Celestalia's Challenge - A Maple Journal

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PART LXXX. The Garden of Three Colors

Spoiler: PART LXXX. The Garden of Three Colors

While Celestalia's quest in the Nihal Desert isn't quite over just yet, the acquisition of the Green Huntress Armor finally opens up the coveted cloud-strewn lands of Orbis Park - in which we should expect several key upgrades. Our first order of business, naturally, will be obtaining the Red Viper (our Level 35 Bow). Celestalia has kind of been around these parts before; she explored a bit of the park while off-duty, and ended up...well, here's what happened.

Anyway, Celestalia understands that Star Pixies are fairly powerful, and while she could take them on, it's not generally considered a good idea to do so. Instead, we can take on the slightly-weaker Junior kittens by hugging the top of the map.

Before heading there, Celestalia unloads her Etc. inventory at the Potion Shop (another convenience which became available with Orbis Park), and finally sells the Lidium Ore too. Also, she sells 20 Sniper Potions in exchange for 2 Nearest Town scrolls, putting her back at an even 50. That said, we won't need to use any for this stretch.

The map we are going to be hunting in is:


Which has an even assortment of all three kittens: the red Jr. Cellion, the yellow Jr. Lioner, and the purple Jr. Grupin (which becomes blue as they age). Each one has the potential to provide something really nice for us, so getting all three card sets here should give us a bunch of critical information. Also...one of these should have the Red Viper. I could be wrong on that though...

We land our first equip almost immediately:


A great one too, the Brown Starlight (Level 38 Overall) is worth tons of cash.

Our second one was mere minutes behind! Ohohoho...


The Blue Moon! Level 40 Earrings. We can't wear them yet, of course, but I do believe from past experience that at least one 35 drops here. Not sure exactly where. I think possibly Jr. Cellion?

Celestalia was also surprised to learn that these guys hit for only marginally more than Scarf Plead (maybe by 10 points or so). Here's what I like about Jr. Kittens as opposed to Scarf Plead though. They:

1. Drop White Potions
2. Drop more mesos
   
3. Have smaller hitboxes - so although the mob density is about the same, you actually have more room to work with, especially on the bottom platform
4. Are infinitely more likeable than lizards

Another cool thing, Jr. Cellions drop an item called Holy Water. This useful tool can allow Celestalia to use skills again should she ever get afflicted by a Jr. Boogie or something.

Anyway, our next major drop of note was a set of Wolbis. Don't remember which color dropped them, but that's why we'll be looking at all three drop tables after while.

My only real gripe is that this map has a ton of objects in the foreground, as you can see from the pictures above. There's a very real possibility that a card will drop behind one of these things, and how am I supposed to grab a screenshot of that?! Well, as usual, that's for RNG to decide.

Here's our next equip:


This is the Male version of our current Pants. It has a whopping 24 Weapon Defense, but no DEX. Hmm.

We then achieve Level 51.


Three more points go into Power Knockback (won't be useful here, but safest play in case we need it elsewhere). We can now hit 3 enemies at a time with a knockback chance of 66% (Ryden 36 + 30 from the skill itself). Our max damage grows to 432.

Here is card 1 of 15!


Now this is what I was talking about with these pots. What do you suppose this equip is?


If you guessed a Level 35 Warrior Shoe, well, there's no way you did because it's literally sixteen pixels.

For the final equip of the session, Jr. Lioner presents us with the sleek Dark Guardian.


Kaloichi got his from Jr. Lioner as well.

As for Celestalia, she called it at 5% into 51 and returned to Orbis, having obtained a whopping five equips in about 10% of action. And, she doesn't have to move between towns this time!...well, except to sell equips, of which there will be a significant amount.

Our total Blue Potion profit for the evening is +32, which lands us at 180 total. The MP situation is looking better and better. I reckon it will improve even more if we get a good roll on the Red Viper when we find it. Need I mention the Vaulter 2000 is also nearby...although Celestalia does not know this. Yet.

In the next installment, the card hunt at Jr. Kittens gets properly underway! Stay tuned.

 

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PART LXXXI. A Tranquil Evening in Orbis Park

Spoiler: PART LXXXI. A Tranquil Evening in Orbis Park

Maple is one of only a few experiences where you can have a 'nice, peaceful grind'. You think about combat, most games are, uh, violent. I guess it depends on one's playstyle, but Celestalia was going to take it somewhat easy tonight. After all all we're doing is farming cards.

Case in point, the first thing our heroine does after heading back to the park is...take a snack break. Well, of course.

That didn't last too long thankfully, so she was up and running by 02:15.


A few minutes in, a Bishop and his friend come into the map and send out hilariously-overpowered beams of light as they pass through. The Bishop compliments our hat and we end up trading Fame!

We also get our first equip, which was conveniently hidden by a pot. It's a Great Brown Helmet (Level 35 Warrior).

Lady Blue expires in a week. There is no question Celestalia is going to buy another one.

And here is our first card of the evening, courtesy of Jr. Cellion!


Also from Jr. Cellion, the Dark Matty.


We have now collected four out of the five possible Matty colors. The fifth is Brown, and I looked it up, out of the three mobs that drop it, two are in Ludibrium, and the third is Skeledog. We do have access to Skeledog, but it's Level 44. Not really something we have any reason to mess with now.

Then, we land the second Jr. Cellion card. It was mostly behind a pot, but not all the way, thankfully.

The next drop was also hidden behind a pot. But look!!


This, friends, is the Level 35 Blue Legolia!! Now don't think the Green Huntress Armor is obsolete just yet - while the Blue Legolia has 4 more Weapon Defense, it also adds +4 to STR - not DEX. So Green Huntress Armor stays on for the damage outfit. Still, amazing pickup.

Next was the second Jr. Grupin card, putting us at 4 total, and we haven't been here an hour even. I hope Jr. Lioner doesn't fall too far behind though.

Well Jr. Lioner didn't want to give us cards, but they were giving in spades elsewhere! Look at this!


It's a Scaler! A Gold Scaler in fact, the absolute best one available! This particular specimen is +3 DEX (Max) and 12 WDef (Min). The +5 DEX Dark Savata will stick around for a bit longer, but all future Glove scrolls will go on this guy.

Amazing, we've received two upgrades and one pending upgrade...in less than 20% worth of XP. Celestalia could not ask for a better start.

Oh, about that pending upgrade...yeah, make that an actual upgrade. Actually, make that two.


The Level 35 Cat's Eye now unlocks the Level 40 Blue Moon, which we will put on now. From those two upgrades we increase our Magic Defense by 11 points!

Before we go any further, here's what our prestige outfit looks like now:

We really need to do something about that hat...

With the Earring upgrade, we now have more equips over Level 30 than not. Only three remain to be updated: Hat (Level 20), Bottom (Level 30) and Bow (Level 30). I have a feeling we can get at least two of those here.

Soon after, we get a second Blue Moon, and the first Jr. Lioner card!


The Bowman equips kept coming.


The Green Hawkeye adds +2 DEX!! If only we could wear it...where is that Level 25 Hunter?!?!!?!

Next, we get another Great Brown Helmet, and the third Jr. Cellion card. We're already close to our first drop table! But have we already exhausted it? Only one way to find out...by getting the fourth card just minutes later!

The answer, at least for Jr. Cellion, is not quite...


That lovely glove in the bottom-left corner is the Dark Brace, which is Level 40. Like the Gold Bracer, it is the best glove of the tier, so while we're here, why not just pick it up? Note also that it has an average DEX bonus of 3 - meaning the Max is 4. I'd actually consider exchanging the Dark Savata for it just for the Weapon Defense bonus (~+5).

Anyway, Celestalia's equip inventory was already nearly full, so she does something rather extraordinary: She buys an extra row of slots! We got an extra one on reaching Level 50. That was sadly our only one, so we won't get another until 55.

Going back in, we get a Brown Crusader Helmet (shown above, end of the second row).

Now for the latest installment in the 'hidden behind pots' series of equips:


It's called a 'Heavy Hammer' but I'm pretty sure all hammers by definition have to be heavy. It's also considered a Level 35 Mace...makes sense, but what would make more sense is using something with even slightly more balance.

And look at that, we're done with a set already!


Well, Jr. Cellion still isn't entirely useless now, not only for the glove but also for the insane money.


At which point Celestalia had roughly three slots left in the Equips, so since she was feeling a bit sleepy, she decided to call it for the night and go back to Victoria Island to sell stuff. And there was a ton to offload. By the time Celestalia got back on the boat to Orbis, she was just shy of 12.3 million.

In terms of old equips, we left the following with Sam: Bennis Chainpants (Part L), Green Marker (Part LVIII), Lightning Earrings (Part LIX), Green Bennis Chainmail (Part LXXV), Brown Hawkeye (Part LXXVI), and Cat's Eye (Part LXXXI - You are here!) although these last two never touched one hair on Celestalia's head.

On the boat ride over, Celestalia was with three 4th Jobs, one of which was curious to know where Celestalia's inn in Orbis was. After leading her there, she heads to the FM and leaves Celestalia to the important work of getting some rest for next weekend. I don't know how exactly next weekend could be better than this one; we achieved five upgrades (two Top, two Earring, one Glove), got a card set, made over a million mesos, and got a level on top of all of that. What would beat it? Well, maybe the Red Viper. But we could be meowing up the wrong region here. In which case...uh, I dunno. Maybe someone in Ludibrium has it.

