#trying to stay as f2p as possible

[larksinging]

my current arknights strategy while i still have a pretty weak team is “borrow spectre the unchained whenever possible”

[unironicironic]

So uhhhh

I have no idea what this Honkai Star Rail invitation code does or how to use it but it's for this event thing

And I need more stellar jades so my boy Aventurine can come home (maybe also Boothill and/or Robin when they drop butalsoJingliubecauseprettylady) so uhhh if you could use my code that would be real cool

My code being: GU773FBVUN

Your compensation is this real funny tiktok, credit goes to artandstuff_07 on tiktok

[2af-afterdark]

So, I wasn't sure how to write this in a coherent way. I'm not sure if I even am now, but I need to try (if only to vent). I’m just a person with feelings and an opinion and this is just for me to get this out there and out of my head.

I hate Solomon's Seals. I hate the idea of them. I hate them being paid content. I hate that they represent shady business practices and exploitation of fanbases. I hate it.

Before I explain, I am not faulting PB for trying to make a profit. Companies need to make money to stay in business and PB is a company. What I care about is the practices the company uses to try and make money. I care about how a company treats its players, both whales and f2p.

I am, by my own admission, a whale (maybe closer to a dolphin? Idk where we draw the line). I picked up the habit in my Eldarya days when I started throwing $10 at the game every few months. It was how I splurged on myself back when I was a broke college student. Before that though, I was a f2p player in everything I did. Even now, there are games where I am strictly f2p. So, please understand that I am seeing two sides to the issue as I write up this rant…

Solomon's Seal are exploitative and I hate them.

Paid currency, in general, is exploitative. Games can have paid content. That isn't what bothers me. Cosmetic changes being paid currency? Sure thing. Special stickers or emotes? Sounds fine by me. Making the gacha,, the entire backbone of the gacha game, paid player exclusive? That I have an issue with.

What bothers me is that WHB has introduced three different summoning items. Greater keys (GK), lesser keys (LK), and Solomon's Seals (SS). GK and LK are used for the general pool, with LK being used to narrow down summons to A+ rank or higher summons. Minhyeok's banner used GK, which was an interesting choice. They are easier to get by far. An actually alright move from PB, making it manageable to summon his unit (unit? card? what are we calling these guys even?) for all players.

However… then we saw the new banner and that it required SS. We were not told what SS were or how to possibly earn them. We found out after the update that SS are a paid currency. Specifically, they are a paid currency to draw on event banners for L-rank units. My heart sunk when I saw this. It sunk for a two main reasons:

It's unfair to the f2p player base, who doesn't even have a chance to earn a handful of SS for free to get even a few draws.

It makes me feel exploited as a whale when I see the prices on those SS.

My Eldarya days taught me something: whales motivate the company, for good and ill. Many companies want to try and get their whales to spend money on limited banners. If you played Obey Me (OM), you will recognize this as the reason Lucifer and Mammon always seemed to have the most limited cards. It was because they were the two most popular characters and the whales spent money on them. It was guaranteed that Solmare would keep making content for their cash cows. It's also why characters who ranked lower on that popularity poll started not getting as many cards.

(Side note: if you ever take these surveys and see the question "how much money do you spend on games a month", the company is explicitly assigning you a dollar amount to weigh your opinions)

Events (and their banners) are the lifeblood of gacha games. They make a ton of money during this time, so they tend to have a good deal of focus put on them. Personally, I prefer events to be more sparse so they are special and the team is not pulled between event stories, main story content, and the upkeep of the game.

OM had many shady practices as it went on. Constant events (often with only a day or two between the end of one and the start of another), being unable to complete an event reward sheet (3 pages) completely if you were f2p, Celestial Blessings (loot boxes within loot boxes), starting up Nightbringer (that's a whole other rant), not informing the fanbase for a year that OM would be all but discontinued, putting the announcement on a Reddit thread when it did finally come out so it had to be passed around via word of mouth rather than from Solmare itself, and more.

Solmare has always been an exploitative company and many of its choices are based in getting players to spend money as often as possible rather than ensure the actual game content is good (sorry, I am still traumatized by S4 and the year long wait). Many of their practices are based in fomo and gambling practice (reminder: gacha is gambling) meant to produce a Skinner effect and trick your brain to keep going, even against your own best interests.

You get an SSR guarantee when you draw because your brain sees the sparkling rainbows and thinks "I was so close to getting a UR! Maybe if I do one more pull". It prompts you to try again for that dopamine rush.

I bring up Solmare specifically to point out that, despite its shady practices, still didn’t have a paid exclusive currency. You could buy DP in that game, but DP was also able to be earned free. Same with DV. And the two currencies could be used to pull on any banner. Twst also allows you to use keys on any banner. Same with Nu:C and contracts. The Ikemen series too. One currency type for every banner, and that currency can be earned for free given enough time and effort. Honkai Star Rail and Genshin have two types of currency used on different banners, but both types can be earned completely free given enough time.

I personally think all currencies should be available to all players, paid and f2p, in some capacity. There should be a way to earn SS, even if only for a single ten draw. Doing anything less is unfair to the f2p player base and sends the message about caring about whales more. Games make their shit loads of money, even without having paid exclusive currency. 

I personally think they should use the more rare, already existing currency (LK) for L-rank banners. Every player can earn those and they can be bought in the shop for the paid players. F2p players have a chance to earn them for free and hoard them for the next banner drop, making them feel like they at least got a chance to pull rather than feeling left out.

