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Sunday, August 3, 2014

The Derby Geek's Illustrated Guide (Wizard101)


INTRODUCTION

Hey there, welcome to my blog!
This guide will attempt to cover everything from beginners to advanced pet racing, and many other derby related topics.

There are a number of pet derby guides out there, created by some of the best racers in the game. I thought it wouldn't hurt to shed some light on my perspective of this topic. The more resources made available for the Wizard101 community, the more likely we are to attract new derby enthusiasts.

To thoroughly cover all topics, I created this guide with the assumption that the reader has little to no knowledge about pet racing. This is not to say that more advanced players won't be able to find helpful information within.


  the pet pavilion


Once your wizard has reached level seven, you're granted access to the Pet Pavilion. You'll be prompted to speak to Merle Ambrose, who will then direct you to NPC: Milo Barker.  Milo Barker will provide you with the quest Wizzy500.

Location: Connects to the Commons
Non-Member Pricing: Free







WIZZY 500 DIALOGUE


 What does this mean? I can barely see the track behind this jumble of text. Let's break it down section by section.


pet derby oblective
The objective is to complete two laps around a given derby track while finishing in first place.




COST TO CHEER

The cost to cheer can be as little as one, and  can range as high as ten, depending on which surface your pet is currently on. 
In the past, many had speculated that it was impossible for a pet to have a cheer cost of one. For verification purposes here's the link that provides evidence that it can be achieved; (Click here)- Cost of cheer- one


The cost of Cheer is the amount of morale used or that can be used on all surfaces.

MORALE 

The amount of  moral you have is based on your pet's statistics. Depending on the surface you're pet is on, the number displayed will vary, as it is not a fixed amount. Your morale reflects your pet's statistics;
Strength, Intellect, Agility, Will, and Power.


As you use your morale, the green in your Morale Gauge will gradually decrease, however you can gain moral by jumping over hurdles. Inversely, your moral can be stolen by other racers if their pet has a leech talent.
 Cheer

It costs moral to cheer, but for each cheer, your pet will gain a speed boost. To cheer, use your up arrow key.  The duration of each speed boost is a maximum fifteen seconds. The timer resets back to that number each time you activate a speed boost. You can see an example on the image below. The Red Ghost pictured has stacked three speed boosts with the timer having reset to the allotted fifteen seconds



 HURDLES
The obstacles in a given track are known as hurdles.  If a hurdle is cleared, your pet will gain morale. If you hit a hurdle, it will slow your pet.

KI has provided Jump Pads (which are  the red circles with the yellow exclamation marks). These help you know when to press the space bar key.

 


Pet POWER statistic
Your pet's power directly affects the total amount of morale you have. 



Power    = amount of Morale
0         =             40
6         =             41
12       =             42
18       =             43
24       =             44
32       =             45
36       =             46
42       =             47
48       =             48
54       =             49
60       =             50
66       =             51
 72      =             52 
                                                                      78       =             53
                                                                      84       =             54
                                                                      90       =             55
                                                                      96       =             56
                                                                      102     =             57
                                                                      108     =             58
114     =             59
120     =             60
126     =             61
132     =             62
138     =             63
144     =             64
150     =             65
156     =             66
162     =             67
168     =             68
174     =             69
180     =             70
186     =             71
192     =             72
198     =             73
204     =             74
210     =             75
216     =             76
222     =             77
228     =             78
234     =             79
240     =             80
246     =             81
252     =             82
258     =             83
264     =             84
270     =             85
276     =             86
282     =             87
288     =             88
294     =             89
300     =             90
A special thanks to casp for doing the brunt of the work here for the figures!

PET STATISTICS  
Strength; affects how much energy you use to cheer on Water
Intellect; affects how much energy you use to cheer on Clay
Agility; affects how much energy you use to cheer on Grass
Will; affects how much energy you use each to cheer on Dirt

“trained” stat= amount of Morale used to cheer

 1 - 14            =              10
15 – 59          =               9
60 – 104        =               8
105 – 149      =               7
150 – 194      =               6
195 – 239      =               5
240 – 284      =               4
285 - 329      =               3
330 – 374      =               2
375 +             =              
1

A special thanks to casp and cresciinvalcava for making this information available! 



in the photo above, you can determine that my trained stat; Agility is 240, which equals 4 as my cost of cheer whenever I am on the grass surface during a race.


