Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dismissing a Hero - Update

Due to the scroll - ash update today, the check list for dismissing a hero needs to be updated. Thanks to pectrox for reminding me.

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.
5. Unequip all scrolls (and get the ashes).

Scroll Ash Update

Today, EC made a relatively big update. There were several changes, but now, I just want to talk about one of them. Prior to this update, once a scroll is equipped on a hero, it's there. Removing it from the hero, the scroll will disappear. If you replace it with a new scroll, the old scroll disappears.

After today's update, when you remove a scroll, it will turn into ash of the same level. The message given is "Are you sure you want to remove the skill? The skill will be decomposed after removing and turn into the Ash of the same level."
If you replace the scroll with a new one, the old scroll will turn to ash, again, of the same level as the old scroll. The message presented is "Are you sure you want to change the skill? The skill will be decomposed after removing and turn into the Ash of the same level."

Prior to this update, I am usually conservative and do not equip my hero with level 3 scrolls (because I want to synthesize a level 4). But now, you really lose nothing. In a previous post, I had mentioned that a scroll and ash basically have the same value/cost in terms of synthesis stones. So here's the scheme I will now be using (I'll use Sky Archer as example) :

1. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
2. Equip the hero with the level 3 Sky Archer.
3. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
4. Create 2 x level 3 Ash (with any scrolls).
5. Unequip the level 3 Sky Archer (and it turns into a level 3 Ash).
6. Try to synthesize with the level 3 Sky Archer created in #3, and the 3 ashes (2 from #4, and 1 from #5).
7. If synthesis is successful, you have just completed your upgrade.
Otherwise, you still have a level 3 Sky Archer and you can put it back on the hero.

Compare to previous :
1. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
2. Create 3 x level 3 Ash (with any scrolls).
3. Try to synthesize level 4.

The number of level 3 scrolls/ashes is exactly the same (4 of them). So the number of synthesis stones used is the same. But now, you get to use the level 3 Sky Archer without worrying about the loss of any value when you unequip. The only catch is that 2 of the scrolls you use must be Sky Archer, instead of 1. Since Sky Archer is plenty, this is not a problem. This might still be a problem for rarer scrolls, such as Inspiration I.

Now, if you need to do some arena, there's yet another scheme.
1. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
2. Equip the hero with the level 3 Sky Archer.
3. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
4. Create level 3 Confidence.
5. Create 3 Ash (with any scrolls).
6. Unequip the level 3 Sky Archer (and it turns into a level 3 Ash).
7. Equip level 3 Confidence (join as many arena as you can to increase arena level).
8. Unequip the level 3 Confidence (and it turns into a level 3 Ash).
9. Try to synthesize with the level 3 Sky Archer created in #3, and the 3 ashes (from #5, #6, and #8).
10. If synthesis is successful, you have just completed your upgrade.
Otherwise, you still have a level 3 Sky Archer and you can put it back on the hero.

Again, you created exactly 4 level 3's scroll/ash, so you used the same number of synthesis stones. This time, you get to use the Confidence scroll before you turn it into ash to boost your arena level.

For rarer scrolls, here's the scheme :
1. Create level 3 Inspiration I
2. Create level 3 Sky Archer.
3. Equip the hero with the level 3 Sky Archer.
4. Create 2 x level 3 Ash (with any scrolls).
5. Unequip the level 3 Sky Archer (and it turns into a level 3 Ash).
6. Try to synthesize with the level 3 Inspiratio I created in #3, and the 3 ashes (2 from #4, and 1 from #5).
7. If synthesis is successful, you have just completed your upgrade.
Otherwise, you still have a level 3 Inspiration I and you can go back to step #2.

In this scheme, you get to use the Sky Archer while waiting to build ashes to upgrade Inspiration I.

All of the above, it can be used at any level, and the payoff is even greater. Imagine the use of level 4 scrolls that will be turned into ashes when you try for level 5 anyway. Or the use of level 5 scrolls which will be the ashes for level 6!

So equip those scrolls, don't hold back!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Offline Protection

Troop protection

If you are at war, you want to conserve your troops. You want heroes with troops when you are ready to play. You don't want to come back to the game to see that your hero is in hospital and your troops in injury barracks.

1. Sheltering
You can shelter your troops. Unlink your troops from your heroes and put the troops in shelter. This is probably the easiest way until your troops exceeds the capacity of your shelter.

2. Protection Rune
This is a rather expensive way, but it is easy for those who are donating to the game. Throw on protection runes for the duration that you are going to be away. It may be cheaper if you put all your heroes into a single city so that you only need to rune one city.

3. Dodging
When you are online and you see an incoming attack that you want to avoid, you send your heroes on devil hunt just as the incoming attack is arriving. A similar technique can be applied when you are going offline. If you are going away for say 8 hrs, send your troops on a devil that is 4 hrs away. That way, your troops are not in city and cannot be wiped out when you are away. When you get back in 8 hrs, your troops would have just returned from a small victory.

