#thescentoflavender guides

[thescentoflavender]

Guide to the [Candlelit Night] SP Event

Someone sent me an ask on this (see the bottom of this guide for the actual ask), and because my answer to it grew so long, I decided to write it as a formal guide instead. 

Event Format

I had a read through MLQC EN’s FB posts but I don’t think they’ve announced the specific format of the upcoming event. Assuming that the event style in the EN server is similar to the CN server, there are a few unique things about this event to consider:

There’s a 20% “cashback discount” of sorts. You’ll get 20% of the Galaxy Wish Coupons you spend back in the form of Limited Time Coupons. (Note: you don’t get any discount if you use Limited Time Coupons.)

There are also Limited Time Coupons you can get by logging in daily and through doing a certain number of pulls.

Note: Limited Time Coupons cannot be saved. When the event ends, each Limited Time Coupon will be converted to 1000 coins.

Above: Example of event rewards. I didn’t have screenshots for last year’s CNY event, so I’ve used my screenshot from this year’s event here. The event format is similar so it’s still a good reference. 

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How does this affect the advice I previously gave regarding Wish Tree/SP events?

1. It is still recommended that you do pulls in multiples of 144. But there may be reason to deviate from this rule.

If your objectives are to:

maximise your chances of getting an SP;

get your SP to competent stats; and

collect SPs in the long term only

Then you might consider going all in and doing as many pulls as you can, regardless of whether you hit a multiple of 144.

Why?

The 20% discount will only be in effect the first time this event runs, and will not be available in the rerun. This will allow you to maximise your chances of getting an SP at minimal cost.

Above: Example of the Limited Time Coupons vs Galaxy Wish Coupons. These will be exhausted before your Galaxy Wish Coupons are used. 

Even if you fail to do a multiple of 144 pulls, the unused candle lights will be turned into Heart Flowers. You can use these Heart Flowers to exchange for purple shards. (The number of free Heart Flowers you get each week is the limiting factor here so the 6 purple shard/week limit isn’t a concern if you’re looking at this long term.)

Lastly, the main reason why you would want to do only multiples of 144 pulls is to conserve your resources for other events. But if you’re only interested in SPs, this wouldn’t be too much of a concern. The next SP event will only be released next year so you have time to pool your resources between now and then.

N.B. The one exception is if Papergames releases a collab SP event across all servers in the later half of this year. Should this happen, you may not have enough for Galaxy Wish Coupons and/or gems saved up if you go all in now. But I will note that a collab SP event is very unlikely.

2. Draw over a period of time, not all at once.

No changes to my advice here. My preferred times are midnight and when the server refreshes at 5 a.m.. Sadly, though, I haven’t been able to do 5 a.m. pulls since leaving the UK. The time difference really did work to my advantage!

3. Enter the event knowing how many pulls you want to do. Remember to factor in the Limited Time Coupons when calculating how many Galaxy Wish Coupons you need to use.

Important if you’re aiming to do multiples of 144 pulls (which I generally advocate; see point 1).

I’ve written this as a formula here:

So, for example, if I wanted to do 288 pulls, would get 30 free Limited Time Coupons from event rewards and do 4 free pulls over the course of the event, 

I would need (288-34)/1.2 = 211 Galaxy Wish Coupons 

*If I remember correctly, they round up for the number of LTC you’ll get back, so the number of coupons you’ll need to use is 211 rather than 212.

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Should you exchange for a new SP karma or a duplicate SP after reaching a multiple of 144 pulls?

A good question, to which my answer is the dreaded “It depends”. 

Just to be clear, we’re working with the assumption that you got at least one SP karma, but not the full set of SP karmas by doing regular pulls. So, if you’re lucky or resource-rich enough, this question might not even be one that you need worry about in the first place. 

Also remember to only exchange your karmas at the end of the event, after you’ve done all your free pulls.

There are far too many scenarios for me to list down every one, but I thought I’d go through a few.

Here are some examples:

You were unlucky (or lucky, depending on your perspective) enough to draw a repeated SP karma. In this case, I would probably exchange for a new SP karma. 

You really need the stats for an SP karma of a particular attribute, e.g. if you could get to the next tier in the Heart Trials with your Evolved SP. In this case, I would exchange for a repeated SP karma.

You're only interested in reading a single suitor’s dates and have only 1 or 2 of his SPs. In this case, I would exchange for a repeated SP karma.  

You’re a karma collector and don’t really care about the karma stats. You’re okay with your SPs being at mediocre levels, but you want as many SPs as possible. In this case, I would exchange for a new SP karma.

There are also rewards you get based on the karmas you pull and whether you can Evolve them to Lvl IV/Ascend them. This is something to consider too, if you value these rewards highly enough. 

A non-exhaustive list, because the answer really depends on your objectives in the game. I hope this will help you in deciding the strategy you want to adopt though! 

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Afterword and some other comments on the actual ask 

If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations!

There will be a rerun for this event, which I will elaborate on as a reply to another ask. Everything I’ve said above has taken into account this rerun, so this guide still stands (clearly... I wouldn’t have written it otherwise!)

The ask:

My comments: Thanks anon! I do appreciate the fact that you read through all my posts regarding SP karmas!

[janumun]

sorry i just got back into this fandom can someone pls explain why mc is radiating queen vibes 😍

Hey Anon! Isn't she just gorgeous? Those screens of the MC are from the newest Love and Producer Season 2 CN PV if I remember correctly. I don't follow spoilers for the CN version of the game so I can't answer any specific questions in regards to why she looks this different. However I do know of a few blogs who are perhaps better equipped to answer your CN version-related queries should you feel comfortable in directing your questions their way:

@sharinluna provides superb analyses for the game and their answers to questions are enlightening and helpful.

@cheri-translates kindly and very generously translates future CN dates.

@thescentoflavender has guides up, also interesting and I love checking through their blog every now and then for new content.

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC: A Guide to the Mini House + Cheat Sheet of Gifts

Preface

I got a few asks about this (see Remarks) so this guide will serve as a reply to all of them. Feel free to send in more questions if anything isn’t clear, though.

