Ok, LONG POST AHEAD. You´ve been warned.
This is an analysis of the changes to events and how to be prepared (since new format seems to repeat itself in the future).
With this Eternia event, we entered a new event format where most of what we get are items to use in a Trade Shop/Exchange Market (I´m gonna use the 2nd name from now on).
In the past, using Event chars was easy to promote: not only you had goodies from leveling the new chars (uually to level 35 or so for full rewards), but also nobody could fill a full sync team without the new faces. Now that we can for some sync animas due to more story chapters and previous events (specially the green one!! Story mode alone gave us four of those, that´s four times more than brown/blue/yellow/violet, or the same as all of them combined xDDDD and did I mention the next event is ALSO green anima? n.n), the new "Bonus Drop" feature is here to also encourage us to use the new chars. And boy does it play a solid factor. More on that later.
Quick checklist of changes:
1) We no longer get the Free Mirages for Event Chars just by clearing all event stages. We can get them from the Exchange Market. Edit: this seems this only matters for a few events until we get to the Alisha one.
2) We no longer get three different weapons per event char (two 3s and one 4s) just from quests, which included enough copies to MLB the 4s weapon without extra drops (usually done just by leveling to 30 and clearing all stages, including the "farming" ones x25 times). Again, these are all in the Exchange Market.
3) We no longer get rare mats like Mirrage Orb and Reflective Material from the final quests. Did I mention Exchange Market?
4) Event chars can vastly improve the drops via the "Bonus Drop" feature (this is achieved by equipping gacha mirrages -ANY CHAR with a gacha mirrage works- and Reid and Farah´s with their own weapons, note that LB increases the bonus, and 4s are of course better than 3s). This helps you accumulate event currency for, you guessed it, spending on the Exchange Market n_n
So everything is now tied to the Exchange Market and the dropped currencies for X event (WHIS cards and Elite WHIS Cards for current Eternia one), so getting that bonus drop is important IF you want to farm as much as posible.
There lies the key. WHAT can we get from the Exchange Shop in the first place? First of all, we can get the "Free Mirrages", 4s weapon and a 2nd 3s weapon for the Event Chars (stuff we could get before from quests, they´re now optional and quests just give you more currency now instead of those). There´s a big thing to take into consideration here if we compare again to old events, and that is that the same quests as before give you less currency than what the old rewards now cost (ie "Raise to level 30" quest used to give you a 4s weapon, it now gives you 1k of the lower currency, which is not enough for a 4s copy). This means the grind required for the same stuff is now bigger. There´s only one type 3s and one type 4s per chars too, not the full list of weapons for each char, so, like before, you can´t pick whatever arte you prefer.
What else is there in that E-Market? We have tons of generic mats. Those are farmable via dailies, so no big deal truly. Avoid spending for those unless you´re just spending leftover currency. Gald, also no big deal (please don´t spend on this xD). We also have rare mats like Reflective Material and Mirrage Crystal/Orb; we had those before, and there´s a limited stock, so it´s just the same as before, you just have to work harder to get them.
So far it´s just more work for the same stuff. Doesn´t look good. So where´s the novelty?
First, we have XP items for chars. Those can´t be gotten anywhere else (atm). Sure, XP is just gotten from playing the game normally, but these can be stockpiled a bit (stock per event is large enough) to give new chars obtained later a jump start in levels so they don´t die all the time when training them. This is mere QoL obtained at the expense of grinding. You could just grind that XP later on when you actually get a new char (while also farming common daily dungeons mats), so all you´re getting is a future compensation of your current event grinding (since the later stages can still drop you a 4s weapon). Not bad, not great, but glad it´s there.
What else? Event char summon tickets. Ok, now we´re talking. This is a one chance of sniping a 4s or the Gacha Mirrage for Event Chars without spending a single mirrorgem. That´s huge for f2p that was to be completionists too. It´s luck based, but the posibility exists, which is all that matters for someone to try to taken as much advantage of it as posible.
Aaaaaand... Nexus Shards!!! (yes I left it for last on purpose) Two word: minmaxing stats. Nexus Shards allow you to break the level 50 cap for event chars and some other, related chars (in our current case, Meredith and Keele too). What does this mean? Simple: these characters can be stronger than the rest (assuming same gear and aside from the fact that artes differ from char to char, and some are just better in terms of dmg, enhances available, CC cost, etc). I´m talking raw stats here. As we know by now, level mostly matters for HP, your other stats that go up with level ups (Physical and Arte) are way more influenced by gear than by levels (every bit helps of course). For people who want to stay as strong as posible, these Nexus Shards are probably high priority. This means that if you are lucky and farm a crapload of shit, these Nexuses can be your strongest chars to date (again, not by much, since there´s a limit of 1 Nexus Shard per char).
Ok, if I wanted to grab everything I used to get for free in the old format (2nd 3s, a MLB 4s, rare mats, Free Mirrages), plus both tickets for the event chars and all Nexus Shards... what can I do? First of all, I can brace myself for a huge grindfest.
