[X] My Assistant

Why are Energy Drinks in such high demand? I never paid attention to the forums (or HV at all, for most of the time I've been using E-H) up until now, and had just been selling them to the item shop, but now I see people buying them up for 100k each. Is stamina that big an issue once you get to the high levels?

Edit: also, why does my title show "Lord"? I have it set to auto so it should be Destined, since that's the highest I have.

This post has been edited by anon7631: Apr 7 2022, 06:10

It's mostly people grinding too much as even with the stamina perk they probably eat through stamina very fast but for most people natural stamina regen is often enough so no need to worry about that. That said the leveling speed gets really bad towards the cap so those interested in exp will also drink the EDs to grind more so in a sense I guess "great" stamina is desirable at high levels too.

The item shop will pay really badly for your items so yeah it's better to sell to other players most of the time.

It's the second time someone mentions auto title not doing it's work properly so maybe there's a bug somewhere or the database is really slow syncing stuff or something who knows. But doing it manually seems to do the trick from what I see now.

Auto title is only up to Lord, for the reason maybe because the evade chance is not always good to every playstyle so you have to decide if to select them by yourself

This post has been edited by what_is_name: Apr 7 2022, 06:43

hi, I'm 265lv now.

Just want to ask is there any way to clear faster for arena 225lv & upper fight, it got legendary boss on every floor, and took me an hour to finish. I usually just give up for those fight (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

Thanks.

hi, I'm 265lv now.

Just want to ask is there any way to clear faster for arena 225lv & upper fight, it got legendary boss on every floor, and took me an hour to finish. I usually just give up for those fight (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

Thanks.

legendary boss arena's - or as we usually say Schoolgirl Arena's - are tough. They take up a lot of time. But you can speed it up with better gear and better game-play.

First of all: what's your fighting style?
I do hope you aren't playing mage. We have so many low level players who insist on playing mage.... if so, consider changing your style. You can't use imperil properly yet. and without it the schoolgirls are too tanky.

1h: use vital strike. But only at the exact moment when:
- schoolgirl is imperiled
- schoolgirl is stunned
- you have spirit stance enabled
(and if you really want to optimize, a couple of stacks of penetrated armor would be nice. But this is not a must)
You can also use Orbital Friendship Cannon if you have enough overcharge

DW: use frenzied blows, time your overcharge so that you can switch on spirit and use frenzied blows at beginning of round. Then imperil the SG and give her another frenzied blow if needed.

2h: use Rending Blow on the SG's. Overcharge is hard to get, so you'll probably only use that. Will still be slow.

Niten: not very useful against SG's. But use Skyward Sword.

Next to that:
- use infusions on your weapon to get 3 strikes in total
- IW your weapon to 10
- forge your weapon for more damage
- forge your armors a bit

luckily I don't have such mage insistence. Just play as 1H rapier, soulbound and IW to 10. Do not consider playing mage until 310 lv. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

luckily I don't have such mage insistence. Just play as 1H rapier, soulbound and IW to 10. Do not consider playing mage until 310 lv. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Hallowed rapier or ethereal rapier with holy strike makes a world of difference against the schoolgirls.

Hallowed rapier or ethereal rapier with holy strike makes a world of difference against the schoolgirls.

It's hard to find a rapier with holy strike at low lv, and enchantment only last 15min (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

It makes a difference, but I wouldn't go so far as saying it makes a world of difference, better off going for better overall stats than something with a specific strike (so long as it does have a strike), then making sure it's IW10. If you can afford it, you generally want to use infusions on top, so you get a total of void strike + 2 elemental strikes. Only really worth considering beyond that if you have funds and if you plan at sticking with melee for a long time/chase melee times. At 310, it gets a lot easier, since you don't have to juggle 2 imperil/imperil with cooldown.

Hallowed rapier or ethereal rapier with holy strike makes a world of difference against the schoolgirls.

The difference isn't actually that big, because normal enemies are on average more resistant to holy and/or dark. For me, postgame doesn't really change if I compare using a holy/dark infusion vs. another one. Normal enemies are relatively tanky.

If you aren't too strong yet the 225 to 300 arenas wouldn't benefit from it at all, while otherwise you may get an additional boost of maybe up to 2% of turn reduction, compared to any other strike. And that's without Imperil. Imperil benefits non holy/dark strikes more as well.


Strikes in general aren't very strong., and the difference between their effectiveness is entering min max territory. They don't benefit from crits, don't apply to counters or skills. Void strike is the most useful one, and you get that no matter what, provided you have IW 10.

