Skylanders: Lost Islands

Making Money With Your Skylanders For Fun & Profit!

Strategies and tips for beating skyrocketing Skylanders costs. 

The economy in Skylanders: Lost Islands can be best describes as a bit like a dog chasing it's tail. To make money (gold coins) you need to send Skylanders on missions; missions require energy, which you can get by paying gold coins to grow energy plants. Gold is the primary resource you need in the game, as it's required to build structures, and to unlock additional elemental islands. Early on in the game, it's not that big of deal - the first islands you have to unlock cost around (and I'm going on memory here) 30,000 gold coins. However, at later stages in the game, say around level 20, the costs skyrocket. I'm currently at level 25, and to unlock the next island requires 750,000 gold! Given you're essentially on a fixed income, as the maximum amount you can receive on a mission is 15,500 gold coins, and 18,000 for a Sanctuary trip, it takes a lot of days and patience to amass that much gold.

So, lets look at a reasonable plan to maximize gold production in a 24 hour period. I did some number crunching in Excel, which I won't bore you with here (although e-mail me if you want to see the spreadsheet) to come up with a fairly easy way to bank around 40,000 gold a day, without having log into the game every waking minute.

Energy Production:

1) Have 15 Plant Fields

2) Grow Grave Diggers = they take 2 hours and produce 425 Energy

3)  Do this 6 times a day

4) Total Energy in 24 hours = 38,250

Gold Coin Production:

1) Have 6 Adventure Balloons

2) Go to Dark Water Cove (a 7 hour mission) twice a day - once in the morning, and once before bed

3) After the morning Dark Water Cove is completed, do 2 Cadaverous Crypt missions (this will leave some flexibility to deal with Trolls, Sheep, and the occasional Treasure Chest)

4) Do 3 Sanctuary trips.

Now Show Me The Money!

Total Gold in 24 hours = Net 37,200 (Subtracting Gold required to grow Energy Plants)

Obviously Sheep etc. will add the additional 2,800+ gold coins to get you to 40K a day. With a bit of coffee,  ADD, focus, and diligence, I've easily made 80K in 24 hours, but you have to log into the game an atrocious amount of time to get that much. The above methodology presumes a degree of having a normal life. Enjoy!

Farmville 2, By George!

New "Great Britain" Content Added

With all the Fall and Thanksgiving content additions that have been added to Farmville 2 over the past 2-ish weeks, it was a bit surprising to see the pop-up screen to the left appear today. There's nothing particularly British about today's update, at least that I could find. It's not a Bank Holiday, as the Brits have the same good sense to schedule their official days off like we do in the US i.e. on Fridays and Mondays. In any event, there was actually a new limited-time, craft-able plant item introduced, as well as 3  limited time craft-able recipes. Truth be told, Zynga also introduced a limited-time, Farm Bucks-only Elderberry Tree, but I try to ignore Farm Bucks exclusive content in the same way I'd ignore poor manners, bad grammar, or Justin Bieber.

New Plant:

English Rose

•  Good until December 23rd
• 2 Hours to grow
• 42/59 coins to plant/recieve
• 3 XP
• 5 Feed
• Can be crafted to make Rose Jelly:
• Requires: 8 Roses + 3 Sugars
• Rewards: 1510 coins + 9 XP 

New Recipes:

• Elderberry Tea
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires Farm Bucks, so why bother with details? 
• Petit Fours
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires: 2 Blueberry Custards + 3 Batters
• Rewards: 2710 coins + 27 XP

So there you have it - a proper English menu, at least according to a game made in the US of A.

Farmville 2

Level 20 Skidoo!

 

Bottles 'n Bucks Needed

I reached Level 20 in Farmville 2 this morning, and for once was smart enough to plan(t) ahead with a full field of long growing (24 hour) strawberries and sunflowers. However, I was less than happy when I dived into the details of what was required in order to unlock the farmland. It was not pretty:

• 13 Chainsaws (easily fulfilled from Zynga.com)
• 300,000 coins (pricey, but I'd already amassed around 120,000 coins without even trying)
• 1 Adult Brown Swiss Cow (so I have to buy/raise a baby cow - no big deal)

Except, a Baby Brown Swiss Cow costs 65,000 coins (!) and requires 16 Baby Bottles (!!). Suddenly,one trivial item on the unlock checklist became a major resource sink. I bought the baby cow, started feeding it, and ran out of Baby Bottles after about 6. The freebie giveaway on Zynga.com was no luck - there was a huge run of just free Feed and Water available at the exact time I needed anything but.

