The launch date for The Shadow Odyssey is Tuesday, November 18th — not long now! It’s time to start getting prepared so that when those servers come up, I can hit the ground running. Here’s my list of things to do over the next two weeks:

Complete the D.I.R.T.Y. Collection

The purple shinies at the D.I.R.T.Y. site are now all in place for the Excavation Trinkets Collection. Although it has been confirmed that the shinies will remain in place for gathering after the live event has finished, it is unlikely that there will be any way to get the helmet in order to see them.

I’d like to complete this collection on all my characters as the reward is a house item which includes a port to the D.I.R.T.Y. site - which just happens to be the location of the airship to the Moors of Ykesha. Useful! [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Provisioner’s Mastery is a three volume set of recipe books for provisioners looking to expand their wares beyond the standard fare. The Grandmaster series of quests but be done in order but, whereas other crafters receive an advanced book of their choice, provisioners receive the slim volumes of fun recipes for all the family. You must collect the volumes in order and they are only available to provisioners. The required level for the quest is given with each volume. All of these recipes are fluff: they have no nutritional value whatsoever and can not take the place of standard provisions. However, they can add fun and excitement to your meals as a part of a balanced diet.
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Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

In addition to writs, each tradeskill faction has a set of quests given by the local grandmaster, which will reward you in faction, tradeskill experience, advanced recipe books and in some instances, additional fluff items such as clothing or furniture.

There are grandmasters in all the major tradeskill faction areas:

Name: Grandmaster Kawayzer
Residence: West Freeport
Location: 25,-12,8

Name: Grandmaster Jayak Lat’wasr
Residence: Gorowyn
Location: 2777,123,1183

Name: Grandmaster Feldmanus
Residence: Kelethin
Location: 462,91,363

Name: Grandmaster Zyrythius
Residence: Neriak
Location: -199,-4,246

Name: Grandmaster Kimbialis
Residence: North Qeynos
Location: 335,-20,-101

If you have the appropriate tradeskill level and speak to your local Grandmaster, he will press you to enter into his service and help out. Rewards vary by quest but in every case you will get the choice of a single advanced recipe book for your tradeskill in the appropriate tier. Provisioners, who do not have advanced recipe books, are given special recipe books for the initial quests but not for Senior Crafter Service (see details below).

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Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

There is a new collection in game! Trinkets: Excavation Trinkets Collection.

The purple shinies which give the excavation trinkets are not visible to the naked eye. In order to see the shinies you must be wearing an Excavation Helmet with the effect of Excavator’s Dedication. It is this which makes the question marks visible to you.

Note: This collection can not be completed at this time (directly after the launch of Game Update 49). Only the worn and broken trinkets are in game; stained and silvered trinkets are not yet available to be collected.

Jimbo McDaniel, the D.I.R.T.Y. Merchant at -1379,-168,-739 in Sinking Sands, has Excavation Helmets for sale but he will not deal with you until you have helped him deal with the curious monkeys. He has a series of four quests which scale to your level. Once completed, he will be happy to show you his wares for purchase.

The Excavation Helmet is available at a cost of 10 [D.I.R.T.Y. Money]. You gain [D.I.R.T.Y. Money] by doing the quests in the Encampment and Excavation sites.

The Live Event is split into two parts and only half of the collection items are currently available. The stained and silvered trinkets can not be harvested until the second half of the event. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

You can get the full details from the Game Update 49 patchnotes but here’s a quick start guide so you can jump right in and get D.I.R.T.Y.!

Live Event

The live event for Raising the Banner takes place is Sinking Sands and is full of quests and new items for you to purchase with the rewards. The D.I.R.T.Y. Encampment is visible from the Sinking Sands dock, up on the ridge.

Once there speak to Jimbo McDaniel, the D.I.R.T.Y. Merchant at -1379,-168,-739. You’ll have to do his set of four quests in order to spend the D.I.R.T.Y. money given as a reward by the quest givers. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Any time you go harvesting, whether for skill updates or quests or status, you should pop by Thundering Steppes docks and have a word with Duggin the hungry dockworker. He offers a range of repeatable harvesting quests spanning across a varied choice of zones which you can complete at the same time as other quests. The glow of a well-fed halfling should be reward enough but Duggin will also offer you a small amount of tradeskill experience up to level 50 and each quest rewards with a selection of crockery for the ultimate in dining room designs. The pieces are all fully tradeable, so you can also sell them in sets for a frankly embarrassing amount of profit, if you are so inclined.

For the initial quests, gathering and/or trapping are required. Desserts from the Desert also requires foresting. The minimum level for the quest is based on the harvesting skill required to complete the quest. Either adventuring or tradeskill level applies: you simply must have one of the two high enough in order to be able to harvest in the appropriate zone.

Minimum level is based on the lowest level (tradeskill or adventurer) that will allow you to have that skill level.

