First of all, Eid Mubarak to all readers of the blog! We went on a different Ramadan in which things worked out differently due to the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown, but after all it's the same 'ol fasting month. Happy Eid Mubarak to everyone except to those people who had the nerve to populate several places despite being advised to stay at home already. I don't care if it's nostalgia or not, you all suck, and you should've deserved some Attitude Adjustment.
In the last post, I purposely skipped one thing that was happening during the False Halloween entirety because this topic needs its own section since the last post was also long, a fruit of my posting absence: The Platinum Battle Card Summon. It is the banner that gave player a chance to obtain any of the six-star Battle Cards at a rate of 2%:, be it a fighter-specific 3PG Special Card, a fighter-specific option card, or even the first six-star set in the Global: Light and Shadow, featuring Noah. However, it's not just the Noah set that's got a spotlight, the False Halloween set is this too; Time for Medical Checkup offers more balanced buffs and damage galore useful for those who have Strike skills, with CP buffs worth more than the existing 5-tier cards, even the Tekken set.
Obviously mobile games are subject to Power Creeps where, every update, there's always either a better unit and/or a better item obtainable in some way, but with the caveat that the player will go extra mile to get any of them, be it in events that would require an amount of upgrades (like in the case of Real Racing 3's events, whether it's Track Day, Special Event, or Limited Time Series) or perhaps a gacha where the drop rate is generally less than one percent, like what we're talking about right now...
A little background story that can be related to how the game conceives this set: Noah is introduced on day one as the person with an overbearing sense of justice. As you go through Story Mode however, things take turns for worse for you and her; she somehow leaves you for banters with Ein, and then you start to wonder why Kaya who normally is by Ryugo's side became attached to you by the time the KOF 98 storyline comes. As it turns out, Noah wasn't the good girl with a sense of justice you would expect; she just leaves you for the Tuners, enjoys her sundae, and starts giving you nightmares, especially when you realize that the Epic Quest Episode 0 storyline "continues" from the moment you've fought Omega Rugal and the fact that Noah has revealed her true self and has intentions to play with the Phantom Gate. This set card basically describes what kind of person Noah is; a seemingly kind and dependable person only to find out that she has evil intentions at her disposal.
All three types of the card increases fighter's ATK by 7% when fully leveled which accumulates a total of 21%. The full set grants another 10% increase aside of 15% chance of a 3-second Super Armor upon a successful attack, with a cooldown of 10 seconds, bringing in up to a whopping 31% attack increase in total. In terms of CP buffs, each card gives almost 1100 CP when maxed out, totaling in 3250 CP, and the set does bring serious buffs in HP, attack, and defense.
The card is an even serious challenger to the Tekken collab's Two Girls' Rendezvous; 6% ATK increase for each set on maximum skill level, yet 10% Critical Rate increase and 50% Critical Damage increase, plus 3% Power Gain upon Critical Hit (1 second cooldown), something the Noah set lacks in. Favorite Thing, everyone's favorite set with Kula Diamond on it, has 5% attack on all sets and can increase another 17.8% for 5 seconds upon Critical Hit when full set, bringing in a possible total of 32.8% for a span of 5 seconds, superbly effective and more than what Noah set gives though time-limited and requires high Critical Rate. Both Tekken and Kula sets have competitive CPs with each other.
Another noteworthy comparison would be the mentioned Tekken set plus the KOF x TEKKEN option card (which can be only equipped once), which boosts additional 4% ATK aside from the additional 4% Critical Rate upon less than 50% HP, with 20% chance of 3-second Super Armor with a 45-second cooldown after activation. With that combination, a fighter can have a total of 22% ATK increase plus 14% Critical Rate increase as well in the package, but the Super Armor cooldown might be a deterrence for shorter fights. The Noah set kills the need of having separate cards and comes with a shorter cooldown on the Super Armor, though at the price of Critical Rate, Critical Damage, and Power Gain, as well as lower trigger chance. Despite this, the set can give a room for some of the best Option Cards, whether if it's any of the cooldown reduction cards or something that can make fast Power Gains and increase Critical Rate and/or Critical Damage.