HOWEVER, I am also going to acknowledge here the PB (unless they change their minds) has stated that the L-rank event units will be added to the general pool at the end of their two week banner run. Honestly? This is an amazing choice. It completely opens the potential to get the L-rank units up to the entire playerbase. The only drawback is that the rates to pull them will drop. This is the first time I’ve personally seen a game do this and I will not pretend it isn’t a very generous move. My issue isn’t with PB. It’s with the Seals as a concept.

As for why SS make me feel exploited as a paid player… it has to do with their cost. If you do the math, it costs about $500 to hit pity… Gacha have never been cheap (ask me how much I have spent in the past trying to get Kuya or Rei) but $500 is insane for a single pity… in which you can’t even choose what you get. Take into account that there are four items you potentially have to draw (the unit artifacts are necessary for the unholy board which is where extra stats and story are hidden) and that adds up very quickly. Now, you are likely to draw something before you hit pity, but that is not guaranteed and it certainly isn’t guaranteed you’ll get all four items. RNGesus is fickle, as many a veteran can attest. Seeing these prices puts a nasty taste in my mouth because it feels like going straight for the wallet. Remember, these are pixels. They cost time and effort to make and write for and the servers cost money to be maintained… but $500 for a single pity? That is a rather extreme cost for the unlucky.

Like I said, I don’t have an issue with PB needing to make money. We all do. They have employees to pay and servers to maintain. My issue is the way they do it. I find Solomon’s Seals to be gross. I find them to be a bad practice in their current state which is why I cannot, in good conscious, whale for this. How I spend my money encourages their practices. I do not support this one, so I will not put my money toward it.

Having said that, I openly acknowledge that PB is not defined by this one grievance. I like that they seem to be listening to the player base. They heard Solomon’s Tears were difficult to get and made it easier to obtain them. They are constantly trying to fix the game and stabilize the servers. They have given out a shit ton of keys and compensation for delays, maintenance, and more. I can find this one aspect egregious without bashing the entire company or their efforts >.> I can still enjoy the game and the characters. Critique is not criticism.

[crystalelemental]

“Haha, wow these new Master Fairs are so strong, DeNA should really introduce harder content.”

Can we all not do this for one goddamn update?

You bought the easy mode.  They are designed to be the easy mode.  This is a single-player experience with a diegetic difficulty based on what tools you use and you are actively choosing to just spam the strongest things to make the game as easy as possible then whining that it’s too easy.  You did this shit to yourselves.

If they want to add new content, fine.  If they want to add additional rewards through such means, fine.  But I get really, really annoyed at the constant insistence that the game needs “harder difficulty,” because man, you can make the game as tough as you want.  Try an F2P clear for 10k on Master Mode and come back and tell me that things are still too easy.  That the function of you believing there’s no challenging content isn’t purely a matter of your decision to collect and use only the strongest tools in the game.

Do you know why we’re getting so many new players to the game lately?  I mean aside from Ash.  It’s because the game is accessible.  If the game sucked and had no staying power, none of them would stick around.  And this isn’t a game where one option can clear.  Yes, you can solo a stage with Ash, but Champion Stadium requires five teams, and they can’t all be Ash.  Players are having to find their way through the content outside of that one broken option, and they’re able to engage with it and enjoy the content that exists because it’s not overpoweringly difficult and making the game challenging even for these top meta units.  If it were, no one would be enjoying this, because any options that weren’t those units wouldn’t be possible.

The worst part is, they’re probably going to get their wish anyway.  Units have been getting stronger at a much faster rate lately.  Whether it’s new units breaking previous damage thresholds, or utility units having new skills that massively outperform previous fare, new tools are getting stronger at a faster rate.  And I can absolutely see them introducing harder content to compensate.  But that sucks.  That sucks on so many levels.

CS is kinda scraping against the ceiling of what’s fun in that mode.  Adding many more points is going to start seriously limiting what your teams are capable of doing.  Yes, 2500 point runs are doable.  They were doable when I initially thought the shift would be that high.  But they weren’t exactly fun, because you had to turn on so many obnoxious conditions that it ran into the bigger issue: constant resets.  The game isn’t necessarily hard, but content can be annoying at times when you run into issues of needing to reset for MPRs, or a foe being on an attack pattern that doesn’t work, or a lucky crit landing, or needing a quad queue, or whatever it is.  Stronger teams don’t typically worry about this, but the lower on the power scale you go, the more often you’re resetting to make the comp work because of their demands.  The same is true in reverse; the higher your difficulty is set, the more you’re faced with a team you know can win, but are stuck resetting for things to go the way you need them to.  I don’t find that fun or valuable.

Also the modern CS events are already hard, but adding even more points on top of that so the weaker ones can feel more challenging feels like a terrible idea.

My fear is that this will result in a completely new kind of mode, and there’s been this massive uptick in people clamoring for co-op and PvP.  And I swear to god, it’s as true now as it’s always been, that will kill this game.  The instant they start demanding player interaction, the game’s playability will drop like a rock, because you are now completely at the mercy of whether or not you’re pulling for the current meta.  If you’re not, good luck standing a chance in any sort of PvP, and good luck being kicked from every friend list and being completely unable to even participate in the game because no co-op room will take you.  For general console games, you can at least work on skills and try to improve or find things that work for you.  This is a gacha.  And the only solution then is your wallet.  Which is a terrible way to have to engage with a game.

I just get so sick of this.  I’m so sick of people arguing for harder content, without realizing that you have complete control over the level of difficulty in the game.  I’m so sick of people arguing for hard co-op and PvP modes, when we have as many examples of why that’s a bad idea as there are gacha games.  All of their ideas are bad and stupid but they circulate like crazy for some godforsaken reason, and it is so draining every time we go through a high point in this cycle.  It doesn’t help that this is 100% elicited by Ash and Red, neither of whom I’m particularly happy about in the first place.