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Terminology

Terms that I use may defer from what’s used in the EN Mini House. 

These are the terms that I’ll be using in this guide:

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Choosing which House(s) to Unlock

The basics:

Unlocking furniture gets you silver coins, gold, Confess Wishes, special gifts (redeemable only once) and cards to refresh the list of tasks available. 

The ratio of silver coins to benefits you get from unlocking furniture gradually increases as you unlock more furniture. Essentially, this means you’re spending more coins to get less rewards when you’ve unlocked most of one suitor’s House. 

What implications do these have? Let’s look at two extreme scenarios. 

Scenario One: You only unlock furniture in the House of the suitor you’re most interested in. The pros of this are that you’ll be able to unlock his special gifts more quickly. However, it means that you will also be spending more silver coins to get things like gold coins. 

Scenario Two: You work through all Houses at around the same speed. You will need a lot more time to get through any House, but you will be able to get more gold every day.

Neither sounds especially appealing, because most people will favour at least one guy over the others, however slight it might be. 

The approach I adopt is a hybrid of the two extremes described above. I unlocked LZY, BQ and XM’s Houses until the stage where I could get 1500 gold every few hours. Then, I started investing in BQ and XM’s houses. Currently, I’ve unlocked all the furniture in XM’s House and am working on it for BQ. 

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Tasks in the Mini House

The basic principle: Try to ensure that you’re running a task whenever possible and not leave any “gaps” in between. Gaps = wasted time = wasted coins and/or moonstones and/or gems!

Tips:

I like starting an SR task just before bedtime, so I can collect them when I wake up 8 hours later. Also, if your to-do list has the item “Clear 2 SR tasks”, you’ll be able to do so without spending any moonstones. 

For the rest of the day, I balance the time I have remaining with the time taken to do the remaining tasks available. 

It’s worth toggling between the different houses to see what tasks are available. You can refresh the tasks available for free for each house once per day. That also means that if you can’t get an SR task in one House, it’s worth checking/refreshing the other Houses for SR tasks, rather than spending precious resources doing more than the free refresh. 

I also try doing tasks that may trigger interactions. You can check what tasks these are under this tab:

Miscellany: You can “end” a particular action you’re doing and it will still count towards doing the task you’re doing anyway. For example, if the task I’m trying to complete is to call the suitor once, I can tap on “STOP” after calling the suitor, and the task will be completed. A trivial point, but it’s helpful to know for the time-pressed like myself—I have absolutely no patience to wait for the suitor to walk over to the MC. 

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Gifts

The 30 Mystery presents are worth buying every day, but not the other gifts. 

Check the Cheat Sheet below to see which gifts to give the guys. 

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Cheat Sheet of Gifts (click for better quality)

*I spent considerable time making this cheat sheet so please ask me if you want to repost this on other sites.*

How to read this sheet: 

Boxed up gifts are those that I recommend giving the guy in question. 

The number of points you receive are listed below each boxed up gift, but that doesn’t have much bearing on the overall strategy I recommend adopting. 

Note: 

Only XM’s sheet is complete; I have not obtained all the special gifts for LZY, BQ and ZQL since I’ve only fully unlocked the furniture for XM’s house. However, all special gifts are worth 200 points and can only be given to the specific guy so there’s no need to worry about them.

XM is missing a birthday special gift as of now because his birthday has yet to arrive. 

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Remarks

This guide will serve as a reply to the asks sent in by @phairfantooooom​ @gavinloml and anon.

@gavinloml I’m not sure what you mean by the “Special Edition” and “Gif” mini houses?

[thescentoflavender]

Introduction to the Dream Lake Permanent Rerun

What I’ve been waiting for ever since I started playing MLQC!! Time has never passed more slowly. 

Despite what it says in the tags, I see this more as an introduction rather than a guide, since there are still many unanswered questions that I have. I’ll need to wait for the event to start before I can write anything more conclusive.

Lastly, this isn’t a direct translation of the infographic. I’ve rearranged and summarised information so that it’s more easy to read. 

If you’re lazy to read the details, you can scroll to the bottom of this post, where I’ve written a summary. 

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Part 1: How to obtain Dream Lake SR karmas  

Every time you buy a Heart Flower, you can choose from a group of three. One of the three Heart Flowers available will give you a chance to get double the number of Silver Bells. 

Buying all three flowers at once guarantees that you will get double the number of Silver Bells for one purchase (duh). Upon buying all three flowers, you will be presented with a fresh group of Heart Flowers. Rule 1 still applies.

You get a free chance to buy one Heart Flower every day; subsequent purchases on the same day will cost 60 gems each. Buying all three flowers at once costs 180 gems (or 120 if you have yet to utilise your free chance for that day).

Every time you buy a Heart Flower, you have a chance of pulling a Dream Lake SR. The SRs available are subject to a cycle, with three sets of SRs on rotation every week. Therefore, if you miss the first week’s SRs, you will need to wait another two weeks before you have the chance to get them again. 

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Part 2: How to obtain Dream Lake SSRs 

No, unfortunately you won’t be able to obtain the karma you want straightaway. Rather, you will need to use the Silver Bells to exchange for the SSRs in a sequential manner, starting from LZY’s karma labelled 1 above. This also means that if you’re after ZQL’s “Radiant You” karma (no. 8), you’re in for a long, long wait...

(I have a fairly good notion of why they’re implementing this system, but I’ll save this discussion for a later post/ask if anyone is interested to know.)

Silver Bells can also be used to exchange for red starbursts. 

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Part 3: How to obtain Dream Lake Rs 

The good news is, you can get them for free. Every 30 Heart Flowers bought gives you 10 Faintly Shining Moons and a random Dream Lake R karma. Essentially, that translates to one free Dream Lake R karma every month without spending gems. 

Do note that the R karma that you get is random. However, you won’t get repeats of it, so you’ll be able to get the full set if you spend enough gems and/or stay in the game long enough. 

After getting the full set of R karmas, you won’t be able to get a free R karma anymore. Choosing the gift box option would only give you 50000 coins—so it’s more worth it to get the GWC after you’ve gotten all the R karmas. 