My journey through getting the set was a rather interesting one in each pull with varying levels of success. At early attempts, I actually had my first Noah set out of three, and effectively got myself the 1/3 part of the power creep at the time. With that in mind, I actually set my investments to just the Platinum Battle Card banner rather than any of the FES banners at that time, being Nakoruru and Igniz. This set had 0.2% drop rate for all three which is basically one tenths less than the FES fighters, but being a Battle Card summon it gave less strain on the rubies. Going forward, I actually got more 6-star cards than expected: I ended up having 3PG Specials for Ryo, Blue Mary, and Terry, while option cards of the same grade were for Athena, Blue Mary, and Terry. The Fatal Fury favoritism on my RNG was kinda strong on this one, but at the final stretch I actually got the second type of the set card, and despite not getting any new one after that I reached the selector which allowed me to pick the last set. A completion story like in the Tekken collab but actually better since I actually completed the set in exactly one round. Aside of the 6 stars, I have plenty of 5-star cards, including the Favorite Thing set card, a couple of Another Me in the Mirror set cards, a bunch of Sibling Training set cards (which might be crucial for, perhaps, 98 Yuri), and a couple others.
As a side note, there actually was a package where you can get a Noah Set selector and extra gold tokens (free x10 summons) available for a limited time during the availability of this banner. However, it cost a lot and I haven't got the money to invest on that package. A number of players would have more than one Noah set this way because, well, everyone needs to get ahead in the game, even if it would cost up to a thousand dollars. This meant that I ended up with exactly just one set.
To see how lethal and useful these set cards are, the False Halloween update became the venue for the testing. Aside from the KOF 99 Story Mode addition (which has hit Japanese server earlier on despite years of waiting), Team Relay Dungeon, and Infinite Fight (a new PvE mode), a new event called Epic Advent has landed in Global server. The Epic Advent does not have a set color element, but has a high recommended CP level (of 24090), and it's the strongest Wrath Chizuru you're facing against just like in the final chapter of Epic Quest. The catch? This Wrath Chizuru cleans your Power Gains every hit like a Cillit Bang and you only have 3 minutes and 30 seconds to fight off Wrath Chizuru's vast HP. The bigger event banner suggests that you'll have to use characters that can deal Chill and Shock Damage Overtimes to beat her faster, but even then that's just half of the game.
First playthrough had me using Paul with his default formation of Tekken cards and whatnot, being my only fighter with 23k+ CP. I thought I would be able to win this easy until I realize I couldn't; Paul does deliver all the high damage and stuns, but all those do not come in handy for this purpose. A quick dive on YouTube gave me a playthrough of the event using XIV Geese, one of the characters capable of dealing Shock damage and, as an added bonus, speed decrease on attack speed and movement which can make avoiding her attacks negotiable, plus a Hyper Armor upon activation of his second skill () which renders every visit to break the crystal for the immunity irrelevant. Prior to equipping the Noah set, my XIV Geese had about 15k+ CP and put Paul as the team leader to have Geese benefit from Paul's 60% ATK increase, but at the expense of 10% less HP. Still no dice unfortunately as the Geese either couldn't stay alive or fail to drain all of Wrath Chizuru's HP...
Alas, the decision is made to put the Noah set to the test, bringing up XIV Geese's CP to as high as 22k+ CP, enough to deal all those damage and, conveniently, occasional Super Armors. Dealing enough damage however isn't enough considering that Wrath Chizuru would commit an explosion after her crystal phase, dealing enough damage to end an active member's career in this stage, even despite activating the immunity from the crystal in Geese's case (a Shock damage bug as a fellow player from KOF ALL STAR Discord told me). Even with adding Yuri and Kyo to the team (forming a Genius team which gains 2% Power every 5 seconds), Power Gains are somewhat irrelevant to Wrath Chizuru, denying me of performing his Raging Storm finisher before her explosion just like in Kun ba's video I watched. However, the more I re-read Geese's buffs upon Active Skills, the second active skill's activation is a strategic matter; the short Immunity it gives is more beneficial than destroying a crystal, but has to be activated right before Wrath Chizuru finally explodes her wrath, or else it's game over. After that, you may fall from the explosion (if you don't roll), but at the end of the day you're immune to any damage thanks to the Hyper Armor. After that, the rest is history, even without activating a finisher once, and things were much easier the second time around.
Obviously mobile games are subject to Power Creeps where, every update, there's always either a better unit and/or a better item obtainable in some way, but with the caveat that the player will go extra mile to get any of them, be it in events that would require an amount of upgrades (like in the case of Real Racing 3's events, whether it's Track Day, Special Event, or Limited Time Series) or perhaps a gacha where the drop rate is generally less than one percent, like what we're talking about right now...
THE SET CARDS
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| (Image: Netmarble) |
Was your kindness all a lie?
Is what I see now your true self?
"Ha, what was a lie and what was true?
