My Insanely Competent Underlings [Manhwa Review]
Hello guys. It's been a while since I wrote a manhwa review. For today we'll be talking about this peculiar mix of adventure and humor. It's from Redice Studio so there's no doubt that it's decent art-wise, and of course it would be fun to read. Some previous works of Redice are *Return of the Disaster-class Hero* which is a good one and the very popular *Solo Leveling* .
I know that compared to the two mentioned earlier *My Insanely Competent Underlings* is a tier below in terms of both the art quality and story telling. But we should give it credit for one particular thing that the both *Solo Leveling* and *Return of the Disaster-class Hero* which is that insane amount of humor. At chapter 16 there are still many possibilities of the plot's direction but one thing is for sure and that is the plain stupidity of both the male lead and his underlings is very entertaining.
Being a VR manhwa makes it a lighter read. Although most manhwas in this category have this common cliché staring point where the MC used to be the limelight of that particular game universe they tried to watered it down a bit by putting the MC Lee Hoyeon as rank 97th in the world. Actually, I think it works better for them. Popular VR novels like *The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor* or even the newer ones like *The Kings Avatar* have this hidden aura of seriousness around them. I guess both MC's already have a pre-determined path. Yeah, there's plenty of good comedy in TLMS but at the end of the day it's about Weed's 'real' life and not the other way around. In case of TKA it's more of a redemption story for me. Well, both of them have this Cinderella kind of vibe which was pretty good early on but generally devolve through time because of the many bad copycats trying so hard to chase the clout of these successful ones.
What I like about *My Insanely Competent Underlings* is that there's no very strong commitment in the outside/real world. I know people might hate me and maybe labeled me as being shallow but it is what it is. Although I must admit that the MC's facial expressions in the early chapters are indeed very annoying it made me realized that it makes sense when the sidekicks/ underlings were introduced.
I think it was popularized in TLMS where the MC have this unexpected series of unfortunate events which ended up benefitting him as the story progress. But in that case it was very subtle. In MICU the author made it like it's bread and butter for the whole story. Foiling the MC's plan almost all the time while still getting an optimum outcome is a refreshment, at least in my case.
It reminded me of another great comedic manhwa, *The Greatest Real Estate Developer*. Both MCs have their own shitty expressions while daydreaming. Sadly for Lee Hoyeon he lucked out in terms of underlings. At least Lloyd Frontera's knight Javier is the epitome of what a side character should be - level headed, reliable and strong. Speaking of strength Wilhelm Meier, Lee Hoyeon's first underling is no short of it, the problem lies with his other attributes. And I just want to personally curse the author's humor because Meier's existence is one of the greatest joke in the whole series. What I mean is who in their right mind would put a huge 7 foot guy, clad in full mercenary set with brutal looking scars all over his face and body and then later on labeled him as 15 year old.
That's only the first underling. The moment they met the second underling which is a young lady make the whole thing seems to be all over the place. Both underlings have this perception that their boss Lee Hoyeon has the ability to dominate the world. The moment he showed his weakness he was labeled as 'sick' as their personal excuse to justify that their so-called boss is the best in the world. I repeat it's entertaining BUT very tiring to read at the same time. In numbers and considering the few chapters released I'd rate it as a solid 7.5/10 for now.
Image and Website:
https://www.asurascans.com/manga/my-insanely-competent-underlings/
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || The Waivro's Base / Defeating the Darkness Overseer
Happy New Year everyone!
I just want to start this awesome year by sharing with you my current progress in the game. Right now, I'm still focusing on the main quest because I really to imprint my equipment to cope up with the current CP rush. The problem I have was I needed to complete a part of Rainbow Valley's main quest called "The Dark Lord Emerges".
Only two NPC's are available so I think it will still take a while before I finished both grades. The rewards are not that very appealing since it's only some Swift Solutions Certificate, Catarumpus Ambers and 50 Territes. My Catarumpus is already max powered up so it wouldn't do anything good even if I have some extra ambers. It would be cooler if they provide an option to choose between any 1-3 star amber mounts but I guess that will not be a possibility in the near future.
They really need to work on their Reputation Grade rewards especially in the higher maps. Swift solutions is something easily obtainable as a decent player just needs an hour or two to collect 100 torn certificate pieces to exchange one from the Basic Shop. Although there's a daily limit of three it's still a great side hustle while grinding common map mobs. Also, swift solutions are far one of the best perks in the game in which a player could gain huge chunk of experience.
The 50 Territe reward in Grade 2 is also no good. Maybe, it's something valuable for characters below level 40 but for many player who passed that level it's not something special. You'd game the same amount of 50 territe daily simply by doing basic tasks and completing the third tier of the daily activity quest.
The Waivro's Base
It's not an easy task to deal with level 96 monsters of the Left Fist Quarry. These guys are of the darkness attribute which is one of the two rarer attributes in the game other that Light. Darkness and light basically counters each other but the problem is that the materials required to level up equipment related to them don't easily come by like those of fire, earth and water. For this task we were required to eliminate 40 of them. It took around 10 minutes because they were bulky. Normal mobs like the Hermit Crawler and the Agent are already close to 800k+ HP. The War Drone Mk. 2 on the other hand has almost a whooping 1M hp.
After we finished the quest we went back to the quest giver Windy. You might not know because I didn't upload the previous encounters but the main antagonist group, "Black Circle" is apparently enslaving the local people of Rainbow Valley. There is definitely a bigger plot involve just by the nature of the quests given by the locals. Most of them are land reclamation and subjugation just like what we did earlie
Well, what could I say other than the environment is what seems to be a marriage of apocalyptic industrial scenario and medieval prisons. I thought it will end by eliminating those 40 level 96 monsters but Windy forwarded us to these prison camp which contains even greater adversaries. They were level 97 and I could already feel that the time to finish each task was getting longe
Cloudwalker seems to be quite ungrateful. JK. I like their masks it reminds me of Yotanwa's tribe from the epic manga Kingdom. Anyways, after a few chit-chat the quest Waivro's Base ended.
Defeat the Black Circle Overseer
Cori our little pesky quest is not very generous ever since. This kid is basically the incarnation of the Devil himself. If earlier we needed to eliminate any 40 level monsters in the Prison camp. Now, he specifically give us a quest, also in the Prison camp. The catch is we need to eliminate the Darkness Overseers which would take a longer time since there are only few Overseers per mob spawn. Wish me luck on this one.
I think this will be the end of today's entry. As much as I would like to write everyday my innate laziness would not permit. I hope I'll be more consistent from now on. Alright, I wish the best of this year for everyone and their families. May you guys live in prosperity and happiness.
Thanks.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Christmas in Evermore / Soul Diver's Wishing Tree
With the new update Evermore officially entered it's Christmas season. The new episode is called **The Wishing Tree**. Like the previous episodes we need to clear the related quest to earn the exclusive reputation points. Usually, this type of quest doesn't take too much time but that didn't mean that we have to be comfortable because it will be a hassle if we let it stack. Trust me, I already experienced it from the previous ones.
We started the quest with Sona. Among all the NPCs in Evermore I think she's one that we have the least interaction with. We do some occasional trade with her sister Marina to sell items for Money Ma's vouchers but we rarely use her services. The quest given was for us to visit the Wishing Tree for her and the other resident NPCs of Evermore and make a wish for them. Jackson's helmet was emphasized in the conversation. I wonder if there is something going on between the two. She then referred to us Sanson and Tumba.
I'd say that Jackson is really lucky even Sanson's wish was for him. It's a simple wish is for Jackson to eat less meat. The younger brother's build is more buffed and muscular than Sanson but it was revealed that he is not very healthy. I was caught off guard by the wish of our reliable blacksmith as it was for us. That was really cheesy but thanks Tumba.
After doing the first line of quests related to the Wishing Tree I finally got the gist of it. There are actually two trees present. The bigger is located in Evermore's central plaza surrounded by the wishing well. It turned out that like the well we need to toss coins to get the presents. Also, there are only limited tries everyday so be mindful as you can easily miss it. The Wishing Tree in the plaza is a server quest and contributions come in the form of Snow Higgledy's Rich Fertilizer. There's limit of 400 which can take a couple of hours depending on the hunting site. But I do recommend staying with the Chaos Fields cause it's more efficient since the EXP and gold drops there are really good.
It's been so long since we really entered our Familiar Forest. I bet it's not solely applicable to us and having a separate wishing tree might also be the intention of the developers since this feature is often left out. The farm friends from the previous episodes make harvesting and watering the crops a lot easier so players just need to supply them tokens or food items for them to do the work until the items were fully consumed.
Like the tree in Evermore plaza this one required fertilizer to unlocks it's perks. In this case ornamental slots. Ornaments can be dropped from the presents and other quest related items. There are also varying grades and right now what we have are only a couple of 1-star ones. As the episode progress we'd have a chance to get 2-star ornaments but 3-star ones seem to be impossible as we have to upgrade the episode pass for $20. We'd stick with free so yeah it's expected that we won't get those 3-star ones this time.
Just to remind you the fertilizer used in the Familiar's forest wishing tree is different. It's 'growth' fertilizer not the 'rich' one we used in the plaza. It's also rare since it can only be obtained from the medal shop. Snow Higgledy's Blessing is needed and it's farmable the only catch is that there's a daily limit of 140 pieces so good luck.
Right now we only have 4 decorations and all of them are 1-star. We are still not venturing the Episode dungeon so hopefully we get better drops there to decorate this wishing tree. It's now in tier 2 but what's the use if we lack even 1-star decorations to put on it. I'll update you sooner about the dungeon drops so stay tuned if you are plating the game.
This will be goodbye for now. Happy Holidays and stay safe everyone.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Eliminating Monsters in the Rugged Slope
The main scenario is something we should have prioritized but because of our limited time to play we tend to focus more on gathering resources through both normal and chaos fields. This specially true with regards to chaos fields because that is where most of the experience and territe drops come from. Since, that's the case our post for today would focus on some main scenario quest. Currently, we are now at the Woebegone Wilds. The recommended level for this map is 91-95. I guess we fell a bit short from that recommendation as we are only at level 90.
**Eliminate Monsters in the Rugged Slope**
Anyways, our first task for today is given by Expedition Captain Peter. He gives the same vibes as Professor Shelly Oberon. You know, that same prof played by Jack Black in Jumanji. The conversation was him just venting on us because we spend time with Bryce during the earlier parts of the main quest. Aside from his overly playful persona Bryce seems to be very reliable for their organization as this big guy keeps saying that we took him from them.
He gave us a task to eliminate the monster situated in the Rugged Slope. It seems like the monsters are preventing the researchers to go to their research area. The rewards are quite generous 100 Woebegone Wilds reputation points, 112.5 k experience points and 3 large gold pouch containing 10,000 gold each.
The quest was easy and can be completed in a matter of minutes. They are fire element Dragonets and their hatchlings and some wyverns. Just be sure to have some decent water elements weapons. I recommend at least having max upgraded, high awakened 4★ water class weapons. Strong attack type familiar like Suiryu and Hippocampus will also help to lessen your time. You only need to kill 20 of them and it's a general kill quest so it will be completed even before you notice it.
The First Step toward Settlement
Our friend Expedition Captain is really taking advantage of us because of Bryce. This time he shared his dream of terraforming the wilds so that people from the Summerlands can live there. Is this an Elon Musk inspiration? The big guy started rambling about stuff like 'power of the heart'. It turned out that this quest will not be cleared in the Woebegone Wilds but by completing a Power-Up Dungeon, the Familiars Cradle.
The problem is that we already finished our free entry hours before we took this quest. I guess we have to wait for the next reset to finish it. We can enter but it would costs 100 Diamonds so it's not worth it. Even if the reputation points was absolutely tempting we need not to waste resources.
Defeat Shrine of the Fire Spirit
This quest was given by Swift Solutions Cori. We already interacted with this kid a couple of times in the earlier parts of the main quest. He used to be a pretty talkative NPC but he gave the quest right off the bat when we click the dialogue icon. Pretty rude, isn't it? But later on I realized he had a reason for it. It turned out that the monsters to be eliminated was located in the Path of Fire area which is one of the areas with the longest travel distance from the camp. Given that 'fast travel' was rendered unavailable it will took some time to reach the destination.
We need to kill level 95 fire monsters like fire spirits, wyvern warlocks and the robots which are referred to as War Drone Mk.1. They are certainly more tankier than the previous ones we encountered earlier in captain Peter's quest but it's still bearable at least.
We also need to eliminate 35 of these monsters so yeah it was alot more tedious. As for the rewards what can you expect for a child. We were given 100 reputation points and a measly remuneration of 4,500 gold. Of course, that is after we covered the long distance back from the camp.
I'll be ending this post at this point. See you guys again in my next entries. Thank you very much for stopping by.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Familiar Ramblings, Despicable Javir Brothers and Reaching 1,500,000 CP
Hello guys.
I just want to let you know that I'm still playing the game. It's been more than 4 months since our last update and there are many things I'd like to share with you all. Since there are tons of content added in that long span of time I selected a few interesting ones.
The current active events are something you shouldn't miss because the rewards available are pricey if you bought them from the shop. The 200-Day celebration for example when completed would give 50+ familiar, equipment and costume summon coupons. That alone costs more than 100 USD if you bought them using real world money. And there is no catch claiming them as you just have to log-in and click the item available for the day to redeem it. Of course, there are other more valuable items to be claimed every 7th day like the '200-day Soul Diving' title, a rare 4★ familiar selection capsule and a rare 4★ equipment selection chest.
**Familiar Ramble**
It's a pity that I didn't choose to awaken my Stagthorn earlier when I got a hand on my first rare 4★ familiar selection capsule. If you checked my previous posts you'd know that I chose the light element familiar Crab o' Lantern. It's a great familiar that is very good at PVP but awakening my earth element Stagthorn would have made my grinding more efficient.
Also it's a must to have in the Familiar Arena. It's ultimate skill, Nature's Revenge is a very good asset in the 5v5 familiar PVP as it pulls the enemy's backline archers. Defenders always have an advantage in familiar PVPs because they win as long as one of their familiars manage to last after the 2-minute countdown. Supporters like Toco and Shrimpaler provide ridiculous amount of heals which prolong the game. Long range attackers like Suiryu and Hippocampus deal so much damage to our strongest familiar so it would be easier if we pull them from the backline exposing them to our attackers.
