Gak, Gak, Gak, Sweets

So if you read my last post you'll know the Halloween event is on and Gak is the skeleton begging for parts. In the last post I alluded to the fact that Gak needs a tongue and a bunch of bones. How many bones Gak needs is random, but talking with other players it seems to range between 10 to 30 bones. Gak punished me by taking 22 bones before he started yapping about how hungry he was for sweets. I'm not the highest bone count by any stretch, but I ended up spending a lot of money on bones that was going to go towards coal for a steel shield. After the Halloween quest I think this is my quest.

To my knowledge no one yet has given Gak enough sweets that he's given up any goods. Gak keeps a running total of all sweets given to him. I spoke with Natibe, whom I remember played 11 months ago, and Natibe had already given Gak over 1500 treats to my 350 or so.

It seems that the event will probably end and players present for the ending will get a reward based on the amount of treats given to Gak. This makes me wonder what the rubber bats are for? If rubber bats are not treats then what purpose do they serve, or will they become a component for spells later?

Gak the skeleton, 2010 Halloween Quest in November

*** Spoiler Alert ***
Looking at the picture at the bottom of this post may tip you off to the location of Gak the skeleton, and reading the rest of this post will definitely tip you off to tiny initial parts of the 2010 Halloween Quest. We've been waiting for a Halloween quest for a few weeks and it's finally here...

Signing on you'll see an update something to the effect that candies are littered all around the woodland of Hurnscald. This is quite accurate, you need to kill monsters to get the candies. They range in types from: marshmellows to a rubber bat's wings (obviously not a candy).

You don't need to find Gak the skeleton first, just start collecting candies and items. But one of the items you'll need right away is a tongue, so make sure you have one before you talk to Gak. And like other NPCs, you may need to talk to him multiple times.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, you will need bones for Gak's next request. That means heading to the graveyard and killing some skeletons and lady skeletons. At level 53 I think I lasted all of about 4 minutes running around. I might have been able to kill one lady skeleton, but I got swarmed pretty bad and ended up being resurrected in Hurnscald. That means this quest might be out of reach of lower levels unless you can get someone bones through trading items.

The Halloween quest won't last forever, so play now.

Some speculation: it seems no one has completed the quest at this particular moment. I have a creepy feeling from Gak's words when he requested the bones that he may end up becoming the reaper and cutting a swath through people... just a thought.

Monster points, monster points, monster points

I've harped about monster points in the past, but I thought I'd reinforce it with an example. Above is a screen shot from Uwebe, a player I play on the auldsbel.dyndns.org server. Notice level 16, fairly low, and in the inventory a snake skin obtained by trading away monster points. By level 50 I had enough points when I replayed Tarq to get the jean chaps (the jean shorts I got by killing cave snakes, which by the way isn't a bad thing to kill before that level for experience and for monster points).

Just make sure to register with Aidan early in your character's life - you don't want to register at level 60 and find out you've missed on 60 levels of monster points you could have traded for items.

Most of the items don't make a huge difference in game play, but some like the cherry cake are used in quests and are helpful early on for healing. Beer is another good example of a quest item that's a monster point reward. The demon mask quest is another quest that uses a lot of items that could be obtained by monster points.

Some items like snake skins and flower petals are tough to obtain if you're a low level warrior.

The Main Server crash, levels, and items...

Everyone on the server is talking about the main server crash. Tonight much of the server was restored, but I still ended up losing 2 levels, some coal, a diamond, a pirate's striped bandana, and the Infantry helm Zoix gave me the other day.

Ah... but the TMW community is wonderful, Sugar helped me out again with an Infantry helm. Thanks Sugar!

I made up one of the levels tonight. I also collected a lot of roots, so I might be able to buy back some of the coal.

This time I'm keeping the items I want to keep on my person. Freeyorp had a backup of the server minus the items in the stash. My thought is that if the server crashes again someone may have a backup (again minus the stash).

