Before I get my teeth into it, I must throw in a quick disclaimer. I'm actually away this weekend, with the 'magic of blogging' allowing me to publish this post today. So if there's any major news has broken since Friday morning I apologise - there's not much I can do!
Let's kick off with the goal set entitled The Adorable Snow Man. This quest was just getting underway when I gave my last dissection, and having only lasted one week feels like a lifetime ago already!
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| Notification for The Adorable Snow Man goals |
Marshmallows were the base ingredient the goals revolved around, and with Yancy the Yeti only delivering 1 every two hours it was mightily difficult to get through this challenge without some reinforcements.
The major flaw was with respect to the Roasted Marshmallows which was the feeder dish for the main recipes. It needed to be concocted using Marshmallows at several intervals, but if you didn't wait until reaching the step where this was the case there were repercussions. Roasted Marshmallows made outside of the dedicated goal step were not counted, leaving you needing to make even more than was strictly necessary.
With it being a busy time for me in real life I was unable to do the research to unearth this valuable information ahead of time, meaning I was in a sticky situation. The result was my biggest ever spend to complete a quest - 48 gems and 12 quick serves were parted with in order to obtain the final reward, the Yeti Spaghetti.
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| Yeti Spaghetti goal prize in The Adorable Snow Man goals |
Many players will think I'm mad for spending so many gems to unlock a recipe which is nothing more than a standard dish. My response is twofold: firstly I'm minted with gems having attained every gem producing recipe the game has so far offered. My Celebration Stove is almost continually in action, so I'm rarely more than six hours from my next gem gain. The second reason for craving the spaghetti is that there's the opportunity for three more mastery stars. No doubt there will come a day when I've mastered everything around (a day that is a long way into the future!) and those extra three stars will be invaluable. Ultimately it's mastery stars which are the largest indicator of your achievements in the game.
Away from the goals themselves the content that came with the yeti update was absolutely fantastic. There were some truly brilliant decorations available, and combined with stuff from Christmas and the previous Alaskan themed cruise event I was well placed to do something special for Winter.
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| The Onion Bush at Winter |
In all I splurged over 400 gems on refurbishing my diner, with all three members of the Yeti family settling at The Onion Bush. I really enjoyed putting this scene together, trying out lots of different combinations until it looked just right. The Baby Yeti sitting and tickling the Baby Reindeer is a particular highlight.
And with me almost back up to my gem total prior to the shopping spree I think my decision to spend heavily has been well justified. I really appreciate the ability to spend gems more freely than in the original game, and that's all down to the accessibility of free gem production.
At the end of the yeti goals was a part requirements sale, with the number of Hammers, Shovels and so on needed to upgrade cut down by 40%. Unfortunately this deal appeared within days of me doing an expansion at the normal requirements - just my luck! Nevertheless a nice boost for those who were poised to upgrade. Maybe next time I'm ready to expand I should hold back for just a few more days!
This wasn't the only sale in the last few weeks. There has also been 50% off deals on the Celebration Stove and Deep Fryer, making this a very good time to pick up extra resources on the cheap.
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| Notifications for recent sales |
I invested in a second Chateau Stove and Chateau Oven on Black Friday when they were on sale, and have to say that they've proven a great investment, especially when the cruises roll around. But with the Celebration Stove's foods exempt from cruise events and the Deep Fryer's recipes so hard to gather the ingredients for, I opted not to blow more gems here. However I'm sure there are plenty of players out there who jumped at this very generous opportunity.
Around those sales was the African Safari Cruise Catering Event. Your monthly fix of gaming stress, this was another opportunity to earn a gem producing dish. For this cruise it was Erin the Explorer who was the kind customer dropping off the vital ingredient, the Coconut. The difference this time was that the all-important recipe at the end of the line was easier to prepare than ever before.
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| Coconut Fish Curry recipe information |
The Coconut Fish Curry is another Celebration Stove effort, and requires just 5 Coconuts and 3 Tomatoes to put together. With only a 90 minute waiting time and a quicker than usual turnaround from the special character, this is the most impressive gem dish yet. All of the other gem makers need either Sugar or Beef, both of which have a two hour restock time. So there's a real opportunity to pile up the gems with this one!
As for the cruise itself, there was one change to proceedings which spiced things up. The Campfire Stove from the yeti goals contains seven dishes, and they're all possible orders. This is the first time a goal appliance has been included in the cruises, which makes it all the more interesting (and challenging) for everyone. But it's particularly tricky for those who didn't manage to gain access to all the foods on the Campfire Stove, as they still pop up. This is really unfair, and certainly not something I'd want to see repeated long-term as it could make the cruise events nigh on impossible for those who didn't complete certain goal sets.
RS2 News
09/01/16 January 2016
05/12/15 December 2015
07/11/15 November 2015
24/10/15 October 2015
05/12/15 December 2015
07/11/15 November 2015
24/10/15 October 2015
19/09/15 September 2015
Anyway, my progress through the cruise started with a proper newbie error - a recent change in my sleep pattern means that I'm now unable to access the game shortly after reset time during the week, but instead just before. It's unfortunate circumstances, and is made all the more frustrating when you make the fatal error of activating the cruise within an hour of reset time. This meant the time I had to finish day 1 could be counted in minutes, and that was always going to place me on the back foot.
I held my composure however, and by day 4 or 5 was back in tandem with the timer. It's the first time I've really fallen behind in a cruise and I have to say, I didn't like it! But now at level 56, I feel I have the resources and experience to cope with such a situation pretty well. It's only really the last day or two which are truly challenging.
And in the case of this African Safari cruise I was able to finish comfortably inside the time limit. It's probably the most relaxed conclusion I've enjoyed thus far, although that's not saying much given some past experiences!
Coconuts in hand, we're now in the middle of a two-week event celebrating Super Bowl 50.
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| To-do List including main strands of The Puppy Bowl goals |
As has been made clear in the past, I'm no expert, nor avid fan, of American football, but even I know how big the Super Bowl is (although that may be in some way related to Coldplay staging the halftime show!)
The Puppy Bowl goals put a slightly different slant on the Super Bowl, with canines being the focus of attention. My lack of empathy for dogs has been well documented in recent updates in the original game, so you can imagine my feelings upon seeing more pups pop up in RS2! Admittedly there are some more traditional football decorations included, so it's not all doom and gloom from my perspective.
The goals structure is slightly tidier than at times recently, with there being six rigid goal strands. Three of them each contain nine steps and have a new recipe up for grabs upon completion. The remaining three all yield a 'cute' dog decked out for the big game, and are achieved by collecting a certain number of Squeaky Footballs. And with these handed out pretty liberally I gathered all three dogs within five days. The main strands are tougher as they need the complete mastery of six recipes, but with this being one of the longer quests I'm feeling confident!
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