My max familiar team CP in the arena is 310k which is decent but I'm not very happy with the team's synergy. Although Stagthorn's pull is a great help it's still not enough to melt most backlines in one go. I wanted the huge AOE attack like those from Hippocampus but I still do not have one.
Right now I have around 40 surplus Stretchy and Tough jellies. I'm maxing out enhancements for high awakened familiars and I'm close to max enhancing my fifth one which is Oroboros. Although the dark familiar Bougie has higher awakening (8) compared to Oroboros which has 7 I opted to prioritize Oroboros since I already got plenty of options to support roles like Toco and Shrimpaler. And lie I said earlier my firepower is not that great so strengthening my attack familiars should be the most viable option for now.
Finally at 1,500,000 CP
Three months ago we were really happy to reach 1 Million points of character power. It's just amazing that now we're already passed the 1.5 million mark. It's a great feeling especially when we are mostly at f2p. A good chunk of this points came from the equipment. We managed to curse 8 equipment. Sadly, I gambled on the shoes and it failed so we're now down to seven. I'm not really lucky with Javir's enhancements. Imagine I have 6 sets of ingredients and there's a 50% chance to succeed.
Why the f*ck it failed 6 times consecutively? Enhancement stones are pretty easy to get as well as the territes but the problem is the Dark Magic Crystals. It's been ages since my new guild occupied a Relic. Thankfully, there's a 200 free DMC that will be available in the rewards. You need 30 each try so that would be another 6 attempts. There's alos an option to farm in the Chaos Field PK area but the drop rate is really bad even with a potion. I already tried farming for 4 hours but I only got 6 pieces, Does that mean I need a whole 20 hours to get 30 pieces for a single attempt?
Anyways, I think that is all for today. Thank you so much for visiting.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Nightmare in Evermore, Dream Pumpkin Seeds and Dream Hearts
Hello pips!
This Halloween's episode event on NNK is called "Nightmare in Evermore". The main antagonist this time is the Dream Witch. She's a pretty nasty fellow who messed up with the children's dreams. Obviously, the storyline for this new episode revolves around her antics and how players would deal with them. There tons of content from this update and I have to admit that we will not cover the whole thing in one post. For now, let's focus on some of the important aspects we need to accomplish to maximize our rewards especially for the majority of us who only have 4 hours of AI time.
There are two important items that we need to farm daily. The good thing is that you don't need much effort to get these but you need to have the patience since it's 'farming' and repetitiveness over the month might make people lazy in the long run. So we need to farm Dream Pumpkin Seeds first. They are capped at 150 max per day which is already a decent amount as a player only needs 20 for healing or freeing each child from their curse.
Yes, there are two types of children: those who follow a player when they idle and those who a player needs to approach. Those children who follow are much easier to deal with as the player only needs to give them the Dream Pumpkin Seeds and they'd give them the loot right away. The loot varies but in my opinion the children following are more generous since there's a chance to get summon tickets and you have to put much effort by finishing their dream trials. Dream Hearts always drop but the quantity varies particularly to those following children, sometimes you get one and sometimes two.
These Dream Hearts are the player's core currency during this event. It can be exchanged to many useful things in the medal section. The first one a player needs to get in my opinion are the normal dungeon entrance tickets. There are only 5 available in Dream hearts currency each week for additional entries the player needs to buy a ticket for 200 diamonds. These tickets enable the player to enter the Normal Episode Dungeon. It's pretty basic but it'd be easy to get teammates when a player has at least 900k+. I'd also recommend grinding the tier 3 because it gives better rewards and the chance to get familiar and familiar shards seems to be greater. Maybe that's also the reason while it get costly after 5 entries per week. The familiar Bougie is a 4-star familiar and you can literally can get it to max 10 awakening if you could afford to burn diamonds.
The Witch's Hat Page should also be a priority since it can contribute to at least 6000 additional CP when completed. The familiar Bougie can also be purchased here for just 15 dream hearts but it's only one time for account so don't get your hopes too high. Well, you can also purchase Bougie through familiar shards but you need 6 of them. These shards are dungeon drops, another reason why you must buy tickets every weekly refresh. It's not impossible to max awakened Bougie to it's 10th awakening but it needs focus and diligent grinding since once you missed the free tickets the chances of upgrading Bougie to higher tier will certainly be lowered.
Aside from giving candies to the children following, a player needs to approach cursed children, enter their nightmares and successfully finish the respective missions assigned. There are 6 types of children and all of them have some mini trials or mission unique to them. Candy-loving kid is pretty easy as it's only a hide-n-seek game. A player only needs to distinguish the child a number of times while he is mixed within the crowd, a good eyesight will surely give you an advantage. Desert kid and Little Orange Witch's missions are straightforward which is my favorite. just kill the approaching monsters and you're pretty much done. The Blue Pumpkin Kid mission is quite similar to the candy loving kid's but you need to find 3 pumpkins scattered within the map instead of finding the child
https://youtu.be/amVncp8W4ls
The Pumpkin Head and the Dress-up witch's mission are a bit harder compared too others because they have a chance to drop summon tickets. You need to climb a number of platforms in the Pumpkin Head's trial to give it to a giant individual related to them. Once you fall you need to start over again. It's still bearable unlike the Dress-Up Witch's which is annoying. The player needs to find a candy basket somewhere in a map inhabited by aggressive mobs. Once the player lift the candy basket two Nightmare wraiths would be summoned to attack the player and every time an attack hits the basket would drop. My tip is that before you hold or pick up the basket be sure to plan your path of return as the mobs are pretty slow but if you get near them they would attack and the basket would drop.
And that's all for today. See you soon.
Behind the Generosity / Red on DMC / Shrimpaler Bonanza
Hello everyone!
It's been almost 3 weeks since our last NNK update. To be honest I'm not very active during this time period. I've received a number of Kingdom invitations but declined or ignored all of them. Most came from rank 11-20 which was expected since my character power fall under the average CP of their members. One who invited me is actually a subsidiary of a top 5 kingdom which was quite flattering. Like I said in the previous post there's also some merit in playing the game casually.
Anyways, the inactivity started when I finished the 28-day Daily Adventure and Territe Aroma. It me costed around 12 USD for both (8 USD for the Daily Adventure and 2 USD for the Territe Aroma). If you'd asked me if I think it was worth it then I'd say that it really depends. If you managed to log in for the entirety of those 28 days and maximize all the perks then that's definitely worth it.
If a player has some extra cash to spend then I'd definitely recommend purchasing the Daily Adventure pack because the amount of diamonds you can get is pretty amazing. It's more economical compared to buying diamonds in bulk. A player would get 400 diamonds instantly and 40 diamonds everyday for the remaining 27 days which is a total of 1480 diamonds. If you bought 1,150 in the basic shop that'd costs you around 22-25 USD which is 3 times more for fewer dias. The downside is that you'd need more commitment since you have to log in everyday for 28 days to claim the bonus. The 6 hours of additional AI might is also a great time saver.
The trend for NNK's Territe exchange seems to be resembling mir 4's Draco. Territe Aroma is still pretty cheap for 2 USD but I do not recommend for players below level 80 to purchase this because the territe drop in these levels are way lower. It would take longer time to consume all the daily territe given. It's not very practical especially if a player wants to grind for soul stones and specialties as both requires alot of time.
A Generous Month?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/J7tpeP7lIvI?enablejsapi=0&rel=0&origin=https://hive.blog&start=0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7tpeP7lIvI
I was really surprised last Thursday when I entered the game. It's already the Halloween and I did expect that there would be events but I didn't expect that it would be this much. There are 5 events currently available and if we include 4 guide events that's a total of 9. I'm not sure if this already happened in the Korean server as they are much ahead in terms NNK content release but I think that it's Netmarble's tactic to bring back or retain the quitting players.
Yes, people are slowly leaving NNK. I have no solid evidence like graphs or actual Statistics but it's based on what I've seen so far. See, our Kingdom collapsed because the original guild leader and other key members quit the game. While a good number of players still play most of them are now in different kingdoms. I think that there are only 2 active members in our kingdom, me included. And this is not an isolated case. The power shuffle particularly for kingdoms below the top 5 is evident as there are major changes at most every two weeks.
Well, this only my opinion as this is the first I'm overwhelmed by Netmarble's generosity. Since, there's no data the possibility of me being wrong is obviously there but it's quite sad if my hunch is on point. Although I'm not as active as I used to be I still enjoy playing the game so for me it'd quite disappointing.
Quick Equipment and Familiars Update
Aside from leveling up some of my equipment there are no significant changes. I would love to curse the Expert Boots but I don't have enough dark magic crystals since it's been ages since I experienced occupying a relic. This is one of the downside of having a weak kingdom. Since my playstyle changed from semi-competitive to almost passive the lack of dark magic crystals is one of the major set backs for me. There's an option to farm some in the Hall of Worship, floor 4 of the Ancient Ruins but that's a PK zone. Coupled with the abysmal drop rate I'd rather focus on something else like catching spare familiar for jellies.
Speaking of familiars I also have a 300k+ CP team participating in the Familiar Arena. I was frustrated because I lose even to lower CP opponents and my ranking often stay below the top 50%. I realized that I don't have a good tank that's why I'm now upgrading my Stagthorn every time I have a chance. The lack of AOE skill is also one thing so Stagthorn would be perfect replacement for the frontline position in the future. There are tons of summon tickets given almost everyday and I was lucky enough to get 3 Shrimpalers. Shrimpaler + Toco healing combo is quite overpowered in the middle tier and with a better tank then my team will hopefully land in the top 30% the following season.
And I think that's all for today. Thanks for visiting.
Tales from Southern Lunterra (Waldo's POV Pt.2) - a WorldBox Story
Previously on TFSL.
It was a refreshing feeling. He could hear the birds chirping and some other animal noises. Cool air brushed through his face as he slowly opened his eyes. Logically speaking he should be in a hospital given that he survived the accident, but why the heck is he in the middle of a forest? Is this real life or is this just fantasy? He laughed as he almost started to sing Bohemian Rhapsody until a prompt came to his mind...
*[Ding...]*
*[Welcome traveler. You're the grand winner of our inter-multiverse lottery. You died on Planet Earth of Milky Way Galaxy Sector 233-A, Universe SA209 in the year 20XX but don't be disappointed as you have another chance in life in this new place. Just do your best to survive the tutorial. Good luck. >.<]*
***Name: Oswald the Chosen One***
***Age: 17 (0)***
***Attack: 15***
***Agility: 12***
***Intelligence: 6***
***Skills:***
***Dagger Proficiency: Beginner [2%]***
***Abilities:***
***Think Twice (E): Naturally suspicious. Would not be scammed by any pro telemarketer.***
***Eye of Horus (S)[25% Unlocked]: Can see through the mysteries of this world.***
***Description:***
***A soul from a faraway universe reincarnated in Planet Kione. Picked by the God Azulh as his candidate. Not much of a talent but he has something special in his soul.***
***This interface will disappear in 10 sec. Think of phrase 'Summon Screen' to view it once again.***
Image Source: Pixabay
"What the heck is this? I thought that this only happens in those fictional manhwa stories. First of all let me check my body. Hmmm. Seems everything is fine. I really thought that I'd be a meat paste. Well, at least that child is safe... I'm glad that I'm alive but everything in this place is weird..." said Waldo in a doubtful expression while looking at the flickering transparent blue green screen in front of him.
The environment was familiar but there was something different in the atmosphere. The grass for example where he previously laid on was pale yellow green and has peculiar spade-shaped leaves. He walked to a nearby tree and noticed that the trunk was edgy compared to normal trees which are circular. Looking once again in his surrounding he realized that most things are edgier compared to those found in earth. Don't bother with the vegetation even the clouds in the sky seemed to be a bit pixelated through his eyes. But this didn't last long something was changing and he had no idea what it was but he was sure something was definitely happening around him.
After some time the grass that was spade-shaped that had metallic shine to it looked normal. The trees were just the way they were supposed to be as if the environment adjusted to his preferred form. Although there's still some lingering sense of unfamiliarity it was better than what he first saw right after opening his eyes.
Waldo surveyed his surroundings while planning his next course of action. He felt his lips slightly drying so he decided to find a water source. After searching for more than an hour he stumbled upon a creek, the cleanest one he have seen in his two lives. Although there appeared to be no problem with the water source he still looked around him, searching for anything suspicious. People might say that this guy was very distrustful but what could they expect. His experiences in earth tempered him this way since he was young, and aside from being an outcast of society most of the time this characteristic brought him more benefits particularly in his survival.
Not far from his position he saw a pair of rabbit like animals drinking water near the banks, which was a green light that the water was safe to consume. The past hour was quite the torture. He noticed that it's more tiring to walk this place than normal. He used to climb mountains alone for hours but it could not be compared to what he just experienced. Although the forest breath was refreshing it seemed like his stamina was draining faster. Quenching his thirst he noticed that rabbit like creatures not far from him. They were double the size of your common European rabbit but the major difference was that they have 2 pairs of ears instead of one. Their furs were greenish brown in color and the faces were quite uglier than the ones in earth. The appearance was like a hybrid between a typical rabbit and a boar. He was flabbergasted until a sound ring through his mind.
***Target for Profiling Available, Would you Like to Continue? [Y/N]***
Choosing 'Yes' for an answer a translucent screen appeared in front of him.
***Name: Babbit***
***Attack: 3***
***Agility: 15***
***Intelligence: 5***
***Description: Peaceful Inhabitants of Southern Lunterra and one of the weakest creatures of Digong forest. They usually travel in pairs. Their meat is staple for some lower rank predators. Multiply very fast.***
Waldo blinked his eyes. It was near noon and he could already feel the rumbling of his stomach.
" So, God didn't forsake me afterall ", he murmured. He then turned his attention to the pair of Babbits worrying that they might escape his watch. What he saw made his mouth wide opened for some time. *Muchi, muchi* said of what appeared to be the female Babbit mounted under the larger male one.
"No doubt, they indeed multiply fast. But what the heck are those sounds they're producing? The GOD who made these things seems to be a man of culture. Eh?"
While watching the Babbits did their thing like JAV artists, Waldo noticed the tall bush behind them moving. It was huge. The creature that appeared looked like a Labrador in purplish coat. It had a set of sharp fangs and a small horn protruding on it's forehead. A tiny flicker came from the tiny horn and the pair of Babbits fell down, paralyzed. The creature picked up both of it's prize and looked over the place where Waldo was. They made an eye contact. It might be just an imagination but Waldo felt that there was a smug look plastered on the creature's face. It turned around and slowly disappear within the tall bushes.
