Invite-A-Friend: Does It Need Improvement?

 

So far as it stands, the only rewards for getting a friend to sign up for a NEW account and spending $6 or more on that account is a small amount of bonus crowns for both you and the new member. But it got me thinking.. why not improve or expand the benefits for this nifty little thing?

Ideas For Improvement:

• Special Mount and/or Pet for both with maybe a Special Boost.
• Automatic Add To Your Friends List - the name should be highlighted blue or an unique color so you will know right away where they came from. If you don't want this, there should be an option in the options that allow you to turn this off.
• Bonus XP. Maybe even a XP Boost for the day or week.
• A special gear set for the new member - the member should automatically get an useful gear set for questing to start out with.
• A special unique and collectible gear for the friend like the funny glasses and mustache that Pirate101 only gives to the winners of their Pirate Puppet contests.
• Elixirs to start off the member right with pet training, gardening, fishing. It would be given to the friend as well.

New Exclusive Wizard101 Tapestries!

There are now 13 new Tapestries that does not exist anywhere that will be given exclusively from the Wizard101 Official Fansites. Stars of the Spiral is even holding a raffle to give away 20 new Dragonspyre Academy tapestries. Each of the Official Fansite, with the exception of W101 Central, will have its own Exclusive Tapestry to give away. W101 Central will be giving away codes that will give you a random tapestry out of the new thirteen tapestries.

Dragonspyre Academy, Dragonspyre - Stars of the Spiral

Castle Tours, Wizard City Commons - Paige Moonshade

Zocalo, Azteca - Wizards of the Spiral

Pet Hatchery, Wizard City - Petnome

Vestrilund, Wintertusk - Frostcaller
Crescent Beach, Khrysalis - Legends of the Spiral
Crustacean Empire Tapestry - AluraRB
Floating Mountains, Azteca - Adventures of the Spiral
Bastion, Khrysalis - Mercenaries101
Dye Shop, Shopping District, Wizard City - Spiral Radio 101
Drum Jungle, Zafaria - Valerians School of Wayward Wizards
Crab Alley, Wizard City - Duelist101
Floating Land, Celestia - Ditto Monster

We will continue to add more tapestries when we find out what they have as the other official fansites release their contests. If you know of any others, please leave a comment below so we can add them right away!

How To Save The Environment As A Gamer

So, Earth Day has arrived and I decided to put together a few tips just for gamers on how to reduce your carbon footprint while sitting in your computer chair.

Save Your Energy

 Make sure your Laptop has Energy Saver. This will cut down on the use of electricity. If you also got solar panels on your roof, you're so set.

The Battery Usage

If you use a wireless mouse, buy rechargeable batteries. Buying massive amounts of batteries then throwing them out won't make Mother Nature happy. But if you already have regular batteries that you need to get rid of, you could take them to a recycling center.

Turn Off What You Don't Need

When playing, make sure you don't forget to turn out lights or TVs in other rooms that you are not using.

Recycle Your Computer

If your computer is still working, but just not as good. Consider giving it to someone who can use it like a younger sibling or relative. But if you really need to scrap it, you should recycle your computer at a store like Staples. They'll even pay you for it.

Throwing your computer out with the garbage is not really safe since people can steal your personal information off the computer if it's not wiped properly. You can even break down it into parts and let other people have it, so they can create new computers as long as the parts are still good.

Remember you can also recycle your printer ink!

Unplug What You Don't Need

If you leave your computer plugged in all day while not being used, it STILL drains electricity. They call it the vampire effect. No I'm not kidding. If unplugging everything is too much for you (it is for me), buy the Belkin Conserve Energy Saving Outlets or heck, any UL-certified strip plugs. They will shut off the power or stop the drain for you.

Don't Throw Out Your Bottles

A lot of us sit at our desks, eat our lunch and drink from a plastic or paper bottle/cup that's filled with delicious tasting liquids. Then you throw it all out in the garbage bin. NOOOOOO! Walk 10 feet and dump the bottle in the recycle box... PLEASE? It's good exercise for you.

A Better Light

Since you're sitting in your computer chair with a lamp on, make sure the light bulb is an energy saver bulb. Yep, I'm serious.

Convert Snail Mail Into Emails

Make sure all of your bills are being sent to your Email, not to your house mailbox. Less paper, less waste! I mean, really, those poor trees...

Be Proactive

Be active in joining online clubs or groups that support in clean energy, reducing your carbon footprint, recycling, etc. There are many petitions online as well that you could sign that gives feedback to companies  to encourage them to also reduce their carbon footprint. You can also email, tweet, facebook the companies directly asking them to reduce pollution and to invest in clean energy. Do it nicely! Being polite goes a long way.

