Cerberus Age Guide: The tips & tricks to get your familiarized!

Warning: With the previous event, several changes have been made so that not all the information presented here are accurate any longer. I'll try my best to update but if something doesn't seem right then it is probably something of the past!

Yahoo Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Cerberus_Age_Celestia/

So like in the downtime before servers are up and in my spare time while studying I've recently begun playing this weird card game with my brother called Cerberus Age. One thing led to another and I guess I started a guild but there's almost 0 way to communicate effectively and much of the game itself is shrouded in mystery (kinda neat). So I'll leave this here for my guildies to browse. Because it's an assortment of stuff I've learned from all kinds of people who I don't know and the terrible nature of in-game communication, I'm sorry but I cannot even begin to list and credit the people who have helped me along the way and taught me stuff so my apologies! Ahem.. so without further ado~!

Inheritance

• The method of strengthening your units so you can fight stronger stuff!

• Max unit you can inherit is 9 units but this is the very basics. To level a unit quickly without spending too much mahni you should level each of the 9 units before putting them onto the unit you want to level. The best way is to start with a level 1 unit (since anything past that can get pretty expensive) you want to level up. Just like cooking, you must prep the ingredients! Try to have around like 9000 limit summon points (to be safe). Next, wait for double exp which seems to have a chance of occurring after 4 a.m. PST. How this is triggered is still unknown (Mike has proven the unit # trigger theory to be false). Now quickly combined 9 units with 9 units each. This will take each of them to around level 25 each. You'll have 9 level 25ish units which you can inherit onto the card you wish to level. If done right the target card will shoot up in levels. My record so far is level 56 in one go!

• Higher pride units give more exp, currently this means succubus= best to use.

• The exp bonus for leveled inheritance units tapers as the unit goes past level 55, at this point I just do normal 9 unit inheritances so it can get expensive. There exists something called goddess cards with 3 versions: Swordbreak Goddess, Diabolic Goddess, and Whitewing Goddess. Inheriting these onto a unit apparently significantly boosts their levels but I haven't tried one yet so I don't know how effective they are.

Evolving

• This is a terrible version of Pokemon with a similar degree of nitpick in the veins of EV/IV stuff that nobody ever wants to learn!

• Evolution goes from basic unit  → + → ++ → new rarity evolution. A card only has a rarity evolution if the card has 4 squares (the ones that have red dots in them).

• When evolving, if the unit is max level you can carry over 10% of its current stats onto the evolved version. Any less and you only get 5%.

• When a + unit is fused with a + unit, the result is a ++ unit. When a ++ unit is fused with a ++ unit, the result is (if the unit has one) rarity evolution. So while you can make a rarity evolution card with only 4 cards, in order to maximize a card's stats you would theoretically need 8 max level copies and continue to max their levels after they increase in +'s. For a card with ++ as its max evolution, you would need 4 cards.
• By doing this I was able to elevate my Hornet Queen so that it had HP: 4047, ATK: 6980, DEF: 4578 at only level 1! 

Card Minimum and Maximization

• After reading the above tips on maximizing a card, you may be wondering: "What happens if a card isn't made up of 8 cards maximized in level 14 times? (From now on we'll call this an 8[14] unit). While information is lacking and indefinite at the moment we can somewhat make an educated guess.

• Example: 
• An innocent girlfriend 8[14] has stats of HP: 3384/ ATK: 9926/ DEF: 3608.
• An innocent girlfriend 6[6] has stats of HP: 3366/ ATK: 9876/ DEF: 3590
• An innocent girlfriend 4[0] has stats of HP: 2899/ ATK: 8532/ DEF: 3090.

• This means that an evolution card created from 4 straight base level 1 units acquires about 86% of the stats that a completely maximized unit can achieve.A 6[6] on the other hand, will achieve nearly 99.46% of the stats a perfect 8[14] will attain.

Skill 

• some units have skills which are sometimes triggered in battle. The number and color of the stars a unit has indicates the chance it will be triggered.  ✫

• to level up a unit's skill level, you inherit a copy of the card onto itself.

• ex: ✫+✫= ✫✫ this is always additive so  ✫+✫✫= ✫✫✫ and so on. Once you go past 5 stars, the star changes color and resets to one (assuming you haven't hit the skill cap yet). In other words, it doesn't really matter which card is used as the base unit and which as the seed unit, the skill level result will be the same just that it will be the base unit that's getting leveled up! So if you made a card with maxed out skill but realized another card has potentially better stats, you can inherit the skill card onto the better stat card and it will immediately max out its skill (but if the better stat card can't level up anymore you might not be able to inherit any units onto it). Another thing to keep in mind is although the star color may be changed to 1 and a different color, it still symbolizes the # of ✫ up to that tier from the unit's base skill level. So a vampire initiate unit (which is 1 yellow ✫ base) with a red ✫ will technically have 6 ✫ to give to another vampire initiate during inheritance.

