Kitty! (battle sprites)

More info on the Sprites! Specifically, their abilities have been revealed, though with no specifics. The basic highlights are that:
•sprites' abilities are used on command.
•sprites' abilities are cooldown-based(versus resource[mana]-based).
•sprites do indeed "level," though whether mats are required is not given.
•sprites' abilities can be "augmented"(have talent points/perks applied to them, where the points are earned by levelling up).
•Drakon has a fireball, a shield and an AoE firestorm.
•Serpahynx has a damaging beam, an AoE heart-drop-rate-increasing enchantment, and a guardian-like shield.
•Maskeraith has a poison, a recon-like cloak("partial invisibility") and an AoE Curse of Doom ability.

Agu-San wrote:There is "Switch Editor Mode" if you want to revert to the BB Code. P:

I swear that wasn't there before. Thank God.

This kitty is sounding moar an moar appealing to me.

*Cries* It's just getting harder, and harder to pick. ;n;

lol

I've started to notice that a lot of your replies are just "lol". XD

make them:
"lolol." then?
it has more composition and has a whopping 6 characters vs. 4.

lolol

Dragon and dat flame shield.
Setting people on fire while hugging them is a dream come true! o:
I think parties will start banning me from taking me new found pet into any oiler infested area or compound 32 xD

The patch to end all patches is nigh! Summary:

• Battle sprites.
  
• Difficulty modes that, with any luck, will actually make arcade runs profitable without requiring arenas.
  
• NO MORE MIST. NO MORE ELEVATOR COSTS. (THIS CHANGE IS BOLD BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT.)
  
• Special items will replace the energy cost of crafting. They will drop in the clockworks.
  
• Special item called Spark of Life will be used to revive. NO MORE HEALTHSHARE REVIVING. Energy reviving will still exist but be far more expensive.
  
• Equipment restriction based on rank. This does not apply retroactively(which makes absolutely no sense at all).
  

CE prices are already spiking, and there are still a couple of days left until the update. I wonder how high it'll get?

Depending on the abundance of Sparks of Life and whether or not they're tradable, though, I'd think crowns might be useful once they start getting put up on the AH, and the CE price might go back down again. Guess we'll find out.

Perhaps a promo to go along with this to hopefully get some people buying CE packs

This is one pretty ballsy update, ready to turn nearly everything we once knew about Spiral Knights on its head. With mist energy gone, revamped resurrection system, and crafting and heating governed by alchemy orbs and fire crystals, who knows how long until the player-driven market will stabilize around these changes. We'll have to wait and see how this all turns out.

One thing I know for sure is that the Arcade is definitely going to see more activity, potentially on the level before the mission update. What I find interesting is that by doing away with mist energy, I think it actually promotes drop-in/drop-out co-op gameplay. The new reviving method seems to go against every reason to party, yet when you have unrestricted play time, there's nothing stopping you from simply leaving the party and going back down (except Shadow Lairs). You just died again and already used up the emergency revive? Go drop in on another party in progress!

Prepare your bodies, boys and girls. And make sure your F2 key is working; we all know things are gonna break.

Hoo boy, updating.

...
IT'S NAT A WEDNESDAY THEY CANNAE DO TAHT ITZ NAWT ALLOWS

By doing away with ME another immediate effect that i've observed is that slots, of course have spiked tremendously in price. Trinks have gone from 6k to 9k and weps from 13-15k to 25k.
--
Kitties are ze best.

I love my cute little Totodile! <3 (Drakon)

I like my Mushkins moar.
---
Another comment to be made is the new alchemy system. It makes for much easier crafting, as playing on Elite difficulty can drop high amounts of the Orbs if you play levels with large numbers of treasure boxes.

The heating system is more odd. It uses the same ol' system with a twist, now, after heating the gear in a level, we have to use fire crystals in the forge (Hotkey: U) to actually level the gear up. There are perks to this system though, such as gaining 2 lvls and stuff of that nature.