TRACK LANES

There are four lanes during a race. The surfaces on the lanes are constantly ranging from; cobblestone, water, clay, grass, dirt, or  mud (the dark blood-red surface).

                            Avoid the mud. It will slow you down, and you will be unable to cheer.


The cobblestone is a universal lane that provides all pets with the opportunity to cheer for the cost of only two Morale. 

Depending on which stat(s) you've trained, you should reserve your cheer for that/those specific lane/s.




Advanced Racing Strategy
When you begin your race, press your up arrow key as many times as possible, until you've cleared the cobblestone surface. When you see your first hurdle, use the jump pad as your indicator to press your space bar key. This will allow your pet to clear the hurdle. If you have a hurry talent, remember to use it as soon as the race begins. You should never cheer on any surface that has a morale cost of 10, or even 9. Reserve your cheering for the surface that has the lowest cost of cheer for YOUR pet. Each pet will have different stats. Try to stay on the inner lanes during a race. Jump over as many hurdles as possible until your morale gauge is full. Avoid switching lanes frequently, as switching lanes will also slow you down.


keyboard finger placements
)
          Left Hand;                                                                                        Right Hand;
Pinky- Place it on the number 1                                Middle finger- Place it on the up arrow key
Ring finger- place it on the number 2                       Index finger- Place it on the left arrow key
Middle finger- Place it on the number 3                  Right Ring Finger- Pace it on the right arrow
Index finger- Place it on the number 4
Thumb- Place it on the space bar

SELFISH PET TALENTS

Many wizards dread the thought of their pet manifesting a "selfish talent". This may be true if you are trying to create an epic PvP or questing pet, however, when you're creating a derby pet, selfish abilities are exactly what you want. 

Selfish talents raise the pet stats. One example would be Durable. Having this ability will raise Agility by 50. If a pet has an initial agility of 240, it would then become 290. Although, in this example, the pet's agility would max out at 290, this is not a stat you would want to completely fill. If you look at the Pet Statistics chart located five photos above, you only need 285 to reach a cost of 3 to cheer. The other five would be considered waste if you threw it into the stat. You would be better off adding it to power as a teen, or into another stat if your pet is an adult or above. Your cost of cheer would now lower to 3, rather than the natural 4, if you trained into the stat.
 

Pet Ability: Crafty; Effect: +50 Max Will ( cheer on dirt) 

Pet Ability: Durable; Effect: +50 Max Agility (cheer on grass)

Pet Ability: Astute; Effect: +50 Max Intellect (cheer on clay)
Pet Ability: Relentless; Effect: +65 Max Agility                    


Pet Ability: Tenacious; Effect: +50 Max Strength (cheer on water)
Note: I wouldn't recommend training your stat on Strength or seeking the tenacious pet ability. The water surfaces on the maps available are few and far between. 

STARS (POWER UPS


Blue stars        

speed boost;  8 seconds       

immunity;  6 seconds


Red stars           

speed boost; 6 seconds      

immunity ; 6 seconds


Yellow stars

speed boost; 4 seconds       

immunity ; 6 seconds

 SELECTING YOUR DERBY PET

One of the first derby pets I had was the Sea Dragon. After several races, I realized I didn't like the way it maneuvered while racing. It bobbed in a sickening, distracting motion as it moved. This might not bother most people, but I knew, long term, it would get annoying. I decided to breed Super hurry into a Red Ghost instead. The Red Ghost's movements are smooth, and for someone who gets motion sickness, this was a simple solution.

Bottom line is, find a pet you like, then work on it until you're content. Don't settle for a pet you don't appreciate, because it will only take the fun out of racing.

FARMING
When you're attempting to create your ideal derby pet, be prepared to spend a lot of time and gold. I've found that one of the easiest ways to earn quick gold is to farm Halfang Bristlecrown. He occasionally drops the Cow's Pearl Amulet, that can be sold for close to 7,500 gold. On average, the gear you obtain can be sold for at least 2,500. This makes it an easy place to collect, then go to bazaars and cash out.

Halfang Bristlecrown is located in Vestrilund.

 Noteworthy places to farm;
Grizzleheim - Sudrilund - Ketil Blackheart's Cave
Erling the Unready- Wintertusk (you can speed farm him if you have an additional player) Duellist101 link (click here)
 
HATCHING
Hatching the near-perfect derby pet is a long tedious process. You might get lucky, and have your pet on the second hatch, or even third, but it's highly unlikely. It might take a couple dozen hatches before your pet manifests the talent(s) and stats that you want, especially if you're trying to create a teen derby pet.