[unaplays]

Hi everyone! I'm back again with another tips! This is also a question I often get on my Instagram whenever a new banner is about to drop.

"Should I pull for A or B?"

As always I'm gonna keep everything under the 'keep reading' tab because I don't know how long this gonna get. If you have any further questions, feel free to leave a comment or ask!

For the entire year I've been playing Genshin, I've learned a thing or two about pulling for a character. There are a couple things I like to take into consideration because my primogems are quite limited.

Do you like their playstyle?

For me, this is like what seals the deal when I'm deciding to pull for a character or not. Hoyoverse has given us character trial (despite probably not the best at that) for the entirety of the banner duration. So before you actually decide whether to pull or not, use that feature as many times as you need to.

I personally think it's important to like the character's playstyle because it ensures you that the character you're pulling is not gonna just stay at the teapot (if you know what I mean haha).

In my case with Hu Tao, I pulled on her banner because I was looking for Thoma (it was his first banner after being introduced to us) and tbh I don't like Hu Tao's life-draining playstyle. But she came home anyway and for the next couple of months (almost a year later actually) she stayed at level 50 without any artifacts and never actually used haha.

If you're an f2p, making sure you're comfortable with the character's playstyle is really important so you don't waste your primogems.

Look back into your character collection

Since Genshin now often has double banners, for example, Ayato and Venti running at the same time, you have to look back into your collection and see which one you lack; dps or support?

For me, I try to balance my character collection as much as I can. Do I need a dps? Which type of dps, cryo, hydro, or electro? Or do I need support more? Do I have another crowd control (cc) character that can substitute Venti? Those kind of questions will help me determine which one I need more over the other.

Let's just say i need both dps and support, I will look back again and see in my collection if there's another character that can ac as their replacement for the time being. Never look down on 4* characters cuz when they're built properly, the damage can be quite crazy.

Do you have the team party for them?

Some characters are more niche than others. Take example Itto. He's a geo character whose damage scales with def. So his support has to be someone who buffs def for him. Gorou is so far the only support who's almost tailor made for Itto. So if you don't have Gorou, Itto's damage is probably not gonna be as good.

Thankfully Hoyoverse now has made it possible to get a dps and their designated support all in one banner so we can worry less about this.

Another example being Xiao who needs a shield so his plunge attack doesn't get interrupted, as well as an anemo battery to keep his burst full. Xiao is known to have a niche team comp as well.

So do keep in mind that some characters need proper support in order to "function" well.

Do you like the character design?

If yes, then pull!

This is like the last thing I consider when pulling for a character. All of Genshin character has amazing design tbh and I always prioritize functionality over design but there are times when I just wanna go for them because of their design. Example being pulling Thoma during Hu Tao's banner.

[nc-vb]

jaiden!

i've been busy with college recently so hsr and genshin has been just daily commisions but!

i'm gunning for e0s1 argenti in my f2p eu account (i went and did EVERY SINGLE QUEST and go as many achievements as i possibly could) i currently have 135 pulls and im praying that he'll come home fast

this is going to be his build as soon as he drops (i prefarmed his mats so that i can get him to 5/9/9/9 as soon as he arrives) (don't mind luka, i'm still farming the dot domain for his relics and until he has a decent 4 pc he's staying at level 1)

also hanya is arriving! and with hanya comes an idea that i've been cooking for a 4 physical team on my asia account - e1 clara (lost the 5050 on huohuo's banner) e6 sushang e6 nat and hanya!

so

hybrid nat!

the reasoning behind this is

since i'm going have hanya buffing the hell out of physical damage with planetary rendezvous and the penacony planetary set i figured i might as well get some crit stats on nat

but since nat is also going to be the only defensive option on that team i'm going to need nat's healing to be good enough to keep everyone alive

i'll probably be better off with hp orb but i actually don't have one with double crit yet

Birdie!!! haha I feel that! I’ve taken a break from college this year myself to work a little extra, but I’ve barely managed to keep up completely with HSR… The way I just finished the 1.1 quest the other day…

Ooh Argenti!!! I hope you get him!! He looks incredible!! Unless I’m somehow lucky, I might have no choice but to skip him but I’m trying to build just a little pity! (Luka my beloved 🫶🏼)

Honestly, it’s so hard (at least for me) to get good double crit pieces, and I think that’s why I found myself having a little bit of disdain for HSR vs Genshin because of the relic farming process; it’s not easy until you’ve built them enough but to build them enough, you gotta suffer through it a bit.

Maybe I’m just lazy.

Love the idea of a hybrid Nat tho!!

[nahastricks]

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When the installation is complete, click Finish.Best practices for resolving PES2017 issuesĪ clean and tidy computer is the key requirement for avoiding problems with PES2017. Go through the game installation process according to the on-screen instructions.ĥ. PES 2022 will be fully developed based on the free PES 2022 Unreal engine. Therefore, Konami had to change their approach to create the last part. PES 2022 will be the first installment in the history of the entire series, which will appear on next-gen consoles.

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If they turn out to be true, we can talk about the great revolution of the Pro Evolution Soccer series. These reports have not yet been confirmed by the Japanese. It turns out that Konami will want to bet 100% on the free-to-play model with micropayments.

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VGC’s Andy Robinson has said that PES 2022 freeload will be the first “truly free-to-play game in the series”. Now Konami is heralding a big revolution to help them take the lead. So far, despite many loyal fans, the Japanese have not had much success. Stay one step ahead of its biggest competitor in the field of soccer games. Konami is constantly trying to find a way Konami has always tried to release a new game before the premiere of its biggest competitor, FIFA. This was the case with the 2018, 20 versions.

