Castle Clash - Merits and Warehouse

In my last post, I described the new Heroes Expedition feature in Castle Clash (Android version). Now for the fun part: spending all those new Merits on rewards!

Quick review: Merits are a new type of resource introduced along with the Heroes Expedition (activity) and Warehouse.

The Warehouse unlocks at Town Hall level 3, and must be built before you can spend your Merits.

From the Warehouse, select the far right option "Trade Merits" to enter the shop. You can exchange your Merits for Exp books, Skill Exp, Shards, HB, Gold, and Mana; for a simple list of the different rewards, the Castle Clash Wiki has an excellent reference.

More importantly, here are the important rewards, the ones to focus on to get the best bang for your Merit buck:

• Hero Cards (72 Merits to hire any hero, 300 Merits for a random Elite hero, and 13,000 Merits for a random Legendary hero) - the Card for any random hero is the equivalent of 150 Gems, for an exchange rate of 2.1 Gems/Merit. If you are looking to round out your team of Legendaries, 13k Merits will take a while to save up to but might be worth saving for instead of taking the chance. I'll update with statistics on the probabilities of winning a Legendary from the regular Hero Card as soon as more data is available -- so far, it is not known if the chances are the same as from hiring random Heroes with Gems.
• Talent Refresh Cards (300 Merits each) - just as they sound, these give you a talent refresh for one of your heroes instead of spending Gems. With the equivalent cost of 300 Gems for the same function, these give you the exchange rate of 1 Gem/Merit.

For the rewards list in general, here are some general tips:

•  If there are multiple levels of a reward, the highest one is generally the best value. This applies to Shards, HB, Gold, and Mana. The exceptions are the rewards with Exp (either skill books or Exp packs) -- for Exp rewards, Tier 2 is the best value.
• The rewards least worth your time are the ones that involve Gold or Mana. If you need Gold or Mana, just go on a raid.

Castle Clash - Heroes Expedition Guide

The latest patch for Android (ver 1.2.52) introduced a new gameplay mode called Heroes Expedition (HE). Here's the skinny on how it works... then see this post on the Warehouse and Merits for *why* you want to earn these rewards!

Short description: Send your heroes only (no regular troops) on raids on other players' bases, and instead of earning Gold and Mana you earn a new resource called "Merits" for clearing more than 50% of a base. These Merits can be spent at the Warehouse, a new building introduced in the same patch, on Shards, Exp, Skill Exp, and other desirable things (see my Warehouse and Merits guide for details on what is available and the best values in the shop!).

Battle Chances: One life per hero every day. Once the hero is killed in HE, it will not revive in HE until the next day (resets at midnight, server time). Heroes on cooldown are still usable in HE, and heroes dead in HE are still usable in raids, HBM, and everything else as usual.

How to Enter: Select the Arena. Expedition will be the right-most option that pops up, as in the screenshot below:

Once inside, you'll see a lobby screen similar to the level selection screen in HBM or HT, but this one resets daily so you have to start from R1 every day. Once you clear a level for the day, you can't go back to it (i.e. once you clear R1, you have to move on to R2. R1 will unlock again the next day).

From the lobby, select the highlighted level to get to the hero selection screen. A list of all of your heroes will be along the bottom. You can choose up to 15 heroes for each level. Heroes that die for the day will automatically be removed from your selection for the next level you enter, and can be replaced with other heroes if you have more.

The other thing to note from the hero selection screen is the "Max Rewards" listing on the right side. You earn Merits and HB for clearing levels. In the example above, getting 100% on the level would award you with 27 Merits and 140 HB.

Castle Clash Guide

General tips:

• Check quest board every time it becomes available! Oftentimes you can complete quests just by doing what you would normally be doing anyway
• Claim daily free stuff
• Daily Reward for logging in for consecutive days
• “Earn Gems” rewards for logging in (5 gems), fighting 10 Arena Battles (5 gems), and stealing specific amounts of gold and mana from other players on raids (10 gems for each gold and mana)
• Daily Title rewards (based on your Might)
• Use battle chances (see section below) – try to use them all before you log out for the day, so you minimize time when they’re capped out and not regenerating
• Join a guild – makes the game a lot more fun, and if you’re willing to donate Shards, find a guild that has other active donors so you can boss!

Activities that require battle chances (BC):

• Arena – 1 BC earned every 30 min, max 5 stored
• Dungeons – 1 BC earned every 20 min, max 5 stored
• Here Be Monsters (HBM) – 1 BC earned every 3 hours, max 6 stored
• Heroes Trial (HT) – 1 BC earned every 6 hours, max 6 stored
• Heroes Expedition (HE) - 1 chance to enter every day, heroes killed in HE are unusable in future HE rounds for the rest of the day

Where to focus if you need...