If your hero has troop speed of 200, the longest dodge you can apply is about 14 hrs. So if you are going to be away for longer time, slow down your troops.
  • Unequip your mount
  • Group a fast hero with a slower one
  • Equip the hero with a troop that is NOT his specialty.

4. Aiding
If you have a strong neighbor in your union, talk to him/her. Send your troops to his/her city and you can remand them when you get back. Ideally, you don't want this neighbor to be more than half an hour away, so that you don't have to wait too long when you are ready to play.

5. Hiding
This is a risky technique. You can send your heros to hide in mines, or crystal mines. If someone is out to get you, he'll probably be spying the mines near you, so you may have to send them to somewhere a little further. It takes effort to scan mines, but if discovered, those heroes will be fighting at a disadvantage, without walls, towers and mayor bonus. Use this sparingly and only when you need to take the chance. Of course, the further you hide, the longer you will have to wait when you are ready to play.

There is an option to recall troops faster, by the use of diamond tickets.



Resource protection

Resources are probably secondary, troops being much more important than resources. If you have heroes with troops, you can raid nearby cities for resources. But there are some ways you can protect your resources.

1. Storage
This is probably the easiest. You can set use storage to protect your resources, and you even get a storage bonus when you reach Nobility rank of Sir.

2. Protection Rune
Like protecting the troops, the protection rune can also be used. Again, you may want to send all resources to a single city, so that you only need to put the rune on one city.

3. Market
You can try to 'sell' your resources, and probably won't mind if they do get sold. And even if they are not sold, they are safely 'stored' in the market for 24 hours. When you need them, you can simply cancel the trade. At market level 30, you can have 16 trades. Each sale can be a maximum of 20k, so you can protect up to 320k of resources this way.

4. Sending resources
Also using the market, you can send resources between cities. This in some way depends on how far apart your cities are and how long you are going to be away. Each 'trade' allow you to send up to 100k of resources, 5 times more than selling, but once you send, you don't have access to the resources until it arrives. You cannot cancel a send.

5. Friendly raids
If you have friends nearby, you can ask them to raid you with 1 soldier, 4 times. The first raid will yield 20x troop count of each resource. The second raid yields 10x, the third yields 5x, and the forth yields 2x. Subsequently, each raid only yields 1x. This way, if even if an enemy sends in 3 x level 80 heroes (and each level 80 hero have 2850 troops), they can raid at most 8550 of each resource. This is far better than losing 171k of each resource.
This raid count is per player, so the friendly raid can be on any city, not necessarily on the city you want to protect. The raid count resets 8 hrs after the first raid, so this method applies only for a maximum of 8 hrs.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Devil Sweep Techniques

The devil sweep rankings got reset, and so this is probably a good time to write on this event. I barely got to the top spot with a 63 rounds lead, and am rather upset that it got reset. We received no notification, warnings or whatsoever, so my guess is that they will probably do this every year. For those who are new, I had written a beginner's guide here :
http://sislandec.blogspot.com/2010/12/devil-sweep.html
Enough nagging, on with techniques. There are 2 main techniques that I use :

Herding
Many players already know this, or use this technique, but the first time I hear the term 'herding' is from Bear. So I'll give him credit for naming this technique.
Round the week, you kill devils that are 20 squares or further. You do not kill those devils that are near. As the far devils get killed, there is a chance that it will reappear near you. When you repeat this, you can get a significant herd of devils near your city. That way, when the event start, you can use kill those near devils to complete each round quickly.

Preemptive Attack
This technique is probably more suitable for big players, or for smaller players who received aids.
The devils for each round is random, but sometimes you run low on a particular type. As the devils get further, you may want to send attacks out for next round before the current round is completed. Unless you have 13 extra heroes (one for each type), you will probably have to guess what the next round is. But random guess doesn't do so well. If you have a dark knight that is near, you don't have to make a guess on that type. Instead, you send preemptive attacks only for those types that are further.
So if you see that you have no seastrider near you, you may want to send an attack for that type. You want that attack to land only after the current round. So when the next round is revealed, and it includes a seastrider, you already have a good head start. If it does not, you have the option of recalling that attack (especially if the next seastrider is significantly further), and sending another hero to that same seastrider, again landing only after the current round.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Level 69

Many players feel a sigh of relieve when they get past level 69 and land on level 70. Some feelts it is psychological, but it is really the hardest level. At level 69, you need 1.2 mil exp to level up. That is more than the 1.198 mil exp needed to level up at level 79 to the max level of 80.
You can see it in the table below.

When you get past 69 to 70, it is also close enough to call it the halfway mark to the max level of 80. So if you feel that your hero is stuck at level 69, be patience, it is indeed the hardest level of all.


