This one's for you Autumn Duskhunter!

So if you didn't know, the test realm is open! You should get in there and check out the new stuff. :) In particular these new signs!


There's a number of standard catch phrases that you can select for your sign, but I was floored by one in particular that I saw on the list. You know, there really is no greater compliment that could be given by KingsIsle to a member of our community than immortalizing her catch phrase.


I'm floored actually. That one's for you Autumn. :) We miss your fun influence in the community. That's gotta feel pretty darn good.

Happy Dueling!

Housing Item of the Day--Large Willow Tree

Heya all,

I got this note from Donna Spellthorn back in 2010 (sorry, couldn't help myself) about a pretty epic housing item:

I think I found your next housing item of the day...it's called the large willow tree. It can apparently be found at the bazaar, but the alleged drop is from Praetor Mako (no clue where that is) But I thought it was absolutely beautiful. I think other people should know about it too, so that's why I sent you this email.

Well, thanks for the note, Donna! Consider it done!

Large Willow Tree, I hereby declare you the housing item of the day!

So from what I could tell, this item is rumored to drop from not only from Mako, but also from Achaelos. Both are located in the Crustacean Empire.


HOWEVER, I spent a good amount of time farming Achaelos and walked away with no trees, but I did get a lot of the little doghouses. When I went to farm Mako, I got the tree on my first try.


You know, from a distance, this tree looks kind of goofy to me . . . not at all what I would consider a Willow tree.


The Wizard101 Large Willow Tree looks more like one giant trunk with a bowler's cap on.


Regardless, it does provide a good bit of shade and cover. A few of these big trees and you're ready to start your own jungle with undergrowth . . . kind of like Paige Moonshade's trip to Pandora through Wizard101 housing.

Uber wife did something pretty cool with her epic tree . . . Check it out:


So awesome to be up there in the canopy!

Happy Dueling!

Where are Some Celestia Furniture Drops?

Alexander Battleflame has a question:

Hey Friendly I have a question where are some Celestia frontature drops?

Heya! Well the best list I've found is over at Central on William Ghostrider's thread.

It doesn't seem complete just yet, but I think it's a great thread to watch and participate on!

Personally, I really want to farm me up one of those Shark Huts from Calypso. Yeah! YEAH! We'll make that housing item of the day . . . maybe that will inspire me to go farm Calypso a few times. ;-)


What furniture item from Celestia are you most interested in farming?

Happy Dueling!

Wizard City, Your Gear Don't Matter None!

Dear Wizard City,

I do now hereby declare with as much attitude as an Angus Unicornpants can muster, "YOUR GEARZ ARE OVERRATED!!" Why? For Angus has bested your Lord Nightshade with no clothes on!


ANGUS ANGUS ANGUS ANGUS!

I will now do the angus duck walk



Here's the deck I used to beat Nightshade sans clothes:


As you can see, not much to it: pretty heavy on the heals and shields. In retrospect I should have added a blade for the kraken, but I didn't really need it. The damage boiled down to a convert and a storm shark treasure card to take out the field guard, and A Kraken treasure card plus a wand spell to finish off nightshade.

Speaking of storm shark, I've had an absolute blast chomping gobbler bosses with it. haha! Check these out. XD



GULPS!

And that about does it for Wizard City for me at this point. It's onward to Krokotopia and what's sure to be my certain demise . . . OR NOT?! I guess we'll just have to see. Most of you think I can make it through krok and even in to Marleybone without none no clothes on! GULPS! I guess we'll have to see.

Playing the game this way is definitely much more intense than I expected. You really get a new sense of danger hitting the spiral rockstar style.

OH! One more thing. Since I've opened a door of the spiral, here's another door for you all! Today's housing item of the day is another fun pick-up item. The Tiny arched door comes from the Wizard City Pet Shop. Good times are ahead for you and your teeny tiny door. Go get yours today!



Happy Dueling!

Level 10, Angus Don't Care None

Well, Angus has now achieved 10th level in Wizard City . . . without none no clothes on! (Angus likes using double negatives--even triple negatives--when he speaks if you haven't caught on yet)

Probably his greatest fight yet has been with Sergeant Skullsplitter.