I've also noted the Sprites gain their 2nd move as well as evolve at lvl 15, and that an effect way to level them up from 1-15 is x1 5* mat (like a flame soul (cheap)) and x1 3* mat. After lvl 15, x2 5* mats and x1 4* will do the trick nicely; this method is the most appetite-efficient one i've found thus far.

Another thing i found is that crafted sprite food is NOT bound like the stuff OOO gave us, even though the minerals used to make them ARE bound. As such, friends or guildies can help each other out by crafting the food items for each other (and paying/trading for it (unless theyre doing it for free)).

Yet another side effect of no mist is that rage-crafting is basically null and void. So the question is: what's the future of our alts?

Two more tips i have are: save some of the sprites points before it evolves! that way you can upgrade the new move it learns; and be sure to use the perks you get from them! my kitty offers bonus dmg low versus the monster family i choose, +1 health, or low defensive bonuses (im not sure if the other sprites are the same). These perks can be changed at a gear station at the beginning of a depth (sprites can also have their harness changed or be fed here as well). The perks are also marked with a I. I suspect this means that at high lvls we may be able to unlock a stronger version of the perk, but that's just a speculation.
Hope this helps,
~Mush

A few notes:

Mushy's feeding advice is mostly spot on, although I've found you can drop a level on the low star food and still work. Food of any type gives the same amount of heat, so feeding off-type food (IE feeding a drakon yellow stuff) will net you the same amount of heat while conserving your on-type minerals for level-ups.

Perks and harnesses do have multiple levels; unlocking a higher level version replaces the lower one.

Kitty Pirogi just hit level 31, and it looks like the 30s is where you have to start deciding which resources you're more willing to part with. As far as I can tell, at this point 5* materials only provide the same heat bonus as the preferred mat. This means that you're either going to have to part with more 5* items and run the risk of not having enough to craft your Sprite's desired gourmet 5* caviar, or part with more of the crafting mineral and run the risk of not having enough of the right mineral for your Sprite's desired artisan 5* delight.

While there is some accounting for individual inventories and people may want to prioritize differently, my personal recommendation is to start crafting desired items at 3* and save your high-level mats for later. Most* other players will also eventually run short on their own crafting minerals, but if they use a different Battle Sprite, that will be a different mineral than the one you need. This means that if you're short on minerals, you can do a food trade with someone else, and you both benefit! While you can up-trade with lower-tier materials, it would likely be more of a hassle.

*I've been around for a while, and while I haven't done runs through the Clockworks that regularly, I do think I have a rather large hoard of minerals collected. And even then I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of Luminite.

EDIT: Actually, on that note, why don't we do something like that here? Set up a guild food trading board or something.

Kupoo wrote:

EDIT: Actually, on that note, why don't we do something like that here? Set up a guild food trading board or something.

This x1000. Also There could be some deadly combinations of sprites. (This isn't biased, but a good Seraphynx user with solid knowledge of its abilities can greatly improve teamwork and keeping others alive because of you know....the heart attacks and defense.) I'm sure the other two have their niche.

Really want to see a quad of Seraphynx owners use seraphic aura on a Shadow lair someday though.

Blazzerus wrote:

Kupoo wrote:

EDIT: Actually, on that note, why don't we do something like that here? Set up a guild food trading board or something.

This x1000. Also There could be some deadly combinations of sprites. (This isn't biased, but a good Seraphynx user with solid knowledge of its abilities can greatly improve teamwork and keeping others alive because of you know....the heart attacks and defense.) I'm sure the other two have their niche.

Really want to see a quad of Seraphynx owners use seraphic aura on a Shadow lair someday though.

If only the aura wasn't garbage... maybe the ultimate isn't a two-hit, six-second thing.

so it turns out after coming back from a week of camping lightning has struck my house! Now my comp (which Sk works on) doesnt have any internet on so i cant even see the changes xD hopefully my motherboard isnt fried D: (you gotta laugh at that)

D: Oh no!!!! I hope it gets fixed soon!