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It is very likely that, like the previous ones, PES 2022 Download PC will appear around the first half of September. More information on the game’s release date will be revealed on July 21. Konami pointed out at the very beginning that this is a very early version and that a lot of things will be improved for the first one. The players were not very happy with the stage at which the “demo” was released. The test version offered 4 clubs to choose from: FC Bayern, Juventus, Manchester United and FC Barcelona. In addition, from the day of the premiere it will be possible to play local matches. Player will be able to disable the cross-play function, which means that a controller would be required to compete on mobile devices. At first, you will not be able to use digital transactions for pc game PES 2022 torrent. What does such a procedure mean in concrete terms? It looks like we’ll get a streamlined game that will be gradually updated over time. In a recent Q&A on Twitter, Konami candidly said that its highly anticipated eFootball game was nothing more than a demo. It is possible that the success of eFootball will force EA Sports to rethink the matter and take decisive action to ensure that its biggest competitor does not win the race for the player.

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Konami is constantly trying to find a wayĬross-platform function, players can play common matches using completely different devices.

[mizukis-ribbon]

I don't know how many English only version know how events work in project Sekai so I thought I'd make a post about just in case it might help some of the new comers to the game.

All info after the cut because it ended up being more lengthy than I thought...

You should try to read the event story episodes as soon as you get them. It's no actually necessary to fully read you can just use the skip button and it will count.

Each episode will give you 50 gems which comes to a total of 400 gems per event. This are gems that cannot be obtained once the event is over, and for completely f2p players this might make the difference between getting the card you want during pick up or not. The one music card reward per episode stays no matter what though (if it still works like the Japanese version at least)

Regardless of whether you unlock all event episodes or not during the event all episodes will be available to read once the event is over and becomes archived. This means there's no need to stress over getting all parts of you just don't have the time at one poi t but you still want to read the story.

And speaking of story. All events end up cross referencing eachother in the future and they are continuations of the main story for all units.

I personally recommend reading them calmly once you're done with the main story to get as much out of them as possible since they can be accessed all later anyway, but this mostly becomes more of an issue later on and the first few ones can more or less be read without reading the main story (even if they might lose a bit of nuance on the first read).

Mostly all of this can be applied to the event after lives as well.

If you don't feel like watching it you can attend actively, leaving it in the background to run will once you're inside the live room will get you the 300 gems it gives you and the game will kick you out of the room once a predetermined amount of time passes (just be sure you're phone doesn't get locked in the middle of it).

The live also can be accessed from the archives event page and the unique live sticker will still be a reward even once it's been archived.

Unlike the event story, the after lives don't give a run up or complete canon story content but they do tend to show some very neat character interactions and some of those can help flesh them out a bit more (by giving a bit more insight into what they thought of what went on during the event or showing you how they might have changed after it or similar)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head so... If you made it this far thank you for reading all that and hope at least a part of it was helpful c:

If you have any questions about the game feel free to swing by my ask box. I'm not an absolute know it all about all parts of the game, but being in Project Sekai hell for over a year has given me some time to learn a lot even just by trial and error.

[luminari-mc]

Before I start, I love obey me, it's one of the best otome games I've played simply because you don't HAVE to pay to play it and get far, which is really nice! But then they do something like dias birthday, and really f over f2p players... like was it really that hard to give him a birthday event like everyone else? like sure it wasn't easy to get the cards, but it was still possible without having to pay.

I'm worried that it will be the same for Solomons birthday, and birthdays after that (being that they already made it harder to get the brothers cards this year)

I know they need the money to continue making the game, but solmare isn't a small company, and people pay them constantly, is it really so bad to make events accessible to everyone? Sorry I'm ranting, it's just really frustrating, and these events aren't fun when you put in the effort and can't even get the card for the person the event is based around.

I've seen a lot of complaints within the fandom about that last night, and I'm truly sorry for all Diavolo lovers out there that his card isn't as easily accessible as the brothers' ones. :c

In order not to make the post too long for mobile users, I'll continue my thoughts under the cut:

I guess there's no other way than to share the fandom's thoughts about this problem to Solmare so they can take it into consideration for the other Dateables' birthdays. Message them while staying as polite as possible, because being rude won't bring anything positive, even if you're understandably upset. Express your sentiment regarding his birthday card being only accessible through a luck system, and that it shouldn't be obtainable differently than Lucifer's or Mammon's birthday cards.

While I had to grind like mad to obtain Mammon's card in time for his birthday event (I had to buy several 200 AP pack within the duration of the event, thus using a lot of DP, as well as use over 17 D-Energies), obtaining Diavolo's birthday UR+ does require luck and vouchers, which are obviously a bit more harder to obtain than purely relying on grinding.

However, one thing I'd like to mention as a bit of a positive thing in all this, is that having Diavolo's card obtainable through Nightmare means that it will come back as a Revival next year around the same time period! Yes, it's a long time away from now, but it means it will be possible to try your luck again and prepare appropriately (hoarding your vouchers) when late-October of 2022 comes around. Not the best thing, I'll give you that. But on the contrary of the brothers' birthday cards, where as far as we know, aren't going to be available again, Diavolo's card will come back. That is, if they don't change things further more in the future.

So all in all, if you want Solmare to know that it upsets you, don't hesitate to message them. They heard the fandom's complaints regarding how the story keys post-events served no purpose, and decided to at the very least, turn them into Grimm once the events finished. Better than nothing, to be honest. But if several people all share the exact same thoughts regarding Diavolo's birthday, then I'm not so sure they'd risk doing the same for future birthdays. But I don't work within their company, so don't take my words for it.

