Title: I am 35 years old, I made $67,665 gross last year (between multiple jobs) and live in Buffalo and work in higher education and retail.
This is my 5th MD update. Previous MDs in June 2019, October 2019, February 2020, and July 2020.
Ref29 questions:
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Absolutely. Both of my parents have bachelors degrees, and it wasn’t even a conversation of “if” I was going to college, but “where”. I ended up going to a private 4-year college, with a 75% merit scholarship. I was able to pay for the first semester with savings bonds/general savings, but took out loans for the remaining semesters. I worked 2 on campus jobs (tour guide and TA), plus at a coffee shop - this was more for spending money/gas etc. Looking back, I wish that I had put more of that income aside for paying for school, but I was definitely headlong into the student loan trap of “it’s ok, this is good debt….blah blah.”
I thought that i had the exact idea of what I wanted to do for a career - and that basically required a masters degree - so I went straight to grad school after undergrad. Private - and took out the maximum student loans for both years. I cannot stress what a terrible financial idea this was. The last half of my MA was in DC, so I used the loans for rent/food, as I had a full time unpaid internship. Long story short, what I thought was my career goal wasn’t.
I am FINALLY nearly done paying off my loans. If I had to go back and give my past self advice, it would have been to not go to grad school directly after undergrad. I still might have gotten my masters, but I would have done it in a much more financially responsible way.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
We had conversations growing up - but it was much more of a conversation now that I’m an adult. I’ve noted in past MDs, but my parents have told us that they regret not being able to help us all more as teenagers/college/young adults, so they’ve been extremely supportive of my focus on debt repayment.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Not really. I remember being conscious about it - we didn’t have new cars (EVER - like it’s still a thing), and we used coupons/budgets/bulk freezer meals for shopping, but I think a portion of that was that there were 4 of us kids. We were all involved in a variety of extracurricular activities as well, but I don’t remember even being like, limited or restricted from doing anything.
Do you worry about money now?
Absolutely.
While I am noting that I’m making progress, it is still very overwhelming. It’s really hard for me not to beat myself up when I either buy “treats” or things that aren’t really treats, but are just home comforts. I finally bought myself 2 sets (!) of decent sheets this past month after having 1 set of crappy sheets for the last 2 years lol. I still have so much work to do, on debt repayment, fully funding my emergency fund, and (massive goal here) saving for a down payment on a house.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I would say I was financially responsible for myself when I moved for grad school in the fall of 2008 (so when I was 22/23).
That being said, I definitely have had a financial safety net - my parents always assisted with grocery money if I needed it - when I was married, that definitely was not only a safety net, but also got me in a lot of bad habits.
Since my divorce, my parents have assisted with cell phone, car insurance, and letting me live with them for a few months when I moved back to the US. I know that if something happened, they would absolutely assist with a place to live if I needed it.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
As previous MDs have noted, my parents have assisted with assorted checks when my dad got a bonus, and they have always been extremely generous with holiday $.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): $33,194.67 (up from $23,800 in February 2020)
This is a combo of Stash Retire ($1721.52), 401K from a previous job ($17,330.01), retirement accounts from my current job ($2807.58 in my optional IRA to which I contribute extra; $2947.46 in the basic retirement plan, to which my employer contributes 7%), and TSP from a previous job ($8,388.10).
Savings account balance: $1000
Checking account balance: $1381.07 (at the start of the money diary)
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): $7,558.08 (focus has been more on student loans, plus I am a bit guilty of using it at random points) (down from $19,556 in June 2019).
Student loan debt (for what degree): Current remaining balance is $972.57!!!!! This is down from $23,645.37 in June 2019) (combined loans for undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Relations. To give you an idea of how much I’ve paid off - I’ve paid $118,297.81 off up to this point).
*note: December was a PHENOMENAL debt payment month for me (just over $4k).
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $2847.53
*after using the IRS refund calculator, it became clear that I was expecting a much higher refund, so I stopped having extra withheld. Eventually I’ll get the hang of it.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $1442.72 (average monthly take home August-December 2020)
My retail job fully reopened, and I also applied for, and got a promotion, which meant both an hourly raise and more hours)
Any Other Monthly Income Here:

• Christmas $ from Mom & Dad - $1000
• Stimulus Checks - $1200 + $600 (Both of these went mainly to debt repayment)