Speaking of...I think we'll open next weekend with the process on how we do open Ludibrium. We're very close, I can tell you that. Possibly, we are as little as one equip away. Possibly.

Thanks again for tuning in to Celestalia's Challenge, and come back on Friday for more exciting action! Enjoy your week.

 

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PART LXXXII. Rise of the Snack People

Spoiler: PART LXXXII. Rise of the Snack People

It was an unusually chilly evening at the start of April, although those aren't so uncommon in all honesty, as Celestalia set out once again for the Garden of Three Colors. Our plan tonight is to get at least one of the two remaining card sets (Jr. Lioner and Jr. Grupin). If fortune smiles upon us, perhaps we can get both, and then see whether we can farm the remaining equips we need, if of course they are necessary.

If you were with us last time, you know that the Saturday entry was historically incredible. The title banner tells all; three equips have been upgraded between this post and the last. I have the feeling there will be several more over the next few entries.

Anyway, as promised, I'd like to talk for a short amount of time about Ludibrium. Like Orbis, Ludibrium has several 'stages' to unlocking it. As a baseline, we must fulfill the following:

• Be Level 50
• Have one of the following:
  • All equips must be at Level 30 or above, OR
  • All mainline equips (Top, Bottom, Bow) must be at Level 35 or above, OR
  • At least one mainline equip (Top, Bottom, Bow) must be at Level 40 or above.

You'll notice that there are three requirements, and three paths of travel in Ludibrium. They match up as follows:

• Requirement 1 (All equips >= 30) unlocks the Clock Tower. [REMAINING EQUIPS: 1 (Level 25 Hunter Hat)]
  
• Requirement 2 (All mainline >= 35) unlocks Eos Tower. [Remaining Equips: 2 (Level 35 Red Viper, Level 35 Legolia Pants)]
  
• Requirement 3 (At least one mainline >= 40) unlocks Helios Tower. [REMAINING EQUIPS: 1~2 (Level 40 Piettra Top)]
  
• Having ALL 3 unlocks the ability to sell Etc. items (and ammunition) at Ludibrium.

Alright, let's get started!


Our first drop is a scroll for Cape INT 60%! This is a seven-figure scroll except Celestalia of course can't trade. Right.

Well after that we get a Brown Guise, which is a Level 25 Hat. That's great news! Maybe we can get the Hunter here as well?


The second Jr. Lioner card is now in!


Three more for each of these two and we can specialize.

Our next equip (which was hidden behind money >.<) was the sleek Level 35 Silver Fitted Mail for Female Warriors. Very common equip type for monsters throughout Ossyria in this level range.

We then get a set of Kumbi stars.

And here's a Level 30 equip, the Blood Battle Grieves.


Incredible how wide an array of tiers and levels these three provide. I can't wait for these next two drop tables.

But a lot of the equips are quite similar:


Like this one, which is the Male version of our Blue Legolia. But ours is STR +4, this is only STR +2. Eh.

Still others we've seen a few times before.


Like this Blue Mushroom favorite, the Halfmoon Zamadar.

Then, we land a Green Hunter's Armor. We got the Pants last weekend, which is another good sign! That means we're now very likely to find the Blue Legolia Pants here.

First though, Jr. Cellion gives us the Blue Legolier Pants. The Male counterpart. This is such a great place for equips if you're a Bowman!

A few minutes later, we find a strange feather...


It appears to glow as if it is made of fire itself. In fact, it is fire. At least, that's what the tooltip says. So naturally, Celestalia puts it in her back pocket. Maybe she can use it to keep warm during the winter, which was a noted problem in the Henesys Weapon Store. The Nautilus isn't likely to be too much better. Then again, she'll probably be spending most of her time at Orbis...

The next equip...a glove from Jr. Cellion! Did we roll the right number?!


No. We did not. And it's Min Weapon Defense.

Well that's fine, since we then get the third Jr. Grupin card.

After that came this Black Amoria Top (Level 33 Female Magician):


I've never seen a magician wearing the Amoria set. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen more than maybe one female LUK Mage. Maybe I should use one of those character generators...

The next drop was another piece of Black Magician clothing...the Black Jester. Okay, I'm fairly sure the Black Mage would not wear a jester's hat. The Dark Magician wouldn't either. Well, the lore itself isn't sure which one is which, apparently. Of course in Japan, he's actually known as the Black Magician. I don't know what the Black Mage is known as in Japanese, but I fear the worst.

Uhhh, where were we...? Oh yeah, drop table!


Okay, not actually where we were but since we're here...yeah, an absolute gold mine of Bowman equips! And there's the Blue Legolia Pants as promised! Might as well pick them up while we're in the area. We still have plenty of time to do so though.

Here's the second one of these in as many sessions:


This is Level 50, by the way. If we're already getting a few 50s here and there, we could get very lucky...and find something that drops an incredible find. Like the Olympus maybe?!?!

I won't get my hopes up just yet. We still need the Red Viper...and the Vaulter 2000.

Next drop was a Steel Trigger. So we've obtained 12 equips in two hours, one every ten minutes. I love it! But it really means we have to go back to Vic sometime tonight to sell all of this!

Two down!


Jr. Lioner is left with three cards to go...not the ideal ratio of cards for sure. But it gives us time to hunt for the Dark Brace and/or the Blue Legolia Pants.

For our next equip, the Cold Mind.


Oh, this is copyditto, a 57 I/L. Remember how I said there was a distinct absence of female LUK mages? Well here ya go. And there's more! She is...trying to start a guild!


The guild is to be called 'dimsumbois' which makes a lot of sense actually because Celestalia loves snacks! They all made new characters for the purposes of founding this organization.

Well, Celestalia wasn't about to let such a golden opportunity slip through her fingers.


But we had to wait for some of her friends to come online. In the meantime, the two heroines grinded away.

I didn't think we'd be able to get in a guild, let alone one that wasn't even founded yet! This calls for another addendum to the ruleset: If we are grinding with guild members, we will be allowed to pick up our own items at all times, but not items others have farmed. The equipment rule where we pay 5k x Level will remain in place, of course. And since we...are going to be in a guild, then I think it's okay if we start this now.

A few minutes after this though, she wanted to leave to meet her friend at the station. Celestalia comes with her, and eventually the party was gathered.

In the interim, Celestalia buys another Lady Blue, as her current one was set to expire. We also have a nice talk about snacks, which Celestalia was definitely interested in.

The group entered the Guild HQ and Celestalia was presented with this contract.


Introducing...the Dim Sum Gang!


In the next installment, Celestalia embarks on her first Guild mission! Stay tuned.

 

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PART LXXXIII. Planet of the Lupins

Spoiler: PART LXXXIII. Planet of the Lupins

Celestalia has just become a starting member of a brand-new guild, an honor shared by a very few. Her new friends were raring to get some quality action together, and so the crew travels to Ellinia on their first quest. It was against a foe Celestalia had been anxious to encounter for quite some time.

Monkeys.

Celestalia actually does not know where the Monkeys are found, as they are part of a series of Hidden Streets. She will now be introduced to them in a brand new way - discovery through her guildmates. This is 100% allowed and I'd argue even encouraged.

Oh, one more rule that I should note. Celestalia is allowed to travel with guildmates beyond the imperial borders as long as she stays with them. If the group gets separated, Celestalia will have to Return Scroll to the nearest town if applicable. That said, this map actually was not outside the borders...since the previous map had no mobs on the top!

The next one, oddly enough, is within our capabilities as well!

This map is the gold standard for monkeys, because...


They can't hit you when you stand at the left side of these platforms.

So while Celestalia was using a ton of Blue Potions, the amount of Arrow Bomb chaos was more than enough to make up for it.

The goal was to collect 2300 Cursed Dolls for a quest. That sounds like an absurd amount...and based on how many Blue Potions we don't have, it is...but with three people it'd be fairly okay. Right? Well, let's get into it.

Our first two equips here are the Green Legolier set. The Pants are shown here, we landed the top immediately after it.


We then find this strangely pretty Bottom, the Black Jangoon Skirt.


We get a second Green Legolier, followed by a Brown Guiltian, which is Ditto's exact hat!


We end up trading hats, as this one had better stats.

Our next equip was one I hadn't even heard of...it's called the 'Axe Pole Arm', a Level 35 Pole Arm. Wonder if Kalotora wants it...

And here we get a new Top hit, our first one in quite a while - 1350 on the dot! Then Celestalia started using Warrior Potions, so no more of these tonight. With them though, we were hitting upwards of 1500+!

Some other interesting things we landed include a Rower (Aescavon's current crossbow, which he also got here), a Blood Avarice, and a Red Whip! This latter one could be of some utility down the line...or now, as it has +16 Speed!! Finally, a decent way to actually get places.



Celestalia really likes her F6, doesn't she...

Realizing her Blue Potion problem, Celestalia switched to regular arrow. It wasn't too much slower as she was now paired with Xiaolongbao on the bottom set of platforms. During the engagement, the Ryden stopped shooting for a bit...Celestalia wasn't sure why. Maybe her Soul Arrow was getting tired...

Initially Celestalia yielded to Xiao for cards, but soon he had filled out the Zombie Lupin set. So...after that, once Celestalia could prove she had done all the damage to a guy who dropped the card, I guess it was fair game. Again, keep in mind we could have come here had we learned about Monkey Forest from someone earlier.


