never was big on skype... plus, as a home phone it's not the ideal solution... especially in case of emergency when power goes out. Funny story... well now I can laugh about it... Had a mic and used it for skype (no camera) and when I went to the washroom it winded up dangling from the table. When I came back, the mic was no more; Gismo had cut the wire with this teeth... end transition no more talking. Turns out it was a problem person so Gismo found a way to -cut- him out of my life lol. Got a new mic eventually, but still remember that time years ago lol.

It can be pretty addictive lol. Thanks :D No more google lmao!

- well I do keep buying books even though I don't actually read the expensive ones, so that should be useful when I want to raise AP. I've heard that it may be cheaper to buy boosters for intelligence rather than books, not sure where that starts though. And I just want to read all the books anyway at some point. But I know that you need a real book for each AP point. (If you gain 32 intelligence with boosters do you get two AP points if you read two books, or do you just lose the AP for the ones you missed reading a book for?) Right now, Tos doesn't really need the AP for scrolls because I don't have better scrolls, although it is getting tight. The one who could use more AP right now is Tharg, and I still have lots of mid priced books he hasn't read yet. Definitely a huge help to have been a book collector from the start.

- congratulations on getting your heart's desire (the heart phone) :-) And here's hoping your internet stops going crazy and stays connected.

- good going getting those Gravedigger achievements so quickly. And thank you for posting the link to the guide.

- you should mostly only see one ping per restock (plus one extra ping that there are new posts in the thread if you are following the thread as well). Once in awhile two people ping for the same restock. I actually find it helpful, because the pings let me know how many of the four restocks have happened and how many more I can still expect.

People do still Skype, but it has it's problems too. I don't always want to have to turn on my computer when I need to make a phone call. And Skype to phone calling isn't free. Just not the same as having a "real" phone.

- haven't tried it yet, but I also really dislike timed games - especially ones that go by fast. Nerve wracking rather than fun is exactly how they generally feel to me. That would be a shame because I actually liked this game during the plot. Oh well, hopefully I'll at least manage to get those achievements somehow.

- I'm sure there may be similar options here, just not from the companies you mentioned. VOIP is just a technology to provide phone service, you can have battery backup with VOIP (I actually do have a backup battery for mine, but am not using it right now). Pretty much anything that uses power can have some sort of battery backup. The big questions is how long that backup lasts.

is defintely one of the seasoned battlers on this thread. Also, you can find lots of battle help here - Battle Chat 2017. Lots of battlers hang out there and are always willing to answer questions.

That would help a lot!!! I have never had this much trouble with it before! I am calling Monday to see if they are going to be adjusting my bill!

- good luck with that! It's usually hard to get a credit unless your service is actually out for days, but I think you should get one when the service isn't working properly. Maybe you can at least get an experience tech to fix it. :-)

VOIP uses internet... so when then internet isn't working one can't call to have it fixed & when the power is out and the internet uses a router you can't use the phone either... doesn't make a difference if there's a battery or not. With my system that doesn't use internet (converts phone into a cell phone), I find it much more reliable in times of emergencies. I'm just thankful there's a system I can use that's reliable and affordable.

- yes, I know. VOIP is an acryonym for Voice Over Internet Protocol. My router is where the battery backup is. Keeps phone service working when power is out. I used to work for Bell Labs. I actually helped develop the software for the first release of cellular telephone in the US (my part was small, but needed for every call). Wanting a way for my phone to work during power outages was one of the things I talked about with the techs before I made the switch to VOIP. Different technologies can work best in different places and/or circumstances. I'm just glad that you have one that is both reliable and affordable where you are - that's the most important thing. None of the new technologies comes close to the reliability of the old landline system, but then all the redundancy used to achieve that also had a cost.

The Mortiking one is going to be really hard to get, I think. At least I had all of the other ones from when it was released before, so I'll just have to keep trying for that one.

And I still need to find Quentin, that skull seems to be shy. Haven't seen it at all yet, except a screenshot from when someone else found it.

I'm aware VOIP is an acryonym for Voice Over Internet Protocol. The key word is Internet. I'm not sure you're understanding the tech I've been describing. It does not use internet. It does not use a computer. A person could be in a log cabin in the woods with no internet, no LAN line, the only thing in the cabine is an electrical plug. The box I use, you plug into the wall and as long as a cell tower is within range you can use your home phone. Elderly people that want nothing to do with tech and need big displays instead of small cell phones can use the technology. If you move (e.g. live in an apart and go on vacation in the cabin), you can bring the box with you and no need to change tel number (unlike a lan line). It basically converts a home phone into a cell phone & has nothing to do with VOIP.

Edit: I messed up, I zapped Poukie. I know it's just a game but dag nab it she wasn't supposed to be zapped. can't stop crying. didn't need this. I'll be ok, not happy but i'll be ok

2nd edit: Ok, I've calmed down a bit. Although I am NOT pleased, Poukie is my battle pet and the zapper can give stat increases. Cha-Ching is reborn & in mandarin Changcheng is the Great Wall of China. I could stop zapping Cha-Ching and use Poukie as my zapper, although I had found her the perfect minion and the glacier potion was a gift grr fumbles. Anyone have ideas?