"System, what is that thing?" Waldo mumbled.
***Name: Horned Lorynx (Juvenile)***
***Attack: Foresight Ability Level to Low***
***Agility: Foresight Ability Level to Low***
***Intelligence: Foresight Ability Level to Low***
***Description: Foresight Ability Level to Low***
To be continued...
Thank you for visiting. Have a nice day.
Disclaimer:
Images not mine are from public domain sites like Pixabay.
Worldbox screenshots are from yours truly.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || From Rank 8 to 34, Why Members Left our Kingdom?
Hello everyone.
It's been a while since our last NNK update. More than two weeks ago we talked about my previous adventures in Lava Valley. Like promised I've been more active since that day to try to improve my rankings but sadly the results were quite disappointing. I tried 3 out of the 4 available times these past two weeks and my current rank is down to Platinum I. Even with the season reset I thought I'd reach at least D2 or D1, there's even a small part of me hoping to visit at least Master 3 but it looks like I was daydreaming.
https://youtu.be/7qhpWt7Dz3Y
There's an improvement of at least 20% in my character power but it seemed like even this couldn't offset the imbalance I'd mentioned in my previous post. It's not 100% accurate but in my opinion the system in Lava Valley heavily favors the extremes of the spectrum with regards to drafting for team compositions. Anyways, I hope they do something about this in the future else I'd rather not waste my time if there's still no progress the following matches. I'm not saying that it's impossible but the odds are against you if you're CP lies in the middle.]
**Kingdom Dying?**
Another thing that I'm quite sad about is that our Kingdom is not as powerful as before. It started when one or two powerful members quit the game for good. Some members were not as passionate as they used to be which couldn't really be blamed onto them. I've been seeing some posts about the previous updates being disappointing and lean more on making $$$ for netmarble. Some say that the additional contents are repetitive and the game is gradually losing the it's *'spirit'* as a fun adventure game. I was never a talker but I did enjoy the conversations my fellow members had in our discord server especially during our weekly KD and relic wars. A month ago we were nearing the top 5 but now we're down to the 30's.
The mass leaving happened after the last relic war. We had originally filled in those empty slots but sadly there's a penalty for the newly joined members. We had the CP advantage but more than half were unable to join the war. I, myself felt guilty because I was one of those people who were not really new but unable to make it. I had some important work to finish during that period which was the reason for my absence. Although I'm near the bottom of the barrel in our previous Kingdom's CP ranking the cumulative absence of members during that led to our defeat.
One of our leaders left and he was followed by about a third of the members (most from the newly joined ones). What was left now are casual players like me. It's been along ride for this guild. One day members were dreaming of clearing the final tiers of the KD and the Flame Knight dungeon now we're in a terrible shape where it'd be a relief if we'd clear the tier 2 KD. Time will tell but I do hope that this kingdom will achieve or even surpass it's former glory.
**New Titles and New Cursed Equipment**
I'm now very close to 1,300,000 character power. It's quite the improvement since three weeks ago I'm only at 1M+ CP. Although I'm quite happy with the CP accomplishments I'm more excited about the new titles I've acquired during this span of time. This week I've acquired the 'Lucky Coin' title. It can be obtained by tossing silvers into the wishing well north of Evermore and the most coins tossed coins in a week would acquire such title . I thought I'd also get the 'Flower bug' title but during the last 3 hours last week two fierce competitors appeared. I had to give up the Flower bug to secure the Lucky Coin title. Anyways, it was worth tossing more than 2,000 silvers since it's a pretty cool title, definitely one of my favorites.
Another one of my favorites is the Limit Breaker I title. A player can achieve this one by enhancing an equipment for 23 times. Some might say that it's fairly easy and it's quite true but there's a catch. You have to have lots of $$$ to say this. For casual and F2P players the resources for upgrading cursed equipment hardly come by. You need to belong to a competitive kingdom which often occupy relics because the Dark magic crystals needed only becomes available in the shop if you acquired relics. The Limit Breaker I is an epic (violet) title which increase a player's CP by 1625 points. There are succeeding titles like Limit Breaker II or III but these obviously need more resources to obtain.
Cursed equipment are one of the major sources of CP power up. Last month I only have 1 cursed equipment which is the Saintly Circlet but now I have 6 of them. I managed to curse all three basic 4-star elemental weapons. the Guardian Rifle which was the last surprisingly achieved a +23 enhancement. This is the piece that made me obtain the Limit Breaker I title. If you read my previous posts you'd know that I'd been trying to curse this equipment for some time> I almost gave up but thankfully it succeeded and a +23 at that.
Armor and Accessory varnishes are quite tedious to farm, especially the accessory varnishes. It took me quite a while to max level up the Raider armor and the Night eater is still at level three. Well, I imagine that it will take a while since Night Eater is a rare 4-star accessory. I'm still not decided what to choose for the earrings and the necklace but I think I'll go with another rare 4-star for long term purposes.
And I think that's all for today. Thanks so much for visiting. See you soon.
Tales from Southern Lunterra (Waldo's POV Pt.1) - a WorldBox Story
There is a piece of land near the southern end of the Lunterra continent. Lush forests, grasslands and savannas made up most it's area. Like any other normal day the denizens of this land are enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. The monkeys are happily foraging food while switching between trees in the jungle biome, the rabbits and the wild chickens seem to be having the time of their lives exploring the intertwining green and yellow plains. That's until a sudden flash of light came into being which literally broke the immersive sound of nature.
It is a person and his name is Oswald (he used to be Kehyn though).
What happened to him might sound like your typical *isekai* story. Oswald Bartolomeo Batungbakal a.k.a. *Waldo* was your ordinary middle aged man in the working class. He had no family of his own which for some is an ideal lifestyle to have, but as they say there's more than meets the eye. After leaving his parent's side more than a decade ago he had no choice but to fend for himself. He's also an extreme type of introvert which made things harder as it also affected all his other relationships. His girlfriend for 5 years left him for his bestfriend and because of his personality he gradually lost all his other friends through the years.
Waldo was alone for almost half of his life until a mail came by. It was a summon from his family. Apparently, his maternal grandfather just passed away and most of the inheritance was passed onto him which gave a reason for his maternal relatives to *'suddenly'* remember him. If there was person who understands Oswald in this world it was his maternal grandfather which he used to call *Gran Gran*. They had the same tendencies and innate characteristics which made them like peas in a pod. He could still remember those days when they used to have long fishing trips in some faraway province. They'd go on for days without getting bored. Sadly, because of his deteriorating health *Gran Gran* had to move in a faraway place where the air and the surrounding is much cleaner. He tried to pay a visit a couple of times but was always shunned by his aunt even before entering the gate.
Waldo was conflicted. His *Gran Gran* was the only person who treated him family. That day he came to a realization that he was truly alone in this world. Emptiness. He felt like standing in the middle of a pitch black soundless night with a single line of tear flowing through the side of his cheeks.
Every thing seemed to be ready. Wearing his most presentable clothes he went down the old staircase of the apartment building. He did not dress to impress nor to avoid being looked down upon by his relatives. He dressed presentably to pay respects to his grandfather.
*'Boy, you should buy more clothes. They say clothes make the man. Why you dumbnuts always wearing those track suits from three years ago? I might really die before seeing great grand kids for you in this case.'*
Every now and then memories like this flicker in his mind. He thought that he succeeded forgetting but both pleasant and unpleasant ones seemed to be resurfacing after that day he received the invitation. He walked unhurriedly to the train station. The last crosswalk was only a couple of meters away. While waiting for the light to turn green a soccer ball roll passed through him. Trailing not far behind was a 5-6 year old boy. He noticed a speeding red truck while the sounds of shouting followed. It was instinct. The last thing he could remember was the commotion. The fading sounds from sirens and the surrounding chatter. One final glance and he noticed the boy with his mom crying near the sidewalk. *'At least he's safe. It seems like we'll meet sooner than expected Gran Gran.'* He murmured as his consciousness slowly faded into the darkness.
It was a refreshing feeling. He could hear the birds chirping and some other animal noises. Cool air brushed through his face as he slowly opened his eyes. Logically speaking he should be in a hospital given that he survived the accident, but why the heck is he in the middle of a forest? Is this real life or is this just fantasy? He laughed as he almost started to sing Bohemian Rhapsody until a prompt came to his mind... (to be continued)
Note:
Hello guys. It's been a while. This is a new type of content I'm trying to make in my Hive Worldbox log. I thought that it would be boring to just show you the gameplay in details so I've decided to put some story behind it. I don't know how long I'll keep on doing this for our WB entries but I must admit that I'm enjoying playing with the characters. Anyways, this is all for today. See you again and thanks for visiting.
Disclaimer:
Images not mine are from public domain sites like Pixabay.
Worldbox screenshots are from yours truly.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Reached Diamond I in Lava Valley
Hello there pips.
When I was recording the Lava Valley event the other day I didn't notice that it was at 360p so pardon me for the blurry video. I wish I could participate regularly in this event as this is one of the only two sources of free Asterite, the other one is the Familiar Arena. It's really puzzling me for quite a while now. I've improved my CP rankings from top 5% last month to top 1.4% but I'm still struggling in getting to the top 20% of both Lava Valley and Familiar Rankings. I remember the first two weeks when I was sitting at 5% of the Familiar Rankings. I did manage to get a few thousand Asterites but that was it.
**Diamond I at Lava Valley**
The Lava Valley opens every Tuesdays and Sundays from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. server time. It's a 3 versus 3 PVP battle and also a global event which means that a player would get teamed up with players from other servers.
I'd say that the restrictions are quite fair if we consider the system picking each teams based on their teams total CP value. But of course it also has it's drawbacks. As an example I had a really weird matchup from the previous weeks. I was at 900k+ CP back then and was paired with a 1.4M CP Rogue and a 1.1 M CP Barbarian making our total CP at 3.4M. Guess what we were up against a 1 M Swordsman, a 300k+ CP Witch and a 2.1M CP Barbarian. Although our teams did have the same total CP value the Barbarian alone was enough to decimate us back then. He just camped on the spawning area for almost the entire time. I do wish they have some sort of range for filtering participants to prevent such events to occur. I'd say having at most plus or minus 20% difference between the highest and lowest CP members of each team.
https://youtu.be/6-8blL0VY3w
I started this week's Lava Valley at Diamond 3 (2,100 points). I was targeting to reach at least Master 3 (2,400 points) but only ended up at Diamond 1 ( 2,321 points). There was a point when I was only one win away to reach my goal but encountered a losing streak which hammered me back to Diamond two. If you watched the video you might noticed that there's no activity for about 15 minutes, I was snacking with my sister so I apologize for that. Hehehe. I spent 1 hour and ten minutes out of the two hours play time for Lava Valley.
I don't have much goal for next week's Lava Valley. Right now, I'm barely hanging at the top 20%. If I'd be able to participate I wish I'd be able to make it to the top 10% as there's where you start to get Asterites. The weekly rewards for the top 10% is around 1200 Asterites in my computation that's not even 5$ . Well, as they say free money is still free money. If lucky I'd use mine to get some Pet Summon Coupon rather than cashing it out through the exchanges.
Grade 8 Mines & Level 8 Wild Familiars
Familiar Adventure is one of the best mini-games accessible within the game. A player can dispatch familiar troops to gather resources from gathering sites like mines or from roaming wild familiars. There's a mini map to help the player navigate more conveniently so be sure to use as you can locate the types of resources and their corresponding levels to have a gauge of their difficulty.
https://youtu.be/OJ_2XVNmf-0
I just unlock the Grade 8 mines and am also seeing Level 8 Wild Familiar mobs from time to time. The mines are very helpful to gather resources needed by the Kingdom, especially Obsidians and Prisms. If I'm not mistaken this is one of the only two sources of Prism in the entire game, the other one is the Travelling Merchant Muse but you're lucky if you'd see her selling these as her merchandise changes from time to time.
Each gathering site is guarded by a group of five familiars, same with the wild familiar mobs scattered around the map. What I've noticed is that the familiars guarding the sites/mines are quite stronger than those scattered in groups. The great thing about this mode is that you'd never lose a ticket even if you failed to defeat the familiar guards. So, you can actually experiment on the combination of your familiar being dispatch to improve the results.
There's a limited number of tickets usable per day. At Adventure level 13 I receive 8 tickets daily. Each successful capture of a gathering site costs a player 2 tickets and 1 for each win against the scattered mobs. Obviously there are better rewards for higher tiers so be sure to have a strong familiar team. Right now, I'm having a hard time dealing with Level 8 Light and Water mobs. My team is heavily reliant on fire and earth so it was pretty understandable. There's rumor that there are also Diamond mines but I guess the CP requirement for familiar would be outrageous.
And that's all for today. I'd like to share some battles from the three bosses of the Dimensional Border but I don't have enough time for today. Guess that would be for later. Thanks for visiting this NNK log. Peace out.
Finally reached 1,000,000 Character Power on NNK: Cross Worlds.
Lots of power boost due to the latest event. More info on my rea. cash and Hive blog .
https://read.cash/@LordKingPotato
https://hive.blog/@lordkingpotato/posts
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || +21 Cursed Saintly Circlet / 1,000,000 CP Achieved / The 1,000 Spot
Hello there everyone!
It's been a while since our last update on NNK but worry not cause we got lots of incredible progress to report. The first one is that I successfully cursed an equipment after so many attempts. After spending millions of gilders and thousands of territes I finally made it. For those who have no idea of what 'cursing' is, it's basically a way of improving the equipment albeit in a riskier way.
If you read forums and game guides some of them recommends cursing an equipment after the 30th enhancement but that is not very friendly for free-to-play and casual players. This is also the reason why I cursed my Saintly Circlet after successfully achieving it's 20th enhancement.
Actually, I was really planning on cursing my Guardian Rifle but I was unlucky in enhancing it, until now it's stuck at +19. I tried gathering red enhancements stones for weeks but still failed to achieve +20. It was really depressing so I opted to go with the next best option which was the Saintly Circlet. Weapons are more preferable since it's very useful in both grinding and in PVP but since I didn't have enough fire element enhancement stones and my other rifles were still not optimally upgraded I chose to curse the circlet instead.
https://youtu.be/6jjVnSLx4vY
Aside from having a +20 and up equipment a player should also have at least 100 territe, 1 of the highest tier enhancement stone of the same element, some dark magic crystals and decent amount of gilders. You can go to the Burning Desert and look for the warlock brothers. Fair warning, be sure to have a couple of sets of the said materials because there's a chance of failure and when that happens the enhancement will revert back and/or you might break the equipment.
