Venting About Ultimate Angler's RNG

Earlier today, during a six-hour-long HomePass session, I finally found a duplicate of the 6+ Anglers Gauge Boost skill that I got halfway through the game, a few months ago.  I still need one more to get it to level 3.  Whoever designed this game's RNG is sadistic.  I can farm rods like nobody's business with HomePass, but 90% of them don't have a skill, and the ones that do have useless things like Lake/Pond Strike Boost and 2 Anglers Time Boost.

In the meantime:

• I've caught five UFOs, put them in a Cosmic Tank, and set it as my favorite.
• I've caught five Bloopers and two Cheep Cheeps for a similarly-themed tank. I still need three more Cheep Cheeps, which will be difficult given that I hardly ever have enough bait for them when I get a sighting.  I usually have two bait, and it takes me three at minimum, if the RNG plays nice.
• I've caught all but one of the 160 species in the game.  The sole remaining one is a mysterious fish.  It's the rarest one, it seems, and it's on Mysteria Island at Sellbrook River.  Nobody on HomePass seems to have seen it, and the only way to be able to catch it is to StreetPass someone who's seen it (or someone who doesn't have the game, a specific number of times).  Then you have to hope that you have enough of the correct bait(s) to catch it in that single session, or you lose it and have to start over with the next sighting.  If your sighting isn't "I heard a rumor..." or "I caught a...", then its stamina will have already been worn down somewhat by the previous person.
• I've wasted a lot of money improving my UFO Rod +25 with the level 1 6+ Anglers Gauge Boost skill that I'll eventually upgrade to level 3 and have to re-improve if I don't get the 160th species for the final plaza ticket and give this game the old "12-gauge to the back of the head" mercy kill treatment it deserves.

I've already talked about the difference between tedium and challenge, and at this point in the game, it's nothing but tedium.  You keep farming, and eventually you game the RNG enough that you get what you're looking for, but you don't have fun in the meantime.  I didn't pay for a StreetPass game to get MMO levels of grinding.  StreetPass games are only supposed to be tedious in that they take a lot of StreetPassing to complete.  Everything else about them is supposed to be friendly and accessible.

To draw a comparison, the RNG on weapons from chests in Monster Manor was a lot more player-friendly, and the weapon skills were a lot more common.  You still had to play your cards right, but doing so involved learning the game mechanics.  Getting a good weapon was basically your reward for learning how to make the game spawn gold chests.  In Ultimate Angler, the only mechanic to getting fishing rods is that you have to catch a fish you've already caught before.  There are zero game mechanics you can learn to get fishing rods basically whenever you want, it's entirely down to RNG.  Then, it seems it's an entirely separate RNG (a die roll, for the D&D nerds) for whether or not you get a skill on that rod, and ANOTHER RNG that determines what that skill is.  Everything else in Ultimate Angler is fantastic, but the RNG begs for an update to make it more player-friendly.

StreetPass Games Done

That certainly took a while.  Having a HomePass setup definitely made it quicker.  Some people call HomePass cheating, but I don't.  It doesn't reduce the challenge of accomplishing everything, nor does it reduce the amount of work you have to do.  It simply lowers the barrier to entry.

So, everything ever:

• Puzzle Swap: 1637/1637 pieces (for North America)
• When I originally posted this, there were 1177 puzzle pieces.
• When I got my New 3DS and system transferred to it, there were 1502 puzzle pieces.
• Find Mii and Find Mii 2: All accomplishments (including "Clear Find Mii in 30 Miis or less") and hats/outfits.
• Mii Force: All plaza tickets (this implies all lost treasures collected, all target scores beaten, and all stages beaten without losing a pod).
• Flower Town: All plaza tickets, gold on all jobs, 80/80 breeds, 305/305 colors, gold watering can.
• Warrior's Way: All plaza tickets, Castle rank 20, 9,999,999 troops (set up so that an army of 50k+ infantry, 50k+ cavalry, and a small group of archers can defeat it by spying twice, field conditions allowing).
• Monster Manor: All plaza tickets, beat floor 50 and the true final boss for the hat.
• Ultimate Angler: All plaza tickets (this implies 160/160 species caught)
• Battleground Z: All plaza tickets, all rare zombies defeated
• StreetPass Birthdays: All plaza tickets (this implies 366/366 birthdays)
• Exchange Booth: All hats/outfits and speech balloons claimed, Exchange Booth closed once again