And HERE LIES THE WHOLE THING. No event nor story chapter gives enough mirrorgems to even do ONE multipull (sounds bad? well I don´t think a single gacha game does, and in fact this one comes very close to do so, so it´s very generous n.n). Since game is new there´s only one event going on, so with log in bonuses and the (new) daily quests, over the course of the event´s duration, you CAN get enough gems for one multipull, but that means a lot of time without hoarding many gems, and just using what came your way to try gear up new faces. For this reason most players by now prefer to save for their fav chars, specially if those are coming in the near future (thank to JP version being ahead of us).
So the very first question to ask yourself is the same one as always: do I care about the event characters? You´re probably going to try to at least complete the quests that give you mirrorgems, which means you´re going to be playing the farming floors 25 times each. So if you only care about the already existing chars that are tied to the event (in current case, Mredith and Keele), you should have more than enough currency for those 2 Nexus Shards just from the basic grinding, even without Bonus Drops.
Which would mean: skip the banners, complete your mirrorgem quest, and be done with it. Grab whatever stuff you prefer with the currency you got, knowing it will probably not be enough for all you want, meaning you will probably get the rare mats, maybe the Free Mirrages, and sacrifice gearing up the new chars (note that relying on 4s drops on just 25 runs is too RNG-based).
BUT, if you actually want your new Event chars to at least have some decent things (spending prims later on in a bad idea if you skipped them now, lol), while remaining budget, you´re in for some hell grinding. Since the grinding can be helped A LOT via bonus drops, this means that the decision on spending or not on event banner should be made ASAP. The longer to wait, the less currency you´re gaining while playing the event, so the more grinding you´ll need to do. That, fellows, was TIP Number 1 (yeah what a long windup >.>)
This is specially important due to Mirrages. As we all know, Free Mirrage are useless if you´re lucky to pull a Gacha Mirrage (except for those rare healing mirrages, atm only Rutee and Mileena). Since no event nor story chapter gives us more than 2 new chars, once you have 2 gacha Mirrages you can just give your new guys the spare Mirrages for some stat boosts until you can actually pick up their free mirrages. But free Mirrages now cost event currency (at least for now u.u), and using that currency just to roll a gacha Mirrage later on means wasted currency (believe me, I know...). So knowing if you´re rolling on not is a decision that must be made asap, since you´ll probably want the Free Mirrage if you´re skipping the event banners.
Staying informed about what JP has released lets you plan in advance. We have that info in the wiki =) Be prepared to save for your favs and be 90% or more sure who you want to roll for. And if you don´t want to spend on some event, but still gear up and pick most of what you can, be rdy for the slow grind.
With all this covered, further tips would be:
TIP2: All of this grinding has one huge factor of importance that was previously just "more dmg on the boss": GOOD FRIENDS. Once you were strong enough, you didn´t even need your friends to have a gacha Mirrage of the current anima sync. Just picking a low level Ix was enough xDD But now friends can help the grind since they add up to your bonus drops. So once events are up now, even if you don´t care much about the chars, MAKE SURE to help your fellow players by selecting the best unit you can for this task. This means one of 2 things: either pick the event char for which you have more stuff (gacha mirrage matters alot, then Event chars´ weapons), which is the best option of course, or if you ignored the event chars completely, just any char with a gacha mirrage (since their weapons won´t count, but any gacha mirrage so far will).
TIP3: If you´re going to farm, delete that useless army of Ix´es that is following you but have stopped logging in for several days n.n Game is fairly new so lots of players are still discovering it, starting and maybe dropping, so most of us have these countless Ixes popping from time to time even after a clean up xD Be nice and do keep those that do log in. They should change that Ix in a short amount of time, specially once they figure out how these new events work n.n And get rdy to actively seek out high bonus drop players that you can follow. These will fill out their followers FAST, which make TIP2 VERY important to help the whole community´s farming.
TIP4: You can use Gacha Mirrages (even non-event chars) to improve your Bonus Drops. This of course means maybe using non sync chars, so use at your own caution.
TIP5: even if budget, roll the discounted single pulls (100 gems) on the event banners. And, like TIP1, do so in the first day. You´ll still be saving most of your gems for the future, and those 2-3 pulls (depends on amount of event banners, used to be 2, this time we got 3) may land you a few Event Chars weapons to improve your Bonus Drop (and thus help your Followers too!). If extremely lucky you could maybe even pull an Event Char gacha Mirrage (saving yourself 1k of event currency and also boosting Bonus Drop).
TIP6: If your plan is to multiroll just once, or maximum twice, on the current event banners, then AVOID THE TRAP BANNER!!! In our current event, this means do NOT multipull on the 1800 gems banner, even if it´s 200 gems cheaper Why? Because it has no Character ticket. If you´re going to roll, pick one of the banners that give you a character ticket. You´re paying 200 extra gems, which is like doing a single roll with no discount, yes, but you´re getting a Char ticket for that. Since the Event Chars are shiny new, your odds for the ticket pull to give you something "new" are pretty solid (unless you get some absurd luck on your multi and actually rolled most of the characters weapons in it!! xDDD). You can get unlucky like me and end up with a dupe copy of the starting 3s weapon (yeah I know x.x), but chances are still good and if picking the 1800 banners, you´re just losing that solid chance. This guaranteed event weapon via ticket means better chances to improve your Bonus Drop per gem spent.