So we get the first two in quick succession, and a third a bit later. Strangely we got no more equips after this.

The team was at it for quite a while, but finally finished the collection at about 05:40 server time. In the process, Celestalia collected quite a bit of money, and very nearly reached Level 52! We're about 4% and change away, which we will definitely hit tomorrow when we go back to Orbis Park.

In the meantime, Celestalia sold a massive bevy of equipment, putting her at over 13.5 million mesos. She also donated some Emerald Ore to Ditto for a mysterious purpose, before saying her goodnights and embarking on the boat back to Orbis - and eventually, back to the inn for a well-deserved night's rest. Before she could get there though, the first Lady Blue expired. Well, I don't count this as having lost an item, but it has been with us for nearly 40 entries. The Lady Blue shall live on!

We got more done today than I envisioned. This campaign has already taken more twists and turns than I can count. Add this on to the pile! In the next installment, we'll look to finishing off our conquest of the kittens, and see if we can get any closer to unlocking Ludibrium! Stay tuned.

 

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PART LXXXIV. The Siege of Garden Road

Spoiler: PART LXXXIV. The Siege of Garden Road

Evening folks! Earlier today I updated the rulebook with the guidelines for guild activity. I do accept that completely avoiding picking up other guild members' drops is basically impossible. As long as it's kept to a minimum, then it's fine. And after all, some of that extra money will go to guild projects...such as getting an emblem, which I have been informed costs 5 million mesos. Celestalia wanted to pay for it all, but instead it'll be sort of like a fundraiser thing.

There is one more rule I want to announce here which had yet to be addressed in any fashion. After thinking for quite a while about it, here is that rule:

Addendum to Rule 2. If Celestalia is making a job advancement, she may travel anywhere in the world provided it is necessary to do so to complete the job advancement. She cannot attack mobs if outside the boundary.

This addendum is basically an insurance policy for us, as I do not think it's likely that Celestalia would be able to get far enough into El Nath to make the 3rd Job advancement naturally. Now we don't have to worry about that. The in-game way of saying this, I guess, is that Celestalia would have the protection of the Bowman Job Instructor, Rene.

It also covers the 4th Job advancement, which will be coming up in a couple years here, but I'm fairly certain Celestalia will have access to Leafre by that point.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway, Celestalia's got a bit more immediate concerns...such as finding the Red Viper. So here's what we know: Jr. Lioner drops the Dark Guardian, which is also a Level 35 weapon. There is a general tendency for the kittens to drop many things of the same type. Like Jr. Grupin drops a ton of Bowman stuff. Jr. Cellion drops a bunch of gloves and Magician things, and a lot of off-level items. So I'm wondering if Jr. Lioner should also have a specialty. I just don't know what that is yet.

So, let's get going. First thing of note is the Blue Potion situation. From last night's action in Monkey Forest, we fell all the way to 52 Blue Potions. Celestalia is thus going to take a very conservative approach to make sure that number ticks up, not down. Very important.

Our first equip is a Black Amoria Top. And that was it for a while. But again, our mob throughput isn't the greatest right now.

So the next thing that happens is...


Power Knockback now has an 81% to push back with the Ryden. Also, our max damage is 440.

And wouldn't you believe it, we land a second Cape INT 60%!


That's enough for +4 INT, if both pass, which will get us close to a 10 INT barrier and some washing capability! BUT. We actually need...A...CAPE.

We pick up a Green Hunter's Pants soon after. That was the last equip we got in the first session. At 10%, Celestalia decided she had had enough of the slow burn, and decided to go farm.

Desert Mist, here we come.

There wasn't really much to say, you've seen our performance against Jr. Cactus and Cactus already. We did get some interesting things...most notably, an Overall DEX 60%. Definitely will hold on to that. But it's almost time we start thinking about depositing some scrolls again. We have 16 slots taken up with them now...

Before we sort that out, here's the results. Celestalia was aiming for 200 BPE (Blue Potion equivalent)...and it took her 45 minutes. We started with 67.

This represents a BPE of 203, which means we get roughly 180 BPE per hour here. That's extremely good news for this campaign.

One thing we can do is use our two One-Handed Sword scrolls on our Red Whip, as it is considered a sword. This game, honestly.

Both failed. But that was expected, I guess.

So Celestalia manages to get back to the Garden within the hour, and now that she can use Arrow Bomb to relatively her heart's content, we were ready to get things truly rolling. And we do early, landing a quick Brown Jester, followed by a Silver Sylvia.

Next equip took a while but it's a Mithril Trigger.


This time it didn't get obscured by a pot. Progress has been made.

Well, the next equip, a Blue Axe, didn't get obscured by a pot, it got obscured by the very top of the tree. That has to be near-pixel-perfect to manage that. I can't wait until we're done with these guys.

What I've come to realize is that the Junior Kittens are actually master tacticians. They will hide behind shrubbery, they will stop mid-run to catch you as you come down from a jump. They will attack in organized groups, and they're extremely good at juggling on the upper platforms. Some will even jump down from the upper level at the bottom as you stand below. Just watch out when fighting them, probably not a good idea to do it if you need a lane to operate.

And worst of all...the Jr. Lioner's defenses held...and held...and held. It wasn't until three hours in (~04:45 server time) that a breakthrough finally developed.


Celestalia was quick to capitalize on this momentum, landing a Blue Guise.


How many more Level 25 hats are there? Let's see.

Then we get a cool Level 35 Green Knucklevest.


We then get another Red Starlight, before picking up the fourth card less than 15 minutes after the third. The drop table had...absolutely nothing. The only two Bowman equips it drops are the Green Hunter Boots (Level 30) and the Gold Scaler, which we already have. It does have Bow ATT 60% though! Something to keep in mind for later.

The fifth card was nowhere to be seen. We continue racking up equips here and there, but that's about it. But Celestalia was not leaving until this battle was finished.

Or so she thought. But by the time we neared 50%, Celestalia had just about lost the physical ability to keep fighting at the pace she was maintaining. So, once the halfway mark is reached, we're forced to retreat.

Against all odds, the warrior kittens of Garden Road had stood their ground.

A disappointed Celestalia makes her way back to the station bound for Ellinia. While we did get tons of stuff today...here's the full chart...

The Green Hawkeye has one less DEX than the first one we got.

Let's just say Celestalia isn't really used to losing.

It's good that we got to see Jr. Lioner's drop table, at least, because now Celestalia can make a decision whether or not to stay at kittens. We've got two equips potentially to get from them, but neither will help all that much. The Blue Legolia Pants would be nice, but without the Red Viper, where will we be at? Nowhere in particular. So, maybe it's time to look elsewhere.

I think there is one decent location to check. Which is why, for the first second time, Celestalia will be staying here:

Hey look, Karl is still with us! In a way, at least. As are many other Henesysian residents...remind Celestalia to check around for Sam after she comes back online.

The whereabouts of that location...will be revealed next weekend! For now, signing off. See you then!

I'm sorry I didn't reply to this yesterday, what with the guild stuff and all it was fairly hectic. But I'm honored to have you on board! And thanks for enjoying the challenge!

 

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PART LXXXV. Crawling With Curse Eye

Spoiler: PART LXXXV. Crawling With Curse Eye

It's been an interesting week in the life of Celestalia. Sleeping at the Nautilus was quite a refreshing experience, and she was not alone. Occupying one of the other bunks...her brother Erenell, who this week began his campaign under the command of Captain Kyrin! He is currently Level 19 and working through the Red Tier of the Monster Book. He has already received a Gachapon ticket too...


I can't say it was a total waste...instead of 5 sets of Bullets, Erenell now has 6. Could come in handy!

As an official onboard the Nautilus, Erenell gets a few perks Celestalia does not. For one, he can sell all equips at his level or lower on the ship, and he can also buy whatever he wants from Gali. He won't really be given the time of day anywhere else though, however he is free to trade with other adventurers - something of which he has already taken advantage. As for equips, he'll have to hunt everything that he can't buy here, which is Level 25 and up. I'm sure Celestalia will be happy to help him find where everything is, although getting around tougher areas will be difficult without enough card sets under his belt.

But anyway, this isn't Erenell's Challenge, this is Celestalia's Challenge, and it's time to pick up where we left off...heading for a brand new hunting ground. I mean that literally, since the map we're going to is one of four such regions in Victoria Island. One is HHG, one is a Hidden Street in the Lith Harbor area, and one is deep underground. The last one, just outside of Sleepywood, may hold the key to the long-coveted Red Viper:

More popular area than I anticipated...

This map contains Curse Eye, which is infamous because they dealt Sirbeg his first death of this third campaign. He's not the most careful with potions, you see. Well, neither is Celestalia. Hopefully they will be merciful! This area can potentially be annoying because the bottom pit tends to fill up with Jr. Necki and Octopus. So we have to keep going down there to clear it out. I weep for what our Etc. inventory will look like by the end of the night.


As for the stats...well, they're slightly beefier than the kittens (1250 HP I believe) in addition to having a fair amount more damage (they hit in the 90s). We won't be terribly efficient here, but par for the course, you know.

To illustrate that point, our first equip is a Fork on a Stick...from Slime, which are all over the place here.

Another monster with moderate presence...Green Mushroom. Here's a throwback for you:


Anyway. Within a very short time our Etc. inventory almost completely maxed out. So seeing as how this wasn't going to work, Celestalia had one more place to try out. It was one she visited while conducting a survey of the empire a while back.