Depending on the pedigree, you could be spending 30,000 to 50,000+ gold per hatch, along with the cost of pet snacks, to train into your stats properly.

Note: will be covering which pet snacks to feed your racing pet in an upcoming post!


derby games

Agility- Cheer on grass surfaces- Recommended; Dance Game- Wizard City
Intellect- Cheer on clay surfaces- Recommended; Maze Game- Apples
Will - Cheer on dirt surfaces- Recommended; Cannon Game- Wizard City





KNOWN DERBY BUGS
There’s a well known glitch that many racers fear. This is known as the third lap glitch, and it has been around for some time. If you have experienced or seen a pet forced to race an extra lap, you will notice that they will always come in last place. I have seen this happen many times firsthand.

 NOTEWORTHY DERBY TALENTs;


SUPER HURRY
Effect: +100 Speed to Self for 10 seconds 
Cool-down: 50 seconds
1 PET WITH mega hurry;
Pet: Patriotic Leprechaun


BIG HURRY
Effect: +40 Speed to Self for 15 seconds  
Cool-down: 30 seconds


SPIFFY POP
 Effect: Teleport to Next Pet Ahead 
Cool-down: 40 seconds
Not everyone will agree that spiffy pop is a useful derby talent to have. If you are intending to do tournaments, then I wouldn't suggest it, as it can easily be countered against by most advanced racers, and there are more useful talents to have. Let me elaborate on this; If the racer in 1st place is aware that you do have the spiffy pop ability, they will, and do, reserve their power to cheer. Once you've used your pet's ability to join the 1st place racer near the finish line, they will speed ahead. This means, regardless of your effort, you will come in several seconds after that person, if they are an experienced racer.

However, Spiffy-Pop isn't necessarily a bad talent to have. In fact, it's better than most. Even though Spiffy-Pop isn't generally desired, a determined racer could work out a strategy to obtain quite a few first places.   

51 PETS WITH SPIFFY POP;
Pet:Alert Hound, Pet:Assailing Dragon, Pet:Brave Hound, Pet:Bumble Bee, Pet:Clockwork Golem, Pet:Coldfire Dragon, Pet:Crimson Spectre, Pet:Eyebendito, Pet:Eyecaramba, Pet:Eyediache, Pet:Fierce Hound, Pet:Flamenco Cantador, Pet:Flamenco del Muerto, Pet:Flamezilla, Pet:Flying Squirrel, Pet:Frankenbunny, Pet:Gargoyle, Pet:Ghost Dragon, Pet:Giraffe, Pet:Golden Ram, Pet:Harpy, Pet:Ladybug, Pet:Meow Wing, Pet:Night Hawk, Pet:Nimble Piggle, Pet:Patriotic Leprechaun, Pet:Pegasus Pony, Pet:Penumbra Drake, Pet:Plague Ninja, Pet:Prudent Hound, Pet:Rowdy Wildclaw, Pet:Savage Wildclaw, Pet:Scorpion, Pet:Sea Dragon, Pet:Seraph, Pet:Shaolin Monkey, Pet:Smith, Pet:Snake in a Basket, Pet:Snow-Covered Elf, Pet:Snowball, Pet:Sporty Dragon, Pet:Sturdy Dragon, Pet:Sun Serpent, Pet:Supportive Wildclaw, Pet:Tarantula Hawk, Pet:Toaddle, Pet:Tricky Dragon, Pet:Utility Dragon, Pet:Vampire, Pet:Vigilant Dragon, Pet:Witty Wildclaw


SUPER SAP
Effect: Steal 20 Morale from Leader
Cool-down: 40 seconds

5 PETS WITH super sap;

 

BUMMER
Effect: Steal 10 Morale from Everyone
Cool-down: 60 seconds 
23 PETS WITH bummer;