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Part 4: How to obtain Dream Lake Store SSR and SRs 

Faintly Shining Moons can be used to exchange for the SSR and SRs available in the original Dream Lake store, as shown above.

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TL;DR

There are two exchange systems: One uses Silver Bells and the other uses Faintly Shining Moons.

Silver Bells (number not disclosed) can be used to exchange for SSRs in the original Dream Lake Wish Tree event, the order of which is determined by Papergames as above. 

Faintly Shining Moons (number not disclosed) can be used to exchange for SSR/SRs in the original Dream Lake Wish Tree store. 

With every Silver Bell purchased, you get a chance of getting an SR in the original Dream Lake Tree event. There is no guarantee. 

With every 30 Silver Bells purchased, you get a Dream Lake R karma and 10 Faintly Shining Moons.

There is no predetermined cost -- it really depends on how much time you want to drag this over. 

Who knows? You might just be able to get the full set of Dream Lake karmas for free when you’re 80 years old.

[thescentoflavender]

Hey hey, I've been reading your blog for some time and before asking my question, i wanted to appreciate the effort that you put in your blog. The translations are very smooth and the explanations are easy to understand:D . Based on my own experience and your own advice i had decided to invest on SP karmas (lvl 70/f2p), but recently i thought that maybe it's better if i save some shards for the upcoming SPs? I mean, after reaching tier 5 does evolving the karma make a significant difference?

Hello and thanks! I’m glad you find the explanations easy to understand.

You’re right in that Evolving an SP doesn’t make a significant difference after Lvl IV (the stats only improve by 5% every level). 

Whether you want to Evolve your SP would really depend on your circumstances. Say you have two really good Green karmas and are just about to get to the next tier in the Heart Trials. If you have an SP that has a primary or secondary attribute in this area, then it may make more sense to Evolve this SP above Lvl IV rather than save your shards for a new SP, because then you can get more resources in the Heart Trials. 

Again drawing from my own gameplay, here’s a semi-hypothetical example of what I mean. In this example: 

I have two SPs (both for LZY) which I can Evolve, one Orange/Pink and the other Green/ Pink, as below. 

I am about 500 points away from reaching the next tier in the Orange attribute for the Heart Trials. I am in the middle of the current tier for the Green/Pink attributes and won’t be reaching the next tier anytime soon. 

I have 211 purple shards to spare, so I have enough shards to Evolve one SP straight to Lvl IV, or to fully Evolve the SP that’s already at Lvl VI right up to Lvl X. 

In this case, I would choose to fully Evolve the SP already at Lvl VI, rather than Evolving the one that is currently completely Unevolved. That’s because there isn’t much point in Evolving the Green/Pink SP for me at the moment—it won’t help me in the Heart Trials, and I am able to clear all the shooting challenges with three stars. 

Ultimately, it boils down to what your main objective in the game is. If it’s to unlock the full story for the SP, then you may perhaps choose to get every SP to Lvl IV (you’ll only be able to unlock the full story after reaching Lvl IV). But if it’s to get resources, then you’ll need to reevaluate the karmas you want to Evolve against the full set of karmas you have, and consider if you should fully invest in one SP instead.

The other important thing to note, which I have glossed over in this answer, is the Ascension of SPs, which is just as important as Evolving them. Fully Ascended SPs can double the stats for an Evolved SP, and you can play with your Ascension/Evolve resources to get the stats you need for a single karma within a specific timeframe. For example, I might choose to Evolve my SP to Lvl VI and then fully Ascend it to cross to the next tier for the Heart Trials (which I did, in fact, do), thereby saving the rest of my shards for something else. 

I know all that is quite a lot to digest, but hopefully it makes sense and doesn’t sound like waffle to you. Let me know if you need me to clarify anything :)

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC CN: Dream Lake Karmas to be permanently rerun

Aaaaaaaaaaa I’m so excited!! 

Reading in between the lines, they will be FREE, if you so choose. (But you will probably need lots of patience and time if you want to get them free.)

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Q: How will the event be rerun?

A: 

They will be rerun and released permanently at the end of May.

In the new event, every heart flower that you buy will get you some event tokens, which can be exchanged for Dream Lake SSRs in the event store. Other than that, there will be an opportunity to get double the number of event coins and Dream Lake SRs.

Every 24 hours, you will get an opportunity to buy one heart flower for free. 

When you have bought a certain number of heart flowers, you can get 10 Faintly-Shining Moons, and choose a Dream Lake R karma gift box (this will not be repeated) or other items which you can use in-game.

You may also exchange the Faintly-Shining Moons to redeem Dream Lake Store Reward SSRs and SRs. The Faintly-Shining Moons given at the start of the event will be retained as well.

As this event will be open permanently, producers can gradually obtain their desired Dream Lake karmas, while buying heart flowers and obtaining other in-game items, based on their own needs. 

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC CN: Season 2 and the mysterious case of hyperinflation

This is not a plot-related post; this is a discussion of gacha mechanics. 

I knew something was fishy when they started handing out Galaxy Wish Coupons like nobody’s business. 

Then came this event. 

This event is like a blend of a Wish Tree event and a chapter karma event. A single pull could give you a whole karma, like in the Wish Tree, but you spend gems rather than Galaxy Wish Coupons. 

It does not belong in the Wish Tree, and there are two separate gacha pools, one for ER karmas and one for SSR karmas. There are only 5 karmas in each pool, but the drop rate is ridiculously low. There is also an (absolutely rubbish) guarantee, which I’ll discuss in a bit. 

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Event mechanics

In this event, you wish for three out of the five guys’ karmas. This means that if you get a karma, you will only get one of these three. (You can change the karmas you’re wishing for at any time, but at any one point you can only choose three.) That seems better than a Wish Tree event, where you can get any karma, but it’s worse than a chapter karma event where you’re sure of getting the karma you want.

The gacha pull rewards for this event are as follows. Note that this is the only way to get these ASMRs and attire; it is not possible to redeem or buy them otherwise.  

