Christmas 2012

It is Christmas again.

That time of the year with the good food, the gifts, the songs and the parties.

For some, there is the special time with that handsome guy or that cute girl, perhaps with candles, a show or a cuddle in front of the television

For others, perhaps a welcome chance to rest and take a break from all the hard work of the past year.

Amid all of these, do remember the reason of Christmas. Remember today, the birth of Jesus, He who came to bring us hope, to show us the way that we may live.

Buddy Rush: December 2012 Attendance Reward

The 20-day attendance reward for December is a Santablin doll.

20-day Attendance Reward

It has no description and gives Def +2%.

Santablin doll

I tried it on Ready Nagne. It looks like the tail of his bandanna is trying to behead the doll.

Nagne with Santablin doll.

He does look cool balancing the doll over a shoulder as he runs.

Ready Nagne must maintain coolness.

Buddy Rush: Contents

"Wolfgang, get your own Santablin doll!"

The Grinns Tale: Free Costumes (0.6.21)

Recently there was a contest called PROJECT: EXTREME GRINN SUPER-MAKEOVER (yes, all caps) where players were invited to submit costume designs for the Grinns.

Two winning entries have been selected and based on their designs, costumes were made available yesterday to all players at a low, low cost of zero Pramins. At that price, of course I bought the costumes.

The first is the Dragrinn by Nuppmiddt.

Dragrinn

The second is the Grinnzle Horn by Noot.

Grinnzle Horn

All the entries can be viewed in The Grinns Tale Forum.

The Grinns Tale: Contents

Incursion (defense)

Incursion, by Booblyc.com is a defense game where the player has to stop a rush of baddies moving along fixed paths towards the exit. However, the game feels a little like an RTS since the player can recruit defenders and order them around, although in a limited fashion.

Stopping the baddies.

In the game credits, a few games were listed as inspiration for Incursion, among them, Kingdom Rush. The influence of Kingdom Rush can be seen in Incursion with the cute graphics and the general gameplay. However, Incursion improves on Kingdom Rush's gameplay with a few changes.

The main task is to stop waves of baddies that move along fixed paths to the exit. To do that, the player recruits defenders from barracks, which have been placed around the map. Each barracks can support a mix of three defenders, available from three types: warriors, archers and mages. Once a barracks has its full complement of three defenders, the defenders may each be upgraded to better versions.

Another interesting gameplay feature is the ability to position each squad of three defenders anywhere within a certain range of the barracks they are recruited from. This allows interesting tricks like having a squad from one barracks block two paths alternatively or moving archers that were covering the start of a path to a position where they can reach the end of the path.

Defeating baddies gives gold, which may be used to recruit defenders or upgrade them. Gold is also awarded for calling a wave of baddies earlier. Calling waves of baddies earlier is a standard feature for defense games nowadays so the player would not get bored waiting for targets.

Each game map has a unique feature. For example, one has a graveyard from which baddies emerge. Another has a battleship providing fire support for the player. This makes each map refreshing since a strategy that would work on one map may not work as well on another.

And strategies are important. The right strategy can make a map very easy to complete. On the other hand, the wrong strategy can easily be frustrating. In order to come up with the right strategy, the player has to consider the baddies approaching (the composition for the next wave is reported when ready), the defenders available and the unique feature of the game map.

There are also spells in the game to help slow or defeat the baddies, along with one for healing the defenders. In order to use these spells, however, spell scrolls must be looted from fallen baddies. I have yet to determine if the scrolls dropped are random. If they are, then this feature adds a little randomness into the game. It should not be a problem with sound strategies.

Outside of the game, there are a few other game features. The screenshot of the main game map below shows a quick view of those features.

Map of game levels.

First, there are awards for achievements, which award crystals. Crystals are also awarded for completing game maps - more are awarded for doing better by allowing fewer or no baddies to complete their journey.

Crystals are used to purchase skills, which give permanent bonuses to the defenders. For example, the archers range can be increased so they can cover larger sections of paths without having to move.

It is possible to collect enough crystals to buy all the upgrades through good playing before reaching the final/bonus map.

There is also a game guide with details of baddies, each defender type and the spells available. These are important to know in order to develop the right strategy to complete a map.

Unfortunately, the game does get a little boring once all the maps are completed. Of the maps available, there are only two maps where all types of defenders are unlocked, the second of which is only available once all the awards are collected. It would be nice to have a few more maps which allows all defenders. Perhaps a few are being planned at the time of writing.