The 1,000th Spot
Last video my main character's CP was barely at 900k, now it already passed 1 Mil. It's an important achievement as I've noticed that most decent boss hunt parties require this number for their members. Also most members of our guild are already passed 1M CP so this is quite reassuring that I won't get kicked out for the time being. Hehehe.
Aside for the social advantages of having a higher CP there's also the more practical side which is grinding. It's easier and faster to kill mobs meaning that experience and loots also accumulate faster. Another great thing is that it's easier to maintain a higher ranking in the Duel Arena. Unlike the Lava Valley in which a player have teammates to rely on the results in Duel Arena are purely a product of oneself.
https://youtu.be/NCBnOF2ITvQ
The first and second of my three matches for today were against a 950k and a 1.06 M CP barbarians. Although I was at an advantage for having higher power rating in the first match it's just a number if i was against a skilled user. Thankfully, opponents in the duel arena are operated by bots and they don't have dodge mechanics so it's pretty easy even if you are up against a strong opponent.
Even if I can't use my stun I'm more inclined to battle in this settings. Witch's Woods Duel yard provides a duel environment with Silence, Increase in ATKSPD and HP increased by 100%. The problem with facing with barbarians is that it's difficult to dodge their skills. They have this leap skill that enables them to come close to you in the blink of an eye. Their CC and AOE skills is just as terrible to face against. having them silence ensures that they won't use this annoying skill set. They also have lower ATKSPD compared to other classes so this setting is not really favorable for them.
The last match was against a 1.075 M CP witch. I was quite surprised that I outdid them in basic attack exchange. Witches are known to have high attack output so it's quite shocking that my health was still more than 50% after the bout. Seems like most of their raw damage comes from skills which explains why they have little damage output in this fight.
The great thing was that we did managed to stay within the top 1,000 spots.
Breaking Personal Records in the Power Up Dungeon
It's only recent when I discovered this very helpful auto-clear button for Power Up dungeons. Basically, a player can save their time by finishing the task by just one-click. The reward given is based on the highest reward they got from their previous entries. To save time I've been doing auto-clear since I've discovered it's wonders but I have to try and improve the rewards today because of my recent CP boosts.
https://youtu.be/g7eyCVDF5l8
In tier 6 of Familiar Cradle I usually slayed 61-63 monsters at 880k CP but now I managed to improve the numbers by 10. I don't know if other players do this but I don't try the next before I aced (obtain 100 kills) in my current tier. there's also some significant improvements in Fire Temple as I was still left with 17 seconds after finishing the obstacle. Biggest jump on rewards was on Goldbeards Pirate Ship as I reached boss phase 15 compared to the previous sessions when I only achieved phase 12. There's almost 30k difference in gilders as reward and an additional treasure chest.
Well, as much as I'd like to update you guys this is all for today. I wish you all blessed Sunday. Thanks for reading. See you soon.
I created a HIVE ISLAND on World Box - God Simulator
Hello there guys.
Today is a bit different as we're doing a World Box post. I've been playing the game for a while on mobile when I decided to buy the PC version on Steam. The premium mobile version only costs 200 Php ($3.49) but I decided to go with the PC version (costs around 449.50 Php ($7.99) because of the larger screen. It's easier to navigate given that characters and organisms are quite hard to observe especially in larger maps.
https://youtu.be/7YfgYh0R8cQ
Our example for today is quite special as I made an island shaped with Hive's logo. It's not perfect but I did enjoy the process and that's more important, I guess.
To create a world just hit the sphere with the green pencil icon. For this project I chose a standard size empty world. There are many presets available like Continent, Cubicles, Chaos Lasagna and many more. Each of these maps comes in 8 different sizes ranging from Tiny to Iceberg. Just be mindful that larger maps need more processing power, it can get quite laggy if your specs is as terrible as mine. There are also tons of player created maps available in the Steam Workshop, another reason why it's difficult to get bored when playing this game.
Since we're doing an island for this one what I first did was to create the basic layers for the surrounding ocean. The default palette was actually a 'Deep Ocean' so we have to create an illusion that the water is getting shallower as we go near the islands. I made a mistake earlier because what I did was to outline the logo using the lightest blue bubble , 'Shallow Waters'. Later did I realized that to create a more realistic depth I needed to place this layer over a layer of 'Close Ocean' which is like the middle tone between the 'Shallow Waters' and the 'Deep Ocean' bubbles.
One thing I like about World Box is it's similarity to your basic image manipulation software like MS Paint and GIMP. The terrain is fully customizable using a set of different brushes which also vary in sizes. For the water layers I used the one that looks like a spray paint splatter.
After several minutes of dabbling here and there I finally finished the rough layout for the surrounding waters. It's not perfect but I was contented since it already got the basic shape. I started creating the island and just like the waters I opted to make layers of different soil types. Since it's an island the first and largest layer would be sand. I used the diamond shaped brush to do the job. My hands are not really stable ever since, my friends sometimes call me 'pasmado' for this reason.
After doing the sand layer I did some trimming by using the waters. There were areas that were quite big so I used 'Shallow Waters' as an eraser. I also adjusted the the areas to make sure there were no 'Deep Water' close to the beach. Just imagine if you would go to the beach and the moment you set your foot in the water your whole body suddenly plunge, that would suck right?
Coconut trees and cacti were starting to flourish after I did the trimming. Next was to create the soil layers. Doing soil layers was just like what I did with the waters the only difference was that as we went to the center the concentration of the soil became richer. After I put 'Plain Soil' above the sand, I then added a bit of 'Jungle Soil' above it. Now, here's the fun part. Last part of the terrain I added was the hills and the mountains.
The island was born and like humans it was born naked, that's why we have the biomes. Biomes are like clothes of the terrains and they range from normal ones like grassland and jungle to very peculiar ones like candy and lemon. For this project I opted to stay on the 'normal' side of things. We also added a volcano above and a tiny islet in the north eastern part.
There were already little creatures like chickens, rabbits and crabs. Crabs like coconuts naturally spawn on sand. Chicken and rabbits on the other hand need grass to feed. After adding the frogs and the turtles I summoned the first human. Since, I don't want this map to be a warzone I decided to only have one kingdom. And yes, the kingdom's name is so unique I doubt that it'd plagiarized. Lol. Although there were no other kingdoms present I wanted the scenario to be more dynamic. I summoned dragons once in a while but sadly the people were too late developing bows. Even with the 'Dragonslayer' trait it took them a while to slay the first dragon.
The wolves I place in the lower middle island was not a challenge as the kingdom expanded with ease. However, the towers of ice and fire I positioned north and south of the last island was quite a pain for the kingdom. I connected the middle island when they conquered it and let them brawl with the demons and the 'cold ones' which took a long time. Demons and Cold ones are quite overpowered with their 40 attack so it's quite understandable. I wanted to play with this island more but someone came so I had to pause the game. It's over an hour but the actual playing time was around 40.
I already saved the map and even uploaded it in the workshop. Please do search and subscribe to "Hive Island by LKP" if you want to play in it. Also I'd appreciate the likes for the achievement.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading. :)
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || 6★ Mount DD Amber, Cooking Competition and Increasing Favorability
Hi there pips!
Time surely flies as it's been over 100 days since the game launched here in the Philippines. Well, this surely calls for a celebration and netmarble was generous enough to create a log-in event. I'd say that the rewards are definitely the best I've seen so far in my more than 100 days of playing NNK. Here's a quick summary of rewards from their website:
Don’t miss out on your chance to get all of these - a 6★ Mount, a 6★ Decoration Selection Chest, a Rare 4★ Familiar, a Rare 4★ Equipment Selection Chest just by checking in! https://forum.netmarble.com/enngb_en/view/8/9399
**28 Days of Rewards**
I've already claimed the free mount Dimensional Deer Amber and it's stats are truly amazing. It's the only free 6★ Mount a player can get so far so it would be a pity if someone will miss this. High-tier mounts like Amber come with their own pros and cons. Amber in particular only required 'Feather Teaser' as a training material. It's a good deal since 'Feather Teaser' is the same one you use to train common mounts like Catarumpus. A player can easily get it daily through completing particular achievements, buying from the guild shop and in the basic shop, and of course by completing the daily Conquest missions. So, yeah because of the number of sources for training materials this mount can easily maxed it's stats with enough grinding.
We already finished discussing the nice things of owning such a mount now it's time for other side. First thing is more personal, the appearance. I'm not really fond it's loud and uber stylish look. It's too colorful for something with the title 'Dimensional' in it's name. My expectations was that it's appearance would be close to that of Stella, the wolf-dog field boss from the Witches Woods map. That painted body and that pair of floral horns are not very pleasant to look at, at least for me.
On the technical side being a 6★ Mount consumes more training materials for each upgrade. Well, 45% is not that if we consider every additional stat given per upgrade compared to lower tier mounts. Adding the fact that 'Feather Teaser' is fairly easy to get compared to something like Engine Oil then we could say that it'd worth it in the long run.
https://youtu.be/Hj-uaqnq_rc
Aside from the mount there are also lots of great freebies to get in a span of more than 40 days. My plan is to choose the attack plushie from the decoration chest as I really lack on firepower. I'm quite tanky in PVP though because of my above average defense courtesy of a healthy figure of evasion and crit resist but it's not very nice for grinding mobs. For the rare equipment I'd likely choose the rare 4-star boots or armor. And for the familiar I'm quite inclined on choosing a Stagthorn to awaken mine.
Cooking Competition Episode
While the check-in event was quite shocking because of the prizes, the real highlight of the past update is the Cooking Competition Episode. It's described as an 'annual tradition' in the Kingdom of Evermore. This year's plot focuses on the battle between the only daughter of *Chez Sophie*, Sophie and the heir to the Royal Table, Charlotte. The player is set in a perspective where he/she is a confidant of the former.
https://youtu.be/k7l6gwv7VGo
Like the Legendary Ancient Genie event that was finished a few weeks ago the Cooking Competition features various content like the Episode Dungeon, Witch's Kitchen, Relic Skill and the Episode Pass. To progress the player needs to farm 'food pouches' which contains random cooking ingredients. There are also ingredients that required gathering through random maps like those Serene Herbs exclusive to some spots in the Serene Forest.
One particular unique thing about the Coking Event is the introduction of the Favor System. There are judges that Sophie and Charlotte need to impress and each one of them have their own favorite dishes. The player can cook these dishes by acquiring the needed ingredients and cooking them in the Witch's Kitchen. There are chances of failure so players need to be mindful in their first attempt for every dish.
There are five tiers of favorability and each one has their corresponding rewards. Raising the favorability to tier 5 'Soulmates' give gargantuan rewards like 10 Familiar Tickets or 100 4-leaf Clovers!
Aside from the favor of the Cooking Competition Judges there's also the Farm Friends favor. As a player we usually 'forget' harvesting the crops because of our innate laziness. Heck, after buying the familiar island theme acquiring sprout points is not that attractive anymore because of the time consumption needed to harvest and water the crops. After acquiring tier 5 favorability from the farm friends a player can actually hire them and they'll do the boring tasks of harvesting and watering the crops. A bit of a downside is that you have to pay them for their work by other sprout points or their favorite dishes. Anyways, the dishes for farm friends can be cooked with the stove or burner already available in the familiar farm.
I guess that's all for today.
Thanks for passing by.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Hatched a 4S Staghorn, Platinum I at LV (+Questing in the B. Desert 2)
Hello everyone, Hope you are all doing good today.
I've hatched several hundreds or familiars and the best thing I got are common 4 stars like Mite, Ouroboros and Suiryu. Actually, there's nothing to be disappointed if you hatched or summoned one of these as 4-stars are still the foundation players in the familiar arena and even in your normal grinding. They have more potential when awakened past level 5 compared to max level 10 awakened 3-star familiars. And although they have low drop rates we can say that acquiring them is still within the realm of possibility for casual and f2p players like most us. This is also the reason why I don't use my summon tickets in rate up summons like the Arachne and Bunnybot event that will end 2 days from now. It takes a lot of time to fill up the guaranteed summon bar. 200 summon tickets are not that easy to accumulate even with the occasional giveaways.
**Hatched a Rare 4-star Staghorn**
Filling up the codex and completing the records of both soul stones and specialties indeed drop summon tickets but a player usually needs to reach near completion on these, especially in higher level maps. Of course, it's a different story if you're a whale who can casually dump thousands of diamonds on summons. I've been occasionally checking whales in our server and even with their otherworldly expenditure I still couldn't find someone with a max tier rare 4s familiar. With their abysmal drop rates it's understandable. Getting 4-star familiar through summoning has higher chances compared to hatching so I was surprised yesterday to hatch a rare 4-star Staghorn.
What's so special about rare 4-star familiars aside from their innately higher CP's are the skills. From 1 to rare 4-star familiars each have 3 set of skills and these skills grow through awakening. Staghorn is a defense type familiar but there's a huge difference if you compare it's skills say with a 3-star earth type Petromaton.
Petromaton's active skill 'Rock Shield' increases defenses of allied familiars by a certain percentage in a given amount of time. My Petromaton is only at it's 7th awakening and it says that there's an increase of 25.5% in defense for 10 secs and the cooldown for this skill is 19.5 secs. That certainly is a great boost if you think about it but when I look at Staghorn's active skill it's kinda OP even for a 1st awakened rare 4s familiar. 'Nature's Revenge' deals 272% AOE damage to enemies and it pulls enemies close to Staghorn. It would be a very annoying skill against enemies that has long range support familiars located at the back of the formation.
**Platinum I at Lava Valley**
After a long time I managed to join the Lava Valley Event held every Tuesdays and Sundays from 9-11 p.m. every week. My last ranking was Gold I if I remember it correctly and I only got 40,000 gold coins as reward. It's a pity because placing in the top 10% in both Lava Valley and Familiar Arena can give a player some Asterite. It's a valuable resource like terite but it's not something that a player can casually farm. Placing in the upper tiers is a challenge especially for the non-spenders as they have to go against people who literally put a lot of money. I've even seen amounts being spent enough to cars and houses.
