A shocking (and disappointing) discovery!

Iwas soooooo hyped up for the Domination III ever since my new schedule came out! Taking a brief look, I was thrilled to see that I wasn't having work on April 4th! However, when I took a closer look at my schedule, this is what I ended up seeing:

OMG... IHAVETOTALLYMISUNDERSTOODMYSCHEDULEANDTHISMEANSTHATIWILLBEMISSINGHALFOFTHEDAY'SFESTIVITIESALLBECAUSEOFAFRIGGIN'ERRORONMYPART!!!

*currently hyperventilating, needs time to cool down*

OMG...
I am so sad that I will be missing half of the day's events all because of a miscalculation in my part and I was looking forward to seeing my GE friends, attempt to grab freebies and maybe win the Singapore Trip with one raffle entry. *sigh* I wanted to blog this down because this "discovery" just hit me in the face when I reviewed my new schedule. What's worse, this schedule plotting makes a day off land on maintenance day. Pffft. Total EPIC FAIL!

Although this seems like a setback, I WILL ATTEND THE EVENT... NO MATTER THE COST!

The main reason on my recent GE activity

Veteran promotion. It will come soon for us!

Alright, let me give the reason why I have leveled up these characters to 100. What comes after level 100? Veteran, right? Well, that's the exact purpose of it. Now, I'm saving up some cash right now so I can just by the Veteran Promotion Scrolls at a bundle instead of one by one. Now, each of these characters have their importance of reaching Veteran (in the future). Allow me to explain...

For Calyce, I was very interested at her Sagitta stance when I saw it in action. Many people said it was deadly than the Arbalester stance that she has by level 60. Once I give it a try, I'll let you guys know if it'll live up to its expectations (like how impressed I was with the Outrage Shot Stance).

For Karjalanien, I am after her ability to craft the ultimate gems since the NPC at Auch cannot craft Siren's Scale, Archangel's Heart or Seeds of Rafflesia. This will increase my independence on making these stuff (and maybe doing a favor like what others did for me when they had Veteran Karjalaniens). Plus, she can craft those necklaces with nifty resistance bonuses!

For Andre, it's his trademark costumes and some of the elite armors that he can craft. Like Karjalanien, I'll be able to make those elite level 84 armors (and Veteran Costumes) without looking for someone else to help me out (especially when I'm in a bind or in a rush).

Well, Karjalanien and Andre are not the only crafting RNPCs in this game. There are others who also possess the similar ability but in different specialties. Maybe I'll have Idge next to be veteran, for generic leather and metal armor crafting (of course, elites!). How about Adelina? Yeah, she'll be able to craft one-handed blades, like swords, sabers, rapiers and daggers. Maybe main gauche is covered too, no? Grace? Pistols and rifles. How about shotguns? Lorch'll take care of that! What was the name of that big guy? Oh, Claude! I bet he can craft big weapons, like spears, blunts and great swords! How about magic-based weapons like bracelets, staves and rods? M'Boma's the man for the job!

Whew! That's another one down to get off my chest. Maybe I'll make a little guide on crafting basics... Lemme go ahead and dive into some recipes as well! Catch ya later, pioneers!

Andre Janzur is now 100!

Yes indeed! The fantazztic man in white is now officially level 100 in my family. I almost didn't make it but thanks to some contingency plans, I made it!

Crunch time! (with the lucky 7's!)

Like what I did with Scarlette (Calyce) and Saija (Karjalanien), I went on another 24-hour leveling spree to make the most out of my premium services. Applying what I learned in the past session had its rewards but looks like it kind of backfired on me.

Let me explain the part where it backfired me totally. It seems that when I don't "establish" a good AFK'ing environment with my Outrage Shot Musketeer, she'll pretty much die quickly even if my healers (Scout and Broomy) keep healing. Now, this happened when I needed to get some shuteye for the night. Sure, I was hoping the next hours a woke up, I would just be on time to open some Portable Pistol Boxes. But when I kinda slept for like, 6 hours, the results were more than disappointing. It seems I only spent a tad amount of pistol bullets when the whole party died and I had around 7 hours left to grind. Knowing I have been stumbled with a task imposed by my sister (and some I did on my own initiative), I had to closely monitor my AFK'ing habit.

Looks like I was able to set everything right at that point but this really calls for an action plan: have an Elite Dragon Coat crafted ASAP! Why? So that way my Musketeer can have a higher DEF Rating than what she has with the Level 80 Pioneer Coat I made for her! That would require my Andre to be a Veteran but I am on the road to making that happen...

