournaments: Another 24-hour window where if you want to win, say goodbye to your free time. Lower the length of these so they aren't just a battle of attrition. People who still compete in regular tournaments now have 3 DAYS of tournaments every week out of 7. It's too much. Also, remove the ability the spend diamonds on these tournaments. It breeds toxicity.
   
4. Solo raids: I'm not sure who this ended up being targeted towards. High-end players march through these and it's just a weekly chore to get dust that offers no challenge. Low-end players can't make it to the end, which just happens to be where all the rewards are. The leaderboard is representative of who has spent the most money on dust, and actively punishes you for looking at the various bonuses/decks of each portal. If you want a leaderboard that isn't a joke, then don't start the timer until you begin your attacks and normalize all the raid levels and card levels for everybody.
   

Section D: Buying and Spending Dust

1. The dust shop: This can just go away now, right? I'm not understanding the point of time-gating buying our cards when dust is prohibitively expensive. If somebody is going to buy their way to max level cards, why not let them? There are already players who have level 50 cards at this point. Getting people with FOMO to spend their dust is shitty and there are already a million reasons to open the app, checking the dust shop every 6 hours doesn’t matter when they check their raid ten times a day. If getting rid of the dust shop entirely is out of the question, the number of dust shop slots is already tied to the players raid level. Why not increase it to 9 then 12 slots as people increase their raid level?
   
2. Buying dust: Capped players have nothing to spend their diamonds on besides dust. And for 2 weeks 3-4 times a year, you give people like me DOUBLE the value of their diamonds during dust promotions. This means I'm saving my diamonds for 3-4 months at a time. Earning currency and waiting 4 months to spend it feels shitty. Make 3000 dust the default value in a titan chest and let the promotions be used for other things like crafting shards.
   

TL;DR: Running a competitive clan, playing tournaments, and participating in events is insanely time-consuming. GameHive should change some of the current systems to make less demands on our time, or at the very least give us some small quality-of-life changes to make things just a little easier on us.

Overview

This game was surprisingly interesting - for an offer anyways. In this game, you will have a bunch of champions which you will create a team out of and progress through combat stages. You have an energy bar and almost every action will require you to use energy or some other time-regenerated item. Progressing was very straightforward, and I didn't feel like there was any hidden tricks I needed to know in order to complete the offer in a decent period of time. The only things I really didn't like was how fast your energy filled up. It takes 3 minutes per 1 energy, so even when you're near the end of this offer and you have 100+ energy, it will reach the cap in about 5 hours. Of course, you won't generate more energy while it is at or over your maximum amount. That means if you want to be efficiently using your energy, you need to check in very frequently.
 
^{Note: This guide is only for completing the offer. If you might be interested in playing the game beyond this, I REALLY don't recommend following this guide. There are a lot of decisions I chose to make that will only help you in the beginning, but may significantly harm you if you choose to play beyond what is required.}
 

Offer Name	Raid Shadow Legends
Offer Wall	None. I found it on the Swagbucks front page.
Device Used	I used my desktop.
Amount	$60 using Swagbucks
Time Limit	28
Time Spent	13 days. I was level 22 the first day, 27 the second day, 38 the 6th day. I finished it on the 7th day.

^{Note: This offer goes to pending for 3 days.}
 

Starting Off

I highly recommend starting this game when you have a couple hours you can dedicate to it. When you start off, you are given an absurd amount of energy, and you quickly gain more. Your energy can safely go over the cap, but you will not regenerate any more when it is. I was level 26 before I got through all of the energy
You will be given a few champions to choose between at first. I highly recommend choosing Elhain. She has two good aoes, and she's an absolute beast for farming campaign - which you will be doing a lot of. I've seen some people recommend Kael, but I didn't particularly like him. He's better for bosses and arena, but your campaign is what is the most important.
When you first start off, you are given a short tutorial to complete. Make sure to put your battle on auto and put the speed at 2x. On occasion you may want to fight manually, but I only found it useful during certain bosses in the early stages and occasionally in an arena battle. After your tutorial, start working your way through the Missions as much as you can until you get the gem rewards for completing all of the ones in the first stage. If you get stuck, you can go ahead and start progressing further in the campaign; however, you will end up doing a lot of back tracking if you do. Once you get the 300 gem reward, don't bother doing them anymore (unless it's something easy). The rewards aren't really worth it. Also try to coordinate the Challenges when possible. Most of them just give silver so it's not really worthwhile, but some give energy or other useful rewards.
 

Things To Know

You should aim to get 3 stars in your campaigns when possible, but don't waste energy over it. You do this by completing a campaign with 1-2 champions without any of them dying. Getting a certain amount of stars will give you goodies like gems - so try to use 2 characters and get 3 stars when possible, but when you start getting 1 star, switch to using 4 champions for better exp distribution. Don't forget to equip/upgrade your equipment!
To get the most out of your battles, you want to be leveling as many champions as possible. EXP is split between all champions, even if they are already at max level. Most of the time that you are leveling champions, you will want to use one main fighter and fill the rest of the slots with Champions that need leveled up.
Save all of your gems at the start. Once you get to 800 gems, buy all of the Masteries you need for Elhain. This will give her a huge boost which will push you through the higher difficulties. This is the setup I chose. After you get her Masteries, all of your gems should be spent on energy. Do not unlock your gem mine, it's a complete waste.
One of your missions will require you to upgrade the great hall, so be sure to save your bronze metals! When the mission finally has you upgrade something, upgrade the ATK for the blue meteorite. A mission later on will have you upgrade the ATK for the elements except the purple triangle.
This game revolves around upgrading your champions. You do this by leveling them up and then upgrading their rank in the tavern. In order to upgrade their rank, they must be at max level and you must sacrifice other champions at the same rank. For example, to take a Champion from 2 star to 3 star, you will need the champion at level 20, and you will need 2 other 2 star champions. To get to 3 star, it needs to be level 30 and have 3 other 3 star champions. So on and so forth. Each time you upgrade their rank, their base stats will increase and they will be reset to level 1. The sacrificial champions can be any level, and there is no benefit to increasing their level before sacrificing them.
Your goal is to farm Brutal stage 12-6. Once you get to this point, you no longer need to upgrade any Champions - just focus on clearing it quickly. This stage seemed to be the best exp to energy ratio. I tested nightmare, to an extent, but I did not feel that it would be worth trying getting to stage 12 in nightmare since you should be fairly close to completing the offer once you get to Brutal 12-6. The first 5 or so sections in each difficulty give less exp than the 12th of a lower difficulty, but the later ones will more than make up for the exp loss. Never farm the bosses though - they use more energy and give less exp than the regular stages!
 