• fun tip: HP % down effects are divine when fighting stuff with multiple millions of hp... that is if they work... Apparently the method people use place in the top 100 rankings on the quest leader-board is to get members with 9 units with all maxed hp% down skill and a bunch of heal stones. From there they find a boss monster with a billion HP and then just heal stone → attack
  →heal stone→ attack... until the HP% skills proc enough and eventually whittles the boss away. This effectively makes all other cards worthless for quest boss hunt events and sure feels like a terrible system which reels in huge profits for GREE off the heal stone necessity.

• ✫'s can be carried over during evolution up to the unit ++, but if you initiate a rarity evolution the stars become reset to the evolution's default. So for example, I can level the skill of a Glamorous Hornet (s-rare) and have it carry up until Glamorous Hornet ++ (as long as I use the higher skill card as the base unit) but if I evolve it one more step into the Queen Hornet (u-rare) the skill becomes reset to base.

Mahni Tips

• with high enough vigor you can farm and dismiss units from lower chapters.

• It's also possible to farm the coliseum for mahni if done right. Use 1 BP at a time and chain 3, this should give around 5k mahni per hour and if you place high up in the rankings, you get a larger lump sum as well as medals to trade for summoning coins or heal stones!

• Some more elusive cards that can be found from quests also sell for quite a bit on bazaar. Though this may no longer hold true because of the recent update. The list has been taken down since what you get per chapter has been altered as well.

Misc Tip

• Switching devices

•  If you've accidentally created an account you don't want you can go to the notices section at the front login page.  Here you'll find a "Before Changing your Device" post at around the 2012/10 mark. This will allow you to delete the account you just created and log in using your e-mail and pass. Seems shady to me since you can probably use it to farm the booster pack// level up units by taking advantage of the 30 min auto-exp bonus for new accounts. But I guess due to the fact that we don't have a card trading option, bazaar transferring is inherently dangerous and acts as a deterrent and prevents the above from occurring on a regular basis.

• Bazaar

•  You get to put 5 items per day on the bazaar. This resets at 4pm PST.
•  Sell unusual units here for some extra mahni, see list somewhere above.

Interesting Findings

• It turns out limited summon can give cards of any rarity just that s-rare and above are extremely extremely rare. Here's a record of people who have gotten stuff from it.

•  WmD Anarchist acquired a Paladin (U-rare) on 1/30/2012.
•  Daddylonglegs acquired a Full Armored Lady (U-rare) sometime 2/2012 

•  Silver Summons can also potentially yield higher than rare cards too. So far S-rare confirmed.

• compensation acquired a Collector of Recollections (S-rare) on  3/3/2013

Year 2

I can hardly believe it but FFXIV has been out for 2 years! Yet I've only written like once or twice in this blog. Shame on me... but then again I've only been playing sporadically. Well, dear diary (I guess), a lot has happened since the game began. I've gained many new friends as well lost a few due to a server reorganization, some drama, and more. All in all though, it's been a good year. Some people still remember me from the first linkshell I was in, Viva Eorzea, and it makes me very happy to see some of them alive and kicking. Yes, this means you too Grover because you're probably the only person who knows about this blog. Perhaps someday you'll read it too. Thanks for saying hi every so often! 2.0 is coming soon so hoping to see more of you guys! Unfortunately, I got into a fight with one of the members and felt like I should leave rather than cause drama. Buuuut I think he actually ended up switching servers so that's a slight relief.

Anyways, I also spent a short time with Lailiyah Mihli after she created a social linkshell known as the Ninja Pirates. We had a few members of Viva here too and for a time we were a pretty tightly knit group. That is... perhaps until we got a little too large and acquired a few new members who I didn't really know very well. If anything I should say that I'm someone who will tolerate no injustices (I once talked down a bully at school in front of a crowd!). So it made me very sad to see someone treated badly by another member of the linkshell. Unfortunately, had I lifted a finger to do or say anything, it may have caused a lot of trouble for Mihli and perhaps caused some of her friends to leave the shell. Seeing as how I'm not exactly integral to the shell and probably not on as good terms with Mihli as the other person, I decided to leave once more. I'm probably going to get a bad reputation for this but as long as nobody else does! All I can do is shake my head towards elitism and hope everyone else can deal with it better than I can.

That said, I was recently invited to an endgame linkshell. I'll leave the name out in hopes that this post doesn't get googled and the members find out about my disapproval of elitism lol. So far I've enjoyed it and the members are actually much nicer than I had expected. But it's always good to have old friends here to prop you up when you feel down. The two I'm most familiar with here are the leader: Taru Taru (another Viva vet!) and Aurnia Thymes. Without these two I don't know how long I would be able to last emotionally because this is seriously the tiger pits of the above mentioned subject that deserves so much of my ire and resentment. However, though I may be progressing more towards endgame activities, I swear I won't let it change my attitude towards other people.