A whopping 100,000 Asterite is rewarded weekly to the top 1 player in the Lava valley Event (all servers), the seasonal reward is a more generous 160,000 Asterites. I couldn't get through Platinum I so after more than 20 matches yesterday I conceded.
https://youtu.be/pqa3kfXY1-o
Lava Valley's matchmaking is pretty balance but in a team of three I always had the lowest CP which was more or less a baggage for my teammates. I wanted to push through until I reached Diamond 3 but it was difficult and I was also sleepy. I really wish they could move the Lava Valley event to an earlier schedule. Based on my rankings I'm about to receive 60,000 gold for the weekly rewards, no Asterite for me though. There's also some reward for the Grades and I think Platinum I would receive more than 500 Honor medal, 4-star Gem Selection Chest and a 4-star weapon varnish chest. Hopefully I'll reach at least Diamond I before the year ends.
**Questing in the Burning Desert Part 2**
**Making 100 Million**
After dealing with the quest the Familiar Merchant gave us we realized that this is actually the same merchant we helped back in Allegra Plateau. Getting 100 million gold just by running errands seems to be impossible even if we tire ourselves to death. Apparently, the merchant talked about the ruins in the east and the rumored expensive relics it has. The desert is a very tricky so we had to find an explorer and that's where we met the Ruin Explorer Ralph.
https://youtu.be/_xDHLKxMQb4
He's quite cunning though as he wanted to split the relics by 50:50. We got no choice though as he's the only way we can arrived at the ruins safely. Along the way we were attacked by level 81 Rocktopuses. After defeating 3 waves of these attacking monsters we were rewarded by 326k EXP, 26k gold and 10 earth evolution fruits. The rewards are far from 100 million ( I doubt if there's really a 100M reward) but it's still decent considering that it didn't take much time with all those dialogues and some monster elimination.
And that's all for today.
Hope you have a great day everyone.
Questing in the Burning Desert Region ( Stolen Gem, The Desert Boar Threat and Regional Specialty)
Hi everyone!
After several weeks of staying in the icy fields of Winter Wonderland and the Glittering Grotto we now arrived in the Burning Desert region. Contrary to the 'burning' which describes the region, most monsters are elementally inclined to the light attribute. My dark attribute Demon's Rifle (which would do really well in this region) at it's 5th awakening is quite decent. I just leveled it up from level 1 to 30 which costed me around 150,000 gold. Max leveling the equipment is a requirement if a player wants to upgrade it, say from 5 to 6 stars. My Demon's Rifle like in the example is only at 5 stars so it still has some room to grow. I also noticed that I lack some Evolution Fruit of Darkness attribute so the plan had to be postponed. It would also need 200 territe to upgrade it from 5 to 6 stars which is pretty costly.
Because of the ballooning demand on territe I'm actually thinking of purchasing two premium packages in the shop. I already purchased an inventory package earlier this month so I'm still not sure in this one. The 'Daily Territe' which costs 249 Php (~5 USD) is very appealing to me. The 28-day subscription perks increases the territe energy effect by 200% and it also gives you 2 Territe Aromas daily. Like your normal aroma the Territe Aroma lasted for 30 minutes and it increases territe accumulation by 700%. So, for an hour you'd have 900% territe energy effect while farming in the Chaos Fields.
Another package that caught my eyes is the 'Daily Adventure'. After paying 399 Php (~8 USD) you'd get 400 diamonds as an instant reward. 40 diamonds are also given everyday during the 28-day subscription. That's more than 1500 diamonds in total. Premium Passes like those in in the Dimensional Border and Field Boss quest usually costs around 3,000 dias so it'd a huge boost if you want to go for the premium loots offered by these passes. Although the diamonds are quite attractive as well as the 8% boost in movement speed what I'm really interested in is the additional 6 hours of AI mode. That would be 10 hours AI mode together with the original 4 hours offered everyday. Aside from better farming experience it can also prolong the life of the device I use because the AI mode works even if the app is close. It's hard to decide right now so let me carefully think about it. For now let's take a look at some of the main quest we did today.
**Stolen Gem**
I already finished a task from the Burning Desert's Errand Board yesterday. After farming some gold earlier I'd decided to continue to the next one. The monsters in Burning Desert are strong. They have more than 500,000 health points and most of them are of the light attribute so it usually take me longer to clear a mob compared to somewhere like the Glittering Grotto.
https://youtu.be/64JdkF6wfDA
The first task is called 'Stolen Gem. Apparently we had to recover a stolen gem from the monsters. The rewards were nothing special: 268,000 EXP, 26,000 gold and 10 large hp potions. The quest giver is a gem merchant which was quite dubious because of our team composition. The strange looking creature definitely referred to Cluu, the girl to Chloe and the naïve looking adventurer to the player, which is me. It's ironic because most Engineers appears tinier than Chloe so that might be a bit confusing to some.
The 'incident' happened at the Golden road. One of the wheels fell causing the wagon to flip and the merchandise to scatter. The sandgolins kinda reminded of me of Niffler from Fantastic Beasts because of their love for shiny things. The location is just a bit more than a 100m North from the town. The Sandgolins are level 79 and have 527k health. It took me 3 minutes to kill 10 which was the requirement. It could be easier if they didn't spawn with Painglers. They are some sort of elite monsters. Their drops are alot more valuable especially the trunk which contain random things. However, Painglers are also much tougher having 627k HP.
**The Desert Boar Threat**
The second task was a subjugation quest once again. The requestor this time was a frightened merchant who was a part of an advance party from the merchant guild. Desert boars seem nastier than Sandgolins as they attacked and plundered a protected caravan during transport. The poor old guy in his platy turban was quite shocked because the Desert Boars didn't usually roam in these parts of the desert. Well, smells fishy to me. It seems like another plot connected by those guys wearing crow masks. I'm not sure but almost anything terrible in the plot is linked to them.
https://youtu.be/haSrvXujiZ8
I arrived at the destination and was not surprised at all. The desert boars were level 80 with almost 540k HP. The worse thing was that I needed to take on 30 of them. I really wished that I had a stronger dark element weapon. My attack is only around 15-17k depending on the weapon I equipped. It's a far cry from those 30K+ attack streamers. It's better to have higher attack especially in grinding as it helps in reducing the TTK (time-to-kill) metric in mobs. I'm slowly rebuilding my Tetro puzzle pages. The box piece gives attack bonus so I'm trying to find combinations in which I can integrate the most number of these pieces in each page.
I finished the task within 5 minutes which was quite long considering that there are only 30 monsters to kill. I need to raise my character power to lessen the time to finish each quests, especially subjugations. I might burn a week or two in Glittering Grotto when I feel that the progress becomes relatively slow. The rewards for this tasks are 268,000 EXP, 26,000 gold and 10 blue familiar fruits.
**Burning Desert Regional Specialty**
Finally, a gathering quest. I did 5 tasks today under the main quest and this was the third. And as the post is getting too long this would be the last one that I will share today. The task is to look for some rare cheese-smelling flowers that grow near the Shining Sand River. These flowers are called 'Cheese Rosettes'.
https://youtu.be/moUbv6MXhY8
They are located approximately 50 meters east of the city. There would be some convo between our teammate NPC's but it would be Cluu that would find the flowers after another set of walk. After gathering all the rosettes three waves of level 81 Desert Boarriors would try to take it. Defeat them and return back to the familiar Merchant to get the reward of 328k EXP, 26k gold and 2 anvils.
That's all for today. Thanks for visiting.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Enhancement Dilemmas, Laggy FB Hunting and 8 Tckts in Familiar Adventure
Hello everyone, Happy Wednesday!
After months of grinding I've reached level 73 and 800,000 character power. The sad thing is that I'm now broke in terms of gold because of the several upgrades I made these past few days. It's almost a month since I've started focusing my resources on maxing out my Guardian rifle. There's no problem with the level as varnishes are pretty easy to farm. The enhancement and awakening though are pretty tricky to obtain. The past events helped me to gather spare rifles for the awakening. It's now at it's 9th and I think I need to get another 2 or 3 to maxed it out. That would surely take a good number of territes but I noticed that I craft fire element most of the time so let's at least be hopeful.
**Enhancement Dilemmas**
Although maxing out the awakening to 10 gives some huge boost in CP. And aside from that it's also something you can flex to your friends and guildmates as 4-star equipment are pretty hard to come by, much more awakening them to their max tier. Enhancement on the other hand could be a challenge especially if you're not very lucky like in my case. Enhancing to +10 is easy because the circular enhancement stones are not that hard to get. Past +10 it becomes a challenge as you'd need the triangular one which is more than 10x rarer than the former. Worse is that the success rate decreases and the territe consumption increases while you upgrade it further.
https://youtu.be/RZ2B--mbDrc
Take a look in this video. Yesterday, I already tried enhancing it two times but I failed. I noticed that there's an option to convert circular enhancement stones to triangular ones in the medal shop. The ratio is 10:1 with either 50 purification medals or 25 honor medals being consumed depending on the medal type. I tried another two enhancements today and I even used my rainbow colored stone but still had the same result. I never thought 25% success rate is this abysmal. Even with the a good number of four-leaf clovers as consolations it's still difficult to swallow such results. To add salt to the wound it took me 8 attempts to enhance from +16 to +17. That's more or less 200 territes, now I'm in the same situation.
**Laggy Field Boss Hunting**
Every 5 and 11 (a.m/p.m) local time field bosses spawn in their respective maps. It's always great to have a party while hunting them because it raises the player's chances of survival. Additional healing buffs, shielding and mobility buffs can become handy especially now that field bosses are upgraded. It's just a pity that my experience this time was not enjoyable because of the lags. The FB spawn at 11 p.m. is often the most crowded and coupled with my unreliable internet connection I barely played my role as a healer in our party.
https://youtu.be/NYXS2guxZbE
The battle with Silverbeard was still manageable as the delay was only 2-3 seconds. It's a different story when dealing with Vulcan . Other player's avatar took more than 5 seconds to show. I'm still lucky because Vulcan can't one shot my chracter even with it's CP and level upgrade. There were times that I couldn't use the dodge button and just found myself stumbling 2-3 seconds after. It's a different story once again with Giganti as it's massive AOE skill can obliterate me when I'm not in full health. Like I said it only gets worse. I left the party when we arrived at the wolf boss in the witches' woods. The lag was so bad that it became unbearable.
**8 Tickets in Familiar Adventure**
Familiar Adventure is one of my favorite mini-games. There are tons of resources to choose from but be reminded that there are limited number of tickets given each day. For a long time I'm used to budgeting 6 tickets so I was surprised today when the level of Familiar Adventure rose from 11 to 12 giving me two additional tickets. Battling wild familiars costs a ticket while gathering resources costs 2 tickets. It's amazing that I'm now seeing level 7 familiar mobs and resource nodes all over the map. The map itself seems to be larger compared from before.
https://youtu.be/JJqrLQsdH3o
I tried battling monsters guarding a tier 7 Prism node but was decimated even with my ace team. The match up was pretty bad as the monster were composed mainly of fire and light alignment, My tank is dark and the other familiars are mostly earth so it's expected. I can win against tier 7 mobs but they should either be earth, water or dark. There's a huge leap in rewards in winning against t7 compared to t6. They drop alot of familiar toys usable for combining and the bean pods they drop are 4-stars which give lots of experience in leveling familiars.
That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || First Relic War Participation, Occupying the Fairy King's Gift
Hello there pips!
Last Saturday didn't end with our trip to the lake. There was still some important event I needed to attend to, albeit in the online world. Apparently, our Kingdom (guild) won a bid to compete for a relic in the relic wars. I got no choice but to join the event since I'm fairly new in our Kingdom and my CP is also one of the worst. In short, I'm prolly one of the most dispensable or replaceable members. Getting kicked out once is enough I guess as I mustered myself to stay awake that day until 11:00 p.m. local time.
There are 8 relics to be won, one for each winning Kingdom. Two opposing Kingdoms who won the initial bidding would compete in a game map. The goal is to garner the most points after the duration and this is done by occupying different locations within that given map. Aside from the stations to be occupied there are also other factors to consider like placing of Higgledies, Barricades and the boss monster that spawns occasionally.
The first three relics are the most tempting to capture because the buffs they give are universal compared to the other 5 which are element specific. These relics most of the time are occupied by the top 5 Kingdoms in the Kingdom rankings. The Genie's Hammer gives an increase of 2.5% and another raw 500 points in attack. Ferdinand's War Helmet provides the same buff effect but in terms of defense. The Elixir of Immortality which took the form of grail increases a player's Max HP by 5% and gives and additional 2,500 raw health.
The other 5 which are the Solarion, Darkmoon Sword, Flaming Knight, Key of the Deep Sea and Fairy King's Gift give bonus buff to their corresponding element and resistance to their opposing element. Both the light and dark relics gives 2.5% bonus to their corresponding element's ATK and 2.5% bonus in defense against opposing element. Our Kingdom competed for the Fairy King's Gift which is the earth type relic. It increases earth ATK by 5% and water DEF by also 5%.
Why do Kingdoms want these relics? The reason for this is because they can rent the relic effects to other players for a minimum of 500 Obsidians. It can go higher based on the demand but the renting fee for one hour is usually between 500-1000 pieces. Obsidians are not that rare per se but it's a significant resource to keep the basic functions of a Kingdom running smoothly. A maximum of 7.5% bonus ATK coupled with +500 ATK is nothing to be scoffed at and could be a potential game changer especially during wars or PVP battles. It could be also useful in grinding but you have to make sure that everything falls in place and you wouldn't be making a loss using these buffs since that would be counter productive.
https://youtu.be/tdWh2Bqa4PU
We're up against the Kingdom of Ardent. Initially, we thought that it would be easy since there's a few million gap in the overall CP the day prior to the war. We were surprised when we noticed at the event that there's actually less than 300,00 CP difference. Their initial 1M+ CP players which were originally 9 increased to 14. It would be a challenge but it was doable. I was assigned to the back up team that should provide assistance in the mid-bot area but it was not followed later because we had to provide support especially to our high CP members. Our leader was also given the task to set up the barricades so we had to be near him in case he got ambushed before putting it up. There are teleportation portals located in the North and South area that could be decisive if used correctly.
The early control from our side was pretty successful as we managed to get 7 out of 8 stations but since the opponent also have their arsenal of powerhouses they managed to recapture almost 5 at some point in time. I was literally a canon fodder in this battle but I had to do my best. Healing our leader is my top priority. The stuns I landed from time to time also provided some breathing room for my fleeing teammates. They had a very strong witch in their line-up and I think I died a few times because of her. The combo of a 1.4M CP character was no joke for my character even in full health and with enough shielding.