Section Three: Expenses
Rent / Mortgage $980.00/month (+ $3.95 service charge when I pay online) (no change)
Retirement contribution: $115.58/month Roth IRA from work + $80.00/month into Stash Retire (no change)
Savings contribution: $0/month (Debt payments are the priority)
Investment contribution: None
Health/Dental/Vision Insurance: $76.38/month (Through work, it gets taken out biweekly)
FSA contribution: $27.78 biweekly (I set my annual contribution at $750 this year, up from $600)
Debt payments
Student Loan minimums: $55.54 is strictly the minimum for my FINAL (!!!) student loan, but as you all know by now, I have been attacking these with a vengeance and plan on this being gone no later than March.
Credit Card minimums: Avg. Monthly Payment $300. (as mentioned in the debt section, I have slipped slightly on allowing myself to use the credit card, but still have been able to lower my overall amount)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $64.99/month
Cellphone: Still on the parental plan, but will be transitioning off. I’m shopping around and have started to budget.
Subscriptions: Apple storage - $2.99/month; Netflix- $8.99; (even though I’ve been able to be at home much much more, we still get a monthly barkbox for the toys; Spotify Premium - $9.99/month. Headspace - $14.99/month. Renaissance Periodization - $16.19/month
Laundry (if you pay per load): $40/month. I put aside $10 per paycheck.
Gym membership $75/month - I budget this much for my ROMWOD and Movement Vault monthly subscriptions. This also covers my monthly subscription for my WHOOP band. My retail side gig also provides $225/month to work out. This covers my monthly membership to my crossfit gym, as well as extra megaformer classes. $32.63/month for WHOOP; $13.95/month for ROMWOD; $9.99/month for Movement vault
Pet expenses: $150/month - includes pet insurance. This is what I put into my budget for insurance, food, grooming etc.) Barkbox 31.54/month; Pet insurance $79.24
Car payment / insurance / average gas:$100/month (as my dad plans on retiring within the next year, he will be signing over my car to me, meaning that I will be taking on my insurance. I fully acknowledge that this has been nice to not have to worry about, and that my parents have been absolutely amazing. The current annual insurance for my car looks like it will be around $450. Future money diaries will take this into account.
Renter insurance: $12.50/month
Average groceries / household supply spend; Looking at YNAB, my average spend has been just over $700/month. This seems insanely high for one person, but I do also follow a RP meal plan, meaning that I tend to eat A LOT to fuel my workouts. I also haven’t gone out basically at all ….
Regular therapy: N/A
Charitable Giving: $75/avg. August-Dec 2020 (Much of this was “rage” donating in the run up to the election)
Annual Expenses:
YNAB (You Need A Budget): $83.99/year
NB: Anytime I leave my house, I am masked, including gym visits. It’s honestly not terrible once you find a mask that works for you!
Day 1: Friday
5:45am: Alarm goes off and I get up to put the kettle on to start coffee. Today is a weigh in and weekly review for my meal/training plan, so I enter my numbers and see what my upcoming week will look like as far as my macros. I notice that my chest/shoulder are sore, and hurt when I take a deep breath, but assume that I just slept on my arm wrong. I take out the dog, feed him, and head out to my weightlifting class.
7:30am: Nope, not just sleeping on it wrong. I make it through the lifting portion, but when we start the metcon, I have to stop because it hurts too much to take a really deep breath, instead stretching and cheering everyone else on. Annoyed, but hopefully it’s nothing too crazy. I think it’s just a strain from my muscle up drills the day before. Once I get home, I make breakfast - a savory oatmeal with oats, cheese, chicken sausage, egg whites, and mushrooms, topped with a fried egg and za’atar seasoning from Trader Joe’s. YUM. I log into work and get settled in for a 2 hour (ugh) staff meeting.
11:00am: Finally done with that. Thank goodness for my camera getting to be off. I take a shower and get into “work” clothes - aka lululemon from top to bottom (align leggings, ebb to street crop tank, and a sit in lotus wrap). Back to work until it’s time for lunch, which I have just after noon (rice, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and ground beef, topped with avocado). Work continues afterwards.
2:00pm: Time for work #2! It’s a fairly uneventful (and slow) afternoon/evening, which is ok after the craziness of the holiday season. And I only have to tell 2 people to put their masks on over their nose and they don’t give me an attitude - woohoo! Around 5 I eat my food on my 10 minute break - another taco-ish bowl, just without the avocado from earlier. I get out from work at 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, take the pooch out and feed him and make my casein hot chocolate (casein protein is a slower digesting type vs. whey and it’s my evening “meal” most of the time) plus a couple dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I facetime my Mom briefly and then we each put on our respective Star Wars shows - she and my Dad are watching the Mandolorian (they just got Disney+), and I’m deep into season 4 of the Clone Wars. Bedtime routine starts at 9:30 with a couple of melatonin gummies and I brush my teeth and wash my face (eye makeup remover, then Neutrogena foaming cleanser, and a nighttime moisturizer from Aldi). Snuggle up with the dog and a heating pad with a Headspace night sounds playing.
Daily Total: $0
Day 2: Saturday
5:50am: NO. It’s like 30 minutes before I want to wake up...NO.
6:10am: Uggggggh
6:20am: FINE. Dog outside, then fed. I make coffee and another savory oatmeal (AMAZING - same as yesterday, just no bell peppers). Catch up on podcasts and my YNAB budget. In happiest news, I can take a full big breath without that weird pain from yesterday! Yay!
10:00am: Home from my workout, which went amazingly - I love a good long chipper of a workout! I take the dog out for a little cold weather walk and then make my post-workout meal - Kodiak chocolate chip pancakes with blueberries! (use 1 egg and almond milk to make the pancakes and it fits my post-workout macros: 35P, 10F, 65C). I follow this with a cuddle session with the dog while watching Marple episodes and drinking coffee. I also add items to my lululemon shopping cart and exit out of it before I can spend money. While I get a great discount (especially on markdowns), I know I don’t really NEED anything, so I don’t get anything.
1:00pm: Off to the mall for work. I stop on the way to fill the gas tank ($25). It’s a busy day, but a good one - during my break I eat my taco bowl (rice, sweet potatoes, ground beef, peppers and avocado). I work until 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, dog out, casein hot chocolate - the usual. I’m nothing if not a creature of habit. I pull out a Trader Joe’s chocolate croissant to prove overnight in the oven. Bedtime is around 10pm.
Daily Total: $25
Day 3: Sunday
7:50am: Whoooops, I intended to wake up around 7:15, but I didn’t actually set the alarm. Luckily the dog wakes me up with a polite whine - I take him out, make coffee and a bowl of oatmeal (oats, almond milk, egg whites, topped with blueberries), and head to my workout around 9.
11:00am: 2 workout classes later, I’m home - post workout meal is the aforementioned chocolate croissant, and a little egg scramble of egg whites, mushrooms, chicken sausage and broccoli. The afternoon is spent with old Miss Marple episodes on Amazon Prime, combined with laundry and apartment cleaning.
3:00pm: I made a quick loaf of bread (2 hrs of rising, then shaping) and put it in the oven. Happily it turns out pretty damn tasty - I make Trader Joe’s Cippino (seafood soup) and have that with toasted fresh bread around 4/4:30pm. A Clone Wars marathon ensues - the Bills are playing in the AFC championship tonight, so the city is basically a giant ball of nerves. I don’t watch the games (and haven’t all season - mostly because I don’t have all the apps/cable), but I follow the score on my phone while watching many (MANY) episodes of Clone Wars. I facetime my mom and dad around 7 after they finish the Mandolorian and we can all squeal with excitement.
9:00pm: Melatonin gummies, contacts out, teeth brushed, face washed, bedtime.
Daily Total: $0
Day 4: Monday
5:45am: Awake, coffee, take the dog out, head to crossfit.
7:30am: Home, dog out again, then breakfast (homemade toast, everything but the bagel smoked salmon, scrambled egg+egg whites) and more coffee. I login to work at 8am, and get the morning podcasts going (Up First, the Daily, Post Reports, the Intelligence).
10:00am: I place a Target pickup order for the snacks for our break area at the mall (seltzer, peanut butter crackers, cookies, granola bars - all single serving packs). I will be reimbursed for this by the store. ($39.57 - I get a notice that an item isn’t available after I place the order...oh well)