Dailies

The game resets at 7PM EST. Make sure to restart your game at this time, because some things won't track properly. The clan stuff doesn't reset until later on though.

• Daily Login Reward & New Player Rewards - These usually pops up when you start the game, but you can also hit the 3 dashes on the left hand side.
  
• Quests - Make sure to complete all of your daily quests every day! Do your Weekly and Monthly as well. Once you unlock the Advanced quests, do them if it seems worthwhile. Completing all of them gives you an energy refill, but you might not always be able to complete them all. If you can't, just do the ones that give you energy, gems, or silver.
  
• Playtime Rewards - You will get a bunch of rewards for leaving your game running up to 3 hours. You should aim for at least 60 minutes to get the energy refill. These rewards need to be collected in the bottom right hand corner. The timer will continue even if you don't pick up the previous reward, so you can just leave the game running.
  
• Market - This resets every 60 minutes. Unlock the first two extra slots which can be unlocked with silver. Always buy all of the Mystery Shards. If you desperately need more champions, you can buy those too. I didn't see any artifacts that were worth buying.
  
• Progression Rewards - These aren't exactly dailies, but you should check them every 5 levels.
  

 

Events / Tournaments

These are mostly a waste of time, but make sure to collect any rewards if you happen to meet the goals. The only one to really look out for is the Artifact Enhancement event. When this one is up, it's good to waste some silver upgrading your Artifacts (Champion gear) - even if it's gear you won't use. The higher stars the gear, the more points you get for upgrading it. So make sure to upgrade the highest star gear you have when possible. Just be sure to save a few 100k silver for general purposes, but otherwise dump your silver into upgrading your artifacts so you can get some of those energy/gem rewards.
 

Champions

This game allows you to use 1-5 champions per battle, depending on what you're fighting. Each champion has an element, and is weak against one element and strong against another. Elhain is strong against the green lightning bolt, and weak against the red skull. She is neutral towards the blue meteorite-thing and the purple triangle.

The "Best" Champions

There are so many champions, and so many potential enemies, that it really isn't possible to say which ones you want to use. In general, you will want Elhain since she will likely be your strongest fighter. Don't ever use brews on your main fighers - you will end up maxing them out just by using them normally.

• Elhain will be your main fighter, and you should prioritize her for everything. This includes upgrading rank, skills, ascending, gear - EVERYTHING. In the beginning you'll want to put Offense artifacts on her. Once you're able to, switch that to on 4 pieces of Lifesteal and 2 Offense Artifacts and she'll carry you through everything. Try to get her to level 60 ASAP. After Elhain is 4 or 5 star, you can upgrade your Warpriest (or one other DPS) to 4 star, but otherwise save everything for her. Spend your first 800 gems on masteries for her.
  
• Warpriest is a decent healer, and she helped pushed me through some boss fights I otherwise wouldn't have made it through. I'm not sure how exactly I got her, but I recall getting her early on. Put on as many sets of Immortal as you can (when you get them), and use Life for the rest. Note: Each set requires 2 Artifacts. I got her to 4 stars, and it was sufficient for most of the game.
  
• Diabolist is a great support. You get her as a drop in the 12th campaign. I didn't get her until I was farming brutal, but she became a huge game changer. Put 6 pieces of Speed Artifacts on her, and prioritize Speed substats (and primary stat on the boots).
  
• Others - Pick whatever champions you can get that have AOEs or can buff your team. Speed is great for any buffers. Perception or Speed is good on any aoe debuffers. (4) Lifesteal and (2) Offense are good for any other DPS. Generally speaking, the higher the rarity, the better the champion, but pay attention to the skills.
  
• If you get a champion with a purple triangle element - KEEP IT! These champions are extremely hard to get, and you will occasionally get quests that require you to use one.
  

 

Team Composition

• Non-boss campaigns - In general you will want to use one main fighter and 3 champions that need leveled. However, if you find yourself stuck on a battle with a lot of red skull enemies, you will want to use more of your "good" champions. Campaigns 5, 7, and 11 will likely give you trouble- so go ahead and use more of your good fighters here if you can push through the stages. If you are unable to push through the stage even with a team full of your best champions, switch to a weaker stage or up to a full level down and use 1 main fighter. If you still cannot do one level weaker with one main fighter, use two fighters for now.

1. Once you complete the 12th section in campaign, you can change the difficulty. The first few sections will give you less exp, but it is worth it to go through them. Once you get to around stage 6, the increased energy cost seems to be worth it for the player exp. If you get stuck before then, it may be worth going back to an easier difficulty and completing 12-6. Once you get to Brutual 12-6, stop.

• Boss campaigns - You will likely want a secondary fighter for bosses, if not a full team. Boss campaigns cost more energy and give less exp, so just focus on getting through the stage. It may be worth turning off auto battle for certain fights if you see your team struggling unnecessarily (ex: Using aoes on one enemy, fighting enemies that respawn instead of hitting the boss, etc)
  
• Arena & Clan Boss - Use your best team - there's no exp here.
  
• Dungeons & Faction Wars - Choose a pretty good team for these. There is exp, but it's very little.
  
• Doom Tower - Don't worry about this. You might be able to work your way through near the end of the game, but it isn't really worth it by then.
  

 

Should you spend real money?

I don't think it's worth it.
They have an offer for 1,150 gems for $30. This would give you ~3,100 energy. If you are doing Brutal 12-6, you will be able to complete around 388 runs, and each run gives you around half of a percentage. That means you would get around 2 levels worth for $30, which might save you 2-3 days if you purchased it near the end.
 

Other tips/notes for this game:

• Reload the game when the dailies reset. Some of them don't reset right until you reload.
  
• Each time you level up you will get a full energy bar worth of energy.
  
• If you don't have enough space for more heroes and receive one in a campaign, it will go to your mailbox with a 99 day timer. This can be a useful way to store heroes. It also happens with equipment, so make sure to sell your equipment from time to time or you'll have a lot of mail to go through. Make sure to keep some 4* and all 5* or higher equipment for the events.
  
• Any time you accept an energy point reward, it will immediately fill up your bar. On occasion it will be sent to your mailbox if it's from a daily reward. Arena refill items always go to your mailbox.
  
• Change your name and avatar to complete a couple quests.
  

 
 

Common Questions

Can I do this if I already completed it on another offer wall or played the game before on my own?

Generally, no. Almost all of these games state that it's for new users only.

What if I do it on another site?

No.

I don't see the offer! What do I do?

It's possible it simply isn't available for you. I'm from the USA, and many offers are not available outside the USA. If you are from the USA, try checking on the site I did the offer on or on a different site. Sometimes they're only on certain sites. It's also possible that the offer is no longer available.