[demons-are-curing-my-depression]

im curious how do people get their total strengths so high😭😭😭

It takes a while. Ya gotta keep leveling up the cards and their devil tree's. URs can get the highest strength scores because their max levels, without devil flowers unlocked, is 100.

In my 71 days of playing (it feels like it's been longer) I've managed to pull these UR/UR+ cards and have since leveled them up as shown below. I've only unlocked two Devil's Flowers and that was the SSR Levi - Levi the Tailor and the UR Luke - Pajama Party Night (both of which I liked the original art)

This is my first UR so it's the highest cause I used it for all lessons 1-20 (before the sin bonuses) and most after.

(it happened to be a UR+ which the + just means there's an animation with it. UR and UR+ are same in terms of stats) I've gotten the Devil Tree all the way to the Devil's Flower but haven't been able to unlock it yet.

However this is my most recent UR pull (and notice it's weaker than some SSRs at the moment - see second photo)

It doesn't matter how many URs you have but which sins. I could have 10 for pride and still not be able to get past some levels if they don't call for pride cards.

I'm currently stuck on Lesson 29-4 which calls for (little hard to see cause they pulsed as I took the screenshot) Envy and Pride.

Now my recommend shows my Highest Envy(a UR+), Highest Pride(an SSR) then Highest in general(UR+). Ideally I would have more Envy or Pride UR cards and it wouldn't have that Wraith card there.

I would also have more good memory cards. I don't actually have any UR memory cards yet.

My suggestions

For leveling up cards

Avoid Quick Clears whenever possible (preferably when you can Skip instead) otherwise your cards don't gain any EXP (and you get less rewards). It may seem like they only get a little but it does add up over time even though it'll seem like it takes forever the higher the level.

When possible level up cards when it'll cost less Grimm. i.e. if a card's EXP bar is 3/4 of the way filled it's cheaper to level them up to that next level now rather than paying for the entire bar.

Keep an eye on card's level max if you haven't reached the Devil's Flower yet. If you reach the max and use the card it's a waste because they gain no EXP. I try to make sure my max is at least 10 higher than the current level.

For Getting URs (/getting Demon Vouchers)

If there's a UR card in an event you really want do your best to work your way through rewards (even though F2P players literally cannot complete all three pages without paying or saving up a lot of Devil Points/Energy) in 6 months the event (unless it's a birthday event) will be on Lonely Devil and you can restart the reward list and get more card pieces. Yes this is a much longer method but it's a free method (besides the 10 Devil Points to take the "trip")

Save up Raven and Devil Points whenever possible. It will take a while but you need to get those demon vouchers. (45 Raven gets you one voucher & 30 DP gets you one voucher at Akuzan.)

Opt for the 10 pulls at once option as you're gaurenteed to get at least one SSR. Instead of using 30DP for a pull in Nightmare, go to Akuzan and get vouchers. Save up the vouchers instead.

When you run out of AP I know that offer for 200AP for 10DP looks tempting but make sure you're aware of your current exp level progress and the amount of DP you'd be left with after that 10 because if you happen to level up you get the 99DP offer which gives you 5 Demon Vouchers (and it'll fill your AP again when you level up anyway).

Getting through events with a lot of rewards - or getting enough AP

Take advantage of Levi's Boot Camp. Those rewards stay for a week after the event ends and usually happen before a big event (the week after the event ends overlaps with the big event start). Don't use the AP rewards until you need them for the big event.

Check your To-Do. A lot of AP comes from using a certain person in battle a lot. See where you're close to getting a reward and try to focus on those.

Don't immediately use AP from your To-Do. They have no expiration date (only things in your mail and event rewards do). Use them only when you really need them.

Remember you can get 120 AP a day from Fridge Missions (I legit have an alarm on my phone so I don't miss those).

When getting reward AP from events make sure you need the AP. Don't get a 100 AP reward if you only have enough battles left in the event for that day for 30 AP. That's 70 you could have used on the next day and 70 that won't auto refill as you wait for the next day. (I phrased that weird but hopefully you understand what I mean by that.)

...

I'm sure you didn't expect this super big answer, sorry ^^" got a little carried away...

[rainofaugustsith]

Rain Plays SWTOR: Surviving Toxic Players

One of the good things about SWTOR is that it is an MMO, and offers possibilities for players who want to interact with others.  One of the bad things about SWTOR is that it is an MMO, and some of the other players can be extremely toxic.  Whether it’s verbal abuse on the Fleet, or someone being a ‘ninja’ and stealing your objectives from under your nose, toxic players are no fun to deal with. Here are some tips on trying to make your experience as non-toxic as possible. 

Guard your screen names.   I have encountered people who have casually asked for my screen names and servers. You do not - do NOT - have to give your characters' names to anyone you don't want to. You do not have to play with anyone you don't want to. And if someone finds you in game and you feel creeped out, you have every right to block them.

Do Instanced Heroics and Flashpoints.   A lot of heroics are entirely or mostly instanced - that is, behind a green barrier that is your space and your space alone. You are the only player in your instance unless you actively invite someone else in with you. Flashpoints are always your own instance as well. If you are getting frustrated by other players or just want to play alone they're good options. There is a list of entirely instanced heroics here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=856069   Get a stronghold.   Even if you put nothing in your stronghold but a mailbox and a Legacy hold, it can be a nice place to take a breather without worrying about other players. The Dromund Kaas and Corsucant strongholds run 5000 credits each so they should be doable for you. You can also add a lot of the Fleet perks and services to your ship by buying those decorations - everything from an appearance modification station to the Jawa scrap vendors.    Put everything on your ship.   Your ship comes with a cargo hold. You can also buy access to a mailbox, Legacy hold, guild hold, GTN terminal, repair droid, practice dummies, and modification station. Once you buy these perks they are there for all your toons. IMHO they are invaluable, especially during the class story when you spend a lot of time on your ship. Buy these, along with the 40,000 credit perk that allows you to teleport to your ship instantly (click on the ship on the lower left of your galaxy map) and you won't have to be on the Fleet as much.