Our anti-hero hero, Sir Angus Unicornpants, still remains undefeated in Wizard City. All wins, zero losses.

I waited as long as I could before hitting my first boss fight outside of Unicorn Way. Angus fought through as much of Firecat Alley, Cyclops Lane, and Triton Ave as he could before tackling any boss fights in any of those areas. Why? Level 10 is awesome for shielding my friends. Chances of survival with or without clothes skyrocket at level 8 and level 10 because of the available shield spells. Yup, there have been some skin of the teeth wins, but a win is a win!

Check it out, Angus even picked up a 1-day White Mare rental from ol' Rattlebones.


That's been super handy. I figure equipping a mount is fair game since it doesn't really affect my stats. You may also have noticed I got a cool pet drop too! NO PETS FOR ANGUS! NO CARING! NEVER NONE CARING NO!

Instead pets go into his housing. Speaking of which. Good ol' angus picked up the housing item of the day! woot! Pen and Ink from Anna Flamewright's spot. ;-)


Oh sure, Celestia furniture has been released and why in the world wouldn't a new Celestia item be a housing item of the day?

Because Angus don't care none. /shrug

Happy Dueling

Housing Item of the Day -- Brain Coral and Solar Icon

Uber wife made a cool discovery last night in the test realm. She was offing some bosses in in the Lunarium and got a drop of Brain Coral off of Selenor.


Oh yeah, that big lump of coral is definitely worthy of housing item of the day!


Also, Bailey's buddy, Seth Hunter, got a Solar Icon from Mithraya! Check this out:


So there you go! Not only are Otto and Gearwise selling Celestia housing items, but also housing items have been added to the loot tables on the test realm!

Happy Dueling!

Housing Item of the Day--Selena Gomez Statue and Portrait

On the test realm, at the end of your time in Crab Alley after saving the Damsel in Distress, BOOM, you will now have your insta' shrine to the awesomeness of Selena Gomez ready to go.


I am told by my wife that because of my age, it would be SO INAPPROPRIATE for me to have a Selena Gomez shrine in my Death House. (Come to think of it, it's probably not normal for a guy my age to be thinking about Selena Gomez as much as I have in the past 48 hours . . . thanks KI . . . .) My daughter and son, yeah, they can shrine it up all they want. Me? I guess I need to look to the *other* reward that flashed by my screen when I got the statue and portrait.


Yeah, I don't know if you guys saw that MONSTROUS TREASURE CARD float by on your screen or not? My word, that's a nice card to drop for this quest. I figure it's motivation for those, who like me, must stash their Selena shrine in their dorm room that they never visit. ;-) Although, apparently Selena doesn't mind hanging out with older dudes, like those three 20-something guys driving her around, alone, in a desert, in this new video of hers:



You know, with all this talk about rain and thunder and lightning, you'd think she'd be a storm wizard instead of an ice wizard?

/shrug

I'm gonna go read some more of the mag I picked at the store the other day or go remix one of Selena's songs or something.


Catch you guys later.

Happy Dueling!

Brick-Walled Pond -- Housing Item of the Day

Yesterday I was running around gathering reagents, taking it real low key, when Kestrel sends me a whisper saying that she had a new love in the world outside of her pet white rat, Mr. Whiskers. (I would type out her gigantically long nickname she gave him, but all I can remember right now is that there's a "the third" at the end of it and maybe a "plumpington" somewhere in there.)

WELL! If this is her new love in the ENTIRE GOSH DARN WORLD, then I had to go see it. It was indeed, most awesome, and we declared it housing item of the day on the spot. :-)




Hey! I know of this guy from Dragonspyre she's talking about! Why? Because that's the reason why I've been gathering reagents lately, silly. I left off Thomas' quest to get Master artisan a long time ago in a galaxy far away, but Uber Wife convinced me that, enough was enough; I needed to get that Master Artisan quest out of the way. HURRY UP!

So I did.


