Devil Sweep

Yesterday I reached 1000 rounds in Devil Sweep, but I also found that many players don't know how this work, so I'm writing this beginner's guide.

"Sweep the Devil Union" is what it is officially called, but most of the players call it 'devil sweep', or just 'sweep' for short. It is an event that happens every Thursday at 10am server time. The event lasts for 8 hours.

To participate, click on the "castle icon" at the top left to enter the neutral city.
Next, click on the "horse icon" on the left to enter the military office.
On this page, there are 2 events listed :
1. Attack the Floating Castles
2. Sweep the Devil Union

For the devil sweep, click on the second 'Join Activity' button.
On this page, during the event, it should show the number of rounds you have completed.
There are 2 buttons 'Requirement' and 'Rank'.
Click on the 'Requirement' button, and the pop up should show you a list of devils you need to kill to complete that round. For the first round, it should show 4 different devils.

Round	Devils
1 - 5	4
6 - 10	5
11 - 15	6
16 - 20	7

It also describes the weaknesses of each of the devils :
Eg.
Dark Knight
Restraint by Lance Type Arms

That weakness is just informational, and not part of the requirement. You may kill that devil type with any troops to complete the requirement.
Now, go to the world view, find the devil type listed and send troops to kill them.

The page is cached, so if you are sure you have completed the requirement but it is not showing, get back to the town view and then go back in.

Every 5 rounds, you get a reward :

Round	Reward
5	3 x Bronze Keys
10	Silver Key
15	Gold Key
20	Jewelry Chest

After you've completed 20 rounds, the cycle starts all over again. Round 21 is the same as round 1, and at Round 25, you get the same reward as round 5. This is one good way to get keys and jewelry chest.

Beside the 'Requirement' button, there is also a 'Rank' button. On that page, the 10 players with the highest rank in devil sweep are listed. On Friday, the top player receives a Tornado Horse Yes, I am looking forward to receiving mine some time today. :) The 2nd and 3rd placed players receives an Armored Horse. This ranking is cumulative, as are the rounds described above. It means you do not have to complete 20 rounds in a week to get a jewelry chest, you can do 10 rounds each week and get a jewelry chest every other.

Have fun with this event, and Merry Christmas. :)

Additional Notes :
This is the message you get when you get the reward for ranking :

Congratulate you on being 2nd in devil attacking activity on 2010-12-23, the reward is Tornado Horse, pls attention to receive.

Note that it actually says 2nd, even though I was ranked 1st, but the reward is the Tornado for ranking 1st. Likewise, when you are 2nd or 3rd, the message will say 3rd and 4th respectively, but the reward will be correct.

Max Population

I thought I just write this, partly as a note to myself. I just reached max population on all my cities today.

The maximum population for the main city is 1855.
The maximum population for a sub city is 1835.
The difference is due to the Union Chamber, which can only be constructed in the main city.

Note that having the max population does not mean all constructions have completed, just that the last structure has started construction. It will be another 500 more hours before I have all constructions finished.

Now, when you look at the top cities ranking list, you will find some players having cities above 1855 population. This is due to a glitch that hithere didn't want to fix. When you start a construction, your population increment for that structure is awarded. However, if that construction is not completed, due to termination for striding crusade (world merge), that population is already awarded. When you start construction for the same structure again, after the crusade, you will be awarded the population for that structure again. This double accounting is what leads to the glitch, or the politically correct term, bug.

Now you know how you can trigger this bug, be warned, you will be paying for the extra food. If that does not bother you, the maximum you can gain for a single crusade is 55. Before a crusade begins, demolish the following 3 structures, and start their constructions such that it will not complete before the crusade. You will need to use a builder queue to have 3 constructions.

• Infantry Barrack - Level 5 or 6 - 20 pop
• Cavalry Barrack - Level 6 - 20 pop
• BBQ/Water Wheel/Food Factory - Level 3 - 15 pop

When the crusade takes place, those construction will be terminated, but the pop is still awarded. You can start constructing those 3 structures again, and the pop will be awarded a 2nd time. And with that, when you max all your structures, you will have cities that out rank other players who do not exploit this bug.

Off-Race Hero

Yesterday, I dismissed a level 72 green hero for a purple off-race hero.
The hero is a human, and my race is orc.
Such heroes do not make a good military hero, since her specialty will be of troops in other races.

I have been asked if that hero will be political or contest. My answer is .. 'both'.
Here's my plan :
7 skills in contest (Center and left column) up to level 10 : 77 points - Skill Level 20
3 skills in political (Center column) up to level 10 : 33 points - 110 points total - Skill Level 28
2 skills in political (Local and Military Zeal) up to level 20 : 18 points - 128 points total - Skill Level 32
7 skills in contest (Center and left column) up to level 20 : 63 points - 191 points total - Skill Level 48
7 skills in political (Left and right column) up to level 10 : 77 points - 268 points total - Skill Level 67
3 skills in contest (Right column) up to level 10 : 33 points - 301 points total - Skill Level 76

Summary ::
10 points in all contest AND political skills.
20 points in (Local and Military Zeal).
20 points in center and left column in contest skills.

