Waiting for Duviri: The Eigth Ebb

This time it's all ship and ocean themed games!

Call of the Sea

How can a Lovecraft inspired game not be horror? This first person puzzler certainly rocks that boat, and is pretty good to boot. Decent voice acting and gorgeous colored art helps usher you along from one puzzle to the next as the story takes you along for the ride. I have to say this has one of the strongest starting quest hooks I've come across in awhile but it lost me once I reached the trial and error puzzles.

Submerged: Hidden Depths

A pair of siblings work to "save" a flooded city being claimed by black tentacles, by making the tentacles ... not black? Despite the premise and the watery wasteland setting this is a very chillaxed exploration game with no chance of failure. Even the Assassin's Creed level of parkouring that takes place is all automatically handled by your regular controls which is a good change of pace. A little annoying that completing the main goal of an area returns you to the main hub though, meaning you might have to repeat it for any missed collectibles.

Maneater

In this game you are a shark out to eat stuff to get bigger and cause chaos in general. Nice graphics, decent controls and a cool mechanism that eating things both heals you and nets you a type of currency to evolve and become a stronger shark are quickly overshadowed by the annoyingly large grind present in this single player game. Since you start out small you need to be careful around the bigger carnivores in the water but gaining mass to challenge said enemies takes a long while. Quests can help, but when the quest is kill x catfish, but specifically catfish in this area and not the other catfish all over the place, that kinda pisses me off. Not recommended.

World of Warships

This popular multiplayer game is all about collecting and upgrading all manner of ships from around the world's history and then pitting them in missions against others which includes team elimination or area control. Small, fast maneuverable ships have less turrets and less hitpoints while the lumbering battleships bring lots of firepower and HP. There is no respawn when you die. You can either continue to watch as an observer or return to your dock and play another ship out to battle (as your destroyed one is locked for the duration of the match I think). Despite a mode of coop vs AI, the game quickly pushes you into the direction of PvP which is not something I'm interested in. The cash shop messages are also annoying.

Kerbal Space Program

On to ships of the space faring variety - this highly rated game failed immediately for me because as one can imagine, running a space program isn't all fun and games if you want to get anywhere. There's a heavy dose of reading, an unfriendly but functional interface (that might be by design) and my nemesis: math! The steep learning curve is to the moon! Blergh.

The Captain

This is the best old school point and click adventure game I've come across. In it, you must captain your space ship to find special macguffins and make it back to Earth in time to use said macguffins to win a war. Yes there is a timer, and you definitely start in a galaxy FAR FAR away with many potential stops on the way. And that is the beauty of it - everything is optional with each stop even having multiple potential outcomes. I basically sacrificed everything and everyone for the mission, and it let me. Best of all the puzzles are easy, even with the "future tech" terms. The weakest part of the game is the combat, but you don't need to fight a single thing to win the game. Highly recommended!

Steam Discovery Queue - Crusade of the Free IX

Continuing freebies from last time... the one in bold is the best of this set.

Distancing: Silly little game that teaches social distancing due to a virus, while having a main character who doesn't wear a mask and decides to attend a party. The true win condition (which doesn't exist in game) should be to stay home like a champion.

Ghost College: Chinese side scroller with decent art and terrible English translation. That would be ok if the game didn't simply involve running around in the dark looking for key items while avoiding a giant slime baby.

Just a game to test your IQ: A horror twist for an IQ test. Silly, but well rendered.

Larry the Unlucky Part 1 and Part 2: Hand drawn "stuck in a room" puzzles that have very obscure solutions. Thank goodness there's a handy "Hints" button because there's no way I can guess scissors will come out of someone's head or throwing dice at a painting will change it.

Sillyfun Valley: Point and click adventure in a cartoony world with an obvious slant towards humor. Terrible animation though.

Soul Dossier: Requires additional login but I can't tell what. Not in English.

Space Survival: Space sim with bad graphics and even worse controls. Garbage.

S.U.M. Slay Uncool Monsters: A pixel adventurer math game where you must find the two digits to correctly get the total each monster is looking for. A good math challenge as even the easy ones like x + y = 12 might have you seeking two 6s's or a 2 and a 10, but those aren't always available.

I wonder if he's related to that vampire on Sesame Street...

Treasure of Barracuda: A lego based puzzle game which I didn't get into at all. Lack of instruction only makes for frustration if you want to progress. Garbage.

Zombie Hunter: Pretty fun sniping game where you must protect civilians from zombies. Very cash shop heavy though, not just in terms of boosts and new maps either - you run out of "power" by playing and either need to rest or pay up. Bleh.

Generation 3 Tips - Holy Hell

Now that you have gained your transformation from the previous story arc this should be a breeze right? Well, yes and no. Generation 3 has two parts, the first being quite easy but very annoying due to running to Tarlach often, then the end game which is ridicoulously hard.