YAY ME! This isn't the first time I've gone down the road of Master Artisan-ship. You may or may not remember when I got Amber Deathsong her Master Artisan badge.

I digress.

Uber-wife liked the Brick-walled pond so much that SHE HAD TO HAVE ONE NOW!

Her wish was, um, her command (she's her own master artisan after all) . . .


Here's the recipe:



So, go forth, ye' master artisans of the spiral, and CRAFT THE ITEM OF THE DAY, the most awesome Brick-Walled Pond in the world.

Thanks for sharing, Kestrel!

Happy Dueling!

Housing Item of the Day--Dog Pilot Painting

We get a special Housing Item of the Day today from Heather aka Kaitlyn Dunerider!

Hi, Friendly!

I have commented on your blog a couple times, my name is Heather. I have quite a few wizards, 3 accounts, 9 Grands, and a few others I am working on.

Well, I just wanted to let you know about this housing item, maybe you can add it to your list one day. I am not sure if you knew about it, but I didn't see it listed. It's called "Marleybonian Pilot Painting," though when it dropped it said "Dog Pilot Painting."


It dropped from Sprockets in Counterweight East. Here is a pic of it with my newest balance wiz, Kaitlyn Dunerider(as you can tell by the rat magician, she had fun with Sprockets as far as the drops were going.) I was really happy to get this painting as I had just commented to a friend, while in Air Dale's, visiting Croaky for a spell, that I wished I could have that painting. I didn't even know it was available for a drop so I was very pleasantly surprised by this :)

Hey! Very cool find and thanks for thinking to send this to me. I appreciate it!

My list of housing items is lacking a number of the new items and some of the items from Grizzleheim. If I can get some spare time in I will definitely update it and include this awesome find as well.

Happy Dueling!

Great Spiral--Housing Item of the Day

Sierra has a question!

I've been looking at some pretty cool housing bug videos on YouTube lately, and once or twice I spotted a design painted on the floor that looks like the sigils inside the Ravenwood school towers. Are these carpets or something you can craft? Where can I get one for my house? Hopefully you can shed some light on this mystery.


This vid is from Noah Anglebreaker's house, showing a staircase of 19 books, but it's the floor symbol I really want.

Interesting. I had no idea, so I contacted Denys backchannel at Wizard101 Central and asked him if he would be so kind as to pass on the information.

This was his response: You can get that from Orin In Crucible, In the Tower, its hard to get. Good Luck Getting it if someone will :)!

Awesome. So now that I had the clue "Orin," I could do some research on my own housing item list and TADA . . . I have the name of this awesome piece of furniture: The Great Spiral. What's also good news for us is that all of Orin's drops also drop from Bael Emberlight in the Crystal Grove. There's no need to farm the tower at all. WOOT!

So I hopped on to my characters and started farming Bael.


(Ouch Ice Kraken!)

And for once I was luckier than my kids characters and got the drop after about an hour of farming Bael. WOOT!



So, thanks for the question, Sierra! Thanks for the info Denys! Thanks Bael for the Housing Item of the Day!

Happy Dueling!

What is this mysterious tent?

Here's a GREAT question from The King of Death:

Hey Friendly, here is my question for you. Where do you get the tent housing item that you can go into? I attached a picture of it.

Hmmmm . . . that's a good one.

*puts on detective cap*

Aha!


Notice the design on the tent there? It's of Marleybone origins!

Upon searching for all the tents available on my housing list (noting that I still need to add crafted furniture and Grizzleheim furniture to my list) and this is what I come up with:

Marleybone Grand Tent
Small Astral Tent
Small Starry Tent
Small Yellow Tent
Boat Tent

Ok, so the only one I don't know about is the Marleybone Grand Tent. LET'S GO FOR IT!

*loads up Kyle and Thomas*

*destroys Big Ben*

LOL, that Kyle is the luckiest sucker on the planet. He actually got the Marleybone Grand Tent (woot housing item of the day!). Ok, here's what that looks like:


Hmm, close, but that isn't the tent I'm looking for.