As you can see, if you don't raise all political skills to 20, there are plenty of points left for contest. I recommend putting contest points up front, since the hero won't make a good mayor at a lower level anyhow. With good contest skills, you can win more arena points and pagoda early. Once the hero is level 50 or higher, she will be ready to provide high defense bonus, that is when you really want to maximize the Local skill, and equip her with defense items. You also want Military Zeal to speed up troop production.

Tavern

If you start on a new city, one of the most important structure, and a relatively easy one to max is the Tavern. If this is not your first city, you can send resources from your bigger cities, so this structure is probably more important than the mines.

The benefits are 2 folds. It allow you to recruit up to 3 more heroes. And daily, with more heroes in taverns, there is a greater chance that you find a green or blue, or if you are extremely lucky, maybe even a purple.

To build the level 5 Tavern, there is a requirement to build a level 5 Hospital, so might as well get started on those too. A level 10 Hospital is needed before you can build a level 10 Tavern. However, there is also a hidden requirement. Even if you can send resources, you to have warehouse and granary large enough to hold the resources you want to receive. So for a level 10 Tavern, there is an unwritten requirement to have a level 12 Warehouse and Granary.

Level	Heroes in Tavern	Heroes Recruit	Population	Time	Requirements
1	2	1	2	2 min
2	3	1	4	5 min
3	3	1	6	10 min
4	4	1	8	20 min
5	4	2	10	50 min	Hospital 5
6	5	2	13	1.25 hr	Warehouse 2, Granary 2
7	5	2	16	1.7 hr	Warehouse 5, Granary 5
8	6	2	19	2.4 hr	Warehouse 7, Granary 7
9	6	2	22	3.7 hr	Warehouse 10, Granary 9
10	7	3	25	5.6 hr	Hospital 10, Warehouse 12, Granary 12

Stats for Heroes

We just had a discussion on hero's stats and which ones are desirable. I was a little confused myself, so I thought I'll write it up to be clear.

Military Hero
This is probably the most important type of hero in this game, so I'll start here.
STR affects Attack, and each stat increase Attack by 3. This is the most important stats for a military hero.
DEX affects Tactics (probably affecting dodge and critical hits), probably the next most important stats for doing Floating Castle.
AGI affects Speed, and when doing events, this might even be more important than STR.
DEF is the least important, since a hero gets a lot of defense from the 5 pieces of armor. Each stat increases that number by a far smaller percentage when compared to the increase in any of the other 3 stats.

Summary ::
Wild monsters : STR, AGI
Floating castle : STR, DEX
Attacking : STR, AGI
Defending : STR, DEX

Contest Hero
For a contest hero, STR again is the most important. DEX comes next.
AGI affects Evade, and gives a chance of winning against stronger heros. This is not so important for Arena. But in Pagoda, and you are trying to beat a level and willing to try multiple times for a win, you may want to bring up your Evade to have a winning chance.

Summary ::
Arena : STR, DEX
Pagoda : STR, AGI

Political Hero
STR affects recruiting speed
AGI affects building speed
DEF affects defense bonus
DEX affects production
Given that a building speed is determined at the time the building is started, you may want to put on AGI items only when starting on a long construction.
STR again is important, since you really want to be recruiting as fast as you can.
DEF is the most important and the only stat that matters when you are defending against an invasion. In times of war, I'll say this is the most important stats.
DEX is the least important. Your resources can come from farming.

Summary ::
Before starting a long construction, put on AGI items.
Peace time : STR, DEX
War time : DEF, STR

Troops Formation

Apologies. I was reading through my own posts and I realized that 4 months ago, way back in July, I deferred the topic of troops formation when I was writing on military scrolls.

http://sislandec.blogspot.com/2010/07/military-scrolls.html

As mentioned in the post above, the soldier types enhancements scrolls only affect troops in Slot 2, 3 and 4, and that skews the formation. The other rule that shaped the formation is this rule :

"More than the recommended number into a single blank will bring penalty to the army".
That recommended number is 40% of your total troops.

Formation #1 : 1-F-H-F-1
In this formation, you put 1 soldier in each of slot 1 and 5, fill up slot 2, and 4 with the 'recommended number' (40% of your total troops), and the remainder goes into slot 3 (it'll be about half of the recommended), hence the term 'F' refers to 'fill', and 'half' refers to 'half recommended'.

I highly recommended using this for FC if you use one of those scrolls mentioned.


In the previous formation, you will always lose the 2 troops in slot 1 and 5, and will have to refill them. As such, it is sort of a hassle in killing devils. It is definitely not recommended if you are aiding, since after a single battle, there will almost certainly be at least an empty slot.