• Lots of Legendary heroes – focus on Gems
• One specific Legendary hero – focus on Shards [jl] if it is purchasable, otherwise Gems
• To level up heroes – focus on Exp (see next line also)
• To upgrade heroes (increase star levels) – focus on HB
• To upgrade hero Skills (increase skill levels) – focus on Shards
• To improve hero Talents – focus on Gems – note: this should be lower on the priority list until you have a full team of awesome Legendary heroes already, as it will be very expensive!
• To upgrade buildings – focus on Gold, you’ll probably pick up enough Mana along the way

Resources: Gems

• Primary sources:
• Daily Reward
• Daily Title Reward
• Daily “Earn Gems” actions
• Under "Earn Gems" section - Watch to Earn Gems - get 1-3 Gems for watching a 15-30 second ad, good for a few easy Gems/day
• Other sources:
• Achievements (one time each, generally not worth explicitly trying to get, just treat these as nice bonuses as they come along during normal gameplay)
• Quests (occasionally)

Shards

• Primary source:
• HBM
• Other sources:
• Dungeons
• Quests

HB

• Primary sources:
• Arena (passive through rank)
• Boss Battles
• Arena Battles
• Other sources:
• Quests
• Daily Rewards
• HT
• HE
• Raids (small)
• Dungeons (small)

Exp

• Primary sources:
• Quests (specific hero can use books)
• HBM (all involved heroes shares EXP evenly, including heroes on bases and garrisoned heroes)
• Other sources:
• Raids
• Dungeons

Gold

• Primary source:
• Raids
• Other sources:
• Mines
• HBM
• Quests
• Dungeons

Mana

• Primary source:
• Raids
• Other sources:
• Mills
• HBM
• Quests
• Dungeons

Overall “Levels”MightMight is a function of your hero levels, hero skill levels, and building levels. Some quests and features have a minimum might requirement, as do some guilds. Might also helps match you to opponents in random raids.

FlamesUp to 3 flames can be earned for each unique dungeon you have cleared (get 100% by destroying every building to get all 3 flames) – there is a required minimum flame level for each level of hero upgrades, but the flames are not consumed

Things To Do
Here Be Monsters (HBM)
Best way to earn Shards, second best way to earn EXP. 1 chance is earned every 3 hours; you can store a max of 6 chances. Heroes who have a cooldown will be alive for HBM, but heroes killed during HBM will have a cooldown afterward before they can be used for raids/dungeons.
Do the highest level that you can consistently clear, as Shards are only gained for completing all 5 waves of the level. A good base setup is crucial – ideas can be found here but experiment to see what works best for your heroes and talents [links].

Heroes Trial (HT)
Not a lot of rewards (generally 100-150 HB, occasionally a few gems), but a small chance to win the type of hero that you have defeated. Supposedly, clearing higher level waves increase your chances of getting a hero – but I haven’t been able to confirm this, nor does the internet seem to have any proof. Heroes who have a cooldown will be alive for HT, but heroes killed during HT will have a cooldown afterward before they can be used for raids/dungeons.

Like for HBM, a good base setup is crucial. HT is a lot more variable, however, as the type of hero that spawns is random every time. An L1 wave of PD’s with abilities stacking can level your entire base before you even get a hit in, even though you can sometimes clear L3.

Raids
Best way to earn gold/mana. Unlimited chances; you are usually limited by hero respawn and troop recruitment times. Heroes on cooldown are NOT available for raids, and heroes that die during raids will have a cooldown afterward.

There are two ways to begin a raid:
(preferred method) clicking on the sword on the lower left and then selecting the sword in the stone (next to the dungeon portals) generates a random opponent who has a similar might level to your own. You can skip an opponent by paying a tiny gold fee to go to the next random opponent. This method allows you to steal up to 25% of your opponent’s resources and earn Exp based on the HP of the opponent’s buildings.
(other method) you can choose a specific player to attack by clicking the trophy icon on the lower right of the screen or using the battle reports screen. You can only earn up to 5% of a chosen opponent’s total resources, and your heroes will not gain any Exp from these types of raids.

Dungeons
Second best way to earn Shards, and only way to earn Flames. 1 chance is earned every 20 minutes; you can store a max of 5 chances. Heroes on cooldown are NOT available for dungeons, and heroes that die during dungeons will have a cooldown afterward.