They add up enough it's worth doing if you have the credits to spare (though yeah, holy/dark only really benefits sg arenas primarily because of imperil). All 3 strikes make more of a difference on the likes of dwd, since they add up when you have to hit schoolgirls that many times to begin with over so many rounds. It is arguably small enough that you likely won't feel a huge difference on a single run, so skipping on them isn't the end of the world either though.

I'm playing Isekai for the first time, and even started this session a few months late so I'm only floor 26 on the tower, and pretty much have lost enthusiasm for doing more endurance match length, above my level grinds. Well, the whole game is a grind so I'm not kidding anyone- but anything over 50 matches and I start wanting to do other things...

but I digress...

All that aside, I have 50 soul crystals or whatever, and to soulfuse my magnificent equips requires 250-705 of these seemingly rare items. Yeah- I know I can buy them in the shop for 1k each, but as much as I've played so far- I only have enough to bind 1 item.

In short- am I missing something?

I know the grind here is worse than the main game to a ridiculous level- but the normal strategy of

'upgrade weapon', 'get new, better weapon', 'salvage old weapon', (repeat)

is completely borked if you even think about soulfusing as part of the process.

unless I'm missing something somewhere.

Anyway- any insights or alternative strategies would be appreciated. I wanna take some of this junk with me when the season ends as I'm not gonna make floor 100 by any stretch- and finding out all the upgrades I put into the 2 weapons I did soulfuse will get wiped when they transfer is depressing enough.

I mean seriously- I had to break several perfectly good items in order to only upgrade a different- sometimes barely better thing by 1 point- do that dozens of times to get a usable weapon, and that all gets wiped? What black hearted idiot thought that was a fun game strategy? Who wants to upgrade a weapon, reset, then do it again- probably at even higher expense)- especially if that weapon isn't legendary/peerless?

Not that soulfusing isn't painful enough as 'it's own punishment' anyway. A game giving so few choices that 'choosing to dead end your best weapon' is actually a good choice is bad design- but 'what do I know?'

Ugh. Whatever. I guess next time through I'm just looking for better magnificent items. I don't see the point otherwise short of investing a bunch of time to farm ISK till it's enough to carry over...

Anyway- soulfusing & soul... shards? whatever. Fragments. Right. How to get more/other strategies?

TIA.

...

yeah. Buy the soul frags in the shop, that's the only way. For that you need income in ISK, as you said. This can be done by playing the arena's in Isekai, selling your equipment drops instead of salvaging them, and selling items in the bazaar.

yeah. Buy the soul frags in the shop, that's the only way. For that you need income in ISK, as you said. This can be done by playing the arena's in Isekai, selling your equipment drops instead of salvaging them, and selling items in the bazaar.

Yeah, I already cleared all the arenas I've unlocked (up to 'End of Days)- so at 1k per arena, that's one soul frag. Even if I could clear 'Dark skies' repeatedly (15 rounds is the least there)- that's still 3750 rounds of grind to just soulfuse the cheapest magnificent item.

Now, obviously that's not possible with the 1 per day limit on arena battles- more importantly with the season soon to end. If I want to 'arena grind' towards unlocking the best (705 needed)- I probably don't have enough time (even if I was 'gung ho' from the start).

Actually the math is suspect on how many items you can unlock at all this way since it's only 180 days per season x 15 or so arenas. That maybe gets you 10 low-end magnificent items if you focus on nothing else and can level up to unlock all the arenas in the first few months. This is of course ignoring stamina limits, as I don't arena often enough to know how much doing a 'full tour' wipes out, and how much stamina regens per day for others (for me it's about 200/day).

In any case, it seems Isekai mode is a huge bust for many lower than my level- or at least in the first year or so of play (several if low level) while they rack up ISK. It's barely 'break even-ish' for me since I was lucky enough to soulfuse 2 weapons-- though if I'd known better I'd have waited, as they are nowhere near the best I have. I'm going to lose all the best gear I have when the season ends due to the ridiculous design. What makes it worse is I can 'see it coming', have time left- and there is still apparently nothing I can do about it, as per design.

What makes it even more laughable is that this is the play dynamic after a bunch of hath perks are turned on by default. What should be 'more productive play due to extras' ends up 'almost nothing to show for it at season end- sucks to be you- but you can start over, noob.'

Ah well, yet another 'favors the endgame crowd' design that leaves little for the rest. I know I shouldn't be surprised by now- that is the trend, right?

