Dear Readers,
This was a nice little puzzle. Piplup has lots of dark shades around its face and head so many of the clues were quite big. I set two Grass Pokémon for the mission and tried using up their ability as much as possible so I can get the medal for using their move 50 times. I'll get that eventually.
Dear Readers,
I did the daily training and earned 7 Picrites. I didn't meet the target time. They're getting hard enough, these dailies.
I also got a rare Pokémon sighting alert. However, this Pokémon is buried somewhere deep in area 8, and I haven't unlocked that yet. I was short well over a dozen Picrites, so I wouldn't have gotten it in time anyway. I decided to unlock area 6 instead, as I had just enough for that. It's gonna be a while until I can get to area 8... that rare Pokémon sighting might happen a few more times before I'll be able to get there.
Dear Readers,
I decided to head to Zora's Domain again. I rode from Akkala, detoured to Kakariko and even picked apples along the way to make dishes to sell. I set my Sheikah Slate radar thingy to apples so I can pick them along the way to a cooking pot.
I'm trying to concentrate on making money by doing stuff like this, focusing on apples at the moment. There are probably better ways, but this game has a way of making you lose focus. It took me a long time to get to Zora's Domain!
Dear Readers,
Not a lot I can do at the moment but I was able to try getting all the missions done on the Ash-Greninja stage, so I set Ash-Greninja and Zygarde Complete Forme as my Pokémon.
I chose to have the whole left side of the puzzle revealed and I used Blue Reveals to get other clues done as quickly as I could. I solved the puzzle in half the time needed and I got the water type and blue force missions done as well so I got all the missions done here.
Dear Readers,
This one was very dense. It's kind of hard to see what it is, even when it's revealed. I set Ash-Greninja and 10% Forme, which has an awesome square reveal where you can choose what to reveal. It comes in very handy.
I like the three Zygardes! They're very powerful and they'll help me finish puzzles quickly for missions.
Dear Readers,
After solving Zygarde 50% forme, a path branched to two password locked levels. I got both passwords online from a guide, which said they were originally shared on the official European Twitter account. I took on one of the levels, which was Zygarde 10% forme.
I used the 50% forme's square reveal a couple of times to reveal two big chunks of solutions! I also set Manaphy together with this, which helped me solve this puzzle very quickly. The 10% forme has a significantly less complicated shape than the 50% one, looking like a simpler dragon shape.
Dear Readers,
This puzzle took quite a long time, being a 20x15. It has a complex pattern with its five petal thingies and some strange patterns making up its eyes too. It doesn't look that clear until the colour comes in and the complexity of the pattern itself ended up being very time consuming to complete.
Dear Readers,
I got the training done in time today! Yay! This made me level up and eligible for a bigger pay packet of Picrites! Hooray!
I know there's like a cap somewhere but I don't remember when it is. But yeah, things are getting expensive now and I need to earn a whole lot of them every day.
Dear Readers,
This Pokémon appeared after original Greninja and had to be unlocked with a password. I had to look it up and it said the European version's password was shared on the official Twitter, whatever that account was.
Ash-Greninja was every bit as time consuming as the original one and I didn't make any mistakes this time, so that was nice.
Dear Readers,
Greninja was 15x15, so it was time consuming, but satisfying and manageable. Sometimes I worked from the sides, a lot of the time I worked from the centre outwards becuase of the big numbers. It has a detailed face and X-es make up its scarf thingy, or is it a tongue? I'm not sure.
I set two grass types as my Pokémon to achieve that mission, but I couldn't use them since they were 10x10 and I couldn't get the other missions as I took too long and I'd need a third Pokémon slot for the freeze time move.
Dear Readers,
I took on the daily training and was going through it nicely, but I slowed down a lot in the second to last and last puzzles, putting me almost a minute over the target time. I still got 7 Picrites, but it was pretty slow.
Dear Readers,
This one was shaped like a long stretched "S". There were quite a lot of X-es but it took a little while to get them all marked out because of the small clues. All done handily though. Not too bad at all.
Dear Readers,
Milotic has a long slender neck and a small face, so I started with a couple of long clues and the rest of it was tiny bits and pieces to fill. I had to set Vaporeon for some reason, and I had to use another Pokémon that knew hyper scan.
It all went very well, but I forgot to use hyper scan, so I had to do the puzzle again! I was able to do that no problem, but I have to wait to regain more free to play energy since I used up twice the amount I wanted.
Dear Readers,
This one was super short and easy! Three quarters of the puzzle were all X-es and it was just a tiny bit in the top left corner that had any lines at all. All part of the mural though and just as important!
Dear Readers,
Vaporeon had a lot of complex lines that didn't make it seem like anything until colour was added. Once it was added, I was able to see straight away that it was Vaporeon. Again, not too tough, but I couldn't get within that 1 minute mission.
Now that I have this puzzle done, I'll be able to reach that rare Pokémon next time it's sighted straight away.
Dear Readers,
Buizel was quite simple and looked a lot like a Kirby sprite when I finished it! It was just the roundness of its face and the lines of its eye that resembled Kirby. I made a mistake along the way near the bottom but I recovered nicely. I had to set two electric Pokémon and finish within a minute with their slow time abilities, but I wasn't able to do that this time. I had the Pokémon but I couldn't finish in time.