“Special” or “skull” dungeons are those marked with a little blue turret next to the dungeon icon. These have higher chances of dropping Shards, and will reward more Shards if they do drop; however, they reward less gold, mana, and Exp than similar difficulty dungeons (but you shouldn’t be running dungeons for these things anyway). A good general strategy is to farm the highest level special dungeon that you can consistently clear 100% (i.e. destroy all the buildings). A lot of good work has been done on drop rates, see my post on dungeon drops [link] and this forum thread [http://us.forum.igg.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=126501] for more info.

Bosses
Best active source of HB, also just very fun to do. Heroes that the boss kills will NOT have a cooldown afterward, though there is a 15 second cooldown for you to reenter the boss fight (can be skipped by paying guild credits that you have contributed).

This comes through your guild. Pick a guild where (1) everyone contributes guild credits so nobody is getting a free ride, (2) the times for boss runs are advertised and are times that you can participate, and (3) the guild consistently beats the boss. The more damage your heroes do as a percentage of the boss’s HP, the more HB you will get; but the more damage your guildmates can contribute as well, the faster the boss fight will be. Balance the tradeoff between your damage contribution and HB reward with the time depending on your own priorities.

At lower levels, strategies center on hit and run. Get in as many hits as you can using the free Invincible spell, either die quickly or end the battle, then reenter and do it again. The goal is to build up to a team with a Druid for healing and other heroes that can consistently stun the boss – this will allow you to survive the entire 3 minute time limit and deal a lot more damage.

Quests
Best way to level up, can target specific heroes to train using the Exp books that come as rewards. The number of quests available is based on your might. When new quests appear, you have up to 16 hours to complete all the ones available to you; after that time, they disappear and a cooldown starts. If you complete all your available quests before the time limit ends, you get an additional bonus (HB, Shards, Gems, or Exp books) and the cooldown starts sooner. I like to finish at least two complete sets of quests in a day.

Arena
Consistent passive source of HB, and good source of active HB as well. 1 chance is earned every 30 minutes; you can store a max of 5 chances. Heroes who have a cooldown will be alive for Arena battles, and heroes killed in the Arena will NOT have a cooldown afterward.

For pretty much everyone with sub-level 100 heroes, edit your defense to have only 1 low level hero defending. This allows other people to beat you and knock you down the ranks, so that you can fight and beat lower leveled opponents. You earn 40 HB for each victory, and only 6 HB for each defeat, so the difference between winning most battles and losing most battles will more than make up for the 10 HB/hour difference you might get from having a stronger defense.

Note: if you ever quit the game for a few weeks and come back, you will have a nice surprise of HB waiting as these continue to accrue even if you do not log in.

Upgrading Hero Skills
http://castle-clash.wikia.com/wiki/Skill

Heroes and Recommended Talents
• Druid: berserk
• Pumpkin Duke (PD): revitalize!!!
• Ninja: berserk, self destruct for arena
• Spirit Mage: revitalize, berserk
• Thunder God (raids): berserk for raids, war god second best
• Atlanticore (tank for arena and boss): revitalize
• Paladin (tank): revive, revitalize
• Succubus (for arena): sprint, berserk
• Champion (for arena): revitalize, berserk
• Snowzilla: revitalize, berserk
• Cupid
• Grizzly Reaper
• Immortep

Building Upgrades
• Town Hall: always have a builder leveling this – higher TH = more walls
• Towers: as much as possible.
• Gold and Mana Vaults: only once you can’t level TH or Towers because it costs more than you can hold
• Walls: level these up to use use excess gold while waiting for other buildings to finish leveling – they do not add might
• Hero Bases: check when upgrading to make sure the area heroes can reach does not go outside area Towers can reach (this will obviously depend on your tower levels/types/garrisons and your base layout)
• Relic Hall – At least level 6

Towers
• Generally arrow towers are the most recommended, as they defend well against most players (who use mostly griffins and centaurs) and also HBM
o Arrow towers have the highest DPS and HP of all towers with no garrisoned troops
• Towers start out like other buildings, which have to be leveled up. However, at level 10, they can also be upgraded (specialized as arrow/cannon/magic towers) – once upgraded, the towers can be further leveled up as well
o Leveling up takes gold, ties up a builder, and takes a set amount of time, like other buildings
o Upgrading just takes gold, but does not tie up a builder or time – e.g. you can change a level 3 cannon tower to a level 3 arrow tower by spending 260k gold, and it will happen immediately

34 Pounds of Coins

While searching for old pennies to use in my copper penny mordant solution (another one of my works-in-progress, post coming soon!), I discovered my SO's massive coin hoard. Every day for two years, SO emptied his change into plastic tupperwares, filling up progressively larger containers. Then, dismayed by the ridiculous amount of money being held up as petty change, he stopped using cash, stored the filled buckets in a closet, and forgot about them until I asked for pennies.