I'll have more work to do with each Puzzle Swap panel that Nintendo releases, and of course if they add any more games.  With each new panel I'll try and remember to keep the piece count updated, as well.  But until the next new panel or game, feels good man.

Side note: if Puzzle Swap and the Find Mii games can detect when there's nothing left for the player to do and decide to not show their exclamation points with each group of StreetPasses, why can't the DLC StreetPass games do the same?

Edit (2015-09-25): Added Ultimate Angler, Battleground Z, and StreetPass Birthdays, just to mark them off as complete.  Because I now have two 3DSes, this post is only representative of my original efforts, which I system transferred from my Old 3DS to my New 3DS.  Any new puzzles will be marked here until I finish everything on my Old 3DS once again, and then this post will be retired and a new one encompassing both systems will be created.

Making Mincemeat of Monster Manor

So, if you've been watching my Twitter, you'll have noticed that I beat Monster Manor finally.  If you weren't watching my Twitter, well, I beat Monster Manor finally.  So, here's my thoughts.

It's a really well-designed game, overall.  I like the puzzle aspect of having differently-shaped and differently-colored pieces that define how you explore the mansion.  It really makes you think about how and where to put each piece, or even if you want to use a piece from a given Mii at all.

The puzzle boxes further synergize with the puzzle-solving nature of the game, and have tangible gameplay rewards.  Beating the target time (or the other Mii's time) makes the item you get better, but still, a puzzle box is a guaranteed item of some description.

Weapon selection is graphically very varied, though within each element there's really only two choices, because only two weapons in each element can become rank S.

Team-ups are an interesting mechanic, and certainly useful early on while you're learning the ropes and levelling up a weapon, since they boost your stats and provide healing.  However, as the game goes on there's very little incentive to use them, as you'll usually want to get the Mii's item and/or puzzle box instead.  This could have been fixed by receiving the Mii's item when the team-up ends.  Puzzle boxes are good enough to warrant being mutually exclusive with team-ups, though.

The enemies are standard fare "spooky" enemies: ghosts, poltergeists (of the book and painting varieties), skeletons, animated suits of armor, mimics (for the uninitiated: a mimic is an enemy that looks like a treasure chest, and in most games, only comes alive and attacks you when you attempt to open the chest), and more.  The boss battles are challenging.

As far as the music goes, once again it's fairly standard fare "spooky" music themes: bells, organ, wind instruments with slow vibrato, etc.  It's good music and fits the atmosphere well.

Graphics-wise, they seem to have ridden the fence quite well and made a spooky atmosphere with the bright colors that Nintendo games typically have.  Anything that needs to stick out so you'll notice it sticks out so you'll notice it, and the rest provides plenty of atmosphere.

However, the game tries really hard to push this whole "certain weapons belong to certain elements, and enemies have an elemental weakness" thing on you, but doesn't follow through with it.  In the grand scheme of things, just pick a weapon that can become rank S, level it to 30, and you're good to go.  Ideally, you'll want a decent skill on it, but the skill doesn't really matter.  I beat the game with a rank S level 30 Jack-o'-Magnum +2, with level 3 Disable, which has a 40% chance of lowering enemy defense by 20% when you use a charged attack.  Supporting it, I had Strength +2, Defense +2, Battery +2, Charge Speed +2, and Skill +2 badges.  Even though it only has two batteries, they recharge really quickly, and the charge speed on the attack is really good.  I found myself able to land counterattacks most of the time.