Dear Readers,
This puzzle was very manageable and solutions to the clues kept coming to me nicely. It all ended up looking like someone making a circle with their hands. Another line underneath too.
Dear Readers,
For Axew I had to set only fairy types. I only had one so that had to do. Diamond reveal isn't a great move, unless there are greater strength ones? At least I was able to use it a couple of times.
Axew itself had dark features and a distinctive enough face that made this puzzle manageable enough.
Dear Readers,
Mega Picross is clicking well with me now, but I'm still doing the normal clues first. The antidote was nice practice because it was also a square-ish shape and it had a lot of fillings. I just made sure to keep separating the normal and the mega fills that are within the same block. I'm getting on pretty well now... for now.
When I finished this puzzle I was able to gain access to the Alt-World, but I have to pay 300 Picrites! That's hilarious. I only have 40 so I won't have access for a long time!
Dear Readers,
I got on much better with the second Mega Picross training puzzle. Mostly because I solved the single simpler clues before I took on the mega ones. I'm not sure if this is the best way but it worked here.
The picture was of an ether, which was nice because I was able to fill in the square shape along the sides of the puzzle first, which helped a lot.
Dear Readers,
This tiny puzzle came with an introduction to Mega Picross, but it made absolutely no sense to me. I had to look up the solution before I could figure out what was going on at all.
As far as I can see at the moment, where I was getting lost was when the 6 mega number wasn't connected to the 1 number. They had to be separated by X-es. It also seems to be ok for the mega number to have filled squares on the ordinary number, just as long as they're not touching. It feels like that wasn't explained well at all. I'm not sure how I figured it out before.
Anyway, I had a bad experience with this now. Hopefully it'll be better from now on. The picture of the ultra ball itself feels like nothing here.
Dear Readers,
I hit a snag in the training today. Even though I did I earned 7 Picrites. Not sure why that happened but I'm glad I earned it. It was the last of the 4 puzzles where I hit the snag. I did manage to recover nicely enough though.
Dear Readers,
This tile was slightly tricky. I had to do the rightmost clues first, then very slowly doing the rest. By the end of it it looked like a wishbone or a letter from the Greek alphabet. I looked up the letter in question and it looked almost exactly like lambda, even with the weird little curves and all!
Dear Readers,
It was looking more and more unlikely I'd reach the rare Pokémon in time. It was four full levels away and I only had enough energy for one of them.
Bidoof took a good chunk of time. It has various features like its buck teeth and dark nose but also a lot of fine tuning which was time consuming. I wasn't able to achieve the missions because I didn't have Psyduck or the move slash reveal yet. It might be tough trying to make that 1 minute mission...
Dear Readers,
Snorlax is a big Pokémon but there weren't a lot of squares to fill. This time the picture was very much zoomed out from its features, so I didn't have many lines to fill besides its face. Its belly took up a good bit of space!
I made a mistake here in the missions, which required two fighting Pokémon. I set a flying one by accident. Ah well. I'll come back to it someday.
Dear Readers,
This one was quite easy to do. The clues seemed to fall into place very smoothly, so I got a lot done very quickly. Spritomb has lots of features on its face, so that probably helped a lot with this puzzle. I got all the missions too.
Dear Readers,
The professor alerted me to there being a rare Pokémon sighting in an area I haven't unlocked yet. I wasn't going to be able to reach it in time and have enough energy either, but I didn't know that yet. I rushed ahead and did the Charmander puzzle.
Charmander was time consuming. I got all the missions and I used blue force twice. This puzzle was more or less about the shape of Charmander's head and it took quite a bit of time to solve and make the missions, but I managed it.
Dear Readers,
Success at last with Mew! This was a very fun and challenging puzzle. I had to do not only Mew's head but also its complex tail. There was a ton of fills to do, and I made a big mistake which drove me to make a clean slate without exiting the puzzle.
I got it right the second time, but before I could finish I ran out of energy. I quick saved and turned the game off for about 3 hours and I had enough when I came back to it. I went slowly and carefully, filling in spots forming the outline of its body, going over and back to the face and eyes and over to its tail. It was very satisfying to finish and catch Mew at long last! Of course, I was using Manaphy's blue force ability, which was invaluable here.
Dear Readers,
Banette is mostly dark, so it was fun filling in all the squares very quickly. I didn't have enough energy to finish, so I set Pokémon that could make time slower and some squares to be already revealed.
I ran out of energy at the very end with just 3 squares left to fill, but thanks to the slowed time I was able to finish with just enough recuperated energy and get all the missions completed. It was very very tight but I came out with flying colours. I probably shouldn't do this kind of thing too often. I'd like a better chance of finishing something when I play.
Dear Readers,
I went ahead and solved Goomy's puzzle and got all the missions complete, so I got that few extra Picrites. It's not hard but it is time consuming so I had to be mindful of that.
Dear Readers,
I took on the professor's puzzle daily challenge thingy. I had to do 4 puzzles in a couple of minutes and I was able to achieve it handily. I won 6 Picrites and levelled up. That'll increase my pay packet as well!
I think I said I was level 5 before but I must've miscounted. Apologies.
Dear Readers,
This new tile I got neighbours three previous ones, so it was starting to look a bit more like a picture. A lot of X-es for this one, the lines made up on the top left and bottom left.
