Scarlet Blade (Part Five)

Side Features
Well...when I say side features, I'm more or less referring to stuff that are good to know/have, but aren't necessarily game changing in nature. And mainly in Scarlet Blade, there are (loosely) three such features, namely, Pets, Cards and Puzzles.

Pets

This cute robotic pet that you see above is the default one that comes as a reward from completing one of the main quest that you get at around level 10 or 11. And it will most likely be the only one that you would have...unless you are willing to part with some money to buy one of the more special ones from the cash item mall.

Looks aside, I can see no visible difference (from their item descriptions) between the item mall pets and this default one that we get, so at best I can only guess that the amount of "bonus" that they provide would be their only difference.

But anyway, if you were to ask me, I would rather advise that you not spend such money to get them just for this tiny "bonus" advantage...as that money would be more well-spent on getting the proper datachips instead. However, if your into vanity stuff, then that is a totally different story...

So...what are these datachips that I have just mentioned?

Well basically, you can think of them as something like "program chips" that you insert into your pet so that it will learn new "tricks" or provide new extra "bonuses". However, these datachips appear to be only available at the cash item mall and cannot be traded (so there's no other ways to obtain them).

And while we're on this topic of datachips...perhaps you might be interested to know that there exists this "Pet Datachip Synthesis Technician" which seems to be able to help "upgrade" or improve the level of the datachips, from say L1 to L2 (at the very least).

However, upon inspecting the "Synth Manual" for a list of possible "upgrades", there seems to be only just one. Furthermore, from the looks of it, the key ingredient in performing this particular upgrade cannot be found anywhere in the Item Mall (the "AP Items" tag in its description hints of it being a cash shop item)...so I suspect that this is still a work-in-progress feature, to be implemented at a later stage. So do take note of that.

Next, pressing "Y" would bring up the Pet Statistics Window. It is from this window that you may interact with your existing pets (summoning, renaming, feeding, upgrading, swapping of datachips, etc).

Essentially, the more important things to note here are as follows...

• Fullness & EXP
  The fullness and EXP bars work in such a way that whenever you keep your pet summoned, the fullness of your pet would start to drop (at a rate of -4% per 5 minutes, or so I've heard) while at the same time, it would also gain EXP (at roughly +10 EXP per 2 minutes in most places, but much higher in Delilah Nightclub, VIP Lounge or if you use some Item Mall EXP Boost).
  
• Replenishing Fullness
  The most common way of replenishing a pet's fullness bar is to feed it with something called a "Pet Energy Drink" (just slot it into the empty box above the "Feed" button and click "Feed" to consume one of it). These drinks can often be acquired as loot from a monster, reward for completion of particular quests, prize from opening certain replicubes or even bought off the silver medal vending machine (using rank points).
  
  However, these drinks will only replenish a small portion of the pet's fullness (like 5% to 10%), so if you ever run out of them, your best option may be to unsummon the pet to let it rest and recover its fullness naturally (albeit at a snail's pace). Or...spend some money to buy "Pet Hunger Hacks" (prevents your pet from getting hungry for 12 hours) from the Item Mall.
  
• Level Up
  Whenever your pet's EXP bar is filled, it will automatically level up and gain one skill point. These skill points can be spent on improving any one of the passive skills that the pet may have...for example, skills which increases your character's Max HP or Max SP.
  
  Apart from that, you might also wish to note that once every 5 levels, you will need to "manually" upgrade the pet via clicking on the "Upgrade" button (and spending some in-game currency) found in the Pet Statistics Window.
  
  If you do not perform this upgrade, your pet will no longer be able to gain EXP and level up any further. But once you do, the pet will gain one additional datachip slot, so I reckon there's no reason for you not to.
  
  Additionally, once every 10 levels (two upgrades), the appearance of your pet will change, as far as I've heard, so there's no way you would want to miss out on that, now would you?
  
• Bonuses from Pet
  As far as I know or can tell, these bonuses that you get from your summoned pet (the base stats, the datachips and/or the passive skills), all of them would only apply if and when you have that pet out. Once you no longer have it summoned, you will lose all of those bonuses...that is until it is summoned again.
  

Cards
Rather than calling it a "mini-game", as stated by the in-game description, I would rather you see it as something more of an item collection quest/task.

Essentially, all you are doing for this is to collect a set of 4 of the same type of cards (you get these cards as loot off random monsters you kill), press "B" to access the Cards Menu and then trade it into a corresponding replicube.

Once you've obtained the replicube, then that's when the actual "gambling" starts in my opinion. Why? This is because, each replicube functions like a box or container that is loaded with its own list of goodies to loot and your job is to open it (just right click on it to open) and see what you get. And that's all there is to it, nothing more, nothing less...