In summary, Incursion is a defense game but with elements of RTS. It has lovely cute graphics and sound effects and the game should entertain (until all the maps are completed).

Battleship ready to provide fire support.

The Grinns Tale: Monkey Business Formal Set (0.6.20)

I just completed my first Tier 6 set, the Monkey Business Formal set for the Adventurer! I got lucky with the Mighty Monkey Head and the Monkey Maul and after that, it was a matter of time before I crafted the last piece.

Monkey Business Formal (0.6.20)

The Monkey Business Formal has a little more Attack and Health than the Monkey Business Casual. However, there is not any improvement to the Like Banana ability.

The Grinns Tale: Contents

Buddy Rush: Christmas in the Village

The village has been redecorated for the holidays!

The decorations are likely to be temporary, so I am taking screenshots for the future.

Christmas in the village.

"Will get many presents?"

"Will there be shoes in my presents?"

"Shoes?"

"Shoes, please!"

Meanwhile, Burning Worrier is fishing where it is still green.

He even brought potions, just in case!

When he is done, he turns around to find that the village has changed!

"What happened while I was fishing?"

Update 27 December 2012:

"No shoes under here..."

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Pioneer's Set (1.7.3)

I completed the Pioneer's Set today. The Pioneer's Set is available from Challenge after the third mini-wave of the Eighth Wave (it was already available before). It was surprisingly easy to complete by repeatedly finishing 40 to 42 challenges. Note that the Challenge rewards may change with future updates.

I am not certain if there are also Pioneer's Sets for blue, green and colorless.

More details of my Challenge looting here.

Here are the items in the red Pioneer's Set:

Pioneer's Sword

Pioneer's Globe

Pioneer's Telescope

Pioneer's Compass

The complete set gives:
Att+160
Def+35
HP+592
HP Regen+19%
MP+92
MP Regen+3%
Critical+0%
Evade+7.5%
Stun+0%
Hit Speed+3.5%
Skill Pow+34.5%
Skill CoolTime-2.2sec

The set is a little less impressive than the red Lord's Set and is comparable to the red King's Set. Unfortunately, the Pioneer's Set does have a high level requirement, with the Pioneer's Sword requiring a level of 95.

On the plus side, the Pioneer's Set can be traded to other players and is easy to complete... with diamond-level characters. The Pioneer's Set is an okay set to have if nothing better can be obtained, and there are a lot of better sets out there.

Update 28 February 2012:
I have seen a buddy with a level 94 purple Pioneer's Telescope. That makes me wonder if there is a purple Pioneer's Set.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush Quiz (1.7.3)

Here is a little quiz to see how much of a crazy fan you are of Buddy Rush. How many questions can you answer without referring elsewhere? Note that these questions are for the third mini-wave (the one with the Daily Quest) of the Eighth Wave. Answers may differ with future updates.

1) How many legs does Wolfgang have?
2) How many chapters are there?
3) What are the two colors of the flags above the archway the buddies pass when returning from a Mission?
4) After completing a Mission, what are the colors of the reward chest that requires stamina potions to claim?
5) What character is Calory in the Prologue Mission based on?

6) How many cannons are on the deck of the airship?
7) How many bugs can the Empty Bottle be sold to the game (not other players) for?
8) In the fishing minigame, how many feathers are on the fishing pole?
9) Not counting the ranking board, how many NPCs are in the village?
10) What are the colors of the four 'Ball's in Armored Tiger's raid?

11) What chapter is Jack Blin in?
12) What is the pattern on the middle of the 3v3 Arena floor?
13) What is YA-86's initial HP after the 1.7.2 mini-wave?
14) How many bugs does it cost to buy a stack of 3 Golden Potions from the shop?
15) Arrange the following characters in the order they were introduced into the game, starting with the earliest: Flow, Toxy, Choppin, Arpu, Oblinia.

16) What is the name of the mission Tiny Betty is in?
17) What does Wizzstar say when he casts a fire field at range?
18) What is the symbol on the back of the vest that BangBang wears?
19) How many white marble torches are in the Challenge arena?
20) Who is Recks?

21) How many questions did you answer without referring elsewhere or the comments below?

Update 18 February 2012:
The Ninth Wave changed the answers to a few of the questions. Question 17 is now obsolete since Wizzstar, Pumpkino and Oblin are no longer available as NPC buddies. The answer for 17) was "Burn 'em all!".

Buddy Rush: Contents

Wartune: Pristine Goddess Blessing

Today, I noticed the following:

Pristine Goddess Blessing

Notice that there is an orange Refined Goddess Blessing at the corner.

