This is an update of my progress with the new companion/servant/partner (whatever you want to call it) system that was unveiled two weeks ago for NA.
As noted, I’m not planning to try hard progressing with these new systems (since patch 80) where the main theme is grind. I’m two more blue bars until level 67 for example, I’ve failed combining both basic (green) halidom and relics numerous times already (where it’s turning into a waste of gold), I’ve finally unlocked my SECOND advanced skill point (and you need SIXTY of them per level 66, 68, 70 advanced skills to max those out), and I’ve finally gotten my FIRST companion.
I took the “scenic” route for my companion by leveling two non-ability pets to level 10 and then combining those since attempting to evolve one of them (using an Evolution Core plus gold) has only a 20% success rate to get a partner (and if it fails, your pet goes back to level 9) whereas combining two level 10 pets is a 99% chance to get a partner. To get them to level 10, I fed those pets a combination of the new pet food (which I crafted) which also gives XP that is proportional to the amount of restored energy (so I always drained them to 0%), unused Crux crystals, useless fodder gear. Unused Dyad crystals tend to give large chunks of XP but I didn’t have many.
Combining two pets costs 2K gold and the companion I ended up getting was a Marie with the Bracing Force (+3 Power for 30 seconds) Bond Skill (a skill which can be activated just like a brooch) while it’s Gifted Skill (Passive) was Urgent Recovery I which recovers 20K HP (how it goes off is RNG based); this is actually one of three desirable Gifted Skills.
The challenge with these partners is leveling them (to try and get their Fellowship up). This Fellowship number affects the skills on that partner. Leveling these companions is accomplished by “feeding” them other partners you don’t need. The amount of Fellowship you get per level is you guessed it, RNG based (1-6). Companions can only be leveled up to Grade 10 which means if your RNG falls on the bad side, can leave you with crappy Fellowship. Max Fellowship is 50 which is near impossible to get… 30 is the minimum to get the most out of the power buff (Koreans consider anything less than that as trash once you hit max level for a partner where you then just use them as fodder).
Many players burned through their achievement pets since the grind for Legacy Essences (a token that allows purchasing non-ability pets) is real. I unsurprisingly still have only one (given from the level 66 partner quest). 10 of those tokens are needed to purchase 1 non-ability pet that can be used for this system. Outside of that, there’s the ability pets sold in the cash shop as well as the companion loot box (which gives roughly a 30% chance at getting a pet and smaller chance at an actual companion). Each loot box is 150 EMP (which is approximately $1.45 USD) so it is safe to say you need to spend at least $20 to get a chance at maybe 2-3 pets on average (and maybe $30 to see maybe 1 companion). In order to get enough fodder pets (for fodder companions), $120 worth of companion loot boxes would not be out of the question (depending on your luck).
As I noted before, it’s a horribly obvious cash grab design given the abysmal drop rate of Legacy Essences. Unfortunately, Krafton’s data likely shows players across all regions who oblige (both the hardcore grinders and those who mindlessly throw money at these sort of cash shop solutions which only encourages both publishers and Krafton to head down this path). Myself, I refuse to feed quarters into the slot machine since I don’t believe in being part of the problem. So it will be awhile before I even get additional partners/see this one leveled up. But as I mentioned before, I am absolutely fine with this because I view it as giving Krafton the virtual middle finger.
Going about it the slow (aka regular) way serves as at least one data point against those who fell into the camp of feeling the need to get a decent leveled partner within the first few days of the patch (even though I realistically know my data point is futile against the larger numbers which Krafton bases their design decisions on). Fortunately, these new systems tie into the parts of the game that I do enjoy (I’m probably one of the rarer folks that like the new gathering and crafting system). Having characters mastered in each profession (except Etching) help support these systems (some folks originally looked at Cooking mastery as useless but the ability to craft smoothies for the XP buff has been worthwhile not to mention the higher tiered pet food). The same goes for crafting (Processing) the companion gifts (for their stamina) where the higher tiered one requires at least artisan (and the crafted ones cannot be traded). So I can do these life skill activities (which I do enjoy) while slowly making progress through these newer grindy level 66+ systems.
I seriously do not know what plans Krafton has for actual level 70 content since there will be a much smaller player population who will even be around at that level to experience it (which shows the idiocy of making it such a grind to get there). Most casual players will tap out somewhere in the level 66 range (since it is relatively easy to get there from level 65 via that initial quest chain or even just fishing). It’s piss poor design to create content and game systems that can only be experienced by a smaller subset of players (this unfortunately is a trend with many Korean MMO studios).