So far, it joins up with the tile above, which shows more of what looks like a spike. We'll see in time.
Dear Readers,
Mew was a secret puzzle locked by a password! You have to obtain passwords outside of the game, so I had to look up a strategy guide. The strategy guide said the European version's password for this Pokémon was found on the game's website. I'm not sure if it's there anymore but I don't care. It's here in the strategy guide at least. I put in the password and took on Mew with Manaphy in my party.
I almost got the puzzle done but I made some mistakes and wasn't able to finish the puzzle in time! It was very long and I was so close, but I couldn't do it this time. Ah well.
In happier news, I was able to do the training again, so I took that on and levelled up to 5. I'll get paid more Picrites from now on when I do the training.
Dear Readers,
Munna doesn't have a lot of distinct features, so this puzzle looks a bit bare. I had to use a water type with the blue force move, so that wasn't too difficult at all. Another psychic type for the team. Hooray!
Dear Readers,
Pikachu was a fun one to reveal, because I could guess who it was before the name was given. Very distinctive shape to the head, face and ears. I had to set two Pokémon for the missions and one of them had to have auto fix x, which I also had to use. I used one on purpose and one I used accidentally. That was interesting! No biggie though, as I got all the missions done!
Dear Readers,
Next up was this one on the same row as the last one, but much further to the right. This puzzle was super quick with a ton of X-es. It was like a fin shape with a diagonal from the top left to the bottom right with the bottom half filled in with blue. Could be part of a long fearsome spike.
Dear Readers,
This is the first puzzle I'm doing in the second mural. This one was a bit trickier than the last one, but it still had a lot of X-es to put in. The lines made up a bit of a spiky slope-y thing, not connected to anything yet. This mural has blue lines and seems like an icy counterpart to the other red fiery one.
Dear Readers,
This one was another very short and easy one and made lines in the top left and right side. Not joined up with anything yet. It took no time at all to clear, but the timer seems to be cumulative of all the tiles in this mural. Anyway, next one.
Dear Readers,
I got 4 new murals and now I've low energy so let's do them.
This next one I did was on M01 on the third row, fifth column, next to the first one I did.
It was a very quick puzzle to solve and the markings seem to just be in the top left and bottom left. No lines that seem to join up with the first one...
Dear Readers,
Whimsicott is all fluffy and doesn't show much of its face. It doesn't even show any of the top of its head, so the puzzle looked like it didn't have much to fill in.
It was fairly easy and I had to set Mime Jr. for the psychic mission and use the freeze time for the other mission. It was nice and I finally have a second grass type now.
Dear Readers,
For Mime Jr. I had to set Blitzle for its slow time ability, and Klefki for my steel type in order to complete the missions. Slowing time is a nice thing!
Mime Jr. has a big face with not many features and it was very zoomed in, so there wasn't an awful lot to fill in. It was another nice easy going puzzle.
The next Pokémon in this area requires two grass types for the missions, so I decided to unlock the next area with Picrites. I can always come back.
Dear Readers,
The professor alerted me to a rare Pokémon that suddenly appeared in a previous area. I was wondering where it was alright! It seems to be a random event that pops up every now and again. I took the chance and did the puzzle while it was there so it wouldn't disappear.
It was the biggest puzzle yet, a 20x15 and I had half an hour to do it. I couldn't use my Pokémon as they were only made for the smaller ones. The missions involved Kyogre so I couldn't achieve them right now.
Manaphy has a big bulbous head with small eyes and little dots over its eyes. This puzzle took quite a while and it was indeed challenging, but I managed to finish with a few minutes to spare! Hooray!
Dear Readers,
I decided to do more upgrading to the house, but all that's left are weapon, bow and shield displays. I don't know how many of each I can put in there, but it seems to be a lot.
I picked and cooked apples for the money and paid Bolson to do the work. I got my displays but I don't really know what to do with them. They seem to go on separate walls so maybe I can make as many as long as there's space for them? I'm not sure.
Dear Readers,
During play, midnight happened, so I was able to do the training for Picrites again! I went right to it and got it all done. As a result, I earned Picrites and I levelled up, which means I earn more when I do the training from here on out. It'll have to be beyond the next time midnight rolls around.
Dear Readers,
I obtained another mural piece and went to do the puzzle. It happened to be directly under the first one I did, so it was the 6th column, fourth row. It had a bit more to fill than the first one, which seemed to be just spikes. This one makes it look a bit like a deer's head where the last one makes up antlers, but that's just me stretching my imagination. They're both gonna join up to make something very different soon.
Dear Readers,
I tried doing this puzzle totally with the stylus, as I noticed there was a medal going for that. I managed it but I think I prefer using the buttons. Wish I could use the buttons on the menus and maps too...
Anyway, Chatot is a bird with a big eye and a black head, so there was a lot of squares to fill and a little bit of complexity with the white of its eye. It wasn't too hard at all though and I managed to finish it and all the missions too.
Dear Readers,
Pumpkaboo is a ghost type and is quite dark, so there were a lot of squares to fill in. A couple of max fill lines were nice and helped with getting the puzzle done quickly. I needed Poochyena alone as only dark types were allowed for the missions.