Just to set the record straight the server didn't "crash," though I keep saying it did. The story as I understand it is that someone at the hosting centre accidentally reboot the wrong server (the tmw server) and when they did that there was a write error with the database.

It's a good lesson for backups...

Zoix, Stacking, and the Infantry Helm

Big thanks to Zoix for stacking with me in the Hurnscald mines and for the Infantry Helm (+15 defense). Previously I was using the silk bandana (+10 defense). We fought off spiders, black scorpions, and red slimes for a significant amount of time, enough to get me within 12% of leveling. Garnah and another player whose name begins with T, but I forget (sorry) helped me to the next level (we killed yellow slimes and various skulls). I actually hit the skulls a few times and both players would heal me.

After I spent quite a bit of time in the Moggun mines securing only 3 Coals despite killing something like 50 Mogguns, and that was with one player giving me a coal (again I've forgotten the name, but I promise to edit next time we meet). This is the second time the player (wearing a skirt) has helped me with Mogguns and Coal. So Thanks to everyone!

The value of getting "slimed"

This morning I was hunting yellow slimes in the mines north of Hurnscald when one dropped a Jack'o soul. Normally Jack'o souls are only dropped by Jack'o, and killing Jack'o at level 52 is virtually impossible, so it's a nice find. The nice thing about slimes is that they pick up items that get left around by other players, you never know what you're going to pick up.

In a comment on a previous post I mentioned that I'm still working on my steel shield. In storage I have quite a few Iron Ore (over 50), and a bit of coal, but not nearly enough for the shield. My strategy is to buy the coal. I managed to get 6 coal for around 1000gp, 5 roots for every coal, not a bad price, but Tradebot is now asking 3,500gp each. At this point I'm almost tempted to go back in and try to divide and conquer the mogguns.

I think one of the things that makes TMW so much fun is that some things require patience. True, you can buy/beg for things (though begging is not recommended, it can get you banned, and it's annoying), but sometimes it's just good old fashioned leg work (killing monsters) that gets you what you need.

In the comment follow up I also mentioned "stacking," something I talk about in much earlier 2009 posts. Stacking is the fastest way I know to level, but you need to group up with characters that are more powerful, but still low enough that you get a hit or two in.

A common place to stack is in the spider area of the Hurnscald mines (where people stack to get Infantry Helmets and keys).

Advice for New Players of The Mana World

The following hints are gathered from my own experience playing The Mana World off and on for a number of years. These are kind of first steps players might want to take playing the game:

• Learn the keys to move, target, attack, and talk. I personally like to remap my target key from a to alt (or ctrl) so that my target and attack are closer together. This if course means having to remap what alt/ctrl did before to something else (a is good).
• Talk to Aidan the monster guide and register as a quest participant right away. If you don't register right away you lose any monster points you might have gained from killing monsters. Monster points can later be traded for items (monster points are not experience, but are very useful nonetheless).
• Equip your cotton shirt before you start killing monsters, it gives you a little added extra protection and is not equipped by default, but is in your stash.
• Talk to different people in Tulimshar and go on the quests they send you on. There is an order that needs to be followed. Some Non-Player Characters (NPCs) will not give their quest until you've completed another quest.
• After you've killed a bunch of maggots and scorpions visit Ishi the rewards master. She will ask if you want to trade your monster points for items. You can get some significant items that will help you both now and later in the game: (for example: the Fancy Hat gives a good boost to basic defence at the start of the game and Snake Skins come in handy later in the game for chaps, currently the most durable lower body item in the game).
• If you get duplicates of items like the Fancy Hat don't give them away initially (you can do that when you're level 50), sell them for gold and buy a Leather Shield. This will further add to your defence.
• When you've done most of the quests (I didn't finish the mine quest until after I'd finished some of the Hurnscald Quests) head north and to the right. Look for the Ferry Man and pay 1000 GP to get to Hurnscald. In Hurnscald you'll be able to complete a number of other quests. I recommend you go north and do the Pinkie quest which will result in a prize of a powerful +75 to attack Scythe.