Not only that, you can send your own congressman, representative and even the President of the United States an email or an tweet saying you support clean energy or anything else you want to say in support of a healthy Earth.

Do not forget that there are many endangered animals on this planet that needs your support as well. The Western Black Rhino just became extinct a few weeks ago for instance. If you want them to stick around, you need to stand up for them. It's your planet after all.

Hope the few tips I provided helped you to make sure that you're doing your best to reduce your carbon footprint as a gamer. If you know of more tips, let us know in the comments below.

Bounty Hunters in Pirate101

I was finishing up side quests in Marleybone when I met this Bounty Hunter who wanted me to do his work pretty much. I had to rope in four very naughty criminals to show Mann that I can be a great bounty hunter like him. He had the nerve to doubt me which was... hurtful.

Anyway, I realized that we should see more bounty hunters in each world because we are pirates ... obviously. We are a shady bunch who likes to get paid for shady things. Roping in criminals for money makes more sense than finding Zeke's little friends. Heck, we should be our own bounty hunter! Us pirates shouldn't be ordered around, we should just do our thing.

Someone's grumpy...

But honestly, it would be cool to have Bounty Hunter quests in each world that gives us a very good amount of gold or companions as reward when we bring in the people they want captured. Maybe we could even earn a badge that says "Bounty Hunter"? So far as I can remember, in Cool Ranch, the Sheriff there did ask us to bring in criminals which gave us a side companion as a reward. Now that was a nice quest reward. Mann did not give much as a reward however which I wish was changed.

I can imagine Bounty Hunters in Skull Island, Mooshu and even possibly Aquila and Monsquista. Heck, why can't we have Bounty Hunters to be special NPCs that give daily or weekly quests? I would love that. It'd definitely keep me busy in-game when there's no new additions to the game.

A 2014 Review Of Pet Drops in Pirate101

I was wondering how many pets each world had, so I made a list of all pets that were dropped in-game. It was interesting. With the last release, we know that Frog and Scarab were the newest pet drops.

If you look at each world, you could tell that MooShu has the most pet drops. Marleybone is the only world that has no pets that are pure pet drops as in pets that are only obtained by drops from bosses. They are the ones that you can't get from the Crown Shop, Packs, and Pet Wrangling. Skull Island leads in pure pet drops then Mooshu. Valencia is the ONLY world that has NO pets at all of any kind.

Skull Island

Coral Widow *Crown Shop* - Frankie Blue Eyes, Ancient Tunnels

DinoLizard - Ch'ok Ak'ab, Pyramid of Fire, Xol Akmul

Fire Toad - Gortez, Valley of the Gold Monkey, Gold Mine

Quackosaurus - The Master, Master's Lair, and Various Bosses

Monquista

Scarab - Warden Mendez, Zenda

Valencia

*None So Far*

Cool Ranch

Armadillo Verde - Various Bosses

Tropical Sky Snake *Crown Shop* - Various Bosses

Golden Stingtail *Crown Shop* - Various Bosses

MooShu

Corrupted Celestial Dragon - Moo Tower, Nefarious Five, Icy Dock, Subata Skyway

Corrupted Imperial Lion - Moo Tower, Nefarious Five, Icy Dock, Subata Skyway

Ebon Spectre *Crown Pet* - Various Bosses

Silver Buffaloon *Crown Pet*- Friar Sand, North Landing, Temple of East Wind

Tawny Sky Turtle *Pet Wrangling* - Various Bosses

Marleybone

Hedgehog *Pack Pet* - War Golem, Testing Range, Isle of Dogs Dock

Not So Great White Shark *Pet Wrangling* - Captain Swing, Secret Tunnel, Isle of Dogs' Sewers and Various Bosses

Aquila

Ice Scarab *Pet Wrangling* - Zeena and Various Bosses

Frog - Antinous, Palace of Ulysses, Ithaca

Which world would you like to see more pets being dropped in, even worlds we have not visited yet? Any ideas of what kind of pets you would like to see there? Personally I can't wait for Valencian and Polarian pets. Robots, Penguins, Seals, Polar Bears? Now that would be exciting!

Six Things You Should Know About Jewel Socketing

Wondering what is Jewel Socketing and how does it work? I'll explain here. Every Jewel has its own stats boost. It could be defense, offensive, even general health, pet, mana, energy boosts. You get to be able to add it to your existing gear to make it stronger which is very beneficial to your wizard. You can obtain jewels in two ways - crafting or from drops.