What do I do if the mobile shortlink isn't working? What does ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED mean?

First off, try using a different browser. I have had issues with Chrome opening links before. If you are still getting an error, it's likely that your device isn't eligible for this offer. Even if it might be able to run the app, sometimes the offers put in specific requirements for devices. In this case, the only thing you can do is try a different device.

I completed the task but I didn't get credit for it! What do I do?

First, wait 24 hours. Most of these games credit within a few minutes, but they may take up to a day sometimes.
Next, check to see if the offer has been completed through the offer wall. If it has not, you must contact the specific offerwall that you completed the task on. For example, if you do this task on Site-xyz through AdGate you have to contact AdGate. If the offer shows as completed but you did not get your points, then the points may have been held and you will need to contact the specific site.

This takes so long! Why would you waste your time for a couple bucks?!

I play these games in between other work or on the weekends. I don't do them instead of better paying work, but rather along side it in my down time or while I'm watching TV. I'm also a gamer, so I enjoy playing games.
 
 

Have any more tips? Let users know in the comments!

As always, this is my first time playing this game. I have a lot of experience playing these sorts of games, but each one is a little bit different. All advice is based on my personal experience and my playstyle.
 
Looking for more ways to get paid to play games? Take a look here.
 
^{Is there a certain game you're interested in seeing a guide for? Let me know in the comments! Be sure to include the offer name, which offer wall it's on, what site you found it on, and approximately how many points it's worth.}

Hey everyone. I've incorporated the feedback from Pixonic (August 2020, October 2020, December 2020, and January 2021). My goal is to try to get Pixonic to respond directly to this thread periodically (3-4 times a year). This will be linked to the weekly suggestions thread by the auto-moderator. Be sure to use the "Pixonic Suggestion" flair so I can easily sort through all the suggestions!
Ideas & Feature Requests
This thread is a place where you can discuss your ideas for the game or request features you would like to see in coming versions of the game.
This sub appreciates any contributions you can make to existing ideas, but we suggest you do not post your idea before reviewing previous Pixonic ideas / suggestions threads. It is highly likely another Commander already submitted the same idea!
Please be aware that posting a ruled out idea may result in your thread being removed altogether and posting an idea already suggested might result in your thread being closed with a reference back to this thread.
A few tips to submitting an idea or suggestion:
Title: Choose a good title - be very specific. Instead of naming your thread "suggestion", "idea", try something like "Hawks are Over Powered." This will help other users find and contribute to your thread, and drive more discussion around the topic.
Point: Use clear, concise points or explanations, concept art or screenshots where applicable. General, unspecific, high-level ideas are great, but the Pixonic team can't do much without the proper information!
"I think Hawks are way too powerful in the game because of their high firepower. Players running multiple Hawks make the game frustrating and boring for me."
Suggestion: Give constructive and helpful suggestions that are realistic. Why will the idea work?
"Decrease the Hawks firepower so it only impacts Titans and does not cut through bots' defenses. This will allow other bots to effectively counter Hawks and bring better balane to the game."
For all, keep in mind Pixonic is a business. I realize many of us have little experience in owning a gaming company, but try to consider how Pixonic would make a profit or be successful in the business model when giving a suggestion. Pixonic wants players spending money AND playing a lot--so how does your suggestion support that?
Threads will be removed if it includes profanity and / or insults. Comments like "make everything for free" or "XXX (i.e. Matchmaking, the game, targeting, etc.) sucks--solution: make the game better, or un-nerf everything" will just be deleted. This also isn't the place to report bugs or to rant.
Given the nature of the game the developers and producers cannot always say what is coming in the next version or what is being worked on. Also, please don't expect a response to every thread or idea. The best ideas will be discussed frequently by the Community and will surface to the top in that manner (or through up/down votes). Do not spam your thread or ideas just because no one is responding!

• Response (December 2020)
• Response (January 2021)

Frequently Requested Ideas
Below are ideas submitted by users for Pixonic to consider. It does not imply they are being worked on. Please do a search before starting new feature requests, especially if they are listed below.
These ideas and suggestions are either acknowledged and are being worked on, or have been ruled out by the dev team for the time being. Posting these ideas may result in your thread being removed without notice.
Frequently Requested:

