An Strange Idea: Evolving Mounts?

What if our mounts could evolve as we level?

Think about Pirate101 Pets. As we train the pets there, they grow in size. But evolving mounts could be extra special. They could evolve every 50 Levels. For example, for Level 100 characters, there could be three stages at Level 0, Level 50, and Level 100.

Level 0 - The mount would have its base look.

Level 50 - The mount would have a slightly updated look and saddle.

Level 100 - The mount would be gnarly looking. Its body and eyes could glow. Super cool saddles.

What are the pros of this idea? 

• It will encourage people to level their characters, especially pass Level 50.
• It will give people a reason to buy mounts. I mean which would you prefer? A simple mount that you will get bored of eventually or a special mount that evolves? I'd pick option B!
• Instead of buying 100 mounts that do nothing but sit at your castle, you can have a few special mounts that evolve. Super cool!

Not only that, what if they had cool stats?

For instance, water mounts could swim faster underwater. Then the rest could be categorized by world. For instance, flying birds could be faster in Azteca since there are tons of birds there. Big cats mounts could run faster in Krokotopia and Zafaria. So on, so on.

What about Regular Mounts?

I figure that there should be a mount system especially in Wizard101 like there is a companion system in Pirate101. We should be able to use them. They're quite expensive to get in the first place. They should do more than just sit in your backpack or your castle's backyard doing nothing. It would be great to be able to send them away for tasks that helps your character! Need gold? No problem, send out your Swift Shark. Need xp? No problem, send out your Rhino.

Should Evolving Mounts Replace Regular Mounts Or What?

To add evolving mounts to the game, there's two ways.

One - create new evolving mounts from scratch.

Two - create a special magical station that you could take your mount to which turns your mount into an evolving mount.

Personally, it's probably easier to just create new ones because to create evolving looks for ALL mounts is quite a daunting task. But if they were willing and had the time and the resources, it would be super cool to have an special evolving station where you can sprinkle some fairy dust and encourage any mount you want to evolve. This way you can choose ANY mount you want and see how it turns out than be limited to a small group of mounts that can evolve.

Wizard101 Test Realm Coming Soon!

So what should we expect for this Test Realm which will include the Spring Update to come soon? Let's review what we know.

Bedazzle What?

1. Bling Bling! - Wizard101 has said that a future game addition is going to bring some bling and if we would like our gear to be "be dazzled"? So what could it be?! I sure hope that it means we could stitch new patterns and new sparkle looks to our gear. Or does this mean a new stat is coming for our gears?!

Update: They have released a Vine that CLEARLY shows a new shop in the Shopping District with this quote - "What's this in the Shopping District? I'm confused... and bedazzled. :)" Wow, a new shop? Ooh I wonder what it will be.

Yet Another Update: Patt Minotaur and Cyn De Lobster are new characters in a dungeon based off Pat Benator and Cyndi Lauper. That's why they referenced Pen Benator's "Love Is A Battlefield" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." If you notice, behind Patt Minotaur, there are new mobs called "Shadows of the Night" which is also one of Pat Benator's songs. Also behind Cyn De Lobster, you will notice "Goonies" mobs since Cyndi Lauper did sing a song for the Goonies movie. So much 80's nostalgia!

So what do you think it could be about? There's rampant speculation that the new Bedazzled shopowner will ask us to get something from those new characters. Do you think they're right or do you have other theories?

New Dragonspyre Fishing Area?

2. New Dragonspyre Fishing Area - New fish, new Fishing NPC? I sure hope that there will be new fishing spells and tanks. There's a debate that if this will hit Test Realm or Live Realm. So many questions. But we will find out for sure soon. Aren't you excited?!

New House?

3. New House - Gary who works at KingsIsle has hinted at working on a new house for Wizard101. Swordroll did state that he thought that the house will hit Live Realm, not Test Realm. This made me instantly think that the new house probably will show up in the Crown Shop once Test Realm hits Live. They have done this before with other new houses. What kind of house do you think it would be?

