Dragon Cave - Valentines in the Cave

Well, first off, happy Valentine's Day to everyone (and to us Singles, like myself, Happy Singles Awareness Day!). As usual, when we talk Valentine's Day, it means a new Holiday Dragon is dropping in the cave. So, as I did, as always, I headed to the cave around 9:00 PM last night, so I could get ready for the madness to begin.

Beforehand, like always, I had to check up on my dragons.

First off is the Golden Wyvern gifted to me by my friend Saori_Nightstar, who had gifted me it earlier. It had matured into a male. I'd already decided, based on his lineage, that he deserved an Egyptian name... but what? Then I thought back to one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh cards, "Horus the Black Flame Dragon", and thought "That would be a great name, just change it a bit." Thus, this is how Horus the Golden Flame Dragon got his name.


Next, I started to hunt in the different Biomes in the cave, starting at the coast. At one point, there was just 18 people (myself included) waiting on eggs, but I would never in my faintest dreams think I would be catching a wishlist egg that day. Then again, with new eggs coming around the corner, not many people were grabbing.

Then, I saw it... A rare Paper Dragon egg. I thought I'd try for it but figured that someone else would get it, so I clicked it... There was a lot of lagging at that time, but I was HOPING I'd get it after the bad day I had at work... And before I knew it, I had the "Get Code"... and the egg on my scroll! I was so happy and ecstatic I got it... Maybe my "Lucky Vampire" WAS really lucky!


Now, I did get a couple more eggs after that, a Moonstone, Moonlight, Cinder (sent that one back later), and a Finned Dragon, but I told myself that until I grabbed my two Valentine's Eggs, I wouldn't be getting any more eggs for a bit.

11:00 PM CST (12:AM EST for you folks on the east coast) came, and the mayhem began. I decided that since I'd had my luck on the coast (after getting that Paper Dragon earlier), I'd stay there, so the first big drop of the beautiful eggs (though I wouldn't know until later, since the forums lagged a lot) came and went... Two more small ones I believed happened at the 5 and 10 mins after, but I didn't see them (New eggs always go fast when they release, especially if they're one-day only eggs).

   

Then, the 15 minute drop happened. Figuring I'd not get my eggs this time around, I was surprised when the amount of people waiting had dropped significantly. Most had gotten their two eggs in the first drops, you see, so I clicked on the eggs as fast as I could. I missed a few, but before I knew it, I had my pair of eggs as well. Now, everyone has their eyes on TJ's two eggs (since his always hatch first) to see what the new dragons will look like.

Another thing that started this year was giving of valentines (why they didn't start this earlier, I'll never know), so I sent one to Saori_Nightstar as a bit of a thank you. Later, I sent another valentine to the one who had gifted me my first Golden Wyvern and one also to MysticTiger, who'd glomp gifted me my first set of Tinsels. Then, before I knew it, I had to head to bed for I could get up for work the next day for some fun as well (since we got our Valentine's Day things we'd ordered that day).

Well, come today, I got an alert on my cell phone that Saori_Nightstar had sent me a personal message, but I couldn't see what it was, so I had to wait until I got home to see it... I'd be pleasantly surprised when I'd get home.

There, waiting for me to teleport to my scroll, was a Valentine's gift of another Paper Dragon egg! Unlike my first one, this one had already started to hatch, so I'd get to see the new one before my other one hatched. This one would be frozen, as my first-caught one would be allowed to grow up. I've already decided on names for the little ones as well.

So, it's been a great day for me so far in Dragon Cave, and I hope that everyone else is having a great Valentine's Day as well! Take care, everyone!

Dragons of Berk Diary: How to Train a Lucky Vampire

I'm re-blogging this from my Dragon Cave post:

 

How to Train A Lucky Vampire

It was that time of the year again... Time for when the local Vampire Dragon clan, the del Noirs (who have helped to keep my clan safe from invaders by keeping watch at night when some of our Night Furies can't be flying, such as on eclipses) to "breed", which, as we all know, means biting the living eggs of other Dragons. We decided... Or rather, I decided, since I am the resident breeder of the Nidahooligans, that only cave-born Eliminator eggs (Those being the pale eggs) would be the only eggs that the del Noirs could bite, after an incident with one of our Dervishes, Devilish Goddess of Fate, had brought a Desert Nadder egg to Alucard, the "patriarch" of the group, so to speak, and let him bite it killing the baby, even though he didn't mean to. What I didn't know is that this day would mean that we'd finally see an egg of a Dragon that some say was a illusion... the fabled "Golden Wyvern" egg, and in a most unexpected way, which would also lead us to getting the clan's first cave-born "Red Death" as well.

