Swords & Potions 2: Week of the Second Workstation

This week, I found out what happens when two workers needed the same workstation:

One of them will wait patiently.

And then when that worker gets his turn:

The other has to wait patiently.

I decided to build a second workstation so both workers can work at the same time. It turns out that when a worker has a choice of two workstations, he/she will go for the workstation with the lowest upgrade as long as its upgrade level matches the requirement for the item he/she is crafting.

Worker will go for the workstation with the lowest upgrade.

The Hidden Passage Dungeon gives Oil as its white reward.

Someone on a Quest to the Hidden Passage.

Earlier in the week I had no use for Oil, so it accumulated past capacity:

More Oil than capacity.

It turns out that resources from Dungeons will go beyond storage capacity. This is somewhat helpful, for resources that I actually use.

And, of course, there were more troublesome customers to deal with.

I can't believe you finally asked for something I had!

I should make more Heavy helmets - it's the only item that I produce that Mora buys.

Buddy Rush: Chapter 12 Doppelia Mission Rewards

My buddy disboima sent me screenshots of the silver version of Owl Glasses. Owl Glasses are available as a chest reward after completing the Chapter 12, Doppelia, Mission called 'Curse of the Owl'.

Silver Owl Glasses as loot.

It looked like Owl Glasses (silver) is available from the stamina chest after the mission. According to disboima, it took him four months of trying. I am not sure if it is possible to loot the item from the regular chest.

Update 31 August 2013:
According to disboima's comment below, Owl Glasses (silver) is also available from the regular chest.
***

Owl Glasses (silver)

Below is Owl Glasses (purple) for comparison. I looted Owl Glasses (purple) from the regular chest after the mission.

Owl Glasses (purple)

As it can be seen, the silver version of Owl Glasses has a bonus to Critical while the purple version does not.

It is likely that there is also a silver item available in the Chapter 12, Doppelia, Mission called 'Rage'.

Update 4 September 2013:
nuesclaw sent the following screenshot of the silver version of Orangutan Fang:

Orangutan Fang (silver)

Since nuesclaw did not have the screenshot of the unRefined Orangutan Fang, the stats of that item will have to be derived from the Refine item screen:

Refining the Orangutan Fang

***

Buddy Rush: Contents

Swords & Potions 2: Week of Making Stuff

Another week has passed on Swords & Potions 2. This time round, I have found a clue for something I had wondered about before:

So that's a 'blog'-lodyte!

I assume that circular quest image up there is one of a bloglodyte.

Anyway, while doing business, it is worth considering that some items are not worth crafting for gold. For example, the Earth Staff:

Earth Staff

The Earth Staff requires an Enchanted Staff:

Enchanted Staff

Considering the crafting time and item prices, I would prefer to sell two Enchanted Staffs rather than one Earth Staff. This is also considering the fact that I am still having trouble keeping up with demand.

I still have to deal with unhappy customers:

How can she say nasty things with a bright smile!?

This week, I have improved my shop efficiency. One way to craft more items is to invest in upgrades that improve the chances of crafting double items. Another is to arrange resources close to the workstations.

I had noticed that my workers were taking long walks to retrieve resources for crafting. Thus, I had rearranged my whole shop so that the workstations that the workers use are close to the resources they need.

Shop arranged for efficiency.

The chest, where the workers deposit crafted items and retrieve products for crafting, should be placed as close as possible to all the workstations. The chest is the most visited furniture and thus, its placement is important.

I rotated all the resource bins so that they face the workstations. This way, workers do not have to walk around resource bins to retrieve resources.

While moving furniture, each resource bin has a row of footprints on one side - this is where workers step to draw resources from the bin. The bin should be rotated such that this row of footprints faces the row of footprints of the workstations. The workstation can only be rotated two directions. However, the resource bins can face all four directions. This is why I have my workstations at the back of the shop.

To improve even further, I could put the resource bins at the front, the workstations at the middle and the customer service area at the rear. This way, my workers have a shorter distance to walk at the start of the day. However, the customers would have to walk further. I decided against this because it just makes my shop look bad.

With this arrangement, I find my workers producing faster. The only downside to my arrangement is the distance the main worker takes to walk from the counter to his workstation but he's not as important as the other workers. :)

Upgrading the Garden needs what!?

Upgrading the Garden required 400 Noble's gloves. This is bad because the Noble's glove requires a gem to craft:

Noble's glove

And at that time, my city was only producing one gem each hour. Gem production has since been doubled but it is still going to take time to craft 400 Noble's gloves.