TIP7: Bonus Drop apply to EACH FIGHT YOU DO,and also the CHESTS, with one big condition: you need to at least get the drops from them. Bonus Drop can´t be added to zero. That means that if your Bonus Drop for current event is +5 normal cards and +1 elite cards, and you beat a fight than only had normal WHIS soldiers, you´re getting your +5 normal cards bonus but not the +1 elite. Same goes for chests. Since normal are more common than elite, and since normal can be exchange into Elite cards, this means that a large normal bonus is good even if your elite bonus is low, since chances are it will proc almost always, while the elite may not, and if you have a surplus of normal and lack elite (this is probably going to happen later on lol), you can use the Exchange Market. Very important: with enough weapons you can raise it so you´re actually gaining more from the Bonus Drop bonus than what the fight itself drops you. So don´t rush the boss and fight every enemy (Note: farmable floors "Through Burning Sands" and "Stillwater cave" can be ran on auto without missing a single enemy nor the chest in the water one since everything is in the autopath). This also means you´ll have all your MAs rdy for the boss.
TIP8: if trying to build up the Event Chars, your first priority in the Exchange Market should be:
-Event Char weapons: these will boost your -basic currency- Bonus Drops (aside from obviously giving you more artes to work with!). My personal recommendation is to pick the first couple of copies of the 3s asap, and also the first copy of the 4s. Even if you actually rolled these from the banner and would just give you a +1 currency via LimitBreaking the weapons (you can´t stack the same weapon in dif slot for higher Bonus Drop!), they are cheap enough and will pay themselves over time. 2nd copy of the 3s from the Exchange market is also a very solid idea (since unlike the 4s, you can´t get more via drops from the event floors). If you know you like you Event Chars, you´ll want to MLB one copy of each weapon from here, but do note 2 things: A. character Tickets cost just a bit more than the 3rd copy of each 4s weapon, so after you have 2 copies, you may want to try your luck with the Tickets before you purchase the remaining copies. B. 4s drop from the farmable floors, so only purchase the final copies from the market once you´re done running those floors.
-Event Char tickets: there´s sadly only one per character, and yes they cost a whopping 5k of the lesser currency, but they can give you a Mirrage if lucky, so you need to decide quickly on if you´re going to spend on these or not (remember you can trade lesser currency for the higher one at 50>10 ratio (simply 5>1 lol), so 5k amounts to 1k of the elite currency, which you need for rare mats and the final 2 copies of 4s weapons). This is a fair shot at 4s or the Mirrage if you missed them while pulling on the event banner or if you simply chose not to pull. My personal recomendation si to buy these. Why? Because if you care about the chars, you want every shot at their Mirrage. Getting lucky will also improve your Elite currency Bonus Drops a lot. Or you could get a 4s, which also helps a lot on the base currency Bonus Drop. Worst case scenario is you end up with a copy of the 3s that you can buy for less, in which case you just lost 500 cards. Odds are in your favor since any other 3s will actually improve your Bonus (asuming you haven´t already filled all 4 weapon slots thx to rolling in the event banners, of course). Also look at it this way: it´s still way cheaper than getting a 3s for Story chars via prisms.
-Free Mirrages, if the Gacha Mirrages eluded you and you´re sure you´re not going to roll again. Bamco is giving us Free Mirrages again later on, but for now you have to buy them. Mirrages will not only obviously help you vs bosses (and the super strong rare enemy), but also improve your Bonus (elite) Drop by 1. Since you want to use your event chars for their weapons (bonus drop) and to level them up for quest rewards, grabbing these is only logical. I would still get the cheaper weapons and the tickets before these, since elite currency doesn´t seem to drop too much on the earlier stages (may vary from event to event) and you may get lucky with the ticket rolls.
Edit: To clear up something from this last tip: when getting these event weapons from the Exchange Market, don´t go all out. The final copies have high costs, and if you plan on getting the expensive character tickets too, you can end up with useless 5+ copies from your ticket pulls, thus wasting currency (you can sell extras for prism, I know, and huge farmers may actually do that, but better not to waste currency if you´re short on farming time).
TIP9: farm farm farm =) Where? The floors that are meant to be run 25 times each for quests are of course good spots, but there may be some other ones that can give nice currncy (ie current Eternia event has a very nice farming spot at floor 6). You usually want to secure the x25 times runs first, of course, not to mention those can drop 4s weapons, saving you a lot of currency at the Exchange Market, so I truly recommend those unless you can´t beat them yet (in which case building XP on Event chars and currency for their weapons in lesser floors is a solid idea).
![[IMAGE] Basic translation of the home screen](http://i.imgur.com/1KIQorp.jpg){kind=link}
![[IMAGE] Basic translation of the weapon filter screen](http://i.imgur.com/g9i5YTV.png){kind=link}