So here I sit, waiting to raise enough resources to unlock the farm area. Frustrating. Don't make punishment part of the reward, Zynga.

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

Game		Resource		Units		Cost		Cost Per Resource
CityVille		Cash		50		$4.99		$0.10
Clash of Clans		Gems		1200		$9.99		$0.01
Dragon Story		Gold		120		$4.99		$0.04
Dragonvale		Gems		130		$4.99		$0.04
Gizmonauts		Crystals		130		$4.99		$0.04
Hay Day		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder		Bucks		120		$9.99		$0.08
My Little Pony		Gems		120		$9.99		$0.08
Restaurant Story		Gems		105		$19.99		$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out		Donuts		132		$9.99		$0.08
Smurfs' Village		Berries		125		$9.99		$0.08
Tiny Monsters		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Tiny Tower		Tower Bux		100		$1.99		$0.02
Tiny Tribe		Diamonds		100		$9.99		$0.10

 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.

Farmville 2: It's Like A Circus!

Bread & Circuses, Actually

 

After powering through the quest wasteland that was level 15 in Farmville 2, I finally got some new quests, which revolved around preparing for a circus (I think - I'm not one for back-story in FV2, when there's precious crops and animals at stake). Anyways...these quest were pretty straightforward, until I got to the the 3rd in the "Circus" series. It required 3 Cheddar Loafs. Sounds pretty simple, eh? Well, there's 2 problems with said Loaf:

1. You need Salt (which you can't make)
2. You need need Cheese (which you might be out of)

If you're playing FV2 via Zynga.com, it should be relatively easy to obtain Salt via requests. Cheese, however, is another matter. It's a rare drop from Cows/Goats, and since you had to last purchase said livestock, they might have evolved into "Prized" animals, which no longer drop any produce, aside from XP and coins. So, it's Baby Bottle and Feed time once again to raise them into productive members of the farming community. So, take it with a grain of Salt, but if you stock up on your cheese-dropping barnyard critters, and you can (Cheez) wiz through this quest quickly. See what I did there? Funny stuff.

Farmville 2

No Quests?!?!?

The Curious Case of the Camouflaged Quests

Perhaps 'camouflaged' isn't exactly the right word, but it had a nice alliterative ring to it. Anyways....here I am at Level 15 in Farmville 2, with nothing to do. All my quests have been completed, and no new ones have appeared in their place. A bit of Google-ing on the topic revealed that other players have experienced this as well, on other levels, so my educated guess is that the quest designers just don't anticipate players completing certain quests before reaching certain levels. Thus, I am now left to my own devices.

"Wake me when we get to Lvl 16"

I expect once I hit Level 16, some new quests will be triggered, but what to do in the meantime? I need 4,492 XP to reach Level 16, but who's counting. Quests are the best way to level up, as they have high XP rewards. But without them, it's just a grind. You get 6 XP per neighbor farm visited, 10 XP for per day for Prized animals, harvests, and the rest is just rewards for prized crops, and that's dependent on the crop size i.e. a 15 Lbs. Tomato = 15 XP, and also appears perhaps once every 10+ fertilized crops. 

This is going to be a long week. Any tips of power-leveling, please send them my way. The alternative is to get a life, otherwise. 

Farmville 2 - Pecan-apalooza!

Strategies for "Bake Sale" and "No Horsing Around" Quests.

Hint: It Involves A Lot Of Pecans

Around Level 14, you will encounter the aforementioned quests in Farmville 2. Like most quests in FV2, they aren't difficult, but rather time-consuming, if you are not prepared. Both quests revolve around Pecans, which unlock at Level 13, so you in all likelihood, you might not have planted any Pecan Trees yet, which will put you behind the curve when it comes to completing these quests. In a nutshell (ha!), you'll need to craft/make 5 Pecan Muffins for the "Ho No Horsing Around" quest, and sell 10 Pecan Muffins for the "Bake Sale" quest. Luckily, this means the effort you put into 1 quest will apply to the other quest, which makes things a bit easier.  If you do the Crafting math, that means you'll need 50 Pecans to complete the pecan portion of both quests. The logistics of getting 50 Pecans are as follows:

1 Pecan Tree Harvest  =      2.5 Pecans Nuts (on average)

Pecan Tree Harvest Time =  12 Hours

Therefore, 1 Pecan Tree will = 5 Pecan Nuts per Day. 

So, it will take 10 days to get enough Pecan Nuts from 1 tree to complete the crafting for these quests. Or 5 days with 2 Pecan trees. And so on...So plant ahead, and save some time.

 

FarmVille 2

"Spicing It Up" Quest Hints

aka Cheese Please!