Few of our Kingdom's party got dissolved because of the absence of some members. The main strategy remained the same though and that was to gank most of their high CP members and kill them later on. For every kill, a player's spawn time increases so it would be advantageous for us once we put their aces out of the picture for a good amount of time. Although they almost got us a few times when they made an ambush the gap in the final points was quite huge with us at 10,000 while them at around 5,600. I guess our aces played it smarter than theirs. I thought we're gonna lose when they re-captured the mid but thankfully our members persevere till the end and brought it back. I killed 6 people which is already satisfactory since I was one of the players who had the lowest CP. We won in the end and occupied the earth element relic Fairy King's Gift.
And that's all for today. Hope to see you soon.
Saturday Trip to Sampaloc Lake ( 20+ Photos )
Hi guys, How's everyone?
It's not the usual gaming post as I finally managed to go out after quite a long time. It was yesterday when we went to the lake. A few tens of kilometers from our town is the city of San Pablo. I often went here before the pandemic because of the diverse selection of goods compared to our hometown. The city of Calamba is nearer but I prefer this one because there's less traffic. I had some asthma triggers a few months back so it's better safe than sorry.
I usually go out with my sister but yesterday we have our little cousin accompanied us. She persisted on coming so we let her join. The children seem to be getting sick of the lockdowns so it's a new experience going out after some time. We commuted to our destination. The jeepney driver was kind enough to give us a discount because the children small and didn't take much space. All walks of life are feeling the inflation so it's quite surprising that there are still some kind souls. Thanks, Manong as I've saved 15 Php.
There were still some detour before we went to the lake. I withdrew some cash at the nearby ATM and bought both girls some school supplies. School will start on August 22 so it's just a little over week. Face to face classes are inevitable but they did adjust it to only thrice a week for elementary and twice for secondary, at least from what I heard. We had the option to walk from where we were but I opted to ride a tricycle because the children's feet might hurt when we got home. The ride costed us 50 Php for three people.
And then we arrived.
This one is from the top before we go down the stairs. There's around 80 steps so we took our time to relax, rest and grab some pictures.
It's good to be young. It's quite a challenge for me because of my current weight. I really need to lose some as soon as possible. It was 10:30 a.m. and visitors were starting to pour in. Both of them liked ice cream so I bought a cone for each. It's quite pricey compared to the usual *dirty ice cream* sold by vendors near us but it's understandable since it's quite a popular tourist spot for locals. It costed me 30 Php each which is 10 Php pricier than normal.
It's my first time seeing those floating balls here. It was said that these balls are lit during the night covering some part of the lake in pink and violet hue. It's a pity we didn't see it in person. We did manage to see in some posts in social media and it's beautiful. I think I need to find some time to go here during the night. Hopefully, these balls are still around by then.
The lake is really pretty near the center. It's like a huge mirror reflecting the sky and the clouds from above. Coupled with the mountains in the background it could have been a perfect scenario. The problem is that the sides are littered by garbage. There's also something like a sludge splattered by the side. It's a pity. The local government clean the lake from time to time, there's also an ordinance stating that there's a fine in littering.
We've also seen lots of red tilapias and other fishes near the shore. It felt so uneasy that they were swimming with the waste by the side. It's not much but it still was uncomfortable. I hope the lake will be a lot cleaner when we go back in the future.
Both people and animals seem to be enjoying the refreshing feel of nature. It was already 12:00 when we decided to go back. We planned to go to the mall but there was some accident so we just dined near the plaza.
And that's all. Thanks for tuning in. Have a nice day.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Lucky Higgledy, Duel Yard Log 1 and 'Fight for the Throne' Event
Hi there pips!
It's been a busy day and I thought that I wouldn't be able to attend the KD and dungeon raids which was postponed yesterday due to the long maintenance. Thankfully, I still had some free time to spare. The Kingdom Defense this time was hard because the monsters are level 80 and they spawn from three different directions: center, left and mid. There were also 2 elite monsters at the center which spawns on the 3rd and 5th wave which made the task more tedious as they have immense health. Even with bombs, towers and stuns it wasn't enough to obliterate them completely before they reached the core. It's difficult but we managed to defeat them but it's a different story after as we failed to handle the next wave.
Like usual, we raid the Treant Statue from tiers 1 to 5. It's not a challenge for us anymore as a good number of our members already surpassed 1,000,000 character power. The raid from Flame Knight Ras as just okay as we only did tiers 1-3. Like I said before in one of previous logs this boss' tier 3 is even more difficult than the Treant Statue's tier 5. I got 8 chest prizes from the raids, 5 from the Treant dungeon and 3 from the Flame Knight. The most notable loot you can get from these boxes are the element exclusive gems or cores that can be imprinted into a weapon's joker slot. These gems vary from 3 - 6 star rarity. Tier 1 chests don't drop gems. Prizes from tiers 2 to 4 only gives chances to draw 3 star gems. Of course, the chances or percentages also increase as you move up in tiers. For example, the tier 2 chest has a measly 5% of dropping a level 1 3-star treant statue core compared to a level which has 15% chance. The tier 5 chest prize has a 20% of dropping a 'Sealed Statue Core'. It's like a randomizer but you usually get 3 or 4 stars because 5 and 6 stars have very low drop chance.
Lucky Higgledy (08/11/2022)
Most players suffer lots of failures in crafting especially from 3 stars and above. There are 4-leaf clovers that drop depending on the severity of the failure and these can be used in leveling up the Lucky Higgledies. In the Power Up section below the Tetro Puzzle you can find it. It only needs a few clovers in the lower levels but you'd soon need alot because the requirement increases as you go further. My example in the illustration shows that I need 17 4-leaf clovers to go from level 106 to 107 a far cry when you are just starting. Well, it was worth it as it already contributed 12,934 CP in this account.
**Duel Yard (08/11/2022)**
https://youtu.be/wbHyBO-kMIQ
Duel yard is for those people who want to PVP but do not want to suffer the penalty for PK-ing players in common maps. There's 3 free entry every reset and a player can still play by paying 50 diamonds if he/she already used up the free entry tickets. Everyday there is a unique restriction like the two today. 'Immune to all Crowd Control Effects' is not very favorable for Engineers as our stun skill is one of bread and butter when it comes to PVP. The '100% increse in HP' restriction is favorable for those who have high health like Barbarians as they can capitalize their tankiness to gain certain advantages like lasting until their skill cooldowns.
My first opponent for today is also an engineer but he/she got 20k CP advantage. You have the option to choose three opponents every refresh. I recommend choosing either the first or the second one because you can advance your ranking if you win against them and it does not really affect yours even if you lose. It's the opposite if you chose the third as you'd lose your ranking to them if they won against you and there's no effect in your standing if you win against them.
The plan is to dodge one or two skills while landing all mine. I don't recommend playing in auto like what I do because there are more options if you use the 'free' attacking mode. I always cast Time Lapse before doing anything. This skill increase basic skill damage by more than 12% while decreasing skill cooldowns by 10% (at least in this level). It last for 30 seconds and has a CD of 40 seconds. Dark Balloon has lower damage compared to other special skills but it has a Bind effect so I prefer this one. The thing is I forgot about the restrictions else I would have chosen the more destructive Fire Whirlwind. The battle lasted for 24 seconds. I won and move 552 spots from my previous rank. I also triumphed in my next two battles. I fought a barbarian and a rogue. The rogue has a 16k CP advantage while the barbarian has less than 30k CP. The case is that it might be an alt account because it's quite impossible for someone to reach top 1000 with this CP. In the end my final ranking was at 929. I was quite lucky with my opponents and I know it'll go down the next day. I had fun though and that is what's important.
Capital Update Celebration Event and Others
There are lots of additional content after the update and the most notable one is the 'Fight for the Throne' which basically a more diverse guild was to find out the strongest kingdoms in their respective servers. Unlike relic wars that it's one Kingdom versus another, the Fight for the Throne is more like a 'one versus many' kind of thing. A slot can be acquired while winning a bid so make sure your kingdom do have enough funds to participate. https://forum.netmarble.com/enngb_en/view/7/8604
There are lots of benefits to get by the winners but what the majority of the player population anticipates is the free 4-star element weapon bundle chest you can get if you manage to clear all the 7-day missions available. Actually, it doesn't end that as there are also rewards for each individual mission completion like 5-star ornaments and 5-star Bean Pods!
Aside form the Capital Update Event there's also the Cooking Competition Episode and the Platypaw's Summer Vacation Event. A player can get lots of territes, upgrade stones and varnishes in the Cooking Competition. Though reward most people are waiting for is the new fire familiar Sore Boar. On the other hand the Patypaw's event which only has more than 5 days left rewards players with resources usable in upgrading their Heart Stars. https://forum.netmarble.com/enngb_en/view/8/8601
There are still other new contents to tackle but since this is getting quite long let's save them for next time. Thank you very much for reading and Hope you guys a happy weekend.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || The Hunt for the Elusive Natrum Earrings
Hey, what's up everyone?
There's a maintenance scheduled from 1-5 p.m. today. Kingdom defense and raids happen every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. so I think that it will be likely postponed and will be re-scheduled same time tomorrow.
Yesterday, I was trying to level up my Rogue to level 40 but it was harder than expected. I thought that by finishing the storyline quests it would be easy, but coping up with the mobs level made me realize that I still need to put grinding in between each quests. It's a different experience leveling up your alternate characters. Because the main already finished the reputation tasks an alt would encounter, the only source of experience would either be the storyline quests or basic grinding.
It's a must to level up your alts because there are certain perks each character unlocks as they power up. The weapon codex in particular is a great way to enhance the overall CP of the account. To accomplish that a player needs to collect weapons (enhance and awaken them) of their alternate characters. One to three stars is pretty easy with a one to two weeks of grinding materials for equipment crafting like recipes, weapon crystals, territe and gold. It's a different story if we talk about 4-star weapons because it would take alot of time and resources to even craft a single piece.
Like weapons, completing the skill collection also empowers the account as a whole. Filling up the exclusive skills for each classes also helps in increasing the overall CP. Of course, the most important thing especially for casual and f2p players are the inventory slots to be unlocked. For each character, 25 slots are unlocked every 20 levels (until level 100). That's an additional 500 slots if you manage to level up all 4 alts to 100. There's also an option to purchase an inventory slot for 100 purification medals but I wouldn't recommend this one as there are lots of other more important uses for such medals.
At the end of the day my Rogue only reached level 33. I estimated that I'll need at least 3-4 hours to raise it to level 40. As there are other things to do I postponed this endeavor for some other time.
https://youtu.be/0rVtpMucmUE
In the early days of the game I was still able to get into the top 10% of the familiar arena and managed to gain the resource called Asterite. Like terite, this resource is convertible to real world cash and can be used to purchase some ultra rare items in the game like super rare 4-star light/dark familiar and even armors. Understandably, it's rarer than terite as this resource is only obtainable by achieving high standings in familiar arena and the lava valley event. Like I've said earlier you need to at least achieve top 10% in the familiar arena rankings. I'm not so sure about the lava valley but I think the requirements are almost the same. I wanted to participate in the lava valley as much as possible but the schedule is quite against me. The event is held every Tuesdays and Sundays and it starts at 9:00 p.m. PH time.
Today was a normal day in the familiar arena as I have only won 2 out of my 5 matches. It was not like this but since I'm not very active I missed out some perks that would boost the fighting capabilities of my team. My current team composition is weak against fire but I have no choice since the CP will go down considerably if I swap one familiar. I'm planning to rebuild my team into a pure earth team in the future but I need a the ultra rare Staghorn and lots of terite to start this endeavor.
After the frustrating results of familiar arena I tried my luck running a dungeon in the Dimensional Border. Although I need to complete tasks in all of them I chose to run the Natrum's nest. I already have a tier 2 awakened Natrum earring and I need another one to upgrade it to the next tier. There's a significant improvement in stats of both equipment and familiar when they reached tier 3, 7 and 10 awakenings. I'm also building my main decks leaning to either fire or earth that's why I decided to burn all 5 ticket entries I've accumulated in this dungeon. Sadly, no earring dropped and the drops I've got are some boxes containing random mount accessories and a 5-star fire jelly bean. That's 5 entries. Yesterday, I only ran this dungeon twice and got a skill book so the results are quite saddening.
The World boss Ardor drops lots of good stuff and it respawns every 6 hours. You can enter a number of times every time it spawn but I think that's only applicable within a certain timeframe after the spawn. I always do the Tier 2 because there's always a chance of getting the Crimson Cross gem for a weapon's joker slot. It enhances ATK which is the most preferred stat of any class. I had a few 'Orange' which enhances the DEF stat but I also want to get one of these. There's also a difference in the enhancement stones that drop in Tier 1 and 2 as you can get ES usable to upgrade +11 to +20 equipment in T2. Tier 3 is still inaccessible because you need to be at level 87 to unlock this one.
I guess that's all for toay. I did some field boss runs after but that let's talk about that in other posts.
Thanks you very much for reading and have a great Wednesday.
Small Gains, Big Dreams and Plans for the Future
Hello pips.
Two weeks from now and it will be my 5th year here on the platform. Time surely flies. I've only made a few connections during this span of time which is quite the opposite of why most people join social media. I'm not disappointed though, even with minimal interaction lurking here and there already became an ingrained habit of mine. It's fun and interesting to observe what real people do around the world. From the simple gardening posts to some extreme ones like spearfishing and paragliding there are lots of gems everywhere which really helps me broaden my horizon.
The curation job makes it more rewarding as I'm getting paid in Hive for something I love to do. Yes, I'm also one your curie curators and my handle is @pineapplepen. You can always message me in either accounts if you notice that I'm doing upvotes on suspicious accounts. I'd say that the plagiarism in Hive is not as much compared to the Steem days. I've been curating for years but I still fell from their traps a few times. Hivewatchers does a great job in eliminating abusive users and saves me lots of time in cross referencing posts since I auto mute users from their list which are guilty of plagiarism and those serial spammers. https://hive.blog/@pineapplepen
Consistency is the key might already be cliché. But this is proven and one of the most important things I've learnt by observation. There are authors who only need 2-3 posts to gain attention while there are others who have to wait for years. As long as there is substance even if you have to wait for along time it will come, you just have to have the patience to push through. Commenting on relevant posts is also helpful, especially if you manage to form a connection with people that has considerable Hive Power. Hive is a social platform so these interactions are valuable.