Get the Objectives First.   So. You’re questing. You walk into an area, clear the NPCs and then click the thing you need, right? Not unless the area is instanced. One of the most frustrating toxic player behaviors comes from those who deliberately grab your objectives from under your nose.  Keep in mind that this can be accidental - in a lot of open world areas there are a lot of quests happening at once, and someone might not even know you need the blue clickable thing 10 meters from your toon. On the other hand there are players who will literally race you when they see you’re going to click the thing, so it’s not always an accident.    If you're questing in an open world area, grab the objective as soon as you get to it, if you can. This may mean you take a little damage, but if your companion is leveled high enough, they should be able to help you stay alive and defend you while you're doing this.

Beware of followers.   So there's another player who seems to be keeping pace with you. When you stop, they stop. They may have put their toon on follow. The modus operandi is that they'll follow you, let you do all the work, and then jump in to click the objectives first.   If another player has you on /follow you can do one of two things: either leave, or get them to leave. You can log out, change instances, stand there and do crew missions until they give up, run in circles, use any toys you have, or simply press x and have your character sit down.   Don't help.   So you jump into a mob, and someone leaps ahead of you. Suddenly all the NPCs are grey.   It's entirely possible that this is an accident - you didn't see another player coming, it's happened to all of us - but I've also seen players deliberately, repeatedly jump in front of other players on every mob. Your companion will still try to help them if you've attacked, so put them on passive, pull them back and walk away. Do not help someone who is grabbing your mobs.   Switch Instances.

Open your map. Look on the lower right hand side and you can see how many instances of a current planet are open. If the instance you are in has a lot of troublemakers, switch to a different one. Be careful about NOT switching into a PvP instance. They are marked, and those are the places other players can kill your toon, so if you are looking to avoid trouble, don't go there. 

  Turn off duel invites.   Click on Preferences. Go to the "social" tab. Turning off the duel invite option will mean that other players can't bother you by requesting duels again and again. 

  Ignore the high level players on starter worlds.   Unfortunately it's pretty common to find high level players congregating in common areas on the starter planets, bothering lowbies who are just starting new characters. They may duel spam you, try to get you into their guilds, try to rope you into ERP (erotic role play) or kill NPCs you need. Ignore them. Keep walking. There's nothing they can do to you. You do not need to commit to a guild when you're a Level 3.   Be wary of guild invites.   There are a lot of very good guilds out there...and some bad ones, too. You will get a lot of unsolicited guild invites. You do not have to feel pressured to join any of them. If you don't want to join a guild at all, that's cool. If you do, you can get to know other players and see which one feels right to you.   Don't fall for referral deals.   Another common scam for newbies is that someone will offer you millions of credits to click their referral link. So you do, and...suddenly they are ignoring you and there are no credits in your mailbox. It happens all the time.   If you want to use a referral link, use one from a player you trust. A lot of the SWTOR guides and websites' creators have referral links; using their links is a nice way to thank them for the game help and info.   Turn off the chat channels.   Go to the top left, where your chat box is. Left click. You should get a drop down with "chat settings" as an option. Click. You can turn off every single chat channel if you so wish. This will prevent you from a) hearing garbage other players say and b) stop other players from verbally harassing you. Some people keep the whisper and group channels open, as well as those providing system information and conversation captions, and turn off the others.   In particular general chat (gen chat) can be brutally awful, and closing it IMHO is not a loss.

Screenshot, block, report.   If someone has targeted you with abusive language on a chat channel or is griefing you in the game, you can report them. Take a screenshot. Put the person on ignore by typing /ignore player'sname in your chat box. Then report them. If you are F2P or Preferred you will need to email the support team at support@swtor.com. If you are a Subscriber you can use the in-game support system to send a report.

Don't take it to heart.   Dealing with Players Behaving Badly can be as frustrating as dealing with bad drivers in traffic - but getting mad won't change anything. Use as many tools as you can to avoid the worst of the worst, and be part of the solution by being a polite and considerate player yourself.

[crystalelemental]

"Kalos CS is next week, I should take this opportunity to run an F2P clear and get some time with the less fortunate who will not at all keep up with modern times."

Why do I do this to myself?

Vs. Will This fight wasn't too bad.  BP Karen packs an astonishing punch, and Nanu's sync nuke is...actually a really strong nuke.  Dark-type always felt like a lower-tier typing on an F2P budget, but it turns out I've been neglecting Karen for too long.  She's pretty great.  The biggest problem with this set is BP Surge being so frail.  Your support dropping in like three hits is never good.

Vs. Karen UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH. Okay.  Look.  Fuck this fight.  +2 evasion is bullshit, I had to try this like five dozen times, and we came within an inch of success, losing exclusively because a last-second Rock Smash that would've put her in KO range missed, or I missed a quad-queue, or some kind of stupid nonsense.  It was every time!  The worst part is, if Maylene had her grid?  We would've had this won attempt 1.  Because Precision Pals and Pep Rally solves this fight.  Bruno needs the speed, and the accuracy boosts changes this entire fight.  But without that, this stage is wildly frustrating.  I hate this fight so much.