• Battle Modes
  • Titan skirmish (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: " We agree that it would be a lot of fun. We'll try to introduce Titan Skirmishes next year, but it won't be a priority – there's so much to do.")
  • Additions to custom matches (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "The general idea of Custom Matches is not to provide an additional game mode, but to give you a playground where you can test your builds to understand if they are suitable for real combat. In Max's opinion, current functionality of Custom Matches fits just well in this concept." Detailed comments in original post)
  • Beacon hold time should be considered for HP (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: " We already have some ideas on how to expand the honor reward list (e.g. rewarding players for applying Suppression or Lock-down effects). The idea with beacon hold time sounds like a nice addition to our plans. ")
  • Faction vs. Faction skirmish
• Boosters
  • Pause booster timer while waiting for match (Status: in August 2020 the Pixonic producer stated they agreed with this concept and were looking into it; in Dec 2020 Max, the WR Producer stated: "We had plans for a complete rework of Boosters. Unfortunately, we had to cut those plans off to release Drones and prepare for Remastered. We believe we'll have time to work on Boosters in 2021.")
  • Faster reload times (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "Thing is, there is a technical tie between reload animation and reload time. It's one of those legacy mechanics that've been haunting the game for years already. Until we refactor the entire block, it's impossible for us to change the reload speed on most of the weapons. But in general idea is good, though we see it as a Passive Module rather than a Booster.")
• Bots
  • Raijin increased resistance instead of damage
  • Add 3 Passive modules to each bot
  • Allow energy shields to recharge at all times
  • Nuclear Fission Snipers
  • Egyptian Themed Bots
  • Medusa
  • Arbiter Shield Concept
  • Overhead view (like Nightingale) for Invader and Mercury)
  • Altitude control of flying bots
• Community Features
  • Allow friends in-game or via other platforms (i.e. Discord) (Status: in Dec 2020, Max WR Producer stated: " We call it "Platform Merge iteration 2" and it's on the list for 2021."; in January 2021 Max WR Producer stated: "For technical reasons, we don't want to add integrations with other platforms as far as the friends system is concerned. In fact, we'd also like to get rid if the existing integration and make all friends features completely native to the game. There will be a rework of the friends system this year. Stay tuned!"; In Jan 2021 Pix stated ability to invite friends direclty is coming soon)
  • Pixonic sponsored WR Tournament (Status: Oct 2020 Pix CM said it was coming; in Dec 2020 Max WR Producer stated: "We have a couple of competitive features prepared for the next year. We'll tell you more in our New Year videos."; In Jan 2021 Pix stated tournaments will be introduced into each season)
  • Clan Wars
  • Cross-Platform (Status: In Dec 2020, Max WR Producer stated: "This is basically a cross-platform account, like PixAccount. The idea has been around for a couple of years already. It should be implemented on the scale of the whole company, not only War Robots project, of course. But yes, it's something we definitely want to have in the future.")
  • Incorporate lore into rewards or abilities, etc. (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a great idea and it might work! *Promises to talk to the game design department about it*")
  • Story / campaign mode
• Drones (Status: October 2020 Pixonic CM announced Drones were being overhauled)
  • Remove random chip / slot generator
  • Preset hangar to save time in battle
• Hangars
  • Allow useage of bots across hangars in battles (or same bot for multiple hangars)
  • Hangar presets
  • Upgrade / build multiple bots or weapons at a time (possibly benefit of having multiple hangars)
  • Limit number of sambe bots you cna use in active hangar
  • Allow us to see other players' drone hangars (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: " Yes, one day. We have some improvement plans for Drones, including UI. Hopefully, our UI team will find a way to show more info on drones in hangar.")
  • Allow 7 bots per hangar but only use 5 (like Drones)
• In-Game Communication / Clan Management
  • Improved chat and in-game features
  • Active/Live “Online Status” examples: colored icons, on/off indicator, etc.
  • Current League Icon next to all clan members
  • Indicate last online date
  • Clan voice chat
  • Global Chat
  • Report button for players violating the game's ToS or hacking, etc. (Status: according to the Pixonic producer in Aug 2020, a report button is supposed be included in a future release--no further details were given; confirmed by Pix CM in Oct 2020)
• Maps
  • List maps in Alphabetical order in pull down menu (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "With only 13 maps in the game, it isn't difficult to find what you are looking for. However, if it can be done fast, we will try to squeeze it into the production plan.")
  • New map concepts
• Matchmaking / Leagues (Status: This is how the MM works; they constantly do minor tweaks; this is my response on death squads)
  • Modified league points
  • Add additional league (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR producer stated: "We are considering this idea right now, but rather a new league between Masters and Champions."; In Jan 2021 Pix stated a rework to Legendary leagues is coming soon)
• Performance / Technical Features
  • Targeting system rework / improvement (Status: Targeting seems to be part of the base code and allows other features in the game to operate, such as stealth, meaning there are multiple dependencies. Pixonic did minor tweaks to targeting to address shooting Ao Mings in the air from the ground and vice versa, but according to Pixonic CM in Oct 2020 a major rework will not be considered until after Pixonic migrates to new servers in 2021; In Jan 2021 Pix stated improvement to targeting system will be worked with expected release in Aug 2021).
  • Lag (Status: According to Pixonic the 6.4 update should address lag along with server overhaul)
  • Limit character length and types of characters in user names (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR producer stated: "Yes, we'll need to do that sooner or later.")
  • Font size for iPhone users
  • Drones menu rework
  • Purchase confirmation button
  • Add commas to numerical figures
  • Allow weapons and modules to be viewed together at the same time for each bot
  • Allow custom search-organization for hangars and inventory
• Pilots
  • Reduce the gold cost
  • Reduce the randomness of skills
  • Titan pilots
  • Universal pilot skills
  • Legendary Pilots for Fujin and Raijin
  • Legendary Pilots for all Bots
• Rewards / Events / Operations / Chests
  • Remove 2,500 components from Tier 1 prizes in Events
  • More gold-based deal offers
  • Overdrive weekend that reduces or eliminates costs for component conversion in WS
  • Daily Log In Rewards
  • Choose type of crate progression (Status: In jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "The league chests need a rework, that's for sure. We have some plans for an overhaul or even an alternative feature in 2021.")
  • Honor based gold system
  • Pt-Gold-Silver Forge system
  • Announce odds of winning prizes from chests, events, etc.
• Titans
  • New Titan Oasis
  • New Titan Odin
  • Nodens should be able to see stealthed allied bots for healing
  • Add Nodens heal targeting button
  • Make Titans available in custom games
  • Motherboards (like microchips for bots)
  • Additional abilities
• Weapons / Equipment
  • Corrosion Rockets
  • Aegis shield purchase (like Ancile)
  • Antimatter Rail Gun
  • Weapons Inventory Page
  • DoT Shotguns
  • Reload Accelerator Module

​
Ruled Out (for now):

• Reload button (Status: Been requested numerous times over the years. Pixonic had a reload button in a test server in ~2016 but removed it without explanation and has not indicated it will be implemented at all in the future).
• Donating (or trading) any resources to (with) other players or accounts (Status: a type of resource donation system used to be in the game but it was abused by players who created multiple accounts and clan-hopped to exploit it. It does not look like any trading system will be implemented in the future).
• Stats (Status: In Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "We agree that there are players who love in-depth statistics. However, War Robots is a "midcore" game and we predict that the feature will not be popular enough among our players.")
  • Legends League stats (bots / weapons)
  • Stats of each bot at the end of the battle
  • Specific bot in your hangar stats for last 50 games
  • Advanced stats tab
• E-Sports, community leagues, official API ecosystem (Status: in Dec 2020, Max WR Producer stated: " Nope. That would require too much work and resources.")
• Battle Pass for Operations (points / currency rewards) (Status: in January 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "We are fine with how Operations work in War Robots right now.")
• Allow training hangars to test out bots before buying them (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a nice idea in general and we had it on the roadmap for 2021. However, after the final evaluation, the feature's business value/effort proportion proved to be too unfavorable to include it into the plan. You can still test out some of the new content using Hangar X.")
• Allow factions to add boosts / skills / features to bots and hangars (Status: in Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a very interesting concept, yet as War Robots meta is not built around the lore, it will lead to power players choosing factions that suit the current meta, while the lore factor will be neglected. So the faction power bonus is unlikely to appear in the game. However, we will work on including more lore-based features in War Robots and our other games.")
• New MM formula (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "First of all, big thanks to the author of the original post. You did a great job with the calculations and data! *applause*. The concept of the Hangar Power matchmaking is great. It provides those sought after equal matches in most of the cases... on one condition — all players play fair. Right at the point when someone decides to abuse the system, it all falls apart. We struggled with it really bad before we introduced Leagues. (Yes, tankers are also a problem, but we can at least spot them and suspend or ban their accounts.). Your idea with the high-tier robots contributing more to the HPS is a good one. And still, it doesn't provide a guaranteed solution to the problem. Between Tier 1 (Destrier) and Tier 4 (Ao Jun) there is also Tier 2 and Tier 3. That's where it gets painfully difficult to balance the system so that high-level players aren't able to disintegrate mid-levels with just one bot. We had some attempts at a similar algorithm with the Design and Analytics teams in 2019. During several months of tests we couldn't come up with a solid version, that we ourselves wouldn't be able to abuse as players.")
• Synchronize platform releases (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's not possible due to our internal releasing procedures.")
• Give Pt or Gold for selling Titans / Bots / Weapons that used Pt or gold to purchase them (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "No. With the current economy of the game, the availability of resources directly affects the availability of the content. At this point, we don't want to make the powerful content more available.")