OK, so I've playing Farmville 2. Well, that is to say, a lot of Farmville 2. It's a lot of fun, and the annoyance of having to co-opt FB friends to be farm "neighbors" is gone with the advent of the game on Zynga.com. Anyways....I am currently at around Level 13, and just got the 'Spicing It Up" quest series. Nothing on the surface of the quest seemed all that difficult: Master Habanero Peppers, Harvest some Wells, and make 5 Spicy Quesos sauces. Making Quesos proved more difficult than I thought - it requires 4 Cheese Wheels (which come from cows and some goats), and 10 Habanero Peppers. Simple enough on paper, right?

"Please don't cut the cheese!"

Wrong! Despite having 3 cows and 1 cheese-producing goat, I was getting no cheese after feeding them. After about a day, the goat gave up 2 cheese out of perhaps 5-7 feedings. I was regularly making milk, and fertilizer, but cheese drops were like winning the lactose lottery. In other words, very seldom. Turns out cheese is a rare drop, meaning it doesn't happen with every feeding. This is the type of thing I'd expect from a hardcore RPG like World of Warcraft, not a casual Facebook game like Farmville 2. Plus, there's no visual indication, or text, to let you know cheese is not going to be dropped 100% of the time after each feeding. It's a relatively hardcore game mechanic, coupled with really poor user feedback. So be forewarned in the future.

Also, I'd recommend going with the Sanaanen Goats, rather than the Loghorn Cows, for cheese production; Cows require 4 hours between feedings, Goats require 15 minutes.

Home Sweet Home

Maximixe Your 'Bot Home Zone Cash in Gizmonauts

"Time for my money bath!"

Without a doubt, making money in Gizmonauts is one of the easiest jobs in the galaxy. Aside from the Large and Small Builder Zones, every other Zone is a cash cow. However, if you want to make a pile of cash quickly, the best way is to get the maximum number of high level 'bots in either Performance (Small & Large) or Nature (Large) Zones (see below). At the moment I have more money than I know what to do with - I am literally waiting for various breeding combos to produce new 'bots, while the money keeps rolling in. I'm about ready to start stuffing money under the mattress of a robo Sleep Number® bed at this point.

Zone		Size		Max # of Bots		Max Coins
Builder		Small		2		250
Mining		Small		1		10,000
Performance		Small		2		7,500
Nature		Small		1		15,000
Builder		Large		4		750
Performance		Large		3		50,000
Nature		Large		3		50,000
Astro		N/A		1		1,000,000

Monster Tower

Mini Review

Monster Tower might be described as part Donkey Kong, part Tower Defense. Except you play as Kong, and you don't build any towers. Totally explains the gameplay, right? No? Well, that is part of the slightly wacky charm of Monster Tower. Your job in the game is to defend the last king monster egg on the highest floor of a tower from an onslaught of human attackers intent on destroying said egg. You have an array of monster types to choose from, as well as various traps to lay, as the soldiers try to advance their way to the top. With each level won, money is rewarded to you, which can used to upgrade your various monster troops. The variety of monsters in your command is varied in both look, ability, and cost, so it's not just a simple matter of flinging 100 green goo melee minions at the invaders of your tower. Strategy and tactics are required, not just brute force. Also, it's kinda fun to try to say "green goo melee minion" three times fast. 

Making Money With Monsters

A look under the hood into some of the money-making stats of monsters in My Singing Monsters.

Making cash in My Singing Monsters is no different than most other feed-breed-upgrade monster farming simulation. The more money you have, the cooler the stuff you can buy with it. Below is the breakdown of cash creation stats for the Plant Island Monsters in MSM:

Monster		Island		Level		Coins/Min		Max Coins
Potbelly		Plant		9		27		130
Noggin		Plant		9		43		130
Toe Jammer		Plant		9		17		216
Mammott		Plant		9		33		216
Shrub		Plant		8		47		768
Oaktopus		Plant		9		45		2,160
Furcorn		Plant		9		45		1,620
Fwog		Plant		9		54		1,620
Drumpler		Plant		6		36		864
Maw		Plant		9		43		2,160
Pummel		Plant		9		72		13,478
Clamble		Plant		?		?		?
Bowgart		Plant		9		50		13,608
T-Rox		Plant		9		72		15,552
Entbrat		Plant		?		?		?

The Mammott is the last monster you can create that does not require cross-breeding. After that, you need to start cross-breeding to create hybrids. Once you get to the Pummel, breeding gets even more complicated, as you need to successfully cross breed using a hybrid, which increases the number of potential combinations, and only one combo is the correct one. As you can see from the question marks, I still haven't gotten the right combo for the Clamble or Entbrat. The Entbrat in particular will be a challenge to breed, as it requires the right combo of two hybrids, which makes for breeding permutations that gives me a headache.