My interests are varied. In my early days I started out writing about science stuff now I'm blogging about gaming. These past few months I've been trying to be more consistent as much as possible. The last 17 days I made 6 posts and they earned me around $60 in author rewards. It's not much but it's a great way to slowly accumulate Hive Power and HBD. I now have 219 HP and 135 HBD. The short term goal is to have 500 HP by the end of the year and as much as possible avoid powering down. The ultimate goal of this account is to reach 10k HP from purely author rewards. Accumulated HBD would be reserve as emergency funds and Hive earned from curation would be traded on Binance. I have a few thousand hive on Binance and made some significant gains betting low and highs.
Recently, I reached my goal of accumulating 5,000 SPS. Four hundred is in hive engine wallet and the rest is staked in Splinterlands. Splinterlands is one of my greatest regret in my crypto journey. I'm one of the mid level pioneers and had a good number of Alpha cards. If I remembered correctly I used to have a complete level 7 Dark Summoner deck while water, earth, fire and life are all level 6. With a couple of golds and legendries I sold it for $600. That could've change my life if I hold them for another two years. Well, I got no choice since at that time I was about to live in the streets for being unable to pay my rent. As they say there's no medicine for regret, but we have to move on and learn from it.
During the pandemic I created a youtube channel. It gained more than 300,000 subs in a span of two years. CPM in the Philippines is awful as 17 million views only amounted to around $ 9,500. There are many subscribers that are polite but there are those who made a subscription just to say mean things. I almost read all comments back then and it was a stressful experience. I slowed down on uploading content until I stopped for more than a year. I'm trying to make a comeback now but it seems that the algorithm left me. The channel is in the education niche so there's lots of competitors and due to inactivity I was out competed. It's possible to make a comeback but I needed to put on more effort. I can now request for a silver play but I will do it when I reach 500k subs. The ultimate goal of this channel is to reach 1M subs. It might take me forever but everything is possible with enough dedication. *cross fingers*
Right now everything seems to be all over the place. The plan is to be more organize and schedule things to boost productivity. Hopefully, I gain some momentum before the year ends.
Thank you very much for reading.
Have a great day.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || To The Glittering Grotto (Yule Reputation Grade 2)
Hello there pips.
Milestones come by and should be somewhat celebrated, the sad thing is that I didn't notice that I reached some personal milestones of mine. Although I'm still not back to my active grinding schedule which consists of farming 20+ hours straight for either gold and territe it's still quite amazing that I reached level 70 and a character power of over 700k. Some of the big contributors to this achievement are the grade promotion in battle arena, awakening both Guardian and Champion rifles to tier 7, Toco's star pormotion from 5 to a 6 star familiar and the completion of several tetro puzzle pages.
The field boss puzzle pages in particular gave some astonishing CP bonus. The completion of the Silverbeard page contributed 5k+ in CP while the Vulcan gave 6k+. I think it's a nice addition that the developers implement for players to cope up with the difficulty adjustments regarding field bosses. There are currently two available pages that you can buy if you still don't have them. But just make sure you have enough Honor medals for a successful purchase. This is the same medal you use to purchase skill tomes so they are obviously in-demand.
A quick tip regarding any kind of medal is to make sure you have something to spare in case of sudden updates like this happen. Well, if you have already used them for skills grinding is always an option. Field bosses and the world boss Ardor drop them so you just need to be a little bit diligent. In case you have high CP an is confident that can take on players you can also try hunting these Domination tokens in the lowest tier of Chaos Fields. Just beware that competition there is quite intense so better prepare yourself.
Yesterday I've decided to focus more on the main quest. Like the other reputation quests a player needs to do a series of tasks provided by different NPC's. The goal is to complete or fill in the honeycomb table. There are also different grades so unless a player finished the last grade of that particular table then it would be impossible to move on to the next one. These tasks consists of gathering, monsters subjugation, and boss hunting quests. There are also times when a player needs to complete a regular task in Evermore several times (like Swift Solutions or Conquest) to achieve completion.
I'm now in a map called Winter Wonderland. Like what you would expect from the name it's full of snow and other things that would make you chilly just by looking at them. I already collected enough Yule reputation points the other day completing Grade 1. Now, I'm on my way to complete Grade 2.
https://youtu.be/xyZgdS3W-9Q
The first task for today, Extreme vitality, is quite easy. We've seen botanist Marie in other maps and just like usual the task given by her is gathering related. For 100 Yule reputation points, 68k Exp points and a Swift Solution Certificate I was tasked to gather some flora near the Flurry Basin. It's less than 50m from her position so I finished it in a just a couple of minutes. Gathering quest are the easiest ones to accomplish as a player only needs to find a certain position suggested by the NPC and do the 'gathering', report back and that's it.
The next one is a task from Yeti Boy Tutu. For me this NPC is very likable. Maybe because of the Totoro vibes I got from him. Anyways, he's a Snowman builder and once again he needed some rot-root branches. The rewards are not very generous though as it's only 100 Yule Reputation Points and 3,500 gold. The Rot-roots in this area is only 65 and I only needed to collect 3 branches from them. Even if they appear with a bunch of Stellar Jellies and Dragonet Hatchlings it's an easy task to complete.
The task from the little boy Cori made me return to Evermore. I thought that I only needed to finish at most 5 swift solution errands from the NPC Bert but it turned out that I needed to do 15. A few days back and it could be easy since I have lots of certificates available but today was not the case. As I only have a few left I only managed to do 12 in the end, the last three will have to wait for tomorrow. Cori seems to be the quest giver as another one was available, it was the 'Defeat the Vinewitch' quest. The rewards were not generous though with only EXP and several thousands of gold coins given for completion. I thought it was like Tutu, defeat 3 random monsters and we're done. It turned out that I was wrong as it required me to take down 35 Vinewitches. Damn, I never imagined that this Cori with his innocent looking eyes just overworked me like my previous company boss.
Thankfully, I did get two quests with 'decent' rewards. First was Guide Randy's quest which is called 'Revenge of the Storm'. This NPC's back story is pretty sad since his pops and the other villagers were frozen to death by the Giganti. You can still see them littered in the map of Winter Wonderland till today. The Storm Yeti is a diluted version of the Giganti. My earth deck is one of my strongest so I managed to finish the task with ease. Three wooden fuse badges for a heroic task was lame, the 79k EXP given was okay and the 300 Yule Reputation points made it worth it. Researcher Berk's task which is also a Heroic one was actually worse, aside for the reputation points it only gave 3 recipes and 68k experience points.
Well guys, that's all for today.
Hope you have an enjoyable Monday.
Thanks for reading and see you soon.
Peace out.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Event Recap, Field Boss S2 (+ First Time Battling Flame Knight Ras)
Hello everyone!
The end of the Legendary Genie Event brought some unfamiliarity. It seems that I got used to the appearance of Dusk Syndicate members every now and then. They popped out almost everywhere, be it on grinding, talking to suspicious NPC's and even breaking social objects in the game. They were literally everywhere and suddenly they were gone. Even though I was only active through the latter parts particularly during the last week, I still manage to receive some awesome benefits through participating. I tried my best to farm Toco's in the Team Dungeon Hard Mode but even with my last 7 entries what I only received at best was the accessory gift boxes for familiars. Well, my Toco did still reached its 7th awakening and still have an extra piece ready for the 8th. Hopefully I'd get another one via familiar summon tickets or through hatching for a surefire upgrade.
Aside for awakening my event familiar to a satisfactory level I've also received some interesting titles. Titles are accomplishments that can be displayed above the characters name. They range from different colors and designs based on rarity. Before the event ended I received the 'Genie Ranger' and 'Syndicate Spotter' titles. Each gives additional attributes and a significant increase in Character Power(CP). The 'Genie Ranger' is displayed in blue font with curve daggers in each side. It gives an additional 25 attack, 50 defense and 600 CP. On the other hand, the 'Syndicate Spotter' is displayed in violet font which for me gives a regal impression. It has blue green genie lamps in each side and raises attack by 50, defense by 75 and CP by a whopping 1025! I failed to get the 'Genie Conqueror' but it was not surprising since you need lots of activity during the event and a high CP to be at least qualified to do so.
After the event ended there was an update. Of course, the stats that was provided by the lamp quest which was gone for good. What surprised me was the episode records collectible, Episode: Dusk Genie Lamp. Although it didn't boost my CP like the previous event buff the 10,095 for Grade 36 completion is still satisfying and would surely be a great help in future grinding and adventuring.
What I regret last field boss season was being unable to get the two titles from hunting field bosses. Last season a player can achieve these titles for free (needs a lot of grinding though) but now a player needs to purchase the premium pass. Another downside is that the field bosses are much stronger than before. The field bosses Silverbeard, Vulcan and Giganti in particular have insane improvements in both level and the CP recommendation. Silverbeard's CP recommendation alone almost doubled from it's previous 263k to it's present 526k.
The player base is improving at a rapid pace so I guess it's still understandable. These bosses indeed had to have some improvements since they didn't last much like they used to be in the early days. Before the update I'd seen Giganti's being taken down under a minute. It might be brutal from folks with lower CP's like me but I couldn't really reject the idea because this one is a positive change especially for driving more competition in the game.
https://youtu.be/clpQGgCHlJ8
We just had Kingdom defense and Kingdom raid in my new guild. I was late by 15 minutes in the KD and my guildmates already finished tiers 1 and 2. The third tier seems to be doable but a lot of our strong members were not around so we got rekt. The mid lane of our defense fail and we couldn't hold the swarm of level 80 monsters with our numbers back then. It's still a fun experience. I thought that the schedule is 8:00 p.m. but it's 3:00 p.m. when I re-read it. My eyes have gone bad I think. Anyways, I still manage to attend so I might be saved just for this week.
https://youtu.be/CWtwy5wEvvA
Aside from the Kingdom defense we also did Kingdom raids. In my last guild we only finished tier 3 of the Treant Statue dungeon. We tried tier 4 there but failed every time. It's very different here obviously because there are lots of members way above 1,000,000 CP. It only took us around 4 minutes to clear the tier 5 of the dungeon which is a far cry from my previous experience. It's also the first time I go against 'The Flame Knight Ras'. This kingdom dungeon boss has fewer crowd controls and minion spawns compared to the Treant Statue but his damage was insane. The tier 3's health alone was double the hp of the tier 5 Treant Statue. Although the attacks patterns were simpler don't ever underestimate this one because it has a wide range of normal attack. We didn't even tried tier 4, Flame Knight Ras with his monstrous health and power would decimate us even if we have lots of 1M+ CP members. In the end we opted to raid the level 5 Treant Statue once again for our last kingdom dungeon raid.
That's all for today. Thank you very much for reading.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Kicked Out ( + The Hunt for a Tier 7 Awakened Toco)
Hey guys, what's up?
I was already expecting it since I was not very active the past few weeks. Although I had been donating almost everyday my absence in significant events like the Kingdom Defense and the Kingdom dungeon raids seemed to break the patience of the higher ups in my previous guild. It's okay I knew I deserve it. They were getting really competitive over there and the last time I check they were quite interested in joining the Relic Wars.
I remembered joining that Kingdom when it ranked around 40's in the leaderboards, now they were in the upper 20's. I don't hate them and as I've said I kinda deserve to be kicked out. I think they are connected to the 1st ranked because some members of that guild was previous members of my old guild. Man, I should've communicated well with them. Based on the chat I think they are nice people but the schedule of Kingdom Defense and Raid just sucks because it always started at around 11 p.m. local time. There are lots of loots to be gained for both the individual players and the guild itself but I wouldn't compromise my sleep for that.
I remembered joining that Kingdom when it ranked around 40's in the leaderboards, now they were in the upper 20's. I don't hate them and as I've said I kinda deserve to be kicked out. I think they are connected to the 1st ranked because some members of that guild was previous members of my old guild. Man, I should've communicated well with them. Based on the chat I think they are nice people but the schedule of Kingdom Defense and Raid just sucks because it always started at around 11 p.m. local time. There are lots of loots to be gained for both the individual players and the guild itself but I wouldn't compromise my sleep for that.
During one of our previous logs I mentioned something about the legendary genie event. I dabble it during my spare time and I've realized that it's deeper than I could've previously imagined. It was when I was losing with alot of battles in the familiar arena. I noticed that a good number of my enemies have level 6-8 Tocos.
https://youtu.be/hY3nFI0NNhY
For you who didn't know Toco is the current event familiar which you can get by participating in the in raids and event related quests. Prior to this realization I already acquired 2-3 Tocos completing some of the events. Later did I realize that there's a good chance to grind Tocos in upper tiers of Normal Mode Team and Hard Mode Team Genie Dungeons. I only noticed this yesterday and did my best to try farming Tocos.
Although it's only a support familiar, it is still a 4-star one. It's a great addtion if you wanted to build a pure earth deck. High CP earth decks with their synergy stands a good chance against mediocre decks even if they have 1-2 fire familiars in their line up. Most line ups in the familiar arena are assorted because they are mostly by-products of adjustments for a much faster field grinding. It took less effort to put on a team like this compared to a few which really synergize their familiars team's roles and elemental affinities.
My Toco is currently at it's 6th awakening. It's only two days which make it hard to reach the max awakening at 10 but I believe I'll achieve 7th at least. To awaken a 4-star familiar from tiers 2-6 a player only needs a single piece of the same familiar. There's a 50% from tier 6 to 7 and I already got one. To be sure I'm going to farm another one because the chances of failure is just too big. With the event ending in less than two days I couldn't gamble on a 50% chance right now. The normal team dungeon is the best bet for doing so. At tier 5 difficulty the boss only have a little over 7 million health. The damage from the skills are not very painful even for someone in the 400k+ CP. I'm at around 600k+ so I can even carry 1 or 2 pips in this setup.
https://youtu.be/0EgXWjiE6rY
While the Normal Team Dungeon is both challenging and enjoyable, the hard mode is the exact opposite. Well, at least for me. The first tier CP recommendation is almost 700k and people starting from 200k+ are flooding the queue. I estimate that with 5 people you need a total CP of close to 3.2M to clear the lowest tier. A good team of mid 600k CP, at least 3 700k+ CP should be close to the minimum requirement to clear this one. Out of tens of attempts I only cleared this 3-4 times. My health is around 180k and the Balls of energy during the rage mode deals almost 50k+ damage for each ball. Compare that to the tier 5 normal difficulty which only deals 8-9000 damage per ball of energy. Not to mention the other OP attacks like the one shot cannon and the jinx that lasts for an entire 30 seconds.
https://youtu.be/WXy3m5QCpDs
The boss at tier 1 hard mode has 31 million health and you have 9 and a half minutes to finish him off. If by any chance you already spent half of that time and the boss is still above 15M health then it's most likely that the raid will fail. I strongly recommend to abandon the raid if you happen to encounter this circumstance. It's still your call though.