Of course, I sorted through all of them for my pre-1982 copper pennies. Then, the obvious next step was to redeem the rest of these coins into, you know, some usable form of currency. I don't use enough vending machines and coin laundry to use up even just the quarters, to say nothing of the dimes, nickels, and pennies.

Problem: none of our local (i.e. within a few blocks of our apartment) bank branches have a coin counting machine, and I didn't want to haul a backbreakingly heavy sack of coins around town. The nearby Chase offered free coin wrappers as an alternative. Pros: can organize and then redeem coins into bills or checking account deposit. Cons: someone needs to manually sort, count, and roll the coins. Additional con: someone is horrible at estimating how many coins she has, and needed to make 4 trips to the bank to get enough coin wrappers.

Solution: SO and I decided that if I was willing to spend the time sorting and counting the coins, I deserved half the take. Of course, with that motivation, I immediately got to work....

Here is my workspace near the beginning of the project, with only a few finished rolls on the side. I've sorted about half of the first bucket at this point.

And this is about halfway through the project, with all of the coins sorted (but still only about 10% counted out and rolled up).

The finished result is at the top of the post. Ta-da! Now for some fun numbers.

Stash stats*

Total value (U.S. currency only): $448.39
Total weight: 34 pounds
Hours to organize: 7.5 hrs
(Implied hourly wage: $59.79/hr total, or just under $30/hr for me since I'm only keeping half)

Number of coins: 4,405

• 35 Dollars
• 1 Half-Dollar
• 1,041 Quarters
• 1,046 Dimes
• 638 Nickels
• 1,614 Pennies
• 30 Foreign coins

Number of full coin rolls: 93

• 26 Quarter Rolls ($10 = 40 coins per roll)
• 20 Dime Rolls ($5 = 50 coins per roll)
• 15 Nickel Rolls ($2 = 40 coins per roll)
• 32 Penny Rolls ($0.50 = 50 coins per roll)

*All stats exclude the pre-1982 copper pennies that I previously took out for craftsy uses.

Tulip Sun Dye

I started a sun dye jar on July 1 with a container of pink tulip petals that I gathered earlier this summer (don't worry, I didn't go pick my neighbors' flowers, I collected petals that had already fallen on the ground from a park with thousands of flowers so that I could get enough). They were in my freezer for about two months while I worked on other things, but now they've been soaking for 1 1/2 weeks in a solution of 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol and 8 cups water. The jar is on my sunniest windowsill (inside, because from my apartment on the 20th floor there isn't a balcony or safe way to hang these on the outside of the window). This is what the jar looked like earlier this afternoon:

After the picture above, I strained out the remaining mushy petal scraps and added the yarn to the jar. I'm testing two yarns: 100% cotton (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton) and 100% wool (Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool).

Here is the jar after the yarn was added:

And here is the soggy petal mess that came out of the jar (lovely, right? smelled great too...):

I'm going to let the sun dye jar + yarn sit in the sunny window until the end of August. I'll update then with pictures of the results!

Ellen's Baby's Blanket - Knit Pattern

 
This square-shaped blanket is knitted diagonally using just knit stitches (K), yarn overs (YO), and knit 2 togethers (K2tog). Gauge is not that important, just keep measuring along the edge of the blanket as you knit until it reaches the length you want for one side, then start decreasing. For my blanket, I increased to a maximum of 161 stitches in the middle row.

Coloring can be all one color, or striped. The blanket shown has asymmetrical stripes of two colors - no real pattern, just freeform, though each stripe is worked over an odd number of rows so that consecutive color changes occur on different sides of the work.

Needle size: US 9 (5.5mm) - I used a circular needle to manage the large number of stitches in the middle rows.

Yarn: KnitPicks CotLin in Flamingo and Raindrop (2 50g skeins of each color)

Increasing side:
C/o 3 stitches.
Row 1: K1, YO, K2.
Row 2: K1, YO, K3.
On each row, continue in this pattern (K1, YO, knit until end of row) until the length of one edge is as long as you want one of the sides of the square blanket to be.

Decreasing side:
Row A: K1, K2tog, K to end of row.
Repeat row A until there are only three stitches left in the row.
Bind off.

New Knit Finished: Comic Artist Wristlet!

I finished my comic artist wristlet (finally!) this week, so I have something to wear to prevent my tablet from thinking my palm wants to make squiggly lines all over the bottom of my comics.

More project pics and yarn/needle details are listed on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/vixxyn/comic-artist-wristlet. Leave a note in the comments or send me a message on Ravelry if you want the simple pattern to make a wristlet or two of your own!