The answer is right in front of you. You just chose to look away."
- Light & Shadow set card description
A little background story that can be related to how the game conceives this set: Noah is introduced on day one as the person with an overbearing sense of justice. As you go through Story Mode however, things take turns for worse for you and her; she somehow leaves you for banters with Ein, and then you start to wonder why Kaya who normally is by Ryugo's side became attached to you by the time the KOF 98 storyline comes. As it turns out, Noah wasn't the good girl with a sense of justice you would expect; she just leaves you for the Tuners, enjoys her sundae, and starts giving you nightmares, especially when you realize that the Epic Quest Episode 0 storyline "continues" from the moment you've fought Omega Rugal and the fact that Noah has revealed her true self and has intentions to play with the Phantom Gate. This set card basically describes what kind of person Noah is; a seemingly kind and dependable person only to find out that she has evil intentions at her disposal.
All three types of the card increases fighter's ATK by 7% when fully leveled which accumulates a total of 21%. The full set grants another 10% increase aside of 15% chance of a 3-second Super Armor upon a successful attack, with a cooldown of 10 seconds, bringing in up to a whopping 31% attack increase in total. In terms of CP buffs, each card gives almost 1100 CP when maxed out, totaling in 3250 CP, and the set does bring serious buffs in HP, attack, and defense.
The card is an even serious challenger to the Tekken collab's Two Girls' Rendezvous; 6% ATK increase for each set on maximum skill level, yet 10% Critical Rate increase and 50% Critical Damage increase, plus 3% Power Gain upon Critical Hit (1 second cooldown), something the Noah set lacks in. Favorite Thing, everyone's favorite set with Kula Diamond on it, has 5% attack on all sets and can increase another 17.8% for 5 seconds upon Critical Hit when full set, bringing in a possible total of 32.8% for a span of 5 seconds, superbly effective and more than what Noah set gives though time-limited and requires high Critical Rate. Both Tekken and Kula sets have competitive CPs with each other.
Another noteworthy comparison would be the mentioned Tekken set plus the KOF x TEKKEN option card (which can be only equipped once), which boosts additional 4% ATK aside from the additional 4% Critical Rate upon less than 50% HP, with 20% chance of 3-second Super Armor with a 45-second cooldown after activation. With that combination, a fighter can have a total of 22% ATK increase plus 14% Critical Rate increase as well in the package, but the Super Armor cooldown might be a deterrence for shorter fights. The Noah set kills the need of having separate cards and comes with a shorter cooldown on the Super Armor, though at the price of Critical Rate, Critical Damage, and Power Gain, as well as lower trigger chance. Despite this, the set can give a room for some of the best Option Cards, whether if it's any of the cooldown reduction cards or something that can make fast Power Gains and increase Critical Rate and/or Critical Damage.
My journey through getting the set was a rather interesting one in each pull with varying levels of success. At early attempts, I actually had my first Noah set out of three, and effectively got myself the 1/3 part of the power creep at the time. With that in mind, I actually set my investments to just the Platinum Battle Card banner rather than any of the FES banners at that time, being Nakoruru and Igniz. This set had 0.2% drop rate for all three which is basically one tenths less than the FES fighters, but being a Battle Card summon it gave less strain on the rubies. Going forward, I actually got more 6-star cards than expected: I ended up having 3PG Specials for Ryo, Blue Mary, and Terry, while option cards of the same grade were for Athena, Blue Mary, and Terry. The Fatal Fury favoritism on my RNG was kinda strong on this one, but at the final stretch I actually got the second type of the set card, and despite not getting any new one after that I reached the selector which allowed me to pick the last set. A completion story like in the Tekken collab but actually better since I actually completed the set in exactly one round. Aside of the 6 stars, I have plenty of 5-star cards, including the Favorite Thing set card, a couple of Another Me in the Mirror set cards, a bunch of Sibling Training set cards (which might be crucial for, perhaps, 98 Yuri), and a couple others.
As a side note, there actually was a package where you can get a Noah Set selector and extra gold tokens (free x10 summons) available for a limited time during the availability of this banner. However, it cost a lot and I haven't got the money to invest on that package. A number of players would have more than one Noah set this way because, well, everyone needs to get ahead in the game, even if it would cost up to a thousand dollars. This meant that I ended up with exactly just one set.