Pet: Blaze Beast, Pet: Deer Knight, Pet: Dryad, Pet: Emberstone Tiger, Pet: Eyebendito, Pet: Eyecaramba, Pet: Eyediache, Pet: Forest Lord, Pet: Ghost Dragon, Pet: Humongofrog, Pet:  Ice Wyvern, Pet: Judgement, Pet: Kraken, Pet: Li'l Siren, Pet: Penumbra Drake, Pet: Phoenix, Pet: Piranha Hunter, Pet: Samoorai, Pet: Scarecrow, Pet: Therizinosaurus, Pet: Trojan Horse, Pet: Vampire, Pet: Velociraptor


SUPER CHARGE

 Effect: +15 Morale to Self
Cool-down: 40 seconds 
49 PETS WITH supercharge;

 
MEGA LEECH
Effect: Steal 20 Morale from Next Pet Ahead 
Cooldown: 60 seconds

9 PETS WITH mega leech;

 
MEGA DEPLETE

Effect: -10 Morale to Everyone
 Cool-down: 75 seconds

12 PETS WITH mega deplete;


PET DERBY PRACTICE 
When your pet reaches the age of Teen, it can participate in ranked and practice Pet Derby races. 
  How to Join a Practice Race;


It's possible to have an amazing derby pet, and still not win the desired first place and  gold medal that comes with it.  Racing is more than just having the perfect pet, although it does help to have the right talents and stats, but it's also in the skill of the racer. Take some time becoming familiar with the different maps with practice races. Do a couple runs on each course, trying out different techniques until you find a method that works best for your pet, and executes the best result time.

Although I have had the Red Ghost, Harley, for nearly half a year, I hadn't always been able to clock in at 2:11- 2:14 on the Unicorn Way map. It's the same pet, but because of the surfaces I used, I would come in around 2:17- 2:20, which isn't very impressive. Practice goes a long way, and when you're competing against other pet derby enthusiasts, those few seconds might make a huge difference in whether you come in at first or second place. I can't stress how important practicing is to become a successful racer. 

Just because your opponent has a talent like Super-Hurry,  doesn't mean they will have an automatic win. I've raced against other pets who had Super-Hurry to only see them end up at third place, rather than a first or second. It really does come down to: natural or learned track skill through practicing, your pet statistics, derby ability (or abilities if racing your adult pet and above), and internet connectivity/ PC. If there is connection lag, it will affect your run time and could cause you to hit a few hurdles or obstacles.  

I usually play in my bedroom, via wifi, and have noticed that my pet is significantly slower on the track when I'm not plugged in directly. I had my butt handed to me a few times due to lag, but this doesn't happen too often, so heh :D it's ok.



ranked pet derby

Once you feel comfortable with the different race tracks and you have trained your pet, you will be ready for Ranked Pet Racing. If you are not a paid member, the ranked matches cost 240 Crowns for a 24 hour access period.
ARENA TICKETS 
1st place- 3 arena tickets
2nd place- 2 arena tickets
3rd place- 1 arena ticket
4th place- 10 gold
Unless someone drops out of the race early on, you should receive all three of your arena tickets, however, some races have been known to begin with only three players.  

PET DERBY WARLORD 


It takes a total of 40 gold medals to obtain the pet warlord badge. When creating a new wizard, I usually do about ten races a day, sporadically. If you have a powerful derby pet, it’s important that you give others the chance to enjoy the tracks, but keep in mind, the higher in rank you become, the less frequent races are. This is due a combination of your rank, and the automated system having to pair you with others who are similarly ranked. My wizard that has 111 gold medals, usually waits about twenty minutes per race, or longer, but when you first begin, assuming you’re on during peak hours, your races should come fairly frequently, but not nearly as often as PvP. 



additional notes


I know there are several subjects I didn't touch, and others I could expound on, so I will be continuing to update this post as well as releasing other derby posts in the future.
There's so much that still needs to be covered!

credits (sources from other blogs)
casp and cresciinvalcava (for making the morale and power figures available for everyone in the game)
The Derby Geeks Illustrated Guide Team;
Lee Argus- Thank you!
Kane ShadowWraith- Thank you!

 
links
July 2015
 Guess what I finally got in my gene pool?
Yep, the "DURABLE" selfish talent that every racer loves. I'm so excited to keep working on my pet. Durable, super hurry, and 300+ agility. It's a notch above last summers racing pet. 
-Guys, how can racing not excite you? lol XD see you on the track! <3
 

KI's 7th Birthday~ Re-cap (In case you missed it like I did)

Kane and Destiny

Kane and Destiny
Kane is awesome :)

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Dr. Who

Dr. Who
.-.
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