For those who do not know, prefixes describe the quality of the item, going from no prefix, Enhanced, Refined and finally Pristine. And the quality of the color goes from green to blue, then purple and finally orange.

Buddy Rush: December 2012 Comedy Screenies

The recently introduced Daily Quests sometimes involve content from the earlier part of the game: earlier chapters, earlier Raid Bosses, etc. Thus, it is likely that I will find a few good screenies. These are collected in this article.

The previous month's collection can be found here.
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In this mission in Chapter 6 the objective is to find Drablin. Despite his invisibility, the spinning stars reveal his location.

Invisible Stunned Drablin.

Update 13 December 2012:
Just a note that I took the Pink Assault out for a Mission today.

"Charge!"

Also, Flow is giving off a lot of odor.

No one dares stand behind Flow!

Update 22 December 2012:

"Please don't kiss me and call me a fraud!"

Update 3 January 2013:
I am not sure if I will find many screenies this month. So I'm putting the screenies here for now. 

Here is another take on an old joke I have made before.

"We've found the tree, mission complete!"

Update 9 January 2013:
And I thought two Vampinos in Arena was hard.

Now it's 3 Vampinos!

Update 16 January 2013:

Silver-eyed Bullsye and his henchmen!

 
Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Daily Quest

There was a mini-wave update today that introduced the Daily Quest system. I am going to call this mini-wave 1.7.3.

Pumpkino makes his appearance.

Pumpkino appears as the NPC managing the Daily Quest.

Daily Quest.

Each day, there are three Daily Quests available to be completed. After each is completed, a reward can be collected from Pumpkino. Remember to clear space in the inventory before claiming the reward!

Choose a reward.

After I completed my first Daily Quest, I received a stack of 10 Golden Potions from a choice of three chests as a reward. The second quest also gave 10 Golden Potions while the third gave 1000 bugs. Completing all three quests yielded an additional reward, which can be chosen again from three chests. I received 10000 bugs. After that, there is the option to spend chips for more rewards. I was stingy.

Spend chips for more rewards.

Each character has his or her own list of Daily Quests. Thus, it was possible to complete the quests again with a different character. For my second character, I received 10000 bugs and two stacks of 10 Hyper HP Potions for completing the Daily Quests. The special reward I received for completing all three quests was 30000 bugs. It looks like a good way to collect bugs.

I have also noticed that the casting time for Corrupt Botherella's Summon skill is much shorter after the mini-wave.

Update 6 December 2012:
The Hyper HP Potions from the Daily Quest rewards are the level 1 version. Although they have the same effect as the level 55 version, both Hyper HP Potions are considered to be different types of items. Thus, the cooldown of the level 1 Hyper HP Potion is independent of the cooldown of the level 55 Hyper HP Potion.

In addition, I also looted a stack of 5 Bloods of Phoenix from the additional reward obtained after completing all three quests.
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Update 10 December 2012:
I just received the following from the Daily Quest Special Reward for completing all the Daily Quests:

It is an accessory!

It is a Rat Tail accessory that gives Def+2%.

It looks weird on Hungry Betty Junior.

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Update 16 December 2012:
I just received the Spiky Shell from the Daily Quest Special Reward.

Spikey Shell

I thought it was funny to stick the Oblin Doll from the September Attendance reward into the Spiky Shell.

It even gives the Oblin earrings.

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Update 18 December 2012:
Today, I received the following from the Daily Quest Special Reward:

Purple item!

It was not the first purple item I have received from the Daily Quest Special Reward but it was the first time I saw a Gold Fish.

Gold Fish

It makes me wonder if the Gold Fish is part of a set.
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Update 15 January 2013: 
Today, I received a costume in the Daily Quest Special Reward!

A costume for Corrupt Botherella.

I received the costume while playing with Silver-eyed Bullseye so it is possible that costumes are given for characters that the player does not have.
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Buddy Rush: Contents

Evilgeddon Spooky Max (shooter)

Evilgeddon Spooky Max by FirebeastStudio is a shooter game. The player controls a character within a fixed location, shooting baddies that invade the area. There are various weapons to pick up and use, and there are boss fights. The weapons and the player's attributes can be upgraded.

They are many but I have a gun. So unfair for them.

Evilgeddon Spooky Max is a third-person shooter and that is where it is very good at. There are other elements in the game but those are icing on the cake that is its main gameplay. The game's simplicity makes it highly addictive as it entices the player to try 'just one more wave'.