My advice would be to get to a Furcorn, Fwog, or Maw as soon as possible to start raking in the cash. Once you've bread a few of those, it's a pretty quick trip to get the 500,000 coins required to build the Green Crystal Mine, and unlock more islands. 

Note: The column titled "Coins/Min" refers to the number of coins per minute a monster will produce.

There's No "I" in "Tribe"

Oh wait...nevermind.

"Last time, the doctor just gave me some lotion to get rid
of these darn crabs!'

Part Gilligan's Island, part Lost, part Cityville, and part Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tiny Tribe is a serviceable little village building simulation, set on a remote tropical island full of mysteries where the player is tasked with rebuilding a semblance of civilization in the jungle after a plane crash. Food and water are the primary resources your tribe of hapless survivors require in order to gather resources and build stuff. Water, in particular, is quite scarce, so often you will be handed a mission, only to discover you need another 45 minutes before water will become available again. This happens quite often early on in the game, so ration your water supply carefully. The other main resources are wood and stone, which can be used-, and later crafted into-, various other production resources. Level, up, and new buildings, tools, and missions will become available. 

Of course, no free-to-play game would be complete without some item you can purchase with real money to speed things along, and Tiny Tribes is no exception with it's crystals. However, the mildly patient player will find that most of the items required to complete a mission eventually turn up in the game after a brief period of time, so only the most impatient need to spend real cash to advance through the game. The missions themselves are a fairly varied lot, and often completing one mission requires multi-step tasks in order to complete, so at times it's easy to get confused as to why exactly are you're mining rocks, when you're supposed to be finding crabs to eat. But all in all, Tiny Tribe is a fun little diversion that mixes up a few genres to good effect.

Musical Mutants

The only thing missing? Monster groupies.

No cavities.

In an App Store filled to the brim with a bajillion variations of the monster/dragon/zombie feed-n-breed ilk, My Singing Monsters stands out as a brilliantly quirky and creative take on a tired sub-genre. The concept is simple: you breed various monsters, each of which has a specific audio talent. Cross-breed them to create new musical mutants. The monsters come in all varieties, from percussion to strings to vocals. With every monster you add a new element to the tune being played. Add more monsters of the same type to increase their particular sound, or mute them to create a new take on the tune. 

There are three primary resources at your disposal to grow your band; gold coins which are produced by the monsters, food, which is made in the bakeries, and green diamonds, which are the defacto freemium resource you might be tempted to use real money on. Feed monsters food, and their level increases, which in turn increases both the rate and amount of gold coins they will produce. I'm not sure what the level cap is for monsters - I have a Level 11 Maw (think pink bean bag with a mouth and a voice like James Earl Jones) that shows no sign of maxing out, except he requires a pant-load of food in order to level up - 20,480 food for this level, and each subsequent level doubles the amount required to increase to the next level. But as a Maw is a relatively higher level creature, he produces a lot more money, and quickly. So if you want the cash to buy cool stuff, you must feed the beast.

"We're putting the band back together!"

Beyond just the sheer fun of listening to the monsters sing their tune, and uncovering what exactly a T-Rox sounds like, there are layers of fun waiting to be discovered and reward players. The Time Machine building? Genius. A mine to gather green diamonds instead of paying real money for them? Thank you very much, Big Blue Bubble. Additional islands with different tunes and different monsters? Here you go. It's a great game that is superbly executed, and a hoot to play.

Win, Place, or Show?

Having a bit of a minor dilemma over what game to focus on next. Also, from My Singing Monsters to World of Warcraft in one paragraph.

Miscellaneous/Micro-Review

At the moment, I'm simultaneously playing My Singing Monsters, Jurassic Park Builder, and Restaurant Story, with moments of Farmville 2, as well. Deciding on a focus is proving difficult as each has some quality that keeps me coming back hour after after. Monsters is outright musical, silly, fun, Jurassic has a really robust set of missions and realistic (for a theoretically improbable zoo) sim feel, and Restaurant Story is mostly sheer stubbornness on my part - I want a diner that still runs smoothly when I'm asleep. Then there's Farmville 2 - a game I swore I'd never play again. But the more I play, the deeper I find the gameplay. As soon as I unlocked the 'crafting' house in Farmville 2, it was all over. As a reformed crafting junkie from World of Warcraft days, turning apples into scones via the right combination of ingredients was all I needed to hook me.