This map is pretty good because we only have to deal with two enemies...the other being Fierry. Which means we can get their card set! That's nice, but the obvious problem is lane. Lane will be hard. Especially since Celestalia can't shoot up in most places. We'll see how this develops.

Fierry isn't the toughest mob to take down.


They are also notable for having one of the highest card ratios in the game. Pinboom and the Trixters are the only rivals I've seen.

Well, Fierry wasn't the only mob dropping cards.

Yeah, not going to use F10 with sunglasses again.

The second card was right behind it!

Here is our first equip from the indefatigable Curse Eye, the Level 35 Silver Maiden.

Fancy!

The trick for this map is, when coming from above, always drop down at the higher elevation. Though I imagine for melee classes, you want to drop down at the lowest elevation.

Another Knuckle!


Only Level 30 for this one though.

Then we get the third card!

That was followed by a nice boost to the Top Hit, putting us at 1398.

After that, we get the second Fierry card...and a second Silver Maiden.

Curse Eye did not want to show us their drop table that quickly, which I would expect from such a dastardly and cunning adversary. They are master trolls, you know. The ultimate proof?


This is the Level 40 Brown Piette, which is Male. We're looking for the Piettra.

Remember how I said Fierry is supposed to be one of the best mobs for cards? Well, since there's only one Fierry above the portal level in this tree (below are Cold Eyes...we don't want to touch them right now), the Curse Eyes continually out-carded them. When Fierry tied the score at 3...Curse Eye just up and dropped the fourth! The drop table...was disappointing to say the least. The only thing there that is of any value is Bow ATT 10%.

In any case the next thing that happens is...we smash our Top Hit at 1458!! Curse Eye gives us a Yellow Hwarang Shirt in recognition of this feat.

Then comes the fourth Fierry card. So once again the two were tied...I had a feeling Fierry was going to pull this out. As for the drop table, it's nothing exciting. All they can drop, at a small chance, are one of any of the restoration items (Antidote, Holy Water, etc.).

Meanwhile, Curse Eye gives us a Blue Moonlight! But on the very next kill...


Which means Curse Eye is the winner!...Loser? I dunno actually. You decide!


So we unlock the second half of the Sleepywood Hunting Ground...would it be worth it? Probably not, but we can check it out at some point if we want to.

Well good news, the Fierry on the one platform came back and gave us the last card.


And that didn't take too long at all! So, now the Orange Tier for Victoria Island is finished. I wonder if this will have any ramifications...

While we wait on that, Celestalia sells her equips (Total: 14.7 million) and heads back to Orbis to...some other destination. How many options do we actually have at this point? Hmm...

In the next installment, Celestalia continues her search for the Red Viper. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART LXXXVI. The Long Push North

Spoiler: PART LXXXVI. The Long Push North

Celestalia's options again scarce, she is left with little choice but to return to Ariant North to continue the march northward. We've improved a little bit in that time frame, going up 3 levels...actually let's just take a look:

PART LXXVI:
Level: 49
Base DEX: 208
DEX from equips: +17
Weapon Attack: 50
Top hit: 1347

Today:
Level: 52 (+3)
Base DEX: 220 (+12)
DEX from equips: +17 (+0)
Weapon Attack: 50 (+0)
Top hit: 1458 (+111)

I should have known from that point that the road to Ludibrium would go through Ariant North. If RNG is kind, we're about to see what that really means.

The only question to ask was what strategy to use? We're coming in to North Desert Road 2 with 117 Blue Potion Equivalent...that will certainly last a long time, and our farm is only four maps away. Therefore, Celestalia decided to go on an all-out blitz with Arrow Blow. For Kiyo, too. Expect a lot of Top Hit improvements.

First one is 1460 on Sand Dwarf.

A few minutes later, 1466 on Kiyo.

Celestalia then learns something interesting! It turns out that "Head Chef" Ditto and Xiao are on the same channel hunting cards...two maps over! Per the rules, Celestalia is able to cross the imperial boundary, though just barely - she had to cross two maps to get there. Granted, the next one also had Kiyo and Sand Dwarf. So no real difference there, I guess.

After Celestalia keenly lands a Sand Dwarf card for Xiao (who interestingly enough is now married to Ditto), the three head for a hidden map full of large sand creatures!


Not much happened here, just Celestalia used a bunch of potions for the noble goal of getting Xiao all his cards. But it's very good that we learned about this place. I'm not actually sure if we can get in here, but I think we should be able to. Desert Giant is weird on the regular map, sometimes it will appear on the floor, sometimes it's on one of the platforms. I'm going to go ahead and not count that as necessary. Instead, before heading on, we'll need to come in here and get the Desert Giant card set first.

The crew heads back out to work on Sand Dwarf. Quickly, Celestalia realized just how difficult this card set was to obtain...


Or perhaps not.

Well, for helping the crew, Ditto and Xiao travel back with Celestalia to North Desert Road 2 to acquire her Sand Dwarf set. There was nothing against this in the rules, so Celestalia gladly took the offer. Just in case, she decided not to pick up anything (except for a Red Pilfer ). Although, that rule was thrown out fairly quickly, as Ditto eventually ran out of Etc. space. Need to pick up everything we can for the emblem fund

It was long, but not too long, before Celestalia landed her first card.


Around the same time we get a Fame from Ditto after we gave her our two INT 60%s. One of which worked!

The second and third cards came at the left side of the map, almost at identical locations.

Celestalia herself got the fourth card, which was all the way at 04:30 server time.

...

LOOK LOOK LOOK!!!!!


THERE IT IS!!!!!

LUDIBRIUM IS FINALLY WITHIN REACH!!

Just one more card...we can finally fight for our right to get into toy town.

Unfortunately, by this point Celestalia was practically out of mana potions. Were it not for ones she was picking up, she would have completely emptied her inventory. Also, by 96% she was far too tired to continue, said goodnight to the crew, and packed up for Orbis. The next evening, she would return with vengeance...and toys...in mind.

In the next installment, we farm...and then fight. It's Ludibrium or bust! Stay tuned!

 

​

PART LXXXVII. Finding the Dwarven Stronghold

Spoiler: PART LXXXVII. Finding the Dwarven Stronghold

Despite the fact that Celestalia was down to just 21 Blue Potions, she was more than willing to forge ahead with the promise of Ludibrium hanging just in front of her nose. We will certainly farm tonight, but I want to finish the level first, so we'll hang around North Desert Road 2 and use regular arrow for a while. That way we can get a more accurate reading of how much BPE we're getting from Cacti these days. It was 180 BPE/hr when we last measured. Tonight, we'll be there for exactly an hour, so maybe a better reading can be had.

I'm not expecting this post to be particularly long, unless of course Sand Dwarf doesn't give their last card. The next Part will be the start of the actual battle, whenever we find where we're supposed to go to get the Red Hunter, and by extension, the Green Hawkeye...and by extension, access to Ludibrium.

You know, I've been reading through some earlier entries, and they really have been getting longer, at least ever-so-slightly. So maybe we're in a better position moving forward than I thought.

Well, as you might expect, nothing of interest happened between 96% and the end of the level. Even with Celestalia using the Relaxer to heal (White Potions aren't a problem but we're under 3 stacks at this point), it only took about 20 minutes or so.


Power Knockback becomes more expensive (8 -> 15 MP per blow), but now has a 94% chance to knockback with the Ryden, and can hit 4 enemies at once. As for our max damage, it goes to 447.

Now Celestalia heads for the farm. She will start at 02:30 server time. That should give us a somewhat-precise measurement of BPEH.

Well we had a break in the middle. About 20 minutes in, someone came to the map asking for Lidium Ores. We hand over 12 and get a Fame in return!

Celestalia was doing so well though that she decided to finish early - she originally wanted to do 1 hour, but instead left halfway through! We end up at 41 Blue Potion, 37 Desert Mist (or 115 BPE) - meaning...well, we've slightly improved on the performance. 188/hr! Also interesting...we picked up a pair of these:


So we can now get up to +20 Speed while traveling

Furthermore, we got a Common and a Rare Gach ticket...we already have three of those for the weekend. Hopefully Aescalloss gets something from those!

Ah, before getting back to Sand Dwarf, another update...while hunting Dark Stump for the Monster Book, Erenell got his second Gach ticket...it was a Topwear DEF 10%. Pirates use Overalls. Welp, better luck next time.

Heading back to North Desert Road 2 Celestalia lands an amazing 1496 on Sand Dwarf...and missed the camera button by less than an inch. Too bad.

But at 03:30, this happens!



Turns out leaving the farm early was the correct move after all.

Also...thanks to a huge amount of Blue Potion drops from Kiyo we finish with +1!

Now, the best map for Sand Dwarf...well, it's got to be the last one of the three. We were there for a moment yesterday, but now with full access Celestalia can launch the assault that will award us a new region. We'll cover that in the next installment. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART LXXXVIII. The Battle of Nomadia

Spoiler: PART LXXXVIII. The Battle of Nomadia

This is technically the final map of the Ariant region. The one to the right, Sahel 3, is in Magatia's sphere of influence, and contains completely different enemies. We'll get to them eventually. For now, our focus is on the Red Hunter.