I've been using my P6 for few days and here's a brief review. I had ordered it before the global release, so its the Chinese version of device. Though Boyue assured me that there are no differences between Chinese and global one, except some Chinese text at back panel.
Price: $129.99
Bought from: Likebook's Aliexpress store.
Specs: 6" E-ink with Android 8.1. 1 GB RAM. Rockchip RK3326 processor. 1500mAh battery.
My use case:
I have a Kindle basic which works great, but I needed an e-reader to read RSS feeds, blogs, long texts and wikis without looking at LCD screens.
Hardware:
Build quality is robust. Its way lighter than my Kindle (even with the case) and feels good in hands. While most people prefer USB-C, I have no issues with micro-usb.
The screen, compared to Kindle, is pale. So, in low light conditions, one can't read without turning on the frontlight. Frontlight is pleasant and offers granular adjustment. It also has a SD-card slot, haven't used it yet.
Software:
Overall system software is very stable and bare bones. With 1 GB RAM and a weaker processor, I had totally expected - unexpected system crashes, app shutdowns before buying the device, but they never came. Process management is very good and response speed is average. Guess! Boyue finally did their homework. I used six apps at a time, and it still had plenty of RAM remaining, and the device didn't slow down a bit. Though, it has minor hiccups here and there, but nothing that stands out.
Software takes a day to get used to, but after that its breeze to use.
• Stock apps: The stock reader, Zreader is a hit or miss. I put in one mobi, one epub and three cbr files to check. The epub one wasn't rendered correctly, showing boxes in place of quotes. Surprisingly, the mobi file for the same book worked just fine. Zreader offers loads of typesetting changes, and after half an hour of fiddling/loading fonts, I managed to make it look same as my kindle.
And for cbr files, only one of them worked. Other two, showed some error in Chinese. But boy! the cbr file that worked was absolute joy to read, especially with the manual crop function. Pictures were very crisp. Zreader definitely needs improvement.
It also has a file manager, wifi transfer and gallery.
• Third party Apps: Most third-party apps work nicely with A2 mode and increased contrast.
Brave browser works without any hiccups.Brave offers a reader mode, which makes reading articles quite easy. P6 came with Google Play enabled, I disabled it to save battery and installed Aurora Store and F-droid instead. Both work without any issues. It took quite fiddling around with themes, but I got Boost for Reddit to work. Inoreader works properly for reading feeds. Thought FeedMe crashed when I tried to use it. Kiwix works fine for offline Wikipedia. Simple Draw Pro from F-droid surprisingly works good for very basic scribbling, using capacitive stylus or fingers. Comic Screen works for reading cbr files.
Battery:
Battery is very average. If used just as an e-reader, P6 clocks 20+ hours. However, if you turn the wifi on, and browse internet the battery goes from 80% to 10% in about 5 hours. I had certainly expected better battery. So, expect the battery life to behave like a normal phone once wifi is on. I did connect it with speakers via bluetooth for a while, there wasn't any sudden drop in battery.
P6 Case:
P6 comes with an adhesive case, which I am not a fan of. It sure is lightweight, sleek and goes with device very well, but doesn't offer any 'real' protection from falls. I wish, they'd release a hard-case cover for the device.
TL;DR : If you're looking for a small, handy e-reader that you can install apps on and has a decent amount of memory and a screen that allows you to read text without any strain, look no further. For $130 P6 is is well worth your money. But if you're looking for a e-reader which works without any hiccups and has a finesse in software, this shouldn't be your choice.

So there was that awesome Reddit thread with a bunch of ADHD'ers sharing real tips that have changed their life.
I thought it was a great change from most advice on the internet which is written by non-ADHD'ers (and it's painfully obvious that it is).
I read through the 700+ comments and paraphrased, merged and categorised all the tips.
​
The 131 tips are split into the following categories:

• General
• Cleaning
• Memory
• Time Blindness
• Distractions
• Getting Things Done
• Emotional Dysregulation
• Sleep
• Relationships
• Work
• School
• Executive Function
• Nutrition/Medication

General

• Pack things the day before so you don’t forget ~ (u/digi-cow)
• Don’t drink alcohol. Causes brain fog and it can negatively interact with medications. Alcohol can even cause ADHD-like symptoms in non-ADHD people ~ (u/HiTechTek, u/beatadhd)
• Do Cardio before you need to do stuff that requires sitting. It helps you focus. ~ (u/robertaloblaw, u/beatadhd)
• Use text-to-speech generators to help you read webpages/books ~ (u/elliptical_orbit)
• Keep things at eye level (Especially notes/todo lists) ~ (u/asmugone)
• Be stupidly early to places just in case you forget something ~ (u/asmugone)
• Stretch once in awhile. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Take a deep breath. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Take a cold shower in the morning or turn it cold just for 30-60 seconds at the end of your shower. Wakes you up, gets your blood flowing and gets you out of the shower. ~ (u/Juan_Creamsicle, u/beatadhd)
• Get a therapist if you can. ~ (u/fineandnormal)
• If you aren’t diagnosed: Actually get a diagnosis and a therapeutic programme that works for you. Don’t spend more time wondering - you’ll still feel like an imposter afterwards, don’t worry… ~ (u/Little_Blue_Shed)
• Most important for me has been telling myself all I need to do is floss. Usually you'll end up chaining the rest of your night routine tasks like brushing onto that. ~ (u/amazona_auropalliata)
• Buy a whiteboard to sketch out things when your mind starts going into overdrive. ~ (u/bkmilli)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Enjoy the journey more than the destination, don’t be in a hurry to finish something you are doing, but always at least do something small everyday. Life is not a race, rather, it is an accumulation of smaller improvements to oneself. ~ (u/ksettle)
People are in such a rush these days… You can’t expect to become a superhuman overnight. Focus on sustainability first and enjoy the journey.