My Isekai char is now only 20 levels under my main- but when this ends, I'll have put 4 months into getting less than I possibly could have just making money and buying the gear I worked for in Isekai from the forums in Persistent. I'm not saying Isekai should be some magic 'loot making machine'- but to design it to be the opposite (unless you 'floor 100' or whatever) is pretty malicious, and I don't see the point- at least not for anyone below 200. They're only going to burn time grinding for nothing.

And not a little time- half a year.
People probably won't figure out the rules are skewed against them for almost that long.

Secret rules of Isekai (for anyone under 200* or so- (if you bother)):

Short version: 'Scrap salvage, no forge upgrades, soulfuse at end'

long version:

• Isekai is an enormous, ridiculously skewed grind. I knew that going in and still was surprised by some of it's nonsense in actual play. In any case, the point is- it's not 'harder' than the main game, just way more unreasonable.
• You should probably play your first season just building up ISK. You can soulfuse if able- but buying additional soul shards should be seriously considered as they are stupid expensive, and you want to make goal instead, if possible.
• Avoid soulfusing until the end. You will probably get better gear as you level, and soulfusing is stupid costly. If you spent your fragments on one or two things early on- you may not be able to afford another thing later no matter how hard you try.
• You have one of 2 goals: 'Move gear to persistent by soulfusing', or 'Hoard ISK towards a million' (which allows excess to carry over to the main). Both require you to do your best to not upgrade equipment, as that expense seriously undercuts either final goal.
• Don't salvage anything for forge upgrades. Do Item World first- preferably instead. You can (and should) salvage for scrap (as scrap is more expensive per item)- BUT NOTHING ELSE. All upgrades will be stripped if moved to persistent, anyway. Worse- upgrades are minimally effective- which means in order to see real improvement- you must do a LOT of them-- which seriously cuts into accomplishing either goal which could have lead to profiting in the main game.
• Remember the character you level in Isekai is going to be wiped at season end- so their level is unimportant in the long run (just temporarily important to advance you towards your goal). Strategies should keep the end goal in mind.
• Climb the tower, but only because it gives good XP and 10 soul fragments. Ignore trying to rank high, or improving gear to get higher. 'What floor you reached' doesn't matter much, really- at least not till you can reach floor 100. Also realize 10 fragments isn't a lot. 25 floors nets 250 fragments- enough to soulfuse 1 low-end Magnificent weapon. A high-end magnificent can cost over 700.
• All upgrades on items moved to persistent will be stripped- so if you upgrade anything via Forge- you just robbed yourself of ISK to to accomplish either long term goal- all for temporary combat advantage that won't profit you in the long run.
• All gear has one price- Salvage. Sure, YOU have to pay some stupid, 10x inflated price- but for the most part, you have to think of all your 'good gear acquired today' as junk a scrapper will give you pennies on a dollar for. If you look at the Equipment Shop and see 'all that valuable loot'- thinking 'I have some of that'- you don't. You have stuff worth a tenth of that. I say this to point out:
• Dying is expensive, because repairs eat ISK which could have gone towards goal. A few hundred ISK per death adds up - and though 'it still isn't much'- you do only have so much time to earn ISK. Think of a few deaths easily negating a whole day's efforts, because your 'valuable loot' really isn't worth much.
• Item world is really quite useful here- not just to upgrade gear- but to do matches with a difficulty you can anticipate based on the gear rating and potency. Usually with rounds under 50.
• Value 'Consistent Returns' over 'Risky Challenges'. The game rewards you for playing at higher difficulty- but in Isekai mode, all the gains will be turned into ISK at salvage rates, so the value of 'risking death' vs the rewards of 'junk you can only scrap' is not so good. Any level you can play at and not die is good. Risking dying to gain a few more ISK is sometimes not worth it.
• The tower's description makes it sound like it ignores the difficulty in settings. It does not. Moreover, trying to anticipate the 'increase in challenge' from floor to floor is also difficult. Further, you probably just want floor rank anyway, right?- Whenever doing the Tower, just set difficulty to 'Normal'. A win is a win. You can fight the rest of the game for better gear. Tedious marathon matches that can only be done a few times a day (which means you fail by dying- then repairing your gear- then trying again)- should be done at as low challenge as possible so you're not surprised when you hit your limit and definitely need to stop till you are higher level.
• The Shrine gives better rewards than in the main (You have 'Follower of Snowflake' by default), so part of your strategy should be to get offerings do you can gear up. Chances are good that this might be central to 'properly' advancing in Isekai- but I haven't experimented enough yet. I will be doing 'The Trio and the Tree' regularly though, and see where that gets me (though everything after 'Endgame' has a boss).
• If you're a mage, You probably never used the 'Auto Cast' Hath Perk. You get it free in Isekai. Even so, don't put 'Spark of Life' on Auto cast- Spark of life is the last thing you want 'winking out' because your mana dropped below 10%. This is just like how your car headlights and AC go out when your 'low gas' warning comes on- so 'totally reasonable'...