So here's how this map works: The two platforms have Sand Dwarf along with one Desert Giant at the right. The floor has these, including Kiyo, in various amounts. I said earlier that we can go into the Desert Giant Hidden Street to get their card set...I'm seeing them often enough that we might not be able to. BUT, will we be here long enough that it wouldn't end up being a point of contention anyway? Let's see.

Our first equip is:


The BLIZZAGA EARRINGS?!

Sadly no. They still look cool though. And anyway dealing with Ice is a Marksman's job.

The very obvious tell here is that equips are few and far between. The next one took forty minutes to drop. It's a Steel Arbion.

Definitely inferior to the Orihalcon Arbion...still my favorite equip design-wise we've picked up during the campaign.

The next equip took...about three Dwarves.


Only 46 Weapon Attack. Hard pass.

And another three Dwarves later...


What in the world is happening...

Well that was it actually. Celestalia was getting a bit too bored and yawning a lot. I mean, this was the introductory skirmish, and Celestalia was playing quite conservatively. We used a net total of five Blue Potions from the time we entered the map. So, at 30%, which was around 05:00 server time, she heads back to Orbis and lodges in the usual room. At least, now that we've seen how the map operates, we'll be ready next weekend to go in with all cylinders lit.

So what did we accomplish in these last two days? Well, we got three card sets!...that's it. There are worse outcomes, I suppose.

Once again Celestalia finds herself at the mercy of RNG. But I guess she's not as helpless as Aescalloss, who has been waiting for quite some time for this Dark Requiem we keep mentioning. Will Celestalia's 9 Commons and 3 Rares from this outing have the answer? Let's see:

Common

• Green Arnah Cap (Level 100 Bowman Hat) <- Poor stats, but getting a better one for Aescavon will be difficult for obvious reasons.
  
• Staff for MAtt 10% <- Aescalloss now has 9 of these :3
• Mithril Viking Helm (Level 20 Warrior Hat)
• Gold Lapiz Sandals (Level 70 Magician Shoe) <- Worse stats than the one Aescalloss is holding
• Gloves for DEX 30%
• Dagger for ATT 30%
• Shoes for Speed 30%
• Brown Leather Armor Glove (Level 20 Pirate Glove)
• Elixir (8)

Rare

• 1H Axe ATT 10%
• Elemental Staff 1 (Level 103 Staff)
• Eye for INT 30% <- 3 mil+ scroll!

Again not bad, but he'll have to wait just a bit longer. I'm liking the consistent 6-7 figure scrolls though! Maybe Celestalia will one day have to get something else in exchange for this deal...

It looks like our next few weekends are set already. The Red Hunter won't drop for a while, so I guess just hang out and I'll get to tell you a bit more on Celestalia's backstory...maybe with some Auburn history thrown in too. For now though, have a great week!

 

​

PART LXXXIX. Early Huntress Runs Out of Title Ideas

Spoiler: PART LXXXIX. Early Huntress Runs Out of Title Ideas

It wasn't my fault, blame whoever came up with the names for not thinking of a more creative name for the Level 25 Hat.

Obviously we are in no shortage of entry titles. This is after all the English Victorian language, the punniest of all tongues in the Maple World.

But it is true, Celestalia landed in Ariant on the early side of midnight server time. And she was ready to go as the clock struck quad zeroes. However, we did take a few minutes to vote before she got fully ramped up.

The base strategy is one Arrow Blow for each Sand Dwarf, two for each Desert Giant, Arrow Bomb if at least three things are together. Regular arrow everything else. We start with 111 Blue Potions, plus we got two before I went off and voted.

And Kiyo gives us the first drop of the night, we've seen a few of these in the past.


Still very good money for this range.

It does dawn on me that we're not getting a huge amount of mob throughput here. There just aren't enough of them. That said, we can't really go anywhere else either. So Celestalia didn't really mind. It was all about finding the right music to grind to.

This is kind of what we're dealing with...when it takes forty minutes to get an equip from Sand Dwarf...


...which is also one of the worst Fans I've ever seen. 45 Weapon Attack (worst possible), 5 and 5.

Our rate of potion use...is somewhere between 1-1.5 a minute. That's also pretty terrible. That said I don't think I'm actually going to go farm tonight. If we run out of potions, we'll stay here and pick up more here and there while using regular arrows. It's not that much slower, I think.

It was about to get even higher, as into the map came a Night Lord hunting for cards. Celestalia offered him to search with us.


The eventual program was Celestalia would take the top platforms and Shiber would focus on the ground floor. And as usual, no drop pickups for Celestalia (one Rare Gacha aside). The fighting was intense as not only did Celestalia spam Arrow Blow in every direction, we also had max level Haste which made navigation very exciting.

Avenger is really powerful but also too fast for a camera lens to follow. Which is strange, since it's such a huge star.

Nevertheless....it was the best decision we have made yet in this campaign.


Awesome! We are done with Ariant for the foreseeable future - possibly forever, who knows. And we still have...18 Blue Potions. Well, the reason we used so many is Celestalia stuck around to finish Shiber's card set. It didn't take that long at all. She landed I think two of them! And along the way, we also got to give a new Assassin an Orange...we picked it up from our brief stint in the Sleepywood Hunting Ground.

But you should be very well aware that Celestalia was not going to spend another unnecessary minute wasting away in the desert.

You know, the Red Hunter doesn't look as good on Celestalia as I imagined. Neither does this one...


If I were Celestalia I'd try and put up with it for now. We can most likely get a better hat in Ludibrium. Speaking of...let's get going! Join us in the next installment, as we journey into the mysterious world of toys!

 

​

PART XC. Celestalia in Toyland

Spoiler: PART XC. Celestalia in Toyland

A rite of passage for most every adventurer, the Kingdom Where Time Has Stopped has a huge assortment of mobs spanning most of the Monster Book, including three each of bosses and mini-bosses. It is the location of the joint-tallest structures in the world (Eos and Helios Towers, although I'd say Eos is taller simply because it has no elevator o_o) and offers specialty supplies such as pills and high-end foods and treats for those needing larger boosts to their stamina. Regular potions are actually slightly cheaper, although I do admit it is cheaper still to get the good ones at New Leaf City if you are willing to invest the time and ticket fee and/or NX for a Teleport Rock. Celestalia of course can get neither, so hey.

Still, she was so excited to be around colorful bricks and toy decorations, rather than sand.


Our first - and only, for the moment - stop on this grand tour of Ludibrium is the Clocktower, which we got access to by having every equip at Level 30 or higher. If we can get lucky with cards, there is a grand swarm of monsters in here that we can try out within the next few levels or so. One of them might even have the Red Viper...

So of course we start with:


Another popular map as it is very crowded with enemies. A good change of pace for us! Sadly our Blue Potions aren't looking so terrific right now, otherwise we'd be using Arrow Bomb more. But for now Celestalia will play conservatively. Brown Teddy is easy enough, the Pink Teddies will take slightly longer to get the card set for since there are far less of them.


Huh.

Okay, anyway! And yes, we're going to be wearing the prestige outfit for this stretch since...well, it makes sense given that's what we need to do, but also Celestalia fits in here by being more colorful! So it works very nicely.

We get the first Brown Teddy card shortly after that, so a nice quick two cards to start the session!

Then this drops...


A weird scroll? Celestalia picked it up and noticed some writing on it. It appeared to be some type of manual, almost like instructions. Apparently, it can be used to craft advanced Two-Handed Swords. Such a manual could be valuable in the right hands - I wonder if anyone might be willing to buy these. They could be quite expensive!

Anyway. We then land the second Brown Teddy card, which is by the way one of only three Orange-tier cards in Ludibrium. The other two are the Trixters which we will not be getting to probably for a few months or so.

The next thing we get is a Fame! I don't know what for, it was really random but thanks anyway!

Then it was the Brown Teddy #3, so good card rate...so far. I guess part of that...what we learned very quickly is it does not pay to play conservative in this map. The Teddies pop up and jump around all over the place so you really need to be on your toes. Pinging them works sometimes, not all the time. Arrow Bomb is the far better solution.

The fourth card had a similar time interval, I think altogether these must have been about 15 minutes. The drop table for Brown Teddy had nothing for us, although they do drop Blue Silky Boots - we don't need them now of course but I liked how they looked.

Five minutes later...a hilariously easy card set draws to a close.


Now the real test to see whether Pink Teddy wants to cooperate.

They don't immediately...instead they were giving us strange items, such as Omok pieces and also this:


The green tablet is a Dexterity Pill, which boosts your Avoidability by 10 points for 10 minutes. That could be useful in the future, hopefully we can stockpile some. And who knows, there could be other pills out in Ludibrium that we may want to collect.

We got two equips too, the first being a Dark Silver Stealer Pants (Level 30), and the second being fairly good:


Apparently both Teddies drop the Steel Avarice, but I think this one came from Pink Teddy by the looks. Anyway, it was minimum stats. All three. 0 LUK, 19 Attack, 1 Defense.

A few minutes before 04:30, a magician of some sort (possibly a Cleric...he had a paintbrush, so who knows ) came in and started attacking some Teddies on the upper platforms which Celestalia was not using. As she was getting tired anyway, she decided to give him the map and go back to Orbis. We had also just reached 60%, so it was a decent place to stop for the night. The Huntress returns to Orbis with six more monster cards in the book and lots of promise.

Some really good news though, we profited 11 Blue Potions from Teddies, which means we're more than okay to come back tomorrow for a full night's grind. Hopefully we can finish off most of the Pink Teddy set then.

