Fishing or Farming for Gold: Zafaria vs Halfang

When you need gold, what do you think of? The first thing that probably popped in your head was Halfang Bristlecrown. He drops an amulet that sells for over 8,000 gold! But what if there was another source that could bring you more gold? Zafaria fishing could be the answer.

 Pros of Farming Halfang

• There's usually a lot of people to team up with, so battles are quick
• He drops a lot of different stuff that can add up to 8,000 gold if you weren't lucky enough to get the Cow's Pearl Amulet
• For some, the amulet drops often
• Halfang drops Gold Miner Opal (+10% more gold)
• Unlimited battles

Cons of Farming Halfang

• Sometimes there's so many people that you can't get into the dungeon and you have to switch realms to one with less people 
• Or... you're online at a bad time and no one is around to speed up to process
• Some battles will only give you a reagent 
• Sometimes the amulet drops once or twice on a bad day

Pros of Fishing in Zafaria

• Most fish sell for a lot of gold
• It's pretty easy to catch a fish
• Using a death lure, try to catch chests which give you 2,000 gold plus a new Zafaria wand, Promo Wand, or Zafaria Furniture (in Elephant Graveyard)
• It's a good pastime when questing starts to infuriate you

Cons of Fishing in Zafaria

• Sentinels that aren't scared away can ruin your chances of catching a fish
• You aren't guaranteed a chest every time you use a death lure
• Once you're out of energy, you're done
• If you use crowns to buy an elixir, that defeats the purpose of trying to earn some gold
• Fishing can become just as frustrating as questing

So, which is easier and more efficient? This depends on your style and preference. Both ways are extremely rewarding and will definitely work. In my opinion, Halfang is still the best source of gold.

Nordic Champion's Strategy for a Day of Gold 

Start the day fishing in Zafaria. Fish in Elephant Graveyard on a less populated realm. Be sure to banish all sentinels and use the death lure (rank 2 or 3) to try and catch chests. Once you're out of energy, stop by the Bazaar and sell anything you can. Drop by Lucky Hookline to cash in your fish. After that, go to Vestrilund to battle Halfang until your backpack is full. Sell at the Bazaar and repeat until your energy is filled up again, then return to Zafaria and restart the strategy.

Which way of earning gold do you prefer more? Did you try my strategy? If you have any helpful tips to earning gold, share it in the comments below!

P.S. - Tomorrow Nordic Champion turns 1!

The Reborn Kingdom

Are you bored? Do you have nothing interesting to do in Wizard101? Is it raining outside? If you answered "yes!" to any of these questions, you need to check out The Reborn Kingdom!

About The Reborn Kingdom

The Reborn Kingdom is a series of three trials of different skills inspired by the story of The Reborn Kingdom, written by Jared Shadowbreaker. The three trials are: The Trial of Memory, The Trial of Intellect, and The Trial of Strength. There are so many great prizes to be won and fun to be had! For more information, please visit The Reborn Kingdom.

When

• All events are on Eastern Daylight Time
• Trial of Memory - Trivia: Friday, June 24th, 2016 at 1:30 pm sharp **Twitter Contest
• Trial of Intellect - Maze: Friday, June 24th, 2016 at 1:30 pm sharp
• Trial of Strength - Tournament: Monday, June 27th, 2016 at 1:30 pm sharp and Tuesday, June 28th, 2016 at 1:30 pm sharp

More The Reborn Kingdom

To read the story written by Jared Shadowbreaker, click here to download the PDF.

To watch the official trailer, click here.

Thanks to Jared Shadowbreaker and friends for asking me to sponsor the event! They've worked so very hard to build the storyline, decorate the houses, and gather prizes for this event. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to win cool prizes and have fun doing it! 

The Complete Guide to Stat-Boosting Mounts

This is the complete guide to all stat-boosting mounts in the game, to date.

Crystal Unicorn

• Dyeable
• How Obtained: Jewelcrafter's Bundle
• Stat Boost: +2% Universal Accuracy

Battle Narwhal

• Not Dyeable
• How Obtained: Polarian Explorer's Bundle
• Stat Boost: +2% Universal Damage

Waddling Witch Hut

• Not Dyeable
• How Obtained: Witch's Hoard Pack
• Stat Boost: +2% Power Pip Chance

Mammoth Mini

• Not Dyeable
• How Obtained: Crown Shop or as a drop from Warlord Minak in Polaris
• Stat Boost: +2% Outgoing Heals

Clockwork Courser                                                              

• Dyeable
• How Obtained: Cuckoo Clock Gauntlet Bundle
• Stat Boost: +2% Pierce 

Ghulture School Themed Mounts

• Not Dyeable (Colors correspond with its respective school)
• How Obtained: Ghulture's Hoard Pack
• Stat Boost: +3% Damage (Fire, Ice, Storm, Death, Life, or Myth, Respectively) or +2% Damage - Universal (Balance mount)

How Dark is Darkmoor Manor?

Darkmoor Manor is the newest house on the block in Wizard101. Its super spooky and really eerie. The bundle itself (The Witch Hunter's Bundle) is very interesting and worth taking a look at. Swordroll's Blog takes an in-depth look at the bundle.

The house itself is very creepy. There's many places for monsters to lurk, and plenty of shadows and bats. The house gives an overall cemetery atmosphere. As you take a look at the house, you may stumble upon something very, very dark, and borderline inappropriate for a family MMO. The Darkmoor Manor features one lone noose, eerily swinging in the wind.