11:00am: I’m traveling out of state for a couple of days - it’s a long awaited tattoo coverup (don’t get a tattoo for a significant other….I knew not to do this...and yet I still did), so I make my list of items to pack and things to remember to do (take out trash, do all my dishes, etc). I will be driving to my destination (Indiana), staying at a hotel by myself, going to the tattoo shop (masked), and back to the hotel. Not telling friends I’m there, not going out anywhere. And I’ve scheduled a test for 4 days after my return, per NYS rules. If I could make the drive nonstop, I would, but your girl isn’t giving herself a UTI lol. I’ll be masked and sanitized anytime I step out of my vehicle. Still super nervous, but getting this tattoo covered up is like….the final FINAL step. I also take a shower (finally, yes I’m gross and have been sitting in my workout clothes since I got home - god help me if I ever live with a human again lol).
2:00pm: Time for head out for work! On the way, I pick up my previously mentioned Target order, and also pick up meals for my trip from a local meal prep place - I get a bunch of great stuff (2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, 1 lunch plus energy bites for the car), plus it means that I can just hermit it up in the hotel room apart from the actual tattoo appointment. ($62.68). I get to the mall early before my shift starts - since I know I’ll have a tub in the hotel room, and I don’t have one in my apartment, I get a couple of bath bombs and lotion from Lush ($25.93) and a whole bunch of sheet masks from Sephora ($25.01). Then time for work - It’s a fairly quick shift, which is nice, not too terribly busy and we get a lot done. And people at the mall are generally not pills today - epic win!
8:15pm: Home from work - take the dog out and have a little evening meal of homemade soup from my co-worker (it’s a kale sausage soup her husband makes and it is AMAZING) and the rest of my homemade bread. I finish packing up and the poor pup definitely knows something is up. Bedtime around 10pm.
Daily Total: $153.19
Day 5: Tuesday
5:45am: Alarm, dog, coffee. Rather than dirtying dishes, I heat up one of the prepped breakfasts I brought (a breakfast sandwich with chicken, which is actually quite tasty - plus some blueberries). I get the car loaded up with my stuff and the dog - he’s staying with my parents while I’m gone - and head out by 7:15am. After I drop him off I top off my gas tank ($14.10), and also get a couple of bubly waters and a can of death wish coffee for the road ($6.25).
12:00pm: Lunch stop at panera - fuji apple chicken salad and a cup of chicken noodle soup - drive thru and eaten in the car ($10.94, but I have a gift card). Road Trip Podcasts: You’re Wrong About and Noble Blood.
3:00pm: Gas stop (there’s also a few bathroom stops, but since I didn’t spend anything, it’s not terribly relevant, right? :) ) ($27.01).
5:30pm: Arrival! Check in to the hotel - masked front desk employee, check. Bring my stuff up to my room, and jackpot - biiiiiiiiig tub. Looks like those bath bombs were a solid choice! Open up the work laptop to see if there is anything urgent - nothing crazy - and decide which meal I want for dinner. Bourbon Chicken with Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes it is. Plus a Sparkling Apple Cider vinegar beverage (ginger and lemon) from Trader Joes. Before I eat, I do a lower body focused stretching routine from ROMWOD since I spent so long in the car.
7:30pm: Bath Bomb, Face Mask, Feet Mask, and finished Night Stalker on Netflix. Since I’ll be quarantining until I get a negative COVID test after my trip, I order 10 meals through the same meal prep company that I got my travel meals from ($88.43 - includes both delivery fee and tip). They will be delivered on Sunday.
Daily Total: $146.73
Day 6: Wednesday
6:00am - I had intended to sleep longer, but my body is like - nope, you’re waking up at the same time no matter what. Coffee (keurig in the hotel room - ick) plus a prepped breakfast (a goat cheese egg white scramble with sweet potatoes - which is delicious). Morning podcasts and I open up the work laptop. Since I’m awake I guess.
7:30am: Hotel room workout - I do yesterday’s workout from my gym, with a few modifications, but it still feels great to move after sitting in the car for so long! Shower afterwards, then food (Mexican Taco Bowl!) and work.
10:30am: Squuuuueeee it’s time for my tattoo. I double mask up, drive through for a Starbucks order ($4.74 - paid for on my Starbucks app with previously loaded funds) and head to the shop! I already paid my deposit and took advantage of a gift card sale before Christmas so I don’t owe anything additional today. We do linework, shading, and partial color. It’s going to take 2 appointments to do the full thing, so we make my next appointment for May (augh, I cannot wait!). My coverup is over black text, so a cover up involves a LOT of layering of color. I’m impressed that I still have stamina after not getting a tattoo for nearly 3 years.This is going to be BEAUTIFUL.
2:30pm: After my tattoo appointment, I make a quick stop at CVS (still double masked!) to pick up aquaphor, orange dial soap, ibuprofen, and toothpaste (cause naturally that’s the one thing I forgot to pack - d’oh) ($22.00). I make a curbside pickup order for Panera - another soup and salad combo ($10.55 - again paid for with gift cards!). I head back to my hotel room, eat, put on more podcasts (Planet Money, Can He Do That, Code Switch) and log onto work. An uneventful afternoon follows.
6:00pm: Facetime call with my mom, then dinner and various true crime documentaries on Netflix and Pinterest browsing because as per usual, now I want allll the tattoos. I also put in an order for a grocery pickup on my way home (coffee, coffee creamer, fruit, etc) ($66.82). I try to make a testing appointment through NYS for my return COVID test on Monday, but the automated system keeps putting me in the first available, which is Friday….I’ll try to schedule again on Friday so that the timing works. Bedtime tattoo routine of wash, aquaphor and ibuprofen, as well as a sheet face mask. Sleep around 10:00pm.
Daily Total: $104.11
Day 7: Thursday
6:00am: Welp, up and at em! I finish packing all my stuff, check out of the hotel and warm up the car. I head out around 7:00am. Top off the gas tank ($12.80) and I also add $15 to my Starbucks card and drive thru a Starbucks (Spinach Feta Wrap + Cafe Misto with almond milk). Then it’s time for podcasts and lots of driving. My mom had suggested a podcast from Serial - S*%*Town. IT’S AMAZING and this drive has never gone so fast!
11:00am: (or sometime around this time) Stop for gas ($27.01) and another Starbucks stop ($15 reload) to get another misto, a bottle of water, and a fruit/cheese/hard boiled egg box.
3:00pm: I was going to try to make it all the way without stopping for anything else, but my stomach is about to eat itself. I stop at a Tim Hortons about 45 minutes away from my parents’ house and get timbits and a hot chocolate (which is gross) ($6.66 - eeep). I get to my parents’ house - my mom and dad stay upstairs and in the basement respectively while I use the bathroom and retrieve a very happy pup. Once I get everything out to the car, my mom and dad come outside (double masked, as am I) and we quickly wave and air hug from a distance. On the way home, I drive through the grocery pickup and get my groceries.
5:30pm: Finally home. The dog is very happy to be home too - my mom said when she would come into the bedroom where he was, he would look at her and be - “oh…..just you…”. Such a momma’s boy :) Dinner is actual food (the rest of the kale sausage soup). I also put together a batch of cranberry almond biscotti (based off the Ina Garten cherry pistachio biscotti) - the apartment smells delicious. Settling in for post-travel isolation lol.
9:30pm: Melatonin gummies, tattoo upkeep, and then bedtime with the dog!
Daily Total: $76.47
Weekly Total: $505.50
Food & Drink: $326.64
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $22.00
Clothes & Beauty: $50.94
Transport: $105.92
Reflections:
First, GODDAMN I AM SO EXCITED TO PAY OFF THIS STUDENT LOAN. Just paid another $200 on it this morning, so we’re under $800!! If you hear an excited scream from the Western New York area next month, don’t worry, it’s just me.
Second, this was a higher spend week than usual, but I’m really proud to have budgeted for all of it. I had basically prepaid for the tattoo (on the gift card) and there’s still leftover for my next appointment. I had also budgeted and saved for the increased amount of gas and food.
Third, hopefully this isn’t too boring. My life pre-pandemic wasn’t terribly interesting, and it certainly isn’t now lol. I’m hoping to continue my debt payoff progress by finishing paying off my credit card debt in 2021, and start saving my 3-6 month emergency fund before starting that house down payment savings! I’m even starting to allow myself to start actually looking at Zillow.
I have been isolating since I got back - just drove through and got my COVID test, so fingers crossed for a quick reply!
Lastly, the coverup tattoo is going to be beautiful. I can’t wait for it to be finished!
Thanks for reading this whole thing!