And that's all for today.
Thanks for reading.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Let's Talk About Power Up Dungeons [Personal Progress Log 1]
Hello everyone!
I wasn't able to log in for almost 5 days and I think I miss alot. It's a pity because I didn't claim 4-5 Territe Aromas. It's a consumable potion that increases the drop rate of territe which is basically one of the most important resources in the game. Although the duration is just like your normal Energy drink and Aroma of Focus which is 30 minutes, it really do wonders. I have tried afk-ing for hours overnight and it's lucky if I wake up having an additional 30 territes in my inventory. Last time I tried using 3 of these Aroma potions and managed to get around 50 for just a few hours.
There are still 5 days before the Ancient Genie Event finished so let's hope that I'd get the remaining potions these following days.
Today's topic is the Power Up Dungeons. These are some sort of mini-games which reward users a specific set of resources. It also has different tiers. As a player progress to the higher tiers, the loots get more bountiful but the monsters and/or obstacles are also upgraded. There's a CP recommendation but it's not very accurate. For a smoother clear I suggest completing a tier which is less than 100k of your current CP. It's easy because all three Power Up dungeons can be finished in just over a minute. But choosing the right tier can make the clear much more efficient. Dying and reviving took several seconds but that's enough to affect the clearing time.
https://youtu.be/-7VnYfnoeCI
The first dungeon is the Familiar's Cradle (weak against fire) and as the name implies all loot here are useful in upgrading and strengthening a player's pet. There are lots. I can do tier V but I opted to regularly go with tier IV because the boars here have lower health and there 's actually no major upgrade in rewards aside for a chance of acquiring an extra familiar fruit. There are different buffs inside namely: speed (boots), attack (sword), heal (cross) and defense (shield) buff.
I only get the attack and the speed buff because my damage is enough in this tier to kill the boars before they could even deal significant damage to the eggs. Right, you have to protect three eggs and they need to stay alive after the wave of boars. The rewards you get mainly depends on protecting these eggs. There's a bonus on the number boars you killed but the main objective is to let these eggs stay safe and sound after the end of the wave.
https://youtu.be/Q9VE6g9T9Fc
Second Power Up Dungeon is the Fire Temple(weak against water). Loots in this dungeon is centered on improving and upgrading a player's equipment, armor and accessories. Upgrade stones are quite rare and you need lots of them especially when upgrading a 5-star to a 6-star equipment. I think you need 30 of the same class to do so. There's the rainbow colored upgrade stone which can be used by all elements but if I'm not mistaken it only appear in this dungeon only once a week and in very few quantities.
This one is the fastest Power Up Dungeon to finish simply because a player only needed to travel in a straight road. But wait there's more. Although it's the simplest you need to avoid the fire traps spawning from the ground. If you get caught then you'd have a good stun which would eat a good amount of your time. There's plenty of them, if you ever get caught once there's a chance you'd caught in another. Aside from the traps the main obstacle is the monster called Ardor's Shadow. Right! it's the mini version of the world boss.
If you're playing an engineer or a rouge I do not recommend auto-attacking if you have a melee or short range skill because alot of traps spawn near these monsters so go for the longer range as much as possible. You'd encounter two of them so better kill them fast. The more time you consume on killing Ardor's Shadow the higher the number of fire traps you will encounter. Choose a tier with good enough rewards while having a squishier boss. there's also mini versions of the spawn occasionally. Do not mind them, just proceed to the end of the dungeon which is the bridge. The moment you attack these minions they already served their purpose and that is burning you time.
https://youtu.be/7nNdNd4PGd8
Last but the not the least is the Goldbeard's Pirate Ship (weak against earth). Well, it's not the first time we talk about it since I already mentioned this one in our gold farming guide. That time I reached the Phase 7 of the Boss, now there's quite an improvement as we regularly manage to get through Phase 10. The difference between the two phases is a 20k gold reward. It's not that huge considering that there are three phases in between but still better than nothing.
Unlike the nuisance minions in the Fire Temple the minions in the Pirate Ship rewards the player extra time when they are slain. I don't know about the strategies of others but what I do is lock target on the boss monster, Goldbeard. As much as possible make sure that the pirate minions are in path of the skills before activating. In this way the brunt of the damage is taken by the boss while the splash is enough to kill the mobs. As you progress through higher phases the attack patterns of Goldbeard varies. I could have gotten to Phase 11 but the I couldn't dodge the random stun. Avoid the skills of the boss at all cost especially after phase 7. The boss may be slow but it's damage was unreal and could be deadly when taken directly.
And that's all for today. There was an earthquake yesterday. We experienced magnitude 7. I hope you guys are okay.
See you soon.
Return of the Mount Hua Sect, Season 1 [Manhwa Review]
Although magic is almost non existent in murim the action (mostly swordfights) are generally decent and interesting. Just to mention, The Legend of Northern Blade and Rooftop Sword Master have lots of fantastic fight scenes in this category. But we're not talking about those two. Instead we're discussing the manhwa, Return of the Mount Hua Sect (Return of the Blossoming Blade). What I like about this one is that it still has lots of action albeit not as brutal (except for the first chapter). It has a clear goal right from the start and each character has his/her own charm, especially the MC which has an aura of humor around him (although he seems to be unaware of it).
The story started in blood drenched battlefield which is a commonality in this genre. The MC Chung Myung just realized that all members of his sect were dead. Everywhere is littered with corpses and the blood that flows dyed almost everything in red. The mood was a bit eerie and dramatic as the MC recollects his memories of the last moments of his senior brother. Dang, the artist's depiction of how the sword ray decimated half of his body was one heck of a scene and the reader can all see it in the MC's face in the next panel.
The artist is great as he manage to show both awesome fight scenes and also draw those facial expressions. They really blended well which I think is a reason why this manhwa has a good following. Sitting atop the mountain of corpses was the villain, Chun Ma. The MC was almost done as he lost an arm and has a sword stabbed in the area of his heart. It's a common struggle in storylines like this one, the final boss scene. It just surprised that the villain was more spent than the MC so there were no huge fight scenes anymore. I think it's such a waste to not utilize a great environment to let the readers experience another round of action but I just remember that it's just the start so it came to me that the this was more of a premonition of what would happen in the future. Beheading the villain but still filled with regrets the MC experienced a second chance.
Although Season 1 just ended with 70-ish chapters I can say that it's very satisfying. I also like the fact that it's not regression because given the state of Mount Hua Sect prior to the advent of Chun Ma it would mean that there are few paths for the story to progress. The fact that the author made him reincarnate in a body of beggar and presenting a rundown sect instead of a glorified one would make the journey interesting. What makes this manhwa shine is that it's not just focus on the revenge element. There are times when I felt that I'm reading a kingdom building work because there lots of other elements like economics and politics going on. The MC is audacious but not dumb. His practicality and on point judgment while staying in his humorous demeanor distinguishes the manhwa from other murim works which in general have much more gloomy atmosphere in them.
Secondary characters growth are more emphasized because the MC is playing the role of an instructor most of the time. It's understandable. Another thing I love about this manhwa is that secondary characters growth becomes significant as the story progresses. Having a small set of important characters around the MC is a good thing thing because it added more depth to them and each has his/her own limelight. The author seemingly implied that each of these guys are important and should be remembered throughout the story. In most Chinese wuxia and xianxia they tend to add character after character. Although each have their own perks in relation to the MC most of them became a common mob near the end because of their sheer quantity.
The new villains on the other hand are doing their work. I know they are effective when they irritate me. Although the MC is somewhat overpowered it's always an amusing scene when he deals with them. That is what makes them relevant. The pace of the story is not rushed and rate in which allies and enemies are introduced are in fine tune. The end of season 1 overall is satisfying albeit make the reader crave for more. If you like murim manhwas in general then this is a gem and a must see. Fantastic story and great illustrations that are accurate when compared to the novel. You will not regret trying this one.
Disclaimer:
All Images are not my property are only used for illustration purposes.
You can read the manhwa here: https://www.asurascans.com/comics/1649969363-return-of-the-mount-hua-sect/
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Legendary Ancient Genie, Lamp Skills Completion and Duel Arena
Hey guys, what's up?
It's been a while since I updated this Cross Worlds log. There were alot of content added these past few weeks like new familiars and field bosses. Actually, I was recording my boss hunting session when my laptop died. It turned out that the charger was not properly plugged in. It's a pity because the new Shadow and Light type bosses are quite a challenge, especially for a casual player like me. I could still remember when lots of people had hard times because of the Yeti (Giganti) in the Grotto. The first two weeks when almost 95% of the player base was being butchered by just one AOE skill was quite nostalgic.
https://youtu.be/QAS2GNCEg0o
Well, the real big update this time was the Legendary Ancient Genie event. It seems like an Ancient Genie is about to get resurrected and he has followers disguised as NPC's, monsters and even objects. By uncovering their disguise and defeating them a player can gain medals. This specific type of medal is called the Dusk syndicate medal. Just go to Shop > Medals > Dusk Syndicate Medal and one can exchange them to a variety of rewards. Dungeon Tickets are a must but if you are super dedicated you can even get the 4-star episode familiar Toko!
There are also Lamp Skills to be learnt which gives a player a considerable boost in their Character Power. There are 3 tiers and I'm currently at tier 2. I have no idea if I'll be able to complete or achieve all the bonus attributes before the event ends but let's see as we still have around 10 days. The tier 1 bonus is already satisfying with +500 Attack Power, +1000 Crit, +500 Def and +5000 HP at max levels. Anyways, these attributes are not permanent so let's take advantage of it and grind as much as we can.
It's a pity that I don't have much time as much as I do. My main character is currently at level 67 at 90% experience. Surprisingly, even with just a passive play style I still managed to retain my character ranking at the 4%. It's not much for some but it still took me a considerable amount of effort. My character power was not as impressive compared to others of the same level but my character accomplishment lies in the codex completion. While others are focus on strengthening more and upgrading their equipment, particularly their main weapon I found myself filling up my Collection Section. With the bonus attribute from the event I now have 575k Character Power. Hopefully, I will retain or even surpass this number after the event ends.
The PVP fights in the Duel Arena are enjoyable. The opponents are often super strong. A month ago I didn't have any problems reaching the top 1000, now I barely hold my spot in the 2000's. With ~575k CP I often duel with opponents around ~600k to hold my ranking. Every refresh gives a player three choices to choose his/her duel opponent. I always avoid the third one because if I lose I'll climb down ranks and just retain my current ranking even if I win. Right now I can win even with 50k CP difference but more than that is too much to handle. Today I won 2 of my 3 fights, all opponents have CP greater than mine. That third match was close!
https://youtu.be/hIFmxpq4LR4
After spending lots of territe in completing the collection I'm now leaning on upgrading my weapons to Tier 6 (6 stars). I have lots of varnish to use so it'll also free my crowded inventory. Playing the with and the barbarian side characters are also in the future schedule to expand another 40 slots in the inventory.
And that's all for today. Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds || Spending 400 Territe and 2 Million Gold to Craft and Break Equipment
Hi everyone!
These past few days I've been wanting to upgrade my main weapons which are the 5-star Chronos and Flame Rifle. Sadly, the upgrade stones needed hardly come by. I've already pushed my luck checking the travelling merchant Muse twice almost everyday but I got no luck. It's been a week and the upgrade stones I looted from the Fire Temple were mostly for armors and accessories. With only 10 pieces available out of the 60 I need to upgrade both I think it would be more productive if I use the territe I saved elsewhere. This the the reason why I did what I've been avoiding so far and that is to mass craft equipment.
Crafting equipment is just like playing the gatcha albeit with more extreme drop rates for 4-star ones. Accessories are more special because materials needed includes Purified Essences which are only unique to field bosses. In addition the gold required for crafting accessories is 50,000 gold/craft compared to the regular weapon and armor which only costs 500 gold. Well, everything has it's pros and cons as the lowest grade one can get in the accessories craft section is a 3-star one. Not bad as it can literally be used by the player even until the later stages of the game. Of course, given that the enhancements, upgrades and awakenings are maxed out.
https://youtu.be/3bDPHZgBhMM
Although crafting accessories are quite tempting I mostly get mine directly from bosses. The chances is around 20% but it's more economical in my perspective. There are 4 filed bosses which spawn every 6 hours and take note that there are also lots of channels per server so raiding the same boss twice or many more times is possible. In the first two weeks when most character power are on the lower side there's no shortage of filed bosses to choose from. Well, it's a different story now that the front runners already surpassed the 1M CP cap.
Anyways, getting back to crafting I somehow spent 400 territe for 400 pieces of equipment. Weapons and armors have the same requirements per craft which are 1 recipe, 1 territe and 100 crystals. In my case I crafted 300 weapons and 100 armor pieces. The results were not bad but it's still far from what I've seen from those uber lucky streamers.
Out of 400 crafts I only got 2 regular 4-star rare, a Demon's rifle and a Saintly Circlet. Instead of 'feeding' the lower 1 and 2 star equipment to those in the ones belonging in decks I opted to perform awakenings. In any awakening (familiar or equipment) just remember the numbers 3,7 and 10 as those are where you can get bonus stats for filling a slot in the collection. I managed to get all 3 1-star rifle to awakening level 10. There's also plenty of 3 and 7 stars awakening that were successful.
I had a juicy 3k+ boost in character power just by filling up the collection slots. Well, it didn't come without a cost because aside from the initial 200,000 gold spent on crafting I also burned more than 1,600,000 awakening equipment. Apparently, it's a costly endeavor as I spent 90,000 for awakening a single 3-star equipment from it's 7th to it's 8th awakening.
The video ended with me being broke again. There are still a number of armor sets to awaken so I've decided to farm some more gold. I think it took me another 150,000 gold to burn the remaining armor sets. Next time to avoid the hassle brought by being poor (insufficient gold) I'll make sure to have at least 750k gold for every 100 pieces of equipment to craft.
And that is all. Thank you very much for reading.
have a nice weekend everyone. :D
@LordKingPotato