PUTTING IT TO THE TEST
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First playthrough had me using Paul with his default formation of Tekken cards and whatnot, being my only fighter with 23k+ CP. I thought I would be able to win this easy until I realize I couldn't; Paul does deliver all the high damage and stuns, but all those do not come in handy for this purpose. A quick dive on YouTube gave me a playthrough of the event using XIV Geese, one of the characters capable of dealing Shock damage and, as an added bonus, speed decrease on attack speed and movement which can make avoiding her attacks negotiable, plus a Hyper Armor upon activation of his second skill () which renders every visit to break the crystal for the immunity irrelevant. Prior to equipping the Noah set, my XIV Geese had about 15k+ CP and put Paul as the team leader to have Geese benefit from Paul's 60% ATK increase, but at the expense of 10% less HP. Still no dice unfortunately as the Geese either couldn't stay alive or fail to drain all of Wrath Chizuru's HP...
Alas, the decision is made to put the Noah set to the test, bringing up XIV Geese's CP to as high as 22k+ CP, enough to deal all those damage and, conveniently, occasional Super Armors. Dealing enough damage however isn't enough considering that Wrath Chizuru would commit an explosion after her crystal phase, dealing enough damage to end an active member's career in this stage, even despite activating the immunity from the crystal in Geese's case (a Shock damage bug as a fellow player from KOF ALL STAR Discord told me). Even with adding Yuri and Kyo to the team (forming a Genius team which gains 2% Power every 5 seconds), Power Gains are somewhat irrelevant to Wrath Chizuru, denying me of performing his Raging Storm finisher before her explosion just like in Kun ba's video I watched. However, the more I re-read Geese's buffs upon Active Skills, the second active skill's activation is a strategic matter; the short Immunity it gives is more beneficial than destroying a crystal, but has to be activated right before Wrath Chizuru finally explodes her wrath, or else it's game over. After that, you may fall from the explosion (if you don't roll), but at the end of the day you're immune to any damage thanks to the Hyper Armor. After that, the rest is history, even without activating a finisher once, and things were much easier the second time around.
A reminder that this Epic Advent returns every two weeks, in which another Epic Advent fills its place after this ends, so if you missed out you can still wait two weeks more if you want the exact same set card much.
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| "If you smell what the- hold up, that's for the next post!" (Image: Netmarble / SNK) |
At the end of the day, I'm happy that after all the trials and errors, the Noah set works well with XIV Geese and the annoyance that is the... Repressed Demon of Fury (as the banner says so) can be dealt with upon the right strategy and right set. The Wrath works hard, but the Southtown Boss works harder, and he gets to keep the Noah set for himself, for now. The Mecha Goenitz and Mr. Big set talks meanwhile will be something in store for another day...
THE HALLOWEEN SET
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| "Screw apples, a grape juice keeps doctors away." -Blue Mary, 2020. (Image: Netmarble/SNK) |
In contrast to the Platinum banner though, my False Halloween summons are rather bad except one case when I got one type of the Medical Checkup set, dumping the need to spend Blue Mary coins for the card. Since the event's Exchange Shop offers the event's fighters and cards there, among others, I decided to just farm the coins just for the sake of it. The resulting outcome was that I was able to afford 2 Bloody Halloween cards which are crucial for support/balance type fighters (especially for Classic Jin and Orochi), the first and third types of the coveted set using Heidern and Xiangfei medals, and that's it. I have everyone except Xiangfei, and I managed to barely afford Blue Mary after buying a False Halloween box package, seeing that she's a decent Blue Mary in the game and I happen to have both of her 6-star cards: her 3PG Special and her exclusive Option Card.
So far, I initially equipped it on Haohmaru by a means of having the most potential and most Strike skills out of those I main. Halloween Heidern would be a no-brainer choice since this set is basically dedicated to False Halloween fighters, but I haven't fully strengthened him yet. However, I felt like this set eventually fits well with the Classic Jin since his Skill composition is 100% Strike, plus a capability to infinite combo enemies. That with with a quick power gain might be an interesting combo although there are a number of good candidates for the set as well. I'd like to build Jin as a fast attacker who could infinite and gain Power as fast as he could.
Of course we're gonna have set cards featuring other tuners like Ryugo, Ein, and Kaya (of which her set just dropped today at the time of this post!), all of which have landed in the Japanese server long time ago, and we all know Global server is keen to catch up with the Japanese content so expectations are aplenty. As I said before, the Mecha Goenitz Epic Advent (entitled "The Storm that Must Not Return") will be covered in another post, as well as the advent's reward set card Victory Party, featuring Mr. Big and his two ladies.
~[R]
Happy eid to you too. .. Nice post xd... The truth of net marble and snk for money baiting xd
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