Dear Readers,
Oshawott has a big round face like Oddish, which helped a lot with a lot of spaces that had X-es. I had to set Oddish for the missions and I was able to finish it handily.
After this it was on to the next area, but I had to spend a big chunk of Picrites to do that. Things are gonna get expensive...
Dear Readers,
I unlocked the daily training, which means I'll have a way to earn Picrites once a day. I started on the little challenge right away so I could start earning. The professor isn't gonna give me many Picrites so it's better for me to start earning now. I wish I knew this when I first played, but the game doesn't tell you at all.
Anyway, it's nice doing these simple little puzzles, which makes up the training. No pictures are revealed or anything. It's just a way to earn pocket picrites.
Dear Readers,
The professor introduced the concept of energy to me. I can only fill in so much and then the system has to rest and restore energy, as is the case with many free to play games. My Eevee has to do the same, so I equipped Poochyena. I needed this Pokémon for the missions in this level too.
I solved it handily and completed all the missions here too. Poochyena helped with about 5 squares. Every little helps I suppose. Revealing Oddish's round face and petals was fun.
Dear Readers,
The Professor gave me two Pokémon, Eevee and Squirtle. I had to spend Picrites to have a second one in my party. Other than that it still felt like the good times were rolling. Squirtle has this strange timed blue hint thing and Eevee reveals a few columns before needing a cooldown.
This all made solving the puzzle quite fun and gave me a Poochyena, which has the ability to reveal a scattering of squares at random.
It doesn't look like I've unlocked the daily training yet. I'll need it for earning Picrites soon.
Dear Readers,
This 10 x 10 was the last of the tutorial stages and I didn't get any tutoring this time. I had to solve the whole thing myself and I had to fill in every single square to get the answer. It turned out to be a Poké Doll which takes the form of a Clefairy. Fun puzzle.
Dear Readers,
I rode back to Hateno and swam around the place with the upgraded Zora gear. It all seemed okay! I was swimming comfortably in the lakes and ponds in any case.
I made some simmered fruit for money and used it on upgrades to the house. I asked Bolson for a sign with my name on the house and to have some flowers planted. It felt pretty good to have it!
Dear Readers,
This tutorial puzzle explained in depth about squares you're certain you can fill in and what squares you can't fill in, which provides further clues for the rest of the squares. Takes a good length of time, for me about 8 minutes, and it finished with a repel item. It looks a little bit detailed with its cylindrical shape and label, so we're getting a bit more daring and varied and detailed with the shapes now. Nice reward to make 120 Picrites, making you feel like you're rich. Quite devious when I know what's coming soon after the tutorials.
Dear Readers,
This is a bigger puzzle, a 10 x 10. A bit more challenging. More stuff is explained like getting the bigger fits straight away before you get all logical with the smaller edging moves. I wasn't really expecting to get an egg, but it's another simple shape that suits the tutorial stages well.
Dear Readers,
I had a blog all about this game before my 3DS got water damaged. I'm going to bring it back into this main blog so I can try and fill this backlog I've ended up with for myself.
I lost my data when the damage happened, so I have to start from the beginning. It's a free to play/free to start kind of game, so I can only play so much. I know for a fact there's a lot of grinding to get more of the in-game currency called Picrites, and the game starts with the professor giving you complimentary ones as you go through tutorials. After that you have to obtain them by grinding on daily training puzzles. It's pretty devious, but that's the nature of these games.
Since the 3DS service doesn't accept money anymore, I can't purchase Picrites anyway, so I have no choice but to grind. Let's get started...
Dear Readers,
I took the notion to go swimming with the full Zora gear and save the business with Sidon and the main story quest for later. I was in two minds about it because the path here is clear at the moment until the next blood moon comes.
I wanted to try swimming in the river to see if I could traverse that way. It didn't seem feasible as the current was very strong. I also came across another tablet with ancient writings on it. They seem to be scattered all over the place instead of just on the path. It's gonna be hard to find them all...
I went back to the path and skipped over the bit with all the Lizalfos archers. I glided and trekked all the way back to Spotty.
I went to Kakariko and visited Great Fairy Cotera and got her to upgrade my new Zora pants to the max. I had a lot of Lizalfos remains from fighting them on the path to Zora's Domain and she needed them among other stuff for the upgrades.
Maybe my Zora gear will be more suitable for what I was trying to do in the river? We'll see. That current is still pretty strong.
Dear Readers,
I hung out in Zora's Domain for a while. I had a picture of a Lynel that someone here asked me to get. I don't remember her name. I showed her the picture and she gave me Zora pants! Just what I needed for the full set! I was wondering where I was gonna get it!
I then went to where the Divine Beast was. It wasn't hard to get there. Sidon was there waiting for me too. Maybe I'll just go ahead and do the story quest.
Dear Readers,
I wanted to head to Zora's Domain. I wanted to read those texts they carved into walls along the path to the area. Before when I headed there I was trying to be careful around enemies.
This time I ploughed right through the enemies. I snuck up on them whenever possible and I lost quite a bit of health to the shock arrow archers. I got through them and the Moblins too.
I saw three or four of those inscription thingies. Are there more? I'm not sure. I might look it up someday.
For now I'll head into Zora's Domain for a while.