Anyway, that's the way I see it from my few months experience. Live & learn...

(200* I know Isekai starts everyone at 0- but people who are lower level in the main know less about the game and have fewer connections/resources/strategies and should generally perform worse and have more difficulty than people who's main character is high level)

This post has been edited by bloggbigg: Apr 7 2022, 22:09

...

right.
or, you can just start at the begin of season, enjoy the game on low level again, experience the joy of getting a magnificent, and climb to floor 50 before the end. I for one enjoy it.

right.
or, you can just start at the begin of season, enjoy the game on low level again, experience the joy of getting a magnificent, and climb to floor 50 before the end. I for one enjoy it.

My main has 2 magnificents, my Isekai char has 6- none of which I can afford to soulfuse. Just a bit discouraging. I might as well be renting the most spiffy pair of bowling shoes- I have to return them when they close up shop, too- and man, nothing is more fun than getting spiffy bowling shoes...

Reaching floors 30,40, & 50 just gives +1, +2, & +3 respectively on stats. That's neat and all- but seriously less that 2% as stats are on a scale of 1 to 'too high'. I have at least +9 on all my stats because I binged out on precursor artifacts for a while. Character barely plays any different.

If you worked 6 months on a project at work, and the boss said 'Wonderful- you deserve a reward!' and gave you a voucher for a better work PC- a model that was a whopping 2% faster- you'd be overwhelmed, wouldn't you?

Good thing fantasy games can give rewards fit to the challenges imposed- so where you fighting endless mobs which always outnumber you, and frequently could over-power you, the reward you get totally justifies the effort- and isn't trivialized to where what should be a 'heroic challenge overcome' is instead minimized to be a casual slog of numbers where you get 'nothing' or 'mostly useless things' at random (with the occasional 'good thing' rarely popping up).

I don't know what you find fun, and whatever it is- that's gotta be great-- but games depending on aspects of 'faucets & sinks' resource control always have serious issues, the biggest ones being the arbitrary decisions as to how to limit the control of item creation or movement (because 'faucets' are dumb- so before reaching the 'sink', you gotta make control rules).

Monsters that can kill you? Unlimited. Not worried about that 'faucet', BUT- they'll rarely have equipment to drop (somehow)(control rule)- and then you can't get full value for that anyway(control rule), and you definitely can't take it apart for ALL it's components (etc), before finally scrapping it for a fraction of it's 'worth' (sink).
All the nonsense limits to usage (level limits), trade, all that are needed because the 'faucet' that made the item is dumb.

Not saying these games aren't fun- just that they almost have to have issues.

Imagine playing 'Mother may I..." with fantasy equipment.

'Mother may I loot this monster?'
'No. He'll drop stuff if he feels like it- you can take what he dropped.'
'He's dead, mother'
'I said he'll drop stuff if he feels like it.'
(sigh) 'Mother may I give this item I bought to a friend'
'No. Nothing you buy from 'this store' can be shared- only 'that store'- well, most of it.'
'What? Ok. Whatever. Mother may I take this item I killed, bled and almost died for over there?'
'No. This area will disappear and all things with it shall evaporate forever... except...'
'Yes mother!'
'Except 'those things', if you use... 'these things' on them- to make it so you can't share ever... then they will be transported over at the end of days!'
'but 'these things' rarely drop... and what does that have to do with 'stopping everything evaporating'?'
'Those are the rules.'
'Why?'
'Those are the rules!'
'but why?'
'I think it should be that way. That's enough.'
(sigh)

Well- whatever. it is what it is. Asked & answered, 'like it or not'.

Dunno if I'll do more Isekai. I'm better informed now, sure- but it's still a huge timesink for potentially no reward- more likely very little. If I had the time and belief that I could fight for floor 100 then, sure- but I don't, and other than that I can't help but see the main game as being more efficient in all other respects. If I end up near the million then Maybe it'll be worth tinkering with for extra cash- but I don't play enough to begin with. I just see this as a super-niche game now- more so with the rules limiting most motivations to play. I'm betting most people who play never come back- and if that's correct (I have no idea) that's too bad, as it could be a great diversion.