Cleaning

• Have a designated spot for every single item (Put it in the same place every time) ~ (u/BrownShoeJenny)
• Have a “misc” basket in each room. If you’re truly unable to put something away, put it in the basket. Have a designated period of time, once a week, when your sole priority is to put everything away, all at once. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Whenever you lose something that you “put away,” start keeping it in the first place you looked for it. ~ (u/FullDisclosureDaemon)
• In order to not get overwhelmed when cleaning, remember there are only 5 things you need to tackle: Trash, Laundry, Dishes, Putting things back that have a place, Put things in a pile that don’t have a place. ~ (u/mmc09)
• If you’re moving from one room to another, take the item with you that needs to go to the other room. It’s already on your way and it’s one less thing cluttering your room. ~ (u/SweetTeaBags)
• If you can afford it: Get a cleaning person; It takes them 3 hours to do what you can do in 3 weeks. While they are there, use them as an accountability buddy and sort out your misc tasks like paying bills. ~ (u/swarleyknope)
• Embrace chaos. Let your brain get distracted when you’re cleaning. Cleaning dishes and stop spare trash? It’s fine go clean that and then get back to the dishes ~ (u/DobbythehouseElff)
• Have a dedicated playlist for cleaning. High tempo songs help keep you moving. ~ (u/DobbythehouseElff)
• Do chores before you go to bed. No matter what your routine is, you have to go to bed at some point. You can “habit-chain” cleaning into going to bed. ~ (u/bkmilli)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Listen to podcasts/audiobooks when doing chores. My excitement to listen to a new episode of my favorite podcast motivates me to do boring stuff like dishes or laundry. (I personally listen to podcasts) ~ (u/dani-tp)
Cleaning became so easy once I started using a “side” to stimulate my brain. I’m mostly watching TV shows when I clean right now (this also works for cooking!) .

Memory

• Having a tablet like an iPad Pro is helpful for keeping colorful notes. Avoids issues losing notebooks ~ (u/zombiessalad)
• Park in the same place every time when you go to a common place. You won’t forget where you park that way ~ (u/gibbousboi)
• Keep a spare house key in your car and one outside your house. ~ (u/GoodGuyVik)
• Keep important items in visible and convenient locations. e.g: Take pills when you eat? Keep your bottle beside your table where you eat. ~ (u/girlabout2fallasleep)
• Get a Tile. Bluetooth GPS trackers that are a game changer for ADHD people that lose keys/wallets. ~ (u/fizzzzzpop)
• Tape your most often made recipes to the inside of your kitchen cabinet doors. ~ (Unknown)
• Three point check when you close the front door: Phone, wallet, keys ~ (u/cowboyhugbees)
• Use voice assistants. “Remind me to do X tomorrow at Y time” ~ (u/theviciousfish)
• Use the mind palace memory exercise to help solve retention issues. ~ (u/asmugone)
• Keep forgetting your lunch? Put your keys on it. That way you can’t leave without your lunch ~ (u/Therealdickbut, u/Maktube, u/mismanager)
• If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door so you HAVE to touch it before you leave the house. If it’s something in the fridge, put a sticky note on the exit door’s handle. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Buy multiple items that you use often. Setup multiple chargers at work/home (so you have a spare if you lose one). e.g. buy 10 different lip balms so you can always find it when you need it. ~ (u/redbananass)
• Have convenient, labeled spaces for things. It’s hard to forget your phone when you ALWAYS put it beside your charger. (Use a cheap labelmaker!) ~ (u/TotallyLegitEstoc, u/nathanb131)
• Get a tracking tool like Tile and put it on things you lose regularly. (Keys/Wallet) ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Have rules for placement of the important things in your life. (it’s too hard to do it for everything) ~ (u/nathanb131)
• Create a second brain for yourself - in whatever way is most appealing to you. (I personally use Notion) ~ (u/significanttoday)
• If you want to remember something, put an object out-of-place whilst thinking about what you want to remember. ~ (u/VectorGambiteer)
• Count your steps as you walk into a new room. It’ll help you remember why you entered that room. It gives you something to focus on but it’s not too much that you’ll get distracted. (This is similar to many forms of counting meditations too) ~ (u/bethknowsbest)
• Use a bowl to throw your keys, badges, and wallet into when you get home. That way you can’t leave without ALL the stuff you need. ~ (u/pockunit)
• ALWAYS have a bag with the essentials. On mine a have my keys, charger, papers and even tooth brush. If I’m going out, I do not waste time searching for everything. Just search for a bag. ~ (u/sdjrp)
• Make a calendar entry for every scheduled thing religiously unless it’s routine like a 9-5 job. Make the calendar entry immediately while making the appointment. Do this for parties, birthdays, dates, finals, med refills, trash night, etc. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Use Spaced Repetition to study for your exams, remember things about people in your life, and literally everything you can possibly make a flashcard for. ~ (u/beatadhd)
Is it narcisstic to put my own tip as a favourite? Well who cares, it works! Spaced repetition is fantastic and honestly feels like cheating*. There are a lot of free tools out there which work great. I’m currently using my own private tool* 😉

Time Blindness

• Set your phone clock 10-15 mins fast on purpose ~ (u/Anonredditthoughts)
• Put appointments in your calendar 10-20 minutes earlier than the actual appointment ~ (u/Alyscupcakes)
• A schedule is only as good as the alarms and info you put in ~ (u/asmugone)
• Set timers for activites you hyperfocus on. BUT set the timer for X minutes less than the task takes. (Give yourself time to wrap up whatever you’re working on) Additional Protip: Use this on a watch rather than your phone to avoid getting distracted. A basic watch/smart watch will save your life. ~ (u/dinamyte519)
• Download an app on your phone that chimes and buzzes every half an hour during your awake time. Keeps you aware of how much time has passed. ~ (u/Frosty172)
• Track your time. Every morning, write out a todo list by hand and track the time taken for each task. (Write down the time whenever you take a break or switch tasks) - I personally use Toggl to track my time ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)

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🌟 My Favourite: Get an electric toothbrush with a timer. ADHD people have time blindness and it’ll make sure you brush for at least two minutes. ~ (u/insaxon)
Yes. Two minutes can feel like two hours for me. Or I’ll brush for 20 seconds and think five minutes has passed. I can’t trust my brain, so I started using an electric toothbrush with a timer

Distractions

• Disable all your notifications on your phone except for essential apps (Texting, Voicemail, Calendar) ~ (u/kee_kee)
• Use website blockers for distracting websites (I use Cold Turkey, Freedom and News Feed removers for social media + Youtube) ~ (u/elliptical_orbit)
• Get a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones + non-distracting music/audio ~ (u/elliptical_orbit, u/michaeltheobnoxious)
• If you can’t stop yourself from answering that text/email/IM right away but don’t actually have time to deal with it, tell the person you’ll respond when you get a minute. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Your brain focuses better after some exercise. Cardio works best ~ (u/unofficialuser112)

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🌟 My Favourite: Use a noise-cancelling headset and listen to music/white noise/brown noise. Enables hyperfocus and blocks out distractions (“I don’t regret getting diagnosed late, but I do regret getting noise cancelling headphones that late in life.”) ~ (u/rn7889)
Stop scrolling right now and go buy the noise-cancelling headset. A noise-cancelling headset + some noise like music/brown noise is essential if you have ADHD. Feel free to thank me later once your life changes.
If the headset isn't in your budget: Brown noise + earphones will get you 80% of the way there.