I don't think the wings work well with Andre...

Since I had to crunch time (using AFK) while doing the chores, I achieved level 99 with 70%-ish when I got booted out of the Skullic Ancient Territory. Fortunately, I still have some EXP cards left and after using 3 cards, I was at 99%. A quick trip at the dungeon with some kills made my Andre level up. End of story. Whew...

So, there you have it. Yet another member of my family reaching level 100. On the next post, I'll explain why I have leveled Beaumont (Andre), along with Saija (Karjalanien) and Scarlette (Calyce).

The usefulness of pets revealed! (Pilfurr and Broomy)

The Pet Bonding Package was of bring help when I was powerleveling Saija (Karjalanien) from level 90 to 100. Now, what made it helpful when it came with 50x Pet Food? Simple. The pets themselves!

Pilfurr and Broomy

To start off, I have to say that these pets, like any other things, have their own up and downs. Let's take a look at the little Pilfurr...

Pilfurr hatching!

This fluffy, little pet simply grabs items off the ground. Originally called Grabber from kGE and was named Pilfurr (a portmanteau of the words "pilfer" and "fur" with an extra "r" added).

Here's on what the Pilfurr can do and its limitations:

• Picks up the items for you while you focus on killing mobs
• Picks up ANYTHING it finds
• If your inventory is full (due to the fact it grabs equips along the way), it will stay stuck on the item it was supposed to pick up until it disappears
• Picks up at a slower rate, compared to send one character to pick up stuff
  

Experiences with this little critter proved to be very useful when AFK'ing, just make sure your have enough space in your inventory when you use him for a scavenger hunt! One note is that I noticed that it picked up an item called "A Strange Ore" from the Island of Fire. Plus, it also picked up some chips along the way and others interesting finds. I would scream with joy if this would pick an elite equip recipe!

Next on the list would be the floating Broomy!

Broomy hatching!

Unlike Pilfurr, Broomy heals and buffs your family. According to this video, Broomy was designed so players can come up with more possible family combinations. Maybe to help expand from the usual "always has a Scout or healing-type character" combination. This was originally called Buppet at kGE and its sGE name refers to the fact that scarecrows and brooms are made from the same material (maybe? just a theory of mine).

Here's what I noticed on what Broomy can do plus the limitations:

• Heals party members by 1000 HP
• When party members are fully healed, it will start buffing
• Buffs random levels of Intensify, Acceleration and Meditation between 5-11
• Healing rate is slower than that of a character using the Healing skill
• Will always cast the Acceleration buff when you use the Fortify buff

Although I liked Pilfurr because it was so cute, I have totally underestimated the usefulness of this pet! It helped me a lot when I was powerleveling characters since it helped a lot in healing my characters and put some buffs as well. Although I still use a Scout, it's perfect for AFK'ing as well so you don't have to manually buff your family and the extra healing will make a difference as well! Of course, you would get into an argument with the little sucker for using the Fortify buff because as long as you don't have the Acceleration buff, it will do its thing to using that buff no matter what.

If I get a hold on other pets, I will be more than happy to write these "reviews" to better help you decide who to take along with you on your next game in Granado Espada. Until next time, see y'all! :D

Karjalanien's at 100, AFK notes and a premium item package!

I was able to get Saija (Karjalanien) to reach 100 in a span of 48 hours worth of two days off (24 hours per week) and I was glad that I hit the deadline. I noticed how affective and ineffective using the Outrage Shot stance AFK'ing method. Allow me to list out the good and bad of doing this method:

The good...

• Allows multitasking of the user, both using the PC (if PC is powerful enough, like mine!!!) or doing external tasks (chores, physical favors, etc)
  
• Allows you to virtually leave your family alone while you catch some Z's (sleep)

The bad...

• Eats bullets as fast as 3-4 hours (not good for prolonged AFKs)
• If area of AFK is too much for your character (i.e. heavy damage from mobs), it would an extreme waste of time and effort
• Kill rate is may be slow, thus delivering minimal EXP acqusition
  

Now, to counteract some of the disadvantages, here's something I can recommend:

• Since the Outrage Stance eats bullets the most of all stances, I recommend grabbing some Portable Pistol Bullet boxes from the Feso Item Merchant. It's very cheap and it spills out 10,000 pistol bullets per use for you to pick it up. Perfect for long-term multitaskers checking their family from time to time.
• If you are actually playing the game itself, I suggest using Catherine instead. This counters the kill rate since you can summon as much as 11 puppets (or more depending your skill levels or rings equipped) to kill a lot of targets.