Slight Progression Screens of Dalamud

Ok, enough of the negative and more positive. Hmmm... Let's see. 2.0 is around the corner and things are heating up, literally! Eorzea is nearing impending doom as a giant red ball of unknown origin and composition, known only as Dalamud, draws ever nearer by the day. Many of the new missions included in the recent patches are excellently written and I was actually tearing up when the three nations finally agreed to an alliance. This was because just like how the three nations themselves endured and overcame many obstacles, we as players did the same alongside them. From a shaky and nearly unplayable game to the XIV of today; we really had to struggle to like the game and even pay for it; this finally paid off with the recent announcement of 2.0. I cried for both the formation of the alliance and everything we (as players) had gone through over the past two years to ensure the safety of Eorzea. Many thanks to Yoshi-P and the team working on FFXIV!As for the recent relic system: It's an interesting random number generator game but it helps to have a long term goal to dull the sharp edge that is the wait until late September. I'm pretty sure I'll work on the black mage artifact since it references Shantotto; anything with Shantotto must have comedy involved so I'm looking forward to seeing the quest! Now if I were only lucky enough to get there... Well that's all for today!

Lastly... some of my favorite collected screenshots throughout the two years! Click to view full size, otherwise they look really weird.

Night view from the highest accessible tower in Limsa Lominsa

Some strange reactors in the distance in Northern Thanalan

A peaceful afternoon in Gridania

Morning near a hold where fishermen keep fish

An poster for a Winter event

Visible signs of agriculture in Gridania

Taking my Goobue for a midnight stroll

Ants AHHHH!

The Adventures of Piggly!

Piggly is my alter-ego. Whenever I'm feeling troubled I always switch over to let off a little steam. For some reason, this always works! I guess I feel a lot more open on Piggly than I usually do on my main character. There's a lot less of the "guy staring at your butt" feeling I suppose. Today I fought and "defeated" Ifrit. The reason defeated is in quotes is because I didn't really do much. My current survival ratio of Hellfire is somewhere near 50% having survived twice in four fights. This might not be all terrible but I also finished 3/4 fights with 0 HP with my faces planted in the heated soil. It really doesn't feel too good and I don't think I contributed very much to my dismay. I'm pretty sure I let down a lot of party members and I try to console myself that it's because it's my first four fights. I wish I had more experience going in but clearly this was an embarrassment and I probably won't be called on again for it... That said, I skipped over to Piggly and have since recovered my bearings.

Lailiyah Mihli made a new shell today called Pirate Ninjas. It's fun to have a social shell even if it only has 4 members. We have lots of strange rules like Cap Locks Saturday and No Pants Wednesdays. I'm excited about how this will turn out. I'm optimistic since it's just for chatting and no other activities; with close friends no less. We spent about an hour just chatting in Ul'dah! Relanya also joined and we spent a little time stargazing near the entrance of Ul'dah. Thanks again for taking the time to kind of pose for these! The night sky is very well done in this game. I feel as if this picture captures how expansive Eorzea is. I still hold out hope that this will be the site of some of my greatest adventures.

The first February Update

Many new and improved features were implemented in the past few days. It's become so much easier to play as a miner. They have sped up the animation. While it looks a bit unnatural, it's pretty hard to complain when you're mining 2-3x faster than before. I also love the blue chat text, it's more vibrant than the usual white color. The market wards also received a new addition to its already improved search function, the listing of vendors in different wards. Let the undercutting commence! We'll see just who is right about the AH debate soon enough methinks.

Lv. 50 + Eorzea 2010 in a nutshell

Physical level 50... while it might not be too much of an achievement, I still believe it's somewhat of a milestone. So much has transpired since I first started the game and I figured I had enough substance to finally write a blog post. However, because school starts again tomorrow, I'm going to have to keep this short too...

Final Fantasy XIV isn't a complete game, that's a fact which has been acknowledged by the developers for some time now. Various game raters have butchered the game over the media; an action that may be justified to some extent. However, sometimes I believe that a certain air of high expectations from the Final Fantasy series may have contributed to the lack of approval of XIV. It's not exactly as terrible a game most people have made it out and assumed it to be. However, it must be said that the game is incredibly adverse. Reasons for this are the steep learning curves for each job class as well as the ever present fatigue system that hampers dedicated level grinders. Compacted with the problem of lack of content, especially the lower ranks, many players new to the Final Fantasy MMO genre will no doubt find the game lackluster and become stuck.

I certainly felt that way during my first few weeks of traversing through Eorzea. However, not all is lost! Being able to find a community linkshell to progress through the game makes the experience several times more enjoyable. The one I frequent most is "Viva Eorzea". It's friendly, no pressure type of shell with both experienced and the casual types making having conversations a blast most of the time. This relieves the stress from long durations of fighting monsters or crafting. That said, however, drama really does break my heart sometimes. It's hard to see other members removed because a misunderstanding. We all have our good and bad days after all. Anyways... helping each other in levequests, working together to complete tough synthesis recipes, and exploring the beautiful scenery together definitely fuels my desire to continue playing the game. I don't regret putting my Winter vacation into it one bit and I certainly have high hopes for what will be awaiting all of us in 2011.