Hello There Clammers One and all! Today’s very special Helper post comes to us from Cassandra. Cassandra has in the past written posts about the Freemium perspective of the game (most recently her thoughts on week 1)…and we thought, “what the hell, let’s do it again!” So here you go you crazy rascals…enjoy!
(Oh and P.S Thanks Cassandra for the post!)
It’s week two, fellow Phi Beta Freemium pledges!
How are you getting on this week?
I’m positively swimming in Spell Scrolls after using my earned clams for Zeus’s Fraternity House and earning both Toga Peter and character Zeus at the end of last week.
I suppose I should have purchased a fountain instead, as it seems to be the Ambrosia that I’m having trouble collecting this week. Lack of the 1000 bottles of it caused me to delay getting character Zeus until the last minute and then to purchase the Parthenon in order to advance to week two took until Saturday!
So I’m behind again, even with the boosters and collecting the first weekly character. But it’s only week two and perhaps I can catch up?
I didn’t spring for the booster this week. Well, not on purpose. I managed to unlock Hades’s frat house on accident and I’ve written in to TinyCo for a refund but I haven’t heard back yet. I was thinking of springing for the small fountain to get a jump on the Ambrosias but I don’t know if I will be able to now as it took a substantial chunk of my earned clams.
Hades’s Soul Scrolls have been coming at about 3-4 per day for me. I’ve been using them to defeat the Minotaurs all weekend but just managed to get two of them to drop a Fleece Monday morning, allowing me to purchase Hades’s Kitchen from the Campus Store. I’m stuck on Give It Up To The Gods: Part Three waiting for more fleeces to drop.
Anyone else seeing a lack of fleece’s dropping? Seems like it might be a good idea to use the Soul Spells to defeat Boss Hades and get the bones for Tri-headed Brian instead. At least those have been dropping. I’ve collected 1/10 bones, 5/15 collars, and 3/8 awful scripts. I’ve got less than 1000 Ambrosia’s towards his 3000. I’d much prefer getting him to character Hades but it’s slow going.
Got any tips for week two for your fellow Freemium users?
Family Guy Addicts 
I’m at about 3000 ambrosia with 3 days left for hades ..5000 to go!! am very doubtful I’ll get him and if I do I then need to save for everything else cuz only brought the buildings that drop skull scripts so far.will wait for tim e to end but thinking bout not bothering .I prefer the look of tribri and don’t want to miss getting him and will prob get stuck on stage 3 the same ☺
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I’ve only had 4 fleeces dropped by the minitors but then I got some from Hades. I’m still not sure how many I have or how many apple, I only know I have enough for Hades and still need 4000 ambrosia in less than 3 days to get him. I’m a few days behind on the 2nd week, and all set for week 3 otherwise.
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A few things I mentioned in the ‘Tips’ thread as well:
1) Minotaurs have the highest offering-to-Ambrosia efficiency at 24/hr. If you can keep up Soul Spells and don’t need Zeus or Hades, use them for the absurbly high Ambrosia counts.
2) The phase 2 challenge can be planned around required Apples and Bones. In one go, Zeus requires 9 hours of Lightning Offerings and Hades requires 15 hours of Soul Offerings.
3) All buildings sans the Workshop are required for phase 2, the latter just costing Fleeces. Get the buildings that drop stuff first, then progress on the
quest chain.
4) Even going full Ambrosia farm, the full 6200+ required for phase 2 might not be feasible within the week.
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It has taken the last few events for me to finally recognize the patterns, but I have finally accepted things as they truly are: it is no longer possible to obtain all the “freemium” content without dropping a few Clams here or there.
This does not mean that one must honk out hundreds of Clams for the traditional “material-generating” buildings or characters – these usually outlive their usefulness very quickly (once you obtain the required number of items to unlock the “skin-of-the-week”, or amass a crazy large stockpile of materials needed to craft weapons/goons that become irrelevant with the launch of the next phase).
No, it means that a few tasks might need some speeding up. A few well-placed Clams could make the difference between having enough materials to unlock that crucial building/character now, or days later because time ran out (or because a boss reset to the lowest payout, etc…). It is absolutely worth a handful of Clams to complete a character’s task because they are needed elsewhere at that same moment, but you need to be selective about it (lest that handful becomes hundreds before you notice).
I managed to do surprisingly well during the Boomsday event (got all the free skins, most of the free buildings, a good amount of decos, and successfully completed all of the weekly challenges), and I did so by spending less than 100 Clams over the entire course. Again, not by purchasing any Premium items, but rather by strategically speeding up specific tasks to make progress (and I have no trouble waiting 15 minutes for the cost to drop, because that extra Clam makes a difference).
With a little patience, a casual attitude, a wee bit of Clams, and the delicious information served up on this very site, one can accomplish a great deal more than by charging in with guns blazing. Relax, it is just a game. Have fun chasing the items you really want (ease up on the “gotta have it all” mentality), and know when to let go – there is no reason whatsoever to spend any more than 300 Clams on any building/character, and only then if you reeeeeeaaally want it.
