#Wings joins the DPG

[glassandmetalwings]

I will fully admit that my understanding of dinosaur classification is very limited, JWA, but I’m pretty sure this week should be titled ‘fast + a single pterosaur’.

Like, even the hybrid contains no pterosaur DNA.

Also just, you know, random terror bird. Just because fast and nothing to do with body shape/posture.

[glassandmetalwings]

so Dr. Wu made all kinds of dinos, both from reimagined actual ones like the t-rex, and pteranodons and new ones like the indominus rex and the indoraptor... so, do you think he might have been tried to mix velociraptor and pteranodon to make a dragon?

...That’s...an excellent question and I wouldn’t put it past Dr. Henry Wu.

JWA has a few non-canon pterosaur hybrids (alankylosaurus, darwezopteryx, pterovexus, and dimodactylus, to be specific, but more may be coming), but none specifically with the pteranodon.

But there’s this key that, while he was working for Jurassic World, he was still working within some limits imposed by Simon Masrani, who still very much wanted ‘dinosaurs’ over ‘dragons’. Masrani wanted ‘more teeth’ and funded to develop creatures with ‘more teeth’ (along with making sure there were adequate enclosures for those creatures).

I personally, in my limited knowledge, don’t see him doing it for the sake of making a dragon, but more because he was able to do it, and wanted to show that he was able to do it. Although...I have a feeling this mess with the Indoraptor (given he was actually against selling the one in the movie since it wasn’t complete) might be enough to at least make him think twice before trying that fusion.

Perhaps we’ll see something in JW3. The world will certainly have changed given that ‘genetic power has now been unleashed’.

[glassandmetalwings]

@attitxde said he wanted to see my JWA hybrid babies!

First off, before anyone says anything-I know none of these exist. I’m fine with that. Let me have my fun collecting DNA in an ARG. Chill.

Anyways, these are my strongest babies! I only picked Legendary hybrids because if I put any Rare or Epic hybrids I would have to make two more posts to fit them in! But if anyone is curious about any of those just let me know and I’d be happy to share them!

Erin has a few that I don’t have yet (namely Alankylosaurus, Megalosuchus, Monostegotops, Paramoloch, and Spinotasuchus), and she is likewise working towards a few of mine. We have a lovely alliance that, if anyone else is playing JWA, could use some more members than just the two of us. Also we’re both pretty upset that the most recent update didn’t bring about a migration, and can’t find any of the new dinos that are supposed to be about save for Scaphognathus.

General notes:

I. Rex is nearly level 20! Once she’s there, I need to get my Velociraptor to level 20 (currently 18), and I’ll be able to start fusing for Indoraptor! I already have 65 points (out of 250) towards him thanks to featured creature days, but it will be nice to feel like I’m actually making progress.

You might notice I can fuse more DNA for three of these hybrids. However, all of them have a fusion component that’s needed for something I don’t have yet: Stegodeus and Gigaspikasaur both need Nodopatosaurus (also needed for Nodopatotitan) while Utasinoraptor needs Sinoceratops, whose DNA I’m currently dedicating to Allosinosaurus for her Unique hybrid, the beautiful vivid green Thoradolosaur.

Of these nine, my favorites so far are I. Rex (of course), Stegodeus, Monomimus, and Allosinosaurus. It’s surprising not to have Utasinoraptor on that list (I love it aesthetically), but the other Sino fusion wins out because it’s very durable and hits hard.

Here’s where I stand with other fusions for the time being:

I should be able to get the second one, Tyrannolophosaur (fusion of T. Rex Gen 2 and Dilophosaurus Gen 2), by the end of the week, as its currently part of a three-week fusion event towards her super hybrid, Tenontorex.

I’m one fusion away from Diloranosaurus (the first one-a fusion of Dilophosaurus and Ouranosaurus), and it’s driving me up a wall. Especially because I live in a Zone 3 area (where Ouranosaurus is supposed to spawn) but I never see them anywhere/they’re only ever way out of range.

So...yeah. That’s my JWA status. The fact that I can’t drive right now is kind of great because it allows me to play while we’re on the road, which is hands down the BEST way to get DNA. Plus this week the Featured Creature theme is ‘Valentine’, which means some major hybrid components are up for grabs (including Spino, T. Rex, Bary, and I. Rex!)