Statue Restoration
First part mainly involves fixing up statues that the fomors are breaking as you mostly revisit dungeons you've already beaten. I'll just quickly cover some opponents that may be new to you at this point.

Arr' they be Pirates!
The pirate skelies in Rundal are the same as normal skelies, only that differently attired ones can multi aggro you. Keep this in mind as you take them out.

Heavy Hitters
The Rundal Cyclops and Barri Ogre Warriors (one of whom you have fought before) have similar AI. Probably a good idea to use transformation against them just to be sure, or if you want to be extra safe, pet revolver at your leisure. Obviously don't fight the Ogre Warriors all at once and be warned that the big ones have more HP and deal more damage.

Rabbie Bosses
If you open the boss room while alone in Rabbie you'll face a succubus, an AI you have defeated before as Tarlach in Generation 1 and has similar AI to the necromancer at the end of Generation 2. Also good to note, she only runs as fast as you making it easy to smash and run until she decides to give up and repeat. If you open the boss room with a team you will be lured into a trap by a single goblin. Killing it will spawn a large cluster of stronger multi-aggro gold types with archer backup. If you can snipe or pet revolver the "bait" goblin, you will be able to handle the army that follows in a more organized fashion.

Random Math
There's a low chance you may encounter either of these while clearing Math - Pocket mice and Giant Skelies. The later ones are actually the least dangerous skeleton type and are best dealt with windmill since you can hit all of them with their large hit boxes. The pocket mice are just slightly better than rats, and so long as you don't use magic on them will pose no threat.

Baol Infiltration
Here's where things begin getting insane. This solo dungeon is designed as a "stealth" mission where you need to get past a whole bunch of high damage dealing guards to reach the boss room. You can't use magic other than healing and if you talk the guards will detect you. Every single door is locked via orb system which means being unlucky could result in your death. Fortunately you get an anti-fomor robe for the duration of this which enables you to be invisible from all guards except the hell hound type, but if THEY detect you - ALL of them detect you. This makes them your most major threat. There are many strategies to get through safetly on the wiki. I recommend using the rock throw action and bringing a long bow to lure the hell hounds out from certain multi-aggro death should they appear. It is important to wait for their bodies to disappear before continuing as even "dead" hounds can detect you and alert the other guards.

Alternatively if you are high level enough (R1 smash and combat mastery) and have a strong mana shield to back you up, you can simply kill all the guards. Elves have an even easier time as they should be able to "hide" in between hitting orbs. Be warned that the hounds aggro very fast though so it may pay to get behind the orb before kicking it.

Baol Final (better bring help)
With a mix of boss type creatures with multi aggro in every room for SIX floors, this is possibly the second most difficult dungeon in the entire game (after Peaca) you'd really better bring (preferably strong) help. Also be sure to bring firewood, bow and arrows and 100 HP potions ONLY. Picking up or bringing any of the lesser heals WILL get you killed later. You'll most likely need a bunch of party feathers and a friend outside with advanced feathers should all of you get killed. If your team all have high ranked windmill then over-lapping WMs can help a lot. There are a bunch of new opponents here for those who haven't been running other dungeons prior to this.

Giant Worms
A variety of giant worms are down here and they have brick loads of heavy stander and mana shield. Best dealt with by a high level archer. They will never aggro first, so if you need a breather in between a wave try to not to disturb one of them.

They are ugly bastards but they won't attack unless provoked!

Nightmare Humanoid
Same as the boss in the Paladin's Passive Defense quest, just lots more of them! Remember to firebolt them to make them change color as melee is ineffective if they are Red or White.

Argos and Giant Headless
Just like ogre warriors, only uglier. They both have heavy stander and while Argos' have mana deflector, the Headlesses are almost immune to arrows. If you are keeping one dude back in the previous chamber as your resser with party feathers, make sure he keeps well away from the combat room as they have attacks that can still go through to adjacent chambers.

Dark Lord and Dragon
No need to fight the Dark Lord this time, just stay away from him and his pal until the dragon shows up. Once it does you'd best put down a campfire or two to provide cover from its fire breath. Hopefully you also have a full stack or two of heal pots and bandaged all your wounds prior to entering. Last time I fought him he couldn't do injury (black) damage but could wipe out your health in one shot. If you are at full health before this happens you'll go into Deadly which gives you time to drink up again. Arrow revolver or just plain ranged attacks by the campfire provide the best way to destroy the dragon (aside from demi-god powers you will get later) as you can hit him even while he is flying. Note, the campfire blocks the explosion so you must be standing opposite to where the breath attack *lands* as opposed to opposite the dragon itself as he can toss it anywhere when he is flying!