So for this event, I have hit the wall again. Hades would have been cool, but simply too far out of reach. Tri-Bri is probably going to take another week or so just to summon enough Ambrosia, so the final week(s) may be unattainable as well. In spite of these setbacks, I am content with what I have gotten so far and will continue working towards the available items – and I will do so without shelling out a ton of Clams for any big-ticket items.
I may not get everything I want, but I am okay with that…
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I decided after a couple days of seeing how things were dropping not to bother with Hades, because even if I was able to save enough for him, I would enter the next phase with no materials, and I would rather have a jump start on the next phase, than another week of stressing over the next family guy freemium character available, maybe the medusa meg!. Last week, I was able to get Zeus, and still have some ambrosia and apples left over, but I did not buy all the buildings, and this time we had to.
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I actually got Zeus with no real problems about 24 hours before his timer ran out, but Peter’s costume gave me a little bit of a hassle and didn’t get the last laurels until late Saturday night after phase 2 started. I currently have almost all the apples needed for Hades and am working on fleece (fleeces? fleeci?) for him and Brian, but that beerosia… Going from 1000 to 8000 in one phase seems extremely steep, especially given that most characters drop all of 6 beerosia per 4 hour task. The other obvious good source of them is centaurs (given that they drop 1.5x the amount you spent to clear them), but given that you’re busy as heck piling in more lightning and soul spells it makes it very difficult to do.
And don’t get me started on Tri-Bri… At least he’s not a limited time thing because those manuscript pages or whatever are really irritating…
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Cost 15 ambrosia
Pay out 25 ambrosia
Difference 10 ambrosia
10/15 = 2/3 = 66.6% return
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Besides the buildings and offerings, what’s the most efficient way to earn ambrosia? Is it clearing the centaurs or minataurs??
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Sadly, there isn’t. All conditions pay out roughly the same based on time it takes to create it.
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Centaurs – 10max / 60mins
Zeus – 8 / 90mins
Minotaurs – 30max / 75mins
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The problem with this week compared to the first is there’s too much to accomplish and poor payout when it comes to Ambrosia. I’ve never seen a Zeus-type game design pay so low for event currency. I’ve been working non-stop to get Hades, yet still haven’t cracked 3000 Ambrosia even though I attack Zeus regularly completing all 4 stages. I don’t know where TinyCo came up with 8000 Ambrosia. Its not possible for freeium players.
As for where I’m at 23/25 Apples, 7/10 Fleece and almost 2800 Ambrosia for Hades. I’m thinking about giving up on Hades and just buy all the items I’ve delayed getting, so I can be ready for Week 3.
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I’m frustrated with the lack of Ambrosia bottles. Boss battles in other events dropped a lot of event currency. Now it seems we’re all struggling. Week 2 questline requires 6,285 Ambrosia for characters and buildings.
I still need Gift Baskets by Chronos, Theater of Dionysus, and Tri-Bri totaling 5,000 Ambrosia. I only have about 2,000 right now. I may buy the Small Fountain to drop Ambrosia even though I hate to HAVE to buy stuff just to stay on time with the phases each week.
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Good: They adjusted the Hades offering drops so that the number of bones increases with the offering level. I was wondering how I was going to finish Tri-Bri with only a static 1 bone per offering. Now, I think I should be able to get him by tonight or tomorrow morning.
Bad: I’ve mostly been getting enough soul scrolls, but the fleece drops seem pretty rare. There’s basically no way I’m going to get Hades himself, due to lack of fleeces and bottles. (I got Zeus with over a day to spare last week.)
I sometimes wonder if they’ve deliberately adjusted the gameplay so that premium purchases are required if you want all of the ‘freemium’ event content.
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Yes, Ambrosia will certainly prevent me from moving into phase three Thursday. I’ve got all the required buildings for the main quest and still need over 2,000 for TriBri. Perhaps by then I’ll also get the 6 remaining Awful Scripts which have an awful drop rate. Only two despite Jerome going at it non stop every two hours since Thursday. And the building I worked so hard to get that also drops them hasn’t contributed either.
From this freemium players perspective this event is looking like you won’t make it to the end without dropping clams on one of the myriad fountains that produce ambrosia. That will certainly be a first.
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Do we need to be on a certain task to offer to Hades? I am on week 2, got minatours and fountain lvl 7, got a task askin me to offer x3 but nothing happens when i click on him.
I’ve read through the past articles about wk2 but am i missing the answer?
Ta
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You need to do this:
Give It Up to the Gods Pt.4
Hades is here!
Make an Offering to Hades
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Getting Ambrosia is really hard for me as well, I am around 250 right now after getting Chronos’ shop. I will be lucky to get Tri-Bri sometime next week, but I doubt I will ever make it to 8000 to get Hades. Zeus seemed easy to get in comparison.
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