Buddy Rush: Arena Season 20 Ends

Arena Season 20 ended today.

My lazy self was awarded the Wings of Honor A:

Reward in the Postbox!

There has not been any sign of any new rewards so I assume the rewards are still the same:
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

Mutants: PVP Season 10 Ends

I thought PVP in Mutants: Genetic Gladiators was easy. I even made it to the top 3% in the middle of the season. Then suddenly, towards the end of the season, lots of players with level 15+ Mutants appeared and knocked my ranking down to around 20%.

Of course, this means war. As soon as I get my Bronze Star Mutants to level 15.

Ended up in the Veterans League after being defeated by game veterans.

At least my ranking is much better than the last time.

Mutants: Genetic Gladiators, Contents

Buddy Rush: October 2013 Attendance Reward

The attendance reward for October 2013 is a Pharaoh doll.

Attendance reward for October 2013.

This is the same reward as the one for October 2012. Looks like the attendance reward for each month will be the same as the previous year's.

Reward in the postbox.

For fun, spot the difference between the first screenshot above and the first screenshot for the October 2012 attendance reward article.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Mutants: Genetic Gladiators

I started playing Mutants: Genetic Gladiators by Kobojo about two weeks back. In this game, the player is a Psy-Captain, guiding his Mutants to victory in arena fights of 3 versus (usually, but not always) 3. What makes the fights much better is the 4x animation option to speed things along.

The all-important 4x option at the bottom of the screen!

(I should note that I am playing Mutants because I needed a break from a certain other popular Facebook 3 versus 3 game. That game got too demanding with lots of things to do in limited time. And the fights there were getting too long.)

Anyway, things are much simpler in Mutants: Genetic Gladiators. Each Mutant has two Genes, which determine the attacks he/she/it has. The first Gene also determines the resistances and vulnerabilities of the Mutant.

Other than that, each Mutant has a Speed attribute. Faster Mutants go first in a fight and attacks more often. Slower Mutants will have more hit points to withstand early attacks and deliver powerful attacks when their turn arrives. A glance at the turn order at the top of the screen at the start of a fight will give an idea of the relative Speeds of the Mutants.

Because of the simplicity of the Mutant design, it is possible to gauge the opposition at the start of the fight. It is also easy to see immediately if one is in very deep water. Deep boiling water.

What is interesting is that during a fight, a Rare Mutant has the same combat potential as a Common Mutant. Their Genes and Speed may be different but every species of Mutant has the same potential in a fight - there is no overpowered Mutant. This makes things more even in PvP.

Update 26 November 2013:
After playing for some time, I found that certain Mutants do have better stats than the standard breedable Mutants. Mutants won from PVE and PVP tend to have better stats.
---

Mutants have different combat potentials when Stars are involved. A Mutant may have a Star (Bronze, Silver or Gold) which would increase its stats. Thus, real-money spenders can gain an advantage by buying Gold Star Mutants. A Rare Mutant with a Gold Star still is as effective as a Common Mutant with a Gold Star. Because of this, people who do not pay-to-play can still work hard to get a Common Gold Star Mutant and have a reasonable chance in PvP.

Though every species of Mutant has the same combat potential, it does not mean that Rare Mutants are useless. The value of a Rare Mutant is in bragging rights - that ability to boast "I have a Rare Mutant and you don't!" on Facebook. Oh, and Rare Mutants may be sold for more Credits and they also tend to generate more Credits passively out of fights. To elaborate on the latter, Credits (in-game money) are passively generated over time based on the Mutants the player has.

Despite the simplicity of the design of the Mutants, fights are not entirely without strategy. Half the fight is before the actual fight, when the player selects the Mutants to participate. Since certain Genes are effective against certain other Genes, selecting the right Mutants can make the fight so much easier.

Gauging the opposition before a fight.

The actual fight.

In PvE fights, the opposing Mutants are usually known before the player selects his/her Mutants. For PvP fights, however, the player has to guess the composition of the opposing Mutants based on a pair of highly-inaccurate diagrams. This does give the defending player a chance to win. Actually, because of the misleading diagrams, the defending player has a huge chance.

Oh, and the defending player's Mutants will be controlled by a highly-efficient AI. This means 1) the player does not have to wait for his/her opponent to be online. And 2) the player is likely to lose the match if he/she picks the wrong Mutants or uses the wrong combat tactics.

I bred a Dire Despot.