Getting Things Done

• If you have an Android: Put a widget from your todo list app on your home screen so it’s the first thing you see ~ (u/kee_kee)
• Break tasks down into as many smaller tasks as you need for it to feel manageable. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Learn to plan around transitions. It’s easier to start things if you chain them with another task that is ending. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Use the pomodoro technique for everything. It’s great having a break to look forward to. ~ (u/ontapeina_sthrnaccnt)
• Remember that something is better than nothing. If you only get 26% of a task done then it’s further than if you never started. It’s better to do little bits of every task rather than procrastinating. ~ (u/xxxistentialist)
• Attach numbers to events. e.g: Going to bed (3) - Brush, Floss, Mouthwash. ~ (u/Frosty172)
• Lie to yourself. I’ll tell myself that I’m just going to unload one dish from the dishwasher. Once I’ve started, I’ll at least unload a few, and maybe clean the whole kitchen. ~ (u/coffeeclichehere)
• Decide what you’re going to do each day beforehand, preferably while your meds are at their workingest. Make sure it’s only 1 thing. ~ (u/optimisticaspie)
• Understand that FUTURE YOU IS STILL YOU. If you think you’ll do something later, understand that future you is still you. Future you isn’t more likely to muster up the desire to do the work. f you don’t have the motivation to do it in the next 24 hours then future you probably won’t either. ~ (u/Moon_In_Scorpio)
• When you need to transition between tasks, pretend that you are talking to a friend who is having issues with something. Give yourself a nudge and remind yourself it’s time to switch tasks/get started. (Detach yourself from the task) ~ (u/Gerryislandgirl)
• When you take breaks, make sure your break isn’t too interesting. That way you won’t get absorbed in your break. Just clean during your break or something like that. ~ (u/Treppenwitz_shitz)
• Gamify things and set a limited amount of time to accomplish something. e.g: Brew your coffee and get as many chores done as you can before the coffee is finished brewing. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)
• Write TODO lists as a brain dump. And then order them in importance or the order you want to do them in. That way you don’t pause while writing down tasks. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)
• Don’t be afraid to stimulate yourself if you need it. Listen to a podcast or music to get yourself to do something. ~ (u/fineandnormal)
• Reward yourself when you get things done. Positive Reinforcement is good and you’ll feel like getting more things done. ~ (u/prince-ali-but-short)
• Change your environment and work from a place where there are fewer distractions. e.g: Cafe/library. You’ll get more stuff done ~ (u/humbled_lightbringer)
• Set a time to do work, and a time to relax; that way you don’t feel guilty about relaxing during the time you set aside for yourself. ~ (u/talking_face)
• Change your alarm sounds/timer sounds frequently, but use alarms and timers as much as possible. ~ (u/Little_Blue_Shed)
• Treat timers and alarms like non-negotiable laws. When the timer goes off, doesn’t matter what you were doing seconds ago, it’s time to go. Half showered, wet hair, one eye done, whatever it is, you’re out the door. ~ (Unknown)

🌟 My Favourite: Body doubling - if you need to do some work that requires focus without much fun, have someone in the room with you. They could be working too, or not. Just having them there makes everything just a little more interesting and a little more accountable. ~ (u/Creebjeez)
I feel like a lot of people are missing some sort of accountability system in their lives. I don’t do body doubling but I use Beeminder to keep me accountable.

Emotional Dysregulation

• Brain dump in a notebook by your bed every night. ~ (u/ALyscupcakes)
• Don’t feel bad about sucking at school/work. You’ll get better as you learn more strategies for coping with ADHD. Things get better ~ (u/astrozork321)
• Use writing/journaling as cognitive therapy to defuse emotional history ~ (u/Tman1307)
• Remind yourself that the world won’t end if a few things fall behind. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Write a reverse todo-list. Write down the things you have accomplished for the day. That way you won’t feel overwhelmed and it’ll make you feel better. ~ (u/SuspiciousEchidna)
• You’re allowed to let things go. Forget irrelevant things and forgive yourself. Ignore the awkward thing you did last week. Life will move on. ~ (u/bitetheboxer, u/optimisticaspie)
• Forgive yourself for your limits. ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Meditation. Active breaks for people that struggle to take breaks. Use a meditation app when you’re starting. Like Headspace ~ (u/Juan_Creamsicle)
• Start working on letting go of shame. It depresses your motivation and only makes things worse. You wouldn’t shame someone in a wheelchair for not getting things done, your difficulty is in your brain instead of your legs but it’s no less real. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy + meditation ~ (u/beatadhd)

🌟 My Favourite: You’re allowed to let things go. Forget irrelevant things and forgive yourself. Ignore the awkward thing you did last week. Life will move on. ~ (u/bitetheboxer, u/optimisticaspie)
Stop hating yourself. Don’t look at the future. Don’t look at the past. Look at the present. I used to always hate myself for being so unproductive. I realised how pointless that was and I started to focus on improving myself in the present.

Sleep

• Put your phone on the other side of the room and make your alarm super loud. Gets you out off bed and will make you turn it off so you don’t wake other people up. ~ (u/Valendr0s)
• If you’re having trouble getting out of bed then set a timer on your phone for 5 minutes and chuck it across the room. It’ll force you to get up and turn it off. ~ (u/PMDicksInTinyClothes)
• Buy 2 bright lamps and 2 timers. Set them up to turn on automatically 5-15min before you want your alarm to go off in the morning. The lights help your body know its daytime ~ (u/lexid22)
• Change your thermostat so the temperature goes down an hour before bedtime and gets warmer 30 minutes before you wake up. The cooler temperatures get your body to sleep and the warmer temperatures help you wake up ~ (u/lexid22)
• Use a reminder app for starting your bedtime routine, not just your bedtime. (And have a bedtime routine) ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Try setup meetings/commitments early in the morning. They'll force you to get out of bed ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: Set two alarms when you get up in the morning. One to get out of bed and one for your medication. e.g: 5:30 AM wake up and take medication and then fall back to bed. By your 6AM alarm you’ll have waken up and your meds will have kicked in ~ (u/BizzarduousTask)
What a great lifehack. I’ve been doing this the past few days (except I don’t wake up at 6AM) - it works pretty well. Also I throw my phone on the other side of the room so it forces me to get out of bed.