Obsidian Enchant
Ideally you still have the "goddess" weapon from G1. If that's the case, you are best off stacking this reward scroll on that item. :)

Generation 2 Tips - Give me my Transformation

After having gone through generation 1 you will find this a piece of cake even if all the dungeons must be run solo, and possibly will finish the whole arc in a day or two. Just some quick pointers on potentially (lightly) toublesome parts:

Barri Paladin Training
Kobold Miners are the only "new" opponents you'll face here at the end of the dungeon. They multi-aggro so just pick your targets carefully - they shouldn't take many more hits than your standard goblin.

Math Paladin Training
Multi-aggro from kobolds and kobold archers will be much the same like Ciar's goblins and nothing new for you. You will eventually be joined by four allies (about time) and can just sit in the corner while they do the rest. Your friends can actually hit you too, so if you join in the melee just be aware of that.

The Price is Right
You'll need to find Price a few times in this story arc and the next (plus he sells good ego food). He keeps switching location every 12pm in game but fortunately Mabinogi World has a tracking system you can use to catch him. It's on the right hand side of their page.

Ceo Island
To reach Aer you'll need to visit Ceo Island which is only reachable via auto-marked moongate (at night), unless you have a friend who has an alternate means of returning there. Do not stray off into the section where the golems are sleeping, because they are pretty tough and worse - if you start killing them more and more will spawn in that little area. You can come back to try this later when you are stronger. :P

Mythril Mine
Is just like Barri but you will potentially encounter your first Ogre Warrior at the boss room in which case you will likely die a few times. Despite him being a fatso he can and will outrun you. His hammer does very heavy damage so only dry defense if you have a good shield and high rank in that skill. Also his armor gives him heavy stander, which makes normal melee a precarious option. Burning magnum/range is an option if you do enough damage, but up close you'll have to rely on wm/counter or firebolt/counter. If you have a pet though, this is a good time to learn to use pet revolver. Simply summon a pet, get it to attack the ogre by shift+click (better for the pet to use "smash" if available due to the ogre's heavy stander) and as soon as it delivers the damage, recall it before the ogre can retaliate. Wait 60 seconds and repeat. Obviously if you have more pets this goes faster.

Ciar Spirit Dungeon
The main problem you'll face here is being in an unfamiliar form and perhaps lacking skills you usually use. This is not a problem as this is pretty much a lesson in defense and counter. The wolf and bear have 3 hit combos (normal attack), not sure about the hawk. Also, as the wolf anyway, you are better off ignoring your smash attack as you can do a lot more damage with your normal chain. At the boss room, the giant version of yourself can make itself invulnerable - but this can be turned off for a time by countering its attack. Don't worry too much about it though because if you just fight properly you will naturally be turning it off anyway. For a speed run, you can ignore enemies that you aren't required to kill as you should be just as fast as them and be able to escape combat range.

Barri Final
This dungeon must be getting boring for you now. Your only "new" enemies are at the boss room.

Golden Golem
Lots of HP. For the first part just let your buddy do his thing and wait in a corner as it will be invulnerable. For the second stage you will have a power boost so you can either fight it like you fought the golems at Ciar and Fiodh, or just pet revolver it. Remember that even with your boost it will still be dealing pretty good injury damage so all those potions you brought won't help mid-combat.

Necromancer
After Tabby is done you will be one on one with the final boss. Your enemy can and will summon skeletons in a small cluster around them when you first are detected or attack. As you know, skelies are dangerous so to avoid this just ranged attack the necromancer and let them chase you away from their guards. Once isolated you can concentrate on it, and be careful of its heavy stander and bolt magic. You should be getting used to it by now right? If you have fought a succubus before then this enemy has similar AI, just less friendly. :P

Passive Defense Powerup
Humans that gain the Paladin transformation should then pursue the Passive Defense quest that comes after beating the necromancer. You'll need to collect pages for a book from various people in Emain who will each ask different things. Note you can probably buy the three 110cm Rainbow trouts from your servers merchant channel or the house board. Once that straightforward bit is done you will be tasked to head to Coill, and if you've never been there there are a few new enemies waiting for you.

Ice/Fire/Lightning Sprite
Much like wisps these critters enjoy blasting you with bolt magic. They have defenses in everything but are more vulnerable to magic attacks and though they single aggro, a room with mixed sprites will be very dangerous. Smash or Windmill will still work well as they don't have a huge pool of HP behind their "armor".

They can also be made into a refreshing beverage.

Invisible Imp
Just like normal imps - only invisible (duh) making them harder to target. You can either hold down alt to get a lock on them or just windmill as that hits everything around you, visible or otherwise.

Nightmare humanoid
This horse demon (also known as tikbalangs in the Philippines) can change what it is immune to based on its color: Red (melee), Blue (magic), Orange (ranged), White (everything), Black (nothing). Knocking it on its butt with a firebolt will make it change color. Alternatively if you catch it in Final Hit (ideally not when it is red or white) it cannot change color, nor is it immune to alchemy skills (ever). Since there's only one of him, it should be pretty easy to beat. Pally mode will all but ensure your victory.