Formation #2 : E-Q-Q-Q-E
So this formation is what I'll recommend for aiding. In this formation, you fill 1/8 of your total troops in slot 1 and 5, and a quarter of your total troops into each of slot 2, 3 and 4. This is the formation I use when I do devil sweep, to avoid having to refill after every combat. This formation also does quite well in FC if you don't want to switch to 1-H-F-H-1.

In PvP, the formation to use is very dependent on your opponent's. In general, you want enough to beat up on their slot 1 and 5, or 1 troop there and sacrifice them. If you know your opponent is using 1-F-H-F-1, then a 2-F-H-F-2 is nice, since after the first round, you should have all 5 slots, while your opponent only has 3 slots (the 1 slot should be killed). Then again, if your opponent ends up using 3-F-H-F-3, you just lost 4 soldiers and emptied slot 1 and 5.

Formation #3 : T-T-T-T-T
20% of troops in each of the slots. This formation is ideal when you know 20% of your troops is sufficient to beat 40% of your opponent's. ie. Ideal for beating up much weaker opponent. This is also a feasible formation when opponent has more than 3 heroes in defense, and you want to win with all 5 slots intact to move on to phase 2 of combat. Take care when using this, since an opponent of equal strength with either of the other 2 formations will likely beat this one.

Mixed troop formation
In mixed troop, each of the above formation can still be applied. If the secondary troop is not of the specialty of your scroll, then you may want to load those on slots 1 and 5.

Rebirth Runes

We were given rebirth runes daily in recent events, and many players have wondered how to use them, so I thought I should write on it.

Rebirth Runes allow a player to refresh the attributes on an equipment. These include armor, gloves, boots, gaiter, helmet, and weapons. The runes come in 3 flavors.

1. Low-Lvl Rebirth Rune : Equipment level 1 - 20 (The description in the game is wrong)
   
2. Mid-Lvl Rebirth Rune : Equipment level 21 - 50
3. High-Lvl Rebirth Rune : Equipment level 51 - 80
   

How to use the rebirth runes :

1. Click on 'Items' at the top of the game.
   
2. You should see a 'Rebirth' button near the bottom left of the pop-up window. Click on that 'Rebirth' button.
   
3. Now, you should see a screen that says 'Rebirth Tank'. There are 2 tabs : 'Refresh' and 'Equip'. On the 'Equip' tab, select the item you want to refresh. Due to some bugs, the description for item in the top row may not be complete. But do not worry, you can select them to view the full description. Select any item, by clicking and then selecting 'Insert' (which is the only action anyway).
   
4. That item will be placed onto the 'Refresh' tab, and its attributes will be displayed. Below the description, it will also tell you the cost to refresh, as well as the number of such runes you have. If that is the correct item, and you are willing to accept that cost, click the 'Refresh' button and the item's attribute will be refreshed.

Good luck.

Synthesis Stone

In the recent event, we get a synthesis stone 1 daily.
One wonder what that is worth, and when it is best to use it.
Again, many of the computation will be based on my previous post :
http://sislandec.blogspot.com/2010/08/value-of-scrolls-and-ashes.html

Level 1 to Level 2 Synthesis
This is a 60% chance without the synthesis stone, and 50% chance when using the stone.
Each attempt saves you 10% from losing 3 level 1 ash and 1 synthesis rune. Since level 1 ash is worth nothing, the saving is 0.1 synthesis rune.

Level 2 to Level 3 Synthesis
You save 10% of losing 3 level 2 ash and 1 synthesis rune. Since each level 2 ash is worth 1.67 synthesis rune, you save 0.6 synthesis runes (0.1 * (3*1.67 + 1)).

Level 3 to Level 4 Synthesis
The saving is 0.1 * (3*13.67+1) = 4.2 synthesis runes.

Level 4 to Level 5 Synthesis
At this level, you stand to lose 2 level 4 ashes and one synthesis rune 2.
Each level 4 ash is worth 118.67 synthesis rune 1, so the total savings here is :
23.73 synthesis rune 1 + 0.1 synthesis rune 2.

For synthesis stone 2 and synthesis stone 3, multiple the value above by 2 and 3 respectively.

If you are buying, each synthesis rune 1 cost 1 diamonds, but each synthesis stone 1 cost 5 diamonds. It is not worth using the stones for Level 3 to 4 synthesis (only 4.2 in value), but definitely worth buying the stone for Level 4 to 5 synthesis.
Synthesis stone 2 cost 8 diamonds, so it is worthwhile at level 3 to 4 synthesis (saves 8.4 synthesis stone 1 and cost only 8 diamonds).
Synthesis stone 3 cost 12 diamonds (1.5 times that of stone 2) and will save you 1.5 times that of stone 2.

Conclusion : Save the stones for higher level synthesis. If you are buying, buy synthesis stone 2 or 3, but not 1, and use them for synthesizing level 4 or higher scrolls.

