Faerie Abilities Guide Series: Level 50

Hello again and welcome back to our Faerie abilities serial guide, where we describe and analyze the new Faerie abilities released in Y15 for the new Battledome! In this series, we not only give descriptions of all of the faerie abilities, but we also analyze the abilities in relation to the others in the same tier, providing advantages and disadvantages of each, comparisons with the other abilities, and recommendations for how to use each ability to give you the best advantage over your opponent in the Battledome. This week, we are examining the Level 50 abilities, where we start to encounter some very powerful abilities that you'll want to use in almost every battle you enter. Each of these abilities will cost you 15 Faerie blessings of their respective elements. After you purchase one, if you decide you'd like to switch, the new ability will cost you 8 Faerie blessings of the specified type.

The Abilities

Throw Pillows

Cost: Air Blessings

Throw pillows is one of two weapon-disabling abilities in the Level 50 tier. Throw Pillows prevents your opponent from using weapons during the round the ability is used. The biggest drawback to this ability is that it's only able to be used once per Neo-day (it resets at midnight), similar to the Tempest and Snowager's Breath abilities from the Level 200 tier. While it's definitely not an ability that can be relied on consistently, it can be useful under certain circumstances. Throw Pillows is purchased using air blessings, while Lens Flare (the other weapon-disabling ability in the tier) is purchased with light blessings. This means that if you don't do a ton of battling, Throw Pillows is going to be a cheaper option for you. This becomes increasingly important during event inflation. If you're not a battler, but find yourself needing a little extra push to defeat a single tough opponent, Throw Pillows might be a better, more cost-effective temporary solution.

If you're going to make Throw Pillows a part of a casual battle set, you're going to want to pair it with some heavy-duty offence, as you're only going to have a small window of opportunity to do damage while the ability is active. If you're looking for budget options to supplement this less expensive ability, A Scroll of Knowledge or Scroll of Ultranova are decent, multi-use weapons that pack a punch for the price. Make sure to check out the defences of your opponent if you're playing in 1-player though - some of the opponents can easily block the damage from these weapons with their shields. A Scroll of Knowledge is able to inflict 5 different types of damage (2 each of air, dark, earth and water and 3 light) for a total of 11 icons, while a Scroll of Ultranova delivers 11 icons as well, but of fewer types (4 each of air and fire and 3 light). Since you're only going to be able to use Throw Pillows once per day, you should think strategically about when you plan to use it. Two of the best times are when you're one turn away from winning and close to 0 HP, or for the hardest opponent you plan on battling - whether in terms of the most HP or in terms of the best offensive weapons - to give yourself a little extra edge in the battle.

Lens Flare

Cost: Light Blessings

Lens Flare is one of the best abilities that can be bought from any tier, as it functions similarly to abilities in higher tiers, but at a fraction of the cost. Like Throw Pillows, it offers a disabling of your opponent's weapons and, unlike the strict limitations of other abilities, can be used once per battle. It's an invaluable ability for everyone, but is of extra value to those whose battling is usually limited to the matches necessary to get their 15 daily prizes from the 1-player Battledome, as it can greatly reduce the amount of time you have to spend on each battle. There are a few different approaches to using this ability, and their effectiveness can depend on whether you're fighting in 1-player or 2-player. One is to use it at the outset of a battle with a heavy offensive attack to make your opponent as weak as possible before they're able to start fighting back. This is a fantastic option in 1-player when you're battling artificial intelligence, but may come off as a bit predictable in 2-player with more savvy opponents. Another option is to save it until you're nearing 0 HP, then use it to stave off an attack and give yourself a chance to heal. A third option that is useful in 2-player is to wait to use your ability after your opponent has used a weapon-disabling ability. As these abilities cancel each other out when used on the same turn, you have less of a chance of having yours blocked if your opponent has already used one of theirs. (However, if your opponent is using the same strategy, you'll both miss out on using it!)

When choosing to use Lens Flare on your first move, you're obviously going to want to pair it with purely offensive weapons, as you'll have no need for defence if your opponent is effectively frozen. Especially when fighting purely for prizes, take note of the opponents you generally favour, their HP and their sets. If, for example, you find yourself fighting Eyrieki most of the time because you enjoy his bandaged blueness and the prizes from the Central Arena, you're not going to want to go and spend 11 million neopoints on an anagram sword such as Sword of Reif, as at the hardest difficulty, your opponent only has 50 HP. For lower-level opponents, a Scroll of Knowledge is a fantastic weapon to pair with this ability, along with any of the 15-icon Battle Muffins. For high HP opponents it's worth spending more for the extra attack power. A Dr. Sloths Personal Bath Buddy is a decent option because, due to it being stocked in the Hidden Tower, it maintains a stable market price along with doing 14 icons of damage. For elite battlers for whom money is no object or the savvy saver, you can't go wrong with the brute force of a Ghostkerbomb!

If you opt for the Lens-Flare-as-your-last-hope strategy, you're going to want to pair it with a healer. The power you choose would depend on your needs. Do you find yourself within a few HP of winning most of the time? Then a Lesser Healing Scroll may suit your needs. However, if you find yourself consistently flailing on the edge of destruction, a Rejuvenating Jar of Brains or a Leaded Elemental Vial may be worth investing in. Since you're only allowed to have one healer equipped, you could also take the opportunity to add a multi-use offensive weapon to your second weapon slot on this turn to take further advantage of your opponent being frozen - another reason why the Bath Buddy is a good weapon to pick up.