UPDATE: I'm going with My Singing Monsters for my next review. I just unlocked a whole new island with a different song, monsters, etc. Plus: a Time Machine. Really.

Blah-arracks

I mean, Barracks a.k.a. the least effective units in Kingdom Rush.

"I suck!" "No, I suck more, knave!"

I hate to end on a low note, especially after singing the praises of Kingdom Rush, but the Barracks Towers are quite unnecessary in order to succeed in Kingdom Rush, IMO. I never built  them, never felt I needed them, and never understood their utility. They're filler, like rice cakes, or Ryan Seacrest. But here now, for the sake of completion, are the cost stats for the Barracks Tower:

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Heal)		230	150	150	150		1130
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Shield)		230	250	---	---		930
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Strike)		230	220	150	150		1200
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (+ Axes)		230	300	100	100		1180
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (Attack)		230	150	100	100		1030
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (Throw)		230	200	100	100		1080

So, according to this table, The Barbarian Attack Specials Tower is the most cost efficient. I found it even more cost efficient to just not build them and save myself 1,030 coins.

Forecast: Cloudy, with a 100% Chance of Fun!

News Flash - Kumo Lumo is Aces (& Free)!

Kumo Lumo, from Chillingo, is the most creative, quirky, and entertaining app I've seen in a while. It's the kind of game that would emerge if Miyamoto, creator of Mario Brothers, was forced to watch only The Weather Channel for a year straight 24/7. I've been playing it for just an few hours, but already all other plans for the day have been tossed aside. I'd much rather have my plucky cloud hero, Kumo, water trees, put out fires, and so on. So excuse the brevity of this post - a cumulus's work is never done, and I have to get back to mine.

Big Bang Theory

Bombs & Artillery Towers in Kingdom Rush

With special guest star, Nikolai Tesla!

The usefulness and utility of Artillery Towers in Kingdom Rush is a bit like a tortoise and hare race; slow and plodding at the outset, but ultimately a real winner in the end. These towers cause area effect damage, meaning they can do bad things to multiple enemies with a single shot. It might take some time and money, but in the end, you'll end up on the path to victory with them. 

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Artillery	125		220		320		Bertha (Dragon)		400	250	100	100		1515
Artillery	125		220		320		Bertha (Cluster)		400	250	150	150		1615
Artillery	125		220		320		Tesla (SCharge)		375	250	250			1540
Artillery	125		220		320		Tesla (OCharge)		375	250	125	150		1565

Yet again, the cheapest upgrade path is probably the best weapon against your foes, at least in my (never wrong) opinion. The Big Bertha Tower with the Dragon's Breath Special variant can hit multiple enemies, both on land and in the air, from vast distances. While I like watching the Medieval steampunk-esque Tesla Towers zapping multiple enemies, they don't seem to have the same effectiveness as the Big Bertha Special. For my coins, Bertha is the girl that can hurl!

The Wiz Biz

Mage Towers in Kingdom Rush - you know you wand them!

Review

Apologies for that awful pun - it's early, OK people? Hopefully the following peek under the hood into Mage Towers in Kingdom Rush will make up for that.

The Mage Tower units are the mystical counterpart to the Ranged Towers in KR. However, once upgraded into and above their Special level, they can wield an extremely wide array of destructive spells. Lets take a look into the four types available, and their cost:

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Mage	100		160		240		Arcane (Death Ray)		300	350	200	200		1550
Mage	100		160		240		Arcane (Teleport)		300	300	100	100		1300
Mage	100		160		240		Sorc (Polymorph)		300	300	150	150		1400
Mage	100		160		240		Sorc (Elemental)		300	350	150	150		1450

Clearly, Teleport is the cheapest of the four options. But in this case, I think it's a tie between Teleport and Elemental in terms of usefulness in battle, despite Elemental cost being second highest. Teleport will transport your enemies back to an earlier part of the path, which allows your other Towers to have a second shot at damaging them. This is really useful during boss battles. The Elementals just stop the enemy dead in their tracks, can inflict damage, and can be re-positioned. Teleport is more of passive defense. If you have the coins, a double tower team of both types can be beyond lethal.

Mage Towers do have their weaknesses - certain enemies, like Shaman, Giant Spiders, and Worg, all have high resistance to Mage Tower attacks. So placing other Tower types, like Ranged, in the same area as Mage Towers, will keep the enemy from just running through your Mage Towers unscathed.

A point of clarification: A Tower can be upgraded to both type of Specials i.e. an Arcane Tower can have Death Ray AND Teleport powers. But often, it's better to spread your limited coin resources to other Towers, rather than totally pimp out just one Tower.