Upgrade Your Skills Event

In this event, wild creatures will drop Wishing Bottles. The Wishing Bottles can also also be bought using diamonds.
Wishing bottles can be used to exchange for :

2 Wishing Bottles - 250 gold coins
20 Wishing Bottles - Level 2 scroll ash
40 Wishing Bottles - Level 3 scroll ash

One may be tempted to exchange them as soon as you see the gift box flashing, but hold off.
If you recall, I made a previous post that compares the values of the scrolls and ashes at different levels : http://sislandec.blogspot.com/2010/08/value-of-scrolls-and-ashes.html

So 20 wishing bottles get you an equivalent of 1.67 synthesis runes.
40 wishing bottles get you an equivalent of 13.67 synthesis runes.
So I strongly suggest that you wait for 40 wishing bottles, where each bottle gets you 4 times more value.

Military Exploits and Rank

Military Rank

The 3rd icon on the top left is the symbol of a crown. When you click on it, you see a page with 2 tabs : Military and Nobility. On the Military tab, the 10 military ranks are listed. The 'Required exploit' column list the exploit you need to get a required rank. When you have enough exploits, you can come to this page and click on the 'Raise' button at the upper right.
There is also a column for 'Consumed exploit everyday'. You can ignore this column, this feature has been disabled, and no exploits are consumed daily, regardless of your military rank.
The 'Extra effect' column lists the bonus for acquiring a specific rank. It is cumulative, except the improvement in attack and defense. Example : My current rank of 'General' gives me the following bonus :

• The capacity of the shelter increases by 100
• Improve the spies by 1 lv
• Add 1 line in infantry recruiting list
• Reduce the recruit time of infantry by 50%
• Improve all armies' defense and attack by 10%
• Add 1 line in cavalry recruiting list

Note that the improvement to defense and attack is 10%, and not cumulative of 10% + 5% + 2%.
The best of all these effect is naturally this improvement. This improvement applies to all battles that you initiate or a defense on any of your cities (regardless of whether the heroes are yours or aided).


Military Exploits

So, how do you get military exploits? You do so by completing quests. When you click on the 'Quest' button on the top row, you will see a Military Rank tab on the left. There, you should always see these 8 quests :

• Devil Soldier Badge
• Devil Union Supply
• Devil Union Armor
• Devil Union Weapon
  
• Devil Siege Weapon
• Devil Officer Badge
• Devil Spoils
• A lot of Devil Officer Badge

These quests allow you to trade in these items for exploit points :

• Devil Badges
• Devil Supplies
• Devil Armor
• Devil Weapons
• Siege Weapons
• Officer Badges

You can find these items from chests, or you can trade arena points for these items. To trade arena points for these items, your hero has to be at least level 20. Enter the Arena and hit the 'Exchange for' button. That will bring up the 'Exchange in Arena' page. Depending on your hero's level, you will see several tabs. In tab 'II', you will find the 6 items listed above (page 2 and 3). A Devil Badge cost 3 arena points. 50 of those cost 150 arena points and can be traded in for 50 exploit points. So the 'exchange rate', if you will, is 3 arena points to 1 exploit points. This is consistent regardless of which item or quest you decide to use.

I encourage you to use arena points to raise your military rank, since the effects actually get better as your rank improve. The last rank of 'General Marshal' gets a whopping 25% improvement to attack and defense. However, you also want to save some arena points to trade for armor, so that you can do better in arena, and therefore get more arena points faster. I suggest that you use arena points from your lowest level hero, but save the points from your highest level hero. I am saving arena points from my level 79 hero, so that when he gets to level 80, he can trade for the Brutish set, for both himself, as well as my other level 75 hero.

Power of Weapons

I've compared the effectiveness of various armor, but I used the term 'value'. Value is a little misleading, since I did not consider the cost, nor if an item is Bind on Equip (BoE). Since I am now comparing weapon, I'll use the term 'power' to compare them. And no, this is not the same as work done or energy converted in physics .. just a random noun I choose to use, but you'll get the meaning. :)

Weapons typically increase attack, and that attack value is applicable to both military and contest. Non-black armor also increases attribute. Each attribute increase is worth 3 points in attack (if that attribute is STR). But otherwise, the value of it is similar. So for a given item, the power is [attack] + [sum of attributes] * 3. 2 of the items below however have additional stats that increase only contest attributes. For those, I'll list first the military power and then the contest power.

Hope the chart helps you decide when you should equip a higher level item, even though the color is of a lower grade.