Naturally, this caused major backlash through out the community, and for good reason. KingsIsle claims to be a family-oriented  MMO, yet they included a very disturbing method of death. This isn't very appropriate for a family-friendly game, and KingsIsle shouldn't have added it.

At the same token, Wizard101's rating is E-10+ and claims that it includes mild cartoon violence. A parent would be able to infer that something like this may be in the game. After all, parents that are worried about their kids would be the ones in the most disapproval of it, and assuming they made this inference, probably aren't letting their child play the game.

However, this edgy addition doesn't have any other items nearby that could make it worse. The noose's location is very subtle and high up, making for it to be hard to notice. There is no bucket or stand, no corpse, bag, criminal or witch in close proximity to suggest that you are at a hanging. Also, the house, by context, is for a witch hunter. This is reference to the Salem Witch Trials, which killed almost all of the accused by hanging.

Although it isn't appropriate for young children, it is not entirely bad. Many of you have probably played Hangman, learned about the Salem Witch Trials, lynch mobs, and other scenarios of the involvement of the noose.

In my opinion, the noose is very edgy. There could be far worse things added, and it's not really appropriate. I feel it's a questionable addition that would have been better off not added.

What is your opinion? Should KingsIsle have left it out?

Special thanks to Aaron Lionhunter for the post idea and Iridian Willowglen for getting me into the house!

Raise a Wand, Wizards

I am writing this post in response to Spiral Radio's post on Leala.

It is truly saddening to see so many important people leave KingsIsle due to lay-offs. We've had close relationships with many of them, so much so that their new absence will be felt immediately. They have done so much for us in the past few years that it's impossible to list.

Though I never had a close relationship with any particular KingsIsle employee, I miss them already. Leala was such an incredible community member. She always was there to answer our questions- both the easy and the tough. She was an excellent mediator between angered fans and frantic designers. I was always impressed by her calm approach to everything and her great sense of humor.

Among other employees, #JuliaFromKI will also be missed greatly. She was an energetic and sweet person to have on  KI Live, which will never be the same with out them.

All of the employees leaving should know that the whole community is behind you. You have touched the lives of millions of people, and even changed some. You given us new perspectives, knowledge, and inspired us to conquer our goals. We hope that this ending will bring you better beginnings!

If you haven't already, tweet #StayStrongKI along with any messages you want to say to the employees.

Thank You to all the employees leaving today. You have changed us all for the better.

Stay Strong, KI. 

How to Level Up Fast

Maybe you're a max wizard starting a new wizard, or you're trying to take advantage of the new Daily Assignment rewards. Regardless, you probably want your *new wizard to level up as fast as possible. Here are a few ways to level up with out a membership!

Quick Tips
First, if you are willing, grab a Major XP Boost Elixir. For 1 Hour, you get 10% more XP for 500 crowns. If you are going to add this to your strategy, try to use it when you know you will be getting quests with high xp. Though this will help quicken leveling, I wouldn't recommend spending the crowns.

Second, keep in mind how xp is rewarded by battle. Each pip spell cast or attempted equals xp. To find out how much xp is awarded by spell, simply multiply by three the pip count. For example, casting Fire Elf (2 pips) equals 6 xp. Zero pip spells equal 3 xp, and "x" pip spells can be calculated by how much pips it costed to cast the spell. For example, and 5 pip Judgement will give you 15 xp.

Side Quests
There are a lot of side quests to do in Wizard City that are in free zones. You should try to complete as many as possible, including book quests, crafting, and planting, as well as the PvP tutorials. This method is rather tedious and will take longer than other methods, but with the help of questing buddies it's much faster.

If you have some crowns, it wouldn't hurt to buy all or some of the premium zones. This gives you access to more side quests and a refreshing change of scenery. Plus, if you have a higher level wizard they can get unlimited access to Aquila.
**Don't forget to do as much main quests as possible. Just because there's other quests to do does not mean you should stop doing storyline quests.

Housing Instances
The great thing about housing instances is most of them are accessible through housing tours. A lot of the popular houses have Winterbane or Pagoda. Taking your wizard through these will not level them up in one run, but will substantially add xp to your bar. Keep in mind that the xp rewarded and the tier of difficulty is determined by the lowest level wizard that enters the dungeon. As a bonus, they usually drop useful items and come with a cool badge for completing them.

Don't be afraid to ask friends if they have crowns dungeons. Many would love to have someone do it with them, but not necessarily an extremely low level wizard. Don't be discouraged by this. Try to bring something unique to the table that is useful to a team.

Daily Assignments
The beginning quests of Daily Assignments are another source of xp. It is easy to do, and some quests stay in Wizard City. You can earn really nice rewards, including arena tickets, gold, and crowns.

Event Quests
Every now and then, Wizard101 releases an event or two to do in a short amount of time. Examples include The Lost Pages, The 5 B.O.X.E.S, and Hallowe'en. They are all very fun and rewarding, both in xp and and rewards.

Repeat Dungeons & Bosses
Though repeating a dungeon will lower the xp reward of completion each time, it's still a reliable way to earn xp. Bosses enable you to draw out the battle, adding more xp per spell attempted to cast. Longer battles with a lot of attempted spells reward high xp plus gold.


What do you do to earn xp fast? Let me know in the comments!

*This post was intended for Free to Play members starting a brand new wizard.

Pictures of the Spiral: Marleybone

The next installment will be Moo Shu!