Showing posts with label Elixirs. Show all posts

There is a bit of a loud-mouthed prick who has been tossed from German servers, with the IGN of Skyline. He and his sock puppets have been throwing shit around on the Games Campus forum and I must admit I was doing my best to keep him agitated. It wasn't difficult.

Now that many of his accounts and sock puppets have been closed, and probably his new playing characters too, I suspect he may try to move his stupidity over here. I'm not in the mood to be deleting posts from anybody. Most of you know that I almost never do that. It's easier to set the comments to moderated and I'll check the blog more often over the next few days to see if any comments need approval.

In other news Lilith and I had 3 successful full runs of the Golden Coins Mansion, and we both got our killer epithets. Lilith will need a few more levels to do a proper job of finishing for epithet runs, but I figure ShadowGuyver could do that job now. I would like to figure out where ShadowGuyver is too. He is Missing in Action.

We'll be doing epithet runs for league members once we get a couple more people just a little higher, or Shadow shows up. So get your passes together people. You'll need 3 purple passes, or 30 Letters of Yakumo, and don't forget to pay your tanker. I personally want clothes from the CS6 male damage set. The GCM boss drops those.

I have a few manuals to give away to our active league members, and a few elixirs too. Stay tuned to league chat for our next runs and anyone CS++ who can heal themselves could probably get some loot on their own.

Update: xenawarior went away happy tonight. She got the conqueror epithet for the Golden Coins Mansion, which may not look too cool up front, but if you're using a high dex build you'll get a 7% dodge bonus for using that epithet.

Golden Coins Clan's Sealed Gate(GCM conqueror)
Reflect 4% of physical damage to target
Reflect 4% of Chi Kung damage to target
Dodge increased by 7%
Chi Kung dodge increased by 7%

She probably also has a bag full of elixirs and manuals to use, or sell.

- AxtTreiber

I just want to remind our players that our Donor account has an awful lot of useful stuff available. We may not always have what you are looking for, but it never hurts to ask. In particular our RelicGirl character is stuffed full with the new good and bad karma Strength, Dexterity and Constitution relics. These things drop like rain on the Tibet map and I've been handing them in regularly.

If you're just starting out the RC relics can make a big difference and the combination of RC and FD level relics is a really good way to make up for the penalty statistic. For Healers that is Constitution and that's why I've been saving them. A hybrid can also use a few of those when they start to run the Golden Coins Mansion. With the hybrid constitution self-buff few hybrid players ever add to that stat, making GCM a death sentence.

We don't have a many manuals on our ManualMan character these days, just a few Heavenly Demon 10x2 manuals. Let me know if you would like them. What we do have there are a lot of skill books for each of the 3 clans, but of course we don't have the most expensive books like the fast heal skills, or the nuker shield books. Still, it never hurts to ask and if you put together a list of what you're looking for I'll be happy to go through bags for you.

Our Donor character has a few elixirs of just about every levels except level 3, again just ask and I'll see what I've got. There are some clothing items there, including some good items for FD12 characters, in particular VE hats and a few of those interesting dodge hats too.

The best time to get stuff from me is an hour or so before the weekly experience events starts. I'm usually online at that time, and have to time to look for stuff. Please don't ask during events, because just like everyone else I'm busy grinding!

So, what items do you need?

- SpearDriver

We all like to get the next level. After all, we get stronger or smarter, or faster or better at using the weapon of choice. It's what we're here for, but every once in a while in the game you have to stop grinding, because you can start farming a valuable item.

These are sweet-spots in the game where the mob drops an item that is rare, or so valuable that you have to stop to collect them. On the Shi Zhang map the archers drop gunpowder, and in the whole game that is the only place that stuff drops. The white clans don't have that mob or drop, so we can sell it to them for lots of money. Gunpowder is used in an elixir collection trade with Wan Daye, but it's also used to trade for CoF passes. It's valuable stuff and these days sells for as much as 100k for 5 of them.

At the moment my AxeDriver character is at another of these sweets spots. I'm farming broken arrows, and they sell for as much as 2 million for just 5 of them. The Bronze Coin Head Bowmen sometimes drop these things, and I mean it's only just "sometimes". I might be able to collect 10 of them, in one hour.

The thing is, there is also a party quest at this level too. The SM PQ is right here and I could power level up to GB 1 if I wanted to, but I'm not doing that because I want more time to collect these arrows. That's how much they are worth. I completely missed this farming chance with my SpearDriver character because I was concentrating on the PQ. I'm making up for it with my AxeDriver character.