The game drops the player in a location with baddies coming in from the edges of the map. The player is expected to shoot them before they harm him/her. Weapons are dropped occasionally, which the player may store for later use. Each weapon has limited ammunition so some inventory management is necessary.

Health and gold are also dropped during the battle. Health keeps the player alive while gold may be used to upgrade the effectiveness of weapons.

Burning fun!

Upgrading weapons is a necessity. Early weapons have very limited ammunition and are prone to miss, even the Flamethrower. Upgrading the weapon's accuracy to full guarantees a hit each time. Also, each weapon has available to be bought a specialty upgrade such as larger blast radius or allowing the player to walk normally while holding the weapon.

Yes, some weapons are heavy and would make the player walk slowly while wielded.

In addition, the player may be upgraded with various bonuses such as faster movement speed or more health. These require skill points, which are available from completing achievements and leveling up. Leveling up is achieved directly through the completion of objectives rather than mindless shooting. There are objectives such as killing a certain number of a certain type of baddie or using a certain weapon a certain number of times. Completing all objectives are necessary to level the player to the level limit.

It should be noted that the core gameplay of shooting baddies is so enjoyable that time passes very fast. As such, the player can be upgraded to a respectable level with a decent armory with ease.

However, there is not much of a story in the game, just some dialog before boss fights. Well, that would just interrupt the baddie-shooting fun-time after all.

Boss fight!

There is a survival mode after completing the game for those who wish to concentrate on the main gameplay of shooting baddies. This mode brings endless waves of baddies with the occasional boss thrown in. And later, there will be more than one boss simultaneously. Fun!

On the technical side, the game does tend to tax the processor. When there are many objects on the screen, the game is likely to slow down, especially on older computers.

In summary, Evilgeddon Spooky Max is a shooter and it excels very well at it. Time passes very quickly when the player is engaged in simple shooting fun and because of that, the game may seem short. That is until one looks at the time to find that it is already the past midnight or the early hours of the morning. Other aspects of the game, the upgrades, the objectives and the story are secondary to its core fun.

Wartune: Farewell Level 39

I have just reached level 40.

Level 40

Characters at level 40 gain access to mounts, new equipment, a new slot for an astral, some stats and a skill point, along with a few new stuff with the troops in the Barracks. Then there is the higher-level tech available in the Academy and more gold collected at the Town Hall and Gold Refinery. Because of all these improvements, it is most satisfying to beat a level 40+ character with a level 39 character. I am going to miss that.

Also, I am going to miss not being the underdog in the under-40 Battlegrounds.

And miss being underestimated in Guild Battles when I did not have a mount.

So, level 39, it has been fun but children have to grow up. You will be missed.

Wartune: World Boss Ultimate Survival

This article details progress in my quest to get a screenshot of my character surviving an ultimate attack from a World Boss.

If the player survives a number of attacks from the World Boss, the latter will pull out an ultimate move which does damage four times, each with over 1M of damage.

Ragnoch has a part-time job in a kitchen as a blender.

That screenshot above is with my Illusion astral at 5%. The astral only activated on the first attack. To survive the ultimate, the astral has to activate four times consecutively.

I wonder if I will ever complete my quest.

Update 25 November 2012:
Yesterday, I caught this screenshot:

Shockingly Bad Breath!

Still a long way from capturing the screenshot I want.
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Update 26 November 2012:
At this rate, I wonder if I shall succeed on the 28th. One can still dream.

Disappointment...

My Illusion astral is still at 5%.
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Buddy Rush: Thanksgiving Event 2012

Buddy Rush has a Thanksgiving Event from 23 to 25 November 2012 where Sweet Halloween Candies are given out everyday. No candy was given out during Halloween. I wonder if the manufacturer shipped the candies late or something. Or well, better late than never.

Sweet Bat Candy

The Max HP boost from the Sweet Bat Candy is applied after HP is filled. Therefore, characters will have slightly less than maximum HP after the first consumption of the candy. There does not seem to be the same problem with MP, which is restored to the new maximum (unless they forgot to increase Max MP :p).

Sweet Skeleton Candy

Note that the Sweet Skeleton Candy does not give MP Regen to support skill-spamming goodness.

Sweet Pumpkin Candy

Time to go share the candy with SD-91.

A little late for trick-or-treating.

SD-91 would rather eat Burning Worrier.

SD-91 likes crunchy food.

Burning Worrier tries to fight his way out of SD-91's mouth.

SD-91 leaves a gift for playing.

A pointy hat for next Halloween.

Buddy Rush: Contents