Helpful Wizards?

4. Helpful Wizards - Gary also mentioned that it will be easier to be a helpful wizard. What a mysterious clue. Helpful how? Group questing? Frostcaller said that he thought that it's related to reporting glitches and Matthew Dragonblade thought that it could be about being able to port into dungeons. But what do you think that it could be?!

New Badges?

4. New Badges Or Makeover? - Does this mean that we will have new badges or there will be a new makeover for the badge section?!

New Pirate101 Hybrids!

New surprises in the Morphing Tent has come with a bang in 2015. Yes, there are more new hybrids in the Pirate101 morphing tent, but some from combinations that you would never have thought of! Let's review the hybrids that have been found since the Christmas hybrids which were found in early January or so.

Easter Hybrids

(yellow) Sundango - Produced from Yellow Marshadillow x Fandango

(pink) Flamango - Produced from Pink Marshadillow x Fandango

New Easter Hybrids? A bit early, but who cares?! I love that both of the hybrids and its avian parent's names all end in "ango." Makes me want to do the tango with a rose in my teeth.

Holy Moly, 3 Hybrids From One Pet?!

Spooktooth - Produced from Sabertooth Bunny x Ebon Spectre

Hmm, Halloween hybrid? I mean "Spook" is almost Halloweeny lol. But again, I love black and white striped print pets. They're so fashionable. They always match your outfit. 

Anyway, this is actually Sabertooth's third Hybrid and Ebon Spectre's second Hybrid. Three Hybrids from a single pet is quite a lot. Fire Toad also has three Hybrids, but I bet there's more pets out there with three hybrids too that we haven't found yet. Celestial Dragon has three too, but one of them is a Game Card hybrid, so I'm not sure if it counts. I'm starting to wonder if there's a pet with Four or may I say it... Five Hybrids? Hmmmmm!

And Blue Ostrich Has A Hybrid?

Blues Crab - Produced from Blue Ostrich x Rock Crab

Surprise, surprise. Blue Ostrich has a hybrid! Wait! A special morph making a Hybrid? Hmm, makes you wonder if the (brown) Tarantula has a Hybrid somewhere.... This is something we should try to find out!

Lastly, Hybrids of Hybrids

Punkfish - Produced from Glowfish x Glowfish

Skyrime Minotaur - Produced from Frostbiter x Mini Minotaur

Now this shows a clear sign that we now should expect to find new Hybrids from Hybrids, even if it's from two exact same parents. Even from two SAME Hybrids!

You see, Frostbiter is ALREADY a Hybrid, so a Skyrime Minotaur is actually a Second Generation Hybrid. We can fully expect to see more Second Generation Hybrids from Hybrids that we already know of.

If that's not mind boggling enough, Punkfish is also a Second Generation Hybrid. But, not only that Punkfish is produced from TWO SAME PARENTS! So what happens if we do say, two Frostbiters or two Hedgehogs together, will they produce a Hybrid? We don't know, but it could be possible! It clearly is since that's how we found Punkfish!

Because of the amazing new twists in how we produce Hybrids, we can't leave a stone not turned when searching for new hybrids. I bet someday we will be talking about finding Hybrids from Third or even Fourth Generation Hybrids. This is something we should keep an eye out for. Good luck, morphers!

Challenge Badges

So why can't our Wizard101 and Pirate101 badges challenge us? That's my question. I would love challenges in-game that I can activate. It's easy enough making dozens of challenges. Why not also even make new challenges weekly, monthly, yearly? It's not that hard.

I mean yea, you can defeat 250 (icky) undead.. but you would take your sweet time about it right? But if you are challenged, you WILL do it. I know when I am challenged, I'm a lot more motivated. Put a timer on them and I'm ready to go! It's fun and it's something I can do on my own in-game.