For the SSR pool (right screenshot):

60 pulls for a ASMR

120 pulls for an SSR and second ASMR

180 pulls for a third ASMR

240 pulls for a second SSR and fourth ASMR

300 pulls for a fifth ASMR

For the ER pool (left screenshot):

60 pulls for special attire

120 pulls for an ER and second special attire

180 pulls for a third special attire

240 pulls for a second ER and fourth special attire

300 pulls for a fifth special attire

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Why do I say it’s (hyper)inflation?

Effectively, you’re guaranteed to get an SSR when you’ve done 120 pulls in the SSR pool, and an ER when you’ve done 120 pulls in the ER pool. Each conch shell (token for doing a pull in the SSR pool) costs 168 gems and each echo shell (token for doing a pull in the ER pool) costs 68 gems. 

That corresponds to ~20k gems for an SSR and ~8k gems for an ER. For comparison, a guaranteed limited edition SSR in the Wish Tree comes at ~14 x 1800 = 25200 gems. 

For fairness of comparison, I will only stick to considering SSRs for this discussion. ERs are quite new so it’s hard to make any good comparison for that. 

My view is that the guaranteed SSR may be cheaper, but once you consider the fact that you’re spending the bulk of your gems buying items that are not worth it, this event seems to be less value for money on the whole.

You might ask: Isn’t this event better than a Wish Tree event because you get ASMRs along the way?

Wrong.

In a normal Wish Tree event, you get karmas in every single pull. There’s the possibility of getting a karma that you don’t already have, and all the extra karmas can be passed for Stardust. Because I didn’t get any Stardust from this event, I have absolutely no way of Evolving my SSRs and forming anything more than one SER. 

Let’s take a look at the bonuses you get here (right screenshot after the next para) if you don’t get the karmas. They’re all pretty easy to get in-game through other means, and you wouldn’t spend gems getting these bonuses otherwise. Outside of this event, the only way I would ever trade 168 gems for 18 stamina points is if I was delirious with fever.

Next, the probability of getting a good karma, i.e. SSR or SP, is actually lower. The total probability of getting a limited edition SSR via the Wish Tree is 4 x 0.375 = 1.5% (left screenshot; taken from the Disney event, but all similar SSR events have the same probability). In this event, the total probability of getting a limited edition karma in a single pool is 3 x 0.6% = 1.8% (right screenshot), i.e. 20% higher than for the Wish Tree. However, the total probability of getting a good karma in general is only 60% of that in the Wish Tree (2.5%).  

And what happens to the conch shells that you’ve already invested at the end of the event? 

They disappear. Unlike in a Wish Tree event where any unused props get turned into flowers at the end of the event, which you can then exchange for SSRs or purple shards, anything in excess of a multiple of 60 turns into dust here. 

How does this compare to the Season 1 chapter karma events, then?

Matters are made even worse if you stan only one of the guys. Wishing for three out of five karmas means there’s a 2/3 chance of getting two other characters you’re not interested in. Compare this to the current chapter karma mechanics, where you’re guaranteed to get the guy you want. If you’re going to get that character’s karma by the guarantee in this event, that’s 20k gems, compared to the original 8-9k. 

In other words, if you place little value on the other guys’ karmas and are only going into this event for the suitor you really like, the price of an SSR has effectively increased from ~9k gems to 20k gems. 

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Conclusion

Apparently the advent of a new world also means a higher cost of living in Loveland City. Get ready your wallets... or save your money for a better event. 

I invested a total of 120 x 168 + 120 x 68 = 28320 gems worth of props in this event, and expect to get 0.2 x 28320 = 5664 gems back in August (time-limited offer that Papergames had yesterday). 

A picture tells a thousand words, so here is the Before and After. The picture on the left shows the amount of gems I had after I had just started investing in it (I bought a few sets here and there so I spent more gems/actual money than it appears); the one on the right shows the aftermath of the event.

So why did I even enter this event at all? I entered it because being a devout follower of the god of statistics, I was expecting to get an SSR at around 1/0.018 = 56 pulls, and I wanted the ASMRs as well. On average, with the guarantee, I would expect to get 3 different SSRs per 120 pulls. Of course, I was also prepared for the possibility that I would only be able to net a total of one SSR by way of the guarantee, but what was the likelihood of that happening? Surely Papergames wouldn’t dig their own grave by increasing the price of an SSR to 20k gems?

Apparently, they did. I still consider myself relatively lucky, since I managed to get one SSR in one of my pulls and redeemed another. But there are many other players who have only managed get one SSR by the guarantee, and it’s to the Consumers Association with them.

We mourn the loss of our gems together.

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC: An Introduction to ER Karmas, and what this means for EN players

If you’ve seen my post on the Season 2 updates, you might be wondering what ER karmas are. Now that Papergames has finally posted an infographic on it, I’m in a better position to explain it! 

For those who would like to skip the long read, you can scroll to the end of this post for a summary (see the section “How Does This Affect Me?”). That said, I highly encourage you to read the details when you have the time.

Note: 

This guide reorganises information given in the original infographic, as well as includes other details which Papergames have released in their Weibo posts but not included in the infographic. 

This guide may be updated after these karmas are actually launched and I have a better feel of their stats, value etc.. 

Please don’t repost this guide.

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So what are ER karmas?

The short answer is that they are a new karma type, a blend between SPs and SSRs. 

Much like SSRs, they can be associated with either Dates or Rumours and Secrets. 

But unlike any of the karmas we have so far, ER karmas:

Are single-sided

Can be merged to form SERs (more on that below)

Technical details: 

An ER costs about 4000 gems

Stats for SERs are lower than those of SPs, but slightly higher than SSRs

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How to Merge ERs

1. Fully Ascend your karmas to unlock the Merge Karmas option. 

This is somewhat easier than it sounds, as the highest node here is the Frame node. For details, see the section below, “How to Raise your ER Stats”. 

2. When using SER karmas in a challenge, special images and quotes will be displayed. My guess is that this is exactly like what we have now, but until I have used them myself, I can’t be sure.

3. After merging your karmas to form double-sided SERs, you can choose either ER karma as the side and title displayed.

This can be changed at any time in the “Handphone” system, much like the Before/After Evolve option we have now for the karmas available.