~ What was Poukie supposed to be??

Poukie's supposed to be glacier... a pet that has grown tough from the bitter cold but still has a warm heart. sniffles. not a chubby chipmunk! ok I got an achievement out of it but dag nab it x.x

I'll be ok. I'm thinking of keeping cha-ching reborn because I was torn to change her again... 3 years in China & her name is similar to the great wall of china in mandarin. I could zap Poukie and when it's all over she's going back glacier... I have the perfect minion for her I had gotten at the token shop too. mmm now I'm going to have to remove grapie. Maybe it's for the best for now

~ Sent you a gift. <3

Now trying not to cry, thank you. It's been extra tough this week with the extra health issues & can barely do anything in RL so it's been playing with my emotions. Thanks, squishy hugs. I'm going to put it in vault & when I get my achievements she's going back to being my pretty ice princess. Thank you xoxox

~ You're welcome hun HUGS Glad to help. :)

Going to try answering some of your battle questions, although I'm not exactly an expert battler myself so bear with me. Wall of text incoming...

The components can be used at the Genetech Lab in Darkside to combine together and make various weapons. One of the most popular is the Intricate Energized Helmet, that requires you to build a lot of smaller parts first to work your way up to it (or you can buy it from user shops if you want). It freezes your opponent and also protects you from being frozen, but it's a Tier 9 weapon so you'll need a stronger pet before you can use it.

As for the other items in the Battle Shop, a lot of them are weapon modification gems, items that can be added to your weapons to make them stronger or give special abilities to assist in battle. The ones like Earth or Dark give you a bit extra attack or defense icons for that element. The Critical Strike Tear Crystal is pretty good because it gives you a slightly higher chance of getting a critical hit against your opponent and doubling your damage. The Blessing of Natural Armor Tear Crystal can be nice too (Adds 10% chance to block 2 of each icon to any weapon it is attached to).

Then there are other items like the potions that are stat boosters. You can look them up on Subetalodge to see which ones do what, but they add things to your pet's stats like health or strength or whatever. They cost more tokens, but if you don't have anything else to spend them on they can be a good investment. You can also look up the other crystals and stuff to see exactly what each of those do, but I would recommend the Critical Strike one for sure. It depends on how many modification slots your weapon has though, each one has a certain amount that you can see when you visit your armory and then click the button to modify your weapons.

As for weapons themselves, a good place to start would be this thread in the Battle Forum - The Weapon Guide

It's not a comprehensive list of every weapon, but it does go by tier and lists some decent items for each tier so you can decide to upgrade or not. One thing I would recommend for sure is the Phoenix Quill that you can find in the MC (Summer Stock), it's 8 mil in the summer and 10 mil in the off-season. Expensive, but worth the investment since it's a full healer and only Tier 1 so your pet can use it all throughout its battle life.

Yes, nerve wracking fast games aren't very fun so I will only play it to get the achievements. If there was some way to slow it down just a little bit it might be fun.

https://subeta.net/user_shops.php/shop/24266

I know I am not going to get a credit sigh since it was a big issue for thousands of people. I just hate the fact that they kept us in the dark. Sometimes I would call and they recording would give a time that it should be fixed and other times it would just say call back in 24 hours. It was really frustrating.

No luck with Gravedigger so far :( Still working on the 250 ghosts.

ooo ouo those hush-mush-kehs. item name?

glad poukie worked out <3. I would've chanced for the bucket in the ice fields. Try rearranging pet order so zapper pet will appear first on drop down if it helps

Thanks for the tips! I had looked up components on Subetalodge but it didn't specify what to do with them. I'll put the higher lvl weapons on my wishlist since Poukie still has a lot of training to do before she can beat higher lvl opponents.

I had looked at the weapon guide; however, I'll look again. It's easy to get confused. Thanks again.

If you have a big monitor (not a small smart phone screen, but a way to hook up to a big tv or a nice size monitor) try zooming into the game as much as possible. It won't change the speed but it can help reduce stress if you see things/know where to go faster ;)

actually, pet order is what got me into the mess in the first place. Cha-Ching couldn't battle so I put her 1st since she's faster training than the others; however, when she showed up for battle I swapped Poukie for 1st late last night since I need easy access to Poukie. I had always zapped 1st so it was an automatic reflex and then it was too late.

On the up side, I've decided Poukie will become the zappie & it's inspired me to write her pet page profile.

https://subeta.net/petinfo.php?petid=5886915

Apart from Poukie looking like she's eaten a few too many nuts, how is it?

No problem!

If you need more help with weapon set advice, you could always post in the battle forum. There's a sub-section for set advice that you can post your pet's tier and what weapons you currently have and ask for recommendations. More knowledgeable battlers will be able to help you there!

A lot of the higher level weapons can get pretty expensive, so it just depends if you want to actually invest a lot in battling or not.