My last note is that the next update needs a Compy in it, becuase it can be hard finding good photo opportunities for big dinos but I could put a Compy just about anywhere. Please Ludia.

If you want to see any other hybirds, please let me know! We’ve got a couple other good feathered ones and stuff!

[glassandmetalwings]

So today’s a really special day of JWA...where you have FIVE chances total to go after five(!) different Uniques. You can do one attempt per Unique, all five on one...it’s up to you.

I can’t emphasize how amazing this is. Normally we’re lucky to end the week dinos with a Legendary. Those handful of times we’ve been given a shot at a Unique, it’s only be a single shot. Heaven forbid you sneeze during your attempt at Indoraptor. Uniques start at level 21, and are all hybrids requiring two level 20 dinos. I’m getting close to two: Indoraptor and the stunning Thoradolosaur.

Now I just need to be able to get out at all. Given I can’t drive for the time being and Mom doesn’t seem to want to go out anymore.

If I can get out, I’m thinking of using my five Unique attempts on Diorajasaur-a super hybrid of Rajakylosaurus (Rajasaurus and Ankylosaurus) and Tuojiangosaurus. Considering I NEVER run into Rajasaurus, it seems like a good option. I’m also considering using a little in-game cash to buy an incubator with some of this week’s dinos in it-I think I’ll do that once I finish this post. It’s essentially $8, but I’m using the cash you just randomly earn rather than anything coming out of a bank account.

I just hope I get the chance to go after my Rajakylosaurus.

Also I should draw a bunch of these some time soon, huh?

[glassandmetalwings]

Wings makes

Hey, so anyone want to hear me out really quick?

By now, most of you have seen me rant about JWA and stuff. Well, I figured now’s as good a time as any to make a shameless plug.

See, Erin and I have our little alliance in the game...and my ‘little’ I mean just us, in a thing that can hold 50 people. And Ludìa is working out the kinks in their Alliance Mission system. In concept, there are these two incubators (Defense and Exploration) that, to unlock, your Alliance has to complete a series of 5 goals per over the course of the week. Which seems (and technically is) easy enough. But...there are 5 tiers for each incubator. So for example, once you complete the Qualifying Incubator, you’re given the chance to open the Rank One version of the exact same Incubator...by completing the exact same tasks but a greater quantity.

So the Defense mission that, at qualifying, was ‘Open 3 Daily Battle Incubators’ (between all of your members), becomes ‘Open 5 Daily Battle Incubators’ (between all of your members) at Rank 1...but only after the Alliance has completed all five Defense missions at Qualification Rank.

As you can imagine, when it’s just Erin and myself...I think the highest level we’ve unlocked was Rank 2. Because there’s only so much the two of us can do.

Right now is probably a better time than any to join the game because the featured dinosaurs in the Showcase Incubators for Saint Patty’s Day week are ALL really important hybrid components for some of the best hybrids in the game. It’s also the first time we’ve gotten more than one attempt at Unique-level creatures (you know, like Indoraptor) which you otherwise only get DNA for via fusing...and those attempts are not cheap. This means if you’re really, really good at aiming, and use all your Unique attempts on one species...you could have a level 20 dino in your first week.

Plus, you know, you can request DNA from other members of your Alliance...

I was thinking about this because I just completed Ludìa’s survey about their daily missions, which increase in demand every day you complete all of them, and I suggested there be a baseline set of mission that never scale (for example, always ‘open three incubators’ and that number is ALWAYS three). You always have those baseline missions that, as long as you’re playing, aren’t hard to achieve. BUT! There are related extra daily missions that, upon completion, provide either extra DNA or act as a multiplier for the daily mission DNA.

Let me explain this a little better.

Say I have seven daily missions. One of these missions is ‘Fire the required number of darts’, with the number being an achievable 45 or so. So I complete that and the other six missions, and the DNA reward is mine. HOWEVER! I know tomorrow I’ll have 7 more missions, and IF I get another ‘Fire the required number of darts’, it’s going to ask for more along the lines of 60 darts. On top of the other six tasks with increased difficulty.