As the title says, update 1.0.5 is out now for everyone. If you want to read the patch notes, join the discord: IdleOn Server
PATCH NOTES (for those who don't want to join the sever)

New Content

----TASKS ----
• 18 Tasks, each one can be 'reinforced' 10 times (basically re-complete it, but its harder). So 180 tasks, kinda.
• 16 Task-Shop items. These range from bonuses, to exclusive Anvil Recipes (some of these will be LOCKED behind completing a specific task, at a specific reinforced-difficulty). They'll cost 'merits' you get from tasks.
• 40+ Recipes to unlock in the "TaskPoint Unlock" system. Every time you reach a certain milestone of Task Points, like 100, or 250, you get +1 unlock to use on the recipe of your choice! Use enough unlocks, and youll unlock MORE unlockable recipes!
---- CARDS ----
• Collects cards from every monster / resource in the game!
• Collect multiple of the same card to RANK IT UP! Bronze, Silver, Gold, I got all the colours of the podium babyyy!
• Equip cards onto your characters -- Each card has a different bonus, and the higher the rank of the card, the better the bonus!
---- ETC ----
• Mining minigame added!
• Desert Boss added (wont drop the Blue Crystal required for world 3 though)
• Crystal monsters now spawn in Desert!
• Chaotic version of World-1 boss now available! It has 15x more HP than world 2 boss, so don't waste your keys here unless your a legend

Player Added Suggestions

• Carry Capacities / Inventory Slots / Storage slots used per character is now viewable! (It'll be the 3rd tab (next to "Skill Info", above your player stats)
• "Split Stack" feature added. Simply enable it in the Storage Left-side Menu, then click on an item, and select how many you'd like to take out of the stack!
• Quest-helper highlights Main Quests in yellow, with a STAR to boot!
• Talents that rely on 'Power of 10' stuff will show you EXACTLY what's going on! Very helpful for people who dont have calculators installed in their brain.
• "AFK time to be claimed" can be viewed from the 'swap player' UI. Just press the Clock in the top-right to toggle on!
• If you switch to an empty world, the game will REMEMBER this so you WONT have to keep doing this each time you play! Helpful for those who need to be on an empty world to avoid lag!
• "Max Withdraw / Deposit" button added to storage money system