Dear Readers,
I wanted to grow some more trees around my house. Bolson offered to do it for 100 rupees.
I ran up to the tech lab and picked apples off the trees up there. I grabbed 10 and cooked two big lots of simmered fruit. I sold them at the general store for 100 rupees.
I then went back to Bolson and gave him the money for the job. They planted trees near the house. I don't know if they're apple trees but they're only saplings so I'll know soon enough. Might get a sign with my name on it sometime.
Dear Readers,
I felt like doing more horse-riding, so I decided to head to the beach.
I went all the way to Lurelin Village and trotted along the sandy beaches. It was a really nice experience. I turned around and kept going west along the beaches, meeting a Guardian and dodging its beams.
Eventually I left and then I decided to head to Gerudo Desert. I got all the way to a block in the road. I moved the rocks by using magnesis on the metal one and using that to push the other rocks out of the way. I passed by the stable and when I got to the entrance of the desert, the horse wouldn't go any further. I can't take Spotty further than this, unfortunately.
After this I rode all the way home to Hateno.
Dear Readers,
I took a notion to go horse-riding through the Hebra region. It was very doable, but the journey there was eventful enough.
I tried going through Hyrule Field but it was just crawling with Guardians. I decided it was better to stick going through the more southern parts of the area.
Riding through Tabantha I was surprised those floating guardian thingies didn't notice me. I was just lucky I suppose.
I drank an elixir for the weather on entering Hebra and I continued going until it ran out, which was just before exiting the other side of the region. That's kind of good to know. I should look for warmer equipment if I can find any.
I tried going into Hyrule field again through the northwest road but there was a Guardian smack in the middle of the road ahead. I turned back. I did activate a shrine around here. It was called Zalta Wa. I'll complete it later.
I had fun with the Bokoblin mask by wearing it. They didn't show any hostility while I was on horseback so that was nice. I even gave some of them apples. I gave apples to Spotty too of course!
I rode all the way back to Hateno before calling it a day.
Dear Readers,
Time for more horse-riding! This time I took a notion to visit Tarrey Town so I rode Spotty all the way there from Hateno Village.
I stopped at a stable along the way and they advised that the horse can steer by itself when its trotting along a road. Very nice to know! Self-driving horses!
I tried going to Zora's Domain but there was a road block and I couldn't go any further. I guess you're not supposed to take horses this way.
I did other random stuff too like taking shelter with some other road walkers when it rained. A Goron and a Gerudo. It was nice haha.
I made the mistake of going too near a Guardian and got zapped. Definitely not safe on horseback around there. Must avoid that road.
Dear Readers,
I fancied the idea of upgrading stuff in my house, while doing some fishing to earn the money for it. I had enough money for what I wanted at the time — a bed, a door, lighting — but I wanted to obtain the money for it as well.
In the stream and lakes around the area, I mostly found armored carp. I set the Sheikah Slate radar thingy to them, I fished for them, cooked them, and sold them at the general store here. At the lake with the boat I used it to go further out into the water. However, mostly I was gliding towards the fish from above so I could catch them more easily.
It is not easy to catch fish 'cos you have to catch with your bare hands and it's not the best spot to go either because the waters are fast moving and big.
I got what I wanted at least and now my house seems a bit more comfortable. I have another nice resting spot to replenish hearts as well.
Dear Readers,
I decided to head to my house in Hateno Village. I took Spotty and we rode from the Riverside Stable all the way there. Some Bokoblins popped out from behind rocks but no one gave me any real trouble. I didn't even have to stop or fight or anything.
The world of Breath of the Wild is absorbing, at least it was this time after not playing it for so long. Travel by horseback was something I never did much either so it was pretty enjoyable to do here. I just stuck to the road to lead me all the way to the village.
When I got there, I saw my house had no bed and no door, so I wanted to change that.
Dear Readers,
I tried to face Mumkhar again to see how strong he was and he was plenty strong. We are at LV 51, all of us. I'm making note of this now so we can work from this as we get strong enough to beat him. This is going to be through quests or levelling. I haven't done much levelling before but I'm gonna start now.
Dear Readers,
I haven't played this game in about three or four months. It's a horrendously tedious game and it's going to be even more tedious right now to find out where I am and where I'm going. I'm gonna try and fill the days of the blog still so let's keep going.
I know there's a boss fight I'm stuck on. I decided to run past him to see how far I can go and I can! I was able to explore a little pocket of an area to the southwest of where he is. Day turned to night and I got killed by a big bird.
After respawn I tried exploring more and when I got to a point a box appeared on the screen with the words "You must defeat Mumkhar" on it. Well that's it for the exploring.
Dear Readers,
We warped to Valak Mountain and started hiking in search of the Three Sage Summit.
Using a map we hiked through a pass which led all the way to the Bionis' Right Elbow but nowhere else. It felt like a place we shouldn't be yet. There were Setor Eks here which looked just like other Eks but they were well above LV90. The Monta Moramora flying around looked intimidating too. There were also Latio Apis, little bugs flying around that seemed like they might be part of a random quest later. Big ol' ether deposit here too but I didn't bother harvesting anything.
On the way there we met a Setor Eks randomly galloping through the pass. It wasn't malicious but I did feel the need to step out of the way!