Item : Color	Power	Level	Bind on Equip?
Practice : Black	16	1	N
Practice : Green	21	1	N
Practice : Blue	32	1	N
Wood : Black	40	10	N
Practice : Purple	52	1	N
Wood : Green	54	10	N
Iron : Black	64	20	N
Wood : Blue	80	10	N
Iron : Green	87	20	N
Steel : Black	88	30	N
Wood : Purple	106	10	N
Great : Black	112	35	N
Steel : Green	120	30	N
Iron : Blue	125	20	N
Mercenary : Black	136	40	N
Black Iron	141 / 202	30	N
Great : Green	153	35	N
Guard : Black	160	45	N
Steel : Blue	173	30	Y
Royal : Black	184	50	N
Mercenary : Green	186	40	Y
Wisdom	186 / 221	40	N
Guard : Green	219	45	Y
Great : Blue	221	35	Y
Cupid	226	1	N
Royal : Green	252	50	Y
Mercenary : Blue	269	40	Y
Shackle : Green	285	55	Y
Guard : Blue	317	45	Y
Mercenary : Purple	361	40	Y
Royal : Blue	365	50	Y
Guard : Purple	412	45	Y
Knight : Purple	481	50	Y
Cult Pike : Purple	589	60	Y
Glowing	595	45	N
Trident : Purple	655	65	Y
Lionheart : Purple	709	70	Y

Faster troop production

As you may have noticed, it is actually cheaper to recruit a level 1 soldier, and then train him to level 8 (or your desired level). It takes less resource. It may seem like it takes more time, but since you recruit AND train at the same time, the total production once you have a pipeline going is actually faster.

Level	Recruiting	Training to level 8
1	8:38	14:56
2	9:38	13:21
3	10:38	11:46
4	11:50	9:50
5	13:22	7:24
6	14:48	5:07
7	16:35	2:17
8	18:01

Take a look at the chart above (your mileage may vary), that is for one of my cities for mounted crossbowman (Cav4). It takes 8:38 to recruit a level 1, and then 14:56 to train a level 1 to level 8. But it takes 18:01 to recruit a level 8.

You may think it is faster to recruit level 8 straight up. But if you consider that you can recruit level 1 while you are training another level 1 to level 8, then the output is a level 8 every 14:56 instead of every 18:01. That is 20% more soldiers per troop in the same given period.

But wait, that is NOT the optimal. The production rate is actually the larger of the 2 numbers in a row. So the optimal in the case above will be to recruit a level 3, and then train him to level 8. In that case, a soldier is produced every 11:46. That is 53% more production than straight up recruiting.

So, I have show you how to do it, you will of course have to plug in your own numbers, as everyone's scenario is different. In fact, it could be different in every city.

Now, there's yet another twist. For those whose military rank is General or higher, you actually get 2 cavalry lines. So you actually need to half the recruiting the time when doing your optimization. For me, that means I should be looking at this table instead :

Level	Recruiting	Training to level 8
1	4:19	14:56
2	4:49	13:21
3	5:19	11:46
4	5:55	9:50
5	6:41	7:24
6	7:24	5:07
7	8:17	2:17
8	9:00

That means, my optimal production is recruiting of level 5 and then training them to level 8. This yields 21% more production than straight up recruiting (not as big a gain for those with only 1 queue). This also applies to players with lower military ranks, but using soldier queue specials.

For those with 2 queues and using soldier queue to get a 3rd, you will have to divide by three. And the gain will be even lower. For me, if I use soldier queue to get a 3rd queue, the optimal will be to recruit level 6, and the gain is 17%.

To get the faster production, it is some work. You will have troops sitting in the pipeline that are of lower level and consuming food. But considering that you will be using less food for the production, and you only need to keep 200 troops in the pipeline (for 2 queues, and daily maintenance), it should be more efficient, even from the resource view.

So here's how you do it :
Build level 5 for first day.
On second day, continue building level 5, but start TWO upgrade queues for all level 5 soldiers.
On 3rd day, one of the upgrade queue should have completed, and you start a upgrade queue, while also continuing to build level 5.
Repeat 3rd day procedure, and you're in the zone for pipeline production.

Level 9 Troops

The recent event (and it is not yet over, you can still buy the Persian boxes, but the devils do not drop them now) allow players to acquire Level 9 books for :

• Infantry 5 : Berserker / Sword Dancer / Duelist
• Infantry 6 : Slurbow / Longbowman / Sniper
• Cavalry 4 : Mounted Crossbowman / Horse Archer / Destroyer

But that leads to the question : How much better are Level 9 troops?

	Level 7 over Level 6	Level 8 over Level 7	Level 9 over Level 8
Sword Dancer	19.57%	16.70%	15.75%
Longbowman	19.29%	17.93%	16.78%
Horse Archer	18.40%	19.77%	16.11%
Duelist	20.30%	18.95%	15.31%
Sniper	17.97%	16.85%	15.74%
Destroyer	15.65%	16.87%	14.43%
Orcish Berserker	17.63%	16.59%	15.62%
Orcish Slurbow	19.10%	17.79%	16.68%
Mounted Crossbowman	17.87%	19.07%	16.28%

The laws of diminishing returns appear to apply. The shocker is that level 8 over level 7 for Cav 4 is actually more significant than level 7 over level 6.