Balance Changes

• World 1 boss does much less damage. I'm helpin' you out casual gamers... just this once time, until i probably do it again at leasthandshake
• Quarterstaff (1st 'mage only' staff) now costs Copper Bars to make, not Iron Bars
• You will have to re-make Iron Boots
• Snakeskinventory Bag drop rate boosted by 1.25x
• Mimic Inventory Bag drop rate boosted by 3x

Bug Fixes

• Fishing afk info screen was messed up in several ways, now isnt
• Efficiency skills for warriors/archers now work fully
• Prowess, which is the orange bar-system that gives multiple resources now works as intended.
• Obol names corrected
• Desert Colosseum chests now give their own unique rewards, instead of just giving Grassland rewards
• Using EXP balloons wont jank up your inventory, and are extra inflated!
• 6 of the purple bubbles were not working at all due to cutoff in my code. now they all work
• STRONGEST STATUES talent now gives the correct bonus
• HAUNGRY FOR GOLD talent now gives the correct bonus
• MAGIC SHORTBOW, HOMING ARROWS, EXTENDO RANGEO, and WOAH THAT WAS FAST! talents now are fully functional
• Goldric's Hoopsie quest now correctly identifies total hoops made
• Fly in Minigame now doesnt say 'hey lava, your game sucks! im outta here'
• Player's wont glitch out in their animation if you have Auto ON and have all monsters on screen killed
• play minigame button cannot be accidentally pressed through UI
• Sproutinald's 'justice wears no clothes' quest now tracks naked kills
• sproutinald wont appear in multiple places, nor will TP pete
• upgrading bubbles now always takes away materials.
And a bunch of other things that I didn't really care to write down, and are small enough they wouldn't be worth your time to read
Also invest in kuakacoin :D

After some 50 hours in all three OpenDevs combined, I’ve gathered some thoughts. Loved the game so far. Apologies for the Great wall of text. I tried to be as concise as possible.

Balance

- Horde units are OP. No getting around it. The cost to spawn a new unit into the army needs to be higher. I would also disable food yields from killed units (cannibalism?) and limit it to ransacking and hunting. As for the ability to attack twice, either reduce the unit’s strength or only allow movement after one attack.
- Hanging gardens feels inferior to other ancient wonders. It’s just a slightly boosted artisans’ quarter?
- Some of the ideological axis felt imbalanced – production and science are way more useful than an equivalent amount of money or influence.
- The amount of curiosities in the Neolithic is so high it takes away from the joy of finding them. I think their respawn rates in particular need to be toned down.
- Overall the game feels very easy. AI is passive militarily and progresses quite slowly. Also, their cities seem to suck. They often spam useless, terribly placed districts and never have any population. Where do they lose their population when their armies are so small?

Cities

- Cities need at least a semi-hard cap on districts. In this iteration things just get out of hand. To add to the possible solutions, I suggest a soft cap based on eras, instead of population. (Population is just too easy to come by in the Neolithic, as you can come into the Ancient era with dozens of scout units ready to disband into your cities.) When the city is above the limit, a noticeable stability hit is applied so that stability gameplay stays relevant. The stability drop really needs to sting, but when it is clearly communicated through UI it becomes an interesting choice for the player. Currently you barely notice stability in the cities as it is too easy to maintain.
- Market quarters feel useless. I barely ever built them, yet still managed to hoard massive amounts of money. Maybe add more adjacency bonuses to them?
- Infrastructure felt too lightweight from gameplay standpoint. You can just spam them at a rather low cost without a worry. There’s very little decision-making process required to which infra you should build. I’d love a maintenance cost or something.
- It’d be handy to be able to queue up multiple ceremonies of the same type when there isn’t anything else to build
- Deconstructing districts would be a useful ability for city planning.

Visuals

- Allow rotation of camera – the amazing graphics deserve to be viewed from all angles.
- Placing multiple emblematic districts in a city starts looking too repetitive too fast. If adding different variations of emblematic districts is too much asked, at least allow to rotate them.
- Ability to rotate wonders would as well be much appreciated.
- When zoomed out, the political world map would be much more readable if each territory was filled with the colour of the respective empire instead of just grey interiors with coloured borders. Territories under occupation could be striped in the colours of the invader.
- I’d also love to be able to zoom out without the map shifting into the simplistic grey mode, and rather retain the natural landscape. Don’t know if this is possible performance-wise though.
- The pyramids’ golden top part sometimes has a shade on the wrong side: Left side of the pyramid would be in shade while the left side of the top is lit and vice versa. Applies to both Giza and the Egyptian quarter.
- I feel like the administrative centre styles of later eras don’t get enough visibility with most of the cities featuring ancient or classical buildings. A solution would be a city project that upgrades the administrative centre to that of the current culture.
- Not sure if status related, but there was an excessive smog effect on my city towards the end that I didn’t like. Maybe limit it to production quarters? I don’t want dust on my wonders.
- Ships seemed to lack any wake effect when moving on waters. Would be nice

UI

- Any chance for a minimap? I appreciate the length we can go to with zooming out, but it still doesn’t show the entire world at once.
- Information on the transport vessels is needed when embarking units! Player needs to know what kind of a vessel is embarked; what is its strength, and can it traverse deep waters?
- The ability to turn off the grey battle area is great! It would, however, be helpful if the outer borders of the area could still be toggled visible to know where they are.
- Also, when moving units outside of a battle, it is unclear where they cannot move due to a battle. Solution would be to highlight the borders constantly or when hovering over inaccessible area.
- Army panel’s unit icons are too big and get in the way of each other. Particularly troublesome when selecting individual units in an army bigger than 4.
- I love being able to turn off UI! Just add the ability to turn off borders as well and its perfect.
- The civics panel needs to be viewable simultaneously with events as I would want to see where I stand on the ideological axis when I’m making decisions. Currently you have switch between the two and try to remember which ideologies are in question.
- During the era change cutscene one moves their mouse out of the way to the edge of the screen. When the architecture change camera pan comes, the mouse on the edge of the screen throws the camera off. So prevent that somehow
- The actual deed could be highlighted somehow in the “World deed accomplished” notification, to more easily spot it among the text.
- “The era star achieved notification” should inform on which type of an era star was achieved.
- More icons are needed for different units. It’s very confusing when pikemen and scouts have the same icon and crossbowmen look like riflemen.
- The era star categories must not move around in the empire screen. Makes it ever more difficult to track what you’re supposed to achieve.
- When placing a wonder, the resulting FIMS yields should be displayed like when placing a district.
- In the cultures screen, when hovering over the affinity icon it wouldn’t display any tooltip on the abilities, which would be very useful.
- It is unclear what is the exact final sum of stability in a city.
- City info needs a number of all the territories it consists of. Couldn’t find one
- Other civs degrading treaties with me was not notified properly if at all.
- During battles it seemed hard to find out which independent people was attacking you. The name was properly hidden
- The competitive deeds list would benefit from grouping by type. Colour coding?
- The diplo screen should have a history of a civilization in the same fashion with the relation history. I want to know who they were prior to their current culture.
- Badges tooltips still unfinished? More info def. needed.
- A notification should be minimized in the bottom bar also when I press the spyglass instead of the “Acknowledge”.
- Income tooltip should specify which vassal a certain income is coming from.
- Atheism civic should more clearly explain what kind of changes it entails.
- It was a bit too unclear which wonders were holy sites.
- Sometimes when placing a district, it would not show which yields would be lost. I want to stress that it’s very important to get this working flawlessly to support an already confusing exploitation system.
- The diplo screen didn’t tell me how much of war desire do I exactly need to declare a war
- “Show unclaimed wonders” button is inaccurate as it also shows claimed wonders : )

Terrain

- While the natural wonders look amazing, I do miss the more unique benefits they give in that other game. In this state they felt bland.
- Will there be proper deserts of sand? Not just prairie or stone fields