For those of you still on the Shi Zhang map, I have another farming tip. The book of Dian Cang that drops from the those Blind Madmen is also very valuable. On the white maps that book only drops in their version of CoF, and only to real lowby chars. Lowby and new players always get invited to the white clan CoF runs, just because they can get those books. I sold hundreds of those books to white clan players, when I could still collect them.

What are you farming?

- SpearDriver

Acclaim is trying hard to get people spending money on this game, by using the coin mall. I think they've started to realize that some of their prices are out of line with what people are willing to pay real world money for, and because of that we are now regularly getting "sale prices" on some items.

Yesterday all elixirs were 50% off, and I took advantage of that for my AxeDriver character. I bought a complete set of level 3 and 4 elixirs and for the most part was happy with the result. The big advantage to coin mall elixirs is that they can't fail. I may have gotten lucky on my level 3 items. Three out five of them maxed to +4, and the other two are sitting at +3. I won't need to try those again any time soon.

The level 4 elixirs were a bit of a different story. Only the dexterity elixir maxed and two others are at +4. The essence elixir is only +3, and wisdom is only +2 despite the fact that I bought two more of them, and tried again later. I'm going to leave that as it is, for now.

Today's sale item is those silly lottery tickets. They are now priced at 250 acclaim coins, and just for the heck of it I bought one. I got 5 Dried Mushrooms and 10,000 gold. I won't be buying any more of those unless they get really cheap. After all, there is a reason why lottery tickets cost 1 dollar, or 1 Euro.

What did you buy lately?

- SpearDriver

Very often, we may take elixirs without supplementary ones. The question you have to ask yourself is 'Am I concerned about maxing that lvl of elixir? Or will I simply be satisfied even if it is not maxed?'
Retaking elixirs of the same level is costly. If you take a 1st elixir without a supplement hoping to max it, but it doesn't, and you take a 2nd one, it is as if you had not taken the 1st elixir. It is as if you threw some money away. Supplementary elixirs, the mushrooms in particular, increase your chances of maxing. You should weigh the costs and benefits before taking elixirs without supplements.

General elixir consumption tips

Consume your elixirs in a safe area. Getting attacked while consuming an elixir always results in failure, with a negative stat 'bonus' resulting.

Consume an elixir only when your intoxication level is 0. Higher intoxication levels decrease the chances of maxing and increase the chances of failure.

Ensure that you have no external and internal wounds when consuming elixirs. Wounds tend to result in lower stat boosts (from my experience).

Consume dungeon elixirs, sell or use non-dungeon ones for WD weapons. The prices between dungeon and non-dungeon elixirs makes it worthwhile for you to sell the non-dungeon one and buy a dungeon one, and you can make some money in between.

How do I use supplements?

Supplements are consumed before taking an elixir, and will only work for the 1st elixir you take after consuming the supplement.

Can I use more than 1 supplement?

Unless future patches introduce any changes, supplements cannot be combined for greater effect. Only 1 supplement may be consumed per elixir you intend to take.

Recommendations

Lvl1s and 2s may be taken freely. They're prices are low and you can collect them easily from CoF and VoH.

You should consider consuming blood mushrooms with lvl 3s and 5s, or blue stone mushrooms with 5s and 6s; 4s may be taken with BMs as well. Do also give consideration to the relative prices of elixirs and supplements in deciding what to take. It is more pressing to consume a BM with a lvl 3 than it is with a lvl 4 for example. As the prices of BSMs fall relative to elixirs, you can consider consuming them for lower level elixirs.

If you are more concerned about avoiding failure, which brings with it negative stats, than maxing a particular lvl of elixir, lotus leaves and purple bamboo shoots are your answer. High level elixirs, especially 5s and 6s, are known to adversely affect unlucky people with a fairly significant probability, bringing with them negative stats up to -9. Generally, take lotus leaves with lvl5s, and bamboo shoots with lvl6s.

Dilemma

BMs and BSMs do not lower chances of failure. It is possible and very expensive to fail when taking mushrooms with elixirs.

Lotus leaves and bamboo shoots do not increase your chances of maxing. Consuming them with your elixir simply adds to the cost if you fail to max it, and is a waste of money if it would have succeeded anyway (then again, we cannot tell what would have happened otherwise).

Retaking Elixirs

"Damn... It failed to max..."

There is no need to max a lower level of elixir before moving on to higher level ones. You can retake lower lvls freely after consuming higher lvl ones, without compromising your chances of maxing them.

"Should I retake that lvl I failed to max? Or should I leave it and move on to a higher lvl elixir?"

