Friday, February 28, 2014

Day 14 in the Zombie Apocalypse: Clan Events and Notes on Deck placement

- It turns out that Clan events are simpler bigger jobs that needs to be accomplish by multiple people. I think it makes the game more interesting.

- Spent the Elite ticket from the 1 million downloads; 8 3* in Clayton Cemetery. A good reminder not to spend any money on Elite hunting!

Deck Placement Notes

Day 13 in the Zombie Apocalypse: Hunting and 5* & 4*+ notes

Hunting Notes
- Zombies attacking you will have 2 triangles (overlapping) on them at your screen.
- Gould Square has 2 2* Spitter feeder while Clayton Cemetery has 2 2* Screamer feeder. The rest of the 2* seems even.
- Flamethrower usage in Clayton Cemetery seems to require sweeping movement to kill. I left it on a shadow and sometimes the hit does not register

5* Notes
- I think it is easier to see the strain weakness and advantage by referring to the 5* so I shall list them out:
Update: There was some mistakes in the "Countered by" sections and were corrected as well as changed to "Critical by", except for physical attackers. Added new "Blocks" section. Added in 4*+

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Day 12 in the Zombie Apocalypse

- Did an Elite Hunt at Clayton Cemetery using saved daily rewards; it seems that coins from jobs have dried up. I managed to catch 8 3* and a 4*. I think any hunt with a 4* is considered good with the low drop rates I'm seeing.

- DC has reached 1 million downloads worldwide and is celebrating with a Elite ticket for players registered by 28 February 4am EST.

- Met a player with +100 points in Boneyard but didn't manage to win. It went down to the last Zombie and I wondered if it will have made any difference if I boosted my guardian's stats. One of the other memorable matches was having last 5* getting 1-hit KO from Nurse/Nun's charm skill. This was at least the second time it happened to me in Boneyard. I did had 1 match in the first 0th Boneyard where my 3* Colonel survived repeated Cleopatra charms to take her down.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Day 11/12 in the Zombie Apocalypse: Zombie Traits; Skills, Strains and Types Analysis

Notice: I will not be updating this further. Please use this forum thread for skill set information.

This time round compared to GC, the cards are designed differently. Zombies have different strain types which are not as straightforward as fire/ice/lightning that we are used to. The types are different too with the one of the most notable change is that high attack is no longer hampered by lowered speed.  I think the most important Zombie trait is its skills. A lower rarity zombie with a useful skill will probably still find use as you upgrade your deck.

Notable Zombie Skills

Boneyard rules prediction (Based on GC)

It turns out that the Boneyard reward cards are all average types which is fairer in my opinion as getting a bad type as a reward does not justify the hard work put in. It also seems like they will not be usable in this week's Yang Gui Fei Boneyard as the game is probably still at its early stage where more new players are joining. I predict the bordered reward cards will slowly be allowed for use (It is already stated in the Yang Gui Fei Cup announcements I believe) but probably the last tier Boneyard will include first.

Here are my guesses:

Monday, February 24, 2014

Day 9/10 in the Zombie Apocalypse

- I managed a 17 hunt on Gould Square normal ticket and snag a 5*!

- For the Asura cup, I was 3 wins away from getting a 50 win bonus that might land me into S rank but couldn't make it as the opponents were too tough. I thought I was going to get my first almighty card but it was not to be...

- When you face opponent in Boneyard Coliseum, some of them gives extra points. They might be to balance the competition as I'm guessing that they might be awarded against you if your deck loses an amount of time? I think this is to prevent people from earning points early in the game with a weaker deck and sitting it out at the top. The highest extra points awarded that I've seen was a +50 but someone in the forum mentioned a +100!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Day 7/8 in the Zombie Apocalypse: iPhone vs iPad Hunting, Misc. Tips and Useful links

- In GC, I always find that I'm able to hunt more per ticket on the iPad compared to the iPhone. I recently installed DC on my iPhone 5 and found it no longer to be true! It turns out that my iPad 2 is probably to slow for the game as hunting on iPhone 5 was smoother. I now average significantly more hunts on the iPhone even though the screen was smaller. Honda's Challenge job of hunting a specific number of zombies in a ticket is no longer an issue.

- I caught 9 from my next saved Elite ticket in the first hunting ground, Gould Square with a 5* and a 4*! The types seem bad for them but with 4* and 5* being rare, I'm very happy with the outcome.

- Japan version of DC already had a promo card: 4* Pink Nurse. A re-colour but nevertheless a free 4* if you buy the ファミ通App Andoroid magazine from what I know. She has charm+2 (DC's death skill), Phy+3 and Int+20% among her skills. Source from Japan DC Wiki Site, last row at the moment.

Job Search Tips

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Day 5/6 in the Zombie Apocalypse

- Got another Elite hunting opportunity from quests and daily rewards, caught 8 at the second hunting ground, 7 3* and a 4*. There is something nice about building up your own deck slowly even though there are no abundance of 4* or 5*. I get a sense of accomplishment leading with this team.

Hunting Tips

- It turns out that the barrels in the first hunting ground can be shot to explode and kill zombies. The graphical interface wasn't clear about it unlike the flamethrower feature in second hunting ground. I only know from a later quest to use it.