Shhhhhhhhh...

Cost: Earth Blessings

Shhhhhhhhh... is an unique ability. Its power is to stop your opponent from using a Faerie ability. When you use Shhhhhhhhh..., your opponent will not be allowed to use their Faerie ability on the turn that you used this. That means if your opponent uses Lens Flare on the same turn that you use Shhhhhhhhh..., your weapons will not be disabled for that turn! Even better, if your opponent combines their Lens Flare with a once-per-battle bomb or even some single-use bombs, you'll be able to block some of that damage, and they won't be able to use those weapons again during this battle! And beyond that, Shhhhhhhhh... neutralizes abilities, which means that if you block an opponent's once-per-battle ability with your Shhhhhhhhh..., they cannot use that ability for the rest of the battle!

Primarily, Shhhhhhhhh... is beneficial for messing up your opponent's strategy. Many battlers in 2-player will start off with a weapon-disabling ability and their two strongest weapons, and Shhhhhhhhh... can prevent you from taking all that damage directly without an opportunity to block. In another situation, your opponent could be relying on their faerie ability to help heal them, but if you use your Shhhhhhhhh..., it will stop them from healing and potentially give you an opening to finish the battle in your favour. On the other hand, you do have to be strategic about using Shhhhhhhhh..., since it's a once-per-battle ability. For example, if you happen to use it on a turn where your opponent doesn't use an ability at all or uses a fairly harmless one like Static Cling (which at this level of battling is probably more of an annoyance than something to worry about) then you've essentially wasted your ability.

The weapons to use with Shhhhhhhhh... depends on your intended strategy. If you're expecting to use Shhhhhhhhh... to block your opponent's weapon-disabling ability like Lens Flare, it's fairly safe to assume that your opponent is going to be using strong attacking weapons, leaving them relatively defenceless. If you don't have much HP, it's best to pair this ability with strong shields to block your opponent's attack. If you have some HP to spare, you can instead capitalize on your opponent's defencelessness and attack with your strong weapons. If you can make it work, Shhhhhhhhh... is also good to pair with a freezing weapon such as Scroll of Freezing, Randomly Firing Freeze Ray, or H4000 Helmet. Just imagine it: your opponent attacks you with Lens Flare, but you block it with Shhhhhhhhh... and block most of their attack as well, plus freeze them for the next turn, giving you a free shot with your strong weapons! That leaves you in a pretty strong position in the battle! For a different strategy, you can plan to use Shhhhhhhhh... towards the end of a battle, when your opponent might be using a healing ability like Positive Thinking, Rejuvenate or Drain Life. Your opponent is probably counting on getting a lot more HP, and blocking that gives you an opening to attack with strong weapons and hopefully finish the battle. This strategy, however, relies on your opponent having one of those healing abilities (two of which are Level 300 abilities) and choosing to use it, so it is more risky.

Recommendation

Overall, we recommend Lens Flare. Lens Flare is an invaluable ability, especially in 1-player. Paired with strong attacking weapons, Lens Flare makes it possible to defeat an opponent in one turn without losing any HP, which is very convenient if you're just battling for the daily prizes in 1-p. Even if you're fighting an opponent whom you can't one-shot (that is, win the battle in one turn), Lens Flare can help you significantly weaken your opponent right off the bat. As an added bonus, the 1-p opponents tend to not be very strategic about when they use their abilities. So, even if you're fighting an opponent who has Lens Flare or Shhhhhhhhh..., it's unlikely that your opponent will be wise enough to use their ability on their first turn, meaning you don't have to worry about being blocked.

Compared to the other two abilities in this tier, Lens Flare comes out on top. Throw Pillows is an unsubstantial option, because it's basically a weaker form of Lens Flare. Shhhhhhhhh... is almost useless in 1-p because, again, the 1-p opponents aren't strategic about when they use their abilities, so it's hard to predict when they might use one that you'll want to block. In 2-p, Shhhhhhhhh... could be considered a better ability than Lens Flare, since so many players have Lens Flare and it's nice to be able to block it. However, Lens Flare can also be blocked with itself. If both you and your opponent use Lens Flare in the same turn, they'll cancel each other out. Neither of you will be able to use weapons, so it's essentially just a skipped turn. Some battlers will argue that Shhhhhhhhh... is better, especially because in a 2-p battle you can exploit your opponent's assumption that you are going to use Lens Flare. In addition, the Level 200 Ability Warlock's Rage works exactly as Lens Flare, so you can choose to switch to Shhhhhhhhh... from Lens Flare once you gain enough levels, if you'd rather use Shhhhhhhhh... in 2-p (although you can also benefit from using both Lens Flare and Warlock's Rage). Thus, you will have to decide for yourself which ability you want to choose.

Conclusion

Regardless of your strategy, Level 50 offers some exciting abilities that you'll want to invest in. Many recreational battlers choose to stop here, since the Level 100 abilities are lackluster and the next tier with enticing abilities is at Level 200 - a 400% increase in a pet's current level! However, the abilities at the higher tiers are useful in many situations. We'll be reviewing them, so come on back next time to read about more abilities!