Vs. Koga So! Initially, this was meant to be an attempt at having Lodge Serena clear a fight on an F2P budget, because I'm trying to make those units work out.  And you know how Flying-weak Koga has sides with like...infinity billion defense? Turns out, Lodge Serena cannot KO.  Cannot.  Like, does not come close.  Even her sync with Hop's Behemoth Bash doesn't do it.  But you know who does do it?  Kahili.  My girl.  Her sync nuke can take out side thanks to defense debuffs, even without Super Preparation.  Kahili is such a chad.  It did take two attempts to get the flinch rate on Conkeldurr, because it will KO everyone with Earthquake otherwise, but Kahili is never the problem.

Vs. Bruno Victory lap time.  Psychic-weak means Giovanni.  I initially thought about Tate. But then I thought, after the other two things...no.  No to that.  I'm out.  Roxanne, Giovanni, kill this clown.  Erika's helping with special defense drops off Energy Ball.  With the special condition boosting secondary effect rates, it was a pretty established guarantee of a drop.  And I'd like to also point out, despite being Fighting-weak, Roxanne handles this stage just fine, because Endurance.  She's so good.  Endurance is so good.

Vs. Lance I briefly entertained the idea of Zinniquaza.  I have Winona right here, all we really need is someone who can cap crit.  I have Lodge Elesa, it was possible. But I've suffered enough.  Cyrus time.  And let me tell you.  Cyrus/Winona stays winning.  These two are champions in everything they do.

Final Thoughts I know Johto's considered one of the weaker stadiums, because it's old and a sufficient striker can blitz it.  But this week felt hard as hell.  If it wasn't for Psychic/Dragon as the finale, I feel like this would've been way harder than it seems.  Dark wasn't too bad, but the Fighting-weak stage having evasion sucks, and the Flying-weak stage having such potent defensive sides made this really threatening.  I dunno.  This one's rougher than most.

I'm tempted to at least try F2P next week.  See if it's even remotely possible in Kalos.  I don't know if I will.  I may just want to let that go.  We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling.

[flyingfudgenuggets]

Since you have HoR do you think she's worth it? On Global her banner is coming. I was waiting for HoT, but HoR is pretty f2p friendly too. I was talking to my friend and she said HoT would help me more on meta - not that I care about meta at all. I kind of want HoR because my goal in the future is to have all the Herrschers and I feel like spending currently (not real money ofc) lmao xD I have around 20k so she's not garanteed if I'm unlucky. And I'm not sure if she's worth it right now. I could wait for HoT: but when will she come around?

I am very biased towards Bronya bc she's my first fave in this game so I might not be the best to ask but I'll try to be neutral xD

So hor was, for the longest time, *the* strongest ice damage dealer on her release. Then skadi (argent knight artemis rita's sig weapon) got a pri-arm, so they were neck and neck at the top.

And then hor's pri arm came along and the rest is history xD

Thing is, hor may be kinda f2p compared to, say hov or aka, but she still kinda needs her signature weapon to be good. But yeah her own built in dmg multipliers are good already. So she's still up there even with subpar gear.

There's also the new haxxor bronya battlesuit as ice support. Bronya can support Bronya now xD

The new Seele battlesuit is also ice type but I heard she won't necessarily powercreep hor. Then again, y'know it's possible. And that's why I heard ppl say hor may not be the best ice dps now. If not now sooner or later with nyx specific boss or weathers.

Now we have hot. She is so broken with her innate multipliers. Even above hor's own multipliers I think. And hot in early game doesn't really need signature anything to do well. Imagine if you got her fully geared. I got her 3/4 gears and I've been doing relatively okay.

Unless mihoyo releases someone even more broken than her, she stays right there at the top bc she covers so many weathers and memorial arena bosses.

So now it's up to you to take your fate in your hands to either a) pull for hor and her weapon (or get weapon in bp shop); or b) save up and wait for hot. The choice is yours captain xD good luck!

Also, ppl more knowledgeable than me, pls correct me if I'm wrong xD

[sortaotaku]

I love your content, thank you for all your efforts! Do you have any advice on how to best full early clear on ikevamp & ikerev while spending as little real money as possible? Do you have an estimate of about how much you typically spend? I'm mostly f2p but occasionally I really want an avi item.

Thank you! ❤️

I usually DO spend at least a little bit on early clear because I want to clear so many events but you can manage it purely by saving. (It took me around 4 months to save enough on my Ikerev TW account to)

Free to play advice:

My advice for non paying players is to never skip out on daily login rewards and to dilligently save main story clear items. (Tickets and crystals/diamonds) You get 300 crystals/diamonds for main story clears plus all that you get for login. It may take a long time but you can definitely save enough eventually to buy an ECB set during an event. But in the case of event sets the last minute (last lucky time clear sets) big sale sets are the best deal so I would suggest buying those and saving them for later events. As for collection event clears the same advice stands. Save up your daily login and main story clear items. You will need around 50-60 tickets to ECB easily if you have enough lin/gold as well. I’d say saving up around 200-300k for a collection event is reasonable. For collection events I don’t recommend using your tea sets.

You have to make sure you have enough saved. It feels terrible to save for a long time only to realize you don’t have enough 😅

Paying to play:

For me the amount I’ll spend on sets depends on what I’m trying to get. I’ll get the ECB sets if I am trying to get ECB definitely which cost somewhere in the 4000+ range right?

But sometimes I just do what I call skipping the events and I just buy up the cheapest on sale event sets (like the paid crystal sets and last call sets). You have to wait like the free to play strategy and you have to pay money but... It’s cheaper than buying ECB all the time and faster than the all free method.