New Mutants are obtained through breeding. Two Mutants are selected as parents and a new Mutant is created based on a Gene from each of the parent Mutant. The starting Common Mutants take a short time to breed. Latter Rare Mutants take longer. And that is where the real-time factor is in this Facebook game.

Breeding is not the only place where time is a factor. Also regenerating over time are Campaign Passes, which are needed for PvE fights. In addition, Mutants do not instantly heal (unless they level or Med Packs are used) - they require time to recover.

Another favorite feature of Facebook games is the requirement of friends. In Mutants: Genetic Gladiators, friends can help the player win in fights - one can be called in to directly deliver a single attack. It is possible to (painfully) play without this feature. However, the true necessity for friends is as targets to dump free gifts on daily in order to score a small amount of premium game currency. Thankfully, the gifts may be dumped onto non-playing friends too.

To keep the game interesting, there are regular-limited time Events - the PvP and PvE Events which may award Rare Mutants. Once the Events are over, those Mutants may still be available at a later date as limited time sales (costing premium currency or an obscene amount of Credits). Thus, there is less pressure to participate in the Events.

A PvE Event with successive fights.

Despite having started the game about two weeks back, I completed 40 of the 100 PvE Event fights. I could win more fights, but at the cost of 19 Campaign Passes per fight for fights 41-50, I would rather use those passes to train my Mutants. That is along with the fact that I am not confident of winning fight number 50 and the fact that it was almost time for the PvE Event to end.

The PvP Event.

And despite only starting the game recently, I am actually at the top 7% (not sure how long I'll last here) in the PvP Event. This is probably because I am around the level of newbie players, which the defending AI has little problem defeating. I wonder how difficult PvP would be in higher levels.

In summary, Mutants: Genetic Gladiators is simple enough to understand and play, yet not too simple as to have a complete lack of strategy. Thus far the game is enjoyable and the developers are releasing regular content and bribes (gifts on the App page). I hope in higher levels, the fights do not get too long. Also, I hope that PvP will not get too difficult.

***

Another Enforcer!?

I bred another Enforcer! I have already many! Then again, what do I expect from breeding two Enforcers together.

Mutants: Genetic Gladiators, Contents

We need politicians

I've seen a lot of jokes about getting rid of politicians. Before I present my argument, let's take a look at what a politician is.

A politician is a leader, chosen (not always fairly) to represent the people and act on their behalf. A politician would wield power on behalf of the people they represent, thereby being able to do what a group of people can accomplish and what individuals cannot do separately. In this sense, a politician represents the unity of the people.

Now my argument:
The people cannot get rid of the politician unless the people are united against that politician. If the people cannot unite for the simple cause of getting rid of their politician, then that politician is still necessary to be the unity of the people. Otherwise, it would be anarchy with every man and woman for him/herself.

And when the people do unite against their politician, all of the people must act. They cannot simply elect a leader to represent their interest and then send that leader to do all the work of getting rid of the politician. For if they do, that leader they elect will become their politician (Hands up, those who saw this coming.). After that, the people will be back at square one, only with a new politician.

It would be difficult to get all of the people to act. They would rather pile their troubles on someone else. And that someone would be their politician. Therefore, we need politicians.

Swords & Potions 2: Out of Topics

I guess I ran out of things to say about Swords & Potions 2.

Hope you've enjoyed what I've written so far. :)

Anyway, here is one last screenshot of a troublesome customer:

"You finally asked for something in stock."

Buddy Rush: Arena Season 19 Ends

Just a short post to note that Arena Season 19 ended today.

As usual, my lazy self was awarded the Wings of Honor A:

Reward in the Postbox!

I am not sure if the Wings of the Succubus A and B are still the Grade 1 and 2 rewards respectively. There has not been any official announcements and I have not spotted any of my buddies with new wings.

Update 17 October 2013:
disboima has confirmed that the reward is still Wings of the Succubus. So here is the unofficial (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) prize list:
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

Swords & Potions 2: Week of Discovering Recipes

I discovered a few new recipes this week. The Noble leather was one of them:

Noble leather recipe.

Noble leather was a time consuming item to craft, especially since I had to craft the required two sets of Leather cuirass. And I had to craft 128 sets of Noble leather to unlock the next recipe:

Leather cuirass recipe is at the bottom.

The Perfect leather was more perfect for me. It took less time to craft and sold for only 200 gold less:

Perfect leather recipe.

