10 Pro Tips for making Comic Con @Home feel like the real deal

Last year, we gave you 10 pro tips on how to get the most out of your Comic-Con experience. This year, since San Diego Comic-Con has gone virtual, we are adjusting it to focus on how to get the most authentic experience at home. These are our 10 pro-tips for making Comic-Con @Home feel like the real deal.

1) Don’t charge your phone. When the battery runs out, go sit on the floor to charge while not participating in any panels at all. Just tweet. This experience is best if you have an outlet in a hallway.

2) Alternatively, only use a backup battery for five full days. Make sure it will, at some point, also die. (This will take some preparation, so be sure to drain your external battery in advance.)

Long lines form outside of the San Diego Convention Centers — San Diego Comic-Con 2017

3) Turn up the thermostat to 90 degrees to recreate the experience of waiting in line in the sun for several hours at a time.*

4) *Bonus for cosplayers: dress up in your least comfortable and hottest cosplay to get an even more authentic experience.

crowds of people walk through the exhibit hall at san diego comic con — San Diego Comic-Con Exhibit Hall 2017

5) To simulate walking around a crowded exhibit hall, strap all of the pillows you own to your body and take a very, very slow walk. We recommend ducktape for this purpose, but packing tape will also do.

6) Check in to an overpriced hotel, but don’t stay there.

7) When you have to pee, see how long you can hold it. Do not actually go until you are doing the pee dance outside of your bathroom. This will be an especially great opportunity for women to reminisce about the excitement and delight of the con.

Exhibitor table from San Diego Comic Con selling Doctor Who Merchandise — SDCC exhibitor 2017

8) Remember all of those businesses you spend a ridiculous amount of money on when you see their beautiful, geeky creations? Find them on the internet and buy a few goodies. (Seriously, though.) Some of our favorites are Black Heroes Matter, Hero Within, or our sister project, Portrait of a Fangirl, also has some merch here.

9) Pull out a shitty beer from the fridge and then throw $10 into the trash.

10) Have fun! Duh. See you there! Just kidding. Please stay home.