Gotcha WarriorsX: Ranking Info

Ranking is a battle mode that is updated almost every week and lasts for a couple days. Typically there are a few stages that reward BP which are Battle Points. Completing (or failing) these stages boost your battle points score which is ranked against other players. Now prize rewards are given out after each ranking event ends and can be anything from new rare warriors, recruit tickets, gems or energy. The higher you rank, the better the prize.
There's also individual rewards given to players for reaching certain point tiers.
You can check all of this information by pressing the Reward button in Ranking section.

By repeating the stages, you can continue to rack up points at the cost of a heart or two or three. Using one heart will get you the base battle points. Using more than one will apply a multiplier.
2 hearts: x2.7 multiplier
3 hearts: x4 multiplier
You get 3 hearts to start with and each is refilled in 15 minutes.

Another method to increase the amount of BP you get is to place certain gotcha warriors in your team. These G.W. are called Bonus G.W. and will also apply a certain multiplier to your score.

Usually at the start of each ranking event, they will announce details so its good to read up on the updates.

June 5th - ?
This week's new G.W. is YAMATO who is a Tengu with the special abitlity to blow away shields from multiple enemies. It doesn't look like you'll have a chance to get him from the ranking battles but stay tuned. His final stats are:
HP - 20373
Attack - 9777
Special - 4905

 

They have not yet released ranking info in English yet but the campaign has begun. It's called Black Feather.

Gotcha Warriors X : Android

I've been playing a new game lately called Gotcha Warriors X. A week ago it was on Google Play's Picks so I downloaded it. The art style was interesting and I did like the concept of evolving characters to become stronger. There is also a strategic element in that each character has their own specials and stats. Mobs also have special skills that the player needs to be attentive towards.

Google Play link here: Gotcha Warriors X
Official Description: #Smash some zombies and save the world!#
#The best TowerDefense game out there!#
The “GotchaWarriors” are special warriors from all over the world and they are at your disposal. Use them to protect the city from the crazy doctor bent on world domination.

It's best to ignore all of the bad engrish because there is A LOT of it. It is mind boggling how no one decided to do a proper grammar or spell check on the opening cinematic... I would do it for free if they asked!
Anyway, moving on. They start you with a tutorial and a few free warriors. The concept and gameplay seems simple. Place a warrior on the battle map and they will automatically attack any incoming zombies within range. Tap them again when they have an electric charge effect around them to use their special attack. Cool. Tutorial also shows you how to enhance your warriors and then evolve them.

First few maps were ridiculously simple especially when you are able to recruit a "friend"'s gotcha warrior to help you (I choose the badass looking ones). However, later maps will push you to recruit, enhance and evolve your team in order to pass.

Besides the bad english, the game also has a few issues with load times even between screen transitions. It also requires that you be online to even start the game. Overall, its still a good game with a lot of quirks. The art style is cute and team/battle management is pretty fun. I recommend that you try it! And read my tips below

Helpful Links and Tips:
- Check the wiki Gotcha Warrior X Wiki:
Helpful resource above with pictures of each warrior and their evolved forms. However, still very incomplete. You can also check the battle levels and find out which warrior is awarded to you.

- Login Rewards
New consecutive login rewards 4/07 - 4/20
1st day: 500 energy
2nd day: Murasaki

- Free recruit per day (basic only)
Make sure to use this anyway. You can sell any extra warriors you don't need for energy.
- Collect recruit tickets
You need 5 recruit tickets to redeem for one premium recruit! Go to Recruit and choose Special and you can see how many tickets you have up on the right corner.

Daily Stage Rewards: In the Special stage section, there is a daily area stage that you can play. These usually reward different warriors or large amounts of Energy.
Monday Area: Sakura
Tuesday Area: T-Wolf
Wednesday Area: Scorpion (Any evolution)
Thursday Area: Django
Friday Area: Itachimaru (Only has one form)
Saturday & Sunday Area: Energy bonus

- To change your warrior setup
Go to Tactics, then choose Regular. You can swap in or out your warriors here. - Picking up loot bags
You cannot tap the bag to pick them up. You have to move your warrior to the bag and they will collect them. Took me a while to figure that out.

- Itachimaru: A special warrior that is needed for some evolutions. Only has one form.
You have a "chance" to get him in the SPECIAL stage section. You have to wait until friday to play the "Friday Area" battle. It has his picture on it.