So, myself, Nina Apollonia the Kind-Hearted, as well as my fiancee, Dragan the Brave-Heart, who became the chiefton last year after my father, Aizon BlackChaos the Wise, was injured in a battle, headed to Wild Dragons Peak on our Dragons, Thor's Star-Struck Fury, who was my chosen Dragon after so much training, and Monsterous Nidohogger, who was Dragan's and had become quite the reliable mount nowadays. But before I go on, I want to say how Dragan became the leader of the Nidahooligans, since it's been a while since either he and I had been seen last.

My father had been injured back in a great battle with a rival clan (the same one that devastated the Harry Hooligans a while back, but that's another tale later on), so Dragan, with help from his friends, Harald the Strong-Willed and Brave the Trickster - Incarnate, helped to lead the counterattack that sent the rival clan well far away knowing that if they came back that they'd have to deal with Dragan and his allies again. My father saw how well Dragan had led the village during his injuries and decided that he would be his successor, which also meant that Dragan could choose who he wanted as a wife, though pretty much everyone knew at that time who he wanted... The rest, well, you know now.

Anyhow, as I mentioned before, myself and Dragan headed to Wild Dragons Peak to get some Eliminator eggs (Cave-Born, as I mentioned earlier) for Alucard's clan. We brought along two Nanos to help aid us, as the Terrors needed time to rest. This time around, Pyrus Nano, a gift from the Dragon Whipser, and Spitfire Nano, another of the Spit Fire Nanos clan, came along to help us scout for the eggs.

We saw many eggs, including some we hadn't seen before, these being what we now call "Moonlight Dragons" because of their beautiful silver moon-like markings. However, we'd heard from others about another egg that had been seen at the same time, though most thought it was an illusion... the Golden Wyvern eggs. Now, during the time we were catching those Eliminator eggs, I saw a few of them, but I wasn't able to catch 'em. I did catch a few Moonlights as well as some of the other Berk breeds, but that shimmering egg would continue to elude me... but not for long...

Soon, we had headed back, and I presented the first of the two Eliminator eggs to Alucard, who sunk his fangs into the egg and transformed it into a Vampire egg. However, my clan's Dragons were repulsed by the egg, though they'd seen the transformation a few times before, and one of them took the egg to the Wild Dragons Peak leaving it there. The second of the two eggs was bitten by Alucard's mate, Camilla del Noir, which we were able to keep. However, I had to wonder about the egg that Alucard had bitten and successfully transformed, since most of the time, the eggs normally got killed, and I at least wanted him to see the baby, as technically, it was his "first born". However, that little egg would return to him, along with the legendary, to some extent, Golden Wyvern egg.

Sometime later, I was contacted by another trainer, who'd picked up Alucard's bitten egg and wanted to know if I wanted it back. Delighted, I told them that we did need it back, so it was teleported back to us by one of the trainer's Magi Dragons. The trainer also asked if I could do a favor for him as well, and I wondered what it could be. He told me he needed a special breeding of my rare Sweetling (an alt, you see) and a cave born Red Death (which I didn't have, but more on that in a moment) for a lineage that he had going, and I told him I would... if he could get me a Golden Wyvern, that is...

Now, you might be thinking that this was strange and all, but I was willing to do anything for a Golden Wyvern egg at that time, even breeding. The trainer was willing to help out in this respect and teleported over the Golden Wyvern Egg that he had, since I was willing to help out. However, that wasn't the only thing that I'd be getting...

For you see, I didn't have a cave born Red Death, so the trainer was willing to catch one for me as well, which he later teleported over. I influenced the egg to be a female, and a few days later, a baby Red Death was hatched. She eventually grew her wings and was named "Ruby Red Death".

So, as you can see here, my journey had one very amazing tale to tell... and it all started with our local vampire clan wanting to "breed"... Pretty amazing story for this Viking, don'tcha think?

It was quite exciting, as you might have guessed for me. By the way, the vampire hatchling's name is appropriately named "Lucky Vampire" after this story, because really, she WAS a Lucky Vampire!

Chrome Games I've Played - Biogems

It might not be Final Fantasy, but there are a few games that I've been playing as of lately on Google Chrome, which I've gotten from the Chrome Store, so I'll also be doing a few reviews of them here as well.

The first game I'm going to be discussing is "Biogems", a cross between a regular puzzle game and a fighting game (those who've played the Street Fighter/Darkstalkers crossover puzzle game/fighter will know what I mean here) with a bit of leveling up for your characters.

Biogems is created by MochiGames and puts you in control of one of two heroes (three actually, but I'll explain that later), Ryu the Dog and Pixal the Cat. The story is simple. Your space colony is being attacked by invaders, and you need to go stop them. This of course means battling them, and the way you battle depends on what you match up during your turn.