The thing that really drives home how much the weapon elements don't matter: the floor 30 and floor 50 bosses don't have an elemental weakness.  Even with regular enemies, I was one-shotting them the vast majority of the time.

I'm not too disappointed that the elemental weakness thing isn't very well enforced, though.  Why?  Because of the access mechanism for the Extradimensional Box.  Any sane person would want to keep only one weapon in their inventory at a time, so they can take a couple recovery items and load up on badges.  All the rest would then go in the Extradimensional Box, which can only be withdrawn from when you find a mystic orb, whose occurrence is completely random.  So without guaranteed access to the box on any given floor, how are you to keep a stock of levelled up weapons in each element if you can't easily swap between them?

Overall, it's a really good game with a lot of gameplay and a nice atmosphere.

Manipulating Monster Manor

If you've played it, you know that you want stuff from chests.  You may want better chests, though.  You might also want to find a Mii for a team-up, a Mii for a puzzle box, or an orb.  Well, I've figured out how to manipulate most of that.

This makes heavy use of sending Miis to the back and dismissing them.  Obviously if you're on the first floor, you probably won't be able to dismiss, so this works best starting on the second floor.  To dismiss a Mii, go to a floor that's full and select "Take Piece".  Basically, if none of their pieces will fit on the floor you're currently on, then you'll be able to dismiss them.  However, this dismiss option replaces the "Take Piece" option, so if you want to use one of that Mii's pieces on a different floor, you'll have to use the stairs to reset it.  You can always back out and not place a piece, even if you've already selected the piece and progressed to the screen where you put it somewhere on the floor.

Actually, let's start with going up floors.  To do so, you need to find the stairs.  The stairs are in a random, hidden location that doesn't touch the walls of the manor.  When you reveal their location, go up them immediately.  Doing so refills your health, gives you more health, and most importantly, gives you another floor to put pieces into.  The only exception might be if there's a boss guarding the steps.  In that case, you might want to hold off, either for a team-up, or simply to get to an orb and power up your weapon.

Getting orbs is the one thing I haven't yet figured out how to manipulate, but it doesn't matter.  You won't always be able to make the giant rooms required to get the good chests, so you're very likely to get orbs generated in the smaller rooms you'll have to create in the meantime.

People who haven't purchased the game will give gifts of gems, and a random puzzle box.  If you want to raise the chances of these showing up, dismiss anyone who doesn't have a weapon on their back before making a room.  Placing their piece is also an option.  Keep in mind that the first time you meet someone who hasn't purchased the game, all you're going to get is gems, but starting with the second time you meet that person, you'll get the puzzle box.

People who have purchased the game will give you the option to team up, or get an item and a puzzle box.  If you want to raise the chances of these showing up, dismiss anyone who has a weapon on their back before making a room.  Placing their piece is also an option.

Getting better chests is simple.  You need to make a 4x4 room, all one color, that's connected to a room with an orb in it.  However, the order in which you do things matters.  Specifically, you'll need to make a 4x4 single-color square with room for a 2x2 piece in the center.  Every time you get a group of streetpasses after that, check for the color you're interested in.  Check that Mii's pieces and look for the 2x2 piece.  If you have a can of magic paint, check everyone's pieces.  Place this 2x2 piece first, whether you have to recolor it or not.  You'll also need to do all of this before dismissing anyone or placing any other pieces.

Generally speaking, you want to pick a color and stick with it, filling each floor with that color.  However, the game pre-generates sections of each floor in random colors, so you'll have to either force yourself to path through the room, or place a piece of that color next to it, preferably making a room.

However, once you've got a Rank S weapon that's been upgraded to +2, you'll want to fight a bunch of stuff to level it up.  To do this, you need to not make rooms.  Place pieces of as many different colors as possible next to each other and just make hallways.  This will increase the chance of finding something to fight.  As for the whole "five different elements, things are weak against one of them" thing, ignore it.  Just powerlevel a single weapon.  Remember: don't max its experience bar out if it's not +2.  Also, the maximum possible level for a weapon is 30.  You can make getting this easier by using weapons with a high max level (15 and up) to gain +1 and +2 on your desired weapon.  This may mean upgrading a weapon just to use it as materials for another weapon.