Puzzles
Effectively, puzzles in Scarlet Blade aren't really those types that you think will need you to burn away some of your brain cells to solve. They're actually nothing more than an "eye candy" feature to be honest.

All you are needed to do is just to level up progressively and then once in a while, press "L" to access the Puzzle Window to clear away some of these so-called "puzzle blocks" that are being put in place, in front of some "visually appealing" images.

Upon gaining sufficient levels to clear the whole puzzle image, you may then click on the "Reward" button (at the bottom right) to claim your reward for clearing it...which mostly consists of some experience points and perhaps an additional skill point for your character.

And yeah, that's about it I guess...so I don't really know why they are naming it as "Puzzles" when in fact they're more like "Leveling Up Motivators". What's more, from what I've heard apparently, each of the different job classes seem to have their own unique high level puzzle images so perhaps they can also call it as "Try another Job Class Suggestinator"? Just joking...

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Scarlet Blade (Part Four)

PVP Gameplay
There are two modes of PVP gameplay in Scarlet Blade (at least as far as I know). The first mode is in the form of participating in Battlefield Arenas. The second one is in the form of an ongoing PVP threat whilst running around leveling in the fields.

Battlefield Arenas

To enter any battlefield arena, you will first need to be of the appropriate levels, as in satisfy the entry level requirement. Next, you will need to be online at the proper times and register yourself in it...which usually starts to accept entries five minutes before the start of the battle (refer to countdown timer). After registering, you will then only need to wait for a tiny confirmation window, accept it and you will be teleported to the appropriate starting area for the battle.

	Yanus (Janus) Cycle: Every 2 hours          Req. Lv.: 15 ~ 44 Max Players: 35 vs 35          Duration: 15 minutes Details: First team to reach 200 points wins.
	Turnpike Cycle: Every 2 hours          Req. Lv.: 20 ~ 44 Max Players: 80 vs 80          Duration: 15 minutes Details: First team to reach 500 points wins.
	Al Kasava Cycle: Every 1 week          Req. Lv.: 30 ~ 44 Max Players: 150 vs 150          Duration: 60 minutes Details: The team with the most flags wins.
	Atomic Bunker (Nuclear Bunker) Cycle: Every 1 week          Req. Lv.: 35 ~ 44 Max Players: 100 vs 100          Duration: 20 minutes Details: The team who defeats Abaddon (dungeon boss) first wins.

Ongoing PVP threat
For this form of PVP, it is fairly similar to those kinds that you find in games such as Lineage II, Aika Online and SWTOR, where the threat of being PKed is continuous and everlasting.

However one thing different about it is that, in Scarlet Blade, the cross-faction PVP here is anonymous. There is no way of identifying who is whom. The name appears to be hidden, the HP seems to be faked and even the attire is masked...so frankly speaking, I'm not even sure if the level of the "Spy" shown is truthful.

But anyway, I guess it goes both ways so the attacker would have to choose his or her own targets carefully as well...so as not to pick a wrong one and end up dying instead.

And as far as I know, this form of PVP may take place at anywhere within the in-game world but would generally become more and more frequent as you proceed closer to the "front-line" map, Viledon (Enocia -> Mereholt -> Barbiron -> Viledon).

Well...just be extra careful whenever you see one lurking near you. You may never know when they might decide to attack you, or perhaps even be waiting for the most opportune moment to strike (like when your engaged in a fight with AI mobs).

Rewards
Basically, there are two things to look out for when you engage in any of these two modes of PVP gameplay.

The first one is "Dog Tags". These can be obtained as loot drops whenever you kill an enemy opponent in any of the battlefield arenas. It is categorized according to the level of the slain opponent and is used to synthesis silver or gold medals at any "Dog Tag Reward Officer" NPCs (found in starting area of battlefield arenas and in certain map's bases, like Viledon).

Generally-speaking, the higher the level of the dog tag and the more quantity of it you use, the better the chance of you successfully making a medal. However, it is important to note that the game system does not allow you to use a mixture of dog tags of different levels in the synthesis, so you might have to collect quite a few of these separate dog tags before you attempt to make any medals. Well...at least make it as close to a 50% chance as possible before you try.

The second one is "Memory Chips". These can be obtained as loot drops whenever you kill an enemy opponent in the regular in-game world (but may also be obtainable as a quest reward).

From what I can tell, these have no other purposes apart from selling back to an NPC to gain extra "Rank Points" (on top of those you've already earned from the kill itself).

So what do you do with the medals and rank points that you've gained? Why...you trade them in for rare goodies and special skills of course! All you need to do is find one of these silver or gold medal vending machines...but they don't sell 'em cheap, so be warned.

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