16%-19% average is a lot. However, hero skills increases the troop by a fixed amount, independent of the troop level. Some scrolls also improve the troop by fixed amount (especially ATK and DEF). So, depending on your hero's skill and equipped scrolls, your mileage may vary.

Military Book Names

This is the 3rd event where we are getting military books.
The book names are not always obvious for the troop names.
eg. Parrying => Orc Infantry 2 (Warrior).
Some of the book names aren't even spelled correctly.
But below is the table (misspelling included), so that you won't mess up your claim.

	Orc	Human	Dwarf
Infantry 1	Axe specialty	Swordsmanship	Hammer skills
Infantry 2	Parrying	Shield	Heavy armor
Infantry 3	Crossbow lover	Shooting course	Gunner course
Infantry 4	Broadsword skill	Pike training	Spear training
Infantry 5	Berserk power	Sword dance	Heave hammer
Infantry 6	Heavy crossbow	Longbow training	Rapid shot
Cavalry 1	Tame wolf	Riding course	Robot pilot
Cavalry 2	Dire wolf	Charge training	Robot fight
Cavalry 3	Sword and wolf	Horse spearplay	Improved robot
Cavalry 4	Wolf and arrowes	Horse archery	Robot shooting

Armor for Military and Contest

The recent event (and is still on-going as I write this) gives a complete Green Knight set for a quest, and then a complete Blue Knight set for another.
But how do those sets compare to what you get in Arena?

Regular set (Black)
These adds to armor, and when the set is completed, you get a set bonus of STR, DEF and HP.

Regular set (Green)
These adds to ONE attribute (STR/DEF/AGI/DEX), the armor value is higher than black sets.

Regular set (Blue)
These adds to TWO attributes, the amount added is more than that in green, and the armor value is yet higher.

Regular set (Purple)
These adds to TWO attributes, the amount added is more than blue, and the armor value is higher than blue.

Arena (Blue)
These add to ONE attribute, the amount added is in the same range as the regular blue set. The armor value is the same as the regular blue set. It also adds to 2 separate Arena stats, but it does not give a set bonus.

The preference is in this order for items of the same level :
1. Regular (Purple)
2. Regular (Blue)
3. Arena (Blue)
4. Regular (Green)
5. Regular (Black)

But how do we compare gears of different level?
If a hero is equipped with a Blue Fury set, does he give it up for the Tiger arena set at level 50?

The way to compare it is to equip the set, and look at the hero's stats.
If the hero is equipped with only non-arena items, the War and Contest stats should be identical.
Each point in STR/AGI/DEX will add to 3 points in stats, while a point in DEF will add to 4 points in stats. For Blue arena items, if the attribute added is 'X', the arena stats added will be 3 times X if the stats are DMG/EVD/Crit, but 4 times X if the stat is AMR. But these only affects contest stats, not military. That is why when you equip arena items, your military stats will be lower than contest stats. And as such, each item has a different value, for military and contest. For sets that has a bonus, the bonus value needs to be amortized across the 5 items.

Military Value = [Total attributes]*4 + Armor
Contest Value = [Total attributes]*4 + Armor + AMR(if any) + (DMG/EVD/Crit)/3*4
Bonus Value = [Total bonus attributes]/5*4

So if you are equipping a complete regular blue set, the military value will be military value + bonus value. However, HP bonus affects contest much more linearly than in military. So the contest value will be contest value + bonus value + HP value. That HP value is harder to measure, since that will depend on the hero's base HP. But I'll put it at about 20%.

I'll use 20%, and give a summary of how the items stack up to each other. It also assumes complete set with set bonus.
You may want to do your own Math with the formula above, especially if you have sets of mixed colors, or using a mix of regular and arena items.

Gear	Color/Type	Level	Military Value	Arena Value
Fury	Blue	45-49	399	479
Shark	Blue/arena	45-49	278	434
Guard	Black	50	216	259
Guard	Green	50	318	381
Guard	Blue	50	460	552
Tiger	Blue/arena	50	320	500
Knight	Green	55-59	361	433
Knight	Blue	55-59	520	624
Knight	Purple	55-59	678	814
Leopard	Blue/arena	55-59	362	566
Zealot	Green	60-64	399	479
Zealot	Blue	60-64	580	696
Zealot	Purple	60-64	753	904
Lion	Blue/arena	60-64	404	632
Marsoon	Blue/arena	65-69	446	698
Lionheart	Purple	70	892	1071
Mammoth	Blue/arena	70	488	764
Brutish	Blue/arena	75	530	830

Contest Hero

This game is mostly, if not completely, about military strength. As such, most of your heroes should be focused on Military Skills. However, I believe that having ONE contest hero is a good thing, but just ONE. This is more true for those who do not donate to the game.