There, I said it. Moving on, I got my Karjalanien hit level 100 minutes before the temporary stuff expired. I amazed at this new cash shop package called "Pet Bonding Package." It's got what I need when doing my powerleveling sessions. Looks like I'm brewing yet another blog post with this!

Oooh! Items galore!

Anyway, the package contains 50x Pet Food, 1x Expert Combat Manual, 1x Expert Tactics Manual and 1x Field Survival Manual. Let me explain what these items do.

• Pet Food gives your active (summoned) pet 5% activity power. They say that 5% activity power is good for 1 hour (at least, for the Broomy and Pilfurr).
• Combat Manuals increase EXP rates for your character's level. Three different rate levels are offered, depending how much you want the rate to increase.
• Tactics Manuals increase EXP for your stance level. Like the Combat Manual, they too have three different rate levels as well.
• Field Survival Manual increases your item acquisition by 20%. If If understand this correctly, this means that it increases an item 20% of it's current rate, not 20% on top of it's drop rate. An example would be a 50% item drop will actually be 10% more, thus having a total chance of 60%. If a rare item was at like 0.1%, you would end having a very small increase of 0.02%. The total would be at 0.12%. Not a very good improvement, huh?

What does this have to do with my Karjalanien reaching level 100? Of course, the premium items helped in boosting (and shortening) productivity and the Outrage Shot AFK did some help when I had to do some chores as well. Okay guys, need to clean the other dog now since I had to crunch time before the deadline hit. Catch you guys again! :D

The Adventures of Brave Viki

The adventure begins when Viki masters the Amicus stance and makes a visit to the NPC at El Canon de Diabolica (somesort of stonepit worker). Once there, the stonepit worker says that there has been some commotion going on that location.

Brave, little Viki decides to check it out and spots a pioneering family, wearing Le Blancs, confronting Cherlyn. Just to share a fact, Cherlyn happens to be a summoning sorceress who makes her first appearance fight you and Grace Bernelli. Her next appearance involves little Viki and his grandpa, Ulrik, as she tries to better than Ulrik in terms of summoning.

Now, she makes her third appearance wandering around and eventually bumping into a pioneering family and Viki!

Treasure Golem sighted!

Viki challenges Cherlyn with each of their summoning prowess while Lauli (Male Fighter), Softies (Female Elementalist) and Dobell (Male Scout) fight alongside. Of course, with the Treasure Golem as the opponent, expect the atomic attack to take place!

INCOMING!!!

After defeating Cherlyn and her summon, she leaves the scene and the Le Blanc Family are amazed by the powers of the summoners. Viki parts from the family and continues to explore the New World, not without picking up a mysterious stone from where the Treasure Core fell.

Cherlyn at El Ruina de Memoria

Viki comes across Cherlyn once again at El Ruina de Memoria. This time, she summons a new beast called "Takion," some sort of destruction god. These two I picked for the fight didn't make the cut, so I called for two other family members fit to the task.

Cherlyn at El Ruina de Memoria (take two!)

Looks like Cherlyn summoned not just Takion, but her also her Treasure Golem! It was a pretty big fight but Saija (Karjalanien) and Scarlette (Calyce) made easy work out of these monstrosities (yes, Cherlyn included!).

Beating up Takion

After the fight, Cherlyn will disappear yet once again. Who knows when we'll see this strawberry-colored hair summoner in the future but the New World is safe once again from her clutches. Also, it seems another mysterious stone is found on where Takion fell. Maybe there's a connection between these stones and Cherlyn's ability to summon both beasts.

Paying a visit to Ulrik at his hut at El Tejado Verde will result yet another collection quest to make a Treasure Core and a Mustang Core, catalyst items for the beasts you can summon from the Castis stance. After gathering such items, you'll get one core each and you'll be given a stance book for the Castis stance. I decided to take it the "easy way out" and it did cost me oney big time! :P

Well, I'll leave you off with this cute pic of Viki and I'll plan about blogging about my progress with Saija (Karjalanien). Until next time, pioneers!

The innocent and brave Viki... cute!

Time for quickie... UPDATE!!!

Here's what I've been up to:

Another Fallen Champion... Defeated... Wow...

Also, look what I saw as well at Via Fluvial:

Dream Antelope! 'Nuff said, dog!

That's it, folks! Will give you more posts about leveling Karjalanien (Saija) and maybe some experiences with Viki's quest to get his Castis stance! Woohoo! :P Keep posted! :D