Battles

- While I also commend this suggestion by u/BrunoCPaula, the biggest gripe I have with battles is the amount of movement – I’d reduce it to make each tile moved feel more important strategically. Currently there is too much running around. This can be achieved by reducing movement points across the board or increasing movement cost of difficult terrain. Regarding the latter, I observed that forests for example didn’t slow units down despite the movement cost of 2. I would increase it to 3 really. For example, rocky fields and arctic tiles could use an increase in cost too. Also, enemy units should limit movement by their adjacency in Zone of control fashion.
- I also feel most ranged units have too much range.
- When in battle, accidentally clicking on a mountain tile closed the battle view. Quite annoying
- It’s too easy to forget autosolving of battles on and suffer of the consequences. Give an option to autosolve once or to leave it on.
- Units’ lines of sights feel unintuitive sometimes. To better educate players in their logic, highlight the tile that’s blocking the LOS when hovering over a target unit.
- Battles automatically suck in all the surrounding units. Sometimes I wanted to exclude a unit from joining a battle
- Then again, sometimes I had trouble with some reinforcements not joining a battle. This seemed to happen particularly in sieges.
- Cavalry charge ability didn’t seem to work?
- In the beginning it felt a bit unclear when the enemy skipped their turn. Got used to it, but new players would benefit from clarity.
- Disabling any optimized, automated placement of units in the beginning of deployment phase would more actively force the player to look for the best tiles to deploy on. Currently a bit too much handholding.

Miscellaneous

- Units need a true sleep button from which they never wake up. Sentries wake up to every neutral unit.
- I’d love to see culturally appropriate hats on the avatars. Don’t know if it’s difficult to implement
- Diplomatic decisions could affect the negotiators’ ideological axis. For example, scientific agreement takes you toward progress, refusing to cooperate toward homeland, and cooperation toward world.
- The auto-explore mechanic disregards deep seas causing surprising deaths by drowning.
- A bug occurred during some late game sieges, when the siege control panel didn’t show at all, not letting me abandon, assault or maintain the siege. Just stuck for the rest of the game.
- Manually moving an auto-exploring unit should disable the auto-explore.
- When detaching a unit from an army it’d be more fluent if the selection followed into the detached unit instead of remaining in the source army. Too many times I detached a unit and then accidentally moved the bigger army.

Points of confusion

- Didn’t seem able to negotiate open borders with a civ that’s a vassal under another civ. Not even by talking to their liege.
- How do I place a luxury manufactory in a later era when all the deposits already have an artisans’ quarter?
- When choosing a culture, the text “Unlocks action Buyout on Empire” seemed pointless. Isn’t it always unlocked anyway?
- Barbican seemed pretty useless. Not even the city watch infrastructure carries over to it?
- I seemed to get the defending bonus while attacking in a battle I initiated.
- I found it weird that I was rewarded for declaring a surprise war with a badge that’s beneficial to me.

1.0174, 09/02/2021

• Fixed an issue with demolishing a bridge right next to another bridge
• Fixed an issue with 'Fetch mode' for a building not being saved

1.0173, 29/01/2021

• Fixed a tooltip that was missing the name of the island/planet

1.0172, 14/1/2021

• Fixed a couple of issues with Light Towers

1.0171, 13/1/2021

• Fixed an issue where a redundant test in the code was doing something dumb

1.0170, 12/1/2021

• In Shipping Lane mode, dragging a resource between Ports sets up the lane with the correct default value for Maintain
• Fixed an issue where the wrong Peeps were being listed in the Peep Details Panel if you selected a different island in the dropdown
• Seasonal update is over

1.0169, 6/1/2021

• Cleaners etc. calculate their ranges correctly when going around water tiles
• Fixed Forest Construction sites being broken on load
• Fixed Aegis not covering the whole planet when the planet has 4 islands
• Construction preview cards now list full effects of adjacency bonuses
• Other small fixes

1.0168, 18/12/2020

• Seasonal update... 🎅

1.0167, 17/12/2020

• Fixed an issue where the Sphinx could destroy player-built Forests
• Fixed an issue where buildings upgraded to something that requires Power wouldn't then take that power from Power Lines

1.0166, 10/12/2020

• Fixed some translation issues, including long-stating errors in the Italian translation of the tutorial!
• Tooltip about rainforest bonus only appears for building on a rainforest island
• Cleaners whose range covers a polluted tile on another island won't try to go there

1.0165, 09/12/2020

• Possible fix for an issue where buildings don't appear when changing planets

1.0164, 08/12/2020

• Version number is now displayed on Main Menu
• Menu on Player-build Transmogrifier closes when you deselect it
• Ships arriving at Ports that are being upgraded behave better now
• Some tooltips corrected to show full number instead of "1K"
• Fixed some translations of rounding numbers to "1K"
• Improved question text when demolishing upgraded roads
• Fixed door shutting too early on animals entering a house
• Fixed issue where hovering over a new building to remove the New outline wouldn't then display it's hotkey number
• Animals don't float over unexplored tiles
• Prevented Stasis boxes from spawning on permanent resources (e.g. Oil)
• Fixed minor issue with pathfinding over bridges
• Fixed issue where ship didn't close up whale-removed sea tiles
• Fixed issue where Cleaners were returning home after each tile they cleaned
• Fixed an issue with power lines not appearing to connect to some buildings
• Mines/Quarries who use up their input resource no longer register as having Empty Posts

Changes to new games only

• Added new biomes (Swamp, Rainforest and Crystal)
  • Swamp biomes are like the Desert but reversed - you can only build smaller buildings on swamp tiles.
  • Rainforests are covered with trees. They give a significant bonus to the production rate of Fields, but that bonus drops the more trees you cut down
  • The Crystal Island... well, you'll see...
• SIGNIFICANTLY updated the game generation algorithm:
  • Fertilities now tend to cluster on the earlier planets, so that when you reach the edge planets for Purple research you still need to go back to earlier planets to get good food and other important resources
  • Some islands can have Iron+Electronics - no 'Mountains'
  • Things like Oil, Milk, Wool etc tend to be on more difficult islands
  • Tutorial games will always start with 1 grass + 2 desert islands, but non-tutorial games can now have other biomes for the 2nd/3rd islands on the first planet
  • Swamp/desert islands are slightly more common towards the sun
  • Snow/Rainforest islands are slightly more common away from the sun
  • Made lots of things controlled centrally instead of being completely random, so there should be less chance of weird/broken games (once we work out any wrinkles)
  • Added a bunch of new island shapes:
    • Archipelagos
    • Inverted islands (eg the Highlands on the coast, rather than inland)
    • Crescent shaped islands
  • Added a chance for ruined villages to be on islands
  • Added a chance for an extra-hard desert - no green tiles, less trees
  • Added coral reefs
• Added a difficulty option to change resource availability (Iron, Stone etc)
• Added a difficulty option for changing pollution rate
• Added a difficulty option to change how many resources constructing buildings use

Changes on all games (previous & new saves)