Three Sage Summit was near here but definitely not part of this path. I'll have to try a different route next time.
Dear Readers,
After talking to Lesunia, I set the clock back to daytime and went back to Vidian. Whew.
She was delighted to hear Lesunia was back to her old self. She then told us she remembered back then, admitting she was embarrassed her headwings were so small, since she was half High-Entia. Lesunia said back then she didn't care about that at all and that she was envious of her shorter wings, saying they must be easier to maintain. She was really happy now they could be friends again! Hooray! This updated in the affinity chart too.
I decided to catch up with Lesunia even though the quest was now done. She said she did some research and that once upon a time there were High Entia that discriminated against other races. She said it she honestly thought it would be romantic to fall in love with a Homs and that it would help settle the differences between races.
Dear Readers,
I looked online to see if I could do any more quests. I found one for Vidian in Alcamoth. We warped there to chat with her.
She heard about us helping Lesunia out with her racism problem and asked us for more help with her. They used to be friends until they had a falling out over something Vidian broke that belonged to Lesunia. She was still cold with Vidian and Vidian wanted the old Lesunia back. We agreed to collect Morning Dew Ice from Befalgar Pedestal on Valak Mountain at dawn.
Off we go!
Dear Readers,
After defeating a couple of enemies that gave me trouble before, I thought, why not the next major story enemy?
Unfortunately, he was still too strong for us. I tried running around a bit but things got confusing and I didn't know who was who sometimes.
We did manage to knock him down on the ground at one stage at least, so that's something. We'll get there.
Dear Readers,
We went back to Jarack at the Ether Plant and he said he could hear the Hode Leader's death cries all the way from here, which was pretty good! It saved me from having to tell him everything that happened.
After we finished up his quest, another popped up. The Hodes wanted revenge! We had to defeat 2 Confusion Ekidnos. Jarack legged it lol.
They lined up side by side and came to the Ether Plant. They were very easy to defeat though, which was nice.
When we beat them, we had to find Jarack. He escaped to underneath the plant on the ground below. Seemed like a good hiding place while we were fighting above.
He thanked us and set off to repair the lighthouse.
Dear Readers,
I didn't notice this before but the next available heart-to-heart was between Shulk and Dunban on the Bionis' Leg at the Believer's Paradise. I didn't realise it before because it doesn't work unless the characters in question are in your party when you check it out. Anyway, we got there and did the scene.
I said to Dunban we'd never see a sight like this from Colony 9. This was the absolute wrong time to do this because it was misty and pouring rain hahaha!
Anyway, the scene continued. He agreed with me. I said I'd never get tired of looking out at this landscape and wondered when these rock formations dated from. He didn't sound too interested and I said it to him.
From this point I had to choose stuff to say for Dunban. I had him say of course he was interested. I told him he seemed to switch off whenever I talked about geeky stuff or anything about the latest fad. I asked him if he knew what the latest "superfood" was that everyone was talking about.
I'm pretty surprised this game has the word "superfood" in it as a topic of chat!
I had Dunban say that he knew. He brought up Chewy Radishes and said they were the latest healthy ingredient. He said he saw a queue of people lining up to buy them and that it was as long as the Bionis' Leg, which made me laugh!
I was surprised he knew the answer as I barely knew myself. He told me not everything could be learned from books or from researching in the lab. I said I'd keep it in mind.
I was expecting this to be about Dunban giving Shulk a pop quiz, but from the looks of things it's the other way round!
Dear Readers,
The next available heart-to-heart was at Eryth Sea and it was between Sharla and Riki at Hovering Reef 2.
Riki said the flowers here smelled like passion and made him feel passionate. Sharla asked him if he was feeling okay. He said he loved flowers.
This time, I was picking what to say for Sharla. I said I liked flowers too for the best results. The other option was about Riki getting old, which wasn't a nice option! What the heck!
Riki talked about eating flowers but also about bringing them home for his wifeypon. Sharla said he was a good husband and he was modest, saying he wasn't that good.
Sharla commented on the shade of blue these big flowers had and said they would suit Melia. She suggested he give her one of these blue flowers!
I had her say she'd be so happy. She thought Melia was sensible but she was too uptight and needed to loosen up. Riki agreed with her. Sharla offered to help Riki pick out flowers for Melia and he happily agreed.
What a nice thing! I had a look at the alternate dialogue and it's funny too. He's dead right to protest the ageism remark!
Dear Readers,
The next available heart-to-heart was in the Ether Mine, again between Sharla and me. This was in the Mining Base landmark and it was called "A Broken Watch".
Sharla was looking for something and she found it, her pocket watch. As Shulk I had to pick what to say. I said it's a beautiful watch. Sharla said it was her father's who gave it to her before he died. We reckoned Otharon must've picked it up during the evacuation. Unfortunately it wasn't working right now.
I said I could fix it. She was super grateful and said it would mean so much to her. I said it was no problem as I was handy and everyone at Colony 9 kept bringing me things to fix!
I love watches myself! I can see how a particular one can be special to someone.
Dear Readers,
Next heart-to-heart I was able to do was "What Visions May Bring" with Sharla and me as Shulk. This was the one next to Raguel Bridge - North landmark.
Sharla asked me what it was like to see the future. I said I found it hard to explain but I described it as being made to watch a dream. I asked her what she thought of my ability.