So how does it work? You simply can pick ANY challenge you want to do. For example, kill 250 revolting (very very revolting) undead in one week like the badge I created up above. When you are ready to start it, simply click "activate" and the timer'll start. And in a week, if you do actually defeat 250 revolting (and quite stinky) undead, you get to complete it and equip the badge. If you did not, you cannot equip it, but don't fret, it doesn't mean the challenge will disappear. You can activate it once again when you are ready!

Think about it, there can be quite easy badges, average badges, hard badges and .... Hehe, INSANE badges. It could be about ANYTHING. Get to Level 50 in two weeks? Get a certain drop in a week? Collect 1000 Stone Block in a day? Get 50 Fish that are Fire in a hour? Gain 100k Gold in 30 minutes? Yes, I meant anything.

Jean LaFitte: A Real History

In Pirate101, it all started when we needed to produce the awful Marleymite food for the Rajah army. The Rajah soldiers refused to fight well if they were fed quite tasty food. Apparently they fight better when they're angry and their stomach full of foul flavoring food. We found out that one of the ingredients was Yeast Extract. We were told that Black Jean LaFitte stole it all! We had to fight him and well.. Steal it back. Or uhmm, take it back. Hey don't blame me, I'm a pirate! But why would Black Jean LaFitte would need Yeast Extract for, we will never know.

But did you know that there was an actual smuggler and pirate named Jean LaFitte? Jean Lafitte was an actual French-American pirate and privateer in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th Century. His French last name is actually Laffite, but the English spelled it as Lafitte which stuck. There's many theories where he was born. Some say France, some say New Orleans, some say New York of United States which sounded pretty far fetched to be honest. But one says that he was probably born in Haiti which was a French colony back then which makes the most sense.

In the early years of his life, there's not much known about his life then. But he was suspected to be used to being on ships of trade owned by his father who was a trader. When the United States started to decide that they wanted to bar all ships from docking at foreign ports, Jean decided to go into the smuggling business with his younger brother, Pierre. He was pretty successful, but he wasn't satisfied being just a broker.

He and his brother decided to become a pirate by buying a schnooner along with hiring a ship captain and started capturing ships at sea. But he was a pretty nice pirate. He would treat his own crew well and often returned captured ships to their original owners. He was able to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit from his successful raids at sea.

But it also started a love and hate relationship between the Lafitte brothers and the United States. At first they were angry at the brothers, so they set out to capture them which was partly successful. They were able to capture Pierre who promptly landed in jail. Then the British approached Jean offering him land, money and prestige if he joined them. But Jean was loyal to the United States and refused. He told the United States what happened and that if they were forgive their crimes, he was willing to help them instead. After this, Pierre was able to "escape" jail and join his brother back at sea.

It didn't end there. They were still angry at him and sent out people to capture them. They kept failing until one day General Andrew Jackson was told that this was not a good idea. So when he arrived in New Orleans, he met with the Lafittes who agreed to serve the US Army if their crew was pardoned. General Jackson granted his request. Many of Lafitte's men joined the New Orleans militia or sailors to man the ships. LaFitte was even able to help defend the area of the Mississippi River when he realized that the line of defense was too short. He was able to extend it which actually helped the United States. Because of this, General Jackson had high praise for the brothers and had them pardoned.

Even after the war between the United States and Great Britian was over, the LaFitte brothers went back to the smuggling business for more than 20 years. But what ended his life was one ship battle with heavily armored Spanish Privateers or warships that he mistakenly thought were simple ships. He was buried at sea.

But there still remains rumors of buried treasure in Galveston and along coastal Louisiana which was never proven. His legacy still lives on though.