Here are the reasons :
#1 To complete all 5 pagoda for the rewards.
#2 To complete all 5 pagoda without using level 70s, to get gold (about 20k a week).
#3 As a side effect, that hero will do well in Arena and qualify fast for arena rewards.

Is one hero really enough for all 5 pagoda? Yes. A good contest hero can clear the first 2 pagoda without healing.
Can you really get 20k gold? Yes. You get more gold if you use lower level heroes. So a level 50 clearing all 5 pagoda can get you at least 20k gold.

What do you need to make a good contest hero?
#1 Blue (or Purple).
#2 ONE scroll slot - Confidence, level 4.
#3 Contest skills - 10 points in all contest skills, then 20 points into Power Attack. After that, you can go ahead and put points into military skills.
#4 Weapon : Level 50 Blue, nothing less.
#5 Armor : Fury or Guard set, not Shark or Tiger.

With above, a level 55 hero should be able to clear all 5 level of Pagoda, and get 20k gold every week from pagoda.

Adamas

【Union】【heretic】:hello all..how do i find an Adamas?
【Union】【bossmonquez】: prayer

Above chat prompted me to write this blog.

Adamas is the rarest stone needed to upgrade your nobility ranking.
You need one to uprade to Warrior, and one to upgrade to Sir.
You'll need two of them to upgrade to Knight, and another two for Baron.
You'll need even more for higher Nobility ranks.

It is so rare, that only 25 players have gotten past the ranking of Sir.

So how do you find an Adamas?
bossmonquez's answer is not far from the truth : prayer.
As far as I know, the only place to find an Adamas is from a Jewelry Chest.
And the odds of finding an Adamas in a Jewelry Chest is not high.
I have found only 2 so far, after opening more than 25 Jewelry Chests.

This may lead to another question : How do you find a Jewelry Chests?

1. You can buy them in the shop for 80 diamonds (not tickets).
2. You get one for every 20 rounds of Devil Sweep (which happens every Thursday).
3. You can find them from Superior Treasure Map.

Good luck, and my prayers are with you each time you open the chest.

Weekly Checklist

I thought I'll share my checklist of task/events.

3 times a day :
#1 Participate in Floating Castle
(unfortunately, I do miss some of these)

Daily :
#1 Lucky Wheel -> Spin [Fortune]
#2 Quest -> Development -> Collect 5 Synthesis Runes for winning a floating castle
#3 Quest -> Development -> Kill Devil/Harpy/Merman for 3 leather keys
#4 Quest -> Union -> Donate 50k of each resource
#5 Quest -> Nobility Title -> Collect Tax
#6 Quest -> Hero Quest -> Complete at least the 4 stars /5 stars quests.
#7 Tavern -> Check all taverns for blue/purple heroes
#8 Arena -> Each hero participates in 5 contests

Every 3 days (or when needed):
#1 Identify Superior Scrolls and find them, repeat as needed to get Atk/Def/Luck runes.

Weekly :
#1 Participate in Devil Sweep (Thursday)
#2 Complete and collect all 6 rewards in Pagoda

I also created a document to check off each task/event.

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1qF0qq81wyFjNVBwFCqrnt21nZY4dlKW0pGP5PkWJFhU&hl=en

Value of Scrolls and Ashes

In this post, I'd like to put a value to any scroll based on its level.
This value is measured by the average number of Synthesis Runes needed to get a scroll to the level.

You get scrolls from chests or by killing devils.
These scrolls will be of level 1.
You can divide the scroll, and they will turn to ash.
Now, you can synthesize a scroll of higher level by using scrolls of lower level, ashes, and synthesis rune.

Level 1 scroll => => Level 1 ash.
Level 2 scroll => => Level 2 ash.
Level 3 scroll => => Level 3 ash.
(You get the idea).

Level 1 scroll + 3x Level 1 ash + Synthesis Rune 1 => => Level 2 scroll.
Level 2 scroll + 3x Level 2 ash + Synthesis Rune 1 => => Level 3 scroll.
Level 3 scroll + 3x Level 3 ash + Synthesis Rune 1 => => Level 4 scroll.
Note that when you fail, the ashes and runes are lost, but not the scroll.

Level 1 - 0 Synthesis Rune
So level 1 scrolls and ashes cost nothing (with respect to synthesis rune). In fact, they are found in abundance (except for a few selected types - Inspiration 1 and Inspiration 2, but that's not what I am measuring here.

Level 2 - 1.67 Synthesis Rune
There's a 60% chance of success. So that means getting a level 1 scroll to level 2 will take 5 level 1 ashes and 1.67 synthesis rune. Since level 1 ashes require no synthesis runes, its value is simply 1.67 synthesis rune.

Level 3 - 13.67 Synthesis Rune
There's a 50% chance of success. So on average, it'll take 2 synthesis rune, 6 level 2 ashes and 1 level 2 scrolls. Level 2 ashes have the same 'value' as its scroll, so that makes its value 2 + 6 * 1.67 + 1.67 = 13.67 synthesis rune.