4. SERs can be taken apart again. 

However, this will cost gems (to reset Ascension), as well as gold. 

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How to Raise ER Stats

Step 1: Fully Ascend all your ERs (the highest being the Frame node).

Step 2: Evolve using Stardust. There are 4 levels in total. (This is similar to Evolving an SP karma, except that a lot of Stardust is needed here.)

Step 3: Merge using Memory Starlocks. (More on this in the next section.)

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New Item: Memory Starlock

Currently, these can be obtained in three ways:

Passing repeat ER karmas. Nothing new here; this is just like passing any other karma to get Starbursts.

Obtaining this through the top-up event.

More ways to obtain Starlocks will be released in future updates.

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How Does This Affect Me?

The introduction of SERs is essentially devaluing an SSR. SSRs already pale in comparison to SPs, and having a new karma type slightly higher in stats lowers their value further.

The key difference is that SERs aren’t that easy to form or Evolve, and will probably end up costing more than SSRs. You pay for what you get, after all.

The other thing to note is that SERs won’t be released until the second season arrives, which is quite some time away for the EN server. Until then, you’ll have to rely on SSRs and SPs, which are notoriously difficult to Evolve.

Taking all of this into account: Personally, I still prefer getting SPs, but these SERs offer more flexibility in terms of the stats I need. So if I were to play the EN version, I wouldn’t invest in too many SSRs at the moment, and would instead save up for future SP and ER events.

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC: SP Karmas and Why You Should Get Them

Since SP karmas are about to drop in the EN server, this seems like a timely post. In all my karma-related guides, I’ve always mentioned that SP karmas are the most worth investing in. Here, I discuss in detail why.

For the time-pressed, you might want to skip straight to the last section (“What should I do going forward?”) 

The SP karmas I have

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What are SP karmas? 

SP karmas are a new type of karmas entirely unknown to the EN server. These have the highest stats out of all the karmas available currently, including the CN server. The left shows an SP karma Ascended to after the Attire node, and the right an SSR karma Ascended to the Skills node. Even after taking into account the different Ascension scores, the SP karma still beats it in terms of its dominant stats, and there’s still room to improve it further since I’ve only Evolved it to Lvl V. 

Evolving SPs does not require Memory Stardust, but purple/karma shards. Like evolving SSRs/SRs/Rs, other items may also be required. There are ten stages to fully Evolving an SP. 

For reference, you need: 

160 shards (or 2 of the same SP karmas) to Evolve the SP to Lvl IV

400 shards (or 5 of the same SP karmas) to Evolve the SP to Lvl X

Therefore, to fully Evolve an SP, you need 6 of the same karmas (1 as the base, 5 repeats). You can also use purple shards in place of the karma shards, but Evolving your SP by this route will take time.   

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Why should I invest in SP karmas? 

For me, it’s mainly the stats.

SP karmas can have way higher stats than SSRs, though it will take time to see the returns. For the first few stages, SP karmas will have lower stats than SSRs. Evolving your SP karma for the first stage increases the stats from 0 to 15%, for the second stage 15% to 30%, and for the third 30% to 45%. Ceteris paribus, this means that an SP karma only starts to become more powerful than an SSR after the third stage. 

On the left, I have an SP karma that’s only Evolved to Lvl II and Ascended to nearly the Skills node, on the right an Evolved SSR that’s Ascended to about the same level. It’s clear that SPs are weaker than SSRs when they’re at the lower levels.

But here’s the thing. SP karmas have potential. The highest possible stat an SP karma, fully Evolved and Ascended, can have in its dominant attribute is ~20k; compare this to ~12k for an SSR.

It may take a bit of time to Evolve an SP, but if you’re in the game for the long run, they will bring back much better returns. I once wrote about how it was important to have a few powerful karmas rather than many mediocre karmas, and this is what I was referring to. 

You might ask: I can clear all the shooting challenges now with no problem. What’s the point of getting a karma with such high stats?

I’d say the main reason is that it helps you proceed in the Heart Trials. Pretty much the only way you’ll be able to get through the last tier in the Heart Trials is with SPs and the top-up flower SSRs. The latter is out of reach for most players who aren’t planning to spend thousands of dollars in the game. But the former is still attainable for us.

I’d also say that SP karmas are a must if you’re thinking of getting three stars and beyond for the shooting challenges in the later chapters. 

What about the art and dates?

In terms of the art, you get to unlock motion and voice for the image when you Evolve your SP to Lvl IV. That’s an upgrade from the stills you get when you Evolve an SSR. 

“Dates” for SPs are also longer, at around 5 parts each rather than 4. 

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What should I do going forward?  

For the current event, I’d recommend trying for an SP if you have the Galaxy Wish Coupons, but there’s no need to go all in. The karmas will enter the Galaxy Wish Pool, and there’s still a chance of getting them when you’re participating in other limited edition events. I got Xu Mo’s SP that way too. 

If you’re planning to invest in this event, try getting 3 of the same SP karmas. Personally, I’d exchange my flowers for SP karmas rather than a new SSR. That will allow you to Evolve your SP to Lvl IV straight away, i.e. more powerful than an SSR. Otherwise, you will spend the next few years months grinding for purple shards. 

Once you get an SP, there’s no need to hesitate. Channel all your resources into levelling it up, Evolving, and Ascending it. It’s going to be the highest ranking karma around for a while.

All hail the SP! The age of the SP is here.

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC CN: 3rd Anniversary Concert (or, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory)

~Please don’t repost this in any way~

The Gist

Event date: 12 Dec 2020

300 Golden tickets up for grabs, with possibly more

Will be streamed live, but lucky winners can watch the concert in person

The five VAs will be there in person 

Tickets can be obtained in two ways (see below) 

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How to get tickets

Two ways to get tickets:

If you had attained VIP Lvl 7 before today (i.e. if you’ve spent over 100000 RMB, or around 15100 USD), you’ll get a ticket for free.

If you’re not, then you’ll have to participate in a lottery-like system to get a place.

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Guide to the Lottery

19 Nov to 23 Nov: Buy a gift pack

From 19 to 23 Nov, a gift pack will be up for sale in the CN server, limited to one per account. Buying a gift pack automatically enrols you in the lottery. Places are not allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis.