*runs around to the receipe vendors*

You know, I can't find a recipe for this tent either. /shrug

The closest looking tent I can come to in the game world is this tent in Krokotopia. That looks like the model of the tent I'm after.



*stumped*

*a week passes*

*e-mail to Greyrose*

Ok, Yes, this tent is in game. Yes, this is extremely rare. Yes, it comes from Kensington Park. Yes, you might also have a chance to get this during Halloween. Yes, I will leave it at that.

Happy Dueling!

Friendly Necromancer, Gregorian Chant, Obsidian Chests, and Housing Items of the Day!

Liam has a card and a question!

Hey, FN. It's Liam F. here. I have learned how to make cards! they're now to good, but they're okay. I made one of you. They're not like yours, they are like the games. Q: How many obsidian chests are there? And where can you get one for furniture?

P.S. I used a pic of the model for your card.

LOL, nice card.


Here is what I want my battle animation to be: I just kind of appear out of nowhere in the battle circle, put a hand on my hip, give a head tilt, click my fingers, and everyone dies. I LIKE IT!

Ok, obsidian chests . . . yes, this confusing piece of menacing looking furniture has bewildered young wizards since dragonspyre hit the servers. When I look at an obsidian chest I think I can hear the thoughts of 10,000 wizards humming in a gregorian chant, "What the heck is this obsidian chest and why can't I get any cool loot out of it?" And then I hear a guitar solo. And then someone plays the friendly necromancer card and everyone dies.



The obsidian chests are part of a long quest near the end of the game called wizard tours. As you'll progress through the game, you'll notice them in a lot of the main boss chambers. In fact, they are all listed right here over at Central.

If you read down a bit on that thread, you'll soon realize that the hardest obsidian chest to obtain is the one found in the Labyrinth. A few people there have some suggestions for how to make that trip back through the Labyrinth less painful. There's also this tip, which suggests marking by the obsidian chest and hurrying through the next quest in under 30 minutes so you can port back to the obsidian chest right after you get the wizard tours quest. It's looking like that strategy is hit and miss though.

At the end of the Wizard Tours quest, part of your reward is the obsidian chest furniture item. Gratz!


And for us now it's the item of the day!

Thanks for the question and as always . . .

HAPPY DUELING!

Housing Item of the Day--Dragonfire Braizer

Hey! Kyle got a cool new drop yesterday. For some reason this isn't listed on my housing list and it was a complete surprise when Kyle got it from the Sea Lord while soloing him yesterday.


It just goes to show you that there's plenty left to discover in this game.

Also check out Kyle's new Life House in the background! I went to go help his character a bit last night and the overflow in his bank was 240/100 . . . yeah, he hadn't sold anything for a long long long time. He had money to burn and after looking at all the school houses, he really wanted the life house the most. I tried to talk him into the storm house, but he wasn't into it. :-)

Thomas Lionblood hasn't even bought a new school house yet, so Kyle is the first in our family to own one. Gratz Kyle! All that powerleveling dad does with your character paid off in spades!

Seriously!



Happy Dueling!

Housing Item of the Day--Painted Bowl

I decided today that I need to catch Myrna up to my wife's character, Iridian, since that sneaky Iridian is in Marleybone now. So that means a lot of quick killing with the Myrna and Kyle team. As of today's efforts, Myrna is now in the Temple of Storms!

On her way through the Emperor's Retreat, Myrna picked up a great little bowl from Prince Kebi Sokkwi. It's today's item of the day!


Doesn't it go great on her table there? Attractive hieroglyphics adorning its rim, this piece is sure to create the comment, "nice bowl" from your friends.

Happy Dueling!

Ok, Youkai's Bonzai Tree is awesome . . . Housing Item of the Day granted.

Sigh.


Sierra Starsong sent me a picture . . .

DANGIT! THESE JUST HAD TO BE AWESOME AND HUGE DIDN'T THEY!?

grumble.

Thanks for the picture, Sierra! Kestrel will be overjoyed you found the missing page to the housing magazine!

now I need to go farm that pesky imp again.

grumble.