Tiffin for Duggin
Skill level: 90
Min level: 18
Thundering Steppes or Nektulos Forest: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs and dens
Reward: A coffee cup or an ornate knife

Home Cooking
Skill level: 140
Min level: 28
Enchanted Lands: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs and dens
Reward: A coffee cup and saucer or a Teir’dal cup and saucer

Filling the Bottomless Belly
Skill level: 140
Min level: 28
Zek: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs and dens
Reward: An ornate dining plate or an ornate fork

Frozen Foods
Skill level: 190
Min level: 38
Everfrost: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs
Reward: Teir’dal shot glass or a dining plate

Hungry, Hungry Halflings
Skill level: 190
Min level: 38
Feerrott: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs and dens
Reward: Tier’dal Cocktail glass or an ornate stein or an ornate spoon

Desserts from the Desert
Skill Level: 240
Min level: 48
Sinking Sands: 100 foodstuffs from the shrubs and dens as well as 100 firewood to cook the food
Reward: A small wooden bowl or a wooden table setting

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

We have a great harvesting reference table on the site which breaks all the harvests by type and tier but it doesn’t tell you where to go to get the goods! Often I know exactly what I need but I have to think about where to get it, especially in the middle zones. Much simpler now with this handy-dandy list of the various zones listed by the tier of their harvest nodes, especially for those zones with multiple tiers!

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Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Wailing Caves has four full collections:

Plain beetles
Spotted beetles
Striped beetles
Iridescent beetles

In addition, you can collect shattered, weathered and cracked orc bones there.

I sat in the dungeons and collected until I received the full set of all beetles.

Here are the stats:

129 ?’s harvested in total
57 of them were bones
72 of them were beetles

Of the 57 bones I found:
9 cracked orc bone
20 shattered orc bone
28 weathered orc bone

Of the 72 beetles:
11 were striped
18 were spotted
32 were plain

Singles at the end of the run:
20 were green of which one was striped
18 were spotted of which one was purple and one was yellow
10 were black of which one was striped

I had duplicates of all beetles except those above (green striped, purple spotted, yellow spotted, black striped).

The black striped beetle was the last one of the set I collected.

Analysis

Ulija, full-time templar and occasional mathmo, did some number crunching and to our bemusement, she found that the expected number of “?” you need to pick up to get a full set is 72. Perfect!

However, she warns:

These give an unusual distribution and it’s essentially because of this: your chances of getting the last missing beetle per ? doesn’t get any better no matter how many you have already. This means the distribution has a LONG tail. If they all drop equally then to be 99% sure you’ve got the lot, you’d need to collect 149. It gets much much worse if there’s a rare.

After collating the data, I remained in the zone and harvested half a dozen more sparklies … and got another black striped. I was almost tempted to try to get a second set but then sanity kicked in.

Conclusion

I really don’t think this collection is worth it. I completed the set so that Paxmar would have it as she really can’t afford to skip any. In general I don’t think I would bother.

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Faydark saw the addition of a number of Mastery tomes offering the Lore and Legend quests. Most are local copies of well-known classics although a few are new quests . These four can all be found in Greater or Lesser Faydark and can be much simpler than their traditional locations. The Brownie Lore and Legend will level with you to 60, the other three level with you to 50. I’ve included locations for low level mobs of the appropriate type. For additional locations, take a look at this list by Vy on the official forums.

Be sure to use our Lore and Legend list for the locations of the full set of Mastery Tomes.

Know Your Bixies

Originally this was one of the most difficult Lore and Legends to complete, with the quest starter buried deep in the Drafling Tower, a dungeon in Rivervale. Meanwhile, the dungeon no longer has a an access quest and the level cap has raised so that it’s possible to travel through the hive without danger from the mid-40s heroic bixies. The book is in the middle of the dungeon, in a secret panel of a bookcase high on the ledge of the room. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Game Update 48 went live on Wednesday with new quests to do with the upcoming Odyssey expansion and the long awaited guild halls as well as a new tier 8 group instance in the Fens of Nathsar.

There are a lot more changes, including a revamped Everfrost, that you can read about on the official patch notes. Meanwhile, here’s our quick start guide to some of the new content.

Guild Halls

To help build the guild halls, travel to the docks of Antonica or Commonlands, depending on your alignment. The builders are in need of more raw materials and you’ll be ask to provide them. You can choose what tier and what type of forage. Travel to the correct zone, harvest twenty items of the specified type and return to the docks.

These quests reward in status (as well as AA the first time you complete a quest). There are additional fluff rewards for having completed 10, 20 and 30 quests. I received just over 15,000 guild status points per tier 8 harvesting quest.

Chips Ahoy

The Seeress has been murdered! There are two versions of this quest, good-aligned in North Qeynos and evil-aligned in Gorowyn. Although Gorowyn is safe for good-aligned characters, it is not possible for them to get the evil version of the quest.

In North Qeynos, speak to Shepherd Bainyn Fairwind about his Celestial Watch bone chip collection for the quest Brittle Chips Ahoy.

Travel to Antonica and around the Qeynos gates you will see lumps of bones glowing with a cyan flame. Unsettle the bones to spawn a brittle Antonican resident of your level. Kill it and loot the corpse to receive a brittle bone chip. Collect 10 and return to Fairwind.

In Gorowyn, speak Evdokia who is in the pools near the prophet of Bertox. She will give you the quest Diseased Chips Ahoy.

Exit Gorowyn and take the griffon to Mok Rent. Head south across the bridge and you’ll see scattered bones, glowing fuchsia. Unsettle the bones to spawn a brittle sathirian guard of your level. Kill it and loot the corpse to receive a brittle bone chip. Collect 10 and return to Evdokia.

In either case, you can hail the orb to see how your server is doing. A further live event will be made available once the orb is full.

Veksar

This ancient Iksar city lies hidden in the depths of the Lake of Ill Omen in the Fens of Nathsar.

From Omen’s Call Docks, swim south west towards the shipwreck. At 632,-183,290 you will find bubbles rising from sunken ruins and a door leading to Veksar. This leads to the group instance Veksar: The Invasion. Every member of the group will need to swim to the door and enter.

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.