In the next installment, two yellow ribbons square off in an epic staring contest. Who blinks first? Stay tuned!

 

​

PART XCI. The Yellow Ribbon Staring Contest

Spoiler: PART XCI. The Yellow Ribbon Staring Contest

Hello friends! Well, it's about that time. Pink Teddy probably won't go down this evening, but I guess weirder things have happened.

Before starting, Celestalia and Ditto talk some more about the eventual guild emblem...not that, apparently, they were close to getting the funds. Even though Celestalia has offered to pay it numerous times. The two played around a bit with the emblem simulator Mirrors has posted in the Guild guide.

Celestalia's first suggestion was to use a brown foot as that sort of looked like a chicken finger or something. But Ditto was thinking about using a pig as there are numerous dim sum dishes using pork, and a white one seemed to look alright. Celestalia was fairly insistent on using a brown background due to soy sauce.

Meanwhile, we get our first equip, a second one of these:


Then nothing happened for a good 20-30 minutes almost. But then we got a card!


The next one took - and I kid you not - five minutes. This is with mostly regular arrow too. Speaking of! I just learned something last night on Discord...boy am I stupid.

Undeniable proof that Auburn is once again bad at Maple

Okay wait though, you can't really blame me. Much. Because not only is the damage in the stats reflective of what arrow you have selected...THE SKILL ITSELF DOES NOT MENTION THIS.

Anyway.

At 03:00 server time, we learn that the newest member of the guild, one Danta, is on his way to Ludibrium to party with Celestalia! Looks like Pink Teddy's days are truly numbered now.

He arrives about seven or so minutes later.


And the equips start rolling in as he graciously takes on the top platforms.


Why are they all Thief stuff...

At 03:20, the fourth card is ours! Again, nothing of note from the drop table, although they do drop a Black Huntress set. They look quite nice, black and gold mostly.

The grind carried on as Pink Teddy didn't want to yield the last card that easily. Both characters taking intermittent breaks, by 04:00 Celestalia was not even at 85% and thoroughly frustrated at the lack of being-able-to-go-to-the-next-map. Even equips stopped dropping. It wasn't until near that point that we finally get a White Magicshoes from Pink Teddy.

This too was pretty good.


I remember being fascinated by the Mountain Crossbow when I was just starting out on my first character back in 2007. Why? Well, probably because it was the last one available at Henesys...and it's just so different from the wooden ones.

At the 1 hour mark since our last card, we get a second Dark Silver Stealer...two full sets of these now.

And then we get another Steel Avarice...guess what...one attack higher than the last one. Wow. Just wow guys.

Finally, finally, at 04:38...Pink Teddy blinked.


So the two went off in a random direction to see what they could find. We go left and eventually end up at Cloud Terrace 2, which contains these strange lines of toy ducks.


Not a great map for them though, we should find one that has a higher rate, if possible.

We grinded here a bit though so that Danta could get Level 35. And with it, he unlocks the Korean Fan!


After this Celestalia left to see what going down and right would lead to. The path down leads to a toy factory of sorts, and there were panda teddy bears here. Not bad! As for Sky Terrace, however...well, not great.


So it looks like our choice for next weekend will be Roloduck or Panda Teddy. Which one do I think is more promising? I'm not sure. They're around the same strength and both could drop something useful. Maybe we can get both card sets. That said I feel like Roloduck makes more sense. They are two levels less and clearing out the top tier of the Clocktower first also makes sense.

At this point Celestalia says goodbye to Danta and returns to Orbis. We won, but it doesn't really feel like it. Clearly we've got a lot of work to do!

Meanwhile, Aescalloss turns in the Gach tickets from Celestalia...his very first one is a Marine Arund. (Actually it was min Weapon Attack, Celestalia probably wouldn't have even wanted it.)

Well, another weekend is in the books. Our conquest of Ludibrium is just getting underway! How far will we get? Find out next Friday in the next installment of Celestalia's Challenge!

 

​

PART XCII. A Flash in the Panda

Spoiler: PART XCII. A Flash in the Panda

I had a really clever title and explanation originally but...as usual the campaign doesn't really go in the direction I want it to. Allow me to explain.

So we were supposed to start with Roloduck. The card rate for these guys is...not terrible, I think. But we might have needed most of the night if not tomorrow. Arrow Bomb was working okay.


What was very strange though was that heading to Cloud Terrace 2, the only mobs there were Pink Teddy! Thinking it was an extra map over, Celestalia accidentally went through the portal to #3 and found more of the big horse guys. Changing channels thankfully brought the Roloducks back.

Well, if that wasn't a bad sign, it got worse, as Roloducks pretty much stopped spawning after a few minutes. See, there are several platforms near the top of the map which have tons of Pink Teddy which we don't really want to attack as it's inefficient.

So if it were possible, the best route forward may actually have been Toy Trojan. But Celestalia went to Sky Terrace 2 again and again found very few of them. Therefore that also was out. Which leaves but one route forward:


Toy Factory Main Process 1 is, thankfully, just Panda Teddy. So we can at least hunt undeterred. Well, except for these things, which push you around automatically and have to be fought with just to get a shot off.


This one isn't so bad since we can just snipe across, but that's not possible on the left side because there are about 4-5 of these lined up. However there is a ladder going up to that platform.

Also, not sure we'll be here for that long!


Actually cancel that, they drop Bow ATT 60%!


Now how is that fair?!!

Well at least we got the second card fairly quickly. And the third one.

You know, that's, okay, I know it's max Weapon Attack. But it's a sixteen percent chance. One in SIX. That two 60%s both fail.

Anyway, it's alright. We have a few other ways of increasing our damage. Such as:


So good news. We're now guaranteed to knockback when using Power Knockback. Next level we can do it to five enemies at once!

Besides scrolls that don't do anything, the other thing Panda Teddy was dropping was Sniper Pills. As the name suggests, they serve no battlefield purpose to Celestalia.

What else do they drop? Not much...I mean, I'll show the table, because at least there's something here...


So this is the same color Distinction that Wild Boar drops...if I had to choose I'd go Wild Boar, at least we can try for some Jr. Boogie cards while looking.

We finished the card set before 00:30 server time. Not a single equip was found.


We did however get a second type of forging manual, along with some weird liquid in a bottle. The bottom of the vial was marked 'STIM1HA' in imprinted letters. With our Etc. inventory not looking too hot, Celestalia flies back to Victoria Island (with Danta in tow) to offload a few things and clear her equips.

Her first stop was the Ellinia Weapon Store, and after selling a pair of Magicshoes, Flora (the weapon seller) interrupted and pointed to one of the forging manuals sticking out of Celestalia's pocket. She wanted to buy the Staff manual (picked up from Panda Teddy). Celestalia happily handed it over and was given a cool 10k. It seems like manuals (and perhaps the liquid thing?) are in high demand. We can likely sell any of them at the appropriate vendor.

Before moving on, Celestalia deposits some scrolls and some other knick-knacks into the storage. It was a close call, but by holding on to our Brown Pollard (which we could honestly just give to Erenell...but what's the fun in that?) we managed to make it on to the ship back to Orbis with a minute to spare. As for our bankroll, it now sits at 16 million mesos - in no small part due to offloading six Two-Handed Sword Manuals, plus the vial, at Perion - Celestalia correctly assuming '1HA' to stand for 'One-Handed Axe'.

One more thing Celestalia correctly assumed - pushing further into the Clocktower for now was going to be very slow going. So in the return trip, she was not actually aiming for Ludibrium. It was somewhere we haven't touched in a very long time. Where exactly? Find out in the next installment! Stay tuned.

 

​

PART XCIII. Return to Orbis Tower

Spoiler: PART XCIII. Return to Orbis Tower

Nine levels, two bows, and over 500 points to the Top Hit distance Celestalia from her first attempt to defeat the Sentinels. With options running low elsewhere, she figures now is the time to try again.


Since our equipment likewise has improved, they do almost fifteen points less damage to us both in Weapon and Magic Attack. If we're careful, we can minimize their abilities to fight back. Arrow Blow will come in clutch for sure, and Power Knockback is also an option if the situation requires it. The nice thing is, we can get off an Arrow Blow and a regular arrow before they can actually fire their laser. Meaning, we can usually kill single Sentinels. The only trouble spot is multiple, where Arrow Bomb, though weaker, is the smarter choice.

To that effect, Celestalia found things much smoother than last time. Although, cards weren't immediate, and she was deeply concerned about the Blue Potion supply. So, while her fighting was highly effective, she was accomplishing next to nothing while being drained of supplies.

Meanwhile, Head Chef Ditto was tasked with the arduous endeavor of advancing to Ice/Lightning Mage.

After a quick break, Celestalia at last gets a card.


She had 21 Blue Potions at this point - which actually isn't too far off from where she started the day.

Near 02:00 we at last get an equip - we've picked up six cards prior to this. It's a Fireman's Axe, which is a repeat.

For some reason I don't think the Red Viper is here either...

BUT OUR FORTUNES SOON CHANGED!!
A

With a very swift stroke, we were just two cards away!

But just as suddenly, a strong gust of cold wind blew through one of the tower windows, smacking straight across Celestalia. The shock sent her collapsing to the floor for a moment. Fortunately she was able to get back up within a minute or two, but the damage had been done. Our luck was out.