Now to explain more about Jewels. Here are six things you need to know to understand what are Jewels exactly and how to affix them to your gear as well as shatter.

1. Level of Jewel

Every 5 or 10 levels has its own name for jewels at that level. For example, If I say that I need Clear Jewels, I mean Level 85+ Jewels.

Level 15+ - Cracked

Level 25+ - Chipped

Level 35+ - Flawed

Level 45+ - Blemished

Level 55+ - Dull

Level 65+ - Plain

Level 75+ - Opaque

Level 85+ - Clear

Level 95+ - Polished

Level 105+ - Lustrous

 2. Type of Jewel

Every Jewel type stands for general use or specific schools.

Amethyst - Storm

Peridot - Fire

Jade - Life

Sapphire - Ice

Ruby -  Fire

Onyx - Death

Citrine - Balance

Opal - Any

Hemalite - Shadow

3. Shape of Jewel

There are four jewels at present that belong in four categories. I mentioned which amount is it - percent or flat, so you would be aware of what they could give.

Triangle Jewels -

Spell Cards. General and School Accuracy and Pip Chance (percent amount)

Circle Jewels -

Offensive Stats like School Critical, School Damage (flat amount)

Outgoing Heal (percent amount)

Square Jewels -

Defensive Stats like General Block, School Resist, School Block (flat amount)

Increase Base Healing & Stun Resistance (percent amount)

Boost Critical Block (percent amount)

Teardrop Jewels -

Fishing Luck (percent amount)

Health, Mana and Energy (flat amount)

 4. How To Affix & Shatter

What is Affix? It means to fit the jewel in. It's quite easy. Just make sure you have the proper shape and level to be able to affix it. The Affix button will light up if it is correct.

As for Shatter, it means to destroy the jewel. Once you shatter it, it's gone forever. So choose wisely. Simply click on a jewel and the "Shatter" button on the bottom will light up.

5. Socket Wretches

You might notice some sockets have locks on them. Sockets are the spots where you affix or fit the jewels in. This means that you need to unlock them. Socket Wretches are "tools" that you get as a drop that lets you unlock the socket spots for free. If you don't have one, you will have to pay with crowns to unlock the sockets. The crown cost will increase as you level to unlock the sockets.

For Example:

At Level 0-45: 45 crowns

At Level 50-75: 75 crowns

At Level 80-100: 150 crowns

6. New Reagents

There are new reagents that you will need if you want to craft jewels. You can find Pyrite, Bronze and Orichalcum from drops throughout the worlds in boss and mob battles. The other new reagents are Cobalt, Nickel, Penny which are used in the new Lava Aquarium recipes.

But, be aware when you craft a jewel, it will give random stats. You will not know what it gets until you finish crafting it. It's a gamble. Even the amount of boosts will change.

Lockpicking: A Talent Pirates Should Have

You find a double chest (with two locks), or even better, a quad chest (with four locks), but your friend list is empty. Nobody is on. Nobody's around either. You're stuck not being able to open the chest. What shall you do? Normally you give up and walk away.

But, if Pirate101 uses my idea, you don't have to! Why can't we train for talents that are not related to PvE, but for other things such as the locked chests?!

First, I thought that what if we can use lock breaking talents on both Double and Quad chests?

Example:

Lockpicking - Rank 1: You can open double chests.

Dynamite - Rank 2 - You can open quad chests.

Some people were concerned that it would defeat the purpose of group chests that required teamwork, so I realized wait a minute.. Double chests, Quad Chests,... What if there was a chest with SIX locks?

So here's my idea for real:

Double Chests - Too bad, find a partner for this one.

Quad Chests - Lockpicking Rank 1 Talent

You can open two locks, not all four. You still need a partner who trained for lockpicking too or get two more people.

Six Lock Chests - DYNNNNNNNNNNAMITE! Rank 2 Talent

Break open THREE locks, not all six. You will still need a partner for this too.

In fact, with Six Lock Chests, you can use Lockpicking, it'd break 2 locks which means you could have three people open this with their own Lockpicking talent than six people.

This way, the group chests will STILL need teamwork, but also the talents would give you a leg up when nobody is around as well.

This could also be expanded to other areas. Pet Training Talents for example, with ranks of Novice, Apprentice, Master, and Expert. Every talent you train, you would gain a rank and it would give you a better percentage in being able to obtain better talents and producing hybrids or even making your pet a better fighter. This could also apply to ship fighting, ordering around companions and more. The possibilities could be limitless! Training points shouldn't be limited to only PvE and PvP.

Well, that's my idea for Pirate101. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Dragonspyre - Room For Improvement?