I then had to choose what to say for Sharla. I looked up what the right answers were. I had her say I wish I had it. Sharla said if only she could see what was going to happen to Colony 6 then maybe she could do something about it, maybe even save Gadolt. She admitted it couldn't be helped though but she was grateful that Juju was able to be helped with the power.
I had Sharla say that I could save someone's life. She said she felt stronger because of me. I was thankful for her kind words but I felt like I could be better with my powers. I wasn't able to save Fiora and sometimes my visions were hazy. She said not to be so hard on myself as I saved everyone loads of times with my abilities! I was thankful.
I looked up the dialogue and it looks like there's other dialogue if I chose other options with more opportunities for hearts, even if there was an initial loss of hearts. That extra dialogue seems nice too, like the stuff about what kind of girl Juju would pick for a relationship.
Oh well. I won't worry about that for now.
Dear Readers,
I just learned the hard way that heart-to-heart points don't show up on the map unless you're in the area itself.
Why is this? What a nuisance.
It might seem like a small thing but it's yet another annoying thing about this game. I don't need more reasons not to play it.
Anyway, that's the way it is. I don't know why but I have to be aware of this when looking for these points now.
Dear Readers,
I decided to do some heart-to-hearts. I was able to do the one titled "Overlooking the Colony with Reyn and Sharla.
It's the one on Agora Shore I wasn't able to do for ages but now I'm able to.
Sharla looked at Colony 9 and talked about how live was in Colony 6 before the attack. I was now choosing what to say as Reyn. I asked her if she wanted to go back there. She said she thought about it but she felt she had to fight for now.
I told her not to be so hard on herself. This led to some banter and with her telling Reyn she appreciated the way he made her laugh and smile. She teased him a bit as well when he said they were friends.
I looked it up and these were the right choices to make. Glad to have this heart to heart.
Dear Readers,
Now we had enough to upgrade Colony 6's Special to LV3, so we talked to Juju.
Upgrading it built a little park there. It seems small but it's nice. It's also said it'll help with filling the Collectopaedia. That'll be nice for sure.
Everything was now at LV 3, so as a bonus, street lights have been built! Very nice!
I checked out the street lights and they were indeed nice and made the town look more like a town. The park helped loads as well with its nice water feature. A guy was training there at night now and during the day, girls are there talking about gifting things to people. Looking forward to seeing what items pop up here.
The sentimental music is sounding stronger now with more instrumentation as the place develops more and more. Chatted with one person who has a new shop and they're positive business will pick up. It's all new and hopeful sounding. Lovely.
Dear Readers,
We warped back to Juju and gave him the stuff to upgrade Colony 6's Nature to LV3.
With this, flowers were planted all along the main street. It also said the mine's ether crystals went up in rank, which is interesting.
One of the old people loved seeing the flowers, saying it made them feel young again. So that's a nice thing for people.
Dear Readers,
All that we needed now was the Squall Element, which is obtained from Bono Nebulae at Eryth Sea.
Been a small while since we were in this area. Enemies are quite weak to us now! Maybe we should take on the strong enemies we couldn't fight before. All in due course.
The green Bono Nebulae are all over the place except during thunderstorms when they turn a different colour and become extremely strong. When that happens we just have to change the clock and hope for a time when it's not thundering.
We had the same old problem of the creature blowing up on us when it got too weak, not dropping anything. We spent a lot of time trying to get our chain attack gauge to stay topped up so that we could be ready. This meant we had to fight many other enemies for ages and some of them were too weak to even let us build up anything.
Eventually I switched out Shulk for Riki. I used Riki's Yoink! move again and again until I finally got the Squall Element with it! Great little Nopon he is!
Dear Readers,
We were on the hunt for those blue nebulae in the mountains. Up until now, we didn't go near them, but now I needed the Snow Elements for an upgrade in Colony 6. Reef Nebula they're called.
These things are all over the place. I find that a good place to hunt for them is the little area southwest of Befalgar Pedestal. They appear there a lot and there's nothing else in the way to annoy you. It's level ground as well. The more powerful version of them are here too but I'm not gonna bother with them for now.
Just like every other nebulae in the game, they explode when they get weak and don't leave any treasure, which is very annoying. I've come to expect such a thing now, so when I see them emitting some red lines when their health is low, we carry out a chain attack with break and topple in order to delay its move long enough to defeat it and get the drop.
Getting the drop takes luck as well and we had to fight so many of them. Eventually we got the snow elements we wanted and then got the heck off the mountain.
Dear Readers,
One of the items I wanted for the Colony 6 reconstruction was the ice cabbage. I got some before but now I just need one more for an upgrade. I took out my reference and got to hiking.
I hiked everywhere I could see spots where they might be. I hiked along Kana Peak trying to get lucky, but I kept picking up every other thing like wet rats or whatever else in the miscellany of items that have a much higher rate of appearing. I also started falling off the mountain for the first time! I tried again and I kept falling off! How did I manage to stay up there the first time when exploring?
At one point Reyn fell off and when he respawned his respawn pushed me off the mountain! It actually made me scream when this happened.
I even tried going on that awful ice slide again. No luck at all.