Celestalia continued plodding along until, at 02:15, the last Blue Potions were gone. So it was off to Ariant to grind for some more. We'll be back here a bit later to finish the job.

While at the farm, Celestalia accidentally shot an Arrow Blow which landed on a Cactus for 1535. I know the Top Hit isn't very empirical, but it's a great milestone anyway!

Celestalia decided to just farm up 100 and finished that, with a few stoppages, just after 03:00. We end up with 102, which should be plenty to finish Sentinel and go a bit further! We also picked up something rather interesting...a Shoe Jump 10%. We try it on the Red Pierre Shoes, which if it works would now have DEX +3 and the Red Silky Boots would be completely obsolete. Unfortunately, this too failed. Well, we did already have a 10% work in this campaign, have to make up for that somehow.

Returning to the 17th Floor, Celestalia almost immediately gets the fourth card! What does the drop table hold?


I'm not sure I really wanted to see this per se, but I'll take it! It's a good hat if we want it, but the one from Horny Mushroom is certainly the safer play at least. Still...

We can decide on this a bit later.


For now, time to push down the tower!...though with the high winds Celestalia was still having some trouble getting around.

Our next stop is:


Ice Sentinels aren't as powerful as regular Sentinel physically, but their magic is just as potent. Hopefully we won't have to be here for too long.

The first card lands on the third platform on our first trip down the map.


Although that isn't saying too much, there are a total of six platforms on this floor including the bottom portal.

What says more is the second card occurred on the same trip.

The third card took quite a bit longer, taking us all the way down to 80 BPE. Thankfully the fourth card wasn't too far behind and yields this drop table:


Again, another really good hat, this one is guaranteed to provide at least 1 DEX to us. But still, it's a better use of our time to hunt Wild Boar for it because of the Jr. Boogie thing! Maybe we can work on both of those a bit later, after we land the Red Viper. Hmmmm...

Anyway, after changing channels due to a random Ranger coming in and using very impressive skills, we get the last card fairly quickly!


So now it was on to...well, interestingly enough, Celestalia wasn't sure at first. The next enemy is Fire Sentinel, which makes its first appearance on the bottom of the 12th Floor:


However, you can technically squeeze by these two platforms using the step right below Celestalia, here, and walking off to the one at the bottom! Which means we can fight them on the 11th Floor, where they have a full map. A close one, but we got it.

Fire Sentinel though wasn't about to give up their cards as easily as their colder brethren. So instead we get an equip first: the Yellow Square. If you can think of a more useless drop, please raise your F5. I guess these folks might have something to say about that.

Well anyway, clearly they were in no mood to play ball. No pun intended. So, once Celestalia ran out of Desert Mist, she decided to get out of there and head back to Victoria Island once more. Having been knocked down to 42 Blue Potions, Celestalia needed to recharge yet again...but she figures there are a few other things she can take care of while doing that. Tomorrow, we will lay out such plans in depth. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART XCIV. Henesys Hat Hunting

Spoiler: PART XCIV. Henesys Hat Hunting

So Celestalia figures the best way to go about things is to do a little cleanup, and possibly earn some prestige on the side. It's been a really good thing that basically everything north of Green Mushroom drops Blue Potions. Which is why this post exists, essentially.

We will start with Horny Mushroom, which drops the Level 35 Blue Pole-Feather Hat. Lots of places we could go for this, but I chose Ant Tunnel I, primarily because it's not as horizontally restricting as the Ellinia tree dungeons, plus Zombie Mushroom drops White Potion.


This probably wasn't the most efficient place, but if we ever run out of White Potions we will be in huge trouble.

Zombie Mushroom also drops fairly good equips, like the Nakamaki, which incidentally is what I would have said first if you asked me "What are valuable things Zombie Mushroom drops?"


But it turns out that White Potion was out of stock today. Too bad. Therefore Celestalia did in fact go to the Tree Dungeon after all. Before heading there though, Horny Mushroom tips us with:


Something I didn't notice before, but Horny Mushroom drops one of every hat for the four original classes. They even go in Level sequence - 25 (Warrior), 30 (Magician), 35 (Bowman), 40 (Thief). That's pretty cool.

Anyway, we're going to go back to the map where we got their card set in the first place, Forest Up North I.


Since the only other monster is Slime, this should be simple, if grindy. As you may expect we will be a great deal faster than the previous outing, at which point we were Level 31 and didn't even have Arrow Bomb yet. We can use it strategically here to wipe out large groups of stuff and save us the trouble.

It didn't take too many trips through the tree before results showed themselves.


Lots of results.


That went okay! Now the bigger event.


I don't really care whether we get the Red Distinction that quickly. I'm more interested in getting some Jr. Boogie cards. But Wild Boar dropped two equips on the first run, so that was cool. Even Dark Axe Stump got in on the fun with an Adamantium Igor.

But LOOK AT THIS!!


IT'S A CARD!!!

So we indeed have a reason to grind here! I was somewhat surprised myself. And I'm not really sure that Red Distinction will be popping up all that shortly.

This was the first good equip we got, but Celestalia wasn't too pleased.


This is I would say the best place to get the Brown Piette set since Wild Boar is the weakest mob to drop it, and there are good numbers. Now if only we could find a Brown Piettra, that would be nice.

We did get another Eagle Crow right after that though, which Celestalia was quite a bit happier about. For the money, of course. No other reason needed

Well, perhaps unfortunately, we didn't get a look at a second card. Because...


I personally really like the way this looks on Celestalia! I also like the look of the clock - Celestalia was going to be off the island at 03:20 server time, which gives us well over an hour to work on Fire Sentinel. As for our Blue Potion count, we're at 75. +33 is not too bad for just a few short grinds, wouldn't you agree? We're also back up to 34 Warrior Potions. I'm tempted to use some of them for Fire Sentinel, but who knows whether they'll make that much of a difference. We'll find out in the next installment! Stay tuned.

 

​

PART XCV. Huntress With Distinction

Spoiler: PART XCV. Huntress With Distinction

Celestalia was considering stopping for the weekend, but figured that she might as well try Fire Sentinel one more time before tucking in. This will be a fairly short post I think simply because once we run out of Blue Potions, we're pretty much fried. We have little choice but to open next week at Ariant to farm some more, barring some miracle like them actually dropping cards like they're supposed to.

But that is then, this is now.

Don't worry, Celestalia switched to her damage outfit right after this. Fairly decent Weapon Defense on the prestige outfit though! Jr. Sentinels were hitting us for 1-2 on the way down.

Celestalia figures out why she was leaking so many Blue Potions - Arrow Blow. Frankly, it's not worth the extra damage. Arrow Bomb is so much more MP efficient. So instead, we'll use regular arrow and suffer the penalty to our regular potions instead.

Maybe there will be a Blue Mushroom grind in our future somewhere, but again, that is then, this is now.


We have a siege, folks.

The second card landed only a few platforms later too!

Some minutes later we land the third one having been brought down to 59 Blue Potions. We've got a small chance of getting out of this one, but luck needs to be on our side...I'm not sure I like the odds yet though.

Fire Sentinel fought well, but so did Celestalia. By 04:15 we get card #4. And we find something...very...VERY...interesting.......


So...alright, best case scenario is we get the Red Viper before card #5. Then we don't have to deal with these guys ever again. Of course the obvious thing is to just stay here, but what if the Red Viper we get is below average? Then the Ryden is still better, and we've accomplished nothing. Maybe...maybe then we should continue?

Well before we could, a Priest (and a Hunter...who was using a slingshot...yeah...) came in and started wrecking the Sentinels and even got a card out of it! o.o So Celestalia took a quick break to let the items go away before continuing.

Even with that stoppage, we still finished at 04:30.


Amazing how much difference one day makes.

So, the choice was actually really easy. Fire Sentinel has given us a total of one piece of equipment, which is also the worst thing they could possibly drop, so nah, I think we can skip Red Viper for now. Especially considering, there is a 54% chance or thereabouts that the Red Viper we get is strictly worse than the Max Weapon Attack Ryden. And can you imagine if either one of the two Bow ATT 60%s passed?

At the same time, Celestalia was too tired to move on, and ports back to Orbis. On that note, where do we stand? Well, we still have 50 Blue Potions, so we are clear to proceed with the conquest. We have also 254 White Potions, so that's fine too. Overall, Fire Sentinel was our 50th card set. Ten more and we get the 2nd Tier ring, and with it the ability to wash. Coupled with the Lady Blue, we will have 10 INT which gives us a few extra points of MP on level up! But that's still a bit of a ways away.

For now, let's have a look in at Aescalloss, who is still trying for that Dark Requiem. This week we picked up 7 Commons and 1 Rare. They fall as follows:

Common

• Oaker Shouldermail Pants (Level 50 Male Warrior Bottom)
• Beige Carribean (Level 20 Pirate Overall)
• Crossbow ATT 60%
• The Rising (Level 50 Two-Handed Axe)
• Helmet HP 70%
• Dark Focus (Level 90 Bowman Glove) <- +6 DEX!
• Shoe Jump 70%

Rare

• Face Avoid 100%

Another win for Aescavon, big loss for just about everyone else. Not even a good scroll this time. Well the Shoe one is decent, mid-six-figures. But I'm feeling sort of nonchalant about the whole thing.

Productive week again for sure. We got the two hats squared away, along with 21 cards in the book! That itself is one of our best weeks in a while. We'll start on Friday at...I think Leatty is next, but we'll confirm that when we get there.