- Use my invite code to get a special warrior ASAHI (SR): c6267112

You can find your invite code in Friend and then Invite. Scroll down and you will see it.

Will put up more tips as I remember/learn them.

Maids from Moe Girl Cafe

Been getting quite a lot of questions about Moe Girl Cafe so I'll include another post about this Android app.
You're probably wondering which character does each maid represent. Truth is, these girls are all from "popular" japanese anime or games. You can check it out below.



1. Mio Naganohara from Nichijou
2. Ikaros/Icarus from Sora no Otoshimono
3. Ohana Matsumae from Hanasaku Iroha
4. Sugiyama Mio from Fault!!
5. Unknown
6. Unknown
7. Holo from Spice and Wolf
8. Honma Meiko from Anohana
9. Sakagami Tomoyo from Clannad
10. Elsie from The World Only God Knows
11. Golden Darkness/Konjiki no Yami from To Love-Ru
12. Tako
13. Unknown
14. Asuna?
15. Unknown
16. Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project series
17. Saber from Fate/Stay Night
18. Miku Hatsune, a Vocaloid
19. Misaka Mikoto from Toaru Majutsu
20. Akari Akaza from Yuru Yuri
21. Unknown
22. Kurumi Tokisaki from Date a Live
23. Yaya from Unbreakable Machine Doll

Feel free to contribute as I collect more pictures and names. This is a work in progress!!

Starbound: How to unlock the Beta sector

By now, you've probably noticed that all the galaxies you've explored begin with Alpha. There is a next tier of the universe with a higher difficulty that you can unlock called the Beta sector. Read on below to see how you can achieve this:

Optional Starter Quests

Upon starting up Starbound for the first time, you get a series of quests that start from searching your ship's locker for a matter manipulator and ending with building a Distress Beacon.
Each race has a tiny difference in the title and text of their quests but they are all the same in their objectives.

Quest 1: Obtain Matter Manipulator from the ship's storage/locker and equip it on your skill bar. Press E to open the locker when it is lit.

Quest 2: Obtain some unrefined wood and craft a Wooden Crafting Table. You'll need to leave the ship by using the platform on the left or pressing the Down Arrow icon on the menu on your right. Use your Matter Manipulator on a tree trunk to break it down for some wood. Press C to bring up your crafting window and craft wooden planks from the unrefined wood you just got. Then you can craft the Wooden Crafting Table from the planks by selecting it on the menu.

Quest 3: Obtain Raw Alien Meat and cook it to get Cooked Alien Meat to satiate your hunger. Beam down from your ship once again to kill some aliens for food. You may use your weapon from the locker or craft a Hunting Bow which has a higher chance of giving you meat. Craft a Campfire with wood and torches (from locker) and place it on the ground. Press E to interact with it and cook your alien meat.

Quest 4: Craft a Furnace. You will need to obtain 25x Cobblestones and 1x Campfire at the Wooden Crafting Table. Again, use your matter manipulator on some grey blocks to get cobblestone. You may look at the material requirements by accessing the crafting table at any time. Optionally, by now you'd probably want to have a Stone Pickaxe for easier mining so craft that next.

Quest 5: Obtain Iron Ore and use Furnace to smelt it into Iron Bar. You will need 2 iron ores to make 1 bar so mine accordingly. Press E on Furnace to bring up smelting and put your ores into the box.

Quest 6: Craft a Distress Beacon at the Wooden Crafting Table. The materials that you'll need are: 150x Pixels, 2x Silver Bars, 10x Copper Bars, 10x Iron Bars, and 100x Wooden Planks.

After you obtain a Distress Beacon, place it wherever you think is a good spot to kill the boss that will spawn: The Dreadwing Penguin Ufo!
You'd want to be equipped with Iron Armor and a ranged weapon in a large open area to make the fight easy. This boss drops little penguin minions that can be annoying but overall, the fight should be pretty easy.

Defeating the boss will reward you with 5x Molten Core (you only need one) which you will need to craft a Metalwork Station. Additionally you will need 1x Iron Anvil and 300x Pixels.

The item you need at this crafting station is the Starmap Upgrade MK2!
Requirements are: 5x Iron Bar and 400x Pixels.


Use the item after crafting and you should be able to access the Beta sector with your ship!

Starbound: Multiplayer Setup!