If you're going for completion, then you'll want to continue making big rooms to get gold chests and increase your chances of getting weapons until you've gotten that counter to 40.  You'll have plenty of smaller rooms to make in the meantime, so manipulate yourself some puzzle boxes and get that counter up to 50.  Getting the big rooms will get you the plaza tickets that you find from chests pretty quickly.  Those cans of magic paint, rare as they are, are really valuable for speeding up your ascent through this manor as well as making rooms.  You can also use them to deal with not having a specific color that it's pre-generated, particularly brown since approximately nobody selects brown as their favorite color when making a Mii.

The thing that ends up mattering least is the gift you get from a Mii every 10 times you StreetPass them.  If it so happens that you need a piece from that Mii, go ahead and get the gift, but don't feel too bad about dismissing a Mii that has a gift.

I hope this helps other people in their quest to get all the plaza tickets, or just simply helps people get through the game.

StreetPass Games Revisited: Monster Manor

I have seven plaza tickets remaining.  The ones I have left are for clearing the 30th floor, teaming up 10 times, solving all the puzzle boxes, collecting all the weapons, finding a second plaza ticket in a silver chest, finding a plaza ticket in a gold chest, and then finding a second plaza ticket in a gold chest.

Just going to throw it out there: this is the only game I haven't yet beaten.

This game is much slower-paced than the others, due to you having to find the stairs on each floor and the randomness of the pieces and colors you receive.  The best strategy for getting good loot actually involves building giant single-color rooms and dismissing Miis of any other color.  Your weapons all belong to one of five elements, and enemies have weaknesses to those elements, but it doesn't seem like playing the weakness game is really worth it.  Just take all the weapons you get and boost a single weapon into an uber weapon.

If you're doing the "build giant rooms" strategy, dismiss the Miis of other colors before placing the pieces of your chosen color.  That way you can get the puzzle boxes and items from the other Miis, and still take advantage of team-ups if you don't want puzzle boxes.  This strategy is a lot slower, but gets you a chance at the plaza tickets as well as some really good loot.  I recommend doing it at the very least until you have the plaza tickets from chests and a decent weapon (one that can become rank S, with a decent ability).  Also, whenever you find the stairs, go up them and open the next floor.  Always.

If you want the plaza tickets from silver chests and gold chests, you'll have to build giant single-color rooms.  It's the only way to get those chests to appear.

Streetpassing other Monster Manor owners will let you team up with them to fight the things you encounter, or if you select "Get Item", you'll get an item that they have or a puzzle box that they've solved.  In addition, whatever weapon they're using will show up "holstered" on their back.  If you solve the puzzle box, you'll get an item, and if you beat the time shown on the puzzle box, you'll get a better item.

"New" StreetPass Games

They're not exactly new anymore, but they're newer than Puzzle Swap and Find Mii.  A fair amount of people haven't even bothered to get them simply because they're paid DLC for the StreetPass Mii Plaza, and I suspect people generally want to put their money towards bigger titles.  But man, they're missing out.

Available for purchase are Mii Force, Flower Town, Warrior's Way, and Monster Manor.  They're $4.99 each, or you can get all four of them in a bundle for $14.99.  I grabbed the bundle.

Mii Force

In Mii Force, you're galactic police going after space pirates.  It's a sidescrolling shooter, and an interesting one at that.  The people you streetpass give you different weapons based on the color of their shirt, and you can attach them in one of four places on your ship (three front, one back).  In addition, you can stick other people behind them to power their weapons up.  This game plays best when you get a lot of streetpasses.  The Special Miis that Nintendo sends out periodically have an extra gold pod that fires additional shots.