And I wonder if Celestalia is going to get anything else back for the good stuff coming out of the Gachapon. Apparently a lot of her Crystal Ore and stuff has gone missing from the storage too. Do you think she's owed anything? We'll see what Sirbeg himself has to say about the situation. Other than that, so long for now, and see you on Friday for the next edition of Celestalia's Challenge!

 

​

SPECIAL X. From the Vault of Knowledge

Spoiler: SPECIAL X. From the Vault of Knowledge

"Ah, Celestalia! I wasn't sure you'd pick up," spoke Sirbeg into the receiver.

"Hello, Mr. Elder sir," replied the Huntress on the other end.

Sirbeg chuckled. "Well then, how goes things?"

"Uhhh...okay, I suppose."

"Really? Just okay?" Sirbeg was somewhat surprised at her understatement. Celestalia wasn't really one to mince words in that direction. Quite the opposite, where most were concerned.

"Well...I guess it's not THAT bad. But I do have a problem, you know? Like, a big problem."

"One of those, I see! Hmm..." Sirbeg cleared his throat before moving on. "What is it?"

"So I have the Ryden..."

"Yes?"

"And the Red Viper. I've found where I can get it."

"Who?"

"Fire Sentinel."

"Well that doesn't seem too terrible. I can't say they're the toughest now...but..." Sirbeg slowly realized the issue. "Ah...so potions are the problem, then?"

"That's most of it. But they don't like to drop stuff any way you shoot it."

"You know, Celestalia, sometimes you need to be patient. Luck isn't a standard thing in these parts. I should know - scrolls being how they are."

"Don't remind me..." Celestalia was still angry that her Ryden failed two 60s. Nigh immeasurably so, actually.

"Oh! As a matter of fact there is a reason I called," Sirbeg interrupted with alacrity. "Have my nephews been taking things in the storage that belong to you?"

"Huh? Uh...you know, I'm not really sure. I swore I put some Crystal Ore in there a few times...and some Leather and stuff."

"I'd much have them pay you back for it, but I doubt you'd take the compensation. But if you're curious about the Red Viper, I have some news that might be in your interest."

"News?"

"I presume you're deciding whether or not to stick around and hunt for it, yes?"

"Mostly..."

"Well, I happen to know that there is a monster right next to Orbis that might be easier to hunt."

"For the Red Viper?!" Celestalia's voice skyrocketed in anticipation.

"Ah, no, no! This is the next one - the Vaulter 2000."

"THE VAULTER 2000?!?!"

Sirbeg winced away from the phone as the line nearly cut out from the unholy amount of decibels. Celestalia breathed hard once before apologizing and finishing her train of thought.

"Okay wait, wait. So you've got to be talking about...the things with the red hats, right?"

"Star Pixie, yes. I found a Vaulter there while gathering the card set."

"Well...thanks for the news. Now you've made my choice a whole lot more difficult."

"Hopefully not too difficult. I suppose the real question is, how willing are you to play the odds?"

"What even are the odds, anyway? Tell me that one."

"Celestalia, there are things even an old man like me does not know."

Sirbeg could feel the eye roll through the earpiece. Ah, these young people, he thought, if she had started when I did, she wouldn't be getting half the experience she does. Well...maybe precisely half. But who can say?

"Goodbye, Mr. Elder." Celestalia hung up the phone and rolled back onto her mattress, taking her previous position of staring up at the ceiling. Why did all of these difficult decisions have to be so...difficult?

But who was she kidding. She needed that Vaulter. And she was going to pay any price she had to to get it.

 

​

PART XCVI. The Battle of Elevenia

Spoiler: PART XCVI. The Battle of Elevenia

With the location of the Vaulter 2000 secured, Celestalia was left with little choice but to punch her way through to the somewhat less-coveted Red Viper. Fire Sentinel being how they are, of course, we may be here multiple weekends.

Before we got going, we talked with Ditto a bit more about the guild emblem, and finally figured out how to access the guild's message board. As I've mentioned before, I am not very good at this game.

Anyway, the plan is really quite simple. Just get lucky. That's it. If we don't...well there's always Ariant.

But Celestalia was talking with the Chef for so long that she started getting hungry. So we didn't even get going until after midnight server time.

When we did get going...well, we hit the ground running.


This Green Huntress Pants added three points of Weapon Defense to our arsenal.

Second platform, second equip: the Blue Lutia.


So obviously the pattern should hold and the next one, to complete the RGB theme, should be the Red Viper.

Well, no. Certainly not. But we're lucky we're still getting stuff.


So I was wrong. Yellow Square was not the worst thing they can drop. It's this. This is Level 10.

But they did give us another Yellow Square anyway.

And then they gave us these:


This actually might be my favorite-looking Thief equip, even better than the Orihalcon Arbion. Really close call.

Our next equip? A second Blueberry Lolico. Yeah.

We continued until 01:45 when we ran out of Blue Potions (we began the day with 50). We also have fallen under 200 White Potions...so what does Celestalia do? Switch it up, of course. Instead of lounging around in Ariant, she goes the other way...


While a fair bit slower on Blue Potions overall than Ariant, it is far better for healing potions - of which we may have a scarcity soon. Although, there's always the Elixirs...and the Christmas Candy. I forgot about those.

So Celestalia proceeds until she finds herself with 12 Bentos and 13 Blue Potions (73 BPE). We also got about 20 White Potions, and some Orange. That all took maybe 30-40 minutes with a break or two. It's not the worst rate, but Fire Sentinel will eat most of that for breakfast.

But there's really only one way to find out: Going back to Orbis and...crashing on the bed inside your inn. As short a post as this was, it covered nearly four hours of gameplay. I'm hoping a pattern won't emerge in this fashion.

See you tomorrow in the next installment...where we will probably be doing very similar things to this entry.

 

​

PART XCVII. Where Not Even Bentos Can Save Us

Spoiler: PART XCVII. Where Not Even Bentos Can Save Us

I'm going to be brutally honest. I don't see a way we can avoid spending an entire weekend grinding for potions. Which means...no posts? I think?

Again, the problem isn't Blue Potions. We can get those at any time from Ariant, it's fairly easy. But Orange and/or White Potions...well, we technically have another choice, which is to just not use them and pull out the Relaxer every ten minutes. Brutally slow, but it's better than skipping an entire weekend. Of course that raises another eventual problem...when stuff starts hitting in the triple digits, this is going to be so slow that we might as well grind for potions instead. But by then, we should have a decent source of Elixirs or something related.

What I think I need to do is some deep research into the most efficient potion areas. Blue Mushroom Forest is okay, but what we really want is something that is going to drop a lot of potions...or food. Just because Blue Mushroom is the weakest mob to drop White Potion doesn't mean it's the best. This includes, of course, the layout of the map. For example: Pig Park might be a great source of Elixir, when we manage to hit hard enough. Or, perhaps Wraith in the Kerning City Subway will give us a good rate and their defense is a lot lower. Ligator is also an option although I'm unsure of their drop rate and there are a bunch of inefficient platforms.

But all of this assumes that we 1. Have a decent bow, which we're working on right now, and 2. We have a decent area attack, which won't become an option until 3rd Job. For the record, I've done the 3rd Job advancement once, and it was with some high-level crossbow that I don't remember because it was nearly a decade ago. Actually, I don't count that character as a proper character because it was post-Big Bang.

Anyway, enough text wall, let's get to work. Every. Minute. Counts.

Though if you'd ask the Fire Sentinels, they'd say every Lutia counts.


That's technically a joke because there's a Magician glove that is called the Manute...and...uh, yeah.

We went an entire two and a half stacks of Shellpieces before finding another equip. Why do these guys have to be so temperamental...


At least this one was Level 35. Took long enough...

And then a second pair of:


Which had one less of both things than our current one, so no change was made.

That was about all we got before the Blue Potions inevitably ran out. So, it was back to Victoria to prep for next weekend, I guess. On the way, we ran into an interesting character who the previous evening tried to get us to go outside. Although a nice chap, it's a personal policy of mine never to leave the cabin during the trip over. I don't think he was lying since he's actively hunting Balrog. But in our second meeting we traded Fame. So, I guess all things have been somewhat forgiven

Upon selling our wares, we reach 17 million mesos. But that was such a tiny bright spot to a weekend otherwise filled with terrible RNG and very annoying combat. Celestalia, understandably, was in no mood to grind and went back to the Nautilus to sleep away the failure.


If there's any good news I can share, it's this: Our net White Potions, from before the Blue Mushroom grind to now, didn't change all that much. So it is working! As long as we can break even, we'll be good to go indefinitely. Just need to clean up the actual combat a bit. Like, don't fire while one Sentinel is hopping in front of another, get distance when one is lodged against a wall and can't be hit (Oh yeah, never mentioned that - it's a fairly large issue), stuff like that. If we play cautiously, we may even profit a few here and there. That again may come down to RNG.

So I think the plan for next weekend is Blue Mushroom Friday, Fire Sentinel Saturday. That way, we can go in bows a-blazing and have a solid chance to land the silly thing once and for all. I'm still not sure if I want to make a post on Friday. Doesn't seem like there'd be anything really to report on. Eh.

Well, thanks for sticking with us through a very tough and/or boring section of the campaign. Hope to catch you again on...probably next Saturday for the next installment. Have a terrific week!