The selling point of Starbound for me, was the Multiplayer mode. There is no greater joy than exploring your planet, building a new house/base or exploring your new discoveries with a friend or two. Singleplayer mode is fun and relaxing in its own way but most of you have probably heard the saying:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Multiplayer Setup
And so the first thing I did when starting up Starbound was set up Multiplayer mode. There are a couple of server setup guides out there on the web but I thought I'd simplify it for you here.
If you're hosting, that means that you want your friends to connect to your PC and play in your universe, you will have to navigate to your Starbound folder. It should be in the following directory or wherever you installed the game:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32

There is an .exe file that you need to run first called starbound_server.exe in the win32 folder. There is no need to run as administrator.

It should take a bit to load everything. Afterwards, go to www.whatismyip.com and copy or write that IP address down. This is the IP address that you need to give your friends to allow them to connect. After they make their characters they can choose Multiplayer mode and there will be a field to enter server address. You can disregard server name and password.
For yourself, enter your own local IP address. This can be found by bringing up your command (cmd.exe) window and typing in ipconfig. Your local IP address would be the numbers next to IPv4 Address.

Additionally, if your friends are on the same network as you, they may use 127.0.0.1 or your OWN local IP address to connect to your server.

But we're not done here. You will have to set up port forwarding for the game through your router settings page which was http://192.168.1.1 for me. This will most likely be different for you so you'll have to lookup the info! Make sure the port 21025 TCP is forwarded to your computer's IP address.

*If you're getting errors trying to connect, please make sure both you and the server are on the latest version which is beta v. furious koala. You can find this version info on the lower right of the Starbound startup window.

**Try and make sure that all your friends connect to the server around the same time so you can spawn on the same planet. Every time you restart the starbound server, it will place new players on a new random world so be advised!

Here is a link to a more extensive server setup guide.
Once you're feeling more adventurous and want to play on public servers, visit Starboundservers subreddit or Starbound serverlister.

freetype6.dll and other errors: If you get a freetype6.dll error or some kind of system resources error from running Starbound, please remember to run as administrator! Or you can go download it here and place it in your windows system folder. I should probably mention that this is only for windows machines!

Starbound: First impressions!

You may or may not have heard of Starbound, a pc game by an indie studio called Chucklefish. It is a diverse 2D exploration sandbox game set in the universe. Technopedia defines a sandbox game as:

..... a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game emphasizes roaming and allows a gamer to select tasks. Instead of featuring segmented areas or numbered levels, a sandbox game usually occurs in a “world” to which the gamer has full access from start to finish. 

It's pretty accurate and is a fairy new game concept that has been quite popular lately largely in part to a game called Terraria which is all sorts of fun that I won't get into in this review. Now the tiny and boring description above is just a small part of what the actual game experience is like. You'd have to play the game to discover its potential. There are numerous possibilities and the game's still in Beta! You may also choose between singleplayer or multiplayer modes.

There are 6 races and numerous color/clothing options to help differentiate yourself from others. I'm a big fan of the 2d pixel graphics so no complaints for me! After customizing your character, you start out in a lone spaceship and are given your first quest to help intro you to the game. If this is a first for you, you probably should read a beginner's guide since all the features can all be very daunting.

There are special hotkeys to bring up inventory, crafting, etc. which I don't even think they tell you about but.. you'll figure it out! You are then told to beam down to the planet your spaceship is hovering over and this is randomly generated. Here's where the fun begins.

I was not prepared for the slew of cute and disgusting monsters that populate every planet. They hurt and they will kill you a number of times before you learn how to survive in this harsh new environment! Following the quests will help provide you with a hunter bow which makes it a tad easier to kill monsters and hunt for food.

Did I mention you have a food and warmth meter of some sort? You will need to keep your character fed and warm or otherwise die.. Food can be obtained from monster loot and random fruits/plants you see lying around on the face of the new world. Warmth can be remedied by crafting torches and other light/fire items. Your health sadly can only be recovered by sleeping in a bed you should craft or by crafting bandages from plant fibres. Also beware the night.. a whole host of hard-hitting aliens may swarm you if you haven't already died to the cold temperatures.

Overall, the game is very fun and immersive. You will find that you spend most of your time exploring or gathering resources and it is rewarding! Be prepared to find friendly/hostile npcs, houses, villages, castles, tombs and even underground facilities!