It has the interesting mechanic of being able to rotate your weapons around your ship with the L and R buttons during the stage.  The stages themselves will change direction from time to time, from horizontal to vertical and back, thus necessitating rotating your weapons.  The variety of weapons is amazing and it's incredibly fun to play.  The goal?  Complete all the stages and wipe out the pirates!

You can also spend play coins to recruit troops (including the ability to hire old allies!) and get extra weapon pods, if you don't have a lot of streetpasses available.  The game is fairly challenging with just one pod, enough so that some gamers may want to try it that way and see how far they get.

Worth it?  Definitely.

Flower Town

In Flower Town, you grow flowers, breed new flowers, and expand your garden on your quest to become a master gardener.  This game is full of bright colors and is fairly relaxing to play.  You can also buy decorations for your garden plots, and even take jobs from the local mall to breed specific plants for people.  You can use play coins to invite people you've previously met back to your garden.

Every streetpass you get will help your current flower grow, and once it's fully grown, will help you get seeds that can potentially grow entirely new flowers.  The goal is to get 20 breeds of flowers.

It's definitely not for everyone, but I find it to be interesting.

Worth it?  If you like flowers or want a nice relaxing game, sure.  Otherwise, you may want to hold off, unless you really really want to get the most out of every streetpass.

Warrior's Way

In Warrior's Way, you're a monarch building your army and trying to take over the world.  This is simplified into a rock-paper-scissors strategy game where each troop type is strong against one other and weak against one other.  Every few countries you take over will give you building materials you can use to upgrade your castle to get the ability to spy, or simply even the ability to hire more mercenaries with play coins.  The ability to spy in battle is useful for your strategy, as it tells you what troop type your enemy will attack with next.

This game is unique in that it depends on a portion of the world's owners of 3DSes not purchasing it.  When you streetpass someone who hasn't bought it, they're a general with an army (based on their StreetPass Plaza size), and they ally with you and boost your numbers.  If you streetpass someone who plays the game, though, they're a monarch and you have a choice between greeting them peacefully or fighting their army.  You want to have a fair number of streetpasses for this game, because more streetpasses = more troops.  The Special Miis that Nintendo sends out periodically add a nice chunk of troops.

The goal is simple enough that I've already stated it: take over the world!

Worth it?  Definitely.

Monster Manor

In Monster Manor, you're exploring a haunted mansion.  Each person you streetpass gives you pieces that you can use to reveal parts of the current floor of the mansion.  Join enough pieces of the same color together to make a room with chests (containing items, of course!) in it.  Throughout the mansion you'll encounter ghosts and have to fight them off.

This game has a nice blend of puzzles, exploration, combat, and supernatural horror.  You can use play coins to hire extra investigators to help with the exploration of the mansion.  The goal is to get to the top of the mansion and defeat everything that stands in your way.

Worth it?  Sure!

Overall

The newer streetpass games give you a lot more to do with each streetpass, as well as a lot of new and good uses for play coins.  If you've finished all the puzzles and Find Mii 1 and 2, definitely give them a shot.  Heck, give them a shot even if you haven't.  If you have to choose just one, I would say pick either Mii Force or Warrior's Way.

Price-wise, it appears at first glance like it's a whole two cents cheaper to buy only three of the games ($4.99 * 3 = $14.97) than to buy the bundle ($14.99), but the bundle makes all the games $3.75 each instead of $4.99 each.  This means you effectively end up spending more by buying three games at the full price than buying the bundle!  The difference?  $3.75 * 3 = $11.25, $14.97 - $11.25 = $3.72.  With buying three games costing almost an entire game more than simply buying the bundle, it makes no sense to buy anything other than the bundle.

Also, there's a hidden ranking in my "Worth it?" lines above.  Definitely > Sure! > Flower Town.  Flower Town isn't bad, it's just not for everyone.  All the games are good enough to be worth the price, so if you're not going to grab the bundle, it all comes down to your gaming preferences.