And I have to deal with an angry customer:

Customer makes demand.

Unfortunately, I had to turn him away since I needed Combat Staffs for another building upgrade:

Combat Staffs needed.

One really has to deal with lots of unhappy/angry customers in this game. At least they do not go on a homicidal rampage.

And then there is the time I have to deal with a customer asking for a rare item that I wish to keep for dungeons:

Time to distract him with a quest.

Buddy Rush: Arena Season 15 Ends

Arena Season 15 ended today. My lazy self received the Wings of Honor A:

Reward in the Postbox!

Again, there is no official reward list so I have to make up my own. Just as soon as I find out what the new wings are called. There is definitely a new pair of wings. I spotted one of my buddies with them:

Healury has the new wings.

They look like a steaming pair of red succubus wings. I shall post an update below once I have its name.

It is hard to look cool with a fiery wing in your face.

Update 22 August 2013:
disboima sent the following screenshot of the Wings of the Succubus A:

Wings of the Succubus A

Here's my unofficial reward list based on rank for Season 15, compiled together through guesswork:
1-100 => Purple profile frame + Accessory (Wings of the Succubus A)
101-200 => Red profile frame + Accessory (Wings of the Succubus B)
201-500 => Blue profile frame + Accessory (Wings of Honor A)
501-1000 => Green profile frame + Accessory (Wings of Honor B)
1001-2000 => White profile frame + Accessory (Wings of Honor C)

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: August 2013 Attendance Reward

My attendance reward came on time this month.

20-day Attendance Reward

This month's Shrimp Sushi gives Att+2%.

Reward in the postbox.

As the only character that I have with a food-themed costume, Nagne gets the sushi on his head.

Nagne perfectly balances the sushi on his head.

Nagne can still maintain balance even while moving!

 Thanks for reading!

"Cheers!"

Buddy Rush: Contents

Min Hero: Tower of Sages, Hard Mode

Beating the Grand Sage in Min Hero: Tower of Sages will reward the player with a Titan minion:

Claimed the Titan minion!

It also unlocks Hard Mode, accessible from the floors menu.

Hard Mode Tower.

In Hard Mode, the player starts again from the bottom with more Stars to collect. Normal Mode is still available so it is possible to go back there for any Stars that may have been missed.

Remember the blank portal rings in Normal Mode? These portals are active in Hard Mode:

The portal works now.

This particular portal leads to a new room with a new opponent:

Expert Sage waits behind the portal.

Also, the Qui-tel Trainer, who used to be helpful with maps, now fights:

Qui-tel Trainer became the Hard Sage.

And the locked door now has additional locks:

Door with six locks.

Extra opponents on each floor mean more Stars to collect. These Stars will be helpful since the opponents now have high-level minions - overpowering them with high-level minions is no longer easy.

I have not reached the first Seal yet. I wonder if there are any additional bonuses from obtaining Seals in Hard Mode.

Update 22 August 2013:
Just barely beat the Grass Sage in Hard Mode. I did not get anything new other than a Star (out of three). I should have guessed that would happen since beating the earlier Minor Sages do not give me a piece of a Seal. Plus, my profile showed that I had all six Seals.

I forgot to mention before that beating the Hard Sage and the Expert Sage will each give the player a gem.

Min Hero: Tower of Sages (Pet RPG)

Min Hero: Tower of Sages is a turn-based RPG where the player raises a group of minions to defeat minions of other characters.

Battle!

The game takes place in the Tower of Sages, with the player battling the way to the top to win the title of Grand Sage (and a rare Titan minion). On each floor, the player has to battle three Students to unlock a battle with the Minor Sage. After the battle with the Minor Sage, the player receives a piece of a Seal and access to a hatchery where he/she may gain a new minion.

There are six Seals to gather to unlock the battle with the Grand Sage. Each Seal will give some special ability. For example, one of the latter Seals allows the player to select a second minion from the hatchery if the first selected minion is not desired.

Looking for opponents on a tower floor.

Here's the fun part of the game: each minion can be customized. Each minion has three skill trees. At first, only one of the three may be selected. This essentially allows each minion to perform in one of three different roles.

A skill tree.

There are four tiers in each skill tree. Every 3 skill points invested into a skill tree unlocks a new tier. Spending 10 skill points allows access to the other skill trees, allowing more customization. However, the maximum level is 60, which gives a total of 17 skill points. 1 skill point is required to unlock the first skill tree and 10 has to be invested into that first skill tree to unlock the other skill trees. This leaves 6 skill points to be spent either in the first skill tree or in another.