Paying to try and rank is different depending on the game. In Ikerev you can probably get away with just getting 2 big lucky time sets to get the top bracket ECB most of the time for story events. This is because ECB is more expensive than ranking. For Ikevam if you want the ranking prize then you might as well go for ECB because the cost will roughly be equal.

Paid currency (crystals/diamonds) is cheaper in Ikevam and you get bonus with big purchases. In the long run biting the bullet and purchasing the biggest diamond set is the cheapest. (I understand that it hurts because it’s so much $$$ but if you ever do spend it IS cheaper to pay it all at once and get the bonus)

I use a blend of both since I have to pay for the game with USD rates as a Canadian. (RIP me it’s so expensive!!!) But for a casual player I’d say it would probably be better to stick with the free to play strategy while occasionally buying the small paid crystal sets.

If you’re asking about my spending habits I buy the biggest crystal sets and diamond sets once each month or every other month depending on my leisure budget. So that’s like ($49 USD) $65 Canadian aka a lot of money~ I don’t use the whole monthly allowance on event items for one event, I calculate how many LP I need and use the items accordingly. This is unless I’m really busy with work or exams and need to use items to compensate. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t spend carelessly, I do have a fairly decent amount I can affording with my part time job since I live at home and I rarely do outtings. (Like shopping in malls and such)

No matter what do not get tempted by gacha sets. I know this is hypocrisy because I do it but if you want to save for event clears don’t do it!

Plus here’s some just general event advice. For duels try and avoid duels with players that look like they might have very high beauty. (Gold cards, ECB attire items). Certain players in the overall beauty ranking often stay at the top bracket of event rankings and it’s good to remember their names and attire items they may wear often. I’m somewhere around #20 overall in both Ikerev and Ikevam for example and my character name is Sakura. Aside from that I do have favorite attire items I usually wear that you’d easily be able to spot

That said good luck clearing!

[crystalelemental]

Champion Stadium clears, testing out the new sync pairs, and trying to stay mostly within the F2P lines. There are some exceptions, though...

Vs. Karen BP Barry is really good. Like, this kit rules. Him and base Erika form a really strong partnership to an EX Striker like Lusamine, who may need a bit of crit, and a lot of special attack. Barry supplies it all, with solid defensive profile and Synthesis to sustain. I am exceptionally impressed with his work.

Vs. Will Defensive supports are nice for pairs that are offensively self-sufficient, or for longer modes like Gauntlet. In CS, I feel like defensive supports largely exist for stall. You'll be happy to know, Olivia does this pretty well. X Regen All is nice gradual recovery for the sides to shrug off sync, while her own Protect and First Aid 4 can keep her in place longer than you might expect. I'm not blown away by her performance, but she accomplishes a goal and serves nicely within Stall Meta.

Vs. Koga And now we reach mistakes. A major problem with the BP Master Pairs this time around is that the buffing kit is very poor. Registeel, in particular, kinda sucks. Defensive boosts are decent, but only self-applied, which means sides will obliterate your allies with AoE. Cutting healing in half is a generally smart strat in CS, but Registeel works entirely with recovery so it's hard to facilitate. Its speed boosting, a major draw of its kit, is slow to start up given your two TMs to max defenses, then probably throwing out Potions as needed, resulting in few actual attacks occurring. It's also just not that sturdy. Even with +6, it didn't take much for Koga to overwhelm it. This was carried by Kukui's flinch and Candice's sync bombs, which also needed to remember to reset Hail for Sure Crit or she'd die.

Vs. Bruno Believe it or not, I actually don't respect SEUN on its own. Even aside from how much content these days focuses on off-type, a major issue is that it tends to come with limited offensive support. Dana is a pretty good example of the issue. When looking to the lower tiers that most want this, they can't buff, and she can't help them. The closest we came was Gardenia, who had two problems. One is setup. Without 3/5 Dana, we just didn't have the ability to save a turn off Dire Hit+, or the ability to boost special attack enough for Gardenia to win. The other is bulk. Dana can buff both defenses eventually, but skews special, so a physical stage like this is very difficult for her. I had to settle on SS Erika as the only option with really good self-setup, and to be honest, Erika could've done with this other pairs. This is decisively not Dana's best showing, and I'm feeling very strongly that this is a pair that lives and dies by 3/5 access when considering anything but the elite in self-setup.

Vs. Lance Look, I needed to test out BP Valerie, I adore her. Off-typing Lance it is. This is a particularly scary fight, because of the high BP moves that Lance throws around constantly. Even H!Caitlin has trouble with it. That said, permanent field condition is a choice this time, so welcome to easy street. Caitlin's shields last through Lance's sync, and Colress can debuff accuracy to really cheese round 2. I will say, with concentrated DPS and a flinch off Iron Head, it...legitimately might have been possible to pre-sync clear center. Valerie's pretty impressive on DPS. Sync isn't fantastic without on-type, but we knew that already. Overall though, very satisfied with her performance.

BP Falkner Falkner was the odd man out here. I wasn't exactly confident in his off-type sync potential, so I dropped it. That said, in more closely assessing how he could've been used, I did recognize two things. One is, his speed debuffing is great for Cakewalk. Second, his attack debuffing with Defog would've made something like Bruno much, much easier to handle, as he removes all the shields and offsets parameters. Third, Confuse. This one was especially salient, because I remembered Tate exists, and has hilarious DPS numbers on-type when facilitated, with Cakewalk as the sync. Tate might be Falkner's best F2P partner, facilitating effectively every condition for DPS and Sync that Tate needs. Now if only we had a Psychic Terrain support.