I had also unlocked the Fine lance of the wolf:

Fine lance of the wolf unlocked!

Despite the medium crafting time and the single mithril cost, the Fine lance of the wolf was not too bad an item to craft.

Fine lance of the wolf recipe.

That was because its predecessor, the Knight's ranseur took too long to craft:

Knight's ranseur recipe.

The Knight's ranseur required two Ranseurs, each with a medium crafting time. That made the former time-consuming to craft.

Part of the fun of the game is discovering new recipes and finding out if it is something easy to craft and profitable, or something troublesome required to unlock something else. The wiki could be consulted for details of future recipes but that would spoil the thrill of discovery.

Oh, here is another troublesome recipe I had discovered, the Grim reaper recipe:

I need 10 Leather helmets!

I would rather craft the Elemental talisman for profit.

As always, I had troublesome customers:

"I can't believe you asked for it."

Sadly, my customers broke three Elemental talismans this week:

He had that sad face down there.

At least he returned with one Moon stone.

Swords & Potions 2: Week of Quest Items

I bought a set of Guard mail from a customer. After two weeks, I finally had the Guard mail for the 'Thieving Fox 2' Quest:

Obtained Guard mail.

I needed and still need the Wounding knives to complete the requirements.

The Resistance gloves were needed for the 'Lost Explorers' Quest:

Resistance gloves obtained.

The Resistance gloves were level 13, so I doubted that a customer would sell me a pair soon. Making a pair required 2 Moon stones.

Recipe for the Resistance gloves.

A Moon stone could be used to craft an Elemental talisman, which was worth the same as the Resistance gloves and could be made faster. That was the reason why Resistance gloves were so expensive in Trade with other players. Good thing I had a few Moon stones from the Tower Dungeon.

Oh, and a customer broke another precious item:

I was only allowed to thank him!?

The Anti-elements band was worth 50k and that customer had not even returned with a Moon stone.

I had another customer who sold me another set of Guard mail:

Customer selling Guard mail.

Well, that Guard mail could be sold to please one of the many other customers who demanded Guard mails.

Yes, I still had a lot of troublesome customers:

"You actually asked for something I had, that's a first!"

And a customer sold me a set of Bagpipes, which allowed me to complete the item requirements for the 'Lost Explorers' Quest.:

Item collection, completed!

Now to gather volunteers for that Quest...

Dragon's Crown: Dwarf's Chaos Equipment

I had a look around the Internet and found it hard to find the effects of the equipment from the Labyrinth of Chaos. So I thought I'd post up the effects of the equipment that the Dwarf can obtain:

Egotist's Chaos Amulet (Level 30 Amulet)
Score+30%, DMG Taken+30%, Gold obtained+30%, DMG dealth-30%

Trampling Chaos Arm (Level 40 Gauntlet)
Dash attack damage+50%

Ionic Chaos Hammer (Level 50 Hammer)
Power of Grand Smash+30%

Despairing Chaos Mantle (Level 60 Mantle)
While airborne, damage taken-30%

Colossal Chaos Hammer (Level 70 Hammer)
Effect of Rock Skin+50%

Plasmic Chaos Belt (Level 80 Belt)
+10% chance release lightning during physical attack

Valiant Chaos Amulet (Level 80 Amulet)
When HP is at max, dealt physical damage+20%

Abasing Chaos Arm (Level 90 Gauntlet)
Damage dealt+30% to enemy in the air.

Rampaging Chaos Hammer (Level 99 Hammer)
Power of Frenzy+50%

Note that other than the Hammers, the Chaos equipment may be used by other characters who meet the requirements.

After completing level 9 of the Labyrinth of Chaos, unlimited levels will be unlocked. Chaos equipment will be awarded cycling from the first on the list above. These equipment will be at Level 99.

The stats above are for version 1.02.

Dragon's Crown: Elf's Chaos Equipment
Dragon's Crown: Amazon's Chaos Equipment
Dragon's Crown: Wizard's Chaos Equipment
Dragon's Crown: Sorceress' Chaos Equipment

Buddy Rush: Arena Season 18 Ends

Well, this is a surprise. I expected the Season to end on Thursday, not Wednesday. It was a good thing I decided to check my Postbox before Wednesday ended.

Anyway, here is my unofficial reward list:
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)

My lazy self was rewarded with the Wings of the Succubus B:

Reward in the Postbox!

"Yeah" x 2

Buddy Rush: Contents