Weigh the costs and potential gains between retaking that elixir and moving on to the next lvl. If you can gain more stat points at a lower cost, go for it. For example, if you fail to max a lvl3, consider leaving it till later. With that same amount of money, you could consume 1 each of lvl4 and lvl5 dungeon elixirs, which is a potential 11 point gain compared to the few points you could by retaking the lvl3. Do remember your mushrooms though.

Summary & Conclusion

The final and long term goal is to max your elixirs, and the cheapest and quickest route there is to consume the appropriate lvl of elixir with the appropriate type of mushroom. Do not let the occasional ill fortune discourage you.

In short, if your goal is to max your elixirs, max them with the lowest expected cost.
A secondary consideration is to gain as many points with a given amount of money (when you fail to max).

THE ELIXIRS are consumable items which allow changing the stats permanently; even when the Role is changed or the Stats are reassigned, the effect of elixirs will keep.

Each level of elixir has a different maximum amount of bonus
Level 1 Elixir may increase up to 1 or 2
Level 2 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2 or 3
Level 3 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2; 3 or 4
Level 3 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2; 3; or 4
Level 4 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2; 3; 4 or 5
Level 5 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 or 6
Level 6 Elixir may increase up to 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 or 6

Here is the Elixirs list made by Acclaim Storm and mystwyze

Basically there are 3 kinds of elixirs:

- Normal: Dropped from monsters or bosses, can be trade with players, with Elixir Merchandise, and Wan Daye.

- Dungeons: Found in the boxes' rooms into Dungeons, can be trade with players

- Item Mall: There are Elixirs (from level 1 to 4) in the Coins Store

THE SUPPLEMENTARY ELIXIRS are consumable items which help to improve the Elixirs' effects and to avoid their negative effects, but they must be used before to use the elixir.

There are 3 kinds of Supplementary Elixirs:

- Soups: They are Neutralizers that can cancel out the side effects from Elixirs.

- Leafs: They are Softeners that help taking the Elixirs.
.....

- Mushrooms: They are Fortifiers that can maximize the Elixirs' effects.
.....

There are two types of elixirs in 9Dragons. There are the so-called “Dungeon Elixirs” that you can get from doing the various treasure runs such as “Choice of Fate” or the “Valley of Hell”, and then there are the Non-Dungeon (ND) Elixirs.

You can’t make the Dungeon Elixirs. You simply raid that part of the map with a suitable level party, kill the mobs and bosses, and collect your treasure. It’s not quite that simple of course. A lot of players under-estimate the “kill the mobs and bosses” part.

On the other hand, the Non-Dungeon Elixirs can be had a couple of ways. There is a large collection list of items that you can collect in the early part of the game, and you can trade that list of items with a Hefei NPC for a Level One Elixir. You would have a huge collection job on your hands if you wanted to collect all of the materials to trade for all five of the Level One Non-Dungeon Elixirs.

You can also buy Level One ND Elixirs from the Clinic on the clan home maps. Each Level One Elixir from the clinic costs 100,000 gold, and let me say, I find that to be expensive in terms of game play. Let me get back to that in a minute.

Once you have one each of the five different Level One ND Elixirs, you can trade them for one type of Level 2 Elixir. You trade your Level One’s with another Hefei NPC, and you get to choose which Level Two ND Elixir you want. If you were doing the math, you can see that making your own Level Two ND Elixir can cost you 500,000 gold if you buy the materials from the Clinic on your home map. I think that’s a little expensive in terms of game play.

You can also get Level 2 ND Elixirs by trading with Wan Daye directly for them. There are collection lists for these as well. As players progress in the game they will find that there are collection list for higher level ND Elixirs as well. In my opinion, filling in these collection lists should be done by all serious players, as soon as possible, even if you have to trade for some items.

So, why is all of this important?

First of all, you don’t ever drink the Non-Dungeon Elixirs. Never.

You can trade your Non-Dungeon Elixirs with Wan Daye for some very good weapons. The very first weapon you can get from Wan Daye comes at the level of Raising Light 4. You will need 5 Blood Essences, and one each of the Level 2 ND Elixirs. This is doable even for a beginner player, and in my opinion it should be a goal for all players.

Blood Essence doesn’t drop very often, but it does drop from time to time. And if you are paying attention to your Blood Count, you can have 4-5 BE in your pocket by the time you get to RL4. You could have 4 of the Level 2 ND Elixirs too, by trading well and filling in those collections.

But you still might have to make one of those Elixirs, and now you know how. Buy 5 of the Level Ones from the Clinic on your home map, and trade them for a Level Two ND Elixir.

- SpearDriver