Basically, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll complete tomorrow’s goals. And if I could, I know for a fact the following day’s would be too big. So far, I’ve responded to this by not even looking at the daily missions every other day, because I know if I don’t complete them they’ll return to the previous day’s difficulty. Basically, I don’t care about the missions half the time.

Consider instead, that I have seven daily missions that never increase in difficulty. Perhaps upon completion I’m awarded less DNA (say, 40-50 vs the 75 I currently do), but then I’m given additional, more challenging tasks to complete in addition to the baseline daily seven. Perhaps these tasks give me an extra 5-10 points of DNA per task-or, although less likely, if you completed all of the extra tasks, you got a 2x or 3x multiplier for the DNA you got for the base tasks, taking your total up to 80-120 or 100-150 depending on what number they chose.

That’s...that’s not unrealistic or idealistic, is it??

Anyways TL;DR: If you’re interested by the ramblings I do on JWA, I invite you to join Erin and I in our Alliance. Send me a PM with your username and I’ll send you a friend request and stuff.

[glassandmetalwings]

@aghostintheforest was excited by the idea of my feathered hybrids!

Disclaimer: before anyone says anything-I know none of these exist. I’m fine with that. Let me have my fun collecting DNA in an ARG. Chill. 

So to start off we have two that were in the last post, being Utasinoraptor and Monomimus. It’s because I love them and just like showing them off. After that is the fusion between Spinosaurus and Utahraptor, which has just a little bit of down. I’m also pretty well on my way to making Spinotasuchus, a super hybrid combining Spinotaraptor with Kaprosuchus in what can best be called a mermaid dino, if Erin’s is anything to go by.

After that is the beautiful Procerathomimus, a hybrid introduced in last week’s update that didn’t require any of the newest dinos. Just look at those colors!

Dimodactylus isn’t technically feathered, but I thought she deserved a spot here too. Dimorphodon pretty much only spawn at dusk and dawn, giving you a limited window to catch them. Finally, even though she only has patches of feathers, Purrolyth is, design-wise, one of my favorite hybrids. Just...that round snoot, and watching her spring up like a kangaroo when she strikes, then settle back down on all fours...Have I mentioned I have a weakness for hybrids that move seamlessly between bipedal and quadrupedal? Because I do.

[glassandmetalwings]

Hi I'm a dino mom now.

Also I want to go out and get a JWA thing at the bottom of the street but it's cold and I'm tired.

BUT I NEED THE COINS

[glassandmetalwings]

Seriously if anyone ever ends up downloading JWA please tell me so we can be friends. I'd love to help you out in any way I can, and also to see your dinosaurs.

[glassandmetalwings]

So JWA recently implemented a daily challenges thing, giving out small rewards of coins and in-game cash. Even more recently (read: this week) they added a bonus reward for completing all of the achievements in a day. At the moment, it’s 40 points of DNA for an Epic-rank creature. There’s just one problem:

If you complete a challenge, then the next time you get it (usually the next day-there’s only like 10 different possible challenges) it will require more from you. So if you, say, score 50 direct hits when collecting DNA, next time it will ask for 70. This means it quickly gets to a point where it’s near-impossible to complete all of the achievements in one day, especially if it involves an aspect of the game you don’t like.

Even if you do, that means it will demand more of that thing you don’t like the next day. If you don’t complete that achievement it scales back down, but it’s still annoying.

Which is basically my long-winded way of saying that I’m being denied 40 points of Alanqa DNA (which would get me close to a level 15 Alanqa, which I need for fusion purposes) because I’m too tired to go fight 2 battles in the arena, which is already pulling teeth on a good day.

I could just enter a battle and let myself get timed out but I’m not that type of person.

[glassandmetalwings]

Update on the JWA thing:

I did the two battles bc I know (since they increase the difficulty to complete tasks you’ve accomplished) that tomorrow’s challenges are going to be a pain.

I won but at what cost?

[glassandmetalwings]

A sneak preview of other stuff I'll be gushing about later.

[glassandmetalwings]

This is probably the best picture I’m ever going to take guys. I went to Target yesterday to take on an Epic Strike Battle (lvl 30 rex) and after I won I found this on clearance for basically 50% off. I still want the bigger Grab and Growl one to complete(?) my collection, but...I love my boy. I hope the DVD cover features him.