Eventually I got the ice cabbage by revisiting the Lava Cave over and over until I finally got it in that inner chamber where we got the Magma Rock.
I also unwittingly discovered the Hidden Gamigin during one search where we went south from Ignia Hill along that narrow path going upwards. That didn't end well at all. I'm just glad we got the ice cabbage at last.
Dear Readers,
We had a chat with Juju about reconstruction again. I looked up to see what I could upgrade and it seems I could upgrade Nature to LV 3 and Special to LV 3. I just needed to pick up an Ice Cabbage and obtain 2 Snow Elements from Reef Nebulae and 1 Squall Element from Bono Nebulae. I had some of the other stuff needed already.
Research done, now to obtain the stuff!
Dear Readers,
We found Nopo'rikh fairly quickly. He was in the Armu Field in Colony 6, so it wasn't far from where Ma'crish gave us the mission at all. Finding him increased Colony 6's stats and Ma'crish was very happy he was here.
We caught up with him again and he was unhappy with her company, feeling like he's a servant. Aw that's a pity. She likes him so much. We agreed to get some smelly perfume for him.
We also got the "Drawing a Crowd" achievement for increasing the population of the place to 50 people. Hooray!
Dear Readers,
We warped to Colony 6. Ma'crish was here and she had a quest. She was looking for a Nopon named Nopo'rikh and she was worried about him.
We agreed to help her find him.
Been a while since we were in Colony 6. The music has changed a bit! It's getting more developed here!
Anyway, she says he likes to hide in the grass so let's have a look for him.
Dear Readers,
Just thought I'd fill in the Collectopaedia for Valak Mountain. We had all the items so I just confirmed the slots into which all the stuff goes.
Nothing that seems to special. Frost Glass and Large Handcuffs are in the strange category but they don't seem strange at all. Oh well.
Dear Readers,
We found the Sesna Lexos fairly quickly. It was enormous. It was like one of those flying things at Eryth Sea but much bigger. It was LV47 as well.
We lured towards solid ground and fought it. We beat in just in time before it could launch a fatal attack on me.
We picked up its drops, one of which gave me a vision of Dunban picking up a Silver Lexos Heart for someone named Rakzet who wanted it to become like us Homs. Strange scenario from the future.
Dear Readers,
Mumkhar is just too strong for us. Time to do some quests or whatever.
I looked up the Sesna Lexos for a quest. I found that it is on the upper level of Valak Mountain, southwest of Hollow Bone and some further up the mountain at all times except nighttime. Let's go hunting!
Dear Readers,
We went hunting for Sparas Paguls north of Nofol Tower.
There were quite a few of them around a frozen lake and they were easy to deal with, though they toppled us a good few times. It was funny seeing the other slip and slide around the ice and going far away, though that did make the battle take longer.
We needed to defeat 5 of them for the quest and there was more than enough here.
Dear Readers,
With that fun bit of hiking research gathered, we went back to the Nopon camp with our findings. The Nopon asked which had the better view and I had a choice between Befalgar Pedestal and Kana Peak.
In my own opinion, it was Kana Peak as there was so much to see around it, whereas although Befalgar was higher, it didn't have as much of a view because it wasn't on the peak.
I looked up this choice and it said it didn't have any impact on quests or rewards as either was fine, so I chose my favourite of the two, Kana Peak.
Dear Readers,
Now to research Kana Peak. Coming down from Befalgar Pedestal, the red exclamation for this point was very clear and I could see a clear, yet narrow path on the way towards it.
This was very easy compared to the previous research point and it was a lot of fun to hike towards as well. It was pretty funny to see Reyn's health bar appear, even though I didn't see him falling off the path.
To fall off here for real though would be no laughing matter! It really does give a feeling of being a treacherous place to explore. It's such a narrow path and it's so high up above everything around it.
We continued walking along this narrow path on the ridge, collecting items and finding the actual area that gave us experience points. Both Sharla and Reyn were falling off now and I tried my best to be careful and not fall off myself.
The ridge itself doesn't appear on the map, which is kind of annoying. It comes down to its lowest point in the Bagnar Snowfield and looks like it's pointing towards it.
Dear Readers,
We went to the Nopon research camp to cash in on the Chilkin and Antol quest. This got Sharla to LV 50. We the main trio were now all at this level. Should we go after Mumkhar now? We'll do a few more quests if we can.
The Nopon researcher from last time had another quest for us and it was simply to go to various spots and see what the view is like! That's it! That's my kind of quest!
We agreed wholeheartedly to take in the scenery at Befalgar Pedestal and Kana Peak. Enemies might get in the say and spoil the pleasure of exploring but we won't worry about that for now. I'm just glad we got a nice quest like this!
Dear Readers,
We had to go on that stupid slide again to get back to the Antol Den. We kept missing the last jump more and more. It was annoying enough to make me want to give up on the game again. It's just so boring.
Again and again we tried and failed to make that last jump. Then we made it and immediately got killed by the big creature again. Then a few more times of failing the jump we made it there by me sliding up the wall a bit at the end, which got us over there. That's what I think anyway. I can't be sure at all. It's just such a stupid obstacle.
The big creature came after us again but we just ran around the platform until it stopped. Then we lured and beat up the smaller Antols until we got the quest finished.
We immediately left. Didn't want to hang around here at all.