Gameplay

• Added something secret when you explore Ancient/Sunken Ruins
• Added cats and dogs and scorpions and cows and sheep and squirrels and toucans!
  • Peeps will sometimes 'pet' cats and dogs
• Added a Frog - how many times can you find it?
• You can plant forests now!
• Added Automation/Filtering upgrades to a bunch of buildings that were missing them
• Added a new "Research Institute" building, which:
  • Gives you a timer for the next Space Whale attack
  • Allows you to build things on any island on that planet without a Library
  • Generates a little bit of research in all colours.
• Peeps now use Luxuries more often (when they're below 'Normal' level happiness rather than below 'Sad')
• Added Boulders that you demolish for Stone. Demolishing a Forest no longer supplies Stone. Tutorial has been updated
• Tutorial gives a bit more information about Fatigue
• Shipping lanes created by dragging a resource in the main shipping view also start with Maintain set to 20
  • Except for Research, because generally you want to send *all* your research to another island
• Slightly reduced the speed that Pollution increases
• Buildings stop contributing to pollution once it's higher than their rating - so a Slightly polluting building won't cause any more pollution to a tile that's already at Slightly Polluted or greater
• Elevators and Bridges can now be built on islands without a Library, and by Peeps without a home, just in case the extra mobility is required
• Exploring an Ancient Ruin when you've already invented everything you can will now reveal a tech you don't yet have the right research for (such as Shipping on your first island if there's a Ruin on it)
• Refactored the code controlling Space Whales. It's now a bit more deliberate about progressing through stages as time goes on.
• When colonising a new Planet you can now choose your landing site on the first island
• When not playing the tutorial, your initial game start area sometimes isn't all nice and clear with the ring of roads around the shelter
• Mill, Baker, Kitchen, Smoothie Maker, Desalination Plant and Battery Power Generator have Automation Upgrade
• Smoothie Maker has Filtering Upgrade
• Roads can be upgraded through their card when selected
• Added 3 new music tracks and fiddled with when music plays
• Made it so that if an Island is attacked by a space whale, it can't be selected as the target for the next two attacks, unless it's the only option
• Defeated minotaur now falls over briefly
• After a building has been destroyed by the Sphinx, clicking on it will move to and select the destroyed building
• Player-constructed Shelters now produce a little bit of Potatoes and Water, like the original Shelter
• Improved behaviour when moving between islands when you've got a building menu open
• Scouting islands with Guardians after you've discovered Purple research (and so unlocked Museum etc tech) won't tell you that you've unlocked them anymore

Visual

• Added rocky tile sides to high ground tiles that go right down to ocean
• Added some new tree models, including a super rare type (no in-game effect, just visual)
• Added fireflies!
• Added snow/sand flurries!
• Added Waterfalls!
• Added 'flow' effects to rivers

UI

• Fertility dropdown in the top bar includes text describing the biome rules
• Added a button to allow copying the game seed to clipboard
• Added confirmation dialogs for removing ships from shipping lanes and deleting shipping lanes
• Changed "New" to a star because some languages can't fit into the space
• Newly revealed technologies have a pulsing border in the technology panel
• Updated Smoothie Maker icon
• Added some tweaks to the technology panel so that when zoomed out it's more readable
• A bunch of notifications now state the island and planet where they happen.
• Fertility button in top bar now shows an icon depending on the biome of the island
• Added better icons to indicate differing efficiency of Wind/Solar power on different islands
• Colony (space)ship construction buttons now list the Food+Drink they require
• Added a line to the Shipwright and Launchpad descriptions to acknowledge the requirement for the island to have a certain population
• Clicking on "Could not unload ship as Port is full" notifications now takes you to the Port. It also lists the name of the Ship
• Holding your mouse over a "New" building's construction button will remove the New marking
• Top menu dropdowns close when you press Escape
• Fixed the zoom location for some islands
• Press '\' to close all notifications
• Removed full path for screenshots, to avoid revealing private info if streaming
• Ancient Technology deposits now state what colour they are in their title
• Updated the error message when trying to place an elevator on an occupied tile, to account for the occupier being a resource heap or ancient tech
• Highlight around selected Shipping Lane in Shipping Manifest is thicker
• Upgrading to a House/Apartment will remove the "New" border on their construction button
• When you first launch a rocket, when you get to space the rocket will be selected
• Children's happiness chart now has a line, and a thing in the key to say they're always happy
• Two-way arrow on ships in the Shipping Manifest now changes to a one-way arrow when the ship is moving, indicating the direction they're travelling
• Added an icon to building description for buildings that have to go on high ground
• If you discover gremlins/sphinx/minotaur after discovering purple research, the discovery should no longer mention that lighting/museum/training ground is unlocked now.
• Stasis boxes pick up the overlay colour of their tile
• Pending road upgrades can now be individually demolished in the road card
• You can now cancel a road upgrade from under an in-progress elevator
• You can now place an elevator over an in-progress road upgrade
• Added a red border around the unhappy workers in a building card
• Continuing a game will populate the save game dialog with its name now
• Technology queued up in another library should now show it's position in the queue.
• Made shipwright card taller when UI Scale is low, to avoid unnecessary scrollbar
• When adding a shipping lane, the Ports are now listed alphabetically

Settings

• Added an options slider for how fast the Space Whale difficulty ramps up
• Added a "High Contrast Cursor" option in Game Options
• We've started to increase the amount of data in the game-seed. It produces a new seed that encodes all the game settings rather than just the planet generation random seed
• Added an options slider for how fast the Space Whale difficulty ramps up
• Added a "High Contrast Cursor" option in Game Options
• We've started to increase the amount of data in the game-seed. It produces a new seed that encodes all the game settings rather than just the planet generation random seed

Fixes

• Added some variation to how many trees are on an island
• Added some optional data to an extra save file, so that more graph and overlay history is stored (but not transferred in Cloud Saves - they'll regenerate the data when you load on the other computer)
• Added borders to the editable numbers in the resource dropdown and Warehouse card to make it more obvious that they are editable
• Added Power Line functionality to Aegis
• Updated fatigue:
  • Added a timer to the info pin so you can see how long it'll last
  • At work, fatigued Peeps work (very) slowly instead of not working at all
  • Updated the Fatigue pin to be clearer it’s about being tired not sad
• On Islands with no Road Layer building the road upgrade buttons are disabled
• Colony ship tooltip updated when you're trying to colonise an island but over a tile it can't reach (in the middle of the island or over the wrong island)
• Peaceful Kraken should have their glowy ball back
• Zooming in on a laptop trackpad with two-finger-swipe should work now
• If a Port/Landing pad finishes construction while you're in Shipping Mode, a card for the new Port gets added
• If a tech finishes while you've got a building category open, new buildings get added to the category
• Rearranged the resource dropdown in the top bar to be more readable.
• Prevented starting an upgrade on a building that's doing assigned work (like a Shipwright constructing a ship)
• Dialog asking "Do you want to delete this game" appears over the load/save button like it should
• Landing a scout on a single low tile on an Atoll no longer makes the game freeze
• Suggested save name is now correct if you load two games in a row
• Prevented submarine from disappearing near edges of planet
• Fixed an issue where a Peep would sometimes list Gloom multiple times in their happiness summary
• Fixed a minor issue with helpful Minotaurs getting confused
• Fixed a bug that was breaking Peeps going to explore Ancient Ruins if they left before they were done
• Fixed a bug with Power distribution to some large buildings
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to build a bridge over a river with a Port on the inland side of it
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to click on controls underneath a question dialog
• Fixed a situation where the sheltespaceship wasn't releasing Peeps to fill empty housing slots because there was a homeless person working in construction
• "Similar building" icons now work better when a building is being upgraded
• Fixed an issue that was making placing a road fail if you did so very quickly after placing another road
• Fixed a French translation issue
• Fixed the names for upgrades in Ports and Whale Charmers
• Fixed a pathfinding issue if a Peep winds up standing on the corner of a bridge
• Fixed description of Gardening technology
• Fixed an error when moving a colony ship
• Ship, spaceship and guardian sounds now pause when game is paused
• "Space Whale ate stuff on the planet" notification now takes you to the planet when clicked on
• Fixed planet stated on "the kraken is now helpful" notifications
• Minotaurs no longer get stuck on terrain that should be inaccessible
• Fixed a pathing error if a ship is trying to reach the unexplored centre of an island when the very edge of the island isn't explored, but the central area is still surrounded with explored tiles
• Fixed Island colonisation action+tooltip if you're next to a valid island but not next to a valid tile
• Spam clicking on a planet while in space doesn't reset the zoom-in
• Peeps no longer open and close their doors repeatedly when a minotaur is nearby
• Minotaur card resized if it changes state while selected
• Fixed a couple of issues with the glass smelter step in the tutorial
• Fixed a bug that wasn't allowing you to enter shipping mode if your camera happened to be in just the right position
• Rearranged the Port-Ship Resource Transfer dialog a little to better fit long names
• Fixed an issue that would occasionally make ships appear to clip through land tiles at 4x speed
• Hopefully fixed an issue that was causing mysterious ship-moving sounds to play from nowhere after you load a second game in the same session
• Fixed a couple of things when you've got a destroyed building you don't have the resources to repair
• In Difficulty settings, Demolition resources doesn't go grey when it's at 100%
• Homeless peeps will no longer try to reach construction jobs they can't access
• When a Road tile is cleaned, it's card should update to show the changed pollution level
• Show Planets option is no longer visible before the first spaceship is launched
• Fixed an error if you click the Launch button for a spaceship while zooming from space to planet
• Improved the way the camera is controlled when tracking the first whale encounter, so it should stay onscreen better
• Fixed an error when launching colony spaceships
• Fixed "Space sound" not disappearing when you zoom back into a planet
• Reduced the size of the click area for planets in space, so that they don't cover spaceships that are near-but-behind the planet
• Hopefully fixed an issue where the first whale attack would be tracked by the camera on the wrong planet
• Port upgrade button no longer closes any time a ship docks
• Fixed an issue when clicking notification about Trade Spaceships
• Fixed an issue where ships appear to move through land tiles on 4x speed
• Fixed an issue where peeps wouldn't fetch from a Stepped Warehouse after all the nearby elevators were destroyed by a whale
• Fixed an issue where ocean/river tiles covered by a bridge didn't have the water shoreline texturing