Also please appreciate this note on the bottom of the box:

[glassandmetalwings]

It’s treasure hunt day on JWA, and I see a few chests in my neighborhood. I don’t like driving slowing in front of people’s houses, but...I am getting low on coins (leveling dinos gets expensive...), and there’s a huge update dropping soon, bringing in fliers, so I really should be stocking up on as much DNA and coin as possible.

Updates mean migrations. Migrations mean certain dinos aren’t as easy to find.

Hn...well I mean I have to go get my hook anyways, so...

[glassandmetalwings]

Some also important pictures, featuring @verytinyfish.

[glassandmetalwings]

Lots of dino friends at the park! Two of them are brand new!

Tap photos for some info?

[glassandmetalwings]

Alright, let’s talk dino pit fighting.

There’s something I’ve been mentioning in passing, but haven’t really discussed. So JWA has incubators, but they don’t work the same way GO incubators work. You don’t stick an egg in them, and you don’t have to walk a certain distance to open them. Rather, once you activate an incubator, it turns on a timer, and once the timer counts down to zero you can open it and get coins, DNA darts, and little bits of DNA. Sometimes this DNA is for dinos you don’t normally see.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, it’s the main motivation for battling if you, like me, aren’t a laddering person.

By default, you have one incubator that you can activate every six hours. This usually doesn’t give you anything fancy, or if it does not much of it. You can use cash to buy more incubators, but I don’t know if they’re one-time things or they stick around. If it’s the latter I might have to save up some cash.

And yes, cash is the premium currency. And it’s not too cheap. You can earn a tiny bit in-game.

However, every time you win a battle, you get an incubator. There are four types: 15-minute, 3-hour, 8-hour, and 12-hour. The longer it takes, the more you get. 12-hour incubators are absurd, but I’ve only gotten one. Additionally, the possible DNA you can get varies depending on the arena that you obtained the incubator in. Some DNA is even arena-specific, such as for proceratosaurus; you can’t get that dino just by walking about. However, I need to correct something I said in a previous post: you can get DNA for dinos unlocked in previous arenas. So don’t think you have to lose battles to stay in one arena long enough to get DNA.

Like most systems, winning will boost your score, bumping you up to a new arena at certain points, while losing will lower your score, sometimes dropping you into a previous arena until you get your score up. To be fair, losing doesn’t take away as many point as winning earns you. In the lower arenas, winning add 30 points and losing subtracts 20.

That’s a huge incentive to battle. But let’s talk about how battling works.

All dinos have 5 stats, as seen above: Health, Damage, Speed, Critical Chance, and Armor. Let’s break those down a little:

Health: Self-explanatory. Health increases with level, with the green number indicating what it will increase to at the next level. Apparently apatosaurus has the most health.

Damage: Also pretty self-explanatory. Damage is important, and damage output also increases with level.

Speed: Speed is a set stat; all dinos of the same species will have the same speed stat regardless of level. If you and your opponent have the same dino on the field, the one that’s higher level will go first (it’s random if they’re the same level) but that’s the only time level determines speed. A level 1 velociraptor will outspeed a level 20 indominus. Velociraptor has the highest speed stat.

Critical Chance: The chance that an attack will score a critical hit, which will do 1.5x damage as normal. T-rex has a 30% crit chance and that’s kind of absurd, but I’m not sure who has the highest.

Armor: Armor is defense. Not all dinos have it. It will decrease the amount of damage taken by whatever the armor percentage is. This can be a big deal sometimes.

Furthermore, dinos usually have two to four moves, and a few have abilities. We’ll get to those in a minute. We need to talk about how fighting works. I’m going to preface this by saying that JWA is awful at explaining some things so Erin and I are doing what we can. It has a battle tutorial but Chris Pratt doesn’t teach you much.

So, you have decided to do battle. For this, you need at least four dinos, but you can choose up to eight for your battle team, and swap out when not battling as needed. Once you enter the battle, the game randomly selects four of those eight to use in that fight, and you’re given the chance to decide which to send out first. You aren’t shown your opponent’s four, or any of their battle party.