Best part is there are hundreds of planets out there.. you can always set off and find something that answers to your tastes.

Starbound is purchasable at its own website, Steam or over at the Humble Store for $14.99.

Moe Girl Cafe: Android game

I'm a big fan of casual gaming on my smaller devices (phone, tablet) when I'm not on the computer so I'm always on the lookout for cute games I can play on the run.

Discovered this cute cafe management game called Moe Girl Cafe for android devices. Looks like it was released sometime in December 2013 and it is indeed Moe. There are chibi versions of some popular anime girls that you can hire and assign to have one of three jobs: Hostess, Waiter and Cook. They can then earn experience and level up improving their stats to become a 5-star employee! Unfortunately, it is very hard to get the original character as they come in an assortment of colors and hiring girls with higher ratings requires cash! You can also combine girls and possibly get a new one with better stats.

Ingame money is quite easy to make as long as you level up your menu items. You have to assign an employee to raise level of the food and she won't be able to work in your cafe until its finished. Higher level items on the menu can take a month (which is one play session) or more and are not even guaranteed to level up. Furthermore, salary for the girls will be deducted at the end of every month.

There's only a limited selection of decor (wallpaper, floor and tables). Every 4 months, a special merchant will also visit the restaurant where you may find additional ornamental items for your cafe as well as special recipes for the missing items in your menu.

Even with all its shortcomings, I'm enjoying the chibi versions of familiar anime girls and the collection aspect. There are 23 girls to collect and they come in 5 colors each with one being the true, original color.
The original version of the character will be represented by the pink color of the card.

Ways to obtain cash/credits:
- Tapjoy offers - Have not tried these
- Register for the game and get 50 credits every 5th day of logging in and 100 credits every 6th day.
- Fulfill achievements that award cash.
- You get 5 credits for rating other players' cafes up to 4 times a day. To receive these credits, you must go to your mailbox and click on the giftbox.
- Get 30 credits for inviting other people to join by giving them your invite code.

Gameplay tips
- Tap each girl every once in a while to speed them up after a while. Too much tapping will award you with unhappy smileys
- The girls you want to level up quickly should be assigned to hostess or cook. Hostesses earn more experience but you will find that their "charm stat" grows more than other stats.
- Looks like you can assign as many girls as you want to Waitress!
- Set your Main Dishes to menu items that draw in the most income while using the least ingredient costs.
- Log in for 7 days straight to get a 5 star employee!

Will update with more as I familiarize myself more with the game!
Oh yes, my invitation code is 1B60D and username is Chrysa. You can get 60 credits and I will receive 30 (limited to 10 invites only). Thanks.

Blade and Soul CN

Lately, I have been playing Blade & Soul CN which is the version published by Tencent for China. After years of waiting for NCSoft to publish the North American version, I finally gave in and tried this highly anticipated game. The chinese version boasts having over a million concurrent users! There are also several servers with even more subservers... (You're missing out, NCSoft!!)

 So far, the gameplay is amazing even with the bad ping (~200-300ms) and lag. Many of the skills are dependent on timing and certain conditions so its not your average hack and slash. Targeting is easier than Tera online's system and fairly forgiving. Combat is very dynamic and fluid. This game really does look just as good as all the trailers you've probably seen.

 One of the things I've enjoyed immensely is the Costume system. In this game, your armor stats depend entirely on your bopae or what I call Pizza which is a 8 piece round pictorial armor set! You are given stats and even set bonuses depending on which pieces you choose to equip. So this means that you can wear whichever armor/costume piece you want since it is full for appearance!! There are many ingame armors that you can collect and some in the cash shop. All very impressive and stylish for all races and both genders.

If you do decide to try it rather than wait for an english version, then I also suggest you find a server that is populated with english-speaking players which will make your experience better!
Registration is fairly easy following the guides I've linked below.

Various resources below to get you started:
Registration/Newbie Guide from Freedom (Blade and Soul Guild @ mmosite) Also a great resource for all things B&S related.
Registration Guide from Blade and Soul Dojo Another great resource for B&S
English patch for B&S CN(Most of UI translated and some ingame text)
Aspenach Gaming A resourceful Blade & Soul website

Gameplay:
Weapon feeding guide
Accessories feeding guide
Bopae (Armor pizza!) guide
Qing Gong Quests guide