The Secrets of the Silver Chest: the pathway to win

I used to be confused by the silver chests. In fact, I'd run past them because I simply did not get the game to unlock them. eh? What do I do? Is this some kind of cryptic matching game? eh?

But something clicked a couple months ago and now I got it. It's easy. So, for any out there that may still be baffled by the silver chest as I was, here is a little guide.

First, this . . . is a silver chest.


When you run up to it you get a little set of instructions that I'm betting no one really reads. Instructions? meh. The first page of the instructions is in fact a snooze fest, but the real fun is on page 2! I bet most of you didn't even know there was a page two of those instructions! (ok, they're kind of a snooze fest too)


That second page of instructions tells you all about the tile types that you have available to you! YAH! I KNOW YOU'RE EXCITED AS I AM! But, honestly, when I teach you my technique to opening these chests, you're not even going to need to worry about speeding up and slowing down that little electric bolt. All you need to worry about is constructing the "pathway to win." Pathway to win? PATHWAY TO WIN!


The first thing you do when you start to play the game is "clicky clicky" out a pathway that connects the plug on the left side to the plug on the right side. Just forget the rest of the screen. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! Just click your pathway to win.


That's better. As you can see here, I've already almost won, and all I need to do is switch out three tiles to connect the ends. I don't care that 1 of those pipes is going to slow down the electricity and two will speed it up. It really doesn't matter.

THEN, you "clicky clicky" around on the rest of the tiles to find what you need. When you find the piece that you need (in this case I needed one bend up, one bend over, and one straight piece), you click on it and swap it with the piece that's messing up your pathway to win.


YAY! Then all you have to do is wait for that slow, slow clock to finish clicking down (yawn) and tada, the rewards come flowing in! (usually a bit more gold than regular chests and a better chance to get a treasure card as well)

**UPDATE** NOTE: If you get done early, you can press the spacebar to start the unlocking process . . . no need to wait for the clock to tick down. **UPDATE**


Happy Dueling!

Fwd: Wizard101 News

A couple of great links here came across the newswire about our favorite game! Gratz KI!

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Wizard101 takes first place in MMORPG’s Best Family Game of 2009!

Wizard101 takes runner up in MMORPG’s Best F2P MMO of 2009!

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Happy Dueling!

On Sharing Passwords and Evil Sisters

**UPDATE** the names of the innocent have been changed to protect their identities **UPDATE**

The other day a good friend of mine in game (we'll call her Betty) was talking about a friend of hers (we'll call him Barney) who was pretending to be an imaginary evil sister of his (who we'll call Wilma). In this portrayal Barney said with much evilness that he (while pretending to be Wilma) was going to delete Barney's main character forever MUHAHAHAHA! Then Barney removed himself from Betty's friends list . . . pretending that Wilma had just deleted Barney's character FOREVER. GASP! Alas, he was just teasing my poor friend, Betty, with a cruel joke.

During this "evil sister is deleting my character" debacle, I was given a play by play as it unfolded . . . what came to my mind first was not shock, gasping, or even sympathy (simply because I didn't know who it was). No, what came to my mind was "why'd Barney give his password to Wilma if she's that evil?"

. . .

In the end, password sharing between family members seems perfectly fine in my mind . . . unless they're evil of course, but what isn't ok is password sharing between others.

Back when this game was new and I had posted up a few videos, I had a couple of people who sent me e-mails and just outright GAVE me their passwords upfront without me ever even asking. Their request? They wanted me to level their characters for them. /boggle

Never do this my friends. Never.

Let me give you a very important sentence from an e-mail I got from my acquaintance in the KI customer support department:

". . . it NEVER ends well and we really do PERMA-BAN when caught (both parties!)."

She went on to explain that apparently password sharing is rampant in this game even though in really big red letters on the login it says, Do NOT give out your password to anyone. Violations will result in a permanent account ban."

People will try to fool you my friends. They definitely are not always who they say they are. Never gift anyone a mount in exchange for a password. This kind of stuff is not going to end well and could end in you being banned from the game.

I also speak from experience here: I shared a password back in my Everquest days over a guild message board private message. The board got hacked and my password was stolen. I fully trusted the person I was sending my password to, but it didn't matter . . . a third party stole it simply because of my password sharing mistake. You never know what's going to happen out there on the Internet, so just don't do it. Be safe with your passwords.

Don't share them over e-mail, don't share them over youtube, don't share them over Central, don't share them with the friendly necromancer, and definitely don't share them with Wilma. If you have, you'd best go change your password and please don't do it again.

Happy Dueling!

Can a lower level character wear higher level gear?

Question here from Morgrim Wraith:

Hey Friendly,
I enjoy your blog and your bits on Ravenwood Radio, so when I ran across something mysterious, I thought you might be able to answer it.

I saw someone in Marleybone that was wearing gear that looks like something I'd expect from Dragonspyre. I figured she was helping someone of lower level, or maybe coming back to finish up Kensington.

Anyway, I looked at her level and found it was just 36. Ok, so it's possible to buy Dragonspyre items at the bazaar and stitch lower level stats into them. Then I noticed her hat's level is apparently higher than she should be able to use. The player was gone before I could ask her about it. I've attached screenshots showing what I saw. Is this just a display bug showing the stats of the appearance item used in the stitch process, or something bigger?

Hmm,let's take a look at those screenshots.



Oh, ok, that's the Hat of the Endless. It used to be the best hat in the game for lower levels because it didn't have a level or class restriction. Everybody and their dangerhound was wearing one of those helms because you couldn't beat the hitpoints. A few months ago, a patch made that hat level 45 and myth only . . . pretty much turning it into vendor trash loot. Seeing someone still wearing this hat is like seeing a dinosaur.