Level Exp to level up Total exp attained Percentage of exp to level 80
1 186 0 0.00%
2 386 186 0.00%
3 602 572 0.00%
4 835 1174 0.01%
5 1087 2009 0.01%
6 1361 3096 0.01%
7 1659 4457 0.02%
8 1984 6116 0.03%
9 2339 8100 0.04%
10 2727 10439 0.05%
11 3151 13166 0.06%
12 3617 16317 0.08%
13 4128 19934 0.09%
14 4689 24062 0.11%
15 5306 28751 0.13%
16 5985 34057 0.16%
17 6732 40042 0.19%
18 7554 46774 0.22%
19 8459 54328 0.25%
20 9457 62787 0.29%
21 10556 72244 0.33%
22 11768 82800 0.38%
23 13103 94568 0.44%
24 14575 107671 0.50%
25 16196 122246 0.57%
26 17984 138442 0.64%
27 19954 156426 0.72%
28 22124 176380 0.82%
29 24516 198504 0.92%
30 27150 223020 1.03%
31 30051 250170 1.16%
32 33246 280221 1.30%
33 36764 313467 1.45%
34 40637 350231 1.62%
35 44898 390868 1.81%
36 49588 435766 2.02%
37 54747 485354 2.25%
38 60420 540101 2.50%
39 66659 600521 2.78%
40 73518 667180 3.09%
41 81056 740698 3.43%
42 89340 821754 3.80%
43 98441 911094 4.22%
44 108437 1009535 4.67%
45 119413 1117972 5.17%
46 131464 1237385 5.73%
47 144692 1368849 6.33%
48 159208 1513541 7.00%
49 175135 1672749 7.74%
50 192606 1847884 8.55%
51 211767 2040490 9.44%
52 232777 2252257 10.42%
53 255809 2485034 11.50%
54 281055 2740843 12.68%
55 308720 3021898 13.99%
56 339032 3330618 15.41%
57 372237 3669650 16.98%
58 408605 4041887 18.71%
59 448430 4450492 20.60%
60 450000 4898922 22.67%
61 465125 5348922 24.75%
62 480500 5814047 26.91%
63 496125 6294547 29.13%
64 512000 6790672 31.43%
65 528125 7302672 33.80%
66 544500 7830797 36.24%
67 561125 8375297 38.76%
68 578000 8936422 41.36%
69 1200000 9514422 44.03%
70 984000 10714422 49.59%
71 1006560 11698422 54.14%
72 1029440 12704982 58.80%
73 1052640 13734422 63.56%
74 1076160 14787062 68.43%
75 1100000 15863222 73.41%
76 1124160 16963222 78.50%
77 1148640 18087382 83.71%
78 1173440 19236022 89.02%
79 1198560 20409462 94.45%
80 1224000 (locked)
21608022 100.00%

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Price to identify maps

Today, we (players in w5) just noticed a difference in prices to identify maps. It appears that this is dependent on a player's Nobility rank.

Nobility : Sir or lower
Ordinary Map (Black) : 200 gold
Excellent Map (Green) : 500 gold
Superior Map (Blue) : 1000 gold
Legend Map (Purple) : 100 diamonds (or tickets)

Nobility : Knight or higher
Ordinary Map (Black) : 100 gold
Excellent Map (Green) : 200 gold
Superior Map (Blue) : 500 gold
Legend Map (Purple) : 50 diamonds (or tickets)

Nobility : Marquis or higher
Ordinary Map (Black) : 50 gold
Excellent Map (Green) : 100 gold
Superior Map (Blue) : 200 gold
Legend Map (Purple) : 25 diamonds (or tickets)

Nobility : Prince
Ordinary Map (Black) : FREE
Excellent Map (Green) : 50 gold
Superior Map (Blue) : 100 gold
Legend Map (Purple) : 5 diamonds (or tickets)

Knight is still probably the most achievable rank, and good enough to identify blue maps at a discount. At prince, it might be worth the 5 tickets to identify the purple maps.

Credits :
Nuloej was the first to suggest that it may be rank related, and impimp proved that it was Nobility when he upgraded from Sir to Knight.
pectrox provided the update for Duke and Prince. (updated Feb-1, 2011).

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Changing password

This should probably have been in the game's FAQ, but it is not. The reason being that password is tied to an account, which can be used to play any of the hithere games. As such, changing a password is not a game specific question, and not in the game's FAQ.

To change your password, go to this URL.
http://www.hithere.com

On that page, you should see a login form at the top right hand. Sign in.
After you sign in, again near the top right, you should see 3 buttons :
'Edit Profile', 'Edit Password', and 'Logout'.
Click on 'Edit Password', and you will find the form to change your password.

If at any point you suspect that your account is compromised, change your password.