23 Nov: The first round of the lottery begins

The system will randomly pick winners. 

24 Nov to 29 Nov: Registration of winners

Winners will be notified and will have to register their identification details. If you miss the window, your place will be deemed as forfeited.

1 Dec: The second round of the lottery begins

Should anyone forfeit their place in the first round, their places will be allocated to newly selected winners.

12 Dec: The Big Day 

Winners will have to display the ticket-exchange page in-game and bring proof of identification to the concert venue before they’re let in. They will also need to adhere to COVID-19 preventive measures. 

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Special Notes

Other than the two aforementioned ways, there will not be any other way of getting these tickets.

Tickets obtained through non-official means will be forfeited if discovered.

Winners will have to register their identification details in the Lottery page in- game. Once registered, your details cannot be changed.

In line with the “one-player-one-account” policy, each ID can only be registered once. If the same ID is registered more than once, only the first registration will be valid.

The second round of the lottery may or may not happen, depending on circumstance. Should there be one, players will be notified of the registration dates in advance.

The list of winners will be published on Papergames’ official MLQC website. Should there be a second round to the lottery, the results will also be published there.

Should the event be cancelled due to circumstances beyond their control, this will be announced on the official website as well.   

[thescentoflavender]

Hello! I hope you’re doing well :) Sorry for wasting your time if this has been answered already, but how do you decide which MLQC events and karmas to go for? I’ve been using your guides as a reference since I started playing on the EN server, but since you’re ahead, how do you gauge what‘s worth getting? Love your work a lot, and thanks for giving us all of these awesome tips and guides!

Hello and thanks! I’m a little tired but still staying afloat! I’m glad you like the guides. 

You ask a good question, and happily it’s one I can answer! When it comes to playing MLQC, I spend more time predicting and strategising what events and karmas I should invest in than actually playing the game itself. That’s one of the reasons why my interest has lately shifted to writing guides rather than translating stuff—what I initially set out to do when I started this blog. 

Before I digress any further, let’s get about to answering your question. Generally, the type of events I invest in are as follows:

Birthday events. I invest in these for the heart clefs you get for ranking. For the events I’ve participated in so far, I’ve managed to rank within the top 5% (= 6 heart clefs), spending only 7000 gems or so. If you have the VIP card, one heart clef is worth 500 gems, so that’s 3000 gems already just for ranking. Spend another 4000 gems and you can get at least 2 birthday karmas and quite a few other nifty rewards.

SP events. See my lengthy post here: https://thescentoflavender.tumblr.com/post/623985677816758272/since-sp-karmas-are-about-to-drop-in-the-en

Events which will never be revived. I don’t think I need to elaborate on this as well.

Events which have “a good deal”. An example of this would be the Season 1 Chapter 37 SSRs, which came with a free limited-edition ASMR and a 20% discount on the first day. I stand by my original post that it’s hyperinflation, but it can be a good deal if 1) you’re not downright unlucky; 2) you have the resources, i.e. 20k gems, to spare) and 3) you aren’t particular about getting a particular suitor’s card.

Events that I really, really like and don’t fall into any of the above categories. For me, there hasn’t been one in this category so far. But if such a Harry Potter event drops, then let it be said for the record: I won’t rest till I’ve bagged all the event karmas. (I suspect this won’t happen, though, since a Harry Potter event is likely to fall at least in Category 3.)

ER events. Kind of a mixed bag since this whole system is pretty new. I’ll wait to see how it goes. 

Of course, deciding which events to invest in is one thing; being able to invest in them is another. That’s where predicting when and which events will drop comes in. With the CN server, each of the major Chinese festivals (CNY, Qixi) will have a major event, with the CNY one being the larger of the two. Then there are the chapter karmas, now once every two months. Season 2 this year was a bit of a surprise. I was expecting the “big, game-changing event” to drop around the time of MLQC CN’s anniversary in Dec, but apparently it happened mid-year. With the recent One Hundred Days of Company shenanigans, I’m still expecting something shocking (and probably unpalatable) to drop during its anniversary.

What about the rest of the events? Sometimes you can get hints of what’s going to drop looking at the messages released in the server/official Weibo posts.  *cough Harry Potter cough*  It’s also suspicious when the official Weibo channel stops posting stuff for a few days and when it’s been a bit quiet on the CN server on the events front. If it’s the latter only, it might just be a free R karma event, or if it’s an SSR, a single-character SSR. In either case, if there isn’t much hype leading up to it, it won’t be an event with high-ranking karmas, i.e. a skippable event for me. 

The birthday events are standard. They’re SR karmas, and when they drop is pretty much fixed. So if you’re planning to invest in them, it’s probably good to remember the general timings they’re in and do the necessary preparations a few months ahead. It’s also a good idea not to stretch your gems too much and have at least a few hundred to spare for any event, in case you so happen to need a few more. 

Li Zeyan: Early Jan

Zhou Qiluo: Early Apr

Ling Xiao: Mid June 

Bai Qi: End July

Xu Mo: End Nov

*Ling Xiao got his own birthday event this year in the CN server, so expect it next year in the EN one!

I decide which karmas to go for based on a few factors: the karmas I have, the karmas I need and the karmas that are available. If you’re like me and investing in karmas because of their stats, that makes our decision a lot easier on which karmas to get: high-ranking karmas in the attribute we’re trying to clear for the Heart Trials.

Another important thing to remember is that there’s an inevitable conflict between choosing to invest in karmas now and saving up for future karmas. Investing in karmas now means possibly gaining enough resources by clearing more stages in Heart Trials, but investing in future karmas means you’ll be able to get the karma with the highest-stats available at that time. This conflict arises from the devaluation of karmas with each passing year. Starting from the Valentine’s Day event this year, the four-people event/chapter SSRs have all been of the so-called “5939″ series. The karmas in this series are higher-ranking than SSRs released in the previous year, and so and so forth. I would expect the average stats of the SSRs (and possibly SPs) released next year to be better than those this year, so those are things for me to consider too when planning the karmas I should get. 