....

Here's my referral code, you'll get a 3* upon hitting player level 5 which can cause the DC equivalent of Death skill: MC87Z33

App Store link

Android Google Play Store link

Day 3/4 in the Zombie Apocalypse

- 2nd SHT hunt earned from quests used in the first hunting ground, I caught 7 and they were all 3* again. I bought 3 x 100 coins as I notice it was cheaper than the 300 coins package by a few cents and tried again; same results 7 x 3*.

- first SHT earned from quests used in the second hunting ground, I managed 8 this time but all 3* again. On another note, I actually caught a 4*+ card on first try at normal hunting in the second hunting ground. (I believe it is in between 4* and 5*)

Hunting Tips
- I think it's best to avoid flying bird shadows unless you can kill it straight as after it attacks, the bird disappears quite a distant causing great time wastage.

As in GC, reloading takes about 6 seconds so if the timer is down to 6 seconds, there is no time to reload and shoot again. Reloading takes around 3 seconds now.

- Second hunting ground has a flamethrower which seems to drop after you catch one of the shadow (unconfirmed). It grants 1 hit kill but you still need to aim the target at the shadows.

...

Here's my referral code, you'll get a 3* upon hitting player level 5 which can cause the DC equivalent of Death skill: MC87Z33

App Store link

Android Google Play Store link

Day 2 in the Zombie Apocalypse

(I decided to split my Deadman's Cross posts into daily journals as I'll be playing it for a while)

- It is possible to earn special hunting tickets (SHT) or Deadman coins as it is referred to in this game through jobs and daily login. On my first Elite Hunt (SHT equivalent) at the first hunting ground, I caught 7 which is my average hunt and they were all 3*. It seems like even 4* is rare now? I need to do more Elite hunts to find out...

- The jobs are harder to me as my most powerful zombie is a 3*. After playing PAD where levelling up was almost continuous in the beginning, DC felt more "slow" in progress.

- Game seems to have some bugs like wrong levelling stats being shown. I'm also encountering problem continuing the "I am Legion 1" quest as the game kept getting bad connection and restarting. (crash) GC was much more polished at launch and I never encountered any problems with GC.

...

Here's my referral code, you'll get a 3* upon hitting player level 5 which can cause the DC equivalent of Death skill: MC87Z33

App Store link

Android Google Play Store link

Friday, February 14, 2014

Here we go again... Deadman's Cross

The sequel to Guardian Cross is out; Deadman's Cross (DC). If you are familiar with the Apps in stores nowadays, I think you can call this a re-skin to Guardian Cross (GC), particularly with the later versions of it after I quit playing as it has the job system. One new thing I noticed other than a sight change in hunting gameplay is a clan system. (Update: The way I see it now, it seems like it is just a nicer name for those global hunting events that we had in GC) The card art (being a Square Enix product?) is still top-notch.

The concept and gameplay is very familiar to GC players and the hunting is now Zombie sniping which makes it kind of refreshing for now. Coliseum is still here (known as Boneyard now) and trading too. I personally think that trading should be removed as it was the cause of many problems with the rules in my opinion but it remains. Hopefully, DC will not be plagued by the issues of the predecessor.
I guess the tips for GC should apply here as well: try to focus leveling the most powerful card that you have one at a time and for early teams, try to put some weak cards in front to absorb attacks, etc.

To me, this is no doubt a re-skin but a very high quality one! I stopped GC before job system was implemented so it is new to me. I also don't mind restarting as I bring some of the knowledge from GC over. I'll be playing a bit to collect cards and enjoy the novelty while it lasts.

Here's my referral code, you'll get a 3* upon hitting player level 5 which can cause the DC equivalent of Death skill: MC87Z33

App Store link

Android Google Play Store link

From here on, I decided to split my Deadman's Cross posts into daily journals.


Monday, February 3, 2014

Hearthstone Impressions

This is probably old news but Hearthstone open beta is out. I tried it for a while and the graphics, music and effects are quite nice. The game mechanics has some Magic:The Gathering elements and overall it seem simple (maybe designed with iPad play in mind. iPad and Android tablets version rolling out later) but it looks like there are enough strategy and depth involved. Deck building is unique in the sense that you are drafting cards into your deck; given 3 to choose each "turn" instead of choosing from your whole collection. Update: You can build your own deck or use the suggestion mode where you are guided by giving 3 cards to choose each "turn" until you fill up the deck.

Joystiq has quite a few articles and information on the game. It looks like Warlock class is strong. I currently find the simplicity a little boring because I played so little but I still enjoyed it more than the other new card games for the iOS. I'll probably continue to play it more to unlock a few more characters and their decks.

Puzzle & Dragons: Links to stuff I posted over at Puzzle and Dragons forum

I haven't been updating this blog about Puzzle & Dragons because all the things I written went to the Puzzle and Dragons forum.

Here are the links to them:

Seiryuu/Karin video compilation

HunterXHunter Killua video compilation

D/W Batman video compilation

"Underpowered" team video compilation

Farmable Umi & Yama teams video compilation

Heroes video compilation

Re-roll and tutorial tips

Manual Draconic Summoning Circle Skill "Recipes" with videos