Relationships

• It’s okay to be in a room with people and just let people breathe. You don’t need to fill the silence. ~ (u/asmugone)
• When having a conversation or learning something, repeat every word the person says in your head. It’ll help you not drift off as much. It also makes it so you’ll interrupt people less. ~ (u/TheNocturne)
• Try to avoid the word 'but' when faced with a conflict. Instead try be constructive towards arguments/discussions with the word 'and'. ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: For maintaining eye contact: Imagine a red dot on someone’s nose for intense focus. Bridge of the nose for paying attention. ~ (u/asmugone)
Haven’t tried this one but I used to have trouble with eye contact a few years ago so this stood out to me. I’m pretty good with eye contact now, but I’ll be trying it over the next few weeks anyway.

Work

• If you hate your job. Make a job switch. It’ll help you make positive changes in your life. ~ (u/Mooberry_)
• Find a job that works WITH your system. If you can’t wake up and be functional in the morning then stop trying. Find a job that doesn’t need you to wake up in the morning. Stop beating yourself up over things your brains isn’t designed for ~ (u/obxunseeker)
• Be self-employed and start a business. “No matter where I worked or what I did, I was constantly watching the clock, hating every single second of it. On Saturday I worked 27 straight hours to finish a job on time and it was still less painful than working an 8 hour shift as an employee. Those 27 hours disappeared and left me feeling gratified because I made someone’s house beautiful and I got to see how happy I made her the first time she saw her new home.” ~ (u/jake7697)
• When promising a timescale to a client, double or triple the amount of time that you initially think it will take. That way worst case scenario, you will finish it on deadline and meet expectations or best case, finish before and exceed expectations. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• The moment you know you aren’t going to make a deadline, let the client know and again give them an overestimate of time for new deadline. People are always understanding and appreciative for this quick communication. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Reply to emails and messages when you read them. 99% of the time, days and weeks will go by if you tell yourself that you’ll reply later on… ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Be honest about your limitations and own your shit. Most people have no idea how much adhd affects so many things and therefore can’t understand our inability to do basic things at times. Especially if you come across as smart and creative, they can misplace our struggles for laziness and lack of care. If you fuck up own it, explain why and apologise. It doesn’t have to be long winded but it is important to state how you aim to rectify the situation and again. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Stop comparing your output and motivation to others and embrace a slower, more considered, creative one. You are not other people. You are you. Trying to jam your freeform, 12 sided shape into the round hole is painful and won’t work. You don’t need a hole, you need self acceptance. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)

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🌟 My Favourite: Learn to say no to taking on things that you know may cause you stress and excess pressure just because it’s money. It is not worth it, just put the boundaries that will save your mental health in the first place and you won’t have to deal with the fallout later. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
God yes… ADHD people have a dangerous habit of overcommitting to stuff. Personally I think I just forget that I’m already working on X, Y and Z. Sustainability is important - don’t overcommit.

School

• Use Active Recall + Spaced Repetition to study for all your exams. I've seen countless people go from C's to straight A's after adopting them ~ (u/beatadhd)
• If you're finding it difficult to start assignments early then ONLY read + annotate the assignment brief early and go take a break after that. Your subconscious should process the information and it'll be easier to start later on. ~ (u/beatadhd)
• It’s better to turn in an assignment that is 75% done. It’ll drag your grades down less than if you never turned it in ~ (u/bitetheboxer)
• Print out lectures and powerpoints in advance (ask the teacher for them). That way you won’t need to listen and write at the same time. You can annotate the printed versions instead. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)

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🌟 My Favourite: Visit your school's inclusivity and disability team. They will hopefully have policies for helping people with ADHD ~ (u/beatadhd)
This is something I never took advantage of while at University, but I probably should have. A few assignment extensions when my meds stopped working would have saved me from countless all nighters…

Executive Function

• Setup a morning routine + a reset routine. A reset routine is something you do when you're feeling super unfocused. Mine consists of meditation, exercise, journaling, playing music and making some tea. ~ (u/beatadhd)
• If it takes less than ten minutes to do the task, just do it immediately. ~ (u/Zzazu)
• Have a uniform for work, social and casual scenarios. Don’t mix your work clothes with your casual clothes. ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• If you start to feel frustrated for no reason, eat something and keep yourself hydrated. (Self-care flowchart) ~ (u/enjakuro)
• it’s better to half-ass most things than it is to not do them at all. ~ (u/coffeclichehere)
• Set alarms using music rather than the default alarm sounds. It’ll help you get going. (And music releases norepinephrine in your brain!) ~ (u/redditraptor6)
• Make yourself kits for common repeated household tasks. e.g: Cleaning Kit, Package mailing kit… Reduces the friction needed to get started on a task ~ (u/sonjavalentine)
• Refine your routine and rituals to reduce the overall time it takes to get them ready. Reduce the friction needed to start your morning routine. e.g: Prepare a filled pot of coffee the night before. ~ (u/lazyoracle)
• Set just a few non-negotiable standards and laws for yourself. Pick those that improve your life the most. e.g: No phone in bed at night or in the morning. Not even a quick email check. And read your goals every morning. ~ (u/AllsFarrin)
• When you’re trying to get started on a task: Write down the steps you’ve already done and the steps you plan to do next. Helps a lot with spaghetti thoughts ~ (u/qui_gone_Gym)
• Drink a big glass of water when you know you are going to have to start doing a thing in a bit. When you inevitably have to go pee, start after you wash your hands. You are already up and your brain already had to switch gears. Use it as momentum. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)

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🌟 My Favourite: On tough days. Use the 1-thing theory. Just try and accomplish just one-thing for that day. e.g. Clean the kitchen. ~ (u/soggysocks63, u/GoodGuyVik)
A bit less life-hacky compared to the others but I’ve found that getting started is a lot easier when you only have a single priority.

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Nutrition/Medication

• If you are Vitamin D deficient then take Vitamin D supplements (see a doctor first). It’ll help your mood and energy levels. ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)
• Eat lots of protein and stay hydrated. ~ (u/chlordane_zero)
• Figure out if you're deficient in anything and try fix those things. This includes getting a food allergy test, figuring out deficiencies and eating a healthy diet. ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: Use a 7-day pill organiser with AM/PM slots and put your medication and supplements there. ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)
I know a lot of people have issues with remembering if they took their medication. This is an easy, simple and cheap fix.