Turbo and Beyond

Galahad did manage an overnight session with the bandits on Cariae-4, so he got his horse up to level 33 by coffee time, which was a good start to the day. There was one pandora's box to deal with, but it only spawned a level 30 bandit-style beast, which Gal was easily able to deal with.

After coffee, SirDarth and Keerella logged in over on Sarissa-5, and set out for Prokion Temple. Unfortunately, it being a Saturday morning, the place was a bit busy, and my favourite back room was already in use, so I ended up in its mirror image over on the far side. With Kee clicked on to Darth, it was slightly tricky, as she doesn't run as fast as him, and took some damage along the way, but we finally got safely into that room, and, while I kept a careful eye on Kee's health bar as she stood off to one side in a quiet spot, Darth set to work orc-bashing.

Both characters have now had their experience gain set to 50%, to allow them to gain more skill points per level and donate guild points to the local branch of Discipline; by the end of the session SirDarth had added 53.52%, staying in level 31, while donating his first 302 guild points. Keerella went up, as the non-fighter in a combat-type party, by 36.28%, just enough to get her into level 25, and donated 45 guild points. They each earned 212 skill points.

There was a little time left before lunch, so Keerella was able to claim some quest rewards; she didn't do any fighting, but she did have to run out to Shuraine's oasis in the Dratan desert, as I'd not previously added that location to her memory scroll. Another 31.79% experience was gained from the rewards, plus 4 skill points, a better pair of gloves, and some moonstones.

The afternoon session started a bit late, as a friend came round, but while I was waiting SirDarth was able to browse through Roy's merchant mart, and buy a level 32 +10 helm to complete his armour set. The cheapest one I could find, offered by CAMALEAO, cost 1.5 million gold; Collector Ryl converted it from the sorcerer type into a knight's helm for a further 36,000. Wearing the new helm increased Darth's physical defence from 935 to 1010...it might, I thought, make it possible for him to fight with dual blades instead of a sword and shield, though removing the shield put the physical defence stat back down to 796 at that stage.

SirDarth used a beginner platinum super skill pill for his first hour in Prokion Temple on Sarissa-5; this time my favourite back room was available. Kaerella provided a solo party for a while, and then I switched over to Keerella instead, back in Randol. As the hour approached its end, Kee headed for the Temple to join Darth in the back room, and, since there wasn't time for a second hour's worth of pssp, just stayed there in the combat party. SirDarth had added 29.62% in the pssp's hour, and 267 skill points; after that he added another 22.41%, while Kee gained 14.16%, and they each earned 92 skill points. Darth earned in all 307 guild points during the afternoon, and Kee contributed 23.

SirDarth had managed to reach level 32 towards the end of the session, so, once he was back in Randol, he was able to learn the five available levels of the Temple Knight's passive skill Wall of Belief, for 327 skill points, which permanently increases his defence by 155. Once he reaches level 35 there's Canid Fence 2 to learn too, which adds a further 120, after which he could pet-level down in Maargadum Jail with a death mask lancer for sure... though really it will be simpler to get him a red name, and decrease his bare-handed attack enough for him to pet-level on bandits in Merac, like Galahad on Cariae-4.

The "Turbo" event was due to start at five, UK time. In theory the GMs are supposed to announce on the website what the bonus will be a day in advance, but there wasn't even an in-game announcement when it started. I took my food break a little early so that I could make the most of whatever it was going to be, and logged in my level 64 Cariae cleric Kaerella - and also logged Galahad in to do some pet-levelling and provide a solo party for her.

Kaerella went out to the shyer of the two elite sphinx speer men in Dratan, and I soon discovered that the "Turbo" was 50% extra experience, which stacked nicely with the three-hour blessed iris I'd begun, which itself gives double experience gain. I checked the party listings and saw that there wasn't a solo party available for people to join, so I registered mine - and it steadily filled up, so that I had to kick Galahad to make more room for people. Most of them were pretty high-level, and tended to know each other - the level 137 royal knight meatmog for example, while Duinhir was level 129 and RafaeltheKING level 121.

As usual I had that particular sphinx spot to myself; a night shadow did hurry past at one stage, I don't know why he was down my way, but things generally ran smoothly. When the blessed iris ran out, Kaerella had added 35.59% and 47 skill points, but the Turbo event still had a little while to run. When the event ended, for some strange and, again, unannounced reason the experience bonus didn't go down to normal, it went up to 100% extra, and skill exp went to double as well - though I couldn't stay around too long, with the clocks in Britain "springing" forward by an hour tonight, a late finish isn't too bright an idea.

My extra playing time after the blessed iris was probably a little over an hour, half Turbo time and half double - and Kaerella just managed to reach level 65 before the end, adding another 9.76% and 18 skill points. I should also mention that SirFrancis, Kae's drake, added 3343 pet points during the evening, as well. At level 65 Kaerella could move on to farming the bogles in Egeha, which probably drop better stuff than the sphinx types do - though Egeha costs 800,000 gold to teleport to, and bogles give only the same experience as the sphinx speer men. And there isn't an elite bogle to farm...

Galahad kept on with his pet-levelling through the evening, getting his horse more than three-quarters of the way through level 33 by the time he logged out for the night. After the UK and European clocks change to summer time, we will be back with our usual lead over the USA again, with an eight hour time difference for Britain, so the Sunday Quiz will be back to 8:30pm for us, and events generally won't be as early as they have been for the last couple of weeks. It has made a change, but it's good to be back to normal there.