Hello everyone,
With all the new players that are bound to be looking for information in the next couple days I figured I'd share some tips! Hopefully these will be useful for new players. I certainly don't consider myself an expert and if anything is incorrect please let me know and I'll fix it.
Please share anything in the comments you thin I should add and I certainly will. I'll be adding more also as more things come to mind.
*THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS*
I hope this helps!
Add me and lets play!
Ship 1 - FRIEND CODE: 10088326
Player ID: Trippi
Characters:
Rilyania / Trippi
​
CLASSES SIMPLIFIED:
Hunter:
Uses Swords, Wired Lance and Partisan. Good Melee damage and survivability. Excellent Subclass for many classes. Weapon Action is used to Block attacks.
Fighter:
Uses Knuckles, Twin Daggers, Double Saber. Great Melee damage with high risk / reward.
Ranger:
Uses Launchers and Assault Rifles. Your classic Ranged damage class. Straight forward for the most part and easy to use.
Gunner:
Uses Twin Mech Guns and also can use Assault Rifle. Pretty much going to use Twin Mechs exclusively. Weapon Action lets you do a dodge to negate damage. Close range "ranged" class think Gun-Fu.
Force:
Uses Rod and Talis. Your classic "Mage" doing Tech damage. Can use a Talis to throw to an area and then have Techs cast from the Talis location. Fire, Lightning, & Ice elements.
Summoner:
Uses Harmonizer and TECH/MELEE damage. Can cast Techs from sub pallet and uses pet skills. Uses pets to deal great damage. Pet's must be leveled up with eggs and sweet box placement for increases in stats etc. This would be considered an advanced class. If you don't properly allocate candy etc it can get costly to fix. Definitely suggest reading / watching a guide before doing too much.
You will likely sub Fighter so a MELEE Mag is suggested (Take the skill tree skill toggle for Melee). But you may want to start a Tech Mag for when Phantom drops.
Techter:
Uses Wands to do melee attacks that can cause massive elemental damage once you get the buffs from the skill tree. Tech-splosion on hit. Hard to explain, check YouTube. Wind, Dark and Light Damage. Also has boosts to healing and buffs (Shifta, Deband).
Braver:
Uses Katana or Bow gaining damage from DEX Mag, stat for melee or ranged. Can be played either Ranged or Melee. Very popular and a lot of fun to play.
Bouncer:
Uses Jet Boots and Soaring Blades. Also gains damage from DEX Mag. Lots of mobility and can mix up Techs and Melee attacks.
Oh, there's also Gunblades that every class can use.. Pretty underwhelming and I've only ever used them as melee during a PSE Burst when tightly grouped in a corner and things are getting one shot before you can melee them.
​
MAGs:
HunteFighteSummoner - MELEE Mag, RangeGunner - RANGED Mag, Force/TechteSummoner - TECH Mag (Techter can do Melee), BraveBouncer - DEX Mag (Other classes may want DEX if you plan to go Phantom when released) Also Summoner may want to also raise a TECH Mag got when Phantom releases.
Mags are locked to your character and cannot be traded, transferred, sold or stored. So if you purchase additional Mags be cautious which character uses the ticket.
Make sure to get your Mag from "Officer Cofy" immediately to the right of the main quest givers desk. You should be able to get this almost immediately upon completing the tutorial level. Once you have your Mag you can feed it items to increase its stats which when equiped (don't forget to equip it) increases your stats. Each Character gets 1 Mag for free. You can purchase more for 300AC (approx $3.00) from the AC Shop.
Before you start feeding your Mag be sure you know what class you want to play. You will pretty much always want to either go 200 MELEE, 200 RANGED, 200 TECH, or 200 DEX. Be careful though. Because what may raise one stat will also raise another. You need to find another item to feed your Mag to then reduce the unwanted stat. It's basically a balancing act to try and hit max level Mag (200) with all points put into the desired stat.
Speaking of which don't feel you need to rush and start feeding your Mag right away. Take some time and play each class and be sure you know what Stat you are going to focus on. The stat boost from your Mag is certainly not essential in early game but does help get you over some weapon stat requirements early on. See Random Tips below for info on Mag Food Devices.
You can avoid buying additional mags by using your 3 Character Slots and assigning each one a specialty MELEE, TECH, RANGE.. but to get all 4 you will either need to purchase an additional character slot or a 2nd Mag on one of your characters.
​
Inventory & Storage:
For Inventory storage by default you will have 50 Inventory slots for picking up items in the field. You can expand this by +100 for 350AC per 10 slots to a maximum of 150. I'd say 150 is not entirely necessary since you can dump items from your inventory to any of your Storage containers while in the field by simply opening up your inventory and selecting an item and choosing "Deposit To Storage". I personally have 150 on one of my characters and I find it's nice.. but 100 is probably the sweet spot just for QOL.
When it comes to Storage (Bank) you will have a "DEFAULT" storage that can hold 200 items and a "CHARACTER" Storage that holds 300. If you get Premium (Approx $15.00 per month) one of the bonuses is the "PREMIUM" Storage which holds 400. There is also option "MATERIAL" Storage that is used to store all materials from fishing and harvesting nodes. This must be purchased on a 30 Day basis for approx $15.00. This is more of a QOL option and isn't really required. You can get by w/o it but just be advised you will pretty much use your entire DEFAULT Storage for Materials, Misc & Consumables.
​
Class Skill Tree:
As you level up you will gain skill points to use in your class skill tree. You have an option to customize your own build and choose where to put your points, or use the recommended tree allocation. You cannot currently reset your Class Trees unless you are given a Class Tree Reset Voucher when major updates or changes occur. So be aware, you can make a bad build and you'll have to live with it or use the recommended tree option.
So, you didn't listen above and you messed up your skill tree and you hate the recommended tree. What can you do? Well you can't pay to RESET your tree, but you can purchase a 2nd skill tree. So you're not completely sunk. But it will require 500AC per additional tree. Good news is once you get a Reset Voucher it will reset all trees for all classes you have. Additionally you can also move a purchased Skill Tree to a different class at the cost of 100 Star Gems.
PA's and TECHS are learned from the Green Discs you find as loot. PA's are Photon Arts for weapons and Techs are Magic Techniques used by Force / Techter / Bouncer / Summoner. Currently the max level is 10. We are missing some PA's and do not have the ability to modify / craft PA's and Techs yet.
For some build options I'd suggest joining the Ship 1 Discord if you're on Ship 1 and looking at the guides channel, searching reddit (duh) and here: http://arks-layer.com/classbuildsna
Extra Guides: https://pso2naguides.wordpress.com
​
Random Tips:
SET YOUR PLAYER ID!!
- After you choose your SHIP and you're at the menu screen move down to "Support Menu" and then "Change Player ID Name" this is where you set your own. Make sure you like what you pick because it's about $30 to change it later. This is important to do because your Player ID is your Universal ID or "Guild Card" in the old games. By default it will just be "PN" followed by numbers (ex: PN5462330) a lot of menus only show your Player ID and people will have no idea who you are.
ENABLE AUTO-LOOT
-This is a big one. Enabling auto-loot will make it so you don't miss or have to pick up neseta (money), photon boosters, unique Weapon badges etc. This will be a life saver especially once you start doing advanced quests.
Go to “Options” in your menu and then go to Game Settings>settings. Near the bottom of the settings screen is several auto loot options. You’ll want pretty much all of them on.
LEVEL 75 BONUS STATS
- Upon reaching level 75 with each class you will unlock a ship wide stat boost to all characters. It's not major but does add up. You receive this by talking to the titles NPC to the right of the main Gate way Ship entrance (where you go to start missions). Since these are ship wide any alts you make will received these bonuses also. Not just the character that got the class to 75.
CHARACTER CREATION CHANGES
- After you create your character you will have a set amount of time to make any Character Creation adjustments for free. I believe it's about 3hrs someone else has said 5hrs. But not 100%. This time only decreases WHILE playing. To do this either bring up your quick menu and select "Salon" or go to the Shopping Area and it's the pink shop on the second floor. Major changes like face / body shape etc will cost a Salon Pass to change. Salon Pass S (?) (100 Star Gems) is required for Hair Color, CAST Parts Color etc. You can freely change your Hair, Accessories, Eyes, Eye Color, Eyebrows etc at no cost any time.
VIEW WHAT ITEMS DROP / MOBS THERE ARE...
- When selecting a mission you can check what items drop, what enemies there are and what equipment augments are available. After choosing which Quest location, then difficulty choose "VIEW QUEST LOG" to get a break down of each. This will change depending on the difficult you have selected.
EASY CLIENT ORDERS
- When accepting Client Orders / Quests you can press RB / LB to scroll through each Map / Location and have it display which ones apply to each zone. So if you're farming Forest, hit up each NPC and grab any Client Orders listed for Forest. Much easier than scrolling through that massive list.
Also, instead of speaking to EVERY npc and selecting the map you want to accept client orders you can instead accept the quest you want then in the menu go to client orders and then "client orders that can be accepted in on going quest" and this will list every client order that can be completed in that quest. I realized this really late and wasted so much time going to every NPC.
BIND YOUR WEAPON ACTION KEY
- Most weapons have a special action you can activate called.. Weapon action. Rather than having this on your main PA / Tech bar you can bind this to a button press. Ever with controller on Xbox (I set mine to L3). Just note that not all weapons have an action. Example Rods weapon action just changes your PA / Tech Pallet.
DAILY FRESH FINDS SHOP
- In the Menu under the shopping cart there is the "Fresh Finds Shop" this shop updates daily and sells customization items (appearance) and some other random stuff for Star Gems. Unfortunately you can't preview what they look like. This site here does update daily and links to pictures of each of the fresh finds items: https://github.com/SynthSy/PSO2-Dictionary/wiki/Fresh-Finds
QUICK SELECT ITEMS
- You can quickly select items to highlight or sell / move by pressing the Right Trigger (Dash / Dodge Button for PC). You can also HOLD the button down and move over items to continually select them (works great when you have a bunch of items to identify)
ITEM LOCK
- Lock your important items. When in your inventory you can select an item and choose LOCK. This will save you from accidentally selling it or using it as a material in enhancements.
CHARACTER SLOTS
- Make all 3 Characters even if you only plan to play 1. You can do some very quick and easy Daily and Weekly missions to help make some Meseta (money) with these characters. Also you will occasionally be given CLASS SKILL RESET vouchers when major changes / updates occur. You will receive 1 for each created character you have.
MAG FOOD REWARD
- If you get a character level 30 you get rewarded Mag Food which will allow you to feed them to your Mag (Use Device Option). You can feed as many as you want and they only increase the set Stat they are assigned. Each character that does this will get 50x Mag Food for all 4 stats. These can also be purchased off the Player Shop or traded for at the Photon Vendor.
HARVESTING & FISHING
- Start Harvesting ASAP. You will eventually need these materials to make Rings. You have 100 Stamina for fishing and harvesting which allows you 10x Harvest and 10x Fishing. There will be Daily orders worth 100,000 Meseta (money) + that use these fish and also in Franca's Cafe you can make 500,000 by doing the client orders for harvested materials from the old me. Each character you have can do these Daily and Weekly orders. Stamina regenerates at 1 point every 3 minutes. If you level up your stamina will fill and carry over any stamina you had before leveling also.
CALL ON YOUR ALT FOR HELP!!
- At the Visiphone you can choose "Friend Avatars" then "Add Friend Avatar" to have your currently selected character made available to be called on as a Bot helper in missions by your Alt and any of your friends. Even random people will have you show up in the Mission Ally tab too. As you change your build / gear / look go back and re-add to have your Avatar update.
SUB PALLET PA/TECHS
- Put movement, heal, buff & infrequently used PA / Techs on your Sub Pallet (Bottom Bar). Things like Resta, Shifta, Deband, Ilzonde etc. Save your main slots for your most important ones.
ALL ABOUT THEM AUGMENTS - Be sure to check your items for desirable augments such as Modulator and Apprentice Soul. These items will sell for a lot, Hundreds of Thousands.
TUTORIALS PLZ!!
- Read / Do the Tutorials. There's a lot of small things you can miss if you don't. Especially regarding PSE Burst, Photon Blasts (Mag) etc. It will be beneficial to yourself and your party.
XBOX ELITE CONTROLLER CONFIG (I USE)
- Link: https://www.reddit.com/PSO2/comments/fwnh5m/best_xbox_elite_config_imo/
TRADING AND SELLING
- You can only TRADE with other players if you both have a Premium Token (Monthly cost). Same goes for posting items on your PLAYER SHOP. You can browse and purchase regardless though.
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Quick Edit on Affixing and Managing Storage: (will make pretty later)
SWAP SHOP: - 10* weapons can be traded at the swap shop for photon spheres or ex cubes. - 10* Units x5 can be traded also. - 12* weapons x3 (sigma etc) can be traded for Lamba Grinders.
AUGMENTS: - Apprentice and Modulator augments show up on Units and can be sold on the player shops for good money. - Keep 6 slot+ (maybe 4 slot early on?) weapons with good modifiers for augmenting down the line.
FOOD AND ENHANCING: - Weapons 9* and below that at +5 or higher keep for enhancing weapons early on. - Use other weapons for feeding mags also. - Vendor most items 8* and below. Unless they have good augments at a slot size you need. 6+ or 4+ early on. - Even low star items can have great augments on them and be used to augment a higher star item. Just remember if you are augmenting a 6 slot weapon only items 6 slots or higher can be used. So if it's a 2 slot item with a great augment. It's still fairly useless unless you do a lot of moving and shuffling around.
Remember we will be getting new content fairly quickly. So don't waste too much trying to augment. It can get very very expensive, quickly.
Here's a link to some guides. Under making meseta and affixing it lists some useful augments: https://pso2naguides.wordpress.com/
These aren't difinitive rules, but just what I kind of live by. Don't hoard too much and just keep what you really need. Especially if you don't have the premium storage slot.
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***WORK IN PROGRESS WILL EDIT AND ADD MORE***