Happy Dueling!

What does the domed tree, stone lantern, and gong of the oni look? And why shouldn't I farm the bonsai tree?

Got a question from Kestrel:

Ok, so I am decorating my house to be really mooshu-ey, and I was wondering some things.

1. What does a domed tree look like? (from Maito)
2. What does a stone lantern column look like? (from Oyotomi)
3. What does the gong of the oni look like? (from Death Oni)
4. What does Youkai's bonsai look like? (from Youkai)

Also, where can you get those cute little green bushes you see all over mooshu?

Whew . . . I feel like a housing decoration salesman here with this question. Luckily for you, Amber just happens to be the salesman you're looking for!

*presents magazine and begins to flip through the pages*

Yes, over here on page 21 we have a wonderful domed tree . . .


Don't you just love the look of that? I think those look the most like "those cute little green bushes" you refer to. You should DEFINITELY get yourself some domed trees. It's a winning style statement for a mooshu house.

And here on page 55 you can find a stone lantern column . . .

Once again, this is a fantastically easy item to get. They are all over in the bazaar because the boss that drops them is constantly farmed for money. Easiest one of the bunch to pick up. Yup. YOU GOTTA GET YOURSELF SOME COLUMNS!

And finally on page 67 we have a gong of the oni . . .

I've had that for a long time.

And . . . that's it! Thanks!

. . . wait a second, you want to look at the Youkai's Bonsai? *flips housing magazine furiously to a torn out page area of the magazine* Yes, it looks like that tree has been removed from our catalog. GOOD DAY!

"Why," you ask?

*Amber grows a concerned look on her face and takes Kestrel by the hand*

You don't need a bonsai tree to make you happy my friend, trust me. TRUST ME!

*Sigh.* You still want to know?

Ok, here's what happened. I tried for you . . . i did . . . about 10 tries worth, but I gave up on trying to get this exclusive bonsai tree. I'm sorry it didn't work out. Here's the reason why I gave up.

You see, Youkai is a horrible nasty rank 10 life boss with 9,000 hitpoints. He's buried all the way at the very end of The Tree of Life instance. It takes a long time to run down to this guy.

Now, back in the day, Youkai was one of *thee* bosses to farm. He was "tougher than the Jade Oni," which used to be the end boss of the game back when Mooshu was the top. This was also back before housing was even implemented. So Youkai has a HUGE loot table, meaning he has a hat for every class, a minotaur, and a bunch of other great loot for what used to be the pinnacle hard boss of the game. When housing came along, Kingsisle just plunked a couple housing items onto his loot table and called it good. Unfortunately that makes your chances of getting the housing items less because he has SO MUCH stuff that he can drop.

To make a long story short, friends don't let friends farm Youkai for some silly little bonsai tree. SILLY! Trust me.

Now if you want to farm youkai for a cool looking minotaur pet, a lot of gear for your lower level alts, and to get the "sword saint" badge, more power to ya.

two cents.

Happy Dueling!

How do you put furniture inside a jail cell?

Got a question here from a reader:

I was at one of my friend's castles and they put stuff in their jail cell. I know that you can craft an OPEN jail cell, but he had a closed one. He had like a bed and night stand inside it. How do you do that?

First, I really like that idea. Very cool. I checked the ingredient list for making one of those open jail cells and the most difficult component was grendelweed. So, I farmed it. This was a SQUEE moment for sure:


*cue announcer voice* She's winding up for the pitch


And it's solid press on the craft button!


*crowd goes crazy*

I want you to know that I checked first just to make sure you can't stick stuff down in the jail cell just naturally . . . nope. So, yup, you have to do the same old tricks that I talk about in this thread here. Here's Amber breaking out the chessboards and checkers to make the furniture float. Remember, it's pull the small rug out on the chessboard and turn the checkers once counter clockwise before picking them up.


And now they float.


And now we have the item of the day: It's the Broken Jail Cell . . . complete with furnishings and an invitation.


Thanks for the question and Amber thanks you for the great idea for her house!

Happy Dueling!