Well- it is for many anyway I suppose- so there is that.

Thanks for your time. Take care. Moving on...

This post has been edited by bloggbigg: Apr 7 2022, 23:22

... (wall of rumblings) ...

Well- whatever. it is what it is. Asked & answered, 'like it or not'.

...

Thanks for your time. Take care. Moving on...

Main purpose of Isekai mode (it was openly declared by Tenboro in the initial post of the first season) was and is to test new features in a separate "world" from main HV, so as not to disrupt anything in Persistent. At season's end some of the novelties are then integrated in Persistent.

Secondary purpose (way LESS important) was to give something new & different to do for people who had already reached most of their goals in Persistent; i.e. the possibility of starting again from level zero (why? call it nostalgy, call it forgotness, a lot like just that) while eventually getting some little additional benefit for Persistent too (like +1,2,3 bonus for Tower).

It has never been intended as an easier or richer version of the game; quite the opposite, a lot of people who reach high tower level in Isekai use millions of Persistent credits to buy equips and items; especially at seasons start, prices for almost anything in Isekai are much higher then in Persistent.

If you are looking for cash, a better strategy is playing Isekai a lot at seasons start with whatever equip you have, avoid the Tower, sell everything you drop ASAP, dont forge nor soulfuse. After about a month or so when reached L.250, farm the Scoolgirls arena for trophies, either to sell or to shrine.

If you don't have time to play both Persistent and Isekai, better to concentrate in scaling up in Persistent, and forget Isekai for a while, its not (still) for you.

I am currently holding off on shrining any of my trophies in Persistent, since I am just under the 10 mil credit submission and I seek out getting the Snowflake perk in order to get a Peerless.

For my current stock, should I simply sell them off for more credits in the auctions, or should I hold onto them?

DW: use frenzied blows, time your overcharge so that you can switch on spirit and use frenzied blows at beginning of round. Then imperil the SG and give her another frenzied blow if needed.

2h: use Rending Blow on the SG's. Overcharge is hard to get, so you'll probably only use that. Will still be slow.

For 2H, if you are not stunning everyone, you have no chance on higher difficulty.
You cannot canon everyone. It is just better when you could use Rending blow + FUS RO DAH. This give you near death damage for 5 monster and 10 round of no damage.

Also, after trio and tree, it is better to use DW or other type of better concentrate damage fight style.





For DW, blinding bosses by iris strike are very important. So that bosses could miss their attack.
I am now a light armor, full set legendary shade, and weapon. (but recently switch to mag club due to levelling problem)

I am currently 17K HP, but I always receive one single hit with 15K damage from 1 normal monster. Those normal monster is bigger issue than bosses. It took me more than an hour to finish a 90 stage arena.

As thus, buying 21 figure (15000 x 21 which don't cost much) and spirit+canon at starting of every stage are important.

The bosses left is just the time problem. iris striking them give you around 70 round of free time. I do also have haste+protection+shadow veil to help on being hit. Spark of life give me extra protection for keyboard controlling error.

3 stack of rapier armor penetration give you around double damage as per my statistic. Giving you a chance of hitting 45000 x 13 times when you crit your frenizied blow.

iris strike + spirit + backstab sometime let you hit more than 200K. So, consider it when you need less damage and more round on cooldown for canon.

I don't always had problem on clearing the arena. (just not enough time in real life and sudden multiple 15K damage at the same time while keyboard controlling always automatically fight a few more round before stopping)
But I will be at great trouble if I am not having 210 overcharge and cool down canon at around 60-80 stage of a 90 stage arena.

This post has been edited by guestbook: Apr 8 2022, 07:17

--snap--

To be clear, Tenboro do design the soulfusing in Isekai to be a ISK credit sinker, it do mean to burn your ISK by intentionally. There are far more complains at first, it's impossible for your paper to change Tenboro's mind.

For brining magnificents from Isekai? I don't think it's a good idea. Most legenderies not even worth 250k in Persistent, not to say the magnificents. I think lots of people even salvage their soulbould equips at the end of season

For fun? I don't think so, too. Not to say the Isekai, the whole Hentaiverse is not fun

This post has been edited by what_is_name: Apr 8 2022, 03:53