Here’s an excellent tip: if you have a velociraptor on that roster, go for that. I think I’ve mentioned before that velociraptor is broken because pandering. It’s a glass cannon strapped to rockets.

As a general rules, dinos of a greater rarity tend to be stronger (except velociraptor bc it’s broken).

Your goal for every battle is to knock out three of your opponent’s four. Switches will always happen first. So if your dino won’t survive another attack, consider switching it out. This is a great thing to do with speedy dinos who can come in and revenge kill later. You know, like raptors.

Anyways, battle is turn-based, but you do have a timer each turn to decide what to do. There is no fleeing. The faster dino always goes first, unless the other has a priority move (of which there are few).  A little yellow arrow will show you who’s faster. Everyone has a free move, which if you really wanted you could spam every time, but…nah. Stronger moves, or moves with special effects, can have a delay (turns before you can use it after sending a dino on the field) and/or a cooldown (turns you have to wait before it can be used again). Above, you can see that Wounding Strike can be used every other turn, because it has a cooldown of one turn.

Also, original and Gen 2 dinos don’t have the same attacks or stats.

There are a couple of special conditions in dino pit fighting, which are removed upon switching out:

Vulnerable: Certain attacks, such as Expose Weak Spot (above) and Vulnerability Strike, will make your opponent take extra damage for a set amount of turns. Specifically, they take 1.25x damage.

Damage Over Time: Basically like poison in Pokémon. At the end of each turn (for a set amount of turns) the opponent will take 0.5x extra damage. This amount is based on your own attack stat, not their defense. Wounding strike does this. For the most part it’s not that great.

Stun: Basically like flinch in Pokémon. A few attacks have a chance to stun the opponent. If they’re slower than you, they don’t attack that turn. If they’re faster, or you attack last for any reason, they can’t do anything (besides the option to switch) on the following turn. If your dino is stunned after you select an attack with a cooldown, you will not activate the cooldown; you can try again next turn.

Lockdown: Exactly what it sounds like. The opponent can’t switch for a set amount of turns.

Shield: Some attacks (like Long Protection) will do damage and put up a shield, but some (like Instant Invincibility) will just put up a shield. Like armor, this decreases the amount of damage taken by a specific amount (determined by the shielding attack). Shield duration varies by attack, and switching out removes shields (you can’t set them up for another dino).

General stat changes: We all know these. There are positive and negative ‘effects’ that will change speed, damage, and critical chance by a set percent. All of them are attached to damaging attacks. To my knowledge, you can only inflict negative effects on opponents and positive effects on yourself (so not like Close Combat). They wear off after a number of turns set by the attack, or upon switch out.

There are, of course, a few other types of attacks: healing moves, cleansing (removes positive/negative effects) moves, ones that bypass armor/shields, a move that does damage then switches the user out for a randomly selected team member…those are the ones that come to mind immediately.

At any point in a battle, you can hold your finger on a move at it will tell you what it does. If it’s your active dino, it will also show on your opponent’s health bar exactly how much damage it will do, but doesn’t account for crits or shields. You can tap your opponent’s dino to see its stats and what attacks it has, just in case you’ve never seen this dino before. They don’t tell you any of this in the tutorial but it’s incredibly helpful and may help you determine if it’s worth staying in or switching out.

The last thing I can think of covering is passive abilities. Not many dinos have these, and so far I’ve only encounter two types:

Immunity: All negative effects are ignore. I’m pretty sure this includes stun, damage over time, lockdown, and vulnerability, but I always forget.

Counter-Attack: Does 1x damage to your opponent every time they attack but don’t knock that dino out. This can be a big pain to fight against.

Naturally, everyone has certain dinos they prefer to use based on their playing style. Erin, and a lot of others, really like edmontosaurus, because it has a high stun chance and that Strike and Run attack, along with good bulk. For me it’s a little too slow to use. However, some do stand out over others (I’m sorry but euoplocephalus just isn’t good; I’m collecting DNA for its hybrid but I’ve never seen a euoplocephalus do much in battle).

Overall there are more than enough options to keep things interesting. Battling isn’t too complicated, but requires some strategy to get things done.