In Lake Charles, Louisiana, there is a festival that celebrates in the LaFitte name called "Contraband Days" which is held during the first two weeks of May every year. It is said that over 200,000 people have attended which is pretty amazing. It is said that back in the day, LaFitte would come to the area often and hide contraband somewhere. So every year, they start the festival off by having a pirate ship bombardment to "take control of the city" then "Jean LaFitte" and his rowdy crew overruns the local militia's cannons. Then finally they would raise their "Jolly Roger" flag and capture the mayor at sword point, forcing him to walk the plank into the waters of Lake Charles. Many celebrations are filled with competitions such as crawfish races, bed races and even bathtub races! There are also speedboat races of course. Not only that, you can come to expect Cajun food, fireworks, carnival and all of the good things that even the real Jean LaFitte would loved!

This is one festival I would love to attend someday. How about you?

Pat O'Gold & the new ShamrockFish!

Pat O'Gold has arrived in the Shopping District with her usual St. Patrick's Day theme wands and the Leprechaun pet. 

Not only that, there's now a new St. Patrick's Day theme fish in all of the Commons of Wizard City, Grizzleheim, Krokotopia and Mooshu! Marleybone is the only exception as always.

It's a seasonal Rank 1 Life fish that requires a Long tank. It's quite easy to find in all fishing worlds except Grizzleheim which has a lot of Life Fish in its pond already. All you have to do is use the Reveal All Fish's School and if there's a Life fish in the pond, it's probably it! I recommend fishing in all worlds except Grizzleheim or you'll end up with quite a bunch of Lifeacudas!

Good Luck!

What's Your Leprechaun Name?

So it's March, the month of the gold rush and Leprechauns. So I realized heyyy, why don't we try out this cool Leprechaun Name poster that I've made for this month. I'm part Irish, so I'm very gung-ho for this kind of stuff. I even got natural red hair! 

For this chart, you should use the names we have created for Wizard101 or Pirate101.

I will show you an example using my own characters' names.

For Wizard101, it is Kelsey Fireheart, but according to the above chart, it's Mickey O'Little.

For Pirate101, it's Fearless Kristen Eastwick. Don't use the Fearless or descriptive names in that slot. Focus on your actual first and last name which is in second and third slot. We'll use the Kristen Eastwick which means Hairy Moneybags according to the chart above.

What's yours? Post your Leprechaun Name(s) below in the comments.

Penny Dreadful: A Real History

Penny Dreadful, in Wizard101, is a character who we meet in the Commons who needed our help with "A Dreadful Situation." She was lost on what to do or where to go since her teacher Malistaire was missing and her Death classroom is ... destroyed. In the end, we do get to help her find her way and get her settled in.

Now while digging information on Penny Dreadful, I have come to learn that Penny Dreadful is actually a real thing in the real world. Back in the 19th century, there was a British Publication that they called "penny dreadful" because it cost a penny and they had dreadful stories about vampires, robberies, romance, criminals and more.

But, interestingly enough, highwaymen were popular heroes in those stories! A highwayman was a thief who would prey travelers on horseback. One of the most popular highwayman story was called "Black Bess or the Knight of the Road" which lasted for 254 episodes! It was based on imaginary stories of real life English Highwayman Dick Turpin. I can't believe that they thought highwaymen were heroes? Today, we would think of firemen and cops as heroes. That says a lot about how people thought back then.

Penny dreadfuls were often reprints or rewrites of stories that were already known. The most famous penny dreadful stories were "The String of Pearls: A Romance" where "Sweeney Todd" was introduced in. Also they were inspired by "The Mysteries of Paris" which was rewritten it into "The Mysteries of London." "Varney the Vampire" was also a favorite! I can't imagine calling a vampire Varney though.

Working boys could afford them because well, it cost a penny! They liked reading penny dreadfuls because they were fun to read. We know that stories like penny dreadfuls offers an great escape when times are hard. Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into magazines. To this day, they say since they were so cheap and produced cheaply back then, it is rare to find one today.

So next time you pass by Penny Dreadful in the Commons, you will know something cool about the origin of her name. If you want to tell your friends a cool fact, tell them about Penny Dreadful!