Hi dears~

Me and my battle pet have finally ascended.

I need some advice, mostly on set upgrades, but scrolls and modification crystals are also welcome.

Current set is: [item2=Reborn Icewand of Doom] with and [item2=Replica Minotaur Knocker] with [item2=Flayed Lord Breastplate] with and [item2=Soma Tablets] with no slots. [item2=Recycle Blaster] with [item2=Reviver of the Lion] with [item2=Phoenix Quill] with no slots also. [item2=Deluxe Death Shard] with emptiness in 1 slot as of rn.

My budget is around 40 mill max. (Sorry for the odd formatting)

For your budget, only thing I would consider would be swapping out the lord flayer breast plate for an Acorn Bomb and probably buying some scrolls.

Yeah, the budget is low because I mostly want to focus on later tiers. From my calculations I should be able to reach T10 in 3,5-4 months, so I'm following your Endgame Guide. I did buy an Acorn Bomb Already and also replaced the wand with a Large Gutting Knife, since it's pretty cheap, does more icons and has 1 extra mod slot. I also replaced all modifications with Dark Marquis Crystals. I think back in my day (hueue) the baguette crystals were the best ones.
The only opponents that I have difficulty with rn are Wyrmgear (can't get past win 8) and The Hustler (on win 7 rn). From Secret ones I think Gardener Blake already outclasses me. And Kapitan Kolya beats my ass past 5th win. I might eventually try wyrm and hustler by adding some potions, but for now I ended up working on 150-200 wins for all other challengers for the tomes (and amulets, i guess, though it seems the mage hates me now). So I guess I'll have enough to do in the BC as is.

For later tiers I started saving up for Ornamented Hook Sword and I've been working on Volatile Mechas a while before I left, sitting on 1 Refined Energized Arm Augments with the components for the helmet a while away. Do I read your guide correctly and it's worth essentially building two mechas (and I guess stopping 1 at the helmet stage)? Also, can you believe I sold my Swashbuckle a long long time ago, when everyone was saying that it'll be reworked/retuned? I'm having a case of delayed regrets, haha.

Thank you for the reply, I ended up fangirling over it for a bit xD

Edit: Of course I forget about the scrolls. I currently have and two equipped. I don't think I own anything past that. Battle Pet stats are: Level: 435 Health: 1339 / 1351 Strength: 1074 Defense: 1074 Speed: 1076 Intelligence: 702 AP: 43 Tier: 8

So the AP is fairly low rn, but the scroll setup is also old as forks. I'll work on increasing AP eventually, but any advice for now or for the future is appreciated.

I didn't mean that your budget was too low to be effective, i was saying more that the other potential weapons that you could buy are sidegrades at best.

STS and RV will help with cursed effigy, but so will a few more stats and I never use them past maybe t9.

Turbo heater 2000 might help with Wyrmgear, but again stats would help too, but you won't use it past t8.

Grabbing 2 Combo legends and a Sentinel was my preferred constant set up in T8 and T9, but that was about a 360mil investment for weapons that I never touch anymore, and it was debatable if they were actually beneficial.

I would say that you almost definately have the more cost effective set for t8. (I wouldn't sell the RIWoD just yet btw. for BQs the gutting knife might be better, but against challengers your struggling against, I would be thhe RIWoD will eek out more wins in most cases.)

For scrolls, I would definately get a triple threat, aftershocks, or ocean currents scroll when you can. They are pretty much the endgame scrolls until you can get one of the 3 true god scrolls. But the god scrolls are very expensive.

I've got a scroll guide floating around this subforum somewhere too.

Ah, thanks for clarifying and sorry if I came over as defensive, I was definitely rambling/thinking out loud at this point! Your advice was and is obviously still very welcome. Yeah, I'm looking to pass on the more expensive things like RV and STS as I think I'll aim for T10 over T9, I stumbled upon the guide by Jess for challengers and it seems for seasonal and event challengers T10 is better. So I'll be looking into weapons, then probably scrolls and then maybe tomes; in that order. I'll look into the scrolls and the scroll guide and I guess experiment with them once I'm done with the Hooks.

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom :3

If you're not having issues with getting frozen or having your stuff stolen, you could mod using cheap Brilliant or Marquise crystals. They add more damage than Baguettes, and have a small chance to trigger a curse that does 12 icons of damage for three turns. I usually just mod with Parched Baguettes and Blessing of Natural Armor Tears because I find being frozen or having all my weapons stolen to be obnoxious. Consider this as a substitute for Aftershocks, and replacement for both Terra Focujin and Corroding Dew. It's not as good as Aftershocks- it costs 5AP more and has less damage and defense. However, it's a good budget buy right now. If you're not min maxing scrolls trying to fit as many freezers or Gifts of the Forj in your set as possible, the extra AP cost isn't a huge issue. You can buy Signet Fusion Knuckles to unlock Crithbolcan for a lot cheaper than buying Aftershocks if you're willing to wait.