And this is just for the “regular” gem-intensive events. I haven’t even started on the top-up events and the free events (yes, those require planning too!) but I think I’ve said enough for now. I swear I’ve gotten a few more strands of white hair just by playing this game. 

So. Thanks for coming to my TED talk and happy karma planning!

[thescentoflavender]

Hey Hey! I’m new to MLQL, I been playing for roughly 2-ish months, but have my current account for around 1 month. Can you explain to me the difference in servers since people are talking events that I don’t see or general things that a newbie should know? Thanks a lot and hope you are well when seeing this ✨💖

Hello and welcome to the MLQC fandom! I’m sorry I took a while to respond to this! I wanted to answer this in one sitting and it wasn’t easy to carve out a block of time from my schedule.  

Difference between servers

There are six servers in MLQC. The mainland Chinese server (let’s call this MLQC CN), the only one I play, is the most up to date one. The next most up to date is the Korean server (MLQC KR), and it’s only a few weeks behind the CN server. Then we have the Taiwan server (MLQC TW), which is about a year behind MLQC CN. I’m not sure why MLQC TW is lagging so much behind MLQC CN because they share the same language. The only significant difference is the VAs. The Japan and the EN servers are about a year and a half behind the CN server in terms of the main story. Last is the SEA server (MLDD), which was just released this year. As far as I know, all the servers except MLQC EN and MLDD are managed by Papergames. For MLQC EN and MLDD, Elex are in charge of translating and distributing the games, but Papergames produce the content. 

Each server has their own schedule for events. Sometimes there are events which are released in certain servers at the same time, even if those servers are behind MLQC CN for the main story, e.g. the Disney event earlier this year. These are quite rare though. 

I only post about events in MLQC CN on my blog, which possibly explains why you don’t see them in the server you play. 

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General tips for newbies

1. If you aren’t planning to spend huge amounts of money on this game, don’t waste resources on Evolving or Ascending SR or R karmas. This is especially important for newbies, because you won’t have much resources to work with. This will get better with time, though. 

More on which karmas to Level/Evolve/Ascend here: A (Non-Exhaustive) Guide to Karmas

2. Save up your Galaxy Wish Coupons and gems for SP karmas. 

More on SP karmas here: SP Karmas and Why You Should Get Them

3. Never enter an event if you cannot meet the guarantee. There’s a saying in Chinese, “赔了夫人又折兵” (literally “losing your wife and your men”). Less literally, it means losing everything without achieving the desired outcome. If you’re really unlucky, you might end up not getting a single SSR/SP in a Wish Tree event, in the process wasting all your gems and coupons. So it’s always good to ensure that you have at least 140 Galaxy Wish Coupons/enough gems to buy 140 Galaxy Wish Coupons before participating in a Wish Tree event to hit the guarantee. It’s far better to go all in for one event than spread your coupons out over many events. 

4. Don’t go crazy on levelling your experts or in the Sunrise Pool. This is a surefire way to deplete your gold quickly. Save your gold as much as possible. Only use it when you really need to, such as for levelling up/Evolving your karmas and for doing the Daily Missions. 

5. It’s up to you whether you want to stock up on stamina. I start stocking up on stamina when collection-type events are announced, but on normal days I don’t. I also leave doing the City Strolls to the weekend, in case there happens to be a x2 or x3 coin event that drops. 

More on stamina here: Should I stock up on stamina? 

6. Check the official social media page religiously for redemption codes. For MLQC EN and MLDD, this should be their FB page. (For MLQC CN, it’s Papergames’ Weibo channel.)

7. If you’re planning on spending on this game, get the VIP card! I like to buy months’ worth of VIP cards when a top-up SSR/SP is released. I find it more value for money that way. In terms of value, VIP card > weekly gem packs > 2 for 1 promotion the first time you top up on gems.

More on the VIP card here: Highlights of the VIP card

That’s all I can think of for now. I’m working on a more detailed textbook guide on karmas, so keep a look out for it if you’re interested. 

If you have more questions on what karmas you should Evolve/Ascend, you can drop me a message or use the Karma Consultations Box. Please read the guidelines before posting so that it’s easier for everyone! (You might have to use the desktop version of Tumblr to see the guidelines.)

[thescentoflavender]

I was curious, is the order of karmas in our karma show their rank of stat too? Like, if mine is Lucien : peach blossom the first one, then the second one is victor: embers, is it mean that lucien one is higher than victor? Sorry if this question confuse you ^^"

Hello! I presume you’re asking if we can get the rank of the karmas by choosing to rank them in terms of their strength under “Filter”. 

The short answer is no. The filter option arranges the karmas by their current absolute strength and not their potential. What do I mean? If you look at the screenshot below, when I arrange my karmas according to their absolute strength, LZY’s SP karma is ranked below XM’s green Chapter SSR. However, in actual fact, LZY’s SP is the highest ranking karma for now, even higher than the other SPs I own. It’s ranking so lowly for now because I’ve only Evolved it to Lvl II.

Another example would be Bai Qi’s SER, which has better base stats than an average SSR. But it’s ranked more lowly than three other SSRs, because I haven’t Ascended it yet. 

That’s why I don’t normally rank my karmas by strength, but by rarity. The rarer a karma, the more potential it has, and the more you should prioritise it when choosing which karmas to Evolve and/or Ascend. The downside to this is that within karmas of the same type, it doesn’t tell you which is more worth investing your resources in. Someone has sent in an ask on this subject, and I’ll elaborate more on it in the future. 

In any case, for the two karmas that you’ve mentioned, I can safely say that the Embers SSR is a slightly better one than Peach Blossom. Not that this matters in grand scheme of things. Given that both of them aren’t great SSRs, I definitely wouldn’t Ascend either of them. Evolving them is okay though. 

[thescentoflavender]

Hello! So, I saw that the top up events in season 2 are ER cards. My question is, do you think the top up for ER cards is more expensive or it perhaps it has the same amount of money in season 1? Thank you and I hope you have a great time ❤️

Hello! Neither, actually—they’re theoretically cheaper. 