It's been a few months ago since that happened, but I remember looking at my characters that were wearing that hat when that patch update happened, and what I remember is this . . . the item was still equipped on my character and was displaying however the hitpoints had gone away. The moment you unequipped that hat was the moment you could no longer equip it again.

What's odd here is that in the screenshot you're showing, this character still seems to be gaining a benefit from the accuracy and damage modifiers on the hat when I don't really think that is the case.

Hmmm, I'm going to forward this message to a friend of mine in the help/troubleshooting department over there at Kingsisle and see if she knows anything about it. It may just be something that's showing up when you gear check someone because as I understand it, until that character removes that hat, it's merely acting as an appearance item and she's really not gaining any benefits from that helm.

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

Families of 3 Choosing Secondaries?

I have a question from Isabel!

Hi Friendly Necromancer,

My name is Isabel and I am 8 years old.
Me and my family play Wizard101.My dad has two characters a Death leval 25 and his family one Carlos Ravenhaven (we all have the same surname on our family characters.)
He is life. My mum has a Fire leval 50 and she has got the quest to see malistare but hasn't defeated him yet. Her other character is Erin a balance wizard.
My character is ice and is called Amber. We are all leval 14 and we always play our family characters together. I am sending you a picture.

My question is about secondary schools. I am thinking about storm for damage also because my mum can cast storm traps. My mum is thinking about death for faint. My Dad, fire for damage over time spells.

Is this a good idea?

Best wishes, from Isabel.

Thank you for the question, Isabel, and thank you for the picture as well . . . it's good to see the Ravenhaven's are mostly all wearing their school colors. I like when people mostly cast from their primary school while playing.

I like all of your families choices, and I think your mum is a very smart lady for choosing death to grab the Feint trap. If she's playing as a balance wizard, she's going to shine most by strengthening all of your attacks with her blades and traps. Your trio's main schools are all on the low end of the damage spectrum, so her blades and traps will really help out your team.

Your dad is smart to get fire, not only will he get a few damage over time spells, but he's going to get meteor storm for your family team. As a Life main he lacks a targets all enemies spell and that will be a great addition to his spells. As a group of three you're mostly going to be getting four monsters every time you get into a fight, so between your blizzard, your dad's Meteor Storm, and your mom's Sandstorm, you'll be cleaning the place up.

Your choice of Storm is going to help the team win battles against bosses for sure and will be invaluable at lower levels. If you are going to cast storm spells remind your dad that he has a spell that gives you an accuracy boost. He should be casting that often since it will give everyone in the circle a +10 percent chance to hit. You'll need that with all your spells. Of course, your mom's judgement spell will be the ultimate boss killer eventually for your family.

At some point, your team may discover that you all have enough training points to start down a third school of magic. If you plan to eventually play PvP together, one of you should maybe try to get earthquake from the myth line of spells. It's all the way at the end, but it will always be something your team is missing in pvp if you don't get it. If you don't plan on playing PvP, then don't worry about it. There's maybe only one time in the game currently when an earthquake really helps and that's all the way in Dragonspyre . . . no worries. Your mom will just be really really valuable on that fight (it's the one in the Plaza of Conquests where a boss has these wisps that keep casting shields over and over and over . . . your mom will know what I'm talking about)

Best of luck to the Ravenhavens!

p.s. if you're dad is fond of throwing out treants for damage, you should surprise him by purchasing the life trap spell at level 22 from the hidden trainer on Collosus Blvd. I think he'd be overjoyed when his daughter surprises him with a life trap on a monster and let's the "mostly healing" dad do a little extra damage. ;-) You can say, "here's a gift for you dad!" every time you cast it. Maybe you'll get a little extra in your allowance. ;-)

Happy Dueling!

Wizard101 Teleporter Locations Guide

Here's my illustrated guide to the Teleportation Locations across the spiral!

You will find these teleporters in most non-instanced zones in every world of the Spiral except for Wizard City and Krokotopia. To work a teleporter you must first travel to the stone/tablet/machine (or simply "stones" for short) that the teleporter will port you to and then activate it. Once a stone has been activated, you then may travel freely back and forth between the teleporter central location and the stone that it leads to.

Questers may find it valuable to run through a world first to unlock the teleport stones before questing in a new zone. Having the teleport stones unlocked will allow for faster questing in the end.

Dragonspyre Teleporter Locations
Tower Archives


Plaza of Conquests


The Grand Chasm


The Forum


The Crucible


Drake Hatchery


The Crystal Grove


Mooshu Teleporter Locations
Hametsu Village


Tatakai Outpost


Kishibe Village


Cave of Solitude


Village of Sorrow


Ancient Burial Grounds


Marleybone Teleporter Locations
Hyde Park


Chelsea Court


Knights Court


Newgate Prison


Grizzleheim Teleporter Locations
Savarstaad Pass


Mirkholm Keep


Vigrid Roughland


Ravenscar


Thanks for reading, and I hope these maps help you throughout your journeys in the spiral!

Happy Dueling!

Chelsea Court Teleporter Locations?

Jeffery Soulblade has another question!

Hi FN, I got a Question- where are do the there teleporters take you in Chelsea Court?

Cool Question, Jeffery. Of course, you always have cool questions. I know a lot of people would love to see these mapped out, so I may take that on, but for now here's the one you're asking for . . .


TADA! It's Chelsea Court!

Hope that helps!

Happy Dueling!