Note that the additional skill trees also follow the rule requiring 3 skill points for every tier to be unlocked. This means that only the second tier of a second skill tree is available. Or the first tier of both the other skill trees.

It is probably easier to understand all this by trying it out in the game. Fortunately, the game allows unlimited resets of skill, anytime the player is not in battle. This allows lots of experimentation. It also allows a quick respec to make a minion more suitable against a particularly tough opponent in the game.

Stars to buy bonuses.

Stars are awarded to the player based on how many of the player's minions are left after a battle. A three start rating requires that the number of minions the player has left to be no more than one less that the number that the player started with. These stars are used to give a player general bonuses to minions such as extra stats.

There are a fixed number of stars available - three for each opponent. Battles may be repeated for a better star rating. In fact, the floor may be revisited at a later time to challenge its opponent again. Do note that if the player somehow performs worse when repeating a floor, it is possible that the player loses a few stars.

The gem shop.

There are also gems that the player may acquire. These may be slotted into minions in order to improve their stats. Improving a minion's stats with gems can drastically boost its performance. However, the shop has a poor selection of gems available so it is hard to get good gems.

There are different battle conditions other than the usual straightforward fight. One possible condition is where certain minions are shielded from damage temporarily like in the following screenshot.

One of the toughest fights in the game.

Another type of battle condition has minions replaced by a reserve when a minion is defeated. This type of battle is shown on the first screenshot above. All these battle conditions mean that different strategies and tactics are required to win with a three-star rating. The game does a good job of introducing these battle conditions one after another.

With varied battle conditions, the player cannot win the game with the same minions and with the same setup. The player has to constantly rearrange his/her minions and their skills to suit the battle at hand. This brings another another fun part of the game: the preparation before the battle.

In summary, Min Hero: Tower of Sages is an RPG with high customization. Each minion is essentially three different types of characters because of the three skill trees available to each of them, which may be reconfigured at any time. The fun part of the game is both in preparing for battle and the actual battle.

Note: After the player wins the game and acquires his/her Titan, there is a Hard Mode with more fun battles.

Tip:
Rush up the tower levels as fast as possible to gain access to tougher opponents and better gems. Tougher opponents make it easier to train minions. Later, revisit the earlier floors to get all the stars and also to collect any desired minion. This should be easy to do with overpowered, well-equipped minions.

If a bug that leaves the player stuck in a level (say, behind a wall) upon loading the game appears, go the the Save option in the Menu and reset to the lobby.

Swords & Potions 2: The Third Week

I'm in the middle of the third week of playing Swords & Potions 2. I'm still interested in the game but I have my addiction totally under control. Sort of. The need to craft items for the city's building upgrades kind of makes me want to keep playing to make more.

Lots of gold rolling into my purse also helps keep me coming back to the game.

The annoying bug is still there. I think. I am taking steps to reduce Firefox's demand on memory so the display bug does not show up. I wish I could read manga while waiting for resources to gather. That would keep me playing for longer. Maybe I should try loading the manga on another web browser, but I worry that that option would suck up computer resources.

Enough text. On to one of the fun parts of Swords & Potions 2:

When a customer comes in to sell something expensive.

I like it when a customer comes in and offers to sell something expensive for half-price. I can sell it later at full price for huge profit. That's why I set aside a good amount of gold. It used to be 6k. Now, I keep 20k handy.

Something I find a little troublesome:

I have to craft another 127 Bone shields!?

Latter recipes require lots of crafting to unlock. However, if it were easy to unlock recipes, I think the game will become boring quick. There is some satisfaction in steadily working towards a goal. After a lot of work, the reward at the end feels more fulfilling.

A few days ago, I reached level 40 and unlocked the third worker slot:

Level 40, reached! Third worker slot, unlocked!

I rushed to the inn to assign an extra worker and found:

There is a fourth worker slot!?

Even with three workers, I still find it hard to keep up with demand.

Customer looking for a Ranseur.

That is because I'm manufacturing items for city upgrades (as mentioned).

Ranseurs needed to upgrade Traders.

I had to turn away customers looking for Ranseurs since I needed those to upgrade the Traders. I feel bad for customers who won't accept my alternate suggestion. I don't think I can please everyone.

This happens once in a while:

Customer selling Twin flute.

A customer comes in to sell something at half price.

Same customer buying back the Twin flute.

Then later, that same customer comes back and buys, at full price, the same thing she (it's usually a she) sold. Amusing. But I like the profit.