[EMS] Soul Collector - Level 2 Mu Gong GET!

After about six years and plenty of teamwork, I finally managed to achieve this landslide of a milestone. This was by no means an easy task - as there are not enough Mu Gong Souls in the EMS economy to begin with. Everything that has to go right, had to go right, and it was not something I could do alone. And well, apparently it did go right this time.

I assume that most people who (will) read this particular blogpost are either new to this whole process or aren't particularly aware of the ins and outs in what happened here. So, I'll do a quick run-through on it.

Mu Gong Soul is basically one of the most difficult souls to get in EMS. Not many players own one. It's one of those resources that has always been hard-to-obtain, and it's only gotten worse as time passed.

• First introduced to EMS in 2014, you had to do daily Mu Lung Dojo runs and be lucky to find any shards. That Mu Lung Dojo didn't last long, as shortly after it was replaced with the Ranked Dojo we know today.
• Then, EMS had a short lived Cash Shop box called "Effie Boxes", which gave us the tradeable Mu Gong Souls at a decent-to-low rate. These souls were difficult to get your hands on because of the limited supply, let alone expensive in the Free Market. These were retired with the migration of 2016, and because the migration purged about 90% of the characters, a bunch of the already-limited supply got cut and only few remained.
• There were several Murgoth events that could give you a chance for Mu Gong shards, but the last one was in 2017. Getting the shards on the other hand, was another problem by itself.
• The Soul Extractor is probably not worth the time or money. Sure, it might be your best shot at obtaining shards, but you sure as hell are going to need to do a lot of them.

Let alone if you want to get a Level 2... it may no longer be possible. Chances are that there are no longer enough tradeable souls left in the game to complete a full page. And that's why it took me six years to begin with: it is not easy to find any player who still owns one, let alone is willing to part with it. 

I also should mention that the Level 2 collection for Mu Gong was introduced here after Effie Boxes retired, which was also after they replaced Mu Lung Dojo. So when the original Soul Collector didn't include Mu Gong in 2013 (KMS), I had to carefully plan years ahead of time, assuming that Nexon would add Mu Gong later.

Thus, 

• If the community didn't buy such a mass of Effie Boxes back then,
• If the community didn't find every single Mu Gong Soul variant from these boxes,
• If the community didn't migrate to maintain this small supply with the exact ones I still needed,
• If my friends didn't help me out with searching for them in those years, 
• If my friends didn't help me out with the Murgoth events back then, 

Then I would certainly have not been able to complete it. It could've easily not gone this direction because certain Mu Gong Soul prefixes are less common than others. Heck, I couldn't even finish this collection through Effie Boxes alone. I've had to use both tradeable "Effie Box Mu Gong Souls" and Mu Gong shards obtained through the Murgoth events.

How did I get my hands on the last Mu Gong soul, the "Hearty" prefix? The solution to that was a long shot: I had to get the word out. With the most recent Maple Relay event, we got a free Super Megaphone on a daily basis. So, 

I used that to get public awareness. Y'know, it was worth trying as I could only potentially gain from it.

And it paid off. 

Because of the recent upgrades to the security of EMS and the continuous efforts of Nexon, a lot of botters have been banned and thus mesos have become valuable again. As a result, players are hungry for cash... and that was the perfect opportunity to strike. I suppose that's how I managed to convince someone in the game to list that Hearty Mu Gong Soul in the Auction House. The same event as last time: right place, right moment.

All of that excessive effort, just to maximize the duration by 10 seconds. But somewhere, I wouldn't want to have it any other way. If you're a frequent reader on my blog, you should know by now that I'm kinda used to this. Did I tell you that the Soul Collector is character bound, so that I can only have the +1 effect on Rayque?

Now, let's see how long it'll take another player in EMS to reach Level 2 on Mu Gong as well. I'll be waiting.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Other] Well... shit 3.0

I'm a tad upset that the delivery of this thing got delayed and that I didn't get it yesterday. At least I managed to get some Bricklink orders done for my Hailfire Droid in the extra time that I suddenly had.

That said, I have a lot to dive into with this Definitive Edition - in fact, I'm planning to write a dedicated blogpost to determine how much "definitive" this actually is compared to the original. I have no idea when that'll be, since I want to sink somewhere between 100~200 hours into this game so that I have a fair judgement on the overall product.

Anyway, time for me to unpack this thing and get going.

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8364...

... However I actually have to wait a couple of months before I can open it for my bday.

Anyway, if you're a frequent reader of my blog, then you would know about my acquired taste for experimental LEGO® oddities such as this one. As with most sets I write about, this one has been on my radar back when it came out in 2003, but I was unable to purchase it at the time.

I missed out on a couple of sealed boxes on Bricklink in the past couple of years, but that was by choice as I didn't feel like getting it until this year. While every set on my wishlist are sets that I truly want to own one day, it's best when you purchase them when you are in the mood for it. That and someone hoarded all of the damn Droideka's last year so I have to wait longer until I can get my sealed copy at a not-so-outrageous price point. Still waiting for Kardas, too.

That said, "what's this ridiculously large and heavy box all about?"

LEGO® Drome Racers was a lineup done in the early 2000s that lasted several years. Drome Racers was all about a futuristic racing theme set in a country-sized coliseum where several teams competed against each other in various elemental biomes. It ticks all the good stuff from a late 90s/early 2000s LEGO® theme.