Level 4 - 118.67 Synthesis Rune
There's a 40% chance of success. So on average, it'll take 2.5 synthesis rune, 7.5 level 3 ashes and 1 level 3 scroll. 2.5 + 8.5 * 13.67 = 118.67.

Level 5 - 909.78 Synthesis Rune 1 + 3.33 Synthesis Rune 2
Here's where things get interesting. To get a level 5 scroll, you need only 2 level 4 ashes, but you will need Synthesis Rune 2. These runes have to be bought from shops. Good thing, it can be bought with diamond tickets. The success rate is 30%. So on average, you will need 3.33 Synthesis Rune 2, 6.67 Level 4 ashes, and 1 Level 4 scroll.

So you can see the exponential increase. I think the sweet spot is Level 4.

Also, the current event of giving a level 2 ash for 10 wishing bottles, at a drop rate of about 1 in 20, it's a waste of time. That scroll is worth only 1.67 runes, and you can get 5 daily just by winning one FC.

Superior Treasure Map

When you kill wild devils, you can be rewarded with treasure maps. The maps come in 4 flavors (much like all other items in this game) :

1. Ordinary Treasure Map (Black)
2. Excellent Treasure Map (Green)
3. Superior Treasure Map (Blue)
4. Legend Treasure Map (Purple)

In this post, I want to talk about the Superior Treasure Map. You can sell each of this map for 150 gold, or get them identified for 1000 gold. When identified, the location is usually about 1 hour travel time from your main (for troops with 100 speed). The rewards you usually get are :

1. Attack Rune (3 days)
2. Defense Rune (3 days)
3. Luck Rune (3 days)
4. Builder Queue (3 days)
5. Exp Book III (3000 exp, min level 21)

I like to kill find at least 3 of these treasures daily, so that on average, I will find at least one of each of the first 3 items, and with that I will be able to keep attack/defense/luck running, without having to spin [Super] or to buy them with diamonds.

Arena

Arena Structure

The Arena structure allow heroes of level 10 or higher to take part in contests.
At Arena level 1, you can do 11 challenges.
At each additional Arena structure level, you can do one additional challenge.
At the maximum level of 30, that means you can do a maximum of 40 challenges.


Arena Grade

The arena is graded.

Hero Level	Arena Grade
10-19	1
20-29	2
30-39	3
40-49	4
50-59	5
60-69	6
70-79	7
80	8

This way, a hero of level 80 will not compete against a hero of level 10.
But a hero of level 10 still has to deal with hero of level 19.


Arena Level

When a hero starts the contest in each grade, he begins with an 'Arena Level' (some call this rating) of 1500.
Each contest that he wins, the Arena Level will go up, and vice versa, the Arena Level will go down when he loses a contest.
When a hero advances to the next Arena Grade, his Arena Level will be reset to level 1500.


Arena Points

Everyday, Arena Points are given to heroes who have participated in at least 5 arena contests.
The points given are based on this Formula :

If [Arena Level] < 1500 :
[Points Awarded] = [Arena Grade] * [Arena Level] * [Arena Level] * 0.0125 / ( [Arena Level] + 1500 )
Otherwise :
[Points Awarded] = [Arena Grade] * [Arena Level] * [Arena Level] * 0.0625 / ( [Arena Level] + 10000 ) Below is a table for easy comparison :

Level \ Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6
1000	5	10	15	20	25	30
1200	7	13	20	27	33	40
1300	8	15	23	30	38	45
1400	8	17	25	34	42	51
1450	9	18	27	36	45	53
1499	9	19	28	37	47	56
1500	12	24	37	49	61	73
1501	12	24	37	49	61	73
1550	13	26	39	52	65	78
1600	14	28	41	55	69	83
1700	15	31	46	62	77	93
1800	17	34	51	69	86	103
1900	19	38	57	76	95	114
2000	21	42	63	83	104	125

Arena Ranking

There is a ranking for each grade of Arena.
There are no rewards for getting top ranking in Arena.


Arena Rewards

The Arena Rewards are based on Arena Points, which are awarded as described above.
The points can be used to exchange for rewards.


Because rewards are based on points and points are given daily, try to have each hero join at least 5 contests daily.

Dismissing a Hero

This is a note that I wrote to my union a few months ago.


Here, I was dismissing a hero to make room for another. So below is the check list that I had been using so far, but today, it's the first time I am dismissing a hero that had BoE items. Then to my surprise, the BoE items that I had unequipped all disappeared. So I now add a new item to the check list, and hope that will save all of you the pain.

1. Remove ALL items from the hero.
2. Remove ALL troops from the hero.
3. Use ALL arena points that hero has. Exchange them for items, or just exp scrolls.
4. Sell all BoE items bound to the hero.

Please see updates :
http://sislandec.blogspot.com/2011/01/dismissing-hero-update.html