Generation 1 Tips (Part One) - The Stoned Goddess

Now that you've had (over) 7 days worth of classes it's probably time to start the first main story arc: Generation 1! In the next few posts I'll give some quick tips to get through the "dangerous" parts of Generation 1! I am assuming you've been through the beginner battle class board sessions prior to doing this.


Grave of the Snowman
Any time you need to go into the snowy region North of Tir Chonail (which will be a lot) be wary of the coyotes. They have wolf AI but can tear a low level player up quickly if you don't fight well. My suggestion is avoid them and jog past them, preferably NOT in combat mode as it makes them aggro faster.

Alby RP (fastest to solo as Ruairi)
Nothing here should pose a threat to your character, so certainly nothing will be a problem for the overpowered Ruairi. Drink up the ultra speed potion and crush the spiders and bats into oblivion. Remember, all the spiders and bats you encounter in all of G1 only know defense and have single aggro. The bats will also never attack first.

Barri Black Wizard (fastest with help)
May want to bring help here if you are still new to the game as you'll probably be meeting new types of opponents for the first time.

Gremlins (various)
Dangerous hard hitting bastards. Ideally magnum shot them from the adjoining room or hallway since they have low HP. Ice bolts work well too. If you have to melee them avoid using defense and instead use counter/wm and normal attacks. When they fly around like spastic idiots don't chase them as they'll usually get first hit in - instead load up a windmill.

Flying Sword
If you don't use magic on them, they aren't that bad and will only attack one at a time. If you can't slay them in one combo, defend often to block their strikes or lightning bolts.
Wisp - harder to read than the average monster (may pay to study their language) and hits moderately hard. Lure them if required to deal with them one at a time.

Black Wizard
Can be a big danger for low-mid level players. If you are opting to have ranged combat you'd better make sure your shots hit (hope you brought a longbow too). If he fully charges firebolt it's around 500 damage if it connects (I know from experience! :P). Otherwise close in and tear him up as fast as you can to prevent him chain firebolting you, but don't do that if his wisps are nearby - lure them first.

In Mabinogi, all black wizards are evil.

Rabbie RP (solo as Tarlach)
Featuring possibly your first encounter with skeletons in enclosed spaces, Tarlach is not so good at melee though and is not the guy to practice fighting skelies with. Fastest and safest way to clear this is to use the ultra speed potion and make use of 3221 icebolt on everything. If you don't know what that is, it is a good time to learn: Charge 5 ice bolts, fire 3 at baddie, charge one, fire two, charge one, fire two, charge one, fire one. If the situation allows though, always charge back up to five.

Math RP (fastest to solo as Mores - twice)
The most fun RP dungeon in this story arc. Fastest way to clear everything is again the ultra speed potion and this time because Mores has chain casting, use lightning bolt on everything. More fun if they are standing clustered together.

Ciar (as of this post bugged and must be run solo - don't forget to touch the end statue to finish this quest section)
Since you're going in alone I suggest you bring a good stock of healing pots, bandages, a shield and if you aren't a giant - a longbow, arrows and 5 pieces of firewood. Just to cover what's in here if you haven't tried the dungeon prior to this quest:

Goblins and Goblin archers
You'll encounter mixed aggro here with them, try to prioritise the archers first and if your windmill is good enough, use that to clear them out quick. If you have a pet, don't forget you can use it to help. You can out bow them if you're carrying a long bow and have an empty corner to work with as their aggro range does not cover the entire room.

Skeletons
They can hit hard as you may have seen in Tarlach's RP earlier, and this bunch also carry bows. However given that the boss room door is open (giving you space to flee) you can just magnum shot them to death - they only run as fast as you and if you go far enough, they get bored and return to idling. Alternatively you can just melee them too as they have no armor. Don't wake up the golem while doing this though! If a skelie is not moving you may as well load up counter or windmill. Usually they run around like idiots though so you can catch them with normal attacks. You probably will want a good shield (kite or better) if you are going to attempt defense to parry them though.

Golem
This is the second weakest golem in the game but can still cause problems with its windmill and stomp attacks. It is unwise to fight it while fighting skeletons so lure it or its buddies to fight them one at a time. This big boy can easily outrun you though, even an elf so don't try to escape unless you've got a fast steed. If you are opting to shoot it to death I recommend using a camp fire to gain fire arrows (x2 damage). Otherwise if you are going to be upclose, bring a shield and fight well as he can KO you really quickly. Don't panic too much, if you die you can always respawn at the goddess statue and try again. You'll be facing a slightly stronger variant in Fiodh soon.