The lineup spawned a pretty solid amount of products, a bunch of cool merchandise and arguably the best LEGO® racing game to date. But what makes Drome Racers stand out from the other Racers themes is its excellent variety of good toys with a coherent theming. The lineup produced sets for both System and Technic that (re)introduced us to (surprisingly powerful) pullback motors, remote control and vehicle launchers. But what is possibly the most interesting among the Drome Racers products is that one thing LEGO® never tried again to the same extent: the Track System.

The Track System is basically a track builder where you build a layout from prefab road pieces. There were only three dedicated sets that came at three different sizes. Most of the smaller Drome Racers sets (and even the Xalax that came out the year before it) are compatible with these tracks, but each of these Track System sets are supplied with their own vehicles nonetheless. The pullback motors included in these small vehicles would allow one to use it on these tracks, in which the corresponding play features for these sets are designed around.

Pullback motors are only good for up to a couple of seconds, so the other two sets were designed accordingly with a clear starting point and finish line. However, this set elevates that concept to an entirely different height: by introducing rechargeable batteries for the same vehicle build, complete with a dedicated charger that functions as a separate road piece, specifically designed for the Track System. Thus, enter the Multi Challenge Race Track, set #8364.

Although there isn't much to be found about this particular set since it somewhat fell into obscurity, from the little you can find online: the execution of this particular idea (or Track System in general) isn't flawless. Recharging the vehicles (depending on its age) is only good enough for a couple of laps on the suggested track layout, and having steep slopes on the track drains a lot of battery power. Aside from that: when it runs, it's definitely something like no other.

And that's pretty much the essence of my interest and love in these kind of LEGO® sets as an acquired taste of niches: it's never about judging a LEGO® product for what it is not - it's about what it is, the unique experience only a select few sets can deliver, and what it means to stand out as a timeless milestone in LEGO®'s history of strange oddities in almost a century worth of products. There's nothing like it, and that's why I want it.

[EMS] Level 250!

The twelfth of April

Birthday of Maple Europe

Close to poetic

[EMS] Soul Collector - Mu Gong 6/7!

Well damn, of all EMS blogposts that I didn't expect to write about any time soon, this certainly is one of them.

To call this a small milestone would be an understatement. Long-time readers know that I've been trying to complete the Soul Collection for the Mu Gong Soul for about six years now, shortly after I got my hands on my first Mu Gong Soul back in 2014.

Mu Gong Soul is an anomaly among all souls in MapleStory, and a strange one at that. What this soul offers in terms of stats differs greatly between regional versions. It differs that much that in one version it's considered outright broken, while here in EMS, it's hardly ever discussed as a valid option. I'm currently one of the few in EMS who uses one. It is the only Soul Collection in the game that is considered literally impossible. At least it is for EMS.

Soul Shards usually drop from their respective bosses, even to a point where Nexon goes through the effort of making old shards such as Spirit of Rock still (readily) available in present day, even well after closing the old Kerning Square. If you want to get your hands on any soul from the Soul Collection, you can just grind out the bosses for shards.

But that's only possible for any boss in the game other than Mu Gong.

Mu Gong has ceased dropping Mu Gong shards in 2015, after Ranked Dojo was introduced as a weekly system. Although at the time that was no problem: we had Effie Boxes and the annual Murgoth event to get our hands on Mu Gong Souls (as thoroughly explained here). Plus, we had the prospering thought that the upcoming Soul Extractor would be an excellent all-year round alternative in case we ran out of sources.

But in that band-aid solution lies a fundamental problem. What if they retired Effie Boxes and the annual Murgoth events? What if even the Soul Extractor is a dead end?

Obviously, all of the above happened. Effie Boxes were retired with the migration of 2016, our last Murgoth event was in 2017, and it would take hundreds of billion mesos to craft even a single Mu Gong Soul through the Soul Extractor - let alone the one prefix you need, or the fact that there's not enough supplies in the EMS economy to begin with.

So, how in Maple World did I manage to get my sixth Mu Gong Soul? It's simple: pure coincidence.

This "Flashy Mu Gong Soul" is one that came from those Effie Boxes long ago. At the time, I've been collecting as many Mu Gong Souls as I could find and this just happened to be one of those that unfortunately flew under the radar. So, that means that against all odds:

• This specific soul was found from a short-lived Cash Shop box four years ago...
• Possibly was sold at least once in the Free Market where I failed to buy it before anyone else did...
• The character that held this soul in its inventory was not among the 2,7 million (!) purged characters during the migration period...
• Somehow ended up being listed in the Auction House a few days ago...
• And not only was I able to get in touch with the actual seller of an otherwise anonymous in-game listing, the seller was patient enough as I had to scrape an ungodly amount of mesos together in order to buy this thing as soon as possible, before someone else yoinked it and wasted it for good.

No, I won't discuss the exact number I had to pay for this thing. But I could've bought hundreds of Meister Cubes instead, that much I'm willing to spill. Was it worth the price? Probably not. However, it cannot be denied that this was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I would most certainly regret if I failed to get my hands on this one.

Just for the record: including this instance, I have only come across three "Effie Box Mu Gong Souls" since the migration. One was sold in Auction House last year, and another one was bought by a friend of mine for his own sword. But this was the only one among the three that I required for the collection, and being able to buy it was certainly an unlikely event: a perfect example of a "right time, right place" moment that by all means should not have happened.

Seeing as any of my journeys to complete whatever I feel like always takes a ridiculous amount of years, I suppose one could say that it might be just "another one of those" or "same shit, different day". At any rate, the HP prefix ("Hearty Mu Gong") is the last one I need… and I have absolutely no idea how many additional years that will take.