Here's a quick explanation of what does what in the game:
Fist Icon: Your Basic Attack. It's grey and is powered up by leveling up the Power Glove.
Star Icon: This lets you do an Energy Attack. It's stronger than your Basic Attack. It is purple and is powered up by leveling up the Power Collar.
Reverse Arrow Icon: This lets you counter an enemy attack with one of your own (the basic attack, actually). It's pink and is powered up by leveling up the Reflex Boots.
Fire Icon: This fills up your Rage Bar. When it's completely filled, you can do a Rage Attack. Think of it as the Hyper Attacks from the Capcom Vs series. They are red, and the Rage Attack is powered up by leveling up the Rage Snacks.
Shield Icon: This is your defense icon, which allows you to take off a certain amount of damage from enemy attacks. I find it more useful than Counter during later battles, especially when it's been powered up. It's blue and is powered up by leveling up the Force Field.
Heart Icon: This heals you up by filling up damage to your life bar. It is green You can gain more life by leveling up the Space Armor.
Lightning Bolt: This gives you back energy, which is important because you need energy to do both the Normal and Energy Attacks (you can do Rage Attacks even if you have low/no energy), indicated by the yellow bar under your life bar. It is yellow, and you can get more energy by leveling up the Battery Pack.

Chains are also important as well, and higher chains let you do more, especially if you get more than three icons in your first move. Here are what they do.
Four Icons: You get an extra turn. I suggest doing this as much as you can, since the more turns you get, the less the opponent gets to do.
Five Icons: Bomb. This explodes taking out up to six icons. It can also help you combo easily.
Six Icons: Rainbow Warp. This takes out all of one icon and powers it up to the max. Use this especially on either the Rage or the Special, or if you need healing, since it's awesome. I've taking out bosses using this before.

The characters themselves each have their own strengths and weaknesses. You start off with Pixal and Ryu, but once you get through the game once, you get access to Bit the Bunny, who can be pretty fast.

The Bad Guys are pretty well done as well, but for the later ones (especially once you get to the Shark and beyond), it's important to level up. This is done easily by collecting the rubies, which can be found by breaking certain tiles and by beating the bad guys. The upgrades get considerably more expensive as they're leveled up, so keep this in mind as well. I typically start gathering rubies from the snake and bat to get the second upgrades and then move on to the bear and spider for the third levels and then the shark and moose for the final levels. I would not go to the Rhino until you at least have your defense and counter at the max. Trust me on this.

The last two bad guys, the slime boss and the Squid, who's the leader of them all, are some of the toughest of them all, so going in with anything less than max is just asking for trouble, especially once you get to the Squid. Also, speaking of the Squid, he does start off easy, but once he goes into his second mode (which is more enraged), the attacks REALLY start to hurt. Expect to be defending a lot against him, and make sure to combo as much as you can, especially keeping him from getting his turns.

All in all, Biogems is pretty fun, especially to waste some time on, but after you beat the game with all three characters, there's not much else to keep you there, unless you like beating up on the enemies some more that is. I find it good to blow some steam on, especially if I'm stuck on Angry Birds or not wanting to play one of my console games. If you've got Google Chrome, I'd suggest adding it on and trying it out.

Waiting on Final Fantasy XIII-2

Yes, it's hard to wait for a game, especially if it's been anticipated since completing its prequel. Take for instance Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game I wouldn't have played if I hadn't seen a few clips on YT of one of my now-favorite characters there, Snow Villiers, saving another character, Hope, from a fall off a building.

Of course, the great fun now is actually waiting up on its sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2, which I've got almost completely paid down, but I didn't go for the normal edition... Oh, no. I went for the collector's edition. Here is what you get it with it (credit for pic goes to the Final Fantasy Wiki):

Pretty sweet, hm? Well, that's just the game itself. There's also a collector's edition (I didn't find that out until I went to my local Gamestop to put down some more money on the game... Kinda wished I'd went to Best Buy to get it to get the book that told what happened between FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but that's another day, another blog.) of the strategy guide as well. Pic is from Gamestop.com.

Still, even though Serah gets a new outfit (which I actually like, since it's sorta Chinese-looking, which I like) and the Genji Bow if you're a power-up member, depending on where you pre-order the game, you get something different. I mentioned the prequel book from Best Buy, but Amazon lets you get Omega on your team... Makes me wonder if there'll be a way to acquire him later on as well... But, you never know.

So, my thoughts on how my first impression of the game will be? Well, the action's going to be fast and furious, like I like, and the monsters helping out is going to be quite a twist in the game play, but I kinda wish I could at least keep Snow and Hope on the team. At least we'll get to see him again in the game once again.

Anyhow, that's enough for this rambling right now. Check back again to see what'll go on next, okay? Laterz!