Excluding the last mega top-up event that had an ER priced at 128 RMB, all the other top-up ER events have been of a daily top-up format (see screenshots below). What that means is that when the player tops up a certain amount every day, they’ll get tickets, which they can later use to exchange for ERs in the store. 

If you do the maths, topping up 18 RMB every day over a period of five days is the best value-for-money solution for redeeming one ER; likewise, to get both ERs, you should top up 18 RMB every day over ten days. That’s 90 RMB for one ER or 180 RMB for two—seemingly cheaper than the previous events, which would have cost around 388 RMB if you wanted both the top-up SSR and SR. 

But this isn’t an entirely fair comparison. Firstly, an ER alone is lower in value than an SSR. It has the potential to be of a higher value than an SSR if you have Memory Starlocks, but these can be hard to get hold of. 

Secondly, if you end up spending more than 18 RMB per day, you aren’t rewarded for the extra amount you spend if you fail to hit the next top-up bracket. Remember: the most value-for-money solution is to spend just enough to hit the 18 RMB bracket, but most times, the more “value-for-money” items like the VIP cards (30 RMB) and the time-limited gem packs (28 RMB) cost more than that. 

Bearing this in mind, going forward, what is the best solution to get your money’s worth? What I do is to stock up on the “big-ticket items”, e.g. VIP cards, gem packs etc. during the mega top-up event that will be released along with Season 2. During that event, I bought one year’s supply of VIP cards, all the three time-limited weekly gem cards and another gem pack during that mega top-up event. Papergames has promised that these mega top-up events will occur (at least) annually, so there’s no need to worry that your VIP card will expire during the year if you buy enough. 

[thescentoflavender]

【未定事件簿】 通关攻略·卡牌顺序

To my followers: This is written for my friend, which is why it’s in Chinese. I decided to publish it here anyway since those who are playing Tears of Themis might find it helpful. An English version will probably follow when this game is released in English. 

声明：这篇攻略只针对如何更好地利用阵容出卡顺序通关的问题，对于如何养卡、升技能等一概恕不作诠释，还请有需要的读者移步其它攻略。为了让这篇攻略更通俗易懂，作者也只采用了一个比较简单的例子，玩家应根据自己的具体情况与需求打关。

敲黑板划重点！在还没有打完关卡（输赢皆算）的前提下，出卡顺序不是随机的。换句话说，只要记下了出卡顺序，玩家便可设定出卡的先后次序。

怎么说？

首先要做的就是给阵容里的卡标上号码，如图一。然后点【开始辩论】，给所显示的五张卡标上原先的号码，如图二、三。以下三张图里，在无蓝卡驳斥红色观点的情况下，玩家想过关可谓缘木求鱼。

在这个时候，方才记下的出卡顺序便有用武之地了！

���记：万万不可打到最后，驳斥了第一波观点后一定要及时退出战斗。

回到阵容一页，重新安排卡牌顺序。我们缺的蓝卡，这时就能补上了。根据图二和图三，蓝卡只需安排在第十、十三、三和十四其中任何一位即可。如图四所显示，开战后的出牌顺序和图二里一致，只不过因为阵容里的卡牌顺序换了，所以列表里的出战卡牌也有所不同。

通关后，出牌顺序会自动重置，需重复以上步骤重新设定好卡牌顺序。

总结一下：出牌顺序是由系统设定的，但玩家可利用其中的道理排好卡，顺利通关。祝小伙们游戏愉快 🌷

[thescentoflavender]

MLQC CN: A Guide to the 2020 Valentine’s Day SSR Event (Part 1)

Tagging @playmlqc and @itsmymindspeaking​—this series of posts should answer your questions! 

Part 1: How The Event Works Part 2: Tips for the Event (will include a calculation on number of gems needed) Part 3: Spring is in the Air Shop (春漾小铺), unlocked upon collecting all the SSR shards of at least 1 suitor

If you have any other questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer them in the other posts! 

P.S. Using Li Zeyan’s karma as an example because I’m currently going for his. 

How The Event Works

Choose a suitor (you can change this any time):

The main page of each suitor looks like this. From here, you can preview the date associated with each karma, buy mystery fruits to accumulate SSR shards and read the free stories released every 48 hours. 

In total, you need 788 Warmth Points for every one SSR. Every Mystery Fruit you get gives you at least 1 Warmth Point. If you run out of Mystery Fruits, you can use 15 gems to purchase 1 Warmth Point.

You can preview the date associated with each karma (tap on the button at the bottom right corner): 

Every 48 hours, a story will be unlocked for free, for each suitor. You can get 2 Mystery Fruits by reading each story. 

Every time you purchase a Warmth Point, either by using a Mystery Fruit or spending gems, you have a chance of getting bonus tasks, which you can solve to get at least 3 Warmth Points. If you achieve 3 stars in certain missions, you can get up to 5 Warmth Points. 

Rewards for the Event

Daily Mission Rewards

Do 120 Daily Missions every day to get the following rewards:

1 day: 10000 coins

2 days: 2 Mystery Fruits

3 days: 2 Confess Wishes

4 days: 4 Mystery Fruits 

5 days: 10000 coins

6 days: 6 Mystery Fruits

7 days: 2 Confess Wishes

8 days: 8 Mystery Fruits

9 days: 10000 coins

10 days: 2 Confess Wishes

11 days: Attire for the suitor of your choice for when you Go See Him

Rewards after getting karmas

Piece together any 1 Valentine’s Day SSR: 40 Mystery Fruits

Piece together any 2 Valentine’s Day SSRs: 65 Mystery Fruits

Piece together any 3 Valentine’s Day SSRs: 100 Mystery Fruits

Piece together any 4 Valentine’s Day SSRs: 130 Mystery Fruits

Piece together all 5 Valentine’s Day SSRs: 12 Karma Promises, 100 gems

For each Valentine’s Day SSR that you upgrade to 4 Stars: 2 Mystery Fruits, 25 Confess Wishes

For each Valentine’s Day SSR that you upgrade to 7 Stars: 3 Mystery Fruits, 40 Confess Wishes

For each Valentine’s Day SSR that you evolve: 5 Mystery Fruits, 12 Reset Coupons for Elite Missions