A month ago, for some strange reason, I was thinking about Dragonspyre while shoveling snow for the 100th time this winter. I was thinking about a certain tweet that went like this..

"Wizard101, please fix it that we don't have to do the Labyrinth... TWICE!"

I was like, believe me, I know you feel. Then I remembered another tweet I read months ago that was also about the Labyrinth that went something like this.

"If there was an quest, I would decline to do... It's the Obsidian Chest quest. I mean the quest is so long, then I have to do the Labyrinth which is even longer? Blahhhhhhhhh!'

Then I remembered that from Wizard101's own stats, it showed that Malistaire has been defeated over 566,595 times. Even though we have tens of millions of players, this shows that only 566,596 finished Dragonspyre. But what about those tens of millions? So many characters has not even advanced pass Level 50.

All of the sudden, a light bulb lit up above my head. It was the world that was probably the problem that discourages wizards to advance pass Level 50 or even finish the world.

So my question is...
What would you do to improve Dragonspyre?!

I remember while questing my multiple characters through that world that I did encounter a few problems.

• The world is so dark, brooding and depressing. It just made me want to lag behind. Everything seems to blend into the same old thing. Red, black, lava, smoky sky.
• The Labyrinth Problem - We do the dungeon TWICE?! Why? I even remember dreading to do my school quest in there. I had to buy crowns just to complete it..
• The flow and quests in certain areas seems to take so much time. Not sure if it's the story line or the battles. But it just doesn't seem terribly exciting.
• Too many back and forths. We return to the Crucible twice. The Drake Hatchery twice? Was kinda confusing.
• I would've loved to explore more in depth with the Dragonspyre schools. 

But if you could improve the Dragonspyre, what would you want to improve?
What did you see as speed bump or roadblocks in that world?
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

April Fool's Mount and Fish!

New April's Fool Mount

Human, the view from here is amazing!

Why hello human, I'm Sir Wonky the Third. Who are you? Gosh you're so tiny!

Yes swim on, my little slave.

*yawns* Gosh, traveling is so tiring, isn't it?

If you have the urge to carry around a quite demanding, lazy and conceited donkey, you can get one in the Wizard101 and Pirate101's Crown Shop for 4k Crowns. Be warned, he's pretty heavy.

New April's Fool Fish

Yes, it's really a boot.. a very old boot with a tiny fish living in it. No, I don't know whose boot is it. This Balance fish, who is also Rank 1, is found in all common areas of Wizard City, Krokotopia, Mooshu and Grizzleheim. The Ol' Boot gives 1600 First Catch XP as well as 16 Regular Catch XP.  Good luck!

Brianna's Pirate101 Pet Theories

Clever Brianna Everret is always whispering into my ear about her hybrid theories, so I thought that it was time to make a post listing them all. The Fandango, which was produced from the Pink Marshadillow and Flamango, was actually one of her hybrid theories. So who knows what other theories of hers could be correct?

Cutie Chameleon x Scarab = Love Bug

Spooktooth or Grimtooth x Candy Cane = Sweet Tooth

Pink Chocolope x Blue Chocolope = Cotton Candy-Tailed Lope

Ebon Spectre x Rock Crab = Ghost Crab

Bullrog x Frog = Bullfrog

Not So White Shark x Minotaur = Bullshark

Habenero Tiger Shark x Imperial Lion = Lion Cub

Grimtooth x Stormtiger or Thresher Shark  = Doomtooth

Clocktopus x Hawk = Clockwork Bird

Glowfish or Storm Tiger x Inky Octopus = Jellyfish

Coral Widow x Black Tiger = Black Widow

Ram-A-Lam x Heck Kitty or Black Tiger = Black Sheep

Iguana x Celestial Dragon = Komono Dragon

Frog x Iguana = Gecko

Golden Sky Rattler x Mechanical Owl = Golden Owl

Black Tiger x Jungle Toad = Black Panther

Fire Toad x Fandango = Flameingo

Jungle Toad x Crokagator = Jungle Crokagator
Grimtooth x Mini Minotaur = Death Minotaur aka Grim Minotaur

And with the newest pet in the Crown Shop, the Bunnicorn and its own hybrid theories.

Bunnicorn x Ram-A-Lam = One Horned Ram

Pink or Blue Chocolope x Bunnicorn = Marshmallow Bunny
Bunnicorn x Not So Great White Shark = Narwhal
Bunnicorn or Jackalope x Storm Tiger Shark = Energizer Bunny

Thank you Clever Brianna Everret!

Also if you have some of your own pet theories, please feel free to comment away with your own ideas.